Join Dr. Martin in today's episode of The Doctor Is In Podcast.
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
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Dr. Martin: Well, good morning everyone, and once again, welcome to another live this morning. Always good to have you on with us. We appreciate it very much. Okay, guys, good to be with you. And as promised, I was going to spend some time this morning talking to you about statin drugs, and I'm just going to give you some biochemistry. We're going to talk about it now. I just got to put a disclaimer out right at the start. Please. I am not your doctor. I'm an educator. I'm not in practice anymore, so that's important to understand that I'm an educator and we do this for educational purposes. So if you're on a statin drug, I will tell you what to do to minimize your side effects. Okay? All I want to do in this program is bring to you the newest on statin drugs and the side effects of them and why I don't particularly like them.
But again, remember, it's that disclaimer. It's important you understand that I'm not your doctor and I will tell you what to do for your loved ones or for anyone that's on a statin drug to do a couple of things because that's really important. Now, I got to start with biochemistry, and this is biochemistry 1 0 1, and this is why for me, it always bothered me from the get go, even though I got taught even as early as the 1970s, that cholesterol was bad, okay? So I go back a long way 50 years now, well, 50 years since I graduated, but even before that, in my post-secondary education in biology, biochemistry, they started teaching that cholesterol was bad, okay? Now, they had to undo some stuff like the basics. Okay? So let me just give you number one. What is cholesterol? Okay? What is it? Well, first of all, we all have it.
Every human being has cholesterol made inside their body. It doesn't even rely on what you're eating. Cholesterol is so important for your body that your body makes it, okay? 85% of all the cholesterol you make is meat, whether you eat anything with cholesterol in it or not. Okay? Now, what differentiates us, you and I, human beings and even animals. Animals need cholesterol for movement. So when you think of cholesterol, think of two things, muscles and nerves. You can't live without cholesterol. And any biologist, any biochemist, anyone would agree with that statement. You can't live without cholesterol. You need cholesterol. Every cell in your body has cholesterol. Your nerves can't work without cholesterol. Your muscles don't work without cholesterol. Now, in food, cholesterol is only found in the animal kingdom. So there's no cholesterol in plants. There's no cholesterol in fruits and vegetables. There's none. There's only cholesterol in the animal kingdom, eggs, meat, dairy.
Okay? Eggs meet dairy. That's what has cholesterol in food. Now, I've told you the long history of the vilification of cholesterol. It started a long, long time ago by Dr. Kellogg's. You read my book, sun Steak and Steel, and you'll realize I give you the history there. The attack on cholesterol, one by Dr. Kellogg's, a medical doctor who invented cereal two, Dr. Ansel Keys, who was a pathologist out of Minnesota, and he became famous in his attack on cholesterol as the cause of heart disease. It started with Dr. Kellogg's and then went to Dr. Ansel Keys in the 1950s, and his face appeared on Time Magazine in the 1960s. If I'm not mistaken. It was 63 or 65 when I was just a kid.
So the attack on cholesterol took root with those two men, and they changed the face of medicine. And then it wasn't long after I graduated that they found a medication to lower cholesterol, especially the LDL cholesterol. And therefore, only after this time, probably in the late seventies and the early eighties, did you have such a thing as good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. There's no such thing, by the way. But if you talk to 99% of doctors, they're trying to lower your cholesterol, your LDL, they found a medication called statin drugs that do just that, okay? That do that. So if you have any questions on statin drugs, you're in the minority.
That's me. I'm in the minority because the cholesterol, I call it the cholesterol hoax and heart disease in the minds of big food, big pharma medicine, dieticians is well established. Cholesterol is the boogie man when it comes to heart disease, so that we have to lower it. And thus the introduction of statin drugs. And in nutrition cereals, get rid of bacon and eggs, get rid of butter because they have cholesterol. Get rid of meat. And this whole attack on red meat, believe you me, has its roots in the cholesterol hoax, okay? I don't care how many documentaries that you find interesting on the vegan or vegetarian lifestyle, it ain't true. God, who made you wants you to eat cholesterol because you need it, doesn't trust you. Will a vegetarian make cholesterol? Yep. Will a vegan make cholesterol even if they don't eat it? Yep. You're responsible for 15%, okay?
And that's one of the reasons I'm so against the vegan vegetarian lifestyle. They really don't know what they're talking about. But anyway, back to statin drugs. Now, let me say this, okay? There's black box warnings, two new ones that just came out on statin drugs in the last few years. Black box warnings, meaning that black box warning is a warning to the public that you take these medications with high risk. Two new ones that came out in a black box, warnings on cholesterol lowering medication called statin drugs, two of them. One, a high likelihood black box warning that you become a diabetic. Two, that you have trouble with your memory. Black box warnings on statin drugs again, okay? Again, don't you find it ironic that a medication that is meant for your heart could give you diabetes, which is one of the greatest risk factors for cardiovascular disease, okay?
