Health Maintenance and Traveling

So backing up. So back to your last episode without me when I was sitting there listening and I had so much to say. I had so much witty banter to say while I was listening.

Hi, everybody, and welcome to the podcast. This is Generations md. My name is Stephanie, and I'm joined here by my colleague, Dr. Sarah Davis, who's also my mother.

And I am not artificial intelligence.

She made the cut. If you listened to last week's episode. She ditched me, left me in the dust, and I replaced her with AI. And that. It was pretty good.

It was terrible. What do you mean?

It was helping me. So all my healthcare issues.

No. Okay. That whole thing. Number one. Okay. She did figure out that you were having hallucinations. Yeah, but she didn't really. All she kept telling you to do was to go see a healthcare provider.

Yeah, like, that doesn't mean a couple more times than I cut that out to.

Yeah, see, that's all she says, by the way, I just have to say, we doctors hate the term healthcare provider. If you happen to be somebody who works with doctors in some way, shape or form, and you refer to them a healthcare provider, it's very insulting. Or like, I didn't do all that, school and everything to be called a healthcare provider. I'm a doctor.

Well, they weren't necessarily. That's a generic term for all healthcare providers, though. Like, she's not saying you need to go see a physician.

Well, that's what she should have been saying.

Well, I don't know.

Like medical. You need medical. Okay. Yeah.

You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, that's fine. You need to get some. You need an expert opinion. Yeah, exactly. Somebody who knows more than a computer.

I don't know. She knew a lot.

She was not at all good with the witty banter I did.

I tried to program her to be a little more witty. I didn't put that much effort into it. I said, I don't know if I kept this in. But then she. I was like, how was your schooling? And then she went on and on about how great it was and how she, like, learned so much.

That was funny. I thought she had, like, this clip about and med school and residency. While it was a difficult time, I also learned a lot. I'm like, oh, my gosh. This is like the quote from every doctor. Like, if you were applying for a job or whatever, when somebody asks you that, I'm like, oh, that was very stereotypical. So I thought that was funny.

Um, yeah. No. But then I said, be more funny. That was boring. And I don't know, she didn't see.

She couldn't do it. She. I'm not worried about me getting replaced by anyone.

She even said she was like, I'll be your mom and podcast host. So.

Really?

I replaced my mom too.

She did. Anybody can say that. That doesn't mean they can actually do it.

Are you. You don't have your ring on.

Oh, are you in, dad? Okay. Oh my gosh. I forgot to put. I'm just wearing my anniversary band because I took off my. Because when I was traveling in Europe, I didn't want to get kidnapped for my diamond ring, so I took off. Big diamond ring that you have. Hey, now it's just asking for trouble. But I mean, I'm still wearing.

If you were in need, like the Clemson ring.

That's right. That's right. But no, I just. Yeah, so I had this on. But yeah, I forgot to put my bigger band back on. I'll do that.

You can clarify for the viewers.

You can tell that, I mean, this looks like a wedding band. It's on my left hand and everything, so.

Making sure.

Okay. Everything's fine. Yeah. Did you want to ask me about my trip?

Clearly you want me to ask you. Yeah. How was your trip? I planned it. Everyone.

And she did do a fantastic job. I really, I appreciated all your planning because, man, traveling, it's fun, but it's busy and tiring. You know, you gotta get there, you gotta learn your way around, figure out where you're going, get to this place. At this time, we were not over scheduled, but still we had stuff on the schedule and so we had to be there and. But it was, yeah, it was super fun, man. I realized I'm like, I can still do this. I'm still young at heart.

Yeah, no, I mean, like, it's great that you are able bodied. I'm just saying, like, some people aren't.

