Ultimate Prescription

Skin

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Nick Evenson (Host), Dr. James Marcum

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Series Code: UP

Program Code: UP000070A


00:16 What organ can make up to 15% of our body weight,
00:20 and is our largest organ?
00:22 Dr. Marcum, explains after the break.
00:24 I'm Dr. James Marcum, are you interested in discovering
00:28 the reason why?
00:30 Do you want solutions to your health care problem?
00:32 Are you tired of taking medications?
00:35 Well, you're about to be given "The Ultimate Prescription"
00:41 We hear a lot about sun products that promise to make us
00:44 look younger and better, but the skin serves a much
00:47 bigger purpose.
00:49 Dr. Marcum, why is the skin so important?
00:51 Well Nick, it does lots of great things.
00:54 The skin not only does it make us look a certain way,
00:57 but it helps protect us from foreign objects... Right
01:01 It serves as a temperature regulator.
01:04 It helps keep us at a certain temperature.
01:07 Helps to insulate us. Right insulate us.
01:08 So it does a lot more than just make us look good,
01:13 and there's a lot more to it than sunscreen.
01:15 And, a lot of people look at their skin and they're
01:20 concerned about it, but a lot of people don't realize
01:22 that the skin does things that are much more important.
01:26 And also, the skin can be a sign...
01:28 You know, by looking at the skin you can tell maybe if you
01:30 have serious diseases. Really?
01:33 You know, certain diseases are manifested as a rash.
01:36 One of the ones that we see a lot is called "lupus."
01:38 That has a rash that's on the face.
01:40 There are other rashes that go with certain medical conditions,
01:44 so the skin might be a clue to that.
01:46 The skin also serves as a general look at people's health.
01:50 Have you ever looked at someone and say, "Man, you look pale,
01:52 you don't look so good." Right, right
01:54 Maybe it could be a sign that someone has a infection.
01:56 Maybe the blood supply in the body is not so good,
01:59 so the skin shows up that.
02:01 So it can be a very important clue to a physician
02:04 that maybe things aren't going so well. Right
02:08 You know, the most common skin condition that people
02:11 probably see now is cancer.
02:13 So it's very important and there are different
02:15 types of skin cancers and we noticed discoloration on
02:19 the skin... of course, the one that's the most scary
02:22 is one called "melanoma." Right
02:24 And if that's missed, a person can get very, very sick quickly.
02:28 We know that people that don't take care of their
02:30 skin when they're younger, they burn a lot.
02:32 That damages the pigment of the skin,
02:35 and it can damage it over time and that can create problems
02:38 as we get older in life.
02:40 So the skin has many different things that goes on with it.
02:44 There are parts of the skin that sweat,
02:47 so that's a very important thing to sweat.
02:48 There are parts of the skin that don't sweat
02:50 including the lips... the lips don't sweat very much,
02:53 and the nail beds... the nail beds don't sweat.
02:55 But the other part sweats where we get rid of wastes.
02:59 So waste can not only come into the body, damages,
03:01 but we also get rid of waste and toxins through our skin.
03:05 So we think of - "Well how do we get rid of waste?"
03:07 Well, through the kidneys we get rid of wastes,
03:10 but also through our skin.
03:11 Have you ever heard the term, "sweat it out?" Yeah sure have!
03:14 Well actually, sweating is a good thing to do
03:17 as long as you replace it because you can sweat out
03:19 some of the toxins in the body.
03:22 So the skin does a lot of good things for us, Nick,
03:25 and we're going to answer some questions that people had
03:27 regarding the skin, but first, we've been building
03:30 our first aid kit. That's right
03:33 And we've added a lot of good things to it,
03:34 and we want everyone at home to have a good
03:37 first aid kit or at least to have some important things
03:40 that they can add to it.
03:41 You know, this might sound goofy,
03:44 but I give gifts as first aid stockings. Oh yeah, sure!
03:51 So people can put in their first aid kit if they ever need it.
03:54 Now we're hoping no one ever needs a first aid kit,
03:58 but we have some items here that you might
04:00 want to put in your first aid kit.
04:02 Can you show everyone what that one is? Yes
04:04 So here we have an icepack and this is something that's used
04:07 on the skin and when is the
04:09 appropriate time to use it, Dr. Marcum?
04:10 Well, what an icepack does is - it's great when
04:14 there's an acute injury. Okay
04:17 When there's an acute injury, the body usually swells.
04:21 And that swelling process, that inflammatory process
04:25 to an area can sometimes cause pain and, of course,
04:31 sometimes if it's down on a joint like an ankle,
04:35 it can lead to immobility, so those things are good.
04:39 So if you have a cold pack, that might help with the pain...
04:42 what it does is it actually constricts blood vessels
04:45 so you don't get quite as much inflammation in the area,
04:48 and it can keep the temperature down a little bit.
04:50 So that's one thing the cold pack is good,
04:52 and if you've hurt yourself in an injury. Yeah
04:55 I've seen cold packs occasionally used for people
04:58 that have extreme fevers... have you ever seen
05:01 a person with a fever? Well, what do they want to do?
05:03 They want to cool themselves down. Yeah
