Initially coming to you live from Houston, Texas, home to the world's largest medical center. Everything looking Billy, This is Your Health First, the most beneficial health program on radio with doctor Joe Glati. During the next hour, you'll learn about health, wellness and the prevention of disease. Now here's your host, doctor Joe Glatti. Well the marvelous Sunday evening to everybody. Welcome
to Your Health First. And every Sunday we're broadcasting from our world headquarters in Houston, Texas, from the great radio station seven forty KTRH and around the globe on the iHeartRadio app. So as summertime is coming up in family travel, or maybe you're traveling on business and you say, hey, it's seven o'clock Central time. I wonder what doctor Joe Galati is doing. Well, all you have to do is going to the iHeartRadio app seven p Central time
and we will be there. We never want you to miss an episode of Your Health First. So we're here every Sunday between the hour of seven and eight p m. I am doctor Joe Galatti, your host, going on our twenty first year here and every Sunday, you know the drill. We are here to make you better consumers of healthcare, raise your health IQ, and truly make you begin to think about your health and wellness, because so much of what we see is a result of kicking the can down the road.
Everybody is a little overweight, everybody has a touch of diabetes, a touch of high blood pressure, and the list goes on and on, and we are intervening too late. We're waiting until the wheels and the hub caps and the transmission is falling out of your car before you decide, you know
what, I better take my car in to get it checked out. How ludicrous would that be if you were Let's say you're sitting around with a bunch of friends in your backyard and they say, hey, what's what's new, Dave, And it's like, oh, you know, my my car is in the shop and the service manager called me up and said I am going to oh, six thousand dollars worth of repairs on a twenty thousand dollar car. And the first response will probably be whoa, Dave, what happened?
And you'll say, well, let's see, it is April. Since November, the check engine light's been going on, and then like around Christmas time, there was this clicking and screeching sound when I stepped on the brake. And then around uh, let's see, around Valentine's Day, when I would step on the gas, it would not go out of first gear. And then by March, black smoke is coming out of the tailpipe. And finally in the garage there was all this fluid junk that was leaking onto the garage
floor. And then what did you do? Well? I called a tow truck to take my car away, and you know, the service manager called me and said six thousand bucks to fix. You would be laughed out of the backyard barbecue. They would say, what the heck is wrong with you? Why didn't you call sooner? Well, you know I thought it would go away. Well, that is what we do with our body. The
body is sending out signals, early warning sign and we ignore it. And then when all comes crashing down, you wonder, how that hell did this happen? How do I get into this situation? And you may be sitting there tonight driving home from work, driving home from Grandma's house, making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for your kids tomorrow for school, and you're like, come on, he's really being quite ridiculous. No, that is not being ridiculous. This is what I listen to every day, and I see
patients that come in very very late, years too late. So just like your car that's blowing black smoke, leaking transmission fluid, making sounds like it is a possessed vehicle, the same thing is happening to the body. And the medical system really, which I am part of, is engineered wrong. So for me to try to get a patient some nutritional counseling, the insurance
companies won't pay for it. That's an out of pocket expense. How about if I try to write a prescription for an exercise routine so that you could start to lose a little weight, get in better aerobic shape, strengthen your legs, muscles, arms, and back. Or how about even better, I'm going to write a prescription to have you learn how to shop, prepare a meal, and eat right. Blue Cross Blue Shield is not going to
pay that bill. But if you have a massive heart attack and need quadruple open heart surgery, a pacemaker, then a kidney transplant, a hip replacement, they'll pay for that. But learn how to cook, No way, And so that's where I really am coming from. And I and I believe that you the consumer have to start speaking up. And you may say, there's no way. I'm just one guy, just me and my wife and two kids and a dog. I don't have any power over Blue Cross,
Blue Shield, United Healthcare, ETNA, Medicare. But there has to be a people's revolution of sort in the healthcare space because we don't have enough hospital beds, we don't have enough clinic space, we don't have enough doctors, nurses, PA's nurse practitioners to handle this onslaught on slot. It's my New York and me coming out. Sorry, so anyway, that is it. We want to try to make you think that is that is my goal. All Right, We're gonna play a little Rolling Stones here. Don't forget I
didn't even give the website out. Doctor Joe Glotti dot com, Doctor Joe Glati dot com, sign up for our newsletter, send me a message if you have any liver or digestive issues. I do see patients. It's all that, doctor Joe Glotti dot com. Stay tuned. We'll right back head of screens to send a bought two line up for us screen that Yeah, This is thotas cutting two every Sunday between seven and APM. We're here.
