The following program
presents principles designed
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to promote good health
and is not intended to take
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the place of
personalized professional care.
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The opinions and the ideas
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expressed are
those of the speaker.
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Viewers are encouraged to
draw their own conclusions
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about the information presented.
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When you place your
hand over your heart,
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you can feel its
rhythmic cadence at least
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that's what you
suppose to feel. Stay tuned.
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I'm Dr. James Marcum.
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Are you interested in
discovering the reason why?
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You want solutions to
your health care problems?
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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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Today we continue our
series on what's killing us.
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Life is filled with rhythm.
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Seasons come and go
and day follows night,
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everything seems to be
tied to an unseen second hand.
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Even our hearts tap
by the constant rhythm.
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But what happens when
the heart gets out of sync?
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What happens
when our hearts failed
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to play along with
the rest of creation?
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Let's talk with
Cardiologist, Dr. James Marcum
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about heart rhythm
and how to stay in sync.
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Dr. Marcum, what
do we need to know?
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Well, you know, in our series
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we're talking
about all the things
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that can take us
prematurely, that can kill us.
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We've talked
about coronary disease
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which is heart attacks.
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Now it's time to talk
about the other things
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within the heart that can also
take us to a premature grave.
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One of the things we think
about is the rhythm of a heart
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like you've talked about.
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And unfortunately lot
of the rhythm disturbances
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people are born with.
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We have several of
them that we occasionally
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hear of been athletic
that passes away suddenly,
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you know,
running a Boston Marathon
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or someone
previously healthy passes away.
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Well, there is some
of these rhythm problems
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that are congenital that means
we have been born with that.
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Some of the names of them
will be the Long Q.T. syndrome
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you might have heard of that.
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There is some
congenital abnormalities
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that predispose the heart
to having a funny heart rhythm.
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One of the most common one
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is called a
Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.
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You're born with genes
that make the heart thick.
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When the heart's thick of
course it can go very rapidly.
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Another thing that
people die from suddenly
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is occasionally they
get a virus in their heart,
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which makes the heart weak,
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which again predisposes
it to an abnormal rhythm.
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Some people later in life,
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the battery of
the heart gets old.
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The battery of the heart--
Yes, the battery of the heart.
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Well, you have
a little structure
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in the top of the heart
called the Sinoatrial Node.
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It's like a car
battery to make it simple.
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And some people it gets
older and it gets calcified
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and the heart goes
slower and slower and slower,
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and a symptom of
this might be dizziness
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or not having any energy.
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And for that we would
treat with a pacemaker.
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In fact Alfred Hitchcock
had one of the first pacemakers
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back in the 60's
and that pacemaker
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was so big that it
filled up or so whole abdomen.
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But before that happened
people use to pass away.
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I had a pastor that I
took care of a few years ago
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when I was
practicing on the east coast,
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that had a
condition called Lyme disease,
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that's a tick-borne
disease and that infection made
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his heart go exceedingly slow.
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And before we
had modern medicine
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he might have died
from this condition,
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but we placed the
pacemaker in him in his 30s
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and he still
doing ministry today.
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So this is a great
place for modern medicine.
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So the heart can go too slow
which would need a pacemaker.
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It can go too
fast and the treatment
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for that will be sometimes
we put in a defibrillator
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especially for these
congenital abnormalities.
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Sometimes we also give
them medication that might help.
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And sometimes we
have the fancy procedure
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will be go up inside
the heart with catheters.
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We find out where that
electrical short circuits
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coming from and we
destroy that rhythm.
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That's called an
Ablation. We ablate the rhythm.
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We destroy it so it
doesn't bother you more.
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There is some
congenital ones that we have.
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One is called
Wolff-Parkinson White Syndrome
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that can be deadly just
because the electrical wires
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usually are
congenitally malformed.
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This is a great
place for modern medicine.
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Now there is nothing
people do to acquire this,
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they're just born this way.
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So what percentage
are we talking about here,
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people that have this condition
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and they're just gonna have it?
