Health Podcast: Quit Drinking; Dance For Your Life; Eat Like an Italian

In this episode we feature:

An interview with Liver expert Dr. Jessica Mellinger,

The Liver is King

Dress Up for Your Brain

Avoid Cyber Sickness

And more ways you can 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: 0:09

Gib, hello and welcome to another episode of the podcast. I'm Gib Gerard, and we are here today with another intelligence for your health, with Connie Celica. Episode of the show. We are so excited to bring this to you. Today's show includes an interview with Dr Jessica Mellinger, a professor at the University of Michigan specializing in diseases of the liver. She's gonna explain why our liver is universally considered the most important, most valuable part of our body. So we'll hear about that in a second here. So here, without further ado, is intelligence for your health. With Connie Celica, why do we eat dessert last because it tastes better that way. Research from the University of Michigan found that when we know something is going to be the last thing we eat, we enjoy it more. We think it tastes better. Knowing we're down to our final bites makes us slow down and savor the taste, and when we do that, we think the food is more delicious. But it works with any food, from a baked potato to a salad, if it's the last thing we eat, we enjoy it more endless. Scrolling through social media can literally make you sick. It used to just come from things like virtual reality headsets, up to 60% of people using VR experience it. But cyber sickness is on the rise. Scrolling for too long can make people feel weighed down, dizzy and nauseated. It comes from the scrolling movement on social media news feeds, but you can even experience it when you're looking through a Netflix cue. National Geographic says any kind of perceived motion can cause cyber sickness. It's a cousin to other forms of motion sickness, like getting car sick or sea sick. It all comes down to our vestibular system, which controls balance and as your eyes get bombarded with visual information, but your body doesn't sense motion, the difference can make you feel sick, and lying in bed and scrolling is one of the worst things you can do. It's the most chilled out your vestibular system can be, but the prolonged motion of scrolling becomes really difficult for your brain and body to resolve, but the solution is simple. Put down your phone coming up. We'll talk to liver disorders expert Dr Jessica Mellinger, a hepatology professor at the University of Michigan. She'll share some of the most common signs you may have a liver problem and why any symptom should be taken very seriously, but first, if you want to get out of your comfort zone mentally, wear something slightly uncomfortable. According to research from Columbia University, we're better at generating and executing ideas when we're wearing more formal clothing, as opposed to sweats and T shirts. The experts say when we're wearing clothing that makes us slightly uncomfortable, like a blazer and fitted pants, it literally forces us out of our comfort zone, which improves abstract cognitive processing. So we come up with more out of the box ideas. So when you need to get creative on a project, wear more formal and restrictive clothing. I have a method to triple your power of recall. It comes from memory expert Dave Farrow, a Guinness World Record Memory Champion and author of brain hacker, first make a list of six random objects. Focus on the order of the objects, because you'll need to repeat them in order at the end. Then use visual association to make connections between the objects, focusing on two at a time. So let's say your list of objects is shoe, tree, rubber ball, money, phone and movie, you would imagine shoes tied together by the laces, hanging over a tree branch, then a rubber ball smashing through a bank window to symbolize money. Then you'd picture shushing someone who was using their phone during a movie. Again, that was shoe tree, rubber ball, money, phone and movie. By making unique visual connections, you're more likely to remember the list because the objects are no longer random. Then take a time out, read a book, watch a TV show, have lunch with a friend, then come back to the list and repeat it in order, with just a few repetitions, the images will fade, but the information will stay. And when you think of shoe, it will remind you of tree, the visuals are just a means to the end. The picture fades and the information stays. Okay, listen to this. Be cautious at intersection. With traffic lights, because the number of people killed by drivers running red lights has hit a 10 year high. In the United States alone, two people are killed every day by vehicles blowing through red lights. AAA isn't sure why the numbers are on the rise, but researchers believe distracted driving plays a role, and possibly traffic lights that aren't timed properly, but whatever the reason, AAA recommends waiting an extra second after your light changes to green before proceeding and checking to make sure cross traffic has stopped. Basically assume that someone will run the light and pausing could save your life. Today, our guest is Dr Jessica Mellinger. She's a professor of hepatology at the University of Michigan, which means she specializes in disorders related to our liver, gallbladder and pancreas, and Dr Mellinger describes our liver as the MVP of our body. So I asked her to share some of the reasons why the liver has a number just a real plethora of different functions in the body, and it really functions like a factory in many ways. It has a critical role in metabolizing, synthesizing, storing, absorbing nutrients that we might eat in our food or that our body produces. It processes and makes many of the key proteins that are responsible for our health. So blood proteins, bleeding and