Participants: Don Mackintosh (Host), Phil Mills
Series Code: HFAL
Program Code: HFAL000210
|
00:01 The following program presents principles
00:03 designed to promote good health and 00:05 is not intended to take the place of 00:06 personalized professional care. 00:09 The opinions and ideas expressed are those 00:11 of the speaker. Viewers are encouraged 00:13 to draw their own conclusions 00:14 about the information presented. 00:49 Hello and welcome to Health For A Lifetime. 00:51 Today we're gonna be talking about your 00:53 nerves and here to talk to us about the 00:55 nerves is Dr. Phil Mills, he's a rehab specialist 00:58 and he's been working that field for what? 01:00 About 20 years or more. Actually 30. 01:02 30 years, so you've taught about the nerves a 01:05 long time and you know the body has a 01:07 communication system, how does the head 01:09 communicate with the rest of the body, 01:11 that's the question, how do we that? 01:13 Well communication as you know is important 01:15 in every area of life. It's important for wives to 01:17 communicate with husbands and for parents 01:19 to communicate with children and it's important 01:22 for your brain to be able to communicate with 01:24 your body and your body to be able to 01:26 communicate with the brain. There are two 01:29 major ways of communication, one is 01:32 through the blood, that's sort of like over the 01:35 loud speaker, alright. And it goes everywhere, 01:39 where as the very specific communication 01:42 pattern are through the nerves, 01:45 through the nerves. Well I think it's true. 01:47 I mean no one is gonna disagree that our 01:49 heads need to communicate with our bodies at 01:51 least I hope so today. But what is this major 01:55 emphasis you know you're talking about 01:56 rehabilitation and we're talking about the nerves. 02:01 What kind of diseases are you dealing with there? 02:04 Well there are many, many different diseases that 02:08 are encompassed in nervous system disorders, 02:11 neuropathies. But really we need to look at how, 02:15 cells. Right, how the nerve is formed. 02:19 The nerve has actually two major parts. 02:22 There is the nerve itself, actually the acts on 02:25 part is what we, the inside, the inside and 02:28 then you have around it an insulating layer 02:31 called the myelin sheath. The myelin sheath is 02:37 put in over a period of time from the time that 02:41 we're first conceived back till we finally the last 02:45 finishing touches of myelin are put in 02:48 somewhere for at least for males, 02:49 in the last of the 20s, certain mid to last of 02:55 the 20s. And what does the myelin do? 02:57 Well it insulates the nerve, okay, and it 03:01 also speeds up the conduction maybe in some 03:05 cases by a factor of as much as 40 times. 03:09 Some people say that there is two ways to 03:13 send those impulses like on the autobahn 03:15 which is a myelin and then the other is slower, 03:17 is that right. Yes. For example some of the 03:19 automatic systems, it might take two, 03:23 may be even as much as three seconds to go 03:27 from the tip of the toe in a tall person to 03:29 the brain. But these are sending information that's 03:33 not so important, it has to be instant or 03:36 immediate. And then there are other portions 03:40 that have to be send messages that have to 03:43 be done very, very rapidly and those go over 03:46 these well myelinated very fast conduction nerves. 03:51 So, I mean what happens if your myelin is not 03:55 there, lets say you don't have any myelin, 03:57 and never got any? Well they actually have a 04:04 mouse that genetically doesn't have myelin or 04:08 very little myelin. So it just has the inside axons, 04:11 to that inside part but not this part going 04:13 around. Yes so there is no inflation so it shorts 04:16 out, shall we say. And a mouse moves very 04:19 erratically, just a true jerk, kind of true jerk, 04:23 kind of jerking around. Yeah. So that it actually 04:28 is very much like it's a model of multiple sclerosis 04:32 where you have that problem of coordination, 04:36 moment, even some speech problems or 04:38 scanning kind of speech type of problems. So, 04:40 that's what happens in multiple sclerosis, 04:42 the myelin sheath is kind of be eroding. 04:45 Well, just in certain places in the brain 04:48 actually. So these are generalized problems 04:53 that you've talked about, what about if it's 04:56 just damaged in one place the myelin sheath? 