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Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP180114A
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00:01 The following program presents principles designed
00:02 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 The human brain is by far the most complex design 00:18 known to man. 00:20 And our best and brighter scientists 00:21 from around the world 00:22 are just now scratching the surface 00:24 when it comes to understanding how the brain really works. 00:27 But we have learned a few things. 00:28 And on today's program, we'll be sharing tips 00:30 that you can use to improve your brain health today 00:33 no matter where you're starting from. 00:35 The Ultimate Prescription starts now. 00:56 Thanks for joining us here today 00:58 on The Ultimate Prescription, 00:59 a program dedicated to helping us better understand 01:02 God's design for our lives 01:03 and experiencing better health by following His plan. 01:06 I'm your host Nick Evenson, 01:07 and I'm joined by Dr. James Marcum 01:09 for an excellent program today 01:10 in which we'll be discussing brain health. 01:12 And, Dr. Marcum, welcome to the program 01:14 and tell us, as a cardiologist, 01:16 how have you learned about brain health? 01:18 Well, I've had to understand, 01:20 I specialize in disease reversal. 01:22 Okay. 01:24 And what that means, you know, 01:25 do we ever actually reverse disease? 01:27 Probably some things we can slow it down, 01:30 some people we can improve, but we don't really reverse 01:33 some of the genetic tendencies that we have. 01:35 Right. 01:37 But one of the things I've learned 01:38 that the brain is a very valuable way to improve things. 01:43 And when we talk... 01:44 Earlier, we talked about all the stresses that 01:46 cause the disease, and we talked about 01:49 how our genes are all bad including our brain genes. 01:52 Yeah. 01:53 And the stresses accelerate ageing 01:55 and accelerate damaging, 01:56 and often our body compensates in some ways. 02:00 Some ways good, some ways not so good. 02:04 In brain health, you know, we talk about the inputs. 02:06 You know, we talked about in lifestyle, 02:08 food, we talk a lot about food. 02:10 But just as dangerous to our health 02:11 is having bad brain inputs. 02:13 And we have brain inputs over prolong periods of time, 02:17 we can have damage to us. 02:19 So that's why we want to understand 02:21 this complex organ. 02:23 And the more we learn, the less we know about it. 02:26 It's more complex than the internet could ever be. 02:29 And it looks at all of the advance programs it does, 02:31 all the storage devices, how do we recall things, 02:34 how do we coordinate things to get a response, 02:37 you know, understanding how dreams in the past 02:40 and the future, all plays a role. 02:42 It's just amazing what God has designed. 02:45 And when I look at the structure 02:47 and function of the brain, 02:48 you know, you know that there's a Creator, 02:51 you know, you appreciate the handy work 02:53 and how it's done. 02:54 But you also... 02:56 All the good things out there, 02:57 there's also bad things, you know. 02:58 As advance as God has made the brain, 03:00 there's people out there that want to hurt the brain. 03:03 When we hurt our brains, 03:04 we can't communicate with God as efficiently. 03:07 And we want to try to avoid the stresses on the brain. 03:10 And I think we need to talk a little bit about 03:13 how the brain works at a basic level today. 03:15 Yeah, right. 03:17 Well, throughout the series of programs, 03:18 we've been discussing biblical prescriptions 03:20 and how those can benefit us. 03:22 And so we have a video 03:24 from the Biblical Prescriptions, 03:25 a small group Bible study program 03:27 that we'd like to share with you on brain health 03:29 and how the brain works and what we know about it. 03:31 Let's take a look now. 03:34 Now the brain is very vast and very interesting. 03:38 And lot of people like 03:40 to think of the brain like the vast internet. 03:43 But believe it or not, 03:44 the brain is even more complex than the internet. 03:48 There is 100 billion neurons in the brain. 03:52 Now the neuron 03:53 is the functional cell of the brain. 03:55 It's a very neat structure 03:57 that contains a structure called an axon and a dendrite, 04:02 and they connect to each other, 04:03 and they communicate both via chemicals and electrically, 04:07 so the brain is an electromagnetic 04:09 as well as chemical phenomena. 04:12 For instance, if you remember something 04:13 in one part of the brain 04:15 and it tells your part of the body 04:16 that this isn't something you want to do, 04:18 there's connections with that. 04:20 There's been estimated that 04:21 there is one quadrillion connections within the brain, 04:26 that's one with 15 zeros out of it. 04:28 But the way we learn about the brain 04:30 is through different types of technology like 04:33 PET scans, MRIs, EEGs. 04:38 Sometimes we can learn by talking to people 04:40 and we can actually map the brain now. 04:43 They're doing studies right now, 04:45 we can actually put thoughts into certain parts of brains, 04:49 where we can get the brain 04:51 to move different parts of the body. 04:53 But we've learned the basics of the brain. 04:55 It consisted of three functional layers. 