wademorningshow2.5.26 - The Wade Wilkes Show

Judge Curtis Parish Discusses Campaign Endorsements All right, welcome into the way to Wilkes show. We're 12 minutes now past the hour 7 o'clock 30° out there under a mostly clear sky high today, 71 tonight, 29 for an overnight low. Then tomorrow 74° for your Friday and it could be 75 on Saturday and 72 on Sunday. So 70s on the way. So that'll spell goods times for the Super Bowl parties we're. Speaker 2 All gone swimming, right? Speaker 1 Well, I don't know about that. Speaker 3 But since it's springtime in West TX now, it's windy. Speaker 2 That's true. What? Speaker 1 Is it not windy right? When is it? Speaker 3 Not no, it it is Well welcome to West TX. That's. Speaker 1 Right right here on the show First hour with this Lubbock County Judge Curtis Paris. Speaker 3 Good morning. Speaker 1 Good morning, Sir. If you have a question or comment along the way, feel free to give us a call or text 806-745-5800. As we continue on with our meet the candidates as we're trying to get everybody on the show that we possibly can statewide and local. And I've been burning the candle at both ends to make that happen, staying here very late in the evenings and putting things together. Kim Davis. Speaker 3 And and still getting up very early. Speaker 4 That's right, yes, making it barely on time there. Speaker 2 You go slides into the chair and. Speaker 1 A rolling AT77-O. Speaker 4 Five of like I got to go. Speaker 1 Yeah, well, good to have you back just. Speaker 3 Good to be here. Thank. Speaker 1 You so much talk about your race now. Last I was in Las Vegas at SHOT Show broadcasting live from out there did not have the opportunity to sit in with the your challenger in this race, Wesley Hawk Hawk and so but listen to him on podcast and good interview. Thank you Kim and doctor Love for that. Y'all did a great job. You're welcome. Speaker 4 He did pretty good. Speaker 1 This is kind of an interesting race. The way I see it, this is your third term. Seeking your third term. Yes, Sir. Understanding the Legal Battle Over Commissioner Corley I'll start here and ask this, do you have any notable endorsements for your campaign this time around? Speaker 3 Well, you know, and, and even from, even from the beginning, I, I never really went after endorsements of individuals as much as, you know, we, we do want endorsements from community organizations, the, the, the Realtors, the home builders, the Chamber of Commerce, the, the business folks mostly endorsements from individuals, as you know, Wade can kind of go either way. If, if it's somebody you really like, then you're OK with it. But if it's an endorsement from somebody that you don't like, then it has that negative effect as well. Speaker 1 And you're talking and you're referencing the voters. Speaker 3 At that point, but, but, and here's the other thing too, and I want to be, I want to be very careful about this. I, I am governed as the county judge and as a candidate for a county judge by the Code of judicial conduct. And it's very important that, that a, that a judge or a candidate for judicial office cannot do endorsements. So there's no reciprocation to that. Sometimes you know, you, you, you have, you and, and I have friends in public office. I can't go to their campaign events and, and it, and it's really kind of in a way you don't really want to, you don't really want them as elected officials to also endorse you as well because of the, that judicial requirement of not lending your name to another candidates campaign. And I know that I've got judicial candidates right here in, in Lubbock County that, that violate that. And it it may just be out of ignorance that they don't know that, but the Code of Judicial conduct set by the Supreme Court of Texas says that as a judge or a judicial candidate, you can't endorse people. Speaker 1 Let's get into some of that, 'cause you're very knowledgeable about the law, and that's good. You should be as county judge. Speaker 3 Well, not only should be, it is a constitutional requirement. Speaker 1 Know what you're talking about That being said, do you feel surprised that the that the situation with Commissioner Jason Corley was at the first level of the appeals process? Turned over, turned over and said, hey, look, no, he's well. This is unclear. This is about as clear as muddy water. Speaker 3 Understand what what that hearing was, it was it was for a temporary injunction and actually if if you analyze what the judge did, he actually agreed with us to go forward with what's called the quo warranto case. Now quo warranto is, is a legal mechanism that says that the, the, the current office holder is holding that office illegally. And that's going forward. We're actually going to have a hearing on that sometime in April. Speaker 1 Is that with the Texas Supreme Court correct? Speaker 3 Right now, the appeal part of of what Judge Pirtle did in December is sitting at the Texas Supreme Court. Speaker 4 So is that it's procedural? Speaker 3 OK, that. Speaker 4 Happened in April. Speaker 3 No, no, no. We're only at the procedural level. There has not been a hearing or a trial of of any kind on the facts of the case and that will come at a later date. The Law on Becoming a Candidate and Automatic Resignation On that topic, something I'm curious about and it's something we've talked about here with all of this that's been going on, do you think that there needs to be say in the next legislature that there needs to be a better defined precedent on what constitutes a formal announcement to run? Because one of the things we've said is maybe it shouldn't be when you hold a press conference or when you gather people to officially announce with media and community. Maybe it should be. And I know this puts more work on the elections office, but maybe it should be the minute that you have your forms filled out, stamped, turned over, then you know, they check in with Roxy and it's like this person, this person. And and that's the point at which you are officially running. That's one of the things we've tossed around and you're the attorney. But is that, is that something you think needs to be looked at because there's kind of a precedent being? Speaker 3 Set here, I do think that the Texas election code is very specific about when you become a candidate. In fact, it, it, it spells out eight different ways for you to become a candidate. And it's not just announcing. And we know people who are candidates who never announce you, they never have a formal announcement, but they've, they've thrown in, they've, they've put their name in the ballot with the, with the primary, with, with the party offices. OK. That's how you become a candidate. You make an announcement. That's how you become a candidate. You send out campaign material. That's how you become a candidate. There's a long list of things. One of the things you do to become a candidate is that you spend campaign expenditures. You you actually go out and build one of these push cards or you put up signs you may not have ever done an announcement. Speaker 2 I like my push cards. Speaker 3 Thank you very much. You may have never done an announcement, but because of that affirmative action that you have taken, you have become a candidate. And I, I, I think and my interpretation of the law and I think the interpretation of law historically has been pretty clear that there's several ways for you to become a candidate. The issue with us here in, in Lubbock County is did Jason Corley become a candidate for another office prior to one year and 30 days? That's it. That's the question. And, and the, and the thing about this question is, if, if you look at the Constitution, it says that it is an automatic resignation. So it's not like you, you, you ask and then you go to a court or you go to the attorney general or you, you'd find an opinion from a that it isn't it, it's an automatic resignation. And if it's an automatic resignation, then it's up to then the Constitution, the laws to fill that term. So in in the case of a a vacancy in the commissioner's court, the law says the county judge shall appoint someone suitable and a resident of the precinct. Now, if, if it had been done by, let's say myself, let's say, well, that's, let's say I was running for another seat other than county judge prior to the one year and 30 days rule, then it would be up to the commissioners court then to fill the position of the county judge. But, but in this case, when it, when there's a vacancy in the commissioner's court, it is the county judge shall appoint someone who's a resident and suitable to to that position. And that's, that's really all I did. I mean, and, and I know the rhetoric is that I removed Jason Corley and I did not I, you know, had him escorted out in handcuffs. That didn't happen. The only thing is I, I, I sat him down and I told him, I said, I said because of your affirmative actions that you've taken, you have triggered the automatic resignation. And you're, you're, you're willing to stay and I'm not kicking you out of the courthouse. You can stay in the courthouse, but you cannot have your seat at the Dyess because you have automatically resigned. Speaker 1 Is he back at the dice now? Speaker 3 He is and so so the hearing that we had in December before Judge Purdle was only to do a temporary injunction and so temporarily he he is holding that seat. But but legally, Mark Muir is still the county commissioner for. Speaker 1 So what's he do? Just sit out in the audience. Speaker 3 He just, yeah, he waits. He, he waits for the Supreme Court just like I do. And, and remember, the lawsuit that was filed was not against me. It was against Mark Muir. Speaker 4 Because he now how did he come to be? Did you did? Speaker 3 You. So I've know. I've known Mark Muir for a long time. No, he's, you know, Mark is an incredible, incredible man. And he is. Speaker 1 AII know him. Speaker 3 Yeah, he's well known on the Slaton community. He, he's the, the director of the Slaton of Mercy Center there in Slaton. I in fact, I think he was, I don't think he was the, he was the, the man of the year for Slayton last year for the Chamber of Commerce. Great guy, servant's heart. And, and that's really what I was looking for. And two things when filling a position like this. I asked, I, I only asked one thing of, of Mr. Mirror. I said one, well, actually two things. One, show up and work. Second, don't run for the office because I do believe that the people of the of the precinct need to choose their representative. The only thing that I had Mark Muir do is is actually hold the position until such time as the people can elect. Speaker 2 Yeah, because he he doesn't want to run. He doesn't want to be able to fill that. Speaker 3 That was that was that was a requirement that I asked. Heated Debate on Commissioner Corley's Removal Moving on from that, obviously Wade mentioned this is now your third, third run. Yes, when I'm. Speaker 1 Just before we move. Speaker 2 On No, I can. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Let me ask you a question. Speaker 4 About it? Sure. Speaker 1 Do you think that even, and here's the thing that I think the voters are confused about, they see a lot of dissension, a lot of craziness, a lot of insanity, and we get it all the time here on the show with the commissioner's court. Do you think though, that even though you feel in your mind that this is letter of the law, do you think it was appropriate, Curtis, to do that, Judge? Well, the law without, even without even consulting your colleagues on the Commissioner's Court. Speaker 3 Well, if if, if you look at the law and. And first of all, I did consult with them and I. Speaker 1 Consulting to other commissioners that would just thrown out there, they had no idea. And 2nd and 2nd and second, let me address that real, real quick. And secondly, other commissioners have told me in private they don't feel it was just, it wasn't just to have a county judge remove another one of their. Speaker 3 Well, again, I didn't. Speaker 4 Remove that. Well, that's what they said. I. Speaker 3 I understand that I said that we have. Speaker 1 Another one coming up tomorrow morning that's going to say just that. When we interviewed Jordan Rackler, well, that was. Speaker 3 You know that. Speaker 1 The rhetoric's going to say. Speaker 3 That is the rhetoric and and I'm telling you it's a false rhetoric. Speaker 1 OK, well, I. Speaker 3 Didn't. I did not remove. No, no, I didn't remove him. I'm telling you, he automatically resigned. Speaker 1 But that's what the public looks at. That's what they think. That's what that's voters think. I. Speaker 3 Understand that I'm, I'm, I'm telling you what the facts are. No. Speaker 1 You don't think that hurts you at? Speaker 3 All I don't think. Speaker 1 So I think it does OK, and I mean, it doesn't help. It helps poorly, hurts you. What's the point of that? Why would you do that from a? Speaker 3 Because the law that is just taking because it's. Speaker 1 Shotgun out and blowing your own foot off in the middle of a race. Speaker 3 The way. Speaker 1 It says Wesley Hawk may have a chance to defeat you based upon the insanity that's going on in the Commissioners Court right now. Speaker 3 Wait, and and, and first of all, I, I, I value your opinion. But but here here in here in lies the problem with with being a judge. I My job is to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this State. Speaker 1 Yes, I've had that. Speaker 3 Charge as well. You've raised your right hand to God, God and said the same thing. So if you see that a law is being broken, or if you see that the Constitution requires you to do something, do you do it or do you ignore it? Speaker 1 I do it based upon what I know in my experience of what my research tells me. But if you have a judge that goes before a court and says, I don't see, I see that you're that this is not legal and appropriate, then the appellate process, that's what they say. Then they move on and you push and say, well, we'll just take it to the next level. That's the process. I grant you that. Let's go to the Supreme Court. But all the while that we're doing this. Back to Kim's point, I believe she touched on something here. That's true. The Texas Legislature has to clean this up. Lubbock County is a mess. We're a laughingstock in the state of Texas because this is going on and the legislation. Can I? Speaker 3 Disagree with you with. Speaker 1 That the, the legislature needs to clean this up because what, look, I'm no fan of Jason Corley. You know, look, I think the way that they've handled the budget over there and you've, if you listen to my show, you know where I stand on no new revenue and having to borrow 6.2 million out of reserve funds to balance. Speaker 3 Out two years in a. Speaker 1 Row, that is ridiculous. I mean, we're we can't keep running the county. We'll get to that in a moment. We can't keep running the county cutting us to the bone and foregoing public safety. We'll get to that. But this whole circus that's been going on with between you and Corley does you guys no favors, Especially you. I don't even know why you would even go down that path. Speaker 3 Because the law requires it. Speaker 1 You pull this out of, Corley says. I'm going to form an exploratory committee. He doesn't sign documentation. He says, oh, I use an e-mail, Jason, for Congress or whatever it is. Speaker 2 I think it was from. Speaker 3 A. Because of. Speaker 1 Your because of the fact that you 2 guys hate each other and can't get along. Speaker 3 That's. Speaker 4 You got you go over. Speaker 1 Top and say I'm going to bash because I don't want him on this court because he's not going to and I put like put words in your mouth. He's not going to win Congress and I'm going to have to deal with him for another, you know, 12 months until we until, until we get the new guy seated on January 20th or January, after January 1st, 27. And you just don't want to work with him. So you pull this out of a hat and then jammed it down the the Lubbock County taxpayers throat, which, by the way, we're going to have to pay for that. Speaker 3 Why are we going to have to pay for? Speaker 1 That we're going to pay the legal bills, says Who are we not? Speaker 3 Pay whose legal bills? Speaker 1 Jason. Speaker 3 Corley so if. Speaker 1 When it's found out in court that that the action was inappropriate on the on the the determination at the Supreme Court, then we the taxpayer are going to have to pick up the tab for all this insanity. Speaker 3 So, so we, but we shouldn't do that until we get that final resolution. Yeah, but you agree? Speaker 1 But you see what? Speaker 3 You. Speaker 1 Agree. You're rolling the political dice. Speaker 3 Here I'm not. Speaker 1 And you're saying, well, I don't want to spend county money, This is just kind of a catfight, is it not? Speaker 3 No, it's not. Speaker 1 I think it is, but that's your choice. Speaker 3 So my, my my choice is to obey the law or ignore the law. What do you think I should do? Speaker 1 Well, it's like this. You walked in here this morning. You started. OK, So here's Justin Martin's little card. It's sitting out of my desk, and the first thing you say to me is Justin Martin, Lubbock County Commissioner, Precinct 2. Vote for Justin Martin, Lubbock County Commissioner, Precinct 2. What's the first thing you said to me when I walked? That's a Class A misdemeanor, Mr. Wilkes. There's like 16 Class A-16, Class A misdemeanor sitting here, right here on my desk. That's the first thing you said to me this morning while I walked in on my own show that he's in violation. Why are you being so? Speaker 3 Nitty, the first thing I said is how you doing shook your. Speaker 4 Hand, yeah, and then. Speaker 1 16 Class A violations on my desk. Yeah, that's the, that's the second thing you said. Speaker 3 To me, this little I, I, I just, I, I, I just want to be very, very clear if you talk about contentious and and. Speaker 1 So you're going to file a lawsuit against Justin Martin because his cards since it says why is that a Class A misdemeanor? Speaker 3 Because he doesn't say it. Because according to the Texas election Code, if you're going to be a, if a non incumbent running for an office must put the word for prior to the office. That's the law. Speaker 1 That is so OK. Speaker 3 Am am I? Am I wrong? Speaker 1 About you, all right, you do you know that when you do stuff like that, that that makes the average voter, you say, well, by golly, I'm legal, I'm by the law. And then but I guess you don't understand public relations here very well. I know you had Kim help when on one of your campaigns back in the past. Maybe you should have hired her this time because this public relations disaster for you is just that. It's outrageous. And again, doing this kind of stuff in the county and causing this kind of mayhem because I get it, you don't like Jason Corley. Speaker 3 I've never said that. Speaker 1 Well, your actions speak louder than words, Judge. You certainly do not. Now granted, I don't like the fact that you know he's walked off. The Dyess won't work trying to get a budget, that's separate issues. But shouldn't you be the bigger man and say, you know what, what he's going to go? We'll get hopefully somebody in there that can all we can all work for the betterment of the county and not play this catfight with this goofy signage stuff or e-mail or suppose that I announce stuff. Upholding the Law Despite Political Consequences So, so you, you, you prefaced, you prefaced all this Wade, you prefaced all this by saying the Texas Legislature needs to do something about this. And, and, and you reference that. And I'm telling you, the Texas Legislature did do something about this. The Texas Legislature has set the course of when you become a candidate, the Texas Legislature has said that you have to have that word for prior to there. And if the Texas Legislature is wrong, then the Texas Legislature is wrong. We need to change that. But in the meantime, well, no, I think you're, I think you're missing my point is that as a judge, OK. As a judge, I am required, as you said, to raise your right hand to God and swear to God that you will faithfully, faithfully preserve, protect and defend the constitutional laws. How do I do that? This is. Speaker 1 Not a violation of the Second Amendment. I mean, let's get real here. This stuff is nitpicky and you know it. Speaker 3 Then then take that up with the legislature. Speaker 1 But even after another judge in the appellate process basically said the same thing, why the interpretation is different? Speaker 3 No, the Supreme Court's still sitting on this. They haven't. They haven't. Speaker 1 And you know, they're probably going to they. Speaker 3 I don't know what. Speaker 1 They're, I don't know what the Supreme Court, but to continue to push this to me from a political angle, surely you must agree that it's just downright stupid. Speaker 3 Do do we make all of our decisions based on political? I don't. Speaker 4 I I mean, I guess I mean just. Speaker 1 Keep going with it, but I I don't think it does you any favors in this race at all. It shows that combativeness. It shows the the voting public that once the determination has been made, yes, you made the allegation, then it went to the pellet process. You're like, you know what? We'll let it go. But let's, let's, let's work together. Let's get this. Let's, let's, let's as a commissioners court work together. Let's get out in front. I hope that's the case going forward because all this did was just make us look like a bunch of idiots statewide. That's all it did. Speaker 3 And I will disagree with that because I've met statewide, I've met statewide with other county judges, I've met statewide with legal folks statewide who says, yes, this was a violation of the Constitution. Yes, this is a violation of the Texas Election Code. So my question to you is, as a judge, should I ignore it? Speaker 1 Well. Speaker 3 Obviously that's a yes or no. Speaker 1 Obviously you didn't, you know. Speaker 3 I'm I'm asking you what I but what you think if you were the judge, if you judge, I would. Speaker 1 I would have looked at this and recognized it for what it was. Yes, this was Mickey Mouse crap and I would have let that go. Speaker 3 So. So you get to decide. Hold on. Do you want me to decide which laws to follow? And not even. Speaker 1 Follow cronies over there. I disagree. Just Jason. No Sir, because y'all lock horns and get crazy on it, no. Speaker 3 Sir, if this would have happened with any other person. Speaker 1 I don't believe it. I mean, you can say that. I just don't believe it. I mean, this thing is just outrageous. But, and again, I have no love lost for Jason Corley, but I mean, my goodness, wait. Speaker 3 Listen to me. I you, you've, you've asked me a direct question. I'm telling you a direct answer. Would I have done this with other folks? And the answer is yes. Speaker 1 It's not clear. You know, the law is being interpreted by you, but then it's interpreted by another court to mean another thing. And so you're right, we're gonna all have our day in court at the Texas Supreme Court, I guess. Speaker 3 Well, and that's just that's, that's all that's all found out that's only on the procedural issues. Yeah. So but what if you're reversed on the? Speaker 1 The Supreme Court level that says, oh, yeah, well, county judge, you got that wrong. And what about the communication with the other commissioners about what was going on? OK, good. You asked us because let me answer that at the Dyess. They had no idea you were going to drop this nuke bomb on them. Speaker 3 When you say they who, who, who are you speaking? Speaker 1 About because they're commissioners, including Corley. Speaker 3 Oh, Corley. No. But here's the deal. I can't, and I'll tell you why. Speaker 1 Why is that? Speaker 3 Quorum laws I want you to explain to me what you. Speaker 1 Can't tell the other guy I cannot. I'm just going to. Speaker 3 Drop it. No, I I told, I told another commissioner so that I don't violate the quorum law. Speaker 1 OK, what did he say? What, Commissioner, was that it? Speaker 3 It was and and he can answer for himself, but I which commissioner? Commissioner Dalby had all the. Speaker 1 Information. So you told Dalby right before y'all went to the Dyess and said this is going to happen today? Speaker 3 It it was, it was well before we went to the Dyess. All right. Now, if I would have done the same thing, say, to Commissioner Shaw, if I'd have gone then to Commissioner Rattler, if I'd, then I would have broken quorum laws, subjecting myself to jail time. Speaker 5 It. Speaker 1 Just gets really wild. Speaker 3 It it does, it gets really wild if you ignore the law. I agree. Speaker 2 Just a just a simple question in, in wrapping this up, you're talking about following the Constitution. That is what you were doing. So if the constant if following the Constitution is what took Corley out, then is it the Constitution that ultimately is the reason he was put back in? Speaker 3 No, he was put back in under under a temporary restraining order that that Judge Pirtle did, because Judge Pirtle said let's just reset it to everything until such time as we can have this final hearing. Speaker 2 And when is that anticipated to happen? April, OK. Speaker 1 Yeah. Speaker 3 But unless, unless the Supreme Court comes back and they. Speaker 1 Could and they could. Speaker 3 They could. We don't. We don't know. Speaker 1 Oh, it just, I get you. I understand. It just drives me crazy that we look like a kangaroo court all across 254 counties in the state. Well, because of this issue. Speaker 3 And and so you know that how, how do we look like? Because, because who have you talked to? Speaker 1 This is what it looks like. Anybody. Speaker 