May 22, 2025 • 30 mins
For too many of us Memorial Day is about picnics, bar-b-ques or visits to the beach. The real purpose for the holiday is to honor and mourn the men and women who have died serving our nation in the Armed Forces.
Lt. Gen. David Fridovich, a 37-year U.S. Army Veteran, joins Manny Munoz to discuss Memorial Day.
AND, May is Osteoporosis Awareness and Prevention Month....., but do you even know what it is or whether it is preventable? Munoz spoke with Dr, Laila Tabatabai, a member of the Board of the Bone Health and Osteoporosis Foundation
Lt. Gen. David Fridovich, a 37-year U.S. Army Veteran, joins Manny Munoz to discuss Memorial Day.
AND, May is Osteoporosis Awareness and Prevention Month....., but do you even know what it is or whether it is preventable? Munoz spoke with Dr, Laila Tabatabai, a member of the Board of the Bone Health and Osteoporosis Foundation
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a public affairs special focusing on
the biggest issues in facting you this week.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Here's many munios.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
And welcome to another edition of Iheartradios Communities. As you heard,
I am manny Munyo's For too many of us, Memorial
Day is about picnics and barbecues, visiting the beach. The
real purpose for the holidays to honor and mourn the
men and women who have died serving our nation in
the armed forces. Let's talk about that and how we
(00:32):
can help honor those who are currently serving. With Lieutenant
General David Fridovich, thirty seven year US Army veteran who
spent twenty eight of those years as a Special Forces officer. General,
wonderful to get some time with you. Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Hey, I rarely appreciate this opportunity. Thank you for doing this.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Yeah, let's talk about let's specifically, let's start off talking
about Memorial Day personally. As a veteran and a leader,
what does this day mean to you?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Well, you know, we go all the way back to
you know, a sense of service and both my parents
serving in World War Two. My mom is an Army
nurse and the European theater and my dad, all six
foot two of them, as a tail gunner in some
US Army Air Corps aircraft. I don't know why they
picked the guys for that. They have a sense of
humor or they did anyway, you know, kind of brought
(01:23):
up on a sense of service. But you know, as
time went on, you know, Vietnam was winding down, I
did the most objectionable thing I could do as I
joined the Army, and I was told I was ruining
my life by doing so by an uncle who I knew,
you know, was a questionable character anyway, So it was
a good move on my part, and it was one
of those things I was just supposed to do in
(01:44):
my life, you know, kind of like you being in
the radio meeting in the army. But with that comes
a sense of obligation, responsibility and duty, and the ultimate
sacrifice that men and women give is besides broken bodies,
is breaking themselves and you know, just coming back, I
guess morally injured, that's one part of it. And then
(02:06):
the ultimate sacrifice of losing your life and service to
the nation. There's no highest honor, no higher honor, and
something that we need to be mindful of all the time.
So your lead in in terms of the barbecue and
the beach and all that, that's exactly what we normally
focus on. But today or a Memorial Day weekend, it's
about really remembering the people who made the ultimate sacrifice,
(02:29):
and we all have friends that have done that. It
was more important as the shrinking the population than service
to the nation shrinks, So it's something that you need
to be mindful and bring it forward. So I appreciate
you doing that.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
I appreciate you and obviously your service. Where do you
think was there a point in time where we started
losing focus about what this weekend was really supposed to
be all about? Because it feels like when I was younger,
we used to hold the holiday in higher esteem than.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
We do today.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
You know, that's a that brings to mind. I was
in Europe for a school for a year and we
went over to Belgium a Memorial Day. A friend of
mine who'd worked for me before was over there in
one of his final tours as a lieutenant colonel, and
we watched the children of this Belgium village march to
(03:22):
the cemetery, the Allied cemetery with American flags in Belgique
Netherlands flags, and their sense of patriotism and sacrifice that
we had given to them was you know, just right
up front. And that was in nineteen ninety nine. And
while that's that date I remember clearly because of you know,
(03:44):
being the school there, the real issue is because we
no longer have a sense of service or responsibility of
the country. I think we started slipping away probably at
the end of Vietnam when the draft registration contained, the
raft went away, and people no longer needed to even
think about serving the country. So this has been about
(04:05):
two or three generations or more in coming that we've
lost focus of what this really means.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
How do you believe we could use Memorial Day itself,
but the holiday overall to better educate our country, better
educate civilians about the true cost of war, you.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Know, unless it really affects them immediately. And I heard
this right at the beginning of the War on Terror,
somebody said in the Pentagon. I remember being we were
out Hawaii as where we were assigned at the time,
and the War on Terror had started, and this very
senior officer in the Pentagon says, we're at war and
(04:44):
the rest of the country is at the mall. It
doesn't affect them. Nine to eleven atrocities had taken place
that was kind of like a bump in the road,
and people got out with their lives unless they were
directly affected, like the nine to eleven survivors and people
that had been affected in Pennsylvania and DC and other places.
And I think what's really really happened is, you know,
(05:06):
we really we lost it because somebody else was doing
the work. And I remember actually going back to college
and talking to people and asking them did they know
anybody or have anybody in their family? They had put
the uniform of the country on, and I think one
out of fifty kids raised their hand. I thought that
was startling, And I think I think some of the
(05:28):
things that we have to do is kind of have,
you know, have this kind of outreach and this kind
of dissemination of what it means and why it's important,
and then also thinking back about, hey, what kind of
national service can we have? And I know that's kind
of contentious, but what kind of national service can we
have that gets people to buy into would be a
(05:49):
citizen soldier or a citizen even means these days, I
think we might have lost that as well.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Yeah, it does strike me that that enlistment in the military,
voluntary enlistment in the military, was for so long a
generational thing, right, you had your grandfather was in the military,
so your dad joined, your dad was in so you
and your brother and your sister joined, and somewhere around
somewhere along the line, we've kind of lost that.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
That's that's absolutely accurate. Or in my case, as I
brought up, you know, my uncle says, well, you know,
why do you want to ruin your life or like that,
that's a bad move r And I started laughing, going
and I just got vindication of it's a good idea.
