This is rush To Reason.
You are going to shut your damn yamper and listen for a change because I got you begged, 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.
There are no magical fixes.
With your host, John rush. 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.
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 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.
Are you crazy?
Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
It’s rush To Reason, with your host, John rush. Presented by Hi5 Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling, where every call ends with a high five.
I am Hans. And I am Franz, and we just want to pop you off.
Welcome to Health and Wellness Wednesdays on rush To Reason.
Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through lifestyle.
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.
Exorcist gives you endorphins.
Endorphins make you happy.
Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands.
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. I’m sorry that I’m fat.
Welcome, Health and Wellness Wednesday, rush To Reason, Denver’s Afternoon rush, Klz560. I’m your host, John rush. Al Smith joining me for this first segment today.
We talk about financial health on Wednesdays as well. Charlie Grimes, of course, our engineer. How’s Al today?
Al is fine. How are you, John?
Always good to see you, Al, doing great. Yesterday’s Impossible Question, the Windsor Castle Estate, including Windsor Great Park has over 450 clocks. How long does it take for the king’s clockmaker to move every clock forward by one hour when British summer time begins?
The answer to that is 16 hours. A lot of clocks.
That is a lot of clocks. That’s a problem I don’t have.
So 16 hours, and that gets done, of course, twice a year, forward and backward. Today’s Impossible Question, low levels of this vitamin, which is actually a hormone, is one cause for higher triglycerides. Name the vitamin.
That is the question of the day. So Al, today, speaking of financial wherewithal and all of that, the feds cut the rate, which is not a surprise to me, because we kind of predicted this even yesterday. Andy and I were talking about it, but they cut the rate a half a point today.
Yeah, they sure did. And it was highly predicted. But as you mentioned earlier, it would have been a little better if they cut it a quarter, maybe in July and another quarter now, so that we would be having a softer landing, because in the past, whenever they’ve done a rate change, especially a rate reduction of a half a point, it’s always because of fear and a looming recession, which hopefully is not happening, but there’s fear out there.
Yep, definitely is. Question that I’ve got, and this came in as a question also, and you and I haven’t really, I don’t think hit on this before. A lot of people want to know, hey, when is it time for me to take social security?
And I realize this is not a one size fits all. People really need to talk to you specifically when it comes to this. There’s lots of factors that can be involved, but I think there’s also misconception, Al, that, well, can I take social security and still work a job?
Well, you can, but there’s a couple of factors there. If you, the earliest you can take social security is, if you’re not disabled, is age 62. And if you choose to take it at 62, there’s a reduction of between 25 and 30% from what it would be at full retirement age.
And full retirement age is between 66 and 67. Exactly when it is is sort of on a sliding scale based on your age. Younger people, it’s closer to age 67.
And besides having the reduction, you can only earn $22,320 before part of your social security is reduced. And it’s reduced $1 for every $2 you earn above that threshold. So if someone’s planning to continue to work, I knew a few people because I’ve been in the business a while.
And they would work while they collected early social security. And then they would go tell their employer in about May, well, I’m going to have to discontinue working. If you want me again in January, I’ll be here.
Okay, because of that reduction in their earnings.
Exactly, they didn’t want to be giving all the money back.
So, and again, this is where that formula for each person, you really need to sit down with Al and figure out what’s best for you. because in some cases, Al, if you’re, this is my feeling anyways, if you’re fit, you’re doing well, you’ve got a great job, you have a great relationship, you enjoy with your job and your boss and so on, you enjoy what you do, why not just keep working and delay those payments? Or am I thinking incorrectly?
No, if your health is good, a major factor is health, because let’s say if you’re a single person, and you decide to wait till you’re 70, and you die at 69 years old in 11 months, and you die, nobody gets that money, unless you had a previous ex-spouse or something. On the other hand, if you are in good health, and you’re expecting longevity, your benefit goes up 8% each year from age 67 to age 70. And there’s a break even point.
It’s about age 82. And what that is, let’s say if someone was thinking about retiring at full retirement age 67, and he was also thinking about retiring at 70. And if we were to add up all of those benefits for those years, they would be equal at age 82.
And when you go beyond that, then…
Then you’re ahead on if you delayed.
