Over 50? These Health Tests Could Save Your Life

Hey, guys, today we're talking about something very important for every guy over 50, and we really need to know about these things. They're the medical tests that can keep us in the game for years to come. We get it. No one is psyched about visiting the doctor. But a little prevention goes a long way. So let's dive into the checklist of essential health screenings that you need to know. I'm Joe, my pal over there who's healthy as a horse. He's Kurt. And we are dudes in progress. Hello, Kurt.

Hey, Joe. I didn't know. I don't know why horses are healthy.

That is true. Somebody needs to do a study on exactly how healthy is a horse. Right.

Where do these sayings come from?

I don't know. How healthy is a horse? You've heard that before, right?

Absolutely.

Healthy as a horse. Maybe it's just the alliteration. They had to pick an animal and healthy and horse go together.

Okay.

Right.

You know, I want to be healthy.

As a horse, healthy as a hen.

What?

Healthy as a hippo. Hippos may be healthy, but they sure don't give the appearance of healthy. Horses are strong, strong, swift, fast, sleek. Everything you want to be in an old man.

Flexible. I don't know if they're flexible.

So how are you, man?

I'm good.

How you feeling today, Friday morning?

I'm feeling great about Friday morning.

Feeling focused, energetic, ready to take on the world.

Yeah, I got up early, I did some work and did my little exercise program. I did my faith based reading, a little prayer time, and then I went over to Walmart and bought a webcam.

All right, you've done. What's that old army saying? You've done more before 7 o'clock than most people do all day. Right.

I love the morning time for productivity.

It is nice to get up early and get your mind focused, get your brain in the game and get a little exercise in and feel like you've accomplished something for the day.

Well, my wife and I did a couple surveys and she got a $20 gift card and I got a $20 Visa gift card and she said, you can have them both. And I said, I'm going to upgrade my webcam. And I tried to do it on Amazon and it would not let me do use two forms of payment like that, which I think it would. Maybe I would have needed three for what I was buying. I think it was less than $40. But I ended up canceled the order. I couldn't get it to work. Chad, with their support and then this morning I'm looking and I, ooh, you know, I'm just gonna get this Logitech over at Walmart. And that's what I did. Ran over there. It took me a couple times. Needed help from the woman that monitors the self checkout. But yeah, 6am At Walmart, there's nobody there in my way. I get things done fast and I'm in and out. I love doing that.

Yeah, I do. Like early morning shopping. Early morning grocery store shopping. Grocery shopping at Kroger is good too. I've done that a bunch of times.

Yeah. Just to pick up something and get in and get out. I love doing that. They're probably used to seeing me. They know who I am. Because very few people do that.

Here comes the big guy.

Here he is again.

Yep. Buying something silly.

How you doing? You been busy?

Yes, I have been busy. In fact, I just found out yesterday I'm heading to Canada. Not next week, but the week after next. Actually, when I go to Canada, I usually go to Saskatchewan province. And this time I'm going to a little further out west, just north of Seattle. I can't remember what that province is right there, but it's right there.

You're going to Canada in the wintertime?

Yeah. I can hardly stand the excitement. Dude.

I wonder if they're getting less snow.

I don't know, but could have been better planning.

Can't be any colder than it is here.

But I didn't have. Yeah, the temperature. The temperature two days ago was negative six here in Cincinnati. Wow. And I think it's 16 or 18. Let's give Alexa a shot at this. Alexa, what's the temperature? I think she's turned off. She is turned off. There's no light on.

She's not paying attention.

The heck with her.

I know. I hopped in the car one day this week and it was one degree and I don't know, I didn't even notice one degree. Didn't seem like we even had that.

Yeah, it's cool. You're remote work still. And you probably will be for the remainder of your career.

I hope so. I enjoy it. I did go in the office last week on a Thursday, and then we had our holiday luncheon, which we often do in January. I had a birthday my team was celebrating with me. It was a fun day to go into the office, but boy, it's rough to get up earlier and takes like three hours of my time to go into the office. I figure out after everything's said and done, getting ready, hour Drive in hour drive out. Yeah, I was glad. I am very grateful for working from home, especially in the wintertime.

So do you. Do you garage your car or is it outside?

My car is in a garage. I have a truck, an old Yukon that is outside. I started it up yesterday, got some snow off of it, warmed it up a little bit, still keeping it running. It's an older vehicle, like 2008. I think it is awesome. Yeah, but that one sits outside. Utility vehicle.

I have a garage, but I do not garage my cars.

They said you have too much stuff in your garage.

Yeah, there's. It's not too much stuff, but it's a one car garage and I. I do have some shelves out there that make. Make it a tight squeeze. I can fit the cars in there or one of the cars in there, but I just don't want to hassle with it. I don't want to hassle with having the car in there. So I leave it outside.

When my wife and I got married, we bought a brand new condo and it had. We could pull two cars in but you had to pull one in and then pull one in back of it.

Oh, it's a long, long garage, huh?

It was a long. Yeah, it was an option. We were late in the purchase of the new condos. We were one of the last ones to buy and we had to. Someone had already configured everything. They had options when they were buying it. But you could have had a laundry room back there. I think we did too. But you could have had a sealed off room and just have one car. But we. It just. That's the way it was. It worked out pretty good. We pretty much just drove one car. I think we took one of our cars off the road. My wife had an old Fiero. Do you remember the Pontiac Fiero?

Yeah. Yeah.

That's what she had when I married her, the Pontiac Fiero. And money was tight and we had the high mortgage just starting out. We had a nice brand new condo. So we took that car unregistered off the road. I remember. So it sat there.

