Weird Medicine: The Podcast - 643 - LSDeez Nutz
Episode Date: September 18, 2025Dr Steve Dr Scott and Lady Di-Agnosis discuss psychedelic research into anxiety, PTSD and more what is the most prescribed medication? Vasectomy and cancer risk Valsalva maneuver for supr...aventricular tachycardia Please visit: simplyherbals.net/cbd-sinus-rinse (the best he's ever made. Seriously.) instagram.com/weirdmedicine x.com/weirdmedicine stuff.doctorsteve.com (it's back!) youtube.com/@weirdmedicine (click JOIN and ACCEPT GIFTED MEMBERSHIPS. Join the "Fluid Family" for live recordings!) youtube.com/@normalworld (Check out Dave and crew, and occasionally see your old pal!) CHECK OUT THE ROADIE COACH stringed instrument trainer! roadie.doctorsteve.com (the greatest gift for a guitarist or bassist! The robotic tuner!) see it here: stuff.doctorsteve.com/#roadie GET YOUR COPY OF "WET BRAIN: THE GAME OF TROLLS AND LOSERS!" get it here: dabblegames.myshopify.com (a most-fun party game!) DABBLEDICE: Second Edition available NOW! Only $10 plus shipping! each shipment comes with some awful tchotchke! 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, Jim Norton, Gregg Hughes, Anthony Cumia, Joe DeRosa, Pete Davidson, Geno Bisconte, Cassie Black ("Safe Slut"). Stuff you will never hear on the main show ;-) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Hey there, it's Heather McDonnell from JuicySoup, and I have the juiciest of them all on
Audible.
Romance has always been a crowd-placing genre on their platform, and there's more to imagine
when you listen to their expansive collection.
They have audiobooks to satisfy every side of you.
I'm talking about the Romanticie genre, which is huge on book talk right now, with authors
like Sarah J. Mass and Devney Perry.
Get your first great love story for free when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at
Audible.com.
You see, you see, you see, you're stupid minds.
Stupid, stupid!
Ha ha!
Man, you are one pathetic loser.
If you just read the bio for Dr. Steve, host of Weird Medicine on Sirius XM103,
and made popular by two really comedy shows, Opie and Anthony 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 Tobolivide stripping from my nose.
I've got the leprosy of the heart bow,
exacerbating my incredible woes.
I want to take my brain out
and blast it with the wave,
an ultrasonic, ecographic, and a pulsating shave.
I want a magic pill.
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 inside it.
I want a requiem for my disease.
So I'm paging Dr. Steve.
From the world famous Cardiff Electric Network Studios in beautiful downtown OJ City,
it's weird medicine, the first and still only on censored medical show.
In the History of Broadcast Radio, now a podcast.
I'm Dr. Steve with my little pal, Dr. Scott,
the traditional Chinese medicine provider,
gives me street cred with the whack of alternative medicine assholes.
Hello, Dr. Scott.
Hey, Dr. Steve.
And Lady Diagnosis.
Hello, Dr. Steve.
Not only back from sabbatical, but here, you know, on a regular basis again.
Thank you.
This is a show for people who would never listen to a medical show on the radio or the Internet.
If you have a question, you're embarrassed to take to your regular medical provider.
If you can't find an answer anywhere else, give us a call 347.
7664323.
That's 347.
Poohead.
And follow us on Twitter at Weird Medicine.
and at D.R. Scott W.M. and at Lady Diagnosis. Follow our website at Dr. Steve.com for podcast,
medical news and stuff you can buy. Most importantly, we're not your medical providers.
Take everything here 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. Don't forget, stuff.
dot dr steve.com that's stuff
dot dr steve.com
and
there you can get
not only
wet brain the card game
but you can get dabble dice
the game of splats
and livers well the game
of beer disequilibrium and
livers
and comes with
that's not intriguing no I know
it's a bunch of dice in a
nice box
and it's a party game
and you need to
collect 13 beers
from your listeners
who are sending them to you
via
via door dash
while you're live streaming
and
you've got to collect 13 beers
before you destroy your liver
so it's fun game
and it's 10 bucks
So, I mean, come on
That's crazy talk
Yeah, it says
Let me see, the dice throwing party game
Taking the Dabbleverse by storm
But prior dabbleverse knowledge is not required
And it's fun for dabblers of all ages
As long as they're 18 or older
Always drink responsibly
Unlike certain people
So anyway, 10 bucks
Go to stuff.com
or if you want to read about it,
I'll put the link in the description,
but it's dabblegames.
com, so I'll just put the link in there.