Exactly. The time value of money is not considered, but somebody living to 82 could also live to be 90, which would clearly make it wise to have waited till age 70.
And this is again, folks, where no matter what people tell you, what seminar you attend, what thing you watch on YouTube or social media or what have you, it really is unique to each individual, and especially those of you that are married and it’s a couple, excuse me, all situation. You really need to look at things correctly to make sure you’re doing that, because nobody wants to be shortchanged.
No, you’re absolutely right. And there’s a lot of nuances with social security. On my program, we talked about the taxation of your social security, and it’s not sort of like a linear line of if you earn so much, then your social security would be taxed.
It’s more like a logarithmic curve. So if someone has higher income plus social security, then 85 percent of their social security will be taxed. But on the other hand, if they have very modest income added to their social security, then none of their social security would be taxed.
So people with large IRAs, they can create a strategy to convert part of those to Roth, not necessarily with the idea of converting all of it, but convert enough of it that their required minimum distributions will be small enough that they won’t cause their social security to be taxed.
Okay. So folks, again, lots of things to talk about there. Really, best thing to do, this is such a unique, individual analysis, I guess, is the word I’m looking for, Al, that really you as a couple or even individually need to talk to Al one on one.
And again, I mean that sincerely. There’s a lot of information, good and bad, on the internet. And I’m not saying it’s all bad, because there is some good information.
But what you have to realize is, Al, even though some information might be really good, it may not be good for you.
No, you’re exactly right. And if you’re anywhere close, remotely close to retirement, and you haven’t gone on the social security website to create your account, definitely do that. It’s a little bit arduous, because they’ll ask you the name of your first dog and where you went to grade school.
When did you cut your first toenail?
Yeah, exactly. For security purposes, so nobody else taps into your account. But once you get in there, you’ll see your projected benefits.
And also, you can see your recorded earnings.
Which you should be checking.
Yeah, occasionally there’s a mistake. If you worked somewhere and they collected your social security while you were working, and that’s not on the social security website, when you see the report, then obviously you can do some things about that, unless you’re 78 years old before you check it.
Absolutely. So again, folks, do all of that. Make sure you talk to Al.
I say this all the time, but really, you can find Al at klzradio.com, rushtoreason.com, actually all of my websites you can find Al. But if you’re driving and you forget his number, I’ll give that in a moment, but you can just go to our websites and find Al there. You can also call him directly, 303-744-1128.
But Al, it’s always a joy having you, sir. I appreciate it.
Well, thank you, John. I always enjoy being on your show and I enjoy listening to it on the way home.
Well, thank you.
God bless you. God bless your listeners. And God bless America.
God bless you too. That’s next, Golden Eagle Financial.
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Listen online klzradio.com. Back to rush To Reason.
All right, welcome Health and Wellness Wednesday. I had a guest lined up for this particular segment, but, you know, things happen and especially when we have doctors that join us, they can get last minute things that come up. And I’m always very gracious when it comes to the medical community because things happen and I fully understand that.
So I’m never upset when a doctor can’t join us because I understand how last minute things can come up. But I had a doctor that was going to join us today, Dr. Neblit, N-E-B-L-E-T-T. And this is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, especially, you know, of course, for men.
Men get prostate cancer, which Al and I were talking about this before the program today. I’ve interviewed some folks in the past and most men don’t realize this, but we all have it. Now, how severe it gets and how that end of it works depends upon each one of us, but literally, if every man, you know, lived to be a hundred years of age and they did an autopsy on every man, they would find prostate cancer in every man, especially at that age.
It’s just, it’s a fact of life. It’s what happens to all of us. Now, how fast it grows, what it does, how soon it appears, and so on.
Yes, that can pose all sorts of problems for different men. Now, the guest I was going to have on today was going to specifically talk about black men and prostate cancer, because believe it or not, they’re at higher risk, which I did not know. And I learned something new on this program every single day, especially on Health and Wellness Wednesday.
So for those of you that are listening, and we have all sorts of different, you know, races, backgrounds, age groups, et cetera, that listen to this particular program. But if you know anybody, any black men, I would make sure that they fully understand what’s going on in this particular area. Here’s the stats.