04:57 And that's important for us, 04:59 because we want to understand how our behavior works. 05:02 This is going to help us this week 05:04 as we learn about the brain 05:05 and learn the importance of our spiritual lives. 05:08 Well, the first part of the brain is the brain stem. 05:11 This is the stress part of the brain. 05:13 This part of the brain is great at staying alive, 05:16 gathering foods, seeking pleasure. 05:18 Doesn't do anything in the future, 05:20 doesn't really understand the past, 05:23 just lives in the here and now, wants to stay alive. 05:26 This part is not capable of love. 05:29 The middle part of the brain, which we share with mammals, 05:32 is it called the mammalian layer. 05:34 And it sort of sits on top of this part 05:36 of the brain stem here. 05:38 It does things like emotion, 05:40 it does things like our immune system, 05:43 it's where we store our thoughts 05:45 in the part called the hippocampus. 05:48 Also this stress part of the brain, 05:50 the amygdala is located in this middle layer, 05:53 and we share this with mammals. 05:56 The third part of the brain 05:58 is called the prefrontal cortex, 06:00 this is the part that's unique to humans. 06:02 A few mammals have a little bit of neocortex. 06:06 Crows and dolphins and some primates 06:10 have a little bit of it, but it's predominantly a part 06:12 that's unique to the human race. 06:14 And this is the part where God communicates with us. 06:18 This is the part called the anterior cingulate cortex. 06:21 That's the God brain. 06:23 The studies have shown that when we worship God 06:26 and we're going to study this next week, 06:27 we grow these neural connections, 06:29 these neural pathways in this part of the brain. 06:32 Our goal is to live in the upper part of the brain. 06:36 We don't want to live in the stress part of the brain 06:38 just staying alive. 06:40 And we call this upshifting the brain. 06:42 We want to live in the God part of the brain, 06:45 and not downshifting and live constantly 06:47 in the stress part of the brain. 06:49 When a stress occurs to this level, 06:51 our brain downshift, turns on all this chemistry, 06:55 and all this chemistry turns on chemicals 06:57 that make it very difficult 06:58 for us to have good thoughts, 07:00 cognitive thinking, 07:02 and also makes it even harder to worship God. 07:05 So our goal basically is to be upshifted 07:08 and not downshifted. 07:09 And we can do that through some skills 07:12 we're going to learn about this week. 07:14 We're going to learn about what do we do 07:15 when we see that our brain is downshifted, stressed out? 07:19 How do we upshift our brain? How do we move to worship? 07:22 How do we change 07:24 those neural connections and the chemistry 07:25 that will give us the strength 07:27 to continue to improve our physical wellbeing? 07:30 And remember, that God wants to create in us a new brain, 07:34 and we're going to learn this week 07:35 that it's through worship, spending time with Him 07:38 that He's actually able to create these new connections 07:41 that takes us away from anxiety, from fear, 07:43 from all this chronic stress, 07:45 and this is going to help 07:47 be one of the treatments for chronic disease. 07:50 You know, that's a great introductory lesson 07:53 on how the brain works 07:54 in the different functional layers. 07:56 Biblical Prescriptions for Life, 07:57 it's a small group Bible study. 07:59 If you want to learn more about Biblical Prescriptions 08:01 to treat your brain health 08:03 and improve your brain function, 08:04 call 3ABN and ask for your copy 08:06 of Biblical Prescriptions for Life. 08:07 Dr. Marcum, we want to talk a little bit more 08:09 about the brain 08:11 and what are some of the most common treatments 08:13 that modern medicine offers? 08:16 What are the benefits of those and what are the drawbacks 08:18 or the risks of those compared to biblical prescriptions? 08:20 Yeah, well, if you look about the history of the brain, 08:25 we haven't known much about the brain. 08:27 In fact, in the Bible says, "Create me a new heart." 08:30 You know, that's before... 08:31 You know, they didn't know where thinking was occurring. 08:34 So not through all our time, we have not known that 08:36 what the brain does or thoughts, 08:38 and only in the last few, you know, 08:39 years have we had these functional imaging, 08:41 the MRIs, the way to look at the brain 08:43 and see what it does under certain situations. 08:47 A lot of the patients we've learned from 08:49 is from stroke patients. 08:50 You know, people had a stroke, 08:52 what part of the brain has died? 08:53 What part of the... 08:54 What did that brain do? Yeah. 08:56 So we're actually able to figure out 08:57 different neurons and what it does. 09:00 Now the future of brains, it just blows me away. 09:03 You know, when we can stimulate parts of brains, 09:06 you know, put chips and things that can move arms 09:08 and things like that, who knows where the future's going. 09:11 Right. 09:12 But what I want to focus on today 09:14 is to let people realize 09:16 that the brain is important that to our health. 09:19 All of the inputs that we put in our brain go somewhere. 09:22 Okay. 09:23 For instance, everything you put in from the Internet, 09:25 or from a cell phone, or from a television, 09:28 or for conversation is in there. 