¶ Rest in Peace: Ananda Lewis
Rest in peace . Ananda Lewis yeah yeah , ananda Lewis used to be a personality on MTV Died at the age of 52 of breast cancer .
She had the opportunity to do a mastectomy and she decided to want to detoxify her body as a way to get rid of the tumor .
Doctors are not necessarily seen as credible for a number of different reasons .
There are self-inflicted things that the medical community has done to themselves , but also this is the time Social media allows everybody to have a voice , so things that normally would not ever get the light of day Conspiracy theories , vaccine theories they just Disinformation . Yeah rules the day Like crazy . Yo yo yo .
What's good , everybody Back again with another episode of Dr S on the Box . I'm your host , dr Ne . I'm joined by my co-host .
Dr Rene .
Yo , let's get into this , yo , because I'm tired . I'm post-call , or not actually post-call , but I'm post-shift .
And I did four miles and I'm giving what . That's why you were mia , that's . Oh , this guy forgot he had a family why are you ?
I was running to the camera .
Why is ?
that close to the camera running . Well , I can't tell sometimes , because I was looking at something on my on my other screen , but I was on planet fitness and I was doing four miles and it felt , um , I hate running on a treadmill . I've finally realized I don't like it .
Um , but where I'm at is not the most friendly for running , if you know what I mean ?
there's no sidewalks .
Yeah , it's a lot . It's very industrial and I don't trust people not to hit me while I'm running on the side of the road .
If you don't , you know as a trauma surgeon , I can see why you're not as trusting .
So yeah , listen before we , before we jump into this episode , I just want to give you a shout out . Folks , Me and Renee are working on some things behind the scenes .
There's some things that we're doing that's in the box Obviously clinical work but then there's also things that we do outside the box and I'm super proud of the opportunities that have kind of fallen to us over these last nine years almost 10 years but last week we got an opportunity to try out for something that I'm super proud of .
But I just want to quickly give you your props because you did a really good job knocking this thing out of the park and you are excellent at this . You have an amazing ability to you know , connect with people and to make people feel great , and you definitely the ace in the hole . So I just want to say shout out to you .
I can't share exactly Well , I can't share what we did guys yet , but maybe in the hole . So I just want to say shout out to you . I can't share exactly . Well , I can't share what we did guys yet , but maybe in the near future y'all will know what I'm talking about .
But thank you , kudos . Thank you , it's nice to be the ace in the hole instead of the asshole you see what I did there things .
Those are the things that you do that like , just you know , you just knock it out the park .
That right there . Yeah , yeah , that's what I did .
Keep doing it , keep doing it , okay , keep doing it . Okay , that's how we're going to get all our subscribers on YouTube , you know , but no , shout out to you . You got a gift , you got a gift .
So I'm going to pause and let you take a moment to give me props . Well , I want to give you a shout out for going to work and bringing home money , because we can't live without money . So thanks .
Thanks for doing that , okay . Well you're welcome . You did a great job .
No , you did a great job , I got it . Next section guys .
¶ Medical Myths We Should Retire
Man get out of here with that bullshit . Hey , listen , we got a question . I got a question too . What is a medical myth or tradition you think we should retire , and why ? Dr Renee , what is a medical myth or tradition you think we should retire , and why ? Because I always ask good questions ?
You don't ask good questions at all , so go ahead . A medical myth or tradition you think we should retire ? And why ? Because I always ask good questions . You don't ask good questions at all , so go ahead . A medical myth or tradition we should retire yeah , we should just like yo .
We don't have to do this anymore . Get rid of it 24 hour call okay , why ?
I just think it's unnatural to ask people to be awake for 24 hours . I just think that that's unnatural . I don't think that humans work really well being on call for 24 hours . But , that's a controversial one because of the way I work .
You got the defense lawyers like yeah , yeah , yeah , you know they paying attention , yo , they listen to the show . I'm serious , they do . I'm shocked at how many people , or different people , listen to the show and what they precisely listen to the show for . It's actually kind of scary .
So I got to be careful what I say .
Well , guys , this is for edutainment purposes , entertainment purposes only , so listen .
We podding .
We podding guys . So if you decide to take action on it .
So what do you think should be retired ? Oh , now I'm asking good questions . Now I'm asking good questions .
