Participants: Agatha Thrash, Don Miller
Series Code: HYTH
Program Code: HYTH000159
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00:01 Hello, I'm Agatha Thrash, a staff physician
00:03 from Uchee Pines Institute in Alabama. 00:07 I wonder if you've ever noticed that women 00:10 seem to be sicker more... 00:12 but you'll notice that men seem to die younger than women. 00:16 Well there's a reason for that and we're going to be 00:19 talking about women's diseases and why they're sicker. 00:22 So, you join us during the next half an hour and we'll discuss 00:26 a number of these things. 00:47 Welcome to "Help Yourself to Health" 00:50 with Dr. Agatha Thrash of Uchee Pines Institute 00:54 And now, here's your host, Dr. Thrash 01:00 Yes, it is true that women are sicker more... 01:03 They have more pain. 01:05 They seem to have more disability than men do. 01:09 And, you would expect me probably to say that the Lord 01:13 has endowed us with more sophisticated equipment 01:16 than men have and, therefore, that's why we are sick more, 01:20 and that is also true. 01:22 We do have some very sophisticated equipment 01:24 And of course, that equipment is likely to be breaking down some 01:29 because it is very much more complicated. 01:34 Take for instance the anatomy of the female pelvic organs 01:40 These organs have some extremely sophisticated 01:44 interconnections and they're so arranged that, at times, 01:49 the way the hormones influence the cervix and the 01:55 muscle of the uterus. 01:58 Because of these things, a woman does have a lot 02:01 of pain... we call it "dysmenorrhea," or painful 02:04 menstruation. 02:05 And so every woman needs to learn how to deal with 02:09 this kind of problem. 02:11 And so, I have with me today, Shannon Jenkins. 02:14 Shannon is one of the Lifestyle Educator students 02:18 at our school, at Uchee Pines... 02:20 And with her is my granddaughter Melissa. 02:23 Melissa is also a student in the Lifestyle Educator 02:27 Program there. 02:28 And Shannon, if Melissa had painful menstruation, 02:32 what would you do for her to help her to relieve her pain. 02:37 There's a very simple back massage that we can give her 02:41 It only takes 5 minutes. 02:44 Ohhh... that sounds very good. 02:48 I'm sorry I'm not the subject. 02:53 Right here is her spine... 02:55 and right to the right side of her spine, 02:57 place the heel of your hand, and with as much pressure 03:02 as she can tolerate, press down and slowly inch your way 03:07 down the spine. 03:10 Go all the way down to the end of the spine 03:13 and then come back up and inch your way back up. 03:17 She will tell you if there is too much pressure. 03:21 And that is very simple. 03:23 Five minutes and it's all over. 03:26 Yes... and I have seen a lot of young women with 03:29 this very simple thing... to get an enormous amount of relief 03:34 Now, you can also apply heat and in the classes 03:38 that you are taking there at Uchee Pines, you have 03:42 some heat demonstrations... Could you show those to us? 03:49 You can use a hot water bottle... 03:51 Just take it and fill it with water, very hot and even boiling 03:55 You can buy one of these at a department store 03:58 or a drug store. 04:01 Just fill it with water, and then press and expel the air 04:06 because air bubbles do not produce heat very well. 04:10 Screw the cap on and cover it with a towel. 04:14 Cover it with a towel so that if it's too hot, 04:18 it won't burn her... That's right. 04:19 And place it on the lower back and you can leave it there 04:25 for an hour. 04:26 And, if it gets too hot, you can use a thicker towel. 04:32 What if you don't have a hot water bottle? 04:35 And a lot of homes aren't equipped with 04:37 hot water bottles anymore. 04:39 Well, you can just use a plastic bottle. 04:41 You can just use a laundry detergent bottle. 04:44 ...Or any plastic bottle for that matter. 04:47 Just fill it with hot water and wrap it in a towel. 04:50 That also includes doing a little bit of work and 04:54 a lot of people nowadays don't want to do so much work. 04:57 Well that's very simple, all we need to do is purchase a 05:01 heating pad from a department store, and place it 05:05 on the back and leave it there for an hour. 05:08 Yes... that delivers heat to the back and now since the pain 05:14 is in the front... 