Participants: Agatha Thrash (Host), Don Miller
Series Code: HYTH
Program Code: HYTH000193
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00:01 A happy stomach goes far towards making a happy person.
00:04 If you would like to have a happy stomach 00:08 we have some tips for you that may help you in that line. 00:11 So if you would like to happily join us 00:14 we'd happily accept your company. 00:35 Welcome to Help Yourself to Health 00:38 with Dr. Agatha Thrash of Uchee Pines Institute 00:41 and now here is your host, Dr. Thrash. 00:46 This happy stomach is not too difficult, 00:52 but the stomach is probably the most abused organ 00:57 in the entire body. 00:58 As infants we start right away teaching our children 01:02 that they can get comfort from eating, 01:08 so any time they are uncomfortable in any way 01:12 or they are crying or upset, we simply give them 01:16 something to eat. 01:17 Some times it is not the very best since it may be 01:20 not at meal time. 01:21 They may get something that we would consider a snack, 01:25 or even junk food, and of course we don't want to do that. 01:29 So the resulting inflammation in the stomach can cause 01:33 the child to be just a cranky and irritable child. 01:38 and it may even have a variety of difficulties with the 01:43 appetite and their food habits and they may have 01:48 some problems with constipation and diarrhea, 01:53 pain in the abdomen. 01:56 These are common childhood complaints and unfortunately 02:00 they often persist into adult life as well. 02:03 Gastritis is an inflammation of the stomach, 02:07 it looks when we actually put a scope down, 02:11 or we open the stomach up, it looks as if it may be raw beef. 02:17 It may be totally red, it may be bloody, Aspirin, other drugs 02:23 can cause a gastritis, but so can irregular eating habits. 02:28 Eating off schedule, drinking a lot with one's meal, 02:31 especially if it is very hot or very cold, 02:34 those can cause a big problem for the stomach. 02:37 Eating when one is upset or very tired, sad, or angry, 02:45 always the person who has any strong emotion, 02:48 they should wait to eat until these emotions have subsided 02:53 or been resolved. 02:55 It's not at all wrong if you simply decide to skip a meal 03:00 because of some strong emotion or excess fatigue 03:04 and just wait until you are more rested. 03:07 Does that mean to wait an hour or two and then take your meal? 03:11 Not usually... usually the best thing is 03:15 for you to skip the meal entirely, not eat again until 03:18 your next scheduled meal. 03:20 O course two meals a day are the best for the stomach of any. 03:24 So we want to obey these laws that we know and stick strictly 03:30 to them so that we can have a very happy stomach. 03:33 One of the problems that we can get with the stomach 03:37 is called a hiatus hernia... Hernia because the stomach 03:42 herniates back up into the chest from the abdomen, 03:47 the diaphragm separates the chest from the abdomen 03:51 and the esophagus comes down, goes through the diaphragm 03:58 and immediately forms the stomach. 04:00 Now when it forms the stomach, the stomach is an 04:04 abdominal organ, but if there is increased intra-abdominal 04:09 pressure, then the stomach can push back up through the 04:14 hiatus in the diaphragm so it is called a hiatal hernia. 04:19 Now because if the stomach pushes back up through the 04:23 diaphragm it may bathe the lower end of the esophagus 04:26 with gastric juices. 04:28 They are very powerful and the esophagus is not designed 04:33 so that it can have that very strong acid, 04:39 and the very strong digestants that the stomach is designed 04:43 to have. 04:44 So with these irritating substances from the stomach 04:48 in the esophagus, we can actually get an ulceration 04:51 of the esophagus because of that. 04:54 So esophagitis, and gastritis, as well as the discomfort 04:58 of the stomach pushing back up into the chest. 05:02 If we do x-ray studies on just our general population 05:07 we find that between 30 and 40% of the population at large 05:11 will have this kind of sliding hernia where a bit of the 05:16 stomach goes back up into the esophagus. 05:18 If the person is asymptomatic, they don't have pain, 05:22 or indigestion, or heartburn, then that probably means 05:26 they have a very strong cardiac sphincter. 