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Our latest episode of ‘Rush to Reason’ offers vital insights into health and financial wellness. John Rush, with guest Al Smith, navigates the importance of planning for unforeseen events and highlights how solid financial foundations can alleviate stress and improve well-being. Dive into engaging discussions on Alzheimer’s awareness, the hidden pressures faced by caregivers, and protecting your family legacy through thoughtful retirement planning. Be informed about timeshare frauds affecting thousands and find robust solutions for safeguarding your finances and health.
SPEAKER 09 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 11 :
You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you’re scared. And you’re scared because if you try and fail, there’s only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it.
SPEAKER 09 :
There are no magical fixes. With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 18 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did. Get a job first. You haven’t made everybody equal. You’ve made them the same, and there’s a big difference.
SPEAKER 17 :
Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
SPEAKER 07 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 08 :
It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 05 :
I am Hans. And I am Franz. And we just want to pop you off.
SPEAKER 09 :
Welcome to Health and Wellness Wednesdays on Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 17 :
Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, sir.
SPEAKER 11 :
I have what doctors call a little bit of a weight problem. I used to grab bear claws as a kid, two at a time, and I’d get them lodged right in this region here.
SPEAKER 14 :
Exorcist gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands.
SPEAKER 02 :
Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place, and I don’t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.
SPEAKER 07 :
I’m sorry that I’m fat.
SPEAKER 06 :
And it’s Health and Wellness Wednesday. Welcome, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Myself and, of course, Al Smith with me today. He stayed around after his program, which is here from 2 to 2.30 each Wednesday. So, Al, how are you?
SPEAKER 19 :
I’m very well. How are you, John?
SPEAKER 06 :
I’m doing great. All right, question of the day since Al’s here. Yesterday’s was each king in a deck of cards represents a king from history. What does the spades card represent? So king of spades was actually King David, which I did not know. Did you have any idea of that, Al?
SPEAKER 19 :
I did not know that.
SPEAKER 06 :
Charlie didn’t know either.
SPEAKER 19 :
I’m unaware of that.
SPEAKER 06 :
I had no idea. So that’s the answer to yesterday’s impossible question. Today’s is what percent… of homeowners not john rush what percent of homeowners believe there’s a direct link between their homes tidiness and their well-being so what percent of homeowners believe there’s a direct link between their homes tidiness and their well-being want to take a percentage guess al
SPEAKER 19 :
Boy, I think when people live in an environment where things are in order and tidy and neat, it kind of gives them a good feeling. I’d say maybe 60%. Okay.
SPEAKER 06 :
Charlie, thoughts? Charlie said 60. They’re both low. So there’s a hint for you on the impossible question of the day. They’re both low. Good answer, by the way, but both are low. And they actually did a survey of a couple of thousand American homeowners on this. This wasn’t a small – I mean, they didn’t do millions, but they did a pretty good sampling of people to determine that. At any rate, you might have your own feelings on that. I am one where the tidier, the better, because I’m that guy. Charlie already knows that. So I’m usually in here on either Saturdays or any more. Now it’s Mondays because of the weekends are heavy with people in here and so on. But Monday mornings or Mondays before I go on air, I clean the whole studio and get everything all tidied up and wiped down and handled because it’s just who I am, Al.
SPEAKER 19 :
If somebody has to have a flaw, that’s a good flaw to have.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah. I don’t know about those that are around me if they would agree with you on that. All right. So, Al, speaking of your family and all those things, when it comes to being financially sound and making sure that you can, you know, not only prepare for retirement, but, you know, have a plan. And I say it on air a lot when I talk about you, you know. making that plan, sticking to it, being held accountable, and then actually getting there. And I know for every person that’s a little bit different. Nothing is, you know, 100%, but you do your best to have a plan and then work the plan and try to get to that stage in life to where you’re at least financially secure. What you decide to do, whether you want to retire or not, is completely up to that person, but at least they have options.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, absolutely. And I talk about unforeseen events. And an unforeseen event might be your daughter gets a divorce and has to move back in for a little while.
SPEAKER 06 :
True.
SPEAKER 19 :
But when people think about long-term care, which is what I talked about with my guest, he had a grandmother who spent 10 years in a nursing home. Wow.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s a long time, Al.
SPEAKER 19 :
And a mother who spent six and a half years, and they both had real estate, one of which was a special property on the Jersey Shore where those properties are now worth like $2 million that had to be sold and go to Medicaid. But those aren’t necessarily unforeseen events. Well, that long probably, but 40% of people who reach age 65 will need care otherwise. for 90 days or longer and about half of those that may last a couple of years.
