Founder of social travel site traveldudes.com, Melvin Böcher, shares how he prepares for a trip to maximize health, safety, and fun.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 3
- Audio File sharecare/1608sc2c.mp3
- Featured Speaker Melvin Böcher, Founder of Travel Dudes
- Guest Website Travel Dudes
- Guest Twitter Account @traveldudes
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Guest Bio
Melvin Böcher is the founder and CEO of Traveldudes.org, the first social travel website. Travel Dudes creates a community of travel experts, travel newbies, and everything in between to connect travelers with the resources and advice they need and make everyone’s travel experience a great one.
- Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Darria Long Gillespie, MD, MBA
Dr. Mark Hyman says that fat in your diet doesn’t necessarily translate to fat on your body... find out why.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 3
- Audio File sharecare/1608sc2b.mp3
- Featured Speaker Mark Hyman, MD
- Book Title Eat Fat, Get Thin
- Guest Website Dr. Mark Hyman
- Guest Facebook Account https://www.facebook.com/drmarkhyman
- Guest Twitter Account @markhymanmd
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Guest Bio
Dr. Mark Hyman is a practicing family physician, nine-time #1 New York Times bestselling author, the Director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine and founder and medical director of The UltraWellness Center. He is chairman of the board of the Institute for Functional Medicine, a medical editor of the Huffington Post, and has been a regular medical contributor on many television shows including CBS This Morning, Today Show, CNN, The View, the Katie Couric Show and The Dr. Oz Show.
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Transcription
Sharecare is the leading online health and wellness engagement platform providing millions of consumers with a personal, results oriented experience by connecting them to the most qualified health resources and programs they need to improve their health. It’s time now for Sharecare Radio on RadioMD.com. Here’s your host, Dr. Darria.
DR. DARRIA: Hi and welcome back to Sharecare Radio. This is Dr. Darria and I want to know: are you always hungry? It’s common for many of us, especially anyone on a diet. I recently talked about the importance of healthy fats to keep that feeling at bay. My next expert has a lot more to say on that topic and what you can do. He’s a nine time, number one New York Times best-selling author. He’s director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine and founder of the UltraWellness Center. You’ve also probably seen him on the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, The View, The Dr. Oz Show and he’s also medical editor of The Huffington Post. He’s Dr. Mark Hyman and he’s here to explain the principles behind the brand new book out this month, Eat Fat, Get Thin. Mark, thank you so much for joining us.
DR. HYMAN: Thanks for having me.
DR. DARRIA: I want to just dive in. In the 90’s, we had this low-fat, no fat diet craze. How do you think that contributed to our obesity epidemic because it didn’t get any better with that craze either?
DR. HYMAN: No. This was actually in the 70’s that Congress was concerned that America was getting sicker and more heart disease and we needed to do something about it. So, they put together a dietary assessment panel, the McGovern Panel and the committee, and they came up with this report that made recommendations to America. In fact, it was based on really shaky kind of evidence but they felt that they had to act because America was getting fatter and sicker. What they did was actually accelerate the whole problem because they came up with this concept that fat was bad and we should be eating low-fat and we should be eating more carbohydrates and it got turned, ultimately, into the 1992 food pyramid which said to eat 6-11 servings of bread, rice, cereal and pasta a day and eat fats and oils only sparingly at the tippy, tippy top of the pyramid.
DR. DARRIA: I remember that.
DR. HYMAN: That is exactly upside down from what we should be doing.
DR. DARRIA: Okay.
DR. HYMAN: When that happened in 1980 with that first set of guidelines, you look at it as hockey stick. We’ve seen a seven-fold increase in diabetes. We’ve seen dramatic increases in weight gain. I remember in 1980, I went to medical school in the early 80’s, there was not a single state in the United States that had an obesity rate over 20%. Today there’s not a single state with an obesity rate under 20% and there’s many with 30 and 35%. In fact, most of the country, now, is getting to that danger zone.
DR. DARRIA: Both you and I see it as physicians. It’s such a growing problem. I see it in the ER all the time, too.
DR. HYMAN: It’s true. Everything that we are seeing is really a consequence of this extremely high carbohydrate, low-fat diet and that’s what’s driven so much this problem. Fat is, actually, despite what we think, not something that makes us fat. Even though the word is the same, the fat that you eat, the fat on your body--it looks the same.
DR. DARRIA: It’s not the enemy?
DR. HYMAN: It’s not the enemy and we had this whole theory that it’s all about energy balance. Right? Eat less, exercise more, calories in, calories out--it’s all about the calories. So, fat has 9 calories per gram and carbs and protein have 4, then if you eat less fat, then you’re going to cut out more calories and you lose weight. That’s the opposite of what happens because the body is not this closed system and it’s not all about energy. It’s about information.
DR. DARRIA: Okay.
DR. HYMAN: This is a big discovery in the last 20 or 30 years--that food is not just calories. It’s actually instructions, information that literally every bite tells your body what to do: to gain or lose weight; to turn on or off different hormones, like insulin which can make huge differences in the way it affects your neurotransmitters, your brain chemistry, your genes, even. Even your gut flora are all affected by what you eat.
DR. DARRIA: So, we are sending our body messages, literally, with what we’re eating. It’s sending our body a message.
DR. HYMAN: Exactly. It’s like instructions.
DR. DARRIA: How do we give our bodies the good instructions, then?
DR. HYMAN: The bad instructions are actually driven by our processed food, high sugar, refined carb diet. We eat about 152 pounds of sugar and 146 pounds of flour, which actually is worse than sugar in your body. It actually has a higher glycemic index, meaning it raises your blood sugar more. So, the key here is to cut out all those refined sugars and carbs, like bread, pasta, rice, cereal. Cereal is not a health food. It’s just not. Despite what all the propaganda is on front of the cereal boxes saying it’s whole grain, healthy and American Heart Association endorsed, it’s actually the worst thing you can have for breakfast. So, we need to, then, eat more good quality foods which are nutrient dense, like lots of plant foods but you also need a lot of fat. Sort of surprisingly.
DR. DARRIA: I want to take a moment on that and talk about the different kinds of fat. Tell all of our listeners because there’s good fat and there’s bad fat.
DR. HYMAN: That’s right.
DR. DARRIA: So, tell them the good fat that you want them to be eating.
DR. HYMAN: Before I jump into that, I just want to make this clear about what fat does. When you eat sugar or carbs, it actually turns on your fat storage system. It makes you store fat in your belly. It makes you hungry and it makes you slow your metabolism and prevent the fat from being burned or liberated from the fat cells. When you eat fat, the opposite happens because you don’t simulate insulin, which is the fat storage hormone that gets triggered by sugar and carbs. When you eat fat without the carbs--the fat with carbs is what I call “sweet fat”. That’s not good. If you eat fat without all the refined sugars and carbs, it actually makes you less hungry, speeds up your metabolism and triggers fat being burned more so you liberate more fat and lose weight without being hungry, feeling good eating delicious foods that are creamy, luscious and savory as opposed to starving with low-fat, cardboard. That’s the big difference.
DR. DARRIA: That isn’t very satisfactory anyway. You don’t feel any better after you eat all those low-fat cookies.
