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Series Code: UP

Program Code: UP000084B


00:01 Welcome back to the program.
00:02 I'm Nick Evenson here with Dr. James Marcum.
00:04 And on today's program, we are talking about
00:05 different types of pain, specifically headaches.
00:08 Lot of people experience headaches
00:10 and for a lot of different reasons.
00:12 And so today, Dr. Marcum, we are talking about
00:14 some of those reasons,
00:15 but specifically we want to focus on prevention
00:18 and how to treat headaches when we experience them.
00:20 Yeah, and as we've talked about pain,
00:23 you notice that there are some themes
00:24 in all the pain, you know.
00:26 There are headaches, you know, or any type of pain mean that
00:29 there is something not right in the body.
00:31 And sometimes it can be dangerous
00:33 but for sure, it's a sign
00:35 that something we had stress on our body
00:37 that's triggering this.
00:38 Where that stress might come from?
00:40 It might come from bleeding, it might come from a toxin,
00:43 it might come from an infection
00:45 and all that can infect different body parts.
00:48 So when the brain is not right, for acute pain,
00:51 that's when you need modern medicine,
00:53 the worst headache in their life, a fever.
00:55 That's where modern medicine helps you get over hump.
00:58 But for chronic pain, or any chronic pain
01:01 whether be headache, you want to find out the reason why.
01:05 And the way a doctor evaluates the pain,
01:08 the first thing a neurologist would do
01:11 is he'll give, do a good history.
01:13 A lot of the time just by talking to the patient,
01:16 figuring out simple things, they can figure out
01:18 what the pain is caused by.
01:20 And that's very rewarding 'cause it's very rewarding
01:23 when you tell patients to drink more water,
01:24 all of the sudden, their pain goes away.
01:26 Yeah, I really likes to have an answer
01:27 for what's going on.
01:29 Or getting into a little more rest, it goes away.
01:31 Or bringing down the blood pressure, the pain goes away.
01:35 Everyone-- that's very rewarding.
01:37 But sometimes it's more complicated than that.
01:40 And we can do some tests. And we have CAT scans and MRIs.
01:44 Those are very good tests
01:46 for looking at the structure of the brain.
01:48 Okay.
01:49 It looks for aneurysms, it looks for...
01:51 It can look at the sinuses, for infections.
01:54 It can do those type of things.
01:56 We can also look at the eyes to see if we think
01:58 we have eye problems, things of that nature.
02:01 It can give us indirect evidence
02:03 of whether we've had problems with concussions,
02:06 things of that nature.
02:08 Sometimes the blood work will give us diablo clues.
02:11 We can conclude if there's inflammation in the body,
02:15 if there might be an infection in the body,
02:17 things of that nature.
02:19 We can look at it, the blood sugar is too high or too low.
02:22 Blood work can be very helpful for that.
02:24 Certain types of infections. We can actually measure...
02:28 We can actually examine the fluid that base the brain.
02:31 We call that cerebral brain spinal fluid
02:35 that literally flows.
02:37 It has a circulation. It goes around the brain.
02:39 It helps absorb damage to the brain, cushions it,
02:44 goes around the spinal cord, helps protect that.
02:47 Well, we can actually put a needle
02:48 into the spine and drain that, that fluid out.
02:52 We can look at it under a microscope
02:54 to see if there might be an infection,
02:56 certain types of cells which might clue us in
02:59 to what might be causing the symptom
03:01 which chronic headache infections,
03:03 things of that nature, that's very useful.
03:06 But I would say the most common ones we do are the history
03:09 then if we want to look at the structural a CT or MRI.
03:14 Now understand we've had some questions
03:16 that come into our Heart Wise Ministry's website.
03:18 And just we were talking about was our first question actually
03:22 and that was, how does a doctor evaluate a headache.
03:24 So let's just recap that.
03:26 If I come into you with a headache,
03:27 you are going to ask me a bunch of questions
03:29 about my health history.
