Participants: James Marcum & Charles Mills
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP00048B
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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 We're talking about smoking today, 00:06 and Dr. Marcum has made a point 00:08 that the "Affordable Care Act" basically discriminates 00:12 against smokers and you're saying that... 00:14 #1- that's not a very good idea 00:16 Why not discriminate against other things 00:17 that can cause us to have health problems. 00:20 But also, it's a window of opportunity for those of us 00:23 who love health and like to promote health 00:25 to do something for our friends and neighbors and family members 00:29 who may be smoking. 00:30 The first question we got here, Dr. Marcum, from the 00:33 heartwiseministries. org 00:34 website on this topic is about electronic cigarettes... 00:38 GOOD IDEA - BAD IDEA? How do we use them? 00:41 Well you know my saying here is we try to love people 00:45 and not judge them. 00:47 I've learned in taking care of people that smoke, 00:50 and I take care of lots of people that smoke 00:52 because they end up in cardiology offices 00:53 because they have heart attacks. 00:55 Many different ways to work with people... 01:00 The 2 things that I think they MUST have 01:03 is they must have support from doctors, from friends, 01:07 from churches, from someone that must support them 01:10 to give them the encouragement, YES, you can do this! 01:13 This is a journey, we're going to travel this together! 01:16 And #2, they also, in addition to support, 01:20 it's very important that they have at least 01:22 some desire on their own. 01:24 Now that's IT, doesn't smoking destroy the desire? 01:27 I mean, aren't we talking about something that 01:29 actually keeps you from fixing yourself from it 01:32 because it's a habit? 01:34 Now remember, smoking turns on some of the stress pathways, 01:39 makes our brain go fast, so the thinking part of the brain 01:42 is not very good and it's very addictive. 01:45 So you get these pleasure pathways, 01:48 these nicotine paths, they're strong cords, 01:51 they're very hard to break. 01:53 Some people say that there's nothing harder in life 01:56 than breaking the nicotine habit. 01:59 It's the most potent addictive substance we have known for man. 02:03 It must be true because that's 02:04 why so many people are still smoking. 02:07 It's very addictive and a lot of people, when they start, 02:09 they have no idea how bad that it is; 02:11 they have no idea how hard it is to stop. 02:14 So getting back to our question... 02:16 These things are important. 02:17 You gotta have support and I think you have to want it 02:19 at some level yourself. 02:21 Either want it to help your family, 02:24 want it to help yourself, to serve God better; 02:27 something in it that you have to want - those 2 components. 02:30 Now, there are many ways to quit smoking 02:33 that will help aid in that. 02:35 One is E-Cigarettes. 02:37 E- Cigarettes are electronic cigarettes. 02:41 They are a little bit heavier. 02:43 I've never used them, but other people have. 02:46 They also release nicotine, but supposedly the plan is to 02:50 release less and less to slowly take away the addiction, 02:55 okay, slowly over time. 02:56 The same way it works with the patches. 02:59 Some people have a stronger patch, a lesser patch, 03:01 and a lesser patch. 03:03 What does NOT work is if you take E-Cigarettes 03:06 AND you smoke or if you take the patch AND you smoke, 03:10 then you get double the whammy and becomes to get more harder. 03:14 Now some people are using prescription medications, 03:18 and for some people that works as well. 03:20 But remember, there's always a risk versus the medicine 03:23 versus the benefits. 03:25 So it usually takes a lot of different approaches. 03:28 Some people work in classes with these 5-Day Plans, 03:32 the 3-Day Plans. 03:33 Sometimes a doctor can work with the patient. 03:35 Sometimes I can tell a patient and I say, 03:37 "Listen, you really need to quit smoking, here's all the reasons" 03:41 I'll try to educate them. 03:43 Then the next thing I'll say is, 03:44 "Do you think you need some help, 03:46 or do you want to do it on your own?" 03:48 And if he says, "Well, let me try it on my own" 03:50 I'll say, "Well let's cut back" 03:53 Some people can do cold turkey but I find that the minority. 03:57 I have them take less and less. 03:59 "Now maybe you can do 5 this week and then 4 this week, 04:01 then 3, then 2, then 1," and then I ask them, 04:05 "You have to replace the hand habit" 04:07 Replace it with something else, maybe chewing gum 04:10 or pixie sticks or chewing a straw, 04:13 or a toothpick or something else. 04:15 You have to have people that will help you and remind you, 04:18 and then I tell them it's very important that you replace 04:21 a good habit with a bad habit. 04:23 So every time you get that terrible desire to smoke, 04:26 we'll do something - go to the Scripture, read a Scripture. 04:30 In other words, though cigarette-smoking has taken 04:31 that bad habit has replaced good habits. 04:33 Now you're saying, let's reverse that, 04:34 let's go from bad to good. 04:36 Yes, let's find something... when you want to have 04:37 that bad habit, replace it with something good! 04:40 Go for a walk, sing a song, read a passage of Scripture, 04:45 call your friend, break the pathway. 