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Series Code: UP

Program Code: UP000083B


00:01 Welcome back to the program.
00:02 I'm your host Nick Evenson and we're here with Dr. Marcum
00:04 today talking about skin pain.
00:06 And we invite you, if you have a question
00:08 to go to heartwiseministries.org
00:11 where you can ask your questions.
00:13 You can submit a prayer request if you have something
00:15 that you'd like us to pray for.
00:17 And you can also listen to previous radio programs,
00:20 read Dr. Marcum's blogs, and just give us some feedback
00:24 about what you want to hear on these programs.
00:26 And Dr. Marcum, what kind of experiences
00:29 have you had personally with pain
00:32 in relation to your skin?
00:33 Well, you know, everyone has had--
00:35 I'm sure everyone out there in our audiences
00:37 had problems with bug bites, you know, animal bites,
00:41 you know, that can cause problems to the skin
00:43 and they usually they inject a toxin.
00:46 When they inject a toxin, your nerves feel it
00:48 and that's what causes the pain.
00:49 The nerve say ouch,
00:51 this is not supposed to be there.
00:52 And then the inflammatory cells come
00:55 and it starts to be inflamed, then it starts to hurt.
00:58 So most of the skin problems are acute problems.
01:00 You know, what caused it.
01:02 You know, and you know how to get over it.
01:04 Some of them, you know, your skin can be damaged
01:07 by chronic problems as well.
01:10 What are some chronic problems?
01:11 We talked about chronically lack of water,
01:13 that's a problem.
01:15 Yeah, dehydration.
01:16 But when I was seven years old,
01:18 I had an accident and during that accident,
01:21 I fell out of a tree.
01:23 And when I fell out of a tree, Nick, I broke my arm
01:26 and the bones ended up like that
01:28 when I broke the arm.
01:30 And nowadays they just would have pinned it
01:31 to straighten the arm,
01:33 but back then they used something called traction,
01:36 where they pull a lot of weight to weaken the muscles,
01:39 so the bones would sort, the muscles would get weak
01:41 and the bones would sort of line up,
01:43 then they could heal 'cause parts don't heal
01:45 well in the body unless they're lined up pretty well.
01:48 So that's what we do in bones.
01:50 So they pull a lot of traction on my arm.
01:54 In fact, they put so much traction on my arm,
01:57 it cut off the blood supply to the arm.
02:00 And when it cut off the blood supply to the arm,
02:02 the arm and the hand didn't get enough oxygen.
02:06 And my skin, certain parts of it
02:09 didn't get enough oxygen became severely painful.
02:12 Severely painful, you don't get enough oxygen, it hurts.
02:15 Your nerves damage, it hurts.
02:17 So my arm sort of, the skin in that felt like
02:19 it was a funny bone, in fact after a while,
02:22 you know, the treatment of course
02:23 is to restore a blood flow.
02:25 And after a while, the only thing
02:28 that would help my hand
02:29 was they actually did a skin graft.
02:31 So I'm probably one of the few people in the world
02:35 that makes me special that has the sun tan
02:38 in the palm of their hand because this came from my leg.
02:40 This skin helped prepare this.
02:42 And I'm also one of the few people
02:43 that have to shave the palm of the hand
02:47 because it still has hair follicles.
02:49 But because modern medicine
02:50 could put skin grafting to my skin,
02:53 it was able to protect this part of my skin
02:56 and I didn't have to lose another finger.
02:59 So there is a place for modern medicine
03:02 in dealing with chronic problems.
03:04 So, I guess the point I'm trying to make
03:06 is chronic disease affects the skin too.
03:09 Yeah. Diabetes is the big one.
03:11 You know, diabetes really affects
03:13 the blood supply to the skin, the nerves of the skin,
03:16 and it can damage the skin.
03:18 In fact, diabetics can have skin problems
03:20 and because their nerves don't feel it,
03:22 they get infections and they don't even know it
03:24 because they're compromised in their skin.
03:26 So those are some sort of things
03:28 that people realize it,
03:29 they don't realize is skin is very valuable to us
03:32 and sometimes we take it for granted,
03:34 but chronic conditions of the skin are rare,
03:37 but when they happen like diabetes or chronic trauma
03:40 or lack of blood, it's very serious.
