Participants: Agatha Thrash (Host), Don Miller
Series Code: HYTH
Program Code: HYTH000207
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00:01 The nervous system is one of our most complete systems,
00:05 it permeates all of the cells of the body, if you touch here 00:09 there are nerves there, if you touch here there are nerves 00:12 there, and if you touch down on the bottom of your foot 00:15 there are nerves there. 00:16 With all of these nerves, it's quite possible that something 00:21 could go wrong with some of them. 00:22 We will discuss some of these things that go wrong with the 00:26 nervous system in this program, and we hope you will join us 00:30 with our talk on Neurologic Problems. 00:53 Welcome to Help Yourself To Health, with Dr. Agatha Thrash 00:57 O f Uchee Pines Institute. 00:59 Now here is your host Dr. Thrash. 01:02 It's a wonderful age to live in, in which we are learning 01:07 so many things for so many diseases. 01:09 I just love living in this age because I love understanding 01:13 some new things about what is happening to people, 01:16 especially those with neurologic problems. 01:18 There was a time when we didn't have much that we could do 01:23 for a lot of neurologic problems that now we know more 01:27 about the disease, and we know more about the nervous system 01:31 and how it functions. 01:32 So we can help people who have neurologic problems 01:36 and one that I would like to talk about is 01:38 Multiple Sclerosis. 01:39 It's really a quite common disorder and we have of course 01:46 a little bit more frequently in women, than in men, 01:48 but in all areas of society, all levels of the geography 01:55 end of the socio-economic levels people have Multiple Sclerosis. 02:01 Now we do find however, that in tropical areas 02:06 they have far less than they do in more northerly climbs. 02:11 Why is that? We aren't entirely certain, but one thing may be 02:15 that something happens to the nervous system 02:18 in early childhood, in people who live in tropical countries 02:23 that protects them throughout their life 02:25 from Multiple Sclerosis. 02:28 What that is we don't know, whether its the continual warmth 02:33 or whether its the kind of food, or the way they live, 02:36 or what it is, we are just not certain. 02:40 But if a person from the tropics goes to a place in the very 02:46 northern most parts of the world, they carry with them 02:50 the risk of Multiple Sclerosis that they had in their 02:55 home area, not in the area that they are transplanted to. 02:59 Those who are born in northern climates carry with them to a 03:05 tropical area, the same risks that they would have if they 03:09 still continue to live in the more northern climate. 03:13 Some things about Multiple Sclerosis are quite puzzling 03:18 why it is that some people get a type of Multiple Sclerosis 03:22 that goes to death in just a few weeks, its just a very 03:27 accelerated form of Multiple Sclerosis. 03:30 Why does that happen? No one knows. 03:33 Why is it that some people will get Multiple Sclerosis 03:36 and they have a very slow progress through 03:41 a long life eventually succumbing to the 03:45 Multiple Sclerosis, but only after decades have passed. 03:48 This is puzzling, we don't know exactly why this is. 03:52 There are things that we know to do for the person with 03:56 Multiple Sclerosis to slow down the process, 03:59 and I will mention a few of those, there are many of them, 04:02 so in order to get the full picture, you would need to make 04:07 a study of Multiple Sclerosis, which we have done, 04:10 and have written up at Uchee Pines and by 04:13 simply going on the web to the 3ABN web site and clicking 04:20 on Uchee Pines in the contacts, you can find how to get in touch 04:26 with us to get that written paper on Multiple Sclerosis. 04:32 But some of the things that we have found, are that 04:36 diet is very helpful. 04:38 The kind of diet that one should use is one that has no hard fats 04:43 in it, you can use just the all soft fats that you would like 04:48 and they will furnish the amount of saturated fats that you need 04:52 for your essential fatty acids, without giving you those 04:58 fatty acids that may be harmful to your nervous system. 