Participants: James Marcum & Charles Mills
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP00040A
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00:16 Ever look into a mirror and think...
00:18 What's going on inside my body that I need to know about? 00:21 The mirror may or may not be your best source of information. 00:25 Stay tuned... 00:27 I'm Dr. James Marcum 00:29 Are you interested in discovering the reason why? 00:33 Do you want solutions to your healthcare problems? 00:36 Are you tired of taking medications? 00:38 Well, you're about to be given the "Ultimate Prescription" 00:46 Today we talk about health screening... 00:48 You may have seen advertisements from companies that 00:50 come into your town and offer to run some tests to make sure 00:53 that your body is functioning as it should. 00:55 This is a good idea... or are there ways you can 00:58 screen yourself and save money and time? 01:02 Dr. Marcum - health screening - good idea - bad idea? 01:05 Well Charles, we're going to talk about that, 01:08 and we're going to let our viewers decide 01:10 whether it's a good idea for them or bad idea. 01:13 You know, it's a real bummer, Charles, getting old. 01:15 Have you noticed that? 01:17 I've noticed that very much, yes. 01:18 Now, I've just noticed some personal things about myself 01:21 and you know, my hair is starting to fall out now. 01:25 See that? Yeah - there goes one now! 01:26 And I've noticed there are more 01:27 hairs growing in my ears than not in my ears. 01:32 My feet hurt sometimes! 01:34 Sometimes I'm stiff as a board. 01:37 And the list goes on and on. 01:39 My eyes don't see as good, 01:40 I mean, I'm having to wear glasses now. 01:42 Luckily my hearing is still good... 01:44 But I think our viewers out there can really 01:48 understand, you know, what it is to age. 01:52 Age is not a fun thing to happen, 01:55 and with that, comes some health problems 01:58 as our body gets older. 01:59 It only makes sense, right? 02:00 Well that's the question then. 02:02 If the hair is falling out, if you're feeling sore and tired, 02:05 if you're stiff... Is this an age problem, 02:07 or is it a health problem or are they interrelated somehow? 02:10 Yes and that's a great question because we want to talk 02:14 about those things and give everyone a framework. 02:16 Now there are certain things that I think is very 02:19 beneficial to screen for. 02:21 And because we know that if we don't screen for these things 02:25 and have that condition, bad things happen. 02:29 We don't want that to happen. 02:31 Let's talk about a couple of those things. 02:34 Your birthday - should we screen for birthdays? 02:38 What do you think? Screen for birthdays? 02:40 Yes, should we screen for birthdays? 02:42 Don't need to, it sort of comes automatically. Okay 02:45 Very quickly, I must say. 02:46 Okay, now hold that thought in your mind for a second 02:49 because in some ways we do screen for birthdays. 02:52 For instance, there are certain health screenings 02:55 that we happen at certain years based on age. 02:59 Because we know that as the body gets older, 03:02 there's a chance of these things happening. 03:04 Now there are some things that people don't think about 03:07 screening that I think should looked at all the time. 03:10 For instance, seatbelts - that's a screening - health screening. 03:14 Cell phones - should you screen for cell phones, 03:17 in people using cell phones in cars. 03:19 I think that's a "yes" 03:21 There are certain diseases in babies that's screened for. 03:26 Those are very useful. 03:27 How about blood pressure? Is that a screening test? 03:31 Yes, because if you have high blood pressure 03:33 and it goes untreated, it could cause all sorts of problems 03:36 if it goes undetected for years and years and years. 03:39 So blood pressure would be something you'd screen for. 03:41 In other words, if a cop stops a car - a driver, 03:43 and he or she is not wearing a seatbelt, 03:45 he or she has just been screened and the results of not 03:49 wearing the seatbelt can be dangerous. 03:51 So if you screen for high blood pressure, 03:53 and there's a problem there, 03:55 the results could be dangerous as well. That's right 03:57 Especially if longstanding, it's another health risk. 04:00 Not that we're telling people how they should have it treated, 04:04 that's a whole - another discussion. 04:06 Another thing is cholesterol, people screen for cholesterol. 04:11 We hear that all the time, "Check my cholesterol" 04:13 Well really, cholesterol could be a marker for heart disease; 04:17 it could be a marker for a poor diet; 04:19 lots of things it could be a marker... 04:21 So that's another thing that we screen for 04:23 because we know that people that have cholesterol 04:26 over long periods of time have more health problems. 04:31 Does this make sense so far? Yeah 04:33 So screenings, but everyone is coming into towns 04:36 making a lot of money from screenings. 