Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks edboous.
Speaker 2: Any back and welcome back to the show. This is
Speaker 2: the Weekend Collective. I'm Tim Beverage. And by the way,
Speaker 2: if you missed Politics Central, our discussion around tariffs and
Speaker 2: trade and all that sort of stuff, you can go
Speaker 2: and check out our podcast where you had a chat
Speaker 2: with Oliver Hartwich from the New Zealand Initiative as well
Speaker 2: as Brad Olson, who also did quite a good explainer.
Speaker 2: I thought on you know why PPPs versus just the
Speaker 2: government funding itself. So check out out podcast on News Talks,
Speaker 2: hev website or on iHeart Radio. But right now it's
Speaker 2: time for the Health Hub and we're actually well we're
Speaker 2: gonna have a chat about a couple of things. One
Speaker 2: is about the stones in our lives and whens you
Speaker 2: should actually maybe you think, well, hang on it, I
Speaker 2: don't mean to the doctor for five years and I've
Speaker 2: hit my thirties or hit my forties, or if hit
Speaker 2: my fifties or a hit in my sixties. Is there
Speaker 2: a particular warrant of fitness I should go and get
Speaker 2: from a doctor. Should I go and get some blood tests?
Speaker 2: Every now and again, should I get your doctor to
Speaker 2: give me the give me the finger where I don't
Speaker 2: really want it? Or am I putting that off? And
Speaker 2: it's ten years later. So the milestones because it has
Speaker 2: been highlighted around the question around testing for bowel cancer.
Speaker 2: There is a tricky political question, which is cause may
Speaker 2: cause some problems for the government. But the question some
Speaker 2: people might have, we shouldn't be waiting till fifty eight
Speaker 2: to get a check for bowel cancer. Who should Looking
Speaker 2: at your own personal circumstances, when should you go and
Speaker 2: see someone about a particular issue. You might know that
Speaker 2: mum and dad both got it, or your mum had
Speaker 2: got breast cancer and her late forties or something, so
Speaker 2: obviously that would be something you'd flag with your doctor.
Speaker 2: We're going to dig into that. But also pain, because
Speaker 2: I reckon I've got a theory and I'm going to
Speaker 2: turn this Mike. If so you can't hear him laugh
Speaker 2: at my my take on it. There is anyway but pain.
Speaker 2: I've read a few things that tell us that, look,
Speaker 2: paracetamol can be useful for some things but generally useless
Speaker 2: for others. And of course we talked about it with
Speaker 2: cold medication. They're some of the cold medification was barely
Speaker 2: better than the placebo. But what are the genuinely affected
Speaker 2: pain reliefs? Pain relievers or there's a lot of it placebo.
Speaker 2: So if you've got a question around pain, give us
Speaker 2: a call as well. At one hundred and eighty ten
Speaker 2: and eighty. That's opened the floodgates wide open for my
Speaker 2: guests who like you can hear them in the back grade.
Speaker 2: You can even recognize them by his sniggering. It's doctor
Speaker 2: John Cameron.
Speaker 3: Hello, how are you good afternoon?
Speaker 2: How are you excellent? Absolutely superse I like your arts.
Speaker 2: When I asked you before when we were caught up
Speaker 2: out outside the studio and you said, you know, I
Speaker 2: woke up this morning and that's always good news, and
Speaker 2: I actually think that that sounds like a flippant response.
Speaker 2: But you know what, you wake up and you're alive,
Speaker 2: and isn't life? You know, life's good?
Speaker 3: Yeah, for most people, life is a really great experience.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So let's take each.
Speaker 3: Day, make the most out of each day, fill it
Speaker 3: with whatever you can to make a smile on your dial.
Speaker 3: And the way we go.
Speaker 2: It's funny I thought about I was talking to you
Speaker 2: as well. I thought about my dad. I went for us.
Speaker 2: I've been trying to keep going for swims, and I
Speaker 2: know that as we get closer to winter, there's good
Speaker 2: of a day where I'm like our stuff first. But
Speaker 2: it was a beautiful day to down. I went for
Speaker 2: a swim. And my dad, when he was in his nineties,
Speaker 2: used to still go for a swim at Coe Beach
Speaker 2: and he was getting on and we used to be like, oh, Dad,
Speaker 2: you know this is a bit dangerous and what if
Speaker 2: something happens? And he said, look, if something happens, I'll
Speaker 2: just quietly slip beneath the waves and that'll be fine
Speaker 2: by me. And it's funny now every time I go
Speaker 2: for a swim, I get it because he was living
Speaker 2: life the way he wanted to. Because often our kids
Speaker 2: want us to play it safe and don't do that,
Speaker 2: and don't that's like, well, what's the point live while
Speaker 2: you can beg of the kids? Yeah, bug of the.
Speaker 3: Kids, spend your money, don't give them any inheritance, and
Speaker 3: have a great lit amount of fun doing it. There's
Speaker 3: a book called I'm Being Mortal by Uttel goron.
Speaker 2: Day I'm Being Mortal.
Speaker 3: On Being mortal, okay, And it's all about what matters
Speaker 3: to you and your life, and that's what you should
Speaker 3: aim for. And it was a similar story to what
Speaker 3: you were saying. His dad had a really nasty terminal
Speaker 3: disease and they had a procedure which they could do
Speaker 3: that might have given him some sort of extra time
Speaker 3: or something. And the question was if we do this,
Speaker 3: will my dad be able to sit up watch a
Speaker 3: football game and have a beer. And they said, yeah, okay,
Speaker 3: do the job. So you know, that was important to
Speaker 3: his dad and if it gave him that back, that
Speaker 3: was worthwhile.
Speaker 2: It's interesting how I think that, even though it sounds
Speaker 2: so wishy washy, the questions about your own philosophy around
Speaker 2: life become more and more important. We should be important
Speaker 2: all the time. But because I think that they are
Speaker 2: the ones that people go, they get, I would say
Speaker 2: that it's usually the dependents who care about mum and
Speaker 2: dad or granddad who get frustrated when a doctor may
Speaker 2: be like, well, hang on, your mum and dad has
Speaker 2: said that this is what they want and this may
Speaker 2: not be the treatment that's going to prolong their lives,
Speaker 2: but it's going to mean that they can live better
Speaker 2: for the way, and young ones want d Mum and
Speaker 2: dad around for as long as they can, generally just
Speaker 2: because they love them. But the question is a deeper
Speaker 2: one about for you know, how do you want to
Speaker 2: live your life? Do you want to sink beneath the
Speaker 2: waves that do you want to be stuck in your
Speaker 2: bed for two years doing nothing?
