Participants: Nick Evenson (Host), Dr. James Marcum
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP000104A
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00:16 Would you like to learn how you can slow the aging process
00:20 and boost your immune system all by using food as medicine? 00:23 The Ultimate Prescription starts now. 00:27 I'm Dr. James Marcum. 00:29 Are you interested in discovering the reason why? 00:32 Do you want solutions to your health care problem? 00:35 Are you tired of taking medications? 00:37 Well, you're about to be given the Ultimate Prescription. 00:44 Hello, and thank you for joining us today on the 00:46 Ultimate Prescription. 00:47 I'm your host, Nick Evenson, and on today's program I'm joined 00:50 by Dr. James Marcum, and we'll be discussing food as medicine. 00:54 Dr. Marcum welcome to the program. 00:56 Well, thank you. It's nice being here. 00:58 And this is such an interesting topic. 01:00 And today we're going to talk a little bit about mushrooms. 01:02 And a lot of people, you know, mushrooms sort of fall into a 01:05 sort of a funny category. 01:07 You know, you sort of fall into I'm not a fruit, 01:09 I'm not a vegetable, I'm more of a yeast. 01:11 And so everyone's going to think of eating a yeast. 01:13 You know, people are concerned about that. 01:16 But the point is God's given us many different things 01:20 to change our physiology, and help us to come back 01:24 into better health. 01:25 And it might be the food we eat. 01:27 It might be the exercise movement we get. 01:31 It might be our rest patterns. 01:32 It might be our thought patterns. 01:34 There's many different ways to improve health, but there's also 01:37 many ways we can protect our health as well. 01:40 Yeah. Let's talk about that a little bit more. 01:42 You like to talk about healing beliefs. 01:44 And the Ultimate Prescription is not any kind of 01:47 food, or any procedure. 01:48 Let's talk more about faith and health. 01:51 How do those relate? 01:52 You know, if you think about the scientific studies that've 01:54 been done, there's a doctor at Harvard named Herbert Benson. 01:59 And he really talks a lot about healing beliefs. 02:03 And he talks about if you believe something, you know, 02:06 a lot of people call it the placebo effect. 02:08 A doctor will give you a sugar pill and all of a 02:10 sudden you do better. Uh huh. 02:12 Well, he's done some studies with blood pressure, 02:14 and shows that if you believe the pill's working, 02:16 it will bring down your blood pressure. 02:18 So there's something in a belief system that changes 02:21 the brain and how it works. Uh huh. 02:23 Well, how does that affect us in general? 02:28 Well, our belief system, which comes back to our spirituality, 02:31 is very important to believing. 02:33 And there's numerous studies that we're now having that 02:36 shows that things like worship changes our physiology. 02:41 There's doctors at the University of Pennsylvania 02:45 that's doing research on the brains in worship, 02:47 and how when we worship, how the brain changes. Uh huh. 02:51 The stress chemistry goes down. 02:53 There's other physicians now that are studying our very DNA, 02:57 that when we worship, and have these healing beliefs, 03:00 the healthy ones that come from worship, that we actually turn 03:04 off the stress enzymes in our body. 03:07 We actually change our DNA directly. 03:10 So worship separate from exercise, 03:14 separate from nutrition, worship seems to have a healing 03:17 physiologic effect on the body separate than all this. 03:20 But we also know that when people are in worship God gives 03:24 them power to see things differently, to think better. 03:28 When we think better we worship better. 03:31 When we worship better we think better. 03:33 It's sort of the physical and the spiritual all work together. 03:37 And yet I have some patients that come in, and I explain to 03:41 them that the place I would start in health is worship. 03:45 Because there's lots of different ways to worship. 03:48 You know, there's worship in the Bible, 03:49 there's worship in nature, there's worship in service, 03:52 there's worship in song. 03:54 There's lots of different ways to worship. 03:56 Worship in helping our fellow man. 03:58 But when we're in states of worship, when we're walking 04:01 with God, it changes our brain. 