Participants: Don Miller, Agatha Thrash
Series Code: HYTH
Program Code: HYTH000169
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00:01 Welcome to "Help Yourself to Health"
00:04 I'm Agatha Thrash from Uchee Pines Institute, 00:06 a place where we try to help people take more responsibility 00:11 for their own health. 00:12 During this next half-an-hour, 00:15 we'll be talking with you about some things having to do 00:17 with the health and some of the diseases of the genital organs, 00:24 so we hope you will join us for this program. 00:47 Welcome to "Help Yourself to Health" with Dr. Agatha Thrash 00:51 of Uchee Pines Institute 00:53 And now, here's your host Dr. Thrash. 00:59 We can be constantly amazed at the way that God has provided 01:05 for our needs to protect our health. 01:10 It's a very firm doctrine of the Bible that God wants 01:16 us to be in health and that He has made every provision 01:19 for that. 01:20 Just take such things as the air that we breathe and 01:24 the temperature of the air, the sun that comes so freely to us, 01:29 and the plants that are everywhere. 01:33 And many of these have foods that they produce that are ours 01:37 free for the taking, like many of the berries and a lot 01:40 of the nuts. 01:42 And I'd like to talk with you about some of these foods now 01:46 and just what they do. 01:48 I have a review here of some of the plants that are used 01:55 in epilepsy... in the treatment of epilepsy. 01:57 In other countries of the world, 01:59 they are a little bit advanced over us than this country 02:02 in the treatment of epilepsy using plants and 02:05 here is one in the United Kingdom... 02:08 plants that are known for their anticonvulsant activity. 02:14 Let me just read a small paragraph from this report 02:17 that came out in the medical journal called, "Seizure" 02:21 in the year 2000. 02:24 It was in the month of September if anyone wants to take a look 02:28 at this article. 02:29 "Many plants are known for their anticonvulsant activity. 02:33 Various phytochemicals... now a phytochemical is simply a 02:38 nutrient or a chemical or sometimes a medicine 02:42 that comes from a plant... "phyto" means plant. 02:45 So, these are plant chemicals, and pharmacologic studies... 02:49 phytochemical and pharmacologic studies have been carried out 02:52 on these anticonvulsant plants. 02:56 In fact, a review article was previously published with regard 02:59 to plants with anticonvulsant activity. " 03:03 Thus, the aim of this particular group of researchers 03:07 was to review all of this and to add the benefits of their 03:11 research as well. 03:13 Now what they found was that people with epilepsy 03:17 could be benefited by taking a diet high in those foods 03:21 having an anticonvulsant activity. 03:24 Well, that's very interesting and very helpful to know. 03:28 Very helpful for people who have epilepsy. 03:31 We had one patient at Uchee Pines who, after he changed 03:36 to simply a totally vegetarian diet, went for a whole year 03:40 without a seizure, whereas he had been having about 03:44 one seizure per week. 03:46 Then he had another seizure and it was discovered that he 03:49 had eaten something that he was sensitive to that 03:52 made him have another seizure. 03:54 I wish I could say that all people with epilepsy 03:57 would respond just as nicely. 03:59 But we can't say that, not all people will and, in fact, 04:02 in the study that I was just telling you about, 04:05 not all of the patients responded to the plant-based 04:09 diet and those plants that are known to have anticonvulsant 04:12 activity. 04:13 Then, here is some work on plants that have an 04:20 antiviral effect. 04:23 The elderberries... 04:24 Elderberry plant grows in sort of marshy areas in many places 04:29 of the United States and these berries have an antiviral effect 04:35 So a person about to take a cold can take some of these berries 04:40 and it's a very great help to them. 04:42 These same berries have an insulin-like effect and so 04:47 it's been found that people who have diabetes will respond 04:51 nicely to the elderberries. 04:54 Then, here's a report about people having a reduction in 04:59 cholesterol by having plants or plant foods that are high 05:05 in the plant sterols. 05:08 "Sterols," now that's a word that's very similar to 05:10 some words which we are familiar having to do with 05:14 hormones, like estrogen. 05:16 The "strogen" part is really a little take-off on sterol 05:22 or steroidal substances. 05:24 Of course we know that steroids come from the adrenal gland 05:29 as well. 05:30 And then the testes also produce testosterone and the 05:34 sterone part is part of the sterols. 05:37 So, there are many plants that have sterols in them... 05:40 common plants, like apples and tomatoes and cherries and beans 05:45 especially soybeans, and all the nuts and all the whole grains. 