Weird Medicine: The Podcast - 329 - Shoo Shoo Scientific Flu!

Episode Date: September 19, 2018

The truth about influenza vaccine, artificial platelets, probiotics, and hematospermia make for an eclectic show.   PLEASE VISIT: stuff.doctorsteve.com simplyherbals.net untuckit.com offer code MEDICINE   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Weird Medicine with Dr. Steve on the Riotcast Network, riotcast.com. I need to touch it. Yo-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho. In the garretid. I've got diphtheria crushing my esophagus. I've got Tobolabovir stripping from my nose. I've got the leprosy of the heart bow, exacerbating my incredible woes. I want to take my brain now, and blast it with the wave and ultrifice.

sonic, ecographic, and a pulsating shape. I want a magic pill. All my ailments, the health equivalent to citizen cane. And if I don't get it now in the tablet, I think I'm doomed, then I'll have to go insane. I want a requiem for my disease. So I'm paging Dr. Steve.

Dr. Steve. Yo-ee-ho. We'll take a careful. Yo-ho-ho-ho. Do they learn a thing. It's weird medicine, the first and still-only uncensored medical show in the history of broadcast radio now a podcast

I'm Dr. Steve with my little pal Dr. Scott, the traditional Chinese medical practitioner who keeps the alternative medicine wackos at bay. Hello, Dr. Scott. Hey, Dr. Steve. And she, who will do most anything for a glass of expensive wine, it's Lady Diagnosis. Hello, Dr. Steve. And Sensei

A. J. holding up the technical aspects of the show. Not really, but thank you for being here in case we have a technical issue. I do what I can. Okay. This is a show for people who would never listen to a show on the radio or the internet. If you've got a question, you're embarrassed to take your regular medical provider. If you can't find an answer anywhere else, give us a call.

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acupuncturist, yoga master, physical therapist, home theater installer or whatever. All right, very good. All right. Thank you very much. It is mid to late September when this is going to be airing and we need to talk about flu shots so we're going to have Richard David Smith calling in he's one of the guys that was a late

adopter of flu shots until he ended up on the ventilator with influenza and now he's my biggest ally on Twitter when it comes he and his wife Shatai they came here they were here they are the owners

and And proprietors of hyperphysics, that's H-Y-P-E-R-F-I-Z-I-C-S, and they make a nerd-themed energy drink, which saved my ass on a 10-hour drive to Florida during the hurricane a couple of years ago. And I drank two of those M-Fers, and, you know, it was like when I got there, it was like, well, can I keep driving? So that's awesome stuff. So check out hyperphysics. You can get it at Amazon. Amazon. com, as a matter of fact.

So, but anyway. So what was his reasoning for not wanting the flu shot? Well, he's like everybody else. Oh, I don't need that flu shot. He doesn't talk like that. He's from Seattle. But, you know, that's my. So just the normal reasons.

Didn't think he needed it. He was young and healthy and thought it was stupid, never got sick. Oh, I never get the flu. you know, that kind of stuff. All the same shit we hear all the time. I'll play that role to this time. Okay. I've never had it.

Never had the flu. Okay. Never gotten the shots either? Well, okay. Me either. So here's the thing. Both of you guys are fucking stupid because he, okay, so the influenza epidemic of 1918 killed one percent of the world's population.

But that's not really the point. Only 10 to 33 percent of people. people got it. So 90% of people didn't get it, right? And there is a lot of herd immunity now. So the likelihood is you're less likely to be exposed to it. You know, we had a bad flu epidemic last year. You know, we may have had, I don't know, 100 people got admitted to the hospital. So out of the population of 40,000 in our area, or, you know, the outlying area is 100,000. So it was a one in a thousand chance, right? So, but you are playing Russian roulette with a bullet, you know, with a gun that has a thousand chambers and one bullet in it.

But if you get that one bullet, you may be in big, big trouble. So. But if I went to Vegas and played on. No, that's right. You would, you would absolutely bet all of those using, you feel like you're using my words against me because I say that all the time. If I gave you those odds, you'd go to Vegas and bet. everything on black, and you would. But you wouldn't, but you wouldn't, let me tell you something. There's one thing if you're betting all of your life savings, and there's a one and a thousand chance that you'll lose it.

