We all experience
symptoms, but understanding
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why those symptoms are
happening is so important.
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Stay with us as Dr.
Marcum helps explain it.
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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 of
taking medications?
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Well, you're about to be given
"The Ultimate Prescription"
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A lot of
questions about symptoms,
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but treating a symptom
is not always the best idea.
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Dr. Marcum, tell us
why this might be the case.
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Well I will Nick,
and this is going to be a
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great discussion because
we're going to talk today,
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on our program, about
the difference between a
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symptom, what's causing
the symptom, a diagnosis,
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all these interesting things,
and think about it this way...
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If I were banging my
head into the wall over
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and over and over again,
and my head started hurting,
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the symptom of hurting would be
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the hurting is
coming from my head...
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Well if you were
treating the symptom,
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you might give me
a pain medication.
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I'd give you a pill. Sure!
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And the pain might
go away temporarily,
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but it doesn't get
at the cause. Right
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That's just one
analogy of treating a symptom
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and not understanding the cause.
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But let's think
about it this way...
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Let's talk about what a
symptom is first of all.
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Anything that we
feel that's not normal
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could be
considered a symptom. Okay
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Now there are physical symptoms
that our body undergoes,
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but there are
also mental symptoms
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that we don't feel
that we think. Okay
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So your brain can have symptoms
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just as well as our
body can have symptoms.
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Let's talk about the eyes...
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What would be a symptom that
the eyes are malfunctioning,
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something that the
eyes would not be normal.
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If they are itchy and red...
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Itchy, red, pain in
the eye, blurry vision...
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those are all
symptoms from the eyes.
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We can think of that
with almost any body part.
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What about the
head? Pain, headaches,
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ears - ringing into
the ears, dizziness.
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Of course, the organ I
work with is the chest.
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The symptoms that might
be from the chest would be:
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Chest pain, but chest
pain can be from the heart,
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there are many other things.
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Can't breathe -
that might be a symptom.
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A rash might be a symptom;
itching might be a symptom;
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diarrhea might be a
symptom, and then the opposite
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of diarrhea - constipation
- those might be symptoms
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from the GI tract.
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Well what a healer does
first of all - is he collects
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the symptoms and sees
if there is some pattern
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recognition.
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He sees if these
abnormal feelings that a person
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is experiencing might
be leading to the cause.
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So that's what a good
diagnostician would do.
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Now sometimes, there is
disease going on in the body
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that's longstanding that
we don't even know we have
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until we have a symptom. Right
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Usually, when a
symptom comes to surface,
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the problem is pretty
developed, and that's usually
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when we need modern
medicine is when the
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symptom develops to
help get us over the hump.
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Are you following me? Yeah
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Okay, like a heart
attack might have been going on,
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the cause, for 40 or 50 years.
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Really? But it
doesn't happen until
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it accumulates and we
have a heart attack. Right
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Then we have to
deal with the symptom,
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but the disease has been
going on for years and years.
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You follow me? Yep
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High blood pressure...
high blood pressure can cause
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aneurysms or weak
spots in arteries.
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That blood pressure might
have been high for 30 years,
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we might not have even know it.
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The cause of that blood pressure
might have been in our diet,
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but we don't find out about it
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until our body
develops a symptom. Okay
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So in our bodies, in
caring for health, Nick,
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we don't want to wait
until a symptom occurs.
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Did you ever watch -
what's that show that
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Barney Fife was on that show...
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Umm... I'll think
of it in a minute,
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but anyway, I used to watch
that show - it was very good,
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it was funny and he used to
say, "Nip it in the bud." Sure
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So we want to find out a
problem before it's a problem.
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So that's one of the
reasons, about going to
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really good doctor -
he will help you identify
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disease before it even
manifests itself as a symptom.
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So, if you're feeling
something that's not right,
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especially if you don't
have an explanation for it,
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you need to seek help.
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Your chest hurts when
you're walking up a hill...
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That's a classic symptom,
but it could be a symptom
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of what we call
"angina," where the heart
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isn't getting enough blood.