I'm doctor Joe Glotti. Fame in a program is your health first. And our single mission, which you know it is, it is to make you a better consumer of healthcare. And don't forget go to our websites doctor Joe Glotti dot com, dotor Joe Glotti dot com. Every once in a while I'll spell it out d R J O E G A L A T I, and um. Sign up for the newsletter. We love the newsletter.
We talk about this all the time. And the Facebook site is there, follow us there, Instagram, YouTube, and the article I'm going to talk about in a minute now is going to be posted on the Facebook page. That's how you get it. That's how we share information. Of course, there is a contact me link. You can send me an email a text and let me know what's on your mind, share any ideas that you have about the program and topics you'd like to hear. It's all at doctor Joe
Glati dot com. All right, so this article I've got here is from a recent New York Times and it has to do with well, this is the title. The device saves lives, but almost nobody has one at home. Well, what are they talking about. They're talking about automated external defibrillators a EDS. Now, let's be honest. You can't go to an airport, a mall, a church, a ball field, a supermarket, a hospital without seeing these aeeds every few hundred feet at the place that you're at.
Now, the AED, automated external defibrillator is exactly what it is. It is a defibrillator. And if you don't know what a defibrillator is, it is a device that shocks the person's heart into a normal electrical rhythm that will support blood pressure. So the learning point for this moment is that the normal heart, and the reason the heart beats seventy times a minute or a little faster or a little bit slower, is because of electrical ativity in the
heart. And it works in a very orderly fashion. Starts at the top of the heart, moves down through the bottom of the heart, and everything contracts in synchrony. It's synchronized. You can have the top and the bottom contracting at different times. It won't work and you get sick. But the defibrillator, the AED is really for the most part, to simplify it here is reserved for people that have sudden cardiac death, where the rhythm of the
heart, the electrical activity is in such disarray that nothing is happening. All of this chaotic electrical contraction does nothing. And if the heart's not beating, you have blood pressure drops, you don't get blood circulating to the lungs to pick up oxygen to circulate it to your brain and other vital tissue, and you die. So the risk of dying of sudden cardiac death is relatively high
because of this chaotic rhythm of the heart. So the idea is as archaic as it seems, is to send another electrical shock through the heart to get it back on course. It's like resetting the fuse box in your house. But anyway, so the article here is basically asking the question should people have these AEDs at home? Now? Beware, you're going to probably drop a thousand bucks to get a home AEED. You could go online right now and type in home a ED personal a ED and there will be a flurry of
websites that will come up telling you to buy one. Now, the central question is do you need one at home? Well, you know, we have nine one one, we have fire departments, police paramedics. There are people trained in CPR at the mall, at the hospital, at church, hopefully at the ball field that you're at, the high school that your kids
playing basketball at. But there's a lot of assumptions that somebody is trained in CPR they want to come forward and do this, So it's not a guarantee just because the ads there that somebody's going to jump in and use it right away. Usually they will, but that's another story. So the question is, if you're at home, you're on vacation, you are on the road,
somewhere, you're camping, should you have an AD at home? Now, I've heard patients tell me that they live in a very closely knit neighborhood. They have a big col de sac there's ten or twelve homes and they chipped in together about one hundred bucks to get in AEED, so they have a block AED, a neighborhood AED. And really, when you think about it, time is of the essence. Yes, you'd like to think you call nine one, the fire department will be there and under five minutes,
but it may not be and maybe ten minutes. And if you're on the ground in with sun cardiac death, it's almost guaranteed you're going to have irreversible brain damage and you'll be brain dead. So why not realize that in your call to sack of houses that the Johnson family has an AED or has the AED of the neighborhood and you could run out get them and apply it and
you could save someone's life potentially. So the story in and the article talks about a couple that was traveling in an RV and they made it a point before they started on their road trip, pardon me to get an aeed keep it in their RV. Well, wouldn't you know it, at the RV park where they were, somebody had sudden cardiac death and to the rescue,
