Participants: Agatha Thrash (Host), Don Miller, Rhonda Clark
Series Code: HYTH
Program Code: HYTH000220
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00:01 Hello, have you ever had a tummy ache?
00:03 You may wonder what is it that's causing my pain 00:07 is it stomach or muscle or appendix, or something else 00:13 causing it. 00:14 Well, I think you will enjoy our program this time 00:18 because we'll be answering some of those questions, stay by. 00:42 Welcome to Help Yourself to Health 00:45 with Dr. Agatha Thrash of Uchee Pines Institute, 00:48 and now here is your host Dr. Thrash. 00:51 There are many structures inside the abdomen, 00:58 any one of them can have pain. 01:00 When you consider the great array of structures and organs 01:06 some them solid and some of them hollow, 01:09 and any one of them can have different kinds of pain. 01:13 Then it's no wonder that physicians sometimes 01:16 and surgeons really struggle with a diagnosis of what is 01:21 causing this pain. 01:22 I have a list of a number of these, 01:25 and I'm going to be with you about some of these 01:28 and trying to help you to understand many of these 01:32 things that can cause pain, not that you will be a surgeon 01:36 after we've finished our program or able to diagnose every 01:41 pain that comes up inside the abdomen, but maybe you'll 01:44 be a bit more knowledgeable and we would like to 01:47 try to help you to understand these things better. 01:50 Now to assist me in presenting these myriads of things 01:54 that can cause a problem inside the abdomen 01:57 I have asked my co-worker and my friend Rhonda Clark 02:03 to help me, and Rhonda what do you do at Uchee Pines? 02:08 - Well, I work in the Lifestyle Center doing telephone 02:11 counseling with individuals who call with health problems 02:13 or health questions, I also work as a teacher 02:17 there at the school. 02:19 - Teaching lifestyle principles to lifestyle educators and 02:23 lifestyle counselors students. 02:26 - Yes! 02:27 - And sometimes I'm sure you council with the patients there. 02:30 - Occasionally yes as I have opportunities and build 02:34 friendships with them, I'm always glad for the opportunity 02:36 to help them. 02:37 - But mainly if someone call for counseling on the phone 02:40 you may be one of those who is standing by the telephone 02:44 to give counseling. 02:45 That's good, now before you came to Uchee Pines, 02:48 you did some really fun things, one of the things that I have 02:53 been most interested in that you have done is the 02:55 organ transplant program. - Yes! 02:57 - You worked with that for awhile 02:59 - I did, about eight years I worked with the donation end 03:04 in organ transplantation, counseling with families who 03:06 had lost a loved one, and offering them the opportunity 03:09 to donate organs if that was something that they 03:10 or their loved ones had wished for and found it to be 03:15 quite a rewarding experience, 03:17 I had always thought of organ donation as being something 03:21 that would benefit the person who received the 03:23 organ transplant, but I learned in my time there 03:26 often it was very beneficial for the family who gave consent 03:29 for organ donation, feeling that maybe something good 03:32 came out of a tragic situation. 03:34 - Yes, I can certainly believe that would be true, 03:37 what kind of organ donation was the most common do you suppose? 03:42 - Kidney donation was the most common, now partly because 03:45 we have two kidneys that we can donate and so that increases 03:49 the number of kidney donations, and surprisingly the kidneys 03:52 are quite hardy in the donation process and some individuals 03:57 that would be the only organ that they could donate 03:59 that would be the kidneys, so we saw that most frequently. 04:01 That happens to be what organ is making up the greatest 04:06 number of individuals on the waiting list, 04:08 so it was a blessing that, that was the organ 04:10 we were most likely to see donated. 04:14 - Today you are going to be talking about some things about 04:18 pain inside the abdomen. 04:19 - Yes! 04:20 - What things can you tell us, and how can you instruct us 04:24 on pain inside the abdomen? 04:25 - Well abdominal pain comes from many different causes. 