Part Two: George Lopez on Finding Laughter and Prioritizing His Health

Episode Transcript

Dr. Correa:
Saludos and hello. I'm Daniel Correa.

Dr. Nath:
And I'm Audrey Nath.

Dr. Correa:
We're two neurologists and fellow brain geeks hosting the Brain and Life Podcast. This show, The Brain and Life Magazine, and website are all brought to you by the American Academy of Neurology.

Dr. Nath:
We're so glad you're joining us. We'll be here each week for conversations and interviews with community members, celebrities, and experts on brain health and living with neurologic conditions. Now, let's get to today's show.

Dr. Correa:
Welcome back. You have started the podcast for part two of our interview with George Lopez about living with neuropathy and his experiences in his Latino community with family and friends avoiding doctors, and the lack of real role models for taking care of your own health.

Dr. Nath:
If you haven't had a chance to listen to part one, please pause now and go back. It's amazing. We'll be right here when you get back.

Dr. Correa:
It happens in many cultures, but why do you think some Latino men just seem to avoid seeing the doctor?

George Lopez:
I'm going to tell you that I think it's fear. It's fear that you're afraid. I think it's fear that you don't want to know what's wrong with you. I had a joke that said you better not go to the doctor because he's going to tell you what's wrong with you. So a lot of times that people were... And I would just leave it to the individual, whoever listens to this, but you know in your heart, in your heart of hearts, that you would try to make something go away than to say, "My leg, and I'm concerned." Where all of a sudden they start to limp, or they're not going with you anymore. They're like, "No, my leg hurts." Well, your leg has been hurting a lot. And early detection is... The advances that they've made, and people finding out early or getting blood panels. I wish I'd had a blood panel when I was in high school, but I think it's fear.

George Lopez:
And there's this thing that goes with being either the head of the household or being a parent, or being someone that's vital to this family. And it doesn't even have to be somebody that's old. I've seen, unfortunately, in having the foundation and being around kids that have kidney disease, and we do the kidney camp, and a lot of them are afraid to have the operation. I couldn't even imagine how afraid I would be if I had to have a transplant at eight or have to go have surgery at eight or five or ten. I wasn't prepared when I was in my 40s. And I tell them that, it's what they told me, as bad as you feel now, imagine feeling better and imagine needing not to have to live this life. And yeah, it hurts, but there's medicine that can take care of that and then it gradually goes away in a couple of days. And if you take your medicine, your blood is clear, you got a good kidney, all of the issues you have go away.

George Lopez:
So trust that. I'm telling you, I did it. And they would say, "What happened to you?" And I would say, "Hey, if you like me, and you are fan of mine, imagine that you would've never heard about me because I was afraid and didn't go and do this procedure that I needed to have done." So I put it like that.

Dr. Correa:
I like that. In our discussion, George continues to talk about his efforts to incorporate some more plant-based meals in an effort to eat healthier for both his body and his brain.

Dr. Nath:
In our December, January issue of Brain and Life, there is a great article that talks about plant-based diets and the research showing how it can benefit your brain and help with prevention of stroke.

Dr. Correa:
You can find this and many more articles on nutrition and neurologic health in the issue archive at brainandlife.org. You can even search the whole magazine and past articles for any topic you're interested in. Now let's get back to our interview with George.

George Lopez:
Eating right now is limitless of the food that you can find that... I've made fun of soyrizo on stage, and then I went to the market. Then I got some, and I made it the way my grandma used to make it, with the pan on top of it to let the little balls unravel. And with some eggs, and you can use egg, whites, whatever. And it's just as good soyrizo as regular chorizo. And I think the stains in your shirt come out faster if you wash your shirt, but it's all good, man. If you gave yourself an opportunity to, even just with rice or bread, or go to the market and start with a tortilla. I eat a cauliflower tortilla that to this day you wouldn't have been able to convince me that was it was a cauliflower. I had somebody on a cooking show make cauliflower buffalo wings with sauce, and it's cauliflower, but you could not convince me that that didn't taste like a buffalo wing. And it was cauliflower.

