S01_E09 - Hilden's House Calls - An AMA with the MD MPH FACP

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome to the healthy matters podcast with Dr. David Hilton, primary care physician and acute care hospitalist at Hennepin healthcare in downtown Minneapolis, where we cover the latest in health healthcare, and what matters to you. And now here's your host, Dr. David Hilton.

Speaker 2: 0:20

Welcome to the podcast, everybody. It's Dr. David Hilton, your host. And today we're gonna do another episode of Hilton's house calls. These are the popular shows where I literally just answer the questions that you ask me. You send questions and I answer them. Many of you have done just that. So let's get to it. Let's answer your healthcare questions.

Speaker 1: 0:41

Okay. Let's get to it. Our first question comes from Larry in red wing, Minnesota, and he says, Dr. Hilton, I am a 69 year old male in good health. I have a case of self-diagnosed chill brains this year. It seems as bad as ever. Will it get worse as I get older and is the only cure moving to south Florida? Thanks in advance.

Speaker 2: 1:00

Hey Larry, that's not a bad idea. Actually, the south Florida business, uh, although it might be an extreme treatment, uh, chill brains also known as Perea are often caused by cold weather. They're generally in the feet and in the toes. And what it is is that your blood vessels are reacting to that cold. And so you get discoloration of your toes and it's almost always your toes, um, discoloration of your toes. You get sometimes bumps on there. It can be numb and painful. And the good news is these tend to go away on their own. Usually takes a week or two, maybe three, and it gets better, but they're gonna come back. And if you're susceptible to it, it's likely to. So you're asking, is it gonna get worse in your lifetime? Uh, probably, uh, I don't know if it'll get worse, but it might not go away. Your blood vessels are reacting to the generally the cold. It's not considered dangerous, but it can be problematic. So if you can't move to Southern Florida and, and actually, and actually Larry, I, I think moving to Southern Florida, my might not help it because some people get this, even just, if it gets down to 30, 40, 50 degrees, it's similar to Ray nodes syndrome. Many, many people have heard of Ray nodes, R a Y N a U D S Ray nodes. That's where people's hands and feet literally turn white or blue, um, from the blood vessels, um, constricting in cold weather and just like chill, Blas, Ray nodes, doesn't have to be at 20 below zero. It can happen like it does to my wife. It can happen at 40 degrees, just a chill day. And so the same thing can happen with chill Blas. An interesting side note about the chill Blain situation is that people were seeing more of that with, COVID not clear why that was a whole heck of a lot about COVID isn't clear, but people were calling it COVID toes. In fact, um, there was a certain quarterback for the green bay Packers who was, uh, had toe problems and everybody thought he had had COVID toes. I don't know if that actually was the case or not, but again, it's a blood vessel situation in your toes. What can you do other than booking the next flight to Miami? You can really watch, um, what you wear on your feet and your hands for that matter. But, but mostly in your feet, loose clothing, layered clothing wear two or three layers of socks, uh, and war wear warm boots. In other words, do the things that that people appear in the frozen Tundra know how to do layered clothing. Don't go out, um, uh, in extended periods of time when you're inadequately dressed. And if your feet are getting cold, get to a warmer area. So prevention is, is really what you wanna do, but, uh, uh, yeah, Larry, it might continue to persist in your life. Sorry about that. But at least, you know, that it's not particularly dangerous.

Speaker 1: 3:47

All right, let's go for another one here.

Speaker 3: 3:50

Hi, Dr. Hilton. I appreciate you taking my call. So even though COVID seems to be waning, it is still cold and flu season for a little bit officially. So zinc's up vitamin C. I'm wondering what, uh, someone can do to boost their immune system. And is there a way to actually do that? Thank you. Bye.

