Thanks for tuning in to the Armor Men’s Health Hour Podcast today, where we bring you the latest and greatest in urology care and the best urology humor out there.
In this segment, Donna Lee is joined by NAU Urology Specialists' partner, Dr. Christopher Yang, and special guest Dr. Andrew Papendiek of Premier Family Physicians in Dripping Springs, Texas. Dr. Papendiek is a primary care physician who is here to share with us why seeing your PCP is so important, the kind of red flags they look for and treat, and what you should expect from an appointment with your PCP. Big takeaways include a focus on overall health and wellness through lifestyle modifications where possible and prescription medication when necessary as well as screenings for such health markers as HDL and LDL cholesterol, high blood pressure, and high blood sugar. If you or someone you love is looking for a primary care practice in Dripping Springs, please give Dr. Papendiek and his associates at Premier Family Physicians a call today or visit them online at https://www.pfpdocs.com/ and click the Dripping Springs tab!
Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share us with a friend! As always, be well!
If you enjoyed today’s episode, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share us with a friend! As always, be well!
Dr. Mistry is a board-certified urologist and has been treating patients in the Austin and Greater Williamson County area since he started his private practice in 2007.
We enjoy hearing from you! Email us at armormenshealth@gmail.com and we’ll answer your question in an upcoming episode!
970 Hester’s Crossing Road Suite 101 Round Rock, TX 78681
South Austin Office
6501 South Congress Suite 1-103 Austin, TX 78745
Lakeline Office
12505 Hymeadow Drive Suite 2C Austin, TX 78750
Dripping Springs Office
170 Benney Lane Suite 202 Dripping Springs, TX 78620
Speaker 1:
Welcome back to the Armor Men's Health Hour with Dr. Mistry and Donna Lee.
Donna Lee:
Welcome to the Armor Men's Health Hour. This is Donna Lee. Dr. Mistry stepped away for a moment, but we have our partner Dr. Christopher Yang here. Hello, Dr. Yang.
Dr. Yang:
Hello, Donna. How are you?
Donna Lee:
Good. Thanks for filling in Dr. Mistry today.
Dr. Yang:
Yeah, he seems to be pretty slippery sometimes.
Donna Lee:
He just to get likes to get up and walk out. So Dr. Yang and I have a very special guest and I'm going to have him introduce our guest. But he's with Premier Family Physicians. Dr. Yang, take it away.
Dr. Yang:
So this is Dr. Andrew Papendiek. He's a family practice physician here at Premier. He is over at the Dripping Springs office. So we're, we're reaching pretty far out in the Austin area.
Donna Lee:
Yeah, that's right. We're in Round Rock, North Austin, South Austin, and Dripping Springs, Texas. If you want to ask Dr. Papendiek any questions, you can reach out to us at armormenshealth@gmail.com. We will send him the questions. We'll answer them anonymously. And I thought you guys would talk about some fun stuff that our KLBJ listeners probably need to know.
Dr. Yang:
So, Dr. Papendiek, we get quite a few patients that come in who've never seen a primary doc before. And, you know, as poor country urologists, you know, we see that they have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and we're not the right person to, to manage that for them. This is kind of your area of expertise. Why don't you tell us, like, what all can be done should be done and how do you screen for these types of things?
Dr. Papendiek:
Sure. Well, first of all, thanks for having me here today. It's an honor to be with you all and have professional looking headphones on and in front of a microphone right now. It's the first time I've ever...
Donna Lee:
These are from the 1990s, the headphones.
Dr. Papendiek:
Bread and butter, family medicine, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and high blood sugar. There are things that often go under appreciated, but there are also things that are best approached first with with lifestyle changes and conservative measures. And so one, one of my jobs are to help my patients point out or help point out to my patients, the items in their health that are risks for them down the line, and to identify them and to help help point out some different lifestyle conservative measures, whether it be diet, exercise, stress reduction, or combination of those to try to approach these initial markers of some potential health problems down the line.