What if the, you know, there's a 99% chance that you'll win, you know, that you'll win. Right. But a 1% chance if you lose, then they take you out back and shoot you in the fucking head. Now would you do it? Would you bet everything on that? Exactly. And what does the flu shot cost? you really nothing it's not painful yeah 14 dollars what side effects oh hell 14

uh okay so people will say well i got the flu after i got the flu shot so well you can't because it was never alive the flu shot was never alive but what you can get is an inflammatory response which is what you want and those people will feel um you know they may feel feverish they will not have a fever but they may feel feverish uh they may have myologists or muscle aches and they'll say, well, I got the flu. Or every once in a while, you'll get somebody who had the flu vaccine on Monday and they will get influenza on Wednesday. Now, those people had already been exposed to it when they went to get their vaccine, but there's no way in hell that you will ever be able to convince them. They didn't get the flu from the flu vaccine. Oh, I'll convince

You know. Now, I had, I was, I guess, 59, is that right? I was 59 or, yeah, I was probably 59 when I got influenza. The last year. Three years ago. No, it was like three, four years ago. He was being kind. He's never kind. So that wasn't what it was. He just, he's shitty at math.

No, I remember because he, because first we thought you had a little sinus thing. Yeah. You got worse and worse and worse. Yeah, that's right. I thought I had allergies. You know, and here I was going to meetings and stuff and sneezing and coughing and saying, oh, God, it's just allergies because it was the same time of year I always get my allergies. And which that's a whole other topic because I haven't gotten allergies lately because I finally went and got allergy shots,

but that's a whole not thing. So, but I woke up one morning and I felt really shitty and I asked my wife to take my temperature and it was 105. Now, I had had the flu. shot that year and I had been exposed to the flu mist because my kids had gotten it and it's like well that was worthless well let me tell you it wasn't worthless I still got influenza but I sailed through it I mean at 59 years of age I was at risk of having a bad outcome and all the the worst thing that happened to me was I watched four seasons of arrow on the CW because they made me stay out of school for or status school that's what felt like staying out of work for a for a week

burn up a bunch of paid time off so um so even if you get the influenza you're more likely to have a less severe case now let's talk about this year so for the last two years the flu mist which is the one that's a non-shot version it is a live attenuated virus meaning that one you actually can get influenza from that's the whole point is you're supposed to get a much a much milder syndrome. My kids have gotten it. They've never gotten a fever. They never felt bad.

They might sneeze a couple of times. And then they give it to me, which is cool because I'm not allowed to get the flu-miss vaccine. But the dirty secret is every household where a kid gets it, everybody gets the vaccine because they transmit it. And in the last two years, it was deemed to be worthless. This year, it's deemed to be quite effective. So they've reintroduced it this year. So if you're under 50, you can get the flu-miss vaccine. Otherwise, you're going to get the shot.

You can just go to your pharmacy. There are contradictions to it. You know, if you're allergic to certain things, that can be a problem. And, yeah, they're rare, severe adverse effects, but they're so exceedingly rare that the odds of you having one of those is much less than the odds of you getting influenza and dying. so let's see here it says here for the 20 this is from CDC 2018 29 season or 2019 season the nasal spray flu vaccine is again recommended option for influenza vaccination of persons for whom it is otherwise appropriate it's approved for use in non-pregnant individuals two years through 49 years of age so you can't be less than two and you can't be older than 50 or old older than 49. There's a precaution against the use of the live attenuated vaccine for people with certain underlying medical conditions, you know, and they'll ask you that when you go to get this. So why can you not be over 50? What's the danger there? I'm not sure there is a

danger. Most of the time when this kind of thing comes up, they didn't study it in people over 50 because they thought there might be an issue, so it wasn't studied, so it's not approved. What they'd be worried about, of course, the really young and the really old, and I'm in the really old category now, are too. Are considered to be at risk, so they probably just said it's a live virus. We're not even going to study it. Knowing full well that those people, if they have a kid who got it in the family, they're going to get the vaccine anyway, you know, right? It says here, flu vaccines have been updated to a better match circulating viruses.

The B slash Victoria component was changed in the influenza A, H3N2 component was updated. So anyway, let me see. Cell-grown flu vaccine will be quadravalent. In other words, you know, against four different proteins. And let me see if they say anything else. Nah, nothing. So get the flu shot. Yeah, absolutely get the flu shot.

