Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks.
Speaker 1: I'd be children in New Zealand down about eighty percent,
Speaker 1: sixty nine percent of MARI. So yeah, an outbreak measles
Speaker 1: if it was to spread, would be yeah, reasonably, very
Speaker 1: very serious.
Speaker 2: Well, well, saw what it did in samow was it
Speaker 2: ninety six deaths or ninety two deaths. I mean there's
Speaker 2: in a small country, you know, not a big country,
Speaker 2: ninety almost one hundred deaths.
Speaker 1: Look, and we can't forget that we had seven hundred
Speaker 1: admissions of children into hospital here in New Zealand. And yes,
Speaker 1: we had the eighty deaths and Samaraw So New Zealand
Speaker 1: was very very lucky not to get away with any
Speaker 1: deaths at all. But Samoa got hit very badly. So
Speaker 1: although a lot of people think that measles is a
Speaker 1: you know, sort of benign childhood type illness, it can
Speaker 1: have very very serious consequences.
Speaker 3: How yeah, how long have we had a vaccination for it?
Speaker 1: I can't give you the exact time roughly vaccination, but
Speaker 1: it's been about twenty fifty sixty years.
Speaker 2: I think it's the problem with it that people because
Speaker 2: there is a generation that's sort of still alive that
Speaker 2: lived with you know, when the only way you could
Speaker 2: deal with measles was to hopefully you get through it.
Speaker 2: But pre vaccination is there sort of is there a
Speaker 2: frustration that people think, oh, we had measles when we
Speaker 2: were younger and it wasn't very nice and we got
Speaker 2: over it and we're fine, sort I think ninety sixty
Speaker 2: nine by the way, there you go, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Look, look there is a little bit of that around.
Speaker 1: I think there's a couple of things there is that.
Speaker 1: So that's you're exactly right on what you've said. I
Speaker 1: think we've come out of COVID where there was a
Speaker 1: whole lot of immunization misinformation around, and I think that's
Speaker 1: been been quite quite it's had a big, big impact
Speaker 1: in people's view of immunization with measles, mumpsonry bellery immunization.
Speaker 1: There was the case of a physician in England in
Speaker 1: the late nineties who claimed that it was it was
Speaker 1: associated with autism. Oh yeah, now got proven that that
Speaker 1: that was totally false. You know that the person who
Speaker 1: did it didn't disclose the financial conflict. They were being
Speaker 1: paid by lawyers preparing a lawsuit. Number of ethical violations
Speaker 1: and the fact that that doctor whose name was Andrew Wakefield,
Speaker 1: was actually struck off in twenty ten over this through
Speaker 1: serious professional wist conduct and dishonesty. So it was it
Speaker 1: was no basis to it whatsoever. There's been very large
Speaker 1: trials since then that has shown there's no association whatsoever.
Speaker 1: But I think that's had that that that did have
Speaker 1: an impact because you.
Speaker 2: Made RFKR in the house and.
Speaker 1: I know so, so that that sort of adds to everything.
Speaker 1: And in fact, he was he was around at the
Speaker 1: time the Sama thing as Sama outbreak happened and there
Speaker 1: was very low immunization rates and Samara and he had actually
Speaker 1: been been in Samar around that time. So look, a
Speaker 1: number of things have been happening, a lot of misinformation
Speaker 1: on social media about immunization, which is a real problem
Speaker 1: and it certainly is impacting our munization rates in New
Speaker 1: Zealand at this point.
Speaker 2: I remember once I had I'm hesitant to quote her
Speaker 2: from back in the days of you know, tomounimanizations for
Speaker 2: other things, and I had Helen Petusus Harris, who's a vaccinologist,
Speaker 2: and actually she had a really good she had quite
Speaker 2: a nice pragmatic answer because people. Somebody called up and said, oh, look,
Speaker 2: when I was young, we'd just have a we used
Speaker 2: to know, some parents used to have chicken pox parties
Speaker 2: and that have, you know, where someone would come along
Speaker 2: and she and actually Helen's response was actually quite instant,
Speaker 2: because you know, parents deliberately choosing Look, if we're going
Speaker 2: to get chicken pox, then we might as well get
Speaker 2: it now sort of thing. And Helen's response simply was, well, yes,
Speaker 2: people did do that back then, but now we have
Speaker 2: a better answer.
Speaker 3: And I thought it was so simply put.
Speaker 2: It was understanding and empathizing with why parents people might
Speaker 2: make choices. But she said, but now we have a
Speaker 2: better way, and it's called a vaccine.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, I totally agree with Helen, and it's a
Speaker 1: it's a lovely way of putting it that. Yeah, vaccines
Speaker 1: have been developed for a reason and it's a much
Speaker 1: better way of doing it because you know, the measles.
Speaker 1: One thing I'll say about the measles is, you know,
Speaker 1: for a lot of children, yes, they get unwell and
Speaker 1: you know they require isolation and they will get better,
Speaker 1: but it's not by nine. So there are these serious complications,
Speaker 1: you know, including dehydration, pneumonia brain swelling, which is potentially
Speaker 1: very serious. And yeah, for that proportion of kids especially
Speaker 1: are under one year olds because they don't get vaccinated,
Speaker 1: they are really at risk. And you know, of the
Speaker 1: seven hundred that were admitted into New Zealand hospitals in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, you know, sort of one hundred of those
Speaker 1: were under the age of one and they required really
Speaker 1: intensive treatment to deal with the issues. So we put
Speaker 1: out our little Tamarik at risk with this with low
Speaker 1: emmorganization rates.
