The Weekly Show: 3/1/25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to the weekly show here on iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
A ninety three nine light one of three five Kiss
FM and Rock ninety five to five. Every week, we're
here to discuss a variety of topics that matter to Chicagoland,
from health, education, to finances and so much more.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Today on this show.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
We have our friends from the Little Village Chamber of
Commerce joining us.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
We are also.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Talking cold and flu season, and we are chatting with
Kathleen Wilson, PHG, Pediatric and Family nurse practitioner, and Mick
Lee chats with doctor Popepia Noos from a Northwestern medicine
and we are talking about thyroid conditions.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
So let's kick off the show.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Hi, It's Paulina here with iHeartMedia Chicago. Today I am
chatting with Kathleen Wilson, PhD and nurse practitioner.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
How are you today?

Speaker 3 (00:45):
I'm doing great.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
I'm so excited to have you here today with us. Kathleen,
you are a duly certified as a pediatric nurse practitioner
and a Family nurse practitioner and also a clinical refrire
for the FSU College of Nursing, so you have a
lot of.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Experience in this practice. I love that.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Yes, thank you, of course.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
So today we are talking about Illinois high flu and
RSV rate.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
So are we currently technically in RSV flu season?

Speaker 3 (01:17):
We definitely are. We are in it and hoping to
be starting to see a little decline as we start
getting out of this period. But it's everywhere. It's circulating
in just about every community. It's really hard to avoid.
It's everywhere.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Oh yeah, no, for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
I mean I have a ten month old, right and
I one of the biggest terms that I've been hearing
since I pretty much got pregnant was RSV RSV because
I have an infant. So I'm assuming that is either
either common amongst infants or it's just very difficult when
your baby does have RSB.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Is that correct?

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yes, it's very confident among the pediatric population, young infants
and children, and it's actually transferred over into the adult population,
and that's the reason why we now have a new vaccine,
you know, for adults for RSV. So yes, it's it's
everywhere and causes you know, a pretty strong cough, uh

(02:12):
that may linger, and if you've been around individuals that
have had it, it can be you know, really really
rough on you in terms of UH symptoms.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Absolutely, and that's what I want to talk about today
as well, is you know, treating cold flu and other
winter illnesses. And you and I are practicing before we recorded,
but I know that, you know, we want to make
sure that experts such as yourself, you guys are urging
the safe use right of is it acidtminutionin?

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Did I say correctly?

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Well, it's it's a seed of menafin, and yes, and
and there you go. It's it's a long word and
and to a lot of people, they know it is
one of the you know, a trade name is you know,
or what we call a brand name might be talent all.
But the ingredient, the active and is a ceda menafin.
And like I'd like to say to set it in

(03:04):
the context of you know, you know, many Americans right
now are reaching for over the counter medication to treat
the cough cold flu symptoms and may not always know
how much of ceeda menifin they're getting in a day.
And so a ceda menafin is found in it's it's
actually the most i would say probably the most common

(03:25):
drug ingredient in America. So it's found in hundreds of
over the counter medications and also prescription medications. Now it
is safe and it's effective, but we have to stay
within a daily limit to avoid any liver damage. So
that's why we're here today is to talk about this

(03:45):
because it's on everybody's mind. Everybody is, you know, reaching
for it in their cabinets and the pharmacy and so forth.
The daily maximum adult dose recommendation is of a seeded
menafin is four thousand milligrams in a twenty four hour period.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Okay, which would be equivalent to I'm just trying to
like size this out, Like, is that.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Two thailand oles twenty four hours? What would that be?

Speaker 3 (04:12):
Well, it depends upon the dose. So when you and
that's that's a really important thing I'm getting ready to
kind of share with you. You know, it comes with
different sizes, different doses. But what you want to do
is whatever product you're using over the counter, you want
to turn it over, look at the at the label
and make sure that you read it thoroughly and look

(04:32):
for the active ingredient. And usually if you know, if
it's got a set of benefit in it, it might
be highlighted and it will tell you exactly what your
dose is, so you're gonna see that, you know, again
four thousand for the total twenty four hours. So it
really depends upon what product you are actually reaching for.
And if I could just say, since it's in so

