Sevan Matossian (00:03):
Hey, I’m more live. Good morning, Brian vindicate. Rich Holton Heidi, Brandon, Kenneth Bruce Elise Elise car. Redow. How come I can? How, how come I always say your name, the full name. Cause I don’t know how to say it. Carla. Good morning. I did this workout the other day and I feel like my whole body feels inflamed from it. It was like a real CrossFit workout. I did that, that workout that, uh, Hobarts has suggested I do. Whew. That was hard. Woo. Good morning Athena. Oh, so I last night or this morning, this way. Excuse me, last night or this morning. I can’t remember. Um, by the way, we are having Amy West on today. At some point I believe it will happen. Uh, last night I had logged into my Instagram account. I didn’t even log in. I just clicked a little icon on my phone.
Sevan Matossian (01:14):
Is that what it’s called? Icon picture and uh, good morning MLK 5, 2, 4, Frank. Good morning. I clicked on the, the icon and it said my account had been suspended. I don’t really think that that, um, I don’t think when I think of the word suspended, I guess I should look up, it means that they’re gonna give it back to me, but I don’t think that’s the case right? Suspended. Oh, I should change my this at Sian. You see on the screen here? I don’t think this is, um, I don’t think that’s a, a good account anymore. I think that account might be gone forever. It’s weird. It kind of lets me look at it, but not really.
Sevan Matossian (01:57):
Oh, I don’t even know how to get to my other account. Does anyone know my other account? Is it Seon Rinsta with an RSEV? R I N S T a. Is that I know if that’s it anyway, the account’s gone. I always want, I, I kind of, I always wondered how that was gonna feel when it was gone. Seon, Rinsta. Okay. Yeah. That’s my only, that’s my only, um, can you believe there’s another Seon matosian on Instagram and they have like an accent over the E it looks like it’s like a, a, a Latin dude. He’s got a sore on or he is used cultural ation. Oh shit. And I can’t even get to my Seon rinse account. It says this account is private. What the fuck is going on? Can you guys see any of my accounts anyway? I think I, I think I got, I think I got tossed off of Instagram last night. Hi, good morning.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (02:53):
What’s up, man?
Sevan Matossian (02:54):
Is that your house?
Dr. Amy West M.D. (02:56):
Yeah, this is my apartment.
Sevan Matossian (02:57):
Yeah. That’s cool.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (02:59):
Yeah. It’s pretty dope. You can see Manhattan back there.
Sevan Matossian (03:03):
That is, that is so awesome.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (03:07):
Yeah, it’s pretty sweet.
Sevan Matossian (03:10):
Um, do you have one of those? Um, I was gonna call it a bud day, but it’s not a bud day. It’s a bodega. What’s the place where you go downstairs and like, you can buy like a
Dr. Amy West M.D. (03:18):
Plastic. Oh
Sevan Matossian (03:19):
BGO yeah. You have one of those nearby your house,
Dr. Amy West M.D. (03:21):
Um, in this area. Not so much, but they’re, they’re like, not that far. Maybe like 2, 2, 3 blocks up that way. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (03:25):
Yeah. So if you’re hungry 24 hours a day, you could just go get a box of pineapples or whatever.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (03:30):
Yeah. I mean,
Sevan Matossian (03:31):
Anything
Dr. Amy West M.D. (03:31):
Get anything you want out here? Yeah, for sure.
Sevan Matossian (03:35):
Hi, welcome. What technical issues did you have this morning?
Dr. Amy West M.D. (03:38):
Um, my computer like decided to update last night, so then it like,
Sevan Matossian (03:42):
Ah,
Dr. Amy West M.D. (03:43):
And then like, it just was like, not, it just was like loading for like 45 minutes and I was like, what the fuck? <laugh> I was like, hopefully it gets done soon, but uh, lemme just get this crap off my table, but um,
Sevan Matossian (03:55):
No, no, leave, leave it. Don’t leave it. Leave it. I like it. Let’s have what’s in that green what’s in that since you’re freaking out, I’m gonna make you freak out more. What’s in that green box behind your head. What’s in what’s that your knitting supplies? No dog, dog toys.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (04:12):
They are. Should I put my Instagram handle there instead? Maybe I’ll do that. How do I change the name that’s on here?
