Health Podcast: Pickle Juice: Superfood; Exercise Outside; Loneliness Kills

In this episode we feature:

An interview with Lung Health Expert, Dr. David Weill

Clean your water bottle.

Take care of your houseplants and they’ll take care of you.

Don’t text and walk.

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 edition of the podcast. I'm Gib Gerard. Today we have for you another special intelligence for your health with Connie salica edition of the show. Her guest today is none other than lung health expert, Dr David Weil. He's going to talk about everything from smoking to toxins, things that can damage your lungs, all of that stuff. So if you care about your lungs, or you have anybody in your life that does you need to hear this interview. So here, without further ado, is intelligence for your health. With Connie Celica, if you have knee pain, try this. Massage your quadriceps. Your quads are your thigh muscles above your knee. A study in the International Journal of therapeutic massage found that massaging the quads not only improved people's ability to walk, it made going upstairs easier on the knees and the results last, massaging your quads in the early afternoon can help you sleep with less knee pain. Just use long, smooth strokes on the front and sides of your thighs where they join the knee for five minutes, even if your reusable water bottle looks clean, it's probably covered in an invisible biofilm that can make you sick. And why you microbiology professor Dr Philip Tierno compares biofilm to the soap scum that builds up in your bathtub over time. It's simply a layer of bacteria clinging to the inside of the bottle. Biofilm mostly contains bacteria from your own mouth as well as pathogens from the environment, including sickness causing staph bacteria and norovirus. So how did these germs get inside your water bottle? Dr tiernose says it's as simple as touching an elevator button or ATM keypad, then twisting off the top of your bottle or flipping up the mouthpiece. Each time you do that, you're transferring germs that love to cling to wet, dark surfaces, to the opening your mouth touches. It's why Dr tierna recommends buying a bottle brush and using it to scrub inside your bottle every time you use it, then sanitize the brush by soaking it in a bowl of hot, soapy water and vinegar, better yet, stick the bottle in the dishwasher. He says those are the only proven ways to remove biofilm and keep from getting sick coming up. We'll talk to Dr David Weil, former director of the Stanford Center for Advanced lung disease. He'll explain why smoking is so dangerous, and it is the top reason people need lung transplants. But first, are you having trouble staying focused while driving? Turn off the traffic report, because trying to visualize the locations of traffic jams takes over the visual processing areas of the brain. That's why, when drivers and simulators listened to traffic updates, only 23% of them saw an elephant by the side of the road, while those who didn't hear the report were three times more likely to see it. That's why we should listen to the traffic report before we get in the car. We've talked before about how dill pickle juice is packed with probiotics, the healthy live bacteria and yeast that boost gut health and digestion. But the latest research shows another surprising benefit of dill pickle juice, it can help prevent cavities. That's according to the journal frontiers in microbiology. The study subjects were rats, which have similar body chemistry to humans, half of them were fed a cocktail of bacteria found in pickle brine, then the entire group was infected with a cavity causing bacteria known for speeding up tooth decay. The result, after 35 days, the rats that were fed pickle juice had up to 30% fewer cavities compared to those who did not get any pickle juice. The reason because the microbes contained in the probiotics helped eliminate the bacteria that causes tooth decay. The researchers say that doesn't mean you can do shots of pickle juice and skip brushing and flossing, but you could reduce your risk for cavities by adding a variety of pickled foods to your diet, including dill pickles, Kim Chi, Sauer Kraut and pickled onions, carrots and cauliflower. Okay, listen to this. If you're taking a walk, whether you're outdoors or on a treadmill, put your smartphone down and stop texting. According to the journal Computers in Human Behavior, texting or talking on your phone while walking lowers your workout intensity, plus it throws off your balance by as much as 45% and that, of course, raises the risk of injuries. So if you're working out to music, turn on your radio app, then put your phone in your pocket. Today, our guest is Dr David Weil. He's the former director of the Stanford Center for Advanced lung disease, whose latest book is called exhale Hope Healing and a life in transplant. And one of the top diseases that causes people to need a lung transplant is emphysema, that's a condition in which the air sacs of the lungs are damaged and enlarged, and the biggest cause of emphysema is smoking. So I asked Dr Weil what it is about lighting up that makes it so dangerous. With regard to smoking related changes