(04:53):
many it's in hundreds of medications, both over the counter
and also prescription, you want to all see look on
your prescription medications to see if there's anything like APAP
or a seat TAM or some shortened version of it.
And you know, it could be challenging sometimes for people
to know something that they take on a regular basis

(05:14):
if it's got a ceedamnifin and so your pharmacist and
or your healthcare provider would be a great resource. So
again I think, you know, looking at the labels, seeing
what the dosage is and if I could tell you
carrying it forward the a ced Domnifin Awareness Coalition which

(05:37):
is made up of many professionals and organizations that want
to raise awareness with advisors from FDA and CDC, what
we are. What they've done is they have created a calculator.
It's a calculator on the website know your Dose dot
org forward slash calculator and actually our listeners can actually

(05:59):
go to this calculat It's very easy, it's free, and
they can plug it in the medication, the dose and
how often they take it, and it can give them
a warning as to where they are in that daily
maximum dose. So isn't that great to have that tool
for you? Also? Oh?

Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yes, no, absolutely, And what about when it comes to
you know, our children, right, So, like I'm a mom
of a ten month old, and I know that there
are certain rules too, and always you know, it's important
to consult, you know.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
With your family doctor as well.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
But for me, I would do a lot of Google,
a lot of research, right because you know, I'm a
new mom.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
I was nervous. I don't really know what to do.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
But I did realize that you couldn't really give a
baby anything really until six months or so. And is
that what I should be looking or doing if my
you know, daughter does come down with a cold, how
does that work?

Speaker 3 (06:46):
Well? First and foremost, today we're really focusing on and
emphasizing the adult dose because pediatrics is a whole nother
ball of wax. It's a whole nother areanda. Because children
are smaller, they got a lot of physiological differences, their
metabolism is a little different, so it's gonna be very

(07:07):
important that you work with specifically your pediatrician or your
family doctor to get what they recommend for your child
based on age and health status and body habitasts. So
there's a lot of other factors. So I'm gonna recommend
that our listeners really look into getting that guidance from

(07:28):
their pediatrician, their healthcare provider, and then they can also
get support from their pharmacists. But I would like to
just remind everybody for the adult, we definitely don't want,
you know, to go more than four thousand milligrams in
a twenty four hour period, so that's your daily maximum dose.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
Got it?

Speaker 3 (07:47):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (07:47):
Very good to know.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
And what resources are available to help people take their
medicine safely.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
Oh absolutely, thank you so much. So along with you know,
recommendation to read the label, know what meta since you
have they have a seedamnifin, like especially medicines that you
take on a regular basis in addition to any over
the counter for like colds and flus, and taking only
one of those once a day that have us I
mean sorry, one medicine at a time. With the seedamnafin

(08:15):
your resources are primarily your healthcare provider, your pharmacists. But
I have to tell you this wonderful website where you
can learn more about a seed of menifin safe use,
and that is know your Dose dot org. It's a
great resource that has much information on there. I would
really advise your listeners to go there.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Absolutely awesome. I love that, Kelly, thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
And one more time, what is the website we can
all go check out to visit this you know fluid
RSV season unfortunately that we're kind of in right now.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
Where can you go for more information?

Speaker 3 (08:50):
Absolutely? It is know your Dose dot org.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
Awesome, Thank you Kathleen Wilson, thank you so much for
being here with us today.

Speaker 3 (08:59):
Thank you, Thank you so much. Have a great day
and be well. Hi.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
It's Paulina here with iHeartMedia Chicago, and today I am
chatting with our friends and we are chatting with Jennifer
Alguilott and Olmen Shaheen and we are talking to our
friends and from the Little Village Chamber of Commerce.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
How are you today?

Speaker 4 (09:17):
Thank you awesome.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
Thank you both for joining me today.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
You know, it's it's truly cool to be able to
talk to you both because I have worked with you
before in the past, you know, hope to do more
in the future, especially this year and the.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
Next you know several years, would be amazing.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
So I really appreciate this partnership, and you know your
contribution to the show today is super important for our
community and for our city of Chicago. So first things first, Jennifer,
I'll start with you. Can you both give me a
little bit of a background about the Little Village Chamber
of Commerce and then also you.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
Know your role and sort of like what you and
your day to day look like.

Speaker 5 (09:53):
Yes.