One in six black men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer compared to one in eight white men. So think about that. Two more per that eight group, if you’re looking at, you know, one out of 10, it’s about three.
Three more on average than the white counterpart. Black men die from prostate cancer at twice the rate of white men, which I did not know either. So black men that get prostate cancer, they die at twice the rate of white men.
Of course, black men are less likely to be covered by insurance. We already know some of those reasons why. And then black men are less likely to be enrolled in clinical trials.
Now, that one I don’t know the answer to, and I was hoping the doctor that was going to join us could actually shed some light, share that with us. But there’s some myths regarding black males and prostate cancer. So myth number one, black men get prostate cancer just like every other race.
I just disproved that a moment ago. No, they don’t. They are actually at a higher risk of getting prostate cancer than anyone else.
Now, this isn’t in my notes, but I will just say this, because I’ve interviewed enough people along these lines, enough doctors along these lines to know this, get checked. When you start getting to be, what do they say, Charlie, roughly age 50, I want to say, 50 to 55, you should be getting checked on a routine basis. Now, in today’s world too, don’t let that scare you.
There’s all sorts of different ways of checking your prostate now from what it used to be. Some of it can be done through blood tests, exactly. Charlie, you can do it through blood tests.
You can do, of course, physical exams and so on. But the reality is it’s not as invasive, I guess I should say, as it used to be. There’s all sorts of markers and things that they can look at to determine where are you at.
So I would recommend highly that, number one, any man get checked, period. I do. I get checked on a routine basis.
It’s one of those things at my age that I feel like you need to be getting checked for. And it’s not that I’m nervous or afraid of it by any means. I’m just not.
You know, whatever’s going to happen happens anyways. I can’t be afraid of it. But I also would want to know.
And I think this is true with any types of cancer. The earlier you know, the better. If you find out early enough, a lot of cancers, not all, but a lot of cancers can be sort of headed off at the pass, if you would, and avoid some of the major complications that could come down the road, including death.
So by all means, get checked. Those of you especially, you black men that are listening to me, and I have lots of listeners that fit what I just said, please get checked. This is nothing to mess around with.
So if you’re an older black male, or you know an older black male, some of you ladies that are even listening, please have your men get checked. Okay, number two, I don’t have prostate cancer if I don’t have any symptoms. No, it says here black men are being diagnosed in later stages and with more specific aggressive prostate cancer.
Again, these are things where you need to be paying attention. Some, they’re saying black men, believe it or not, Charlie, should even get checked earlier, age 35 to 38. Much earlier than white men.
So when I said 50-55 a few minutes ago, the article that I’m reading right now, this is actually coming from the doctor we were going to interview, you should be doing that about 10 to 15 years earlier if you’re a black man. Every hospital has the same standard radiation equipment. No, you should ask your, you should ask what year your radiation machine was built.
Some of the lower income areas and hospitals and so on may not have the higher end radiation machines that some other hospitals have. That’s one of those other misconceptions. You would think in America, everybody would have the same.
Folks, I can tell you right now, in industries, this is true even in the automotive industry, does every automotive shop from coast to coast have the same equipment, even dealership wise? Does every dealership have the same equipment? No, of course not.
Some areas that do better net profit wise will have higher levels of equipment than those that do not. Same is true in the hospital world. It’s no different.
just comes down to dollars and cents. Number four, there is only, or there is one best way to treat prostate cancer. No, a patient and a doctor should have a shared decision making.
You should have an open, trusted relationship to decide the route that’s best individualized for you based upon you, your genetics, your history, your age, et cetera. So again, there’s not a one size fits all. And I will tell you that in some cases, it’s very non-invasive in how they treat some of these prostate cancers.
Prostate cancer, I should say, not plural, but singular. So just because you get diagnosed with it, again, don’t be alarmed. Have that conversation with your doctor because in some cases, there’s no sense losing any sleep.
It’s all, in some cases, very outpatient oriented type treatments, not that big of a deal, nothing to be scared about. But again, I go back to that early detection. The longer you wait and the worst things get, yes, that’s where you start having problems.
