Join Dr. Martin in today's episode of The Doctor Is In Podcast.
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 and hope you're having a great start to your day. Hope you've had your vitamin C. Got to have that every day, seven days a week. Vitamin W first, get your water, then get your coffee. Okay, let's look at something this morning I found rather interesting. Okay, it is a study. Haven't found it anywhere else, but I really like this study in the sense that it's great, great news. Listen to this. Here's the headline of the study coming out of Stanford University 11 year study. Nutritional supplements can cut hospital readmission rates. This is 11 year study, and here's what the article went on to say about the study. One in five patients are readmitted in the same year costing American taxpayers 17.5 billion dollars. They're readmitted in the same year. That cost a fortune, right?
Canada's the same. We don't see the bill in Canada like my American friends do, but we pay for it. We pay for it in an enormous amount of taxes and hospital admissions, just hospital admissions cost a fortune. Readmissions is what they looked at. They looked at whether they could cut back on readmissions. Now, I didn't know this, but according to this article on the study, it said this, the Affordable Care Act, it actually has a provision which imposes fines on hospitals whose readmission rates go over the national average. So I guess from reading this article on the study that if hospitals, they're incentivized not to have so much readmission, they don't want it to be above the national rate because if it is, they get fined. So I guess it's trying to encourage the hospitals and people who work at the hospitals in the USA to do something preventative so that people don't come back.
Now, let me break down the most readmission cases. I didn't know any of this guys. I never saw any of this before where it's actually put down and there's two main causes of readmission in the United States. I'm sure it's the same in Canada. Okay? Congestive heart failure, people who have congestive heart failure. We talked about that last week because someone asked about what do you do for congestive heart failure? And secondly, myocardial infarction, which is a blockage, which is a heart attack. That's the biggest reasons for readmission. Now, I didn't say this, but the study said it. They did 11 year study on giving people who leave the hospital supplements, and I was so curious to see what they were giving them. I know what I would give them, but I didn't know what they gave them to see if it can help with the readmission, which cost a fortune. And I didn't know they even did this.
They certainly don't do it in all the hospitals, but I guess for this study, they looked at giving people who have had congestive heart failure or a heart attack so they don't come back in the same year. At least they weren't always giving it. But here's the main ones they gave. B12, that sounds good to me. Vitamin D, that sounds real good to me. Omega-3, excellent. Magnesium. Okay, those were the four main ones. Man, I didn't know this kind of stuff even existed that they would even think of that. Are they listening to The Doctor Is In program that they're giving supplements. Now, guys, you know me. I love food before supplements, okay? I love food. And I don't know if they gave them any nutritional advice. If they just cut out sugar, it would be a big factor. Okay, saying you go home, you got congestive heart failure and I want you to cut way back on sugar. Boy, that would have a major effect because sugar affects glycation and glycation hardens arteries, oxidation, hardens arteries, calcification, hardens arteries.
And so I would start with food, but I certainly would recommend supplements. Okay, now I was just thinking, okay, they recommended magnesium. I like that. I recommend magnesium. The problem in our diets is we don't get enough magnesium. Now, how does the magnesium affect the heart in congestive heart failure for example? In myocardial infarction, one of the biggest factors in the heart is the electrical grid. Your heart is an electrical grid, and a lot of people have heart attacks, for example, not because they're blocked. It's not because the coronary artery is blocked. It's because their heart goes into a spasm. It misfires and it goes into a fibrillation. For example, one of the biggest problems in our society today, it's something that's been around forever, which is a lot worse than it ever used to be, and that is atrial fibrillation, AFib.
And over the years in my practice days, I found deficiencies. If someone was in my office and they had AFib, of course they were put on, in medicine what they do, if you have AFib, you're put on either a beta blocker or a blood thinner for sure, or both, with AFib. They thin your blood because you're much more susceptible to having a heart attack or stroke. So they thin your blood. That of course comes with a cascade of side effects, but you got AFib. But here's me what I saw again in deficiency, because the left ventricle is the area. If you want to know where you have the most magnesium stored, see, the problem with magnesium is the blood test for it. What does it mean? Don't mean nothing unless you're extremely low because the blood test is a blood test. Now, magnesium, you got a incy, weency, teeny weenie little bit of magnesium in your blood. Your magnesium, they're in your cells. That's where magnesium belongs.
