Thomas Edison,
scientist, inventor, visionary!
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We live our lives surrounded
by his creative genius,
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but there's one Edison invention
that can help make us sick.
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Stay tuned...
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I'm Dr. James Marcum
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Are you interested in
discovering the reason why?
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Do you want solutions
to your healthcare problem?
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Are you tired of
taking medications?
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Well, you're about to be given
the "Ultimate Prescription"
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What would we do
without the light bulb?
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Well, we'd wander
around in the dark a lot.
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We couldn't take flash
pictures or watch television.
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We couldn't, metaphorically,
have a good idea.
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Yes, our lives
would change dramatically,
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but sometimes change is needed.
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Sometimes being in the
dark is a perfectly good thing,
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right, Dr. Marcum?
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Absolutely Charles,
I would agree with you.
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Being in the
dark IS good if you're
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doing the right things
in the dark... Good point
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And, one of the things that
we were designed to do is...
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we were designed to
rest and sleep at night,
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and when we're
resting and sleeping at night,
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we're doing a good thing.
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This has gotten a
lot of attention...
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You know, we've been
talking about the importance of
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rest for years, but
in the media there has
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been some stirrings recently.
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Recently, "The
Centers for Disease Control"
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they came out with this
statistic and they said,
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...1 in 25 or about 4%
of Americans are now using
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sleeping pills.
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Dr. Farkas in the recent "New
England Journal of Medicine"
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reported that Zolpidem,
that's a sleeping pill,
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is the most widely used
prescription drug for insomnia
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and one of the most commonly
used drugs in the United States,
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and in his editorial in the "New
England Journal of Medicine"
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he goes on to
point that this problem,
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...this people
taking sleeping pills,
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is a public
health problem. Wow...
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So we've crossed the line
from being a little problem
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to a public health problem.
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It has significant consequences.
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There is a growing concern that
after years and years of use
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of these medicines,
that there is impairment in
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cognition - the
way you think, Charles,
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especially as it relates
to motor vehicle driving.
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So people that take sleeping
pills don't drive as well,
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it's a problem...
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And there's a debate right now
on the dosing in men and women,
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as well as the metabolism.
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So a lot of
people are questioning
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if these things are
good things to have,
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if these
sleeping pills are good.
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Now, if you think about things,
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let's go back 300 years ago...
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Now I wasn't
around 300 years ago,
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did we have this problem?
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I don't remember
reading about that, I mean a few
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have an occasional not sleep
well, but to have a chronic
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can't sleep good -
across the board in the
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population... no,
that wasn't happening.
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We worked in the
day and it got night,
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more or less, we went
to bed. Yes, it got dark!
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This was before Edison
and made electricity...
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This was before people stayed
up with cell phones, iPads,
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computers, texting, all
those things that keep us awake;
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those late night
snacks, all those stimulants
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that keep us going,
all the violent things that
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we would see on
television sometimes
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that would keep us going...
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So, sleeping pills
were originally meant,
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as pointed out, for
a short period of time
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until basically the underlying
problem could be addressed,
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BUT with the numbers
and scope of the problem,
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1 in 25 now are
using sleeping pills,
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that's 4% of the population,
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and all of a sudden we're
having cognition problems,
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we're not sleeping very good,
we're not thinking very good.
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There's that
parallel climb we were
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talking about in an
earlier show... Yes-yes
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This problem is happening,
so this response is happening.
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Yes-yes, and you hate
to talk about problems
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and another stressor that's
out there that's not being
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addressed, but
here's another one...
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we're not resting well.
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When we don't rest well,
our body can't heal itself,
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the body parts don't rest;
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everything is
staying up all the time;
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our metabolism is altered;
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the circadian
rhythms are messed up;
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our hormonal system is damaged;
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the way we think, as
we found out, is damaged.
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But FINALLY, I
applaud the media,
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The New England Journal,
The Centers for Disease Control,
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at least NOW, we're
writing about the topic,
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and we're talking about this.
