Latest / Heartwise / HW 2026-06-11 Safe Surgery - Charles Mills & Dr. James Marcum

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HW 2026-06-11 Safe Surgery - Charles Mills & Dr. James Marcum · Heartwise

• 0:12
  Speaker 1: This is Heartwise, offering practical tips and time proven guidelines
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  Speaker 1: to make your life healthier, happier, and more fulfilling. Today
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  Speaker 1: you'll learn simple, Bible based principles for building and maintaining
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  Speaker 1: optimum mental and physical health, all while deepening your relationship
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  Speaker 1: with your creator. Here's your Heartwise host, doctor James Markham.
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  Speaker 2: Hello everybody, and welcome to Heartwise. And I've been making
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  Speaker 2: these programs with our guests for quite a number of years,
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  Speaker 2: and you think after a while you've talked about every
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  Speaker 2: different health topic possible. But Charles, today we have a
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  Speaker 2: topic that I don't think I can remember ever making
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  Speaker 2: a radio program on. And would you like to introduce
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  Speaker 2: that topic that we're going to talk about today?
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely And I think you're I think you're absolutely right.
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  Speaker 1: We have not talked about this, and it's time that
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  Speaker 1: we do that. I got to say, doctor Markham, you
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  Speaker 1: and your fellow physicians represent one of our best hopes
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  Speaker 1: for health and one of our scariest elements along that journey.
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  Speaker 1: You prod us, you poke us, you scan us, inject us,
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  Speaker 1: drug us, take our temperature, check our blood pressure, and
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: even ask us to take our clothes off. But sometimes
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  Speaker 1: you want to cut us. You want to unapologetically gaze
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  Speaker 1: right into our inner selves like nothing else can. That's
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  Speaker 1: the scary part. Surgery sometimes a necessary stop on our
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  Speaker 1: road to health. But we shouldn't worry, right, We should
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  Speaker 1: know that modern medicine has made surgery totally safe these days,
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  Speaker 1: Am I right? Doctor Markham?
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  Speaker 2: Well, you know surgery has made some great progress. In fact,
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  Speaker 2: out of all the things that modern medicine has helped
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  Speaker 2: with over the years, you know, i'd have to rank aesteesia.
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  Speaker 2: Once you got anesthesia, we could put people to sleep
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  Speaker 2: because years ago, people with a bad gallbladder or appendicitis
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  Speaker 2: or problems in their bowels or bleeding inside, they would
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  Speaker 2: die right away. So surgery for them is a life saver.
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  Speaker 2: There's certain other type of surgeries that I know. My
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  Speaker 2: father in law has a pacemaker. Without a pacemaker, his
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  Speaker 2: heart would have stopped, so that's something that's also very useful.
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  Speaker 2: So surgery does have benefits, but it also has risks.
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  Speaker 2: Now you know, there's certain types of surgery that's being
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  Speaker 2: done that are risky and the benefits might not be
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  Speaker 2: worth it. And you hear about people occasionally having bad
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  Speaker 2: things happen during cosmetic surgery. You know, sometimes there's some
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  Speaker 2: people that have a procedure called LiPo suction where they
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  Speaker 2: have fat really sucked out of them. There's some risk
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  Speaker 2: related to that. So everything that we that I talk
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  Speaker 2: about as a physician really talks about risk management, which
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  Speaker 2: is riskier having the condition or having the treatment. And
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  Speaker 2: now I see myself in the modern medicine is modern
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  Speaker 2: medicine is great at treating symptoms, but we also want
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  Speaker 2: to treat get people to get at the cause of
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  Speaker 2: disease as well. So today we've had to our website,
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  Speaker 2: that's our Heartwires Ministries dot org. A lot of people
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  Speaker 2: have asked questions about surgery, so Charles, we want to
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  Speaker 2: answer their questions today.
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  Speaker 1: Well, of course, number one question that we're getting is
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  Speaker 1: doctor Markham, which surgeries are the most risky and why?