Well, right. And you know, I mean, I thought about that as we were, you know, as you're walking around and you see people that are a little bit older than I am or a lot older than I am and they're trying to get around and do this stuff and it's just, it just gets harder and harder. I mean, the other reason it gets harder to travel when you get older is just because you're more and more spoiled. Yeah, true. You know, when you're your age, you're like, oh, no big deal. I can sleep on a train. I can sleep in some room with a bunch of random people. Yeah, that's. No, that's not happening for me.

Well, you were talking. I guess I want to bring up the subject. I feel like this does relate to just medicine and, you know, the whole idea of, like, working so hard now for this, like, delayed gratification because. But you talked about that book where, like, it only goes so much with the cost benefit of, okay, I maybe, like, $5,000 to go on a big trip right now seems like so much. But, like, if you spend that and if you spent that, you know, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, yeah, it wouldn't seem like that much, but then, like, you wouldn't be able to do the same thing.

You can't do the same much. So the book is called Die with Zero, which is. It's kind of under the pretenses of a financial book, but it's really like a philosophy way of living your life. And it sounds kind of simple, like, okay, like, you're just trying to spend all your money before you die, but that's not so much. It. It's really about, like, trying to maximize your experiences at the time when you can most benefit from those experiences. And so, yeah, to do the same trip at your age versus my age, I mean, it's going to cost me like, four times as much because I just need so much more. I cannot, you know, I just. I can't go just to some little hostel and be in a room with a bunch of people and, you know, it's just not going to be. I'm not going to get the same thing out of that. And one of the other points that he talks about is having those experiences earlier in your life, then you have that experience for longer.

Oh, that's true.

You know, so people are taught, and it's an important point. You're taught about compounding interest and about how if you save when you're young, then that money is gonna grow and grow. And that's true. But also your experiences are gonna grow and grow in you. And so kind of putting off so much until you are. Until you're stable and until you can is just really kind of foolhardy. You gotta take those experiences. You know, when you're younger, he talks about the fact that, like, his. His buddy, when they're like in their 20s, goes, you know, borrows some money and goes and travels. And he just thinks that's the craziest thing because they're not making any money at the time. And. But then. And so he saves his money. Well, he's making very Little money. And so he saves like a bunch, like a big percentage of his paycheck, which ends up being like a couple thousand dollars.

Yeah.

And then somebody that he, his boss is like, well, that's just stupid. You know, saving a couple thousand dollars at this age when you're on a trajectory to make more money. Now, obviously, you know, some of this is a little bit of privilege. Cause it depends on what, you know, what type of career you have and all of that. So there's lots of caveats to this. And in general, it's not really great advice to just be like, oh, yeah, go spend every single penny that you make. But it's also, he, I mean, the guy says that, you know, when he was 30, he tried to go to Europe and he said he already had, kind of missed the boat. It was not the same as experience as it would have been at age 22, 23. So, yeah, it did. I mean, it made me realize. But even then, like, even traveling now, I'm like, I'm much better off traveling now than waiting another 10 years. Yeah, of course, who knows if I'll even be around?

True. But also. Yeah, exactly. And I was talking, I. I saw a tick tock about this and some girl was saying that she spent like a couple thousand dollars on a trip and how like, she doesn't regret it. And then some financial burrow came on there and was like, like, well, if you put that in like a Roth IRA, then by the time that you're 40, then like, you're gonna have all this amount of money. And it's like, okay. But again, it, I mean, this comes from a place of privilege. If that is like, if you are like, providing for a household, if you are like, you know, this is, I'm talking about if you have food on your table, if you are comfortable, if you have money that you can either. If you have, if you have money that you can save and then some other money where you're choosing whether to save it or spend it on something. You know, that's kind of the situation.

You have to have like, kind of all of your basic needs met before you're even talking about doing this. Yeah.

So that's not, I think that's a big thing too, is just like time though, as well. And that's why I'm like, I, I'm so. For our listeners, I'm about to leave for a month to go backpack through Europe and I'm not gonna have this time ever again.

No, you're not.

And then like, yeah, Just going through med school and then going through residency.

And then it's time to pop out some kids.

