Dr. Martin continues his discussion on gut inflammation, and recaps the reasons why your gut may be inflamed in today’s episode.
The use of antibiotics is the number one reason for leaky gut. They disrupt the microbiome and for a lot of people, opens the door to an invasion of the third army, yeast. Small intestine fungal overgrowth, SIFO as Dr. Martin prefers to call it, is the cause of so many people’s gut issues.
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
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Dr. Martin: Good morning. Hope you're doing well. Nice to have you on with us. Okay guys, let's get going. Yesterday we started, so this'll be a two part. Yesterday we talked about reasons why your gut is inflamed, okay? And we did the whys yesterday. Okay, little bit of a recap, and by the way, I'm going to post this after in the private Facebook group, okay? I'm going to post a study on antibiotics causing IBS and irritable bowel syndrome, okay? IBS and guys, IBS, I never liked the diagnosis to some extent because it was never specific. I mean, the bowel is irritated, you know, you got cramping, bloating, really uncomfortable in the gut, diarrhea perhaps, constipation perhaps. All of those symptoms can be symptoms of an irritated bowel, okay? And if the bowel is irritated, it's inflamed.
So, why? Well, the number one reason I've told you this, you know guys, it's amazing to me that here we are in 2023, antibiotics are wonderful. They really are. You got a raging infection, you need an antibiotic to save your life. Okay? So where big pharma has done wonderful things, it's a double-edged sword. And I talked about this. I've got many a podcasts. If you go on our website, martin clinic.com, you can look at all those podcasts, and I have done several on the double edged sword of antibiotics, okay? Save your life, get rid of an infection, and sometimes you got no choice, guys, okay? I mean that, sometimes you have no choice. The double-edged sword is the miracle of the 20th century has become really the curse of the 21st. We have infections that are resistant to antibiotics now, like never before. Antibiotics will 100% cause leaky gut. Now, they might not always cause IBS, but they're the number one cause of IBS. I'll post a study, I think it was done in 2022. I'm going to post it so that you can see what I'm talking about.
Okay, so we talked about this. What is the number one cause of gut problems? The number one, in my opinion is antibiotics and other medications too. Because when you take an anti-inflammatory, even if it's over the counter like Tylenol or Advil or others, your gut pays the price for that. Okay? You got five pounds. I used to say three pounds. Tony Jr. says five pounds. And so let's get in the middle and say you got four pounds of bacteria. Although the more they study it, the more they look at like you really got five pounds of bacteria in your body, most of it in your gut. So when you step on the scale minus five, I used to tell patients that you can take off five pounds just by saying, hey, I got five pounds of bacteria. It always made a patient feel better, okay? But that's a fact.
Now, if you wipe out all your bacteria, and that's what happens with an antibiotic, you wipe out in five days all of your bacteria, well, you're headed for trouble if you don't replace them. We've talked about the gut brain access the gut. We just wrote an email this morning. I don't know if you got it. You should have, if you don't have it, look at your spam or make sure if you're not getting our emails, get the emails. Because we put a lot of detail in those emails. We go into detail. And today we went into detail on the gut and the skin, the axis. And in the email we said, eh, I've never seen a skin problem that wasn't directly related to the gut. I've never seen an autoimmune problem that didn't start in the gut. And when you get MS, gut. Started there, it started there, and it starts in the gut. And it's leaky gut, leaky brain, leaky gut, leaky nervous system, lung problems. Most of them start in the gut.
And we talked about this. It's important to remember a lot of people, their gut is a mess, but they don't have digestive issues. They don't feel it, but it's manifesting itself in other places. But now we're coming back just to symptoms in the gut where you're actually getting bloating or off and on diarrhea, off and on constipation, you know, you are unwell. And I talked yesterday about these things. Okay? So antibiotics, again, save your life. Double-edged sword can cause havoc in that gut. So guys, you got to be your own doctor when it comes to this. You guys know you got to repair the gut. You got to repair the lining between the gut and the blood, but you need to replace that bacteria. One of the things that happens in the gut, and we talked about this many a time, and you can actually go and listen to these podcasts, more than one, I'm sure in the thousands we got, I talked about a condition called SIBO.
