Participants: Don Miller, Agatha Thrash
Series Code: HYTH
Program Code: HYTH000183
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00:01 Hello, my name is Agatha Thrash.
00:03 I'm on the medical staff of Uchee Pines Institute. 00:07 We have a program for you of gastrointestinal problems, 00:12 and anything that involves the mouth, down all the way 00:16 through the intestinal tract... we might be talking about it. 00:19 So we hope that you will join us 00:20 and I think you'll enjoy our program. 00:43 Welcome to "Help Yourself to Health" 00:46 with Dr. Agatha Thrash, of Uchee Pines Institute 00:49 And now, here's your host, Dr. Thrash 00:54 If someone said to you, "I have an ulcer"... 00:57 You would probably think "peptic ulcer," wouldn't you? 01:01 Now that's strange because most of the time 01:04 when people have an ulcer, it isn't an ulcer of the stomach 01:08 It's an ulcer of the skin... 01:10 but when we say, "I have an ulcer," 01:12 this is such a serious affliction, that most of the 01:15 time, people understand that you mean you've got a 01:18 peptic ulcer in the stomach, or in the esophagus, 01:21 or in the duodenum, or even in the jejunum 01:24 But most of the time, it's in the stomach, or the duodenum 01:29 Now peptic ulcers are so-called because the pepsin 01:34 in the stomach has somehow gotten so that it has 01:38 reached the very tissue of the stomach itself 01:44 and has actually eroded the tissue itself. 01:48 Pepsin is a very powerful digestant... 01:51 and can digest the stomach itself if it actually touches it 01:54 ...And so, for that reason, there is usually a very 01:57 nice layer of mucous all along the lining 02:03 of the intestinal tract from the esophagus 02:07 all the way down through to the anus. 02:09 Now because of that, the powerful digestants 02:13 which we produce, cannot actually get at the lining 02:19 and digest the lining, so that it makes an ulcer for us. 02:24 So what would cause an ulcer to develop? 02:27 Well one of the important things is a GERM. 02:31 A germ called "Helicobacter pylori" 02:34 This germ has been around for a long time 02:37 and yet, we did not know that it afflicted the stomach 02:42 in this way until just the last very few years. 02:45 When I was in medical school, there was one thing 02:48 that we knew for sure about peptic ulcers... 02:50 and that was that it was NOT an infection. 02:53 We knew that it was caused by the pepsin, the peptic digestion 02:59 And so, we called it a "peptic ulcer" 03:02 That's how it got its name. 03:03 And interestingly enough, we continue to act on that 03:10 premise and we treated people for all sorts of things 03:12 having to do with too much acid, too much pepsin, 03:16 too much motility of the stomach, 03:18 too much hyperactivity of the individual... 03:21 a lot of stress... 03:22 We gave them tranquilizers... 03:24 We went in and cut the nerves... 03:26 We did all sorts of things to people to try to 03:29 treat peptic ulcers, and we knew that our treatment 03:32 was not successful, but we didn't understand 03:35 that the reason it was not successful... was because 03:37 it was caused by a germ, and we should attack the GERM 03:41 and not the nerves, or the acid, or the pepsin, or whatever. 03:45 In recent years, we've learned how to treat the people with 03:50 peptic ulcers by attacking the germ itself. 03:54 Now, can you do that with natural remedies? 03:57 Yes, as a matter of fact, I believe that the natural 04:00 remedies are actually more effective than the antibiotics 04:03 that are given for this. 04:04 We have people come to us frequently... who have been 04:08 treated with antibiotics for their peptic ulcers... 04:10 their Helicobacter, and they have not had a success... 04:15 And they come to us and we give them very simple things 04:17 that we treat with... the goldenseal, echinacea, 04:22 the myrrh, the garlic, the grapefruit seed extract, 04:27 and with these things, treatment for a month, 04:31 which is about the standard treatment 04:32 using any kind of treatment... 04:34 we treat them for about a month and most of the time, 04:38 they are completely free of symptoms. 