So what happens they don't even think about it. If you've got AFib, I've never heard of a cardiologist or whatever recommending magnesium. Even though if you're having a heart attack, they're giving you magnesium, right through iv, you're on the way to the hospital and you're in the back of an ambulance and you're having a heart attack. They're pumping magnesium into you. The magnesium's important for the heart. The word I like to use with magnesium is relax. Relax, magnesium. That's what it does. If the heart is in a spasm, magnesium relaxes it. High blood pressure, the blood vessel is in a spasm. Magnesium relaxes it. Your adrenals, you're wired, okay, your inside. What does magnesium do? Relax. That is the word I used to tell my children, not my grandchildren. I never tell my grandchildren to relax because the word no to grandchildren is different, but to children.
When my kids were young, daddy, I use this voice with great results built in microphone right in here. Everybody around me is good. Tone it down. I said, I don't know if it was because we were 11 kids in our family that I got this voice so that I could be heard. It seems to me my brothers and sisters are all pretty loud. There were no quiet ones. Anyway, I used to tell my kids when they were crossing the line, relax and they knew what that meant. They were getting close to the line and don't cross it. Okay? So that's what magnesium is. And here's what I found in my practice. When people had AFib and heart conditions, congestive heart failure, they were low in magnesium almost invariably. Okay? So that's important. So imagine you're in a hospital and they're dismissing you and they say, here, take 500 milligrams of magnesium. Holy smokes. I never thought I would be alive to see the deed.
Now, this is not general, of course, this was done in a study, but it was 11 years study. This was done for the hospitals to save money so they wouldn't be fined. And they wanted to see if giving supplements on the way out, who people that were being dismissed from the hospital discharged the word we use. Let's give them a supplement. I almost lose my breath guys. When this study came across my attention yesterday, I almost, I'm exaggerating, but just about passed out. It can't be. There is a God, hallelujah. They're getting some memos. And what they found, it works. They had, let me give you some stats here. Okay, 11 year study, a 10.1% reduction in readmission rates for congestive heart failure, 12% decrease in heart attacks. A 16% in people that actually had to go back, they had a 16% decrease in the amount of time they were readmitted.
So the moral of the study is this. Supplements not for the sake of supplementing guys. I never guessed in my office. I tested, I didn't guess. I tested deficiencies. When I tell the world that 80% of the population 80 is low in vitamin D, 80% have low levels of vitamin D. Vitamin D, sun, steak and steel. I talked about vitamin D, the studies on heart, the studies on the brain, the studies on cancer, the study, there's boatloads of studies on vitamin D, but they never get the top page in the news because pharmaceuticals always win out. If you put a hundred cardiologists in the room. This has been done, by the way. I've seen it because I was there, it was probably more like 150 cardiologists were in a room. I was teaching nutrition. It was part of a couple of day seminar. I used to be hired by a group that put on these courses so that doctors in two days could get all the education reeducation and keep their licenses up. I was hired by a group. They thought I was funny. They liked me.
So when I did these lectures on nutrition, nutrition 101 I called it, and afterwards they always did a survey and who did you like as speaker? And even one time was just cardiologist. And they say, we like that Dr. Martin, because he's funny. Well, but I was serious too. And here's what I did one time, okay, cardiologist, how many of you cardiologists put your hand up if you take omega-3? I'm not kidding you, with 60, 70% of them, they take a supplement of omega-3. Put your hand up. I looked at them, okay? I said, and how many of you cardiologists recommend omega-3 to your patients? The hands went down and there was only a couple out of about 150 doctors in there that recommended Omega-3, even though they took it. I said, you're a bunch of hypocrites.
