Health Podcast with Connie Sellecca: Eat Vegan to Reduce Pain; Take Five Minutes to Reduce Blood Pressure; Beware Dangerous At Home Medical Trends

In this episode we feature:

An interview with Emergency Room Physician, Dr. Michael Daniel.

Daily affirmations you can use to improve your mental health. 

Move for five minutes to improve blood sugar and blood pressure. 

Eat strawberries to improve cognitive function and reduce inflammation. 

Plus, Dr. Michael Daniel emphasizes the importance of calling 911 for heart attack and stroke symptoms. 

And more ways to improve your health, today!

For more information, and to sign up for our private coaching, visit tesh.com

Our Hosts:
John Tesh: Instagram: @johntesh_ifyl facebook.com/JohnTesh
Gib Gerard: Instagram: @GibGerard facebook.com/GibGerard X: @GibGerard

Transcript

Unknown: 0:08

Gib, hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Gib Gerard here with another of our special health editions of the podcast. This is intelligence for your health with Connie Celica coming at you today, we've got all kinds of actionable intelligence, things that you can use to improve your health right now. And of course, an interview with emergency room physician Dr Michael, Daniel. So without further ado, here is intelligence for your health with Connie selika, repeat after me. I feel happy, calm and fulfilled. Why did I ask you to repeat that, because daily affirmations have been linked to improved mental health, according to a study from UC Berkeley. In the study, participants were asked to say daily affirmations for 20 seconds for a month, and the researchers found that the Daily Affirmation practice was associated with greater self compassion, emotional well being and reduced stress. And the more often people did the practice, the greater the benefits. What's the least amount of movement you need every day so sitting on your butt doesn't eventually kill you? Well, Columbia University researchers did an experiment where people worked at a desk on a computer for eight hours straight, only getting up for bathroom breaks the next day. Same people, same desk, same computer, but instead of sitting for eight hours, they got up and moved every half hour, taking a five minute stroll, nothing strenuous, just a little five minute stroll around the office. The results on the days when people moved for five minutes every half hour, their blood sugar was cut in half after eating meals, their blood pressure went down five points. They had less fatigue, and their moods were way better. The experts found that moving gently for five minutes every half hour was better than doing one big workout in the morning or working all day at a standing desk, and it was the same result you'd get from exercising daily for six months. So why does that small amount of movement have such a big impact? Because walking even casually, increases blood flow, especially to the legs, which helps metabolize sugar and fat and can help with breathing. And the researchers say this small change is a way for anyone to make a difference in their health one walking break at a time. Coming up, we'll talk to emergency room physician, Dr Michael, Daniel, he'll break down the difference between headaches you can treat on your own at home and headaches that should send you straight to the ER, without hesitation. But first, we know blueberries are a brain food, but so are strawberries. In fact, they're just as good. A study was conducted by the University of Cincinnati on people between the ages of 50 and 65 who had mild cognitive impairment. They were given powder from whole strawberries in a daily supplement equivalent to a cup of fresh strawberries, and after 12 weeks, the people who consumed strawberry powder had significant improvements on cognitive tests and were less depressed, and people who eat strawberries regularly have a lower rate of cognitive decline. It's down to an antioxidant in strawberries that's also in blueberries, called anthocyanin. Strawberries also contain compounds that reduce inflammation, which is also linked to dementia. So load up on strawberries to protect your brain health, you can sniff your way to better health. Indiana University found that inhaling fragrance compounds can send signals directly to the brain. So here's what to sniff to improve your mood, sleep and more. First, for stress sniff basil, it contains linalool, which shuts down more than 100 stress genes when the scent is inhaled. In fact, according to the journal frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, being in a room infused with linalool is as effective as taking a prescription benzodiazepine like Xanax or Valium, then to be focused and alert. Triucalyptus, it has an invigorating scent that increases blood flow to the brain. It activates the areas responsible for focus and alertness. One more for better sleep. Sniff jasmine tea. The Journal of Applied Physiology says the aroma of jasmine tea is so effective at promoting sleep that just five minutes of being exposed to the scent has sedative effects, lowering your heart rate, and that's a result as good as prescription sleeping pills. So let's review. Sniff basil for stress, sniff eucalyptus for better focus and inhale the scent of Gib. As mentee for better sleep. Okay, listen to this. Why are we so fixated on organization? Well, there's a lot of Psychology at play, according to licensed clinical psychologist Dr Bethany Cook, humans have evolved to find comfort in what's predictable. If something is predictable, it's safe, and organizing your space means you know where things are, and that makes us feel safe and protected. Beyond that, an organized space calms the mind, because when our thoughts feel scrambled and chaotic, organizing your physical surroundings gives a sense of control, and that helps us think more clearly and rationally. Today, our guest is Dr Michael, Daniel. He's a board certified emergency room physician at Providence St Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, and while there are many reasons people go