Solidarity HealthShare’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Oertle joins Chris DeSimone on Wake Up, Tucson to talk about lifestyle and health changes that can lead to a path to reduce the risk of dementia as we age.
Chris DeSimone (00:00):
Let’s go to the phones- making his second appearance. I figure he would’ve told Faddis ‘I don’t want to go on that guy’s show again.’ Dr. John Oertle from Solidarity HealthShare, Chief Medical Officer. John, welcome back.
Dr. John Oertle (00:14):
Good morning. Great to be here with you.
Chris DeSimone (00:16):
How are you doing today?
Dr. John Oertle (00:17):
Well, I’m doing all right except for the fact that I’m on your show right now.
Chris DeSimone (00:20):
See, this is what we’re talking about. Well, let’s give the doc a ding for that one. There we go. So I’m looking at your piece here talking about nearly half of dementia cases could be avoided. So let’s talk about, and it’s world Alzheimer’s month in September, but what I’d like to know from you first off is talk about what is, there seems to be, is there a growing prevalence of such things in relation to the dementia Alzheimer’s world? Are we just diagnosing it better as technology got better? All of the above. What do you think?
Dr. John Oertle (01:07):
Yeah, so it’s definitely growing in prevalence and so a lot of the actual developed countries, when we start to be able to have, we’re overweight and we have huge amounts of diabetes that are continually out of control. These are all correlative to Alzheimer’s, and so this is what this paper is actually talking about as far as these preventative measures, but we definitely see an increase in Alzheimer’s and dementia cases nationwide. The other thing is as we live longer, we’re dealing with these more complex neurodegenerative and more complex diseases, and so this is cancer and Alzheimer’s alike as far as this goes, that are again leading to more incidents as we age.
Chris DeSimone (01:52):
So when we talk about that, they could be avoided. Talk about what are we talking about, the steps? Is it diet? What are the things that were, do we take too many pharmaceuticals? I’m always a little suspect of,
Dr. John Oertle (02:08):
Yeah, well, no, and for good reason. There was a recent Alzheimer’s medication that just came on out. It treats the plaques of Alzheimer’s. One of the things that, again, it’s a very costly medication. It has a good amount of side effects, and at the same time, it’s not really, I haven’t been as impressed with its actual effectiveness in treating the actual disease, but when you see that, again, it’s a huge burden to our Medicare system, but when you actually are starting to see that this paper that came on out, it’s from the LAN set, which is a very reputable journal, but it was saying that again, that if you take these preventative measures, and again, a lot of ’em are just working with the body, nothing that’s hugely difficult to do. You can actually prevent Alzheimer’s disease by up to 50%, which is just a number thinking that how many people are concerned about Alzheimer’s in their old age or have dealt with a loved one who have had a very difficult time with the actual diagnosis and seeing how debilitating it is. And so if you can prevent something by 50%, I think it’s something that we should be taking a look at. And all of a lot of these things are not medication induced. They’re lifestyle changes and changes as far as being able to motivate ourselves to be able to stay healthy. So we can have a good old age.
Chris DeSimone (03:27):
So…number one, as Keith Jackson would say, the granddaddy of maladies, cardiovascular health, are we getting better with this? Or Americans are getting heavier and heavier and eating more crap. So this is still just as bad as it ever was.
Dr. John Oertle (03:45):
Well, one of the things, yeah, so when you actually start to see cardiovascular health being correlative with Alzheimer’s, things like high blood pressure and cholesterol, even diabetes can all lead to, again, increased risk. One, I know you have a lot of people that will just go on to drugs, stat medications. I’m not a huge proponent of, I think they’re also causing some side effects as far as this goes. But again, diet and lifestyle medications instead of medications can be great to be able to help manage your high blood pressure and your cholesterol in a normal natural way. But again, being able to manage that and just in general is able to actually lead to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease prevention. So you don’t want your cholesterol to be elevated, but at the same time, the other thing with cholesterol, it’s not part of this topic as far as dementia, but being able to actually work on not just the number of cholesterol that your total cholesterol or your bad LDL cholesterol is, but making sure that it’s not in flint getting oxidized or having inflammatory risk along with the actual cholesterol as well.
Chris DeSimone (04:50):
So if you put the other one on this, you mentioned it earlier, diabetes, talk about the diabetes because the effect of diabetes making all these other bad things happen in your body. Let’s talk through a little bit of the American lifestyle in relation to diabetes. Again, we just want to take medicines, but we keep eating crap food, crap sugar, all this stuff. Where are you at in the sugar world?
