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Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP180113A
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00:01 The following program
00:02 presents 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 are those of the speaker. 00:10 Viewers are encouraged to draw their own conclusions 00:13 about the information presented. 00:15 If you look up the word cognition in the dictionary, 00:17 you'll see, it's defined as the mental faculty of knowing, 00:21 which includes perceiving, recognizing, conceiving, 00:24 judging, reasoning, and imagining. 00:27 More simply put, 00:28 it just refers to simply thinking. 00:30 Brain health is the focus of today's program, 00:32 and we'll be sharing biblical prescriptions 00:35 that you can use to improve your brain health today, 00:38 no matter where you're starting from. 00:39 The Ultimate Prescription starts right now. 01:02 Thanks for joining us here today 01:03 on the Ultimate Prescription, 01:04 a program dedicated to helping us 01:06 better understand God's design for our lives 01:08 and experience better health by following His plan. 01:11 I'm your host Nick Evenson here with Dr. James Marcum 01:14 for an excellent program today 01:15 in which we'll be discussing brain health. 01:17 And, Dr. Marcum, welcome to the program. 01:19 Thank you. 01:20 It's nice to be here, Nick, 01:21 and I want to compliment you on that lovely tie. 01:24 Oh, thanks. 01:26 We try and look our best, look credible here. 01:27 You know, my son Jake, okay. 01:30 And he's in high school. 01:32 And I've got a bunch of ties at home 01:33 and I offered to share him 01:35 and he said, "Dad, those are old men tie." 01:37 He won't wear any of the new ones, 01:39 you got this new model 01:40 so that's a very nice tie, Nick. 01:42 But we're talking about a very important subject today, 01:45 and that's how our brain affects our physiology. 01:48 Yeah. 01:50 So the way we treat our brains 01:51 can be used to prevent disease as well as treat disease. 01:55 And we've gone through some of this 01:56 in what we use is our textbook for biblical prescriptions 01:59 and that's on the Biblical Prescription for Life, 02:02 seven-week Bible study. 02:03 Yeah. 02:05 Yeah, Dr. Marcum, the Biblical Prescriptions for Life study, 02:07 we wanna show this to folks 02:08 and tell them a little bit more about it. 02:10 This is made to be used as a tool, 02:12 a resource for folks 02:13 who want to have a meeting in their home weekly 02:15 or in their church 02:17 to share what we've kind of grown up 02:19 with knowing the health message 02:20 to share this with other folks, right? 02:22 That's exactly right. 02:23 And we go through biblical prescriptions, 02:24 why we're sick. 02:26 We come from the basic biblical prescriptions 02:28 that some people take for granted like moving, 02:31 being outside, 02:32 but one of the most important chapters 02:34 that we have is on mental health, 02:37 treating the brain right, 02:38 because what goes into the brain 02:40 affects the entire physiology. 02:42 You know, the brain is made of three functional layers, 02:45 the top part, the prefrontal cortex, 02:48 which we communicate with God and each other, 02:50 empathy, advanced thoughts, knowledge, abstract thinking, 02:54 the parts of the brain that deal with emotions, 02:56 and then the part that we share with animals 02:58 that just basically keeps us alive. 03:00 And this helps people 03:02 understand the brain a little bit better 03:03 and how important it is to our physiology. 03:05 Yeah. 03:07 And if you like to get a hold of that, 03:08 we encourage you to contact 3ABN, 03:10 it's available through their bookstore. 03:11 So Biblical Prescriptions for Life, it's seven-weeks 03:14 and we think that will be a great resource for you 03:16 to share with your friends. 03:17 Yeah, in part of that study, 03:20 I interview, I had a patient that came in 03:22 that had a lot of brain problems 03:24 and the solution to or that started 03:26 in her health care prescription was to deal with the brain. 03:29 Awesome. 03:31 Well, you know, let's take a look at that clip now, 03:32 The Biblical Prescriptions for Life, Chapter 6, 03:35 section on brain health. 