Participants: Don Mackintosh, Rob McClintock
Series Code: HFAL
Program Code: HFAL000031
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00:49 Hello and welcome to Health for a Lifetime.
00:51 I'm your host Don Mackintosh. 00:53 Today we're joined with Rob McClintock from 00:57 Washington state. 00:58 Welcome, Rob. 00:59 Thanks. 01:00 Today we're going to be talking about a rather interesting topic 01:03 that is the mind, more specifically the 01:07 battle for our minds. 01:08 First of all tell me what does it mean when you say the mind? 01:12 What do you mean by that? 01:13 Well, really we're talking about a very complex organ, 01:17 the brain, where we find the seat of our emotions, 01:21 our abstract thinking, our cognitive thinking, 01:25 our practical thinking, our ability to determine what's 01:30 true and what's false. 01:32 In terms of the battle we're really looking at one thing 01:38 and that's called our allegiance. 01:39 The battle for the mind is something that's been going on 01:44 for millenniums. 01:46 So what I picture then when you're saying this is there's 01:50 the practical things that our mind helps us do, 01:52 there are abstract thoughts, there are all of these different 01:56 things that's going on in their mind. 01:57 What you're suggesting is that there are people that are 02:00 or not maybe people but forces that are trying to be active in 02:06 those processes. 02:07 What do you mean? 02:09 What is this battle? 02:10 When did it begin? 02:12 What does it have to do with us? 02:13 The battle for the mind, as I understand it, 02:16 started in heaven. 02:17 At one time in the universe all the created and divine beings 02:23 were in harmony. 02:24 Satan was not known as Satan then, he was Lucifer. 02:28 He was in harmony with Christ and with the Father. 02:31 Everything was happy and harmonious in heaven 02:36 Somehow Satan's mind began to wander in channels it shouldn't. 02:42 He began to have doubts and began to have jealousy. 02:44 Little by little he began to plot against the 02:48 divine government. 02:50 We understand from what the Scriptures tell us that there 02:53 was war in heaven. 02:54 War does not take place unless you have more than 02:58 one combatant. 02:59 You don't just have one. 03:01 You don't have one side. 03:02 You have more than one side, at least two. 03:05 We are told from Scripture that Satan took quite a number 03:11 perhaps a third of the angels with him. 03:13 He didn't just indiscriminately go out and round up a third of 03:17 the angels and force them out of heaven with him. 03:20 Because they would have stayed with the Father 03:23 who they were loyal to. 03:24 But evidently, somehow, Satan found a way to gain control of 03:31 their minds so that their allegiance then was given over 03:34 to his service. 03:35 I see that not staying in heaven but actually coming down, 03:40 in more practical and recent terms, right here 03:44 on this planet. 03:45 Why would you say that? 03:46 You're saying, on the basis of Scripture of course, there's 03:52 this war that's been described there. 03:56 What are some things that we can see that indicate that it's 04:00 down here on this level? 04:01 The very first beginning on this earth was when Adam and Eve 04:05 were created and placed here. 04:06 They were given the opportunity to choose whether they would 04:13 continue serve God as God has intended for them 04:16 or were they going to follow Lucifer's plans and surrender 04:23 the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit the Creator over to 04:29 another master. 04:30 We see Satan using a number of sophistries, beguiling agencies, 04:38 in order to tempt Eve's mind and deceive her. 04:41 I see today so many instances where people are being deceived 04:46 into surrendering the sovereignty of the 04:49 seat of their heart. 04:51 We talk in terms of our heart but we're really talking about 04:55 the frontal lobe of our mind where our thought processes 04:58 and moral judgment live. 05:01 I see people surrendering that somewhat against their will. 05:05 Explain that a little more to me. 05:10 What does that mean when you talk about the frontal lobe and 05:13 surrendering the will? 05:15 What happens in the mind and how do we surrender that? 05:19 In the brain we have all the different regions of the brain. 