Are you one to go out on cold mornings and start your car up in advance and let it run a little while before you.

I even do that. I definitely do it with. I did it with the truck because it was outside and then my car. Even in the garage it's pretty cold. I try to let it run a little bit. It's nice having the remote starter to do that for sure. When it works, right?

Yeah, yeah. Remote start is a beautiful thing. It's one of those little niceties that you don't realize how much you appreciate it until you don't have it for sure.

Yeah, even I took my wife up to visit her friends. We had an afternoon. Martin Luther King Day was a Monday. We had a little luncheon at her friend's house. And, yeah, I warmed up the car for her before we took off. I think that's a good thing to do, isn't it?

I think so, yeah.

I remember hearing that.

Let it run for a little bit.

Yeah.

I've spent a few mornings here recently scraping the car for my wife before she gets in it.

Right. That's kind of a pain. Sometimes I'll leave it out by accident or because I do a lot of little projects in my garage. Sometimes even I'll accidentally leave it outside and then I gotta do that too.

Well, it's a good thing both of us are in good enough shape to be able to go out there and at least scrape a car and shovel a driveway and salt the walk and all that good stuff. Right?

For sure. And my goal to stay healthy would be to chase grandkids around.

There you go. I'm going to celebrate my oldest grandson's birthday this weekend, so that should be a whole lot of fun. Let's talk about health. Kurt, what do you think?

Yeah, I mean, I don't like talking about health.

Nobody really does, because we're facing some things. We're facing a time of life that. That things start to wane a little bit if we let them go. But I do think that some of the stuff we're going to talk about today, these tests, these. These medical exams, these blood tests and so forth are important. They're often neglected. Going to the doctor amongst men is. Is often neglected. I don't know the statistic behind it, but I could have looked it up, but. But I do know it's higher than it should be. Of the guys that don't go to doctors, that don't see a doctor on a regular basis. And I think we're doing ourselves a disservice. We're doing our families a disservice. We're doing the people who love us and the people who we love a disservice by not doing what we can to prevent some of those things that can cause serious illness and maybe catch them early. Right. And one of the ways to do that is to have these very important blood tests, these very important exams. Some of them aren't terribly comfortable, aren't easy to talk about, you know, Some of them are simple to do and we just, we just don't do them. So I thought it would be a good idea today to talk about a handful of those tests that are important to us guys to make sure that we do on regular basis, whatever basis the doctor tells us to do them. But before we dive into this, this is just informational, man. I'm not a doctor, Kurt. You're not a doctor. This isn't medical advice. Just talk to your doctor, talk to your healthcare provider to determine what is best for you and how often you should get these done. Fair enough.

Oh, yeah, And I'm glad we're going through this. I don't have a lot of knowledge in this area. I have been better as of late for many years. I didn't do the blood test again. My patience with doing these kind of things gets in my way sometimes. But I did do one last November. Not even because you told me to, but I did. Last couple years, I've done my physical exam yearly. The company does encourage that and there's some incentives in our insurance plan to do this, which may be part of the reason I did it. Quite honestly. I set up the appointment from last year and it showed up on, I think now they have a great system, computerized system, where they send you an email saying, hey, you've got an appointment coming up. I'm like, oh, I forgot. I booked that a year ago. And they got it all computerized. All your records, you can go in there. Which is fantastic. Learned that my blood tests ended up in there. My doctor never called me about it, but it's there. Yeah. So it's something. I've been doing much better. And I'm looking at your list. I think I've been pretty good on all of these.

Yeah, good for you. Good for you. There's a couple here that I've missed, but quite honestly, I don't remember my doctor recommending them. But I just did just a cursory research on each one of these to describe what they are, probably how often we should get them done and we'll chit chat about it a little bit. Fair enough.

I like it.

Let's talk about the exam. I'm surprised. Like I said, I might say this a lot during the, during this conversation, but I'm surprised how many people still don't go and get a physical exam. Most insurances don't charge any kind of copay or deductible or anything for this physical exam. It's like a yearly tune up. This is where Your doctor checks your vitals. You know that little thing that looks in your ear and looks down your throat and listens to your heart and lungs and asks a few awkward questions, right? That you got to tell the truth. Tell the truth. Okay. Tell the truth about maybe what you're taking or what you're doing and what you're eating and all that good stuff. Tell the truth. That's important in all this stuff. Tell the truth. During this exam, it's just you and him. You're covered by HIPAA laws. Nobody else is going to know. Depending on what you're telling me, your doctor may get a little snicker on his face, but that's okay. But it's about catching these little issues, right, man? Before they turn into big ones. I. You got to get this once a year, this comprehensive physical exam.

That wasn't the awkward part for me. But we won't go there.

Well, we might go there.

Maybe that's why people don't go to the physical exam. Because of the awkward part.

That turn your head and cough. Right?

Yeah.

And the other one. But the other one, the other one can be, you know, there's another. There's a replacement test for the other one that you can request. Don't need. Yeah.

Okay.

In fact, my, My doctor hasn't done that one in a long time with.

Me because my doctor is old school.

Oh, yeah, for sure. Very hands on or hands in.

Anyway, we joke a little bit.

