Participants: Agatha Thrash (Host), Don Miller
Series Code: HYTH
Program Code: HYTH000215
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00:01 Since the beginning of time men on this earth have used
00:05 herbal products to treat disease, there as natural 00:10 as the whole of the out of doors. 00:12 You will hear a lot these days about herbal products 00:16 and how many people are using them. 00:18 We need to learn how to use them in a proper manner 00:21 so we can get the most out of it and also that we 00:24 won't have any danger of being harmed by herbs. 00:28 So if you have an interest in this very natural 00:31 type of treatment, we hope you will join us for this program 00:34 because we will be talking about several of these. 00:56 Welcome to Help Yourself to Health 00:58 with Dr. Agatha Thrash of Uchee Pines Institute 01:02 and now here is your host Dr. Thrash. 01:05 When I first heard of herbal remedies, 01:09 I thought how antiquated is the thought of taking an herb. 01:17 But when I was in medical school for an uncomfortable 01:23 problem that I had one month somebody said here, 01:26 drink this tea, so I drank the tea, in minutes I was no 01:33 longer uncomfortable, and I said what was that? 01:37 She said why that was Lydia Pinkham's Compound, 01:42 I said Lydia Pinkham, 01:45 I thought that Lydia Pinkham's closed up 01:47 about 75 or 100 years ago. 01:50 It was amazing how much benefit I received from that 01:55 herbal remedy. 01:56 But then I went through pharmacology, 02:01 and I went my clinical training and after the clinical years, 02:05 I was very well indoctrinated in the general allopathic 02:11 way of practicing medicine with drugs and surgery 02:15 and it never crossed my mind to ever even investigate 02:19 about herbs, it was a number of years later, 02:21 maybe 20 years later when I met a man who a horticulturist 02:28 a PhD., in botany, had worked with the 02:32 Department of Agriculture for many years 02:35 and truly enjoyed investigating about herbs. 02:40 I began to realize that herbs have been thoroughly researched 02:45 in some instances, and their safety has been determined 02:49 and their effectiveness has been worked out 02:53 and we began rather gingerly to use a few herbs 03:00 and as we learned a little bit about a few herbs, 03:02 we were emboldened to learn a bit about a few more, 03:06 and when we found out how very effective they are 03:09 we began to realize, this is something that the Lord 03:13 has provided for us to use to treat people with 03:17 in cases of sickness. 03:19 Then came up the whole subject of their safety, 03:23 a lot of medical journals were carrying warning articles 03:27 BEWARE of this or that kind of herb, this can be toxic 03:34 in this way and somebody was found to be injured 03:37 with this herb or that herb maybe, 03:39 so I began to wonder about the safety of the herbs. 03:44 One day I began to compare how many people had died 03:50 from some kind of herbal preparation, 03:54 and how many people had died from some kind of 03:57 pharmaceutical preparation, and I thought to myself 04:01 herbs are incredibly safe, and they are also highly effective 04:07 in many cases. 04:08 So as time has gone by, I have found that those herbs 04:16 that we use on a customary basis, that they are incredibly 04:20 safe, they can be used even in over dosage by people who 04:24 never had any kind of training at all, and they do 04:27 perfectly well in handling the herbs. 04:29 So instead of being fearful of herbs, we should study herbs, 04:33 we should try to get some observations that can be 04:36 helpful not only in our own families, but also to share 04:41 with our friends and neighbors, and people who go to our church. 04:45 Thinking about the safety of various herbs, 04:51 brings us to think about the safety of certain other 04:54 kinds of supplements. 04:55 What about nutrient supplements are they always safe? 04:59 Can these be used indiscriminately? 