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Scot: Testing one, two, three, four. What did you have for breakfast this morning? Don't tell me a banana.

Troy: Testing one, two, three, four. That's what I had for breakfast. So no surprises there.

Scot: You put peanut butter on it?

Troy: I did not put peanut butter on it.

Scot: You just grab a banana and go.

Troy: Yeah.

Scot: Why a banana for breakfast all the time? Why? Why is that?

Troy: Well, usually when we're here, it's because I was eating as I drove in, and a banana is easy enough to eat as you're driving.

Scot: You've hired other fruits to do the job and . . .

Troy: Yeah. Well, I eat a banana. Sometimes I'll eat an apple on the way in, but it's usually a banana.

Scot: Apples are messier.

Troy: Yeah, apples are messier. Bananas are easier to eat.

Scot: And then you've got the core, but you've got the peel. What do you do with the banana peel? Just throw it on the floorboard?

Troy: No, I usually I've got a napkin. I wrap it up and I toss it as I'm walking in here. That's my routine.

Nick Galli's Turning Point - The Athlete with Bad Cholesterol

Scot: All right. Today, finding your motivation to make those health changes in your life. You know, you're in a situation where you know that there's some health change you want to make, whether it's your diet or your activity level, drinking, smoking, something like that, but you just can't quite seem to make those changes and it can be hard.

is a health coach and Assistant Professor of health, kinesiology, and recreation at the Department of ÑÇÖÞ×ÔοÊÓƵ at ÑÇÖÞ×ÔοÊÓƵ of Utah. He also works with high-level athletes. But, Dr. Madsen, he's decided to come and talk with us anyway.

Troy: We are very fortunate. We are definitely not high-level athletes. Although we like to think we are.

Scot: Yeah, he also teaches a class on health behavior change. So right up your alley of what you teach. But before we get to that, I want to find out did you have a turning point yourself where you realized some health changes need to be made? We love to tell these stories, just to kind of, you know, help people understand they're not that unusual.

 

Nick: I actually did, Scot, about I would say seven, eight years ago, right in this period of time that we're covering. I was probably in my late 20s. Went for my physical and got the blood draw and my readings came back everything was way high. My cholesterol, my triglycerides, not my fasting glucose, but, you know, a lot of the bad stuff. And that was, I think I went through a little bit of a denial at first. I thought, "No way." Because, you know, I'd always considered myself a pretty healthy, prioritized physical fitness. My diet wasn't great, but it was okay. So that would have been my turning point.

Troy: Yeah. And you were a student athlete as well at one point, right?

Nick: I mean, I dabbled. I was a club athlete so not like a scholarship division one athlete. But through college, I was very active and competitive, and so at least in terms of physical activity, that was a lifestyle for me.

Troy: And that sure hits close to home for me because my story is pretty much the exact same. I was going to say you stole my story.

Nick: It's a common one.

Troy: That really hits close to home. So what kind of changes did you make as a result of that?

Nick: Oh, and it was not an immediate change. I mean, it was not something where I got those readings and I immediately started doing the right things and then the numbers went down six months later. It was not that at all. First, it was, you know, trying to make some changes to my diet, which, you know, six months or however many months later that I went back, the readings didn't change significantly. So then it was because my exercise was already, you know, where it needed to be. I wasn't really . . . by upping that it wasn't probably going to make much of a change.

So then it was going on a small dose of a statin, which was really weird because I think I was still in my 20s. I'm like, "Well, this is crazy." Ten milligrams or something, which I still take. Did that and in combination with the diet, but even still, it was, you know, I'd have ups and downs. And it's only been in the last few years where I feel like I've really gotten a handle on the dietary part of things and my numbers, the last two times that I've had them checked have both been both times been in the normal range.

Troy: That's a really a good sort of example, though, of someone, you know, where you attacked it from multiple different angles and even went and talked to your physician. Because sometimes I think we kind of feel like we're on our own and, "Okay, I got to exercise more and more and more to get these numbers down. I got to eat more and more, you know, healthy foods, and just cut everything out." And we do all those things and we get frustrated, and you took the next step that, "Hey, I'm going to talk to my doctor. I need to be on a statin." It's something you should do.

