Participants: Wynn Horsely, Don Miller, Agatha Thrash
Series Code: HYTH
Program Code: HYTH000163
|
00:01 Hello, I'm Agatha Thrash a staff physician
00:04 from Uchee Pines Institute 00:07 The heart is our topic for today 00:10 and I think perhaps without any question, 00:13 most people feel that the heart is that organ of the body most 00:17 likely to cause excruciating pain and even death 00:21 if it goes wrong. 00:23 So we'll be talking with some of the issues having to do 00:26 with the heart and how to have a healthy heart. 00:28 We hope you will join us. 00:50 Welcome to "Help Yourself to Health" 00:52 with Dr. Agatha Thrash of Uchee Pines Institute 00:55 And now, here's your host Dr. Thrash 01:00 Now there is much that you can do to make it so that the 01:05 concern that most people have about pain 01:08 and the likelihood of sudden death, 01:12 you can do a lot with your lifestyle to make it so 01:15 that you can minimize these concerns... 01:17 and make it so that your life can be peaceful, 01:20 and that you can have a happy and a healthy and hopeful future 01:26 So our work here is to try to find the kind of lifestyle 01:32 that will be helpful to accomplish just that goal. 01:37 And so, I have with me, Melissa Thrash, who is 01:40 my granddaughter... who has a plastic model of the heart. 01:45 So, can you tell us about the heart and what it's like? 01:48 Sure... Each person's heart is about the size 01:52 of your loosely-clenched fist, 01:55 and here on our plastic model, I'll show you, 01:59 it sits in the chest about like this, 02:02 and it's actually twisted, so that the right side 02:05 is showing more than the left side, 02:07 although the left side is actually larger, 02:10 it's just hidden more behind. 02:12 Okay, let's take a look on the inside... 02:14 On the inside, we see the right atrium is fed by the 02:19 superior and inferior vena cava by the deoxygenated blood 02:22 from the body. 02:23 And it's pumped through the tricuspid valve into the 02:26 ventricle and then from there, it goes to the lungs to be 02:29 oxygenated. 02:30 It returns to the left atrium and is pumped 02:33 through the mitral valve into the left ventricle 02:37 to be pumped to the rest of the body. 02:39 And take a note of the thickness of the wall on the 02:43 left side, as compared to the right side... 02:45 The right side only has to pump blood to the lungs; 02:49 whereas the left side has to pump blood to the entire body. 02:54 So if this right ventricle just pumps blood out to the lungs, 02:59 then it doesn't have to be really FIRM and hard 03:04 and thick because the lungs don't put a lot of resistance 03:07 against the flow... That's right. 03:09 A very neat arrangement. 03:12 The left side is pumping the blood to the body 03:15 by way of the aorta. 03:16 Right at the base of the aorta, the coronary arteries 03:20 branch off and are going to the heart muscle 03:23 where they're going to nourish the heart muscle with 03:25 the oxygen and the nutrients that it needs because 03:28 even the blood is flowing through the heart, 03:31 it's not actually receiving oxygen and nutrients from it 03:34 until it gets to the coronary arteries and goes 03:36 to the muscle... Um hm 03:38 So the coronary arteries then are a very good functioning 03:43 part of the heart... That's right 03:45 Because it supplies the heart muscle with it's own 03:48 nourishment. That's right. 03:49 Very good... Thank you, Melissa. 03:52 We have an interesting thing about the heart 03:54 and that is that its anatomy is a large part of what 03:58 causes its disease. 04:00 And a colleague of mine, at Uchee Pines, is going to 04:04 talk with us about some of the problems that can arise 04:09 in the various anatomical parts of the heart. 04:12 This is Dr. Winn Horsley, who is a colleague of mine, 04:16 a staff physician at Uchee Pines Institute. 04:19 Dr. Horsley, what do you have to tell us about the heart? 04:23 Well, I'd like to start with what Melissa finished on 04:28 which was the coronary arteries. 04:32 When you look at the heart, on this model, 04:34 the coronary arteries stand out... they show in red 04:37 And, it's interesting that the Creator... 04:41 everything was done in wisdom... 