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Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP000060B
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00:01 Welcome back to the program, I'm your host Charles Mills,
00:03 we're here with Dr. James Marcum, 00:04 cardiologist, and we're talking about hearts, 00:07 and the frequently asked questions that have come into 00:09 heartwiseministries.org 00:11 We are also giving you some biblical prescriptions, 00:13 and here's a beautiful one, I love this... 00:15 This is from Psalm 27:14... 00:18 We'll put it up on the screen, there it is... 00:25 Dr. Marcum, I don't know about you, 00:27 but I don't like to wait. 00:29 To bring healing, sometimes the Lord takes His own 00:33 sweet time and I want to go get a pill; 00:36 I want to go get a procedure; 00:38 I want to have something done to me that fixes it right now 00:40 so I can go back to work. 00:42 So, how are we supposed to learn to wait for the Lord 00:46 and wait for Him to do what He is going to do 00:49 when we want to be healed right now - this moment! 00:53 Well I think in listening to that question, 00:56 the key word is "listen." Hmmm 00:58 We have to listen and see what God is telling you to do. 01:01 Listen to Him and ask Him. 01:03 Say, "God, what do You want me to do?" 01:04 "What do You want me to wait on?" 01:06 "Where do You want me to go?" 01:07 "What would You have me to do in this case?" 01:10 Now read the second part of the verse... 01:12 Do you have the second part there? 01:13 I do... "Wait for the Lord and be strong, 01:14 take heart and wait for the Lord." is all I have. 01:16 I like that part, "take heart." 01:18 "Take heart," there we go, take heart. 01:20 What does that mean? "Take heart" 01:22 Be of good courage. Yeah Don't get discouraged. 01:25 Have hope. Yes! Take heart, don't worry. 01:29 He's going to come through for us. 01:31 Be patient, don't worry about it. 01:33 Have faith! Yes! 01:34 Have faith, don't worry. Just let Him have it. 01:38 We can't do it, let Him take control over this. 01:42 I know a lot of times when patients come in 01:44 with rhythm problems, I get impatient. 01:47 Sometimes these rhythms don't come back very often. Yes 01:49 The patient says, "I felt my heart go fast, 01:51 and it won't come back for months and months." 01:53 In fact, I might say, "Take heart, we're going to find out 01:58 what it is." 02:00 We have different monitors, but now we have a device 02:02 that we can implant under the skin called a, "loop recorder," 02:06 and I can record every beat of a person's heart. 02:10 I can remember when I used to practice in the Cincinnati area, 02:12 I took care of a lot of people on the airlines, 02:15 and this one guy said, "I have my heart beating fast," 02:17 and he happened to work on an airplane. 02:19 He didn't fly the airplane, but he worked on it. 02:21 And we put a 24-hour monitor, and didn't catch it; 02:24 wore it for 2 weeks and, didn't catch it. 02:26 Finally, he said, "It really bothers me, 02:28 but I didn't know what it was." 02:29 I didn't know which rhythm it was. 02:30 Was it supraventricular tachycardia, 02:32 atrial fibrillation... I didn't know which it was. 02:35 I knew it bothered him, so finally we put a 02:36 loop recorder in him and about 6 months later, 02:39 it caught that rhythm. Wow! 02:41 So, for him, he had to take heart. 02:44 I was going to eventually find it, I had to be patient 02:47 that sooner or later we would find out what that is, 02:50 and when we're in a relationship with God, 02:52 and when we're in relationships with each other, 02:54 we have to be patient with each other. 02:56 And I'm just so glad God is patient with me, Charles. 02:59 I want to show you something... Okay 03:01 That is called a caliper. A caliper 03:04 And this is how we measure these small electrical 03:07 pathways in the heart. 03:08 You know, we measure them on EKGs and see if they're 03:10 within normal timeframes. 03:12 Little printouts you mean? Yeah 03:13 To get from here to here, the signal should take 03:15 so many milliseconds to get to the top, the bottom, 03:18 you know, about 120 milliseconds, 03:21 that's how fast it goes, different parts. 03:23 We've actually measured that and could measure that. 03:26 And I guess we could use it as a weapon if we needed to 03:29 because it's very sharp. 03:30 But what we do is we measure the beats and we can learn 03:32 about the beats - we put it back and forth, 03:34 I can sort of measure how much it is and then I have a scale 03:38 that will tell me how fast that beat is going, 03:40 and we know how much the normal is. 03:42 We don't use these as much anymore because nowadays 03:45 the computer does all that for us. Yes, yes 03:48 We have computer printouts and it's amazing how 03:50 technology had made changes, and I'm wondering 03:52 how many more years are they going to need doctors. 03:55 Pretty soon, Charles, they'll go to the patient and say, 03:56 "What's wrong with you?" 03:58 And you'll talk into your computer, 03:59 and it will sort of print out this alga-rhythm of 04:01 what tests I should do and what treatments I should have. 04:04 I think that's wrong. I would not be surprised. 04:07 I think that a lot of healing comes from that relationship 04:10 and from that relationship with the patient and the healing 04:13 that comes from the belief systems that the 04:15 provider shares with the patient. 