Healthy Living

Cancer and Inflammation

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Margot Marshall (Host), Dr. Eddie Ramirez

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Series Code: HL

Program Code: HL000020A


00:15 Welcome to "Healthy Living!"
00:16 I'm your host Margo Marshall.
00:18 What does a stubbed toe or a splinter in the finger
00:21 have to do with your risk of Alzheimer's disease,
00:25 heart attack or cancer?
00:26 More than you might think!
00:29 Scientists established a link to an age old defense
00:32 mechanism called, "inflammation" - so stay tuned.
01:13 Inflammation of short duration can be your best friend,
01:18 but uncontrolled inflammation plays a role in almost
01:21 every major disease.
01:24 And here to tell us about inflammation is my
01:26 guest, Dr. Eddie Ramirez.
01:29 Welcome Eddie! Thank you!
01:30 Lovely to have you on the program.
01:32 This is a fascinating subject and something I'd like
01:35 to understand better than I do,
01:36 so I'm looking forward to what you have to tell us about this.
01:40 Yes, as I always tell my patients, you know,
01:43 in the top three things that you need to know is
01:46 I want you to understand "inflammation" because
01:49 as you correctly said - many of the common diseases
01:54 such as heart disease and Alzheimer's and many more,
01:58 are directly linked to inflammation.
02:01 So we need to understand what inflammation is.
02:05 Inflammation is basically a response mechanism
02:09 of the body that responds when there are
02:14 certain injuries or problems happening on the body.
02:18 For example, let me give you this illustration.
02:21 Suppose that you poke yourself with a thorn.
02:25 I've done that, I've done that quite recently so I know that.
02:29 I imagine somebody must have done that in the past.
02:33 So what the body does, it knows there is an
02:38 injury happening there, so inflammation what it does is
02:43 it calls the mechanisms of repair to come and
02:48 aid in repairing that area.
02:52 So in that way the body knows there may be some pathogens
02:56 there as the thorn crosses the protection layers of the skin,
03:02 pathogens go inside.
03:03 The body knows that it needs to send something to stop them,
03:07 so the new system goes there and there are some
03:11 classic symptoms of inflammation that even all
03:16 the way from the time of the Romans, the physicians back then
03:21 saw those four symptoms and we can see them on the screen.
03:25 You feel the area, it feels hot, it's painful, it becomes red,
03:32 it becomes swollen.
03:34 I know all of that when it comes to pricking my finger or
03:39 some other injury - I've seen that,
03:41 but what's the connection between that and say,
03:46 heart disease or brain problems, that's what I don't get.
03:51 Absolutely! A very good question.
03:53 So that mechanism of defense is saying something is not
03:59 right here, I need help.
04:01 All the mechanisms of the body go and help.
04:03 So when this is happening in an acute state,
04:08 just within a short period of time,
04:11 this is actually a big blessing.
04:14 See, if you didn't have this mechanism, you could
04:17 actually die of a thorn pricking you. Yes.
04:22 Why? Well, the bacteria would start reproducing and suddenly
04:26 you will be full of bacteria and you would literally
04:28 die of a thorn pricking you.
04:31 And that used to happen before the antibiotics came up.
04:35 Yes that used to happen before we had antibiotics and so forth,
04:38 but still the mechanisms of the body would stop a lot of it.
04:43 So what's the link between that and those
04:46 current modern diseases?
04:49 Well, a physician back in the 1800s by the name of
04:54 "Virchow," he is a German physician - he started putting
04:59 the pieces together and he realized that many people
05:05 were having chronic inflammation and when that inflammation
05:11 becomes chronic, many times those four symptoms that
05:16 we mentioned - they disappear, the person doesn't even know
05:20 that this is happening to them and suddenly different
05:25 problems start to come about.
05:26 How do we know that? Because now with our
05:29 modern understanding of biochemistry and pathology,
05:34 we can trace those problems to problems
05:38 of chronic inflammation and you know this is something I
05:41 face in the clinical practice.
05:42 So chronic is something that just goes on and on.
05:44 That's right, it's long-term, you don't resolve that
05:49 inflammation.
05:51 So, for example, I see this in the clinical practice.
05:54 A patient comes there, I go ahead and take some blood tests,
05:58 and I check and I see that there are things there that
06:02 don't look good and I tell the patient, "You know,
06:05 I would like you to do a few lifestyle changes."
06:07 Some of the patient say, "Lifestyle changes, why do I
06:11 need to change, you know I'm doing good,
06:13 I don't need any change."