04:39 And we hear that about cancer screenings an awful lot. 04:44 You know, I'm going to talk about that a little bit more, 04:46 about cancer screenings. 04:47 Not too long ago, I had an actual friend of mine 04:52 that was a pretty healthy guy and he had a CAT scan 04:55 done for something else, Charles, 04:57 and on that CAT scan, they found a solitary pulmonary nodule. 05:02 A small nodule in his lung - they didn't know what that was. 05:07 It was found incidentally and lots of things we find, 05:11 we find incidentally. 05:13 And they found this mass incidentally and they were 05:18 making recommendations what to do. 05:20 Well, he didn't smoke cigarettes; 05:22 he had no family history of cancer; 05:25 he was a relatively younger person in his 40s... 05:28 So really, one of the recommendations, 05:30 well we found that we don't have to do anything with it, 05:32 let's just keep an eye on it and recheck it in 6 months. 05:36 And really, the only risk of that would have been radiation. 05:40 They sort of found it out by accident. 05:43 You know, they were looking for something else, 05:44 and lo and behold, here is this mass. 05:46 Of course the big fear that everyone makes everywhere 05:50 is that every little thing in our body is cancer! Yes 05:53 So everyone is going, "Oh my, it's cancer, it's cancer" 05:55 Everything is going to lead to something big. 05:56 A small thing can be something bigger. Yes, yes, yes 05:57 And in the process, they make so much FEAR that the fear 06:02 from the situation that they might not even have, 06:05 creates more of a health problem 06:07 than the actual thing that they have going on. 06:09 And I have a feeling that someone is 06:12 making money off this fear. YES! YES! 06:13 And we create lots of fear; the part of our brain, 06:16 the amygdala, starts making out adrenalin; 06:18 you get worried, you can't sleep. 06:19 Well that's what happened to my friend... he got scared! 06:22 Even though he had no family risk of cancer, 06:25 he didn't smoke cigarettes, he's a pretty healthy guy. 06:28 So guess what? 06:29 He talked somebody into doing a biopsy. 06:32 He said, "I HAVE to know for SURE that this isn't cancer. " 06:35 "I'm scared it's cancer. " 06:36 "If it's cancer, it's detected early - I'm cured" 06:39 So he was very concerned that it was cancer. 06:42 So they had a fancy thing that they did, 06:44 called a "thoracoscope" where they went in there 06:47 and they saw that little cancer and they took it out, 06:51 and they brought it out. 06:52 The little cyst - you mean. Yes, the little pulmonary nodule 06:55 And guess what? It was NOT cancer! 06:59 Everyone breathed a sigh of relief - no cancer here! 07:03 BUT, in the process of going in there, 07:06 they clipped one of his intercostal nerves, 07:10 in the process of the procedure, 07:11 and then he had chronic pain along his left side there 07:15 where they clipped the nerve, from the procedure 07:17 that he probably shouldn't have gotten in the first place. 07:20 THEN, he had such pain, it was like... 07:24 I don't know if anyone has had the shingles out there, 07:26 but this was like a shingles pain. 07:28 It went along a nerve root; 07:29 it's like a searing, burning, one of the worst pains 07:32 you've ever wanted to have... 07:33 And if you've had shingles, you know what I mean. 07:35 Anyway, he had to take narcotics for this and guess what? 07:40 After 2 or 3 months, he was addicted to narcotics. 07:44 And THEN, the narcotics slowed down his bowels 07:48 so he couldn't go to the bathroom very well, 07:50 and he couldn't work very well... Mercy! 07:52 Now this was a screening test gone awry. 07:58 That's why I wanted to talk to you about these screenings 08:02 and wanted to talk to everyone about screenings today. 08:04 So everyone knows we should screen for diabetes, 08:08 that's very useful. 08:09 Should we screen for people being obese? Yes, we should 08:12 But how about things that we shouldn't screen for? 08:15 Interesting... Yeah, let's talk about some of those... 08:17 And most of the things that we should not screen for 08:20 have to deal with cancer. 08:22 If you go to a healer and he's really, really good - he or she, 08:27 they'll even screen you for things like mental health. 08:31 They'll look at your skin, they'll look at your hair. 08:34 They'll screen your entire body. 08:35 They'll see you as a person. 08:37 They'll screen you for happiness. 08:39 I actually screen my patients for happiness! 08:42 That does not surprise me at all. 08:43 Because I think it's important that people be happy! 08:46 So that's a screen for them because the chemistry 08:48 comes happy is good! 08:49 The chemistry comes bad is bad. 08:51 So I'll screen them for that - very list risk on that. 08:54 But let's focus a little bit on cancers. 08:57 Let's talk about the different types of cancers. 08:59 We talked about lung cancers. 09:01 Right now, we do not recommend screening for lung cancer. 09:05 Don't recommend that... unless a person either has a 09:07 family history or they are a big-time smoker. 