- 17 hours ago
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00hi everybody hey hey dr. Jenn hello all right wow it's nice to see everybody out here so we
00:19are here to talk about the importance of self-care which is so important and more importantly being
00:25aware of your health and your body signals which let us know when something's wrong so
00:29I wanted to invite our special guest dr. Jenn Caudill here to join me on the stage so we can
00:36talk or dr. Jenn so we could talk about the importance of taking care of your health and
00:40prioritizing our health so guys join me in welcoming her so dr. Jenn thank you so much for joining me
00:49absolutely really really happy to have you so excited yes really happy to get a lot of your
00:54insight and I know that I've always heard that certain conditions may disproportionately impact
01:00black people like heart disease high blood pressure and diabetes but in recent years that really hit
01:06close home to me I told you know my personal story how I had a heart condition and I definitely ignored
01:13it for a while I just thought like I needed to rest more I needed to sleep more I was working too hard
01:18and not paying attention to any of the signs until one day I found myself getting extremely lightheaded
01:23and had to be rushed to the hospital and I ended up having to have a cardiac ablation four pvcs which
01:29were getting like a little bit too rapid and too out of control so I just want to talk to my people out
01:36there about how we do ignore signs when we're not feeling well I was just like I just got to keep going I
01:41got a film I was in the middle of I think filming the shy or something like that I didn't want to stop I had
01:46to work so what is that thing with us well so and then I also want to say too so pvcs are ventricular
01:54contractions it's when we get yeah did you have that before and this time you're talking about was
02:00worse is that what I had it before and I think they over the years became more rapid to the point I
02:05just felt it in my chest all day long non-stop yeah but again I'm like you know we love to self-diagnose I'm
02:12like we all just have to dress drink more water like that's just drink more water and rest and
02:17you'll be fine but um it took something as scary as me you know almost fainting to finally say you
02:23know I need to go get this taken care of yeah yeah well I'm glad that you well thank you for sharing
02:27your story first of all because I think that's a story that so many of us have I mean how many of
02:32us have put off something and not gotten it checked out because we were busy so I'm glad that you got it
02:37checked out but also underscoring this idea that we need to pay attention to our bodies right yeah and
02:42Dr. Jen can you tell us more about why conditions like heart disease high blood pressure and
02:46diabetes impact black people more often yeah so this is really something that we know as people
02:52of color high blood pressure diabetes cholesterol they really do impact us differently and when we
02:58talk about high blood pressure in particular there's a number of things that go into it right our genetics
03:03we always talk about family history genetics go into it we also think that African Americans we may be
03:08uh maybe extra sensitive to salt in maybe ways other people are not and we may respond differently to
03:14medications for blood pressure than other people do as well but this is something I have to say as an
03:18African-American family physician I'm a practicing family doctor I see patients all the time I teach a
03:24course for medical students and things like this it's I can't ignore the socio-economic factors the
03:31institutional and systemic racism that still exists in this country because what that does is it
03:36trickles down to housing and jobs and the ability to get good healthy foods which trickles down to
03:41obesity and access to medical care so it's a lot of things but I think the most important point here
03:47is that high blood pressure is a risk factor for stroke and and and heart attacks and heart disease
03:52and we have to really be proactive with our health we have to be an advocate for ourselves and really get
03:57it checked out absolutely so I'm going to ask you what advice do you have for us when it comes to
04:01preventative care like what should we be doing yeah so there's a few things so I'm I'm a family doctor
04:06so as you all probably know you go to med school you do a residency and then you pick a specialty and I
04:11chose family medicine because well for a lot of reasons but in addition to helping people who are sick
04:17I like to see people who are well and that's to say that we should all be seeing our doctor at least
04:22once a year for a well check when you don't have that butt pain the back pain the knee pain the
04:27shoulder pain you know you don't have any pains at all we should be going to our doctor at least
04:32once a year for that preventative checkup because we're going to talk about the mammogram and the
04:35colonoscopy and the immunizations and all that stuff so that's one big thing okay now the other
04:39thing that's really important to keep in mind is family history now I don't know if your family is
04:43like mine but my my grandmother on my father's side recently passed a couple of years ago God rest her
04:49soul and I tried for the life of me to get out of her our family history but it's not something that's
04:56that's not uncommon we actually have to talk to our family members though because what happened to
