Participants: Nick Evenson (Host), Dr. James Marcum
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP000075B
|
00:03 Thanks for watching...
00:04 Here at "The Ultimate Prescription," 00:06 we've been talking about symptoms and causes, 00:09 and we also talked a little bit about our first aid kit... 00:11 And if you would like to chime in with your questions 00:14 or suggest something for our first aid kit, go to: 00:16 heartwiseministries.org 00:18 and you can contact us there with an email, 00:20 and let us know your thoughts, your questions 00:22 or what you might want to add to a first aid kit 00:25 as we will let other people know. 00:26 And someone was just recommending... 00:28 That was the director of the program... 00:29 The director of the program was recommending a magnifying glass, 00:32 and that's a great item to have. 00:33 What might you use that for, Dr. Marcum? 00:34 You know, you can look at a bee sting or something 00:37 you can't see well, when people get older 00:39 sometimes we can't see as well or get a feel for it exactly. 00:43 We've had some insect removal kits that might help with that, 00:48 and remove some prongs or if some poison, that might help. 00:51 Another thing that I thought about is a flashlight, 00:56 so you can see things, especially 00:58 if an accident happens and you need a light. 00:59 I have my flashlight on my cell phone, 01:02 and I turn it on with that, but they make very small lights 01:06 now, Nick, they can be good. 01:08 One of the things that I think is pretty cool is 01:11 in my telephone, I have this lady in the telephone, 01:15 and I can ask her questions, I really can, 01:18 and I can even ask her first aid questions and sometimes 01:20 she knows too. 01:21 And my phone can tell me stuff too! Not bad! 01:24 That's pretty impressive. 01:25 Technology definitely can be a help, 01:27 and sometimes maybe it can be a hindrance too. 01:29 No, but it's neat, Nick, you should try it. 01:31 You just ask this girl the question, 01:32 she will tell you what you need to know, 01:34 and if she doesn't know, she will be very polite... 01:36 She'll go, "I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about." 01:39 But anyway, it's very neat, but you know what, 01:41 we're digressing. 01:42 I think we're about to talk about some questions 01:44 that she might not be able to answer, 01:46 but I think you might have some ideas. I hope so 01:48 Okay, let's get some questions. 01:49 Our first question here is about someone who has a 01:51 constant headache; they don't have any answers 01:54 so far and they're desperate for help. 01:55 They ask, "It's been going on for 14 years, 01:57 I currently take Tylenol, can you please pray for me?" 02:00 Yes, we will definitely pray for this person 02:03 for chronic headaches for 14 years. 02:06 If I think about a headache, that's a symptom. 02:11 And a headache can be caused by many different things. 02:17 And, you know, I'd have to talk to this person in great detail, 02:20 but the chance is, if a headache has been going on for 02:23 14 years, it's probably not life-threatening. Right 02:27 The headaches that are life-threatening are ones that 02:30 are just sudden onset, the worst ever, 02:32 can't see - lots of other things going on. 02:35 But a headache for 14 years, things that can cause that... 02:38 chronic stress - you know, muscles being tight, 02:42 I've seen that a few times. 02:43 We've talked about the bowel flora, 02:46 how bowel flora can cause inflammation and do that. 02:49 It would be very interesting to know 02:51 if there are triggers for headaches. 02:52 There are different types of headaches; 02:54 vascular headaches that's due to blood vessels. 02:58 Migraines is a vascular type of headache. 03:00 Different triggers might trigger that. 03:02 But a constant headache for 14 years... 03:05 Tylenol #3 is probably treating the symptom, 03:09 but not treating the cause of the symptom. 03:12 So I would be very interested, not only in praying for this 03:15 person, but I want to invite this person to see a doctor. 03:18 The doctors that specialize in headaches 03:20 are "neurologists," and see if they can give you 03:24 a diagnosis. 03:25 If there's no diagnosis and they do think it might be 03:28 a stress headache or "I don't know headache," 03:30 then that's the one that really, you know, 03:33 look at all the different aspects in your life 03:35 from hydration... if you're dehydrated 03:38 that can do it, to eating certain foods... 03:40 it can have chemicals in it that can trigger headaches; 03:43 inflammation can trigger headaches; 03:45 stress can trigger headaches. 