05:01 Then of course the diet shall be of a nature that 05:05 will make it so you will not gain weight, 05:07 because if the muscles get weak with the disease, the more 05:11 weight they carry, the more difficult it's going to be 05:14 for you to get around. 05:16 So the person with Multiple Sclerosis should 05:19 guard the weight very carefully. 05:21 Now another thing about diet is that it should principally 05:25 vegetarian. 05:26 Vegetarian people do better than people who are not 05:29 vegetarian, who have Multiple Sclerosis. 05:33 Another thing you should know about what we have discovered 05:37 about the cause, is that in Multiple Sclerosis 05:41 people who have chilled extremities 05:44 early in life, maybe this has to do with 05:46 the place that they live, 05:48 this may have to do with multiple Sclerosis. 05:52 There was some research done a number of years ago 05:55 that indicated that sick animals, pets, or livestock 06:01 that the child may have been exposed to, sick livestock. 06:06 That there was some thought that that might be involved 06:10 in the persons background. 06:13 Certainly for any household with children in it, they should 06:18 not have pets, in the same household. 06:20 The pets should live somewhere else, 06:24 and children should be taught that when they have contact 06:26 with the animal, they always wash the hands 06:29 before they touch the face, or the mouth, or any other thing 06:33 that might go into the mouth. 06:36 In addition to Multiple Sclerosis, there is another 06:40 very serious type of neurological problem 06:43 called epilepsy and Dr. Don Miller who is with me today 06:47 will talk with you about epilepsy. 06:51 Dr. Miller. 06:52 Thank you Dr. Thrash. 06:53 I was in Zambia a few years ago, it was the Sabbath 06:57 at lunch time, we were gathered in the cafeteria there 07:00 and it sounded like someone dropped a bowling ball 07:06 or a watermelon, across between the two on the other side 07:09 of the room, I looked, and one of the African young men, 07:13 on the floor writhing around, I went straight over there 07:16 and he was having a seizure, an epileptic seizure. 07:20 So he went through the stages of the seizure, he finally got 07:24 done, he was in the sleep phase afterwards, I went and talked 07:28 with him, I said how long have you had epilepsy? 07:32 He said I've never had a seizure before, I've never had epilepsy. 07:36 So we started doing a little bit of investigation, 07:39 what caused this problem? 07:41 It turned out he was having a bout of Malaria, 07:44 and he was taking a new Malaria medication, 07:46 and one of the side effects was seizures, 07:51 so we could trace it back. 07:53 Whenever a person is having a seizure, try to find out... 07:57 Let's say someone is having a seizure and they have never 07:59 had one before, they may not be epileptic. 08:02 Although it is a seizure of an epileptic nature, 08:05 but find out what might have precipitated this one. 08:09 A very common cause for seizures today is the food additive 08:15 called Aspartame. 08:16 Its been shown to cause seizures in humans and so 08:20 we should make sure we are taking none of these things 08:23 with Aspartame in the ingredients. 08:25 That means most of your diet colas, many of the little 08:29 artificial sweeteners that you 08:32 put in whatever you might be drinking that needs sweetening. 08:35 Stay away from Aspartame! 08:36 Basically an epileptic seizure is a disturbance 08:41 in the transmission of electrical signals in the brain, 08:45 and it can be caused by many different things. 08:47 A head injury, now you may have had a head injury 08:51 ten years ago, and it might be starting to manifest itself now 08:55 in seizures. It does not happen immediately, so look in the past 08:59 Have you injured your head, Have you injured your neck, 09:02 have you injured your spinal cord, all these things can 09:05 precipitate, and lead to epileptic seizures some time 09:09 down the line, so be aware of those things. 09:11 There are some other causes: high fevers. 09:15 Again a high fever some time in the past, 09:18 can set you for seizures in the future. 09:21 Infections: many infections can set a person up the seizures. 09:26 Constipation in the transverse colon. 09:30 Where is the transverse colon? 09:32 Basically your small intestine leads out into the cecum, 09:36 which is down in the area of your appendix. 