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I almost threw up that time. Man, you are one pathetic loser. See, coming out of your mouth.

You get nothing. You lose. Good day, sir. Well, that's because you're an idiot. If you just read the bio for Dr. Steve, host of Weird Medicine on Sirius XM 103 and made popular by two really comedy shows, Opie and Anthony and Ron and Fez, you would have thought that this guy was a bit of a clown. Quiet.

You give me the respect that I'm entitled to! I've got diphtheria crushing my esophagus. I've got Ebola vibes dripping from my nose. I've got the leprosy of the heart bone exacerbating my incredible woes. I want to take my brain out and blast it with the wave. An ultrasonic, echographic, and a pulsitating shave. I want a magic pill for all my ailments. The health equivalent of Citizen Kane. Get it now in the tablets.

From the world famous...

Hello, Tacey. Hello. Hello.

or the internet. If you have a question, you're embarrassed to take your regular medical provider. If you can't find an answer anywhere else, give us a call at 347-766-4323. That's 347-POOHIT. Follow us on Twitter at Weird Medicine or at drscottwm. Visit our website at drsteve.com for podcasts, medical stuff, medical news and stuff you can buy.

Most importantly, we are not your medical providers. Take everything you hear with a grain of salt. Don't act on anything you hear on this show without talking over with your health care provider. Don't forget stuff.drsteve.com, stuff.drsteve.com. One of these days I will make it worth visiting, but please visit it anyway, and then let me know what you want to see on there. But right now, check out the Rody robotic tuner. It's fantastic.

And one of my favorite things, just a robot tuner. You put it on the peg, you click the string, it tunes it for you. And it will also unwind or wind when you're putting new strings on. Check out Dr. Scott's website at simplyherbals.net. Check out patreon.com slash weirdmedicine. I've got some new ideas for projects, and all of my YouTube shorts go there first before anybody else sees them.

And then cameo.com slash weirdmedicine. I think we have a cameo to do today, by the way, as soon as we finish with this. And cameo.com slash weirdmedicine. For five bucks, I'll say fluid to your mama, or I'll answer a medical question, although you can do that by just dialing 347-766-4323 and just asking a damn question. It's free.

Anyway, but if you want a video response and you want it to persist for the rest of your life, then feel free. Cameo.com slash weird medicine.

All right. Check out Dr. Scott's website. It's simplyherbals.net, simplyherbals.net. And I see you brought some Stress Less. That's right. Which one of us needs today. And some of your Simply Herbals CBD nasal spray. That's right. The special stuff with that. Special sauce. That's the good stuff.

All right. Thank you. And then, yeah, check us out at drsteve.com. We'll have a new website one of these days. And at Normal World, I'm a little bit behind on doing my pieces for Normal World because I've just been busy AF, but I'm going to get back on that and...

Supposed to have one every two weeks. They went on vacation and then we went on vacation. It's been a while. But Normal World with Dave Landau and check out DaveLandau.com. He has a YouTube video right now where he's dealing with a drunk heckler.

And it's a three-part thing. It goes on and on and on. And he is hilarious. He's one of the funniest people I've ever seen. Don't you think so? Yeah. Yeah. I love him. Anyway, all right. Very good. Tacey, you have any things to do today? I sure do. All right.

It's Tacey's Time of Topics, a time for Tacey to discuss topics of the day. Not to be confused with Topic Time with Harrison Young, which is copyrighted by Harrison Young and Area 58 Public Access. And now, here's Tacey.

Hello, everybody. I think we can... Hello. I think we can probably get rid of the disclaimer one of these days. I'll shorten that. You know how it's always sunny in Philadelphia, that big, long theme song, and then by the end, it was just like two chords. Yep, yep. So we'll do the same thing. We need to finish that, by the way. Yes, we do. Yes.

The first one is about Celine Dion and her battle with stiff person syndrome. Slim Dion. Slim Dion. Celine Dion. Excuse me, I've had a couple of mimosas. Okay, that's okay. Slim Dion.

Aware autoimmune neurological disorder. SPS causes muscle stiffness, painful spasms, and coordination issues, while incurable treatments can improve quality of life. Yeah, I think a lot of people are confused about what's going on with her, if they think about her at all. But they know that she's been ill, and I've heard that some people thought she had cancer, other people thought she had Parkinson's, but that's not actually correct.

She has stiff person syndrome. So tell us about that. She described the condition as feeling like somebody is strangling you and affecting her daily activities, including cooking and singing.

Cooking? Yeah, right. Okay, if you think she does her own cooking, get out of here. She has a team of shifts. She doesn't eat. A team of shifts. Well, she may now do her own cooking. SPS impacts Diane's throat and abdominal muscles, even breaking a rib during one severe spasm. The condition has significantly altered her life and career. I want to make fun of her about her cooking like a little piece of celery for dinner.

You know, calling that cooking. Exactly. But I can't make fun of her now because this is horrible. It is terrible. Dr. Scott Newsome from Johns Hopkins Medicine explains that SPS results from a hyper excitable nervous system. Diagnosis is challenging, often requiring specialized tests and neurologist referrals.

SPS typically develops between the ages 30 and 50, causing muscle stiffness, painful spasms, and mobility issues. Symptoms may include irregular gait, postural changes, and increased risk of falling. Emotional distress, anxiety, and depression are common.

