Dr. Martin continues to answer questions sent in by listeners.
Some of today’s topics include:
- Testing of pH
- Tingling in hands
- Sodium & nitrates in bacon
- Navitol for peripheral artery disease
- What happens during a hot flash
- Dramatic change in CRP numbers
- Prostate and hormonal formulas
- Curcumin & liver damage
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 day, great start to your day and hope you've had your vitamin C, the real one, coffee. And if the sun is out, I hope you got your vitamin D. If not better, take a supplement. Okay, so here we got some more questions. So I didn't get to all of them. I was pontificating on Friday. Why? Because I do. Okay, Susan, what should our P H be when checking pH on pH strips? Now look, let me give you some advice. The only pH I like is first thing in the morning, your urine before you eat. Okay? If you're going to do a pH test, check your urine pH, and that should be very acid. Any other pH measurement that you're taking in my opinion is a waste of time. It's a waste of time. Look, this is really important.
You understand this, okay? And it's not that I don't like pH, okay? It's certainly something in the urine that you want to look at. But any other time of the day, other than first thing in the morning when you get out of bed, take a urine because you want to see if your urine pH is very acidic. It should be in the morning, very acidic. Why you're detoxing. And if you want to know if you're really detoxing right, you look at your urine. But guys, I know people do that and they drive themselves crazy. You have to understand that you are not measuring your blood's pH, okay? So you take your saliva, you're not measuring your blood's pH because your blood's pH is tightly, tightly regulated. It's very important though. Your body tightly regulates your blood's pH. When you talk about a keto diet, for example, okay, keto, you know what I'm talking about.
When a person goes into ketosis, all that means is your body is burning fat. It's changing fuels. You're burning fat instead of carbs. That's called ketosis. Doctors have confused that with ketoacidosis. Okay? Now, that's very dangerous. That's a different thing altogether. When you are a diabetic, for example, if they ever go into a ketoacidosis, that means that the pH I was talking to you in your blood is no longer being regulated. It's becoming very acidic. How can that happen? Well, your kidneys are shutting down. You get sepsis, and that's seriously dangerous. But people have this idea, and this is why people make the mistake. Oh, steak is acidic. No, it's not. Steak makes you acidic. No, it doesn't. No, it doesn't. Doesn't make you acidic. But if you say a lie long enough, it becomes doctrine. These are acidic foods. Well, a tomato is acidic, a lemon is acidic. Does that make it bad for you? No, because your body has a buffering system. Your body turns a steak alkaline, your body takes a tomato and makes it alkaline. Look, all I'm saying is, look, if you want to check your pH, make sure it's your urine and make sure it's first thing in the morning. If you are doing this in your mouth and you're taking, oh, I'm acidic. Well, your body's not acidic. If you take a saliva test and it says it's acidic, and now you're all worried about that, well, your blood's not acidic.
You don't hear me talking about that very much because it's been misunderstood and misinterpreted. Your body produces baking soda. You didn't know that? Yeah, baking soda. If something's acidic, it makes it alkaline. And like I said, that's tightly regulated. And the only food really that your body can't do much with is sugar, my friend. That is acidic, okay? Sugar is acidic because your body has trouble buffering that. Now, you're not going to go into ketoacidosis by eating sugar unless you live on it, but that's end stage. Okay? So all I'm saying is, again, don't drive yourself crazy with pH. Just don't do it. Okay? I measured it in the office. I measured pH, but I was looking at urine. I wanted to make sure that your kidneys were working properly and first thing in the morning, your urine better be very acidic. It's the opposite of what, oh, my urine is alkaline.
What can I do? My urine's acidic doc, what can I do? Well, it means your kidneys are working. Of course, you want your urine to be acidic. Now, during the day, it will become more alkaline as you eat. Got it. Okay. And Susan, thanks for the question because I really want to go into this because if you go online, people go crazy with pH, and this is why they've said, use baking soda for cancer. It'll kill cancer. You know what, guys? I don't buy that. What? Look, the only place you want to be really acidic is your stomach. If you're taking baking soda, you're buffering that acidity where it should be very acidic. Why would you do that? You need to fix the problem. Your stomach should be acidic, very acidic, 1.5 because you were meant to eat meat. That's why your stomach is so acidic. And today, we have people that don't have enough acidity in their stomach, and their proton pumps in their stomach are secreting so much acid, just trying to make up for what people are not eating. And that acidity gets sent up in the esophagus. And so even if you do a pH of your mouth and it's very acidic, usually your stomach is not working properly.
