Why We’re Dying Early in America

Dr. Sal [00:00:00]:
If your father died of lung cancer and you're smoking a pack of cigarettes a day because your father smoked a pack of cigarettes today, you're not dying because it's a hereditary thing. It's by your lifestyle. So you've got to eliminate these insults to the body. Welcome to the Health Quest podcast, your guide to God's will for good health. Hello. My name is doctor Sal, and I've been a practicing surgeon for well over 30 years. And my goal for each episode is that you'll be able to have your mind transformed to God's design for good health and to affect the way that to eat in the way that you live. If you're new here, we release a new episode every week.

Dr. Sal [00:00:54]:
And if you enjoy the content, would you please leave us a good review? It really helps our ratings allows our show to reach out to more people, which in turn will help them change their ways. We'd like to thank you for your support. And on today's episode, we're gonna be talking about 2 scientific articles in regarding 2 separate subject matters. The first one, The topic is on chronic musculoskeletal pain, and it's a systematic review of a number of articles that entails the various diets that are out there, such as the, intermittent diet. There is the ketogenic diet, the Mediterranean diet, as well as the calorie restricted and time restricted diet too as well. There was databases that these authors the leading author was Maria, Gevira. And this was from the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. And so the objective was to see the effectiveness of these various diets and improving chronic on the subject matter of improving musculoskeletal pain with these various diets.

Dr. Sal [00:02:33]:
They covered 16 articles that included that included this, and they pretty much, were defining pain as being, any kind of pain that lasted for well over 3 months with significant impact on functionality and even causing emotional distress. Individuals that suffer from physical pain, over time, their cognitive skills start to go down. Their functionality as far as getting things done. Even cleaning out the garage becomes a burden because they're constantly in pain. So they looked at this, and as a result of that, they also used various scales and other testing devices, to see if there was any improvement in the quality of life. They also took a look at some of the tests blood tests to see if there were any changes and inflammation in these individuals that were suffering this pain and going through these dietary programs. So we know that individuals with musculoskeletal pain eventually not only Have a social burden that they eventually have to come over because of the fact that now they don't want to engage in activities, even going to a party because they're in pain. Unless they know they're gonna go there and sit on a couch for the entire time.

Dr. Sal [00:03:54]:
So they also realize that, you know, prolonged neuroinflammation, which can Remember, if you got inflammation going on that's affecting one particular organ system, let's say, like, the musculoskeletal system, That inflammation will eventually traverse all these other organ systems and cause irritation and inflammation in those areas, and particularly the the nervous system. So what they did is they, Again, they they examined all of these studies, and they used various study designs to test out the The strategies of which and how they were going to evaluate, quality of life, reduction in inflammation, and pain in as well as, you know, putting these on a scale that was objective enough to be able to claim whether there was any improvement or not. And in the end, you know, show that there was validity. There's one thing to be reliable, but validity means that it's completely valid in the studies that they've done. And what they pretty much have shown is when it came to pain, The intensity, the quality, and the frequency improved in pretty much all of these diets that I had aforementioned. Also, inflammation was measured, and they used the concentration of ICAM, which is a chemical that's released in the blood vessels indicating that there's inflammation going on in the body. They also did quest for tumor necrosis factor and and interleukin, 1 in 6. And notice that there were improvements in that.

Dr. Sal [00:05:39]:
As far as quality of life. They used a variety of different scales. I mean, numerous ones here for me to mention. But in the end, there were other factors that were identified that were also improving as which improved in across the board with everybody. But with the intermittent fasting, they also showed improvements of insulin and, actually, the expression of certain, genetic proteins, which actually extends life. There was a reduction in fat content in their bodies as well as improvements in the balance of the immune system. All of these from the time restricted feeding and calorie restriction, they also noticed that these were individuals that improved their sleeping habits as well. Now the beauty of this time restricted feeding, which means that you have to eat on certain uncertain times of the day, and it's also restricted almost like the intermittent that you only have within a 6 to 8 hour period to eat, but you have to eat specifically at certain times as well as a calorie restriction that they improved their Circadian rhythms and their sleeping habits became much better.

