Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: W v ua f m Tuscaloosa.
Happy Sunday, y'all. You are listening to Fitsby Tide with Sheena and Nika on 90.7, the capstone and Nika.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: What is up, my friend? What's up? How have you been?
[00:00:19] Speaker A: You know, I know off air, we were just talking about our grievances for mom life, but. But I think overall, okay, just the normal stress of work and family. And I know that every single time we've had you on the show as a guest and now you're in this co host role. We haven't necessarily talked about the big hat that you wear, which is as a mom, we don't talk about that that often. Normally you're very professional. You're talking in health educator mode. But as part of co hosting this show, I'm probably going to be like, okay, let's go into mom mode right now. Right?
[00:00:57] Speaker B: So being a mom is the best job that I have. I have a lot of jobs, but that's the best job. But like you said, it is hard to balance it all to be a working mom, to be a good mom, for sure.
[00:01:11] Speaker A: And you have two girls?
[00:01:12] Speaker B: I have two little girls. They are ten and seven, the light of my life. But yeah. So we're getting into lots of homework, reading ar quizzes and tests, and just trying to shape them into some really good human beings.
[00:01:29] Speaker A: Okay, so the fact that your girls are at the age that they're at, my boys, they are five and three. So because you've got girls at a little bit of an older age, I'm going to be asking you questions like, okay, so math homework at this point, can you still handle it?
And is it that different where your girls are going to school? Because my boys, I think, are hoping to be in the same school system as yours. So I'm just curious, in general, if the math looks fairly familiar. I am very proud to say that.
[00:02:01] Speaker B: I am mastering that first grade math.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:04] Speaker B: But now let's say fourth grade, we're.
[00:02:06] Speaker A: Doing long division and so I can do it, but it's hard to tell them how to do it. So I don't know how to teach.
[00:02:13] Speaker B: Math, but I can see it coming down the track where I'm going to be paying for a tutor, probably middle school, because middle school math is what got me. Oh, yeah, I'm a words person. My brain doesn't really work very well with numbers.
[00:02:25] Speaker A: No, same here. And I don't know if this was available at your school when you were in high school. This whole dual enrollment thing no, we did AP. So when I was in, I was going to say in undergrad, technically, yes, in undergrad. But when I was in high school, either my junior or senior year, they just started offering the dual enrollment, and then there was the AP option that you're mentioning. And at that point, I really didn't know what I was going to major in, and I ended up taking both Cal one and Cal two. You don't need that for a nutrition major. I mean, I'm not going to say that officially as an advisor, but I've never seen it. Yes. So I just was like, oh, my goodness. So when you have that in combination with overbearing asian parents, it was really a struggle. But you know what?
[00:03:16] Speaker B: And the drama of high school life.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: Yes, I know we're going just really off kilter right now if this is your first time listening, but this really.
[00:03:25] Speaker B: Does segue because emotional stress is a factor in women's heart health.
[00:03:31] Speaker A: Okay, see, that's why being a mom.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: You don't even have to be a mom to have the stress working, just living in the world we're living in today with all the things coming at us, emotional stress and mental disorders, they are a huge benefactor to whether or not we're going to suffer from heart disease issues.
[00:03:55] Speaker A: Well, praise be that you are the co host, because that was a perfect segue. So if you are listening for the first time or maybe just hopping on today's show just to let you know this is fit to be tied. We talk all things wellness. It is February, so we are kicking off heart health Month. And so that's going to be kind of what our show is centered around. Also, just to get you familiar with the format of our show, if you are just listening for the first time, usually in our first five minutes, we go a little random, we go a little rogue.
[00:04:29] Speaker B: You have to ease into it.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: We're trying to ease our listeners into getting their mind right for some education.
[00:04:35] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. And they got to know what's down. Like, who are we? We get in the meat and potatoes in our middle segments, and then we kind of land the plane at the end. With more randomness.
[00:04:44] Speaker B: With more randomness.
[00:04:46] Speaker A: But we're here to educate. And so with that, we will take a break and we will get to the chase. You are.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: Listening to fit to be tied with Sheena and Nika on 90.7, the capstone.
[00:05:17] Speaker A: What are we talking about today, Nika?
[00:05:19] Speaker B: We are talking about our heart health, and let me tell you why this is important.
