If I see that Prevagen commercial one more time, I just might scream. But instead, let’s talk about supplements, aluminum, and other dementia myths. We’re going to separate fact from fiction and debunk those myths.   I’m Dr.Vickie Petz Kasper and I want to help you make changes that make a difference. Healthy Looks Great On You podcast takes you to many medical school so you can learn the power of lifestyle medicine.

If you’re ready to take control of your health, you’re in the right  place. Whether you’re focused on prevention or you’re trying to manage a condition. I’ll give you practical steps to start your own journey toward better health because healthy looks great on you.

This is episode 156, Supplements, Aluminum, and Other Dementia Myths. 

If you’re a regular listener of this podcast and you listened closely last week, you know that I planned to talk about genetics today, but Sally, Steve and Lea, Greg, John and Sherry, and Barbara really got to me.  You don’t know them? You must not watch TV at all. Those stupid commercials air every few minutes.  In this episode, we’re going to bust some myths, but also amp up our game in the discernment category. We’re gonna discuss Prevagen, aluminum, and their relationship to dementia, as well  as some other misunderstandings. But wait, Sally is a nurse, isn’t she? Says so right on the commercial, a flight nurse.

Yeah, so she should know better. You see, she said she had a fear that she wouldn’t be able to keep up and she wanted all the boost that she could get. Okay, let’s stop right here because fear is a fantastic motivator when it comes to sales pitches.  People make purchases based on emotion. So this flight nurse who has all these medical resources available to her, heard from a friend.  Listen, friends don’t let friends take scammy supplements.  I will give her some credit because she said she read the clinical study on it and it had good reviews.  I’m not sure which study she’s referring to, but I did find a graph that has one bar going way up and the label says, In clinical trials, Prevagen has been shown to improve short term memory in people who were, and get this, normal or mildly cognitively impaired. Well, which is it? Because those two things are pretty different, aren’t they? But here’s an even better question. Compared to what? You see, the company’s own study showed that a placebo, which in this case was a flour pill instead of a sugar pill, was equally effective at improving the nine cognitive skills that they looked at, including memory.

So you can either pay 40 to 90 a month on Prevagen. Or you could just do something like, eat a peanut, and voila! Your memory will improve.

Just like Steve and Leah. They live in the North Pole, and they’re retired educators, but probably not science educators. And here’s how they got started taking Prevagen. Steve said he saw one of those incredibly annoying commercials and thought, That makes sense.  Does it though?  You tell me. The active ingredient is  aquaporin. It’s a calcium binding protein, and calcium is definitely linked to brain health and memory. Calcium is super important in communication between nerve cells in the brain. So it’s gotta work, right? Well, here’s what the announcer says. Can a protein originally found in jellyfish improve your memory? Our scientists say yes. Researchers have discovered a protein that actually supports healthier brain function. It’s the breakthrough in a supplement called Prevagen.  Their scientists say yes, but sounds fishy to me.

Specifically it’s made from jelly fish that luminesce. Now, these are some fascinating creatures, and honestly, I did not even know they existed until this summer. I went to the west coast to help my son move into a new apartment and we traveled down to Monterey Bay. There’s an aquarium there that has all these luminescent jellyfish and one of them was neon red. It was one of the most fascinating things that I’ve ever seen.

But what does that have to do with memory?  Well, you might have a bright future if you’re a Caribbean box jellyfish. Turns out they’re capable of learning even though they don’t have a brain. And what exactly can a jellyfish learn you ask? Well, they can learn to dodge obstacles, which can come in handy if you’re running an obstacle course, I guess. 

Nah.  Now, Barbara is a retired librarian from Michigan. Five years ago, she says she had a lot going on. And she saw the Prevagen commercial. And she started taking it. And she noticed that her memory was better, and people tell her that she doesn’t miss a beat.  I mean, she’s dodging obstacles like a professional jellyfish.

I guess the bottom line is, those commercials work. But look, we don’t have a lot in common with these jellyfish. They don’t even have a brain . But they do have 24 eyes and that’s pretty weird. 

But isn’t it the number one supplement for memory recommended by pharmacists?  Maybe, but I couldn’t verify that. But John is a pharmacist and he does a paid testimonial for Prevagen on the commercials. And he says he went ahead and gave it a try. And he feels like it’s really helping, so he recommends it to his customers, family, and friends as a safe product to try. 

That’s not how this works. In medicine, we don’t recommend things because we want to give it a try or because we feel like it helps. But I imagine a lot of people are listening to John because consumers have spent more than a hundred and sixty five million dollars on this product in the last ten years.

And it’s a hoax.

Maybe you noticed that their commercials changed recently. Well, that’s because a complaint was filed back in 2017 with the Federal Trade Commission. Because studies showed that this protein doesn’t even cross the blood brain barrier and it’s probably digested in your stomach and never goes anywhere else.  This was the beginning of a  seven year legal battle that ended last month. And there are two claims that got them in hot water.

One of them was that Prevagen reduces memory problems associated with aging. Because it  doesn’t.  The other one they said is that it was clinically shown to reduce memory problems associated with aging.  Now their website looks a little different since this case was settled last month, and it doesn’t even make a claim that it helps anything.

They can’t because it doesn’t work. Now, you may hate big pharma, but I can promise you that if you could milk some protein out of a jellyfish and make a medicine out of it, they’d have done it. It’s not like there’s a shortage of jellyfish.  

But on the Prevagen website, they list three studies showing that it’s safe. Not effective, safe. They’re labeled Safety Study 1, Safety Study 2, and Safety Study 3. But nothing to indicate that it does anything.  They don’t even pretend that it treats or cures anything. But, they do continue to aggressively market to an aging population who is concerned about memory loss. 

If you’re going to forget anything, forget Prevagen.  Here’s what they say now, I really feel like my memory has improved since I started taking Prevagen, or my wife thinks my memory is getting better.  

Greg is my favorite. He’s got a lot of gigs and is the most accomplished and likable paid testimonial in the game. He’s a motivational speaker so he has that edge. He noticed in his mid fifties that he was losing a bit, like walking into a room and forgetting why he came. Which, by the way, can be normal. And if you missed my episode on the difference between normal aging and early signs of dementia, I’ll put a link in the show notes.  But he’s been taking Prevagen for three years, and it’s helped him tremendously.

Now, I’m not sure what it helps him with because he admits he has a very healthy lifestyle. And people tell him that he has a memory like an elephant. Guess they didn’t know that aquaporin comes from jellyfish.  Now, maybe you’ve taken it and now you’re just feeling a little silly. I get it. People put soap under their covers to try to help with restless legs. At least that’s cheap. And desperate people do desperate things. Once I had tennis elbow really bad. I never played tennis, but I was desperate for relief. I ended up getting one of those copper bracelets and wearing it. Well, it’s kind of cute, but it didn’t work either. So I think we could all use some information.

