Participants: Nick Evenson (Host), Dr. James Marcum
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP000092A
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00:01 The following program presents
00:02 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. 00:17 Have you ever sat down to take your medications 00:19 and just wondered how did I get here? 00:22 Maybe you would like to reduce your dependence 00:24 on prescription medications or prevent further disease. 00:27 On today's program we're gonna be discussing 00:29 food as medicine. 00:31 Now, we're gonna discuss ideas that you can implement today 00:34 regardless of where you're starting from. 00:36 Thanks for joining us. 00:37 The Ultimate Prescription starts now. 00:40 I am Dr. James Marcum. 00:42 Are you interested in discovering the reason 00:44 why you want solutions to your healthcare problem? 00:48 Are you tired of taking medications? 00:51 Well, you're about to be given the Ultimate Prescription. 00:58 Hello, and thank you for joining us today 00:59 on the Ultimate Prescription. 01:01 A program dedicated to helping us better understand 01:03 and follow God's plan for our lives. 01:06 My name is Nick Evenson, your host, 01:07 and I'm here with Dr. James Marcum. 01:09 And on today's program, we're gonna be discussing 01:11 food as medicine. 01:13 Dr. Marcum, thank you for joining us here today. 01:14 Well, thanks for hosting me, Nick, 01:16 it's always nice to be here with you 01:18 to discuss really an important topic. 01:21 And this is one that is sort of a trendsetter, 01:25 you know, 'cause not a lot of people 01:26 talk about how our nutrition, 01:28 the food we eat can use to treat disease 01:32 as well as prevent disease. 01:35 We're gonna show the signs 01:36 over the next several weeks in programs 01:39 of how the studies have shown that certain foods we eat 01:42 have the chemicals in it 01:44 that can treat certain conditions 01:46 and also prevent certain conditions. 01:48 This gonna be very fascinating subject. 01:50 Now, as a practicing cardiology, 01:52 cardiologist, you do medicine every day, 01:55 you see patients regularly. 01:56 I'm sure you write a lot of prescriptions, right? 01:59 Well, you know, I do 02:01 but it's not the type that you might see. 02:03 Okay. 02:04 Many of the conditions I can give a prescription 02:06 like for a grain or to exercise or certain foods 02:11 and accomplish some of the same things 02:13 that people will do it 02:14 as prescription medications or other treatments. 02:17 And that's what we're gonna show. 02:18 We're gonna show people the steps 02:20 that they can do one step at a time, 02:22 the science behind it 02:23 and how to apply it to your life 02:25 and also get your, how to get your doctor 02:27 to buy into this. 02:28 So it's gonna be a very fascinating study 02:31 that we do. 02:32 Yeah, let's jump into that little bit further. 02:34 What is the time and the place for using, 02:37 you know, cherries, greens, different things like this, 02:40 rather eating food, 02:41 rather than maybe modern medicines offering... 02:44 Well, that's a... that's a great question, Nick, 02:47 because modern medicine treat symptoms and not causes, 02:51 so I divided up into something 02:53 that's an emergency versus a chronic condition. 02:56 Even when we bypass a patient, bypass around them, 03:00 we don't take away the blockages, 03:02 so I might use the bypass to help 03:04 the symptoms of chest pain, 03:06 and then when they come back I say, 03:07 "Well, let's learn what caused that to happen." 03:10 That's one of the chemistry that caused you 03:12 to need modern medicine. 03:13 So modern medicine is great for acute problems, 03:16 heart attacks, acute stroke, 03:18 bleeding to death, needing an antibiotic, 03:22 those are great places for modern medicine. 03:24 If I'm having a surgery, I want anesthesia, don't you? 03:27 Yeah. 03:28 Yeah, put you to sleep you know. 03:29 So there's a place for modern medicine, 03:31 but unfortunately it doesn't treat 03:33 what many people have today and that's chronic disease. 03:36 Do you know what a chronic disease is? 03:37 Chronic, to me it sounds like something that's just ongoing. 