Sevan Matossian (04:19):
Um, I think you just click on the box on the blue part once or twice. Do you see it down there? Mm, I can do it too. What’s your Instagram handle? Oh, do you found you found it?
Dr. Amy West M.D. (04:27):
Yeah, I found it. I got it. All right, we’ll do that.
Sevan Matossian (04:29):
Hey, have you ever gone back and watched the podcast that we did together in 2018?
Dr. Amy West M.D. (04:33):
I’ve seen pieces of it. Yeah. Pretty, uh, pretty crazy.
Sevan Matossian (04:38):
Yeah. I, I watched it last night and I, and I was like, yeah, it’s gonna be very arrogant. What I’m about to say whatever man. It was, man. It was a good podcast.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (04:51):
Yeah, no, I mean, I, I, I think the best part of it for me was like, at the end, when you were like did something like physiatrists are CrossFit practitioners and they don’t even know it. And I was like, yes, that’s the, you got it. You know, after, and that’s after like two hours, we, we got there and I was like, yes,
Sevan Matossian (05:07):
That’s and that’s what you be a physiatrist
Dr. Amy West M.D. (05:10):
That’s yeah. That’s technically what I am, but physi people dunno what that is. And it’s
Sevan Matossian (05:14):
Confusing. Yeah. Tell us, by the way, I can’t even, I, I had picked all these Instagram, uh, posts that you had made to show on the show. And last night I got kicked off of Instagram and since I’m logged into Instagram on my computer, I can’t even get access to it. I can’t get access to your account on my computer because it says the account I’m trying to use. It’s a fucking mess. Have you ever been kicked off of Instagram?
Dr. Amy West M.D. (05:38):
I haven’t. I’m not as controversial as you are, but
Sevan Matossian (05:41):
I know, I feel, I feel pretty cool. It reminds me of, uh, the, you know, uh, CrossFit health, their tagline was, uh, let’s start with the truth. Do you remember that?
Dr. Amy West M.D. (05:50):
Mm-hmm <affirmative> I have the t-shirt that says it mm-hmm
Sevan Matossian (05:52):
<affirmative> yeah, yeah. Let’s start with the truth. Okay. Uh, so that’s, I feel like that’s my pedigree. Um, yeah, so what’s a physiatrist
Dr. Amy West M.D. (06:01):
Physiatrist. Ah, so, um, doctors are physical medicine and rehabilitation, so that’s kind of the, the long term for it. But, um, we are physicians that focus on physical function and, uh, essentially the physical effects of disease processes on the body. So, um, but you know, how, how things affect people’s physical function. That’s kind of the, that’s a psychiatrist, so that’s, that’s often, often
Sevan Matossian (06:32):
Good job savvy. Good job darnit. Okay. Spell it for me.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (06:41):
Uh, P lemme. So it is P H Y S I a T R I S T.
Sevan Matossian (06:51):
Okay. Okay. There we go. When I, when I wanna know if someone’s a real doctor or not, I always, this is, this is my litmus test. Um, can you prescribe drugs?
Dr. Amy West M.D. (07:03):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (07:03):
Oh, okay.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (07:05):
Yeah. I’m an MD full pledged. Right?
