The many benefits of optimizing your levels of vitamin D is a topic Dr. Martin speaks on all the time. In today’s episode he looks at 2 new studies on vitamin D, one showing a 40% drop in dementia risk, and another showing how deficiency can age the brain.
Dr. Martin also responds to a question about GLP-1 designer drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic in today’s episode.
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. Once again, welcome to another live this morning. Hope you're having a wonderful start to your day and we certainly are. We appreciate you guys more than you know. Okay, let's go through a few studies here and some of them are answers to questions. Dr. Martin, "what do you think of GLP-1 drugs," okay, "like Wegovy, Ozempic." What do I think of them? Well, they were designed for diabetes and now they're a designer drug started in Hollywood to lose weight. Do they work? Yep. You lose weight, but you pay a price and that's what bothers me. You pay a huge price. Okay? Do you know what? Statin drugs work. They do, every time, they'll lower your cholesterol. I don't know why you want to lower your cholesterol.
Now I know why you want to lose weight, but at what cost, and at the end of the day, you know my philosophy of weight loss, the key is not calories. The key is not a designer drug. The key is not beating yourself up. Now you need discipline in every area of your life. There's no doubt about that, and nothing's easy. We are surrounded. Think of how the world has changed guys, in the last a hundred years. We are surrounded by food and who doesn't like food? Of course we do, but we're surrounded, fast foods. Grocery stores that are full and convenience stores and you name it, food, food, food, food. And I always tell people, listen, the key to weight loss is changing fuels. This is why I put people on the reset. Well, for a lot of reasons, metabolic syndrome being the first one, but I tell you, there's nothing in the long term that is going to be better for weight loss than you changing fuels. Go from burning carbs to protein and fat. Change fuels. Learn to live on rocket fuel.
When you live on rocket fuel, you will not gain weight unless you have to gain weight, unless your body, but I'm not even that big necessarily on the scale. I'm big on burning fat. If you eat eggs, meat, cheese, you're burning a different fuel, you're burning rocket fuel, your body will thank you. That's the key, to weight loss. So when I hear about designer drugs. Look the second you stop a designer drug, I used to say this by the way, about staple surgery and reverse stomachs and what do they call that when they used to clamp the stomach so you would eat less. I used to get a migraine talking about that stuff because I was telling them they're looking for love in all the wrong places. They're trying to get people to eat less. That's not the key. The key is fuel. What fuel are you burning?
You know my illustration of the wood stove? If you burn paper and twigs, your cells, okay, the wood stove's going to say, well, you better keep putting lots of paper and twigs. If you try and heat a log cabin with paper and twigs, you know what you're going to find out. It doesn't last long. And that's the problem when you don't have nutrient dense food. It's not calories, it's not eat less, move more. I like moving more. I do. You know, me and vitamin E, I'm big on it. I love exercise, but not for weight loss. You can't out exercise a bad diet, and it's a matter of changing fuels and we get it. We got it this week in our questions. We got it last week on our questions. Dr. Martin, I'm on the reset and I'm not losing weight. Would you throw away the scale please? Your body is burning the right fuel. GLP-1 medication will not do that for you. It won't do it for you. It's a temporary thing that can mess you up. I've never seen so much side effects. It really messes up your system. It's a muscle destroyer. It destroys muscles like a statin drug.
One of the biggest problems with statin drugs, they destroy muscles. Well-established. Rhabdomyolysis. I hate those big words. What does it mean? They destroy muscle. Oh, I thought your heart was a muscle. Your heart's a muscle. Imagine taking a medication that destroys muscles, but so do GLP-1 medications. I know people are desperate and they want a quick fix. I understand it. I've been around so many years, I know it and I'm very sympathetic, but I try and get people to understand the differences in food. You can have a chocolate bar that's got 600 calories and then you take an egg that's got almost the same amount of calories, but your body reacts to that so differently. Do you think the chocolate bar, oh, it's only got doc, it's 600 calories. What's that got to do with anything? It's how much insulin you're going to need to break that food down. It's the cells at the cellular level. Those battery packs are going to be screaming. Hello, where's the nutrition?