Dr. John Oertle (05:15):
Yeah. Well, actually some people actually, you’ll see, and I actually refer to many times to my patients that Alzheimer’s is a type three diabetes, that it’s a out of control glucose levels in the actual brain. And so this is where when you actually are looking at how do you actually control Alzheimer’s, being able to support it with the sugars can actually be very supportive. But if we’re not changing the diet and we’re just requiring medications upon medications and not actually removing sugars or having balanced diet with healthy protein and healthy fats in our diet, then again, we’re kind of putting lipstick on a pig or being able to put a bandaid over the actual real issue that’s going on as we have our weight is out of, and our glucose levels are out of control, but we think the medication is there to be able to solve it. Unfortunately, the medication is not enough to be able to really solve the diabetes problem, to be able to make sure that your diet and exercise, getting your steps in is really a critical thing.
Chris DeSimone (06:14):
Over the last couple of years, I don’t have diabetes. I’ve never had diabetes, but a friend got me said, I need to read a book called The Diabetes Code by Dr. Fung, the endocrinologist out of Canada, and then that led to the obesity code. But he goes through all of the things about, well, why are you giggling?
Dr. John Oertle (06:30):
Well, no, it’s true. No, it’s very true. I think that those are great books because again, it’s one of these, if we just keep circling these issues instead of actually seeing the elephant in the room, then again, we’re distracted and we’re not getting the results that we want to, and that’s really for Americans. Again, oftentimes taking the time and the resources, and many times it is challenging work, but again, many times you’re not getting this information from a doctor in a five minute appointment. You need to be able to do some of this research and be motivated, and those answers are out there and you can actually see amazing life shifts. I mean, being able to control your glucose levels and increased blood flow to the brain, you’re starting to be able to have better memory even if you’re not Alzheimer’s, right? Even if you don’t have dementia, being able to control the actual glucose levels are going to lead to better activity at work, better mental acuity, and increased energy levels as well.
(07:30):
And so who doesn’t want that? So I think one of these things is making sure that we’re not just taking more medications, thinking that this is going to help, but really are we living the kind of optimal life and the actual outcomes that we’re looking for? This is really the hope and the promise of what you can do as far as if you’re making these lifestyle changes to not just control the glucose, but yeah, making sure that you’re in less pain, increased energy, increased mental output if you’re doing these things to work with the body, if that makes sense.
Chris DeSimone (07:57):
No, it does.
Dr. John Oertle (07:58):
Sometimes we don’t like to think in 20 years that I’m going to have a disease, but what it’s going to do for you right now, even helping with libido, that’s one of the things that drives a lot of men into the actual doctor office is actually working on libido. But again, these are things that all help exercise. One of the things that it was said that I like to always mention as well is to my patients as well, is that 30 minutes of exercise, even just getting steps in a day is just as good or maybe even better in the research than going on something like Viagra. So again, it becomes very exciting as far as being able to say, how can I shift and make these changes right now that I can actually optimize my health?
Chris DeSimone (08:37):
My last thing on Dr. Fung, he tells a powerful story. He always goes to some big diabetes conference for North America every year, and he gets there and all the sponsors are the drug companies. You see the banners up there, and there’s always some new rollout of a drug of something that’s going to change at all. And then there’s always talks about the trends in diabetes and he keeps looking at the line graph and it keeps going up every year, even though we’ve had all these magic drugs, and he goes, there’s something wrong here.
Dr. John Oertle (09:09):
It’s so true. It is. It’s that elephant in the room, and it is one of these areas too. The diabetes medications, like Solidarity as well. We share into these prescription medications and you see just the increased cost of these diabetes medications and yet you have something like exercise, but it’s so effective and yet it’s not being prescribed because it’s cheap and it’s free, and yet it works. It’s so good to be able to get your 10,000 steps in a day and it does a lot of good for a lot of different systems within the body.
Chris DeSimone (09:42):
Dr. John, can you hold on for a commercial break? I want to get into education cognitive when we come back. Okay?
Dr. John Oertle (09:49):
Sure.