If you're a diabetic, and I've said this a million times, you're in big, do-do. If you're a diabetic, it never ever ends. Well, never. You're in trouble because you're so much more likely to have a heart attack or stroke if you're a diabetic because your body is so intelligent, it knows how toxic sugar is. And sugar is so destructive. Your body knows that. A diabetic has trouble controlling that because sugar, the first thing it destroys are blood vessels and isn't that important when it comes to heart attack and stroke, kidney disease, eyes circulation in your legs, your limbs, anywho, back to statin drugs, cholesterol lowering medication, they found what has become the number one all time selling medication, okay? Called Lipitor or Crestor. They've made more money for the pharmaceutical industry than any other medication, and it's not even close. And 99% of the population, 99% of every physician I know, 99% and more of any dietician or guru that I've ever known, they are focused when it comes to heart disease and stroke to lower your cholesterol when the whole premise is not right.
I can't get over it. I watched it happen. I was taught the same thing, but I can tell you that I never believed it ever, even in school. I never believed it. I always questioned it, and I told you why in the past, and I won't bore you, but my dad was a diabetic and he lived on steak. He lived on it. There's no one in the world that ate more meat than my dad. And I watched him. He was more worried about, and which he should have been sugar than meat. He said, son, it's called sugar diabetes. And my dad never, ever, ever was worried about cholesterol, okay? He didn't buy it, nor did I. Okay? Now, back to the statin drugs. What did they do? Well, they worked. Statin drugs work.
Okay? They work, they lower LDL Cholesterol. Okay? What is LDL, by the way? Okay, low density lipoprotein. Okay? It's carrier. You need it. It carries cholesterol into your blood. What does HDL do? It's a truck that goes back and gets it and brings it back to the liver for processing. You need it, you need it. Your nerves don't work properly. Your muscles don't work properly. Obviously, your metabolism with the black box warning on diabetes, you need cholesterol and there's no bad cholesterol.
Now, there's bad triglycerides, but that's not cholesterol. That's not cholesterol. Now, one of the things, I won't get into the weeds much just a touch, just a touch in your body. The pathway, I don't even know how to pronounce it, okay? It's spelled M-E-V-A-L-O-N-A-T-E, elevate. I think it's a pathway that produces cholesterol, and one of the things it does, sort of, its a ramification, is that it produces coQ10. You know what coQ10 is? It is essential coQ10. Your body makes it when you eat steak. CoQ10 then is important for your battery packs, your mitochondria, you got more mitochondria in your heart energy. Your heart needs a lot of energy. Mitochondria, and your heart needs a lot of coq 10 quinol.
Your brain needs a lot of energy. It's headquarters. 25% of all your food is processed for your brain. Your brain is an energy factory. You have a lot of mitochondria in your brain, trillions of them. Mitochondria need coq 10. So one of the side effects when you take a statin drug, oh, it lowers my cholesterol. It used to drive me crazy. There used to be commercials on tv. There still are, but I mean commercials. One was, it was a fireman coming down the fire pole at the fire station, and when he got to the bottom, he went around and he gave everybody, all the other firefighters in the station, a high five. He said, you know what? I got my cholesterol down, my cholesterol went down, and then they'd have a commercial for Crestor or Lipitor. I used to get headaches. I used to get a migraine watching that.
Why in the heck do you want to lower your cholesterol? It used to make me crazy, and I've never gotten over it. I'm still crazy, as you guys will attest. Okay? Statin drugs, they affect that pathway and it works. Statin drugs work, they lower cholesterol. Is that really what people need to lower their cholesterol? Blaming cholesterol for heart disease is like blaming the police. Of course, cholesterol is on the scene, but that doesn't make it a bad guy. Blaming the firemen, of course, firemen at the scene of a fire, they're not the bad guys. They're there to help out.
Cholesterol is needed for repair. Inflammation caused by insulin. Inflammation caused by leaky gut even can affect the blood vessels and the heart. We've talked about that a million times. Any who? Okay, any who. It's never going to happen, in my opinion, not in my lifetime, nor I ever think this will stop. I don't think, I'm not optimistic about this narrative ever being changed. It's just too powerful, guys, okay? It's just too powerful when there's this much money involved and the psyche, the narrative is so well established in society today. You can hardly get anyone to even question it. The effectiveness. And guys, the overarching thing that I've always told people for the last several years, if lowering cholesterol, either by your diet or by medication, was the best thing for heart disease, we would've got rid of heart disease by now, except this is a fact.
Heart disease and stroke are worse than ever. If you could get rid of heart disease by lowering your cholesterol either through food or medication, we would've won the war by now because people are hooked on cereals. People are hooked, and you see it. You see it. It's right on Netflix today, and they make it so, I mean, come on. They win to get you to, you know what? I better cut back on red meat, man. I better cut back on the animal kingdom and they buy it. And then you got big pharma, huge amount of money. And guys, look, I bet you there are thousands of people in the pharmaceutical industry, good people, that they really think they're helping people because they bought it this whole thing on statin medication. Okay?
