Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Interview of the Week: Dr. Jennifer Ashton - ABC News Chief Medical Correspondent, OB-GYN, Nutritionist, and Best-selling Author, new book “The New Normal: A Roadmap to Resilience in the Pandemic Era‪”‬

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Interview of the Week: Dr. Jennifer Ashton - ABC News Chief Medical Correspondent, OB-GYN, Nutritionist, and Best-selling Author, new book “The New Normal: A Roadmap to Resilience in the Pandemic Era‪”‬ · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
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  Speaker 1: next person, she is what I call an industry decision maker.
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  Speaker 1: My next guest is Dr Jennifer Ashton. Dr Aston is
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: a double Board certified physician as an O, B G
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  Speaker 1: Y N and Obesis and Obesity medicine and the nutritionist
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  Speaker 1: with a master's degree in nutrition where she hate the
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: fact that I actually have a Kristpy creemes on my
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: app I have Krispy Creme doing up. She is ABC
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: news Chief Medical Correspondent. Dr Jennifer Aston has been a
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: trusted voice providing vital health and medical information that's g
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: M A three what you need to Know and constant
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  Speaker 1: coverage on ABC's news on the COVID nineteen pandemic. She
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: released saw the latest book, The New Normal, A Road
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Back to Resilience in the Pandemic Era. It must read
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: God and I must say it is a must read
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: guy to dealing with the continued challenges of the pandemic.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Because tell you what, Folks is not going anywhere, and
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: we discussed she discusses that in the book. She's one
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: of the most trusted health personalities on TV today she's
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: an active medical practice, is a leading voice in a
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: new book, The New Almost out now, and we teach
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: us how to think like a doctor, which I never
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: ever thought about, the whole principle to help us stay inform,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: make decisions about your health, and better navigate the new normal.
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  Speaker 1: Please welcome to Money Making Conversation. Dr Jennifer Aston. How
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  Speaker 1: you doing, sir? Thank you for that very kind intro,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: and I'm so glad to be able to talk with you. Well,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: you know that I think that you have been probably
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: first of all, I feel fortunate to have you on
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: this show. You know, it was either you or Dr Foulcher.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: You you, you and my people. You know what I'm saying,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: you know, because of the fact that, okay, let's have
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: going back when it all happened, because that's what this
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: book is about, the new normal. Okay, when I thought
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: it was just gonna be two months. I can tell
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: you this, Dr Ashton. When I first went out, I
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: live in Houston, and I live in Atlanta, Georgia. My
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, and I was in Houston and
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I drove down surprised my family because you know, nobody
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: wanted to fly so I just drove. I just up
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: woke up and drove to Houston from Atlanta, and I
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: went inside my first home depot. I had a mask,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: I had rubber gloves. I have my uh little peril
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: I had because before it got cleared off the ship,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: I just happen to have some parrel. And when I
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: got back to my truck, I didn't know what to do.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: I didn't know do I take my gloves off? Do
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: I do? I do I put the lotion on my hands.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: It was that whole I guess uncertainty. That's unsafe zone.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Now I'm a lot more comfortable not saying that I'm
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: not wearing a mask. I wear a mask. I understand
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: my understanding respect social distancing now. But that's something that
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: you have the educators on and you had to live
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: through the process of dealing with a political system at
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: the time that was in denial by COVID, and Anteen
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: talked to us about that. Well, I think it was
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: more than denial. I mean, first of all, I you've
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: heard me say in my book, You've heard me say
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: on national television, I stay in my lane. Um, you know,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: I'm a doctor. I speak about medicine, health, wellness, public
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  Speaker 1: health science. That's it. Thank goodness. I am not a politician.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: I don't know anything about finances like you do. UM.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: I don't know about whether entertainment. Don't ask me the
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: latest show except for Britain. I haven't watched any TV
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: in the last year. UM. But when this all started,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: the issue I think was that the masks was not
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: communicated well. And so that was one of those really
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: seminal moments in the pandemic where we lost a lot
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: of trust um, and by we, I mean everyone in
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: science and medicine. And the reason for that, let me
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: just explain, is that we did not know before April
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: of last year that so many p bowl could be
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: infected with COVID and show no symptoms at all and
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: spread the virus. We also didn't know that it would
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: shut down the entire world because we had never seen
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: that in anyone's lifetime, right molesque influenza pandemic, and so
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: prior to April, in medicine, the only time we put
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: a mask on someone was a sick person in the
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: hospital to protect others. So even though a lot of
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: people would say, well, isn't it common sense to put
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: a mask on yes and no. But in science and