Do you think it's a bad idea. It's a good idea, right,
you know, And and he was wrong, and I was right.
(06:34):
But you know again here we are. So but yeah,
we did generationally. And I mean even now you have
to say, would you tell your kid or your grandchild
to go into the military, and you'll get a variety
of different answers. Normally it would be you know, well
pick the right service. Yeah, I think that's a big
part of it as well.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Yeah, I remember when I was when I was younger.
I mean, I was in the Army reserves. But I
remember when I was you know, when I was in
junior and high school, the military promoted itself. I remember Army, Navy,
Air Force, Marines, what a great life. And there's so
much talk these days in our country, for example, about
(07:15):
college debt, and I don't see the military out there
promoting the fact that the GI bill is a great
way not only to get ahead in life, because I'd
rather hire a veteran than anybody else, but but you
don't have that college debt. And I'm wondering how much
that has hurt our recruiting the fact that we don't
see the military selling itself the way it once did.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
You know, that's I don't know when you were in,
but the nineteen eighties we did that. Yeah, it worked
really well and we got high quality people, and we said, hey, look,
you know, you can do this, you know, for a
couple of years and get you know, the Montgomery g
I Bill or whatever it was. I probably have that wrong,
but you know, you'll get the ability to pay for
(07:56):
college and then what we really missed. But then back
up pretty quickly as hey, you can also stay you
don't have to leave. I mean, it's not just Saint
Jude or four years and go. If something else is calling,
you answer the call, but serve first to get the
money for college and then go or you know, go
to college Green and Gold where we had kids. You know,
(08:17):
young men and women go to college for two or
three years, finish and then become second lieutenis and go
right into ROTC or right into you know, the military
after college. So you know, there were programs that worked
well when I don't know, you know, where we lost it.
And I mean I was still in during the time,
and we talk about this. We can also see that
(08:38):
the you know, the recruiting and who we got and
the economics plays you well know, the economics of the
country plays a huge part in who we get, who
we don't get, and why they stay. So that's a
that's another big, another conversation some other time.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
I'm sure a few more minutes here with Lieutenant General
David Fridovich, thirty seven year US Army veteran, A couple
more things about Memorial Day, and then I want to
get into really even more important stuff about your work
with America's Warriors. Partnership are there any specific members that
you served with comrades that you honor on Memorial Day.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
How do you commemorate it for them?
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Well, you know, one of the things that I do,
and the list gets longer every year, but I've got
dear friends that died in service to the nation or
died later on for whatever reason, probably too soon. And
I think one of the most important things that we
can do is, and you've probably have heard this before,
(09:44):
is say their name, say their name, say their name
out loud. Since they're remembered, saying their name out loud
is really this is a significant, important, minor thing that
you can do. Yeah, that makes a huge difference. They're
not forgotten.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
And that's really what this weekend and this holiday is
about honoring those, as you mentioned, that paid the ultimate
that made the ultimate sacrifice to our nation. We have
thousands of veterans coming back home from overseas, whether it
be Iraq, Afghanistan, somewhere else that just aren't able to
assimilate back into society because they're different people, right, the
(10:23):
mental health issues that have taken a toll on them.
Talk to me about that and the work you do
with America's Warrior Partnership to try and bring that race
of awareness about what we call the invisible wounds.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Of war, the invisible wounds of war also now known
as you know, moral injuries or death by despair. I
kind of, well, I don't I don't like what a
conjures up. But death by despair is a better way
of saying, you know, suicide, which normally just kind of
(10:55):
makes people cringe. But what we do in America's Warrior Partnership,
and I've been with him since about twenty fourteen, and
Jim Lorraine, who's a wonderful guy who if you haven't
talked to him, I'm sugar, either you should or you will,
but phenomenal guy. He and his wife and my wife
(11:16):
saved my life when I had a severe injury and
he got me the care I needed because that's what
he was doing at Special Operations Command at the time.
We became fast friends from there forward, and I finally
got on the board and one of the first things
that we had to do is we had to find
the veterans because the one time that they really need
a sponsors when they leave the military, and that's the
(11:37):
one time they don't have a sponsor. So finding them
in different and Jim had a method and he did
it through communities. Communities know the people in their own communities,
so he did community outreach. And he also realized that
the Veterans' Service Organization space has a lot of people
in it that are kind of there, do wells and
will take the money and run. And so he always
(12:00):
and continues to this day, tracks how we do. So
it's not just a matter of outreach. Is how many
we touched, how many people come back talk to us,
how many do we get into the program, how do
we successfully take care of them, what do they need,
how do we get them married up? But tracking how
we're doing by the veteran's output. And I think that's
(12:20):
a critical part of why I'm still on the board
with AWP, because they know what we know what we're doing,
we know where we're going, and we know how we
want to get there, and we can show you that
we're being successful. If not, we can figure out how
to fix it. And that brought about Operation Deep Dive.
Have you heard of that I've done? Operation Deep Dive
(12:43):
is americod Warrior partnership with Duke University Duke Medical studying
data from a variety of different locations, mostly state data.
I think about about seventeen state partners now that are
sharing that their veteran data, which is different than other
people better in data with Duke, and then the analysis
(13:04):
that we're working on to better understand and try to
get and say, hey, you know, we don't have to
just react to it once it's happened. We want to
get in front of it and make it preventable, make
it understandable as to why are they in such desperate
strains that we can't do something about this to reverse
the course. I know, as a guy who was in
(13:26):
severe pain for many years, that if you were to
tell me that I was going to be in pain
the rest of my life, I would look differently at
the rest of my life. If I had no hope,
if I had no hope of relieving that pain, I
would be hopeless, and that would lead me to you know,
a different outcome than you and I speaking right now.
