Participants: Nick Evenson (Host), Dr. James Marcum
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP000085A
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00:16 After a long, hard day of physical work,
00:19 there are a few things that feel better than a warm bath 00:21 to help relax the body and unwind a bit... 00:23 But what if you have overdone it and you're experiencing 00:26 muscle pain? 00:27 Many issues in muscle pain can be eased at home, 00:30 but some should really be taken to the doctor. 00:32 Learn which is which on today's program as Dr. Marcum 00:35 teaches about muscle pain. 00:37 I'm Dr. James Marcum, are you interested in 00:41 discovering the reason why? 00:43 Do you want solutions to your healthcare problem? 00:45 Are you tired of taking medications? 00:49 Well, you're about to be given "The Ultimate Prescription" 00:54 I've discovered that it's a good idea to warm up slowly 00:57 before starting a vigorous workout, 00:59 and general stretching can sometimes help prevent 01:01 muscle damage which causes varying levels of pain. 01:04 But sometimes, muscle pain occurs 01:05 without an apparent cause which is why we need to 01:09 discuss it today on this program. 01:10 Welcome to "The Ultimate Prescription" 01:12 I'm your host Nick Evenson and Dr. Marcum, welcome, 01:15 and what are some of the common causes of muscle pain? 01:19 Yeah Nick, well muscle pains are another type of pain 01:21 that people experience, and remember, 01:24 we've gone over this theme over and over... 01:26 "Whenever you have a pain, 01:29 it's something to be concerned about." 01:30 What level of concern depends on many other variables. 01:34 It's your body's protection mechanism to 01:35 tell you something is wrong. Oh yes... 01:36 Something is wrong, so you don't want to ignore it. 01:38 And muscle pain is one of those. 01:41 You know, it's sometimes hard 01:43 to tell where the pain is coming from. 01:45 Okay, but muscle pain for a doctor is one 01:47 of the easiest ones, okay? 01:49 So what I would do, put your arm over here... All right 01:51 Put your arm over here, if I would 01:53 squeeze you right here and you say, 01:54 "Oh, it hurts, it hurts." Yeah, right! 01:56 And I look and there's no rash there, I would say, 01:59 "You have muscle pain." Okay 02:01 And so that would be step #1. 02:03 Muscle pain is rarely deadly, and I'm going to talk a little 02:07 about the couple of times it is deadly. 02:10 But muscle pain - usually the most common cause of 02:13 muscle pain is overuse. Right 02:16 You just do too much. 02:18 You overuse that part of your body. 02:21 The metabolism goes on, and the temperature goes up. 02:24 You break down the muscle and we go into what we call, 02:29 "anaerobic metabolism." Right 02:31 When we go into anaerobic metabolism or use a muscle 02:34 more than it can do, what happens is it 02:36 builds up the toxins, lactic acidosis is one of them, 02:40 or sometimes you just hurt it and guess what? 02:42 The muscle starts to hurt. Right 02:44 And the treatment for that is to quit doing it and 02:47 usually the muscle gets better on its own. 02:50 Just some rest will help when it's just overuse. Usually! 02:53 But there are so many weekend warriors out there, 02:57 and that don't use their muscles on a regular basis, 02:59 don't give them the substrate it used to be... 03:02 so if you go to your local drugstore or local food market, 03:07 you'll go to the pharmaceutical section and you'll see 03:10 tons of things that you can put on muscles. Right 03:12 Most of them have a chemical called "menthol" in them 03:15 that makes the muscles feel good. 03:17 Some sort of heat up the muscle, 03:19 makes it feel a little bit better, 03:20 but the bottom line, the reason the muscle is 03:23 feeling better is because it's not working anymore. Yes 03:26 So the treatment for an overused muscle is not to overuse it. 03:29 By doing too for the muscle, 03:31 the treatment for that is don't do it again and build up 03:34 your muscle a little bit slower. A little bit at a time. 03:37 Yes, a little bit at a time, so that's probably 03:39 the most common cause of muscle pain that I see. 03:42 The second cause the most common is probably too much 03:45 stress in the life, too much tension. 