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: medicine we go by data, not just well something looks
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: like it makes sense. And also remember that those types
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: of supplies were in very, very high demand, so we
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: couldn't say to the entire country million people, yeah, everyone
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: put a mask on UM because A we didn't have
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: the science to support that. Be we didn't know that
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  Speaker 1: so many people could be in fact did with COVID
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: and NAT show symptoms and see we had a ppe shortage.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: So until we learned what we learned in the first
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: three months, the recommendation was, no, this is not necessary.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: I know it makes people feel better, but there's no
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: science to support this. And I have UM. You know,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: I go through in the book. I have a lot
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: of these ashton Isms, as I like to call them,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: which are these medical sayings that I've said in the
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: last sixteen years of being a doctor, and and one
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: of them is that I really believe you can communicate
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: any level of complex medical or scientific information to anyone,
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  Speaker 1: including a child, if the messenger is the right person
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: or you know, uses the right communication skills. And to
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: be honest, the right communication skills were not used early
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: on in the pandemic um. But as I also say
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: in the book, we have a big leaver in that saying,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: be careful when you point a finger, because three are
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: usually pointing back at you. And so I don't I'm
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: not one that says, well, it was this person's fault
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: or that faults or whatever. We've got more than enough
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: to handle right now by staying in the present and
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: looking in the future. Well, here's the thing I'm talking
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: to Dr Jennifer Aston, the New Normal, that's the name
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: of her book. Uh, I'm gonna go some things that
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: really are stood out to me, the importance of laughter
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: and love. Talk to me about that. Yeah, I mean,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: anyone who's been through a crisis or a trauma in
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: their life knows that, Um. You know, laughter can be
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  Speaker 1: more than just an icebreaker, right, It can be therapeutic. Um.
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  Speaker 1: Anyone who's been to a week of funeral um and
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  Speaker 1: it stood vigil in a hospital while someone is in
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  Speaker 1: the operating room knows that. You know, sometimes that's a
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  Speaker 1: really powerful way to kind of release a lot of
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: tension and stress, and it can be very healing. Um.
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  Speaker 1: So I think if we can't laugh usually, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I say, at ourselves and for me, that's an endless
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  Speaker 1: supply of material. Let's just put it that way. You know,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: then then we're really in trouble. And in terms of love,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: I think that you know, this is an area that
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: does cross, you know, straddle lanes between medicine and public
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  Speaker 1: health and and the rest of our society. Is that
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  Speaker 1: I really do believe that if you act with love
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  Speaker 1: as your primary motivation, you will never go wrong. Well,
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: the thing about it is that you are a real doctor.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: Will emphasize that because the fact that the reason to
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: say that because you have to deal with certain levels
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: of anxiety here you have to deal with real patients
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: okay o b G Ryan uh. And then your nutrition noess.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: And then also you have to come on TV because
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: some of your life was flipped from just being a
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: periodically on TV the TV all the time, which in
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: turn meant that you became an authority on something that
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: you were developing information as you went along, and people
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: will hold you accountable for if you said something and
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: again you're still in the learning process. Would you turn
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: put stress on you? How did that stress create anxiety
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: in your life? You talk about it. There's certain instances
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: in your book Um, in my situation, I gained weight.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: You know, my whole life had suddenly become at the house.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: I picked up five pounds, I realized I was even
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: three meals a day. So that was the stress that
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: was that was brought into my life. Your stress was
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: because your face was now recognizable an America's authority on
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: that I'm used to work. Correctly, you are an authority
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: on COVID naighteen and that was not fair. Correct. Well,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: let me person of all, it's my job, so and
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: I and I really feel incredibly blessed to have the
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: responsibility that I have. You know, in medicine, UM, we
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: take this Hippocratic oath, and that is primarily to be
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: a teacher of what we know, whether it's teaching our
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: patients or teaching other student doctors. But I would also
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: if I could revise the Hippocratic oath today, I would
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: add student to it. And that's what I've been doing
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: for over a year. And people say, well, you're not
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: a specialist in infectious disease. Absolutely correct, But a lot
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: of people don't know that. In medical school we have