DR. HYMAN: No. The key insight here is that it’s not about how much you eat, because you can’t control that. It’s impossible because it’s like saying, “I only want you to breathe ever six minutes”. You just can’t. Your brain is wired to consume food when you trigger certain hormones that are very hard to control with willpower. So, if you actually focus on what you eat, you don’t have to worry about what you eat because your body will naturally reset that. If you do that, you have to eat the right fats. Like you said, “What are the right fats?” Well, most of us are eating bad fats. Most of American calories from fat come from refined vegetable oils, like soy bean oil which is about oil and that’s produced in huge quantities. It’s in everything. It’s often turned into trans fats, although less so now but it’s still in foods like salad dressings and any kind of baked and prepared foods. It’s in everything. It’s very inflammatory when you eat in those quantities. Second is trans fat, which are also known as shortening or hydrogenated fats. Again, they were in everything and now the FDA ruled them as not safe to eat or a non-grass substance. So, no longer are they going to be in foods but it’s going to take a while for them to get phased out.
DR. DARRIA: Yes.
DR. HYMAN: So, those are not great. Then, the good ones are easy and there are the questionable ones. So, the bad ones, clearly, are the refined oils and the trans fats.
DR. DARRIA: Yes. So, what are the good fats that we should be having?
DR. HYMAN: The good fats are things most of us really would like: extra virgin olive oil, which has been shown to reduce heart attacks, reduce diabetes, help with weight loss; and then, there are other good fats like mono unsaturated fats that comes from avocados; also nuts and seeds, like almonds, walnuts, pecans--not peanuts--macadamia nuts and many seeds – pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, chia seeds, hemp seed. These are all full of great fats that should be a regular part of your diet. In fact, you should probably have five or six servings of these good fats every day. There are other fats that are also possibly good fats, which there’s a lot of controversy about but I believe are, actually, a great part of a healthy diet. Those are saturated fats and they sound kind of crazy because that’s what we’ve been taught is bad.
DR. DARRIA: Right.
DR. HYMAN: Right?
DR. DARRIA: Exactly.
DR. HYMAN: It’s what the American Heart Association and, even our government, tells us this is bad. It often takes 20 years for the research to become policy or the research to become practice. Now, the dietary guidelines, for the first time, eliminated any restriction of dietary fat after 35 years and they’ve eliminated any restriction on cholesterol because they said, “Oh, we said cholesterol was the enemy and we should all be suffering through egg white omelets but now everybody is saying, ‘No. No. That was wrong. We got it wrong.’” Well, the same thing, I think, is going to be shown for saturated fat because the research is showing us over and over again that in the absence of refined carbs, in the absence of sugar and processed food and in the presence of Omega-3 fats, saturated fats are either neutral or beneficial. Things like coconut oil.
DR. DARRIA: Really?
DR. HYMAN: Yes. Even animal fat.
DR. DARRIA: That’s really confusing to the consumers because the consumer is thinking, “Every five years what they tell me is really bad and what I should have totally changes.” How should somebody eat that so they can have saturated fat in the way that it’s healthy without combining it with the unhealthy foods? What’s an example of a meal that includes that?
DR. HYMAN: For example, you could take your vegetables and cook them in coconut oil. You could have a piece of grass-fed steak which has the saturated fat in it. Those are fine as long as you’re eating clean, healthy food. If you’re eating a lot of sugar and carbs with the fat, then it’s dangerous. So, if you’re having, for example, a donut--that’s bad because it’s sugar and fat. But, if you have just the fat without the refined carbs, it actually is really great. I, for example, like to get a tablespoon of peanut butter and I put it in my morning shake and I have what I call a “fat shake” in the morning. I have nuts and seeds. I put in almond butter, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds. I put in coconut butter. I even put in coconut milk, which is creamy and delicious and without sugar in it or processed ingredients, and I blend it all up with some berries and I have an amazing fat, protein shake with lots of anti-oxidants and fiber and minerals and it keeps me going all day long. So, I don’t have any problems.
DR. DARRIA: That sounds pretty delicious.
DR. HYMAN: It’s very good.
DR. DARRIA: Can we find that recipe? Just for our audience--can we get that recipe in the Eat Fat, Get Thin book? Or, where can we get that recipe?
DR. HYMAN: Absolutely. The Eat Fat, Get Thin book has tons of recipes and I really explain these two big myths, Darria. One, that fat makes you fat, because it doesn’t. It actually makes you thin. Two, that fat causes heart disease, even saturated fat. In fact, I met with the head of cardiology from the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Steve Mission, who just wrote an article in The Wall Street Journal really complaining about the dietary guidelines that just came out and suggesting that we’ve got the whole story wrong on fat and that even saturated fat may not be the enemy. This is from the number one heart hospital in the world. I met with him at the Cleveland Clinic because I was shocked to hear him say that because it really contradicts every bit of practice and every bit of learning that most physicians and, actually, clearly most consumers have been brainwashed to think which is fat is bad and saturated fat is worse.
DR. DARRIA: Yes. It’s so true but I think it’s important that even our listeners get the nuance. You’re not saying, like you mentioned, go out and eat all the saturated fat you want. You’re saying you can have it but in certain ways.
DR. HYMAN: Exactly. If I have to choose between the bagel and the butter, I’m always going to choose the butter. That’s 100%. I even asked that doctor, the head of Tufts College of Nutrition. He’s Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian and he’s published most of the research on fat and saturated fat. I asked him that question. I said, “If you had to choose between a bagel and butter, what would you choose?” He said, “I would choose the butter.” This is coming from one of the top leading researchers on fat and nutrition in the world. I think the concepts and the thinking is really changing. Dr. Ronald Krause is from Oakland, who is a professor out there who’s done some of the pioneering work on cholesterol. He’s done so much research showing that saturated fats are not the enemy and that we should really be worrying more about refined carbs and starches.
DR. DARRIA: So, if somebody wants to have their butter, obviously, you probably don’t want to put it on that bagel because that’s going to be a lot of refined carbs. What can you put it on?
DR. HYMAN: Put it on your vegetables. Some people are making coffee with it and it sounds crazy but you can use….
DR. DARRIA: I know! I’ve heard of that. Yes.
DR. HYMAN: Bulletproof coffee and it’s powerful. I even have a recipe for it in my book because I think people need to realize when you eat these fats, it literally turns on your metabolism. It sounds totally contradictory. People are going, “What is going on here? This is a total about-face.”
DR. DARRIA: It makes sense with what we learned with biochemistry in medical school and what turns on insulin and what suppresses insulin, which affects how you store fats and lose fats. You mentioned bulletproof coffee and you have a recipe for that. It’s so interesting. A lot of people are thinking of weight loss, but also brain performance and being at the top of our game. How does your diet affect that as well?
DR. HYMAN: Oh, my God. It is so powerful. I think that besides getting your metabolism straight, it really gets your brain straight. Most people walk around feeling sluggish, having brain fogs, trouble focusing and concentrating. When you, for example, add fats to your diet, your brain wakes up because your brain is made up of 60% fat. In fact, much of it is Omega 3 fats. When you start to increase fat, your brain loves it. In fact, it runs better, in some ways, on ketones. We know that in certain brain diseases, like epilepsy, we use 70% fat diets or ketogenic diets to help control seizures when nothing else works. We’re using it even in things like brain cancer to help the brain work better or even in Alzheimer’s. This research is going on, even with schizophrenia, to see if it can help reset the brain. It’s fascinating research.
DR. DARRIA: Wow.
DR. HYMAN: I think we are going to learn more and more about how this is all connected but fat is great for your brain.
DR. DARRIA: I imagine all those refined carbs and all don’t help our brains function either.
DR. HYMAN: No. In fact, we’re calling now Alzheimer’s “Type 3 Diabetes” because of the role of insulin and insulin resistance in sugar in aging the brain. It’s powerful when you start to use the science and apply it to your daily life. You’ll see your hunger cuts down, your brain wakes up, your metabolism kicks into gear. You have more energy, you feel better. I mean, I wrote most of my book eating tons of fat. Every morning, I’d wake up and have butter and MCT oil, which is derivative of coconut oil, and a cup of coffee and that would be it all morning and I would just crank out the book.