Medicine calls it SIBO, the Martin Clinic calls it SIFO. S I B O, medicine. They have a hard time even recognizing that. Anything new under the sun, medicine, what is that? Okay? It's just that doctors, unless you are reading, unless you're keeping up to date, SIBO, small intestine bacterial overgrowth. Look, you can Google it. Dr. Google sometimes knows more than physicians could. They're not reading, okay? But anyway, so digestion, remember, okay, in your gut, a lot of times it's higher up. I talked to you about your stomach. You're very acidic. The human stomach is very acidic, or at least it should be. And when it's not, your setting up the rest of your bowel for big time trouble. And most, okay, I'm going to make a generalized statement. Right now, most North Americans most don't have enough acidity in the stomach. "Oh, Dr. Martin, I got a heartburn. I got too much acidity." No, your body is producing your proton pumps in your stomach. They're acid producing, they're producing more because your acidity isn't acidic enough. They're producing more.
And the problem is, when proton pumps start producing acid, it goes up the esophagus. And sometimes guys, okay, because a lot of people know what that is, they got, oh, acid reflux. And you know, what do they do? They take Tums. People live on Rollaids or Tums or Tagament or the purple pill and oh, I can eat whatever I want and I just take a pill. Ooh, they're actually making the problem worse. Here's the problem, and I'll say it and I'll say it and I'll say it. In North America, the problem is, the biggest problem when it comes to your stomach is when you don't eat meat. When you don't eat meat, your stomach pH changes. When you eat carbs, I'm not saying you can never have a carbohydrate, okay? All I'm saying is when you live on carbs, wheat, and noodles and sugars, even fruits and vegetables, I'm not saying you can't have them. Understand what I'm saying? That's all right. But when you avoid meat, your pH changes use it or lose it.
And what happens? You don't have enough acidity. Your acidity in your stomach is on your side. Do you understand that? It's on your side. What does that acidity do? It is a furnace. It breaks down food, it mulches it into a liquid so that you can absorb all the nutrients in your small intestine. Okay? Now I'm going to use an illustration. You know me, I love illustrations, okay? When your stomach acidity is good, it kills bacteria. It kills h pylori. It kills. It mulches, and it kills. That's why it's so important to eat meat, because when you do, you are actually built for it. Okay? Now I'm going to show you something. As soon as your food gets past your stomach, okay, I'm going to show you. So if you're listening on a podcast, visualize, what am I showing you here? I'm showing you a piece of a shag carpet. You remember this illustration, folks? Okay? Your body has 26 feet of a shag carpet, okay? Small intestine, it's not that small, okay? It's wide.
But when your acidity in your stomach is good, your small intestine will be good, and you'll have a shag carpet. What are these, they're called villi, okay? So the shag carpet is like villi. It's villi, and it's there to absorb your food properly. Now, on the other side of this, on the flip side, I'm showing the flip side of the shag carpet and it's flat and there's very little villi. Now, I want you to visualize this for those on a podcast, this is what the small intestine looks like when you have autoimmune disease, okay? When you have autoimmune, you don't have the shag carpet like you should. Why do I say that every autoimmune disorder starts in the gut because of what happens in the small intestine.
Now, part of the villi, okay, so the villi, okay, we're just showing this to you again, inside the villi, you couldn't see it is bacteria. They help with the absorption in the villi. But if you don't have enough acidity in your stomach, you're not going to absorb food properly. That'll do several things. One of them, it can create autoimmune. You have allergies, you have intolerances, you can have all sorts of problems, but you can have digestive trouble too. And this is a problem they call in the small intestine. Medicine has a name for it. It's called small intestine bacterial overgrowth, SIBO. Okay? I remember the first time I read about SIBO, I said, what took you so long? But what do we call SIBO at the Martin Clinic? We changed the name SIFO, small intestine fungal overgrowth. It's not a bacteria.
Sure, there's bacteria there in those villi, there's bacteria there, but it's not bacteria. That's the big culprit. It's fungal. That's why antibiotics, guys, it changes your microbiome. Remember you heard it first at the Martin Clinic. It's yeast, my friend. It's yeast. It's fungus. Fungus grows. It's the Trojan horse. You take an antibiotic, it wipes out your bacteria. Yeah and ladies, you would know this better than anyone else. What does a woman know? Oh, they took antibiotics. And oftentimes after they got a bladder infection. "Doc, how did I get a bladder infection?" Well, you wiped out your bacteria and you got bacteria in your gut, and you got bacteria in your bladder. They're on your side, you wiped it out. What happens? It's a yeast that gets in there. "Oh, Dr. Martin, I took an antibiotic because I had a bladder infection," and that's all right. Bacteria was in there, but underneath that was a yeast or fungus.