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: to learn every specialty. We just don't learn one body
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: part and take it four years and then that's it. Um.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: You know, there's a human being connected to that body part,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: so we have to learn every specialty and then in
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: covering this pandemic. Um, I was literally speaking to Tony
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Fauci by personal cell phone either every week or every
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: other week at nine o'clock at night at seven o'clock
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: in the morning. And you're right, there was a massive
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: responsibility that came um on my shoulder, is to not
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: only understand this rapidly evolving and changing information, but to
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: communicate it in the right way. And as you were
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: asking your question, I couldn't help but think you know
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: when you said I I am an actual, real doctor
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: and not just playing one on TV. I do speak
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: to real patients who I'm responsible for their lives, and
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: when they get scared and they get anxious, it doesn't
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: matter that we're one on one. I have to answer
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: their questions and put them at ease both in their
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: mind and in their spirit. And there's absolutely no difference
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: between doing that and what I do on national television.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: So it's like when we have people leaders of faith
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: on g M A three, and every single time we say, gosh,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: that person is a really good speaker, and then I
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: laugh and I say to myself, of course they're a
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: good speaker. That's what they do for a living. They
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: speak to their congregation every week. So um, you know,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: I think that the recognizing that people were scared and
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: anxious and felt this degree of uncertainty was something that
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: I realized literally from the first minute. And I realized
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: it because I was feeling the same thing. You know.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: The interesting thing about your book when I first read it,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: and because it hit home with me because they talked
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: about you know, COVID ninteen and high effects. Uh, you know,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: people of color, African American black men especially. You know,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: it affects men differently than it affects women. In fact,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: the impacts me in a lot more. Picked it up
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: from your book, Dr Aston, thank you very much. Didn't
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: know that, So I'm just letting everybody know a very
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: informative book. But the thing about is that when we
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: hear the story about Jason the bus driver who made
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: national news. I remember I saw his video when he
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: was complaining about the person who was coughing on the bus,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: and then weeks later he died. But it was not
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: only tied to COVID but we started to realize COVID
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: affected people for different ways. And then in a book
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: you started you start talking about how you can create change,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: and one of the great changes is weight loss. Right,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: So I want to unpack two really important things that
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: you say. There is Shawn. Number one, race okay, um,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: the effects, the disproportionate effects on people of color, black
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: and brown populations for this virus. Uh was should have
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: been seen and expected. Oh that's my little doggie here
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: and home um. And so it was not a surprise
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: that we were seeing more obesity, more high blood pressure, UM,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: more heart disease, coexisting medical conditions, pre existing medical conditions
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: in people of color. Therefore, it's not a surprise when
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: you saw more disproportionate rate of death amongst black and
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: brown people with this pandemic. Also their jobs which put
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: them at risk, their access to testing and medical care
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: put them at risk. And right now, I think we're
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: in a very interesting but precarious position in medicine because
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: on the one hand, there are people who think that
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: you should not identify someone at all by their race
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: or ethnicity in medicine, and everyone should just you know,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: be you should be blinded to that and treat everyone
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: the same. I fundamentally disagree with that because what that
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: does is it throws out all of the knowledge that
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: we have about what constitutes you at being at a
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: higher risk than a thirty year old Asian woman for example. Right,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: And if we can't identify risk factors, then we can't
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: take aggressive preventative steps to protect you. So I do think,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: and I talk about Jason's story in the book about
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: how when he died of COVID we didn't even know.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Being male put you at risk at greater risk. Being
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: black put you at greater risk. Being obese put you
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: at greater risk. Having diabetes put you a greater risk.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: Now we do so as individuals and as doctors, we
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: can take steps to lower that risk. You can never
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: make it zero, right, I can't. I can't make you
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: not male, I can't make you not black. I can't
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: make someone, um who is seventy five not seventy five.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: But we can take steps to reduce the conditions of
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: overweight and obesity. So I go through those dietary steps.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: Some of them are easy. Believe me, this is not
