Participants: Don Miller, Agatha Thrash
Series Code: HYTH
Program Code: HYTH000137
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00:01 Seventy-five years ago, cholesterol was a substance
00:05 that very few people had even heard of. 00:07 Now, every fourth grade school boy knows all about cholesterol. 00:11 I'm Agatha Thrash, a staff physician, from 00:14 Uchee Pines Institute. 00:16 There, we deal quite a lot with cholesterol and people who have 00:20 lifestyle diseases. 00:21 We'd like to talk with you about cholesterol and some of the 00:26 serious problems that we're seeing with it today. 00:28 We really need to get tough with cholesterol and we can. 00:32 So we will be talking about some of the ways 00:35 in the next half an hour. 00:36 So we hope you will join us, won't you? 00:37 Welcome to "Help Yourself to Health" with Dr. Agatha Thrash 01:01 of Uchee Pines Institute. 01:02 A long time ago, we used to think of cholesterol as being 01:10 something that those who are elderly had a problem with. 01:13 We didn't think about it as a teenage problem... 01:16 but today, we are seeing it more and more in teenagers. 01:20 In fact, one out of every six teenagers has a problem with 01:25 cholesterol and it is more serious than we might think. 01:27 And so, we need to start very early in life teaching our 01:31 young people how to eat, and live, and work and be 01:35 regular in all their habits so that they can avoid the 01:38 problem with cholesterol. 01:39 Now the average teenager today does a lot of fast food shopping 01:46 and socializing with friends over some kind of very sweet and 01:51 unhealthful drink... 01:52 But it isn't necessary that teenagers have these sweet 01:56 things and these very fatty things. 01:58 Because I know that teenagers can enjoy their food and their 02:02 drinks without having all of these unhealthful things. 02:06 And here is with me, my granddaughter who is a teenager. 02:09 She makes some very nice things in her kitchen that are 02:15 not unhealthful. 02:16 And, what are you going to do for us today? 02:18 It looks like it's going to be something with orange. 02:21 Yes, I'm going to be making something that is similar to an 02:24 Orange Julius. 02:25 All you have to use is 2 cups of your favorite soymilk which 02:29 I happen to be using Silk. 02:31 Then we will add 12 ounces of frozen orange juice concentrate 02:32 and approximately a teaspoon of vanilla extract 02:33 and about 12 ice cubes. 02:34 And then you blend it until the ice is just a little bit chunky. 02:35 I won't finish blending it but this is somewhat what it 03:47 would look like after it's finished. 03:48 It looks very appetizing. 03:50 Does it taste good? 03:51 I hope so... it tastes good to me. 03:54 You mean it's sweet with just the orange juice, the 04:00 soymilk and the vanilla? 04:03 It is, although if you wish for it to be sweeter, 04:06 you can put a little bit of Stevia in it. 04:08 Oh, that would make it good for diabetics... 04:11 a little bit... 04:12 And for people who are overweight. 04:13 It's very sweet. 04:14 It also comes in powder form. 04:17 Oh yes, that's very good and the Stevia gives it a very 04:22 sweet flavor without adding calories or without making it 04:28 so that diabetics or teenagers who have a problem with 04:33 overweight or with cholesterol would not be able to take. 04:36 And so, this is a very nice sweet drink that a person who is 04:40 a teenager would certainly enjoy. 04:42 Thank you Melissa. 04:43 Now I'm very grateful that we don't have to be bound to one 04:49 set of foods or one set of nutrients but that many 04:54 different kinds of nutrients, many different kinds of 04:56 foods are present in what God has given us in nature. 05:01 So that without any difficulty at all, we can be very 05:04 well-balanced in our nutrition 05:06 We can get everything that is needed from the foods that we 05:11 have without using anything that is unhealthful. 05:14 And the teenagers should learn how to prepare these 05:19 very nice things, sweet drinks that are completely free 05:24 from guilt and also burgers and fries and hot dogs 05:29 and whatever the young people eat nowadays... 