04:43 He put these arteries not deep in the wall 04:48 He didn't have them running deep in the wall 04:50 because then, with every contraction, the blood flow 04:54 would be stopped in those arteries... Well, that's true. 04:56 The pressure would close up even the arteries. 04:59 Instead, He put those coronary arteries right out 05:03 on the surface of the heart, so the flow can be there 05:05 all the time. 05:06 The functioning of the heart depends on those 05:10 coronary arteries. 05:13 If we don't have blood flowing through those 05:15 coronary arteries and taking care of the nutrition 05:19 and oxygen needs of the heart, 05:21 you don't have the heart beating. 05:23 And so that leads us to what really is the number one 05:28 killer in the U.S... 05:30 blockage in those coronary arteries. 05:34 What would cause those arteries to block? 05:40 The big culprit, I think, most people, at least 05:45 in the United States, have heard the word "cholesterol. " 05:48 And, it's not out of date... it's very much up-to-date 05:53 and that really is the guilty factor. 06:01 We hear a lot about saturated fat 06:02 Saturated fat DOES enter in but if we're going to name 06:08 one real culprit... it's the cholesterol 06:11 And we'll want to get into that I think.. further along. 06:15 You know, you mentioned the fact that now everybody has 06:19 heard of cholesterol. 06:21 Probably even every 5th grade schoolchild has 06:26 heard of cholesterol. 06:27 But when I was in medical school 50 years ago, 06:30 we could not do cholesterol determinations on the blood of 06:36 people, except one day a week. 06:38 So, we collected all the blood collections.. which weren't many 06:42 because doctors weren't very interested 06:44 in the blood cholesterol. 06:46 We didn't really know that it was as important as it is... 06:50 as we have since learned... 06:51 But we would collect them all together and then once a week 06:56 we could get a report on the cholesterol. 06:59 Whereas now, you have kits that people can have 07:02 in their home, where they can check their own cholesterol. 07:05 It is something has it's come into the public 07:07 consciousness so much. 07:08 I think quite a lot of the interest and scientific focus 07:13 on it started after World War II when they noticed, 07:16 surprisingly, in those countries very involved in the war 07:22 the ones that had a blockade by the Nazi powers 07:28 in their submarines so that they couldn't make exchanges 07:31 with the rest of the world of food and they had to live on 07:35 a rather sparse diet. 07:37 In spite of what one might think with all the stress of 07:41 war... those very countries ended up with a decrease 07:44 in the rate of heart attacks. 07:45 You can account for that by their sparse diet. 07:48 They had to eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains, 07:52 and nuts and seeds that were produced 07:54 on the land they lived on. 07:55 That's right... Not so many rich cakes and all kinds of 07:58 dairy products that are huge. 08:00 They couldn't get from America all of the McDonald's 08:03 products that are now available. 08:05 That's it. Well that's good. 08:07 Well I would like to have Melissa show you how 08:11 you would TREAT a person who has an acute heart attack. 08:16 Of course, the first thing they're going to experience 08:18 is that of pain. 08:20 And so, Melissa, I see you've got a friend here who will 08:24 doubtless help you show that. 08:29 Okay, this is Shannon Jenkins who is a friend of Melissa's 08:34 and she is the fresh heart attack victim. 08:38 So I see you've got her feet in hot water... 08:41 That's right... Yeah, pretty hot. 08:46 Okay, you're going to want to put an ice bag on the chest 08:50 and I just have ice inside of a bag... a ziplock bag 08:55 and I put it inside of another ziplock bag and then 08:58 zipped the other bag just to avoid leakage. 