Participants: Agatha Thrash (Host), Don Miller
Series Code: HYTH
Program Code: HYTH000192
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00:01 There are some people who go from doctor to doctor,
00:03 from herb to herb, from drug to drug, from this treatment 00:06 after that treatment, they buy expensive things, 00:09 they try to get themselves well, but instead of getting well 00:13 they tend to get worse. 00:14 Sometimes somebody will say over the back yard fence 00:17 you know, you sound just like my relative who did thus and 00:22 such and she got well, and if you do that you probably 00:26 would too, so they tried that and maybe they do get better, 00:30 or maybe they don't get better. 00:31 If you are that kind of person, or you know someone who is 00:35 that kind of person, this program is going to say one or 00:38 two reasons why this kind of scenario occurs, 00:42 so we hope you will join us for this program. 01:03 Welcome to Help Yourself to Health, 01:05 with Dr. Agatha Thrash of Uchee Pines Institute, 01:09 and now here is your host Dr. Thrash. 01:12 There are times when I say to a patient, I think you have 01:18 a food sensitivity, and they may say oh no way, 01:21 I'm eating now what I've eaten all my life, and I've never 01:25 had a problem. 01:27 Sometimes if I can convince them to try eliminating a 01:31 certain food, they get better right away, and one of those 01:35 is for people who have gluten sensitivities. 01:38 Gluten sensitivities come in a number of forms, but probably 01:42 one of the most difficult to diagnose is that of a 01:47 gluten sensitivity. 01:48 Sometimes it is very easy, we just make a suggestion, 01:52 the person eliminates gluten... all the gluten grains from their 01:56 diet and immediately they are essentially well. 02:00 But sometimes it is as a minister I know who was not 02:06 very well as an infant, and as he got older he was a 02:12 small child, always the runt in his class in school and 02:16 he always had some kind of discomfort in his abdomen, 02:21 he was never really quite comfortable, he had more 02:23 diarrhea, more bouts of stomach pain than his two sisters did 02:28 so his family sort of though he had a weak stomach. 02:32 He grew up never robust, went to college and studied for 02:39 the ministry, married, pastored a church for many many years, 02:45 had three children, finally when he was 65 years old, 02:49 in 1980, that was 25 years after Celiac disease or 02:55 gluten sensitivity was discovered, this man was 02:58 diagnosed, he was 60 years old. 03:00 Now at the age of 60 to find out that you've got a disease 03:04 that has existed since you were born is a little on the 03:08 discouraging side but he was very hopeful that he could 03:11 get well, so he went right into the gluten free diet, 03:17 and it wasn't long before he had his disease fairly well 03:22 under control, although he was never robust, not until he died. 03:27 I would like to draw for you a diagram of what happens 03:31 to the intestinal tract when a person has a 03:34 gluten sensitivity. 03:35 Now if you could imagine that I am drawing here the stomach 03:41 and the small bowel, and here is the duodenum, and jejunum, 03:49 and then we get around to the ileum which is here, and that 03:53 goes into the colon which you can see here. 03:56 In the small bowel, let's take a small segment of this 04:02 and just take a look at it, here is the outside lining 04:07 and here is what we will call the sub mucosa, and then we will 04:12 draw the mucosa on here. 04:15 This has ups and downs as you can see here, 04:23 but those are all things that you can see, and of course 04:27 down in this area we have blood vessels that run in this area, 04:32 of course they are very numerous, lots of blood vessels 04:36 in here, but now let's do another thing, 04:39 let's take a segment of this part of the bowel, 04:44 just right here. 04:45 Here it is, this is microscopic now, it has these long fingers, 04:53 finger like projections called villi that project above the 04:59 surface. 05:00 Now with just a little bit of imagination you can tell 05:04 that if we are eating food and it's up in here and it comes 05:10 down in here, that by having these villi, you greatly 05:14 increase the surface area over which you can absorb nutrients 05:20 that you have digested from your food, and it greatly 05:24 increases the likelihood that you are going to have a 05:27 good functioning bowel, and that you are going to absorb 05:31 your nutrients, which can encourage a child to grow 05:35 and a young man to be robust. 05:37 If there is something wrong with this whole mechanism 05:42 then the person might have a great deal of discomfort, 05:46 and that's what people with Celiac disease usually have. 05:49 Unfortunately if they are not diagnosed and gluten eliminated 05:54 from their program, then as the years go by, we simply have 05:59 a shortening of these villi, so after a little while 06:05 they shorten a little bit, then it isn't long before 06:09 it shortens a little bit more and it is only that high, 06:12 and after years of not having a gluten free diet the surface 06:19 area over which they could reabsorb or absorb their food 06:23 has greatly diminished, so these individuals are 06:28 compromised rather significantly with their 06:31 nutrition, and they become nutrition cripples. 