DR. DARRIA: You’d be wired. Okay. You led to my next question.
DR. HYMAN: You’re not actually wired. You’re not actually wired. You’re clear.
DR. DARRIA: You’re clear.
DR. HYMAN: It’s not anxious energy. It’s actually calm, clear energy because you’re brain actually runs better.
DR. DARRIA: Oh, that’s great. I love that. Who doesn’t want to be clear? So, tell us, what, on this diet, what is your daily breakfast, lunch and dinner? What are your meals looking like? What are you eating?
DR. HYMAN: Well, it’s actually pretty simple. It’s delicious and it’s not deprivation because I love to eat. I don’t want to restrict my food intake. If I focus on what to eat.
DR. DARRIA: Me, too.
DR. HYMAN: I call it the “Pegan Diet” which is kind of a joke between Paleo and Vegan but it’s mostly plants, right? So, it’s mostly plants with lots of vegetables, non-starchy veggies. Not potatoes but things like greens and asparagus, broccoli, tons of salad greens--any kind of green vegetable like brocollini, asparagus and garlic, for example, as a side dish; and lots of nuts and seeds, which are full of good fat and protein and other oils; and lots of good oils like, avocado oil, olive oil, coconut oil; and then, good clean animal food. Ideally, it’s more expensive, but I recommend eating less, like grass-fed animal food, organic, sustainably-raised because there are environmental issues as well as health issues. In fact, grass-fed beef has seven times as much Omega 3 fats as feed-lot beef, which have more Omega 6 which are inflammatory fats. You really can choose the quality of the animal food you eat. And then, lots of good quality antioxidants and berries and some fruits. It’s basically good quality protein. You can have a vegetable protein like tofu or tempeh, nuts and seeds, lots and lots of vegetables, lots of good fats and that’s what you eat. So, for breakfast I either have, for example, poached eggs with some stir fried greens with an avocado with olive oil poured on top which gives me a fat breakfast; or, I take a fat shake like I said. For lunch, I might take a bunch of greens like arugula or baby kale and I put that in a bowl. I’ll throw in pumpkin seeds for fat. I’ll throw on avocados and I’ll throw on a can of wild salmon so that I have three different kinds of fat, or four different kinds of fat. Pumpkin seeds, wild salmon with fatty Omega 3’s, olive oil and avocados, which are monounsaturated fats and it’s a great source or protein and vegetables. Dinner will be, typically, like a sweet potato--not a big one, a small one or half of one and a winter squash, plus a piece of protein. It could be a piece of fish. It could be a small grass-fed steak or lamb and then chicken and then, I would have a huge plate of vegetables. So, I would have three or four sides of vegetables.
DR. DARRIA: I love it.
DR. HYMAN: I might have a salad. I might have mushrooms. I might have eggplant. I might have stir-fried greens. I always think you should think of your animal food as a condiment. I call it “condimeat.” You know, it’s not a main dish, it’s a side dish.
DR. DARRIA: As a side dish and that way, with all the additions of these delicious kinds of fats and extra virgin olive oil, you can make really delicious vegetable sides.
DR. HYMAN: Absolutely. So, Mark, thank you so much. I appreciate your time today. All of our listeners--I think everybody is probably going to be running out and buying your book now, Eat Fat, Get Thin. Remember that. You can pre-order on Amazon or at his website DrHyman.com. Or Tweet him @markhymanmd. Remember you can always Tweet me @drdarria or all of us @sharecareinc. This is Dr. Darria. You’re listening to Sharecare Radio on Radio MD. Thanks for listening and stay well.
[END OF RECORDING] - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Darria Long Gillespie, MD, MBA
In honor of National Children’s Dental Health Month, Dr. Darria and guest Dr. Praneetha Kumar discuss children’s dental health.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 1
- Audio File sharecare/1608sc2a.mp3
- Featured Speaker Praneetha Kumar, DDS
- Guest Website Power of Dentistry
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Guest Bio
Dr. Praneetha Kumar is trained in dental implants, cosmetic and complex full-arch restorations, surgical procedures, endodontics and management of medically compromised patients. She serves as an Adjunct Faculty Member at UAB School of Dentistry. She obtained her Doctor of Dental Medicine from the Georgia Regents University and completed residency in the Advanced General Dentistry program at the Veterans Hospital in Birmingham, AL.
- Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Darria Long Gillespie, MD, MBA
Dr. Darria and CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta cover the top health news of the month.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 3
- Audio File sharecare/1607sc2c.mp3
- Featured Speaker Sanjay Gupta, MD
- Guest Website CNN Profiles: Dr. Sanjay Gupta
- Guest Twitter Account @drsanjaygupta
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Guest Bio
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is the multiple Emmy® award winning chief medical correspondent for CNN. Gupta, a practicing neurosurgeon, plays an integral role in CNN's reporting on health and medical news for all of CNN's shows domestically and internationally, and contributes to CNN.com. His medical training and public health policy experience distinguishes his reporting from war zones and natural disasters, as well as on a range of medical and scientific topics, including the recent Ebola outbreak, brain injury, disaster recovery, health care reform, fitness, military medicine, and HIV/AIDS. Additionally, Dr. Gupta is the host of Vital Signs for CNN International and Accent Health for Turner Private Networks.
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Transcription
Sharecare. Helping you find experts. The top minds in healthy medicine. It’s Sharecare Radio with Dr. Darria Long Gillespie on RadioMD.com.
DR. DARRIA: Welcome back. It’s Dr. Darria. We hear a lot of health news every month. Sometimes it can seem confusing and overwhelming. So, we have our monthly segment today called our Second Opinion in which I talk with Dr. Sanjay Gupta and we’ll cut through the confusion of that information to share what you really need to know. He really needs no introduction. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is author of New York Times best-selling books Chasing Life and Cheating Death and, of course, he’s CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent. He is a practicing neurosurgeon and, in his free time, he is a wonderful dad to three daughters. Sanjay, thank you so much for joining us.
DR. GUPTA: Thank you, Darria. Thanks for having me.
DR. DARRIA: I am so glad you are here because I know our very first topic is something that I want to dive into. It’s something that is really concerning to me – it’s the Zika virus. It’s been all over the news but there are still some things I want to know and I know our listeners want to know. Number one, it’s not a new virus but what is going on? Why is it suddenly so prevalent?
DR. GUPTA: It’s kind of a really fascinating story. You’re right. It’s not a new virus. It’s been around, really, since the late 40’s. It was identified in the primates in the Zika Forrest of Uganda. That’s where it got its name. Then, it was, I think, in the 50’s before they found that it was actually in human beings. So, it’s been around for some time. It started to spread, I think, in part because of the globalized world in which we live. Most likely, what happened is somebody who had the Zika virus in their system, but probably wasn’t sick, got on a plane, traveled to a place where the type of mosquitos that can spread Zika virus lived and were spreading and that person got bit by a mosquito. That same mosquito subsequently bit somebody else and that started the transmission. We know the little island of Yap, probably an island most people have never heard of. You can find it on a map.
DR. DARRIA: Did you make that up?
DR. GUPTA: No, it’s a real island in Micronesia. But that little island had 73% of the population infected. I guess that’s what it means to go viral. Right?
DR. DARRIA: Yes.
