Participants: James Marcum & Charles Mills
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP00047B
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00:01 We're talking about REST here and we have identified
00:06 the fact that Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb, 00:09 in some cases did us a disservice because we can 00:12 burn the midnight oil literally all night long, 00:15 and not get the sleep we need... 00:18 But before we answer these questions from 00:19 Heartwise Ministries, I want to ask you 00:21 to define for us what REST is? 00:25 We need rest, we know that. 00:27 Does it necessarily mean sleep or are there 00:31 ways that we could rest that don't include sleep? 00:34 And is there a problem if you do that? 00:35 Well let's talk about that, I might not give you 00:38 a specific answer. 00:39 Everyone wants black and white 00:40 and sometimes it's a little gray but a couple of big principles 00:44 Rest and sleep is a way to treat disease, 00:48 and a way to prevent disease. 00:51 BOTH - rest and sleep. 00:53 Both rest and sleep to prevent and as well as treat disease. 00:56 So they should both be a part of your life 00:59 whether you're preventing disease or whether you're 01:02 treating disease - getting the rest you need. 01:05 Now, during break, we were talking to our friend, Bill... 01:09 And he was telling us that he rests at night, 01:12 but when you think about when you're laying down in bed, 01:15 what are you resting? 01:16 Are you resting your muscles? Yes you are. 01:18 Are you resting your GI tract? Yes, you're not eating. 01:21 Are you resting your ears? 01:23 Well, you're not listening to a lot of things, 01:25 so you're resting your ears. 01:26 Are you talking? No, you're resting your ears. 01:29 Now remember, the lower parts of the brain... 01:31 Resting your mouth, in other words. 01:33 Yes, hopefully, you're resting your mouth. 01:35 Unless you talk through your ears. 01:36 WHAT? Cause you said you were 01:37 resting your ears if you're not talking... 01:39 WOW! That's interesting. Only I didn't know 01:42 how you did that. No, I made a mistake, Charles 01:45 I made a mistake on that one! 01:47 But anyway... You need more rest! 01:48 Yeah, I do, probably. Yeah 01:50 But the point I'm trying to make is, 01:52 you can rest lots of things and still be awake. 01:56 Now, of course, when you go all the way out, 01:58 the front part of your brain, the prefrontal cortex, 02:01 rests as well, but you can rest that a lot by not using it. 02:06 For instance, you're not doing heavy work at night, 02:10 heavy cognitive things at night, 02:12 so you might take it from a 10 to a 5 or a 4 or a 3 or a 2 02:17 You're not putting it ALL the way to sleep, 02:18 but you're resting it as much as you can. 02:20 And that's a relaxation TECHNIQUE as well. YES! 02:23 You can sort of relax that and 02:25 so you can do a little bit different, 02:27 and then, of course, when you go all the way out, 02:29 of course you even rest that part, the thinking part 02:32 from doing things, but you know what? 02:34 There are still parts that are having to do SOMETHING. 02:38 The brainstem still has to work to keep your breathing, 02:41 to keep your heart beating, to keep the basics going, 02:44 but everything turns down to as low as it can possibly go. 02:48 Now, if you're unconscious asleep, 02:50 then that's probably more optimal than if you aren't 02:53 doing these other things, but still doing those 02:55 other things, there's still a long way 02:57 of going to help yourself out. 02:59 So anyway, the big point is that you can rest and sleep 03:04 and still get chemical benefits. 03:06 It both treats disease as well as prevent disease, 03:09 and of course, we want people to sleep what they need. 03:13 And of course, if there are things preventing the sleep, 03:16 we want to identify what those are and take those away 03:20 so they can rest more because that is 03:22 truly treatment for the body. 03:23 Now when you're not resting, guess what? 03:26 It creates stress on the body because of the chemicals, 03:30 the circadian rhythms get off, 03:31 your adrenalin goes crazy, it turns on this bad cascade, 03:35 so lack of sleep hurts the body, 03:38 and anyone that is sleep-deprived will know that 03:40 their brain just doesn't sleep as good. 03:42 You saw when I just messed up 03:43 saying that your ears are talking... 03:45 You know, I haven't seen an ear talk in a couple of weeks now. 03:48 It's been a couple of months for me... You too, okay 03:50 QUESTIONS! We better get to questions! 03:51 We got questions... I guess the take-home message 03:54 here and I want to make sure that our listeners and watchers 03:56 are knowing this - that rest is important and it may 04:00 include sleep, but if you wake up at 2 o'clock in the morning 04:03 and... "Man, I can't sleep," you can still rest! 04:06 You can still sit there and 95% of your body is 04:09 totally relaxed and if you're thinking nice thoughts, 04:11 you're thinking pleasant thoughts 04:12 and thinking kind and loving thoughts, 04:15 then your brain is resting too. 04:17 If you happen to drift into sleep, that's good too, 04:19 but don't think you failed your body 04:22 because you don't have that 8 hours of sleep at night. 