Renee , we know already , you ask horrible questions . Now I'm asking good questions . Renee , we know already , you ask horrible questions . What are you ?
talking about . I don't even ask questions . No , you don't . Whatever , you just keep talking so much .
So what is the what's ?
the square root of 64 ? Who's going ?
to win the championship next year .
It's not the Knicks . I'll tell you that .
Before we get into the question , real quick shout out to the Knicks .
For what ? Yo For playing basketball .
Yay , eastern Conference Finals . The first time in over 20 , almost 25 years that we've made it this far , and I'm super proud to be back on the Knicks bandwagon . This was a great , great year . But then y'all fucked it up and y'all fired the coach and the Knicks . This is like a game of Jenga that's the best way I could describe it .
To me is , the Knicks are like Jenga . So they have one really good player , jalen Brunson , and they brought in another star and I don't think that he fits at all . That's Carl Anthony Towns , even though he's from Jersey big jurors , I just don't think he fits .
He doesn't play defense very well , why doesn't he ?
Okay , because he's not yeah he doesn't play defense , he's a good scorer , but there's a difference between big men and tall men , right ? Big men are like people who impose themselves , shaquille o'neal , who are going to intimidate you and they're going to score . Tall men are people like , um . Tall men are people like they're really .
They're just as tall as shaquille o'neal , but they're very skinny and lanky and they prefer to shoot threes or prefer to shoot like mid range jumpers as opposed to dominating down in the key , and that's what Carl Anthony towns is , and he doesn't play defense .
So I think what happened is they brought in somebody the Knicks over um , they , over um what's the word I want to use ? They . They did better than what they were supposed to do . What's that ? That's over um , they overachieved , yeah , they overachieved this year .
Plus , the celtics got shook and as a result , you know , they made it to the eastern conference finals . And then they had to rely just on jalen brunson and he could be very stagnant stagnant with the way how he holds the ball all the time , or you give it to car anthony towns and he's shooting threes .
And , long story short , we lost and then they fired the coach , acting like it's the coach's fault and it's not the coach's fault , it's poor personnel . They didn't put the good personnel together , so we're gonna see how the next couple of years goes , but I'm smelling that they're trying to get Kevin Durant .
I hope they don't bring Kevin Durant , but that's what they're trying to do that'll be interesting , but shout out to them . Shout out to them , shout out to them . All right , so let me get back . That gave me enough time to stall to answer this question . Yes , medical myth or tradition you think should retire . Here's my thing .
You're going to laugh , but you know , it's the truth . What ? I think it should be easier to get into medical school , but it should be harder to get out of medical school . What does that mean ? I think that they should allow more people to get into medical school , right ?
And I think that the rigors of the curriculum , the tests that you have to take , as well as how to graduate , should be hard as hell , right .
Because , I think that really differentiates who really wants to be a doctor versus who just wants to get into school just because they want to make money , or who wants to get in school because you know daddy or somebody you know opened the door for them , and so forth .
So I think that if you make medical school a little bit easier to get in , I think you'll end up getting really great candidates because in order to get out like you really had to do your work to get out and stuff . That's how I feel .
That's an interesting notion because of kind of the history of medical schools and how the MCAT came about , and I think I've told this story on the podcast before .
Tell us about it . It's story time about and I think I've told this story on the podcast before . No , how it happened ? Tell us .
Tell us about it's story time it's story time , so I believe it was right around the 1940s when they started looking at you know kind of the numbers , if you will , um for medical school , and at that time , obviously , the demographic was way different .
Right , it was more white men getting into medical school , and you know people of good , you know wealthy economic status those are the people getting into medical school , so just keep that in mind .
But what was happening , though , was about 50% of people who got into medical school essentially just didn't finish or failing , and so it was like okay , yeah , I heard you say this .
Yeah , they would get in , but they would fail out A lot of them , they would fail out , right .
So that kind of has some similarity to what you're saying , like let a bunch of people in and then let's just see who finishes the race . Yes , they . But the problem is that there's a lot of resources that go into getting into or maintaining a medical school . Right , there's a lot of resources that go into that .
