Participants:
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP180114B
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00:01 Welcome back.
00:02 If you're just joining us, today on the program, 00:04 we're discussing brain health. 00:05 And, Dr. Marcum, 00:06 we were just discussing before the break 00:08 about modern medicine 00:09 and what it has to offer in treatment 00:10 for brain health and mental health. 00:12 Why don't you pick up where we left off, 00:13 what do we need to know? 00:15 And this is a very complex subject 00:17 and the specialists in brains are neurologists, 00:19 they're specialists, psychiatrists are specialist, 00:23 psychologists, they get specialized training... 00:26 I'm a cardiologist, Nick. 00:27 So if I had to pick up what I've learned on my own 00:31 from reading about different people 00:32 and putting my opinions together 00:34 on how the brain affects the entire body, 00:36 but I wanna encourage people, learn more. 00:38 You know, go to the Internet, 00:40 learn more about how the brain works, you know. 00:43 But what I tried to understand is 00:45 if you think about some of the frameworks 00:46 we've talked about 00:48 how our brains sometimes have bad genes, 00:50 different things, 00:51 stressors activate those bad genes, 00:53 the organ malfunctions, 00:55 so modern medicine sometimes focuses on the symptom 00:59 and not at the cause of the malfunction. 01:00 Right. 01:01 So I want to focus on, 01:03 well, sometimes we have bad genes 01:04 and there's nothing we can do, okay? 01:06 And sometimes that's where modern medicine 01:08 might be able to benefit in extreme cases 01:10 if the symptom is not as bad as the treatment, okay? 01:14 Remember, this is not gonna heal us, 01:16 this just helps our symptoms 'cause we have bad genes. 01:18 You can't take away everyone's genes 01:20 and put new ones in. 01:21 So modern medicine is treating the symptom 01:23 but sometimes that might be worth it 01:25 if the symptoms creates more problems. 01:27 You follow me? 01:28 Yeah. Okay. 01:30 But we have to be aware of the side effects, 01:31 both short-term and long-term. 01:33 And I try to say, well, even if we did it short term, 01:35 is there something we can do 01:37 with a lifestyle change or a mental lifestyle change 01:41 that would affect it, 01:42 so modern medicine sometimes does not focus on 01:44 all the stressors of life that affect the brain. 01:47 Sure. Yeah. 01:48 Simple stressors like 01:49 not getting the brain enough rest, 01:52 not getting the brain outside. 01:54 In the old days 01:55 if a person had schizophrenia, in the '50s, 01:58 they would take them to, 02:00 what they called an insane asylum, you know. 02:03 And those people with schizophrenia 02:04 at that time, 02:06 they would take him out in the garden, 02:07 let him rest their brains, they wouldn't have to work, 02:09 they take it easy, eat some food, 02:12 and half of those people would get better 02:15 and not be disabled or not get... 02:17 So there's something about just resting the brain. 02:20 I've heard many anecdotal stories 02:23 about brains under stress and people taking sabbaticals 02:26 where they'll walk the Appalachian Trail 02:28 or go out in nature. 02:29 And somehow that rest 02:31 and not keeping the brain over stimulus 02:34 helps the brain heal on its own. 02:35 Yeah. 02:36 If you think about... 02:38 If you hurt your arm or your leg, 02:39 you won't keep riding your bike, 02:41 you'd rest it till it healed. 02:42 Well, sometimes the brain just needs physical rest 02:46 which means turn down some of the stimuli of life. 02:50 Right. 02:51 And now we have more stimuli than ever. 02:54 Sure. Yeah. 02:55 We stay up too late, we stay indoors, 02:57 there's Internet, there's cell phones, 02:59 some people are checking their devices every hour, 03:02 not to mention other things 03:04 that we do that might stress the brain out. 03:06 So modern medicine sometimes does not focus on that 03:09 and that's something I think needs to be focused on. 03:12 Sure. Yeah. 03:13 Now as we're learning about the brain, 03:15 we'd be getting educated 03:16 and that's what led me back to my real source of truth 03:20 and that's the Bible and letting the Bible help, 03:23 you know, show that 03:24 where the modern medicine's appropriate, 03:26 where lifestyle but understanding 03:27 that we need a Savior, 03:29 our brains need Savior and only God can do that. 03:32 So we have to incorporate God's Word into our brains. 