05:30 That cardiac sphincter is the tight muscle at the top of the 05:34 stomach that keeps material from the stomach from going 05:38 back up into the esophagus. 05:40 All of these things are helpful things to know but increased 05:45 intra-abdominal pressure can come from being overweight, 05:48 from overeating, from having intestinal gas, from having 05:52 abdominal fat, pregnancy, from a tumor inside the abdomen. 05:58 So all of these things are helpful things to know 06:01 that can make it so that you do not need 06:04 to have the problem that you may have with a hiatus hernia. 06:11 Now the next thing that we are going to talk about is something 06:16 that I think you will be very interested in, it's a 06:18 common thing and Dr. Donald Miller is going to talk with you 06:21 about that. 06:22 You know it's funny Dr. Thrash we talk about these subjects... 06:26 it strikes me that if I were to give this lecture in Zambia 06:30 or Zimbabwe, or India, they would all sit and look at me 06:33 with blank stares saying, what are you talking about. 06:35 Because most of our problems that we talk about are 06:39 problems of the west, of our opulent lifestyles, 06:43 of our rich lifestyles. 06:44 Peptic Ulcer is one of those things that people usually 06:50 only get when the live in the west. 06:51 It's a terrible problem, it can be a life threatening problem 06:56 if you start getting a bleeding ulcer that a person could 06:58 bleed to death from. 06:59 But basically a peptic ulcer is the result of this 07:06 mucous barrier that we have all the way through our 07:09 alimentary canal that protects ourselves from the very foods 07:13 that we eat and the digestion thereof. 07:16 Let's take for example we eat some protein, 07:20 which is basically digested in the stomach. 07:23 The way we digest protein is with hydrochloric acid. 07:26 The interesting thing is the stomach itself is made up of 07:30 protein, so how do we keep from eating our stomach 07:34 with the same thing that's eating on the protein 07:36 that we are eating? 07:37 We've got a mucous barrier that protects the stomach 07:40 from it's own digestive juices, but what happens to that 07:44 protective barrier if we take things like vinegar, spices, 07:50 aspirin, it burns a whole or washes it away 07:54 and then the stomach lining itself is susceptible to the 07:59 hydrochloric acid. 08:00 For years the treatment for peptic ulcers was to drink 08:08 a glass of milk, naturally right away that buffered 08:12 the hydrochloric acid and it took the pain away. 08:15 But when you take down that much Calcium, 08:18 what happens is the body produces gastrin, 08:20 gastrin says we need some more hydrochloric acid 08:23 and so a short time later the hydrochloric acid 08:26 goes back up, you've got the problem back all over again. 08:29 Milk is not the solution, bland food is the solution. 08:32 You may think, or you may have a problem with too much 08:37 acid production, there's a good way to find out whether 08:39 your problem is over production of hydrochloric acid. 08:42 When you are having the pain, take the juice of a lemon 08:46 and mix it with a small amount of water and drink it. 08:49 If your pain goes up, you are producing to much acid. 08:52 A good way to put out the pain is to drink some water 08:56 or eat some more food which will neutralize or dilute the 09:01 acid that is out there. 09:02 But I would not recommend that you say that you ate breakfast 09:06 and two hours later you got the pain, 09:07 don't eat food then because that is just going to 09:09 exacerbate the problem on down the line, 09:12 you need to do other things to modify your problem. 09:15 So the problem is to much acid production, 09:18 you are eating a whole... Or they found some people 09:20 who take aspirin... they've looked in the stomach's 09:22 and found an aspirin stuck to the stomach wall, 09:25 burning a whole right through it, and that's a very 09:28 bad problem. 09:29 So people who take aspirin, steroids, tobacco, alcohol, 09:33 all of these things will help to promote peptic ulcers. 09:38 So what do you do for a peptic ulcer? 09:40 You need to eat more alkaline foods, 09:44 potatoes are extremely good. 09:47 As a matter of fact we would recommend that you take some 09:48 potato peelings from the white potato and you boil them, 09:52 and make a thick broth out of those and drink that. 09:56 Extremely good for peptic ulcers. 