Speaker 1: 0:01

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 our host, Dr. David Hilden .

Speaker 2: 0:18

Hey everybody, it's Dr. David Hilden and welcome to episode six of the podcast. And on this episode, we're going to be interviewing me.

Speaker 3: 0:26

That's right. And hey, my name is John Lucas. I'm one of the producers on the show. And today yeah, we do have a very special guest. It's nice to see you again. Why thank

Speaker 2: 0:34

You. Thanks for having me on the show.

Speaker 3: 0:35

It's our pleasure. Today we're gonna be talking about something that I think we're all kind of interested in, which is our longevity, right? How do you live to be 100 or die Trying is the topic of today's show. So it's going to be kind of a little bit of maybe some things that we might have heard, but a lot of things you might not even be thinking about. So , uh, I'm gonna kind of turn it over to you because you seem to be the expert on all these things.

Speaker 2: 0:57

Thanks, John . And, you know, people sometimes ask me, so , so what's the, what's the warranty on the human body? What is it? How long can I expect to live? And some people can live a great long time. Others not quite so much. But how do you live as long as possible? And I sometimes use that phrase, how to live to be a hundred or die trying. But there was a why Sage once said, you can live to be a hundred, John , you can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to

Speaker 3: 1:24

A hundred. Yes, I've heard that line before, and I think you're right. It is , uh, about a sage as it could get, you know ?

Speaker 2: 1:29

Yeah . That it was about a sage as you can get. I do think that sage maybe was Woody Allen, but , uh, uh, uh, I'm pretty sure. But I think it , it actually , um, makes some sense and people might be surprised. The things that can make you live the longest are not the things that you do in your doctor's office. Hmm . What your doctor does, or whoever your clinician does, is just a small percentage of the effect on your lifespan. Now, if you're sick, I wanna start right off and say, if you're sick, if you're having a symptom, if you're feeling some concern about your health, you should go to your

Speaker 3: 2:02

Doctor. Right. Diet , exercise might not fix

Speaker 2: 2:03

That. That might not fix that. So that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about your average person, you listening to this podcast, what do I need to do to stay healthy? Not what to do after I get sick. Excellent . If you get sick, excellent. Go to your doctor. That's my advice on that one. But you might be surprised at the things that you should and should not be worried about. So that's what we're gonna talk about today.

Speaker 3: 2:24

Excellent. Excellent. Well, I say we dive right in then. So how do we kick things off here?

Speaker 2: 2:28

I want people to know that the things that you do in your daily life, there's four big areas I want you to know about. And if you attend to these things, that is gonna give you your best chance of living a longer life. And, and again, they're not things in your doctor's office. So the first one is about smoking, of course. And that one sounds like, oh my goodness, he's gonna preach to us about not smoking.

Speaker 3: 2:52

Although you and everyone else who's been on the show, I think this is kind of a theme that seems to come up no matter who's on mic .

Speaker 2: 2:57

It does come up a lot. And there are something like 16 million people in our country, in the United States living with a disease that was caused by their smoking.

Speaker 3: 3:08

And this isn't Europe,

Speaker 2: 3:10

Probably even worse over there, where, you know , you have a cigarette with dinner . Um, there are , there are no, and I I repeat that. There are no redeeming qualities to cigarette smoking. Now you might say, well, I enjoy, okay, okay , I get that. Sure , I get it. I get it, I get it. You , you like it. But there are no good health benefits from it. It is something that you can stop doing and you should stop doing. And if anyone ever tells you otherwise they're lying, you can and you should stop smoking. It leads to way more things than people know. Everybody, everybody knows about lungs. Sure. Not good for your lungs. It is the leading cause of lung cancers. Yeah. But it , it also causes emphysema. Everybody knows that lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death, and you simply don't want that. And that might sound obvious, but I have been at the bedside of people with lung disease at the end of their life. And you , uh, trust me, you'd pick something else. Yeah,

Speaker 3: 4:04

Yeah, no doubt. But in

Speaker 2: 4:06

Addition to the lungs, it causes heart disease, high blood pressure, it exacerbates your diabetes. It's one of the leading risk factors for bladder cancer. In fact, there's like 20 cancers. It leads to bladder cancer, leukemia, pancreas problems. It leads to fertility complications in men and women. So if you're trying to have a baby uhuh, it's not good women, it's not good if you are pregnant. So number one thing you can do, I don't think anything else that you do matters very much if you're smoking. Okay. You can't take a pill to counteract that one. So I don't care what else you do. If you're smoking, that's the number one thing you should quit. Wow . That's number

Speaker 3: 4:40

One in technicolor. Okay .