05:25 You've got the occipital lobes where the more calculatory 05:30 things we do will take place. 05:31 We've got our temporal lobe and then the frontal lobe 05:34 up in our foreheads, in the beginning, up in the very top. 05:38 That is where scientists tell us that our abstract thinking 05:43 where we analyze things, where we make decisions between 05:48 one thing in lieu of another, we make our moral judgments. 05:53 Those emphasis are all placed there. 05:56 The concern that I have is I see so many things that are 06:00 in our environment, things that surround us, things that we 06:04 see, things that we hear, and primarily a lot of the 06:08 things that we eat or drink, take into our bodies have a 06:12 physical effect on the frontal lobe. 06:15 Many times by depleting the brain blood flow where the 06:19 blood flow is decreased or a certain chemical is now 06:24 interfere with the processes. 06:26 Our capacity to be loyal to God, our capacity to tell the 06:31 difference between truth and fiction begin to diminish. 06:36 Give me some examples of what you're talking about. 06:40 Well, I think most people can relate to alcohol use 06:44 having some effect on the brain. 06:46 I remember as a teenager hearing daring young bucks say, 06:54 "Let's head out to the bar, let's go kill some 06:57 brain cells. " 06:58 They are quite brash about it. 07:01 It doesn't seem to bother them any. 07:03 They feel impervious to it. 07:04 When you're young you feel immortal and invincible. 07:07 But they're speaking in real terms. 07:11 They are going out and they are killing brain cells. 07:13 Alcohol does a number of things. 07:16 Number one, it does decrease the amount of brain capacity 07:18 that you have by killing some of the brain cells. 07:21 Also decreasing some of the neurotransmitters solutions, 07:28 changes the blood flow, and we can see impairment in people 07:33 who drink alcohol. 07:34 Recently the state of Washington just changed the blood alcohol 07:39 legal limit for the highways for whether you're drinking 07:43 or driving or not based on new research that's coming out 07:48 that they feel people are intoxicated at lower limits 07:51 than they did before. 07:52 I notice you have a graphic here for us to look at: 07:57 One of the things that was studied recently... 08:00 So many people feel that it's drunks who cause the problems 08:05 on the highways, it's drunks who cause problems socially, 08:09 but for me personally, if I drink once a week as a 08:17 social drinker I'm causing no menace to society and I'm 08:21 causing no menace to myself. 08:23 But on the graphical studies that we're shown indicated that 08:28 people who had only one drink per week, perhaps, still showed 08:33 via scientific testing - some of those are through PET scans 08:39 and others are where they actually measure the amount of 08:41 glycogen used in the front part of the frontal lobe. 08:45 The indicators were that there was still mental impairment 08:49 even 24 hours after even a mild use of alcohol. 08:53 So a little wine is perhaps not so good for us? 08:57 I don't think so because if you have impairment that means 09:01 number one you're a menace to other people physically because 09:05 of your lack of capacity to operate an automobile or 09:09 an airline pilot certainly we hope he hasn't been drinking 09:13 within the last 24 hours or week. 09:16 But I'm not so concerned about the physical things as car 09:21 accidents, they are certainly bad because we know that 09:24 we're loosing quite a number of people to alcohol related 09:29 accidents. 09:30 Alcohol related accidents and illnesses combined take a 09:35 100,000 people out of the United States alone in death 09:38 every year. 09:39 But I'm thinking more in terms in the battle of the minds 09:42 is what it does to people's capacity to discern between 09:47 truth and error. 09:48 Because I really believe that in this last days when Satan 09:54 we're told in the book of Peter he's a roaring lion seeking to 09:59 deceive us. 10:00 He wants to take our eternal salvation from us. 10:03 More now than ever in history we need our mental capacity 10:07 to be 100 percent. 