09:38 As a matter of fact, hanging off your cecum, 09:41 is your little appendix, and then it goes up in the 09:44 ascending colon, and then across just below your diaphragm 09:48 you might almost think a little bit lower is your transverse 09:52 colon, and then it goes down to your descending. 09:55 It is congestion and constipation 09:57 in the transverse colon 09:59 For over 100 years this has been one of the 10:02 supposed causes and probable causes of epileptic seizures, 10:08 and that is normally caused by, and one of the reasons they 10:13 have been talking about... for over 100 years is soft bread. 10:16 These old things, you can take a whole loaf of bread, 10:19 and wad it up in your hand. 10:21 Basically they recommend that a person, that has epilepsy 10:24 stay off of, especially soft bread, maybe all breads, 10:28 and all mushy grains, because they can tend to constipate 10:33 the transverse colon. 10:34 Good thing to stay away from! 10:36 Also the malfunction of the Ileocecal valve. 10:41 You've got this little valve, that just as your 10:44 small intestine goes into the cecum, 10:47 it's called the Ileocecal valve. 10:48 If there's a malfunction there, powerful toxins can back up 10:53 from the colon into the small bowel, and cause some 10:56 toxification of the small bowel, and then there could be some 11:02 leakage into the peritoneal cavity, and it could get into 11:06 the blood stream, and affect the neurological apparatus 11:10 in the brain. 11:12 So this could be another cause, so stay away from... 11:14 You really can't stay away from a malfunctioning Ileocecal 11:19 valve, but you can try to keep yourself from having distention 11:23 in the bowel over to much pressure from constipation 11:27 or straining, things like this. 11:30 Stay away from those things and keep that valve 11:31 in good shape. 11:33 What are some things you can do for epilepsy? 11:35 We're not going to say you can take this herb and its ok. 11:38 If there was a simple cure, we wouldn't have epilepsy today, 11:42 but there are things that we do to help with it. 11:45 #1. The person that has epilepsy needs to be 11:49 on a regular schedule, they have got to be religiously 11:53 regular in their schedule. 11:54 They need to be in the exercising programs. 11:57 We find that people have any type of neurologic problem, 12:00 exercise is extremely beneficial for that particular 12:03 person. 12:04 They need to have a lot of raw vegetables and fruits, 12:08 It is extremely good, their nutrition has to come up far 12:11 higher, than it probably already was. 12:13 So fruits and vegetables, a lot of them raw, 12:16 they should do some B6 supplementation, 12:18 which can also help the nerves in the body. 12:23 Yellow and orange fruits and vegetables. 12:26 I like the way that God has made the fruits and vegetables, 12:28 he color codes them. 12:29 So if you have this type of a problem, 12:32 eat the yellow and the orange thing. 12:34 Then do some other supplementation. 12:38 You can do some manganese 25 mg. a day, some magnesium, 12:43 about 1 gram a day, or 1,000 mg. a day can also help, 12:47 and exercise. 12:49 If a person has epilepsy. 12:52 It comes in four stages: 12:54 The first stage you need to be aware of, it's called the "aura" 12:58 Most people who are going have a seizure 13:02 go through this thing and they know 13:04 and anyone who knows what their "aura" is can tell 13:08 this person is getting ready to have a seizure. 13:10 There are a few things that you can do at this point. 13:13 Over 100 years ago John Harvey Kellogg, 13:16 recommended that you get a cold treatment, a cold pail pour 13:20 at this time, can sometimes short circuit 13:23 the epileptic seizure. 13:24 I've heard about people when they get into this "aura" 13:28 if they realize that their "aura" is a little bit 13:30 longer than normal, if their aura normally is a long "aura" 13:35 they should get outside and get in some intense 13:38 physical activity, and sometimes that alone can 13:42 short stop the seizure, and you not have the seizure. 13:45 Doing these simple things getting the body back in shape. 13:49 When we are in a disease situation, we need to no matter 13:53 what the disease is, do everything that we know to do 13:56 right, and sometimes the body itself then will say ok 13:59 we are finally doing things right, and correct 14:01 the situations itself. 