Participants:
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP180113B
|
00:01 Welcome back to The Ultimate Prescription.
00:02 If you're just joining us on today's program, 00:04 we're talking about biblical prescriptions 00:06 for optimizing your brain health. 00:07 And Dr. Marcum, we've talked in the first segment 00:09 about worship as being a key to reducing stress 00:14 and helping us focus and have better brain health. 00:16 But it's a rather complicated field of study. 00:20 I wonder what can you share with us 00:21 maybe some practical tips that people can practice today. 00:24 Yeah, well, I'm gonna give at least three things 00:27 that we can do. 00:28 But the brain is very complex, 00:30 you know, lots of neurons, lots of interconnections, 00:35 lots of things that are stored 00:36 in that part of the brain called the hippocampus, 00:39 lots of inputs of life are all put in the brain, 00:42 whether you realize it or not, Nick, 00:44 those things are going in there doing things. 00:46 And lots of your brains going on, 00:48 and it never comes to our consciousness 00:50 and yet the brain still working on things. 00:52 Yeah. It's very interesting. 00:53 And there's different functional layers 00:55 and very, very fascinating the study, 00:57 and we're learning more as time goes on. 01:00 But, you know, we have PET scans, 01:02 functional MRIs, 01:03 that we can study the metabolism of the brain, 01:05 the growth of the brain, parts getting bigger. 01:08 And not only the brain is a growth part with neurons, 01:12 but it's also electrical. 01:13 You know, there's electrical things 01:15 that are happening in the brain. 01:16 You've heard of people that had seizures, 01:18 the electrical part malformations, 01:19 so there's lots of neurotransmitters 01:21 that are telling the brain what to do, 01:23 like dopamine, and serotonin, and norepinephrine, 01:27 all sorts of different things and all different precursors. 01:30 So this is a very complicated field, 01:32 but you want three things 01:33 people can do to improve their brain health. 01:34 Yeah. Yeah. 01:37 Turn on the proof and we talked about worship, 01:39 and that's where I would always start. 01:41 Teaching people how to worship because God gives us the power. 01:44 He's promised to give us a new brain, 01:46 a new heart if we come to Him. 01:48 So we want that brain that He wants for us. 01:51 We don't want the bad brain 01:53 that the world's creating sometimes 01:54 and we all have bad genes. 01:56 Okay, so there's some brain things 01:57 that we've inherited, 01:59 that we can't do anything with it, 02:00 God has to be the healer for that. 02:02 And I know you've talked before about worship being different. 02:05 It's not always necessarily in a sanctuary, in a church, 02:07 but you worship at home on your own in the mornings, 02:10 you could be on a walk in nature, 02:11 you can be doing music by yourself or with others, 02:14 there's lots of different ways... 02:15 Many ways to have biblical worship, 02:17 you know, sometimes when I'm in the hospital, 02:18 I worship by serving others. 02:21 You know, some people worship by singing, worship by giving. 02:23 There's lots of examples in the Bible 02:25 of people worshipping in different ways, 02:27 but we want to find that special way to worship 02:30 that God connect with us from a biblical viewpoint. 02:33 So that's one thing we can do every day. 02:35 And it doesn't have to be a lot, it can be just, 02:37 you know, some of the studies show this 02:38 little as 10 minutes a day can get this, 02:41 but we have to... 02:42 Just like you eat your food every day 02:44 to improve your physiology every day. 02:46 We really need to worship every day 02:48 to continue to feed the brain 02:50 to grow the good part of the brain, 02:52 to help turn down some of the bad stuff 02:54 that we have going on 02:55 to get God to create in us a new brain 02:57 to help us overcome some of our bad genes. 02:59 Right. So that's one thing, worship. 03:01 Number two, we're not doing this very much 03:03 is that's regular physical activity 03:05 or movement. 03:07 What that does to the brain 03:08 is it improves the blood vessels, 03:11 it helps our brain get more oxygen, 03:12 more than needed tissues, 03:14 more, the tissues are supplied 03:16 with oxygen and food, the nutrients we need. 03:18 It helps us a lot of ways 03:20 when we just exercise 03:21 and, you know, after you've exercised 03:23 you feel a little bit sharper. 03:24 You know, when you get up in the morning and stretch out, 03:26 you feel a little bit sharper. 03:27 Well, the brain is bathed 03:29 in lots of good things when we do that. 03:32 So that's number two. 03:33 We've already talked about 03:35 drinking water and other nutrients, 03:37 but specifically water and things like blueberries, 03:40 antioxidants help the brain health, 03:42 help slow down this aging process. 03:44 And all of our brains get older on different speeds 03:48 based on our genes and our habits. 03:51 So those are three things that people can do, 03:52 worship, do some movement, and work on their nutrition. 03:56 Those are some basic things 03:57 people can do to help take care of the brain. 04:00 Yeah. 04:01 And, viewers, 04:02 if you're interested in finding more, 04:04 Biblical Prescriptions has a lot of other things 04:06 that you can do in there. 