03:39 Jane was distraught, 03:42 she found her husband of 11 years with another woman. 03:46 Not only was she working a 40-hour work week, 03:49 but she was taking care of her three children. 03:52 She and her husband had not communicated 03:54 in some time. 03:56 She was hurt, ashamed, confused, and scared. 04:01 All of these emotions were causing her brain 04:04 to be overloaded. 04:06 She came to me for some advice 04:08 and I believe the greatest value 04:09 I had was in mere listening. 04:12 Where do you start when your world is upside down? 04:16 The brain is on overload 04:17 and you cannot even concentrate, 04:19 nevertheless eat, do good job at work, 04:22 or even raise your children. 04:24 Many of you watching this have had similar experiences. 04:29 These situations are so complicated 04:32 and yet this is life. 04:34 As we've been studying together, 04:36 I hope the first place 04:37 we've all learned to turn for help for clarity for hope 04:41 for some sense of normalcy is our great physician, 04:45 for "I can do all things 04:48 in Christ which strengtheneth me." 04:50 Notice, 04:52 this biblical prescription does not say some things 04:55 but all things but only through Christ. 04:59 I asked Jane, if she done this, and she done this, 05:02 but she was not seeming to hear God's voice 05:05 or feel His comfort. 05:07 I began to talk to Jane about 05:09 what her brain was going through the tremendous stress. 05:12 How I turned on the emotional system of the brain 05:15 which is the limbic system. 05:17 And her alarm system, 05:18 the amygdala was doing its job preparing the body to survive. 05:22 The fight or flight system was in full gear, 05:25 but this constant bombardment of chemical 05:28 was not helping the situation. 05:31 The adrenaline, the cortisol, the cytokines, 05:33 inflammatory proteins were speeding up her heart, 05:36 raising the blood pressure, causing her to lose sleep. 05:40 She was not hungry. 05:41 But the most significant problem 05:43 that I saw was she could not think rationally. 05:47 When the stress chemistry is on, 05:48 the brain just wants to be safe to stay alive. 05:52 The body lives in the here and now in that situation 05:56 and not in the future. 05:57 The higher functioning parts of the brain, 06:00 the prefrontal cortex is blunted 06:02 as a body just wants to stay alive and feel well. 06:06 I explained to Jane that God was there ready to help, 06:09 but we needed her to use the prefrontal cortex. 06:13 But what does one do when our world is crumbling 06:17 from a broken relationship, 06:19 an illness, a death, loss of a job, 06:22 or shaken belief system? 06:24 What do we need to do 06:26 when we are so shaken that the part of the brain 06:27 we need most is not working? 06:31 How does God create in us a new brain? 06:35 What did he do in the past? 06:37 What are the practical steps 06:38 we can take if and when this happens to us? 06:42 Hopefully by the end of this week, 06:43 you'll have a prescription, a strategy, a plan, 06:47 a software program uploaded to help us 06:50 as well as those we hold so dear. 06:53 We have a lot to cover this week. 06:55 So let's start by thanking and praising God 06:58 and then ask Him for the help and clarity 07:00 as we learn and study together. 07:03 You know, Dr. Marcum, it's a tragic story. 07:05 There's a lot of stress that people are under these days. 07:08 I wonder do you have an update. 07:09 Does this end well for her? Yes. 07:11 Jane is making progress. 07:12 But like any chronic condition, 07:15 she had to take one step at a time. 07:19 And, you know, when talking about brain health today, 07:21 we can't cover every detail that's out there. 07:24 It's too complex. 07:26 But we can let people know 07:28 that the brain is an important part to health. 07:31 And if the brain is not working well, 07:33 nothing else works well. 07:35 If the brain doesn't work well, 07:37 it puts stress on the body like Jane. 07:38 In fact, Jane had so much stress on her body 07:42 that she couldn't think rationally. 