Kids. And then like, all, like, all of that is just gonna catch up. So, like, I could not spend this money and I could save it, but, like, the money that I'm gonna spend is gonna be. I'm on a trajectory to become a doctor. So.

Yeah. So, you know, unless things really go downhill, you should be able to. No, I think. But that's the whole point is, like, having these experience, you know, if you.

A lot of people don't have the time.

Right. But. But sometimes people can, and they just keep pushing stuff off until retirement or until. Until whatever. Until this or that. And, you know, I mean, for a lot of people, that time never comes. It's. And also, man, just watching some of those people trying to climb up the Duomo, you know, when you're 70 something years old, is just not the same.

Yeah. My friends and I have had this conversation before about just like, having kids. And people are like, well, I just want to have kids early. Like, really early, so then I can, you know, enjoy my life after they finish. I'm just like, I don't. I don't.

Yeah, I don't know about that. I mean, there's no great time to have kids. You don't want to put it off for too long because then. Then that can cause its own set of problems. But. Yeah, I hate the idea of, like, okay, I mean, you could. I guess you could have a kid at 18 and. But I don't know, the thing about raising kids is you're never really done. Yeah, it just goes on and on.

Here, me.

Although I thought about that when I saw people traveling with small kids, and I was just like, oh, that's a bummer. I mean, Europe with kids.

I don't know how y' all did it. They took me to Germany when I was like, six.

Yeah, you were five. Actually. You had just turned five.

I was. When I was there last summer and I was looking at kids, they were, you know, the. The Coliseum is right there.

It's beautiful.

It's awesome. And you just have these kids breaking down ball and crying because they want to go to the playground across the street.

We have. I have a picture of that in the scrapbook where we were going up this, like, kind of gondola, ski lift type thing, and we were looking out over the Alps and it was so beautiful. But on the way up, we had seen that there was this pool down below. And so we were going up to this, like, mountain town and walking around there, and it was so beautiful. And the kids the whole time were like, we wanna go to the pool. We wanna go to the pool. And finally, we're like, okay, let's go back down and go to the pool. Because we can't go to a pool literally in our own backyard any day of the week.

That's on you, man. Like, I don't know why you took us there.

Yeah, it was. I mean, it was all right. It's just, you know, that it's a different trip, and we did have Grammy and GR with us, and so that was helpful. So, you know, they. They watched you while we did some stuff. But, you know, the whole time change and all that, I mean. Oh, it's just. It's difficult. I mean, it's difficult on me. It's hard on a kid.

Yeah.

I mean, there's some places that, like, going to a beach, different places. I mean, that's fun with kids because they're excited, especially if they give you free Slurpees. But. Yeah.

So this is a medical issue that relates to travel.

Okay.

Constipation.

Oh, God, I thought you were gonna say that.

Okay, Doctor, as a tip, as somebody who. Things kind of get real messed up on that side of things. What do you have?

Well, yeah, constipation is a difficult problem with traveling for multiple reasons. Number one, you get dehydrated a lot of times while you're traveling.

They don't drink water over there in Europe either.

That is true. And you. I brought my refillable, reusable water bottle, and I felt weird carrying it around. Like, it's just. Number one, it was kind of heavy, and I didn't really. I wasn't allowed. I was not permitted to walk around with a backpack because my daughter said that that was not cool. So I wasn't wearing a backpack. So then I didn't have anything to put my water thing in, so I could have carried it. Which, again, is totally normal over here to be walking around with your water bottle. But they just. People don't do that there.

Yeah, they just don't drink water.

No, they don't drink water. And then you've got to ask for it and you got to pay for it. Then they'll bring you some water. And it costs, like, as much as wine.

Yeah.

So you might as well just drink.

The wine that's coming from the doctor.

