S01_E15 - 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

Hey everybody. Welcome to episode 15 of the healthy matters podcast. I'm Dr. David Hilton, your host, and this is an episode of Hilton's house calls in which I'll answer whatever is on your mind about health and healthcare. So let's dive right in John.

Speaker 1: 0:35

All right. Okay. So we're gonna start off with a bang here. Kate from Wilmer was wondering, I have a husband of 25 years who snores a lot, where can I trade him in?

Speaker 2: 0:46

Okay. I guess we're into the marital counseling section of the show right off the bat, right off the bat. Okay. Everybody or maybe not everybody, but a lot of people can relate to a bed partner who is shaken the house with the snoring. And the good news is that there's some treatments you can do about snoring, but the bad news is sometimes it's hard to get the person to believe you or to do anything about it. So snoring is caused by a number of things. The basics are that your airway, where air goes in through your nose and mouth and into your lungs is partially blocked. And it's usually an anatomical problem. Most commonly in things like sleep apnea. In fact, most people, not all, but most people with sleep apnea, snore, there are some who do not, but it's one of the hallmark symptoms of that. But snoring doesn't just mean you have sleep apnea. It could be that you have a cold, you have inflammation of your airways. Perhaps you've been drinking a little bit. It's well known that alcohol can lead to, to more snoring. No way. Yeah, it does. You know, sadly, sadly, uh, if you've had a couple beforehand and you're, you know, that can do it so it can be, it can be due to a lot of different causes. And the thing to do is to find out the cause and see if it's a treatable. One, many of them are, if somebody has been snoring repeatedly for year after year, I do recommend getting a sleep study. The medical term is a PSG, a polysomnography study, but it's well known as a sleep study, go to a sleep center. Like the one we hear at hen at Hennepin healthcare, and they will do a study to see if you have sleep apnea. What they do is they measure the oxygen levels in your blood as you're sleeping. And if it drops 10, 20, 50 times an hour, you have sleep apnea that is treatable. It's treatable with devices. Your dentist might have some ideas. It's treatable, mostly with C P a P machines. And for those of you who said, I've tried the C P a P I hate it. I hate that mask. No, there are new ones. There are nasal ones that don't even go over your mouth. There's lots of different options. So sleep apnea is one of them. If your sleep study is normal, um, you might look at other things, look at things like allergies, perhaps all you need is a, is an antihistamine before bed considered cutting back on alcohol before you sleep. All those things, uh, can lead to snoring. Some people try those scripts on their nose. I don't have any inside knowledge of whether those are helpful. Um, at least from a scientific standpoint, but people have anecdotally told me that those things work. So you might try that you might try raising the head of your bed that might help that anatomy a little bit to get air in and out a little bit better. And if all else fails, um, I don't recommend the pillow over your bed. Partner's head. That probably is not a, a safe<laugh> same thing. But, but if all else fails, there are, um, earplugs how's that for a technical answer on earplugs, but you know what? It might, it might, uh, save your marriage,

Speaker 1: 3:34

Whatever works, right? Yeah. Okay. Well at least skip the night cap. Gotcha. All right. So Seth, from green bay rote, is there anything that can be done medicinally or nutritionally to prevent hair loss? What do you think