George Lopez:
But in 2005, I was taking a lot of really hard, hard medicine, hard on your body. And in the last, I would say seven years, I take a lot less pills, my stomach issues are gone, the medicine has gotten better. So if people say, "I don't want to feel lethargic, I don't want to feel hyper, or I don't want to feel tired." And I think that people that have nerve pain and feel exhausted at the end of the day, your mind is tired, your body's tired, your feet get tired, your nerve endings. You never feel fresh. You never even feel when you sleep that you've gotten rested. But all of those things may be a bit dated because of the advancements that they've made in everything.

Dr. Correa:
I'm glad you highlight that. With some of the medicines, people might have side effects and of course, a lot of times side effects were much worse in the past, but I think the big thing is that nowadays those side effects really have to be an active part of the discussion with your doctors or the neurologist. And if you have that active discussion, oh, this is making me too sleepy, we have options to continue to work with you. It doesn't mean, oh, nothing's going to work, throw it all out, I'm just going to be in pain.

George Lopez:
There has to be a better way to have people ask for help. There has to be a better approach to getting better than almost coming to where you're like hat in hand, or you just look like you don't know what's going on. And I think that has a lot to have where people don't want to go in there and are made to feel like... If somebody would say to you, "So you've been urinating blood for a week, and you had no idea that something was wrong with you?" That's not what you want to hear.

Dr. Correa:
Yeah, yeah.

George Lopez:
That's not what you want somebody to say to you. You want somebody to say to you, "Okay, listen, if anything, you did the right thing by coming in. We're going to try to get a result. Get you feeling good again. We're going to get you some fluids." And then, okay, great. Where you don't feel like you're being demeaned for asking for help.

Dr. Correa:
Yeah, we want people to feel comfortable and ask for help and ask questions when they need to. Within healthcare, I think we need to improve how we approach these and how we make people comfortable about asking questions and asking for help. But you also pointed out something that sometimes a lot of these tests, they might seem or feel scary and sometimes there might be some temporary pain with a nerve test or something. But it's nowhere near the same level of pain you might be living with or the possibility of disability and pain that could come from the condition if it's not getting tested.

George Lopez:
People will go to amusement parks, and they won't get on a scary ride.

Dr. Correa:
Yeah, yeah.

George Lopez:
It's nothing that's worse than that. And to be honest, medicine has taken the pain out of making someone well. There's not a lot of pain anymore. Where before you could be hearing someone. But now I have to say, other than in all of my care for myself since, there's no pain in me staying healthy. So if I could have told myself something as a younger person at 17, I would've said, "Hey man, miss practice, go to the doctor up there in San Fernando, have him check you and trust me, later on, you're going to have an issue, and right now you have an issue that can be repaired. And I'm coming back from the future to tell you're going to live a better life if you just take this day and go to the doctor and have him do a blood panel on you."

Dr. Correa:
And it seems like you're carrying some of that work of speaking your own example as a part of the George Lopez Foundation. Can you tell me some about what the George Lopez Foundation is doing for families and kids?

George Lopez:
Yeah, of course. I had the transplant, the 19th of April, 2005, Wednesday the 21, 6:45 AM, April 21, 2005, I got up, I looked at the clock. It said 6:45 in the morning. When I opened my eyes, I felt better than at any other time in my life. I had a new kidney in there. It was working. It was cleaning my blood, and I started crying. I felt better. And I couldn't believe how clear I felt. I couldn't believe how good I felt. And it was at that moment that I said that it would be a disservice to me being better to neglect the people that are still sick that I feel like I could help with sharing of my story, but also attaching it to every other illness and every other thing that's going on in people's health. And not just brown people, all people. I had a bagel and a cup of coffee a week after. I cried because I had never tasted anything so good.

Dr. Correa:
I hear you have a tour coming up. Can you tell us a little bit more about your tour and shows that are coming?

George Lopez:
The tour is called Oh My God, Hi. I just did my Los Angeles thing. It's 30 shows. Sold out 30 shows going back to 2007. But in thinking about that, I was always a person that was a bit of a loose cannon on stage. It's almost like jazz. You play the notes, and you know all the notes, but you're not necessarily the guy that is playing the music, you're playing the notes. And as I've gotten older, to be 60, I know in myself that it's much more work for me to remember the lines and the order and the things that almost... You know the big ones, but the things that live on the peripheral sides of them, that it's harder for me to remember those things at 60 than it was when I did my last live special, was in 2018. So over the years that I've gotten older, I realize that it's harder for me to remember the things that are in my act for just sheer part of just being up there in age.