04:16 So I've been sad to see that we've gone more the technology 04:20 route and less from the relationship route, 04:23 but that doesn't surprise me because we were made 04:26 to have relationships. 04:27 I don't think we were made to have technology. 04:29 It's another one of these things that it's great sometimes, 04:32 but also can get in our way as well. 04:34 I guess the bottom line here is that healing sometimes 04:37 takes time and we need to be able to just say, 04:39 "I'm going to wait for it, it's going to happen, 04:41 I have faith in it and let it go. 04:43 And you know Charles, God sees healing different than we do. 04:45 We define healing as, "not having symptoms 04:48 or not having disease." 04:49 You know, I think a better definition of is, 04:53 "we're healed as long as we're in a relationship with God, 04:56 and if we're not in a relationship with God, 04:58 we're not healed." 04:59 Maybe that would be a better relationship as long 05:01 as we're in a relationship with God, we're healed. 05:04 It's just "when." 05:05 Okay, here's another question from 05:07 heartwiseministries.org 05:09 "I have atrial fibrillation..." 05:11 Again, what's atrial fibrillation? 05:13 That's where the top part goes faster than the bottom part. 05:15 Okay. It sort of squeezes fast. 05:17 "I have atrial fibrillation, I am reluctant to take the blood 05:19 thinner Coumadin, are there natural alternatives?" 05:22 I bet you get this question a lot. 05:23 I get that a lot, right now, there are no 05:26 natural alternatives that have been proven 05:29 in double placebo-controlled trials. 05:32 So right now, we recommend Coumadin or one of the 05:35 medicines that have been proven until more information. 05:39 Does that mean some people don't take it... 05:42 they think the risk is too risky? 05:44 Yes, I have a few patients that have not taken it. 05:46 And sometimes they do well, 05:47 and sometimes they do not do well. 05:50 And what I do is when a patient comes to me, 05:52 I'd talk to them about the risks and benefits, 05:54 and let them make the decision. 05:56 All right, very good. 05:57 This next question here, we've covered the pacemaker, 06:00 that little device that we 06:01 implant there that helps the heart. 06:03 Now there's another device that we implant, 06:04 it's called a "defibrillator." 06:06 This person says, "My doctor says, "I need one, 06:08 a defibrillator... I'm not sure what this means, 06:11 help me out here a little bit." 06:13 Yeah, when a person has a weak heart, and we measure it by 06:17 the strength - how much blood it ejects each beat. 06:20 We call it an "ejection fraction." 06:22 When it falls below a number 35%, that's sort of an 06:26 arbitrary number, but we've done studies and showed 06:28 when it falls below that from whatever reason, 06:31 blockages in the arteries are the most common ones. 06:33 But infections, chemotherapy, other things 06:36 can make a heart weak, longstanding blood pressure, 06:38 valve disease - when it gets below that number, 06:41 it raises the risk of it having a dangerous arrhythmia 06:46 called "ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation." 06:49 These are life-threatening arrhythmias. 06:52 If you don't get treatment right away from these, you die. 06:55 These are the ones that you see people shocking, shocking it. 06:57 Remember the slow ones, we don't shock 07:00 the slow ones, but these are the fast ones 07:02 that's from the bottom of the heart. 07:03 We shock those and give the 07:04 heart a chance to get back in rhythm. 07:06 So a defibrillator helps those people that have weak hearts 07:10 that are more prone to have these dangerous bottom ones, 07:13 it sees that rhythm and delivers treatment immediately. 07:17 It's like having an ambulance with you, Charles, 24/7. 07:21 If that heart does something dangerous, it shocks the heart, 07:23 it also has pacemaker in there as a backup too. 07:26 So, that's with a defibrillator, can this help you out? 07:30 Absolutely, if you have a weak heart. 07:32 Now I will tell a story here... 07:34 I had one gentleman that had a weak heart and he decided 07:37 not to have it and he had his reasons for it. 07:40 And, you know, one day he was feeling fine, 07:42 had one of these abnormal rhythms from the bottom of his 07:44 heart and he passed away very quickly, yeah. 07:47 But some people choose to have it that way, 07:50 and again, what I do is I talk to them about all the 07:52 risks and benefits especially when it 07:55 comes to modern medicine because everything out there 07:57 has risks as well as the benefits. 07:59 Now, what is the real risk of a defibrillator? 08:02 Well the real risk is, of course, putting it in, 08:04 there's a small risk of infection, 08:06 and sometimes, you know, we talked a little bit before break 08:09 about knowing - if sometimes people are too old to have it. 08:13 You know, do they have other medical problems? 08:15 And sometimes, you put in a pacemaker defibrillator 08:19 and it keeps people alive, but it doesn't improve their 08:21 quality of life. 08:23 So you also have to look at quality of life as well 08:26 when you put in these life-saving devices. 