Speaker 2: 3:45

Hair loss is so common? Um, but there are some of them that are reversible or treatable, and some of them is sort of a steady progression. That's a little bit tougher. The first thing to do is if that you have patchy hair loss, like coming out in blobs, in weird places, anywhere on your body, usually your scalp, but wherever, wherever you have hair on your body, that's coming out in patches. That might be an autoimmune type of hair loss called alopecia. AREAA alopecia is simply the medical term for hair loss. ATA means patchy. And that is one that has a treatment with usually, um, uh, anti-inflammatory steroids. And like, it might get better, but that is not the majority. The majority of hair loss is simply age related and happens to both men and women. Although it's more common and prominent in men, but women easily lose hair hair, as well as they age. There's a few things you can do. One, if it's really bad, you can, uh, live with it. You can go bald, you can get, uh, wigs in the like, uh, uh, I'm not kidding about that. A lot of people say it's just the best plan for them is just to accept it. Other ways you can do, though, there are some treatments, there are medications you can do that are mildly effective in some people make sure you get a do that under a physician's care, because some of them have side effects. They are hormonal agents and those hormones can have side effects in your body. So be careful of those. There's also a low level laser treatment that people have tried. I have seen some people get some relief with that. Now, if you're mostly bald, a little laser, isn't gonna do the trick. But if you're losing just a little bit here and there, it might, uh, have if that's FDA approved. Um, as far as I know, and then there are hair transplants, that's really funny, but they, they transplant hair follicles, you know, to the places where your hair is lost, because your own right. Your own hair. Yeah. They transplant your own hair. Although maybe that's how you could become a redhead, John. Yeah. I was curious. Yeah. You know, maybe, maybe that's what you do. I've always wanted to be a redhead. I don't want the hair coloring. So maybe I'll get a transplant. No, it's your own hair. And they literally move a hair follicle from one place to the other. Once your hair follicles are dead, nothing's gonna grow there. And so they, they literally move a healthy follicle for one place to the other, but they have to do it in, in like millimeters apart. And it's a long and

Speaker 1: 5:56

Lengthy process. And that's effective though. Huh?

Speaker 2: 5:58

It's effective in some people, it adds a little bit again, if you are mostly going bald, you know, especially that male pattern, hair loss, where your hair loss is receding, none of these aren't gonna be that effective. That's why I started this off with maybe consider some other things a live with being bald, get a hat. Yeah. Get a hat. Um, you know, you might look pretty good or you might choose to get, uh, uh, artificial situations like, like awake or something. I wasn't kidding about that. That is often a good treatment. But if you have mild hair loss, the transplants, the laser things, the medications, they might help just to fill it out a little bit.

Speaker 1: 6:32

Good to know. Good to know. Cool. So moving on, we've got another question here from har, from Iowa city. And he's wondering about limbs that fall asleep in particular, like he says, what does it mean when your legs fall asleep? What's actually happening in your body.

Speaker 2: 6:44

That's called a paraesthesia and some people think it's all your blood supply. It's not, it's not really your loss of blood supply. It's almost always a nerve problem. You're pinching the nerve. There are people who live with paraesthesia or neuropathies. Their whole life can relate to that. Um, you know, but in those folks it's more of a permanent or a progressive thing. People who have peripheral neuropathy from diabetes or something, but for those of us whose leg just falls asleep, when we're sitting on it, funny, it's a temporary thing. And you might have that pins and needle sensation. You might have, it might feel burning. It might feel just numb and feels numb. And then it kind of tingles when it wakes up, you are literally just interrupting the, the nerve communications from, from your brain to your legs or your arm, if it happens to be your arm because you pinched the, okay, it's a temporary thing. It gets better. Your nerve wakes up again. I don't know whoever came up with it. It's falling asleep thing. Cuz nothing's asleep. You're literally just pinching a nerve.

Speaker 1: 7:43

Okay. Okay. But

Speaker 2: 7:44

It's not, it's not dangerous. Uh, uh, as long as you can move and shake it out again and it goes away when it, when it is a problem is if you're living with a numb or pins and tingling, uh, pins and needles, tingling sensation permanently, you need to have that checked

Speaker 1: 7:58

Out. Okay. All right. But the, the 30 seconds or so maybe, um,

Speaker 2: 8:02

You're okay with that. Gotcha.

Speaker 1: 8:03

Excellent. Okay. And Arthur from Ann Arbor, Michigan says I have a twitching eyelid. That's driving me nuts. What causes this? And is there anything I can do to make this stop?