Nick: And the other thing for me was I also had a family history. So, you know, psychologically speaking, I went through periods over the course of probably that five-year journey where when things weren't going well, I sort of at times, even being in the profession that I am, threw my hands up and said, "You know what? I think maybe I'm just destined. I don't know that it matters what I do. You know, we talk about lifestyle, but I might just be . . . I picked the wrong parents."Crazy.

Troy: I mean, that's the reality. I know. And that's what always amazes me and frustrates me too. Sometimes I see some people who come in who are definitely not the picture of health, and you get their numbers back and they're just pristine, like, "Wow, how did you do it?"

Scot: It's a little unfair, isn't it?

Troy: I don't know: There's genetics. And so many of us are fighting against genetics. And like you said, sometimes you may need to be on medication.

Scot: I think the thing that hit it for me was like you were surrounded by people that can help you with this stuff. You're in the College of ÑÇÖÞ×ÔοÊÓƵ and you yourself have the education and the training. And you were to the point where you're like, "I don't know." So I mean, you know, what chance do the rest of us have?

Troy: I think that's the point. We can do everything we can, but genetics are a huge factor in so many of these things and sometimes you need to accept that and address it.

Nick: And I feel like maybe that's been a forgotten part of things because we have been so much on the lifestyle, which is very important. But, you know, from a perspective of big picture, I think people do need to be aware that sometimes your genetics are going to keep you from being at that optimal level. Yeah, you can improve things.

And the reason I think that's important is because you risk for someone who is in a similar situation to me, but without the education, it'd be easy to just give up altogether and say, "None of this is working. It must be me. It must be something, you know, require a level of effort that I can't muster." So I think sometimes we discount the uncontrollable stuff a little bit too much and people get really discouraged.

Scot: It's a great story. It's a great story. And much like Troy and myself, it was a series of events. It didn't fix itself overnight. It took some work. So I think that that's . . . we're finding that that's a theme on the show. So don't expect that you're just going to one day wake up and go bam, right? Make all those changes.

Troy: And I think we all kind of have these wake-up calls. But like you said, it's a process and addressing it and reevaluating and reassessing and . . .

Scot: And before we get to the topic, why did you decide not to just eat, drink, and be merry then? I mean, because that would have been an easy road to go down as well. "Well, my genetics are against me. I'm just going to just live it up."

Nick: I think it didn't fit with who I saw myself as a person.

Scot: Ah, gotcha.

Nick: It was a kind of an identity piece for me is that had been a part of my identity. I am healthy. Even my own family, I always knew, "Oh, Nick is the healthy one. He doesn't need anything." And so there was a piece of it that, you know, I need to uphold that.

Motivation is Different For Everyone

Scot: Yeah. Gotcha. All right. So if there's somebody that wants to make these changes, if you were working with a client, say, how would you help them find that motivation if they find themselves a little defeated?

 

Nick: And I think the first thing that's important to do is get a sense for what their life context is, because it's not a one-size-fits-all. Different approaches will work with different people or resonate with different people, depending on, for example, their living situation. Are they single? Are they in a relationship? Do they have ÑÇÖÞ×ÔοÊÓƵren? Are they surrounded, as you mentioned by, you know, social support?

I always try to get a really good, you know, life history story for the person, and also get a sense for how ready they are. And then figure out because for most people, they're, you know, making a big change immediately isn't going to work. They might make that change and then we get a short-term, you know, result, but it's not for the long haul. So we've got to think about little things that maybe that person can be doing that don't feel like a lot of work but that can over time make a big difference. Make it really easy for the individual to make the healthy choice.

How to Easily Get More Exercise and Stick With It

Scot: So how do you help them make those little decisions? Give us some examples.

 

Nick: Yeah. So, for example, I mean, exercise is a good one, because I think people have this picture, especially if they haven't done much of it, of exercise is a very rigid. I've got to go to the health club. I've got to go there three or five days a week and spend an hour there, or even I've got to go out and do, you know, an hour run.