Sevan Matossian (07:08):
If someone needed something, you could like write it on a sheet of paper and, and then that you could go, they could go to the, the drug pusher. Okay. Um, physical medicine and rehabilitation. I, what what’s that mean? Physical medicine. Oh, physical, like, okay. So like, no, what does that mean? Physical medicine and rehabilitation also known as physiatrists treat a wide variety of medical conditions affecting the brain spinal cord, nerves, bones, joints, ligaments, muscles, and tendons. Mm-hmm <affirmative> maybe I just need to know like why someone would come visit you.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (07:40):
Ah, so I mean, we are pretty broad. So what I do most of my time is I’m a sport. I’m a sports medicine physiatrist. So I treat aches and pains and injuries that are essentially orthopedic stuff. That’s non-operative so if something hurts you and you wanna feel better, I, I do that. Um,
Sevan Matossian (07:58):
So people would come to you before they have their soldier, their, uh, they see, um, what’s the doctor’s name? Shit. I can’t remember his name. Why am I forgetting the guy? The guy who’s the orthopedic surgeon, um, for, uh, uh, CrossFit. He’s the head doctor like Sean? Yeah. Mr. Rocket. Yeah. Yeah. So they see you and then you’re like, you’re fucked. Go see Sean.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (08:20):
Yeah. So if I think you need, um, something rebuilt, then yeah. You get hit by a car. He’s the guy to see. But 99% of stuff that comes through an orthopedic office is non-operative. So your knee hurts, your back, hurts this thing, aches a little bit, need an injection need physical therapy. That’s I’m the, I’m the, I, I do all that. I do all the joints and stuff, injections and all that kinda
Sevan Matossian (08:42):
Stuff. Did, why did you choose, um, that path? Did you have something that you wanted to fix on yourself?
Dr. Amy West M.D. (08:47):
<laugh> well, I mean, I I’ve always been kind of like athletic and stuff, so I wanted to work with athletic people. Oh,
Sevan Matossian (08:55):
Come on. You played softball. Let’s not, let’s not get carried away. Did you say
Dr. Amy West M.D. (08:59):
Athletic? We did basketball.
Sevan Matossian (09:00):
Oh yeah. Right, right, right.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (09:01):
Wow. We went there. Um, we did, but, uh, no, but I haven’t been playing all kinds of things my whole life. So, um, yeah. So then I just, um, wanted to work in sports, but didn’t wanna go into surgery cuz surgery is, uh, a bit of a long, it’s a long haul. It’s it’s a lot, it’s a lot. So I said, how else can I do this without being in training forever and hating my life. So, and then I found, I found pH and CrossFit kind of the same time. So, you know, it’s, it’s the, we doctors of function and CrossFit is the sport of function. So it kind of, it kind of worked out nicely, a lot of the same goals in mind.
Sevan Matossian (09:38):
Um, who, um, how, how old were you when you started med school?
Dr. Amy West M.D. (09:43):
How old was I? 20? That’s a hard question. Uh, 24, 25 something I was a little bit later than people normally would be. Uh, cuz I worked in television and stuff.
Sevan Matossian (09:56):
As, as I know the story, you went to NYC medical, uh, NYC medical school. You went to NYC film school.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (10:02):
Uh, NYU. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (10:04):
NYU, NYU mm-hmm <affirmative> NYU. Thank you. Mm-hmm <affirmative> it’s gonna be a long morning for me. I can tell, went to NYU, uh, film school, uh, and, and I, and I fancy myself as a filmmaker, so, and, and that was the place to go. Like if you, if you wanted to be a filmmaker anywhere, uh, as a young man or a young woman or young, whatever, uh, you went to NYU U film school that was like the crem dire and then you, and then you, and then you worked over in London at the BBC and over there you found some, you didn’t like it. You you’re like, okay, this isn’t me. So then you decided to go back to, you went to Columbia university and mm-hmm, <affirmative> filled in the missing prerequisites and, and buffed up your resume. And then you applied to go to Harvard medical school and you got accepted and, and you started that journey.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (10:51):
Yeah. I mean, yeah, just that’s pretty much the story. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (10:56):
Yeah. And what, what, uh, gimme some juicy details that I skipped.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (11:00):
Uh <laugh> well, I mean, I was working in like music television. I did that in New York, uh, for a little bit. I did that in London for a
Sevan Matossian (11:06):
Little bit. When you say music, television, you mean M like MTV
Dr. Amy West M.D. (11:09):
Mm-hmm
Sevan Matossian (11:10):
<affirmative> God you make it sound so it’s MTV people. Don’t let her trick you music, television.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (11:15):
Remember the show, TRL, everybody. Remember that show? I worked on that.