[00:05:23] Speaker A: Yes, please do. Okay. This is like your bread and butter. I'm so excited.
[00:05:28] Speaker B: You're so sweet. So men and women combined, it's our number one killer.
[00:05:35] Speaker A: So you hear a lot.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: It's the number one killer of women. It is. But the reason we push that is because women tend to think that cancers, breast cancer, we tend to think men. Heart disease is a men's disease. It is a man's disease, but it's a woman's disease, too. So across the board, it's the number one killer of both men and women. Over 700,000 Americans lost their lives last year to heart disease.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: That is very sobering to me. And I'm going to say with a statement like that, I was actually listening to Angela Billings, who is with the speaker studio last week for a session, and she was talking about doing presentations and a hook for people. That is the hook right there.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: That's the hook. I got another hook for you.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: Okay?
[00:06:22] Speaker B: Give me another hook. 120,000,000 Americans right now are living with a cardiovascular condition.
[00:06:29] Speaker A: Oh, my Lanta.
[00:06:31] Speaker B: I would say half of them do not even know it.
[00:06:34] Speaker A: I was just about to ask now, is this of those that have confirmed this with their physician, or is this including those that may not even realize?
[00:06:44] Speaker B: May not even realize. I will tell you that most men, over half of the men who die from a heart attack did not even know that they had a cardiovascular condition. Oh, my.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: And you know, Niko, with your past work as a health educator with different health systems and everything else, especially doing employee wellness, I'm kind of curious for the individuals that you interacted with, when did some people have that first awareness that something was wrong? Because I feel like a lot of times it may be from, like, a health fair situation or maybe just an initial health screening and not necessarily them actively going to the doctor for those annual visits. You know what I mean?
[00:07:29] Speaker B: Right. So, yeah, talking to your physician is one way, but a lot of our associates would come to our health screenings to know their numbers. And like we talked about last week with worksite wellness, the health screenings, the biometrics to know your numbers, they would come do that to get an incentive, like a gift card. And we would take their glucose, their triglycerides, their total cholesterol, hdl, ldl. We would take their waist measurement, their bmi, and the blood pressure, and we would show them where they fell in the ranges.
Normal, abnormal, such and such. And that would open a lot of eyes, and they would say, well, I know that genetically, hereditarily, I had family members who had blood pressure problems. I did not know it would be this soon that they would show up for me.
And so you do have to keep an eye on your numbers, and you need to listen to your.
[00:08:32] Speaker A: I think, you know, for those of you who heard our show last week, we had Marina McKee from wellness and work life and mentioning the well Bama screenings that we do for our employees and what you just mentioned, Nika, as far as the type of measurements and anthropometrics and labs that are taken, those same things are captured during those well Bama appointments. So I'm sure that that is very eye opening, and it's great to just be able to sit down with somebody so they can talk you through those numbers.
And I'm glad you can go home as well, just seeing those numbers and then knowing what those normal ranges are and then knowing where you fall. But it's nice just to talk to another human for them to kind of walk you through. Walk you through it.
[00:09:15] Speaker B: Yes. So you need to talk to your oBgyn. Ladies, when you become sexually active or of childbearing years, you do need to see your ObGyn once a year. Talk to her or him about your heart health.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:09:32] Speaker B: Because women's hormones, pregnancy, reproductive contraceptive methods, birth control, all those factor into our heart health. The OBGYN is a great source to start with.
[00:09:48] Speaker A: I love that because I think, ena, you just acknowledge that for a lot of women, that might be the only type of physician that they prioritize seeing normally.
[00:09:57] Speaker B: It really may be their primary care physician. Yes, absolutely. So they are equipped to talk you through things and then also make referrals if they feel like that you need to see somebody more specialized.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And I love that we're talking about this. I feel like we do have a very serious tone with this information, but we do it for a reason.
We like to joke, we like to talk about the fun things, but when we do have things related to heart health and making sure that we are recognizing a lot of these awareness months, it's so important for us to get the facts out there because first and foremost, we are health professionals and we want to make sure that that information gets out to our listeners. I know a lot of this probably resonates more with our faculty, staff, listeners, or anyone else in the community, but also t. We're going to be talking a little bit later in the show specifically about knowing we need to be aware as college students, too. So I don't know. I just appreciate the fact that we're going guns ablazing at the beginning of the show.