09:58 One of the best things for peptic ulcers is cabbage juice. 10:02 Just get a juicer if you can, and juice some cabbage. 10:06 If you can't get a cabbage juicer, just eat some 10:08 raw cabbage, you are going to get some of the effect 10:10 of the juice in your stomach which is extremely good 10:13 for that particular problem. 10:15 Stress is a great causer of peptic ulcers. 10:21 We found that people who have... 10:23 There is a story that I once read about a man who had been 10:28 shot by a shotgun in the stomach and the wound did not 10:32 properly heal, and so the doctor placed a scope in there 10:35 and he could observe what was going on, and he observed many 10:38 interesting things, especially when the person was upset 10:41 he could see that the blood would start oozing out 10:45 of the stomach wall. 10:46 So this stress problem, the best thing to do for stress 10:49 is to get some exercise. 10:50 A very easy thing to remember: "Exercise neutralizes stress. " 10:56 Stress is a good thing, but for peptic ulcers, 10:58 you have to find a way to get rid of the stress. 11:01 Very important is to eat small meals. 11:06 When we eat large meals it causes the body to rally 11:09 in more forces to digest food, hydrochloric acid goes up, 11:12 you have a compromise down there, so the best thing is 11:16 eat small meals. 11:17 Three small meals a day if you must, two small meals is better. 11:21 Dark green leafy vegetables are extremely good 11:26 for peptic ulcer, so go out and grow them and eat them. 11:31 Make sure your food is extremely well cooked, 11:33 especially your grains. 11:34 This is one time that we would recommend when you have an 11:37 active peptic ulcer, perhaps some well cooked white rice 11:41 would be ok, but even better would be millet. 11:44 Millet is extremely bland food and it's quite good for us 11:49 in many other ways. 11:50 Our fiber needs to be increased in the diet, 11:54 that goes without saying no matter what our problem is, 11:56 we need to get more fiber in the diets. 11:59 Chew your food well. 12:01 When you don't chew your food well, you have large amounts 12:04 of food in your stomach that is un-chewed, which means 12:07 it is going to be very hard to digest it. 12:08 The body puts in a herculean effort to digest the food 12:12 through the action of the stomach, which is going to 12:15 cause more acid to be produced and more trauma to the stomach. 12:18 So chew your food to a cream before you turn it loose is the 12:22 best way. 12:23 I don't say count, chew 30 times. 12:27 It's interesting when you try to do that, you sort of 12:30 loose track of what you are doing. 12:31 Here is what I would recommend, when you are eating your meal 12:34 you sit down and you get your fork full or your spoonful 12:38 of food, put it in your mouth, and they lay the 12:40 instrument down and fold your hands, sit on your hands, 12:44 put your hands behind your neck, do something 12:46 with your hands and chew your food. 12:48 We have a tendency that when we get a fork full of food 12:51 and put it in our mouth, we dive right back down for 12:54 the next fork full. 12:55 While you are getting that ready and is almost ready, 12:58 your mind sees this, it can even be subconscious 13:01 and all of a sudden that food is on the back of your tongue. 13:04 That half chewed olive, that big piece of tomato, 13:07 whatever it is ready, and all of a sudden it dives down 13:10 the gullet and pretty soon it is in your stomach 13:12 and your body says what are you doing to us down here? 13:15 And you are going to have big problems so chew your food well, 13:19 eat smaller meals, and there are some other nice things 13:22 that you can take. 13:23 I have already mentioned, don't take vinegar, don't take spices, 13:26 they are extremely bad for that mucous lining. 13:28 You can also help the mucous lining with a few nice things, 13:32 you can take slippery elm, find it in the powder form 13:35 in a herb store, mix it with a little bit of warm water, 13:39 and you are going to find if let it sit long enough 13:40 it becomes very gelatinous like mucous. 13:45 Drink that down it will coat the lining, extremely good 13:48 for the stomach. 13:50 Garlic is extremely good for that, so is charcoal. 13:54 Charcoal is probably one of the best things that I would 13:56 recommend if you have a peptic ulcer. 