03:30 Yeah, and first of all, I'm going to make sure
03:32 it's not a dangerous headache, okay?
03:34 How do you find if it is?
03:35 Yeah, like I said, if you say it's the worst headache
03:37 that's ever happened in my life,
03:39 I would say, well, that could be
03:40 a subarachnoid hemorrhage bleeding in the brain.
03:43 We need to send you to emergency room
03:44 and get a scan right now.
03:46 Now what would cause a bleeding in the brain?
03:47 Can't wait.
03:48 Well, it could be a weak blood vessel.
03:51 It could be, you might have banged your head,
03:52 had some trauma.
03:54 Okay. Okay.
03:55 Those are some of the more common ones.
03:57 If your headaches aggravated by a certain action
04:01 like every time I cough, I get a headache.
04:04 Or every time I have relationship with my wife,
04:06 I get a headache.
04:07 Those are a little bit more concerning.
04:10 Or if the headache won't go away,
04:12 that's associated with nausea and vomiting,
04:15 that's more of a concern.
04:17 Or a headache that's associated with a fever
04:19 and a stiff neck and a rash.
04:23 Bad headache after banging the head in trauma.
04:25 Or headache that leads to a seizure.
04:28 Or let say, you have a change of vision, you can't see right.
04:32 Those are all more serious types of headaches.
04:35 Or headache, it's not so bad
04:37 but it gets worse and worse and worse,
04:38 I can't even survive.
04:40 So I would say, Nick, that headache,
04:42 we need to go to emergency room right now
04:45 and make sure it's not a structural problem.
04:47 And if it is, we need to deal with that.
04:49 Then if it's not those, I say, well,
04:51 it's probably a primary headache.
04:53 And that's a headache that's either due to tension.
04:56 It might have characteristics of a cluster headache
04:59 or migraine headache
05:01 or you might have a toxin related headache,
05:04 something that you've done that's triggered it.
05:06 You are around obnoxious gas or something,
05:09 just get away from that environmental issue.
05:12 And I can do that with the history.
05:14 And then if I thought it might needed
05:15 a short term course of medication,
05:17 we might give it over short term.
05:20 Frequently migraine headaches,
05:21 they have a shot called Imitrex.
05:24 They don't usually give pills a lot
05:25 because you are sick at your stomach,
05:27 you might throw it up.
05:28 But there's also some studies that show ginger might be
05:31 very effective in the treatment of migraine headaches as well.
05:35 But I think if you can find what's causing the headache,
05:38 that might be the best treatment.
05:40 If there's a trigger that's causing,
05:41 but sometimes, Nick, it's just genetics.
05:45 No matter what, you have your cluster headache,
05:47 your migraine headache, it's just genetics.
05:49 We can't really figure out. It just happens.
05:52 Then we treat that the best we can with medications.
05:54 And remember, these medications for headaches
05:56 are usually just short term.
05:59 Short term headaches...
06:00 Short term treatment with medications
06:01 don't usually carry the risk
06:04 that taking it day in and day out
06:05 over years and years and years.
06:07 And this is a great use of modern medicine
06:09 to get you over the hump
06:10 because chronic pain in itself
06:12 is not good for the body either,
06:14 as we've discussed many times.
06:16 So that sort of a general approach to headaches
06:19 and most doctors do it pretty much similar to that.
06:22 They make sure it's not serious.
06:24 If it's a primary type headache,
06:25 then they work it dealing with the cause.
06:28 So what are one of the most common sources of headache
06:30 that you see?
06:31 Well, the most common headache, you know, I'm a heart doctor,
06:34 so I don't really see many headaches.
06:35 Sure, yeah.
06:37 But the most common headache in the world is tension headaches.
06:40 Stress induced headaches.
06:43 Our world is under stress like never before.
06:46 People are watching things.
06:48 You know, they see all sorts of things in the media.
06:51 People are spending up to 12 hours on the media a day.
06:54 And they stay up late at night.
06:56 They worry about things, you know.
06:58 They were eating things that we shouldn't eat.