Now you're hungry more. You didn't give your cells the fuel that they really need and people live because there's no red light that goes off on the top of your head. People think, well, you know what? I'm alright. No, but you look long-term, you're not alright. And some people have an unlimited capacity to make fat cells, unlimited. Some people are skinny as rakes, but they're terribly unhealthy. But the key is food, guys. It's nutrition. So when you ask me about those designer drugs, I tell you, the pharmaceutical industry are rubbing their hands. They're salivating. They're so happy they took off. And it's funny because I always find, and I read this stuff every day, you get, oh, GLP-1 medication, okay, which was originally for diabetes, okay? Wrecks your stomach, but it helps with blood sugar, okay? So they give you that. Oh, now it helps you to lose weight.
And then I read somewhere that, oh, it's such marketing by the pharmaceuticals. They're unreal. Give 'em a high five. They know how to market because what they do is they say, oh, here's another benefit. This is really good for your liver too, by the way. Are you kidding me? But that's how they do it because they want to get several uses for a medication. The best thing for your liver, bar none the best, best, best thing for your liver. Cut out sugar, cut out the high fructose corn syrup. Just cut it out of your diet and you don't need any medication to help your liver. It's not moderation, it's elimination. Eliminate sugar. Oh, doc, it's hard. You bet your boots it's hard. It's terribly hard. Is it worth it? Yeah, it's worth it. Anyway, I've got that question. I said before I get started on any of these studies.
Okay, let me give you, we're going to go to vitamin D again. Vitamin D like, don't you think I could win a prize? I'm laughing, okay? I'm just joking. Don't you think I should win a prize, a Nobel Prize in medicine for talking about vitamin D all the time? Has there been anybody that has pushed vitamin D more than me for the last 50 years? Put your hand up if you know someone that's pushed vitamin D more than me. Anybody? I tell you the story all the time about Linus Pauling who won a Nobel Prize by the way. I was happy he won a Nobel Prize because he was talking about a vitamin and he talked about vitamin C, Linus Pauling, okay? You have to understand, I was around when Linus pawing was making his statements that he was making about vitamin C, and if I could put my hand up at the back of the class, I would've said, doc, good for you, but you only miss by one letter in the alphabet. You talk about vitamin C, I talk about vitamin D, and that's 50 years ago, guys. Okay?
That's 50 years ago because I believed at the time, and it's proven to be right, that vitamin D is far more essential for your body than vitamin C is, the other vitamin C. And you guys know this at the Martin Clinic for all the new folks that join us every day, okay? Yeah, I got to remember that you guys haven't heard this, but at the Martin Clinic, vitamin C, the real vitamin C is coffee, and people think, I'm joking, I'm not joking. Study after study, after study after study shows that coffee is the real vitamin C. Okay? What do I mean by that? Well, it's more important. It's better for you. Now, vitamin C, ascorbic acid, of course you need to get that, but I always said that Linus Pauling was overrated, even though I was happy he won the Nobel Prize in medicine, okay? I really was happy because one thing came out of that with vitamin C because people started taking, and even today.
Do you know how many people take vitamin C for a cold? They buy vitamin C. I tell people, why? Now we put some vitamin C in Navitol because if you attach vitamin C, the acerola cherry with pine bark, you get it to your cells where it belongs. It really does make a difference when you latch it onto another antioxidant. Okay? Now, I don't want to get into the weeds because I want to talk to you about vitamin D, how I got on coffee, okay? But guys, listen, vitamin D, the sun again and again and again, if we only had to take one vitamin, okay? If we only had to take one, I'd have you on vitamin D, okay? And I've been saying that for years. Okay? Now let me give you a couple of new stuff that came up all on the brain. You think your brain's important? Do you think preserving your memory is important?