04:40 Even though they may have had the symptoms 04:43 for years and years, they are completely free of symptoms 04:47 usually in about a month. 04:48 And, so we feel very good about the treatment of peptic ulcers 04:53 using these very simple things. 04:57 Of course, at the same time that we tell a person 05:00 about the treatment for peptic ulcer using these herbal things, 05:04 we also tell them how to change the lifestyle... 05:06 Because often, a change in lifestyle is needed so that 05:10 they will not become re-infected with the Helicobacter... 05:15 and that is, indeed, quite a possibility. 05:19 So, one of the things that we tell them to do 05:22 is to make certain they get plenty of exercise. 05:25 Now how does a person get GOOD exercise? 05:28 Well the very best quality exercise is purposeful labor. 05:33 Now purposeful labor is something like doing gardening. 05:37 Or, it may be yard work... Or, painting the house 05:42 ...something that requires that you do some vigorous 05:47 physical labor that has a purpose to it. 05:51 Now if you plant a garden, the weeds that are growing up, 05:54 or the vegetables that mature, they're going to be coercive 05:58 to you to get out there and deal with the garden. 06:01 And so, every day, you must go out there and, for an hour or 2, 06:05 you must work in your garden... 06:07 That's VERY GOOD exercise. It's ideal. 06:10 One more thing that can make exercise ideal is 06:13 that of an exercise partner... 06:15 especially if that's a neighbor, a person who comes from 06:19 a little bit of distance to your house, or you go a little 06:23 bit of distance to her house, and there, the 2 of you 06:27 begin some kind of exercise that's hard, physical labor... 06:31 such as clearing an area that has been neglected 06:36 and maybe you make a little park out of an otherwise 06:40 neglected bramble patch. 06:42 That can be very good labor... 06:45 And because it is purposeful, and because you have a 06:48 partner, both of those are coercive, 06:51 and they sort of give you a little shove to get out of 06:55 doors and get moving. 06:57 Now, I have Don Miller with me here today 07:00 and Don Miller is going to talk with you about 07:02 some things having to do with the gastrointestinal tract 07:06 ...and it looks as if you may be prepared to deal with 07:09 any part of the intestinal tract... 07:11 Well, quite a few things, but the one I want to talk about 07:12 right now is a thing called "GERD" 07:14 One in 5 people have it at some time. 07:17 Even I think sometimes I have it... 07:19 You get that little bit of burning in your esophagus. 07:21 That's what GERD stands for... gastroesophageal reflux disorder 07:27 You've got things bubbling up from your stomach 07:29 into your esophagus which can be very, very irritating... 07:32 And can lead to some long-term and very chronic problems. 07:36 It can even lead to esophageal cancer. 07:39 It can lead to a narrowing of the bottom part of your 07:43 esophagus which will make it hard to swallow. 07:45 It just makes life miserable for many people, 07:48 and some people have it all the time. 07:49 Some of the main factors causing GERD 07:53 are obesity... and, we're going to talk about, briefly, 07:57 how we can avoid that particular problem 07:59 ...a lack of exercise, overeating is a main problem 08:03 because we get so much food down there, 08:04 our stomach tries to force the food back up into the 08:09 main part of your stomach to get even the first part 08:11 of digestion begun, and if we're pushing too hard, 08:14 some of that will come back up through the cardiac sphincter 08:17 and start burning the esophagus because it's got digestive 08:22 juices already in there... 08:23 and it's not made to receive digestive juices. 08:26 Also, taking certain drugs like aspirin, is very bad 08:31 actor when we're talking about GERD. 08:35 What can we do about GERD? 08:37 1. We need to stop eating so much food. 08:39 We need to lose weight. 08:41 We need to eat in a relaxed climate... 