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Beek on being and AGING WELL · Beek on being

• 0:00
  Melissa Shere Beek: Hi. I hope you are well. This podcast is a place for people to share personal and professional perspectives, talk openly, and ask questions. From serious to silly to sublime, it's all about communication and connection. Always coming from a place of kindness and curiosity, we talk about shared humanity, discuss ideas, and highlight people creating a better world.
• 0:23
  We've got to keep learning, keep growing, keep being. I'm Melissa Beak, and this is Beak on Being. Today's episode is Beak on Being and Aging Well. When my daughters were little, there was an American Girl Doll book called The Care and Keeping of You, Broke down what was going to happen with their bodies, their brains, their emotions, everything as they went through puberty. When I was pregnant with them, it was the holy grail of books.
• 0:51
  What to expect when you're expecting. Again, a book about what was going to happen to our bodies, our brains, and our emotions as we went through pregnancy. So where is our aging will handbook? What are we to expect from our bodies and brains? What do we need to know about the care and keeping of ourselves now?
• 1:08
  And what can we expect cognitively, physically and emotionally as we age? Let's break the myths, expose the truth and bring information to life for all of us because you're getting older now, more responsibility, you've got questions and these two amazing women here with me today have the answers. So ladies, please introduce yourselves and tell our listeners a little bit about you. Go, Jamie.
• 1:33
  Jami Young, LCSW: Hi. I'm Jami. I'm an LCSW, which stands for a licensed social worker a licensed clinical social worker. And I've been a therapist in private practice for a long time, like twenty some odd years already. And I've done other things as well intermittently, but but throughout, like I said, been in private practice.
• 1:54
  And, I mostly work with individuals ranging from preteen all the way through, 65. So Perfect. Whole host of issues, age related issues, and so on.
• 2:09
  Dr. Perri Young: Perfect. Hi. I'm Perri, also a young. Jamie's my sister-in-law. And I'm an internal medicine physician here in Miami for the past, twenty three years in private practice.
• 2:25
  I'm in solo practice. I take care of predominantly healthy, informed, I should say, individuals from the ages of 18 up to 90. And I've pretty much been working on the care and keeping of those people for the entire duration of my practice.
• 2:47
  Melissa Shere Beek: I love it. And how did you both get into your professions?
• 2:51
  Jami Young, LCSW: Do you want me to go first? Yeah. You'd be first.
• 2:52
  Dr. Perri Young: You're closer.
• 2:53
  Jami Young, LCSW: Yeah. That's true. Well, I got into the profession of being in private practice pretty much by luck. After I graduated in graduate school, I started working in a psych hospital in New York, which is where I'm from, where I went to grad school. And after a year or so when I was fully licensed, I knew a lot of the psychiatrists in the hospital.
• 3:23
  And and again, it was a small private hospital. And in conversation with with some of the psychiatrists who all had their own private practices, they asked me if I was interested. And I said, yes. Lucky Right. For That was literally how I started.
• 3:38
  Melissa Shere Beek: I love it. And Per?
• 3:40
  Dr. Perri Young: So my practice is actually the furthest thing away from my training that was done at University of Miami Jackson Hospital, Jackson Memorial in Miami. And I learned or was trained in internal medicine, which was mostly hospital based. When I went into private practice and left the residency, I went into with an endocrinologist at first, and then I ended up just kind of going out on my own. And the practice kinda corralled from being hospital based to entirely office based. Once you do that, I guess, as an internist, it becomes almost like a family practice or a GP.
• 4:18
  Jami Young, LCSW: Yeah.
• 4:19
  Dr. Perri Young: And so you once someone likes you, they send their friend, their sibling, their parent, their child, and it kind of expanded from that.
• 4:27
  Melissa Shere Beek: Good. Lucky for us for that too. So what kind Jami, what kind of therapy do you practice with your patients? So I mostly do cognitive behavioral therapy.
• 4:38
  Dr. Perri Young: Mhmm.
• 4:38
  Jami Young, LCSW: I do a little bit of some others that kinda fall kinda in under the umbrella a little bit of cognitive behavioral therapy. Like, there's a little bit of, like, motivational, a little bit of, like, short term sort of, like, problem solving. Right. But for the most part, it's cognitive behavioral therapy.
• 4:57
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay. Great. And can you tell us a little about how your patients come to you? Like, some of the issues that they're having? Sure.
• 5:06
  Like, what are the most prevalent issues?
• 5:09
  Jami Young, LCSW: Well, first, we'll start with sort of like how people come to me. So, sort of like, Perry was saying the way her practice grows. I get referrals, and people find me a lot of different ways. I actually get a lot of word-of-mouth. I actually have a lot of past clients and current who will refer friends, family, or something.
• 5:31
  Sometimes that's a conflict, sometimes it's not. Right. But that's actually fairly common. I mean, there's, you know, some like ways to find me online, then there's like other therapists. So, that can have something to do with like how they're coming to me to begin with.
• 5:52
  Melissa Shere Beek: And what are the most prevalent issues that you find that they're dealing your patients are dealing with?
• 5:57
  Jami Young, LCSW: I mean, super broad, I could definitely say, like, anxiety, depression, stress Mhmm. Relationship issues.
• 6:06
  Melissa Shere Beek: Mhmm.
• 6:06
  Jami Young, LCSW: How that manifests for each person, that's where it obviously, you know, is very individual, can look very different. What someone thinks they are presenting with may not actually be what that is or might not actually be the biggest issue. Uh-huh. Something underlying. Right.
• 6:25
  Obviously,
• 6:26
  Dr. Perri Young: you know A lot of times
• 6:28
  Melissa Shere Beek: I was gonna say interject Yeah. No. I wanna know if it crosses over with your to me
• 6:32
  Dr. Perri Young: Yeah. And come in thinking they have a medical condition, and frequently, it's biologically based in the psychologic. Right. And so I think a lot of patients of mine will seek out someone like Jamie because they're informed, or they learn that this is not a medical problem, that this is more of an a bio emotional behavioral problem. And that's how they end up probably at a person like Jamie.
• 7:03
  Jami Young, LCSW: So I
• 7:03
  Melissa Shere Beek: was gonna ask you that. Like, when a patient comes to you with physical symptomology, but it's because a mental issue, it's sort of manifested in a physical way, how do you broach that with a patient?
• 7:16
  Dr. Perri Young: Usually, as an internist and a primary doctor, the obligation is to be fulfilled that you I research and make sure they are not physically ill. Right. Because clearly, other than probably, and Jamie can speak to this suicidal thinking Mhmm. Most of these patients are exhibiting some physical symptoms that I can follow
• 7:40
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 7:40
  Dr. Perri Young: And rule out as a more significant or dangerous, potentially dangerous cause of their symptoms.
• 7:47
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 7:47
  Dr. Perri Young: Once I feel that we have arrived at a place where I am not concerned for their well-being Their physical well-being. Yeah. Then I can say to someone, okay, I think you need to see a therapist. Right. Frequently, I will refer to Jamie, but being that Jamie's my sister-in-law, I always give a disclaimer and saying, look, you know, some people aren't comfortable, but I want you to know this person is really a wonderful therapist.
• 8:10
  Right. But I am related to her and my marriage. Right. So but I I think that we probably overlap in similar populations
• 8:19
  Melissa Shere Beek: Anxiety, depression, stress.
• 8:21
  Dr. Perri Young: Also, like, the age of the patient or the client, as well as socioeconomically to a certain extent, because you have to be able to have health insurance probably to cover our bills and so But it's interesting because ultimately, they really need a lot more time spent on the psychology and the and the what Jamie's trained in, my work is kind of easy Right. Relatively to that. And it usually could be done in one or two visits, whereas Jamie's tends to be sequential.
• 8:53
  Melissa Shere Beek: So Jami then, what do you identify your patients, like, who are suffering from anxiety and depression? How do you identify that with them as far as differentiating from regular life stress? What are those some of the simples?
• 9:10
  Jami Young, LCSW: Okay. Good question. I have in my head some of the things Perry was saying, so let me Oh, shift to that. I know for that question. Can come back
• 9:16
  Dr. Perri Young: to it.
• 9:16
  Jami Young, LCSW: And then I'm gonna go back
• 9:17
  Dr. Perri Young: to it.
• 9:17
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay. Some of
• 9:19
  Jami Young, LCSW: the symptoms. First start okay. So I could definitely go over some of the symptoms, but what I would say is whatever those symptoms are, if they're impacting the person Right. Or their life negatively. Right.
• 9:32
  Right? Certainly, if they're impacting their functioning. Mhmm. Right? But prior to actually affecting their functioning, if whatever the symptoms are are affecting them negatively.
• 9:43
  Right. So so, for example, somebody might go to Peri because they're having stomach problems. Right? Because they're having back problems. Right?
• 9:51
  They might go to you to Peri if they're having headaches. Right? Okay. So those are ways that the body holds tension. Right?
• 9:59
  Could be, like, due to stress. And if they go to Perry or another doctor, and, you know, Perry might be able to figure out faster maybe than some other doctors who might say, okay, well, let's try this. Let's try that. Right? And if those things aren't working Right.
• 10:14
  Then someone might suggest, okay, well, maybe this is actually a different issue. Right. A really important one where I would say we we do overlap is sleep. Yeah. And people with sleep problems,
• 10:27
  Melissa Shere Beek: which
• 10:28
  Jami Young, LCSW: is very common. Right? And there are people that know that they're suffering with sleep problems, and then there's people that, like, don't even realize that that's an issue. So someone might go to Perry saying, like, I'm having trouble sleeping.
• 10:40
  Dr. Perri Young: Or they're tired.
• 10:41
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right. And they aren't Continual fatigue. Yeah.
• 10:45
  Jami Young, LCSW: Right. Or disrupted sleep. Like, either having trouble falling asleep
• 10:49
  Melissa Shere Beek: Mhmm. Or
• 10:49
  Jami Young, LCSW: staying asleep. Right. Like, those are two very important factors that someone might come to me first or might go to Perry.
• 10:57
  Melissa Shere Beek: When does it cross the line from okay. As you get older, you get up and you pee a couple times in the middle of the night, especially if you're drinking a lot of water before bed. But when does it cross over into something that's disrupting your life?
• 11:12
  Jami Young, LCSW: Well, my first answer would be how you feel the next day and how consecutive that is. Mhmm. Right? So if it's every single night, that's gonna weigh on you. Right?
• 11:23
  Now if you get up and you go to the bathroom, but you can fall back to sleep relatively easily, like, let's say five to ten minutes. Right. Okay. Then that's disruptive. Right.
