Search for tag: "scott"

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Scot: It's a Sideshow episode of "Who Cares About Men's Health," and it's a very festive Sideshow episode. It's our Christmas episode where all three of us pick out three gifts each that you can give to somebody in your life that would help them be healthier. Not like the hardcore healthier, but the kind of health that we talk about on the show. So it might impact the core four or it might impact something else.

My name is Scot. I bring the BS to the "Who Cares About Men's Health Podcast." And to counter that, the MD to my BS is Dr. Troy Madsen.

Troy: I'm here and I've got my gifts with me. I'm so excited.

Scot: And Mitch Sears, Producer Mitch in the mix.

Mitch: I'm ready for today.

Scot: Who wants to start?

Troy: Oh, so much pressure. Who's it going to be?

Scot: All right, Troy. Why don't you go ahead and start since you've probably put more thought in this than the rest of us?

Troy: I've put a little bit of thought into this, but I have based my gifts on gifts that have been inspired by our guests this past year. So each gift relates to one of our guests.

So my first gift I'm going to give, Scot, is a wellness coach appointment. And we kind of said at the start we were going to try and keep these gifts under $40 each. So I looked at Peak Fitness through the University and you can get a 30-minute appointment with a wellness coach for $35. And that's as a member of the general public, not a university employee.

This is a tribute to listener Scott who set up an appointment with a dietician, but I think also was looking kind of for a wellness coach. So that would be my gift. You give this to someone and say, "Hey, it's free. I paid for it. Just do it. Just get whatever you can out of it." It's 30 minutes, and it might be something that helps point them a certain direction in terms of their general health and maybe gives them some ideas.

Mitch: Now, I actually did one of these a while ago. I think we mentioned it on a previous episode about Mitch's personal health journey, and they're great. I mean, in those 30 minutes . . . I ended up doing additional ones with this person, but they were able to take baselines, they were able to give me some directions on where to go, they were able to give me resources on types of workouts that might work best for me, numbers of dieticians to call, etc. And it was really nice. In that 30 minutes, I was able to get at least started in the right direction to improve my physical health and my nutrition. What a great idea.

Troy: That's cool.

Scot: Awesome gift.

Troy: Yeah, I remember you mentioning that now that you said that. That's cool that it wasn't just 30 minutes, like, "Okay, let's get some info." But they really gave you something to work with. So that would be my idea. You give that to someone, they can take out of it what they want, and hopefully come away with something useful.

Scot: One of the challenges can be just getting started or knowing what direction to get started in or getting some resources to get started, because it can be a little overwhelming at first, as we've learned when we've talked to our couple of listeners.

I'm not saying that they were overwhelmed, but I'm saying as we went through the thought process of what kind of advice to give, it's kind of a challenge if somebody has never really ever actively engaged in what they eat or actively engaged in types of exercises. So good call.

Troy: It's a starting point, yeah.

Scot: All right, Mitch. Gift number one from you.

Mitch: In the same vein, I was looking up online . . . One of the things that we talk about a lot is kind of this idea of getting social connections. It's good for your mental health, but I also wanted to mix in how do we make sure that we're doing nutrition and things.

A cooking class. I found some group rates on cooking classes that we can come in under that $50 range, get a couple people, and go learn how to cook something new. It doesn't have to be 100% the healthiest food ever, but just the practice of learning to cook.

I think about the series that we did this year with Theresa Dvorak, TD. And just those recipes that I learned how to do, I'm doing them. And so by getting out, by going and learning how to do another dish, what a great way to start cooking for yourself again.

Troy: Yeah, that's a great way. I was the person in this who had no idea what he was doing, and I think for someone who has maybe no experience with cooking, a cooking class would be intimidating, but I'd be like, "Hey, it's a gift. It's free. I'm not paying for it. I'm just going to go there and enjoy it and then probably walk away feeling more comfortable in the kitchen." So that's a great idea.

Mitch: Well, go with them. If they're nervous, get yourself a ticket too. The two of you can go and cook together.

Troy: Go together, yeah.

Scot: Yeah, that takes care of that emotional health because you're getting some good relationships in there, and then maybe you might learn some skills in the kitchen, what some of those confusing words mean in recipes, some knife skills, that sort of thing. So that's a great idea.

