January 21, 2026 • 22 mins
(January 21, 2026)
US overdose deaths fell through most of 2025, federal data reveals. A Month of First: The January events that changed the world. Dr. Jim Keany, Chief Medical Officer at Dignity Health St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, joins The Bill Handel Show for 'Medical News'! Dr. Keany talks with Bill about food borne bacteria causing urinary infections, Shingles vaccine reducing the risk of heart attack, and wildfire exposure in pregnancy linked to Autism.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Some times this was I am six forty Jill Handle.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Here it is a Wednesday Morning Hoday, Wednesday, January twenty one,
and coming up the next segment before Jim McKinney talk
a little bit about January's a little history of January
and a fun segment of people who go a whole
month without buying anything in January, and I'll explain that
(00:35):
and then then some history I want to throw at you. Okay,
this segment, I want to talk about some actually very
good news through the United States, and that's the US
overdose that's dropped twenty one percent. That's a big number,
the longest sustained decline in decades. The deaths decline forty
(00:56):
five states out of the fifty. But there's a reason
why other five states are not reporting, and I mean,
this is great news.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Now why those are that's the question.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
And there's a bunch of reasons as to why this happened.
Researchers can't say with confidence, but increased availability of the
overdose reversing drug naloxone that saves people's lives. I mean literally,
if someone is dying, you have an opioid death overdosing,
(01:32):
you can stop it and reverse it right there that
minute with a hit of narcan or this naloxone. Expanded
addiction treatment. In other words, there are more centers. We're
more apt to look at addiction as a real illness
as opposed to some moral wrong and so addiction centers
(01:56):
are popping up and people are dealing with it much
different way, which is great also in shifts how people
use drugs and the opioid lawsuit money effectively. Opioids today,
legal opioids are almost impossible to get, certainly by prescription.
I mean it's just and when they do, the doctors
(02:18):
do prescribe.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
And this is after.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Surgeries, I mean big time surgeries. And I've had a
couple I couldn't get opioids. And man, I'm a drug user.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
You know that.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
You know I've been talking about my use of drugs.
I'm a big fan of needles and pills, and I
mean all.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Of it, you know, coming from my history.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
So I like medicine taking care of me, and I
like instant gratification, which means you pop a pill.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
And so I had two surgeries five years ago.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Was my back surgery and got an infection in the hospital,
and five weeks later or four weeks later, had to
have open heart surgery. Remember I was going on for
about five months. That was the issue where I had
these two major surgeries back to back, and so I figured, okay,
I'm going home, and I asked the doctor for prescription
(03:13):
for opioids. You know, I went good strong painkillers, and
it goes all the way from drug killer, drug pain
medical drug pain medication from I just took some ibuprofen
all the way up to delauded morphine. So I asked
for some good, healthy percocet or norco, which is a
(03:33):
pretty powerful, uh prescribed opioid, the kind that you used
to get when Big Pharma was selling it like crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
I got three days worth. What do you mean three
days worth? Are you serious? I just had surgery. I
had major surgery. Yeah, you got three days worth. Now,
come on, guys.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
The point is that DOT won't prescribe anymore, which really
brings down the incidents of people using drugs because a
huge number of people would only get a prescription.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Think about it. Do you know where to get heroin?
I don't. I have to ask Neil for it because
he knows where to get it. Yeah, that's the best
thing the guy.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Yeah No, The point I'm making on it, yeah no,
The point I'm making is that it's the supply and
the ability to get it has decreased. President Trump really
tightening the border up in a major way has had
a hit. You've got China with trade requirements and trade
(04:42):
negotiations with the US really cutting down on the precursor
of fentanyl drugs. So you look at all of these
reasons that drugs drug overdose have gone down. Now, the
scary part is that in the twelve months that ended
in August of twenty twenty five and estimated seventy three
(05:04):
thousand people died. I mean, that's an astronomical figure, except
the previous twelve month period was ninety two thousand people
dying of overdose. And in the last few years, the
biggest hit was one hundred and ten thousand people dying
in one year. And that that's a scourge and the
(05:28):
government has actually done something about it. And so now
they're trying to figure out how to deal with this
on a much more micro level, and cities and states
and counties you see drug treatment programs having expanded, and
that's one of the big issues with our county here
in Los Angeles that there's a controversy is to do
(05:53):
you take money away from the shelters the homeless do
you put it into drug programs because the two of them,
offen are combined because many many drug users are homeless
people and the other way too. All right, guys, let's
see this. This is January, as you know, and as
we're looking at January, there is something called a no
(06:17):
by January, which I mean, come on, this is where consumers.