05:32 They can learn to make these very healthfully and there 05:34 are cookbooks everywhere that show young people how to do 05:38 these things and they are fun to make. 05:39 They are very nice for a group of young people to make together 05:43 And Valerie Schreiber has some absolutely wonderful-looking 05:47 things here and I'm looking forward to seeing what she has. 05:50 This is Valerie Schreiber who is one of my co-workers at 05:53 Uchee Pines, a health educator and one who is an excellent cook 05:58 So, what have you today, Valerie? 06:01 Well, Dr. Agatha, I'm going to show moms how they can do a 06:04 transition with their children because most children's favorite 06:08 dinner is hamburgers and French fries at the fast food store. 06:13 And we want to encourage moms and young people not to have 06:17 fast food for the children any longer and there's a good 06:21 way to do it but you need to get your children involved. 06:24 And one way to get your children involved... 06:27 if you will look over here... you will see that I have taken 06:33 burgers and I have bought cookie cutters. 06:35 Now, the cookie cutters look like this. 06:38 You can get all sorts of cookie cutters. 06:42 This is a clown, here's a heart, a frog... 06:49 and if you look back down here on the plate, I took 2 burgers 06:52 and made a snowman. 06:53 I took a heart, a frog and over here is a little group 06:58 of balloons... 07:01 I did that for the little tots that don't eat very much. 07:02 You can make them like a little balloon. 07:03 But the thing that I encourage you to do, moms, is to get 07:06 these cookie cutters and get your children involved. 07:09 If they get involved, they are going to eat it. 07:11 And then again, icing them with mashed potatoes is so 07:15 delicious that they will love them. 07:17 Now over here, you will see that I have a dish with just 07:22 the traditional-looking burger on a plate with French fries 07:26 and so the bachelors can have this... 07:29 They can learn how to make good burgers in place of hamburgers 07:33 in the fast food stores and they can have good French fries. 07:37 Now, I want to tell you how you can make these French fries 07:41 that are not fried and deep fried in fat. 07:45 You can go ahead and take your potatoes and you can cut them 07:50 just real nice like this... you can wash them very good first. 07:55 Leave the skin on because there is a lot of nutrition there 07:59 with the skin and then all you have to do is, in a bag, 08:04 you can mix, oh... yeast flakes, some salt, some paprika, 08:10 some chicken seasoning, any flavor that you may like as a 08:13 seasoning and then you just take your French fries like so 08:23 and you just put them in the bag like this and you can zip it up 08:33 and then just shake it. 08:38 Just shake it like this. 08:41 And then you can just pour these out on a pan, which I will just 08:46 pour them back here into this dish and they are nice and 08:50 seasoned and you can put them right into your oven 08:54 and bake them. 08:56 In fact, we just had them for lunch and they are delicious. 08:59 Now moms, you can make your children a very healthy meal 09:04 without going to the fast food restaurant because you can 09:06 have a burger and French fries and Dr. Agatha is going to bring 09:09 in Melissa's drink... instead of getting an unhealthy milkshake, 09:14 you can now have an orange drink. 09:15 And this isn't just for children moms, it can be just for you 09:18 And you can learn how to make these things quickly... 09:20 you can have all your seasonings put together for your French 09:23 fries and in a little bag, so that when you come home, 09:27 you can just pull that bag out, put your French fries in 09:29 and put it in the oven. 09:30 And, the reason that I showed you over here, how to decorate 09:33 burgers for children, is to get 09:35 your children involved in this in the beginning. 09:37 I know it looks like a lot of work but, let me tell you, 09:40 when you get your children involved in doing this, it's 09:43 so much fun for them, that they are going to eat it. 09:47 And so if they think they can do this every time they have 09:49 burgers, they're going to be more than likely to eat them 09:51 And they will tell their friends about it and their friends are 09:53 going to want to come over and everybody is going 09:55 to have a good time. 09:56 Eventually you can make more simpler things but I'm 09:58 encouraging you in the beginning make it fun for your children 10:02 In fact, I have a lot of fun in doing it and so will 10:04 you, mom, when you get to do it. 10:05 Thank you. 10:06 And of course, all this is guaranteed to have not 10:09 one single molecule of cholesterol in it. 10:12 Absolutely. 