Speaker 2: 8:13

It's funny that if people ask me a lot about their twitching eyelids and I never have a good answer, so I'll give it my best on this one. Okay. But it it's a difficult one cuz cuz there are microscopic nerves that go to your eyelids and then there's very small blood vessels that go there. So anytime those things get irritated, they Twitch, the vast majority of them are not dangerous. It can be your sleep deprived or you could have a little, uh, viral inflammation of your eyelid or you could have, um, bright lights or a corneal, um, inflammation, something with your eye. That's just irritating it, but it's temporary. Okay. And, and so the, the nerves just get irritated and they, they Twitch a little bit. So it looks really funny cuz your eye's that you feel, you feel weird about it, but the vast majority of those are just a temporary situation. Like I've just described. If it doesn't get better, if that goes on for days and days and days, you could have some underlying vascular or neurologic problem, there are all kinds of neuromuscular problems. Parkinson's disease or myasthenia gravis. These are neurologic chronic diseases. That's not what most people have with eye twitching. But if it doesn't get better after a few days or certainly for a few weeks, if your eyes twitching for, for a few weeks, go see somebody, uh, with neurology expertise.

Speaker 1: 9:29

Gotcha. Any connection there? Do you think, uh, with allergies by

Speaker 2: 9:33

Chance? Yeah. That's a good point, John. It's possible that it's your allergies. In fact, that that might be one of the more common causes. Anything that irritates your eye, your eye is it's a finely tuned, small part of your body with many muscles, there's six muscles that control your eyeball. Each eyeball. There are little teeny muscles that control your eyelid. There's literally little muscles that do that. And there's teeny little nerves. So think of a very fine motor thing, not like the big muscles of your arms or legs, anything that irritates those. So allergens in the air would be one cause that that's just, uh, your eyes get itchy. They get dry and they start to get irritated by that. And it's, it's just, um, it's irritating the nerves and those small muscles. So that's a, that's actually a good one. Allergies are something to consider.

Speaker 1: 10:18

Okay, great. We've got one more here.

Speaker 3: 10:22

Hi Dr. Hi, this is Paula from I'm calling today because my teenage sons have an excess of fluid in their ear or some kind of gunk that's yellowy when they do clean out their ears. I know you're not supposed to use Q-tips but can you help us teach them the better way to clean their ears so that you don't see the rose, um, after effects of sweat and just all that ear gunk.

Speaker 2: 10:52

Thank you. No show complete without a, without a top, without talking about ear gunk. And this is a great question and I like your explanation of it, Paula. It's a great question. What do you do about the gunk coming out of your ears? Well, the first thing is that it's probably ear wax. That's what the gunk probably is. Ear wax is kind of a yellowish reddish, brownish viscous, waxy stuff. That's in your ears. Yeah. Ear wa ear wax is normal. It is normal. Some people make more than others, but it is normal. And so my number one thing is don't do anything about it. That's my number. One bit of advice. Don't do anything to try to clean it out. You, it is normal now for most people, they don't even know you have it in there. It kind of comes out when you don't notice it. It's a small amount. And so that's easy advice to take. Don't do anything, but I get it. Some people have a lot. So if you have tons of stuff coming outta ear, a make sure you don't have an infection B, make sure you don't have allergies. Those things could be treated. Allergies could be treated and then maybe the gunk isn't so such a big deal anymore. Uh, that that's the first thing I would suggest for your kids. You know, have an ear, nose, throat person, take a look in there. I look in ears all the time. I can see ear wax constantly and I just let it go. I just let it go. But if it is problematic, there's just a lot of it. It can lead to, to hearing loss and the like, and so I do suggest just using the overthe counter drops goes into the brand named DeRock. I think, uh, although I, I, I try to stay away from using brand names, but I think that that's what that one's called. Put a few drops in that ear, put that ear facing the ceiling. So it gets worked around in there and then just D the outer part of the ear with a tissue that is the way you clean. Just the part that's getting to the outside part. Never put a Q-tip in your ear. As many parents know and many pediatricians know, and a lot of doctors know the old saying is true. Never put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear. That is the truth. So, um, if you don't wanna buy over the counter drops, you can try mineral oil. Um, you can just buy garden variety, mineral oil. It's a, it's a non-toxic kind of oil and just put a couple drops in there. It loosens up the wax and then you just dab, dab with a tissue. What comes out. But for those of you who are not having hearing loss and you don't have a lot of gun coming out of your ear, I would just forget about it. Don't do anything about your ear wax and go about your business. Just live with it. Let live with it. You've probably got some in there or maybe you don't, but ignorance is bliss. Okay. If you don't know, what's