It challenges consumers to eliminate non essential purpose purchases for
thirty one days no by January, which hit a five
year high on Google searches in December.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
And what is it about?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
And I found out it's a thing. I mean, as
ridiculous as it sounds, it is a thing. And not
just a few people buy into this or don't buy
into this. It's fueled by social media, as you imagine,
and consumers are starting the year with the no by
January challenge to eliminate anything that is non essential, close
(06:58):
skincare products, will, tronics, whatever, for the entire thirty one days.
Now you obviously have to pay your mortgage payment. You've
got to buy food, understood, But anything that can be
eliminated from being purchased January, you don't do it. Now.
A couple of things about this, This actually has happened,
(07:19):
and month long exercises in restraint have been known to
affect sales of everything. For example, razors in November. All right,
it's like, don't buy razors in November. Alcohol at the
beginning of the year, well, that actually becomes a no
buy because you're so pop just so tired of drinking
through the holidays.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Snacks go one down, go down quite a bit. Now.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
One of the things about the other side of it,
where and Neil and I have talked about this the
most is come February and we're looking at the Super
Bowl snacking. The snack business explodes, explodes. Every avocado on
the planet is bought here in southern California. I mean,
(08:04):
they become gold avocados. So I want to spend a
couple of minutes talking about January, because it's kind of
an interesting month, to say the least. By the way,
the New Year's resolutions, none of which none of which
anybody keeps. I was at the gym. The what was
it was that the gym was it yesterday or the
day before? And I couldn't find a parking spot in
(08:27):
the parking lot not could not find a parking spot.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
And I went in.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
After driving around for five minutes, I was late. And
I told the trainer, Hey, this is crazy. He goes, Wait,
wait till next month, Wait till next month. This is
New Year's And that's what's going on right now because
it's January, and January as a corollary, and that is
a don't exercise month after you have bought a membership
(08:55):
and promised exercise. So let's talk about a little bit
of history, because whenever we can, are we throw in
history here.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
January first, eighteen.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Sixty three was a really important year, really important month.
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by Abraham Lincoln January first.
I don't know if you've ever seen the movie Lincoln
with Daniel d. Lewis an amazing movie, and it's about
the Emancipation Proclamation and the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Just that issue.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
The discovery of discovery of gold in northern California at
Sutter's Mill, that happened January twenty fourth, eighteen forty eight,
which of course kicked off the California Gold Rush, and
it changed California history. Became a state a year later
because of that. Now here is kind of fun. The
(09:51):
time zones were adopted by twenty five countries January first,
eighteen eighty five. Now I had no idea that time
zones went back that far. When you think about it,
people would This is, by the way, the telegraph was
(10:12):
invented before the time zones were, so no.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
One really knew what time it was.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
All you knew if it was eight o'clock here and
you sent a telegram across the country, it wasn't eight
o'clock there.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
And the train schedules were completely screwed up.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
And so the time zones were adopted by twenty five
different nations. By the way, just a real quick one.
Now Russia has nine time zones. I thought i'd mentioned that.
A real fun one is January third, nineteen twenty two.
Any idea of nineteen twenty two, that's a big year.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
King touch Oh yeah, I thought you were going to
say April of twenty twenty two, which was or nineteen
twenty two is when this station first went on the air.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
That's right, that's right, when KFI went on the air. Yeah,
nineteen twenty two. The Tomb of Tuton Common and Howard
Carter and it's just a great Lord Carnarvon. Now the
lord and I always mispronounced his name, Lord Carnarvn actually
is the It's the family that built and still owns
(11:28):
the castle High Cliff Okay is the name of the castle.
