Martin Clinic recently sent an important email to its customers about high blood pressure. Dr. Martin breaks down that email in today’s episode and gives a teaching on what causes high blood pressure.
For most of us, we’ve been led to believe the common misconception that salt intake is the primary cause of high blood pressure. Dr. Martin says that’s false. Dehydration and a high-carb diet are more likely the main culprits.
Join Dr. Martin as he explains why lowering your insulin levels is a much better approach to reducing high blood pressure than it is to take medication.
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, and once again, welcome to another live this morning. We appreciate it. We appreciate you. Guys, we put out an email, very important on blood pressure this morning, okay? And that's what I want to talk about. I want to just sort of break down that email, give you a little bit of a teaching on what causes high blood pressure. Why in the world do we see so much high blood pressure? And listen, having high blood pressure is very detrimental. So we don't want anyone to have high blood pressure. But generally what we say in the email is that cardiologists have been looking for love in all the wrong places. Look, we love your cardiologists. We do. But when it comes to the causes. Look, every doctor I know wants to treat high blood pressure. Including me. Including me. So if you came into my office and you had high blood pressure, I took that very seriously.
The differences, what causes high blood pressure, and here's where cardiologists got it wrong. They said the number one reason that people get high blood pressure is the intake of salt. They vilified salt number one. Well, what did that do for us? Nothing. We have more high blood pressure today than ever because it ain't the salt. It just ain't okay. It's not the salt. As a matter of fact, salt could give you high blood pressure in the presence of dehydration. You don't have enough water and salt can make your blood pressure go up. So let's not negate salt in that sense, but it's not the salt again, folks, it's water. A lack of water. I've been saying this for 50 years. People are dehydrated.
What happens when you don't have enough water? A light on top of your head doesn't go on. I mean, and go add water, add water, add water. Be nice. It would be nice. But people walk around. I used to show them, I used to show them in my office. I said, you got blood as thick as molasses. You're dehydrated. What that does? Remember you got 60,000 miles of blood vessels in your body. You got a pump. It's called your heart. It's got to pump that blood through your system, guys. Okay? The problem is when you're dehydrated, a couple of things happen. The river, think of a river without water. Does it move? Nah, not much. Does it flow? Nah, not much. So your heart has to work even harder. Your heart works harder, your blood pressure goes up.
And the second part of dehydration, the second part of it, the body's smart. So it starts to squeeze to hold onto water. You're not drinking enough water. Most people don't. Oh, Dr. Martin, I drink juice that has water. I know, but it's not the same. It's not fluid. You're missing. It's H 2 O. And when your body in the absence of H 2 O will make your heart work harder, and secondly, it will squeeze those blood vessels. Think of your fist. It's holding on. Okay? It tightens up to hold on to water because at the cellular level, your body is very intelligent. So now you got dehydration causing high blood pressure. It's a major cause, okay? It's a major cause.
Water, you have no idea folks, over the years when I got people, and if you're on any medication, any medication, you even need more water because you're going to get dehydrated with any medication. They give you high blood pressure medication and it dehydrates you. Okay? Now that's really important. Water. Got it? Okay. Now we're going to talk about food. And cardiologists got salt wrong and cardiologists got food wrong. Let me prove it to you. What did they do if you had high blood pressure? Cut out the salt. Don't eat too much fat because when you have animal fat, eggs, meat and cheese. Cardiologist said, well, don't eat butter, eat margarine because that fat, it's saturated. So you want to have polyunsaturated fats, those margarines and seed oils that were meant for your car, not for your body. Got it?
So they got that wrong and they had people. And still today, my generation especially, and my parents' generation, they went for the margarine nonsense. It didn't lower blood pressure one iota. And then, okay, so what they did, they substituted margarine for butter, cereal like you need grains, you better eat grains said the cardiologist, and they hooked up with the American Heart Association. They hooked up with these associations and they had a heart check on the box. Go down the middle aisles of your grocery store and look for heart checks. Well, you'll see it in the margarine, but you'll see it on cereal boxes. Frosted Flakes are great. They used to be called Sugar Frosted Flakes, by the way. Did you know that when I was a kid? You know what Frosted Flakes, they were called Sugar Frosted Flakes. They changed the name. Oh, they're so deceptive. They're such liars, liars, pants on fires.
Okay, cardiologist got food wrong. Why? Because they don't take any nutrition. Okay? They could probably tell you what a protein is. They probably could tell you what a carb is. But that's about it. That's about it, guys. So what's happening? What's happening? Guys, listen, 93% of the population, you and I know this, 93% of the population have trouble with metabolic syndrome, which is a food problem. Metabolic syndrome is a food problem. It's insulin my friend and insulin is not your friend. Insulin, my friend is not your friend. It's only your friend when you don't use it much, but it's not your friend. Why? Because what happens when you eat cereal, carbs, Dr. Martin, it's whole wheat toast. I know. And it ain't no good for you because it's going to be sugar in five seconds.