Speaker 2: 4:10

Loads of people have been looking at both zinc and vitamin C, particularly in the era of COVID. Although they've been looking at zinc and vitamin C for decades, there is some, some data out there that suggests that these two things are beneficial to the immune system. Uh, the data aren't particularly strong, however, but there are some supporting studies to say that zinc and vitamin C are helpful to the immune system. Now it was like decades ago that people were saying, yeah, vitamin C cures and it, and zinc prevents the common cold. I am here to tell you that if we had something that cured cancer or prevented the common cold, we'd be telling you about it. So people have gotten, let's just say a little overexuberant about the benefits of zinc and vitamin C. Uh, here's what happens if you take too much vitamin C, you pee it right into the toilet. It, it is a water soluble vitamin. It does not store in your body. So taking too much of it, it ends up, uh, you urinate it out. So it's not effective to take massive doses of it. It just doesn't do anything, but, but it is possible that vitamin CNC have some beneficial effect. Don't get the impression that it prevents COVID it doesn't, it doesn't prevent COVID 19. It doesn't treat COVID 19. Uh, but if you're so inclined, uh, it probably doesn't hurt. You can always take too much of things, but, uh, but it's pretty tough in these cases. So if you choose to take zinc, if you choose to take vitamin C, I wouldn't discourage that, but just have realistic, uh, outlook on it. It's not preventing very much. It might give your, your immune system a little boost. And if, if that makes you feel better and, and it's not too big, a hit on your wallet, uh, you can go with it. Uh, it, it, it, it's a, it's a reasonable thing to do.

Speaker 1: 5:59

Great. And is there anything else people can do that would just be general best practices to maintain or even boost their immune system? Is that even possible? Yeah.

Speaker 2: 6:07

The best ways to, to boost your immune system and to make sure you're as healthy as you can, are to li lead a healthy lifestyle. In other words, get enough sleep. And, uh, I might suggest, uh, um, if you want tips on how to do that, we talked about that in episode six, with Dr. Verese go back to episode six of the podcast and listen about sleep. Uh, getting enough sleep is one way another way is to eat healthy. Make sure you nutrition is good, and that can be hard. But I, I like to tell, um, people, something that he wrote in defensive food, he had a seven word, just seven word mantra, uh, about how to eat. And it was eat real food, mostly plants, not too much. And I think that was eight words, but, but I don't have the book in front of me is eat real food. Mostly Lee plants, not too much. And by real foodie, he meant not process things. If the, if the ingredient label has words, your grandmother wouldn't have understood. Don't eat it. If it has too many, five syllable words, don't eat it. If it's got 15 ingredients, don't eat it. Those are processed foods. So eat whole real foods. Mostly plants eat low on the food chain, hold grains, fruits, vegetables. If you choose to eat meats, do so. Um, in moderation. So eat mostly plants, and then not too much. Don't eat portions that are, are we're so used to eat smaller portions. So sleep number one, diet, number two, exercise, number three, uh, healthy, active lifestyle boost your immune system. So whatever that is for you, maybe it's walking, uh, several days a week. Maybe it's running, maybe it's gardening, maybe it's interval training. Maybe it's just is, is, is golfing. It can be anything. Maybe you like to dance, just be active, that boost your immune system. And so those are my three biggest things to suggest adequate sleep, good diet, active, healthy, um, exercise. If you choose to take supplements, you can, but none of those are really proven to do anything, you know, and we always talk about antioxidants. It's good to eat antioxidants because in the laboratory, antioxidants are good for you, but they don't always an into human health. So things that are high in antioxidants, you might want to try, but if you're not eating right exercising and not sleeping, it doesn't matter what pills you take. So do those things first. And if you choose to take supplements on top of that, I think that's okay, but it shouldn't be the only thing you do.

Speaker 1: 8:36

Excellent. Thanks for that. Jennifer from Omaha says the I've been told I have high cholesterol. What can I do to get my cholesterol lower are eggs. Okay. This year, egg whites, egg yolks. What's the current word here.

