Urgent - Self-Care is Your Life Support

She blinded me with Soda.

She blinded me.

Brought to you today by Channel of Health, where you can be informed and empowered about your health and healthcare issues that are important to you. I'm your host, uh Dr. Valda Crowder. Everyone calls me Dr. V. I'm a board certified emergency medicine physician. I've been working for over 30 years, and I've treated patients over four pandemics, a mass shooting, and a category four hurricane. Um, I'm excited today about our topic, which is urgent. Self-care is your life support. So if you want to weigh in on this conversation, give me a call at 1-800-450-7876. 1-800-450-7876. So, you know, when we talk about self-care, you know, it might sound kind of simple, but it's actually really revolutionary and really makes a difference. Um, a lot of people are living in a state of chronic stress. And that can be caused by uh trauma or uh our political discourse and conflicts, global clon conflicts, uh, economic uncertaint uncertainty. People have some people have lost their jobs, some folks are getting out of college trying to get a new job and having difficulty. And there's just overall a barrage of information that is occurring um and coming at us through all different devices, right? We have our phones, we have our emails, and sometimes our nervous systems really operate um sort of in over overdrive. Um, researchers actually have a name for this, it's called headline stress disorder, and it's basically where your body is basically responding to distant threats as if it's causing you immediate danger. Um, and and here's here's what the science tells us is that when you are exposed to stress, what happens is our bodies release a lot of the stress hormones, cortisol, adrenaline. It really doesn't matter whether or not um it is a stressful situation that we're hearing about, reading about, or actually experiencing, or may have actually experienced it in the in the past. Um, these stress hormones are really designed to help you escape immediate physical danger or threats. They're not meant to actually stay elevated for weeks and months. So it's really supposed to be a temporary response that your body has. When you're actually um exposed to chronic stress or chronic trauma, then what happens is these enzymes stay elevated in your body for um a much longer time than they should be. Um they can lead to weight gain, uh fatigue. Um they actually physically shrink the front of your brain. The front of your brain, which is your prefrontal cortex, is actually part of your brain responsible for decision making and emotional regulation. Um, and they can enlarge the amygdala, which is the fear center of your brain. So this isn't really about like really just feeling overwhelmed. Over or being overwhelmed can really disrupt your immune system, your sleep, um, it increases inflammation in your body, um, and impairs your ability to really think clearly. So it's really, really important to disrupt this cycle, right? Because what happens when this continues and goes on and on, you become more reactive, uh less empathetic, um, and it's much, much harder to actually really engage constructively in the issues that you care about and also to problem solve in a way that is important. So here's the thing self-care is not selfish, it is actually really about being um strategic. Um, and when we take care of our minds and bodies, we are literally rewir rewiring our brain for success and resilience. So uh I want to really um talk about this today. I think this is really important. I'd like to kind of know, you know, what do you do to take care of yourself daily? How are you taking care of yourself uh in this particular environment, even if you're struggling um and you feel like you are struggling to really uh take care of yourself and you want to sort of figure out how you can do it better? I really want to hear from you so we can learn from one another and move forward in this area. Um we got a couple, we got a caller on the line, but before I actually bring the caller on the line, I want to go quickly to um some news you can use because the vaccine panel actually met this week um and really came up with a lot of different recommendations that were kind of confusing. So I want to really make sure everybody knows what we at the colleges are recommending. So the American College of Emergency Physicians, the American College of Pediatrics are all really coming out and actually making their own recommendation because of the confusion. And the recommendation is for people to actually, if they have not had any reaction to the COVID or the flu vaccine, um, and they are over 18 years old that everyone actually gets the COVID and the flu vaccine. If you have some questions or concern about whether or not the COVID or flu vaccine is for you, I tell people call your physician, ask your primary care doctor what you should do about the COVID and flu vaccine, but you want to make sure that you enter into the winter season protected as much as possible. There are some states where they're requiring a prescription, there's some states where you can actually just go and get it. Um I actually just got um my COVID uh vaccine last week. I'll probably get my flu vaccine uh next week. This is the time sort of to get it so your immunization uh in your body can actually uh uh get up to a uh a point where it is protective for you. Um all right, I'm gonna bring in the first caller, Mr. Ron. Yes. Hi, how are you?

Not too bad, how are you?

Good, good, good. So t so tell me what you you've been doing around self-care or have you have you been struggling with it or doing something different?