Again, Susan, thanks for the questions. Teeny. What causes tingling in my right hand, especially in bed, and sometimes in the right foot? It could be okay. There's a couple of things. It could be, you could have a pinched nerve, and the only time you really notice it is when you stop moving and you're in bed at night and you get tingling. That could be a pinched nerve in your neck. It could be pinching right at the wrist level, but usually neck that can cause that. The other one could be, and I don't have any idea, Danny, because I don't know you, but if I was to do a complete workup, I would make sure you're not starting any kind of neuropathy either from the fact that you're a pre-diabetic with insulin resistance that can do it, or low levels of V 12 that can do it too. So there's a few things.
Okay. Jamie, I heard you say that bacon is good. Yep, yep, yep, yep. But okay, Jamie's saying, but I'm not saying, but you're saying, but let me read it. It seems that most of the bacon that I can find has sodium ate in it. Is this something to be concerned about? No. First of all, they put sodium, read your Bible. What did they use sodium for? Preservation. Salt preserves, meat. They didn't have refrigerators in those days. Okay? So they use salt. It's a preservative. Okay, now there's better salts. Okay? But Jamie, again, I got to go over the big picture and then we get to the small picture. I think if you get this, you have to understand where I come from. Eggs, meat, and cheese. They're the best foods in the world, okay? Eggs, meat and cheese. Okay, so when people tell you don't eat dairy at all, I don't agree with that.
Okay? Now, there's better things than dairy. I don't particularly like milk unless you have a cow in the backyard because they denature it, okay? But I'm very fond of dairy, very fond of dairy, because dairy's good for you, okay? And meat, it's all good for you. Some are better than others because that's why I talk about vitamin Ss, Jamie Steak. But bacon is very good for you. Now, I know you go online, man, I hear it all the time. You hear it every day. Well, bacon has got a bad rap, okay? And the reason is because people don't understand it. All they can think of, they look at fat as being bad. If you say a lie long enough, Jamie, people will believe it. That's what politicians do. That's what big pharma does. That's what big food does. They just lie. People who work for them, they're not necessarily liars. They don't know any better. So bacon, you look at it, oh, my word. Look at the grease that comes off of that. Look at the fat and bacon, la, la, la, la and sodium. I know, but they're preserving it.
And then you hear about nitrates, right? You hear about that. That's mostly just celery salt. Oh, Dr. Martin Bacon's got nitrates. Well, what's wrong with celery? It's just a preservative. I got no problem with it. Okay, so now you've got the overarching principle. And listen, here's another thing. This is really, really important. If someone is in the 93% of the population, not my statistics, CDCs, 93% of the population have trouble with insulin. They have insulin resistance. That is a metabolic disorder from high blood pressure to elevated blood sugar to higher A one C to high triglycerides and low H D L and belly fat and yada, yada, yada. Those are metabolic things. It's the body. Hello. The body's talking. All of its lights are flashing. Do something, do something, do something. Because metabolic syndrome is an underlying condition that leads to heart disease, cancer, it's really a diabetic thing.
The person is a diabetic, okay? They're already a diabetic. It's just that a doctor will never call a person a diabetic until their blood sugar hits a certain point. But that's the last thing that happens. They've been a diabetic for 10 years before the doctor gives 'em a diagnosis. They've had some form of metabolic syndrome. That is the elephant in the room. Jamie, the elephant in the room when it comes to chronic disease. I heard Robert Kennedy Jr. The other day. He's running for president of the United States, and he said, when he becomes the president, he's getting rid of chronic disease. Good luck with that.
At least I admire him because he's trying to get to the root of the issue, but he's looking for love in the wrong places, okay? Now, he'll talk about food to some extent, but we ain't getting rid of it anytime soon because people misunderstand what's going on. It's not a lack of medication at all. It is food. We got a food disaster in our world. People are carboholics. They have no idea. Okay? So what's my point, Jamie? The point is this. If someone, I don't know about you, but if someone that you love, someone that you know, someone that's asking you, don't get in the weeds at first. Don't get in the weeds, get 'em to change their diet. If they're in that 93%, if they're part of the 7%, we'll talk about that in a minute. 93% are unwell, and they have no idea how unwell they really are.
Seriously unwell. I call it. You're on the Titanic. I love reading anything I can about the Titanic. They were partying. It was the maiden voyage. They were dancing. The bands were playing. They were having a ball. They had no idea. They thought they were indestructible. They just didn't think anything could happen to them. They were on the biggest ship ever created, okay? Yeah, but they were in deep trouble. They were in the North Atlantic and there were icebergs, and they had been warned, and they didn't take it seriously. They were on the ship that could never sink. But you know what? That's the world today, Jimmy. They are on that ship and they're in deep distress. They just don't know it, okay? They don't know it. So what's that got to do with bacon? Okay, I'm back.
