Year after year we see
technology advancing in
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everything from the vehicles
that take us to work to the
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toothbrushes that we use before
bed. Although technology can
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sometimes have a negative impact
on our lives, it certainly can
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be used for our benefit as well.
Today we'll discover some of the
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latest advancements in medical
tech right here on the Ultimate
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Prescription.
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¤ ¤
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Welcome to the Ultimate
Prescription. I'm your host
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Nick Evenson here with Dr. James
Marcum. Now on today's program
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we're going to talk about a lot
of things, yeah, part of which
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is developments in
technology in medicine.
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Yeah, medicine has changed a
lot and one of the advantages of
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getting older and doing this for
many years, you can realize the
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only thing that's constant is
change. And in my years, we've
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changed the way we approach
medicines, the way technology
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changes and I was thinking
about even the way we do health
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programs. You know Nick I've
been since 2004 is when I first
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started filming for 3ABN and we
started with a program I helped
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with called Wonderfully Made.
And we talked about that. Then
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we did one called Bible Rx.
That's sort of what we still do
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today. Prescriptions that change
our physical health. Yeah. And
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then one of the ones we tried
for a while was Heart of Health
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Live. You helped with that one.
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Right, a live call-in, a call-in
with health questions and
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general advice.
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Yes, and that was very exciting
because at that time internet
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technology wasn't it should be
and we'd get people calling in
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from all over with guests and
we'd broadcast that for a while.
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I remember we had some other
calls from other continents and
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other countries.
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Yeah, other countries would call
in and sometimes the connections
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were good and sometimes
they weren't so good and then I
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remember then we started the
Ultimate Prescription you know
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and of course that focus
was on you know the Ultimate
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Prescription. You know, there's
a place for modern medicine,
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there's a place for lifestyle
so the ultimate prescription is
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that relationship we have with
Christ, because that is what's
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going to heal us in the end
because we all have bad parts.
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And then I got very interested
in genetics, you know, what
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causes disease. Why do some
people have these things, why
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not? So that's really in
my practice at the Chattanooga
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Heart Institute I started really
working on disease reversal.
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And if you think about health
30 years ago we were talking
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about much different things
than we are now. The trends have
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changed. Think about
all the trends out there.
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That all this electronics now
that govern a lot of what we do
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in our lives these days.
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So I've learned through the
years and even in making these
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programs, you know, the
things we've talked about in
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medications and treatments have
changed. At one time we focused
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on one thing more than the other
Just think about weight loss,
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how that's changed, the
recommendations. I remember when
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I started we used to give pills
for weight loss and then it was
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work on exercise and nutrition.
Now there's these specialized
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diets like the keto diet
you know. All these fads are out
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there that sort of come and go.
So when I hear of a new fad or
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a new something I say first
of all we have to test it with
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scripture. Does it make sense
scripturally? And then when I
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talk to people about it, there's
a lot of gray in life. Everyone
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thinks there's black and
white but the more I study our
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genetics the more I realize
there's a lot of gray. Now what
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works best for you, you know,
which lifestyle change or what
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thing might work best for
you might not work best for Joe
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because Joe has different
genetics, different background
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different neuropathways in the
brain. And our bodies and the
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treatment for our bodies is much
more complicated that I can ever
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imagine. Even in scripture,
you know, the more you study
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scripture the more you realize
the wisdom in it and how that
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God has biblical principles in
there that govern every aspect
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of our lives and there's
truth here. So I think it's very
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fascinating to see some of
the technological advances.
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So Nick you've probably never
been sick before have you really
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Not really sick.
Just a little bit sick.
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Have you ever needed modern
technology to get you feeling
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better?
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Ah, yeah, I've used antibiotics
at times when that was necessary
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and I've had staples and
stitches. Fortunately for me,
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that's about the extent of it.
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Well, I've used some through my
years too, and what I've learned
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through all these years is
that there's a place for modern
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medicine and it's great for
emergencies and it's sometimes
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great to replace parts that wear
out or get old, but it doesn't
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really fix our genetics,
okay? And there's a place for
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lifestyle, okay? And lifestyle
is much more than eating good,
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exercising. It's more
complicated than that.