05:09them may ultimately happen to us or we may have risk factors for it so we've got to talk to one
05:14another I'd say two other things by the way listen to our body Lala you talked about the importance of
05:19that and I'll tell you something too I talked about this on social media earlier I had palpitations I
05:23don't have pvc's like you do okay but I had palpitations in 2020 my heart rate was like going
05:28up to 160s and stuff like that I put it off and put it I was like oh I'm just anxious oh I just need
05:34more sleep oh I need to drink more water I ended up three weeks later in the cardiologist office doing
05:39a stress test now luckily everything turned out okay but I put it off for the longest time and we can't
05:46put things off so if you have a hard time getting to the doctor maybe have someone come with you maybe
05:52you have that loved one in your life with you so listening to our bodies and I'd say the last
05:56thing because I know I'm going on and on is diet and exercise I know we're always like eat healthy
06:01and exercise no but this is really the thing diet and exercise is everything because I have so many
06:06patients tell me they're like dr. Jin how can I get off my blood pressure medicine right how can I get
06:11off my diabetes medicines I want to do this naturally well you know the probably be most natural way to to be
06:19have a good blood pressure and no diabetes for many people is exercising and eating a healthy diet
06:25it's as natural as it gets right so that healthy diet and exercising is so important so those are
06:31some things I think are important those are really really great great tips for all of us and stuff
06:35that we can follow so how important I mean you talked about it but how important is our relationship
06:41with our doctor or even just finding a doctor I know so many people out there who don't even have a
06:48doctor or wouldn't be able to tell you their doctor's name if you ask them how important is
06:52that especially when you're not dealing with a crisis or situation right right because that's a
06:57good point right because if something bad happens we know how to get ourselves to the ER we know how
07:02to get to urgent care but the question is how do we find a doctor for those preventative checks now
07:07this is what I got to say my hairdresser I would cross state lines for I would cross it and I have
07:13crossed state how many of you have crossed state lines for a hairdresser before or driven a long
07:18way yes and I have crossed state lines in the past so your hair looks great by the way thank you and
07:24yours does as well so think about the people in your life who are non-negotiable hairdresser brandy
07:31girl hey okay hairdresser our our religious leaders pastors non-negotiable right our church home
07:39non-negotiable who else is non-negotiable our family members people in our family right what I
07:45say about finding a doctor and our doctors is that doctor needs to be just as invaluable and valuable to
07:51us if you don't have a good relationship with your doctor first of all I say get rid of them this is
07:57your permission to fire your doctor if you don't like him if your doctor doesn't listen to you if they
08:01don't pay attention to you if they disregard you if they don't hear you if you feel like you have to say
08:06hey hey hey I'm over here just get rid of them but remember that doctor patient relationship it's a
08:12relationship you know you got to find one that you feel like you can work with just like our hairdresser
08:17and everybody else so so this is what I would say um is find the doctor and keep looking until you find
08:23the right one if anyone goes to therapy out there by the way therapy but I think everybody should be in
08:28therapy at some point in their lives to be honest with you I'm very important mental health is and so
08:33this is permission to find a therapist because like I said I really believe everybody should be in
08:36therapy but this is the thing you if you found a therapist before you know that that's a relationship
08:41sometimes you find therapists you like I don't know about this I don't know so find your doctor
08:47the same way and if you're not crazy about your doctor keep looking till you find the right one
08:53right so Dr. Jen I have a question for you because we talked about how we'd like to self-diagnose
08:59we'd like to take the medicines that we think are gonna work like obviously I know the harm in doing
09:05that but even my mom when I go to her and I'm like you know this is bothering me I'm not feeling well
09:09it's always like my mom's Puerto Rican so there's always like some Spanish home remedy cook this and
09:14you do this and you take this and it'll work so when it comes to self-diagnosing and giving yourself
09:21pain medication or whatever it is what are your thoughts yeah so so you're not the only your mom is not
09:26the only one who has home right I'm a doctor and I'll be sick and mom be like okay this is what I
09:30need you to do okay did you know that vitamin C I sent you go get that bottle you this is what
09:36happens in my household when I'm sick and I still call my mom when I'm sick honestly so we all have
09:40our own home remedies and things that we do and honestly as a family doctor you know it used to be
09:46back in the day when people would come into my office with like things from Google it'd be like oh no
09:51but now I mean this is the way of the world Google is not going anywhere and I don't criticize my