03:43 You know, I guess one of the worst situations
03:45 I ever had with skin pain and issues.
03:48 I was a kid and I had poison ivy
03:50 and it got under my face.
03:52 And it swelled up my face.
03:54 I didn't know, I couldn't stop scratching it.
03:57 And it swelled up and so my eye shut
03:59 and it was pretty bad, not life threatening,
04:02 but it was pretty significant 'cause for some people like
04:04 it can be even worse than that.
04:06 We know there's all sorts of toxins
04:07 that people are allergic to.
04:10 I had a friend one time that actually was terribly allergy
04:13 to poison ivy and it got inside his lungs.
04:16 Can you imagine that inside his lung
04:18 and it was from a fire, they were burning poison ivy
04:20 and they got that toxin inside.
04:22 So, I mean, so the skin can have
04:25 a lot of different types of pain
04:26 and we had a few questions regarding skin
04:29 that we have to really get to,
04:30 before we run out of time here today.
04:32 That's right, these are the questions
04:33 that come in from the website at heartwiseministries.org.
04:36 And if you have a question that we don't get to today,
04:38 please go there and ask your question.
04:40 The first viewer ask,
04:43 "Can a rash be life threatening."
04:45 You know, I told you I had the poison ivy on my face,
04:46 that wasn't life threatening,
04:48 but can it ever be life threatening?
04:49 Yes, a rash can be life threatening
04:51 and usually a rash
04:53 is a gigantic immune response to some toxin.
04:56 So that's what, you know, sort of rash.
04:58 It might be an infectious toxin like the measles
05:01 and you know something up like that.
05:03 It might be like the toxin that you got with poison ivy,
05:08 the body responded with the immune reaction
05:10 just wants to get it well.
05:12 But usually in big terms there's some reactions
05:15 that turn on the immune system, the entire immune system
05:18 and the entire body gets a rash.
05:21 Those are very serious
05:23 when all the parts of you get a rash
05:25 because then the skin can't do its job
05:27 because there's no skin to do its job.
05:29 It's all rashed up entire body.
05:32 And there's a couple of ones that are out there,
05:34 they're all immune system,
05:35 one is called pemphigus vulgaris,
05:38 big name, you know, vulgaris that sounds bad
05:41 but it's based in autoimmune affecting the entire skin,
05:44 a rash on the entire body.
05:46 Sometimes certain antibiotic like reactions, you know,
05:50 you have a reaction to medication,
05:54 antibiotics like sulphur, Dilantin sometimes causes this,
05:58 certain viruses Epstein-Barr, cytomegalovirus,
06:02 they trigger this immune responses
06:04 that entire this reaction we called that
06:06 a Stevens-Johnson syndrome,
06:08 where the entire body ends up in a rash,
06:11 that can be life threatening
06:12 because you can't regulate infections,
06:15 you can't deal with your thermoregulatory,
06:17 and of course it's very, very uncomfortable.
06:20 Sometimes after a person gets a bone marrow transplant
06:24 or gets, you know, certain medicines,
06:26 they can have that, certain staph infections,
06:29 they're like a toxic, you know,
06:30 toxin reaction to staph infections,
06:32 toxic shock syndrome, but the bottom-line is
06:35 whenever a rash, whatever triggers it,
06:38 it covers large surface areas
06:40 that can be dangerous just like burns.
06:42 If you get a sunburn that does your entire body,
06:45 that's dangerous.
06:46 If you're in a fire that damages
06:48 your whole body, that's dangerous.
06:50 If you get poison ivy that damages a lots of skin,
06:53 that's dangerous.
06:54 Now if you get ticks or bites all over your body,
06:56 that could be dangerous
06:58 because it hurts large amount of your skin.
07:00 Your skin can't do its job
07:01 which is primarily keep toxins away,
07:04 regulate temperature, those important things.
07:06 And when it can't do your job, bad things can happen to you.
07:09 So what would you say is the appropriate action,
07:11 if you get a rash that you can't identity
07:13 or you get a rash that seems to be
07:15 larger than you think you can deal with?
07:17 Who do you go see?
07:19 Well, you know, a family physician can--
07:21 And many of the rashes are self limiting,
07:23 you know, they don't--
07:25 The doctor will come in, you will say,
07:26 oh, I have a rash and he will say well,
07:28 were you exposed to a toxin, were you outside,
07:30 did something bite you, they look for a bug bite.