10:13 And so your children are not going to be getting high 10:16 cholesterol from this kind of food. 10:18 Cholesterol is such a problem nowadays that we study all of 10:25 the blood to see what other markers there are for coronary 10:29 heart disease. 10:30 Markers for coronary heart disease are generally falling in 10:34 three categories right now. 10:36 One is cholesterol, a second is triglycerides 10:41 and a third is homocysteine, those three. 10:44 Now just being added now and maybe will come to be 10:48 standard in the next few months or few years is that 10:51 of fibrinogen. 10:53 Fibrinogen is also a marker and I predict that it will become 10:56 as common, commonly done for predicting heart disease as 11:02 cholesterol now is. 11:04 But probably if you think about the fact that cholesterol is 11:09 not present at all in any kind of vegetable food... 11:16 It's only present in animal foods and that that animal 11:20 food has to be taken in sufficient quantity so that 11:24 it will raise the blood cholesterol. 11:26 Now, there are some people whose cholesterol, by family origin or 11:31 heredity, is going to be high. 11:34 Now these individuals, even on a totally vegetarian diet will 11:39 still have to be very careful not to overeat, not to eat 11:42 too many times a day. 11:43 The 2-meal plan for them is usually ideal. 11:46 And so with this, even those who have an hereditary high 11:51 cholesterol, will find that they do very well. 11:54 Exercise and sunshine are also important for the person 11:58 who has an hereditary type of high cholesterol. 12:02 It's very important for them that they obey all of the 8 12:08 natural laws of health. 12:09 Have fresh air... we've found some people whose cholesterol 12:13 will not come down unless they have fresh air in their 12:15 bedrooms at night. 12:16 And unless they learn to be relaxed and to exercise a lot 12:25 and to be unstressed. 12:27 Now, there are other factors that are involved in 12:32 homocysteine that are not in cholesterol. 12:36 Homocysteine also has some aspects of B6 and other things 12:43 but soy has a good affect on homocysteine and soy also has 12:51 a very good affect on cholesterol. 12:53 Soy products of all kinds and the more close to the bean 12:57 itself that you get, the better it is from the standpoint 13:01 of its benefit for the body. 13:03 And so, Valerie, it looks as if you've got something else 13:06 to show us. 13:08 Oh I sure do, Dr. Agatha. 13:09 It looks delicious... Yes! 13:10 And it's beautiful. 13:11 Now what I've done here is another one of those 13:14 fun things. 13:15 And I do this, again, to help with the transition. 13:18 Especially those that maybe like fish. 13:20 This is a mock salmon loaf and if you look real close, you will 13:25 see it looks like a fish... 13:26 Oh there's the tail over there. 13:28 Yeah, I've done it with lettuce. 13:29 There's his little head and there are his gills. 13:31 And this is made from soybean. 13:34 Now you can do one of two ways, 13:36 you can get soybean flour and that's all I really have in 13:40 this is soybean flour, ground up soybeans... 13:43 and what you do is, you soak your soybeans at night 13:46 and then you rinse them off in the morning, put them in the 13:49 blender with the seasoning that you want and blend 13:50 them up and when you blend them up, they'll turn out and look 13:55 just like this. 13:57 And you can do so many things with ground up soy, that 14:03 there is just no end to the things that you can do and 14:05 dishes that you can make with soy like... 14:08 egg salad, scrambled eggs, deviled eggs, all kinds of 14:12 loaves and burgers. 14:14 And in my burgers, I usually put ground up 14:15 soy, just like you see here. 14:18 So, in my little fish here, is ground up soybeans, seasoning, 14:23 tomato juice and some soy flour. 