Healthy Wealthy & Wise Dr. William T. Choctaw, MD, JD
The Healthy Wealthy and Wise Podcast, with Dr. William T. Choctaw, MD, JD is a monthly podcast that focuses on personal growth and development by exploring a range of topics related to mental and physical health, personal wealth, leadership, and interpersonal relationships. Dr. Choctaw draws on his 75yrs experience and 50 plus years of surgical practice since graduating from Yale University School of Medicine.
Each month, we strive to provide our listeners with mental, physical, and spiritual strength by giving actionable advice, tips, guidance, and information to help them achieve their own personal, professional, and spiritual goals. We consider the health of the mind, body, and spirit paramount as a single unit that provides a cumulative strength greater than the individual parts, to strengthen the whole person.
We appreciate the natural differences in need between men, women, adults, and children. We recognize that the power to be happy is within each of us and under our control. We embrace technology and identify how it is applicable to our daily success. We address the entire human experiences from generation z to the baby boomers.
We’re passionate about the total person, and helping our listeners build and lead a full, well-rounded and happy life. So, tune in every month for an inspiring, encouraging, and informative podcast!
Healthy Wealthy & Wise Dr. William T. Choctaw, MD, JD
Preventing Heart Dangers in Child Athletes: A Guide
Have you ever wondered about the real dangers that athletes, especially young athletes, face when it comes to sudden cardiac arrest? Dr. William Choctaw, MDJD, a notable authority in this field, joins us to illuminate us about this grave, yet often overlooked, risk. Particularly, he addresses the often-confused matter of myocarditis and how it can lead to sudden cardiac arrest.
As a parent whose son played football, I understand the worry that comes with children playing sports. Taking extra safety measures can never be overemphasized. With Dr. Choctaw, we explore how regular physical exams, EKG tests, and education about risk factors can serve as precautionary measures. The discussion also brings to light the importance of having AEDs, or Automated External Defibrillators, on every team and somebody certified to use them. We believe that effective communication, trust, and building strong relationships are integral in fostering a safe environment for our children.
Wrapping up, we address some critical medical questions pertaining to heart health. Dr. Choctaw helps discern between heart attacks and cardiac arrests, emphasizing the critical role that spotters for AEDs play in emergencies. We delve into the possibility of hereditary conditions and their correlation (or lack thereof) with age. It's a compelling dialogue filled with practical advice on preserving heart health, especially for young athletes, that you wouldn't want to miss.
Healthcare Quality Leadership Education Group
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The Host, Dr. William Choctaw; MD, JD, is a healthcare leadership expert, possessing a Medical Doctorate from the Yale University School of Medicine, and a Jurist Doctorate from Western University. Over a span of 50 years practicing medicine, he has served as Chief of Staff, Chief of Surgery, and as a member of the medical executive committee at Citrus Valley Medical Center over a 10 year period. Also, while practicing at Citrus Valley Medical Center, he served as Chief Transformation Officer, (developed a Robust Process Improvement/Lean Six Sigma program). Dr. Choctaw lectures nationally and internationally on medical leadership issues for hospital staffs, executives, and managers. He served as a Physician Surveyor on the Joint Commission. He's the author of 2 books, "Medical Malpractice: A Physician's Guide to the Law" and "Transforming the Patient Experience: A New Paradigm for Hospital and Physician Leadership, published by the Springer Publishing Co. He’s the President of Choctaw Medical Group, Inc., a clinical practice and medical legal consulting firm for medical staff executives, physician leaders, and hospitals.
Welcome to the healthy, wealthy and wise podcast with Dr William Chokta, MDJD. Our mission is to empower you with the knowledge and the tools you need to thrive in all aspects of your life. Join us now as we discuss everything from nutrition and exercise to money management and personal growth. Dr Chokta will provide insightful advice on how to improve your physical and financial health, as well as your emotional and mental well-being. Whether you're looking to boost your energy levels, unlock financial freedom or cultivate a more positive mindset, we've got you covered. Get ready to become the best version of yourself? So let's get started. Here's Dr William Chokta, MDJD.
Speaker 2:So what is sudden cardiac risk? Number one is the most common cause of death in athletes. Now let me back up and put some things in perspective. This is very, very rare. This is not something that happens every day, once a month, it probably doesn't even happen once a year, which is probably why you haven't even heard of it before. But it does happen. And the point I'm trying to make and I'll make this one, or try to make this one throughout out, especially this morning is if this athlete or this child is your child or your family member, you don't care about the numbers. You don't care if it's one in 100, one in 1,000, one in 50,000. You don't want it to happen to your child. So we'll talk about some mitigation things that I recommend that could be done, and even some things that I think parents can do, just sort of help with this. But we'll get into that a bit later.