Dr. Correa:
And will you be recording a live special with this coming tour?

George Lopez:
I'm going to have to say, because it's very difficult, that it's most likely I will not.

Dr. Correa:
Okay.

George Lopez:
And that's the reason. I've never told anybody the reason why. To do it live is already, in the best case scenario, adventurous and dangerous and a bit, but to be up there maybe at 62 and forget what I was going to say would not be good. So I'm going to respect what I feel my body and my head telling me. Maybe a live one would not probably be the best because I would put undue pressure on my brain as well to remember something that I think at times you can go completely blank, for no reason. Not being unprepared, it's just that those are the things that we have to be aware of. And I would say whether you can't remember numbers or my grandmother was getting very forgetful, and if people are out there and they're forgetful, or they invert numbers, or can't remember the last two numbers, I would say to go get checked on that as well.

Dr. Correa:
I appreciate your note about the self-awareness on that and suggesting that people, if they're noticing problems with their thinking and their memory, organizing their thoughts, that's also another important thing to get checked out. But thank you so much for joining us at the Brain and Life Magazine to reach the community. Really appreciate having you today.

George Lopez:
And thank you for giving me the cover, man. People go to the doctor, I get all these pictures of people sending me pictures from their doctor's office.

Dr. Correa:
That's great. Thank you. Can't get enough of the Brain & Life Podcast? Keep the conversation going on social media when you follow @brainandlifemag or visit brainandlife.org. As your hosts, we would also like to hear from you on Twitter @neurodoctorCorrea and @AudreyNathMDPHD.

Dr. Correa:
Last week, we had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Anne Louise Oaklander about neuropathy. We're happy to have her back. She talks more today about the importance of maintaining a healthy diet and its effect on your neuropathy. And she also shares advice for families of individuals experiencing the condition. Welcome back as we continue our discussion with Dr. Anne Louis Oaklander, following our further discussion with George Lopez about his life and living with neuropathy. George Lopez talks a lot in his sets and in his comedy about his family, about the Latino community. He doesn't live with diabetes himself and didn't have diabetes, but many Latinos live with diabetes personally or in their family. Ann Louise, can you discuss with us more about diabetic neuropathy itself?

Dr. Oaklander:
Diabetic neuropathy is the most common cause of neuropathy in the US, in all demographics, not just the Latino community. However, because diabetes is more common in some groups than others, and Latinos are among the groups in whom diabetes is more common, it's particularly relevant to that community. As you point out regarding Mr. Lopez, even people who don't have diabetes themselves can play an important role in helping to educate other family members about neuropathy and the very strong links between diabetes, being overweight, and peripheral neuropathy.

Dr. Oaklander:
Diabetic neuropathy is an unfortunate consequence of the social changes that have made obesity and diabetes epidemic in our country. I think for too long, there's been the approach that if you have diabetes, or you're overweight, or you have diabetic neuropathy, or any of the other problems that can accompany diabetes, it's your fault and you need to solve it yourself. And maybe you just haven't worked hard enough, or you're not doing something right. I think there really needs to be more social accountability and more attention by legislative bodies and more responsibility put on private enterprise for their role in encouraging Americans and people in many other countries to overeat and become diabetic.

Dr. Correa:
Yeah, it seems like the diet and the world affecting all of us is a major aspect of many medical conditions, many metabolic medical conditions, one of those being diabetes. And as much as we each need to work on our diet and activity, I like that point that we can't just go around thinking and blaming or taking the blame on an individual or a family. We need to try work on people having more resources for healthier food. George also talked about his own efforts to eat a more plant-based diet, incorporate more plant-based options into his meals and make more healthy nutritional choices beyond just sugar. What are some ways that diet and nutrition can help impact neuropathy?

Dr. Oaklander:
Two major ways that diet and nutrition can help impact neuropathy, about 80% of it is not letting yourself get overweight, or if you are overweight, handling it in a factual, non-emotional, non-judgmental way to reduce your weight. Get rid of the emotional baggage and deal with it as a problem to be solved. The resources are there in our society to help people who are overweight. And I see too many people feeling it's their own responsibility. Well, I just need to be stronger. I just need to push back from the table. If I did this, if I didn't do that, if I cut out eating a particular food or candy, I could do it. All those things are true, but people need help. There are very powerful influences at play. Our brain wires us, indeed wires all living organisms to seek out as much nutrition as we can get to protect ourselves, to build a cushion literally against times of adversity.