And so the question becomes okay , well , why do we have all of these people taking these seats when half of them are not going to finish ? Why don't we just fill the seats with a bunch of people who are going to finish ? And so what they ended up ? Well , the first thing that they did was they gave the first year medical students an exam .
I forget I think it was called almost kind of like the SAT . I forget what it was called like a , almost like a scholastic aptitude test . And then they had the idea that wait a minute , maybe we should be testing them before they get into medical school .
Oh , that's how it came about , and that's how you got the MCAT right , the medical college admissions test .
¶ The Credibility Crisis in Medicine
And so then it became more competitive to get into medical school than to get out of medical school .
So my question for you is this if you did make it that easy to get into medical school , what would happen to those people and what would happen to those seats if those people if you have , like a large percentage of people who fail out and literally can't finish the race , what's the question again what would happen to those people and to those seats if a
large percentage of people who now could get into medical school really easily could not finish ?
I don't know , but we about to find out . Because when this big beautiful bill gets passed , there's going to be motherfuckers dropping out of school . I'm telling you right now and what are they going to do then ?
Because when people have to drop out of school because they can't get the loans to finish their education , there's going to be a lot of people dropping out .
Okay , but you really dodged it . That was some old . I didn't dodge it . Yeah , that was a cable news that was a cable news dodge , if I ain't never seen one before . But yeah , I'll let you pass .
I'll leave it like this . Here's my answer . I think the biggest thing that's going to happen is the prestigiousness of being a doctor is going to go down . You think so ? Any type of institution ? People don't give a damn about pilots . People don't give a damn about I don't know whatever is super important and stuff that we held in high regard .
People don't give a damn about that anymore . And I think medicine is one of those things where people distrust us . And I'll go to chat GPT or I'll go to Google and I'll figure out this diagnosis by my damn self .
And you got freaking computers and people saying that , look , I'll just use Watson or I'll use chat GPT to eventually figure out , like , what diagnosis is going to be . And you know we're using mid levels now to like primarily take care of people .
Like , I think , if you made school a bit more easier but harder to get out , I think there's always going to be a cause and effect , is always going to be side effects , and one of the side effects is going to be hey , people are going to not think as highly about med school as they do because it's so easy to get in , I think .
So , yeah , gotcha , yeah , well , speaking so on that vein , um , I don't know if that's a bad thing , though Rest in peace . Ananda Lewis , no yeah , died at the age of 52 of breast cancer and , you know , I don't know what her prognosis would have been had she not done what she did .
So , for those of you who don't know , ananda Lewis used to be a personality on MTV , and this was in the 90s . Fine personality , yeah fine . She was a beautiful woman , for sure .
Yo , because I didn't know about it . I didn't know about it when I was in high school because I didn't have cable . But when I got cable in college I was like who this ?
What's her number ? Call me . So yeah , so she was a pretty popular personality . She was a VJ . She was a VJ , yeah , she was a VJ . Yeah , video jock on MTV . Well , she got a diagnosis of breast cancer cancer . I think she was in her 30s , right ? No , I think it was , or wasn't she in her ?
40s , I think it was recent it was okay , she got . She got diagnosed like three or four years ago oh yeah , yeah , you're right , you're right .
Yes , she had the opportunity she had the opportunity to to do a mastectomy and she decided that the tumor was a combination of toxins in her body , both physical as well as mental , and she decided to want to detoxify her body as a way to get rid of the tumor .
And her rationale at that point was that she had seen her mother get mammograms for 30 some odd years and then end up with breast cancer , not realizing that the risk of the radiation right it was not more than the risk of getting cancer , and so she decided to . What she said was keep her tumor and , like you said , try to detoxify herself .
And instead I mean we as doctors know what happens detoxify herself . And instead I mean we as doctors know what happens Her cancer spread and she got to stage four and unfortunately she passed . I don't know if she ever got . I don't know if she ever got any treatment . I'm not sure ?
Well , I don't think we'll ever know that , but I definitely want to say , you know , send my condolences to her family , particularly her son . You know , because her son is , I think , is a mid teenager , now early teenager , and you know the rest of his life will be without his mom . That's the part that's sad .
Yeah , that's the part that's really sad . But you know , it just kind of goes to what you were saying , that you know , medicine isn't necessarily seen as the prestigious and credible , and I think that's the most important .
