Participants: James Marcum & Charles Mills
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP00021A
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00:01 Two things are necessary for human life...
00:02 an adequate blood supply and oxygen. 00:05 We need both... even when we sleep, 00:09 but sometimes... Stay tuned 00:13 I'm Dr. James Marcum 00:15 Are you interested in discovering the reason why? 00:18 Do you want solutions to your health care problems? 00:21 Are you tired of taking medications? 00:24 Well, you're about to be given the "Ultimate Prescription" 00:29 On today's broadcast, we continue our series 00:32 on the major causes of death, 00:33 and this cause may surprise you! 00:36 If you thought that a good night's sleep was when you 00:38 don't dream weird dreams, 00:40 you might want to pay close attention to our broadcast. 00:43 Sleep is the final frontier of health. 00:45 It's what makes being awake and more to the point 00:48 being awake and PRODUCTIVE possible. 00:50 Dr. Marcum, why are cardiologists so interested 00:54 in SLEEP? 00:56 Well as you said in your introduction Charles, 00:59 sleep is so important to us to get rest and adequate oxygen. 01:04 You know, we were originally made to 01:06 work 6 days and rest a day. 01:09 The Creator of the universe said "Remember to rest" 01:12 ...It's important as if we were going to forget it 01:15 Also, He set up these night/day pathways 01:18 and the circadian rhythms. 01:19 So we were designed to work 01:22 during the day and rest at night. 01:24 Well Edison messed us up with the light bulb 01:27 because now we think we can stay awake all night long; 01:29 we're not resting well at night, 01:31 and unfortunately, now people aren't even getting 01:33 the weekly rest. 01:35 So it's very important to have good rest! 01:37 We also now have this condition called "sleep apnea" 01:41 "Apnea" means not breathing. 01:43 So you're asleep but you're not breathing. 01:47 Devastating consequences go when you are 01:49 oxygen-deprived for 8 or 9 hours a night. 01:52 Just think about it, Charles... 01:54 If you held your breath all the time for 8 or 9 hours, 01:56 you would not feel good. No 01:58 Well if this happens day in and day out, 02:00 year in and year out, the body is damaged terribly... 02:04 ...Your body does not rest. 02:06 ...It makes stress chemicals which constrict blood vessels. 02:10 ...It makes the lungs have to work harder. 02:12 ...It can cause the heart to have funny heart rhythms 02:15 because all the pressures dilate the chambers. 02:17 ...It can raise your blood pressure. 02:19 ...You get tired very easily. 02:22 ...You get irritable. 02:23 ...You do things that don't do well. 02:25 And then worse yet, people that have sleep apnea 02:26 they're tired, so guess what they do? 02:28 They say, "Well, what can I do for energy?" 02:30 So they... give me the pick-me-ups! 02:31 They might take stimulants to get them going. 02:34 So they have this up and down cycle, 02:36 and they're always TIRED! 02:38 You know, if you were a prisoner in a prison camp, Charles, 02:40 and I wanted to get information out of you, 02:42 and I wanted to damage your brain, 02:43 I would sleep-deprive you... 02:45 THEN I would SHINE things in your eyes, 02:46 and I'd say, "Wake up Charles... TELL ME THE TRUTH" 02:48 And I'd do this day in and day out, 02:50 it actually damages peoples brains... 02:52 So they can't have as good a relationship 02:54 when they have sleep apnea. 02:55 So sleep apnea is a cause of death, 02:58 and I guess... what brought this to the forefront 03:00 was a few years ago, the big football player, "Reggie White" 03:03 an all-pro football player, 03:05 they found him passed away 03:06 with a sleep mask not too far from him... 03:09 But sleep apnea affects 20 million or more Americans, 03:13 and many Americans are walking around not knowing 03:15 they have sleep apnea. 03:17 Sleep apnea is usually caused by people carrying extra weight, 03:21 so when they go to sleep, 03:23 their airways can't stay open... 03:24 And then, their oxygen goes low, low, low... 03:28 and then an ALARM goes off, and they grab a big breath... 03:31 They get enough breath to stay alive, 03:33 and then they go back to sleep again. 