I'm telling you, you need to take probiotics. Everyone. There's a test as to whether you need a probiotic or not. Prick your finger. If the blood comes out red, you need a probiotic. Hello? I mean it, you need a probiotic. Everyone. Your dog needs a probiotic, okay? Anyway, so guys, when it comes to the gut, and let's get away now for a few moments, let's get away now from those who have no symptoms of digestive issues, they don't. Okay, but now we're going to talk to the people that got symptoms. Okay? So why number one reason, and I know I spend a lot of time on this, is antibiotics. The greatest discovery of the 20th century has become the curse of the 21st. Okay? Leaky gut is well established. Well established. Research is incredible on the manifestations of leaky gut. And I talked to some doctors today, they still don't understand that. They still don't believe it. What can I tell you?
And you know me, I've said it. It's malpractice. When a physician writes out a prescription for an antibiotic and doesn't tell you to take a probiotic with it. And it's malpractice when a pharmacist fulfills that prescription for an antibiotic and doesn't tell you to take a probiotic, it's malpractice. Man, there is so much research, so much evidence on the importance of probiotics, bacteria, that's on your side. Guys, I don't know what to say crazy. Anyway, so why, okay, and then we talked about yesterday, gluten schmooten. One of the biggest things though, remember it starts in the stomach. My name is Tony, and I'm a carboholic. You are setting yourself up for big, big problems with the digestive tract. Okay?
What do we have today? We have, and I'll just say another thing, it bothers me. One of the lives that we hear all the time is colorectal cancer is going to the stratosphere. It's unreal how much colorectal cancer there is, and it's happening to young people. Well, guys, let me tell you, they're blaming red meat for that. It's insanity. It's the opposite. Red meat consumption is down 300% in some cases with people, they just don't eat red meat because they think it's bad for them. Red meat consumption is down and cancer rates are up here. Your gut loves steak. And then we talked about stress and environment from plastics to whatever gets in your gut. Artificial sweeteners and all this kind of thing. We talked yesterday about seed oils, those vegetable oils, they're very inflammatory, and some people will feel it in the gut and they may feel it elsewhere. But one thing about seed oils, middle aisles of your grocery store, hydrogenated oil. Oil that was meant for your car and not for your gut, okay? It irritates.
Fiber, irritates, Fiber is overrated. People can't get over that. You guys are smart. So you know, I'm right. Fiber's overrated. Water is the best thing you can do for your gut, not fiber. Okay? I say it and I'll say it and I'll say it again. You don't have enzymes needed to break fiber down. That's why they call 'em insoluble. They bulk up your stool. Why do you want to do that? "Hey doc, I got a bulky stool." Well, good for you. What does that do? So what do we do? So yesterday was why, why do we have so much digestive problems? More than half the population? It's crazy on the amount of people. Okay, and let me just before I get into what we do, you got IBS, you got IBD, you got diverticulosis. Those are little pouches. You got diverticulitis. That's when those pouches get impacted. Guess what? They get impacted with seeds and nuts and because people live on that kind of stuff. And that irritates or it can.
So diverticulosis, especially if you got pain on what we call the transverse colon, okay? On the left side, it's often diverticulosis. But again, all of those things, okay? What do we do? So in my office, here's my protocol. Here's what I did. Here's what I recommended to my patients. And I said, okay, we're going to start in the kitchen or someone said at the grocery store, we are going to change your diet. Because if you want to fix your gut, you have to change your diet, okay? And we're going to get you off all the roughage. Your gut's irritated. It's angry. You have an angry gut, okay? You have heartburn, angry. Your esophagus is angry. It's inflamed, it hurts. I said, we're going to help you, but you got to start in the kitchen, okay? And we're going to get you off foods that irritate, and you have to trust me because it's not going to happen overnight, but we're going to get you off sugar.
Sugar rots your teeth. I used to tell my patients that. Do you agree with that? Oh yeah. Every dentist will tell you that. Sugar rots your teeth. Yeah, well, it rots your gut too. It'll rot your stomach, it'll rot your intestines. That's what sugar does. And anything that turns to sugar rapidly, bread, pasta, rice, cereals, muffins, bagels, dessert, it rots. We're going to cut that out. Ah, no. I mean it. Are you tired of your gut being angry all the time? Yeah. I'm tired of it, Doc. Okay. My doctor said I got celiac or I got I B D and I got ulcerative colitis. I got it. Doesn't matter which one of those diagnoses you've got, we're going to change your diet. So we start with that. One, start in the kitchen. Here's what it is. Not going to be easy If you're a carboholic not going to be easy. No one says it's going to be easy. But if you want to change your life and you're tired of having a angry gut, here's what you got to do. Okay? You got to fix it.