Speaker 2:Remember this guy this is Bronny James. Bronny James, if you don't know, is the son of the great LeBron James, probably one of the most famous basketball players in our time. Needless to say, bronny is his son same genes. So no big surprise that Bronny decides that he must follow dad's footsteps. No big surprise there and he's obviously very, very good, or he wouldn't be on these teams and he wouldn't have been drafted by one of the best schools with teams in the country USC. But Bronny is the reason for this particular discussion, because Bronny is not. He's relatively unique, but he's not that unique. And the argument that I'm going to try to make, starting now and toward the end of this discussion, is we can do more, in my judgment, to protect our student athletes. My grandson is named Vincent. He's a star soccer player, all the things, whatever you want to call it, graduated from high school this year as well as the way to college next year. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of athletes just like Bronny and Vincent, and my point is I think we can do a better job in helping and protecting them.
Speaker 2:Now, when we talk about sudden cardiac death, let's back up and say but what is the most common cause of heart problem, which is rare, okay, in young people or in athletes? And the most common cause, the most common type of heart problem in young people is something called myocarditis. Now, everything in medicine has a meaning. So when we say myo, myo means muscle Carp, c-r-d means heart and ids means inflammation of. So when I say myocarditis, I'm talking about inflammation of the heart muscle, again a relatively rare problem, but it does occur. So, in general, this is considered to be the most common reason why young people may very well have cardiac death in their youth. However, it is not the most common reason for sudden cardiac death, which is why we're mentioning it in context and just want you to be aware of it. But myocarditis is not what we're going to talk about today. Okay, so with myocarditis and as the name implies, if you have an inflammation of your muscle, let's say the heart muscle, usually you're going to have symptoms over time. You're going to have soreness, you're going to have discomfort, you're going to have pain. So, myocarditis reded. It is a serious problem, but it is something that occurs over time. It is something that occurs over time.
Speaker 2:What I'm talking about is sudden cardiac arrest, something that happens immediately, and this is what we're going to focus on this morning. When sudden cardiac arrest occurs and this is when you are in a crowd or you're in a store, you're out walking on the street, you're in a park and, all of a sudden, the person suddenly drops to the floor, to the ground, because the heart just stops, sudden cardiac arrest. Most of these, understandably, are going to be outside of the hospital. As you might imagine, many of these patients are not sick. Again, we're talking about athletes. They're not ill in general. They're running around like any other healthy young person would be. So their survival depends on them being in a hospital or close to a hospital where they can get certain types of treatment. So what am I saying? I'm saying those types of treatments should be outside of the hospital. And then, very specifically, one is the deprivileged, the automatic deprivileged, which can easily be portable. You will see them in some airports when you go to catch your plane. You will see them in some malls, shopping malls where a lot of people are, where crowds of people congregate, because anybody can subtly have a cardiac arrest if you have some pre-existing cardiac condition. So let's sort of take another look at this.
Speaker 2:The most common diagnosis in patients, young people, who have sudden cardiac arrest, is what we call cardiomyopathy. Okay, cardiomyopathy. Again, let's break the word up medically Cardio. Cardio is a heart my over. We're talking about muscle Opathy. We're talking about a disease of the heart and muscle and this is a disease that you're born with. It's not anything they did. It's not anything that they should or should not have reported. It's not anything that they ate or it's not an injury. They were born with. It's in their genes, it's from mom and dad and grandma and great dad and all the way up that genetic chain. Okay, and because they were born with it, they don't know. They have it. They don't, and that's part of the problem.
Speaker 2:The good news is we know that the majority of these patients, these young people, could be diagnosed with a simple test called an electrocardiogram, an EKG. This is where they hook up the things to your heart and they have you lay down and then they run the strip and it just monitors your heartbeat, shows you how your heart is beating. So keep that in mind. We're going to come back to that. Most of these problems could be diagnosed ahead of time by getting a basic test. I don't know how much it costs, but it's not that expensive. Most sports programs do not do EKGs on the athletes, right? So we're going to talk about that a bit later too. And so then the issue is well, if the team won't do it, who should do it? If it's my son or my grandson, how do I protect him. How do I make sure that everything is okay? Let's say, my kid plays club soccer and every Saturday or Saturday and Sunday they go off for a team, but for a game. How do I make sure that my 20-year-old, my 15-year-old, does not end up having acute cardiac arrest, a sudden cardiac arrest? Again, it's a rare problem based on numbers, but indeed it does happen. Just a general review Most people who have heart disease, who are adults, have what's called coronary heart disease.
Speaker 2:The coronary artery is the main artery that supplies the heart. Think of the heart as a muscle. Think about your fist Heart's, about the size of your fist ball down. It's a muscle. It pumps blood throughout the body. What makes that muscle work, among other things, is the muscle getting good blood supply. If you clog up the arteries or the canals that take the blood to that muscle, that muscle won't work nearly as well. And that's usually what happens as we get older and older and older and depending on our lifestyle, our eating habits, whether we exercise and not, etc. And then we end up with coronary artery disease. Young people and when I say young people I'm talking about less than 21 years of age don't have problems with the coronary artery in general. If they have heart problems, it's going to be caused by cardiomyopathy, something that they were born with Again, very rare, very rare. But if it's your child, you don't care with the muscle. So who are these kids?