Dr. Oaklander:
The problem is, for most of us, we don't have those times of adversity, and we don't lose those extra little cushions we put on. The resources are there. I've worked extensively with physicians, for instance, who are bariatric specialists. This is the kind of doctor that helps patients lose weight when it is medically problematic for them as it is for peripheral neuropathy. And I've seen great success in this. Even for patients who have other contributors to their neuropathy, if they're very overweight, I will still refer them to see a bariatric physician. And they're both medical treatments and surgical treatments that keep getting less and less invasive that make a substantial difference.

Dr. Oaklander:
Again, we know that even losing 10 or 15 pounds can actually improve the health of your nerves and help you get better. So, diabetes and overweight ties into neuropathy that way, which is a huge way. In a lesser way, by lesser I mean affecting fewer numbers of people, I don't mean less important, there's also the question of nutrition. Many of the foods that people eat that lead them to consume excess calories are nutritionally insufficient, and they don't actually have the amount of nutrients and other vitamins, minerals, fiber, other components of our diet that are needed along with calories for optimum body health. And so I think even if people aren't able to lose a lot of weight by switching to healthier food that is less calorie dense, it will become more nutrient dense. And this is beneficial for nerve health, brain health, and health of everything else in our bodies.

Dr. Correa:
It sounds like, in reducing processed foods and trying to start off with actually maybe just cooking some more for ourselves and our family, starting off with raw ingredients and getting more variety of the vegetables in our diet, are actually also things that can help contribute to improving our nerve health and reducing some of the risks for neuropathy or maybe even help some nerves heal.

Dr. Oaklander:
I think the Latin community really has an edge up on this. And I have to say this with a big smile on my face because I had a great dinner at a Cuban restaurant last night. Ooh, it was so good and I really enjoy that kind of food. And the number of different types of fruits and vegetables I got to eat, everything from plantains and three or four different kinds of beans and rice and green vegetables, little bit of chicken thrown in, this was wonderful. Nutritious.

Dr. Correa:
Now I'm getting hungry.

Dr. Oaklander:
So I think many people in the Latin community really don't have to look that far to find a healthy diet. So maybe they should be speaking to their abuela and reminding themselves about how she used to cook before we had all these fast food restaurants. Many of us are very fond of these foods from our heritage anyway, and so if we could find a way to look back to the foods that were traditional in our cultures, whatever they may be. Before World War II and before the rise of all this fast food-ism and the advertising on TV, I think we would see that we have the means within ourselves, within our families, within our cultures to create a healthy diet.

Dr. Correa:
Yeah, I think many people talk about the Mediterranean diet, or there's lots of other diets out there that are named. Unfortunately, often we get a little confused because they're kind of given some more of a Eurocentric perspective., And in reality, there are areas around the world where people eat very healthy, have diets that are based on lots of variety of ingredients and vegetables. So explore some of those experiences and you could look at something like the Mediterranean diet as a guide, but you don't have to change completely your cultural reference.

Dr. Oaklander:
Do you think you and I, Daniel, could promote the abuela diet?

Dr. Correa:
That sounds great.

Dr. Oaklander:
I mean, really, right?

Dr. Correa:
That's a good idea. So I wanted to take a quick moment and zoom out. So sort of looking across all neuropathy, I think many people also then get worried a little bit about how much it's associated to family risk factors or their genetics. Are there genetic and family risk factors for people living with neuropathy that they should consider for their children or for family members?

Dr. Oaklander:
It's a great point to bring up genetics and neuropathy, and it's one that I'm personally very interested in. I think everybody should consider the role of genetics who's diagnosed with neuropathy. Genetics make us who we are, and they play a role in who develops peripheral neuropathy. Genetics has different types of effects for neuropathy in different people. Patients who have a strong family history of neuropathy must speak to their physicians, and also I feel strongly, should seek out care at academic medical centers and find the specialists in the country that really know about these. These types of single gene neuropathies are so rare that most practicing neurologists and even academic neurologists may never have seen a single person with that type of neuropathy.