14:03 I think that's pretty good advice Dr. Thrash, 14:05 no matter what we might have. 14:06 That sounds very good. 14:07 Parkinson's disease, another form of serious neurologic 14:13 disorder, is fairly common in our society, 14:17 and involves about equally men and women. 14:22 Maybe just a little bit more men than women, and the neurologic 14:27 problems that they have, begin often with a little tremor 14:30 and the tremor may be at first barely discernable, 14:34 but eventually it get to be quite a lot more. 14:37 In addition to the tremor, there is rigidity, and the rigidity 14:43 may be of a very special kind, so that when you pull on the arm 14:48 instead of getting a smooth movement, such as you just saw 14:54 they will do something like this, called cog-wheeling 14:58 they relax spasmodically and so you get this cog-wheeling 15:04 effect that comes on with the Parkinson's disease. 15:09 The tremor, the stiffness, or rigidity, those are two very 15:15 important symptoms, and almost always have them. 15:18 The tremor may also be what is called the pill rollers 15:21 type of tremor, where the person has a little bit of 15:25 rigidity involving the major part of the hand, 15:30 but the finger do this little pill rolling thing, 15:32 that the pharmacists used to do when they made their pills. 15:37 Some other things that are very important in Parkinson's, 15:42 in making the disease, is the fact that Parkinson's people 15:47 will have a slowness in speaking, a slowness in uptake, 15:55 a slowness in walking, they tend to get into an activity 16:00 rather slowly. 16:01 Those are the major symptoms, there are a bunch of minor ones 16:06 as well, and I will just mention a few of these: 16:08 They may have a problem with a masked face, 16:13 balance can be a pretty major problem, lack of balance, 16:19 or loss of the ability to stand upright. 16:23 Then writing, with very small letters, they often do that. 16:29 They may get a greasy face, that tends to go 16:33 along with Parkinson's as well. 16:34 They may have difficulty in speaking, they may get a low 16:38 voice, in fact sometimes this may cause 16:41 a little marital distress. 16:43 Before the wife understands what is going on 16:45 with her husband, he begins to talk in this low rather slow 16:51 voice, and she may think that he is being hostile toward her. 16:56 When actually he is just having a phase of his disease. 17:00 Sometimes a year or more will go by from the onset of fairly 17:06 marked symptoms before the diagnosis is made. 17:09 Families will often make excuses for their family member, 17:12 and try to cover these up in front of other people. 17:16 The emotional liability, that they have, crying at the drop 17:21 of a hat, if they see somebody that they haven't see for a long 17:24 time, even though they may just be acquaintances, 17:27 they may have an emotional response 17:31 of bringing forth tears. 17:33 Tears that may require a little while to get under control. 17:38 They have also difficulty in swallowing, they may have that, 17:45 this is one of the minor symptoms as well, and a number 17:49 of other minor symptoms that can come with 17:52 Parkinson's disease. 17:54 Once the diagnosis is made, then there are several things that 17:58 the person can do to slow down the disease, 18:01 one is never over eat, has been associated with the development 18:07 of Parkinson's, that of over eating, 18:10 it's just overeating of all food. 18:12 Even people who are eating basically a very good diet, 18:16 can because of the mere fact that they over eat, they get 18:20 symptoms of Parkinson's, and many people, especially if they 18:24 get past the age of 60, when they over eat a single meal, 18:28 they will find that an ordinary steady hand, 18:31 becomes a little unsteady and tremulous. 18:34 Another thing is that the person should move. 18:38 We see also that in individuals with Parkinson's, often they 18:44 are not exercisers, but with the stiffness that comes with 18:48 Parkinson's disease. 18:49 If they keep the muscles moving, 18:51 just as a moving stream will not freeze, so the moving 18:56 muscle will not get stiff, so they should make a very definite 19:01 effort to stay moving, and any kind of exercise 19:05 that they can do will be helpful. 