Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners.
Some of today’s topics include:
- Allergy testing
- Post vitreous detachment
- Hair thinning due to psoriasis
- Fibromyalgia & selenium
- Ataxia & supplements
- Astaxanthin
- History of Martin Clinic
- Cold cuts & oxalates
- Cheese as a hormone disruptor
- Aloe vera
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. Hope you're having a wonderful start to your day. Okay, let's get going. Let's get going. Here's question number one, and it comes from Suzanne. "My son had an expensive allergy test to find out what causes inflammation. The results came back that eggs cause inflammation, therefore he should not eat eggs." Well, look, Suzanne, look, remember I was in practice for 50 years, okay? And you could do the blood test, you could send your testing away. I offered that in my office. I never really encouraged it too much. But listen, if you wanted to spend the money and you wanted to get testing, here was my sort of overarching principle when it came to allergy testing. Okay?
Now, when you are secreting an enormous amount of histamine, okay? And I could tell that by the way, by taking your blood, because I would see all these mast cells, MAST cells in your blood, and I knew you had allergies. A lot of people had very, very, they were secreting a lot of histamine and a lot of things bothered them. I said, well, look, if you want to spend the money and get the testing done, I just got to tell you, you have to take the test results with a grain of salt. Why? Because when you're already hypersensitive, that testing's going to tell you that you shouldn't be eating a long list of foods. Oftentimes eggs. And look, the better test, this is me, okay? The better test, and I actually proved this to thousands of patients over the years. I said, I'm going to save you money. And usually they were all ears when I said that. I'm going to save you money. Be your own doctor when it comes to food.
You eat something like an egg. You know what? That bothered me. Hello? Okay, now, you know, have a sensitivity to eggs. A lot of people, well, I ate eggs. It didn't bother me, but that test told me not to eat them. I think you're a better doctor than those tests. I'm not saying they're not good. I'm just saying that you're better off doing your own testing. Be your own doctor and moms, grandmas or whatever. You be the tester for your kids. They have dairy, bothers them, okay? Hello. For some people, and some people are hypersensitive. So what happens when they're releasing a lot of histamine, a lot of that testing comes back sort of a false result. It's a false positive, if you know what I mean by that. So I was never big on allergy testing. I mean, you want to do all the pin pricks and I mean, as far as different things in the environment or whatever, I don't care. You can do it, but I'd rather you be your own doctor. Okay?
So look, if eggs don't bother you when they eat them, you can eat them. Because some people, the test came back and it said, don't eat anything. You'll be healthier if you can't eat. No, you won't. No, but seriously, I've seen it. People with autoimmune, they do the test, it comes back, don't eat anything. So that's me, okay? I'm very opinionated, but I mean it. Okay, and Suzanne is asking also about vitamin D3. I'm just trying to figure out what you're trying to ask there, Suzanne. I love taking 10,000 IUs every day. I like 10,000 IUs, especially in the wintertime. For me, I can't tell you how much vitamin D to take because I ain't your doctor, but I'm going to tell you what I take. Eight to 10,000 is a good number of what I take of vitamin D3 in the wintertime. In the summer I reduce it. I don't have to necessarily, but I do because I get a lot of sun. 20 minutes, you accumulate 10,000 IUs in the sun, and that's if you have. Now listen, you don't have to be butt naked, but you got to have your arms and legs exposed to get 10,000 IUs because those are your solar panels.
Look, your body is a solar panel, but the best solar panels are found on your arms and your legs. That is the best solar panels for the absorption of vitamin D from the sun. Okay? 20 minutes, 10,000 IUs, and that's why I get a migraine when I hear people talking about 10,000 IUs that is dangerous. That's so bad for you. It will just kill you. No, it won't. By the way, I read this again the other day. This testing was done years and years and years ago. How do you become toxic with vitamin D? 50,000 IUs a day, seven days a week for six months, and then you might get a kidney stone. I don't recommend doing that, but you could. They've made it up on vitamin D. The benefits of vitamin D outweigh the minimal risk of toxicity of vitamin D. It ain't even close, my friend. Vitamin D is good for everything from your brain to your toes and everything in between. It's so good. Your immune system don't work without it. So look, it bothers me because there's a war on vitamin D and they don't know what they're talking about, okay? They really don't. Vitamin D the sun. And when you can't see the sun, then take vitamin D for sure, do both, okay? Do both and always take vitamin D with K2.