Yeah. So anyway, you gotta. You gotta, like, make that effort to drink plenty of water. And then, you know, part of the Reasons like your sleep schedule gets messed up, and so that can mess up your bowel schedule, but once that gets a little bit better, but then, you know, I think there's nothing wrong with taking something like Miralax, you know, or a stool softener to just kind of start getting things on the right track. And then, you know, if you can. I mean, the other thing is that, like, when you. You just eat differently traveling than you do at home. I don't know. Like, I wasn't. I was there in Italy. I wasn't eating a lot of, like, quinoa and flaxseed and other things that are, you know, a little bit better for your digestive system. Was eating, like, cheese and bread and pasta. It was delicious. The.

Also with that, people say that, like, you can eat pasta and stuff like that over there because it's different than the pasta over here. And, like, you don't gain weight from it. Well, people talk about that all the time. That's, like, very, like. Yeah, that's a thing.

Oh, my God. I mean, here's the difference. The pasta is. It's a portion, like, as big as.

Like, you know, you experienced that the portions were small, so much smaller. Really?

Yes. Well, especially if you're eating, like, a traditional Italian meal, you're supposed to have, like, pasta. Well, first you have, like, your antipasta, your, you know, kind of appetizer, then you have a pasta. Then you're supposed to have your main dish, you know, your meat, and then you have your dessert. But so the pasta is, like. If you get pasta in that situation, it's not that much at all. But even if you get it as your main dish, it's just. It's not like going to the Cheesecake Factory where they give you this, you know, enormous plate full of stuff.

So you're calling mib on the whole thing?

I'm calling mib.

Different water.

It's the same stuff. It's just the, you know, it's portion sizes now. It is, like, nice and fresh and good. And I do think when food is really good and satisfying, you don't have that feeling of, like, you have to eat gobs and gobs of it. You know, like, it's. It's really good. And so. But also, I think the meal, you know, the meal takes a long time. You know, you're sitting there for a long time, and that's. Well, I don't know what that has to do with anything, but you're just.

Upset with the meals taking a long time.

It was Very. I mean, I. It was fine. I didn't have anywhere I had to be, but I was like, you know, sometimes you're just like, I'm done. And then you gotta ask for the check. And then eventually they'll bring you the check. And then eventually, then you say you wanna use a credit card. Then they finally come over to you with the credit card machine. You know, it's good. I just. You gotta just be patient. We went. We were trying to find a place to eat when we were in Spain, and we asked that. We came in and we said, oh, you know, do you have any tables? He's like, no, we don't have any tables right now. And then we said, well, how long do you think it would be? And he just looked at us like, how would I know? Like, you know, people will be done when they're done. You know, it's not like there's some formula for knowing when people are gonna finish their meal.

That's funny.

Yeah. But no, I don't think anything's different about the inherently different other than just the quality of the food is better and the portions are different and, you know, it's good stuff. So backing up. So back to your last episode without me when I was sitting there listening and I had so much to say. I had so much witty banter to say while I was listening. You weren't there, but yeah, I mean, oh, my God, she just was. She was such a dud that AI.

The other woman.

The other woman. It's not like I was jealous. There was nothing to be jealous of. But the, you know. Yeah, so you were talking about that Huberman guy, and I don't. I've never really listened to him. I don't know much about him, but I there. I did have several thoughts about that. I mean, one is this idea. And there's a word for this. We should look this up if we were, you know, if we had like a legitimate fact checking crew or something on our podcast. But, you know, when people, they're an expert in one thing and so then they claim to be an expert in all of these other things. And, you know, I think, you know, you do see that with. I mean, some doctors kind of do that, but especially somebody who's like, you know, a scientist and, you know, and they are very, very educated and there's lots of things that they really know a lot about. But that doesn't mean just because you're a PhD in something that you know everything about all of these other things. And so I Think that that is something that again, that that guy does and that a lot of people do. And I saw that a lot during COVID when people would say, oh, I am. You know, there's one lady was like, I work at, I have a lab at mit. And then she went on and on about whatever her crazy stuff was. And then I looked it up. She was not a professor at mit. She happened to have a lab on the campus of mit. She had no affiliation whatsoever with mit. And I was like, I don't know how MIT is letting you get away with spouting off this stuff, but you know, when. But anyway, so people kind of use whatever credentials they have. Oh, and her, she did have a PhD and it was in computer science. And then she was saying all of this stuff about medicine and I think she was like an anti COVID vaccine. I can't remember what her whole thing was. But anyway, she was spouting off all kinds of stuff when she had no expertise in that whatsoever. So I think that that Huberman guy does that. Now. I have no doubt that he probably is good at looking at scientific data.