And then let's talk about blood pressure. Okay. I've had a little. I've had just a tiny little blood pressure issue here and there. My doctor. My doctor doesn't want to put me on medication, so he has me doing this, this regular home test where I check my own blood pressure. And then I'm going to go back and have that, have that checked again. But it's not high, not terribly high. It's not hospital high or terrible concern high. But this is one thing that you want to make sure you check. I mean, high blood pressure is a major risk for heart disease and stroke. And the weird thing about high blood pressure is most of the time you don't even know what's happening. You don't even know you have it. Many things are called the silent killer, but this is one of them. High blood pressure. As you get older, you're at a major risk for high blood pressure. Your lifestyle can put you at a major risk for high blood pressure. You need to get this done at least once a year, probably. Probably more often. Right. You get that Cuff on your arm and it squeezes your arm. And the nurse is doing her thing. Whatever she's listening to, I have no idea. But you don't want hypertension in your life. If you have it in your life and you can't change your lifestyle and you go on medication, then so be it. But this is something you do not want. It's a silent killer. High blood pressure.

It's pretty common, too. As I've spoken to others, my dad was always checking that out. I can remember, too, but for sure I won't get any to personal health situations. But, yeah, I agree, this one's an important one to get checked out.

Absolutely. Then there's the regular circuit of blood tests. You talked earlier about getting your blood drawn and having that done. I have an interesting little story about blood tests and giving blood. And I give blood a few times a year, as often as I can, as often as I remember. Plus I do one or two blood tests a year to get that stuff checked. And there's something about my arm that I must have one of the greatest veins nurses have ever seen, because they always comment. They always comment on it. I've never had a vein missed when I've gotten a blood test or given blood. You know, you hear people talk about, you know, hey, nurse had to stab me a couple times to get that blood.

That's my problem. I do have that. Is that problem. Yeah. Matter of fact, my wife and I were talking to her about. She's given blood lots of times. And I went to the. I think this was the first time I went to this clinic. It's in between my Walmart and my Home Depot was. This was where we did the blood test. And the woman was no bedside manner, if that's what you call it, and was really. It seemed like she was upset with me. I said, hey, what do you want me to do? Sorry, Right.

I didn't grate these veins.

I was born this way. There's not much. You got to drink lots of water.

Definitely.

You want to be hydrated.

I know, and maybe that's it. But I do drink lots of water and lots of liquid.

My problem, too was I did it first thing early in the morning before work. Yeah, I don't know how hydrated I.

Can get, but it's odd, man. I mean. And so what I do now is I wait. And I used to say to nurses before they would draw my blood, you know, I've never had in all my life, I've never had anybody miss. I've never had that. I've never had that second try, right, where they have to stab you a couple times. So anyway, get these blood tests done, get your lipid profile done. Checks your cholesterol level, all that good stuff, right? Make sure that your veins and arteries or whatever that does, get your cholesterol checked. They do mine once a year. I don't know, depending on how old you are and your condition, and maybe every few years. But mine is done once a year, and I don't know why anybody wouldn't do it once a year. But mine is done once a year. Get my lipid profile done. Like I said, it checks your cholesterol levels and make sure that your good cholesterol is good and your bad cholesterol is. Is. Is down. What is it? Your. You want your good cholesterol to be up and your bad cholesterol to be down? I guess is what it's saying. Anyway, that's your lipid profile. Then you have your blood glucose, glucose and your A1C. This, these check for diabetes. You want to get your A1C number. I think below 7 is kind of the. The target. The target number. Or below six and a half, something like that. Check with your doctor. Again, neither one of us are doctors, but this is just stuff that I've heard. But, man, catching those sugar levels early can save you from. From diabetes, and diabetes is something you do not want. There's a. There's a threshold. There's a diabetic threshold that I've heard that, man, once you cross that threshold, it's very difficult, even with healthy lifestyle changes and eating changes, to get it back down. So you want to watch your A1C and you want to see if those numbers are starting to sneak up on you. Your blood glucose levels and your A1C. Make sure that's done. Then you have your CBC, your blood count monitors, your overall health flags, anemia, things like that. Get that done. Ask your doctor if you're at risk. Kidney and liver function tests, those are important, those critical organs. Make sure that everything's filtering and working and okay, especially if you're on medications. You need to make sure that you get your kidney and liver function tests done, and your doctor will tell you how often you need to get those done. But those are all the blood tests that you need to get done. Not all of them. I mean, of course, consult your doctor and see if anything else is in there. Plus, you can get your, you know, you can get your testosterone tested and those levels checked. That's all pretty Important as well to see if you need to make some adjustments there.

I just saw some news program recently or some doctors were talking about the blood tests are going to get really good at finding early cancer and using artificial intelligence is coming out in the future. I mean, there's some amazing things they can do with these blood tests and coming in the future, some really early screening for cancers, they're thinking, is what I recently saw on television. Again, I don't know a lot about these blood tests. I saw all these numbers. I'm going to have to have my doctor explain them to me. I'm not an expert in that area whatsoever. But I'm glad I had it done this past year.

Well, I'll tell you this about AI this is something that I did on this last round of blood test. Send me a whole PDF of all the results of my blood tests. So in Chat GPT, I told Chat GPT to act as a medical expert that focuses on translating the results of blood tests into common language. Okay, that's. I think that's what I said, something like that. And I said analyze, analyze the attached, the attached results of my blood tests and tell me your thoughts. I think I left it as, as broad as that. And ChatGPT came back with some really good stuff. Right. And so I said, okay, now I'm going to see what my doctor says about this.

Interesting.

And ChatGPT was spot on.

Good to know.

Spot on.

Yeah.

And yeah, I like it because I get a little anxious about some of it. And. And because you don't know what these words mean or these numbers mean. And you're thinking, well, why is that? Why is that sneaking up on the high end or what's that number mean? And so I uploaded into Chat GPT. She's within seconds, of course, Chat GPT spit out an everyday language synopsis of my tests. Told me what to look look for, Told me what to be careful of, Told me what's normal, told me what's sneaking up on me, all that stuff. And it's all right there, man. Because if you think about it, all this stuff is out there, right? This information is out there, right?

