Weird Medicine: The Podcast - 562 - Wine Varicella

Episode Date: September 21, 2023

Dr Steve and the office staff discuss: depression in teenagers covid vaccine 2 props to tacie traveller's diarrhea shingles (varicella) and more! featured guest: PA Lydia! Please visit: stuff.doctorsteve.com (for all your online shopping needs!) ed.doctorsteve.com (for your discount on the Phoenix device for erectile dysfunction) simplyherbals.net/cbd-sinus-rinse (the best he's ever made. Seriously.) RIGHT NOW GET A NEW DISCOUNT ON THE ROADIE 3 ROBOTIC TUNER! roadie.doctorsteve.com (the greatest gift for a guitarist or bassist! The robotic tuner!) see it here: stuff.doctorsteve.com/#roadie Also don't forget: Cameo.com/weirdmedicine (Book your old pal right now because he's cheap! "FLUID!") Most importantly! CHECK US OUT ON PATREON!  ALL NEW CONTENT! Robert Kelly, Mark Normand, the O&A Troika, Joe DeRosa, Pete Davidson, Geno Bisconte. Stuff you will never hear on the main show ;-) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Where does the computer mouse like to hang out? At the scroll bar. Your dad is so strong. When the rock maxes his bench press, he asks your dad to spot him. Why did the cat cross the road? Who knows why a cat does anything, honestly? If you just read the bio for Dr. Steve, host of weird medicine on Sirius XM 103,

and made popular by two really comedy shows, Opie and Anthony and Ron and Fez, you would have thought that this guy was a bit of, you know, a clown. Why can't you give me the respect that I'm entitled to? I've got diphtheria crushing my esophagus. I've got Zobolivir stripping from my nose. I've got the leprosy of the heartbound, exacerbating my infertable woes.

I want to take my brain out and blasted with the wave, an ultrasonic, agographic, pulsating shape, I want to magic pills 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 a requiem for my disease. So I'm paging, Dr. Steve. From the world famous Cardiff Electric Network Studios, it's weird medicine, the first and still only uncensored medical show

in the history of broadcast radio, and now a podcast. Been a podcast. Why do I keep saying that? I'm Dr. Steve with my little pal, Tacey, my partner in all things, hello, Tacey, and my other little pal, P.A. Lydia, back from sabbatical. This is a new show for people who had never, not a new show. Well, this is a new episode for people who had never listened to a medical show on the radio or the Internet. By the way, I'm operating on three hours of sleep. We'll talk about that in a second.

If you have a question that you're embarrassed to take your regular medical provider, if you can't find an answer anywhere else, Give us a call 347-76-6-4-3-3-2-3. That's 347. Pooh-Head. Follow us on Twitter at Weird Medicine or at D.R. Scott, W.M. Visit our website at Dr.Steve.com for podcast, medical news and stuff you can buy. Most importantly, we are not your medical providers. Take everything you hear with a grain of salt.

Don't act on anything you hear on this show without talking over with your health care provider. All right. Very good. Yeah. Check out stuff.com. Please use that. you do shopping online it really helps to keep the servers going and you can scroll

down and see rotey dot dr steve.com uh rody r o a d i e dot dr steve.com is the robotic guitar tuner and you can get one for bass

too it's a great gift for anybody that has a stringed instrument and they also now have the rody coach that will actually teach you out of play your instrument So if you bought a ukulele and you don't know how to play the damn thing, the Rode Coach will show you how to do it. It's not that expensive.

It's pretty cool. Check out Tennessee hot sauce company. That's TNHotSosco.com or just Google Tennessee Hot Sauce Company. They sent us a bunch of hot sauce, and they're pretty amazing. And they even said, do you want to do a weird medicine one? I said, yeah, can you ferment Tabasco and Ghost Peppers? And they said, hell yeah, we can do whatever you want. Let me just throw a couple in there.

I don't like the ghost pepper flavor. You don't. Okay, but the Tabasco flavor. If you tasted my Tabasco sauce, I mean, that's how I got into fermentation. Because we had these Tabasco plants, and they, listen, if you've never grown them, they're the most gorgeous pepper plant you'll ever see. They're big and bushy, and then they have the peppers all stand up. They're about an inch long.

They all stand up and point toward the sky. and then they're all different colors. They're green, they're yellow, they're orange, and they're red. Beautiful. And it's gorgeous. And so I said, I want to make Tabasco sauce out of these. I'm not wasting these because I just waste peppers and stuff. I give them away or whatever.

You know, what the hell am I going to do with this? So I read up on it. It was like, oh, God, you have to ferment them. And so I had to buy all this fermentation gear, which really wasn't a big deal, but it was just kind of a thing. And then you've got a brine. I'm in 3% brine. And then you put them through a food mill, a big pain in the ass,

and then you have to add 40% of the volume in apple cider vinegar. Nerd. Nerd. Nerd alert. You're not wrong. Did you do all these dilutions and percentages? Oh, wow, that is very interesting. Please tell me more.

So anyway. But it makes the best hot sauce that you'll ever have. And if you want, you can taste some. Yeah, well. I'd like to. I think we have a bottle or two left. Anyway, and check out Dr. Scott's website at simplyerbils.net. That's simply herbals.net.

And look at our Patreon. patreon.com slash weird medicine. Tacey and I do a show there. We're a little bit slack, but I think we can maybe do a live stream here pretty soon if you want to. And if you want to make me do it by myself, I'm okay doing that too. I'll do whatever you tell me to do. And then if you want me to say fluid to your mom. or, you know, secretions to yo daddy. Just, you know, cameo.com slash weird medicine.

I dropped the price to five bucks because I don't give a shit about making any money at it. It's just fun to do. And I really enjoy doing it. And sometimes we do it here in the studio. I did one in my office and had my medical student in the background. And I said, you know, I'm doing your cameo with Gimli, the dwarf from Lord of the Rings because he had this big giant red beard.

You know, so we just eff around with it. If you want Myrtle to do it, just say that. I had a guy that said, my wife hates it when you do. Well, you were here. Yeah, that was a good one. Yeah, yeah. Some kind of necklace. I hope you're having you again.