05:50 They all have the plant sterols and they have a very protective 05:54 effect for us against the overproduction of such hormones 05:59 as testosterone and estrogens in the human body. 06:04 So these plants protect us against the over-stimulatory 06:08 effect of some of these. 06:10 And then, of course, certain vegetable proteins 06:14 and certain fibers help to lower the blood cholesterol. 06:19 Very interesting things having to do with plants and their 06:24 specific effects... 06:26 Effects that were there from the very beginning of 06:31 the life of these plants... when the Lord made them back 06:35 before the Garden of Eden... when He made them in the 06:39 first week of Creation. 06:42 At that time, He put these chemicals in there... 06:45 these phytochemicals in these plants so that they could be 06:49 a great help to us. 06:51 Now here is a report on "ginkgo biloba" 06:55 This is a plant that comes from a tree... a leaf that comes 06:59 from a tree and the ginkgo biloba has been used in 07:04 the treatment of memory... 07:05 and many reports will show that it's good for the memory... 07:09 an occasional report will show that it had no effect on 07:13 the memory... but I think we should pay attention to those 07:17 great majority of reports that do show that ginkgo biloba 07:22 has a good effect on the memory. 07:24 In fact, people that I have talked with recognize 07:28 that it has helped them... 07:29 And, I look at it this way, 07:31 if it's a placebo effect and it helps them... fine. 07:35 The placebo effect is one thing that God has given us... 07:38 It's not something that we generate ourselves, 07:40 and so, if it helps us by placebo effect, 07:43 I'm very happy with that, if it's a help, it's a help. 07:46 But this one showed that ringing in the ears, 07:49 in 4 of the 5 reports that are summarized here in this article, 07:55 they showed that ringing in the ears was helped by ginkgo biloba 07:59 Sometimes people will not use a great enough quantity 08:03 to make it helpful. 08:06 But, if we use enough and not too much, 08:09 then we can be helped by the ginkgo biloba. 08:13 Now, we know that there are certain plant chemicals 08:16 that can help various... of our genital organs such as 08:20 the breasts, the ovaries, the prostate, the uterus and 08:26 those organs that have to do with reproduction. 08:29 And I have asked Dr. Winn Horsley, who is 08:32 one of my colleagues at Uchee Pines, if he would assist me 08:35 in talking some about these things having to do with 08:39 women's disorders, like fibroids and menopause. 08:45 What would you like to tell us about that would be helpful 08:48 to our listeners about these problems. 08:52 Well, you've already given a number of the foods that I 08:56 even had on my list here regarding that. 09:00 This is quite an interesting topic, and I believe even the 09:06 approach at Uchee Pines has changed in the past years. 09:09 Now, what one could say is that these phytosterols 09:14 that are acting as a gentle hormone... 09:17 In the case of menopause, you're getting a gentle female hormone 09:24 effect, so that when the hormones from the ovaries 09:28 for instance, have basically shut down, then you're still 09:31 getting a little bit of gentle hormonal stimulation. 09:35 And so it's clear there, why the person would feel better. 09:39 There would not be an abrupt change in the hormonal 09:41 pattern... not so abrupt a change. 09:45 But, here's another situation, a woman who has fibroids 09:51 in the uterus which are definitely affected by the level 09:56 of female hormones in the blood, or for that matter, 09:59 breast cancer... which often, they nowadays check the 10:02 sensitivity even to estrogens and progesterone... 10:06 Many of them are sensitive to those levels. 10:08 Well, one used to think that then those foods that have those 10:15 phytosterols, we should avoid them completely because... 10:18 Yes... that was our thought in the beginning... That's right. 10:20 And then, it became clear, gradually, that in fact, 10:25 if you have those phytosterols, they block the heavy stimulation 10:29 that occurs from one's own strong hormones... 10:35 and so you get a tremendous benefit by having those. 10:37 It's quite the opposite of what one might've thought originally 10:40 And while we can say that the strength of the stimulus of 10:45 these native hormones is strong, the plant sterols are also 10:52 effective and they can affect us in a way that we can alter 10:58 the menopausal syndrome symptoms. 11:03 I remember reading about a case that perhaps you... 11:07 someone at Uchee Pines did a nutrition for vegetarians with 11:09 an older woman where it actually brought about 11:12 a hormonal effect in her. 11:16 Yes, that was Dr. Calvin Thrash who did that experiment. 11:19 The woman came with some problem. 