That's what AI is great at. And I wonder if you found a problem, could it suggest some things that you could do to improve.

It did, right? It did.

That's even more important.

Yeah, pretty cool.

Again, you got to run that by your doctor.

Let's talk about the PSA test. This is the test that your doctor does in lieu of the test we just referred to before. Right. Without being too specific, the prostate test. Okay, listen. Prostate cancer is a problem, man. I mean, you know, it's. I know a lot of. I know a lot of guys in the past 10 years who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer, and you got to catch that stuff early, and you got to know early. And this PSA test is a. Is a good test to do this. It measures a protein produced by your prostate gland that is. That is indicative of. Depending on how high or how low it is, indicative of possible colon cancer. Excuse me. Prostate cancer. And prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in guys. And. Of course. Right. And catching it. But if you catch it early, it's. It's highly treatable, Kurt. You can. Yeah, you can. You can take care of it if you catch it early. So talk to your doctor, make sure you're getting a PSA test and whatever prostate test your doctor wants to give you. God bless his soul. How is this one?

How do you do that one? The psa?

What's that?

How is that one?

It's a blood test. It's. It's either blood or urine. I think. I know it's blood. It's blood.

Okay.

It's a blood test. And that's one that I always watch. That's one. For some reason or another, when I get that done, I'm always a little anxious when I'm waiting for the results because I just don't want to go down that road. And mine's always good. Well, while we're talking about that kind of stuff, let's talk about the colonoscopy. Right. Let's go there. No one loves this one. I have some digestive issues, so I've had a few of these. No one likes this test, Kurt, but it's a lifesaver, man. You don't have to get it very often. And it catches colon cancer, colorectal cancer. During that process, precancerous polyps can be removed. They can see kind of what's going on with your intestines and your large intestines and understand what. Really. What's going on. This is important, man. This is an important one. And you don't have to get it very often. I think, what, every five or 10.

Years, I can tell you what my doctor said. And I did one when I was 50. Yeah, let me do it. And I did it. And Now I turn 60, and he asked me, let's do another one. So I have one scheduled for next month. And then he said, after that, I'm not sure what the frequency would be. But there's the cologuard.

Right.

That is you see advertised on the television.

Yeah.

A home test. I guess it is. I don't know a lot about it, but that's.

I know a little bit about it. Basically, it's poop in a box.

All right. All right, thanks, Joe.

You do your thing and send it away. How do you like to be the UPS driver that has to pick that stuff up, Man, I don't want to.

Be a UPS driver now. Even more.

You're a little uncomfortable talking about this stuff, aren't you?

Yeah, it's a little awkward.

I don't know. We're just friends living life out loud. Right. That's what we're doing, dudes. In progress.

I think my wife said it the best. She said, you think that's awkward, you shouldn't be a woman.

Yeah, yeah, I agree.

She's like, don't talk to me about.

Right.

You're one awkward or two awkward moments. I got no support there for this topic.

So let's move on from those. Right. We talked about the prostate and the PSA test. And PSA test is. Isn't invasive other than the blood. Blood test. But this colonoscopy. Yeah. They'll give you some good medication for it. And thank God you've got that medication. Let's move on to something a little easier. You, your eye exam. Now this may. You may think, well, okay, get your eye tested. Well, it's not just for vision anymore. As you get older, you got things like glaucoma and cataracts to think about. And I've had cataract surgery on my eyes. I had one sneak up on me that the doctor was really surprised that it happened to me at such a young age. And it happened quick. It came in, you know, there was a little speck one year and then a year later, half of my eye was covered. And they were a little surprised by that. But they said that happens sometimes. You got to catch that stuff, man. And it's easily. It's. You know, glaucoma is one thing. Cataracts are. It's a simple surgery, but, you know, catch that stuff. It's not a. Not about vision correction. Glaucoma and cataracts are pretty important to catch early.

Yeah. Again, I've wearing glasses ever since I started working. I've been doing the eye exam pretty regularly. I agree. Even more important now, don't miss it.

Now, this is something that I don't do, and I think I probably should Just to see what's going on. I have a friend of mine that. And he's a really good friend. And over the past few years.

You.

Could tell that he was. He was visibly aggravated and frustrated. And the point is, he couldn't. He couldn't hear, but he didn't know he couldn't hear because it was kind of a slow process. And so he would. He was always trying to listen for stuff, and you didn't know he was trying to listen for stuff, but he would get aggravated because he couldn't hear. And he didn't want to say he couldn't hear. Right. But he just thought people were talking low or there was something wrong with it with the speakers, or there was something going on. And he just. Just an aggravated disposition. And it came down to his hearing. So he went and got his hearing test and yeah, he was like, at 50% hearing. I don't know what 50% is compared to. That's what he told me was like 50% hearing. So he ended up getting hearing aids. You can't see. These hearing aids are amazing. You can't see them at all. But he wears these hearing aids, and it's amazing what it did for his life.

Yeah, I'm sure they're doing amazing things with the technology there. My dad has got this problem. We've tried to get him to go. I don't know why. My wife just recently asked me how come dad doesn't have any hearing aids or anything right now. It can be frustrating to talk. Yeah. And I think this is something I gotta watch. All that loud rock, heavy metal music. Joe is, I think, heavily. I had an issue where I couldn't hear very well. And I went to the doctor. I know my dad has had wax buildup in the past, and I thought maybe that was my problem. And I went in and he looked inside my ears and I had fluid. So I have a lot of. I don't know if it's an allergy, seasonal allergies, but I'll get that fluid in there. And he just recommended doing a little antihistamine, and that dries up that fluid. And I could hear, but I was like, yeah, that's what it is. It felt like there was water in my ear going to a pool.