03:34 And then the cycle, you know, 03:36 of alarm off and alarm off, it breaks the REM sleep cycles, 03:40 because you don't sleep well; your oxygen levels, 03:41 and it's a real devastating problem. 03:44 Now, it can lead to all sorts of medical conditions; 03:47 atrial fibrillation; 03:48 it can lead to sudden death from heart rhythms. 03:51 Of course the heart doesn't like not having oxygen 03:54 ...it can lead to heart problems. 03:55 It can lead to blood pressure problems. 03:58 It can lead to all sorts of problems in the way 04:00 people think and behave. 04:02 It's just a devastating problem that's affecting 04:04 millions and millions of Americans. 04:06 Because the body just requires oxygen, 04:08 and when you don't have oxygen... 04:09 I can't think of a system in the body that's not affected by that 04:12 It affects everything and that's why, 04:14 not only good oxygen but the process of REST. 04:18 You know and we as a society, 04:19 we're not taking our weekly rest. 04:21 We're not even resting at night anymore... 04:23 And rest is a real treatment for disease. 04:26 If you broke your leg, Charles, you wouldn't keep walking, 04:29 you'd put it in a cast and let it rest so it could HEAL! 04:33 At night, things HEAL 04:35 if it's getting adequate OXYGEN! 04:37 We have a weekly break where we're supposed to heal 04:40 both MENTALLY and PHYSICALLY and SPIRITUALLY from the week. 04:43 As we don't do this, we stray from the script 04:46 that God gave us at Creation; 04:48 bad things happen, our body is damaged. 04:51 Now people that have sleep apnea, 04:53 the first thing you want to know is... do you have sleep apnea? 04:55 Do I have sleep apnea? I don't think I do... 04:57 Do you have sleep apnea? How would I know? 04:59 What would I do if you came into the office? 05:00 First, I'd look for... Are you having heart rhythm problems? 05:03 Are you having blood pressure problems? 05:05 Are you tired all the time? 05:07 Do you have headaches? 05:09 Are you irritable? 05:10 Are you hard to get along with? 05:12 Are you having to take pick-me-ups during the day? 05:15 This might give me clues that you might have sleep apnea. 05:20 If you HAD sleep apnea and I wanted to know for sure, 05:22 the test I would test would be a sleep test. 05:25 Where you would lay down and go to sleep; 05:28 we have you hooked up to oxygen monitors, monitors, 05:31 and see if your oxygen goes down when you're asleep. 05:34 And if it does, then you HAVE SLEEP APNEA. 05:36 And the next type... you know there are 2 types of 05:39 sleep apnea; the obstructive sleep apnea - 05:41 where you can't get oxygen in and out, 05:42 and sometimes the BRAIN can cause you to quit breathing too. 05:46 So there are different treatments for that, 05:48 and they can put an oxygen mask on you and blow oxygen in you. 05:51 Now some people find that very uncomfortable. 05:54 So what I encourage people to do, 05:56 since most sleep apnea is because of an obstruction, 06:00 I encourage - Well, let's get rid of that obstruction. 06:02 We can sometimes do that by losing weight and exercise. 06:05 We can sometimes do that by moving some tissue 06:08 that might be blocking the airway. 06:10 Sometimes people can even wear a device that moves the tongue, 06:13 and it helps keep the airway open. 06:15 But it's SO important to get 06:18 sleep apnea evaluated and treated 06:20 because if you don't do it, they say you could be 06:22 losing 20 years of your life. 20 years? 06:25 Yes, and the life that you do have... it's not as abundant. 06:29 And just think of it, if you're oxygen-deprived all the time, 06:31 how are you going to function at work? 06:33 How are you going to function with your relationships? 06:36 How is the rest of your body? 06:37 So if you have sleep apnea, and this.. that.. and the other, 06:40 it gets that much worse. 06:42 Let me tell you a story... 06:44 I take care of this man, I'm not going to say his name, 06:47 let's call him "Tom" and Tom had sleep apnea. 06:51 That was really the only problem he had in his mid-30s 06:54 He didn't know he had sleep apnea. 06:57 He was tired all the time. 06:59 Because he was tired all the time, 07:00 his wife was on him like you would not believe... 07:02 thought he was lazy! 07:04 He really wasn't lazy, he just had sleep apnea. 