Dr. Newsom describes SPS as a spectrum disorder with symptoms evolving over time. Variations include classic SPS, focal SPS, and SPS with cerebral ataxia. That means probably cerebellar ataxia, and those are people who can't walk. Yeah, they have terrible balance, and they're just, you know,

walking around like a drunken sailor. Disconjugate. Correct. If they're even able to walk at all. Dr. Newsom describes SBS as a...

You got that for a disconjugated gain. I already read that one. Oh, you did? Yeah. While the exact cause is unknown, scientists have linked SPS to an antibody called GAD65. Right. This antibody targets glutamic acid decarboxylase. Yeah, glutamic acid decarboxylase.

And yeah, it's an enzyme that decarboxylates glutamic acid. And if you don't do that, glutamate builds up between the nerve endings and you get these problems. My question is, they say they're not sure if the antibodies are clinically relevant.

But it certainly makes sense. You know, we have the same sort of thing with ALS, too. There's some, you know, glutamate issues. It's pretty toxic if it builds up. Why not do, you know, a study on a monoclonal antibody that attacks the anti-GAD-65 antibodies and just see? Surely to goodness they've – I mean, I'm not the first person who thought of this. It's such a rare disease that they're not, you know, just pouring –

But, you know, we were talking about a Canadian treasure, you know. It makes patients sensitive to triggers like stress and loud noises.

Treatment for SPS involves a multi-pronged approach. Immunotherapies target the immune system while medications like benzodiazepines calm the nervous system. Physical interventions such as stretching, massage, and yoga can help with pain and mobility. This combined approach can improve quality of life and potentially slow progression.

Celine Dion's public diagnosis has raised awareness of this rare condition. Yeah, it's sad that you have to have somebody famous to, you know, Ronald Reagan had his colonoscopy. You know, he had colon cancer and they found a cancerous polyp, I guess, if I remember right. I just remember he had a colonoscopy and all of a sudden people were aware of colonoscopies. It's like, why do we need that? Yeah.

Now, I have some other things here, Tase. It says intravenous immunoglobulin. So I give myself a bell for that. That would be groups, you know, other people's antibodies, basically. They say it's safe and effective treatment for stiff person syndrome. Uses the antibodies to help reduce the stiffness and improve balance. In this article, it doesn't say why, but it would be because they're probably blocking those other antibodies. Gotcha. Gotcha.

But anyway, so IVIG can help with reducing stiffness and decreasing falls, et cetera, et cetera. Plasma exchange is one and oral immunosuppressant therapy. So I'm you know, she certainly can afford the best doctors in the world. So I'm assuming that she's doing all these things, too. Yeah. She just doesn't want to dox herself with all this stuff that she's doing. Yeah. Yeah.

The stiff person syndrome, there's also a stone man syndrome. Correct. And that's not the same. We've talked about before on this show, but it's been a while. Okay. A 10-year-old Pakistani boy presented with painful lumps on his back, stiff shoulders, neck, and left hip. He underwent surgical excision of the left hip ossification, which worsened the condition. Radiological examination revealed widespread heterotopic

while blood tests were normal. The patient exhibited multiple swellings on his back, shoulders, hip, and knee. A painful mass was noted on his left arm. All visible masses were tender and abdominal and paraspinal muscles were stiff. Shoulder movement was severely restricted. The boy had bilateral hallux valgus, a limited mobility. Okay, we should talk about what... Okay. Hallux. So the hallux is the big toe. And valgus...

that, okay, so varus and valgus. Valgus means that it's pointing away from the midline of the body. So it's just a, you know, it's a crooked toe, basically, is what that is. And when you talk about ossification, what they're talking about is bonification of

Not that kind, Dr. Scott, that you're thinking about. Of course. Bonification of tissues like joints and muscles. Right. Bonification where there shouldn't be bones being laid. New bone being laid. Correct. Yes. Lab results were normal, but genetic testing wasn't done due to financial constraints. X-rays showed widespread heterotopic ossification.

Previous surgery on the left hip initially improved mobility but led to worsened ossification. The patient received symptomatic treatment and counseling. His family was educated about the disease and advised to prevent trivial trauma. Yes. Hybro dysplasia. No.

That's a big word. I said it right. Ossificans progressive-va. Ossificans progressive-va. Or progressive-va. Progressive-va. Progressive-va.

Also known as Stoneman syndrome is an extremely rare genetic disorder. It causes progressive bone formation and soft tissues, leading to severe disability. It affects one to two million people worldwide, is often misdiagnosed, resulting in unnecessary and harmful interventions. It sounds like everything you do to try to help this makes it worse. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it's a rough one. Yeah. It says early diagnosis through clinical examination, radiological evaluation, and genetic testing is crucial for proper management. The disorder typically begins in the first two decades of life with no demographic preferences. It's characterized by abnormal big toes and progressive ossification of connective tissues. And it's also a rare disease, so that's the other problem with it. Yeah. Causing permanent disability. Yeah.

FOP is caused by mutations of the ACVR1 gene. Physical therapy for FOP patients should focus on improving daily activities while avoiding passive movements that could trigger flare-ups. Right, right.

Yeah. So, again, one of these things that maybe CRISPR in the future may solve. You know, we got Huntington's disease would be a good one. This is one, you know, if we could just go in and change their genetics, we couldn't reverse the problems that they already have, but we may be able to stop. Yeah. It says trauma, including injections and dental procedures, can cause flare-ups. Right. Patients may be at higher risk after flu-like illnesses.