Speaker 2: 4:42

In technicolor . Right . Okay. And so I preached right off the bat,

Speaker 3: 4:45

Chad . Yeah , no , you know what, that's , uh, that's kind of what people need to hear. Yep . Yep .

Speaker 2: 4:48

I'm not gonna sugarcoat that one. The second thing in your life is to maintain a healthy weight. I know people that equate obesity or being quite a bit overweight to be in a health risk factor almost to the level of smoking. Now it's not all the way there. It is true that there are some people are bigger boned and, and the body mass index that many of us heard of is not a perfect measure. Right . But maintaining a healthy weight is very likely to help you to live longer, at least reduce your risk. How do you do that? You can't exercise your weight to a healthier weight, but you must exercise to stay healthy. But it's almost all in diet, which does lead me to the third thing. And that is exercise. I

Speaker 3: 5:29

Was afraid you were gonna say that.

Speaker 2: 5:30

So you need to move more. Whatever you're doing. I bet you need to do it more. So I would suggest move more and eat less. That's probably four . Okay . So

Speaker 3: 5:37

There's no ceiling to this exercise thing then, huh? Oh , we can't . We can't. We we're never out of the woods.

Speaker 2: 5:41

No. I suppose Jesse Diggins moves enough, you know, Olympic athlete from our home state of Minnesota. I mean ,

Speaker 3: 5:47

Don't tell her that.

Speaker 2: 5:48

Don't tell her that. Yeah. She's, she's saying , no, I don't, I gotta work out more. No, 30 minutes a day every day. Wow . But that, that sounds like a lot, doesn't

Speaker 3: 5:55

It? That's a commitment. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 5:56

And I don't , I'm not gonna lie,

Speaker 3: 5:56

That's uh , that's , that's an Everest of a challenge right there. Exactly.

Speaker 2: 5:59

For many of us. But so what I tell people, you and somebody might be listening and saying, well, I can't go to a gym for 30 minutes a day . I can't do that. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about moving your body. And you don't have to do it all at once. Do it in three 10 minute intervals. And it can be whatever is something you enjoy doing anyways. Maybe it's walking, maybe it's gardening. Maybe you're a very vigorous house cleaner.

Speaker 3: 6:23

I am not. Uh ,

Speaker 2: 6:24

But so get out there and vacuum a lot.

Speaker 3: 6:26

Okay .

Speaker 2: 6:26

You'll be good to go if you do that. Okay . Maybe you are a runner or maybe you want to do a rowing machine or a stationary bike. It doesn't really matter to me. Just

Speaker 3: 6:34

Something

Speaker 2: 6:34

Seat . Yeah. Go to the mall and watch the seat . Get off the

Speaker 3: 6:37

Seat . Okay . Get out and get out of the chair and, and , and get moving. That's the

Speaker 2: 6:40

Stage advice that is . So, so far we've talked about don't smoke if you smoke, quit, and don't start. Uh , and number two is maintain a healthy weight. Number three is move more. Right. And number four is about diet. And this is one that we're learning more and more as the years go on. So what I'd like to tell people is eat low on the food chain. That means as many plants as you can, a plant-based diet is the best. Okay . It's not only best for you, it's, it's best for the planet. A lot of benefits. There's a lot of benefits. But I'm not saying never eat meat. If you're a meat eater, maybe limit it . And fish is probably better than fatty meats. Poultry is relatively , uh, healthy red meats are maybe a little less so, but Right . But stick to lean ones. And in smaller portions, which brings me the portion

Speaker 3: 7:24

Size is is kind of a big one. Exactly. The portion size is kind of a big one. And it's kind a need to eat a one pound steak. Exactly.