Speaker 2: 8:50

Great question, Jennifer, because, uh, it seems to change all the time. He's supposed to eat an egg or, and not, not supposed to eat an egg. Reminds me of Sylvester Stallone in the original Rocky. You remember that? Remember what he did? He took like five eggs, raw, put'em in a glass and drank'em all down. It still makes me go Ew, a little bit. But so your cholesterol is a complicated subject because a lot of people think that if I just cut out cholesterol from my diet, everything's gonna be peachy keen. That's not true. You could eat nothing but grass all day long, and you could still have heart attacks because much of your cholesterol doesn't come from what you eat in reality. Most of your cholesterol is manufactured in your liver. Your liver does a, a lot of things in your body. One of them is a manufacturing plant and it's made in, in your liver. Only some of it comes directly from your diet. And so you can cut back your diet to nothing, and you can still have heart problems. So it's a little bit more complicated than just what you eat. That being said, we all should be super careful about what eating there are some better foods and some less, less good foods. What I tend to tell people is that the more manufactured and processed it is the worse it is for you. So eggs, I eggs are not manufactured. They are a natural whole product, and it's a very complete pro. Uh, and so I, I think it's to have an egg or two with your breakfast or during the day. In fact, it's probably healthy. If you really wanna cut back on cholesterol, then stick with egg whites only. But I tend to kind of poo poo that a little bit, have an egg, you know, and don't worry about it. If you want an egg with your breakfast or your dinner, go for it, what you shouldn't do is do what silver Stallone did in Rocky. You shouldn't have six of'em and you shouldn't do that every day. But, uh, I think if you had, um, eggs several times a week, you're gonna be just fine. Uh, the other things you should do for your cholesterol in your diet, the fats that you eat stick with olive oils, complex, omega three, um, oils, um, fish oils, things like that. Stick with whole fats. I think it's actually okay to have a butter, but it's not okay to have the processed things like margarine. Don't eat Marrin. It's a processed fat, it's a vegetable thing. And if it's a vegetable oil, it needs to be a liquid at room room temperature. In other words, you can have low cholesterol, uh, vegetable oils that are in the jar in your cabinet that you use to saute foods in. And like, those are okay. Uh, but if it's a solid vegetable oil at room temperature, in other words, things like Marrin or the white, uh, and vegetable oils that people sometimes bake with, those are not healthy. And certainly if it has a trans fat in it, it is not healthy. You should never eat a trans fat. So that's a complicated answer to that. But getting back to the simple question that you asked, go ahead, have a few eggs.

Speaker 1: 11:55

Okay. Moving on. Um, here's one for you.

Speaker 4: 11:59

Hi, Dr. Helden. My name is Jane. I was just curious to know in your career, what is the weirdest thing that you've ever seen, or I don't know, pulled out of somebody's body.

Speaker 2: 12:10

Jane. You're not, you're not playing with a, this question. You know what you know, who, um, okay. I'm gonna come right out with it. People do tend to put things in their bodies, both top and frankly from the bottom. And so we've had to fish things out. Now, I personally don't have to do that kind of stuff, but people do swallow things a lot. I seen batteries, I've seen, uh, buttons. I've seen paperclips, I've seen ballpoint pens, and it is actually possible for that. Some people to swallow those now in, in sadly in some of those situations, it's because someone has a, an untreated mental illness and doesn't know what they're doing in other says, I'm not sure why. I think it's more of an intention seeking type of behavior. That once again is probably indicative of some underlying, uh, untreated, um, generally mental health disorder. People also have some to be all honest. They, they have some tendency to put things, um, in the bottom man too. So I've seen crew drivers and, uh, other devices that people, uh, are using for some type of, um, sexual enhancement, I guess. And so sometimes we've had to pull those out of people too.

Speaker 1: 13:26

Okay. All right. Uh, so moving on Terry from Hudson says I haven't been sleeping well lately. Are there particular long term effects of a lack of sleep that it could impact my overall health?