03:35 Right. 03:36 That's where the spirituality takes hold 03:39 and that's where I think that's a very important 03:41 for the treatment of the brain 03:42 even if we have to use medicines, 03:43 even if we have to use lifestyle, 03:45 we want to have that. 03:47 Let me tell you story, Nick. 03:48 You like stories? Story time is great. 03:50 I love stories. Story time is great. 03:51 Well, I'll see if I can remember the story 03:53 because sometimes I forget stories. 03:54 So you don't know the story, so you can't help me with it. 03:57 But there once was a man on an elevator, okay? 04:02 And he had to go up to the 89th floor. 04:05 And I'm gonna use your brain to help remember the story 04:07 to make sure you're listening. 04:08 So what floor? Eighty-ninth floor. 04:10 Eighty-ninth floor. 04:11 And this elevator was an elevator that went up 04:14 and on the elevator with him was Jesus. 04:18 Jesus was riding in the elevator car 04:20 with this man. 04:21 All right. Okay? 04:22 So this man starts 04:24 and he's got to go from ground one 04:26 all the way to 89, okay? 04:28 So he's going up in the elevator 04:30 and every time it went up he would fall down, 04:33 he'd fall down, okay? 04:35 And Jesus would be in the elevator 04:37 and the door would open 04:38 and some people would come in and out, 04:40 but Jesus would stay with this man, okay? 04:42 And He would help this man up every time he fell down, okay? 04:46 He'd just pick him up and the man, 04:48 you know, felt bad that he fell down. 04:49 But he, you know, Jesus was there, 04:51 He picked this man up. 04:53 So they got about to the 30th floor, okay? 04:56 And the door opened again and the man fell down again, 04:58 okay? 04:59 Some people came in 05:00 and Jesus helped pick the man up. 05:02 So He got him up off of his feet, 05:03 got him ready to leave 05:05 when he got to the 89th floor to leave the elevator. 05:08 Well, after about 30th the elevator went down suddenly 05:11 to the 20th floor, okay? 05:13 And the man fell down again, okay? 05:15 He went down. 05:16 And the man is getting a little bit discouraged. 05:18 And he says, 05:19 "I'm never gonna make it to the 89th floor!" 05:22 So the elevator went down, 05:24 but Jesus was still there with him. 05:25 He fell down again, 05:27 but Jesus helped him up, 05:29 picked him up again, 05:30 you know, got him back on his feet again. 05:32 So finally, you know, as the elevator went up 05:36 and occasionally went down, 05:37 but it gradually kept going up, the trend was going up. 05:40 Finally, he realized that, 05:43 you know, he wouldn't fall down, 05:45 if he would just hold on to Jesus. 05:46 Yeah. 05:48 So as he went up, 05:49 he says, "Listen, when the door is opening 05:50 and while it's opening, 05:52 I'm just gonna hold on to Jesus, 05:53 so I don't fall down." 05:55 And as he'd learned to hold on to Jesus more, 05:59 he fell down less. 06:02 And eventually, he didn't reached the 89th floor, 06:05 but he kept from falling down, 06:07 and he knew that he was gonna get there someday. 06:12 Well, when it comes to brain health 06:15 we're all on a brain health journey, okay? 06:18 We're all on a journey to get to the 89th floor, okay? 06:22 'Cause that's where we want to be, 06:23 that's our ultimate destination. 06:26 We have to start somewhere, there's gonna be ups and downs, 06:30 and often in life we fall down quite a bit. 06:32 So you're saying the 89th floor represents 06:34 like optimal brain function as best as we can get or... 06:37 I'm gonna leave that up to you to what it means for you. 06:39 Okay, all right, all right. 06:41 I mean what does that mean, 06:42 what's the ultimate place to go. 06:44 Well, that's where this gentleman 06:45 was heading. 