So let’s go to mini medical school. 

Today we’re going to talk about medical research. Here’s the deal. Our bodies are incredibly complex.   So there are some experiments in nature that you could design to measure things or to prove this or that. But when it comes to the human body, we are quite varied in our responses to different things. So, a lot of times there’s not clear evidence to prove things. But you can’t just make stuff up. Well, I mean, you can, but the pharmaceutical industry is required to prove that their products are safe and effective.  It’s not a perfect system, but have you ever tried to actually read a package insert?

A lot of times it will say that a certain percentage of people had nausea or headache or even something more serious like a seizure.  But then the question becomes, would they have had the same thing even if they hadn’t taken whatever drug you’re reading about?  But they’re required to report anything that comes up during the trial. 

And if you look at the absolute numbers, it might say something like 9 percent of people had nausea, and if you look at the placebo group, well, 9 percent of them had nausea, too.  But here’s the deal, with the supplement industry, they don’t have to do all of this. The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act was passed in 1994. And they are exempt from having to prove claims that vitamins and supplements even work.  So the best advice I can give you is listen closely to what they’re saying.  Just because somebody saw an ad and feels like something is helping, doesn’t mean it works. 

And in general, be careful when looking at medical research. It’s complicated. Traditionally, we consider the double blinded placebo controlled randomized trial to be the gold standard. It gives us the most reliable data, and That means that the person taking the medication or placebo nor the researcher who’s evaluating the data about the medication or placebo knows which one they’re taking. And that allegedly prevents what we call bias and helps us sort out the placebo effect. But even that’s not perfect.

We also have to look at the power of the study. Typically, a well designed study has lots and lots of people in it. It’s more meaningful if you look at that versus a handful of people. It’s reported as the N, which logically stands for number. So if you see a study of about 400 people in the grand scheme of things, that’s not really very big.  Often what researchers do is take a bunch of smaller studies and clump them together and try to increase the validity. We call that process a meta analysis. And it’s not perfect science either.

Listen, science is hard. Research is complicated and math is a challenge for a lot of us, even researchers. Apparently, some really smart people are not exempt from this. Recently, there was a paper published that showed toxic levels of microplastics associated with those black cooking utensils you use to protect the Teflon on your pots and pans. It set off a firestorm of TikTok videos to help people get rid of those things.  But guess what?  They made a mathematical error and missed a decimal point. So what was actually being released was nowhere near the toxic level. But it was too late for a lot of poor soup spoons.  

Another problem we encounter in studies is extrapolating data from animal studies to humans. And I see a lot of reference articles to some reputable sources, but they’re looking at things like the effect of some chemical in gigantic doses on some little animal, and that can cause misleading information. 

In the 1960s, rabbits were injected with high levels of aluminum, and they got lesions in their brain that look very similar to the lesions that people with Alzheimer’s get in their brains. So they started looking at aluminum as a cause for dementia. And I’m old enough to remember feeling a little bit of caution drinking out of an aluminum can. 

Turns out, they did find aluminum in those plaques in the Alzheimer’s brains of people. And that’s scary. But hold on. Healthy brains also contain aluminum.  And despite looking for a link, there’s no evidence that aluminum from cans or pots and pans or deodorant or antacids causes Alzheimer’s.  So now that we’ve busted the myth that a jellyfish protein doesn’t do anything besides waste your money, and that your pots and pans aren’t out to get you, Let’s talk about some more somber misinformation that people believe about dementia.

There are three falsehoods I want to address. Number one is that only older people get dementia. Number two is there’s nothing that can be done about dementia. And unfortunately, number three is that dementia is always preventable, because it’s not.  If you’ve been following this series on dementia, you know that the number one risk factor for developing dementia is age.

But that doesn’t mean it only affects people over the age of 65. Early onset Alzheimer’s can affect people in their 50s, 40s, and rarely even in their 30s. The symptoms are the same, but are often misdiagnosed. You can imagine partly that’s because it’s very rare and unexpected. It’s also even more tragic because it’s now affecting someone who may be still parenting children at home or maybe providing the family’s income.  And it can feel very isolating for the person affected and their family. And let me just pause right here and say that if you or your loved one has dementia, regardless of their age, there is so much value in support groups.  I think this is so important that if you cannot find a support group in your area, I would challenge you to start your own. I’m sure you could get some help from the Alzheimer’s Foundation or the Alzheimer’s Association. But if your life is affected by someone with dementia, I urge you right now to Google Alzheimer’s support groups in your area. 

If you’re worried about yourself or someone you love, it’s important to see a doctor. Because if anyone tells you that nothing can be done, they are falling for a myth.  The truth is that there are treatments available and lots of research is being done with new treatments in the pipeline. The earlier you get a diagnosis, the more opportunity you have to slow progression.

Not only that, there are some business aspects that you need to tend to to protect your family.  Lastly, I need to tell you that dementia is not always preventable.  I’m going to put some links in the show notes to all the episodes I’ve been doing on this series, and I stand by the fact that lifestyle matters. A lot. But even the most promising studies claim that 40 percent of dementia is preventable with lifestyle. And that means 60 percent isn’t. 

Remember, I told you you needed to listen closely when paying attention to medical research. Nevertheless, don’t you want to do all you can to protect your brain health? Lifestyle matters. The first recommendation is a healthy diet, physical fitness, social connectedness, stress management, avoiding tobacco and alcohol, and routinely getting a good night’s sleep. 

And I have some exciting news for you about sleep. I’m going to do an entire series in the month of February about restorative sleep. I have a couple of resources on my website that you’re gonna want to snag. Just go to www healthy looks great on you.com and you can find those. I’ve got an upcoming series of live webinars to help you with this as well.

Now that you know how to critically evaluate scientific medical studies, let’s take a moment to focus on a study that was released in June of 2024 by Dr. Dean Ornish, and it looked at the effects of intensive lifestyle changes on the progression of mild cognitive impairment or early dementia due to Alzheimer’s.

Now, this study was randomized and it was a clinical trial and that gives it some validity. And here’s what they did. They took people with early Alzheimer’s and randomly assigned them into two groups. One group implemented intense lifestyle changes, like the stuff I promote on this podcast. And they did it for almost six months. And the two groups were similar in their performance on standardized cognitive tests at the beginning of the study.  They also had blood work done to measure biomarkers of Alzheimer’s. Specifically, these are things in your plasma. And after 20 weeks, they compared the intervention group with the no intervention group, and they found improvement in their performance on cognitive tests, as well as these biomarkers in their bloodstream. In addition, their gut microbiome improved, and that’s super exciting.