3 But that's not true. No, no, Sir. And I'm telling you, Wade, Wade, I I have talked to county judges all across this state. Yeah, we've had meetings about this with with other county judges looking for. Speaker 1 We got to change this. This is why not. Like Kim said, I guess this will be Burroughs in a Perry question in the next legislative. Speaker 3 Is the law not clear? Speaker 1 I don't think it is. Speaker 3 Well, I'll, I'll tell you when we go to break. I'll, I'll. Speaker 1 I just don't think it's clear. You give me every law subject to interpretation. You've interpreted it one way, and then you've got this appellate guy Pearl, who says another. Speaker 3 So is the Second Amendment clear? Speaker 1 No, it that's the issue. Speaker 3 It is the issue that that we that that we make laws and then we depend on courts to interpret them. And as a judge, my job is to follow the law to the best of my ability. Speaker 1 Well, let me ask you this then we'll move on from this because this is interesting to me because I, it really is very interesting from a, from a law perspective and you being the, the county judge. Are you looking through like you did with Justin Martins? Are you looking through everybody's campaign to make sure? Speaker 4 Or or do. Speaker 1 You feel that it's your charge to make sure that road signs are repelled. The signage on, because we've had, we've had things in the, as you know, I think when you were a county judge, we've had other candidates in the past that, that have pulled out signage from past elections and it be worded like I'm still the county commissioner and they really weren't. They were running for re election. You remember those cases, I do. And so those kinds of things get brought up, say we can't use signage from an old, you know, 'cause the, the law says fair enough. But is, do you feel like in your mind that you are the, the, the final arbiter for county wide elections or to, to look at things like these cards and other things to say? Yeah. Justin Martin, He's a Class A misdemeanor. Speaker 3 No, I, I am not, because the law does not make that for me. What I had told you from the beginning, and I'll say this again, we'll go back to the Corley thing. It is the law that tells me the county judge shall and it it's it. And I don't know if that's if, if you want to ask the Texas Legislature. Speaker 1 Don't make that clear. Effects the county commissioners. That's correct. You're not going to be running out there looking at AJ. I'm not race. Speaker 3 I'm not the. Speaker 1 Or a county court at law race like you mentioned earlier in the show, Correct, We got a county court. Speaker 3 Because if this, if this happens, who's you brought it up, who's? Speaker 1 Court at law right now if eagle accord if this Tom Brummett. Speaker 3 If this was brought up on a county courted law race then it is the commissioners court shall appoint. Speaker 1 Well, what county Commission, what county law, we have one race there right now. We do Tom Brummett and we have and a challenger. Speaker 3 And we've got 3. Speaker 1 Contestants in in violation, according. Speaker 3 He is not in something judge but we have but we do have three JP races that are. Speaker 1 Contested. Is there anybody in violation that you see there? I mean, that is doing something like Justin Martin here with wrong push cards or wrong something. I mean, do you know of any other? Speaker 3 I don't. I don't see any in front of me. I see. Speaker 1 This one, Justin Martin and Jason Corley, are wrong, but you don't know of anybody else. Speaker 3 I haven't seen Jason Corley signs or campaign. Speaker 1 Material but he but according to you and your interpretation, he violated before the December 8th deadline. Speaker 3 He automatically resigned. Speaker 1 Well, that's right. That's according to that's right and the way your interpretation. Speaker 3 Of that law and then because he automatically resigned then it is up to the county judge to that shout a point not may not can think about it in and think about the political implications of it can can you know consult with Wade Wilkes and say hey what's what's going to be my political implications for doing this It says the county judge shall appoint and. Speaker 4 But I've. Speaker 1 Just. Speaker 3 I don't know how the Legislature can make that any clearer. Speaker 1 They're going to have to because this, but why is it is this strange to me out of 254 counties that suddenly this becomes an issue with this? Speaker 3 Particular person it's been issues in other. Speaker 1 Countries all of a sudden it's like, uh oh. And now it's basically statewide news. Lubbock County in the news. I'm just saying for me as a political observer, I'm not a judge and I'm not an attorney. No, but I look at this and I go, this just makes us look like a, a bunch of, you know, a bunch of children. I just think it's outrageous. But that's just my political observations of all this. Speaker 3 But but your, your political observations are yours and I get that. But but you're also projecting that to the other 253. Speaker 1 Counties in Texas, they try to explain this to the, oh, I have voter, the average voter. I mean, I still unclear and we've had 40 minutes of talking about it. Speaker 3 Well, OK, All right, you. Speaker 1 See what I'm saying? The average voter looks at it and says we got some clowns on there, so there. Speaker 3 Are 8 different ways to become a candidate. Speaker 1 Yes. Speaker 3 And if you are one of the county officials and you become a candidate prior to one year and 30 days before the end of your term, it constitutes, according to the Texas Constitution, an automatic resignation. All right, So there's eight different ways to become a candidate. So that therein lies the question. So if you're a candidate, if you announce, we understand that part, you're a candidate. If you file paperwork, you're a candidate. If you spend campaign expenditures, you're a campaign You're. Speaker 1 You're a you alleged he did something like what, 500 bucks or something? Speaker 3 No, I never. Speaker 1 Said something like that. I never said 5. Speaker 4 100 bucks something. Speaker 3 Like that and and that. And herein lies one of the problems too with what you just said. You're going on based on what you hear and and all this stuff. And yeah, but but you, you've never. This is the first time you and I have been face to face where you've asked me for the facts and I'm laying it out for you. Speaker 4 I'm. Speaker 3 Getting that and I've, and I've only had an opportunity to lay it out now for 30 seconds to tell you there are several ways to become a candidate. And if you become a candidate, in fact for another office, it constitutes an automatic resignation. Speaker 1 That's true, but that's subject to your interpretation. We're back to this whole thing. We've gone full circle, whereas other judges who've looked at this disagree with your interpretation. And then the I'm just making the argument that the political fallout of it is outrageous. I got to go to break. I do have to do a break. But then when we come back, we'll certainly, you know, move on. But. Speaker 2 Yeah, we need to talk. Speaker 1 About I do need to talk about your your accomplishments, which is many. You've done a lot of cool stuff we have. Speaker 4 But I, I. Speaker 1 Just think that this, from a political angle, is just. Speaker 4 Bad, bad, bad, bad all the way around. All right, we'll take the break. We'll be right back. Judge Parish's Accomplishments: New Medical Examiner's Office All right, Welcome back into the show, right here on the radio, Lubbock County Judge Curtis Parish. Good morning. Good morning, Sir. Good to have you. It's good to be here. Speaker 1 I tell you what, looking forward to this race, it's going to be an interesting one and we're going to continue to follow it. But I know I'm running short on time with you. I've got Wesley Hunt, Senate candidate coming up next in the around the 810 mark. And so I've still got to get him on the show on the next hour. But let me let me do this. Let's talk about some of your accomplishments that while you've been in office you're running seeking your third term here. I think you have had some good accomplishments and I've made that well known on the show. Speaker 3 We've worked very hard and, and it and I will say, you know IA couple of the, the ones that I'm probably the most proud of. And if you remember, when I took office after the election 2018 and January 2019, our medical examiner's office was in shambles. Speaker 1 We were going to Fort Worth all the. Speaker 3 Time it was an I mean it was horrible. Well, we've completely flipped that and turned it around. Now we are running what is been note noted as the best medical examining office in the state and we've got counties now from all over West TX wanting to come to Lubbock for our services. And we will here in the next couple of weeks open up the brand new $45 million medical examiner's office out by the out by the detention center across and that was voted on by the public. Speaker 1 Yes, that's right. Speaker 3 And we will be opening that up, providing high, providing quality medical examining services, not just for the people of Lubbock County, but for the entire region and bringing in the folks from the Texas Tech Medical School to also be partnering with us in that in this endeavor. Speaker 1 Yeah, Well, it's a it's a big accomplishment. It was something sorely needed. Now, do you think it'll real quick? Do you think it'll be able to basically pay for itself? Because all these other smaller counties, even Amarillo and Midland, Odessa or wherever that they can come to Lubbock to use that facility. And I wouldn't go so far to say it may be a money maker, but but yet it would. It's going to be a good thing. Speaker 4 For us from a financial standpoint. Speaker 3 Well, it, it, it is from a, from a couple standpoints. Not, not that we're going to make money off of this thing, but at at the at the very no, no, that's not the no, no, no, we're not in the money making business. We can't we. We cannot we. Speaker 1 Should run it like a business judge. Speaker 3 We should run it like a business, but not as a money making business. And and Mr. Wilkes, I hope you know the difference. The here here's here's what the, the, the biggest advantage for the taxpayers and for the, for the budget of Lubbock County is that we have been renting space for this building where we're doing medical examiner service. And what we're able to do is take that rent money that we've been paying over the years and now roll it into actual purchasing of this building or actually paying off the bonds that purchase this building. And and that's, that's really a wash. The the amount of money that we've been putting in for rent, we're actually now going to put in to pay off that bond. That is a great benefit to the people of Lubbock. Speaker 1 County do we have a a a medical examiner identified we do OK what who was that? Speaker 3 Doctor Charles Addington is our medical examiner and I had hired him back when all of this went down in, in, in 2019 and 2020. We got him hired to, to actually become in and, and administer this office and flip it around and he has, it's done a wonderful job. I can't, I can't. There's not enough praises for Doctor Addington. Speaker 2 I know we were talking earlier about that this is your, your third run. And as you look toward the future, what are things that you see as being the most important moving forward as opposed to what's what's gone on the 1st 2 terms? Lubbock's Future: I-27, Growth, and Public Safety Funding So one of the things because because of my work in the legislature, my work with other counties, my my work around the state, I've been named as the chairman of the I-27 committee. Now I, 27, as you know, goes from Lubbock to Amarillo. Speaker 4 That's right. Speaker 3 Currently, right, but but two years ago we were able to get a designation from the federal government to to designate the corridor from Laredo all the way to Canada as I 27. So and as as chairman of of the I-27 portion of that, it's, it's very important for me going forward that we continue to work toward building this Interstate out all the way from again from Laredo to Canada. Will I see this in my lifetime? No Will you see it in yours? No. Speaker 4 Yes, I'm very young, Judge. Speaker 3 But but our. Speaker 2 This is the ports du plaines that we're. Speaker 3 Discussing, but our children and grandchildren will. And so, you know, I always say there's the two best times to plant a tree are 20 years ago and today. Yeah, that's right. And so and So what we're doing is we're planting this tree today. That's good. And our our just as just as our grandfathers built Loop 289. Can you imagine Lubbock without Loop 289 and transportation wise? Or Can you imagine trying to build Loop 289 today? It would cost trillions. So I am thankful