Participants: James Marcum & Charles Mills
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP00020B
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00:01 Welcome back to the program.
00:02 I'm Charles Mills here with Dr. James Marcum, 00:04 and we're talking about "COPD" 00:06 What is COPD, Dr. Marcum, 00:09 and how do I know if I have it? 00:11 Yeah... COPD is "chronic obstructive pulmonary disease" 00:14 and it's one of the leading causes of death 00:17 still in our world... 00:18 And one of the leading causes we talked about last segment 00:22 is from cigarettes but how do I make the diagnosis? 00:24 Well #1, a person might have a symptom, 00:28 and that symptom might be shortness of breath 00:30 which makes sense - if their lungs are damaged. 00:33 They might be prone to infections; 00:35 they might get wheezing, you know... 00:38 ...they might breathe like that 00:40 Another thing, they might be tachypneic... 00:43 That's a fancy word to say you're breathing fast. 00:45 I might walk in and you're going ... and I'd say, 00:49 "Wow, they might have some breathing problems. " 00:50 And they just came from their car... 00:52 It's not like they climbed a mountain or anything. 00:54 And they might get short of breath real easy. 00:55 So that might be some of the symptoms that we have... 00:57 shortness of breath - so any person with 00:59 shortness of breath and is a smoker, 01:00 I automatically think... 01:02 "Do they have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease?" 01:04 How would I prove it? 01:05 Well one way I could prove it 01:06 is to see if their oxygen level were low. 01:09 And here we have a device called "a pulse oximeter," 01:12 and this measures the oxygen level in your blood, 01:15 and it should be greater than 92% 01:19 So if you would put your finger in there, Charles... 01:21 And we'll make sure the camera can see this 01:23 Aim it in that direction, okay my finger is in there. All right 01:26 I'm going to make sure the on-button is on. 01:29 So I turn the on-button on. 01:30 And that's the on-button over here... There we go 01:32 Oh, is it on? Okay 01:34 Yeah, now it's starting to pick up here. 01:38 Okay, I'm going to do this here... 01:40 And... there we go! I see a light. 01:46 Now we're measuring... There I am... Okay 01:48 So the bottom number is how much your heart is beating. 01:52 And now it's going to check the oxygen level in your blood, 01:54 and it's 97% when you're sitting here. 01:56 Is that good? That's VERY good! 01:58 So that would argue against 02:00 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. 02:02 Your oxygen level is very high at rest, 02:04 and your heart rate is very good, Charles, 02:06 in the 80s, so that's very good. 02:07 Another way we might do this... 02:09 Okay, I'm going to turn this off here. 02:11 ...is I might get you behind an x-ray machine, 02:14 and then I might take pictures of you and I might get an x-ray. 02:17 Now we probably can't see this, 02:18 but this is your heart right here, 02:20 and these are the lungs, 02:22 and in people who have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 02:25 their lungs are enlarged. 02:27 This actually would work if you just... there you go! 02:29 Yeah... There you go! Oh, there we go 02:30 They have hyperinflated lungs. 02:33 So an x-ray would give me a good feeling whether 02:35 a person had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. 02:37 So this is an anterior-posterior view, 02:40 and this is another view where we see behind the heart. 02:45 So this is the lungs behind the heart, 02:47 and there are some characteristics 02:49 that we would see in the lungs... 02:50 The lungs are usually hyperexpanded. 02:52 I call them BIG lungs! 02:54 So if I had a low pulse-ox, 02:56 someone that was short of breath, 02:58 and had some big lungs, 02:59 I might say that they had 03:01 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 03:03 and might initiate treatment. 03:04 And the lungs get big because they're trying to work... 03:07 Well actually, the air can't move in and out. 03:10 So the air sacs, the alveoli, get BIGGER 03:13 because they have obstructions. 03:14 They can't get the air in and out as easily... I got ya! 03:16 Now another thing that we do 03:18 is we do a test called a "blow test" 03:21 pulmonary function test. 03:23 Now sometimes... I don't have one with me, 03:25 but we can do a cheap pulmonary function test. 03:27 And what I do is I have a person 03:29 hold out a piece of paper, a tissue, at arm's length, 03:32 and blow on it. 03:33 And in the office, someone with 03:35 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - it will look like this 03:37 ...when they blow as hard as they can. 03:40 It won't look like this... 03:43 So, it will barely move when they blow at tissue. 03:46 So if they have all these things; 03:47 low pulse-ox, big lungs, they can't move this, 03:51 I might say that you have 03:52 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. 03:54 But not only does chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 03:56 hurt your lungs, but it hurts your entire body... why is that? 03:59 ...Because you CAN'T CARRY OXYGEN around! 04:02 It can hurt the heart, the parts of the heart can work harder. 