Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners.
Some of today’s topics include:
- Thyroid removal
- Statins & kidney damage
- Polycythemia
- Internal shingles
- Prurigo nodularis
- Mucus & coughing
- DPA omega-3
- Methylene blue
- Rosehip powder
- Myxedema
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. So good morning everybody and good to have you on. Okay, so Nic is saying it's better. Everybody is saying it's better. Okay, so you got your notifications. Okay, let's get back to the questions. Guys, we appreciate you guys coming on, all the way from Vancouver, Washington to England to the Caribbean. Good morning to you. Okay, John's asking this. Okay, so we got to, I think this level the other day, "a friend of mine aged 56, got her thyroid removed." Okay, well, it's a lot more common than you think. They either had severe fibroids on the thyroid or thyroid cancer and they had it removed. Can you live without a thyroid? Yep, of course, it's better to have your thyroid. It's a very, very important organ, but your body goes into plan B, and plan B is never as good as plan A, but you still can live.
Here's what I would do. Listen, I always draw up that pyramid, okay, with ovaries at the bottom or testes and then halfway up adrenals, and that the top of the pyramid is your thyroid. And then I go down the middle and there's your pancreas, your insulin. What I tell people is if you don't have that thyroid or your thyroid's not working properly, even with medication, you've got to balance out everything else. That's why it's much more important, and this happens much more frequently in women than it does men. I mean, men can have thyroid problems, but it's rare compared to a woman. The reason is because your thyroid has many, many, many attachments to it. It's like a puppet. It's got a lot of strings attached to it, including the ovaries, including the adrenals, okay? That's very important, including insulin and your liver. Your liver. This is where your T3 and T4 are even made.
So your thyroid is very important obviously, but it's dependent on so many other organs, and that's why what you do if you don't have a thyroid, or even if you have thyroid issues and you have a sluggish thyroid or you have Hashimoto's or you have Graves', you got to get the rest of it in balance. And that's why I highly recommend the reset. The reset helps balance hormones. It's amazing. When you cut out the sugars and cut out the crappy carbs, you have much less inflammation, your liver works much better and things work better. It's amazing. People just can't get over it. I would be on our Thyroid Formula because guys, a lot of people with the thyroid, all they think of is iodine. Now, iodine is important, but it's not as important as the balance of all the nutrients that your thyroid needs, including magnesium, including selenium.That's why I have people eating steak. So if you don't have your thyroid, it's not a death sentence. You can get that the rest of your hormones balanced out and it makes a complete difference. Okay, thanks John.
Joanne, "can long-term statin use cause kidney damage?" Well, that wouldn't be the primary thing that happens, but it could. Okay, like when you take a statin drug, and you guys know me, I've been talking about this for a long, long time, and maybe you got tired of hearing me talk about the cholesterol hoax, okay? It's just a hoax. And statin drugs have done nothing to help heart disease absolutely has not made even a dent in heart disease. And why is that? Because it's looking for love in all the wrong places. It's not getting at the issue of heart disease, not even one bit. Because if you lower, and that's what statin drugs are for, to lower your cholesterol, to lower your LDL, especially cholesterol, that is the craziest thing in the world that you want to do.
Your body's made up a cholesterol, your brain's made up a cholesterol, your cells are made up of cholesterol, your eyeballs are made up of cholesterol. Everything, cholesterol, cholesterol, cholesterol. Then all of a sudden it was the boogeyman. Ancel Keyes made it the boogeyman, and I was alive to see it. And I was taught unfortunately that cholesterol is bad, okay? That's why they want away from animal foods because you can only eat cholesterol if you eat eggs, meat, and cheese, because cholesterol is not found in the plant kingdom. That's why you're not meant to live on plants. So anyone tells you that, hey, I'm a vegetarian and I know that's the best for me, or a vegan, run Forrest run. It's not true. It's not right. It can't be because there are no cholesterol in it. You need cholesterol and your body makes it in spite of yourself. It will make it, but it won't make enough not to optimize your cholesterol level, okay?