to the ER, I asked Dr Daniel which symptoms we should always take seriously and call 911 right away, the most important things you need to call 9114 immediately are heart attack and stroke symptoms. And so with heart attack, we worry about sudden onset, severe chest pain, shortness of breath. If your family member looks like they are sweating, their skin is cool and clammy, they're nauseous, they have chest pain that sounds like a heart attack. And I would call 911 immediately, because the paramedics can give you aspirin and other medications immediately to sort of take the pressure off the heart and get you to the ER in time to go to the cath lab where we can definitively fix the heart attack. And then with regard to stroke, I mean, again, it's another time dependent emergency. So that's, you know, facial droop, slurred speech, weakness on one side of the body and severe dizziness or unsteady gait. I mean, that needs to go to the ER again immediately, because the medications that we can give to fix the stroke are time dependent. Have to be given within three to four hours. And so, you know, unfortunately, I have a lot of patients that come in that have symptoms at night, and they try to sleep it off and hope that it's going to get better by the morning, and by the time they come in the morning, we've already blown through the windows of when we could intervene with medication or surgery, for example. And you know, the heart attack and the stroke has already done irreversible damage. So those things in particular, I would say, you need to call 911 immediately. Today, we're talking to emergency room physician, Dr Michael, Daniel. He was just saying that the most important time to call 911 is if you or someone you know is having symptoms of a heart attack or stroke. But according to data from the American College of Emergency Physicians Foundation, the top reason people actually visit the ER is because they're having a bad headache. So I asked Dr Daniel to break down the difference between headaches we should always take seriously and those we can treat on our own, at home in the emergency room, we're always considering or thinking about the worst possible cause of the headache. Our job necessarily isn't to diagnose the cause of headache, but to rule out the bad things. And so when a patient tells me it was a sudden onset of a massive headache, they usually describe it as a thunder clap, where they're lying on the bed, they can't get up, they can't even open their eyes. That's very concerning. For a ruptured brain aneurysm. If the headache is associated with stroke, like symptoms, so weakness on one side of the body, slurred speech, severe dizziness, like falling to a particular side, that's another concerning thing, and then finally, if it's associated with a fever, neck stiffness, I worry about meningitis. So I would say those three things are the most concerning symptoms for us. And somebody has those symptoms with a headache, they should come to the ER immediately. And I think, you know, if it's a you know, if it's a mild headache, and you could try taking some Tylenol. You could try taking some ibuprofen. But I think people are pretty good judges of when it's, you know, the worst headache of their life, or just a common headache from stress or dehydration or viral illness, for example. Here's the latest medical trend to go viral on social media, and dentists are warning us not to do it. Do not try to scale your own teeth. Scaling teeth is the removal of excessive plaque buildup, and some people need it, because all that plaque can lead to gum infections, cavities, gum recession, bone loss and even tooth loss. When your dentist or hygienist does it? They scrape off the plaque using a metal scraping tool and an ultrasonic tool with a vibrating metal top with a water spray. But these tools should only be used by people who have gone to school and know how to use them. If used improperly, it can lead to tooth and gum damage, infection and cracks in your. Enamel. So even though it may seem easy to do on Tiktok, leave it to your dentist. Today's medical term scarlet fever in the 1800s it was the leading cause of death among children, but it's been back in the news after recent outbreaks, with the Cleveland Clinic saying cases are on the rise. Scarlet Fever is caused by the same bacteria that cause strep throat. It's also spread by people coughing and sneezing, just like the common cold or flu, but with scarlet fever, the bacteria produce a certain toxin that causes the strep to trigger a sunburn, like rash with tiny red bumps. Infected people may also notice their tongue turns strawberry red and bumpy. The good news is, Scarlet Fever is easily treated with antibiotics, rest and fluids, and it usually clears up within a few days without any serious complications. And that's today's medical term, Scarlet Fever coming up. We'll hear more from board certified emergency room physician, Dr Michael Dano, he'll talk about the importance of getting regular sun exposure and the only time it's appropriate to be in the sun without sunscreen. But first, if you don't have time to sit quietly and read a book, go ahead and enjoy an audio book. It has its own advantages. According to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, hearing a story read aloud triggers a phenomenon known as narrative transport. That's when you're so absorbed in a story that you create images in your mind, and you're mentally carried away. That's because the spoken word fully grabs our attention, that makes our Real world worries fade to the background, and the result is a 60% reduction in cortisol, the stress hormone and pain after 30 minutes of listening to an audio book. Not only that, there was a nine fold increase in the feel good hormone oxytocin, and that study was done on people in the ICU, so you know it works. Bottom line, listen to an audio book for less stress, less pain and a feel good boost. Would you like to triple your odds of avoiding depression in the next year? It could be as simple as taking a vacation. That's