Speaker 2: 13:37

Yeah. Terry, um, there actually are some long term effects of, of inadequate sleep. We go to sleep for a reason, although some of'em aren't clear to the medical community, but your brain is actually doing things at night and re regenerating and reorganizing itself. And it is also thought that there could be long term effects on your, um, cardiovascular function, your breathing function, um, all of your body's functions need to have adequate sleep in order to be at their top performance. So some of that is not known. Like what if you don't get enough sleep for 20 years, what's that gonna do to you? But it clearly, um, detrimental to your long term health, both in cardiovascular deconditioning, your mental health, your neurologic functioning, uh, it's important, not only for adults, but for kids in teenagers. So when you're, when you're slothful lazy, bum of a 17 year old is sleeping till 11, that's probably theologically necessary for that growing body. And so there are probably long term effects on the development of kids and teenagers within adequate sleep as well. A good night's sleep is the elusive holy grail of life. I think, and, and most of us aren't getting an adequate amount of sleep. I'm like exhibit a on that. I don't sleep enough. I think I'm tired all the time. And there's a lot of reasons. People aren't getting a good enough, a good enough night's sleep. And I would refer you back to our podcast episode that I had Dr. Ren vagi, where we actually talked about a couple of those reasons. And basically some of us have trouble falling asleep. Some of us have trouble staying asleep, and much of it's actually in your control. And I, if you're doing a lot of screens before bedtime, that's not a good idea. Although it, blue light is not a good idea. If you are using the bed for things other then sleep or intimate, that's not a good idea. You shouldn't be in bed watching TV all evening and then just expect your body to turn off the light. When you turn off the light, you're gonna, you're gonna be able to sleep. You should, uh, not exercise or drink alcohol right before sleep. People think alcohol's a good way to fall asleep. It's really not. It does make people get drowsy. It's, it's got a sedating effect, but it also really messes up with your sleep. So getting drunk and then expecting a good night's sleep. Isn't a good idea either. So there's a lot, the point being this, the point being that there's a lot of reasons why people aren't getting enough sleep. You really wanna shoot for that seven to nine hours. So work, what doctors call your sleep hygiene, going to bed at a reasonable hour, getting up at a reasonable hour and avoiding those things. I just talked about. If, if you're repeatedly over and over and over not getting enough sleep, I do suggest that you see somebody for that. You could go to a sleep center and see if there's some medical reason that you're not getting enough sleep. And if there's not, at least you can learn some healthier behaviors that might might make you sleep better. It's a really good question. And, uh, one for which we don't have all the answers yet, but it's a really good question, nonetheless.

Speaker 1: 16:44

Okay. And we've got time for one more before the break here, Jillian from Brooklyn park says I have a teenage son who recently started going to the gym. He wants to start taking creatine because all of his friends do, he says it will make him recover quicker from his workouts. Is this true? And is it safe for kids of that age to use it?

Speaker 2: 17:03

So creatine is an amino acid that is taken by athletes and others in an effort to strengthen your muscles, um, develop lean muscle mass. And as your son says to recover better from workouts, I'm not sure about this, but I think it might be the most commonly consumed supplement in athletes. The evidence that it is helpful, isn't real strong, but the evidence that it causes harm also isn't real strong. So there, it does make some sense. Uh, it it's normally found in foods, generally seafood wounds and meats and the, like it's a, it's in our bodies normally in muscles and in our brain tissue. But the evidence that it's helping you, isn't super strong because it hasn't been studied by reputable organizations that much, but on the other hand, it's probably safe. And so, although I'm not a real big fan of any supplements, I, I just think that why put more pills and things in your body with this particular one? I think you can relax a little bit at least that your, your son's not poisoning himself many, many, many tens of thousands, probably millions of PE people do take it and have done so safely. So I, I guess that's a bit of a wishy-washy answer there and, and you'll have to have a conversation with your son about whether or not you're comfortable with him taking supplements, but at least in the universe of things, a teenage athlete could be taking creatine is probably among the safer of those. And so if this is the only thing you're worrying about, I think you might be, um, you might be okay on that one. And, uh, let,'em go ahead with it. These are all really great questions. We're gonna take a quick break. And when we come back more of Hilton's house calls,

Speaker 1: 18:44

You're listening to the healthy matters podcast with Dr. David Hilton, have a question or a comment for the doctor become a part of our show by reaching out to us at healthy matters, HC M E d.org. Or give us a call at six one two eight seven three talk that's 6 1 2 8 7 3 8 2 5 5. And now let's get back to more healthy conversation. Okay. Dr. Hilton, let's try another one. Dennis, in Chicago asks, is there a limit to how much Viagra you can take asking for a friend?