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  Speaker 2: And that's a very common question that I get because
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  Speaker 2: I take care of a lot of elderly patients between
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  Speaker 2: eighty and ninety and one hundred years old, and sometimes
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  Speaker 2: they need surgery and they want to know whether the
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  Speaker 2: risk of surgery is worth the risk of the anesthesia
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  Speaker 2: and the other associated problems. So the risk the surgeries
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  Speaker 2: that are most risky okay to a person. Are the
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  Speaker 2: vascular surgeries Okay, we've heard of those aneurysm repairs. That's
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  Speaker 2: a risky surg one on the neck where they clear
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  Speaker 2: out blockages in the neck card corotit interdirectomy that that
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  Speaker 2: can be risky at time. So so those those are
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  Speaker 2: some of the higher risk surgery. Some of the big
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  Speaker 2: bowel surgeries, okay, that can be a little bit on
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  Speaker 2: the risky side. Now surgery is like cataracts and skin
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  Speaker 2: cancer removals, some of those are much lower a risk
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  Speaker 2: of surgery. So so those are some of the things
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  Speaker 2: that we want to talk about when a person has
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  Speaker 2: surgery or is it going to be a surgery where
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  Speaker 2: they put you know, a bad back surgery, whether there
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  Speaker 2: asleep for hours and hours and hours, Well, that's going
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  Speaker 2: to be more risky than a mole removal surgery. So
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  Speaker 2: whenever someone comes in, I ask them which surgeries are
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  Speaker 2: are are are they going to have? And what's the risk? Now,
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  Speaker 2: a lot of the surgeries people have to have, you know,
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  Speaker 2: if you don't have it, something bad happens, So in
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  Speaker 2: that case the risk is worth taking. But there's some
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  Speaker 2: surgeries that might be elective or it might be a
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  Speaker 2: big orthopedic surg and a person that has lots of
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  Speaker 2: risk and you say, well, which is worse getting a
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  Speaker 2: new hip, are new or joint or taking the risk,
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  Speaker 2: especially if they have a lot of other health problems.
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  Speaker 2: The risks that might that might entertain with surgery, whether
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  Speaker 2: that may infection, increase risk of heart attack, increase risk
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  Speaker 2: of stroke, or some of these other things. So the
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  Speaker 2: surgeries are important to talk about to your doctor about
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  Speaker 2: the risk associated with them. But some of the bigger surgeries,
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  Speaker 2: the ones that are the risk is anytime someone cuts
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  Speaker 2: into your thorax or abdomen. Those are usually quite a
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  Speaker 2: bit of risk because they put a lot of stress
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  Speaker 2: on the body. There's lots of fluid shifts, and they
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  Speaker 2: also have a lot of blood loss. So the way
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  Speaker 2: I think of anything from the waist up when they're
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  Speaker 2: cutting in you, that's pretty much risky. Surgery anywhere out
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  Speaker 2: of there outside of brain surgery might be a little
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  Speaker 2: bit less risky.
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  Speaker 1: Now you've identified that the whole concept of going to
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  Speaker 1: sleep using the anesthesia, there yea that there's risk with that.
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  Speaker 1: What is so risky about going to sleep?
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  Speaker 2: Well, you know, well, a lot of people don't understand
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  Speaker 2: the risk of anesthesia, but people don't understand the way
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  Speaker 2: that medicine works. Sometimes you know, you can get them
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  Speaker 2: to sleep and you can't get them to wake up
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  Speaker 2: so early. Sometimes if you take the tubes that's breathing
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  Speaker 2: out too quickly, they don't get good oxygen in their body.
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  Speaker 2: Sometimes their gag reflexes is disrupted and they do something
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  Speaker 2: called aspirate where they've stomach content sometimes can go into
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  Speaker 2: the lungs. Now, that's much lower now that we keep
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  Speaker 2: people with empty stomachs, but sometimes in emergency surgery you
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  Speaker 2: can't do that. And any type you have anesthesia, there's
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  Speaker 2: risk of terrible things happen, like allergic reaction reactions. There's
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  Speaker 2: a condition called malignant hyperthermia where these can trigger very
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  Speaker 2: high temperatures to occur in the body. Those things are
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  Speaker 2: very dalian and the risk of any anesthesia. So my
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  Speaker 2: dad used to give anesthesia. He says, you know, the
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  Speaker 2: risky part is getting the plane off the ground and
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  Speaker 2: on the ground, you know, the landing in the air,
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  Speaker 2: it's not so bad. Everything has its risk, and you
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  Speaker 2: also have to talk about well risk. You know, certain
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  Speaker 2: people that have bad lungs the risk of anesthesia might
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  Speaker 2: not be worth it, and we do other risks, other anesthesia,
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  Speaker 2: it's less risky. Sometimes we can give local Sometimes it's
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  Speaker 2: just too risky to put a person to sleep because
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  Speaker 2: of their lungs are bad or other morbid conditions. So
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  Speaker 2: that's a good question for everyone, is do you think
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  Speaker 2: my body is strong enough to undergo anesthesia. That's why
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  Speaker 2: I'm involved in it because a lot of patients come
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  Speaker 2: to me and say, listen, what's the risk of this surgery?