You know you have teammates. You didn't do the military
(13:47):
by yourself. You have teammates. You didn't do law enforcement
by yourself. You have teammates. Reach out to them. They'll
help you, they'll point you in the right direction, but
seek the help that's there. It'll work.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Lieutenant General David Fret, thirty seven year US Army veteran, Sir,
I appreciate the time. I appreciate your service to our nation.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Be well, Thank you so much, appreciate this opportunity. You'll
be well, have a great weekend, and say.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Their names osteoporosis. Do you know what it is? Is
it even preventable?
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Let's discuss that and the fact that may is Osteoporosis
Awareness and Prevention Month as we bring in doctor Leila Tabatabaye.
She is a member of the board of the Bone
Health and Osteoporosis Foundation. Doctor Tabadabaie, I appreciate the time.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Thank you so much, Mannie, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
So what exactly is osteoporosis.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
Osteoporosis is a disease of bone fragility, so it's characterized
by weak and brittle bones and both bone density so
the amount of bone is low and bone quality or
the architecture of the bone is poor. So combined that
(14:56):
leads to an increased risk of broken bone, which we
call fractures.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Is this natural in aging or is it something that's acquired.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
That's an excellent question. It's we don't consider it natural
in the sense that it is a disease process. It
is something that confers an increased risk for broken bones
and even increased mortality. So it's very very important to
diagnose and treat it and also to try to prevent it.
(15:30):
With that said, many older individuals will be diagnosed with
osteoporosis in their lifetime, and as a matter of fact,
over ten million people aged fifty and older in the
United States have osteoporosis, and the prevalence is extremely high
in adults age sixty five and older. It's close to
(15:51):
twenty percent.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
More women or men that get osteoporosis.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Great question. Absolutely more women than men. So about one
in two women over the age of fifty will have
a broken bone related to osteoporosis in her lifetime, but
that statistics drops to one in four men, so you know,
men are much less likely to have it. The key
difference there is that women lose their estrogen at the
(16:22):
time of menopause, so that is a key factor in
their declining bone density. Men by and large maintain a
level of testosterone throughout their life. Of course, it does
naturally go down at certain points and with aging, but
testosterone protects their bone throughout their lifetime.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
So menopause and menopause do have an effect on right.
Are there ways to prevent getting osteoporosis?
Speaker 4 (16:51):
That's an excellent question. So I do believe there are
many ways that we can protect our bones, and it
starts out with early recognition of healthy dietary behaviors and exercise,
so making sure you have enough calcium in your diet.
A lot of young children and young people don't drink
(17:13):
milk anymore. They're avoiding dairy. So it is important that
each individual person gets enough calcium in their diet, and
there's a lot of plant based ways to do so
as well. But milk, cheese, yogurt, any dairy food, almond milk,
oat milk, soy milk are some plant based alternatives. But
(17:34):
the goal is about one thousand milligram of calcium per
day and that is ideally obtained through food. Now, of course,
there are many many supplements on the market, you know,
many fancy expensive ones and expensive ones. We try to
avoid those because there may be a risk of calcification
of other organs like the blood vessels or kidneys with
(17:58):
high dose calcium supple elements. So for now, if we
can get that from our food, we are much much
better off. Vitamin D is also very important, so patients
who are at risk for ostroporosis should have vitamin D
levels measured and their doctor can guide them on how
to supplement with vitamin D three to have an optimal level.
(18:21):
So calcium and vitamin D are two very important building blocks.
And then exercise, manny, So we all know that exercise
is critical for so many things, are part for cancer reduction,
et cetera. For ostroporosis, it's actually critical. So there was
a large research trial called the Liftmore Trial, so it's
(18:43):
really kind of a great name for it, LA F
T m R. And this was an clinical trial conducted
that examined exercise in women and the effects that it
had on their bone density, and really the findings suggested
that a high intensity resistance training program, so essentially a
(19:06):
weightlifting program is better for preserving bone density and preventing
loss of bone density than a low intensity workout, so
something like walking. Now, we of course still encourage everything, right,
we just want everyone to be active, whatever that looks like.
But weightlifting three times a week for women is something
(19:28):
that I recommend routinely, and it's going to look different
for an eighty five year old patient versus a forty
five year old tation sure, So we just want people
to get out there and work with a trainer to
get an idea of what's safe for Them's.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Got a few more minutes here with doctor Layla Tabata Bye.
She is a member of the board of the Bone
Health and Osteoporosis Foundation.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Are there are there tests.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
That could tell a doctor if somebody is developing osteoporosis?
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Absolutely? Absolutely. The bone density Test or DEXA as it's called,
and that's abbreviated DXA. That is a routinely available medical
test that can be done at any radiology facility. And
I highly recommend that patients who are concerned about this,
(20:19):
and that's really every woman who's approaching menopause, I believe,
should be screened with a DEXA scan, particularly higher risk
groups such as white and Asian women. Also those who
are thin, have a low body weight, or have a
family history of ostroporosis. So the guidelines currently from the USPSTF,
(20:45):
which is the United States Prevention Task Force suggests that
patients shouldn't get screened until they're sixty five, but that
is concerning to a lot of US experts because many
of our patients we have osteopenia or osteoporosis have already
broken a bone by the time they're sixty five, or
(21:05):
they're at high risk to do so. So if we
can screen them earlier, early prevention is always key, right
with all of our chronic conditions. So I highly recommend
that patients advocate for themselves. And the DEXA uses X
ray technology, so it's very, very low risk, low radiation.