So subcutaneous flu vaccines are recommended, especially for those with chest wall restrictions. So, yeah. So there are other things like this. So people who have psoriasis.

we'll notice a thing called Kebner phenomena. And what that is is where they get a little bit of trauma to the skin, all of a sudden a plaque will grow. And you can draw things on someone's skin and it'll make psoriasis plaques. I mean, it's not a fun game or anything, but you could do that. And so like if a cat scratches their arm, they'll form those plaques there. So it's the body's response to trauma. And in this case, instead of making psoriatic plaques,

plaque, they form bone. They end up more bone. Yeah. Corticosteroids are said for, are used for flare-ups affecting major joints, jaw, or submandibular area, but not for back, neck, or trunk flare-ups. Yeah. NSAIDs or COX-2 inhibitors with leukotriene inhibitors may be used when stopping prednisone. However, these treatments didn't halt progression in our patient. Okay. It's incurable. Yeah. You got anything else?

I have a couple of really boring ones. Okay. We'll do those next week. Okay. We already did two boring ones. I thought Slim Dion was very interesting. Slim Dion was good. I mean, there's one that I— That old Slim Dion. What do you got? Did you hear about the millions of Americans to see reduced medication costs in 2025? No. No.

A new AARP report reveals that by 2025, more than 3 million Americans will save over $1,000 on their prescriptions due to the Biden's administration inflation reduction. Oh, I see. Okay. Inflation reduction where they plowed more money into the economy?

So, yeah, you can't – listen. We're going to get in trouble. I don't care. OK. This is a thing that has to do with medication and playing politics with people's medication. It's no coincidence that this is coming out in an election year. Election cycle, yeah. Yeah.

Listen, I'm not a Democrat or a Republican, but I care about our patients, which should be a given. So I can't virtue signal on that. I don't want to sound like a virtue signaling on that. But I this could have been done. What? Four years ago.

Why is it being done now? Or 15. And why are we hearing the candidate now saying they're going to fix all this stuff when, you know, you're the one that's in, you're the incumbent, basically. So why didn't you fix it while you were the first four years? A $2,000 out-of-pocket cap instituted. Yeah, that's not reducing inflation. It's reducing cost. It's not the same thing. And it's reducing prices.

It's not the same thing as reducing inflation, because when you do that, if the pharmacy now can't charge you anymore, what they're going to do is they're just not going to carry the drug or they're only going to carry generics or they're just going to go out of business. That's all they're using anyway right now is generics. Yeah, unless these Medicare patients. Yeah.

But, you know, if they can't look, if they just artificially cap costs, people are going to go out of business. People are going to lose jobs. Yeah. Drug makers are not happy with this and argue the law will hurt consumers. Yeah. Well, yeah, because they're not going to eat it. No. No, we're going to eat it. That's the problem. I mean, you know, there's a lot of a lot of shit to go around. But these these sort of artificial policies like that.

You know, and look, I want everybody to make a ton of money. One of the things that they've seen in California is the loss of entry-level jobs because they've been – this is what I understand from my friends who live in California, that entry-level jobs are disappearing because the minimum wage has been raised so high. And those are jobs for people like our kids who have –

not had a job before that need to just get started. Learn how to be responsible. Learn how to show up. Learn how to do a bunch of different things. Intended to be career jobs, but I know they can be for some people. There's got to be some sort of middle ground there. My thing is, and I'll shut up,

I would not own a small business if I didn't give my employees a piece of the action. That's how you do this. Now, you can't mandate it, but I think you're crazy if you own, let's say, a shop where you're making candles. And it's just – it's not a franchise. You make them in the back and you hire, let's say, a college student and you pay her $12 an hour. Right.

which is not, I mean, here, what's minimum wage here? Like eight, something like that. So it's a little bit over, but other places are paying 15, starting at 15. Why would you do a good job? Why would you care? You want to keep your job, so you're just going to do the minimum to keep your job. Whereas, hey, if I do a survey and everybody says you were really nice to them and they felt happy,

I'm going to give you a bump. I'll give you a bonus. Or how about this? If we sell a shitload of candles because you're out there barking at people to get them in and selling them candles and giving them deals and doing all this stuff.

I'll cut you in for, you know, 5% of the profit or something. And the other part of that is reducing overhead, you know, if the people realize if they work hard, maybe they don't throw away that paper. Yes. Maybe they don't throw that extra tape in the trash or whatever. Give your employees a reason to want your business to succeed. Yep.

And when you do that, it solves 90% of these problems. Totally, totally, totally. I would never own a small business without giving my employees a piece of the action. Even a big one, I think. Yeah. Yeah, I think any kind of business. Well, a lot of the big, big ones have profit sharing, but I think even on a small level you can do that. Oh, heck yeah. Yeah, I agree. But anyway, all right. I'll shut up. I'm an idiot.

All right. Okay. We done? I mean, I have other boring ones, but they're really boring. Okay. Well, all right. That was a good one, though. That was a good one to taste. Yep. All right. Let's try this. Let's see here. This episode is brought to you by Allstate. Some people just know they could save hundreds on car insurance by checking Allstate first. Like you know to check the date of the big game first.

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Number one thing, don't take advice from some asshole on the radio. All right. Well, I won't do that, Ronnie B. What I'm going to try to do, though, is to... Oh, there we go. Hey, Dr. Steve. I just had a question about... I talked to you before I actually emailed you and you emailed me back right away. Yeah. Which I appreciate about quitting smoking. Yeah. So I finally have quit smoking. Excellent. But I substituted it for this vapor...