Now, let’s think critically. There were 51 people in this study, and that’s not really very many. But still, the results showed that eating minimally processed, plant based, whole food, doing moderate aerobic exercise and resistance training, managing stress through meditation, breathing, and stretching, and attending support groups made a difference and the difference was statistically significant. 

71 percent of patients in the intervention group either improved or at least they didn’t decline and all of the patients in the control group either stayed the same or got worse. Now I don’t know about you but even though this is a small study that’s pretty encouraging. I’ll put a link to the study as well as an article about it from the American College of Lifestyle Medicine in the show notes. And I’ll send it out to my email list.

So, even though all dementia isn’t considered preventable,  let’s do what we can to be healthy. Because healthy looks great on you.    

   The information contained in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not considered to be a substitute for medical advice. You should continue to follow up with your physician or health care provider and take medication as prescribed. Though the information in this podcast is evidence based, new research may develop and recommendations may change.

RESOURCES:

Dr. Ornish’s study on dementia

American College of Lifestyle Medicine Article on Dr. Ornish’s Study

Preventing Cognitive Decline 

Practical Tips for Caregivers of People with Dementia

Is Dementia Really Preventable?

10 Must Know Risk Factors for Dementia

Is it Normal Aging or Dementia?

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Do you want to be proactive about your health, or do you just shrug your shoulders and figure you play the cards you’re dealt? And the big question is, what difference does it make? Today we’re going to look at 10 things that contribute to the development of dementia and what, if anything, you can do about it.

 I’m Dr.Vickie Petz Kasper. I practiced obstetrics and gynecology for 20 years until I landed on the other side of the sheets   as a very sick patient. When my own body betrayed me, I took a handful of pills to manage my disease and another handful to counteract the side effects. My health was out of control.

Through surgery, medications, and lots of prayers, I  regained my strength only to face another  diagnosis.  My doctor challenged me to make radical changes through lifestyle medicine. Now I feel great and I want to help you make changes that make a difference. Healthy Looks Great On You podcast takes you to mini medical school so you can learn the power of lifestyle medicine.

If you’re ready to take control of your health, you’re in the right  place. Whether you’re focused on prevention or you’re trying to manage a condition. I’ll give you practical steps to start your own journey toward better health because healthy looks great on you.

This is episode 155, Ten Must Know Risk Factors for Dementia.  Which ones can you alter, and which ones you just gotta accept. Here’s the deal, dementia isn’t just one condition with one cause, it’s more like a puzzle with pieces that fit together differently for each person. And some of these pieces are fixed, but others, well, they’re more like clay that you can reshape.

And that’s exactly what we’re going to dive into today.  

What if I told you that some of the choices you’re making right now, today, could be tilting the scales either for or against your brain health. It’s never too early or too late to make changes that affect your overall health, and that includes your brain health. So, whether you’re in your 30s or in your 60s, stick around. 

We’re about to break down these 10 risk factors for dementia and what you can do about it. Number one on the list is age. Yeah, I know, there’s not a thing in the world you can do about it. This is one you have to accept. And if you’re a woman, aged 45, your chances of developing dementia during your lifetime are 1 in 5. If you’re a man, it’s one in 10. And even though I didn’t include biologic sex in this list, clearly women are at increased risk, but there may be reasons for that that you can alter.

Bottom line is age is the biggest risk factor for dementia and the older you get, the greater the risk. In fact, the chances double every five years after age 65.  To quote Andy Rooney, it’s paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone. But the idea of getting old doesn’t appeal to anyone.

And that’s generally true and with good reason. I mean, it’s not called over the hill for nothing.  They say you should grow old gracefully. Ha! There’s nothing graceful about some of the tolls the years take. And according to George Burns, you know you’re getting old when you stoop over to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else could you do while you’re down there. 

George Burns, remember him? He lived to be 100 years old and was pretty healthy. We’re gonna come back to that, so be sure you listen until the end. But age is just one risk factor you have to accept.  But while you’re practicing acceptance, here’s another one you can’t control. Family history. 

 If someone in your family had dementia, then you are at increased risk. And if more than one somebody in your family had dementia, you’re at even more risk. And you know what they say, you can’t change the past, but you can change the future. You can start where you are and change the ending.

And I want you to remember that quote as we talk through this, because even if you have a strong family history of dementia, your fate is not sealed, but it is at risk. So, think about your family history. You tend to inherit your lifestyle from your family. Okay, not always, but a lot of our habits are ingrained at an early age.

We sort of eat the same things and live in similar environments.  Education levels and socioeconomic advantages or disadvantages are often generational, and those things are passed down, but they’re not inherited like our genetic code. So I want to challenge you to start where you are and see if there’s anything you can do to change the ending.  

Number three is similar to family, but not exactly the same. Genetics. Pop quiz, true or false, you can alter your genes.  I want you to stay tuned next week because we are going to talk more about the genetics of Alzheimer’s.  The best way to not miss an episode is to subscribe to my newsletter. You can visit my website,  www.

healthylooksgreatonyou. com or I put a link in the show notes. I share tips, recipes, and lots of other resources. So why don’t you just push pause right now on the podcast and do it before you get busy or forget. Each week on the podcast, I take you to mini medical school And this week, we’re going to take a closer look at our  DNA.

Don’t worry. It’s a short course and it’s never boring. Do not argue with me. Science is fun if you do it right.  DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. See if you can say that three times really fast. Deoxyribonucleic acid, deoxyribonucleic acid, deoxyribonucleic acid. Now you’ll remember it, even if I did annoy you a little bit.

I won’t say it again. I’ll just use the nickname, DNA. So what is it? It’s like a double stranded helix, and I’m sure you’ve seen pictures before. Looks like a twisted ladder. It’s a molecule made up of four nucleotides,

C G A T. That’s cytosine, guanine, adenosine, and thymine, and these little dudes are held together by hydrogen bonds in different combinations. And here’s the exciting part. Every cell in your body follows the code that is written into your DNA. It’s like an instruction manual. And each person’s DNA is unique.

That is why human life is so sacred. Because this coding determines your eye color. your hair color, facial features, and ultimate height, as well as whether or not you’re born a boy or a girl.  And here’s the deal, it’s all determined at the moment of conception. When the egg is fertilized, wow, we are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made.

Now, inside of each cell, there’s this little part called the nucleus, and that’s where most of the chromosome forming DNA lives.  And all of this is foundational to understand genetics but not only does your genetic code determine aspects of your health. But your environment, behavior, and lifestyle can impact genetic expression.