Well, I've I've I've done something different since my heart attack. I had a heart attack in February this year. Okay. Um and they had a stand-in. Okay. And ever since then I've changed a lot of things I've done. I've always worked out. Um, I've added a lot more workout to my program. Now I'm working out five days a week. Um, between a bite, spread meal. Um, I just bought a row machine this weekend. Okay. And and I changed my eating, you know, where I eat at least a salad um for a meal, um, either for lunch or for dinner.

Right. Okay. Okay.

Okay.

So when you had your heart attack in February, did you um like did you know you had cardiovascular disease? Did you know you had blockages in your artery or what No I didn't.

Um I was just out um doing some work in my garage and all of a sudden my body just started sweating and I didn't know what it was. I w my wife wrote me to the hospital and they told me I was having a heart attack.

Okay, so you didn't did you didn't even have chest pain?

Didn't have no chest pain. I chest pains didn't come in until probably ten minutes after the sweating.

Okay. Okay, though, so you just broke out in a sweat?

Yes.

Okay. And then you went to the hospital and they put a stent in and um so you did not have surgery. You did not have bypass surgery.

No, no bypass. They actually did the uh where they go into the wrist.

Right. Exactly. Okay, alright. And then did you you and you had a blockage that was did they tell you 90%, 100%?

Uh it's like 98%.

98%. Wow. Okay, gotcha.

They didn't want to they didn't want to do anything with that one because they don't like to do anything, they told me, until it was uh at least 70.

Right.

And um I had my checkup with my cardiologist and he gave me a hundred percent that everything cleared up.

Okay, great.

Including the 50%.

Oh, so so wait a second. I just want to make sure. So they they so you had a 50% blockage and it reversed itself?

Yes.

Okay, so this is what a lot of people don't realize. A lot of people don't realize that you can reverse cardiovascular disease with your diet. So tell me what type of uh what type well first of all, what sort of diet did you change? What were you doing before as far as exercise? What are you doing now? And then what did you work out?

I would work out maybe once, I mean not once, um maybe three days a week. Um about thirty, about thirty minutes on either the treadmill or the bike.

Okay.

Um today I work out um thirty minutes on the treadmill, thirty minutes on the bike, and then ten minutes on the room machine, and I do that five days a week.

Okay. Alrighty, and then what was your diet like before versus what is your diet like now?

Whatever I want to eat.

Um before you wait, wait, before you were eating whatever you wanted to eat?

Exactly.

Okay, okay, so wait a second. Wait a second. I want to know what that is. I mean, would that be like McDonald's?

I I had chicken, I had shrimp sausage, no matter what it is. I I ate it. You put it in front of me, I I sit down and eat it twice a day. I was never a big bread eater, but um, you know, I I just now I've just monitored everything that I eat that I put in my body.

Okay, okay, alrighty.

So, you know, no no um no sodium. I I was uh wasn't a big sodium person anyway, but I've really watched sodium. I really watched the sugar intake. Um I'm watching um how much red meat I I eat now. I don't eat as much. I eat pretty much salmon almost every other day.

Okay. Okay, all right. So you uh more fish and more vegetables?

Yes. Yeah, so vegetables um because I'm I'm eating k o and everything.

Right. Now, what about do you find that um do you feel like you're missing out on anything?

Not at all. Okay. Actually I feel a hundred percent better. Okay. Um I I had a um the stress test done about a month ago. Uh-huh. Um and last week you called me up and told me, um, actually my heart is showing that it's it's never had a heart attack.

Oh, so so so you've gotten a little three months. Yeah, so let me just make sure I explain that to people. So when you actually have a heart attack, you have um they check your ejection fraction, right? And a normal ejection fraction is usually 60, 65 percent. So basically what you're saying is you got your ejection fraction or the squeeze of your heart came back to normal.

Yes, but it was at around 65%.

Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay, alrighty. And and you you don't know what it was during the heart attack?

No.

No, okay.

No, after the um, I think the first test, I think he told me it was it was functioning around 65%.

Now, what about like do you ever feel like going back to that or do you feel like you because you know it's kind of hard for some people to make the change and you know, like what tell me what, you know, do you get tempted to just go back to eating whatever you want, or do you No.

No. No, I I never at at this point, you know, uh sometimes it takes a person to uh learn the hard way, you know. That heart attack scared the Jesus out of me. So I'm I've changed my wicked ways and that's it. Right. But I've never, you know, I've I've never smoked, I've never drinked, I've never tried drugs, um, never drink coffee, so I didn't have a cholesterol problem, I didn't have diabetes, nothing, you know.