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And as we move on we're going
to talk about the complexities
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of the bowel. A
trillion bacteria in the bowel.
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Go figure. But they're doing all
sorts of things from regulating
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inflammation in our
brain chemistry. We're just now
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understanding that. And all of
the stress in our brains. What's
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that doing to all the neuro
pathways in the different parts
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of the brain. It's much more
complicated than just black and
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white. Lots of
gray for individuals.
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Right. Now I want to interrupt
here. You just kind of ran
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through some of the programs
that you've been involved with
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through the years. But we need
to remind people you're not just
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a TV doctor. You're a practicing
physician. How many years have
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you practiced medicine?
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Since 1991. So I've been doing
this for quite a while. You know
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we spend a lot of time in school
I spent four years of medical
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school at the university. Well
before that I did undergraduate
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at the University of Texas
in Austin, four years in medical
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school at the University of
Texas and then at that time I
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really didn't know what I wanted
to do. I thought I wanted to be
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an orthopedic doctor, so I did
some time with that. And I was
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hammering on a bone one day
and someone said hit it a little
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harder Jim. And I was hitting
it harder and I said No I don't
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really want to do this. So I
got married at that time and I
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wanted to do family practice but
my wife said well why don't you
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do internal medicine. So I
studied internal medicine for
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three years and got board
certified at that at the Medical
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Center of Delaware in Wilmington
and within internal medicine I
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fell in love with cardiology.
So I did more training; three
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more years at the University
of Kentucky and sort of learn my
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skill and at that time we
weren't nearly as specialized
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as we are now. Those were sort
of a jack-of-all-trades, you do
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a little bit of everything. But
as the years have progressed we
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have in my group cardiologists
that just work on one valve.
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We have cardiologists that
just help the rhythms of the
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heart. We talked about ablations
We have cardiologists that just
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specialize on the arteries
that feed the heart. We have
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cardiologists that just
specialize on the strength of
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of the heart. Well my specialty,
once you sort of outsource
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yourself you just sort of
reinvent yourself so not only
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do I sort of manage all these
guys, get people in the right
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direction but I really
specialize on disease reversal
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and the genetics of medicine.
Some of the medical problems
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that we have can be reversed
through lifestyle, through
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changes that we can do. So I
really help with that and then
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getting people to the
right people that can help them.
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But more than that I like to
try to really focus on people on
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worship and what God can do
eternally because all of us wear
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out some day. No
one lasts forever.
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And the great thing is that
truth will not change regardless
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of what technology we discover
in event that truth is going to
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always be true.
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Right, something you can depend
on that's not a fad that we can
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you know, a true north so to
speak throughout time. It's so
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hard nowadays with everything
out there for people to be very
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confused.
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Yeah. So you've practiced for
a long time, you've seen a lot
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of changes and developments in
the way that we treat, and the
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technology that's available.
Let's go ahead and talk about
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a few of the technology
advancements that we see today
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that we'd like to share about.
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Yeah, and these are going to be
high tech. We're just going to
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give our listeners an
overview just to realize all the
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technology that's out there
for acute care medicine and also
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for parts that wear out.
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So there's a really neat video
that I'd like to share with our
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viewers here about a new device.
I don't know how long it's been
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around, but it's called the
impella device and Dr. Marcum
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just talk us
through what's going on.
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Well an impella device is a
device that's actually inserted
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through the arteries into the
heart and it's sort of a micro
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pump and it actually pumps
blood from the heart and it has
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a little pump there that you see
that pumps blood out into the
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arteries and it feeds the whole
body the nourishment that it
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needs including the coronary
arteries and basically it takes
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the place of a heart for a short
period of time. Now the types
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of patients that we would use
this in, okay, let's say that
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someone we're working on the
arteries of the heart, okay. The
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arteries are clogged up. We've
talked about that before. It
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gets clogged up with fat, okay
through a variety of reasons.
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And we need to work on it with
a stent. So while we're working
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on that part of the heart,
you know, it doesn't pump well.
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You put a stent up in the artery
and the heart doesn't get enough
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blood it doesn't function
normally and we don't want that.