14:26 And I just blend it all together put it in a mold, 14:29 put it in the oven and then take it out. 14:31 This makes it kind of fun, even dad who's kind of resistant 14:34 to this change in the home, when he sees this, 14:37 he'll be so amused and it does amuse you 14:40 You know he is going to take a bite of it instead of being 14:42 angry... how can you be angry if this is sitting on the table? 14:44 Not really, could you, Dr. Agatha... 14:47 No, in fact, even if I were resistant to changing from meat 14:51 to a vegetarian diet, I think that with this, I would be 14:55 willing to give it a whirl. 14:56 Sure, and so I want to encourage you also, moms, you 14:57 can make a real nice tartar sauce with this. 15:02 Just get your favorite vegetarian cookbook and 15:06 there are many of them in the health food stores today, 15:08 Or you can even call Uchee Pines, we have a great 15:10 selection there. 15:12 You can take your favorite mayonnaise and all you have to 15:14 do is cut up sweet pickles in them and you can have a 15:18 delicious tartar sauce that you can put with your fish meal. 15:21 Sounds very good and very appetizing. 15:24 And also fun. 15:25 These are fun things to do and if you like to putter around 15:28 in the kitchen, you can be very certain that you will enjoy 15:31 doing these things. 15:32 Now some people will need more help than just the soy 15:37 to bring the cholesterol down and the exercise, 15:40 and the sunshine. 15:41 They will need some other things as well. 15:43 And, I have asked John Champen to talk with you some about 15:47 some studies that have been done. 15:48 Many have been done in many parts of the world on a variety 15:52 of things but at this time, John Champen, who is my 15:56 co-worker at Uchee Pines, and in the administration there 15:59 and also a health educator... he will talk with you about 16:02 a study done in Finland. 16:06 Thank you. 16:07 There have been two recent studies; one was done in 16:10 Finland and one was done in Brooklyn, New York. 16:12 It had to do with charcoal and had to do with cholesterol... 16:16 putting the two together. 16:17 It's very interesting... 16:18 The one in Finland states that, in the Finnish studies 16:23 7 patients were given a quarter ounce of activated charcoal 16:27 3 times a day for 4 weeks. 16:29 At the end of 4 weeks, their levels of cholesterol went down, 16:34 the LDL went down 41% on average. 16:38 Now, traditional drug therapy usually lowers LDL or 16:43 low density lipoproteins cholesterol, only 16%. 16:48 That's according to "The Lancet," August 16, 1986 and 16:53 "Prevention Magazine," January 1987. 16:56 The other study was done by the "Sunny Health Science Center" in 17:00 Brooklyn, New York. 17:01 Dr. Friedman had 6 patients take a little over 1 ounce 17:06 of activated charcoal for 24 weeks. 17:12 At the end of the trial period, the cholesterol levels 17:15 in this group fell 43% and their triglycerides fell 76%. 17:22 Now that's also from "Prevention Magazine," January 1987. 17:27 Apparently charcoal attracts and holds onto the cholesterol 17:32 taking it through the entire system without it getting into 17:35 the bloodstream, at least a good percentage of it does that. 17:38 It looks like this is a possible way to lower cholesterol 17:42 on a regular basis. 17:44 Sounds good. Yes and I like charcoal. 17:46 It's another thing that really enforces my enjoyment 17:50 of charcoal as a remedy. 17:51 It's not only good on the surface, it's good internally 17:54 and it's good for the blood. 17:55 It's a good blood cleanser. 17:57 Now, we have talked about homocysteine to some degree but 18:01 I'd like to tell you that it's not usually included in a 18:04 routine set of laboratory 18:09 testing done for your annual physical. 18:11 So you request that of your physician. 18:12 Unfortunately, it's still a little bit expensive but I 18:16 predict that as we get more and more people who want the 18:20 homocysteine test, I predict that it will come down... 18:24 The price will come down and it will not be so expensive. 18:28 Homocysteine is an altogether separate marker for heart 18:33 disease than cholesterol is. 18:35 And homocysteine also indicates your likelihood of getting 18:40 cancer, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and a 18:44 number of other problems in life that we have come to associate 18:48 with a high homocysteine level. 