SPEAKER 06 :
And for those of you that maybe don’t know what that cost is like, here’s what I would suggest that some of you do. And this is really easy. Some of it is out there on the Internet. On some cases, you need to kind of do this on a regional basis because costs will vary depending upon what part of the country you’re in, state you’re in, and even the area of the state that you’re in. And by the way, then there’s a difference in the quality of the product place that you may want to have long-term care in what i mean by that is it’s sort of like i’m sorry to say it this way but really this is a good comparison you can go out from the ritz carlton to the motel six
SPEAKER 19 :
Yes, you can. And in the case of care, memory care is probably the most expensive because they have a very high ratio of workers to the residents there.
SPEAKER 06 :
And it’s constant care. It’s 24-7 care.
SPEAKER 19 :
Oh, absolutely. And the gentleman I just referred to who had a mother and a grandmother, they both were in memory care. So the option of having care at home really wasn’t there.
SPEAKER 06 :
It’s really hard to do. For those of you that think, oh, no matter what, I’ll just make sure that we care for so-and-so. And I’m glad you brought that up, Al, because it’s not as easy as it might seem or as it might look. And unless you’ve got – and I mean this sincerely, folks – Unless you’ve got multiple people in the family that are willing to help with the 24-7 care, Al, it’s not for the faint of heart, nor is it for one or two people to handle.
SPEAKER 19 :
No, it certainly isn’t. Sometimes providing care for someone at home is doable if maybe there’s care during the day and you only have to provide it for a limited period. But a lot of the folks who are caregivers end up with their own health sufferings.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s right. No, and in a lot of cases, and there’s support for those of you listening to this, something I don’t think we’ve ever talked about this, Alan. I’m glad you brought this topic up because for some of you listening where you may be the caregiver and maybe your family member, your spouse, your dad, your mom, or whatever the case may be, grandparents even, maybe they’re not quite ready for full assisted living, but they’re getting close. There are support groups available. For a lot of you that are in that particular area, and you may not know that those exist, but they do, and there are support groups whereby you can go and basically, Al, you can realize that I’m not the only one out here doing this because as a caregiver, it can sometimes get extremely lonely and they feel like I’m the only one doing this. You’re not, but you need to be around other people that can help you with that as well.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, you’re absolutely right. And I talk about finding your purpose in retirement if you’re looking for a way to volunteer and help someone out. If you know someone who’s a full-time caregiver, tell them, why don’t you take the night off and I’ll watch your dad? Or why don’t you take Saturday morning off and go out for breakfast with your son or your daughter and I’ll watch your dad here for you for a while.
SPEAKER 06 :
Great idea, Al. I appreciate you saying that and suggesting that because those of you listening, that would be a huge help to those particular individuals. Now, back to the money sides of things, Al, because I know what the costs are. They’re extremely high. And as Al was stating, this is the other thing people think. Well, you know, we’ll let Medicaid or, you know, we’ll deal with this when it comes, you know, along those lines. And the problem that folks don’t realize, Al, is even on the Medicaid sides of things, there’s a lot of stipulations that have to be done asset depletion-wise before that person is actually entitled to anything on the Medicaid end of things. If you’re thinking as a family you’re going to have some inheritance, think again because it’s liable to all be spent because they’ll make you spend all of that down before Medicaid is even applicable.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, not only will they do that, but while this person still has some assets remaining, you’ll end up filling out paperwork constantly documenting the financial resources of this person. And those assets have to get down to about $2,000. And if there’s a non… Medicaid person in the home, he or she’s only entitled to about $22,000 a year of income. The balance of the income needs to go to Medicaid. So there’s a lot of hoops to jump through.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s right. Point being, you want to do your best to not be in that particular position. This is where Al comes into play and make sure that you’ve planned ahead as much as you possibly can. And as Al said, I know you can’t plan for every little thing that would come along. But I So that need that what if I should say needs to be a part of the strategy when it comes to what you’re doing and saving for in retirement.
SPEAKER 19 :
You’re absolutely right, John. The more planning you do, I’ve never met someone and sat down with them and told them you’ve done too much planning for retirement.
SPEAKER 06 :
No, because there’s always those unknowns that can creep up. And you know what? You could be extremely healthy. Your spouse even could be extremely healthy. And we’re going to talk about this in the next segment when it comes to Alzheimer’s and some things along those lines. And I’ve got a guest joining us at 3.30. You know, folks, things can come up. In fact, there’s a lot of Alzheimer’s patients where health-wise, physically speaking, Al, they’re great. Their body is doing fantastic. They don’t have any ailments. They’re not on any kind of medications other than this now brain disorder they have called Alzheimer’s.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, you’re exactly right on that. And I’ve had people tell me, well, I don’t need long-term care because I’m healthy. Well, those are the people who will live into their 90s and are more likely to need long-term care than someone who is on dialysis and has diabetes. If they go into a nursing home, they’re only going to be there 60, 90 days, whereas the really healthy folks, if their mental capacity diminishes, they may spend the last few years of their life. Memory care.