they pulled this thing out and save the guy's life. And so I would really say, in my professional experience, it would not be a bad thing to have an AED at home or something that you would share within your neighbors. Or if your kids are playing sports and they're not that big, they fit in at a little case that wouldn't be too obnoxious to walk around with. But if you had one at the little league field or at the swimming match. Whatever the case may be. You go camping, you're on vacation,
you have your own AEED. Again, I would say, as long as you train yourself in CPR, which is the chess compressions, the rescue breathing, choking, and how to use an AED, contact the American Heart Association, get get your neighborhood to participate, or you know your church. You're gonna have the American Heart come out, American Heart Association come out and teach you how to use an AED. But so become a student of the
machine. You don't want to order it on Amazon and then have it sit in the box and say, gee, Grandpa is having sudden cardiac death. Now what the hell do I do? So I would do that as a public service. Then there are others in the article that are saying, you know what, why spend a thousand bucks. It's a very rare thing that is going to happen. You really need to have this on your on your person. It's a good argument, But I would air on the side of
being prepared, always prepared, always ready. Okay, so something to think about. I'll post the article on the Facebook page. All right, we're gonna get going here. Doctor Joe Glotti. Halfway through. This week's Your Health First Sally Adams with news, Weather, traffic, and astros. If she is so fine, there's some astro's update. Stay tuned or Your Health First to come Doctor Joe Glotti. Don't forget doctor Joe Glati dot com. Stay tuned, well, right back, wait for the Every Sunday between seven
and eight pm, we are here. The name of the program is Your Health First. I'm doctor Joe Glotti. Don't forget doctor Joe Glotti dot com is our website and on the phone to nice no stranger to Your Health First. My sister Celeste Zerberini is calling in from New York, New York, coming in from New York. And if you don't remember, Celeste is a nurse and she has performed a number of duties as a nurse, including hospice care and of course floor nursing in the traditional sense. What are you doing
now, Celeste? Why don't you explaining to everybody? Well, right now, I'm working for the State of Connecticut, their insurance company which is called Husky Insurance, which services all the Medicaid population. So I'm a nurse case manager and what I do is I give educational counseling to all of our members.
When somebody is discharged from the hospital or they're diagnosed with something new, I just help them transition through that process, you know, teach them about their new meds and you know, better health habits and diet and exercise. So I'm a virtual health coach. Basically, it's all telephonic. I do go out into the community and see my families once in a while because I like to get that face to face, you know, visit in But so
that's basically what I do, and it's it's great. It's great. We're helping a lot of people, a lot of people now that are you know, coming across the border that don't have insurance. We're in sharing them and we're getting them proper healthcare. Right now. At the end of the day, I would say, as as a nurse, you are teaching an educating about health and wellness. Absolutely, you know, there's so much more.
You think of a nurse as doing bedside which is great. I mean a lot of nurses are doing bedside care and in the hospital and we can't live without them. But when you transition into the community setting, everybody needs education. You know, some people are educated people and they just don't know about healthcare. They can't know how to take care of themselves. So it's so
fast. Yeah, and I would I would think people that are listening tonight, they may say, well, you know, I have a master's in biochemistry, I'm an engineer, I'm an architect, I have a business, so I look, I know the health issues. But I would say, and I think you would agree, that doesn't guarantee that you're doing the smart thing to stay ahead of the complicating factors that we all face. Oh absolutely,
And you could be there. And I have a lot of patients, you know, through my years of experience, that are well educated people. But when you start or diagnosis at them, just something like diabetes, that's that's new territory. They've never had anybody in their family diagnosed. They don't know the first thing about their meds, about balancing your proteins, in your fats, in your cards, sugars, you know, it's a whole you
know, different perspective. And it would be ignorant to think that I would know everything about just because I'm educated, I would know about engineering or something that sort. So I think we all need a little bit of a health coach, you know, along the way. So whether that be a nurse or you what you're doing, which is great on the radio, you know.