My first one is also about cooking, and it was inspired by our series with Theresa Dvorak, the healthy man meals that you can make in bulk that are easy. I thought maybe some sort of a healthy cookbook with quick and easy recipes.

So we learned that preparing good food not only can help your emotional health, but it helps your physical health as well. For me, it was kind of a meditative state almost when I was in the kitchen and it feels good to make food for somebody else.

And I know Troy's spouse was really excited, and so was mine in a way that I haven't really seen her excited about other things that I've done around the house. I mean, that was really gratifying from an emotional standpoint.

I just Googled "healthy cookbook quick and easy recipes," and started kind of going through some.

Now, if you're not sure what type of cookbook to get, maybe go back to our healthy man meals series, go through those, and you might be able to have a better idea of what to look for.

I found one called "Easy 5-Ingredient Healthy Cookbook: Simple Recipes to Make Healthy Eating Delicious." It looked like she had a spaghetti squash recipe like we made. It looked like she had some sort of a Thai Curry thing like we made. That's $19.

And I'm going to take it another step further. Maybe do what we do. Find a friend and then make them . . . Say, "On Saturdays, we're going to both make the recipes and then talk to each other and compare notes."

It gives you something to talk about. It's good motivation. We know that when you do something with somebody else, you're more likely to do it as opposed to just going, "Eh, that's not a big deal."

And one last option that could be free. Maybe you put together a few recipes, there are a lot of free recipes online, and make up your own little cookbook for a friend, somebody maybe who wants to eat out less or wants to eat better.

I don't know how to package that as a present, though. I don't know if you put it in a physical binder or something like that, but if money is an issue or you have some favorite easy recipes you like, you could go back and use the ones that we offered in our series as a starting point, because we posted those online.

That's my idea.

Troy: Yeah, I like it. And even with that, Scot, maybe you give them those recipes you found online and say, "Hey, I'll come over and we'll make one of these together," or something like that. Make it more, again, that social thing, like Mitch was talking about. Also a great idea.

Scot: Yep. And I'll tell you if you listen to that series, having recipes you can make and then having recipes that you have food in the fridge makes all the difference because then when you're hungry, it's there. You don't have to make a choice. You don't have to go for the poorer options.

Mitch: So one of the things I want to say is being someone who got way into cooking for a while and got a bunch of cookbooks, and my partner is way into cookbooks, if you're looking for a cookbook and you're looking and you're trying to find one for someone who isn't the biggest cook already, stay away from some of the more complicated ones. They look really nice, they look really fancy, but if you get some of these really technical cookbooks, they are so overwhelming even for the more experienced cook.

If you're trying to give the gift to someone who is just starting out, be sure to find to cookbook that's on that level.

Troy: And didn't you mention one on the show? I thought you mentioned one that starts off super easy, like making eggs.

Mitch: "America's Test Kitchen." They have a cookbook series that's 101 recipes, and it really does. It starts out, "Here is an egg. Here is how you cook an egg. Here's what makes an egg delicious." And you kind of roll your eyes at it, but suddenly your scrambled eggs are the most delicious scrambled eggs you've ever had.

It's not just what you made in college, and it's like, "All right. Let's see what I can do next," rather than . . . I don't know. There's a Gordon Ramsay book that I've been handed before and it's like, "I can't even pronounce half the ingredients or know where they are in the store. No, thank you, Gordon Ramsay. I appreciate it, but . . ."

Troy: I'm liking the idea of the "America's Test Kitchen" 101 Recipes. That's a good way to go.

Scot: One last thought I have on that that you maybe think about. The best scrambled eggs ever, it's food that then maybe you will look forward to eating that's just as good as some of that fast food. We all know that the fast-food restaurants have labs and they chemically engineer that food to be addictive. I mean, in order to battle that, you've got to make some decent food. So I like that. That's good.

Troy, circling it back around to you for number two.

Troy: Okay, gift number two. This is inspired by Chris Gee when he talked about "nerd neck." So this is a laptop stand. As I'm sitting here at my desk right now, I'm thinking, "I wish I had one of these," because I hunch over my laptop. A lot of us are working from home in areas that are just not at all ergonomically suited for us, and we hunch over our laptops and now we're spending hours and hours doing this every day.