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Now, I wonder what
would Thomas Edison recommend,
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you know, in all this.
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He was a smart guy!
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Well he wasn't a good example
because he was up all night
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and all day and all
night making these inventions.
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He ruined his health
trying to make these things
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that make our life easier.
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Yep, you're right and this goes
back to the old baseball player.
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If you're throwing
baseballs and your arm hurts,
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you're going to quit
throwing baseballs...
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And if you're not
sleeping well at night,
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taking sleep pills does not
seem to be the long-term answer
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especially when we see
rising problems of mental issues
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as the population gets older.
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Now let me ask you a
question, Dr. Marcum,
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from a medical
standpoint, what exactly does a
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sleeping pill do,
what changes take place
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in our bodies that are essential
for sleep that these pills
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are able to mimic and
apparently not very well.
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Yeah, well remember, these pills
really don't make you rest;
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these pills don't
make you live longer;
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they don't make you rest better.
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They do knock you out.
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And how do they do that,
how do they knock you out?
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There's a bunch of chemicals
that they mess with in the brain
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It's an ARTIFICIAL sleep!
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Yes, it's artificial that
they sort of tranquilize you,
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and put you out.
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A bunch of fancy
chemical mechanisms...
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It's not as good as banging you
in the head, putting you out,
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but it basically puts you out.
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You know, in all these medicines
you see the anesthetic agents.
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They put you to sleep too.
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A lot of the chemical
pathways that they do,
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we don't fully understand
everything that it does,
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we just know
that these chemicals
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seem to put you to sleep.
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This is another thing
that kind of scares me...
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You have said that over a great
deal of time that sleeping pills
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have been shown
to be a real problem.
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What else are we going
to find out about - statins?
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You know, we've
been taking those now for
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about a couple of dozen years,
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what's going to
happen 40-50 years from now
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when we realize what
these things are doing?
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High blood pressure
medicines, all these things!
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We don't know and that's why
everything is going to be about
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the risk and benefits.
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So in this issue, we
talked about Dr. Farkas said,
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we have a public health problem.
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It's costing a lot of
money when so many people
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are taking it -
hurting the cognition,
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damaging people in
the cars; it's a problem,
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so that's step #1.
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#2- Is the RISK of a
medicine worth the benefit
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and are there
other alternatives?
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And we have to realize
there is a LONG-TERM risk
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to taking medicines
that we take so freely today.
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We don't even know what
those long-terms risks are.
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No we do not and that's one of
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the risks because we
don't know the risks.
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Another thing is there
are alternatives to use.
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You know, we sort of
broke the sleep patterns,
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the circadian rhythms;
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we have too many stimulants
in our life that's keeping us
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up all the time.
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Yes, you would not
sit here telling us
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about sleep pills if you didn't
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have an alternative,
you wouldn't even try it.
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Right, no, no,
and we talk about it,
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you know, what disrupts a
person so they don't sleep well?
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You know, that's
a great question.
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It might be a physical
thing like sleep apnea,
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where they quit
breathing at night.
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In that case, you want
to give them some oxygen.
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It might be a
stimulant that keeps them up.
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One of the largest
stimulants we see right now
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is that stimulant
called "television"
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Television - guess what?
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It gets the brains
thinking and fired up.
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It makes a lot of
these stress-type chemistry.
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The stress
chemistry - guess what?
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It turns off the
relaxing chemistries,
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so it self-defeats itself and
when you have so much of that,
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you can't really rest well,
you can't go to sleep well.
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You mix that in with a
little late night snacky,
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maybe some
stimulants that we take...
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You know, we talked
about energy drinks before,
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caffeine before, some stress
in the life and all of a sudden
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we've disrupted the balance.
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Now, there are certain things
that you need for good sleep.
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There are certain chemicals
that you need for good sleep,
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and sometimes our DIET is
not even getting some of those
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things that we
need for good sleep.
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You know like, for
instance, bananas are great
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because they have a
substance called L-tryptophan.