09:00 And then wrap it in a thin towel and put it over the area 09:08 where the heart is. 09:10 You'll want to have an assistant to help you hold the bag 09:12 on her chest... I'm going to have Shannon hold this... 09:15 And while they're holding that, you're going to want to 09:17 put her feet into some hot water to keep the patient 09:20 warm while she's got the ice bag on her chest and 09:24 to loosen up her muscles so that they won't spasm as much. 09:27 And have some hot water ready so that you can keep it 09:30 warm... not necessarily hot, but nice and warm 09:33 and so have some hot water ready so that you can 09:35 keep her feet warm. 09:36 And this is just to do while you're waiting 09:39 for a doctor to come, or until you can transport the patient 09:42 to the hospital... 09:43 So it's definitely first aid but it CAN be effective 09:48 We had a patient one time, who was sort of a grounds keeper 09:52 for an estate that was near Uchee Pines 09:56 So he got a heart attack one morning rather early 09:59 So he came to Uchee Pines to get help. 10:03 He knew that we had physicians there and even though 10:05 he had never been a patient there before, 10:07 he drove over there in his car and asked if we could help him. 10:10 So, we had some arrangements we had to make 10:14 Usually we don't accept acutely ill patients... 10:18 and certainly not heart attack victims 10:20 And so, we had him to put his feet in the hot water, 10:23 and put the ice pack to his chest... 10:25 And within about 20 minutes, he told us that, 10:29 very definitely, he was feeling better. 10:31 And then we were able to transport a more comfortable 10:34 patient to his doctor in his hospital where he got his 10:41 definitive care for his heart attack. 10:42 So we were able to give him first aid for that. 10:46 So it's a very nice treatment. 10:47 Of course physicians will often use morphine for heart attacks 10:53 which is a very good treatment to relieve the pain. 10:57 But if you have no morphine and you're in a field situation 11:00 or the patient is allergic to morphine, 11:03 then this is a nice first aid that you can do for that. 11:06 All right, thank you very much, I appreciate that. 11:10 Now in addition to these first aid things... 11:16 which you hope you will never have to deal with, 11:18 because you hope that you will never have a heart attack. 11:21 But in addition to these first aid things, 11:23 there are some things in diet that you can do 11:26 that are MOST important and that will go a LONG way 11:30 toward making it so that you will not get a heart attack. 11:33 And I have asked one of our staff members at Uchee Pines, 11:38 a lifestyle counselor, to show us some of those things 11:42 having to do with foods. 11:44 And, as you would expect, the kind of foods that we would be 11:48 dealing with are those kinds of foods that can be protective 11:52 and nourishing and healing for the heart. 11:55 And so I'm very happy to see that... oh this looks so GOOD! 11:59 Did you make this? 12:02 Yes I did, Dr. Agatha. 12:04 Lidia Seda is quite skilled with foods and she has 12:08 traveled with me a good bit and done foods all over 12:11 So, tell us about what you have here. 12:13 Well what I have here is called a Waldorf salad 12:17 and it's basically a fruit salad. 12:19 Fruits are just very valuable in preventing 12:23 any type of heart disease. 12:25 Now usually, you would have this type of meal 12:28 in the morning for breakfast. 12:31 Now what's wonderful about having this type of meal for 12:34 breakfast is that they have found having breakfast 12:38 in the morning will cut the risk of heart disease. 12:41 It has been found that individuals who do have 12:44 breakfast, cut their risk by at least 40%. 12:49 And it has to do with the fact that the blood doesn't 12:52 clump or aggregate... which is one of the reasons why 12:56 one may have a heart attack. 12:58 So having a good breakfast, Dr. Thrash, is a good start 13:01 in cutting your risk of heart disease. 13:03 Yes it is, and looking at something as nice as 13:07 your Waldorf salad here, makes me all more 13:11 interested in breakfast. 13:13 Of course breakfast is my hardiest meal of the day 13:16 and I enjoy it and I think with this kind of dish, 13:20 I could enjoy it even MORE! 13:22 Oh... that is SO nice. 13:24 I see raisins, and walnuts... and raisins and walnuts are 13:30 both good for the heart... and bananas. 13:33 Well, Dr. Agatha, why don't we just give the recipe 13:36 for all those that may be interested in learning 13:38 how to make a Waldorf salad. 