Sevan Matossian (11:18):
Um, I, I don’t remember that show. We talked about that in the, in the PA, in the other podcast too. A Matt knew it.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (11:26):
Yeah. It’s I mean, it was like, I worked there kind of after it’s like big heyday, but um, okay. Like when I was in high school, that was like the thing, but, um, and then, yeah, so then I went to, and then I got kind of a little bit disillusioned with, uh, with television industry as one may. Cause it’s a lot of bouncing around and doing stuff that wasn’t all that it fulfilling. Um, then I, yes, then I went down to Columbia and I, I became a surgical videographer for a while. So I was in ORs like filming surgeries and making video little videos, like instructional videos. Um, and that was kind of like a nice bridge between the
Sevan Matossian (12:04):
Two for other surgeons. So someone would do a surgery, you would film it and that would be part of someone else’s education.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (12:11):
Yeah. So I was like in the ORs filming surgeries and then I’d edit them together. And then the surgery videos were used for like, um, like educational purposes for residents and stuff to learn how to do the procedures.
Sevan Matossian (12:21):
And is that, did you ever throw, almost throw up in there? Like you’re like
Dr. Amy West M.D. (12:25):
<laugh> no, not, not during those procedures. It, it takes a lot for me to get that way, but, uh, I think like only a handful of times during like my actual medical training where I was like, okay, this is, this is really gross,
Sevan Matossian (12:37):
But, um, uh, visual or, or smell like for me, it would be the smell. Like I’m pretty good looking at anything, but if I smell something a little crazy, I could get a little UN uncomfortable, like, uh, uncomfortable in my own skin.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (12:50):
No, there are definitely like some smells and stuff that are not, are not cool. But I, I think the one thing I saw I were doing residency that was kind of gross was like, uh, like surgery on an eyeball. Like when you see like some, an eyeball get cut like that, that was like, that, that hit me. That was hard. I
Sevan Matossian (13:06):
Was like, Hey, what is that? Is that because, um, is that something like deeper because we’re all just mirrors here. Like, like, you know, when you see like a, a fish come outta the water, someone catches a fish and, and you see, ’em kind of like gasping for air and like kind of hurts your heart or like, or I’ve even heard hunters say like you shoot down an animal and like, you you’re glad Mo and like, mm-hmm, <affirmative>, you’re glad you got it, but party who doesn’t like it either. Do you
Dr. Amy West M.D. (13:30):
Think it’s, you know, I
Sevan Matossian (13:31):
Dunno, do you think when you see the eyeball cut, the reason why it’s uncomfortable is cuz you have these flashes of it being your own eyeball.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (13:39):
Yeah. I mean, there’s an element of that. I mean, certainly like, or like watching like, like gynecological procedures, it’s like a little bit for me, like, Ugh. Whereas like I
Sevan Matossian (13:50):
Can see mean like the, on the manage
Dr. Amy West M.D. (13:52):
I’m like,
Sevan Matossian (13:52):
Whatever gynecological is like on the vagina.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (13:55):
Yeah. Yeah. You know,
Sevan Matossian (13:57):
What kind of procedures happen on the vagina? The vagina’s perfect. It doesn’t only babies come out there. There’s no procedures down
Dr. Amy West M.D. (14:03):
There. I mean, that’s not, that’s not exactly.
Sevan Matossian (14:05):
Uh, you guys don’t have a four skin that needs to be removed. Do you? God, that’s
Dr. Amy West M.D. (14:09):
A pretty traumatic, it’s, that’s a pretty traumatic, uh, event that can happen. It’s a pretty major event, but I mean, other things get done, but like for me, I that’s a little harder to watch than like, uh, some guy happened something’s happened to him down there. I’m like, yeah.
Sevan Matossian (14:25):
Oh yeah. Because you don’t have one of those. Fuck it. No. Um, I, uh, have you ever been present for a circumcision?