It's one thing to be prestigious , Prestigious , yeah , it's like Jack and Jill , like oh , I'm a part of Jack and Jill which you wanted to join guys , Everybody .
No , I didn't . What are you ? You talking about ?
I didn't even know about jack and jill until I was like a third year in med school . I didn't even know about jack and jill okay , um , found out about jack and jill .
You're like , what is this ?
I wanted to join . I wanted to do my 16 year old debutante ball , whatever the hell they do , but for our kids you're like no , I didn't jack and jill , we're moving back to Jersey and stuff . You know we're going to be in the making . Do they even have Jack and Jill in ?
Jersey . Yeah , they do Trust me .
They do when they got Jack and Jill , they got Jack and Jill Trust me when I tell you I had never heard of Jack and Jill until I was a third year in med school . I didn't know people did things like that . But anyway , it's one thing to be prestigious , right ?
So having a reputation that is like , oh my goodness , you know , everybody wants to be a part of it or not , everybody can be a part of it , it's , you know , exclusive or whatever . It's one thing to be prestigious , it's another thing to be perceived as credible or not , right ?
And I feel like at this point , kind of to the point that you were making , that doctors are not necessarily seen as credible for a number of different reasons , right , for a number of different reasons . We can't just put this on . Well , you know , people out there just don't want to listen to doctors .
I think that there are a lot of things that have contributed to that . There are self-inflicted wounds or there are self-inflicted things that the medical community has done to themselves , but also this is the time right . This is the sign of the times .
Everybody has a voice and the way in which we communicate , which is social media , in essence , is kind of decentralized . Right yeah , you ain't gotta , you ain't gotta , go to an institution to get certain types of things right . As a result , social media allows everybody to have a voice .
So things that normally would not ever get like the light of day conspiracy theories , right scene theories , whatever it may be now like they just disinformation yeah rule the day like crazy , like I was , like I was watching a little bit of that . Did you watch that thing with dr mike where he was , um , he was
¶ The Knicks Discussion
debating all of these people who were like like anti-vaxxers I don't know if they were anti-vaxxers or they were like severely like suspicious of like vaccinations and like like like people gave them props . But I'm just watching it . I'm like you're not convincing anybody .
Right . Who doesn't right ? You're not convincing anybody who already has made up their mind that they do not want vaccines . Right .
Like I think that there should be a caveat here and say listen , is there anything I can do to like change your mind Right ? And if there's not , then like I'm just walking away , cause this is a waste of time .
Right , right .
Yeah , you know , but I agree with you . Basically , what's going on is people believe what they want to believe .
You know , like we saw that apparently that was the issue of Tina Turner , where , you know , she had high blood pressure and she was diabetic and she felt like there was some holistic methods that she could use to heal herself and then she developed kidney failure and needed to be on dialysis and then , you know , it kind of brought a premature death to her .
Right , these things happen Right and unfortunately it sounds like with Ananda Lewis .
It was kind of the same thing . It was kind of the same thing .
You know , I think there's something to be said for having , you know , holistic or homeopathic type of treatments that can work , depending on what it is you're trying to treat , right , if you're trying to treat cancer , if you're trying to treat , you know , conditions that just really are just beyond the scope of you know , just lose some weight , you know .
Or drink more water , like you know , you can't lose weight and drink water and think that cancer is going to go away . Right , like these . You know tumors , even even benign tumors , like we see this a lot in GYN with fibroids .
Right , like , oh , I'll shrink my fibroids by drinking , you know , insert whatever thing they're going to drink here , insert whatever thing they're going to drink here . And it's funny because people will say , people will go online and say , yeah , I shrunk , my fibroids did shrink , or I did the vaginal steaming and my fibroids fell out at the end .
And I'm like you know what's really funny , nobody has ever live streamed , because , for as much as people like video and live stream , nobody has ever videoed or live streamed their fibroids falling out . I would love to see this because I've never seen it before , and so I will believe it when I see it .
This is a kid-friendly show , so I can't say nothing . No , I get what you're saying though I get what you're saying , right so ?
I think you know to me what it ? Nothing . No , I get what you're saying . I get what you're saying , right . So you know .
