Participants: Nick Evenson (Host), Dr. James Marcum
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP000090A
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00:01 The following program presents
00:02 principles designed to promote good health 00:04 and is not intended to take the place 00:05 of personalized professional care. 00:07 The opinions and ideas expressed 00:09 or those of the speaker. 00:10 Viewers are encouraged to draw their own conclusions 00:13 about the information presented. 00:16 Have you ever experienced pain 00:18 that the doctor had a hard time explaining? 00:20 Sometimes our body signaling system 00:22 has issues that can be difficult to diagnose. 00:25 Learn more about pain from the nerves on today's program. 00:29 I'm Dr. James Marcum. 00:31 Are you interested in discovering the reason why? 00:34 You want solutions to your healthcare problem. 00:37 Are you tired of taking medications? 00:40 Well, you're about to be given the Ultimate Prescription. 00:46 Welcome to the Ultimate Prescription. 00:47 I'm your host Nick Evenson 00:49 here with Dr. James Marcum of Heartwise Ministries. 00:52 And today we're talking about pain 00:54 and more specifically we're talking about neuropathy. 00:58 Now, Dr. Marcum, neuropathy is a big word. 01:00 What is a neuropathy? 01:01 Yeah, well, we're going to talk a lot about 01:03 that today's program 01:05 but neuropathy is when the pain is coming 01:08 from the nerve itself. 01:10 Okay. 01:11 You know, we've talked about lots of pains from trauma, 01:14 we've talked about head pains and chest pains 01:16 and belly pains and your general pains 01:19 and foot pains, 01:21 so but those are all the organs are damaged 01:24 or are hurt and then the nerve picks up on it and says, 01:27 I've been damaged, something is wrong. 01:29 We call that nociceptive type pain. 01:31 A big word that says the nerve is okay, 01:33 but the part that it's supposed to be reporting on has damaged. 01:36 Right. 01:38 And remember nerves have the ability to do 01:39 all sorts of things. 01:41 They send signals back to the brain 01:43 and let us know if we're having pain, 01:45 sensation, works out in space, 01:48 all that information get sent back to the brain. 01:51 Right. Well, guess what? 01:53 Sometimes the nerves themselves can be the problems. 01:57 You know, the part that it's coming 01:59 from usually are okay, we call that neuropathy. 02:03 So a neuropathy would be like a fire alarm 02:06 that's supposed to warn you of fire going off 02:08 when there is not a fire? 02:10 That's... Well, it can do that. 02:11 Okay. Okay. 02:12 That's a good analogy. 02:14 Another thing the way you might think 02:15 of sometimes both processes are damaged. 02:18 Sometimes the organ itself is damaged 02:21 and the nerve that's supposed to report on is damaged 02:23 and it can't signal on the damage. 02:25 Okay. 02:26 So we have sort of a double whammy, 02:27 so sometimes there can actually be overlap, 02:30 for instance in severe injuries, okay. 02:34 Crush injuries where the nerve is damaged 02:36 and the body is damaged as well. 02:38 Okay, you can have neuropathy 02:40 where the nerve itself is damaged 02:41 as well as the tissue that's around it is damaged. 02:45 We see this in phantom pain, okay. 02:48 In phantom pains the nerves are no longer there, 02:51 but the part it support, you know, 02:52 it's just really confusing to the upper parts of the brain, 02:56 on the central nervous system said well, 02:58 listen there used to be nerve there 03:00 that was signaling on pain 03:01 and now there is no part there 03:03 and I don't know what to do. 03:06 Okay. 03:07 You know, so I guess I'm telling the body 03:08 that there is still pain there. 03:10 So the central nervous system which processes the information 03:13 from the peripheral nervous system, 03:16 all is involved in neuropathy. 03:18 It's a very interesting subject 03:21 and we're going to talk about that a little bit. 03:23 I want to talk a little bit about the brain in Heartwise. 03:25 Yeah, that's right, a lot of topics you discuss, 03:28 you approach them a little differently 03:29 than some physicians do. 03:30 And give us a little bit of your philosophy 03:32 as it relates to pain 03:34 and just treatment of the whole person. 03:35 Yeah, well, this goes with pain and everything 03:36 'cause when we sort of move away 03:38 from the way God designed us, 03:40 that puts stress on a system. 03:43 Right. 03:44 And if stress goes on long enough 03:46 no matter where the stress is from, 03:48 whether it's from pain that's a stressful situation, 03:50 you just drink a glass of water that's a stressful situation 03:54 if you don't have enough of water. 03:55 Yeah, dehydrating. 03:57 Not having rest and all puts stress on the body. 03:59 If you can stress the body and over long terms of time, 04:02 long term stress can cause symptoms. 04:06 Okay. 04:07 You know, we talked about, you know, 04:09 muscles and joints not too longer, 04:10 if you use the muscle too long, 04:11 it just put stress on it and there is a reaction. 