Participants: Nick Evenson (Host), Dr. James Marcum
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP000086B
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00:01 Welcome back to the program, I'm your host Nick Evenson,
00:02 here with Dr. James Marcum. 00:04 And on today's pain series, 00:05 we're talking about abdominal pain. 00:08 And Dr. Marcum, just a review 00:10 what we talked about in the last segment. 00:11 We talked about how important nutrition is 00:14 to make sure that we don't overtax 00:16 our digestive tract, right. 00:18 And the food goes in, it's processed in the stomach 00:21 by all these bacteria and the microbiome... 00:23 In the bowels. 00:25 In the bowels and then excreted. 00:26 And what are some other sources of pain 00:30 that can come in the abdomen 00:32 aside from the digestive tracts? 00:33 Well, we talked about the big tube, 00:34 but there, you know, it pulls energy out 00:36 but there is a lot of organs that support this big tube. 00:39 For instance, the gall bladder, 00:40 its function is to digest fat. 00:42 Okay. 00:44 So the gall bladder frequently malfunctions 00:45 if a person brings in too much fat, 00:47 the gallbladder has to overwork. 00:49 Sometime the gallbladder develop stones. 00:52 And stones get in the ducts 00:54 that help where the gallbladder works 00:58 and it can cause gallstones and it needs surgery. 01:00 The pancreas is involved there, 01:02 and the pancreas's function is to help with digest proteins 01:05 and it also helps in insulin and things of that nature. 01:09 And the liver is there, which is a detoxifying agent 01:13 in the abdominal cavity as well you have the aorta 01:16 which feeds it with blood. 01:17 And we can have, you know, we can have vascular disease, 01:20 you know, aneurysms can happen there 01:22 in the abdomen area. 01:24 We gonna have problems with the liver 01:25 or we could talk about the gallbladder, 01:27 the pancreas and then the big tube itself. 01:30 So those are about 01:31 all of the structures that are there. 01:33 But all those, lot of the structures 01:35 there are to help with energy, you know. 01:38 The big tube helps us get energy into the body, 01:41 the right type, the right foods and the right things 01:43 that our body needs to survive 01:46 and the pancreas the liver that helps, 01:48 you know, to get rid of the bad things 01:50 as well as you know, helps us digest as well. 01:53 So there's a lot of interesting things going 01:56 and you know, we talked about 01:57 how we look at the tube you know, 01:58 both with colonoscopy and EGD if it malfunctions, 02:01 if it's causing pain. 02:03 Now if it's not the big tube that's causing pain, 02:06 let's says it's a gallbladder or pancreas or the liver, 02:09 we can use blood work to look at those 02:11 to see if the blood is changed. 02:13 We can look at ultrasound, CAT scans 02:16 and in some rare instances we can't figure out anything, 02:18 sometimes we still do exploratory surgery 02:21 to look at the organ itself to see if it's malfunctioning, 02:24 if something one of these tests don't pick up something. 02:28 But these are people 02:29 that have pretty serious abdominal pains 02:30 that have that pains that usually 02:34 a doctor can talk to the patient, 02:36 examine the patient, 02:37 get a good history and figure out 02:39 what's causing the pain, whether it's something serious 02:42 that needs to be addressed right away 02:44 or something can wait. 02:45 Now, the serious conditions are things, of course, 02:48 an aneurysm would be serious, you know, 02:50 that's a blood vessel that gets big. 02:53 If the tube gets a hole in it, that's a medical emergency. 02:57 And there's some conditions 02:59 that cause the tube to get a hole in it. 03:00 Because if the tube get a hole in it 03:02 anywhere along the way, guess what? 03:04 Things leak out of that tube. Right. 03:06 And there's lots of bacteria and the bacteria leaks out 03:09 we have big infection problems. 03:11 If the esophagus has lots of acid in the stomach 03:13 then we have lots of acid leaking out. 03:15 So getting a hole along this process 03:17 from different things is a big problem as well. 03:20 But usually those are accompanied 03:22 by severe abdominal pain. 03:24 The belly gets tight, nausea, vomiting, 03:27 you are very very sick, 03:29 very very ill when those things happen. 03:31 So that's sort of a general overview 03:33 of abdominal pain. 03:34 And we can never cover everything in a few minutes. 