Speaker 2: 7:30

You never in your life should be eating a one pound steak. I'm sorry, for no matter

Speaker 3: 7:33

How big you are. Yeah,

Speaker 2: 7:34

Exactly. I'm sorry. Purveyors of steaks. That's not healthy. I used to show some pictures of what even a coffee looks like. Even a coffee. If you think back to, I don't know, the seventies or eighties, and you went to a diner and you got a little eight ounce cup of black coffee in a cup with a saucer. Now when you go down to your local coffee shop, they're giant. Yeah ,

Speaker 3: 7:56

Yeah . And it's like the 64 ounce or the grand .

Speaker 2: 7:58

Exactly . Exactly. <laugh> . Exactly. And I don't even know what some of the big chain coffee shops, what half of those mean. Um, 'cause they have all these words for 'em , but then they show up with this thing that's about a foot tall. Yeah . This cup's about a foot tall. Yeah . And about two thirds of it is calories. Yeah. So even your coffee is

Speaker 3: 8:13

Bigger. Right, right. And it's not always as easy as you think, because sooner or later you get hungry and the only thing around you is a quickie

Speaker 2: 8:19

Mart. Right ? Yep . And you don't even know what you're eating, so you do it outta convenience. I, I was recently, this is a true story. I was recently in Washington DC and met with someone from the US Department of Agriculture because they were asking physician leaders how we can best get the message out about diet. And they were specifically talking about, remember the old food groups? Oh yeah. That was 30, 40 years ago.

Speaker 3: 8:39

Yeah . Do we still have those? Well,

Speaker 2: 8:40

Yeah. That was sort of the state of the art back in 1970. But then they moved on to the food pyramid, and now they're calling it My plate , my plate . You can go to the government site and look at my plate. Okay . And it's what should be on your plate. And you'd be surprised. The meat or the protein is a smaller little piece on there. The vegetables is a giant portion of your plate. Dairy and fats is a smaller portion, but it's really fascinating about eating smaller and lower on the food chain. And then the last point would be far fewer processed foods.

Speaker 3: 9:12

Processed foods. Right. And we just touched on this recently with Dr. Aisha Galloway Gilliam just a couple episodes ago, as well as another show in season two, episode two with Dr. Kate Shafto . Reading the labels, understanding them is such a big piece of the puzzle and, and can be pretty hard, especially when the marketing department is playing against you. Uh, a little bit of a tangent, but I remember I had an aunt who used to say, keep your plate colorful. And I think that that's always kind of a nice kind of just rule of thumb. Just add some greens to it. Keep it red, don't eat monochromatic.

Speaker 2: 9:41

Yep . That's a , your aunt is smart. I've heard she's a white woman. And I think Dr. Schau on one of our previous episodes right here on Healthy Matters, talked about eating the rainbow. Yeah,

Speaker 3: 9:49

It's true. Yeah. Yeah, I remember that one.

Speaker 2: 9:51

Eat the dark orange things, eat the dark green things. You find something that's purple, eat it. <laugh> . And

Speaker 3: 9:57

Maybe I'm just getting older, but those things taste better too.

Speaker 2: 9:59

They do taste better. Yeah . I, I sometimes talk about the white foods and I , you know, and I'm guilty, I'm guilty of this, but white potatoes, white pasta, white bread, white rice, those things are filling and it's, they're affordable often, but they're not your healthiest option. Eat something dark orange, dark green, dark purple, dark red, whatever you can find, eat the rainbow. So sold. All right . Those are the four things you should be doing in your life. And even if you never saw a doctor and you should <laugh> , sure , that's , but even if you never did , if , if you never did, these are the four biggest areas to stay healthy. And I'll just repeat them. They are, don't smoke, maintain a healthy weight exercise and move more and eat a healthy diet. Those four things, if you're attending to those, you are doing 80 to 90% of what you should do to live

Speaker 3: 10:51

Longer. Excellent. Some of this, obviously we've heard before and putting into practice is harder, but , uh, especially when you hear from a doctor that this might be more important exactly than blood tests or anything like that, that this might be the key to kind of, you'll just , just to enjoying the life that you do have all that much more.