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But if you think about
it, lots of our body parts
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have symptoms and if
we identify the symptoms,
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and we can articulate it
well, that's going to help
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the doctor quite a bit.
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I have some people that
come in and the men are the
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worst about
this... they come in,
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I say, "Well why are you here?"
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And they say, "Well
my wife brought me."
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You know that's the #1...
No, I said, "No, you can do
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better than that."
Right "Why are you here?"
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"I don't feel good."
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Well, you know, that's not
really helping me a whole lot,
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but that is a symptom.
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You need more of a
description, what hurts?
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But the symptom of,
"My wife brought me,"
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doesn't help me very much. Right
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The symptom of, "I feel bad
all over," doesn't help me much,
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but sometimes I can get them
to lower it down a little bit.
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They might say, "I'm
having a fever," and that's a
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symptom that might
go with an infection;
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it might go with a
certain type of cancer.
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They might say,
"I've been losing weight,"
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and that would go
with maybe a bowel problem;
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a malnourishment problem;
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it could go with
a cancer problem,
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and even at that point,
the symptoms would eventually
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lead me to the
underlying cause of the symptoms
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which could lead me to the
disease or the disease state,
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and help me figure
out what I need to do.
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So it's always
better off treating a cause
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rather than treating a symptom.
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Not that the
symptoms don't need attention,
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but long-term, like we
said, banging the head,
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if I quit banging my head,
I might not need the narcotic
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to take the pain away.
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And that happens so
many times in people...
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They do things over and over,
especially back pain, Nick.
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I have people that have
back pain and they come in,
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and they say,
"Oh, my back hurts."
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Well, the best thing
for them is to rest it.
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If they wouldn't go to
work for a week or two and let
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it rest, it would heal,
everything would be fine...
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But no, they have to go to
work, they don't let it heal,
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"Give me some
medicine so I can work."
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So they're functioning,
they keep tearing the muscles
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and the nerves and the
back never gets better,
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and they make the
problem worse. Right
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So sometimes in
treating symptoms,
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we can make problems worse.
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I have people that come to
me after they've had the bypass
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surgery and that's where
they cut the sternum and all the
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nerves in two... I say, "Well,
if you let this heal well,
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it takes about six
months," and they go,
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"Well can I have
a pain medicine?"
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And I go, "No, I
want you to have the pain
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because that tells you to
stop doing what you're doing."
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So sometimes pain is a
good signal for us not to be
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stupid and do things we
shouldn't be doing to our body.
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So I think in
understanding in answering
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these questions
today, it's going to be very
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important that we step
back a little bit and let's try
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to find the cause of the problem
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rather than just
treating a symptom.
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Now if we look
at modern medicine,
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we have lots of pills,
lots of over-the-counters...
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most of them
just treat symptoms,
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they don't treat the cause.
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Does a blood pressure
medicine treat a cause? No
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Does a diabetic
medicine treat a cause?
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No, it just
lowers your blood sugar.
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Does a headache
pill treat the cause?
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No, it just treats the pain.
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So a lot of these
things treat symptoms,
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and that's okay for the moment,
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but it doesn't
get at the problem,
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so the problem continues
to recur over and over.
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It's a great business
model, but it's not the best
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way to take care of
one of your most valuable,
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if not the most valuable,
investment that you have...
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And I find it very strange
that most people will spend
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more time learning about
their cars and other hobbies,
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than they will spending
learning about their body,
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how to take care of it and
how to optimize the function
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of this very valuable gift.
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That's right, it's
really important...
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don't just let your
doctor get away with treating
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just the
symptom, we want to know
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what the underlying cause is.
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Now, we've been
doing first aid...
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That's right, we've
got some items here that we
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pulled out of the first
aid kit, and, Dr. Marcum,
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why don't you tell
us what you've got here
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and why they
need to be in our kit.
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Well, we have been
working on getting everyone some
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practical things that
they can do on a first aid kit.
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First aid is just that...
First aid - first treatment.