Right, right.

And when he said that, I was like, oh, I was so thankful. I said, what a simple thing.

It's so weird because looking into hearing loss, and I could kind of see it in this friend of mine, untreated hearing loss can lead to social withdrawal. And Even cognitive decline because your brain is not engaged with out stimulation. And if you're losing your hearing, you have less stimulation. You can point to hearing loss and elevated risk of, of cognitive decline. It's important and I need to get this done. This is something I don't do is.

I think these are things like you said with your friend, they live with without getting it checked out and they're surprised that the solution's not all that difficult. You know, my.

There's some ego invested in that and there's some pride. I mean, here's a, here's a 50 year old man that's wearing hearing aids, but once you get used to it, it is what it is, right? And it has changed his life, man.

Right. They wonder why they put it off. My dad, speaking of him again, he had serious knee problems for years and years and he tried all kinds of different things. He didn't want to do surgery. And when he finally did the surgery and the surgeon was awesome, the hospital we went to, I'll give a shout out to St. Francis in Hartford. I swear they went to the Disney camp of customer service. Right from the guard to the waiting room and the check in everything, they were so awesome. And he just had a fabulous experience. And he can't believe that he waited so long to have his knees replaced. He had both of them done over a period of time. He didn't do. He did one and then several months later he did the other one.

Have you ever been on an airplane or a situation where your ear has not popped?

Oh, I get that a lot.

But you don't know that it's not popped. Right. You don't know that your ear is clogged and you're just, you're kind of walking around and then all of a sudden your ear unpops.

Yeah.

It opens up and you're like, oh my gosh, I didn't realize that I couldn't hear. That's a little microcosm of living with some of the stuff and letting it sneak up on you.

I know that about myself. My ears don't really pop when I'm in a plane, so I'm constantly doing the blowing nose. The nose thing. Yeah.

Let's talk about bone density test. You know, we've always heard about people falling and breaking a hip. This bone density density test checks for osteoporosis. I don't know what can be done about osteoporosis, medication, diet change or whatever, but apparently there's some stuff you can do about it. If you catch it early. So get a bone density test. I, I don't, I've never had one done, but I think I'm going to talk to my doctor about it and see if he, when he recommends it. This is one of those tests that I've never had done. I don't know how it's done, but again, we've always heard about, we've heard for years about older people falling and breaking a hip and bone density is the major factor to that. I'm going to talk to my doctor about this and see at what age you need to get it done or if I need to get it done. The next one are skin cancer screenings. This is something that I go once a year for and I started it a handful of years back. I've had a couple spots on my shoulder and my arm and they all turned out to be okay. But I go once a year. I'm pretty fair skinned and I go once a year for a skin cancer test. And this is a little uncomfortable too because you're standing there with very, very little clothing on. And the doctor's got a light and kind of a handheld magnifier and they're going up and down your body. She's brushing against your skin and going up and down your body looking for spots. And as they see something that is of concern, they take a deeper look at it and I don't know that's okay. Or they might say, yeah, we're going to take a sample of that and go send it off for a test. Skin cancer, again, like most of these is one of those things. If you get it, if you get, if you catch it early, you'll probably be okay. It's one of the most treatable cancers there is. And if caught early, shouldn't be a problem from what I've read. But regular checks can catch this stuff. It's a little uncomfortable. Like I said, you're standing there in an office room with very little clothing on and they're going over your entire body. But it's important.

But that's what's going through my mind in all of these. The earlier you catch these things, then you can really start treating them. Once the damage is done, it's might be past the point of correction.

Right. And you know, there's kind of a debate about sunscreen and when the sunscreen is appropriate and how appropriate it is to use sunscreen. But I'm, I'm on this. I'm, I'm pro sunscreen. Use sunscreen. I think the. I Think the, the studies have shown that they do per. That does. It does prevent skin cancer. I didn't use sunscreen when I was a little kid, and I remember getting horrible sunburns. And I'm just wondering, okay, that can take decades to catch up to you. Getting these skin cancer screenings is important to me. And I do it once a year, definitely.

I felt as I got older, staying out long time in the sun really bothered me. I felt like I got burnt faster or something. I can't spend my shirt off in the sun very long. Especially when you're going from winter directly into summer. There's no tan whatsoever.

When my kids got to be, every single one of them late teenagers, they always wanted to go out in the sun. And we would typically go to the beach for vacation, and every single one of them at some point or another decided they were going to lay out in the sun. And we would say, hey, put some sunscreen on. Put something on. Now, my, My wife doesn't need sunscreen. She. She just tans me. I burn and peel. But now does she need sunscreen or not? That's, that's. That's a question as well, probably. But every single one of my kids at some point or another have laid out in the sun and got horribly sunburned and made the rest of the vacation miserable for them.

Yeah.