11:24 I don't remember what her basic problem was but... 11:26 She also had not had a menstrual period for 4 years. 11:33 And so he was wondering if it would be possible to reduce the 11:38 plant sterols in her diet and induce her to have a little 11:44 bleeding of menstrual type. 11:47 Because the thing that causes the monthly bleeding is a fall 11:51 in the female hormones. 11:53 So he thought... he reasoned if he could remove all the plant 11:57 sterols, maybe she would have a little bleeding. 12:00 So, he did just that. 12:02 I remember the struggle that we had to eliminate all the 12:06 foods that had plant sterols in them... they are so 12:09 abundant in so many foods... so many plant foods and still we 12:15 didn't want to go to a meat based diet for her and 12:18 milk-based diet. 12:19 So we fashioned a diet for her and we had a cutoff date... 12:25 And, sure enough, 4 days later, she had a tiny little 12:29 menstrual bleeding... Interesting 12:31 She was a very good guinea pig for that. 12:35 That was our first try on that. 12:39 I wanted to mention, there are some that actually are quite 12:45 concentrated in the amount of phytosterols that there are. 12:52 In this little list that I made just a couple of days ago, 12:56 it had some of the fruits that you mentioned... apples, 13:01 cherries, and then other foods, olives, and so on... 13:06 But the one that, in the list of foods, that had the largest 13:12 number of milligrams per, say 100 grams, was... 13:18 if you set aside ones that are just very rare, bizarre things 13:23 like chestnut oil and so on... that kind of thing. 13:27 The one that really was at the top, I would say, is sesames 13:31 and sesame oil which is a large constituent of sesame seeds... 13:36 So, that was one... was sesame seeds. 13:42 I don't think most people use sesame oil alone directly, 13:47 but if you use tahini, which is a very popular product, 13:49 a large percentage of tahini is the oil. 13:52 That's sesame butter... That's sesame butter, so 13:55 in that, you are getting possibly the most concentrated 13:59 form of the phytosterols of all the more common foods. 14:03 So, since our postulate is that taking these phytosterols 14:09 will protect you against prostate cancer or breast cancer 14:13 then it would be good for us to encourage people to take 14:17 these foods. 14:18 I think so... I agree. 14:20 And besides that, they're good foods... Oh, they are 14:25 I have one objection for myself about tahini butter 14:27 I can't help but think that my reaction to tahini, 14:31 the sesame butter... where I get pimples in my nose and so on 14:36 that either that particular oil has an awfully much stronger 14:42 effect than other oils on me, 14:43 OR, there actually is enough of those phytosterols to be 14:45 producing like an adolescent reaction. 14:48 Acne-type products... That's right. 14:49 That's interesting. 14:50 A second one down among very common foods... 14:54 In fact, perhaps right up at the top of common foods in the world 14:58 although we don't eat so much rice, the Orientals eat 15:01 tremendous amounts and rice bran is very high 15:05 in phytosterols. 15:07 You know, that reminds me that certainly in the Orient, 15:10 you will find rice and sesame seed in a preparation. 15:16 And, almost every table in the Orient will be... 15:21 ...in restaurants at least, and in the private homes where 15:24 I have visited, they have these little sesame seed mills 15:27 that you just hold it over your foods sort of like a peppermill 15:31 and grind out the sesame seed at whatever... you can 15:36 put them out whole, dispense them whole, 15:38 or you can put them out ground 15:40 And just do that over your rice or do that over your 15:43 stir fries and you'll get sesame seed there. 15:47 You know, looking at this, just in the last few days 15:52 has made me re-think this issue of Japanese women 15:56 You've heard about this, 15:58 that apparently in the Japanese language, 15:59 there's not even a word for menopause... 16:01 And that they have so little of any particular change 16:06 at that... what we call change of life 16:10 And you know, dramatic thing... all kinds of magazine articles 16:12 about it. 16:14 I and I think many people have attributed that to their use of 16:18 tofu or soy products... 16:20 And there is no question that that has some effect. 16:22 But I think that there is more than just soy that's 16:24 part of that because of their use of sesame and of rice. 16:29 Yes. Well certainly rice is an excellent food too. 16:32 It has a good quality protein. 16:35 It doesn't have a lot... 16:36 I think about 2.5 or 3 or maybe 4 grams/100 grams of rice... 16:42 But the quality is SO good that if you get almost any other kind 16:47 of food in your diet, you're going to get a good quality 16:50 protein with rice in the diet. 16:52 Now you were telling me a little earlier that, concerning the 16:57 prostate, there are some exercises that a man can do 17:02 that can help with the prostate. 