08:43 And I would recommend to a person, after they get done 08:46 with a meal, get some of the exercise that 08:48 Dr. Agatha Thrash talked about. 08:50 Many people, when they get done with a meal, 08:52 they go into the other room, and they plop down 08:54 and... watch the TV? Or, go to sleep? 08:57 They are so tired from all that eating, 08:59 they just got to get some rest! 09:01 And I teach people a good habit 09:04 I want them to learn when they're eating... 09:07 The habit that we have when we eat... 09:08 is we have our plate of food, we get a nice big spoon 09:11 or a forkful... we put it into our mouth, 09:14 and the next thing that we do, is we dive RIGHT back down 09:17 to the plate of food, and we start carving 09:19 out the next portion. 09:21 Now our eyes are seeing this, and our brain is interpreting 09:23 all this saying... "Look, here comes another one, 09:26 dump what you've got. " 09:27 And so this unchewed food, is now pushed back to the 09:31 tongue, and as that next spoonful comes up, 09:34 you swallow... and that food is NOT ready to enter 09:37 into your stomach, and you take the next spoonful... 09:40 So what do we do? Here's what I recommend... 09:42 you take a spoonful, forkful, knifeful; 09:44 however, you eat a food... chopstickful, 09:47 put it in your mouth and then lay your eating instrument down 09:51 and chew your food. 09:52 Just chew it and relax as you chew your food. 09:55 Don't sit there and chase one bite after another, 09:58 and don't drink with your meals. 10:00 You need to drink about 8 to 10 glasses of water a day. 10:04 This will be very healthy. 10:05 It helps to build up the digestive juices 10:08 but we don't drink the water or any liquids with our meals 10:13 because of the fact that it will dilute the food 10:16 It will dilute our digestive juices, and when it gets diluted 10:20 the body says... "we need more," and it just pumps more 10:23 into the system. 10:24 We should be in a 2-meal plan. 10:26 As a matter of fact, it will sound as a broken record 10:28 as we talk about all of these intestinal tract problems. 10:31 We need to go to a 2-meal a day plan. 10:33 1. It will lessen our instance of obesity. 10:36 2. It will help with the GERD problem. 10:39 We need to prop up the head of our beds. 10:41 This is a very easy one. 10:42 Now, often GERD is precipitated by a thing called 10:46 a hiatal hernia... 10:47 That little cardiac sphincter has become weak, 10:49 and we've got part of even the stomach protruding up 10:52 in to above the stomach wall there at the cardiac sphincter 10:58 So what we need to do, is raise the head of our bed 11:01 usually by something as simple as putting a couple of bricks 11:04 underneath the 2 legs at the head of your bed 11:07 Now we're laying at a little bit of an incline; 11:09 therefore, all night long, gravity is working to keep 11:12 that food going down. 11:14 Another great reason not to go in and lay down on the 11:16 couch after you eat, if you have GERD, 11:17 because you will have some problems from that. 11:19 Aloe vera and slippery elm... 11:23 Take a couple of ounces of aloe vera every day 11:26 Take some slippery elm tea, it comes in a powder 11:28 You mix it with water... it becomes sort of gelatinous 11:32 You swallow that down. It will coat the lining 11:35 and if you do have some GERD, some reflux, 11:37 it's going to keep from burning it so badly, 11:40 and you can slowly start working on 11:43 taking care of that in the future. 11:45 Avoid sphincter-relaxing foods. 11:47 We've got things like... all of your animal products 11:49 especially milk. Citrus is a sphincter-relaxing 11:52 food, tomatoes... coffee is another one, 11:54 Coffee, alcohol... will all relax that sphincter, 11:59 and when that sphincter relaxes, 12:02 food starts coming back up, and that's what we call GERD. 12:06 And so, rather simple... 12:08 but it's a problem if you don't take care of it. 12:10 Yes, it's an extremely important problem because a large 12:13 number of people are now suffering from it. 12:15 And there are some things needing to do with 12:18 eating hygiene and, of course, Don Miller mentioned 12:21 a number of those... 