04:08 We encourage you to give this call to 3ABN 04:09 and ask for your copy 04:10 of Biblical Prescriptions for Life. 04:12 And, Dr. Marcum, 04:13 we also answer questions 04:14 from viewers that they've submitted here 04:16 and we've got a tough one that we want to tackle next. 04:18 Someone writes in and says, 04:20 "A 43-year-old man 04:21 and he has stage III colon cancer 04:24 and he's discouraged asking 04:26 why is God cursing me?" 04:27 Yeah. 04:28 And that's a great question, 04:30 many people out there are discouraged 04:33 because their health isn't good. 04:34 Yeah. 04:36 You know, and that gets them stressed out 04:37 which turns on the bad parts of the brain 04:39 and it hurts, it hurts them when you had, 04:41 and some people are discouraged and they've lost hope. 04:45 And if you look at the Biblical Prescriptions, 04:47 you know, what, you know, the modern medicine 04:49 has their plan for colon cancer stage III is advanced, 04:54 you know, nutrition can help but this gentleman, 04:57 you know, he feels like God is cursing him. 05:00 Okay, he feels like God is cursing him 05:03 and you know what I'd like to say to him, 05:04 if he's listening or watching 05:06 and I've already written him an email going over this, 05:09 Nick, and it came to the website 05:11 and I said, you know what? 05:12 Sometimes God uses our physical illness 05:16 to heal us. 05:18 He allows it to happen. 05:19 You know, He allows us to be sick for a reason. 05:22 We might not understand that reason 05:24 'cause we're not God. 05:25 Okay, well, what if this, 05:27 this illness caused him to come to God 05:30 in a greater way than he's ever had before. 05:33 And to give him peace 05:34 and to really help him come into that relationship 05:36 that would heal him for eternity. 05:38 What if that's happening here? 05:40 We don't know, we're not God. 05:42 What if God is using this illness 05:44 for him to turn into a ministry? 05:46 Where he says, you know, 05:47 well, through this illness, I've got closer to God. 05:50 And guess what? 05:51 My family and loved ones have come to understand 05:54 how important this relationship was 05:55 for eternity. 05:56 What if God's using this illness for that? 05:59 So sometimes God can use illness 06:01 to turn into a ministry. 06:03 Now we all have bad genes. 06:04 Maybe he just had some bad genes. 06:05 Yeah. 06:07 You know, I think about in the Old Testament, 06:09 all the lepers that they had, 06:10 you know, they were thought that was a curse, 06:14 they weren't an outcast to society. 06:17 Well, now we're finding out that 06:18 that was just an infectious disease 06:20 that they had. 06:21 Yeah. They weren't outcast. 06:22 And I think Christ showed them that they weren't outcast, 06:26 'cause He came to the lepers and healed them, 06:29 you know, but it wasn't only a physical healing, 06:31 it was also a spiritual healing. 06:34 You know, He wanted them to know 06:35 they weren't outcasts of the society. 06:37 He wanted to offer them more. 06:38 And if you were living in that time, 06:40 you know, the lepers were unclean, 06:42 you know, you didn't even come within a near leper. 06:44 And that here Christ not only came 06:46 and healed them their physical 06:47 but offered them something spiritually, eternally. 06:51 So all of those out there with chronic diseases 06:54 and chronic pain and things like cancer, 06:57 I mean, the place to turn for some of the answers 06:59 is to relationship with God again, 07:02 you know, let him sort of lead you through this. 07:03 And, you know, 07:05 maybe you might not understand the reason why. 07:07 But God allows these things to happen for reasons 07:10 that we might not ever understand. 07:11 And it's not only now, 07:13 but it's happened throughout time. 07:15 You know, bad things happen to people, 07:17 and we don't never understand the purpose. 07:19 But when I tell them, 07:21 when I have someone come to the office like this, 07:23 I said, no, you know, God's not cursing you. 07:26 You know, there's more to life than our physical eyes. 07:30 There's eternal healing. 07:31 And if this accomplishes eternal healing, 07:34 or help someone else become eternally healed, 07:37 then it's a blessing that we can't even understand. 07:40 And yet we, 07:42 you know, we had the sanctity of physical life 07:44 we hold on to that so much, 07:46 it almost becomes, 07:47 we're selfish with our own lives. 07:49 But is our life really ours, Nick? 07:51 No. 07:53 No, it's a gift 07:54 that was given for God for a purpose. 07:56 Yeah. For His will and not our will. 07:59 Yeah. 08:00 You know, and if His will is this 08:01 and we're walking with Him, we accept it. 08:04 You know, we try to understand, 08:06 we say, God, I don't understand why. 08:08 But I trust You that You know what's best. 08:10 You're in my heart. 08:12 I know where it's going to end up. 08:14 And if I look back in the scriptures, 08:15 I see all these young men that died young, 08:19 you know, they saw an eternal picture 08:22 that sometimes the world doesn't allow us to see, 08:25 we see this selfish picture. 08:27 The selfishness that we have turns on the part of our brain 08:31 that we share with animals, 08:32 then all of a sudden, we just want to stay alive. 