DR. GUPTA: That’s what happened. Then, from there, it just sort of started hopscotching and zigzagging around the world. But, there is another reason, Dr. Darria, which you will appreciate and your listeners may already know. When we’ve never seen a virus before – when our population of people has never been exposed to a virus before--we don’t have any natural immunity to it. Our body doesn’t try and fight it. When a virus shows up all the sudden that we’ve never seen before, it can spread much more quickly because it gets into our bodies and replicates itself. That makes it easier for mosquitos to bite us, take some of that virus into their body and then subsequently give it to somebody else.
DR. DARRIA: I was going to ask, on that island of Yap, do they have this issue of microcephaly or is it that they have this immunity before they ever become pregnant?
DR. GUPTA: It’s a great question. With microcephaly--we tried to look into this, but you’re looking into a very small population of people. Yes, they have had cases of microcephaly but they had cases of microcephaly even before Zika virus was known to be there. If the cases went up from, let’s say 12 cases in a given year, to 20 cases in a given year, is that enough to say, “Well, this is definitely due to Zika?” When you deal with small numbers like on some of these very small islands, it’s hard to really draw a cause and effect. As you know, no scientist that is looking into this can say for certain that Zika virus causes microcephaly. There are strong, strong suspicions and strong suggestions but it takes a lot of time and a lot of numbers and a lot of people to really make that connection clear.
DR. DARRIA: Exactly. You’re right. I want to take a moment because I don’t think a lot of people understand microcephaly exactly. It is a term that we are hearing in the news. Talk about what it means and what are the consequences of it.
DR. GUPTA: First of all, “micro”, as people know, just means small and “cephaly” – cephalic is the head. Strictly defined, it means “small head”. But, what we’re talking about here is babies’ heads and their brains not developing properly during the time that they are developing. As a result, when we say that the brain has not developed properly, it means that certain cells in the brain didn’t move to areas where they should have and, as a result, the brain didn’t grow to its normal size. The skull didn’t grow to its normal size. So, what you see is a baby with a very small head but what you know is that it is not just a small head, it’s a small brain and a brain that is not developed properly.
DR. DARRIA: Right. We’re not just talking little, cute heads. It’s really a devastating, incomplete development.
DR. GUPTA: You’re absolutely right. People who read about this will say, “Well, there’s a whole wide range of microcephaly.” It can be, in certain people, more of a cosmetic sort of thing but it really depends on why microcephaly developed. In this case, if it’s the virus that is causing the problem in the brain and the central nervous system such that the brain and head are small, they haven’t developed properly. That can potentially even be a lethal problem. We know over 50 babies have died because of this.
DR. DARRIA: That’s so terrifying. The question that everybody wants to know: if a woman is considering getting pregnant or is pregnant, where does she need to stay away from right now and for the next three of four months?
DR. GUPTA: These are two different groups of people – women who are currently pregnant and women who are thinking about getting pregnant. Here’s what I would say and, you know what? I get this question all the time. My friends have been emailing me. I have lots of friends who live in South America. If you are pregnant – and for this conversation I’ll say at any stage in your pregnancy, although earlier stages of pregnancy seem to be a little bit more at risk – but any stage of your pregnancy, if you don’t need to be in an area where Zika virus is spreading, don’t be in that area. All those countries have been listed and identified. I think there are 24 or 25 countries now that are on that list. For women who think, “Well look, I’m not pregnant and, by the way, I’m sure that I’m not pregnant” – a lot of people say, “I’m not pregnant.” You need to be sure.
DR. DARRIA: Yes.
DR. GUPTA: You’ve got a trip coming up and you think, “Oh, I’m not pregnant.” Be sure.
DR. DARRIA: Yes.
DR. GUPTA: Take a pregnancy test.
DR. DARRIA: I see this in the E.R. all the time. I have told many a surprised female that she is pregnant who did not know. So, yes.
DR. GUPTA: “Who me? How did that happen?” Anyway, be sure you’re not pregnant and if you are not pregnant and, let’s say you get a Zika infection and then a month later from now, you’re thinking about having a baby--or two months or three months, whatever it may be--you should be fine. The Zika virus appears to clear the system, clear the blood, within about seven days, on average. It could be a little longer or a little shorter in some people. But, after that, your future pregnancies should not be at risk.
DR. DARRIA: Okay. So, potentially, if you do go to one of those places and you’re not pregnant, even if you say I’m going to wait a couple of weeks or a month or so, then you should be fine because with Zika, you don’t always know that you’ve caught it either, right? Because in some people it can be a really mild symptom.
DR. GUPTA: In most people, Dr. Daria, it will be either mild or no symptoms which is something that I want to make sure doesn’t get lost in all of this because I think people are frightened about this and we want to make sure that we’re not trying to inspire fear at all. Eighty percent of people, roughly, who get this will have mild or no symptoms. You wouldn’t even know to get checked. You wouldn’t even know. The better sense of valor and caution here is that if you’re thinking about getting pregnant, just wait. “Maybe I could have the infection. I don’t know. But, I do know that if I did have the infection, I got back from this are on such and such date. By 7 days after that, by 14 days after that for sure, the virus should be clear. I am no longer at risk when it comes to pregnancy.”
DR. DARRIA: Okay. That’s great to know. Now, you mentioned earlier when you first started talking, you said the earlier stages are at higher risk. That was one thing I was going to ask you. Is one trimester more at risk than the others?
DR. GUPTA: The absolute right answer, I think, is that we don’t know for sure. I think what you’re hearing from some of the scientists who are looking at the children who have microcephaly that earlier stages of pregnancy--earlier trimester--are probably riskier than later trimesters. Again, until you have enough data to really say for sure, you can’t say for sure.
DR. DARRIA: Yes.
DR. GUPTA: What I will tell you is that the guidance from the CDC is…Let’s say me, for example. I’m probably going to go to South America to do some reporting on this. If I came back from there, even if I wasn’t sick, and my wife was currently pregnant--she’s not, but if she was currently pregnant – the advice is that I either abstain or practice absolutely safe sex for the duration of the pregnancy, for the entire pregnancy because we simply don’t know for sure still what is the riskiest stage. But, again, earlier stages are probably slightly riskier than later stages.
DR. DARRIA: You’re getting to the fact that we have seen people with transmission through intercourse as well not just through the mosquitos.
DR. GUPTA: That’s right. I should have mentioned that because that is a little bit of an unusual characteristic of this virus. You and I have both studied malaria. Malaria is something that can be transmitted by mosquitos but not by sex. It’s not a virus, but it’s a type of pathogen. HIV can be transmitted by sex, but not by mosquitos. This particular virus – Zika virus--appears to be able to be transmitted in both ways – by mosquitos primarily, but also by sex. What is really interesting and this may be more than you want to know, but I think it is so fascinating. That is that there are certain areas of the body that are what are called “immune privileged”. That means our immune system kind of leaves those areas alone. One of the areas in men is the testacles where semen is produced. Probably the reason it is left alone is because you don’t want your immune system attacking your future progeny building blocks.
DR. DARRIA: Right.
DR. GUPTA: It would make it hard for men to have children.
DR. DARRIA: Yes.
DR. GUPTA: But, it also means that viruses can hang out there. They can more easily evade the immune system there and they can become sexually transmitted, as a result.
DR. DARRIA: That’s fascinating.
DR. GUPTA: This particular virus – Zika virus--does appear to be sexually transmissible.
DR. DARRIA: Okay.
DR. GUPTA: Probably not nearly in the same numbers as mosquitos, but it is possible.