Speaker 2: 19:17

Yeah, I'm sure you're asking for a friend. Uh, Dennis and, and I do, I have had, I've answered a lot of questions about Viagra and related topics for people's friends. So I'm really, I'm, I'm really glad that everybody's looking out, looking out for our buddies out there. Um, yes, you can take too much Viagra, um, for a number of reasons, uh, the medical reason, you know, not independent of what your partner might think, but your, the medical reason is that Viagra works on your blood vessels. And what, what will happen is that your blood pressure can drop too low. If you get too much of a good thing and you can pass out and your blood pressure can drop and that's not healthy. It is also the reason that people, uh, men who have heart disease and particularly men who have heart disease, who are also taking nitrates things like nitroglycerine or MDER anything for your heart. You shouldn't take Viagra at all. One tablet's too much for you because you will, uh, your blood pressure can drop to dangerously low levels, and you'll literally pass out and you, you don't want that. But for men without heart disease, stick to the doses that are on the bottle, take one and tablet and take it an hour or so before sexual activity. And it does have a role for that. So Dennis, tell your friend to just use it as prescribed. Don't take more than is prescribed. Don't take several in a day, take the one tablet and it can be, it can be safe for you.

Speaker 1: 20:49

Perfect. And we got this from Christina in St. Louis Park, believe it or not, it's gonna be patio season soon here. And I plan to be on one. What's the official word on how much alcohol is okay to consume in a week for adults and is the old adage of a glass of red wine at a is. Okay. And in fact, heart healthy.

Speaker 2: 21:09

Yeah. There's tons of, uh, uh, evidence about alcohol and it's a mixed bag. I wish I could say, go for it. You know, whatever you do, it's all good. But there are some guidelines. First of all, if you do not currently drink alcohol, don't start for the sole purpose of I'm to get healthier. It is not the, it is not the, uh, fix for your health. If you don't already drink, but if you already enjoy, uh, alcohol, it can be safe and perhaps even healthy to do it in moderation. And there's some numbers that we put with that for women of any age, average of one drink a day, that's it. And when I say one drink a day, that doesn't, that doesn't mean you're supposed that you can have seven in one day and say, well, that was my week. So that's, that's binge drinking so that isn't at all, but averaging out over time. It shouldn't, it should be about one a day. That's moderate drinking for men, younger men. It can be up to two. Um, in other words, if you're having, uh, one or two beers or glasses of wine, that's probably okay for older men, it's, it's the same as for women, uh, that that'd be one per day. Anything over that is at risk drinking. And it doesn't mean you've you're hooked. It doesn't mean you're have, uh, an alcohol addiction, but if you're drinking more, then that that's at risk. It doesn't mean it doesn't mean that you're gonna develop into a, a, a raging alcoholic, which is not a term the medical community uses, but, but the, the world intends to use the word alcoholic. Uh, it, it, isn't gonna, it isn't gonna mean that that's what gonna happen to you, but having three or four or five drinks at a time is at risk to drinking, drinking more than 14 drinks in a week for a man is at risk drinking. And so you should just pay close attention to that and ask yourself that question. Am I, am I maybe drinking a little bit too much as for the red wine? That one is a pretty much of a good news story. There's a thing called the, the French paradox. Why, why do people in France seem to live reasonably long, healthy lifestyles? When you look at the French diet, which is loaded with rich sauces and, um, fatty foods and, and, and yet they seem to, to be healthy. One of the theories is that they also have a glass of red wine with her to, uh, it isn't a one to one correlation. It's not a for sure thing, but it is at least theoretically possible that the antioxidants in red wine are healthy. There's one that really makes the news a lot. It's called resveratrol resveratrol. That is a component of red wine. And it's, it is an antioxidant in the class called polyphenols. That's the medical term for them that seem to have a, a beneficial effect on your blood vessels and maybe even your cholesterol numbers. So that's one theory is that the resveratrol in red wine is healthy. So I tell people, again, like I said earlier, if you already enjoy a glass of red wine, go ahead and have one with dinner and it's probably not harmful. And it may actually be helpful. But again, if you're not a drinker, don't use red wine as your soul intervention in your health. Don't drinking for the health benefits. And, but if you can, if you can enjoy it in moderation, it might actually be good for you. It it's possible that the same is true for beer and, and other alcohols. There are some beneficial effects of alcohol, but red wines. The one we think about the most, there also is precious little evidence that taking resveratrol in a pill form is the way to go. It might, it might be beneficial, but the data is somewhat, uh, shakier on that. Uh, and so you'll see that a lot, people are really pushing resveratrol as a treatment in a pill form. Again, just like my comments about diet, if you're gonna, if you're gonna seek out that, um, beneficial health, uh, effect, maybe just have a glass of red wine with your dinner.