08:35 You know, the prefrontal cortex, 08:37 that's a loving part of the brain 08:38 that we want to develop through worship 08:40 and these other things, 08:41 that's the part that helps us see the big picture in life 08:44 and that's the part that God wants to create a new. 08:47 So I sort of had this discussion 08:49 on the internet with this person 08:50 and I said, you know, God's not cursing you, 08:53 maybe there's a reason 08:54 you know, and let's live one day at a time. 08:57 Let's not worry about the, 08:58 you know, the past. 09:00 Let's just go today 09:01 and let God lead you today into His will 09:04 one day at a time, 09:05 and maybe we can find some lifestyle changes 09:08 that can help us. 09:09 Maybe a miracle will happen. 09:10 Sometimes you'll see miracles, we don't know. 09:12 But we're just gonna trust Him with their lives. 09:14 Yeah. 09:15 You know, we got time for just one more quick question. 09:17 Yeah. 09:18 And I can relate to this one a lot. 09:20 Someone writes in and asked 09:21 who should take a medication for sleep. 09:22 That's kind of related to the brain 09:24 for me, 'cause I sit in bed sometimes at night, 09:26 and I'm just processing things, and thinking about things, 09:28 and I just, I can't go to sleep 'cause I'm thinking, 09:31 is medication appropriate for that? 09:32 Well, why this is important question is, 09:35 you know, if you look back, 09:36 we want to understand the reason why. 09:39 Okay. Rest is important. 09:41 You know, if you broke your arm, 09:42 you'd rest your arm, you wouldn't keep throwing it. 09:44 Right. The brain needs downtime. 09:48 Years ago, when it got dark, 09:50 we turned everything off and went to sleep. 09:52 The brain had more downtime. 09:54 We have so much stimulation today, 09:55 the brain is revved up, 09:57 both the stress part of the brain mainly 09:59 and the parts that we don't need to be activating. 10:01 And we need to turn that off. 10:03 So when you can't sleep at night, 10:05 the brain can't rest. 10:06 So lots of things physiologically happened, 10:08 you accelerate aging, like we've talked about. 10:10 Right. 10:12 The genes, the bad genes get older quicker. 10:13 The good genes get older too. 10:15 So what can a person do? 10:16 We'll find out the reason why. 10:18 Some of the reasons might be too much stimulus, 10:20 turn off the TV at night, turn off your cell phones, 10:22 that might be it. 10:24 It might be you're eating big at night, 10:25 you have other stimulants in your body. 10:27 That might be it. 10:29 Might be that you're not exercising, 10:30 you're not getting tired. 10:32 But I've had several people that when they come to me, 10:34 I wouldn't start with a sleeping pill. 10:36 Okay, there's rare cases that need it, 10:38 but they're on the rare side. 10:40 But I try to get them to understand the why 10:42 and sleep physiology, Nick, is very complex. 10:45 Sometimes it can be when you're quiet at night, 10:48 your brain just never shuts off. 10:50 When you watch the news, 10:51 it makes more adrenaline and cortisol, 10:53 those are things that want the body 10:55 to get ready to fight and stay alive. 10:56 We want to turn down 10:58 all the stressor part of the brain. 10:59 So I'd say one of the good things 11:01 we can do is turn off the stress 11:03 and turn on more worship at night. 11:05 Come to God in prayer 11:06 and ask Him to sort of lead you through these things. 11:09 That would probably be a place where I would start 11:11 rather than jumping on a pill 11:13 that doesn't solve a problem 11:15 and might create some new problems, 11:17 even though in rare instances, 11:18 it might be beneficial in the short term. 11:21 Yeah, I'm going to start employing some of those tips. 11:24 I think it'll be very helpful. Yeah. 11:25 So viewers, we have a free offer, 11:28 it's BiblicalPrescriptions.com /Brain Health. 11:31 There's a short PDF 11:32 that you can download, print out, 11:33 it will help you learn biblical prescriptions 11:36 that will help you improve and optimize your brain health. 11:38 And we think that'll be a great resource for you. 11:40 Thank you for joining us today. 11:42 Dr. Marcum will close the program 11:43 in just a moment with prayer. 11:52 I hope everyone realizes today 11:54 the importance of the brain in health. 11:57 The brain is the control center of the entire body, 12:00 it helps us make decisions. 12:03 We deal with stress with our brain. 12:04 We also worship with our brain. 12:07 So brain health is very important. 12:08 And that's the key fact 12:10 I want you to take away from today 12:12 is help optimizing your brain. 12:15 Now, as we do this, we all need extra help. 12:17 We all need a Savior. 12:19 So let's bow our heads 12:20 and ask God to help improve our brains today. 12:24 Father, God, we all have bad genes, 12:26 we all have bad brains, we all need a Savior. 12:30 Thank You for being a Savior 12:32 and offering to create in us a new heart, a new brain, 12:34 when we come to You and to give us this rest. 12:37 We want to accept this gift today. 12:39 Thank you. And we want to praise Your name. 12:42 Amen. 12:44 If you might have a question regarding today's program, 12:46 I want to turn you to our website 12:48 that's HeartWiseMinistries.org 12:52 and find some things that you can do each day 12:54 to improve your brain 12:56 and realize it's important to your health. |
Revised 2019-03-21