06:47 And Jesus was with him the whole time, 06:49 even though he kept falling down, okay? 06:51 So he kept falling down but eventually, he figured out 06:54 that the only real true solution was to hold on 06:57 and as he held on, he fell down a lot less. 07:00 Yeah. 07:02 So as we move through our ultimate destination 07:05 when we're with Jesus, we're gonna fall down. 07:08 Yeah. 07:09 But He's never gonna leave the elevator, 07:11 He is always there with us. 07:13 You know, these people are going and coming 07:15 and our floors might go down sometimes 07:18 but He is always on the elevator with us, 07:19 He is not leaving. 07:21 Right. Yeah. 07:22 He's always gonna be there if we... 07:24 You know, He's gonna be there. 07:25 But sooner or later, hopefully, 07:27 our brains will figure out what's going on, 07:30 you know, and these stresses of going up and down 07:33 aren't the big issue, okay? 07:34 That's not the issue. 07:36 We all have bad genes, 07:37 we're gonna go up and down in this life that we're under. 07:40 That's not the issue. 07:42 The issue is not whether we're falling down or not 07:44 because we will fall down. 07:45 Will we figure out who to hold on to? 07:49 So we get to our ultimate journey. 07:51 That's the question. 07:53 Are we gonna figure out who to hold on to 07:54 so we don't quit falling down as much. 07:56 'Cause the help is always there, 07:58 it's whether we will activate that. 08:00 Well, the brain is very complicated. 08:02 Our brains are always gonna have ups and downs 08:04 as we go through life, 08:06 but are we gonna figure out where to go to optimize it 08:09 as much as we go to this ultimate journey 08:11 that we're heading on. 08:13 So I'll let you just think about that. 08:15 And in my treatment and with brain health, 08:19 I realize that I don't understand a lot. 08:22 Yeah. 08:23 The more we learn, the less we know. 08:25 Yeah. And I'm gonna fall down a lot. 08:27 All of us are gonna fall down a lot on this journey, 08:29 but we have someone there 08:31 that's willing to pick us up every single time. 08:33 That's right. Yeah. 08:34 When the door opens, He's not leaving us, 08:36 He's not getting out the elevator, 08:37 He's staying on the elevator with us. 08:39 And hopefully, 08:41 we will learn to hold on 08:43 as hard as we can 08:45 so we don't fall down as much. 08:47 And the way we hold on is come to Him 08:50 and say, "Lord, I need a Savior, 08:51 I need You to forgive me, to help me forget the past, 08:54 I need a Savior. 08:55 I need You to introduce me to make me clean, 08:58 so I can come in front of God." 08:59 So you can make these changes 09:01 and no matter what happens to my brain, 09:03 I know that there is one place I can be safe forever. 09:06 And when I do this regularly, 09:08 it's like nourishment for my brain 09:11 just like fiber nourishes the bacteria, 09:13 the good bacteria in the brain, I mean, in the bowel, 09:16 you know, it makes butyrate. 09:17 So the good bacteria outweighs the bad. 09:20 Well, when we do this to worship our brains, 09:22 we now have the science to show that 09:24 the parts of the brains can grow, 09:26 the anterior cingulate can grow, 09:27 maybe we can turn off some of this bad software 09:30 that we're bringing in from all the stimuli 09:32 that we can't get away with, 09:33 maybe we're gonna fall down a lot 09:35 on our journey, 09:36 but at least, we know someone's there to help us, 09:39 and we have someone to hold on to 09:40 so we don't fall down as much. 09:42 Now, we're also developing a new tool for folks 09:45 right now, 09:47 the Biblical Prescriptions worship study, 09:49 and we're building an app for it. 09:51 Talk just a little bit about that 09:52 how can that help people's brain? 09:53 Well, one of the things that we wanted to do 09:56 so, you know, we talk about, 09:57 well, what's worship and a lot of people feel discouraged, 09:59 "Well, I don't know how to worship, I can't. 10:01 You know, how do I have something 10:03 that I feed my brain regularly, worship regularly?" 