I think to me what it boils down to . I hear your points . I just think it comes down to a couple of things . One people don't want to be told what to do . Right , correct , there's a lot of people , there's a large portion of people who don't want to be told what to do anymore .
Correct .
So , and then I think there's a lot of people who are scared of medical treatment . Yes , so they would rather do something else that's less invasive .
but potentially ineffective .
Yeah , I think that's what it is . So if you have someone who may have cancer and you're like , well , I'm going to try to get the toxins out of my body by doing this , it's like all right .
I mean , I just love the word toxins though . Right , because people throw throw that word around as if it's like targeting something very specific . It's like , oh , I'm going to get the toxins . Okay , which toxin Like what ? Which toxin exactly are you going after ? Which toxins are like which ones ?
Yeah , right , because if you know anything about biochemistry , right , everything don't bind to everything .
You know part of this . This is a psyche type thing , right , like what's the state of mind of our current , of people currently and stuff , and you know this is the way how it is . But I think we're going to have to just just . I think we're going to be talking in circles . Yeah , situation .
So but yeah , I agree .
But shout out to thoughts and prayers , t's and P's , for the family of Ananda Lewis . Anybody who is friends with Ananda Lewis yeah , I mean , you know I was joking around before and stuff , but you know like she just played a role in a lot of people's lives , like our generation's lives in the nineties and the two thousands and so forth .
Yeah , it's just very unfortunate that she left this earth so young , so young so the mortality of us also . Right , yeah , yeah .
So , but something very interesting . Let's change topics real quick . Something interesting happened to me at work today , something surreal . I went to the ER today and I had a couple of patients in an emergency room and one of the ER docs came up to me and was like you're , dr Darko , I listen to your podcast . Docs outside the box , right .
And like he recognized your voice or your face .
I think it was the voice and it just caught me off guard Because I'm like talking , like yeah , the potassium is this and they're going to need a CT scan . I was like , oh snap , it's like a scene from you know , coming to America , right .
Oh , my goodness , oh my goodness , oh my goodness , it is you . I cannot believe it . Greetings your Highness , please , please stop bowing please .
Oh , my goodness , I am a royal member of Zumbaunda , right , like no . You should make that a requirement . Shout out if you remember that show , alfred , that's a great scene , isn't that a great scene ? Yeah , that's a great scene . Yeah , but no , it caught me off guard because I was just like dang .
Like I said , I'm talking right now in an extended stay and I'm looking , you know , into the kitchen a messy kitchen , right and you know you get shocked that people listen to the show . Yeah , you know you get shocked that people listen to the show no-transcript . No , no , no , I'm not going to give her a name , no , because she didn't want that .
And I just also want to say she's doing locums also . She's been working in the ER as an employed doc for several , several years and , like , this is her first job as a locums doc and she oh nice , she loves it she loves it Nice .
Was it because the doc's outside the box ?
I don't know , I didn't really ask that question .
You've got to be asking that question . You got to take the credit where the credit is due . I didn't ask that question but I did ask .
I was like a subscribe , stop playing , give us a comment , give us a comment . So I just want to give a shout out to her . I do want to ask you a question . Oh man , I'm running blank on this question . Let me go to my notes . Hold on , let me go to my notes .
Oh , I went blank on this question that I have . Well , let's end this segment right now and then maybe , when we come back to the next segment , you will remember your question . Oh
¶ Recognizing Docs Outside the Box
yeah , what are we talking about next ? What are we talking about ?
next , let's talk about real quick the running equipment that I use , because people at work I've been kind of showing off some of the stuff that I've been using , so I bought these right here these are called Open Shocks right here and these are headphones that you put right around your ear and they're excellent .
They're bone conduction earphones Right , and I've been , for the last several years , been struggling with trying to find a pair of headphones earbuds that were really good for running , really good for lifting weights . I have Beats Studio Pros . Let me find them real quick . Hold on a second . I have Beats Studio Pros that just came out and these are okay .
They clip on the ear , right On the side of my ear . The problem is when I sweat or when I run , they come out . They don't fit . I have one of those weird shaped ears that the buds that you're wearing . those would never stay in my ear , so I don't know if I have a birth defect or something like that .
But these open shocks are amazing .