[00:11:02] Speaker B: Well, we want everybody to live their best life. And my personal philosophy has always been, I'm not going to tell you what to do and what not to do, but I want to tell you everything about something so that you can't get to the end of your journey and say, well, if someone had told me, I would have chosen differently. So I like to put it all out there and go, hey, do the best for you.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely. No. And that's good, because I think that sometimes people can listen to this information and recommendations from their healthcare provider, whether it's about heart disease, diabetes, or anything else, and they feel like it's overwhelming. And so I think when we think about what are some of the small changes that we are initially capable of? Because I think for a lot of individuals, they need to master a few simple things that can convince them of change. Like, oh, I do have the ability to change XYZ versus feeling like they've got to do a complete 180 in all of their lifestyle behavior.
[00:12:06] Speaker B: No, choose one thing.
Work on that. When you feel like you've mastered it, add on the next.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: Well, knowing that we're about to have to go into a break. But I am curious, Nika, as a health educator, if somebody's like, well, what do I do? Where do I start? What would probably be the one thing that you tell them to start with, just as far as any kind of lifestyle change?
[00:12:26] Speaker B: What a lifestyle change? I would say get up and move. It does not have to be on the treadmill or the lift school or even going to the gym. Just move. Stand on your feet more. Get that heart to working. Now, remember, the heart's the muscle. So there's a difference between physical activity and just regular activity.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:12:46] Speaker B: If I'm just standing up, browsing the aisles in the grocery store, that's different than if I am walking with a purpose. To the car.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: Yes, I love the walking with a purpose.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: Yes, walk with a purpose.
[00:12:57] Speaker A: You got to get there.
[00:12:58] Speaker B: So make that heart exercise that muscle. That's easy to do. Find something you love. Second thing I would say is stop smoking. If you smoke, if you vape, let's get into some cessation programs where you can get help. You don't have to go alone in this. There are lots of resources out there to help you. But then the third, I'm going to defer to you, which is take a look at your diet.
[00:13:25] Speaker A: Absolutely. Quality of the diet. And I think that if that's something where you are a person that has difficulty making all of these different rules for yourself when it comes to diet, switch your point of view with that. And instead of thinking, oh, I don't need to eat XYZ anymore, like never eating fried food, never drinking soda, think in a more positive light of what can I add to my diet to be more beneficial. So that could be, oh, I realize I'm not eating enough fresh produce, or I don't choose a lot of grilled items, or I'm not drinking enough water. So if you're thinking more of what can I do more of versus what more can I take away? A lot of those goals, they're going to be similar. You're just thinking about them a little bit differently, and you're a little bit more compliant with them.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: So when you're adding good things, you're just naturally pushing the bad things out because there's no room for them.
[00:14:15] Speaker A: Absolutely. So I think that that's a perfect picture right there. And I'm really glad that you mentioned the physical activity piece when thinking about this, because I think sometimes we have individuals that solely correlate exercise with, well, I want to lose weight versus thinking about this whole holistic point of view of all the benefits that physical activity has.
[00:14:37] Speaker B: You just want your body to feel good and do what you want it to do. If you want it to get up and rake the yard, then, yeah, it can do it.
[00:14:46] Speaker A: Absolutely. No. So with that said, we're going to take a break. You are listening to fit to be tied with Sheena Nika on 90.7 Capstone, WVUA FM, Tuscaloosa.
[00:15:08] Speaker B: Welcome back. You are listening to fits be tied with Sheena and Nika on 90.7 the capstone.
[00:15:14] Speaker A: That's right. And if you are just now listening to us, we are in the middle of a conversation about heart health and prevention. What can you do? All the things. And Nika, I know earlier we were talking about some different things just related to when people normally find out they have issues. Sometimes it's at a random health screening and not necessarily when they've seen their doctor. But can you tell the listeners a little bit more about some of the populations that tend to be most at risk? I was trying to remember if there were some correlations with different ethnicities.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: Yes. So african american men have the highest incidence rates of high blood pressure, and many don't know it. And so we really would stress that a lot when we did our associate wellness screenings, we would say, hey, listen, you fall into this risk factor group let's make sure we're really checking your blood pressure and talking to you about understanding the signs and the symptoms. The thing about blood pressure is it's silent. It's known as the silent killer. You don't have to have it correlate with a headache or a tightness feeling or dizziness. Some people go years with undiagnosed high blood pressure, and they're like, surprised. I never knew nothing felt bad. So that is one of the groups. Another group is we're going to talk about in a little bit is the college students, but then menopausal women.