One food, change the fuel. Two probiotics, guys. I mean it. You've got to replace the bacteria. You got trillions of bacteria. Probiotics. I recommend the broad spectrum. Broad spectrum means it's got at least 10 different strains. Every strain of bacteria is like if you travel in Canada, United States would be the same. And you come across First Nations reservation, okay? They're different tribes. And it's the same thing with bacteria. Different bacteria do different things. Some of them are healers, some of them are replenishers. Some of them do this, some of them do that. And I've only been talking about this for 40 years guys. Probiotics, you got an angry gut. Probiotics, food, water, flush. Any water, only water is water. Okay? Two probiotics, three digestive enzymes. Most people, when they have, like I said, you got to start with the upper gi. Start with the stomach. Change the pH. Your pH will change. By the way, once you start eating the right foods, it'll change. Your body is fearfully and wonderfully made. It will change and give it some time.
But in the meantime, I love digestive enzymes. Our digestive enzymes were built. Okay? Broad spectrum enzymes, lipase, amylase, protease to break all your foods down, help your stomach. And the other thing is, guess what I put in it? Oil of oregano. Like I take oil of oregano every day, but I also take it in a digestive enzyme. Why? For SIFO. If you got an angry gut, you probably have fungus growing out the wazoo, you got yeast, bloating, irritation. The Trojan horse got in and it released all that yeast into your system. It's in your gut. It's probably spread. Oil of oregano is very antifungal. I built those enzymes for that reason, guys. Okay, the upper GI small intestine, you want to get your villi back. You want to see the carpet, see the shag carpet? You want to restore that. Your body's unreal. It can restore it. If you know anybody that's got anything autoimmune, remember it's the backside of this carpet. They don't have the villi that they need, but your body can restore that if you give it help.
Okay, so probiotics, digestive enzymes, water, food. I love bone broth. Somebody was asking me yesterday, Dr. Martin, what's the best protein in the world? Well, it's collagen. Collagen protein. Bone broth is collagen protein, but it's got the amino acids. I love bone broth. If you make your own, make your own. But it's a healing thing. It's not only a great protein. That's why I like bone broth protein shakes, but bone broth has L-glutamine and all of those amino, but L-glutamine especially. You know what L-glutamine does? It regenerates. It regenerates the villi. L-glutamine regenerates your gut. It regenerates that lining, that little microscopic lining between your gut and your blood. It's, it's like the border between Canada and the United States. It doesn't want anything to come through there that don't belong. Bacteria don't belong in your blood. Viruses don't belong in your blood. Feces doesn't belong in your blood. Toxins don't belong in your blood.
Well, what keeps that out of your blood? The lining. That microscopic lining. That's what L-glutamine does. I always recommended bone broth for those who have an angry gut. It heals. It helps in so many ways. And I love mucilages. Okay? Things that smooth out the gut and repair the gut. So guys, these are important things to do. Okay? Now, temporarily, if you want, you can take some apple cider vinegar just to help with the acidity and take a teaspoon or two of apple cider vinegar. I like balsamic vinegar too, of just helping with the, until you get these things healed up. Sometimes people, I like aloe vera too, that helps to soothe the gut. But guys, at the end of the day, that's the protocol that will help to fix it.
Man, if you don't have a good gut, you don't have the quality of life. I can still picture some of my patients. They come in years and years and years of having a bad gut years and tears coming down their eyes. Someone is actually going to help me. I'm telling you. I said, well, I patient tell me I tried everything. I said, you didn't try what I told you to do. That's why you're here. And I said, if you follow this protocol, I don't care if you got diverticulosis, I don't care what you have. I mean it, your gut will heal, but you got to be disciplined and you got to do it. Okay?
Hey, did you have fun? I did. Okay, guys, we appreciate you. I'm going to post that study on antibiotics. Okay? I'll post it in the private Facebook group. Guys, what's Friday? Question and answer Friday. I'm already getting you guys ready. Start sending those questions in for Friday. Okay. And have you got a copy of our new book, Sun, Steak and Steel? You don't. Well you should. Okay, guys, we love you. We'll talk to you soon.
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!