I don't know why those earbuds don't stay , but this right here , you put it around your ear . It doesn't go into your ear canal , it goes right on the side here on the temple and then it conducts right , it does , goes through bone conduction and you can hear everything very loud .
And then also , the same time , your ear canals open , you can hear to your surrounding community . You know , you can hear cars driving by , you can hear people talking . It's amazing , it's amazing . And then the last thing I wanted to talk about was these right here , these shoes right here , that I've been making fun of people the entire time in the hospital .
Hokas , these are hoka clifton's . Yeah , these look tacky as hell , they look . Yeah , these are sneakers . Oh , yeah , that's true , people are . What do you call ?
it yo .
So these shoes that I've been like clowning people for wearing , like you see , look how thick like the sole is . Even I look and I'm like they don't look sexy though , Right , but the cushioning on this baby Nene , the cushioning on these are amazing .
What's so great about the cushion ?
When I run on these , I feel like I'm running on air , I feel like I'm running on clouds .
They feel amazing , oh and so you bought yourself a pair , but you didn't buy me a pair . Well , these are running shoes . You don't run , right ? Maybe I would run if you bought me some hokas .
Okay , well , I'll take you with me to the store next time and see if you're interested in getting some . Oh , okay , okay , no-transcript .
So how do you think that ? How do you think , I mean , has it improved your running game so far ?
Oh , renee , I'm not even on the front Like , so . I have had this issue with my calf and my Achilles , where they just feel tight all the time , and you know , maybe it takes me like a mile and a half to get warm , but with these shoes , like , I don't feel any issues with my calf at all .
You remember how it was like yeah , I remember the whole point of me doing like T25 , the whole point of me doing all of these different hit type workouts is because every time I would go for a run , like after a mile , I'll catch a really bad cramp in my calf .
Now , the one thing that we didn't talk about is I started seeing a physical therapist who helped me strengthen my calf . Like my , particularly my left calf was really weak so I started strengthening the calf calf and that's gotten stronger .
But just in general , like running in these shoes , like I get warmer , faster I'm I feel better support and you know I'm running more miles because I'm more consistent , but it's not as painful the other shoes that I was wearing they have , don't . They're so hard . I feel like everything on the ground .
You feel like the impact .
Oh yeah , I feel the impact with everything Now when I use my other shoes to work out in . Those shoes I use to work out in , I can't even run in them anymore .
¶ Game-Changing Running Equipment
It's the shoes Got to be . The shoes Got to be the shoes yo Got to be the shoes , got to be the shoes , got to be the shoes . Ok , ok . So the bone conduction . I guess you call that an earpiece . What do they call it ? Headphones ?
It's like headphones and stuff . Look at you trying to ask questions . But yeah , like these . These things are . They're good , I like them . These are they're good , I like them . These are the best pickup I've had . These cost 125 bucks and the battery life on it is amazing like I will go for a five mile run if I start a hundred percent .
I go on a five mile run and I listen to music continuously . By the time I finish my run I'm at like 90 are they ? waterproof . These are waterproof , or I think these are water resistant , but they make one that you can go into a pool .
What these are for swimmers , they have one that's for swimmers , and then the reason that they're cool , too , is the one for swimmers . You can program music into it . Right , because if there's music that can be programmed into it , then you don't need a phone to swim .
Imagine if you're swimming . They're not going to come off .
No , I run with this for five miles . They don't come off .
Okay , but you also don't have hair .
Someone mentioned that at work too , there's one girl I was tele-talking to . She was like yeah , I got hair . Who ? That's your work wife ? No .
Why you look like that to me Damn .
No , and don't get me in trouble too , because like people be listening to the show , you the one talking about you , the one talking about in the last episode . I didn't say I had a work wife . I didn't say .
You said you had a work wife . You said people had a work wife , people have work wives . You said that about what ? Two weeks ago ? You were like , yeah , people have work wives . I just I gotta make sure I ain't got one . I gotta make sure I'll be popping up on you , knock , knock , knock . Is that your address ? Is that your address ?
All right , all right .
All right , all right . Now we're going to really end this segment . Okay , we're going to talk next about the big beautiful bill , or whatever the hell they call it , but this time we're going to be talking about it from the standpoint of physician shortage . So we will see you in the next segment . Make sure to join us .