05:02 Or do we need to have a little education about them 05:06 so that we can keep from injuring someone with 05:10 the nutrient supplements that we have. 05:12 So Dr. Don Miller is with me today, 05:14 and he has done a little study in nutrient supplements 05:18 and he is going to share some of that with us now. 05:21 - Ok! Nutrient supplements are quite common in the 05:24 United States, about 158,000,000 Americans on an average basis, 05:32 or common basis use supplements, spending about 05:36 8.5 billion dollars on the things, so there must be 05:40 something to them or it's a pretty good salesman job. 05:43 But I think there is something to supplementation, 05:46 but let me say at the very beginning, 05:48 the best supplementation you can do is by eating 05:51 the right foods, fruits, vegetables, whole grains nuts, 05:54 and seeds, prepared in as natural form as possible, 05:57 eaten with a peaceful mind, is your best supplementation. 06:01 Because of all of the supplements that we take, 06:04 probably Americans have the most expensive urine 06:08 in the entire world, because most of it, especially the 06:11 water soluble vitamins are going right out into the urine 06:15 the fat soul able can over a period of time accumulate 06:19 in the body and cause us other problems. 06:21 If we are taking supplementation as a prophylactic's 06:25 or just on a daily maintenance dose, I don't really recommend 06:29 this because your body can get used to taking it in a 06:34 pill form, and often in a really..., taken away from all 06:38 of it's constituent coding in such an un-natural form 06:42 that it really looses the knack for being able 06:45 to pull it out of another product, 06:47 let's say like vitamin C, if you take a lot of vitamin C 06:51 every single day, because we know it's good for us 06:53 our body can become so used to using it from the pill 06:57 when we get off of the tablet, when we get off of the pill, 07:00 the body may have forgotten how to draw 07:03 out of the orange, out of the avocado, and we can get 07:07 then a C deficiency problem, and so it's best to use it 07:11 when we need it. 07:12 I like to supplement or have people supplement, 07:15 when they have a reason for supplementation. 07:18 Now there are certain supplementations, 07:20 and I'm going to mention a few in just a few moments here 07:23 that we... we're going to let you think 07:27 about what you think is right. 07:28 The main one we think about, the main one that people are 07:32 concerned with is vitamin B12, should we supplement with 07:35 vitamin B12? 07:36 Well normally if a person is not a vegetarian 07:40 they don't have to worry about it for the most part, 07:42 although now days, animals are getting so many antibiotics 07:46 they don't have B12, but for the most part you don't have 07:49 to worry, lacto-ovo vegetarians will probably be getting enough 07:53 vitamin B12 through these products to take care of their 07:56 systems. 07:58 I have known people, I know people who have been vegans, 08:00 that means total vegetarians their entire lives, 08:03 who do not have any vitamin B12 insufficiencies or 08:08 manifestations in their bodies, and so it's not a problem 08:11 for them, but if a person's worried about it, 08:14 then I would say go ahead and supplement with B12, 08:16 get the sublingual kind, the type that you chew up 08:19 and swallow, not just taking the pill. 08:21 You can get this type and make sure there not from 08:25 an animal source, so B12 especially when you start to get 08:28 older or if you are rather sedentary or infirmed 08:32 perhaps B12 could be an idea that you could take. 08:36 I'm certainly not against taking the vitamin B12. 08:38 Vitamin E, it's an extremely good thing to have in the body 08:43 it's an anti-oxidant, but we should get our vitamin E from 08:48 our foods, it's a fat soluble vitamin, our body is then able 08:51 to store it in the fat and use it over a period of time, 08:54 If it's not something that you eat, if doesn't use it 08:56 it goes out of the body, you save it. 08:58 But if you want a therapeutic dose of vitamin E, 09:02 perhaps 1,000 mcg day would be where you would want to go. 09:06 You don't need to have a whole lot just get a little bit, 09:10 I meant 400 I.U., I was looking up at my vitamin B12 09:16 list for the maintenance, so about 400 I.U. per day 09:20 for the E if you are trying to get over a particular problem. 