05:16 Why do you put it here on the back... do you have any idea? 05:19 This is the place for reflex organs. 05:21 This helps the uterus and the cervix. 05:23 Um hm... now that's very good. 05:26 The outflow tracts to all the pelvic organs are in the back 05:31 in the lower part and that's why... and mainly on the right. 05:35 And that's why the massage is mainly on the right of the body 05:40 It's very interesting about these things and I always 05:43 enjoy hearing about them and seeing our young 05:46 students learn about them. 05:47 Now painful menstruation is not the only problem 05:52 that young women have. 05:54 We have A LOT of other things that women have... 05:56 And, in addition to the things that have specifically to do 06:03 with the pelvic organs, 06:04 we also have a number of disorders and diseases 06:08 that, although they are not unique to women, 06:11 they tend to be more common in women. 06:14 One of those is thyroid problems. 06:16 You will see that women often have an enlarged thyroid. 06:21 The thyroid of many women is of such a nature that 06:27 they get what we call a "goiter" 06:29 It is so large... that it's disfiguring. 06:33 We may need to cut it out in that case. 06:36 Or, we may be able to treat it with some very simple things 06:40 And... a number of years ago, my husband and I 06:43 put together some things that women could do 06:46 to help themselves with an underactive thyroid... 06:51 which would then grow a goiter 06:54 And there are a number of things that can be done 06:56 in the way of herbs such as... 06:58 Motherwort... that's a very good one for the thyroid 07:02 Echinacea is also a very good herb for the thyroid 07:06 These are not specific for the hormone... 07:10 They do not replace the hormone. 07:13 But they tend to stimulate or to heal the thyroid 07:17 and enable the thyroid to produce more in the way 07:20 of the hormone that IS specific for the thyroid. 07:24 Bugleweed is another one that one can use. 07:28 Quercetin, a substance that comes from onions... 07:31 this also has a very beneficial effect on the thyroid. 07:35 The very common rolled oats, another very good herb 07:43 that we can use, or supplement that we can use 07:47 for people who have a thyroid problem. 07:50 Then, if there is a problem with an overactive thyroid, 07:54 such things as catnip, and hops and other things that 07:57 have a sedative influence on the body... 08:00 that can be very helpful. 08:03 Now we have a lot of hydrotherapy that can be done 08:06 for an underactive thyroid, or an overactive thyroid. 08:09 Heat treatments to the thyroid can be 08:12 extremely beneficial. 08:14 Various types of foods can help the thyroid 08:18 and, interestingly, some of the same things that help 08:20 women with their pelvic organ diseases can also 08:25 help the thyroid. 08:26 And so I have with me, Lidia Seda today, 08:29 who is going to show us something that looks very nice! 08:33 In fact, it looks like a breakfast meal... 08:36 Is it a breakfast meal? 08:37 Well actually, this can be a breakfast meal, 08:40 but it's more a SUPPER meal. 08:41 It's light... it doesn't help to promote obesity. 08:47 And obesity is a BIG problem, especially for young women. 08:52 They are finding that young girls are entering puberty 08:56 at a much younger age... even at 9 years old 08:59 because of being obese, or even mildly overweight. 09:04 What they have found now is that there is a certain hormone 09:08 called "leptin"... which is produced by fat cells. 09:12 And so, because the young woman is a bit overweight, 09:15 she's producing more of this hormone... 09:18 and this hormone is causing her to develop at an earlier age 09:22 Can you imagine the problems that she might have? 09:24 In school... that her body is ready to deal with certain 09:29 situations... more mature but her mind is NOT 09:33 Well, this is one meal that can help to eliminate 09:36 the problem of obesity. 09:37 And I'd like to share with you how I made it 09:40 and what it contains. 09:42 Well, first of all, what you would need are: 10:00 And you would cut the apples, cut the bananas. 