• 11:35
  Or at least not to me. Like, that I'm not gonna be able to help with. Like, if you're getting up that much to pee, you might go to Perry and say, what's go
• 11:43
  Melissa Shere Beek: you know? So what are the signs and symptoms then more than normal stress that you identify as, oh, this person's clearly dealing with anxiety disorder or depression? So difficulty falling asleep
• 11:57
  Dr. Perri Young: Mhmm.
• 11:57
  Jami Young, LCSW: Which many many people have. Mhmm. Some don't even fully realize it because they're so used to it, and they're so normalized to it. Or you can fall asleep, but you
• 12:09
  Dr. Perri Young: Get up.
• 12:10
  Jami Young, LCSW: Wake up, and then cannot fall back asleep. Okay. So, some people can wake up a few times during the night, like, can eventually fall back asleep, but then they'll keep waking up. Like, they'll get maybe two to three hours at a time. That's not enough.
• 12:22
  So if you wake up three times You're not sleeping. No. No. Okay.
• 12:27
  Dr. Perri Young: I think also to answer your question, though, there's and if you're looking at someone and wondering if they have a distinction, I think this is what Jamie's gonna get to, but, like, is this something if it's interfering with their function, how do you make a clinical assessment that this is legitimately something that needs to be addressed or treated, whether it's Therapeutically. In some way. Mhmm. And that's there are clinical tools, but also, and amazingly, we haven't really come much farther than this in a sense that when someone has to express their symptoms, you use the word signs. But symptoms, the way I perceive them, are a patient's or a client's objective experience subjective experience.
• 13:08
  Objective. A sign is something that is sort of objectively looked at. Right. Okay. So I am assessing it.
• 13:15
  Jami Young, LCSW: Right.
• 13:15
  Dr. Perri Young: So when I hear a symptom when someone tells me they're not sleeping, they can't eat well, or food isn't is bothering them, let's say. Mhmm. They have low energy level. Mhmm. They have maybe a disruption in their their interpersonal or sexual relationship.
• 13:33
  Mhmm. You know, there's a list of them. And if you meet enough criteria, that already is kind of a clinical diagnosis. So when someone comes in and says to me, just don't wanna spend too much time on this, when someone comes in and say says all these things, and they're getting up at night, and this and that, and they're tired, and they go on, and I'm I'm having stress at work, and they're not even identifying that all these items are related. But I'm hearing sleeplessness, fatigue, low energy, difficulty concentrating, sexual relations are are affected, and a few more.
• 14:05
  I'm already thinking this person has nothing physically wrong with them Right. I can treat. This is an emotional
• 14:11
  Jami Young, LCSW: Right.
• 14:11
  Dr. Perri Young: Behavioral, psychological issue.
• 14:13
  Melissa Shere Beek: Got
• 14:13
  Dr. Perri Young: it. And at that point, then I would probably interject for them to be assessed by someone like
• 14:19
  Melissa Shere Beek: A therapist like Jamie. Yeah. Got it. Okay. Alright.
• 14:22
  So and
• 14:25
  Jami Young, LCSW: on the flip side, I'm sorry, I would say when someone comes in to me, and obviously, some of the in the initial questions of assessment are right. Like, what is your medical history? Are there any medical issues? You know? And then those are things right off the bat that, you know, I will ask, you know, where are you at with your with your medical care?
• 14:43
  Okay. You know, like, has like, has that been checked? And then just like, you know, if you were to go to a chiropractor and your back is not any better, the chiropractor might say, okay, well, then maybe I'm not the right person. Right? I go through Got it.
• 14:56
  With my patient, you know, I'll be like, well, have you checked in with your doctor about x y or z? Got it. You know? Alright.
• 15:02
  Melissa Shere Beek: Got it. Because I was thinking how does someone identify in themselves if they're not recognizing it as a mental health issue, and it's manifesting as a physical issue, how does someone identify it themselves? But clearly, if they're getting their regular checkups, one of you can recognize that it's one or the other. Okay. Great.
• 15:19
  Dr. Perri Young: And you have to be complete. I'm just gonna say, obviously, not just because of medical legal issues, but from my side of things. When someone has headaches, you're not gonna ignore that they have headaches. But and you I would pursue a small workup. But if I started recognizing that everything is looking like it's nothing
• 15:38
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right. Then I have to think about why. Got it. Got it. Okay.
• 15:42
  So how do you therapeutically help them tackle the emotional and cognitive behavioral aspects of all of this?
• 15:48
  Jami Young, LCSW: Well, that's a big question.
• 15:50
  Dr. Perri Young: Okay. Yeah. Right.
• 15:52
  Melissa Shere Beek: Well, once the patients left Perri’s office, now you've got the big job.
• 15:56
  Jami Young, LCSW: Okay. Well, so I'll answer that super broad first. Okay. Yeah. Because it's individually exactly.
• 16:04
  Well, it's individually, but it ends at the age. You know? So professionally speaking, the the person has to feel comfortable.
• 16:14
  Dr. Perri Young: Mhmm.
• 16:15
  Jami Young, LCSW: Right? Mhmm. They have to wanna come back. Okay? They're 18, I'll go with that's a little different, but, you know, speaking for for 18 and above.
• 16:31
  Honestly, like, the relationship is really what, like, matters the most, you know. So, like I said, like, the person has to wanna come back, like Right. Even when they don't really feel like it. Right. They have to connect with you.
• 16:42
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. Okay.
• 16:43
  Jami Young, LCSW: Yeah. And be willing to be a little bit uncomfortable. Right.
• 16:49
  Melissa Shere Beek: So that's
• 16:50
  Jami Young, LCSW: my very broad answer.
• 16:52
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay. Well said. I we're I'm gonna go over this again, but it's important to pay attention to the cognitive, physical, and emotional changes that we go through as we age. Normal changes are mild and manageable, whereas abnormal changes are progressive and interfere with daily life. So, I wanna break down, what we should expect and when we should be concerned in the care and keeping of ourselves as we mature.
• 17:14
  So, in both of your practice, what are you seeing as standard health issues as we age outside of, like, depression and anxiety? What are the normal or typical aging issues?
• 17:31
  Dr. Perri Young: So I had to do a little research on this.
• 17:32
  Jami Young, LCSW: Oh, okay.
• 17:33
  Melissa Shere Beek: Just like that because I did. Outside of depression and anxiety,
• 17:36
  Dr. Perri Young: I mean. Well, in general, it's important to acknowledge that if we wanna talk about aging, it's not just a concept. It's a physical Mhmm. Change. Mhmm.
• 17:46
  And that does portend or or apply to every different area. And this was what I was intrigued, because I haven't really studied geriatrics or aging in a
• 17:55
  Melissa Shere Beek: long time. Well, we're getting there with you. So That's right.
• 17:59
  Dr. Perri Young: So Don't worry. But it was interesting because a patient came in to me, and she told me, she's in her sit late mid seventies. And she told me it was really relevant to this topic. She said my daughter was with me over the holidays, and she thinks I'm very slow. In every way, I have slowed down.
• 18:17
  Jami Young, LCSW: Like, physically?
• 18:18
  Dr. Perri Young: Physically, mentally, everything. Now this woman is still working three times a week. She still exercises. She's active. She's kind of like our mom.
• 18:26
  So Right. We're very lucky, by the way, two listeners out there. We have some very knock wood, pretty functionally healthy moms. But, so it made me curious as to what what did I learn about, and what has changed, what is aging? Right.
• 18:38
  And when you look at the aging, there's different components of slowing down. I mean, they're really specific, but they also are broad. And so it looked at physical function, they look at cognitive, they look at emotional well-being Mhmm. Because and they look at social engagement
• 18:55
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 18:55
  Dr. Perri Young: As part of it is preserving independence. So when they look now looking at the physical and the actual neurologic and, I guess, body systems approach, I mean, your esophagus slows down when you swallow. You know, people are coughing or choking or having more postnasal drip, that's because we don't have the same clearance Right. Of our mucus. Right.
• 19:17
  Joints. Our GI's GI tract slows down. The urinary bladder changes. The obviously, we know about you might wanna get there after, but menopause is clearly the most blatant
• 19:29
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. That's later on.
• 19:30
  Dr. Perri Young: Stopping of systems Yes. Where women no longer have eggs Yeah. In their ovaries. But in general, everything is a slowing down. Your gait changes, the ability to perceive our body in space changes, our vision changes, that starts at 40.
• 19:45
  You start to need reading glasses. By 44, only a couple people at the table need reading glasses for dinner. By 50, everyone borrows each other's. Hearing changes. So all of these processes begin to slow down, and that's very important because that's natural.
• 20:01
  Right. And there may be some things that can stave that off, and there's a lot of talk about mitochondria and different things that could make us live longer and not and slow down Mhmm. Your aging. But in general, I mean, you know, this is a process of every body. Yeah.
• 20:19
  So it's hard to kind of stop that.
• 20:22
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 20:23
  Dr. Perri Young: And the key thing when you look at aging, which is what I was going back to in my training is, how do you give someone a really good quality of life as they are aging? And that is at every stage, because there's the thirties, the forties, the fifties, going into, as I said, the seventies or the nineties. Is this person independent? Can they and this is something that really in a background in social work, Jamie could definitely remember from her training Mhmm. Which are the activities of daily living Mhmm.
• 20:50
  And the and the other activities of daily living. So the things like, can you feed yourself versus can you do your banking? Right. And so there's so many assessments that we do as people get older to determine if they're impaired in any way or if they're not. But I think that's like a very broad picture.
• 21:05
  Right. And it speaks to also we we tend to you know, people tend to say I was reading that there's a lot of things called pseudo dementia, but people get depressed as they're older. Is that normal? And actually, it's not.
• 21:16
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 21:17
  Dr. Perri Young: It's not normal to be depressed. But it's normal to have a slower cognitive response time and recall, and that all begins in your fifties. Right. So I think to to speaking to emotional well-being, which Jamie is trying to craft, if she were caring for older people, she's still worried about kind of the same things, but we to approach them in a different way.
• 21:37
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right. So was gonna ask about that was quality of life and, like, certain amount of decline in executive functioning to be expected.
• 21:46
  Jami Young, LCSW: For sure.
• 21:46
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 21:47
  Dr. Perri Young: But you wanna observe what I think Jami could probably explain executive function better. But, you know, the first thing that I think of with executive function is like working memory Mhmm. And how you can bring other thoughts forward. Right. And immediately, I think in your it starts probably in your forties, really, where you start to have recall where you don't remember someone's name, and the name's on the tip of the tongue.