Speaker 2:Well as we said, they're young, less than 25 years of age. They play the basic sports basketball, football. Some have theorized that because they are athletes and this is where the hormones are highest in athletes or in teenagers rather not as in teenagers that this is why there's the self-worth. No one knows whether that's true or not. That's just a theory, but we do know that the body is changing at different stages of life and doing different ages, and whether that change is associated with hormone changes that normally occurs in every single child we don't really know, but it's just something to keep in mind. So what we're talking about is the heart and heart-related problems. Again, in general, across the country, most common cause of death is heart disease. In general, across the country there is some data on sudden cardiac arrest in athletes, but it's very little data. And think about that. How would you do that study? Would you go around? Would you send out questionnaires to different teams and ask them to fill it out? Fill it out? Would a coach want you to give his players information or that you want them to fill out? Or would he say you know what? We don't want to deal with that sort of stuff. We're trying to want to gain. Here we're trying to go to the state championship and you're talking about something that doesn't even happen, but one in 40,000. Thank you very much, goodbye. So my point is, the reason why we don't know a lot about this is that there's not a lot of incentive, if you will, but research to be done about it. Again, I'll go back to my familiar friend. If it's your child, you don't care. You want the best for her or for him, if indeed he or she are athletic or involved in athletic competition. So we have some basic information, but it's old information, and it tells us basically what we already know that if you play basketball or football or soccer or any of those high intensity sports, you're more likely to have sudden cardiac arrest than if you participate in less dramatic sports. Again, as we said, cardiac arrest is different from heart attack and one of the things that we like to mention and we said it before heart attack is a plumbing problem. Cardiac arrest is an electrical problem Because, in addition to being a muscle, the heart also is an electrical unit.
Speaker 2:It's an electrical unit. So what do you do when you're sitting at home and all the lights go out or your TV doesn't work? You know, first thing you can call the repair people they have. First thing they'll say is unplug it and plug it back in again after five minutes. So that's what you do, right, because it's an electrical unit. So what are you doing? We used to call it an old-age rebooting. You know, I don't even think people use that term anymore. Think about it, then, because it's an electrical unit and sometimes the electrical current just don't do what they're supposed to do. Now I don't really understand it, but I know that more likely than not, unplugging it and plugging it back in works. So that's usually what I do.
Speaker 2:Well, the heart is sort of similar. The heart is sort of similar. In medicine we call that shocking the heart, we call that shock in the heart, and we do that with the defibrillation machine, and we'll mention that a bit later. Also, one of the things I do like to mention I've mentioned this before, but I think it's always important to mention that men and women experience heart attack. I'll tell my cardiac arrest now. I'll tell my heart attack which occurs in.
Speaker 2:Elderly patients or adult patients more often experience heart attack symptoms differently, and this is based on the fact that when I was in medical school in the 70s, the early 70s, the studies were based on men. You know, men were the only ones in the studies, and so what we learned, which is what triggers or stimulates our practice of medicine, was based on how men react when they have a heart attack, where you have a crushing sub-serminal chest pain in the middle of the chest that radiates to the right arm. What's important to understand, and what further studies have shown, is that that's not true with women necessarily, that indeed women I may not have the classic crushing sub-serminal chest pain in the middle of the chest, like somebody is sitting on your chest that then radiates to the left arm, that men have. Women may come in and they may say well, you know, I just sort of feel faint, I just feel a little lightheaded, or I just been a little short of breath, and I don't really know why I'm short of breath. You know I haven't been doing anything, I haven't been exercising or whatever. Yeah, I do have some chest discomfort, but it's not horrible. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:An entire area as I mentioned before of medicine now is now devoted to female cardiac health. Female cardiac health Medicine is one of those areas that evolves all the time and it will continue to evolve. It is not 100 percent today, it will not be 100 percent tomorrow. So my health care? But it continues to evolve. So it's one of the reasons why many times there's not a static best answer for what I should do all the time for my health, but just keep that in mind. I just think that's an important factor. I might also parenthetically add that health care also is noticed that very ethnic groups don't always respond the same way with a heart attack. Again, it depends on your genes, it depends on your culture, it depends on your habits, and on and on and on. So diversity is more than just something socially acceptable. It's good health care, it's smart health care, it's quality health care that you need to take that into consideration and not just sort of paint everybody with the same brush.
Speaker 2:One of the things that I've learned this has really been more particular since I've been doing these podcasts and masterclass discussions and research is how important he is to heart problems. Didn't really appreciate that five, 10 years ago, but with this year in the hottest year in the planet in our history, and whether you don't have to live in Arizona, in the desert or Palm Springs, we're supposed to be 100 degrees today. It's a problem. It's a problem. The way that he hurts you is primarily, or one of the main reasons it hurts is with your heart. How does that happen? It makes your heart work more.
Speaker 2:Okay, so think about it. So if your heart is weak, let's say you've got some heart disease and you take medication for it and your heart is taking care of you, but you now increase and triple the demand on that heart. That heart may not be able to ramp up to that level and then the heart stops and you end up having a heart attack. Okay, so my point, my bottom line, is be very, very careful of the heat. Please, please, please, drink a lot of water. Please hydrate yourself, please remember that if it's 85 degrees outside and you're in a house or in a room that's a closed space and you do not have air conditioning, it may be over 100 degrees where you are in that closed space.