04:58 Well you can have trauma that injures the myelin 05:01 and may be even the nerve in one place, 05:08 the classic problem is what's called Saturday 05:12 night palsy, okay. And in that case a person is 05:16 drinking some substances that they shouldn't be 05:19 drinking and so they're doing some activity they 05:22 shouldn't be doing maybe they're, instead of 05:24 home they're out spending the night in the 05:27 park. And so they put their arms back over the 05:31 park bench. Then they go to sleep or something. 05:34 And then they go to an intoxicated kind of 05:37 sleep, so they don't move like they should, 05:39 their brain doesn't send them the signals that 05:42 all is not well and so in that particular case 05:47 their arm is sitting on a pressure point, 05:51 may be for a couple hours. And on awakening 05:56 in the morning when they try to lift their wrist, 06:01 they can't lift it because there is a wrist drop. 06:03 Now in some cases it may come back slowly, 06:07 may come back nearly completely, 06:09 in some cases they may be gone for good. 06:12 Now similar problem is called honeymoon palsy. 06:17 Honeymoon palsy. And in this case a person 06:20 just married may be they were drinking, 06:24 they go to sleep at night and the head of the 06:28 new spouse is on the arm of the other spouse, 06:35 okay. And so that arm rests there and if 06:38 they've been drinking they may not move it 06:40 as they should, again they don't have the 06:41 communication and so once again they'll get 06:45 a wrist drop that may improve with time. 06:51 I think you're worrying a lot of people, 06:53 I mean people are not going to get married 06:54 now because of this probably. 06:56 Well that isn't my point, and my point isn't 07:00 that it's not good to hug your wife but, 07:02 but that can happen, it can happen. Have you 07:04 seen that, you've seen people come. Oh, yes 07:05 I've seen, I've seen these Saturday night 07:08 palsies, I've not seen a Honeymoon palsy 07:10 but I have seen the others. Now you can have 07:13 other kinds of palsies, where you have a 07:16 bell palsy, where you have part of the face 07:18 that isn't moving. And how does that happen 07:20 because you've pressed on something, 07:22 may be your glasses were on too tight. 07:24 Well, in this case for there is various 07:28 causes but there is some swelling and a 07:31 pressure to a nerve that goes to this area of 07:33 the face. Okay. Now, you know of course I'm 07:37 sure blunt trauma to some area would also 07:39 mess up the myelin there. Yes, and I should 07:42 mention in the elbow, this is an important 07:48 concept the nerves that come down the arm, 07:53 the only nerve that comes down the arm 07:54 wraps around the outside of the elbow. 07:57 Okay. If you look at your finger, okay, and 08:02 you bend it, you'll find that when it's straight 08:06 the, there is redundant skin. Alright, yes, 08:10 so you got a little extra there, extra skin, 08:11 so everyone who bends it. You need that 08:13 extra skin. When you bend it now you can see 08:16 that's very tight. Well most people don't think 08:19 about it but on the nerve that goes around the 08:23 elbow it has to be, there has to be redundant 08:26 or extra nerve tissue or it would stretch, 08:31 or pop, and injure when it's going around 08:33 this corner. Well at approximately a 110 08:37 degrees that's the studies we did on 08:40 cadavers, that's the general place that you 08:43 have, it's maximum, the maximum stretch. 08:47 When you bend it all the way acutely, 08:50 if our elbows are acutely bent, 08:52 then in most cases we're beginning to stretch 08:55 the ulnar nerves. Some people sleep like this 08:57 all night and so they can get some stretching 09:00 of that on their nerve and can have some 09:02 damage of the ulnar nerve, this nerve where 09:05 it goes through the, ulnar groove here it's 09:09 bounded by bone and it's right next to the skin, 09:12 so you can tap it and you have the crazy bone 09:16 that you, when you hit your funny bone. 09:20 Well so that's another injury, what about Carpal 09:23 tunnel syndrome? Yes. Carpal Tunnel is a injury 09:27 to the nerve right here at the wrist. Okay. 09:29 And this can come again you have a nerve 09:35 going through a tight area bounded by bone 09:40 on 3 side with a real strong ligament right 09:43 here. Okay. And so as this nerve goes through, 09:46 if you develop arthritic changes by age or 09:50 if the ligament gets thickened or if you're 09:55 pounding such as a person who is using a 09:57 jack hammer, this can cause some problems with 10:01 this area. Now we have done some interesting 10:05 research on the pressures of the wrist here, 10:11 in this area. I don't know how somebody was 10:14 willing to do it but the researchers found 10:17 people willing to have a pressure sensor stuck 10:22 into their wrist. Well that sounds like it hurts. 