DR. DARRIA: To that point, you said if a woman is not pregnant and she comes back from one of these countries, she needs to wait 7, 14 days, maybe up to a month to know that the virus has cleared out of her system. But, it sounds like it could stay in the male system longer. So, how long does he need to wait?
DR. GUPTA: Right now, the guidance from the CDC has been at least 28 days. That is a little bit of an arbitrary number. We knew, for example, with Ebola, that the virus could stay in semen for, I think, a few months even afterwards. There are probably going to be clearer numbers on that, again, as this is tested and examined more and more. Right now, the big concern is still, though, that once the woman is already pregnant, getting an infection at that point seems to be the biggest concern.
DR. DARRIA: Got it. The thought being that if she’s not already pregnant, that it is less of an issue.
DR. GUPTA: Correct.
DR. DARRIA: Got it. Okay. But it sounds like this is something that we’re saying women--if they are considering getting pregnant; men who are spouses or partners of women who are considering getting pregnant need to be careful as well is the bottom line.
DR. GUPTA: Yes. You know what’s fascinating, Dr. Darria? This is real time that we’re learning this. You and I have studied all kinds of different diseases over our medical careers. This is one that we probably didn’t study.
DR. DARRIA: No.
DR. GUPTA: There was no reason to.
DR. DARRIA: It was not in the medical books.
DR. GUPTA: Most people didn’t know about Ebola up until the last 18 months and, now, we’re learning about Zika. And you know what? We’ll be learning about another pathogen soon as well. That’s not to scare people but, again, it’s the world in which we live. Pathogens that were typically just living in a very small area of the world can now travel all over. So, an infectious disease anywhere in the world now is an infectious disease everywhere in the world.
DR. DARRIA: Yes.
DR. GUPTA: It doesn’t mean that they are necessarily deadly but it is something that we have to be mindful of.
DR. DARRIA: It is and especially as they get transmitted to a different part of the world, as you mentioned, you’re faced with a virus to which your body doesn’t have immunities. So, it may have different outcomes as well.
DR. GUPTA: Exactly.
DR. DARRIA: One last question on this getting transferred to a different part of the world. We talked earlier about the Aedes mosquito, in the summer, can come up the East coast. You were saying that it may not actually carry the Zika virus up the East coast. What do we need to know about it coming into May, June and July?
DR. GUPTA: What I would tell you is, the mosquito that we’re talking about is the female Aedes aegypti mosquito. It’s a mosquito that tends to be a daytime biter. So, these are mosquitos that are biting you during the day time as opposed to the malaria mosquito, for example, which bites at night. There are other infectious diseases that this particular mosquito has carried – dengue fever is an example of that, chikungunya is an example of that.
DR. DARRIA: Which we were hearing a lot about a year ago, or so.
DR. GUPTA: That’s right. So, we have these same mosquitos in the United States, primarily in the southern states, but despite the fact that dengue has tens of millions of cases of dengue fever around the world every year, you still only see really limited outbreaks in the United States. It’s not just the mosquitos that are necessary for this to start spreading, it’s also the conditions. This may sound very simple, but screens on windows, air conditioned buildings, not having standing water, like you might see in a very urbanized area makes a huge difference. Where you see this spreading a lot, for example, in places like in Brazil, it’s typically areas that don’t have some of those amenities that we take very much for granted. The mosquitos are here. The mosquitos that transmit Zika are here and they have been here for a long time. But, that’s just one of the ingredients necessary for this to start spreading. My prediction is that we will see more cases of Zika in the United States. The majority of them will be from people who have traveled to one of these countries. We will see some localized outbreaks of Zika like we have of dengue but I don’t think we’re going to see the numbers like they’ve seen in South America.
DR. DARRIA: Do women who are considering being pregnant or who are in the early stages of pregnancy right now, so they’ll be pregnant this summer, do they need to do anything extra if they are in the Southeastern portions of the U.S.?
DR. GUPTA: That’s a great question. I live in the Southeastern part of the U.S.
DR. DARRIA: We’re here in Atlanta. Exactly.
DR. GUPTA: I would say that it is going to be the same guidance that women are getting anywhere else with mosquitos. You just want to do all you can to prevent mosquito bites. Obviously, I know that is not practical and the mosquitos sometimes are really hard to avoid. But, again, the idea of it starting to spread, which is really the big concern if it starts to spread in this area. That would be the biggest concern for women who are pregnant. I think that is very unlikely in a place like Atlanta. In certain places in south Florida and south Texas, for example, it’s going to be more likely. I think some of the precautions that are going to need to be taken there are going to be stricter than in years past. Eliminating all sources of standing water, using insecticides in certain areas to prevent mosquitos and really limiting the amount of time that women are potentially exposed to mosquitos. I don’t think the idea of mandatory delay of pregnancy like they’ve talked about in El Salvador, for example, is practical or something that would work in the United States.
DR. DARRIA: Okay. Good to know and, hopefully, it may not be necessary. You mentioned some of the insecticides. Number one, if a women is pregnant, what do you recommend that she use for mosquito repellant because she doesn’t want to have secondary problems with that?
DR. GUPTA: I have asked folks at the CDC about that very question. I said, “I hope we’re not giving mixed message here.” On one hand, we’re saying if you’re a pregnant woman, you need to be more concerned about Zika virus. On the other hand, we’re telling you to use lots and lots of bug spray.
DR. DARRIA: Yes.
DR. GUPTA: Is that okay for you, mom, and for baby as well? The answer that I’ve gotten, and we’ve talked to several people, is that the type of insect repellants that you buy with DEET are fine. You don’t absorb enough of it across the skin to be a problem, either for mother or for babies. I think use those insect sprays, make sure you’re not being sparing with them because you’re concerned about impact on baby. They seem to be safe.
DR. DARRIA: You can use clothing. You can use long-sleeved clothing and things that are going to minimize the chances that you are actually going to be bitten in the first place as well--or attract insects.
DR. GUPTA: Absolutely. There are all sorts of different strategies for that now, like long-sleeve clothing. Some of this is not going to feel like it is earth shattering information. People do the best they can to avoid mosquitos.
DR. DARRIA: On the last question, you mentioned doing harm by the insecticide that we are trying to use to target the mosquitos. There have been some conversations that it was a larvaecide itself that may have had an impact and been a catalyst for these microcephaly cases. What’s the truth on that?
DR. GUPTA: Let me tell you two things. First of all, all that you’re hearing about Zika virus and microcephaly, the absolute cause and effect has not been established. We can’t say absolutely, 100% that the Zika virus causes microcephaly but, look, the suspicion is really, really strong. It could take a long time to develop those cause and effect relationships. What has happened more recently is that a group of doctors in Argentina, basically, have said that the larvaecide known as Pyriproxyfen could be behind the microcephaly. So, they’re saying it’s not the Zika virus; it’s the insecticide that’s actually causing the problem. We looked into this. First of all, the World Health Organization has looked into this and said that there is no evidence of that. We know that in areas where they don’t use this larvaecide, there has still been an increase in microcephaly cases and there is really no evidence that this insecticide is causing these problems. But, look, we’ve seen it over and over again. When there is a vacuum of information, sometimes bad information will fill that vacuum. Right now, use the insecticides. It’s one of your best bets.
DR. DARRIA: Alright. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much. Thanks for clearing that up for us. We will all try to keep safer. For all of our listeners, you can follow Dr. Gupta on Facebook at Facebook.com/DrSanjaGupta; Twitter @DrSanjaGupta or order his books Chasing Life, Cheating Death and Monday Morning on Amazon. Don’t forget Tweet us @SharecareInc or me @DrDarria. Thanks for listening to Sharecare Radio on RadioMD. We’ll talk to you next week and stay well.