13:41 Well basically, what you will need is: 13:57 Along with this Waldorf salad, is also an almond cream. 14:02 And almonds, or nuts in general, have been found to help 14:06 reduce the risk of heart disease. 14:09 Now to make that, you will need the following ingredients: 14:20 And what they have found in individuals who consume nuts, 14:23 is those that consume nuts less than once per week, 14:29 do NOT have the same results as those individuals 14:32 who consume nuts... let's say 1 to 4 times a week 14:35 They will reduce their risk of heart disease by 25%. 14:40 Now those individuals who have nuts 5 times a week or more, 14:44 will reduce their risk of heart disease by 50%. 14:47 So, Dr. Agatha Thrash, just by making this one little recipe 14:51 you can be saving yourself a lot heart ACHES... 14:55 I tell you what I'm going to do, Lidia... 14:58 In the morning, I'm coming over to your house for breakfast 15:01 because I want some of that almond cream threaded over this 15:04 pretty generously... 15:06 And... this is mine, you have some more for yourself? 15:10 We can make some more Dr. Agatha... Very good. 15:13 Well, I appreciate that very much. 15:17 It's a fact that the things that the Lord has made for us 15:21 so that we can be HEALTHY are DELICIOUS things and 15:25 so common. 15:26 Everywhere you can find bananas and apples and walnuts. 15:30 Walnuts are very good for us and very good for the heart. 15:34 And, of course, there are other nuts that are very good... 15:36 Almonds... Almonds are queen of the nuts! 15:39 And that's in the almond cream that goes over it. 15:42 Now, we don't want to eat too many nuts because they are rich 15:45 and they do require a good bit of digestive effort on our part. 15:49 Now with this background, I would like for Dr. Horsley to 15:53 join me again and we will talk about some of the diseases 15:59 and just what we can do in the way of protecting ourselves 16:04 and how we can recognize these things... Dr. Horsley 16:06 I found it so interesting what Lidia was saying about nuts 16:10 reducing heart disease and I thought... 16:12 There's one other little thing.. before we get into the diseases, 16:16 that has a significant impact on heart disease... 16:19 on the biggest killer which is coronary artery disease. 16:22 Here it is... 16:25 They did a study and they found that men that 16:27 drank more than 5 cups of water a day, 16:29 had 54% LESS coronary deaths compared to those who 16:35 drank 2 or less cups of water a day. 16:37 Okay now... 5 cups a day reduces your risk of a 16:40 heart attack by 54%... 16:42 Compared with those that drank 2 or less cups per day. 16:46 It's amazing... So just drinking more water is cutting 16:49 your risk WAY down... less than half. 16:51 Yes, you know we also know the same thing about strokes! 16:54 That strokes also go down, as water consumption goes up. 16:58 And that's important for us to know. 17:01 It's one of the most excellent anticoagulants. 17:05 Something that keeps the blood just flowing well is 17:07 water that it's mainly made of. 17:09 It keeps the platelets dispersed so that they don't 17:12 hit each other and clump together and start a little clot 17:16 for you anywhere in your blood vessel system. 17:20 And another thing is, if you're on a long trip and you 17:25 are drinking water, it also helps you to know that you 17:29 need to stop you car and get out and walk around a little 17:33 at rest stops... That special room that one has to go to 17:36 Yes... Actually, we need that exercise in our legs. 17:38 We need the exercise. 17:39 And on transoceanic flights, it's very important that people 17:44 drink a lot of water... 17:45 Two reasons, one to thin out the blood, 17:47 and the second reason, because they do need to get up 17:51 and move around to go to the restroom occasionally. 17:53 Yes, were you telling us earlier that there were actually 17:55 several cases recently of mishap, heart attacks or 18:01 death, was it... that had happened? Yes, death. 18:03 That had happened... strokes. 18:05 In fact, it's now called "coach class strokes" 18:09 That's the name of it, "coach class strokes" 18:11 because people are in a small place, 18:14 sitting immobile with the seats, of course, 18:18 making that pressure on the thighs which causes stasis 18:23 of the blood in the lower extremities and 18:25 encourages clotting. 