Dr. Amy West M.D. (14:33):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (14:33):
You have, uh mm-hmm <affirmative> do they, they don’t numb the baby. Do they? They just, they got, do you remember? They
Dr. Amy West M.D. (14:39):
Don’t. I don’t remember. It was, I mean, but I think, I mean the nerve endings, there are not even fully developed, so I don’t think that they even
Sevan Matossian (14:47):
Does the baby. Like it
Dr. Amy West M.D. (14:49):
<laugh>, I wouldn’t say like it is, I don’t think that’s the word that I would use. I don’t, I don’t know if they’re even aware really, but,
Sevan Matossian (14:56):
Um, I watched a movie called American, uh, circumcision.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (15:00):
Okay.
Sevan Matossian (15:00):
Have you, have you heard of that movie?
Dr. Amy West M.D. (15:02):
I, I have not. No.
Sevan Matossian (15:03):
Oh man. I don’t know if I should have seen it, but it’s, uh, they show all the contraptions that like, that they tie the babies in or like they showed the, the, the, the kind of this gun thing that pushes the four skin away and then snips it off one. Well, I’ve only heard one of, one of my, one of my, uh, colleagues at CrossFit told me that they took his baby away and then they D did the circumcision and he heard screams come from the room from the baby that he, um, he’d never heard his baby ever make those sounds ever again.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (15:37):
And I mean, the ones that I saw, which not many they use, it’s sort of like, almost like a thimble kind of looking thing. And they kind of put it over the, they stretch the four skin over it and then they cut around it.
Sevan Matossian (15:47):
Oh, like with an exact, with like an Exacto knife,
Dr. Amy West M.D. (15:50):
Kind of, yeah. Whatever, like so long ago. But I, not that, not that I’m an expert in that by any means, but
Sevan Matossian (15:56):
You were just filming. Okay. I felt that I, that one, that one hit me.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (16:00):
I shouldn’t, there you go. See, it’s a human experience. We’re all just,
Sevan Matossian (16:04):
I shouldn’t said that Exacto knife, seven days a week, you deal, you, you, you deal with, um, people’s physical, um, ailments.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (16:20):
Yeah. I mean, so yeah, I’m PR my main job is I’m a PR I’m a sports medicine provider. So people come to see me and they say, this thing hurts fix it. That’s kind of, that’s usually I work with some teams as well. So I’m a team physician for college out here. Um, so I see the athletes, you know, be they have skin injured in practice or whatever. Um, but that’s my subspecialty of physiatry pH IRYS pretty broad.
Sevan Matossian (16:44):
Um, do you, do you, uh, have a specialty in like either women or men?
Dr. Amy West M.D. (16:49):
I, I mean, I guess you could say I I’m sort of, uh, at least where I work sort of like the expert in women, like female athlete, um, things related things, so, yeah. Um, women’s sports injuries and things like that. That’s sort of like, it’s also just like a clinical interest of mine, selfishly, cuz it’s like what?
Sevan Matossian (17:06):
You know what, cause you got one of those, you own a, you own a, a Mazda Miata. So you like to work on ’em
Dr. Amy West M.D. (17:12):
I guess you guess you could say that? Yeah. I just, I could, I could speak from experience.
Sevan Matossian (17:16):
What, um, what, um, what team can you say? What team you’re the physician for?
Dr. Amy West M.D. (17:20):
Yeah. So I mean Hofstra university, which is a D one school out here, um, also work perfectly with like our health system has contracts with like the Islanders and the Rangers and stuff. So,
Sevan Matossian (17:30):
Hey, is there anything, um, is there any sport that both men and women play where you see different, um, injuries based on our, I’m gonna use the word here. I have no idea what it means, physiology like, so like if in men and women’s soccer, do you see, um, like do you see different injuries based on fact that it really can’t be explained like, man, why are all the men getting this and all the women getting this? And no one really knows.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (17:55):
Um, well, I mean, so we see that a lot with like ACL injuries, for example, um, women are more prone to get them from a non-contact, uh, non-contact event. So, you know, men usually get those injuries or someone like hits them in the knee. Whereas like women are more likely to get them just like cutting, twisting, turning. A lot of that has to do with the way our legs are shaped and the laxity and our ligaments and the, the angle at which the tibia, you know, lies. And so there’s, there’s actually, it’s a, it’s a huge kind of research subject. How do we better, uh, train women so that they don’t have these issues? Um, part of it is just like our bodies are work against us a little bit, but part of it is, is training and working on certain things like when women jump in land in general, our knees tend to kind of go inward and that’s part, cause our angle, our legs are angled that way. But also, um, you know, we like training women to jump in land properly is, is like a huge, uh, like thing in sports medicine. So prevent these kind of injuries. It’s like training the glutes and all that. So, and you know, so there’s things like that where our bodies are just different. But also I do think there is a hormonal effect on like how people
Sevan Matossian (19:00):
Move.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (19:01):
Oh. Um, which is like to be determined how, how, how that hap you know, the research behind that is sort of lacking. But, um, you know, I think when someone says you like throw like a boy, there’s something to that. Um, and it’s, there’s a way that you move that is not necessarily taught or, um, but there’s something to that. What you don’t know what that is. That’s like an interest of mine.