That's Dalton Abbey. That is Dalton Abbey where it was filmed.
So down Abbey is owned by the family, Lord Carnarvan.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
And there's still a Lord Carnarvon.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
And he was the one that in fact he supplemented,
actually not, he underwrote Howard Carter in discovering.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
The Tomb of Tuton Common. Decided to share that with you.
The first television system.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Even more important than that, Edwin Hubble announces the discovery
of galaxies outside the Milky Way. Edwin Hubble, he was
and he worked out of our observatory here, the Hubble Telescope.
Big deal, discovering that there's a universe out there. John
(12:22):
Logi Bear, January twenty seventh, nineteen twenty six.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
First TV set was ever shown that was in London.
I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
I did know that Boeing's first seven forty seven jumbo
jet completes its inaugural Translantic transatlantic passenger flight. That was
January twenty two, nineteen seventy. The reason I bring up
the seven forty seven it completely changed how airfare and
airlines worked, how people traveled, and if you look at immigration,
(12:53):
you cannot separate immigration world immigration from the seven forty seven.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
It opened up the sky to normal, everyday people, extraordinarily important.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
And in January ninth, two thousand and seven, there was
this neat little phone that was introduced by Steve Jobs,
the iPhone, which revolutionize this industry, the communications industry.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
So that's January. So whatever whatever you're gonna do in January,
it's not gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Okay, whatever you think you're gonna do, whatever, whatever resolution
you have, just give it up, all right.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
It's Wednesday.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
In some medical news, doctor Jim Keeney, chief medical officer
for Dignity Saint Mary Medical Center in Long Beach and
a board certified er doctor of which you practiced R
medicine for a whole bunch of years decades.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Good morning, Jim. All right, So shingles vaccine.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
I want to talk about that because it is are
people do people not get vaccinated for shingles because of
any fan fantastic connection between autism and some kind of
other disease or is that just something that falls under
the radar.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
No, it's mostly just stress. Old folks and most people
aren't at that age, aren't worried about autism at that point,
and they just you know, anyone who's seen a friend
who's gotten shingles, they feel the misery and say, hey,
I don't want that. So it's pretty well adopted.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Okay, yeah, on what I.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Was thinking of, not that they're going to be afraid
of autism, but that's that connection to autism, that philosophy
that's going through the medical science or non medical science today.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
And shingles it seems, you.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Know, when I first heard the word shingles, it seems
fairly benign.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
It can be pretty serious stuff and painful as hell.
I understand.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Yeah, what people describe. They say that when like their
their clothes touch their skin, it feels like a blowtorch
is being like wafted across their skin. That's an intense,
severe burning pain and it's disabling. It keeps people awake
at night, it distracts them all day long. It's it's
pretty severe, so it's something most people want to try
(15:08):
and avoid. But there's the secondary problems, right of inflammation
in your body, and we know that inflammation contributes to
cardiovascular disease and the effects of you know, of having
heart attacks or strokes. So there is evidence. It's it's
association evidence. It's not randomized controlled trials that seemed to
show that that with these vaccines you have a reduced
(15:31):
incidence of other problems like heart attack or stroke. And
then this recent study that brought this back up shows
at the genetic markers and inflammation and all these other
things that seem to reduce what's called your biological age.