according to a new survey by the travel insurance firm Alliance global assistance, it found that for the average adult, our odds of having symptoms of depression in any given year is about one in 10. But for those who skip taking a vacation, the odds of experiencing mild to moderate symptoms of depression jumps to 30% three times higher. So why are vacations so good for our mental health? First, vacations can expose us to new experiences, and plenty of studies show that novelty excites our brain in a way that increases our mood. Vacations can also involve spending more time in nature, and we know that being around green or blue environments is incredibly calming for our brain, and a study by Harvard Business Review found that after a vacation, people feel renewed in a way that makes them 7% more likely to get a promotion at work. Bottom Line to reduce your risk of depression, start planning your next vacation. Okay, listen to this. One in four people suffer from arthritis and joint pain. So what can you do about it? Adopt a vegan diet. The American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine found that patients on a vegan diet reported significantly less pain and the number of times their joints swelled to painful levels was cut in half. That's because plant based diets lower the levels of C reactive proteins, which are commonly produced by animal products. They're like jet fuel when it comes to triggering inflammation, pain and swelling. So for a drug free way to treat arthritis pain, your new prescription is a vegan diet back with more health intelligence from emergency room physician, Dr Michael, Daniel, and each year, a whopping 6000 children are admitted to the ER after swallowing button batteries. For those who don't know, those are the small, round batteries increasingly used in toys, watches, remote controls, greeting cards that play music and even shoes that light up. And while the batteries may look harmless, I asked Dr Daniel why swallowing one could be dangerous for kids and adults. What happens when you ingest a button battery is that the saliva in your esophagus causes an electrical current across that battery, and it basically causes an alkaline reaction, a corrosive alkaline reaction, which can burn a hole in your child's esophagus, and worst case scenario, so that is very dangerous. You might not know what happens your child. Might just not want to eat. They might have some like horse or audible reasoning when they try to breathe they might not want to eat. And so that's a reason to go immediately to the ER, I will say that in kids that are over a year old, there is some evidence that if you give a couple teaspoons of honey every 10 minutes, the honey actually can coat the battery and prevent further reaction of the saliva on the battery and causing that corrosion. So if they're over a year and you suspect they swallow the button battery, then give a little bit of honey every 10 minutes until you get to the ER and that's very helpful, special for people that live far away from their nearest emergency room, back with more health intelligence from emergency room physician, Dr Michael, Daniel, and in survey after survey these days, people are saying they're more focused than ever on improving their health and wellness. So I asked Dr Daniel what he recommends for getting healthier as the warmer weather approaches. You know, I'm glad coddie that you bring this up, but one of the things I always recommend to patients, and you know, my writing online with USA Today and on Instagram is the importance of morning sunlight. When you get up in the morning, getting outside, getting that early morning sun, that's the best time to get vitamin D safely, and that's because the the more dangerous UVA UVB rays don't really hit around until around like midday, so 11 or 12, so you can get if you can get out there in the morning before that. And I was I also tell people, you know, and when you do that early morning sunlight, don't worry so much about slathering on a lot of sunblock, because that can actually prevent you from getting the sunlight you need to convert certain substances in your skin to the vitamin D that we need to regulate our mood, our just general circadian rhythm. It really contributes to our wellness and our overall happiness. And so, you know, I definitely recommend that one in 10 adults don't get the recommended amount of sleep a night. If that describes you, here's how to sleep better. Become a more optimistic silver lining type person, because research from the University of Illinois found optimistic people sleep longer and better than pessimists. That's because optimists tend to interpret stressful events in more positive ways, like focusing on a lesson they can learn from a bad experience, that's how they cope, which makes optimists less likely to lie awake at night worrying. Need help becoming more optimistic. Consider meditation before bed. Research shows it can help boost your mood, reduce anxiety and calm your mind, and that's the perfect recipe for a good night's sleep, more intelligence for your health. From emergency room physician, Dr Michael Dano, and in recent years, he's becoming a big proponent of using gym steam rooms or saunas as much as possible, otherwise known as sauna bathing, because Dr Daniels says sauna bathing offers some serious health benefits. What the really interesting thing for me was when I was doing this research, is that some of the studies noted how when you're in the sauna, what happens to your body is exactly the same as if you were doing a moderate to high intensive cardiovascular activity, like cycling, swimming, running or even like brisk walking. The exact same things happen. Your heart rate goes up, your blood pressure is reduced. It reduces the amount of what we call oxidative stress or inflammation in your system, and it has a positive impact on the autonomic nervous system. And so that is that really crucial balance that we have between heart rate and blood pressure and how we respond to stress. So in a sense, like