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, and once again, welcome to another live this morning. Good to have you come on with us. We thank you so much. We appreciate the live audience when we can get it. Okay, we love you dearly. I want to talk this morning, okay, about PPIs, proton pump inhibitors. We've done this before. Here's my headline. Here's my headline on it. The reason I want to talk about, it's because I saw some new studies on the side effects of PPIs. So we're going to look at that this morning. Talk about it, what to do about it, okay? I don't want to just say, well, we got a problem, Houston, without giving you a solution to it.
Now let's talk about proton pump inhibitors. Okay, so drugs like Nexium, Prilosec, the purple pill, okay? It's amazing how marketing works, right? Remember it was the blue pill, the little blue pill, and this is the purple pill Nexium, okay, for acid reflux. Listen to this. One out of four North Americans are taking that medication. Now, I've talked to you about this before. So go through The Doctor Is In Podcast, go on your favorite device and look for The Doctor Is In Podcast, and then you'll see every episode that we've ever done. Scroll and look for PPIs. I talked about this before, but this is, it's just some new side effects, but I got to give you some background on this medication because I saw them coming out. That's how old I am, okay?
When they were introduced. Now, Tums have been around for a long time. Rolaids have been around for a long time. But these new PPIs were introduced in the seventies, and I saw it happening, and I'll tell you something, this is really important. They were never meant to be used long term. They were meant as a bandaid. They'd never studied PPIs and the use of them. I'm talking about the FDA beyond two weeks. People take these for years. The second they get off, their acid goes up into their esophagus and millions and millions of people take them every day because, oh, doc, if I don't take them, I can't stand it.
Now, listen, acid reflux is no fun whatsoever. I understand that. Okay? Believe you me, I always used to tell my patients, listen, I'm on your side. Doc, I can't, PPI, I can't live without them. I get such bad acid reflux, and my doctor told me that if I don't take these, I'm going to get esophageal cancer or Barrett's esophagus, which leads to esophageal cancer, which is one of the really high in terms of numbers, rising cancers there are today. Guys, it's a bandaid at best. Never studied for long-term effects. Now we're starting to get, well, it's been more than now, but we're starting to get clearer data on the use of PPIs. Very, very, very dangerous. So the headline is a medication that works, but it's not good for you. That's the headline of this whole podcast this morning. A medication that works, but it's not good for you.
Can you think of another one that works and it's not good for you? I know you're thinking statins, they work, but it's not good for you. Why do you want to lower cholesterol and why do you want to lower your stomach acidity? That's a big question mark. So you know me, I've always tried to get to the root of the issue. The root cause of acid reflux is your body is trying to respond to a lack of acidity. Not to too much, but to too little. Okay? Basic physiology, a human being. Put your hand up if you're a human being, a human being, stomach acidity should be around one. That's more acidic than a lion's stomach. Why is one fourth of the population, it's mind boggling, are on PPIs? Adults, a lot of kids are on them. I've seen babies given this stuff. Why? What happened? Why we have so much acid reflux? Because we don't have enough acidity. Okay? Why?
It's our diets. It's not the environment. It's not out there. It's in here. It's inside of us. Because when we eat foods that we're not designed to eat, your stomach reacts to it. You're having a piece of bread, okay? You're having a piece of bread and I mean modern day bread, like you're not eating sourdough or whatever, right? Fermented bread or whatever. Okay? Just a slice of bread. Oh, Dr. Martin, it's whole grain. It don't matter. It just sugar molecules holding hands. There's no more nutrients in it. There's so little protein. It's almost all carbs to be turned to sugar rapidly. Do you think your body was made to consume somewhere around 200 pounds, a dump truck load of sugar a year? No. Your stomach wasn't designed for that. Drinking sugar like we do soda after soda, Starbucks after Starbucks coffee. So-called drinks that are full of sugar. And you know what? Your stomach wasn't made for that. Your stomach was designed to eat meat and eggs, protein and amino acids, heavy nutrient dense foods. That's what you are designed to eat.
This is one of the arguments I always make. It's the first one I bring up. I've been in debates with vegans, vegetarians, listen, I had a radio show for 20 years. I had a lot of explaining to do, okay? And oftentimes we would get calls. I always respected people that didn't have the same opinion as me, but I said, okay, I'm just going to ask you a question. Okay? Going to ask you a question if you know the answer. If you don't, I'll give it to you. What is your acidity in your stomach supposed to be? Okay? And a lot of times they didn't know, but some did. They said, well, yeah, we need to have a very acidic stomach. Okay? Like with the pH around 1, 1.3, that's very acidic. It you swallow a penny, it will dissolve. The acid in your stomach if you put it on a wood table, would burn a hole in it or it should. I said, okay, so it should be one right around 1, very acidic. Why?
Why would you be designed with a stomach that has a pH of around 1? Why? I don't know, doc. You don't need a pH of 1 to eat vegetables. As a matter of fact, if you live on vegetables, your pH will rise. It will become more alkaline and your body, which is fearfully and wonderfully made. I say it almost daily, your body would designed to eat meat. So you've been given a pH of around 1. That is so acidic. It's incredible. It's the only place, by the way, that you should be acidic in your body is your stomach and very acidic. You're not a cow. A cow, the pH in a cow's stomach and they got four of them because when you eat salad like a cow, you need four stomachs. You want to live on vegetables, you should have four stomachs. Am I telling you not to eat vegetables? No. Am I telling you not to eat fruit? No. I'm telling you not to live on it because when you do, you're changing the pH.