07:06 He'd wake up in the morning and he'd have to go to the 07:08 7- Eleven and get some of these... 07:10 Have you seen these shots? 07:11 You know, they have these like energy things... Oh yes-yes 07:14 And they cost $3 or $4, and he'd spend $6 or $7 07:16 on 2 of those every day just to get going. 07:20 Well I met him because of high blood pressure, 07:22 and by the time he got to me, 07:23 not only had he had high blood pressure, 07:25 but he had this rhythm called "atrial fibrillation" 07:28 Because he didn't take good care of himself, 07:31 and he gained some weight, he had diabetes, 07:33 so they put him on a diabetes medicine, 07:34 and, of course, this made him depressed, 07:36 so he's on a medicine for depression. 07:38 Well that wasn't the HALF of it! 07:40 The depression and all this caused impotence, 07:42 so he's taking Viagra on the side. 07:44 Because when he was home at night, he would eat big; 07:48 he was on an acid medicine that would make reflux come up. 07:52 So here he's on 6 or 7 medications 07:54 with the side effects, being a young man 07:57 and in talking to things, we talked about them 07:59 and you know, I said, "You know what, 08:01 all this might be related to sleep apnea. " 08:04 "Let's see if you have sleep apnea. " 08:06 He says, "I don't want to have 08:07 the test, it's a drag - I don't want to have it" 08:09 I said, Please, we might be able to 08:10 get you off 5 or 6 medicines. " 08:11 "We might be able to prevent all these problems 08:13 that I see coming down the road. " 08:15 ..."From high blood pressure, from diabetes, 08:17 we might be able to prevent these. " 08:18 "Come on, do it... Let's do it, it's going to help us out" 08:21 So we talked to him. 08:23 I said, "I'm going to be praying for you that 08:24 God will give you the strength to at least do the test. " 08:26 Little things... 08:27 So he has the test done and guess what? 08:29 He has sleep apnea! 08:31 Some of the worst sleep apnea that the doctor had ever seen. 08:33 So we put him on the mask. 08:35 In a week or 2, he said, "I started to feel better" 08:37 So when he felt better, I said, "You know what?" 08:39 You might not have to wear this mask forever 08:41 if you lose a few pounds. " 08:42 So he said, "Well, how do I do that?" 08:44 And I said, "Well, let's start simple. " 08:46 "Let's start in a relationship 08:48 with God who is going to give you the power. " 08:50 So we did that and he said, "Yeah, I feel better, 08:51 I feel like I can do this" 08:53 I said, "Well, let's start by drinking water for a month" 08:55 So he drank ONLY water for a month... 08:57 Gave up ALL the energy drinks and everything. 08:59 Now, he withdrew a little bit, but he started to feel better. 09:01 When he stopped the energy drinks, 09:03 the rhythm and the blood pressure started to come down. 09:06 So we said we'll take another medicine off. 09:08 Then he said, "You know what, 09:09 this is really working... What can I do next?" 09:11 I said, "Well let's not eat big at night. " 09:13 "Remember, we're supposed to rest at night" 09:15 We talked about the circadian rhythms. 09:16 We supposed to rest, and how can you rest 09:19 if you have this big glob of food in you 09:22 that normally should be in a refrigerator, 09:23 that's inside of you, SPOILING in you. 09:26 And when I said... "All this meat, eggs and cheese 09:28 is spoiling in you at night, 09:29 and you're getting all the chemicals," 09:31 he could see the pictures! 09:32 So he started eating some fresh fruits and vegetables 09:34 after that at night. 09:35 So he started resting better 09:37 at night... the sleep apnea got better. 09:39 The next thing, he had enough energy 09:40 to actually start walking on a regular basis. 09:42 So he started a walking program. 09:44 Now this took over a year, 09:45 but after a year he lost 50 pounds; 09:47 his diabetes went away; 09:49 he quit eating big at night, 09:51 so he didn't have the sleep sleep apnea, 09:52 and guess what happened? 09:54 His depression went away real quick, 09:55 so he got off the antidepressant; 09:57 his blood pressure got improved right away, 09:59 and so did his rhythm, 10:00 and we tested him to see if he had sleep apnea... 