12:22 Being regular in one's habits, that's very good 12:25 Being very careful not to overeat 12:28 Don't drink a lot of water with your meals. 12:30 Never lie down after you've just finished eating 12:34 because that can, of course, encourage more reflux... 12:38 All of these things represent good eating hygiene. 12:41 Now there is a little affliction of the person called "hiccups" 12:46 Are you equipped to tell us how to handle hiccups? 12:51 Hic- hiccups! 12:52 I think everybody, anywhere, has about 15 different ways 12:55 to take care of the hiccups. 12:56 And, the nice thing is, many of them do work! 12:59 As a matter of fact, in one of your books, 13:01 you have a whole section on just hiccups. Yes 13:03 And I don't think you sat down and thought all those things up. 13:06 No, I learned them from a lot of people who told me 13:07 "This is the way I do it" 13:09 That's right... Well, sometimes the way they do it works 13:11 and sometimes it doesn't... 13:13 Different strokes for different folks. 13:15 But what it basically is, is an irritation of the phrenic nerve 13:19 that plays out along the diaphragm... 13:21 Basically, it's only at one side... that one side 13:24 will have a contraction, and when it contracts, 13:26 it forces air up, and then we get that "heh" 13:29 That sound, and in some people, it's a really loud sound 13:32 Some with just a little tinky sound 13:33 But, what ever it is, it's quite irritating 13:36 if it happens for a period of time. 13:37 And so, what can we do about it? 13:39 Again, you've got your own suggestions 13:41 and I'm going to just give you just a very few things 13:43 that you can do... 13:44 1. We feel if we just put some pressure just below the sternum, 13:49 where the breastbone comes together, 13:53 a little bit of pressure there ... that will take it away 13:55 A doctor once tried this, he had a person sit on the 13:58 edge of a chair, came up behind them, and he sort of 14:01 gently pinched the nape of the neck, 14:04 and then went down and did a little massage 14:06 down both sides of the spine with his thumb. 14:08 And that itself... it took that person's away. 14:12 We've heard about scaring a person... 14:14 will take away the hiccups. 14:17 I don't really recommend that, because scaring a person 14:19 is not a nice thing to do. 14:20 You've heard about people drinking water 14:23 on the other side, you know, almost turning yourself 14:25 upside-down... Perhaps pouring the water 14:27 up your nose, which usually happens, takes it away. 14:30 One way I have found, works very, very good... 14:35 Because of the fact that we do have 14:37 the phrenic nerve involvement. 14:39 It comes down from the brain, it plays out in the mouth, 14:42 roof of your mouth, your uvula, goes on down your throat, 14:45 a little bit on your lungs but, basically it ends up down 14:48 on your diaphragm... 14:49 So what you do, when you have the hiccups, 14:51 you go to a mirror, and you take something like the 14:55 other end of your toothbrush, and you look into the mirror, 14:59 and you open your mouth real wide... 15:00 and you look at that little uvula... that little thing 15:02 that hangs down in the back of your throat, 15:04 which I, when I was young, I thought that was my tonsils 15:06 until they took my tonsils out, 15:07 then I wondered they left one in there but that's your uvula 15:10 What you do is, as you're looking at that thing, 15:12 you go back there with your toothbrush, 15:14 and you touch the side of it, and just move it to the side... 15:18 just a little bit... don't keep it back there 15:21 long enough to gag you, but just a little bit. 15:23 What will happen, is the phrenic nerve 15:26 gets so involved with what you're doing with the uvula 15:29 that it forgets to send the signal to cause the contraction 15:33 on your diaphragm and I have seen it STOP 15:36 hiccups in a heartbeat! 15:39 So I like those things! 15:41 Some of them actually are funny! 15:44 And I like to deal with hiccups. 