Welcome back to the program.
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I'm your host Nick
Evenson here with Dr. Marcum,
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and on this program
we're discussing neuropathies.
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And Dr. Marcum,
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you did a fantastic
job of explaining this.
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Well, that's complex and
let me ask you as a student
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what did you pick up
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'cause if you don't understand
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that the audience is
not going to understand,
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so what did you pick up
where we might have to clarify.
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Some of the key points
that I picked up is that
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the most common type of
neuropathies are the ones
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that happened in the
periphery in your hands, arms,
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legs, feet, right?
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And that's when the nerves
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aren't sending the
signals correctly maybe...
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The nerves are damaged.
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They're damaged
yes, they're damaged.
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And so you may feel pain
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even though
there is nothing aside
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from the nerve
causing that pain, okay.
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And then if it's, it
could be out of the extremity
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or it could be where the
nerve connects to the spine.
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Spinal cord. Right.
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Or if it's not there,
it could be in the brain
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where the nerve
connects in the brain.
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So there are
several different places
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that the nerve could
have the neuropathy, right?
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And the nerve
itself is the problem,
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not what it's reporting on.
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Right. Okay.
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And the brain is involved
and it can be very tricky
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because the brain
can trick the nerves
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into reporting on
things it's not a problem
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or the nerve can be damaged.
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And that I think if we
have that under our belt
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that will help us
understand neuropathies
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especially
peripheral neuropathies
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as we answer these questions.
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Right.
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Yeah, we got some
questions that are coming
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from the website
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and we encourage
you to visit the website
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heartwiseministries.org.
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You can get on there and
ask the doctor your questions
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or you can request
prayer for your health problems
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and there is also library
of lot of health articles there
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that we like for you to enjoy
and share with your friends.
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But let's get right to it.
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One viewer writes in and asks
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what can be done to
help a peripheral neuropathy?
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Now this is one that's
out in the extremities.
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Yes, the nerve has
been damaged itself
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and we want if we can find out
how the nerve has been damaged.
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Unfortunately
sometimes nerve has been damaged
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and they can't get better, okay.
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Now we can, we
understand that pretty well
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if you poke out an eye,
the eye is not coming back.
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Yeah. Okay.
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Well, sometimes you
can poke out a nerve
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and the nerve is not coming back
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but it's still what it used
to report on can create pain.
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Okay.
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And it's
malfunctioning all the time
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and it's not
going to get better,
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it's going to malfunction
to some degree all the time,
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so sometimes we
can determine that
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by taking a careful history.
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But if we think about it
what can be done to help it
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but first of all find out
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why the nerve is not doing well.
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And if there is anything
we can do to help the nerve
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be happy, let's help.
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What do nerves like?
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Nerves like a good blood supply.
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Okay.
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Okay, and the
nerves in the periphery
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like everything
that our brain likes.
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They like less
stress, they like a diet
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that's a whole food
plant based diet, less in fat
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'cause that causes inflammation.
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Right.
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They like the
right type of vitamins,
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they had to have B6 and B12,
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those are very
important for nerve function.
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They like to have
oxygen so the basics
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that the whole body
needs the nerve needs.
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Right.
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And then there are some
things that can cause damage
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to the nerve itself,
alcohol can damage nerves.
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Really?
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Drugs can damage
nerves, it's a toxin.
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Certain
chemotherapy can damage nerves
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and actually certain medicines
can cause neuropathies.
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Okay.
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Sometimes removing the medicines
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can improve the neuropathy,
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sometimes the nerve
is permanently damaged.
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And if it's permanently damaged,
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it's not going to report
on things as well as it's not,
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so it might
chronically report pain
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when there is no pain
at all or hot or tingling
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where there is no
hot of tingling at all.
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Radiation can cause
that, burns can cause that.
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I had a situation in my arm once
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where I didn't
have enough blood flow
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and then that enough
blood flow damaged the nerves
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and I had a tingling
sensation for many, many years
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because the nerves were damaged.
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And eventually
that tingling went away,
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so it's very complex,
and lot of it has to do
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also with how your
brain interprets the data.
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I've seen some
people were after few years
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where they've lost the limb,
where they've lost the nerves,
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the nerves reported
on things for a while
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but then brain says no,
this is not working anymore,
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I'm going to turn off this nerve
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because this is not giving me
important information anymore.
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Right.
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In downstream
it's not helping me,
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I'm turning it off.
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Those are nice
situations to have, okay.
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And then
sometimes the neuropathies
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if we can't figure
out what's causing,
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diabetes is the
main cause of neuropathy
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because of the metabolism of it,
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because of the blood
supply is compromised,
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so diabetes can cause
peripheral neuropathies
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where the
nerves don't feel well,
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so you can get
infections and tinglings
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and pain from that,
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that's probably that most
common neuropathy that we have.
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But we can get neuropathies
from things like sleep apnea,
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not getting enough oxygen.
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We can get
neuropathies in blockages
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and blood supply to the nerves.