Dr. Sal [00:07:03]:
Now if you get a better night's sleep, ladies and gentlemen, Your body's going to heal much better, and inflammation is going to improve. Anytime you reduce inflammation, inflammation is caused a lot by the foods that we eat. We've talked about this in a number of podcasts. Being overweight and excessive, Build up a fat in our body will store more immune cells, which tips the scale more to a chronic state of inflammation, which over time, will start to affect the musculoskeletal system. We actually talked about that in one of the earlier podcasts on how how obesity starts to affect all these organ systems. This is how it affects the musculoskeletal system. You know, a lot of the orthopedic surgeons will say, well, because you're A 100 pounds overweight, that's a 100 pounds extra that you're putting stress on the joints such as the hips, the knees, and even the feet. But then these people were getting arthritis in their hands where there wasn't any weight bearing bones.

Dr. Sal [00:08:07]:
And this is why what's happened is It says that we now have identified the immunometabolic cause of obesity, and that is It causes this low grade inflammation that over time starts to eat away at our joints and causes this musculoskeletal pain and also sensitizes or resets the neurologic system as far as interpretation of pain. So it's easier now to stimulate The pain receptors in the brain that's constantly receiving the information that there's constant pain there that now affects the patient's functionality as well as their, their social interactions with other people. So diet, as we've talked about before, of course, I'm more into the health diet done in an intermittent, approach as well as taking certain supplements, daily exercise, 20 minutes of exercise a day. It doesn't have to be strenuous. Just easy walking or, riding a bicycle, joining a gym. Pretty much doesn't have to be expensive. You don't have to join one that's $100 a month, even going to a Planet Fitness where you can get access to their stationary bikes. Because in the winter months, particularly in the Midwest.

Dr. Sal [00:09:28]:
You might run into weather situations where you wouldn't be able to ride your bike or even go outside to walk, but at least They have these, aerobic machines in these places and doing a little bit of weight lifting to help build a little bit of muscle mass. Again, that will help improve our tolerance to musculoskeletal pain. The next article that I want to Discuss is an article that was put out from, the most recent data from the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, and it revealed that US life expectancy has declined to 76.4 years, the shortest in nearly 2 decades. Now, folks, few years ago, I was talking to my colleagues, and I saw what I saw in the hospital. And I realized that in 1990 when I graduated medical school, yes, I was watching people die on a day to day basis, whether it was trauma, whether it was gunshots, whether it was car accidents, heart attacks, or cancers. But what I did notice is that, of course, you know, you get a child that It was involved in a car accident because the parent was drunk, took the car overboard. The child died in the accident. And it wasn't the child's fault.

Dr. Sal [00:10:48]:
But what I am seeing, though, and what I have been seeing most of is people dying in their seventies of these chronic diseases that are reversible. We've reiterated that numerous times in our podcasts, and it's because of the way we eat, and we are the ones that are causing these diseases. You can come up and give me the excuse. It's genetic or it's hormonal. Again, I constantly repeat that we have proven Scientifically, that that's not the case. When you get obese, you disrupt your whole hormonal balance. Genetics, it's very rare that anybody gets these. Say, well, my grandfather and my father had type 2 diabetes.

Dr. Sal [00:11:32]:
Well, all you had to do is watch what they were eating, and you're following in the same way. If your father died of lung cancer and you're smoking a pack of cigarettes a day because your father smoked a pack of cigarettes today, You're not dying because it's a hereditary thing. It's by your lifestyle. So you've got to eliminate these insults to the body, and you have to go about it because of the fact that you have to see the value of your life. Now What they're stating in this article is the cause of why people are dying younger is as a result of chronic stress, And this has become something significant and become a societal epidemic. And some of the causes of these These stresses are multifaceted, of course. Financial strain, unaffordable housing, inadequate health care, Poor education and lack of social support systems. Now financial strain, I can understand.