Okay. So it seems to be kind of all the rage, and I love it. I don't wake up with a 25-pound weight on my chest anymore. Right. I hated that. I seem to think it's working because I can know the milligram of nicotine that I'm taking, and I've weaned myself down to about 1.5 milligrams per dosage, which is approximately 10 milliliters or something like that. Anyway, I wanted to see what your take was on the whole vapor thing. Thanks. Yeah.

And before I get to that, there's some comments in the chat room. By the way, if you want to join the Fluid family in the waiting room, I'm not saying yuck to the Fluid family. We love them, but it's just stupid names. Go to YouTube.com slash at Weird Medicine. Turn on the notifications. And when we're recording live, then you can join in. And there's some really good comments here.

Talk like a hick to you says they're hiking prices now. So if they quote on reduce it later, it'll just be back to where it was like stores during Black Friday sales. And ORS at the movie says they do that a lot. Hike the price and reduce it. It's still above where it was, but they claim they lowered the price. So there you go. You know,

You know what? Yeah, that's I suspect that that's true. I wonder what the evidence is. I don't know. It certainly seems true. Well, if there's a two thousand dollar maximum limit on what they can pay, then. Yeah, well, true.

Yeah, that's a good point. They're not just saying they're not cutting it by 10%. They're actually capping. And that is a little bit different. But still, I see these things. I like it when they go, oh, you know, buy two, get one free. So you're buying three for the price of two. How about you just sell me one for two thirds the price? Yeah. And you could just do that anyway. But it's some sort of...

psychological thing. I think it's a psychological thing for them, too, that, oh, well, you're moving more product, but you're making less on it. But I guess volume really does matter. My dad used to tell a joke about a guy that had a business, and he said, I buy these widgets for $10, and I sell them for $8.

And, you know, I sell a lot more of them. And they said, well, how do you make any money on that? And the guy goes, volume. Yep. Right? So think about it just for a second. But anyway, yeah, if you sell a lot of... Anyway, I don't have to explain it. You guys are smart. All right. So vaping. Let's talk about vaping. So...

We have talked about this before. Back in a few years ago, there was that scare where they were using apparently vitamin E or something, liquid vitamins to solubilize the vape with, and people were getting...

Getting... Popcorn? Yeah. Popcorn lung. Horrible lung diseases from this. But that, I haven't heard about any of that in quite some time. I think it's all settled down. Good. But there's a lot of studies that show that e-cigarettes with nicotine may help adults quit smoking compared to e-cigarettes without nicotine or no treatment. We still don't know what the health effects of e-cigarettes are long-term, but...

We believe that they are less dangerous than smoking. Smoking, you get carbon monoxide, you get tar. Tar is what causes the cancer. The nicotine promotes the cancer and also is a vasoconstrictor, so it promotes heart attack and stroke. But if you're just getting the nicotine with the goal of getting off of it. Right.

So Rich Voss, our friend, which, by the way, gave me a really good joke for my roast that I used. It's on our YouTube channel, I think. I'll put it up there at some point. I know it's in our Patreon channel. The roast of the dabbleverse. I recorded mine remotely, but Voss gave me a good joke about Shulian. Well, I'll tell it now.

It said, Shuley Agar, comedian, is at war with Kevin Brennan. Who was the other one? Oh, Kevin Brennan, Patrick Melton, and Stevie Lou.

And I said, even Netanyahu told him to slow it down. So anyway, I delivered it much better that day. Anyway, so the e-cigarettes, pretty good. Voss got off smoking. He used to smoke and he no longer smokes.

But he got off of cigarettes with nicotine gum and he still chews it. I mean, I heard about this one for years. Yeah, I heard about this one the first time he was on opiate Anthony. That was like 2005. So, yeah, it's been decades now.

that he still does the nicotine gum. So that's still safer than smoking, and that's probably safer than vaping, but there's still nicotine in it, and it still constricts the blood vessels and is a tumor promoter. I have a lot of patients in my practice that say, well, now I have stage 4 cancer, why should I quit smoking now? And I say, well...

If they are terminally, I mean, close to the end, it's like, well, I'm not going to take anything away from you that you enjoy. But if they are engaging in treatment, then there is a reason to stop smoking. And it's because nicotine...

promotes an enzyme called protein kinase C. And protein kinase C is activated by nicotine, and protein kinase C promotes tumor growth in a lot of tumors. So there is a reason to smoke. And you feel better, too. All right? All right. FDA has approved medication to help people quit smoking. They're mostly safe and effective.

One of them is not – one of the oral ones is not allowed to be taken by airline pilots. That would be Chantix, by the way, because it causes –

dysphoria and weird dreams. Is that the same as Welbutrin? No. That one was Zelnorm, I think, was the name. No, Zyban. They used it. Zyban. Now it's just generic. Welbutrin is bupropion. It worked wonders for me. I was just looking for a pill. I could quit smoking for six weeks, 12 weeks,

you know, even a year, but I'd always start back up again. And I just needed a pill to help me. You know, I think some of it was psychological. Yeah, get over the hump. But yeah, I started taking bupropion back in with the day it came out. And I never looked back and I haven't smoked since. And that was over 25 years ago, I think. So there you go. Whatever it takes. But if you want to quit smoking and not vape,

Scott used to, it was a tobacco addict, but he dipped. He'd slip little twigs, cheek and gum. Right on, right on. But I would quit and counsel people if they don't want to take a pill or they don't want to do patches or all that stuff, rather than to quit by number. In other words, some people would put 19 cigarettes in a bag and then 18 and then don't do it that way. Do it by time.