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Bananas also have chemicals
that convert to melatonin
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which is a natural sleep aid.
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So all of these things, Charles,
are out there that could help
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us sleep better.
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So in thinking about
things is if a person came to me
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on a sleeping pill, it might
be for a short period of time
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they need a sleeping pill,
for a short period of time.
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But for the
long-term, I would say,
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"Well let's see why you're
not sleeping well at night,
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and then let's see if
we can get at the cause,
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and figure out other things"
00:09:33.17\00:09:34.71
Now, a lot of
people don't realize it,
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but most people wake up
about 2 or 3 times a night.
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You only need about 3
hours of sleep at a time.
00:09:41.02\00:09:45.40
You want to sleep
through a cycle of sleep.
00:09:45.43\00:09:48.37
So a cycle sleep is
about 3 hours. About that...
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So if you sleep
and then you wake up,
00:09:50.50\00:09:53.01
and then you go
back to sleep again,
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you're going to still get
your cycles of sleep... Got ya
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So, you know, it
might take you a lot longer
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especially if you
get up and do something
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for a couple of more hours until
you get to go to sleep again,
00:10:00.92\00:10:04.17
but these are things
that people need to know.
00:10:04.20\00:10:06.60
I would much rather
tackle sleep naturally
00:10:06.63\00:10:11.09
than take a medicine that
I don't know what it does to
00:10:11.12\00:10:13.49
my brain and could damage my
brain over long periods of time.
00:10:13.52\00:10:17.50
Not to mention,
these medicines when mixed
00:10:17.53\00:10:20.72
with other
medications, we don't really
00:10:20.75\00:10:23.34
understand fully what they do.
00:10:23.37\00:10:25.77
They don't help very
much, but you start mixing
00:10:25.80\00:10:27.86
and matching drugs and alcohol,
sleeping pills and pain pills,
00:10:27.89\00:10:33.84
and before long, you get a
cascade that can be dangerous
00:10:33.87\00:10:37.56
that an athlete could
actually kill somebody.
00:10:37.59\00:10:40.65
It's scary, Charles. It
certainly is, it certainly is
00:10:40.68\00:10:43.22
Well you know, if sleep is
so important and I just want to
00:10:43.25\00:10:47.08
stay with this 3-hour cycle...
00:10:47.11\00:10:49.08
So, 3-hour cycle and
then a few minutes awake,
00:10:49.11\00:10:51.62
3- hour cycle, a
few minutes awake,
00:10:51.65\00:10:53.22
can it be 3-hour
cycle, an hour awake,
00:10:53.25\00:10:56.67
3- hour cycle,
because a lot of people have
00:10:56.70\00:10:59.12
sleep problems/sleep patterns.
Well no, you have to be
00:10:59.15\00:11:00.56
asleep about 3 hours to
go through a cycle of sleep.
00:11:00.59\00:11:03.42
So you need to sort of stay
out, if you can, about 3 hours.
00:11:03.45\00:11:06.77
But remember,
everybody is unique;
00:11:06.80\00:11:08.90
there's no rule that
works for everybody...
00:11:08.93\00:11:11.76
And someone might feel
better with just 2 hours
00:11:11.79\00:11:14.39
here or 2 hours there.
00:11:14.42\00:11:15.92
Some people, as a
general rule, it takes 3 hours
00:11:15.95\00:11:18.15
to get through a cycle of sleep.
00:11:18.18\00:11:20.02
Some people can sleep 6-9 hours,
00:11:20.05\00:11:22.49
so it varies from an individual,
00:11:22.52\00:11:24.99
but the bottom line is
we want people sleeping.
00:11:25.02\00:11:27.63
And I don't think
of sleep as sleep,
00:11:27.66\00:11:30.22
I think of it as REST.
00:11:30.25\00:11:32.89
There's a treatment that
comes when your body is resting;
00:11:32.92\00:11:37.17
there are biblical
principles behind this.