SPEAKER 06 :
You’re exactly right. Al, how do folks reach you?
SPEAKER 19 :
You can reach me at 303-744-1128. And I encourage everyone to go to Western Welcome Week in downtown Littleton, where I will have a booth. We’re giving away a lot of stuff. There’ll be games, and there’s a tremendous parade. Littleton’s been doing this for about 80 years. It’s a lot of fun. Music, food, entertainment.
SPEAKER 06 :
Awesome. Al, as always, I sure appreciate you being on with us. Thanks for what you do to support us. I mean that sincerely, and our listeners as well. So thank you very much. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER 19 :
Thank you for having me, John. I genuinely appreciate it.
SPEAKER 06 :
As always, we appreciate it. Golden Eagle Financial, that’s Al Smith. You can find him also at klzradio.com. All right, veteran windows and doors. Great deals right now, 35% off 1-3 windows, 40% off 4-7, and 45% off 8 or more. And how can Dave do that so cheap? Occasionally I’ll get that question. There’s no middleman. Dave is doing all of this on his own. There is not a huge staff that’s out there running around that he has to pay for, so he’s able to cut that middleman out, have low overhead, and pass that on to you. Find him at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 09 :
Listen online, klzradio.com. Back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 06 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Health and Wellness Wednesday. Thanks for joining in. I appreciate Al joining us as well. Golden Eagle Financial talking about that long-term care that is very much a part of Health and Wellness Wednesday. A, how to avoid that, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. It’s just a part of what’s going to happen in some of the lives of those of you that are out there listening right now. I’m sorry to say that, but this will affect a lot. I’ve talked about this here of late, Alzheimer’s in and of itself, I believe one in four, one in four people will know someone that has Alzheimer’s. So it’s very much affecting our population, not just here in America, but other places as well. All right, one thing I want to slip in. And I haven’t talked about this, I don’t think, ever. I look at this as being health and wellness because it involves the financial end of things, which, as Al is on with us, very much a part of our health and wellness. Because when things are not going well financially, in a lot of cases because of the stress that’s created from that, it affects our overall health. So the better off things are financially, the better off our health is, and that’s just the way things work. It goes hand in hand. So this was an article out of Fox News today. Treasury sanctions – This is our Treasury Department. They’re sanctioning brutally violent cartels, or a cartel in this case, but I think it’s going on in more than one place. For timeshare fraud in tourist destinations, they’re warning Americans. This particular scheme since 2019 has lost nearly $300 million on Americans that have fell victim to timeshare fraud. So the Treasury Department has sanctioned a network of individuals linked to a brutally violent cartel for hundreds of millions of dollars of timeshare fraud. A lot of this, all of this in this case, coming out of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I will tell you that I think it’s more widespread than that. Don’t be surprised if you don’t see the Treasury Department finding more and more of this outside of even that area. But here’s what I’m going to tell people that are listening. If you’ve got a timeshare period. and you’re getting older to the point where you no longer use it, you don’t want to mess with it anymore, what will happen is even if you’re an owner of one that’s using it, you will get text messages, emails, and phone calls from people that will offer, keyword there, offer to help you exit that timeshare. Now, in doing so, there’s always an upfront fee, and that’s where they’re scamming you. They’re going to give you an upfront fee. Now, I will tell you that when it comes to timeshares, there’s lots of ways to get out of them, and you don’t have to typically hire anybody to help you get out of it. In a lot of cases, it’s simply a matter of going through your own paperwork and figuring out what some of those details are. And last but not least, I’ll just tell you this straight up. If you own a timeshare, And it’s paid for. So if it’s completely paid for, a lot of timeshares are sold on credit. It’s just the way they’re done. And for those of you listening, you’re shaking your head. But, yes, that’s how they’re done. But if you’ve got a timeshare that’s completely paid for and you want to exit it, exit. Stop paying your maintenance fees and be done with it. They’ll send you all kinds of nasty letters telling you that they’re going to come after you and it’s going to affect your credit and