07:00 There's this stress from every different avenue.
07:03 There's relationship stress.
07:05 We are living lives
07:07 that sort of go against our original design.
07:10 And whenever we do that,
07:11 that puts stress on our body including our brains.
07:14 And our brain might say,
07:16 "I just can't deal with this anymore.
07:18 I'm going to have a headache."
07:20 And when the body has a headache,
07:22 the brain can't think very well.
07:23 We do a process called down shifting.
07:26 We go into the "let's stay alive"
07:27 part of the brain,
07:29 not the higher thinking part of the brain.
07:30 And we just do things that make us feel good.
07:32 What can I do right now to take away the headache?
07:35 I'll do anything.
07:36 Some people turn to drugs and alcohol.
07:38 Some poor people turn into narcotics and painkillers.
07:41 Some people turn to other things, okay?
07:44 Well, I want to try to get our audience to say,
07:46 "Well, what's causing it?
07:48 What can we do to get at the cause?"
07:49 Because if we get the cause,
07:51 we are going to find the safest solution.
07:53 That's why I've recently developed
07:54 the Bible study series
07:55 that helps people to do this overtime
07:57 called Biblical Prescriptions for Life.
08:00 And this is a seven-week or seven-part Bible study
08:03 that teaches people
08:05 what's causing the stress in our lives
08:07 and how we can one step at a time get back
08:09 to the way God made us.
08:11 And if people want more information,
08:13 they go to our website.
08:14 That's biblicalprescriptions.com
08:17 or they can go to heartwiseministries.org.
08:21 So that's the most common, tension.
08:23 And those are some solutions for that getting back to it.
08:25 And the second most is migraine headaches.
08:27 These dangerous headaches are actually very rare, Nick.
08:31 It sounds like the most common ones
08:32 are basically chemical imbalances
08:35 that are stress induced.
08:36 Lifestyle induced, right.
08:38 Lifestyle induced and any of those,
08:40 you know, the stress,
08:41 the tension headaches and migraine.
08:43 And these serious types are rather rare.
08:45 But when they happen, they are life threatening.
08:47 They cannot be missed.
08:49 So that's why you have to get on it right away.
08:51 I'm afraid a lot of times,
08:53 some of these biblical prescriptions
08:54 that God's given us in the Bible,
08:56 like drinking water, getting rest,
08:57 things that we just overlook, they are simple to implement.
09:01 If we can just break our regular cycle
09:03 and focus on doing what God asks us to do.
09:05 And that gives people a sort of sense.
09:08 If they are having symptoms that can't really be explained.
09:11 You know, you look at everything and there's no...
09:13 No matter where whether this be headaches
09:15 or pains that you can't explain.
09:17 You might say, "Well, what am I doing
09:19 that could be stressing the body?
09:20 What am I doing
09:22 that's sort of against the way I was created?
09:23 And what are some simple things I can do to get back that,
09:27 'cause remember, a little bit of stress from here,
09:29 bad relationship, not sleeping well,
09:31 not enough breathing well, not enough water,
09:34 maybe there are wrong foods.
09:35 It all turns on the same chemistry.
09:38 And when that chemistry of inflammation
09:40 and epinephrine and adrenaline
09:42 and then cortisol gets turned on,
09:44 it creates symptoms.
09:46 And then guess what?
09:47 We go to the doctor and we want modern medicine.
09:50 Well, that might not always be the best thing.
09:53 Yeah.
09:54 So let's say that I am a healthy person
09:57 that hasn't had a history of headaches.
10:00 I drink plenty of water. Haven't had issues like this.
10:02 All of a sudden, I get a really severe pounding headache
10:06 unlike anything I've ever experienced.
10:07 Is that a time to be of serious concern?
10:10 Well, what I would do
10:12 is associate it with some of these other findings,
10:14 okay?
10:15 I would always be concerned about a symptom, okay?
10:18 If it affected your vision, if you were throwing up,
10:21 if you had a fever,
10:23 if it didn't get better fairly quick
10:26 with the things you usually do, yes, I would get it evaluated.