18:27 And so, toward the end of the flight, or even after 18:30 the next day or so, after the flight, 18:32 they dislodge one of these clots and it either goes to the 18:35 lungs or some other vital organ and causes 18:39 a real problem... can cause death even. 18:42 And right after the French published 3 cases, 18:45 the Germans published 3 more cases... 18:47 And then there was another study, I don't remember where 18:49 it came from, that had a whole series of coach class strokes. 18:54 So now, some airliners are actually showing on their screen 19:01 "tense your muscles and relax them. " 19:04 Another thing that's good to do is to 19:06 lift the hands up over the head. 19:07 Sometimes you can't do much with your legs, but you can 19:11 lift your hands up over your head and take a big breath 19:14 and that's very helpful. 19:17 You know what you can always do... isometric exercises 19:20 for the legs... Yes, isometrics are very good. 19:22 You can just sit there and tense your legs and relax them 19:25 and move your feet and push them down and back. 19:29 You know, sometimes I even take with me, if I've got a very long 19:32 flight, I'll take with me one of these little hand grippers 19:35 and then I just work out with them... you know, 19:38 as you press them together... 19:40 Pretty soon, you get to thinking, 19:43 "Well, you know, I need to take a real big breath. " 19:45 So you take a big breath and so it reduces the 19:50 deoxygenation of your blood. 19:52 It gets that blood circulating. 19:54 It keeps the blood circulating. 19:55 You know, I think we should spend a little more time 19:59 talking about that basic issue of cholesterol and blockage 20:03 of arteries... Good, would you do that. 20:05 Maybe you might like to draw some pictures for us 20:08 to let us see what these things look like. 20:12 Well, the basic picture which, I think, many people 20:18 are aware of is... 20:19 If we have an artery here, and we'll draw it as an 20:24 open tube... 20:26 What happens is, the first problem of deposits, 20:32 that start plugging the artery, is from cholesterol. 20:37 So we start filling in this tube that should be wide open 20:47 letting the blood just course through it easily. 20:49 This blockage, of course, can keep on increasing and 20:55 you can get to the point where you're blocking the flow so much 21:00 that only half the diameter is left. 21:06 Now, this beginning of the problem... before we get to a 21:11 late stage like this, where a person might be experiencing 21:14 chest pains, what are called "angina. " 21:18 Long before that, it would be of interest to note... 21:21 what is it that starts this deposit of cholesterol? 21:27 And certainly, one big issue and one that has been looked 21:34 at so much over the past years is... 21:37 How much cholesterol is there in the blood? 21:40 What the level is... 21:41 The level of cholesterol... The total cholesterol in the blood. 21:45 Now you mentioned TOTAL cholesterol... 21:47 that indicates that there may be fractions of cholesterol. 21:51 Exactly! And right now would be a good time maybe to 21:54 say what those are. 21:56 And what the total level would be... what a good level is. 22:00 Does everybody have cholesterol, or can some people not have any? 22:04 Well, in talking about the total, let's get down 22:10 one interesting fact. 22:12 It's being found that people that have a cholesterol 22:16 level under 200, have one-third the risk of heart disease 22:21 than those that have one of 240 or more. 22:24 So, that total cholesterol level is very definitely 22:29 an important factor for having this buildup 22:33 and eventually ending up with a heart attack. 22:35 We want that total to be LOW... 22:40 lower is better in general. 22:41 But, we mentioned fractions... 22:44 because nowadays, we can get a much better picture than just 22:48 the total cholesterol. 22:49 The total cholesterol, we could say that it gives a 22:51 fuzzy picture. 22:52 The parts of cholesterol can be classified this way... 22:56 And many labs give precisely these names to them... 23:00 There is a fraction called "HDL" 23:04 which stands for high density lipoprotein. 