Sevan Matossian (19:24):
It, it sounds like it’s, it’s also like the nuances around maybe like our physiology, right. The way our, our, our, our hips, our legs, our just all, all that stuff. Right. Mm-hmm
Dr. Amy West M.D. (19:32):
<affirmative> yeah. I mean, it’s how, how we’re built, but then also how we use it is a little different, I think that’s where cross it’s really interesting because you can, it’s like the first time when, like, I, I mean, I, I feel that like women are sort of train men and women sort of trained the same. And then you have men and women doing things that, especially in women, like that were not necessarily expected. I mean, it was like, it was, it’s like common. It was a common thought, you know, 10 years ago that women just can’t do. Pullups like, that’s like a thing, women just
Sevan Matossian (19:58):
Get, it really was. Huh.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (20:00):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (20:01):
I couldn’t do that is that’s why. Oh yeah, because in the presidential fitness exam, they would have all the boys go here and they’d have all the girls and me go over here. I always had to go to girls. Exactly. And we would just hang, we would just hang.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (20:14):
Yeah,
Sevan Matossian (20:15):
We didn’t get to do pullups but actually you’re right. So the, but, but the, but the girls, like then when you saw them on the playground, the girls did all the cool shit with the bars monkey bars that the boys couldn’t do. <laugh> so it’s kind of as backwards.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (20:28):
Yeah. But it’s like, we tend in general, like women tend to be more flexible and men tend to be stronger. But like, I think CrossFits kind of like this great place where everyone sort of gets equalized, which is why, why I gravitated towards it.
Sevan Matossian (20:41):
Hey, that’s, it’s, it’s amazing how far we’ve come and, and I’ve already forgotten you’re right. The girls didn’t even do pullups in the presidential exam. I wonder if they do now, do they even have the presidential fitness exam anymore?
Dr. Amy West M.D. (20:53):
I don’t know. I haven’t haven’t looked into that, but it’s it’s but it’s crazy. I mean, like, I mean also like with, in general, like they just CrossFit really brought in this whole era of like appreciating what women’s bodies do and not what they look like. You know, it’s not like it’s not how small you are. It’s like, oh, look what you can do. Look what you can lift, look what you can.
Sevan Matossian (21:17):
Right. You
Dr. Amy West M.D. (21:17):
Know, you know,
Sevan Matossian (21:19):
Um, there is, uh, curl ups, partial up shuttle, run V sit up one mile, run disc not pull up. Oh, okay. So it does look like women have pull ups, but you know what? Wow.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (21:29):
The standard is like probably a lot less. It’s probably like they have to do like a half of one or something.
Sevan Matossian (21:33):
You’re gonna trip on this if I’m reading this right.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (21:36):
<laugh> okay.