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: a major overhaul. These are baby steps. Um, But who
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: do you know someone who's not concerned about their weight
• 15:42
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  Speaker 1: dot ai. You know, interesting thing about it is that
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  Speaker 1: you're absolutely right. Like you say in your book, you
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: say what you can't change is your age, but everything
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: else you can have an impact on. When you discuss
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: dit beats, you talk about low load sugar, nutrition more
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: exercise sustained weight loss, but the big thing is the
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: weight loss, you know. And I'm I'm African American, and
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: I know my sisters, I know my family, I know
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: the history of African Americans. Our diets uh tend to
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: run open. It's high blood pressure, cholesterol levels, tend to
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: run higher, diabetes, and suddenly this pandemic comes into our lives.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: And I remember I was watching the news and it
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: was not based in Atlanta. There was an eight of
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: the tend um patients checked into hospital or African America.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: I was actually stunned. I couldn't believe it. But from
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: a media standpoint, do you think there was not recognized
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: early on? All the world was just confused, that's what
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: was going on. And especially just seeing African Americans rolling
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: into in hospital blaming it own, you know, large households, uh,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: mass transit services and things like that. I think there
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: was a lot of blame. It goes back to what
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: I said about pointing the finger, right. I mean, in
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: my opinion, I have looked at this pandemic and our
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: country like it's one big patient and so and someone,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: for example, who's been a lifelong smoker comes into the
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: hospital with lung cancer. We don't blame the person for
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: smoking cigarettes for thirty years. We treat their lung cancer.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: And so I think that you know, pointing out the
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: reasons why is important so you can try to fix them.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: But if it's done with the intention of shifting responsibility,
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: then I think that's a problem. And UM, you know,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: I'll share with you something that I hope will inspire
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: your viewers, um like it has inspired me and my family.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: But in the last week, I've been yet on quarantine
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: again for sean again, even though I've had both doses
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: of the vaccine. UM. I was exposed to someone who
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: has COVID at work and I had quarantine, and I
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: decided that I wanted to do my own dietary experiment
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: during this period of quarantine. And I had watched the
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: movie Game Changers, which I don't know if you've seen it,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: but if you haven't, I recommended, And it's about all
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: of these elite athletes and normal people who change their
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: diet and become vegan. Now, I will tell you I
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: was the about as far from a vegan as it
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: is possible to be. Okay, I ate chicken every single day,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: eggs every single day pork. I loved pork. I was
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: trying to cut down on red meat, but I was
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: I mean every meal, I was eating head animal protein
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: in it. This is just ten days ago, by the way,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: you're the first person I'm discussing this. And I said,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: let me get my kids who are in college, and
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: you know they're around obviously because they're not in school,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: and I said, let's try this experiment. Let's do it together.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: And I've got all these kind of frozen fake meat
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: things and looked up some recipes and whatever. And I'm
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: ten days in. I have not had an egg, i
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: have not had chicken, I've not had dairy, and I've
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: not had pork. And I'm still alive, and actually I
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: feel pretty good. Now. I'm not suggesting that you have
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: to go to that extreme, but my point with that,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: and I go through this in the book and in
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: my other books also, but specifically in The New Normal,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: is that you can This is one of those silver
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: lining blessings I believe in this pandemic is we're all
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: at home a lot more, and you know, we're all
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: concerned with our health. So now is the time to
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: try one of these experiments. Because you literally have nothing
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: to lose other than a couple of pounds. And that
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: is a major, major way that anyone can improve their health,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: lower their cholesterol, lose a couple of pounds, and protect
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: the environment. Believe it or not. Um Even though that
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: wasn't my primary motivation, the more I learned about it,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: the more it's getting up there. But listen, if I
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: can do it, anyone can do it. I'm gonna be
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: honest with you. I I started my own little home garden.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: I had to look at three tomato pots. I I
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: harvested over a hundred tomatoes. I had my Popolamo peppers.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: I have my Haalopenia peppers, cilantro uh. And so now
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: I bought a new building in Atlanta, and so I
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: have a certain area because it's a private lot that
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: I'm on. One of a private lot I've set aside,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: and I told my staff that's going to be our
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: garden where I'm going to have potatoes out there. I'm