Speaker 3: I think I've spoken about this before, but there's a
Speaker 3: thing called not advas It's Advance Care directive for advanced planning,
Speaker 3: which you can do at any time, and you should
Speaker 3: be doing it at twenty and thirty and at forty
Speaker 3: and at fifty. You don't have to wait until you're
Speaker 3: seventy or eighty, and you're getting closer to that shuffling
Speaker 3: off the mortal coil. But just detailing it how you
Speaker 3: want to live your life, what's important to you? And
Speaker 3: if you do strike something which is going to take
Speaker 3: you off the planet, how would you want that to
Speaker 3: be run for you? It's not carston Stone, no change
Speaker 3: it at any time. It gets you thinking about what's
Speaker 3: important to you, and it lets other people know if
Speaker 3: you can't talk about it, if something's happened to you,
Speaker 3: they can go back to this document and see. So
Speaker 3: it's a really important thing to do. It's online where
Speaker 3: you go.
Speaker 2: What's the name of that book again, It's called.
Speaker 3: On Being Mortal atol Gorwonda. He's a surgeon, you're a
Speaker 3: neurologists in the States.
Speaker 2: You've got to be really careful. I thought you said
Speaker 2: a we we searched, and I meant he was really sure.
Speaker 3: When you're bringing up the hospital and you want either
Speaker 3: the neurologists or the neurologists, so you've got to say
Speaker 3: eurology as and we we saw neurology as and brains
Speaker 3: the other way, you end.
Speaker 2: Up talking to the long So you got to say
Speaker 2: a neurologists, and you say it wrong and you walk
Speaker 2: in the guy says, we'll drop your packs. It's like,
Speaker 2: what the hell, it's all in the head.
Speaker 3: So no, he's he was a surgeon and he's done
Speaker 3: a whole lot about surgical safety and about patient directed medicine.
Speaker 3: He's worth read.
Speaker 2: You mentioned you know, think about these things through your
Speaker 2: twenties and thirties, which does tie into that whole question.
Speaker 2: Did I have a reasonable crack at talking at giving
Speaker 2: a summary about the question of approaching milestones as that
Speaker 2: of course it's always individual and summing people up by
Speaker 2: age or whatever. It takes you so far. But in
Speaker 2: the end, if you know you've got a family history
Speaker 2: of something, then you're going to be getting bow cancer
Speaker 2: screening earlier than others, or breast cancer screening whatever. When
Speaker 2: should are there milestones?
Speaker 3: Though?
Speaker 2: Because should I turn up when I should? I have
Speaker 2: turned up as I did to my doctor and when
Speaker 2: I hit forty and I said, I said I need
Speaker 2: a fall on men's health check and he said, did
Speaker 2: you just book them for fifteen minutes? You should have
Speaker 2: warned me about that.
Speaker 3: Anyway, it's warning and we can do a lot of
Speaker 3: the laboratory work before you come, so it makes it
Speaker 3: a hell of a lot more sensible to sit down
Speaker 3: and talk you through your results. Otherwise you do two visits,
Speaker 3: waste your time, waste my time. So pre plan. Talk
Speaker 3: to the nursing team at the practice, say, look, this
Speaker 3: is what I wanted to be doing. Will the doc
Speaker 3: be okay to set me up some screening blood so
Speaker 3: that I can bring them in and we can sit
Speaker 3: down and have a talk. So is there a specific time?
Speaker 3: What we're talking about, you are screening for health, so
Speaker 3: you're starting with someone who's got no disease, no symptoms,
Speaker 3: no science, no nothing. It's always dangerous because you're always
Speaker 3: do on the risk of making them worse. So you're
Speaker 3: starting with someone who is totally well, and some people.
Speaker 2: If you do this first to do nor.
Speaker 3: Investigate investigation on them, you will actually make them worse.
Speaker 3: So it's called NH Numbers needed to treat versus numbers
Speaker 3: needed to harm. If we had to do this to
Speaker 3: a thousand people, how many of those thousands we have
Speaker 3: to do this too to save one life? If we
Speaker 3: did the same thing to that thousand people, how many
Speaker 3: people would be harmed. As long as you're helping more
Speaker 3: people than you're harming, it's probably okay. But you have
Speaker 3: to explain to people that screening is a very inexact science. Okay,
Speaker 3: everyone believes that if I go and get screened, it's
Speaker 3: going to tell me yes or no. If it's no,
Speaker 3: I'm fine. If it's yes, I will be cured.
Speaker 2: I think. And part of that's actually it's important to
Speaker 2: understand what your family's health history is, of course, because
Speaker 2: if you've had a if there's been a history of
Speaker 2: bow cancer in your family or something, then obviously I
Speaker 2: don't know actually does How does the politics play. I
Speaker 2: know we've got a bit of controversy hapening around race
Speaker 2: and all that sort of thing, But how does it
Speaker 2: play if somebody does have a history within their family
Speaker 2: with bow screening screening, do they actually get that funded
Speaker 2: at a certain age or no?
Speaker 3: As far as population based screening for bow cancer, it's
Speaker 3: age related. Yeah, totally age related to access a screening colonoscopy,
Speaker 3: which be the next step. Yes, there are provisos in
Speaker 3: there for family history and personal history and those sorts
Speaker 3: of things. So a population based screening.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's that's usually any time provider you to get
Speaker 2: a test and you mightest tests, think cold.
Speaker 3: Blood testing, which is the bowel screening that we've got
Speaker 3: in New Zealand.
Speaker 2: As opposed to someone who's got a family history. So
Speaker 2: we go and see their GP, they get referred and
Speaker 2: they get put in for a colonoscopy.
Speaker 3: Possibly possibly, yeah, depending on that. And you've got to
Speaker 3: have quite a strong family history of bell cancer to
Speaker 3: actually reach the threshold, because Belle cancer is such a
Speaker 3: common disease in this country, so for it to raise
Speaker 3: its head as a genetically running process, you need a
Speaker 3: quite strong family history to get the scope.