Meaning genes can be turned off, turned on, regulated up, regulated down, and we call that epigenetics. It can even happen in the womb before you’re born. So you really are what you eat, how you act, and what you do. DNA can also be damaged, so gene expression is affected by age, exposures, environment, and other factors that we’re going to look at.

 But since I mentioned environmental and exposure, let’s move on to number four on the list of risk factors for dementia, and that is air pollution. I bet that surprised you. Turns out that pollution causes damage to the nervous system.

Things like exhaust from cars in the city or wood burning in the country.

And you want to know what else pollutes the air? cigarette smoke. Smoking is a risk factor for dementia as well as a host of other conditions. Your mind may go straight to cancer, but it also increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and even macular degeneration, which can lead to blindness. 

And it turns out that number five on the list is uncorrected hearing loss.  and uncorrected vision loss. Remember when I snorted about growing old gracefully? Well, yeah, I’m over here putting in my hearing aids and groping around for my glasses and I don’t think any of that is graceful,  but I do it anyway. Now I can’t see without my glasses, so they’re not optional,

But,  uncorrected vision loss does increase the risk of dementia, and the worse the uncorrected vision loss, the worse the risk. 

 But again, this only applies to people with uncorrected vision loss, and I think most of us wouldn’t skip wearing our glasses or contacts, But, I do see a lot of people skip on wearing hearing aids. Now, my husband would argue with this, but I can hear pretty well. 

He just talks really soft.  And isn’t that what everyone with hearing loss says?  Quit mumbling! 

The deal is most people can get by with some hearing impairment. But it does increase the risk of dementia.  Why is that? Well, maybe because you’re not processing spoken words and that part of your brain isn’t getting used and it shrinks along with everything around it. Or maybe your brain is actually devoting all of its energy to try and understand those mumblers.

And it neglects keeping the rest of the brain humming along at full speed.  Experts don’t really know exactly why hearing loss is associated with dementia, but it’s felt to be responsible for 8 percent of cases. So get over it. Go to the audiologist fork over the cash and get your hearing aids.

Your brain’s worth it.  Another theory about the impact of hearing loss is interference with social activity. I mean, if you can’t hear, you can’t participate in conversations or play games or just connect as well. And that leads us to number six, social isolation.

We’re created to be connected. Isolation is associated with an increased risk of dementia as well as a whole lot of other health conditions. When I say

RESOURCES
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The Deadly Epidemic of Loneliness

From Loneliness to Belonging

How to prevent, treat and reverse type 2 diabetes

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Preventing Cognitive Decline

Why is Sleeping so Hard?

The Mood Mechanic and the work of sleep

Do you ever wonder if your forgetfulness is normal or an early sign of dementia? Could losing your keys be something more sinister? While memory lapses are just part of getting older, knowing the difference between normal aging and early dementia could change everything. Today, we’ll uncover the subtle warning signs that should not be ignored

 I’m Dr.Vickie Petz Kasper. I practiced obstetrics and gynecology for 20 years until I landed on the other side of the sheets   as a very sick patient. When my own body betrayed me, I took a handful of pills to manage my disease and another handful to counteract the side effects. My health was out of control.

Through surgery, medications, and lots of prayers, I  regained my strength only to face another  diagnosis.  My doctor challenged me to make radical changes through lifestyle medicine. Now I feel great and I want to help you make changes that make a difference. Healthy Looks Great On You podcast takes you to many medical schools so you can learn the power of lifestyle medicine.

If you’re ready to take control of your health, you’re in the right  place. Whether you’re focused on prevention or you’re trying to manage a condition. I’ll give you practical steps to start your own journey toward better health because healthy looks great on you.  

 This is episode 154, Is it Normal Aging or Early Signs of Dementia?   Today we resume our month long series on dementia. If you’ve ever worried about your own cognitive function, or that of a friend or a family member You’re going to learn what’s normal and what’s an indication of something more ominous.

And we’re going to start by taking a look into the complexities and wonders inside our skulls. The brain.

It’s the most complex organ in the body. When I was a medical student, over the course of gross anatomy, we dissected a cadaver. All the organs. It was a long and tedious process, separating tendons and blood vessels in the hand, examining the stomach, pancreas and liver as we removed layer after layer from the abdominal cavity.

We inspected the lungs inside and out.  But you want to know what we did not do in gross anatomy? brain.  Now, before you think we skipped something, just the opposite is true. At the end of the semester, we had to remove the brain because there was an entire course that followed on neuroanatomy.  But don’t worry, I don’t call this mini medical school for nothing, so I’ll be quick, but we are going to do a very surface overview of the anatomy of the brain.

Your brain weighs about three pounds and it contains lots of nerve cells. and an intricate network of communication.  This may surprise you, but about 40 percent of it is water, protein, carbohydrates, and salts. And guess what comprises the other 60%?  If you said fat, you get to graduate early, but I’m guessing that you didn’t.

There are three main parts of the brain and two main layers. Now, of course, this is a huge oversimplification, and there’s so much more, but we’re going to stick to the very basics. The biggest part of the brain is the cerebrum, and it takes up about 80 percent of the brain. This is your thinking, feeling, reasoning, learning, problem solving memory part of the brain.

It’s the part that makes you uniquely you. It allows you to speak, and exercise judgment, and feel, and see, and hear, and touch. It also helps regulate temperature and controls the movement of your body. But it’s the cerebellum in the back part of the head that keeps your body balanced and coordinated. And it’s about the size of your fist.

It may also play a role in thought, emotions, and social behavior, even addiction.  The third part is at the bottom of the other two parts. It’s called the brainstem, and it connects the brain to the spinal cord, and it controls basic functions, like your heart rate and breathing. 

The outer layer of the brain is called gray matter because it’s literally a darker shade. The interior of the brain is made up of white matter.  And speaking of matter, why does any of this matter? Well, you see, different parts of the brain control different functions. And wherever there is pathology, There is loss of function and like real estate, location, location, location is everything. 

The surface of the brain is convoluted with these deep folds and this creates more surface area for more connections between neurons or nerve cells.  But as we age, the brain starts to shrink and it actually starts in your 30s and 40s. Then, like crow’s feet and gray hairs, it starts to ramp up at age 60 along with saggy skin.

and accelerates even more after age 70. Hmm, aging is not for the faint at heart, but a lot of people are doing it. In fact, one in six American adults is over the age of 65. According to U. S. Census data, this age group grew nearly five times faster in the total population over the last 100 years to reach nearly 17 percent of the entire population in this country.

to To the tune of 55 million gray headed, pickleball playing, Medicare receiving, joint creaking, golden agers. And yeah, we’re concerned about living independently, driving,

retaining our mental acuity, and remaining productive members of society.  Full disclosure, I’m not quite there, but I’m also not far away.  The brain’s characteristics can actually be seen on imaging. MRI is the most sensitive, and with aging, the radiologist can see that the surface of the brain is less wrinkled and occupies less space inside the cranium or skull.  I mean, when your belt’s a little loose, that’s not a bad thing, but who wants a smaller brain? And unfortunately, this is not like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, where you can just aim a contraption and zap it back to normal.  It’s more like the sweater you accidentally put in the dryer.