and I stand on the shoulders of giants of of men and women who had vision of of roads and transportation. And I think as county judge, it is up to me to continue that vision. Speaker 1 Well. Speaker 4 I, I know that we're, we always like to do this with all of our candidates. We'd like to give them the Vote for me speech, the two-minute elevator pitch, if you will. Speaker 2 And where people can find you. Speaker 4 Where people can find your stuff? But before I get to that, is there anything else that you would like to mention today on the show about? You mentioned Emmy's office, but anything about? Speaker 3 Well, I'll, I'll tell you the future. Speaker 1 Stuff that you want to if if reelected future. When we look to the future, what does that look like for you and what do you want to accomplish next? Speaker 4 How about that? Speaker 3 So we, we mentioned transportations vitally important. There are some and and we've been kind of mostly just doing, you know, bailing wire and concrete on patching some of our other county infrastructure. Speaker 4 Yeah, because the roads are a problem. Speaker 3 Roads are always going. Speaker 4 I'm talking about ongoing for the, but those are Commissioner. Speaker 3 Well, but, but it's but it's also under the county judge as well. I'm one of five members of the. Speaker 1 Commissioner's Court. Speaker 3 The but the but the one thing I think going forward I want to make sure of is this. This the Texas State demographer tells us that by 2040 Lubbock County will be 500,000 people. Speaker 4 Yeah. Speaker 3 We're 330, we're growing and and you can't drive around without seeing how we're growing. Speaker 1 Continue doing no new revenue all the. Speaker 3 Time. So this is this is what's important. What is important is that that as the county judge, I have to be ready for I don't want to turn around 20 years from now going man, you know now, now we're just now we're we're behind, you know, we're now we've become Austin. We're not ready for this group. Speaker 1 You're getting no. Speaker 4 Argument for me on that one. I, I, I've said many, many times that there's no new revenue craziness we have going on. Speaker 1 It's, I know it's really flashy to say to the voters and your, its constituents, oh, I've never went up on your taxes. I've no new revenue, but we're having to borrow to balance. Speaker 4 Out 6.2 off of the reserve fund, I think twice now, right, Judge? I mean, two, this kind of stuff is madding for me because we are taking public safety and putting it in the back seat, not in the front seat. In Lubbock County, we have this, I don't know if you're aware of it, you probably are, but we do a crime show every couple of months with the chief of police, Seth Herman and Sheriff Kelly Rowe. And it's disturbing to me when I hear where I look around and see, OK, the city's got this right, but the county is in flux as it pertains to public safety. And I would argue that public safety is number one on the minds of voters as opposed to taxes. What say what say you on? Speaker 3 That no, I and I will agree that that, that public safety is our job number 1. And, and you, you brought up no new revenue rate and, and, and, and understand you know, when, when before it was called the effective tax rate. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so the Texas Legislature and trying to again clarify things really flipped that. So it's not now the effective tax rate. It's no new revenue. It used to be if you passed the effective tax rate, at least you would get the growth money. So all the new rooftops that come in, you would get that. You don't get that anymore. No new revenue means just that. Repeat after me. No new revenue. Speaker 4 So how do you? Speaker 3 Build a growth. We don't get the growth money. So that being said, it puts us even further behind. Speaker 4 Where are we at right now? Are we 33.7? No. Speaker 3 No, we're less than that. We we did it 30. Speaker 1 2. Speaker 3 Yeah, because because we were forced into the no new revenue rate two years ago because of a quorum Busters and then the walkout. Speaker 4 Yeah, right with that. And I think that's, I don't think that's good at all either. Speaker 3 It's not good, but we were forced into that and, and then, and then I had three commissioners that that were forced us into the, the no new revenue rate this year, forcing them to cut $1.4 million out of the sheriff's budget, forcing to cut 250,000 out of the Volunteer Fire Department budget. I, I, I completely voted against that. We are not going to cut public safety. In fact, when it came up, I tried to offer amendments that would restore. Speaker 1 That to me like. Speaker 3 And it was. It was summarily. Speaker 4 It seemed to me like on the budget aspect that right now, the way it sits on the court, that you and Commissioner Dalby are only clear thinking individuals as it pertains to the budget. Would that be a fair analysis? Speaker 3 Yeah, I mean it's. Speaker 4 You and all be you and all be $5 going hey guys, we don't need because it's three against two. But but what we're doing is we're we're going, we're regressing in the county not progressing. Would that would that be fair? Speaker 3 Let me let me bring up this point too about the no new revenue rate versus what I call the flat rate, which is just the same tax rate that you had last year. Just do the same tax rate. That way you could capture the growth. The difference between on the average homeowner average home in Lubbock County $241,000 home. The average home The difference between the flat tax rate and the no new revenue rate $2.63 a year. Speaker 4 I, I I know. Speaker 3 Not not a month, not a day, a year $2.65. Speaker 1 Cents. You know what's going to be said about that? Oh, the average home. And not everybody lives in ads. Some live hot much higher, some live much lower and so. Speaker 3 On understand, but I have to go on average because I I have to set a tax rate based on the. Speaker 4 Average, that's that's going to be the pushback and then they're going to push back those three. And we have one on tomorrow show Jordan Rackler and he'll be asked these same questions and he's going to look at me and say, well, that's what my constituents want. They want no new revenue, no new revenue. Speaker 3 Let's talk about what my constituents want. I've been in office 7 years now, coming up on 8 years. We've gone to the voters 3 times, asked them to increase the tax rate first. First was no. First one was in May of 2019 on a $99 million Rd. bond budget. Speaker 4 Yeah, well, that was a debacle. Speaker 3 No, it wasn't. Speaker 4 Yeah, you're talking about the Woodrow project. Speaker 1 Woodrow No, No. Speaker 3 No, I'm talking about that was a county wide project. Speaker 4 You're talking about. Speaker 3 The road bond 99 million No, it was not a debacle. It was a great. Speaker 1 Thing. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Speaker 4 Let's. I don't want to get confusing here, OK? Are you're talking about the Woodrow expansion project, correct? Speaker 3 That was only a part of it. That was a small part of the. Speaker 1 Not a mess, I mean. Speaker 4 It's not a mess. Yeah, it was. But anyway, go on. Speaker 1 Well, I mean I live on Woodrow Rd. That's a mess. Do you? They took too long. Speaker 4 To get that project done. I don't know why but. Speaker 3 I can tell you why. OK, what? Because it's a text dot project. Speaker 1 Well then we should be suing text doc because that was. Speaker 3 Suing the rate for. Speaker 4 Delay after delay after delay well. Speaker 3 Look at 19th St. Speaker 4 That was outrageous. Well, the contractor should be held and liable. Yeah, we should go after him. Speaker 3 Have. Speaker 1 You ever thought about that? Speaker 3 Have you thought about going after action? I would. Speaker 1 Well. Speaker 4 I mean, I guess did he? Speaker 1 Violate the letter of the law. Speaker 4 I mean because that. Speaker 3 Here's here's the here's the thing, and I know we're getting off track a little bit, but in, in, in business and in government, it's the same way. You, you've got three things. You can do it fast, you can do it cheap, and you can do it good. And you get to pick two out of three. Well. Speaker 4 Look, I mean all I what? What? Speaker 3 Do you want you? Speaker 4 Want to do is. Speaker 3 Or do you want it good the? Speaker 1 City of Lubbock is not a. Speaker 4 Factor at this The city of Lubbock can pass a bond and have a road built in six months. You know why look County's so jacked up? Speaker 3 Because it wasn't the county's project. This was tech stock but but every project. Speaker 1 Listen to me, people, to the way to the fire. Get that road. Speaker 3 Every other project that the county did came in under budget. Woodrow Rd. was different. OK, it was different because it's a text dot project. The county contributed 20. Speaker 4 Percent high behind text dot. You guys should have pushed that, but let's move on. You should have been out there bashing skulls on that project we did. Speaker 1 No, I didn't see any movement. We saw nothing, dude. Speaker 3 Don't you remember when when they were doing excavation, they found a bone? You remember the remember the bone? Yes, you do remember. Look at you and by and and text dot. Speaker 4 It was a dog bone. I don't know I but but that's outrageous. It is outrageous. It doesn't. I'm not I'm not you're not just the delay, but but but why we understand the wood. Speaker 3 But all the all the other projects came in. That was in 2019. In 2021, we went to the voters and asked, will you increase the tax rate? Yeah, for for the Sheriff's Department, overwhelmingly. Speaker 4 I agreed with that. Speaker 3 One and then in 2023 we went to him and said would you increase the tax rate for the Emmys office? They agreed yes, so so when, when the when the. Speaker 4 Question comes. I was shocked. Speaker 1 On that one. Speaker 4 I didn't, I, I, I, I didn't know that that they would do that, but they did well. Speaker 3 Because it was needed. My, my, my point is that when when somebody says my constituents want. Speaker 4 Yeah. Speaker 3 Want the no new revenue rate? But yet your constituents consistently vote for good government. And I think that's what constituents want more than anything. They want to know that they get good government. Yes, we we have one of the lowest tax rates in the state. Yeah, the county. The county is in the bottom 10% of the 254 counties in our tax rate. Speaker 4 Top 15 too, isn't that right? Speaker 3 Word #18 in population, but we're in the we're in the bottom 10% in tax. Speaker 1 Rate which I think isn't too low. Speaker 3 Well, but, but we are efficient and we do more with less in Lubbock. That's that's just what we do. Speaker 4 But. Speaker 3 But we cannot keep digging into. There's the bottom line. We cannot keep digging into our savings account to balance the budget. You cannot do that. It's unsustainable. Yes, it is. And and you're going to kick the can down the road to a point when the the can is too flat to kick? Yeah. Then what are you going to do? Speaker 4 Right. No, it's so. Speaker 3 So my plan is and will always be for for small incremental growth, good planning and make sure that we're taking care of the needs of the people of Lubbock County. That's my commitment. Speaker 4 Well, would you? One final thought then I'll let you get to the vote for me. Deal As county judge, would you promote and advocate for more bonds in the future for public safety, Sheriff's Office, all those kinds of things? I mean, he's got a lot going on, right? Speaker 3 But here's my problem with that. I've got 3 commissioners that that won't abide by but but we so why would I have? Why would I have? Speaker 4 We have an election coming up and so we we have some that are rolling off and some that are we'll see. We'll see how it turns out, but I, I know it's, it's difficult and, and, and, and certainly a tough job. But you know, again, I think you've hung in there on that end and, and tried your best, but you're right there. You got to count noses and count votes. I get. I get that. Speaker 3 Yeah, no, I, I given the current makeup of the court, it it would be useless to to go out for a bond if they're not going to want to pay for it. It's it's like you got daddy's credit card, but you don't care who pays the bills. Speaker 4 Well, I swipe, swipe, swipe if I'm a commissioner and it comes before, you know, a full, full vote to get it to the voter. Let the voters decide. I mean, they have. Yeah, exactly. No. Speaker 3 But then they turn around the next year and and walk away so they don't have to vote for it. Speaker 4 Well, it's, it's we got issues there, no doubt about that. I mean, no doubt. OK, So tell us real quick before we let you out of here this morning, been a spirited debate. Appreciate you coming out. Speaker 3 You bet. Judge Parish's Proudest Legacy: Veteran Cemetery & Judicial Duties