Speaker 2:So just in case it's 85 degrees outside, it may be 105 degrees where you are. So please be aware that. Likewise, if you're around young children, if you're around elderly people, make sure you double triple check on them Right. Don't assume that just because you feel okay, that they feel okay, they may not Right. And then, obviously, if there is any type of medical problem associated with that with the children or with the adults, it makes it worse. It makes it worse. So just please keep in mind that heat exhaustion, heat stroke, are real problems. They occur more and more People are dying from it, and so there are things that we can do to help them and what we do with these series of discussions and whatever. We talk about what we can do, we don't talk about stuff that other people control. We talk about what we can do Either to help ourselves or maybe to reach out and help somebody else. It might be at work, or be in the park, or be at a store, or be at church, or on and on and on.
Speaker 2:So let's get back to our topic Sudden cardiac arrest in young people. Again, it's a rare, but it's a serious problem. You may remember the sudden cardiac arrest that occurred in this young man, again 20 something, but his that's way some was a little different. He was actually hit in the chest so he had a trauma. Now, most of my life I have been practicing as a trauma surgeon my job. I'm one of those guys and called in at three o'clock in the morning when somebody has been hit by a car, a shot or stab, and we get in and we get in and do what we do to try to save that person's life. One of the most common cause of death in young people in general now less than 60, less than 50, tends to be trauma Cardiac disease, gunshot wounds, stab wounds, falls, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But in this case, this particular type of cardiac arrest was caused by a sudden blow to the heart which, is believed, interrupted the electrical system of the heart. Ok, it's like again, your TV is plugged into the wall but you take scissors and you cut the cord or you hit it very hard. You may interrupt the flow of that electricity and cause that area to not function properly. So what are some of the symptoms of sudden cardiac arrest? Now you're saying, okay, dr Chakta, you're saying sudden, but now you're talking about symptoms and what I'm talking about is. I'm talking about immediate symptoms.
Speaker 2:Let me give you a hypothetical. Let's say I'm coach of a soccer team. You can tell I talk a lot about some. That's what I'm going to do.
Speaker 2:But let's say I'm coach of a soccer team, all right, and there's Johnny who I think is just sort of a cut up. I think he just doesn't. He's a good player but he doesn't work as hard as he should work. And so after practice I have all the players to run around the field twice before they go in to get ready to go home. And so on this particular day, I tell him to do the same thing to run around the field. Johnny runs about halfway on the field and then stops.
Speaker 2:And I go up to Johnny and I said what's your problem? He said oh, coach, I'm just tired. I said well, everybody's tired. I said if you want to be in, boppe or Messi, or, or, or, what, what, what are the great players? You got a question and think about that's.
Speaker 2:That's the culture of sports, right, sports, and, and you know, superstar athletes. They pushed themselves beyond the limits. That's what we expected of them. When, when, when Mahomes spins around like a top five times and jumps up and throws the football a hundred yards and hits them by the end zone and wins the game, we said, wow, how did he do that? You know, so we expect miracles from our athletes.
Speaker 2:My point is very simple, is that, particularly with children, we need to dial it back a more upon that. Sometimes, when little John is saying that he may really have a problem, he may not just be trying to get out of doing his job, because some of the early symptoms they're usually free is they may be more, more exhausted than normal for them. They may be more short of breath so that they aren't able to complete the task. They may feel dizzy or faint, which certainly you wouldn't expect in a 15 year old or a 16 year old. They may complain of chest pain. So my point is and this is probably really more for the coaches than and the people who work with groups of youth just be cognizant of that fact. I'll I'll. I'll give an example, another of yours I mentioned.
Speaker 2:I'm a trauma surgeon, a friend of mine who worked at Mount San Antonio College. I was a trainer. She was a trainer and she would be a trainer for a lot of the high school football games and her job would be to be on the field on the sidelines and if someone gets hurt or, you know, a sprains the leg or brains or whatever, she would go out and do whatever the trainers do whatever. But he came to me one day and she said Dr Chalka, I need you, I need you. I said okay. She said would you be interested in sort of working with me on the sidelines for high school games? I said you know, I'm really pretty busy. I don't really have a lot of time I deal with that. But she pushed me. She said you know, she said I'm worried. She said I'm really worried, and this is 20 years ago. She said these kids get hit out there. And she said I'm not a doctor. She said but I'm not sure they should be going back into these games. Coach, that's okay, you'll be all right. You know they spray this or give them whatever. Okay, get back in the game, get back in the game. And she said I'm a little nervous. I'm a little nervous.
Speaker 2:Well, as the trainer, we sort of reached the compromise. One of the schools that she was the trainer was a school where my son is an athlete. Okay, I said, talk to me. I said okay, talk to me this is no Galas high school. And he decided, of course I was against it. He decided he wanted to play football. I said, oh God, you're in the world, I'm a trauma surgeon, why do you want to play football? But okay, okay, I'm trying to be a good parent, I'm trying to meet him halfway you know, what I mean.
