Participants: David DeRose, Don Mackintosh
Series Code: HFAL
Program Code: HFAL000083
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00:49 Hello and welcome to "Health for a Lifetime"
00:51 I'm your host Don Mackintosh 00:52 and we're glad that you've joined us today. 00:54 We're going to talk about a very interesting subject today 00:57 ...that being social support. 00:59 And joining me is Dr. David DeRose 01:02 from the Lifestyle Center of America 01:03 He is a specialist in internal medicine, 01:05 and preventive medicine... 01:07 That means he wants to prevent you from getting 01:09 any disease, or stopping or reversing that disease, 01:13 and he's also a researcher. 01:14 Welcome Dr. DeRose! 01:15 It's great to be with you, Don. 01:17 Today, we're going to talk about social support. 01:20 This is kind of not a hard science... 01:23 So many times, we talk with physicians and they're 01:26 talking about objective facts... this or that and the other 01:30 But we call this a softer science; why do we call it that? 01:32 Well I mean, a lot of people use those terms 01:34 because they say, "Yeah, this isn't getting in the laboratory 01:38 and giving people a drug, or measuring something"... 01:40 But what we're doing, Don, in the research literature 01:44 ...we're looking at what happens to people 01:47 when they are connected with other people; 01:49 when they get social support, 01:51 when individuals are strengthening one another 01:54 and it's really contributing to hard scientific endpoints. 01:57 In other words, we're showing that social support can 02:00 raise HDL levels... the good cholesterol. 02:03 We're showing that social support can DECREASE 02:06 DEPRESSION! Wow! 02:07 ...and the risk of depression 02:08 And these things are measureable, 02:10 so, what we're doing is we look at this area that 02:13 seems kind of soft, and kind of fuzzy, 02:15 and kind of, you know, social science, 02:17 not hard science as some of the medical researchers like to say. 02:21 What many people are saying is social science 02:23 is hard science, and we can come up with hard end points 02:26 when we come to social support. 02:28 So you can have big problems if you don't have social support 02:31 Are there different dimensions 02:32 to this whole idea of social support? 02:34 I mean there's clearly many dimensions. 02:36 A lot of times, people want to look at social CONNECTEDNESS. 02:39 That means how many contacts you have. 02:42 If you look objectively at someone, 02:44 you can say, "Well, they're involved with maybe their 02:45 church, or their workplace, for age, right... 02:49 this number of friends. Yeah 02:51 That's a way of looking at social connectedness. 02:54 But the research is suggesting, Don, 02:56 that it's not just how many connections you have... 02:59 it's your perception of whether you are supported, 03:02 whether you have individuals around you that are 03:06 building you up. 03:08 So, like for instance, let's talk about someone who 03:10 makes a significant decision that seems to alienate 03:13 the rest of his family... 03:14 Can he have social support and make it 03:16 through that kind of a situation? 03:17 Well you can have social support from other avenues 03:19 besides your family. 03:21 I think one of the great illustrations of social support 03:23 is in the Scriptures themselves... 03:25 You know, when I think of Jesus 03:27 in his very closing hours of His ministry, 03:30 in the Gospel of John, the curtain is pulled back 03:34 on some of Jesus' final moments there as He is 03:37 approaching His crucifixion... 03:39 And in John 13, to me, there's a very telling incident 03:43 that happens here... 03:44 Jesus actually, instead of getting out there on the 03:48 streets of Jerusalem, and trying to heal as many 03:51 people as possible, in those closing hours, 03:53 He's alone there in the Upper Room with His disciples 03:56 and He's washing their feet. 03:58 And in John 13, it makes this very telling statement 04:02 after Jesus has done this, He says to them... 04:05 "Know ye that I have done to you" 04:09 In verse 13, He says, "Master and Lord, you call Me, 04:15 "And you say, well; for so I am" 04:17 "If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet, 04:21 you also ought to wash one another's feet. " 04:25 Jesus isn't there just setting up some ordinance. 04:28 I believe He's making a powerful statement 04:30 about social support in the church... 