Participants:
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP000055B
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00:01 Welcome back to the program,
00:02 and I'm your host Charles Mills, 00:04 we're here with Dr. James Marcum. 00:05 We're talking about heart disease on today's program, 00:07 and the fact that we all have some blockage in our arteries. 00:11 I guess that's because we just don't live as healthy 00:13 as we should and even the environment. 00:15 I don't know if everyone has blockages, 00:17 but a large majority that are under stress, 00:20 a large majority that they could, have blocked, 00:23 but occasionally I study an artery that's completely normal. 00:26 One of the scariest things I've heard in interviews with 00:28 people is this... That when parents, moms, 00:32 are having a high fat diet and eating a lot of dairy 00:36 and meat and whatnot, they have found arterial 00:39 streaking in unborn children. Yeah... 00:44 Unborn children! The streaking happens inside 00:47 the baby before it's born. 00:49 And that brings up a whole-nother 00:51 program sometime, you know, women that carry children. 00:54 You know, all the things that they do 00:56 affects the growing mom... 00:58 They're setting them up for heart disease from day #1. 01:00 Yes and all sorts of other diseases, you know, 01:03 and we'll have to talk about that sometimes... 01:05 the food we eat, the stress that pregnant woman are under, 01:08 all that affects the developing brain too. 01:11 So we already know about the fatty diets, 01:13 and you pass that on to the ones that you're nurturing 01:15 and taking care inside of you. Okay 01:17 Let's go to the Bible, God's Prescription Book 01:20 and let's read a verse, I'll ask them to put the 01:23 verse up there on the screen, listen to this... 01:35 This is Exodus 23:25- this is God speaking 01:38 to the children of Israel. 01:40 "I will take it away. 01:41 God's blessing will be on your food and water." 01:43 I guess we need to eat food and water that God has blessed, 01:46 and is there an indication someplace what that food is? 01:49 Yeah and I love that text, Charles, because it says, 01:52 "I will take away sickness," and so it ties sickness 01:55 in to food and water and we know that's a large 01:58 component. And the source of food and water. 02:00 Yeah and years ago the Greek doctor, Dr. Hippocrates, 02:04 he talked about, "Let food be thy medicine," 02:07 and that was a very wonderful thing and we know that God 02:10 gave us and we're now proving it with the studies 02:14 that are out there that are whole food, plant-based diets. 02:17 I think the studies that have been done by Dean Ornish, 02:20 by Dr. Esselstyn and others have really proven 02:24 that that's the healthiest diet for our arteries; 02:26 can reverse disease; make these arteries bigger; 02:29 that our standard fat-filled American diet 02:32 is not so good at all. 02:33 And yet, here we're giving a scripture years before, 02:37 and I was talking about, you know, as a food, 02:39 and that's very interesting about food for us 02:41 because we think back, "Well, God told us at creation, 02:45 eat fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains." 02:48 Daniel and his friends, another story about pulse and water. 02:52 As if, you know, we had to be reminded again. 02:54 And then the Israelites, remember, they wanted to eat 02:57 birds instead of manna and then they got all sick. Yes 03:00 So this is a very good text that God has know all along, 03:03 now that science is again proving that the Bible 03:06 has great prescriptions for us. 03:08 Water, water is another good prescription... 03:11 When we're dehydrated, that raises our risk 03:13 of cardiovascular disease. 03:14 The stress mechanisms - when you're dehydrated, 03:17 and more stress and more clotting. 03:19 When you're dehydrated, you're more likely to clot, 03:21 if you have a block in your clot - not so good, Charles. 03:24 So another excellent, excellent text. 03:26 We talk often of biblical technology, 03:28 when we say, "Look in the Bible for prescriptions," 03:30 that was what we're talking about - it's there! 03:32 It's right there, the principles that God laid out in 03:35 Genesis and then repeated 03:37 throughout the Bible for our health - it's there! 03:39 That's where you go first to find the answers, 03:41 you look in the Bible. 03:43 You'll be surprised at how many diseases you will NOT get; 03:46 how many lifestyle diseases, especially, you will not get 03:49 if you simply follow what God 03:50 had in mind from the very beginning. 03:52 Okay! Questions that have come in to heartwiseministries.org 03:55 on heart... "Can a heart attack be predicted or is it like 03:59 hurricanes? Can you really know what's going on? 04:01 Yeah, Charles, I get that question a lot, 04:04 but when I talk to somebody in the office, 04:07 and they tell me that they smoke, that they have diabetes, 04:10 that they are under stress. RED FLAG, RED FLAG 04:12 I'll say that I can't predict it, but if we don't 04:14 make choices, you're going to be at a 04:16 high risk group. There you go... 04:17 You can do a stress test. 04:19 That's where you walk on a treadmill and not have a symptom 04:21 at all and still have a heart attack tomorrow 04:23 if one of these plaques... 04:25 Because you may be at this level right here. 04:26 It may be a 40% or 50%. 04:28 Right, those plaques get unstable and break. 