04:05 Because when you have low oxygen levels, 04:07 the blood vessels constrict, 04:09 and it makes the right side of the heart have to pump hard 04:12 through the blood vessels. 04:14 So chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a 04:15 serious problem; it's pretty easy to diagnose. 04:18 But most people that do have it, 04:20 have some type of a smoking history. 04:22 Now people with COPD, would they also have 04:25 hypertension under these circumstances? 04:26 Well they could, they could... 04:28 They have high blood pressure in their lungs 04:30 because it's constricting, 04:31 but they also might have it peripherally 04:33 because of the nicotine. 04:35 And if they are a smoker, they might sure get... 04:37 Any time you're hypoxic, low oxygen, 04:39 can also constrict blood vessels. 04:42 ...But the body loves oxygen. 04:44 You are going to have to help me with this word here... 04:46 This is a question on heartwiseministries. org 04:50 "Should persons with COPD get a Pneumovax?" 04:55 It's like a Hoover? No, it's not a vacuum cleaner. 04:59 But you know, vaccinations - we hear about them all. 05:01 One of them is the Pneumovax, 05:03 and people that smoke cigarettes 05:05 and have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 05:07 vaccines are very controversial as you know... 05:10 Some people worry about them 05:11 causing immune reactions and reacting to them. 05:13 But we always look at the risk and benefits; 05:16 and someone that has bad lungs that can't get out secretions, 05:20 that have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 05:22 with low oxygen, can you imagine IF they had an infection! Oh my! 05:25 If they had an infection, it could KILL them. 05:27 So in this instance, I would say, 05:29 a Pneumovax in a person with bad lungs, 05:31 the risk is worth the benefits on this situation... 05:36 So people with bad lungs usually benefit from having a Pneumovax. 05:39 Here's another question from the heartwiseministries. org website 05:42 "I have COPD - "chronic obstructive pulmonary disease" 05:46 and have frequent problems causing 05:49 4 hospitalizations in 2 years. 05:51 Do you have any suggestions to keep me out of the hospital?" 05:54 Now of course, I'm sure the first question you would ask is, 05:56 "Do you smoke?" Right 05:57 And that's the question, we want to get at the cause, 06:00 and if they are a smoker, then we want to do 06:04 everything we can to reverse that habit. 06:06 And we've already talked about 06:08 some of the things we can do earlier... 06:09 And we can pray about it, 06:11 we can replace a good habit with a bad habit; 06:14 we can love them; we can pick a smoking date; 06:15 get the power of the Holy Spirit. 06:17 I think you want to replace a bad habit with a GOOD habit. 06:19 That's a good idea, Charles! I messed that up! 06:21 And that is a bad habit to have... There you go! 06:24 Yes, that's one thing we want to do. 06:26 The second thing we want to do is 06:28 make sure they have enough oxygen. 06:30 Some times they have to wear oxygen. 06:32 If they're oxygen-deprived, that can make the body weaker. 06:35 So if they need oxygen, we want to give them 06:36 supplemental oxygen especially at night. 06:39 We want too make sure they don't have sleep apnea. 06:42 We want to give them oxygen at night. 06:43 Another thing we want to advise them to do is have the 06:45 vaccination so they don't get infections. 06:47 Another thing that I encourage people is to start on a 06:50 walking program... because the better the blood vessels are... 06:53 the better the circulation is, 06:55 the better you can move what oxygen you HAVE 06:57 around their body. 06:59 And then lastly, we say... 07:01 "Well let's try to do things that would hurt the lungs" 07:03 And things that would hurt the lungs would be 07:05 being around people that are infected. 07:07 Being outside in some allergenic situations... 07:10 You know, they might need to wear a mask. 07:12 They might have to be careful around fragrances. 07:15 Some people have noxious fumes which makes 07:18 already lungs that are compromised even worse 07:21 more prone to have problems. 07:23 Those things might help keep a person out of the hospital. 07:26 I've seen simple things make the biggest difference. 07:28 Now if they don't do anything, 07:30 and their lungs are BAD, GUESS WHAT... 07:32 they're not going to get better! 07:34 They're going to STAY bad... 07:35 So they get around someone that's sick, 07:36 they can't get rid of the infection... 07:38 BOOM! They're back in! 07:39 IV antibiotics, ventilator, if they can't quit smoking, 07:42 the lungs aren't going to get better... 07:43 they're going to get worse! 07:45 They're going to get MORE short of breath. 07:46 We'll have to turn up the oxygen higher and higher! 07:48 It's one of the saddest things I've ever seen... 07:51 seeing someone slowly die from 07:54 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 07:56 and yet it is still a problem in America. 07:58 That's why we have to reach out to our young ones out there, 08:01 and if you are a young person that's thinking about smoking 08:04 or even smoking... DON'T DO IT 08:06 It's one of the most addicting habits you can ever have, 08:09 and it can literally destroy your life, 08:11 and if you live with some else, 08:13 you can actually destroy their life. 08:14 And that's why when they stopped smoking in restaurants, 08:18 people saying... "Listen you're poisoning ME, I don't WANT IT" 08:21 You know, it was about someone else's rights too... 08:23 And sometimes when you just say that to a smoker, 08:26 it helps give them more power to quit smoking. 