04:33 And Don, the research today suggests, 04:37 when you look at heart disease, 04:38 when you look at blood pressure problems, 04:40 when you look at thyroid problems... 04:41 look at a whole host of things, 04:43 social support makes an impact. 04:45 And Jesus, when He spent that time in the Upper Room, 04:48 instead of healing on the streets of Jerusalem, 04:50 in the long run, the message He has given to the church 04:53 is that we need this social support. 04:55 We need to PRESS TOGETHER and I really think, Don, 04:58 what Jesus did in John 13 has healed 05:01 more people in history through His building up of the concept 05:05 of social support in the church than He could have healed 05:08 if He was physically out there on the streets of Jerusalem 05:11 healing hundreds of people. 05:12 In other words, His last night, not going out with a bang 05:14 doing that, but setting in motion something that 05:17 could really be healing over a long amount of time. 05:19 That's right! Powerful ministry. 05:21 Now you work at the Lifestyle Center of America; 05:23 you do research there, you work with people a lot. 05:25 They come to your program, and then they leave, 05:28 and what do you say to them? 05:30 How do they go back with their new changes they've made 05:33 and have social support or connectedness? 05:36 Well, you know, as people go through our program, 05:38 it's a 19-day intensive program for many diseases... 05:42 People dealing with diabetes, or heart disease, 05:45 or high blood pressure... a host of other diseases 05:47 and I like to think of social support starting BEFORE 05:51 people even come to our program. 05:53 A classic example of someone I recently visited with 05:56 in his home environment, Ray Littleturtle, is a 06:00 Native American of the Lumbee tribe, in North Carolina 06:03 and Ray never would have come 06:05 to the Lifestyle Center of America 06:07 were it not for social support before he came... 06:10 I think we have some footage of Ray, don't we? 06:12 We do... Ray is going to give us some insights. 06:14 Let's see how it goes. 06:16 Well, my wife had been on me for a long time about diabetes. 06:21 Being a Native person, it's very prevalent among the Indians 06:24 for diabetes, and I knew I had diabetes several years 06:28 before coming here, and I just really 06:33 didn't address it. 06:34 I really accepted the fact that I had it and did nothing 06:38 for a cure or anything for it. 06:43 So, I came because I was asked. 06:47 We were in an Indian unity conference, 06:49 and a guy, Fred Rogers, from the Seventh-day Adventist Church 06:54 happen to come to the Indian gathering, 06:56 and I was speaking about diabetes. 06:58 And after he finished, he told me about Lifestyle Center 07:01 and I said, "Maybe this might be a chance 07:04 that I can do a little better. " 07:06 So I came really to EXPLORE the idea, and to appease my wife 07:14 because she saw the importance of having diabetes under control 07:19 What Ray is saying... is that he would never 07:23 have gotten the help he needed were it not for social contacts. 07:26 It was his wife encouraging him 07:28 to get serious about his diabetes. 07:30 It was Fred Rogers, a Seventh-day Adventist pastor 07:33 who works as a Native American himself... who told him 07:37 about what we were doing at the Lifestyle Center of America 07:39 And, it doesn't mean he had to come to our center... 07:42 I mean, Fred is referring people to other resources there 07:45 in the Southeastern United States 07:48 but the exciting thing is social support 07:51 reinvigorated Ray's health. 07:53 I just saw him recently, and he's a new man! 07:56 I was rubbing shoulders with him at a Native American 07:58 conference, and there were people coming up to him 08:01 and saying, "Yeah... Ray, you look great!" 08:03 "You're doing so much better. " 08:05 It's just exciting to see the IMPACT of what social contacts 08:09 can do in helping us address needed areas in our lives. 08:12 So when they get to, for instance, your center... 08:14 I know in our programs, when we do health programs 08:16 and whatnot, and I've been involved in quite a few as well, 08:19 we try to help them learn how to be socially involved 08:23 or have this connectedness... 08:24 Do you do that at the Lifestyle Center as well? 08:26 Don, actually... this is interesting. 