10:08 The alcohol, I think probably, some of our viewers would have 10:16 a little problem with what you said, but most of our viewers 10:20 on a Christian program would probably say, "Hey, I'm not 10:23 that involved in alcohol, I don't get involved in something 10:26 like that, I've heard about that. " 10:28 Are there other things; however, that maybe they 10:30 would be involved in? 10:31 Things that you could share with us that impact the brain, 10:35 the things you're concerned about? 10:36 We know that tobacco can have some 10:39 negative influences as well. 10:40 Anything that will decrease the amount of blood flow 10:45 to that particular part of the organ will decrease our 10:48 capacity to make good judgments and good decisions. 10:51 Alcohol, as you know, is a vassal constrictor. 10:55 It will cause the blood vessels to narrow. 10:58 They will constrict. 11:01 A smaller dimension in a blood vessel will mean that there's a 11:06 corresponding restriction and a decrease in the flow. 11:10 We rely for our thought processes on the blood making 11:15 a fresh transfer of oxygen molecules and also taking 11:20 out some of the waste products from the brain as it goes 11:25 through its processes. 11:26 If that slows down our mental capacities go down as well. 11:30 What does it mean when someone says, "I just had a cigarette 11:33 and I think more clearly now, I immediately get a rush 11:37 and I seem to have more perceptive thought after I 11:40 smoke"? 11:41 Are they not understanding what's happening? 11:43 Explain that for us. 11:44 Well, to the best that I can understand it, that's actually 11:47 almost an induced fantasy. 11:49 Maybe it did give them a little bit more focus initially 11:54 but over the long term they actually have less 11:58 discriminatory processes then they would have had before. 12:00 So alcohol is something we're wanting to avoid in terms of our 12:06 frontal lobe. 12:07 Tobacco is something we're wanting to avoid. 12:10 What should we do in place of those things? 12:12 Well, why do people drink? 12:15 Most people drink because they're looking for an escape 12:20 from something. 12:21 Some people feel like they're too up tight. 12:24 They need to relax. 12:25 A lot of people are socially inept, at least they perceive 12:31 themselves to be. 12:32 They think that if they have a drink they can loosen up, they 12:33 can have more fun, they can be happier people. 12:36 We simply need to understand that as Christians we're 12:40 God's creation. 12:42 It does not matter what people think of us. 12:44 What most matters is what God thinks of us. 12:47 Smoking - why do people smoke? 12:52 Why do people drink? 12:53 They are crutches when you're limping. 12:56 A Christian shouldn't be limping. 12:59 Christians can be a whole person because they are a 13:01 whole new creation. 13:03 Yes, I hear what you're saying. 13:05 Let's say I'm watching today and I do smoke and I do drink, 13:09 and I just can't seem to get through the day without that. 13:12 What kind of counsel do you have for someone like that 13:15 struggling. 13:16 Just give us an indication what should they 13:19 put in place of that? 13:20 It's quite easy to say, "Well, I don't think you should 13:25 be doing that. " 13:26 But what do I do? 13:27 That's a really good opportunity for us to share some of the 13:31 better things in life. 13:32 If you are stressed out a lot of people drink and smoke 13:36 because of stress. 13:38 A really good, vigorous exercise a lot of times can be a far 13:41 better stress beater then any of these sedatives could ever 13:45 hope to be. 13:46 If you feel like you need something to make you feel 13:52 better about yourself go for a walk in the sunshine, 13:54 eat better food. 13:57 A lot of people who drink and smoke don't have 13:59 the greatest diet. 14:00 When you have a lot of poor dietary choices in your program 14:07 they leave a vacuum because of the good things not being there. 14:13 We begin to develop cravings and urgings for some thing, 14:17 some outside stimulus that we wouldn't normally crave. 14:20 We're talking with Rob McClintock. 14:22 When we come back we're going to share with you how you 14:25 your letter grades in school can actually go up, 14:27 isn't that right, Doctor? 