Gentlemen. You should get a flu vaccine before flu begins spreading in your community. It takes about two weeks after vaccination for antibodies that protect against flu to develop in the bodies to make plans to get vaccinated early in the fall. Now, what does that mean? I would go as late into October as you can. If you hear about people getting influenza in your community, you've waited almost too long. Go ahead and get it right then. and then just practice good hand washing and staying away from people who are sick and stuff like that.

The reason you want to wait as long as you can is because there's another study that recently showed that there's an 18% decrease in immunity every two weeks. So if you start at 100, then you get to, you know, 90, no, gosh, 88, right? What did I say? No, 82. Is that 18%. Yeah, 82. 82. So, 82, and then whatever 18% of 82 is, it never gets to zero, but it starts declining pretty quickly.

So you, you know, in a particularly long flu season, there is some argument that she should get a second flu shot. But, you know, I'm not, I just, I would just like to get people to get their flu shot in the first place. All right. So, I'll get mine. Let me see here. If there's anything else interesting in here. While flu deaths and children are reported to the CDC, flu deaths and adults are not nationally notifiable

in order to monitor influenza-related deaths in all age groups. The CDC tracks pneumonia and influenza attributed deaths through the National Center of Health Statistics. And they're looking at death certificates. So I'm just looking to see to answer your question, Dr. Scott, what are the rates of serious, Well, I was just looking at Gianberra syndromes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's rare. I mean, profoundly rare. Yeah, so anyway, I just decided to do this. The CDC doesn't, the website I'm on right now doesn't have a big expose on the rates of severe adverse effects from the vaccine. So if you want to look for that, that's cool. In the meantime, let me talk to you guys real quick about Untucket, a new sponsor. It's never a good look when you untuck a long, bulky dress shirt, and you may think it makes you look casual, but more than likely it just ends up looking sloppy like Sensei, AJ.

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pants with your shirt. Untucket.com, your solution to perfecting casual attire. Use promo code medicine for 20% savings. That's Untucket.com. Untucket.com. Thank you very much. Those are nice looking. They are nice looking. Aren't they? All right, very good. All right, you want to take some phone calls? Let's do it. Okay.

Uh-oh. Some asshole on the radio. Wait, what? Number one thing. Don't take advice from some asshole on the radio. I wasn't sure what number that came up. All right, sir. Dr. Steve, I had a question.

Do you think that science will one day be able to make human blood plasma platelets? Just curious about that. What are your thoughts? It can't be more than just chemicals and compound chemicals, that kind of stuff. Just curious, what do you think? Yeah, platelets are really interesting. They're not really even cells, the kind of cells. They don't have nuclei, and they perform a specific function in the body, which is to circulate around,

looking for damaged blood vessels, basically, like when you cut yourself. and to flood to that area and create a matrix around which the body can then create a scar tissue. So the platelets aggregate, and then there's all these clotting factors, and it's really complicated and amazing sort of mechanism for healing damage that we do to ourselves every day. And so it would be a really good thing if we had artificial platelets because we could engineer that. so that anybody can have them anytime they wanted them, not have to worry about people donating enough blood

and all this kind of stuff. So I'm looking at an article from 2010 synthetic platelets nanotechnology to halt bleeding. So yes, these things were already being studied. These synthetic platelets were cleared within 24 hours at a dose of 20 milligrams per ML and no complications were seen out to seven days after infusion,

the longest time point studied. These synthetic platelets may be useful for early intervention and trauma and demonstrate the role of nanotechnology can have in addressing unmet medical needs. So it's pretty effing cool. I'm looking at something from 2015. Oh, let's look at something a little bit more recent. Here's from Case Western Reserve. It's artificial blood platelets, reduce bleeding,

and break up clots. It says patented artificial blood platelets developed by a Case Western Reserve University researcher, which have already proven to significantly reduce bleeding in mice and pigs. You know, these damn mice, they got it. They got it all going on. They've got a vaccine for, like, melanoma or something in mice. So, like, of course, I'm being silly.

They test things in mice first, and then we got to see if they were, primates and pigs that are closer to us and then, you know, insert your female male joke here that men are just like pigs. We get it. Can you please stop bullshitting? Sorry, I pushed the wrong button. That one worked just. But they have feelings.

