The Q&A Files
The Q&A Files drops A Wellness Explosion
💥 BOOM! Attention Wellness Warriors. The game changer you have been waiting for is finally here. Say hello to “The Q&A Files,” where wellness meets revolution and your questions lead to new discoveries. Spearheaded by Trisha Jamison, your host, a Board Certified Functional Nutritionist. Cohost Dr. Jeff Jamison, a Board Certified Family Physician, and featured guest, Tony Overbay, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. This podcast blends three diverse perspectives to tackle your questions on health, nutrition, medicine, mental wellness, and relationships. Dive into a world of expert insights and actionable advice, all sparked by your curiosity. Tune in, ignite your wellness journey, and join the Wellness Warrior community.
The Q&A Files
24. Balancing Love and Medicine: Wisdom from 13,367 Days of Marriage and the Science of Laughter
Ever wondered how humor can be a prescription for a healthier life? Join us as we celebrate 13,367 days of marriage, sharing our journey filled with love, laughter, and the life lessons we've gathered along the way. We’re excited to also thank our wonderful listeners for helping us approach the incredible milestone of 1,000 podcast downloads. You'll hear firsthand from Dr. Jeff about the scientific benefits of incorporating fun into daily routines, which can lead to reduced stress, the release of endorphins, and better heart function. As we celebrate our enduring partnership, we’ll share invaluable advice for those looking to balance their professional and personal lives, especially in demanding fields like medicine.
In this episode, we emphasize the critical role of a strong support system during the physically and emotionally taxing years of medical school and practice. From trading babysitting services with fellow couples to prioritizing family time, we explore how community and collaboration helped us maintain our equilibrium, but we are still working on it! Dr. Jeff and I also dive into practical tips, such as the creation of a med school note pool program for difficult times and how starting medical school at a non-traditional life stage shaped our experiences. We discuss the game-changing advent of the "Hospitalist" specialty and the often-overlooked significance of medical expertise in nutrition and coaching. Don't miss our heartfelt conversation filled with actionable insights and profound reflections.
We would love to hear from you! Email at trishajamisoncoaching@gmail.com
Hello Wellness Warriors, Welcome to another exciting episode of the Q&A Files. I'm your host, Trisha Jameson, and joining me today is my partner in crime, Dr Jeff. Tony is out of the office today, but we've got a fantastic show lined up for you today, and we are coming again to you from beautiful Mexico. So one of the things that we love to start off with are celebrations. What is a celebration that you can share with us today?
Speaker 2:Well, I was looking at how long we've been married and I am just celebrating that we've been together now for 13,367 days, which I think is pretty interesting, and when it goes down to the second, it's 1,154,868,228,2930 seconds. So I am just enjoying every minute of our time together, especially here in Mexico. We've just enjoyed our time here and, more than anything, I just enjoy time with my dear wife, tricia.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, I can't top that one. That is so fun. I love that that is a dedicated partner right there.
Speaker 2:So I think that by the way, that's 439 months, 1,910 weeks.
Speaker 1:Oh, that is just great. I love that. Thank you for sharing that. I wouldn't have even thought about sharing something like that, so that's so fun. I also want to share. Before we dive into questions, I want to take a moment and share some really exciting news with you. We've recently hit a milestone with our podcast reaching over 100,000 downloads.
Speaker 2:Oh, come on, she's always lying to us. Don't listen to a word she says oh yeah, do listen to something.
Speaker 1:No, but you know what. We are on the road. We are doing great and we could not have been as far as we are without you, our incredible listeners. So thank you so much for your continued support and for tuning in every week, and one day we will definitely get to 100,000 downloads and I will definitely be celebrating with you, absolutely and all of definitely be celebrating with you Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And all of us. So thank you. Well, our last episode I forgot to share something really important and as we were talking about blood pressure, we forgot to mention how important it is to add humor and some fun in your life. So my mantra is if you aren't having fun, then why do it? And you've just got to have fun. You've got to allow that time to enjoy life just like we are right now and incorporate the fun and the humor, and that is going to actually help you manage your blood pressure. So I wanted to share this little piece of information with you and this is definitely what the doctor and the health coach ordered, and we want to order it for you as well and just teach you how to relax and enjoy life. But if you're feeling the squeeze from high blood pressure, well it turns out, the best medicine might just be a good belly laugh. Here's why you should consider trading in those blood pressure meds for a comedy show ticket.
