Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
It's a call that's telling me I'm here to serve.
It's a need to make a difference in the world.
24 hours day or night these healing hands will make it
right.
Looking in their eyes I know that I'm changing lives,
changing lives, changing lives for the better, for the better,
changing lives.
Hello again, I'm Grace Sells and welcome back to Best Docs
Network, the show featuring some of the best doctors in the
Houston area that are changing lives.
Up first on today's show is plastic surgeon Dr. David
Altamira.
I had a double mastectomy and they needed to round out one of
the *** with more tissue so they took it from my stomach.
She had always been bothered by her stomach.
Her stomach was kind of bulging and out of proportion to the
rest of her body and she thought you know I went through this
trauma with the breast cancer now it's time to do something
nice for myself and so she elected to go ahead and have the
tummy tuck to improve the shape of her stomach.
I have had four children, 2 naturally and then 2 cesarean
and you start to get a, what would you say, a pouch and scar
tissue build up so you know I want to look sexy again, feel
sexy.
A tummy tuck can really benefit a wide variety of people.
Usually what we see is women who just have extra loose, saggy
skin in the abdominal area.
Oftentimes it's from either from pregnancy or from weight gain.
They've tried dieting, they've tried all the gyms and working
out and they still have that just loose, sagging skin or that
little just pooch or bulge in the lower abdomen that they just
cannot get rid of.
The difference is looking at myself and not seeing a stomach
protruding, where I can put on clothes and I feel good, you
know I feel sexy.
You know, I can wear a bikini where I couldn't do that since 4
children ago, so you know, it just brings that sexiness back.
She had a dramatic improvement.
Before the surgery she had just a very thick layer of fat on her
stomach, she had stretch marks, loose bulging skin pretty much
all around her entire waistline.
After the surgery we were able to remove a great deal of skin
and fat, give her a nice, smooth flat contour, a great deal of
the stretch marks were removed.
Everything was nice and firm and tight once again.
Oh after having 4 kids I always wanted to have a tummy tuck, I
just you know wanted to get back to me, got my sexy back.
Brushing your teeth can prevent a stroke.
People suffering from gum disease are twice as likely to
have a heart attack or stroke.
What we want to do is try to help a woman get through this
timeframe with the intent symptomotology.
According to Dr. Meredith Morgan intervention and management
needs to be tailored to the level of severity.
For mild hot flashes home remedy self management techniques are
effective.
For some women yoga will work, other women strenuous exercise.
On average you can't say that either one of them really works
for everybody but if it's good enough for an individual woman
it's good enough and that's all she needs.
There is a technique of breathing.
It's derived from transcendental meditation that actually has
been studied quite a bit and found to be quite effective.
There are two sets of data on the research and there are
different sets of outcomes and benefits and hazards involved in
using hormones.
In general we try to start with a low dose and let the patient
tie trade up to a level that will produce a circulating
estrogen level that's satisfactory for her response.
Now there are concerns with hormone therapy.
What Dr. Morgan would like to point out is that there are 3
major concerns against the others.
First breast cancer, everybody's concerned about breast cancer.
Second is heart attacks, that's serious.
But the most common one that we really address all the time is
estrogen and there's been very little historical interest.
Your question was what are we doing now as opposed to 10 years
ago.
We really haven't changed much in our concept about blood
clots.
For that reason, our preference is to try to use the non pill
forms of estrogen as much as possible.
The pills go through the liver and simply put can increase
blood clotting chemicals and the risk of blood clotting.
Now the most common question for most women for Dr. Morgan is how
will I know what I'm going to be confronted with?
Well, the good news according to Dr. Meredith Morgan is that
menopause is controllable.
The basic message I'd like you to get is there are many ways to
approach this.
This is not going to be incapacitating, it's
controllable.
Maybe control is the goal.
We're not going to have terminal hot flashes.
For more information and to check out hundreds of great
videos on all of the doctors that you've seen today, head to
our website, bestdocsnetwork.com.
Up next we have ear, nose and throat specialist Dr. C.