06:38 What can we do for such an individual? 06:42 It isn't difficult, it is simply avoid the gluten grains 06:46 and what are they? 06:47 They are wheat, rye, and barley, almost everyone will tell you 06:52 oats also, but oats probably contain gluten only by 07:02 contamination. 07:03 Gluten is a protein that is present in grains, 07:07 present especially in wheat and with this sensitivity 07:13 then of course if anyone eats wheat with the gluten in it 07:17 the thing that I showed you on the board will continue to 07:21 happen with a continued shortening of and flattening 07:25 of these villi so that less and less nutrients can be absorbed. 07:29 In addition to the pain and diarrhea, and the abdominal 07:34 discomforts, often they develop a bit of sense of being 07:39 down in the mouth, they try everything that they hear 07:43 and they just aren't well, but once they get on a 07:47 gluten free diet they can be helped marvelously. 07:50 Individuals with gluten sensitivity should avail 07:55 themselves of all the information that is available 07:58 these days such as this journal that comes out frequently 08:03 it's produced by the folk called Gluten Free Living 08:08 and the address for them is 19 Broadway in Hawthorne, NY. 08:14 You can find this on the web and get enrolled in one of these 08:19 organizations that help people with Celiac Disease. 08:23 You will find also if you look for it, you will find centers 08:27 where people with gluten sensitivity can go such as this 08:32 Holland's Center that you can find also on the internet, 08:36 and here is another one that you can find on the internet, 08:40 The Discussion of Gluten and what it's made of and what 08:44 kind of tests can be done for the individual who has a 08:50 gluten sensitivity. 08:52 Laboratory tests that can help with this include 08:55 blood carotene, it is almost always low, and fecal fat 09:01 is almost always high in these individuals. 09:04 Then if a glucose tolerance test is done, they will have 09:08 a rather flat curve, instead of the normal curve which goes 09:12 up and down rather sharply. 09:14 They will have a low cholesterol but also a low calcium level, 09:19 and iron and B12 and Folic Acid may also be low in these 09:25 individuals, and if you can supplement their diet 09:29 with these then it helps quite a great deal. 09:32 The prognosis in these people is excellent if they are 09:36 gluten free. 09:38 So we recommend that people who have gone from doctor 09:41 to doctor and never seem to find any kind of help for 09:46 their disorder, that they certainly try to see if they 09:50 can't get the help that they can get from just being 09:56 diagnosed with Celiac Disease and getting the cure for it 10:01 which is avoidance of gluten. 10:03 Now, with oats I might just add that oats may be taken 10:07 and if you can find a company that does not deal with any 10:11 other grain except oats... 10:12 There are a few companies that do handle only oats, 10:16 but if they handle other grains then there will be some 10:18 cross contamination. 10:20 Even as little as 300 or 500 parts per million parts of oats 10:27 one part of gluten or wheat will certainly make a difference 10:31 for these individuals. 10:33 They need to be down less than 20 parts per million 10:37 in order not to have significant quantities of gluten. 10:42 In addition to gluten sensitivity or celiac disease, 10:47 there are other types of gluten sensitivity, but a whole 10:52 plethora of other disorders that affect the 10:55 gastrointestinal tract. 10:57 Now I have here Dr. Don Miller and he is going to talk with you 11:01 about a very common problem GERD or 11:06 Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disorder. 11:08 Dr. Miller! 11:10 Thank you! 11:11 You know Dr. Thrash has mentioned cross contamination... 11:14 you will notice sometimes when you go to the store 11:17 and you look at your ingredients... 11:18 You should become an ingredient reader, especially if you have 11:22 any types of allergies or sensitivities to foods. 11:27 You will often find somewhere in that area: 11:30 This product was produced in a factory that also uses 11:34 nuts, peanuts, wheat, gluten, soy, because they realize 11:39 out there that there is this problem of cross contamination. 11:42 So be a careful reader, because it can be a major problem. 11:45 I'm going to talk a few minutes about this problem called 11:49 Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disorder. 11:53 Basically it deals with the stomach and the esophagus, 11:57 the first part of our alimentary canal, 11:58 that can be really affected by some reflux. 12:02 Reflux means to flow back- ward, the flow backward means 12:06 basically that you are having your stomach juices in there 12:09 and some of it gets somehow up through the cardiac sphincter 12:12 into the esophagus which will cause a burning sensation. 