Speaker 4 (09:53):
So, the Little Village Chamber of Commerce has been serving
the Little Village community since nineteen ninety. It focuses on
helping and working with and for our small business community
here in Little Village, especially down twenty sixth Street, twenty
fifth Street, thirty first Street, just to make sure that

(10:17):
we help our businesses stay open, grow, thrive, and expand.
Most recently, we have been working outside of our Little
Village boundaries helping small business owners from around Chicago Land,
so anyone and everyone is welcome here. We offer services

(10:40):
for our businesses like one on one business advising. We
also put on the city's largest Mexican Independence Day parade,
and we also do all sorts of events and educational
workshops to make sure that our businesses are being so.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
Our day.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
Amazing.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Thank you for sharing.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
And ohman, will you give us a little bit of
background about yourself as well?

Speaker 6 (11:07):
Yeah, so hi, thank you, Paulina. So yeah. As as
director of Outreach and Community Development, Uh, my role is
really to really engage the community at large, to invite
them to join in our efforts as well here with
the Little Village Chamber of Commerce, to become informed with
what opportunities we have, as well as inform them of

(11:28):
opportunities that are taking place throughout the Chicago land area
or throughout the state that may be somewhat of a
benefit for business for the business commerce throughout the Little
Village community and the surrounding suburban area as well. So
including speaking to the business owners or throughout the Little
Village community, we're also trying to engage them within different

(11:53):
aspects to just continue to create a more vibrant, vinrant
community here and throughout the Chicago area.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
Absolutely, And you know I've read and I've heard many
of you know, I've read publications here in Chicago. You
know specifically say and site that Little Village is, particularly
twenty sixth Street, is super important for the economy. Just
you know, I'm assuming look, you know, in Chicago, but
also probably you know the state of Illinois. I feel

(12:23):
like it brings in so much revenue. It's such a
staple here in the city of Chicago. Is that something
that is you know, being impacted right now due to
our current policies or the ones that are you know,
trying to come into to attack or the ones that
actually have when it comes to our current immigration policies,
Are they impacting these businesses, particularly you know in Little

(12:44):
Village and on twenty sixth Street.

Speaker 4 (12:46):
Yes, you are right. We are a very strong economy
here in Little Village. Are our commercial corridor come second
to Michigan Avenue. This this amercial corridor here in Little
Village generates over nine hundred million dollars in tax in
Texas for the city and it is a very important

(13:10):
part of the state's economy as well. And unfortunately, these
policies that are being put in place are are affecting
our commercial corridor in in a negative way. The week
that these raids were announced publicly really showed us basically

(13:32):
the impact we saw that week and the following week,
and we are still seeing it today. How traffic has
slowed down on the usually busy impact twenty sixth Street.
We've heard from our small businesses that they have had
significant losses. I was just talking to a business owner

(13:55):
a few minutes ago and she let us know that
just within the last two weeks she's reporting about forty
percent losses still, so the effect of these policies are
really affecting the business's bottom lines. A lot of them
have had to close their business during the first few weeks,
and others are still only opening for one shift when

(14:18):
before they would open for two shifts just because they're
not seeing a lot of visitors as they usually would.

Speaker 6 (14:26):
Yeah, and including that, as Jennifer mentioned the Paulina as well,
there's also been a decrease in workload for the employees
within certain establishments where owners are having to kind of
step up to the plate and commit to more hours
within their establishments since they're unable to be providing work

(14:49):
towards the work community that they had at one point.
So definitely the struggle is there for many of our businesses.
It's not you know, people being in fear of really
just coming back out to work. I mean, it's the
layoffs of opportunities right now that are affecting not just

(15:11):
the revenue community, but those families who are depending on
their income to also sustain their families as well one percent.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
And that's I think what's become the most devastating part
of all of this is that we I don't know,
I feel like we need to understand like that these
are real people and of course they're businesses that have
you know, extremely thriving businesses on twenty six and in
the Little Village and beyond, but also that you know,
these are people's livelihoods, and I think that's something that's

(15:41):
super important to understand. Remember. But also we see that
you know, the economy of you know, little village has
been affected by the current administration if you want to say,
or you know, just by currently what is even happening.
So that's something I think it's really important to also
recognize as well, especially.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
With the current policies.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
So what is something that you know, Chicagoans, what can
we do to continue to help boost you know, the
little village economy just also the you know economy of
you know, our current you know, of our fellow Chicagoans.
How can we help?