Speaker 2: 11:06

And there are some things you should do in your doctor's office. Sure , there really are. Certainly there really are. But if you are not doing these four things or at least attending to these, there's nothing in a pill bottle that's gonna fix that. It's not gonna counteract the fact that you're smoking. If there is no vitamin that's gonna counteract you carrying an extra 50 pounds or there's no supplement that's gonna fix it. If you're watching TV all day long and you never move, right. And there's really no medicine or thing your doctor can do, there's no blood test that's gonna fix the problem if you're eating garbage. Right . So those four things, you need to do those first, or at least think about how those things are in your life. And then there are some things your doctor can do and there are some things you should be asking for at your doctor to take that next step to staying as healthy as you can. And I'd love to talk about those after our break.

Speaker 3: 11:59

No doubt. I was gonna say, it sounds like we're about to get into those, but before we do that, we're gonna take a quick break and we will be right back

Speaker 4: 12:07

When head up in healthcare says, we are here for life. They mean here for you, your life and all that it brings. Hennepin Healthcare has a hospital, HCMC and a network of clinics both downtown and across the West Metro. They provide all the primary care and specialty care you would expect to find, but did you know they also have services like acupuncture and chiropractic care available at many of their primary care clinics and at their integrative health clinic in downtown Minneapolis? Learn more@hennepinhealthcare.org. Hennepin Healthcare is here for you and here for life.

Speaker 3: 12:45

And we're back for part two of our show with our very special guest, our own Dr. David Hilton. We kind of talked a bit about what you can do in your daily life. Uh, there were four things we talked about. And just to recap the four things we talked about in the first part of this show. One more time, don't smoke. Can't say it that loud enough. And for the cheap seats, there are no redeeming qualities of smoking. Number two, maintain a healthy weight. This isn't always as easy as people think it is, but it is nonetheless an essential piece of the puzzle. Three is move more. That is something that most of us can do and I think everybody should at least try to do. And number four is to make healthy food choices, which isn't always easy again, but the better we do at that, the better we'll do in general. Okay, cool. Moving on. Now, when we do all those things, it doesn't mean we're out of the woods, right? Uh , there is a time that we're probably gonna have to go to a doctor's office and what can we do in a doctor's office or what can we expect from the medical side, from the medical community? How can they help us live longer? What , uh, where are we headed with this? Yeah, I hope,

Speaker 2: 13:40

I hope there I have some role , um, in helping keep people healthy. And there are some pretty sure you do. Yeah . There are some things you should be going to your primary care physician or advanced practice provider. If you see a nurse practitioner or a physician assistant, there are some things you should be doing at regular intervals. People might be a little surprised that the intervals aren't what you think. And the list is a little shorter than you think. Hmm . And I wanna reiterate, go to your doctor if you're sick. What I'm talking about here is not that. Right? If you're sick and you've got whatever your symptom is, you go in, there's things ,