And so true. And every single one of them, now they're bringing bottles of sunscreen. Right? Lesson learned. You know, I'm surprised how many friends of mine, how many guys that I know don't regularly go to the dentist, right? I go to the dentist twice a year. I wasn't very kind to my teeth when I was a kid. I didn't brush them as often as I should. It's so funny, Kurt. When I was a kid, I would put more effort into trying to prove that I brushed my teeth than actually brushing my teeth. I don't know why I had such a negative feeling, an aversion to brushing my teeth, but I remember going upstairs, running the water into the sink, and taking a little slab of toothpaste and putting it on the side of the side of the sink so it looked like I brushed my teeth, but I didn't actually brush my teeth. Isn't that weird? I think I, you know, I did that here and there, and I had to brush my teeth every so often, but I didn't take very good care of my teeth when I was a kid. And. But now, man, I mean, I'm a, I'm a scrubber. I'm a flosser. I brush my teeth a few times a day. I. I floss kind of throughout the day with these little pics. These. Yeah, yeah, we're on video right now and Kurt's got one in his hand. So I have pretty healthy teeth and gums now. But I'm surprised how many friends of mine, how many guys I know that still don't go to the dentist as often as they should.

That's hard for me to understand. I've had dental problems and, and I've been going to the dentist, but one thing I didn't do very regularly was flossing. And they did introduce me to these picks. Flossing can be really a pain, I've always felt, and going to the dentist is not one of my favorite things. That whole metal picking and scraping that you do when you get your teeth cleaned is not something I enjoy at all. But, yes, I've been. I've been much better over the last several years. And I think even more than brushing your teeth is the flossing and the picks. Definitely it has made my life a lot easier. Like you said, you could be driving in the car, just pick up your little pick, get all that food that's stuck in there and get it out. That's, that's. I had, I had some gum problems that luckily I caught it early enough and I've. I've done. And reverse the trend.

Yeah. Go to the dentist, floss your teeth. Brush your teeth. I have read and I've heard about there's a direct connection between flossing your teeth and heart disease and dementia.

Okay. I know it's a health. It's more than just your teeth. Yeah. There's other health benefits from keeping your teeth and gums in good shape.

Go to the dentist twice a year and not once in February and once in March. Spread it out. Go every six months.

Yep. Insurance, my insurance covers it.

There's a few things here that you may not have thought of, and these are all things that I've not done. I've not formally done one of them. I've not formally done. We talk a lot about mental health on this, on this show, but here's a few things you might want to think about. Okay. A mental health screening. Maybe go to a healthcare, a mental healthcare professional and just talk to them for a few minutes. Talk to him for an hour once a year. Not because you're feeling any certain way, but if you're talking to a professional, they know what questions to ask and you may have some Things that can impact your life and you don't even know about it. Things like depression and anxiety, those kind of stuff. Those kind of things can sneak up on you and they could have an impact on your life and you not even know it. I would say do it once a year. There's no real guideline for this, but do it once a year. Go see a mental health professional and just sit down with them for an hour and see what they have, see what questions they ask and see where the conversation takes you. It might surprise you. If you can identify depression, anxiety and some of that other stuff early, there's some stuff you can do about it.

I like that idea. Matter of fact, Joe, I'm going to be bringing in a topic that we've covered before and I want to revisit it, which is anxiety. And I'm reading a book by Max Lucado, Anxious for Nothing. And I think you're right. This is a great thing to do. And I can remember taking some of these tests. I'll call it a test. I suppose as part of our insurance for work, they give you a credit if you go through and it's a full kind of screening. But there's some mental health questions. I was kind of comforted the way that the questions were asked and what my score was when I felt like maybe I have an issue. Come to find out, I think I'm pretty normal in this area because I'm not missing work because of laying in bed and not wanting to get up. I just remember some of those things were pretty extreme. But I like your idea of getting some strategies, maybe from a mental health screening too, that could be just from our everyday modern world. I think this would be a good thing.

Definitely. Then there's a lung cancer screening. If you're a smoker or a former smoker, there's a CT scan that you can get done to catch lung cancer early. I don't know how often you should get this done. Probably once a year if you're between. If you're over 50. Okay. And you have, especially if you have a smoking history. I've never had this done, but this is one of the recommendations that, that I saw out there when I did research for today's show. I asked your doctor about a lung cancer screening and I've never heard of this before, but it's something called an indomitable aortic aneurysm screening. I think this is according to the stuff that I read. It's one time. It's a one time ultrasound. Just to check for like an enlarged abdominal aorta. If you're over 65. This is when they usually recommend something like this gets done. I've not had this done, but, you know, I don't want to be an alarmist about this stuff and freak out, but let's just be aware of these things, right? And I'd never heard of this abdominal aortic aneurysm screening, but apparently it's important enough that they have a whole test around it, right?

Yeah, yeah, I'd never heard of that one.

And we can't discount just lifestyle, man. I mean, we can do all these tests, but let's just remind ourselves while we have this, the second to eat, right? Vegetables and fruit and whatever diet you choose. Low carb, keto, regular F. Whatever the government recommends. I don't care. Whatever. Just eat smart. Figure out. Figure out a way to eat smart for your. For your body type and your. Your life. And eat smart. Get moving, exercise, walk, all that stuff. Get some sleep, right? Seven to nine. Seven to nine hours a day is probably what you need to get. Drink plenty of water, Kurt. And watch your stress. Watch your stress, watch your anxiety, right? Get a handle on that stuff. Take a walk, meditate, do something fun. All of that stuff. So there you have it, man.

I love it.

A game plan for staying ahead of the curve, I guess you would call it if you're over 50.

I appreciate you going over these things. It's a good thing to remind us. And I told you something my doctor said. He said it a couple times at my annual physical exam. He said, I don't have any fat old people that come to see me.

You made a good point in that. And that's true, man, because that's what hit me. When you think about all the old people, you know, all of them are skinny, right?

Yeah. People get along in the age that fat. There's something. Something there to stay lean and mean.

So watch that pizza and ice cream. Listen, it's not just about living longer, right? It's about living better. It's about.

Yeah.

It's about your quality of your life.