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Different toxins
in the environment
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that might affect some people
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that don't affect
others, pesticides that we get.
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Some people get neuropathies
from things of that nature.
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Some people just don't
have the right mineral mix
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in their body,
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so there is lot and
this is very complex
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and then how the
brain interprets the signals
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is very complex,
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but if you can know
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what's causing the
peripheral neuropathy
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and treat the nerve
like you do your brain,
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give it all the good
things that it needs to heal
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that gives us best chance
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may be to not be
a chronic problem.
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When a person has
bypass surgery, Nick,
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we cut their spine in two,
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nerves take a long time to heal.
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The chest in two. Yeah, yeah.
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What did I say
nerve in two? The spine.
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No, we cut the sternum
through. Sternum, yes, yes.
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I'm glad you said
you cut the sternum,
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we cut the nerves.
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Those nerves
there can be damaged
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up to six months.
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And when a nerve is
cut sometimes you know,
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you establish
that connection again,
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sometimes you don't
it's depending how big
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and how important that nerve is.
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Right.
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You know, some
people have cut themselves
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or burn
themselves and they touch it
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and they feel numb,
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the nerve has been
damaged permanently,
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they never get
this feeling back.
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So hopefully that's
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just a little
unimportant part of a nerve
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but these
neuropathies are very complex
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multi involvement
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and it's very
frustrating for people
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'cause sometimes their
pain doesn't get better.
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Yeah.
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Because the nerve
does not get better.
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So when you work
with the patient,
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you teach them all the
things that they can do,
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try to do everything
that doesn't hurt the nerve
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and then you're
unfortunately left well,
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can we teach the brain
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to interpret the
nerve signals differently.
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Cognitive therapy
with chronic pain.
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Can we treat the body to
make endorphins, oxytocin,
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different things that
can help the brain do better
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with chronic pain,
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can we distract the
brain's pain centers
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so it's thinking
about other things
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that will turn down
so that those things,
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can we up shift the brain
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instead of down
shifting the brain,
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so anything
that brings our brain
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to a higher level
00:06:54.01\00:06:55.74
and not at stress level
should help neuropathies.
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So this is very complex
but I'm hoping we can get,
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you get the basic
just if you understand it,
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hope for our audience will
know about how complex it is.
00:07:03.85\00:07:07.36
Okay, great.
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Let's move on
to another question
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someone asks, what
does neuritis mean?
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What is neuritis?
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Yeah, neuritis, anything
ITIS just means inflammation
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and that neuritis means
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you have a
inflammation of other nerve,
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that's all it means,
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and that nerve can be anywhere,
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inflammation can be
caused by lots of trauma
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but inflammation is usually
caused by damage to a nerve
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and when a nerve is damaged,
00:07:31.11\00:07:32.45
the immune system
tries to come in and help it,
00:07:32.48\00:07:34.48
it frequently
infections cause neuritis
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but inflammation of a
nerve, trauma through a nerve,
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all those things
can cause neuritis.
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All right, so we want
to reduce the inflammation
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through a number
of different ways.
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Yeah, keep the trauma over
use, make our bodies healthy
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as we can especially in the food
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and the toxins that
we bring into our body.
00:07:50.87\00:07:53.30
All right,
let's talk about this.
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What is an autonomic neuropathy?
00:07:54.70\00:07:58.01
Okay. Autonomic is that right?
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Yeah that's all right, okay.
00:07:59.47\00:08:00.88
Automatic, you
know what automatic is,
00:08:00.91\00:08:03.04
the body does it automatically.
00:08:03.08\00:08:04.55
Sure.
00:08:04.58\00:08:05.91
So a neuropathy is
the nerves that control
00:08:05.95\00:08:08.08
our automatic
functions are messing up.
00:08:08.12\00:08:10.99
Remember nerves do
all sorts of things,
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they can tell you
if you're having pain,
00:08:12.82\00:08:15.09
they can tell
you your sensation,
00:08:15.12\00:08:17.59
peripheral nerve can tell
you where you're at in space,
00:08:17.63\00:08:20.50
also we have nerves that
regulate our blood pressure,
00:08:20.53\00:08:23.47
our bowels and all these things.
00:08:23.50\00:08:26.17
But when those nerves
aren't doing things correctly
00:08:26.20\00:08:28.60
what happens?
00:08:28.64\00:08:30.17
Bad things. Why?
00:08:30.21\00:08:31.54
If you had autonomic,
some of the automatic things
00:08:31.57\00:08:33.64
like blood
pressure might be messed up,
00:08:33.68\00:08:35.61
so your blood
pressure might drop.
00:08:35.64\00:08:36.98
Right.
00:08:37.01\00:08:38.35
Your bowels, you know,
it regulates the bowels,
00:08:38.38\00:08:40.22
your bowel
function might be messed up.
00:08:40.25\00:08:42.52
You might have what
we call a gastroparesis
00:08:42.55\00:08:45.25
or your stomach
might not empty in food,
00:08:45.29\00:08:47.32
if the nerve that's
controlling the stomach
00:08:47.36\00:08:48.92
doesn't work correctly.
