Participants: Nick Evenson (Host), Dr. James Marcum
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP000079B
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00:01 Welcome back to the program.
00:02 I'm Nick Evenson here with Dr. James Marcum 00:04 and before the break, we were talking about nerves... 00:06 and Dr. Marcum, explain a little bit more to me about 00:08 how the nerves affect our pain signals. 00:11 Well this is going to be a very important point for 00:14 each of our viewers to understand, as we talk about 00:17 pain in this series - remember, when a person has pain, 00:21 there's a reason why and we want to understand why. 00:25 Pain creates stress on the system and just that stress 00:30 makes pain more dangerous because it affects the brain. 00:35 So stress affects every cell in the body including the brain. 00:39 How our brain perceives and what it knows about pain, 00:44 you know, it talks about a response... 00:45 For instance, if we know this pain is not a big deal, 00:49 if it's not going to kill us, if we have that knowledge, 00:51 we can handle pain much better. 00:53 The body goes, "No, this is just a little bitty ant bite, 00:56 it's not going to kill you, I can sort of turn off all 00:59 all this effort that I'm doing the pain, 01:01 and then it turns off the stress. 01:03 So that's a very important thing. 01:04 Your brain is involved in pain. 01:07 So the more you know about pain, 01:08 the better you're going to deal with pain. 01:10 Then you'll want to think about, "Well how does my provider 01:13 deal with pain?" 01:15 And the first thing he's going to do is, 01:16 hopefully, he is going to say, "Well let's find 01:18 the cause of pain - so we're not treating a symptom." 01:20 We want to treat a cause and not a symptom. 01:24 And, unfortunately, modern medicine treats 01:27 symptoms and not... it's a money-maker. Yeah 01:29 And we see all the people that are taking pills, 01:32 4 billion written in the United States, 01:34 more than all the world combined. Wow! 01:37 That's big time! Yeah 01:38 And narcotics, the death rate keeps going up 01:40 because they're not getting at causes and pain 01:43 medicines, it's all about risks and benefits. 01:45 And sometimes, there is a benefit to taking 01:47 medicines for the short-term. Right 01:49 But if we can get off it, that's the key. 01:52 And then the next thing is find the cause and then 01:54 understand whether the nerve itself is damaged. 01:57 We call that a neuropathy. 01:59 If the nerve itself is damaged, 02:01 it's going to experience pain differently. 02:04 You know, for instance... you don't get enough oxygen; 02:06 you don't get enough water; you don't get a right nutrient; 02:09 you don't get enough rest. 02:10 That nerve function is going to be compromised. 02:14 So the way it perceives pain is going to be different as well. 02:17 So those are all some things that I really wanted 02:20 our audience to understand. 02:22 This will help them as we move forward 02:24 especially if they have pain or if they want to help 02:26 their neighbors who have pains. Right 02:28 Now, we have a lot of questions that have come into our website, 02:31 haven't we? Yeah, we sure do! 02:32 The first one that someone writes in is: 02:35 "What is the definition of chronic pain, 02:38 and how to differentiate acute pain from chronic pain?" 02:42 Well, acute pain is pain that goes away, okay? 02:47 You find the cause, it goes away. 02:49 You sprained your ankle, you rest it, 02:51 eventually it goes away. 02:52 That's more of an acute pain. 02:53 We call that a nociceptive pain because the nerve is fine, 02:57 if you can get at the cause which is usually 02:59 resting it and let it heal on it's own. 03:01 That pain usually gets better! 03:03 Chronic pain is a pain, no matter where it's from, 03:06 that goes on for a long period of time 03:09 or it's a pain that we can't identify the etiology. 03:13 Now when a person has pain, 03:15 if a doctor can't find out what it is, 03:18 that doesn't mean there's not a cause. Right 03:21 He just hasn't found out what it is. 03:23 Many times the doctor can't find out what the cause is 03:26 because pain is very complicated. 03:29 Pain not only has to do with what causes it, 03:32 but how your brain perceives pain; 03:34 how your emotional system is working; 03:36 how your stress system is working. 