Well, one of the things and, and, and we'll close with this. When when I started in January 1st of 2019, one of the, one of my goals was to get a veteran cemetery for Lovett and we're going to have that an honored place of rest for our veterans. And and Wade, as a, as a former military, if you're really not former military at some point, right, you're just all I'm retired, you're retired military. It it is. It has been my passion to make sure that we have an honored place of rest. Speaker 4 For our veterans. Speaker 3 And we will. And I, and I'm, and I'm, I'm probably, of all the things that I've done in, during my tenure, this is the, probably the one thing that I am the most proud of. Yes, we've got a great Emmy's office. We got a great tag center that we're going to be opening next week. We've, we, we've got great roads now that we're, that we're moving toward and we're building toward I-27 and US82. But I think the one thing that I'm the most proud of and the one thing that I think is a legacy that will go forward is that veteran cemetery. Speaker 2 And this is only one of five in the state, am I right? OK. Speaker 3 And and and it is it. Speaker 4 Is at the big crown jewel. I agree with that. That's very, very beautiful. Speaker 3 So I now would say as to, to the voters, I would say as, as your county judge, it has always been my, from the beginning to, to be compassionate, to be passionate about the job. And I know we, we've sat here for, you know, for the past hour talking about the administrative part of my job. But really 6570% of this job is judicial. It is overseeing all the probates and guardianships and civil mental health for our, our community. And that's growing rapidly. I'm seeing twice as many mental health cases as I did two years ago. They've doubled in two years here in Lubbock. It could be because of our population. I've got other reasons why, but we're seeing such an increase. And you need a judge that understands and has that compassion and understands the law. I mean, that is a requirement of this position is to be well informed in the law. It says it right there in black and white. And so as your county judge, I've shown that excellence in the judicial area. I was the county elected official of the year last year. I've been I, I'm a noted speaker on all things probate, guardianship and mental health all over the state. And so this is a part of the of the job that that that I take very, very serious as well, not just the administrative part, but also the judicial part and asking the voters to to continue to provide that excellent service to the people of Lubbock County. Speaker 4 All right, appreciate that, Judge. Now real quick, tell people where they can find you location website. Speaker 3 Well, they can just come down the courthouse if they want to find me because I'm I'm usually there all the time. But we do have a website. It is judgecurtisparish.com. And please go there if you have any questions or comments. You can certainly get a hold of me. Speaker 1 Are y'all on social? Speaker 2 Media, You're on Facebook. Yeah, we're on Facebook. Speaker 3 Yeah, Judge Curtis Parish. Speaker 4 OK, Also, do you know of any other planned forums between you and Mr. Hulk anytime soon or anything else? There's any other debates that y'all are going to have or anything that you know of? OK, well, that's good. I appreciate you coming in here. Spirit of debate, and I really appreciate that we'll have you back. Certainly. We'll continue to watch this race and see how it turns out. Thank you for being with us on the show today, and stand in your ground on the chaotic nature of the commissioner's court. It is chaotic, no doubt about it. All right, we'll take the break. We'll be right back. Stick around. We got more to go right here on the Wade Wilkes Show. Host Reflects on Judge Parish Interview and Upcoming Guests All right, welcome back into the Wade Wilkes Show. And, of course, good show with Lubbock County Judge Curtis Parrish. Any overview there, Miss Davis? We'd like to do real quick before we transition to our good doctor. Speaker 2 I think you pretty much covered it in terms of questions. Speaker 4 I think we blew another interview out so. Speaker 6 I was going to chime in, but I didn't. Speaker 4 Have to reschedule. Speaker 2 There was no ability to chime in during that. Speaker 4 I really did. I like, I like this stuff. I love, I love it. Speaker 6 It's good. I think the listeners knew that you liked it. Speaker 4 We had and I sorry could we had calls. I couldn't take the calls. I didn't read all the texts. Speaker 2 They were about 5050. Speaker 4 5050 wades right, Judges right. I'm not keeping score. I'm just looking at it from political angles. That's what I do. That's my job here as a political commentator, not media, not as a candidate. I'm looking at it from the standpoint of, you know, was this smart to even do from the get go? And my contention is it wasn't. And I was trying to get him to agree with me on that. And he's sticking by the letter of the law. Well, we'll see how that plays out in the court system. So far, it hasn't gone well for his ideas, but we'll see how it all plays out at the Texas Supreme Court because it it it's going to be an ongoing battle. There's no doubt about that. And so I'm just looking at it from the standpoint of, you know, does if someone brings me information and I'm a city and county court law or county judge and says this is what's happened and I you need to take action, OK. But, you know, if courts shoot us down all over the place or shoot him down all over the place, it just doesn't look good from a political point of view. That's where I'm driving. So we'll see. We'll see if this whole thing gets vindicated at the Texas Supreme Court. What did he say? It was April or something when they pick up this case and take a look at it. So we'll have to see how that see how all this plays out. Speaker 1 For sure so. Speaker 4 Anyway, and I'm going to have to apologize to Wesley Hunt because I think we blew that one. Speaker 1 Through the roof. I don't know what happened. Speaker 4 There, I'll find out later, but we continue on with our candidates. Tomorrow we'll have Jordan Rattler on and I'm sure he'll say the exact opposite about, you know, what's going on with that. Briefly, I won't spend a lot of time on that because he's not really involved, but definitely talked with him, speak with him about budget, you know what his views are about that and on and on and on and what he would like to, to, to do going forward. Speaker 2 And this is a rerun because it was Chad C and and Jordan Reckler in the last election. So it's it's kind of a, it's a rerun on that. Speaker 4 Yeah, absolutely. So, all right, well, we'll take another quick break here and then we're going to come back and continue on right here on the Wade Wilkes Show. Stick around. We got plenty to go. 830, almost the time now, bottom of the hour. Stick around, right? Dr. Reddick Explains Muscle-Centric Health Approach Welcome back into the show, right here on the radio. Doctor Jacob Reddick, right here on the program. Of course, you have a question for the good doctor. Feel free to give us a call or text 806-745-5800. Speaker 1 Good morning, doctor. How are you? Good. Speaker 5 Morning, Wade. I'm doing very well. Thank you. Speaker 1 Good to have you. Speaker 4 So now, by the way, there was last week on the show. Speaker 1 Yep. Speaker 4 A lot of people text in with various things that they wanted you to do some research on. Speaker 1 Yeah. Speaker 4 So you you got your homework. Speaker 5 Yeah, I've got some notes, OK from from what I learned. Speaker 1 OK, good. Speaker 5 If you want, we can get into some of that. Speaker 4 No, I want to talk politics with you first. Do it. I'm. Speaker 1 Just kidding, doctor. Speaker 2 Reddick will never come back again. Speaker 4 He's like, all right, let's go. Speaker 6 I came out early for the show. Speaker 5 I yeah, I find the politics very interesting, but I personally, I've given up on caring about politics. I think it's more. Speaker 1 Just now, come on, don't do that. I'm sorry. Don't do that. Speaker 5 Be. Speaker 1 Warm, but. Speaker 2 Don't pick another fight. Speaker 5 I'm disappointed with all sides of the argument. Speaker 4 Yeah, well, it can be mind numbing at times, there's no doubt about that. But don't give up and be sure to be informed and go vote doctor. Speaker 5 No. Speaker 4 You will vote. OK, Absolutely. There you go. Speaker 2 And Wade needs to know to let us talk to but. Speaker 4 Well, I tried. I was like, can you try breathe? All right, Well, well, let's. Speaker 5 Go. Speaker 4 So what did you have for us today on the show? Speaker 5 One of the callers asked about muscle centric medicine. Yes. And hey. Speaker 1 OK. Speaker 5 And I hadn't heard anything specifically about that. That's kind of a new, I new idea to me, although kind of makes sense what it is. So muscle centric medicine is it's basically an approach to health that is focused on the muscles that should make sense just from the name. But so it it it's more concerned about functional muscle mass. And and when I say muscle, we're talking about skeletal muscles. So typically what people think about when we say muscles, and it has to do with, you know, the current state of your muscles. So like, are your muscles healthy? Are they strong? How much of your overall body composition is muscle versus fat and other things? And there's some, you know, logical reasons for this. So one would be so diabetes. A lot of people know about diabetes. Obviously as far as type 2 diabetes goes, which is by far the the most common form of diabetes, type 1 diabetes is is pretty rare, although everybody knows about type 1 diabetes. Speaker 4 That's true insulin dependent deal. Speaker 5 Child onset autoimmune disease and really completely different in its cause than type 2 diabetes, but type 2 diabetes generally is, is considered a disease of insulin insensitivity. And part of what happens is when you have too much body fat and not enough muscle, then we kind of get towards this state of of type 2 diabetes of insulin insensitivity and hyperglycemia, elevated blood. Speaker 4 Sugar. Speaker 5 And so, and that then kind of opens Pandora's box on a lot of other metabolic problems. And, and they're all there. There's this thing called metabolic syndrome. It doesn't seem to be talked about quite as much anymore. When I was going through medical school, it was kind of a big deal. But, but metabolic syndrome, it's, it's a combination of elevated cholesterol, elevated sugar and body blood pressure. That's right. And. Speaker 1 Doctor Gray from the back. You want a microphone, by the way. Speaker 4 I could I, I could move. Speaker 5 And but the the combination of those things is like a a storm for just poor health all together. So we see more heart attacks, more cardiovascular problems, more strokes. ANYWAYS, so this muscle centric medicine is, is kind of putting a greater emphasis on the health and the condition of your skeletal muscles, OK. Speaker 4 That's good though. Speaker 5 I think it's very good, I would say. So I, you know, I kind of looked online who are the purveyors of, you know, the quote UN quote muscle centric medicine and it's a lot of, you know, very healthy looking strong doctors, which, you know, I, I don't have a ton of muscle per SE. I'm not like a bodybuilder type. I'd love to be. I just have never. Speaker 4 Had to work out with Mike Ivy. Yeah, he'll. Speaker 3 Get you there, Doctor. Speaker 5 I got to start with just working out. Speaker 4 I yeah, that would help start there. No, actually. Speaker 5 I love exercise, I really do, and I think it's great. It's just it. It can be really hard to to make time to put it into your. Speaker 4 Schedule got to make time. Do you make time to brush your teeth, doctor? I do 2 minutes time to work out. Speaker 5 2 minutes in the morning, 2 minutes at night. Speaker 4 It's just like that. It's just part of it, right? Yes. Speaker 5 I agree 100. Speaker 7 Percent I'm. Speaker 4 Doing it I'm I'm feeling so much better working out, lost some weight doing that, blah blah, blah. But yeah, definitely. But this muscle centric medicine, that's pretty cool stuff. Speaker 5 Yeah. And so, so kind of the purveyors of this idea that the claims that they make is that it has benefits for your hormone health overall, that the muscles are are important to regulating your hormones. They claim that it it's related to better aging and longevity as well as just general health resilience. So better immune system and. Hormone Replacement Therapy and Hysterectomy: Patient Concerns Can I jump in and do a text that kind of goes into what you're saying there? It says I am a post menopausal woman and have been on hormones for a while and it's taken a long time to get them adjusted. I'm progesterone intolerant. I take only a small amounts and my nurse