Participants: Agatha Thrash (Host), Justina Thomas
Series Code: HYTH
Program Code: HYTH000184
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00:01 Health does not depend on your lucky stars, or on your
00:05 horoscope, or on the month you were born in... 00:08 Health depends on altogether different principles. 00:11 Even a healthy person can get sick. 00:14 This sickness can be anything from an infected splinter, 00:17 to a serious infection of the bowel. 00:20 How you relate to the illness, and what you do for yourself 00:24 can determine to a great degree, whether you get a 00:27 scar, or whether you get crippled, 00:29 or whether you're restored to full health! 00:32 So, we'll talk about some of those things on this program 00:35 and I hope you will join us. 00:56 Welcome to "Help Yourself to Health" 00:58 with Dr. Agatha Thrash, of Uchee Pines Institute 01:02 And now, here's your host, Dr. Thrash 01:06 Obedience to law... the laws of health 01:09 will determine, to a large degree, 01:11 just what happens to you after you have been sick. 01:15 And so I'd like to talk with you some about 01:17 those things that you can do to help yourself to 01:20 make certain that all those nice remedies 01:25 that we've been talking about for years come to you 01:28 as new and vibrant principles! 01:31 And these principles can, indeed, be something that 01:34 will help you to recover from an illness without serious 01:38 consequences. 01:39 Now, most people, in their homes, have some kind of 01:43 tray, or box such as this one... that they keep their 01:48 health things in... those things relating to health 01:51 ...the equipment that they have, or any kind of 01:54 problem of this kind, we can certainly see that we can 01:58 use some kinds of equipment that will be helpful. 02:01 Let me show you what can happen with this little device 02:07 This device is a very interesting one... 02:11 If you press this little button right here, 02:14 it will make a little spark. 02:16 And if you put your finger down there, 02:18 it will give you quite a spark. 02:21 So let me just show you how that happens... 02:24 Did you see the spark? 02:25 Let me show you again... right here... there's the spark! 02:29 Now, if you put your finger there, 02:31 where you have been bitten by some kind of venomous 02:35 animal, or stung by a bee, 02:38 if you just give this a number of nice sparks, 02:43 it will denature the venom and that can help 02:47 you not to get such a serious problem with your venomous bite. 02:52 Now there are people who use this very same kind of 02:56 instrument, except a little larger for snakebites. 02:59 We have never used it for snakebites. 03:02 we have only used it for fire ant bites, 03:04 for beestings, and for chiggers. 03:07 We have a lot of chiggers where we live and certain 03:09 seasons of the year, they may sting you, especially 03:13 in creases of the body, and it's very nice to 03:18 denature the venom as soon as you know it's there 03:21 so that you don't have to itch quite so much. 03:24 Now in most people's medical kit, 03:27 they also have something that looks like this... 03:30 This kind of device is called a stethoscope, 03:33 and a stethoscope can be very useful... 03:36 It can be monaural, as you see this one, 03:38 or as you usually see it, it fits in both ears. 03:42 Those can be purchased from any kind of department store 03:45 for very little, under $15 usually, and most of the time, 03:50 even under $10. 03:52 One of these is very good, some people use it actually 03:55 even to listen to their car motor. 03:59 It has a lot of uses. 04:01 It can also be nicely used when a person has 04:05 a deaf person around, and you have difficulty hearing them... 04:09 You just let them talk into this part, and especially if you have 04:12 one that's longer... They talk into this part 04:14 and you can hear them better, 04:16 or if they are the deaf person, then they listen with this 04:22 and you talk into that part. 04:24 So those are some uses for a stethoscope. 04:29 Of course most people use it also with a 04:31 blood pressure cuff; 04:32 likewise, you can buy that a department store for 04:36 not very much money, usually under $25. 04:40 I like to keep this kind of cup in my box... 04:45 This kind of cup is called a C- cup, or a kidney cup 04:48 and it can have numerous uses. 04:51 For a person who is bedfast and they need to 04:56 brush their teeth, this kind of thing can be useful. 04:59 If a person is in bed and they're vomiting, 05:03 they can use this kind of cup. 05:05 You can use it for numerous kinds of irrigations, 05:08 and the like, and it's very nice in your kit of medical things. 05:13 I also like this kind of device. 05:15 This is an eye cup. 05:17 An eye cup is filled with whatever fluid 05:20 you're going to use, such as saline... 