Weird Medicine: The Podcast - 333 - Hyper-Flu-Zzics

Episode Date: October 18, 2018

"Get your flu shot," is the message from R. D. Smith, the co-owner of Hyperfizzics (available on amazon via stuff.doctorsteve.com) who had profound respiratory failure from influenza. Also stuff that ...should be in your survival kit. PLEASE VISIT: stuff.doctorsteve.com simplyherbals.net blueapron.com/medicine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 You're listening to Weird Medicine with Dr. Steve on the Riotcast Network, riotcast.com. I've got diphtheriae, ho, ho, ho, y'all. I've got diphtheriae crushing my esophagus. I've got Ebola vibes dripping from my nose. I've got the leprosy of the heartbound, exacerbating my incredible woes. I want to take my brain now, blast with the wave and ultrasound. On a geographic and a pulsating shave, I want some magic pills for all my ailments, the health equivalent of 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 to requiem for my disease.
Starting point is 00:00:45 So I'm paging Dr. Steve. 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 press. practitioner who keeps the alternative medicine wackos at bay. Hello, Dr. Scott. Hey, Dr. Steve. She who will do most anything for a glass of expensive wine,
Starting point is 00:01:08 it's lady diagnosis. Hey, Dr. Steve. And she won't do anything no matter what I do. It's my wife Tacey. Hello! This is a show for people who would never listen to a medical show on the radio or the internet. You have a question you're in Paris to take to a regular medical provider if you can't find an answer anywhere else.
Starting point is 00:01:24 Give us a call. 347-766433. That's 347. Pooh Head. You're listening to us live, the number 754, 227, 3, 647. That's 754. Bairnip. Or 754, 22 penis, which is my favorite. Oh, wait. Oh, you pulled the old switcheroo on me, Lady Diagnosis. Follow us on Twitter at Weird Medicine at Lady Diagnosis and at D.R. Scott, W.M. Visit our website at Weirdmedicin.com or Dr. Steve.com for podcast, medical news and stuff you can buy. and go to our merchandise store at cafepress.com slash weird medicine.
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Starting point is 00:02:27 Well, you do know answers. everything. She knows things. Don't forget to go to stuff. Dot, Dr. Steve.com, where you can buy anything. Stuff. Dottersteve.
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Starting point is 00:02:51 at simplyerbils.net. And I'm going to use some of his simply herbal's nasal spray sinus rinse oh sinus rinse good stuff we'll see if my voice clears up that sounds really
Starting point is 00:03:11 buffered saline it's got some peppermint oil in it which is an anti-inflammatory at the level of mucus membrane at least that's what he claims but I can tell you it's my favorite it really works well
Starting point is 00:03:26 check out blue apron.com slash medicine for your first three meals free. And if you want to hear archives of the show, go to premium. Dottersteve.com. That's premium. dot, Dr. Steve.com for a buck 99. You can get archives of all of the shows, plus some premium content. And my favorite way to do that is to get the weird medicine app from the app store or
Starting point is 00:03:53 Google Play Store. And it's very seamlessly integrated that way. All right. Very good. Okay. Hey, let's take a few phone calls. Don't take advice from some asshole on the radio. And that would be the first thing. On the phone, we have Richard David Smith, who we teased last time.
Starting point is 00:04:12 We were having technical difficulties. Couldn't get him on, but he's here now. Richard David Smith is the owner and proprietor of hyperphysics. That's hyper F-I-Z-Z-I-C-S, the energy drink for NERN. nerds. Richard, thanks for being on the show. Oh, thank you, Dr. Steve. So, first off, how's everything going with hyperphysics these days?
Starting point is 00:04:40 Hey, Tacey, your son keeps calling. Would you answer that? Sorry. We're very professional here on the podcast. Your son? Our son. So anyway, yeah, tell us how things are going with hyperphysics these days.
Starting point is 00:04:57 so yeah we're going well we sell that uh well you know we live in seattle now we've been selling at pipe market um in some um local you know common cons and so yeah it's going well up here we're trying to establish more of a local presence now um and that's kind of where it's at right now our kids are in school now so we can actually do things during the day yeah that's right yeah last time we saw your kids they were really little so how old are they now Right now, yeah, my oldest, Rex is six and youngest Joe was four. Okay, okay. Yeah, so it hadn't been that long.