Dr. Sal [00:12:36]:
Inflation is high. Things are expensive. We have to cut back, and the key with that is to really try to reduce Spending, that's not necessary. There was a black woman that wrote an a a book about the fact that you don't need to go and get your nails done at a sal, and you don't have to buy the fancy, coating for your your, your cell phone because these are things that are just unnecessary expenditures that really don't contribute to, our well-being. Unaffordable housing, Ever, that's beyond our control. Inadequate health care, and here's what I try to tell everybody. I can see if your child was born with a genetic disorder, and I've seen this at children's, Children's Hospital of Michigan. You you you've got these children that are born with these genetic Disorders that will never make it to the age of 20.

Dr. Sal [00:13:35]:
We're talking about some sick children that are in the hospital every month, every 2 months, every 3 months. Their life surrounds being in a hospital, and I've seen these children. And then to think that they may not make it to 13 or 15 or 18 or even 20 years old, that's something that we really have to learn to appreciate. Because when you were given all your faculties and you were born healthy and you're overweight and you're causing all these problems, even psoriasis, of the skin, cut out and eliminate all wheat, and I guarantee you that psoriasis will go away. So it's important that we take health care into our own hands, which is really the right thing to do. After all, god gave us the gift of life, and we have to start taking care of that gift. Poor education. Well, folks, we've gotta start reading books again.

Dr. Sal [00:14:32]:
We have to start doing some of the extra work and some of the extra studies. You know, we spend all this time on the computers, and, of course, we have access to the Internet, which then gets exposed to a bunch of information that a lot of it is over inundated, and it is not of any value as far as our learning anything. Now you could use the Internet to your advantage if you know how to use it appropriately. But number of years ago, there was an article talking about the boredom syndrome. And what that was was kids had access to so much information that they couldn't remember anything at the end of the day because instead of Reviewing and pondering and processing 5 ideas, they were now getting exposed to 50 to 60 to 70 different ideas or bits and pieces of information of which they weren't allowing their brains to process that information. And now I'm gonna sidestep here a little bit and go over some of the experiences that I had as a physician when I was practicing in certain areas where what I started seeing is is that these kids were put on anxiolytics. They were put on, amphetamines to help them focus and concentrate. And sometimes they had to take time off from school.

Dr. Sal [00:15:50]:
And some of the reasons was because they were telling me they said, well, I said, why why did the doctor put you on this? Well, I'd go to bed at night, and I was dreaming of my, my math formulas or my physics and my chemistry, and I couldn't sleep well. I recall back in college, one of my classmates saying, you know, did you ever go to bed at night and you're dreaming of your of the formulas in your head. I said, yeah. I read practically every night. Well, folks, just to let you know, that's the way God Makes us learn things. When we're processing information in our sleep, that's when God actually comes in, straightens, and organizes everything for us, and that's how we have the so called epiphany or revelation and begin to understand what's actually going on. And that's how we start to gain this kind of knowledge. It's a process that requires an expenditure of energy, requires discipline and work, and and that's the sacrifices that you make in order to gain this kind of knowledge.

Dr. Sal [00:16:53]:
So education is out there. There's a lot of information, but you have to really stay focused and honed in on certain areas and really learn from that. I I think that, Even a little bit of homeschooling where parents review the homework and help them out, if they need to, maybe get a tutor for them. These are things that we can help improve from the educational standpoint. Lack of social support. Well, You know, we all think that we're connected. We're not. People used to be physically connected, getting together in social groups.

Dr. Sal [00:17:28]:
And in Sheryl Turco's book, Alone Together, you got 6 young ladies together at a table, but they're all alone and in their own world because they're texting and communicating somebody else. So you may be in the presence of others, but you may not be there psychologically, emotionally, and intellectually. So We know that chronic stress over time causes inflammation. There we go again. Inflammation causing cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disorders, neurologic disorders, and that's because of the prolonged stress that continuously triggers this this inflammation. Now it's not to go into all the inflammation stuff over again and repeat it. Also wanna state that Chronic, stress and irritation will cause a shortening of the telomeres, which are part of the epigenetics. It's part of the and part of the DNA that when that shortens, we lose protection from any kind of mutation to the DNA.