03:47 So this is a wide-ranging process, 03:49 but headache is a symptom and on this lady, we're treating 03:54 the symptom and not the cause. 03:56 It's going to take a little more investigating 03:58 for a constant headache, but those are some sort of 04:00 thoughts on this situation that might help her, 04:03 but, for sure, we will pray for you, 04:05 and no matter what symptoms that you have, 04:08 God is going to listen to our prayers, 04:10 and help get us to the people we know or heal us right away. 04:14 So our Heavenly Father wants to 04:17 be a part of treating our symptoms. 04:19 In fact, in the Bible, Christ met people their physical needs 04:23 first - that's where He met their needs 04:26 and then He introduced them to the Father, 04:27 and then the Father brought him into a deeper relationship. 04:31 So that's where it all starts, meeting someone's needs. 04:34 That's right. 04:36 We've got another question, someone asks: 04:37 "I have a cough only at night and usually when I lie down, 04:40 my energy level has been decreasing and my heart 04:43 is going faster with little exertion. 04:46 My doctor gave me a cough syrup, but it's not really helping." 04:49 What are your suggestions? 04:50 Well, a cough can be many different things. 04:53 It could be related to sinuses; 04:55 that's a very common cause of cough. 04:57 Of course, people with cancer in the lungs have a cough. 05:01 People with acid reflux have a cough. 05:04 But this type of cough, what makes me think this might 05:07 be related to heart failure... 05:10 Is this person, when he lies down, it gets worse? Right 05:14 That's very characteristic of fluid in the lungs 05:16 from heart failure. 05:18 Also, this person gives me another symptom, 05:20 "the heart goes fast." 05:21 When a heart goes fast, 05:23 they can't breathe, they can't lay down flat... 05:26 That gives me a good sign that this person might be 05:28 in heart failure. 05:30 So I would ask this person to see your doctor... 05:33 Have him evaluate you for heart failure. 05:36 If you are in heart failure, again... they want to find out 05:39 why you're in heart failure. 05:40 They want to give you some medicines for your symptoms, 05:43 usually diuretics to take fluid out of your body, 05:46 maybe even a little oxygen, and the next step would be 05:49 finding out why you're in heart failure, 05:52 and that's another whole discussion from arteries, 05:55 to weak heart, to valves. 05:57 All sorts of things can cause heart failure, 05:59 but these symptoms sound like the cause might be 06:02 a weak heart. Right 06:04 That could be really serious. Yes it is... 06:06 So that's a great question, I'm glad you asked it. 06:09 I would get some help right away on this one. 06:11 If you're having symptoms that you can't explain, 06:13 please visit your medical professional, 06:14 and try and find some answers, get to the root of the problem. 06:17 And remember, we're just giving suggestions, 06:19 we are just going to give suggestions, 06:21 we can't enter into a relationship... 06:23 We just try to point you in the right direction, 06:25 but always see your doctor, get their input. That's right 06:28 We've got another viewer who writes: 06:30 "My body aches and does not feel right, 06:32 I have spells of nausea, weakness, loss of weight, 06:35 headaches and extreme fatigue." 06:38 "So far, I've had blood work, a CT scan, ultrasounds, 06:42 and still no answers." 06:43 Dr. Marcum, what do you think they need to do next? 06:46 So, they are sick at their stomach, they're weak 06:49 all over; they're losing weight, they have headaches, 06:53 they're tired all the time, 06:54 they've had a lot of testing done, 06:57 and that's the routine testing.. we do the blood work, 06:59 the ultrasounds and they still don't know the answers. 07:03 Any thoughts? Well, in tough cases 07:06 where they can't find anything, and the symptoms don't 07:09 really follow a pattern, one thing I like to sort of 07:12 point people to is have your doctors evaluate you for 07:15 toxins and poisons. Okay 07:17 There are certain things in our environment that sometimes 07:21 get in it that we don't want. 07:23 We see things like radon, heavy metal toxins that 07:28 we don't want to have. 07:29 I've even had people that had some arsenic-mercury-type 07:33 poisoning that gets in their body, different types of things, 07:36 lead, different types of poisonings, 07:38 toxins can cause these types of symptoms. 07:40 that might be a place to look at 07:42 if nothing else is making sense 07:44 especially if this person doesn't have any other... 