So I try to help them reframe what exercise or what physical activity is and think about ways that they can build it in to what they're already doing. And some of these are simple things that we've all heard. You know, parking a little bit further away, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, doing more work outside that you enjoy, like if you enjoy working in the garden or if you do have ÑÇÖÞ×ÔοÊÓƵren, doing things with them.

Doing things if you're a TV watcher, making sure that you know you're taking breaks and, you know, it used to be commercials, but you don't really watch commercials, and that's the downfall, right?

Troy: In between your marathon streaming.

Nick: You don't have commercial breaks anymore. But in between episodes on Netflix, you're doing . . . I heard the other day, you know, about somebody who and every time they went to the bathroom, they would do five pushups over the course of a day. They would make sure for every bathroom break, they had five pushups. So like being creative and helping people think about these lifestyle choices in a different way than they've been accustomed to.

Scot: Yeah. I wore a Fitbit for a while, and I quickly discovered that sitting around I burn X number of calories. I think it's like 15 calories every 15 minutes. If I just get up and walk for 5 or 10 minutes, I've burned 100 calories. And, I mean, it's really crazy what those little things can do. They really can make a difference. And we try to frame it here as not necessarily exercise, it's activity, like you said, and then that kind of really opens up a lot more possibilities. If I haven't gotten my activity for the day, I don't go, "Oh, I got to drag myself to the gym." I go, "You know what? I'm going to go hike City Creek Canyon," which is a local canyon here. "I'm going to go walk for a half hour." Walk with my dog if I'm a dog person.

Troy: Yeah. And do you try and then work in specific structured activity? Or do you just encourage them to say, "Hey, look at what you're doing. How can you get more out of what you're already doing?" Like Scot said, whether it's walking further, you know, like you said, walking from your car, parking further away. What's your usual approach with really trying to get someone motivated to make change?

Nick: I'll try and work with the individual. If I'm working with someone who needs a bit more structure and actually wants a plan, I will help them with a plan where they need to be able to quantify. If the person is a little bit . . . that type of structure isn't for them, then we'll just more talk in generalities about, "Here, think about this. Try this." But I'll always say, you know, before the next time we meet, "Give this a shot." Or I'll ask them before we leave, "Okay, what's one thing you're going to try to do differently and pay attention to how that makes you feel?" We all hope that they make the change and they feel great. But also sort of warning them, "This might feel this might not feel good at first because it's out of your comfort zone and that's okay." So making sure that they're going to do something.

Give Change an Honest Chance

Scot: We need to get used to "raise my hand".

Troy: I know I need to raise my hand.

Scot: Okay, go ahead.

Troy: One thing I've heard . . .

Scot: Let me have you ask that question again because I talked over you again just now.

Troy: Well, one thing I've heard that seems to work and I don't know if you've used before is just to say try it for 30 days. It may be uncomfortable but it seems that that 30-day period is often the key to really try something, see if it's going to work to change the habit and then reassess at that point. Do you have a time frame where you tell people, "Hey, do it for this period of time, give it a chance, it may not be comfortable at first, but let's give it some time"?

 

Nick: I definitely use that concept. I don't know that I've ever specifically used, you know, 30 days as a benchmark. That makes sense in a lot of ways. I mean, again, going back to exercise, you know, I'll often say for physical activity, "Even if you don't feel like doing it, commit to 10 minutes." Because we know that in as little as 10 minutes, you can get benefits. "If after 10 minutes you don't want to do it anymore, go home and sit on your couch." And usually, you know, people will. So I think it's kind of a momentum principle. It puts a finish line on it, and it's also very reinforcing when the person makes it to 30 days. And then, yeah, maybe this hasn't been the right approach for them. But then we know.

Scot: I want to jump back in and say that strategy you mentioned earlier, I used to do that to the gym. I still do. Like, "I don't feel like going to the gym. All right, you just got to drive there. You got to go inside, you got to swipe your card and you got to do one exercise. And if you decide you want to go home at that point, go home." I've never once gone home at that point. It's that activation energy hump.