Speaker 1:Number one stress buster. When life hands you lemons, throw them back and laugh. Stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline hate laughter. They pack their bags and leave, taking your stress and your high blood pressure with them. Two is endorphin boost. Laughing releases endorphins, nature's very own mood boosters. It's like getting a free high without any questionable substances, just pure, unadulterated joy. Three is blood flow fun.
Speaker 1:According to the smart folks at the University of Maryland Medical Center, laughter makes your blood vessels do the cha-cha, expanding and increasing blood flow. Think of it as your arteries having their own little dance party. Four is relaxation station. Laughing engages the parasympathetic nervous system, which is basically your body's wave saying chill out, dude. This counteracts a fight or flight response and helps your blood pressure take a vacation, kind of like we are right now. Five is muscle magic. After a good laugh, your muscles relax. Picture them lounging in hammocks with tiny sunglasses. Relaxed muscles mean lower blood pressure and guess what? It's all science. Six is heart happy. The American Journal of Hypertension says laughter improves heart function and reduces arterial stiffness. Basically, your heart gets to do yoga without you having to roll out a mat. So next time you're feeling the pressure, skip the stress and head straight to the punchlines. Your heart and your blood pressure will thank you.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's fun.
Speaker 1:So let's go on to our questions today. So I hope that you can enjoy that a little bit and just take some time to relax and find some things funny in your life. Whether it's pulling up something on YouTube, the funniest home videos are always fun to take a chuckle at. So just incorporate the fun and the funny parts of your life. We've got some questions that have been coming to us and they kind of have been pretty random, so I compiled them into just having us take a few minutes today to spend some time answering them. So this question is from Randy and he says has it been hard to be married to a doctor? I would like to go to medical school, but I'm concerned for my future family. What advice can you give me? Oh, I feel like this is a loaded question For sure it's rough.
Speaker 2:There's no doubt I've got some really interesting things that I'd recommend. First of all, if you're considering medical school, make sure that there's nothing else you'd rather do before doing it, because it's really hard, it's a lot of work, it takes a lot of time and it does impact your family. And also consider your specialty, because if you're a family practice doc versus a general surgeon or an orthopedic surgeon or something like that, your lifestyle will be drastically different. So make sure you choose your specialty well. For me, I chose family medicine for that purpose. In fact, I was considering strongly going into general surgery and I had a couple of really great offers to go into residency programs which I had to let go because both of those residency programs had residents that were not only not married but they were either getting divorced or couldn't even find the time to have another relationship. And when we went to medical school, by the time we were done, we had three children and there was no way I was going to sacrifice them on the altar of medicine.
Speaker 1:Well, and I remember when he was especially at that residency, the residents were there before he got there, before Jeff got there, and they left after Jeff left and he was already putting in 90 hours a week, so it was pretty insane.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was one of the programs that I went to in Arizona, and as a medical student and I wasn't a resident at that time, but as a medical student my job was done before the residents jobs were done, and most of the people that worked during that time were working so many hours that it just I don't know how they did it. I don't know how I did what I did either, for that matter, but it was a long, hard road and it was worth it for what we did, but it was very difficult. So how was it living with a doctor, honey?
Speaker 1:difficult. So how was it living with a doctor honey? Like I said, I think this is a very loaded question. We've been having too much fun to go down this road. No, I think I'm grateful that laws have changed because they didn't use to really take into account, you know, making sure that the medical students and residents, that they had time to relax and just take some reprieve time. And there are times that Jeff would go in and he would have 36 hours on, 12 hours off, and that's just. I wouldn't want anybody taking care of me that had been up for 36 hours. But, like I said, thankfully that has changed.
Speaker 1:I think, having a really good support system, whether you're when you're in medical school, I did have, you know, the wives were pretty tight and we had a nice support group. But you want to make sure, and we did a lot of trading. We did a lot of you know. But you want to make sure, and we did a lot of trading, we did a lot of you know, cause you have no money, and so we did a lot of trading with other couples, whether it's just getting out as a couple, and we really tried hard to do that, actually almost every week, even if it was just for a walk around the block, anything to just get out. But also having time for myself, uh, really hard Cause, like I said, you didn't have money or away from family and you just don't have that support, like you would. You know, being close to family and we're in the Midwest so, um, you know, and it's just a different culture there actually. So I think that just making sure that you're taking time for you, so it'd be your spouse and you know I'd get up really early in the morning and I would run around this really small little lake before Jeff went to school and that actually saved me and it just gave me my own time and I was able to start fresh and new every morning and that was really helpful. But then just getting together with the other wives was really important and just having playdates and that kind of thing, but just making sure that you have time for each other, as it's really really busy. And Jeff had a he did something called a note pool program and he actually put that together during medical school and it was really important because every class they had someone taking notes and so if, for whatever reason, that student missed that day, they were still able to get all the notes for that class that they may have missed, and so that was really important. So when I was actually pregnant and really, really sick, he missed quite a bit of school but he had that note pool that he was able to really take advantage of that. He actually he actually put that together and so that was really important.