That's the thing. That's what people are like, oh, well, since they, you know, if they have a PhD in this thing, then they're trained to look at this data and all of that. But like the idea that he's like taking these one studies and talking about them and saying like, then this is like what you should do. It's just not. Like, that's not how it. Yeah. And yeah, maybe it is like a quote unquote peer reviewed study or whatever, but like, you can't make a claim based on something like that.

Oh my gosh. And anything that like one study, you can find a study to show any. Anything. Yeah, and I do. I mean, I get. Sometimes people send me studies on things and they're like, oh, or they'll bring them in and you happy to talk about it. But I'm like, this is one study. And when you have to just put it in the context of all of the other body of evidence that is out there, and especially if you look at a study that's from a long time ago, sometimes people pull out something and I'm like, this is from 1975. If this thing had any credence, somebody would have replicated it in a bigger study. So I can't pay too much attention to that. So yeah, I mean, I think it's also.

It's just caution. Well, okay, so he might have other interests in other fields and Other things, but, like, claiming, like, using his credentials to, like, back up what he's saying on this podcast with millions and millions and millions of people listening. Like, I don't know, you just have an ethical responsibility to. Even if you say, Even if you read a study and, like, you're talking about it, and, I don't know, you just have an ethical responsibility to just make sure you re. Emphasize the point that, like, this is one study or whatever. I don't know.

No, I think that's true. And I mean, that happens to me all the time. Patients ask me about different diseases and things. And, you know, there's so much that I'm like, I, I am not an expert in this. Like, I can say, I have read this. You know, this is what I remember. This is what you know, this is what I know about it. But I'm like, but I can send you to a specialist who knows more about this than I do. And if they say this, then, then take their word for it. They're gonna know more about this than I do. But I mean, people ask you all kinds of questions as a doctor, and sometimes when you're first starting out, you feel like you're supposed to say, like, oh, yeah, I know this, I know this. Well, no, you can't possibly know all that stuff. So I think that that's, you know, it's kind of a red flag when he's sort of pretending to be an expert in all those things. But the juicier part is, you know, okay, can somebody be really good at their job and be a complete liar in their personal life?

Yeah, but. Okay, I'll ask you this. And I've been asking people this. What if, like, you need a surgery and you are like, you just need, you need a knee replacement, and this person is the best person that can.

Do this knee replacement?

Like, absolutely 100%, like, number one person. And either they're gonna do it, but they're a terrible person in their personal life. And they have also just been lying and manipulating and cheating and doing all that stuff. Like, do you want that person to do your knee replacement?

I mean, it's a good question because your first instinct is to be like, yeah, I don't care what their personal life is like, I just want the most sense skilled person operating on my knee. And if that is really your only interaction with them is they're coming in, they're doing this thing, and then they're leaving, you know, then. Then that would be the truth. But even a surgeon, I mean, you do have to. You know, you do see them afterwards. You do have to have them. You say, oh, hey, you know, did everything go fine? Okay, what if. What if they did have a complication during the surgery? Are they gonna tell me about that? Are they an honest person? I mean, there still could be other issues that could happen to somebody who happens to be, you know, if they're really somebody that's like a, you know, kind of a liar and a manipulator, I would say it just. It does kind of. It depends on exactly what they're doing now. I don't know. I guess if you're thinking about, like, if they're fixing your car. I don't know. There are certain circumstances where I think I'm like, yeah, I don't care what kind of person they are. I just want them doing this one job. And as long as they can do that job, that's fine. But I think it's a pretty narrow scale.