So statin drugs do a lot of damage. 50% of women that take a statin drug get diabetes, and it causes a condition that I saw in my office far too frequently, and that was rhabdomyolysis, which is a big name for muscle damage. And by the way, what is your heart? Can I ask you a question? What's your heart? Isn't it a muscle and dementia? There's no benefits. Oh, I get really uptight about it, but yeah, it can eventually affect your kidneys. If it causes diabetes, it's sure going to affect your kidneys. I got diabetes, but my cholesterol is down. I hate lies. Don't lie to me better. Tell me the truth. I don't like to be duped. I don't like how the world gets duped. You know what the problem is?
You know why you'll never change the cholesterol hoax? In my opinion, I won't see it in my lifetime. They'll still be talking about cholesterol. You know why? Because the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the powers to be over the doctors, you're going to get it from them, doctors, if you don't prescribe a statin when you see certain numbers, you're in trouble for malpractice. They keep the pressure on. It's unfortunate, but that's just a fact. I remember talking to a cardiologist and after someone had a heart attack and I asked them what was their cholesterol number? Just curious. Oh, they were normal. Well, why is this particular patient of mine and a patient of yours, why did you put 'em on a statin drug? Well, because if I don't, it's malpractice. The college is coming after me. They hold my license. Yikes. Anywho, thanks Joanne.
And Lise is asking, "my friend has polycythemia. What is that?" Too many red blood cells. Their hematocrit is too high. Now, I love red blood cells. You can't live without 'em, okay? Your RBCs, you can't live without 'em. And in the middle of them is your hemoglobin, and you need that to carry oxygen to all your cells, okay? Red blood cells are really, you got too many though. I mean, I saw it in my office. They're there, but there are too many, and that isn't good. Polycythemia. It can be a cancer. So I can't answer everything Lise, but that's what it is. "Can she go in the sun with this disease?" I don't see why not. I don't know what the sun would have to do. The sun's always good. Okay, now don't go burn in the sun. But yes, she could go into the sun.
Okay, Rita, "if B12 is peed out of your system, then why are my levels so high that the blood tests couldn't give me a number?" Well, Rita, I was going to say you're weird, but I won't say that because I love you. You're not weird, but you're unique. Okay? No, some people got high B12 levels. So what, what's that mean? The only thing you worry about, Rita, is when you B12 is low, that ain't no good. Okay? It's high. So what. A physician called me, very nice lady doctor, okay? And she called me at my office. We had a nice conversation. She was very nice. She said, Dr. Martin, I just saw one of your patients and one of mine, okay? And she's got very high levels of B12. And I said, okay, so what? Well, it was flagged by the labs. I said, well, what does it mean? She said, I don't know. And I said, yeah, and I don't care.
I said, doc, the only time I worry about B12 is if it's low, not high, and certain meds or whatever can throw those B12 numbers off, but it's water soluble. Rita, you ain't going to overdose and toxify. I know why you're in the hospital. I know why you're dying. You got too much B12. Never, just doesn't happen guys. Okay? It's like having high levels of vitamin D. I'm not saying you got to have extremely high levels of vitamin D, but what does it mean? Okay, nobody's ever died from having high B12, and no one's ever died from high vitamin D either. We get millions of people that die in North America every year, and the number one killer usually is side effects to pharmaceuticals. That'll kill you, but don't take vitamin D, you could become toxic. And B12, I had a conversation with a physician just not long ago. I said, why haven't you taken B12 levels when a patient is anemic? What? What has B12 got to do with anemia? I said, everything. Ooh, okay, that was good.
Aaron's asking about, I need to buy a vitamin that you do not carry like B12. Well, we got B12 and we got the best B12. You know why I know? Because I measured B12 in my office. And when you took a sublingual B12, a methylcobalamin, I could get your B12 up with my B12, I could prove it. Okay, so Aaron, there you go.