• 22:12
  And that's all really normal, But that that can progress into something else. That's normal normal senescence, as we call it, or like changing in the in the biochemistry and the brain. No.
• 22:23
  Melissa Shere Beek: I've never been able to remember a name. I can recall every song and know So if that declines, that's my warning sign. Like Well, that's me don't know. But the music and the dances, I could do Or do
• 22:34
  Dr. Perri Young: the muscle memory. Yeah. Right. So that your memory of where you're going in space from a song.
• 22:39
  Melissa Shere Beek: So when do we get concerned that it's not just I came into the kitchen or I forgot where I left my readers or whatever, and or there is dementia or Alzheimer's or some sort of cognitive disability or decline happening? When do we get
• 22:59
  Dr. Perri Young: to Do you want me to answer that?
• 23:00
  Jami Young, LCSW: Because it's Well, I mean, I actually can, but you're qualified to answer it.
• 23:03
  Melissa Shere Beek: No. No. I want you both to Okay.
• 23:07
  Jami Young, LCSW: Well, I can answer that not so much because of my work in my practice, but from my much earlier work in the psych hospitals. Right. So I actually worked on the geriatric unit and That's right. The the dementia unit. So I can speak more about that part, not quite so much like the oops.
• 23:24
  Melissa Shere Beek: No. That's
• 23:25
  Jami Young, LCSW: okay. The in between, if So you
• 23:27
  Melissa Shere Beek: take us from
• 23:28
  Jami Young, LCSW: normal to someone's daily functioning.
• 23:32
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 23:32
  Jami Young, LCSW: Like their ability to care for themselves. Okay. And But to go through their day.
• 23:37
  Melissa Shere Beek: The 20 year old is going to have a different daily functioning than an 80 year old. So, yes, as we age, we're not gonna be as spry or as all the things that Perry said about our ability to do things, but when is it concerning, oh, okay. Well, yeah, I can still pay my bills and I can still do this, but there are certain things that I'm forgetting little by little each day that there's a decline.
• 24:02
  Dr. Perri Young: The first sign that you just said is I'm forgetting. Right. That is the number one thing that's the least important.
• 24:08
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 24:09
  Dr. Perri Young: The most It usually doesn't
• 24:10
  Jami Young, LCSW: come from the person themselves, it comes from the people around The
• 24:14
  Dr. Perri Young: most Yeah. The most critical piece of the story is understanding what you understanding where you are in relation to others, why you're there, and Mhmm. How it's supposed to work,
• 24:27
  Jami Young, LCSW: not Okay.
• 24:29
  Dr. Perri Young: Person who is starting to exhibit
• 24:32
  Jami Young, LCSW: Cognitive changes.
• 24:33
  Dr. Perri Young: Mild cognitive impairment. This was I looked this up too for you because I like it. The answer was, about fifteen to twenty percent of adults have mild cognitive impairment. This is a very
• 24:45
  Melissa Shere Beek: important natural or no?
• 24:47
  Dr. Perri Young: That's not natural.
• 24:48
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 24:49
  Dr. Perri Young: So there's senile aging loss, which is just all these things, like tip of the tongue phenomenon we were talking There's what Jamie's sort of also mentioning too, which is like, are you starting to slow your function versus are you not functioning? There's a difference. And then there's this this freeze area of mild cognitive impairment where people are starting to develop or show signs of possible some memory loss that would be significant.
• 25:14
  Jami Young, LCSW: Got
• 25:14
  Dr. Perri Young: it. Not memory loss that they're necessarily noticing. They could be noticed it's usually noticed by others.
• 25:19
  Melissa Shere Beek: So it's gonna say family Right. Or Those around them.
• 25:22
  Dr. Perri Young: And that's a very pivotal piece
• 25:23
  Melissa Shere Beek: Mhmm. Of Yeah.
• 25:25
  Dr. Perri Young: And so that's that's a sign that this person should be assessed when someone is recognizing they're making nuts, they're not making sense, they're suggesting different timeline of story, they forget answers to things that they were just recently asked. Or repeating. Not even repeating. They do start to repeat themselves, but that's usually not in mild cognitive impairment. It's usually flipping like a number.
• 25:51
  Melissa Shere Beek: Got
• 25:51
  Dr. Perri Young: it. Like, just a small shift in the information.
• 25:54
  Jami Young, LCSW: That's What their living situation looks like, how they're taking care of everything around them.
• 25:58
  Dr. Perri Young: Right. Just small details. Mhmm. Like, they lose their sense of direction all of a sudden, and it's a person that always knew where they were going calm.
• 26:06
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay. Yeah. So it really depends on friends and family members to recognize
• 26:09
  Jami Young, LCSW: these differences.
• 26:10
  Dr. Perri Young: And then those those people should be in some way assessed, probably by a neurologist, but initially by a doctor, to see if there's anything else underlying that because of that population. This is what I was looking at for you. About within one year, ten to ten to fifteen percent could develop actual dementia. Mhmm. And there's a whole subset of dementia that doesn't mean Alzheimer type.
• 26:33
  So if you're talking about cognitive decline, the idea I think that you're looking for is capturing these people who are sort of making small mistakes
• 26:43
  Melissa Shere Beek: Got it.
• 26:43
  Dr. Perri Young: To pick up who of those people might actually be developing Okay. Something that we're And and usually, the first thing that I hear when and I'm sure Jamie can really talk about this, because there's a big distinction of, like, attention and focus, ability to recall, and this occurs Concentrating. In our younger population, they're very aware of this. Because everyone has ADHD, and everyone is worried that they might have ADHD, and they're being told that they do, and there's a reason they could. Right.
• 27:15
  But when you're 50, if you haven't found yourself already knowing that was sort of an issue, you mentioned and I want and I want Jamie to explain what executive function really is. Right. But I feel like you would start to ask these people questions about, are you really remembering this, or are you too distracted to remember it? And this also, I believe, lays into anxiety because people who have anxiety have inability to organize their thinking.
• 27:43
  Melissa Shere Beek: Got
• 27:43
  Dr. Perri Young: it. So from from really a therapy or Jami's standpoint, and she could talk about what executive function is. Because I think that you lose executive function as you get older in general. Right. I mean, most people don't decline into not being able to care for themselves in their own house until later stages.
• 28:01
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
• 28:02
  Dr. Perri Young: I think you're looking at little nuances that Jami could say this is a concern, or this is poor executive function at different ages. Right, Jamie? Or
• 28:10
  Jami Young, LCSW: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I can pick up right there, basically. So I mean, did you say before when you think of executive function?
• 28:19
  Think, oh, recall. That's what it was. Okay.
• 28:21
  Dr. Perri Young: Oh, yeah. Like yeah. Recall. Right. Exactly.
• 28:25
  Was Jami able to exercise her ability to say, where was I in that conversation? Right. And recognize she didn't know where it was, and she was gonna go back to it.
• 28:35
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right. Got it.
• 28:35
  Dr. Perri Young: To get it back. To retain right.
• 28:37
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yay, you.
• 28:38
  Dr. Perri Young: No. But Jami, to retain it. Yeah. To remember you did retain it and try to retrieve it.
• 28:43
  Jami Young, LCSW: And she did. Right. Which is which is one aspect. So here, I just pulled it up. Look, I mean, everybody else can see, but I have, like, a cute little thing.
• 28:49
  So I just have it here, like, I'm I'm, you know, on my phone. So, it's different mental processes for planning, organization, and self regulation. So I like to say that it's different aspects of using your brain to help you basically complete tasks. Meaning, like, have to think about the task, you have to organize the task, you have to do the task. Right?
• 29:11
  So like, everything that encompasses that process. So that includes planning, organization, like I said, self regulation.
• 29:19
  Melissa Shere Beek: Mhmm.
• 29:20
  Jami Young, LCSW: And that's reflected in where is the success. Is it in behavioral success? Is it in academic success? Is it in life success, which obviously is gonna pertain to our different age Right? Like, so what does that mean at 20?
• 29:34
  What does that mean at 40? What does that mean at 60? What does that mean at 80? 80. Yeah.
• 29:38
  Right? Different things with yes, with different expectations as well. I wanted to say something about the the factors of aging. One of the things that people come to me a lot, like so so so Perri’s talking about the, you know, physical and medical aspects of aging. But, another big one is on the outside, the effects of aging.
• 30:04
  Right? Right. Like, our skin changes, our hair changes. Right? Our weight may go up, may go right?
• 30:10
  Melissa Shere Beek: Mhmm.
• 30:10
  Jami Young, LCSW: Go down. Like, our bodies
• 30:12
  Melissa Shere Beek: start to look different. Whole set of questions of that coming up.
• 30:15
  Jami Young, LCSW: And Oops.
• 30:16
  Melissa Shere Beek: Can you hear me?
• 30:17
  Jami Young, LCSW: Yes. Okay. Now I can. And so that is something, and of course, menopause.
• 30:24
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. We're getting there too.
• 30:26
  Jami Young, LCSW: When with when someone will reach out to me when they are really struggling Mhmm. With those changes. Okay. That's pretty common.
• 30:35
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay. Per, as a primary care physician, can you speak to your role in maintaining overall health and what your patients are experiencing as they age? Like Sure. You already discussed slower metabolism, muscle loss, bone density, those kind of things, but can you break down normal aging for someone who's 50?
• 31:00
  Dr. Perri Young: I think that at every stage, the way I look at there there is definitely a chronology or an associated not just to look at aging, because I think I have to talk from speak about younger. Right. At every age, when you take your kids to the pediatrician or anyone who's ever they they have called participatory guidance. Mhmm. Right?
• 31:19
  These are the this is telling you about what is coming up in your next little while. Should you cover the outlets? Yeah. Nine months, you better start Yeah. You but they don't tell you at twelve months when the baby's walking.
• 31:30
  They tell you before that to let you know. So in in adult care, there's the same kind of reality. Like, when I speak to someone, a woman who is in her twenties, we might talk about, you know, not just her current relationship, but potential for fertility or Freezing the rate that's right. That's something that Free egg freezing. So so there's something that we have to talk about, not just her anxiety or her school or work, or but we talk about physically
• 32:01
  Melissa Shere Beek: What's coming up?