Speaker 2:And I said okay, okay, okay. I said please be careful. So I told Cassandra, this is the trainer. I said I will do, because she also didn't know Galas. I said I will do it, for no, galas, I will be on the field for the team that my son plays on Friday nights. So she said okay, okay, and the coaches were very nice, they were very, very nice. And I went in with one and I told the coaches, I said if I say no, he's out, no discussion, no argument, no, it ends above. I said uh-uh, we clear Coach said yes, doctor, whatever, you say no problem, no problem. And they were, they were extreme. And I said we were very, very nice.
Speaker 2:But I said all that to say that sometimes our kids are in more peril than we think they are. You know, we all like the game, I love football and I love soccer, whatever but sometimes, sometimes, there's another side of that that we can improve about and I just wanted to sort of make that. So what should we do? Okay? So, dr Huffington, going on and on for the next couple of minutes, what is it we can do? I'm just a mom, I'm just a dad, I go out and I take my folding chair and I sit it down and I share for my son.
Speaker 2:I must admit I was particular with my kids. Now I watch my grandkids, but with my kids I was one of those parents that you how would you say? Not necessarily that you would want to come to a game, but I was very engaged and my son, the big, impressive, who lives in San Diego, was actually a superstar. I'm not just saying that because he was a superstar, but he really was a superstar and he was very, very fast. So he played on offense, used a center forward and the teams knew that so they would double, triple team and that sort of thing, but when he would get the ball he would take off.
Speaker 2:And when he would take off on the field, I would take off on the side. It's like true confection. So he's running on the field. I'm running on the side of the golf wrestling golf, and he's like, yeah, I'm going to run on the side of the golf. And now I'm yelling at the other team you can't catch him, he's too fast. I saw him on paper, my son. And so what they do? They knock him down. That's what soccer players do. If they can't catch him, they trip you. You don't believe that. You watch it in the program. Anyway, I digress. So what's my point is that soccer is an exciting game. Sports is an exciting thing, but we have to look at how we can protect our kids. So we have to be aware that there are things that we can do, the better we are doing. So what are some of the things that we can do? I recommend these. This is just me.
Speaker 2:Whatever sports your child plays for, this high school or club sports that they should have a physical exam. Now, most times that I think it's probably a rule they do have a physical exam. You know, I think I remember in my office and wronged it many years ago I used to do the exams of different teams who played in the area. So I think they do get a physical exam. But if you do a good physical exam, number one not just check the boxes it should be something like oh, you asked questions about it, do your knowledge? Is anybody in your family ever had heart problems? Do your knowledge? They may not know and that's okay, but at least it should be more than that. But my record I think kids should get EKJs and I realize that that's just you know. People can go crazy with that Because for a number of reasons, number one is the rare problem that's sudden cardiac arrest. Most kids aren't going to have it and I'm sure that the last thing a high school coach wants to think about or wants parents think about, or a club coach wants parents think about is oh my God, my son adored me and I've had heart problems. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:Again, I realize that that's challenging, but I go back to my original point. If it's your child or if it's your grandchild, you don't care. You want zero chance of harm to your child, or your and not only your child, to your neighbor's child, your friend's child or whatever. Nobody wants injury or problems to occur with kids. So my first recommendation is they have a good history and physical. My second recommendation they have an EKJ active screening test. That's a screening test.
Speaker 2:Now some are well, you know it's too expensive and and you know these things don't have a lot of money and that may be true, but I'd say I've seen a lot of kids on the on the corner with signs for car washes, to get uniforms and to get this, and that you know, I think folks are doing for something more substantive. Or, you know, I think parents can do it. Parents can get to get their parent meetings, their their teen moms and teen dads. There's no way in the world you can't get together and raise money to buy a little tiny EKJ machine and have someone make sure they use it each season for the kids. People should be educated about risk factors. And my third suggestion is everybody, everybody, everybody should know CPR. Let me say that again Everybody should know CPR. I was absolutely delighted. I got an email from I think it was Shelley Shaw, the church. Here they have a CPR test and I said yes yes, go play, steven.
Speaker 2:I think that's what why? Why, number one, there is no downside. There's no downside to knowing CPR. And, who knows, you may be the one on a field somewhere where a kid drops or an adult drops and people sort of stand around looking because they don't know what to do and they're afraid, and they're afraid to touch or whatever. Whatever you may be the ones that you know, okay, you turn them over. You do the things that you know to do, to do CPR. So please, please, please, take the class that you have not get certified. So my third recommendation is that you'd be some adult on these teams I don't care whether school team or club team. That's a certified CPR person, you just need one. But but gotta go to every game. Gotta go to every game.
Speaker 2:Cpr, and I won't go into a lot of detail. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is what it stands for, basic things a third compression and two breaths Again, take the class and then you'll learn specifically what it's about. The other thing that we talk about is the deep privilege. It's a little thing in a cute little green case like this is not that big, you know. I think every, every game, one of these things should be in the audience, somewhere. They could be on the culture side or it could be with a parent, but you gotta go to every game. These are not difficult to use, basically. You open them up. Open them up, they tell you what to do, but in essence they're they have like two little sticky pads and you put them in different places on the chest and you push the button Again, unplugging your TV when it goes out. You know, and what you're doing is you're shocking the heart's electrical unit to get it beating again, and if you can do that, you just saved the person's life. Done, okay. So why wouldn't one want to do that? Why wouldn't one want to do that? You do not have to be a doctor, you do not have to be a nurse, you can just be a concerned person. You know? And again, that fits within our Massaclass podcast.