That'll make a mouthful, yeah.
Great birthday gift, if you knew anyone with a birthday.
Yeah, it would if that person didn't already have 500 of the fucking things.
Was that all it was done there?
I thought there was about 1,000.
Yeah, it was 500.
It just looked like a value.
It's crazy.
Well, anyway.
You don't want to run out, Scott.
That's true.
You've got a good point.
No, I'll be throwing these things out at any live events I go to.
But, yeah, $10 plus shipping.
That's a good deal.
It's fun.
Shipping's probably more than it's $10.
And we'll autograph it or whatever if you want.
Oh, wow.
Or whatever.
Oh, and Dr. Scott, simply Herbles.
Yep.
His website, simply herbals.net, you're still in business, right?
We are, yes, sir.
Have you decided to stay in business yet?
No, we haven't decided to stay in business.
But we're at least through the year.
Okay, all right.
So you can get the CBD nasal spray and the fatigue reprieve and all that stuff.
That was GVAC's favorite thing.
Of course, he expired.
So I'm sure there was no association between the U.S.
He's inspired.
Oh, that's what I did.
He's deceased.
Correct.
But we have these, we have,
poor feller.
The birthday joy.
Let it roll.
He would find that funny.
I'm going to give you these stickers and we'll autograph these and you can throw them in.
You know, when you place an order with Dr. Scott, you get these chotch.
and now we've got these really nice
weird medicine stickers.
Scott and I will, after the show,
autograph all of them,
and if you place an order,
it will end up in your order somewhere,
probably folded up and crumpled
because Scott is not good at this.
But don't blame that on me.
I've got not just to squeeze it up.
Now, no.
Boys, let's get along.
Shut up.
We have some of, good Lord.
Lady literal over there.
Speaking of lady literal, no sense of humor,
Not Cupcake sends in a super chat.
Five dollars, thank you, my friend, says Lady diagnosis,
she with the perfect TTGR.
And that is still true.
Grassy.
But we can't mention it anymore because it's 2025.
So thank you, not cupcakes.
You can.
The DreamFinder came in there, too.
Yep, a DreamFinder, $199.
Happy birthday.
Oh, yay.
Yay.
My birthday is why I didn't get to go to Detroit this weekend to go to the WATP live event
and hang out with my buddies, Carl and Chris and Andy and Lucy and also Dave Landau.
But that's okay.
And Jenny Jingles, of course, on whom I performed a complimentary Papsmere.
Oh.
And by complimentary, I mean, damn, girl, that thing looking good.
There we go.
That was one of my roast jokes.
Oh, wow.
I might as well recycle it.
Yeah. Thank God.
All right.
It is your birthday.
Yep.
So, oh, and not coming says, Ann Patrick.
Was Melton in Detroit?
Oh, no one cares about O.J.
I didn't know O.J. was there either.
So, all right.
Yes, I would have hung out with all of the above.
All right.
Well, what do we got?
I do have a news story.
Oh, cool.
Yay.
This is a big one.
This is from the Journal of the American
Medical Association, so not some shite.
Not Facebook.
No, not some shite, you know, open access, cheapo, you know, journal that's in business just to make money.
This is the actual journal of record of the AMA, which I'm not a member of the AMA, but this is, you know, being published in JAMA is a big deal.
So this is preliminary communication, not a regular article.
Single treatment of MM-120, a.k.a. lycergide in generalized anxiety disorder.
So this is pharmaceutical grade LSD.
And it's lysurgyde deartrate.
So the question was, does it demonstrate dose-dependent efficacy in adults?
with moderate to severe generalized anxiety disorder.
So this is a phase 2B multi-center randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study, so it's a good study.
We love this.
Yes.
And phase 2B means that this is being done by a pharmaceutical company looking to bring this to market.
So phase one, you do like 30 people, just make sure that they all don't drop dead.
Then phase two, you do maybe 300 people and you're looking for adverse events and some efficacy data.
In other words, does it work?
And then you'll go to phase three, which could be 30,000 people.
And then phase four is post-marketing.
So phase three would be the data that you would bring to the FDA.
Then if they approve it, then you go into phase four as your drug hits the market.
when you start treating millions of people, that's when you see the really rare side effects come up.
And so that's kind of how that works.
Anyway, this phase 2B, multi-center randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study.
And four dose levels of MM-120, it included 198 adults with generalized anxiety disorder.
