Participants: Dr. James Marcum (Host), Charles Mills
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP00037B
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00:01 Welcome back to the program.
00:02 I'm Charles Mills here with cardiologist, Dr. James Marcum, 00:04 the founder/director of Heartwise Ministries, 00:06 and we're going to answer some questions that have come in to 00:09 heartwiseministries. org 00:11 on the subject of urological issues - very important. 00:14 We've discussed how important water is to us, 00:17 and that we need to have that to help clean out the toxins 00:20 that collect in our body... 00:21 And our bodies are pretty dirty places inside - 00:25 if you stop and think about it. 00:26 We have a lot of stuff coming in from the environment, 00:28 from our food and the body needs to get rid of that stuff, 00:30 and waste material from just the process 00:33 of being us takes up a lot of materials 00:37 and there's waste involved with that. 00:38 Okay, first question from heartwiseministries. org 00:41 and by the way, we invite you to 00:42 send your questions in to that address, 00:44 and there's a place you click there and you can 00:46 leave your questions for a future show. 00:48 We appreciate that - we build these shows 00:50 around your questions - that's why we know 00:52 we're cutting edge - we're right there ready for you 00:55 because these people are asking and Dr. Marcum is answering. 00:59 "What exactly is a kidney stone and how does it form?" 01:03 Good question! 01:04 Yeah, lots of people have kidney stones. 01:06 They hurt a lot - let me tell you, 01:08 especially when they're in positions 01:10 they're not supposed to be. 01:11 But kidney stones are basically made of different things... 01:15 The most common type of stone 01:17 is called a "calcium oxalate stone" 01:20 and most stones are made of that... 01:22 And what happens is for some unknown reason, 01:26 of course there's lots of reasons, 01:27 but sometimes people make extra calcium; 01:30 sometimes their genetics predispose them; 01:33 sometimes people get dehydrated... 01:35 Well, calcium forms in the kidneys and the tubules, 01:39 and as it's excreted, it gets together and it forms a stone. 01:42 Now when it forms a stone, guess what... 01:45 the urine can't get out or the waste product can't get out, 01:48 and the urine backs up, it stretches out that tube, 01:52 and it causes pain, usually referred pain to the back. 01:56 Now Charles, if you were passing a stone, 01:59 you know we have a lot of interesting things out here; 02:01 of I had this reflex hammer, 02:04 this tests your neurological system. 02:06 This would not help with the stone. Okay 02:10 We can look in the ears, but that would not 02:12 help with the stone. 02:13 Okay, that would not help. 02:16 Taking a blood pressure would not help 02:17 because the blood pressure would 02:18 go high if you're passing a stone. 02:20 So the way we tell, for sure... 02:22 You know, a person comes in with the symptoms... 02:24 There are a couple of ways we tell if a person 02:25 might be passing a stone. 02:28 I'd say, "You know, I think you're passing a stone" 02:30 I might hit you in the flank and you might go "Ooo, Ooo" 02:32 because the ureters are more in the back part of you, 02:37 so if I did this and you jumped, 02:39 that could be a sign that you were passing a stone. 02:42 But what we do is a couple of things... 02:43 We can have a urine - you might notice yourself 02:46 if you're passing a stone because your urine 02:47 might come out bloody because the stone is irritating 02:50 that lining - it might have some blood pass out. 02:53 Another thing that we can do is x-rays and ultrasounds. 02:56 There is something called an "IVP" where we look 02:58 at the tubes to see that. 03:00 Sometimes a CAT scan can show stones, 03:02 but we usually have to do what we call an "imaging test" 03:05 to see if you have a stone. 03:07 Now that won't tell us what type of stone you have. 03:10 Remember what we said, we have calcium oxalate stones, 03:12 we also have another type of stone called "uric acid stones" 03:17 Uric acid stones are very much related to the food we eat, 03:20 and you know, we know that people that have high meat, 03:22 high fat diet have more uric acid stones. 03:25 There is also a type of stone called "struvite" 03:27 So we can't tell just by looking at it, 03:29 but we could tell you have a stone. 