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: going to have Atlantish cabbages, excuse me. And it's about
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: eight different vegetables. Because I I want to agree with you,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: this is the time when you want to change your habits,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: change your life, your life. I am going all live
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: and I would tell you this, A homegrown tomato is
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: a lot sweeter than a store about tomato. So when
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: you buy stuff from an organic is not chemically induced.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: So I am your pain and I read it in
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: your book. I read you know, because I read that
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: about the pandemic. It's physical. I did the pandemic physical
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: idea that December and so so I would like going
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: through your book on chick chick okay, doctor chick check
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: and then and also I got to the point we
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: said the pros and cons of tele telemedicine. Because you
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: are a real doctor, talkers talked to us about the
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: whole pros and cause of telemedicine. Well, the first thing
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: I would say to your to your viewers is whether
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: it's telemedicine or texting or just a local clinic that
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: you like, make sure you have a connection, a relationship,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: ideally with some kind of healthcare provider. UM. That's another
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: one of the wake up calls of this pandemic. People
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: get sick, they don't know who to call. UM. You know,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: I and I do believe that telemedicine, as I talked
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: about in the in the book, is the silver lining
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: of this pandemic because there's a lot that you can
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: accomplish with the telemedicine visit with a provider that you
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: don't have to go a long distance, wait in a
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: waiting room, etcetera, etcetera. There's a tremendous amount that can
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: be done via telemedicine. UM. In the past, people were
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: kind of intimidated by it, but we had no choice
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: in this pandemic. UM. You know, I saw my patients
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: that way for three months when we were on lockdown
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: in New York City. So, UM, look, you can't do
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: any kg, you can't draw blood via telemedicine yet, but
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: you can accomplish a lot. And I think that the
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: key and why I wanted to write the book and
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: really explain to people how to think like a doctor,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: is so that they could understand when do I need
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: to go to the emergency room, When do I need
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: to go to urgic here? When do I need to
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: call my own doctor? You know, if you have one,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: UM how to assess these things? Is it really bad?
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Is it? You know? Emergency room level? And you don't
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: have to be a doctor to learn to think like one,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: and that can help alleviate a lot of the anxiety
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: and the uncertainty, not only for us but for our family. Yeah,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: you talk about you have anxiety moment in the book. Well,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: you thought you may have have COVID because your blood
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: parsons changed. You called for your children, they called the emergency,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: and then you refused to go because then you attend
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: the discussion about e R when you should go to
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: the hospital. That's the whole process of what you're talking
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: about in the book to talk about that moment, because
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: I think we all because I would, let me tell
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: you this doctor asked them. I remember when when COVID,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: when we was being quarantined, if I got a caugh,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: I really was a high level paranoord about what was
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: happening to me, you know, you know, because I didn't know.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: Nobody was giving me information, so I didn't know. And
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: I'm a guy who knows my body, I really do.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: And I love what you're talking about knowing your body. Exercise,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: talk to yourself and walk through the whole process. Because
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: that's what this book breaks down. It's when you said
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: thinking like a doctor, and when you had that moment,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: I could, I could. I was so sympathetic in your
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: whole process because of the fact that one you're dealing
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: with it all the time. You said Rahand in your book,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: acting like you're talking to me. You said, made a
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: breathing ground for pandemics, cruise ships, prison, nursing, the holds
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: in the households. Here you are thinking you have COVID
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: eighteen workers through that process. So you know when I well,
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: First of all, my brother, who's also a doctor in
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: the bronx Um up here in New York, had COVID
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: in March um. He got exposed taking care of patients
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: in the emergency room. And soon after that, I had
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: an episode that one night that I talked about in
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: the book. It turned out to be an allergic reaction.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: But my blood pressure dropped and my heart rate went
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: pretty high, and I almost fainted. I almost lost consciousness.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: And I was just home with um my two children
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: who were in college, and my daughter's boyfriend, also a
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: college student, and I'm the only parent my kids have.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: So there's a lot of pressure that's in the back
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: of my mind always, right, I mean, the only reason
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: most parents, I think would agree with this that I