14:28 When we come back we're going to learn some other things 14:30 that we can do to enhance the functioning of 14:33 your frontal lobe. 14:42 Have you found yourself wishing that you could 14:43 shed a few pounds? 14:45 Have you been on a diet for most of your life, 14:47 but not found anything that will really keep the weight off? 14:50 If you've answered yes to any of these questions, then we 14:53 have a solution for you that works. 14:56 Dr. Hans Diehl and Dr. Aileen Ludington 14:58 have written a marvelous booklet called, 15:01 Reversing Obesity Naturally, and we'd like to send it to you 15:04 free of charge. 15:05 Here's a medically sound approach successfully used 15:08 by thousands who are able to eat more 15:11 and loose weight permanently 15:12 without feeling guilty or hungry through lifestyle medicine. 15:16 Dr. Diehl and Dr. Ludington have been featured on 3ABN 15:20 and in this booklet they present a sensible approach to eating, 15:23 nutrition, and lifestyle changes that can help you prevent 15:26 heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer. 15:29 Call or write today for your free copy: 15:48 Welcome back. 15:49 We've been talking with Rob McClintock. 15:51 We just were in an interesting discussion about ways you can 15:54 increase your grade point average 15:56 by what you do, decisions you make. 15:59 Dr. McClintock, help us with that. 16:03 One of the things we are discovering with diet 16:07 that has been an interest for a long time, 16:10 is that there is some correlation between your diet 16:15 and what your mental acuity would be. 16:17 Now we're not able to measure that in terms specifically 16:20 in terms of your IQ, but we can find that what you eat, 16:24 what you drink, what you listen to, and see, 16:28 and those types of things does effect to some extent 16:32 your capacity to do abstract thinking, your attention span 16:37 can be varied. 16:39 There was a study with school aged children 16:42 that I thought was quite interesting where the children 16:46 were given an opportunity for a period of time to have 16:50 the type of diet that kids normally would like. 16:53 You know, the sugary cereals, candy bars, soda pops, 16:56 deserts and on and on and on. 16:59 These kids seem to have that sort of lifestyle because that's 17:03 what their parents have been providing them. 17:04 These poor kids are having a tough time in school. 17:08 They are failing, pulling C's, D's, F's 17:10 and that type of thing. 17:11 In the study these kids were given an opportunity to where 17:18 nutritionists came in and they changed their whole 17:20 dietary program. 17:22 One of the major things they took out of their diet 17:25 was the refined sugars. 17:28 They didn't provide them with special teachers, 17:32 they didn't give them any special tutoring, 17:34 they didn't make them stay home at night 17:37 instead of going down to the arcade, 17:38 they didn't make them burn their skate board or anything 17:40 these kids just had the one major factor where they got a 17:43 decent diet with less sugar. 17:45 It was not very long in the course of several weeks 17:50 these kids were doing better in school. 17:52 In fact by the end of the term they actually were pulling 17:56 at least one letter grade higher than what they had 18:00 come up with before. 18:10 I'm sure if someone were getting a C it would probably bring them 18:13 up too, wouldn't you think? 18:14 That's right, Don, and you know it's not just for the kids. 18:17 You know we always like to apply this to somewhere other than our 18:19 own life, but as adults we need to understand that sugar affects 18:24 us the same way as it does the young people. 18:26 Just because you and I may not be in school doesn't mean 18:30 that we are not needing the mental capacity that we need 18:34 and were created to have. 18:36 There's a lot to why the sugar does what it does for the kids 18:39 and also for us as adults. 18:40 If you were to eat a large meal of carbohydrates like oatmeal, 18:47 toast, some fruit, and these types of things, for a really 18:51 good breakfast. 18:53 If you don't like oatmeal use some sort of a cereal 18:57 or that genre of food. 19:03 You are taking a fair amount of fiber and a lot of other 19:08 material with it. 19:09 It takes the body a while to digest those items and during 19:14 that time you're having a sustained release of the sugar 19:18 that's being released into the system. 