00:11:37.20\00:11:39.64
The God of the universe
worked 6 days, He rested.
00:11:39.67\00:11:43.61
So rest INCLUDES sleep,
but is not exclusive to it.
00:11:43.64\00:11:46.38
It could include but
might NOT only include sleep,
00:11:46.41\00:11:48.45
but sleep, rest - also
these rhythms that were
00:11:48.48\00:11:53.08
supposed to be made to rev
down at night, to turn it down,
00:11:53.11\00:11:56.51
to rest the digestive
tract, to rest the brain,
00:11:56.54\00:12:00.65
so rest and sleep
might be the same thing,
00:12:00.68\00:12:03.21
or it might be
something different.
00:12:03.24\00:12:04.86
We don't always acquaint those
2 together, you see what I mean?
00:12:04.89\00:12:07.63
Yeah, I do, I do... So
just because you're not
00:12:07.66\00:12:09.73
sleeping, doesn't
mean you're not resting.
00:12:09.76\00:12:12.69
Now of course, when
you go all the way out,
00:12:12.72\00:12:15.02
you can rest those
deeper functions of your brain
00:12:15.05\00:12:17.80
that you're not when you rest.
00:12:17.83\00:12:18.90
So of course,
you get better sleep
00:12:18.93\00:12:20.32
when you're all the way out,
00:12:20.35\00:12:21.42
but that doesn't mean you still
00:12:21.45\00:12:22.67
can't get good
rest along the way.
00:12:22.70\00:12:24.97
Well that will be good news
for a lot of people I'm sure
00:12:25.00\00:12:26.88
because there are
those of us in this world who
00:12:26.91\00:12:31.06
struggle with
getting what we THINK is,
00:12:31.09\00:12:34.16
what we've been TOLD
is "a good night's sleep"
00:12:34.19\00:12:36.86
but that may simply be
a good night's rest. Right
00:12:36.89\00:12:40.43
We should look at it that way.
00:12:40.47\00:12:41.50
And that rest can be just
kicking back and sleeping maybe,
00:12:41.53\00:12:45.34
and listening to pretty music
or reading a book or something;
00:12:45.37\00:12:48.68
something that calms us
down, that's the rest we need.
00:12:48.71\00:12:50.65
And you are
your own best doctor,
00:12:50.68\00:12:52.70
who to let someone else define
the definition of health for YOU
00:12:52.73\00:12:58.30
You have a brain, you
can figure out things;
00:12:58.33\00:13:00.65
maybe your body needs
this much, maybe it doesn't.
00:13:00.68\00:13:03.81
So if you are doing
great on this amount of sleep,
00:13:03.84\00:13:07.02
and I come and say, "You have
to have this, the rules say so,"
00:13:07.05\00:13:09.56
and I disrupt your
sleep, that might not be
00:13:09.59\00:13:12.96
the way your
body works in cycles.
00:13:12.99\00:13:14.54
So everyone has a
little bit different plan.
00:13:14.58\00:13:17.44
A lot of it has to do
with the night and day cycles,
00:13:17.47\00:13:20.09
the circadian
rhythms, where you live at
00:13:20.12\00:13:22.39
in relation to the equator,
00:13:22.42\00:13:24.43
the environment
that you sleep in,
00:13:24.46\00:13:26.38
the noise, the water;
all sorts of variables
00:13:26.41\00:13:29.35
come when it
comes to rest. All right
00:13:29.38\00:13:31.72
We have a website
heartwiseministries. org
00:13:31.75\00:13:34.66
We have people send in
questions on different topics
00:13:34.69\00:13:37.47
and we have had a lot of
questions now about sleep,
00:13:37.50\00:13:40.88
and we'll be talking
about those on our return.
00:13:40.91\00:13:43.49
We invite you to leave
your questions there... that's
00:13:43.52\00:13:45.41
heartwiseministries. org
00:13:45.44\00:13:46.90
Stay right where you
are, we'll be right back!
00:13:46.94\00:13:49.41