Absolutely. That's. That's the important thing. As we're getting older, no doubt, really.

We need to stay up with our. We need to keep up with our grandkids. We need to have that energy to. To romp around on the floor and roughhouse and have all. Do all that. Do all that good stuff.

Flexibility has been an issue with me recently, and I am researching. I'm doing some stretches because I have that plantar's fasciitis, that's bothered me. So I know those stretches from physical therapy, and I've been doing those on a daily basis. But I'm looking for other ways to be more flexible. That's where some of the pain I get.

I'm glad you brought up stretching, because I was going to put it here on this list of things to do, like moving and sleeping and all that other stuff I've read recently. What I mean by recently is over the past few years, that, man, you. You have to stay flexible. The older you get, especially in your hip area, make sure you stretch those. Those tendons. And I like that idea. Keep that stuff moving and get those muscles stretched. And because it helps with blood flow when you keep those areas stretched and. And moving and flexible, it helps with blood flow from your legs down and your legs up. You know, that's kind of the. Your hip area is kind of the hub for all that stuff. So make sure you make sure you stretch and stay flexible. So there you go. Call your doctor, man. Schedule those tests. Take care of yourself.

Don't put it off.

Future Kurt, future Joe. The future you will certainly. Thank you.

Love it. Good job.

Thanks, man. Thanks. Let's get right into our stuff. How about your win for the week?

Well, you know, anytime we have some fun with our kids or grandkids, it ends up in our win for the week. I had a birthday over the weekend, Joe, and just so happened my daughter had been talking about doing a trip down to New York City. She often sees shows and says, man, I think my dad would really like that show. So she treated me to a trip to New York City. We saw a show called the Little Shop of Horrors, which I think has been around. Her and I were talking about it. I think it started as a book and movie that turned into a Broadway show probably way back into the 60s, maybe around this. We were thinking maybe around the same time as a Rocky Horror, because it's got kind of that. What's the word? It's like Rocky Horror.

Yeah. I don't know, but I know the look you're talking about. Yeah, yeah, I know the look you're.

Talking about or the comedy that's part of it. And. Yeah, macabre. I don't know if that's the word, but it's. It was. We really had a great time at Little Shop of Horrors. The music was great, the performers were awesome. We just walked out of there saying that was a fun show. A really small, intimate theater that we had Great seats for. But almost every seat was good. It was comfortable and just an old. I think it was an old church like from back in the 1700s or something that they converted many years ago into this theater. But it was a lot of fun. And now I can say I saw the Little Shop of Horrors with my daughter.

I remember the Rick Moranis movie.

Right.

Years ago. And Steve Martin. That's pretty funny. Pretty funny show. I know. I don't know how honest it is. It was to the original Broadway production, but in fact that's a remake. I think that Little Shop of Horrors there was a movie with.

It's a pretty old story.

Oh, gosh. Kurt, what's his name? He played the Joker in the original Batman movies.

Oh, okay.

Jack Nicholson. Jack. Nicholas Nicholson is the golfer, right?

Jack, Nicholas.

Jack. Nicholas. Hold on. Jack Nicholson.

Nicholson is the actor.

Nicholson is the actor. Nicholas is the golfer.

That's right.

There you go.

Sorted it out. What was your win for the week?

Mine was a University of Cincinnati basketball game that I went to with my daughter, my son in law and the grandkids. We saw the win. My very first college basketball game. So that was fun. And then spent the next day riding go karts, mini bowling and playing arcade games with the grandkids. So there you go.

That's a good. That's a good time.

It will always, you know, stuff like that. Spending time with the people who love me and the people who I love will always be my win for the week because that's what I strive for in life. Memories are better than stuff, man.

How's the team of Cincinnati?

I don't know. I don't know.

I won that game.

I don't.

They.

They won that game. It was against Arizona State. It was a good game. It was a weird game in the beginning. I think the. There were three minutes went by before a single score.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, Hard fought. Yeah, kind of hard fought. But then they got. They both got into the rhythm and it was a pretty good game. But.

Well, you know, I live in the college capital of the world for basketball.

I don't know. Indiana, man.

Indiana's got to have as many wins as we have. I know, but they don't have the championships like Connecticut though. I know they love it in Indiana, but we won the last two. We repeated twice in the men's college basketball over the last two years.

I don't watch college basketball at all until the tournament. And there's something special about the tournament. The. The one and out. You know, everything, every game, everything's on the line.

Oh, yeah.

And I love that. I love that.

I love last year's, that UConn basketball team. The men's, of course, the women are tremendous for they're great also. But that men's team was the best sports team I've ever seen in that tournament run that they made. They were clobbering everybody. And we're talking about good, we're talking about the best teams in the country. They just clobbered everybody. They had a little scare in the championship game, but nah, they were just amazing. They just a lot of individual talent and they also played well together and just had that rhythm that championship teams have. It was amazing. Wow, there's my fun from last year.

How about your resource for the week?

My resource, something I picked up. You know how much I like tools. I went over to Joe, turned me onto Ryobi Tools over at Home Depot. I was looking at a screwdriver kit, electric and rechargeable with a battery that you can also use as a separate phone charger. So you can, you can charge this little battery up, this lithium battery and you can also use it, double it as your spare battery for your phone recharging. I thought that was a cool feature. And it's also shaped like, you could shape it like a gun or you could twist it and make it straight on. So it's got some. I'm going to use it in a project I'm working on. Not that you need to have an electric screwdriver. Everything. I just thought it was fun to have. But I just picked that up and it, it was on sale like $10 off. So for $30, I got the screwdriver kit.

Cool.