Anyway. So, yeah, that's cameo.com slash weird medicine. So, yeah, I'm working on three hours of sleep. I take some anti-aging supplements that I think, you know, I'm reasonably young. 16-67. I don't know about that, but I mean, I'd rather look good than feel good. But, you know, but I've been taking these anti-aging things because I've got a young wife. I want to be able to keep up with her and stuff and not have her married to some old piece of, you know, some old man. And that's just doddering around in his dotage. And so I read an article about Torreying,

where if you take 1,000 to 1,500 milligrams of taurine, which is amino acid, it helps promote healthy cell division and stuff and decreases apatosis or programmed cell death, right? So I'm like, well, hell, I'm adding that to my armamentarium. So I got some torring that came in the other day. Well, I take all my medicine at night. I take everything at night. I hate taking medicine twice a day, so I take it at night.

So last night I took Taurine And then wondered why I woke up at 3 o'clock and could not go back to sleep Is that what they put in red bull? Yes, yes, of course Taurus bowl Well, that's because you're an idiot Yep, yep That is one of the ingredients in energy drinks

And Richard David Smith and his lovely wife Chetai will tell you that Because they make hyperphysics A energy drink for nerds And that's what it was. And the thing is, so then I have to come in and we're doing this. And one part of my brain is operating on 12 cylinders, but the other part of my brain is really working on about two and a half.

So it's pretty interesting. So anyway, we'll see what happens today. All right, very good. And PA lady, I need to give you your bell. Give myself a bell. I'm so depressing. No, Tacey just refuses to do it on principle, and I think it's funny that she does that.

Anyway, I'm saying hello to the fluid family. The fluid family are people that watch us on YouTube, and I can see the cameras are all jacked up and wrong, but anyway, that's all right. So check out Dr. Scott's website, even if he isn't here at simplyerbils.net. That's simplyerbils.net. And if you want to help us get this channel to a place where we can do live streams with, you know, the super chats and all that stuff, if you'll go to our YouTube playlist that just says live shows and click on the first one and say play all and then turn the volume down and go to bed, it will play the whole thing.

We kind of get up to 4,000 hours. And we've never made a big deal out of the video component of this show. It's become clear to me that I got to quit being so effing old school and start learning how to do some things. I guess I'll have to start wearing makeup and fixing my hair for these stupid things. Well, you don't have to. Some people will do it where some of the people are off camera. Gino Bisconti does that on In Hot Water. There's this guy that's off camera that talks.

So if you want to do that, we can. We can just have it where I'm the only one that's on. and we'll do Stream Yard and we put the link out where people can link in and say things to us. They can ask us questions or they can say stupid stuff or show me your tits or whatever and then I click off of them, of course.

You know, because that's inappropriate. It's 2023. And Tacey's not on camera. It's 2023, Harvey. Oh, yeah, oh, that would be me, wasn't that? Shit. Okay, well, that I don't have a problem with. Now, and I do have a new sort of game.

P.A. Lady, you're going to start coming back now? I'm hopeful so, yeah. Okay, so this is what I need you to do because it'll be fun if you do this. So you need to check our iTunes reviews. And what I want everybody to do, if you're listening to this, go to our podcast on iTunes, give us a five-star review,

but shit all over Carl from WATP in the comments. See, WATP is this thing. Give us a five-star review, but shit on us. I just thought that'd be fun. Yeah. Yeah. Carl can handle it. So five-star review and shit all over Carl from WATP, and then PA Lydia will read them.

That sounds great. Okay, it'll be fun. And then we'll stop doing it because I really actually, I like Carl very much. He's a friend. We've talked about going on vacation together and stuff like that. So I'm just kind of fucking with him. All right? All right.

Okay, very good. And do check out his podcast, where are these podcasts loads of fun. There's a lot of crazy inception-like things going on in that universe right now. And it is very confusing. If you just turn the radio on, you don't know any of the players. But that's part of the fun, is figuring it all out. But the ring later, if you really want to know, the person that started all of this, that is one, what is it, six things to Kevin Bacon.

Six degrees. This person is one degree from everybody on there, and that, my friends, is Cardiff Electric. So that's all you need to know. All right. Okay, now. All right. Let's do, I think it's time already, to do some Tacey's Topics.

It's Tacey's Time of Topics, a time for Tacey to discuss topics of the day. Not to be confused with Topic Time with Harrison Young, which is. is copyrighted by Harrison Young and Area 58 Public Access. And now, here's Tacey. Well, hello, everyone. Hello, Tacey. So today we're going to take it down a notch and get depressed. Okay.

Yay. So I figured a lot of... Do I need to change the category from comedy to something else? Maybe for today. I think a lot of us have children, and so I thought this was an important subject. What is children's therapy and does your family need it? Okay. In the 10 years leading up to the pandemic, there was a 40% increase in mental health issues in kids.

9.4% live with anxiety disorders. 8.9% have behavioral issues. We scared the shit out of all of us. Yeah, 4.4% have depression. What is, excuse me, child therapy, and does your kid need it? Psychotherapy or talk therapy helps kids understand and manage their feelings, change behavior, communicate more effectively, and build resiliency. Remember, you are the expert on your child.

If you think something is off, you need to reach out. Therapy should not be viewed as a last resort. It helps strengthen your child before the wills come off. I think everybody should have therapy. I really do. Agreed. We can't go into our brain and I don't understand why we can't, but go into our brain and say, turn that thing off.

There's a circuit in there that says the wrong thing every fucking time. How come I can't go in and turn that off? Why do I have to learn the same lesson over and over again? But in therapy, you can explore those things and write new scripts. Not me yet, but, you know, working on it. So, anyway. So if you notice changes in your child's daily mood and social interactions, that's when you need to be concerned.

What are some of the benefits? Therapists are teachers or coaches who help kids understand their thoughts, feelings, and behavior, teaches them to be mindful of their feelings and give skills to manage emotional behaviors. child therapy is thought of as a collaboration between the child, parent, and the therapist. So types, there are several cognitive behavioral therapy. If we become more aware of our thoughts and feelings, we can learn to control how we react to them. Give thyself a bell. Can be helpful for trauma survivors.