Let them eat bacon. It is so much better than having cereal. Let them eat bacon. It's good for them. It has the same oil. You see that oil when you cook up bacon? You know what that oil is called? It's called oleic acid. Yeah, the same oil. Okay? Pour some olive oil. Okay? Chemically olive oil has oleic acid. That's what makes it good for you. And so does bacon. Yeah, but doc, they have salt. So what? Since when is salt bad? Only when cardiologist made it bad, because that's going to elevate your blood pressure. They were never right about that. And I was screaming blue murder about that salt.
But you see the lies. So Jamie, now back to the bacon. So if you are off the Titanic and you're in great shape, now you can start arranging the deck chairs, meaning that, don't worry about the deck chair, just get off of it, or get on a light boat or turn the boat around. So at the end of the day, look for better bacon. One that's got no additives at all. But I'm telling you, most people, because they got it all wrong, Jamie, they're Martin Bacon and they don't know what they're talking about. Every physician I've ever met thinks bacon is bad for you. And if you ask 'em why, oh, it's full of fat. And then you get the gurus that say, yeah, but look at all the preservatives in bacon. Well, it's salt. Anywho, I get a little excited. And Jamie said, M S G, and the guise of natural flavors and spices, true or not?
Yeah. Well, look, I don't know. By the way, I never bought the M S G stuff. I never bought that. Okay? I felt sorry for Chinese food because the M S G, I never bought that stuff in terms of it's destroying our society. Okay? Nah, I never bought it. Jamie. I'm a macro guy, okay? Am a big picture guy. And when it comes to foods, I'm a macro guy. Protein is king, fat, right along with it. And carbs, not so much. I didn't say none. I didn't say that for 30 days. Yes, but that's to fix insulin resistance. But no, no, I'm not against fruits and vegetables. I'm not, but I don't like bread. Almost all breads are bad, okay? And pasta and all that. Does that mean you can never have it? I'm saying that. Okay. But again, it depends whether you're on the Titanic or not. And if you're metabolically in that 7%, well, good for you. You want to stay there too? Okay? Wow. That was a long answer, but I get excited. I got to answer these questions. Okay.
Can you discuss the use, Liz of Navitol with peripheral artery disease and she also has AFib? Yep. I take four A. Can I take more? Yep. Well, look, natal, here's why it's so good for peripheral artery disease. Navitol is pine bark extract. Because what Navitol does, it elevates your nitric oxide. So is that good for peripheral artery disease? You bet your boots, it is okay. And natal is a powerful antioxidant too. So it protects your blood vessels and circulation. I would have natal. The other thing I'm very big on is a combination of B 12 blood vessels. I love high D h a study after study, after study oil. You need an oil change for circulation. You need your blood vessels to be nice and slippery, not sticky. Oil, oil, oil. And the best is D H A oil, okay? And sun. Sun, steak and steel. Sun, peripheral artery disease. Vitamin D elevates nitric oxide. So good for you. Thanks, Liz.
Sandy, I would like to know what is happening in my body when I'm having a hot flash. No doctor has ever been able to give me a clear, solid answer. Sandy, I love you, okay? But in a way, okay? I got to defend your doctors in a way, okay? Because we don't know exactly. I'm going to give you my theory. I'm laughing inside because we're talking about horror moans, okay? We're talking about hot flashes. And you know how many women would say to me, well, a couple of things. They'd say, Dr. Martin, what the heck do you know about hormones?
You're a man. It's true. Okay, what does men know about hormones? Nothing, honey. Nothing. We're from another planet, and we don't know what hormones are unless we live with a woman that has them. Okay? So what causes hot flashes? Well, you Google it. What is happening? Well, it is an imbalance, okay? Between estrogen and progesterone. It is an imbalance. But what is happening there? I'm going to give you my take on it, okay? Because I don't get asked that so much. They want to know what to do about it. But let me tell you what I think's happening. And the reason your doctors generally will not be able to answer the question is they don't study hormones the way they should. You know me, I draw that pyramid and I show you, unless you know the pyramid and when it comes to your thyroid, okay?
Because that's body temperature. But the thyroid seems to be all right. Well, I'll tell you, the thyroid is a puppet. And what I think is happening during the hot flash is happening in your hypothalamus, in the center of the brain that controls hormones or horror hormones. It's a signal that sort of getting mixed up because your body's saying you're cool or you're hot, and then the body overreacting to it. It's happening up in the brain. And I think that that's one of the biggest issues in horror hormones. But you better put the whole package together. So I think it's miscommunications in the hypothalamus for the body temperature, and it's sending the signal down to the thyroid, and it gets mixed up. What's at the root of that estrogen and progesterone imbalance. But it's happening up in your brain. And thank you for the question, Sandy.