10:04 Place all your ingredients into a pot... 10:06 the juice, and also the cornstarch and make sure 10:10 you don't put your cornstarch in when it's hot. 10:14 Put it in when it's cold. 10:15 This way, it won't get clumpy. 10:17 And stir it until it comes to a gentle boil 10:20 ...And it's ready and it's a light meal. 10:22 And you can have it with crackers as we have here. 10:25 The interesting thing about some of the products we have 10:29 in the fruit soup... is that grapes and apples 10:33 have some very protective properties. 10:35 For example, grapes have a trace mineral called selenium. 10:41 And selenium can help guard against cancer. 10:44 And apples and grapes have flavonoids. 10:46 And they have found that flavonoids can help 10:49 guard against the oxidation of LDL. 10:51 It also is a much more potent antioxidant 10:55 than vitamin E which can protect against cancer. 10:59 AND this also prevents heart disease because it 11:03 helps against clumping of blood or blood aggregation. 11:08 So, Dr. Agatha, these are some of the wonderful benefits 11:11 we can get by just having fruit soup! 11:14 I'm impressed and that it's a very nice substitute for dinner. 11:20 It's a supper and supper, ideally, should be something 11:24 that supped from a cup and not something 11:27 that is eaten with a fork from a dinner plate... Exactly. 11:30 Yes, a very light meal, or no meal at all. 11:32 Or no meal at all... and that's what I did. 11:36 Many years ago when I visited Uchee Pines, 11:38 I weighed about 200 pounds and I decided to go on a 11:43 no-third-meal plan. 11:45 Uh huh... And that helped me and then eventually I went 11:48 on a LIGHT meal in the evenings. 11:50 Like a fruit soup, or maybe a little tomato soup with a 11:54 few crackers... Something very light... 11:56 Or maybe just an apple, or a banana and a slice of bread. 11:59 But that helped me to maintain my weight... 12:01 and to reduce many risks in the future that I may face. 12:06 Yes... it is a fact that women who are overweight do have 12:09 quite a big problem with various diseases. 12:14 And so, this is a very good demonstration of something 12:17 that can be done to make it so that a woman can reduce 12:22 her risks of getting a variety of diseases. 12:25 Now another type of disease that is not unique to women 12:29 but it is more common in women is that of 12:32 disease of the veins. 12:35 Now, everybody is endowed with veins and men, as well as 12:38 women can have a problem with varicose veins 12:42 but by far, in a way greater number of people who 12:46 have varicosities are among the feminine set. 12:50 And I have my colleague, Dr. Winn Horsley, with me today 12:54 And Dr. Horsley is a staff physician at Uchee Pines, 12:58 a physiatrist, and is quite well able to talk with us about veins 13:03 So, tell us what you have about varicose veins, Dr. Horsley. 13:07 Good... I'd be happy to Dr. Agatha. 13:11 Varicose veins... we should probably understand first of all 13:15 what is the underlying issue... the underlying cause. 13:20 It doesn't have to do with being a man or a woman 13:23 It's a very simple principle... 13:26 and it's that if you have a container with a tube 13:30 coming off the container, that has either liquid 13:33 or a gas, or air in it, 13:35 that pressure is going to be communicated down that tube. 13:39 If we put that container under pressure, 13:42 the same pressure is going to go down that tube. 13:46 Now that's exactly what happens anytime a person 13:49 strains or bears down... as we say... 13:52 ...with pressure in their trunk, in their chest and abdomen. 13:58 This, with respect to what tubes go out of the chest.. 14:05 the trunk, we're talking about blood vessels as the main tubes. 14:10 Now, the arteries don't get affected this way because 14:14 they're already under pressure. 14:16 But veins, by contrast, are very low pressure. 14:21 When we say someone has a certain blood pressure, 14:23 we're talking only about arteries. 14:24 Veins are basically zero pressure UNLESS 14:28 a person does this heavy bearing down. 14:31 Now who does this? 14:32 Well, I could start with men. 14:35 Weight lifters do! 14:36 And weight lifters will tend to develop 14:38 problems in the veins. 