It's a test that can be done right at their
(21:28):
local radiology facility and very important for assessing their risk.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
I'm surprised that it's not recommended until the age of
sixty five or older. If it's associated with menopause, you
would think, you know, definitely by the mid or late forties,
it would be a required test.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
Absolutely manny. And you know, honestly, a lot of our
guidelines in the United States and around the world are
made based on cost, and you know what's most efficient,
and you know, it may be appropriate for certain individuals
to wait till that age. But I certainly think that
(22:08):
you know, many women should be screened at that earlier
age of the perimenopause time as we like to call it,
which is the mid to late forties. And then even
men who have risk factors such as a history of
smoking or heavier alcohol intake, or if they have a
family history of ostroporosis. Certainly men should not feel that
(22:30):
they're immune from osteoporosis, and we encourage them to get
screened if appropriate.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
As well, you mentioned a term a couple of minutes ago, osteopenia.
What is the difference between osteoporosis and osteopenia.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
That's a great question. So osteopenia is really the precursor
to osteoporosis. So, as I mentioned, about ten million adults
in the US have osteoporosis, but close to forty five
million people in the US have osteopenia. So this is
a term for a low bone mass or low bone density.
And to be honest, a lot of US experts don't
(23:06):
really like this term because it implies that the risk
of breaking a bone is much lower than it is
for osteoporosis. But to be honest with you, a lot
of patients with quote unquote osteopenia still end up breaking
a bone, and that's something that we certainly want to prevent.
But the key is, if a patient's diagnosed with osteopenia
(23:30):
at any point in their life, they do need to
have monitoring bone density tests. So the DEXA test should
be done every two years for a patient with osteopenia
and every one year for a patient with osteoporosis, And
of course that will depend on the patient's individual case,
but these categories are important really just for us to
(23:51):
understand the patient's risk and how to best help them
manage their bone density.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Yeah, you mentioned early detection.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Obviously there's a reason it's called preventative meta and sadly
not how people practice it. So somebody is diagnosed, let's say,
with osteopenia, is there a way to fend off increased
deterioration or at least slow the deterioration down.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Absolutely. So I am a huge advocate, as I said,
of a healthy diet, so making sure the calcium envitamin
d intake, which we already discussed or optimized. A protein
rich diet. So that doesn't mean high protein, that doesn't
mean keto, but having good quality protein is very important
because the bones and muscles are comprised of high protein intakes,
(24:39):
so we need to make sure that as we age,
we maintain an appropriate intake of that vital macronutrient. And
then furthermore, weight training. I'm a huge proponent of so.
As I said, every patient, even those who've suffered broken
bones before, can adopt a safe exercise program. And that
(25:00):
they said might mean meeting with a professional or a
physical therapist as a medical referral to make sure that
they're doing a safe program, but that's a huge part
of prevention. I also want to make a plug many
for the appropriateness of hormone therapy, so menopause, perimenopause, you know,
(25:20):
it's a big buzzword these days. We have a lot
of high profile women fortunately shedding a light on this
very important transition in a woman's life, and I just
want to say that the research on hormone replacement therapy
in the perimenopausal period has come a long way. So
I do encourage every woman to speak to her physician
(25:43):
about whether hormone replacement therapy is appropriate for her, especially
if she's in the perimenopause period and has osteopenia or osteoporosis.
So there's a key window the first three to five
years after menopause that hormone own therapy can be safely started,
So that conversation needs to happen earlier. And if their
(26:06):
physician is not able or not willing to talk about
hormone replacement therapy, then really a referral should be made
to an expert who can help in that.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
It does seem like for a long time there was
maybe it was taboo to even talk about menopause.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
And I don't want to call it, I don't want
to call it.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
A movement, but it does seem like the stigma surrounding
discussing it publicly is has deteriorated, does it not?
Speaker 4 (26:33):
Absolutely? And I think that's a wonderful thing. There's a
lot of high profile, as I mentioned, wonderful women and
also everyday wonderful women right in my own practice, who
are asking me questions about menopause, asking how they can
best handle all of the changes that their body is
going through. And I do think that the taboo or
(26:56):
stigma of it, as as you referred to, that is
slipping away, and for good reason, you know, we should
be able to talk about these changes. And I heard
a speaker the other day talk about how menopause and
pregnancy and all of the health challenges and transitions that
(27:17):
are specific to women, those are being brought up. They're
being brought up in the workplace, at home, in the boardroom, everywhere.
And that's an excellent thing because we shouldn't ever feel
that any of these topics are off limits or anything
to be ashamed of it all. I think that, you know,
just arming ourselves with good evidence based information so that
(27:41):
we can make these decisions. And our health is so critical,
and that's where your doctor can come in to help
guide you and give you some really good information.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Yeah, fantastic, Absolutely right. Last thing for you, if I
spoke to you again, doctor Tabatambaye, in five years, in
ten years, how would the discussion about prevention or diagnosis
or even treatment of osteoporosis be different.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
That's such a wonderful question, Manny. First of all, I
hope that I will still be around in this wonderful
hospital that I work in with my patients whom I
really love to see and to help. And as an endochronologist,
what I hope to see in five or ten years
is that we're looking at osteoporosis as a treatable condition
(28:31):
and even a preventable condition for many many women and
men in this country. We do have excellent medications now
on the market which are safe and FDA approved that
can actually build bone and help to reverse osteoporosis. And again,
these medications may not be appropriate for every patient, but
(28:53):
in patients that can take them and benefit from them,
this is actually changing the face of the disease. So
that's a really exciting forefront that we've come up to,
and it's a really exciting time, you know, in the
osteoporosis space. So my hope is that more patients have
excellent information that they can rely on and also access
(29:17):
to these wonderful medications and specialists who can help them.