07:33 And if it's not covering a large part of your body,
07:36 we know it's not gonna cause much damage.
07:38 You know the vitals are stable.
07:39 We might get in some local cream
07:41 and it's pretty much the body takes care of itself.
07:44 But in all these other
07:45 where it covers large parts of your body,
07:48 then that suggest a systemic reaction
07:51 and then just a history and physical,
07:53 you know, where you're around a drug
07:54 that you were exposed to that could have done this.
07:57 You know, did you have a recent medication
08:00 that could have damaged your entire skin,
08:02 those type of things.
08:04 If we still don't know, sometimes we go to,
08:06 refer to a specialist in skin to dermatologist.
08:10 And the dermatologist might take a biopsy
08:13 and from his experience because, of course
08:15 that's all he sees all day along is skin problems,
08:18 so he is an expert at skin
08:19 just like people come to me all the time with chest pain.
08:22 So I'm pretty good at sorting through chest pain.
08:24 Well, they are doggone good at sorting through rashes
08:27 and skin type problems.
08:29 So when you go to them, they sort of sort through,
08:30 but there are so many skin rashes
08:33 that are usually infections or some type of toxic agent
08:36 where the body responding to some type of stimuli
08:41 that turns on the immune system.
08:42 Right.
08:44 We got another question that's come in.
08:45 What are some natural treatments for skin--
08:47 Skin conditions? Yeah.
08:48 We talked about the best one
08:50 and I might get a glass of water.
08:51 Little sip of high quality H2O right there.
08:53 High quality H2O. Nothing in, just pure water.
08:56 That's good 'cause that gives
08:58 the skin the things that it needs.
09:00 What else the skin's need?
09:01 You know, a lot of times when we have a skin problem,
09:04 unless it's a cancer or serious systemic problem,
09:08 it usually runs its course, okay.
09:11 You know, if it's an infection,
09:13 you want to treat the infection,
09:15 if it's due to a medication,
09:16 you want to remove the medication
09:17 and support the body with IV fluids
09:20 and whatever it needs
09:21 until you get over the rough spot.
09:23 But some naturals-- for instance for skin pain.
09:26 How about, we talked about sunburns, you know.
09:29 Anything, you know, of course, you know, we talk about,
09:31 you know, we don't want to get it,
09:33 so we put in our skin protection sunscreen,
09:35 but we also--
09:37 Aloe vera is a very nice easy thing
09:39 that's on the skin, some even put some lidocaine in,
09:42 so it sooths the skin, so it doesn't hurt as much.
09:45 That's something that's good for skin pain.
09:48 Sometimes just resting your skin
09:50 is good for skin pain, getting clothed off the skin,
09:54 letting the skin breath is good for skin pains.
09:59 Some people for natural remedy they use willow bark.
10:02 Willow bark is an anti-inflammatory,
10:06 you know, aspirin, willow bark is an anti-inflammatory.
10:09 And whenever the skin is turning red,
10:11 we know there's inflammation, so this might help.
10:13 Anything that helps with inflammation
10:15 might help with that.
10:16 So ginger might help with that.
10:18 Turmeric which helps in inflammation
10:20 would help that type of pain.
10:23 Overseas in Europe
10:25 they use a natural substance called devil's claw.
10:28 They use that, they use devil's claw
10:29 sort of natural substance to help that.
10:31 Anything that helps the overall cells of the body.
10:34 Some people use magnesium they use that.
10:38 Some people use exercise
10:40 because it makes endorphins to help with skin pain.
10:43 Some people use massage.
10:45 You know how it is, you hits yourself real hard,
10:48 oh, it hurts, so what do you do?
10:49 You rub it, especially it's into the muscle,
10:52 you know, more muscle pain,
10:53 but massage is sort of a natural therapy
10:56 for skin pain.
10:58 In severe pain that short acting,
11:00 some people can take some type of Advil or anti-inflammatory
11:03 to get them over the hub until the body heals itself.
11:07 But remember most of these treatments
11:09 for acute skin pain is to sort of make you feel better
11:14 because pain itself is not good as we discussed
11:17 until your body can heal itself.