Starting point is 00:05:35 I was thinking, oh, God, maybe they're like 19 and 17. No, no, no. It hadn't been that long since you were here. But they were really little when you were here. Yeah, cool. Yeah, they were, yeah. So, and can you still get it on Amazon? Yes, you can get on Amazon.
Starting point is 00:05:53 And I have to thank you, too. one of your listeners became like one of our actually our best customer. Oh, really? Oh, good, good, good. Yeah. Well, I need to order some because we're getting ready to do our marathon drive to Florida. We used to always fly it.
Starting point is 00:06:09 I was too lazy to drive and then one year the hurricane canceled our flights and we said, by God, we're going anyway. So we just got in the car and drove and it was awesome, but only hyperphysics saved me on that one. I was afraid. Yeah, I remember that.
Starting point is 00:06:25 I was afraid he was going to OD on Well I only did two But I'll tell you by the time we got down there I was like drive drive drive drive I got out of the car I would argue your two was actually five Because I remember being really freaked out About how much energy drink you were drinking
Starting point is 00:06:47 Okay well maybe But it was it was good Yeah we I remember when you did that yeah I remember when you took that trip and had the drinks. Yeah. But, you know, I need a good energy drink because I'm not a morning person. Like, I just woke up.
Starting point is 00:07:05 I mean, it's 11 out here, but I can operate on Ron Bennington time. Yeah, I understand. I wish I could. I used to be able to sleep until 2 in the afternoon when I was in college. And now, you know, if I sleep to 7.30, I'm really sleeping late. And, but anyway, yeah, cool, man. Well, good. Good luck with that venture.
Starting point is 00:07:25 we're definitely support you in that and any sort of nerd endeavors we're always in favor of at least i am anyway and tacy married a nerd so she should be by default supportive so um but that's not why you call today so what's going on give us the scoop uh well you know it's kind of just a reminder for it to everyone to get their shot you know it's important um you know this but You know, um... Tell your story why, because you were not always such a flu shot enthusiast. No, I mean, I, you know, I would get it, but I wasn't like, you know, an advocate. Um, but the reason now that, you know, that's kind of become my thing is that the flu almost killed me a few years ago, as you know.
Starting point is 00:08:18 And, well, you know, we say, oh, you know, I took such a giant dump, it almost killed me. and we're speaking metaphorically. You're not actually speaking metaphorically. It literally almost killed you. What happened? Yeah, right. It was actually when we were moving across the country, which is like probably the time you need the vaccine the most,
Starting point is 00:08:39 but I neglected to get it that year. So we're driving all around the country. We're actually moving to Seattle, and we're driving up the California coast, and suddenly I have problems breathing. Like, really, like, you know, I needed to open the windows, and it felt like I couldn't get,
Starting point is 00:08:54 a full breath no matter what i did so and i'm one i'm like you you know once i get going driving i can do it forever pretty much and um so of course you know i just want to keep trucking along and then eventually i just had to pull over the car you know and say i got to rest for a few minutes i can't i feel horrible and then that's when uh my wife shatai who you also know um sure she she said you know it's time to get this looked at you know you're i have a feeling if you fall asleep you might not wake up so we're in back inville california i'm like all right well let's let's go to this hospital in vackerville two little kids in the car you got all your crap in a car and your wife is going i i'm afraid you're not going to wake up that had to be terrifying for her oh yeah and
Starting point is 00:09:46 then really she had the worst part of all this um and you're right, yeah, we were moving across the country and we threw away everything except what we could fit in my 99 Mercury Grand Marquis. I remember. And, yeah, you remember, so here we are. So we stopped at the hospital. I get admitted. And they were kind of a little bit sick, too, but not to my degree.
Starting point is 00:10:08 So we took a look at me, and then they took me in to a room. They admitted me, and they couldn't really figure out what it was. And they were asking me if I was a smoker, which I'm not. And they were asking me all these, you know, they were testing me for everything. They tested me for HIV. One of the guys thought it was Valley Fever because we had just been through the desert. Sure. And so they said, well, you know, we can go into your lungs and look and, you know, actually get a sample out.
Starting point is 00:10:39 Or we can just start giving you antibiotics. Antibiotics. Right. So I actually had them just go in and get it because I just wanted to know what the hell of And I kind of had a nervous nanny doctor. So he, um, I think he kind of messed up when he went in there. And so he come after, you know, he's getting the sample, he, he screws up, I think. And I never saw him again after that.