• 32:02
  Dr. Perri Young: What is important at this age. And that that kind of leads in every, not necessarily decade, but every five years or so, because there's certain hallmarks of care that need to be implemented at each at each period. And I think it's really interesting because today, people have a lot more access with the Internet and AI to finding out what they should be looking for, and sometimes they're looking for it earlier. And I have to sort of bring them back and be like, you do not need to
• 32:30
  Melissa Shere Beek: worry about that right
• 32:32
  Dr. Perri Young: You don't have to worry about your cholesterol, or you don't have to we're not worried about this number. Let's focus on what's important in these next three to five years. And so I think as we get older, what patients will mostly complain of, like the woman that did come in, she wasn't really complaining. She was just noticing her daughter noticed a difference. And I think the key pivotal thing of that is when you're older, you definitely start to have, as Jamie said, hair thinning, skin changes, visual changes, and just in general, maybe your stamina is not exactly the same.
• 33:06
  Like, you could be in excellent physical shape and have great stamina, but you do notice that from three to four to five to seven years earlier, wow, you were really lifting great weights, but now it's just so tiring, and you don't have any energy. So people will worry about that. I feel that they're worried that that is a sign of something worse Of declining. More than not even declining, just is that acceptable, or do I have something wrong with my heart? What am I not doing?
• 33:32
  Yeah.
• 33:32
  Melissa Shere Beek: I was gonna ask you that. Like, what are the risk factors that we should know about our immune system, our heart health Right. Of bone density.
• 33:39
  Dr. Perri Young: Gets worse when you're older too. Your bone density is worse. I mean, you could it could be depressing. We could soon also be seeing Jami. But but but in a sense, it's more like, how do I maximize?
• 33:51
  Yeah. I mean, I feel like people are so focused on aging and longevity, but I feel like, how do you maximize
• 33:56
  Melissa Shere Beek: But I wanna also talk about prevention. Like, how do we stay healthy? What should we be doing to take care of our bodies to prevent
• 34:05
  Dr. Perri Young: Three things, honestly, that you need to stay healthy are not cigarette no cigarette smoking. Mhmm. Minimal to no alcohol consumption. Mhmm. That is the number one adverse thing for the brain at at any age.
• 34:19
  So any young person who is drinking if someone said to me, what do you tell a 20 or 30 year old? Or stop alcohol. That is the number one thing that's gonna shorten your lifespan. And leads obviously, at the early stage, leads to accidents.
• 34:31
  Jami Young, LCSW: Just sets you up.
• 34:32
  Dr. Perri Young: Right. Just it's not good.
• 34:34
  Jami Young, LCSW: Right.
• 34:34
  Dr. Perri Young: So so but I think that in terms of staying healthy, I think the cardinal things still apply. Because drink. Every study and moderation. Move
• 34:44
  Jami Young, LCSW: your body. Like
• 34:45
  Dr. Perri Young: your body.
• 34:46
  Jami Young, LCSW: Exercise interaction.
• 34:47
  Melissa Shere Beek: Social interaction. Yeah.
• 34:49
  Jami Young, LCSW: Sleep regular hours at Right.
• 34:52
  Dr. Perri Young: Eat a Mediterranean based diet Right. A low salt diet. I mean, keep your muscle mass up. Use your brain in a productive way Mhmm. And a rewarding way, which is I think what so how does someone stay present?
• 35:06
  And I feel like Jamie one thing I really like I mean, this is not just because she's my sister-in-law, but because when I hear what Jamie has told clients Mhmm. I feel like, oh my god. That's brilliant. Now maybe it's not so brilliant, Jamie, but it is so You
• 35:19
  Melissa Shere Beek: on that's brilliant.
• 35:21
  Dr. Perri Young: Though some some therapists really can connect and hone in on what the the pivotal and crux of the matter is. Mhmm. And Jami, I feel more so than I, because I'm not Jamie's very direct about that. Yes. But I feel you are.
• 35:37
  Right, Jami? Yes. Sometimes to a point where a client has to accept that.
• 35:41
  Melissa Shere Beek: And but I appreciate that.
• 35:43
  Dr. Perri Young: I think it's fabulous. The key message would be to most people exactly what Jami’s saying. If you wanna now everyone says, well, how do I redo? The one factor we don't know about is stress. Where does stress Mhmm.
• 35:55
  Melissa Shere Beek: External stress and external stress
• 35:57
  Dr. Perri Young: really makes everything complicated and does age people. So so the point is having whether it is a Jamie in your life, or it is the outlet that you can confine, and you always have mentioned dance as your one of
• 36:11
  Melissa Shere Beek: your Yeah. And
• 36:12
  Dr. Perri Young: your art and your Yes.
• 36:14
  Melissa Shere Beek: Reading Puzzles and my bullets and
• 36:16
  Dr. Perri Young: That's right.
• 36:17
  Jami Young, LCSW: Right. So it's your care and keeping of you, it's your what is your self care?
• 36:21
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right. It's an individual thing because I
• 36:23
  Jami Young, LCSW: am not going to your doctor's appointments.
• 36:25
  Melissa Shere Beek: You are my people I socially use. But it's But self care.
• 36:28
  Jami Young, LCSW: It's one of the things that you that each of us does that, like Benefits ourselves that
• 36:34
  Melissa Shere Beek: we enjoy Right. That we take.
• 36:35
  Jami Young, LCSW: When to use them. Right? See, stress itself is actually not necessarily a problem. It's not always a problem. I talk about this all the time.
• 36:44
  This is how we manage stress management skills. Exactly. And what I tell everybody Some
• 36:48
  Dr. Perri Young: stress is adaptive, and it actually is Correct. Deadline could motivate you. Right? It's when you when you when you
• 36:54
  Melissa Shere Beek: have of it's a learning experience. Because sometimes you get thrown into a lot of things, and you're just sort of treading water, but then you learn to manage better and function better. Percent. Be more resilient.
• 37:04
  Jami Young, LCSW: So A 100%. So I how you address it. That stress management is not stress reduction. Right. You don't necessarily need to be less stressed.
• 37:12
  Like, obviously, there are many people
• 37:14
  Melissa Shere Beek: that need
• 37:14
  Jami Young, LCSW: to be less stressed.
• 37:15
  Dr. Perri Young: Right.
• 37:15
  Jami Young, LCSW: But the point of stress management is learning how to manage the stress you do have. Right. What makes you feel better? What helps? What do you need?
• 37:24
  How do you help yourself? Right. How do you ask for help? Right. Right?
• 37:29
  Whether it's then a looking for me, whether it's then talking to your friend, what is it you need? Whether it's, like, retreating for a few days. Those are the Retards
• 37:36
  Melissa Shere Beek: are being your own best advocate too. Absolutely. Because I think you need to know yourself and your norm norms and what works for And
• 37:44
  Dr. Perri Young: then make some boundaries that aren't harsh or
• 37:47
  Jami Young, LCSW: cold, right?
• 37:48
  Dr. Perri Young: That give you No.
• 37:49
  Melissa Shere Beek: Thank to you. Heal sentence.
• 37:51
  Dr. Perri Young: Right? That's right.
• 37:51
  Jami Young, LCSW: Right. But these are the things that then people are coming to me because they're struggling with exactly that. They can't Right. They can't identify that in so many words. Right.
• 38:01
  But that's exactly the stuff that then I'm we're working on.
• 38:05
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay. So when should we when should we hear alarm bells? If something's happening and it's not normal stress and it's not normal aging, when do we get concerned with our heart or our brain or, like, what's something that we say, oh, we need to go see a doctor immediately, like, ASAP? What's a warning sign?
• 38:29
  Dr. Perri Young: I mean, for me, clinically, the warning signs are they're like the danger situation, and then everything else is pretty pretty manageable. But the danger situation would be like a mass in your breast. Right. I mean, I know this is, like, bla like, obvious.
• 38:47
  Melissa Shere Beek: So what diagnostics? Like, what blood tests? What what should we do for ourselves annually? What sort of physical and cognitive exams should we be having?
• 38:56
  Dr. Perri Young: Pretty straightforward. I mean, really just a blood you need a blood pressure check. You need to have your labs done. You know, routine labs. You do not need 900 blood tests.
• 39:07
  You need about five. Mhmm. You need a blood count that tells your hemoglobin your and your white blood cell count. Mhmm. You need chemistry, which includes your your liver and kidney function probably gives you enough information.
• 39:21
  Generally, a thyroid
• 39:21
  Melissa Shere Beek: screen But every couple of
• 39:23
  Jami Young, LCSW: I
• 39:23
  Dr. Perri Young: mean, people who have real thyroid disease, this isn't like a subtle finding, peep people come in and ask me, oh, it must be my thyroid. I mean, generally speaking, people that are sick from thyroid, it pretty much
• 39:36
  Jami Young, LCSW: shows up.
• 39:36
  Melissa Shere Beek: You're not functioning. Right. It's not found out Yeah. You're you're not functioning. That controls everything.
• 39:42
  Dr. Perri Young: Obviously, you need cholesterol checked Mhmm. Because there are familial high cholesterol levels, which are dangerous and can be lethal at a young age.
• 39:51
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right. For your heart.
• 39:52
  Dr. Perri Young: Once that's established
• 39:54
  Melissa Shere Beek: Mhmm.
• 39:55
  Dr. Perri Young: Then you'll know how to follow that Either they have that or they don't have that, and then we can determine when treatment is appropriate.
• 40:01
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 40:02
  Dr. Perri Young: And then Mammograms? Mammograms really at age 40. I mean, I think you can go overboard with the amount of care that we're seeing currently, but I guess the end game of is prevention or at least early detection. Right. Key.
• 40:19
  And then from there, obviously, colon cancer is something we can screen for. Cervical cancer, we can screen for. Most of these things I'm losing.
• 40:29
  Melissa Shere Beek: Sorry. I can hear you now. Sorry. Yeah.
• 40:31
  Dr. Perri Young: Most of these things, we have established guidelines for. Mhmm. We don't tend to do cardiovascular screenings until people are older, because that's a chronicity. But if you had risk factors like an early a sick a person that was sick early in your family, parents, you know, before 45 or 55, someone who had an early stroke. So I think those things are a
• 40:54
  Melissa Shere Beek: little more quickly assessed. So it's good to know your genealogy as well, because what happens if a person has breast cancer or test positive for BRCA or has colon rectal? Should their children be seen when? Ten years younger than the
• 41:12
  Dr. Perri Young: age of baby? That's changing depending on what the that's a kind of if you had certain genes because of the prevalence of those genes and the likelihood of developing cancer, then that would be quite a bit earlier.
• 41:25
  Melissa Shere Beek: Mhmm.
• 41:25
  Dr. Perri Young: If you have there's a lot of genetic testing out there that reflects a value called a variant of unknown significance, because we don't know the impact of that gene, and those people would probably have less frequent screenings. So but almost everyone with BRCA genes or something called Lynch syndrome, which is a colon and breast cancer syndrome, they tend not to be screened till about really 35. So it's not as young as we think.
