Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners.
Some of today’s topics include:
- Cod liver oil
- Questions to ask a new doctor
- Xanthelasma
- Water enhancers
- Optimum amount of protein per kilogram
- Amyloidosis
- EGFR in blood work
- Low cortisol vs. high cortisol
- Cheese & absorption of magnesium
- Intermittent fasting vs. 72 hour fast
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
Announcer: You're listening to The Doctor Is In Podcast, brought to you by MartinClinic.com. During the episode, the doctors share a lot of information. As awesome as the info may be, it is not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease. It's strictly for informational purposes.
Dr. Martin: Well, good morning everyone. Hope you're having a great start to your day today. You know what it is, question and answer Friday. So we got lots of questions and that's good. I'm always thrilled that you guys want to participate in our Friday sessions. Okay, let's get going because we have lots of questions. Bonnie's asking a very good question. “Why not just take cod liver oil rather than separate supplements of vitamin D and fish oil?” Well, good question. I really appreciate, by the way, I love cod liver oil and I'll tell you why I like cod liver oil because of vitamin A, not vitamin D, vitamin A. Okay? Now it does have some vitamin D in it, so it's good. Cod liver oil is good. That oil is good for you. It's a fish oil.
Now two things. One, you got about 400 international units in cod liver oil. Okay? So that's enough for a mouse, okay? You're not going to get a lot of vitamin D. There is vitamin D there, but mainly I love cod liver oil for vitamin A, the invisible mask, vitamin A for your immune system, okay? Very, very good. They used to take cod liver oil as a kid. Why? They were trying to get rid of rickets, okay? The bowing of legs, they had no idea what it did for your immune system. They really didn't. In those days they were giving cod liver oil for bones. So it's obviously good for bones, okay? Combination of vitamin A and vitamin D and the fish oil.
Now the other thing that cod liver oil doesn't have is high D H A. Okay, so you guys know this. I am very, very big on D H A, okay? So when you talk to me about omega-3, love it, but I really focus in on, not on EPA, not on ALA. I focus in on DHA. You know why? Cause your brain is made up of DHA fat and the studies on D H A are absolutely astounding, including what it does to cancer. And again, you got to go and look and search and whatever. We have it on our website, but you won't hear this mainstream because again, you know it's a natural product. It's not a pharmaceutical. I love D H A. Where do you get DHA? Fish. Yeah, for sure. When you eat fish you get d h a. When you eat steak you get d h a. But I'm talking about therapeutic doses Bonnie. And that's why I love it. It's one of my fav five. It's high DHA. So do I like cod liver oil? Absolutely. I like it. Okay? I like it in the winter especially because you get that vitamin A. Okay, vitamin A. So I used to recommend it to my patients a lot of times, especially those with a poor immune system.
Sherry, “what kind of questions should I ask my new doctor?” Okay, facetious, you should ask them how much nutrition they take, but don't do that. You're going to embarrass them, okay? But really if you want your new doctor to be productive, let them know and be humble. Be humble about it. Ask them you want certain tests done. Now they might question that, but just say, look, I really appreciate if you would get these tests done for me. Okay, I want lipids done. They'll do that usually ordinarily, but I want specifically to look at my triglycerides. Well, you can do that. If the doctor doesn't flag it, you can send it to me. I want my uric acid levels done. I want my B12 levels done. I want my vitamin D levels done.
And again, depending, a lot of doctors, they don't like doing vitamin D because they only see vitamin D for your bones. But you tell 'em, Hey, I want my vitamin D, I want my vitamin D levels. I want to know what my serum vitamin D levels are. Okay, you get those biomarkers. I want my C r p done. C-reactive protein. What is that? It's an inflammation marker. Please do that for me. All I have to do is tip off a little bracket there, little box on a blood test requisition. It's nothing for them, but you might run into a little opposition. So be humble but be firm. I want this done. These numbers are important to me, okay, there numbers are important to me. B12 absolutely need to know what your B12 is, vitamin D, that kind of thing. Sherry, thanks for that question.