Speaker 1: 25:09

I like that answer. Okay. Moving on. Uh, here's another one we got from the phones.

Speaker 3: 25:14

Hi, Dr. Helden. I had a question regarding blood donation. What is the difference between whole blood and double red blood donations love your podcast, by the way,

Speaker 2: 25:27

You know, Lisa, thanks a ton for this question, because in the first place, blood donations save more lives than you possibly know, at least that I ever knew. And especially the past year or two, we've really had some blood shortages, I think, um, over the COVID pandemic because this blood products come from donors from allistic wonderful people who go give an hour of their time and a few milliliters of their, of their blood. And it'll, it is so, so important that you do that. So hats off to you for even asking the question, when you donate blood, there's a lot of different ways. It can happen. If you give whole blood, you are literally given everything of your blood. They take out all red liquid and they put it in a single bag. And then what happens to it is that they, they spin it down in a lab in Centri fusions and, and things like that. And they, they, they separate your whole blood into its components. So when you donate a unit of blood, they're not going and grabbing that bag of whole blood in giving it to another person, usually they are separating the platelets from it. They're separating the red blood cells from it. They're separating the plasma from it, the liquid part, the non red liquid part. And then that can go to many different people because when we transfuse blood, we don't, we rarely rarely say, give my patient a whole unit of blood. We don't do that. They do that in trauma settings, like in, when you're chopper from your car accident, you're bleeding a lot. You might get whole blood, but in the hospital. And in most other places, we give only the component that a needs, the platelets, the red cells and, and so forth. And so that's what happens when you give whole blood. And that is what people typically do. A double red cell donation is, is trying to maximize the red blood cells that you're giving. And so it's done by a different collection process. It's a similar deal with like, when you give platelets, the process of donating in whole blood is they're simply taking it all out of you. The process of Farsis like plasma Farsis is when they take some of it out of you. And they put some of it back after taking what they want. So they can take the red cells out. They can take the platelets out and put the liquid back into you. So those are what's, uh, some of the nuances of donating blood, you, you can ask them, what do you need the most, some of the donations take longer than others. Uh, and, and some of them, you have to be a certain, you have to meet certain criteria. And so you can ask at your donation center, the key point to what, what Lisa brings up here. And I wanna make sure everybody really knows how important it is to that donate blood. And if you're not sure if you're eligible, give your local blood center a call and find out it is really, truly a gift of life. And I, I use the word altruistic. It really is an altruistic thing to do because you do not know the person who's gonna get your blood. You have no idea. You'll never know. You're simply giving of yourself to someone you'll never know. You'll never meet. And so if you wanna do something good for, uh, your fellow travelers on planet earth, I encourage you to donate blood, um, as often as you can. And so, um, thanks for that question, Lisa. It's a really good one.

Speaker 1: 28:43

Okay. And George from south Minneapolis asks I'm a 75 year old male. And after a recent colonoscopy, I was told that I have what is called a redundant colon. What is that? And is there any reason for concern?

