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Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP000059A
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00:16 "Do I need to take supplements if I eat a healthy diet?"
00:20 "I have atrial fibrillation, 00:23 are there any alternatives rather than Coumadin?" 00:26 Today, we answer frequently asked questions 00:29 from the "Heartwise Ministries" website. Stay tuned... 00:32 I'm Dr. James Marcum, are you interested in 00:35 discovering the reason why? 00:38 Do you want solutions to your health care problem? 00:40 Are you tired of taking medications? 00:43 Well, you're about to be given the "Ultimate Prescription." 00:49 We build these programs based on your questions, 00:51 and that's why it's very important to leave them there 00:54 for us on the website heartwiseministries.org 00:56 We want to know what you want to know, 00:58 and these questions give us a window, a door into your life 01:03 and to the needs you have as our viewers, 01:05 and we appreciate every question you leave for us there. 01:07 Okay Dr. Marcum, let's get right to this frequently asked 01:09 questions on the heartwiseministries.org website. 01:12 Here's the first one, we mentioned it earlier... 01:15 "Do I need to take supplements if I eat a healthy diet?" 01:19 Now, I assume a healthy diet means the fruits and vegetables, 01:22 the nuts and grains and the minimum of animal products, 01:25 and maybe even no animal products. 01:27 Do we still need to take supplements? 01:28 Yeah and the answer to that question - you have to really 01:31 know what type of eater you're dealing with. Yes 01:35 And also, what kind of medical conditions they might have. 01:38 You know, you heard about those sailors that didn't get 01:41 much fruit to eat - they needed to have some supplements 01:44 if they were available. Yes they did 01:46 There are certain diseases like pernicious anemia, 01:48 well, you know, they need some extra help. 01:51 People that don't get outside, they don't get vitamin D. 01:54 So if you live in a northern climate where you don't 01:57 get outside, they need vitamin D. 01:59 But most people, if they're healthy and eat a 02:02 well-balanced diet, you do not need a supplement. 02:07 Now, if you're a pure vegan and eat no animals at all, 02:11 some of the experts are maybe recommending a B vitamin 02:15 okay maybe once a month. 02:17 But the body doesn't need a lot of B vitamin, 02:19 a little bit goes a long way. Yes 02:21 But as far as all these extra supplements, 02:24 you really don't need those, and if you think about 02:27 a symphony orchestra, an orchestra has many 02:31 instruments; if I have 40 French horns... I love French horns, 02:35 they are a great instrument, but 40 of them are too many, 02:39 and they drown out the other things. 02:41 Well, our body's nutrition is very complex, 02:45 and if we eat what we should, fresh fruits, vegetables, 02:48 nuts and grains and they're fairly fresh. 02:51 The body chooses what it wants, 02:53 and pulls it out at the appropriate amount. 02:56 Some of the supplements that have been around, 02:58 I think of beta carotene, vitamin E; 03:01 we found that those supplements were actually dangerous, 03:04 and increase things because they saturated receptors 03:07 and they made other nutrients that they needed, 03:09 they interfered with them. 03:11 And if you think about the nutrients that God gives us, 03:14 Charles, these are all things that are usually enzymes 03:18 and have a lot of good things, and they actually, 03:20 if given in the appropriate amount, 03:22 you know, the correct composition of all this, 03:24 and as a body in its infinite wisdom regulates, 03:28 this gives the body a chance of healing itself. 03:31 Now if we think about it, over the last 200 years, 03:34 we don't eat like we should. 03:36 We eat a lot of processed foods; 03:38 people are eating more animals than ever, more canned foods, 03:42 we're missing out on a lot of the things that our body 03:44 needs to stimulate the enzyme systems, 03:47 the things that we can make so our body 03:49 can naturally heal itself. Yes 03:51 We're now seeing that people that eat more of a 03:53 whole food plant-based diet, they have less of these 03:57 chronic diseases, less inflammation; 03:59 eating that diet helps heart disease; 04:02 helps lower the risk of cancer; 04:04 almost every organ system in the body improves, 04:07 and it's because we're giving the body the substrate 04:09 that the body needs to help heal itself and prevent 04:12 these other things from happening. 04:13 You know, you mention the food that we eat, 04:15 and I have a theory... I don't know if there's a 04:17 study that proves this or not, but I really believe it 04:19 to be true and I sort of asked people about this as we go along 04:22 Our body seems to not only have the ability to take out 04:26 what it needs from the food we eat, it can also combine 04:29 nutrients from the various foods to make a brand 04:32 new nutrient that we need. Right. 04:34 You're right, that's why I say the interactions and 04:37 receptors and how things combine in our body 04:40 are so complex... If you're eating the right foods... 04:43 Yeah, well even if we're eating the wrong foods, 04:45 you can have a complex bad reaction. That's true 04:47 But these reactions are so complex, we can't understand it. 04:50 And it doesn't make sense to find one nutrient that 04:54 in the food is good, to isolate that nutrient, 04:58 and then make a lot of it... 04:59 Oh, but you can make money off of that, Dr. Marcum! 