Stan Shandling
Appearances
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
I'm Stan Shandling, one of the hosts, along with Clarence. And we can get on with our show. Clarence, I'll let you introduce our wonderful guest for the day.
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
So Sarah, a couple of things I want to attach to this is, you know, some people have problems where, you know, their weight goes up and down. Okay. Or they go on this particular diet, You know, and it might work for a little while and then it doesn't work. So they up and down and up and down. And they aren't necessarily diabetic, for instance.
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
So are these drugs that we're talking about good for these types of patients? Or again, is that something that you specifically really should connect with your health care team on?
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
Yeah. So talk to me about age differences. So like, are you at, for these drugs that we're talking about here, are you at higher risk if you're older by taking these medications?
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
Hello, everybody. Welcome to Health Chatter. Today's show is on weight loss drugs, which is a really a hot topic. And we have a great guest with us. We'll get to her in just a moment. We have a great crew that always helps us do our illustrious shows. We have Maddy Levine-Wolf, Aaron Collins, Deandra Howard, who help us with our research, our production team.
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
So medication management, especially for older people, could be an issue if you add to it a weight loss medication like this. You know, one thing that's really hit me, there's two major things. One is if you start this medication from at least what I've read, you have to stay on it. I mean, you don't just go off of it. Am I correct with that?
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
Is that, in other words, you just don't stay on it for a month and say, okay, I lost whatever I need to. Thank you very much. Is this a maintenance type of, are these maintenance types of medications where you stay on them for a long period of time?
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
So let's talk a little bit about some clarity here on the medication itself for our listening audience. These aren't tablets and they aren't capsules. They're injections. All right. And all right. So that's number one. Number two, how often do you take this medication? Is it daily? Is it monthly? Is it every other day? How is it administered?
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
So let's talk about also the economics on all of this, which we'll get into. Right.
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
So these are all, these medications are like the wow now. After what, a 17 year, how long is it that that period of time before it goes generic or possibly generic?
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
Oh, so that's actually quicker than most medications that I remember historically. But even still, would that help, a generic form of this?
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
So, Sarah, you know, it seems to me, you know, you kind of hear about these weight loss drugs. And, you know, our research crew has done, you know, some great background research for us. So give us a little bit of history on this. You know, more than anything, it's like all of a sudden it kind of hit the scene. And it almost seemed at least,
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
Yeah. So let me, you know, I'm trying to think about, you know, somebody coming into a pharmacist and they might have an actual prescription for one of these weight loss medications. And all of a sudden they're told it's an injectable. It seems to me one of the questions that might arise is this. All right. Pretend it's me, you know, and I come in and I'm seeing you.
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
excuse me, I feel like I'm getting poked for everything lately. I'm getting these vaccinations for COVID. I'm getting these vaccinations for flu, for shingles, for whatever. And now this, is there any potential problem with interactions with all these vaccinations that we're taking at the same time in injectable medication like this?
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
to me as a healthcare professional, is almost like it came across as almost like a fad. Something, oh my God, you know, wow, this is something I could just take and I don't have to worry about getting fat or obese or whatever. So help us with that kind of conversation and then also the history of it a little bit.
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And that's an important message for people to hear.
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
That's great. Great insight. It really is everything. You know, I, you know, one thing I, I, I got from this show is everything in balance and you really have to think it's not just, wow, let's just take this medication. You have to think about it overall, how everything is kind of interacting for you personally. And,
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
You really need good, good medical insight before you start these kinds of medications. Frankly, any medication. But for sure, this one, for sure.
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
Right. Good, healthy food. Sarah, you've been an absolutely wonderful, wonderful guest on our show. Very timely. This is kind of a hot topic right now. And I'm hoping that the information that you've provided our listening audience will be useful for them and truly informative. It certainly was for me. So thank you for being on our show today. For our listening audience, great shows coming up.
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
We have a show coming up on narcissism, organ donation, loneliness, which has become a real public health issue now, and also the vision for public health going forward. So stay tuned for those shows. In the meantime, everybody keep health chatting away.
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
manager is Matthew Campbell, who gets all the shows out in beautiful form. And then, of course, there's Sheridan Nygaard, who's actually helping us today with our recording, but also she is one of our researchers and also helps us with marketing. So thank you to you guys. You're great. Then, of course, there's Clarence Jones, And he and I are a great tag team and we enjoy working together.
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
All right. So let me, let me ask you a quick follow-up clearance. Um, First of all, for our listening, this isn't an over-the-counter medication. It's got to be prescribed. So give me a little bit of a sense of who's prescribing it and for what specific reason? very specific, not just, is there a health condition that has to be linked with it? And then the other one that I was thinking about is,
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
So Clarence, it's always great to have you on. And again, our sponsor is Human Partnership. And they're a great community health organization. Do wonderful work in the community to help all of us address all the various different health issues that we all face. Check them out at humanpartnership.org. Check us out at healthchatterpodcast.org.
Health Chatter
Weight Loss Meds
Is it higher risk for certain ages? You know, like if you're over, say, like 65, for instance. Okay, so first of all, prescribing and for what specifically? Because like you said, we have had weight loss medications before. So why this now?
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
So let's talk about registering. Because Minnesota might be an anomaly here because we're pretty good. But how is it that across the country, is it the same way for people to register to be a donor? Is it via your driver's license? How is it? Or is it all over the place?