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Well, it varies
from around the world,
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you know, the
congenital abnormalities varies.
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It also varies on your genetics.
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But when we hear
of a young person
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passing away suddenly,
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when we hear of an
athletic passing away suddenly,
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we say well let's evaluate this.
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Now in Italy for instance
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they're
screening people with EKGs.
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But what we do
specifically is we ask people,
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do you have
anything in your family
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or anyone passed away
suddenly in the family,
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which might show that
they had an rhythm abnormality?
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Now unfortunately
the number one killer
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around the world of
hearts is not congenital.
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You weren't born
with it you acquire it.
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And unfortunately we
acquire by our lifestyles
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and we get
blockages in the arteries.
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When blockages in
the arteries the heart
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doesn't get enough oxygen,
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when it doesn't get
enough oxygen and nutrients
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that throws you
electrical system off
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that also predisposes
you to rhythm problems.
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So people that
have very weak heart.
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They're not
getting enough oxygen
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that sometimes
causes arrhythmia.
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They have to go to the hospital.
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Did you see in
animals, haven't you, Charles?
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Oh, yes. Okay.
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Well, you know, the
first thing that happens is
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when they come to the scene,
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you know, they
hookup the electrodes to see
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if there is a
funny heart rhythm.
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One of the heart rhythms
called ventricular fibrillation,
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ventricular tachycardia,
and for those rhythms
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they shock the heart.
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Nowadays we have
external defibrillators
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where common people,
in airports, in churches
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where someone
might have a heart attack
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or funny heart rhythm we
have these devices available
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where people can just hook
you up. It analysis it yourself.
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It analysis you? Yes.
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You press a button and
if it's a dangerous rhythm
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that shocked you. That's
called the defibrillator.
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It makes the decision. Right.
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You hook it up and
it makes the decision--
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It does all of those
things. And how much it makes?
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It does all of
those things. Okay.
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Another type of
device we have is a device
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that we call an
Internal Defibrillator,
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where we actually implant
these things in long-term.
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And I think I brought a
defibrillator and a Pacemaker.
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Yes, we do have one of each here
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and that they
look sort of alike.
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You're gonna have to help
me, which one is which now?
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Yeah, well, this would be called
an internal defibrillator.
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And what we would do is we
would place this within a body
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and we would put
it under the skin
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and then we have a lead
that would connect with that.
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There is the lead right here.
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Right, and it would be under
the body and this lead is--
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Let's put it over
there against your body,
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above where it go in there?
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About right here in the heart,
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we put it right there
and we put a lead here
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and we would run
this lead into the heart
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and this lead would
analyze the heart rhythm.
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And if it wasn't
unstable heart rhythm
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it would shock the
heart. Okay, all right.
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This one also has a
pacemaker built in it
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so if it was going too
slow it would pace the heart.
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Now I also brought a pacemaker
with us to see how small it is.
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Here it is. Now this is
alike, but it is smaller one.
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Yeah, a pacemaker
doesn't do as much,
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so some of the
internal circuitry is much less
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and so as in computer that
sees every beat of your heart.
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This one can
actually store the rhythm.
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So we can see what every
beat of your heart is doing.
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It's got a monitor inside it.
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Like a computer in your heart.
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Yes. It's got a few.
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This one has a
little computer in it too.
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And this--but all this
does is, does a slow rhythm.
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It doesn't do the
fast heart rhythms.
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So these are devices
that if you're so disposed
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to having these,
person has a weak heart,
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might have a fast heart,
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and this is like
having an ambulance with you,
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Charles, 24x7. Wow.
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And this helps keep the
heart from going too slow.
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So this makes the decision that
you're heart's in trouble. Yes.
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Decides what to do and
sends a little shock down there.
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Yes, it's like
having an ambulance
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with you 24x7. Ah, an ambulance.
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So for an
instance a young person
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that has one of these congenital
electrical abnormalities
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they might get defibrillator.
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For an older person that
has blockage in their arteries
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or weak heart they
might get a defibrillator.