12:16 They also sometimes call this heartburn. 12:19 Now I will say at this point that GERD is not caused by 12:24 a lack of the little purple pill in your diet. 12:27 The little purple pill is only going to address the symptom 12:30 and not the problem. 12:32 What's causing the burning is the hydrochloric acid, 12:35 extremely strong industrial cleaner that they clean 12:38 metal with, which is used to digest the food in the stomach. 12:42 It gets back up through the sphincter, into the esophagus, 12:45 and will start the burning. 12:47 The burning itself is not the disease. 12:50 The damage it does is the disease. 12:53 Some people have it every once in awhile, 12:55 once a month is not GERD, it's just you did something wrong. 12:58 It's the chronic GERD that's the problem, 13:01 the chronic overuse of whatever it is that is causing 13:04 this problem, that is causing this constant burning. 13:06 Now what's going to happen, if you constantly allow the 13:10 hydrochloric acid up into your esophagus to burn it away. 13:13 You could come up with some ulcers in your esophagus. 13:16 You could also develop cancer. 13:18 So these are serious things that you do not want to get, 13:21 so the recommendation is, find a better way to live your life. 13:25 How is that? 13:27 There are a couple of things that you can do: 13:28 People that over eat have a high tendency to develop GERD 13:34 because they get an over distended stomach, 13:36 the pylorus is not going to allow the food out because 13:40 it is not ready to be sent to the duodenum and so 13:45 you will push it back up through your little sphincter here 13:48 into the esophagus, and that is what is going to cause 13:51 your GERD. 13:52 Also certain foods, your fiery foods, 13:54 foods that are gas forming, foods that will cause a 13:59 upset to the stomach area, which will cause it to 14:02 come back up this area. 14:03 Also bearing down on the stomach. 14:07 People do that when they are constipated, 14:10 which we will talk about in a few moments, 14:12 and other problems will cause us to push to much pressure 14:16 on the sphincter allowing food to go back through. 14:19 So what should you do? 14:20 It's simple, what do you do? 14:22 You quit doing what you did wrong to cause you to get 14:25 the problem. 14:26 We recommend that you eat smaller amounts of food. 14:28 It's not rocket science to know how much to eat, 14:32 but we will talk about that some time later. 14:35 You eat the amount of food that when you get done eating 14:38 you could say hmmm, I could still eat some more food, 14:40 and that is hard to do. 14:42 It is a habit that we learned to do, but we could still eat 14:44 more food, we stay away from fiery foods, hot foods, 14:48 those are not the best foods and we drink plenty of water 14:51 between the meals. 14:53 We want to make sure that between the meals we have 14:55 plenty of time to complete the digestive process, 15:00 we go through what is called the interdigestive phase. 15:03 Once the food has been emptied from the stomach, 15:06 gets past the duodenum, gets on its way down the tract 15:09 everything sort of relaxes for awhile, we need this time 15:13 between the meals. 15:14 That is one of the best recommendations that you can 15:16 have is rest between meals and don't over tax yourself 15:20 with to much food. 15:21 Another thing that you can do if you are having this problem 15:25 is raise the head of your bed, I'm not talking about putting 15:29 a bunch of pillow behind your head, but raise the whole head 15:32 of your bed 15:33 Put about four to six inches underneath the two front legs 15:39 of your bed, the headboard which will raise the whole slant 15:44 of your bed just enough to allow gravity to keep things down. 15:47 The only time you should be lying in you bed to go to sleep 15:51 is in the evening time, and that is the worse time for 15:53 a person with GERD to have eaten a big meal. 15:56 We are living in a society that likes to eat the main meal 15:58 at night time, don't eat the main meal at night time. 15:59 The main meal is in morning a good meal at lunch, 16:03 and if you have GERD, probably supper should be eliminated. 16:06 You don't need it. 16:07 You see people with GERD have uncontrolled appetites 16:11 and usually have a tendency to be going towards overweight 16:14 so stay away from these things. 16:16 Tobacco also exacerbates and alcohol... GERD so... 16:20 If you have a problem with tobacco and alcohol 16:22 get into a program that you can get off of these death dealing 16:26 products and you won't have to worry about the purple pill, 16:29 you don't have to worry the Esophageal Reflux, 16:32 you won't have to worry about the heartburn, 16:33 you can be back to being normal again, 16:35 and very few people know what normal is. 16:38 I sort of appreciate being a little bit normal Dr. Thrash. 16:41 Yes, It's nice to be normal but there are a lot of people who 16:45 for one reason or other are not normal in the 16:48 gastrointestinal tract. 