Troy: That's a great idea just to say, "I will be there. I will physically be present in the gym. I will do one exercise."

Scot: And then if I want to bail, I'll bail.

Troy: Then like I'm done. Yeah, that's a great idea.

Nick: It feels safer than say, "Oh, when I don't feel like it but I still I have to go and put an hour in." For most of us having that out mentally is beneficial.

Basic Tips to Help Stick with Your Goals

1. Don't Make Sudden or Huge Changes

Scot: So it sounds like it's try not to make huge changes, try to make little changes. If one was to do this on their own, try to do it on their own, just try to pick a few things to make some little changes. Ten minutes, make that promise you're going to just do something for 10 minutes. And then if you want to go binge Netflix, go binge Netflix. Any other takeaway so far, Troy?

Troy: No, I think that makes perfect sense. I've always been a big believer in exactly what you're saying of don't say . . . you know, Scot and I often talk about running. You can't say off the couch I want to go run a marathon, because you're just going to get so frustrated to say I'm going to run 20 minutes a day or I'm going to run, you know, three times a week for this. Like you said, you got to start somewhere. And I think reward is a big thing too, making sure you're recognizing, "Hey, I'm doing this. This is great. This is a big change. Maybe I'm not where I want to be, but I'm a lot better off than where I was."

2. Look at Where You Are, and Go From There

Scot: And starting where the person is, because for some people, you know, it might even just be walking at all. I mean, you know, there are some individuals who spend the majority of their day if they're not sleeping, sitting at their desk and then they maybe walk to their car, sit in their car, drive home, walk into the house, immediately sit on the couch. So for them, the benchmark is much lower, but they still may have the picture in their mind that they have to be going from that lifestyle to all of a sudden being a fitness freak.

Troy: Yeah. And that's what I think is I've often thought about this, just the contrast in our society, we have, you know, certainly extremely high rates of obesity. And then we have people who are just some of the most fit people you can imagine. And I think it's one extreme or the other oftentimes in people's minds. They just say, "If I'm not that . . .

Nick: That's the problem.

Troy: . . . what's the point?" You know, that's kind of what they're thinking. But I love what you're saying. You just look at where you are and just go from there. Start small, make realistic goals, realistic changes and build from that. Don't expect you're going to have to be in the gym several hours a week.

Scot: We focused on physical activity a lot. Maybe we should have you back some other time for some other things like, you know, maybe smoking and drinking. Want to drink a little bit less, maybe nutrition. Is it still kind of the same basic types? I don't want to leave somebody hanging if that's the issue. Sleep even, just the same basic principles, just start small?

Nick: Yeah, I mean, the same basic approach. I think when we're talking about drinking and smoking, especially when we're at the level of dependence or addiction, now we're getting into some other issues, but yeah, I mean, I really do think the approach is similar, just the specific strategies might be a little bit different.

Troy: I will say anecdotally with drinking, if you're drinking a lot, don't stop cold turkey. That's all I'm going to say. This is a classic thing after New Year's Day to see people three days later in full-on alcohol withdrawal. Don't stop cold turkey.

Scot: Yeah. As your career as an ER doc, you see that a lot.

Troy: In the ER.

Scot: That's bad news.

Troy: Oh, yeah, it's not usual. People say, "Hey, I'm going to stop drinking." They stop cold turkey New Year's Day. They've been drinking a lot, a lot regularly before then. And it can be very serious and even life threatening. So tapering is a good idea.

Nick: Well, I can't relate to that. But I know that if I skip out on my caffeine, how it makes me feel.

Troy: Sure. Yeah, don't go cold turkey. Do a taper.

3. Get Started Today

Scot: All right. Well, it'd be great to have you back sometime, maybe talk about some of these other motivational things. Before you leave, any resources that you might drive somebody towards? Or I think maybe just the resource is you, the listener, just saying, "I'm going to make one small change this week. I'm going to commit to it for a week. I'm going to commit to it for whatever."