Now I want to go over some of the other side effects, okay? Two black box warnings, diabetes. And think about this, if it destroys coq 10, if it destroys coq 10, your heart needs coq 10. Your brain needs coq 10. I thought your heart was a muscle, isn't it? Is your heart not a muscle? Yeah. Well, why would you want to destroy coq 10? Isn't your brain nerves? Isn't it a grid upstairs? Yeah. Why would you want, you need mitochondria for that to work. You need energy. You need those mitochondria to produce a TP properly, and it can't without coq 10 quinol.
So some of the side effects, okay? Yesterday I talked to you about Parkinson's, and I was showing you a recent study that put Parkinson's with leaky gut and the microbiome in the gut, and they were showing pathogens that thrive in Parkinson's patients because there's not enough good bacteria to get rid of them. So we talked about that yesterday, but I want to add another thing when it comes to Parkinson's and why we see so much of it today because people are insisting on lowering their cholesterol neurological grid. Your brain needs cholesterol. Someone calls you fat head. What do I tell you? They're giving you a compliment.
You want fm, you want cholesterol in your brain and you are getting all these neurological problems. Parkinson's. Why is that up so much? People don't eat cholesterol like they used to. They scared skinny of it. And then you have a LS, which used to be so stinking rare, Lou Gehrig's disease, and people are, there's so much, there's such an increase in it. There's such an increase in Parkinson's. I'm telling you. I'm telling you, part of the answer is this obsession with lowering cholesterol.
I'm convinced of it. Neuropathy, memory, remember, that's on the black box. Warning, cognitive issues. Yeah, you want to lower cholesterol. You do it at your own risk of losing your memory, for heaven's sakes, I can't stand it. It drives me crazy, and I have to defend my position daily. I have to defend it daily. I'm being attacked. I don't mind questions, by the way. I don't mind it. I want you to question. I want you to look into it for yourself, but I'm telling you, I just can't get over it. Rambo say that fast three times damage to muscles. I used to have patients. I'm not kidding. Okay? I'm going to give you a little bit of clinical history. I used to have patients come in, okay? Wasn't uncommon. They said, doc, I got pain in my shoulders, or I said, well, lift your arms.
Could hardly lift their arms above their head. I said, are you on statin drugs? They didn't understand the connection, but they said, yeah, what's that got to do with my shoulders? What's that got to do with my sore legs? How come I got such pain, doc? Do I have arthritis? Ah, no, you're on a medication that kills muscle. It's called, you know what I just said? You got to get off that stuff. Go to your doctor and you got to get off medication there. Anyway, that was always an interesting conversation because I would send them back to their doctors, their cardiologist or whatever, man, you got pain. Oh yeah, but my cholesterol is low.
Okay? Do the fireman trick. Go down the pole and give everybody a high five. Oh, my cholesterol is low, but I can't lift my shoulders. I got such pain in my legs. I can't walk. Okay. Yikes. Okay, so now what do you do if you are on cholesterol lowering medications? Statin drugs. Okay. They're either water soluble or fat soluble. Okay? I think it's Lipitor is fat soluble. That's the one that will affect your memory and nerves bad. And Crestor is water soluble, but that will damage your liver. I used to tell my patients, you better get your liver enzymes checked if you're staying on that medication. First of all, what do you do? Get on coq 10, a hundred percent. Get on your quinol. You need it, okay? You need it, and okay, get your liver enzymes checked. They should be checked every couple of months if you're on statin drugs, because it can be very damaging to your liver, okay?
Very damaging to your liver. Now, how do you want to prevent heart disease? Okay, just from another viewpoint, how do you prevent heart disease? Get your stinking sugars down, get your insulin down. You can do it by food, but you're going to be eating a lot of cholesterol. Just know that because when you have eggs, you have cholesterol, there's cholesterol in eggs, you have meat, there's cholesterol in meat, you have cheese, there's cholesterol in cheese, but that type of eating will lower your risk of heart disease and stroke there. I've said, does that make me popular? Nope, it doesn't. You need vitamin S steak. You want to look at coq 10, how good that is for your heart and brain.
Where do you get it when you eat? Your body makes it, but where do you get it in food, steak, nothing like it. Coq 10 vitamin S. Does that go against conventional thinking on heart disease? Yeah, it does, but I'm right. I'm right. Lowering your cholesterol ain't going to fix anything, in my opinion that don't fix nothing. You might make people around you happy, but what is it doing for you? Okay? Okay by the way, you need for your nerves and muscle, you need B12. Where do you find that? Where do you find B12 in food, steak, vitamin S, vitamin S, coq 10. I mean, if you knew how important tine was for your heart, if you knew how important creatine was for your heart and brain and carnitine and arginine and coq 10 and all that, I mean, you get it in stake.
So that was our little deep dive today on statin drugs. Okay? And again, the disclaimer, okay? Please understand that I'm not your doctor, okay? I'm not. I'm your educator. I'm giving you educational purposes, and I want you to think I really love my audience. No audience like you guys, and I mean, I rave about you two. I tell people my audience, you can give them a quiz, and it's amazing how smart my audience is. It's amazing. Okay? Okay, guys. We love you dearly. Oh, by the way, tomorrow from, unless you hear differently, I'm going to do an afternoon session, okay? Okay. Love you guys. 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!