Okay, but anyway, they, so they got to test it on this stuff, but, you know, it is interesting that might. are getting all these advances before we are. It's true zombies, man. We're going to be attacked by mice. It says, Anirban Sengupta, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, has received three patents for the artificial platelet designs,

which can also be customized to deliver drugs to break up clots in treating heart attack and stroke, which would be very interesting. That's pretty cool. So these would be sort of anti-platelets, where they would go to where there's damage, but the clot, and then they would release, you know,

TPA or some of the, clot-busting agent and break up the clot. So that's pretty freaking cool. That means artificial platelets can be programmed to perform seemingly contradictory functions to either stop bleeding or reestablish blood flow. So this is in pig and rat, murine models. This was one year ago, so I'm assuming that they've progressed further than that. And eventually, yes, we will have artificial blood products that we can use in the human body,

which would be great. because, you know, blood donors, for the longest time, you took blood from somebody after having surgery and you were like, well, am I going to get that non-A, non-B, hepatitis, which we now call hepatitis C, which we can now test for, but back then you couldn't. Or am I going to get HIV, which at one time we couldn't test for, but we were transmitting through blood transfusion. So, you know, it would be very nice to be able to have artificial versions of these things, just like, um, fecal blood or fecal transplantation. Right. Um, you can, we now have a, an artificial version of that called repopulate, which is just hilarious.

That's great. Wrong. Wrong. Um, God, dang it. Sound board's not working. I've got a new soundboard and I don't know where everything is yet. And I, I, I just realized I didn't put the laugh on it. I know it is.

So anyway, but repopulate is artificial. stool that you give to somebody through an enema. And I kind of like it better than taking probiotics. I got to be honest with you. They make a probiotic that my kid is now on that has 900 billion colonies in it. You know, the ones you get over the counter might have 6 billion or 30 billion or 10 billion, something like that. It's had 900 billion, almost a trillion colonies. And it's expensive.

It has to be kept in the refrigerator. But my concern about it is, and there are GI researchers that agree with me on this, that when you put it in the stomach and it has to go through the small bowel to get to the large bowel, because that's where we really want it. Some of it stays behind in the small bowel. And then it can increase your risk of getting that small intestinal bacterial overgrowth syndrome, you know. That's a mouthful. Yep. And that's, you know, those people, every time they eat, they feel bloated and they get abdominal pain and diarrhea and stuff like that because they've got a bunch of bacterial colonies in the small bowel where they don't belong. So shoving it up your ass through a, through an enema is maybe a better way to do it, you know? So can you not just put the probiotic up your ass instead of poop up your ass?

Yes. Well, that's what I would say. That repopulate stuff. Yes. And I think you could, you could. do this probiotic as an enema. But you've got to get it high enough. That's the problem. You want to get it all the way up there. So you've got to do the high, hot, and hell of a lot type enema. Your handstands. You can't just do the one that just goes to the rectum and the sigmo.

They can't pucker when you're doing it, right? That's right. They got to relax. Relax. Flip them on the inversion table. That's hilarious. Oh, my God. All right.

Anyway, let me tell you about something else that's going on. Oh, can I? Oh, yeah. Please do, Dr. Steed. Well, I shall do so. Hey, don't forget about blueapron.com. Blueapron.com slash medicine. They deliver farm-fresh ingredients and step-by-step recipes to your door,

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I, on the other hand, I'm an omnivore, and I get all kinds of stuff. Sensor, you should really try this. It is something that you can do with your kids, and it makes you cook more at home, and there's zero waste. because if they say you need two radishes, you get two radishes. That's what I like about it.

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Blue Apron, lets you choose from a range of. recipe options. So check out this week's menu and get your first three meals free at blue apron.com slash medicine. That's blue apron.com slash medicine and get your first three meals free. Blue Apron, a better way to cook. All right. Very good. Hey, Dr. Steve. I wanted to call and tell you that I ended up getting a blue shot this year. And in the past, probably about 15 years ago, I got the blue shot. and I got sick, and it's probably what you said.

I was already had symptoms or felt ill when I got the flu shot. So this time I feel absolutely fine, and I definitely recommend it. A piece of cake. I did it at the supermarket. They charged my insurance, and they also gave you a $10 gift card, so I got a big old sub sandwich. So, yeah, it's pretty easy. Nice.