Speaker 3: 14:13

We have doctors and hospitals

Speaker 2: 14:14

For a reason, right ? That's , that's what they're there for. But when should you go in for just screening and when should you go in for your preventive health? Now everybody talks about the annual physical. Sure. I'm not gonna get into that in too much detail, but most things don't need to be done every year. If you are an older adult, I'd say mid forties to fifties, I do recommend that you go in every year. Okay? If for no other reason for a check-in on the four things we talked about in the first half of the show, but also for your blood pressure, checking for diabetes, cholesterol, those are important. So go to your doctor probably every year if you're of a certain age, maybe fifties. If you're younger than that, I don't know anybody of that age. You don't know anybody of that age. Yeah . One day you will, John . One day you will. But when you're younger, it maybe doesn't even need to be that often . But what should you do when you get there? That's the important thing. Now, a lot of people think you need a slew of blood tests. You need to do blood tests . Blood tests , blood tests , blood tests. And you , I mean, how else are we gonna know? Yeah, exactly. You'd be shocked at how few blood tests you really need. So I'll, let me tell you about the things that you should be considering. First of all, screenings. What should you be screened for? And a lot of people aren't real sure what that means, but screening is a test that is done in a person who does not have any symptoms. Okay ? A person who feels, well, it's looking for an illness, it's looking for a disease. And people think that there's a hundred things you should be looking for. No, there aren't <laugh>. Okay. Alright . Whittle it down. So let me whittle it down. There are a few things you should be doing. Number one, there are some cancer screenings that you should do, but this list is shorter than you think as well. If you are a person, and I just mean if you are a human person and you've hit the age of 50, you should be looking for colorectal cancer. Okay? Men, men and women. All women . And women is one of the top three cancers. And it is one of those cancers that is perfect for screening. And what do I mean by that? There's something to be done about it. If we find something. Okay ? And , and so we can reduce your risk of dying, of colorectal cancer, your colon's, your large intestine. We can reduce your risk by, by screening. So if you are 50, some groups recommend maybe 45, but the the usual one is 50. Do something. What is that something? Some people get a colonoscopy. Okay . That's sort of the most invasive one, but it's maybe the most thorough one. Others can't stand the idea of a colonoscopy and they wanna do, so you could do stool testing that's legitimate colonoscopy. If normal is only every 10 years, stool testing needs to be every year. Alright ? And so those are the differences. But colon cancer, that's the first thing I'd say. Okay. Breast cancer screening in women, usually at the age of 50. Some people recommend at the age of 40, you get a mammogram every year or two next to colon cancer. Those are the two biggest ones. Get your mammogram if you're at average risk. If you're at higher risk, your , your mom, your sister had breast cancer, then you might even get other tests like MRIs or, or genetic testing. Okay? But for sure talk to your doctor about breast cancer. That those are the two big ones. There are a few others I'm gonna touch on, but Sure . All people, those are the two. Okay . Third one, cervical cancer screening in women or, or , or people , uh, who have a cervix. And that is the pap smear that every woman of a certain age remembers doing every year. And the horrors of the stirrups and getting up in that thing. This is one of the biggest success stories of modern medicine. We have almost never heard of cervical cancer in the United States. It's very common in the rest of the world. Wow . And that's because of PAP testing. Okay. And we now know that cervical cancer is a sexually transmitted cancer. Hmm . It is caused in the vast majority of the cases by the human papilloma virus. So if you have a teenager boy or a girl or a young adult, there is a vaccine against a cancer. Wow. It is the HPV vaccine. I can't recommend it strongly enough.

Speaker 3: 18:12

And what's the age range of that vaccine?

Speaker 2: 18:14

That is for , um, pre-adolescent, up to mid, mid range adult or mid people in their mid twenties. It's a three shot series. Yep . It hurts. It doesn't hurt as much as cervical cancer. No , exactly. <laugh> . And so there's lots of ways to get your cervical cancer screening, but if you're a woman or a person with a uterus , uh, that includes transgender men, you should be getting , uh,

Speaker 3: 18:33

Pap. Gotcha. So those are the big three. What, what other cancers do people kind of need to keep on the radar?

Speaker 2: 18:37

There's two more. The one of them is lung cancer. And that is in a limited number of people. There is a CAT scan, a CT scan you can get if you are, if you meet these criteria, you're a smoker or you quit in the last 15 years, okay? You smoked at least 20 p plus years and you're between the ages of 50 and 80, you get an annual lung cancer screening. That's it. Nobody else. Okay? Um, you don't wanna get an annual CT scan and all that radiation if you don't meet those criteria. Okay.

Speaker 3: 19:05

Then the

Speaker 2: 19:06

Last one ,

Speaker 3: 19:06

It's for those who need

Speaker 2: 19:06

It, it's those who need it. And the last one's prostate cancer screening. If you are, if you have a prostate, a man or a transgender woman who has a prostate, you can think about it. There's no recommendation to actually get prostate cancer screening.

Speaker 3: 19:20

No actual guidelines. So fifties more,

Speaker 2: 19:23

I do it in men who wish to, I have a conversation with them at age 50. Why is that? Everyone says, well, why wouldn't I do that? Why wouldn't I get a prostate test?

Speaker 3: 19:31

Sure, why not? Just know. The,

Speaker 2: 19:32

The current US government recommendation is to not, not get any prostate cancer screening because on a population level, we could screen every single solitary man in this country and nobody on a population level will live longer. Gotcha . Nobody , it does not statistically change your lifespan, but the one person in front of you, it might change that one person's lifespan. So we, it's a blood test individual. You can consider

Speaker 3: 19:59

Individual . It's a blood test. Okay,

Speaker 2: 20:00

That's a blood test. So tho that's it. Those are the cancers that you should look at.