03:39 You can have pain just from chronic stress 03:42 and emotional problems. 03:44 You know, so pain is a very complicated disease process. 03:48 Right, and a lot of different causes 03:50 that could be playing a role. 03:51 Yeah, and the most common causes of pain are... 03:54 There's chronic back pain that's probably the #2. 03:59 Chronic pain where we don't 04:00 know the cause - that's probably #1. 04:03 Arthritis is high up on the list. 04:06 Headaches that's a very common cause of pain. 04:10 Nerve pain - you know people have chronic nerve pain, 04:13 these neuropathies that occur. 04:16 And those are probably the most common causes of pain. 04:19 So chronic pain, pain that goes on for a long 04:22 period of time where we don't know what the cause is, 04:25 those are the most common causes. 04:27 And if they want to know, they can go to our website: 04:29 heartwiseministries.org 04:31 we'd be happy to answer their questions, 04:34 and also, we have a prayer page there, Nick, 04:37 where we actually pray for people 04:38 because we believe in the power of prayer. 04:40 God can do things miraculously. 04:42 Sometimes He helps us through prayer right away. 04:47 Sometimes He teaches us how to take care 04:49 of our body better, so there are many ways that 04:51 God can help in this healing process. 04:54 You know, on the topic of chronic pain 04:56 we have another person who wrote in and asks: 04:58 "What is the role of a chronic pain specialist?" 05:01 Well, we saw Dennis Ford and he is a chronic pain specialist, 05:07 and you want to pick someone that's good like Dr. Ford. 05:11 You don't want to pick someone that will just 05:14 give you a medication and how do you know if someone is good? 05:17 Well, they are usually board certified in pain medicine. 05:20 That's usually all they do. 05:22 A lot of times, they have specialties like Dr. Ford 05:25 had a specialty in anesthesiology which is 05:28 so he knows how to inject the pain medicines chronically, 05:31 but I think a couple of good things when you interview 05:34 a pain specialist... 05:35 You want a pain specialist that will get at the cause, 05:39 to teach you about pain and the complexities 05:42 like we've talked about. 05:44 How the mental status affects the pain. 05:46 Also, I think it's very important that you want 05:48 someone that will get at the cause of the pain, 05:50 and try to minimize the risks of the treatment. 05:53 And there are many different treatments for chronic pain, 05:56 and we're going to get into those as the series goes, 05:59 but we want to minimize the dangers and sit there and 06:02 explain, you know, and it's not a long-term thing. 06:04 We just want to use this until we can get at the cause, 06:07 and I think cognitive therapy is very important 06:10 in the treatment of chronic pain. 06:11 What is cognitive therapy? 06:13 Well that's teaching a person's brain 06:15 how to deal with chronic pain because the more the 06:18 brain knows, the less stress and inflammation 06:21 it turns on, the less it makes the pain - it deactivates 06:25 some of the chronic pain stimuli. 06:27 So to summarize that, it sounds like cognitive therapy 06:29 helps train the brain how to respond appropriately 06:32 to different levels of pain. 06:33 For instance, it might be whenever you have pain, 06:37 take 10 deep breaths because that turns down stress. 06:41 It might be that whenever you start having pain, 06:43 maybe you laugh or pray or turn on some music. 06:46 Do something in the brain that will help it 06:48 turn on endorphins; some of the chemicals... 06:51 Oxytocin - that's another chemical that helps fight 06:54 chronic pain that your brain turns on. 06:57 And if you can start learning your brain to turn on this, 07:00 and handle the pain better, 07:01 it's going to make it less pronounced. Right 07:04 So that's why I say a good pain doctor will do all of those. 07:07 So those are just some general tips for someone. 07:10 So who would go to a pain doctor? 07:12 Well, someone that usually they can't find the cause of pain. 07:15 You know, they need a little expertise, 07:18 and it's a lot of people that go there, 07:19 they're in chronic pain, they can't find the cause 07:22 of pain or they have chronic back pain 07:25 that no one seems to understand how to solve it or arthritis. 