06:14 They don't realize that inflammation is active inside
06:21 of them and that is extremely harmful.
06:25 And there are some interesting studies that have been done
06:29 with populations in which we can see rates of disease.
06:35 For example, there was a very interesting study done
06:39 a few years ago in which they were having different
06:48 groups of people - they had Japanese that live in Japan;
06:52 they had Japanese that moved to Hawaii, Hawaii is part of
06:56 America and they had also the Americans per se,
07:04 the Caucasian.
07:05 They were comparing these three groups.
07:07 And I want you to go and see that screen and you can see
07:12 how similar those different cancers in the
07:16 different populations are.
07:18 Please notice how the Japanese that live in Hawaii and the
07:21 Caucasians in Hawaii, you can see that the cancers
07:25 are very similar in their rate.
07:29 The only one that changes there, you can see, is the cancer
07:34 of the esophagus and the cancer of the stomach - that has to do
07:38 with their consumption of smoked products, okay?
07:44 When you eat smoked fish, smoked things are carcinogenic,
07:50 and in a minute, we'll talk a little bit more about that.
07:53 But can you see the big change that happened - from the
07:55 one that lives in Japan to the one that came to Hawaii?
07:59 The reason why this happened is because many of the
08:04 habits that they acquire in that new country were
08:09 inflammatory!
08:11 So point #1- Understand that inflammation many times
08:17 can be silent especially the chronic inflammation.
08:21 It's not like the thorn that pricks you, you quickly know
08:23 something is not right there (Oh yes), and that's why
08:27 "Time Magazine" ran a whole issue about it.
08:30 And "Time Magazine" put a fascinating title,
08:34 it calls it, "The Silent Killer," and it's
08:37 true, you know. Yes.
08:39 So it's there in the body for a long time and don't even
08:42 know that it's there?
08:43 Well it's not that it's in the body but your
08:47 habits are actually encouraging the growth of it.
08:53 I like to use the following illustration:
08:55 Think of inflammation like fire.
08:59 You know, in the winter in Australia, to have some nice
09:04 warmth - this actually is welcome because it can get
09:07 cold here in Australia. Oh yes!
09:11 So you have a fireplace, some of you have a fireplace and you
09:15 know, that's fantastic to have a fireplace, sit down in front
09:18 of it and get that nice heat.
09:20 But, what happens if the fire starts coming out of the
09:27 fireplace and those flames start invading outside of your home?
09:34 Is that good or is that bad?
09:35 I would say, not good, not good at all.
09:38 You can end up in disaster if this happened.
09:42 Or the second illustration I would like to use:
09:45 Like a stove - imagine a stove.
09:48 The nice thing about a stove compared to a fireplace
09:51 to cook, is that you have the ability to control the amount
09:56 of heat that is being generated, so you can adjust.
09:59 Yes, too much, too little - it's a fantastic invention.
10:03 But what happens if that heat that is supposed to be contained
10:09 to the stove, starts going out of control, starts heating
10:13 the food, flames start coming out of the food or the oil,
10:19 disaster comes about.
10:21 So the key with inflammation is that it can be very good
10:27 for you because you stop a pathogen - for example
10:30 the thorn example, but it can also be bad for you
10:35 if your habits are inflammatory.
10:40 Okay, so what are these sources of inflammation?
10:44 That is an excellent question!
10:46 Let me share with you a few, there are many but let me
10:48 share with you a few of those important sources.
10:52 One of them has to do with sunlight.
10:56 If you get too much sunlight, it is inflammatory.
11:02 Now let me ask you - "If you have gotten more sun
11:06 than what you should, what color does your skin become?"
11:11 Oh, it goes red.
11:12 Okay, remember the symptoms of inflammation?
11:14 Let me repeat them - You have the heat, you have the pain,
11:20 you have the growth and you have the redness. Okay.
11:24 DING! Some people are saying, "Okay, I see the connection."
11:29 So when you have too much sun, you're skin becomes red!
11:33 See, you can quickly put there the two by two together.
11:36 So people, for example, that day by day - excess sunlight,
11:41 excess sunlight - that can be harmful.
11:42 Another source of inflammation is cigarette smoking and in a
11:46 minute, we will talk more about it.
11:48 Also, alcohol! Very inflammatory!
11:52 Every time you drink alcohol, it is inflammatory.
11:57 A study just came in, just a couple of weeks ago,
12:02 demonstrating how inflammation and alcohol intake
12:07 is directly related.
12:09 If you want to go and read the paper - visit my Twitter
12:13 "Eddie RD MD" - you can see the copy of the paper.