03:31 The stone is not good to stay in there. 03:33 Some stones are small and their characteristic 03:35 will let your doctor know that it will pass through. 03:39 Painfully - maybe though, right? 03:41 It could cause some pain. 03:42 A lot of people will drink lots of water, 03:44 3 to 5 liters a day to help pass that stone through 03:48 because you want to just push, push fluid through 03:51 to help the fluid push that through. 03:53 I've seen some people do the - I don't know if that helps, 03:55 it helps to stand up straight, that kind of thing. 03:59 We used to give medicines to dilate that smooth muscle 04:02 so it might help a little soon. 04:04 Sometimes a stone will not pass, 04:06 and we can sometimes tell by the size of the stone, 04:09 the irregularity on imaging test. 04:12 The real danger if that stone won't pass is that 04:15 fluid backs up in the kidneys and there's the condition called 04:17 "hydronephrosis" where the waste products back up into the kidney 04:22 The kidney starts to get bigger and the kidney can actually 04:24 go into failure if you have a stone, 04:27 even though the other side is still working. Right 04:30 So if urine doesn't move out, sometimes it can even 04:34 lead to infections. 04:35 So once we make this diagnosis of a stone, 04:37 either calcium or uric acid, or what type of stone, 04:40 we have to decide whether we're going to pass it. 04:43 Usually, if you're going to pass it on your own, 04:44 it takes lots of pain medications 04:47 to sort of... I can see why, yes... 04:48 Now this is a place where narcotics 04:50 might be a good thing to have because the pain 04:52 from a kidney stone could be so excruciating 04:55 that you might not be able to do 04:56 well if you didn't have pain medicine. 04:58 If the stone does pass, we usually, hopefully, 05:01 we will have the person catch the stone in their urine stream 05:05 so we can examine it under a microscope to see what 05:08 type of stone it is because once we get the 05:10 acute problem done, then we want to say, 05:13 "Hey, I had a stone, I don't want to ever have a stone again, 05:16 what can I do to prevent stone formation?" 05:19 So when they look at the stone through the microscope, 05:21 they can determine the type of makeup, 05:24 and then they would know where it came from, 05:25 then they know why it was formed or how it was formed. 05:27 Right, they can know a lot about the stone. 05:30 You know, they're going to want to look to see if your 05:32 parathyroids are handling calcium good. 05:34 Some foods can precipitate stone formation. 05:37 Sometimes just being dehydrated can trigger stone formation. 05:42 That's if the stone passes naturally. 05:44 What if it doesn't pass naturally? 05:47 Well, there's a procedure now, in certain types of stones, 05:50 called "lithotripsy" 05:52 They use sound waves to make the stone into sort of "gravel" 05:56 so the gravel passes through. 05:57 So they can just ZAP that with sound wave energy. 06:00 Sometimes though, they have to go up and retrieve the stone. 06:04 That's painful. 06:06 Sometimes they have to do surgery to take the stone out. 06:08 And those are the most painful situations you can get into. 06:11 I have a friend now - usually it happens in the males 06:15 usually in the 40s and 50s - 06:16 that's when they start passing stones. 06:18 He's passing so many stones, it's debilitating him, 06:21 and he keeps passing one after another - he keeps making these. 06:24 They looked at his thyroid gland - that was okay. 06:26 They tried to adjust his diet - that was okay. 06:29 He's drinking a lot of water. 06:31 His genetics is just still making lots of stones, 06:34 and he didn't have it 10 years ago, 06:36 but there's something about this age where the genetics 06:39 does change - you start making lots of stones. 06:42 So kidney stones are our big issue, 06:45 but we have medicines that can do stuff about it. 06:48 I was wondering what they used to do about it 06:49 400 years ago. 06:51 I guess they had to pass it then, 06:53 or go into kidney failure - they had no other chances. 06:56 ...But stones are really devastating. 06:58 Again, modern medicine to the rescue... 07:00 If there's a place for it, there it is. 07:01 And things that we can do to help PREVENT stone formation 07:04 that always comes up. 07:05 We want to give everyone a few practical things that they 07:09 can do - one, lots of water! 