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And for person
whose heart goes too slow
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from an infection or weak
heart or if they might have
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a just--this
conduction system gets old
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this would keep the
heart from going too slow
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and eventually stopping.
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So we have some great
tools for modern medicine
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to keep the heart going and deal
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with these funny heart
rhythms. That is amazing.
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Now of course this
is the modern medicine
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and of things and we
thank God that this exist.
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But is there anything
that we can do, Dr. Marcum,
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maybe after this has been put in
or even before this is put in,
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so that we won't have to deal
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with these
machines, is that possible?
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Well, that's a
great question, Charles,
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because a lot of people do not
like to take those medications.
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A lot of people don't like
to take treatment for the heart.
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But most of these for the
young people are congenital.
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They're born with it.
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They had bad genetics
that's been passed down
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from generation to generations.
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Two hundred years ago
that person would pass away,
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but now we have
life saving devices.
00:08:47.32\00:08:49.60
Now the other condition where
people clogged their arteries up
00:08:49.63\00:08:53.10
or get weak hearts, yes
that can be preventable.
00:08:53.13\00:08:56.80
We can do lifestyle changes.
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We've talked about those before,
00:08:58.48\00:08:59.95
preventing the stress
that might be put on our heart.
00:08:59.98\00:09:02.72
Maybe quitting
smoking or getting diabetes,
00:09:02.75\00:09:04.98
or exercising, or
eating a smart diet
00:09:05.01\00:09:07.37
keeping your cholesterol down,
00:09:07.40\00:09:08.86
all those might be able to
alleviate the need for this
00:09:08.89\00:09:12.01
at some point in our lives.
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You know, a lot of
people ask me why would I do
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all of these things that
we talk about on this program.
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Well, you have to do
something because the body
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with 6000 years
from the hand of creator
00:09:23.75\00:09:25.95
and the body is
going to get you one way
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or another because it
is a such a sinful body
00:09:28.23\00:09:30.34
that we have,
but there are things
00:09:30.37\00:09:31.81
that we can do to medicate
that to cause the problems
00:09:31.84\00:09:34.97
from not happening
to make them not happen.
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Dr. Marcum, if you could
make a change in the lifestyle
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of all the world, you
could go into their house
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and do one thing different,
00:09:46.33\00:09:48.00
what would you
have them do-- Well--
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To help, to protect the heart?
00:09:49.81\00:09:51.18
You know, I've
thought about that a lot.
00:09:51.21\00:09:52.58
If I had one thing to
do to protect the heart
00:09:52.61\00:09:54.40
I would encourage them
to come into a relationship
00:09:54.43\00:09:56.92
with your creator, because when
they come into a relationship
00:09:56.95\00:10:00.17
with the creator this
will lead them to truths,
00:10:00.20\00:10:02.57
the truths in the Bible.
00:10:02.60\00:10:04.22
This is what
happened in my life, Charles.
00:10:04.25\00:10:05.80
You know, I was
trained in modern medicine
00:10:05.83\00:10:08.09
but as I learned
the truths in the Bible
00:10:08.12\00:10:09.66
I realized that the
Bible was a medical textbook.
00:10:09.69\00:10:12.75
But not only was
that a medical textbook
00:10:12.78\00:10:14.53
to show me when to
use modern medicine,
00:10:14.56\00:10:16.58
it also gave me
the power to understand
00:10:16.61\00:10:18.57
what things I was doing wrong,
00:10:18.60\00:10:20.41
makes some changes in my life,
00:10:20.44\00:10:22.10
understand where
all these fits in.
00:10:22.13\00:10:24.79
And so that's the one
thing I would encourage people
00:10:24.82\00:10:26.86
and, you know,
lot of doctors say,
00:10:26.89\00:10:28.26
well, let's get this
device or put you on this pill.
00:10:28.29\00:10:30.34
Or some people say,
well, you become this diet
00:10:30.37\00:10:32.12
or eat this or
exercise everyday.