So I would smoke two before I hit the shower every morning. So the first day, I didn't smoke those. And my –

The head of my cock was very thankful because when you're flicking cigarettes between your legs sitting on the pot, then you're burning the top of the Roman war helmet frequently. So it was pretty stupid. How many times did you have to do that before you figure out that's a bad idea? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. The smoking. That's true. Seriously. It didn't matter. Yes, I did it.

For years. And it happened, you know, once a month or something like that. And it didn't stop me from smoking. Nothing stopped me from smoking except cancer didn't stop me from smoking, heart disease, stroke, none of that. It was when I finally learned the statistic that the vast majority of impotence in men over 40 is caused by tobacco abuse. Boy, did I pay attention then. Yeah.

But, yeah, so the first time I didn't smoke those two. And then the next day I didn't smoke –

on the way to the hospital. And then I started doing it by time. So nine o'clock, 10 o'clock. And then after you hit 10 o'clock, if that's your day, you can smoke as much as you want to. And then 11 and 12, and you just march around the dial. Now you can stop on a time for a day. That's the rule. If you have a bad day, you can stop at six and then the next day still do six, but you can never go backwards. That's the rule.

And you keep pushing it until the first day that your time to smoke is after you go to bed. Now you're done smoking. Okay. And that gives you time to think about it. But that allows you to smoke as much as you want to.

after the time, but you can't smoke an infinite number of cigarettes. So when it gets, you know, if your bedtime is at midnight and the time you can smoke is 11, there's a limited number of cigs you can smoke. So it gets you acclimated to not smoking. And then you're sleeping through that first big block of time when you're not smoking. You wake up the next day, you throw all your paraphernalia away and start acting like a non-smoker. If you

Fake it till you make it. And the first day you can go by all those people in the middle of February in Minnesota that are sitting outside the hospital shivering, smoking cigarettes and go, what a bunch of dumb assholes. And that used to be you yesterday, but it isn't today. So you can feel superior to them right now.

And also think of all the tobacco bigwigs in Durham, North Carolina, who go, ooh, yeah. You know, every time you buy a pack of cigarettes, ooh, we got them to get another one. You know? Right? Well, yep. We got them now. We hooked them.

Yep. I love it. They're happy. They're happy when you go and buy a pack of cigarettes. So remember that. When you give them your money, they are thrilled. So maybe that'll help. Anyway. All right.

I've done that one multiple times, but I don't think it's too many times you've talked about smoking. Yeah, Dr. T, my name's Sal. I'm having trouble with my ball sack scrotum. Yeah, we know what a ball sack is. Is anybody ever had a surgical lift? Yeah. I seem to have to lift...

My scrotum. So that you don't sit on it. When I'm in bed at night to feel better, or like I said, walking, I have to pull them forward. Oh. I've never heard of it. What about sitting on the pot and it gets between the seat and the, can you imagine? That would hurt so much. Anybody having surgery of having them? Absolutely, my friend. It's called scrotoplasty. There you go. And it's a surgical procedure. It repairs or creates a scrotum.

And it's also known as osteoplasty or a scrotal lift. And it can be performed for a number of reasons. Some of them are serious, like birth defects, injuries, stuff like that, or cosmetic reasons.

such as scrotum skin tightness or a too floppy scrotum. Sagginess. Yeah, saggy scrotum. Gravity. And they remove the sort of elongated tissue and then close the incision to create a smoother, more youthful appearance of your scrotum. So, I mean, there's nothing worse than having that sort of saltwater taffy in the sun, flabby,

Feeling, you know, against your thigh. You know, just rubbery yuck. All right. So then they'll put you in a jockstrap afterward, and you're back to work in a day or two. And an ice pack. Yeah, and an ice pack. That's right. All right.

That's all I have on that. What do you got? I don't have anything. You don't have anything on that one, Thais? No. Okay. Now, I mean, there is a female version of this as well. I mean, you know, there's labioplasty for...

Women that don't like the appearance of their labia. You know, Jim Norton used to describe it as like a, you know, a roast beef sandwich, you know, exploded by an M-80 or something like that. Oh, my. And but you can have that repaired if you would like.

I'm not sure too many women really care too much about that. I know people who make a living off the appearance of their genitalia may care more about that than anybody else. And you can have vaginoplasties and, you know, there's all kinds of things you can do. So, all right. It's not just men having to have this done. All right. Let's see here.

Okay, this is a good one because I've been wanting to talk about this for a while. Because when we first started talking about this subject, we didn't have long-term data, but now we do. Oh, cool. Okay. Hey, Dr. Steve and all the rest of you. Hey, man. I had a question. I know I've called you a couple times so far. Remember on Gilligan's Island, they'd say –

you know, and the rest at the end after they, they would do the professor and Marianne. And then after a while, they just said, and the rest of the professor and Marianne and ginger and all them were just, and the rest. All right. Yeah.

