Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners.
Some of today’s topics include:
- Body Mass Index (BMI)
- Steak vs. other types of beef
- Healing of gastritis
- Alanine aminotransferase
- Tooth implants
- Panic attacks
- Ankylosing spondylitis
- Castor oil
- Pine bark extract & glutathione
- Ferritin
- Ubiquinol & blood sugar
- Shilajit
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. And as you can see, I'm traveling here and okay, let's get going guys, because we'll never, ever end. Denise. "Does Dr. Martin think having a BMI greater than 30 is horrible?" I don't care. I really don't. I'm not big on BMI. I'm not even that big on weight. I am really big on metabolic syndrome. I'm big on visceral fat because what insulin does to the body when it's high circulating insulin or insulin resistance over a period of time makes you very unwell metabolically. And that's the key. You want to lose weight, good, happy for you. I mean it, but it's really important that you do not lose muscle.
Muscle, Tony Jr and I had a good conversation about muscle yesterday. You want to hear our conversations? We talked about muscle because Junior is a researcher and we put our brains together, we talk about stuff like this and he said, Dad, think about how important muscle is. It is probably a vital sign that is severely overlooked. You guys know I was traveling yesterday and when you're traveling, I mean what do you do in an airport when you're waiting for your plane? I mean, you observe people. And I saw a lot of seniors like myself and I'm very sensitive to seniors maybe because I am one. No, I always was. And there's a few people they had trouble getting out of a chair. They had trouble walking. And if you looked at their body composition, you could see that they were, I mean some of them were actually big but no muscle. And some of them were skinny as rakes and no muscle.
And look, I understand wear and tear on joints and this and that, arthritis and you name it, I get all that. I sat beside a guy in the plane yesterday and he had both knees replaced. And I mean that's the wonder of modern medicine. But in my head I'm thinking what they don't realize is the connection between your joints. And I'm actually going to do a session I think next week on the connection between your joints. We talked about sugar. Remember this past week we talked about sugar and joints. And actually what happens inside your joint when you're a sugarholic, a carboholic, your joints become like cake. And I want to show that to you when I got my drawing board because I've been thinking about that. But like I said yesterday, I just observed people and a lot of them, I just wish they would understand the importance of muscle. So BMI, I could care less, I could care less. I mean it, I just don't care about measurements as much as muscle, muscle mass. And I realize you can measure that to some extent, but you got to get strong. That's the idea. I don't care about numbers. I really don't. I never was fancy on those kinds of numbers.
And second part of the question from Denise, if you can get roast hamburgers, steaks, all from beef cow, why is Dr. Martin always talking about steak?" Because it's sun, steak and steel. No, listen, steak, if you listened to me in the past, the best piece of meat is liver, as far as its nutritional profile, it's liver, number one. But I don't like liver. I don't like the taste of it, so I can't give it number one on the hit parade. That's why I love steak. Now is hamburger good? You bet your boots, it is. Especially the fatty hamburger. Is roast beef good for you? You bet your boots it is. But steak, if you look at the nutritional profile of a steak, I'm sorry, other than liver that I have trouble admitting to, there's nothing better. And hamburger's right up there, it's just not quite there. Okay, and roast beef, yeah, right there. They'd even be better than hamburger as far as the nutritional profile.
Yeah, but they're the greatest and I mean it. I read another thing, okay? I'm always reading, and I read an article by a guru just recently and red meat and cancer, like I don't even respond to them even though we're sort of acquaintances, I wouldn't call us friends. And I realized the guy's a very smart guy and I appreciate that and I actually respect that. But I felt like saying, man, you're drinking the Kool-Aid. Like any study on red meat, I hate to tell you this is observational. What did you eat last week? What did you eat three months ago? Do you eat red meat? Yeah. And you got heart disease. Yeah, you got cancer. Oh, it's the red meat. Well what about the smoking? They don't ask them that. What about the junk foods they were eating? They don't ask them that. They make an association and association, like their study, you can come out to any conclusion you want pretty well, but they blame the meat because they don't like meat and it's propaganda. And you can look at those observational studies all you want, but I mean it doesn't make any sense. Think about it, okay?