17:05 Yes, I think we should call on Don Miller to give us a little 17:12 demonstration of some of the things. 17:14 Prostate congestion really probably is a big problem. 17:19 Maybe it's a background, I'm not sure that enough research 17:22 has been done on this. 17:24 One thing that has been noted and commented on... 17:28 A missionary doctor to India, Paul Brand, a neurosurgeon, 17:32 noted that domestic dogs have often quite a bit of prostate 17:41 trouble and apparently difficulty with urination; 17:44 whereas, when you look at wild dogs, no trouble at all. 17:46 Well the thing about domestic animals, we of course require 17:48 them to not dirty the floor. 17:51 Whereas, an animal out in the wild goes when it wants. 17:54 Which makes one think we should be a little more quick 17:58 in responding to those urges. 17:59 So, if we used the muscles down in the pelvic region, 18:05 contraction and relaxation of those to help with blood flow 18:12 we may be helping those pelvic organs quite a lot. 18:15 And so there are some very simple exercises that have been 18:18 designed specifically for this. 18:20 And I wonder... Don.. 18:21 Don Miller, come right over here and let's see what exercises 18:24 these are. 18:35 I have the outline of a few of them. 18:36 One of them is on all 4's... going down on all 4's 18:40 then one alternately lifts one leg first, like this 18:46 and then lets it down. 18:47 Now when a person does this, 18:49 raise the right one now, Don... 18:50 You're using the buttock muscles to extend the hip, to get the 18:55 leg to go out straight. 18:57 Let it down. 18:58 Okay, alternating like that back and forth is working 19:05 those muscles around the pelvic rim. 19:09 In our book here, it actually talks about if a person is 19:12 having difficulty with urination... 19:14 having a tap running... just that somehow, it has an effect 19:20 in helping a person when they finish, a few times of doing 19:22 this, they'll have an easier urination. 19:25 You know, as I am watching this, I think that women could 19:28 benefit from this as well... I wouldn't doubt it. 19:31 To strengthen the pelvic muscles and to encourage 19:34 circulation there so that they would have less painful 19:37 menstruation. 19:38 Good! Don. 19:40 Now the next one is a simple enough looking thing but I 19:44 don't think it's easy for balance... 19:45 So why don't you stand and show us this one and 19:48 grab me if you need to. 19:49 In this one, you lift one leg and you do some swings 19:54 or circles with the foot and the whole leg on the one side. 19:59 Now this requires quite a bit of exertion in these proximal hip 20:04 muscles... I think that you're doing worse with me holding you 20:08 Okay... and done for several minutes, just before urinating 20:15 this can help with the urination just afterwards. 20:20 One other one, is a curious one. 20:24 The person sits down on the floor and then he's going to 20:29 lift off the floor, so the buttocks are completely clear 20:32 of the floor and then, he goes over to one side... 20:34 He is letting the right buttock touch and then the left 20:37 and going from side to side like this. 20:41 And that pressure down on the pelvic region, on the buttocks, 20:46 can make a difference in terms of fluid flow, and getting 20:52 that whole region to have the circulation going more easily. 20:59 All of these may be a help with this issue of congestion 21:04 in pelvic organs... So thank you very much. 21:07 Yes. Well, I appreciate that and certainly in today's society 21:13 where we have men who do not exercise a lot... 21:17 They are likely to get congestion in the pelvis 21:21 and I can see how these exercises would massage 21:24 the prostate and strengthen the muscles there so that the 21:29 muscles can assist in urination. 21:33 And urination problems are a big symptom. 21:36 Oh, you know, I don't want to say 100% but I would guess 21:41 it's 80% or more of men at some point... as they get to 21:46 and past 60, it becomes an issue... 21:50 Perhaps we should say something about some more of the 21:53 phytochemicals with respect to prostate enlargement... 21:56 Very good... I wish we would because men need to understand 22:00 that we are not powerless against disease. 22:04 There are many things that God has given to us, 22:06 even in this very sinful world that can be helpful. 22:10 So what would you like to tell us? 22:12 Well, you know, there are drugs that are used for this. 22:16 Unfortunately, the drugs, as is almost always the case, 22:20 the drugs will have side effects. 22:23 And since these are drugs affecting an organ that is 22:27 closely connected with reproduction... 22:29 you know there are going to be hormonal side effects and 22:33 side effects in connection with urination and so on. 22:37 They are really undesirable and often there might even be 22:39 other ones like high blood pressure. 