Speaker 2: Actually, just before we get onto the question of heart health,
Speaker 2: which I want to explore, what is the way you
Speaker 2: mentioned that certain communities I think within did you say
Speaker 2: within Maria and Pacific Island communities the vaccination rates.
Speaker 3: Are are lower.
Speaker 2: What if you could click your fingers and come up
Speaker 2: with a solution for that. What would we be doing
Speaker 2: better to get communities engaged with that stuff?
Speaker 1: Oh, look, look, I think it's the communities themselves, and
Speaker 1: it's really the communities have got the answer for that.
Speaker 1: I'd look. I work in Canon's Creek AND's Pirua, and
Speaker 1: you know there's a huge amount of community engagement going
Speaker 1: out talking at churches and schools about vaccination contacting parents
Speaker 1: and really trying to build a trust in vaccination and
Speaker 1: the need for it. So I think there's a lot
Speaker 1: of those things that need to happen, But it's also
Speaker 1: the communities themselves talking about vaccination, talking about the reasons
Speaker 1: for it, and freeing up the access to vaccination services
Speaker 1: becomes really really important, so that the more points of
Speaker 1: contact you have to be able to get vaccination, to
Speaker 1: go out into the community and have vaccination carried out
Speaker 1: is really important.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and please if you're not vaccinated against the measles
Speaker 2: and just it's a pretty simple process, isn't it, Brian,
Speaker 2: In fact, for adults even what is the process that
Speaker 2: people aren't sure about getting amminized?
Speaker 3: What do they do?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: So, so look, you mentioned nineteen sixty nine, which is
Speaker 1: about that fifty year sixty year mark. If you were
Speaker 1: born before nineteen sixty nine, or in particular between sixty
Speaker 1: two and sixty nine, you should think about getting a
Speaker 1: measles booster. So we sort of recommend that because you
Speaker 1: may only be partially immunized if it fall into that
Speaker 1: that that group, Yeah, and going back further, you quite
Speaker 1: like to have contacted the measles. So there's natural immunity.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's something you should probably talk about with
Speaker 1: your GP doctor or nurse about whether it's something you
Speaker 1: should consider if you're in that sort of slightly older
Speaker 1: age group.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, let's get onto the heart health. You know,
Speaker 2: I was one of the things when we were looking
Speaker 2: at having a chat about heart health. I was just thinking,
Speaker 2: it's one of those questions that people only really start
Speaker 2: to care about their heart health when they or someone
Speaker 2: close to them has keeled over and hopefully like we've
Speaker 2: survived or there's been a tragedy. Are we cognizant enough
Speaker 2: in New Zealand of the importance of looking after our heart?
Speaker 2: Because I mean, the thing that stuck out to me
Speaker 2: when you first discover, you know, learn a little bit
Speaker 2: basics about human biology is just being reminded of the
Speaker 2: obvious that this is a muscle that never ever stops
Speaker 2: until it stops.
Speaker 1: It stops. Yeah, it's a phenomenal muscle. But yes, art
Speaker 1: the fact that just you're born, it just beats and
Speaker 1: it just keeps on going till the day you pass away. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Look at it's an interesting question you ask, and I
Speaker 1: mean I think sometimes perhaps people you know, we don't
Speaker 1: realize the impact of heart disease on New Zealander. So
Speaker 1: what we do know is about one hundred and eighty
Speaker 1: thousand New Zealanders live with heart disease. In New Zealand,
Speaker 1: about ten thousand of us die every year from heart disease.
Speaker 1: So that's one person every ninety minutes.
Speaker 3: That's carnage.
Speaker 1: Well well, look, look you're not wrong with what you say.
Speaker 1: So and for some people there's no warning. It can
Speaker 1: be very sudden, and it can be and it's absolutely
Speaker 1: traumatic obviously for a faro and family that are left behind.
Speaker 1: So yeah, look, it's a major impact on the health
Speaker 1: of New Zealander. Is it's something we should actually think
Speaker 1: about because a lot of heart disease, not all heart disease,
Speaker 1: but a lot of it is actually preventable and preventable
Speaker 1: through lifestyle and what we actually do on a daily basis.
Speaker 2: So what percentage of those tenhou arm and gosh, that's
Speaker 2: a hera in this number, isn't it? But what percentage
Speaker 2: of those would be preventable as opposed to you've got
Speaker 2: a predisposition, you.
Speaker 1: Know, sure, sure, Look, look, probably probably a good proportion.
Speaker 1: We know that age is probably the biggest stress factor
Speaker 1: as you get older.
Speaker 3: You can't help that, can you.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, you can delay the onset of where
Speaker 1: the heart gets a bit tired and worn out, but
Speaker 1: the percentages are quite high in terms of what could
Speaker 1: potentially be prevented through just thinking about a lifestyle and
Speaker 1: particular our diets in particular. Physical inactivity is another big,
Speaker 1: big one that in modern days, you know that that's
Speaker 1: become a real, real issue and things like smoking and alcohol.
Speaker 1: You smoking in particular is devastating for increasing the rates
Speaker 1: of heart disease. In fact, if you give up smoking,
Speaker 1: you reduce your rate of dying of heart disease by
Speaker 1: about fifty percent after about five years. So it's major.
Speaker 3: Why Why is that?
Speaker 2: Because intuitively, and I'll ask questions from a dumb point
Speaker 2: one of you, Intuitively we think, well, of course we
Speaker 2: can understand lung cancer, smoke lungs bad. How does how
Speaker 2: does it the heart muscle?