07:48 Sometimes extreme stress and mental problems can trigger 07:52 the body to create symptoms, to try to cope with things, 07:55 but this doesn't sound like this. 07:57 This person really is sick and there's really no pattern; 08:00 nothing is picking up on it, so I would be very concerned 08:03 about a toxin, a poison in the environment; 08:07 a side effect of a medication, something of that nature 08:10 that could affect lots of different organ symptoms 08:13 and not be explained very easily. 08:16 And the way you do it is go to a doctor, 08:18 they do a toxicology scan where they scan you 08:21 for almost everything, that's additional blood work 08:24 that can be done fairly simply. 08:26 That might give you some more insight into making a diagnosis 08:30 because treating symptoms like this, 08:32 you really wouldn't know where to start. Right 08:34 Because it involves the whole body, 08:36 but those are some thoughts that I would have on that one, Nick. 08:38 How about this, another viewer writes: 08:41 "I've had a heart valve replacement 6 years ago 08:43 for a bicuspid aortic valve, I had a fever the last few days, 08:48 and my doctor put me on an antibiotic. 08:50 I quit the antibiotic after 5 days because I felt better, 08:54 and the fever came back last evening. 08:56 Should I resume the antibiotic." 08:58 Well, of course, I can't give specific information, 09:02 but I can give some suggestions. 09:03 First of all, see your doctor, but a fever is typically 09:09 a sign of infection, certain cancers can cause 09:12 fevers as well; of course if you are hyperthermic 09:15 for any reason - that can cause the temperature to go up. 09:18 So this person doesn't sound like it's hyperthermic, 09:21 doesn't give me anything that would make me think 09:23 that they were having a cancer, not losing weight, 09:26 you know - it hasn't been going on for a long time, 09:28 but would make me think that they have an infection. 09:31 The problem with an infection in a heart valve, 09:34 if an infection gets into the bloodstream, 09:37 the bugs love to attach to something. 09:39 They love to attach to heart valves. 09:41 So I would be very worried that this heart valve 09:45 might be infected. 09:46 So you would want to know right away whether 09:49 you have an infection in the bloodstream... 09:50 So I would ask my doctor to take some blood cultures first 09:54 to see if the blood was infected and if it was, 09:58 you know of course, that would also help us identify 10:00 the bug so we could specifically tailor the antibiotic. 10:03 Antibiotics - we can actually tell which antibiotics 10:06 can kill the bug the best. 10:08 Can you imagine a person taking antibiotics 10:11 for an infection and the antibiotic is resistant... 10:14 that means it won't kill the infection. 10:17 We see that in certain staph species now. 10:19 We've heard Methicillin- resistant Staph... 10:22 so methicillin or penicillin won't kill that staph bug 10:25 because we've got resistance. 10:27 So those are some of the steps I do, but I would be concerned 10:30 on this situation that you might have an infection in the blood. 10:34 I would not resume my antibiotics. 10:36 I would see my doctor right away and he can 10:38 decide, based on some blood work, if you have 10:41 an infection in the bloodstream that could be 10:42 compromising your valve. 10:44 If a heart valve gets infected, 10:46 that could be a very serious problem. 10:48 We know that once it's in the blood, 10:50 the bacteria can go everywhere. 10:52 And if they see something abnormal, 10:54 you know - the bacteria are going around, 10:56 and they feel pretty good... they get to the heart, 10:58 and they say, "Wow, there's a valve, there's a valve 11:00 that's abnormal - I'm going to jump on that, 11:02 that's a good place for me to live and get nutrients." 11:04 And then their friends come along and say, "Wow, hey look at 11:07 Buddy there, he's getting some food - I'm going to join him!" 11:09 And before you know it, there's a bunch of bacteria 11:12 forms an infection and it can actually destroy, 11:15 eat the tissue of the valve. 11:17 So that's not a good thing... Well, it sounds like some good 11:19 advice there, a good place for them to go. 11:21 Another viewer writes: "I have chest pain when I 11:23 take a deep breath and it's sharp like a knife. 11:26 Should I be concerned about my heart?" 11:28 Yeah, my answer is - I'm always concerned about 11:31 everyone's heart... as a cardiologist you should be, 11:33 but first you need to see your doctor who can examine you 11:37 in great detail, but when people have heart pain... 11:39 a pain that won't go away is either 11:41 a heart attack or something else. 11:43 If you have a pain that won't go away, 11:45 that needs help right away. 11:47 Another type of heart pain is a symptom 11:50 almost any symptom above the waist when you're doing things. 