So these laptop stands lift the laptop up and tilt it towards you to create a more ergonomically suitable environment where the laptop screen is at your eye level and the keyboard is up higher. So it's more comfortable just for your back, your neck, your hands, everything.

You can find these for $20, $30 online, and just a nice gift, something to hopefully prevent the "nerd neck" or help someone treat it if they're already experiencing it.

Scot: Love it, especially because we know that when you have poor posture, not only does it not look right, but we know those muscles get tightened. And in a state of tightened, they start to get weakened, and then you could be more likely to hurt yourself when you do exercise and do those sorts of things. So preventing that is super crucial.

Mitch, gift number two.

Mitch: All right. So gift number two is now thinking a little outside the box. Thinking about sleep hygiene and some of the stuff that Kelly Baron has talked about, one of the original gag gifts, which has significantly changed my life, is a toilet light. Do you guys have toilet lights? Do you know what toilet lights are?

Troy: No. This is a light on the toilet to help you at night so you're . . .

Mitch: Yes.

Troy: Interesting.

Mitch: They're like $10. You can get them on whatever online source. And it seems so ridiculous. They come in different colors. They perch on the side of your toilet. But what happens is in the middle of the night, if you need to go to the bathroom, rather than turning on a light, it has a blue-light-blocking, non-sleep-disturbing light so you can see exactly where the toilet is and you don't have to turn any lights on.

And I cannot tell you . . . It started out as a "ha-ha" funny gift, "thanks for the white elephant gift." That thing has broken and I have replaced it twice now. It is such a vital thing in our environment. We have the bidet. We could go into the bidet. A good bidet is expensive. But just that idea of waking up, not having your sleep being disturbed, go right back to bed. No need to turn on the light.

Scot: You don't have to turn on the big bright lights.

Mitch: Nope. It's wonderful. It's beyond wonderful. Toilet light. Look them up.

Troy: I am looking it up. I'm already intrigued because this sounds great. You stumble in the bathroom at like 2:00 in the morning. Number one, your partner is going to appreciate it because it's probably going to help a little bit with the aim. But number two, it probably makes it that much easier, like you said, to go back to sleep because you're not flipping on lights. And if your bathroom is right next to your bedroom, it's not disturbing your partner or whatever. So it sounds like that's a gift for the whole family.

Mitch: Absolutely.

Scot:All right. That was a good one. My number two is not necessarily inspired by anybody, but it's going to help with sleep as well. I'm completely copying Mitch, it sounds like, because every category he has put out there, I come in with something after that.

Mitch: Did you also get a toilet light?

Scot: No. A white noise machine for sleep. So these things, you plug in. They're $20 to $30, and you can get just the white noise, which is that noise or fans or they make the . . . These things you can change the noise. You could have a brook or sea waves or birds or bonfire or train. I don't know who uses trains, but whatever. I like the sea waves and the rain myself.

I started using it more and more when we got our new dog because our new dog is a little bit of a heavy breather when he sleeps. So it covers that really well, and it helps me get to sleep.

In the summertime, we have fans in our windows that run, so that drowns out noise. And then at the end of that summer season, it's so deathly quiet in the house it's almost disturbing.

They're cool, too, because you can take them along with you. They're very portable. They just use a little USB cord. So if you go to a hotel or something and you need a little help sleeping, they're $20 to $30. So just a little white noise machine for sleep.

Troy: Yeah, I love having white noise. I have an app I use on my phone, but I use it with headphones. I actually have these headphones I can sleep with. I started doing that several years ago. I had white noise before, but doing this, I'm just like, "I don't care. We're traveling, dogs are barking, I'm trying to sleep during the day, I don't care. I can't hear it." I have noise-blocking headphones and I use white noise. Yeah, a white machine, anything like that, I agree, I think it helps sleep for sure.

Scot: All right. Gift number three and the final gift. Troy saved the best for last. This better be good.

Troy: It better be good? So the theme here, it seems we all keep talking about TD, about Theresa Dvorak, and the amazing series she did with us on cooking. This gift would make her proud.

So my final gift is a windowsill herb garden. You can buy these little things. It's like a little herb garden. Just imagine how proud Theresa would be if we emailed her in a couple months and told her we made our recipes again with mint we grew ourselves, parsley, basil, oregano.