04:29 Dr. Thrash you know as a physician that it can sometimes 04:32 even come from a part of the body that isn't in the abdomen 04:35 at all, but they refer to it as referred pain. 04:38 But most likely there is some sort of inflammation 04:41 occurring in one of the organs of the abdomen, 04:44 or perhaps some sort of distention, or stretching 04:48 of an organ that is caused due to an obstruction. 04:51 Another cause of pain in the abdomen is a loss of blood 04:56 supply, one of the more serious causes of abdominal pain. 04:59 What I wanted to share with you today is if you are experiencing 05:03 abdominal pain, what kind of information would be important 05:07 for a physician to know, to help diagnose the cause 05:12 of the abdominal pain. 05:14 Abdominal pain can have very benign causes, 05:19 hunger can give us abdominal pain, gas, but it also can be 05:23 a sign of something serious and should seek some 05:26 medical advice if you are experiencing abdominal pain. 05:29 One of the first things that the physician will ask you 05:34 is when did the pain begin? 05:36 Was it associated with any other type of activity or 05:40 did it just seem to come on by itself? 05:42 They will ask you where the pain is located. 05:45 The location of pain in the abdomen is a characteristic 05:49 of different organs being involved, you may be familiar 05:53 of the lower right quadrant pain that is connected with 05:56 appendicitis, and the upper right quadrant pain, 06:00 that is connected with gall bladder disorders. 06:03 So where the pain is located is quite an important thing. 06:06 The doctor will ask about the pains characteristics, 06:10 is it sharp, cramping, stabbing, kind of dull and aching, 06:17 Those can all be important clues as well as the duration of pain 06:22 does it last long periods of time, does it come and go, 06:27 is it constant, these all give clues. 06:30 The doctor will ask if you've noticed anything that makes 06:33 the pain worse, or alternatively are there things that you have 06:38 found that relieved the pain, maybe a certain position 06:41 that you can lie in, that helps give some relief. 06:44 They also will ask about any associated symptoms, 06:47 are you experiencing fever, vomiting, or diarrhea? 06:51 Have you noticed any changes in the characteristics 06:54 of the stools, these will all be important clues in tracking 06:58 down what is causing the pain. 07:00 The physician will listen to your abdomen with a stethoscope 07:05 there are certain distinctive sounds that can be connected 07:08 with various abdominal disorders, and they will 07:10 very carefully push on your abdomen noticing for areas 07:14 of tenderness and other things that in their experience 07:17 they have seen connected with various disorders. 07:21 And in addition to questioning you about the pain 07:24 and doing an examination, they may order laboratory tests. 07:29 Blood work to see if there is a presence of infection, 07:32 they may order x-rays, and kind of an advanced x-ray 07:37 a CT scan or MRI, they may require an ultrasound 07:42 that's often used to see if there are gallstones present 07:44 in the gall bladder. 07:46 And endoscopes, a camera that's on the end of a tube that is 07:51 swallowed down into the stomach, or that can be 07:53 inserted into the rectum and up through the colon 07:56 those can be used to look internally at the structure 07:58 of the abdomen to see if there is a problem. 08:01 Sometimes despite those tests nothing is found 08:06 and the individual continues to have pain. 08:08 One treatment of last resort is what is called 08:13 exploratory surgery, where the surgeon actually goes in to see 08:17 if they can visualize something that has somehow eluded them 08:20 in all of their other tests and examinations. 08:22 This is something to give you an idea of what to expect, 08:26 if you experience abdominal pain and hopefully will be 08:31 helpful to you to kind of know what to anticipate 08:33 if you need to come see someone like Dr. Thrash, 08:36 and it is something to take serious, I'm sure you would 08:41 advise people if they continue to have a problem with abdominal 08:44 pain to investigate. - Yes abdominal pain 08:46 that lasts more than 24 hours probably need a professional 08:51 person to take a look at it, it's no longer in the realm 08:55 of simple remedies, home remedies. 