10:25 It does. And so then they would take normal 10:29 people and people with Carpal Tunnel. 10:30 And what they found is that normal people 10:33 you bends your wrist, you flex it forward, 10:36 you extend it backward, the pressure in that 10:39 joint increases over the Carpal Tunnel, 10:41 it increases as soon as you bring it back to 10:45 neutral. It's okay again. It's okay. 10:48 But in a person who is susceptible to Carpal 10:50 Tunnel, you bend it forward, you bend it 10:53 backward and they bring it to neutral, 10:57 the pressure stays elevated. 10:59 So there's a problem they've got some, 11:00 so the pressure may stay elevated for 20 11:03 minutes or more and so that puts pressure 11:05 on that nerve and it can cause some injury 11:08 to the nerve and then they develop the 11:10 Carpal tunnel syndromes at night waking up 11:12 and their hands were asleep and they're 11:13 shaking their hands. Now if they don't get 11:16 that taken care of either through, 11:18 you say there are some kind of exercises 11:19 may be are supposed to do or through surgery, 11:23 will that damage the nerves permanently. 11:26 Oh yes and so the exercises you want and 11:30 maybe some B Vitamins, stretch the ligament 11:33 out. But ultimately the definitive treatment 11:39 and a fairly simple treatment is a surgical 11:43 procedure where they release this tight 11:46 ligament so there is room for the nerve and 11:49 the the case of true Carpal Tunnel syndrome 11:53 basically the problem is resolved unless they 11:56 develop some scar tissue as a result of the 11:58 surgery. Now are there any nerve kind of 12:02 emergencies, of course a trauma, we get hit 12:04 by a truck and your nerve gets severed, 12:06 that's an entry I know that, but I mean is 12:07 there any other kind of injury that you 12:10 would say make your way to the emergency 12:13 room to the hospital. Well, may be you're not 12:16 thinking of injury as much as disease, okay, 12:19 such as, a disease of course an injury would 12:21 go, right. Guillain-Barre or Guillain-Barre 12:26 depending on how you pronounce it, 12:30 that is an ascending or maybe an ascending 12:35 neuropathy you have increasing weakness 12:38 in the extremities, in the hands, in the legs 12:42 as that goes toward the lungs you can be 12:46 unable to breathe. Is it a virus or something? 12:48 No, it's the body's attacking, actually 12:52 the nerve and the nerve covering that myelin 12:55 sheath somehow the, because of maybe a 12:58 person who had a virus before the body 13:01 sensitized itself to that virus. Okay, then it 13:04 attack itself. But then the virus looked very 13:06 much like the myelin sheath and so they think 13:09 they're attacking the virus, but they're 13:12 really attacking, so they got to be in the 13:14 hospital just in case you stop breathing, 13:16 all those different kind of things. 13:17 Can that ever reverse? Oh yes. 13:19 Typically it does unless it becomes chronic 13:21 relapsing, but typically they can, 13:24 they can come back to essentially full covering. 13:28 And that's by boosting their immune system 13:31 and different things I remember as the nerve's 13:32 taking care of few patients like that in a 13:35 hospital and I never really kind of understood 13:37 that but this certainly makes a lot of sense. 13:39 We're talking with Dr. Phil Mills, 13:41 we're talking about problems with the nerves 13:43 and well also the beauty and wonder of the 13:44 nerves. When we come back we're going 13:46 to talk about some more problems and then how, 13:48 what you can do to have healthy nerves 13:50 and hopefully avoid or maybe even reverse some 13:53 of the problems, we'll see when we come back. 13:58 Are you confused about the endless stream 14:00 of new and often contradictory health 14:02 information with companies trying to sell 14:05 new drugs and special interest groups paying for 14:07 studies that spin the fact. Where can you find 14:10 a common sense approach to health? 