I had a hard time finding these things in the store, but it would be so cool to grow it and then use it in your recipe and just be like, "Not only did I make this, I also grew some of the ingredients."

So just a fun little gift, I think, for if you know someone who cooks or even maybe someone who doesn't cook a lot. Maybe even combine that with Scot's gift of the cooking book, or Mitch's gift of the cooking class, something fun like that. It'd be kind of cool to do.

Scot: I don't know if you guys have ever had plants before. Again, we come back to mental and emotional health. I find pleasure taking care of plants and watching them grow. That's just kind of neat. So not only would it help maybe make your recipes pop a little bit more, it might help your emotional health.

Troy: Agreed. Yeah, a little something for the winter months to bring a little life into your home and then make a nice meal in February.

Scot: Yeah. All right. Number three for me is something called YogaToes. I've sent you guys a picture of what they look like, and I'm going to try to describe them. Help me with this. So these are things you put over each one of your toes, but what they do is they kind of spread your toes out.

So I don't know if you ever did this when you were a kid? Put marbles between your toes.

Mitch: No.

Troy: Yeah. And walk around with them? Yeah.

Scot: I mean, I was a weird kid I guess.

Troy: I did it too.

Scot: Oh, you did? Okay.

Troy: Oh, yeah.

Scot: Imagine putting marbles between your toes. What YogaToes are is they spread your toes out in the same sort of way, except it's not marbles. It's a silicone/rubbery sort of thing, and you put those things on.

I'll tell you, when I was training for my marathon or if I had days where . . . I'd take them on trips with me, like when I went to New York one time and I got in 20,000 or 25,000 steps. My feet were just sore.

You put these on, it stretches out your toes, it helps your calves feel better, it helps your toes feel better, the bottoms of your feet.

And I just put them on when I'm watching TV. You put them on 10 or 15 minutes a day and it's amazing what a difference it makes.

I think feet are really ignored a lot of times, and I noticed as I was getting older, my toes were starting to kind of get into weird shapes and I couldn't even physically move my toes separately anymore, which I think could be a problem. I started using these YogaToes and started kind of wiggling my toes and doing toe exercises, and it makes a huge difference in how my feet feel at the end of the day. So that's my gift number three.

They've got various kinds and they're various prices. My only tip is if you use them, use them for only five minutes a day at first. You've got to get used to them. Otherwise, you can hurt yourself, like with any muscle thing that you do. I mean, it's crazy.

Troy: Yeah, I'm looking at that. I want to try those. That looks really cool. Yeah, I think it's that gel kind of stuff, it looks like, and that feel having that between your toes. Like you said, there's nothing . . . I don't know. I'm a huge believer, too, in taking care of your feet, and I think this could go a long way toward helping, like you said, your intrinsic muscles of your feet feel better and really working out some of that soreness there. So I'm thinking if I don't get this for Christmas, I'm buying it for myself.

Mitch: "I would like that."

Scot: Dropping a little hint. All right, Mitch. Gift number three from you.

Mitch: Okay. So being just a touch off-color again, this is inspired by a gift I got years ago from my parents, who are listeners. Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad.

Troy: Hey, Mitch's mom. Hey, Mitch's dad.

Mitch: Hey. Just awkward question, how much have you paid for the pair of underwear you are wearing right now?

Troy: How much have you paid?

Mitch: Yes. Is it a six-pack that you get from Smith's? Is that what you are wearing right now?

Troy: I will say it is not expensive. I will tell you that.

Scot: No. And I will also tell you it's time to be replaced.

Troy: I think this is just a guy thing. Underwear, you're just like, "Who's going to see it? I don't care."

Mitch: Exactly.

Troy: I don't know when I bought this underwear. It's been around a long time. I couldn't put a year on it, but yeah.

Scot: All right, Mitch. You've got us intrigued. Are we going to splurge? We're going to splurge on something?

Mitch: Yes. This is the year that you buy the $30 pair of underwear. I cannot tell you . . .

Scot: I don't know.

Mitch: No, I know you are like . . . I don't know if I've brought this up before, but this is the way that a lot of people respond to it. I was the same way until my sweet parents got me a pair. And they're like, "This has been life-changing. Your father loves them. Try them."