04:48 Now, statistics show that most people, Charles, 04:51 don't quit the first time, it's a journey. 04:55 So I tell people, just because you quit smoking, 04:57 you know, you start smoking again, don't beat yourself up. 05:01 Figure out what in your plan didn't work. 05:04 Was it - you didn't have enough support? 05:06 Did you not really want to do it yourself? 05:09 Did you not wean yourself down? 05:11 Did you not have a substitution? 05:13 A lot of people just do it because... 05:15 I asked them, "Well why did you start smoking again?" 05:17 "I got bored. " Well, have a plan for that! 05:20 "I got nervous" Well, have a plan for that! 05:23 Or, "I was around some friends that smoked" 05:27 So each scenario that comes around, have a plan. 05:30 It might take you 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 times to quit smoking. 05:34 This is a very addictive habit. 05:36 I can't say I fully understand it, Charles, 05:39 because I've never smoked before, 05:41 but I watch people that do it and it's just like it's a 05:44 BATTLE inside them. 05:46 And I just applaud people that are able to do that 05:49 because if they could do that, they could do anything. 05:51 But what an opportunity for us now, 05:54 for people that are interested in health, to help people 05:57 to come up with great plans, to help them to this... 06:00 We're going to see more and more people interested... 06:02 We're going to see the government reimbursing for it. 06:04 There's going to be a lot of that desire that we 06:07 haven't had before. 06:08 Now, we need to supply the support and give them 06:10 the mechanisms to be able to beat this habit. 06:13 But at the same time, we need to point them 06:16 to the real source - the real source of your power 06:19 to do things for the right reasons. 06:21 Who are you doing this for? 06:22 Are you doing it for yourself and for selfish reasons, 06:24 or are you doing it for a God that loves you 06:26 and wants you to feel better. 06:28 I like that - I like that! Doing it for God. 06:31 God has done so much for us, 06:32 now, we can do a little bit for Him. 06:33 What a good idea that is! Another question! 06:35 Okay, another question here from 06:36 heartwiseministries. org 06:38 OH MY! Maybe we can appeal to people's vanity. 06:42 "Is it true that cigarettes cause you to AGE faster?" 06:45 Now what does it mean - how do you age faster by smoking? 06:48 That is absolutely true. It is? 06:50 When you smoke cigarettes, it damages your skin. 06:53 Have you ever looked at a smoker, look at him, 06:56 you know, someone that might be in their 30s or 40s, 06:59 they look much OLDER because actually the nicotine, 07:02 it actually damages - the cigarette smoking, 07:05 the whole process, the chemicals damages the skin, 07:09 it increases the aging process. 07:11 Anything, Charles... here's another step, 07:14 anything that causes this chronic stress accelerates aging 07:18 You see what I'm saying? 07:20 So cigarettes really accelerates aging. 07:22 That's a major stressor on our body at many levels, 07:25 so it's going to super accelerate. 07:27 Some people can do that just 07:28 because they want to prevent aging. 07:30 All right, here's a question again from 07:33 heartwiseministries. org 07:35 "If you don't smoke, how about chewing it?" 07:39 "Chewing tobacco, is this a good thing?" 07:41 Well, you know, everyone asks that question, 07:45 "Is chewing a good thing?" 07:47 I would say, "No, it's not a good thing" 07:50 Why is that? 07:51 Well, you still, in your buccal mucosa, you absorb things 07:56 very fast into the bloodstream, 07:59 and actually, when you have tobacco - nicotine in there, 08:02 you absorb that stimulant in the bloodstream. 08:04 Also, in the absorption process, you also damage tissue 08:09 with carcinogens. 08:11 People that chew have a lot higher risk of having 08:15 head and neck cancer. 08:16 And this buccal mucosa is in the mouth... Yes where it's absorbed 08:19 Several baseball players through the years, 08:22 they used to chew and several of them have come up with 08:26 cancers because of this process. 08:29 So it's not good to chew either. 08:32 It's not good to smoke. 08:34 These are things that are both harmful to our health, 08:36 and we want to help both people to be able to stop these things. 08:40 Chronic pain is the next subject here. 08:42 "Can stopping smoking help with chronic pain?" 08:44 I guess the reverse of this is.. 08:46 "Does smoking create chronic pain somehow? 08:49 Well, I don't know if smoking creates pain. 08:52 It might cause internal pain, but smoking does contribute 08:56 to pain that you already have... OH, okay 08:59 Especially related to back pain. 09:02 What smoking does is not only does it take away your 09:05 oxygen - your oxygen from your tissues, 09:08 it takes away in healing powers that you have. 09:11 It also makes the disks unable to get a good blood supply. 09:15 When it doesn't get a good blood supply, that can cause pain. 09:19 So different things that are related to the cigarettes 09:22 that make pain a lot worse than it is... 09:25 Everyone claims, "Oh, the smoking, it helps relax me" 09:29 "It helps my nerves. " 09:30 And it seems to help with that, 09:32 but it definitely makes pain worse. 