the body actually can repair in people that quit smoking some of the damage that's caused by cigarette smoke, but it doesn't really repair all of the damage. I think what the best way to look at at it is you have a lot of redundant lung tissue. In other words, we have a lot more than we need, and cigarette smoking slowly but surely takes away your lung function, to the point that actually you run out of it, and you get to the point where you have difficulty breathing. The key, though, you know, is to stop and to stop that process. Everyone, as they age, starting at age 20, loses a little bit of lung function, even those of us who don't smoke, but if you smoke, the loss of lung function is about four or five times what it would be in a non smoker, just another reason not to smoke. More health intelligence from lung health expert Dr David Weil and besides not smoking, he says some of the best ways to maintain healthy lungs include avoiding exposure to common toxins found in the workplace, including asbestos, coal dust, silica and other toxic chemicals, which significantly raise our risk for asthma. But what about common irritants found in our own home, including dust that makes us cough and sneeze? Is that dangerous? Too? Does per se just household dust, you know, is not harmful, even dust we see, you know, when the light shots that, or when we clean a cabinet in our house, dust, per se, is not toxic. What I'm really more concerned about is not the irritants, but the things that actually can cause a lung disease. And you know, those are, fortunately less common than things that just irritate us. And I think that that's an important distinction for listeners to understand, is just because something causes you to cough or to sneeze and have a sore throat, doesn't mean it's causing lasting damage. It just means that the long defense mechanism is picking up on her, and one of the ways that we defend ourselves is to cough and sneeze. So in some ways, it's a good thing that's happening is your gag reflex easily activated. Maybe you can't stop yourself when you see someone else who's getting sick, or maybe you gag brushing your own teeth, or because you're queasy from car sickness or sea sickness. Well, try this to stop your gag reflex. Hum, Dr Karan Rajan is a surgeon at the University of Sunderland in the UK, and he says you can't gag and hum at the same time. You can also try sniffing lavender to stop feeling queasy. The active compound linoleum lowers nausea, triggering chemicals in the body that helps your stomach stop churning. Today's medical term thrombocytopenic purpura, or ITP, that's a rare but treatable condition that could explain why you're bruising more easily than usual. Basically, people with ITP have a quirk in their immune system that causes it to attack and destroy platelets in their own blood, and without platelets, it's harder for your blood to clot, so even a minor cut might bleed for hours, and even a slight bump, say against a table, might trigger a scary looking bruise. Many people also develop a series of tiny purplish spots on their skin that they can't easily explain. Those spots are simply the result of internal bleeding that your body is struggling to stop. The good news, studies show many kids develop ITP after getting a viral infection, and once the infection is gone, the condition normally clears up on its own. Also, despite what you may have heard, there is no evidence that having ITP raises your risk for more serious blood disorders like leukemia or autoimmune conditions like lupus, but see a doctor if you regularly get bruises or tiny purple spots that you can't explain because ITP is easily treated with medication, and that's today's medical term, immune thrombocytopenic purpura coming up. We'll hear more from Dr David Weil, author of the book exhale, Hope Healing and a life in transplant. He'll tell us about some of the exciting new therapies coming out that are making it possible for some serious. Ill patients to never need a lung transplant, but first snack on trail mix in the afternoon, sleep like a baby tonight. According to the journal sleep, the standard trail mix ingredients like almonds, cashews, pumpkin seeds and dried banana chips are all high in magnesium, that's a mineral that relaxes muscles and calms the central nervous system. It also acts on brain chemicals to support sleep. In fact, 20 years of data shows that people with higher magnesium intake sleep better and longer touch hugs and cuddles improve well being and reduce pain, depression and anxiety, that's according to the journal Nature human behavior. To come to that conclusion, researchers analyzed years of data that compared people who had been physically touched over the course of an experiment, consensually, of course, to people who had not been touched. The result, sick people showed greater mental health benefits from touch than healthy people, although Healthy People saw positive results too. Newborn babies benefit more from their parents touch than a stranger's touch. Women are more comforted by touch than men, and touching a person's head was found to be more beneficial than touching their torso. The experts theorize that since our sense