this, that, and the other, none of which is true, by the way. That’s all a lie. It will not. You can exit, stop paying the maintenance fees, be done with it. You’re going to lose your rights to go stay in those resorts, of course, because you’ll no longer be a member of said timeshare. But at the end of the day, they’re not going to come after you for anything because they can’t. Now, they can come after your credit if you’ve got a loan with them and you choose to not pay the loan. That’s a different scenario because that’s on the credit end of things and you’ve agreed to pay. That’s different. But if you’ve got a timeshare all paid up and you decide you want to exit and you’re just done with it from that point on, you can just stop paying your maintenance fees, your annual fees that that timeshare has associated with it. And at the end of the day, you’re done. And you don’t have to hire anybody to help you with what I just said. Just stop paying them. And yes, they will send you all sorts of nasty things threatening you, and they’re going to do this, and they’re going to do that, and this is going to affect your credit, and blah, blah, blah. And people get scared thinking that that will happen. It won’t. Trust me, it won’t. I’m telling you this on full authority that no, it won’t. If it’s paid for… Yeah. Those of you that are in that predicament, don’t listen to any of the folks that send you anything. You’ll get text messages, emails, phone calls, voicemails, and so on. Don’t listen. Don’t respond. Don’t call back. Don’t answer the phone. Don’t respond to the text message. Delete, delete, delete, delete, delete, and don’t worry about it. And if you want to exit because it’s something that you want to do and get out of, then exit. All you have to do. So unfortunately, this particular organization, because they know everything I just said, they target elderly individuals that are scared to do the things that I just mentioned a moment ago. They offer to get you out of that timeshare. People will spend money on doing that, and at the end of the day, it’s nothing but one big, huge scam. Now, one of the other things that happens is when you go to other countries and go to presentations and so on, they will make it seem like you have to buy, you have to get roped in, do different things. Bottom line is, no, you don’t, and I would tell you straight up, no. If you’re interested in doing anything on a timeshare, A, reach out to me first before you do anything. There’s only certain places that I think have any kind of value when it comes to doing things along those lines. And no, those are not the foreign entities that you go to, Mexico and others. I would never buy anything in Mexico on a timeshare basis, period. Sorry, those of you that are listening that are in Mexico and may be following me there and so on. Sorry, I would not buy a timeshare anywhere, period. And I’d be very careful what you buy, period. period anymore just because of the deals and things that are out there you don’t typically have to have one now if you have one and you use it and you get your value out of it then you know what so be it you know who you are uh good for you unfortunately you’re one of the minority because most people don’t use them the way they should be and they don’t get their full value. But this is a scam that’s been going on. Our Treasury Department is actually sanctioning a network of a particular cartel right now. So you know this is a big deal if they’ve gotten involved. So point being, just watch who emails you, who texts you, who calls you. And a lot of times they’ll do it in such a way where it sounds like it’s this deal that can’t be, you know, you just can’t refuse this deal that we’re offering you. You can. It’s called the delete button. Just delete, trash can it, move on. And don’t worry about it. And that’s my advice there. All right. One other thing, just in talking about Alzheimer’s a little bit earlier with Al Smith, is this is something that has just come up of late. And there’s going to be more studies that will be done on this. And a lot of folks right now are trying to figure out how do we fend off or even stop dementia Alzheimer’s. How do we even improve the cognitive ends of things when it comes to Alzheimer’s patients? So there’s a pilot study out of Kansas University right now, University of Kansas, I should say, that is looking at creatine supplements. and that helping people that have dementia and cognitive decline and difficulties along those lines. So they’re showing that creatine may actually help in that particular ends of things. So if that’s something that you’re aware of, maybe you’ve got some family history of it and it’s something you want to try, I would highly suggest you look at the study coming out of KU Medical Center. I’ll put this in our notes where you can look at that a little bit later. All right, before we go to break, Joe, what’s going on?