So the primary outcome was a change in the Hamilton anxiety risk.
rating scale score.
And so this is just a validated instrument where you're looking at anxiety levels.
People answer questions and you get a number at the end.
And so what they're looking for is statistically significant decline in that anxiety level.
And so they're finding supported the selection of 100 micrograms of MM120 is the optimal dose for pivotal clinical trials.
So, in other words, going forward, they're advocating that they use 100 micrograms
as the dose that they want to bring to the FDA.
So what they did, participants were randomized to receive a single treatment dose
with 25 microgram 50, 100, 200, or a placebo.
And the primary outcome was dose response relationship.
And so the results showed, let's see here, oh, come on, give the actual results, not the demographics in this section.
How do you measure efficacy of anxiety?
Well, they do that Hamilton anxiety score.
So what it is is you do it.
It's a questionnaire, and you fill it out beforehand, and then you fill it out afterward.
I'm doing a study on anxiety.
in the chemotherapy suite using virtual reality.
So we have a placebo, which is they don't get anything.
And then we have a control, which is just a beach scene in virtual reality.
And then we have an active intervention, which is the trip app.
And then people will do this Hamilton anxiety scale before and after,
and you're looking for a statistically significant drop.
And so is it just VR?
Does it work at all, first off?
And if it does, is it just the VR or it is the Trip app have some extra efficacy that just VR by itself doesn't have?
Cool.
So that's how you do that.
That's really the only way we have to do.
And so it's just self-diagnosed or whatever.
Right.
Self-reported.
Reported.
Right.
So they said the most common adverse events were visual perceptual changes.
No, really?
visual hallucinations, which occurred in 46.2% of the participants who relieved 25 mics,
75% who got 50 mics, and 92% who got 100 mics.
So if the 100 mics is brought to market, 9 out of 10 people are going to be tripping balls.
Right?
So you'll have to do this in the doctor's office.
That's how they'll do this.
and they did a single dose
and then they looked at people's response
and for two weeks they had improvement
in their generalized anxiety disorder.
That's as long as they looked at them.
After only one dose?
After one dose.
Oh, wow.
They give them a single dose.
That's something.
That's interesting.
That's pretty cool.
Yeah, that's crazy.
So, again...
And it's different from LSD, how?
It's just managed.
Okay.
It's just pharmaceutical.
and it's, you know, LSD is lysurgic acid diathlon, and this is lysurgide de tartrate.
So this is a tartaric acid, you know, salt of lysurgyde.
So I don't know how it's different.
They're not giving the chemical properties of it, whether it is, you know, truly LSD or not.
But it is, if it's not, it's a very close relative.
Let's look that up.
Let's just ask it's lycergide tartrate the same as LSD because, okay, let me see.
Okay, here's a Wikipedia, this will be good enough.
No, it's not good enough.
Because if the lay person reads that journal and they are just, you know, you know how people Google, and they'll think, well, if I just do LSD, I'll be better.
Right.
So that could happen.
We're going to take a question about that in a minute about, you know, this self-treatment stuff.
Yeah.
Okay, it says lysurgide de-tartrate is simply a more stable salt form of lysurgic acid diethamide.
So it is LSD.
Okay.
But it's in a tartar tartrate salt, which apparently makes it more stable.
Hmm.
But so, yeah, so this will be very interesting because, you know,
I've talked about this before.
In my opinion, Timothy Leary did us a big disservice.
It wasn't just him, but he was one of the most visible.
They did a study.
Sandos was making pharmaceutical-grade psilocybin for treatment, you know, for clinical trials.
And one of the studies they did was they got a whole bunch of people in a church and dosed them up with psilocybin.
And then the researchers went, well, hell, we'll just do some, too.
Oh, no.
Yes.
So they sat there and tripped with all these people and then, you know, wrote it out as a clinical trial.
Oh, my.
And so that's when Timothy Leary and other people were saying, you know, oh, you know, tune in, you know, drop out, trip out, whatever the hell he was, whatever the thing was that they were saying back then.
I was there, but I don't remember.
But they were basically saying, yeah, these drugs are good to do.
And a lot of people were self-medicating and some people were just doing it just a trip
and, you know, attain different levels of consciousness and stuff.
And what Congress saw who were funding these studies is a bunch of quote-unquote dirty hippies going,
ooh, I'm tripping balls, man, and people jumping off buildings and stuff.
And a lot of myths came up about this stuff about how danger it was.
was and people were having bad behaviors and things like that, which were unbelievably rare, but
still some bad things did happen.