• 41:54
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 41:55
  Dr. Perri Young: We're only really supposed to pick up these things around twenty five or ten years before that family member was diagnosed.
• 42:01
  Jami Young, LCSW: Got it.
• 42:02
  Dr. Perri Young: So we have a lot of things, you know, that are on the forefront of how we're gonna do good screening, but most of our screening's been pretty pretty well established. You mentioned something about warning signs, and I was gonna get back to that.
• 42:15
  Melissa Shere Beek: Because for
• 42:16
  Dr. Perri Young: me, a warning sign is something that is an imminent danger to the person.
• 42:21
  Melissa Shere Beek: That's
• 42:21
  Dr. Perri Young: right. And I think that is the same as for Jami, because she'll have warning signs too. Yeah. Where we're definitely worried this person is gonna need a hospital soon or some you kind of know, they're in danger physically. So for me, that would be someone that's having a progressive chest discomfort, shortness of breath.
• 42:40
  We call this word diaphoresis. It's a technical term for cold sweats. Mhmm. And someone who has notably had to stop their exercise. Someone that goes from functioning pretty well to all of a sudden, they Mhmm.
• 42:55
  Can't do the same thing that person, I'm sending to the hospital. Someone who has, we call it a a thunderclap or a lightning thunderclap headache, spike headache in the back of their head, they are going So there's certain things that I am, like, immediately, like, I can't see you for that. Fevers over 102 for five days. I mean, there's those are warning symptoms. Right.
• 43:19
  But it depends what it could be something very treatable Mhmm. But needs to be Right. We're not waiting on it. Emergently. Right.
• 43:28
  Warning other warning signs, though, that are, like, more subtle, they they're very varied and would depend on the body system. But, I mean, one
• 43:38
  Melissa Shere Beek: thing I feel like women can ignore so much of what's going on with their bodies because they're paying attention to everybody else or dismissing it as aging. Well,
• 43:47
  Jami Young, LCSW: I think Too many things get normalized.
• 43:49
  Dr. Perri Young: Yeah. Think that people don't know they're not sure, then they get nervous about a symptom, and they focus on that. And that symptom may be not relevant to what the problem is, or they have others other people who just don't they're not really in tune with their body, and therefore, they they are denying. Oh my god. That's okay.
• 44:12
  It was
• 44:12
  Melissa Shere Beek: a good song.
• 44:13
  Jami Young, LCSW: That's my dad. Can I I'll say something
• 44:15
  Dr. Perri Young: about it?
• 44:16
  Jami Young, LCSW: Yeah. Go ahead. Just because Perri started to say that about not being in tune with your body. Right. And I mean, for me, I mean, there's other things that I could say to to answer some of this as well.
• 44:25
  But one of the number one things is, like, you know yourself the best. Right. If you feel that something is off, whether mentally, emotionally, physically. Right? Like just as you said, learning how to be your own advocate.
• 44:37
  If you feel like something is off, then you validate yourself
• 44:43
  Melissa Shere Beek: Mhmm.
• 44:44
  Jami Young, LCSW: To go and ask for help. Right. Right? Now, if you go to the doctor 10 times for the same thing, and that doctor says, this is not what it is, okay, that's a different story.
• 44:53
  Melissa Shere Beek: That's a different situation.
• 44:54
  Jami Young, LCSW: But that does require being in tune with yourself, with your own body. And, yes, many of us are busy, whether man, woman, whatever, whether you're aware of it, you're not aware of it. But we all start to notice Right. When something feels off. Right?
• 45:10
  Maybe the first time, maybe you brush it off second, third, but it starts.
• 45:13
  Melissa Shere Beek: It's loud enough. Yeah.
• 45:14
  Jami Young, LCSW: Right. And so that's when to, like I said, really be in tune with yourself
• 45:20
  Melissa Shere Beek: Mhmm.
• 45:20
  Jami Young, LCSW: And say, you know what? This I I just I don't think this is right. And obviously, like, when you're 20, you're not, you know, you right. Might know Different. But as you get older and you see your friends, your family, other people around you, maybe going through some of the same things Right.
• 45:36
  Then that awareness really starts to creep in.
• 45:39
  Melissa Shere Beek: So you talk about that, and you talk about different ages and things knowing your body. When you go through menopause, your body does a complete change. It's a new getting to know yourself. You're adjusting to the changes that are happening. What should we know about with menopause and how to deal with things physically and cognitively, emotionally?
• 46:00
  Jami Young, LCSW: Do you want me to go first? Sure.
• 46:02
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. Like, what's the effect of menopause on our mental and physical health?
• 46:06
  Jami Young, LCSW: Well, everybody's different. Right. You know? So some people don't feel much, you know? True.
• 46:12
  True. Other people feel some, Other people feel a lot. What what has been, you know, coming up in my practice with the people that I work with.
• 46:25
  Melissa Shere Beek: Is it normal for mental health issues to increase once someone goes through menopause?
• 46:29
  Jami Young, LCSW: For a lot of people, yes. I think there's a few reasons for that. I mean, the hormones definitely play a role. Right? Some of the other symptoms.
• 46:38
  Right? Like disrupted sleep, that's Right. Right now, do the hormones have something to do with that? Yes. But, obviously, if you're gonna have disrupted sleep, that is going to affect everything.
• 46:48
  Got it. So that's one of those scenarios where it's like, okay, well, what is going on here? We need to get everything checked out. Right. Check all the boxes and all the categories.
• 46:59
  Some people really struggle with all of that, whereas not everyone does. Right. For some women, the ways in which they have coped with things throughout their lives is suddenly looking different.
• 47:18
  Melissa Shere Beek: Different.
• 47:19
  Jami Young, LCSW: Yeah. Right? So if some of that executive functioning is changing, that can cause so much stress. So Right. So, yes, menopause may be like The catalyst.
• 47:33
  The catalyst. Mhmm. But it's what else is sort of there or underlying and Again, learning to manage. People to, like, talking about, not just in my practice, but in others, for a lot of women with ADHD, how difficult menopause is. It may have been well managed medication, non medication, whatever the case may be, but with all of the changes that that really exacerbates us.
• 47:59
  And then that's what the women are struggling with. And it doesn't look familiar, and it doesn't feel familiar, so then they're not sure how to help themselves with it. Got it.
• 48:10
  Dr. Perri Young: I also would speak to that that the problem is estrogen is a is a mediator in this It's a ligand here. Put that. No. It's it's a modifier or a mediator. It doesn't it's not the only thing.
• 48:26
  Estrogen and progesterone are not the only things that regulate everything that's going on, but they they they're there. Mhmm. And so, historically, what there was a time that we couldn't treat women with hormones. It was the studies were suggesting that that was really dangerous. And so women were using or most gynecologists were using an antidepressant to sort of treat women through menopause saying this would remit you know, remediate their hot flashes and so forth.
• 48:53
  And it's really interesting because
• 48:56
  Melissa Shere Beek: it science say about HRT now?
• 48:58
  Dr. Perri Young: I'll I'll get there.
• 48:59
  Melissa Shere Beek: So,
• 49:00
  Dr. Perri Young: essentially, they it's like, I remember everyone when I went into practice was put on Effexor. It's the venlafaxine. It's an antidepressant, and it does have something to do with your body's release of, I guess, your autonomic nervous system to cause you to sweat or not to sweat. Ironically, we also found it causes you to sweat, so I don't know how helpful that was. But where it did help women in menopause is it subdued some of their mood disturbance, and their anxiety, and their brain fog changes at that time.
• 49:32
  But they didn't stop sweating. And it didn't it there were other changes that happened that had nothing to do with the effects or medication. I mean, if their skin changed, their bone density, all these things changed, and that was from not having estrogen. At the same time, now that they've changed the guidelines a little bit, have softened them, and taken away some warnings that the large WHI, Women's Health Initiative study, which was done in the late nineties and to two thousand said, oh, this is very high risk of breast cancer in women 65 who've been treated with hormone replacement. Specifically estrogen, or estrogen and progesterone.
• 50:14
  So that study hasn't been entirely reversed, but it's been Modified. Modified to understand that we may have given higher dose hormones to people for longer, and maybe women who should have been screened better for the hormones. And now, it's really acceptable and good practice to give to use hormone replacement in women who are going through menopause, depending on
• 50:36
  Melissa Shere Beek: was gonna why say, who can and who cannot use it.
• 50:39
  Dr. Perri Young: More than that, depending on what they're complaining of. Right. Because to Jami’ point, if someone isn't real we don't have to medicate everyone who's went through menopause. But if someone is experiencing a very big change in what they sense in themselves Mhmm. Not just the hot flashes, but maybe their mood, and maybe their sleep, and all these different pieces, then this might be a good woman to use hormone replacement in
• 51:02
  Melissa Shere Beek: Got it.
• 51:02
  Dr. Perri Young: To maybe support her cognitive function, to give her some extra chance for her bone density, and maybe some sense of well-being that the that the hormones would give her.
• 51:12
  Jami Young, LCSW: And menopause also for many women is occurring when there's other life changes happening as well. Like, whether Kids moving out. Right. Graduating. Out.
• 51:20
  Right? Maybe it's the first one. Maybe it's the last one. Right? Even if you have four kids, but it's the last one leaving, that is a big change.
• 51:27
  And then on top of that, you're going through your own physical changes. Right. Right? That's a lot. So I see a lot of that as well.
• 51:34
  So again, the menopause is just one factor.
• 51:36
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right. I was gonna say menopause is one factor, and you said something about mood. And I'm thinking mood, okay, maybe with some menopause things, but also I think it you get to a certain point of life where you decide, I don't give an f anymore. I'm not gonna be a people pleaser. I'm not gonna tolerate this.
• 51:53
  And you sort of learn yourself and your boundaries. So it's not like a menopause mood, so to speak, but at a certain point, you just decide, yeah, I'm I'm no longer tolerating that.
• 52:04
  Jami Young, LCSW: Well, but that's the ability to regulate your own mood. Right. See, if you're cranky, you can be cranky. I might not like you, but you could be cranky. Right?
• 52:14
  But you can choose and help regulate yourself.
• 52:18
  Melissa Shere Beek: Myself. Whereas when we're talking
• 52:19
  Jami Young, LCSW: about mood and women that are suffering It's
• 52:22
  Melissa Shere Beek: not being controlled.
• 52:22
  Jami Young, LCSW: Right. They're really having trouble regulating themselves, and they're unhappy with it. Got it.
• 52:28
  Melissa Shere Beek: Is it another oh, sorry. Go ahead.