07:29 Those are the most common referrals to a pain physician. 07:33 You know, we've got another question here, 07:35 someone write in: "I've taken narcotics for pain, 07:38 is there any possible way to get off of these medications?" 07:41 You know, a lot of people get hooked on these, 07:43 and it's a real problem. 07:44 Yeah and narcotics, you know, there's a place for narcotics, 07:48 and I've taken care of patients with cancer pain, 07:53 and that can be very painful and sometimes 07:55 the risk of a narcotic is worth the benefits... 07:58 But if someone is on a narcotic and they have to stay on it 08:02 because you can't get at the cause of the pain, 08:03 you want to take it very safely. 08:06 You want to try to use other treatments 08:08 so you don't have to escalate the dose to keep the dose 08:11 as low as possible and you want to tell them of the side effects 08:14 especially it can turn off the respiratory system; 08:17 it can slow the bowels... 08:19 And then if you can get at the cause, 08:22 then you have a chance of coming off the narcotics... 08:25 And sometimes, if a person has chronic back pain, 08:28 sometimes there are other modalities that can be used 08:31 like a TENS Unit, physical therapy, heat, 08:35 the cognitive ways that we mentioned, 08:37 and sometimes they can be turned down on the medications. 08:40 Sometimes you can mix and match. 08:42 You can use maybe a narcotic with an anti-inflammatory. 08:45 But the first thing we want in the approach to pain, Nick, 08:48 is we want, if possible, to get at the cause of pain, 08:51 and just the fact that this person is on chronic 08:55 pain medicines for a long period of time, 08:57 just the fact that they want to get off of the medication 09:00 is a good sign. A step in the right direction. 09:03 A lot of people take pain medications 09:05 and they really aren't in chronic pain. 09:07 They do it because of that feel-good, that buzz. 09:11 They use it to block out some of the world, 09:14 and if they keep getting more and more, 09:15 that's when we see the overdoses, 09:17 the real problems that we get into. 09:19 So we're going to put this person on our prayer list, Nick, 09:22 and we're going to pray for them that they'll help 09:25 find the right people that will 09:27 help them get off this medicine, 09:28 but I applaud them for trying to work on this, 09:31 and the first place I would go, I'd say, "Yes, there's a way 09:33 to get off pain medicines and the first place to go 09:36 is the Ultimate Physician. 09:37 Ask God to help you find the right people to help you 09:41 figure out ways you can do this because sometimes 09:43 you're your own best doctor. Yeah 09:45 Now, there's a lot of folks that are always interested in 09:48 natural remedies and I think that's a 09:50 great solution when it's appropriate. 09:52 Is chronic pain a place where 09:54 natural remedies can be appropriate? 09:56 Well, it is and sometimes people with chronic pain 10:00 have chronic pain because they're hurting themselves. 10:04 So one of the natural remedies if you are hurting in the 10:08 arm is maybe to quit using the arm. 10:11 You know, maybe rest and that's one of the Biblical treatments 10:14 for life is, you know, God taught us to 10:17 work 6 days and take a day off and rest. Right 10:19 When we rest, the body heals better. 10:21 Another thing is nightly rest, Nick. 10:24 You know, we were supposed to work in the day 10:26 and rest at night because we can heal. 10:29 The circadian rhythms go down. 10:30 Some of the stress chemistry goes down. 10:32 So we heal better when we rest better. 10:35 So one of the best natural remedies is just rest. 10:38 We talked about the nerves... 10:40 The nerves have to be happy so they can heal. 10:43 And some of the things that help nerves 10:45 are things just simple as water. 10:47 And getting appropriate nutrition... 10:49 There are certain diets that cause inflammation in the body. 10:52 We know that high fat and high 10:54 protein diets cause inflammation. 10:56 We also know that people that eat more whole food 10:58 plant-based nutrition, they do better with inflammation. 11:02 There are natural things like physical therapy that helps. 