Participants: Dr. James Marcum (Host), Charles Mills
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP00030B
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00:01 Chronic pain, that's what we are talking about right now
00:04 and Dr. Marcum has made sure that we understand 00:07 that chronic pain is anything 00:08 that continues for over 6 months. 00:11 And when we have this problem, 00:13 we should not simply run to the doctor and say, 00:15 hey, give me a pill so I can deal with this, 00:18 because chronic pain really is an indication 00:20 that something is wrong. Yeah. 00:21 And we don't want to mask that all the time 00:24 because we may want to find the problem. 00:26 And we go searching for the problem 00:27 and a lot of times the answer is not what we think it is. 00:31 It can move around a little bit. 00:32 You know, and this is a very serious subject here. 00:35 So, you know, this is a big pain pill here. 00:37 And, you know, I'm having some pain in my foot. 00:40 You'll need two. 00:42 And I don't think I want to put these two big pain pills on me, 00:45 but I would like you to tell me a joke 00:47 so that can make some endorphins or you can just make me laugh 00:50 if you don't have a joke. 00:51 I hate to put you on the spot. Okay, I will. 00:53 Did you hear about the man that stayed up all night 00:55 trying to figure out where the sun went? 00:57 The man that stayed up all night-- 00:59 Trying to figure out where the sun went. 01:00 Where the sun went. Yeah. 01:01 I didn't hear about that one. Finally it dawned on him. 01:04 Oh, dawned. That's a good one. That's as good as-- 01:07 that's as good as the story about the sidewalk. 01:10 The sidewalk. Yes, it's all over town, that joke, yes. 01:13 But we better stop on that. How is your pain? 01:17 It's feeling a little bit better. 01:18 But, you know, we have a lot of people 01:20 that go to our website and that's how 01:22 we make our program, because after we get 01:24 so many people that ask questions 01:26 we know we need to talk about it. 01:28 Not that we always have all the answers, 01:30 but you know what we can do, we can talk about it, 01:32 we can pray about it, we can look in the Scriptures about it 01:35 and we can try the best 01:36 we can to point people in the right direction. 01:38 That's exactly right and that's the beauty of this program 01:41 and the website is, you know, 01:42 the answer is there but you are unique. 01:46 You are different from anybody else. 01:48 Your solution, your formula begins 01:50 with the word "me," "you." 01:52 You have to figure out what's right for you. 01:54 And so the information that we give you 01:56 should be able to send you in the right direction. 01:59 That's the whole idea here. 02:00 And this first question I think is probably 02:03 big in the mind of a lot of people 02:05 and you've talked about it a little bit. 02:06 Is there a role for medications, for drugs? 02:11 Yes, absolutely, emphatically yes. 02:14 Where do we use it? Where do we use it? 02:15 Let me give you some examples of chronic pain. 02:18 I've had some people that have had malignancies, 02:22 brain cancer, incurable, okay. 02:26 Those people are under, unfortunately, lots of pain. 02:29 Not only do they need other modalities to help them 02:32 that we've talked about, but they also need 02:34 chronic pain medications, okay. 02:37 So that would be once and I would give them 02:39 narcotics if they needed it. 02:41 I would give them anti inflammatories 02:42 if they needed it. 02:44 I would give them acetaminophen if they needed it. 02:46 If the pain is so bad that they can't do 02:48 the search we are talking about. Yes. 02:50 If they can't get out of bed, if they can't function. 02:52 And sometimes the pain is so bad, 02:54 we've made the diagnosis. 02:55 We know that there is nothing more to be done 02:58 and they still can't live because just think about it, 03:00 pain is not good, okay. That's right. 03:04 Pain creates the stress cascade which is bad. 03:07 We've already talked about how the inflammatory markers. 03:09 It makes adrenaline which raises 03:11 the chance of heart attack, raises your blood pressure. 03:13 It makes Cortisol. 03:15 Pain in itself long term is not good. 03:18 So you always have to balance, which is worse, 03:20 the pain or the treatment? 