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  Speaker 2: Is a risk worth the benefits? And are there anything
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  Speaker 2: that we can do before the surgery to lower the risks?
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  Speaker 1: Now you can give them a stress test? Is this important?
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  Speaker 1: Does that help?
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  Speaker 2: Well? You know, it's it's sometimes it's helpful if we're
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  Speaker 2: concerned about the heart. But usually people before surgery, I
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  Speaker 2: don't really have you know, Sometimes I can just talk
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  Speaker 2: to them and I can ask them if they're if
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  Speaker 2: they think they can, if they you know, I ask
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  Speaker 2: the questions and I can tell whether they're unstable or not,
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  Speaker 2: because there's like I said, remember, there's no tests that
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  Speaker 2: prevents predict heart attack.
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  Speaker 1: Now the stress test we're talking about that that mean
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  Speaker 1: it doesn't mean they're having a bad day at work.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, no, mean this is this is where we walk,
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  Speaker 2: you know, walk them on a treadmill or or we
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  Speaker 2: do a nuclear treadmill where we put stress on the
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  Speaker 2: body and see how a person reacts, because you know,
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  Speaker 2: surgery is stress on the body, so so, but other
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  Speaker 2: ways we can get at the same thing. Is I
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  Speaker 2: can ask them, you know, I ask them, can you
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  Speaker 2: walk up two flights of stairs? Can you walk four
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  Speaker 2: blocks without getting real short of breath without having chest pain?
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  Speaker 2: And if they can do that, if their functional status
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  Speaker 2: is good, then their risk is a lot lower. For
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  Speaker 2: for instance, people that can't do those type of things
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  Speaker 2: you know, have a lot of chest pains or when
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  Speaker 2: they do things that tells me that their cardiovascular risk
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  Speaker 2: is probably higher and they might not want to undergo
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  Speaker 2: surgery because they might have a risk of heart attack.
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  Speaker 2: So some people I can tell in the office by
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  Speaker 2: asking them certain questions. If I can't really tell, I said,
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  Speaker 2: listen to check the status of your heart. We might
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  Speaker 2: want to do a stress test first. That might help
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  Speaker 2: me assess your cardiovascular risk.
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  Speaker 1: Now you mentioned earlier that the surgeries can affect the
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  Speaker 1: heart and there may be problems with the heart and
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  Speaker 1: having even a heart attack during surgery. How does that happen.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, there's many different ways people can have heart
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  Speaker 2: attacks during during surgeries, and if you think about it,
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  Speaker 2: one of the causes is the adrenaline. The adrenaline surges
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  Speaker 2: can trigger vascular disease. Whenever you undergo surgery and put
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  Speaker 2: stress on the body, the body likes to have blood clots,
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  Speaker 2: so you're a condition called prothrombodic. Whenever you lose blood,
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  Speaker 2: the volume shifts. That puts more stress on the body,
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  Speaker 2: and all these things can destabilize these plaques that are
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  Speaker 2: in the body. They also can make if you have
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  Speaker 2: fixed cornary blockage, they can make that worse as well.
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  Speaker 2: Some people that the stress on the body from triggers
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  Speaker 2: these plaque ruptures, and some can have funny heart rhythms
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  Speaker 2: when they're when they're blood volume shifts or or the
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  Speaker 2: stress in the body. So there's lots of different causes
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  Speaker 2: of cardiac events around surgery. And some of these things
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  Speaker 2: are predictable, or we can say what the risk is,
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  Speaker 2: whether you are low risks, middle risk, or high risk,
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  Speaker 2: and some of the things we just can't predict. So
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  Speaker 2: we're going to keep talking about this Charles after break
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  Speaker 2: and if you have questions, send them to our website
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: Heartwives Ministries dot orgy, because that's the way we form
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  Speaker 2: our programs. We're going to be right back after this
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  Speaker 2: break talking about is surgery safe for you?