No, yeah, I understand what you're saying. Like, yeah, I don't know. There's a lot of other people that can do a knee replacement. I would rather get somebody else who is an honest person. That's something that. But, yeah, I guess there is a scale.

Yeah. And it depends on the level of difficulty. Now, there may be some operation that is so, so difficult, and there's only, like, a handful of people in the entire world that can do it, and they might all be jackasses.

There's also, like. There's a spectrum of, like, a bad person. Like, yes, it's. You know, no one's perfect. And I've talked about that. I emphasize, like, I'm not expecting, like, that's what the whole cancel culture issue, I think. I think that's where it gets also really complicated is because someone might have done something, like, not so bad or maybe. Yeah, I mean, that's also, like, opinion based too. And. But then they're, like, placed at the same level as somebody who likes. Was a complete racist and, like, terrible person. Awful, all of that. So it's like. So then you're like, oh, you know that they're not a good person. You kind of place them all into this bucket when it's like, well, no, we can't put both these people on the same level. Like, nobody's perfect. Everyone is gonna have some issues or something wrong with them or something you don't agree with.

Well, right. And that's, you know. No, I think that's very true. And I think that that kind of happens. I don't know. I was having discussions with people of, like, you know, sometimes you're friends with somebody and then you find out something person, and then you're like, okay, does that make it so that you can't be friends with them? And sometimes it's something where you're like, oh, okay, I don't love that. But that's. But that's okay. I can look past that. But then there might be certain things of, like, well, what if that person is a child molester? Yeah, Like, I can't overlook that. So I think it's. Yeah, there's definitely levels to all of that stuff. But anyway, I don't know that dude. I certainly would not be interested in listening to his podcast.

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. We had a question from a listener. Her name is Indu from Dallas. And she wanted to know if she really had to do all of these bloody tests that her doctor's telling her to do. She might not have said it like that, but that would sound like something she would say. I mean, basically, when you get reminded by your doctor, you have to come in and do X, Y and Z. And she's like, do I really have to do that? Or somebody just trying to make money or insurance companies are checking the boxes or what. Why do you have to really do these things? And so I just thought I would review a little bit of, like, what stuff you really need to do and how important is it? And let me just say, sometimes I get patients that will come in and they'll say, like, oh, well, it's all right. I don't have to do any of that stuff because I went ahead like. Like full body scan done. Like, I went and, you know, had this CT scan done on my whole body. So I'm all good. Tests like that are not anywhere in all of the recommendations of Health Maintenance. You can look at the recommendations from the United States Preventative Services Task Force. It's called the uspst. They have to have a lot of evidence to recommend that something be done. And so they go through. And so, like, they kind of take something like, okay, mammograms. Should you get mammograms or not get mammograms? And what age should you do it and how often should you do it? And they go through and they rank those things A, B, C, D, F, or something like that. And if it gets a recommendation of an A or a B, then that's something that you should do. So anyway, like, I mean, and so you actually can go to that website and you can type in, like, your age and your gender, and it'll tell you, like, boom. These are all the things that you need to do. I'm just gonna give a little plug for good old fashioned primary care and good old primary care, doing all the, you know, the hard work that needs to be done. And you don't. A lot of times, you don't need a bunch of fancy tests, but you do need to do those basic recommendations. Indoor. Okay.

Subtweet or direct tweet. Okay, well, thanks for sharing. Shout out pcps. Make sure you get established somebody and regular doctor. All right, well, thank you guys so much for listening. You can find us on tik tok@generationsmd. Follow our new Instagram @generationsmd, and we will hopefully talk to you next week. Bye, guys.

Bye.