[00:16:46] Speaker A: Really?
[00:16:47] Speaker B: So estrogen plays a protective role in protecting our heart. And so about around the time of menopause, the ovaries that are making the hormone estrogen, it does help keep the blood vessels relaxed and helps keep a healthy cholesterol balance. And then when we start losing that estrogen, we start losing that protective help.
[00:17:12] Speaker A: Really?
[00:17:13] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:17:13] Speaker A: Well, I think I'm sure for our listeners who are reaching that stage or maybe going through that stage, they're like, oh, crap, one more thing.
[00:17:22] Speaker B: One more thing to add to it.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: Flip and worry about here. But we're not all doom and gloom here, really, when we share this information, it's so that you do have this awareness. It's not a scare tactic whatsoever, but really just to inform. And so I think with you sharing that, that just brings a new level of awareness because that can just be one more question that they add when they are going for those doctor visits.
[00:17:45] Speaker B: Exactly.
And if you have diabetes and you have high cholesterol, that is something that you should already be having a conversation with your provider about. Like, how is this affecting my heart? Were you born with heart issues or a heart defect? And if you drink alcohol, alcohol does weaken the heart. So we do want to stick to the recommendation of one drink a day for women, up to two drinks a day for men. And when we say drink, we don't mean the whole bottle of wine. We mean the 4oz.
[00:18:19] Speaker A: Exactly. I know every time we do presentations where we're showing what does a standard drink look like in terms of wine or liquor or beer? I feel like populations are so their eyes are open to that. Or even if you're showing a red solo cup and then you're showing which line that liquid would fall in, it's like, oh, okay.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. And I think it's important also to note that women are going to usually not all the time, but usually have different symptoms than men when they're experiencing a heart event.
So for men, it's usually portrayed in movies and tv shows of clutching the chest, sweating, passing out. For women, they usually just feel like this heavy chest discomfort. They'll say that it aches or it feels like an elephant is sitting on their chest and they'll have the pain in the neck and the jaw and in the upper back.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: Really?
[00:19:21] Speaker B: More so than men. Yeah. Men will say that they feel it in their arms. And as a woman, you can, too. Don't get me wrong about that. But women tend to feel it differently, so they kind of push it off to the side of, oh, well, this isn't a heart issue.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: Right. Because they are comparing to what they've seen in the media and then also, again, seeing it in how it's portrayed in men. So I love the level of detail that you're mentioning here because I'm even thinking, oh, have I felt something in my back?
Have I felt this before? What does this look like? So I think that's huge.
[00:19:57] Speaker B: Right. And a heart attack, you'll have the chest pain or discomfort. Sometimes they don't, but indigestion and heartburn. And sometimes people will get nauseated and vomit, but you will feel extreme fatigue because you've got to remember the blood flow to the heart muscle is being reduced. And so the body's trying to tell you we can't work as hard.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: Yes. Like we're in survival mode right now.
[00:20:21] Speaker B: Yeah. And with heart failure, sometimes if people have heart failure, their symptoms will be swelling of the feet and ankles and the legs and then out of breath and fatigue. So one of the biggest things is that if you are feeling out of breath and nothing's changing, like, you're not exerting yourself. It's just everyday life is now causing you to lose your breath? You need to see somebody ASAP.
[00:20:50] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely.
[00:20:51] Speaker B: It doesn't have to mean heart, but it means something because our lungs are trying to tell us something.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: So I know we've had a lot of talks about signs and symptoms. I know a little bit later on in the show we're going to specifically focus it on our college students. But I guess I'm thinking if we think about solutions for individuals, what does that look like? We talked about the physical activity piece. We talked about not smoking and then the exercise piece. But I do want to go back to that smoking piece for just a second because I'm really grateful that you threw in vaping in that umbrella. Do you feel like, as someone who works in the industry that you do? And also, just for us, as professionals on campus. Do you feel like people have this false sense of vaping is not as dangerous as smoking?