08:58 But home remedies can do quite a lot to relieve 09:03 abdominal pain, one of the definitions that I like about 09:07 herbs is that an herb is a plant that can be used to 09:14 help a person heal from something, and healing 09:18 from some kind of abdominal pain can be 09:22 the function of many herbs. 09:23 Now because there are so many organs and structures 09:27 inside the abdomen, I would like to show you some of these 09:31 on a chart that I have here and it may look a little simple 09:35 with this chart, but actually there are many other things 09:39 than the ones that I show here, but first the salivary glands. 09:44 Here are the salivary glands, there are a number 09:47 of them, one of the ones that we find the most knowledge about 09:52 is the parotid gland, which is located over here 09:55 on the side of the jaw, and you will remember that the 09:58 parotid gland is the one that first gets sick with 10:02 the mumps, then after the salivary glands comes 10:07 the esophagus. 10:08 The esophagus is a long tube it has to go through the throat, 10:11 through the chest, here is the 10:14 diaphragm and enters the stomach. 10:16 Now the stomach is located here, and it has a little 10:20 muscle guard at the top called the cardia, and another 10:24 muscle guard at the bottom called the pylorus, 10:27 immediately after the pylorus is the duodenum, 10:31 it's here where we can have some ulcers, the stomach 10:37 can also have some ulcers, and this part right here 10:41 that is shaded overlay, that's the pancreas, 10:45 most people are surprised at how long it is. 10:48 It goes all the way from the right side of the abdomen 10:52 the curvature of the duodenum all the way over to the left 10:57 upper quadrant of the abdomen at the hilum of the spleen 11:01 so the spleen is right over here just under the diaphragm 11:05 right here, and the pancreas goes all the way over there. 11:09 Anywhere along the line you can have pain referred to the 11:14 abdomen, even esophageal pain can be referred 11:17 into the abdomen. 11:19 The pain from pneumonia can be referred into the abdomen, 11:26 and sometimes the person thinks they have abdominal pain, 11:30 when actually the pain is in the chest. 11:33 Now beyond the stomach and the duodenum, 11:37 is the remainder of the small bowel, 11:39 and the small bowel is really quite an interesting organ 11:43 it is here where 95% of our digestion and assimilation occur 11:49 right in here, and anything that simply cannot be digested 11:54 and assimilated into the blood stream will go over 11:57 into the colon, in the colon there is the re-absorption 12:02 of water and the absorption of vitamins and minerals, 12:07 and the colon has an interesting configuration. 12:13 It starts here with the cecum which is a pouch 12:17 a pouch that the small bowel empties into 12:21 then we have the ascending colon the hepatic flexure 12:27 where there is a sharp, little bit more than 90% turn 12:31 and then the transverse colon, splenic flexure, 12:36 another 90% angle turn, then the descending colon, 12:40 the sigmoid colon which is a twisted S, and then the rectum, 12:46 and the anus, all these portions can have rather severe pain 12:52 and the pain that we get from the colon can be crampy 12:57 in nature, as it comes and is very intense, and then 13:01 it goes away for awhile, comes again very intense, 13:05 goes away for a little while, so as we think about these things 13:09 I would like to point to another structure 13:12 this one right here just off the cecum, 13:17 this is the pouch where the small bowel enters into. 13:21 The appendix is a very interesting organ, 13:26 and because it is so interesting I have asked Dr. Don Miller 13:32 if he will join me here and will and will tell you some things 13:36 about this very interesting organ. 13:38 Dr. Miller, you have been at Uchee Pines for 13:41 quite a long time, you are home based there. 13:43 - Long time! 13:44 - Yes, and home based is a little 13:46 bit of maybe a misnomer for you 13:48 because you haven't had a home for quite a long time, 13:52 you have been traveling from one place to another. 13:54 Or maybe you might say it this way, it's like the promise 13:58 of the Bible that says any man who gives up homes 14:02 and houses and lands here, He will have them multiplied 14:06 a hundred times here. 14:07 Have you found that to be true? 14:09 - Absolutely! I've got family all around the world. 