Speaker 1: Well, look, I mean, you know, basically, we take a
Speaker 1: whole lot of toxins into our blood system. With smoking,
Speaker 1: we tend to with nicotine that's in the cigarette smoke,
Speaker 1: we tend to put up our blood pressure. And blood
Speaker 1: pressure is one of the big, big risk factors for
Speaker 1: heart disease, and it tends to just be associated with
Speaker 1: a whole lot of things like deposition of cholesterol on
Speaker 1: the artery walls, blood pressure, and yeah, it's got this
Speaker 1: very very strong association with not just heart disease, but
Speaker 1: stroke as well. So yeah, smoking per se, apart from
Speaker 1: the nicotine, puts pumps into our bodies about one hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty different toxins of chemicals, and to cut a
Speaker 1: long story short term, it's basically toxic, poisonous. That's essentially
Speaker 1: what it does.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, ironically, what smoking does do is cut
Speaker 2: a long story short, doesn't it, Because yes, I mean
Speaker 2: potentially long story short. I mean we had the famous
Speaker 2: the death of a fav very famous New Zealander, Bob Jones,
Speaker 2: who sort of lived a reasonably long life. But all
Speaker 2: I could think of was that with the pipe. I
Speaker 2: was thinking, how long would you have kept going if
Speaker 2: he had cut that habit out twenty or thirty years before.
Speaker 1: I mean, well, look, that's a really interesting question. But
Speaker 1: we always have these stories of people who have smoked
Speaker 1: all their lives and live into their nineties or you know, hundred.
Speaker 1: You always sort of hear those type of stories, they
Speaker 1: have long lives. However, when you look at smoking as
Speaker 1: a collective from the people who smoke, what we do
Speaker 1: know just shortens life. That's what it actually does. And
Speaker 1: apart from the effects on the lungs, and again, when
Speaker 1: you start to get lung damage, the lungs don't work
Speaker 1: as well, it tends to put pressure on the heart,
Speaker 1: the part can't pump as well. Tends to lead to
Speaker 1: things like heart failure and things. And so yeah, all
Speaker 1: these effects are pretty devastating on the human body. And
Speaker 1: let's face it, we weren't designed to put a great
Speaker 1: smoke and toxins into our body. You know, every day
Speaker 1: you just think about it. It's not something that the
Speaker 1: human body was designed to do.
Speaker 2: Well, speaking of things we might necessarily necessarily been designed
Speaker 2: to do. And yet you know, there's the argument about moderation.
Speaker 2: You probably guess what my next question is going to be,
Speaker 2: what about where are we at with alcohol consumption and
Speaker 2: heart health? Because there's one of the things people talk
Speaker 2: about is stress can impact your heart. When some people
Speaker 2: think that, well, it lasts of wine maybe three or
Speaker 2: four times a week at the end.
Speaker 3: Of a big day.
Speaker 2: Where are we at with alcohol and heart health.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, that's that's a good question because it's probably
Speaker 1: one of the ones we don't think of too much.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it's it's an important one.
Speaker 5: So so.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's one of those ones that that that
Speaker 1: is quite important. And the more we drink, the more
Speaker 1: it does tend to affect the heart. Now, one of
Speaker 1: the ways it can affect the heart, you know how
Speaker 1: cold can be affected with blood pressures, so put in
Speaker 1: your blood pressure ups pressure on the heart. But there
Speaker 1: is a specific condition that occurs called cardiomopathy. So a
Speaker 1: lot of alcohol consumption can cause the heart muscle to
Speaker 1: the heart to actually enlarge, in the heart muscle to
Speaker 1: actually weaken, and that can lead to problems down the track.
Speaker 2: So that with extreme drinking, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: When you you're above above what's sort of recommended, you know, So,
Speaker 1: so drinking and moderation is what we try and push.
Speaker 1: You know, less is better basically, but if you have
Speaker 1: an excessive alcohol it can certainly lead to this this
Speaker 1: cardiomopathy condition where the heart gets enlarged, it doesn't pump
Speaker 1: as well, it's weaker than it should be, and it
Speaker 1: leads to heart failure and a whole lot of problems.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, look I'm going to throw it out there
Speaker 2: for people to give you a call as well. On
Speaker 2: eight hundred eighty ten eighty text nine nine two were
Speaker 2: having a chat about heart health, Mandy. If you've got
Speaker 2: any questions around the measles and MMR vaccines and things
Speaker 2: like that. If you've got any questions, we have doctor
Speaker 2: Brian Betty is with us GP and also as you
Speaker 2: will know, he's said chair of General Practice New Zealand.
Speaker 2: Give us a call eight hundred eighty ten eighty. But
Speaker 2: also on the heart thing, if you have gone through
Speaker 2: a bit of a journey with heart health and you've
Speaker 2: come out the other side, or what was it that
Speaker 2: made a difference to you, What was the lesson that
Speaker 2: you realized about what where you were going wrong? Because
Speaker 2: sometimes sharing your story can help other people reflect on
Speaker 2: what they're doing with their last style.
Speaker 3: Give us a call. I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 3: Eight hundred eighty ten eighty e text on nine two.
Speaker 2: If you like nine two nine two, should I say
Speaker 2: we'll be back in just a moment.
Speaker 3: Is twenty three past four news Talks. He'd be.