[00:21:40] Speaker B: Absolutely.
Because it doesn't have that smell.
[00:21:42] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:21:43] Speaker B: That unique smell, I think somehow psychologically correlates to this is bad.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:21:51] Speaker B: Because we've learned about smoking and tobacco for years.
[00:21:54] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:21:54] Speaker B: So vaping has got to be safer, right? Well, yes and no.
[00:22:00] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:22:00] Speaker B: So you got to remember that the stuff that's in the vape cartridges are not necessarily regulated.
So what's in it?
[00:22:10] Speaker A: Yeah. And I've not thought about the regulation piece. I have not thought about the regulation piece.
[00:22:15] Speaker B: It's not regulated. And you can put anything. I know there are a lot of people are putting their marijuana in their vaping, but you have to be careful because in this day and time, as you turn on the news, things are laced.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:22:29] Speaker B: So you don't really know if what you're getting is what you think you're getting. So you have to be careful. But vaping can cause popcorn lung, and popcorn lung is. It sounds like if you look in your lungs, it was going to look like popcorn, and that's not it. It comes from back a chemical that used to be in the fake butter flavored popcorn in the 80s, they started noticing that people were going into the emergency room and presenting with trouble breathing and their lungs were swelling and having blisters. And epidemiologists figured it out that it was based on that chemical. So that chemical was banned.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: Oh, my. Landsa y'all. If you could watch a video recording of us recording the audio of the show. My eyes are getting so big because I'm thinking, okay, I am a child of the.
How much popcorn did we do? Thankfully, we cook it stovetop in a pot. But I'm just thinking, oh, my goodness.
[00:23:31] Speaker B: Yes. I teach this in my classes to kind of give them the background. And so the popcorn lung. The term is kind of misleading.
[00:23:37] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:23:38] Speaker B: But if you look up the Google image, you'll see that it just looks like little blisters. And so your lungs aren't working properly.
And not everybody's going to experience that, but we don't know until you do it. And that's a trial and error kind of thing.
[00:23:55] Speaker A: Well, and it's tough when people can get these fun flavors. It is.
[00:23:59] Speaker B: And the nicotine levels are so much higher in a vape. So nicotine is a drug. It's a psychoactive drug. It's highly addictive, and it can cause blood pressure issues, and it can cause all kinds of things with the heart and the lungs. So, yes, you're not breathing in some of the chemicals that are made in a cigarette.
[00:24:25] Speaker A: Right.
[00:24:25] Speaker B: But it's not benign by any means.
[00:24:28] Speaker A: Yes. And so I think with that said, as we go into our next break, just because your little jewel pod or whatever is super cute and you can get in the flavors, that doesn't mean it's good for you.
[00:24:38] Speaker B: No.
[00:24:39] Speaker A: So just take that as food for thought. You are going to catch us on the flip side. You are listening.
[00:25:03] Speaker B: To fit to be tied with Sheena and Nika on 90.7, the capstone.
[00:25:08] Speaker A: Yes. And if you have just now joined us, we have been in a pretty hardcore conversation about heart health. You know, we've talked about some risk factors, some different behavioral things, and a lot of it has felt like it's been more so correlated to those in the later years of life. But college students, we are not forgetting you. We've alluded to the fact that we were going to loop back in to you all because I think it can be so easy, particularly for our undergraduate students, to feel like there's this invincibility mentality with our health or, oh, I shouldn't have to worry about this now. So unless a student perhaps has a significant family history for heart issues or other chronic conditions, a lot of times it's just not on our radar. And so while I do understand that, I think it is important for our college students and just young people in general to be informed about how life choices now can have an impact later on, and especially as it relates to.
[00:26:07] Speaker B: Heart health, I wholeheartedly agree.
Yes. Okay, so let's talk about college students.
[00:26:16] Speaker A: Yes, let's talk about them.
[00:26:18] Speaker B: We love you guys, but you got to see 20 years down the road.
[00:26:22] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:26:22] Speaker B: Or even ten. So what you are doing now, the habits that you are setting up are going to determine. They're going to show back up later on.