08:28 I'm going to ask you about the environment itself, 08:31 I mean, we live in a pretty toxic world... 08:34 We have the diesel fumes and the car fumes, 08:37 and the airplane fumes and everything... 08:39 Can you get this COPD simply by living in Los Angeles 08:45 when the smog was there? 08:46 Well you know, cigarettes is just one chemical 08:50 that can damage the lungs. 08:51 There are other things that cause 08:52 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease too. 08:54 Any type of long chemical exposures to the lungs 08:57 could cause it... damage the lungs. 08:59 There's a genetic condition called, 09:01 "alpha antitrypsin-1 deficiency" 09:03 which can damage the lungs as well. 09:05 So there are other things that can cause the lungs 09:08 to be obstructed besides cigarettes, 09:11 but that's just one of the most common ones. 09:13 That's why we talk about it the most, 09:16 and I don't know if this is true 09:17 but I heard that the Marlboro man died from lung cancer. 09:22 I don't know if that's true, 09:23 but I thought I heard that at one point. 09:25 You know, I want our listeners and our viewers to have 09:29 some idea what they can do to protect themselves... 09:32 I mean, if they stop smoking, that's fine, that's good... 09:35 If someone in the family smokes, what do you do? 09:41 Do you move out? 09:42 Do you tell that person to go away? 09:44 Do you get an air cleaner for your home? 09:47 What do you DO to help in these environments? 09:50 Yeah, well we frequently have that... 09:52 I'll come in and someone has had a heart attack; 09:55 the other one has not had a heart attack, 09:57 but continues to smoke... 09:59 So they continue to give them that risk. 10:01 So I said, "Listen, you love this person, 10:04 you want to try to help, try to smoke OUTSIDE." 10:06 "Try to leave the house well-ventilated, 10:09 so at least the smoke can leave the house. " 10:11 But you've smelled how smoke gets on the clothes; 10:14 it permeates every pore of your body. 10:16 I could smell the smoker 10 feet away. 10:19 We encourage to get outside, 10:22 try to get the smoker to move outside. 10:24 That's sort of the best way to work in the short-term, 10:27 but in the long-term, we want them, 10:28 you know - because they love their spouse so much, 10:30 to gradually quit smoking as well. Very good 10:34 I guess we can say that if you 10:36 don't do it for yourself, do it for other people. 10:38 But you know Charles, a lot of people don't realize 10:40 that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease... 10:42 it still kills many other people in the world today. 10:45 It's still killing people today after all these years. 10:49 We'll take a short break and when we come back, 10:51 a conversation with the Master Physician... Stay tuned 10:57 We've been talking today about 10:59 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. 11:02 This is still one of the leading causes of death 11:05 in the whole entire world. 11:07 We hope you don't have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 11:11 but if you do, I hope you've learned something today 11:14 about ways we can stay healthier ... feel better. 11:17 I also hope that you've learned a little bit about 11:19 cigarette smoking; 11:20 ways that we can turn to the Great Physician, 11:23 and maybe reverse this addiction that we have. 11:26 If you're young and thinking about smoking, 11:28 unfortunately, it's not the cool thing to do. 11:31 Down the road, you could have extreme problems in breathing 11:35 It could lead to cancer or circulatory problems... 11:37 so if you're thinking about smoking, don't do it. 11:40 One of the things we ALL need to do to enjoy good health 11:46 and help us to overcome bad habits is turn to the Bible. 11:49 Get the help from the Great Physician; 11:51 the One that can give us the POWER through the Holy Spirit 11:54 to do things that we can't do ourselves. 11:57 And if there might be someone out there that wants 11:59 to turn to this Power today, 12:00 let's just bow our heads together, 12:02 we'll ask the Lord to give us this power... 12:05 Heavenly Father... We come to You wanting the 12:08 Holy Spirit to be with us, to change our lives, 12:12 to change our chemistry, 12:13 to help us overcome habits and addictions... 12:15 whether this be smoking, or whatever, Father... 12:18 please come into our lives and give us this power... 12:20 Be our Great Physician. 12:22 We want to accept You as our Lord and Savior today, 12:25 and we want to thank you for the promises that 12:28 You give us in Your Bible, is our prayer... Amen 12:32 I want to also encourage each one of you 12:36 to search the Scriptures as this relationship develops 12:39 Let the Holy Spirit teach you new things from the Bible 12:42 that might change your chemistry. 12:45 We've talked about chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 12:48 and all the things that it can do to harm us, 12:50 but now I want to talk about that relationship with 12:52 the Ultimate Physician that can ultimately heal you. 12:56 Start in this relationship today. |
Revised 2014-12-17