So when you eat that stuff, what happens? Your insulin goes up. Okay, you do it only once in a week, who cares? But if you live on that, like 93% of the population live on that stuff. They live on carbs, they're carboholics. Now insulin becomes an enemy to you. Why? Because insulin is a growth hormone. Insulin is an inflammatory hormone. Insulin is a cancer growing hormone. It's a growth hormone. It's a fat storing hormone. It's not your friend, my friend. Okay? And what happens when you have a high carb diet, you have high insulin. When you have high insulin over a period of time, you develop what we call insulin resistance, high circulating insulin. Your cells at the cellular level, they don't like insulin. They're tired of it. It's always around me. I'm tired of you. It's like a bad neighbor. You know what a bad neighbor is? They come over too often. Oh, I just knock, knock. I just thought I'd come in and say hello. Would you get lost?
But if you insist on eating carbs, insulin's got a job to do. It doesn't care. It will not allow you to park that sugar in your bloodstream. So what does it do? It says, come here. Can't park in a no parking zone. Your blood vessels are no parking zones for sugar. Can't park. Let me take you somewhere else. That's why we called it a storage hormone. Insulin stores sugar as fat. Guys, that's how your body works. Imagine in medicine. Imagine they don't know that. They do, but they don't. You know what I mean by that? They do because you learn it in physiology. Physiology 1 0 1, you learn about insulin, you learn how it works, and then they forget. They forget. So when they see someone with high blood sugar, they give a med. They don't talk to you about changing your diet. They give you a med.
Insulin resistance causes your kidneys. So you have dehydration, then you have high insulin and your kidneys hold on to salt and water. You get salt and water retention. Guess what happens? Your blood pressure goes up, and if you are not getting to the bottom line and you are just giving meds, listen, one thing we know about high blood pressure medication, a couple of things. One, it doesn't fix the problem. It's a bandaid. It doesn't fix high blood pressure. It's like insulin are metformin. When someone's a diabetic, they don't change their diet, but they're put on meds. Okay? It controls their blood sugar, but doesn't fix the problem. As we said in the newsletter, you're driving down the highway, you hear a knock in your engine. I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to turn the volume up on the radio. I used to use that analogy in my office all the time. I said, you're just dealing with symptom.
If you have high blood pressure and you're taking high blood pressure medication, but just understand you're not fixing the problem. Like a diabetic, I used to tell 'em, okay, but it's going to end poorly. If you don't change your lifestyle. If you don't change your diet, you're not fixing the problem. You're not fixing it. It's like taking an antihistamine. I have allergies, doc. I'm taking antihistamines, but antihistamines don't fix the problem. They mask it. It's a bandaid. So medicine is into band-aids today, and I'm not saying you don't take the meds, don't get me wrong, but just understand it's not meant to fix. You have to change your lifestyle.
If you're not a water drinker. I used to get patients, and this is one of the reasons the reset is past 21 days. Why do I go 30 days? Well, there's a lot of reasons for it. Insulin resistance takes 30 days on average to fix. So your cells at the cellular level are not resisting the pain in the butt coming to its door every day, insulin. It takes time. But one thing I found out, okay, whenever Dr. Mackewn would invite me to lecture with her class at the University of Tennessee, I enjoyed it. But one thing I used to tell 'em this. Here's what I learned in psychology. I learned enough to be dangerous. Okay? I took psychology 1 0 1. Here's what I came away with. Okay? Here's what I came away with. Takes three weeks to form a habit. I never forgot that. 21 days to form a habit. Why are the gyms full in January and empty in February? Oh, I didn't know it was going to be hard. I didn't know it was going to hurt. I didn't know I got a gym membership, but I quit.
Why do all the gym equipment that you have in your home, why do they become coat hangers? Well, I didn't know it was going to be hard. I thought if I bought myself a bicycle, indoor bike, it would be easy. No, it's not easy. I got a treadmill doc. Yeah, you and millions of others, and it's not being used. Now, I don't laugh at my audience. You guys are smart. Okay? You don't do that, but the world does that. High blood pressure is dangerous, not only for heart, strokes, and we talked about that in a study in this email. If you got high blood pressure in your thirties, your forties, your fifties or whatever, you're 40, 50% more likely to get Alzheimer's. It affects your brain, my friend. It affects your memory, but you can't look for love in all the wrong places, and that's what's happening. Okay?
Now people are going to ask me, doc, what do I like for blood pressure? Look, your top number is systolic. Your bottom number is diastolic, the one that I really, really focus in on. Look guys, okay, don't misquote me, but your top number is not near as important as your bottom number. That has been my mantra for a long time. I'm not saying it's not important. It's not as important. Far too many people, in my opinion, have been put on blood pressure medication when they don't need it. Focus in on your diastolic number. If it's 90 and above, you're in doo doo. Okay? If you're 140 over 80, I don't consider that high blood pressure. A lot of people are put on meds. Look, if you're on meds right now, don't come off of them, but turn your life around. Start drinking water. It's amazing how many people I saw in my office that weren't drinking water. Doctor, I don't like water.