19:07 Fava beans and velvet beans are also very helpful, 19:14 they have L-Dopa in them, the very best source of L-Dopa, 19:18 in the vegetable kingdom is from fava beans, these are big 19:23 broad beans, you can buy these at a health food store, 19:28 and if you can find those that are sproutable, 19:31 you can increase the quantity of L-Dopa by about 10 times. 19:36 Velvet beans, another form of good bean for L-Dopa. 19:42 Then there are some exercises for the shuffling feet, 19:46 of course the flexibility exercises, 19:49 be certain not to wear shoes that have 19:52 gripping type of soles, because shoes that slide, 19:56 can help a person who has Parkinson's, who is doing 20:00 the shuffling gate, can help them not to fall. 20:03 If the shoe, when they are going to slide the shoe and 20:08 it grips the surface, then they are more likely to topple. 20:11 Learn where the support groups are for Parkinson's disease, 20:16 in your community, and join one of those so that 20:20 you can learn how best to deal with this problem. 20:22 Another interesting feature of neurologic disease 20:27 is, that of depression. 20:29 While not basically a problem with altered nerves, 20:33 or sick nerves, it is certainly a problem of the 20:37 central nervous system, and Dr. Don Miller is going to 20:40 talk with you about depression now. 20:42 There are various forms of depression, 20:45 we will just talk about the garden variety depression. 20:47 There is a thing called seasonal affective disorder, 20:51 that a person going in to a certain season, 20:54 usually the winter seasons, the Christmas holidays, 20:57 whatever else they get into this depression. 20:58 These things can pretty much be covered by some of the things 21:02 I'll be talking about right now. 21:04 Basically, you can have physiological, 21:07 or psychological causes for your depression. 21:10 If a person has a chronic illness, like hepatitis, 21:13 or some other type of long term illness, 21:16 it can be very depressing for the person. 21:18 But also if there is a loss, if the person looses a loved one, 21:23 or looses a job, it can send them into a depression. 21:26 You can tell if a person is in a depression, you can just look 21:29 at their face, there face is expressionless. 21:31 Basically, they are pretty much flat lined 21:35 on many of the different areas, their appetite goes away, 21:38 their ambitions go away, they don't sleep very well. 21:44 Their energy is low, they just don't think straight, 21:47 a lot of different things are just sort of flat, 21:49 it's just a boring existence. 21:51 What can you do for a person 21:53 who is in this type of depression? 21:55 1. There has got to be a way to lift up the thoughts. 21:59 There is a law that I like very much, it's called 22:02 The Law of Reciprocal Influence. 22:04 As a person thinks in his heart, so is he. 22:08 If a person feels depressed, and he goes around telling 22:11 everybody how depressed he is 22:12 it only reinforces that depression. 22:15 The best thing that you can do for a person who is in 22:18 depression, is to find some way to turn their thoughts, 22:21 and their minds, and their expressions, their words, 22:24 into something more elevating. 22:25 Often if you talk with a person depressed, 22:29 they are going to tell you all their problems 22:31 it's always good to listen to them, but somehow 22:35 in that conversation keep trying to find a piece 22:39 of blessing, that they can find in their darkness. 22:43 Always try to lift their thoughts up, and say, 22:45 what went good for you yesterday, or if you can think 22:49 of something that's good about them, tell them, 22:51 and you are going to find that as they express positive things, 22:55 their spirits are going to rise, 22:57 A person with depression needs to have sunlight. 23:01 We find that people who live in northern climates, have more 23:05 depression than those who live in the southern climates. 23:07 We recommend for people with depression, that as soon as it 23:11 is time to get up in the morning, they turn on all the 23:14 lights in the room. 23:15 Bright lights in the eye are extremely good for someone 23:17 who is depressed. 23:18 The person who is depressed should get a lot of outdoor 23:20 activity, exercise is good for depression, sunshine is good 23:25 for depression, fresh air is good for depression. 23:27 So we need to get them into these particular things. 