So I think everybody needs a little bit of know they do. And you know, one of the challenges where we're all living longer and the risk of us getting a chronic disease that doesn't kill us, but does in a sense disables us. So when you look back a hundred years, people that had heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes, there was a good chance that
their life was going to be cut short. But now we have all of these medicines and therapy and diagnostics that we're living with the chronic disease and those that do the best are the ones that manage that disease. But the cornerstone is really education and knowledge. Absolutely. I just had an in service yesterday from one of our diabetic nurse educators talking about diabetes obviously, and she said
that treating diabetes specifically is nine nine in the patient's hand, right. You have to take the medications that you're prescribed, you have to abide by the diet that's prescribed, you have to exercise. So if you do what you're supposed to do and what you're educated to do by your doctors and nurses and your whole team, and you're managing it. And that's powerful for you to be in charge of your own healthcare. It's and that's what I try to
empower my patients that you are in charge of your life. Nobody else is going to do this for you. We can guide you along the way, but you're in charge right now. The main reason for getting you on tonight, I have number one, been thinking about this and I've been talking about this with my patience. More and more I find and it is all based on my personal experience and yours as well. So as a refresher for everybody tuning in a little over a year ago, Dad, our father, passed
away at the beautiful age of ninety seven. Mom had died a few years earlier at eighty eight, and so I'd like to think that we have the longevity gene on our side. But the key thing is Mom and Dad really took care of themselves. Do you want to just comment on that before we get into this any further, Celest, Yeah, And I knew you've talked about it a lot on the radio. Mom was amazing as far as she was way ahead of her time. She always cooked real food, fresh foods,
fresh vegetables, fresh everything. So we grew up that, you know, and I've raised my kids to be that way. So I think we have a little bit of a head on most people because I know a lot of my friends at the same age. They didn't grow up like the way we did as far as food being such a such a big part of our lives and good nutrition. And they said, let me let me just stop
you there. Would you say it is fair? And we're not. You know, your friends are going to be listening tonight, of course, But are is it fair to say that some of those are plagued with chronic disease that could have been prevented? What do you think, something like if they if they if they ate better, if they had a better foundation. Well, it's funny you say that, because I was talking to one of my
good friends who I went to college with. She's not a nurse, but we had gone to college together, and she's had a weight problem pretty much her entire life. She's she's obese, um and she's waned on and off. She's lost some weight she's gained some weight. And today I was talking to her. I had a long drive to go visit one of my patients, so I was chatting with her, and she said, I cannot do
this. I cannot lose the weight. And unfortunately, both of her parents died very young, and she has the stopping point that can't get her to do what she's supposed to do. And she's educated, she knows she has to eat right. She knows she has to, you know, have a balanced diet. And the advice I gave to her, she's a sugar fanatic. She loves her sugar and she loves her Coca cola. And I said, listen, just a moderate lifestyle change. Just cut the sugar out.
You know, it's going to be hard for the first couple of days, but your body will feel better, you won't have aches and pains, you will lose weight, feel better, you'll sleep better. So I think it's just a matter of you know, giving imparting our knowledge on our people, our friends, family, o, our listeners, and just making those simple lifestyle changes. You don't have to go on weight watches and all these crazy
diets. Starts. Change what you can change, and then once you start seeing the positive effects, then it should snowball into you saying, okay, you know this is this is kind of working, and look what else I could do? Exactly well, exactly now looking at um our parents, Mom and dad, and you know, again, I keep my fingers crossed that
there there is not a lot of disease in our parents. But tell me how you at at this stage in your life we're both in our sixties, that you look at mom and dad almost as a window into your future. Because I I that is what I've been doing lately, and I've been trying to tell I've been trying to tell my patients that, to say, if you want to see how the next five, ten, fifteen, twenty years is going to go, look at your parents. So with that question,
how do you look at yourself elf? And how do you look to say I better do X to prevent why big question? But what do you think? Well? I think I think about that a lot too, because it's funny because they after Dad passed away and then we lost both of our parents. You know, somebody had said to me, you know we're next, you know, we're next in line to go, And I kind of hit home a little bit to say, Okay, now I am. I'm going to be sixty two next months. I'm in fair I'm in good health.