Speaker 1: 13:20

There. Take that to the bank.

Speaker 2: 13:22

Hey, these are some really good questions. Thanks for sending them in listeners. And we will get to more of them right after we take this short break.

Speaker 1: 13:30

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@healthymattersathcmed.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

Speaker 2: 13:54

And we are back taking your questions on dens house calls, John, what else you got?

Speaker 1: 13:58

Okay. So this one comes in from Kathy. She says she's a longtime healthy matters listener struggles with tinnitus. She feels dizzy. All of the time has lost her hearing in one ear already and has constant headaches. She asks, is there any new treatment for tinnitus or any of these related symptoms? What's the latest.

Speaker 2: 14:14

So many people have tinnitus or some people like to say tinnitus, but I say tinnitus. Um, tinnitus is any weird sound in your ear that, uh, where your nerves are simply playing tricks in you. Some people call it a buzzing. Some people call it a ringing. I've heard it described as a Foghorn. I've heard it described as a pulsating kind of thing. So people describe it in any, in a variety of ways. However you describe it. If it's a continuous sound in one or both of your ears, that doesn't seem to go away. That's tinnitus. The causes are many. Sometimes it's it's, uh, medications, in fact, aspirin and huge doses can cause tinnitus just as one example. So if you're on medications, you might ask your doctor, is that a problem? It can be an exposure to loud noises, and it doesn't even have to be an extensive exposure. It can be, uh, military veterans or people who, um, shoot firearms. Uh, if you don't wear ear protection, it can simply be that firearm. And that's often on one ear or the other because the fire, when you shoot off one side. So, um, I've heard that endlessly from military veterans, particularly those who of an earlier generation or older generation who are, they didn't wear a heck of a lot of ear protection. It can be from too much, uh, ACDC or, uh, yeah, rock bands or, or rock bands. Uh, you know, I like, I like Bruce Springsteen and they're loud. And so, you know, uh, you know, everybody goes home from those concerts that evening with some tinnitus, almost everybody. It is not good. I mean, let me be honest. It's not good to, it is damaged to your ear, but for many people that, that goes away, but it doesn't for everybody. So if you have ringing or buzzing or anything in your ear, particularly noticeable, when you say resting or going to bed, that's when you hear it the most, cuz you don't have anything to distract you. That's something to have evaluated. The first step is to do just that. Have it evaluated by an audiologist. We have a great program here at he healthcare and wherever you're listening, I'm sure your doctor can recommend one as well. You should see if it's in just one ear or the other. That's the first thing, you know, if it's in just one ear, it could be a vascular problem. Particularly if it's of a pulsating nature, if you feel like a pulsing pulsing pulsing in just one ear that could well be a vascular thing which needs looking at, if it's in both ears, it's probably more of a neurologic problem. So they test your hearing. They make an evaluation and then they look for medications. You can stop or behaviors. You can change to make it better. But beyond that, the treatments are actually a little bit slim. To be honest, there are some people who get relief with cognitive behavioral therapy. That's, it's a commitment you have to commit to talking to learning cognitive behavioral therapy. Other things are noise, canceling headphones. That sounds really weird. But if it's really bugging you noise, canceling headphones work for many people, the, the problem is they're not cheap and you have to wear'em all the time. You know, like

Speaker 1: 17:06

When they got a battery and

Speaker 2: 17:07

Exactly, unfortunately there isn't a really good, quick fix. There's nothing you can do. Some people do live with it kind of their whole life. Um, but so get it evaluated, find out the cause if you can't find out the cause those are some suggestions to maybe make it at least a little bit less, uh, bothersome to you.

