- 7 months ago
WXTU's Charlie Maxx and BEN FM's Kristen Herrmann interview Kristen Dr. Lazarus
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00:00Hey, thanks for joining us for this special Women's Health Month chat.
00:03I'm Charlie Max with 92.5 XTU.
00:05And I'm Kristen Herman from 95.7 Vet FM.
00:08And we've got a special guest with us today from Virtual Health.
00:11It's Dr. Nermeen Lazarus.
00:13Good morning and thanks for joining us.
00:15Good morning. Thank you for having me.
00:17Well, I'm going to just jump right in front of it and get to the elephant in the room.
00:21As women, we multitask. We're good at it.
00:23There's all the balls up in the air.
00:24We're taking care of everybody's fires.
00:26And what do we do?
00:27We ignore ourselves.
00:30And in the past year, that has become so evident because we're making sure our kids are safe and healthy.
00:37We're making sure our parents are safe and healthy.
00:40We were making sure work was getting done, school was getting done at home.
00:43We've ignored our health for at least 12 months.
00:47If you're a woman this month, what should be the first couple of things you should promise yourself to do to keep yourself healthy?
00:54Well, I guess in a nutshell, we need to be a little bit selfish this year coming forward.
01:00We've taken care of everybody last year for the last several years.
01:03That's all we do is we take care of everybody but ourselves.
01:06That nagging little symptom that we kind of blow off because we have to take care of, like you said, our kids, our parents, our lives, our jobs.
01:15Now it's time to be a little bit selfish and take care of ourselves.
01:18Is there one specific test of all of the regular health care tests?
01:23I don't want to say regular because they're all important, but that we should be on most specifically.
01:28If you haven't had this done in the last couple of years, let's get it on the calendar.
01:32The annual physical is probably the most important because that's where we do all of our screenings.
01:36Early detection, things for cancer, for diabetes, for heart disease, all of those things can be detected or searched for during the annual physical exam.
01:47So if anything, that's the one most important appointment to make.
01:51Have you had your annual physical yet?
01:53I have not, and I didn't have one last year either.
01:55No, I actually don't even have a primary care physician.
02:00So Dr. Nazareth, if you're taking on your clients, let me know.
02:04A lot of women, we go to the OBGYN, we go to our specialist if we have a problem, but a lot of women, younger women specifically, do not have a primary care physician.
02:14So before the annual physical, find a primary care physician.
02:18So I want to ask, and maybe there's not a way that you can tell this specifically, but those little nagging warning signs,
02:24you had mentioned that earlier when we started talking, you feel fatigued all the time.
02:28Maybe for some reason, you've got some shoulder pain that won't go away.
02:32Women's symptoms aren't always what we read about when it comes to certain diseases or conditions.
02:38What are some of the things as women that should throw up red flags if we're feeling them?
02:43So that's, you bring up a very good point.
02:44So women don't, you know, the studies years ago always were involved men.
02:48So they went typical, for instance, chest pain was that classic crossing substernal chest pain with shortness of breath.
02:55But women don't always get that.
02:57So if we get some nausea with the activity or if we get jaw pain with, you know, that's just not normal.
03:03Those are sometimes some of the red flags that we should go see a doctor about because we don't get the typical symptoms, especially for heart disease.
03:10And it's true also that you can eat right, you can eat healthy, you can exercise and still have underlying conditions.
03:17Correct.
03:17That's correct.
03:18Even the healthiest person could still have heart disease or some underlying issue.
03:22Then that's why the primary care physician is a great place to start to look for those things.
03:26I know that we need to be doing a number of different screenings throughout our lives, but I don't really know the ages that we do them.
03:33Like I know I'll eventually need a mammogram, but I don't know at what age I need to ask about that.
03:37What is kind of the timeline that we should look to for different screenings and tests?
03:41So for specifically for mammograms, so women age 40 and older, colonoscopy, they just recommended lowering the age from 50 to now 45 to screen for colon cancer.
03:53A pap test starting at age 21 for all women.
03:56And the timing varies depending on your risk factors and things.
04:01Blood pressure check, you should come in every two years at least, or if you have family history, even sooner, at least once a year.
04:09Cholesterol checks every year after the age of 50 and every few years prior to that.
04:15So things like diabetes, we have to check every three years or so unless, again, family history will be sooner.
04:21Bone density tests, we should check once at least at age 65 and every few years after that.
04:27Skin cancer checks, you should go to your dermatologist at least once a year.
04:31So good for you.
04:33It's the freckles.
04:36Right there, like that's women taking care of other women, you know.
04:40When's your appointment?
04:42Yeah, well, let's go back to Christmas.
04:46It's funny because this last year, like we talked about, it's been different for all of us.
04:50We've done things differently.
04:52We've probably not eaten as healthy as we've liked.
04:54We've probably gained a few pounds.
04:55I'll admit I have.
04:57I get on a scale, I'm like, oh gosh, where did that come from?
05:00I guess, Dr. Lester, my question is, should we not feel bad about that?
05:04Should we not feel, because that's more pressure that we're putting on ourselves as women.
05:08Oh, I failed.
05:09In some capacity, I didn't do it right.
05:11We should kind of maybe back off of that.
05:13Absolutely.
05:13One of the things I tell my patients, because it has been a very rough year, and COVID-19 isn't just a virus.
05:19It's a weight gain for a lot of women, unfortunately.
05:23So, you know, you just have to start from scratch.
05:25Take today's time zero and just move forward, because looking back does nothing, but you feel like you failed.
05:31Correct.
05:31So, starting now, starting fresh, getting a good exercise and diet habits, you know, relearning how to eat with the new lifestyle that you have, the new normal, as they say, figuring out what works for you and going forward.