05:22 And saline can be nicely made up by yourself 05:25 just 1 teaspoon of salt to 1 pint of water, 05:29 and then you fill the cup with the saline 05:32 and then bend over it and just bat your eye 05:35 as fast as you can in the saline... 05:38 And it can wash things out of the eye, 05:40 or if you have an irritated eye, such as from 05:43 some kind of fumes, it can be very useful 05:46 for that kind of thing. 05:48 Now, there are a lot of devices such as this... 05:52 that can help you if you have a person in your home 05:55 who is older, and they get some kind of callus, 06:00 or corns on the feet, or on the toes, 06:04 or the heel, or the sides of the feet 06:06 This kind of device can be very nice... it's a stone 06:11 and it can be very nice for just filing off some kind of 06:16 thick corn, or callus on the foot. 06:21 Now in addition to this kind of thing that's operated 06:24 by hand, there are also some very nice ones that 06:27 you can buy inexpensively from a department store 06:30 such as this one. 06:32 This one runs by battery, and you can 06:35 get the little mechanisms that fit on it 06:40 and they fit very nicely, just pull one out of its 06:44 little shield here, and put it on the little device 06:50 like this, and then you simply switch it on. 06:55 You hear that? Well, it makes a little. 06:58 As you can see, you can file down nails, or you can 07:00 file down nails, or you can file off corns, 07:06 or file off calluses with this, and just plane them right down. 07:10 Sometimes it takes a little time, but it's very nice 07:14 for the person who is old, and who is getting lame 07:18 because they are having difficulty in walking 07:23 with painful corns, and painful calluses. 07:27 You can be a real medical missionary in your family 07:30 just with such a device. 07:32 This kind of device, I think, costs under $20 at a 07:37 department store, or a discount store. 07:40 I like to have several kinds of tissues, maybe a roll 07:45 of towel, or a box of tissue that's just dedicated to 07:52 my box, so that if I want to take my whole box 07:58 with me to deal with someone's problem, I have everything 08:02 there that I'm going to need. 08:04 And, one of the things that I often need is this kind of 08:08 device... This is for tennis elbow 08:11 and I have asked an assistant to come and help me 08:15 with this kind of device. 08:16 You buy these from a discount store, or a drug store 08:21 and it has a very fine use with tennis elbow. 08:25 This is Justina Thomas, and she is going to 08:30 let me show you how this is used for tennis elbow. 08:35 Look at this... very simple. 08:37 You simply put it on the arm, just below the crease 08:42 of the elbow, as you see right here 08:45 Then, you can put it on by yourself, and then just 08:48 snap it shut like that. 08:50 It's very easy to work with this because it's 08:55 designed for you to put it on by yourself. 08:58 Now a person with tennis elbow has pain 09:03 not only in the elbow, usually it's right back here 09:07 on this little knob that you can easily feel at your own 09:11 elbow... just right here, the most prominent place right there 09:14 Or, it may be in these muscles right down between the 2 bones. 09:20 These interosseous muscles can be VERY tender... 09:25 So that doing this kind of movement, can be 09:28 quite uncomfortable for the person who has a tennis elbow. 09:32 Putting this on, and letting them go about.. just a support 09:35 ...it's not worn tightly, but just a support and then as they 09:39 move the arm, it massages gently these muscles 09:44 in here, and that helps them quite a great deal. 09:48 Now, there is another kind of device, such as this 09:51 which you can also purchase at a pharmacy, or at a 09:54 discount store and it is just worn in the same way. 09:58 It's worn right here, or it can be worn on the arm right here. 10:04 This one is made for a person with a more hefty arm 10:08 than Justina has, but you can get the idea. 10:12 Thank you, Justina. 10:15 Now, these are kept in your kit so that when someone has 10:19 that kind of affliction, then you are ready 10:23 for them right away. 10:25 I like these charcoal pads... They work very nicely 10:31 This is for the eyes, and if a person has inflamed eyes, 10:36 simply put this on the eyes, and this fits around the head 10:41 and can stay on while they sleep. 10:44 The charcoal, even though it's dry, it's not wet... 10:48 even though it's dry, it has a very good benefit 10:52 for the person who has inflamed eyes. 10:56 If the person only has a single inflamed eye, 10:58 they make them that are like this, 11:01 and you can use that on one eye with simply 11:05 putting on a piece of tape. 11:06 Now, if a person has a sensitivity to tape, 11:09 and a lot of people do, then you can bind it around 11:13 the head with an Ace bandage and then use the tape 11:18 on the Ace bandage to hold it in place. 11:20 And this kind of thing is a cravat... 