Speaker 1: 17:25

Okay. So bring ear plugs to

Speaker 2: 17:27

Concerts, bring, you know, you should do that. You really should. Um, I did it for a while. Everybody. I think that I do it

Speaker 1: 17:32

All the time. Do you? Oh yeah. Do you really? It's my franchise. It's my

Speaker 2: 17:35

Job, I suppose to cuz you are in audio all. Yeah. I, I don't think every, you know, I did it a little bit, but yet, you know, you have to be confident in yourself, you know, you know, I, I didn't see too many people at the last Springsteen concert.

Speaker 1: 17:47

No, no, no. It's, it's definitely a nerd look, but uh,

Speaker 2: 17:50

It is a nerd look, but it's probably the right thing to do. I also like Beethoven. I don't think you have to wear, uh, your ear plugs at the, at the Beethoven concert. But if you, if you're in an arena concert at a heavy metal band or

Speaker 1: 17:59

Something first avenue.

Speaker 2: 18:01

Oh my gosh. So for those of you listening first avenues of famous club in downtown Minneapolis, I've been to some loud shows at first avenue.

Speaker 1: 18:09

It is. Yeah. It's a ruckus. It's great. Um,

Speaker 2: 18:12

<laugh> I used to go during the prince era, you know, uh, prince was about five years older than me and I remember he was playing down there and I never saw him there, but that's where he used to play. But good. Uh, good tips when you're in loud concerts is frankly you should be wearing ear plugs

Speaker 1: 18:25

Worth there waiting gold, which isn't a lot, um, right. Okay. Uh, onto our next one. This one comes in from Beth in Farmington. She says, I don't actually own a gun, but I have a trigger finger or a trigger thumb. Actually. That's been clicking and bothering me for some months now, what can I do about it?

Speaker 2: 18:41

Yeah. Trigger fingers can be at first of all in any finger, it can be in your thumb as well is a medical problem. It's got a medical name. It's called tenitis frankly. It's called sclerosing tenitis. So your, your fingers are the tendons of your fingers that, that allow them to bend and extend and, and that kind of thing. They operate in a little sheath. They're inside a little sheath that, that smooths out the friction that can get inflamed. SC is sort of, um, scarred and the tendon inside of it can't move freely. And so it, it happens mostly in people who use their hands repetitively or in gripping motions. If you have to grip things, tools, you know, contractors, people who are on keyboards a lot can get it. It's more common in people with diabetes, although that you certainly don't have to have diabetes to get it. It is for some reason, unknown to me, a little bit more common in women. So what it is is that you can't bend and extend your finger. Normally it hurts or it pops or it clicks when you're trying to extend and, and flex your finger. And sometimes it gets stuck usually in the bent position and then it really can be a problem. It can be, you can't use the finger very well. So treatments, you go to an orthopedist who specializes in hands, or you go to an occupational therapist who specializes in hands and they will do motions and range of motion exercises. Sometimes they'll wanna immobilize it for a little while, but they all don't do that. But sometimes they'll, they'll put a little splint on it. You can get an injected with steroids, a steroids, just a, a garden variety. Anti-inflammatory sometimes that helps. And in some cases, particularly if it's getting bent and you can't straighten it surgeries in order. But, but I do emphasize go to a surgeon who specializes in hands. Uh, your hands are delicate. Um, like I was talking earlier about the eyes, a delicate, small little structures. So are your hands. You don't want someone whose main practice is knee surgeries. And then have'em messing around with, with your thumb. You go to a hand specialist. So I know a couple Jackie Geisler here, and Tom Barca here at Hennepin. These are two outstanding people whose careers are on hand surgery. I will always make sure you go to somebody who specializes in hands. You don't want someone who's used to using the big power tools, messing with a tendon. That's the size of a piece of spaghetti. So you, you know, yeah. Uh, uh, make sure you go to a hand specialist.