SPEAKER 03 :
John, two quick scams. One on Facebook. I see every week scams where they’re offering to sell you a roll of 100 U.S. postage stamps for $29 instead of $78. And it’s one of two things, by the way. There’s a huge, the Chinese, there’s a huge, if you’ll watch the show Contraband, they’re shipping in thousands of rolls of counterfeit stamps. I asked the post office today how often they see them and can you catch them. They say, yes, we see them when we catch them. Post office doesn’t discount stamps, so if you see somebody offering to sell you a roll of 78 stamps for 20, they’re either fake counterfeit stamps or they just want your credit card number. The second thing where they only want your credit card number, Carhartt, I see these ads for like Carhartt T-shirts, pocket T-shirts, 10 shirts for $18. John, those are $11 shirts. All they want is your credit card number.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right, and you’ll be lucky to ever see a shirt, by the way.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, you won’t see a shirt. I mean, if you see… You know, 10 Carhartt shirts, T-shirts, pocket T-shirts for $18. It’s a scam. Just go online and look at the real price of them. And it could be I’ve seen them for ammunition. I’ve seen them for shirts. I’ve seen them for shorts. You know, it’s just when you see these too-good-to-be-true offers, they are too good to be true. Yep.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s a great way to say it. If it looks too good to be true, it is.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yep. So anyway, if you see these ridiculous discount things on Facebook, And by the way, they have this huge collection. They’ll have 15, 20, 25 fake comments. Yes, I ordered two of these. They were great. The same thing with the Amazon return pallet sale. They offer to sell you a pallet full of Amazon returns for $49. Amazon doesn’t do pallet returns. But again, you’ll see all these great reviews. All the reviews are fake. In fact, you’ll see the same reviews online. on a different ad by a different company three days later. The exact same people, the exact same comments.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yep, you’re exactly right. All right, all I got, John. All right, Joe, thank you very much. I appreciate it. And those of you listening on the streaming side of things, yes, I know we have some issues right now. Numerous ones of you have told us, Charlie and I do not control that in this studio. I’ll pass that message along, but we do not control that here in the studio. But we will go ahead and pass that along. So those of you that are trying to listen to us online and are struggling, um i’m i really am sorry i apologize but that’s out of charlie and i’s hands we’ll do our best to see what we can do to try to get the right people involved but that is not uh anything that charlie and i have to do unfortunately ridgeline auto brokers coming up next when it comes to buying and selling by the way a car they can help you on both fronts meaning if you’ve got a car you want to sell you’re done you’re going to downsize you maybe you’ve got a uh We talked about elderly parents a moment ago with Al Smith. Maybe he’s got a car you need to get rid of. Ridgeline can help you with that. Maybe you’re looking to trade up, trade down. They can help you with all of that very easily. Just give them a call today. Go to RidgelineAutoBrokers.com.
SPEAKER 08 :
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SPEAKER 06 :
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SPEAKER 15 :
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SPEAKER 16 :
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SPEAKER 09 :
This isn’t rage radio. This is real, relatable radio. Back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 06 :
And we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. This Health and Wellness Wednesday segment. Dr. Amit Kumar joining us. Welcome, Dr. Amit. How are you? I’m fine, thanks. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Founder of EmbraceHealth.ai, and the question, and I even promo’d this the other day, are we mistaking convenience for care when it comes to telehealth and all the things that go on there?
SPEAKER 05 :
You know, I think you have to be careful. I think the public in general gets a lot of mixed messages, and we live in an era where in a time where almost anything can be purchased online, even prescription medication. True. But the fact is your health isn’t really something that can be fixed with just a one-click checkout. There’s too many telehealth platforms or digital health companies that just encourage the usage of medication. You know, and they’re just pill pushers. And so that’s kind of like thinking that a bandage can fix a broken leg, which is the wrong approach.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay, I think one of the questions a lot of us have, myself included, and I actually, knowing you were coming on, I never went through and actually did a full prescription, but I tried the basic process of getting, I don’t know, X, Y, Z. I just went ahead and went through a process to see, okay, can I get said drug? And I’ll be straight up honest. Some of the questions that they were asking, they don’t know me from Adam. They don’t know if I answered them correctly, didn’t answer them correctly. But at the end of the day, if I wanted to complete my order, Dr. Ahmed, I very easily could have completed my order, and they don’t know me at all.
SPEAKER 05 :
You know, it’s just like going to a doctor’s office, a brick-and-mortar office. I’m a licensed dental surgeon by trade in the state of Illinois. And so when a patient comes to our office, we always start by handing them the paperwork to fill out, which includes a questionnaire, medical history. any medications that they’re on, including any allergies that they might have, et cetera, et cetera. And then we ask them for their driver’s license to make sure they are who they say they are. And so after we collect that information, they usually have an exam of some sort where we ask questions back and forth between the provider and the patient. And it’s part of the data collection process. So that is standard routine, standard of care in every doctor-patient encounter within the office. So a virtual visit kind of mimics the same thing, where the doctor relies on the patient to fill out a questionnaire, provide proof of ID, submit that questionnaire online, which is then reviewed by a physician. And then the physician can either make a determination if the patient is a good candidate for the medication or if they’re not a good candidate for medication. Certain states require a virtual face-to-face interaction, whereas other states might accept what’s called an asynchronous visit, where the doctor simply receives the answers to the questions. So you’re right in the fact that anyone can go online and fill out a questionnaire. However, a good telehealth company will have a group of doctors working that actually vet that patient out, and in some cases might actually deny that patient the medication they’re requesting or change the dosage that they’re requesting.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay. What about, though, that patient whereby they’re drug shopping? Maybe that’s the best way to say it, Dr. Ahmed. I mean, we know what happened with the opioid crisis and so on, and I’m not saying that some of those drugs are still sold that way. But let’s face it, there are some where you definitely could abuse, you know, because, no offense, what keeps you from going to – you know, telehealth provider A and then B and then C and getting all the same prescription because to my knowledge, unless I’m wrong on this, Dr. Ahmet, how does provider A, B or C know that A, B and C isn’t already filling them?