So if your child's been in some sort of trauma, maybe a cognitive behavioral therapy. And you think cognitive behavioral that they're going to change out, they're changing internal behaviors. you know the scripts that and it's usually it can very often only last six weeks so it's very effective okay dialectical behavior therapy most often used with suicidal teens the mainstay in treating borderline personality disorder and often involves a combo of individual therapy and kids and parent coaching what does dialectical mean i don't know i'm going to look it up play therapy which um We did this with one of our kids, and I thought, this is silly, this isn't going to work, and it did wonders. It creates an enjoyable environment for kids.

They observe your kid to see what themes they are expressing through play, and it's helpful for younger kids. Yeah, our kid did very well in that. He was just having some anxiety and stuff. One of the things I really liked was when one of the doctors, who saw him. And the first visit, you know, our kid was complaining of anxiety. And what the guy said was, and I will never forget this, and I really appreciate it, he said, if you've got a lion-stalking herd of gazelles,

and you got one gazelle that's nervous and looking around all the time, where's the, you know, is there a lion? Is the, did the grass move? Or you got one that's going, yeah, everything. it'll you know there's I don't have anything to worry about which one is probably going to get eaten the everything's okay yeah the one that's not me he said so having anxiety can be a good thing and my kid it was just like his eyes opened up and went oh oh and one of the he was he was not performing in baseball the way that he wanted to because he'd get anxious when he was at

mat and he said you're holding a stick and somebody's throwing a rock at you you know basically That's what it is. Why wouldn't you be anxious about that? So he just normalized it, and it really helped. That was in the first 15 minutes. Yeah, I was very impressed. But anyway. So parent-child interaction therapy,

therapist observes interaction through a video or one-way mirror, usually 12 to 20 sessions to complete and offers parent coaching. Yeah, we used to do those in my clinic, and you would see the kid, they would say, just the psychologist said just let kids play just play with them let them drive it and you'd have parents in there that would do that for like a minute and then they'd be going no that's blue that's blue or you know count count now what comes after two you know and all that so they're not playing with them they're just fussing at them so you know people can fall into that not even realize it you

know by the way dialectical means relating to the logical discussion of ideas and opinions so The last type of therapy is just family therapy, where the family gets together, communication and learning to understand one another. It's helpful with anxious kids or ones whose parents are having marital conflict. Oh, there's also behavior therapy. ADHD, modify environments so that the kid can control their behavior, allows for more positive discipline and behavior. Talk to your pediatrician for recommendation. This came from Parents Magazine. Very good. Well, you get a bell for that.

That was great. Give thyself. And behavioral therapy is distinct from cognitive behavioral therapy. So there are two very different things. So the second topic is how to handle a child's mental health emergency. Okay. For example, a suicide attempt. How do you know your child is in crisis?

And, you know, for somebody who's got teenagers, I remember one day our kid just started crying for no reason and we had no idea anything was going on. They don't really tell you, you know. So you just have to watch for mood changes, behavioral changes, or your gut just shouts it out. Some are masters at hiding it, refusing to get out of bed, runs away or having suicidal thoughts, significant weight gain or loss. Does anything about cutting in there? No, nothing was said about cutting in there. What if an attempt is made? Be calm and non-judgmental.

It's not about you. Reach out to your child's therapist or pediatrician. Dial 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Is that true over the whole country? According to this, it is. Also, 911, if an attempt has been made, there are intensive outpatient programs where you can go three times weekly for group therapy for him or her and two times weekly for parents. Listening to other kids makes them feel less alone.

Best prevention talk openly with kids about mental health. from the start, the perception that talking about suicidality increases it is inaccurate. Okay, so I didn't read that correctly, but if you talk about it, it does not increase the likelihood that it will happen. It destigmatizes it. Right, that's right. You're normalizing it. And that's true of end-of-life conversations, too.

People feel that that increases anxiety actually does just the opposite because you've let the elephant out of the room and now everybody can speak speak freely. Yeah, it de-stigmatizes it. So don't overlook your own self-care either. Online Resources, SAMSA, which is S-A-M-H-S-A for parents and caregivers, warning signs, and how to help. There's also National Alliance on Mental Illness, Family Members, and Caregivers Resource Guide.

You know what else you can do? With that 9-8-8, you can just text them. I'm looking it up right now. You can just You can just text 9-88, and if you are feeling, or someone that you know is feeling suicidal, they can help. So there's several things you can Google if you are more interested in this topic or you think you need help in this area. Like I said, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Family Members and Caregivers Resource Guide, mental health resources for parents and adolescents and young adults guide. They have links in treatment locator services. And your kids' school may also be very helpful.

Yeah, the FCC designated 988 as a nationwide mental health crisis and suicide prevention number, and they've done that since 2020. The National Alliance on Mental Illness was lobbying for that, and it's a nationwide three-digit number for mental health crisis. It's been in the work since 2020, I haven't know anything about it. I should know this. I know about SAMHSA. and we utilize SAMHSA, I didn't know anything about this. So I'm going to give you the long bell for that. Oh, good.

It's a shame Scott's not here at a will. No task shall be denied if thy will be strong and true. For when a bell is rung, it carries with it the sound of courage that giveth strength to even the meekest of hearts. So ring thine own bell and be mindful of its power and might, for it will be thy guide in whatever task thou sets thy sight. Well, I especially appreciated that your report didn't include anything about medications, which are also fine, but there are so many other things that can help. Yes, and I think oftentimes both use together, you know, and I think just reaching out for help is the first step, of course, because so many people think it makes you weak and it does not.

Correct. No. Correct. Yeah, so many people suffer in silence, and that's adults as well. maybe even more. The kids don't know that there's something available. The adults usually do and they don't seek it because they feel the stigma. So there is none.

You will not be judged. That's the one place you can go and say anything you want and you won't be judged unless you threaten to kill somebody and then they have to do something. I have a small story about self-awareness. Okay. So on rotations in PA school, I was at a Veterans Administration deal in the Midwest where people could live on campus. There was a large psych ward where people were housed if they had had a suicide attempt or brought them for being suicidal.

Homeless people could live there. Homeless veterans could live there. And I would attend sometimes morning cognitive group CBT, morning cognitive behavioral therapy for the group. Got it. And so I would go and I would just sit back and listen initially thinking, well, I'm just going to learn what they do. Nothing applies to me here. And then they talked about awfulizing.