08:28 Now you're talking about the church, 08:30 we're talking about the Lifestyle Center of America 08:32 in Oklahoma, and a lot of people, they say... 08:34 "Well, I don't live in Wichita, Kansas, or in Oklahoma, 08:37 how can I get the benefits of this... What's going on here?" 08:40 What you're doing on the level, 08:42 what other churches are doing when they have health programs, 08:45 what we're doing at the Lifestyle Center of America 08:47 is saying... "Look, the conventional medical system 08:51 doesn't address the social needs. 08:53 You go into the doctor's office, 08:55 you go to the hospital, but there's no social connectedness 08:59 that's built in. Right 09:00 And Christ, Himself, in instituting the church... 09:03 and saying in Hebrews that what we need to be doing 09:06 as we see the end of times approaching is 09:09 encouraging one another. 09:10 He's saying, "This is a vital part of our whole person health" 09:14 Don't forsake assembling together. That's right! 09:17 And so we can take in all kinds of good material 09:20 whether it's on 3ABN, whether it's in video programs, 09:24 whether it's reading... 09:26 But if we're not getting that social connectedness, 09:28 we're missing something. 09:29 So, you know, coming back to your question... 09:30 Well, what happens at the Lifestyle Center of America? 09:33 Well people when they come there, 09:34 they become socially connected... 09:37 because it's designed as a program where people are 09:40 going through an experience together! 09:42 So they stay in touch with each other? 09:43 They do... that's after the program... 09:45 But I want to focus on what happens during the program. 09:48 Pauline Barry and her husband, Jerry, came through our program 09:52 and they're going to join us by way of a video clip right now... 09:58 And Pauline shares with us exactly what happened to her 10:00 in this social support dimension... All right! 10:05 Each person here is treated as an individual... 10:08 the staff, the doctors get to know EVERYONE individually 10:13 And the nice thing is... all the people here, we get to 10:16 know each other, and we're such a help to each other. 10:21 But some of the people that came discouraged... 10:24 well, the other people just rally around them and help them, 10:28 and I think it's just really great. 10:31 It's really nice in that aspect. 10:39 That's great, I mean, it sounds like they're motively involved 10:43 with one another; they feel for on another. 10:45 Does that continue after the program? 10:46 It actually does... You know many guests tell us 10:49 I think of Ella, she's an 10:51 African-American woman from New York. 10:53 She came through our program, and she talked about 10:56 the marvelous social support that continued 10:59 with her whole group. 11:00 They were sending around a letter... 11:03 I guess you'd call it a "round-robin" or something 11:05 where each one would share what they were doing, 11:08 and they'd continue to support each other 11:10 and encourage each other. 11:11 And the interesting thing is... 11:13 This dimension of social support, 11:15 when you're touched, Don, when someone is touched by 11:18 a program that makes a difference in their life, 11:21 when they come for a 19-day program, 11:23 and they lose 10 or 15 pounds... 11:25 and the average patient that goes through our program 11:27 loses about 4-5% of their body weight... in 19 days 11:32 And so for someone who has been trying to lose weight, 11:35 they've hit a plateau... 11:36 I mean, they are excited! 11:37 They are energized by that. 11:38 But it doesn't just touch them; 11:41 part of what helped them to be successful 11:43 was the social support. 11:45 Let me give you just an example 11:47 that Ella shared with us some time ago. 11:49 She said... "One of the things that made a difference 11:51 in the program is when she was struggling in those 19 days, 11:55 trying to follow a lifestyle-based program 11:57 controlling her diet better, 11:59 learning how to eat better, 12:01 learning how to cook foods better... exercising. " 12:04 When she was struggling, 12:05 what do you think she said was the thing that helped her? 12:07 Social support, people doing it with her... That's exactly right 12:10 They would encourage her... They'd say "ELLA, you can do it" 12:13 And this dimension, we often forget... 12:15 But when you go to the doctor's office, when you see a physician 12:19 who is there encouraging you? 12:22 Maybe the nurses... Maybe not 12:24 Maybe not... They tell you to do something 12:26 Time and time again, Don... People come to our center 12:29 and they say, "The doctor said, lose weight, change your diet, 12:33 and then when they go back the next time, what happened? 