14:39 Perhaps I could take a moment first to show 14:44 the way the veins are equipped... 14:45 ...the way the Lord created veins so that they do 14:48 handle blood flow even without pressure. 14:51 I'm going to show a leg 14:54 and then a vein in the leg... 15:00 Foot here and here is the leg. 15:05 We'll say the knee is out in front here. 15:07 Maybe I could use this green to show us a vein... 15:16 This is clearly more symbolic than real in size... 15:20 But I want to show you what is in a vein. 15:23 If a vein were just the way I've drawn it, 15:25 you couldn't get blood at zero pressure from the foot 15:29 going up to the heart... where it has to go. 15:31 Instead what we have, are little valves... one way valves 15:37 When the person uses his legs, the muscles tighten around the 15:41 vein and push the blood up past this valve. 15:44 As soon as they relax, it would fall back here, except 15:47 that the valve now shuts, 15:50 and the blood is then in this compartment 15:53 and it will keep on going because there are other 15:55 valves all the way up. 15:57 And different muscles contract and we get the blood going up 16:01 into the trunk. 16:03 The problem that happens with varicose veins, we said, 16:07 was that the person has a lot of pressure in their trunk 16:12 with this bearing down activity like we said a 16:14 weight lifter might do. 16:15 The pressure is so much, that these delicate valves 16:19 in the veins can't withstand it and they actually 16:23 blowup backwards... they will blow out. 16:26 They're built to withstand a certain amount of pressure 16:29 ...reasonable pressures. 16:31 Well, one other kind of situation where these veins 16:36 definitely will blow out, is in childbirth. 16:40 Can you imagine... we men more have to imagine... 16:45 I guess we've seen it, plenty of us, a woman there who is 16:48 bearing down for not just a few seconds of lifting 16:52 a weight, but bearing down with tremendous force 16:54 hopefully alternating at times, over a period of minutes 16:58 but for hours on end. 17:00 Well, it's a real set up that can ruin 17:04 these little valves in the veins. 17:06 And so we end up with varicose veins... 17:10 these bulging veins that not only have discoloration but 17:14 you can see them often bulging right out from 17:17 the rest of the surface in the thigh. 17:19 How would you treat these kinds of people with 17:24 these bulging veins and sometimes they're even painful. 17:27 Yes... I wish it were easy to treat them. 17:31 The valves, once they have blown, 17:34 it's really rather difficult to give a permanent 17:38 curing treatment but we can do some things that will help. 17:41 One very obvious thing, is that when these veins 17:46 have blown out and you've got them bulging now, 17:49 there actually is a fair amount of oozing 17:51 of liquid from the veins so that the rest of the leg 17:55 can become swollen... can become edematous. 17:59 One of the things that will help there, as well as with 18:02 the bulging of the veins, is simply to have the person 18:04 lie down and elevate the legs. 18:08 That might be needed once, twice, maybe more times per day 18:12 for 15 or more minutes... 18:14 to just lie down and have the legs elevated. 18:17 I remember, very well, one gentleman who had this problem 18:24 from other issues, not actually the exact 18:29 same situation I'm talking about but this kind of 18:31 swelling in the legs and he found that having the legs 18:36 perfectly upright was way better than just elevating 18:38 them on a couple of pillows. 18:39 If you have a person inch, while they're lying on their back, 18:44 inch towards a wall, and have the legs upright, 18:47 it supplies perhaps twice the amount of drawing power 18:51 than just putting them up on 2 pillows would. 18:53 So it would be sort of putting them at a 90 degree angle. 18:56 That's exactly right. 18:57 Yes, I could see how the column of fluid would have quite a 19:01 bit of pressure to go BACK into the veins because of 19:06 the fluid would go back into the veins from the pressure of 19:10 gravity... That's it. 19:12 Now, if this problem of the veins gets very advanced, 19:19 you can have very serious changes occur. 19:21 The soft tissue around and the skin, 19:25 can become dark and hardened with times... 