03:48 And Nick, we talked about this many times for chronic pain 03:51 that's not life-threatening, STRESS is a leading cause. 03:55 And if you think about the physiology of stress, 03:57 you're under stress from no matter what it is; 04:00 your adrenalin goes up, 04:02 your inflammation in your body goes up; 04:04 you hold your muscles tight because your under stress... 04:06 "I have to do more work, my boss..." 04:08 You probably have a mean boss, your muscles are all tight 04:10 all the time and you just go home with headaches 04:12 and muscle pains all night, you go home and say, 04:14 "Honey, honey, my muscles are hurting all over." 04:16 And she says, "Well, did you overuse them today?" 04:18 And you go, "No." And she says, "You must have 04:20 too much stress at work." Right 04:22 So, occasionally my son was having some problems 04:25 with muscles - it really didn't make sense. 04:27 You know, and he was just having too much stress... 04:29 to make the inflammatory and it got in the muscles 04:32 and it caused a lot of pain. 04:33 So just cutting back down stress. 04:36 The opposite of stress is rest. 04:38 More rest - this is a place where worship is very useful. 04:41 Sometimes that could be all that's needed 04:43 to relax those muscles. 04:45 So if you're used to working hard every day regularly, 04:48 you can probably get by with that. Yes 04:50 But if you don't work hard every day, 04:52 and then you go out and give a really big effort on 04:54 one particular day, that's going to cause a problem. 04:56 Exactly! 04:58 Another common cause of muscle pain is trauma. 05:02 Let's say you decide to take up boxing. Okay 05:06 And you're not very good at boxing, 05:08 and someone else is very good at boxing, 05:10 and he keeps boxing you and hitting you and hitting the 05:12 muscles... I'm going to have a lot of muscle pain. 05:14 That's trauma or here's another trauma... 05:16 Let's say you decide to be a weight-lifter. Okay 05:19 And you go into the gym and everyone there is 05:21 putting up a lot of weight, and you say, 05:22 "Man, I gotta lift a lot of weight too." Exactly! 05:24 And you put trauma on the muscles. Right 05:26 That's another thing that can cause muscle problems. 05:29 Muscle strain and tears maybe? Yeah 05:31 So most of these are not dangerous 05:33 so far - if you're smart, okay? If you're smart about it. 05:36 Certain medications that we take can damage 05:40 muscles and hurt muscles. 05:41 The most common one that everyone has heard of is 05:44 the medicine the "statins" that lower cholesterol. 05:48 Those can cause muscle pains because they change 05:50 some of the protein function in the muscle. 05:53 Other medicines that can cause 05:54 it are medicines called "diuretics." 05:57 They take fluid out of the body and, of course, 06:01 the muscles are made of fluid, the muscle gets dehydrated, 06:04 it cramps and it hurts. Right 06:05 You see, and the muscle anywhere can do that. Yeah 06:08 It also loses potassium and magnesium. 06:11 So anything that pulls fluid out of your body 06:13 can cause this as well. 06:15 A nutritional deficiency can cause muscle aches, 06:18 and the ones we see mostly are low in potassium, 06:21 and low in magnesium. 06:22 You know when mom said to eat your fruits and veggies, 06:24 there was a reason for that. 06:26 Okay, if you don't eat the fruits and veggies, 06:28 you're more prone to have muscle spasms 06:30 because those are the basic ingredients of a muscle. 06:33 Water, magnesium, potassium, 06:36 those help the muscles work well. 06:38 Now the one that's serious, that could be life-threatening, 06:42 is one called, "a myositis," a severe myositis, 06:46 and when that happens, I've seen it a couple of times 06:48 in a few years - you see it in a couple of instances, Nick, 06:52 I saw it in a bicycle rider that was riding a long bicycle ride, 06:56 and he didn't get his water. 