14:11 I've got people who open to me into their homes 14:13 and say come on in, and it's my home, 14:16 and so I have that experience and it's a real blessing. 14:19 - It must be a pretty nice life you don't have to worry about 14:21 mowing the lawn, or washing the walls, or keeping it painted, 14:28 - Well sometimes it's a long cold walk to the outhouse, 14:31 but you know it's... 14:32 - If the family have that kind of arrangement 14:33 I suppose you can use it too. 14:37 - And if they put up with it, I can put up with it 14:40 I really feel at home in the world. 14:42 - Yes! Well it's a good thing that we have such wonderful 14:48 equipment that makes it so that one can change 14:50 time zones so many times and can 14:53 still be at home in the world. 14:55 - What can you tell us about the appendix, 14:57 this marvelous little organ? 14:59 - It is marvelous, and God is... I'm going to tell the people 15:02 what you once told me many years ago, that pain is a signal 15:06 to the body that tissue is being damaged and so this pain 15:11 that we get from either a distended colon or the appendix 15:16 or some other part of the body, it's a signal we don't 15:18 want to try to eliminate the pain, we want to find out what's 15:22 causing my pain and to get rid of it. 15:24 Now the full name for the appendix is vermiform appendix, 15:28 it begins with a V, but basically if you sort of 15:31 if you pronounce the V like a W it's wormiform appendix 15:35 it's just a little worm that hangs off the cecum 15:38 just as the small intestine empties into the cecum 15:41 starting up the ascending colon, and it's there for a purpose. 15:45 It's very similar in structure in one sense to the tonsils 15:50 it's lymphatic tissue, and God knew exactly what He was doing. 15:55 He put a police force down here, He put a police force up here 15:59 so that you got white blood cells always on the scene 16:03 for things that might go wrong. 16:05 They found now that those who have had either a 16:08 tonsillectomy or an appendectomy have more cancers 16:13 in those areas, more cancers of the colon, 16:15 more cancers of the throat, so I really encourage you 16:18 if you still have them, to keep them, I'm going to mention 16:21 how you can keep them a little bit longer 16:22 because it's the damage that we do, but first going back 16:25 to appendicitis. 16:26 It is a severe pain, it usually starts in the epigastric area 16:32 just below the breast bone but within a few hours move down 16:35 to the lower right quadrant and it is extreme pain. 16:38 Sometimes a little test that you can do if someone 16:41 has the pain and they don't know exactly where it is at 16:44 you have them sit on a table and they sort of hop off 16:48 and just drop a few inches that jarring if indeed it is 16:52 appendicitis, will give them a sharp stabbing pain 16:56 at this point..., well there are some other symptoms: 17:00 1. low grade temperature, sometimes constipation, 17:03 and these things you've got to be very careful with 17:05 not so much the fever, whenever anything is with itis 17:09 it means inflammation, inflammation means that the 17:12 body is going to be calling in it's army to try to fight 17:15 the process. 17:16 When the army is called in it works better and faster 17:19 and there is a bigger army when the temperature goes up 17:22 and so the hypothalamus in the brain turns up the thermostat 17:25 you've got a low grade temperature that's a sign, 17:28 but the constipation could be a really dangerous thing 17:31 if a person thinks they are just bloated, 17:34 let's just give them some type of a laxative, 17:36 a laxative could be the worst thing in the world to do. 17:38 So if you've got this lower right quadrant pain, 17:41 you've got a low grade fever, the best thing to do is 17:44 see the doctor. 17:45 But now the more important thing is, 17:48 don't get appendicitis. 17:50 What causes appendicitis? 17:52 Usually a lot of fat and a lot of sugar in the diet, 17:56 the number one food that I can think of that combines those two 18:01 things in large quantities is that famous American world wide 18:06 delight called ice cream. 