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  Speaker 1: In his book The Ultimate Prescription, now available from Tendale
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: House Publishers, Cardiologists doctor James Markham writes, the very first
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  Speaker 1: deception we face in this world today is the thought
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  Speaker 1: that modern medicine can fix anything. To be brutally honest,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: modern medicine can't fix a thing. The doctor can set
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: a leg, but as for the healing of that broken bone,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: the doctor can only watch and be amazed. Here's the
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: scary part. People who experience heart disease, who suffer from cancer,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: who fight debilitating pains, who stand in lines at drug
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: stores waiting to fill their endless prescriptions, who sit and
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: watch television commercials extolling the power of the latest and
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: greatest pharmaceutical firmly believe that their doctors or the pills
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: are providing a cure to their ills. They think they're
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: getting fixed. They're wrong. Doctor Markham's book The Ultimate Prescription
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: is available from Amazon dot com and wherever quality books
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: are sold. To learn more about health from a biblical perspective,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: visit Heartwisemanistries dot org. I'd like to take a moment
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: to invite you to visit the Heartwise Ministries team on
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: the internet. Stop by Heartwisemistries dot org and discover for
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: yourself that optimum health is not the result of favorable genes,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: of the right commendation of pharmaceuticals. No, optimum health is
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: the result of making the right eight choices each and
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: every moment of each and every day. If you're like me,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: you're probably a little confused about what the media and
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: marketing moguls are feeding us. There are a lot of potions,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: pills and promises out there. Some work, some don't, and
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: some are downright dangerous. Whom do you believe? Whom do
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: you trust? Board certified cardiologist doctor James Markham, a founder
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: director of Heartwise Ministry, says, there is a source of
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: information that can be trusted and followed. That's the Bible,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: God's Owner's Manual as he calls it. For us, All
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: the information you find on Heartwiseministries dot org is information
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: backed by Biblical truth. It can be trusted because God
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: can be trusted, So stop by, won't you. That's Heartwiseministries
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: dot org.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: Hello, I'm doctor James Barkham. I'm talking today with Charles Mills.
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  Speaker 2: We're answering your questions about a subject, is surgery safe?
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  Speaker 2: And the first segment, we've talked about different types of
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: high risk surgery that are higher risk. We've talked about
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  Speaker 2: when you have surgery whether the risk is worth the benefits.
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  Speaker 2: We've talked a little bit about anesthesia and things that
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  Speaker 2: can cause heart attacks, and these are very interesting things
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  Speaker 2: because we want everyone to have complete knowledge and have
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: the right questions to ask if you should undergo surgery,
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  Speaker 2: because if you undergo surgery, we want it to be
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  Speaker 2: as safe as possible and put you under the least
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  Speaker 2: amount of risk. But right now, I don't know any
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  Speaker 2: surgery that has no risk, so everything out there we
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: have to look at the risk versus the benefits. Charles,
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  Speaker 2: we have any more questions.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, we were talking about the heart attacks during surgery
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  Speaker 1: and doctor Markham as a cardiologist, is there any way
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  Speaker 1: you can predict This is a question from the Heartwives
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  Speaker 1: Indistries dot org website. Is there any way to predict
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  Speaker 1: heart attacks during surgery? Is one person more likely to
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  Speaker 1: have it than the other.
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  Speaker 2: Right, Well, unfortunately, there's no way we can predict heart attacks,
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  Speaker 2: just like we can't predict heart attacks in the general population.
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  Speaker 2: So I can't say to any individual person that know,
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  Speaker 2: you're not going to have a heart attack, but I
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  Speaker 2: can estimate their risk. Okay, people that have heart disease,
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  Speaker 2: people that have diabetes, people that have problems with their kidneys,
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  Speaker 2: people that have had old heart attacks, people that smoke,
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  Speaker 2: those people have a higher risk of having cardiovass disease.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, we have scores that we can look at
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  Speaker 2: people and if they have this factor, this factor, this factor,
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  Speaker 2: we say they have a two percent risk, or if
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  Speaker 2: you have free of these, we have an eight and
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  Speaker 2: a half percent risk. So we can sort of give
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  Speaker 2: a feel for how risky the surgery is just by
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  Speaker 2: talking to a person and knowing their family history. As
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  Speaker 2: as far as predicting heart attack, I can tell you
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  Speaker 2: you know, if you have a lot of chest pain,
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  Speaker 2: if you have a stress test that show you have
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  Speaker 2: lots of part of the hearts, it's not getting enough disease.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: If you have a lot of smoking history, diving in
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  Speaker 2: the oxygen, yes, then we can certainly tell you that
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  Speaker 2: you are at the highest risk of developing heart attack.
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  Speaker 2: And then sometimes even though I tell people that they're
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  Speaker 2: at the highest risk, the surgery still has to be done.