Speaker 2: Look just before we go to the cause, because you've
Speaker 2: mentioned that. I always think it's useful when we ever
Speaker 2: have an opportunity for people to learn something about how
Speaker 2: can they best protect themselves in these things? What are
Speaker 2: the primary causes of what are we doing wrong in
Speaker 2: our lifestyle generally? Is there? I know it's a complex,
Speaker 2: complex question. How long have we got but but are
Speaker 2: there some basics that we are doing wrong with our
Speaker 2: diets that mean that we do have this prevalence of
Speaker 2: bowel cancer? Not enough rough urgeon, not enough healthy food.
Speaker 3: I think I've told you before that we can equate
Speaker 3: the instance of oil cancer to the number of telephones
Speaker 3: at a household, So therefore it's telephones which cause bowl cancer.
Speaker 3: So being very careful, correlation does not equal causation. And
Speaker 3: that is why it is so difficult to do the
Speaker 3: cause all bit on it. We can associate it with
Speaker 3: all sorts of things. There must be some dietary post
Speaker 3: because it's part of our gasri intestinal system. But what
Speaker 3: is it? Is it we see these things associated with
Speaker 3: high meat intake? Da da da da da da. Is
Speaker 3: that the causation or is it something else that leads
Speaker 3: you to have the high meat intake that could be
Speaker 3: the actual cause of the background. So teasing that out
Speaker 3: is what we're trying to do every day, trying to
Speaker 3: learn about these diseases to see what is the market
Speaker 3: we could find. The classic one was stomach cancer. Firstly,
Speaker 3: we've got a genetic process that we know there are
Speaker 3: a group of people who genetically predisposed to stomach cancer.
Speaker 2: Cool.
Speaker 3: We also now know that it can be related to
Speaker 3: a bacterical t helico back to polari, which lives on
Speaker 3: our stomach lining. Wow, we only have known that for
Speaker 3: the last ten to fifteen years. Besides that, we didn't
Speaker 3: know that. So we found that people had ulcers more
Speaker 3: likely to get stomach cancer. We didn't know what the cause.
Speaker 3: If it is, we now not it seelo go back
Speaker 3: to polari. So these things are coming. We're still trying
Speaker 3: to tease all that stuff out.
Speaker 2: How much of it In the end, it spoils down
Speaker 2: to the luck of the gene pool in terms of
Speaker 2: well and number jeanes, you know, because we see plenty
Speaker 2: of examples people who abuse them themselves with smoking, eating
Speaker 2: the wrong foods. You know, I mean, and you say
Speaker 2: that funny thing is funny things. I've even heard people say, well,
Speaker 2: maybe they did diet ninety nine, but possibly they will
Speaker 2: have to a lot of lived to one hundred and
Speaker 2: nine if they haven't done.
Speaker 3: Anyway, you do the sensible things. Choose your parents, well,
Speaker 3: eat a diet which is a cross all around, get exercised.
Speaker 3: Don't be a smoker or be a non smoker. Please
Speaker 3: have as small an alcohol intake that you can have.
Speaker 3: There's all of these things which will give you the
Speaker 3: best chance.
Speaker 2: Okay, but just genuinely, but generally speaking, should people at
Speaker 2: least because some people don't get sex very often, they
Speaker 2: don't go to the doctor. Is there a sort of
Speaker 2: period where you should at least present yourself to the
Speaker 2: doctor for a chat about maybe to even just keeping
Speaker 2: up with immunizations or whatever. But how often a normally
Speaker 2: healthy person should they go and make an appointment once?
Speaker 2: It'll be what two five.
Speaker 3: Years and twenty year olds sea bulletproof it for every
Speaker 3: decade gets a little bit more bullet dangerous. So yeah,
Speaker 3: we would do a five yearly review is probably reasonable. Okay,
Speaker 3: haven't you heard about forty fifty We're in the background,
Speaker 3: we're doing cardiovascular risk screening. We're doing diabetic screening, We're
Speaker 3: doing cervical screening, We're doing brist screening, we're doing balled
Speaker 3: screen cancer screening. All of these things are happening actually
Speaker 3: in the background. It's part of our job when you
Speaker 3: enroll with a practice is to take responsibility for offering
Speaker 3: you the screening processes.
Speaker 2: Does that mean if I'm weather practice, I'm going to
Speaker 2: get a reminder for my flu jab at some stage yeap,
Speaker 2: oh god, okay, good, I'll mark that one as not
Speaker 2: to follow up on you anyway. Look, we want to
Speaker 2: take your calls on this as well, because the other
Speaker 2: question is around pain relief. We'll have a chat with
Speaker 2: John after the break about this. But this is your
Speaker 2: opportunity to get on the blower. Oh eight hundred and
Speaker 2: eighty text nine two niney two. This is News Talks.
Speaker 2: He'd be the Health Hub. It is twenty past four. Right,
Speaker 2: we're back with doctor John Cameron taking your calls and Enid.
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you for waiting in it. How are
Speaker 2: you doing well?
Speaker 4: I'm not doing great actually, but hi Tim and Dr John.
Speaker 4: I'll try and tell you my symptoms quickly. End of
Speaker 4: last September, had a fall got checked out, everything was fine.
Speaker 4: About ten days later, while driving, I noticed my right
Speaker 4: ankle had become very stiff, and then the whole foot
Speaker 4: became stiff and heavy, and my lower leg. I've seen
Speaker 4: a neurologist. She didn't think it was anything to do
Speaker 4: with the fall. She thought it might be a stroke.
Speaker 4: I've had an MRI and an MRA and totally clear,
Speaker 4: no stroke. The next on the plan is stand on
Speaker 4: my spine and nerves. Have you come across anything like this? Please?
Speaker 3: Oh? Most mondays right, it's actually quite a qualty.