Right, right. So you were already sort of living a somewhat healthy lifestyle, you just kind of made it healthier.

Correct.

Right, right. And I'm actually gonna do it, I'm gonna actually do a show that what you're actually describing with more fish and vegetables is what we kind of call almost like a Mediterranean diet. And a lot of people don't realize that um you can actually reverse cardiovascular disease where we have plaques that are 50, 60, 70 percent that will actually go away when people um uh change their diet. One of the main people that people will know and remember that actually did this was President Clinton. Former President Bill Clinton actually had a significant problem with cardiovascular disease. He was uh always, you know, seen, remember, at McDonald's, um, and uh he actually uh went to one of the Cleveland Clinic's uh healthy health center and actually reversed his cardiovascular disease um with his diet. So that is something that we you can see. It has been proven scientifically. It's not, you know, it's not woo-woo, it's for real. So um well, what would what would you say to anybody who's out there struggling?

Well, I would say um I think health is is number one. I you know, I've always watched my health. I just ate whatever I wanted to eat, thinking that my body would be okay because I work out um, you know, a couple times a week. Right. But I realized once once I had the heart attack, I realized my weight was extremely high. I was 275 pounds.

Okay.

And I'm now down to like 234, 235.

Okay.

Since the heart attack. Right. I'm on my way down to the teens.

All right.

Um my body fat um is somewhere around 19%.

Mm-hmm.

Um, I I actually wear I've I've invested in what they call a human band. It's it's H-U-M-E. I wear that every day. I do um I I check my weight on this um it's a it's it's a body scan.

Yeah.

Yeah. It tells you all of your um your vitals, everything that you want to know, your fat intake, you know, you know, how much your leg weight, how much your arm weight, you know, everything.

Right, right, right, right. And it tells you I I've seen those, and it also tells you I have one of those scales at home too. And it tells you the percentage of body fat, it tells you how much water is in your body.

Yeah, it kind of tells you water in your body, it tells you everything. And I actually wear the band every day 24-7.

Wow, okay.

And I really keep track of everything now.