So that's a bunch of markers that were you know,
again not one hundred percent scientifically vetted.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
But it's it's interesting, Jim, there is something that actually
is linked to autism for real, although you know, any
link to autism today seems to just fall on deaf
ears because of what's going on. But let's talk about
the connection, a real connection.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Sure. I mean, first we should say autism is mostly
genetic We know that because when we look at twin
studies where you know you're either a fraternal twin or
identical twin. Fraternal twins share some genes, but identical twins
have the exact same genes. They have a much higher
rate of correlating autism between the two twins. So then
(16:31):
we have, on top of the genes, which is the
biggest thing, your environmental factors and that can affect your
epigenetics and other things. What this study did was looked
at women who, especially in the third trimester, we're exposed
to smoke and the wildfires and looked at them for
the next five years to see if the children had
(16:51):
a higher rate of developing autism, and they did. So
it does seem that, and we've known this before that
high levels of pollution and smoke will increase your risk
for autism, and this is just another study that shows
there are environmental factors that will increase your risk for autism.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
So wildfires and smoke in terms of not only what
is it, cardiovasculars issues certainly pulmonary issues, and now autism.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
So the trick is to get away from wildfires. Yeah, right,
so medical lights you would give it was a good study.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Right.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
They did two hundred people in two hundred thousand people
in southern California during wildfires, not these most recent ones,
but wildfire times and they followed them. So I mean,
a pretty powerful study. But it's an observational study. Again,
this is not randomized controlled trials, so it shows association,
it doesn't necessarily link the cause. But with this big,
(17:48):
this big of a number, it really does beg the
question that smoke seems to correlate.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Okay, last and certainly the least probably, And this is
what Jim sends me, And this is and I don't
know what it is. The secret weapon to fight a
cold is inside your nose and it's not your finger,
I'm assuming, right.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
Right, that's one way. No, so well, we've known this
for a little while, but a study just came out
looking at the grew nose cells in a plate and
then exposed it to rhinovirus and saw, you know, which
cells got infected and which cells didn't. So it's pretty
far removed from your actual nose. And what they found
where certain factors. Number one is that the cells produce
(18:34):
a protein called interferon, And we've known about interferre on
since it seventies, and if they produce the interferon, you
don't get a you don't get cold. If they don't
produce interfere on, then you're more likely to get it.
The other issue is if you had a recent cold,
you still have it, or if these cells have been
recently exposed to a virus, you still have that interferon
hanging around, so when you expose them a second time,
(18:56):
less likely to get a cold. And then the exposure
during like if we change the temperature, colder temperatures seem
to increase the risk of getting the rhinovirus. So this
is not exactly our shattering, but it was interesting. I
thought it was an interesting study that your nose actually
produces the interfere on. Next question is, well, why don't
(19:16):
we just make interfere on that you spray in your
nose so that you don't get the cold, And they
tried that, people have tried that. The problem is that
you can't have too high a concentration because interfere on
in your system interferes with your immune system as well,
so and it has a lot of outside effects. So
all right, so that.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Matt, It's okay?
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Is that sweet spot that nature provides that kind of
hate when nature does anything as opposed to the rest
of us doing all man made stuff. Jim, thank you
as always, and we'll catch you again next Wednesday, and
we always do this.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
You have a good day, Take care, take care, all.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Right, guy or kind of finished with the show. First
of all, I want to thank everybody who helped Kono
get the money for the car.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
As you know, I've been having.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
A great time with Kono living in the Inland Empire
and making all kinds of references to him being connected
to the meth world, the meth labs in his neighborhood,
meth homes that he's next to, and the reality is
I was just kidding, sort of kind of in the meantime,
thank you, because his car blew up, as you know,
(20:28):
and he drives seventy two miles each way and frankly
needed to buy a car. So we decided we were
going to help him out. This was not iHeart, This
was not in any way KFI officially, this was just
us on the Morning Crew. I wanted to help Kno
out without spending money. Actually we all did. Actually some
of that very generous, very generous gifts were throwing Neil,
(20:50):
you threw one in and I couldn't believe.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Tone was a good guy. He asked for nothing and
he works real hard.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Yeah, it's uh and I asked for everything and I don't,
so it works out. Yeah, So anyway, thank you, Yeah,
thank so. I want to thank everybody for doing this,
helping Cono out. And Cono when you, by the way,
when you do go shopping, I want you to video
it because there are a whole lot of people that
are going to be invested in that, literally and figuratively.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
All Right, we're done, guys.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Tomorrow it's going to be Neil and the crowd because
I'm going to be with a kalonoscope up my well.
I'm getting a colonoscopy tomorrow and it's really enjoyable and
I'll probably record a lot of it.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
So goodbye from us.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
And that's Amy and Neil and Cono and Will and
put everybody in. Didn't make fun of anybody this time around.