So let's think about alcohol. Use the nicotine in the vapes or the cigarettes or the tubing, tobacco.
Are you physically active? Most of my college students were super active in high school because they played every sport and were in everything. And then they come here and they're like, I'm just a student now.
[00:26:54] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm not a division one athlete.
[00:26:55] Speaker B: Right.
Eating habits. Oh, my goodness. When you are going to the quick.
[00:27:02] Speaker A: Grill at 02:00 in the morning after.
[00:27:04] Speaker B: Night of drinking or the drive through is never closed down, it's fun to eat the.
[00:27:13] Speaker A: Yeah, it's just fun to eat the fun thing, the comforting, salty, gooey, all that stuff and I'm not saying don't ever do it, but yeah, we got to think about.
[00:27:24] Speaker B: Let's think about how they're compounding. You're not sleeping very well, you're staying up, you're maybe drinking more than you should, getting dehydrated, smoking, maybe taking drugs, maybe not.
[00:27:36] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:27:36] Speaker B: Could, could not be getting physical activity. Not. But there's one thing that I will say every college student, and this is not a call to action, this is just a fact, every college student has stress.
[00:27:48] Speaker A: Yes.
And it's funny because I just gave a lecture to a class about this. When we think about stress, stress is very much, it's a part of life. We can have some acute stress that sometimes can be positive for us in the sense that it gets us motivated to do that deadline. But if you are managing chronic stress, that is going to be a problem.
[00:28:09] Speaker B: It just never goes away. It's that stress that's like buzzing in the background. Yes.
Because that stress is going to bleed out to everything in your life, your motivation. Are you going to want to exercise? Are you going to want to make healthy choices in eating? Are you going to want to get up and go to the doctor when you're sick? Are you going to want to be compliant with your medication?
Everything kind of maybe starts with stress and sleep.
[00:28:34] Speaker A: Yes, I would say.
[00:28:36] Speaker B: And then goes out from there.
[00:28:37] Speaker A: I agree. And I think even just thinking about something as practical as sleep and when we think about our sleep hygiene, and that's going to include having both a physical space that is conducive to sleep, but then also habits that lead to quality sleep, too. And nika, I know you and I could both speak to this. Just sometimes, especially with the use of alcohol, I think there can be this misconception of, oh, well, I will drink alcohol because it can help me sleep. Because oftentimes makes you drowsy. Yeah, we recommend limiting nicotine, caffeine, alcohol before bed. And people will say, well, why alcohol? It helps me sleep. But they don't realize that alcohol has that biphasic effect where, okay, it is going to make you drowsy and fall asleep, but then as it's metabolized in your system, it's disrupting that quality of sleep and actually getting, which is what you want.
[00:29:27] Speaker B: You don't want to worry so much about falling asleep as you want. The different stages of sleep, the core sleep, the deep sleep, the rim cycles.
[00:29:34] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:29:35] Speaker B: And like you said, the alcohol messes with it with exercise. Exercise is amazing, but you want to make sure you finish it up about 4 hours before bedtime.
[00:29:44] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:29:45] Speaker B: Because it gives you energy, and we want to protect our sleep. So, college students, if you are under a lot of stress, you are maybe not eating as healthy as you know you should, not drinking as much water, drinking too much alcohol, not being physically active, and maybe using nicotine, then. Absolutely.
We need to be focused in on your heart health.
[00:30:10] Speaker A: Yes. And it's so funny because I think that if we were to describe all these factors to a college student, I think in a fleeting moment, they would think, oh, well, that's normal. That's part of college life. But if you were to ask someone who is not in that season of college, maybe just a professional working an eight to five job, and they're like, oh, yeah, I only get 4 hours of sleep. My diet is terrible quality. I don't drink enough water. I don't exercise or move. The doctor would be like, oh, my goodness, what is wrong with you? But then with a college student, we just kind of.
[00:30:43] Speaker B: We think it's the norm.
[00:30:44] Speaker A: Yeah. So we're just like, oh, whatever. It's that season. You'll find your balance at some point, but we just don't realize what that can do in the long term. And again, it's not to scare our listeners. I think it just brings some awareness because it can kind of give you some motivation for thinking what is at least one thing that I could improve. Of all the things that were mentioned, maybe I can make a more concerted effort to have better quality sleep or maybe have a better quality diet or look at that alcohol intake, if that's.