18:50 There are certain things that we know will be helpful in 18:54 bringing the homocysteine level down and thereby reducing 18:58 your probability of getting any one of these disorders 19:03 that I've mentioned. 19:04 One of those is vitamin B12. 19:06 Vitamin B12 is very important in helping make the change 19:11 in the amino acids that result that an improper change 19:15 there makes homocysteine level go up. 19:18 And so if you take B12, that 19:19 will help with the homocysteine level. 19:23 Folic acid will also help and folic acid is present in 19:28 greens and beans and whole grains but folic acid may also 19:34 need to be taken by supplement for those people who have a high 19:38 homocysteine level. 19:40 Vitamin B6 is also one of those things that we give by 19:45 supplement to people who have a high homocysteine level. 19:49 There are certain foods that are high in vitamin B6 and we want 19:53 to discuss those with you now 19:55 And so I have Valerie here who 19:57 is going to show you some of these foods that are high in 20:00 vitamin B6. 20:01 Valerie, what do you have? 20:02 Well vitamin B6 happens to be one of my favorite vitamins 20:05 to talk about simply because it's involved in more bodily 20:08 functions than almost any other nutrient. 20:10 It is involved in the physical, as well as the mental. 20:13 And let me just read you a few things that it does. 20:16 It is involved in the production of hydrochloric acid, 20:19 in the absorption of fats and proteins, 20:21 in maintaining sodium and potassium balance. 20:25 It promotes red blood cell formation. 20:28 It is needed for normal brain function. 20:31 It aids the absorption of vitamin B12. 20:33 It aids the immune system functions. 20:36 It aids in the ability of antibody production. 20:39 B6 also plays a role in cancer immunity and aids in the 20:44 prevention of atherosclerosis. 20:46 So you can see, these are just a few of the systems that 20:49 B12 plays a major role in. 20:52 So therefore, I want to show you just some of the foods that 20:55 have rich sources of B12... 20:58 And bananas right here, 21:01 have one of the richest sources of B12. 21:05 Now let me tell you about bananas. 21:06 When I was a little girl, I used to love bananas. 21:08 And, I used to dream I was up in a banana tree eating 21:12 bananas and so I must have needed a lot of B6 back then, 21:15 I don't know, but I encourage you to feed your children 21:18 bananas... eat bananas. 21:20 They are one of the richest sources of B6. 21:24 Now other sources of B6 are in potatoes. 21:30 Avocados are another very good source of B6 21:36 And, good old tomato juice has plenty of B6 in it. 21:41 Now your corn flakes whole grain cereals are fortified with B6, 21:47 so are grains and seeds which I have right here. 21:52 Here are some good old sunflower seeds 21:53 and they are so delicious and they're just filled with B6. 21:57 We also have here a soy product, which is tofu, but it has a good 22:03 amount of B6 in it as well. 22:04 And there are many other vegetables like green beans, 22:08 and sweet potatoes that have a good amount of B6 in them. 22:12 And I want to show you, we also have some herbal teas... 22:15 believe it or not that have a good source of B6 in them. 22:19 And this is oat straw. 22:21 Here is catnip and this is very good if you want to relax. 22:28 Catnip is a good herb to help you relax your nervous system. 22:32 So that's why B6 plays a role in that. 22:35 Now we know why it helps so much. 22:37 Alfalfa also has quite a bit of B6 in it. 22:42 So if you are not eating vegetables and you want to 22:43 be sure that you are getting some good amounts of B6, 22:46 you can be drinking your herbal teas. 22:48 So you will be getting it whatever you are doing, 22:51 whether you are drinking teas or eating your 22:52 fruits and vegetables. 22:54 That sounds good and not only is this nice to talk about, 22:57 but it is also good to contemplate what nice things 23:00 that we have that are high in vitamin B6. 23:03 And so, we can see by these very simple things, 23:06 that we can learn what we can do that will reduce our likelihood 23:12 of getting heart disease. 