19:29 ...scar tissue getting in there, from the amount of swelling 19:32 that's been in place for, not just months, but even years. 19:34 ...what we call brawny edema. 19:37 And if it really gets worse, beyond that, 19:42 you can even have ulcerations form. 19:44 Hopefully at the earlier stages, you'll be able to do more. 19:48 If you don't have the skin badly involved, 19:51 a very simple thing to do is just massage... 19:54 When you have the legs up especially is an ideal thing 19:56 ...massage towards the heart. 20:00 Towards the trunk of the body which is, of course, 20:02 the direction you want that fluid to go. 20:07 Another thing that could be done... 20:09 Again if the skin is intact, is to put on some pressure 20:12 wrap. 20:13 Most people have heard of Ace wrap... 20:15 a sort of tan-colored, elastic kind of wrap. 20:20 You MUST be CAREFUL when you use Ace wrap though. 20:23 Very careful that when we apply it, the high pressure 20:27 must not be UP on the leg here, 20:30 it must be DOWN at the foot. 20:32 You must have HIGH pressure at the more distant areas 20:37 from the trunk... 20:38 And then gradually decrease the pressure as you go 20:42 further up the leg. 20:43 Otherwise, you're putting a constriction on the leg. 20:48 What about such things as garters, and tight bands 20:54 that women wear with stockings that they wear. 20:57 You're reading my mind. 20:59 Because the very point I was making there made me think 21:02 exactly... of what are some other problems 21:04 that affect the veins. 21:05 Those tight garters... in fact, even stockings 21:09 that are too tight at the top are a real problem. 21:12 REMEMBER, veins are not built to withstand pressure. 21:17 And so, if you're blocking the returning blood flow here 21:20 with a tight elastic wrap, or elastic area of stocking, 21:27 your BLOCKING all this blood that's down below 21:30 from getting passed, so we want to avoid all 21:33 of that kind of thing. 21:34 In hospitals, good nurses will often tell the patients 21:38 to snip stockings which they use in hospitals 21:40 if they're a little tight at the top. 21:43 One other thing, I'd like to mention about this very point of 21:47 putting pressure on veins... the areas which are going to 21:50 cause a problem in this return to the heart... 21:51 And that is SITTING in a certain way, or having a seat 21:57 that is constructed in such a way that you get a lot of 22:00 pressure UNDER the thigh. 22:04 If a seat... the edge of the seat, near the knee is 22:11 high compared to what the person's lower leg is... 22:19 in terms of getting support from the floor, 22:21 if the feet are barely touching the floor, 22:24 and, instead, what is holding the knees and the lower legs up, 22:27 is the edge of the seat, then you are putting too much 22:29 pressure behind the knee and, therefore, constricting 22:32 these veins. 22:34 So a short woman, could be expected to have more 22:37 varicose veins if she sits a lot, than a tall woman. 22:41 That's right... assuming the same size of chairs. 22:43 Another issue... I think that can affect some people 22:49 is crossing the legs and I'm talking to myself here 22:53 because I tend to do that a lot. 22:55 But, really, crossing your legs, does exactly the same thing. 22:59 You're putting pressure on those veins which tend 23:01 to run in the BACK, rather than the front of the thigh. 23:06 Well, thank you very much. 23:07 This has been very enlightening and very interesting... 23:10 about the way that the Lord has constructed us. 23:12 And He wants us to have every construction possible 23:15 to do everything that we need to do. 23:18 And in regard to that, I'd like to show you a model 23:21 of the pelvic organs. 23:23 You will see here, the female pelvic organs. 23:26 Here, of course, is the entry. 23:29 And then at the end of that, is the cervix... 23:33 down here at the bottom... I'll turn it this way a little bit so 23:37 that you can see that better. 23:38 And the cervix is a very vulnerable area for cancer, 23:45 especially because viruses now are so common in this area. 23:51 Especially the human papilloma virus. 23:53 It's very common in this area... 23:55 and is likely to cause a problem with infecting the cervix. 