11:54 Those would be characteristics of heart pains. 11:56 If I touch it and it hurts, that would be 11:59 characteristic of a muscle pain - musculoskeletal. Right 12:02 If, this person sounds like when they take a deep breath 12:06 it hurts - that could be muscles. 12:09 It could be lungs, it could be a condition called, 12:11 "pleuritis" when the pleura of the lungs come in contact 12:15 with that - that could be something like that. 12:17 It could be a lung problem. 12:19 The question is... "Should I be concerned about my heart?" 12:23 Yes, I would be concerned about it. 12:25 I would see your doctor who will go through some tests, 12:27 might do an EKG on you, might do some lung testing 12:31 on you which might have need to evaluate, 12:32 but this is not usually what I hear when I hear 12:35 when I hear a heart problem, but I would still see your 12:38 doctor and make sure. 12:39 But if it hurts when you take a deep breath, 12:41 that would make me think muscles, lungs, 12:43 things of that nature... pleuritis which is 12:45 inflammation of the pleura which can happen in infections. 12:49 They might have damaged their lungs - that could cause it. 12:52 They might have had a bruise on the lung or something like that 12:54 that also could cause it as well. 12:56 It might be a muscle that's connected to a rib 12:58 so every time you breathe, that muscle moves. 13:01 But unfortunately, when it's above the waist, 13:03 you wouldn't worry a lot about it 13:05 if it was in the back of the leg because you'd say 13:07 "I pulled a muscle," but whenever it's up in this area, 13:09 it's hard to know whether it's your heart. 13:11 I always think pain up in the chest needs to be evaluated 13:14 by a professional in person that knows what's going on, 13:17 a few questions, maybe an x-ray, an EKG will help clear up 13:21 this symptom to see what needs to be done to get at the cause. 13:24 Excellent advice! 13:26 We've got time just for one more question here and it says: 13:28 "My abdomen has been bloating, no real pain, 13:30 but it's just worse after eating. 13:32 I also have low grade fevers, should I worry about 13:35 my gallbladder?" 13:36 I think that person is right on base. 13:38 That could be a symptom of gallbladder becoming infected. 13:41 It might be other things... the fever makes me think that 13:44 there might be an infection. 13:46 Bloating is not a normal symptom. 13:49 So these are symptoms that suggest there's a problem 13:52 in the GI tract, probably below the stomach 13:55 and below the rectum... and in that area we have 14:00 stomach, we have intestines, we have gallbladder, 14:03 we have pancreas, we have other organs. 14:05 They can evaluate that by examining it. 14:08 If you touch it and it hurts, that's really bad. 14:11 If you're not going to the bathroom, 14:12 that suggests that the tube is clogged up - that's bad too. 14:16 They can do some simple tests. 14:17 Sometimes they can do some scans on the bowels 14:20 to make the diagnosis, but this is a symptom 14:23 that needs to be evaluated right away. 14:25 It's not a normal feeling... bloating, not feeling well. 14:29 This is a person that not only will be prayed for, 14:31 but they need to see a doctor, 14:34 get it looked at - the sooner the better. 14:36 That's some great advice. 14:37 If you are experiencing symptoms, 14:39 go to your doctor and ask them, 14:41 "Please find the root of the problem." 14:44 And we thank you, Dr. Marcum, 14:46 for all your advice that you shared with us. 14:47 We're going to be back in just a moment 14:49 as Dr. Marcum would like to pray with you. 14:57 I hope you're not experiencing symptoms today, 15:00 but if you are, it's very important to find out the cause. 15:04 Remember, symptoms are anything 15:06 in your body that doesn't feel right, 15:08 especially if they don't go away - get some help. 15:10 I'd like to invite you to pray at this time with me... 15:13 Father God, There are many people out there 15:16 that are having symptoms of all sorts of medical problems 15:20 as well as spiritual problems, Father. 15:22 We want to pray that You be the Ultimate Physician, 15:24 the Ultimate Prescription for their lives. 15:27 And thank You so much for being a God that loves us 15:30 and wants to heal us and this is our humble prayer... Amen 15:35 If those out there want to have more questions 15:38 that we didn't address, I want to invite you to 15:40 our website that is: heartwiseministries.org 15:43 If you might need special prayer, 15:45 we'd also like to pray with you. 15:47 Until next time, I'm Dr. James Marcum 15:50 wishing you the best of health. |
Revised 2016-09-08