I don't take any medication. I don't you know. I exercise and I eat fairly well. But it has really been embedded in my brain like I have to do everything that I can in my power to live a long, beautiful life like Mom and Dad did. Now, they taught us how to eat well, and I think you and I both have that thank goodness for that. But I'm I'm hyper focused on eating fresh food. I think I mentioned to you earlier that I started doing intermittent fasting program where now I'm just
watching what I eat. I only eat during a certain window of time. I've increased my water intake, I'm exercising more. And I think it's all because in the back of my head, I'm thinking of what Mom and Dad have taught us and how they lived such a long life. But they weren't really into exercise, right. I mean, they eat well, but they didn't exercise. So I think that's where you and I maybe have a little bit of head over them because we do exercise. Yeah, And I was
I was thinking I was a week or so ago. I was at the gym on an elliptical, and to my left and to my right were two really old women. And I'm saying to myself, Mom would be caught dead in sneakers in sweatpants on an elliptical at a gym. Could you figure that she wouldn't do it. She wouldn't put the sweatpants on. We tried once to buy her sweatpants, but you know, she was an old school god lover, you know. But they didn't exercise, and they didn't really promote
that. I know, you played sports when you were younger. I played some sports, but it wasn't really a thing. I know, when I was in my younger thirties and forties and I was running a lot, Mom would say to me, oh, you better watch yourself, you know, don't sweat too much. You know. So that wasn't part of their lifestyle.
So I think that's something that we're doing. We're taking on ourselves to say, okay, yeah, eating, well it was great, but you have to have some form of exercise, whether it be yoga, pilates, cycling, walking, walking is a beautiful thing, you know. I got a new replacement a couple of years ago because of all my years of running, and I walk a lot, and it's just it's great for your body,
it's great for your mind. You put some good tunes on and it's it's your time, you know, it's time to take care of yourself. Yeah. Absolutely, Hey, celest we're going to take a quick break here and we are talking with my sister, Celeste Serberinia, nurse in New York, and we're talking out looking at your parents dead or alive, and trying to figure out how you are going to model yourself. Stay tuned. Final
segment coming up. We're right back. Final segment of Your Health First every Sunday between seven and eight p m. Doctor Joeklate dot com is our website. I am on the phone tonight with my sister Celeste Zerberini. How's the music selection for you tonight? It's crazy, sort of feel like we're throw back in back in New York home, Yes, spitting in the records. All right. Look, you know, if you can have fun doing this, what the hell are we doing? Right? Is that? Hey?
You have to have fun no matter what you do. You got to put a smile on people's face. I know, I know, and it's through the music we play here. So we were we were Celeste and I were talking about looking at your parents, our parents as a window into your own health future. And I would say that is probably the most valuable bit of information all of you have. Now. You may say, my father drank, my father smoked, my father was, you know, two hundred pounds
overweight. I'm thin and I exercise. I think that is good. But Celeste, what would you say to somebody that said, oh, my mother, my father, they were in terrible shape. I'm going to do my own thing. I can't model myself after them. They're not a good barometer. Well, I mean, there's some truth to that, but I think it's it's always where you can always do better. You know, you look at somebody, you look at the role models that you had in your life,
and some people unfortunately didn't have. We were blessed, Joe, you know, we were blessed with unbelievable role models as parents. And I know that's not the norm for most people, and I see it in my population with my patients. But what I try to impart on my members and my patients that I talk with that this is your opportunity to take your life and do better for yourself for your children. And you know, I'm at the point now where I want to live a long life. I have a lot
more years that I want to live. I have seven grandchildren now, and I want to be a good role model for them, you know. So I think it's it's all about accountability, it's all about taking control. And you know, some people say, well, and I think it goes the other way where some people will say, well, you know, I live like this, and I lived on processed food. So that's all I know. So that's what I'm going to do. Well, that's a terrible excuse,
right right. And what I what I find myself I've been doing is and we're in the era of digital photographs, you know, just old old fashioned, you know, paper printed photographs. I will look at them and I will realize that this was nineteen eighty eight when this picture let's just say me, you and dad, okay, And I'm like, okay, nineteen
eighty eight. He was born in nineteen twenty four, he was, you know, whatever, age old, And I'm like, holy crap, did I look do or did I look better at his age or we're almost at the same age. I think we looked at her, you know, and I think we're healthier. Even though they eat healthy. I think the component
that was missing for them was exercised, right. That's my belief, right, And so I look at that it's it's and I guess the bottom line here, Sirrett's least, is that this wellness thing, or the prevention of disease or limiting the disease, is an active process. And so in my brain, I look at a picture of Dad or mom and I'm like, gee, when let's say I graduated college or medical school, they were fifty five years old, and I'm like, did I look like that when I
was fifty five or when I was thirty eight years old? That's what Dad looked like and we were on vacation and we were all little kids. I don't know. I look at it. But you know, as much as we love them, I say to myself, yeah, I mean it is different, But can I do better than them to stay out? Now? Am I going to live instead of ninety seven? I'm going to live to ninety eight? You know, I don't know. I could only hope.