[00:31:16] Speaker B: Part of my life. Right, exactly.
I love the old saying, you better check yourself before you wreck yourself. That shows my age. But that's really what we're saying, is just take an inventory of what's going on in your life and say, all right, what's something I'm doing that might not be as beneficial and line up with my long term goals, how can I check it and correct it?
[00:31:37] Speaker A: Yes. So, okay, with that said, putting ourselves on the spot, nika, if you were to take an inventory of your lifestyle, your behaviors right now, what is an area of improvement for you? Because I just want to prove that even for me and you as health professionals, we're going to have some imbalances, too.
[00:31:56] Speaker B: I need to drink more water. I absolutely do not like water.
When I was a little girl, I used to tell my mama, this don't have no taste on it. Like when I was, like, two.
[00:32:06] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know why I thought it.
[00:32:08] Speaker B: Had to be flavored and taste. And I know they make all kinds of good stuff that makes water taste better, but just good plain water. I don't drink enough, and I can tell that I don't. And instead of doing what I know to do, which is, let's go get a bottle of water, I'll go look at that shiny little diet Coke over there.
[00:32:31] Speaker A: It's calling my name. So it's hard.
[00:32:34] Speaker B: You can have all the knowledge in the world, but your behavior doesn't sometimes match up. And I'm here to say, that's me with my water. What about you, Sheena?
[00:32:43] Speaker A: I would probably say for me, getting enough sleep, I've been in an interesting season of life where the only time I can go be physically active, or at least in the way that I want to be, I will say that, is by going to work out at five in the morning while my kids are asleep. And so in order for me to be awake enough to do the things and do what I'd like to do before I go work out, that means setting my alarm at 350. No, ma'am. Which pains me right now.
[00:33:11] Speaker B: It pains me to even hear you say that.
[00:33:14] Speaker A: It really is one of those things where I'm going to have to have this sobering moment with myself about what physical activity looks like for me, because I think if I'm willing to change the type of workout I do, or at least where I do it, I could more realistically just fit it in the middle of my day and not sacrifice sleep. So I had initially given myself this false sense of, oh, but I'm doing it all in the name of health. But I really do need that sleep.
[00:33:40] Speaker B: You need that sleep.
[00:33:40] Speaker A: Not only do I need that sleep, my family needs me to have that sleep.
[00:33:44] Speaker B: Right, yes, exactly.
Because our bodies, they do so much healing in our sleep. So many restorative hormones are released and our mind clears the clutter out trying.
[00:33:59] Speaker A: To get rid of oxidative stress. Yes. I think, too, for our student listeners, I think sometimes they may not realize that sleep that we prioritize after a study session, that's when those brain cells can actually set in that study material.
[00:34:14] Speaker B: It consolidates.
[00:34:15] Speaker A: Yes. It actually goes into our memory versus it being this pump and dump situation for a test. So just some food for thought there. But I know we've talked a lot about heart health today. We've dabbled into some subtopics when it comes to sleep and nicotine and everything else, but I've just loved our conversations.
[00:34:34] Speaker B: And it's all interrogal related.
If you can get one area of your health built up, it will pull up other areas. It really just naturally.
[00:34:43] Speaker A: And I'm hoping that as y'all have been listening to this today, you can apply it to yourself or maybe if there's a family member you're concerned about, you can think, oh, I now have some very practical information to give them.
[00:34:54] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:34:55] Speaker A: Yes. So with that said, we are going to take another quick break. You are listening.
[00:35:17] Speaker B: To fit to be tied with Sheena and Nika on 90.7 the cat stone.
[00:35:21] Speaker A: Yes. And if you are just now joining us, you missed out on a very informative conversation about heart health. Unfortunately, we are not talking about that in this segment as we kind of end our show. But we are still talking about something very serious, which is the Super bowl halftime show. Yes, it is today. And so because we're not as in the loop as we should be, we were at least aware that today was a Super bowl. And so we had both remembered it was going to be usher. Well, at first I said nellie and then Nika's like, oh, Usher. So we looked it up. Usher and reba.
[00:36:00] Speaker B: Reba, among others. But I will tell you, I am not with it. I'm not hip to the scene anymore. So Usher and Reba are the only two people that I really, well, post Malone.