I asked about some other issues that I had, but I had another question that came up. I have a son and daughter, both 13 and 15, who had their physicals recently here, and the doctor inquired about HPV, you know, the HPV shot. Wondering if there are any risks to it or, you know, long-term, short-term, whatever,

And I know you've talked about this on the air, you know, getting the HPV. Yeah, but you didn't pay attention till it was your kids. And I understand that. I'm the same. I'm the same way. But I wonder if there are any side effects or any risks involved. Yeah, this is definitely a good topic, you know, that you may be able to bring up on your podcast. Yeah, man. So the good news is, is the HPV vaccines are one of the most effective vaccines that we have there. They're

They're close to 100 percent effective in preventing infection of the cervix with the bad human papillomaviruses, particularly HPV strain 16. And so for the longest time, people were going, well, OK, but we don't have long term data. Well, now we do.

All right. So a study of one point seven million women found that the vaccines efficacy or the effectiveness was particularly pronounced among young girls vaccinated before the age 17, which makes sense. And that really doesn't have that much to do with their age. It has more to do with them being sexually active.

And, you know, more and more women being sexually active as you get over 17 and some of them already been infected. But during the 11 year study period, there was a 90 percent reduction in cervical cancer in this group. Wow. That is a good deal. Cervical cancer sucks. And it is if you don't get your pap smears, you still have to get your pap smear if you have this shot, by the way.

Because there's still, you know, it's not a 0% incidence and it's not all 100% caused by this particular HPV or some people have genetic predisposition. So you still get your pap smears.

And but it back in the day, particularly in people didn't get their pap smear and they let it go. And, you know, they got cervical cancer and then it became metastatic. In other words, it spread. It was horrible, horrible disease. So I love the fact that this thing is kicking its ass. We have a couple other questions.

Cancer vaccines, you know, one doctor took me to task when I said this is the only one that we really have. But hepatitis B vaccine is actually an anti-cancer vaccine because people with persistent hepatitis B are at risk for, you know, lung and liver cancer. And then Tacey talked about the lung cancer vaccine that's coming.

And so, you know, I would love to see more of this immunologic approach to erasing eradicating cancer. But anything we can do to get rid of, you know, this horrible, horrible cancer I'm in favor of.

Now, when he talked about side effects, this one, pretty safe, too. Not only, well, I don't want to just say pretty safe. It is extremely safe. The majority of the adverse effects are local, you know, pain at the site. Of course, no treatment is 100%.

perfectly safe. So let me look at the incidents. I had this up and I've missed it.

I lost the thread here. Okay, let's see here. Scientific research shows the benefits of HPV vaccine. Yes, of course. They can have some side effects. 135 million doses of HPV vaccine have been distributed since 2006. Most common side effects were mild, included pain, redness, or swelling in the arm.

And they go through extensive safety testing. I'm just looking to see if there's... Fainting can occur after any medical procedure. So there was a certain percentage of people who fainted after that. And so they recommend that you give this vaccine to the patient when they're seated or lying down. And there you go. So I'm not seeing anything particularly scary with this. And to

demonstrate that we put our money where our mouth is. We had our kids vaccinated with this one. Yes. Yeah. Okay. All right. Any other questions about that? Okay. All right.

Let's talk about a guy that never sleeps. Hey, Dr. David, Mike from New York. Hey. I was reading the esteemed medical journal, also known as the New York Post. Correct. And they speak about this Japanese guy who claims in the last 12 years he only sleeps 30 minutes per day. Yeah. Now, I smell bullshit.

And that can't possibly be true. But if it's in any other literature, if you could take a look and give us your opinion, I'd be greatly appreciated. Yeah. Thanks, man. Yeah, this is the one that there's a bunch of people in the media that have claimed that they never sleep. The one that is the most study that I could find is a guy named Ty Nock.

Let me see. If it's Nguyen, it's probably Thai Wok. It's N-G-O-C. He's Vietnamese. So if N-G-U, what we would pronounce Nguyen, is actually Nguyen, I would assume that this guy's name is Thai Wok. But anyway, yeah, he's been pretty extensively studied, and he had—

A problem with a trauma, I believe, during the Vietnam War. And since then, he has not been able to sleep. Like a head trauma or PTSD trauma? Yeah, it was more of a physical trauma. Yeah, I'm sorry. If I remember correctly. And I think that, I mean, some people went to see him.

And monitored him over time, and he kind of lays down and his eyes are open, but he doesn't actually sleep. And he said if he drinks enough wine, he can fall asleep for an hour or two, but that's the most he's ever done. Now, for most people, lack of sleep is...

causes things like dementia and heart disease. Crankiness. Crankiness, yes. Yeah. I'm, what are you saying, Taze? Nothing. So, yeah, I sleep, I don't sleep enough and it's very difficult for me to stay asleep. I woke up at 5.30 this morning, couldn't get back to sleep.

But there are cardiovascular problems, increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system. That's the one that produces adrenaline, particularly associated with sleep deprivation as substantial long-term consequences for adults and adolescents.

So these kids that stay up all night playing video games and then get up at 6 to go to school, they're at risk, too. People who experience sleep disruption have elevated blood pressures, increased risk of developing long-term high blood pressure. And the relative risk is like 20%. Yeah.

So, yeah, there are a lot of things that lack of sleep can do. But these people, if they can be believed, don't suffer from those things because that Taiwok guy is 86-something. He's in his 80s, I think. I can't find that article, so I'm just talking out of my ass right now. But he's elderly now.

And so it's there is a huge spectrum of human behavior and things that humans are able to do. And, you know, Tacey talked about true human superpowers and stuff like that on the show before. So I'm not too surprised that there are some people that sleep well.