09:25 Calcium, eat your greens, eat your fruit, eat your vegetables 09:31 for your calcium, if you are prone to osteoporosis, 09:35 if you are in line to get osteoporosis because of 09:38 maybe the lifestyle you have been living, you are getting 09:42 in that age, whatever, you are afraid about osteoporosis 09:45 then you might do some supplementation with the calcium 09:49 but be careful with the calcium supplementation because it, 09:52 itself can cause other problems. 09:54 I would not recommend you supplement with more 09:57 dairy protein because all that, or dairy calcium, because that 10:00 causes you because of the protein content, to loose 10:03 more calcium in your urine. 10:05 Vitamin C, eat your oranges, eat your fruits, 10:09 eat your vegetables for your vitamin C. 10:11 If you are going through a period of time when you've got 10:14 a lot of sickness around you then it's time for prophylactic 10:17 measures, time for heroic measures, perhaps you can take 10:20 a little bit more vitamin C during that time, 10:23 but as a maintenance dose I would not recommend it. 10:26 Vitamin D not needed, you get plenty from the sunshine 10:31 if you are getting into the older years, 10:34 you might think about doing some supplementation if 10:36 your are worried about it, if you are sedentary 10:38 you sort of a shut in, between 400 and 1200 I.U. a day 10:43 would be enough for you and your supplementation there. 10:45 Basically the bottom line there is eat your fruits 10:49 and vegetables, people take far more supplements than they 10:53 really need, we spend a lot of money on these supplements 10:57 and we sit there and think in our minds that, 10:59 if I take this supplement, that will take care of my problems. 11:02 What you need to do is eat your fruits, your vegetables, 11:05 your whole grains, your nuts, and your seeds, 11:08 and then get your nutrients there, and then if you have 11:11 any other problem, you say I know I have a deficiency here 11:14 then you do some supplementation. 11:17 You know a lot of people are making a lot of money 11:20 Dr. Thrash on supplements, I think they could spend 11:23 some more of that money on oranges. 11:26 - Yeah! You are right about that, 11:27 I think that a lot of people 11:30 especially overtake on minerals, and when minerals go high 11:34 in the body they can become oxidants, and we talk a lot 11:38 about anti-oxidants, but we should think about oxidants 11:41 as well. 11:42 Iron is an oxidant in a high dose, and can increase the rate 11:47 at which we age, and some of the other minerals are also 11:51 oxidants in high dosage. 11:54 Now I would like to mention next the whole group 11:58 of herbal remedies called anti-inflammatories. 12:02 An inflammation is characterized by redness and swelling and heat 12:08 and pain, and so if you have any of that, then you should 12:12 think of some kind of anti- inflammatory herb, of course 12:16 to supplement the other things that you are doing 12:17 such as exercise, or massage, if that's applicable, 12:22 or passive movements, or hydrotherapy, 12:27 what ever you may be doing otherwise, think also of the 12:31 possibility of using some kind of anti-inflammatory 12:34 herbal agent. 12:36 One of the very best is flax seed, and we often have that 12:39 in the home because of its high fatty acid content, 12:42 it has some excellent fatty acids in it, such as the Omega 3 12:47 types, so we want to take a little of the flax seed 12:53 ground freshly and I want to emphasize the freshly. 12:57 Ground freshly so that it can be of help to the heart 13:01 and the blood vessels, and the blood fats. 13:05 That also is an anti- inflammatory agent, 13:06 in fact one of the ways that it is heart healthy 13:12 is because of it's anti-inflammatory capabilities. 13:16 Also very helpful is that of Hawthorne Berry, 13:21 Hawthorne Berry is a very close relative to crab apple 13:26 and to other apples, they are all in the rose family, 13:31 and so with the capabilities of Hawthorne Berries you can 13:36 can expect that an apple also has some anti-inflammatory 13:40 qualities, and that is true. 13:42 But Hawthorne Berry is far higher in the constituents 13:46 that perform the anti- inflammatory functions for us. 13:52 Ordinary turmeric in the kitchen has many anti-inflammatory 13:57 qualities, it is very good, I could recommend that to you, 14:00 the dosage is about 1/2 teaspoon to a teaspoonful, taken over 14:06 a full day. 14:07 Then there is also Feverfew, Boswellia, the White Willow Bark 14:14 all of these are anti-inflammatory, 14:17 and then there is one that is used far less than it should be, 14:22 and that is Ashwagandha, you can find Ashwagandha at 14:26 most health food stores. 