13:58 You mix about two or three spoonfuls of charcoal with 14:03 some water and drink that a few times a day, 14:05 very soothing for the stomach and will help you 14:08 along these lines. 14:09 Don't chew gum! 14:12 Chewing gum is bad for the peptic ulcer because you are 14:16 constantly working your salivary glands, you are constantly 14:19 swallowing down, your digestive amylase gets down in stomach, 14:23 and you've got some more problems being 14:25 formed down there. 14:26 So peptic ulcer in not the end of the road, 14:28 but if you start finding that you have coffee ground stools, 14:32 basically it looks like coffee grounds, which is 14:34 basically well digested blood because it has gone 14:37 all the way through your system, 14:38 you've got a serious problem, see your doctor. 14:41 If you start vomiting blood, very serious problem, 14:44 see your doctor and take care of it but I would start working 14:48 on that peptic ulcer right now, and if you don't have one 14:50 you start working on the prevention for peptic ulcers. 14:54 Prevention is always Dr. Thrash the very best way, 14:57 rather than the cure. 14:58 Yes, it's far better especially in gastrointestinal problems 15:02 to prevent the problem if it is at all possible. 15:05 There is one that we have not yet understood how to prevent, 15:10 that's Chron's Disease. 15:11 Chron's Disease probably has a preventable cause, 15:15 but we don't know what it is yet. 15:17 Causes may be an autoimmune disorder in which case we 15:21 wouldn't have a lot that we can do at this time 15:24 to prevent it but it may be an infectious agent 15:28 and if it is then there is much that we can do. 15:30 There are many ways to treat naturally the infectious agents 15:36 that can involve the gastro- intestinal tract. 15:39 One that I like a lot for a peptic ulcer which is involved 15:43 with the H-Pylori germ is Myrrh, Goldenseal, Echinacea, 15:50 Myrrh, Garlic, all of theses that Dr. Miller mentioned 15:55 and also some grapefruit seed extract, and maybe some 16:00 Elderberry extract. 16:03 All of these can be helpful, these so called anti-microbial 16:07 herbs, they are very helpful for any kind of infectious agent 16:11 in the gastrointestinal tract. 16:13 If Chron's Disease is related to an infectious agent 16:17 then all of these may be helpful in these individuals, 16:21 as well as some hydrotherapy. 16:22 Hot packs over the abdomen, maybe hot baths to bring the 16:27 mouth temperature up a good bit, all of this may be helpful 16:31 in infectious diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. 16:36 But another thing that we have found may be a factor, 16:41 it may not be the total cause but it may be the factor 16:43 in Chron's disease is an allergy. 16:46 Allergies for the gastrointestinal tract 16:49 can be very simple, can be nothing more serious than milk 16:56 or a lactose sensitivity, or a casein sensitivity, 17:01 in those cases and the elimination of milk and 17:04 all dairy products can be very helpful, very curative in fact. 17:09 But often there are some other things that are involved in a 17:13 sensitivity in Chron's disease, one of those is citrus fruits 17:18 and juices, and of course any kind of irritating substance 17:21 like coffee, tea, colas, chocolate, those can also be 17:26 irritating to the person with Chron's disease even if they 17:31 are not a part of that that one is allergic to. 17:33 Interestingly enough the person with Chron's disease can develop 17:38 a lot of allergies that they haven't always had. 17:41 Chron's disease came on, then the allergies developed 17:44 because the intestinal tract not as strong to resist 17:50 an allergy as it would have been if it had not gotten sick. 17:54 Where does Chron's hit the person? 17:58 Well it's usually... We can always say that 18:00 Chron's will almost always affect the terminal portion 18:04 of the ileum. 18:05 That's the small bowel, the terminal portion of the 18:09 small bowel, and the end of that is almost always 18:13 involved in Chron's disease. 18:15 The first part of the colon may also be involved, 18:18 and in individuals who have a very severe case of 18:23 Chron's disease, practically the entire gastrointestinal tract 18:27 from the esophagus to the anus may be involved. 18:31 These are very severe cases and fortunately they are not 18:35 really common. 