T.
Nguyen.
My symptoms were like I would always wake up in the middle of
the night having short breath and then on the baseball field
like I would just, I'd be the one bending over all the time.
I was the only kid on the team that would always be slouched
over trying to gasp for breath.
And I would say that that was my major, major symptom right
there, my major problem.
Aryn is a young athletic teen whose mom brought him to see me
because he was not, never been able to breathe through his
nose.
He feels tired all the time and he complains that he doesn't
have enough oxygen.
He feels like he's short of breath.
I've been to several different doctors around Houston and
they've always like thought it was asthma or something else but
Dr. Nguyen has taken his time to actually look into my nose and
like go further into seeing what was wrong with me.
When I examined Aryn I noticed that he has a severe deviated
nasal septum combined with enlarged turbinate.
The turbinate at the swelling part on the sidewall of the nose
which contributes to more than 75 percent of his nasal
obstruction.
We discussed those findings with his mom and him and decided upon
a line of treatment that consists first of correcting is
septum and using energy radiofrequency coblation to
reduce the swelling on the sidewall of his nose therefore
increasing his nasal passage and increasing his oxygen intake.
Two months out of my surgery I feel like I can breathe a lot
better.
I feel like my performance in baseball has improved, it feels
like I'm getting a really good night's rest every night.
It just seems really amazing to finally get that breath of air
that I've always needed.
Aryn's surgery was performed in an outpatient surgery center.
The procedure took around 45 minutes and Aryn goes home the
same day.
Dr. Nguyen has forever changed my life.
From when I was born to now I could not breathe and now I can.
We just appreciate what Dr. Nguyen has done for my life.
High cholesterol is a major problem in this country as well
as in many countries around the world.
High cholesterol leads to atherosclerosis, blockage of
arteries that affect many organs throughout our bodies.
So how can we effectively treat high cholesterol?
There are medications, but sometimes medications can cause
multiple problems for patients, multiple side effects, muscle
pain, weakness, breakdown of muscles, liver dysfunction to
name just a few.
So, we know that natural has always been the best and we look
for natural therapy with regard to cholesterol reduction.
There is something that we use called Bios Life Slim which is a
fiber product created at Stanford University about twenty
years ago to treat high cholesterol in those patients
who are intolerant to medications.
It's been there for twenty years but not many people know about
it.
We use it in our practice and we've taught many doctors how to
use this effectively to lower cholesterol.
LDL is lowered by 30 percent, triglycerides lowered by about
50 percent, so ask your doctor about Bios Life Slim.
Look for it, it's an amazing therapy and it will help you to
change your life.
I am an athlete.
I am a world series champion.
I'm a hockey player.
I'm a football player.
I am strong.
I am strong.
I am strong.
Fight colorectal cancer.
Demand a cure for colon and *** cancer.
I am strong because I have lost a friend's mother.
Because I lost both of my parents to this disease.
I am strong because nobody should suffer.
Let's beat this cancer.
One simple test and you can save your life or someone you love.
Get screening.
Be a part of one million strong.
I came for treatment of my toenails most of all but all my
nails, all my toenails were bad, really bad.
They were in bad shape and they were discolorated like some
white stuff on them.
How to say they were disattached from the nail bed in one place
especially and it was kind of yellowish too.
Inna came to my office complaining of fungal toenails,
very common thing especially you know you see it in summertime,
it's very prevalent.
It's a fungal infection of the nails, the nails are discolored
and she wanted them treated.
I keep my body in shape and I want to be healthy and I want to
have you know everything perfect so it's one of the things when I
found out that something is wrong I couldn't go for some
time because I was busy, busy, busy but I talked to myself, no
I have to.
It's basically a YAG laser and it creates this intense heat and
it kills fungus, bacteria, virus and it kills it at the root of
the nail.
That's where the nail begins.
From that point on we have a protocol in place that prevents
recurrence because most of the problems that have occurred in
the past is even prior to the laser with the oral medication,
you would get rid of the fungal infection and then it would come
back.