11:19 Now, for chronic skin pain,
11:21 conditions like cancer that's causing it,
11:24 other diseases that are causing it,
11:26 infections, lack of blood supply
11:28 or damage to nerves from diabetes,
11:30 then you want to get at the underlying cause
11:33 in addition to what's causing the pain.
11:35 So that sort of gives them everyone a general
11:37 or there are some natural things
11:39 that they can do to help with their skin.
11:41 I think Aloe vera really works good for just little rashes.
11:44 Some people, if it's bug bites,
11:46 okay, I've seen people like to use charcoal poultices.
11:49 You know, it helps pull out the poisons,
11:51 so the nerve isn't turned on as much,
11:53 so there's not as much pain as well.
11:55 You know, I've also seen if it's a bug bite
11:57 and it's hurting some people like to drain it, okay.
12:01 Now, some people have--
12:03 We didn't even talk about this cause of skin pain
12:05 but acne, that can cause a lot of skin pain too,
12:10 especially in teenager so, you know,
12:12 the treatment for that is to remove oil
12:14 from the body and keep the skin clean,
12:16 keep the pores open.
12:18 And those are all sort of things
12:20 that can help with chronic skin conditions in the face.
12:23 Yeah, we've got one last question here,
12:26 talking about pharmaceutical treatments
12:28 and also the cancer cause--
12:33 the pain caused by cancer, through cancer?
12:35 Skin cancer can cause pain and sometimes, you know,
12:37 of course the treatment is to get rid of the cancer,
12:40 cut it out, okay.
12:41 We talked about some of the characteristics
12:43 of skin cancers, irregular border,
12:46 change in color, raise, growing.
12:48 Some of the pharmaceutical treatments
12:50 we've also mentioned anything that's nonsteroidal can help.
12:54 Sometimes the pain is just really, really killing you.
12:56 We can numb it up with an injection,
12:59 lidocaine you know before procedure especially,
13:02 you know, you cut yourself with trauma,
13:04 you know, you need some stitches to sew it together.
13:06 Well lidocaine can numb the nerves
13:08 so you can sew it together, so it doesn't hurt.
13:11 Some people that has severe pain
13:13 that from medical condition sometimes they have TENS units
13:17 that sometimes help chronic pains.
13:19 In rare instances we might, if the inflammation of the skin
13:23 is real bad especially these rashes
13:25 that cover the entire body.
13:26 Sometimes we use some steroids
13:28 because the inflammation is so bad,
13:31 the inflammation itself is life threatening,
13:32 so sometimes we do that.
13:34 And in some people need a short course of narcotics,
13:37 if they have one of these bad skin reaction pains,
13:39 but I didn't say for long term,
13:41 just to knock down the pain, so that they can get
13:43 at the cause whether it be inflammation,
13:45 so the body will heal itself.
13:47 Yeah. Yeah.
13:48 Well, that's a lot of good information about skin pain.
13:50 And if you've been watching the program at home
13:52 and you have more questions, please visit our website
13:54 at heartwiseministries.org
13:56 and you can ask your question there.
13:57 You can leave a prayer request
13:59 or you can see other information on health
14:01 that Dr. Marcum has presented.
14:03 And we'll be back in just a moment
14:04 as Dr. Marcum closes with prayer.
14:14 I bet you didn't think we could talk so long
14:17 about skin pain, but skin pain is a real issue
14:20 that many people suffer from
14:22 and it never hurts to learn a little bit
14:23 more about skin.
14:25 I want to pray for you today that God will provide us
14:28 with the ultimate healing we all see.
14:30 Let's bow our heads together.
14:32 Heavenly Father as we once again learn
14:34 how to take care of our bodies.
14:35 We want to thank you for being our ultimate physician
14:38 who has promised to help us
14:40 one step at a time into healing.
14:41 And thank you for being with each one of us today.
14:43 And if there's someone out there Father
14:45 that needs special prayer, we want you to be
14:48 a especially close to them.
14:49 We want to pray that you would be with them.
14:51 Thank you for bringing us here together
14:53 as a family is our prayer.
14:55 Amen.
14:57 Well, I hope no one out there has skin pain,
15:01 but if you do, you know a little bit more
15:02 that will help you.
15:04 If you have more questions, visit the website
15:06 heartwiseministries.org.
15:08 And I'm Dr. James Marcum wishing you the best of health.


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Revised 2016-04-21