Speaker 2:We're talking about changing the world, we're talking about knowledge and power. We're talking about I am my brother's keeper, or my sister's keeper, or my grandchild's grandson or granddaughter's keeper, okay. So this is something that is doable. I realize it is challenging, I realize that. So what we want to do is we want zero cardiac arrest, with efforts.
Speaker 2:Again, going back to what we said in the beginning. Again, when we go into the hospital we tell the chiefs of staffs and the CEOs and say you know what? You guys had 2% risk. This year. You had 98% good results. We want 100. 98 is good, but we want 100. Now what are we saying? We're raising the standards, we're raising the goals. I think my grandchild is worth 100%. I think my kid is worth 100%. I don't want 98%, 97%, 96%. We were talking earlier because the brother Collin is from the Air Force industry before he retired the people who left with a lot of this quality management and Jesse also is aware of this, he's an AT&T former employee Our people, particularly the airline industry, who figured out that if we can't keep planes in the sky, people will not fly. Does that make sense? We're talking about basic stuff here, right? If I have a business and my business is flying you from Los Angeles to Chicago, but every third one of my planes falls out of the sky, you're not going to fly, which I have. A lot of things.
Speaker 4:It's not that you don't like me, it's not that I'm not a nice person.
Speaker 3:You said Dr Chachot, you need to get the quality out.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to take that risk. Why in the world would we take the risk without trickery? I realize it made me a little radical. What am I recommending? Again, I'm just about done Zero risk.
Speaker 2:All the kids should have history and physicals. The kids should have screening EKGs. I think that parents should basically approach the coach and suggest them Let me call it a party. If you are a soccer mom or a soccer dad, do not I repeat, do not go to your son's soccer goal and say hold on, why don't you guys have an EKG? My son didn't get an EKG. Mad back all these kids. The coach is going to run for you. She's going to run for you.
Speaker 2:You have to be diplomatic. You can say I listened to this presentation or this podcast and this speaker was talking about this net. I could get the parents together and we could purchase an EKG. If we did that, could we set up a way? My next door neighbor is a doctor and he said he'd be willing to do it for free. You have to help the coaches out. That makes sense, because your goal is to help the child. You don't want to scare the coach to death. Your goal is to help the child. Sometimes you have to be a little diplomatic about it the same thing you purchased in the D-privileged Again. I'm sure the D-privileged is a little more expensive, but they are horrible, horrible, expensive. I think every team should have one. That D-privileged should be carried by a parent or an adult. It should be somebody who is going to be at every game. I think that's the end. You have to know how to use it. That's the bottom line.
Speaker 2:In summary, most sudden cardiac arrests are very, very rare. When they occur, the most common reason for their occurrence is hypertrophic cardiac myopia. This is the weakness of the heart. Most of it is congenital. It is not something that's related to diet or exercise or injury. It's something that they were born. It most commonly occurs in kids or athletes who are less than 25 years of age. It's a cardiac arrest which is an electrical problem. It's not like a heart attack, which is a plumbing problem where the arteries to the heart get clogged up with cholesterol. The treatment requires CPR because again, the heart has stopped. The heart has stopped.
Speaker 2:Then we get into the definition of what's the definition of death. The definition of death medically usually depends on the brain, the reason why we don't call that death when the heart stops because you've got a few minutes, just a few, to get that blood back to the brain, because it's a brain death that in hospitals there may be some organizations that go back to it. That's when we get into the thing about brain death or death. That's why we don't call I don't call sudden cardiac arrests, somebody who doesn't know what it does, because they aren't dead. They aren't dead but you've got very little time. That's why you need to be certified, you need to know what you're doing. You don't have a lot of whatever. Again, when I went into the emergency room, that was no discussion, that was no meeting, that was no voting. I said A, b, c, d and it would be done. The team would get it done and the team would end up saving the patient. Preventive measures again, they should have good health and physicals they all do, I'm sure, health and physical screenings, but they need to be quality. Additionally, I recommend they should have screening EKGs. The AED, the defibrillator, again should be included in the CPR class and folks should know how to do that. Our goal is basically zero cardiac arrest for our children.
Speaker 2:My basic principle God is in charge. I'm a position of faith and I believe, but for God being in my life, I would not be blessed the way I am, and he continues to bless me each day. I do not have any bad days. I used to have bad days, but about 30 years ago, pastor Revis, I decided that I don't need any more bad days, so I got rid of all of them. I got rid of all of them and so now I have good days and I have great days. If it is raining, it's a great day. If the sun is shining, it's a great day.
Speaker 2:What's my point? It's how you look at it. It's how you look at having to do with the day. It's your perspective. If it's not working for you, change your perspective. You have that control.
Speaker 2:Don't sweat the small stuff. Most stuff is small. Frequently I use the stress. I still stress, but I just don't stress much about things that would happen. I sort of figure out that most of the time when I said most, I'm talking about 90, 95% of the time what I was stressing about was small and insignificant. So I learned to let those things go, for givenness is therapy.