Okay, Diane. "Any help for post vitreous detachment?" Yep. Anything in the eye, Diane, anything in the eye, I always come back to circulation. Your eye will get into trouble when you have damage to circulation in the back of your eye. Okay, so whenever I looked into the eye of a patient, what always fascinated me was what you would see in the background, the blood supply behind the eye, those little capillaries in the eye, and you could see with the scope, it was amazing to me. And I used to think because I did a lot of my schooling in Toronto, I used to think of the highways and the byways in Toronto, the Don Valley parking lot, the 403, the 407, the different names of the highways. That's the way I used to look at. I'm an illustrator guy. I always learned by illustration. I never forgot what I saw in the eye and that is circulation. So when you get a detachment, you've actually got problems with microcirculation in the eye. That's why I love Navitol, the pine bark extract. Listen, I proved that to ophthalmologists and optometrists. There's nothing better. It was better than bilberry. It was better than elderberry. And you combine Navitol, pine bark extract with high DHA. It's the best darn thing you can do for your eyeballs and your brain. Okay, thanks for the question, Diane.
Judy. "Recently I had hair thinning due to scalp psoriasis." Okay, psoriasis. Always, always, always, always, always, always. Leaky gut, leaky scalp. Leaky gut, leaky joints. Leaky gut, leaky lungs. Leaky gut, leaky brain. And whenever you see psoriasis, whenever you see eczema, I guarantee you, you got leaky gut. And usually with that psoriasis is fungal, yeast. How did it get there? The gut. Gut, hair, head, scalp. Okay, "and will my hair grow, get thicker now that the psoriasis under control?" Good for you, Judy. Well, the best thing you can do is get on bone broth, make it yourself or we'll make it for you. How's that? Okay. Bone broth, hair. I could use a little bit more on the top of my head. Men, I don't worry about too much. Women never, ever, ever want to lose your hair or thin your hair. It ain't normal. The Bible tells us your hair is your glory. Your hair is different than a man's hair. Men, you see a man in his seventies that's got a lot of hair. I'm envious because it's rare. Women different. Okay, let me just say it because I am not into DEI. Men and women are different. Okay? I'm sorry. No, I'm not. Okay. I don't care. I mean, I don't.
Fern. "Why do people get fibromyalgia?" Good question. "Is it a selenium deficiency?" Nah, not specifically. It's not. Fibromyalgia is a symptom of chronic fatigue syndrome. The major is adrenal gland exhaustion. Okay? It's the adrenals. It's too much cortisol over a period of time. Fibro is just really in the family of chronic fatigue syndrome. I wrote books about it. I wrote many books about it. I wrote them in French and I wrote them in English on fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, the modern woman's curse. Chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. I talked about it, but I always talked about the syndrome that one gets. It's like a perfect storm. Too much cortisol over a period of time. And cortisol is that stress can come from environmental like mold. Stress can come from family dynamics, relationships, just living in this world, this crazy world. Like cortisol, it's part of the fight or flight, but it's meant to be turned off every once in a while.
You know what one of the biggest problems is in fibro is the lack of sleep. You're exhausted, but you don't sleep. If you don't sleep, your cortisol is high. And if your cortisol is high, you don't sleep. Fibromyalgia. Four main things in fibro. Pain and usually muscle pain, not joints, can be joints, but mostly it was muscle. Unexplained, lots of inflammation. They had fatigue, sleep disorder, they weren't sleeping. Fourthly, digestive issues. Almost invariably they had digestive issues. Leaky gut was involved. But look, you can have leaky gut and have no symptoms of digestion. But usually people with fibro have digestive. They got IBS. They've got bloating. They've got, don't feel well digestively, poor energy, poor sleep, pain and poor gut. Four Ps. They got a lot of inflammation, let me tell you that. Okay? That's fibro.
Selenium by the way, okay, just because you asked. Selenium, I love. When people think thyroid. This is what they do. Almost invariably, if you're a guru or you've taken any kind of nutrition when it comes to the thyroid, you know what they say? Iodine. I'm not against iodine. I know it's important, but I'm going to tell you what's more important for your thyroid. Selenium. And this is why I tell people, if you want to have a healthy thyroid, you need selenium. And selenium, yeah, you can eat a few nuts and get selenium, but nothing like you'll get selenium when you eat steak. Sun, steak and steel. Selenium, steak, okay? Steak. You can't get enough selenium in nuts and seeds for a mouse, okay? Or a chipmunk. It's there, but not bioavailable like selenium in steak. Guys, I doubled down on that stuff like that when I talk about that. Okay, thank you for the question, Fern.