04:30 So a stress test only really tells me that if I think 04:33 your symptoms right now are from your heart, 04:36 and whether I think you might benefit from one of 04:39 modern medicine's procedures like a stent or a bypass, 04:42 or even more medications. 04:44 So can a heart attack be predicted? 04:46 No, but we can tell people that are at great risk than others. 04:50 And, a person who eats a whole food plant-based diet 04:53 that keeps their stress under good control, 04:55 that they don't have a genetic tendency, 04:57 that has their blood pressure good, 04:59 they're under the lowest risk. Right 05:01 And so I don't worry as much about the... 05:03 There are no guarantees in this world. 05:04 No, there are no guarantees, but they're at a lower risk, 05:06 but unfortunately, they're going to claim, 05:08 "Well, a lot of these tests that we can get blood tests 05:10 that predict heart attack, none of it predicts heart attack, 05:13 but it might be able to help with who is at risk, 05:15 who is not at risk. 05:17 And, of course, Framingham is tying in cholesterol 05:19 with all of it and I think we should do a program on this. 05:21 So, we have high cholesterol... You know, and everyone is 05:24 focused on cholesterol, but remember that's just 05:26 one component of a disease. 05:28 It's much more complicated by the chemical 05:30 mechanisms as we found out. 05:31 And that's why modern medicine wants to focus so much on 05:34 cholesterol, they have a pill for it. Yes 05:36 They have a bullet for that but not that particular part. 05:38 As we found out, for a while they thought all heart attacks 05:40 were from cigarettes... Now it has gone to cholesterol, 05:43 now it's unstable plaques, so it's all one bullet thing, 05:46 but it's more complicated than that. 05:48 So the stress test tells you what exactly? 05:50 Well, if you had chest pain and I couldn't tell 05:53 what it was coming from, and I said, 05:55 "I'm not sure whether that's your heart or not. 05:56 I put you on the treadmill and make your heart work. 05:59 And if your heart works hard and you start having 06:02 that symptom again, or parts of the heart 06:05 don't get enough blood, I would say, "Yes, that 06:08 symptom is from your heart, and you're going to need 06:11 further investigation and evaluation. 06:13 But if you walk 10 or 12 minutes and never have symptoms, 06:16 the stress test is completely normal, 06:18 and we have ways to look at the heart; 06:20 we look at whether you have the symptoms; 06:22 we look at the EKG; sometimes we can image 06:24 the heart - that means look at it dynamically. 06:27 We can do that with sound waves; we call that a 06:30 "stress echocardiogram." 06:31 We can look at nuclear medicine to see how it flows. 06:34 We call that a "nuclear stress test." 06:37 So those are all things that can predict whether we think 06:40 your symptoms are for your heart. 06:41 And also, it can tell us if we think surgery or further 06:45 treatment would be of benefit to you. 06:46 But a lot of people think that 06:48 stress tests predict heart attacks - it does not, okay. 06:51 So you can have a completely normal stress test 06:54 and still have a heart attack. 06:55 All right, okay, very good. 06:57 This question here that came into the 06:59 heartwiseministries.org website 07:03 We seem to know so much, we have so much medicine, 07:07 we have so much information, we know what to do... 07:11 This question is, "Why are heart attack rates so high?" 07:13 If we know what to do and we have all this modern science, 07:17 why are we still having heart 07:19 attack rates? "Why are they still high?" 07:21 Yeah well, if you think about it, the heart attack rates 07:24 in America is running right around 600,000. 07:28 That is 600,000 too many! 07:30 Well not heart attacks, but that's total deaths from 07:32 heart disease and heart attacks are the most common. 07:34 One is too much... 600,000 and that number 07:37 stayed high through the years despite all of our technology... 07:40 And our technology to treat the heart immediately 07:43 with a stent or a bypass or with medicines 07:45 to stabilize... It still stays up there. 07:47 We've gotten better at that, and if a person comes in 07:50 fairly quick, we can help restore blood flow, 07:53 but we haven't reversed the cause of disease. 07:55 So, if you think about it, heart attack rates are 07:58 going to continue to be high until we can get at the cause 08:01 of heart attacks and I think we touched on this a little bit, 08:04 the cause of heart attacks. 08:05 You know, we can't change our mom and dad, okay, 08:08 but we talk about the food, the fatty foods we eat. 08:11 We're eating more fatty foods, processed foods 08:14 than ever before. 08:15 And we've seen in the studies now that if we can move 08:18 towards a whole food, plant-based diet, 08:20 we can lower that risk dramatically, 08:22 but we're not getting out there 08:23 and talking about that from the rooftops 08:25 even though that's very important. 08:26 I'm also understanding that the brain and stress 08:29 how that plays a role too, and yet our society 08:32 is more stressed out than ever at places that we don't even 08:35 think, you know... we're staying up later; 08:37 all the media; all the things we're doing; 08:40 we think we have to work 24/7, we're busy all the time 08:44 that causes all the stress chemistry that we talked 08:47 would be turned on; we eat some bad foods; 08:49 and we start getting it in utero and before you know it, 08:53 we're a society that's filled with coronary disease. 