Starting point is 00:11:06 Wow. So they bring me out. So they bring me out and I'm on life support suddenly. And, you know, my wife sees me and she's, you know, thinks I'm dead. Oh, jeez. She's like, you know, what's going on? And they were like, well, something kind of went wrong. and his oxygen level reached zero so we had to put him on the ventilator so yeah and so
Starting point is 00:11:27 they had me there on the ventilator they still don't know what's going on so they bring it they brought in basically their house MD like resident you know genius doctor right because none of these doctors can figure anything out and um so he comes in they take a look at you know they see that I have pneumonia so my lungs are like ravaged from, you know, I guess when you have the flu, you know, the bacteria that are already in, your lungs start attacking you, and your immune system's down. Yeah, and you probably had diffuse pneumonia instead of, you know, like pneumococcal pneumonia, like sort of what we think of as pneumonia. There's lots of different types of pneumonia, but that was the one that got Jim Henson, usually causes a lobar pneumonia. In other words, it'll be in one section of the lung, one of the lobes of the lung.
Starting point is 00:12:17 and I'm assuming yours was patchy and all over the place, so-called atypical pneumonia, which is why they checked you for HIV. But anyway, go on. Oh, okay, so that's why they did that. Yeah, I was wondering why they tested me for HIV. So, yeah, so they, you know, and then, so when all of a sudden done, they find out that I had the flu.
Starting point is 00:12:40 That's what I had. That's what knocked me on my ass. And I was like, you know, and then they started treating me there. they started treating me for the pneumonia, so they started pumping me with, like, every antibiotic, and eventually I came back. So that's pretty much the story there, but... What time of year was this? This was, I'm going to say late March, early April.
Starting point is 00:13:03 Yeah, so it was at the end of the influenza season, what we would normally think of as being influenza season. And I passed through the valley, so they thought, you know, they're thinking all these zebras. This is the problem. So if it had been January, they might have started with it. Maybe. So how did they figure out it was influenza?
Starting point is 00:13:21 They did a influenza test? Yeah, I'm assuming that's what they did. And I didn't realize it was so hard to diagnose. It's not. Maybe it isn't. It's the easiest thing in the world to diagnose. But you've got to think of it. So I guess, right.
Starting point is 00:13:37 I guess just nobody thought of it because of the severity, but until, you know, until a few days after I was in there. so yeah yeah that's how they finally got it you know it took a while i was in there for like a week it's just getting pumped with antibiotics and um so and the reason i use the zebra metaphor is people you know if you're in a field in tennessee or in seattle and uh you hear the clip clop of hoof beats behind you when you turn around you're going to assume you're going to see a horse not a zebra, right? So, you know, that's the same in medicine. When you see these
Starting point is 00:14:21 syndromes, we really should be thinking, we need to keep the zebras in the back of our mind because, you know, maybe a zoo, there's a zoo nearby and something got loose or somebody was keeping exotic animals, but you got to not forget about the horses. And in your case, you know, it was
Starting point is 00:14:37 the end of what you would have thought would be the influenza season because it's already spring out there in California. Nobody's thinking influenza. You just passed through the valley, and they thought you had valley fever, which is a zebra in this case, although the symptoms can be similar. Valley fever is a fungal infection caused by coxidoides, coxidiosis, and it causes coxidio mycosis. that one I can say the actual the the the organism itself is a little harder to say but
Starting point is 00:15:16 coxidomycosis and it causes fever cough chest pain chills night sweats headache fatigue joint aches and a but it normally a red spotty rash as well and um so you know they they they were wondering if that's what possibly you had but the yeah they yeah go ahead oh yeah they did they were checking me for for rashes yeah coxidioidies that's you know it's been a long time since medical school i haven't had to say that word since since infectious disease rotation but anyway uh yeah so they're looking for all that stuff and but what you really had was influenza so now right when i think i think a lot more than a lot of people think they have the flu they just have the norovirus they don't really have the flu um
Starting point is 00:16:08 Because when you really go through the flu, I mean, it really, it's, I mean, it kicks your ass. Yeah. Well, and it can be a mild syndrome for some people. You know, even the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, it infected anywhere between 10 and 30% of the world's population. 1% of the world's population died from it. But that still means 99% of the world's population did not die from it. And the majority of people didn't get it, and the majority of people who got it didn't die and didn't even come close. But, you know, these days, thank goodness for ventilators and Tammy flu and stuff like that, that we think that an influenza pandemic like the 1918 flu epidemic probably wouldn't be as devastating because we would at least have the ability to support people on the ventilator like they did with you.