And guys, this was 20 years ago. There's so many studies on omega-3 on the heart and they don't recommend it, but they believe it because they've done some reading on omega-3. They go, gee, I better take it myself. I don't want to get a heart attack says the cardiologist, but I don't tell my patients. Now, one of the reasons I know this for a fact in Ontario is that their calling of physicians and surgeons, they don't like that. There's no science behind it. Oh, I get a migraine, guys. There's no science behind it, okay? We need double blind placebo. And yet it works. Anybody that has got any kind of heart issue and they're not taking magnesium, I feel sorry for them. They've been duped and I guarantee they're low in magnesium. They're not taking vitamin D for their heart. They've been duped and I guarantee they're low in vitamin D, guaranteed. And they're not taking omega-3 for a lubrication of your blood vessels well established. I feel sorry for them. Nobody's told them. Nobody's told them.
And guys, I'm not even telling people not to take their medications. I'm not saying that, but at least you need to supplement. If you got that kind of a condition, you need to supplement. In atrial fib, they were extremely low magnesium, extremely low vitamin D. Think of electricity heart B12, B12. It's the nerve vitamin, the electrical grid, vitamin too, it needs it. B12 and what 80% of the population. And if you've got heart conditions, I can almost tell you without exception, you got low levels. Oh, my doctor said my B12 levels are normal. Well, you don't want normal. Normal is for mice. Normal in B12 is for mice, normal in vitamin D is for mice, not you. You want optimize levels. That's where health comes in when you get optimized. I proved it to patients over the years, optimize your levels of B12. You are walking around with the levels of a mouse.
The blood test for B12 is a hundred years old. It's a hundred years old. We should have a birthday party for it and put it to bed because B12 elevates your nitric oxide. You got electricity in the heart, you got nerves in the heart, you got blood vessel. You need that to work properly. And I love this study. They sent them home. I wonder if they had to tell 'em, because some people, is this a pill? Yeah, it's a pill. Okay, I'll take it. I think if they told them this is a supplement, they wouldn't take it. My generation and worse, my parents' generation. My parents' generation, not my dad. He was part of the generation, but he didn't believe the nonsense. But my parents' generation doctor worship, they bowed down. My doctor said, okay, don't eat steak. Don't eat butter. Replace it with margarine. Cholesterol will kill you. Get out of the sun. And if you're going in the sun, where sunscreen, they bought it all. I mean my parents' generation, they bought it hook, line and sinker.
There were so few people that questioned, it's why they accepted. They accepted everything. Well, my doctor said to use margarine. I said, did your doctor ever take one ounce of nutrition? There is a heart the box of Cheerios. What does that mean? Dr. Martin must be good. The American Heart Association says I should be eating Cheerios. They said so. They never questioned stuff like that. And I go, no. The reason they put a heart on the box is when you eat it, you are going to have a heart attack. Eggs don't give you a heart attack. Cheerios do. Bacon don't give you a heart attack. Your oatmeal does. What? Oh, your toast. Dr. Martin. It's whole wheat. Oh, I heard it all. 11 year study. And the headline was, nutritional supplements can cut hospital readmission rates. Holy smokes. I'd never thought I'd ever see it.
Now, I wonder what it would do for you wouldn't get into the hospital in the first place. Wouldn't that be nice? Guys I'm all into prevention. You know that. Treatment? Yes, of course, if you have a condition, of course. But what's better is prevention as much as possible. And I believe food is the first important choice that you make. It's the food you eat every day. And you know me, supplements, you need them. They don't even mention probiotics here. Well, you wouldn't think for heart. Yeah, but probiotics are good for everything, but I love it. They recommended B12. They recommended vitamin D. I don't know if they sent them home with these things in hand or they just told 'em to go do it. I don't know. But it sounds like they send them with it because they wanted to do the study and make sure they took these things. Magnesium, unreal, and omega-3. Now the best omega-3, you guys know this is DHA, okay? EPA and DHA are found in the animal kingdom and DHA is the king of the castle.
Okay guys, tomorrow is what? Q and A. So send in your questions, not too late info@martinclinic.com, info@martinclinic.com. Send in the questions for answer tomorrow. We love it. Always one of the most popular days of the week is Q and A. Thank God it's Friday. Remember that? TGIF and tomorrow is TGIF and Q and A. Okay, so. Okay guys, love 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!