They got me and Jonathan a pair. They're amazing. I cannot tell you, when I started running, there's no rubbing. There are no problems with sweating down there. There's no anything. They're amazing. Everything stays where it's supposed to be, they wash up really good, they last forever, and that's kind of it.

We spend our whole lives doing these cheapo pair of underwear that we just throw away and we don't even look at the options. I'm just going to tell you I've tried a bunch of different brands. I'm not going go too far into them, but SAXX, Separatec, there's a whole bunch of different ones. Some that are more geared towards runners, different activities, but they all are about $30 and everyone just gasps and it's like, "Ugh, $30 for underwear? Why?"

Scot: I don't even pay $30 for dress pants or jeans.

Mitch: I know.

Troy: My shirts are around $20.

Mitch: That's why I'm saying just one. Just one to try it out.

Troy: And are these boxers or boxer briefs?

Mitch: Whatever you need. They come in briefs. They come in boxer brief, loose-fit boxer, long-leg, trunk. I'm a big trunk guy. I love the trunks.

Troy: See, I just feel like if you had that, though, you would wear it once and then obviously you're not going to wear it multiple days, and then you would just be . . . Are you washing these every day, or do you just feel like, "Now I've got to buy 10 pairs of these so I can just have them and have them every day"?

Mitch: I mean, you will eventually find yourself spending a whole lot of money on underwear, but I'm just going to tell you it's night and day. I have never gone back. There's been a time or two when you're on Week 2 of not doing laundry and you're back to the old underwear, and it's like, "What am I doing to myself?"

Scot: "What am I doing with my life?"

Mitch: Right. And that's why I'm saying go out and just get one. Just try it out.

Troy: Yeah. Obviously, women are a whole lot better about this than we are as guys. They clearly will buy nice underwear, and it doesn't have to be like anyone is seeing it or anything. It's just like, "I just want to feel good." And us, as guys, we're just like, "Hey, I don't care. I've got my $2 pair of underwear," or whatever it is from the multipack. But yeah, it's a great idea. Something that you're comfortable in.

Too, like you said, I think if you're participating in any kind of athletic thing, if you're running, whatever, it does make a difference. If you're wearing cotton underwear while you're running, forget it. You're going to be so chafed up. It's just miserable.

Mitch: Exactly.

Troy: And maybe that's it too. Maybe's it's a nice pair, like you said, that you're wearing on a daily basis. And maybe if you know someone who's an athlete who would just like a nice pair underwear, you get them a nice pair of whatever. Nike, Under Armour, they all make some more expensive, nice underwear for working out.

Scot: Well, there you go. Three guys, nine Christmas presents for people that are perhaps interested in becoming a little bit more healthy. So if you get any of these, be sure to let us know. There are lots of ways to reach out to us, which Troy will tell you about now.

Troy: Oh, man. We have not done this in months. You have your little tag on the end, you do, so I've forgotten everything, but I know you can . . .

Scot: All right. I'll go ahead and take care of it.

Troy: I'll try. You can contact . . . we're on Facebook at facebook.com/whocaresmenshealth. On the web, whocaresmenshealth.com. You can email us at hello@thescoperadio.com. Or you can call our listener line. We would love to hear from you. It is 601-55SCOPE. Did I get that right?

Mitch: Yes.

Scot: You got it right. You did it all.

Troy: Sweet.

Scot: Nice work. All right. And if you do any of these Christmas presents, let us know how it works out for you. Thanks for listening, and thanks for caring about men's health. "Jingle Bells" me out.

This content was originally created for audio. Some elements such as tone, sound effects, and music can be hard to translate to text. As such, the following is a summary of the episode and has been edited for clarity. For the full experience, we encourage you to subscribe and listen— it's more fun that way.

Stress can have a significant impact on a person's health. According to the Mayo Clinic, burnout can lead to:

• Headaches
• Less likelihood of exercise
• High blood pressure
• Weight gain/obesity
• Sleep problems

These conditions can be a real detriment to all of the Core 4 areas of health. So it's important to make sure burnout is kept under controlled and managed.