03:36 That's right, yeah. 03:37 So if people have specific questions, 03:39 I want to invite you to go to the website 03:40 heartwiseministries.org 03:43 and we can get into this further their specific needs. 03:45 That's right. 03:47 And you know we've got a list of questions 03:48 that have come through the website, 03:49 so we wanna get to these today. 03:51 Yeah. 03:52 And the first question someone writes in is, 03:54 is there a possibility 03:55 of curing gastroesophageal reflux? 03:57 Yeah, well, first gastroesophageal reflux, 04:00 that's a stomach. 04:01 Esophageal reflux, that means things are refluxing 04:04 from the stomach up into the esophagus. 04:06 Right. 04:07 You've heard the term heartburn. 04:08 Mm-hmm. Okay, it's a very common term. 04:10 It's the acid gets up in the esophagus, 04:12 it damages the esophagus. 04:14 In fact if enough acid gets up in there, 04:16 sooner or later you can't swallow. 04:18 It can become sticky, 04:19 it can also even induce some certain types of cancers. 04:23 Mm-hmm. 04:24 We have a term called the Barrett's esophagus, 04:25 but anyway, so this is a problem. 04:29 Many people give acid medications for this 04:31 but some of the causes of this if they can get at the cause, 04:35 maybe you can cure it. 04:36 Yeah, sure. 04:37 For instance, if a person's eating late at night 04:39 and laying down, then the valve doesn't close, 04:42 gravity is not there and you get acid up there. 04:45 Sometimes a person is just not in good shape. 04:48 Sometimes exercise will help this. 04:50 Okay. 04:51 Sometimes losing weight will help this. 04:53 If it's due to eating too much caffeine 04:55 or diet that's heavy in protein, 04:58 sometimes that will help it. 05:00 Sometimes there's an infection in the stomach 05:02 called H. Pylori, that can cause it 05:05 and there's test we can do to see 05:06 if you have an infection in your stomach. 05:08 So yes, in some instances it can be cured, 05:11 in some instances if there's a severe problem 05:14 like hiatal hernia, 05:16 that the hernia changes the position of the stomach 05:18 so the stomach puts out more acid. 05:20 Sometimes it can't be cured in certain situations. 05:23 But now we even have surgeries to work with hiatal hernias. 05:26 So in many cases gastroesophageal reflux, 05:29 if you can get at the cause, this condition can be cured. 05:33 All right, how about this question, 05:35 what are the risks and benefits of screening for colonoscopy? 05:38 Yeah, well, anytime we talked about the big tube, you know, 05:41 anytime that the cells mutate and they start growing 05:45 the wrong type of cells we can have a malignancy. 05:48 Okay. 05:49 We know that colon cancer 05:51 if caught early is very easily treated 05:53 but if it caught late where it spread 05:55 the cancer's got out of the colon, 05:57 it's very hard to treat. 05:59 So a screening colonoscopy is very good 06:02 and very good for people that have family histories. 06:04 And if you have a family history 06:06 of colon cancer 06:07 they say you should get screened about 10 years 06:09 before the member of your family had it. 06:11 Okay. 06:12 So if your dad had colon cancer at the age 40, 06:14 you should start screening at 30. 06:16 It's pretty much recommended that you have 06:19 a screening colonoscopy at age 50. 06:22 Now some people don't like to get a screening colonoscopy 06:25 and there's other tests that can do it. 06:27 They are little bit more involved 06:29 than including measuring blood in your stool 06:31 for several times over and over. 06:33 Some of those tests are probably reasonable 06:36 in a person that's at a low risk. 06:38 I had mine done recently, 06:41 screened for colonoscopy and it wasn't that bad, 06:44 the prep where it cleans you out 06:46 was a little bit tough, 06:47 but I was glad that they looked in my bowels to make sure 06:49 I didn't have any type of problem going on. 06:52 No precancerous lesions which are called polyps. 06:56 It was pretty clean so I was happy about that, 06:58 but if you nip it in the bud, if you catch it early, 07:01 screening colonoscopies are very beneficial 07:03 and especially in high risk groups. 07:05 What are high risk groups? 07:07 People that have had cancer before, 07:08 people that eat high fat, 07:10 high protein diets are at higher risks. 07:12 Did you know that, Nick, people in Africa 07:15 that ate pretty much plants, they've never had colon cancer. 