And by the way, as I said a moment ago, this is true with a lot of cancers. Not just prostate cancer for men, but a lot of different cancers that people can end up with. Number six, prayer and spirituality can’t help cancer.
Cancer can help patients to focus on what truly matters and prompt us to live with a highlighted consciousness of our ultimate priorities. The current data suggests that added stress or trauma can contribute to more aggressive cancer. In other words, having a God-centered life whereby you know things are going to be okay no matter what helps you even with your cancer diagnosis.
That calmness that you get from having faith, yes, in fact, does help. Imagine that. Having somebody in your life, in this case Almighty God, and looking upon him for your strength versus something else plays a big part in how you recover and how you handle these things.
Number seven, cancer care is completely covered by Medicare. Now, this is an area I know nothing about. I’m not on Medicare.
I don’t know much about it. I’m learning more and more about it from, you know, some family members, but the average cost of stage four prostate cancer is more than $93,000 annually. And no, not all Medicare will cover that.
In some cases, families have to get, you know, grants, donations or whatever, or have supplemental insurance because no, Medicare does not cover everything regarding it. So that’s another one of those things where as you start to age, as we were talking to Al Smith earlier about social security and all of those things, that’s also where you start looking at Medicare. Do you need supplemental plans?
There are, I think, Charlie, I looked the other day, there’s like plan A through like F or G or something. I mean, there’s that many different plans. And I’m learning more about that, not that I’m getting close to that age, but every year as you get a little closer, you start doing a little more investigative work on this.
And there’s all sorts of plans to really meet almost every type, you know, every walk of life and income level. Some being like any other insurance, you know, a Cadillac supplemental plan to just some basic supplemental plans. But I would encourage you to have a supplemental plan of some kind for some of these big things.
And I would not want to rely only on Medicare. That would be me speaking. And I realize it’s different for everyone.
But bottom line, this is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. September is. So whether you’re, you know, a man, young man, old man, doesn’t make any difference.
This is one of those things where please make sure that you’re getting checked. Make sure that you’re getting all dialed in when it comes to that. And you’re getting your checkups like you should be.
because the earlier you catch something, the better off you’re going to be when it’s all said and done. Do not let this stuff progress. The sooner you know, the better.
So we’re getting to the bottom of the hour. Let me squeeze Joe in here real quick before our next guest. Joe, go ahead.
John, two things. One, you’re correct. They no longer do the old digital.
I just had my Medicare physical and it was PSA blood test only. The second thing that Medicare physicals don’t do that they should do is they don’t do a check for skin cancer. It’s not part of that.
So once a year, I go to a dermatologist.
Good idea.
You take your shirt off. And I’ve had, and especially spent a lot of time in the sun when you’re young. I used to work in the hay fields.
And I’ve had several melanomas, you know, removed from my ears and my back of my neck and my arms. My mother who used to ride horses all the time, she had the malignant melanomas on the tops of her ears. So if you spend a lot of time or you’re worked outside, go to a dermatologist, take your shirt off, take, you know, it’s primarily on your back and shoulders and ears.
But it’s not part of a Medicare physical. And I forget how many millions of people die of skin cancer.
A lot.
But it’s a lot.
Yeah, no, it’s a lot. We’ve had those doctors on as well that we’ve interviewed before. Absolutely, Joe.
It’s one of those things, again, the more preventative, it’s like a car. The more preventative we are, the less it costs us down the road, right?
Right. And by the way, you know, I go to the gym every, I go five, six days a week. I’ve seen some old guys in the gym, and one guy, he had this really ugly growth in his back.
And I said, do you know if he said, no, I didn’t. I said, well, I said, it really doesn’t look good. And you might, and I’ve actually spoken up to a guy because it was, look, it had this really ugly, irregular shape to it.
And so anyway.
Literally watching out for each other’s back.
Watching out for each other’s back.
Nothing wrong with that, Joe. That’s good, because he wouldn’t have known otherwise.
He wouldn’t have known. He wouldn’t have known.
Good for you.
All right, guys.
Joe, thank you, man. Appreciate it very much. Yeah, folks.
I mean, these are some of those things where we’re in this together. And if you notice something, even on another family member where you’re like, hey, have you noticed such and such? Sometimes we just get used to doing life day after day after day, and we really don’t pay attention to these things.