Starting point is 00:17:06 they didn't really particularly the antibiotics didn't do anything to cure you what they did was they put your body in a position where it could ride out the infection let the immune system kill the virus and clean up the mess so they were able to support your breathing with the ventilator and other medications and interventions that they did until your body just got better you know because you know i tell people we don't heal anybody in medicine we just put the body in a position where it can heal itself. So, which now I sound like Dr. Scott. That's right. He's helping yourself out. You know, the guy's like twins. Twinkies. Twins.
Starting point is 00:17:46 And as you know, I went into vaccine research after that as my day job. You know, because no di-enemy, I think, is the best. You know, especially when something almost kills you. You know, it's like suddenly you become very interested in that thing, whatever it is, you know. If a grizzly bear took a swipe at you, you'd be obsessed with grizzlies for the rest of the life. Sure. Sure. So what have you learned in your job that you might not have known before? And is there anything new coming down, the pike that you guys are talking about at work that maybe we don't know about? They're working mainly. They kind of want a one-size-fits-all vaccines.
Starting point is 00:18:33 It's kind of what, you know, mosaic vaccines. is one of the big things that they're working on. And in my particular job, I don't work with the flu virus. We do work with HIV, Ebola, and malaria. Damn. They, you know, yeah, yeah. And, you know, those particular ones are, you know, ravage countries like Africa. And we're doing a lot of research in that.
Starting point is 00:19:04 And we have satellite labs now all over the kind. country and we're really sort of still in the data collecting process of what we're doing. As you know, it takes years of data collection and analysis, but the technology is getting great to the point where you can analyze things extremely fast rate, and so you can go through a bunch of tests, you know, very quick, much quicker than you could, you know, exponentially it's increasing. So I think that's where the real breakthroughs will come. Well, people don't remember polio.
Starting point is 00:19:36 I remember polio. You know, I had a kid in my class, my kindergarten class, died from measles, had three or four people in my school that were in wheelchairs because of polio. Nobody remembers any of this stuff. You know, the vaccine, you know, the vaccine researchers really are sort of unsung heroes and they get dumped on so bad, but, you know, by this anti-vaccination movement, too. yeah the anti-vax movement is you know stronger than it's ever been and i always wonder like even if you're a natural if you're a naturalist right why would you know there's almost nothing more natural than a vaccine it's getting your own body to fight the disease you know so i don't understand why they and then if you thought all of these doctors all across the country
Starting point is 00:20:26 were evil scientists who were injecting you with things that knowingly give you you know autism And why would you ever go to the doctor to begin with? Yeah. Yeah, the, you know, people who are into homeopathy should love vaccines. They tend to be the anti-vaxxers. But there is what, you know, homeopathy says, well, you know, like prevents like. And they'll use very small amounts of a toxic substance that maybe causes abdominal pain to treat abdominal pain. Well, what's more homeopathic in that regard, except this has data behind it, shows that it works, to take a small amount of a virus or a piece of a virus and, you know, inoculate yourself with it to prevent that disease.
Starting point is 00:21:15 Come on. Right. Use your own logic. Right. I said that one of our conferences, and the guy was like, you know, I never thought of that, but that's true. It's a good way to, you know, talk to an anti-vaxxer rather than. just calling them an idiot, you know. Right, right, right.
Starting point is 00:21:30 Yeah, calling them an idiot, they just dig in their heels. There's no question about that. Right, yeah. So, yeah, so, you know, it's very important. You know, everybody should get the vaccine. And, you know, it's just, I can't emphasize that part enough. Yeah. And it won't stop you 100% from getting influenza.
Starting point is 00:21:50 It's all about mitigating risk. The one year I got influenza, I'd gotten exposed to the flu-mist and influenza vaccine. and, you know, the quadruvalent vaccine, you know, aka the flu shot. And, you know, I went to a meeting and I was coughing and sneezing all over everywhere. It was in October. It's when I normally get allergies. And I just said, eh, don't worry, everybody. It's just allergies.