Speaker 2: And welcome back to the weekly collective. This is the
Speaker 2: Health Hub. My guest is doctor Brian Betty. He's GP
Speaker 2: and chair of the General Practice New Zealand, talking about
Speaker 2: heart health and we've got I've got a lot of
Speaker 2: questions to dig into with but we're going to take
Speaker 2: some calls as well.
Speaker 6: Steph, Hello, Hi, Hello, Hello, Hi.
Speaker 3: Where you go?
Speaker 4: I've got a few questions about heart health. And so
Speaker 4: with heart health, how do you deal with that when
Speaker 4: it's full of injustice?
Speaker 6: Right?
Speaker 4: Injustice really affects your heart?
Speaker 3: Are you talking about stress?
Speaker 2: Steph?
Speaker 4: Yes, stress and just complete injustice.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll keep that question short, I think, because I'm
Speaker 2: not sure where it's going. And Brian, but let's let's
Speaker 2: tie that in with stress, shall we? I think, because
Speaker 2: injustice sounds a bit political? What do you reckon, Brian?
Speaker 3: Stress?
Speaker 1: Well, there's no doubt that stress releases basically hormones or
Speaker 1: doorphins in our body that can increase heart rate and
Speaker 1: can increase blood pressure. So we know that over time
Speaker 1: that if you are stressed continually and there's something triggering
Speaker 1: that stress, that certainly blood pressure can increase. And we
Speaker 1: know that blood pressure is one of those those factors
Speaker 1: that does put stress on the heart. So look, it
Speaker 1: can have an indirect effect through through blood pressure in
Speaker 1: terms of what actually actually happens.
Speaker 3: Okay, all right, let's take another call Ross.
Speaker 7: Hello, Hello mate, there you going good? Yeah, I would
Speaker 7: like to about cancers and all these sort of things.
Speaker 7: I think the ten eighty is our biggest problem in
Speaker 7: New Zealand is coming down into the water. There's trace
Speaker 7: is found in dairy meat and honey, and it's all
Speaker 7: the basic stuff that we eat a little bit of.
Speaker 7: It's all in the stuff we eat.
Speaker 2: I think that's a slightly contentious view. Ross, I don't
Speaker 2: really want to in the ten a debate, but you've
Speaker 2: got anything to say on that, Brian.
Speaker 1: Look, look, I mean you know there's we know that
Speaker 1: some pesticides are linked to cancer. We do know that
Speaker 1: ten eighty is a very controversial area in terms of
Speaker 1: what happens in terms of pest controls. So I think
Speaker 1: it's it's not there's no clear answer on that.
Speaker 2: But I mean it apparently does break down in water.
Speaker 2: But actually we're not going to get we're not going
Speaker 2: to get into the arguments around that because then I
Speaker 2: have someone targeting my home address when I call it crazy,
Speaker 2: which has happened before, believe it or not, so stay
Speaker 2: away ross on the actually just on the question of
Speaker 2: what I think one of the bigger questions is, and
Speaker 2: obviously in your role at general Practice New Zealand, is
Speaker 2: what can and should New Zealanders do look after their
Speaker 2: heart versus what role does the government have to play
Speaker 2: in us making healthier choices? Do you think because I've
Speaker 2: had a few texts saying we'll get rid of KFC
Speaker 2: and they always get a hard time despite how many
Speaker 2: times they advertising can have a healthy choice if you want.
Speaker 2: But anyway, but how what what do you think when
Speaker 2: it comes to the government telling us how we should
Speaker 2: live versus maybe them playing in a role in information
Speaker 2: we will make our own choices.
Speaker 1: Well, look, look, I think information and education is really important.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know the basics around healthheart are ready
Speaker 1: two things diet and exercise. That those are the two things,
Speaker 1: and we don't know we know that we don't exercise enough.
Speaker 1: Diet is problematic. We live in what we call this
Speaker 1: a bisogenic environment, so we have a lot of access
Speaker 1: to processed foods which are high in sugar and high
Speaker 1: in salt, and they have a direct impact on heart disease.
Speaker 1: So there's no doubt that diet plays a big thing,
Speaker 1: and in particular takeaway food, so you're referred to KFC
Speaker 1: a whole range of them. So I think awareness about
Speaker 1: the potential. You know, it's not to say you can't
Speaker 1: have these things, and I'm a big believer in all
Speaker 1: things moderation, but it's when it's excessive that's the problem
Speaker 1: we start to run into. And I think the government
Speaker 1: does have a big role to play in terms of education,
Speaker 1: in terms of what we actually do with that, and
Speaker 1: we know there's debates over things like, you know, certain suburbs,
Speaker 1: too many takeaway stores, and access to food, and especially
Speaker 1: for our children. We're the third highest country in the
Speaker 1: world for obesity amongst our children. It's it's it's quite phenomenal.
Speaker 1: So we've got a real real problem with that. And yeah,
Speaker 1: the other one that often comes up is tax on sugar.
Speaker 1: So these things do float around, and that there's two
Speaker 1: sides to all those arguments. I think the big key
Speaker 1: thing is actually education and actually us making decisions for
Speaker 1: ourselves on what we do with us and how are
Speaker 1: we handle it.
Speaker 2: Because the sugar taxes, to me, I don't like the
Speaker 2: idea of it taxes as a way of doing things.
Speaker 2: But of course, you know, we have excise taxes and
Speaker 2: we are doing you know, smoking is a classic example
Speaker 2: that if it went for the excise tax on or
Speaker 2: whatever it is, on cigarettes, be well, they'd be cheapest chips.
Speaker 2: But I would be in favor of, for instance, sugary drinks.