18:37 Now there are some treatments that can be used besides the 18:43 anti-microbials, we can use certain vitamins and minerals 18:49 that these individuals tend to be low in already, 18:53 so we can use those: Magnesium, and perhaps Zinc. 18:56 Sometimes there is an iron deficiency anemia, 18:59 in which case we need to supplement with iron, 19:03 and then the use of Pectin and other fibers. 19:07 Pectin in particular is very good and any kind of rough 19:12 or fibrous foods such as the vegetables, grains, fruits, 19:18 nuts, and seeds. 19:21 Those can all be very helpful for the person who has 19:24 Chron's disease, making certain of course that the person with 19:28 Chron's disease is not sensitive to these foods. 19:32 The onset of Chron's disease is usually around the age of 20, 19:39 that's the peak incidence, and by 40 almost all cases of 19:44 Chron's disease have already had their beginning. 19:46 So we can be thankful that the symptoms of Chron's disease 19:53 don't usually occur in later life, or don't usually have 19:57 their onset. 19:58 Now at this time Dr. Don Miller is going to talk with you 20:02 about Ulcerative Colitis, a very distressing disorder, 20:06 Dr. Miller! 20:07 Ok, you can pretty much tell where that is at, 20:11 Ulcerative means you have some ulcers, colitis is in the 20:15 colon, a major problem, and it's manifest by bloody 20:21 diarrhea, mucous in the blood, or bloody mucous in the 20:26 stools, bloating, sometimes people loose weight, 20:30 a lot of pain and discomfort in the abdomen area. 20:33 Basically the number 1 cause would be constipation. 20:38 It's not just the fact that the person is constipated 20:41 it's what is causing the constipation. 20:44 It's causing an irritation... people who have a lot of spices 20:49 in their food, a lot of meat in their food, 20:51 a lot of milk in their food, are opening the door for 20:54 Ulcerative Colitis. 20:55 Again this is one of those things that you do not see 20:58 in the developing countries. 20:59 It's just one of those things that is feedingly rare. 21:01 There was a doctor years ago working in Africa for years 21:06 named Dr. Dennis Burkett, he became known as 21:09 "the fiber doctor. " 21:10 He noticed that the people that he dealt with, 21:12 none of them ever got colon cancer and finally he determined 21:16 that the reason why is these people have a high amount of 21:19 fiber in their diet. 21:20 So colon cancer is one step beyond Ulcerative Colitis, 21:27 people who have this constant irritation because of the 21:30 impaction of the fecal material in the colon are going to tend 21:34 to have more of those problems. 21:36 So what do you do about it? 1. Almost the same as we talked 21:40 a little bit ago about Peptic Ulcer is you eat 21:43 smaller meals and you chew your food well. 21:46 You eat a high fiber diet, it is extremely important. 21:49 But going again to this cabbage juice thing is extremely 21:52 important, but at the same time at the onset of the 21:55 treatment you will probably not want to eat to many raw 21:58 grains, and you do not eat raw fruits on an empty stomach. 22:04 You need to eat some cooked foods first, 22:06 but again with the cooked foods, and this is something 22:09 that we don't get in our society, our grains should be 22:13 well cooked. 22:15 The inspired book that I once read said that grains usual 22:19 porridge or mush should have several hours cooking, 22:21 and we believe that the long starch chains that are put into 22:26 the blood stream are very damaging to the body. 22:28 every single part of the body so we want to have 22:31 well cooked grains in the body and it will help move this 22:35 problem along. 22:36 There are other things that you can do, 22:38 hot fomentations over the abdomen area is extremely good. 22:42 Doing a massage over the colon area, 22:46 basically down around where your appendix is... 22:49 people always know where there appendix is. 22:50 You put your fingers and just do a circular massage up the 22:55 Ascending colon, get just below the rib cage, 22:58 go across the Transverse colon, and then get the other side 23:03 of the rib cage and you go down the Descending colon 23:06 and you do that a number of times. 