04:25 And it's not the end of the world if you sleep 3 hours 04:27 and say, "Man, I'm ready to go do something for a while, 04:29 and then lay back down a little later" 04:31 ...Because I'm assuming the body will just let you know 04:33 in no uncertain terms when it's 04:34 ready to sleep and you WILL SLEEP! 04:36 Your body will sleep-you. 04:37 It's in good cycles if you're having good sleep... 04:40 Questions! heartwiseministries. org 04:43 You talk about this a lot... 04:45 "How can sleep apnea ever be cured?" 04:48 "Can it be cured" 04:49 Well, sleep apnea can if it's obstructive sleep apnea. 04:53 There are 2 types; one that generates from the brain 04:56 - that's called central sleep apnea, 04:58 and one that's because too much tissues 04:59 around the airway or the airway falls back. 05:02 About 20 million people have sleep apnea. 05:05 That's a condition where you quit breathing at night. 05:08 When you quit breathing at night, the oxygen level goes 05:11 lower and lower and lower, and sooner or later 05:14 an alarm goes off... UH, UH, UHAA 05:17 and you grab a deep breath and you get the breath - 05:19 and then you go back to sleep again. 05:20 You might not even know this is happening, 05:22 but what's happening is - the alarm goes off, 05:25 the adrenalin, the stress goes off, 05:26 the blood pressure and all these bad things happen, 05:29 and that goes on 8 hours a day. Wow 05:31 So that goes on year-in, year-out. 05:33 That's a tremendous stressor. 05:35 Now one of the large causes, excuse the pun, 05:39 of sleep apnea is people carrying too much weight. 05:42 So some people, if they get enough weight removed 05:44 from their neck by losing weight; 05:46 some people, of course, have the mask that blows in air. 05:49 There are now people that are changing the shape of their jaw 05:52 with a dental appliance, some people having the 05:56 back of their throat cut out so the air moves in and out. 05:59 MY... Yeah, so these are all ways to deal with sleep apnea. 06:03 Because sleep apnea is a big problem. 06:05 Even though you're asleep, you're not really getting rest. 06:08 Think about it - your mind might be asleep, 06:11 you might not be digesting, but your body has to really 06:14 fight to breathe.. that's a stress. 06:16 You're not really resting when that's occurring. 06:18 I guess getting your throat reamed out 06:21 is probably better than dying, 06:22 but is there an alternative? 06:23 If you have sleep apnea, you mentioned losing the weight 06:26 and whatnot, for most people would that be sufficient? 06:30 Well you know, a lot of people even though I take care... 06:33 I live in the real world... a lot of people, 06:36 they can't even do that because it's so 06:37 uncomfortable to wear the mask... 06:39 We encouragement them to lose weight. 06:41 Some people do a little bit better if they lay on their side 06:44 and not on their back because that's when the tongue 06:46 seems to come back in the back. 06:47 People do better if they don't eat big at night - our digestion 06:51 So those are little tips that might help 06:54 if you have sleep apnea and don't want to wear the mask, 06:57 it might make it a little easier for you. 06:58 Okay, another question from heartwiseministries. org 07:01 This person must have done a little bit of research... 07:03 "Is it true that eating processed foods, 07:06 keeps the body from resting?" 07:08 What is it in processed foods that keeps you awake? 07:10 Yes, there is a truth to that. Really? 07:14 Digestion starts in your mouth. 07:16 When you eat a processed food, 07:19 it has to start digestion immediately, 07:21 and digesting processed foods and dealing with it 07:25 is a lot harder than dealing with natural foods. 07:28 You have a bunch of chemicals 07:29 your body is not used to having, 07:31 doesn't know what to do with it. 07:32 Some that they don't even know that are actually damaging 07:34 and stressing us out. 07:36 Sometimes when you're even cooking your food, 07:39 can stimulate your immune system some. 07:41 So the immune system is stimulated and says, 07:43 "Listen, I've cooked and processed foods, 07:45 I have to have an immune response to this situation, 07:47 this is not a normal situation" 07:50 So some people say that even people that eat lots of 07:53 cooked meals, stimulate your immune response to that meal. 07:57 So the answer is "yes" processed foods do 08:00 take a little more energy than it would to do unprocessed foods 08:05 or natural foods. 08:06 You know what, I will mention it, 08:09 if a person really wants to rest their GI tract, 08:12 try some smoothies... 08:14 You know they're already broken up, don't have to break them up, 08:17 you don't have to chew them. 08:19 It goes right through the digestive tract. 08:21 Usually there's not much protein and fat which 08:23 it takes a lot of energy to digest... 08:25 And it's like instant energy - now you might miss a little 08:28 of the fiber, but those are some great things 08:30 for instant energy. 08:31 We're talking about a fruit smoothie here, right? 08:33 Yeah, fruit smoothie, but you know, 08:34 some people put other things in it too... Yeah, they do 08:36 You know, if I were you, I would take some cactus 08:39 and put the cactus juice in them... that's what I'd do, 08:42 ...a cactus juice smoothie! 