Okay, Donna wants to know about the little eye bumps, yellowish… Xanthelasma, that is what they call cholesterol spots underneath your eyes or on your eyelids or whatever. I never worried about them too much. Some people just happen to develop. That has nothing to do with heart disease. It doesn't make any money more susceptible to anything. It's the way you process cholesterol. Your body needs cholesterol never bothered me when I saw it. Usually sometimes there would be some connection to fatty liver and some connection sometimes to a gallbladder that was gummed up not eating enough fat. Cause if your gallbladder is gummed up, you're not eating enough fat, use it or lose it. Okay? So I used to look at those things to make sure those things were fine, but I never worried about it too much.
Kathy, “what does Dr. Martin think about those little bottles of water enhancer?” Now it depends what you mean by that. Do you mean to make your pH in your water higher or to flavor your water or whatever? I'm not quite sure exactly what you mean, but let me get to another question because I want to talk about water for a minute here. Okay, Nancy, we know how important water is to our bodies. Good for you. I want to purchase an r o system. Someone said that alkaline water is very important, your thoughts, yeah, alkaline water is important. Now tap water is slightly alkaline. It's not acidic. Do I recommend tap water? No. Okay, I don't. You better filter it. And then what I tell everyone, add a pinch of salt. Not table salt, but either Himalayan or a good kosher salt, like a Celtic salt or whatever. And automatically what makes alkaline water minerals.
That's why I like spring water. Spring water is a very alkaline like, oh doc, I want to get it to 9.2 alkalinity. Okay? Does that really make a difference? Not really because your body, you have to understand something about your buy. Okay? I was online this morning with our Facebook group. I think that's where I saw it. It's in our Facebook group people talking about acidic food. And guys, I get a migraine when I read them because go to 99% of doctors who haven't taken even an hour of nutrition and I to be negative about the naturopathic profession. But I'm going to be negative on nutrition for a minute because hook, line and sinker, they follow this. Vegetables and fruit are better than meat and eggs and cheese. And the reason they say it, the number one reason is because eggs, meat and cheese, especially meat are acidic.
No they're not. They're not. Your body has a buffering system built in, built in baking soda. I'm serious. And your body keeps its pH in a very, very, very tight range. So this whole idea have a tomato. Can we agree on something? A tomato is acidic. It's pH's very acidic. A lemon is acidic, but your body that doesn't make you acidic. Soon as you take a tomato, your body releases baking soda to make it aline. Okay? And someone was putting there, oh, if I eat eggs, meat and cheese, my uric acid goes up. No it doesn't. You see Linda, Liza, it's straight biochemistry. That's not how your body operates. Its pH is very tightly controlled. So are lemons bad for you? You put lemon in water, is that bad for you? Very acidic. Yeah, but it actually makes you alkaline.
Okay, so does a and so does steak and when you're talking about uric acid, okay, and oh doc, my uric acid has gone up. Okay, that's a biomarker. But you know what makes uric acid go up and for years of the king's disease, gout and blah, blah, blah, while the king is eating too much meat. No he wasn't. The peasants were eating meat too. What do you think they were living on? The king was drinking too much alcohol. That's what elevates uric acid. Uric acid is a byproduct of fructose and the reason we see so much goat today is because of high fructose corn syrup that is found in soda. It's found in every crappy food in the middle aisles of your grocery store, including cereals. That's how you make uric acid.
I know it goes against all of the websites. It goes against just about 99% of natural paths. It goes against all the oncologists. It goes against all the grain of that. I know it does, but I just can't help myself. I got to tell you the truth, it bothers me. There is an agenda and a lot of doctors don't even mean to be part of it. There is a narrative. They're not thinking of that. But I'm telling you, there is a war. There is a war going on. I talked to you about the war on vitamin D and I'm going to tell you there's a war on red meat facts. Cancer thrives on sugar fact and anything that breaks down in sugar rapidly fact cancer thrives on it. Cancer hates steak. It hates it because it can't feed on it. So when people tell you that red meat makes you acidic, would you please run the other way?