• 52:29
  Dr. Perri Young: No. I also find that when women if they're in their years when they had a period, let's say that, when they were were menstruating, if they had a lot of mood disturbance around their menstrual
• 52:42
  Jami Young, LCSW: cycle Oh, yeah. Yes.
• 52:44
  Dr. Perri Young: Then these women tend to be more susceptible or likely To mood extremes. The same Mhmm. Problems that are exacerbated when they lose the estrogen.
• 52:53
  Jami Young, LCSW: Got it.
• 52:53
  Dr. Perri Young: So I feel that women that weren't as somatic around their cycle, which entity. It's not it's not a made up one.
• 53:01
  Jami Young, LCSW: It's not
• 53:01
  Melissa Shere Beek: like the somatic have real.
• 53:03
  Dr. Perri Young: Very pronounced premenstrual syndrome or or even dysphoric disorder. And so when they're we're now taking away one of the driving factors for that and totally altering that, biochemically, they're missing part of how they manage things. Right. But what I also wanted to say about the about this, you know, in general with menopause is just that estrogen doesn't cure everything. Right.
• 53:27
  Progesterone doesn't cure everything, because we'll put people on this, women on this, and some of their symptoms are remediated, but some still remain. I don't know. It's hard to say
• 53:39
  Melissa Shere Beek: You can cover all.
• 53:40
  Dr. Perri Young: Yeah. It's not a it's not a Band Aid for everything. It's it's definitely a good mitigator of some of the symptoms. Right. And maybe many women, the idea would be just to make them feel a little more comfortable in their own skin In their
• 53:53
  Melissa Shere Beek: own skin.
• 53:54
  Dr. Perri Young: During that time, and then at that point in time, reassess. Got Because maybe the critical life changes that when a time temporally matched, sorry, matched up with menopause Pass. Are passing. Yeah. But yeah.
• 54:07
  I mean, it pretty much does suck to feel aggravated, hot, sweaty, and then, like, your kid is leaving the house. I mean, I really empathize with that. Or whatever. Or you have a teenager who just wanna tell them to shut up. Oh god.
• 54:19
  They're mean, and they don't care about you, and no one has your back.
• 54:22
  Melissa Shere Beek: They need they need to go have their own handbook.
• 54:24
  Dr. Perri Young: Well, I just I feel like as a woman in general, when I listen to what women do, I mean, sorry to the men everywhere, but, like, when I listen to,
• 54:30
  Melissa Shere Beek: like No. No. Sorry.
• 54:31
  Dr. Perri Young: Have to go through, and what they have to face Yeah. And and what's on their plate, and
• 54:37
  Melissa Shere Beek: We juggle a lot more.
• 54:38
  Dr. Perri Young: And and how they perceive it, because they're so invested, and many women do have a family or a significant other or a sick parent, or maybe
• 54:47
  Melissa Shere Beek: in A tough this work step and their own life. And they're still trying to produce Balance and everything.
• 54:52
  Jami Young, LCSW: So I are caregiving for older parents too.
• 54:55
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. Well, it's that in betweeners. Mhmm. You have you're raising children, and you're taking care of the your elder parents.
• 55:00
  Dr. Perri Young: Some don't even have children, and they have so much on their plate anyway, and they're just trying to survive. Right. So, you know, it's funny. Remember this terrible not terrible. I shouldn't say that.
• 55:09
  But strangers this what is it? Stranger Among Us? What was the movie with Melanie Griffith? Oh my god. Yeah.
• 55:14
  I loved that movie for some weird reason that she was like Stranger Among remember the women god counts the tears of women. And it was a very meaningful thing because I always just it is in Kabbalah, and I read it after. It was true. But it was it's something very important to say, like, a woman may have to sustain so many things in her life Right. In a different way than a man does.
• 55:37
  So I feel like no wonder menopause is, like, annoying
• 55:42
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah.
• 55:42
  Dr. Perri Young: And unfair. That's what I'll say. And unfair because you're just trying to get you finally
• 55:47
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right. You reached the point.
• 55:48
  Dr. Perri Young: Know yourself. Mhmm. And then your body just turns on you.
• 55:51
  Jami Young, LCSW: Right. That's
• 55:52
  Dr. Perri Young: it. And I say that having had menopause, like, long time ago, and I was not given hormones because of the timing, but I do understand that it did change me. Right. So, I'm just too late to get
• 56:03
  Melissa Shere Beek: it now. There's another thing with menopause. It's a huge, huge topic always, but now there's treatments, weight gain. And I know so many people are talking about, you know, Ozempic or other treatments. Can you speak to that?
• 56:23
  Dr. Perri Young: Yeah. I'll just be super brief on that, because it's one thing. Menopause, there is weight gain associated with menopause. There's something called in as we get older, there's a loss of muscle mass. Mhmm.
• 56:34
  This is the the big difference, and that's a natural part of our aging going back to that. And so in menopause, it's a time in women's metabolism
• 56:44
  Jami Young, LCSW: Mhmm.
• 56:44
  Dr. Perri Young: Where they have a much bigger change or drop off of their muscle mass. Mhmm. So for some reason, that's like a pivotal point. It's actually a pivotal point where we see increased heart disease, we see increased medical problems after menopause. So probably, estrogen did mitigate it didn't necessarily protect, but may have may have had a little boundary against some disease processes that tend to affect men earlier.
• 57:08
  Even you know, so with that being said, weight gain and menopause is very common because it's a big stoppage Right. In our balance of muscle mass to fat to adipose tissue. So these medications, the
• 57:22
  Melissa Shere Beek: GLP-one Uh-huh.
• 57:23
  Dr. Perri Young: They are really kinda miraculous in a sense in their ability to target our adipose tissue and the way our bodies process adipose tissue. So in menopause, they're very beneficial because this is our many women's big change in their fat to muscle mass. And so this is the one thing because estrogen is not a weight loss medicine. If you go on estrogen, it may be chronology, we don't really understand, but even on hormone replacement, women will still put on weight. So Are GLP ones safe?
• 57:56
  GLP ones are gonna be probably the standard of care for weight loss in general, and they're just, you know, coming out with more options. But, yeah, there's a there's some caveats to that. One is that there is a we found a dangerous one, which is a visual loss that happens on people in semaglutide, which is Ozempic or Wegovy. And they think it can also happen with Mounjaro, which is tirzepatide or What happens? Vision loss?
• 58:26
  There's an actual, like, retinal vein, basically, of an artery or venous occlusion that happens. It's very rare, but it can happen. So you can lose vision from it. So it's a question really for people who are it's very rare, but it's for people who have eye issues to begin with macular degeneration or perhaps had high blood pressure and have some retinal some arterial changes in the eye. So it's something I always ask patients before starting.
• 58:53
  Melissa Shere Beek: What if they don't even know?
• 58:55
  Dr. Perri Young: Well, that's it's an idiosyncratic problem. I mean, it's a gamble.
• 58:58
  Jami Young, LCSW: Specific one too.
• 58:59
  Dr. Perri Young: Right? Yeah. The biggest issue with them is probably gastrointestinal, because obviously, there's a slowing down of the GI tract, which is the intent of the drug to slow down your absorptive process, but that tends to lead to a lot of gastric problems. It's led to gallbladder problems. I mean, there's a rare case of pancreatitis, but these are these are not common.
• 59:20
  I think the the the issues would be gastro gastrointestinal, and probably psycho emotional, which is some sort of dependence on the drug to know that you have this, I can lose more weight if I need to lose more weight. Right. So it can create a little bit of a cycle in people, and I've seen this with Dependency and an excessive amount of weight, or too much weight, and they're now underweight, and they're afraid to give up the drug. Right. It's their crutch.
• 59:46
  Well, it's really their crutch. Oh. It's not really their crutch. I would say it's an obsessive it's in a form of an eating disorder. Yes.
• 59:57
  It's disordered eating where
• 59:58
  Melissa Shere Beek: they can't face. Dysmorphia thing. Yes.
• 1:00:01
  Jami Young, LCSW: Got it.
• 1:00:02
  Dr. Perri Young: So they will go down to a very an underweight weight from and maybe these are people that were so if someone is overweight I'm
• 1:00:09
  Jami Young, LCSW: pretty desperate. Right. Gonna do that anyway.
• 1:00:11
  Dr. Perri Young: So that someone someone who's overweight, probably it's much harder for them to get to that weight. But someone who might be like, minimally overweight, then perhaps they would be an underweight level, and then they're afraid to even go back to the middle ground. Got it. And what about heart? How does it affect the hearts?
• 1:00:30
  Current data is out on that. There's a one study that showed that con congestive heart failure patients that were obese. So this is specific. Right. It's not for everyone.
• 1:00:42
  Right. Obese patients who had congestive heart failure had fewer hospitalizations after losing the weight from these drugs. That's the study. There's some drug studies on Alzheimer's with the oral medications that didn't really prevent Alzheimer's. So there's it's sort of we don't know yet, but I think in general, if you get rid of overweight, you reduce your risk of diabetes.
• 1:01:07
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right. Cancer.
• 1:01:08
  Dr. Perri Young: Diabetes. Cancer. I mean, fat is a grow you know, leads to cancer. Mhmm. I mean, everything is gonna be beneficial from from reduced weight.
• 1:01:17
  So in staying healthy then, what's your thoughts on vitamins or supplements or diets? Are there fads? Like, with fasting or I mean, I'm pretty conservative on my on my recommendations as a physician. I feel the only things I really recommend are vitamin d, vitamin c occasionally. I mean, you can take it.
• 1:01:41
  B twelve, iron if you're deficient.
• 1:01:44
  Melissa Shere Beek: So like a basic vitamin supplement is sufficient. Yeah.
• 1:01:47
  Dr. Perri Young: I'm not really I'm not really big into vitamins to a level where I feel like people should be compulsively taking them.
• 1:01:54
  Melissa Shere Beek: Mhmm.
• 1:01:55
  Dr. Perri Young: I usually base my that on discretion with each patient.
• 1:01:58
  Melissa Shere Beek: Got
• 1:01:58
  Dr. Perri Young: it. But d is probably the one thing it's that is beneficial for bone health as we get
• 1:02:03
  Jami Young, LCSW: older. Okay.
• 1:02:04
  Dr. Perri Young: I think that's I think I made like a note. I was looking for that. But that's about it.
• 1:02:08
  Melissa Shere Beek: What do you wish your patients would start doing earlier in life to stay healthy mentally, physically, and emotionally? Both of you.
• 1:02:18
  Jami Young, LCSW: Socializing. Okay. Too many don't.
• 1:02:24
  Dr. Perri Young: True. Probably reduction in the phone use, obviously, isn't the no brainer of this decade.