09:35 But there are other BETTER ways to help relaxing the nerves 09:38 other than smoking cigarettes. 09:40 All right, very good. 09:41 Well this final question we have here from our website... 09:45 "What are your thoughts on the Affordable Care Act, 09:48 the pros and cons. " 09:49 When this program airs, the Affordable Care Act 09:51 will be up and running and what are your thoughts on this? 09:56 Well, you know, I've given several interviews about that 10:00 the last couple of months and it's sort of like, 10:02 as this might come out in a few months, 10:04 I'm sort of like - well, I'm prophesizing. 10:07 When there are 11 million words of regulation, 10:11 and when the website, as we're talking now, is having a 10:14 hard time getting up and anything that doesn't 10:18 really answer the reason WHY, that treats symptoms, 10:24 that doesn't get at the cause, I think might be subject to 10:29 problems and remember, are we really solving the 10:33 healthcare dilemma? 10:34 We've talked about this on this program before. 10:37 All the symptoms, but the symptoms aren't the problems. 10:41 What's causing the symptoms is the problem. 10:43 Just because someone has access to healthcare, 10:47 doesn't mean they're getting better care, 10:50 just because they're having access, 10:52 doesn't mean they're getting better care. 10:55 If you're getting the wrong type of care, 10:57 the wrong type of direction in your healthcare, 10:59 that's making things worse, is it better? 11:01 In other words, we now have access to the #1 killer 11:03 in America - the drugs and the medical profession. 11:07 We now have a more affordable access to THAT... WOW! 11:11 So are we really solving our healthcare dilemma? 11:15 The real solution to the healthcare dilemma, I think, 11:18 is getting back to that relationship that we have 11:21 with the Ultimate Physician who can help us 11:24 see what we need to do along life's path 11:27 to make our chemical changes for the good; 11:29 to help us eat better; to help us pick out the 11:33 time for modern medicine; help us to find doctors 11:36 that work with us that makes sense with us to use 11:39 medicines and procedures when we need to; 11:42 to help us avoid these things. 11:45 All these things, I think is the real solution 11:47 to the healthcare dilemma. 11:48 When we do that, then we're going to see our healthcare 11:50 starting to come down because there's not a lot of other 11:53 financial things that are driving the system, 11:58 and we really have people that understand what's good 12:00 for EVERYBODY coming up with these ideas. 12:03 MY! I have my doubts, I have my doubts! 12:07 I like what you're saying there. 12:09 You're saying that if we want true affordable care, 12:12 let's take out a policy with Christ as our insurer 12:18 because He was on a cross and He paid the premiums. 12:20 And I think it's great for people to be insured, 12:23 great for people to be cared for... 12:25 I think everyone needs to have care, 12:29 but at the same time, is it solving all of our problems? 12:32 I don't think so. 12:33 Yeah, okay, well let's talk to the God who has paid 12:38 the premiums for our real, true Affordable Care Act 12:41 on our returns, so stay put... 12:56 Thank you for joining us today. 12:59 I might not have the answers, you might not have the answers. 13:04 Cigarettes are such a hard issue, 13:07 but a couple of things we do need to know is, 13:09 we need to help those that need to quit smoking. 13:12 If we're smoking out there, we need to find ways 13:15 we can do to quit. 13:17 And one thing that we all must do as part of our 13:20 prescription - as part of our treatment, 13:23 is we must pray.. pray for each other. 13:26 Have God be part of this prescription. 13:30 Have other people praying that will give us the answers. 13:33 And realize that we might not have all the answers, 13:36 but we have a connection, a relationship 13:38 with the One that has all the answers. 13:41 We've talked a lot about cigarettes today, 13:43 and I hope people will use this as a springboard 13:46 to help themselves quit smoking, help your neighbors quit smoking 13:50 Show this to one of your friends, 13:52 and for all those that are trying to quit smoking, 13:54 I want to say a prayer for you today. 13:57 Father God... There are many out there 13:59 that are trying to overcome different habits 14:02 including smoking and we know that You are the 14:05 Ultimate Physician with the Ultimate Power, 14:07 and You can give us the ways to help and this way might be 14:11 suddenly quitting, it might be through help 14:13 of a class, it might be through help of a friend, 14:15 we know that You can help us Father, 14:17 and we want to pray that You come into our lives today 14:20 to help us overcome the power 14:22 of smoking... is our humble prayer. Amen 14:25 If you might be interested in asking me a question, 14:29 go to our website... heartwiseministries. org 14:33 There are some interesting blogs and some other 14:35 material that you might want to look at 14:38 to help your health do better... 14:39 And we want to thank you so much, 14:41 and we want to thank you for allowing us to serve you 14:44 on the Ultimate Prescription. |
Revised 2014-12-17