12:36 They don't remember what they said... 12:38 or maybe they have to start all over again... 12:41 Or they didn't have the resources to do it! 12:43 Because they don't have a supportive environment... 12:46 And so this is why I get excited when I talk with 12:49 someone like you, or when I visited your church, 12:52 and see how you're working at a church level to enhance 12:56 this dimension of social support have this mutual encouragement 13:00 And so that social support in the disease process... 13:03 it's important at the beginning because it helps people 13:06 get attention like we saw Ray Littleturtle sharing. 13:08 It's important while you're addressing problems like... 13:11 Pauline Barry was sharing... 13:13 And then it's important when people go home 13:15 because it has derivative benefits. 13:17 Do we have a clip of Ella, of someone that 13:20 talks about what happens when they went home? 13:21 Actually, I've got another clip and this is from Gardenia. 13:25 Gardenia Montalvo... she came through our program a while back 13:29 She actually felt she was at death's door... 13:33 Now not everyone comes to us that bad off. 13:36 Her family really thought that their mother... 13:40 The kids, you know, thought their mother, Gardenia, 13:43 was really not long in this life. 13:46 In fact, after Gardenia went through, 13:49 I think it was the first program with us, 13:51 she has come back for a few more... 13:53 But the daughter sent a letter to all the staff saying 13:57 "Thank you for giving us back our mother" 14:00 And Gardenia shares, in this clip, 14:04 just what happened as a result of her coming to the 14:08 Lifestyle Center of America. 14:09 Well let's go to Gardenia... 14:14 My family is absolutely ecstatic because they love me very much 14:19 and they were sure I was going to... like, pretty soon 14:23 get into very bad shape, or pretty soon pass away... 14:27 So, they were very worried about me and they kept 14:30 begging me to do something about it, 14:32 and they are so happy... 14:34 And everyone has been touched by my experience here. 14:38 I brought my youngest daughter and she's strictly vegan. 14:41 She exercises daily. 14:43 And my oldest daughter has my recipe book, 14:47 and she has put her family on soy products... 14:50 And everyone that I've prayed for... that it would touch 14:56 their lives... like my sister-in-law, and my nephew 14:59 and godson, they came through the program 15:02 and their health has improved a thousand-fold. 15:05 So I've been very blessed that way, 15:07 because not only my health has improved, 15:09 I have touched some people, and their health has improved too. 15:15 That's just GREAT! I mean, you know, 15:17 coming back from death's door, 15:19 talking about how she has these relationships with her family... 15:22 "We have our mother back, we're cooking together" 15:24 And then she's reaching out to other people... 15:26 I mean, this must be... Is this gratifying? 15:29 Oh, it's exciting, Don... 15:30 That's why we're there, and that's why we've got a 15:32 team of people that are dedicated to helping people 15:36 in a concentrated way in a context of social support. 15:39 Where it's the staff, but not just the staff... 15:42 It's the other people going through the same experience 15:44 that makes such a difference. 15:46 And it doesn't have to happen in Sulphur, Oklahoma 15:50 at the Lifestyle Center of America 15:51 It can happen in your own church ... in your own community. 15:54 I mean, you know that with the CHIP program 15:55 you do there in Wichita. 15:57 You know, there are some pitfalls sometimes to staying 16:00 in touch with one another. 16:01 You know, things that just mitigate against social support 16:03 We're going to go to a break right now, doctor, 16:06 but when we come back, we're going to continue talking 16:08 about social support... 16:10 How can you make sure you're getting adequate... 16:12 How can you make sure that you're involved in the way 16:14 you should be... Join us when we come back. 16:18 Have you found yourself wishing 16:21 that you could shed a few pounds? 16:22 Have you been on a diet for most of your life... 16:25 But not found anything that will really keep the weight off? 16:28 If you've answered "yes" to any of these questions, 16:30 then we have a solution for you that works. 