07:11 If you've had stones, you'll want to hydrate yourself well. 07:14 You want to make sure your doctor checks 07:16 your calcium levels in the parathyroid glands 07:19 regulates calcium. 07:21 Depending on what type of stone, 07:22 they might put you on a special diet. 07:24 We usually recommend - get rid of things like caffeine, 07:27 get rid of things like animal products - as much as you can. 07:32 There are people that drink citric acid - like lemonade. 07:36 That can help calcium oxalate stones, so citric acid eliminate 07:40 sometimes that can help with that. 07:42 Those are some 2 practical things that people could do 07:45 to help prevent stone formations. All right! 07:48 Well let's move from the kidneys into the prostate. Oh boy 07:52 Question here was from a listener and sent into 07:55 heartwiseministries. org 07:57 "What can be done to help an enlarged prostate?" 08:00 I am assuming this is a man writing this... 08:03 "I have to get up 6 or 7 times a night" 08:06 So something is backing it up or why is he getting up so much? 08:10 Well remember, the urethra passes through the prostate, 08:14 and when the prostate gets big, the urine can't pass out as more 08:18 Sometimes you can have infections in the prostate 08:20 ...that's called "prostatitis" 08:22 That's very painful. 08:23 Sometimes the urine can't get out because of constriction, 08:26 and you have to go many times a night. 08:29 Sometimes, 4, 5, 6 times a night you might not have a 08:32 good stream - you might dribble. 08:35 When that starts happening, that's your cue that 08:37 you might have a prostate problem. 08:39 You need to get some help! 08:41 People that sit for prolonged periods of time, 08:44 that can make it worse as well... 08:45 So you'll want to get up and move. 08:47 When people have these symptoms, 08:50 then the doctor that handles that 08:52 is called a "urologist" usually. 08:55 Now a regular medical doctor can feel the prostate 08:57 to see if it's enlarged, especially if it has 09:00 nodules on it because with of the prostate 09:02 can have an enlarged prostate as well. 09:04 And that's such a pleasant exam... 09:06 Well, I guess - I really haven't had one. 09:08 Oh you haven't had one? No no 09:09 You haven't had a prostate exam? No I haven't 09:11 You've NEVER had a prostate exam? I never have 09:13 Never have... Why? 09:15 Well they recommend about age 50 that you 09:17 start looking into it, so it's on the agenda you know. 09:20 It's on the agenda... Okay but you know it's waiting for you! 09:23 I've had my prostate specific antigen checked, 09:26 but I've never really had symptoms of prostate problems. 09:29 ...Of the dribbling and getting up 7 or 8 times, 09:31 but if I did, I would surely know what to do. 09:34 Well they would check your prostate out, 09:36 see if it was enlarged. 09:37 Sometimes they can do ultrasounds 09:39 to learn more about the prostate, 09:40 and there are a couple of things that they can do. 09:42 One of the natural ways that some people treat prostates 09:46 is called "saw palmetto" 09:49 Another natural way, the common sense way, 09:52 is don't drink a lot of fluids at night. That's true! 09:54 If you don't have fluid at night, 09:55 it doesn't bother you because you don't get up 09:57 over and over to wake up and deal with these things... 09:59 And finally, there are some medicines that relax the urethra 10:02 You relax it - so more urine can pass through. 10:05 Sometimes that helps for quite a long time. 10:07 But sometimes, Charles, it gets so bad that something 10:10 big has to be done. 10:12 And, they call that a transurethral resection 10:16 where they go up and they make the prostate, 10:18 as a surgical procedure, where they make it smaller. 10:21 They go in through your orifice there and they scrape 10:24 that out and they make it smaller, 10:25 and usually that lasts for several times, 10:26 and gets the urine going well. 10:29 They numb it up - it's a little painful procedure, 10:32 but some men have to have that and they start 10:34 resting better at night. 10:35 Now, I think in prostate disease and in ureter disease, 10:40 this is a GREAT place for modern medicine. Absolutely! 10:43 Because before this, when these things happened, 10:46 you know - when the aging process happened, 10:47 the prostate got big or genetically, it got big, 10:50 you just didn't get any relief. 10:51 You just couldn't get the urine out. 10:53 You couldn't get the urine out - it backflowed, 10:54 it caused damage to the kidneys. 