Ryobi.

These Ryobi tools have, have, have popped up here and there on your resource.

I think they're quality.

I'm glad you're getting, you're getting enjoyment out of them. I, I like Ryobi. I think they're fine for home repair work. I'm right, you know, they get, they get railed against amongst professionals. But I've had, I've had ryobi tools for 25 years. And as I, you know, some of them were the old school type with the old school, with the old battery, whatever it was called. But now you have these lithium, these lithium batteries. But the lithium batteries work in the old tools. I've got an old drill, I've got an old sawzall. I've got an old circular saw. I've got a handful of those, of those older Ryobi tools that hold up great. Now I'm only using them a handful of times a year. Tops. Tops. So they're not. I don't think they're professional grade, but they work really well. They work really well.

It's great to have the tool when you need it.

So my resource kind of is thematic with our chat today. You know, you can get a really simple home blood pressure monitor now. You can buy the. You can buy the cuff kind that you went with the stethoscope and all that other stuff. But I don't think even doctor's offices use those anymore. But on Amazon, for about 30 bucks, you can pick up a home blood pressure monitor that if that. If that's something you can. You're concerned about, and it's something I was concerned about. We had one already that we picked up at Walmart for about 30 bucks. But you can get on Amazon right now for 30 bucks. A home blood pressure monitor that you just stick on your wrist and measure your blood pressure. And I think the more that we can do at home. Right. That's why I like smartwatches that check our pulse and make sure we're walking and all that other stuff. I think more stuff we can do on our own. Not to get weird and obsessive about it. We have to be careful of that. But if you want to check your blood pressure once a month, you can get one of these little home blood pressure monitors for about 30 bucks on Amazon.

That's good. Yeah, I love that. My wife does that. I should do it more. She's got them. Like I said, my dad always had one. He was constantly doing that.

Right.

Good resource.

How about your quote?

I know how you like simple quotes, Joe. This one's going to be as basic and straight to the point as any quote can be. The first wealth is health. Ralph Waldo Emerson.

That's as succinct as it gets. Right there.

Straight to the point.

Clear and straight to the point and couldn't agree more. Right. I don't care how much money you have. If you can't, if you're too sick to enjoy it, then it's not doing you any good.

Yeah. The book I'm reading on anxiety talks about counting your blessings. Gratitude. Boy, if you can work on your health and have that to be one of those things you can be grateful for that is as good or as he says, the first wealth. If you're healthy, that is worth a lot.

Couldn't agree more. Mine comes from Edward Stanley. You know who Edward Stanley is, right?

I'm reading he served three terms as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

No, the joke is Edward Stanley is Mr. Mrs. Stanley's son. Okay, come on.

I should have.

That's, that's a joke amongst, amongst my family. So when some, when some random name gets mentioned, I, I'll ask the kids, hey, you know who Edward Stanley is, right? And then inevitably they'll say, oh, yeah, that's Mr. Mrs. Stanley's son.

Another Joeism.

That's a Stanley boy. Love him. Yeah, you're right. Edward Stanley, I'd never heard of the guy, but I love this quote. He served three terms as the UK Prime Minister. He lived back in the late 1700s, early 1800s. Edward Stanley. I guess our pal Kevin Curtis Allen, if he's a history buff, he might be able to tell us who Mr. Stanley is. But Mr. Stanley said, those who think they have no time for healthy eating will sooner or later have to find time for illness.

That's incredible. That comes from the 1800s.

I know, I was thinking the same thing, man.

Then they all eat. Well, they didn't have no junk food back in the 1800s today.

Yeah, but they did have sugar and.

Do they even know? Yeah, that was unhealthy.

I don't.

All they had was healthy food, but.

Clearly there were fat people back then.

Okay, right, okay.

So, yeah, you're right. I mean, they didn't have some of the, some of the crap that we eat now. All the preservative, preservatives and additives. And what is the red dye that just got finally, after 30 years of proving it, it causes cancer. Finally got, finally got stopped by the FDA or whatever the organization is. But yeah, those who think they have no time for healthy eating will sooner or later have to find time for illness. Edward Stanley. And that's true, man. If you don't find time to be healthy and healthy eating is part of it, you're going to have to find time to be sick and not feel well and deal with some of this, some of this other stuff. So there we are, Kurt. There we are. There's today's show.

Good job. Thanks for all the reminders. Joe, take us home.

Our website is dudesinprogress.com dudesinprogress.com our email address is dudesudsinprogress.com if you want to reach out to us about the show, that's the best way to do it. And listen, man, these tests, when you get these results back, they're probably not going to be perfect. God bless you. If they're good, and God bless you if they're perfect. But they're probably not going to be. But just by doing these tests, just by doing some of these. Some of these things that we. We talked about today is making progress. It's helping you focus on that. And as we know, progress is better than perfection. So we gotta keep moving forward.

I love this reminder. I'm glad I did some of these in the past and you gave me some more to think about. Yeah, just take the time.

And as a final reminder, this was for informational purposes only. Right? We're not doctors. It's not medical advice. Always talk to your healthcare provider to check in on what's going on with you. Okay.

And before we leave, Joe, I got one thing we forgot last time. We're over 100 episodes of the Dudes in Progress podcast.

That's right. That's right. I think this episode is probably 103.

Congratulations, Joe.

We just kind of let that come and go. I think we were so excited to put a show out, we Forgot it was 100. So maybe we'll celebrate 100, episode 105 somehow. Right? That's a kind of weird thing, but yeah. Episode 100. So let's wrap it up right there. Talk to you soon, buddy.

Thanks, pal.

See you, man.