This is where our overall health can become a joint effort. So yeah, if you notice something, by all means, speak up. Premier Home Remodels is next, folks.
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Now, back to rush To Reason, presented by Hi5 Plumbing Heating and Cooling, where every call ends with a high five. All right, we are back.
Health and Wellness Wednesday. Thanks for joining us today. I always learn every single Wednesday.
I hope you guys do as well. Dr. Todd Burtosh joining us now. Dr. Todd, welcome.
How are you?
I’m doing great. How are you doing?
I’m doing very well. No, thank you for joining us. Pain Awareness Month.
And we’ve got different months for all sorts of things, which is fine because some things we need to highlight more than others. But when it comes to pain, and I, how do I want to say this, Dr. Todd? I get that everybody has different levels of pain, different levels of tolerance.
Some people need to take something for that pain. In other cases, there may be other ways to deal with it. But chronic pain affects millions of people nationwide.
It does. And I think, you know, so many of them with severe pain are faced with a really difficult decision of, you know, am I going to just kind of suffer with this in silence? Or am I going to take something very strong that could cause me to become addicted?
That’s a real issue. It’s a real question. A lot of people face it.
And doctors are kind of caught in the middle trying to figure out how to deal with this.
And this is one of those areas I can fully relate to. I had back surgery when I was very young. Did some stupid things when I was very young as an auto technician and pay that price even today.
And there’s different times where things will happen. It’ll flare up. I’ll do stupid things once again.
You know, you think by now at my age, you’d learn, Dr. Todd, not to do certain things, but you know, you still do. And things will flare up. And I know for me in the back of my head, always from the day I walked out of the hospital, in the back of my mind has always been, I will not get addicted to any kind of painkillers.
I will figure this out one other way because I’ve seen too many ill effects on the other end. On the same token, there’s days where it doesn’t make quality of life very good.
Yep, I agree 100%. There are folks out there who suffer every single day. They have the same concern that you have about addiction, and we just, right now, don’t have answers for them.
Well, I wish you had a different answer than that because I was thinking, okay, man, there’s going to be some magic bullet that you’re going to bring to the table and tell us what we can do to avoid this. But I guess personally speaking, Dr. Todd, I’ve just learned different types of moves, exercises, stretches. I use a TEVS unit at times.
I mean, there’s things that I do my very best on to avoid using high strength prescription drugs.
Yeah, and I think you’re one of the lucky people that have that option, but there are certain types of pain that, you know, those things just don’t quite cover and people just need something more. There’s hope out there. We are, you know, a lot of things are happening in science right now that give me a lot of hope.
I think we’re going to get there.
Okay.
But we got some work to do.
For now, what do people do that have this, you know, chronic pain? It could be old injuries from sports when they were kids. It could be accidents that they’ve been.
It could be work-related injuries. I mean, as you know, there’s all sorts of things that can cause different things that people struggle with pain. And I also understand not everybody has the same, you know, pain tolerance.
Some have a higher threshold than others and nothing against anybody that has a low threshold. It just is what it is, correct?
That’s exactly right. And you know, everybody is so different. We’re all so different.
We perceive and experience pain so differently. And there are genetic factors that are associated with that, psychosocial factors associated with that. And I think we just can’t treat everybody the same way.
Agree. because of all those differences. You know, a lot of people, you know, because of some physical condition that they have, can’t take certain pain medicines.
For example, if you have kidney failure or kidney problems, it’s probably not a good idea to take an infant. If you have liver problems, you’re not going to take a seat of an infant. So we really have to kind of personalize your care and take each person individually.
There are a lot of different pathways. Pain is so complex. People experience pain for a lot of different reasons.
And it just has to be handled very personally. The problem is, there’s such time constraints on physicians, that it’s hard to treat people individually. And so I think that’s where we need to focus.
And that was going to be my next question. For those that are listening that may be battling with this, where they kind of feel like, wait a minute, I know there’s better answers, but I just can’t quite seem to spend the amount of time necessary to get those answers. What do those individuals do?
What are their options?