I always tell people, think about this for a minute. You are made to eat meat. Your stomach, it's got more acidity than a lion. What do you think that's there for? Vegetables? No. Okay. Is it there for fruit? Do you need a lot of acidity to break fruit down in your stomach? No. You need big time acidity to break steak down. That's what God wants you to eat. And I know there's a kazillion people on the other side of the issue, but they never talk about stomach acidity. You are meant to eat meat. You want to eat vegetables, good for you, go for it. But when you tell me about, well steak is bad, red meat's going to kill you, I don't buy it. And by the way, I never have. I got taught at the same institutions as those gurus, but I never bought it. I never bought it because I had a background with my father as a diabetic and I watched my father thrive eating nothing but steak. He was a diabetic and he thrived in the 1960s when I was a teenager.
Okay, Lise, "what's your advice to heal gastritis?" Well again, one of the things, let me just start. Most people get gastritis, okay? It's a combination of not eating the right food, their pH is up and then they are stressed, okay? There's nothing that will affect your stomach and your GI tract like stress. Stress, really think of it. Butterfly, you're stressed, okay? You got to write an exam or whatever, you're stressed or you got a big test or whatever, you're stressed. That's normal, but it better not last because then it pours gasoline, cortisol pours gasoline on the stomach and the inflammation. So gastritis, the lining. Here's what I would give my patients. I tell practice intermittent fasting, okay? I love aloe vera, digestive enzymes and probiotics. A lot of times where the gastritis, you know what's trying to flare up is H pylori and you want to put that back to bed. And lay off the junk food big time in gastritis and give your body a break. Don't eat at night and give your body a lot of time to digest and with every meal, like American Express, don't leave home without 'em. Use digestive enzymes. They will help the stomach break food down. Okay? A good digestive enzyme, okay? I like aloe vera juice too. Three or four ounces a day of aloe vera juice. Aloe vera, aloe really helps to soothe and heal the stomach just like it does with a sunburn. Good questions, thank you!
John, "if B12 is found only in the animal kingdom and red meat is the best source of B12, what are the supplements derived from?" Well, they come from a bacteria. Okay, don't ask me how they exactly do it, but they're derived from bacteria. Again, bacteria. The microbiome is how they get B12, they ferment it or whatever. And remember when you're looking at B12, John never get the cyanocobalamin, but you get the methylcobalamin. Cyano is synthetic, your body doesn't absorb it. I don't like this cyano. Get the methylcobalamin B12 and I want you to eat your B12. I always tell people, eat your B12, but I had tens of thousands of patients, tens of thousands. I mean it taking B12 because for a lot of reasons we just had Lise talking about gastritis. If you have gastritis, you're not absorbing B12. If you've got digestive issues, almost any of them, you're not absorbing B12. You're not making enough of what they call the intrinsic factor to make B12. So B12 is a very finicky vitamin, John, very finicky.
When you look at B12 in terms of its chemistry, it's a big vitamin like compared to other B vitamins. B12 is huge and it makes it harder to absorb. It's a finicky vitamin at the best of times and 80% of the population is low in B12. And if you're a senior 65 and up probably low in B12. The nice thing about B12 is you can actually measure it. Okay? You want to be optimized. B12, I talked to you about studies that shows you get damaged nerves when you're under 400 B12 and doctors, if you're at 400 going, holy moly, your B12 is high. No it's not, okay. No it's not. And so you can get a little bit of B12 from the plant kingdom. Okay? Somebody said to me the other day, gee, bananas have B12, don't they? Not even for a mouse. A mouse can't survive on a banana in terms of its B12 content. It just can't. So just remember that.
Now, Thomas, "is there any truth to honey adding temperature above 120 fahrenheit can cause rapid degeneration?" You know what? To be honest, Thomas, I've never heard that. To heat up honey, if you want to put a little bit of honey and I mean guys, there's honey and then there's really fake honey, okay? I don't mind honey, as a sweetener, I don't. Now look, if you're in the 93% that are metabolically unwell and you have insulin resistance, be very careful with honey, okay? Even the Bible talks about honey as being good for you, but not too much. Okay? Biblical honey was unpasteurized real natural honey. So Thomas, you could put it in for some cooking. Okay, baking, you want to add a little bit? You could put it into Dr. Martin's perfect smoothie. Of course you're not heating that up. So good question Thomas. I haven't heard at a high heat that it denatures. I haven't heard that. You're the first guy that's asked me that in a long time.