09:31 All your past is in there. Right. 09:34 You know, the storage part, the hippocampus, 09:36 now whether it gets activated or not is different. 09:39 Some people keep activating things 09:42 that don't help them. 09:44 You know, spiritually speaking, 09:46 you know, when you've done something bad, 09:48 you ask God for forgiveness. 09:50 He forgives it, He throws it in the sea. 09:52 He gets rid of it. Yeah. 09:54 But some of us keep activating dangerous memories 09:57 and dangerous experiences over and over and over. 09:59 Living in guilt. 10:00 Yeah, and that's sometimes 10:02 when modern medicine talk to you, 10:03 you know, you always thought, "Well, you know, 10:06 whom is treated you as a child?" 10:08 And you know, there's a place for that 10:10 but some people keep going 10:11 over and over and over their failures 10:13 and don't ever throw it into the sea 10:15 or deactivate those programs. 10:17 Yeah. So those programs keep... 10:19 The software keeps coming up all the time. 10:22 And you, "Oh, I failed, I failed, 10:24 I'm discouraged, I'm down." 10:25 And that software gets activated 10:28 and the wires get stronger, before you know, 10:30 that's dominating you. 10:32 So sometimes there's therapists that deal in the past 10:34 and all the harm that's done 10:36 and keep those circuits activated. 10:38 But biblical, if you think about it, 10:39 you know, God forgives you, He says, "Let's start over. 10:42 Let's turn that down a little bit. 10:44 Let's look at what you can do today 10:46 and what I have planned for you tomorrow." 10:48 Yeah. 10:49 So that's one thing that I tried to emphasize to people. 10:51 Yes, it's important to know your past. 10:54 But the bad parts, you know, when you failed or you sinned, 10:58 ask for forgiveness 10:59 and throw into the sea like God. 11:00 Don't continue to live that. 11:02 So it hurts you, you're downshift, 11:04 so you can't hear God 11:05 expressing His will for you today. 11:07 Kind of a deal with it and delete. 11:09 Yeah. Right. There you go. 11:11 I like that, deal with it and delete it. 11:12 Yeah. 11:14 Another thing that we see, there's a lot of people 11:16 when the brain malfunctions 11:18 rather than to get at the cause, 11:19 we just treat a symptom, you know. 11:22 What are some examples? 11:23 Yeah, well, a person that's anxious all the time. 11:26 You know, they're nervous and anxious. 11:28 And they go to the doctor and the doctor says, 11:30 "Well, you have anxiety disorder." 11:32 And that might be true. Sure. 11:33 But how can we turn down the stress 11:36 that's causing the anxiety. 11:37 So rather than giving skills that we can upshift our brain, 11:41 whether it be good nutrition, exercise, worship, 11:43 some of the things we've talked about, 11:45 we just never deal with it. 11:47 So we take a chemical 11:48 that turns on a bunch of neurotransmitters 11:50 that might not fix the problem. 11:51 Right. 11:53 And then we might have a new problem. 11:54 And lots of side effects potentially. 11:55 Yeah. 11:57 Now some people have a genetic problem 11:58 and they need it, okay. 12:00 But that's a very few people, okay. 12:03 We see that sometimes in depression. 12:04 You know, some people do not have 12:06 genetically induced depression, 12:08 but they have depression just from a lifestyle event. 12:11 You know, or a vitamin D deficiency, 12:13 or a chemical deficiency like a B6, B12, 12:16 or something other simple that we could treat 12:18 and get the brain better right away. 12:20 So you know, in severe depression, 12:23 you know, sometimes they do all sorts of different things, 12:25 and sometimes that's needed if there's agenetic problem. 12:29 You know, some people have bad genes. 12:31 They do all these things right. 12:32 And there's a place for modern medicine, 12:34 but it's not as the first step all the time. 12:37 The first is understanding the reason why 12:40 turning to God, you know, make... 12:41 Because in that place, we're safe. 12:44 Now the problem with the brain is it affects everything else. 12:47 You know, if you had a bad arm that hurt all the time 12:49 and you're rested, didn't get better, 12:50 that would be one thing. 12:52 But when the brain is malfunctioning 12:53 on different levels, it affects the entire body. 12:56 So the brain affects the heart, it affects the kidneys, 12:59 it affects the bowels, it affects your joints, 13:01 all sorts of things happen 13:03 when the brain is malfunctioning at any level. 13:06 Now remember, when we have pain in our lives, 13:09 the brain is designed to deal with pain, okay. 13:13 In animals, they want to avoid the pain. 13:15 So we'll do anything in life to avoid pain. 13:18 And that's how we deal with the pain. 13:20 That's very important. 13:21 Do we reach for bad things, you know, 13:23 just to deal with the pain, deal with the symptom, 13:25 or we try to get at that cause of pain, 13:28 the cause of the malfunction? 13:30 And that's what I try to focus on in the Bible study 13:33 that we've been through focusing on those things. 13:35 Yeah, it's a great discussion, 13:37 and we're going to get back to that in just a moment. 13:38 But first, we got to take a short break. 13:40 We want you to stay with us as The Ultimate Prescription 13:42 returns in just a moment. |
Revised 2019-03-28