Yeah, I think, number one, you want to try to find a great physician if you can. It’s really hard because they have such time constraints. But you’re just going to have to take responsibility for your own care.
And start advocating for yourself. I think there are some really great support groups out there. One that I really love is called painconnection.org.
It just can hook you up with a lot of the most recent data, the clinical trials that are out there, some of the new studies that have been completed and the promises that those show. And they can get you involved with some support groups as well that you can gain a lot of information from other people that are going through the same thing you’re going through.
Are there non-opioid answers where maybe some folks don’t even realize they’re out there? In other words, are there some natural type things that work or if somebody’s got really heavy pain, are they pretty much in a situation where they’ve got to use an opioid?
Well, right now, as it stands, I think, where if you have really severe pain, there aren’t a lot of choices. There are some things that we can do, but on the horizon, what’s really exciting is that we’re learning so much about the different pathways that lead to pain. There are hundreds of different ways to feel pain that your body experiences pain, and we’re learning about those pathways.
We’re learning how to target each one of those pathways specifically, and that’s what I’m really excited about. That’s what we work with. As far as, here’s what concerns me is, I spend every day of my life doing really rigorous scientific research on things, and unfortunately, I find a lot of people are listening to voices in the blogosphere, influencers that are using anecdotal things, and, hey, this worked for me, you should try it, and I really get concerned about that.
Really, do your homework, look at the data that’s out there, and look at the scientists that’s been done, because it’s really exciting, and we really are concerned about safety and efficacy.
When does somebody get to the point where they have felt some chronic pain, and in some cases, maybe they’ve been diagnosed with an old injury, maybe that thing has flared up again, but my point is, when does somebody look at, okay, wait a minute, I’ve gotta get, not just the pain management end of things handled, but I need to get a fix for this. I mean, maybe there’s some sort of medical procedure that would help me with this. At what point do they push more in that direction versus just treating the symptom?
Yeah, unfortunately, there’s not a lot of solutions for pain. There are a lot of ways to treat it, however. So, pain management physicians focus on all these different modalities.
You know, there’s so many new things out there to help with pain. I think people are really hesitant to get started and go down that road with their physicians, but there is a lot out there and there’s a lot more coming. So, get involved with a physician, a pain management physician, and start going down that road.
I think there’s a lot of hope for you out there.
Okay, when you say things are coming, are you talking medically speaking, non-medically speaking? What are your thoughts there? I mean, in other words, are this organic type things or are we talking big pharma?
Or both?
It’s not necessarily big pharma. I think most of these things that we’re discovering are coming from, you know, not pharma at all, but for educational institutions and small companies that have found new targets. We’re working with gene therapy things now and antibodies where we can target certain pathways for pain with new and really exciting ways.
But, yeah, you know, again, the thing that concerns me most is just listening to what Joe down the street says and taking that advice rather than looking at really good science.
Can’t argue that one. That one, in other words, Dr. Google is not always the fix, right?
Not always the fix.
And, you know, Dr. Todd, I could probably say that about a lot of things medically speaking because a lot of times people go right to Dr. Google, and, you know, I get the Internet is great. There’s a vast amount of information. I’m not saying all of it is wrong even.
I’m not saying you can’t find some good tidbits out there as well. But I think this, you know, hey, this works for so and so. It’s got to work for me.
Yeah, be careful with that because no, not necessarily.
Exactly. And sometimes you can do a lot more harm than good. And don’t forget that the placebo response is a real thing.
And, you know, some people get improvement just from that placebo response. It’s a very powerful mental thing that happens to us. One thing that we do in our clinical research here, what I do every day, is we use very large sample sizes of patients.
And, you know, we look at big numbers of data. So it’s not just one person who felt better. You know, we can get right through that placebo response and look at the real impact of what these treatments, whether they’re drugs or devices or herbs or supplements or whatever, we can find out really what’s happening and what’s real and what’s not.
Dumb question on my part maybe, is all pain bad?
No, great question. I think everybody knows that, you know, if you’re getting burned by your furnace at home, that you want to pull your hand away, right? So pain can be good, but what happens is pain can become a cycle and kind of a vicious cycle where you have pain and then it leads to more inflammation and then it leads to inactivity and that leads to more pain.