practitioner told me she's no longer comfortable prescribing me estrogen when I can't take more progesterone. She has suggested a hysterectomy so that I. Speaker 1 Can. Speaker 4 So I can't. I lost my SO. I suggest a hysteresis so I can take estrogen without the concern of getting uterine cancer. I had the idea to get regular transvaginal ultrasounds and monitor the tissue and stay on my current dose. Is that unreasonable? And also, what do you think about a hysterectomy as a means to staying on hormone replacement? Pretty good question there. Speaker 5 Yeah, absolutely. So first of all, I will say I'm, I'm definitely pro hormone replacement for women starting in perimenopause. So that would be like maybe the first couple years before you get into menopause and it has shown specifically for the 10 years from sort of onset or perimenopause to post menopause for that 10 years. If you're on hormone replacement, there seems to be a very good benefit for overall health, but specifically muscle health, bone health, and then a number of other things that are just related to the absence of those hormones. So often times sleep can be affected. There can be other symptoms like hot flashes. Speaker 4 But but as that state from the texture there if if you have a situation where. Speaker 5 So. Speaker 4 The progesterone, because here's what happens and I want to, I think where that's going with that, that texture was you go into some of these doctors offices and they read a chart or they look at blood work and then they go, but the book says it's got to be at a certain level. But if that patient is saying but I feel pretty good. Speaker 1 Yeah, So what I mean, should we? Speaker 4 Stay with hey, do I feel better or do I need to do what the book says? I guess, right. I think that's what they're trying to say. Well. Speaker 5 You see what I'm saying? In this case specifically, when we're talking about estrogen and progesterone, OK, If you have a uterus and you are getting just estrogen, no progesterone, it creates a situation where you're going to have uterine hyperplasia, which means the uterus is going to grow and it will continue to grow if it's unopposed by progesterone, OK. And it does increase the risk for uterine cancer, so that's one thing. But you can also have issues just with uterine hyperplasia, even if there's no uterine cancer and so. Speaker 7 I'd like to bring up, I don't know if she's tried the bioidentical hormones and you know a lot of it. There's some progesterone that is made out of a soy product. There's a lot of things you can do. If it's one of these things where they're having her have a period that once a month, there's ways to diminish the frequency of periods to maybe two or three a year. Just, you know, there, there are a lot of options out there. If you work with someone that's, you know, like we are trying to to help, you would get to know a lot more about what's going on. Speaker 4 Another texter text in about this question and a woman says the long term effects of hysterectomy are not talked about enough. Please tell that texter to be careful and talk to people who are 5 to 10 years out. They regret it. Speaker 7 Definitely a problem. You know one of the things they were taking ovaries way too often in the past. Ovary produces your testosterone, which helps muscle, skin, bones, your pro, your progesterone is produced by your ovaries naturally. So there is still some progesterone in there if you've got ovaries. And so we, we, we really encourage trying to keep, you know, all of that a hysterectomy, right? Speaker 1 But leave the float. Leave the ovaries alone. Speaker 7 Leave the ovaries alone. Yeah, because they. Speaker 4 Were taking it all out. Speaker 7 And that's a big part of why suddenly we ended up with all these women out there with osteoporosis, osteopenia, all kinds of problems. Speaker 4 Yeah, yeah. That's a good point. Yeah. Yeah, excellent. Speaker 5 Point another thing to consider too is whether or not you leave the cervix intact or take the cervix out when you do the hysterectomy. And so some people after having this, if the cervix, which is kind of the area between the uterus and the vagina, if the cervix is removed, some people have reported after that that they have painful intercourse. And so if, if someone is still sexually active, but then every time it's very painful for them that that might have a, you know, a really bad impact on their life. Speaker 4 Yeah. Speaker 7 Won't bring his name out on in public, but there's one orthopedic surgeon here in town who I could by feel and by looking tell exactly who did the woman's hysterectomy. And I had problems with a lot of them that the that the vaginal canal was too short, causing a lot of pain the. Speaker 4 Way it was sewn up. Speaker 7 Look like an elementary grade schooler had had sewn it up. Just terrible work. Yeah, I guess this guy's about retired or, or has retired, thank God, but. Speaker 4 Not good, not good, not good outcome, OK. Speaker 1 But back. Speaker 4 To the Hut says well I am on by identical and have been on hormone therapy since pre menopause. Struggling to get my levels up. I've tried several different forms of progesterone so. Speaker 5 Yeah. Navigating Doctor-Patient Communication and Insurance Issues And so I, and I think that's a good point that Doctor Gray makes is bioidentical. Obviously she's tried bioidentical. And so the the other point kind of getting back to what you were asking, Wade, as far as you know, how do we weigh the personal concerns of an individual versus the general recommendations? And I think it's wrong to apply the general recommendation recommendation to everybody every time. I think it's important the doctors know what those are and know what the risk factors are so that we can inform our patients. But you've got to consider each individual situation. And I think especially if this if this caller is, you know, motivated to stay on top of her health and is is watching out for signs of complications from the unopposed estrogen and and not having the progesterone, then that certainly is going to be good for her as far as avoiding those things. And yeah, so most definitely you can't. You can't apply the same approach to every single person without consideration of what that patient wants, needs, what's important to them, you know. Speaker 4 It's a big step. Yeah. You know, it really is. And so, but that's why we do these shows, is to ask the doctors those questions because for US men, it's kind of hard to be like, oh, well, whatever. I mean, it's a totally different animal. But I appreciate the, you know, ladies. Speaker 7 Texted in. We've had men that believe it or not, have had to take progesterone because if progesterone, which men have as well as women somewhat, if you don't have it, it's a critical step in the production of energy. And surprisingly, there's a few men out there that need to take a little bit of it from time to time. Speaker 4 I did not know. Speaker 7 That and and nobody hardly ever checks a progesterone level on a man. They get their testosterone or are these outfits that pump them full of, you know, 50,000 and milligrams of progesterone. But I, I mean not progesterone. I mean testosterone and ignore the progesterone totally. So I I still I I recommend one at one point in time do a saliva test on the on men as well. Speaker 4 Yeah, well, I'll tell you this. When I go to the VA and, and knowing what I know and ask them to do those kinds of things, they look at me like I've got 10 horns coming out of my head. They're like, we don't do that here. I ask them about T3T4 testing. They go, no, they go OK, Sergeant, let's, let's, let's don't get crazy with it. I'm like, OK, well, they'll do total testosterone level for a male and they'll say, Oh, well, you know, and, and if you're at one point, and I'm higher now, but at one point I'd gotten down into the three hundreds or two hundreds or something 250, which is really low even for a guy my age. And the VA looked at me and said, Oh, you're OK, you're doing all right. So I mean, sometimes even in, in a, in a Medicare K VA government run system, or even sometimes if you just go to docs in the box that don't take the time to really explain it, they may look at the chart and say, well, according to the chart, you're doing just fine. You should be fine. But you say, well, I'm not doing fine. I feel like crap, but they don't. That's that's the problem with medicine today is that you don't have time to explain it. Speaker 5 Yeah. Yeah. I think another issue too is that some of a lot of these tests that we're talking about measuring these different levels, they're, they're not routine in the sense that insurance generally doesn't reimburse for them. And so a lot of doctors are hesitant to order these tests because they feel bad that the patient may be stuck with a bill and it may or may not yield actionable information when we test these things. So, you know, you, I think it's, it's great for the patient to be informed, as far as, you know, what kind of things we might be looking for. And, and I love it when a patient knows. Yeah, you know, I know this isn't covered by insurance, but I still want to know anyways. And in that case, you know, sometimes we can find some weird rare things, but sometimes we, we do all kinds of tests and, you know, we still don't have an exact answer as to what's causing someone's, you know, symptoms. Sometimes the symptoms can be just vague and general and attributable to, you know, hundreds. Speaker 7 Hundreds of things. I recently saw a lady who had been to multiple doctors had been mailed to Mayo Clinic, you know, checked all this and she comes in and sees us and we found a testosterone secreting tumor in her adrenal gland. And anyway, she had to have surgery. It wasn't cancer yet, but it, it had to be taken out because it was having profound effects. I mean, she's going bald and having all kinds of troubles and it, and it amazes me how many doctors she had seen, you know, and yet we, we've got the luxury of time. Plus, I live for those cases. Yeah, yeah. And it was a great case. But she's very happy now. Feels great. Speaker 4 This could be just that one little. Speaker 7 Thing that tiny tumor don't catch, yeah. Speaker 5 Yeah, wow. And and even in that case was rare too in that generally that tumor secreting different hormones, not necessarily testosterone, but this one was secreting testosterone. So if we had been checking for, you know, cortisol, which is often what, what those kind of tumors released, that would have come back normal, you know? Speaker 7 So and that was a lot of her symptoms were like cortisol, but but. Speaker 4 Those levels. Speaker 1 Were. Speaker 4 Normal. They were normal. And so you're like, OK, well, we got to dig a little deeper. It's something else. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's wild. And you're not OK. All right, Well, as unless we haven't any more questions over there on text line 806-745-5800, the doctors are in the house. Feel free to call or text us back to the last show last week where people were texting and saying check this, check that. Dr. Reddick on Transverse Myelitis: Symptoms and Treatment OK, so where were we on? Speaker 5 So somebody also had asked about transverse myelitis. I, I, they said something else on the air and maybe they said transverse myelitis and it wasn't clicking for me, but, or they had pronounced something wrong, but I wouldn't sure exactly what they're talking about the time. But I, I'm fairly certain it was transverse myelitis. And this is an interesting case. It's, it's also relatively rare, but transverse myelitis is when you get inflammation of certain areas of the spinal cord, certain tracks of the sort of the insulation of the nerves that are traveling through the spinal cord. And you get, you know, very specific symptoms specific to the area of the spinal cord that's being affected. And so it can present very strange in strange ways. So, you know, you might have pain or weird sensations in just one little part of your body, or you could have maybe your whole left leg doesn't work. You know it's not getting the signals from the brain. Speaker 7 Muscle weakness, decreased sensation, problems with bowel or bladder dysfunction. You know, this is one of those weird deals that if the doc doesn't think about it, they'll never diagnose it. Speaker 5 Yeah, and, and certainly could be misdiagnosed as some other things depending on how it presents, you know, because it's going to have symptoms in common with other things depending on where in the spinal cord it's it is. But generally this is it's either autoimmune. Well, so it generally is considered to be autoimmune, but often it can be triggered by some other viral infection. So, you know, you get a bad cold or or whatever and everything's fine and then your body produces antibodies to that virus that happened to be similar