04:14 Well, that happens at every part of the body 04:17 including the brain. 04:19 Well, part of what Heartwise does 04:21 is we let people know the place for modern medicine, 04:24 especially to get over emergencies. 04:25 Right. 04:27 And once they're over that emergency, 04:28 let's say it's a pain and then the next thing we do is say, 04:30 hey, listen what cause that pain? 04:33 Sometimes our stresses are genetics, Nick, 04:35 and we can't change them. 04:37 Right, nothing we knew about that. 04:38 We're given the genes that we're given. 04:39 Right. 04:41 So sometimes there are some things 04:42 that we can't change 04:43 and we can improve our chemistry. 04:45 I mean and then sometimes we can't do anything of our own 04:47 and we just need God to be in our lives and heal us. 04:50 And we know that even if we can't do everything, 04:53 if we can't take steps one step at a time, 04:55 God is there to make the difference 04:56 as long as we have a relationship with him. 04:59 And this is important for neuropathies 05:01 'cause we now know that worship actually changes 05:05 the chemistry of the brain itself. 05:07 Now that's an interesting concept 05:08 that probably a lot of people haven't heard before. 05:10 How does worship improve your brain health? 05:12 Well, Dr. Newberg 05:13 at the University of Pennsylvania 05:15 has done some research 05:16 and so as when you worship consistently every day, 05:19 it increases the part of your brain 05:20 called the anterior cingulate cortex. 05:23 Okay. 05:24 This is the upper part of the brain 05:26 where we do thinking, reasoning, 05:27 figuring complex things out, loving, 05:29 this is that part of the brain. 05:31 And this is a part that's unique to humans, right? 05:32 Yes, unique to humans. 05:34 And when that part of the brain is working, 05:36 we actually turn down other parts of the brain, 05:38 stress parts of the brain. 05:40 Okay. 05:41 So stress parts of the brain actually activates 05:43 more of our flight or flight, I got to stay alive. 05:47 So it enhances our pain pathways 05:50 and other things that we do to stay alive. 05:52 So you always wonder well, 05:54 why did you know, Steven when he, 05:56 you know, was being stoned, 05:58 he didn't seem to have pain, you know. 06:00 What was going on with that? 06:02 Well, maybe his worship was so developed 06:04 that those pathways were turned down, 06:06 something physiologic was happening 06:08 and also something supernatural. 06:10 When the supernatural happens, it has a physiologic response. 06:13 That's right. 06:15 So God has the physiologic response 06:16 in our lives 06:18 so he makes the brain better by worship, 06:20 so worship is going to help pain get better. 06:22 Yeah. 06:24 So Heartwise tries to you know, 06:25 show people where the place for modern medicine is. 06:28 We also show them the place for natural remedies, 06:31 but we also point them to the ultimate healer 06:34 and all these natural remedies, Nick, 06:36 whether it be water and living water 06:39 are being outside in the light the truth, 06:42 the living light. 06:43 Eating healthy foods, the bread of life. 06:46 Right. 06:47 Create me a new brain, all these things 06:48 point back to Christ. 06:50 And the physical and the spiritual 06:53 are together on this. 06:54 Yeah. 06:56 And as we see this, it makes healing 06:58 and approach to medicine and healing much easier. 07:01 And I think this is important to understand, 07:03 so we try to get this message out 07:05 and we also give it to other people 07:06 to help their neighbors and their friends. 07:09 We recently developed the Bible study series, 07:12 it's very interesting that people can use 07:14 as an evangelistic platform. 07:16 But this really relates to neuropathies, 07:19 'cause neuropathies involve the brain, 07:21 the brain and the central nervous system. 07:24 I think it's a really great message 07:25 because it's a message of hope really. 07:27 There's people regardless of you know, 07:30 they may be fantastic Christian folks 07:32 and have great relationship with Christ, 07:33 but they may not experience healing while here on earth. 07:36 Yeah. 07:37 But that's the key point 07:39 is that when Christ takes us to heaven 07:41 there will be healing. 07:42 He has promised that 07:43 and you could take that to the bank. 07:45 You know, he loves us, he wants to take care of us. 07:47 We don't necessarily know God's ways nor we ever, 07:50 but he's promised us and that's what face all about. 07:53 Get back to neuropathies. 07:55 Yeah, let's get back a little bit deeper 07:56 into neuropathies. 07:57 Let me ask you a question here. 07:59 About how many brain cells do you think 08:01 there is in the brain, you probably know this 08:03 from talking to me before, how many brain cells... 08:04 I wish I hadn't just looked in my nose. 08:06 How many brain cells do you have? 08:07 But there is a 100 billion. 