Speaker 2: I still remember that when I first learned how much
Speaker 2: sugar was in a can of coke, I was, you know,
Speaker 2: and this was as a young man who just drink it,
Speaker 2: you know, because I don't really care and I never
Speaker 2: thought about it. That I heard it was like thirteen
Speaker 2: or fifteen tea spoons. I was, what what I mean?
Speaker 2: And should we have something around labeling?
Speaker 3: Do you think?
Speaker 6: I mean?
Speaker 3: I know this is on the political side, but if.
Speaker 2: You know your role is potentially political, if you want
Speaker 2: to be lobbying for things, isn't it.
Speaker 1: Look look, I think you taped into a really important one.
Speaker 1: I think one of the big big ones that are
Speaker 1: talked about are these sugary soda drinks. So these are
Speaker 1: your soft drinks with very high sugar. Now, the problem
Speaker 1: with them is that they are packed full of sugar.
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right, in terms of the amount of sugar.
Speaker 1: Often a coke or a lemonade or something could have
Speaker 1: And the problem with them is when you drink them,
Speaker 1: they get absorbed into the body very very quickly and
Speaker 1: overwhelm the body with sugar or glucose that has nowhere
Speaker 1: to go. So what often happens with that excess sugar
Speaker 1: it's laid down as fat in the body, and in
Speaker 1: particular abdominal fat, and that's a big, big risks factor
Speaker 1: for heart disease. So yeah, there's a lot of debate
Speaker 1: about access to these sugary soft drinks, especially amongst children.
Speaker 1: It's a real issue amongst children and parents need to
Speaker 1: be aware of.
Speaker 3: Do you think most people know drinks?
Speaker 2: Do you think most people know They just see a
Speaker 2: can of the brand and they go yummy, full style,
Speaker 2: as opposed to this drink has thirteen teaspoons of sugar.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, look, a lot of people probably don't think
Speaker 1: about enough. And I'm not aware of that, and I
Speaker 1: think you're right certainly. What I have seen though is
Speaker 1: and this is just a comment on what I see
Speaker 1: in the clinic, there's a lot of people if they
Speaker 1: are going to drink their cokes or the lemonades or
Speaker 1: whatever are switching to coke zero or or what's at zero.
Speaker 1: So so these these sugar free options, which I think
Speaker 1: is a better option, it is a bit. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: is a better option. There's still problems with them, so
Speaker 1: we have to accept that. But people are making those
Speaker 1: sort of choice, which I see more of now than
Speaker 1: I perhaps did a few years ago. So the awareness
Speaker 1: is probably more there, but we could do a lot
Speaker 1: more with talking about the problems of these drinks. And
Speaker 1: actually the other one is things like orange juice and
Speaker 1: fruit juice. They're very, very high in fructose, they're very
Speaker 1: high in concentrated sugars, and again they get absorbed into
Speaker 1: the body very quickly and the body finds it very
Speaker 1: difficult to handle them.
Speaker 2: All right, let's take some more calls, then let's go
Speaker 2: to In fact, I think we're two Trevor's on the line,
Speaker 2: so one after the other.
Speaker 6: Trevor, Hello, Oh, good atim and thanks for having the
Speaker 6: program buying. Yeah, I'm in christ is seventy seven years old,
Speaker 6: reasonably healthy apart from knocking myself about. But with regard
Speaker 6: to pre end of like trying to find any problems
Speaker 6: before they get to a serious stage. What do you
Speaker 6: should a doctor be able to do a long capacity
Speaker 6: test for example?
Speaker 1: Well, look, look, there's a whole lot of basic tests
Speaker 1: we have access to. I think one of your big ones,
Speaker 1: if I'm honest, Trevor, is sort of those routine yearly
Speaker 1: blood tests, okay, for things like your cholesterol, your sugar,
Speaker 1: and also checking your blood pressure. One of the biggest,
Speaker 1: biggest single risk factors for the heart is blood pressure,
Speaker 1: So monitoring that and keeping an eye on that I
Speaker 1: think is really really important. Now, certainly if you've got
Speaker 1: an issue like you're a smoker, or you've got what
Speaker 1: we call COPD or asthma or something than spiometry or
Speaker 1: lung what we call lung function tests are actually often done.
Speaker 1: They can be done on the clinics. Often we have
Speaker 1: access to sperometers. So it depends on your individual circumstance.
Speaker 1: I suppose it's the big, big thing, but I think
Speaker 1: there's reason So sorry, what was that, Trivall.
Speaker 6: We don't have any reason or any concerns, you know.
Speaker 6: It's just that a person I know who's into his
Speaker 6: health said, you know, try and get a lung capacity test.
Speaker 6: I thought, oh, well, that's going to be five minutes
Speaker 6: and probably a good thing to do, but Adoptor doesn't
Speaker 6: want to. He says on that we don't do that.
Speaker 6: Those are outlic.
Speaker 1: Sure, but they'll have access to them. But again, unless
Speaker 1: is a reason for doing it, I wouldn't necessarily be
Speaker 1: recommending it, but certainly what I would be recommended is
Speaker 1: what you're saying is that the routine blood tests, the
Speaker 1: routine check up, and keep an eye on those basics
Speaker 1: which do do impact the health of our heart, and
Speaker 1: that's really really important.
Speaker 6: Yeah, more specifically then I don't want to take it
Speaker 6: too much time. But on the heart, what is the
Speaker 6: in the priority order would be a CT calcium Look.