Speaker 3: 20:03

That's a lot smaller list than I thought.

Speaker 2: 20:05

Yeah. We don't have a screening test for pancreas cancer, for kidney cancer, for leukemia, for liver cancer, all the other ones. There's no test that you need to get. Okay. But that's not all. There's some other thing . Those are just the cancers. There are two blood tests, all of two that you should be getting at your doctor's visits, whether you feel healthy or not. And that is cholesterol and a test for diabetes.

Speaker 3: 20:28

Count 'em 1, 2, 1, 2.

Speaker 2: 20:30

Alright , that's it. If you are between the ages of like 20 and 50, I would get those tests every two to five years. Okay? You don't need it every year. Your cholesterol ain't gonna change that much every year. Your diabetes risk isn't gonna change that much every year if their normal, every two to five years is adequate. When you get a little bit older, sometimes people push that to a little more frequently. But those are the two blood tests, cholesterol and

Speaker 3: 20:54

Diabetes and two to five years. So if you've got a health scare in your family or something like that, maybe does that increase the frequency or are you still kind of sticking to those guidelines?

Speaker 2: 21:01

Yeah . Um , people ask all the time, I need blood tests. You gotta find what's wrong with me. The vast majority of blood tests, we, you might have a little bit something wrong with it . It doesn't meaningfully affect your health, but now you know about it. And so there's nothing to be done. So you worry about the vast majority of them. Now, isn't it true that, well, why don't you get my blood counts? You could find leukemia true in , in one out of hundreds of people. It might be possible to find those. But the, the, the overall benefit of getting routine blood tests is not there. There's no recommendation to get those blood tests. Now, if you have risk factors or you're feeling some symptoms, of course we get blood tests. Okay? But I'm talking about your annual physical, you don't need as many as you think talking

Speaker 3: 21:42

About just an average person, right .

Speaker 2: 21:44

Average person. You can not worry so much about all those things. Yeah . There are some other things. If you are , uh, a human being with

Speaker 3: 21:52

A heart , a few of those Yep . With a heart. With a heart, okay.

Speaker 2: 21:55

You need to have your blood pressure checked and you need to do that every year. Okay. That is something I would recommend almost in all people from the age of adulthood till you die, check your blood pressure at least once a year. It is probably next to smoking. The biggest modifiable risk you can do if your blood pressure is high, and I'm talking if it's higher than one 20 over 70. If it's one 30 over 80, certainly if it's one 40 over 90 or higher, you need to do something about that. Okay? High blood pressure is a major or leading or major cause of heart attacks, peripheral arterial disease, stroke, kidney disease, those are the biggest ones. Okay ? Kidney, heart, brain. That's , uh, you need to get your blood pressure

Speaker 3: 22:38

And and you're gonna want to hang onto those.

Speaker 2: 22:39

Yep . You want to hang onto to those. So every year. And then there's a few others. Women, if you're over 65, you might look for your, your , your bone health. Uh , men, if you're over 65 and you were a smoker, you can look for an aneurysm in your belly. But those are the only tests that you should probably get. There's really only those few cancers. Your blood pressure, couple of blood tests, you're good to go.

Speaker 3: 22:59

Keep an eye on a few things and otherwise take care of yourself.

Speaker 2: 23:02

That's right. That's right. I would refer you back to the first half of the show for everything else you should be doing. Okay. I didn't, I didn't call out vaccinations. Right . They're in the news a lot. They are vaccinations are in the news a lot. Yeah . And, and I do wanna be crystal clear with people that vaccinations are probably more important than almost anything else I've talked about in this second half of the show. For me, it almost goes without saying. But that is not the case in our world. We are gonna see polio again. We're gonna see whooping cough is currently in an outbreak in the state of Minnesota. Whooping cough is something that we should never talk about. It should be gone polio for heaven's sakes. Ask anybody of a certain age what polios like, and then tell them you're not gonna get the polio vaccine. And look at the reaction on their face. <laugh>, <laugh> . So there's other vaccines you should get as an adult. Sure. Shingles, pneumonia, flu, covid . You should get those at certain stages of your life. Ask your doctor about the right time to get those.

Speaker 3: 24:03

Gotcha . Okay. Yeah. And the shingles vaccine, we've talked about it on the show. It doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun, but neither is the shingles.