22:41 Well, many people have already heard about one of these 22:46 plant products and here I don't think we need to talk about 22:48 phytochemicals. 22:49 The whole herb is well-known. 22:51 It's saw palmetto... 22:54 Saw palmetto grew near my home town in 22:58 Baxley, Georgia where I grew up. 23:00 The word, I think, came from Spanish originally. 23:03 Palmetto means a little palm tree. 23:05 It is a little palm. 23:07 It grows from about this high to 23:09 as high as my head and a little over. 23:10 I've never seen the plant, I'd like to see it sometime. 23:11 Oh, it's beautiful... it has a beautiful flower and then 23:15 the berries form and they are not very nice-tasting berries. 23:18 And I think it is the berries that are used... That's right. 23:22 But the heart of the palm which is right down near the root, is 23:25 delicious... Oh 23:26 High protein and it also is high in plant sterols. 23:30 Saw palmetto would be a first one to mention for this 23:35 difficulty in urination. 23:36 By the way, the symptom that we are talking about with 23:38 prostate enlargement is difficulty initiating that 23:42 stream of urination. 23:43 That's perhaps the most prominent symptom, 23:46 and often called "hesitancy. " 23:47 And then, if that's gets strong enough... 23:51 if that is bad enough, it can be difficult to get urine 23:54 coming at all, and they might have to put in a catheter. 23:59 Other problems can follow that. 24:02 You've got the urine building up and urinary infection and so on. 24:06 There are a number of other symptoms. 24:07 Well, we should mention another plant that really does 24:11 help with this. 24:12 I believe this one is from Africa. 24:14 It's "Pygeum"... I've heard some people pronounce it "piegeum" 24:21 Pygeum, if we want to give a dose... I have one here of 24:26 50 mg twice a day. 24:28 You buy that as a pill or a capsule? 24:31 I've seen it usually in capsules 24:33 I don't know what others think 24:36 but I'm not happy with telling people to use whole capsules 24:40 because of the fact that 90% or more of them 24:42 are made from animal gelatin. 24:44 ...that hasn't been clarified as to its safety.. Yes 24:48 So it's a little bit iffy now. 24:51 If a person can just tolerate dumping the contents 24:54 of the capsule out into something and then taking it 24:57 There are others that have been shown to be of some help. 25:02 I know of "nettles. " 25:05 Nettles do help and so those kind of things are often 25:11 sold in a mixture for men's health. 25:18 I have here a rather long list of various herbal and 25:26 other products that are put together for prostate 25:30 hypertrophy problems. 25:32 There's even an amino acid that is said to give some help. 25:36 You know, if all else fails, does a man sometimes 25:41 have to get an operation for the prostate? 25:44 Well, at times it may be necessary... 25:48 And I certainly wouldn't say that it's never needed. 25:53 There might be some complications of surgery... 25:57 What are those? 25:59 Well, one of the big ones is that in trying to shave out... 26:06 carve out from the inside when you do what's called a 26:09 transurethral resection, 26:11 then you can come too near one of the sphincter muscles that 26:17 hold the urine and, therefore, a person can have incontinence. 26:21 And so, of course, that's a very bothersome problem. 26:24 And then sometimes marital relations can be difficult after 26:29 or impossible after certain types of prostate surgery... 26:33 I don't know whether the one that does the paring or 26:37 the reaming out... I don't know whether that one is associated 26:40 I think probably the most would be with the abdominal, 26:44 or even the ones where they do an open approach 26:47 through skin where they may easily transect 26:50 one of the nerves to the reproductive organs. 26:54 Well, we have just a couple of seconds left. 26:57 Do you have anything special that you would like to... 27:00 more that you would like to add. 27:02 I am just so impressed by this whole topic of phytochemicals 27:10 and the fact that God designed them... 27:13 and that when we think we know all about foods, 27:17 that shows how ignorant we are. 27:19 That's for sure... because I can remember very well 27:21 when physicians everywhere were saying foods have nothing 27:28 to do with cancer. 27:29 They have no influence on cancer... 27:32 Of course, no physician who has been trained in the last 27:35 20 years perhaps, would ever say such a thing... 27:38 because foods now, we are very well aware have a lot to do 27:43 with cancer and with many other things. 27:45 We can just take the list of phytochemicals and make a 27:49 designed diet for people with various diseases. 27:52 We can thank our 27:53 loving, Heavenly Father for that. |
Revised 2014-12-17