[END OF RECORDING]
- Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Darria Long Gillespie, MD, MBA
Co-founder of the Fit Bottomed Girls enterprise, Jenn Walters, shares tips on how to stay strong to keep up when you start having little ones.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 3
- Audio File sharecare/1607sc2b.mp3
- Featured Speaker Jennipher Walters
- Book Title The Fit Bottomed Girls Anti-Diet
- Guest Website Fit Bottomed Girls
- Guest Facebook Account https://www.facebook.com/fitbottomedgirls/
- Guest Twitter Account @FitBottomedGirl
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Guest Bio
Jennipher Walters is one of the women behind the Fit Bottomed Girls enterprise, a blog and social media platform of fresh fitness content for real women interested in improving their health and their lives through physical activity and healthy eating. Their sites also include Fit Bottomed Mamas and Fit Bottomed Eats. In May 2014, Jenn co-authored their first FBG book: The Fit Bottomed Girls Anti-Diet. Jenn is also an ACE-certified personal trainer, health coach, and advanced health and fitness specialist, and an AFAA-certified group exercise instructor.
- Length (mins) 20
- Waiver Received No
- Host Darria Long Gillespie, MD, MBA
In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, Dr. Helen Fisher, the Chief Scientific Advisor of popular dating site Match.com, discusses the latest trends in dating, marriage, and cohabitation.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 2
- Audio File sharecare/1606sc2c.mp3
- Featured Speaker Helen Fisher, PhD
- Organization The Anatomy of Love
- Guest Website Dr. Helen Fisher
- Guest Twitter Account @drhelenfisher
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Guest Bio
Dr. Helen Fisher, PhD, is a biological anthropologist focused on the brain in love, lust, and everything in between. She has written six books on the evolution, biology, and psychology of sexuality, monogamy, adultery, divorce, and the neural chemistry of romantic love, and is the Chief Scientific Adviser of the popular dating site Match.com. She has a new book coming out: Anatomy of love: A Natural History of Mating, Marriage, and Why We Stray.
- Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Darria Long Gillespie, MD, MBA
What does "heart healthy" really mean?
Additional Info
- Segment Number 3
- Audio File sharecare/1606sc2b.mp3
- Featured Speaker Holly S. Andersen, MD
- Guest Website Sharecare: Dr. Holly Andersen
- Guest Twitter Account @nyphospital
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Guest Bio
Dr. Holly S. Andersen is the Director of Education and Outreach for The Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute at The New York Presbyterian Hospital - Weill Cornell Medical Center, where she is additionally an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine and Attending Cardiologist. She is also the Scientific Advisor to the newly formed Women’s Heart Alliance and has been an on-air medical consultant to ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, NBC Evening News, The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Early Show, The Fox Television Network, The Fox News Channel, The British Broadcasting Company, and MTV.
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Transcription
Sharecare is the leading online health and wellness engagement platform providing millions of consumers with a personal, results oriented experience by connecting them to the most qualified health resources and programs they need to improve their health. It’s time now for Sharecare Radio on RadioMD.com. Here’s your host, Dr. Darria.
DR. DARRIA: Hello, it’s Dr. Darria. Welcome back. February is American Heart Month. As many of you know, heart disease is the number one killer of women in the United States. It’s killing one woman in the U.S. every minute. With us to talk about that today, I have cardiologist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and the Director of Education and Outreach for the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute. My next guest deals with this every day and what happens when patients don’t look after your heart. She has been selected as one of American’s best doctors and America’s top cardiologist. You have probably seen her everywhere from The Dr. Oz Show to ABC World News Tonight to MTV and Fox News. Today she’s going to talk about some common knowledge facts and some myths. Dr. Holly Andersen, welcome to Sharecare Radio.
DR. ANDERSEN: So happy to be here.
DR. DARRIA: I am very excited. I was looking at some of your work online, including earlier last year when you spoke on stage with Barbara Streisand.
DR. ANDERSEN: Yes, I did.
DR. DARRIA: How was that – first of all?
DR. ANDERSEN: It was really exciting. It was part of the Tina Brown’s Women in the World event. It was a jammed-packed audience of really incredible people, primarily women. The topics were amazing worldwide. It was really an honor and a privilege to be able to sit up there and to actually talk about heart disease in women because it is so important. It is our number one health crisis. Barbara Streisand has really taken it on as a gender issue. She doesn’t have heart disease. It has been a great opportunity to try to educate people – in particular, women – to be proactive about their heart health.
DR. DARRIA: Yes. That’s exactly why we’re talking about this today. I know that one of the things you talked about then is the myth that heart disease is something that I don’t need to worry about if I’m younger; it’s something that happens to older men. Right? Talk to us about that.
DR. ANDERSEN: It’s really a shame that that’s the stigma and there is a stigma attached to it. More women die of heart disease every year than all cancers combined. More women die of heart disease then breast cancer at every age. Although we’ve made great strides in research and death rates due to heart disease has been decreasing for decades in men and, more recently, in older women. The most recent population data shows that heart disease is actually increasing in our youngest adults and probably increasing faster among young women age 29-50 who have no idea that it is even a possibility.
DR. DARRIA: So, you said 29?
DR. ANDERSEN: Yes.
DR. ANDERSEN: When we’re 29, we’re not thinking about heart disease. What does heart disease look like in a 29 year old?
DR. ANDERSEN: It can look the same way. Heart disease that leads to stroke and heart attack generally comes from plaque – atherosclerotic or fatty cholesterol filled plaque that clogs up our arteries and can cause heart attacks and strokes. We’re finding that it can start as early as teenagers and pre-teens. It takes a while for it to get built up. The great thing is, there is so much you can do to prevent heart disease and the earlier you start the better chance for it to not being a problem in your life. Everything that you do that is good for your heart is good for the rest of you.
DR. DARRIA: Yes. Yes. This is a good thing and you’re right so--much of it is prevention. What I tell my patients – a lot of them think “my family had diabetes” or “my parents were obese so I will be, too.”
DR. ANDERSEN: That’s not true.
DR. DARRIA: Exactly.
DR. ANDERSEN: One of the most sexy and hot topics in science now is something we know and we have found out to be – it’s called epigenetics – which means the way you live your life, what you think about, what you eat, the physical activity you do and the sleep you get can change the way your genes are translated into proteins. We see it even real time. People who are optimistic, who are able to focus on the part of the glass that is half full actually live longer and have less disease than those who don’t. Even if you have a terrible family history, there is so much you can do now--even outside of medications; just by lifestyle--to reduce your risk.
DR. DARRIA: It’s so true and lifestyle plays such a big factor. As we’re talking about heart disease and women in their 20’s and 30’s and developing that plaque, lifestyle is really a key driver for them right then and there, right? To reverse that and start doing some prevention.
DR. ANDERSEN: Absolutely. We’re also recognizing stress is a risk factor. The millennials are the ones that are the most stressed in our country right now and, actually, women report more stress than men. I think it is important to actively try to reduce your everyday level of stress. It’s harder to measure, right? It’s harder to measure. It’s not a number that we can put on it. But, what we’re finding is that it really translates into a healthier body and a healthier life.
DR. DARRIA: Although, I do have to say that we have an app at Sharecare that actually does measure your stress levels. You should check that out.
DR. ANDERSEN: Oh, good. I’ll check it out.
DR. DARRIA: It is an app on Android – if you have it. It’s amazing. You often don’t even realize. That is one of the things with all of our stress levels is that without having that mindfulness, that you are stressed. It takes that moment. If somebody is in their 20’s and 30’s, what should they do? Do they need to make an appointment with their doctor and get their cholesterol checked? Where do they start?