clotting normally, those kinds of proteins for those bleeding and clotting cascades, processing medications, so many of the enzymes that help us safely process our medications that we might take or supplements that we might take are located in the liver. It's critical for maintaining our immune functions. It's actually a part of our immune system, it makes and stores glucose for energy. So if the liver gets sick, sometimes people have have difficulty with feeling energetic. They'll feel fatigued, and their liver can actually start to break down their fat and their muscle to get more energy, because that that glucose storage, that glucose metabolism, breaks down. So it's really got so many different functions, all of which are really critical to our health, feeling healthy, feeling well, that when people get advanced liver disease, many of those functions begin to not work as well, and in some cases, kind of fail entirely. So a healthy liver is really important to your health for all of those reasons. Today we're talking to liver specialist, Dr Jessica Mellinger, a hepatology professor at the University of Michigan and here in North America. She says about one in 50 adults will develop chronic liver disease at some point. The most common form is cirrhosis, which develops over decades, and it's often the result of heavy drinking or being overweight. But other forms of liver disease can set in rapidly over the span of several months, and whatever the reason I asked Dr Mellinger what symptoms we should pay attention to that might signal a liver problem. The symptoms are pretty vague. Initially, you might just feel, you know, overly fatigued, maybe some mild, you know, discomfort in your right upper quadrant, or your right kind of the right side of your abdomen. And then as the liver progresses and people get, you know, and that gets sicker, then you can see again, those the yellowing of the eyes or the skin as kind of, the liver reduces its processing of bile or bilirubin, and that builds up. That's why you get yellow. People can bleed. So advancing liver disease could makes it easier for you to bleed from cuts and scratches, but also pretty significant bleeding, vomiting blood, having blood come out in your stool. People can get confused, and that confusion can kind of start with, you know, sort of simple, you know, just not, not feeling, feeling kind of like you're slower, like you can't really think straight. It's harder to find words. Maybe having trouble getting to sleep at night, but sleeping during the day a lot. And then, you know, culminating in kind of Frank confusion that makes sure you know your loved ones want to take you into the hospital. So the more obvious signs of liver disease are those that really occur in the later stages when somebody has cirrhosis and is developing symptoms. But in those early stages, if you just have fat in your liver, you may not feel a thing. Have you ever noticed your workspace feels colder in the afternoon than in the morning? It's not because the AC has been running all day. It's because you just ate lunch. Licensed nutritionist Nora Saul says our body sends blood away from our muscles and tissues to our stomach and intestines while we're digesting food that can leave our skin, arms and legs feeling cooler with a decrease in circulation. So even if you didn't need a sweater at work in the morning, be sure you have one for after lunch. Today's medical term aphthos stomatitis, that's a fancy name for a canker sore, which an estimated one in five of us has at any given time. It's a small ulcer in the mouth that's often pain. Can last for up to two weeks. So why do we get them? Well, some studies link canker sores to a glitch in our immune system, since they're most likely to crop up when we're stressed or we do something that triggers inflammation in the mouth, including anything from biting our tongue to being too aggressive brushing our teeth. Also, people low in folate tend to get more aphas stromatis. That's why the American Board of Family Medicine says if you get canker sores, often consider eating more asparagus, edamame, sunflower seeds and bean sprouts, which are all good sources of folate. Coming up. We'll hear more from liver specialist, Dr Jessica Mellinger from the University of Michigan. She'll tell us why alcohol is so incredibly toxic to the liver. But first, if you're looking for a new hobby to bring joy to your life, take up dancing. According to the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, dancing is the best activity to lift your mood, increase motivation, improve your social skills and even your memory. That's because learning choreography challenges your brain. Partner dancing or a group class gives you social interaction and expressing yourself through movement improves your well being and creativity. But although dancing at home alone can be good exercise, to get the most out of it, you need to dance with others. If you feel exhausted all the time and can't pinpoint why, it's likely because something in your life is unsustainable. That's according to Emily Ballesteros, an organizational psychologist and author of the book The cure for burnout, and here are two unhealthy patterns she's noticed. Whenever people complain about being exhausted, first, tired people rarely socialize. They say it's because they don't have the energy or time. But lots of studies show that the human brain craves social interaction. That's because we have an innate need to feel like we belong, and even our conversations with strangers can trigger a boost of dopamine that helps energize us. That's why Ballesteros recommends signing up for group activities that force you to be around other people, like at the gym, those dance classes or an art class. Also many tired people spend excessive time staring at screens. It may seem like an innocent way