Dr. Yang:
Okay. So, you know, for your average radio listener here, like if they had high cholesterol, high blood sugar--they have no idea. What might they notice?
Dr. Papendiek:
Typically nothing. And, and when you have symptoms from these processes, be it high blood sugar, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure, typically your go on your daily life without having any inclination that you have something wrong or not necessarily something wrong, but a risk factor to develop something wrong. And once you develop symptoms, usually things have progressed to a point where you actually have pathology. You have a secondary processes that have occurred, whether that be a plaque in your heart and lack of blood flow to the heart or to the brain or to the eyes, to the kidneys. Yeah.
Dr. Yang:
Or Donna, what's more important organ here, right? Your know, the penis.
Donna Lee:
The penis that we talk about every time.
Dr. Papendiek:
Very true. And so, yeah, inability to get an erection or an erection is, is a marker of, of progressed processes, all of these processes: blood sugar, blood pressure and club.
Dr. Yang:
Yeah. So, yeah, it's a lot of times when we see patients in and they have erectile dysfunction as their only medical problem, we definitely want to look for some of these things. Once they've been diagnosed, what, what are some easy treatments that they can do? You know, you said diet, exercise--I'm sure patients hear that all the time. What do you typically tell your patients?
Dr. Papendiek:
I think a major reason for apprehension to come to see the doctor is his not wanting to be on a medication, which I think is very reasonable thing. I mean, medications change how our bodies work. Our bodies are incredible machines and they repair themselves very well. And so if medicines can be avoided, they should be in, in all instances in my, in my opinion. But if there's a point at which conservative measures have been tried and have failed, well, then there's a, a clear, relatively clear time in which they should be started to lengthen our life if that's a decision that the patient would like to sign on to. But yeah, it's, it's difficult to generalize because I tend to make recommendations specific to each of my patients in each of their abnormalities.
Dr. Yang:
Yeah, definitely.
Dr. Papendiek:
And so if someone has a triglyceride level, that's elevated in addition to an LDL level, but their HDL is normal, then I might make a different dietary recommendation then if someone's HDL is low and their the rest of their panel is, is fine. And so, yeah, I, I like to help point out dietary changes, and if time requires us to have a dietician help out, sometimes that can be helpful. But I like to take this into my own hands and take a multifaceted approach and not just diet, but also incorporation of exercise. And, and one last thing that I think is very under appreciated is the glycemic index and attention to foods that spike our blood sugar because a spike in our blood sugar is not handled well by our body and is underlying a lot of inflammatory processes in our body.
Dr. Yang:
Yeah, definitely. I think you pointed out a pretty good point and probably why a lot of patients are scared to go to a doctor is they think that the first thing that we'll do is put you on a medication. And I think it's pretty important to understand that....
Donna Lee:
That's not what you want to do.
Dr. Yang:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So some physicians do that, but you know, taking a more like holistic, more like whole body approach to any medical problem makes some sense.
Dr. Papendiek:
I think as doctors, it's prudent for us to appreciate the fact that our patients are trusting us to help them understand themselves and make decisions. And, but ultimately it's their, it's their decision. It's their body, what, what they like, how they like to approach different issues. And it's, it's our job to help them understand what these processes are and help them understand the options. And, yeah, sometimes a medicine is, is recommended to begin with, to increase quality of life or increase the length of life. But...
Donna Lee:
For short-term, sometimes.
Dr. Papendiek:
Yeah, but it's oftentimes there, a different route is, is either acceptable or better, perhaps.
Dr. Yang:
Definitely. Now I guess this is the part where we, like, we tell the worst case scenario and try to scare people. What, what are bad things that can happen with uncontrolled high blood pressure, or diabetes, or high cholesterol?
Dr. Papendiek:
Yeah. All of those things affect our blood vessels and their integrity and put them at risk for, for the development of plaque or the medical term atherosclerotic lesions, and plaque in the blood vessels disrupts the flow. The blood can't flow as good through a vessel that has a piece of plaque intruding into the lumen. I mean...