04:04 Create in me a new heart, a new brain. 04:06 And there's physiology in that that we're just 04:09 beginning to understand. 04:11 And when we're walking with God we see things differently. 04:14 And He gives us power, power to change our lives. 04:18 And we change it for the right reasons. 04:20 Now, for instance, if you wanted to eat the perfect foods just to 04:24 be healthy, and didn't have any spiritual, or belief system of 04:29 why it's doing it; that's sort of a selfish reason. 04:32 And we know that when people are selfish and vain, 04:35 that damages your body. 04:36 It creates selfish chemistry, and turns on 04:38 the stress chemistry. Uh huh. 04:40 So you might negate the benefits of eating well, if you're doing 04:44 it for the wrong reasons. Right. 04:45 Are you following what I mean? Right, uh huh. 04:47 Well that goes with everything in life. 04:49 And everything that we put into our bodies, whether it be our 04:53 food, whether it be their thoughts, our spiritual beliefs, 04:56 it changes things, whether we know it or not. 04:59 Our brain is really a fascinating organ, much more 05:03 complicated than a computer. 05:05 You think about all those neurons, those billions of 05:08 neurons, those interconnections. 05:10 There's things that we know that's going on, 05:12 and there's things that are deep down that we 05:14 don't know are going on. 05:15 All of it effects our physiology. 05:18 And that's why in working with belief's, I say it's very 05:21 important that you develop beliefs based on you and God. 05:25 It's got to be between you and God. 05:26 You cannot have someone else's beliefs. 05:29 You have to internalize them. 05:31 You have to know what you believe, and you have to come up 05:33 with this framework. 05:34 I think that gives you peace. 05:36 You have to be important that in your belief system 05:39 that you live today. Uh huh. 05:40 Some people that try to live yesterday, 05:43 that damages the body. 05:44 So we want to live today. 05:46 And, God, if we've had bad days in the past, He throws it in the 05:49 sea and forgets about it. Right. 05:51 How many of us cannot forget about things in the past, 05:53 and we keep bringing those things up, and it damages us? 05:56 It hurts our physiology. 05:58 So that might hurt us as much; our beliefs and the way we feel 06:02 about things, and the way our brain works more than the 06:04 food and other things. 06:05 So our body is really complicated, and that's why our 06:10 spirituality effects our health. 06:11 Our health effects our spirituality. 06:14 And we're going to talk later about this Bible study that 06:17 we've come up with this year, that helps address some of those 06:20 issues, and teaches people where to start. 06:23 And, you know, our world, Nick, is programmed to be busy. Yeah. 06:27 We're supposed to be busy all the time. 06:28 And sometimes we're too busy. 06:31 We don't have time to think. 06:33 We don't have time to connect with God. 06:36 We don't have time to connect with what I call our inner self. 06:40 We don't even think about what we believe, or what we think. 06:43 We let someone else sort of program us. 06:45 You know, I'm going to believe what the Internet says. 06:47 I'm going to believe what this person says, 06:49 or that person says. 06:50 And what they might say, might be right. 06:52 But you have to internalize these. 06:54 So when a physician treats a patient, and I say, take; 06:57 this is going to be a prescription for you. 06:59 Many times I might give them a food prescription, 07:03 and they get better. 07:04 One of the reasons is because maybe the chemistry of that 07:07 food helps them, but another thing is because they believe 07:10 it's going to help them. That's right. 07:12 I call that a healing belief. 07:14 Others call it a placebo effect. 07:16 But whatever, it works. 07:17 Now when you have that, and you have God working in a life, 07:20 when they realize no matter what happens, 07:22 God's got your back. Yeah. 07:24 He's going to heal you. 07:25 He's going to make up for our weaknesses, no matter where 07:28 that weakness comes from. 07:29 When we start walking with that knowledge, and that belief 07:32 system, spend time developing this relationship, 07:35 letting God take us one step at a time, walking with Him daily, 07:40 we see wonderful things happen. 