Speaker 1: CT calcium scores are quite controversial. I fall into the
Speaker 1: camp that I think your metabolic indicators. By that I
Speaker 1: mean your blood pressure, your sugar levels, your cholesterol levels,
Speaker 1: and ensuring that your lifestyle is in place. So trying
Speaker 1: to keep up adequate exercise I think is incredibly important
Speaker 1: to your age. And in fact, if I was to
Speaker 1: say something regularly exercise or just going for a walk
Speaker 1: every day is probably better than any medication or anything
Speaker 1: we can do for you. So I think your lifestyle
Speaker 1: issues are really really the key to it all. I
Speaker 1: believe a calcium channel score or a calcium score, all
Speaker 1: that really really does is reinforce the fact that you
Speaker 1: need to, you know, watch your diet size and do
Speaker 1: the yearly checkup and stuffs.
Speaker 3: Thanks for your call, Trevor.
Speaker 2: And also sometimes you do a quick Google on these
Speaker 2: things and just type the word controversy after it, and
Speaker 2: it's interesting the facts that you get revealed to you. Anyway, let's,
Speaker 2: by the way, just quickly salt before we get We've
Speaker 2: got a bunch of calls. But I thought i'd just
Speaker 2: throw in the question around. It's the hidden salt which
Speaker 2: people worry about, it isn't it. But what about just
Speaker 2: salt for your daily cooking and what does that play
Speaker 2: a role in blood pressure?
Speaker 3: Slash art health.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, so we know that salts associated with blood pressure,
Speaker 1: and again this is one of the big big risks
Speaker 1: with heart disease is and we know we've got too
Speaker 1: much salt in our diet and especially with processed foods.
Speaker 1: So those processed foods, those takeaway foods, you know, ham, bacon,
Speaker 1: takeaway foods tend to be full of salt. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so cooking with salt. Look if you put some salt
Speaker 1: in your potatoes to boil them. I think that's relatively okay.
Speaker 1: And often what I do say to my patients is, look,
Speaker 1: just look at the basics, Like if you put extra
Speaker 1: salt on your food at the table, maybe just cutting
Speaker 1: that out and reducing that has quite an impact on
Speaker 1: the total amount of salt we take during the day.
Speaker 2: So I was wondering about so like bacon and eggs, Okay,
Speaker 2: forget the bacon and salty.
Speaker 3: Let's just say that I walked into that one.
Speaker 2: But yeah, you've got eggs on toast and you give it,
Speaker 2: give it a couple of give it a couple of
Speaker 2: grinds of salt.
Speaker 3: Yummy. Is that the problem? That's the problem? It is yummy? Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 2: Is it a problem of doing it for taste rather
Speaker 2: than all the hidden stuff processed foods.
Speaker 1: What you do find those people get into the habit
Speaker 1: of not putting this on the eggs on their toast
Speaker 1: or whatever, or on their food. They get into the
Speaker 1: habit of doing it, then they tend to not notice it.
Speaker 1: So it is often because we're in a habit. We
Speaker 1: we know the taste, we enjoy the taste, and we
Speaker 1: keep doing it, so there is a bit of a
Speaker 1: habit to it, and people do get used to doing it.
Speaker 1: It's like having sugar and tea or coffee. If you
Speaker 1: cut sugar out over time, you just get used to
Speaker 1: not having sugar and you tea or coffee.
Speaker 3: So yeah, salt on your eggs.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to answer that.
Speaker 2: I go for the everything in moderation sort of thing.
Speaker 2: But anyway, I'm a big fan of everything in moderation.
Speaker 2: I love that. That's I can sing from that hymn
Speaker 2: book all day, Brian. But okay, we'll take another break.
Speaker 2: We've got a bunch of course I make. We will
Speaker 2: touch on it. We want to dig into just there's
Speaker 2: a headline around vaping as well, and we might touch
Speaker 2: on that. But we have a bunch of people lined
Speaker 2: up to talk to you brand, so we'll be back
Speaker 2: in just a moment. It's ten and a half minutes
Speaker 2: to five news talks.
Speaker 6: He'd be.
Speaker 3: Well, that sounds like a modern version of Titler Clips
Speaker 3: of the Heart.
Speaker 2: There, we're sticking with the heart thing with Dr Brian
Speaker 2: Betty GP and Chair of the General Practice, New Zealand
Speaker 2: taking your calls. We're going to try and speed up
Speaker 2: because we've time has shot, but lots of people wanting
Speaker 2: to pick Brian's brains. And here we go Trevor Hello.
Speaker 8: Yes, good evening, doctor Beauty Betty. Yeah, ob seventy nine
Speaker 8: and very briefly my mother years and years ago passed away.
Speaker 8: I had a go open heart surgery subride there at
Speaker 8: Boys you had the pig trens blood, you know. But
Speaker 8: I've led a pretty physical license then years in the Army,
Speaker 8: said in Vietnam, exposed to that aded orange crapple lost
Speaker 8: but daughters through it. But anyway, I've had quite a
Speaker 8: few heart pop was lately myself and I've been on
Speaker 8: the chopper a few times, and I've had surgery, you know,
Speaker 8: transplant myself. It was two days freight for the heart surgery,
Speaker 8: so I went up through the they went up through
Speaker 8: the growing. Doctor Nen from way Kado did it. But
Speaker 8: I tried to exercise, you know. I bought a knee
Speaker 8: bike and exercised as much as I could. God damn,
Speaker 8: I'm still having bloody, really bad turns, passing out nets.
