Jeff Davis Walk-In Clinic

Full disclosure this week: I am NOT a chocolate person. Yeah, yeah. Boo all you want. In fact, if given the choice (ready for this?) I’d choose white chocolate over dark. Which in today’s climate, I’m sure labels me as some weird form of -ist so I beg your pardon as we delve into the science of chocolate. Dr. Kirk, is chocolate good for you? My quick answer kinda sorta. Chocolate, or what’s derived from the fruit of the cacao tree, has been traced as far back as... the Olmec and Mayan civilizations. Mostly described in ceremonial drinks due to their enhancing effects. These effects have been studied and scrutinized for centuries after those societies became tourist postcards. Chocolate clearly has a stimulating effect on humans, but teasing out what causes what, has been tricky for researchers. Chocolate contains caffeine, L-arginine, magnesium, zinc and of course sugar and calcium, to name a few. Caffeine (see my previous article on my torrid love affair with black coffee) has been proven to boost attention span, reaction time, enhance memory and problem-solving skills. So, many feel-good reasons you eat chocolate may simply be attributed to this. (Heck, most of y’all make your coffee to taste like chocolate milk anyway, but I digress..) If this is the case, I’ll simply say Dark chocolate has 70mg of caffeine compared to milk chocolates measly 9mg. And this holds true for literally everything we talk about today regarding chocolate. Darker = healthier. Chocolate stimulates the release of endorphins or feel good chemicals in your brain, thereby improving mood. It’s theorized that this stimulation is due to flavonols which are powerful antioxidants/anti-inflammatories, which also lend chocolate it’s reputation for reducing risk of some illnesses, improving blood flow and indirectly contributing to brain health. So, does it help with depression and anxiety? It canat certain doses. And this is different for everyone, but you can imagine, there is a magic window, or sweet spot, you hit when eating chocolate that achieves feeling good. Eat beyond this and you can make anxiety WORSE. Probably because of over-stimulation with caffeine and sugar! And I should mention the old rumor of chocolate being an aphrodisiac. Much like oysters, the research doesn’t fully support this notion. One study suggested zinc stimulating the adrenal glands, therefore sparking everyone’s frisky drive. If this is true, the amount of Zinc y’all been pounding during COVID, I pray for my friends in OB/GYN later this year. The studies are countless. In general, just know that yes, there are good things chocolate can do for you. But I doubt you’ll see one of us prescribing you Rx-strength Hersey Kisses in a pill bottle. Yours in Health and Christ, Dr. Kirk See more

Taking a break from constant talk of turkey hunting, to discuss the OTHER redheads. Red headed humans! I know, I know. I risk life and limb, but here goes. Aside from the playful reputation of a red head’s temper and being called ginger, what DO we know about those God tapped to be part of the clan rouge? Only 2% of the world has the gene mutation in the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R), which leads to red hair, fair skin and freckles. This genetic mutation is passed... and/or carried by families and in isolated populations, such as Scotland and Ireland, has become quite concentrated. An impressive 13% of Scotland is redheaded (10% in Ireland), with a suspicion that an even greater percentage is carrying the gene, even if they don’t have red hair. Medically, being a red head isn’t just about having a fiery/passionate personality (TONS of studies out there on that topic). Our redheaded brethren have important and interesting medical considerations. Being of fair skin, studies show redheads are 2.5x more at risk for skin cancers (melanomas). Here goes Dr. Kirk on the sunscreen stuff again Yes! My redheads need better SPF protection, or at least a cute hat. But it’s not all bad news, this fair skin tends to have better Vitamin D absorption, helping prevent osteoporosis in later years! From there, the literature gets beautifully odd. For unclear reasons, redheads tend to be left handed. Up to 25% of redheads are southpaws! (compared to 10% of regular population being lefty) Being redheaded and being left handed are known to be recessive genes. It’s not known if this combination is due to both being recessive genes, but it IS clear that 1st base/pitching coaches don’t care. Redheads are also more sensitive to pain. Dental researchers have long noted that due to the MC1R gene being linked to pain receptors, redheaded patients, on average, require MORE anesthesia for procedures. Redheads feel more pain. Redheads will never turn gray! Those beautiful thick fiery locks will fade over time, and might even turn blonde or white in their twilight, but never gray. *One of my redheaded friends remarked I spend my life being called ‘carrot top’ and told I ‘have no soul’ only to get old and get hit with blonde jokes! In closing, I say celebrate our unique friends (National Red Head Day is Nov 5th, btw) What makes us different makes us special. I playfully pick on my redheads, but love y’all. Hug one today!well, ask firstyou know what, feel the room out firstmake note of your exits. Yours in Health and Christ, Dr. Kirk See more