So that's really our goal for the future of ostroporosis.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
It all starts with having that conversation with your doctor.
Doctor Leila Tabata bay a Board certified endricnologist, board member
of the Bone and Health, Bone Health and Osteoporosis Foundation.
Wonderful conversation. Thanks so much for the time and for
the information.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
Thank you, manny, Take care.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
And that'll do it for another edition. Of iheartradios communities.
I'm Manny Muno's until next time.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
This
Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a public affairs special focusing on
the biggest issues in facting you this week.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Here's many munios.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
And welcome to another edition of Iheartradios Communities. As you heard,
I am manny Munyo's For too many of us, Memorial
Day is about picnics and barbecues, visiting the beach. The
real purpose for the holidays to honor and mourn the
men and women who have died serving our nation in
the armed forces. Let's talk about that and how we
(00:32):
can help honor those who are currently serving. With Lieutenant
General David Fridovich, thirty seven year US Army veteran who
spent twenty eight of those years as a Special Forces officer. General,
wonderful to get some time with you. Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Hey, I rarely appreciate this opportunity. Thank you for doing this.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Yeah, let's talk about let's specifically, let's start off talking
about Memorial Day personally. As a veteran and a leader,
what does this day mean to you?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Well, you know, we go all the way back to
you know, a sense of service and both my parents
serving in World War Two. My mom is an Army
nurse and the European theater and my dad, all six
foot two of them, as a tail gunner in some
US Army Air Corps aircraft. I don't know why they
picked the guys for that. They have a sense of
humor or they did anyway, you know, kind of brought
(01:23):
up on a sense of service. But you know, as
time went on, you know, Vietnam was winding down, I
did the most objectionable thing I could do as I
joined the Army, and I was told I was ruining
my life by doing so by an uncle who I knew,
you know, was a questionable character anyway, So it was
a good move on my part, and it was one
of those things I was just supposed to do in
(01:44):
my life, you know, kind of like you being in
the radio meeting in the army. But with that comes
a sense of obligation, responsibility and duty, and the ultimate
sacrifice that men and women give is besides broken bodies,
is breaking themselves and you know, just coming back, I
guess morally injured, that's one part of it. And then
(02:06):
the ultimate sacrifice of losing your life and service to
the nation. There's no highest honor, no higher honor, and
something that we need to be mindful of all the time.
So your lead in in terms of the barbecue and
the beach and all that, that's exactly what we normally
focus on. But today or a Memorial Day weekend, it's
about really remembering the people who made the ultimate sacrifice,
(02:29):
and we all have friends that have done that. It
was more important as the shrinking the population than service
to the nation shrinks, So it's something that you need
to be mindful and bring it forward. So I appreciate
you doing that.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
I appreciate you and obviously your service. Where do you
think was there a point in time where we started
losing focus about what this weekend was really supposed to
be all about? Because it feels like when I was younger,
we used to hold the holiday in higher esteem than.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
We do today.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
You know, that's a that brings to mind. I was
in Europe for a school for a year and we
went over to Belgium a Memorial Day. A friend of
mine who'd worked for me before was over there in
one of his final tours as a lieutenant colonel, and
we watched the children of this Belgium village march to
(03:22):
the cemetery, the Allied cemetery with American flags in Belgique
Netherlands flags, and their sense of patriotism and sacrifice that
we had given to them was you know, just right
up front. And that was in nineteen ninety nine. And
while that's that date I remember clearly because of you know,
(03:44):
being the school there, the real issue is because we
no longer have a sense of service or responsibility of
the country. I think we started slipping away probably at
the end of Vietnam when the draft registration contained, the
raft went away, and people no longer needed to even
think about serving the country. So this has been about
(04:05):
two or three generations or more in coming that we've
lost focus of what this really means.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
How do you believe we could use Memorial Day itself,
but the holiday overall to better educate our country, better
educate civilians about the true cost of war, you.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Know, unless it really affects them immediately. And I heard
this right at the beginning of the War on Terror,
somebody said in the Pentagon. I remember being we were
out Hawaii as where we were assigned at the time,
and the War on Terror had started, and this very
senior officer in the Pentagon says, we're at war and
(04:44):
the rest of the country is at the mall. It
doesn't affect them. Nine to eleven atrocities had taken place
that was kind of like a bump in the road,
and people got out with their lives unless they were
directly affected, like the nine to eleven survivors and people
that had been affected in Pennsylvania and DC and other places.
And I think what's really really happened is, you know,
(05:06):
we really we lost it because somebody else was doing
the work. And I remember actually going back to college
and talking to people and asking them did they know
anybody or have anybody in their family? They had put
the uniform of the country on, and I think one
out of fifty kids raised their hand. I thought that
was startling, And I think I think some of the
(05:28):
things that we have to do is kind of have,
you know, have this kind of outreach and this kind
of dissemination of what it means and why it's important,
and then also thinking back about, hey, what kind of
national service can we have? And I know that's kind
of contentious, but what kind of national service can we
have that gets people to buy into would be a
(05:49):
citizen soldier or a citizen even means these days, I
think we might have lost that as well.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Yeah, it does strike me that that enlistment in the military,
voluntary enlistment in the military, was for so long a
generational thing, right, you had your grandfather was in the military,
so your dad joined, your dad was in so you
and your brother and your sister joined, and somewhere around
somewhere along the line, we've kind of lost that.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
That's that's absolutely accurate. Or in my case, as I
brought up, you know, my uncle says, well, you know,
why do you want to ruin your life or like that,
that's a bad move r And I started laughing, going
and I just got vindication of it's a good idea.
Do you think it's a bad idea. It's a good idea, right,
you know, And and he was wrong, and I was right.