They might mean, well, I'm not questioning their motives, I'm questioning their science. It's not science and I know as long as I'm going to be alive, I am going to have to scream it like John the Baptist in the wilderness. I know I'm in the minority because someone said right on our private Facebook group, how can all the doctors be wrong? Let me tell you something, they were all wrong. All of them on cholesterol. How can all the doctors be wrong, Dr. Martin and you be right. Well, they're all wrong on cholesterol proof in the pudding. We got more heart disease than ever. If cholesterol was the problem, we'd have got rid of heart disease by now. They put statin drugs into drinking water if you let them. I'm serious. So all I'm telling you is I'm sorry guys, I will not back off. I won't back off.
I am adamant that when someone tells you red meats, no, how can red meat, let me ask you. So you think God gave us red meat to eat? How do I know that? Well, because it's the only way you can get B12 and you will not survive without b12. So if you are meant to be a vegetarian or a vegan and eat chicken, okay, I just eat chicken. There's no B12 in chicken. There's none. Zero nada. How can essential vitamin like B12 and where 80, 90% of the population is low in it? Why? Because they drink the Kool-Aid. They believe that red meats no good for you. And if all these doctors say it, Dr. Martin, why is it they must be right and you're wrong? Well, if nothing else, I rest my case on b12. Nevermind all the other essential nutrients that are in red meat by the way, and are not found like, let me give you another example.
Heme iron, H E M E iron. It's not found anywhere else. It's not heme. Iron's not found in eggs. Eggs do you think? I love eggs. I love eggs, but it's not found in there. You got some iron in there, but it's not heme iron. He iron is found in steak. So you see why I'm so adamant? If you think a piece of steak makes you acidic, I don't know what to say anymore. I just don't. If you think that's bad for you, I'm sorry. I just don't agree at all. At all at all. And I I'm not giving up on that. Am I telling you never to eat vegetables? I didn't tell you that for 30 days. I want you off of them in fruit. Get off of them. Why? I'm resetting your body and then you can have vegetables. Okay? You can have vegetables. Just don't live on vegetable. Don't live on fruit. You're not meant to live on fruit.
And if you want your uric acid to go high, well then you would live on fruit. Now is that bad for you? No, but don't live on it. There's nothing harder on your body. Then insulin resistance, which creates inflammation. Red meat doesn't create inflammation. Cheese doesn't create inflammation. Now look, if you have an allergy to cheese, okay, well that's, that's another thing. You got leaky gut and you got problems. The cheese isn't the problem. It's you. We're all unique guys. I know I get uptight and if I had one of those stupid watches, it would be telling me to breathe. That's why I don't wear one. I don't want to be told to breathe. I'm not finished yet with my arguments.
No, but guys, I actually went on there this morning and I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't like you're entitled to your opinion. I mean that you're entitled to it. You remember Dragnet. Now you got to be my age to remember Dragnet. Just the facts, ma'am. Just the facts and that's the facts. That's how your pH operates. Okay? The only way you're going to have to fight acidity is when your kidneys are not functioning properly. It's at the kidney level. And I'll tell you what makes kidneys go south is sugar, not meat, not protein sugar. Okay, I'm breathing. I'm breathing back to my question. I'm never going to finish.
Laura is saying, “what is the optimum amount of protein per kilogram?” Laura, look, I appreciate the question I do. I don't count calories. I really don't like counting protein. I don't, okay? I'm not saying you can't do it, I'm just saying for me it's like asking me to count calories. What does it mean? You know me. Here's what I'll say about protein. Protein is the king of the castle. Carbohydrates are their dirty rascal, but I like protein with fat. It's the way it should be. Fat and carbs. You got a donor? Okay, fat with carbs that not good? Think about this. How does God provide protein the most bioavailable with fat, which doesn't make you fat? Eggs, eat all of them. Eat the yolk because you're going to get protein very hot and you're going to get fat in the yolk. Very good for you. The absorption of protein is much more bioavailable when you combine it the way nature combines it in. Fat, protein, fat. Look. Am I against protein shakes?