SPEAKER 05 :
You know, it’s a good question. The same thing happens in routine care within the office. If a patient goes to pharmacy A versus pharmacy B, sometimes, you know, the first pharmacy isn’t alerted. So patients start stockpiling on medication. In this case, you’re trusting the patient, or in this case the customer, virtual customer, to want to really control their health and hopefully not resell medication that was prescribed specifically for them. There’s a certain degree of personalization that should happen within an office setting as well as virtually.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay. And by the way, good to know, because, again, I think there’s a lot of folks like myself that have no clue how this space really works. I’ll be straight up. I personally have never done anything, you know, over the Internet. I mean, I do a lot of things on the Internet. I am one of those doctors. Where if I can do it online because of the convenience factor and not having to go to brick and mortar, nothing is brick and mortars. I ran those types of stores in my own world for three decades. I’m not against them at all. They serve a great purpose. I’m not in any way, shape or form telling people that they shouldn’t go there. But for me personally, I have a busy life. I’ve got a lot going on. I have four radio shows plus the other things I do. Reality is I got a lot to do, and if I can save some time by doing something online that I already know that I need and I don’t need to shop for it and all of that, you know, shoes are kind of tough that way. But outside of shoes, it’s pretty easy for me to buy things online. So I’m not against it, but I’ve always wondered in this particular space, how do they keep the checks and balances in place?
SPEAKER 05 :
You know, it’s a great, great insight and kudos to you for being very busy. And as you said, convenience certainly matters, but quality matters too. And the reason I started embracehealth.ai is because we provide more tools and personalization to support a patient outside of just a telehealth visit. So if you go to our website, you’ll be able to see that we offer at-home lab test kits. So, you know, we provide tools to help monitor your fitness or weight loss journey. I don’t feel personally, you know, being a doctor, that I would feel comfortable just pushing pills or injections to a patient without being able to monitor them, frankly. And as a patient myself, you know, I find a lot of value in being able to go to one site, get my labs done, you know, get the proper prescriptions based on an actual physician’s reviewing my health history form, and then follow up with some of our tools, our 3D body scanning technology that you can check your BMI from the convenience of your own phone and compare one month over the other month.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay, so here’s a question. And you guys have a great website, by the way, and I went there and looked at everything and appreciate what you guys are doing. And I’m just, I guess, throwing questions out that I think a lot of other people have that don’t really understand how all of this works. So the other question I have is, how do I know you’re a good one? We know that just from your being here. I’m interviewing you. We’re having this conversation. But how do we know the good ones from the bad ones?
SPEAKER 05 :
It’s really hard, I mean, to be honest with you. They’re popping up all over the place. And there are companies out there that help prop up these storefronts, if you will. And they’re focused on the gold rush of all the media attention focusing on weight loss. And it’s really hard. So there are certain checks and balances you can look for. There’s third-party companies that will certify a company to be legitimate. I personally, you can go to the terms of service page of a lot of these companies, their websites, and see where their pharmacies are located. So a lot of the biggest players in the space are now getting their medications from offshore. The reason is, you know, the margins are much larger for them. Some of these companies are, you know, backed by venture capitalists, private equity groups. and are even publicly traded on the stock exchange. So, you know, their probably goal is to enhance shareholder value and, you know, maybe not be so concerned with, you know, the final outcomes of a particular customer. It’s a volume game for them. So, you know, so the consumer should be aware of where the medications are coming from. Are they coming from you know, a domestic source, or are they coming from offshore? And I’m not poo-pooing offshore medications.
SPEAKER 06 :
No, no, no, I hear you, because I fully have got some other doctors I’ve interviewed over the years, and yeah, it’s not all bad, but, and this is where you’re the expert, we are not, you have to know, is that a good source or not?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I agree. I mean, you know, our pharmacy partners and our lab partners are clearly listed on our website as So whether or not others want to be that transparent or not, if they’re not, as a consumer, I would wonder why. Makes sense. And you have a lot of other options these days. So I would not necessarily go to the cheapest provider. We believe in pricing transparency on our site. A lot of the other initial websites never really showed you what you were going to be charged until you were done filling out your questionnaire and uploading your driver’s license. So I believe… You know, like I said, convenience matters, quality matters, but transparency is equally important. And, you know, the fact is those that are not providing diagnostic tools or personalization or support tools such as, you know, meal planning like we do in our case are really just providing a small segment of of what’s needed in order to really help that customer or patient achieve their goals.