Dr. Kyle Bradford Jones understands the difficulty of burnout personally. He first experienced the stressful condition during his residency. Between thirty-hour days, not seeing the sun for weeks at a time, and constantly dealing with life and death, Dr. Jones experienced an amount of stress he had never had before, and soon he started experiencing the signs of burnout.

Burnout doesn't only affect the doctors of the world. Burnout can happen to anybody, with any job. Nobody is immune to burnout.

"I saw one stat that said 45% of all workers in the United States experience some level of burnout," says Dr. Jones. What is Burnout?

Clinical burnout is a "physical, emotional, mental, and/or psychological exhaustion from work." The condition usually begins with a feeling of emotional detachment from your job. You may have originally been successful and high performing in your position, but you may start experiencing a slip in quality or satisfaction with your work.

For most people, there can be an overlap in symptoms of burnout and depression. Because of the similarity in symptoms, a person may need a physician or mental health specialist to help discern the difference.

In general, curing burnout is more of a personal journey of finding coping skills and finding the right fit for what works best for you. Whether it be figuring out how to find satisfaction and a sense of worthiness in the job you have or - in more extreme cases - changing jobs.

It's important to be careful when self-diagnosing burnout. Everyone has bad days, bad weeks, and even bad months at work. This doesn't necessarily mean you're experiencing burnout. It could just mean you're human and having a rough run of things.

Burnout is a distinct type of emotional exhaustion and detachment, often ongoing and constant. But if you're finding that you're losing your motivation in work, it may be time to seek professional help.

Additionally, it's important to realize that depression and burnout are not always separate.

"That can be a chicken and the egg situation," says Dr. Jones. Depression symptoms can sometimes feed into burnout, and vice versa.

There's a certain amount of stress that's kind of needed to drive you to do your best. Once that stress gets to a point where it becomes the opposite and keeps you from doing your best you should be concerned about burnout and seek professional help. Fight Burnout by Finding The Right Coping Mechanism For You

One of the best ways to minimize the chance of burnout is to take time off from your work. Research has found that burnout tends to get better with time away from work. If your job allows for time off, consider taking those vacation days. But for a lot of people in the U.S., taking an extended time away from work is sometimes not possible. For those situations, the best solution is to find some coping skills to help alleviate the stress that comes from your job.

These "coping mechanisms" can be anything that helps you destress in as little as five minutes. These are not mere distractions, but instead, activities that allow for a mental and emotional release. These mechanisms actually allow for alleviation of stress by allowing the mind and body a moment to process the mental and physical effects of high stress.

These coping mechanisms can be just about anything that helps you feel a little better. For Dr. Jones, he likes to do puzzles. Every week he finds an hour or two to work on a puzzle. These little breaks help him destress from the stress of work.

Dr. Jones also explains that it is vital to find more than one coping mechanism that you can do to relax. It's important to recognize that for one reason or another, you may not have the time or ability to do a single activity, like exercise. As such, it's important to have a variety of different things you can do in a week.

Some examples of good coping mechanisms are:

• Woodworking
• Going for a walk
• Exercise
• Jogging/running
• Arts and crafts
• Puzzles
• Short mobile games
• Watching or reading about your favorite sports team
• Getting outdoors

It's important to remember to make sure your activities are generally beneficial or constructive. It can be tempting to slip into bad coping mechanisms like drinking too much, overeating, or substance abuse. What to Do If Burnout Won't Go Away

If you're still feeling the effects of burnout from your job after trying out different hobbies and coping mechanisms, it may be time to involve your physician.

Burnout can lead to depression. Or in some cases, burnout may be misdiagnosed as depression. Seek help before the condition gets worse. It may seem trivial to see a doctor for stress related to work, but your mental health should be a priority. Just because stress isn't an illness or a broken bone, it does impact your life and your health. Don't be afraid to seek help.

It's not an illness or a broken bone, but it DOES impact your life, so get it looked at. ER or Not: Really Badly Stubbed Toe

You've stubbed your toe pretty badly; It's bruised and hurts to put weight on it.. Should you go to the ER?

Even if your toe is broken, you do not need to go to the emergency room. Or even an urgent care. That's because the treatment they'll give you is the same as you could do at home.

If you go to the physician, they'll do an x-ray to diagnose if it's broken. After getting back the results, they'll tape the broken toe to the toe next to it and tell you it'll heal in four weeks.