DR. ANDERSEN: I don’t think that it’s a bad idea for somebody in their 20’s to have their blood pressure checked, have their cholesterol levels taken and have their sugar level taken. With those three simple blood tests, you can find out a lot about where you are right now. I also would say the more important part of your physical exam is your waistline more than your overall weight because it is the fat around our waist that is metabolically active and, actually, makes our blood pressure worse. It makes us more prone to developing diabetes. It makes us more likely to have bad cholesterol levels. Anything we can do to try to keep our waistlines trim or anything we can do to even reduce our waistline by a quarter of an inch can be very important and healthy for us. I think you say “the old man’s disease” and it’s true. We, as cardiologists, always depict heart disease as an old man’s disease. I have taken care of some very world-prominent, VIP, recognizable female patients with heart disease that don’t want to talk about their heart disease because it’s an old man’s disease. Women don’t know about heart disease because women don’t talk about heart disease. Very few women can actually name – we did a study – very few women can name another woman in their lives with heart disease – 29%. Only 11% can name someone who has died of heart disease; yet, it’s the number one cause of death. We are encouraging people to talk about their disease in a very empowering and very uplifting way because, even if you get diagnosed with this disease, you can do very, very well.
DR. DARRIA: There is so much we can do right now. You said it earlier. When you are looking at statistics and we talk about breast cancer when you’re in your 30’s. It’s something a lot of us think about in our 30’s and 40’s. But, you’re saying that at every age heart disease is killing more women than breast cancer.
DR. ANDERSEN: More women die of heart disease at every age.
DR. DARRIA: It is important to note. We need to focus on both of them.
DR. ANDERSEN: One in 32 women die of breast cancer and 1 in 3 die of heart disease.
DR. DARRIA: Wow. Such high numbers. We want to reduce that today. I hope we can help reduce that on this call.
DR. ANDERSEN: Yes.
DR. DARRIA: Another myth that we want to talk about is that there are warning signs for high blood pressure. There is a reason we call it “silent killer”. It’s not true. Talk to us about that.
DR. ANDERSEN: Very, very, very few people will know when their blood pressure goes higher. When I tell somebody that they have high blood pressure for the first time they are like, “I don’t understand. I’ve had low blood pressure my whole life.” Well, you do until you don’t. Many women and men get diagnosed with high blood pressure in their 50’s. But, there are some people – and this tends to run in families – there are people who drink a lot of alcohol in their 20’s and 30’s that their blood pressure is quite high. They don’t even know because they never go to a doctor really until they are 30 or 40, so they might have had untreated high blood pressure for 10 years. It’s very treatable. Before the age of 45, men are more likely to have high blood pressure. After age 45, women become more prevalent.
DR. DARRIA: Really?
DR. ANDERSEN: Seventy percent of women over the age of 65 have high blood pressure in this country. The most recent trial, which you may have talked about, that just came back at the end of last year called the “Sprint Trial” actually found that – we think that 140/90 or less has been normal but, actually, lower blood pressure is even better. So, 120/80, or less, is most desirable. Even if you are not traditionally above that 140/90, being physically active, cutting down on salt, eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can all help your blood pressure.
DR. DARRIA: Yes. Those are great points. You’re right. Having even lower than 120/80 is better. For all of our audience, that higher blood pressure is kind of like a higher pressure going through a hose. If it’s constantly at a higher level, it can cause weakness with that hose and cause problems downstream. You want to lower that pressure.
DR. ANDERSEN: Absolutely. It’s one of the most important risk factors for stroke and heart attack, if not the most important.
DR. DARRIA: I know in the E.R., the very few cases of somebody who have had a stroke or heart attack at a young age, they inevitably come in with a very, very high blood pressure.
DR. ANDERSEN: It’s so easy to get your blood pressure checked. If you’re 20, if you’re 25 you can get it checked at a pharmacy. Get your blood pressure checked. Know what it is and, no matter what, do things that help you stay healthy.
DR. DARRIA: You mention those. You mentioned physical activity. I’m always happy to repeat it a thousand times. How much physical activity do you want people to get?
DR. ANDERSEN: I would say, it’s always recommended that people say to get 150 minutes a week, okay? But I would say, physical activity is the fountain of youth. Any physical activity that you do that gets your heart rate up, is good for you. If you don’t have time for 50 minutes, do 10 minutes. Do 5 minutes here and there. You don’t have to do it any one time. It’s better to do 20 or 30 or 40 minutes of physical activity a day than to do two and a half hours on Sunday. Sixty percent of United States adults have no regular physical activity. We know that prolonged sitting – which most of us do at our jobs – we know that prolonged sitting predicts our heart disease risk. Physical activity improves your blood pressure, decreases your risk of diabetes, it improves your HDL. It is probably the single most important thing you can do to improve your sleep. It’s good for your bones. It’s good for your brain. It’s good for your heart. It’s really important to try to be active in your day when you can be.
DR. DARRIA: Did you just say that 60% of the United States adults have no regular physical activity?
DR. ANDERSEN: Yes. Sixty percent of United States adults have no regular physical activity looking at it as a general population. Our children now are more obese and less physically active than ever before.
DR. DARRIA: It’s so true. So many reasons. You’re right. Studies have shown that you don’t have to go out and do 30 minutes all in one sitting. If you can do 10 minutes here and 10 minutes later today, that’s great. People who aim for that are actually more likely to succeed and keep it up than somebody who says, “I can only do it if I can sit down and do 45 minutes of working out.”
DR. ANDERSEN: If you can’t, if you think about doing 10 minutes a day versus nothing over a week, over a month, over a year. Huge difference.
DR. DARRIA: Huge accumulative and it’s definitely a lot easier to get myself to go even on those days that I don’t feel like going on a run. “I’m just going to do 10 minutes. I can do 10 minutes.”
DR. ANDERSEN: Exactly. Most of the time, you can probably fit a little more time in. Ten minutes is better than nothing and that’s all too often the choice people have. “I don’t have the time.” You have the time to at least start with 10 minutes. Walk there, take the stairs, get up from your desk and move around. People are having standing desks now because we know that sitting is so bad. Don’t sit at your desk all day. Get up and move around. I have dumb bells in my office just so that I can do something between patients.
DR. DARRIA: That’s great. You’re right. The other factor, too, then, just is that even if you are working out for 30-45 minutes a day, if you’re sitting all day long, that can be detrimental. It’s still good to get up and move, walk around, get the blood flowing. My co-workers will know that I sometimes play music in my office if I need a little quick break. I would never let them see me dancing but I won’t say that it doesn’t happen.
DR. ANDERSEN: Music is a great stress reducer if it’s pleasing music to you. Obviously, I think most people can do a lot more physical activity if they are listening to music.
DR. DARRIA: My favorite tip is I have a certain running mix of some of my very favorite songs and I only let myself listen to that running playlist if I’m running.
DR. ANDERSEN: That’s a good one.
DR. DARRIA: It makes me go for a run and then, actually when that song comes on, you always feel like running a little bit harder. It makes me very happy. That’s my tip for the day.
DR. ANDERSEN: Speaking to the majority of people who aren’t regularly physically active, no one feels like doing it for the first few times that you do it but then after you do it, maybe three, four or five times, you feel so much better. You sleep better. Your stress levels are better. Your metabolism is better. You eat better. When I have somebody coming in who is very stressed and has been feeling they are feeling unhealthy, they are not sleeping, they don’t eat well, I start out by getting them to be physically active. That gets their sleep better and when your sleep is better, your eating is better – period.