08:09 Is that right with the B billion. 08:10 Billion, good. 08:11 How many connections do we have? 08:13 Trillions. 08:14 A quadrillion. A quadrillion man. 08:16 I can't even understand it. 08:17 That's 10 with 15 zeros added, so the brain... 08:19 It's a lot. 08:21 And it's processing center is much more complex 08:24 then even the internet. 08:25 Yeah. 08:27 Okay, now this is important to understand this 08:28 because the brain ultimately is the one 08:32 that decides what we do with pain. 08:33 Okay. Right. 08:35 The thalamic, the pathway where the pain comes in 08:37 it's interpreted with our brains, 08:39 our experience with pain, 08:41 our dealing with pain over long term, 08:43 the brain decides what to do with it. 08:45 I had a neuropathy in my arm for six years. 08:50 It felt like my arm was at sleep 08:51 because of chronic nerve damage. 08:53 Okay. 08:54 And it hurt or tingled everyday but it only tingled 08:57 when I thought about it 08:58 and after six days one day the brain turned it off. 09:01 It said, you know, your nerves are sending signals, 09:04 it no longer needs to do this, we're done. 09:07 So it just recognized that it was a false alarm essentially. 09:09 Yes, or it didn't need to fire anymore 09:11 or whatever it just, 09:12 it just quit. 09:14 And that's one thing and people that have neuropathy 09:16 where the brain is the cause of pain, 09:18 the nerves are causing the pain. 09:20 In my experience this is so complex, 09:23 we're just now beginning to understand little bits of it. 09:25 Right. 09:26 You know, a person's experience with pain 09:29 and everyone's brain deals with pain differently. 09:32 You know, some people senses 09:34 a burn pain is a lot more than a stab pain. 09:37 Okay. 09:38 Or a bone break which is usually 09:39 the worse is worse than everything, 09:41 but typically neuropathy is caused by nerves itself. 09:45 It can present in many different ways 09:47 but a lot of the time it's a lot of burning. 09:49 Okay. A lot of burning. 09:51 And usually neuropathies happen in the nerves 09:54 that are the furthest from the brain. 09:55 Okay. 09:57 You know, in the fingers and in the legs. 09:59 We call that peripheral neuropathies. 10:02 Okay, because it's on the extremities. 10:04 Yes, the extremities... Further away from... 10:05 The nerves are from the control center. 10:06 So where the controls don't, can't work as well. 10:10 The nerves are damaged from numerous things 10:12 that we're going to talk about. 10:13 Now central nervous system 10:15 in the brain itself in the spinal, 10:17 we call that central 10:18 'cause that's where our processing, 10:20 that's where all these connections are going on. 10:22 And just think when a pain stimuli come in, 10:24 you might activate 10:25 a million different interconnections 10:27 within the brain. 10:29 One might say, well, this is what it is 10:30 and one part of your brain hippocampus, 10:32 well, this is your experience with this before 10:34 and this one say, well, this is how I react with this 10:37 and different part of brain says, is this dangerous, 10:38 is this going to kill me type of pain. 10:40 I mean, other one says, well, do I need inflammation, 10:42 do I need to pull back, 10:43 what do I need to do with this stimuli, 10:45 so it's very, very complicated, Nick. 10:48 But a central nervous system 10:49 cause of a neuropathy is sort of rare. 10:51 Okay. 10:53 Usually that's in the brain itself 10:55 and usually that type of pain is intractable, 10:58 it goes on and on and on and on. 11:00 It's usually a burning pain, it's an agonizing pain 11:04 and we give that a name based on the part of the brain 11:07 that comes from it's called a thalamic syndrome. 11:09 Okay. 11:11 Okay where the brain itself is causing that. 11:13 Well, any lesion, a brain lesion 11:15 or damage in that part of the brain that does this, 11:18 that interprets pain and then sends out that can cause this, 11:21 neoplasms can cause this cancer I mean, 11:24 cancers in the brain. 11:26 If you have an infarction of the brain, 11:28 doesn't get enough part in that part of the brain 11:29 that interprets pain dies, 11:31 that can sometimes turn on this severe agonizing pain, 11:34 it's a thalamic syndrome. 11:35 It's some of the worst pain ever, okay. 11:38 Now sometimes you can also have pain 11:41 in the central nervous system. 11:42 Remember the brain is much more complicated than 11:45 a big nerve, okay. 11:46 Right, yeah. 11:48 But you know, some people think of it 11:49 as a big nerve, 11:50 but it's much more complicated but it's a part of it. 11:52 Now the spinal cord 11:54 that's where the nerves continue to move from the brain 11:56 and that part of the brain, 11:58 the spinal cord nerves mainly are involved, 12:00 they don't do thinking, you know... 12:02 Right. 12:03 They don't figure out how to walk to work. 12:05 That part of the brain is the sensing part, 12:07 senses the body, tells the body 12:09 when it's in trouble what to do, you know, helps, 12:12 you know when you're under stress, 12:13 helps regulate body functions if it needs to be regulated. 