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. Hope you're having a great start to your day, and we sure appreciate you guys coming on. Love you guys. Okay, someone's asking about Navitol. Then we'll get to our topic this morning. It's going to be a follow-up in a way to what we talked about yesterday, but I want to answer the question on Navitol. Why do we love Navitol? What is Navitol? It is pine bark extract, okay? And I've been dealing with it for 40 years, just about. I love it. I love talking about it and the first thing that happened with pine bark, and I knew nothing of it, okay? Other than if you read the story of Canada, the fellow who named Canada, Canada was a French Explorer by the name of Jacques Cartier. I'm using my French accent, Jacques Cartier.
Jacques Cartier, the story is famous in Canada. You'll learn it when you're a little kid in school, is that 25 of his men died of scurvy, a lack of vitamin C, okay? And when he was coming down the St. Lawrence River where my grandfather came from, David Martin, my grandfather, who established the Martin Clinic in 1911, but where he was from originally is right around where Jacques Cartier met the indigenous people that were here. And they prepared a tea, okay? Should have used coffee. But anyway, they used the tea with pine bark extract. They used pine bark and they said, here, drink this and you'll be better. That was in what, 1611? I don't know. I can't even remember what year it was. And guess what? They got better.
And the whole story of pine bark extract was written in the annals of Jacques Cartier. He wrote about it. He said, well, we felt so much better and none of the rest of my men died. And they were very thankful to the natives and the indigenous people. And a French researcher, several centuries later, read the annals of Jacques Cartier. It went back to France. His name was Dr. Mascalier. I met him in 1950s he read the story of Jacques Cartier. He was a PhD, and he read these annals. I said like pine bark, what's in pine bark? Went back to France and researched using the pinus maritima. I went over to France to look at the trees. We got a lot of pine trees in Canada, by the way. And I saw not only the research of Mascalier, I had done a little bit of clinical research myself and clinical on pine bark and chronic fatigue syndrome.
So I had a story. I had some clinical data started with my wife took that very personally, guys. And the French researchers told me why it was so effective in chronic fatigue. I mean, I had an idea, but the research beared it out. And what they said was, here's what happens. Pine bark extract crosses the blood brain barrier. Now you have a barrier. I have a barrier. Now it can become leaky, leaky gut, leaky brain, because part of that barrier is made up of microbiome. Anywho, pine bark extract has the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier. That's very important because not only is it a powerful antioxidant, protecting your brain cells, synapses, it protects, also protects the small blood vessels in your brain, protects them. That's really important. Gives you more blood supply in the brain.
Why? Because they told me. The research was in. Dr. Mascalier had done research for years, crosses the blood brain barrier. Probably the most powerful antioxidant ever discovered is pine bark extract. 50 times more powerful than vitamin C as an antioxidant. Second, okay, so it's an antioxidant. Powerful crosses the blood-brain barrier. Two, elevates your nitric oxide. You could actually call pine bark extract, nitric oxide. Now, it's funny, isn't it? If you think about nitric oxide, when I was in school in the 1970s, we didn't even know what that was. Now we knew what nitroglycerin was. I remember studying nitroglycerin like dynamite. But they would give you, even in the seventies, nitroglycerin, put it under your tongue or whatever.
Because if anyone had a heart condition and their heart went into a spasm, well, they gave you a nitroglycerin to bring you out of that. So we knew about that. But what we didn't know is that your body, my body produces nitric oxide. And that didn't come out till the 1980s. And when they discovered the nitric oxide, they won Nobel prizes over it. We didn't even know we made it. Fearfully and wonderfully made. Your body makes nitric oxide. But here's the problem, nitric oxide levels, okay, think of your blood vessels, opening, angina. Angina opens blood vessels, nitroglycerin, nitric oxide opens blood vessels, open sesame and nitric oxide's important. As you get older, it goes down. Navitol pine bark extract opens your blood vessels because it elevates your nitric oxide.
So number one, protects the brain because it crosses the blood-brain barrier. Protects your blood vessels from free radical damage, oxidation, it helps. So, brain fog, this is what I found. I wrote about it. That brain fog got so much better with Navitol. Secondly, it elevates your nitric oxide. So they talk about that. You see that. When you hear, okay, because the little blue pill, okay, like Cialis, they advertise it for erectile dysfunction. Okay? What is that? It just elevates your nitric oxide. Men, it elevates your nitric oxide. Ladies. It's really important not only for your blood pressure in that, but it brings extra blood supply to your organs. It's so important. Nitric oxide. Three. Okay? Again, all the research done started in the 1950s and they studied. They studied. They studied. They published. They published. They published. They're very big in Europe, unknown in North America, okay? It was unknown pine bark. Nobody was using it. Nobody talked about it. They talked a little bit about grape seed extract, but not pine bark.