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So while we're working on these
high risk locations in the heart
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like the arteries, or the heart
is very weak and working on
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this would compromise it even
more we can insert this micro
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pump into the heart which pumps
blood for the heart while we're
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working on it. Yeah. Is that
pretty interesting? Very neat.
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Now someone says what if we're
working on it and something goes
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wrong? Well sometimes
that happens and hopefully it's
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rarely, but the patients that
we use these pumps on are the
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sickest of the sick. The people
that are having heart attacks
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that aren't generating pressure
for us. If we don't have
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pressure going to the organs the
organs malfunction. Now we've
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talked about the cardiovascular
system and if we don't have
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perfusion to the organs, the
organs malfunction, kidneys quit
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working. A brain starts working
so we need blood flow with
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oxygen and the nutrients, we
need waste removal. And even if
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we don't have that for short
periods of time organs in the
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body malfunction. So let's say
a person's having a big heart
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attack and they come to
the emergency room with a blood
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pressure of 60. Now normal
is 100, 120. So the organs are
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not getting enough blood. Right.
So we go in there and we figure
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well the cause is they're having
a heart attack. The artery's
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occluded. So we take them to the
cath lab which is where we do
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these procedures. We look
and we say Oh no, an artery's
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completely occluded but
we're not getting enough blood
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pressure. We give some medicines
and we still can't get the blood
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pressure up. Well we might put
this device in the heart, the
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impella device, to all of a
sudden perfuse the organs until
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we have time to maybe open
up the artery to get the heart
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beating more efficiently. Right.
Now does this take away the
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cause of disease? No it does not
It's great for an emergency. So
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the impella device is for an
emergency. So the next question
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someone will ask is what if the
heart's still weak after that?
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What else can we do. Well
we can't leave that device in
00:11:48.44\00:11:53.34
forever, but sometimes we also
have machines that we can hook
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the body up to where they don't
need the heart and that's called
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an ECMO machine, a big fancy
name for basically we run all of
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blood through a machine that
puts oxygen in the blood, helps
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it do good and run it back while
we let the heart rest. And the
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ECMO machine is really good for
conditions in the heart where if
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we think it can rest from
inflammation, or a weak heart
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due to an infection, well we can
let that body part rest. Every
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thing needs rest. Without rest
sometimes things can heal on
00:12:23.27\00:12:27.94
its own. So an ECMO machine.
We also have a device that pumps
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for the heart called the left
ventricular assist device, okay,
00:12:31.45\00:12:35.28
where we put that in. But that's
usually a bridge to either the
00:12:35.32\00:12:37.92
heart getting better on its own
from an infection or till we can
00:12:37.95\00:12:41.46
place a transplant. We can
actually put a new heart into
00:12:41.49\00:12:45.53
someone. But we have to have
a new heart and donor hearts are
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few and far between.
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So the ECMO is an external
device that gets hooked up to
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all the arteries and veins.
Is the left ventricular assist
00:12:52.53\00:12:55.27
device also an external?
00:12:55.30\00:12:56.64
Well we put it in the heart and
as a pump that it pumps blood
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so it does the heart's work.
These are not permanent devices.
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These are either just bridge for
either the heart to heal or to
00:13:05.75\00:13:09.82
get a transplant, for us to put
a stent in it. So as you can see
00:13:09.85\00:13:13.86
modern medicine has changed
dramatically in what we can do
00:13:13.89\00:13:17.06
in emergencies. But you know
we want to keep emergencies from
00:13:17.09\00:13:19.93
happening as well and that's
going back to some of the things
00:13:19.96\00:13:23.10
we talked about.
00:13:23.13\00:13:24.47
Technology seems like it's best
used just as a bridge until we
00:13:24.50\00:13:27.34
can reverse or solve the problem
some other way. Yeah. Well
00:13:27.37\00:13:32.84
there's lots more to talk
about advancements in medical
00:13:32.87\00:13:36.18
technology on the Ultimate
Prescription. We'll be back in
00:13:36.21\00:13:37.55
just a moment with
more on technology.
00:13:37.58\00:13:38.91