11:24 It can be worn around the neck for a sore throat, 11:28 or for painful neck muscles. 11:30 Sometimes when people sit in a car for a long time 11:35 with a bucket seat, and they don't realize that the seat is 11:40 leaning backward a little too far, and so when they are 11:44 traveling many miles, these neck muscles get quite tender 11:49 and they may even think they're getting a sore throat, 11:51 but it's actually just tender neck muscles. 11:54 Sometimes the back of the neck can also be quite tender, 12:00 and with this kind of thing, it can be very helpful. 12:03 They just wear it at night, 12:04 or they can wear it in the daytime too. 12:07 It has a very nice appearance so that you don't have to 12:11 look as if you're wearing 12:12 some kind of rag around the throat. 12:16 You might not have this kind of device, 12:18 but if you're overweight, you may want to 12:20 get this kind of device. 12:22 It simply lets you measure how thick the fat is 12:29 in various parts of your body. 12:31 Such as, the key area is probably over the biceps 12:36 And, if you just pick up.. don't pick up muscle, but 12:39 just pick up the subcutaneous tissue in the skin, 12:42 and then, with this little device, you simply measure. 12:45 For a man, it should be a half centimeter, 12:48 and so I'll put it on the half centimeter mark... 12:51 that's not very much, is it? 12:53 You might just measure yourself and see 12:56 just how much you measure. 12:58 Now a woman, can measure up to a centimeter in this area. 13:03 We women carry a little bit extra fat in the subcutaneous 13:09 tissue normally, than men do. 13:11 But that's a very rigorous test. 13:13 If you only test one place, that's where to test. 13:16 But, of course, we have more fat back here, 13:18 and, of course, a lot more fat down here or here, or down there 13:21 And so, this kind of device can help you to know and 13:26 by checking in your library for the kind of person you are, 13:31 whether you are Caucasian, or black, or whether you are a 13:37 native American, the storage of fat is a little different in 13:43 some races than in others, and you might want to check that. 13:47 Now I have here some devices that people like to have. 13:53 I don't know that they are particularly necessary 13:56 in the average home medicine kit, 14:00 but you might like to have one. 14:02 And these can be picked up... these are percussion hammers 14:06 which will test for the briskness of your deep tendon 14:13 reflexes, and sometimes if there is a sharp point 14:16 down on this end, you can test some of the 14:18 superficial reflexes as well... the skin reflexes. 14:22 That works out very nicely. 14:24 And then, this particular one has a measuring device 14:28 so that it measures a centimeter a half centimeter, and so forth 14:31 right down to about 3 mm... 14:34 You can see that this device is provided by 14:39 some drug companies, and sometimes they work nicely 14:43 and sometimes they're just nice gimmicks but either way, 14:46 it's sort of fun to have this kind of thing. 14:50 Now where can you test deep tendon reflexes? 14:52 Well, one of the nice ones is this bit tendon right here. 14:56 And the way to do that is very simple 14:59 and I have asked Justina to assist me in showing you 15:04 this very nice little deep tendon reflex. 15:08 Now it's very important that you put your finger right on 15:12 the place where there is the deep tendon. 15:16 You put your thumb on it, and then with a little sharp... 15:21 this kind of thing... 15:22 You will not be able to see it very well, 15:25 but I can feel it very well! 15:27 I can feel her biceps contract when I simply do that 15:32 And I don't know if you can see the little contraction 15:34 that occurred there. 15:35 And, of course, everybody knows what the knee jerk is. 15:38 You just have the person sit on the edge of the table 15:42 and then with the knee dangling nicely, the leg quite relaxed, 15:47 then you just strike the place just under the kneecap... 15:53 and, of course, everybody has had that experience 15:54 since they were quite young. 15:56 The only time that you would need that kind of thing 15:59 would be if someone had been in an accident, 16:02 or someone is sick, or they have some kind of 16:04 neurologic problem, and you aren't certain whether 16:07 they have neurologic damage, and you can see if you can 16:11 elicit these deep tendon reflexes. 16:14 Now let's say you don't get one... 16:17 you do this when the patient is very relaxed 16:21 ...they have to be relaxed. 16:22 Often they are tight here, and that spoils the reflex, 16:27 but if they are quite relaxed, and you're quite relaxed, 16:30 and you've got your thumb on the right place, 16:33 and you strike it just right, and they don't have a reflex... 16:35 You can't feel any kind of contraction of the biceps 16:40 which then moves this tendon. 