So you also have to do your part to make sure that you don't get
a recurrence because once you're susceptible to fungal infections
you remain susceptible the rest of your life.
I figured out that I have good results because when I could see
my nail grow or my nail growing, the new nail will come pretty
and it doesn't have anything.
Like no fungus nothing, no discoloration.
It was pretty and nice and healthy nail.
The risk of a fungal infection is not just of appearance and so
you don't want to wait on it.
You want to make sure you come in early because you don't want
to go to that severe category where you might require multiple
treatments.
It's better to treat it early on and not only that the nails when
they become fungal they become yellow, thickened, discolored,
hypotrofic and you can develop ingrown toenails.
That's a serious risk because you know that's an infection and
that requires a surgical procedure.
I got new nail bed, new nail and it was pretty healthy.
Chest pain can be a scary thing.
There are bad causes of chest pain and not so bad causes.
So how do you know the difference?
Well, generally the bad causes of chest pain, for example a
heart attack, occur with a gradual onset.
For example the discomfort comes on gradually and then goes away
gradually.
It's usually exertsional when you do things like run up a
flight of stairs.
It's usually dull, not sharp, and that means not like a knife.
Knife like chest pain doesn't tend to be heart related.
Also, if it's heart related chest pain you'll tend to get
other symptoms like shortness of breath, you'll get a cold sweat,
you might even get nauseated or have the pain go to your jaw or
to your arm.
Now non heart related chest pain is a lot easier to figure out
and yet not nearly as scary.
For example it's usually sharp, it's usually sudden, it's
usually aggravated my motion.
For example if you have chest pain that's worse when you move
or reach or bend or arch your back, that's generally muscles
or nerves and that generally lasts longer.
That's the way you can figure out whether this is heart or not
heart.
That and whether it's exertional.
If you go up a flight of stairs and your chest pain gets worse
and that's pretty predictable every time you go up a flight of
stairs, that may be your heart, check that out, especially if
your older.
For additional Medical Minutes from Dr. Honaker, logon to
bestdocsnetwork.com, click on Education and the Medical Minute
tab.
Did you know that on our website, bestdocsnetwork.com,
there's a map that can help you find a doctor that's closest to
you.
Let's ahead and check out our next doctor, oral surgeon Dr.
Paul Metz.
Yeah, I lost a couple and the rest of them started getting
loose and it was something that took about five or six years to
happen.
It just suddenly came on though.
Yeah, George, his teeth were in an end stage in that they were
decayed and he also had periodontal disease, bone loss
around his teeth.
His teeth were chronically infected, they had become loose.
Also, there was a cosmetic problem with his teeth and
George is a very outgoing person and likes to smile and has a
great smile and so his smile just didn't suit his character
not to mention the health of his teeth.
It was really driving him down.
I was kind of getting to the point where things that required
real chewing particularly in the back of my mouth was getting
more and more difficult.
With George what we did was removed his teeth.
Now in him we focused on his lower jaw and from a financial
standpoint many individuals decide to maybe focus in one jaw
versus the other.
Now granted with him we could have done both of them
simultaneously but for whatever reason and oftentimes it's
schedules, their busy work schedule, also finances that
they'll sometimes stagger the case to suit them better and
with George we focused on his lower jaw and we removed all of
his teeth upper and lower but we put the implants immediately in
his lower jaw.
I'm feeling fine now.
I'm back to the point of eating anything, that's no problem.
We'll continue on.
I'm not quite through with all the procedure but just about.
And that is a misconception that we're seeing right now with the
advertising where it talks about get this all done, completed in
one day.
Reality is the final is usually done later down the road once
the body has fused to the implants and the textbook answer
for that is at least three months.
But it can be as long as anywhere from three to six
months but standard of care is to keep the patient in a
provisional, a prototype if you will, for a period of at least
three months.
According to my experience no question about it, don't be
waiting on it.
The earlier you start some treatment, clearly the better.
This is such a fabulous event, it's called Go Red for Women and
it's putting together women from the community, physicians,
hospitals, everybody supporting women and heart disease and the
awareness for women to protect and support.