19:19 The body then has an opportunity to have a sustained release 19:26 of matching insulin and all of this in turn provides the brain 19:32 with the proper amount of glycogen which is brain fuel. 19:36 The brain only has at any given time 2 minutes or maybe a 19:41 little less of this brain fuel on reserve. 19:45 What happens when a kid eats a candy bar or drinks a soda pop - 19:49 or an adult, either one - you have a rush of sugar 19:52 and the body says, "Wait a minute, there must be a lot 19:55 of food that's going to enter my system right now, I'll have 19:58 to put out a lot of insulin now. " 20:00 And so it begins to burn up all of that extra sugar. 20:03 Now we end up with blood sugar lows and we begin to come down. 20:08 There is less capacity to have the right amount of fuel for the 20:12 brain to function right. 20:13 So our brain has to slow down to match the fuel. 20:15 So it's really not so much the sugar but how it's released. 20:19 It's the difference between a high octane fuel and a diesel 20:23 I guess, or something that unpacks itself slowly vs. fast. 20:28 That's correct. 20:29 What I hear you saying is that every food in a sense 20:32 is a brain food. 20:34 It can be. 20:35 It just depends how we balance them as we put them into our 20:38 dietary program. 20:40 In other words, what I mean, it could be negative or positive. 20:42 Everything effects it somehow. 20:44 It's either going to add or take away. 20:46 That's one of the things that we need to take a look at. 20:48 The things on my plate - is this going to enhance my capacity 20:52 to think and tell the difference between God's Words 20:57 and Satan's words? 20:58 Or are these things going to actually detract from what 21:00 I'm doing? 21:01 So the sugar, you've said, it's not so much bad, it's just how 21:04 it's delivered. 21:05 And you're saying the best way to deliver that is through 21:08 carbohydrates or those things that unpack themselves slowly. 21:11 That's correct. 21:12 What about fats? 21:13 Is there anything good about fats? 21:14 Or is there anything bad about fats in terms of how it 21:16 effects the brain? 21:18 Well, fats and sugars can do the same things in some respects. 21:22 One of the things that sugar does in addition to causing 21:25 the lows when we eat too much in the wrong form, 21:28 it actually acts to congeal or jell the serum of the blood. 21:35 So now we're having to move blood through those 21:40 fine blood vessels in the frontal lobe. 21:42 Now that the syrupy, thickened, jelly type blood is trying to be 21:49 forced through - again it cannot be forced through as fast as it 21:52 would like to. 21:54 Our oxygen transport and our fuel transport to our brain 21:57 slows down - slows our brain down, slows our judgment down. 22:00 Fat can act in the same way. 22:03 The fat can actually begin to stick our blood cells 22:06 together. 22:07 Our red blood cells begin to clump up. 22:09 If 100 of us held hands and tried to walk through a door 22:14 somebody is going to have to let go sooner or later. 22:17 That's one of the things we see inside of the brain that these 22:20 cells are having to actually to be forced apart to flow 22:23 through the brain. 22:24 And again you've slowed down the opportunity. 22:26 So, I have my big sugar-rush in the morning and I'm on my 22:31 way to work and I stop by the fast food restaurant of my 22:34 choice and I get my big sugar-rush. 22:38 I also have a nice big Egg McMuffin, 22:43 not to bring any particular person into this, 22:47 but I have this big fatty meal along with the sugar. 22:49 Then I decide what I'll do is I'll just have maybe a Pepsi 22:56 or Coke to go along with it to pick me up. 22:59 because I'm feeling a little sluggish. 23:00 Is that a good idea? 23:01 Probably not a real great idea because as you 23:05 have hinted to and eluded to those first two things are 23:07 actually going to cause you to be suffering from 23:10 oxygen deprivation. 23:12 When I used to fly airplanes they used to tell us not to 23:15 spend too many minutes above a certain elevation because once 23:19 you would go past your limit you would begin to feel very 23:25 happy. 