• 1:02:30
  Jami Young, LCSW: Correlates. Yes.
• 1:02:33
  Dr. Perri Young: Reduced alcohol consumption. Mhmm. Trying to set some sort of social I mean, if they're young enough, some social interaction that that's not around alcohol or their phones. Right. That would be my thing that's probably the most
• 1:02:48
  Melissa Shere Beek: Let's all go out and craft together. Yeah. Well, just actually No.
• 1:02:51
  Dr. Perri Young: I'm not
• 1:02:52
  Melissa Shere Beek: kidding. I
• 1:02:52
  Dr. Perri Young: love it. Those things are like engaging and interactive. Like,
• 1:02:56
  Jami Young, LCSW: do your board games. Yeah. And like
• 1:02:58
  Dr. Perri Young: Yeah. And I think I think the same
• 1:03:01
  Melissa Shere Beek: thing we went back to before, exercising, that's a social thing. Right.
• 1:03:05
  Jami Young, LCSW: Move your right.
• 1:03:05
  Melissa Shere Beek: Doing your puzzles, reading your
• 1:03:07
  Dr. Perri Young: books. I personally and professionally think that every person should have a therapist. This is not touting Jamie's career, but
• 1:03:15
  Melissa Shere Beek: Go Jamie.
• 1:03:16
  Dr. Perri Young: I think that if everyone I had I was very fortunate, and I'll shout her out, doctor Nancy Kirsner. She has been my therapist since I was 19, and she's gifted, and it really changed my whole perspective on how to deal with other people and myself. Amazing. And I'm very grateful for that. She's helped a lot of friends and family and people I've even, you know, just I've been actually very selective on who I send her because, like, I'm giving you the best.
• 1:03:48
  Melissa Shere Beek: But It's secret prize.
• 1:03:50
  Dr. Perri Young: Yes. It is. And she I think it's very it's so wonderful to know that you have someone who could advocate for you and does care about you.
• 1:03:59
  Melissa Shere Beek: It's critical.
• 1:04:00
  Jami Young, LCSW: Someone who's objective. But also a really good way to be accountable too.
• 1:04:04
  Dr. Perri Young: Right. And someone who's skilled. Yes. Because one of the things is people poll their friends and poll their, you know, what should I do about this? But I'll tell you Right.
• 1:04:14
  They don't really know. No. And
• 1:04:16
  Jami Young, LCSW: so They can go their someone, side as a way.
• 1:04:20
  Melissa Shere Beek: Both of you, someone who's skilled, who's an outside objective person who holds you accountable.
• 1:04:24
  Dr. Perri Young: Yeah. Just such a great thing. Yeah. It's a real gift. It's a gift.
• 1:04:29
  It's a gift. And I think that everyone needs to get sleep.
• 1:04:33
  Jami Young, LCSW: Yep. Yeah.
• 1:04:33
  Dr. Perri Young: That is to me Healthy sleep. Healthy sleep.
• 1:04:36
  Jami Young, LCSW: Right. Which for some people can be six hours a night. I mean, it doesn't have to be, you know, eight to nine hours. But I'm saying, like, some, know, but I need a good eight. Some but some people, know, can really get less.
• 1:04:50
  Yeah. But it's the But quality
• 1:04:51
  Dr. Perri Young: notably, all those things lead into the same thing.
• 1:04:53
  Jami Young, LCSW: A 100%.
• 1:04:54
  Dr. Perri Young: Because, like, if you're exercising, you're gonna probably sleep better.
• 1:04:58
  Jami Young, LCSW: Mhmm.
• 1:04:58
  Dr. Perri Young: If you're clearing your head of your stress, you're probably gonna sleep better. You're eating well If you're eating well, you're you're gonna not have GI problems. Right. Okay? If you go if if you go to bed and wake up in the middle of the night, but then you go and you're tired the next day, then you're gonna think you're sick.
• 1:05:14
  Melissa Shere Beek: Right. I mean, it just keeps They all go hand in hand.
• 1:05:16
  Dr. Perri Young: Yes. It just it's a snowball effect. So I feel that that's and then I do think I mean, last, obviously, know, because there's a lot of we didn't discuss a big piece of everything in Jamie's practice, which is family dynamics.
• 1:05:29
  Melissa Shere Beek: Oh.
• 1:05:30
  Dr. Perri Young: And family dynamics really can alter in a positive or a negative way your whole existence, because that's really and that's, like, starts in your nuclear family and beyond that. But if you have those other things and maybe learning about how to deal with that and accept your family dynamics, however they are Mhmm. Because they're all different.
• 1:05:51
  Melissa Shere Beek: Or have no expectations. Well From them.
• 1:05:54
  Dr. Perri Young: I don't know if you don't want no expectation. I don't think Jamie would agree No. That. I think it would be adjusting your expectations.
• 1:06:01
  Melissa Shere Beek: What he's saying? Right. Oh, adjusting. Okay.
• 1:06:03
  Jami Young, LCSW: Yeah. And and Or only when a realistic expectation Yeah. Realistic expectations.
• 1:06:08
  Dr. Perri Young: Maybe there's some people with none. But I think that would be that's I feel like you build these things from the center out. Yeah. And, you know, and I think that that's a very big part of in your personal growth. Mhmm.
• 1:06:25
  So when you get to a certain place, and that's why menopause sucks, because it happens when you're finally learning how
• 1:06:29
  Melissa Shere Beek: it lives and who you are. Menopause sucks.
• 1:06:31
  Dr. Perri Young: Then they then they make you gain 10 pounds, and your hair falls out. And you're sweating all night, and you can't sleep anyway just when you thought you knew what was good. And you were liking your husband and having good sex, and now you can't. But other than that, I won't
• 1:06:44
  Melissa Shere Beek: talk about the past nine years.
• 1:06:46
  Dr. Perri Young: So funny. There's a workaround for that. So
• 1:06:49
  Melissa Shere Beek: Alright. So we talked about good healthy habits for aging. What's the biggest myth that we need to know about aging?
• 1:06:59
  Dr. Perri Young: That it makes you unhappy.
• 1:07:00
  Jami Young, LCSW: That it sucks. I was just gonna say
• 1:07:01
  Dr. Perri Young: that. Yeah.
• 1:07:02
  Jami Young, LCSW: That sucks. I think
• 1:07:03
  Dr. Perri Young: it doesn't
• 1:07:03
  Jami Young, LCSW: have that.
• 1:07:04
  Dr. Perri Young: I mean, I wish I had fuller hair, and I I think I might need to do my neck, and my skin on my legs is bad, but I feel like I know myself better
• 1:07:15
  Jami Young, LCSW: Yeah.
• 1:07:15
  Dr. Perri Young: Than I ever knew myself. Yeah. And I think that I mean, I'll try to do the behaviors to the best of my ability Right. To keep myself for longevity, and so I'm there for my kids, and I'm still a productive citizen in our community. Right.
• 1:07:31
  But, I mean, I really do feel that as you get older, you have that potential to really enjoy those things.
• 1:07:39
  Melissa Shere Beek: Oh, yeah.
• 1:07:40
  Dr. Perri Young: So I'm feeling glad about that.
• 1:07:43
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. I mean, look, I'm not the same that I was fifty years ago, but I wake up every morning with gratitude thinking, yay. And you're not the
• 1:07:51
  Jami Young, LCSW: same as you were ten
• 1:07:52
  Melissa Shere Beek: years Exactly. Or five. Yeah. Exactly. But I grateful that, I get to age.
• 1:07:57
  I think that's what I feel like when I'm okay. What's on the horizon? Cognitive physical health, AI, different therapeutics, new diagnostic testing, new therapeutic treatments. What's on the horizon?
• 1:08:11
  Jami Young, LCSW: You want me to answer that?
• 1:08:12
  Melissa Shere Beek: Sure. Yeah.
• 1:08:13
  Jami Young, LCSW: I want
• 1:08:13
  Melissa Shere Beek: both of you to answer.
• 1:08:15
  Jami Young, LCSW: Well, there's so with with with the age of the phone, social media, AI, there's there's a lot that is talked about now that didn't used to be.
• 1:08:27
  Dr. Perri Young: Mhmm.
• 1:08:27
  Jami Young, LCSW: And that has its advantages and disadvantages.
• 1:08:29
  Melissa Shere Beek: I was gonna say, do you think the information is a plus or a minus?
• 1:08:32
  Jami Young, LCSW: Both. Both.
• 1:08:35
  Dr. Perri Young: You mean, like, how every child thinks she has impostor syndrome and Right. Everyone has impostor syndrome. Everyone's a narcissist.
• 1:08:41
  Jami Young, LCSW: Day or the diagnosis
• 1:08:42
  Dr. Perri Young: of He's the a narcissist. They're narcissist. Exactly. Those are red flags. Right.
• 1:08:46
  Right. Exactly.
• 1:08:48
  Jami Young, LCSW: But I think, there's a lot of alternative therapies Mhmm. That are, getting more attention, and that's really cool.
• 1:08:59
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
• 1:08:59
  Jami Young, LCSW: It's really cool for people to know that there's different options out there, that there's something that maybe they haven't heard of, something that's not as mainstream, but it's not It may
• 1:09:10
  Melissa Shere Beek: work for them.
• 1:09:10
  Jami Young, LCSW: So off the beaten path that it's like, woah. I think that's really cool. I do think in general, you know, all of this information being much more at the forefront, I do think it's a good thing. I do think overall, it's healthier. It's better.
• 1:09:28
  There's still so many people that, you know, don't know about mental health, don't wanna talk about it, don't know how to deal Like, with there's still so many, but there's so many more that are much more open about it. So if you have a family of five, if one person is more informed, then Yeah. Knowledge is power. That's that's a huge difference.
• 1:09:46
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah.
• 1:09:47
  Dr. Perri Young: I feel that in that capacity, more so because WebMD definitely ruined my life for a while. But I feel that the Internet and our young people, although they have so much more anxiety, and it's continual, and it I don't know how that's gonna really change. But I do feel that their language is different than ours. Mhmm. They're more savvy.
• 1:10:10
  They're more inclined to recognize patterns and behavior, and they're more likely to I'd like to differ with Jonathan Hate on their anxiety Hate, however you say his name. But I feel that there's something about that that's very promising Mhmm. That they are able to access. I mean, the fact that they could understand AI and maybe utilize it Yeah. In a way that's productive Yeah.
• 1:10:35
  If they continue to engage socially, then that would be really amazing. That's critical, I think. Because I would I think I know quite a few people who should have known the term gaslighting in their life, and they didn't. And my kids know that term.