Speaker 2: 24:08

No, the shingles are , are not much fun. I I can mention that one a little bit. When you're 50, it's a two shot series. The shingles vaccine is highly effective. The one we had 10 years ago wasn't, I wrote prescriptions for it. We gave it to people. It worked half the time. It was pretty , pretty good. The current one is great. It's really good. Okay. And,

Speaker 3: 24:25

And when a doctor says, great, yes , that's a heck of an endorsement. Yep .

Speaker 2: 24:27

I'll never say anything's a miracle, but it , uh, it really is effective. And you don't wanna get the shingles. And many of us will get shingles when you get older. The shingles are a bummer. But what's not a bummer, but a real, it can be catastrophically bad is to have pain for the rest of your life.

Speaker 3: 24:44

You may not wanna live to be 100,

Speaker 2: 24:45

You know , well then you're not gonna wanna live to be a hundred. So I would strongly consider getting the shingles

Speaker 3: 24:49

Vaccines. Okay. Noted. Um ,

Speaker 2: 24:51

So I think that those are the things you should do at your doctor's office. I, I probably should mention that your mental health is, is equally as important. So you should get screened for depression. Yeah . Talk to your, your clinician about depression. Talk to your clinician about substance use, particularly alcohol.

Speaker 3: 25:08

We just did a show

Speaker 2: 25:09

On that and we just did a show with Dr. Resnikoff couple weeks ago on alcohol. I strongly encourage you to listen to that episode because it is probably the largest misused drug in our world. Sure. And we don't think of it that way because it's complicated, but , um, at risk drinking is a big deal. Alcohol misuse and substance use disorders are a big deal. So you should talk about those.

Speaker 3: 25:32

And again, mental health. Yeah. It's, you know , thankfully it's a conversation we're having a lot more these days, but , uh, I suppose we could add that to our list of things you might be able to be agreed kinda a , a aware of and proactive with.

Speaker 2: 25:41

Agreed. John ? I actually think it's one of the more important things to talk about with your doctor if they don't ask you. Uh, they should Yeah. At , at your physical, hopefully a nurse or whoever put you in the room or your, your clinician, your doctor, whoever that is, asks you a couple of screening questions about your mood.

Speaker 3: 25:58

Yeah. You know, maybe that's just as important as any blood test right

Speaker 2: 26:01

There. As important . I would say that that is way more important than most of the blood tests is some of these things that we're talking about. Alcohol, your mood, your blood pressure is infinitely more important than any blood test , daily

Speaker 3: 26:11

Pieces of the puzzle that don't have a pretty big impact. So we've covered a lot already, but I'm , I'm imagining there's a few other things in the orbit that might kind of, you know, pertain to this conversation. Anything else? Kind of just raised to the top for you?

Speaker 2: 26:23

So I always tell people what else should I worry about? Nothing. My answer is nothing. Nothing. And, and I know that's a little tongue and cheek. Sure. Obviously , obviously there's

Speaker 3: 26:30

Some comic in there.

Speaker 2: 26:31

Yeah, exactly. Um, but what I mean by that is, in order to live to be a hundred, if we want to live to be a hundred, it better be fun. It better be enjoyable. Okay . It better be worth it. Right. And so I tell people what is more important than anything else that we haven't talked about is social connections, avoiding loneliness, attending to things in your family, spending time with each other, doing things that you enjoy. Maybe you are somebody who doesn't wanna spend time with all that many people and you never get a free minute. Well, you should relax and get a few free minutes to yourself. Do the things that you enjoy in life. Reduce your stress, avoid loneliness. Do human connections. Those are the things that you should be attending to. If, if you're worried about a hundred blood tests or you worried that you didn't get an x-ray of something, I would suggest don't worry about those things. Enjoy your life. Attend to your mental health. Have a healthy relationship with alcohol and substances, and mostly make connections in your family that are meaningful to you or with your friends that are meaningful to you. And don't worry about anything else.