10:03 And one year after making these changes, 10:05 he didn't have sleep apnea at ALL. 10:07 And all the symptoms, and all these downhill things 10:09 HAPPENED because we didn't get at the cause, 10:13 and the cause was sleep apnea, 10:14 which, on him, was caused by extra weight. 10:17 So if you think about the world... we're getting heavier! 10:20 And as we get heavier, we're going to have 10:22 more tissue around our neck; 10:23 we're going to have more problems with sleep apnea. 10:26 So one of the REAL treatments for sleep apnea 10:29 is to keep the weight down on all of us. 10:31 So this was just a sort of a remarkable story 10:33 about how important sleep apnea is, 10:35 and the chronic long-term consequences if we don't 10:38 deal with the cause of the problem. 10:39 A beautiful illustration of that domino effect 10:43 where you have one problem, 10:44 so you take a medicine that leads to another problem, 10:47 and then that develops another problem, 10:48 and on and on and on you go! 10:50 It's like a cycle, you're just heading down-down-down. 10:53 Sleep apnea... Okay, so there are tests you can do 10:57 to find out if they have sleep apnea. 10:58 If they have that sleep apnea, 10:59 they make lifestyle changes. 11:01 Is there a sleep apnea medicine out there? 11:04 Is there some kind of drug? 11:06 Well, not really... because really they just 11:08 wear the mask at night. 11:09 But that brings up a very important point... is REST 11:12 You know, there are a lot of sleeping pills out there 11:15 to help people to rest. 11:16 But if you're not breathing, 11:18 why would you want to have a sleeping pill 11:19 that you won't even wake up ... Exactly right... 11:21 Yeah, and so what I'm always talking about is 11:23 ...how can people rest better? 11:25 And, even if they don't have sleep apnea, 11:27 we want them to REST because 11:29 during REST, they have a chance to heal... 11:31 And both the nightly rest and the weekly rest. 11:35 So I encourage everyone to get into a weekly rest; 11:38 a Sabbath-type rest where they can let their body recover. 11:41 There is real chemical benefits from that. 11:44 And I wish I could do a study of a million people 11:47 that rested one day a week, 11:48 a spiritual, physical rest and those that didn't... 11:51 And see who had the better chemistry. 11:53 Well I know what the results of that study would show. 11:56 A lot of chronic disease would go away. 11:58 A lot of these causes of death that we see 12:01 would dramatically be diminished. 12:03 Then I also work on this nightly rest. 12:05 In people that don't sleep well at night, 12:07 even if they don't have sleep apnea, 12:09 I say, "Why don't you sleep well at night?" 12:10 Well, we found out the causes. 12:12 People are taking too many stimulants... 12:14 caffeine, nicotine, alcohol 12:16 People were watching TV that keeps them revved up at night. 12:20 Some people have the medical problems like sleep apnea, 12:22 going to the bathroom. 12:24 Some people don't exercise at night. 12:26 So there are lots of reasons that people aren't resting well, 12:29 and if we can get at the cause of the reason 12:31 they're not resting well, we have a much greater chance 12:34 of getting them to rest well and NOT need medications 12:37 which don't really address the problem. 12:39 We are just out of sync in what God wanted us to do. 12:43 It's just so obvious that as I listen to you talk about 12:48 these causes of death and I listen to you show 12:52 the consequences... 12:53 This is SERIOUS STUFF! 12:56 This is NOT... Well, okay I'll just have to live with this 12:59 Or, it's just because that's my genes. 13:03 It goes WAY beyond that. 13:04 It's the CHOICES that we make day after day 13:07 that could make a huge difference in our lives. 13:08 Yeah, and the real solution to our health care dilemma - 13:11 the real answer is in plugging into the Ultimate Physician, 13:16 the Great Physician - learning what He wants us to do; 13:19 to stay well and to be happy because He made us! 13:22 He knows what's BEST for us! 13:23 And yet we've drifted from that plan. 13:26 And as medical professionals, as individuals, 13:28 we need to get back to that to find good health. 13:31 All right, we'll take a short break and when we come back 13:33 your questions from heartwiseministries. org 13:36 So stay tuned. |
Revised 2014-12-17