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: really care about my health is because my kids. Right,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Because if I die, I'm dead, but I don't want
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: to leave my kids without a parent. So um. I
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: was on the phone with my boyfriend at the time,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: who's also a doctor, and he said, you don't sound good.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: You should call nine one one. And I have never
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: called nine one one in my life, so right there,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: it tells you kind of what level I was at.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: And the paramedics came into my apartment and they checked
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: my blood pressure and I started to feel better. My
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: vital signs were normal, and they said I told him
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: I was a doctor, and they said, do you want
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: to go to the emergency room? And I said absolutely
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: not because New York City was on lockdown at this point.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: I did not want to be exposed to COVID, and
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: I knew based on my vital signs that I was okay,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: that it was likely just a reaction to some bene
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: drill that was probably buyer that I took. But the
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: point is that I explained in the book is that
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: I have that medical knowledge, but the average reader doesn't.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: So when you get scared, or when you have a symptom,
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: how should you decide where to take it? And I
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: go through a lot of those Ashton is ms. Like
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: you know, really bad things don't get better on their own,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: get worse. So if you're getting worse and not better,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: you should get it checked out. If you would have
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: gone to the emergency room for this issue in then
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: you should probably go now because now hospitals are much safer,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: you know, And if you're having chest pain or the
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: worst headache of your life, something that could literally kill you,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: you should one call nine one one and get yourself
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: to an emergency. We talked about so I kind of
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: talk people through that. R right. Absolutely, you do do
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: a very fantastic job. I talked about the pros and
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: calm of telemedicine where you ought to your doctor. You
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: are double Board certified nutrition nutrition iss Where should we
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: not get this is my favorite chapter book. We're not
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: to get your medical news that so you know, I
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: was deep in the book, so you know, doctor Aston,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: I was deep in the book when I got to
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: that part, and I just wanted to talk about that
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: before we leave. And I want to also thank you
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: for taking the time to be on the show to
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: bring my view was a very heartwarming book and also
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: informative book. But before you go afrom and talk about
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: where not to get well. Don't get it from your
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: next door neighbor unless they're a doctor. Don't get it
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: from your friend unless they're a doctor. Don't get it
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: from any um like non credential social media sites right um,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: you know it should be CDC or someone with an
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: m D after their name that has the position like
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: I do. Where you know, millions and millions of people
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: are listening. So I have to make sure every single
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: word I say is accurate and correct to the best
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: of our knowledge based on scientific data. I mean, it
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: is unbelievable how many times I speak to real people
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: who say, well, I heard that dot dot dot and
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: I and I say, this is not a game of telephone.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: You guys, like, what do you mean you heard it?
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: This isn't a gossip story, This is your health. So
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: I do go through that in the book. And you know, listen,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: we learn every day we don't know everything in medicine
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: and science. And any doctor who says that they do
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: either hasn't been a doctor for very long or is
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: not one you should listen to. Well, you're a doctor
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: I listened to all the time. You know, I have
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: two doctors I love and pandemic as Dr Ashton's one
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: that Dr Fauci is the other. And thank you for
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: this new book, The New Normal. Uh. I have a
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: fan club of ninety thousand fans. I'm gonna put it
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: in the book. I have at one point six million
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: social media follows. I'm supported that way, but more importantly,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: I just wanted to share your world, so with my
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: world and also the Sean thank you written and listen.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: Please let's stay in touch. I I usually only use Instagram.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: My handle is at d r j Ashton, and I'd
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: love to hear from your followers and your viewers. And
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: I don't look at Twitter or Facebook that much because
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: I feel like people are mean and I feel like
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: we need a lot more nice in the world today.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: But um, I really appreciate you having me on. And
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: next time I come to Atlanta or Houston, I want
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: one of those backyard tomatoes. Thank you, appreciate you, Stay
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: strong and stay safe. More importantly, see your TV all right.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: If you want here more Money Make Conversation interviews, please
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: go to Money Making Conversation dot com. Ra Sean McComb
• 31:42
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