to something on an antigen on the myelin sheath of of your nerves. And so your immune system kind of attacks the wrong thing after that. Speaker 7 And this is one of those funny ones that a regular MRI may not show it. You'd probably have to have an MRI with contrast to show this, which a lot of docs don't do. And and or the other thing is do a lumbar puncture. Obtain a sample of the fluid out of the spinal cord and and see if it can tell you what's happening. Speaker 4 OK. All right. A tough case though. Yeah, it is. Speaker 5 Yeah, yeah, treatment, treatment for it is, is generally going to be high dose steroids given through the IV. And if that doesn't work in in extreme cases, they might have to do a plasma exchange where there's a machine, they pull blood out of your body, remove the plasma, mix it with either fresh plasma or some synthetic synthetic thing like albumin and put it back in your body. So basically kind of resetting your immune system and and that will often help too, but. Speaker 4 Just go to the phones. Caller Shares HRT Experience, Discusses Medical Misinformation Good morning. Welcome into the show. Good. Speaker 8 Morning. I had lots of things to say about lots of other things that were happening this morning, but I thought it would be interesting because I had a hysterectomy in 1990 because of terrible endometriosis and all kinds of things. And at that time, and I think it's been reversed, but they would not allow anybody to take estrogen. And when they combined it with progesterone, it was a, but I think that was what was the problem when they were doing these tests back then and they were warning that we would all have heart attacks and everything else. So nobody would prescribe it. And as a result, of course, I won't take bisphosphonates either, but my bones are not as strong as they would have been had I been able to do that. So yeah, that's that's just a because I've heard lately now that oh Gee, we were wrong about that. Speaker 5 You're absolutely right, So. Speaker 8 But all of us in our early 80s now are suffering from it, and there's no way I would ever take the. Speaker 5 Yeah. So there was a government sponsored initiative called the Women's Health Initiative that was looking at the safety and efficacy of hormone replacement. And to make a Long story short, it was it was poorly conducted research, poorly conducted science. So the the people that they picked as research subjects were so many of them were older women who had already had risk factors of heart disease. And and so a large portion of them ended up with heart attacks or strokes. And they falsely attributed that to the hormone replacement when it was really just a problem of the sample size or the people that they picked for the sample just had greater risk factors for those things. And so subsequently, they've, they've done the same studies, but on, you know, more appropriate population of women, younger women, who, you know, people that would have been your same age at the time when you had your hysterectomy. And the, this, this information and skepticism about these initial trials has been around for quite a long time, but it's really only recently that the, the mainstream and the consensus is, is kind of catching up with, with what we now know and make sense. And I think that that's one of the, you know, unfortunate things that does happen in medicine and in science is, you know, they, the information that they found from those first studies, it, you know, it wasn't like it was made-up or wrong. It's just, you know, they misinterpreted the data that they had. And this happens often And, and all the time. There's a there's a great book by a doctor named Marty Mccary. I think he's actually in the administration, Trump's administration now is either FDA or HHS or something. But the book's called Blind Spots, and he highlights several cases in that where medicine, you know, air quotes medicine as, as an entity got it wrong. And there's some really good examples. And, you know, I don't think the point of that shouldn't be that everything your doctor says or everything somebody says is wrong, because that's not always the case. But, you know, it should make everyone aware of of kind of the process of scientific investigation. And that it really is, it's, it's a slow moving thing. And we're hoping, you know, overtime and with more and more information that we're getting closer and closer to the truth. But, you know, sometimes we, we don't get it right, you know? Speaker 8 I guess being a rebel, I've I've always done alternative things since I was a teenager and realized I couldn't handle sugar. But I, I, I don't, there's some things that you can't go around them completely, but I try not to. And we I'm pretty healthy and always auto or making taking everything that's anti-inflammatory like turmeric and selenium and lots of things tend to help keep all these inflammatory type things at Bay that are life threatening. But I just, I wanted to mention that because it was a I'm real familiar with what they were thinking at the time. And just and sometimes the doctors got get paid to push certain things, they'll admit it. Speaker 5 So, yeah, that's the case. And and I probably more more often than that is just, you know, the the incentive structure of the current mainstream medical delivery model. It it doesn't always lend to helping the patient and sometimes it it hurts even and and so. Speaker 8 Follow the money. Speaker 5 Yeah. Speaker 8 Anyway, so sorry to it stays so long on here, but I, I, I thought it was worth the at least bringing out for folks that that's why I listen to you all some. So it's a it's a another good place to get the truth out and you've been doing it a long time, Doctor Grayson. I appreciate it. But anyway, I'll call in tomorrow about Wesley Hunt's event on Saturday and some other things. Hopefully you'll get to without back on. Anyway, appreciate y'all so much. Speaker 4 Thank you for the call, Michael. Speaker 7 Appreciate it. You know, the, the one big advantage that we have is we're not associated with a hospital or Medical Group or an organization that's telling us what to do with our patients, where to send them. So you know it, it gives us a level of freedom that you just don't have otherwise. Thank you again. Speaker 4 All right, Well, if you had another question out there, 806-745-5800, that's 806-745-5800 right here on the program, Doctor Andy Gray, MD, Doctor Jacob Reddick, MD. So if you have a question, feel free to give us a call or a text for sure. OK. So we'll continue on here for a few more minutes on the program, but So what else? Beware of Gimmicky Health Trends and Unregulated Supplements Well, so I want to touch on something back to that muscle centric medicine. So I think it generally, you know, all these ideas that that people that are pushing this idea or this this approach that'll make sense. But I will say, you know, and something that bothers me is a lot of times you find on the Internet or just in general, some of these things can be what I like to call just gimmicky and meaning that, you know, they may be good, they may be helpful, but they're kind of oversold by the people that are purveying these ideas as, you know, a panacea or or a cure for for everything. And so I think that, you know, having healthy strong muscles has a lot of advantages and benefits, but it's not, it's not everything that you need and, and it wouldn't solve all your problems. And particularly in in the health and fitness world, I think there are some misleading ideas about what is truly healthy. And, and especially because sometimes what looks very healthy outwardly is not healthy on the inside. So if you can think of some of the most famous bodybuilders, you know, they're in this quote UN quote health industry. Some of them are quite unhealthy and and meet untimely demise. Rich Piana, I don't know if any of your listeners know Rich Piana or Ronnie Coleman. You know, he's ended up with some severe spinal injuries and yeah, so you know, those people, they they look very healthy. That there aren't always healthy. And so they're. Speaker 4 Kind of like the House of Cards. Yeah, Outwardly you look great, but internally you're a you're a train wreck. Speaker 5 I will say I think that bodybuilders are a little bit of an extreme case in that state. Absolutely. You're right. Yeah. Speaker 4 Well, they do weird stuff. Speaker 5 They do weird stuff, but. Speaker 4 It's kind of like what happened with Doctor Love. Who took off? And Doctor Gray did too. But you know, therefore I've seen pictures of him in the past, and he was bodybuilding, powerlifting, you know, Doctor Love and it and it. But he was young. And they think they're bulletproof and they do all this weird stuff, take all these weird supplements or even. And I don't know if this is the case with him. I'm not suggesting he was taking anabolic steroids, but you look at him and you think, Oh yeah, that guy's got it going on. And then 1020 years, 30 years down the road, they are a pile of junk. Yeah, I mean, that is not good. That is not good actually. Speaker 5 So, you know, I think kind of the point is you got to you got to take a balanced approach, sure, everything right. And if if somebody is is telling you or making you think like this is this is the answer to all things health, then then probably it's not right. And also know that you know, anything you find on the Internet, if they're selling anything, then obviously whether whether they are sincere or not, there's an incentive for them. Speaker 1 Well, it's like last. Speaker 4 Week on the show we had a texter and I asked you about it with the new the new GOP and you you, you talked about that and you said I would be very hesitant to take that new form of GOP. What was it called? Rotetoxide because someone asked about that, you know, because trzepatide, you got the semi glutides, the Ozempics and all these things. But there's this third one out there now that is being in the testing phase, going through human trials. And you said, well, I would wait for those trials to be over and maybe out next year, who knows? Speaker 1 But but if but there are. Speaker 4 Places that will compound that and say and then sell it online and say here you go and. Speaker 5 Yeah. And not, not to be confused with with a good compounding pharmacy because you're not going to get this from say Kitsch Pharmacy or Ivy Pharmacy. Those are, you know, real deal pharmacies that are reputable and doing everything by the book, but you they're getting it from online vendors that are selling it and it's clearly marked not for human consumption. Speaker 1 Yeah, right. Speaker 5 However, it's it's obvious that they're trying to sell it to humans so they can consume consume it. Speaker 4 Well, and you know, apparently, and I had a buddy of mine, I was talking to him about this a few weeks ago and he was, you know, I, I don't know where he got it from, but he said, oh, I took it and it was really great. And it's so much better than trazipatide and all this kind of stuff. You ought to try it. And I said, well, wait a minute. Let me ask Doctor Reddick about that on the radio program too. And so, but it, it, it, you just, you never know. I mean, this whole idea that, hey, this will grow hair on a cue ball, I get a little leery of I've been, I've been guilty in the past of running radio programs with stuff just like that. I mean, I've done that before where now it wasn't something like a drug. But you know, you, I remember I used to do a radio show with these guys and this was 25 years ago, but they showed up one day at the radio station here and they said, have you ever heard of colostrum? And I was like, yeah, I think so. Isn't that like a cow first milking guy? He said, yeah, well, we've encapsulated this into a capsule and it's all hormone free and all this kind of stuff and. Speaker 1 You could take. Speaker 4 It and you're going to feel so great and all this kind of stuff anyway we want to buy block air from you and do a radio show on it. This is probably back in 98992000 and I said, OK, I mean it's a supplement. It's and that's where it gets kind of weird too, because a lot of the supplements out there are not FDA regulated. Speaker 5 So well, well they they are, but because they're supplements, it's it falls into different. Speaker 4 Different categories. I mean if it's obviously causing. Speaker 5 So if it's not being sold as food and it's not being sold as drugs, right, it can be sold as supplement and the standards? Speaker 4 Yeah, right. But but the claims were pretty wild. Yeah. And so we did a few shows with those guys and then come to find out it was also a network multi level marketing thing that was all the rage back in the States. Hey, here's here's, here's a network marketing thing. And anyway, so that was the end goal of, of, of that particular thing. But, but I did have and did try it. But