Men mostly. I don't like the taste of it. I don't care. I said, suck it up buttercup. You're dehydrated. You're going to have a heart attack. Your body's screaming for water and you're not doing it, and every time you have sugar, honey, I said, you're killing yourself. You're increasing your insulin. Your body's holding on to salt and water. I said, you don't drink water and then you eat crap. I said, no wonder you got high blood pressure. They'd look at me. I said, I don't negotiate with terrorists. I often said that to patients. I'm pretending you're a terrorist. I'm not negotiating. You are going to start drinking two liters of water. You got me? My American friends, that's 64 ounces. I said, suck it up buttercup. You'll get used to it and you'll thank me later. I thought you were going to give me a pill. Your cardiologist give you a pill. I'm going to give you a lifestyle. I'm going to help you with the bottom line. Let's go fix the issue.
Change your food. Start eating eggs, meat and cheese. Cut out the crappy carbs. Stop having cereal in the morning. No more margarine. Nothing like that, that don't help you an iota. It makes you worse. Start drinking water and add some salt to your water. Add some electrolytes. It helps your blood pressure, okay, salty. You see how much fun I used to have? I look back at my days of practice and I started saying, man, I used to have a lot of fun. I did because I was lecturing all day, but oh, when those folks got it, when those folks, they got the memo and they turned their lifestyle and they found out that food and water are key ingredients when it comes to their blood pressure. Holy moly, where they happy puppies? They became happy campers. They felt so much better. It works, folks. It works.
Why do you think we do the reset? I know out there, yeah, a lot of you reset. I want to lose weight. Yeah, okay. Weight loss is wonderful, but that's not the key. The key is lowering insulin. And guys, even on the reset, what do I tell you to do? What can you drink on the reset? People are always looking for ways not to drink water. Guys, you drink water on the reset and you drink coffee. Nothing is better for you than water and coffee. Coffee helps with blood pressure. It does. Yeah, it does. It's got a thousand phytonutrients in it. Isn't it wonderful that I allow you to have coffee? There's a reason for it. It's good for your blood pressure. It's an anti-inflammatory. It elevates your nitric oxide. It opens up your blood vessels. You wouldn't believe how many people used to give me high fives in the office? Doc, you mean I can have a coffee? My doctor said I should cut back on coffee. I said, your doctor doesn't know what they're talking about. Coffee is not a diuretic. They think it is. They think it's not a diuretic that actually helps you. That bean is good for you. Okay?
Okay. One more. One more. Let me close with this. Okay. Dehydration, insulin resistance, high blood pressure. Dehydration, high blood pressure. What happens in the kidneys? Don't stay in the kidneys. You got to fix that. Water, okay? Get your insulin down. Change your foods. Don't listen to all the nonsense out there that you need carbohydrates and sugars and oh, your brain needs some sugar. No, it don't. Your brain needs fat and it needs the right fat. The right fat is found in eggs. The right fat is found in meat. Even bacon. It's the right fat. It's the right oil. What made olive oil so popular? Olive oil will help you with blood pressure. I like olive oil. The reason it's good for you is because it's got oleic acid, but so does bacon. I used to have patients light up. Doc, you mean I can eat bacon? I haven't had bacon in years. My cardiologist told me I can't have bacon. I said, yes you can. Yes you can. You mean I can have bacon and eggs every day, every day, seven days a week if you want. Morning, noon, and night, I don't care. It's good for you.
You follow my diet and I promise you your blood pressure's going to come down. What? Yeah. Water. Healthy fat. Get the insulin down. Cut out those carbs, crappy carbohydrates. Magnesium. What does magnesium do? Relaxes your blood vessels. You know when they want to constrict and blood pressure, the hose, they relaxes it. Relax. Whenever you think of magnesium, think of relax. And so many people are low in magnesium. And again, one of the biggest problems is when you eat sugar, you are throwing magnesium out of your body. Okay? People don't realize that. So guys, I like magnesium. You know that, okay? Even in the email we mentioned Navitol. Yeah, I've done hundreds of thousands of people over the years on Navitol pine bark. It's the best. Why? Because it elevates your nitric oxide. What does nitric oxide do? Opens your blood vessels. Magnesium relaxes them. Nitric oxide opens them.
I got excited this morning. I didn't think I would, didn't. I'd get excited over blood pressure, but I did, and my blood pressure went up. Guys, we love you. We love you guys. Thanks so much again, just got to thank you again for making Sun, Steak and Steel such a big hit. Canada especially. But you know what? It's coming in the United States too. Our sales are very high. Thank you very much, guys. Again, that's our audience. Thank you. You share the message. We appreciate it. Okay, guys, we talk to you soon. We love you.
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!