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  Speaker 2: And then if that's the case, then we want to
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  Speaker 2: do everything we can possibly to lower that risk. If
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  Speaker 2: the surgery has to be done and they're at high risk,
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  Speaker 2: everything possible to lower that risk.
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  Speaker 1: Now, that was a question that came up next on
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  Speaker 1: the Heartwives Dot or website. Is there anything I can
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: do to lower the risk of surgery? Now, you've mentioned
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: several of the problems that we have. Smoking is one
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  Speaker 1: I would imagine, doctor Markham, that you would lower the
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: risk by simply stop smoking.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, Charles, you would lower that risk by stopping smoking.
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  Speaker 2: Other things that you would lower your risk of doing
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  Speaker 2: is some people need to take what we call beta blockers. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: those are medicines that block adrenaline that can be very helpful,
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: and people that are undergoing vascular surgery serve on their
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: neck or blood vessels, they had better outcomes of giving
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: a medicine to lower cholesterol. Cholesterol lowering medications can lower
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  Speaker 2: these risks up to thirty percent. And the reason they
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  Speaker 2: say that is because it helps stabilize the plaques inside
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  Speaker 2: the body, just like the cigarettes destabilized plaques. Cholesterol does.
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  Speaker 2: Now I don't have data on this, but anything that
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  Speaker 2: diet wise you would think that would cause oxidation would
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: increase your risk. Anything that would prevent oxidation would help
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: your risk. So of course eating a healthy diet should
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: lower your risk. So statins can lower your risk. Taking
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: beta blockers can lower your risk. Now, if you're in
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: the highest risk of persons, you say, we do a
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  Speaker 2: stress test, and you do terrible on the stress test,
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  Speaker 2: some people would would benefit from a process is called revascularization,
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  Speaker 2: will be held open up the blockages. We can do
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  Speaker 2: that in a couple of ways. One of them is
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  Speaker 2: a court of a big problem, and that's bypass surgery, okay.
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  Speaker 2: And other than some people need bypass surgery. Some people
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  Speaker 2: we can do that with stints, okay. And there's different
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: types of stints we can put in. One is called
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  Speaker 2: a bear metal stint. However, if we put a bare
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: metal stint in, we have to put off the procedure
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  Speaker 2: for a while because the stints have to sort of
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: heal in place. So when they do that, we have
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  Speaker 2: to put people on platelet agents to help prevent blood
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  Speaker 2: clots on the new stints. So we have to put
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: the you know, if we put a bare metal stint,
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: we have to put off the surgery for at least
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: six weeks. Sometimes, if we put in a special stint
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: called a drug eluting stint, we have to put a
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: surgery off for as much as you know, a year,
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  Speaker 2: even because those stints, you know, we replace you know,
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  Speaker 2: the disease of the blockages with a foreign object. The
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: foreign object wants to clot and we have to protect
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  Speaker 2: that and it takes an amount of time to grow
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  Speaker 2: tissue into thelium around that so it doesn't want to
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  Speaker 2: clout as much. Now, which patients do I frequently send
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: for revasterization before surgery. Well, people that are having like
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: let's say they have an aneurysm inside them, okay, or
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: they have a bad blockage in the neck. Well, we
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: know that if you have a blockage in your neck,
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: there's always a chance you have a blockage in your heart,
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: or if you have a blockage damaging the blood vessel
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: in the order, there's a chance that you would have
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: a blockages in your heart or blockage in your legs.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: So for those people we do a stress as we say,
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: oh man, you're one of the people that also have
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: blockages in your heart. Well, since those some of those
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: surgeries you know, need to be done, we want to
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: do them under the safest manner. And so some people
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: we have to bring extra blood to the heart and
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: unless it's life threatening, put off these other surgeries for
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: a while to lower a person's risk of doing that.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: So that's another way in small groups we can bring
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: extra blood to the heart. We've talked about beta blockers.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: We want everyone to be healthy by quitting smoking, eating
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: healthier food. You know, if you can exercise and get
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: in good physical shape, that's bound to help them as well.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: So all these are little things that you can do
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: to lower your risk before surgery.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Have you ever had a case doctor Markham where you said, okay, listen,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: you need to do some things here so that your
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: surgery will go smoother. You need to change your diet,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: you need to stop smoking, you need to exercise more,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: you need to drink more water, you need to lower
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: your stress levels. Have you ever seen a person do
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: that over time and then realize that because they've done
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: all those things, they don't need the surgery.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good one. A couple of years ago,
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: I took care of a lady that was going to
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: have an elective knee surgery, and she was diabetic and
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: her blood sugar wasn't very good control. Her heart was