03:22 So in some situations where nothing can be done with pain, 03:25 pancreatitis, now that usually is not chronic pain, 03:27 but that's acute pain where the body is 03:29 actually digesting itself. 03:31 But there are some situations, especially in cancer, 03:34 where there is nothing that can be done 03:36 and there's organs and nerves being involved. 03:39 A lot of times in back pain, I see some people 03:41 that undergo back surgery and that's something 03:43 we need to talk about for a second, Charles. 03:45 That back surgery, everyone makes it seems like, 03:47 oh, I'm going to have back surgery. 03:49 I'm going to be healed completely. 03:51 Well, people don't realize that if you really 03:52 look at the statistics, only about 03:54 half a people get relief. 03:56 And sometimes those things are making things worse. 03:59 And if you have a bunch of nerves 04:00 at your spinal cord at that are compressed, 04:02 that are scarred, you could be in chronic pain for that. 04:05 And you have to say if there is nothing else 04:07 that can be done, sometimes they can use 04:08 physical therapy, chiropractic, TENS units, you know, 04:11 that's where they interrupt the pain pathways. 04:14 Sometimes they can use epidurals that will numb it. 04:17 But sometimes nothing else can be done. 04:19 In that case narcotics might be used. 04:22 Now sometimes we need to do hierarchy of pain, okay. 04:26 And sometimes people don't need the big guns 04:28 which are the narcotics that are addictive. 04:29 Because we don't want anybody to feel bad. 04:31 If they are taking pain medications 04:32 and they have been doing it for years, 04:34 well, that may be what you have to do. 04:36 And thank God that there are pain medications 04:38 you can take to help you through the day. 04:40 So we want make sure we understand that. 04:42 For instance, my ankle has been bothering me. 04:44 Now this is not chronic pain, but, you know, 04:46 I might take a little, you know, some Tylenol or, 04:49 you know, that's a weak pain medicine. 04:50 I won't take a lot of it but I might take some. 04:52 That's a good pain medicine. To keep you functioning. 04:55 Yes, to keep me functioning until I can allow it 04:57 to heal on its own and rest it. 04:58 Sometimes an anti inflammatory like Motrin, 05:02 sometimes your natural anti inflammatories. 05:05 One natural anti inflammatory is water. 05:07 Another one is those almonds that we have down below. 05:11 We could eat a cup of almonds. 05:12 That's natural anti inflammatory. 05:13 Exercise can help treat chronic pain 05:15 because it makes endorphins go up. 05:18 So laughter, music, that can all treat it. 05:20 But sometimes no matter what you do, 05:22 you cannot control the pain 05:24 and there is a cause you can't get rid of. 05:26 In that case, the risk of the pain 05:28 is greater than the risk of the medicine. 05:30 And in that case you say I want to use 05:32 this little narcotic as I can and use everything else 05:35 so you don't have to take gobs of narcotics 05:37 and take the risk of that. 05:39 So you might be taking the narcotic 05:40 and having hydrotherapy and you might be 05:43 having some music therapy and endorphin therapy 05:45 and anti inflammatory and diet just to control the bad pains 05:49 so that the risk of the pain with the adrenaline 05:51 and all that is not overcoming your body. 05:55 And so it's really about a balance. 05:57 And we know of pain that comes from surgery, 06:01 pain that comes from an injury, 06:02 pain that comes from a disease. 06:05 Sometimes people have pain and they are not sure exactly 06:09 where it's coming from at all. 06:10 It doesn't make sense to have this kind of pain 06:13 and this is a question 06:14 that came into heartwiseminsitries.org. 06:16 What are some overlooked causes of pain 06:19 that we should know about, Dr. Marcum? Yeah. 06:22 One of the big ones is medications, okay. 06:25 Medications can cause pain, okay. 06:27 It can affect, especially, 06:28 remember I talked about the muscles, myositis. 06:31 Muscles can hurt your muscles. 06:33 The ones I use the most are the ones called the statins. 06:36 That can often cause pain in the body. 06:37 That you prescribe. Yes, I prescribe that a lot. 06:40 Dehydration can be a cause of chronic pain. 06:43 This is a huge one, especially with people with arthritis. 06:45 Dehydration can cause, arthritis get worst. 