So they just went, fuck this.
The Democrats and the Republicans both at that time were very socially conservative, and they
were like, nope, no more tax dollars going to this.
So they cut off all the research, and it's just now coming back.
We should have had these drugs.
I mean, all we've had is serotonin re-uptake inhibitors and the, you know, the dopamine receptor
drug bupropion, and that's basically it, you know, diet and exercise.
So for depression, so we could have had these other drugs.
So now we have ketamine.
We do have that.
And it has its pluses and minuses.
And then now, you know, we may have some other psychedelic type therapy.
Cilocybin clinical trials are going on.
And if they just take one methyl group and attach it to the molecule and say it doesn't do anything, it doesn't change anything, now they can patent it and they can charge a shit.
Charge a fortune.
Hello, you guys.
It's Heather McDonald and I have a juicy scoop for you on Audible.
I've been loving their romance collection.
They are a leading creator and provider of premium audio storytelling, and they've got this down.
Romance fans are among their most engaged and voracious listeners.
So there is nothing guilty about this pleasure.
There's more to imagine when you listen, and they have audiobooks to satisfy every side of you.
Audible has modern rom-coms by Lily Chew and Allie Hazelwood,
and titles from the Romantasy genre that is going crazy right now, like the ones taking over book talk.
We're talking about authors like Devney Perry and Sarah J. Mass.
Plus, you can get into classic regency favorites like Pride and Prejudice or all the really steamy stuff.
I mean, imagine a dalliance with a Duke or a sexy billionaire.
You can find a book boyfriend in the city on a hockey rink or find love in another realm with dragons.
When it comes to what romance you're into, you can't be pinned down.
So here's your invitation to have it all.
Get your first great love story for free when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at all.
Audible.com.
Did you lock the front door?
Check.
Close the garage door?
Yep.
Installed window sensors, smoke sensors, and HD cameras with night vision?
No.
And you set up credit card transaction alerts, a secure VPN for a private connection,
and continuous monitoring for our personal info on the dark web?
Uh, I'm looking into it.
Stress less about security.
Choose security solutions from TELUS for peace of mind at home and online.
Visit tellus.com slash total security to learn more.
apply while other money managers are holding dynamic is hunting seeing past the horizon investing
beyond the benchmark because your money can't grow if it doesn't move learn more at dynamic
dot CA slash active dynamic actively different because anxiety and depression is like the biggest
problem in America I would guess yeah everyone that's why Xana
and Prozac are two of the most prescribed drugs.
That and the PPI's.
Oh, yeah.
You know, we're all running around depressed, anxious, and with reflux.
And now we'll go be.
Well, and of course.
Fat.
Yeah, and fat.
Right, and fat.
I think the number one prescribed is Obesso Americans.
Of all the statins are a number one prescription in the United States a thing.
But I think right after that, probably after that are SSRIs.
and I saw some doc was talking about
we all should be taking ozidic of some form
like oh my god
there are there are reasons for that though
what did they say yeah
hell I didn't know I didn't listen
when I heard everybody needs to be on that
oh no you should listen you gotta listen to the other side
you can't understand them yes
yes I don't know what his thought process was
but to say everybody needs
because what does it do? I think he was being
they used to say we should put
Stantin's in the water supply.
I mean, he's being hyperbolic.
But it turns out that these classes of drugs may have anti-cancer properties
and may also prevent heart attack and stroke.
That's what I was wondering, yeah.
So that's what I got he was talking about.
He was being hyperbolic.
Yes.
Lower.
Yeah.
Statins, frequency.
He's frequently cited top category.
Metabolic agents, okay, high cholesterol and diabetes, very common, we'll have statins again.
And then, oh, interesting.
Yeah, minerals and electrolytes, levothyroxin.
Hmm.
Levoithoroxin is ahead of.
Yeah, I'm surprised ahead of, now this is the AI telling this.
So this may not be absolutely true, but I'm using it as the search agent.
But, yeah, that's interesting.
I would have thought that Prozac and PPI aren't even listed on here.
Anyway, well, I think a lot of that change as far as prescriptions because now you can't matter.
Oh, it's on Canada.
That could be.
That could be.
There were a lot of us that were not in favor of putting even Xantac and Tag a mat and all that stuff on the market.
Because, you know, our protocol was you'd treat people for six weeks.
and then if they don't get better, then you get them scoped.
And, you know, at that time, we weren't really thinking of GERD as being a chronic disease or chronic condition.
And if you put the stuff on the market, people would just take it every day and ignore symptoms.