Starting point is 00:22:16 The next day I woke up and I asked Tacey to check my temperature because I felt horrible and I was shivering. And she got out the thermometer for the kids. and my temp was 105. Now, when you're my age and your temp was 105, you start crapping yourself because I really was thinking, you know, I'm going to end up on the ventilator like Richard. Maybe I'm a lot older than he is. Maybe I won't survive. And but because I'd had the flu, I'm convinced that because I'd had the flu vaccine, I sailed
Starting point is 00:22:50 right through it. All I had to do is sit for a week because it wouldn't let me come back to work. and I watched CW. D.C. shows. I got caught up on four seasons of Arrow. Well, hell, we did a show that damn day. You're like, oh, no, I think it's just the damn... Really? Yeah, hell yeah.
Starting point is 00:23:08 You were sicker and shit. I didn't remember that, yeah. Did I make you go get Tammy flu or Rilenza? Yeah. Yeah, I did. I remember now. I think maybe so, yeah. Because I called in Tammy flu for everybody that was at the meeting that wanted it.
Starting point is 00:23:22 And then anybody I was exposed to. Tammy flu, that makes Tacey throw up, right? Spontaneously vomit. So we switch to Raleenza. Now, if you can get Raleenza, I like it better than Tammy Flue. It's hard to get, though. It is hard to get, and these pharmacists need to stock it. Raleenza is an inhaled version of the anti-influenza medication, and you get this little
Starting point is 00:23:46 inhaler, and you just inhale it, you can't, it doesn't go to your GI tract so you don't get sick to your stomach. And for my kids, at that time, they weren't, you know, taking big pills. The Rolenza was awesome. So I'm a big fan of it. But anyway, I think that one's been underappreciated. And the antivirals are getting much better these days. We have some on hand. And, you know, you can use them like 24 to 48 hours if you, you know, if you get a virus to prevent it.
Starting point is 00:24:17 Huh. And then there's the prep. of that right yeah prep yes of course yeah for HIV yeah that's an amazing one that like i didn't know about before i worked there and but you know everybody who's sexually active should should know about it yeah um if you're at high risk um prep is at high risk of uh getting HIV prep is an awesome awesome drug it's a daily pill for people who don't have HIV and want to add it protection and it's mostly covered by by insurance as well it's um yeah reduces the risk of getting HIV from sex by more than 90 percent and among people who inject drugs it reduces
Starting point is 00:25:05 the risk of getting HIV by more than 70 percent so it's pretty amazing yeah so anyway yeah it is and that's stuff that's stuff that people who don't you know about so we kind of spread that information in the community. And another big thing we study is non-progressors. I'm sure you know this of this too, but, you know, it's people that have HIV. Oh, yes. But it's almost, yeah, but their body is showing, like, you know, it's not progressing at all. How many of those folks are there?
Starting point is 00:25:37 There was, at one time, there were only one or two that we knew about. And then I guess there are a lot more now that we're, that we're following. Yeah, there was one case of a guy who completely became cured. of atheism. Yeah. But these this isn't him that this is
Starting point is 00:25:54 these are people that have it you know but it's not progressing. There's actually more than well
Starting point is 00:26:00 there's not many at all. It seems like a lot to me because I'm in the lab and I see the Yeah, yeah yeah,
Starting point is 00:26:05 you see them. Yeah, but yeah they're actually pretty rare you know so we study the hell out
Starting point is 00:26:12 of those those people I mean that's I mean that's how you basically discover things is by testing
Starting point is 00:26:18 a bunch of people immune responses and trying to find out the common. Trying to isolate, yeah, what it is. My immunology professor said, you know, the person that first sequenced, you know, in other words, figured out the amino acid sequence for the immunoglobulins, for example, you know, in the body, these are weird sort of Y-shaped molecules. So he said the first person that did that didn't know anything. It was the second person that did it, knew everything,
Starting point is 00:26:54 because then you could see which things were exactly the same and which ones were different from molecule to molecule. And that's how they figured out where the active sites on immunoglobulins are and how they actually work. How do they attach to antigens? Then what do they do once they do that? I mean, it's fascinating. And science is kind of this stepwise approach.