05:46And do not look back, because it does nobody any good.
05:49So, basically, the box of tasty cakes, probably not a good idea for dinner anymore.
05:53Throw them out today.
05:54Like, time to have a salad.
05:56That's a little depressing.
05:57I still have a couple of Girl Scout cookie boxes left, and I will not go to those up.
06:02But I can take a little bit, some more steps today or something like that to try to combat that.
06:07At first, they were like, we're not going to sell Girl Scout cookies.
06:09I'm like, we're safe.
06:10And the next thing I know, you could buy them online.
06:12I was like, well, there goes that.
06:13That was a bad move.
06:15Yeah, we didn't even have to try to find them that year.
06:19It was that they came to us.
06:20Oh, it's hard.
06:21It's hard.
06:22And, you know, with stress, we tend to eat more.
06:24We tend to not exercise as much.
06:25The fear of going out was relevant last year.
06:28Right.
06:29If you are looking at our day zero, like you mentioned, and we're going to start a healthy lifestyle and a healthy plan, is there a guideline that you can tell us what to start with?
06:39Because, you know, you can open the internet and Google and find all of these suggestions about never eating carbs again, or all you should eat is fat.
06:48Or, you know, if you have one piece of rice and a sliver of chicken, you'll lose 20 pounds in a half an hour.
06:53None of it's true.
06:54It really comes down to basic diet.
06:57So that's actually a good point.
06:58So one of the things that they say, these fad diets and things, they never work.
07:04They may all work for the short term, but they never work for the long term.
07:07And most people regain the weight and then some.
07:09And so that's why they call it healthy lifestyle changes rather than a diet, because whatever you do needs to be something you can sustain forever.
07:17It's whatever you it's it can't be for the next two weeks or until the next wedding or what have you.
07:22It has to be forever.
07:23So that's why, you know, the healthy lifestyle with low fat, low carb, not no carb, not no fat, you know, is a more sustainable type of healthy diet regimen.
07:35Exercise at least 150 minutes a week.
07:37And they actually found that it doesn't have to be 30 minutes at a time.
07:40It can be in 10 minute increments, you know, in the morning and then in the afternoon.
07:45But that 150 minutes seems to be the key or more, obviously, of exercise per week, because the more you move, the more metabolism burning that you have will help.
07:57That helps with the excuses, too.
07:59If you say 10 minutes, you're not very busy, like 10 minutes.
08:03I can do 10 minutes.
08:04And even if it's just that 10 minutes that day, it's still better than not doing anything, which is in a lot of cases, that's what I'll do.
08:11Yeah.
08:11And I try to do little things that help.
08:14Like I'll park a little bit further away than I have to just to get the extra steps.
08:19And I'll take the stairs sometimes if it's easier.
08:22And I know, you know, like you say, we're always pressed for time.
08:25I don't know any woman who's not pressed for time.
08:27But just to take that extra few minutes and walk around the block when you're walking the dog, maybe go an extra half block and then come back to add in the steps.
08:36And really, not only for your health, for your mental health as well, because that's part of being a healthy lifestyle.
08:42And with women, we're carrying a lot of pressure in mental health as well as physical health, for sure.
08:49Now, Dr. Lazarus, you've gone through years of schooling.
08:52You're a primary care physician at Virtua.
08:55What do you do to step away and recharge your battery?
08:59You know, I have to be honest.
09:01During COVID, it was tough for me as well.
09:02Same thing.
09:03I was very stressed dealing with my patients and having, you know, family issues with, you know, COVID and things like that.
09:09But same thing now.
09:10I started playing tennis.
09:11I started hiking.
09:13And I can't even tell you the change it has made in myself mentally and physically.
09:17I feel physically stronger, mentally better.
09:19And so I've tried to lead by example.
09:22And I'm doing those things for myself this year as well.
09:25And time zero for me was a few weeks ago.
09:28There you go.
09:29Good for you.
09:30Keep up the great work.
09:31I think that COVID has been an experience forever.
09:35I mean, just a really hard year.
09:37But it also, it made us really appreciate our health more than ever.
09:41It made us appreciate being outdoors and being able to exercise and hopefully one day be with people again.
09:47But I really think that this is a good time with May being Women's Health Month to just kind of start at ground zero.
09:53Now, I'm going to start today.
09:54Or maybe tomorrow.
09:55I'm going to sleep off the vaccination.
09:58And then I'll do that.
09:59Well, Dr. Lazarus, thank you again for joining us today.
10:02We appreciate your time.
10:03Any final thoughts, key things that we should be doing when we finish here?
10:07We know Kristen's going to call and get a primary care physician.
10:09What are some of the things we should do as we walk away from this today?
10:13Well, to sum everything up, really, the most important thing is find yourself a primary care physician.
10:17Make your appointment for your annual physical.
10:20Get your screenings done, your blood work.
10:23Manage your stress.
10:24Start a healthy lifestyle.
10:26Changes today.
10:28And also, you know, go to your specialist for your screenings, your pap tests, and your dermatologists, and your cardiologists if you need to.
10:35Get those testing done this year.
10:37That's your goal for this year.
10:39And it really, like, as you're listing that, it sounds like a lot.
10:42But it's not.
10:42It starts with making that appointment with your primary care physician.
10:46Correct.
10:46Dr. Lazarus, primary care physician at Virtua.
10:49I'm going to try to make an appointment with you.
10:51Thank you so much for talking with us.
10:53Thanks for all of your tips.
10:54And I will be writing some of these tips down and definitely following your advice.
10:59Thank you so much for having me.
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