12:17 And you can have problems in that part as well. 12:21 And these are called spino spine thalamic pathways 12:25 'cause the spine is involved 12:26 and it signals to the thalamus which interprets it. 12:29 Okay. 12:30 Problems along this they call radiculopathies. 12:33 Okay, radiculopathies 12:35 and these are still types of neuropathies 12:37 'cause nerves are damages 12:38 but these are damages in the spinal cord. 12:41 Okay, so we just recap what we've talked about so far. 12:43 The most common type is when it comes from 12:45 the peripheral nerves in the hands, in the feet, legs 12:48 and that kind of thing. 12:49 And then it also could happen in the brain. 12:51 Big nerve there, yep. 12:52 Yep, or in the spinal cord. The spinal cord. 12:54 And some of the doctors will say, 12:55 well, you have a radiculopathy. 12:57 Well, that means the nerve itself is 12:58 being damaged at the spinal cord level. 13:01 Okay. 13:02 Okay, not at the peripheral level, 13:03 not in the brain but at the spinal cord. 13:06 And usually it can cause by things 13:08 like arthritis and from accidents 13:10 can damage those types of nerves, 13:12 lack of blood flow can damage those types of nerves 13:15 and we term it based on 13:17 what level of the spinal cord it is. 13:20 The spinal cord as it runs through the neck 13:23 it's called the cervical region, 13:25 the cervical spinal cord store. 13:27 And if you have one of those 13:28 you might have a funny sensation, 13:31 a burning when you move your neck. 13:33 Or you look at reflexes, 13:34 you might have a decrease reflexes 13:37 when it happens. 13:39 Herniated disc can cause this. 13:41 Compressions can cause this. 13:43 And the way we find out if this is happening is 13:45 with the CT or MRI 13:47 to see the spine being damaged at this level. 13:49 Okay. 13:51 And then as you go down, 13:52 the nerves supply different parts of the body 13:55 like cervical lesion number 5 that does the lateral arm, 13:58 so if the lateral arm feels funny 14:00 or biceps are weak, 14:02 decrease strength in the biceps that might be the cervical 5, 14:05 and as you go down the C6 you know, 14:08 different muscles, C7 is the triceps 14:11 and the middle fingers 14:12 and then you get to the back you know, 14:14 the lumbar pain, 14:15 those pains typically move to the lower extremities. 14:19 So the doctors can evaluate those 14:21 with usually CTs and MRI scans 14:23 to see if that part of your nerve is involved. 14:25 Okay. 14:26 I still call those neuropathies 14:28 because they involve nerves, okay. 14:31 And there're usually nerves they're that and they rate, 14:34 and the nerve is damaged 14:35 in the distribution that it supplies. 14:38 So even though the nerve is damaged in the spine 14:40 you still feel it over here, 14:41 even though there is nothing wrong 14:43 with this part of your arm. 14:44 That's right. You see what I'm saying? 14:45 It connects through the spine and... 14:47 That's correct. 14:48 Is it that connection where it goes into the spine? 14:49 That's right. Okay. 14:51 So there is nothing wrong you know, you never had trauma, 14:52 there is nothing wrong with the part that is supplying 14:54 that is sensing on... 14:55 Right. 14:56 It's with the control mechanism is damaged, okay. 14:58 So that's why these neuropathies are very tricky 15:00 'cause it also involves the brain as well. 15:04 So as you go down you can see you know, you go the lumbar. 15:07 Lot of people have lumbar problems 15:08 because they have herniated disc 15:10 and those are damages. 15:11 And then eventually it gets into the peripheral nerves 15:14 called peripheral neuropathies 15:15 and we look at these with MRIs in the central 15:19 and then peripherally we do electromagnetic test, 15:22 electro muscle test, nerve conduction velocities 15:25 to see if we have damage when the nerves itself 15:28 and everything upstream is okay. 15:30 So this is a very complicated subject 15:32 but I just wanted to give, 15:33 just a break down of what it's involved 15:36 'cause the questions are going to be complex 15:38 and I just want to let our audience know 15:40 that neuropathies 15:41 are some of the most complex pain problems 15:44 that we have 15:45 and there is not always easy solutions or easy answers 15:47 'cause even the scientists don't understand 15:49 exactly what's going on with these nerves, 15:51 but we gonna share with people what we do know. 15:53 All right, 15:55 well, thank you very much, Dr. Marcum. 15:56 And if you're at home you have more questions, 15:58 please visit our website at heartwiseministries.org. 16:01 We don't have all the answers but we do the best we can 16:03 to provide sound medical advice 16:05 and Bible based advice as well when possible. 16:08 So we're going to be back in a moment 16:09 and talk more about neuropathy. 16:11 Stay with us. |
Revised 2017-01-05