Speaker 4: Sundays is that the day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they all come in after the weekend. I think
Speaker 3: the important thing to take from your story is that
Speaker 3: having a negative MR of your head and a negative
Speaker 3: angiography of angiography of your head that makes a decent
Speaker 3: amount of safety. So we're not worried about a stroke
Speaker 3: or transient schemic attect or any other thing nasty going
Speaker 3: on inside your head. And in trying to define your
Speaker 3: problem a little bit more, yes, it may be coming
Speaker 3: from your back as the nerves which provide power and
Speaker 3: sensation to your lower limb, they emerge from the spine,
Speaker 3: and there can be pressure points on the spine on
Speaker 3: those nerves as they emerge from the spine. So that's
Speaker 3: a nice reasonable way to going about it. How much
Speaker 3: does it affect your day to day living at the moment?
Speaker 4: Oh a lot, because it's getting worse every day. Can
Speaker 4: hardly do anything. I mean, I don't go out anymore
Speaker 4: unless it's a medical appointment.
Speaker 3: That's sad? Is that because of pain or what.
Speaker 4: I mean? When I'm sitting down, it's lovely. When I
Speaker 4: get up, it's not exactly painful, but the toe of
Speaker 4: that foot sort of drags on the ground. I have
Speaker 4: to it's almost like foot drop.
Speaker 3: You know, there's a foot drop. I think that's what
Speaker 3: you're talking about. Yeah, Now that may well be coming
Speaker 3: from your lower back, unfortunately, and.
Speaker 4: I had the feeling it might be coming from the
Speaker 4: lower back. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And unfortunately, if it's going on that long and you
Speaker 3: do have a true foot drop, they tend not to
Speaker 3: actually get better. I'm sorry, thank you, thank you, sorry
Speaker 3: about that. Yeah. But what we try and do is
Speaker 3: we try and make it so that the foot doesn't drop,
Speaker 3: and we can use sort of inserts in your shoes
Speaker 3: that hold the ankle at ninety degrees so it's not normal,
Speaker 3: but it should give you back functioning. And I think
Speaker 3: the most important thing for you is to be upright,
Speaker 3: to be mobile, to be out in the world experiencing things,
Speaker 3: because otherwise your world has got the chance of becoming
Speaker 3: really small, very narrow, and that's not good for your health.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I mean, I've got a walker. My total weight
Speaker 4: is leaning on that walker when I walk, and last
Speaker 4: Thursday I fell over on the kitchen floor because my
Speaker 4: knee gave way.
Speaker 3: Hey, look, it's not hard getting mature, is it? It's
Speaker 3: not easy exactly. Yeah, it's hard work. Well done for
Speaker 3: making ninety three. So you're on the right track. Try
Speaker 3: and what we need to do if we can't find
Speaker 3: something to fix it up completely, to try and minimize
Speaker 3: the impact of this on your ongoing life.
Speaker 2: So who would en to talk to?
Speaker 3: Which is going to have a city of a lumber
Speaker 3: spine by the sound of it.
Speaker 4: Okay, So that's thank you very much, Dr John.
Speaker 2: Good luck and thank you for your call.
Speaker 3: Ah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's god. Getting old does, is there? It is
Speaker 2: hard work? I mean, well, actually to find me that
Speaker 2: question around keeping yourself fit as you get older and
Speaker 2: waits and things like that and sort of exit what
Speaker 2: is the most effective form of exercise when you are
Speaker 2: getting older, Because when people say, well, especially for guys
Speaker 2: once you fifties, you should be doing some sort of
Speaker 2: resistance training and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 3: Go out the front door.
Speaker 2: Get out the front door.
Speaker 3: It's the number one thing. It's there. You don't need
Speaker 3: a gym membership to do it. You don't need to
Speaker 3: get dressed in theker and go on two wheels. You
Speaker 3: can go out the front door and go for a
Speaker 3: walk and then put a hell into it and do
Speaker 3: some things like that for a start really important. And
Speaker 3: you're telling me about your dad who was did the
Speaker 3: round the base at what age?
Speaker 2: I'm going to check that. I'm pretty sure he was
Speaker 2: eighty eight good. I think his time was a hundred
Speaker 2: seventy two minutes, much faster than I would do. I think.
Speaker 2: I actually, I'm really glad I did this. I took
Speaker 2: a photo on my phone of his certificate, and Google
Speaker 2: photos is very clever. You can just say search for
Speaker 2: certificates and part up at pops.
Speaker 3: So being active, if you're looking at what makes people healthy,
Speaker 3: it's being in a society. So if you are alone
Speaker 3: and isolated in your house, your health is going to
Speaker 3: suffer significant.
Speaker 2: Well, that was I think that's what I was thinking
Speaker 2: of with then, and I didn't put it very well.
Speaker 2: But even though it's hard for her to get out,
Speaker 2: and of course I mean it's trying to be safe,
Speaker 2: but yet still if she's so comfortable on the couch,
Speaker 2: that's fine, but you can't be on the cauchule.
Speaker 3: In your decondition. You get weaker and weaker and weaker
Speaker 3: by not doing things.
Speaker 2: All right, give us a call eight hundred and eighty
Speaker 2: ten eight. You've got a few texts to go to first,
Speaker 2: so we're going to talk about pain as well. Somebody
Speaker 2: says he is swimming in the sea the best pain
Speaker 2: relief and well being. That's from Karen.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, it's great.
Speaker 2: What's so good about it?
Speaker 3: Are you using your whole body. You're taking gravity out
Speaker 3: of the equation so you can get your arms moving,
Speaker 3: your hips moving, knees moving, you're buoyant. It's good aerobic
Speaker 3: exercise and you normally do it with other.
Speaker 2: People and actually pretty social. Where it was noticed at
Speaker 2: a certain time, when the tide is between the sort
Speaker 2: of mid and high tide, you go part and it's
Speaker 2: I don't know, how much time they spend swimming, but
Speaker 2: they're sitting there smugly in their swimsuit. Ugler, well go on,
Speaker 2: well why not? I don't know. I think I think
Speaker 2: you actually better just have a good old fluppy pair
Speaker 2: of board shorts because more resistance, more workout. He wants
Speaker 2: the budge. Smuggler's goodness, man, I don't understand that. Here's
Speaker 2: a look. We're talking about pain as well. And one says, Hi,
Speaker 2: my husband has very sore hands and wrists from OS
Speaker 2: the our art writers, what would help with pain relief?