Chris DeSimone (09:49):
All right. We’re hanging out and getting smarter by talking to Dr. John Oertle from solidarityhealthshare.org. A much better way to, and not just a better for your wallet, but also informed by the doctrines of the Catholic Church here. A lot more moral way to pay for your healthcare costs. So you’re on Wake Up Tucson, go to solidarityhealthshare.org to find out how they can help you do all of this. You’re on Wake up Tucson, Chris versus the Cables part 17. Absolutely. Our bumps battle today was Johnny Cash versus Willie Nelson, and it’s always good to talk non politics with a smart man like Dr. Oerle from Solidarity HealthShare and that song we just heard by Willie of Whiskey River, this is not part of our improved lifestyle choices
(10:42):
To keep diabetes down in our lives. Just want to let everyone know that. All right. So slow your role, everybody. Dr. Oertle, we’re talking about improving the lives of people that could be suffering from dementia. We’re talking about a Lancet study that came out and we’re talking about how up to 50% of dementia cases could be either very severely reduced through some basic stuff. We talked about health through lifestyle choices and cardiovascular diabetes. Let’s go to number two here, which is education and cognitive engagement. So we just know a lot of people that when they retire, they say, I’m going to retire and watch Matlock and play golf, and then they don’t really move their brain too much. I assume this is of course a large problem.
Dr. John Oertle (11:35):
Yeah, Chris, that’s exactly right. Being able to continue to be able to challenge the brain as you continue to be able to get older and don’t stop learning. Some of these are some easy things like crossword puzzles, Sudoku, maybe learning a new instrument, but again, being able to keep engaging the brain and challenging your brain for new mental activities. Don’t just veg on the couch and letting, just putting pause on the actual mental cognition.
Chris DeSimone (12:04):
I also have seen things where you’re improving on any sort of hand eye coordination now, I always just started playing pickleball in the last few months and I saw an actual thing about playing pickleball because of the hand eye coordination of watching the ball and coordinating it to the paddle or anything that does hand eye coordination is also pretty important when it comes to-
Dr. John Oertle (12:27):
Well, it is because the brain is being used in those elements. So it’s not just thinking about it from book learning, but being able to actually have hand eye coordination anytime that you’re moving, doing coordinated movements. This can all be something where the brain is actively moving in the day our grandparents used to knit and sew, and those are areas where the brain is actively moving and coordinating. And so the less we do of these things, the worse it is for our brain. So things like pickleball is a wonderful thing to keep engaging the brain.
Chris DeSimone (13:01:
Also, if people, after they quote retire who just get some sort of full-time job that causes them to interact with human beings, but has some sort of coordination to the job effort, that just seems to be very helpful also. Right?
Dr. John Oertle (13:36):
Well, it’s good for the job because it keeps the brain engaged as well, but it also, one of those things that you’re talking about is social interactions. Being able to actually interact socially with individuals and not be isolated in your environment. One of the things that you actually find that a lot of people are informed about are what’s called blue zones. These are places in the world that people are average living above a hundred years old in age with great mental acuity and dementia is next to non-existent in these places. But one of the correlating factors in all of these locations that live above a hundred with great quality of life is that they all are socially engaged. They’re having an active parting community. So that’s certainly is a big one that again, getting a job or staying socially active involved in community life or service or just engagement with other people is a big factor that keeps us motivated and allows that brain to be able to stay healthy.
Chris DeSimone (14:15):
We’ve talked about all the devastating effects of how Covid was handled. One, we don’t talk about learning loss with kids and stuff, but the loneliness factor has to be off the charts right now. And also it scared people not to go do exactly what you just said. Am I in the right neighborhood there?
Dr. John Oertle (14:33):
You are in the right neighborhood. And what’s interesting is that we still, even though it was a couple years ago, we’re still seeing effects from that social isolation or the fear that was actually occurred with going through Covid, and we’re still dealing with these effects from such a huge tragedy such as that and how it was handled.
Chris DeSimone (14:53):
Well, my friend, we’re running out of time solidarityhealthshare.org of course, to find out how to make Solidarity a part of your life for paying your health costs and doing it in the right proper moral way. How do they find your work and find out more about this study you just talked about?
Dr. John Oertle (15:13):
Yeah, come on to solidarityhealthshare.org. This is all in our blog. If you want to listen more about this, you can also contact us at solidarityhealthshare.org and the number that’s provided, and you can get free information that gets sent out to all my newsletters on how to stay healthy and what’s going on in the actual healthcare space. It’s one of these. To be able to belong to a Solidarity community is lower costs for your healthcare choices and options for when you’re actually needed to be able to stay well. So I like to think that we’re truly data-driven as far as this goes in being able to make sure that patients have their options available for in our community.
Chris DeSimone (15:48):
All right, Dr. Oertle, always great talking to you and say hi to Chris for us and we’ll talk to you soon.
Dr. John Oertle (15:54):
I sure will. Sounds good. Thanks, Chris. Have a good one
Chris DeSimone (15:56):
Later, my friend. That’s Dr. John Oertle from solidarityhealthshare.org. If you hit the news and blog button on top, it goes right to this story that we just talked about.
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