07:18 Wow. 07:19 Yeah, Burkitt study, they'll never 07:21 because they eat high fiber diets. 07:22 Yeah. 07:23 The carcinogens don't sit in the gut. 07:25 Now we know that people that eat 07:26 more animal based diet, guess what? 07:29 The gut because they don't have fiber, 07:31 the gut doesn't move the toxins through as quick, 07:33 the carcinogens stay in contact with the bowel gut longer 07:37 and they're more prone to have cancer. 07:39 So one of the treatments to lower your risk for cancer 07:41 is just move towards a high fiber, 07:43 whole food plant based diet. 07:45 So I would recommend 07:47 those are the benefits of the risks. 07:48 Of any procedure there is a risk of anesthesia, 07:51 and there's a risk of something going wrong 07:53 and you have to talk your doctor. 07:55 In your case, the risk versus the benefit, 07:57 lot of it has to do with family history, 07:59 your diet as well as your age. 08:01 You know, the theme that comes back over and over 08:03 as we discuss this pain series 08:05 is if we live more in harmony with our creator's design. 08:09 If we follow the biblical prescriptions, 08:10 we can avoid a lot of the issues 08:12 that we experience these days. 08:13 Lot of pain because less stress on the system, 08:15 long term chronic stress 08:17 eventually wears out the organs. 08:19 You're exactly right. 08:20 Nick, I'm glad you've been listening. 08:22 I have been, I have been, I'm taking notes. 08:23 I'm glad that you listened. 08:25 We've got another question about probiotics. 08:27 Should I take one or what's it gonna do for me? 08:29 Yeah, well, a probe... 08:31 Remember we talked about a trillion bacteria. 08:33 Probiotic is basically bacteria that you introduce 08:37 into the gut, good bacteria. 08:39 So a person let's say that takes an antibiotic. 08:42 Antibiotic disrupts the microbiome, 08:45 so that person might want to take a probiotic. 08:48 If a person has bowel problems 08:50 and they think that the microbiome, 08:52 the gut bacteria's involved, yes. 08:54 If you don't eat a healthy diet, 08:56 maybe you should take a probiotic 08:57 to help regulate the flora. 08:59 What are people that disrupt the flora? 09:01 People that don't eat fiber, 09:02 people that eat a lot of toxins, 09:04 a lot of animal products, 09:05 a lot of dairy those can disrupt this. 09:08 People eat a lot of processed foods 09:10 can disrupt this microbiome. 09:12 Change the entire chemistry, 09:13 changes the way nutrients get in the body, 09:16 what's gets in and out. 09:17 So those type of people might get a bit. 09:18 Now if you eat a whole food plant based diet, 09:21 your bowels work well, 09:22 then you probably don't need one. 09:24 If your stools, the bowel movements 09:26 are well formed, 09:28 you do well, you probably don't need it. 09:29 If you're a person that has 09:31 lots of chronic diarrhea or loose stools, 09:34 that tells me that maybe the microbiome is not effective 09:37 and maybe if you took a probiotic that would help. 09:39 But better yet eat the right food 09:41 so you don't need it. 09:43 So yes, so certain people should 09:45 and the doctor will help you determine what you needed. 09:48 But those are some general principals 09:49 I use on that. 09:51 Now as far as heart goes yes, 09:53 it contributes the heart disease 09:54 because an unhappy bowel that the microbiome is unhappy, 09:57 it turns on inflammation. 10:00 Inflammation and stress 10:01 activates a higher risk of heart disease. 10:04 So I actually screened to see if I think they need to take 10:06 a probiotic as well. 10:08 And if they're not eating well, they're at high risk group, 10:10 I suggest that they might want to take a probiotic. 10:12 All right. 10:14 We got another viewer who writes in 10:15 about constipation and they ask, 10:17 how much pain can be caused by constipation? 10:20 Is this... Yeah. 10:21 It's really painful or...? 10:23 Yes, I've never had it 10:24 but the patients who do have it. 10:25 What happens is this the bowel is blocked, 10:28 nothing gets through 10:30 and if it's a severe enough 10:31 you can have a bowel obstruction, 10:33 that means nothing gets through. 10:34 And that's not good and when the traffic stops 10:38 things back up behind the traffic. 10:40 Right. 10:41 And if things back up far enough, 10:43 you get sick at your stomach, you get nausea, 10:44 you get throw up. 10:45 Sometimes, of course you can't get nourishment. 