Okay, Sandra, "what can make alanine aminotransferase spike up in the blood?" What Sandra is asking is what happens when our why would a liver and kidney, there's a kidney enzyme too, but I mostly look at the liver when ALA goes up. That enzyme, that's a liver enzyme primarily, although it can sometimes meet some kidney. What causes it to go up? Fatty liver, toxic liver. People that are on medications oftentimes will have that enzyme being elevated. Okay, let me give you a little rule of thumb. Ibuprofen, which is like Tylenol, hard on the liver, Advil, hard on the kidneys primarily, they can do both. So people take that stuff for pain all the time and that can elevate the enzymes. And when the enzymes are elevated, the primary thing that I see is fatty liver or damaged liver, okay? So be careful with that, okay? And you can reverse. The liver is unbelievable to reverse liver, empty the liver. That's why the reset is so good for you.
Okay, Rick, "what's my opinion on tooth implants? Is it a good alternative to dental care?" Well, there's nothing like good dental care, okay? I'm not a dentist, but I am a big believer in oral health. And again, I am very cognizant of the balance that you have in your mouth. Your microbiome in the gut communicates with your microbiome in your mouth. And dentists, this is years ago, talked about the connection between mouth bacteria and heart attacks. Because if you have a bacteria or bacterial growth, even a fungal growth in the mouth, a thrush or whatever, that can cause inflammation. Well, inflammation, you and I talk about this all the time, can spread through the body. You don't even know it. It's silent. Nobody knows about it. It's not giving you pain, but it can damage blood vessels, especially the endothelial level of your Teflon layer of your blood vessels. So that's really important. And tooth implants, well look, I mean there are some good things that better not to have rotten teeth, that's for sure with all the toxins that come with that. But at the end of the day, here's me, Rick, take care of your oral. You take care of your gut. Take care of that. Don't use any fluoride. I'm not big on that and I don't like mouthwash that is like any alcohol base or killing. Yeah, it kills all the bacteria, but it kills your good guys too. You really need a balance in your mouth even there. Okay, now thanks for the question Rick.
Linda, we love Linda's. You know that. "What should a person do if they're having a panic attack?" Okay, that's real by the way. Panic attacks are real. If you are getting, for example, your heart's racing and you just like you're almost out of control. I mean this is a real important thing and I used to tell people this. Look, our cortisol formula usually helps with that big time. But the other thing is really mental gymnastics and understanding, even though you're right in the middle of a panic attack and those things are real, is understanding, captivating your thoughts and just it takes a lot of discipline. But saying, you know what, this is a panic attack. Capture those thoughts. I've actually talked a lot about that is capturing those thoughts and not letting them get out of hand. And just now you're in the middle of a crisis, in the middle of a grocery store. I've seen people have a panic attack driving. I'm not saying it's easy, but you've got to prepare ahead of time to get, okay, this is a panic attack. Even though it's real, it's not real. I'm not dying of a heart attack. I feel like I'm dying of a heart attack, but it's not a heart attack. Do you know what I mean by that? So there's mental gymnastics. I like the idea of meditation, prayer. I like the idea. Get that cortisol under control. Different things like that. Good question, Linda. Thanks for it.
Lynn. "Is ankylosing spondylitis, asking for someone else. Is it reversible?" Not reversible. But I tell you what I've done with ankylosing spondylitis, which is autoimmune, and you get a bamboo spine. Start with the reset because when you get off those sugars, it's amazing what happens. Get off the crappy carbohydrates, you lower all markers of inflammation. Get on probiotics because it originally started with leaky gut. Any autoimmune started with leaky gut. Get ahold of that. Now it doesn't happen overnight. Give yourself time. Diet, anti-inflammatory eating. Okay, big time. So anti-inflammatory eating is eat steak. Eggs, meat and cheese and get off the crappy carbs and all that. You'll find with ankylosing spondylitis, you can put it into remission. I've seen it happen. Okay? I've seen it happen. You're not getting rid of it, but you can put it into remission. Put it to bed. Okay, big time. Probiotics, get that gut fixed up and don't feed the yeast. Fungus gets into the bloodstream in any autoimmune. It makes things a hundred times worse.
Rebecca, "recurring styes, I've been on eggs, meat, and cheese for three months." Well, it's not the eggs, meat and cheese. I would up your probiotics, Rebecca, up your probiotics and start taking oil of oregano internally. Obviously you can't put oil of oregano on an eye, on a stye, I mean on your eyelid. Yikes. But double up your probiotics for a good month and oil of oregano internally because it's antiviral, it's antibacterial, it's antifungal, okay? Oil of oregano. I'm telling you it makes a huge difference. Thanks for the question, Rebecca.