08:43 The man is learning about the water in cactus.. another show! 08:46 We'll continue here... 08:48 Medications! You have written a book about medications called, 08:52 "Medicines That Kill" 08:53 Can it also kill your sleep? 08:56 Well certain medicines can. 08:58 Certain medicines can keep you up at night, 09:00 and keep you doing things you don't want to do. 09:03 Certain medicines that wear off in the middle of the night, 09:06 like a pain medicine if you are having chronic pain. 09:08 Then the pain could come on, 09:09 that could disrupt the sleep cycle. 09:14 But if you depend on when you take it, 09:15 sometimes your blood sugar might be going too low or too high, 09:18 that could trigger some alarm in your body to wake up. 09:23 A lot of the psychiatric drugs 09:24 can disrupt sleep patterns as well. 09:27 If you take a fluid pill at night, 09:29 and you have to go to the bathroom, 09:31 that could disrupt a sleeping pattern, 09:34 so there are lots of different medicines, 09:36 and you need to talk to your doctor about which ones 09:38 that are interfering with sleep, 09:40 but there are many medicines and other things 09:42 that just mess up our sleep. 09:44 What is, in your estimation, a good night's sleep? 09:52 Just narrow this down to us now. 09:54 At the end of a good night's sleep, 09:56 how should we be different and how should our bodies 09:58 be different - what should have happened to us during that time? 10:02 What happens in the night is you want to rest 10:04 as many parts as you can and you want to feel, 10:08 when you wake up in the morning, 10:09 to have energy, vibrancy, you feel like facing the day 10:14 and going-going! 10:15 Now if you feel like that, some people can accomplish 10:18 that with 3 or 4 hours of sleep. 10:19 Some people do it with rest, but when you feel that way, 10:22 you feel like - I'm ready to go and tackle the world; 10:25 I have plenty of energy to last me the whole day. 10:28 Whatever you're doing is working. 10:31 And the general principles we've talked about, 10:33 you know, we want people to rest or sleep more, 10:36 have at least 3 hours at a time, 10:38 try not to eat big at night, 10:40 try not to do stimulants which keeps the body working, 10:43 try not to put chemicals that keep the body working. 10:46 Try to rest, you know, try not to put a lot of 10:48 mental things in that keep you working. 10:50 Try to rest that body at night as much as you humanly can, 10:54 and then you'll wake up feeling as good as you possibly can. 10:57 A lot of what happens to us at night is based on what 10:59 we've done during the day. 11:00 And I really want to stress, I think part of the nightly rest 11:03 is that weekly rest too, because you need a break 11:06 where you break your routine, however that might look, 11:09 I think that's an important thing that we need to do as well 11:14 All right, well you know, I love that text in the Bible, 11:17 "Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy-laden, 11:21 I will give you rest" 11:23 God understands the importance of rest, mental, physical 11:26 and spiritual rest and He wants to be the Source of that rest 11:30 for us when we come unto Him... 11:32 And that's exactly what we're going to do after our break, 11:35 so stay right where you are. 11:49 Each week, I try to bring you something of value 11:52 that you can apply to your life, make it very practical, 11:55 as well as something that you can share with your friends 11:58 and neighbors to help their relationships. 12:01 Two things today, I want to remind you once again... 12:05 #1- Rest and sleep is a treatment for disease, 12:10 whether that be heart disease, or depression or whatever. 12:14 Rest is a treatment but also rest and sleep 12:17 is a way to prevent disease. 12:19 If you're not getting enough rest and sleep - guess what? 12:22 The stress cascade that we've talked about becomes turned on, 12:27 and unfortunately, in our well-marketed world, 12:30 we're not getting enough sleep anymore. 12:32 I'm going to pray right now that you might have 12:35 better rest today, let's bow our heads... 12:38 Heavenly Father... There are many of us 12:40 out there that need to rest better, that need to sleep 12:43 better because we want to feel better and have more 12:46 energy to serve you better. 12:48 We also want to share this with our friends and neighbors. 12:51 Thank You for helping in learning this, 12:53 and please help us to take this and apply it 12:55 to Your kingdom, is our prayer... Amen 12:58 You know, it's not enough to have knowledge. 13:03 Lots of people can know things but unless you take 13:06 the knowledge and do something with it, that's the challenge! 13:10 So I want you to take this knowledge that we've 13:12 learned today and DO something with it. 13:15 Try to figure out ways you can sleep better. 13:18 Teach your friends how to rest better. 13:20 And you know what, friend, when you're doing this, 13:23 you are also a healer for the entire world. 13:26 Also, we want to encourage you, go to our website that's 13:30 heartwiseministries. org 13:32 Leave your questions, read our blogs, 13:34 and I want to thank you for your prayers as we 13:37 help others understand what the Ultimate Prescription really is. |
Revised 2014-12-17