03:40 Yes, it's been around a long time 03:41 and the chronic diseases 03:43 that we talk of the most are acquired diseases 03:45 like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, 03:48 cancer could be considered an acquired disease, 03:51 obesity, joint pains, inflammation, 03:54 depression, anxiety, 03:57 many of these diseases are chronic. 03:58 They've been going on for long periods of time. 04:01 Now modern medicine still treats these 04:03 with medications 04:04 but often time we don't get at the cause. 04:07 So now there's a new trend of let's find other ways 04:10 that are safer, that are cheaper, 04:12 that are more effective, 04:13 that not only treat the symptoms 04:15 but perhaps treat the cause of disease. 04:17 Does this make sense? 04:19 Yeah, yeah, so if it's a chronic situation, 04:23 there's probably some preventive measures we can take 04:25 to keep it from getting worse, 04:27 but if you have an acute problem, 04:29 you need to go to your doctor immediately 04:30 and they're gonna probably use some modern medicine. 04:32 That's exactly right, 04:33 and that's the approach that I take in my office. 04:36 You know, if someone's having a funny heart rhythm, 04:38 I try to get the rhythm taken care of first 04:41 and then see if we can address the cause. 04:44 If someone's having chest pain when they walk, 04:46 I'll try to get that chest pain to go away first, 04:49 then we deal with the cause. 04:51 If someone has arthritis, 04:52 we try to get the pain to go away with, 04:54 and then we try to treat the cause. 04:56 Same with all these bowel functions, 04:58 depression, anxiety, all of these chronic, 05:01 if someone has cancer, we try to slow down the cancer, 05:04 and then see if we can get at the cause of the cancer. 05:07 Sometimes just cutting it out, 05:09 sometimes just changing the metabolism of the body. 05:11 These thoughts have been going on 05:13 for quite a long period of time. 05:15 Yeah, so the idea of using food as medicine, 05:17 is it something new or has it been around a while? 05:20 No, it's been around. 05:21 Let's talk about that 05:22 and I wanted to open the scriptures 05:25 because when I started to, you know, 05:27 I went to medical school and I've been practicing, Nick, 05:29 for 25 years now. 05:31 And the more I learn the less I know, 05:35 does that make sense? 05:37 Yeah, sure. 05:38 The body is a lot more complicated 05:40 than that we can even understand. 05:42 We're just learning things 05:44 about how the brain affects our metabolism, 05:46 how our thoughts, 05:47 health thoughts that are in our brains 05:49 that we don't even know they're there, 05:51 that come to our consciousness. 05:52 How our bowels with a trillion bacteria 05:55 get turned on. 05:57 The DNA is exposed 05:58 and does different things in different situations. 06:01 So we're learning a lot but these aren't new concepts, 06:05 God has given us ideas in the Scriptures, 06:08 biblical prescriptions that change our lives, 06:11 so what I've been doing is going back to the Scriptures 06:14 seeing what God has taught, 06:16 then finding the science behind it 06:18 and teaching people how to make changes 06:21 in their lives one step at a time. 06:23 And when I say this has been going on for a while, 06:25 I want to take people back to Genesis, Genesis 1, 06:28 you know what's in Genesis 1? 06:30 Creation. Yup, the creation. 06:32 So let's go back to the very beginning 06:33 and see what God says in Genesis 1:29, 06:38 it says, and God says, 06:40 that's pretty powerful and God says, 06:42 you know, I'm gonna listen if God says it, right? 06:45 He says, "See I have given you every herb that yields seed 06:49 which is on the face of the earth 06:51 and every tree whose fruit yield seed 06:53 to you it shall be your food." 06:55 So God sort of lining in those things 06:57 that grow things, that come from seeds, 06:59 that's what we should eat and He also says, 07:01 "And also that the beast of the earth, 07:03 to every bird of the air and to everything 07:06 that creeps on the earth to which there is life 07:08 I've given green herb for food." 07:10 So basically God's saying, He wants us to eat things 07:14 that grow, things that come from seeds. 07:16 That's right. 07:18 So that, that's the really sort of the basis 07:19 of God's original plan back at creation. 