07:43 You know, she had so much problems going on 07:45 and sometimes even when even she tried to worship, 07:48 there was so much stress on her body 07:51 that she couldn't even worship. 07:52 She couldn't even, she felt like 07:54 she wasn't hearing God's voice 07:55 even though God was there working in her life. 07:57 She felt like she couldn't do. 07:59 There's some out there that might feel this way too, 08:01 you might be under so much stress, 08:03 so much brain problems 08:05 that your prefrontal cortex is not working as well, 08:08 the stress part of the brain that stay alive, 08:10 the part that we turn on that deal with pain. 08:12 You know, 08:14 when animals have pain that they move away from that. 08:16 When people have pain, they have to do something 08:18 to deal with the pain they're under. 08:20 Right. 08:21 You know, they have to deal with it. 08:22 And Jane was reaching for the wrong things 08:25 to deal with pain. 08:26 And so we had to start all over in her brain health 08:29 and teach her the right things to do. 08:31 Well, what's the first steps in the brain health? 08:34 What's the first biblical prescription? 08:37 And in Chapter 6 of Biblical Prescriptions for Life, 08:40 we go through that in a more detail, 08:42 but this is very complex physiology. 08:45 But how can you eat right 08:47 if your brain doesn't work right? 08:49 How can you sleep well 08:50 if your brain doesn't work right? 08:52 How can you make good decisions regarding your health care 08:55 if your brain doesn't work? 08:56 How can you even follow a doctor's appointment? 08:59 So when I first started working with Jane, Nick, 09:02 it was hard to even communicate with her 09:04 because, you know, 09:05 when we were in the room together, 09:08 you felt super stressed, she was stressed. 09:11 And, you know, when you feel stressed, 09:12 when someone's in the room with you, 09:14 you know that something's not right. 09:15 Yeah. 09:17 And I wanted to help her understand peace. 09:20 And so we went through biblical prescriptions, 09:23 and the very first one 09:24 we did is we had to calm down her physiology, 09:27 so in worship, so she would know about God. 09:31 So we taught her how to do worship warm ups. 09:33 Okay. 09:35 How to warm up to worship, 09:36 so she could turn down the stress in her brain, 09:38 she could worship better. 09:40 So what does that mean? 09:41 Well, I mean, you know, 09:42 in the morning, you get ready for breakfast, 09:45 there's certain things you do. 09:46 You get ready for work, and you put on your clothes, 09:49 and you get cleaned up, 09:50 you prepare yourself to go to work. 09:52 Sure. Yeah. 09:53 Well, the most important thing 09:54 that I do every day is my worship. 09:56 Mm-hmm. 09:58 So I want to prepare for worship, 10:00 just like I would prepare 10:01 for any other important activity. 10:03 So I went through some of the physiology of, 10:05 how do we get our brains prepared to meet our God? 10:11 You know, how do we do that? 10:12 And we went through the steps 10:13 and we don't have enough time to go through all of them, 10:15 but we try to activate the prefrontal cortex. 10:18 Right. 10:19 We try to turn down stress, 10:21 whether it be from deep breathing, 10:22 or stretching, or saying a prayer 10:25 where we invite the Holy Spirit to come into our lives. 10:28 And when the Holy Spirit is there, 10:30 and God as Christ is making us our worship acceptable, 10:34 you know, remember, make my worship acceptable, 10:37 then things start to happen. 10:38 And, you know, she said, you know, I need a new brain. 10:41 And she realized that she couldn't do it on her own. 10:43 And as she... 10:45 The Holy Spirit was working in her, 10:46 things started to improve one step at a time. 10:50 And then as her brain, 10:51 as she fed her brain through worship, 10:52 the brain started growing, 10:54 turned down some of the stress then she started, 10:56 God was there all along, God never left her. 10:58 Yeah, absolutely. 11:00 She just didn't have that comfort. 11:02 But as time has grown on, 11:03 her worship has helped her brain 11:05 turned down some of the stress chemistry, 11:07 she started to make some lifestyle changes, 11:10 things started to come together for Jane, okay. 11:13 And she realized that none of us are perfect. 