09:56patients for googling symptoms although it can make you a little crazy sometimes you don't want
09:59to make yourself crazy by looking too much but the idea is though I say if you Google your symptoms or
10:05look them up before you decide anything about your health based on what you've read or what somebody in
10:11the in the salon told you or your cousin or your friend or your co-worker you got to talk to your
10:16doctor about it to see if it applies to you take aspirin ibuprofen acetaminophen which is also
10:21Tylenol those are three over-the-counter medications we often use for pain but guys they are not the same
10:27and they actually work differently in the body and affect different medications that you might be taking
10:33and they might be right or not right for you depending on your underlying conditions so even
10:37something like over-the-counter pain medications you still got to talk to your doctor and ask them about
10:41yourself first absolutely and also I want to talk to you know some of the men in the audience because
10:46I feel like men even more than black men even more than black women are way more hesitant to go to
10:53the doctor to get checked out and things like that like you don't see that very often and it's so
10:58important because a lot of things can be you know diagnosed earlier caught early so what would you say
11:03to our guys out there yeah absolutely and by the way how many how many of you in the audience actually
11:08think it's it's tougher for men because I don't disagree with that but do a lot of you guys feel
11:13that way I see some hands up you know and I think it depends every every man every woman is different
11:17but what I love is I love when I'm going into a patient's room and I see what I call a twofer two
11:23for one so you got the husband and you got the wife you got the girlfriend you got the boyfriend the
11:28the brother sister or whatever you know going to the doctor with the loved one in your life can be a
11:33really great way to show support and sort of help remember the questions they got to answer and get asked and
11:38things like that but remember this preventative care cannot be overlooked and I think it's really
11:42it is really important to kind of have a partner when it comes to that or someone that can encourage
11:46you or go with you because going to the doctor is a scary thing some of us we don't want to know
11:51what's wrong with us that's rather live in a place where we don't know what's wrong and it's like
11:56oh I'm just living my life whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen but then you realize there's so
12:00many things out there that could have been prevented or taken care of early on if we didn't have such a fear
12:05when it came to going to the doctor and really finding out what what's going on what's going on
12:10no you're so right about that and something else I wanted to say in addition to you know not having
12:15that fear right I was talking about the over-the-counter medications aspirin Tylenol and Motrin want to
12:20give a little bit of information about Tylenol that I think is important okay so Tylenol is one
12:24medication that does not interfere with let's say an aspirin heart therapy prescription that you might have
12:29been given by your doctor and that prescription's ability to protect against heart attack and stroke the
12:34way ibuprofen or naproxen sodium sometimes can this is something to keep in mind it's also why
12:39you got to talk to your doctor Tylenol is also the number one doctor recommended brand for those with
12:43high blood pressure and then the other thing too is sometimes for my diabetes patients you know
12:48given the cardiovascular risk that can sometimes be associated with NSAIDs things like ibuprofen I
12:53often recommend Tylenol and of course some of you might have had GI upset that stomach upset was
12:57sometimes over-the-counter medications and in that situation I often prefer Tylenol over other over the
13:04counter medications as well because it doesn't irritate your stomach lining the way naproxen
13:08sodium or even ibuprofen can so those are some reasons why you know all medications not equally and
13:14yes we should not be afraid to talk to our doctor and find the right doctor not just someone who's going
13:18to treat us like a widget we're a patient we're a person I've had bad doctor have you ever had bad
13:23doctor for sure yeah yeah it happens you gotta pick and choose but I just want to encourage everyone
13:29out there to take care of your health don't be scared find a doctor if you have a doctor that
13:34you don't like find another one and encourage your close friends and family to do the same there's so
13:39much that can happen when we detect things early and have early care and everything like that so I
13:44want to thank you dr. Jim for coming and talking to us and sharing all these gems I hope you guys are
13:49enjoying Essence I hope everyone's having a great time and thank you so much for joining us as we
13:55talk about our health and we empower everyone to take control of our health take it from me I ignored
14:01some things and it could have got really bad and I'm so grateful that everything turned out but we
14:05definitely don't want to ignore our body or ignore our signs that our body gives us and I want to thank
14:10our audience and encourage each and every one of you to please take care of your health and I hope to see
14:16you outside having fun at Essence thank you so much for having us thank you
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