All right, well, good for you. I that heart attack has made has made you turn around. All righty. Well that hey, thanks for sharing. All righty. Alrighty, great. If what the health is happening, that is the question. It is also the name of my new podcast where you can literally get life-changing advice. What the health is happening is where I give you the inside scoop on health matters and empower you with information on everything from breaking news to health and medical updates. What the health is happening is your dose of medical reality with me, Dr. V, and my friends from the front lines of healthcare. You can get uh What the Health is happening. You can download it, subscribe, comment. It is on all podcast platforms. Um, before I go to some other questions, I want to actually share um some small quick tips that would be um actually really important. Um, a lot of times people are really um, you know, wonder sort of where where can I start with this whole self-care thing? And you know, it was great uh talking to uh Mr. Ron, and he's actually made uh some real uh significant changes, but there's also some small things that you can do. Um, a couple of things that I really would recommend, and some of these I've actually done myself, and I'll share with you kind of what I've done. Um, one thing is that I find that it is less stressful if I read the news rather than watch the news. Um, and in some cases I actually turn the news off. Um I've been actually uh looking at a lot of the cooking channels and uh looking at things that I might want to try or do at home, um, some of the organizational channels, etc. Um, the other thing um is that um if you're having a stressful day or you can make part of your day just going outside and walking for five minutes. Most of us in our jobs can actually get get a lunch break or have something where we can go outside and actually get out of the environment. So it's really important um to get out of the environment and sometimes go into uh nature, even if it's just for five minutes. Um, stretching or walking really makes a big difference. Um I also tell people, in addition to news, you really want to be careful your consumption of social media. Um folks get into kind of scrolling and don't actually think about how much time they're actually spending um scrolling, um, but you kind of want to um sometimes have a a no-device day, no TV, no phones, um, etc., and see if that um really makes a difference. Um I always tell people remember you cannot pour from an empty cup. And it is really, really important that you um take care of yourself. Um and so um these sorts of things, and and I have uh a couple of other things that I think are really important is um that people actually uh forget when they actually are dealing with self-care is the importance of sleep. So I have a lot of people who say, I don't really have time to take care of myself. Well, you do actually have important, almost all of us, sleep. Um and how can you make your sleep more restful? What can you actually do? Do you need the TV on in your bedroom? Um do you um do you do you do you need to actually have the room completely dark? Um what are the things that you actually need to do to have a more restful uh sleep? So, all right, we get a lot of emails and a lot of questions, and I've got a couple of questions that were actually emailed into me. Um, and uh I've got uh I've got a uh question from uh Don from DC. He says, Dr. V, I recall you sharing uh uh something about the harm of marijuana on one of your shows, but from where I sit, it's the only thing that naturally calms me down and helps me to cope with my anger and my anxiety. I'm not taking pills, uh, but do you have any other natural recommendations? So, you know, I'm gonna I did do a show on uh on uh on marijuana, and uh I I I sometimes feel like I need to update it every every every couple of months or so. Um but but I do want to kind of talk about it because I know there's a lot of folks that use marijuana, there's a lot of folks that use um alcohol, there's a lot of folks that use a lot of things to sort of uh calm calm down and and stress down from the dial down from their day. Um and I always say to people that I think that it is it is okay until it becomes a crutch. If you get to the point where you feel like you can't calm down without that crutch, without the marijuana, without the without the um without the glass of wine or whatever it may happen to be, it could be some other illicit drug, um, if you if you get to the point where you cannot calm down with without that, and that is the only way you can calm down, that is when I always tell people it is a problem. You want to have, just like you have a lot of tools in your toolbox, you want to have a lot of ways that you can actually calm yourself down and self-soothe when you are actually anxious or angry or sort of revved up. So I tell people it's good to have, you know, 10 or 15 ways that you actually know to calm down. So whether or not it's whether or not it's breathing or going for a walk. Um, my favorite one is sometimes I just take a nap. I just go lights out, you know what I mean? Right? Um, and I also tell people, look at how you can actually even calm yourself with um what you wear or um what you say, or um maybe I'm not gonna uh follow up on this phone call or email. Maybe I'm not gonna respond to what someone said to me. Um so look at ways to actually kind of adjust your environment in that way. Um but I always tell people I think that you know when you talk about things like marijuana and alcohol and things that are illegal, I think that it's important that they not be a crutch. Um and if they become a crutch, um that's when it's really a problem, and you really have to look at expanding all of the various things that you can actually do in your environment. Alrighty, uh we've got another um we've got a uh another uh question here from Rana. Uh Rana says, Dr. V, with everything that's going on, I'm very concerned about annual seasonal depression that I experience. Can vitamin D help with that? And are there other supplements that you would recommend? Um, so this is actually Rana, this is a really good question because. Because self-care really becomes important as we actually go into the fall and the winter because this is a time period where we have more stressful things coming at us. We have all the holidays coming up, and we also have less sunshine. And I know myself and a lot of other people out there are affected by seasonal effective disorder. And seasonal affective disorder is basically when you are very um uh sensitive to um to darkness. So when the days become shorter, it can throw off your sleep-wake cycle. Um some people actually get what they call SAD, and they call seasonal effective disorder, SAD, the SAD disease, because some people actually get down and depressed. Um and um so a couple of things that are really, really important. So you talked about vitamin D. Vitamin D is very important, but the other thing that is important, which I actually do, is they have sun lamps that actually mimic the sun that you can place in your house. I probably have at least five of them, right? And um uh you literally turn them on and um they actually mimic the sun, and you it's like having a summer indoors when it's January and February. Um, one of the ones that I like that is my favorite actually has an alarm clock, and the alarm clock is not any sound, it is literally the sun coming into your room, and you wake up with the sun um as opposed to any sort of noise. Um, and so um I personally have found that to be very effective. You do from these sun lamps actually get the vitamin D. 30 minutes, uh, 30 minutes with these lamps um will actually give you uh uh the vitamin D that you actually uh need need for the need for the day. So, alrighty, great, great question. All right, we only have about uh we only have a couple of minutes. Um I want to just I want to thank everybody for this conversation today. The show is produced by the nonprofit channel of health. You can always go to channelofhealth.org. The mission of channel of health is to inform, educate, and empower communities about pressing health and healthcare issues. Channel of Health actually has an upcoming MCAT course that is getting ready to start. Um so if you have any uh young people that want to get into medicine, um, they need to uh get on our website, uh channelofhealth.org, or send an email at infotasdrv.us. Um, I had so much fun talking to you. We are here to answer your most pressing healthcare questions. So email me or send me an audio message at info at askdoctorv.us. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at askdr underscore V. That's askdr underscore V. And we will be back right here next week. And next week I'm gonna be talking about autism. Because we actually have an autism report that's coming out. I figured this needs to be our topic for next week. All right, I look forward to talking to you all next week and hang in there and make sure to take care of yourself. It is important.

She blinded me with six.

She blinded me.