So he won't get influenza, but he'll contribute to his, coronary artery risk. Dr. Steve, quick question. Serious question, obviously. I've had an ejaculation, which has been off-colored, almost a reddish, bloody or brown. They'd see a doctor about a year ago and antibiotics, which cleared it up.

But it's come back on maybe one or two occasions. It lasts about a week, from a darker color to a lighter color, until it's just back to normal. Any suggestions? Thank you. Okay, so he has hematospirmia. And hematospirmia is the presence of new or old blood in the semen. I had it once when I was in a foreign country, and I was taking aspirin every day, and I had an ejaculation session.

It doesn't matter how I got there. Just suffice it to say that I, you know, ejaculated and there was fresh blood in it. So I stopped taking aspirin for a little while and it went away and I went to my urologist and that's when I had the lovely

scope up the cockhole that hurt so bad that when I ran into somebody's car on the way I just barely tapped them but I got out and looked and said looks fine to me and went home because it really felt

like I was getting ready to piss out small little razor blades out of my penis and then when the police showed up at my house because apparently somebody saw me do it and then and called him and gave him my my license number I was like there is no way that I did any damage to their car I am quite convinced to this day that they took advantage of me leaving to say oh look at you know this broken headlight or whatever it was that they claim that they had done earlier and then blamed it on me, you know, but anyway. So kids, it doesn't matter if you feel like you're going to piss razor blades out at the end of your penis. Don't hit and run. If you hit somebody's car, go get them to

come out and look at it right then. Because if I had taken the time to do that, that wouldn't happen. But anyway. But what I learned from that in doing some research, and I kind of knew this before but when it happens to you it's a different thing that hematospirmia is almost universally benign and I can

I've got a list of things that could be excessive sex or masturbation oops chick interrupted sex prolonged sexual abstinence oops

chick and then there's some infections rare infections, every once in while you'll just get a prostate infection, and that can cause it. Epididymitis, seminal vesiculitis, ooh, that's infection of the seminal vesicle. So what they recommend is that the first time, if it goes away, you can ignore it or go see your primary care, and they'll almost always put you on an antibiotic. And then if it goes away, it's fine. time it happens, you should be seen by a urologist.

So, uh, did you, who else had the scope up the cock hole? Me. Oh yeah. Why did you have? God damn.

Same thing. Yeah. Um, for prostititis. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. And it was a second time and Woody wouldn't make sure that the night

didn't have something goofy up in my bladder. Ooh. Yeah. Mama. I'll never forget him cramming that thing in there and going, you, You're fighting me. I'm like, you motherfucker.

How can you fight somebody with just the sphincter in your bladder? It's amazing. It's horrible. Hey, don't forget. So, that's probably in your future. It's not the worst thing ever. And stay hydrated. You know, stay hydrated.

Sometimes you can get a little. It's not the worst thing ever. It's not the worst thing ever. It's absolutely not the worst thing ever. We're saying shit for comedic effect. But if they want to stick the tube up your, up your meat, say no no shut up drink more water we can get sued for shit like that no you do what they tell you to do no no that's true yeah you know if they tell you don't you do it of course of course

well why else would somebody do it you're not going to walk in saying can i please add that oh god don't forget stuff dot dr steve dot com that's stuff dot doctor steve dot com tweaked audio dot com offer code fluid for 33% off the best earbuds on the market for the price don't forget Dr. Scott's website. Simplyherbal's.net. Simplyherbles.net. You can just go to Dr.steve.com, and there's links to that. And if you're interested in why would you be in archives of this show,

go to premium.com, and you can sign up there for a buck 99 a month. Thanks, always. Go to Dr. Scott, Lady Diagnosis, Sensei, A.J. Listen to our Sirius XM show on the Faction Talk channel. Serious XM. channel 103 Saturdays at 8 p.m. Eastern when we're not preempted Sunday at 5 p.m. Eastern On demand and other times at Don Wickland's pleasure. Many thanks to our listeners whose voicemail and topic ideas make this job very easy. Until next time, check your stupid nuts

for lumps, put smoking, get off your asses and get some exercise. We'll see you in one week for the next edition of Weird Medicine.