05:02 That's the whole thing and they call that "reductionism." 05:05 It's not holism and as we have reduced it down 05:08 to single mechanisms, we might be able to make money 05:10 and make everyone say, "Oh, if I have this supplement, 05:13 everything can happen," and sometimes supplements 05:15 help you if you think it's happening. That's true 05:18 That's called "a healing belief." Yeah 05:19 And most supplements aren't harmful, 05:22 but we don't know that for sure. 05:25 And so I tell people, if you eat a balanced diet, 05:28 you might need to take a B supplement once a month. 05:30 If you don't get outside, you might need to take vitamin D, 05:33 but if you're unsure, we can always 05:35 measure this in the blood as well. 05:37 And I was doing an interview with the Adventist Health Study 05:39 people and they said that they did a study on this... 05:41 "Are pure vegetarians getting enough in the little supplements 05:46 that they take," and the answer is "yes." 05:47 There doesn't seem to be a problem if you are a 05:51 whole food plant-based person; 05:52 if you take a few supplements every now and then 05:54 to sort of help it along, you are not deficient. 05:57 You do not have a problem. 05:58 That was good news from the Adventist Health Study recently. 06:00 Yeah and that's good news and, you know, I see... 06:02 This is funny, the other day a lady came 06:04 into my office, Charles, she had a whole suitcase 06:07 full of supplements. Oh dear! 06:08 She had 52 different supplements in there, 06:12 and she wanted me to go through them and tell which ones 06:15 she needed and which ones she didn't, 06:17 and these were all sorts... 06:18 And I told her, I said, "Listen, 06:20 everything that we put in our body has some type of 06:22 chemical repercussion," and, you know, now 06:25 it was in her belief system that they were helping. 06:28 So I had to be very careful how I phrased things, 06:31 but I tried to talk to her along the lines that we did today, 06:35 and I said, "If you eat a healthy diet of fruits, nuts 06:37 and grains, maybe you don't need to take 06:40 52 different extra things a day. 06:42 Now if you have a disease state, some of these things 06:45 might be useful; certain herbs and supplements 06:48 might be good for a disease state, 06:50 but if you don't have a disease state, 06:52 some of them could actually be harmful for you. All right 06:54 And, at the very least, kind of a monumental waste of money. 06:58 Okay, here's another question on Heartwise Ministries, 07:00 our frequently asked questions... 07:02 "I have atrial fibrillation, are there any alternatives 07:04 rather than Coumadin?" What is Coumadin? 07:06 Yeah, Coumadin is blood thinner. Okay 07:08 Atrial fibrillation is when the top part of the heart 07:11 goes faster than the bottom. 07:13 And unfortunately, about 10% of older Americans 07:16 have this and worse yet, 1 in 3 strokes come from this 07:21 rhythm because when the top part doesn't move well, 07:24 the blood doesn't circulate through and when it doesn't 07:26 move well and when the blood sits, 07:28 it has ability to clot. Yes 07:30 If it clots and the heart pumps that up 07:32 and it goes to the brain, it clogs up the small arteries, 07:35 and you don't think well. 07:36 So Coumadin is the one that we have along, 07:40 and another name for that is "warfarin." 07:42 There are other ones that are now approved; 07:44 there are different types of Coumadin called "Jantoven." 07:47 There's a new one out called "Xarelto." 07:50 There are different ones called "Pradaxa," 07:52 that are now out that have been shown scientifically 07:54 to help lower the risk of stroke. 07:56 Unfortunately, the alternatives have never been studied. 08:00 There's one out there called, "Nattokinase." 08:02 There are all sorts of different herbs that people use 08:05 that thin out the blood; 08:06 unfortunately, they have not been studied. 08:09 We know things like "fish oil," that's out there. 08:13 We know omega-3-6-9 fatty acids thin the blood. 08:16 We know that water thins the blood. 08:18 We know that stress thickens the blood. 08:21 But there's nothing that's been studied in randomized 08:24 double-blinded trials yet that have shown to lower 08:27 the risk of stroke in atrial fibrillation other than 08:30 Coumadin and these other ones we mentioned, 08:32 and I get this every day, and I'll tell you, Charles, 08:35 it's so sad when you see someone that could be on 08:38 the blood thinner and they're scared to take it 08:40 for whatever reason and it does raise the chance of bleeding. 08:43 It's not a medicine without risk, but I would rather 08:46 deal with the side effect of the medicines 08:48 than have a stroke because a stroke is just 08:51 devastating, Charles... 08:55 Hey Charles, I want to show you something here, 08:56 do you know what this is? 08:58 That is for checking your reflexes. 09:00 That's for checking your reflexes. 09:01 I'm going to do some reflex checking on you right now, 09:03 before we answer some more questions. All right 09:07 What we do is... What's going to happen to me? 09:10 Well, I'm hitting this and seeing if you have reflexes. 09:14 You know, your reflexes are a little sluggish, Charles. 09:16 You know, I'll have to hit you a little harder. Bang, bang! 09:21 But what a reflex does is it puts pressure on a nerve. 