11:06 There is natural ginger that is one of the things 11:10 that works for chronic pain because 11:11 it is an anti-inflammatory, sometimes that helps. 11:15 There are natural things like prayer and worship. 11:19 Worship turns down the stress chemistry, 11:22 that helps with chronic pain, decreases inflammation. 11:25 Having healthy relationships, 11:27 one of the best ways is laughing. Really? 11:30 Yeah, if I had a good joke, I'd tell it to you, 11:33 but I'm not a funny person, Nick, are you a funny person? 11:36 Do you have a joke you could throw out? 11:37 I don't, I don't. 11:40 You know, I used to do jokes with my kids, 11:43 but they never thought it was funny. 11:44 Did you hear the joke about the rope? 11:47 Uh uh... "Skip it" - do you get it? 11:49 "Skip it," but anyway the point is, Nick, is 11:53 laughter is the best medicine. 11:55 Chemically, it makes a chemical called "endorphins," 11:58 so there are a lot of things that we can do. 12:00 Did you know that when you have a pet, 12:02 that can help with chronic pain. Really? 12:04 Yeah, you can look at the pet and the pet 12:06 looks back at you... we call that "eye-hugging." 12:09 And when you eye-hug a pet like that, 12:11 you make a chemical called "Oxytocin," 12:13 go up in your body... that helps with 12:15 inflammation and chronic pain. Sure 12:17 Now those are all little natural remedies. 12:20 Did you know that getting out in the sunshine 12:21 helps with chronic pain? 12:23 Vitamin D can help with chronic pain, 12:25 especially if it has to do with bones and muscles. 12:28 So there's a host of different things 12:30 that can treat chronic pain. 12:31 It sounds like the more we live in harmony with God's design 12:35 and His plan for our lives, 12:36 the better off we will be. Exactly! 12:38 We want to thank you for joining us today. 12:40 If you have more questions, Dr. Marcum would be happy to 12:43 answer them if you go to: heartwiseministries.org 12:46 and visit the "Ask the doctor page." 12:48 We will be back in just a moment 12:49 as Dr. Marcum leads us with prayer. 13:01 Well I hope everyone has learned at least a little bit 13:04 about pain today and I hope no one is experiencing pain. 13:09 And we think about what we learned today is that 13:11 if you have pain, the key is to understand 13:14 the reason why because long-term pain 13:17 creates stress on the body which is so damaging. 13:20 Long-term stress hurts every cell in our body. 13:24 So the key is to find out why we're having pain, 13:27 and we want to always turn to God for solutions... 13:31 especially when we're having pain and I hope we've 13:34 learned a few things about chronic pain; 13:36 the most common causes of chronic pain. 13:38 We've talked about arthritis and back pain, 13:41 and all these types of pain... 13:43 I'm hoping you're not having that pain, 13:45 but if you are having pain, we want to spend some time 13:48 and turn to the Ultimate Physician who will heal 13:51 us in His time - so let's bow our heads together... 13:55 Father in Heaven, We want to pray for those 13:57 out there that are in pain, Father, that You guide 14:00 them to people that can help them and also we pray 14:03 for Your healing. 14:04 Please be with those people that are having pain 14:07 and suffering today, Father, and help them to find 14:10 peace and hope and realize that You are the 14:12 Ultimate Physician who will take away all pain in Your time. 14:16 This is our humble prayer... Amen 14:20 Well, if you might have more questions, 14:22 I invite you to go to our website and that's 14:26 heartwiseministries.org and I'd be happy to 14:29 answer your questions about chronic pain. 14:32 We also have a prayer section, and I think this is 14:35 the most important section there is because if you have a 14:38 pain that you'd like us to pray for, 14:40 we are there to help pray for you, to encourage you, 14:44 and to give you hope and let you know that there's 14:46 a God in heaven that wants to be a part of your treatment. 14:49 Now we've started a pain series, we've given the general 14:52 introduction today and our next program we're going to be 14:56 talking about specific parts of pain, 14:59 specific ways to deal with specific etiologies. 15:02 So stay with us on "The Ultimate Prescription," 15:05 and we'll be back next time wishing you the best of health! |
Revised 2016-11-29