Ultimate Prescription

Abdominal Pain

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Nick Evenson (Host), Dr. James Marcum

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Series Code: UP

Program Code: UP000086B


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.


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Revised 2016-12-26