16:42 So, then what do you do? 16:44 Well, you test the other side... 16:45 Now if the other side also gives you no reflex, 16:50 then probably, she's all right. 16:52 There's probably no problem with her nervous system 16:57 ...she's just not reacting today. 16:59 And she may NOT react most of the time. 17:02 But with the knee jerk, if you simply have the person 17:06 put the hands together like this, and press 17:09 and then while they're distracted doing this, 17:12 and pressing hard, it enhances the reflex 17:16 if you strike it at that time. 17:18 So while they're busy doing this, you're busy 17:20 tapping the reflex, and sometimes you get a 17:22 perfectly normal kneejerk with that simple little maneuver 17:29 Now with your patient, who has some kind of splinter, 17:36 you've got some other things that you can do. 17:38 Let's say she gets a splinter under the fingernail, 17:41 I like to have magnifying glasses, and I have 17:44 a number of them. 17:46 This one is a little table one, and it fits very nicely this way 17:51 so that it fits on the table and you look through it 17:54 and you can see the splinter VERY well, and dig it out. 18:00 Now, is there something that you should keep in your kit 18:06 that will be always on hand, so that you can dig out splinters 18:11 and the answer is... yes. 18:12 And I have a nice little kit... You see this little kit 18:16 ...it has here some suture material which 18:20 you may, or you may not want. 18:22 I always keep some in mine, I have rarely used it... 18:26 I think twice in all my experience as a physician, 18:29 I've used it... you've probably would never have such an 18:33 opportunity or desire... 18:35 But let's say you were in some kind of field situation, 18:38 way out in the middle of nowhere, and someone 18:43 gets cut... Is there something you can do? 18:45 And the answer is, yes... if you have a needle 18:47 and you have some thread. 18:49 Make it as clean as you can. 18:51 It doesn't have to be sterile, because the cut 18:55 was not made in a sterile way. 18:57 And so, you're sewing it up, it doesn't usually have to be 19:01 sterile... it just needs to be very clean 19:03 And the body can handle that fine. 19:06 But I have here a number of surgical instruments that 19:09 you might not want... 19:11 But this one has a needle in it, along with some 19:15 suture material, so I'll just show you how that works 19:19 You just keep the needle in some kind of little tube like this 19:23 and then, here is a large needle. 19:27 You may need a large one, or you may need a small one. 19:30 I have both in this little tube that I keep all the time 19:35 ...small needles and large needles 19:37 But I think most of the time, you will use a large needle 19:41 more than you will a small needle. 19:43 I keep this all the time so that I can be just ready 19:48 to use the little magnifying glass and remove 19:52 a splinter from beneath the fingernail, 19:55 or embedded somewhere. 19:57 The worst thing for you to have to remove is glass. 20:01 When the person has glass, you may need the needle 20:05 and the magnifying glass... 20:08 You may also need forceps, or tweezers. 20:12 Most homes have tweezers in the home, 20:16 and as you work with this, 20:19 you will find that it's easy to work with... 20:22 The person with the splinter, you simply take hold of it 20:26 if you can reach it, and then pull it out. 20:29 And the needle can help to pull it so that it's within 20:33 the reach of the tweezers, and then you pull it out. 20:37 Now this is a surgical instrument, 20:39 and I think I picked these up at a flea market somewhere. 20:42 You can buy these from a surgical supply house 20:45 for probably $18 to $25 a piece... 20:48 But you can get them for a couple of dollars 20:50 or less at a flea market if you can find them. 20:53 I have a number of other things as well... 20:56 And here is a very nice kind of scissors. 21:02 You can see that they have an angle in them, 21:07 and that makes them very helpful. 21:09 And here is a special kind of scissors. 21:12 That kind of scissor... I also picked this up at a flea market. 21:16 Sometimes you can get these at pawn shops, 21:22 or once in a while, at a thrift shop, you can get these. 21:26 And they are very nice to take out sutures. 21:28 Let me just show you how that could work. 21:31 I put a suture in this little device here so that I 21:37 could show you this. 21:38 If you have sutures put in, sometimes you are going to 21:42 go on a trip right after a surgeon has put some 21:45 sutures in for you, and you don't want to have 21:48 to come back at the time the surgeon tells you 21:50 he wants to take out the sutures... 