• 1:10:49
  Jami Young, LCSW: Right?
• 1:10:50
  Dr. Perri Young: So I feel like that's a a good advantage.
• 1:10:52
  Melissa Shere Beek: I think that generation of our children is so much more savvy than we were at that same age. Mhmm.
• 1:10:57
  Jami Young, LCSW: Definitely. I think
• 1:10:58
  Dr. Perri Young: they need to even out the some gender differences right now, because I do think that women are the young girls are much more they're much more adept at this, and and the probably the male gen the boys are they're they're not even further behind, but they're facing a lot more not necessarily demons online, but there's their access points are different. For the girls, there could be some really positive access points. Okay. For me, I could tell you quickly that the the newest thing for us is gonna be how AI shapes medical diagnosis. And probably will eliminate a lot of professions that are not needed.
• 1:11:34
  But I mean, you can plug a CAT scan into AI radiology, and just it will tell you exactly what's there. And I have to be honest, that's gonna be really good for early diagnosis. Right now, it's still making errors, but I mean, it's gonna really help because people are tired. You know, they're they're not looking carefully. They're missing things.
• 1:11:52
  So I feel like in that capacity, I think it's gonna help expand the way we take notes. You know, we went to electronic records, and then the doctor's sitting there and doing all this stuff online, and they can't even pay attention to the patient. Right. So with AI scribes Mhmm. We're not gonna need that.
• 1:12:06
  We're gonna have someone dictate it's gonna be all for you, and they're gonna give you the diagnosis, like, in your visit. Right. So it will be a little futurized eventually, but I think that's good. And I think that on the forefront also are some incredibly radical, great discoveries already have been in the fields of cancer. I mean, we've I watch Magic Johnson every day, and I mean, there's still good stuff happening out there.
• 1:12:30
  That man is alive. I know. Was 1992. He came out as being HIV positive. Yeah.
• 1:12:35
  Has changed the world. Right. I mean, looks amazing. HIV prep. There's there's so many things that are that are really great.
• 1:12:42
  I think that there's some alternative treatments, like Jamie mentioned, that are gonna be more accessible because people are asking for them. Right. I think that the idea that people can go not and this is a more socioeconomically restricted issue, but I think that people can go get scans of their you know, they can kind of circumvent bad medicine a little bit now, which is great. And I think that if what would be really nice, and I don't know when that will happen, but we do need to still, like, support some initiatives to to help people who are more underprivileged access care.
• 1:13:17
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yes.
• 1:13:18
  Dr. Perri Young: And that that's a political issue, but that's gonna be a problem, I think, for disease burden. And I think that the we have to really still promote vaccination.
• 1:13:27
  Melissa Shere Beek: Oh, a 100%.
• 1:13:28
  Dr. Perri Young: And a lot of the, I mean, that's that's become political, but it shouldn't be. But promote vaccination and certain healthful behaviors. I do agree that healthy eating is going to get us somewhere. Right. And I do agree that if we take pesticides out of things, we're gonna probably improve our quality of life and quality and quantity of life.
• 1:13:46
  But I still think that we need to practice some global health, you know, measures. Yeah. And they should be for prevention of disease at a global
• 1:13:57
  Melissa Shere Beek: It affects all of us. It is a global situation.
• 1:13:59
  Dr. Perri Young: But I mean, like, think about, like, the cancer paradigm since I've been in training. It is incredible to think that people are living with cancer for much much longer.
• 1:14:08
  Jami Young, LCSW: Mhmm.
• 1:14:09
  Dr. Perri Young: That's so hopeful, and that goes to a lot of diseases, heart disease. There's so many things that are people are just surviving today. Yeah. And they're surviving not incapacitated.
• 1:14:20
  Melissa Shere Beek: No. Mhmm. They're thriving.
• 1:14:21
  Dr. Perri Young: So Yeah. Those are some things that are good.
• 1:14:24
  Melissa Shere Beek: Oh, good. Oh, well, everyone is maturing, and each journey is unique. It's important not to compare yourself to anyone else. It's most important to be aware of your norms and know what works for you and to stay on top of your mental, physical, and emotional health with incredibly intelligent physicians and therapists like I've been fortunate enough to have in studio today. So the way I yes.
• 1:14:46
  Yay, you girls. Before we sign off, I like to do something with everyone. It's called quickie questions. You in? Sure.
• 1:14:54
  Okay. Good. Sure. How do you handle stress? Dance.
• 1:15:00
  That's I used to dance.
• 1:15:01
  Dr. Perri Young: That
• 1:15:01
  Jami Young, LCSW: doesn't Yeah. No. It's not not as much anymore. Walk. Right?
• 1:15:07
  It depends. It it depends what it is. Yeah. There's different ways, but I think
• 1:15:12
  Melissa Shere Beek: that dances your I think that's
• 1:15:14
  Jami Young, LCSW: the answer. That like, there's having options.
• 1:15:16
  Dr. Perri Young: Right. Surprisingly, I've taken on homemaking a little bit for me in my older age. It's interesting.
• 1:15:23
  Melissa Shere Beek: Your older age.
• 1:15:24
  Dr. Perri Young: But I I feel like I'm very I never did those things before, but I cook, and I like cleaning, and I like taking care of my house, and investing in my kids, and sort of projects Yeah. Like I never thought I would. It seems like home economics a little bit. I've completely regretted it. But it I happen to like doing those things.
• 1:15:44
  Melissa Shere Beek: I do. I love to sweep. Sweeping is just
• 1:15:46
  Dr. Perri Young: like I don't know. Just feel like I
• 1:15:48
  Jami Young, LCSW: do not like to sweep.
• 1:15:49
  Melissa Shere Beek: I'll come and sweep your
• 1:15:51
  Dr. Perri Young: house. I like to entertain I started liking to entertain and come up with creative ways to entertain, and that's that's a new
• 1:15:57
  Jami Young, LCSW: thing That's good one. Okay.
• 1:15:58
  Melissa Shere Beek: I like them both.
• 1:15:59
  Dr. Perri Young: But I definitely don't sleep as well as I used to, and it's not helping that. Oh, god.
• 1:16:02
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay. What experience changed your life?
• 1:16:08
  Dr. Perri Young: My husband's cancer. I mean, that was probably the most life changing thing for me.
• 1:16:15
  Jami Young, LCSW: I mean, I don't know. Moving here?
• 1:16:21
  Melissa Shere Beek: That's a big thing. That
• 1:16:23
  Jami Young, LCSW: would it's probably not the first answer I would think of, but Mhmm. Yeah. It's a big change. Yeah. Okay.
• 1:16:32
  Well, because I lived in two places. This would be the second, so
• 1:16:36
  Dr. Perri Young: Yeah. That's interesting, Jamie. Yeah. Right. It was it's like my mom says that.
• 1:16:41
  She always says that's the pit thing that changed her life Well, the
• 1:16:45
  Jami Young, LCSW: my pre I'll put it this way. I think it often and more so now as I am getting older, in my previous life. And my previous life
• 1:16:52
  Melissa Shere Beek: Was this before you got here?
• 1:16:53
  Dr. Perri Young: Yeah.
• 1:16:54
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. True. What skill do you wish you had?
• 1:17:03
  Jami Young, LCSW: I feel like I said it recently, but I can't recall. What I want, I wish I like sweeping.
• 1:17:11
  Dr. Perri Young: I'll come to your house. I wish could have my husband's judgment, his steady judgment.
• 1:17:16
  Melissa Shere Beek: Good one.
• 1:17:18
  Dr. Perri Young: I wish I was it's a very insight, it's like an incisor. It's just, like, exact. Right. But, I mean, a physical skill I don't have. I don't know.
• 1:17:28
  Melissa Shere Beek: Oh. That could be any kind of
• 1:17:30
  Dr. Perri Young: skill.
• 1:17:30
  Jami Young, LCSW: I mean, I definitely, at times, wish I was more patient.
• 1:17:33
  Melissa Shere Beek: Mhmm.
• 1:17:38
  Dr. Perri Young: That's funny. Okay. Give you as impatient. What do you not That's
• 1:17:42
  Jami Young, LCSW: my husband and my kids, and they might say different.
• 1:17:44
  Dr. Perri Young: You sense yourself now. That's an area maybe where you you
• 1:17:48
  Jami Young, LCSW: No. They could tell you where I could definitely be impatient. That's funny.
• 1:17:52
  Melissa Shere Beek: Okay. So that's a skill. Okay. What do you look forward to as you age?
• 1:18:00
  Dr. Perri Young: I don't know how much I look forward that much. I like look forward to, like, an occasional trip or something, but I'm not I don't think that far the future.
• 1:18:07
  Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:18:13
  Jami Young, LCSW: It's kind of funny to put this this way, but slowing down a little bit. Yeah. I mean, yeah. I find I don't have as much energy, and I don't mean that in a bad way. Right.
• 1:18:23
  Like, I don't exhaust myself anymore. Right. No. That's good. So I'm I'm happier not moving as fast Right.
• 1:18:33
  All the time. Right. And that's That's a good thing. That's nice. It's different, but it's nice.
• 1:18:39
  Melissa Shere Beek: Good. Well, thank you, guys. I'm so happy you were here today. Love and adore you both. Thank And so I'm so grateful that you were here, and I'm so happy we did this.
• 1:18:49
  I hope everybody out there listen and learn and call upon you too. Thank you. Aw. Thank you for having us.
• 1:18:58
  Dr. Perri Young: Jami, you're slowing down. So on. Track
• 1:19:00
  Jami Young, LCSW: more clients.
• 1:19:01
  Dr. Perri Young: As wanna you say, you might
• 1:19:02
  Melissa Shere Beek: get some more phone calls. You might Okay. You might, take a little bite into that slowing down. But thank you. I'm so grateful you guys were here and so appreciative, really.
• 1:19:11
  Meant a lot to me, and and I hope our listeners learned so much from this. And it's fabulous to have two incredible, intelligent, beautiful, dynamic women. Thank you And and to know that you're out there to help this whole population. Yeah.
• 1:19:24
  Dr. Perri Young: Thank you.
• 1:19:24
  Melissa Shere Beek: So yay. Thank you. Thank you. You. To our listeners, thank you so much.
• 1:19:29
  So grateful you're here. Keep listening. Keep learning. Keep laughing. Keep up with Beacon Being.
• 1:19:34
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• 1:19:47
  All podcasts are automatically transcribed. Big shout out and a huge thank you to Steven Chen at Penthouse Studios. Beek on Being was recorded at Penthouse Studios and is a proud member of the Penthouse Podcast Network.