Speaker 4 (16:19):
Yes, thank you for that question. We've been getting a
lot of people asking us the same thing, and we've
been really pushing the message of you can come and
help and make your impact during these difficult times by
just coming out here and to little village and visiting
a business and going to eat lunch, and to spending

(16:42):
a day with family here, leaving your dollars here. Like
old men mentioned, it's not just the business. It's almost
like a ripple effect, right, because these businesses have employees
and those employees have their families. So when you spend
your money here, you're able to to leave your impact
in the entire community. And that is what we need

(17:06):
the most of. For those of you who have jobs,
if you're going into your office and maybe you're thinking
of catering for your office or for your parties, make
sure you're consider our restaurants here in a little village.
Many of them do catering, and they deliver to various
areas of the city, so there's a variety of ways

(17:27):
to make sure you can give back and support.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
I love that. I think that's wonderful and I think
all of our listeners can definitely get behind that, can
you If you don't mind, maybe provide a list of
a couple of your favorite places that we can support,
if you can think of top of mind.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
I'd love to give them a shout out as well.

Speaker 4 (17:46):
Yes, I would say, uh, Restatollon is a really great option.
They have amazing food for breakfast and lunch and dinner
that geato iconic tacos. I also highly recommend.

Speaker 3 (18:10):
I'm blanking right now.

Speaker 4 (18:12):
El Milagro yes Lago is really great. That the tackles
there are are amazing. That area is Auascalientes have amazing gorditas.
So there's a variety of good options here.

Speaker 6 (18:29):
Definitely, And there's also just a vast array of different
businesses to Paulina that the Chicago Land area can come
out and support, like our king shops as well as
flower shops throughout the community as well. And not to
forget about the discount mall right that's out there in
there in the little village as well. Who's very dependent

(18:51):
on you know, the community at large to keeping them
in business as well. I know they're struggling deeply right now,
but yeah, any any of our business here or vibrant businesses.
They're very, very culturally sound, and I think they all
have a need, especially at this very moment, for us
to continue to shop local here.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
Absolutely, I love it. My last and final question, you know,
for you would be are there any other kind of
resources right or support that we can provide these businesses
during this time when they need help, you know, just
navigating or they're navigating obviously you know their businesses, whether
it's through like you know, employment, like if they can

(19:34):
even hire people to work in their businesses, and of
course you know, sustaining their business, but also those have
been affected by the immigration policy situation and the changes.
Is there anything else that we can do.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
As far as support and provide resources.

Speaker 4 (19:49):
We've been doing a lot of know your Rights outreach
to make sure that everybody has that information that they're
ready for their businesses and their employees as well. And
we're just advocating to two people to you know, to
come out and if they can to to help in

(20:13):
any way that they can by donating, we're actually promoting
our businesses throughout Chicago land and and just creating content.
If you're a content creator, come out to Little Village
and feature some of our businesses. That would be a
great way to help as well.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
I love that absolutely, So there are various ways to
help to our listeners who are currently tuning in, and
I believe that, you know, we are stronger together. So
I do really appreciate you coming on and for you know,
sharing your stories obviously, you know, sharing your your roles
with the Little Village Chamber of Commerce and how you
guys are doing all this impactful work as well. So
thank you both for that, and of course thank you

(20:54):
for coming on and sharing all of the insights that
we were asking for, you know, regarding you know, the
community of Little Village. And then also yeah, just thank
you for sharing those businesses. We're going to check them
out this weekend. I promise you that I will be.
I'll be doing that.

Speaker 4 (21:07):
Thank you, Berlin, thank you, Blina, course.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
Thank you both.

Speaker 7 (21:11):
This is Voices of Better Medicine as we talk to
the experts at Northwestern Medicine about health issues and health
questions that matter to you. I'm Mick Lee, and today
we have doctor Poppianis androcinologist at Northwestern Medicine. Doctor, thank
you for being.

Speaker 5 (21:26):
Here, Thank you Mike for having me today.

Speaker 7 (21:28):
I'd like to talk about thyroid conditions. About twenty million
people in the US have some type of thyroid condition.
Before we get into it, what is the role of
your thyroid?