10:48 Right. 10:49 So yes, constipation can cause pain 10:51 because things can't get through the gut, 10:53 it's a very common thing. 10:54 Some of the causes of it, the most common are probably 10:57 not drinking enough water and fiber, 10:59 not moving around very well, certain medications 11:03 especially pain medications can slow down the bowels. 11:06 The narcotics can slow down the bowels a lot as well. 11:09 There's some disease conditions that can also slow down 11:12 the motility of the bowel and we can slow it down 11:15 to the point where it gets backed up as well. 11:18 We see it a lot in after surgery you know, 11:20 anesthesia can slow down the bowels, 11:23 the patients laying in bed after bowel. 11:24 Sometimes the bowel doesn't get going 11:26 as quick as we like it to as well. 11:28 So constipation, bowel obstructions 11:31 serious stuff and it does cause pain. 11:33 How about this question. 11:34 What is the difference between diverticulitis 11:36 and diverticulosis? 11:37 Now what is diverticulitis? 11:39 Yeah, well, let's start with diverticulosis. 11:41 Okay. 11:43 Well, the big tube has out pocket, 11:44 well, sometimes it can get out pockets. 11:45 Okay. Okay. 11:47 Is that normal, or it's... No, it's not abnormal. 11:48 Okay, for instance, if you put lots of pressure in the tube, 11:51 things can poke out. 11:53 Okay. 11:54 Like a basketball, you know how basketball of the shell 11:55 you have pokes out. 11:57 Sure. 11:58 That's sort of what the tube does. 12:00 Okay. 12:01 And these pockets are called diverticulosis, okay. 12:02 Well, when there's pockets 12:04 and you get bacteria in those pockets, guess what? 12:06 The bacteria can cause an infection. 12:09 That's called diverticulitis. 12:11 Well, the infection is very serious 12:13 because if there's lots of inflammation, 12:15 the tube is at higher risk to have a hole poked in it. 12:17 Right. 12:19 And if a hole poked in it, guess where that bacteria goes? 12:20 Throughout the abdominal cavity which is called the perineum 12:24 and then you get a condition called peritonitis, 12:26 which is life threatening. 12:28 Okay. So yes, diverti... 12:30 and we can make this diagnosis by a CAT scans, 12:32 we can see these areas on colonoscopies. 12:35 On diverticulosis the way we keep that down 12:38 as we keep the pressure down in the bowel. 12:40 And you know, we don't strain a lot, 12:42 we eat lots of fiber, lots of water, 12:44 those type of things help 12:45 lower the risk of diverticulosis 12:47 and diverticulitis is of course painful 12:49 that usually needs an antibiotic. 12:51 So it sounds like 12:53 the main key point from today's program 12:55 is to eat a plant based diet 12:57 like God gave Adam and Eve in the garden. 12:59 And that's gonna help things pass through faster. 13:01 Yeah. 13:02 And that's gonna keep you from having a lot of these 13:03 different issues that we've discussed. 13:05 And when you do have an issue, 13:06 get it addressed to make sure it's not a serious issue 13:09 and then do that, you know, 13:10 get the acute problem taken care of 13:13 and then get back to the original plan 13:15 and see if you can figure out the stressor 13:17 on the abdominal system 13:18 that cause the pain in the first place. 13:20 Excellent, Dr. Marcum, thank you very much. 13:22 My pleasure. 13:23 You know we believe that one day 13:25 God will provide healing for everyone 13:26 when He takes us home, 13:28 there will be no more pain, no more sorrow 13:29 and we look forward to that day. 13:30 Stay with us as Dr. Marcum will close the program 13:32 with prayer. 13:41 Well, let's bow our heads for a moment in prayer. 13:45 Dear Heavenly Father, 13:46 I want to pray for each person out there 13:47 that might be having pain. 13:49 Help them to find the solutions 13:51 but also help them to turn to you first 13:53 for healing, Father. 13:54 We want to thank You for being with us 13:57 and stay and helping us to learn 13:58 a little bit more about your creation. 14:00 Now go with us Father and give us strength 14:03 and happiness is our prayer, amen. 14:06 Well, I hope you've learnt 14:07 something about abdominal pain today. 14:09 It's a big topic but if you're having pain, 14:12 I want you to get it checked out. 14:14 If I can help answer a question, 14:15 go to our website 14:16 and our website is heartwiseministries.org. |
Revised 2016-12-26