Speaker 1:So I think that just being really creative, making sure that your family still stays a priority as best you can. Obviously, you know it takes a different type of people to be able to go through that, because it is not easy Lots of long hours, the wife is home a lot, alone a lot, and it's pretty stressful. But as far as it being worth that today Jeff still works really long hours, he works really hard every day. But you know, I think it's benefited our family Definitely. We have a daughter that has been trying to get in to see a physician in the state that she's in and she's been really struggling and she just commented how much her dad had definitely spoiled her. So he's definitely spoiled our whole family. So I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but is it worth it. I think that communities need physicians. I think it's a dying breed, unfortunately, but if that's where your heart is, by all means go after it. Go after your dream.
Speaker 2:The other thing that's interesting about medical training is that not only does it take a long time, but different situations can distract you in ways that may or may not help you. For instance, for me, I went to medical school at. I started at age 29 and we had two children. There were other medical students that were 21, 22 years old, that were in my same class, and they found themselves partying and doing other things besides studying, and some of them there were two or three of them who flunked out because they weren't paying attention.
Speaker 2:The cool thing about having a family for me going into school was that it kept me grounded. I treated medical school like a job. I went to school from eight to five. I came home and I was dad and husband for the rest of the evening, and sometimes for the next day too if we had a sick child. So it was really important for me to feel grounded and be stable in my medical school training, and that helped me a lot. So from there on out, some days are good. Some days were hard. When I started practice as a family physician, I did outpatient medical care as well as inpatient in the hospital care, and so I was going back and forth, and if you're on call, you're getting telephone calls from the hospital all night long too. So it was very hard, and when the Advent of Hospitalist program came out and I was able to just do outpatient care, it really simplified my life.
Speaker 1:We celebrated. Let me tell you.
Speaker 2:It was fantastic Anyway, so that was enough for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the last thing I just want to add is be prepared to not have them be there for birthdays and celebrations and holidays, because a lot of times they're on call, so that makes it a little challenging as well. But for the most part, I definitely think there's been probably more benefits than the challenges, even though there's been plenty of challenges as well. Great question, randy. Really appreciate you asking that question. I hope we answered that for you. So this question is from Sheldon, and they said what valuable insights have you gained from Dr Jeff's medical expertise that have influenced your coaching methods and vice versa? Okay, so that must be for me. So, tricia, what valuable insights have you gained from Dr Jeff's medical expertise that have influenced your coaching methods and vice versa? Well, I'm going to think about that one for a second. I'm going to hand that over to Jeff.
Speaker 2:Well, this is a really simple question for me, because in medical school and residency we really don't get a lot of nutrition and nutrition understanding.
Speaker 2:We learned a lot about pharmacology, the study of medications, their use, their side effects, all of that stuff. We worked long and hard on that, but we didn't really get any information or instruction about nutrition. Well, maybe one hour or two hours, that was really it. But I believe it was Aristotle who said let thy medicine be thy food and thy food be thy medicine, and that really is an important statement that I've worked on lately to be able to help people do better on their own by using food properly and staying away from foods that are not good for them, and how that can help them more than, or at least as much as, some medication. So that is a really important part. That Tricia's helped me a lot to understand better the role of nutrition, how to use certain foods to help people burn out inflammation and to improve their exercise and have a much better lifestyle. Just from her understanding and, as she's learned, her health coaching expertise.
Speaker 1:So when I think about this, I think a lot about how Jeff like, if we have labs that have been sent to me, we'll go through those together and he does an amazing job explaining some of the key components to deficiencies or things that we need to be focusing on.
Speaker 1:Definitely, medication he does a great job explaining all the medications as well and their side effects. I don't prescribe any medications, but a lot of times when we're doing some health histories, they will put those on there, so I will ask them a lot of those questions. So he definitely has his expertise has been invaluable, there's no doubt, and I depend on a lot of different modalities in his practice that have been very helpful for me, I think, to just watching how he actually runs his practice and how he is with his staff. It may not be so much about the specifics of medicine, but just even how, what an incredible boss he is and how much he cares for his patients and his staff. So I think that that's been pretty prevalent in his practice as well. Yeah, he's pretty amazing. He's got a lot of great talents that he gets to share with a lot of people and I'm grateful to be able to be part of that.