14:12 One way is to ask for your free copy of 14:15 Dr. Arnott's 24 realistic ways to improve your 14:18 health. Dr. Timothy Arnott and the Lifestyle 14:20 Center of America produced this helpful booklet 14:23 of 24 short practical health tips based on 14:26 scientific research and the Bible, 14:28 that will help you live longer, 14:29 happier and healthier. For example, 14:32 did you know that women who drink more water 14:34 lower the risk of heart attack or that 7 to 14:37 8 hours of sleep a night can minimize your 14:39 risk of ever developing diabetes. 14:41 Find out how to lower your blood pressure 14:43 and much more if you're looking for help not 14:46 hike, then this booklet is for you. 14:47 Just log on to 3abn.org and click on free 14:50 offers or call us during regular business hours, 14:54 you'll be glad you did. 14:57 Welcome back we're talking with Dr. Phil 14:59 Mills, we're talking about the nerves, 15:00 in our first half we learned a lot about the 15:03 nerves, how they worked. We talked about 15:05 the outside sheath of the nerve, 15:07 we talked about the inside section of the 15:09 nerve and Dr. Mills explained how those 15:12 worked and somehow, sometimes why they 15:14 don't work and different things that we do. 15:16 And we're looking now a little more closely not 15:19 at the outside section anymore. 15:20 We talked about some things that can 15:22 happen with that outside section, you talked 15:24 about the honeymoon palsy, about the bells 15:26 palsy, about this progressive movement of 15:31 what would you call that from the, 15:32 going from the feet up Guillain-Barre, 15:34 Guillain-Barre. And now we're gonna be talking 15:36 about the actual inside of the nerve itself. 15:40 What kind of things can afflict the inside, 15:43 you call it the axon, is that what you call 15:44 that? Yes, well actually neuropathies are 15:49 very, very common, okay. About one out of 15:53 eight people will have a neuropathy of some 15:56 sort, may be mild, may be more severe by 16:00 the time they're 70. So this is something, 16:02 everyone that's watching will if they haven't 16:04 experienced will probably experience it. 16:07 Well one out of eight will. Right. 16:09 So you have a very significant part of the 16:13 population that have this neuropathy, 16:16 one of most feared neuropathies perhaps is 16:18 leprosy. In this country we they think there are 16:22 about 5500 perhaps it's seen endemically in 16:30 Louisiana and also Texas. And what does that 16:33 do, does it slow down the conduction is that 16:35 what it does. Way, way down. Your slowest 16:38 conductions that are seen at all, are seen in 16:46 leprosy. So you can get a three meter per 16:49 second conduction study on nerve conduction 16:53 studies. That's incredibly slow. So, it's a 17:00 problem that is not a real common problem 17:03 in this country but some of the experts in the 17:07 area say it's more common than we think. 17:09 As I said statistically we think there are maybe 17:14 5500 but the experts on it tell me that there 17:19 may be 3 or 4 times that many, it's way 17:22 under diagnosed. I have a friend of mine 17:24 who has done incredible research in the world 17:27 literature on leprosy. He worked for years in 17:31 a leper colony in Africa. And seeking for solutions 17:37 he did this search and put it all, made all of 17:41 it available in a CD, okay. Tremendous research. 17:46 He came back to this country and was working 17:50 for a temporarily doing independent medical 17:53 evaluations up in the Seattle, where you 17:55 think there probably be no leprosy. 17:58 He found two lepers undiagnosed, 18:03 just in doing independent medical evaluations 18:06 in Seattle. So he thinks that it's based on his 18:11 findings and his experience that it would 18:14 be, more prevalent. The problem is we don't think 18:18 about it as a physician. Now how do people get 18:20 leprosy, is that just, how does that happen? 18:23 Well it is very mildly contagious, 18:27 but if a person has lived in Louisiana or Texas, 18:34 they've lived in Texas or if they've been in the 18:38 army, been overseas in those locations maybe 18:41 missionaries where leprosy is, that's how you 18:45 get it. Now you said that you were talking to me 18:47 about how they diagnosed that, they can kind of 18:49 fill the nerve on one side but not on the other 18:51 and that means that probably they have it. 18:54 Well that's one way, there's a lot of ways that 18:56 they can diagnose it, but it is, it is the only 19:01 disease where you can feel your ulnar nerve on 19:05 one side and not on the other, that's leprosy. 