Have you heard about awfulizing? No. Is it like catastrophizing? It is. Yeah, it's something that I did in my head that I never even realized I did where you make up these, basically, like, all these different scenarios that are not reality in your brain. And you spend time worrying about them. Worrying about things that aren't actually happening, right? What could happen.

So that was a very important therapy session for me. I think the 12-step trope that if you've got one foot in the future and one foot in the past, you're in a perfect position to shit all over the present. And we live in the present, and we just constantly shit on it by worrying about stuff that hasn't happened. Obviously, we can't do anything about it. But stuff in the past, there's absolutely nothing we can do about. Live in the moment. Mindfulness is a big deal.

And matter of fact, we're starting a clinical trial in our cancer center for chemotherapy suite-induced anxiety. And we're going to be using virtual reality environment called Trip, TRIPP, I've mentioned on the show before. And half the people will do the full trip protocol for 10 minutes and then judge their anxiety. And half of them will be in a virtual environment where it's. just like a river and then we'll see if there's any difference because that's great yeah you can't just do it against no control you got to have some sort of control anyway yeah i think it's going to be interesting and it it is that's all about mindfulness just being in the moment is that going to be all centers can i refer patients to your clinical trial well yeah well yeah you know what yeah we'll work

it out i'll come up there and do it well okay okay we'll talk anyway uh yeah because we'll be recruiting people. I'd like to have as many as we can because of getting old, you know. Does this mean I can't just give people out of Venn? Just kidding. I think you should. You can. It is part of it.

This could be a part of a complete, comprehensive treatment plan. All right. You got anything else taste? Nope, that's it. All right. Anybody want to do that list of penis news? I'll let you do that. You want me to do it?

Yeah, it's quite funny. Yep. So Carissa, DNP Carissa was here and did some penis facts But she left her notes behind There's all kinds of stuff she didn't do on here That I thought was pretty interesting So the ancient Romans thought that penile hardness

Was directly linked to what a person ate And that the shape, color, and flavor of certain foods impacted one's sex life Consequently root vegetables such as carrots Well, no kidding. It became, I mean, talk about being on the nose, instant symbols of strength of libidos. And then, okay, during the inquisition, okay, this was the inquisition where the, you know, the Catholic Church had a division that was trying to root out heresy, right? And women were executed for knowledge of Satan's penis.

For example, in 1600, Anna Papenheimer had her breast torn off. Oh, God, this is too great. This is a horrible show. Let me find one that's a little more fun. But they did very naughty things to her. The ancient Egyptian god Atom declared, I created on my own every being. My fist became my spouse.

I copulated with my hand. His penis created all life divine and mortal through this act of soul. sacred masturbation. My hand became my spouse. I think that's where I'm at. In ancient Egypt, the penis was so potent

that it defeated death. Osiris, in fact, flaunted his virility in the underworld as king, declaring in the book of the dead, I am Osiris, stiff of penis. I am mightier than the Lord terror. I copulate and I have power over myriads.

I like, I am Osiris stiff of penis. I am testicles from the island of Pinos. Anyway, I'm all right. Okay, let me see. Yeah, the rest of this is probably going to culturally upset some people. So anyway, oh, here we go.

Among ancient tribes, it was not unusual for a new king to eat the penis of his predecessor to absorb his sacred authority. This practice was banned, however, by ancient governments that thought that that was stupid. All right. Good for them. Yep. All right.

One French stand-up comedian and illustrator once said, my penis doesn't look like... No, I don't know. Oh, my penis doesn't like the same women I do. Okay, good for him. All right. That's what he told us why. I guess there was a reason why. Carissa didn't read, though, so I apologize.

Maybe she deserves a bell. I give myself that, and maybe this. Well, that's because you're an idiot. And all right. Give myself a bell. And that's for Carissa, who's not here today? All right, you guys want to answer some questions? Sure.

Number one thing. Don't take advice from some asshole on the radio. Help if I was potting up the correct pot on that. Okay, here we go. Namaskar And crew No, I didn't go to Thailand Actually, I'm in Nepal

Yeah I've been in Nepal for I speak Hindi in Nepal And when I got here Let me tell you Up Casey ha Pagoldost That means How are you crazy friend

And he's going to tell us I had explosive diarrhea For about a week went to the ER over here that gave me some antibiotics and some probiotics and some probiotics anti-s are battling it out in my stomach right now yeah but now after that everything is fine I'm still in Nepal and then Patton actually which is in Nepal yeah you established that so yeah it's been lovely the weather's great and the people are all Awesome. Everybody's super kind.

The food, the hygiene, let's say, is a little iffy. So I'm kind of picking and choosing where I eat. Well, by our standards, you know, you'll notice that folks that live there eat that stuff just fine. Eat now, there is no fast food here. I mean, there's fast food, but it's tiny putty, which is diarrhea in a ball. Look at some penny, please. You wouldn't need it either. Okay.

It's actually really good. So, yeah, I've been enjoying my time in the Paul. Good. Yeah, I came here for a lady. I'm not having wild sex, just regular sex. But a lot of it, it's one person. So, good times. All right, man.

Well, it sounds like he's having fun, and she must be, you know, a good egg if she's tolerating him with his explosive diary. It's a shame he's not on 90-day. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He should be on 90s. day and just in the bathroom the whole time.

That is, okay, it's a guilty pleasure for me. I would like to sit down and watch 90 day fiancé with Tacey. It's one of my favorite things to do because I just yell at the screen the whole time. You know, what did you think was going to happen?