08:56 So the heart attack rates are so high because we're not 08:59 getting at the cause. 09:01 Once we start getting at the cause, 09:03 the heart attack rates will be coming down, 09:05 but we do a really good job if a person has a symptom. 09:08 And if anyone out there is having symptoms when you 09:10 do something, if you don't feel right above the waist, 09:13 if you're having pain that won't go away, 09:15 seek medical attention right away... 09:18 Because still, 1 in 3 people that have a heart attack, 09:21 still die within the first year. 09:23 So if you don't get help, the instability that happens 09:25 from the heart can be terrible. 09:28 Because what they did in the hospital did not fix the problem 09:30 Right, it did not fix the problem, 09:32 it treated the symptoms. 09:33 Even people who have had bypass surgery in stents, 09:36 that hasn't lowered the risk of heart attack. 09:38 The risk of heart attack is still there; in some cases, 09:41 it might be higher if we damage the blood vessel. 09:44 Does this make sense? It does... 09:45 You know, and the problem is that sometimes I think 09:47 we make it more complicated, and we're out there 09:50 and all this technology makes it so complicated, 09:53 the media spins it their way, and before you know it, 09:55 people are so confused about their heart, 09:58 that they don't know the simple things that they can do 10:00 to take care of their hearts. 10:01 People do not want to know the truth - many people. 10:05 I have a neighbor that had a massive heart attack, 10:08 and had to go and he had a triple bypass and everything, 10:11 and he was overweight, pouchy little gut sticking out there, 10:14 and he didn't exercise very much... 10:16 So when he came back, he said, "You know, I'm going to 10:17 take care of myself," but you know what, I've seen that 10:20 he hasn't, he is now overweight, pouchy and doesn't 10:22 exercise very much. 10:24 He thinks he's fixed, I gave him a copy of 10:27 "Forks Over Knives" to look at and He said, "Well that was 10:29 interesting, I wonder if he even looked at it. 10:30 They don't want to know the truth because the truth is 10:33 going to maybe make you make some changes. 10:35 You may have to change your diet, 10:36 your way of exercising, the way you think, 10:38 the way you believe, the structure 10:40 of your life and you have to make changes. 10:41 And people don't want to do that. 10:43 They would rather take the risk and use the life 10:46 that got them sick and say, "Well, now that I've had my 10:48 problem, I'm not going to gave it again, 10:50 the doctor has fixed it, I'm fine, 10:51 I have these bypasses in there, they're working fine, 10:54 and I pass this guy every day on the mailbox 10:57 and I wave at him and he waves at me and I realize 10:59 that he is setting himself up for the exact same problem 11:02 that he had before and this time he may not make it through. 11:05 Yeah, and all we can do is love people and not judge them, 11:09 and hopefully that God will work in their lives 11:11 to make these little changes, and when I see someone that 11:14 dies of a heart attack and it bothers me. 11:16 That's why when they come into the office, I tell them that 11:20 "I love you enough to tell you the truth." 11:23 And that's what we're doing here... 11:24 "I love you enough to look you right in the eye 11:26 and say," "Here's the truth." 11:27 What you do with it, that's your responsibility. 11:31 But the fact that we're here and Dr. Marcum 11:32 is here saying this, that's our responsibility, 11:36 and we want to make sure that we are here for you. 11:38 Isn't that right, Dr. Marcum? 11:39 That's exactly right, Charles. 11:41 Okay, all right... Well, one of the things that 11:43 we have to show you is not only the Bible text, 11:46 we also want to take you into the Throne of Grace. 11:48 We want to take you to the Master Physician 11:50 and sit you down and let Him talk to you in your inner self, 11:55 in your mind to lead you, to guide you, 11:57 and we do that through that wonderful thing that God 11:59 has made for us called "prayer" and we're going to pray for you 12:02 on our return, so stay tuned. 12:11 There is so much to know about coronary artery disease 12:14 and we talked a little bit about it today and I hope you can 12:16 share this with some of your friends. 12:18 If you are having a symptom, I want you to get help right now 12:21 and we want everyone to work on improving their diets 12:24 and improve their stress. There might be someone out there 12:27 that's suffering from coronary artery disease and we want 12:30 to let you know that there is hope today for you, 12:33 so let's all pray together. 12:34 Father God, I want to thank you for the opportunity to serve you 12:39 and to let other people know that there is truth in your word 12:42 and that you want us to be healthy and the text we read 12:45 today about eating good food and having healthy lives is 12:49 what we want if this is a blessing that you want to 12:51 give to us Father, and those that are out there that are 12:54 sick today, we want to pray for the healing, however you want 12:56 however you want to heal Father we want to trust you 12:59 to do what's best in our lives and thank you for the ability 13:02 to be here today and to love each other, and we want 13:05 to thank you for being our God. 13:06 This is my prayer, Amen. 13:08 Thank you for joining us, we will be back next time 13:11 with a new topic, and we want to wish you the best health. |
Revised 2015-12-14