19:08 So that's not a real common thing but what are 19:10 some other most common neuropathies we have, 19:13 were problems with the nerves in this country? 19:15 Well in this country the most common is diabetes. 19:19 So diabetic neuropathy we call it, 19:21 how does that develop, how does a diabetic 19:24 develop problems with the nerves? 19:25 Well we call it a diabetic peripheral polyneuropathy, 19:30 peripheral that is, is because it's the 19:31 peripheral nerves. It also is seen in the face 19:36 and poly meaning many, okay, many nerves and 19:42 then neuropathy being pathy meaning disease 19:45 and neuro being nerve. So many peripheral, 19:50 are affected, so how. So, how does that 19:51 happen, is it because the blood sugar goes up, 19:53 what happens with that? Well, what we think and 19:55 there are various theories on it but the 19:58 best one appears to be a decreased sense, 20:03 decreased circulation to the nerve itself. 20:07 I see. So decreased circulation coming to the 20:10 nerves and that causes them to just break down 20:13 and then not working. Well they get sickly and 20:16 so then a person is more, for example a person 20:19 who has diabetes peripheral polyneuropathy 20:23 is at more risk to develop such things as 20:26 Carpal tunnel syndrome, such things as an ulnar 20:28 neuropathy, all that can predisposure to have 20:34 nerve problems in other ways. It will often 20:37 begin with a burning sensation in your toes 20:42 or in your fingers. Does that get worse or less 20:45 as these things go on. The burning sensation 20:47 actually decreases the pain actually decreases 20:51 as the disease progresses. You would think that, 20:56 that would be a good thing but in fact what 20:58 happens is the nerve has most sensation, 21:03 most feeling when it's the most healthy, I see. 21:05 So when it's just beginning to get unhealthy 21:09 it has these sensations. As it really becomes 21:12 very unhealthy you don't have any particular 21:17 burning but you don't have any particular sensation 21:20 either. So for the leper and for the diabetic 21:22 with neuropathies, it's actually 21:24 a bad thing to not have pain, pain's really a 21:26 blessing. Yes it is, pain is an amazing, 21:31 amazingly enough is great blessing I've had 21:36 people that, I've listened to them, they have 21:39 their thumb hit with the hammer and then 21:44 they take God's name in vain. If they only 21:47 realized that that pain is protective and they 21:52 would say, yeah, thank you Lord for having me 21:56 feel the pain of a hammer, yeah, of a hammer 22:00 hitting it, because otherwise. They ever been 22:03 to leper colony and seeing the opposite, yes. 22:06 I mean, I'm reading a book about these lepers 22:09 and they couldn't feel anything and one's 22:10 running around, their toes are falling 22:13 out they don't realize all these different 22:15 things and then they got them these cats, 22:19 they put them in the rooms with them, 22:20 they were killing all the rats because 22:21 the rats were kind of nibbling on them at night. 22:24 Man, I was very thankful the next morning that 22:26 I had some pain. Well you know interestingly 22:29 enough Paul talks about spiritual neuropathies. 22:35 What do you mean? He calls it, people who are 22:38 past feeling, oh okay, you see spiritually if we 22:42 do something wrong we should have pain 22:44 for it. Yeah, you should feel bad about it, 22:46 if you talk to a child that's not accustomed to 22:49 lying, he'll look away when he is lying, 22:53 he'll look down, he'll get a little uncountable, 22:55 but the real professional will look right at you. 22:59 There's no way you can tell that they're lying 23:01 because they're past feeling that they're 23:03 hurt, so we should welcome a sensitive conscience. 23:07 So that's why they sometimes can't even pick 23:09 it up with a polygraph, they're so. Yeah. 23:11 Past feeling they get expert. They're past 23:13 feeling interesting. So how do you treat a 23:15 neuropathy once you have a diabetic neuropathy, 23:18 do you ever get cured from it, or? Typically, 23:21 now if you have a specific focal neuropathy 23:24 such as Carpal Tunnel syndrome or ulnar 23:26 neuropathy, surgical treatment is, can be in 23:31 many cases curative. But in your general 23:36 population you may not have a specific 23:41 treatment to cure the problem and what you do 23:45 is try to control it, decrease the side effects, 23:49 decrease the speed of progression, 23:50 those sorts of approaches. Okay. So then 23:53 general things you can do for nerve health, 23:54 what kind of things should they eat, 23:56 what things should they not eat, 23:58 what kind of things should you be doing. 