10:05 Well, it's so important, 10:07 you know, we spend so much time 10:09 getting ready for other important events 10:11 but what is more important each day 10:13 that we do for our brains to nourish our brains, 10:16 to grow our brains, to turn off this bad chemistry 10:19 to help counteract some of these bad influences, 10:22 to give us something to hold on to in our worship. 10:24 Right. Yeah. 10:25 So we've developed a 10 minutes intervention, 10:28 we call it, 'cause we're studying it. 10:29 An intervention something we can do 10:31 are called biblical worship. 10:33 A 10-minute study where they go 10:35 and they get ready for worship by, 10:37 you know, by saying a prayer, inviting Christ in their life, 10:40 they have a short text 10:42 that they can put into their hippocampus, 10:44 the memory center, so it's working all day. 10:46 There are some things to be thankful for, 10:48 some things to praise God for, a chance, 10:51 you know, to have your sins forgiven, 10:54 and to come into a relationship and have that start. 10:57 So you want to learn more and to grow it, 10:59 so we can feed that part of our brain daily, 11:02 and we can know that we're in a safe place. 11:04 So we're developing that worship study, 11:07 a 10-minute study that can be on an app 11:09 that people can download, that they can learn. 11:11 And I'm sure people out there are worshiping already, 11:13 but I found in my office 11:15 you don't take things for granted, Nick. 11:17 Some people just don't know things like, 11:19 people that don't know much about nutrition, 11:22 they don't know much about modern medicine. 11:24 We can't assume things. 11:25 So I want people in the brain health 11:27 not to, you know, I won't assume that they know, 11:29 but I wanna give them something 11:30 that they wanna move with it they can. 11:32 This Bible study is one way that we can do things. 11:35 Well, we're now creating a biblical worship. 11:38 Of course, we want people to worship on their own 11:40 to find the way God wants them to worship biblically 11:43 to go to their churches, to read their... 11:45 We want people to do all of that, 11:47 but this is just another tool 11:48 that might help people grow another intervention, 11:51 I like to call it, another Biblical Prescription 11:54 that's been there all along. 11:56 So we don't fall down as much, we have something to hold on to 11:59 through the ups and downs of life 12:01 as we head to our ultimate journey. 12:03 Yeah. 12:04 Well, we're about out of time today 12:05 but, Dr. Marcum, thank you for sharing with us 12:07 about brain health and how worship can benefit us. 12:09 Yeah, it's very complicated, 12:11 but I just want the big picture to be known today 12:13 that we want to develop this 12:14 and realizing the brain is important 12:16 to every decision we make, 12:18 including the decisions we make in lifestyle, 12:20 the decisions we make on modern medicine, 12:24 the relationships we have with God and each other, 12:26 don't ignore the stress in the brain 12:28 'cause it's a big control center of everything. 12:30 Yeah. 12:32 And if you wanna learn more about The Biblical Worship app 12:35 and the 10-minute daily studies, 12:36 signup on our newsletter 12:38 at HeartWiseMinistries .org/Newsletter 12:41 or just go to the website 12:43 and there's a button on the front page 12:44 and you can be a part of that worship study in the future. 12:48 Yeah. So stay tuned. 12:50 Dr. Marcum is gonna close the program 12:51 with prayer in just a moment, 12:52 and thank you so much for joining us today. 13:02 Let's end our program today with prayer, 13:06 Dear Father, we wanna thank You 13:08 for being in the elevator of life with us 13:10 and picking us up when we fall 13:11 and help us to learn to hold on to You, 13:14 especially as it pertains to improving our brains. 13:18 Thank You this day 13:19 and go with us this is our humble prayer. 13:22 Amen. 13:23 Well, I hope you have a great day today, 13:26 I hope you've learned something very important. 13:28 If you need to get a hold of us or ask your question, 13:30 I wanna encourage you to go to our website 13:32 that's HeartWiseMinistries.org. |
Revised 2019-03-28