Dr. Correa:
So it sounds like there are, of course the more common causes of neuropathy, diabetes being included in those, but even in some of those situations, there's the potential that there might be family related genetic risk factors that affect these common causes. But more specifically for some part of the community that have unique neuropathies that seem to be showing up in multiple family members, that maybe they need some more testing and a little more attention to take a look at these causes.

Dr. Oaklander:
A group of particular interest is people who develop peripheral neuropathy in childhood, in their teens, in their early twenties, or people who have a strong family history of neuropathy. This is the group that has the highest risk of having genetic contributors or causes to their neuropathy, and virtually all of these patients will require special consultation by someone who's knowledgeable about genetic contributors to neurological health and peripheral neuropathy.

Dr. Correa:
So whether it's nerve changes affecting the muscles, fatigue and strength, or sensory changes, if it's showing up in kids and in young adults and there's been any pattern of family history, that there really needs to be a little bit more attention, of course, checking for all the typical causes, but most of those causes aren't going to show up that often in those age groups. And then sort of touching off, for the families listening, so what key information would you like to share for the family and the caregivers of people living with neuropathy? What's helpful for them to know and understand in helping their family member live better?

Dr. Oaklander:
Family members play a critical role in helping patients with peripheral neuropathy. Patients often become so burdened by their symptoms that they become unable to advocate for themselves, and it's regular that patients are accompanied by family members who come into their office. It's universal, in children, teenagers, college students, the parents are there. The parents are fighting the battles for the patients to get the care they need. Everybody needs a neuropathy buddy who's going to help them push against the difficulties in the medical system to get the complete evaluation and to get the treatment that they need in a timely fashion.

Dr. Correa:
Thank you so much, Anne Louise. Dr. Oaklander, it's clear your level of understanding and expertise for neuropathy, but even more importantly, that you yourself join your patients and their families as a neuro buddy to help them take care and live better with the neuropathy, help them understand their condition, and empower them to really be the main drivers of their own health and the health of their nerves. Thank you again so much for joining us today.

Dr. Oaklander:
Thank you, Daniel, to you and to the American Academy of Neurology for giving me this opportunity to reach out directly to patients and their families on how they can empower themselves to find better care and treatment for peripheral neuropathy.

Dr. Correa:
Well, we look forward to our listeners joining us for our upcoming episodes, and I hope that all of this information was incredibly useful. We're going to have several links within our show notes for both the Neuropathy Commons website, the Brain and Life website for more information about living better with neuropathy and a lot of the other information that we talked about during this episode. Thank you again.

Dr. Nath:
Today, we heard from George Lopez about the culture of avoiding medical care in his family and community. For his own health, George talked about his effort to make changes in his diet.

Dr. Correa:
I mean, I was surprised to hear George Lopez rave about cauliflower based tortillas.

Dr. Nath:
I've never had that. I want to try now.

Dr. Correa:
Yeah. I'll definitely have to go look for them.

Dr. Nath:
We also learned about his nonprofit foundation efforts to help families and kids living with kidney disease and its complications.

Dr. Correa:
Then we welcomed back Dr. Anne Louise Oaklander, to learn more about diabetic neuropathy, the importance of healthy diet on managing neuropathy, and other complementary treatments. You can find more information on those types of topics also on the Brain and Life website. I also enjoyed personally reflecting with her in the way we all need to eat more like our abuelas, our grandmas, making more foods from whole ingredients, incorporating more vegetables and colors in our diet. This kind of concept doesn't limit you to one fad diet or one region of the world and opens up space for comfort and memories of heritage foods. Lastly, she had some great suggestions for people and their families living with neuropathy to keep in mind.

Dr. Nath:
Together we are looking forward to learning along with you about many more ways to live better with neurologic conditions.

Dr. Correa:
Thank you for joining us today on the Brain & Life Podcast. Follow and subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss our weekly episode. You can also sign up to receive The Brain and Life Magazine for free at brainandlife.org.

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Also, for each episode, you can find out how to connect with us and our guests along with great resources in the show notes. You can also reach out by email at blpodcast@brainandlife.org.

Dr. Correa:
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Dr. Nath:
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Dr. Nath:
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Dr. Correa:
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Part Two: George Lopez on Finding Laughter and Prioritizing His Health

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