06:57 And his muscles broke down and when the muscles 07:00 started to break down for energy, 07:02 it increased a chemical in the body called, "CPK," 07:05 which damages the kidneys. 07:07 That could be potentially life-threatening, 07:10 and we call that, "rhabdomyolysis," 07:13 muscle breakdown and the muscle breakdown product 07:16 overwhelms the kidneys and the kidneys can go into failure. 07:20 Another type of person that would get that is... 07:23 and I've seen it in a few elderly patients 07:25 that would fall down at home and lay on the floor 07:28 for 2 or 3 days after they fell down on a muscle... 07:30 not able to get to the phone, not eating or drinking, 07:33 someone then finds them, they go and measure this 07:36 muscle breakdown product called, "CPK" in the blood, 07:39 "creatine phosphokinase (CPK)," and a large amount of that 07:43 floods the kidneys, this muscle... 07:45 and the kidneys can't take it and they go into renal failure. 07:48 Because there's no water for the kidneys to use? Yes 07:51 You know, usually if people get hydrated, 07:53 it doesn't cause a big problem. Right 07:55 We call that "rhabdomyolysis," and that could happen. 07:58 The muscles help regulate temperature in the body, 08:02 do those type of things, but those things 08:04 can cause muscle breakdown 08:06 and be potentially life-threatening. 08:08 Now, there are many other things 08:10 out there that can cause muscle pains. 08:12 Those are just the most common ones. 08:14 Sleep apnea - did you know that? 08:16 That's when you don't get enough oxygen at night. 08:18 Why do you have it? Because you don't get enough oxygen. 08:20 Muscles like oxygen... So that can cause pain. 08:23 Thyroid - If you don't get enough thyroid, 08:26 that can cause it because thyroid is a chemical 08:28 that regulates how the muscles work. 08:30 Don't get enough blood into your muscle. 08:32 That can hurt because, you know, the muscles need blood too. 08:36 Needs a blood supply, so if you have blockages 08:38 in your arteries, that can cause a problem. 08:40 The biggest muscle that I work with that sees that 08:42 is an internal muscle called, "the heart." 08:45 The musculoskeletal muscles can 08:47 have that to some degree as well. 08:49 Infections - have you ever had the flu, 08:51 and you get achy all over? Yep - sure have! 08:54 You get achy, the body turns on all these inflammatory 08:57 markers trying to fight an infection, you're achy all over 09:00 because your body's immune system is trying to 09:02 fight an infection. 09:04 Anytime the immune system is really revved up, 09:07 it can cause muscle aches. 09:08 So not only can that come from infection, 09:10 it can come from things like: lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, 09:14 scleroderma; the medical conditions where the body 09:18 attacks itself. 09:19 Now sometimes, people have muscle aches and we really don't 09:23 know why and we give that term, we can call that 09:27 "fibromyalgia." Okay 09:29 Fibromyalgia, but usually there's something in the 09:31 environment that triggers the immune system 09:33 that causes the muscles to ache all the time. 09:36 And I would say that 8 out of 10 people that I see in my 09:39 office - that if I give them to eat a whole food plant-based 09:42 diet, water, stretching and exercise, the fibromyalgia 09:47 dramatically improves. 09:50 Inactivity can cause muscle aches 09:53 because you just don't do anything, right. 09:55 Alcohol - too much alcohol and drugs 09:57 can cause muscle aches. 09:59 And then one that I've seen a few times cause 10:01 muscle aches, we don't see it that much, 10:02 is any type of malignancies, cancers. 10:05 Cancers can get into the bones - specifically, 10:07 the lymphomas, leukemias, they make extra cells. 10:11 They can metastasis and sometimes that can cause chronic 10:14 muscle aches because of all the medical problems it creates. 