And then the third thing, which was very important is that it elevates your glutathione. Wow. Now you guys know this. Glutathione is Velcro. Again, your body makes it, but glutathione sinks with age with damage. Fatty liver. Now that glutathione goes down. Pine bark extract elevates your glutathione, it elevates your Velcro, and Velcro in the bloodstream attaches itself to toxins. So Navitol is a great detoxer because it elevates your glutathione. Those are the three main things I talk about all the time with Navitol. Okay? What does it do? Why is it so effective? Why is it that tens of thousands of people every day take that product? And I have been for years, powerful antioxidant. If you want to talk about a product that is anti-aging, on the inside is Navitol. It's an antioxidant, the strongest antioxidant that they've ever found.
Why do I preach about it so much? I wrote books about it. I don't think I've ever written any of my 20 something books that I didn't talk about pine bark extract. But that's the history of it. Kind of fascinating, isn't it? And my grandfather, he used it. My dad would tell me he had more potions, more things that he used in his practice. In those days, what do you think? They used natural stuff. Even willow bark, like aspirin, right? Like all medicines come from some natural derivative. Anywho, that's the story. When you ask about Navitol, it does a lot of things. And when it crosses the blood-brain barrier guys and brings you more blood supply and elevates your nitric oxide, it's going to give you more energy. Think about it.
Headquarters, blood supply, very important, very, very important as you open up those blood, really important for energy, okay? And your brain, it protects it. Boy, I want protection in my brain. You get to my age, you're really concerned about your brain. Really concerned about it. Of course, right? We see people like an epidemic of Alzheimer's, dementia. It's nauseating for us to look at that. So concerned about that. Protecting the blood supply. So I saw the question this morning. I said, why don't I answer that because it might come on Friday, but why not do it today? And anywho, that's what we did.
Okay? Now, yesterday we were talking about a recent study in pediatrics. I got a lot of feedback on this afterwards on a recent study in pediatrics that says, antidepressants like SSRIs are up 130% in girls, and the prescriptions have dropped 7% for boys. How could that be? How can there be that much of a disparity between boys and girls? And it bothers me, guys, because like I said yesterday, I saw this a thousand times in my office and more. And that is, okay, you are a woman. Even if you're a young woman, you got horrormones. Men, we're not too complicated. Ladies, you're beautiful, but you're complicated. Any doctor that doesn't know that they should lose their medical license.
I hate to be dramatic, but my word, have you never seen horrormones in your practice doc? Let's just put you on an SSRI, an antidepressant, anti-anxiety medication. You ever think for a minute that maybe they have too much estrogen and not enough progesterone? Do you ever think for a minute that their hormones are out of whack? And you should start with that. Like an SSRI is a bandaid at best. They should ask the question before they even give it out. Why doesn't this work? Most of the time, it works sometime in the sense that, well, temporarily they got better, but they never look at the big picture holistically. They don't look at all of it.
Like to me, in my office, I'm a why guy. You come in, okay, I'm an observant guy. Okay? Eyeball, use them. Ask questions. You didn't get to see me unless you spent a half an hour in the waiting room filling out a questionnaire. It bothered some people. They didn't like that. Well, too bad. You came in for your first visit. You were told, get here early. Why? Because you're going to be filling out questionnaire. And I didn't see a patient unless they did, because I wanted to read the answers even before I looked at all the results. Their blood work. That's the way it should be. Young girls, I'm depressed. I'm stressed. I feel like crying all the time. I go, okay, now let's test your hormones. Let's have a look at it. Let's see what's going on. Let's have a look at your estrogen. Why is it so dominant? Okay, and that can affect your mood big time. Why don't we fix that instead of putting you on a pill, why don't we clean up your diet? After all, your brain is headquartered.
We talked about this yesterday. Energy, your brain is an energy hog. It's the federal government. It wants 25% of all the food that you eat, needs to be delivered as taxes to the federal government. Your brain. Okay, the brain. We talk about that. So I'm an energy guy. What are your mitochondria doing in your brain? What are you feeding it? Because I always looked at connecting the dots. I wanted to connect the dots, okay? And like I said, many of these kids were already on antidepressants. Many of these girls, a few guys, but mostly girls. Why is it mostly girls? Complicated. It was amazing that when I looked at their blood sugar, when I looked at their A1C, often off including hypoglycemia, low blood sugar, often high A1C, but I saw this a lot, hypoglycemia, low blood sugar.