DR. DARRIA: Yes. A lot of times, you’re eating depends on how sleepy you are, your emotions, and you’re trying to kind of stimulate something. Physical activity also addresses that. It may give you more energy by just for going for a walk and you don’t need to reach for the chocolate or the sugar or whatever other less helpful habit you were going to do.
DR. ANDERSEN: If you are sleep deprived, there are hormones that get released that make you eat more and eat things that you normally wouldn’t want to. It’s very hard to fight that. If you’re sleep deprived, it’s very, very hard to not eat the things you shouldn’t. So, again, physical activity is the best thing you can do to give yourself the most restorative sleep and that’s a very important part of health and eating well.
DR. DARRIA: Hopefully, all of our listeners we’ve given them some tips to just get out and get moving. Ten minutes a day – get your favorite music, do whatever you want, whether it is walking or whatever. Take the stairs--all of those are really beneficial. Dr. Holly, I want to talk about another myth. Do you have a favorite other myth out there that you hear out there from your patients? If not, I still have a whole other list.
DR. ANDERSEN: Yes, go ahead. Let me hear yours.
DR. DARRIA: The other one is something that I hear from my patients a lot. That is that heart attacks present with chest pain.
DR. ANDERSEN: Ah.
DR. DARRIA: We always have to tell them that because I see that in the E.R. time and time again.
DR. ANDERSEN: Chest pain is the most common symptom for a heart attack – chest pain. But 40% of women having heart attacks, have no chest pain. See, the heart can’t feel pain, so the brain has to come up with another place for that duress to come from. Women having heart attacks are much more likely to have pain that is not – at least much of the time--it could be in the jaw, the back, the arm. They could just have a sense of indigestion or light headedness. But, the majority of women and men having heart attacks, they know something is wrong. Every man knows that they are at risk for a heart attack but not enough women know that they are also at risk. Even women who believe that they are having a heart attack are far less likely to call 9-1-1.
DR. DARRIA: Yes. Why is that? They are later to be diagnosed. Later to get treatment.
DR. ANDERSEN: Every time we poll this, women who actually believe they have had something wrong with their heart or who believe they are having a heart attack are much less likely to pull the trigger and call 9-1-1. It doesn’t tell us why. But, why? Too busy to have a heart attack right now? “I have to go make dinner for the family.” I see this. I see this in my practice all the time. Women might be coming in at the end of the day just to have her blood drawn and then she says, “Can I just speak to Dr. Andersen?” I go in there and she says, “Actually, this morning, I had an hour and a half of the worst pain I’ve ever had.” I said, “Oh, So, you’re here now because you think you had a heart attack this morning? What did you do?” “Well, I was just hoping that it would go away.” Don’t sit there and hope that it will go away. All too often, the first sign of heart disease is a heart attack or sudden death. Okay? Time is muscle. I’d much rather be taking care of indigestion in the emergency room than missing somebody’s heart attack.
DR. DARRIA: Yes. And that’s what I tell people when they say, “I didn’t have a heart attack, but I came to the E.R.” That’s okay. That’s much better news to find out that you didn’t. We often talk about “men are stubborn, they won’t go seek care”. Their wives are often the ones that bring them in. But then, those wives are the same ones that when they are having a heart attack themselves, as you said, are not seeking their own care.
DR. ANDERSEN: Yes. There was a great essay that was written right after I presented at the American Heart Association last November. It was called, The Other Woman. It was about a doctor who had this woman who brought her husband in time after time after time and would check every one of his details, every one of his medicines. One moment, one day, she wasn’t there. She had died of a heart attack and now he was left really to fend by himself. So, women – we need to take care of ourselves. We need to take care of ourselves because we want to be there. We want to be there.
DR. DARRIA: That is so true. That is so powerful. As women that take care of so many people in our lives, we always have to take care of ourselves as well.
DR. ANDERSEN: I would say that, you might have a strong, powerful daughter that may be the head of a company, but when she becomes a mother she is going to do what you do. We have to do a better job there.
DR. DARRIA: Dr. Holly, that is a great way to end. As females, look out for ourselves but also look out for the other females in our lives -- be it our mothers our daughters – look out for their health as well. For February Heart month, thank you so much. This was a fascinating segment. Very, very helpful.
DR. ANDERSEN: Again, thank you.
DR. DARRIA: This is Dr. Holly Andersen, cardiologist from New York-Presbyterian Hospital and I hope you enjoyed it. If you missed any part of it, remember you can download it at Sharecare.com/RadioMD. This is Sharecare Radio and this is Dr. Darria. Follow us at Dr. Darria. I love all of your comments. Or, Tweet us @SharecareInc as well. Thanks for listening and stay well.
[END OF RECORDING] - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Darria Long Gillespie, MD, MBA
RealAge Test co-creator, Dr. Mike Roizen of the Cleveland Clinic, debunks the latest and greatest health “myths.”
Additional Info
- Segment Number 1
- Audio File sharecare/1606sc2a.mp3
- Featured Speaker Michael Roizen, MD
- Book Title This is Your Health Do-Over
- Guest Website Sharecare: Dr. Michael Roizen
-
Guest Bio
Michael F. Roizen, MD, Chief Wellness Officer at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic; co-founded RealAge, a service providing personal health tools to consumers and now part of ShareCare; author of the award-winning series of RealAge books; co-authored, with Dr. Mehmet Oz, YOU: The Owner’s Manual series of bestselling books; lecturer, TV personality, and radio talk show personality; advocate of exercise and living the healthy life – and he practices what he preaches.
- Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Darria Long Gillespie, MD, MBA
Dr. Darria provides commentary and speaks with the author of Always Hungry? and “obesity warrior,” Dr. David Ludwig.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 1
- Audio File sharecare/1604sc2a.mp3
- Featured Speaker David S. Ludwig, MD, PhD
- Book Title Always Hungry?
- Guest Website Dr. David Ludwig
- Guest Twitter Account @davidludwigmd
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Guest Bio
David S. Ludwig, MD, PhD, is a practicing endocrinologist and researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital, Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health. He is Founding Director of the Optimal Weight for Life (OWL) program at Boston Children’s Hospital, one of the oldest and largest family based weight management programs. He also directs the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center. Described as an “obesity warrior” by Time Magazine, he has been featured in the New York Times, Boston Globe and USA Today and on NPR, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and other networks.
- Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Darria Long Gillespie, MD, MBA
In this Sharing Care feature, Brent and Kyle Pease share their amazing athletic accomplishments, despite having to overcome the obstacle of Kyle’s cerebral palsy.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 3
- Audio File sharecare/1603sc2c.mp3
- Featured Speaker Kyle & Brent Pease
- Guest Website The Kyle Pease Foundation
- Guest Twitter Account @WalkingwithKP
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Guest Bio
Kyle Pease was diagnosed at an early age with Cerebral Palsy, which has resulted in a lack of sensation and decreased mobility in all four of his limbs. Though he transports himself in a wheelchair, Kyle finished college at Kennesaw State University, works as a liaison and an ambassador at a major grocery store chain and at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, serves as a patient greeter at Piedmont Hospital, and with the help of his brother Brent, finished multiple Ironman and Triathlon races.
Brent Pease is an avid triathlete and ultra-endurance athlete, competing in several Ironman races. He has finished multiple races with his brother Kyle, pulling Kyle in a kayak during the swimming portion, riding a specially designed tandem bike, and pushing his wheelchair in the marathon leg. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Darria Long Gillespie, MD, MBA