Speaker 3: 27:38

Yeah. So worrying is pretty much useless in general,

Speaker 2: 27:40

But I think so worry is sort of a , a wasted , uh, emotion. I know it's normal. Sure It's normal. Try not

Speaker 3: 27:47

Worrying. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 27:48

But I get people coming and they want everything under the sun. Well, are you gonna get an MRI of my brain? I go, no. Why would I do that? <laugh> . Right. You're worried about things that haven't come to pass and you're overly relying on technology to relieve your worries. There was a study done about physicians one time and it says, well, what things would you get done? And most doctors, that's nothing. Don't order anything else on me. And I have a personal story with that. So our hospital bought a new MRI machine about six years ago and we built a new building, built it around this MRI machine. And they needed to practice, you know, you gotta practice, right ? We gotta turn the thing on and Yeah , exactly. Let's see if it works. Take it around the block a few times. So they asked a bunch of us doctors to be the, the Guinea pigs , I think is the word. Right . Get Guinea pigs, get an MRI done. And they were having trouble finding a doctor who wanted a free head to toe. Wow . MR mri . Most ev I remember my friend said, oh no, I do not want that. And so, so I did it .

Speaker 3: 28:44

Is it just the amount of information that comes from these things? Yes . Or, or , because Okay. That's the concern. I wasn't

Speaker 2: 28:49

Worried about anything in my body. Sure . Now you did this. MRI you found a little dizel that has a dizel is the proper medical term.

Speaker 3: 28:57

I , I , I was gonna say, could you break that one down? For, for , for us,

Speaker 2: 29:00

A dizel is something that <laugh> they found on there that means nothing. It might be a little cyst in your liver. Okay. Or a cyst in your kidney. You would've lived a long life to a hundred years old , never known about that little dizel. And you would've been happy as a clam. Now that's keeping you up at night. Now you know about it . And go, oh my gosh, I got this . Its over . I got this dizel in my liver, now what am I gonna do? <laugh> . So you're gonna get an MRI every year. You're gonna worry about this thing. You

Speaker 3: 29:22

Wear the dizel.

Speaker 2: 29:23

So I absolutely , um, thought about that, but I did it. Okay. I, and then I remember the chief of radiologist , he did head to toe, MRI , me, head to toe from the top hair on my head to my toenail. And I come out of the thing and the , the chief of radiology is standing there with this look on his face. And I said, don't you give me that look on your face. What did you ? And then he comes and says, it all looks good. But, but that, that's , it's illustrative . It's illustrative that physicians generally don't wanna look for things that weren't gonna be a problem and for which there was nothing you could do about it anyway.

Speaker 3: 29:54

Right. And we kind of have that line, don't pick up a happy baby.

Speaker 2: 29:57

Exactly. That's a great line. I'm gonna use that one. John . Don't pick up a happy baby. Yeah. In the population. Everybody's gonna have a little bit of an abnormal test on something. Sure . And so it, it , that's, that's kind of the , the idea behind, don't worry about

Speaker 3: 30:09

Everything. We'll try, you know, I , I think it's always easier said than done, but at the same time, again, it's like a lot of these things, these are goals. These are the objectives that we're gonna try to follow.

Speaker 2: 30:17

That's what I would leave people with is 10 to those four areas of your life. Get a few things done in your physicals at whatever interval feels comfortable to you. And then don't worry about everything

Speaker 3: 30:27

Else. Fantastic. We are gonna take that into the new year. Well, thanks for the time again, doc. Uh, and again, this is kind of an interesting way to do the show where you are the guest Of course. Uh, and we're off to a good start here with these. So hopefully we'll do another one down the road. Thanks

Speaker 2: 30:40

For doing it with me, John , and happy New year to everybody and thanks for listening to the podcast.

Speaker 3: 30:44

Thanks again, doc. And thanks again listeners for tuning in. We will be back in two weeks and I've been waiting a long time to say this. In the meantime, be healthy and be well.

Speaker 1: 30:54

Thanks for listening to the Healthy Matters podcast with Dr. David Hilden . To find out more about the Healthy Matters podcast or browse the archive, visit healthy matters.org. Got a question or a comment for the show, email us at Healthy matters@hcme.org or call 6 1 2 8 7 3 talk. There's also a link in the show notes. The Healthy Matters Podcast is made possible by Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and engineered and produced by John Lucas At highball Executive producers are Jonathan, CTO 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 physician if you have a more serious or pressing health concern. Until next time, be healthy and be well .