Okay, let me just get to it here. Vitamin D and dementia. In one study, they're talking about why vitamin D is so good for dementia. One, here's what they say in one study, then there's more. One study says the reason that vitamin D is so good for you is that it is very anti-inflammatory. What? Yeah, vitamin D, very anti-inflammatory. It's an anti-inflammatory. And by the way, the vast majority of people are very deficient in vitamin D. The ranges of vitamin D, so-called normal are so low that's made not for human beings, but for mice, the numbers. You guys know this, and I've said this 10,000 times, you need to optimize your vitamin D. Normal is for mice. Optimal is how your body thrives with vitamin D. Dementia, one way it works on dementia, vitamin D, it lowers inflammation. So when you get a chance, the best way to take vitamin D is to get in the sun.
Now, the sun is out today here in Northern Ontario. Beautiful. But it's cold, okay? You ain't going skinny dipping today. It's freezing. We didn't get the memo about climate change. We didn't get the memo. It's spring, but we didn't get the memo for that in Northern Ontario. It's freezing. We get a nice day, it's warm, and then we're reminded where we live. Okay? So you see my map up there. Look for Northern Ontario, and you will see Santa Claus, the Arctic, and then us. That's where we live in Northern Ontario, near Santa Claus. It's cold, we get the sun, but you're getting benefits, no doubt about that. You get benefits, but you're not raising your levels of vitamin D, your dihydroxy 25 in your blood. That's very, very, very important and the studies are showing.
So that's one it works on. Let me give you a couple of more because it just came out. I'm an old fashioned guy. You want to know how old fashioned I am? I write out everything. You see my notes, okay? The teachers, this is true story. When I was a kid, they said, if we can read Tony Martin's writing, we'll give you another recess. They couldn't read my writing. I can barely read my own writing, but I am a writer. I love writing things. Okay, so you see my notes, okay, so I'm going to go to my notes. Okay, so let me give you two studies again. One of them showed vitamin D is an anti-inflammatory. Now, when you reduce inflammation, that has a good, good effect on the brain, it has a good effect everywhere. But again, you know me and inflammation. Inflammation is not Houdini, but inflammation is a very big part of the process of chronic disease, including Alzheimer's. It's part of the process.
Inflammation is on your side. If you have an infection, if you have an injury, but you don't want it to stay there very long, the body's ambulance system, you want to turn it off. You want them to go back to the station. And in chronic inflammation, it's a problem because it becomes destructive. Okay? So when you look at small vessel disease, a dementia, small vessel, it's destructive. Inflammation is part of it, but what started the inflammation? Well, that's another story. Sugar and the lack of vitamin D, okay? Sugar, by the way, destroys vitamin D. I've showed you that before. Now, vitamin D, 40%, this is another study over a decade. They followed 12,000 adults over 10 years. Okay? Those who supplemented with vitamin D, look, here's a blood test. Prick your finger. If it comes out red, you need to supplement with vitamin D.
If you live in Florida, you could get enough sun to never have to take a vitamin D supplement, okay? But what happens? You don't do it. Some of the worst people in the world, in terms of vitamin D live in Florida and Arizona, that gives me a migraine. They got the sun, but they don't go in it. They're scared. Brought to you by Johnson and Johnson and the dermatologist of the world. What did they do? Skin cancer. You are going to get it because you're in the sun all the time. No, it's the opposite. But anyway, 12,000 people over 10 years. What did they see? People, two groups, people who were taking a vitamin D supplement, 40% less likely to get dementia. 40%. That's a big number. Out of these 12,000 people, 40% decrease in dementia with people who are taking vitamin D as a supplement.