09:23 Why don't I have reflexes? You did, you do. 09:25 You look for a muscle to tighten up. Okay, good. 09:28 You know, everyone has reflexes to fear. 09:31 Our body is made to have different reflexes, 09:34 and unfortunately, in modern medicine, 09:38 we reflexively do things. Yes 09:40 And a lot of people I see that are reflexively doing things 09:43 based on the media, or based on cultural things. 09:46 They reflexively act; if someone says, 09:49 some person, now he says, "I have to have this," 09:53 they run out to the store and reflexively to get it. 09:55 Because they think it going to get them better. Yeah 09:57 And that's not always the case, so I advise people 10:01 when they have the questions that come in, "investigate it." 10:04 And I'm not saying that everything I have 10:05 works for everybody, but look at the evidence, 10:07 does this make sense, is it a balanced approach? 10:10 But don't reflexively buy supplements 10:13 or buy new treatments, think about it, 10:16 see if it makes sense. All right, very good. 10:18 Another question from heartwiseministries.org 10:21 Let's see what it says here... "What is the healthiest diet, 10:24 I've heard the "Mediterranean diet" is the best." 10:27 There's the "Paleo diet," there's the 10:28 "caveman diet", there's the "Mediterranean diet." 10:31 There's the "high carbohydrate", "no carbohydrate." 10:33 There's the "Adkins," there are diets all over the 10:36 place here - what is the healthiest? 10:37 Yeah, and that's a very interesting question 10:41 because, for instance, if a person lives in a geographic 10:44 part of the world, the healthiest diet to them might be 10:47 different than the healthiest diet for someone else. Yeah 10:49 But if a person has access to fresh fruits, 10:52 vegetables, nuts and grains in their whole form, 10:55 it's not in a package, that is the 10:57 healthiest thing for them. 10:59 And I think you told me, you have a new term 11:02 that you shared with Colin Campbell not too long ago. 11:05 Yes, because he was looking for an update 11:07 to the whole food plant-based diet 11:10 because that sort of sounds like you base it on these 11:12 foods, but it's open-door for anything else. 11:15 I say, why don't we just call it a whole food 11:18 plant exclusive diet, and that has been shown 11:21 time and time again to be the optimum diet, 11:23 the best there is out there. 11:25 Yeah, and I would agree with you, I think that is 11:27 the optimal place as long as the person that's getting there 11:31 doesn't have a lot of mental anguish from doing that. 11:34 Yeah, they have to believe in it, but I've had some 11:37 people that it's just something that they have to have, 11:40 and otherwise they're not happy and it's really about a balance. 11:44 You know, I'd rather have people eating good 80% of the time, 11:47 than eating bad 80% of the time. 11:49 And you have to move people in their diet one-step-at-a-time 11:52 looking at the evidence, but most people, 11:54 as they make these changes, they feel better, 11:56 and as they eat the bad food, they feel bad, Charles, 12:00 but the Mediterranean diet is better than the Adkins diet. 12:02 But I agree with you, if we can be happy in eating that 12:06 whole food plant-based exclusive diet, 12:09 that would solve probably 80 to 90% of our 12:13 disease problem in America and that's probably one of the 12:17 big solutions to the healthcare dilemma, 12:19 and yet we spend lots of money on developing 12:22 new techniques on genetics, all the research is going on 12:25 this technology or what the pill can we do, 12:28 and we don't spend the money in educating people 12:30 and teaching them techniques how to do this. 12:33 We reflexively do what we've done our entire lives because 12:37 our system says, "That's the way we do it." 12:39 But look at the evidence... Is our world getting better; 12:42 is our healthcare going down? No 12:44 And that's why I'm all for everyone having access 12:47 to healthcare, but if they have access 12:49 to systems that are broken and doesn't fix problems, 12:51 are we really going to not perpetuate a system that is 12:55 already not doing well? 12:56 So, I think that's a great question and I get that a lot. 12:59 We need to begin with a belief. 13:01 We have to say to ourselves, "Okay, I want to be healthy, 13:06 I want to do whatever it takes." 13:08 Instead, we reflexively, we say, "I want to do 13:12 all the things I'm doing and I want to be healthy 13:15 while doing them." 13:17 "What can I do to minimally remove from my life 13:21 the things that I'm doing that I really like and still 13:24 be healthy?" 13:26 And I think that's the wrong way for us to do that. 13:27 We should just say, "Let's start with a blank slate 13:30 here I am, I want to live a healthy, long life, 13:32 what do I need to do, and let me look in the 13:34 Bible and whatever it says, even though you may not like it, 13:38 even though it may not be your favorite, whatever it says, 13:41 we do it because we have made a decision, 13:43 and we believe that God knows what He is talking about 13:47 and that the biblical technology will take us 13:49 to where we want to go and we believe that 13:51 "As a man thinketh on his heart, so is he." 13:53 God wants us to think it and then do it, 13:56 and have faith that it is going to 13:57 work out and it usually does. 13:58 Stay tuned for more... |
Revised 2016-01-27