18:08 Ice cream with all the fat and all the sugar will form 18:11 what we call fecula, they are these little balls 18:15 that will get down into the appendix, 18:17 now the appendix is sort of a like a tube, a hollow tube 18:20 lymphatic tissue, a fecula gets down in there 18:24 and if for some reason there is an inflammation in the body 18:27 and lymphatic tissue starts to swell, it swells out 18:31 and it swells in because it's a tube, when it squeeze's 18:34 down on that fecula it cuts off blood supply, 18:38 you cut off blood supply, this is a key, 18:40 matter of fact when I'm teaching at Uchee Pines, 18:42 I always have two foundational health principles. 18:45 I want you to remember these too, 18:46 1. The life is in the blood, 2. Perfect health requires 18:52 perfect circulation, you cut off circulation, you've got pain. 18:56 A good way to demonstrate this is to put a blood pressure 18:59 cuff on your arm, pump it up leave the pressure on, 19:02 do some type of hand exercises for just a few moments 19:05 and you are going to find that pretty soon you have pain 19:08 in the arm, sometimes very severe pain, 19:10 release the pressure, pain is gone. 19:13 It's the build up of toxins, so we have this fecalith being 19:18 squeezed down cutting off the circulation, 19:20 toxins are building up, it's going to be sending a signal 19:23 to the body, which is called pain, we have to fix 19:26 this problem, you can't fix the problem with some extremely 19:30 simple remedy. 19:31 So my recommendation is to go to the doctor 19:34 so when that thing squeeze's down... 19:36 So now how not to get the feculas how not to 19:38 get appendicitis: 1. You eat a good diet, 19:41 a diet high in fiber, and complex carbohydrates, 19:46 God's way of packaging protein in fruits, vegetables 19:51 and whole grains, nuts, and seeds, and drinking 19:55 plenty of water, sometimes a seed or something might get 19:58 down into the appendix and cause some problem, 20:00 but that's usually not the main problem. 20:02 If a seed does, like a grape seed, 20:04 it points at another problem in the eating process, 20:07 you didn't chew your food well, learn to chew your food to cream 20:12 before you turn it loose, is what one old woman said 20:15 was her secret for living a long life. 20:17 So chew your food well so that when food gets down there 20:21 you don't get something lodging into the appendix 20:25 and causing an irritation. 20:26 Eating a good diet, staying away from refined carbohydrates 20:31 especially sugar, and the high fat foods, 20:34 if you are going to have fat eat it in it's natural form 20:37 eating an olive or an avocado rather than the oil 20:41 from these things, and you won't have quite as many 20:43 problems with appendicitis. 20:45 - Sounds very good, lots of water will help that also. 20:48 - Absolutely! 20:49 - I have an interesting chart that has a number of diseases 20:54 on it, and I would like to show you this chart now 20:57 because it does tell us a lot about a variety of those 21:02 diseases that are fairly common, you have heard of them. 21:05 Now here is the esophagus, 21:07 there is a cancer of the esophagus, which is not common, 21:10 in this country, then varicose veins at the bottom 21:14 of the esophagus, varicose veins are more common in America 21:19 because of drinking, and in every society 21:21 where drinking is a big problem then varicose veins 21:26 because of cirrhosis of the liver may be that very cause. 21:32 Then the stomach with the ulcers, and the gastritis 21:37 can be most painful, and most uncomfortable 21:41 and difficult to heal, those are all things that can occur 21:45 in the stomach and the duodenum can have it's ulcers. 21:47 But notice right here, this is the gall bladder, 21:52 here is the liver of course, it's the largest gland 21:55 in the body, and under the liver, actually the gall bladder 22:00 only peeps out from the front edge of the liver, 22:05 just a little bit of it, 22:07 but most of it is in this shallow cup 22:11 just under the liver. 22:13 The gall bladder, because of the things it has to deal with 22:17 may get stones in it, this gall bladder is about 22:21 half filled with stones. 22:23 Now as long as the stones stay in the gall bladder, 22:27 there is not problem, or at least very little problem. 22:30 It's when the stones begin to migrate 22:33 that you're going to have the trouble. 