00:08:48.96\00:08:50.43
So the brain is
sending signals to our body
00:08:50.46\00:08:53.09
to do these functions
00:08:53.13\00:08:54.46
that normally automatically
happen on their own,
00:08:54.50\00:08:56.03
just well, the brain controls it
00:08:56.06\00:08:57.40
but we don't
consciously think about,
00:08:57.43\00:08:58.77
oh, make sure
this process happens.
00:08:58.80\00:09:00.64
And the nerve damage
00:09:00.67\00:09:02.27
causes the signal
not to go through...
00:09:02.30\00:09:04.44
It doesn't work right.
00:09:04.47\00:09:05.81
And therefore the
systems don't respond.
00:09:05.84\00:09:07.18
Right, on a autonomic neuropathy
00:09:07.21\00:09:08.74
and you know, you might get,
00:09:08.78\00:09:10.11
you know,
normally when you stand up
00:09:10.15\00:09:11.48
your blood pressure goes up
00:09:11.51\00:09:12.85
because it
automatically squeezes down,
00:09:12.88\00:09:14.22
it brings your blood,
00:09:14.25\00:09:15.58
but when you have an
autonomic neuropathy,
00:09:15.62\00:09:16.95
maybe the blood
vessels don't squeeze
00:09:16.99\00:09:18.65
'cause the nerves
aren't working as well.
00:09:18.69\00:09:20.36
Now it's interesting
that the nerves are just like
00:09:20.39\00:09:23.73
every other part of the
body, okay, and they get old.
00:09:23.76\00:09:27.96
And sometimes
the nerves wear out.
00:09:28.00\00:09:30.47
And of course we know
00:09:30.50\00:09:31.83
the nerves wear out in the brain
00:09:31.87\00:09:33.20
because you get dementia
00:09:33.23\00:09:34.57
but the nerves can wear out
00:09:34.60\00:09:35.94
in other parts
of the body as well.
00:09:35.97\00:09:37.71
Trauma, repetitive
trauma can wear out nerves,
00:09:37.74\00:09:40.71
but most of the time the
autonomic neuropathy aging,
00:09:40.74\00:09:44.25
different diabetes things
like that can do that as well.
00:09:44.28\00:09:47.62
So just one last word here.
00:09:47.65\00:09:49.42
What can people
do to help themselves
00:09:49.45\00:09:52.29
from experiencing neuropathies?
00:09:52.32\00:09:54.36
Go to a good physician
that can really listen to you
00:09:54.39\00:09:57.46
see if they can
find out the cause
00:09:57.49\00:09:59.06
explain some of the complexities
00:09:59.09\00:10:00.83
or neuropathies to you,
00:10:00.86\00:10:02.60
get you to doing everything
you can to heal yourself
00:10:02.63\00:10:05.27
your own nerves
00:10:05.30\00:10:06.63
and if you can't,
00:10:06.67\00:10:08.00
the nerves have a good regimen,
00:10:08.04\00:10:09.74
sometimes
medications are needed,
00:10:09.77\00:10:11.51
sometimes changing the
way we think is needed,
00:10:11.54\00:10:13.98
but one of the most
important things for people
00:10:14.01\00:10:15.91
with neuropathy is worship,
00:10:15.94\00:10:18.55
'cause God has
promised to create in us
00:10:18.58\00:10:20.78
a new brain to help heal us,
00:10:20.82\00:10:22.85
that's a key thing that
people have neuropathies
00:10:22.88\00:10:25.22
and chronic pain
that might not go away
00:10:25.25\00:10:27.36
is to realize that God's
going to heal it just where,
00:10:27.39\00:10:30.69
when and how.
00:10:30.73\00:10:32.69
Thank you, Dr. Marcum.
00:10:32.73\00:10:34.06
And if you're watching at home
00:10:34.10\00:10:35.43
and you're
experiencing neuropathy,
00:10:35.46\00:10:36.80
we want you to stay
with us as Dr. Marcum will be
00:10:36.83\00:10:38.93
praying with us
in just a moment.
00:10:38.97\00:10:40.44
Let's pray together.
00:10:49.21\00:10:51.11
Father God, I
want to pray for those
00:10:51.15\00:10:53.11
that might be
suffering from pain
00:10:53.15\00:10:54.68
especially neuropathies.
00:10:54.72\00:10:56.58
Be near to them
and comfort them Father
00:10:56.62\00:10:59.35
and let them know that
you're the great healer
00:10:59.39\00:11:01.72
is our prayer, amen.
00:11:01.76\00:11:04.26
Neuropathies are very
complex, they're very common
00:11:04.29\00:11:08.66
and I hope you've learned a
little bit today about that.
00:11:08.70\00:11:11.10
If you want to learn
more go to our website
00:11:11.13\00:11:12.93
that's heartwiseministries.org.
00:11:12.97\00:11:15.84