So, but I think you have to constantly work to prevent something else that may be brewing that you can intervene absolutely, And I think it's a big part is to listening to your body and not ignoring signs. You know. I heard recently of a person who I'd met whose wife started getting a little bit of swelling in her legs, a little short of breath. Ignored it, ignored it. She was in virtually good health. She dropped out of a heart attack. Um. So those little signs that you know your body
gives you because your body's always talking to you, you know. So I think to not ignore signs, and then on the flip side to prevention, you know, to just take better care of yourself and be conscious of what
you eat, because it is that to me. I'm on this, you know, eating right, Um, you know, mission right now, and but your whole whole life, I think it has But you know that listen, we're all human and you know, you know I live now with with my daughter and her family, and there's always some junk in the house. You know. Easter came around, the Easter baskets, oh my goodness, you know, so you know, picking out the candy here and there and
picking at this and taking at that. I think we come from the pampa of pickers, you know. So so those are the things that I have to bow out and sitting no, you know, maybe once in a while as a treat, but not here and there as I'm passing by grab a Reese's egg. You know, those are the things that you have to be as we get older, you have to be more aware of that. And
it's not total deprivation. Listen, I still live, and I still you know, eat some things that maybe I shouldn't, But I think the main focus has to be, you know, on a daily basis, eat right, healthy organic fresh fruit, you know, foods you know, you know, using smart oils to cook with you know, no deep crying and things like that, right right, And I think when when you look at your friend group that and you know, some are newer friends, some are friends
you've had for forty years, what would you say if you could tell the one thing sort of like what you were mentioning about your other friend you talked about, But what would you say? And this is for everybody listening tonight. The two or three things that are within your grasp to change now, And it doesn't take money it doesn't take extra training, but it's stuff that
you could do right now. What would you say, Well, I think the biggest thing, and I think everybody struggles with this, is carving out some time for yourself, whether it be going and it doesn't have to be for a five mile walk, but just take some time before you go to bed at night. Say okay, tomorrow, this is my schedule. I'll be able to get a walk in or a workout in or something in for
myself at this time. You know, from five to six, before I eat dinner, I'm going to go out for a walk, Even something as simple as taking a bath, giving yourself some time to yourself, get off the merry, go round for a little bit and just just be within yourself, do a little bit of meditation, try to find that peace within yourself. And that's something I've really been trying to focus on lately, and it's been extremely helpful because we get so hyper focused on our family and our job
and every our neighbors, everybody around us. Where you need to I think start once we get into our sixties, I think we have to really start looking at ourselves and taking better care of ourselves. Absolutely, so just those little lifestyle changes is key. It is absolutely it is all right. Well Celeste, always a pleasure having you on. You always deliver a good punch here and we will continue talking. And I really appreciate you coming on tonight. Oh I love it every time, Joe, so talking to you.
All right, right, all right, takeing it, have a good night, all right, love you too. Heye alight, all right, that's my sister, So glad she was able to come on. All right. Well we're going to end here with a simple song. I can help. We are here to help all of you. Doctor Joe Glatti every Sunday between seven and eight pm. You know where to find us. God bless and be well. If you got a problem, don't care what it is. You need a him. I'm not gonna show you this sack a hill. I got two stro