Participants: Nick Evenson (Host), Dr. James Marcum
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP000075A
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00:16 We all experience symptoms, but understanding
00:19 why those symptoms are happening is so important. 00:22 Stay with us as Dr. Marcum helps explain it. 00:26 I'm Dr. James Marcum, are you interested in 00:29 discovering the reason why? 00:31 Do you want solutions to your healthcare problem? 00:34 Are you tired of taking medications? 00:36 Well, you're about to be given "The Ultimate Prescription" 00:42 A lot of questions about symptoms, 00:44 but treating a symptom is not always the best idea. 00:47 Dr. Marcum, tell us why this might be the case. 00:50 Well I will Nick, and this is going to be a 00:52 great discussion because we're going to talk today, 00:55 on our program, about the difference between a 00:58 symptom, what's causing the symptom, a diagnosis, 01:02 all these interesting things, and think about it this way... 01:05 If I were banging my head into the wall over 01:08 and over and over again, and my head started hurting, 01:11 the symptom of hurting would be 01:14 the hurting is coming from my head... 01:16 Well if you were treating the symptom, 01:18 you might give me a pain medication. 01:20 I'd give you a pill. Sure! 01:21 And the pain might go away temporarily, 01:24 but it doesn't get at the cause. Right 01:26 That's just one analogy of treating a symptom 01:30 and not understanding the cause. 01:32 But let's think about it this way... 01:34 Let's talk about what a symptom is first of all. 01:38 Anything that we feel that's not normal 01:42 could be considered a symptom. Okay 01:45 Now there are physical symptoms that our body undergoes, 01:50 but there are also mental symptoms 01:53 that we don't feel that we think. Okay 01:55 So your brain can have symptoms 01:57 just as well as our body can have symptoms. 01:59 Let's talk about the eyes... 02:02 What would be a symptom that the eyes are malfunctioning, 02:04 something that the eyes would not be normal. 02:06 If they are itchy and red... 02:07 Itchy, red, pain in the eye, blurry vision... 02:11 those are all symptoms from the eyes. 02:14 We can think of that with almost any body part. 02:17 What about the head? Pain, headaches, 02:20 ears - ringing into the ears, dizziness. 02:23 Of course, the organ I work with is the chest. 02:25 The symptoms that might be from the chest would be: 02:27 Chest pain, but chest pain can be from the heart, 02:30 there are many other things. 02:31 Can't breathe - that might be a symptom. 02:34 A rash might be a symptom; itching might be a symptom; 02:39 diarrhea might be a symptom, and then the opposite 02:42 of diarrhea - constipation - those might be symptoms 02:45 from the GI tract. 02:47 Well what a healer does first of all - is he collects 02:51 the symptoms and sees if there is some pattern 02:53 recognition. 02:55 He sees if these abnormal feelings that a person 02:57 is experiencing might be leading to the cause. 03:01 So that's what a good diagnostician would do. 03:04 Now sometimes, there is disease going on in the body 03:07 that's longstanding that we don't even know we have 03:10 until we have a symptom. Right 03:12 Usually, when a symptom comes to surface, 03:15 the problem is pretty developed, and that's usually 03:18 when we need modern medicine is when the 03:21 symptom develops to help get us over the hump. 03:24 Are you following me? Yeah 03:25 Okay, like a heart attack might have been going on, 03:28 the cause, for 40 or 50 years. 03:31 Really? But it doesn't happen until 03:33 it accumulates and we have a heart attack. Right 03:35 Then we have to deal with the symptom, 03:37 but the disease has been going on for years and years. 03:40 You follow me? Yep 03:42 High blood pressure... high blood pressure can cause 03:43 aneurysms or weak spots in arteries. 03:46 That blood pressure might have been high for 30 years, 03:48 we might not have even know it. 03:50 The cause of that blood pressure might have been in our diet, 03:52 but we don't find out about it 03:54 until our body develops a symptom. Okay 03:56 So in our bodies, in caring for health, Nick, 04:00 we don't want to wait until a symptom occurs. 