Brianna, "what's the best thing to treat internal shingles?" Well, internal or external, shingles is no fun. It's the herpes virus, okay? It's herpes zoster, no fun under the sun. When you get shingles and usually shingles, everybody has the herpes virus. When you get chickenpox as a kid and what that virus does, if your immune system is in top shape, it'll lay dormant. It'll lay dormant. But when you get shingles coming out, it's usually a perfect storm. Your immune system is down and you get stress and boom, shingles can come and it ain't no fun. And you can get it in your face. You can get it in your eye. It usually comes on one of the nerve roots around your ribs, and that nerve gets severely inflamed and nerve pain. I was talking with someone yesterday about nerve pain and nerve pain ain't no fun under the sun. It's terrible pain.
So what do you do? Well, look, I mean, L lysine is something that I got no problem with it. I'm a big guy. Somebody asked me again yesterday on the, I saw it in a question on our private Facebook group, Dr. Martin, what about talking about water soluble or fat soluble vitamins or whatever? I said, well, look, I'm big on immune system working properly. You need vitamin S, first of all, for your immune system to work properly. Vitamin S, yeah, steak, because it's got vitamin A. The real vitamin A is found in eggs, meat, and cheese. Okay? That's important for your immune system. Vitamin D, I think the sun is coming out today, but it's minus 35 Celsius. And when it gets to around minus 35 in Canada, well Americans think about the same temperature in Fahrenheit, like it's at 40, it's equal. Okay, we're just about there. 40 below. Are you kidding me? We got climate change. I don't buy it, guys. Okay, that's another topic.
Shingles, you need to keep your immune and vitamin D, remember, your white blood cells have little antennas looking for vitamin D, looking for the sun when there's no sun, you better take vitamin D and you better eat vitamin D. You better eat it too. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that's found in eggs, meat, and cheese. Now, you can't eat enough of it to keep your levels up unless you eat that every day. But you'll find when you eat eggs, meat and cheese, you'll find your vitamin D levels will go up and then take vitamin D. I take personally, well, this time of the year I'm at eight, 10,000. And if you feel a cold coming on, what I do is I take that hammer, 50,000 IUs a day for three days. You should see the research, okay? You should see the research.
Okay, Kathleen's asking about prurigo nodularis. Don't you love those big words? Those are bumps on your skin. And look, whenever Dr. Martin thinks of skin, I think of inside out. So what you see on your skin is a reflection of what's going on inside your body. Whenever I see stuff on the skin, I go leaky gut. That's what I say. You got leaky gut from acne to rosacea to psoriasis, eczema, dermatitis, you name it on the skin. And I think leaky gut, you leaky gut, leaky skin. So I always look to that, okay? I start there. I start inside out. You want to fix your skin, you got to start on the inside. And usually what comes out on the skin in different ways, in different forms is fungus. It's yeast. It's amazing to me how that is so common. Okay? The Trojan horse got into the bloodstream and it shouldn't have been able to get in there, but when you got leaky gut, it gets in and then can spread everywhere. Thank you for the question, Kathleen.
Tony, I like that name. Tony with an I. I'm with a Y. Okay, "why does my throat always feel like slimy mucus and makes me cough? This has been going on for four or five years." Well, a couple of things, Tony. It either coming from above or it's coming from below to your throat. And the differential diagnosis is where it's coming from. Is it coming from your sinuses? And you've got fungus in there, a yeast, and that is postnasal drip and I get, and the other one can be acid reflux. It's silent. You're not necessarily feeling anything in your esophagus, but you're getting a lot of phlegm that comes into the back of the throat and that can give it. So you got to figure out, Tony, which one is it coming from up here? Or is it coming from your stomach and you don't have enough acidity and your body's making more? Your body compensates. Your pH of your stomach's not right. Cut out all your sugars. You know why that'll help? It'll help up here and it'll help in your stomach because you're not feeding the bears up here and you're going to change your pH. Eat more eggs, meat and cheese. Got the memo? Okay, good question. We appreciate it.