If your toe has a normal alignment and bones aren't sticking out, you can tape your broken toe on your own and save yourself the time and expense of going to the doctor. Housekeeping - Who Cares About Their DNA Giveaway

Scot received two at home genetics test kits over the holiday and is looking for someone to take the test with him. Troy doesn't want to do it. Mitch has already done it. So he's giving one away to a listener.

Over the last few episodes, the guys at Who Cares have been looking deeper into at-home genetic testing and there's a lot more involved with these tests than they originally realized.

Stay tuned as we look deeper into the complex issues surrounding these tests and interview a professional genetics counselor about these direct to consumer tests.

If you'd like to participate in the discussion feel free to comment on Facebook or enter to win a chance to win the test and take it with Scot. Just Going to Leave This Here

On this episode's Just Going to Leave This Here, Troy explains what kama muta means and why we all should look for more of it in our lives. Meanwhile, Scot is fascinated by the peculiarities of corgi owner groups on the internet. Talk to Us

If you have any questions, comments, or thoughts, email us at hello@thescoperadio.com.

This content was originally created for audio. Some elements such as tone, sound effects, and music can be hard to translate to text. As such, the following is a summary of the episode and has been edited for clarity. For the full experience, we encourage you to subscribe and listen— it's more fun that way.

Sleep is absolutely crucial to your health. A lack of sleep can contribute to an increase in stress, weight gain, and a whole slew of potential health problems. Getting a good night's sleep is so important to your health, we consider it one of our Core 4. For optimal health, adults should be getting seven to nine hours of restful sleep a night.

Yet, a recent Harvard study said that as many as 70% of people in the U.S. are getting less than six hours of sleep a night and experiencing "sleep difficulty" at least once a week. Considering so many people struggle to get a good night's rest, what are people to do?

Dr. Kelly Glazer Baron is a clinical psychologist specializing in sleep. She works with patients at University of Utah Health to improve their quality of sleep through behavioral modification rather than medications. It's called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) and it may prove beneficial to most people struggling with their sleep.

Dr. Baron suggests patients try following these four basic rules for CBT-I to start improving their sleep.

1. Spend the same number of hours in bed that you sleep.
2. Don't stay in bed unless you're actively sleeping.
3. Don't go to bed unless you're tired.
4. Wake up and get out of bed at the same time every morning.

Like any health journey like weight loss or getting in shape, the road to consistent good sleep takes time. Don't expect immediate results, but following the rules of CBT-I may help a person see significant improvement in their sleep in just a few short weeks.

If you are still struggling to get a good night's sleep, talk to your doctor and consider working with a sleep specialist. Talk to Us

If you have any questions, comments, or thoughts, email us at hello@thescoperadio.com.

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Do you use some device to track your sleep? Ever wondered about how accurate the graphs and scores are? Dr. Kelly Batron is a clinical psychologist with a specialty in sleep medicine. She has been conducting research into these devices and shares her professional opinions on sleep trackers.

Dr. Baron likes sleep tech. She likes that it gets people interested in their sleep and actively trying to improve it. But when it comes to the results they produce, she feels they may cause more stress than anything.

Many sleep gadgets will give you a "pretty graph" showing not only how much sleep you had, but the sleep stages as well. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of research based evidence to these readings.

In fact, the data these graphs provide often look nothing like those found in medical sleep studies. A sleep study uses electrodes placed on the patients scalp. Doctors will look at the EEG or brain wave readings to determine whether or not a person is in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Sleep doctors will usually see short cycles of REM that slowly increase over the night - a pattern that most sleep gadgets fail to show.

A lot of devices often overestimate or underestimate the different types of sleep. For example, if your device tells you that you are not getting enough deep sleep, that may be normal. Many men as they get older get little to no deep sleep at night, that's normal. Furthermore, if you go to a doctor because you aren't getting enough deep sleep, you may be out of luck. There is no medical intervention to increase deep sleep.

According to Dr. Baron, these sleep devices work best as "time in bed monitors." We're all guilty of staying up past our bedtimes. Whether it be watching one more show on Netflix or doing that last bit of work. Those small indulgences are holding you back from a good night's sleep.