Speaker 2: He is allergic to die cloth. That's the one, thank you.
Speaker 3: Oh heck, warmth. Warmth will help keeping it moving. As
Speaker 3: you're coming back to the paraceedmal paraceed is not highly effective,
Speaker 3: but it's worth a trying to see what it's going
Speaker 3: to do if taken regularly, which means to every four hours,
Speaker 3: if you're going to get the benefit from it. That's
Speaker 3: where it is you're Keeping the joints moving is really important.
Speaker 3: If you've got a single isolated joint that's really sore
Speaker 3: and stuff. We can sometimes reduce down the swelling and
Speaker 3: pain with a little steroid injection into it, but it
Speaker 3: won't be forever at the last a short while, maybe
Speaker 3: three six months. There's a whole range of things that
Speaker 3: we can do for that, but keeping it moving is
Speaker 3: most important thing.
Speaker 2: Okay, afternoon, this is a question. I think a lot
Speaker 2: of people because you know, they have that maxigesic thing
Speaker 2: which combines paracetamol ibuprofene. This person says, afternoon, when I
Speaker 2: really need pain relief, I've learned to combine paracetamol and
Speaker 2: ibuprofne two each. So that's what two hundred mils two
Speaker 2: hundred times two paracetamol. Thank you. And if doctor friend
Speaker 2: told me I think the method, I don't know. It's
Speaker 2: nagb no. There's a typo here, so I don't know
Speaker 2: he's talking about it.
Speaker 3: Be careful, be careful. And ibuprofene is a six to
Speaker 3: eight hourly medicine. Paracetamol is a four hourly medicine. So
Speaker 3: if you're taking the combined one at a four hourly,
Speaker 3: you're underdosing on the you're overdosing on the ibuprofene. If
Speaker 3: you're taking it six hourly, you're underdosing on the paracetamol.
Speaker 2: So I guess the question is for a first hit.
Speaker 2: So you've got a.
Speaker 3: Two paracetamol and if that's not working four hours, time
Speaker 3: two parasi and wel plus two overprofen.
Speaker 2: And then wait for six hours before you replace.
Speaker 3: It in two parasion well at four hours after that.
Speaker 2: How do they work though? The different what's the difference
Speaker 2: between them.
Speaker 3: We don't know how paracetamol works.
Speaker 2: I love that that we don't know how it works.
Speaker 2: It's amazing game. I think the latest thing I heard
Speaker 2: on some you know, there's that always releases and results
Speaker 2: from some study that for tension headaches when you sort
Speaker 2: of wake up. It's quite good for tension headaches. I'm
Speaker 2: not sure where it is with period pain, but if
Speaker 2: you've got a sore thumb or something, it's a waste
Speaker 2: of time.
Speaker 3: It's worth a go, but don't expect miracles. Okay, So
Speaker 3: paracetamol in itself, within the dose of racy regime that
Speaker 3: you're talking about, it is safe. It is a highly
Speaker 3: toxic chemical and an overdose it is highly lethal. So
Speaker 3: please be careful with the dosing regime always with paracetamol,
Speaker 3: especially with kids. Don't overdose your kids. So we know
Speaker 3: that paracetamol seems to work somewhere in the brain. It
Speaker 3: does for mild pain. It also helped bring down fevers.
Speaker 3: That's what it does.
Speaker 2: How how did it end up being discovered? What know
Speaker 2: these They know these things, aren't you?
Speaker 5: So?
Speaker 3: Ibuprofen is a non sterilanti inflammatory drug. It interferes with
Speaker 3: the production of pro prostaglandins, which you're brought down from
Speaker 3: a thing called racodonic acid made out of spiders rachnids,
Speaker 3: and it races down to prost which cause pain and
Speaker 3: bleeding and swelling. And it also protects your tummy. So
Speaker 3: that's why we're very careful with them, because you lose
Speaker 3: that stomach protection.
Speaker 2: Which protects your tommy.
Speaker 3: One group of the prostaglandins recodon aid pathway.
Speaker 2: I see, So non steroidal anti inflammatory n s AI.
Speaker 2: What's the decent drugs drug? Okay? There we go. Okay,
Speaker 2: so they're all quite they all work differently, they do they? Well,
Speaker 2: how come I would we're talking about period pain in
Speaker 2: the break? How come natprogese, which is one of those
Speaker 2: neproxy and sodium please, Okay, that's the one, not the
Speaker 2: brand the drug approximant, Okay, versus ibuprofen is one more
Speaker 2: effective than the other.
Speaker 3: Though, see how it works for you?
Speaker 2: Really? But why would but approx and whatever it is
Speaker 2: you call it come. That's the one that people say, well,
Speaker 2: this is quite good.
Speaker 3: For periods because that's what we've come to know.
Speaker 2: Oh you've just come tonight, you come to know it.
Speaker 3: Some of them are more powerful anti inflammatories. There is
Speaker 3: another group of anti inflammatories called the cox two inhiblatives
Speaker 3: called Psychloagne two. They tend to hit the nasty prostate
Speaker 3: glanders but leave the stomach ones alone, so you get
Speaker 3: less of a stomach irritation with them.
Speaker 2: Is there one you're supposed to is the ibuprofens? And
Speaker 2: that those ones? Are they the ones you're supposed to
Speaker 2: take with a bit of food or something after decent meal,
Speaker 2: after a maine meal, not like just a glass of
Speaker 2: milk or something. What can you eat if you haven't
Speaker 2: had a maine meal, but you need it. We want
Speaker 2: to take one have one food? Would a sandwich be? Okay?
Speaker 3: A couple of sandwiches? So what you're trying to do
Speaker 3: is put some food in your stomach to buffer the
Speaker 3: effect of the anti inflammatory on the lining of the
Speaker 3: stomach because they will call stomach ulses.
Speaker 2: Okay, right, that's good, good because I think it's one
Speaker 2: of those things. I guess lost in the people are saying, oh,
Speaker 2: take a couple of natrin whatever it is. Sorry, I
Speaker 2: know brand names were try and stick away from varion names.