Nope. Okay. The best protein shake is made of bone broth. That is because it's collagen protein. It's excellent. I love it. Okay. I like when you put it in with Dr. Martin's perfect smoothie. Why do I do that? Because now you have dairy fat because that's what nature combines it with. Okay? Nature combines protein and fat. Nature doesn't combine carbs and fat. Donuts are carbs and fat donuts are not normal, okay? You don't want to combine carbohydrates in fat. Fat, got it. Especially manmade fat. Like those so-called vegetable oils, those seed oils that are made for your car. Okay? Not for you. Thanks for the question. We appreciate it. And I mean, Laura, I'm I, like I said, I'm not big on counting protein. Okay? How much should you take? One thing about protein and fat. Let's say you have bacon and eggs in the morning.
They've proven this a thousand times. By the way, your leptin, your sayatin is filled, is satisfied. You see saturated fat is a satisfied fat plus it'll satisfy you too. And the problem is when you're choosing the wrong fuel, it's like paper and twigs in a wood stove, you are going to be hungry. You see one of the biggest things in obesity, let me just say this. One of the biggest problems in obesity is that they're overfed and undernourished. I used to teach this in the clinic all the time. It's choices, it's fuel. And people that are obese, almost invariably they never get obese eating steak ever. You never get obese eating eggs ever. You never get obese eating bacon ever, ever.
How did you get obese? Bacon and eggs? Nah, but that's what the world teaches you because they look at that as calories, but it ain't calories because if you starve yourself to death, you will lose weight, but you won't lose fat, you'll lose muscle and you're going to gain all that weight back. It's at the forefront of yo-yo dieting. I used to call, I actually wrote a book about it, the New Thin You. I wrote that book in the nineties, but I talked about in that book how you eat the wrong fuel and don't count calories or you're going to be in trouble, okay? Eat the way nature is asked you to eat. Okay? Thanks for the question, Laura. We appreciate that.
Louise, “what’s the condition of amyloidosis?” Very rare. When the body starts accumulating that amyloid protein, it's a rare condition. Genetic usually not good. It starts to destroy organs and it's not good. “Catina red light therapy. What do I think of it?” I like it. I've seen some good things on light therapy. Okay? I never used it in my practice, but my dad did. But yeah, I got no problem with that. Just make sure that you know, it's under supervision of healthcare practitioner.
Grace is asking if E G F R, which is one of the kidney results, okay? When you get your blood test done, I look at it. When you're on a high protein diet, is it possible to have results fluctuate? Yeah. When your E G F R are subject to fluctuation, they can fluctuate again. I'm going to talk to you about kidneys for a minute. Protein doesn't affect your kidneys. Sugar does nothing more destructive to kidneys than insulin resistance and sugar. What have I talked to you about? Kidneys is all about blood supply. Your eyeballs are all about blood supply. Your brain is all about blood supply. Your heart is a blood blood supply. And when those things get in trouble from the diet, it's never protein. It's sugar. It's sugar and crappy carbohydrates that turn to sugar rapidly. And you ask a diabetic, why do you think there's so much dialysis today?
Like I've always told you, I'm a why guy, okay? So I drive down the street in the United States of America and I see these dialysis places. Keith, when I was a kid, dialysis, what was it? Not that nobody was on it. It was just so rare. You know what I used to say through the virus respirators, don't worry about respirators. I used to say worry about dialysis. Cause because their kidneys are going to shut down because nobody got sick unless they had the preexisting condition usually of diabetic or pre or metabolic syndrome. Bad. You were in trouble. What is it? Sugar. I know I always pick on sugar. I'm sorry. I will always pick on sugar.