It’s not going to be the same.  And although it’s normal for the brain to lose volume as we age, it’s When it exceeds what’s expected for age, that’s not normal. When the brain no longer fits snugly inside the skull, we call that atrophy. And there are varying degrees from mild to severe, and symptoms typically match depending on which areas of the brain are affected. 

 In this episode, we’re going to focus on 10 signs that you should not ignore. And you can find this information on the AA website. Oh, not that AA, but if you need it, I’ll put a link to that in the show notes too. I’m talking about the Alzheimer’s Association website.

We’re going to discuss each one as well as when to worry and when not to, but here’s the list from their website.  Memory loss, challenges in planning or problem solving.  Difficulty completing familiar tasks. Confusion with time or place. Trouble understanding visual, imaging, and spatial relationships. New problems with words and speaking and writing.

Misplacing things and losing the ability to retrace steps. Decreased or poor judgment. Withdrawal from work or social activities. And finally, changes in mood or personality. Now let’s dive into each one. When you think of Alzheimer’s or dementia, what do you think of?  I’m not sure I heard you, but I think you said trouble remembering things.

And you know, we all have trouble remembering things, especially if we’re distracted with a million thoughts running through our mind. And it’s perfectly normal to have trouble remembering things like someone’s name.  Not someone close, like your kid, but maybe someone you just met. And you know most people say, I’m just not good with names.

Well here’s a little tip. Most people aren’t good with names because they don’t listen in the first place. When you’re at an event and you’re meeting lots of people and you’re going to be introduced to people, you’re thinking about what you’re going to say, not what they’re saying to you. So here’s a little hint.

The best way to get good with names when you’re meeting new people is repeat their name back to them. That’s It forces you to listen and it helps you remember.  It’s also normal to miss an appointment occasionally or forget a call you were supposed to make.

Or forget to pick something up that you were supposed to do. But what’s not normal is forgetting information.  Also forgetting birthdays and anniversaries of people close to you, that’s not normal.  People with early signs of dementia may start to rely more on putting everything on their calendar or taking notes or setting an alarm on their phone to remember things.

Now, some of these are just organizational skills, like set a reminder on your phone to take medication. But when people start forgetting routine things, That’s way more concerning.  I’m not sure telling the same stories over and over is necessarily a bad thing. It’s kind of part of our social fabric. But, certainly asking the same questions over and over is a red flag.

Like, when is my hair appointment? Then five minutes later, when is my hair appointment? Over and over.  

Next on the list is difficulty with what we call executive function. And this is the part of the brain that helps us follow a plan or solve a problem. It’s necessary when dealing with numbers. And this can manifest itself as the inability to do something like follow a recipe. That’s a warning sign.

But also more subtle things like just difficulty concentrating. Mentally tasking exercises just take a lot longer in people with early dementia. Now, it’s normal to slip up occasionally and forget to pay a bill, or leave out the baking soda in a recipe.  But with early dementia, things that should come easy, get more and more difficult.

 Playing games becomes more of a challenge, or navigating directions. And getting lost is a big concern for people with dementia, both driving, as well as something we call wandering.  But, it’s perfectly normal to have to ask your grandkids how to program your favorite shows on your streaming platform. 

But, it’s perfectly normal to have to ask your grandkids how to program your favorite show on Netflix. You’ve probably even seen those commercials where the grandparents are just waiting on their grandkids to come and help them with their phones.  But, if someone loses the ability to do something simple like return a text message or read an email, That’s more serious.

And back when everything was on paper, it seems like we often wrote the date. Now, sometimes I have to think about what day it is. You too? Well, that’s normal, as long as you can remember quickly. Dementia, on the other hand, causes people to not know what day, month, year, or even season it is. And what about trouble seeing?  As we get older, our eyesight tends to go kaput due to normal aging as well as things like cataracts. Recently, uncorrected vision loss has been linked to dementia just like untreated hearing loss. Good grief, I have to get up and put in my hearing aids and put on my glasses in order to function.   While declining visual acuity is normal, difficulty interpreting what you see is not.

And people with dementia start losing the ability to read and comprehend. They also have difficulty with color contrast, and this can be very dangerous because they may fall because they don’t realize there’s a step or there’s a rug and that can trip them up.  Have you ever lost your train of thought in the middle of a conversation? 

I remember a particularly stressful season of my life about 10 years ago, and I felt like I couldn’t complete a thought or a conversation, but it’s because my mind was a million miles away.  Turns out it’s normal to occasionally have trouble finding the right word you’re looking for. But in people with dementia, this is more pronounced.

They may start stories in the middle instead of a logical beginning, and they often repeat things in a loop.  But they come to a word and they can’t recall it, so they kind of make a weird substitution like calling a watch a hand clock.

What about losing things? Well, it’s okay if you have to ping your cell phone on your hand clock or search for your keys.  I’m kidding, I hope you know that. But when my kids would lose things, I always told them to look with their brain, not their eyes. And think back to when you last saw it, and then retrace your steps.

It usually works, but people with dementia can’t do that. They also may put things in weird places, like put a can of vegetables in the refrigerator.  And when they can’t find their car in the parking lot, They may jump to the conclusion that someone has stolen it.  Since the decision making part of the brain is affected by dementia, people make poor decisions.

And of course, we all have bad judgment occasionally, but in dementia, this can be a serious problem, and it can be really dangerous. Because they’re more susceptible to scams, and that can have devastating financial consequences. But it’s also physically dangerous, because they may forget to turn off the stove or the faucet, and as the disease progresses, their hygiene is affected, as well as their ability to dress appropriately. 

Now, after the holidays, you may just be ready for some peace, quiet, and solitude. Sometimes we all just want to stay home and veg out, but people with dementia struggle to participate in conversations, so they may withdraw from things that they used to enjoy. Especially if it requires more complex mental activity. 

And lastly, there can be mood swings and personality changes. In fact, and hear me on this one, Dementia can present as depression, anger, extreme irritability, and anxiousness.  Because here’s the deal, when all of this is slipping, they know, and it’s scary.  And even though it’s frightening, I don’t want you to ignore warning signs in yourself or in someone you love. 