Sevan Matossian (21:37):
This represents the 85th percentile. Oh, these are how many they can do. Not what they need to do. It’s interesting. Um, women can do, according to this, um, up to the age of nine, that if you’re, if you get two you’re in the 85, fifth percentile, then from nine, no, sorry. From 10 to 11, it goes up to three and then it drops again. And then when you get to 16 and 17 year old girls, it drops even further to one. So according to this, you peaked out when you were nine or 10,
Dr. Amy West M.D. (22:09):
Well then puberty hits and kind of, you know, the idea is that we kind of like lose
Sevan Matossian (22:14):
You, lose your strength to weight ratio. Yeah.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (22:16):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (22:17):
I guess you don’t have to. And the dude just keep putting on more and more.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (22:20):
Yeah. But yeah. It’s like it’s and it’s also just, I mean, in general, kids in this country are getting fatter and less athletic. So <laugh>, you know, the, if you, and this is something that I saw on a talk a long time ago, but if you like, look at gym class from like the 1950s, you’ll see like pegboards and rings. And like people doing like kids doing pullups and working on like pomel horses and stuff. And like, that was just like gym in 1950 or whatever, you know, whatever. But now it’s like, kids are doing like wall pushups and like that’s, that’s kind of it, you know, so it’s, it’s the standard has certainly
Sevan Matossian (22:59):
There’s a movie. Do you remember the name of the movie? There’s a movie that shows, uh, basically it shows basically physical ed class during, um, president Kennedy’s, uh, rain.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (23:11):
I I’ve heard
Sevan Matossian (23:12):
About what is that name of that documentary. It’s amazing. And, and, and BA basically, I can’t remember if it was Kennedy or Johnson, but basically one of them said that basically the, the, uh, status of a country can be, uh, basically summed up by the fitness of its kids. Yeah. Things were so doing. They don’t even do Fran. I know they don’t even do Fran at the L one anymore. They stopped doing that. They stopped doing that years and years ago for safety reasons. They’re you? And, you know, on one hand, I mean, Greg didn’t wanna get sued. Right. Someone fall off a pullup bar. Yeah, yeah,
Dr. Amy West M.D. (23:47):
Yeah. It’s like in, so like the kids that I treat, I see like kind of two categories, like either kids that are super focused on they’re like super focused on like one sport all year. So they’re, and usually like, there’s some family pressure to like this kid’s gonna be the best, whatever. And they do one sport all year and these kids get these crazy injuries that usually don’t see until, you know, you’re much older because they’re just, overstresing their bodies. Or it’s like kids that are totally like on athletic, just like lack, basic ability to move kind of stuff. And then they get injured as a result of that. It’s like rare that you just see a kid that’s like, oh, I’m just like, I play outside. And then I, you know, and then I go do, do this once a week or that once a week, it’s like, they’re either like doing tons of the same thing or like nothing <laugh>. So there’s been a lot of, do
Sevan Matossian (24:37):
You see, do you see mostly, um, healthy people because of the, uh, medicine you’re in, as opposed to, if you were, let’s say a heart doctor, you would just see just fucking everyone, 90% of your clients would be overweight.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (24:50):
Um, I would say no. So, uh, like
Sevan Matossian (24:54):
That up.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (24:55):
Um, well, I, so ideally, yes. So I do see a lot of sports injuries and people getting injured, doing athletic things. I see that. And that’s why I like doing what I do, but I do, I mean, musculoskeletal pain is like the chronic disease of the body, right? Like, so if you have diabetes, hypertension, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, guess what your back probably hurts too. So those people come in or you probably have terrible arthritis and I take care of that. So, um, so yeah, I’d say like, probably like 60, 40, or 70 30 of like more unhealthy people to like
Sevan Matossian (25:31):
People. Oh shit.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (25:32):
Oh yeah.
