What goes in...
will it always come out?
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Today's topic on the program
is "The Gastrointestinal System"
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Dr. Marcum will be answering
your questions on the topic.
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You won't want to
miss it. Stay tuned...
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I'm Dr. James
Marcum... Are you interested in
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discovering the reason why?
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Do you want solutions
to your healthcare problem?
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Are you tired on
taking medications?
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Well, you're about to be given
"The Ultimate Prescription"
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Thanks for joining
us on today's program.
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I'm your host, Nick Evenson,
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and you know, there is a lot
of literature that talks about
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the GI system.
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Dr. Marcum, thank you
for tackling this subject,
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and tell us what
do we need to know.
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Well you know, we've had a
lot of questions come in and
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most of what we need to
know is going to be accomplished
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in those questions,
but if you think about the
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GI system, Nick.
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You know, it starts with your
lips and ends with your bottom.
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And what happens is the
function of the GI system is to
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give us energy and if we
think about some of the big
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concepts of what the GI system
is, we can avoid pitfalls.
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So the GI system's basic
purpose is to give us energy
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because we take food into
the GI system and it extracts
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from our food
energy; the energy eventually
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gets in our blood;
the blood takes it to all
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of our cells so our
cells can function well. Okay
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Just like the respiratory system
gives oxygen to every cell,
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the GI system helps us
give energy to every cell.
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And we take really 3 nutrients
in that we really need...
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We take our carbohydrates,
that should be our primary
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source of nutrients that is
extracted from our GI system.
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That means it pulls it out.
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We have proteins -
those are our building blocks,
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those are
enzymes - that is needed,
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but not very much of our total
calories is needed in proteins,
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and a very small
amount is needed in fat.
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And if we upset that
balance by what we put in,
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things get altered -
stress is put on the system.
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So just what we
put in our GI system
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is very important
as far as balance.
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So when we put it in,
digestion and breaking this
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starts with our teeth,
Nick, we start chewing it;
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we start having enzymes
in our mouth that actually
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starts digestion in the mouth.
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There is amylase
that starts in the mouth.
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I like to eat greens!
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Greens - actually the digestion
of greens starts in the mouth.
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And I can absorb
nitrites in my bloodstream,
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even from my mouth. Right
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So it starts in the mouth
and you want to chew well.
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If you don't chew up your food
well - if you just gulp it down,
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the rest of the body
parts don't like that.
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It's sort of like if you
work in a television studio...
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You know, someone doesn't do
their job and then other people
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downstream have to work harder.
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Makes it harder for
everybody. It makes it harder.
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So when Mr. Teeth and
Mr. Mouth aren't doing
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their job, Mr. Stomach is
going to go, "Hey, these guys
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are lazy, I
have to work harder."
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Well luckily, we're not in
a television studio like that.
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Right, we're not
in a TV studio...
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So anyway, people have
to work harder downstream...
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and lots of things can happen
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inside this part...
you know, your teeth can
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fall out, you can get
infections in the mouth,
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you can get
cancers in the mouth,
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lots of things
can hurt that process.
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So then - I call it the big tube
because it's like a big tube
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that runs through us
that takes the food out.
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Then it goes
down, you swallow it,
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there's a little tube
that separates the lungs from
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the stomach
called the "epiglottis,"
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keeps it going
the right way. Okay
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So you want the
epiglottis to be happy too.
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So it goes down - the
next thing is the esophagus.
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The esophagus is pretty
much just a transport area.
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It helps it get to
point A from the mouth
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to B where digestion
really starts ramping up
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in the stomach. Right
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So in the stomach, you
know the esophagus is this
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tube that goes down...
in the stomach that's where
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there are lots of acids
and that's where the food
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starts to be broken down.
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You make things like
"hydrochloric acid" in the
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stomach that
breaks down proteins.
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Proteins are
really hard to break down.
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It starts breaking down
the proteins and then it goes
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into the small intestine
where we start extracting
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water from the system and then
more nutrients are extracted.
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Eventually it gets
to the large intestines
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where more water is
dealt with and the wastes
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are sort of dealt with,
and then as it moves through
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this gigantic tube,
eventually it comes out the
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other end as waste. Okay
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So that's what the tube does,
it's mainly there to extract
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nutrients that we need.
Pull out the good stuff. Right
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But unfortunately, if we
put bad stuff into this tube,
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bad things happen.
Pulls up the bad stuff. Yes
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And things in the
mouth that can be bad
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or things like tobacco.
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Tobacco can be that in not
taking good care of your teeth,
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that could hurt that. Sure
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Not having enough water in you
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could cause fissures in the
mouth and things of that nature.
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Infections can
happen in the mouth.
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That affects the
way you absorb the food.
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Lots of things can
happen to the esophagus...
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And of course, a lot of us take
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in food that's not
good for our system.
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And when the
stomach and some of the
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parts see things that
they don't want to handle,
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they go, "Oh my, what
is Nick doing to me today,
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he is giving me this
stuff and I don't know what
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to do with it, I
know I don't want to
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break it down, but I
gotta do something with it."