(06:34):
But you know again here we are. So but yeah,
we did generationally. And I mean even now you have
to say, would you tell your kid or your grandchild
to go into the military, and you'll get a variety
of different answers. Normally it would be you know, well
pick the right service. Yeah, I think that's a big
part of it as well.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Yeah, I remember when I was when I was younger.
I mean, I was in the Army reserves. But I
remember when I was you know, when I was in
junior and high school, the military promoted itself. I remember Army, Navy,
Air Force, Marines, what a great life. And there's so
much talk these days in our country, for example, about
(07:15):
college debt, and I don't see the military out there
promoting the fact that the GI bill is a great
way not only to get ahead in life, because I'd
rather hire a veteran than anybody else, but but you
don't have that college debt. And I'm wondering how much
that has hurt our recruiting the fact that we don't
see the military selling itself the way it once did.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
You know, that's I don't know when you were in,
but the nineteen eighties we did that. Yeah, it worked
really well and we got high quality people, and we said, hey, look,
you know, you can do this, you know, for a
couple of years and get you know, the Montgomery g
I Bill or whatever it was. I probably have that wrong,
but you know, you'll get the ability to pay for
(07:56):
college and then what we really missed. But then back
up pretty quickly as hey, you can also stay you
don't have to leave. I mean, it's not just Saint
Jude or four years and go. If something else is calling,
you answer the call, but serve first to get the
money for college and then go or you know, go
to college Green and Gold where we had kids. You know,
(08:17):
young men and women go to college for two or
three years, finish and then become second lieutenis and go
right into ROTC or right into you know, the military
after college. So you know, there were programs that worked
well when I don't know, you know, where we lost it.
And I mean I was still in during the time,
and we talk about this. We can also see that
(08:38):
the you know, the recruiting and who we got and
the economics plays you well know, the economics of the
country plays a huge part in who we get, who
we don't get, and why they stay. So that's a
that's another big, another conversation some other time.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
I'm sure a few more minutes here with Lieutenant General
David Fridovich, thirty seven year US Army veteran, A couple
more things about Memorial Day, and then I want to
get into really even more important stuff about your work
with America's Warriors. Partnership are there any specific members that
you served with comrades that you honor on Memorial Day.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
How do you commemorate it for them?
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Well, you know, one of the things that I do,
and the list gets longer every year, but I've got
dear friends that died in service to the nation or
died later on for whatever reason, probably too soon. And
I think one of the most important things that we
can do is, and you've probably have heard this before,
(09:44):
is say their name, say their name, say their name
out loud. Since they're remembered, saying their name out loud
is really this is a significant, important, minor thing that
you can do. Yeah, that makes a huge difference. They're
not forgotten.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
And that's really what this weekend and this holiday is
about honoring those, as you mentioned, that paid the ultimate
that made the ultimate sacrifice to our nation. We have
thousands of veterans coming back home from overseas, whether it
be Iraq, Afghanistan, somewhere else that just aren't able to
assimilate back into society because they're different people, right, the
(10:23):
mental health issues that have taken a toll on them.
Talk to me about that and the work you do
with America's Warrior Partnership to try and bring that race
of awareness about what we call the invisible wounds.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Of war, the invisible wounds of war also now known
as you know, moral injuries or death by despair. I
kind of, well, I don't I don't like what a
conjures up. But death by despair is a better way
of saying, you know, suicide, which normally just kind of
(10:55):
makes people cringe. But what we do in America's Warrior Partnership,
and I've been with him since about twenty fourteen, and
Jim Lorraine, who's a wonderful guy who if you haven't
talked to him, I'm sugar, either you should or you will,
but phenomenal guy. He and his wife and my wife
(11:16):
saved my life when I had a severe injury and
he got me the care I needed because that's what
he was doing at Special Operations Command at the time.
We became fast friends from there forward, and I finally
got on the board and one of the first things
that we had to do is we had to find
the veterans because the one time that they really need
a sponsors when they leave the military, and that's the
(11:37):
one time they don't have a sponsor. So finding them
in different and Jim had a method and he did
it through communities. Communities know the people in their own communities,
so he did community outreach. And he also realized that
the Veterans' Service Organization space has a lot of people
in it that are kind of there, do wells and
will take the money and run. And so he always
(12:00):
and continues to this day, tracks how we do. So
it's not just a matter of outreach. Is how many
we touched, how many people come back talk to us,
how many do we get into the program, how do
we successfully take care of them, what do they need,
how do we get them married up? But tracking how
we're doing by the veteran's output. And I think that's
(12:20):
a critical part of why I'm still on the board
with AWP, because they know what we know what we're doing,
we know where we're going, and we know how we
want to get there, and we can show you that
we're being successful. If not, we can figure out how
to fix it. And that brought about Operation Deep Dive.
Have you heard of that I've done? Operation Deep Dive
(12:43):
is americod Warrior partnership with Duke University Duke Medical studying
data from a variety of different locations, mostly state data.
I think about about seventeen state partners now that are
sharing that their veteran data, which is different than other
people better in data with Duke, and then the analysis
(13:04):
that we're working on to better understand and try to
get and say, hey, you know, we don't have to
just react to it once it's happened. We want to
get in front of it and make it preventable, make
it understandable as to why are they in such desperate
strains that we can't do something about this to reverse
the course. I know, as a guy who was in
(13:26):
severe pain for many years, that if you were to
tell me that I was going to be in pain
the rest of my life, I would look differently at
the rest of my life. If I had no hope,
if I had no hope of relieving that pain, I
would be hopeless, and that would lead me to you know,
a different outcome than you and I speaking right now.