08:28 All right, very good. 08:30 Another question here from heartwiseministries.org 08:32 You may have to help me on this one... 08:33 It says here, "Blood tests toward ablation means." 08:37 Do you understand what that means right there? 08:40 You know, I don't know what the blood test means, 08:43 but I think this person asks about... 08:45 Maybe before ablation... Yeah, what does an ablation mean? 08:47 What is an ablation? This is a very common procedure 08:51 that is a subtype of cardiologists called 08:54 an electrophysiologist might do. 08:56 Let's say I find a rhythm in the heart, Charles, 08:59 that comes from a certain spot that is genetic, 09:02 there are no other medical problems. 09:04 These rhythms now, we have the technology to go 09:06 up and we can map those in the heart and through a 09:08 sophisticated electrical mapping, 09:11 we can find that and destroy it with radiofrequency energy. 09:14 We can actually destroy atrial fibrillation. 09:17 We can destroy supraventricular tachycardia. 09:20 We can destroy ventricular tachycardia. 09:23 So we have the ability to destroy some of these rhythms, 09:26 and that's what an ablation is. 09:28 It really destroys the abnormal rhythm. 09:30 The doctor that does that is called an "electrophysiologist." 09:34 Now, do we do that in everybody? 09:36 No, sometimes if we can change different things 09:38 in their lifestyle. 09:40 Some medicines would do this, but this is a very sophisticated 09:43 procedure that we haven't had forever. 09:45 When I first started medicine, 20+ years ago, 09:49 we didn't do this, we didn't have this around 09:51 as much, but now some people that have atrial fibrillation, 09:55 we destroy that rhythm. 09:56 Now it's a very long, drawn out procedure, 09:58 there are some risks to that, but some people 10:01 receive a lot of benefit from it. 10:04 That is pretty amazing and is there a blood test 10:07 that says you need to take that? 10:08 Is there any connection there between this blood test? 10:10 No, I don't know what they were meaning by the blood test, 10:13 and that one must have got through. 10:14 All right... "My daughter saw an 10:15 electrophysiologist and he mentioned this to her. 10:20 Is this a common procedure?" Yeah 10:21 Nowadays, destroying the rhythm with an ablation 10:25 is a fairly common procedure. 10:27 The electrophysiologist in my group do these every single day. 10:31 Is that like open heart surgery? 10:33 Well, they go up through the veins and arteries, 10:36 and they have a bunch of devices and they have 10:38 computers that monitor and they map where the rhythm 10:40 is coming from and they put an electrode right near it, 10:43 and they can destroy it with some sound wave energy. 10:45 But you know, one of the most common rhythms 10:48 we have is skipped beats. Yeah 10:49 And a lot of people have skips and when a person comes 10:51 and says, "My heart is skipping," I usually say, 10:54 "Well, what's the stressor that's causing it to skip?" 10:57 And usually if I can find the stressor, the skipped beats 10:59 get improved quite a bit. 11:01 So that's probably one of the more common ones I have 11:03 is skipped beats and we find out about that 11:05 by just putting a monitor on them. 11:07 How do we find someone like you, Dr. Marcum? 11:10 Give us 15 seconds - how do we find someone who 11:12 has that kind of caring attitude and wants to use 11:14 that biblical technology... how do we find out? 11:16 Well, I think the best way is word of mouth, 11:19 talk to a lot of different people, 11:21 see who matches up with the way you feel inside. 11:25 You know, I've admit that I try to use the balance approach. 11:28 I'm sort of moderate. 11:29 There's a place for medicines, diet, nutrition, 11:31 I'm always learning, but I think there are many 11:33 physicians out there like that. 11:35 Just look, but ask your friends, 11:36 that's probably the best way to go. 11:37 All right, very good. When we come back 11:39 we're going to ask our "Ultimate Friend" 11:41 the "Ultimate Physician" in heaven to be with us 11:43 as we heal - that's God Himself, 11:45 so stay right where you are. 11:52 We've been talking about the rhythms, 11:54 the rhythms of the heart, but there are also 11:56 rhythms of life. 11:58 And as you go through life, I think you'll understand 12:02 that there are times in our lives where things are 12:04 going fast and there are times when our lives are going slow, 12:07 but make sure we continue to listen to our Creator who 12:10 creates these rhythms for us, now let's pray together... 12:13 Father God, We want to thank You 12:15 for listening to us today and being part of our lives, 12:18 being part of our rhythms of our lives and we just 12:21 long for the day when we can be with You, Father. 12:24 We want to introduce as many people as we can 12:26 to You so they can see Your love and see all the 12:29 good things you have for them, Father. 12:31 We want to thank You for everything You're doing 12:33 for us and the healing power that You help each one of us 12:36 with each day... is our prayer. Amen 12:38 If you might be interested or have more questions, 12:42 we'd love to serve you more. 12:44 You can do that at our website heartwiseministries.org 12:47 And I want to encourage everyone to pray for each other, 12:50 to pray for healing, look to the Bible for the 12:53 answers to life's tough questions. |
Revised 2016-02-09