Speaker 5 (21:37):
So, the thyroid is the internal clock of the human body.
It regulates how fast or how slow of the metabolic
processes work. So it regulates how fast or how slow
the human body works.

Speaker 7 (21:51):
And what are the two main types of thyroid disease?
Can you give us the symptoms of each as well.

Speaker 5 (21:56):
The most common thorough disease is hypothoridism, or failure of
the tharoid glant to work properly. That can affect up
to five percent of the population. So usually because of
a variety of reasons, the thoroid does not work very
well and is not able to keep up with the
demands of the human body, and essentially everything is closed down.

(22:19):
So people experience some fatigue, some cold intolerance, They notice swelling,
we gain constipation, mass lakes, join intakes, dry skin and
hair those so these symptoms can be very tricky and
can be confused for a lot of other things or

(22:40):
aging in general. So sometimes it's really hard to exactly
be sure what is a thoroid problem and what's something else.
And this is why it's important to actually get checked
when you have unexplained symptoms like that, because if it
is saroid disease, it can be treated now. On the
other hand, you can have hyperthoridism, which is the opposite

(23:03):
where your thorough levels are to hide. This is less
common and the symptoms would be the opposite. You would
be feeling too hot instead of two cold. You would
be losing weight, you would have diarrhea instead of constipation,
increased sweating, a little bit of tremors, a little bit
of shaking, kind of the equivalent of what you experience
if you have way too much coffee. The difference is

(23:26):
that hyperthoroidism is a little bit faster progressing. It will
cause a lot more dramatic symptoms and a lot faster
And it's also because of that it's more important to
treat it early. Again, it's the opposite of hypothordism. You
maybe need to treat it for a short period of time.
Sometimes it goes away by itself. Sometimes it persists and
you may have to stay on the medication forever or

(23:49):
do something else with it. It would be what I
would call the flip side of the same coin. So
it's the same disease process, but it can present with
two different presentations hypo or hyper and they're pretty different.

Speaker 7 (24:03):
And yeah, so there's a lot of different symptoms there
that could be anything. So if you're concerned, you see
a doctor. How is it diagnosed?

Speaker 5 (24:11):
So usually we start with a simple blood test, and
depending on the results of the blood test, we may
need more blood testing or even an ultrasound. Most of
the time, a simple blood test is enough to give
us the answer.

Speaker 7 (24:22):
This is Voices of Better Medicine. We're chatting with doctor
Poppianus and our chronologist at Northwestern Medicine, and today's discussion
is thyroid conditions. Doctor, how do you treat either of
these thyroid diseases that we're discussing.

Speaker 5 (24:37):
So we have human tharoid hormone, so essentially we replace
the actual faroid hormone that our body does not make anymore.
So this would be one or more pills a day.

Speaker 7 (24:50):
So it's medication really the only option, or can you
do things to focus on your health like eating better
or exercising.

Speaker 5 (24:57):
So it depends if it's something that's really early in
the process. Some diet changes may be of help, but
if the thorough levels are low enough to actually require
a prescription, usually by that time, recovering thoroid function through
diet or exercise is not usually enough. So if something

(25:17):
is early in the process, it can be helped without
needing to take medication. If the process is too far gone,
then we have to treat it with a medication.

Speaker 7 (25:27):
So, if you're ignoring symptoms, if you're not going to
the doctor to get diagnosed, what are the risk factors
for thyroid disease?

Speaker 5 (25:34):
Untreated hypothoridism can create a lot of problems for the
human body. It can decrease the ability of the human
body to fight stress if there is an infection, for example,
cause the cholesterol to be high, can cause the bones
to be more brittle. So in general, it's not a

(25:55):
directly lethal disease. If you will it will not kill
you tomorrow, but it puts a lot of stress on
your body. So this is something that needs to be treated.

Speaker 7 (26:04):
Such important information. If you're ever experiencing symptoms of that
of a thyroid condition, see a doctor as soon as
you can, and our friends at Northwestern Medicine are here
to help. Doctor Popianus and or chronologists at Northwestern Medicine.
Thank you for giving us all this information today, and
thank you for keeping Chicago Land healthy.

Speaker 5 (26:23):
Thank you,