Dr. Sal [00:18:25]:
So this kind of stress can actually shorten our lives. So it also affects our sleeping patterns, our interaction with other people, increases anxiety, and eventually alludes us to depression and, social separation. What can we do about it? And, You know, I I mentioned in an earlier podcast when we first started about how important the mind is to God. That's our communication with God. The way we think, the way we see things, our perspectives in life, and our beliefs. And the key is is sometimes we get so inundated with this this plethora of garbage that's out there that we actually get addicted to Being in front of the the computer, the light the lighting from the computers are bad for our eyes, getting exposed to all the social media, getting Angry with the world by seeing what's on TV continuously. The key is is that we do need to get back to God and really see what God's purpose is for us. And, you know, I talk about our health because we have a health issue crisis going on in America.

Dr. Sal [00:19:37]:
And for me, my objective is quest to Try to keep you from getting these these diseases. After all, sir William Osler that said that a great doctor is one that can prevent a disease, not just treat a disease. Anybody can treat a disease. You got a problem here, take this pill. That's not our objective here. Our objective is to go by what god wanted, and that's to get back to eating healthy natural ways that we did for 1000 of years and to find our purpose in life and things that make us happy, that we can do things to help our fellow man, and to focus. If your Deal was to become a chemist and study chemistry and focus on that. Now, of course, you gotta do a number of things to get to that.

Dr. Sal [00:20:21]:
You may have to learn how to write health and Speak well and take other courses on history. And you might say it has nothing to do with chemistry, but believe it or not, it really does to be a little bit more open minded. And, of course, As you get older, focus on the areas that you wanna pursue, and stay focused on that. Don't get distracted. That's Satan's d word, the god of deception. The objective is just to eat health, don't overeat, take care of your body, get enough rest, and Start focusing in on things, even calming yourself down. Now this is where meditation and prayer comes in. I used to use hypnosis.

Dr. Sal [00:20:58]:
Hypnosis is a form of It's basically closing your eyes and being in a dark room, even lighting a few candles if you want, laying down and just focusing on relaxing your body completely, and then shutting your mind off to the world, and then focusing on something. Usually, you could take scripture, And this is the stuff that saint Ignatius of Loyola was teaching in the spiritual exercises where you take scripture and you just ponder it. Put yourself in that situation 2000 years ago if you were walking with Quest, and feel the presence of those that are around you. Make it real through the power of visualization and see how Christ was working. Be the Christ. Be as Quest, and then start to focus on things. And if there are certain issues that you want to take care of, then address it at That time when you're in that meditative state where you're completely calm and you completely have, voided your mind of all this nonsense and darkness that's in the world. These are some of the ways that it can help us.

Dr. Sal [00:22:05]:
Doing this and practicing this a lot, believe it or not, The gurus in India that meditate for 6 to 8 hours a day are able to get into the state of mind that you can't even get into even taking hallucinogens. So our body has the capability of getting to that state so much higher now in the Spiritual exercises that were created by Saint Ignatius of Loyola, who started the Jesuit order of the Catholic church. I even tried to do that a number of years ago. They wouldn't let me do it because they said it's 4 to 6 hours of praying a day. You actually have to condition yourself to that level, and it starts off with 10 to 15 minutes a day. Just find yourself in a quiet place, Whether it's at night or before you go to work, pull out the scriptures, read something that you wanna focus on, and just spend 15 minutes alone in a quiet place, completely focused with your mind with your body completely relaxed. These are some of the ways that we could fight some of this chronic stress. Don't get caught up into the world.

Dr. Sal [00:23:10]:
Try to avoid any kind of conversation that's gonna trigger anger, and it all stems from fear and things not working out. Put it back into God's hands and walk with Jesus. With that, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Thank you for watching our show. If you enjoyed this episode, please be Sure to leave us a good review, and visit our website and social media accounts to connect with us more. If you happen to have any questions regarding your health, then my email will be in the description below, and I'll be happy to help you with any answers or questions that you may have. If you'd like to see any of the sources of this research, they will be available in the show notes and description. And until next time, Have a wonderful day, and god