to relax, but Ballesteros says our gadgets often generate more stress than even our jobs by exposing us to things that are out of control, like news about violence and natural disasters, this contributes to a feeling of helplessness that wears us out emotionally. Okay, listen to this. Let's say you've just climbed some stairs or jogged on a treadmill and you just can't catch your breath, splash your face with cold water or stand in front of an electric fan. Dr Gerard Kreiner, Director of pulmonary medicine at Temple University, says, Cool air or water activates the trigeminal nerve, the largest nerve in our head which controls functions like chewing and swallowing, and triggering that nerve will instantly slow your breathing, helping you get back to normal quickly back with more health intelligence from liver specialist Dr Jessica Mellinger, and by far she says the most common form of liver disease she treats is cirrhosis. It impacts an estimated one in five adults with liver disease and kills more than 44,000 people a year, according to the CDC. Dr Mellinger says the number one cause of cirrhosis is heavy drinking. And I asked her why alcohol can be so toxic to our liver. Alcohol is metabolized by enzymes in your body, so alcohol dehydrogenase, which is mainly in the liver and the GI tract, and it metabolizes alcohol into breakdown products that are toxic to the cells in the liver. And so what we see is that those breakdown products are taken up and metabolized further by the machinery and the mechanics of the individual cells within the liver. And as a consequence of that, they produce kind of toxic, what we call reactive oxygen species. And these are things that lead to oxidative stress on the cells in the liver, and then that produces fibrosis. So essentially, ethanol or alcohol metabolism in the cells, and enough of it with heavy doses of alcohol, is actually toxic to the cells, so it kills them, and that's what we see in advanced liver disease. Someone who's heavily drinking, we're seeing signs of cell death in the liver, and then from that cell death is coming, the inflammation, the fat deposition in the liver, is also a result of that oxidative stress. And so when you see the combination of those two things, the fat plus the inflammation as a consequence of heavy drinking, that's when you can really start to see the liver disease progress. And. Them people. And not everybody who drinks will get that type of a reaction in the liver, for sure, but many, many people who do well back with more health intelligence from liver disease expert Dr Jessica Mellinger, and she was just saying that every time we have a drink, alcohol causes oxidative stress that can potentially damage the cells in our liver, and the more we drink, the greater our risk for damage, and the greater the risk of liver disease. But since we often hear that having one glass of red wine a day, for example, can have health benefits, I asked Dr millinger exactly how much alcohol is too much. The first thing to be aware of is that those levels of what's too much differ for men versus women. So men, and if you're talking about moderate alcohol use, which is generally what the studies that show some cardiovascular benefit for a glass of red wine, etc, have shown, is that it's moderate or less alcohol use. So this is one drink a day or less for women, two or less for men. And the second major part of that is understanding what is a drink. So many people don't know that one drink, or one glass of wine, is actually just four to five ounces. It's not kind of the big Chianti glass that you fill half full, but actually takes up half a bottle that's, you know, two or three glasses of wine. It's really understanding that, you know, a serving of alcohol is often much less than what we think. So, one can of beer, one four to five ounce glass of wine, you know, one one and a half ounce shot of liquor that's considered one drink. Have you ever wondered why a 10 minute nap and a hammock can make you feel more rested and restored than eight hours in bed. It's not just being outside that makes the difference. Sleep experts at the University of Geneva say a hammock distributes your weight evenly. It also puts you in one of the healthiest positions for sleeping, on your back with your head slightly elevated, plus gently swaying in a hammock, actually changes activity in the brain in a way that calms us down, helps us fall asleep faster and sleep more deeply. It's even recommended for insomniacs, and of course, it triggers sense memories from when we were babies, of being rocked to sleep by our parents. More intelligence for your health from liver specialist, Dr Jessica Mellinger. And according to a recent study in the journal hepatology, liver diseases caused by alcohol use are being diagnosed in women at nearly twice the rate they're being diagnosed in men these days. And when I asked Dr Mellinger about that, she said she was not surprised, considering how heavy drinking has been normalized by women in recent years. In general, there is seems to be a greater degree of depression, anxiety, mental and emotional health issues, and particularly amongst young people. So we've seen those rates go up as we've seen, rates of severe drinking go up in young people and in young women. But there's also this, this kind of culture of drinking for kind of coping reasons. So drinking to alleviate stress, drinking as kind of a fun social activity, drinking to deal with your emotional problems. So we see this all the time in things like, you know, the rose all day wind down Wednesdays. The the idea that you know as a woman what you do is you, you know, you can drink at night when you're at home, and just sort of relax with your big, you know, your big glass of wine. And what we see, and what I've seen a lot in my clinic is that many women may start off doing that, but