I'll pick that up on Friday. Okay, this is Ko
and Gary and Shannon up next. Let's not forget Gary
and Shannon. This is kf I A M six forty.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
You've been listening to the Bill handle show.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Catch my Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Some times this was I am six forty Jill Handle.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Here it is a Wednesday Morning Hoday, Wednesday, January twenty one,
and coming up the next segment before Jim McKinney talk
a little bit about January's a little history of January
and a fun segment of people who go a whole
month without buying anything in January, and I'll explain that
(00:35):
and then then some history I want to throw at you. Okay,
this segment, I want to talk about some actually very
good news through the United States, and that's the US
overdose that's dropped twenty one percent. That's a big number,
the longest sustained decline in decades. The deaths decline forty
(00:56):
five states out of the fifty. But there's a reason
why other five states are not reporting, and I mean,
this is great news.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Now why those are that's the question.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
And there's a bunch of reasons as to why this happened.
Researchers can't say with confidence, but increased availability of the
overdose reversing drug naloxone that saves people's lives. I mean literally,
if someone is dying, you have an opioid death overdosing,
(01:32):
you can stop it and reverse it right there that
minute with a hit of narcan or this naloxone. Expanded
addiction treatment. In other words, there are more centers. We're
more apt to look at addiction as a real illness
as opposed to some moral wrong and so addiction centers
(01:56):
are popping up and people are dealing with it much
different way, which is great also in shifts how people
use drugs and the opioid lawsuit money effectively. Opioids today,
legal opioids are almost impossible to get, certainly by prescription.
I mean it's just and when they do, the doctors
(02:18):
do prescribe.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
And this is after.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Surgeries, I mean big time surgeries. And I've had a
couple I couldn't get opioids. And man, I'm a drug user.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
You know that.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
You know I've been talking about my use of drugs.
I'm a big fan of needles and pills, and I
mean all.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Of it, you know, coming from my history.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
So I like medicine taking care of me, and I
like instant gratification, which means you pop a pill.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
And so I had two surgeries five years ago.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Was my back surgery and got an infection in the hospital,
and five weeks later or four weeks later, had to
have open heart surgery. Remember I was going on for
about five months. That was the issue where I had
these two major surgeries back to back, and so I figured, okay,
I'm going home, and I asked the doctor for prescription
(03:13):
for opioids. You know, I went good strong painkillers, and
it goes all the way from drug killer, drug pain
medical drug pain medication from I just took some ibuprofen
all the way up to delauded morphine. So I asked
for some good, healthy percocet or norco, which is a
(03:33):
pretty powerful, uh prescribed opioid, the kind that you used
to get when Big Pharma was selling it like crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
I got three days worth. What do you mean three
days worth? Are you serious? I just had surgery. I
had major surgery. Yeah, you got three days worth. Now,
come on, guys.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
The point is that DOT won't prescribe anymore, which really
brings down the incidents of people using drugs because a
huge number of people would only get a prescription.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Think about it. Do you know where to get heroin?
I don't. I have to ask Neil for it because
he knows where to get it. Yeah, that's the best
thing the guy.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Yeah No, The point I'm making on it, yeah no,
The point I'm making is that it's the supply and
the ability to get it has decreased. President Trump really
tightening the border up in a major way has had
a hit. You've got China with trade requirements and trade
(04:42):
negotiations with the US really cutting down on the precursor
of fentanyl drugs. So you look at all of these
reasons that drugs drug overdose have gone down. Now, the
scary part is that in the twelve months that ended
in August of twenty twenty five and estimated seventy three
(05:04):
thousand people died. I mean, that's an astronomical figure, except
the previous twelve month period was ninety two thousand people
dying of overdose. And in the last few years, the
biggest hit was one hundred and ten thousand people dying
in one year. And that that's a scourge and the
(05:28):
government has actually done something about it. And so now
they're trying to figure out how to deal with this
on a much more micro level, and cities and states
and counties you see drug treatment programs having expanded, and
that's one of the big issues with our county here
in Los Angeles that there's a controversy is to do
(05:53):
you take money away from the shelters the homeless do
you put it into drug programs because the two of them,
offen are combined because many many drug users are homeless
people and the other way too. All right, guys, let's
see this. This is January, as you know, and as
we're looking at January, there is something called a no
(06:17):
by January, which I mean, come on, this is where consumers.