SPEAKER 06 :
Makes sense. No, and you do. You have your pharmacies, for those of you listening. One is in Texas. The other is in Illinois. They’re right here on your website, which, again, I’m learning. Dr. Amit, because I did not know that was the place to look, number one. I didn’t know that some folks would actually even list that. So I’m learning today from you because I had no idea that was one of the checks and balances. So thank you. I’m sure there’s folks out there listening saying the exact same thing. And it matters because there’s a lot of folks that, you know, for example, Dr. Amit, on the hormonal treatment, there’s a lot of folks out there, as you know, that are looking to do things along the lines of whether it be losing weight, whether it be tea treatments, whether it be hair growth, which I know you guys specialize in, or anything else along those lines. There’s a lot of folks out there that I think And again, maybe I’m wrong in this, but I think because of either not wanting to talk to their own doctor because it might be embarrassing in some cases, or they might feel judged by said doctor, or they might not feel that that doctor, because of the insurance world and how things work there, they may not feel they can get enough time with that doctor. They then go to the Internet. Am I correct?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, you’re absolutely correct. I mean, you know, we’re dealing with some very sensitive topics. You know, the fact is, You know, there’s a whole group of individuals that are suffering in silence, and they don’t want to have to face somebody and tell them about their, say, sexual dysfunction or their hair loss or, you know, how they feel about wearing around extra weight. So, you know, there’s a lot of value in being able to enable them to finally have an outlet to talk to somebody, I don’t want to say anonymously, but they don’t have that face-to-face interaction.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I agree with you. It’s not anonymous, but it’s not your regular medical practitioner that you’re going to go see on a routine basis. That’s probably the best way to say that, right? It’s not anonymous, but they’re not seeing you face-to-face on a routine basis.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. And, you know, I completely advocate everybody have their own personal primary care physician locally, you know, that’s convenient for them to go to. Maybe they don’t want to talk about, you know, some of these conditions that they’re suffering from. Maybe the community that they reside in is small enough where they don’t want the word to get out, so on and so forth. So virtual care definitely plays a very strong role and it became more prominent during the pandemic. obviously, when the media was talking about virtual care and remote monitoring.
SPEAKER 06 :
But, you know, just for example, let’s say somebody wants to, you know, regrow hair. That’s another topic where, you know, their own, and maybe I’m wrong in this because luckily I don’t have, that’s one thing I don’t have an issue with, Dr. Ahmed. I mean, I can always lose a few pounds and do some other things along those lines, but fortunately I can grow hair still. So I’m very thankful for that, by the way. I do not take that lightly by any means. But I could see where that one would be one of those topics whereby you would think, well, first of all, can my doctor that I normally see even handle that? And if so, am I going to end up having a referral? And then how’s that going to work? And on and on we go. Why don’t I just go online and try to get a fix for this myself? I’m guessing that’s a lot of where that comes from. Right or wrong? Is that the right process? Is that the right thought process, I mean?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. You hit the nail on the head. Convenience. As you said, you’re a very busy person. You’re running all these radio shows, reality TV shows. You don’t have time to go from one doctor to another doctor to another lab for some blood work and then back and forth a couple times a year. So I’m in the same boat. I don’t have time for all that, and I don’t have time to go see a registered dietician for some meal planning, et cetera, et cetera. I try to get my four workouts in a week, and I try to stay fit as best I can. But the fact is, if I can have virtual care at my fingertips and lab test kits delivered to my home, or I can, you know, submit my lab work at my convenience, even, you know, before I go to bed. and have the outcomes delivered to me securely, then why not? I mean, time is our most fleeting asset.
SPEAKER 06 :
Spot on. I can’t argue. First of all, thank you for joining us today. I’ve learned a lot, a lot of this that I just did not know. on the front side as far as this whole space is concerned. I mean, I think a lot of folks out there are very interested in this, but they’re not quite sure how this works. Some might even be a little bit afraid to even go down this path because, again, it’s unknown to them. They just don’t know how it works. I mean, there are folks out there, Dr. Ahmed, as you know, where They struggle to even buy things online because you’ve got to give a credit card number and so on. So there’s that whole aspect of things as well. I think what you’re doing is doing a great job of explaining how this actually works and giving some great tips on how do you know the good ones from the bad ones.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, well, it’s my pleasure speaking with you. Thanks so much.