16:34 Dr. Hans Diehl and Dr. Aileen Ludington 16:36 have written a marvelous booklet called... 16:38 "Reversing Obesity Naturally" 16:41 and we'd like to send it to you FREE of charge. 16:44 Here's a medically sound approach 16:45 successfully used by thousands 16:47 who are able to eat more, and lose weight permanently 16:50 without feeling guilty or hungry 16:52 through lifestyle medicine. 16:54 Dr. Diehl and Dr. Ludington have been 16:56 featured on 3ABN, and in this booklet, 16:59 they present a sensible approach to eating, 17:01 nutrition and lifestyle changes that can 17:03 help you prevent heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer. 17:07 Call or write today for your free copy of 17:09 "Reversing Obesity Naturally" 17:11 and you could be on your way to a healthier, happier you! 17:14 It's absolutely free of charge. 17:16 So call or write today. 17:20 Welcome back... We're talking with Dr. David DeRose 17:22 We're talking about social support. 17:24 Doctor, can we get too much social support? 17:26 Can we get TOO MUCH? 17:28 Well, we can GIVE too much social support. 17:31 One classic study is of caregivers of Alzheimer patients 17:36 When these individuals are the exclusive caregivers 17:39 where they're not getting the relief that they need, 17:42 they are giving too much, really. 17:44 They are not getting time for the social support they need. 17:47 Now when I say, "social support" from a spiritual perspective 17:51 ...from a Christian perspective 17:52 I believe there's a merging of 2 lines of 17:55 research literature that we have to talk about today. 17:58 What do you mean... is it like church, and there's like 18:01 what do you mean, merging of the spiritual matter. 18:03 You know, a lot of times, in the research literature, 18:05 we look at social support as being one thing, 18:08 and then we look at something else that we call 18:10 religious well-being, or religiosity... 18:13 we use terms like this. 18:14 But I see the spiritual and the social 18:17 as being very similar... Let me illustrate this. 18:20 In the religious domain, when we administer 18:24 questionnaires to people trying to assess 18:27 the strength of their religious commitments. 18:29 We often ask questions like... 18:31 "Do you believe in a personal God?" 18:33 "Do you feel you have a personal relationship with God?" 18:37 If you think about that for a minute... 18:39 We're talking about social support... if you will 18:43 on a divine level. 18:44 And some people will say, "Well, that's not social, 18:46 that's God's support. " 18:47 But really it is, I believe, another dimension 18:50 to the same area. 18:51 And what did Jesus do? 18:53 Yes, Jesus had social support. 18:55 He had intimate friends in the disciples, or Mary and Martha 18:59 and Lazarus... But what else did he do? 19:01 Early in the morning, He was out there seeking His Father... 19:05 Getting that revitalization from communion with nature, 19:10 and communion with God. 19:11 And so we need this balance in our lives... 19:13 We need to be receiving, as well as giving. 19:16 If we're all giving, like those exclusive caregivers 19:20 for Alzheimer patients, measureable decreases 19:23 in their immune system. 19:24 We can only GIVE so much. 19:27 So we have to be recharging our batteries... 19:29 You know, in working in healthcare myself, 19:32 I recognize that there were those that seemed to be 19:34 pretty cynical... you know, they'd be jaded! 19:37 They work with people all day, and they just didn't 19:39 have anything to give. 19:40 But the ones that did have the spiritual underpinnings, 19:44 like you're talking about, seem to be excited, more buoyant, 19:46 and they could GIVE even more! 19:49 And it's interesting, if you look at the literature 19:52 talking about social support on a human level, 19:54 and you look at the literature dealing with 19:57 religious commitment, religious strength, 20:00 fellowship with God, if you will... 20:01 You look at those dimensions, and they have similar effects. 20:04 The strengths in both of those areas helps to decrease 20:08 blood pressure in stressful life situations. 20:11 Helps to decrease the risk of depression 20:14 which is an enormous problem in our society today. 20:16 So it helps us to be able to 20:19 give... when we're willing to receive. 20:22 Now let's talk real practically, doctor... okay 20:24 We talking... what do you mean exactly by giving social support 20:29 I'm at home, I'm sitting down and I go... 20:30 Well, how do I do this? It sounds so great. 