Dr. Yang:
Definitely as, as urologist, we're all about good flow, right?
Donna Lee:
You're in good hands. Good flow. But so stop eating the hamburgers is what you're saying. Get some exercise, stop eating all that red meat?
Dr. Papendiek:
Moderation.
Dr. Yang:
I'm sure the KLBJ listeners are like," Boo! We don't like this segment at all." Yeah. And just, just one hamburger. Don't take, don't get that second one.
Donna Lee:
Why don't we talk about too? What's a normal triglyceride range, HDL, like all those things that I'm sure patients have heard about, but they don't know what the range should be?
Dr. Yang:
Also like the difference between the good and bad cholesterol. What does that mean?
Donna Lee:
Yep.
Dr. Papendiek:
Well, starting with LDL, since we have the most data about that being an evil particle, we like those levels to be under 100, better yet under 70 for, for those that have multiple risk factors. And so that's a particle that is directly associated with development of those plaque lesions that limit flow and can rupture and cause a clot in a vessel and a heart attack and a stroke. So that it should be under 100. And, and the best way to lower it is actually increasing your fiber intake, probably a highest yield change to make. So increasing the amount of vegetables and having those replace other foods that might've otherwise taken their spot.
Donna Lee:
Yum. I hear the people booing right now, but yes, good idea.
Dr. Papendiek:
HDL, healthy cholesterol, high density lipoprotein, kind of thought to be a cleaner particle that can help our vessels stay healthy. Increasing our omega-3 fatty acids, our healthy fats in the form of chia seed, flaxseed, healthy, nuts, cold water fish can be a way to increase that in general, a healthy living exercise and monitoring.
Donna Lee:
We're always talking about healthy nuts around here.
Dr. Papendiek:
Yeah. I love, I love these little insertions.
Donna Lee:
We will send you the show excerpts. We talk about it every time. What other questions do you have Dr. Yang?
Dr. Yang:
I guess in, in general, how often should patients go see their primary doctor? You know, that's...
Donna Lee:
Good question.
Dr. Papendiek:
I like to see my patients every year at a minimum. And the reason for that isn't necessarily because I'm suspicious they've developed something abnormal, but, but more so that there's a influx of medical information, that, that seems to be increasing in volume and speed. And so there's just constantly more data to apply to my patients and help them to prevent themselves from developing disease. Those that are on medications, I like to see it in every six months, for similar reasons, but also for safety purposes. So every year for healthy individuals is a general good idea and it's covered by insurance.
Dr. Yang:
Okay, good. What, what can a patient, you know, expect at a yearly physical, yearly exam?
Dr. Papendiek:
Discussion, family history--very important, under appreciated. But really a focus on what their goals are and, and let that lead the appointment. And if, if they'd like me to take control and happy to do that, but I try to, I try to have the patient's guide, guide how the visit goes and meet their objectives.
Donna Lee:
Perfect. And how do patients get in touch with you if they're in the Dripping Springs area and need a family practice physician?
Dr. Papendiek:
Well, our website, it can be accessed via Premier Family Physicians and you just click on click on the Dripping Springs tab and should be able to find us and find our number there.
Donna Lee:
Okay. And we'll put this on our social media too, so you can meet Dr. Papendiek.
Dr. Papendiek:
Oh, thank you.
Donna Lee:
Yeah. Thank you for joining us today. We have...anything else, Dr. Yang?
Dr. Yang:
No. I think that wraps it up.
Donna Lee:
We're wrapping it up. We're in Round Rock, North Austin, South Austin, and Dripping Springs. For armormenshealth.com is our website. And our email address is armormenshealth@gmail.com. You can catch our podcasts wherever you listen to free podcasts all over the world. Thank you, guys.
Dr. Yang:
All right, thanks.
:
The Armor Men's Health Hour will be right back. If you have questions for Dr. Mistry, email him at armormenshealth@gmail.com.