then it kind of sneaks up on them and becomes a bigger problem, and pretty soon they're under stress. We've seen a lot of people kind of get blindsided by that, and that one small glass of wine turns into one bottle or two bottles a night, as they're kind of dealing with this. And a lot of our culture sort of uphold that idea that that it's okay to, you know, drink your stress away and drink your, you know, and drink over your emotions. And it really just kind of leads to these, you know, to these bigger and more complex alcohol use problems. Keep some tree nuts on hand. Tree nuts. So, pretty much any nut but a peanut. So think almonds, cashews, macadamias, pecans, pistachios and walnuts, and eating one ounce of tree nuts daily can slash your risk of metabolic syndrome. That's a cluster of conditions including high blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and belly fat. In a study from Vanderbilt University, women who ate one ounce of tree nuts daily lowered their risk of metabolic syndrome by 67% that's because the nutrients in nuts make you feel full, reduce inflammation and balance your blood sugar and all those things are key to preventing metabolic syndrome. Here's an email I received at Connie at intelligence for your health. Dot. Com. It comes from Carmen Bishop, who writes, Hi, Connie, I have two sons who play a lot of sports. Can you go over the signs of concussion? I want to make sure I'm aware, in case their coaches are not good idea, Carmen, and we just read about a test for concussion that's 92% accurate. You can download it online, and it's called the King devick test, and researchers at NYU say it works better than the standard test for brain injuries. It's simply a list of random numbers scattered at random intervals across a page, and it's easy to administer before your child starts a new sporting season, have them read the numbers aloud as fast as they can and make a note of their time. That's it. You'll have what scientists call a baseline reading. Then if your kid gets injured, test them again. If their times the same or faster than their baseline number, they're probably fine. But if they're more than a few seconds slower, take them to a doctor as soon as possible to check for a concussion, but with or without the king devic test, every hit to the head should be taken seriously, and any kid who experiences symptoms like headache, dizziness, nausea or sensitivity to light should stop playing until they're evaluated by A doctor. Thank you for your email, Carmen. I hope this helps. Okay, listen to this if you want to find the shortest line every time, head to your left. Research shows that because we're conditioned to favor the right, we drive on the right. Most people are right handed, so most people automatically move to the right when given a choice that leaves left side lines with fewer people in them. So if you're approaching a toll booth, the grocery store, checkout or airport security, go to the line on the far left. It's typically less crowded. Let's talk about building resilience, According to psychologist Dr Rick Hanson, resilience is what you need to avoid feeling overwhelmed when you're facing tough times. So here's how to build your resilience. First, learn as much as you can about whatever troubles you're facing. Dr Hansen says most of what people fear is the unknown. So the more you learn, the less you have to fear. Then spend 10 minutes a day centering yourself, say, by sitting alone, practicing deep breathing techniques or taking a walk. The goal is to focus on something you can control that helps reduce the stress you'll feel when life starts spiraling out of control. Finally, do whatever you can to help others. The more you help others and learn about their problems, the easier it will be to put your own issues into perspective. Dr Hansen says, using those techniques, you'll develop your empathy, gratitude and grit, which are the hallmarks of resilience, and that will help stabilize your emotions as you're going through tough times, more intelligence for your health from Dr Jessica Mellinger, a professor of hepatology at the University of Michigan, and if you're among the estimated one in 50 adults at risk of being diagnosed with chronic liver disease each year, good news. Dr Mellinger says the condition is avoidable and even reversible. So I asked her how we can avoid liver disease. So if you know, your doctor says, Well, you have some fat in your liver, one of the best things you can do would be stopping drinking. And then if it's if it's non alcohol related, fatty liver, and really losing weight is a key feature of treatment of the non alcoholic fatty liver, the obesity related. And it doesn't necessarily have to be a lot of weight, five, 10% of your body weight kept off over time is enough, and some of our studies that we've seen to really reduce substantially the amount of fat and inflammation in that liver. So definitely, those early stages can be reversed with some of those lifestyle changes, behavioral changes. There are, there are benefits to exercise as well, on to the liver, even separate from losing weight. So exercise itself appears to have a benefit, you know, to your liver, to your liver health. Eating a diet. There's no specific diet that kind of helps, specifically that helps with fatty liver. But in general, you know, staying away from the, you know, the processed carbohydrates, the sugars, the high fructose corn syrup, and eating a healthy, kind of Mediterranean style diet, but kind of maybe going a little lighter on some of the pasta can be helpful to that fat in the liver as well, and help you lose weight too. But really it's that weight loss that is has really been shown to be kind of a key feature in treatment. 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. 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.