20:32 I want my blood pressure to go down... not TOO low, 20:34 but I want it to be normal. 20:36 I want these things to happen. 20:37 What are you talking about when you say, "social support" 20:41 What is it EXACTLY? 20:43 Okay, to make it real practical... 20:45 If someone's saying, "How can I be part of a 20:47 social support network?" 20:49 First of all, look at the relationships you already have. 20:52 Are you enhancing those relationships? 20:55 I mean, how do your children relate to you? 20:57 How do your parents relate to you? 20:59 Are you only a consumer? 21:01 Are you taking, or are you giving? 21:03 That's the first question to ask. 21:06 A second thing to ask is... 21:07 Can you facilitate social networks in your 21:11 sphere of influence? 21:12 One classic way of doing it is just being involved 21:16 in your church! 21:18 I mean, a lot of people today have a spectator mentality 21:21 when it comes to worship. 21:23 It's very easy in a big church to just kind of, you know, 21:26 sit back, and say, "Well, that sermon today 21:29 was okay, but maybe if I had gone across town, 21:33 there would have been a better sermon. " 21:35 We get in this spectator mentality... instead of saying 21:38 ...The TAKE model instead of the gift. Yeah... Right! 21:40 And you're saying instead of doing that, you say... 21:42 "Hey, can I go out and visit someone maybe at the 21:44 nursing home; can I see who is a shut-in and 21:47 hasn't had a visit... Can I make a loaf of bread? 21:49 Can I invite someone to my house? 21:50 Can I do this, do that... Can I watch your kids 21:53 because it looks like you're... 21:55 Well maybe you wouldn't say that YOU'RE a little STRESED OUT 21:57 there, but I want to help you out... in a nice way. 22:00 Is that what you mean? 22:01 All those are excellent examples but it doesn't even have to 22:03 take any extra time. 22:04 You can walk into your church, or a church that you've 22:07 never been to... okay, and you say, 22:09 "I want to start getting involved with the church" 22:11 I haven't been going to church. 22:12 I've looked at religion as just something between God and myself 22:15 but I want to start fellowshipping with people. 22:18 And, instead of walking IN with the focus on 22:21 "What am I going to get," look around the congregation 22:24 ...see if someone is sitting alone! 22:26 At the end of the church service or at the beginning, 22:29 if you see someone who is just standing there, 22:31 or who is walking out alone, 22:32 make an effort to say, "Hello" 22:34 You know, I hope there are a lot of people listening 22:37 because this is a real big need, even in churches. 22:39 You know, I usually am almost stationary up front 22:44 because I'm up front as a pastor many weeks... 22:47 And I'll see people that are sitting alone, 22:50 and I'll see that other people don't even SEE them! 22:52 And it's like they have tunnel vision, 22:54 so you know, sometimes I'll say to someone sitting with me 22:57 on the platform... "Hey, would you go mention to this person 23:00 to go sit by that person" 23:01 I try and facilitate that. Ah ha 23:03 But what you're saying is just GO with this idea of 23:06 service DURING the service. 23:09 That's right... so it doesn't have to take you, 23:12 and you don't have to plan a meal for 37 people at your house 23:16 You can take little interest, just taking an 23:19 interest in people, giving them a call on the phone... 23:21 it can be simple things. 23:22 Let me switch channels here, if you will, for a minute. 23:26 I used to work all the time with mostly women. 23:30 I was working in the nursing profession, 23:32 and there are, of course, many men in the nursing profession 23:34 too, but where I worked there was mostly women 23:36 and then there was ME... Ha, ha 23:38 My wife was working as an architect with mostly men 23:41 and then there was her. 23:42 But, you know, I noticed something... 23:43 As I went through 2 different courses of study, 23:46 I noticed that when I went through the nursing program, 23:48 it was largely women there; and then I went through 23:51 a theology program and degree, 23:53 and it was mostly male teachers there... 23:56 I noticed that the support, it seemed at least to me, 23:59 was GREATER in the nursing program, 24:01 than in the theology program. 24:04 And, I don't know, I'm just asking... 