Speaker 2:Principle number four when I perceive that something has happened or someone has said something to me that's negative in some way. I have learned to forgive immediately. It does not matter what the facts are, I don't care, it does not matter who did what to do, who was right and who was wrong. Just forgive, just forgive, and you'll be amazed that by doing that, out therapeutics that is not only for the other person, but it's also therapeutic for you.
Speaker 2:And finally, my final basic principle is everything is relationship. Relationships are based on three things Mutual stack, mutual trust and good communication. If you are in a good relationship, if you have good communication, you have those three things. You're in a good relationship. If you do not have those three things, then you have work to do. Let me also say that this series is part of the Health and Wealth and Wise podcast. This podcast comes out almost weekly. The subscription website wwwBudsproutcom 2101003. I would encourage you to subscribe. All of these presentations are on podcasts, and so if you want to go back over something two or three or four times, just for your own leisure, listen to them on the podcast. Finally, be the change you want to see in the world. Are there any questions?
Speaker 1:We do have a question from online, okay.
Speaker 2:Next. Okay, good, yes, I think they said Patricia. Okay, go ahead, pat.
Speaker 4:No, you're a miracle. You're a miracle. I'm nice and I'm mean.
Speaker 2:Matt, are you there?
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 2:Okay, go ahead.
Speaker 3:What are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm still not able to hear you. Pat, Looks like you're keeping you.
Speaker 4:Snap to the ground.
Speaker 3:Okay Is.
Speaker 2:Pat talking. Go ahead, go ahead, pat, hold on, we're coming to you, go ahead.
Speaker 4:You're doing what church needs. God forbid. Someone is going to the park. Is everyone at the church connected? You're doing what church should do.
Speaker 2:You mean, like the deep regulator that we were talking about? It's a regulator. I honestly don't know what we have here.
Speaker 4:I thought it was one here.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, I'm leaving, I'm going to get a bite of the K-tron, they're telling me, my wife's saying yes, so I guess I have to believe that.
Speaker 1:As a matter of fact, since Rob is in question, with similar to that.
Speaker 2:Go ahead, Pat. Is she educated?
Speaker 1:that she asked is there consideration in purchasing an AED for the church?
Speaker 2:Pat, I'll address that. I do not know, but I was starting to recommend that they, like the nursing ministry or some of the ministries, put that into motion, since we want to get to church, okay.
Speaker 1:I think over here the nurse station is right.
Speaker 2:It's one there, but they can double check. Okay, pat, could you do me a favor? Could you double check and see if they do have one? Okay.
Speaker 3:I've been to one before and it wasn't accepted.
Speaker 2:But I think, now that we have a question, yeah, we are going to see the other person, okay, and then it's team.
Speaker 3:B yes.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yes, we have a question.
Speaker 2:Pat, can I give you a suggestion. If you have any difficulty with that, would you let me know? I said, if you have any difficulty with them getting the AED, would you let me know. Okay, okay, okay, no problem, any other questions?
Speaker 4:Answer yes, you mentioned being born, I guess, with a partner it's a really good but substantially normal.
Speaker 3:About 25 years ago I got a new one. I guess it was born. Okay, it's born.
Speaker 4:and then, by the time it changes it's going to take a year?
Speaker 2:I do. It's a long time ago, right? So is it so? A partner, a partner, a partner, a partner, a partner, a partner? Yes, I suspect he probably was Okay. And again, remember, if you're an athlete, particularly if you're a superstar athlete, a professional athlete, you're in excellent physical condition. I mean, you've had a lot of training, a lot of this and that, and so my surmise would be that it probably was a congenital problem and that's why it didn't show up on some of those other types of tests. I don't know why, and I think also that's an example of what I was mentioning earlier that our knowledge I'm talking about in healthcare now continues to evolve. You know, probably back then people didn't pay that much attention to it. I think clearly people are paying more attention now.
Speaker 3:CPO. Come on, let's just say Humbay CPR.
Speaker 4:Oh, I see.
Speaker 2:We've got spotters who are running around the church trying to find the AED, see if they have a good idea. But no, I mean. But to go back to your part, brother Kate, I think that's exemplary of what I was talking about. We're still learning about a lot of this stuff and, unfortunately, a lot of times, when people don't know why things happen or base hearings about it, we tend to want to go back to a default position, the thumb belief system. That's probably wrong. Well, all those people like so-and-so, they always get you know that sort of thing which is not based on any fact, which is not based on any science, and so those are some of the things that we always want to be careful of to get the facts, get the facts and help somebody get the facts. But hopefully we can stop it from happening in the future. Any other questions?
Speaker 4:Yes, I'm a dr. Dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr. A certain thing now 40 zrobi, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr, dr.
Speaker 2:Dr, dr, dr, dr. Right Number one everybody's a little different, so all age of verbalations are not created equal. Some may very well be hereditary, some may not, so it would depend on in your particular family. The other factor when you say over 70, one can argue that everybody after a certain period of time may very well have some type of diabetic problem, heart problem, whatever, just based on age. So my point is that that may not all necessarily be related to genes at all, but the answer would be knowing her specific situation and what the positions diagnose as the reason why she would end up having that particular problem.
