"If You've Got Your Hair and Your Teeth ...You're Alright!"

Live on Sirius XM Channel 131, this is Hope for the Caregiver.

I am Peter Rosenberger. This is the nation's largest show for the family caregiver that is focused exclusively on those who are caring for a vulnerable loved one. How are you holding up?

Is that you? You taking care of aging parents? You got a special needs child? You got a spouse with a disability? You got a family member who's struggling? You got someone in your life who's dealing with an addiction? Alcoholism? A mental illness? Whatever the chronic impairment, there's always a caregiver. We've designed this show and every show that we do is designed just for you. Just to help you stay strong and healthy as you take care of someone who is not.

And why is that important? Well, I'll tell you why, since you asked. If you go down, what happens to them?

And how real is it that you could go down? Think about the stresses on you. Think about the challenges you face, not just physically, emotionally, professionally, grammatically. Just threw that one in. We're here to help strengthen you as you deal with these things. And we're so glad you're with us. 877-655-6755. 877-655-6755.

If you want to be a part of the show, we're live and we'd love to have you just talk about how you do. You don't have to have anything profound that you have to call with and you don't have to have something that's just overwhelming you at this point. Maybe it's just something you just want to just say, you know what, here's a lesson I learned.

Because if you're learning it, the rest of us as caregivers probably could benefit from learning it. So feel free to call in 877-655-6755. But if you do have something that's just crushing your heart, crushing your body, crushing your spirit, give us a shout. We'll be glad to kind of tackle that with you. It's better to have a couple of heads together with this thing than just trying to do this all by yourself. Speaking a couple of heads. Here he is, you know him, he's the Baron of the Board, the Sultan of Sound, the Earl of Engineering, the man who put the word mental into fundamental. He is John Butler, the Count of Mighty Disco, everyone. You know, for the first time, I think that I'm upset at the title that you gave me.

Because clearly I put the word fun in fundamental. I guess both work, you know. I think we'll call it a draw. All right, we'll call it a draw.

We'll call it a draw. I heard the Black Knight was based on an actual guy that just wouldn't give up. For those that's a little inside with Monty Python and the Holy Grail. But did you see, I think that Eric Idle was knighted not too terribly long ago. That makes a lot of sense.

And he would be the knight who now says, no. That has nothing to do with caregiving. Enough of that silliness. All right, John, I've got a lot to talk about today. It's been a very interesting week and we're going to get right to it. We're going to start off with a caregiver tip of the day that is unique to you. I mean, that is special to your heart.

There it is. Thank you very much, Ed. Our caregiver tip of the day.

Our caregiver tip of the day is one I did this past week, John. Go on. I went to the dentist.

Fantastic. I am happy to hear that. I had an amazing conversation with the hygienist as they were working on me. Well, actually she was talking and I was more like, yeah. But you know, your mother served as a dental hygienist for years.

And this is something that is very near and dear to your heart. But she said something to me that struck me rather poignantly. She said, we're not cleaning your teeth. We're killing bacteria.

Okay, now let me go further. She said, when you don't clean your teeth, it has the ability to wear you down physically. And if you're feeling worn down and tired and just irritable or out of sorts and so forth, go see your dentist. I mean, this is what she said.

She said, because if you get these bacteria out so your body's not constantly having to fight all this bacteria that's accumulated in your mouth on your teeth, the rest of your body is going to be healthier. And she said, that applies to pets as well. Well, I'm realizing this applies to everything that stress is fungible. That's a big word, John. I know. That's from the $9 column on the big board of work. I'm impressed.

I mean, impressed. Right, right. But stress is fungible in that for us as people, but in this example, for our bodies, that our bodies have a certain amount of resources they can throw at whatever, at pick a problem. And if one of those problems is keeping your mouth clean or the infections that result from not taking care of your oral hygiene, then those resources are not available to be put towards other things that may be just as important.

But they're still not there. This is what she said. And I thought, okay, I mean, I don't mean to be weird. Everybody knows you're supposed to see your dentist.

Well, then why doesn't everybody do it? And there are people that saw Little Shop of Horrors. You'll be a dentist.

You'll have a thing for causing people pain. But in this case, yeah, she said there are people that have tremendous fear and they come in there and they try to slow walk them into this place where they realize that this is going to be okay. But I didn't realize, I think I'm still learning. It is. Yeah. I'm not dismissing the fear, but I am, I did not realize how deep the impact will go if you're not getting regular cleanings every six months and taking care of your mouth and your teeth. And I know for caregivers, that sounds really kind of, okay, Peter, really? I'm dealing with a, you know, a mother who is not able to even get up out of her bed and you're wanting me to go to the dentist. Yeah, I do. And I'll tell you why.

Because the healthier you are as a caregiver, the better shape you're going to be able to take care of your mother or whoever it is you're taking care of. But you don't, you can't put these things off. It's like John says, these things are dirigibles. No, fungibles. That's what you said, John.