09:11 Don't even screen for that. 09:12 How about kidney cancer? 09:14 Don't even screen for kidney cancer. 09:16 How about liver cancer? 09:17 Don't screen for liver cancer. 09:20 How about skin cancer? 09:21 Yeah - we screen for skin cancer... 09:24 Because if we find a cancer called a "melanoma," 09:27 or one of those early-on, we can save someone's life 09:30 if we find it early-on. 09:32 So we screen for that just by looking at people's skin 09:35 looking for discoloration, 09:36 so that's a good screening test. 09:39 It doesn't carry a lot of risk. 09:40 If you do find a suspicious spot, we just cut it off, 09:44 biopsy it, make sure it has not spread anywhere... 09:47 So that's a good screening cancer. 09:48 How about COLON cancer? 09:50 Have you ever been screened for colon cancer? 09:52 I have not and I probably should or should I? 09:55 I don't know, you tell me. 09:56 Well let's talk about that... 09:58 Colon cancer, if it's detected early, you can remove it 10:02 before it has spread and it's lifesaving. 10:05 So it would seem to me, from that statement there, 10:07 that it's a good idea to have colon screening. 10:11 Colonoscopy, whatever they call that. 10:12 Yes, colonoscopy, well that's just one way 10:15 of screening it, okay. BUT! BUT! 10:17 There are other ways of screening for colon cancer 10:19 besides colonoscopy. 10:20 Yeah and that's a painful procedure, 10:22 and it's kind of uncomfortable, is there another way to do it? 10:25 Nowadays, if you're at a low-risk group, 10:27 mom and dad didn't have cancer, any of that, 10:29 we can actually take your stool and check it for blood 10:34 3 separate times and if it's negative, then that is good, 10:37 as a screening colonoscopy for some people. 10:40 Now Charles, if your dad had colon cancer at age 30, 10:45 then you need to start having your screenings at 40, 10:48 and I would go to a colonoscopy. 10:50 Because even though, this world, 10:52 we have bad genetics and bad genetics tend to be 10:55 passed from generation to generation. 10:58 So scope for colon cancer is very, very useful. 11:01 Prostate testing - You know that's been up and down 11:05 and all around and I wrote down in an article right here 11:08 that just came out from the American Urological Association 11:11 ...fresh off the press - They said the screening 11:17 guidelines - they've ranged them on a... 11:19 from age 40 to age 55 for prostate cancer. 11:23 And at age 55, they recommend that men should make 11:26 an informed decision about the 11:29 potential risk of a biopsy for prostate cancer. 11:32 And the risk of a biopsy is death, very low risk of that; 11:38 incontinence, impotence, those things can happen. 11:41 Actually in screening for prostate cancer, 11:44 there is a small risk of death. 11:46 Now listen to this for prostate cancer... 11:48 In 2011, they screened men age 55 to 60 over 10 years. 11:54 To save one life, a doctor had to screen 1,000 men 11:58 for 10 years. 12:01 One-thousand men for 10 years? Yes! 12:03 Four out of those 1,000 died of prostate cancer. 12:06 Five out of 1,000 unscreened men died, you see what I'm saying... 12:11 So there's only 1 in a 1,000 over 10 years. 12:14 They say that's a 20% reduction, you see what I'm saying... 12:18 but that's just one, so anyway that's looking at 12:21 all these numbers and sometimes 12:23 that's why they're not recommending it anymore 12:25 for prostate cancer screening - unless you're high risk group. 12:29 Yeah and HIGH RISK - what moves you into the high risk group? 12:33 Are there things that we are doing in our lifestyle 12:36 that is moving us from low risk to high risk? 12:38 Could be and I guess you could argue, 12:39 if you had a family history of prostate cancer. 12:42 But remember, 1 in 6 men die with prostate cancer. 12:46 If you had a lot of bad health habits, 12:48 all this - those also would be very interesting. 12:51 As we talk more about this, a good book that I read recently 12:55 by "Welch," it says, "Over-Diagnosed: Making People 13:00 Sick in Pursuit of Health" 13:02 That's a neat book that's out there. 13:04 We're going to talk some more about health screenings 13:07 and answer some questions in just a few minutes here. 13:09 You know, this topic is on a lot of people's minds 13:13 because we want to make sure that we get the problems 13:15 solved early and we want to make sure that we are 13:18 on the right track but you make a very good point here 13:20 that we have a lot of responsibility in self-screening 13:24 in making sure that what we are doing in our lives, 13:27 what we're doing is minimizing the impact. 13:30 We're basically talking about self-screening here, 13:33 like this story you told us here that he said, 13:36 "I'm not doing these things, I'm not having these problems, 13:39 I should not be screened because I'm not bringing 13:41 this into my life" 13:43 We'll talk more about this and answer your questions 13:45 on this topic on our return, so stay right where you are. |
Revised 2014-12-17