12:18 Also another source of inflammation is animal product
12:22 intake - animal products are very inflammatory.
12:27 And another source of inflammation is
12:30 having excess weight.
12:33 If you have more weight than what you should,
12:36 that actually creates inflammation.
12:40 Now I don't want you to worry if you have a few kilos extra.
12:45 What I want you to do - I want you to get yourself on a
12:49 plan to start losing weight.
12:51 And this is the beauty of this, as soon as you start
12:55 losing weight, your inflammation in your body decreases.
13:01 Let me show you a couple of more sources - yes go ahead.
13:03 So you start to get the benefits right away?
13:06 Immediately as you start losing the weight,
13:09 the inflammation in the body decreases.
13:13 That's why somebody that has a problem with their weight
13:16 we know very well there are many different types of
13:20 cancer that that person has the risk of getting because of
13:25 that link of chronic inflammation.
13:28 Can I just tell you one thing about my
13:30 one effort to smoke? Yes.
13:33 I was a little kid, I don't really remember how old,
13:36 maybe 8 or something like that.
13:38 So my sister and I decided we would have a smoke,
13:42 but we couldn't get our hands on any so we had to improvise,
13:46 and all we could find to improvise was some paper straws.
13:52 Anyway, the fire wasn't a problem, we had a wood fire
13:55 like you were just saying.
13:57 So my older sister was very gracious and she said,
14:00 "Don't you go first?," so I went first and so I
14:04 put this thing in the fire and it caught a big flame
14:07 at the end and it started to burn down fairly quickly
14:10 and I thought, "Well I better be quick here."
14:12 So I did what I'd seen people do and I drew back heavily,
14:16 (laughter), and that flame went down the straw
14:19 and down my throat. Hmmm!
14:21 And I could hardly - Oh, it was a wonder I could speak.
14:25 And when I did, I said to Olga, "Well, it's your turn now,"
14:28 and she wouldn't do it! Laughter!
14:31 So anyway, fortunately by the time I was a few years older,
14:36 I had enough sense to think, "I don't think it's a
14:38 good idea at all," so I never did actually smoke a cigarette.
14:41 I'm glad you learned the lesson early!
14:45 It stayed with me for quite a while.
14:48 Other sources of inflammation are virus and bacteria.
14:52 For example, papilloma virus - something very common today.
14:59 Unfortunately studies show that, for example,
15:02 in high schools today, here in Australia, three-quarters of the
15:07 young people have the papilloma virus...
15:10 How did they get it? Sexually transmitted virus.
15:14 And you know, these people have a huge risk for male and
15:19 female-related cancers later on in their future.
15:24 And even though there is a vaccination that is being used
15:27 nowadays, that only covers a few of the subtypes.
15:32 There are more than 100 different types of subtypes
15:36 of papilloma virus.
15:37 So your choices can interfere with this.
15:41 Also another source of inflammation could be
15:44 pollution, so be careful on exposing yourself to pollutants.
15:50 And another very important one that you have a lot of control
15:54 on it has to do with your emotional state.
15:58 If you are somebody under lots of stress, lots of anxiety,
16:05 these types of situations, that mental stress by itself
16:12 is a very important source of inflammation.
16:16 So what I would advise you is take hold
16:20 of spiritual resources. Okay.
16:23 You know, sometimes we're in problems that makes us
16:26 feel overwhelmed or that we cannot go ahead,
16:31 well, take advantage of those spiritual resources.
16:36 One of the things that has been actually proven in the
16:40 scientific literature to deal with stress
16:43 has to do with prayer!
16:45 When you pray, you're actually having an outlet for that stress
16:52 to go out from your system. Yes.
16:55 So be very diligent at trying to incorporate.
17:01 I actually read a study one time and they found that people
17:06 who prayed and meditated for 10 minutes twice a day,
17:10 significantly lowered their blood pressure.
17:12 That's right! It's just beautiful!
17:14 There's a very good connection, you know, with our mind
17:18 and our body and our soul, all of that - they are all
17:20 very interconnected.
17:22 And so what works for one, works for the other for good or
17:25 for bad unfortunately, so yes.
17:27 And I love the stuff you've been telling us in the
17:30 sources and the problems because when you stop and really
17:33 think about some of those things that you've said - that can
17:37 cause inflammation, they're all pretty much common sense,
17:39 but not that common, unfortunately, so go on.
17:44 So my goal is for you to try to find sources of inflammation
17:51 in your lifestyle; identify them and as soon as you
17:57 find them, then stop them!