It challenges consumers to eliminate non essential purpose purchases for
thirty one days no by January, which hit a five
year high on Google searches in December.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
And what is it about?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
And I found out it's a thing. I mean, as
ridiculous as it sounds, it is a thing. And not
just a few people buy into this or don't buy
into this. It's fueled by social media, as you imagine,
and consumers are starting the year with the no by
January challenge to eliminate anything that is non essential, close
(06:58):
skincare products, will, tronics, whatever, for the entire thirty one days.
Now you obviously have to pay your mortgage payment. You've
got to buy food, understood, But anything that can be
eliminated from being purchased January, you don't do it. Now.
A couple of things about this, This actually has happened,
(07:19):
and month long exercises in restraint have been known to
affect sales of everything. For example, razors in November. All right,
it's like, don't buy razors in November. Alcohol at the
beginning of the year, well, that actually becomes a no
buy because you're so pop just so tired of drinking
through the holidays.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Snacks go one down, go down quite a bit. Now.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
One of the things about the other side of it,
where and Neil and I have talked about this the
most is come February and we're looking at the Super
Bowl snacking. The snack business explodes, explodes. Every avocado on
the planet is bought here in southern California. I mean,
(08:04):
they become gold avocados. So I want to spend a
couple of minutes talking about January, because it's kind of
an interesting month, to say the least. By the way,
the New Year's resolutions, none of which none of which
anybody keeps. I was at the gym. The what was
it was that the gym was it yesterday or the
day before? And I couldn't find a parking spot in
(08:27):
the parking lot not could not find a parking spot.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
And I went in.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
After driving around for five minutes, I was late. And
I told the trainer, Hey, this is crazy. He goes, Wait,
wait till next month, Wait till next month. This is
New Year's And that's what's going on right now because
it's January, and January as a corollary, and that is
a don't exercise month after you have bought a membership
(08:55):
and promised exercise. So let's talk about a little bit
of history, because whenever we can, are we throw in
history here.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
January first, eighteen.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Sixty three was a really important year, really important month.
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by Abraham Lincoln January first.
I don't know if you've ever seen the movie Lincoln
with Daniel d. Lewis an amazing movie, and it's about
the Emancipation Proclamation and the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Just that issue.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
The discovery of discovery of gold in northern California at
Sutter's Mill, that happened January twenty fourth, eighteen forty eight,
which of course kicked off the California Gold Rush, and
it changed California history. Became a state a year later
because of that. Now here is kind of fun. The
(09:51):
time zones were adopted by twenty five countries January first,
eighteen eighty five. Now I had no idea that time
zones went back that far. When you think about it,
people would This is, by the way, the telegraph was
(10:12):
invented before the time zones were, so no.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
One really knew what time it was.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
All you knew if it was eight o'clock here and
you sent a telegram across the country, it wasn't eight
o'clock there.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
And the train schedules were completely screwed up.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
And so the time zones were adopted by twenty five
different nations. By the way, just a real quick one.
Now Russia has nine time zones. I thought i'd mentioned that.
A real fun one is January third, nineteen twenty two.
Any idea of nineteen twenty two, that's a big year.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
King touch Oh yeah, I thought you were going to
say April of twenty twenty two, which was or nineteen
twenty two is when this station first went on the air.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
That's right, that's right, when KFI went on the air. Yeah,
nineteen twenty two. The Tomb of Tuton Common and Howard
Carter and it's just a great Lord Carnarvon. Now the
lord and I always mispronounced his name, Lord Carnarvn actually
is the It's the family that built and still owns
(11:28):
the castle High Cliff Okay is the name of the castle.
That's Dalton Abbey. That is Dalton Abbey where it was filmed.