15:47 In a baby, they can get the hiccups for so long, that 15:51 finally they just get frustrated with them and begin to cry 15:54 every time they hic... 15:55 So if you just take your little finger, slip it in on the corner 15:58 of their mouth, reach back and just massage the palate, 16:02 for a minute or so, they won't like that, 16:05 and that's a part of the treatment too 16:07 and usually it will stop their hiccups if you're willing 16:10 to fight with the infant long enough to massage 16:14 the back of the throat... be sure your fingernail is short 16:17 when you're doing this. 16:19 Now, I see that you have here a treatment for nausea 16:24 and an unset stomach... Yes... yes 16:26 You want to tell us about that? 16:27 I firsthand experience with nausea... Firsthand 16:31 Ohh... first everything... First knees because I spent 16:33 2 days on my knees hanging over the side of a boat 16:36 I was stationed in Key West and I had a friend who was a 16:38 fisherman and I thought... "What an easy job, he fishes all day" 16:42 I used to be, in my old life, I used to love to fish, 16:45 and so he let me go out with him for 4 days 16:47 and for 2 days, I never got off my knees. 16:49 I was SO seasick. 16:51 And, I wish I had some of these simple things with me 16:54 at the time. 16:55 One is something as simple as a product called carob. 16:59 I suggest you have some of this around. 17:02 It's an excellent replacement for chocolate. 17:05 You can make all kinds of nice products with carob. 17:09 You could mix it with soymilk, and make carob sauce 17:12 But this is a nice treatment for upset stomach 17:14 What you do is... you take a spoonful of the carob powder 17:19 and you put it in a glass of some sort and then you add 17:24 a little bit of water... 17:26 And what you're looking to make is a little charcoal paste 17:31 ...sort of, oh maybe the consistency of pudding 17:36 I'm going to get it all over the table, but that's all right... 17:38 Because what we're trying to do is get something 17:40 that's going to take care of my upset stomach 17:42 Once you've got your paste made up, 17:45 you take a spoonful of the paste... 17:49 You can see I've got a lump of the paste here 17:51 A nice carob paste... 17:53 Nice carob... it's not unpleasant-tasting. 17:55 Smells good. It is. 17:58 If you took chocolate powder, it would be bitter, 18:02 but this is LOVELY food! 18:04 You put it in your mouth and just suck on it. 18:06 As a matter of fact, make it a little bit drier than this 18:09 ...Put it in your mouth and just spend some time 18:11 holding that in your mouth and slowly sucking on it. 18:14 We've found that this is a very nice way to calm 18:18 the upset stomach. 18:19 All right... if you don't have any carob, what can you do? 18:22 Now I'm going to mention a few things, 18:24 and if you say, "I don't have these things," 18:26 my recommendation is go out and get some of these 18:28 particular products because you are going to want to 18:31 have them around for that time the upset stomach comes. 18:35 Another thing you can do is, use charcoal powder. 18:37 Never take a spoonful and put this in your mouth! 18:41 You mix it with water... into a nice slurry, you drink it down 18:45 That is an EXCELLENT remedy for an upset stomach 18:50 Now, when I used to travel a lot with my daughter 18:53 when she was quite young, I would carry these small cans of 18:57 fruit juice with me, and she invariably would get carsick 19:01 I would pop the top, pour it into another jar, 19:04 I always carried another jar around with me 19:07 ...a little bit larger, 19:08 I'd put a couple of spoonfuls of charcoal powder in... 19:10 I'd put the lid on and I would shake it up. 19:13 If you've ever tried to stir charcoal powder, 19:15 it looks like Mount Vesuvius! 19:17 But if you shake up the bottle, no problem. 19:19 Take a lid off, put a straw in there and my daughter could 19:22 taste the fruit juice coming through. 19:24 Now, quite frankly, I mean, you know... realistically, 19:26 the charcoal will take up, or be bound a little bit 19:29 by the juice, but she was getting enough charcoal 19:32 down into her stomach and it ALWAYS took care of her problem. 