17:59 There was a fascinating study that was
18:01 done a couple of years ago in which they
18:05 had two groups of people.
18:08 One group - well both groups were fasting overnight.
18:11 One group was just drinking water in the morning;
18:14 the other group ate typical things that actually are
18:18 being used commonly here in Australia.
18:21 Their breakfast consisted of white bread, cheese,
18:25 egg and fried potatoes.
18:30 That was the breakfast that they eat.
18:32 And I think they got that on their way to work at a fast
18:34 food place. Probably on the way to
18:36 work in a hurry.
18:37 Yes, that doesn't sound like a home one.
18:39 So there is, in the body, a special marker of inflammation,
18:45 It sounds complicated but it's simple.
18:47 It is called: NF-kappa beta.
18:51 Basically what this long name means - it means that this
18:56 is the main switch of inflammation - that's what
19:00 our current understanding is.
19:02 As you go to your home and it's dark and you turn on the light,
19:07 and the light goes on - the same thing happens
19:12 with inflammation.
19:13 When you have NF-kappa beta active (on), we know
19:19 inflammation in the body is happening.
19:21 So we can see on the screen the results of the study.
19:26 If you can see, on the left side, you see a line
19:30 that starts going up and you can see...line 1-2-3,
19:35 can you identify that?
19:37 And then you see a bottom line that stays more or less
19:41 flat, okay. Oh yes.
19:43 The line that stayed more or less flat,
19:48 Let me guess - that's probably going to be the people
19:51 who just drank the water? Absolutely! Alright.
19:54 So no inflammation in the body happened.
19:57 But as soon as you ate that inflammatory breakfast,
20:02 immediately inflammation shoots up in your body.
20:07 And this is the issue - yes.
20:09 Now, can I just say this? Yes.
20:10 That's when you eat something that's not a good choice.
20:13 That's when you eat inflammatory food.
20:16 Sure, but if someone ate a whole wholesome breakfast,
20:20 that wouldn't happen.
20:21 That inflammation wouldn't go up at all.
20:25 So this is the issue - see, if you were to eat this
20:28 inflammatory food, oh and sausage, I forgot to add.
20:31 There was sausage there also. Okay.
20:33 There was sausage, egg and a white bun and some cheese.
20:36 That's right, some cheese and some potatoes, fried potatoes.
20:40 And so the fat would be about...
20:43 The fact that you fried the potato could be problematic.
20:48 But are you saying all of those elements so that
20:50 may allow all inflammatory?
20:51 The potatoes actually wouldn't be that inflammatory,
20:55 a little bit with the frying, but the rest of the other
20:58 food groups would be inflammatory.
21:00 So let me tell you this, if you were to eat
21:02 this once a year, nothing is going to happen to you.
21:07 You know, inflammation is going to go up,
21:08 and then after a few hours, it's going to come down,
21:11 everything is happy.
21:12 But there are people that eat inflammatory breakfast,
21:17 inflammatory lunch, inflammatory supper;
21:20 man, you are putting petrol to the fire - sooner or later
21:27 the flames are going to go out of that oven and
21:30 believe me, disaster is going to happen.
21:33 You missed out something.
21:35 You missed out what they have in-between.
21:37 Because let me tell you, it doesn't matter what
21:41 time of day you see people, there's something going
21:43 in there and it's all those kinds
21:44 of things that you're talking about.
21:45 The things that we know - I mean we know that there are things
21:48 that aren't good for us.
21:50 So I see what you're saying, it's really just fueling
21:53 the fire in an ongoing way.
21:56 Let me tell you the potential of inflammation of certain foods.
22:00 There was also another study published in the journal
22:05 "Nature," and in this journal they were trying to see how
22:10 much inflammation is there if you eat a charbroiled steak,
22:17 and we can see that on the screen.
22:19 A charbroiled steak, a kilo of it, when you eat that
22:26 it has the cancer-causing equivalent as smoking
22:31 600 cigarettes. Six-hundred.
22:35 Six-hundred cigarettes!
22:37 One steak, one chargrilled steak.
22:39 One chargrilled kilo of this.
22:45 So can you see the potential of inflammation in this
22:49 and what disaster is happening?
22:52 This is like filling your fireplace to the very top
22:57 with fuel and wood.
23:01 Man, that fire is gonna start coming out!
23:04 And you know, the issue is here,
23:08 animal products and this is what happens.
23:10 Yes, I was just going to say to you - What would be
23:13 like the major ones?
23:14 You've mentioned quite a few sources of inflammation,
23:16 but which would be the ones that are high on the list?