So down Abbey is owned by the family, Lord Carnarvan.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
And there's still a Lord Carnarvon.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
And he was the one that in fact he supplemented,
actually not, he underwrote Howard Carter in discovering.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
The Tomb of Tuton Common. Decided to share that with you.
The first television system.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Even more important than that, Edwin Hubble announces the discovery
of galaxies outside the Milky Way. Edwin Hubble, he was
and he worked out of our observatory here, the Hubble Telescope.
Big deal, discovering that there's a universe out there. John
(12:22):
Logi Bear, January twenty seventh, nineteen twenty six.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
First TV set was ever shown that was in London.
I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
I did know that Boeing's first seven forty seven jumbo
jet completes its inaugural Translantic transatlantic passenger flight. That was
January twenty two, nineteen seventy. The reason I bring up
the seven forty seven it completely changed how airfare and
airlines worked, how people traveled, and if you look at immigration,
(12:53):
you cannot separate immigration world immigration from the seven forty seven.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
It opened up the sky to normal, everyday people, extraordinarily important.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
And in January ninth, two thousand and seven, there was
this neat little phone that was introduced by Steve Jobs,
the iPhone, which revolutionize this industry, the communications industry.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
So that's January. So whatever whatever you're gonna do in January,
it's not gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Okay, whatever you think you're gonna do, whatever, whatever resolution
you have, just give it up, all right.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
It's Wednesday.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
In some medical news, doctor Jim Keeney, chief medical officer
for Dignity Saint Mary Medical Center in Long Beach and
a board certified er doctor of which you practiced R
medicine for a whole bunch of years decades.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Good morning, Jim. All right, So shingles vaccine.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
I want to talk about that because it is are
people do people not get vaccinated for shingles because of
any fan fantastic connection between autism and some kind of
other disease or is that just something that falls under
the radar.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
No, it's mostly just stress. Old folks and most people
aren't at that age, aren't worried about autism at that point,
and they just you know, anyone who's seen a friend
who's gotten shingles, they feel the misery and say, hey,
I don't want that. So it's pretty well adopted.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Okay, yeah, on what I.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Was thinking of, not that they're going to be afraid
of autism, but that's that connection to autism, that philosophy
that's going through the medical science or non medical science today.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
And shingles it seems, you.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Know, when I first heard the word shingles, it seems
fairly benign.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
It can be pretty serious stuff and painful as hell.
I understand.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Yeah, what people describe. They say that when like their
their clothes touch their skin, it feels like a blowtorch
is being like wafted across their skin. That's an intense,
severe burning pain and it's disabling. It keeps people awake
at night, it distracts them all day long. It's it's
pretty severe, so it's something most people want to try
(15:08):
and avoid. But there's the secondary problems, right of inflammation
in your body, and we know that inflammation contributes to
cardiovascular disease and the effects of you know, of having
heart attacks or strokes. So there is evidence. It's it's
association evidence. It's not randomized controlled trials that seemed to
show that that with these vaccines you have a reduced
(15:31):
incidence of other problems like heart attack or stroke. And
then this recent study that brought this back up shows
at the genetic markers and inflammation and all these other
things that seem to reduce what's called your biological age.