Because if something’s wrong, there is hope. Stay tuned for more about prevention, treatment, and even some evidence about reversal. And of course, it’s all about a healthy lifestyle. And if you’re ready in this new year to make healthy lifestyle habit changes, I have a great resource for you. You can go to my website, www. healthylooksgreatonyou.  com and find kickstart to healthy habits in just seven days.

Of course, I’ll also put a link in the show notes, and there are lots of podcast episodes that will help. And when you’re on my email list, I send out lots of goodies. Recipes, sources of fiber, foods that affect your mood. So this is not something you want to miss. 

Because your physical health affects your brain health, and healthy looks great on you.

     The information contained in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not considered to be a substitute for medical advice. You should continue to follow up with your physician or health care provider and take medication as prescribed. Though the information in this podcast is evidence based, new research may develop and recommendations may change.

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The stomach virus, COVID, cold, flu, RSV and whooping cough are going around. We’re in the thick of germ season.

Dr. Vickie Petz Kasper tells you the truth about how germs spread and how you can stay well and avoid catching them. 

Tis the season to be coughing, catching all the germs and getting sick.  Whew, there really is a lot going around right now. So how can you keep from getting sick? 

You’ve probably heard that the stomach bug is going around. The most common cause is the Norovirus. And January is typically flu and RSV season, and COVID levels are high.

All three are increasing and this is not unexpected. Why is that? Well, because of all the travel and family gatherings, the number of people you are in close contact with on a daily basis usually consists of your immediate family, friends, and co workers. But over the river and through the woods, all those germs are coming to gather at Grandmother’s house to spread like wildfire. 

 In this special edition episode, we’re going to talk about how these six infections spread and what you can do to prevent it. But first, we need to go to mini medical school and learn about viruses and bacteria.  Pop quiz! Of the six diseases I mentioned, all but one is a virus. Do you know which one is caused by a bacteria? Norovirus, the common cold, flu, RSV, whooping cough, or COVID. Not sure? Well, listen close. I’ll tell you as we review each one.

But first, some basics. What is a virus? Well, it’s a fragment of genetic information like DNA or RNA, and it’s inside this protective shell that’s called a capsid. And a lot of them look like a ball with these spiky things on it. They don’t have any cells, and they’re tiny. Their goal is to perpetuate, and they need a host to reproduce. And humans, well, we’re so hospitable. We work great. First they attach to their host, and then they enter the host, and then they start replicating inside the host. Then they assemble more viral particles and whoosh, release them. And that, my friends, is a very, very brief overview and simplistic overview of how they make you sick.  

One more thing. If you have a viral infection, an antibiotic will not do one frazzling bit of good. And that’s what it says in all the medical textbooks, “Not one frazzling bit of good.” And I know you want an antibiotic because you’ve got a lot of things to do and you want to get well fast. If you go to urgent care, you can probably snag a Z Pak pretty easily. But, if you have a viral infection, it won’t do one frazzling bit of good.

Now, why am I so passionate about that? I’ll get to it in a sec, but let’s first talk about bacteria. They’re different.

Bacteria are also tiny, but they have a single living cell. Some bacteria are actually good, and they keep you healthy.  And that’s why taking an antibiotic when you don’t need one is bad for you. Because if you kill off all the bacteria in your gut, that upsets the gut microbiome  for a long, long time. And what happens in the gut microbiome? Well, that’s where neurotransmitters are made and where the immune system is regulated. I have some links in the show notes from previous episodes if you want to learn more about how the gut actually affects your brain and your mood.  Now, on the other hand, if you do have a bacterial infection, you need an antibiotic. Okay? Got it? Antibiotics are for bacteria, not viruses.

Let’s move on, starting with the stomach bug, which really isn’t a bug at all. And I bet you already guessed that the stomach virus is caused by one of those spiky little pieces of genetic material that needs you to be its host. 

The most common cause of the stomach virus is the Norovirus, and this one spreads easily, so it’s super contagious. People with Norovirus infection can shed billions of invisible viral particles. That’s billions, but it only takes a few to make you sick. And it doesn’t really seem fair to stack the deck that way, especially since the end result is diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and stomach cramps, and possibly headache, body aches, and fever.

You get it from sick people, contaminated food or water, and surfaces. Now that last one’s really important, and that’s the reason that I always, always use the little wipes. to wipe down the handlebar of the grocery cart and I wash my hands as soon as I can.  And once you’re exposed to the Norovirus, it takes about 12 to 48 hours to get sick. So it usually makes the runs through the household pretty quickly. You can get infected with Norovirus by ingesting little bitty tiny pieces of feces or vomit from an infected person. Yeah, mom and dad. That’s why you’re at risk when little Johnny brings this home from school. All that barehanded cleaning and caring for your sick splattering little one puts you at risk for going down for the count, too.

Your biggest defense is wash your hands. with soap and water. Wash them often, and wash them good. And keep your hands out of your mouth, eyes, and nose.  This virus grows really nicely in big Petri dishes, otherwise known as cruise ships. And that’s why they installed 974 hand sanitizer stations right in front of the food troughs. Hand sanitizer doesn’t really work that great for this particular virus. Turns out good old fashioned hand washing is much better. So, maybe that cart wiping isn’t doing much good, but it certainly won’t hurt. Anyway, be careful what you touch and keep it out of your mouth and nose, and wash your hands.

Now let’s move on to the common cold. Quick question, virus or bacteria? You got it. Virus. Specifically the rhino virus. And remember, rhino means nose  and it’s also a type of Corona virus.  That’s right. Corona virus first identified in the 1960s and effectively killed by Lysol. Says it right there on the label.  Next question. If the common cold is caused by a virus, will an antibiotic help you recover faster? Nope. Can it hurt?  I hope you said yes, and if not, go ahead and hit rewind.

The symptoms of a cold usually last less than a week, but can last up to two weeks. And they include runny, stuffy nose, headache, body aches, sore throat, fever, coughing, and sneezing. There’s a link in the show notes on how to differentiate a cold from allergies.

Different viruses are spread in different ways. The common cold is spread through droplets from an infected person and they find you when that person coughs or sneezes. You can breathe them in or you can get infected by touching a contaminated surface then touching your eyes, nose, or mouth. That’s why it’s recommended that you cough or sneeze into your elbow. Because if you cover your mouth and nose with your hands and then shake hands or touch something or a surface, then the virus uses that as an opportunity to hitch a ride onto someone else’s hands. Then, if they touch their eyes, nose, or mouth, they’re infected. So wash your hands and keep them out of your mouth, eyes, and nose.  