23:29 Deep breathing exercises is extremely good for depression. 23:35 There is a very easy exercise, and I'm going to 23:37 teach you right now. 23:38 What you basically do, your are taking a walk. 23:40 It's a good time to do your deep breathing exercise. 23:43 As you walk, count how many steps it takes to draw in 23:48 one breath of air. 23:49 Let's say you are walking along and you start to inhale, 23:53 you are counting 1, 2, 3, 4 steps, you got your air in, 23:57 that's your factor of one, and then what you want do 24:02 is multiply that factor by 4, so that makes it up to 16. 24:08 So what you do is you hold your breath for a factor of 16. 24:13 So you have walked along breathing in to the count of 4, 24:18 holding it for a count of 16 or 16 steps, and then you exhale it 24:23 for a factor of 2, which means 8, so sssss 24:29 and some- times it's pretty hard to get 24:32 the last bit out, because 8 steps is a long time. 24:36 You are going to find this to be very good 24:38 for many different problems. 24:40 Exercise, regularity, sunshine. 24:43 There is an interesting study that came out of 24:45 Ohio State University. 24:47 They found a good way to eliminate depression, 24:50 mood swings, irritability, nightmares, 24:54 and did three to do this. 24:56 Now you write these three things down, if you have 24:59 somebody who's depressed this could be the cause: 25:02 Sugary junk foods, refined carbohydrates, and caffeine, 25:07 caffeine type beverages, like coffee, tea, cola, 25:12 and then chocolate, eliminating those three things, found that 25:16 many people who had depression, eliminated all these things, 25:18 it was completely gone, a good suggestion and it doesn't cost 25:22 you any money to do it. 25:23 Often certain drugs can cause a person to be depressed, 25:28 so look at the side effects of drugs. 25:30 If a person is taking a drug, if a side effect is depression, 25:34 then try to find a different drug that does not 25:37 give them that problem. 25:38 There are some herbs that you can take, 25:41 Dr. Thrash has mentioned them, and many times the same herbs 25:44 that are for one thing in the neurological system, 25:47 is good for another, St. John's Wort, of course is good for 25:50 depression, you are going to hear that they are saying, 25:53 oh St. John's Wort is not good. 25:56 The reason why they many times say this, 25:58 for a person who is depressed, because they are already 26:00 taking anti-depressants, and the St. John's Wort 26:04 is so effective, it's like getting a double whammy, 26:06 so we recommend the St. John's Wort. 26:09 Valerian is another very good tea, and Ginkgo Biloba, 26:14 another good tea for someone who has depression. 26:16 So lift your spirits, be happy, talk positive things, 26:20 and Dr. Thrash, I believe if you talk positive things 26:23 your spirits will rise. 26:24 Oh yes! It does, and it has been shown also, that the expression 26:28 that you have on the face can also make a difference 26:31 in how you feel inside. 26:33 So if you don't feel really bright and cheerful, 26:37 put a cheerful look on the face anyway, and that will help 26:41 not only you but the people around you. 26:43 The exercise of taking a breath for a certain number of steps 26:50 and then multiplying by a factor of four, 26:52 holding the breath for that length of time, and then 26:55 exhaling on the factor of 2, that little exercise 26:59 is also very good for hypertension. 27:00 Hypertension is also related to the nerves in many ways. 27:05 The way that we think can influence the tightness 27:10 of the muscle strength in our small blood vessels, 27:16 and that of course does have a very profound effect 27:19 on the blood pressure. 27:21 So learning how to breathe in a proper way, 27:23 even if you need to get one of these recording devices 27:28 that gives you a signal when to breathe in, 27:30 and when to breathe out, that can be also 27:33 very good for hypertension. 27:34 In neurologic diseases we need to study everyone 27:40 that we may have, so that we can find the very best 27:43 treatment for the neurologic disorder we have not covered 27:47 everything by any means, and new things are being developed 27:51 all the time, so that there are constant changes. 27:53 May the Lord bless you with a good neurologic system. |
Revised 2014-12-17