And so acute early pain is probably a good thing, telling you what your body should and shouldn’t do in certain circumstances, but it can develop into a really vicious cycle. And that’s where chronic pain comes in and becomes very debilitating both physically and psychologically, you know, and socially.
Yeah, I can’t disagree. Talk about the opioids for just a moment. I understand that there are situations where somebody has gone through some surgery, or there’s some major thing that’s happened and, yes, they’re going to need something for a time.
And I really want to put quotations around a time, because that’s where things can get very addictive if you’re not careful. And I am not against taking any kind of medication that is for that particular person for that moment in time. But again, for me personally, I just have always had this fear that, I mean, I almost, how do I say this, Dr. Todd, I’m almost kind of the opposite.
You may be get prescribed, I may not even take one of them, because I’m going to do every single thing I possibly can to avoid those things, because I know how addictive they can become. I don’t want to go down that path ever. Am I looking at it wrong?
No, you’re looking at it exactly right. I’m a pain doctor, but I’ve had kidney stones, where I could take as much Tylenol and Motrin, and everything else that’s out there, and I’m still crying like a baby, but I needed something stronger for that event. But again, those are not for chronic pain because that’s when people get in trouble.
I will tell you, even a single exposure to an opioid for certain people with certain physiological characteristics can lead to addiction. And so what I do every day, I work every day with non-opioid solutions. That’s what we’re looking for.
I’m getting them, we’re finding them. The goal is to make these opioids in healthcare obsolete because a big chunk of people who become addicted, their first exposure was as treatment for some painful condition. And we want to just remove that from the equation completely.
You and I think very much alike. I do have a dumb question because this one, I’ve always wondered, what makes them so addictive?
That’s a great question. Well, they cross the blood-brain barrier, so they get into your brain and they not only affect receptors that sense pain, but there are pleasure receptors in your brain that they impact as well. And that’s really the problem.
I mean, they are amazing pain medications. It’s just these other parts of the brain that they impact that cause the problems. And so, you know…
And I guess because of that feeling that comes from them, that’s the addictive part? Am I thinking along the right lines?
Yeah, it absolutely changes the structure of your brain and the way your brain functions. And so, yeah, they have a huge impact on that.
Interesting. Again, this is one of those areas where I’m by no means an expert. I’ve never had an addiction at all along these lines.
As you know, from what I’ve even told you, I’ve been very careful to not go down that path ever. I guess just… I don’t want to get into all the details as to why, but for me, it’s just…
I guess it’s fear. Dr. Todd is like, wait a minute, time out. I don’t want anything like that controlling my life.
I don’t want to be in control of it, and I don’t want that substance to control it instead. And I guess just personally for me, I’ll put up with some of the pain to not go down that path.
Agreed. You know, with the opioid epidemic, as huge as it is, we all know someone. I think we all know someone who’s been impacted, and none of us want to go there, but right now, it’s a real risk.
Okay, here’s another question. Is it riskier now than it was 20 years ago, or is it about the same?
I think it’s better now. When I trained back in the 90s, the prevailing wisdom and how I was trained was, you just give opioids. They’re great.
They’re amazing. Now, there are a lot more restrictions on my ability as a physician to prescribe them. That’s good and bad.
That keeps us from over prescribing them. Unfortunately, it also keeps some people who are really in severe pain from being able to benefit from them. So, when I said doctors are cut in the middle of this, between a rock and a hard place, that’s exactly the truth.
We haven’t figured this out yet. We’ve got a long way to go, but we’re getting there.
Well, I appreciate doctors like you doing this. I realize that for a lot of people, this is a very large discussion. I also know, Dr. Todd, to your point a moment ago, the majority of families, just like cancer, has been affected by something along these lines.
In some cases, most likely negatively. This is one of those areas where I think folks need to really be careful. These are drugs.
These are prescription drugs. These are things that, to your point a moment ago, can really affect your brain, which then can affect your day-to-day life. I would just tell all of you listening, please be really careful in these areas.
For what you’re doing, Dr. Todd, in this particular area, coming up with non-pharma things that can help people manage pain, yeah, we need this sooner than later. Absolutely.