Starting point is 00:27:14 You've got to do the first thing, and you've got to put one foot in front of the other. until you know you get as much data as you need to make some some conclusion so that is fascinating but anyway yeah and it well yeah that's um oh go ahead no i was just because hey we really are looking forward to getting a single vaccine one size fits all for influenza once we get that you get one flu shot and maybe a booster and uh you'll never have to worry about influenza the rest of your life so that's a good one so uh you know hopefully uh and it'll work as well as measles vaccine and all those you know it's the the rate of people that get measles in that have been
Starting point is 00:27:53 vaccinated for measles is vanishingly small i don't think i've ever seen a single case of tetanus in any person that's ever gotten the tetanus vaccine so that's something so um do you think that do you think that any doctor has done more harm in modern times than andrew wakefield well I don't know I mean I'm a whole dude I don't even want to comment on that it's just get get get your damn vaccines vaccine science as well you know there's no question that there are downsides to vaccines bad things can happen but you know we wear our seat belt not because we expect to get in a wreck but in just in case we do get in a wreck and we're We know that the risk of wearing the seatbelt, which is about one in a million people will be harmed by wearing a seatbelt in a collision is far outweighed by the number of people who are saved or prevented from harm from wearing a seatbelt, which is probably one in two. So, you know, yeah, is there risk to wearing your seatbelt? Yes, but it's vanishingly small and is far, far outweighed. by the benefit of wearing it.
Starting point is 00:29:13 And that's the same way with vaccines. You know. One last thing I want... Yeah, man. One last thing I wanted to say was there's a doctor named... Actually, I don't know if he's a doctor. He's a man named Trevor Bedford. And he has these...
Starting point is 00:29:30 He's created like these cool maps where you can see how you can kind of track the flu as it. He set up... He created these models and I don't know how he did. People are a lot smarter than me. Work with me. But he... You can actually try... track like the mutation and the global migration of the virus.
Starting point is 00:29:47 Yeah. So, I mean, if anyone's interested in that kind of thing, you know, it's like a real-time tracker. Well, how would they find that? Trevor, just Google Trevor Bedford, BED, F OOD, and then put influence and it'll be like the first thing that popped up. All right, we'll do it. So Richard David Smith, founder of hyperphysics with his wife, Shetai, says, get your
Starting point is 00:30:11 damn flu shot. Get your damn flu shot. Just do it. Don't be an asshole. Right. You can do it. And I just got my stupid nuts check. Awesome.
Starting point is 00:30:25 Well, there you go. Quit smoking. Get your stupid nuts checked. Get some exercise. It's good advice for everyone. Yes. All right. All right.
Starting point is 00:30:36 Hey, take care, man. I'm really glad you survived influenza. and it's always, we need to have you on every year because then it's not just me saying it. It's somebody who's been through it who knows that's saying it. And even if it doesn't hurt you very bad, if you get the flu, say you visit your nana before you know you have it and then she gets it. And then it kills her. Give your damn flu shot. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:31:01 Good point. No, that's what she said was really important. Yeah, that's, you know, where we work in the Cancer Research Center because we actually treat patients also. you know, the workers there have to give the flu shot because if you come in there and give someone who's vulnerable, like she said, then it's even more catastrophic. So, you know, yeah, if you're even visiting someone who you think could be compromised. We get fired if we don't get our flu shot by a certain time of the year. I mean, you will actually get, you'll lose your job.
Starting point is 00:31:34 And there isn't any, you know, any kind of exceptions for that. Yeah, it's not just about you and whether you want to shop. or not. Yeah. They even say if you're allergic to eggs, that you can probably get it. And talk to your health care provider about that. But the CDC says that that's overblown. Anyway, all right, hey, take it easy, man. Thanks so much. Give our best to your lovely wife and your kids. And I hope we'll see you in person one of these days. Oh, yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Steve. Okay, man. Nice talking to you. Okay, you too. What a good guy. Good failure. How do you know it's the flu? I mean,
Starting point is 00:32:10 I was getting my electric worked on the other night. Yep. My electrician, he was fine when he got there. All of a sudden, he starts sweating. Then he says, I don't feel very good. He says, I'm going to step outside. And before he could get from where he was in the middle of my house, which is 10 feet from the door, he ran in the bathroom, which was two feet from him. Puked.
Starting point is 00:32:31 Oh, God. Stomach flu. So he was fine when he got there. When was this? Wednesday. Oh, great. Get out. Get out.
Starting point is 00:32:40 Get out. it out. It couldn't be the flu to hit that fast. Was it food poisoning, you think? Or would it be the flu? Well, it could be just a puke bug. Yeah. Does the flu hit that quick?
Starting point is 00:32:49 Yeah, well, yeah, but you can get nausey and vomiting from influenza as well. It was shocking how quickly it hit him. When I got it last year, the flu. Can you imagine being somebody else's house and you're just in their bathroom puking for 10 minutes? I was on a plane and this girl next to me was going, uh-huh, uh-huh, and she wasn't covering her. mouth and I was like fuck I was just stuck there
Starting point is 00:33:14 breathing her and then three days later got sick got sick and that's something well moving on hey guys it's never a good look
Starting point is 00:33:26 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 that's why untuck it makes shirts specifically designed to be worn untucked a casual shirt that's not too long and not too short. It's just right.