11:16 We all have bad genes. 11:17 We all have bad genes in our brains. 11:19 We have bad genes at other places. 11:22 And we all need a Savior, okay. 11:24 And when she started realizing that the real solution, 11:27 the real biblical prescription 11:28 was to start in worship for her health, 11:30 and that would lead her to other things 11:32 that would improve her brain function, 11:34 whether it be drinking more fluids, 11:36 or maybe taking antioxidants, 11:38 or maybe eating some nuts and berries 11:40 and things that help maybe exercise, 11:43 treating these other medical problems. 11:44 As she started in the right place, 11:46 things started to come together, 11:48 even though the world shouted, 11:49 no, this is not where you need to go, 11:51 you know, some of the other places 11:53 they wanted to start with pills. 11:55 Well, I said, well, some people have genetic needs for that. 11:58 But that's not where you want to start as a source of truth. 12:01 Let's try this first and see if this doesn't improve. 12:04 So the brain is very complicated. 12:06 But for our audience today, 12:08 the main point I wanna give you is pay attention to your brain. 12:12 Okay, pay attention to your brain, 12:14 get it working optimally. 12:16 Do things to help take care of your brain. 12:18 And one of the biggest things that I want to emphasize 12:20 in taking care of your brain is the act of worship. 12:24 You know, God wants to create 12:25 a new heart, a new brain. 12:27 And when you come into worship, physiologic things that happen, 12:31 when you invite the Holy Spirit is that it works continuously. 12:34 When you invite God into your heart, 12:36 it goes, you know, the memories 12:37 and this goes into the part of the brain 12:39 that stores memories. 12:40 It's working all day long. 12:41 And when you have a text 12:43 or something to go over our prayer, 12:45 you can keep worship going, 12:46 even if you're not conscious of it 12:48 throughout the day. 12:49 It's where you turn over your brain to 12:51 and the brain health is, 12:52 that's one of the keys to keeping people on track. 12:55 I guess the verse coming to me, 12:57 "All you who are burdened heavy laden 12:58 and I will give you rest," 13:00 that really becomes really a mindset 13:03 when you're worshiping rather than a mindset 13:04 of being stressed and worried all the time. 13:06 When you come into worship with Jesus, 13:08 you have rest in peace. 13:10 And it's truly a gift and there's nothing we can do. 13:12 We have to accept that gift. 13:14 We have to know where to get it. 13:15 We have to feel the need of this gift. 13:17 We all need a savior, we need this for our brains 13:20 and the world is causing more stress than ever before. 13:23 It wants us to get away from this. 13:25 But think about it. 13:26 In the Bible, it's always been about worship. 13:29 You know, Daniel and his friends, 13:31 who did they worship? 13:32 You know, 13:34 even when Christ was here, did they worship the true God? 13:36 Or did they worship there some of the other things 13:38 that was going on? 13:39 Throughout the Old Testament it's always been about worship, 13:42 and if we start in worship, 13:43 that's a good place to start the day. 13:45 It was a great place for Jane's brain health 13:48 when we have all these other distracters 13:50 that's turning on the stress part of our brain, 13:52 and she had to give up some things she didn't like, 13:54 you know, she was on the media way too much 13:56 that was stressing her out. 13:57 She was worrying so much about what other people thought 13:59 and some of that stuff. 14:01 She didn't need that, 14:02 she's watching the news too much, 14:03 and that was clogging things up. 14:05 So she had to have a whole new mindset. 14:07 She needed God to help her create a new brain, 14:11 a new way of thinking and approach in life. 14:12 Yeah. 14:14 Well, Dr. Marcum, thank you for sharing that story with us. 14:15 I think there's a lot that we can learn from that. 14:17 We're gonna take a short break and be back 14:18 with more on brain health in just a moment. |
Revised 2019-03-21