Speaker 1: 21:05

You got it. And what was the name of that again?

Speaker 2: 21:07

It's called Glo Teno synovitis.

Speaker 1: 21:11

Ooh. Heck of a Scrabble word. Yeah. Yeah,

Speaker 2: 21:12

Exactly.

Speaker 1: 21:13

Excellent. Okay. And so moving on, we got this one from Marla and Rosemont. She wrote hello, Dr. Hilton. I'm interested in being a possible bone marrow donor for my brother who has CLL. We are a large family of siblings who may be asked to donate in the months ahead. Several of us are still healthy enough to do this, but we are 66 and older all of us. What are the risks? If any,

Speaker 2: 21:35

Thanks. What a great question, Marla, because, uh, bone marrow donation is literally lifesaving for so many people. And so I'm gonna start right off the bat and just say, congratulations for even considering this for your brother and I, and to tell other listeners to consider becoming a bone marrow donor. And I'm gonna even give a plug for, be the match.org. Go to be the match.org and register as a bone marrow donoration yeah, I've been on be the match for some 30 years. I haven't been called yet, but if I get called, I will Don donate my marrow. So be the match.org. But what about the process itself? I'm not gonna lie. It's a little bit uncomfortable, but it's safe now. Nothing in medicine is 100% safe. I'd be lying if I said that, but it's a, it's a relatively low risk procedure. What they do is they either numb up the area. They, in other words, a regional anesthetic, or sometimes they might do a general anesthetic. And so they make it as comfortable as possible. They generally take, um, uh, some of your bone marrow, usually out of your, uh, pelvic bones, the big bones of your pelvis, and they numb it up and they aspirate. In other words, withdraw into a, through a needle. Some of your bone marrow that process can hurt a little bit. Some people say, wow, that hurt a lot more than I thought other people I've actually heard, say it didn't hurt as much as I thought, but it is generally not comfortable, but it's just a short period of time, just a few seconds. And afterwards you might have a few side effects. You might have a little pain at the site in your back or your hip area. You might have a little muscle pain. Some people do get a headache from it. And then some people get a little bruising at the site, but those are short term. Those are short term side effects. The, the, the long term complications are indeed very rare. So it's a very, uh, I will say low risk procedure. So you do have a little bit of discomfort for a little while, but you are literally, uh, providing another chance at life for your loved one. Uh, or if you're on be the match and you happen to get paired with someone you don't know, you're giving a ch a second chance at life to someone, uh, person that you don't even know. And, uh, you can live the rest of your life knowing you did something wonderful.

Speaker 1: 23:48

Does it, does it ever grow back or can you donate more than once

Speaker 2: 23:51

From Y yes. Your bone marrow does grow back. So it's a, your bone marrow has, uh, a lot of purposes. Uh, it is the sort of, for lack of a better word, it's sort of the gelatinous red bloody part that is inside your big bones. And it is where the cells of your blood get created. It seems really weird, and people maybe don't realize that, but your red blood cells, your platelets, your white blood cells, they all get made in your bone marrow. And it's some of it's in your sternum. Some of it's in your long bones, but a good chunk of it's from your pelvis. It's literally these big bones in your body. And so the inside of your bone is not, it's not solid through like a piece of concrete. The inside has got trabeculations or little, um, se you know, segments to it. And, and it looks sort of like a, almost like a honeycomb sort of thing in there. And in that area is this red gooey stuff that where your cells get made. And that's what they're taking out. So people who have hematologic or blood born cancers like leukemia, they're bone marrow, the cells in there are going crazy. They're they're, they're growing out of control. And so when they get a bone marrow transplant, it's a lot harder on the recipient. They have to go through a chemotherapy cycle to literally kill off their bone marrow. Their bone marrow is just not working. It is creating Che cells out of control. So they get a chemotherapy to essentially wipe out their bone marrow. Then they take a little bit of your bone marrow and they inject it back into that person. And your cells take off, except your cells are normal. So your cells just take off and start growing. The recipient grows back over many, many weeks. They grow back normal blood cells. Your body can easily replace them. So, okay. Both parties come out, um, doing just fine. The recipient, uh, um, is, has a longer road ahead of them. Sure. It's, it's generally quite effective, but they have to go through chemotherapy. They lose their hair. They're hospitalized for many weeks on end. And, uh, but it's a, it's a, an effective treatment, uh, um, for many patients, uh, and it's life saving