Nick: Definitely. Yeah, I mean, if you want me, I can suggest some resources. Would that be helpful? I mean, now when you say resources . . .

Scot: I'm going to just bag on that question because I feel like today's interview wrapped itself up well without that.

Nick: Well done.

Scot: Yeah. Yeah. All right. So, Troy, I think you have anything you want to still work on? We could implement some of Nick's tips. Are you just the epitome of health?

Troy: Every time I talk about health, I talk about sleep.

Scot: All right. Sleep. Maybe you just can you get to bed 10 minutes earlier. I don't know.

Troy: I wish. I wish. I'm working the night shift tonight. So, you know, I figured I'm a hopeless cause. But whatever I can do to try and improve my sleep regularity, I'm always working on that. But it's a great question. I need more specifics, obviously.

Scot: Yeah. Let's all just pick one small thing we want to be a little better at this week. Let's do it for a week, commit that we're going to do it every day, commit just a small amount of time and see where it takes us. All right, Nick, thank you very much.

Nick: My pleasure.

Technology: Apple Watch's New AFib Sensor - Does it Work?

Scot: Technology. Say it with me Troy.

Troy: Technology.

Scot: Let's talk about Apple Watch and their new AFib sensor that is on the Apple Watch. Give us a little background of what exactly is going on here with my Apple Watch, and what it's telling me?

Troy: These Apple watches, what they're doing is picking up abnormal heart rhythms. And the one that people often think about is atrial fibrillation. So that's an abnormal rhythm in the heart where the top part of the heart, the atria, just goes pretty much out of control, just really fast. And there may be just foci, focuses, foci of electrical activity in the atria that just kind of go crazy. And then lower part of the heart, some of those beats are conducted through the ventricle. And then you'll just get a fast heart rate, a very irregular heart rate. So the Apple Watch is picking up these rhythms in people. And then I'm seeing these people in the ER who come to me and say, "Hey, my watch picked up this abnormal rhythm. What do I need to do about this?"

Scot: So you're actually seeing people coming in for this deal?

Troy: I've had several people. You know, they can show me on their watch what they're seeing. And then they say, "I'm concerned about this. What do I do?"

Scot: And then you're like, "Oh, immediately, we must do something." Or something quite like that?

Troy: It's usually not. And part of the challenge here, so there's this new study that just came out that looked at these watches and looked at how many people had AFib. I think the number was about 0.5% had episodes of AFib. But when they looked at those individuals and they did additional testing, where we can send people out on actual heart monitor, something that's monitoring their heart rate with electrodes on their chest, picking up the activity, that sort of the gold standard, they found that about a third of those patients who came in saying, "My watch picked up AFib," only about a third of those actually had AFib. There were a whole lot of false positives.

So that's the big challenge I'm seeing with this. People coming in saying, "My watch picked this up." I say, "Did you have any abnormal symptoms? Were you feeling anything?" "No, not really. Or maybe my heart was a little bit fast." "Were your lightheaded? Were you faint?" "No." So you do additional testing, 70% of the time, more or less, everything is negative.

Scot: As somebody that has an Apple Watch, if I get this AFib thing, if I'm not experiencing other symptoms, odds are it's probably not an emergency? I mean, like, how do I figure out when I need to go to the ER or when I don't?

Troy: Yeah. It's really tough. I mean, it's one of those things where sometimes too much knowledge can be a bad thing, because, you know, once you have that knowledge, you feel obligated to do something about it. And if someone comes to me with that, I feel obligated to do something about it, to do additional testing, to send them out on a monitor, do blood work. You know, maybe we even give them a referral to see a cardiologist. And in the end, maybe there's nothing there. And they went through all the testing and that expense really for no reason. So the question is, what do we do about it? I don't know. My suspicion is that there are probably people who have been walking around all the time who have had episodes of atrial fibrillation.

And maybe these episodes lasted 10 seconds, maybe a minute, maybe two minutes. And it's not a problem. They've never had lightheadedness. It's never lasted long enough that they formed clots in the heart. So if you have episodes that are lasting days, sometimes that abnormal electrical activity can cause blood to pool in the heart, create clots that can then break off and cause strokes or things like that.