I, like I always say, whether it's a medicine or even a supplement, if you try something for 30 to 60 days, give your time. Give your body time to absorb it. See if this is going to, but don't just stay on it if it doesn't do anything #1 and #2 worse, if it doesn't help you. Why are you wasting money on something like that? You see? Speaker 1 What I mean, it just doesn't make sense. The Critical Role of Primary Care in Medication Management My mother is a great textbook example when she was alive, because she would go to this internist and she'd go to this doctor and then she'd go back to the hospital for something else. And why in the hospital she was prescribed this medication or whatever. And then one time I'm at the hospital and the internist walks in and says, Miss Wilkes, I'm just kind of going over your chart here, but you're on 23 medications now. Some of these have contraindications and this could be a problem. Hmm. And she goes, ohh, well, I, I, I, I didn't know. I mean, he said ohh, and we gotta get rid of something. This some of that happens. Speaker 5 All the time, yes. And it, it's, it's really frustrating, you know, in part. Speaker 4 Having a good pharmacy and a good doctor like you. Yeah. To watch that and say, whoa, we're not. Whoa, hey, wait a minute. Yeah. I mean, you got to do that. Speaker 5 Part of the problem is just the fragmentation of our healthcare system, you know, so there's three different hospitals here in in this town and they all have their own electronic medical records. There's nothing that kind of unifies or what's the right word, but it kind of consolidated that. So one hospital doesn't know exactly what medicine you're getting compared to the other hospital unless you tell them. And so one good way of avoiding, you know, I'm collecting too many medications is to, if you take medications, keep a list of your medications with you, like in your wallet or something, you know. And so that way when you, if you go to the emergency room or you go to a new specialist, you can give them that and then they can know very clearly everything that you're taking. And so they'll know, Oh, I shouldn't mix this with that or, but then also make sure that you are keeping up with your primary care physician. And if you don't have a primary care physician, you really should. So your primary care physician, which is your your General practitioner should be like the coach, the. Speaker 4 Gold standard, yeah. Speaker 5 It is right. Well, they need to be the coach of, of the team of specialists that you have. And because the specialists aren't necessarily communicating with each other. And so anytime you you know, there's a change that happens from the specialist or from a hospital stay, you got to make sure that information is being communicated back to your PCP so that they can tell you. And they can also help translate all the things that everybody else was saying and make sure you're understanding it all correctly. And you know, some really good examples are there are some medications that are very important that people should be on after certain situations. So let's say if you had a cardiac arrhythmia or you had like a bypass surgery, there are some medications we'll put you on temporarily to prevent cardiac arrhythmias that we know very well are toxic and you shouldn't take long term. But sometimes people end up taking those long term because it's somewhere it's lost in communication. And so somebody they'll continue the medication. There's a lot of examples of medications like that where, you know, we know they have side effects, but the benefits outweigh the risks for a short duration, but not for long term. And then you people end up on these things for years and years and years and you know, it's just a mess. And So what I like to do, especially with all my new patients and my current patients on their annual exams, we go through every single medication, every single supplement that they're taking and make sure that everything makes sense and that there's, they're not on stuff they shouldn't be on, that they're on the right doses of things that they are on. And that if they're taking something, is it doing anything for you? Because if it's not like you said, then shouldn't be taking it. Speaker 4 That's true because of the why, you know, why are you going to subject your body to something that they may not work at all or be worse, do damage? Because that was happening to my mother and that one internist at UMC caught that and said we needed, we need and you know, who's your primary care? Oh, I don't know. I just see some guy to, you know, doc in the box thing. And and then so she didn't have a doctor like you, but boy, it would have helped if we did. You know, I mean, not because I'm not a doctor. I don't know, I mean, I'm not looking at 2223 prescriptions and going, Hey, mom, do you know that this particular medication that is a direct counter to this medication could cause this this problem that you called 91140? I didn't know, you know, so I mean, that kind of stuff is just mind numbing and it it's it's irritating. And so you know that that kind of stuff or but anyway, is there anything else there? By the way, someone has something you want the doctor to research for. Next time I have something, text us in that question. Supplement Oversight and Essential Public Health Advice Real quick doctor, I don't know if you know because I know we're talking about FDA regulation who overseas these supplements when of course I'm going to be biased. I remember when the pre workout C4 was awesome and I forgot what they pulled out of it to make it not work anymore, because before I was on it or while I was on it, I felt like a demigod. And then when they make the choice because FDA was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, there's something in here. We got to take it out because it worked. So how do they want, how do they find out about that kind of stuff about the supplements and then change it to, yeah, it's healthier, but it sucks? Speaker 5 I honestly, I don't know, I'm guessing that in and I've seen things like that, not just with supplements, but but you know, even like lotions and things that they'll sell over the counter. I think usually what it is is there's probably something in there that is listed as, you know, prescription only. And that and perhaps maybe C4 was aware of that but thought it was different enough or something along like but but obviously the FDA thought hey, this thing is prescription only, it shouldn't be sold as a supplement or whatever it fall falls under a different category. That would be my guess. Speaker 4 Excellent. All right. Well, anything else on your notes from last week about anything else that you would like to mention before we wrap up today? Speaker 5 I think we we kind of covered, you know, these things, you know, sorry, it's kind of quick. There's not a lot of time to go super in depth but. Speaker 4 But muscle centric medicine? Speaker 5 Muscle centric medicine. So I would say, you know, take away it's, I think often the muscles are ignored as an important part of your body and your overall health. And so, you know, when you're thinking about holistic health and holistic medicine, the muscles are an important part, but they're not the only part. So I think you know better than. Speaker 4 Your heart's a muscle. Speaker 5 Your heart is a muscle, it's not a skeletal muscle, so it's not really what they're talking about. Speaker 4 No, but you want to make sure your heart is a big. Speaker 5 Heart is a muscle. I would say, you know, holistic, A holistic approach to health is important and it needs to include muscles. It needs to include all kinds of things. There's not and there's, there's generally not A1 size fits all or, or a panacea, a cure all for everything. That's just not, not a thing. But yeah, holistic approach to to health is is very important. Speaker 4 Absolutely it is. And again, it's just it's about clean living, less alcohol, hydration, movement, having peace. Speaker 5 Less chewing tobacco. Speaker 4 Less stress. I'm going to argue against that. I'm going to say nicotine's good for you. Yeah, well, I didn't catch COVID, by the way. Just saying. Yeah, but they have looked at some of that. Speaker 5 No, that that is a real thing. That is, that is real and well understood how that works. But there still are other problems with nicotine. Speaker 4 Well, yes, good morning. Welcome into the show. Speaker 8 Good morning. I wanted to ask about children with ear aches and the doctor's recommending putting tubes in their ears. I'm kind of against that. Speaker 5 Well, you know, it's one of those things that it, it's a case by case scenario, but one of the reasons why children get ear aches and get ear infections is just the stage of development they're in and the growth of their face and the structures of of the sinuses. And so when there's not a good angle to the Eustachian tube, which connects the inner ear to the sinuses and the nose, then you tend to get more ear infections because of congestion essentially. So you know, you've got, there's bacteria all in our sinuses, all in our mouth, that's all normal. But when you get congestion and things aren't flowing out right, then those bacteria become overgrown and can cause an infection. And so because this is an anatomical issue, if there's going to be variation in susceptibility to this from individual to individual. So you got some kids that will just be prone and, and there are other things that contribute into this to also the, the size of the tonsils and the, that individual's response to certain types of, of bacteria. But, and so, you know, you'll see kids that seem to get strep over and over and over and you'll see kids that get ear infections over and over and over. Well, if you have, you know, chronic inflammation in the ear for these kids, it can affect the, the health of their, the hearing apparatus of the ear and that can affect their development as well their, their language skills. And it can mess with school. And you can even have so much damage to the eardrum and other structures of the ear that they can go deaf. And so I would certainly say there in some cases, you know, having those, the tubes put in the ear which just allows drainage, it's another way of drainage can be a huge benefit to those children. Now there, there was a time when they were doing that way too often and for whatever reason, maybe, maybe they thought it was important to do it. So they just did it to people that didn't necessarily need it. Maybe, you know, the, the surgeons that were doing that, we're getting paid a lot of money to do it. And so they, they kind of had an incentive to, to do that. In my experience. Now I think the at least the the ear, nose and throat doc that I would refer to has a pretty measured approach to putting tubes in ears and removing tonsils and all that kind of stuff. Speaker 8 OK. He's three years old, So what you were saying while ago, that's not all fully developed in his ear channel and all. Speaker 5 Yeah, and he's also, he's learning to speak right now and, and, and so, you know, if the hearing is affected, then that that'll affect his his speech and development as well. So. Speaker 8 Correct, Correct. Yes. I appreciate you. Thank you. Speaker 4 Thank you for the call. Doctor Jacob Reddick, MD, or right here in Lubbock. Course. You can find him and Doctor Andy Gray, MD, right there at 6058 O 7 63rd St. right there in southwest Lubbock. Telephone number at the practice, 806-785-0600. That's 806-785-0600. Anything else, Doctor, you'd like to mention before we wrap up today? Appreciate you being with us, but good, good show. As always, look forward to having you back, but anything else you'd like to say? Speaker 5 I would remind people, so we, we've got this upper respiratory virus that is still running rampant, you know, through the community and it, it doesn't seem to be super dangerous per SE. You know, I'm sure there are some people going in the hospital. Most people are doing fine with it, but it's very annoying and lasting, you know, 3-4 weeks, sometimes longer. So everybody wash your hands, don't go around people that are sick. If you are at high risk for for like if you're immune compromised in some way, if you're not healthy, just be a little more cautious. Don't go around, people. Speaker 4 All right. And watch that bird flu. Yeah, God, you saw all that with a We talked about it yesterday on the show. Speaker 1 We. Speaker 5 Yeah. Speaker 4 Oh my gosh, Lubbock's been invaded by bird flu. Speaker 5 Canadian Geese. Speaker 4 Yes, yes, a big problem. Big problem. Anyway, that's another time. We'll talk about that. Doctor, thanks so much. Have a wonderful rest of your week. We'll see you back here next time around. Thank you. All right, stick around now. The car show coming up next. Got SIM and Precision Auto Repair right after this.