You know you have teammates. You didn't do the military
(13:47):
by yourself. You have teammates. You didn't do law enforcement
by yourself. You have teammates. Reach out to them. They'll
help you, they'll point you in the right direction, but
seek the help that's there. It'll work.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Lieutenant General David Fret, thirty seven year US Army veteran, Sir,
I appreciate the time. I appreciate your service to our nation.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Be well, Thank you so much, appreciate this opportunity. You'll
be well, have a great weekend, and say.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Their names osteoporosis. Do you know what it is? Is
it even preventable?
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Let's discuss that and the fact that may is Osteoporosis
Awareness and Prevention Month as we bring in doctor Leila Tabatabaye.
She is a member of the board of the Bone
Health and Osteoporosis Foundation. Doctor Tabadabaie, I appreciate the time.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Thank you so much, Mannie, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
So what exactly is osteoporosis.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
Osteoporosis is a disease of bone fragility, so it's characterized
by weak and brittle bones and both bone density so
the amount of bone is low and bone quality or
the architecture of the bone is poor. So combined that
(14:56):
leads to an increased risk of broken bone, which we
call fractures.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Is this natural in aging or is it something that's acquired.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
That's an excellent question. It's we don't consider it natural
in the sense that it is a disease process. It
is something that confers an increased risk for broken bones
and even increased mortality. So it's very very important to
diagnose and treat it and also to try to prevent it.
(15:30):
With that said, many older individuals will be diagnosed with
osteoporosis in their lifetime, and as a matter of fact,
over ten million people aged fifty and older in the
United States have osteoporosis, and the prevalence is extremely high
in adults age sixty five and older. It's close to
(15:51):
twenty percent.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
More women or men that get osteoporosis.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Great question. Absolutely more women than men. So about one
in two women over the age of fifty will have
a broken bone related to osteoporosis in her lifetime, but
that statistics drops to one in four men, so you know,
men are much less likely to have it. The key
difference there is that women lose their estrogen at the
(16:22):
time of menopause, so that is a key factor in
their declining bone density. Men by and large maintain a
level of testosterone throughout their life. Of course, it does
naturally go down at certain points and with aging, but
testosterone protects their bone throughout their lifetime.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
So menopause and menopause do have an effect on right.
Are there ways to prevent getting osteoporosis?
Speaker 4 (16:51):
That's an excellent question. So I do believe there are
many ways that we can protect our bones, and it
starts out with early recognition of healthy dietary behaviors and exercise,
so making sure you have enough calcium in your diet.
A lot of young children and young people don't drink
(17:13):
milk anymore. They're avoiding dairy. So it is important that
each individual person gets enough calcium in their diet, and
there's a lot of plant based ways to do so
as well. But milk, cheese, yogurt, any dairy food, almond milk,
oat milk, soy milk are some plant based alternatives. But
(17:34):
the goal is about one thousand milligram of calcium per
day and that is ideally obtained through food. Now, of course,
there are many many supplements on the market, you know,
many fancy expensive ones and expensive ones. We try to
avoid those because there may be a risk of calcification
of other organs like the blood vessels or kidneys with
(17:58):
high dose calcium supple elements. So for now, if we
can get that from our food, we are much much
better off. Vitamin D is also very important, so patients
who are at risk for ostroporosis should have vitamin D
levels measured and their doctor can guide them on how
to supplement with vitamin D three to have an optimal level.
(18:21):
So calcium and vitamin D are two very important building blocks.
And then exercise, manny, So we all know that exercise
is critical for so many things, are part for cancer reduction,
et cetera. For ostroporosis, it's actually critical. So there was
a large research trial called the Liftmore Trial, so it's
(18:43):
really kind of a great name for it, LA F
T m R. And this was an clinical trial conducted
that examined exercise in women and the effects that it
had on their bone density, and really the findings suggested
that a high intensity resistance training program, so essentially a
(19:06):
weightlifting program is better for preserving bone density and preventing
loss of bone density than a low intensity workout, so
something like walking. Now, we of course still encourage everything, right,
we just want everyone to be active, whatever that looks like.
But weightlifting three times a week for women is something
(19:28):
that I recommend routinely, and it's going to look different
for an eighty five year old patient versus a forty
five year old tation sure, So we just want people
to get out there and work with a trainer to
get an idea of what's safe for Them's.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Got a few more minutes here with doctor Layla Tabata Bye.
She is a member of the board of the Bone
Health and Osteoporosis Foundation.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Are there are there tests.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
That could tell a doctor if somebody is developing osteoporosis?
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Absolutely? Absolutely. The bone density Test or DEXA as it's called,
and that's abbreviated DXA. That is a routinely available medical
test that can be done at any radiology facility. And
I highly recommend that patients who are concerned about this,
(20:19):
and that's really every woman who's approaching menopause, I believe,
should be screened with a DEXA scan, particularly higher risk
groups such as white and Asian women. Also those who
are thin, have a low body weight, or have a
family history of ostroporosis. So the guidelines currently from the USPSTF,
(20:45):
which is the United States Prevention Task Force suggests that
patients shouldn't get screened until they're sixty five, but that
is concerning to a lot of US experts because many
of our patients we have osteopenia or osteoporosis have already
broken a bone by the time they're sixty five, or
(21:05):
they're at high risk to do so. So if we
can screen them earlier, early prevention is always key, right
with all of our chronic conditions. So I highly recommend
that patients advocate for themselves. And the DEXA uses X
ray technology, so it's very, very low risk, low radiation.
It's a test that can be done right at their
(21:28):
local radiology facility and very important for assessing their risk.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
I'm surprised that it's not recommended until the age of
sixty five or older. If it's associated with menopause, you
would think, you know, definitely by the mid or late forties,
it would be a required test.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
Absolutely manny. And you know, honestly, a lot of our
guidelines in the United States and around the world are
made based on cost, and you know what's most efficient,
and you know, it may be appropriate for certain individuals
to wait till that age. But I certainly think that
(22:08):
you know, many women should be screened at that earlier
age of the perimenopause time as we like to call it,
which is the mid to late forties. And then even
men who have risk factors such as a history of
smoking or heavier alcohol intake, or if they have a
family history of ostroporosis. Certainly men should not feel that
(22:30):
they're immune from osteoporosis, and we encourage them to get
screened if appropriate.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
As well, you mentioned a term a couple of minutes ago, osteopenia.