Okay, Vanessa, “what is the link between D3 and rat poison?” There's no link. I saw that. That's the craziest thing I've ever heard. You know how many years I have been giving out vitamin D3? It's one of my five five. Again, can I tell you about the war on vitamin D? And by the way, D3 is what the sun makes. D3. It's the one that's bioavailable, it's the one not D two. D two is fortified vitamin D that they put in cereals to make you pretend that the cereal is healthy. It's got vitamin D in it except it's got the rock hard D two that your body can't even absorb. D3 is a sunshine vitamin that you can get in a liquid and listen, I like D3 as you guys know with vitamin k2. Again, think about how God puts things together. You eat a piece of cheese, you get calcium. Cheese is very high in calcium. Dairy's very high in calcium. Is calcium bad for you? No. I don't like it as a supplement, but I like calcium.
You can't live without calcium. The problem is you need K2 with it so that calcium goes to your bones and your teeth rather than stay in your bloodstream. So when you eat a piece of cheese, why do you think I like cheese so much? You get calcium, you get protein, you get fat and you get vitamin k2. When you eat steak you get vitamin k2. Isn't that beautiful? When you eat an egg, you get vitamin K2 with the calcium, it's way nature is man. Okay? Yeah, like rat poison. I I it's cr. That's craziness going to kill you. Well, all my patients would've died then 40 years ago they'd all be dead if it was poison Vitamin D. You know how many years I've been taking vitamin D when I can't get in the sun and take it with k2? Okay, don't get too excited.
Okay, we talked about water, Cornelius. Anna, “I have a question. Is low cortisol the same as high cortisol?” No, it's not the same. Okay, it's not the same. High cortisol is, okay? Now where does cortisol come from? The adrenals and low cortisol is when those adrenals get exhausted. Okay? Adrenals are the size of chestnut on top of your kidney. Add renal on top of your kidneys. You should know where they are. Okay? And someone, and this is what I talked about in the eighties, when someone gets chronic fatigue syndrome, they get adrenal exhaustion and their chestnut size, adrenal strength to the size of a B. So they're not the same, but they come from the same thing. Stress too long, prolonged, and they tip over the edge and they get exhaustion. Okay? That's the difference. Okay? I like the question. Thank you Anna.
Judy, “if you're eating beef and they consume grains, does that cause inflammation in the body?” No, it doesn't cause inflammation in the body. Okay, now it's better to have grass fed beef. It's better. Okay? I like to do this. Okay? When it comes to beef, all of it is good. All of it is good. Grass fed, the best, better, best beef, grain fed, whatever. Better you eat that because it's got b12, it's got heme iron, it's got everything in it, okay? It's got everything in it. And it better eat. Not than eating a granola bar. It's better eating that than bring me any vegetable on the plant. Most people bring me broccoli, okay? They say, well, I heard that's the best food in the world. I said, well, I'm going to compare it to steak. And it's no comparison in terms of nutrients, in terms of vitamins, in terms of minerals, in terms of all of that. Don't give yourself a headache, guys. There's better, and then there's best. And there's nothing better than steak. An egg is not as good as steak. It's good. It's not as good as steak. It's not, okay, okay, okay. Okay. I got to get going because I am very slow today. Good question Judy.
Lee. “They say it is said, they say that cheese deletes absorption of magnesium.” No, no. That's crazy. Okay. It's not a crazy question, but it's crazy that they said that. How does that happen? How does cheese, which has magnesium by the way, decrease your absorption of magnesium? I don't get it. There's no basis for that statement. It's silly. Eat your cheese. How to balance potassium. Magnesium in calcium, well eat cheese. And by the way, there's a lot more potassium in steak than there is in a banana. Okay? I know. Eat your bananas for potassium. Well, there's more potassium in steak. Did you know that? Okay, I know, I know I'm getting uptight.
“What tips do you have,” Wendy, “for eating on a lengthy road trip?” Well, if you can, you bring some snacks, you're going into a restaurant, order a double hamburger and leave the bun behind and take out a knife and fork and put some cheese on it, okay? And you can have some vegetables, you can have some fruit. Okay? You're on a road trip. I just came back. Okay? Yeah, it's, it's harder, but it's certainly doable, okay? And try and avoid the fast foods as much. I like McDonald's guys. You know why I like McDonald's coffee be good coffee for me. I mean coffee's taste right, but I don't like the food in there. Okay? I don't. Okay, let me close with this and I'll have to get back to, I think the others.