You're in another country. Stop, you know, trying to make them be like you. It's not happening. If you can't change. No, I don't want to talk about it. I get really mad. There is a woman that wants to change 1,600 years

of history of tradition about how women dress in that country overnight. Oh. And she left this guy because she couldn't handle the rules and then she came back. It was like nothing's changed. Why are you back here? And she was just as mad

from day one, wasn't she? Mm-hmm. So, it's just crazy. And that's what they pick they generally don't pick functional I was going to say they they edit for that

yeah and they'll yes and they will edit it to make people look worse than they are too I've been a victim of that self when I was on the Jane Whitney show back in the day when I was writing books about internet love

which I unfortunately knew too much about but anyway so let's talk about his traveler's diarrhea it's the most common travel-related illness. And it can occur anywhere. Highest risk destinations are in Asia except for Japan and South Korea. But Middle East, Africa, Mexico, Central, and South America, so basically kind of everywhere. The thing is that I get travelers' diarrhea every time, I mean, we've been to Hawaii

what, twice, twice, twice, two, three, two or three times. And they, they, I, I guess, I get it 100% of the time there. And their foods, I mean, it's America. They have different bacterial flora on their food that my stomach isn't used to. So I should probably take a probiotic when I'm there and maybe that would

prevent it. I don't know when we'll ever get back there again. You know, we did it for work. And Tacey's retired so that won't be happening. But one of the things that you can do is chewed your food and drink. drinks carefully. I remember when we were in the Dominican Republic, they had ultra-filtered water in the resort. But when we went out on the booze cruise, what I wanted to do was, you know, liquor

and bottled mixer, no yelho, no ice, okay? Sneaky. Yeah, because the ice can sometimes not be filtered water on those trips. So that's something. and obviously wash your hands, but if the people making your food aren't washing their hands, just make sure it's cooked thoroughly. And there's a couple of over-the-counter drugs that you can take. Loparamide is one that can slow down the diarrhea. If you have a bacterial infection, which this usually really isn't, you know, Shigella or Salmonella, that's a different beast altogether. What's the brand name of that, Steve?

Emodium. Emodium, yeah. Now, but I don't recommend that. What I recommend, if it's not contraindicated, is bismuth subsiliclate. And if you'll take, and that's Peptobismal, tablets. You take two tablets before each meal, most of the time that will prevent travelers' diarrhea. And I can, if you have this problem, email me, DR. Steve 202 at gmail.com, and I will send you a thing about using bismuths subsiliclate for the prevention of travelers' diaries. area. The way it works is the bismuth has such a high surface area, you know,

little crags and crannies and stuff on the molecular level that bacterial toxins will adhere to it preferentially instead of to the bowel wall. That's the, that's the supposedly working hypothesis. Well, that's a part of treatment for eradication of H. Pylori, right? Well, hmm. I don't remember. Because of anti-I. I remember it was two, it was. It was. biaxen amoxicillin and Lansopazole, right, Tase? And some other things, too.

Oh, okay, maybe it was Bismuth then. I'll check it out. Yeah, check that out. What's in PrevPec. Yeah, the prebac was clarithromycin, amoxicillin, and Loporamine, I'm sorry, Lansopazol or Pepsid.

So there's a for H. Pylori and duodenal ulcer in children or adults, this is not actual recommendation to do this, right? But a regimen is Bismuth subcelliculate

with flageal or metronidazole. Yeah, flagell is a big one. Tetrocycling. Okay. For H. Pylori? Okay, well, the old Prev pack was that, you know, this stuff's always evolving, and I don't really treat that anymore.

Yeah. But I would not give Bismuth subsilolate to a little kid because it has, it's like giving them aspirin. And there is a risk. If they have a fiscop. fever of Rye syndrome, so we just try not to give it to little kids. There are some syndromes

where they will give kids aspirin despite the Rye syndrome risk because the risk is low in those particular indications that they give it for. But anyway, in general, don't give little kids aspirin unless your primary care or your specialist tells you to. You can also check, like if you know where you're obviously you should know where you're going for traveling so the CDC has a traveler's website for each country and they will give you like tips and tricks particularly if you have to get certain vaccines to go there right or if they would be beneficial i think everybody should have hepatitis a vaccine for in a minimum because hepatitis a sucks it's just basically a puke bug that then after you're done puking you get jaund us because your liver isn't working right

And then I think everybody should have hepatitis B and C vaccine. I mean, why deal with that anymore? Hepatitis B vaccine is actually an anti-cancer vaccine. I had a physician correct me when I said the only anti-cancer vaccine that we truly have right now is Gardacill. And he said hepatitis B. Yeah, but he said, you know, if you don't get hepatitis B, having chronic hepatitis B, which is a small minority of people. a small minority of those will get about a cellular cancer. Hey, are you seeing a decrease at all yet of cervical cancers in young women

since Gardasil has been on the market for, you know, over a decade? You know, I haven't checked the Sear data to see if there's a decline. I can check it really quickly. I know there is a decline in abnormal pap smears. They have identified that. And it just takes time. I mean, if you have an abnormal pap smear, it can take 10 years to develop cervical cancer, which is why I recommend people get their effing pap smears.

Because if you catch it on year 10, it can be a real problem. But if you catch it on year three, you just take care of it right there. You know, your gynecologist can be your best friend on preventing cervical cancer. So on the Sear database, which is our CDC, like, government report, cancer.com database of cancer, there is a sharper decline. between 2018 and 2020 of new diagnosis of cervical cancer cases. Really? Now, some of that's COVID, though. And we also know that the screening guidelines for cervical cancer were relaxed a bit, right?

Where instead of annual screening, we're Q3-year screening. And I'm so old school, you know, that makes me. Well, I mean, listen, I had an abnormal PAP, gosh, in 2009, my mom was an anti-servical anti-Gardicil person. Okay. And so I had an abnormal pap with dysplasia needed a surgery because of an HPV. Right. Deal. So I did that and then got the vaccine.

Yeah, yeah. Sure. Yeah, yeah. So I'm that way, too. I'm like annual, please. Yeah. Right. Well, you should because you had an abnormal one.

There is a different protocol for people who had an abnormal pap smear. But then if it converts back to normal, then you can go on the other thing. Again, check with your OBGYN on that because they're the experts on. these new protocols and if you're interested in looking where these protocols come from there is a website uspsstf dot com i think or is it dot gov let me see us preventative task force uspsstf dot it's got to be dot gov right nope well maybe it is no i think it's dot com so we're us preventative tap let's see uh... U.S. Preventative Services Task Force.org.

Dot org for, good to say. Why didn't they just spend the money to get dot org? That's the deal, right? It was the Google domain available for the good price. Yeah, somebody took it, I guess. Okay. Yeah, so, but you can go there and you can see what's, what is available for you and all that kind of stuff.

So, all right. And what screening things they recommend, you know, they recommend that, providers ask about smoking. I mean, some of this is not invasive. Checking your blood pressure. We don't really do rectal exams much anymore because that's fallen out of favor in favor of just checking PSAs.

