Participants: Margot Marshall (Host), Dr. Eddie Ramirez
Series Code: HL
Program Code: HL000020A
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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. |
Revised 2019-10-22