04:04 Did you ever watch - what's that show that 04:06 Barney Fife was on that show... 04:08 Umm... I'll think of it in a minute, 04:10 but anyway, I used to watch that show - it was very good, 04:12 it was funny and he used to say, "Nip it in the bud." Sure 04:16 So we want to find out a problem before it's a problem. 04:19 So that's one of the reasons, about going to 04:21 really good doctor - he will help you identify 04:24 disease before it even manifests itself as a symptom. 04:29 So, if you're feeling something that's not right, 04:32 especially if you don't have an explanation for it, 04:36 you need to seek help. 04:38 Your chest hurts when you're walking up a hill... 04:40 That's a classic symptom, but it could be a symptom 04:43 of what we call "angina," where the heart 04:46 isn't getting enough blood. 04:47 But if you think about it, lots of our body parts 04:50 have symptoms and if we identify the symptoms, 04:53 and we can articulate it well, that's going to help 04:56 the doctor quite a bit. 04:57 I have some people that come in and the men are the 05:00 worst about this... they come in, 05:02 I say, "Well why are you here?" 05:05 And they say, "Well my wife brought me." 05:08 You know that's the #1... No, I said, "No, you can do 05:10 better than that." Right "Why are you here?" 05:13 "I don't feel good." 05:15 Well, you know, that's not really helping me a whole lot, 05:18 but that is a symptom. 05:19 You need more of a description, what hurts? 05:20 But the symptom of, "My wife brought me," 05:23 doesn't help me very much. Right 05:24 The symptom of, "I feel bad all over," doesn't help me much, 05:28 but sometimes I can get them to lower it down a little bit. 05:31 They might say, "I'm having a fever," and that's a 05:34 symptom that might go with an infection; 05:36 it might go with a certain type of cancer. 05:39 They might say, "I've been losing weight," 05:43 and that would go with maybe a bowel problem; 05:45 a malnourishment problem; 05:47 it could go with a cancer problem, 05:49 and even at that point, the symptoms would eventually 05:51 lead me to the underlying cause of the symptoms 05:54 which could lead me to the disease or the disease state, 05:57 and help me figure out what I need to do. 06:00 So it's always better off treating a cause 06:03 rather than treating a symptom. 06:05 Not that the symptoms don't need attention, 06:07 but long-term, like we said, banging the head, 06:10 if I quit banging my head, I might not need the narcotic 06:13 to take the pain away. 06:15 And that happens so many times in people... 06:18 They do things over and over, especially back pain, Nick. 06:21 I have people that have back pain and they come in, 06:24 and they say, "Oh, my back hurts." 06:26 Well, the best thing for them is to rest it. 06:29 If they wouldn't go to work for a week or two and let 06:31 it rest, it would heal, everything would be fine... 06:33 But no, they have to go to work, they don't let it heal, 06:36 "Give me some medicine so I can work." 06:39 So they're functioning, they keep tearing the muscles 06:41 and the nerves and the back never gets better, 06:43 and they make the problem worse. Right 06:46 So sometimes in treating symptoms, 06:48 we can make problems worse. 06:50 I have people that come to me after they've had the bypass 06:52 surgery and that's where they cut the sternum and all the 06:56 nerves in two... I say, "Well, if you let this heal well, 06:59 it takes about six months," and they go, 07:01 "Well can I have a pain medicine?" 07:02 And I go, "No, I want you to have the pain 07:04 because that tells you to stop doing what you're doing." 07:07 So sometimes pain is a good signal for us not to be 07:11 stupid and do things we shouldn't be doing to our body. 07:15 So I think in understanding in answering 07:17 these questions today, it's going to be very 07:19 important that we step back a little bit and let's try 07:22 to find the cause of the problem 07:24 rather than just treating a symptom. 07:26 Now if we look at modern medicine, 07:28 we have lots of pills, lots of over-the-counters... 07:31 most of them just treat symptoms, 07:35 they don't treat the cause. 07:36 Does a blood pressure medicine treat a cause? No 07:40 Does a diabetic medicine treat a cause? 07:43 No, it just lowers your blood sugar. 07:45 Does a headache pill treat the cause? 