07:42 That's why we look in the New Testament and it tells 07:46 us about Matthew. 07:48 He met their physical needs. 07:50 He loved them, and then he introduced 07:52 them to a relationship. 07:53 And he says, Believe in Me, and I will give you... 07:57 You know, these are gifts that we have as we do this. 08:00 Christ is our ultimate physician. 08:03 And that's what we really have to focus on 08:05 in the world we live in. 08:07 You know, it's great to have modern medicine to 08:09 prevent an acute problem. 08:10 It's great. But at the end of the time a car could hit me 08:14 today, and my healing is not going to come from modern 08:18 medicine sometimes. Right. 08:20 But it's going to come from my relationship with Christ. 08:22 And it's not because... 08:24 It's because I love Christ, and I want to be with Him, 08:28 and I want to serve Him. 08:29 That's why I do the things. 08:30 That's why my mind changes. 08:32 That's why I want to eat a little bit better. 08:34 That's why I want to think a little bit better. 08:36 And through that relationship, that's where 08:38 we start in healing. 08:40 So that's how the spiritual and physical 08:42 sort of work together. 08:43 It's very complicated, and its very individual. 08:46 But I want people just to think that your spiritual life effects 08:49 your health, and vice versa. 08:51 That's right. I was just reminded that there's a number 08:53 of places in the New Testament that Jesus told people, 08:56 Your faith has made you well. 08:58 Yeah. You know? That's right! 08:59 He cued that idea, you know. 09:01 It's what you believe has a lot to do with how you are. 09:05 And you know we believe that Christ healed those people. 09:07 Right. But He attributed it also to their faith. 09:10 Yeah. And sometimes it's in our illness that we find healing. 09:15 Uh huh. You know, when we're sick, when we need help, 09:18 when our genetics are breaking down, then that's when we really 09:22 turn to the ultimate source of healing. 09:24 Now, of course, we want people to turn to it sooner, 09:27 but sometimes in illness is when we find healing. 09:29 And illness isn't always being physically made well. 09:32 It's being spiritually made well. 09:34 And that's so important. 09:36 And we wanted to stress that today, as well as talking about 09:40 another nutrient from a food source that can also 09:44 help our chemistry. 09:45 That's right, and we've got some mushrooms here. 09:47 We're going to switch gears a little bit. Yeah. 09:48 What is it about the mushroom that makes it a beneficial 09:52 food for us to eat besides just maybe a different texture, 09:55 and a different flavor? 09:56 Mushrooms, I think they're cool looking. 09:59 That's what I think. 10:01 I think mushrooms are cool. 10:02 And I can remember going through and kicking them over. 10:05 These are, you know, mushrooms are a type of yeast, 10:10 a bunch of cells put together. 10:11 And mushrooms have a great, I think they have a great texture. 10:15 For years people said, Oh, mushrooms, 10:18 they don't have any calories. 10:19 You can eat them all. 10:20 But mushroom doesn't have a lot of calories because a mushroom 10:23 is made of about 92% water. 10:26 It has a few good things like selenium, B vitamins, 10:30 trace elements. It has a little bit of carb, but not very much. 10:35 4% of it is carb, and about 2% protein, 1% fat. 10:39 You know, I wouldn't think there's that much water in them, 10:41 because if you squeeze them a lot of times they're not 10:44 dripping or anything like that. 10:45 They seem kind of dry sometimes. 10:46 Yeah, but you know, you wouldn't think you were 70% water either, 10:49 because you're not dripping either. 10:50 That's true, it's true. 10:52 But that's an interesting point. 10:53 Lots of our fruits and vegetables, 10:54 they're predominately water. Yeah. 10:56 So you get a lot of water just by eating fruits and vegetables, 10:58 because that's what God made us of. Right. 11:00 So that's why when we eat processed foods, 11:03 sometimes the processed food's aren't much water. 11:06 So the more we can eat things in their natural state, 11:09 with its water in it, the better. 11:11 But they have a lot of good vitamins. 