06:47 Your muscles are made of predominantly water. 06:50 If you don't do that, the muscles can get tight. 06:52 Now here is one that sometimes 06:54 people might not think of is stress. 06:56 Stress can cause chronic pain. Mental stress? 06:59 Mental stress, physical stress as well, you make 07:02 adrenaline, epinephrine. 07:04 If you are dehydrated, the muscles get tight. 07:06 You get, you know, the stress headaches 07:08 that people have heard about. 07:09 You get muscle pains. 07:10 You see these athletes occasionally 07:12 get cramps in the back, you know, 07:13 because they are dehydrated and have a lot of stress. 07:16 Stress can cause ulcers and gastritis. 07:19 It can cause situations like irritable bowel syndrome. 07:22 It can make joint pains more active. 07:25 So stress is a sort of a hidden contributor to chronic pain. 07:29 Now other thing that can cause it is immune problems. 07:31 A lot of people have immune reactions in their body. 07:34 And when you get a foreign object 07:36 that comes your way, 07:37 whether it be a foreign substance that you take in, 07:41 whether it becomes a toxic ingestion, 07:43 whether it becomes an allergen, 07:45 your body can literally attack it. 07:47 And when it attacks it, it causes this immune reaction 07:50 that goes throughout the entire body. 07:52 This inflammation that goes on can cause muscles to hurt. 07:55 A lot of people think conditions like fibromyalgia, 07:59 irritable bowel syndrome, some of these other conditions, 08:02 are caused by the body literally attacking itself. 08:06 So those are just the three or four are the ones 08:08 that people might, you know, add to the list 08:11 if they are having pain that's undiagnosed. 08:14 Now depression can similarly cause chronic pain. 08:18 I think it's really we need to have 08:20 a different mindset when it comes to ourselves 08:24 and our diseases and our chronic situations 08:27 and especially our pain. 08:29 We really need to ask that question why. 08:31 We did a show recently on the philosophy of health 08:35 that Heart-wise ministries has and that philosophy 08:38 is always ask why. 08:41 Don't be satisfied until you know why. 08:45 And it could be after that journey 08:47 when you know why that the answer is 08:49 modern medicine, that the answer is a pill, 08:53 that the answer is a treatment and surgery. 08:57 But we've got to know why. 08:59 If we don't know why we can waste an awful 09:01 lot of money and increase the amount of pain 09:03 that we have simply because we are chasing 09:05 after a symptom as opposed to nailing down a cause. Right. 09:10 In everything we have to always assess 09:12 the risk and benefits of any treatment 09:14 or sometimes the risk of having chronic pain, 09:19 a little bit of pain is safer 09:21 than taking the treatment for it, you know. 09:24 So I mean it's a very fine balance 09:26 in answering these questions. 09:27 Every-- you said this earlier, 09:29 every individual is so unique and, 09:32 but what I want to get through today is if nothing else, 09:35 do those two things you said. 09:36 Find out the reason why and just don't accept 09:39 a narcotic right off the bat, you know, until you can 09:42 look at other ways that might be given to treat you. 09:44 Okay. So we are going to talk about water, 09:47 we are going to talk about exercise, 09:48 we are going to talk about sunshine. 09:50 These are ways to treat pain. 09:52 We can talk about our faith in God, 09:55 our worship of the true God, 09:57 a regiment in how we eat and how we relate to people. 10:03 I am assuming that anger can cause pain. 10:07 Yeah, stress, stress-- 10:08 And madness can cause pain. Guilt can cause pain. 10:14 That all adds to it. All right, okay. 10:17 So we need to really look at the cause and find out what it is. 10:20 And if you have a problem finding out what it is, 10:23 what would you recommend, Dr. Marcum? 10:25 Do you go to a medical doctor first? 10:27 You go to a pastor first? 10:29 If you want help with your chronic pain 10:32 where would be the first place you'd go? 10:34 This is a multidisciplinary thing. 10:36 You want to go to your physician to find out the cause. 10:39 Some people you might want to go 10:40 and have your pastor deal with it. 10:42 You just got to make sure there is nothing physical. 