Even children can benefit from this event so I think it's so
fabulous and that's why I wanted Best Docs Network to really talk
about it.
My speech today is going to be about how I'm dealing with heart
disease and how to have an optimistic and positive attitude
while going through something or anything difficult in your life.
I keep laughing, I keep smiling, try to stay positive about
things.
I could be stuck in the hospital but instead I'm home with my
family.
The biggest way to prevent these problems is education.
So the main reason for this type of event is to educate and
through that we raise funds and can get the word out.
Number one, it educates people on what has happened over the
last several years and it brings to the forefront with women in
particular with Go Red for Women to listen to your body and know
your symptoms.
The most important thing about cardiovascular disease is it's
the number one killer of women in this country and 50 percent
of women or men with cardiovascular disease die
suddenly without any symptoms, without any warning.
I just believe getting the word out to women especially, we
always are tired and rundown and raising kids and going here and
there and we might just think oh we're just tired, my neck hurts
for some reason and it's no big deal but it can be a sign of a
heart attack or a stroke.
Women you know and they're as we know as men are different and
they present differently.
Fortunately stroke type symptoms are about the same but again
another large focus for us is heart disease and they are
completely different in the way they present as a general rule
than men.
Cardiovascular disease and the awareness for women is such a
tremendous topic and that's why Go Red for Women is such a
marvelous cause and I just want everybody to support it.
Tiku broke his jaw growing up and his teeth never lined up
until he met oral surgeon, Dr. Paul Metz.
To find out more about Tiku's story and other life changing
stories, logon to bestdocsnetwork.com.
Head to our website, bestdocsnetwork.com, where you
can request an appointment with any of the great doctors that
you see on today's show.
Let's check out our next doctor, vein specialist, Dr. Peter
Morgan.
Debbie presented with severe swelling and large bulging veins
in her legs, one leg much worse than the other.
She had coexistent severe, very advanced osteoarthritis in her
knees so she really had some big problems with both of her legs.
Every morning and every night I would measure my ankles just
below my knees.
I would have a difference of sometimes as much as an inch and
three quarters bigger between morning and evening.
And when I saw Dr. Morgan he discussed the options with me
and then as I said having double knee replacements and three
doctors who I highly respected all said get it done before you
have your knee replacement because it will do so much in
aiding the healing.
Before having her knee surgery she came in to us to have her
veins treated.
We did ablations on her legs.
Her swelling improved, her varicose veins improved
substantially and her legs felt much better and she ultimately
went on and had knee replacement.
I don't go to bed at night with my legs aching.
I don't go to bed at night just sometimes almost in tears if
I've had a real active day because my legs were so swollen
and ankles were so swollen.
It made a huge difference for me.
The patients that I dreaded seeing previously in my practice
now I enjoy seeing them because I know that almost all of them
have been seen and treated by numerous other physicians
unsuccessfully and I know that I can treat them successfully.
Not only for their wounds but if they have swelling, pain,
bulging veins, heavy, tired legs, all of those things can be
successfully treated.
About a month ago my great niece was over and wanted to ride
bikes and we ended up riding four miles that day.
I could not have done that previous to not having the vein
surgery because it just, it's made a big difference in my
level of activity.
Another reason to stay hydrated throughout the day is because
your brain is composed of 75 percent water.
Your brain will also begin shrinking a quarter percent in
mass each year after the age of 30.
I came to Dr. Lewis because I always wanted to have really
white teeth and my teeth were straight.
I never had to wear braces, didn't have any of those issues
but I had extreme sensitivity.
So I could not use any of the whitening strips or just the
gels that anyone could.
I had a, my gums were receding probably because I'm one of
those brushers that brush the wrong way, didn't do the
circular motion.
She really wanted veneers.
She had just gone through a lot of personal stuff and she wanted
to make a change in her life, but she really did not want her
teeth touched.
She did not want anything reduced on her teeth or anything
prepared.