Anna, "what does Dr. Martin think of castor oil?" I like it, I like it. I got no problem with castor oil. You can make yourself a heat pack type of thing with castor oil. Put it on your stomach if it's bothering you, your bowel or whatever you're mentioning Anna, about breast tissue. Yeah, I got no problem with that. "Is it anti-cancer?" Meh n'yeah. You know what I mean? I'm not saying that it's not good. I'm just telling you when someone tells you you put this oil on you. I love oil of oregano better than anything, but is it anti-cancer? Well, to some extent, but no, it's not the be all and end all. But I like it. I like castor oil. It's been around for thousands of years. I like it. Okay, but you know when they tell you castor oil fixes everything from warts on your nose to pimples on your toes? Nah. Like yeah, it's good. I'm a bigger guy on the inside. Okay, castor oil mind you, it does come in. I like working inside out. So castor oil and I like it. Okay, I do.
Clara, "how can you explain pine bark extract triggers the production and increase in glutathione?" Well, what do you mean? It just does? Well, look, it's a powerful antioxidant, flavonoid. You know what elevates your glutathione too, by the way? Your body makes glutathione. You know what elevates it? The sun. You know what elevates glutathione? Steak, eggs, cheese. But pine bark extract has been proven to elevate your glutathione in research. In studies. It elevates glutathione. When you empty your liver, you're elevating your glutathione. Okay? What is glutathione by the way? Velcro. Your body makes Velcro. Most of your glutathione, not all of it, but a lot of it is made in your liver. Glutathione is Velcro. It attaches itself to heavy metals and toxins. It's so good for you. You just can't take glutathione really. I mean, they tell you yes, but generally, unless you're getting glutathione in an IV, you're really not getting glutathione that you need. And that's why I like pine bark extract because it's proven to elevate it. Okay? It's proven to elevate it. There's probably a little bit more chemistry involved in that, but it's just been proven, okay?
Okay, Susan, "why would your ferritin level drop after the reset?" Well, you're weird. No, listen, if you have high ferritin, okay? Or you got hemochromatosis and your ferritin is very high, do the reset. It'll drop it. Now if your ferritin is low and it gets lower with the reset, you're weird. Susan, I don't want to call you weird. I meant to say you're unique. Okay? If it's real high, it's going to come down with the reset and you want that. You don't want your ferritin to be too high, but you don't want your ferritin to be too low either. And if it got low, I don't know. I don't know your numbers, but if it got low, lower than it should be on the reset, you're unique. Because when you're eating steak, for example, one thing you get is heme, iron and B12. So your good ferritin level should be going up. You want that, okay, you want that. The nice thing is with the reset, if you have hemochromatosis or your ferritins are right through the root, your iron is through the roof, you empty your liver, then your ferritin comes down, you get benefits both ways, high or low with the reset. Okay? There you go. Thanks for the question.
Daphne, "how does ubiquinol help with blood sugar?" Well, ubiquinol, okay, coQ10 ubiquinol. There's coQ10 ubiquinone, you don't even absorb it. Don't waste your time. Where you get ubiquinol? Steak. But if you're taking the supplement, I take ubiquinol every day, especially as you get older. What ubiquinol is very specific for is your mitochondria, your battery packs within the body. Ubiquinol is battery packs. Think of that, okay? Now why would that help in your blood sugar? Well, think of, first of all, think of your pancreas. It's got battery packs too. Pancreatic cells. Ubiquinol famous for what it does for your heart. You've got so much mitochondria, so many battery packs in your heart muscle. Most people, if they're taking a statin drug, they'll actually advertise this. Oh, you're taking a statin. They need a coQ10 because their muscle is being damaged. Statins damage your muscle. Yeah, your brain, you know how much mitochondria batteries you have up there? It's an energy center. Remember that? That's why I love ubiquinol. Now as far as blood sugar, because it helps to regenerate the battery packs, the energy centers of your pancreas. That's how it can help your blood sugar. People that get diabetes, their pancreas is worn out, their mitochondria in their pancreas as are worn out. They used it too much. Ubiquinol is a regenerator. It regenerates the battery packs brain, heart, all your organs. Think about that. They need battery packs and they need that ATP, which is the fuel coming out of the battery packs to work better. That's what ubiquinol does. Okay? Thank you for that question, Daphne, we appreciate it.