00:10:32.15\00:10:33.77
Well, what I wanna
encourage people to
00:10:33.80\00:10:35.65
and that is into
treatment for heart disease
00:10:35.68\00:10:38.41
and every disease
start the treatment
00:10:38.44\00:10:41.42
with the relationship
with the great physician
00:10:41.45\00:10:44.21
who will not only reveal truth,
00:10:44.24\00:10:46.39
but He will also heal us.
00:10:46.42\00:10:48.67
Now I've seen
miracles happen sometimes.
00:10:48.70\00:10:50.77
I've seen people that
get treated up with prayer
00:10:50.80\00:10:54.84
and through this relationship
God takes their problem away.
00:10:54.87\00:10:57.91
But also He helps lead
to their appropriateness
00:10:57.94\00:11:00.25
of modern medicine, to
give the power to change.
00:11:00.28\00:11:02.72
Now we've talked a
little bit about the rhythms,
00:11:02.75\00:11:04.97
but there is
other things with heart
00:11:05.00\00:11:06.42
that can damage us too.
00:11:06.45\00:11:07.82
Weak hearts from
infection, bad heart valves,
00:11:07.85\00:11:11.51
all of these things
lead up to heart disease.
00:11:11.54\00:11:13.37
But, you know, modern medicine
can do surgery on the heart.
00:11:13.40\00:11:16.05
We can place the
defibrillators in the heart.
00:11:16.08\00:11:18.11
But also we wanna
do everything possible
00:11:18.14\00:11:20.43
we can to live
according to the owner's manual
00:11:20.46\00:11:22.93
so we don't
need modern medicine.
00:11:22.96\00:11:24.91
Well, I like that.
00:11:24.94\00:11:26.31
In other words when we bow--
00:11:26.34\00:11:27.71
when we bow our
knees and when we pray,
00:11:27.74\00:11:29.78
when we get in our
car and we go to church,
00:11:29.81\00:11:32.13
when we do
something nice for someone,
00:11:32.16\00:11:34.21
when we spend
time in God's word,
00:11:34.24\00:11:36.74
we're actually helping
our hearts when we do that.
00:11:36.77\00:11:39.96
Absolutely, Charles.
00:11:39.99\00:11:41.47
What I want our listeners
and viewers to understand
00:11:41.50\00:11:44.34
is that the physical heart
we have modern medicine for.
00:11:44.37\00:11:47.78
We can also help a lot.
00:11:47.81\00:11:49.18
A lot of people
don't understand that
00:11:49.21\00:11:50.58
what we eat and what we
think also is a treatment
00:11:50.61\00:11:53.15
as well a
prevention for heart disease.
00:11:53.18\00:11:55.38
But in addition, God has ability
to heal our physical hearts
00:11:55.41\00:11:59.02
to change our hearts
00:11:59.05\00:12:00.42
and even if we can't get
it right with modern medicine
00:12:00.45\00:12:02.59
we can be promised healing
at some point in our lives.
00:12:02.62\00:12:05.99
That is good
news, that is good news.
00:12:06.02\00:12:08.12
Too many of us believe
that if we mess up our lives
00:12:08.15\00:12:11.15
as we can just simply go to
the doctor and he'll fix it.
00:12:11.18\00:12:13.63
Well, doctors are amazing people
00:12:13.66\00:12:15.26
and they can do amazing things
00:12:15.29\00:12:16.66
but there are some
things they cannot fix
00:12:16.69\00:12:19.42
and one of the things they
can't fix is your bad habits.
00:12:19.45\00:12:22.82
And I'm sure Dr.
Marcum, you'd like to
00:12:22.85\00:12:25.22
but you can't do that.
00:12:25.25\00:12:26.83
So we'll take a short break
00:12:26.86\00:12:28.28
and when we come
back we'll have questions
00:12:28.31\00:12:30.08
that have been sent in
to heartwiseministries.org
00:12:30.11\00:12:32.72
on this topic. So
stay right where you are.
00:12:32.75\00:12:34.94