12 to 14 hours a day. Sure. That's easy. And people who sleep, you know, an hour a day or 30 minutes a day. And the problem is that they're so rare that

then nobody's really paying a lot of attention to them. So I can't say conclusively that this guy isn't just making this up. The reason I say that is there are people out there called breatharians. Have you ever heard of them? No. Okay, so breatharians say that they get all of their nutrition from the air. Oh, okay.

And that is poor shit. And I'm sorry if you're a breatharian. I mean, you can tell me. Come and I'll do a clinical study. I'll put you in a room. Give me a week and I'll pay you money. But we'll see how long you go without eating.

I think one of the guys – and I tried to find this article. I've been terrible with my research this week. I was actually caught eating cheeseburgers, but I'm not – Oh, wow. I don't know who that was, but it was somebody that was claiming that they never ate. But breatharianism is something that people talk about quite a bit.

In certain circles, it's almost considered a... Are you looking at it now? Is that what you're looking at? Okay, you're over there typing, so I thought you were looking at breatharians. No, no, no, I was reading the comment. But the breatharian thing, it makes no sense. Let me say that. I don't want to say that they're... There's a reason you eat and drink. They're quacks or anything like that. I'm not going to say that. I learned that from Penn and Teller. You can say somebody's an asshole, or you can call bullshit, but don't...

you know, attack them personally. But what I can say is it makes no sense from a physics standpoint that our bodies run off of chemical energy, which means that they need energy to do that or they will run down. And people who don't eat, we have studies on this.

this, that if people don't eat nor drink for seven days, they will die. If they only drink, they will live about 60 days. I'm talking water. Now you could live off liquid things like ensure you could live off of that.

Or oatmeal porters. Yeah, and stuff like that. I've looked for a while. I don't know. That's more carbs. It doesn't – you know, those high-carb, low-protein diets, people died from those. Oh, yeah. Sure. When those – some of these weight loss things first came out.

They were high carbohydrate, low protein, and people were – their bodies were just eating up their muscles to the point where they had – they got a thing called rhabdomyolysis or rhabdomyolysis where their muscles were being torn apart to create energy so that their body could live.

And because you got to have protein and then it would affect their kidneys and they died of kidney failure or other complications. So what they learned was on those low of those high carbohydrate, low protein liquid diets, they had to supplement those people with amino acids and then they were OK. They could do it for longer and without adverse consequences. But so that tells me, I mean, if we see people starving to death all the time in this world.

How the F are they starving to death, but the breatharians are just walking around saying, oh, I never eat. I never eat. Right? And if they have found the way...

Why aren't they taking that to places where starvation is rampant? I mean, how about helping your fellow man? Oh, it's all about you. And getting in the New York Post, I found articles in the New York Post and CNN, you know, a couple gets by eating liquid air and stuff like that. And if by liquid air, you mean milkshakes and...

French fries, then I believe it. But anyway, so if someone has any evidence to the contrary, but that's my question. It's the same question that you take to psychics. Oh, you're a psychic. You can tell what happens in the future. Where were you on 9-11? Where were you at Hiroshima? Where were you at Pearl Harbor? Or, you know, any earthquake or any natural disaster? Where the fuck were you? Yeah.

So, you know, Jeremiah in the Bible was revered because when he said a bunch of bad stuff was going to happen, it happened. That's why we, that book is in the Bible because there were lots of other prophets. They were all saying crazy stuff, but what he said came to pass. So that was why. So if, you know, the first person that says, hey, this is going to happen without some connection to it, you know, saying that someone's going to be

I don't know, kidnapped or something like that. Well, they may have something to do with it. You know, you can't prove that they didn't. But to say, you know, lightning is going to hit the Eiffel Tower and it's going to cause a fire on the second floor or whatever. I guess there's floors on the damn thing. I don't know. I've never been there. Now that, and it's going to happen on Thursday at 8 p.m. Now that would be something. But, you know...

It just doesn't happen because the future does not exist. I'm sorry. It doesn't exist. But it's coming. Yeah. It exists in the sense that time is relative for everybody. So my future is different from somebody that's circling a black hole. But it's not a place we can travel to unless we travel the normal old way one second per second. We travel through time at one second per second, which is, by the way, we travel through time the same speed that light does, which is an interesting concept.

I believe we've gone off on a tangent. Yeah, of course. All right. And speaking of tangent, somebody sent in an AI song for Dr. Scott. Oh, no. This one was in the manner of Ben Folds. So let's listen to this real quick. Oh, Ben Folds is my favorite. I know he is, but you won't like this. Oh. Dr. Scott's in the office looking so tall. With the ponytail swinging, he's having a ball.

His needles are sharp, but his words aren't too clear. Says that's how they pronounce it. We all share a cheer. Oh my gosh. He's got that charm in his quirky way. Dr. Scott is a quack, but he's a pre-feller. With needles and charms, he's our health pro-

That makes no sense. See, the AI will just ramp. I'm any two words. He's a pretty good feller. He's our health propeller. That makes no sense. Okay, let's see. He can't pronounce right.

He's got healing in sight. That's right. There you go. There you go. I'll put that on our website somewhere. Oh, that was facial. Yeah. It almost, you could see it almost kind of Ben Folds-y, but not really. Yeah, kind of, but not really. But not really. And then there's a country one, too. Oh, no, this is the jazz one. Jazz is just a bunch of...

floating around. I love it. I love it. I can't stand it. Dr. Scott in the corner. There you go. Tall and thin with his ponytail swaying. Where do I begin? There you go. That's what I was talking about. A crack in his lock coat, but a heart made of gold. Healing the weary. Yay! There's a winner there. He stumbles on words, but they roll off his tongue.