So it's very possible that we're just picking up a lot of people who we never would have known about otherwise because they never had symptoms. And now they've got this monitor on 24/7 that picks up this abnormal heart rhythm and I don't know what to do about it, and I don't think anyone does. I think that's part of the challenge is are these people who really go on to develop long-term atrial fibrillation? Are they at risk of forming clots? Are there other things we should be worried about here? I don't have a great answer.

Scot: So it's, you know, something that we really can't do giving medical advice on the show?

Troy: Yeah.

Scot: So that kind of leaves me at this weird place of I'm pretending I'm listening to this and I'm like, "Well, guys, what do I do if this goes off then?"

Troy: I think you're obligated to do additional testing and that's the challenge because . . .

Scot: So you would say that person probably should follow up on it?

Troy: I would.

Scot: Even though two-thirds of the incidences are false positive?

Troy: Exactly. But that's the hard thing. If you're part of that one-third and if it's a sign of a bigger issue, like something that's potentially structurally abnormal with your heart that's leading to this episode, you probably need to get tested. But maybe at some point, with all the technology we have and hopefully some studies we can do, we can look at people and say, "Okay, if you're young, you're otherwise healthy. You didn't have any symptoms during it. The episode lasted less than two minutes." And I'm just throwing up potentially some criteria.

Scot: Sure. This is just some stuff. This isn't anything in gospel.

Troy: Not in gospel and, say, maybe some study shows that if these are all the scenario, then you don't need more testing. But we don't have that at this point. Scot: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We haven't caught up to the technology yet.

Troy: No. We really haven't. It's all, again, it's all new. And I've dealt with this and my answer has been, "I've got to do the testing. I've got to get an EKG. I've got to do blood work. Probably send them out on a monitor and give them a referral to cardiology."

Scot: And, you know, another thing is, if somebody is having this, we've established that you feel that they should follow up. Like how do you then make the decision? Do I just make an appointment with the doctor? Or do I go to the ER? Again, we can't give medical advice. So without giving medical advice, what do you say?

Troy: If you were my family member telling me about their Apple watch, I would say, "Did you have any symptoms? Did you feel lightheaded, like you're going to pass out? How long did it last?" If you didn't feel lightheaded, if there was something that the watch just picked up and it lasted, you know, again, maybe less than 5 to 10 minutes, then I would say go see your doctor. There's no rush to go to the ER. If it were something where you had this and you felt lightheaded, you felt dizzy, you passed out, or it were, you know, something that's just been going on and you look at your watch and it says, "Hey, I've been in AFib for three days now."

Scot: Then go to the ER.

Troy: Then you need to go to the ER.

Scot: Again, not giving medical advice, but that's what you would tell your . . .

Troy: Again, not giving med, that's what I would tell a family member or a friend.

Scot: The other tricky thing from what I understand with this technology, though, is just recently they actually changed the algorithm. Because, you know, these sensors pick up the bodily inputs whatever that might be, and then there's an algorithm that tries to decipher that, because it's not a gold standards piece of sensing equipment is if this is an issue or not. And there's just a recent article about how Apple has changed the algorithm, which has luckily reduced the number of false positives. But at any time they could change that algorithm and you don't know what that means either, right? Like as a person so.

Troy: Then even if you change the algorithm . . . you know you're always going to have false positives. Like we have algorithms on our EKG. It's the test we do in the emergency department where you've got 12 electrodes placed on your body and then the machine will read it, and it's wrong. And you'll look at it and you say, "That's not atrial fibrillation." It'll read it as AFib. And you look at it and say, "That's picking up some premature ventricular contractions where just part of the heart is beating early. Not atrial fibrillation." So it's still it's so tough. You're never going to get this 100% or even close to it.

Scot: And I think maybe we want technology to give us those definitive answers.

Troy: We do.

Scot: I think a lot of people do. So I think just even realizing that it's not . . . it's a useful tool that might indicate a potential problem. It could be wrong just like anything else.

Troy: Exactly.

