Ultimate Prescription

The Big Tube

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

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

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Series Code: UP

Program Code: UP000074A


00:16 What goes in... will it always come out?
00:18 Today's topic on the program is "The Gastrointestinal System"
00:22 Dr. Marcum will be answering your questions on the topic.
00:25 You won't want to miss it. Stay tuned...
00:27 I'm Dr. James Marcum... Are you interested in
00:31 discovering the reason why?
00:33 Do you want solutions to your healthcare problem?
00:36 Are you tired on taking medications?
00:39 Well, you're about to be given "The Ultimate Prescription"
00:46 Thanks for joining us on today's program.
00:48 I'm your host, Nick Evenson,
00:50 and you know, there is a lot of literature that talks about
00:52 the GI system.
00:54 Dr. Marcum, thank you for tackling this subject,
00:56 and tell us what do we need to know.
00:57 Well you know, we've had a lot of questions come in and
01:00 most of what we need to know is going to be accomplished
01:02 in those questions, but if you think about the
01:04 GI system, Nick.
01:06 You know, it starts with your lips and ends with your bottom.
01:10 And what happens is the function of the GI system is to
01:14 give us energy and if we think about some of the big
01:17 concepts of what the GI system is, we can avoid pitfalls.
01:21 So the GI system's basic purpose is to give us energy
01:25 because we take food into the GI system and it extracts
01:29 from our food energy; the energy eventually
01:31 gets in our blood; the blood takes it to all
01:34 of our cells so our cells can function well. Okay
01:37 Just like the respiratory system gives oxygen to every cell,
01:41 the GI system helps us give energy to every cell.
01:44 And we take really 3 nutrients in that we really need...
01:49 We take our carbohydrates, that should be our primary
01:52 source of nutrients that is extracted from our GI system.
01:56 That means it pulls it out.
01:57 We have proteins - those are our building blocks,
02:01 those are enzymes - that is needed,
02:02 but not very much of our total calories is needed in proteins,
02:05 and a very small amount is needed in fat.
02:09 And if we upset that balance by what we put in,
02:13 things get altered - stress is put on the system.
02:17 So just what we put in our GI system
02:19 is very important as far as balance.
02:21 So when we put it in, digestion and breaking this
02:24 starts with our teeth, Nick, we start chewing it;
02:27 we start having enzymes in our mouth that actually
02:30 starts digestion in the mouth.
02:31 There is amylase that starts in the mouth.
02:33 I like to eat greens!
02:35 Greens - actually the digestion of greens starts in the mouth.
02:38 And I can absorb nitrites in my bloodstream,
02:41 even from my mouth. Right
02:42 So it starts in the mouth and you want to chew well.
02:45 If you don't chew up your food well - if you just gulp it down,
02:48 the rest of the body parts don't like that.
02:51 It's sort of like if you work in a television studio...
02:54 You know, someone doesn't do their job and then other people
02:56 downstream have to work harder.
02:58 Makes it harder for everybody. It makes it harder.
02:59 So when Mr. Teeth and Mr. Mouth aren't doing
03:02 their job, Mr. Stomach is going to go, "Hey, these guys
03:05 are lazy, I have to work harder."
03:06 Well luckily, we're not in a television studio like that.
03:08 Right, we're not in a TV studio...
03:10 So anyway, people have to work harder downstream...
03:12 and lots of things can happen
03:14 inside this part... you know, your teeth can
03:16 fall out, you can get infections in the mouth,
03:19 you can get cancers in the mouth,
03:21 lots of things can hurt that process.
03:23 So then - I call it the big tube because it's like a big tube
03:26 that runs through us that takes the food out.
03:28 Then it goes down, you swallow it,
03:30 there's a little tube that separates the lungs from
03:33 the stomach called the "epiglottis,"
03:35 keeps it going the right way. Okay
03:37 So you want the epiglottis to be happy too.
03:39 So it goes down - the next thing is the esophagus.
03:42 The esophagus is pretty much just a transport area.
03:45 It helps it get to point A from the mouth
03:48 to B where digestion really starts ramping up
03:50 in the stomach. Right
03:52 So in the stomach, you know the esophagus is this
03:55 tube that goes down... in the stomach that's where
03:57 there are lots of acids and that's where the food
03:58 starts to be broken down.
04:00 You make things like "hydrochloric acid" in the
04:02 stomach that breaks down proteins.
04:04 Proteins are really hard to break down.
04:06 It starts breaking down the proteins and then it goes
04:09 into the small intestine where we start extracting
04:12 water from the system and then more nutrients are extracted.
04:16 Eventually it gets to the large intestines
04:17 where more water is dealt with and the wastes
04:20 are sort of dealt with, and then as it moves through
04:22 this gigantic tube, eventually it comes out the
04:25 other end as waste. Okay
04:27 So that's what the tube does, it's mainly there to extract
04:30 nutrients that we need. Pull out the good stuff. Right
04:33 But unfortunately, if we put bad stuff into this tube,
04:37 bad things happen. Pulls up the bad stuff. Yes
04:39 And things in the mouth that can be bad
04:41 or things like tobacco.
04:43 Tobacco can be that in not taking good care of your teeth,
04:46 that could hurt that. Sure
04:47 Not having enough water in you
04:49 could cause fissures in the mouth and things of that nature.
04:52 Infections can happen in the mouth.
04:54 That affects the way you absorb the food.
04:57 Lots of things can happen to the esophagus...
04:59 And of course, a lot of us take
05:01 in food that's not good for our system.
05:04 And when the stomach and some of the
05:06 parts see things that they don't want to handle,