That's how they pronounce it in China. He's some. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my God. I'm wondering who put this AI to task. Long-term listeners will. Who put the information there? Here we go. We got one more here. Well, we got this one. Let's try this one here. This is not a song. Hey, Dr. Steve. Hey. I tried that sundial trick to measure my dick circumference. You know what? It stood out there all day.

with my dick on a sundial. The neighbors called the police and all I ended up with was a sunburned dick. Thanks for the good idea. See ya. Thank you, old buddy. What is he talking about? Did we tell people to use a sundial to measure the circumference of their penis? I mean, I...

I don't think it was a sundial. I don't remember that. I don't know. He's misremembering something. Maybe we are. We're making a joke. Maybe we are. Now, you can make a sundial out of your erect member, but you'd have to keep it erect for a really long time. Yeah. There's a way that you can...

if you can put a stick vertically and you would do that by hanging a rope from a, I mean a rock from a rope and then seeing and then lining it up with that because if you're on an angle, it's hard to

understand where verticality is. But you would do that, and then you watch it over time and mark it at different areas. And when you mark it between, I think, dusk and dawn, and you mark between those, that'll be north. And then once you know north, then you can figure out what time it is.

Once you figure out where noon is when the sun is directly overhead. So anyway, you could do that with your dick, but I don't recommend it. All right. So, Dr. Scott, I'll go through the super chats here. It looks like Myrtle Maness gave five Weird Medicine with Dr. Steve memberships. If you want to get a membership...

Thank you.

ORS at the movies gifted 10 weird medicine with Dr. Steve memberships. Thank you, my friend. And Live Ween became a member of the Fluid family. And ORS at the movies had a blocked comment, which I'm going to unblock because we believe in free speech. And I think that's what we got. Oh, here's another one from Golden George. Let me see.

There you go. Okay. I think it was just because they were commenting on the last story about dick bites and stuff, or having your rocking out with your cock out to make sundial, and the AI didn't like that. So anyway, what do you got, Dr. Scott? So let's see. Old Top, truly weird medicine question here. Yeah, good. Has any crazy person ever used livestock emasculator bands to emasculate themselves? No.

I wonder about this every spring banding baby calves. Well, you want to talk about what that is, Scott, because you know what that is. Well, you take a rubber band and put it around their nuts really tight until it chokes off the blood and they atrophy and then fall off.

Yeah. So, you know, there are people that don't like this. Yeah, sure. Particularly places like the Greener World and stuff like that. They say there's wounds observed in 14-month-old bull calves that are castrated using these emasculator bands. But let's see here. I'm looking at a Quora, and that's not a great medical journal.

But it says the Elastrator tool puts a green band around the scrotum and the testicle. The band is pulled in place. And they're asking, they're saying banding is really better for castration play, not actual castration.

And they said, if you really want to castrate anyone, by the way, don't do this. Don't do this. I would suggest Berdizzo clams. We've got to look that up. Oh, geez. See what that is. Look that up. B-U-R-D-I-Z-Z-O. Either way, if you go with an Elastrator, your balls just die and dry up. And ideally, they fall off after a week.

They might not, though, but with Berdizzo Clamps, your body absorbs your balls. That's why that's better. Oh, my God. That sounds horrific. Yikes. So, yeah, please don't do this on humans. It's not fun. And if you really, for whatever reason, feel you need to be castrated, please go see a medical professional. Did you find out anything about Berdizzo? Yeah, they look like professional, like, clamps that you have.

some testicles off with it and probably snip them. They look like real deals. Oh my goodness. That's

That's got to hurt. Castration device employs a large clamp designed to break the blood vessels leading into the testicles. Once the blood supply... Oh, okay. Once the blood supply is lost, the testicular necrosis or dying of tissue occurs. The testicles shrink, soften, eventually deteriorate completely. Okay. So that's what they're talking about in that post. They kill the blood supply and then the testicles just shrink and stop functioning. Yep. But they die. So you've got dead tissue in there.

Don't do this. We are telling you do. And, you know, sometimes I say, hey, don't Google image this and then I'll spell it so you can go. I'm not kidding. Don't do this. Absolutely not. All right. It's insane. It's I'm not sure why we have to feel like we have to repurpose everything to, you know, for sexual purposes, you know.

I don't get that part. I mean, I do get it, but we should stop doing it. All right. You got anything else? I'll do it. Okay. Very good. Thank you guys. We appreciate y'all. Appreciate you. Thanks. Always go to Dr. Scott. Thanks to everyone who's made the show happen over the years.

Listen to our Sirius XM show on the Faction Talk channel. Sirius XM, channel 103, Saturdays at 7 p.m. Eastern, Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern, on demand, and other times at Jim McClure's pleasure. Many thanks to our listeners, whose voicemail and topic ideas make this job very easy. Go to our website at drsteve.com for schedules, podcasts, and other crap. Go to Dr. Scott's website at simplyherbals.net for stuff that really isn't crap.

Until next time, check your stupid nuts for lumps, quit smoking, get off your asses, get some exercise. We'll see you in one week for the next edition of Weird Medicine. Thanks, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Experience holiday cheer at Tanger Outlets with savings up to 70% off your favorite brands. From fragrances to accessories and the latest styles.

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