10:44 Right, you got to make that. 10:45 You know, sometimes there's pain clinics 10:47 that have different types of people 10:48 that might have a chiropractor involved, a nutritionist. 10:51 I believe we had a question about nutrition 10:52 that hopefully we'll get to. 10:54 There is multidiscipline approach. 10:56 It just shouldn't be one person looking at things. 10:58 There should be many people looking from different angles, 11:00 looking at the mind angle, look at the spiritual, 11:03 looking at the physical, looking at the lifestyle, 11:05 everything that makes up this. 11:07 And when hundred million people have it 11:09 and the numbers keep going up, again it's another thing 11:12 that we are not doing well. 11:14 We have to look for better answers and solutions 11:16 to this chronic pain syndrome. 11:18 Well, pretty soon we are going to have chronic pain 11:20 and chronic narcotic addiction, both. 11:22 And then when have another problem. 11:24 It reminded of the story of General Grant 11:27 right near the end of the Civil War. 11:30 He was in his tent and he was suffering 11:32 from a tremendous headache. 11:34 It was just pounding in his head 11:36 he wrote in his memoirs. 11:37 And just then there was a knock on the tent wood there, 11:41 the flap pulling up the tent on the structure there 11:45 and someone comes and says, you know, 11:46 General Lee just surrendered. 11:50 The war is over. 11:52 And General Grant said that his headache vanished. 11:56 It was gone just that time. 11:59 We need to make sure that when we are searching 12:01 for the source of our pain, when we are searching for 12:05 why that we take into consideration 12:08 the mental stresses we have in this world, 12:10 the stresses at work, the stresses of family. 12:12 And if we find that those things are affecting us, 12:15 that we apply God's rules of love 12:18 and forgiveness and grace to those issues 12:20 and look for solutions there. 12:22 We'll take a break now and when we come back 12:24 let's talk to the Master Physician about the pain 12:27 that might be in your heart and the healing 12:30 that He offers to everyone of us. Stay tuned. 12:40 Chronic pain affects 100 million people in America 12:44 and it also is a problem worldwide. 12:47 I hope you are not one that's suffering from chronic pain, 12:50 but if you are, I hope this program 12:51 helped you and if you are not, 12:53 I hope you can share this information with someone else. 12:56 The key to chronic pain is asking the question why, 13:00 try not to reach for a narcotic first 13:03 and look for other alternatives 13:05 that might be used to treat the pain 13:07 before you reach for something that's dangerous. 13:09 Look at all the risks and benefits 13:11 to anything you might be doing. 13:13 And sometimes remember it's not just one person 13:15 that helps you with chronic pain. 13:17 It could be a multidisciplinary approach. 13:20 One of the things I didn't quite have the time 13:22 to mention is the importance of nutrition. 13:24 Nutrition is very important 13:26 in the treatment of chronic pain. 13:28 Certain foods that cause inflammation, 13:30 a fatty diet can cause lots of inflammation 13:32 which can make chronic pain worse. 13:34 And there is also foods, especially healthy foods, 13:37 that make you have antioxidants, lots of water, 13:40 that also might help with chronic pain. 13:42 If you are the one that might be having 13:44 chronic pain today, we want to say a prayer for you 13:47 and also all those out there. 13:48 So let's just bow our heads just for a few seconds. 13:51 Father God, there are many of us that are having physical pain, 13:54 that have chronic pain, that have mental pain. 13:58 We know that the only true solution 14:00 is that for You to come again and take us home 14:03 and to heal us, Father. 14:04 But until that time we want to trust in You 14:07 to lead us in this relationship and help us to find answers, 14:11 answers from good doctors and other people 14:13 and help us to find the solutions to pain 14:16 that's affecting the world. 14:17 And please be with us always is our humble prayer. Amen. 14:22 Don't forget I'll be happy to answer your question 14:25 by going to our website heartwiseministries.org 14:28 and let us know what your needs are 14:30 and we'll be happy to pray for you. 14:32 Thanks for watching the "Ultimate Prescription." |
Revised 2014-12-17