And we were worried that stomach cancers would be missed and that kind of stuff.
And it really hasn't been a huge epidemic of stomach cancer that I'm aware of just because people are able to buy these.
things over the counter.
So there may even be less Barrett's esophagus because people are taking
PPI's that otherwise wouldn't have complained.
They would have just taken tombs or whatever.
Sure, sure.
So it could be.
Barrett's esophagus being a metapagia, or in other words, change from one type of
cell to another type of cell in the esophagus that can lead to cancer.
So anyway.
Those stats that you give are those worldwide or just the United States?
I've just asked for the United States.
Okay.
Yeah.
All right.
Where are we?
We were talking about LSD.
We're going to.
We're dripping.
We're all over the place.
All right.
Well, anyway, we'll keep you informed on the news like that.
All right.
You ready to take some questions?
Let's do it.
Yes, sir.
First thing.
Number one thing.
Don't take advice from some asshole on the radio.
Thank you, my friend.
Oh, right, and of course.
Hi, Dr. Steve.
It's Tom from Michigan.
Hey, Tom.
This is a topic I'm sure you've covered several times.
Well, my question is...
Let me tell you this, after 20, some, however many years we've been doing this.
It's hard to find something we haven't covered, but there are a few things.
Every once in a while we get surprised.
It's about vasectomy.
Oh, vasectomy.
I am scheduled to get one here in about 12 days.
Excellent.
I am apprehensive because of...
I know a guy who had some serious complications from his.
Ended up losing the testicle.
They missed the nerve in the process.
I'm going in there and mopping up some of the work that they did.
He was in some pretty rough shape for a while.
I've also learned that there's been possible links to prostate cancer and Alzheimer's from the vasectomies.
I was wondering if you had an opinion on them.
and if any of that research has been poo-poohed or if it is something to consider prior to letting some strange man fondle my balls.
Thank you, Dr. Steve.
A strange man.
Well, hopefully it's not too strange.
Hopefully he's a doctor at least.
Let me fumble your balls there, but a little buddy.
Here I come.
That would be a strange.
Anyway, there is a relationship between vasectomy and cancer risk that has been a subject of ongoing research.
So there was a study that showed a small, but statistically significant increased risk of prostate cancer in men who've undergone vasectomy.
The relative risk was considered in that study to be 1.1, meaning that vasectomized men are tend to.
percent more likely to develop prostate cancer than non-visectomized men.
But this is very difficult because if you take a hundred people my age who die from something
other than prostate cancer, and then you biopsy their prostates after they're dead, about
half of them will have prostate cancer.
So this is very difficult.
The increased risk is limited to low-grade prostate cancers, which almost kill nobody.
And the reasons for it were maybe increased inflammation in the prostate.
And also, though, more frequent PSA testing, which may detect more low-grade cancers.
So it may be bullshit.
What was the other risk that he was worried about?
Alzheimer's.
Alzheimer's.
I think he said.
Yeah.
That is one that I'm not aware of.
And as far as I know, there was, okay, there was a study in 2006 that found that men with
the history of azectomy were more likely to develop a rare form of dementia called primary
progressive aphasia.
But that study was limited and has never been replicated.
And not very many people believe it.
But based on all the.
evidence that's out there right now.
There's no reason to believe vasectomy increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
But, you know, studies are ongoing.
Sure.
Now, as far as the complication rate, it's generally very low.
You know, infection 1%, that'd be 1 in 100.
You know, blood clot, 1 in 100.
We had double vasectomy Todd on this show.
He had a complication where he had a spermatoceal.
So he had like a third testicle.
It was one of the first question.
I ever answered on weird medicine.
I didn't realize it was him when I was in, when PA. John and I were in New York for our first show.
But, yeah, some people will get the sperm granuloma, which is a small painless lump.
So 1% of people, less than 1% will get chronic pain, and then less than 1% will get sperm still present.
So this nicking of the nerve, that's hard to do.
if you're doing this thing using a standard procedure.
I don't understand how this happened.
Unless maybe this poor souls had a nod nerve in an odd place.
Yeah.
And when they're making the incision, they just didn't expect it to be there.
I guess.
And that's all I can imagine.
Was it a urologist that did this, or was it a, you know, a family medicine person?
You know, the no-scalpal vasectomy,
is kind of a joke because they go,
oh, they don't use your scalpel, so most...
Hand me them scissors.
Right, but that's exactly what it is.
There you go, Dr. Scott.