20 minutes. 20 minutes more of sleep is all it takes to see real improvements in your health. Getting to bed just a little bit earlier has been linked to reducing blood pressure, improving alertness, and increasing physical performance.

Dr. Baron has been using a sleep tracker for the past four years as a part of her studies. What did she find from all that time of tracking? That if she stayed up past 10:30pm, she'd be tired the next day.

Instead of relying on the specific sleep stages, use your device to track the general amount of time you were asleep and make a goal to get more each night. That will do more for your health than stressing over the minutiae of the unreliable sleep stages.

As the technology continues to improve, we may one day have an ideal sleep app. One that uses things like oxygen sensors, thermometers, and heart monitors to make the readings more reliable. As well as new algorithms based on real sleep research. Sleep gadgets in the future may be able to help diagnose sleep apnea and other serious problems. But right now, the tech isn't there.

So your sleep tracker may not actually be as accurate as the device manufacturers claim, but they can still be a great tool to use as you aim to improve your health. Dr. Baron explains that the best way to get a better night's sleep is to improve your mental relationship with sleep. A sleep tracker is a great way to get a person thinking about their sleep and gamifying the habit to make it fun.

Remember, all it takes is getting to bed 20 minutes earlier to see real health benefits.

Maybe you were out hiking or doing some construction work on your home, but you have managed to step on a rusty nail. Should you rush to the emergency room? Troy says there's two major things to consider:

First, when was the last time you had your tetanus booster? Tetanus is very serious and it's the top concern for doctors in this situation. If you are even a little unsure if you've had a tetanus booster in the past five years, see a doctor. It's better to be safe than sorry.

Secondly, with any injury that pierces through a shoe, doctor's are concerned about a bacterial infection. There is an especially nasty type of bacteria called pseudomonas that lives in warm moist environments like your shoes. Your physician will probably prescribe a course of antibiotics to prevent an infection from forming.

While the risk for tetanus and infection is serious, stepping on a nail doesn't require immediate treatment. It can be treated at a clinic or instacare within 24 hours of the injury. No need to rush to the ER unless the injury itself is serious.

When does the average person's health really start declining? 50 years old? Maybe 40? Well a new study out by Blue Cross Blue Shield shows that most people begin to see a decline in health starting at age 27. That means the health habits you form now can really have an impact later.

The study looked at insured individuals between the ages of 21-36, looking for any trends in health conditions. They found increases in a few serious conditions starting at age 27:

• Type 2 Diabetes increased by 22%
• Heart disease including hypertension and high cholesterol increased 15%
• Major depression cases increased by 31%

These increases can be caused by weight gain, a lack of activity, and other poor health habits that tend to form during the major changes in life during adulthood. The good news is that most of these conditions are not permanent. Lifestyle changes and seeking professional help can go a long way in improving.

The study also found that 83% of those interviewed actually believed they were in good health. This perception is quite different than the reality. Knowing the reality of your health is vital to your longevity. Much like the "turning point" wake-up calls shared in this show, speak with your doctor, get tests run, and start caring about your health.

Finally, the study found that mental health issues made up around 40% of all the conditions reported. When you're looking at your health, don't neglect your mental wellbeing. Don't be embarrassed to talk about it or seek help, even if it's just an inkling that something feels off. Most insurance plans and some employers provide mental health support. Take advantage of it. Your mental health is worth taking care of.

If you'd like to read the study yourself: Millennial Health - The Decline Starts at 27

On this episode's Just Going to Leave This Here, Scot bemoans how quiet mens' rooms are and Troy shares a new disorder recognized by the World Health Organization.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently identified "Gaming Disorder" as a new condition for diagnosis. This diagnosis describes individuals who are suffering from a long term addiction to video games. Individuals with Gaming Disorder find that their gaming habit interferes with their ability to do daily tasks, impacts their relationships, sleep, and performance in school and work. The WHO requires these addictive tendencies must have lasted over a year to be considered Gaming Disorder.

The American Psychiatric Association has yet formally identify Gaming Disorder or include it in their DSM. However the WHO's report will hopefully get the ball rolling on further investigation into potential treatment.

If you're experiencing any sort of addictive behavior, even video games, it's nothing to laugh about. Seek professional help.

If you have any questions, comments, or thoughts, email us at hello@thescoperadio.com.