Happy to support our Lady Jacket Softball program (just as they are happy to support my coffee addiction). And, of course, love to one of our fav Lady Jackets, Ella Wood for hitting us up! #JDNation

At a recent baseball game, some friends were debating the nutrition value of a hotdog. I’m a sports purist, so the ballpark hotdog is and will always remain sinless in my eyes, but yeah, it’s not great. One friend remarked You are what you eat. Right, Dr. Kirk? Sure. My business cards say Dr. Chili Cheese Burrito. Where did this phrase come from? Some link it to the Roman Catholic Church and the theme of communion, with food and drink representing body and blood. ...But this delves into religious aspects, not necessarily health. In 1826, Anthalme Brillat-Savarin, a French lawyer wrote (when describing gout) Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es (tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are). It was a figure of speech, for certain, but this notion stuck around in the vernacular throughout the years. The phrase caught fire in America in the 1942 when American Nutritionist, Victor Lundlar published You Are What You Eat: how to win and keep health with diet. His movement highlighted the fact that a significant amount of American illness comes directly from cheap food. And this theme has carried on into the organic/macrobiotic food crazes that permeate our society even today. So, let’s logically test this theory, in the best way I know how: hunting analogies. Wildlife is delicious. We eat deer, rabbits, squirrels and such. And they supply lean, clean, protein-packed meat. Why? Because they eat grasses, grains, nuts, berries, farmer’s crops (btw, I am available to take care of those pests, my farming friends. Holla). An Organic diet, right? Whereas, raccoons, opossums and the like, that consume insects, frogs, lizards and whatever garbage is around are known to have fatty, greasy, gamey meat when prepared in a dish. So, I guess you are what you eat. Not so fast. Y’all ever seen a pig’s menu? I could literally set a pig loose in my dirty truck and he’d eat the garbage spotless. So, I’ll make it simple for you, like I do for my athletes. Your body is an engine. If you expect it to purr like a high performing race engine, do you put the cheap gas in it? No. How long does an engine last if you constantly put the cheapest things out there in it? Not near as long as the engine that got premium stuff. But just like gas, food that’s good for you isn’t cheap! No one can afford it all the time. Just know this: YOU ARE GOING TO PAY THE MONEY SOMEDAY. Do you pay it now with healthier choices? Or later in hospital bills? We all fight this battle every day. Find the balance that works for you. Yours in Health and Christ, Dr. Chili Cheese Burrito. See more

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I had a coach once who referred to left handed people as WRONG-handed people. He’d say, Welp, he got beat by another tricky wrong-hander! Lefties, although well cherished in the world of sport, are largely wrong in a majority right-handed world. Anywhere from 86-90% of the world is right handed. This leaves a paltry 10% of people feeling wrong. The theories on what causes handedness are still just that: theories. But, the science world has settled on seeing th...is phenomenon as a combination of biological evolution, genetics and worldly influence. By God’s design, our brains delegate certain functions to sides, or hemispheres, of our brains. And as odd as it may sound, the LEFT hemisphere controls actions and activities of the RIGHT side of the body and vice versa. Researchers have found that the center for speaking, writing, and expressing communication is located mainly in the LEFT hemisphere. Thus, the super important task of handwriting is naturally sent to the RIGHT hand! Left handers are theorized to have more tasks evenly distributed across the brain and not solely relegated to the left or right side. The genetic theory is even more complicated. Studies show if both parents are lefty, you have only a 25% chance of your child being left-handed. So, not a great guarantee, you travel ball dads still in the dating scene! Don’t go dating 4 women just to get you a starting pitcher. Scientists believe our world has significant influence as we are developing. Ask any left hander about scissors or can openers and you’ll quickly realize the world is made for us normal-handers. It’s proposed that our society inadvertently pushes developing children into right handedness. One CAN practice with their non-dominant hand and improve dexterity (skill with using it). I had a friend growing up whose father implemented Left Hand Wednesdays where he was required to do all daily tasks with his left hand in order to get better with it. He ended up playing college basketball, so who’s to criticize the results, I suppose? I should also note that the biggest complaint I get from patient’s who injury their dominant hand is being able to wipe one’s self with non-dominant handwhich leads to interesting conversations of how much does my spouse really love me? So, why not practice every now and again to avoid this? Go southpaw next bathroom trip. I’ll close with other random/interesting "research" that probably means nothing about our beautiful lefties: 2014 study out of Harvard found left-handers earned 10-12% less money in their life compared to righties. The study noted this may be due to previous studies showing lefties suffering from more emotional and behavioral problems compared to right-handers! Why is this? Dunno. Probably because of the can opener. Yours in Health and Christ, Dr. Kirk See more

Prayers warriors please join us in lifting up our nurse Sheryl Disharoon. Our busy bug took a tumble from a ladder and broke her wrist! Surgery tomorrow (Friday) to repair it. Lord, we lift up the surgeons, nurses and staff that will care for her. As well as, Sheryl and family for ease of suffering. Lastly, we thank y'all patients this week who have had to witness how awful Dr. Kirk is at being a nurse. :D Your patience is appreciated!