Keep the faith, there’s a lot out there. We’re gonna get there eventually.
All right, Dr. Todd, thank you. You’re welcome anytime, by the way. Thank you so much for your time.
I appreciate it greatly.
You bet, thanks for having me.
You’re very welcome. That’s exciting, folks. Again, there are certain things, and a lot of you know people that have been addicted to different types of substances.
For some, you know, it’s alcohol. And by the way, alcohol can be a painkiller as well. It can be opioids, it can be other types of drugs, and the reality is, at least for me, I don’t want to be addicted to anything.
I don’t want something else controlling my life. I want to be in control of my life, and I don’t want some substance doing that for me. I also realize that, genetically speaking, to his point, some can be affected by this greater than others, but I think at the end of the day, just be careful.
We know that pain management is nothing, how should I say, it’s not universal. It’s not a one size fits all. Each individual person needs to figure out what works for them, but I will just go out there and say this, and I think it’s fair for me to say this.
The last thing you want to do is be addicted to opioids. Do whatever you possibly can to not go down that path, and for some people, if that means never taking a pill, then do that. Figure out every other way possible to manage pain outside of going down that path.
Now, one thing that he said, which I think is really key, is find a doctor willing to help you through all of this, and not just prescribe a pill. Well guess what? We have that doctor.
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That’s Dr. Scott. And Dr. Scott will help you through whatever it takes to manage that particular area of your life along with everything else health wise in your life. Call him today.
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Suck it up, Buttercup, back to rush To Reason.
All right, a few minutes left of this Health and Wellness Wednesday, and health and wellness is a big deal. And I feel like health and wellness is huge on the personal responsibility end of things. Why I spend an hour each week talking about it.
As a conservative, I believe in personal responsibility. You guys know my feelings on all of that. So much so that, like Dr. Scott, I feel like I want to be in control of my life, my health, my wellness, and I don’t need big pharma, big insurance telling me how to do it.
There’s an article in The Federalist talking about why RFK Jr. left the Democrat Party. Now, he’s still a Democrat through and through. I get that.
But he’s on our side right now trying to help Donald Trump get elected. It’s because of this whole personal health end of things that RFK Jr. left the party. He felt like, wait a minute, time out.
I believe in personal responsibility. I believe in taking responsibility for my own health. I think the rest of the country should be doing the same thing.
And no, I don’t think there’s a one size fits all. So RFK Jr. left his own party, the party of his literal ancestors, because of this one topic, health and wellness. So it’s such a big deal that we have a political candidate, who actually was a candidate for the president of the United States, that decided, wait a minute, my party has left me in this particular area, and I’m now going to join forces with the Republicans, with the conservatives, because they think more like I do in this area.
So for those of you that are on the left, how do you justify this? How do you justify this? And we talked to Dr. Kelly and Steve house most every Thursday.
We won’t tomorrow because we’ve got Cindy Kutcher joining us. She’s going to be in town for Constitution Week, so she’s going to join us during Hour One in person, in studio, which we don’t normally get that opportunity. It’ll be nice to have a nice young lady in studio talking about things along these very lines, by the way, because the left’s approach to health and wellness is very communist.
One size fits all. Health care for all. The problem is that doesn’t work, because number one, we don’t all have the same needs.
just like the last doctor we talked to on pain management, everybody’s needs are different. We aren’t a one size fits all society. Yet the left’s answer is it’s one size fits all.
We’re just going to give you the same. Well, that doesn’t work, folks. In fact, as I just said, we’ve got RFK Jr. who left that party for that very reason.
You know, the jab, it’s not a one size fits all. COVID, the response to, not a one size fits all. RFK Jr. throughout all of COVID basically started saying that and really went down that path and was ostracized by his own party because he questioned their approaches to this whole health and wellness topic.
So I hope you guys enjoy what we do here every Wednesday. We don’t always bring people on to think exactly like we do, but I will tell you this, they think about that particular topic the way we do or I wouldn’t have them on with us. So if there’s anything you’ve ever missed in health and wellness, you can always go back and re-listen to that.
just go to our show notes on our website rushtoreason.com. Hour number two is next though. rush To Reason, Denver’s Afternoon rush, Klz560.