23:13 Heart disease is not nice and I will show you why right 23:18 here with these two specimens from my museum. 23:21 These hearts are actual human hearts and they have been 23:25 treated in such a way that when I prepared them this way, 23:29 the first thing was to fix them with formalin 23:31 Then to replace the water little by little with a fat soluble 23:37 substance and eventually end up with paraffin. 23:40 The whole process takes about one month 23:43 and for me, that was quite a long time to spend on 23:48 these... of course, I didn't have to do it full-time. 23:50 But, I felt like one of the head shrinkers from some of these 23:53 countries that shrink heads because the process is 23:57 somewhat similar. 23:58 Now you will notice in this heart... this is the normal 24:01 heart... that's the back that you've just been seeing 24:04 and this is the front. 24:05 It's about the size of your loosely-clenched fist. 24:08 And it sits in the chest upside down so that the 24:11 point goes down as you see here. 24:13 Now, if you will notice carefully, 24:15 you can see a thin line right down here representing 24:21 the major coronary vessel, major coronary artery. 24:26 Now I have here a heart of a man the very same age as the 24:34 normal heart but this heart is very abnormal. 24:37 You will be able to see immediately that the same artery 24:40 that you could barely see, is now very easily seen because 24:44 it has so much calcium deposited in it. 24:48 The calcium is deposited because of the fact that the artery 24:52 got sick and the fat that first deposited in the artery 24:57 then drew the calcium to it and now we have a stiffened artery 25:03 filled with material that makes 25:06 it difficult for blood to go through. 25:08 It also makes it so that the artery cannot make its normal 25:13 pulsation and that, of course, 25:15 alters the blood pressure as well. 25:17 It makes the heart have to pump harder in order to get blood 25:20 through this stiffened artery. 25:23 Now some people feel, well I will not be very disturbed about 25:28 my hardened arteries because they have techniques now 25:31 that they can go up and strip all this material that's on the 25:35 inside of the artery... they can just strip that out 25:38 Or, they have certain bypass procedures that they can do 25:42 and so if my artery gets very badly damaged like this one is, 25:48 and you can see the artery right here. 25:51 This artery is very calcified, very small. 25:56 This is the aorta which should be almost twice that size. 26:00 This is the lower end of the aorta 26:02 And what happened here was the same kind of calcium 26:06 deposits following the fat, like cholesterol and triglycerides 26:10 that deposited in the aorta 26:13 Those then made the aorta itself so that it was nonfunctional. 26:18 And so the surgeons went in and did a bypass for the man 26:24 and gave him an aorta. 26:26 They also replaced another artery... 26:30 I think it was the renal artery. 26:31 And made a nice, new aorta for him with the tributary 26:38 arteries but unfortunately, it only functioned for 26:42 about 18 months and then it got a clot in it as you can 26:46 here... you see this dark clot here inside of it. 26:50 And that made it so that the artery was then nonfunctional 26:54 and when that happened, of course, the man lost his life. 26:57 So that isn't the way to go, not with surgeries, not even 27:02 with drugs that promise you that they will bring your 27:06 cholesterol down. 27:07 The very best that you could hope with a cholesterol 27:12 lowering drug is perhaps 15% reduction in your cholesterol 27:17 But you may need 50 or 60% reduction in your cholesterol. 27:21 And of course, that could not be achieved with these 27:26 artificial things. 27:28 So the natural thing such as diet and exercise and these 27:34 things that God has provided for us in abundance, 27:37 showing His great love for us and making it so that we are 27:40 not just cast out here in the earth with a serious foe 27:45 like Satan without many tools that we can use to fight 27:50 against Satan's sophistries. 27:52 So, may this be your experience. 27:54 May God bless you. |
Revised 2014-12-17