05:06 And some people take Tylenol for fevers.
05:08 Some people put rags on their head, have you seen that?
05:11 Some people have cold packs of certain duration.
05:14 Well why is that important?
05:16 Well, a little bit of a fever is good because it helps
05:18 kill the offending agent whether it be a bacteria or a fungus.
05:22 But high temperatures over long periods of time raises
05:26 the chance of you having a seizure.
05:28 The brain malfunctions, so we don't want super, super
05:31 high fevers for long periods of time. Right
05:34 So in the hospitals, I don't know if you've ever seen this,
05:37 sometimes we try to bring someone's temperature down...
05:40 In the heart-world, if a person has had a cardiac arrest,
05:46 one of the things we do is we induce hypothermia
05:49 or low temperature. Okay
05:51 We bring down the temperature because when the temperature
05:53 again is up for a prolonged periods of time,
05:56 that damages the body even further. Sure yeah
05:59 That's one of the things we do to help
06:01 possibly limit damage to the brain.
06:03 So these are all little things that we can do
06:05 to help protect the body and this is something that's not a
06:09 bad idea because if you're out in the woods,
06:11 how do you get cold quick? Right
06:13 Of course you can put some water on it and blow on it...
06:16 that will help or you can use a cold pack
06:18 and really get it down really quicker.
06:20 And this is a chemical activated pack so you don't
06:22 have to pull it out of the freezer,
06:23 you just take it with you wherever and activate it
06:25 when you need it. Yep
06:26 So it works really quick and I would recommend
06:29 it mainly for things like sprained ankles,
06:31 things of that nature. Okay
06:33 Now we've got another item here - what is this?
06:35 Well I wanted to bring since we're talking about
06:37 the skin today...
06:39 There are many different skin products out there,
06:41 and this is what I call a steroid cream,
06:44 and there are different types of steroid creams.
06:46 This is one that's a little more potent than the others,
06:49 and they usually have a steroid in it - it's either 1% or 0.5%
06:54 of a different steroid.
06:56 One of the most common steroids is called "hydrocortisone."
07:00 Now topical steroids - okay, you want to use these again
07:04 for short periods of time to get you over the hump
07:06 of the offending agent. Right
07:08 It's very useful for things that are really irritating
07:11 to the skin that causes inflammation, okay,
07:14 for a short period of time.
07:16 It might be good for a rash or something that's really
07:19 irritating - a bug bite or something that causes
07:22 lots of inflammation this might help.
07:24 But I just wanted to bring this out,
07:26 but there are all sorts of other creams that you can add
07:28 to help your skin.
07:30 There are creams with menthol in it...
07:32 that's another natural healer.
07:34 There are different things that will help in
07:36 bug bites and there is Benadryl type creams,
07:39 that are sort of an antihistamine.
07:41 And if you go, when you make your first aid kit,
07:43 if you go to the skin care products and read them all,
07:47 and go on the internet and read about all the different
07:50 skin care, it's probably good to have one or two
07:52 products for your skin that you can help with inflammation
07:56 in an emergency that give you help with itching
07:59 in an emergency that can help sort of settle down
08:01 all the discomfort that you get when you might have a
08:04 skin irritation, a bug bite, when you're out
08:07 and have an irritant on you.
08:09 I know poison ivy is a real irritant for people...
08:12 One that people used for years,
08:15 some people take it with steroids on it.
08:17 Some people use these anti-itch medicines
08:20 with Caladryl lotions that they use. Right, yeah
08:23 There's also a special medicine out there that they can use
08:28 for poison ivy - if you put it on right away,
08:30 it helps pull the poisons out, that's also very valuable.
08:34 These are all very valuable things that we can
08:36 put in our first aid because that's one of the most
08:38 common problems that people
08:40 get as they get into problems with their skin. Right, right
08:43 I know when I was a kid, I had poison ivy
08:45 that got on my face and it just swelled up
08:48 really, really big and it was a real problem.
08:50 Well I'm very allergic to poison ivy.
08:52 In fact, if I just... you know, but I had a friend that
08:56 breathed poison ivy and I didn't know this,
08:58 but you can get poison ivy in your lungs,
09:01 and it causes inflammation in your lungs.
09:03 They were burning poison ivy leaves
09:05 and he actually smelled it.
09:06 So a lot of people... you know if I have a bad case
09:09 of poison ivy I have to take systemic pills steroids
09:12 to get me over that hump...
09:14 But the best thing for me is to avoid it. Right
09:17 Stay away from the thing that causes that irritating reaction.
09:21 And a lot of people are allergic to different types of plants.
09:23 I have other people that are not even bothered by that at all,
09:27 so that's something important.
09:29 So these are good things to have in our first aid kit
09:31 to help protect our skin, Nick.
09:32 Well that's some good advice.
09:34 We've got a number of questions that have
09:35 come into our website at: heartwiseministries.org
09:38 And after the break, we're going to get
09:40 right to answering those questions - so stay with us.


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Revised 2016-06-29