14:28 Ashwagandha has a number of very fine properties, 14:32 it is not an expensive herb and it should be used far more 14:36 than it is, and I would like to see people doing that. 14:40 Every time I go to a country where I can expect to get 14:46 some kind of parasite, Malaria or an intestinal parasite, 14:51 or a skin parasite, I always take with me some Wormwood 14:55 and Dr. Miller has had some experience in going to countries 15:01 where there are parasitic agents, 15:04 either those that affect the blood, or the skin, 15:06 or the bowels, Dr. Miller what do you do when you go to 15:11 the countries that you know you are going to be exposed? 15:15 I pray a lot before I go to these countries, 15:17 because you never know what you are going to get, 15:19 and you get some of these bugs over there, 15:21 and they are with you from now until the final fires. 15:24 It's a sometimes challenging and exciting experience and so 15:29 what I try to do is first of all prepare myself for the trip, 15:34 if the body is strong it is going to be more likely to 15:36 resist any invaders. 15:38 I also take with me one supplement that I like to 15:40 travel with, which is called Grapefruit Seed Extract. 15:43 It's a natural herbal that's been extracted from 15:46 grapefruit seeds, extremely bitter, I add this to my water 15:50 if I'm in an area where I'm not sure of the water source. 15:52 But there are other supplements that I will take with me, 15:57 other herbs, or herbs that I will find when I'm in the area 16:00 which is a wise thing to do if you are going to travel 16:03 into an area, learn about what grows in that area, 16:07 that can be a natural agent to take care of parasites, 16:12 worms, and other things. 16:13 Let's say if you are going to Africa, which I do every 16:17 once in awhile, there the problem is Malaria, 16:20 what are you going to do for Malaria, take a Malaria 16:22 prophylactic's, I don't want to do this, and so what I do 16:25 as soon as I get to Africa, every day, and there is plenty 16:29 of papaya around, I will have a papaya always in the 16:33 refrigerator, and every day, now I usually go overboard, 16:36 they say you can do this two or three times a week, 16:38 every day I'll take between one and two teaspoonfuls 16:42 of papaya seeds, I just put them in my mouth and chew 16:45 them up very well and swallow them, 16:47 they have a very peppery taste. 16:49 It tastes just like the leaf of a Nasturtium, 16:53 another thing that does the same thing as an anti-Malarial. 16:57 So I take this every time I am over there, and I have not 17:01 gotten Malaria yet, an so either I've dodged the mosquito 17:04 or this really does work. 17:07 There are other things that you want to take with you 17:09 or have available, or take once you get back 17:12 as a way to get rid of these things. 17:13 Dr. Thrash has mentioned Wormwood, another one is 17:17 Black Walnut, I usually buy these in an extract form, 17:20 it's very nice to buy it in an extract form, 17:22 I will take these, put them in some hot water, 17:25 if they have been alcohol extracted, 17:27 let that dissipate off, and then drink them. 17:30 Other ones that you can take: Cloves is very good, 17:34 for parasites and other types of things. 17:37 Aloe Vera, these things do not like Aloe Vera, 17:41 you can either take it in the liquid form or you just take it 17:45 scoop it out of the leaf and eat it that way, 17:47 it can cause you to have a little bit of diarrhea, 17:50 but I would rather have that than have the worms in my body. 17:53 Garlic, not matter where you go you are going to find garlic, 17:57 don't leave home without it, buy it once you get there. 18:00 Anything that is inside your body that does not need to 18:04 be there, it will pretty much be expelled by the garlic. 18:08 Thyme, the simple herb Thyme is good for these things, 18:12 False Unicorn, Echinacea, the purple Coneflower, 18:18 I find this growing all around the world, 18:20 this is extremely good. 18:22 Chaparral is another nice thing to help expel the worms or 18:27 kill the worms, another thing that is not herbal but 18:30 is natural is diatomaceous earth. 