What is the difference between osteoporosis and osteopenia.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
That's a great question. So osteopenia is really the precursor
to osteoporosis. So, as I mentioned, about ten million adults
in the US have osteoporosis, but close to forty five
million people in the US have osteopenia. So this is
a term for a low bone mass or low bone density.
And to be honest, a lot of US experts don't
(23:06):
really like this term because it implies that the risk
of breaking a bone is much lower than it is
for osteoporosis. But to be honest with you, a lot
of patients with quote unquote osteopenia still end up breaking
a bone, and that's something that we certainly want to prevent.
But the key is, if a patient's diagnosed with osteopenia
(23:30):
at any point in their life, they do need to
have monitoring bone density tests. So the DEXA test should
be done every two years for a patient with osteopenia
and every one year for a patient with osteoporosis, And
of course that will depend on the patient's individual case,
but these categories are important really just for us to
(23:51):
understand the patient's risk and how to best help them
manage their bone density.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Yeah, you mentioned early detection.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Obviously there's a reason it's called preventative meta and sadly
not how people practice it. So somebody is diagnosed, let's say,
with osteopenia, is there a way to fend off increased
deterioration or at least slow the deterioration down.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Absolutely. So I am a huge advocate, as I said,
of a healthy diet, so making sure the calcium envitamin
d intake, which we already discussed or optimized. A protein
rich diet. So that doesn't mean high protein, that doesn't
mean keto, but having good quality protein is very important
because the bones and muscles are comprised of high protein intakes,
(24:39):
so we need to make sure that as we age,
we maintain an appropriate intake of that vital macronutrient. And
then furthermore, weight training. I'm a huge proponent of so.
As I said, every patient, even those who've suffered broken
bones before, can adopt a safe exercise program. And that
(25:00):
they said might mean meeting with a professional or a
physical therapist as a medical referral to make sure that
they're doing a safe program, but that's a huge part
of prevention. I also want to make a plug many
for the appropriateness of hormone therapy, so menopause, perimenopause, you know,
(25:20):
it's a big buzzword these days. We have a lot
of high profile women fortunately shedding a light on this
very important transition in a woman's life, and I just
want to say that the research on hormone replacement therapy
in the perimenopausal period has come a long way. So
I do encourage every woman to speak to her physician
(25:43):
about whether hormone replacement therapy is appropriate for her, especially
if she's in the perimenopause period and has osteopenia or osteoporosis.
So there's a key window the first three to five
years after menopause that hormone own therapy can be safely started,
So that conversation needs to happen earlier. And if their
(26:06):
physician is not able or not willing to talk about
hormone replacement therapy, then really a referral should be made
to an expert who can help in that.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
It does seem like for a long time there was
maybe it was taboo to even talk about menopause.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
And I don't want to call it, I don't want
to call it.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
A movement, but it does seem like the stigma surrounding
discussing it publicly is has deteriorated, does it not?
Speaker 4 (26:33):
Absolutely? And I think that's a wonderful thing. There's a
lot of high profile, as I mentioned, wonderful women and
also everyday wonderful women right in my own practice, who
are asking me questions about menopause, asking how they can
best handle all of the changes that their body is
going through. And I do think that the taboo or
(26:56):
stigma of it, as as you referred to, that is
slipping away, and for good reason, you know, we should
be able to talk about these changes. And I heard
a speaker the other day talk about how menopause and
pregnancy and all of the health challenges and transitions that
(27:17):
are specific to women, those are being brought up. They're
being brought up in the workplace, at home, in the boardroom, everywhere.
And that's an excellent thing because we shouldn't ever feel
that any of these topics are off limits or anything
to be ashamed of it all. I think that, you know,
just arming ourselves with good evidence based information so that
(27:41):
we can make these decisions. And our health is so critical,
and that's where your doctor can come in to help
guide you and give you some really good information.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Yeah, fantastic, Absolutely right. Last thing for you, if I
spoke to you again, doctor Tabatambaye, in five years, in
ten years, how would the discussion about prevention or diagnosis
or even treatment of osteoporosis be different.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
That's such a wonderful question, Manny. First of all, I
hope that I will still be around in this wonderful
hospital that I work in with my patients whom I
really love to see and to help. And as an endochronologist,
what I hope to see in five or ten years
is that we're looking at osteoporosis as a treatable condition
(28:31):
and even a preventable condition for many many women and
men in this country. We do have excellent medications now
on the market which are safe and FDA approved that
can actually build bone and help to reverse osteoporosis. And again,
these medications may not be appropriate for every patient, but
(28:53):
in patients that can take them and benefit from them,
this is actually changing the face of the disease. So
that's a really exciting forefront that we've come up to,
and it's a really exciting time, you know, in the
osteoporosis space. So my hope is that more patients have
excellent information that they can rely on and also access
(29:17):
to these wonderful medications and specialists who can help them.
So that's really our goal for the future of ostroporosis.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
It all starts with having that conversation with your doctor.
Doctor Leila Tabata bay a Board certified endricnologist, board member
of the Bone and Health, Bone Health and Osteoporosis Foundation.
Wonderful conversation. Thanks so much for the time and for
the information.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
Thank you, manny, Take care.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
And that'll do it for another edition. Of iheartradios communities.
I'm Manny Muno's until next time.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
This
Host
Manny Munoz
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!