10:19 So that's just a few of the many muscle aches 10:22 that we have, myalgias that we have. 10:25 Now can you think of the last time that you had a muscle ache? 10:29 Yeah, I was actually doing a running race, 10:33 and I started off when I saw one of my buddies 10:35 was ahead of me and so I was going to run him down, 10:37 and then chase him down and run with him 10:38 and I started off a little too fast and about halfway 10:41 through the race, I had to stop because my 10:43 calf started cramping. There you go! 10:45 I drank a good amount of water in preparation and whatnot, 10:48 but I just started too fast and it cramped up. 10:51 And that is probably... if we can leave one thing 10:54 with our listening audience today, for cramps 10:56 and muscle aches, one of the hallmarks 10:59 we should do is make sure we get enough water. 11:03 I tell everyone to eat more greens because it has 11:06 potassium and magnesium, replace your electrolytes, 11:10 and then, if you've noticed, whenever a muscle gets cramped, 11:13 it sort of balls up. Yeah 11:14 So usually you need some type of stretching maneuver 11:17 to relieve that balled up knot... 11:19 some type of massage maneuver that will help. 11:22 But I would say that that is probably 80% of 11:25 the muscle pains is just because we don't take care of our 11:28 muscles the way we should. Right 11:30 You know, in your description of what the muscles need... 11:33 it's kind of like a car engine. Yep 11:35 You gotta feed it the right fuels; 11:37 you've got to let the waste, the exhaust out, 11:40 and your blood does all of that, 11:42 if you've eaten the right foods and you drink enough water. 11:44 And for our athletes out there, everyone likes to 11:47 run these long marathon races, Nick... 11:50 Right, good challenge. But that's not 11:51 really good for our muscles. 11:53 It can be too much stress. Right 11:54 And in the muscles, it puts too much stress, 11:56 it wears them out; their metabolism is going fast; 11:59 the temperature goes up, so you have to keep 12:02 getting lots of water to replace what the muscles 12:04 in the body is losing. 12:06 That could be a real serious problem on our muscles 12:08 so be careful to exercise extremely to make sure 12:12 your muscles have what it needs. 12:14 And if your muscles start to ache and they start 12:16 hurting and your body starts malfunctioning, 12:19 maybe you're overusing your muscles; 12:21 maybe you need a little bit more help; 12:23 maybe you should be a little bit smarter. 12:25 Because there's a process called, "oxidation," Nick. 12:28 Oxidation just means that parts of aging. 12:30 And if you overdo it and you do too much, 12:33 and you go into oxidation, 12:34 the parts wear out a lot quicker. 12:37 Antioxidants are another good thing for athletes 12:40 that use a lot of muscles. Yep 12:42 Now my son does a lot of exercising of a lot of muscles, 12:45 and I really make sure he hydrates himself, greens, 12:47 and lots of antioxidants especially 12:50 after the acute exercise. 12:52 The muscles are repairing themselves. 12:53 They are repairing themselves get a lot of antioxidants, 12:55 a lot of water, a lot of rest, a lot of good things, 12:58 make those muscles able to fix themselves 13:01 and repair themselves sooner. 13:02 So we really need to listen to our bodies. 13:04 God has given us an amazing system to tell us 13:06 when there's a problem and we need to listen 13:08 to that and take care of our muscles. 13:10 But the good news... I'm going to interrupt you. 13:12 The good news is most muscle pains are not life-threatening, 13:15 just only a few instances are, so that's a good news. 13:17 Usually if you're smart about it, 13:19 it gets better pretty quick. Excellent! 13:20 Well, we're going to be back in just a moment, 13:22 and Dr. Marcum will be answering questions 13:24 and if you have a question, go to our website at: 13:26 heartwiseministries.org 13:28 Go to the "Ask the Doctor" page and submit 13:30 your questions there and we will get you some information 13:32 about your issue. 13:34 Stay right with us, there's more to come. |
Revised 2017-01-03