And Ken is saying, "I learned something of DPA. The research shows better than DHA and EPA. It's superior." You know what, Ken? Nah. Look. There's always something new under the sun. Okay? DPA, it's an omega-3, okay? It's a different car. Go out on the highway today, go on your streets. You'll see all sorts of different cars. You'll see ALA, you'll see EPA, you'll see DHA and DPA. I don't talk about DPA too much because a lot of it, there's nothing wrong with it. It's good for you, but why wouldn't you take if someone is offering you a Maserati? Okay, just talking. DHA is the best and the reason I know Ken is because when I was in practice, when I gave a patient DHA, I better get results. And I'm talking cognitive, brain, memory. Memory got better, their eyes got better. And I showed optometrists and ophthalmologists the effectiveness of high DHA.
Is EPA good? Yes, of course it's good. Are the plant oils omega-3, are they good? Yeah, but they're not as good, but they're good. They're a car on the highway, but they're not the best. The best is DHA. From destroying tumors, skin, brain, heart, lubrication, anti-inflammatory. They will lower your triglycerides and elevate your HDL. That's what DHA does. Guys, look, all of those omega 3s I like, I really do. It's just that there's good, better and best. And the best is DHA. The research is so, and you know what? DPA, it's around, okay, I've read the studies, I like it, but it's not superior. It's not superior. But I'm glad you asked me the question because then it gets me yapping. Okay, gee, I got too many questions here. I better get going.
Ruth, "my eyes are always giving out fluid. Why are they always moist?" Usually because you have dry eyes, you need lubrication. Okay, Ruth, you need lubrication. It's the opposite of what you're thinking because when your eyes are moist and they're watering all, no, you could have allergies and all that, but usually you get dry eyes. That's a main symptom of dry eyes. You need more DHA. I would combine DHA with Navitol. Guys, the results I used to get with that are just incredible. We still get today, okay?
Elena, I get asked this almost every week. Methylene blue, okay, "can Dr. Martin share? It's even sold on platforms like Amazon." Yeah and again, it has its day in the sun and people are talking about it. And again, I got to bring you back to my days of the radio business. And every week, every week there was something new on the hit parade in terms of supplements. Dr. Martin, this cures everything from warts on your nose to pimples on your toes. This fixes everything. What do you think? And I go, no, it don't. Okay? No, it don't. Don't fix everything. And methylene blue. I'm hearing about it. I see it every week. I get, what do you think, doc? Well, it's getting its day in the sun, but I'm not saying it's no good. I'm not convinced. Okay? I'm just not convinced that it's the greatest thing since slice bread. I'm not convinced. Okay, thanks Elena.
Anna, "if we get 20 minutes of sunshine daily, will it show up in our blood work that the levels are up?" The vitamin D? Yeah. Yeah. Your vitamin D levels will go up if you get. Now you got to make sure, remember your biggest solar panels for the sun, not in the winter. Okay, like the sun's out today. Do you know what? You get melatonin, but you don't get vitamin D from it, and you got to have your solar panels out your arms and your legs. So yeah. But I've seen people, their levels of vitamin D go up just by getting in the sun for sure. It's actually the best way to elevate your vitamin D. It's the most natural way. And plan B is taking a vitamin D supplement, which millions and millions and millions of people do. And even doctors recommend it when vitamin D is so low. They'll recommend you better take some vitamin D, but they don't see it as important for your immune system. They're more worried about your bones. I ain't worried about your bones, I'm worried about your immune system. Okay? And vitamin D. Thank you Anna.
Lynn. "In your email on triglycerides A1C, you are talking about reference ranges of all humans ranging from zero to a hundred years old. Are there different numbers for different age groups?" No, but sometimes for sexes, sometimes like women's numbers ought to be a little bit different than men's. For example, in triglycerides, if a woman can get her triglycerides under 1 or 100 in the US of A, I like that. It doesn't have to be that low. And I always compare it to your triglycerides, but it's better. Yeah, women and men can have different numbers. Their ranges are different. Thyroid, uric acid. There's other things that women and men are different in, but not the age so much, not the age. Okay, thank you very much, Lynn.