Guys, their brains were swimming in the wrong fuel. Even today, we're still being lied to by the food industry and people generally accept it, that if you look at the food pyramid, I talked to you yesterday about this. Lucky charms, according to Tufts University is healthier than ground beef. According to Tufts University. So young girls, a lot of them, they were eating wrong. I started there. You're eating way too much sugar or drinking it in juices and these specialty drinks and soda and all of it. I said, you're drinking way too much fructose, eating way too many carbohydrates, bread and pasta and rice and cereals and sugar and sweets and pastries and muffins and bagels. I said, you're living on that. Those things are just sugar molecules holding hands. I said, we're going to change that. Your brain is swimming in the wrong fuel.
Your brain cell is swimming in glucose and it's not firing on all cylinders. That has a big effect on your hypothalamus. Okay? I really tried to stay out of the weeds because I didn't want to complicate, but I knew, and I tried to explain it, that what you eat is affecting your hormones. Like you have no idea what? Well, because it affects your hypothalamus. Your hypothalamus affects your pituitary gland, and your pituitary affects your thyroid. Your hypothalamus has a big effect on your adrenal glands. They get their messages, they get their memos from headquarters up here. And headquarters is affected by what you eat. Dr. Martin, it's whole grain bread. It's 12 grain bread. It's good for you, isn't it? No, it's just sugar molecules holding hands. It breaks down way too rapidly. You are undernourished. You're overfed and undernourished. Lots of calories, but no fuel or at least the wrong fuel. And that really has effect on headquarters.
And in headquarters like I always did with people. You got two main parts of your brain, your hypothalamus, hormones, hippocampus, memory center, especially when we get older. Then the librarian in your hippocampus is often on coffee breaks. You got a librarian up there sorting your memory and sugar puts them on a coffee break. The librarians up there, the librarians of your memory. So guys, before a child goes on an antidepressant or a kid with ADD and ADHD. How many boys were put on Ritalin? To me, that's malpractice. And I feel sorry for the teacher. These kids were just canaries in the coal mine, their system very, very sensitive, and they were put on a medication. I'm surprised they didn't put me in jail. How I used to scream when I had my radio show at physicians, what in the world are you doing putting a 10-year-old boy on medication? Can you at least start with changing their diet please?
Girls put on SSRIs up 130%. It's malpractice. It's malpractice on steroids. They're not getting to the issue. I feel sorry for doctors in a lot of ways. They don't even know anything about nutrition. They don't get any nutrition. You know what my statement is? Might as well go to your plumber to get nutritional advice. Even yesterday, I had two or three questions come to me. My doctor said about food. Quit eating bacon. They don't know what they're talking about. Limit your eggs. They don't know what they're talking about. A kid for example, I used to go to these boys that were diagnosed with ADHD, okay, and ADD, okay? I go to these boys, I grab their little face like this and I say, do you like eggs? Oh yeah, I like eggs. I say, well, you have that in the morning. Okay, eggs. Yeah, yeah, you like bacon? Oh, I love bacon. Well then have bacon.
See those Lucky Charms? Stop it. No more. What? That's the wrong fuel for your brain. No more Lucky Charms. No more cereal. But you can have bacon. You like bacon? Oh, I love bacon. Well have bacon. Every day, doc? Every day. You know, somebody said to me, Dr. Martin, I like variety. Guys, you can have variety in your clothing. Variety in food is overrated. Okay? Have bacon and eggs seven days a week. Start your day with the right food. Don't buy the oatmeal, which is no good for you. You're not a horse. Oats are for horses not for you. We live in a different world. Who'd ever thought that a human being would consume around 200 pounds of sugar a year? Who would've ever thought? But we do. Anyway, connecting the dots.
Oh, no wonder I get migraines when I think about stuff like this. I read about stuff like this, antidepressant stuff, 130% in girls and drop 7% in boys. Oh, my word. What malpractice that is. Anywho, you know what Friday is? It's question and answer. I answered one question this morning. Took me 10 minutes. It'll be one less for Friday. Send in your questions to info@martinclinic.com. We love your questions. Thank you for participating. We appreciate it, appreciate it, appreciate it. We appreciate you, our audience, the smartest, honorary degrees I give every one of you in nutrition, okay? Honorary degrees. You deserve it. Thanks for making this podcast what it is, okay the number one health podcast in Canada, and it ain't close. Okay, we love you guys, 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!