Speaker 8: So I don't know what the hell's going on. I've
Speaker 8: got a heart specialist nurse that I see every couple
Speaker 8: of weeks in firal hospital and then the medical center.
Speaker 8: But okay, at seventy nine, you know I have to
Speaker 8: get out of the art. I worked on a fire
Speaker 8: with business.
Speaker 2: Have you got a question here? What was your question
Speaker 2: for Brin? Sorry to jump on that, Trevor.
Speaker 8: What my question is? What else can I do to
Speaker 8: sort of get back to the old self?
Speaker 2: Okay, fair enough. It's difficult to turn back time, isn't it, Brian?
Speaker 2: And I guess the question there is also if you
Speaker 2: have a history of family heart problems, is there you know,
Speaker 2: can you get ahead of it as well?
Speaker 1: Look, I think if you've got a family history of
Speaker 1: heart problems, I think prevention is better than cure. So
Speaker 1: in those situations, I think you do need to take
Speaker 1: note of that family history, and the earlier you take
Speaker 1: note of things like those dietary changes like salt sugar
Speaker 1: in the diet, eating lots of fruit and vegetables, and
Speaker 1: exercising as I keep going back to it daily sort
Speaker 1: of exercise or four to five times a week, just
Speaker 1: going for a walk for thirty to forty minutes a
Speaker 1: week is the type of thing that's often recommended. Has
Speaker 1: has a miserable benefit plus getting those regular checkups once
Speaker 1: a year to check your blood press, to check your bloods,
Speaker 1: your sugars, your cholesterol in particular, that's really really important.
Speaker 1: So if you do have that history, I think prevention
Speaker 1: is actually the thing, and there's there's a lot we
Speaker 1: can do around that in terms of advice and what
Speaker 1: we do. So I think that's what's really really important.
Speaker 2: Thanks for your call that, Trevor. Thank you, Yeah, thank you,
Speaker 2: really appreciate it, right, Josh, Hello, Yeah.
Speaker 8: Hi guys, high term, Hi doctor. My questions are in
Speaker 8: regards to cholesterol, fats, and oils.
Speaker 3: Good and bad.
Speaker 8: That's sort of consensus.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well's the consensus there was, like the oils, the fats,
Speaker 6: and the good and bad question.
Speaker 2: Like a nice big slab of bacon versus a bit
Speaker 2: of olive oil on your pasta.
Speaker 3: Let's go with that one, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, so look, really good question, thanks, Josh.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: No, so not all all fats or oils are bad.
Speaker 1: We do know that the ones that are particularly bad
Speaker 1: and the ones that tend to have excess are what
Speaker 1: we call the saturated fats. So those are the ones
Speaker 1: that are found in the fat around meat. They're often
Speaker 1: found in take away foods. And these are the fats
Speaker 1: that really drive something called LDLs in our blood, our
Speaker 1: bad cholesterol essentially, and this is a cholesterol that deposits
Speaker 1: on vessel walls and leads to heart attacks. However, we
Speaker 1: have good oils, and in particular olive oil, So we
Speaker 1: know that olive oil is good, especially virgin of olive oil,
Speaker 1: and so using olive oil and salads and things like that,
Speaker 1: especially non cooked olive oil, has a positive effect on cholesterol,
Speaker 1: and it tends to raise our what are called HDLs,
Speaker 1: which are considered our good cholesterol, and they are the
Speaker 1: things that sort of mop up these deposits of fats
Speaker 1: on our vessel walls, and they tend to be associated
Speaker 1: with better outcomes. So certainly olive oil has a big,
Speaker 1: big tick or plus around it. Things like fats associated
Speaker 1: with meat particular tend to have a big cross around
Speaker 1: it in terms of what it does to our cholesterol.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just quickly on the oils if they but they
Speaker 2: still have that thing where they've got a tech on
Speaker 2: certain oils and you just something else got the tick,
Speaker 2: I must be all.
Speaker 1: Right, or yeah, no, no, no, that that's sort of
Speaker 1: around I mean the other one that's talked about is fish,
Speaker 1: fish oil. So fish is very very good for heart health.
Speaker 1: So it has a lot of very good good oils
Speaker 1: in it, especially deep sea fish and salmon and things
Speaker 1: which are actually very very positive for our heart health.
Speaker 1: So yeah, no, there are definitely positives to certain foods
Speaker 1: and certain oils within those foods good stuff.
Speaker 3: Right, let's go to over Jane.
Speaker 6: Hello, Hello, doctor Bryan.
Speaker 5: I have a friend and a friend of mine who
Speaker 5: has got very high blood pressure, very high blood pressure.
Speaker 5: Andrew doctor gave all the advice like you have done.
Speaker 5: But the one thing that the curious made us curious
Speaker 5: was no sugar. She's not had anything with sugar. Water
Speaker 5: has got to go.
Speaker 1: Yes, blood pressure yes, so so yeah so so it's
Speaker 1: an additional risk factor for putting pressure on the heart.
Speaker 1: So we know that blood pressure puts puts a puts
Speaker 1: a puts puts pressure on the heart. It's it's it's
Speaker 1: one of those things that does. But what we do
Speaker 1: know that sugar does is it can increase the amount
Speaker 1: of fat deposits, specially the abdomen that leads to things
Speaker 1: called insulin resistance and inflammation, which increases our risk of
Speaker 1: heart disease. There is thought to be some sort of
Speaker 1: association with blood pressure through the fact we tend to
Speaker 1: put on weight if we eat a lot of sugar,
Speaker 1: so it can affect the bad cholesterols in our blood.