22:34 If they get into the duct, then the cystic duct, 22:40 you will get a dilated gall bladder, 22:43 but if they go a little bit farther past the duct 22:46 that comes from the gall bladder, 22:48 they'll get in the hepatic duct which is right here. 22:51 The hepatic duct has one major duct 22:56 that comes from the left lobe of the liver, 22:58 and the other major duct that comes from the right lobe 23:01 of the liver, and they form together to make 23:04 the hepatic duct, and then comes the common bile duct 23:09 down here, which is all of those duct from up above 23:15 plus the duct that comes from the pancreas. 23:19 Here is the pancreas, all the way over to there 23:23 and if this duct gets a stone in it, which it can, 23:27 if the gall bladder sends a stone down this duct, 23:29 and it goes back up into the pancreatic duct, 23:35 it can block the pancreatic duct, and then 23:38 that is a major problem. 23:40 Major problem because the dilation of that duct can cause 23:46 digestive ferments from the pancreas and even some of these 23:51 from the duodenum to go back up into the pancreas 23:55 and cause a serious problem, 23:57 that can be life threatening in fact. 24:00 Now what can we do about gall stones? 24:03 One thing is drink plenty of water, 24:06 gall stones are less likely to begin to form 24:10 if you drink loads of water, because it just keeps 24:13 the minerals that are in the bowel, keeps them in a liquid 24:17 solution, and therefore you don't have as great a likelihood 24:21 of having these minerals precipitate into these stones. 24:26 Another thing is be very careful about the fats that you eat, 24:31 a high fat diet encourages gall stones, 24:35 also if you loose weight to rapidly, such as you decide 24:39 you want to loose 40 Ibs. in the next 7 or 8 weeks. 24:45 So you go on a diet that will do that very thing, 24:49 and you walk lots, and you stay up late at night 24:52 and you do all of those things that are going to make you 24:54 loose weight, and put a terrible strain on the body. 24:58 As it does so, one of those stresses is the formation 25:03 of gall stones, so if you do have a fast loss of weight, 25:07 drink loads of water, so that you can make certain 25:10 that the minerals and the fats stay in a good solution 25:15 in the gall bladder and don't salt out to make these stones. 25:21 Now let's go to another problem that one may have 25:25 with the intestinal tract, and that is Chron's disease 25:30 and Ulcerative Colitis, here in the last portion of the ileum 25:36 which is the last portion of the small bowel 25:38 right there in the terminal ileum, one can have 25:43 Chron's disease, and also in the large bowel 25:47 one can have Chron's disease or Ulcerative Colitis. 25:51 This is a serious problem, and is usually a life long problem 25:55 and there are a number of things one can do: 25:57 one is eat a high fiber diet, it usually helps Chron's 26:02 or Ulcerative Colitis. 26:04 If you have bleeding, then you will need also a high 26:10 iron supply which means plenty of green leafy vegetables 26:14 and some source of acid, like citric acid from citrus fruits 26:20 that's a very good place and one can absorb iron nicely 26:24 in this way, so we recommend that. 26:27 Then another thing is the use of pectin, 26:30 pectin is a soluble fiber and can be taken to soothe 26:36 and to heal and to protect the colon and the small bowel. 26:41 So the use of the pectin coats the lining of the 26:46 intestinal tract and encourages the kind of bacterial growth 26:52 most favorable to healing both Ulcerative Colitis and 26:58 Chron's Disease. 27:00 Now in addition to these measures one should also 27:05 plenty of exercise, one should drink plenty of water, 27:10 and take several herbs, one of the healing herbs is 27:15 Aloe Vera, it is available everywhere, can be taken 27:18 one to two ounces, two to three times a day. 27:21 In Ulcerative Colitis and also one can take Golden Seal 27:28 and Echinacea, and grapefruit seed extract, all of these 27:33 are also very good for the colon, 27:35 but one of the ones that I have as a favorite is garlic. 27:39 It tastes good, it smells good in the house 27:42 when the food cooking, and one it's great pluses 27:45 is that it will heal Ulcerative Colitis and Chron's Disease 27:50 to some degree, so "May the Lord Bless You" 27:52 with these suggestions. |
Revised 2014-12-17