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That doesn't
necessarily find the cause,
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but it enables the
person to feel well enough
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so they can get to a
person that can find the cause
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unless they know
what it is. Right
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And almost every first aid
kit needs to have all sorts of
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ointments okay...
ointments for them,
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and this is one
called, "Betadine ointment."
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And this is very good if
someone gets an infection,
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a nail, you know - a cut,
they need to put this on it.
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It helps kill bacteria because
if bacteria from the skin
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and from a contaminant
gains access to the bloodstream,
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that could be very
bad, not a good thing.
00:09:16.72\00:09:18.72
So this helps lower
the risk of infection.
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This is sort of
very easy to put on.
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This is what we call a
"Triple Antibiotic Ointment,"
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and this is just a
different antibiotic ointment
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to do the same - to
kill the different bacteria
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that might be on the skin that
might gain access to the blood.
00:09:31.43\00:09:35.50
Everyone has
heard of "Neosporin."
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We put a lot of these on wounds
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that help with the
infection with that.
00:09:40.78\00:09:43.51
But anyway, your first
aid kit should have lots of
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different creams
that have antibiotics;
00:09:46.15\00:09:47.95
different creams
to help with itches.
00:09:47.98\00:09:50.49
This is a burn cream and
this is sort of not only an
00:09:50.52\00:09:54.36
anesthetic, but antiseptic.
00:09:54.39\00:09:56.59
And you don't have
to necessarily know
00:09:56.62\00:09:58.53
all the active
ingredients in it,
00:09:58.56\00:10:00.20
but you should have
lots of these to handle
00:10:00.23\00:10:01.86
different situations that
come involved with your skin.
00:10:01.90\00:10:05.20
Itching is another
thing that will do it.
00:10:05.23\00:10:07.17
Some people have some
things for really dry skin.
00:10:07.20\00:10:09.77
They have a
moisturizer that will help.
00:10:09.80\00:10:12.14
Now you showed me, recently,
something that was very
00:10:12.17\00:10:15.54
valuable that I want to add
to my kit that I didn't have,
00:10:15.58\00:10:18.38
and that was a lighter.
00:10:18.41\00:10:20.72
That's right, I keep a lighter
in my because I go camping
00:10:20.75\00:10:23.22
a lot and that type
of thing, but, you know,
00:10:23.25\00:10:24.59
maybe in cold
situations, building a fire
00:10:24.62\00:10:27.16
and having a little bit of
heat would be very convenient.
00:10:27.19\00:10:29.16
Yeah, well I thought that
was very useful because you
00:10:29.19\00:10:30.89
never know when you might
need some fire for something,
00:10:30.93\00:10:33.29
and that's more
of a survival tool...
00:10:33.33\00:10:35.60
But I think a good first
aid kit is valuable not only
00:10:35.63\00:10:39.30
if you're going into
a function or an event,
00:10:39.33\00:10:42.07
have a good first aid
kit to help until ambulances
00:10:42.10\00:10:45.07
might get there and not everyone
has access to ambulances
00:10:45.11\00:10:48.34
and urgent care centers...
Sometimes that can take a while.
00:10:48.38\00:10:51.58
Sometimes that can take a
while and we don't want that.
00:10:51.71\00:10:53.55
So we're going to talk about
answering these questions...
00:10:53.58\00:10:56.92
We're going to try to always,
when these questions come in,
00:10:56.95\00:10:59.32
for the people that
ask these questions,
00:10:59.35\00:11:02.36
we going to focus on the
cause, but usually it starts
00:11:02.39\00:11:04.93
out as a symptom and
we're going to try to
00:11:04.96\00:11:07.20
let people understand
that when you don't feel right,
00:11:07.23\00:11:09.76
that's a symptom and you
want to understand the cause
00:11:09.80\00:11:12.77
because if you
understand the cause,
00:11:12.80\00:11:14.60
you're more likely to
get a long-lasting solution.
00:11:14.64\00:11:18.07
That's right! We're going to be
00:11:18.11\00:11:19.57
back in just a
moment, please stay with us
00:11:19.61\00:11:21.48
as Dr. Marcum helps
explain causes and symptoms.
00:11:21.51\00:11:24.95