Speaker 4:Yeah, her mother was a 40. Her brother was probably died. I think he was 50 or less in the 1940s. So that's the end of the story. Some of her brothers and sisters got it. Some of them did. That's why.
Speaker 2:I was asking Could it be a genetic Sure? And again, it depends on why they died. They may not have died from a heart condition, it may have been something else. Okay, thank you.
Speaker 3:What this is. What about renovation? You can hear more about people talking about they have fluid around the arm or fluid around the lungs. What's that all about?
Speaker 2:That's the next one question. She's calling it. That's called congestive heart. What happens is going back to the analogy of the heart being a muscle. As a muscle, that heart is going to pump fast and flow, depending on what it has to do. Over time, that muscle may start to get tired Again. This is what we're talking about. Over 70, 75, no longer. It can occur sooner than that, but I'll just use that as a example.
Speaker 2:The heart is not as efficient. It's still pumping, but it's not as efficient. Instead of being 90% efficient, maybe it's 80% efficient. A sign of heart inefficiency is swelling or deeming because that blood is not moving around as fast. Now, that could be other reasons for that. I'm not saying that's every reason, but that could be one of the signs of that. We call that heart failure, or sometimes it's called CHL, congestive heart failure. That could be one of the causes. Now that could be other reasons and certainly the other reasons why people have a deemum from varicose veins, on and on and on. Now what you were describing is probably early, or certainly the early stage of heart failure. There's medication for that that helps to treat. Digoxin is one of the main medicines used to treat that.
Speaker 3:It can be when you have a surgery, like with the heart, with the bullet around the heart. When they have the surgery, then they end up when they say it's a whole air is getting in, but they won't do the surgery right then because I guess it'd be too much for the first heart. Later on, depending on the situation, they'll go back in. I'm just asking.
Speaker 2:Well, it depends on but you said it correct it depends on the situation and depends on what the circumstances are. My point is that I would need more information about why do they have a surgeon Basically. Exactly what type of surgery do they have? Certainly, one of my professors a year once said anybody can operate, but if it's surgeons or physicians should know when to operate. If the judgment part of it it sounds like in this situation not known all the details that the judgment of the surgical team was we can come back and do this the next time. I certainly may judge not necessarily a heart surgeon, because I did GI surgery and sometimes doctors do that because part of what our response was to do was think the first principle first do no harm, first do no harm. So if we can do it safely, then we'll go ahead and do it. If we have to come back a second time or third time and that's safest, then that's what they do. Any other questions?
Speaker 3:Yes, hold on, I'm going to watch after you, don't shout out to Alison Tameis, and I have a quick question. Could you briefly explain the relationship between the heart, blood pressure and kidney?
Speaker 2:Okay. Okay, as we mentioned at the heart of the month, the pumps are brought around throughout all of the bodies, every part of the body. An important part of that is the kidney. In terms of the blood supply to the kidney, now I'm sort of overthinking a lot of this, because there are a lot of hormones that both the kidney puts out that affect how the heart does that, and the kidney's job it's to filter the blood, to take impurities out of the blood, so that the whole system works appropriately. If the kidney is not functioning properly for whatever reason, either from some de-noble problem or damage or injury, it does not remove those things as much. That then makes the heart have to work harder, and I guess the best way to think about it is everything is connected. If every organ system does this job to the maximum, everything works smoothly. But if one system starts to break down, it then starts to affect those other systems and that could end up causing total organ failure. All right, thank you, you're welcome. Yes.
Speaker 4:Dr Chateau, I'm a family of three kids. Two and I was older now, but probably my kids are communes and they were all involved in stomp-a-toot. Yes, the hardly they went to a physical exam. Because it was needed, Right, okay, and even the physical was pretty simple it was just coughing, right. I understand, that was it. The question is, as a doctor, as a primary physician, can you order an EKG for the kids? Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:I understand Well, so if you're not a parent or a grandparent, you can get your own EKG. I mean, you can take it to your doctor, which sure you can do that. And let's say, the team said, no, we're not going to do that, we just aren't going to do too much. You can certainly do that independently, it's not wrong with that.
Speaker 4:Sure. So the question is my primary physician can order that even though there is no?
Speaker 2:Yes, you may get into the insurance thing, because a lot of insurance that we're not going to pay for that because there's no reason or whatever, whatever, and that may be a situation where you just may pay out of pocket for it. But most of times it depends on how worth it. It's not going to be that expensive. It depends how much you're concerned about it. But answer the question. Yes, you can do that, absolutely Okay. Thank you very much. Have a wonderful day Right here, peter.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Healthy, wealthy and Wise podcast with Dr William Choctaw, mdjd. We hope you enjoyed this episode. In fact, if you found this episode helpful, you can support and subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast platform with the keywords Dr William Choctaw and you'll find it very quickly. So subscribing helps ensure that you don't miss any future episodes. And then take the next step of action and share it with your family, friends and or your coworkers. They'll be glad you did so. Until the next time, live your best possible life the best possible way. You've been listening to the Healthy, wealthy and Wise podcast with Dr William Choctaw, mdjd.