23:08 A few years ago we had a patient at Uchee Pines 23:10 who had some type of a severe gastrointestinal problem 23:17 and really it had not been diagnosed what his problem was, 23:20 he had been to 23 different doctors, 23:22 spent a quarter of a million dollars and he spent 21/2 years 23:25 trying to find the solution to his problem. 23:27 Came to Uchee Pines and by God's grace he, for me anyway, 23:33 he got to be my patient, I enjoy working with these 23:35 challenging people. 23:36 One of the treatments that I decided to do... 23:39 When I was ready through John Harvey Kellogg's 23:41 hydrotherapy manual trying to find out what did he do 23:45 with strange problems in the colon area and basically 23:48 what I did was after I gave him a Russia Steam Bath 23:52 which would give him a lot of relaxation, 23:55 I take a hose with cold water and I would spray it right there 23:59 in the appendix area and then sort of just play it up the 24:03 Ascending, across the Transverse and down the Descending colon 24:06 and I would do this over and over again. 24:08 Now whether that helped or the Russian Steam Bath helped 24:12 or the two other treatments that I was giving him helped, 24:15 whatever it was, he was told one night... 24:18 He was woken in the middle of the night... 24:19 He heard his name and he woke up and he looked over to see 24:22 what his wife wanted... she was sound asleep over there, 24:24 he turned back over and he heard his name again and he realized 24:28 it wasn't a human speaking to him, 24:30 and the voice in his room said "YOU ARE HEALED" 24:33 and he was completely healed of this particular problem. 24:37 So the simple things that we can do, again I would recommend 24:40 the slippery elm, I would recommend the garlic, 24:43 I would recommend staying away from the irritating 24:45 substances, the coffee, colas, chocolates, and the alcohol, 24:50 and of course the meat and the milk, and eating a 24:52 bland diet to help this problem cure itself. 24:56 If you do this it is a whole lot better than the other options. 25:00 Yes, and often these very simple things can be helpful 25:05 Ulcerative Colitis which is a perplexing and 25:09 distressing disorder. 25:11 Another disorder of the colon is that of polyps. 25:14 Polyps are small finger like projections, or they begin small 25:18 and they grow and they can get to be quite huge, 25:23 almost golf ball or the size or a peach and these 25:29 individuals can have major symptoms from polyps. 25:33 There is another kind of polypoid disease called 25:37 Adenomatous Polyposis of the colon. 25:40 This has some hereditary components of it and sometimes 25:47 these individuals require even a Cholectomy. 25:50 The entire colon being bleeding and raw but fortunately 25:55 that is not a common disease, but individuals who have it 25:59 can be helped by following a very careful lifestyle. 26:04 Now with polyps, they are often due to lifestyle transgressions 26:10 and you know the eight natural laws of health expanded to 26:16 all of those that we generally talk about up to 14 or more 26:21 laws of health and apply all of these in your life as you can. 26:26 Polyps of the colon can progress to cancer of the colon, 26:32 polyps are considered to be pre-cancerous and with 26:36 cancer of the colon there is really a serious problem. 26:39 But even with cancer of the colon there are things that 26:43 can be done that can slow down the growth of the cancer and 26:46 make it so that the individual with colon cancer can have a 26:51 partial remission or sometimes a complete remission. 26:55 We had a woman at Uchee Pines one time who went 18 years 27:00 from the diagnosis of an annular cancer, 27:03 which grows in a circular fashion around the colon 27:08 until the time that she got widespread metatheses and died, 27:12 but we felt that her remission was a great tribute to 27:16 changing her lifestyle, becoming a total vegetarian 27:20 eating just high fiber plant based diet and trusting in 27:27 divine power. 27:28 There are symptoms that one has throughout one's life 27:34 that can indicate the probability or an increased 27:38 risk of getting a cancer of the colon and these are 27:40 such things intestinal bleeding, and hemorrhoids, 27:44 and a variety of symptoms such as that. 27:48 Now we hope that our discussion of these problems with the 27:53 gastrointestinal tract will give you a more peaceful 27:56 colon and gastrointestinal tract. |
Revised 2014-12-17