of touch is the first to develop in babies, it's crucial to our emotional and physical well being, and the more often people experience touch, the greater the benefits. Okay, listen to this. Getting creative makes you more creative. Meaning, doing things like sketching, painting or even decorating cakes make you a better problem solver. Research from Dartmouth College found that practicing some type of visual art re organizes the brain's prefrontal cortex, the region associated with planning and problem solving and being artistically creative increases divergent thinking, which gives you the power to imagine more innovative out of the box solutions. So decorate a cake and come up with brilliant new ideas and solutions for a work issue. Back with more health intelligence from lung expert Dr David Weil. His latest book is called exhale hope, healing and a life in transplant, and it's all about his experiences as a lung transplant doctor. In fact, at one time, Dr Weil was in charge of deciding who got to be on the lung transplant recipient waiting list, which involved making difficult assessments of a potential recipient's age and health status, but there are other factors that Dr Weil says are important when considering who gets a lung transplant. This is important. There's a need for a support system in place so psychosocial considerations such as, does an individual have a supportive family, a friend base that they can rely on to help them through this difficult therapy is very important, and do they have the wherewithal to take care of the organ? In other words, are they a compliant patient? Are they going to do everything to make sure that they treat this organ as a precious resource, because it is, you know, we don't have a lot of them to go around, and we want to make sure that the patients understand that and that they really take care of it, so patients that have a history of, you know, not paying such great attention to their health can be turned down for a transplant because we don't want to use that resource on a patient that may not take care of it back. With more health intelligence from lung health expert Dr David Weil, he says each year, only about 2000 North Americans will get a lung transplant. But thanks to the breakthroughs in gene therapy, there are a growing number of treatments available to patients without ever needing a lung transplant, and one of the conditions that's now treatable is Cystic Fibrosis, that's a genetic disorder that causes problems with breathing. So I asked Dr Weil to explain how gene therapy is helping people with that condition live longer without a transplant. With regard to cystic fibrosis, you know, we found out, I think it was in the early 1990s the exact genetic mutation that leads to people getting cystic fibrosis. So it was only a matter of time before therapy would be available. So if you fast forward from the early 90s, 15 or so years later, there began to be good studies showing that we can actually fix the mutation with medication. In other words, patients can take a pill and the mutation is fixed. In other words, they don't they don't have it anymore. And so. That's a great example of gene therapy actually taking a disease like cystic fibrosis that again, when I got into the field 25 years ago, the life expectancy was around 17 or 18 years. Now it's over 40, and it's getting pushed back every year because the medication is now available sooner, there'll be 50, and then it'll be 60, and then it'll be a normal lifespan, and transplant really won't be required anymore. I don't think those patients so it's a great example of the promise of gene therapy. We hope that we can go disease by disease and apply those kinds of therapies to make those diseases essentially vanish, and that's why everybody's so excited in my field about gene therapy for a better mood. Sit under a tree for 10 minutes. The University of Michigan says the aromatic compounds that trees release prompt the brain to produce the calming neurotransmitter GABA that helps us feel relaxed yet alert by calming our central nervous system so we feel less tense, all from sitting under a tree for 10 minutes. More health intelligence from lung health expert Dr David Weil, if you'd like to know more about him or his latest book, exhale, check out David Weil, md.com, his last name is spelled W, E, I, L, L, and when it comes to boosting our health and staying alive longer, one of the best interventions that Dr Weil personally follows is to take a daily walk. So I asked him why something as basic as walking is really good for our lungs and our overall health. I think that the worst setup for one's emotional health, health is probably to be inside and sedentary, to be honest. And I always found that if I could move, ride a bike, hike in the woods, go to a body of water, because water is very calming. I think the better off that I would be, and I think that that's actually now, kind of, it was intuitive, I think, for most of my life. But I think now, actually there is good there are good studies out there that show that mankind and humankind is really meant to be in nature, and probably not the way many of us live, which is in big cities and a lot of