Deb, "any ideas about ataxia and supplements? Any purpose to take it?" Well, ataxia is never any fun. Look, here's me with supplements. Okay? Generally, no matter what. If you have deficiencies, you need to supplement and look, I have my favorite five. But you can also get tested to see. Usually, okay, here's most people what they're deficient in one vitamin D, two, vitamin B12. They're deficient. 80, 90% of the population are walking around, they have no idea that they're low in vitamin D. And nobody tells them, and they're low in B12 because nobody tells them. The B12 test is a hundred years old and when they do it, doctors, it's almost like they don't take any schooling on vitamins. And guess what? They don't. They used to. Drives me crazy. Every doctor that was worth his salt or her gave B12 in the day. But they don't do it anymore. You know why? Because they don't know anything about it. And people are deficient. And if you have ataxia, I can tell you something, you're deficient in vitamin D almost invariably, and you're deficient in B12. So those are my go-to.
You know me in probiotics. Probiotics, you got trillions of bacteria. The more we study the microbiome, the more holy moly, what didn't we know how you are fearfully and wonderfully made? I can't get over it. The bacteria and they communicate with each other and people are wiping them out all the time with antibiotics and fluoride in the water and our environment and the plastics and the sugars and the garbage that we live in, guys. I'm big on probiotics. It's a go-to. Navitol, hundred percent, pine bark. Guys, I tell you, there's no antioxidant like it. There just isn't. And then I'm a high DHA guy. I'm an omega-3 guy. I've been preaching omega-3 since the cows came home for a long time. Consistent. And the best omega-3, okay, remember all omega-3s are good. You got omega-3 in the plant kingdom. They're alright. You got omega-3. Go in your car today and notice how many different cars there are on the road. There's Hondas, there's Kias, there's Fords, there's Chevs, there's Teslas. The best omega-3 the best, and it ain't even close is high DHA. Why? Long chain fatty acid. Your brain is made up of DHA. Your eyeballs are made up of DHA. You need that healthy fat, and it's the best. It's the most bioavailable. And that's why I talk about it. Talk about it. Talk about it. Okay, got the memo? Yeah, okay. Okay, thanks Deb.
Seedah. Hi. I think I'm saying that right, Seedah. "What do you think about astaxanthin?" I like it. It's an antioxidant. But Seedah, here's me. I'm a repeat guy. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. When you talk to me about something like astaxanthin, okay, when you talk to me about that, I go, yeah, I like it. I've been around a long time. I know what it is. It's part of the beta carotene family. I like it for sure. But then here's me. I compare it. And when you take an antioxidant like astaxanthin, I compare it to pine bark extract. That's got 150 studies on its effectiveness and more than 40 years of me using it in my practice with nothing like it. Okay? Nothing like it. So I compare it to Navitol, I go, nah, it's all right. You want to take it. Good for you, but you're not taking the best antioxidant.
Because what Navitol does. You know what we talked about this week? Glutathione. It elevates your glutathione. What is that? It elevates your Velcro. It elevates your nitric oxide. What is that? Well, that relaxes your blood vessels. It helps with your immune system, and it's a powerful rust proofer of your cells. The most powerful ever found is pine bark extract. Okay? There's no rust proofing that you can take for your cells that is better than that. I have to compare it. So therefore it's good, but the best is up here. Okay? Thank you for the question. And I'm very, very adamant when you ask me questions like that. You take a supplement and there's lots, there's thousands and thousands of different supplements, right? Well, I try and take the confusion out of that, okay? But I'm not against supplements by any stretch of the imagination.
Okay, Fiona, "just a question about the founders." Well, I'm not a founder of the Martin Clinic. My grandfather was 1911. Okay? "Are they MDs?" No, okay. DCs, Doctor of Chiropractic. Okay. They then postgraduate both my son and I have PhDs in natural medicine, and I have a PhD in clinical nutrition, so two PhDs. Okay? Clinical nutrition. I practice for many, many, many years. Natural medicine, many, many, many years. I am not a naturopath. Okay? I just want to tell you about naturopathy, by the way. Okay? Because you see that now and they're getting a lot of ink, naturopaths. Do you know where that came out of? The chiropractic profession. Okay. Chiropractors started naturopathy. I went a little bit different direction because naturopaths are into homeopathy and I'm a nutrition guy. My biggest thing is food. I'm a food doctor. Clinical nutrition. That's why I talk about insulin all the time. That was my expertise was more the food. That was me and more alternative or natural medicine. Okay, thank you for the question. You can always ask questions and if I can, I will answer every time. Okay?