Craig, "I take rose hip powder to help with inflammation for my arthritis. It does help. And this is all in my head, or what are your thoughts?" No, it's not all in your head. Craig. Good for you. I like rose hips. Okay? It's a good source of vitamin C, but the best vitamin C is coffee. What's a better anti-inflammatory than rose hips? Coffee. And that's a fact. That's proven okay, but hey, if it works for you, man, I'm happy for you, okay? It wouldn't be my first choice for inflammation, but I like it. I like curcumin much better for inflammation. I like omega-3 DHA much better for inflammation than rose hips, but hey, hey, I'm on your side.
Fran. "Does the cortisol amount that we have go down as we age?" No. It gets higher usually. Okay, now cortisol, again, it's on your side, cortisol's on your side. Your body needs cortisol. It gets you up in the morning. It follows the circadian rhythm. Cortisol's good for you until it's not until it's too high for too long. So no, Fran, it shouldn't go down. You can measure cortisol. It shouldn't go down. Your adrenals are working properly. It shouldn't go down.
Okay, Suzanne, on cortisol again. "Just started taking the Cortisol Control again on the reset right now. But when stress hits, I feel like I want to eat a whole cake." Well, Suzanne joined the cast of millions, okay? Fluctuations in blood sugar, stress. You see what cortisol does, okay, that's cortisol, okay? And if that goes on for too long, your blood sugar goes up. Well, what goes up must come down. So your blood sugar going to go up and then woo. That's why it's so important to be on that reset. You'll feel better. Let the body control itself, get your blood sugars under control, and cortisol will help. Okay? Cortisol Control really helps with that, but right now, you're in a flux in a situation, Suzanne, eat more protein. Just eat more protein.
Okay, Judy, "I have heard that the first 10 pounds is water weight. At what point do you start losing body fat?" Well, Judy, look, a lot of people, that's not true by the way. The first 10 pounds is all water. It could be if you're full of edema. If you're full of fluid. Yeah, I mean, I've seen people where they are full of fluid and they lose 10 pounds and it's all water. But when you're eating right, when you're on the reset, you're not losing water. You're losing fat because your body's burning that fat as fuel. And remember what five pounds looks like? Holy moly. 12 inches long and six inches wide, five pounds of fat. Nah, you eat right and your body will burn fat as fuel. It's so good for you.
Okay, almost there. "Is it possible that the keto reset could be causing my low resting heart rate?" Possibly when you get started. Okay. Some people call it the keto flu or whatever. Yeah, it can happen. If you were a carboholic, you might get a little bit of post-traumatic syndrome from changing fuels, but you'll feel a lot better in the long run. Okay? If your resting heart rate is going down, that's actually good, but too low, your body will make an adjustment. Eat more protein. You might have to eat a little bit more frequently, but eat the right things, eggs, meat, and cheese.
Okay, Francis, "since you can't store protein, where does the excess protein go?" Since you can't store protein, you can't? Well, I've never heard that. I'm just trying to think. Is your protein converted, amino acids are converted? Is that what you mean? Proteins break down into amino acids. And amino acids. Your body uses them as fuel. I got to think about it. I've never heard that. Since you can't store protein, what happens to them?
Louise. "Myxedema." Okay, that is when you got a severe thyroid condition and you get thickening of the skin. Is it mikes edema or mixed edema? I don't even know how you pronounce it. Okay, so you need to do the reset. All of the above for thyroid that I talked about earlier. Okay. Thanks Louise.
Okay, guys, we thank you so much for sending in questions. We love answering your questions, okay, this week will be great. We got lots of studies to go over, okay? And we appreciate all the questions that you guys ask. Guys, you can send your questions in already for Friday, Question and Answer Friday. Send them in. We'd love to hear from you. 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!