Speaker 2: That's why when people say I took of Is there
Speaker 2: an alternative to pane dollars? I say, well, you just
Speaker 2: look for another paracetamol? Correct also, and actually, by the way,
Speaker 2: go for it. Just ask the chemist for the end
Speaker 2: of the counter one. I don't mean the illegal one,
Speaker 2: but the non branded one, and you pay half the
Speaker 2: price for twice the number of pills. You pay a
Speaker 2: lot for that fancy packaging. But anyway, right, let's take
Speaker 2: some more calls. That sounded a pretty simicle on my part.
Speaker 2: You're rubbing off true, so true, Well done, Mary?
Speaker 5: Hello ah, yes, hi there. Infoseema. Is ZERI a cure
Speaker 5: for it? Or does it progressively just get worse?
Speaker 3: So infosema is a part of what we call chronic
Speaker 3: obstructive respiratory disease mixture of bronchite. Bronchite is esma and infosema.
Speaker 3: Infosema is We're the little in tubes which were the
Speaker 3: guests extreme occurs, they break down and rather than have
Speaker 3: little bubbles on the end of your fingertips, you end
Speaker 3: up with big floppy sacks. Can be caused by a
Speaker 3: number of things. It can be caused by a genetic
Speaker 3: process we think called alpha one needed trips and deficiency.
Speaker 3: It can be caused by inhaled substances like coal, dust
Speaker 3: and dust and things and cigarettes smoking sound number one thing.
Speaker 3: So to answer your question, emphysema itself, if that's a diagnosis,
Speaker 3: it doesn't improve, Okay, what we try. What we try
Speaker 3: and do is stop any more insults to your lungs
Speaker 3: by keeping your lungs as clean and as clear as
Speaker 3: we possibly can. There are some medicines which can help
Speaker 3: a little bit with the way that ear moves through
Speaker 3: your lungs, but it can't repair the damage those floppy
Speaker 3: sacs at the end of your ear tubes unfortunately.
Speaker 5: So does it progressively get a little bit worse as
Speaker 5: time goes.
Speaker 3: Slowly, and we can slow it up by minimizing the
Speaker 3: amount of toxins hitting your lungs. So fresh, clean mountaineer. Okay,
Speaker 3: thanks Mary, and okay, thank you so Mary, what did
Speaker 3: you want to say?
Speaker 5: Oh, I was just going to say I have found
Speaker 5: that exercising it helps.
Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely right.
Speaker 2: Thanks for your cole, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Ron.
Speaker 6: Hello, I just want to talk about jelatine again on
Speaker 6: pain on arthritis. I was over in Australia and I
Speaker 6: had pain in my fingers in hand. Ye, and how
Speaker 6: can I get rid of it? The girl told me
Speaker 6: that you can take gelatine. So I put in my coffee,
Speaker 6: put on my week picks. It doesn't much straight away,
Speaker 6: I mean I can guarantee on three months ago, but
Speaker 6: it seems to work and I had no pain since.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, I haven't read any studies on it. I
Speaker 3: haven't read any studies on gelatine itself, and uh famco thinking.
Speaker 3: I can't see how it would do a hell of
Speaker 3: a lot myself. But if you found that works for you,
Speaker 3: by all means, go for it. Yep.
Speaker 6: No, why works straightaway? It takes two or three months
Speaker 6: for kicking.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So we were talking about these things from a
Speaker 3: medical point of view. We need what's called a double blind,
Speaker 3: placebo controlled trial to be able to say categorically this
Speaker 3: does this or that, and I don't I haven't seen
Speaker 3: any studies on that, but I'll keep looking.
Speaker 2: Hey, thanks for your call.
Speaker 3: Ron.
Speaker 2: We'll be back in just a moment. As twenty two
Speaker 2: to two five newstalks it be. It's Newstalk's there be
Speaker 2: welcome back. This is the Health happ with doctor John Cameron.
Speaker 2: We're talking about well milestones and people's health when you
Speaker 2: get checked up, but more particularly pain relief as well. Actually,
Speaker 2: what are we doing? Let's go to Cheryl.
Speaker 7: Hello, Hi, Look it's actually Carol. It's not Sheryl.
Speaker 2: Oh, Okay, terrible that I'll blame my my other other
Speaker 2: probably the.
Speaker 7: Way I said it. Look, I've got polymylgeria and I've
Speaker 7: been on preaderzone. I had a really bad doze and
Speaker 7: I got it down from thirty to ten and that's
Speaker 7: all blown up again. It's gone from fifteen. My CPR
Speaker 7: has gone from fifteen to sixty five. And I've got
Speaker 7: the most dreadful headaches and I'm seeing a rheumatologist on Tuesday.
Speaker 3: What have you done? What have you done? Your pregnance dose.
Speaker 7: It's still on. Well, I've kept it low down to ten,
Speaker 7: so I haven't. I haven't up to it yet because
Speaker 7: I was getting all these weird symptoms and I couldn't
Speaker 7: cope with it. My body was out of zinc with
Speaker 7: my brain.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm not going to step in, but I think
Speaker 3: your rumatologists will increase your presnance own dose. Okay, how.
Speaker 7: Dangerous is that to your health?
Speaker 3: There are some risks with presnan zone. There are some
Speaker 3: benefits from presna zone. So polymildy ramatica is a horrible,
Speaker 3: nasty little thing where your joints become really stiff and sore,
Speaker 3: and we generally find that presna zone will will take
Speaker 3: away those symptoms, and then we try and get you
Speaker 3: on as lower dose as we can to minimize the
Speaker 3: long term effects of presna zone. So we try and
Speaker 3: get you down as much as you can, but sometimes
Speaker 3: you do have to play around with the dose in
Speaker 3: short little bursts if you've got a fleir of your disease.
Speaker 3: So anything is measured against the effect of the disease
Speaker 3: on your way that your world went, world runs. So
Speaker 3: if you're stiff and sore count lift your hands above
Speaker 3: your head, then the benefits from presnan zone grossly outweigh
Speaker 3: the risks.
Speaker 7: And I've heard that magnisium it's a let of magnesium
Speaker 7: that can help, and I've been shaking magnesium, but I'm
Speaker 7: wondering if on the wrong whimp.
Speaker 3: I'm not convinced that there is a big, big role
Speaker 3: in magnesium and polymage or America.
Speaker 2: Okay, thanks, thanks.