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: in pretty good shape. I said, listen, you know, since
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: this is elective you want to put off. Why don't
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: you know you really want to lower your risk? Heal, Well,
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: let's get this diabetes under good control. She was a
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: type two diabetic, and type two diabetic is a disease
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: of having too much bad. So we talked about that
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: and the diet. We talked about fat on her and
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: she took it very seriously. Charles. She was on two
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: diabetic medicines that weren't working very good. Well, even though
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: she couldn't walk well, she got in a pool and
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: she swam every day. She really cut back her fat
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: almost to zero, and she worked hard for five or
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: six months. She lost about fifty pounds. In fact, she
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: got off her blood sugar medicines. And when she lost
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: her weight, she noticed that the change of the diet
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: improved her inflammation and the extra fat was making inflammatory
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: cido kinds which hurt her knee, and by the time
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: that was done, her knee just didn't bother her that much,
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: so she decided against surgery. Now, that is an extreme
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: and in every situation doesn't happen that way, and that
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: was very much an elective surgery. But it is possible
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: to improve your body. So maybe you don't need another story.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you is a fellow that had a bunch
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: of these cysts all over his body, you know, these
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: funny things that kept popping up. And I said, you
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: know a lot of these are associated with diet, and
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: he was going to have laser surgery on all of this,
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: and why don't you give it a month, And why
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: don't you go on this really more of a plant
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: based diet and try not to eat all these ugly
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: stuff that you've been eating and see if they some
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: of them don't go away. And guess what, as he
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: started eating better, these fatty parts of his body that
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: were being stored on the outside, they gradually went away,
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: so he didn't have to take the risk of surgery.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: So yes, there is ways that if you live healthy,
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: you can lower the risk of for sure lower the risk,
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: but also sometimes prevent surgery. Some of the elective surgeries,
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: and you know, you think about surgeries like liposuction, you know,
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: does that really need to be done? You know some
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: people can avoid that if they live healthy, so, you know,
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: but some of the take home points today we want
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: to leave people with is, yes, every surgery has its risk,
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: there's benefits. You need to really go to your doctor
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: before they put you to sleep to make sure your
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: risk is as low as possible. If you're having vascular surgery,
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: there's strong evidence that a cholesterol medicine and helps you out.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: If you're making a lot of adrenaline, beta blockers can
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: help you out. If you can't walk up of two
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: flights of stairs because of chest pain or shortness of breath,
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: this could be a very high risk surgery for you,
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: and you really might want to see a specialized physician
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: to see if it's really worth the risk and anything
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: that might be done to lower your risks.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: Well. I like the idea, as you do, of prevention
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: and anything we can do starting today that we can
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: incorporate into our lives, into our lifestyle, and you have
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: often said on this program that we really can't do
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: it alone. We need to have a heavenly father. Take
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: us by the hand and lead us through these things.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: God is willing to show us what we need to do.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: He's willing to take us by the hand and bring
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: us to programs like this where we can hear this.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: We can go to the Hearts dot org website, Heartwisesmindistries
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: dot org website. We can check that out as well.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: There are things we can do to educate ourselves with
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: our hand in God that just might lower the risk
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: of surgery or in some cases, and I praise God
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: for this every time it happens, remove the need for surgery.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: And I think we need to be able to do that,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: and that requires a relationship with God, a walk with God,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: and a constant learning of what God has in mind
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: for us. Isn't that the way it is?
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: Doctor Markam That is so well said Charles. And we're
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: out of time today, but you know, there's such a
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: wealth of information and wisdom that you just shared and
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: we just want to keep that thought with everyone today
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: and we will hope everyone learns something about how to
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: lower their risk today of surgery and to think twice
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: about it. The internet also has tons of good information,
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: so we want to thank you today for joining Charles
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: Mills and myself on Heartwise. Invite you to go to
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: our website that's Heartwiseministries dot org. We'll be happy to
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: answer your questions. Thanks for joining us and we wish
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: you the best of health.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us today on Heartwise. If you'd
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: like more information on how to build and maintain optimum physical, mental,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: and spiritual health, log onto Heartwiseministries dot org. Heartwise is
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: a listener supported program and your partnership with us would
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: be greatly appreciated. Once again, our web address is Heartwisemanistries
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: dot org