Now let me see. That was Fiona. Thank you for the questions. Roxanne, "someone on Facebook asked if their daughter is pregnant and he told her not to eat cold cuts because of they're full of oxalates. Is that true?" No, they're not full of oxalates. Cold cuts. Look, guys, eggs, meat, including cold cuts and cheese. E-M-C, E-M-C. I've got the t-shirt on to prove it. You want to see it? Eggs, meat, and cheese. And meat, look, the best meat is steak. Okay? The best. Chicken's good. Turkey's good. Roast beef is good. Even better. I mean, all meat is good. Fish is great. Okay? And cold cuts don't give you oxalates. Vegetables give you oxalates. And I'm not even telling you not to eat them. Just don't drink them. Don't drink vegetables because you're going to get oxalates, okay? I don't want you to drink vegetable juice. You can eat vegetables. You'll get a lot less oxalates. And you get a lot of oxalates in almonds and nuts. Not in meat, not in cold cuts. And by the way, someone would probably put their hand up and say, oh yeah, but Dr. Martin, what about nitrates? Well, what about it? It's just a celery salt. Nothing wrong with that. It's good for you. I used to debunk all that stuff. Oh, I wouldn't eat a deli meat. Why? There's no carbs in it. It's good for you. It's full of protein. You know what? They make stuff up, guys to keep you away from eating meat. Remember? It's craziness. It ain't science, it's religion, my friend. Okay? And I'm not a religious man. I'm not. I'm a relationship guy.
Okay, well, let me answer this one because Jody is asking, "I am curious if cheese is a hormone disruptor." Absolutely not. Okay. Absolutely not. It is not. Jodi, a hormone disruptor. Again, what's taken over our media and the narrative in health? Veggies, fruit and veggies, they're the best thing that you can live on them. You don't need anything else. You're going to be healthy as a horse. No, you're not. Because you ain't a horse. A horse eats oats, so you don't have to. They're not the best food. The best food in the world, the most nutritious food are eggs, meat, and I love dairy. Don't switch dairy. Okay? Switch it. Don't ditch it. A lot of people are ditching dairy. The only reason you would ditch dairy is if you can't eat it and it bothers you. But most people can eat cheese. It don't bother them at all. I love cheese, but I love butter too. I love dairy. Dairy farmers owe me money for promoting them. I'm big into cows. How's that? I am. They're not killing the environment. Cows are eating grass so you don't have to. You don't have to eat salad. No, you can. Oh, doc, I like salad. Well, good for you. Eat it. I don't care. I really don't. But don't tell me it's the best food on the planet. I see these people, they go to a restaurant, they order a big bowl of salad. I feel like going over to them. Are you a rabbit? Are you a cow? Do you have four stomachs to digest all that salad? No, you don't. You only got one stomach and your stomach was created to eat meat. So eat it.
Yikes. Okay, couple more guys. And then I think we're going to have to have a session on Monday. Okay? Let's finish with this one. Pat, "is there any benefit from taking aloe vera?" I like aloe vera. You got a sunburn, aloe vera. It's fantastic. You got a sunburn in your stomach like you got acid. I like aloe vera. Okay. I like aloe vera juice. As far as a supplement. Yeah, it's got some benefits. Again, I'm going to compare it. What do you want to compare it to? Oh, you're saying for thyroid? Nah, I never found it to be great for thyroid. The best thing for your thyroid is selenium. Look, we got a formula. I put iodine in it, but selenium is one of the keys in it. And I don't put aloe vera in it for the thyroid. I would if I thought it would be effective. Again, I like aloe vera. I do. Okay?
Okay. Let's stop there, okay, and we'll continue. Okay, we'll continue. Now, let me just tell you, for those listening and watching Monday, I am probably not going to be on, okay? And we'll be back Tuesday. Okay? I'll let my staff know that to remind everyone. Okay guys, we love you dearly and sincerely. 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!