18:32 If you get some diatomaceous earth in capsule form 18:35 you take a few of these every day, the worms will eat this 18:40 and cause their bodies to basically disintegrate and so 18:43 some simple things that you can do, and there are 18:45 other things, just get a good herb book, at least find out 18:48 the herbs, where you are, what do they do, now 18:50 many of the people there already have these things 18:53 and they can live with them, but sometimes we can't 18:55 live with them, so do what you can and I don't know 18:59 Dr. Thrash it's helped me so far, and I believe in it. 19:03 - Yes I have been helped a lot too, I remember one time I took 19:05 a team to Eastern Europe and the Eastern Bloc Nations 19:11 are rather famous for a little contaminant in their 19:14 water streams that gets in the intestinal tract and makes it so 19:22 that it's not very nice for the American. 19:26 We have no resistance against it of very little, and so when we 19:31 get there we often get the Giardia, and a very effective 19:36 agent for that is the Wormwood, or Artemisia Annua. 19:39 So we took that with us and took a little every day 19:43 it goes under the trade name parasital, so we took 19:47 what was called the prophylactic dose and we were also 19:50 very careful with our water. 19:52 I remember we portioned out the chores to be done every day 19:58 and Dr. Miller's chore was to grind out the water 20:02 so we put it through a micro- pour filter and we didn't get 20:07 the Giardia, any of us. 20:09 Now I would like to talk with you about 20:11 hormone modulators, any time the endocrine system is 20:15 affected in any way, you can use some of the hormone 20:18 modulators which are extremely effective in the human body. 20:24 As an example, people who have prostate cancer or cancer of the 20:30 breast, or they have a thyroid problem or a pituitary problem 20:34 these can be very helpful for the person. 20:37 Saw Palmetto Berry has been sort of categorized 20:43 as the man's herb, for prostate problems, it is good for 20:48 benign prostatic hypertrophy and it's good for cancer 20:52 of the prostate. 20:53 But what most people do not know is that it 20:57 is a very excellent hormone modulator for women as well 21:01 so when women have a problem with menstrual access in any way 21:07 the uterus or the tubes, or the ovaries, or her cycles 21:14 she could be well advised to take the Saw Palmetto Berries 21:18 very good as a hormone modulator. 21:20 It inhibits the five alpha reductase, it's a good inhibitor 21:26 in that way and therefore, has good anti-cancer properties 21:31 for both men and for women. 21:33 It's a hormone antagonist and especially the kind 21:38 that makes a woman have cancer of the breast, 21:41 and a man have cancer of the prostate. 21:43 Then there are properties in soy, many constituents 21:48 in soy that have a modulatory effect on the endocrines. 21:55 Such things as the iso-flavones and of course there are 22:01 proteases, and protease inhibitors and there are 22:05 anti-neoplastic constituents, saponins, and inositol 22:11 and a whole bunch of them in soy that make soy products, 22:17 well soy beans in particular, not so much soy products. 22:22 As each step is made in the manufacturing of soy products 22:26 like soy milk or even tofu as these are manufactured 22:33 a little bit of the good constituents are lost with each 22:37 step, and it makes it so they are less good for you 22:40 than the soy beans themselves. 22:42 No question that in countries where soybeans are used in 22:48 rather large quantity, cancer of the breast is less, 22:51 and cancer of the prostate is of a nature that is not the 22:56 acute form that we more frequently see in the west. 23:00 The first one that I mentioned was Saw Palmetto, 23:04 then next was soy, and the third one is such an excellent 23:08 hormone modulator is flax seed, we could spend the 23:13 rest of the week talking about the benefits of flax seed 23:16 but just to tell you some of the hormone modulatory 23:20 things in it, lignans are the principle ones, not the 23:24 iso-flavones as in soy products, they are phytoestrogen's 23:32 and they assist us in normalizing the whole hormone 23:38 system, by normalizing I mean if it is to high it 23:41 it brings it down, if it's to low it brings it up. 23:43 Very interesting little chemical mechanisms 23:48 that make this happen. 