23:26 You'd be tired and things would be moving great. 23:30 A lot of people feel that way. 23:32 They say they feel better when they eat these types of foods 23:36 because of the oxygen deprivation. 23:38 But adding caffeine is not necessarily going to do 23:42 the greatest thing for you. 23:43 Caffeine has substances in it that will interfere with your 23:49 neurotransmitters. 23:50 In neurotransmitters each nerve cell is going to have to be 23:54 releasing a certain amount of certain neurotransmitters 23:57 solutions - handing it over to the next one, to the next one, 23:59 to the next one, and that's how the impulses from one 24:03 nerve cell to the other are transmitted. 24:05 Caffeine releases certain substances 24:10 that upset the balance. 24:12 We have one neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is kind 24:16 of like the gas pedal and the adenosine is like the brake 24:21 and together they move things through traffic in the right 24:25 sequence and at the right speed. 24:27 When you begin to add these substances from the caffeine 24:32 to try to pick you up and make you feel better you're doing 24:36 some wild things to your body. 24:37 If you took one cup of coffee and took the caffeine out of it 24:42 about 120-125 mg and put it into a needle and shot it 24:47 in your arm you would be dead in minutes 24:49 because it is that toxic. 24:51 But putting it through your stomach and the digestive track 24:54 you release it a little bit slower. 24:56 The body says, "Wait a minute, here's a poison, I've got to 24:59 burn it off. " 25:00 So up with the metabolism in releasing tons of adrenaline. 25:04 In terms of the body that's not a great thing 25:08 but in terms of the mind what bothers me is you'll see 25:12 somebody who's really, really angry - they've got tons of 25:15 adrenaline or they're very, very afraid - tons of adrenaline. 25:18 People who are very angry and people who are very afraid 25:22 do not think rationally and they do some pretty wild things. 25:25 Increasing the amount of adrenaline to try and burn off 25:29 the toxicity of this caffeine is not going to cause us to 25:32 have clarity of thought. 25:34 So, so much for my good idea. 25:36 It wouldn't really be a happy meal, would it? 25:38 No. 25:39 Well, we have just a few minutes left here. 25:42 We've talked about some things that can be damaging - alcohol, 25:46 tobacco, caffeine, fat and the effect it can have 25:51 on our frontal lobes and how it can really cause some problems. 25:55 In the rest of our time together in just the few moments we have 26:00 what are some real positive things our viewers can do? 26:02 What can they do to feed that frontal lobe what it needs? 26:06 To do a real positive thing for your brain and for your mind 26:10 we need to cover all of our bases. 26:13 We need to be putting in natural foods, 26:15 not chemically derived foods, but good natural foods, 26:20 produce, fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, the complex 26:24 carbohydrates rather than the refined carbohydrates 26:27 so we have a sustained release of the sugar one that the body 26:30 can keep up with. 26:31 Anybody can now today knows that fat is probably not that 26:35 good for you but they're thinking in terms of their 26:38 arteries for their heart. 26:39 We're thinking in terms of our mind. 26:41 Lot's of exercise to get that blood moving so that you have 26:45 the oxygen there that you need to think. 26:47 Sufficient water so that you can bathe your mind 26:52 so that your brain cells are pure and are clean so that 26:56 you can make the proper synapse transfers of information. 27:00 So what you're saying is a lot like what our mothers' said 27:03 which was drink your water, have a healthy balanced meal, 27:06 avoid those things that are not so good for you - things 27:10 you mentioned: caffeine, alcohol, smoking - really have 27:14 a more balanced approach eating foods as grown. 27:18 Well, thank you very much, Dr. McClintock, 27:22 for being with us. 27:23 I know that as a result of being together today 27:26 we're going to have better grades, we're going to feel 27:31 better and we will have health for a lifetime. |
Revised 2014-12-17