Starting point is 00:33:42 Shirts designed so well, GQ calls them perfection. They're a go-to for any occasion from casual to dressy, and not only they look good, they feel great. And my wife and I can attest to this. She bought me one, and then I bought three more. Very handsome. They're awesome, because you don't like it when I tuck my shirts in, because then I look like a nerd.
Starting point is 00:34:03 Well, some shirts need to be tucked. Beach shirts don't need... Not so much. Yeah, Hawaiian shirts, yeah. Right. Well, see, I learned things. She teaches me. You know, Tase, if you're a woman, and I guess you are. Not be. Wishing you can have one of these shirts, well, Untucket now makes shirts for women, too.
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Starting point is 00:34:54 That's Untucket.com promo code medicine. I'm going to have to check the woman's out because that sounds really nice. Yep. We'll do it. All right. Very good. Where are we? Oh, we're about 35 in.
Starting point is 00:35:09 Let's do one more. phone call. Dr. Steve, this is Jack, from Wilmington, North Carolina. Hey, Jack. Yes, right, where Florence came through. And we were very lucky, inconvenienced, five days, no electricity, a bunch of trees down. The question for you is, what is a good way for people that are going to, like, ride out a big storm, even though they're told they should leave? What kind of...
Starting point is 00:35:40 Yeah. Don't do it. Leave. Just leave. Leave. My friend John, who I go to Moogfest with, he just wrote it out. And it's like, dude. But then they get stuck and we have to go get them.
Starting point is 00:35:52 Well, sometimes, yeah. He didn't. He was far enough inland and up on a hill that he thought that he wasn't going to get flooded out. And he didn't. But, yeah, but that does happen. There are people that happens to. They have, like, small medical emergency packs, should they have? like how do you treat say a burn if you don't have any ice if you don't have access to like running water what's a good kit to put together cuts scrapes things of that nature okay
Starting point is 00:36:29 a no power storm kit yeah so here's the thing are you talking a go bag or are you talking a survival sounds like survival He wants to stay, and that's different. Like a first day. So the first, look, you have to have fresh water. You can't. Once the reservoirs are topped over with floodwater, they becomes, it tap water is unsafe. So what I have considered doing in the past was getting those, you know, like the Culligan water thing and just get, just always stay two or three of those ahead. Sure.
Starting point is 00:37:06 So you've got those big, giant, five-gallon things. It's purified water. It doesn't go bad. And you can just stack those up and you can have fresh water. That's important. You want some way to be able to communicate. We have a little TV that's battery powered. The new digital TVs, as long as they're transmitting, it's, you know, it's 780P and runs off of four double A's.
Starting point is 00:37:34 So you want electronic, you need lights. I think oil lights were those were the key back in the day but now with these fluorescent things I bought these little lights that run off at two double A's and they have LEDs in them and they're flat and you open them up and they give off all kinds of lights they're flat and they just look like books
Starting point is 00:37:59 and you open it up and then the thing emits light if people are interested I could stick those on on weirdmedicine.com, clothes, medications, and then, you know, if you're going to hang out, you need non-perishable food supplies. What about burns? Yeah, burn, okay, so. If you don't have ice. Well, you don't need necessarily, you know, necessarily ice to treat a burn.
Starting point is 00:38:26 What you do need are bandages and, you know, antimicrobial ointments and stuff like that and things that you can clean it with. Cleaning is the big thing. So the fresh water, and then just get a really nice first aid kit. You can buy them all kinds of places. Just get a big one that's got tons of gauze and burnments and all that kind of stuff in it. And then cash, you know, make sure you got some cash. And I have a few silver coins in case, in case it's big, in case, you know, all society breaks down.
Starting point is 00:39:02 and I've got to bribe my way through a checkpoint, and paper money's no good. I've got some of those because I'm a little bit of a nut, so I'm a catastrophist, I think, of everything. But non-perishable food, drink, batteries. The generator will get you so far. If you're going to have a generator and you have to have power in your house, then, you know, obviously you need gas and all that stuff to go with it. I think one year for Christmas. Then you become a target, though. He got me a big bucket.