using the sauna, hopefully using the steam proof, because that's what I like to do. It's almost like a it's like a good stressor on your body, and the benefits that you get from, you know, sitting there in the sauna 20 to 30 minutes a day are similar to what you would expect from cardiovascular activity. All the text, news alerts, likes and comments we get are chipping away at our ability to focus. It's being called popcorn brain, when your attention bounces from one task or topic to another, like popcorn kernels popping in the microwave. So how bad is it? According to UC Irvine, the average amount of time something on our screens can hold our attention before we jump to something else is just 47 seconds. By comparison, our attention span was 2.5 minutes back in 2004 before everyone had a cell phone. But it's not just the constant dings that activate popcorn brain, because most of us check our phones every 15 minutes or. So whether we have a notification or not, so what's the answer? One trick is to be more intentional about solitude. A lot of us scroll on our screens anytime we're alone with our thoughts, but endlessly scrolling can actually leave us feeling lonely and disconnected. However, a deliberate solitary activity like going for a walk or making a delicious meal can recharge us. So instead of trying to fight solitude with screen time, be more intentional about it. Instead. Here's an email I received at Connie at intelligence for your health.com, it comes from Diana buckles, who writes, I had a kidney stone and it was so painful. How can I avoid getting another one? Diana, you are so right. Having a kidney stone is considered one of the most painful experiences you can have, even worse than childbirth, and they can cause infections and even sepsis, which could require amputations or lead to death, and if you've had one, there's a 50% chance you will get another one. But changing your diet can help. Dr Amy krambeck is a urologist at Northwestern Memorial, and she says first drink more water fluids help flush the kidneys. Also get more citrus fruit in your diet, squeezing lemon or lime in your water, eating an orange or even drinking something like Crystal Light lemonade can help the citric acid helps to prevent crystallization in the kidneys. One last way to prevent kidney stones, get more calcium. Now that may seem counter intuitive, since Kidney stones are comprised of calcium, but in studies, when patients cut back on calcium, they got more stones. That's because calcium in your diet binds to oxalates, which are another component of kidney stones, and then they're excreted through the digestive system instead of through the kidneys. And if you're lactose intolerant, no problem, you can get calcium from almonds, tinned fish, lentils and leafy greens. Thank you for your email. Diana. I hope this helps. Okay, listen to this. If you're feeling indecisive, stand still when you're having a hard time choosing between two shirts to wear, two flavors of ice cream, or which laptop to buy, stop moving and you'll come to a conclusion faster. The journal Psychological Science says that's because subtle body movements, like swaying from side to side, encourage our brain to keep wavering back and forth between options. Standing still tells our brain to decide. We hear a lot about how social media is harmful to the self esteem of women and girls, but men have their own issues, and one of them is called Big orexia. It's an obsession with bulking up and body image among men. Bigorexics think they're too scrawny and become obsessed with building muscle. And according to the Adler School of Professional Psychology, the condition used to mainly strike guys in their late teens and 20s, but today it's affecting men of all ages, including guys in their Boomer years. The consequences can include depression, anxiety, social isolation over exercising and steroid abuse. Dr Joseph tronzo is a psychology professor at Bryant University. He says bigorexia has been around for decades, but social media makes it worse, because now men are constantly fed messages and images about what they're supposed to look like, and men can very quickly develop a distortion of what a healthy, normal body is for intelligence for your health from emergency room physician, Dr, Michael, Daniel, if you like to know more about him, he invites you to follow him on Instagram. His handle there is dr, dot Dan yo, spelled D, A, I, g, n, a, U, L, T, and he says A common question he gets asked is whether it makes any difference if we show up at the ER as a walk in, driven by a friend, or in the back of an ambulance. Here's what Dr Daniel had to say So with regards to when you check into the ER, whether you walk in or come by ambulance. I mean, I know that it's kind of pervasive in any community that people think that if they come by ambulance, they're going to be put into a room faster and see a doctor faster. But that is the reason why we have a nurse triage every patient upon arrival, is because we use the system to gage how critical you are and the severity of what you're coming to the ER for. And so, you know, there's no skipping a line, I guess is the point here. And you know, patients are seeing based on how sick they are and their initial vital signs that we do and what they're coming in for. I mean, things like heart attacks and strokes are very time dependent, as. Trauma, and so those patients, whether you know, even if they come hours after you they're going to be seen immediately, just because our interventions are very time dependent, that's it for our show today, our special intelligence for your health with Connie Selig, edition of the podcast, I'm Gib Gerard. Don't forget to rate comment and subscribe on Apple podcast. Spotify, wherever you get your podcast. It helps us out a lot. And also you can reach out to us on social media. All of our links are listed down in the show notes. We try to respond to every DM, every mention of the show, because ultimately, we do the show for you guys. So thank you so much for listening. You.