Speaker 2: 28:56

So George, you got to experience that fun day of your life. When someone takes a five foot long camera and puts it into your intestines, uh, everybody's got to do that. Um, remembers that fun day. I'm glad you did it. I'm glad you did your colonoscopy because, uh, if I could just make a plug, colon cancer is really common. It's really treatable if you catch it early. So good work on getting your colonoscopy. And that's my public service announcement for the episode. If EV everybody else out there, if you haven't done your colon and cancer screening, uh, get on it. If you're over the age of 45, but George, you asked the question about redundant, colon, the deal with your intestines. It's it, it's a single tube from top to bottom from, from your mouth to your, your bottom end. It's a single tube that starts with your esophagus, goes to your stomach, goes to your deedum and your, uh, your Juju and your Illium. And then it hits your colon. And your colon's about five feet long. It looks like a question, mark. If you're looking at the front of a person's body, it goes up the right side. It traverses a across from right to left. It goes down your left side. And then it goes down into, uh, your bottom end. Some people have, have bits of your colon that are sort of looped on each other. There it's redundant bits of, of intestine. In other words, it's not a straight shot, but it's kind of, we sometimes use the word tortuous because it it's it's S shape. And it's, it's, it's going in a serpentine shape as, as opposed to that nice question, mark shape. So a redundant colon could be that you have pieces of your colon that are sort of looping around each other. It can make it harder to do that colonoscopy, but it shouldn't have any effect on your life. In fact, if you hadn't got in that colonoscopy, you would've lived with it. You would've eventually died of something else, and you never would've known that you had that. So I wouldn't worry about it. It's just the way you were born, your unique body. The reason people have that redundant colon isn't clear, but again, you were just born with it, but it's, it's thought to be your colons, just a little too long. It's just trying to squeeze a longer a tube inside your belly. And so it sort of loops back on each other. Uh, there are other things we're looking for in your colon, but that's one I don't think you have to worry about.

Speaker 1: 31:10

Excellent. And here's one more from the phones

Speaker 5: 31:13

Dr. Hilton. This is Denny only w CCO radio. I dunno if you remember me, but I had to call in and take my turn to ask you a question. Well, I didn't, it takes, so do gone long for a rotator cuff injury to heal. Thanks very much, Dr. HIIN fun listening.

Speaker 2: 31:32

So good to hear from one of the true gems of twin cities, uh, broadcasting that's from my, my good friend, Denny with whom I spent many, a Sunday morning on WC, see a radio, Danny, your rotator cuff is, is full of all kinds of tendons and ligaments and muscles that allow us to pitch a baseball game. You know, that is what, uh, your rotator cuff does. It allows your shoulder to move in so many different, uh, planes of motion up, down, rotates sides. All the things you can do with your arm is due to the four muscles and their associated tendons that make up the rotator cuff. Uh, it is a complex structure that, that, um, can get injured with so many different exercises. And the problem is is that those tendons and ligaments take weeks, or even months, sometimes many to regenerate, unlike some of our organs, which have a huge blood supply, or even our muscles, which have quite a bit of a blood supply, your tendons and ligaments do not. They don't have that rich blood supply. They're more like fibrous cords, not like beefy muscle, if that makes some sense. And so anything that doesn't have a good blood supply doesn't heal very well because it is blood that heals things. And so your, your tendons and your ligaments, they regenerate slowly. And if you have a complete tear or a pretty nasty tear of one of those four structures in the rotator cuff, sometimes they don't heal at all. And so people have to, your bodies have to adjust by using, uh, the working muscles in tendons. But if it's just a strain or a sprain, even those can take three months, six months to heal because of that, uh, very small blood supply. And so we tell people, be patient be patient. When you have a rotator cuff, um, injury, uh, do your stretches, do your strengthening and exercises go to physical therapy, but don't be surprised if six months later you're still dealing with it. Maybe even a year later, in some cases, not the news people want to hear, but it is the truth. Thanks for that question, Denny, you and the so many people have that question. So that's a great one. Hey, these are awesome questions. I hope you'll keep them coming. And I want to thank our listeners for calling and sending them in. And if you have more questions or comments, or even a show, topic idea, send them our way we're all ears. And in the meantime, be healthy and be well.

Speaker 1: 34:00

Thanks for listening to the healthy matters podcast with Dr. David Hilton, for more information on healthy matters or to browse the archive, visit our website@healthymatters.org. And if you have a question or comment for the doctor, email us at healthy matters, HC M E d.org, or give us a call at six one two eight seven three. Talk. Finally, if you enjoyed this podcast and would like to support us, please leave us a review and share the healthy matters podcast with your friends and family. The healthy matters podcast is made possible by Hennepin healthcare in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and engineered by John Lucas at highball executive producers are Jonathan Camuto and Christine Hill. Please remember we can only give general medical advice during this program. And every case is unique. We urge you to consult with your personal physician, if you have more serious or pressing health concerns until next time, be healthy and be well.