Another virus that spreads by droplets is influenza. These droplets are spread when people with flu cough, sneeze, or even talk. You can also get it from touching surfaces than touching your mouth, nose, or eyes, but that’s actually less common. Most of the time you catch it directly from another person. These little viral particles are within droplets that land right in your mouth or nose. And, relatively speaking, these droplets are kind of big. They’re greater than 5 microns in diameter, so they don’t really travel far because gravity just pulls them to the ground within about 3 feet.

Now, once you’re exposed, the virus goes to work pretty quickly and you typically get sick a couple of days later. Now, flu season is definitely upon us and it’s spreading. When I was young, my mom had the flu and she said, She thought she was going to die and kind of hoped she would. Now personally, I don’t ever recall having the flu. But it’s serious. It can be fatal. And there are lots of different types of flu, and some cause more severe illness than others. So far this year, there have been 9 pediatric deaths, and it’s early in the season. 3. 1 million cases of flu have been reported, resulting in 37, 000 hospitalizations and 15, 000 deaths.

According to the CDC, flu is on the rise.  How do they know? Let’s take a look at how the data is collected because it might surprise you.  They look at emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and the number of tests done for certain diseases and the percent positivity. And there are benchmarks for those. But that wouldn’t really give us a total picture, would it? Because some people don’t go to the doctor or the hospital. 

Want to know a secret?   They’re looking at your poop. No, not yours individually, but collectively. They study wastewater and test feces for these viruses. I mean, it’s kind of brilliant, albeit really gross.  They even have a poop dashboard. Of course, they have a more sanitized named for it. It’s a Wastewater data. There’s a link in the show notes if you’re interested or if you don’t believe me. And honestly, it’s pretty fascinating if you’re ready to geek out. I just wonder if they advertise on LinkedIn, looking for a CPA, a chief poop analyst. Qualifications must understand virology, statistics, and have a high tolerance for gross things. And maybe they got the idea from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Who knows?

Okay, enough of that.  Now we call influenza flu for short and moving on, we call respiratory Syntcial virus, RSV for short. And the normal RSV season is late fall to winter, though that, again was thrown out with a lot of other things during the pandemic. 

Wanna guess how it spreads? Just like the flu and the common cold, RSV spreads through droplets. You already knew it was a virus, I mean, it’s right there in the title. But, it’s the same old viral tactic. Somebody who’s infected coughs or sneezes, the droplet travels the short distance between you, and  you breathe it in.

This virus can survive on hard surfaces like door handles and tables for many hours. So, if you touch it and introduce it into your mouth, nose, or eyes, It can spread that way. It can also live on your hands or a used tissue, but not for very long. So what should you do?  That’s right. Wash your hands and don’t touch your face.

Now, this is important. RSV can infect anyone at any age and more than once in their lifetime. In fact, nearly everyone gets it before their second birthday. But here’s the deal. Babies can get really sick from it. And you can give it to them by kissing their face. So yeah, Grandma, this is one reason that new moms tell you, Don’t kiss my baby.

The other is the herpes virus, which causes fever blisters, but it can be fatal to newborns.  RSV can cause severe illness, hospitalization, pneumonia, and death in older adults too. So if you’re sick, stay at home. Seriously, don’t share your germs. When it comes to respiratory viruses, clean air also helps. That means HEPA filters for indoor air, or if you live in the South, you can probably open some windows except maybe those 13 or so days when we get bitter cold and ice. Anyway, just wash your hands and cover your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze, spray the Lysol, keep your distance, wipe down the surfaces.

There’s just not a lot of variety in these recommendations and following them just might protect a vulnerable little baby or a precious elderly grandma. And that logically helps me segue to COVID. You knew we were going to talk about COVID, didn’t you?

Transmission rates are really high right now. And here’s a test I bet you’ll ace. Is COVID a bacteria or a virus?  Bingo. Let’s go a step further. COVID 19 is a coronavirus. And remember, there are lots of different kinds, but there is something very unique about COVID, and that is how it’s spread. And hopefully you already know this, but let me remind you that COVID 19 is not spread the same way as the common cold, RSV, or the flu.

And this is one of the things that made it so scary and dangerous. You see, COVID is airborne. Instead of hanging out in big heavy droplets that fall quickly to the floor, it floats along through the air. So you can literally get it from someone who isn’t even in the same room with you. Think about a small bathroom where someone has coughed and then you go in, breathe in the little viral demons and get sick. It even traveled through ventilation systems in heavily populated apartment complexes.

For the most part, the COVID virus spreads among people who are nearby. Basically, talking distance, coughing, sneezing, singing, and even breathing distance. And the louder you talk or sing, the further these little particles travel. We call it aerosolization.  I mean, think about hairspray in an aerosol can. You spray it, it gets on your jewelry, the mirror, your glasses, your husband comes in and starts fanning the air. Except these particles aren’t big enough to declare their presence floating in the air.  Depending on the ventilation, airborne diseases can travel more than six feet and hang around for hours floating in the air. 

Fortunately, there are not a lot of airborne diseases, but there are a few, like tuberculosis and measles. which is also on the rise and will likely continue to increase.  

Remember when we didn’t know how COVID was spread? I traveled to my daughter’s during that time to see my grandbaby and drove eight hours without stopping to eat and only once to get gas and go to the bathroom. I wore gloves and an N95.  I never got into washing my groceries but I did wear an N95 a lot plus I worked in a hospital so there’s that.

Now you can touch a contaminated surface and get COVID through your eyes, mouth, and nose. So do the drill. Wash your hands. Don’t touch your face. But it’s that airborne aspect that made it different. Besides the fact that it was a novel coronavirus and we just didn’t have any immunity.  

The pandemic highlighted the need for America to get healthy too. Obesity was associated with poorer outcomes. And now we have GLP 1 agonists, which are helping people control obesity because it’s so much more than willpower and determination. I put a link in the show notes about GLP 1 agonist and obesity, but listen, we still need to be physically active and eat whole food. 

Now, we’ve talked about five viruses, Norovirus, rhinovirus that causes the common cold, influenza, RSV, and COVID, but what about whooping cough? Virus or bacteria?  You guessed it, whooping cough is caused by Pertussis Bordetella. And this bacteria is very contagious. It spreads easily through the air when someone coughs. And boy, do they cough. Sounds like a big wheeze before this violent coughing fit and a shower of germs. It lasts a long time and people are contagious for two weeks. And that cough can linger for months.

You may be wondering, if it’s a bacteria, should you take an antibiotic? And the answer is yes. But, for this one, you’ve got to take them early.  Not everyone gets that classic whoop. that gives it its name. Some people just get a little tickle and a cough and maybe they don’t even know they’re sick or their doctor tells them they have bronchitis or a sinus infection. And those are the ones you’ve got to watch out for because they can spread it.