05:09 they go, "Oh my, what is Nick doing to me today,
05:12 he is giving me this stuff and I don't know what
05:14 to do with it, I know I don't want to
05:16 break it down, but I gotta do something with it."
05:19 And actually, it takes some of the bad toxins into the body.
05:23 A lot of people don't realize, but one of our questions
05:25 today talks about "probiotics," but there is a trillion
05:28 bacteria in the system that also aid in this process,
05:33 so it's not only some of the chemicals like amylase
05:36 and lipase and digested enzymes,
05:38 it's a host of a trillion bacteria...
05:40 And those bacteria all have to be in the correct balance.
05:44 So this tube is very complicated,
05:46 a lot of stuff is going on in it.
05:49 It's there to help us feel good and a lot of people
05:51 don't realize that the bacteria in the stomach,
05:54 how the bowel works affects numerous parts of the body.
05:58 Because those trillion bacteria they make different
06:01 mutations happen - they make certain chemicals
06:03 that can affect the heart.
06:05 Them make chemicals that can give us hormones
06:08 that affect our brain like serotonin.
06:10 A lot of people don't realize the gut makes 80%
06:13 of our chemical called serotonin which helps us sleep.
06:16 A lot of different things that can happen just by keeping
06:19 good care of our gut - our big tube as I say. Right
06:24 So it's very important to take care of that big tube,
06:26 and we're going to answer some
06:28 great questions about that subject.
06:30 I've got to interrupt and ask...
06:31 This is a bright tie and I think it's related to
06:34 the topic today, what's on your tie here?
06:35 Well, this is a great tie that someone gave to me, Nick,
06:38 and I'm glad you pointed it out because not many people
06:41 can see all these fancy things, but on this tie
06:44 there's an artery, there's an EKG,
06:47 there's a spine, there's a prescription pad,
06:50 lots of neat things are on this tie...
06:53 And I like to wear this tie, probably only once or twice...
06:56 Here's a bug that's not on that tie,
06:58 but I'm glad you noticed that tie, Nick, because whoever
07:01 gave it to me - I can't remember who gave it to me,
07:03 was very proud to find this tie.
07:06 And I'm still trying to look, there's a heart there,
07:08 and a stethoscope, but I don't see the big tube there.
07:11 So no big tube today, but I'm glad you noticed that.
07:16 Well let's talk about it, we've been building a
07:18 first aid kit and what are some
07:20 more items that need to be in our first aid kit?
07:22 Well, I want to over that because that's one way that
07:25 everyone can be involved, not only do we learn things,
07:27 but there are some things that you can pass on to your
07:29 friends and neighbors and you can carry with you
07:32 in your first aid kit that you're creating at home.
07:34 Well this, Nick, here is a splint, okay,
07:38 and these are splints that you can buy that are very
07:41 small and these are great stocking stuffers
07:44 that are great for your own first aid kit.
07:46 And the key that happens when you break a bone or hurt
07:50 something is you want to immobilize it. Right
07:52 You want to keep it from moving.
07:54 So what's the idea behind immobilization?
07:57 We want to basically keep the joint from moving because
08:02 the more a joint moves, the more it can cause damage.
08:05 Does that help it grow back correctly if it doesn't?
08:07 Well if it hold it in place, and when it's in place
08:09 it does grow back better, the tissue holds still
08:12 so you don't keep causing more inflammation.
08:14 Bones love to stay together, and they make chemicals
08:18 that helps it heal faster if you keep moving it.
08:21 That's why if you break your arm, they put it in a cast.
08:24 It takes about 6 weeks for the bones to heal up.
08:27 That's the way, if you hurt your ankle, you know,
08:29 you want to put it in some type of immobilization device.
08:32 Well this happens to be a small
08:33 one that will go on your fingers.
08:36 If you hurt your fingers, it will mobile that
08:39 until you can get an x-ray to see if it needs
08:41 to be immobilized any further with a cast.
08:43 So this is something that's very useful for your fingers.
08:46 Feet - do you mobilize toes very much?
08:50 No, you usually wrap the toes, you know, you mobilize
08:54 toes by wrapping them.
08:55 Ankles - you immobilize ankles sometimes by using these
08:58 Ace wraps okay - and these Ace wraps are also beneficial
09:03 if, let's say, you might hurt your arm and you think
09:05 it's broken...
09:07 Well, you know, if you can immobilize the bone,
09:10 keep something straight, this is very useful
09:13 if you have something to keep it straight, a board or
09:16 something with you or something solid, you can use the Ace wrap
09:20 to wrap it around that board to sort of immobilize an arm.
09:23 Legs are a little bit harder, but an arm you can mobilize
09:26 with this fairly easily.
09:28 And that probably helps to reduce the pain
09:29 because if it was not moving as much,
09:30 it won't hurt as bad while you are on your way to the hospital.
09:33 And that makes sense, the more moving, guess what?
09:35 The more the nerves are turned on...
09:37 the more pain you have... Right So that's very good.
09:40 So this is something that I think everyone should have
09:42 in their first aid kit, a plan to immobilize
09:46 the joint or joint to hold still.
09:48 Ace wraps are very good, you can buy some splints
09:51 there are all sorts of neat things that they can have
09:53 to help for their first aid kit.
09:55 Well I'm going to go home and make sure
09:57 that I have these items in my first aid kit at home.
09:59 But we don't want to forget about the big tube
10:01 because we're talking about the big tube today,
10:03 we got a lot of questions. That's right!
10:04 Stay with us, we're going to be back in just a moment
10:06 when Dr. Marcum answers questions about
10:08 the gastrointestinal system.


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Revised 2016-08-23