So he sort of walked me through the process and I found out that
what he could do was I didn't have to have any you know,
didn't have to have my teeth all filed down.
They just sort of buffed them and he just recreated sort of my
smile.
It didn't, it's really strange because he didn't change a whole
lot but it did change a whole lot.
So we did the set on her and it turned out beautiful.
I've done thousands of them and people were very happy with them
and they're, and what we found out is in most cases they're
stronger, even though they're very thin, they're stronger than
regular veneers because the strength isn't derived totally
from the thickness of porcelain, I mean you have to have a
certain thickness, but it's derived from the bond to the
tooth and we found that when we bond to the enamel which is the
natural outer layer of the tooth that we get a much stronger,
much harder veneer.
Just the craftsmanship was amazing.
I mean it was like going to a da Vinci or somebody because it was
such tiny details but it really changed my smile.
So in actuality not only are they you know less destructive
to the tooth or you don't have to take anything off the tooth,
but they're also stronger and so they look, they look great.
It was painless, came back, put them on, was getting my hands
massaged during the whole process and I walked out and I
had a perfect smile that looked natural.
I enjoy smiling and I love having people say you have the
prettiest smile.
Let's talk about the irritable bowel syndrome, IBS.
Very common, more common in women than men.
More common in stressful situations than not stressful
situations.
What are the symptoms?
Well, generally people have alternating diarrhea and
constipation.
Now some people just have either diarrhea or constipation but
most people, it's alternating.
Also, people who feel full after they eat and then feel great
after they have a bowel movement because they clear things out,
that tends to be IBS also, irritable bowel syndrome.
Now it's important to know irritable bowel syndrome is what
you have rather than something else because there are bad
diseases that can be signaled by a change in bowel habits.
So if you have a change in bowel habits go over it with your
doctor.
If you do have irritable bowel syndrome there are medications
you can take but most people get by with doing things like over
the counter probiotics, over the counter fiber caplets or fiber
supplements like powder and drinking lots of liquids, trying
to avoid stressful situations and keeping a trigger diary,
trying to figure out what you ate or drank the day before you
had your problem will tell you what to avoid so you don't have
IBS flare ups.
For additional Medical Minutes from Dr. Honaker, logon to
bestdocsnetwork.com, click on Education and the Medical Minute
tab.
As you get older sometimes you have trouble finding words, so
my daughter got all worried and she made me go to a neurologist.
So he does his thing, go back later and he said, it looks like
you had a couple of small strokes.
They're small, they're not going to bother you but he says, you
need to go to a cardiologist to check out your heart just to be
on the safe side.
Valvular heart disease encompasses many different
entities.
The heart has four different valves and Gary had actually
infection and rupture of his mitral valve which is a very
important valve separating the top and bottom chamber of the
left side of the heart.
So she sent me to Houston Northwest Hospital where she
ordered ultrasound for me.
You know I feel fine, can I go home now?
So my wife and I are sitting there and she comes in with this
film of the ultrasound and she says, can you see the mitral
valve there?
I said no I'm not trained for that.
So she points to it with her pen and she said it's right there
hanging down in the ventricle.
It's been ruined with bacteria and it's not doing anything.
And so she says within a month you're going to have a massive
heart failure and I heard my wife gasp you know and I got
rocked and said wait a minute, I feel fine.
She said, I'll check you into the hospital right now.
Gary had mitral valve prolapse, therefore the valve was not
closing properly, was redundant and thick and therefore it was
easy for bacteria to stick to that valve and cause infection.
And this happened before I met him and his story is quite
interesting, how he came to me.
He immediately needed surgery because his valve was infected
and ruptured and not working at all.
But he's very thankful that he came because we were able to
save him.
Obviously I lived but the point is I may not have if Dr.
Vaughese had not caught that ruined mitral valve and so I owe
her.
That's going to wrap up today's show.
For more information on any of the doctors that you've seen
today, head to our website, bestdocsnetwork.com.
And if you have questions or comments or want to share a life
changing story that you have, send us an email at
info@bestdocsnetwork.com.
I'll see you next week.