concrete. I think we're better suited, you know, to have some natural environment around us. And I do think it's really important for us to get out and try to do that. We all know that lifting weights can build up our muscles, but strength training also causes changes in the inner workings of our cells. The result studies show, as our muscles get stronger, our fat cells shrink. Now in adolescence, the number of fat cells we have is fixed. After that, they simply expand and contract with our weight fluctuations, but with weight training, we burn fat for at least 24 hours afterward, and according to Iowa State University, people who even occasionally lift weights are 30% less likely to become obese than those who never Lift that's because muscle is metabolically active and burns calories even at rest. So adding muscle mass increases our energy expenditure and resting metabolic rates, but our muscles actually talk to our fat cells, something called cellular crosstalk, and our muscles tell our fat cells to release their stores to be used as fuel. So as our muscles get stronger, our fat cells shrink. It's as simple as that. Here's an email I received at Connie at intelligence for your health.com. It comes from Julianne Shire, who writes, When does a headache mean I need to go to the ER? How bad does it have to be? Julianne, luckily, most of the time, a headache is not an emergency, but if it's the worst headache of your life, or if it's severe, and unlike any headache you've had before, that's when you need immediate medical attention, because something that severe could be the first sign of a brain aneurysm in which a blood vessel in your brain is leaking. If that is the case, you'll need an MRI or CT scan to know for sure, and you may need emergency surgery, because if that blood vessel completely bursts, it could be life threatening. The other type of headache you need to be concerned about is one that comes with numbness or facial weakness, because that could be the sign of a stroke, and you'll need to get to the ER as soon as possible, because you only have about three to four hours from when a stroke first occurs to prevent permanent damage. Thank you for your email. Julianne, I hope this helps. Okay, listen to the. As to lower your stress and anxiety, just spend a minute caring for your house plants. Michigan State University research suggests just a few minutes spent caring for a plant noticeably lowers levels of the stress hormone cortisol. The scientists say small interactions with nature calm the central nervous system and reduce negative emotions for 75% of people. Research in the journal Psychological Science finds that having a happy spouse leads to a longer marriage and a longer life, too. Participants who had a happy partner at the beginning of the study were less likely to pass away over the next eight years compared with participants who had less happy partners. In fact, the study found that your spouse's life satisfaction is an even better predictor of your mortality than your own life satisfaction. In general, life satisfaction is associated with behaviors that can positively affect health, like eating a healthy diet and exercising. And people who have a happy, active spouse, for example, are likely to have an active lifestyle themselves. The opposite is also true. If your partner is down in the dumps and wants to spend every night eating chips in front of the TV, that's how you'll probably spend your nights too. More health intelligence from lung health expert, Dr David Weil, author of the book exhale, it's all about his experiences as a lung transplant doctor and earlier, Dr Weil said one of the more surprising reasons some people are kept off the National Lung transplant waiting list is they don't have a strong enough social support system. So I asked him to tell us more about why having strong social support is an essential part of surviving a lung transplant. Well, I think there's a lot of studies that are now showing, firstly, that loneliness in our country is exponentially increasing. People are alone more and more now than ever before, and some people would say the loneliness is the new smoking. I know that sitting is supposed to be the new smoking, but I think that I think loneliness is hugely important and something to be avoided. People with good family support and social structures do well from an emotional standpoint. And I think very much the emotional well being an individual is directly tied to their physical well being. I've lead to that for a long time and seen plenty of examples of it. So I think that that connection is important. But the more practical consideration is, after you've got a trans, after you've received a transplant, you're not we don't get people right off the operating table, and then they're perfectly well. There's a recovery period and their ups and downs, and sometimes you need help at home with daily activities, feeding yourself, bathing, taking care of yourself generally, and so people have to help. You. Have to get help getting back and forth to the clinic to come see us. It's a real family effort to make the success of a transplant. 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 Gib.