16:49 A lot of people with GERD have tried everything they can 16:54 they try to be very good in their routine and still 16:58 they have GERD. 16:59 But if you persist there are good things that you can do 17:03 that may help you albeit may not entirely eliminate 17:09 the problem. 17:10 A few more things about gluten sensitivity, 17:13 first thing is not just Celiac disease but a gluten sensitivity 17:18 can cause a number of other problems as well. 17:20 Take for instance the skin problem of Rosacea, 17:24 Rosacea is also called adult onset acne, 17:27 and it involves the face in almost the same pattern 17:32 that childhood acne involves the face, but it often 17:39 tends to be cystic with large bulbous types of 17:43 little abscesses that form in the skin and can be quite 17:49 painful and unsightly. 17:51 So people with this kind of problem will also be looking 17:56 every where for the way to cure their problem with Rosacea. 18:02 Sometimes they use antibiotics and these antibiotics may help 18:08 some, but that is only for those that have a 18:11 secondary infection, the cause is not primarily that of an 18:17 infection, but is a sensitivity of some kind or something else 18:22 that we don't really understand. 18:23 But there are some ways that you can help yourself with 18:29 getting rid of gluten if you determine that a 18:32 gluten sensitivity is one of those things causing 18:35 your Rosacea. 18:37 Let me just mention a few things, one is that you can use 18:41 rice and corn, and millet, those are grains that you can be 18:46 quite certain of if you have a gluten sensitivity. 18:50 Since you don't have bread, wheat bread, you are at a 18:56 handicap when there are sand- wiches or you are at a picnic 18:59 or something of this nature. 19:00 But if you make some nice waffles for yourself made from, 19:05 rolled millet or rolled corn which you can sometimes find 19:12 I don't think I have seen rolled rice but you can make 19:16 rice flour, then mix it half and half with water 19:20 and if you are very careful you can something that is 19:23 palatable. 19:24 You can also cook the rice ahead of time and make it 19:28 nice and soft and then make a waffle, 19:31 and that can give you something that you can spread 19:34 and make a sandwich with and that helps you to have something 19:38 at the same time others in the picnic are having their 19:43 nice sandwiches. 19:44 You can also use potato flour that can be found in many shops 19:49 and soy flour, arrowroot, that is another on that people with 19:54 a gluten sensitivity should know about, Tapioca, 19:57 don't forget that it can be used at a great advantage 20:00 and can be very helpful. 20:02 Buckwheat is not wheat, it's a little seed, 20:05 it is not in the grass family at all, but can be used by those 20:10 who have a gluten sensitivity. 20:13 Millet can be used in hundreds of ways, millet pudding, 20:17 millet roasts, all sorts of things, it can be sweet 20:20 or savory, it can be used in vegetable meals or fruit meals 20:25 and it is very good for that. 20:27 People with gluten sensitivities may also have joint pains, 20:31 they may have what they consider to be Rheumatoid Arthritis 20:35 and indeed people with Rheumatoid Arthritis or with 20:39 Osteo Arthritis may be made worse by their sensitivity to 20:43 gluten so individuals who have that can certainly 20:47 benefit from knowing about leaving off gluten. 20:50 Then for women who have intrauterine growth retardation, 20:56 that's the baby is not growing as fast as it would appear 21:00 as it should for the gestational age, and these persons 21:06 a test for gluten sensitivity would be very good, 21:09 that's to test the fecal fat and the blood carotene 21:12 and the cholesterol, and calcium and all of these things 21:15 that indicate a gluten sensitivity or Celiac Disease 21:20 those should be tested to see if the mother may have 21:25 a gluten sensitivity. 21:26 Chron's disease is often mistaken for Celiac disease 21:32 and so is the Tropical Sprue or that kind of 21:42 Celiac disease, the Tropical Sprue is not a gluten 21:46 sensitivity but it is due to an infection, 21:48 but it does cause the same kind of problem with the 21:52 gastrointestinal tract, so all of these lines of 21:54 investigation should be done for people who have prolonged 21:59 failure to thrive we can say, they go from one attempt 22:05 to another to try to get well and they never seem to get well. 22:08 A common problem is constipation and a lot of people have it 22:14 both children as adults and we should study what the causes are 22:21 and try to eliminate it, and Dr. Don Miller is going to 22:24 talk with you some about that problem now. 22:26 A couple of other things I failed to mention about 22:30 GERD, fried foods, coffee, and chocolate also exacerbate 22:35 the problem so stay away from those if you have GERD. 22:38 Constipation is a major problem, 22:40 I suspect that most people listening today have 22:43 chronic constipation and they don't even know it. 22:45 There is a good way to find out whether you are constipated, 22:48 one, just how do your stools come out in the first place 22:52 they should not take a 15 minute effort to void 22:56 your stools, it should be a very quick and easy movement, 22:59 it is those who really have to strain at their stools 23:02 that are probably constipated. 