Laurie. "Are all grains equally destructive?" Yep. Somebody asked, okay, "is Ezekiel bread once in a while good for you?" It ain't good for you, but you can have it once in a while. Not if you're on the reset for 30 days. You want to have a slice of Ezekiel bread. Is it better than ordinary bread? Yeah, a little bit better for sure. But it ain't that good for you. Okay? Don't buy the nonsense, okay? That it's really good for you. Ahh it's not good for you because it's going to turn to sugar pretty rapidly. Not quite as fast as whole wheat or white or whatever. Okay? So are all grains... be careful, okay? I'm not saying you never can have them. I'm not saying that you guys know me. Make it a lifestyle and you reward yourself and I want you to eat like this the rest of your life. Eggs, meat and cheese primarily. And then fruits and vegetables. Yep. Okay? Don't live on them, but you can have them be careful. And grains, not much. We live in a day and age when you're metabolically unwell, and I'm sorry, you got to be very careful with any kind of grain. 12 grain, 17 grain, 50 grain, 150 grain. I don't care. Okay? I don't care. You can't make me care. Well, I care. I care about you. And therefore because I care about you, I want you to be careful.
Angela, "we hear so much about balancing our microbiome and feeding the good bacteria fiber. When doing the Reset, can you explain the benefits for the microbiome?" Well, you're giving your microbiome, listen, you think your bacteria are not smart? The more nutrition, the more vitamins, the more minerals. The more protein you give your microbiome, the better they like it. And when you're doing the reset, it's not only what you're eating, it's what you're avoiding. Remember on the reset, you're not having any sugar. You can have all the fiber in the world. Did you hear me? You can have all the fiber in the world. And if you're eating sugar, you are destroying your good bacteria. You're making the yeast, you're feeding the bears. Yeah, but Dr. Martin, I take fiber. I have wheat. I have so much fiber. Isn't that good for me? No. No it's not. No, so when you are eliminating those sugars and vegetable oils and when you are eliminating all that garbage, you are really helping your microbiome. And then you are feeding them nutrient dense food. Nothing better for your microbiome than an egg, than meat, especially red meat and cheese and water. Your bacteria are like the rest of you. They need water. The good guys need water. Feed the good guys. Plus coffee. Coffee feeds your good bacteria. Did you know that coffee has inulin? Coffee has fiber. It's the only fiber I like. It does, coffee has fiber. Did you know that? Anyway, thanks for the question. We really appreciate Angela.
And for a friend. "They are on Metformin, went to the doctor complaining of extreme exhaustion. They had been on iron and still tired." Well, look, there's something else going on with your friend. Tell your friend to send in their blood work to us at info@martinclinic.com. Send her blood work in. Let me have a look at it. Maybe have a very sluggish thyroid. I would almost guarantee it. I almost guarantee it because they were on metformin, that their B12 is very low. I can almost guarantee that because they were on Metformin, their vitamin D was very low. I can almost guarantee it. But I'd like to see their blood work. If they can. There's something going on. The thyroid is probably stopped or slowed to a crawl. Oh, my blood work is normal, Dr. Martin. It really isn't. It really isn't.
And here's the last one. David, "what are my thoughts on. I'm probably not saying this right, but I know what it is, shilajit from India. That's where it comes from or the Himalayan mountains. It's decomposing. What did I remember about it? Composing vegetable matter or whatever, and it gives you high in fulvic acid. Is it good for you? Apparently. It can take heavy metal out of your body. But I like probiotics better. Okay. Myself. But hey, I'm not against it. I'm not against it. I like fulvic acid. I can give you research, but I can't give you my clinical experience as much. I've seen it. I've had people use it. Yeah. I just like probiotics better, David. For me, they're better at getting heavy metal out of the body than fulvic acid is. Okay?
Okay guys. Now Monday, we're on. Monday, we're on. Okay, so it's a holiday in Canada, but I don't take a holiday in Canada. Okay? No, it's Thanksgiving. But we're going to have a Thanksgiving morning show, Lord willing. Okay? So stay tuned for that. And guys, we love you. We thank you for all the good questions and I know you guys got thousands of questions. We appreciate that. We are a question answering group, okay? We are, we love questions and we love you guys, and 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!