Speaker 3: So good luck. Good luck for your rheumatologist. If you've
Speaker 3: got really nasty headache, and especially if you've noticed any
Speaker 3: change in your vision, you must contact your GP or
Speaker 3: an emergency doctor straight away. Please. Okay, yep, that's a
Speaker 3: really important thing.
Speaker 2: Okay, good luck, Carol, thank you, thanks very much. Quick question,
Speaker 2: Good afterning Doctor John iman Gaba penton three hundred milligrams
Speaker 2: is MG's milligrams two, two or three times a day.
Speaker 2: Been on them for twelve years from my back at
Speaker 2: a discriptant removed in nine ninety four. Is a safe
Speaker 2: long term.
Speaker 3: As far as we know. Yes, yeah, it's a it's
Speaker 3: a nerve pain medicine was an anti epileptic at one stage.
Speaker 3: It's yeah. If it's doing the job, happy to be
Speaker 3: on it.
Speaker 2: Okay, another one. Hi, I'm fifty eight. The last time
Speaker 2: I went to a health test, I got asked. I
Speaker 2: asked to get my prostate tests by blood test. The
Speaker 2: young doctor said, they don't do that anymore, only when
Speaker 2: you start getting symptoms. Is that correct? Have we han't
Speaker 2: acount of worms on.
Speaker 3: That I know, we haven't known a can of words. No,
Speaker 3: we do do PSA testing, but it has to be
Speaker 3: informed consent. It's probably the it's the better test we've
Speaker 3: got at the moment. It's not perfect. It's got a
Speaker 3: whole range of false positive results, anything up to thirty
Speaker 3: forty percent even higher false positivity. So if you get
Speaker 3: a negative result, it's fine. We're actually moving away from
Speaker 3: screening with digital rectal exams unless you've got major symptoms.
Speaker 3: But doing a PSA test, I think we'll be considered
Speaker 3: with informed consent to be an appropriate pathway.
Speaker 2: Okay, right, another call and hello hello, yes, wait, I'll
Speaker 2: tell you what. I'm just going to put you back
Speaker 2: to my producer. And and because your ligne's a bit
Speaker 2: we've got we need to get your turn your radio
Speaker 2: off in the background, and we'll get on to you
Speaker 2: in just a moment. Look, so what of the John whatever?
Speaker 2: Have too aspirin as a as a brilliant drug? Why
Speaker 2: why is it? Why is it paracetamol? And and you
Speaker 2: know the I don't want to say the brand? What
Speaker 2: was it? You know? I be pray? Why I mean
Speaker 2: I got I got turned away from aspirin because I
Speaker 2: was a singer and it wasn't the risk of vocal hemorrhage,
Speaker 2: et cetera. Well, my specialist said probably best to avoid that,
Speaker 2: and I did have a couple of vocal hemorrhages to
Speaker 2: be fair. But why what what happened to aspirin?
Speaker 3: It's great drug, brilliant drag. So why what's a non
Speaker 3: stir royal anti inflammatory drug? So and an anti platelet drug.
Speaker 3: So it's got a very important effect if you've got
Speaker 3: a sore throat gargling and spitting or swallowing too soluble
Speaker 3: aspirin resolved in water is the best remedy you can
Speaker 3: ever possibly have. Don't buy over the canes the falling
Speaker 3: off the radar. It hasn't fallen off the radar. Anyone
Speaker 3: saying I've taken an asproa.
Speaker 2: There was saying taken it.
Speaker 3: So we've taken away from primary prevention. Okay, So someone
Speaker 3: who hasn't had a cardio escular event. The jury is
Speaker 3: still out whether taking half an esperin a day will
Speaker 3: do anything for you. If you've had a cardio escular event,
Speaker 3: especially if you're diabetic. Esperin has been proven to be
Speaker 3: very very effective at reducing down the risk associated further
Speaker 3: cardio escular events. So it's not for the whole population.
Speaker 3: We're targeting a lot more. If you take esperin, usually
Speaker 3: run the risk of gaestric ulceration and bleeding. So that's
Speaker 3: always the other side to the equation.
Speaker 2: So that's when we have after a meal as well. Yeah,
Speaker 2: if you swallow, want.
Speaker 3: To buff it down and rather than three hundred milligrams,
Speaker 3: it's one hundred milligrams. So so esperin is still a
Speaker 3: very very effective drug used in the right place. We
Speaker 3: used to go slathering it everywhere. We've now worked out
Speaker 3: that it's probably not the best attitude and actually targeting
Speaker 3: it to the people who will get the most benefit
Speaker 3: and making sure that they're will So should.
Speaker 2: I have asperin in my medicine cabinet?
Speaker 3: Oh for a sore throat? Yeah?
Speaker 2: So gard in fact, that that's the one thing I did.
Speaker 2: Used to use it for gargling, and I used to
Speaker 2: swallow it.
Speaker 3: That it's fine gargling swallows really, but it's topical of
Speaker 3: you if it's garglin absolutely works topically as well as
Speaker 3: that is a fun fact, and dispine would be fine.
Speaker 2: Doesn't need to be you.
Speaker 3: Know, displine is a trade name for esperant.
Speaker 2: I thought it was soluble. Aspirin is different. It doesn't
Speaker 2: matter whether it's soluble or not. Right, gosh, there you go.
Speaker 2: Well look at the health service we're provided it at
Speaker 2: twelve minutes to five. Tell you what, we'll take a
Speaker 2: brat come back with more calls and just to take yes.
Speaker 2: News Talk said, be right, We're going to try squeeze
Speaker 2: a couple more calls with Dr John Kelly.
Speaker 8: Hello, oh hi there, I think you mean my sour
Speaker 8: names Kelly, Doctor John. I heard you comment earlier on
Speaker 8: the connection with ulcers and stomach chancery. My child at
Speaker 8: eight was diagnosed with a jordinal ulcer, which was the
Speaker 8: biggest mission of my life to get anyone to take
Speaker 8: me seriously. He is known as mid forties if fine,
Speaker 8: But would he have a higher risk of stomach chenses
Speaker 8: having had DA as a.