07:23 So that's a template that we can use, 07:25 not only just helps keep our body running smooth, 07:28 but we're gonna find out 07:29 through the next series of programs 07:31 that these substances also have chemicals 07:34 just like a pill might have a chemical 07:36 that changes our bodies. 07:38 And what I found out about a biblical prescription, Nick, 07:42 is biblical prescriptions help every cell, 07:45 they usually don't... they don't have side effects, 07:47 they're usually not expensive, 07:49 they're usually available to everyone. 07:50 Now it might be different people 07:53 have different access to different foods, 07:55 but God makes these available to His people. 07:57 Right. 07:58 And we study the first nutrition study. 08:00 Do you know where the first nutrition study 08:02 was done at? 08:03 I did in the Book of Daniel, right? 08:05 Yeah. 08:06 I... We've talked about that. Yeah, we've talked about that. 08:07 But remember the story, what happened in that story? 08:11 So, Daniel and his friends were, 08:13 they were ordered to eat the king's feast, 08:15 but they hadn't been raised that way, 08:18 that's not how they were taught, 08:19 and they wanted to eat something different. 08:20 That's exactly right. 08:22 And it must have been pretty powerful 08:23 because these were young, young guys, 08:25 and they moved away from home 08:28 and yet when they moved away from home, 08:30 they were so ingrained, 08:31 this was so powerful in their life. 08:33 You know, their parents must have taught them 08:35 about what they should eat, 08:37 because when they went to the foreign land, 08:38 what did they say, 08:40 "No I don't, I don't want to eat the king's food." 08:42 And in the Hebrew the word is zero'iym 08:44 and that means that which is grown. 08:47 So again we see things that come from seeds, 08:49 things that grow, that's the best food for us. 08:51 Not things that have mothers? No, that's right. 08:53 And after a short period of time, 08:55 after short period of time it says, their countenance, 08:58 the way they look was better. 08:59 So it just shows, you know, after a few days, you know, 09:02 a few days their countenance was even better, 09:04 so every cell in their body improve 09:06 because it was obvious. 09:07 Now they didn't... 09:09 I'm sure back then they didn't have blood work 09:11 to check their blood sugar, 09:12 detector inflammation to check their blood pressure, 09:15 to look at some of the biometrics 09:17 that we look at, 09:19 but you know what, it didn't matter, 09:21 they could just see it in them, you know, that glow is better, 09:24 you know, how it is when you see someone healthy, 09:25 you say, "Man, you look healthy," 09:28 and likewise when someone looks sick, 09:29 you can just tell. 09:31 Well, after a short period of time 09:32 when they ate just things from seeds, 09:35 they were ten times smarter. 09:36 And after a period of time 09:38 when they finished the king's program, 09:40 they said they were ten times smarter, 09:42 ten times smarter. 09:44 So just think about it, 09:45 if the wise men were walking around 09:47 with IQs of 120-130 09:49 and Daniel and his friends were ten times smarter, 09:52 they were walking around with IQs of 1200? 09:55 It's significant. 09:57 Yeah, and no wonder the king was smart enough 09:59 to put them in charge of things 10:01 because they're smarter than everyone else, 10:03 but remember, I think it wasn't about the food 10:07 but also about the worship 10:09 because they worshipped the true God, 10:11 they stayed true to His principles 10:12 no matter what. 10:14 So here we see the physical and the spiritual 10:18 working together to improve our health 10:21 in a scientific study. 10:22 So you're saying it's not just the behavior of eating 10:25 what they were taught, but the reason they did it 10:27 was because they were following God's plan. 10:29 Exactly, the worship, they put God's plan, 10:31 they knew that God's plan was the best. 10:33 God taught them how to apply that to life 10:36 and they weren't afraid to do that, 10:37 they weren't afraid to worship 10:39 because they saw the bigger benefits 10:41 in brain health and also physical health. 