11:14 A couple of studies I wanted to bring people to, 11:17 and that's what I've tried to do. 11:19 We know that a lot of fruits and vegetables, nuts, and grains, 11:22 help us in many ways, but now we have studies. 11:25 And what I've done in this series is I've tried to go back 11:28 to the studies that are solid, you know, that people have done 11:31 good research that people can depend on. 11:32 They're not shady studies about things that really help us; 11:36 and to the degree of what they help us. 11:38 And that's why we talked about mushrooms, and some of these 11:41 other common foods that we could incorporate to help us. 11:44 But, for instance, they did a study about 11:48 Australian white buttons. 11:50 Those are a type of mushroom. 11:51 And those showed that when people eat those they increase 11:56 an antibody in the saliva called, IGA, 11:58 and that helps the immune system. 12:01 So mushrooms, to some degree, and that's quite a bit, 12:04 50% increase in IGA. 12:06 And if you think about the mouth saliva, if you have those types 12:10 of immune cells there, a lot of the bugs we get get into us 12:15 through the mouth. Uh huh. 12:16 Some get into us through the skin. 12:17 But you eat a lot of stuff, and a lot of the stuff we eat can 12:21 have bad things happen. 12:22 Well, if we have a great immune system in our mouth, 12:25 we can stop those bugs before it gets down the road. Yep. 12:28 So that's just one thing. 12:29 They've also done a study with white mushrooms. 12:33 And white mushrooms can help block an enzyme called 12:37 estrogen synthetase enzyme. 12:39 So when that is activated, you decrease estrogen in the body, 12:43 and we've talked about how less estrogen is good. Uh huh. 12:47 It also decreases the risk of breast cancer. 12:51 And they've shown that by eating mushrooms regularly 12:55 you can reduce breast cancer dramatically. 12:59 So if you have a high risk of breast cancer in the family, 13:02 I would for sure be trying to incorporate some 13:06 mushrooms in my diet. Sure, yeah. 13:08 But one of the things that really is interesting about 13:11 mushrooms is it has a chemical in it called ergothioneine. 13:16 That's a type of an amino acid. 13:18 And what this does is it serves as a cell protector, okay? 13:24 The cell is damaged. 13:26 We've talked about oxidation, stress. 13:28 Stress damages cells. 13:30 And when cells can be damaged is when they overwork, 13:32 when they have a toxin, whatever. 13:34 Well, this Herbathione found in mushrooms seems to protect the 13:38 mitochondria, the energy storehouse of a cell. 13:42 It seems to decrease the death of cells; lets the cells live 13:46 a bit longer in the energy. 13:48 So a lot of people now are saying that mushrooms might 13:51 have some anti-aging effects. 13:53 And if we can keep the energy part of the cell alive longer, 13:58 this is going to help every cell in the body in many different 14:02 ways that we're just now discovering. Yeah. 14:05 Now the best source of this new type of amino acid, 14:09 this Herbathione is mushrooms, but we also get some of it in 14:13 beans, like black beans, or kidney beans. 14:16 But if you want to help your energy cells in the body, 14:19 you might try throwing in a portabella every now and then. 14:22 So do you eat mushrooms very often? 14:26 Yes, I do. I mean if I go to Thai place I try to choose 14:31 an entree with mushrooms in it. Yeah. 14:33 Occasionally I'll have a Portobello sandwich, okay? 14:37 If there's mushrooms in my salad, occasionally I'll chop 14:41 them up, especially if I'm at a salad bar, I'll put mushrooms 14:44 out there and do it. 14:46 I haven't been a big buyer of mushrooms, but that's why we're 14:50 trying to educate people about things that they can get 14:52 that might help them. 14:53 So the next time you want to say, Hey, I want, maybe you want 14:56 to try this to improve my immune system. 14:58 Maybe they can add a mushroom for health. 15:00 Now we have to be careful about some mushrooms. 15:02 And I'm going to talk about that a little bit later. 15:03 Yeah. I was just going to say, I've got a lot more 15:05 questions about mushrooms. 15:06 We're going to have to take a break, so we'll be back in just 15:08 a moment, and learn more about as for medicine 15:10 when the Ultimate Prescription returns. |
Revised 2017-05-16