07:47 No, it just treats the pain. 07:48 So a lot of these things treat symptoms, 07:51 and that's okay for the moment, 07:52 but it doesn't get at the problem, 07:54 so the problem continues to recur over and over. 07:57 It's a great business model, but it's not the best 08:01 way to take care of one of your most valuable, 08:03 if not the most valuable, investment that you have... 08:06 And I find it very strange that most people will spend 08:09 more time learning about their cars and other hobbies, 08:13 than they will spending learning about their body, 08:15 how to take care of it and how to optimize the function 08:18 of this very valuable gift. 08:20 That's right, it's really important... 08:21 don't just let your doctor get away with treating 08:24 just the symptom, we want to know 08:25 what the underlying cause is. 08:27 Now, we've been doing first aid... 08:28 That's right, we've got some items here that we 08:31 pulled out of the first aid kit, and, Dr. Marcum, 08:32 why don't you tell us what you've got here 08:34 and why they need to be in our kit. 08:35 Well, we have been working on getting everyone some 08:37 practical things that they can do on a first aid kit. 08:40 First aid is just that... First aid - first treatment. 08:44 That doesn't necessarily find the cause, 08:46 but it enables the person to feel well enough 08:50 so they can get to a person that can find the cause 08:52 unless they know what it is. Right 08:54 And almost every first aid kit needs to have all sorts of 08:57 ointments okay... ointments for them, 08:59 and this is one called, "Betadine ointment." 09:02 And this is very good if someone gets an infection, 09:05 a nail, you know - a cut, they need to put this on it. 09:09 It helps kill bacteria because if bacteria from the skin 09:13 and from a contaminant gains access to the bloodstream, 09:16 that could be very bad, not a good thing. 09:18 So this helps lower the risk of infection. 09:21 This is sort of very easy to put on. 09:23 This is what we call a "Triple Antibiotic Ointment," 09:26 and this is just a different antibiotic ointment 09:29 to do the same - to kill the different bacteria 09:31 that might be on the skin that might gain access to the blood. 09:35 Everyone has heard of "Neosporin." 09:38 We put a lot of these on wounds 09:40 that help with the infection with that. 09:43 But anyway, your first aid kit should have lots of 09:46 different creams that have antibiotics; 09:47 different creams to help with itches. 09:50 This is a burn cream and this is sort of not only an 09:54 anesthetic, but antiseptic. 09:56 And you don't have to necessarily know 09:58 all the active ingredients in it, 10:00 but you should have lots of these to handle 10:01 different situations that come involved with your skin. 10:05 Itching is another thing that will do it. 10:07 Some people have some things for really dry skin. 10:09 They have a moisturizer that will help. 10:12 Now you showed me, recently, something that was very 10:15 valuable that I want to add to my kit that I didn't have, 10:18 and that was a lighter. 10:20 That's right, I keep a lighter in my because I go camping 10:23 a lot and that type of thing, but, you know, 10:24 maybe in cold situations, building a fire 10:27 and having a little bit of heat would be very convenient. 10:29 Yeah, well I thought that was very useful because you 10:30 never know when you might need some fire for something, 10:33 and that's more of a survival tool... 10:35 But I think a good first aid kit is valuable not only 10:39 if you're going into a function or an event, 10:42 have a good first aid kit to help until ambulances 10:45 might get there and not everyone has access to ambulances 10:48 and urgent care centers... Sometimes that can take a while. 10:51 Sometimes that can take a while and we don't want that. 10:53 So we're going to talk about answering these questions... 10:56 We're going to try to always, when these questions come in, 10:59 for the people that ask these questions, 11:02 we going to focus on the cause, but usually it starts 11:04 out as a symptom and we're going to try to 11:07 let people understand that when you don't feel right, 11:09 that's a symptom and you want to understand the cause 11:12 because if you understand the cause, 11:14 you're more likely to get a long-lasting solution. 11:18 That's right! We're going to be 11:19 back in just a moment, please stay with us 11:21 as Dr. Marcum helps explain causes and symptoms. |
Revised 2016-09-08