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
Great. Great. So there's a couple of other things that kind of come into my mind. Recently in the news, there was a transplant, a pig. I forgot which organ it was. It might have been a kidney. Maybe you guys are aware of this. In a human. And so how is it that you link with animal donations to humans? Apparently, this patient was just discharged a little. It might have been a heart transplant.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
I can't recall. But how is it that LifeSource and complementary organizations around the country link with organs from animals that could be used in humans.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
So let me ask, is there like an average age for a donor? In other words, let's just say for, I'll use myself as an, let's say I'm 80 years old, which I'm not yet. But would that automatically eliminate me as a donor? Is there a particular age that, you have to be or for an organ to be in order for it to be donated?
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
You know, um, you kind of alluded to the idea of, um, culture. Um, did you ever run into the problem? Okay. You know, a pig kidney or a pig heart, um, And there's a need for it being transplanted into a very religious person, a religious Jew, for instance. Is there any cultural issues such as that that run into organ donation?
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
Hello, everybody. Welcome to Health Chatter. Today's episode is on organ donation, which should be really, really quite interesting. Organ donation has a long history and hopefully has some very, very positive implications. So we've got two great guests with us. We'll get to them in a moment. We've got a great crew that always keeps us hopping with great research.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
So, you know, our research gang, like I had mentioned at the top of the show, is really second to none. And maybe our listening audience would be interested in hearing some of the statistics that you can also read on our website. But 86% of patients waiting are in need of a kidney, again, That has a long history.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
46,000 transplants plus were performed in 2023, which I'm sure was perhaps even complicated by the COVID pandemic at the time. More than 100,000 people are waiting for life-saving organ transplants, which is an amazing amount of people. Again, we mentioned that 98, or excuse me, 95% of people are in favor of organ donations, but close to 60% are actually registered.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
So there's a little bit of a disconnect there. Any other things that, you know, from a... a statistical or research background thing that either Nicole or Susan, we should be aware of?
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
Thanks, Clarence. So first and foremost, either Nicole or Susan, either one of you chime in. Why don't you tell us a little bit about LifeSource to start with?
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
Yeah, thanks for sharing that story. You know, I've come to realize that there's really an emotional intelligence component to this whole process. And certainly it appears as though LifeSource really helps with that. You know, one question I have, is there... Any information on the life expectancy? How many more years does a person get from a particular organ?
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
So in other words, based on let's just say kidneys, how long are people living with a donated kidney? Has it gotten even better? But are there statistics for that?
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
All right. Well, this has been quite an amazing and enlightening show. And I hope that all of you that listen to this show, first of all, consider registering if you haven't been registered prior. And for some people, you might have even forgotten if you are registered. So you can also check that too. For many people, it's right on your license, your driver's license that you carry.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
So let me ask you, do you have complementary organizations around the country, such as LifeSource in different states?
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
You know, one thing that I've come to realize through your story, Sheridan, and obviously the background that both Nicole and Susan have provided here, is in your case, Sheridan, this is a story, a life-changing story that you will carry with you the rest of your life. And, you know, it's not just a, you know, easy come, easy go.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
These are things that really stick with us as humans as we forge ahead. And hopefully the, you know, for people who have gone through it one way or the other, hopefully organizations like LifeSource help with coping going forward, which is an important component to all of this.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
Susan and Nicole, from all of us at Health Chatter, we can't thank you enough for the insights that you have provided us today. And also, most importantly, the work that you do. So thank you for being on Health Chatter with us. For our listening audience, first of all, you can listen
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
to the show, but also on our website, you'll be able to actually, if you'd like to, you can read the transcript of the show if that's more to your liking. So check that out. The show will be available to everybody in about a week. Shows coming up are loneliness and stress. So stay tuned for those exciting shows. So for our listening audience, all of you, keep health chatting away.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
So tell me, you know, historically, you know, when you really go back in time, Is there like an organ that really kind of started this whole process of organ transplantation, organ donation? Historically, for me, it seems like kidney was the first out of the gate, but I might be totally wrong. So what can you tell us about that?
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
We have three researchers, Maddy Levine-Wolf, Aaron Collins, Deandra Howard, And also, Sheridan Nygaard. Sheridan does marketing and research for us and is actually recording today's show. So thank you to them. Matthew Campbell is our production manager that gets the shows out to you, the listening audience. So this is a crew second to none.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
Yeah. And where did it start? Was there a place that it started like or was it kind of in various places around the United States?
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
So for our listening audience, let's try to visualize a little bit the process. So let's just say I need a kidney, OK? And assuming that I'm on the list, which is another question, how does one get on a list? And who do you contact in order to get on a list was part of the process. But then all of a sudden, I'm really in need. What happened?
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
Also on today's show is Dr. Barry Baines, our medical advisor. Welcome, Barry. And of course, there's Clarence Jones, my co-host for the show. He and I are great colleagues, and we're really appreciating all the chats that we do with all of our great guests over, goodness, it's almost over two years now. Human Partnership is our sponsor for these shows.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
And so let's just say that there's somebody that can donate here in Minnesota. There's somehow a link that's made on where somebody could use, let's say in this case, a kidney. Then what happens? Okay, so the kidney is taken out. And then what happens? How is it transported from A to B?
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
Okay. And then is that considered high priority for transport?
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
They are a community health organization, does wonderful things in the community around various issues related to health. Check them out, humanpartnership.org. You can check us out. at healthchatterpodcast.com. I'm Stan Shandling, the other co-host for the show, and I thank you all for being with us today. Clarence, take it away.