Speaker 1: It can cause this thing called insulin resistance and inflammation
Speaker 1: around our abdominal fat and through through putting on weight
Speaker 1: can can lead to increased blood pressure, which again puts
Speaker 1: pressure on the heart. So it's an additional I think
Speaker 1: risk fact and it's certain one of the things we
Speaker 1: talk about if you have heart problems or have potential
Speaker 1: heart problems about reducing sugar intake. It's one of the
Speaker 1: risk factors.
Speaker 2: Okay, thanks for you call over, Jane. We'll be back
Speaker 2: in just a moment. We're with doctor Brian Betty. It
Speaker 2: is ten minutes to five. Yes, the news talk said
Speaker 2: be with doctor Brian Betty. Brian a couple of quick
Speaker 2: fire text questions for you. Sure, cream and butter still
Speaker 2: really bad?
Speaker 3: Some people say not.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, there's a bit of debate going on around this.
Speaker 1: Look what I come down to with this, especially with butter,
Speaker 1: The thing is in moderation. I think the problem we
Speaker 1: run into is when we have too much of it.
Speaker 1: So again, I'm a big believer in a balanced diet,
Speaker 1: big believer in all things in moderation and not trying
Speaker 1: to exclude things all together.
Speaker 2: Well, next time you're in Auckland, you come around and
Speaker 2: I'll give you one of my homemade cross songs and
Speaker 2: see how much. See how we go. They had a
Speaker 2: friend who had two of them, he said, kind of another.
Speaker 2: I said, well they are quite rich. He said, I
Speaker 2: didn't need anything for the rest of the day. Now
Speaker 2: I did mention I want to and time flies because
Speaker 2: everyone wanted to have a chat with you. Vaping. There's
Speaker 2: just some news about vaping. I think it's just worth
Speaker 2: putting out there because there have been some recent headlines
Speaker 2: out There has been some bit more research on this
Speaker 2: now and it's not good for kids or anyone, really,
Speaker 2: is it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we have a high rate of kids taking up
Speaker 1: vaping who would otherwise not smoke. So this is a
Speaker 1: big study out of Oxford, about two hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: thousand people followed up to see, look, is there a
Speaker 1: long term problem with vaping, And actually the answer is yes.
Speaker 1: So what's been discovered is that there's about you know,
Speaker 1: two and a half times the rate of developing chronic
Speaker 1: obstructive airways disease otherwise known as mph seema, which is
Speaker 1: a devastating disease of the lungs where the lungs just
Speaker 1: don't work as well. And there's been some association with
Speaker 1: blood pressure as well. So there are does seem to
Speaker 1: be emerging some long term effects to and this is
Speaker 1: a real concern with the rates of vaping we have,
Speaker 1: especially in our younger adolescents and younger people.
Speaker 2: That is where I think there's some room for the
Speaker 2: government policy to do something about this too. I mean,
Speaker 2: as we don't like government intervention and things, but if
Speaker 2: the alternative smoking is you know, not too flash either,
Speaker 2: is it, well.
Speaker 1: Well, I've got to be clear on this as a
Speaker 1: smokingessation tool, I'm all for it. It's less harmful than smoking,
Speaker 1: so we've got to be very careful about that. The
Speaker 1: issue as those who would otherwise not smoke taking up vaping,
Speaker 1: there seems to be this problem. So I think we
Speaker 1: need to think about this pretty pretty hard as to
Speaker 1: what we do about this.
Speaker 2: And without inundating GPS. As a result of this show,
Speaker 2: if people are concerned about their heart health, what are
Speaker 2: the basic steps they can take to just get a
Speaker 2: check up. Would it be calling ahead with your GP
Speaker 2: and saying I want to come in and talk about
Speaker 2: this and get the blood test aforehand and all that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Look, you don't have to do it tomorrow when
Speaker 1: you can do it in the next month. You're just
Speaker 1: booking a check up to get your blood pressure check.
Speaker 1: They'll either do the blood blood test that point or
Speaker 1: the loft and audit before you come in. So you
Speaker 1: want a heart check, they'll do the basic blood test,
Speaker 1: to the examination. List to the heart, listen to the lungs,
Speaker 1: take a history. We generally generally do the blood test
Speaker 1: and the blood pressure. Yeah, so you can book ahead
Speaker 1: for that. There's no urgency with it, so don't think
Speaker 1: it has to be done tomorrow, but it's a good
Speaker 1: thing to do.
Speaker 3: Excellent.
Speaker 2: Hey, Brian, I really appreciate your time this stuff and
Speaker 2: it's such great information for people and I hope we're
Speaker 2: going to do it again again soon.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks very much, Tim, I've enjoyed it.
Speaker 3: Thanks very much.
Speaker 2: That is Dr Brian Betty, the GP and Chair of
Speaker 2: General Practice New Zealand, and thank for all your feedback.
Speaker 2: If you missed any of the hour you want to
Speaker 2: catch it. Lots of good information there. Then go and
Speaker 2: check out the podcast, which will be loaded pretty quickly
Speaker 2: after each our concludes, and you go to the News
Speaker 2: Talks b website for that. Thanks very much to Brian Betty.
Speaker 2: We'll be back with Smart Money. Shane Sally's with us.
Speaker 2: We're going to talk about We're going to talk about
Speaker 2: money actually, yeah, among other things. We'll be back very
Speaker 2: shortly News Talks.
Speaker 3: He'd be for more from the Weekend Collective.
Speaker 1: Listen live to News Talks it be weekends from three pm,
Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio