Health Podcast: Don’t Sleep In, Your Dog Misses You, Lock Your Garage

In this episode we feature:

An interview with Pediatric ENT. Dr. Nina Shapiro

Read for longevity

Be grouchy to avoid scams

Your finances are ruining your sleep

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

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Gib, hello and welcome to another episode of the podcast. I'm Gib Gerard here with another special intelligence for health with Connie Celica edition of the podcast. So excited to be bringing that to you guys today. Today on the show, we have, in addition to all kinds of information that you can use in order to live your life a whole lot better, to be a lot healthier, we also have an interview with pediatric ear nose and throat specialist, Dr Nina Shapiro. She is the author of The Ultimate kids Guide to Being super healthy. So you'll get to hear all about that. So here, without further ado, is intelligence for your health with Connie Celica, when you're crazy stressed, try this technique from stress relief expert Jessica Ortner. She says, think about what's bothering you while gently tapping on an acupressure point like your temples by the side of your eyes, the motion and light pressure sends a calming signal to the brain, and tapping is a form of self soothing touch. I have tried this, and it works if you're among the estimated 42% of adults who now work from home but also go into work a few days a week, sleep experts have an important message for you, do not sleep in on days when you stay home. This is according to Dr royette dubar, a developmental psychologist at Wesleyan University. She says it all comes down to your body's internal clock, or circadian rhythm, which regulates when your organs and cells expect things to happen. There's growing evidence now that inconsistent sleep patterns, even by just an hour here and there, throws off your circadian rhythm in a way that will weaken your immune system and make you more prone to brain fog. Sleeping in later has also been linked to making people more irritable compared to when they stick to a regular sleep schedule. It's yet another reason why sleep experts recommend going to bed and waking up around the same time every day, within 15 minutes, even on weekends, that gives your brain and cells their marching orders for the day. And when nighttime rolls around, your body will be anticipating sleep, so you'll be primed for success again. The next day, coming up, we'll talk to pediatric ENT Dr Nina Shapiro, who has some advice for parents and grandparents about how to talk to kids about medical treatments. For example, she'll tell us what to say when a child asks, Will it hurt? But first, how much does your dog miss you when you leave the house. The study published in Psychology Today finds that our dogs miss us the moment we leave the house, and that feeling slowly intensifies for two hours, and then our dogs have a plateau of melancholy. How do researchers know they scanned dog brains with MRIs, and dogs greeted their owners with more enthusiasm after two hours than after just 30 minutes. However, when researchers measured the dogs after four hours, they found no difference between two hours and four hours, and during these stints of separation, dogs also displayed negative emotions, according to MRI data, the solution always give your dog some love before you leave the house. The researchers found that if you give your dog some affection before you leave, they'll have less anxiety while you are away. Do you worry that you or someone you love is at high risk for age related cognitive decline like dementia or Alzheimer's, here's an early sign to watch for walking more slowly than usual. A team from menache university in Australia, led by Dr Taya Collier, kept tabs on 10s of 1000s of retirees over a seven year period. Study participants took periodic tests to measure memory, mental speed, verbal fluency, overall cognitive decline and walking speed. The result those walking at least 5% slower than the previous year were at higher risk for dementia. Dr Collier believes a declining walking speed is linked to shrinkage in the hippocampus, the brain area linked to memory learning and spatial navigation. The good news is we can slow the progress of age related cognitive decline with consistent exercise. Psychologists from the University of Pittsburgh had seniors begin walking 10 minutes a day, and gradually increased it to 40 minutes a day. The result study participants increased the size of their hippocampus by up to 2% which shaved one to two years off their brain's actual age. Again, we now know one of the early signs of. Cognitive decline is a slower walking speed. Okay, listen to this. When was the last time you thought about your garage? Well, here's a reason to think about it. It's an entry point for thieves. Most burglars enter your home through a door or window, but according to Department of Justice crime data, your garage is the third most common way to break in, and a lot of people with attached garages don't lock the door between the garage and the house. And getting into your garage attached or not, could be as simple as lifting up the door or pressing the remote control clip to your car's visor, and if you have an alarm keypad in your garage, change the code on a regular basis. It's very easy to see which numbers are worn from use or dirty from fingerprints. Today, our guest is pediatric ear, nose and throat specialist, Dr Nina Shapiro. Her latest book, called The Ultimate kids Guide to Being super healthy, was written for elementary school age children with the goal of empowering them to take care of their own health. So I asked Dr Shapiro how we should talk to our kids and grandkids about their health. It's a great question. Connie, I think that part of the issue as many adults remember from when they were kids, nobody's interested when you're 789, years old, and doing something that's necessarily healthy. So what I try to do with the book, with the ultimate kids guide, is to just give the information, without using words like good for you, bad for you, harmful, anything like that, or really or even helpful. Kids just want to know information, and they can really get a lot of good information themselves. We oftentimes don't give kids enough credit in what they can understand when it when it comes to science and health and their bodies and the world around them. And I think that the goal that I like to do for kids and for parents, because a lot of the information in the book has new information for a lot of adults, is to just give them knowledge, and knowledge is power. The more that kids understand, the better they can manage their own decisions as they get older into young adulthood and then adulthood. Today we're talking to pediatric ENT Dr Nina Shapiro, and she was just saying that when talking to kids about their health, it's best to just be honest and give kids as much information as you can without using judgmental words like good and bad. So I asked Dr Shapiro how that advice would apply to answering one of the most common questions kids ask before seeing a doctor. Is this going to hurt? I will never say no, it's not going to hurt if I think it might hurt a little bit. But as opposed to just saying yes, this is going to hurt, and you have to deal with it, let's talk about what it's going to feel like, and how you can manage that, and how long it's going to last, and what it might be similar to, to what they've experienced, and really to involve children in the process, certainly when it comes to their own bodies and their own health, I don't like to make up stories for children. I like to give it to them, you know, give them the facts, and they really can handle it a lot better than we would ever imagine, and oftentimes a lot better than adults can handle things. So for instance, I remove tonsils for children who have sleep problems, breathing problems, and occasionally recurrent sore throats. And so oftentimes the kids will ask, is this going to hurt afterwards, and if I say no, it's not going to hurt then, then that's not being fair to the child and not giving them the real information. And I will say yes, it's going to hurt. It's going to feel like a sore throat. But let's talk about how we can make that better. And have you ever had a sore throat before, and what did that feel like? And what works for you that makes it better, and just to know that it's not going to last forever and it's going to go away and make you better, and they feel a lot better, just the more information that kids can get. And again, this goes for adults as well. The more information that any of us have regarding something that's unknown to us, the better off we'll be, and the better we'll be able to manage it. If you're watching the financial news right before bed, you're not doing yourself any favors. The National Sleep Foundation says 27% of people are kept awake by money worries. Dr Ruben Nieman is a sleep specialist from the University of Arizona, and he says it's like eating a spicy meal and then trying to nod off instead watch a comedy before bed. Laughter reduces blood pressure and decreases your heart and respiratory rate. Today's medical term xerostomia, that refers to something most of us probably woke up with. This. Morning dry mouth, because during sleep, saliva production in our mouth drops to about half its normal level, so we tend to wake up with a dry mouth. Xerostomia is also linked to stress, smoking and drinking alcohol, and if you're taking medication, about two thirds of the most commonly prescribed drugs produce dry mouth as a side effect. Health experts say that's a big deal because saliva in your mouth plays an important role in digestion and is one of your top defenses against infection. Saliva also helps keep your teeth clean, which means a chronic dry mouth increases your risk for cavities and gum disease. The good news is that temporary xerostomia is harmless and easy to fix. For example, just drinking water and chewing gum is proven to help stimulate our salivary glands. However, if you ever experience dryness that can't be relieved with water, or dryness that's accompanied by excessive thirst, extreme fatigue or a burning sensation in the mouth, please. You need to see a doctor, because that could be a sign of a health condition, like an autoimmune disease, which causes damage to the salivary glands. And that's today's medical term xerostomia coming up. We'll hear more from pediatric ENT Dr Nina Shapiro, she'll have an important warning for parents who are constantly on the go, shuttling their kids to soccer practices and play dates, for example. She'll explain why you should never let your kids eat their meals on the go. But first, the next time you need to watch a training video for work or anything educational and you're short on time, go ahead and speed up the video. Researchers say you'll learn the information as well as if you just played the video at regular speed. This is the latest from the Journal of Applied cognitive psychology. For the study, they had subjects watch a selection of videos at normal speeds and others at much faster speeds. Then they were tested on the subject matter. Even they were surprised by the results. When the videos were played two times faster than normal, people scored just as well as when the videos were viewed at a regular speed. The researchers say a slightly faster presentation does not over tax a person's working memory. Let's talk about airport germs. Here are the top germ hot spots to avoid, according to microbiologist Dr Kelly Reynolds from the University of Arizona, first, the absolute dirtiest spots in airports are the touch screens on self check in kiosks. In fact, a study found the average airport touch screen contains over 200,000 potentially illness causing bacteria and fungal cells per square inch, which is four times more than the average household toilet seat. Also beware the reusable bins at the security checkpoint, according to the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, half of those bins carry the viruses that cause common colds, and a significant number contain dangerous waste matter, due to all the shoes and bags loaded into them, which were recently touching the ground. Finally, as you're waiting to board your flight, try to avoid touching chair armrests at the airport gate. Research shows those are on par with public toilet seats when it comes to the amount of illness causing germs they contain. That's because they get cleaned less frequently than the seats on planes, and they're constantly being touched by people who've just been eating changing diapers or using the restroom. Okay, listen to this. Have you ever wondered why you seem to get your best ideas while you're in the shower or huffing and puffing on the treadmill? It's probably because you're not trying to come up with a great idea. According to research from the University of London, you're more likely to have an aha moment when you let your mind wander than when you focus intensely on a problem. So the next time you're stumped, go do something else for a while and let the solution come to you naturally back with more intelligence for your health and more from our guest pediatric ear, nose and throat specialist, Dr Nina Shapiro, and now that most kids are back in school, health experts say we are officially at the start of cold and flu season. So I asked Dr Shapiro how we can tell the difference between our kids coming down with just a cold or something potentially more serious, a little bit of stuffy nose is a is okay. A little bit of clear runny nose is usually okay. Once a child starts coughing, and if that cough sounds sort of wet and congested, any sort of fever above 100 any sort of difference in your child. And and parents and caregivers know their children best. If your child is just not themselves, if they've lost their appetite, if they just don't seem as active or interactive, children behave differently when they're not feeling well. It's not always the same type of behavior. Some children get just get really quiet when they're not feeling well, some kids get very whiny and cranky and clingy. If your child just seems different and you're not sure what's going on. My mantra is always, never worry alone. Always ask somebody. Ask your physician, your pediatrician or your family doctor, to have you know, to go over what their symptoms are. Involve somebody else, if you're not sure, and always err on the side of caution. I know nobody wants their child to stay home from school or activities, but it's much better to miss one day than to send them that day and then get stuck home for a week and then also potentially share or spread this infection with their classmates and friends. Back with more from Dr Nina Shapiro, author of The Ultimate kids Guide to Being super healthy, one of the habits she recommends for staying super healthy is to eat meals as a family on a regular basis, preferably while sitting down at a table. Dr Shapiro says that's not just because family meals encourage stronger bonds with kids. It's also because eating meals on the go, like in the car, is potentially dangerous for kids. I feel that that leads to mindless eating. First of all, we're not thinking about it as an activity, and so we don't really think about eating, and that's not necessarily healthy. It's not a social activity. And I do think that ideally, eating is a social experience. And for children, especially, it's potentially dangerous if they are running around while they're eating, if they're eating in the back of a car, and for the car in particular, while the adult in the front seat is driving, they need to be focusing on the road. And children are rear facing until age two years, and if they are eating and they have an episode where they're choking on something, you cannot see them or hear them or do anything about it, if you're driving on the highway or the freeway and your child starts choking. So that's very dangerous. And that goes the same when they're when they're front facing, because, again, you need to be focused on the road, not on your child potentially choking on food in the back seat. I think a sippy cup or a cup of water, or, you know, milk even, is fine for a child who's old enough to hold hold the cup themselves. But solid foods, especially high risk choking foods, which include nuts and popcorn and any sort of larger raw vegetables or raw fruit, are potentially dangerous in the back seat of a car for a child, people who read books live longer than people who don't. That's from the Yale University School of Public Health, which studied 1000s of people for 12 years, they found people who read for half an hour or more per day were 17% less likely to die and lived two years longer than those who read no books. So what about people who read newspapers and magazines? Their life expectancy was slightly longer, but not on par with reading books. The researchers aren't entirely sure why reading increases lifespan, but they speculate that it's the mental stimulation that improves brain health and the fact that reading reduces stress, both of which are known to increase longevity, more intelligence for your health. From Dr Nina Shapiro and as a pediatric ENT, she's the go to doctor for many parents whose children have breathing issues. In fact, Dr Shapiro says one of the most common questions she gets asked is, is it normal for my child to snore? And here's how she responds. So Connie, one of the most common things I see in my practice as an ear, nose and throat surgeon, is snoring in children. And when we talk about snoring, it's a huge range from very mild to severe, what we call sleep apnea. And for children and for adults, a little bit of snoring is not abnormal, and I say that with with a lot of caution, and that really depends on if the snoring has a regular quality to the breathing, meaning that the child is not struggling to breathe. It's just a little background noise. They're sleeping comfortably. They sleep all through the night. They wake up feeling rested. They are not congested. They don't have a stuffy nose. They're able to breathe through their nose during sleep, and so if they can't breathe through their nose and their mouth is propped open, that's a sign of potentially some blockage in their breathing, but a little bit of snoring and a. Especially if it gets a little bit worse when they have a cold or during allergy season, is okay, as long as it's not interfering with the quality of their sleep every night. Have you ever cried happy tears, like at a wedding or when your kid went off to college? You're happy, of course, but you're also sad to see your kid go or you're crying because Time passes so quickly, you're definitely not alone. Researchers at the University of Canada in Waterloo say it's common for people to experience both happiness and sadness at the same time, and it has a benefit. It's our brain's way of trying to even out our emotions and restore emotional equilibrium meaning, by expressing two emotions at once, we recover faster from our strong emotions compared to those who only have one emotional response. Also people who can feel and express two emotions at the same time relate better to others. They're also more in touch with what's going on around them. So the next time you cry at a happy reunion, know that it's your brain's way of leveling out from strong emotions, and it makes you more emotionally intelligent. Here's an email I received at Connie at intelligence for your health.com It comes from Megan Koontz, who writes, do poor strips really remove dirt and blackheads? Are they safe to use? Well? Megan Dermatologist, Dr Mary Stevenson, says, poor strips do work for the most part. Each strip contains glue that bonds to the skin, and when you pull off the strip, it removes the top layer of dead skin cells, plus the oily debris of bacteria that cause blackheads, but the strips won't remove every blackhead. They can't clear up blackheads long term or prevent them from happening in the first place. And if you have sensitive skin, be careful, because the adhesive could cause irritation. Now here's the trick to using pore strips correctly. According to dermatologists, first splash your face with warm water to open your pores, which helps the adhesive stick to the blackheads. Then get the sticky side of the strip wet, press it firmly in place. And here's the key, let it dry completely, which can take up to 40 minutes. And by the way, if you're worried about the strips making pores look bigger with regular use, you can stop your worries. Dermatologists say pore size is genetic, and the only things that make them bigger are age and sun damage. Thank you for your email. Megan, I hope this helps. Okay, listen to this. Are you feeling cranky that could benefit your brain and your wallet. Researchers found grouchy people tend to pay more attention to what's going on around them and ask more questions, which gives them better memories and sharper minds. It also reduces their risk for being scammed, like when a criminal calls or emails pretending that your bank or credit card company requires verification of financial information. Meanwhile, happy people tend to float on a cloud of positive emotions and exert less brain power, making them much more likely to take mental shortcuts and get taken in by a scam. Here are science backed ways you can give yourself a mental health boost. Take a walk on a tree lined street, according to the University of Vermont, people who walked in an area with lots of trees used happier words and expressed less negativity than they did before their walk and their mood remained high for four hours afterward. Then while you're walking down the tree lined street, change the way you walk. According to a study by Queen's University in Canada, study subjects who were told to walk with very little arm movement and with their shoulders rolled forward, experienced worse moods than those who were told to walk in a happier style, swinging their arms, head up with a spring in their step. More intelligence for your health from pediatric ENT, Dr Nina Shapiro, if you'd like to know more about her or her book, The Ultimate kids Guide to Being super healthy, follow her on Instagram. Her handle is at Dr Nina Shapiro, and there's one thing she hears parents say to their kids that really bothers her, because the way parents talk to kids about basic medical treatments can help them be less fearful around doctors, which can help them for the rest of their lives. One thing that I always like to tell parents is that I do not recommend using vaccines or shots as a threat or a punishment. I hear it every day from parents. If you don't behave at the doctor's office, you're going to get a shot. And that really, really makes shots as scary as they are for many adults and for many children, it makes it this horrible punishment. Which it is not. And I really like to emphasize that vaccines for children and for adults are to help, they're not to hurt, and using that as a threat to a child is really, you know, sets them up for an understanding that shots are bad and dangerous and wrong. And I think that's a bad piece of information. 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.