Sandy asked about “cortisol, it's supposed to have a calming effect, but for some it does the opposite.” Yeah, well, everybody different. But the vast majority, 99.9, I can tell you I've been using Cortisol Formula for many, many years. It calms 'em. It lowers the cortisol, it balances that. Okay? But you shouldn't have the opposite effect. But some people, hey, what can I tell you?
Okay, let me finish with this, Anna. “Does anyone know why Dr. Martin suggests intermittent fasting instead of a 72 hour fast?” I'll tell you why. I'm not against fasting. You know that intermittent fasting, you've acknowledged that the best is something that the vast majority of people can do and that is learn to eat in windows and do not produce insulin. So the reason I like intermittent fasting, and you can do an intermittent fast by stopping to eat at six o'clock at night, go past six in the morning, you get to eight, you got 14 hours, you're intermittent fasting. I like that. A lot of good things happen in intermittent fasting. A lot of good things happen when you go to 14 hours. You can go to 10 o'clock in the morning, even better, okay? Because you're not secreting insulin. The whole idea is insulin.
Now here's the problem with 72 hours. I'm not saying you could never do it. I recommend it if a doctor gives you this C word and there seems to be some research, stop eating for 72 up. Let your body give that cancer. Absolutely no fuel. But you have to understand this, Anna, when I did the reset, it's really fasting without fasting. It is because when you eat the right fuel, when it's so high in nutrients, that's why I don't like keto. I'm not big on keto. Keto foods. They're not nutritious foods. Keto is meant to be eaten naturally, which is eggs, meat and cheese. Okay? You can do a little bit of vegetables, very small amount and fruit, very small amount. And you can eat keto if you're going to eat keto, eat like that. But I'm big on nutrition. I'm big on nutrients.
And so if your body is burning 99% octane, your A T P, which I discussed yesterday, when your mitochondria are burning the right fuel, you get very little waste and you need very little insulin. Very, very little. And really ultimately that's the goal of fasting. You're detoxing, but you can do it and still eat. Now, I like not eating at night. I like especially the intermittent fasting, that 72 hours. Here's what they've found. What happens in 72 hours, you don't eat at all. You're drinking water and coffee. I hope you're uric acid level score. Now am I saying that's bad forever? No, son, but I'm not big on that. And most people, first of all, can't do it. You can't ask a diabetic to not eat for 72 hours. You can't do it. It's not good for them.
And I know you can work your way into it, but most diabetics can't work their way into 72 hours if they can. Good for them. But I don't agree with it. I don't agree with it. Okay? But I'm not going to scream blue murder. If you do it, nah, good for you. But I aim at the big majority of the population. I talk in generalities. I have to. And when I talk in generalities, most people are not going to go 72 hours without eating. They just won't do it. And so I'm a big guy. When they used to leave my office, I said, listen, I'm going to give you a plan to succeed, not to fail. Like you put that on a plate of someone who's just trying to get their health turned around and you're talking about 72 hours of not eating. Good luck with that.
So I hope you understand where I'm coming from. Again, you can do it. Good for you. I'm not against that per se, but I think I gave you my reasons for intermittent fasting rather than full three day fasting or whatever. Okay? Thank you so much, Anna, for the question. And I got a few more. And guess what? Got to do it some other time. Okay guys, I'd never get to the end. Okay guys, we appreciate you. And I know I rant every day. I rant, I rant, I rant, and I get excited. I can't help myself, okay? And I just get excited because I'm passionate about it. Hey guys, I mean it. I love you guys. Thank you. The best audience in the world is my audience. I'll put it up against any audience on any podcast, anywhere, anytime. Nobody's like our guys. Thanks for watching.
Announcer: You've reached the end of another Doctor Is In Podcast, with your hosts, Doctor Martin Junior and Senior. Be sure to catch our next episode and thanks for listening!