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And actually, it takes some
of the bad toxins into the body.
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A lot of people don't realize,
but one of our questions
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today talks about "probiotics,"
but there is a trillion
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bacteria in the system
that also aid in this process,
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so it's not only some of
the chemicals like amylase
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and lipase and digested enzymes,
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it's a host of a
trillion bacteria...
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And those bacteria all have
to be in the correct balance.
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So this tube is
very complicated,
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a lot of stuff
is going on in it.
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It's there to help us
feel good and a lot of people
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don't realize that the
bacteria in the stomach,
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how the bowel works affects
numerous parts of the body.
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Because those trillion
bacteria they make different
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mutations happen -
they make certain chemicals
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that can affect the heart.
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Them make chemicals
that can give us hormones
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that affect our
brain like serotonin.
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A lot of people don't
realize the gut makes 80%
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of our chemical called
serotonin which helps us sleep.
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A lot of different things
that can happen just by keeping
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good care of our gut -
our big tube as I say. Right
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So it's very important to
take care of that big tube,
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and we're going to answer some
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great questions
about that subject.
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I've got to interrupt and ask...
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This is a bright tie
and I think it's related to
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the topic today,
what's on your tie here?
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Well, this is a great tie
that someone gave to me, Nick,
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and I'm glad you pointed
it out because not many people
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can see all these
fancy things, but on this tie
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there's an
artery, there's an EKG,
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there's a spine,
there's a prescription pad,
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lots of neat
things are on this tie...
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And I like to wear this tie,
probably only once or twice...
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Here's a bug
that's not on that tie,
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but I'm glad you noticed
that tie, Nick, because whoever
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gave it to me - I can't
remember who gave it to me,
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was very proud to find this tie.
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And I'm still trying to
look, there's a heart there,
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and a stethoscope, but I
don't see the big tube there.
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So no big tube today, but
I'm glad you noticed that.
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Well let's talk about
it, we've been building a
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first aid kit and what are some
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more items that need to
be in our first aid kit?
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Well, I want to over that
because that's one way that
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everyone can be involved,
not only do we learn things,
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but there are some things
that you can pass on to your
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friends and neighbors
and you can carry with you
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in your first aid kit
that you're creating at home.
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Well this, Nick,
here is a splint, okay,
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and these are splints
that you can buy that are very
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small and these are
great stocking stuffers
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that are great for
your own first aid kit.
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And the key that happens
when you break a bone or hurt
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something is you want
to immobilize it. Right
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You want to keep it from moving.
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So what's the idea
behind immobilization?
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We want to basically keep
the joint from moving because
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the more a joint moves,
the more it can cause damage.
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Does that help it grow
back correctly if it doesn't?
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Well if it hold it in
place, and when it's in place
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it does grow back
better, the tissue holds still
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so you don't keep
causing more inflammation.
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Bones love to stay together,
and they make chemicals
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that helps it heal
faster if you keep moving it.
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That's why if you break
your arm, they put it in a cast.
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It takes about 6 weeks
for the bones to heal up.
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That's the way, if you
hurt your ankle, you know,
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you want to put it in some
type of immobilization device.
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Well this happens to be a small
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one that will
go on your fingers.
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If you hurt your
fingers, it will mobile that
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until you can get an
x-ray to see if it needs
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to be immobilized
any further with a cast.
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So this is something that's
very useful for your fingers.
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Feet - do you
mobilize toes very much?
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No, you usually wrap the
toes, you know, you mobilize
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toes by wrapping them.
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Ankles - you immobilize
ankles sometimes by using these
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Ace wraps okay - and these
Ace wraps are also beneficial
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if, let's say, you might
hurt your arm and you think
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it's broken...
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Well, you know, if you
can immobilize the bone,
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keep something
straight, this is very useful
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if you have something to
keep it straight, a board or
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something with you or something
solid, you can use the Ace wrap
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to wrap it around that board
to sort of immobilize an arm.
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Legs are a little bit harder,
but an arm you can mobilize
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with this fairly easily.
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And that probably
helps to reduce the pain
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because if it was
not moving as much,
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it won't hurt as bad while you
are on your way to the hospital.
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And that makes sense,
the more moving, guess what?
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The more the
nerves are turned on...
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the more pain you have...
Right So that's very good.
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So this is something that
I think everyone should have
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in their first aid
kit, a plan to immobilize
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the joint or
joint to hold still.
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Ace wraps are very
good, you can buy some splints
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there are all sorts of
neat things that they can have
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to help for their first aid kit.
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Well I'm going to
go home and make sure
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that I have these items
in my first aid kit at home.
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But we don't want to
forget about the big tube
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because we're talking
about the big tube today,
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we got a lot of
questions. That's right!
00:10:03.20\00:10:04.57
Stay with us, we're going
to be back in just a moment
00:10:04.60\00:10:06.63
when Dr. Marcum
answers questions about
00:10:06.67\00:10:08.30
the gastrointestinal system.
00:10:08.34\00:10:09.67