19:34 There are other nice things that you can do... 19:36 I carry with me, a little bottle of peppermint oil... 19:41 And if I feel nausea coming on, I do this when I'm in an 19:44 airplane... I'll put a little toothpick in there 19:46 and just put that toothpick in your mouth! 19:48 Peppermint oil has been shown to relieve upset stomach. 19:52 Another thing you can do is use ginger. 19:54 Just some ginger powder, swallow that down 19:57 That's also been shown to relieve nausea. 20:01 And, I knew a woman one time, I believe she was 20:05 inspired by God with some of the things she came up with 20:07 But she was out in a boat, and it was very, very stormy 20:11 and she was very, very seasick, and quite frankly, 20:13 seasickness can cause some very, very large problems. 20:17 And so probably for the one and only time in her life, 20:19 she took a little bit of coffee. 20:21 And that little bit of coffee, 20:23 even took care of her upset stomach... 20:25 So for medicinal uses, once in a RARE period of time, 20:29 we will allow you to have some coffee if you don't have 20:32 anything else, because I'm afraid, one of the things 20:34 about coffee, Dr. Thrash, it's ubiquitous... 20:36 That stuff is everywhere! 20:37 I mean, it's the world's most used psychoactive drug 20:40 So what's out there? 20:41 So I say, when you have an upset stomach, 20:43 and you have nothing else along these lines, 20:45 I'd say try a little bit of coffee... I'm afraid. 20:48 In a similar way, a coke will also be settling to the stomach 20:52 It has a little potassium in it, and it does settle the stomach 20:58 and soothe the irritation, and sometimes 21:01 it will take up, or cause to move out some of those things 21:05 that might be irritating. 21:06 Now with charcoal, you can take the dose, 21:10 and then if you feel inclined, and you vomit the dose, 21:14 that's fine too... because sometimes vomiting 21:17 what is in the stomach, will make it so that the stomach 21:19 ceases to be upset at all. 21:21 Now I'd like to spend a few minutes talking with you about 21:25 gallstones... and I happen to have some from 21:27 my museum here. 21:28 These gallstones came from different individuals. 21:32 Every gallstone here came from a different individual. 21:35 You can see that some of them are different colors from others 21:39 Some are a bit more fragile than others. 21:41 This one is white, and that makes it quite a rare stone 21:46 It's a good gem stone, and I rather like to have 21:50 this kind of stone, but you have to have a special license 21:54 to go prospecting for this kind of stone. 21:58 I have many different gallstones in my collection 22:02 and they are as specific to the person as their fingerprint is. 22:07 They are all unique and, in fact, a person, when they begin 22:12 making gallstones, may make one type, and then as the 22:17 physiology of the gallbladder changes, 22:19 they start making another type. 22:21 Sometimes they are tiny, and black... 22:24 and sometimes they are big and grey. 22:26 Sometimes they are medium size and white. 22:29 The color is specific for the kind of chemistry 22:34 that the person has in the gallbladder and in the liver 22:37 at that particular time. 22:39 Now, what can one do for gallstones? 22:42 Gallstones often come about in those people 22:48 who have some altered metabolism in some way. 22:52 They may be metabolizing fat in a wrong way... 22:56 Or, they may be eating more fat than their particular 23:00 physiologic mechanism can handle. 23:03 And they need to cut down on the free fats, 23:06 and maybe even some of the combined fats, 23:08 such as nuts and beans, and avocado and olives 23:13 ...Any of the fatty foods, that they may be taking, 23:17 they may need to cut down on those... 