23:07 Lipo is a root meaning fat. 23:11 But in this case, we're talking specifically about 23:13 fat cholesterol. 23:15 Another one is "LDL" low density lipoprotein 23:18 And there's even very low density lipoprotein 23:21 And in some presentations, they'll get even 23:26 further fractions, but these are the BIG main ones. 23:29 And, as we present this, we should say that the low 23:34 density lipoprotein, the LDL is generally considered the 23:39 DANGER FACTOR... the one that is going to be 23:42 doing the depositing. 23:43 In other words, LDL is the precise unit... the molecule 23:48 that starts STICKING on the side of the artery. 23:53 And NOW even, we're talking about SMALL units of LDL... 23:58 the smaller fractions of the LDL. 24:01 The bigger fractions and the smaller fractions and then, 24:04 of course, under that the VERY low density lipoprotein. Yes... 24:08 One can go considerably further... that's right. 24:11 Now many people, I think are aware, that the HDL 24:15 is what's called the "good cholesterol. " 24:19 This HDL has 2 properties; 24:25 one is that it does NOT tend to stick to the wall... 24:30 which is nice but it has a further and much better quality 24:33 in that it will tend to GO... as it goes in the blood and 24:40 comes near the LDL that's already deposited, 24:43 it can pull it OUT of the deposit and get RID 24:48 of LDL that's already deposited. 24:50 The liver will then handle it when it's taken 24:52 back into the blood. 24:53 What level is a good level of HDL? 24:56 HDL, generally, one would like to have at least 40. 25:03 I think some labs will accept above 35 as good, 25:08 but it really is better to have above 40... 25:10 And if you have one of 50 or better, that's excellent. 25:13 ...60 even better? 25:15 I've seen people with 70s and, I think, 80s... 80s yes 25:19 That makes you very comforted... Yes. 25:24 Should we say something more about diet? 25:27 I think so... I think that we need to understand 25:29 more that each one of these things clarifies a little better 25:33 just how we can go about protecting ourselves. 25:36 So, mention a little more about diet. 25:38 Because this whole issue of cholesterol, is something that 25:44 people are ingesting.. something they're taking into them 25:47 Now there's another expression that's used all the time 25:49 with this and it's the expression "saturated fat" 25:53 I'm just going to write that over here... saturated fat. 26:00 And people think of those... 26:02 I used to think of them as sort of the same thing, 26:06 or very much the same. 26:08 And that's really a misconception. 26:11 Saturated fat is a fat... a regular type of oil or fat. 26:17 Chemically, it's very similar to other fats. 26:21 Cholesterol is VERY DIFFERENT from fat or oil. 26:25 And the REAL problem that starts these deposits 26:31 is the cholesterol. 26:32 It isn't the saturated fat. 26:35 Now the saturated fat, once you have these deposits formed, 26:39 it CAN get entangled in them. 26:41 But since cholesterol is the most basic culprit, 26:46 we should look at what foods have it. 26:50 And when you look at it closely, it's only animal products. 26:55 Only animal products? 26:57 You mean like meat, milk, eggs, and cheese. Absolutely! 27:01 That give us the cholesterol. 27:02 One little word before we leave this and I know we don't have 27:06 much time, but if you would just mention a little bit about 27:09 oxidized cholesterol. 27:11 More recent... there's a whole lot we could say... 27:14 LDL is when it is oxidized... 27:17 It is the actual initiating factor and that is 27:21 cholesterol that we get from the outside 27:24 Cholesterol that we EAT is going to be oxidized and be 27:26 the worse culprit. Um hm! 27:27 Well you know, there's a lot that can be said about 27:32 this but I'm sure that our understanding is a lot better 27:34 than it was before our discussion. 27:37 I learned some things from Dr. Winn and I'm sure 27:40 that you did too. 27:42 Now, heart disease, along with our spiritual diseases is 27:45 not God's intention for us. 27:47 So keep your HEART pure before the Lord and in good health 27:52 so that the Lord can BLESS you give you peace 27:55 and prosperity. |
Revised 2014-12-17