Speaker 1: 25:48

And say for Marla and her family here,

Speaker 2: 25:51

And it's safe for Marla and her siblings. Yeah. And she's 66 years old. And I don't know the exact age, but that is not old. Um, 66 is not old. I am not aware that that's a problem at all at

Speaker 1: 26:01

That age. All right. And, uh, we've got time for one more here. This one came in on our phone lines.

Speaker 4: 26:06

Hi, this is Amy from Minneapolis, and I'm training for a half marathon. I wonder if it's ever too hot or too humid to run safely. Thanks so much.

Speaker 2: 26:15

Great questions, Amy. And coming from I'm a marathon runner. I've done a bunch of'em nine, 10, something like that. A bunch. Yeah. I have done a lot of'em cuz I had this goal a little side. I have a goal to run Boston marathon and you know, you have to qualify by a time. And, and I qualified once and I still didn't get in because of Boston filled up that year. So I loved running marathons, but I've kind of stopped because wow, it's a lot of work. Holy cow, you have to train for five months and it's like the wor it's the longest five hours of your life. But, but that being said, I am still a runner. I love running half. Marathon's a great distance by the way, Amy, but training. How do you train you? I, first of all, if you're a kind of a weekend warrior and you're not a runner already, uh, running in the heat of the summer and the humidity can actually be quite dangerous. So the, the key is to go slowly at first, if you're just starting your training, uh, maybe do it. I, if it's really hot outside, if it's in the nineties or the heat indexes, even in the high eighties, maybe run on the treadmill or run in the evening or run in the morning because the heat is actually quite dangerous. If you're a collegiate division, one runner, you're an elite runner and you've, you could probably run in almost any heat. So the point being is that it is it's very dependent on you and your level of health, but for anybody, anybody be very careful in high temperatures, uh, the things to do, uh, you probably know, um, uh, in your head, it's kind of common sense, but it bears repeating drink. Plenty of fluids. Non-alcoholic fluids, water, water, water, water, drink a ton of water, drink it frequently when you're outside in the heat. If you're outside in very hot days in you're perspiring, perspiring is good. That's how your body loses heat. But if you stop perspiring and it's a very, very hot day, that's a bad sign, a really bad sign. Your body temperature is gonna rise quite a bit. It's a sign that the heat's too hot. You've, perspired out all your moisture and you're dehydrated. And then lastly, when it's very hot, get outta the heat. I mean, if you, if you're getting dizzy, if you're getting woozy, you're a little unsteady on your feet. If you're confused, you need to get outta the heat right away. Those are signs of heat exhaustion, or the, the much more severe heat stroke. So I do encourage people to exercise though, and just take it slow, be safe in the heat and good luck on that. 13.1, miler Amy. Fantastic. Well that's all the time we have these have been great questions. I want to thank our listeners for sending them in, keep your questions coming. Thank you for listening to this episode and I hope you'll join us for the next episode and in the meantime, be healthy and be well.

Speaker 1: 28:51

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. The healthy matters podcast is made possible by Hennepin healthcare in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and engineered by John Lucas at highball executive producers are Jonathan kuuto 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.