23:59 Particularly your B Vitamins. Okay. 24:02 So you're thinking of sunflower seeds, 24:04 you're thinking of your grains, you're 24:07 thinking of fruits and vegetables, 24:10 the rich variety of foods that God has placed 24:14 in an abundance, the natural foods, 24:20 these are very good for your nerves. 24:22 And a diabetic needs to keep their sugar 24:25 under control, yes, and that helps as well. 24:28 And I think you also have done here Brewer's 24:30 yeast, so that's also good. Is that good because 24:33 it has B12, okay I see what you're saying. 24:36 And there can be problems with B12 and 24:38 Brewer's yeast is for those people who think 24:41 that, it's not enough for them, if it's good 24:44 for them, if it's good for them it has to taste bad. 24:45 And that's the treatment for people who like bad 24:49 tasting things to, exactly. What I was gonna 24:53 say, I wanna make sure that the people 24:54 listening don't get this wrong, I'm not saying 24:57 B12 can be bad for you, not enough B12 can 25:00 be bad for you, oh absolutely. Okay, 25:03 I remember growing up we would take Brewer's 25:06 yeast because we found out this was important 25:09 and we'd put it in tomato juice and you know 25:12 I got so, I even enjoyed it. Some people put 25:15 Brewer's yeast, don't try, don't try that at 25:17 home. Some people put Brewer's yeast in pop 25:20 corn. Okay. And my family likes it but I 25:23 can't say I do. Alright. Now although neuropathies 25:27 can't be cured, if someone has a neuropathy, 25:30 they need to be very careful, you've listened 25:32 to some things that they need to do, 25:33 they need to wear slippers if they go the 25:35 bathroom, have a light on, what other things 25:37 do they need to go. Well it's very important 25:39 everyday they inspect particularly their feet. 25:42 Look at the feet without the socks on, 25:45 if you have a mirror you look at it or a spouse 25:48 that can look at the bottom, you wanna inspect 25:50 it, so that you didn't get a sliver, 25:52 you don't have some problem in there. 25:54 Then since you can't rely on your feeling, 25:57 rely on a thermometer. So when you're taking 26:00 a bath make sure it's not too hot. Yes. 26:02 And if you have a shower, if you're taking 26:05 showers and your shower is one of those that 26:07 some times it's hot, some times it's cold. 26:10 You can get burned and not really know it. 26:13 So you want to know, you can put on a little 26:16 adaptive device, it's very cheap, few dollars 26:19 that you can screw into the head that will 26:23 turn it off, if it gets too hot, if get suddenly 26:26 goes hot. Excellent, so all these are very 26:30 practical tips. Let me tell you one other thing, 26:33 okay. Some times people will carry crock pots or 26:35 going to picnics and their foot will be up 26:38 against the crock pots and I've seen very 26:40 bad burns from that. You have to use your 26:43 head instead of your feeling. And you see 26:46 all these people after the fact and then they're 26:49 trying to catch up, this can really help you 26:51 avoid problems. You know you are of course a 26:54 Christian physician, you're part of the 26:55 Adventist medical evangelism network and 26:58 that's a great society for physicians to be in 27:01 as well. But you bring you know the spiritual 27:06 into your care as well and I'm sure we've 27:08 talked about how wonderful pain is, 27:10 but I'm sure you're looking forward to a 27:12 time may be when there is no pain, 27:14 is there anything that you share with your 27:15 patients when you talk with them about pain. 27:18 Well particularly in those cases of pain where 27:21 we can do so little. We can still look 27:25 forward to the time that God has promised 27:29 when pain will be no more. 27:32 And we look forward to the time where God 27:36 shall wipe away all tears from the eyes and 27:39 these pain receptors will be used for something 27:43 besides telling us about hurt. Well we've 27:47 learned so much about our nerves today, 27:49 we thank you so much Dr. Mills for being with 27:51 us and helping us learn and we thank you also 27:54 for being with us. We hope that you really 27:56 take this advice to heart and have 27:58 health that lasts for a lifetime. |
Revised 2014-12-17