10:44 So as we talk about food and medicine, 10:46 this goes way, way back. 10:48 Now, one of the earliest doctors 10:51 and I want to throw a quiz at you, okay, 10:53 see if you can get this right. 10:54 All right. 10:56 Who was a Greek physician 10:58 that was considered the father of medicine? 11:03 Who is that? 11:04 So, if you go back, 11:06 I actually read about this recently. 11:07 Oh, yeah, yeah. 11:08 We're talking about Hippocrates, right? 11:10 Yes. 11:11 And this was 400 years 11:12 before Christ came to earth, is that right? 11:14 That's correct. 11:15 That's remarkable to me like, you know, 11:17 'cause I read about Hippocrates a little bit, 11:19 but I didn't realize that was actually 11:21 before Jesus walked the earth. 11:22 You're doing very good, Nick, 11:24 and now for the bonus question, the bonus question. 11:25 Oh, yeah. 11:27 Hippocrates made a famous statement 11:30 that has lasted now 400 before Christ 11:33 and now you know the year we're in now, 11:35 so this has been going on for years and years and years. 11:37 Right. 11:38 What is that statement that he made back then 11:41 that still applies today? 11:44 Something about food be thy medicine 11:46 and medicine be thy food. 11:47 Yes, so even back then 11:50 he understood the importance of nutrition 11:53 in treating the body and preventing disease. 11:56 In fact, you know, there's been stories told 11:58 that you know as part of the treatment for patients, 12:01 he actually grew crops. 12:03 Yeah. Now here's the bonus question. 12:04 Do you know what types of crops he was growing 12:07 as using food as medicine? 12:09 You got me there, I don't. 12:10 Well, I can't remember, it wasn't alfalfa 12:13 but it was something that he actually grew 12:15 in the fields, 12:16 some plant that he used as medicine, 12:17 but he also saw the importance of water too, you know, 12:21 as something more important than wine, 12:23 you know, wine was big back then. 12:24 Right. 12:25 You know, but he saw the importance of water. 12:27 So this thought of food as medicine 12:29 and medicine as food, 12:30 it's been around for a long time 12:32 but we sort of lost track of that. 12:34 You know, we started as societies 12:36 we wanted the easy way, 12:38 so with that came processed food, 12:40 putting chemicals in food, 12:42 you know, eating food that, 12:43 you know, wasn't really good for us, 12:46 and now over the last 100 years or so, 12:48 we're understanding that these types of food 12:51 causes to have chronic disease. 12:54 So it only makes sense 12:55 if we want to get rid of the symptoms, 12:57 let's try to get at the cause. 12:59 So we have to think of food 13:01 as not only ways to prevent chronic disease, 13:03 but also to treat it 13:05 because there's chemicals in these foods, 13:06 and we're gonna talk about these 13:08 over the next period of time of how this can make us better, 13:11 and how we can apply it to our lives. 13:13 Now I want to clarify one thing. 13:15 Yeah, sure. 13:16 Some people may be sitting at home, 13:17 listening to this and think, oh, that sounds great, 13:19 I'm gonna get rid of all my prescription medications... 13:20 Oh, no, no. Is that what we're saying? 13:22 Or can you expect to completely remove 13:24 prescription medication? 13:25 Well, there is a place for modern medicine. 13:27 And some people have genetic concerns 13:29 that no matter what they do, no matter what they eat, 13:31 they still have problems. 13:33 And, you know, good nutrition is gonna help 13:35 those genetic problems, not accelerate. 13:38 But I had a guy that came into the office 13:40 not too long ago, 13:41 that had suffered a heart attack at age 57 13:43 he did everything right. 13:45 I asked him how old was his dad, 13:47 his dad was 42. 13:48 So it seems like these chronic things 13:51 turn on our genetics, 13:53 and as we go on we're gonna talk about 13:54 how food affects our telomeres, and helps us, you know, 13:58 prevent mutations and also bad foods 14:00 and bad habits can cause these things 14:02 which accelerate aging and our body getting old. 14:05 Well, that was pretty great introduction 14:07 to the topic of food as medicine, 14:08 but we've got to take a break and stay with us 14:10 because we're gonna talk about 14:11 the healing properties of cherries, 14:12 when we return. |
Revised 2017-04-03