24:06 Is there anything to this idea that a woman can 24:10 give better social support than a man? 24:11 Well Don, you know, you may say 2 guys talking here 24:14 we may want to own up to this... 24:17 but it's true actually. Is that right? 24:19 Yes, there's some very interesting research 24:21 through the years, but one of the earliest 24:23 examples I know of was in the Alameda County Health Study. 24:26 This is just a monumental study as far as 24:29 public health and preventive medicine. 24:31 First studies were published like in 1970... 24:34 It's an old, old study now. 24:36 But, they found, when they looked at the benefit of 24:39 marriage, for example... 24:40 You know, guys like to think they're doing their wives a 24:42 favor when they marry them. Ha, ha, ha, ha... 24:44 But the Alameda County Health study showed that the ones 24:46 who really got the dramatic benefit from 24:48 being married were MEN! 24:50 This was the first study that I came across 24:53 that raised my attention to the fact that the social support 24:57 from a WOMAN... may be more valuable! 24:59 Now a more recent study in the year 2000, I believe, 25:02 from the University of California at San Francisco 25:06 I think I'm quoting this right... 25:08 But anyway, it's one of the UC schools 25:10 that did this research... 25:11 took over 100 individuals and they looked at what happens 25:15 in a stressful situation. 25:16 They were having people speak in front of an audience... 25:20 Now for some of us that do that frequently, 25:22 that may not be THAT stressful, 25:24 but for most people, it's one of the real HIGH stress activities 25:28 that you could imagine. 25:29 And when there were supportive people in the audience, 25:33 the blood pressure response to stress was decreased. 25:37 But here's the CATCH... 25:38 If the supportive people were WOMEN, 25:41 that blood pressure response was much less. 25:43 Women had a greater stress-relieving effect 25:47 than men did... 25:48 And there's a lot of speculation as to why this is the case, 25:52 but the research is pretty clear... 25:54 That women have some unique benefits as far as 25:56 social support. 25:57 Men have other strengths and they have... 26:00 You know, I'm not trying to give the message that 26:01 men can't be socially supportive... 26:04 But what the point is, Don... 26:06 is that we've got to get serious about realizing 26:10 that God has called together a body. 26:12 This is why the church is not just, an all-male social club, 26:16 or an all-women's church. 26:19 God pulls together the genders because we have unique 26:23 strengths, as well as unique differences. 26:25 And, it's exciting to see what happens in this dynamic... 26:28 whether it's in the church, whether it's at the 26:30 Lifestyle Center of America, 26:31 whether it's in a community group... 26:33 the same dynamic can take place in all those settings. 26:36 That's great, and you know, I think that people today 26:39 were probably pretty motivated to get involved, 26:41 but I have one last question... 26:42 We have about 1-1/2 minutes left. 26:44 And, doctor, in terms of giving social support 26:48 we've said, "Hey, we've got to be getting something 26:50 spiritually to give that" 26:51 What do you do day-by-day, what is your secret for 26:54 giving social support? 26:55 Where do you get, and how does that work for you? 26:59 I'll tell you, the thing that's vital to me, Don, 27:01 is meeting with my Lord. 27:04 To open His Word, to pray, to get counsel from Him 27:08 to get direction from Him and encouragement... 27:10 That's what really inspires me, 27:12 and that's what really gives me something to share. 27:15 You know, many times, no matter what kind of background we have, 27:19 no matter what kind of experience, 27:20 and in my personal case, sometimes I seem like I 27:23 just don't have what it takes. 27:24 But when I meet with the Lord, when He encourages me, 27:28 He gives me something to share. 27:30 Amen, and that's really the key, isn't it? 27:34 We've been talking with Dr. David DeRose. 27:36 He's a physician at the Lifestyle Center of America 27:38 in Sulphur, Oklahoma 27:40 and we've been talking about social support. 27:42 It's been fascinating to hear what you've had to say. 27:45 We hope that you, as you've been listening today, 27:47 have had a new sense of what you can DO 27:50 to be involved socially. 27:52 But most importantly, that you can have that connection 27:54 with the Giver of life, the Master Physician. 27:57 Thanks for joining us today. |
Revised 2014-12-17