10:29 Because remember, even if it's not serious,
10:32 okay, it's still causing you pain
10:34 which is damaging your body.
10:36 So let's say the worse scenario.
10:37 You go to a doctor
10:39 and he evaluates you and it's not serious.
10:41 Well, thank goodness.
10:42 Well, they can give you a shot of painkiller
10:44 or whatever you need to take away the symptom
10:47 until you can back up and say,
10:49 "Well, what could have triggered it?
10:50 And sometimes, the body is so complicated, Nick.
10:53 Sometimes we never find out what's wrong.
10:56 We say, "It happened. I don't really know."
10:59 But, you know, usually
11:00 if I spend enough time with somebody
11:02 and ask enough questions,
11:03 usually something will come up
11:05 and I'll say, "Yeah, maybe, maybe that triggered it.
11:07 Maybe that triggered it.
11:08 You know, maybe you drink a lot of caffeine every day
11:11 and you missed that.
11:13 Maybe your body needed that."
11:15 Maybe, you know, something will usually show up.
11:18 Something will show up.
11:19 We've got another question that's coming from viewer,
11:20 and they ask, "What are some natural things
11:22 that I can do for a headache?"
11:23 Well, that's a great question.
11:25 I think we addressed some of them already.
11:27 Is getting back to the way God made you, okay?
11:30 That's the best thing that I can do,
11:34 whether that be getting enough sleep and rest,
11:36 drink enough water, moving the body parts, worship.
11:40 But other things that will help,
11:41 if the headache might be due to inflammation,
11:44 ginger might help that, okay?
11:46 If it's due to blood pressure, hibiscus might help that.
11:50 Sometimes if it's due to tension,
11:53 just deep breathing in itself.
11:56 Take a deep breath. Hold it, blow it out slow.
11:58 That helps more oxygen comes.
12:01 It turns on the parasympathetic system
12:03 which turns off some of these stress hormones in the body.
12:06 Sometimes that alone might help.
12:07 Sometimes getting outside,
12:09 breathing fresh air, going for a walk might help.
12:12 Sometimes getting some sleep and rest,
12:14 maybe you are overtired,
12:16 so if you can understand the cause, Nick,
12:19 that is your best bet to treating this.
12:21 So headaches is one like chest pain.
12:23 You need to sort of have some smarts about it
12:25 because it could be life threatening
12:27 even though it's usually not.
12:28 But you want to get at the cause.
12:30 What I would say,
12:31 the key thing I would say to all the people out there is,
12:34 if you can understand the cause
12:36 and get back to the owner's manual,
12:37 that's going to be your best bet
12:39 not to have headaches chronically.
12:43 Dr. Marcum, thanks for all those pointers on headaches.
12:45 And if you are at home
12:46 and you still have more questions about headaches,
12:48 please visit our website at heartwiseministries.org
12:50 where you can ask your question
12:52 and you can also send me your prayer requests.
12:54 We invite you to stay with us
12:55 as Dr. Marcum closes with prayer.
13:06 I like to spend a few moments with you in prayer.
13:09 There might be someone out there
13:11 that needs special prayer for their health.
13:13 Let's all bow our heads
13:14 and pray for each other right now.
13:17 Father in Heaven, we want to pray for each other,
13:21 that we all have better health
13:23 and that you come into our lives
13:24 to be our ultimate physician.
13:26 And there's someone out there, Father,
13:28 that needs a special prayer, special encouragement.
13:31 We want to pray for them 'cause we believe
13:33 and understand the power of prayer in lives.
13:35 You can do things
13:36 that we cannot do or even understand, Father.
13:39 And thank You for loving us
13:41 and giving us this day is our prayer.
13:43 Amen.
13:45 Well, I want to thank you for joining us.
13:48 And if you have any questions, feel free to go to the website,
13:51 heartwiseministries.org.
13:53 Wishing you the best of health.


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Revised 2016-04-21