And like RSV in babies, it can be life threatening. Babies don’t cough, they quit breathing. And one third of infants less than one year old who get whooping cough require hospitalization. Wow, that’s serious. And that is why, when I was practicing obstetrics, I always recommended that my pregnant patients and everyone who was going to be around the newborn get a booster shot called Tdap. It stands for tetanus, diphtheria, acellular pertussis.

Now let me stop right there. And I want you to hear me.  I really wanted to do this episode because promoting health is the whole goal of this podcast. I want to give you information, motivation, inspiration. to take measures to protect and improve your health.

When it comes to seasonal illnesses, it’s important to have a good baseline health and a strong immune system. That means a healthy gut microbiome, a healthy weight, and controlling risk factors like diabetes and hypertension.  I really care about you and I have no intention of wading into controversial waters.

 So, if you have strong emotions when it comes to vaccines, Push stop on this podcast. But I really do care about you and I’m gonna keep this part really short. But if you want to have a further discussion about vaccines, I will literally schedule a call with you.

Just email me, DrVickie@healthylooksgreatonyou.com and we can talk about it. Please don’t send me hate mail, but if you do, I’ll respond with love and grace  because I don’t want this information which is rooted in solid science, evidence, research, medicine, and statistics to interfere with our relationship.  I’m not asking you to respect my opinion or anyone else’s because this is not about opinion and it’s not about respect.  But you see, that is something that changed with the pandemic. Distrust was sown  and maybe deserved. Maybe there was something nefarious, but there was also a lot we just didn’t know. And as we learned and we learned quickly, things changed.

Anyway, talk to your doctor is the best advice I can give you.  I remember when the chicken pox vaccine came out, my son was two years old and he had asthma. And I was a little leery because it was a new vaccine. I talked to my pediatrician and he advised giving it. Two years later, my son’s preschool had to shut down because every single kid had chicken pox. Except my one little vaccinated boy. They even had to cancel preschool graduation because yeah, that’s a thing.

Instead of telling you what I do or what I know or how I feel, let me preface all of this by saying I’ve been a medical doctor for three decades. I was chief medical officer of a hospital for seven years, including the pandemic years, and I know what I saw firsthand. I do a lot of research from reputable sources for each podcast episode. So if you trust me, keep listening, but again, if you have strong feelings, now is the time to stop listening and you can tune back in next week. We’ll pick up on the dementia series and talk about things we can agree on. I mean, we don’t all have to agree on everything to be friends, do we?  

Okay, I already told you that I recommended that all my pregnant patients get Get Tdap to protect their babies, and this is based on recommendations from the CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, all reputable organizations. They also recommend the flu shot.

Now, vaccine reactions are real. but they’re rare. I don’t personally know of a pediatrician who does not vaccinate their children. They see firsthand what these infectious diseases can do.  Now, I’ll admit doctors have various opinions because they have various perspectives and we call that bias. Think about it. If a doctor only works in an outpatient clinic, they may have tons of experience treating some infection and what they do supports their beliefs.  But they don’t know what goes on in the emergency room or the hospital. And the doctors that do have a different bias. And this was especially true during COVID. 

There were a lot of sayings that went around during COVID, like, what about the obesity epidemic? Why are we not talking about that? And I think we should be talking about it. Or what happened to the flu? Did it suddenly disappear? Well, it turns out that social distancing, washing your hands, wearing a mask, avoiding crowded places prevents the flu too.

It’s recommended that everyone over the age of 6 months get a flu shot.  And if you’re concerned about mercury or thimerosal, you’ll be glad to know that single use vials of the flu shot don’t contain any and haven’t in many, many years.

Now, remember I told you that I’ve never had the flu? You see, after my mom had it, she made sure we were vaccinated every year. And I continue to get the flu shot every year. I gave it to my kids every year. It is a killed virus. And you cannot get the flu from the flu shot. And yes, I know, you may have gotten the flu shot and then gotten the flu. And there’s several reasons for that. Number one, the vaccine typically is only between 40 and 50 percent effective. Number two, it takes a couple of weeks before it works, and you might have gotten exposed to the flu right before you got the vaccine or right after before your immunity kicked in. You may also get the flu right after you drink a Coke.  That doesn’t mean the aluminum can caused it, and I’m sorry if that was a little snarky, but correlation does not equal causation, and that’s super important when you’re looking at data rather than anecdotal experiences.  

I remember how excited we were at the hospital when the COVID vaccine was delivered. I even took a video on my phone. It made a huge difference in the death rate we were seeing. And as soon as it was available, I got the COVID vaccine and all the boosters until the virus mutated enough to not really cause severe disease in most healthy people. I would still get it if it prevented COVID. But unlike what we thought at first, the COVID vaccine does not prevent COVID or the spread of COVID, just the severity of the disease, hospitalization, and death.  Not that that’s not important. 

The RSV vaccine is recommended for people age 60 and over. And there is a form of it that’s available for newborns who are at risk. 

Again, Tdap is recommended for pregnant women during every pregnancy and for anyone who’s going to care for the baby.  Vaccines in pregnancy, like flu and Tdap, are given later so that those maternal antibodies can help protect the baby when they’re too young to be vaccinated.  

I know, attitudes have really shifted about vaccines. I remember when I was in the second grade, they lined us up at school and shot us in the arm with the same air gun to vaccinate us against smallpox. Remember smallpox? That disease has literally been eradicated from the face of the earth by vaccines. We all got it at school, and I’m not even sure our parents knew we were going to get it, but my mom is an ardent supporter of vaccines. Wanna know why? In a word, surely. You see, she had a cousin who was in an iron lung at the age of 17 from polio. It was a dreaded disease and the vaccine was a huge victory against this debilitating illness.  

I guess people have a reason for believing what they believe. If you’ve seen devastation from an illness or from a vaccine, you’re gonna have strong feelings and rightfully so. I’ve seen what I’ve seen and you’ve seen what you’ve seen. So, please send me an email if you want to continue the conversation. But I think we can all agree, keep your germs to yourself, wash your hands, get some fresh air, don’t touch your face, and stay healthy. Because healthy looks great on you.

     The information contained in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not considered to be a substitute for medical advice. You should continue to follow up with your physician or health care provider and take medication as prescribed. Though the information in this podcast is evidence based, new research may develop and recommendations may change.

RESOURCES:

Is it allergies?

Weight loss injections

What causes obesity?

Gut Health, food and mood
Wastewater dashboard

Email me

Join the email list for all the resources

RESOURCES:

Join the email list for all the resources

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