Okay? That's a good question. You want to know more about the physiology of these things? And I like those questions. Melissa, can your C R P C-reactive protein, okay? What is that that's produced in your liver when your body is creating inflammation? Okay, so here's the question. Can your C R P dramatically change in two months? I've been sick, but a chest cold. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. See, there's good inflammation and bad inflammation. Okay, good inflammation. You've got a chest cold. Your body's ambulance system is on high alert, more T-cells. Inflammation. When you have an infection, is your friend, okay? It's your friend. Of course, C R P is going to go up because it's measuring that inflammation. That's why I call it one of my critical blood tests that you should get, because if you have an infection, okay, your C R P is up.
But what if you don't have an infection and your C R P is up? Well, that's telling you you have a silent inflammation. Dangerous inflammation without infection is dangerous because inflammation destroys after a period of time, it can destroy tissue, destroy cells, destroys. It's not meant to go on forever. Why do, for example, someone with an autoimmune like rheumatoid arthritis, lots of inflammation, right? Well, eventually that inflammation can destroy their blood vessels and they're much more susceptible to having a heart attack, much more susceptible to getting cancer. See, inflammation's not Houdini, it's not the first thing, but it's a very important measurement. Very important. And again, you almost have to twist your arm of your physician to get a C R P test done. I don't know why they're so reticent to do it. It's so important. But keep in mind, if you've had a chest cold or you had an infection or whatever, well, yeah, your C R P is going to go up.
It's just normal. It's part of your body's ambulance system. Okay? I hope that explains it to you. Thanks for that question, Melissa. Regina, can you explain how your prostate and hormonal formula works for men diagnosed with prostate cancer? Does the men's hormone have to be high or low? Regina? Very good question. Okay. Now, generally, you're only going to hear this here, okay? When a man gets prostate cancer, when a man's prostate grow, grows, grows, why is that? Two reasons. Two growth hormones. One is estrogen a man. Yep, estrogen. Okay, estrogen is going up, testosterone is going down. It's a teeter totter. Testosterone goes up, estrogen goes down in a man. Okay, men, look, we all have a little bit of estrogen, okay? You don't want much, and you're a man. You don't want very much at all. But a men are susceptible to estrogen. And as a matter of fact, it was amazing when I would have men in my office after the age of 50, not all of them, but some of them, they had more estrogen than their wives.
A woman's estrogen was going down, she was hitting menopause, and a man's was going up because their testosterone was going down. And it's almost like a vacuum that's not good for the prostate at all. Okay? So you want to have low estrogen, min and high testosterone. And the second growth hormone is what? Insulin. Almost invariably, whenever I had a man and he had prostate problems or prostate cancer, I said, well, you got to do two things. Get estrogen down, get testosterone up and get your insulin down. Get rid of carbs, crappy carbs. No more sugar, no more crappy carbs. Doc, do you mean it? I mean it. And look, oncologists might disagree because what they like in men, they don't want men to have any testosterone. Could they think that makes their prostate grow? I beg to disagree. They don't do well with prostate cancer in terms of treatment, my opinion, okay?
But you consult with your physician. I'm not going to tell individual people that I don't know. I'm only giving you generalized information on how hormones worked in men. And so my prostate formula was designed to elevate the testosterone. And of course I had anti-inflammatories in there to bring that inflammation down around the prostate. I had thousands of men taking the hormonal formula. Oh, I can't wait till that's back because it knocks down estrogen. That's the key. Get that estrogen down for men. And even women. I'm talking about women. My doctor said I don't have enough estrogen. Nah, you got way too much estrogen if you don't have enough progesterone. It's the balance, man. It's sort of balance between estrogen and testosterone. You don't want estrogen as a man, and you certainly don't want insulin resistance. You don't want that insulin. Okay, thank you very much, Regina. And am I just about done here? I think so. Oh gee, I'm talking way too much again. Okay, here it is. Gail, last one. I just read an article on curcumin causing liver damage.
I guess it's possible. Okay, I guess it's possible. Take too much, curcumin. I just never seen it, to be honest with you. Imagine all the years, I think if I counted up patient visits, it'd be well over a hundred thousand. And I never saw it, not once. So when I read about it, I go, man, we got bigger fish to fry. Kirkman. I love if you know anyone that's got cancer of any kind and they're listening, try and get them on Kirkman. You should see the studies including liver cancer. You know what I mean? It's not the be all and end all, but it's sure good for you. Very anti-inflammatory. So when you read that, well take it with a grain of salt. If you can get the pun. You know how much I love salt? Okay, Gail. Nah, I don't get too excited about those things. Okay, guys there. It took me two sessions to get through question and answer Friday. Okay? We love you guys. 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!