And by the way, you can measure vitamin D. It's not like it's a mystery. It's a mystery. I don't know if I'm getting enough vitamin D. Well just get a blood test. In the United States, my American friends, listen Linda and Larry in the US of A, your numbers should be above 60 nmol. That's American. Their vitamin D numbers are different. You need to get your vitamin D levels over 60. If you want to fight cancer, we want it closer to a hundred. That's the research guys. Don't shoot the messenger. I don't do research on vitamin D. I had clinical experience with vitamin D and probably, I can't think of any other practitioner that I ever met that talked about vitamin D more than me. Of all the gurus, of all the people that I interviewed on my radio show, all the doctors and all the practitioners, and God loved them, but nobody talked about sun, steak and steel like me.
Anyway. So in the USA, you want to be over 60. Get measured, get a blood test if you have to pay for it. I wish you didn't, but if you do, pay for it. I recommend once minimum, twice a year, better. Find out what your numbers are. You know what you're dealing with. Number two, Canadian numbers for my Canadian friends and followers, USA over 60, Canada, two and a half times that, right? So 180, 250, you get to 300 in Canada. I'm a happy puppy, and you'll be a happy puppy because at that level, you're optimizing your vitamin D. And then you'll join the group that has at least a 40% decrease in dementia. And two reasons. Two new studies we already talked about. When you increase your vitamin D, your inflammation silent, this is chronic inflammation that you don't even know you have unless you get tested. You can get tested for inflammation. Get your CRP done. We talked about this on the program the other day. One of the best markers for inflammation is if you have high ferritin, that's an inflammatory marker. Now it can tell you other things. CRP. It's such a good test because it'll tell you you should be at zero inflammation.
Okay, so vitamin D lowers inflammation, one, and here's another one, hot off the presses on vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiency ages the brain by increasing the white matter damage in your brain. So if you are deficient in vitamin D, and it may be because of inflammation, I don't know, they didn't say that. They just said they measured white matter in the brain, okay? You got a lot of gray matter. You got white matter and in your brain, if your levels of vitamin D are deficient, you've got a lot more white matter damage. Vitamin D guys, every cell in your body, every cell in your body is screaming for vitamin D. Every cell in your body has an antenna for vitamin D. Get in the sun and supplement. Okay? Supplement. Like I said, if you go and you get your blood work done and you're optimized and you're doing it strictly with the sun, well good. Good for you. I'm happy. Okay? I'm happy. That makes me happy. 90% of the population, at least, are not optimized levels of vitamin D, and that puts them in a risk category, not only for dementia, you name it, cancer, heart disease.
All they do is talk about vitamin D and bones. It drives me crazy that we're still at that level for a lot of people and for a lot of healthcare practitioners, they're still at that level. They still don't understand vitamin D. Well, of course, in medical school, you talk to any people that just graduated from medical school, they're still teaching. Well, here's what they teach on vitamin D. Good for your bones, but it's very toxic. Their cortisol goes up just talking about vitamin D, because you might take too much and always remind my physician friends always remind them of this. The waiting rooms in emergency and the waiting rooms in the walk-in clinics and the waiting rooms in the doctor's office are not full of people that are toxic with vitamin D. I mean, it is incredible how that narrative is still around. It's amazing to me how the pharmaceutical companies, they're so good at it market that vitamin D is dangerous. Oh, yeah, take a thousand IUs of vitamin D, maybe.
The benefits of optimized vitamin D are incredible guys, are incredible. I just can't get over how we're still on that narrative of vitamin D and be careful. Be careful, you're going to die. It's amazing to me, the lies, more lies and the outright lying. It drives me mental. Anyways, you guys don't believe that stuff. Good for you. You know better. You're smarter than the average bear. Okay, guys, what is Friday? Q and A, send your questions in. We want to hear from you, okay? Don't put your questions in the scroll, okay? If you do, okay, you can put 'em there, but they don't get to me because I'm not reading the scroll while we're doing this program. I can't, I can't do two things at once, okay? And the only time I read the scroll is when I ask you a question and I tell you to close your books and give me the answer. You know that, I do that. I have a quiz usually once a week just to see if you're listening.
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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!