SPEAKER 06 :
No, I appreciate it. This has been very great. So all of you listening, embracehealth.ai, embracehealth.ai, and I would encourage you that if you’re somebody like what we’re talking about, where you’d like to know more about some of these things, and I’d like to have you back on again, Dr. Ahmed, just to even ask some questions along the lines of, just different things that are out there, and are there some wives’ tales? Some of these growth hormone things that people order and get and so on, is there real validity to some of those things and so on? And I know I don’t have time today to get into all that because that’s a whole other topic in and of itself, but I would love to get into some of that with you if you’re willing to do that. Yeah, absolutely, anytime. All right, I’ll have you back. I appreciate your time. I know you’re busy as well, and I’ll honor that. Thank you so much for what you did for us today. Thank you so much. You’re very welcome. And his last name, I should have said that earlier. I apologize. It’s Dr. Amit. It’s A-M-I-T, Amit Kumar, K-U-M-A-R. And again, he’s founder of EmbraceHealth.ai. Great individual, by the way. I enjoyed that conversation. We will definitely have him back in the future. Speaking of, though, Dr. Scott, and he’s another guy, by the way, that we talk about a lot, Dr. Scott, because he’s local. I just talked to him before coming on air today. And Dr. Scott, again, like Dr. Kumar, other than he can see you face to face at first and would prefer to do that because he really wants to get an idea of what you’re doing and so on. And I will just say this as well, that when you go down for blood work with Dr. Scott, he’s even running some panels and things or I should say running a panel that has things in it that you’re not going to find at your typical doctor. And then once you do that, he’ll sit down and go over that entire report with you and then determine exactly what do you need to be doing to make some adjustments so that you can live a more healthy life. Again, Scott’s doing things like Dr. Kumar a moment ago that regular health care is not doing. But if you want somebody you can see face to face and then do telehealth afterwards, Dr. Scott is your doctor. 303-663-6990.
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SPEAKER 09 :
Suck it up, buttercup. Back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 06 :
And we are back. Jennifer, I’ll squeeze you in before we end this hour. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 20 :
Thanks, John. By the way, that was a good interview, and I always appreciate Georgie Joe’s information. He’s always very good information. Yes, it is. Today I’d like to talk about tea really quick. Sure, go ahead. Black tea. Now, as you know, black tea is fermented in order to get it to where it is. And if you make it and you put it in the refrigerator, after three days it starts tasting funny. By four days it’s undrinkable because the fungus has taken over. Well, I drink a lot of tea in the afternoon, and I make it in a 30-cup coffee maker. And so it means I’ve got six liters of tea. Now, why doesn’t it go bad on me? Well, I can keep it in there for three and a half to four weeks because what I do is, When it starts to cool down and get lukewarm, I put in three grams of vitamin C for every two liters of tea. And that changes the pH. It lowers it, and that way the fungus can’t take off. And it takes about four weeks for the fungus to be able to overcome the vitamin C. Great tip.
SPEAKER 06 :
I did not know that, Jennifer. Thank you for that. Okay, so before we let you go, we’ve got about a minute or so left. What’s the benefits of black tea?
SPEAKER 20 :
It has a stimulant in it. It doesn’t actually have caffeine. It has a xanthine, which is a member of the alkaloid family. It’s not caffeine, but it’s similar to it.
SPEAKER 06 :
I did not know that. So this is stuff, by the way, I am learning because I am not by any means a tea expert. Let me just say that. Regular tea, iced tea, yeah, I’m not an expert in this other stuff at all.
SPEAKER 20 :
Well, you know, this is a characteristic of my misspent youth being a chemistry major in college.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s all right.
SPEAKER 20 :
Anyway, I thought I would give that to people and they can try it and see if the taste is acceptable to them or not.
SPEAKER 06 :
That is awesome information. Okay, really quick, give us the breakdown one more time of the vitamin C to the amount of black tea.
SPEAKER 20 :
Three grams per two liters.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay. Okay.
SPEAKER 20 :
You can put in more. I wouldn’t try putting in less.
SPEAKER 06 :
Probably change the taste if you put too much in, right?
SPEAKER 20 :
Well, it’s acidic, and it wouldn’t change that much, but most vitamin C has rose hips with it, so you may get some of that flavor in there.
SPEAKER 06 :
Ah, okay. I’m going to put some of this in my show notes.
SPEAKER 20 :
Yeah, something people have to try for themselves to see if it’s acceptable or not.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay. I am putting this in my notes so we can get that up on the website. So Jennifer, thank you. You’re always a wealth of information just like Joe is too. So I feel the same way about you as I do Joe. Every time you call in, I learn something. So thank you so much. I do appreciate it greatly.
SPEAKER 20 :
Thank you, John.
SPEAKER 06 :
Thank you, Jennifer. I appreciate it. And I mean that, folks. Every time she calls in, she is a great listener, great caller. And I learned something from not only her but Joe and honestly all of you. All of you that call in, I learn something from on a regular basis. So thank you all for listening. I know we had a little bit of issues with our streaming. You can listen on the app, by the way. We do know the app is working. Charlie and I have tried that out. We’ll work on some of the other stuff here. Yeah, KLZ 560. Download the app. Google Play Store or the App Store in Apple. It is working. We did double check that. We’ll be back. Hour number two is next. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 12 :
Average Guys Average Guys Average Guys