Give myself a bell.
They use scissors with that one side of the scissors has a razor's edge.
Yep.
And they go in and they just, that's the scalpel.
So technically there's no scalpel, but they're still cutting your scrotum.
Yep.
But it is a very easy procedure to do.
You know, you get the person in what we call dorsal lithotomy position, which basically the pap smear position with your legs akimbo and your feet up in the stirrups.
And you just identify the scrotum, which hopefully you can do.
And you use your fingers to kind of tease out the vase deference, which is the tube going from the testicle up into the body.
that carries sperm up into the body to add mix with the fluid from the prostate and the seminal vesicles to make an ejaculation that is capable of impregnating somebody, which we very often forget.
That's the purpose of intercourse just in case anybody was confused about that.
So you put your finger behind the scrotum and use your thumb to identify the vass.
And when you do that, you're moving all the other structures out of the way.
and it's just right there
and it's all prepped and everything
and you numb it with
some numbing medication
which goes actually into the vass
so it feels like you're getting kicked in the nuts
just for a second and then it's gone
yeah it's a heavy pressure feeling
and then yeah
and then they just open up the scrotum
identify the vass
use whatever technique it is that you're
going to cut it and redouble it
and burn it and do all that stuff
and then you just go on to the next one.
That's crazy.
It's how you lose a testicle and you nick a nerve at the same time.
I don't know how that happened.
That's tough.
Wow.
Anyway, well, I wasn't there, so.
And we're just going based on what he said.
But anyway, yeah, that is your friend, just don't go to that doctor.
Problem solved.
Problem solved.
Yeah.
Okay.
And ask somebody, it's always okay to ask when you're going to go have a medical procedure,
what's your complication rate?
What's your success rate?
And they have to tell you and they have to be honest about it.
Because if they lie about it and something bad happens, bad things can happen.
So do that.
And honestly, you should be fine.
Your friends' results should not be reflected in your results.
Okay?
Yep.
All right.
Let's do another one here.
Hi, Dr. Steve.
Hey.
Can you talk about the Val Salva maneuver where you breathe into a needle
and they put your feet up in the air and kind of tilt your head way back to slow down your heart rate?
Yeah.
That shit is wild.
How does it actually work?
Yeah.
How does that help?
I mean, I think it would freak you out.
The valve.
It's your heart to be even best.
All right, thanks.
Bye.
It's the Val Salva maneuver.
So you've done a Val Salva maneuver a million times in your life.
It's where you take a deep breath and you hold it.
And then you bear down like you're having a bowel movement.
And that increases the pressure in the chest cavity.
And then you release it all at once.
Hmm.
And we will do this back in the day, particularly for people with superventricular tachycardia,
which is a specific type of arrhythmia of the heart.
And it increases the tone of the vagus nerve, which slows the heart rate and prolongs the what we call the refractory period of the AV node that controls the heart rate.
and what it controls how, yeah, it controls heart rate.
And when you do that, you can stop this sort of circus rhythm around the heart
because that's what's going on with superventricular intagicardia as the electrical impulses
have gone mad.
And when you slow down that refractory period, that signal comes back going, okay, fire again,
but it's not ready and it just stops.
It's like putting up a wall.
It's a pretty stiff heartbeat, yeah.
Scott said it a lot simpler way than that.
Thank you, Dr. Scott.
Sorry, yeah.
But it is effective, I don't know, probably 40, 50% of the time.
I've done it when I was in training.
The other thing that we would do was the ice water bath,
which stimulates the diving reflex, which does the same thing.
You got somebody with SVT and you go, well, while we're waiting for the medicine,
and you want to try something?
And they're like, okay, I'm going to shove your face in a bucket of ice water.
Are you okay with that?
Sure.
Why not?
And you do that.
You leave them in there as long as they can stand at holding their breath.
And when they come up, about 40 to 50% of the time, the SVT will stop
because that stimulates that vagal nerve again and resets the heart rate.
And what it's really doing is the same thing that whales do when they dive.
they have the same reflex
and they stimulate that
vagus nerve their heart rate slows
down their metabolism slows down
and penguins
yeah I guess penguins same way
sure enough probably seals too
probably up
anyway all right
very good well thanks everybody
we will be back
soon
thanks always to Dr. Scott
the lady diagnosis everyone who's made this show
happen over the years
many thanks to our listeners who's voice
mail 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, get some
exercise.
We'll see you in one week for the next edition of Weird Medicine.
Thanks, everybody.
Thank you.
Thank you.