23:50 With flax seed androgen levels fall, now we know that 23:55 androgen levels are very important in the production 23:58 of prostate cancer. 24:00 Now some other herbs that are good hormone modulators but 24:06 maybe not the very top ones, licorice root is pretty much 24:10 close to the top, I like it very much and anybody who has 24:13 any endocrine problem, I usually suggest that they 24:17 try using that. 24:18 Skull cap, Asian and American Ginseng, Chase tree 24:24 which we usually think of as being a woman's herb 24:27 also a very good man's herb especially in cancer of the 24:30 prostate, and then benign prostatic hypertrophy. 24:34 Partridge Berry another hormone modulator, False Unicorn, 24:38 that's a member of the Lily family, along with garlic, 24:42 and onion, and many others. 24:43 And then don't forget Vitamin D, in most men who have 24:48 enlargement of the prostate, or prostate cancer we find that 24:52 they are vitamin D deficient. 24:54 Does that mean that their prostate cancer came on because 24:58 they didn't exercise enough in the sun? 25:00 Or does it mean that they don't hold on to vitamin D well 25:04 or transform it well in their skin? 25:06 We aren't certain why that is, but it is certainly the case 25:10 that they do much better with a good level of vitamin D. 25:16 Now we have a whole class of herbs called sedatives, 25:22 and Dr. Miller with your traveling around do you ever 25:25 have a need to take a sedative to get to sleep? 25:30 - I could sleep standing up, I don't have any problem with 25:32 sleeping normally, but if I do there are some herbs 25:36 that are quite nice, and if I have a patient that needs 25:38 something to help them to sleep, there are some 25:41 very common herbs, probably one of the most common herbs 25:44 that we have in the world, is a herb called hops. 25:49 The reason why it is so common is that it is the basis 25:52 of making beer, and interestingly enough, 25:55 that it's the hops in the beer that is the more dangerous part 26:00 over the alcohol part, because people who drink 26:03 a whole lot of beer, get drowsy, it's an herbal reaction 26:06 from the hops, so I find hops works very nice. 26:10 I've heard about people taking a pillow case and filling it 26:13 full of hops and then sleeping on that, and then aiding in 26:16 thier sleep, but there are other ones besides this. 26:19 One that you know when someone is taking it 26:23 it's called Valerian, Valerian is probably 26:27 one of the most noxious smelling herbs once you've 26:30 used it, but it's an extremely good sleeping aid. 26:34 Catnip is another one, which is in the mint family 26:37 so other mints are very good to help persons sleep. 26:41 Then there is St. John's Wort, we realize we take it for 26:47 anti-depression, but it is also very good to help someone sleep. 26:50 and then there is skull-cap another nice sedative herb. 26:53 But we can take all of the herbs in the world, 26:55 but we have to do the other things that we can do 26:58 to help us to have a good night's sleep, no late suppers, 27:00 no exciting things before bed time, making sure we are not 27:04 taking lots of naps during the day. 27:05 There are some simple things we can do Father to help herbs 27:08 help us to have a better life style. 27:11 - Yes, and we can be most grateful for these because 27:15 the Lord has given these to us to make certain that we know 27:19 that He is a father of love, and that He has provided 27:22 for all of our illnesses. 27:24 I don't know of any illness that won't be helped somewhat 27:27 by taking some kind of herb, and most of these as I said 27:31 in the beginning, these are incredibly safe for us 27:34 and if the question is between an herb or a drug, 27:39 the safest one is almost hands down, in favor for 27:44 the herbs, so we can recommend these, 27:46 and of course people have used them forever and anon 27:50 so we know that they are safe. 27:52 So may the Lord bless you by understanding that 27:55 our Heavenly Father has made provision for every need. |
Revised 2014-12-17