Speaker 2:Well, that's very nice of you, honey, to say those things, and we work really hard together, the staff and I, and I want to make sure that they know how important they are to me and how strong they have done to support me and to make sure that the whole office runs smoothly. If it wasn't for every one of them, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to run a medical practice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's got some pretty dependable people that he has a privilege of having work with him, but they are also pretty darn lucky to have him as well. All right, so our next question is from Jennifer, and she asks could you share a memorable success story where you both combined skills as a coach and a physician that helps someone make a significant positive change in their life?
Speaker 2:Okay, well, I think that we're probably maybe we're thinking about the same patient, but there's a patient that we have shared yes, that this patient we just love, she and her husband.
Speaker 2:They are wonderful people and she came to me with a whole bunch of medical problems, not the least of which was out-of-control diabetes and obesity, and these things were something that we spent several appointments getting straightened out.
Speaker 2:It took labs and different medications and so on. But I knew that there was one piece of the problems that she was having that we hadn't addressed properly, and that was her liver. She had some increased liver function, she had difficulty processing the foods that she was eating and things were not going well with her diet, her exercise, her weight was just out of control and things were not going well. So I did first a bunch of labs, went through a lot of things that we needed to do to change, changed her medication, took some away, started some new ones, things like that and then I said okay, in order for you to really get where you need to go, you've got to also put together your diet and exercise program. I referred her to Tricia, and Tricia has taken it from there and she has done a wonderful job, and I'll let her describe what she's done.
Speaker 1:So when Sharon came to me she was pretty depressed. She was definitely obese and she, like Jeff said, she had liver issues and kidney issues. She was not on an exercise program or anything. So we did. I've been working with her for about three years now. She's lost over a hundred pounds. She is off a lot of her medication now Most Yep. She focuses on eating healthy. Her lifestyle has completely changed, done a 180.
Speaker 1:When people see her, she just had a high school 50-year class reunion and most people didn't even recognize her because she had lost so much weight. So even when she was younger I think she was overweight as well. But people see her and they just can't even believe the transformation that she's made. But it just isn't in food, it's about how she feels about herself. So she used to have a hard time kind of standing up for herself and having a voice.
Speaker 1:And she runs this amazing car show and she's in charge of a lot of different things. Now she knows who I'm talking about, but she is amazing. Now she knows who I'm talking about, but she is amazing and people look up to her and she can handle herself in such a different way because she has so much more confidence and self-esteem and it's just beautiful to see how she has just literally come alive and blossomed into this amazing person that you know. I'm just thrilled to not only have been able to work with her but really call her a really dear friend of ours as well and, like Jeff said, we love she and her husband together, so they both have just been amazing. But, yeah, just seeing the transformation in her and being able to work with Jeff and we do, we collaborate a lot with she and many other patients and clients that we both have together.
Speaker 2:And this is a really important feature that I think a lot of people forget is that the psychological, the emotional, spiritual pieces that are a part of a person are often overlooked and forgotten in medicine, and sometimes I mean if we could do the best job ever, it would be to incorporate the physical problems that people have and trying to have physical and medical solutions for them, and sometimes even surgical, but then coupling them with emotional, psychological and spiritual support. Those things help round a person out and make them the best they can be, and that's where the rubber really meets the road in Tricia and my collaboration.
Speaker 1:Thank you, I think that that was well well articulated. Thank you, I think that that was well articulated. Thank you so much. Well, this was super fun and we enjoyed reading your questions. I hope we answered your questions in a way that you enjoyed as well, and we are grateful that we have this opportunity to share some knowledge, to share some of our stories and, to you know, be here together.
Speaker 2:It's been great.
Speaker 1:So that wraps things up for another episode of the Q&A Files. Thank you so much for joining us today and for your wonderful questions. If you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe and leave us a review and we would love to hear from you and answer any questions that you may have. Please email me at Trisha Jamison coaching at gmailcom, and again, we'd love to answer anything that you have health related, medical relationship, anything that you may have.
Speaker 2:Thanks everybody for joining us. Have a great day.
Speaker 1:Until next time, take care and keep those questions coming.