Fungibles, not dirigibles. That was good. That was good. I credit where credit's due. Thank you very little.

But it's, these things are, it's not a zero-sum game with this. You cannot run at this kind of deficit physically. And you may think this is a simple thing given the light, given the magnitude of what you're carrying as a caregiver. And I get that, but I've been a caregiver now in my 34th year through a medical nightmare. Okay. And it's ongoing.

Gracie's situation is extreme. When you have 80 surgeries and you're back and forth to hospitals and doctors and stuff all the time, these things wear down on you and you need every functioning cell that you can muster up against this because it is relentless. If you'll notice those of you who are caring for somebody with Alzheimer's, Alzheimer's has no mercy. Okay.

It has no mercy. And so you serve yourself better and your loved one better by equipping yourself to the best that you can with every little thing you have. And if going to the dentist and getting a cleaning helps you, even an iota, it is worth doing. And it is part of you investing in you as a caregiver. Well, and that's another big part of it is it builds the habit of just taking care of yourself. It is, it is, if you go to get your teeth cleaned, there is no one else you're doing that for. You're doing that to make sure that you're, it's time spent on you. And that's a good thing to be in the habit of.

And to quote that great philosopher, James Brown. I was going to get around this. If you got your hair and your teeth, you're all right. But how are you going to be all right if you ain't got your teeth? You got to have your teeth.

And so that's part of it. And I don't, again, please don't, I'm not trivializing the other things we carry as a caregiver. I think you know my resume by now as a caregiver, that these things are important. All the stress we live with, all this stuff, but every little bit, every little bit of edge helps you. And healthy caregivers make better caregivers. And you're not going to be healthy if your mouth is, has all kinds of infections in it or bacterial issues. It's going to run you down. And this stuff is a direct conduit to your heart. Did you see the guy the other day, John, who got a popcorn kernel caught in his teeth and he tried picking it out with various instruments and finally used a piece of metal or something and evidently had rust on it and it went straight to his heart and almost killed him. Oh yeah. No, that can, that can happen quite frequently.

You know, it's just, there's so much that can go wrong. I didn't see that story though. I'm going to look it up though, because I'm, you know, you're fascinated by dental emergencies. John, John Butler, dental CSI. We can't even recognize this guy anymore.

This is fantastic. No, but yeah, that's, that's, that's a deal. So, you know, it sounds like we're being, we're harping on a, on a, on a narrow thing here and yes, it is a specific thing. It's, it's a rather, you know, just niche deal, but this is real. All right.

But let's, let's look at this. How much does a cleaning cost? Yeah. You know, what? It's less than a hundred bucks. Yeah. And for free, if you got insurance. Yeah. Yeah.

And, or a $10 copay, check your insurance to see how much time does it take? You know, I was done 45 minutes tops. All right.

It's a small investment, but it's one that has a massive payout for you as a caregiver. And I'm just asking you, well, and you, you, you, you feel great. I mean, look at that smile, John, look at that smile.

Yeah. You know, it's dazzling. It's as dazzling as your hair. And we, we, thank you.

If you got your teeth and your hair. Oh, right. But anyway, that's our caregiver tip of the day. And I'm asking you just to consider this today is, is something that is something proactive that you can do. And if you're not a caregiver, you just happen to be just listening to the Family Talk channel here on Sirius XM, and you're just driving along and you're thinking, what in the world, who are these people? This guy imitating James Brown to talk about teeth.

You know what caregiver, you know, ask him if you could sit with their loved one, if they tend to be more shut in because of this while they go and do doctor's appointments and their, and their dentist appointment. And that's part of the, the overall health part of what we do. If you look at the philosophy of this show, what it's all about, it's your health, your emotions, your lifestyle, your profession, your planning, your money, and your endurance.

Health, emotions, lifestyle, planning, money, and endurance. And that spells help me. That's what it spells. You see what I did there, John? That's clever.

I started putting the acronym together in my head. Well, I'd like to come up with simple things. Why should we complicate this?

I mean, simple is good. I mean, we got a lot of stuff being thrown at us as caregivers. We need simple things, but the first thing is your health. And if you're not healthy, how in the world are you going to take care of someone else? How long can you go? 34 years.

Okay. A lot of people will put it on hold and just say, okay, well, we'll just wait until they get better or worse. And then we'll start taking care of ourselves. And then seven years later, you know, you've gained 50, 60, 70 pounds. Your teeth are in bad shape. You know, you're stressed out. Your cholesterol is gone. You're pre-diabetic, you know, whatever. There's all kinds of things that can happen. But if you are regularly maintaining what you have and being a good steward of your body, you give yourself a fighting chance. That's what the show is all about is helping you navigate through those weeks. Peter Rosenberger. He's making caregivers great again.