So that's a bunch of markers that were you know,
again not one hundred percent scientifically vetted.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
But it's it's interesting, Jim, there is something that actually
is linked to autism for real, although you know, any
link to autism today seems to just fall on deaf
ears because of what's going on. But let's talk about
the connection, a real connection.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Sure. I mean, first we should say autism is mostly
genetic We know that because when we look at twin
studies where you know you're either a fraternal twin or
identical twin. Fraternal twins share some genes, but identical twins
have the exact same genes. They have a much higher
rate of correlating autism between the two twins. So then
(16:31):
we have, on top of the genes, which is the
biggest thing, your environmental factors and that can affect your
epigenetics and other things. What this study did was looked
at women who, especially in the third trimester, we're exposed
to smoke and the wildfires and looked at them for
the next five years to see if the children had
(16:51):
a higher rate of developing autism, and they did. So
it does seem that, and we've known this before that
high levels of pollution and smoke will increase your risk
for autism, and this is just another study that shows
there are environmental factors that will increase your risk for autism.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
So wildfires and smoke in terms of not only what
is it, cardiovasculars issues certainly pulmonary issues, and now autism.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
So the trick is to get away from wildfires. Yeah, right,
so medical lights you would give it was a good study.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Right.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
They did two hundred people in two hundred thousand people
in southern California during wildfires, not these most recent ones,
but wildfire times and they followed them. So I mean,
a pretty powerful study. But it's an observational study. Again,
this is not randomized controlled trials, so it shows association,
it doesn't necessarily link the cause. But with this big,
(17:48):
this big of a number, it really does beg the
question that smoke seems to correlate.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Okay, last and certainly the least probably, And this is
what Jim sends me, And this is and I don't
know what it is. The secret weapon to fight a
cold is inside your nose and it's not your finger,
I'm assuming, right.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
Right, that's one way. No, so well, we've known this
for a little while, but a study just came out
looking at the grew nose cells in a plate and
then exposed it to rhinovirus and saw, you know, which
cells got infected and which cells didn't. So it's pretty
far removed from your actual nose. And what they found
where certain factors. Number one is that the cells produce
(18:34):
a protein called interferon, And we've known about interferre on
since it seventies, and if they produce the interferon, you
don't get a you don't get cold. If they don't
produce interfere on, then you're more likely to get it.
The other issue is if you had a recent cold,
you still have it, or if these cells have been
recently exposed to a virus, you still have that interferon
hanging around, so when you expose them a second time,
(18:56):
less likely to get a cold. And then the exposure
during like if we change the temperature, colder temperatures seem
to increase the risk of getting the rhinovirus. So this
is not exactly our shattering, but it was interesting. I
thought it was an interesting study that your nose actually
produces the interfere on. Next question is, well, why don't
(19:16):
we just make interfere on that you spray in your
nose so that you don't get the cold, And they
tried that, people have tried that. The problem is that
you can't have too high a concentration because interfere on
in your system interferes with your immune system as well,
so and it has a lot of outside effects. So
all right, so that.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Matt, It's okay?
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Is that sweet spot that nature provides that kind of
hate when nature does anything as opposed to the rest
of us doing all man made stuff. Jim, thank you
as always, and we'll catch you again next Wednesday, and
we always do this.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
You have a good day, Take care, take care, all.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Right, guy or kind of finished with the show. First
of all, I want to thank everybody who helped Kono
get the money for the car.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
As you know, I've been having.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
A great time with Kono living in the Inland Empire
and making all kinds of references to him being connected
to the meth world, the meth labs in his neighborhood,
meth homes that he's next to, and the reality is
I was just kidding, sort of kind of in the meantime,
thank you, because his car blew up, as you know,
(20:28):
and he drives seventy two miles each way and frankly
needed to buy a car. So we decided we were
going to help him out. This was not iHeart, This
was not in any way KFI officially, this was just
us on the Morning Crew. I wanted to help Kno
out without spending money. Actually we all did. Actually some
of that very generous, very generous gifts were throwing Neil,
(20:50):
you threw one in and I couldn't believe.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Tone was a good guy. He asked for nothing and
he works real hard.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Yeah, it's uh and I asked for everything and I don't,
so it works out. Yeah, So anyway, thank you, Yeah,
thank so. I want to thank everybody for doing this,
helping Cono out. And Cono when you, by the way,
when you do go shopping, I want you to video
it because there are a whole lot of people that
are going to be invested in that, literally and figuratively.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
All Right, we're done, guys.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Tomorrow it's going to be Neil and the crowd because
I'm going to be with a kalonoscope up my well.
I'm getting a colonoscopy tomorrow and it's really enjoyable and
I'll probably record a lot of it.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
So goodbye from us.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
And that's Amy and Neil and Cono and Will and
put everybody in. Didn't make fun of anybody this time around.
I'll pick that up on Friday. Okay, this is Ko
and Gary and Shannon up next. Let's not forget Gary
and Shannon. This is kf I A M six forty.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
You've been listening to the Bill handle show.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Catch my Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
The Bill Handel Show News
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