Starting point is 00:39:30 Oh, I got you. Yeah. that had a bunch of stuff in it, but the bucket could also be used as a toilet. Right, it had a toilet seat in it, I think. Yes. That you would empty all the things out of it, and then you could put the seat on there, and then you could shit and piss into this thing. It was so romantic.
Starting point is 00:39:49 Well, that was your gag gift that year, but you had said you wanted something. We still have it. We still have it, I think. Yeah. So if you don't have one of those, where are you going to poop? That's right. You've got to have a place to poop. You're going to be an animal or are you going to poop in a bucket like a normal human being?
Starting point is 00:40:08 She's in a bucket. Now, your old buddy, Jim Baker, is selling food buckets for the apocalypse on his thing. That's his thing now. He's selling food buckets. And they're crazy expensive and I'm not eating food out of a bucket. I'd eat chef boyardee. Yeah, there you go. That stuff can never go.
Starting point is 00:40:31 bad. I know. And Twinkies. So yummy. Twinkies. Lady diagnosis would just be loving it. Loving the apocalypse. She'll have an apple supply of white wine, Chef Byardy, and Twinkies.
Starting point is 00:40:47 No, red wine, because you don't have to keep it cold. You've got to have alcohol. You've got to be thinking ahead. I mean, imagine what his five days was like without any alcohol. You're horrible. Who said he didn't? Can't do any. I mean, but imagine and what if he didn't have it.
Starting point is 00:41:02 Who? I mean, what else is there? This guy? Oh, yeah. Well, my friend John doesn't drink, so. Hmm. So he was fine. But his cell phone kept working.
Starting point is 00:41:12 He was sending us pictures the whole time. That's a different, we live in a different age. All right. Your voice sounds better, by the way. Do you think so? Mm-hmm. Isn't that something? It's amazing.
Starting point is 00:41:24 It's crazy. Dr. Steve, I started this new diet. Well, it's not really a diet. It's a ratio 186, where you fast. for 18 hours out of the day and you eat between, I chose 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to eat all my meals. And then I'll have like chicken rocks in the evening. But anyway, my scale says that I've lost 2% body fat already just in a couple weeks. And I'm wondering, and I've noticed a difference, but how does my body expel the fat? Is it just through, is it sweating or is it through urine?
Starting point is 00:41:58 I'm drinking a lot of water. I haven't really noticed. I think my bowel movements are a lot better. It's probably from eating a little bit less. Yeah, yeah. No, it's a good question. He's asking, how does the body get rid of these fat cells? If he's losing weight, where are the fat cells going? And you're not pissing out fat.
Starting point is 00:42:22 Okay, it's not like the body goes, oh, we don't need this anymore. And now you void it through it. Because if you did, then you would see globs of oil on the surface of the, bowl. Same thing with defecation. You're not defecating out the fat unless you're malabsorbing and then you would see oil on the surface, but you're not seeing that. So where does it go? Well, you're just using them up. You know, when you eat fewer calories than you are burning, you got to burn something. And when you exhaust your supply of carbohydrates in the body, which is in the form of glycogen, you will then start eating up fat. That's what's there for. It's your storing energy.
Starting point is 00:43:01 and those cells get smaller and smaller. Some of them may even die, but they just basically get smaller and fewer, and then that's the end of it. You use them up. So that's all. There you go. That's what happens to fat in your body
Starting point is 00:43:16 when you get thinner. What were you going to say, Tase? Get your flu shot. Don't be an asshole. Thanks always go to Dr. Scott, Lady Diagnosis. Tacey, the delightful Tacey. We can't forget Rob.
Starting point is 00:43:31 Sprantz, Bob Kelly, Greg Hughes, Anthony Coomia, Jim Norton, Travis Teft, Eric Nagel, Roland Campo, Sam Roberts, Pat Duffy, Dennis Falcone, Ron Bennington, Fess Watley, who's early support of this show has never gone unappreciated. Listen to our SiriusXM show on the Faction Talk Channel, SiriusXM Channel 103, Saturdays at 8 p.m. Eastern, Sunday at 5 p.m. Eastern, on-demand, and other times at Jim McClure's pleasure. Many thanks to our listeners whose voice mails and topic ideas make this job very easy go to our website at dr steve.com for schedules and podcasts and other crap until next time check your stupid nuts for lumps quit smoking get off your asses and get some exercise we'll see you in one week for the next edition of weird
Starting point is 00:44:15 medicine bye everybody Thank you.

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