21:52 Justina, would you just hold that for me... 21:56 Let's say this is the person's hand... 21:59 You take the suture that has been put in, 22:02 and hold it by some tweezers like this. 22:05 Then you take the little suture removal scissors, 22:08 and this tiny part, you just put under and you cut it 22:13 right over here at one edge. 22:16 If you will just turn that up, you can see... 22:19 I don't cut it in the middle, because if I cut it 22:21 in the middle, then this part that's dirty, is pulled through 22:24 the skin, but it's better to just pull it, 22:28 cut it, right on one side. 22:30 Now let's say you don't have one of these 22:32 nice little scissors... little suture scissors, 22:35 then just get any kind of small scissors, small point scissors 22:40 Things like cuticle scissors will work very nicely 22:43 and then you just cut it right over on the side, 22:46 and pull it out, and then very little of the part that's 22:51 been out in the air and in the dust, and so forth 22:53 will go through the skin. 22:55 Thank you, Justina. 22:57 Now all of these kinds of instruments are nice to have. 23:02 Here is another one that's very good for working on 23:05 old people's corns, and toenails, and fungus nails 23:12 ...this can be used very nicely for that. 23:14 Again, you can often pick these up for a little of nothing 23:18 These are bandage scissors, very nice to have separate 23:23 And then once in a while, you'll need something like 23:26 hemostats... I think I've used a hemostat more for 23:31 picking out splinters, or picking up some small 23:37 thing from a very small tube that I have for use 23:41 in medical things. 23:43 Now this... you'll recognize this right away... 23:46 it's a dental mirror, and very nice for looking 23:50 in the mouth when the mouth has some kind of affliction... 23:55 You simply look in the person's mouth and you can sometimes 24:00 see things that you're not able to see otherwise. 24:03 Now I showed you the table-type of magnifying glass, 24:07 but there are many others. 24:09 Here is one that you can look in your eye 24:12 and just take a tissue and remove something 24:15 with this kind of magnifying glass, 24:17 it's very nice to do... it's a magnifying mirror. 24:21 And then, here is one that can keep the dust 24:25 off it just by this kind of device. 24:29 And, here is a similar one, you find these in all 24:33 kinds as all sizes, shapes and conditions. 24:38 This one is very fancy with the stainless steel, 24:41 I like it very much. 24:43 Now, occasionally, you will have someone who lives in your home 24:49 who may be hard of hearing. 24:50 And, if you want to see whether they are getting very deaf, 24:54 you can take something like a tuning fork, 24:57 and just listen to it yourself, and then let them listen to it. 25:01 And if you can hear it, and they can't, 25:06 then you think that probably they are deaf, 25:09 at least they are deafer than you are. 25:12 And that can be very helpful to know sometimes. 25:16 If you have a diabetic living in your home, 25:18 this kind of kit is very helpful. 25:21 It's the kind of kit that has the little machine 25:26 for testing the blood sugar. 25:28 And, it has stylets in it, and the reagent materials 25:34 and the strips... has all of that. 25:37 And this one has a little device that has a little 25:41 stylet in it so it fits right in here, just like this 25:46 And you can see that that's a pretty sharp 25:49 little device that will stick into the person's finger. 25:54 It has to go in a good little way, and this one has a 25:57 little trigger device that if you just do it that way 26:00 it works very neatly there. 26:03 I always have some kind of washing syringe in my kit 26:12 so that I can irrigate, or clean out ears, 26:16 or that kind of thing. 26:17 Something that people with young children will want to have 26:21 is an otoscope. 26:23 You can purchase an otoscope for under $20 usually 26:27 on the internet, or sometimes at a discount store 26:34 or sometimes at a flea market if you happen to be there. 26:39 I like also to have something like this charcoal salve. 26:44 Charcoal salve is really good for infected splinters 26:49 and this kind of thing. 26:51 And so, a number of herbal remedies stay in my kit. 26:56 Depending on who you have living in your home, 26:58 you may even want to have something of this nature. 27:01 This is a little epilation device. 27:04 It takes off hairs. 27:05 Again, you can buy these from a department store 27:10 like Wal-Mart, or somewhere like that. 27:13 And this simply has a little needle at the end 27:17 that fits into a hair follicle and you just give it a little 27:23 spark and the hair follicle just falls out. 27:27 And these are some very simple things that you can have 27:31 in your home all the time. 27:32 And when you have a problem, you simply pick up your kit 27:37 and take it to the patient. 27:39 And by doing so, you can evaluate how they're doing 27:43 and also give them very simple treatments. 27:46 Now I hope by showing you the home kit, 27:49 and some things that you can put in it, 27:51 it will help you to help those that you love very much. |
Revised 2014-12-17