Sevan Matossian (25:33):
I mean you do, can you, can you keep it, can you just keep it real with someone? Like, if someone, if, if a, if a woman comes in who’s five, five who should weigh 150 pounds and she weighs 250 pounds and her knee hurts mm-hmm <affirmative> do, do you just say, Hey it’s because every time you step, you have an extra 400 pounds of pressure on your knee.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (25:52):
Well,
Sevan Matossian (25:53):
So more than the joint was made, like, like where, where,
Dr. Amy West M.D. (25:58):
Uh, I could, you know, so it’s weird cuz in medicine, like, especially like where the, where at this, you know, the health system I work for, it’s like, we’re all kind of like held under like essentially like Google reviews. So you can say something like that and the person’s gonna go home and write, you know, Dr. West call me fat and that’s gonna be online for people to see. So, oh
Sevan Matossian (26:16):
Shit.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (26:17):
So, you know, uh, I usually, you know, I try to broach the subject. If someone brings it up, someone says, oh, I need to lose weight. And I go, well, yeah, you do <laugh>. And did you know that every pound of pressure, you know, it’s on every 10 pounds on your body is 40 pounds of pressure on your knee. So you can imagine that if you lost 10 pounds, how much better you feel like that kind of stuff. Um, but it’s, it’s usually like that person has to kind of bring it up and then I will agree with them. Um, or I’ll mention in a laundry list of things that can make you feel better is weight loss as well. Um, but it’s a little, you have to kind of dance around it a little bit because it ideally yes. I’d like to have those conversations with everybody, but I, I don’t, I don’t think it’s, uh, people necessarily wanna hear it. So,
Sevan Matossian (27:03):
So you’re you are part, you are part psychiatrist you’re navigating. Oh, you’re navigating a wild landscape.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (27:12):
Oh yes. Yeah. Many times cuz sometimes people have pain. It’s it’s not just straightforward.
Sevan Matossian (27:20):
It’s the, the frustration to me is, is this and this I’m not pointing the finger at you at all the frustration or, or any doctor. The frustration is this, what we’re describing is a society that caters to the lowest common denominator. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And so you’re being punished for flourishing and, and I’ll give you an exact example. What, I mean, I’m, I’m a healthy person I put on, um, 10, but, but um, you know, I went on vacation and I, and I just sat around and drank and ate dessert. I come visit you and you may say, Hey, what did you do last week? And be like, oh, I went to The Bahamas and I was just drinking and blah, blah. And you may, Hey, and I go, I put on 15 pounds and you may be like, Hey, that’s probably just inflammation. Don’t worry about your knee. Can we practice something? And I say, sure, what’s up and be like, Hey, maybe just cut out, uh, added sugar for the next week. And let’s not have you eat past seven o’clock at night. And then I come back and see me in two weeks. And, and let’s talk about your knee then.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (28:21):
Mm-hmm
Sevan Matossian (28:22):
<affirmative> I mean, that’s some sound, uh, and you could be like, put your hand on my shoulder and look me in the eye and be like, Hey, you wanna know the really good news? And I go, what? And be like, you could take care of this yourself. Probably you’re not even gonna fucking need me and yet the lowest and let the lowest common denominator might be pissed. Right?
Dr. Amy West M.D. (28:40):
Yeah. So they
Sevan Matossian (28:41):
Gonna be like, fuck you. I came for you to fix this shit, Amy.
Dr. Amy West M.D. (28:43):
Well, and that’s, and that’s most of the time people show up with the expect expectation of this thing hurts fix me. Yeah. Um, I wish it was less than that. So, and, and I try to get the sense of, you know, if there are people that I can, I see that they wanna put the time energy effort in, I, there are certain like physical therapists that I know in the area who are, you know, topnotch guys, they, you know, they’re out, they usually don’t accept insurance, but they’re, you know, they’re.
Sevan Matossian (29:12):
Yeah. And that’s the thing too. Yep. Yep. They, they say that it’s, it’s not fair, but, but the rich people can, can pay for an honest, uh, for, for an honest, um, what’s that called diagnosis?
Dr. Amy West M.D. (29:26):
Yeah. So, you know, it’s like, I, I, there are, are therapists that, you know, physical therapists that I know that I’m like, listen, this guy is gonna get you ready to, to run that marathon or whatever. If you put on the time, the energy, the effort you wanna spend, the money, I got the guy for you, 90%, 99% of people that I come across, they don’t want that. <laugh>, you know, they don’t want that. They don’t wanna do that. They just like fix it, you know, gimme an injection. Okay. Um, so, you know, it’s, it’s a balance, unfortunately, this is, you know, the, the medical, the medical landscape right now.
Sevan Matossian (29:59):
Um, what, how.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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