Speaker 3: Child Very unlikely. You could cover it off by doing
Speaker 3: what's called the helico Helicobacter polari anybody test just to
Speaker 3: make sure, just a simple blood test or a poo test,
Speaker 3: but unusual to get a yourdenal ulcer. That a really
Speaker 3: unusual and I can well imagine why you had a
Speaker 3: lot of trouble. Sorry.
Speaker 8: I was told by a pediatrician that the idea it
Speaker 8: was all in my head. I was giving my son
Speaker 8: the idea that he was unwell because he wasn't doing
Speaker 8: well at school. It was an uphill battle. It took
Speaker 8: me ages to find someone to do something about it.
Speaker 3: Well done for.
Speaker 2: Thank you for your call. Max.
Speaker 9: Hi, Hey, good, I I just had I don't want
Speaker 9: to ruffle any feathers first off, and I also don't
Speaker 9: know what the unbranded name of the struggle is. But
Speaker 9: I was just wondering about what your opinions are on prozac.
Speaker 9: Do you think that the world is a happier place after.
Speaker 2: I mean, it was it was the drug of DuJour
Speaker 2: at one stage, wasn't it.
Speaker 3: It's one of a group of medicine called selective serotonin
Speaker 3: reuptake inhibit is. Yeah, Prozac is around. There's been a
Speaker 3: whole lot of other ones. Look, it's horses for courses.
Speaker 3: I'm not a keen advocate of throwing anyone who slightly
Speaker 3: mood decreased on these medicines, I'd like to try other
Speaker 3: things first. For some people it can be very helpful,
Speaker 3: but you've got to pick who it is. I think
Speaker 3: we probably over use these medicines rather than using talking therapies,
Speaker 3: behavioral cognitive therapies, things like that. So that's my own
Speaker 3: personal viewpoint. Other people may have different ideas.
Speaker 2: Thanks for your cormax. We're going to try and do
Speaker 2: a couple of two or three quick texts on this.
Speaker 2: Can the doctor answer? Cindy thinks it's becoming hard to
Speaker 2: buy pure aspirin and just from these days, where can
Speaker 2: you get it? I would have thought you'd just go
Speaker 2: to your local pharmacy.
Speaker 3: She should do that for you.
Speaker 2: Just ask them. Maybe she's just not seeing it on
Speaker 2: the shelf as obviously, but just to ask for it,
Speaker 2: I'm sure they'll give it for you. My forty five
Speaker 2: year old man who's been complaining to my doctors for
Speaker 2: sixteen years about bowl and stomach issues. Last year I
Speaker 2: finally got a cold and asked me at the Charity
Speaker 2: Hospital in September. Since i've been since then, I've had
Speaker 2: fifty five polyps removed. You have to advocate for yourself. Yep, well.
Speaker 3: Wow, Unfortunately, the polyps are unlikely to be causing of symptoms.
Speaker 3: Ah hard, that's a hard thing. Polyps normally don't cause symptoms. Okay,
Speaker 3: they can be pre cancerous, right, we'll keep moving.
Speaker 2: I work with one leg and foot cold, the other warm.
Speaker 2: Once I moved the cold leg around for a bit,
Speaker 2: came back to normal. Any reason for concern.
Speaker 3: Depends how you may feel the cold. Was it internally
Speaker 3: cold or did you feel it cold with the external
Speaker 3: temperature on your skin. If it just feel cold internally,
Speaker 3: I'm not so worried. If it was cold, blue and
Speaker 3: horrible with the external hand on it compared to the other. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that needs to be checked through.
Speaker 2: Okay, look I love this one. It'll be common on
Speaker 2: a Saturday morning. Hi, dots, John, have a major grass
Speaker 2: burn on the outside of my aper leg playing soccer yesterday,
Speaker 2: slide tackling on a dry brown feel really saw in
Speaker 2: the shower. Wound sticks to my briefs, also seeps. What's
Speaker 2: the best approach to treat it?
Speaker 3: You need a proper dressing on it, so talk to
Speaker 3: your doc. We'll get a proper dressing on it that
Speaker 3: won't stick. Yeah, will heal.
Speaker 2: Up, and it sounds it sounds like it would be
Speaker 2: a reasonably large large dressing. You know those ones. They
Speaker 2: cost two or three bucks each and they water proof,
Speaker 2: non stick. I mean, there are some pretty sophisticated dressings there.
Speaker 2: But you'd probably better to go to see your nurse,
Speaker 2: wouldn't you if you.
Speaker 3: Want it done properly? Yeah, under acc see your practice
Speaker 3: team for that. You can by the counter and cleaned
Speaker 3: off with steer of salty water. And where you go.
Speaker 2: Well, there's a bit of practical advice. It's accause you
Speaker 2: didn't intend to get the grass burned. Even next indle
Speaker 2: injury you did, even though you deliberately slid in that tackle.
Speaker 3: The next indle injury external force for the resulting another quint.
Speaker 2: Gosh, we're whipping through the text. We've still got a
Speaker 2: minute to go, and I'm going to do another one
Speaker 2: high doctor Tim and doctor John as a shingles vaccine
Speaker 2: still only free on your sixty fifth year of the
Speaker 2: rules changed, chairs Donner.
Speaker 3: Still only for the time you're sixty five years of age.
Speaker 2: Okay, right, it will burst scientists go away eventually. Cheers.
Speaker 3: If I stick a big needle in it and suck
Speaker 3: the fluid out, put some steory doun there.
Speaker 2: Oh, that was a painful way to go. Gosh, I
Speaker 2: don't think we can do anymore because if I if
Speaker 2: I asked another question with thirty seconds to go, I
Speaker 2: wouldn't want you to short change people. Hey, John, great
Speaker 2: to see you again. Please, full of life. What are
Speaker 2: you up to for this evening?
Speaker 3: I don't know. Don't do the parbi, you know, fire
Speaker 3: up the old barbie and do a few links in
Speaker 3: a pool. Maybe a wee glass of rose. Excellent?
Speaker 2: Hey, thanks so much. We'll be back. Martin Hawes's books
Speaker 2: finally out in retirement. We're gonna have a chatter about that.
Speaker 2: Eight one hundred and eighty ten eighty taking your calls,
Speaker 2: News Talks hed B. We can go forever. Lit out.
Speaker 1: For more from the Weekend Collective. Listen live to News
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