23:20 so that the mechanism that they have for dealing 23:23 with fats is going to be sufficient to be able to 23:27 handle those fats. 23:29 In addition to that, taking fats with sugar 23:32 ...the 2 things together, fats and sugar 23:35 Some people can tolerate, really, quite large quantities 23:38 and not seem to be harmed; 23:39 whereas, other people can take only a small quantity 23:42 and they get gallstones from it. 23:44 The Alaskan Eskimos are of this kind... 23:47 They took LARGE quantities of fat and had no problem 23:51 with it... They took whale blubber, 23:52 and seal blubber and the fats in the foods, 23:56 the fats in the fish that they ate, these gave their 23:59 diet an enormous amount of fat, and yet, 24:03 they did not have gallstones UNTIL they added sweets to that. 24:07 So when the Alcan Highway went through, 24:10 and along with it came a lot of sugar... 24:12 Adding the sugar to the already high fat diet 24:15 spelled for them a lot of problems. 24:17 It spelled for them gallstones. 24:19 It spelled for them acne... 24:21 carious teeth, hardening of the arteries, 24:24 and many other problems that they had never had before 24:27 the advent of sugar. 24:29 Even though their diet would not be one that we would think 24:32 would be very healthy, or one that is at all well-balanced. 24:38 Now, what can you do if you have gallstones... 24:42 One thing is drink PLENTY of water... 24:43 Because with the water, comes a little better 24:47 physiologic surroundings for the gallbladder, 24:52 and the gallbladder works better. 24:54 So, just the drinking of a lot of water, can in itself, 24:58 be helpful. 25:00 The second thing, if you're at all overweight, 25:02 lose weight. 25:03 Now, how much should a person weigh? 25:05 Well a woman and gallstones are far more common 25:08 in women, than in men... 25:09 That's not to say men don't have them 25:11 but just that the affliction is more common in women. 25:16 And so, for a woman, she can have 100 pounds for her 25:19 first 5 feet; then 5 pounds per 1 inch thereafter. 25:27 So if she is 5 feet 1 inch, she could weight 105 pounds. 25:33 One-hundred pounds for the first 5 feet 25:35 and 5 pounds per inch thereafter. 25:37 For a man, he gets 100 pounds for his first 5 feet, 25:43 and then after that, he gets 6 or 7 pounds per inch 25:48 depending on how muscular he is. 25:50 So if you're over that, then of course, you can start 25:54 losing weight... How do you do that? 25:57 By simple things... such as becoming a total vegetarian 26:01 Only eating breakfast and lunch and not eating 26:05 anything between meals... 26:07 And if you eat ANYTHING at all for supper, it would be 26:10 like a piece of fruit and that will help one. 26:13 Usually with just these very simple measures, 26:16 it will help a person to lose weight. 26:18 If more is needed than that, then one can eliminate 26:21 all free fats such as margarine, mayonnaise, fried foods, 26:25 cooking fats, salad oils and even nut butters 26:28 until the time comes when the person has lost 26:31 weight sufficiently that they say they are now normal weight. 26:34 Now in addition to those things, adopting an ALL vegetarian diet 26:40 is the most favorable for gallstones. 26:43 Now here you have a gallbladder filled with stones... 26:47 Should you have your gallbladder operated on? 26:49 Well a lot of people say, "No, just keep your gallbladder 26:53 full of its stones. " 26:54 I'm one of those... I think that we will do better 26:57 if we just keep the stones, rather than 26:59 having them operated on. 27:00 Some people say, "But, if you keep the stones, 27:03 you're more likely to get cancer of the gallbladder" 27:05 Yes, cancer of the gallbladder is rare and the fatal 27:13 operations for gallbladder are also rare. 27:17 So both of these are rare conditions 27:20 but one is about like the other... 27:22 So I would say that your chances of dying of the surgery 27:27 are about like your chances of getting the cancer of the 27:33 gallbladder... So I would take my chance 27:36 with the cancer of the gallbladder... 27:37 and I think that you would be unlikely to get the cancer 27:42 of the gallbladder. 27:43 Now I hope that these things that we have talked 27:46 with you about the gastrointestinal tract 27:49 will help you to know what an important organ 27:52 this system is... 27:54 and to take VERY good care of yours. |
Revised 2014-12-17