So, you know, don't fear going to the, you know, to get your physical every year. Do you find something? Well, the very first thing on there is abdominal aortic aneurism, which I wonder is, I expect is very underscreened. So men aged 65 to 75 years who have ever smoked. U.S.PSTF recommends one-time screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm with ultrasound. And men age 65 to 75 who have ever smoked.

Really? Yeah. So your abdominal aorta is the large blood vessel that pumps blood from your heart down to your lower extremities. And that can aneurysm sometimes are dilate and it can dilate to an area where the vessel law gets. so thin that it could rupture. Yeah. And that causes an almost immediate, very painful death. That is correct.

Give thyself a bell. You know what else causes an immediate death? I was on a show once and they asked me what's the worst death that I ever saw. And it was an aorta esophageal fistula, which what that means is the aorta has a connection with the esophagus and it eats, it's cancer, would eat a whole. through the esophagus into the aorta. And when that thing is finally breached, the patient will stand up, open their mouth,

four pumps across the room. That's how much pressure is, and then that's it. Blood. Yeah, four pumps of blood. So, yeah, get your screening stuff done. You know, at 2018 to 2020, that actually predates COVID. So, you know, a lot of people didn't go get their screenings during COVID, so we're going to see a bit of an uptick in cancer for a while.

while, I'm afraid, because of two, at least two years of people not getting the preventative services that they once did. And, I mean, we all have a little bit of PTSD, you know, PTSD from that, I think. I certainly do.

Yeah. And, you know, I'm, I'm, anyway, I don't want, I probably, I don't need to talk about it. But anyway, it's it's, just Google USPSTF because it's, It's actually not that.

It's U.S. Preventative Services Task Force.org slash usPSTF. Why didn't they just buy the domain? It's for sale.org, the dot com, and the dot gov are all for sale. Everything has a price. Well, right? Yes. We should look it up and see how much it costs. Oh, well, that's a good point.

You know, the ones that own these domains, I had to pay $1,000 for Dr.steeb.com. And I've got two of them. I have the DR steve.com, and I've got the spelled out, Dr. Steve.com. That's not nice. And it was a lot of money, and it was when we were first starting out. But I've sensed there are some other famous Dr. Steve's out there. Hell, they can, I'll sell them to them. Exactly.

And then we'll just have weirdmedicine.com, you know? Yep. So anybody knows a Dr. Steve out there that wants a domain. It's for sale. Your old pal needs money. Who would be a plastic surgeon? Yeah, there you go. 100%.

Yeah, yeah. All right. Hey, Dr. Steve. It's Mike in New York. Hey, Mike. I want to thank you for your continued service. Oh, thank you, sir. I appreciate it.

This can be for the Patreon. Okay. I know you think you're done with COVID, but I don't think, especially now with Kennedy in the election, that you will be done with Colvin for a while. I was curious if you've listened to Joe Rogan's RFK Jr., interview. Yes. And his interview with Dr. Assene Mahatra, a British cardiologist, both of whom have a lot of

questions about the COVID vaccine. Sure. And they both cite studies. I don't know how good these studies are or how well worst or the type of studies. I was just curious if you've listened to them. Yes. Yes, I have. Here's the thing. I said from the beginning, we needed therapeutics. This concentration on a vaccine for a coronavirus that's been demonstrated in the past to not be effective because they are, we can get coronaviruses over and over and over again.

And, you know, but they were so focused on a vaccine that drugs like Favapyivir, which I talked about, you can go back and look at my COVID sit reps from like June of 2020. This is only three months after it started where I was talking about this Japanese drug called Favapurivir that was effective against RNA viruses and was already on the market. It stayed phase one, phase two, phase three, already been tried. Hell, give it emergency use. They're in phase four and it's a safe drug. Let us do it. Nope.

We got Molinaupyrivere 18 months later because somebody went, well, okay, you know, that kind of stuff. If we had had, and people are sick of hearing me say this, but P.A. Lydia, you and I haven't talked about it. Tacey, I'm not sure you and I have. If we'd had a drug like that, that was effective like Paxlovit is now, if you were at high risk, you take the prescription to the pharmacy and you get the pill and you don't go to the hospital, you don't end up on the vent, and you don't end up on the vent. don't die. That's what we needed. Because we can't vaccine our way out of this. And we didn't vaccine our way

out of it. Even at the end of it, all the people that I saw, remember I went to a hospital at a six-bed ICU, every single person that was on the ventilator was not vaccinated. So it obviously did help. But we got out of it

by Omicron just infecting everybody. And that was, And when this thing first started, it had an R-0, you know, an effective transmission number of like 2.4. And back then, I was saying most people won't get it. And most people who do get it won't die. I think the vaccine is an important part of prevention of severe disease in the elderly and other people at risk. And I think that mandating it for anyone else, I think the FDA, when they find it,

finally lift the emergency use, and they come up with an indication for it, it's not going to be for the not vulnerable population. So when you have, let's say, 10 to 18-year-olds and healthy 10 to 18-year-olds, and they get coronavirus, they're going to have cases of myocarditis. It happens. So the virus causes it. But the vaccine can cause it as well. It's the bodies, and it generally happens in males to young men, and it's the body's reaction to that antigen that causes the body sometimes to attack the heart muscle. The good news is that in almost all of the cases, those kids get better, but in some they don't.

So if they, and I've looked at numbers, and I can give you a study that shows, that the vaccine creates less myocarditis. But then they don't ever look at, well, if the kids get COVID, what happens? You know, they never go that far. They just say, in the vaccine, we followed them. They didn't get myocarditis. So I can show you that data. We can all cherry-pick studies.

What we need to do is mash all the data together into a meta-analysis and look at the whole thing and see if there's a statistically significant benefit for anybody. will be, but it'll be for the vulnerable population. I think, yeah, we should absolutely vaccinate vulnerable populations. And it remains to be seen what we're going to do about

mandating it for anybody else. I think a very, like, stark memory for me of the start of the COVID. This episode is really a bummer. For our cancer patients, when they were tested positive, or even before they tested positive, before we had tests. before it was an act of Congress to even get a test.

Right. A person comes in with unknown virus or illness. When I would, you know, when they would like get in a wheelchair or in the bed to be admitted to the hospital from the cancer center, it was goodbye. Yeah. You know, and that's not the case anymore since the vaccine. Right. Well, since Molapiravir and Paxlovib.