10:56 You couldn't get your waste out, 10:57 the waste buildup in you; 10:59 you had terrible things happen and you died. 11:01 So this is a great place for modern medicine - 11:04 is treating prostate disease, stone disease, all that, 11:07 but, you know, we've talked a lot today, 11:09 but we want to keep things moving through our bodies... 11:12 Water and healthy diet, less stones form 11:15 when you eat healthier as well. 11:17 Well that really is an important thing for us to know 11:20 because this problem seems to be not isolated 11:24 to this country - it seems to be worldwide... Yeah 11:27 and we really need to address these things. 11:29 I think we have time for one more question here. 11:32 Natural treatment for stones. 11:34 Let's go back to the stones for a minute. 11:36 You mentioned water... 11:37 What else can we do naturally, 11:39 other than drinking water to get rid of stones? 11:40 We talked about stones and, depending upon what type 11:43 of stone it is... uric acid which we get in lemonade 11:46 and citrus products, especially the stones that are 11:49 made from uric acid... 11:51 We want to stay away from animal products 11:53 because that has uric acids. 11:54 We want to avoid caffeine and there's a big long list 11:57 of foods that you can look at that might trigger this, 12:01 and we want to make sure people have a good 12:02 metabolism too, especially of their calcium, 12:04 there are no abnormalities there. 12:06 I would assume that exercise would be important for this too, 12:08 just getting the running in. Exercise helps everything! 12:10 Okay... Exercise helps all these things. 12:13 Well there you have some good information about this, 12:15 and we invite you to start making some changes 12:18 and, like he says, the #1 thing he would like for you to 12:21 take away from this program is to drink more WATER! 12:23 Get out there and start drinking that water 12:25 to keep things moving through the body. 12:27 We'll take a short break and when we come back, 12:29 we're going to talk to the Master Physician, 12:32 the Ultimate Physician for all of us about 12:35 the problems that we're facing, 12:37 and how He can help us in our lives, 12:38 so stay right where you are. 12:46 Today we've talked a lot about 12:49 eliminating waste from our bodies. 12:51 We talked briefly about taking deep breaths, 12:54 to breathe out all the bad stuff that might be in us. 12:57 We spent some time talking about the GI tract 13:00 and importance of fiber and moving those wastes 13:02 through us - increasing our transit time so things 13:04 don't stick in us a long time so we absorb them. 13:07 But we spent the majority of our program today talking 13:10 about waste, the urogenital tract, 13:12 how drinking enough water was so vital to our bodies, 13:16 and I hope if you leave with nothing else, 13:18 that you start drinking more water. 13:20 Wake up in the morning, drink a lot of water 13:22 to get the day started, drink it during the day, 13:24 and hopefully, if you do these things, you might not 13:26 need modern medicine... 13:28 And I think we have all understood that there is a 13:31 place for modern medicine and if you have a kidney stone 13:33 that won't pass, I think modern medicine is a great 13:35 way to relieve the stone and the pressure. 13:38 Also, if you have a prostate that's too big, 13:41 you can't get the urine out, going all the time, 13:43 another great place for modern medicine... 13:45 And if we can do the things that God created us to do, 13:49 hopefully we won't need modern medicine that much. 13:52 I'm going to have a quick prayer with us today 13:54 that God will also take some of the other wastes 13:57 that we have as far as sins out of our body as well. 13:59 Father God... Thank you for being with us and helping us 14:03 to learn about Your body, and also, we ask the waste 14:06 and the byproducts of sin be removed from our life 14:10 that only You can do... 14:11 And we thank You for being our 14:12 Lord and Savior - is our prayer... Amen 14:15 If you have questions, we want you to go to our website 14:19 Our website is heartwiseministries. org 14:23 and as soon as this program is over, 14:26 I want everyone out there to go and get a 14:28 BIG GLASS OF WATER! 14:31 Go get it - stay HYDRATED! 14:33 We'll be with you next time on "Ultimate Prescription" |
Revised 2014-12-17