[00:36:10] Speaker A: I do know post Malone.
[00:36:12] Speaker B: But if we are going to talk about catalogs that we celebrate and actually have downloaded and purchased in the past, I'm going to have to stick in my lane of Usher and Reba.
[00:36:21] Speaker A: Yes, I agree. Now, I will say that there was a time that I was in my own personal hell on the interstate because for whatever reason, I guess my van was hooked up to my phone and it was playing some albums I had downloaded. For whatever reason, it kept playing Reba's fancy. It literally played probably 35 times in a row while I was stuck in traffic on I 59. And I was like, oh, my Lanta. I don't know if I can handle this anymore. I still enjoy some reba, but it's a good song.
[00:36:55] Speaker B: But not 35 times in a row.
[00:36:57] Speaker A: No, but thinking about Super bowl halftime shows, what's your favorite? Like, who's been the most memorable performance?
[00:37:03] Speaker B: Prince. I love me some prince.
[00:37:06] Speaker A: Prince was good.
[00:37:07] Speaker B: What about you?
[00:37:08] Speaker A: You know, I'm trying to think what's a personal favorite of mine versus who I just thought did really well. So of those that I think have done really well, I think Bruno Mars is a very good performer of some of the more recent ones or her, what you might call it at the beginning, the national anthem. Yes. Beautiful. But then it looked like she dove off of the edge of the theatrics is really cool. Yeah, I was a little blown away by that. But I remember it was a few years ago on this show. I think I was telling one of our guests, I was like, oh, yeah. And then a few years ago with the snafu with Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake, and they were like, that was like 20 years ago and that was 2004.
[00:38:01] Speaker B: That was a good show, though. That one was the one with Brittany and Aerosmith and NSYNC.
[00:38:08] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:38:09] Speaker B: New kids on the block, if I can tell you how old I am here.
[00:38:12] Speaker A: So much. And then we had pregnant Rihanna last year, didn't we?
[00:38:16] Speaker B: We did.
[00:38:17] Speaker A: I felt like there was a lot of buz.
[00:38:19] Speaker B: It felt like that was two or three years ago, but that was last year.
[00:38:21] Speaker A: I think that was last year. It was very polarizing because you had some people that were like, good for her, she's pregnant. And then I think other people wanted the dancing because they're like, you know, she has so many hits. I honestly had forgotten how many songs that she had that were very popular that I'd just forgotten about. And I was like, wow, this is.
[00:38:42] Speaker B: What do you think about the Mary J. Blige, Eminem and Snoop Dogg one?
[00:38:47] Speaker A: I appreciated it. I felt really bad for 50 cent having to hang upside down and then do the whole thing.
We just have to respect people change. They got older, they're not going to look like they're in their prime, but they threw it back for a long time.
[00:39:07] Speaker B: It was a fun trip down memory lane. It really was.
[00:39:11] Speaker A: I'm hoping that the young folks.
I feel so old. I hope that the quote unquote young folks know who usher is and appreciate. Yeah.
[00:39:21] Speaker B: Because us old folks don't know who these other ones.
Not a. That's not a know what about.
Before we leave, what are your predictions about Taylor Swift and how many times she's going to be shown on the screen?
[00:39:39] Speaker A: I don't know. It's hard to quantify that. Obviously, it'll be a lot, but I don't know. I'm nervous to put a number to it.
[00:39:48] Speaker B: I know it. I feel like this is their last go round. This is their last time to really do it, Vic. So it may be a little bit more than normal, I think.
[00:39:55] Speaker A: So there's going to be this narrative. They're probably even going to talk about how the nation has been complaining that she's been shown a lot, and then other people love it. I don't know. And then at this point, I don't even care who wins. A lot of times when I'm watching the NFL, I just try to figure out how many Bama players.
[00:40:13] Speaker B: Yeah. How many Bama players are on the field. That's all I really care about as well. And the commercials, I'm excited about those.
[00:40:18] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely. Well, hopefully when we get together next time, we can talk about our favorite commercials. But until then, you have listening to fit to be had with Sheena and Nika on 90.7 the Capstone.
[00:40:29] Speaker B: Have a good week. Yay.