23:04 But you can do a simple test, take some charcoal powder 23:08 mix it with some water, your next meal just drink about 23:11 two tablespoons of charcoal even teaspoons will do, 23:14 in a small amount of water, drink it and eat your meal 23:17 and then you will find one of these days, 23:20 unfortunately for some people one of these days, 23:23 you will start seeing the charcoal in your stool. 23:26 When you stop seeing it in your stool, whatever time 23:30 elapsed between taking it and voiding it, 23:33 that is your transit time. 23:34 Your transit time should be between 18 and 30 hours, 23:38 some people's transit time is between 83 hours and 23:43 seven days, that means that their food is slowly slogging 23:46 through their system for that period of time. 23:49 Where constipation happens is in the colon, the last part, 23:53 of the alimentary canal before it leaves the body. 23:56 The purpose of that part of the anatomy is to take up the 24:00 moisture to make the stools at the right consistency 24:05 to be taken out of the body. 24:06 The trouble is we have a very low fiber diet, 24:09 a very low water intake, and I might say this also 24:12 that probably most people listening today are 24:14 chronically dehydrated, people who are dehydrated have 24:18 more constipation and people have low fiber diets. 24:21 Where do we find fiber? Fruits, vegetable, whole grains, 24:25 nuts and seeds, that is where you find your fiber. 24:27 It is the high meat diet and these crazy high protein diets 24:32 which are death dealing in every respect are going to be 24:36 very promoting of constipation. 24:38 I was in India a few years ago, a team of two, 24:44 and the one person on the team had gone there a few days 24:46 early and somehow he had sort of made it known that he was 24:51 really appreciative of the food as it was, 24:53 so by the time I got there it was the most basic White Fair 24:57 you have ever seen, white rice, other types of white products, 25:01 very few of anything else, and it didn't take long, 25:04 just a couple of days later I found myself in the 25:07 constipated state. 25:08 This is a very uncomfortable feeling, so I made a concerted 25:12 effort to make sure that I got fresh vegetables and fruits 25:15 on the market and augmented my white diet with these 25:19 different things. 25:20 So the best thing that you can do if you are constipated is 25:22 change your diet, try eating far more fiber, 25:25 that means fruits, vegetables, especially and whole grains. 25:29 You can take some flax seed, flax seed is a high form 25:33 of fiber, it's also an ant-inflammatory, 25:35 it has Omega 3 Fatty Acids, eat lots of that. 25:38 You can take Psyllium Seed, now Psyllium Seed Husks 25:41 can do one of two things, it can take care of diarrhea 25:45 by taking up moisture, or it can take care of constipation 25:49 by absorbing moisture. 25:51 It will basically get you right to where you need to be. 25:54 Another thing you need to do is drink plenty of water, 25:57 I would recommend a person with constipation, 26:00 first thing in the morning, you roll over, get out of bed 26:02 and drink two glasses of warm water and go for a prayer walk. 26:06 Get outside of your house, go for a walk up the street, 26:09 up through the country lane, wherever you live and 26:11 come right back because you will need to because often 26:14 that causes an increase in the cilia action down there 26:17 and the villi down in the intestinal tract and you will 26:20 find things flowing quite nicely. 26:23 It will take awhile to get completely free of the 26:26 constipation problem, but once you have, 26:28 you will be praising the Lord that things are passing 26:31 so much easier now. 26:32 If you don't do this, you've got an appointment somewhere 26:35 down the line with hiatal hernia, hemorrhoids, 26:39 varicose veins, colon cancer, with whole constellation 26:45 of problems for the very reason of constipation, 26:49 so I would recommend that you get things moving again 26:51 and by a dietary that would promote it. 26:54 That is very good, and I have found also in children 26:57 and also in young people, that if they wear bands at night 27:04 that are to tight, such as pajama bands, or panty bands, 27:08 or whatever, these are tight enough that they leave 27:12 a red mark on the skin, then that individual is much more 27:17 likely to have constipation. 27:19 As Dr. Miller mentioned, people who have constipation 27:22 or any other kind of symptom referable to the colon 27:27 or the rectum, or the anus, they are more likely to develop 27:31 a variety of colon diseases that we have commonly occurring 27:36 in the population in the United States. 27:38 So some time spent in studying these kinds of problems 27:45 in the United States can make it so that you can avoid these 27:51 problems that occur in people with gastrointestinal upsets. |
Revised 2014-12-17