24:00 Then is the body of the uterus with the lining of endometrium 24:06 which is that that bleeds every month with the menstrual period. 24:09 When the hormones fall off in the cycle of the woman, 24:13 that sort of knocks the props out from under the lining 24:17 and it then bleeds and that is the menstrual flow. 24:20 But usually not more than 2 or 3 tablespoonsful of blood 24:25 will be lost and a lot of fluid so it looks like a lot of blood 24:28 And then, of course, the fallopian tubes and 24:31 the ovaries here. 24:32 The ovaries are another very vulnerable part of a woman's 24:36 anatomy and can cause a good bit of problem, 24:39 especially problems with cysts or problems with cancer. 24:43 Now, Don Miller is going to assist me now in talking about 24:49 this thing of women's diseases 24:51 And Don Miller is a Lifestyle counselor at Uchee Pines and 24:54 what do you have to talk with us about? 24:56 I want to talk, today, a little bit about early menarche... 24:59 which basically is the time at which a child can reproduce 25:03 its generation, or another way that we can put it is 25:06 when a girl starts her per period. 25:08 We seem to have this desire in our society today 25:13 to see our children grow up very fast. 25:15 And our children are growing up very fast. 25:17 And I don't think we're seeing our children, 25:19 or society in large... getting any better. 25:23 Basically, we want to slow this process down. 25:27 The average age of puberty today is down around 25:31 11 years of age. 25:32 And I read an article some time ago that in some parts 25:35 of the world, in developed countries only, 25:37 it's down as low as 7 and 8 years of age. 25:40 And this is a huge problem because the earlier a 25:43 girl reaches menarche, starts her period, 25:46 the more... with all these new hormones coursing through 25:49 her body, with all these new sensations that she never 25:52 had before, she sort of has something happening 25:55 inside of her body that makes her sort of reach out and 25:58 do things that she should not be doing. 26:00 We see more delinquency. 26:01 We see less scholarship. 26:03 Se see more trouble. 26:04 We see a MUCH LARGER generation gap in the family 26:07 between the child and the parents. 26:09 When you see a BIG generation gap, 26:12 you can pretty much be sure that that child is already 26:14 into their period. 26:15 And so what we want to do is... we want to slow 26:17 that process down. 26:19 We can slow it down by a less refined diet. 26:22 Going into more complex carbohydrates... 26:25 fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds. 26:28 We need to get the child in bed on time. 26:30 For some reason, we're letting children 26:32 stay up until ALL hours of the night. 26:34 My bedtime, as a child, was always between 8 and 8:30. 26:38 And it's good to get our children in bed on time. 26:40 And then staying away from the stimulating things that our 26:43 children are exposed to... television, books, movies, 26:47 videos and video games... all these things 26:49 will cause the body to start maturing too quickly. 26:53 A 100 years ago... 120 years ago the average age of menarche 26:57 was around 17 years of age. 26:59 In some parts of the world today, it's still the same way. 27:02 And you just do not see that wanderlust that takes over 27:06 in a child when they have that large generation gap 27:09 because they started their periods too soon. 27:11 We need to slow them down. 27:13 We need to do it with simple diets... 27:15 And we need to BE with our children and help them 27:17 through these transitions. 27:18 And if they are already into it right now, mothers and fathers, 27:21 be with them and help them because it's 27:23 serious times for them... Dr. Thrash. 27:26 Yes it is... a very serious time for a young child. 27:30 I have a quote here that I think is a very good one... 27:33 It says, "You should keep saddening thoughts and 27:36 and saddening subjects away from you. 27:38 Be cheerful, happy, grateful, and have a firm reliance upon 27:43 God and an unshaken confidence and trust in Him. 27:47 Your health will be much better if you control your mind. 27:52 And to that, I can only add Amen. |
Revised 2014-12-17