The other thing that I've seen, and there are other therapies too, outpatient remdesivir is as good as Paxilovin. It's just a pain. in the butt to give, so they have an oral version of it coming if it's not already on the market. I had some stage four cancer

patients that got, COVID got put in the hospital and just sailed right through. So it just goes to show you, you know, there's a natural variation in humans. And coronaviruses are not new. There's five circulating endemic coronaviruses. Now we have a sixth

and they cause a common cold most of the time, but every year we have in this country 10 to 20,000 people who die of, quote, unquote, atypical pneumonia or viral pneumonia, and they had COVID-like syndromes. We weren't testing for that stuff now, or then. We just say, well, you got a virus. Now, the one benefit of this is kind of cool, is when you come in with a viral illness,

they can do this viral panel, it'll say adenavirus, rhinovirus, but coronavirus, all this stuff. It's pretty damn neat. It's pretty cool. Yeah. Anyway, I will take the RSV vaccine. RSV almost killed one of our kids.

But thank God Tacey was breastfeeding because she had the antibodies against the RSV and he just sailed right through. Yeah. It was amazing. They were pretty convinced that if he lived, he would have terrible lung problems because he was so young.

But now they surprised him because she continued to breastfeed. him and saved his life that was more effective than anything else they had because they really didn't have anything just supportive care so thank you Tacey

yeah even though I gave it to him well okay yeah but you saved it for it too so that's the more important thing you allowed you to produce the antibodies that you transferred to him to your breast milk so

I tend to look at the pause yeah you gave it to him but she saved his life, so thank you. Who would have gotten it, you know? Okay, let's do, here. Tacey's feeling. Let's do this. This is Matt, the nurse from Connecticut.

Hey, Matt. I hope everything's going well. Just two quick points that I want to see if I could reach out to you for. The first off is I just wanted to give a shout out to Tacey. I think it's awesome the progression of her on the show. She went from someone that would just get hung up. on or actually hang up on you when you would answer the phone. That is true.

Top of time and everything. She's such a great, like, value. Oh, that's wonderful. And I just want to make sure that she knows that she is very well thought of and such a

community member. And the thing is, if I tell you that, it doesn't mean anything. Right, it means nothing. Oh, damn thing. That was very sweet. Yeah, it was. And that being said, Um, I have a question about, uh, about my nuts. About what? So, when you get hit in the junk, why does it not hurt in your nuts?

Yeah. Why does it hurt up in your, in your abdomen, in your flint? That's easy. That's a good question. Why does it hurt everywhere else but your balls? I don't give, uh, listeners bells often enough, but that's a little. Give thyself a bell. I'm giving him a bell for a great question.

So if you get kicked in the, the nuts, it hurts where you would have ovaries if you had ovaries. So why is that? It'll be a Lydia, you know the answer. The only thing that comes to mind is the pudendal nerve, but I do not know. Well, okay, when the nuts are developed, they develop in the abdomen right around the place where the ovaries would be, and then they descend. So they leave behind their nervous system? Yes, it drags the nervous system with it. Just like the liver and the back of the shoulder when you develop are in the same area and they use the same nerve blades and when they separate they drag those with you so liver pain can sometimes present as posterior shoulder pain

likewise the heart and the left arm or the heart in the neck they share some nervous so when the heart is damaged you get pain in your left arm my dad had it just pain in his shoulder. So that's called referred pain, and that's why it's because those places were in proximity back in the day when you were developing a sub fetus. It's pretty cool.

That's cool. Now, some kids will have non-descended testicles. That's a whole other thing. If your kid doesn't have two nuts in the sack, you can leave them alone for a while. They'll recommend it. But if they hit puberty and it's still that way, it's either got to be brought down or it's got to be removed.

because a certain percentage of those will become malignant. Have you ever seen one of those? I have not. I haven't explored every case. So every testicular cancer case for prior undescended testes. But, you know, that's a very important. Yeah, well, they would still have an undescended testicle. So do you guys not check their nut sack when they come up?

No, well, we do. I just wonder if, you know, because even late dissension raises your risk of testicular cancer. Oh, is that right? Now, that I didn't know. Yeah. So you get a bell for that. Give thyself a bill. Anytime you tell me something I don't know, which is frequent these days.

So I haven't ever explored people's histories. And testicular cancer, though very important, is relatively rare. Yes. Right. So I don't see a ton of things. You know, every October, we go over the self-testicular exam on the show. We did that on our very first show in New York when we did it from the Opion Anthony Studios. and every year I'll get one or two people that email me and say I found something and yeah that's what it was

and they took care of it and they wouldn't have done it if we hadn't just kind of walked them through it so we'll do that again this October but yeah that's why I say at the end of every show check your stupid nuts for lumps it is a young man's disease every woman knows about self breast exam most guys have never heard about self testicular exams it is a young man's disease Or if they did hear about it, it was in, what's that, health class, where they separate the boys from the girls. And then the boys are just, you know, laughing and get falling and they missed it. I'm surprised that the pediatricians don't mandate. I'm sure that they do.

I mean. But they just don't. I'm sure it's such an awkward thing, too. But I talk to adults, and I said, do you, have you ever heard of that? They'll say, no. Nobody ever told me that. So they may have told them, you know, sometimes. Not absorbed.

but it was not absorbed unlike a downy paper towel, right? Before we go, we had a question from the fluid family. Love it, aka Patty Blue, wanted to know should people get the shingles vaccine? And that to me is an unqualified, hell yes. Shingles fucking sucks. Sucks, sucks.

I've seen people get shingles on their face. on their crotch Right And those are the two really bad ones That's where I had it If you get it on your crotch You think you have herpes And you think your partner's been doing something

Or you've been then Or your partner goes well No I hadn't been doing anything It must be you It sucks Did that happen to you guys? Well I mean I made them check To see if it was

Yeah yeah Yeah because she's suspecting me And I'm going Well I've got to be objective What have you been doing Because you know So anyway, but yeah, that was never serious or seriously. I mean, it wasn't a problem, but, you know, we were kind of joking about it.