Scot: Well, it's an exciting time with technology. I think, it opens up a lot of possibilities, but it's also kind of a time that none of us quite know how to navigate yet. So, I think, just kind of keep an open mind with all that stuff and realize it might not be the end-all be-all.

Just Going to Leave This Here: Saving Dogs, Saving Babies

Just going to leave this here. It's our opportunity to just kind of have just random thoughts. Maybe something we came across we wanted to share. It may or may not have to do with men's health at all. So I'm just going to leave this here. I've decided I need to donate blood more often. I used to be very good at donating blood. But I've kind of fallen out of that habit for a while. Did a little looking, you can do it every eight weeks.

And the reason I did it at first and the reason I want to get back to it is it's just really something easy that all of us can do that might not necessarily ever have the opportunity to be a hero in any other shape or form. Like I'm not going to save any babies or put out any fires. But I can donate some blood every once in a while. So I'm going to really work on trying to donate blood more often.

Troy: That's a great one. Yeah. I mean, blood is always in need. We regularly transfuse blood in the ER. So if you can help in that sense, you're absolutely making a difference.

Scot: Plus, also I have baby saving blood.

Troy: You do?

Scot: I've been told.

Troy: You have special blood.

Scot: I don't know what that means exactly. I guess I have a lack of some sort of a something in my blood that most people have in their blood that they're not able to use for young ÑÇÖÞ×ÔοÊÓƵren that don't have fully developed immune systems.

Troy: So you are a rare specimen?

Scot: I don't know if it's HPV virus, maybe. Is that possible? Do you know what gives me baby saving blood and my superpowers?

Troy: I don't know. I'm going to assume it's your RH status, RH type because . . . and then it's not really specific to babies necessarily. But there are certain people who are RH negative. It's a blood type where you can't have . . . anyway, I don't know what your superpowers are, but I'm impressed.

Scot: I'll look at that. I did get a phone call one time and they say, "We particularly need your blood because you can give blood to babies." "Oh, I can."

Troy: Yeah. Really, clearly you have a lot more to offer than I do. I probably don't . . . I give blood occasionally, not as often as I do. And I justify it by saying I give blood, sweat and tears to healthcare. So it's probably not a good justification.

All right. I'm just going to leave this here and maybe this doesn't have a lot to do with health, but it's about pets. I love dogs. We are dog lovers, animal fosters. I think there's a lot of health benefit to having dogs. I just drove out to Vernal yesterday and transported from . . . there are some dogs from their shelter to our rescue group in the Heber area. There's so many great dogs out there. If you're looking for a dog, please adopt a shelter pet.

Scot: Absolutely healthy. We've adopted dogs, and as a result we would walk a half hour every day. It was something we never would do before. And I know there can be emotional and mental health benefits to pets as well. So that's great.

Troy: I agree. We'll find some article on this to talk about because, like I said, I feel strongly about it. And it's, I think, a fun topic to talk about.

Scot: Well, you save dogs. I save babies.

Troy: Exactly.

Scot: So good for us.

Troy: We each have our own feel good stories area. So good.

Scot: Hey, you're still here. That's cool. Well, it's cool because it's the end of the podcast. That means you made it through the whole thing. "Who Cares About Men's ÑÇÖÞ×ÔοÊÓƵ?" Thank you very much for listening. Reach out at hello@thescoperadio.com. That's hello@thescoperadio.com.

Upcoming topics in the next few podcasts we are excited about, going to talk about sleep, very important component of your health including sleep tech. How accurate is that Fitbit sleep sensor on your wrist? Is it giving you useful information?

Plus also, mental health. Something else that we tend not to think about when we think about health, but mental health is crucially important because suicide and then also use of controlled substances, some of the biggest health threats for men our age.

And also physical therapy might be a more inexpensive way to take care of some of those nagging issues that you've had. And just make it so you can live a more of a pain free life or get out and do more of the things that you want to do.

Those are all coming up on future episodes of "Who Cares About Men's ÑÇÖÞ×ÔοÊÓƵ?" Don't forget to subscribe. Thanks.