Some of the best medical questions I tackle come from my job as DAD Kirk not Dr. Kirk. My son recently hit me with Why the heck do we have armpit anyway? Why, so you have something to braid, of course, son. It’s a valid question. Like everything in God’s design, it serves a purpose. Axillary hair (the fancy name for armpit hair) are positioned strategically. In our armpits lie some of our main apocrine glands. Apocrine glands are paired with hair follicles. So,... if you imagine wherever you have hair, there’s apocrine glands. *Some of y’all are more genetically predisposed to be hairier than others. You can thank whichever parent is the hairy onepossibly with a banana and some flea spray, I suppose. Apocrine glands function is to excrete waste in the form of sweat. The hair’s function is then to act as a wick, so the sweat drops can travel away from the body. Some apocrine glands, namely the armpit and groin, also are long theorized to be linked to release pheromones yes, the animal kingdom’s natural attractant for a mate! Studies are mixed if this actually exists in humans, but culturally, bodily odor has been seen as an attractive thing in certain time periods. The classic example being the urban legend of Napoleon writing home to his wife from the war, Be home in 3 days. Don’t wash. Our current society doesn’t find body odor a positive thing, blessedly! Armpit hair’s service as a wick for waste is a ripe target for bacteria to swoop in and make stink. Hence, our need for bathing, deodorants and anti-perspirants. The societal trend of women shaving their armpits has been loosely traced to 1915 when artists and clothing shop owners began displaying women in fancy dress with shaved armpits. This was then deemed fashionable and coupled with the invention of the safety razor in the 1900’s, a supposed high class act of hygiene was born. It should also be noted that armpit hair also serves as a guard against friction in a highly frictioned area! Normal human walking involves one’s arms swinging to and fro. Hair acts as a buffer. Women runners can tell you quickly that razor burn plus friction is MURDER in the armpit area! However, in the sports world, being as hairless as possible is seen as faster, sleeker, aerodynamic and in the case of wrestlers, having less for your opponent to grab onto. To each his/her own in that world. I hope this helps answer questions for you, like my son asked. As a man of Filipino descent, and largely hairless creature, I say do whatever feels/looks good to you. The bananas are all yours. Yours in Health and Christ, Dr. Kirk See more

My kids do the classic Eeeew, this tastes awful! here. Taste it. Like anyone would sanely taste something you just said was bad! No thank you. Yet this remains an experience that kids are so eager to share. Taste IS a fascinating sense that God gave us, and one that many have certainly learned they took for granted once COVID hit. The human tongue is only second place to the heart as the busiest muscle in our lives, with some of y’all motormouths challenging that.... (hunter’s note: the tongue and the heart are also the most criminally wasted cuts of delicious game meat!). With 8 to 10 thousand taste buds comprised of around 100 sensory cells each, this remarkable organ sends signals to the brain to interpret what you just put in your mouth. And let me quickly dispel the chart you might have learned as a child, with sweet being tasted by this section, and bitter on this, etc. etc. This chart is INCORRECT and has been disproven a long time ago. That chart was proposed by German scientists in 1901 and was widely adopted for some reason. (*Yes. We were fooled by ze Germans. But, if you’ve ever tasted German Chocolate Cake, I’d say all’s forgiven.) All parts of the tongue taste things equally. What’s interesting is, you may genetically taste things better than other things! We are all slaves to our genetics. And just like having your mama’s hips or having your grandaddy’s nose you may also have your relatives love for spicy foods. Or your parents dislike for salty pretzels. True, there are such things as acquired tastes, meaning the more you expose yourself to a taste, the more acceptable it may be to your palate. But, some tastes, you just may be genetically designed to love or hate. Like my oldest son being the only person I know who WANTS all the yellow Skittles. God just chose to make him weird like that. And we’re just talking taste. The amazing tongue also senses textures, temperature and shape of things. The brain also needs to know when something is sharp or prickly. If the soup is too hot. Or if the pudding is too thick. Or in the case of the poorly microwaved Hot Pocket, molten lava hot with an icicle center. All of these wonderfully complex messages are sent from the tongue for interpretation by your brain to help make the decision: keep chewing, yum yum or oh no spit it out! So, don’t take for granted this blessing of a tongue. Some reading this can tell you the absence of taste is awful! Oh, and don’t trust a kid that says taste this. Same with smell this. Trust me. Yours in Health and Christ, Dr. Kirk See more