And then she got tested, and it was actually varicella zost or not herpes simplex. So having it on your crotch sucks around the, it can, so well, let's talk a little bit about what shingles it. You want to talk about what it is? People get sick of me explaining. It's a reactivation of the varicelizoster or chicken pox. So anyone who previously had chicken pox, that virus lives within you, remains dormant. And it can manifest a shingles by expression on any dermatome. So any nerve root.

Nerve root throughout your body. It's usually, it's just one, it's on one side. So when the shingle, when the chickenpox vaccine retreats when you're a kid, it nestles in a single nerve root. It may be in others, but then maybe the fact that it gets expressed, prevents others from doing it, but that's weird. Yeah.

So, you know, the rash, you see sort of a chicken pox, blistery, popular, ulcerating rash along one side of the body or the other. Yeah, and we can tell as providers, when it looks suspicious for shingles, because it does travel along one dermatone. That's right, and we know the dermotone.

That's crazy. It's crazy. It's innervated by one. All the peripheral nerves. Yeah. And it's peripheral nerves. It seems like why didn't it do it inside? Thank God it doesn't.

It would kill us. But, yeah, if you get it in your face and into your eye, and you had a scare about that, right? I did. It's a bit embarrassing now. I was super stressed a few months ago. I just finished my doctorate, have the organization. Oh, yeah.

Congratulations, by the way. Yes. Boy was your dissertation on it. So I actually did cell-free DNA from cancer and screening. So early stage cancer screening through blood tests. Yeah, okay. Give myself a bell. So we'll see how that comes along at the U.S. Preventative Task Force is expected

2024 to be part of our usual training. Really? Yeah. And you did that? Well, no, I didn't do that. What I did was make a nice algorithm for family providers to compare colonoscopy, cell free DNA, low-dose lung CT, self-free DNA, the stool kits, things like that. Cool.

Anyway, so I was at work one day, and I felt on my, the side of my temple, this blister, and I had convinced myself that I had shingles because all of the stress I was under. And shingles in that area would be likely to go to your eye. It can disrupt your cornea. It could eventually cause blindness. Correct. And so I immediately had someone prescribed me, Valtrex, because I knew I had shingles. I had pain.

And then about two hours after I checked my first dose of Valtrex, I remembered burning myself with a curling iron. You get nothing. That's the wrong one. So, I do have a good supply of Valtrex still. You are one pathetic loser. Well, thank God that's what it was. Yeah. It might have been a day after.

I spent a solid day thinking I was going to go blind, possibly. That's what stress is. And the other thing about shingles is when it's gone, it can leave behind. nerves that are so jangled that they continue to send pain signals to the brain. It's called post-herpetic neuralgia, and we have to treat that. So if you get shingles, get the treatment because the hypothesis is that treating it early with valicyclovir, you know, the antiviral, will help decrease the risk of having post-repidic neuralgia.

All right. But the real prevention is the vaccine. So any adults, 50 years and older, get two doses of shingles vaccine called shingricks, it's a recombinant zoster vaccine, to prevent shingles. Now, adults 19 years and older who have weakened immune systems because of disease or therapy can also get it because they're at a higher risk of getting it. Will it 100% prevent you from getting shingles? No, it will not.

I got shingles anyway because I'm under a little bit of stress. and I but it lasted about a day seriously I got the the papules never got the blisters and then it retreated so I highly highly recommend it let me warn you though this vaccine will kick your ass it will absolutely kick your ass because it made me feel like I had sort of a flu syndrome for about four days but what that told me is it's working and I could take some a half a percent or something like that. Did both shots do that to you? If I remember

correctly, the first one was bad and then the second one wasn't so bad. Yeah, that's a great question in taste. So, but anyway, yes, highly recommend it. It prevents strong protection against shingles and post-herpetic

neuralgia. And it's 90% effective at preventing shingles and post-herpetic neurologa and immunity stays strong for at least the first seven years after vaccination. Now, if you have a weakened immune system from chemotherapy or some

like HIV or something like that, that's active, studies show Schingrichs is anywhere from 70 to 90% effective. So it's still effective. You still get it. Still recommend it. Okay. Now, let's talk a little bit about shingles

again, then we'll get out of here. Can you give shingles to somebody else because people will ask that. Yeah, so exposure to an open blister in an open section of skin you could

theoretically, can't you theoretically transfer that? Okay. No, am I thinking about herpes and plucks? Yes. Okay, sorry, guys. Because they won't let you work when you have blisters. That raises one of your bells. Right, because you can give

chicken pox to someone if you have shingles, cannot give shingles to someone if you have shir the virus is transmissible that is correct that is correct it's like a half a lot of people ask about that so yeah it's um so there are some adults that have never had chicken pox and they never got the vaccine i used to worry about the the baricella vaccine and you know i would rail kind of well we don't have long-term studies what if we get a bunch of adults who when the vaccine's immunity wears away then now they're going to have all these adult chicken pox cases. And chickenpox and adult is a different syndrome. Just like RSV is a different syndrome for adults, it causes a common cold for the most part. But in children,

it can be devastating. And, you know, the chickenpox is, you know, they used to have chicken box parties. And but if you're an adult, it really can F you up. So make you very ill. But it turns out I should have done a little bit more research because it's a live attenuated viral vaccine. And therefore, they should have pretty prolonged immunity to it, if not permanent immunity. So I'm a little happy about that. And I have not seen any adult chicken pox at all. No insurgents or resurgence of that since the, the varicella vaccine was started. Yeah.

Okay. So that's good. That's a good thing. Anyway, all right. Well, listen, I can't thank Dr. Scott because he's not here today. Thanks to... Too bad. That's right.

Thanks to Tacey. Thanks for your topic time and for being here. Tacey's been my partner on air since we kicked everybody out of the studio during COVID. And we just kind of kept it going. I'm glad you're here. Obviously, some of the listeners are, too. Thanks to everyone who's made the... this show happened over the years.

Listen to our SiriusXM show on the Faction Talk channel, SiriusXM Channel 103's, Saturdays at 7 p.m. Eastern, Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern on demand and other times at Paul O'Charski's pleasure. Apparently he's doing our show now. I didn't know that. So it's good to know. Paul's good guy. Many thanks to our listeners whose voicemail and topic ideas make this job very easy.

go to our website at dr steve.com for schedules, 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 here in medicine. Thanks, everybody. I don't know.