23:20 That's right, so animal products
23:22 would be foods that are very inflammatory and this is
23:26 the reason why - it also has to do with the
23:28 fact how you are cooking these foods. Okay.
23:33 So if you are cooking these foods with things like
23:39 charbroil or frying it, see, vegetables have
23:47 anti-inflammatory agents in them - so when you're putting
23:52 let's say broccoli on the grill, as damage has been happening
24:00 to the broccoli, the anti-inflammatory agents are
24:03 stopping the inflammation.
24:06 When you're frying something that's a little bit worse,
24:09 you do create some inflammation there in the vegetable products.
24:13 So the best thing is actually not to fry your vegetables,
24:17 a little bit of oil in the oven, it's fine.
24:20 But frying them, that creates other cancer-causing
24:25 substances and you want to avoid that.
24:27 But see, meat doesn't have anti-inflammatory agents,
24:32 just many people think that meat is a complete food.
24:35 It's actually a very deficient food.
24:38 It's only concentrated protein, no good source of carbohydrate,
24:44 no good vitamins, no anti-inflammatory agents.
24:50 So people would like to take a pill for this. Right.
24:54 And you know, pharmaceutical companies have invested
24:57 millions of dollars to try to come about
25:00 with a pill to stop inflammation.
25:03 I have bad news for you - it's not going to happen.
25:06 See, we have found out that what we need is to run to the
25:12 farmer's market - that's where we're going to find -
25:16 The farmer's market not the pharmacy.
25:18 Not the pharmacy or the chemist, that's right.
25:20 That's where we're going to find those sources of
25:24 anti-inflammatory, that's where we're going to
25:26 find the extinguisher.
25:27 As we were talking about fire, we need an extinguisher
25:33 to stop that. Alright, let's hear about
25:34 the fire extinguishers - this is what we need
25:36 to take away from this.
25:38 So I want you to eat the whole rainbow!
25:42 There are people that eat a banana a day and they say,
25:45 "Oh I ate my fruit for today."
25:48 Please don't deceive yourself, there are dozens and hundreds
25:53 of different types of fruits.
25:55 In fact, you guys are blessed here in Australia, with all
25:59 these ethnic people immigrating to your country,
26:02 they have brought all their vegetables and fruits.
26:05 Some people look at them and say, "Ugh,"
26:08 they put only a bad face.
26:09 Don't be that kind - I want you to go and
26:14 find on the internet how to use them.
26:15 So I want you to use the whole rainbow, I tell my patients,
26:20 so there are fruits and vegetables that are white,
26:23 yellow, orange, purple, blue, black - the whole
26:30 rainbow you have to eat.
26:31 There are more than 3,000 substances that help
26:37 fight problems of inflammation that have been documented
26:41 in fruits and vegetables.
26:43 So if you wanted to take this in a pill format,
26:48 imagine taking 3,000 pills to have these agents.
26:53 Imagine paying for them too.
26:54 And paying for them - that's right.
26:56 So yes, you know, some people are going to try to come
26:59 and try sell you this exotic berry from South America
27:03 and so forth - don't do that!
27:07 One last graphic I want to show you is how cigarettes are
27:11 inflammatory.
27:12 One cigarette will create inflammation
27:16 for more than a day.
27:17 You can see the little light turn on within half an hour
27:20 of smoking and the smoker doesn't smoke one cigarette,
27:24 he or she would smoke many more.
27:25 So you want to avoid inflammation, no smoking,
27:29 plant-based diet, exercise and peace within
27:33 will give you a nice long life.
27:35 Well that's beautiful! That's a really good wrap up.
27:39 And so I hope we all will be able to take that onboard
27:42 and at least some - I mean, sometimes we hear
27:45 a lot of things that cut across our lifestyle and we think
27:49 "Umm, that's a lot to take onboard," so at least
27:52 if we make some steps, you know, move towards a plant-based diet,
27:57 and look at opportunities to be able to just come into
28:03 line because for some people they can do it very quickly
28:05 and others, well at least it's, you know, differently
28:08 with taking some steps.
28:10 So, lovely to have you with our viewing company today
28:15 and your listening company.
28:17 Our goal is to support you on your journey through life,
28:20 and we hope that that's been happening today.
28:22 And we trust it's been very beneficial to you
28:25 or to someone that you love.
28:26 Remember you can watch our programs on demand,
28:29 just visit: 3abnaustralia.org.au
28:32 and click on the watch button
28:34 and you can see them at any time.
28:36 God bless you. Lovely to have you with us.


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Revised 2019-10-22