Now here's even something worse, add 200 pounds of sugar to your stomach and your pH will go way up. It will crawl up to 4. Well, isn't that good, doc? No, because your stomach acidity is needed for several reasons. One, to break down protein into amino acids, to break down all your vitamins, your micronutrients. You need acidity in your stomach to be very acidic. That's how you're designed. That's the argument I always made to my friends, vegans and vegetarians. God love them, but they're wrong. They put fruits and vegetables on the top of the food chain, it shouldn't be. It shouldn't be. There's too many macros and too many micronutrients. You're not getting them in the form that they need to come. So you need that acidity. Okay, you guys know this, but I got to hammer it all the time. Repetition, repetition, repetition.
So, your stomach acidity, and what happens when you're eating the wrong food, your pH goes up and your body says, hello, you're eating the wrong food. Now I have to make more acidity. The proton pumps, you got pumps in your stomach, okay? Proton pumps, they get going because you're not eating the right food. So your body goes, I got to make more acidity. The proton pumps release acidity. Unfortunately, it starts crawling up the esophagus, heartburn, and then you see commercials on tv. Well just keep eating. Don't worry about it and take a little pill. It will lower your acidity. Take a pill. Am I right about that? You bet your boots I'm right about it, and I watched it in my office thousands of times. Not hundreds, thousands of times.
And the research on the use of PPIs long-term is devastating. Devastating, okay? One, you're not digesting your micronutrients, especially B12. You need a good stomach and you need a lot of acidity in your stomach, not anywhere else for you to absorb B12. B12 is a finicky vitamin at the best of times. There's a lot of things that need to line up properly to get B12, okay? Really, when you eat a steak, ground beef, you get B12, but if your pH isn't right, you're not making the intrinsic factor that you need to absorb B12. That's why so many people today, you want to hear about an epidemic? 80% of the population are low in B12, and I say it's higher than that, but this is what the world tells us. 80% and doctors, well, your B12 is, oh, yeah, Dr. Martin, he's a quack. I heard it a million times too.
They've forgotten how important B12 is and the blood test for B12, who cares if you've got B12 in your blood? Who cares? It belongs in your cells, not in your blood. The blood test is a hundred years old that we should give it a birthday party and put it to bed. So many people just don't absorb B12 and they don't eat steak either because they've been told red meat is acidic, it's cancer, it's cholesterol, it's bad. True or false? The world's gone stupid. So what happens? You're taking, and when I say you, you know what I mean out there, they're taking a PPI. It's blocking the acidity. The body is trying to make up for. Problem. Big problems with PPIs, big problems, and we can't get the FDA's attention bought and paid for by big pharma.
These drugs make a fortune for big pharma, and unfortunately, these things work in five days of taking a PPI, Nexium, Prilosec, whatever, you can get 'em over the counter now. In five days, 65% of your stomach acidity is shut down. After that, it's almost a hundred percent. They work, but they're not helping you. Maybe symptoms, if I take 'em, I don't get any acid reflux coming up my esophagus, but my friend, the side effects of them are legion. Bones, well, you can imagine you're not absorbing calcium, okay? You're not absorbing calcium. You need your stomach acidity to absorb calcium. And guys, I don't want you taking a calcium supplement. I want you to eat your calcium because it's full of K2 with it. Eat your cheese, eat your eggs, eat your meat. That's how you get calcium with vitamin K2.
Well, what about your stomach? It doesn't have enough acidity to break it down. Well, what happens? Now, you get osteoporosis. People with PPIs, they were showing some studies that their jaw starts to deteriorate. Not enough calcium, not enough vitamin K2. One of the biggest things, because you're not absorbing protein and amino acids, you're overfed and undernourished. I mean, it's not like you drop dead right away. It just takes longer. It affects your heart. Listen to this statistic, okay? Heart damage, 70% increase in people that take PPIs in heart attacks. What's that got to do with anything? Well, it does because again, your heart is a muscle. It's a pump. It needs coQ10. It needs L carnitine. It needs L carnizine. Your heart needs that, but if you don't have enough good acidity in your stomach, guess what? Your risk of heart attacks goes up 70%.
I'm not making this up, guys. 30% increase in the risk of stroke. Fractures, 44% in bones. 44% increase in fractures, especially the hip, which is so serious guys. You get around my age and your hip, you fall and you break a hip. It can change your life forever. Kidney disease, gastric cancers, 80% increase in gastric cancers and esophageal. Brain, your brain, headquarters, nutrients, 40% increase risk of Alzheimer's on PPIs. Kidneys, chronic kidney disease up by 28%. Overfed, undernourished. This is a big one, guys immune system. You see, one of your best defenses your body has is your stomach because you get a bacteria comes into your stomach, you're always around bugs guys. Wearing a mask. Come on, wear your invisible mask, vitamin A, eggs, meat and cheese gives you an invisible mask. I still see people wearing masks today. I want to scream. I get a headache.
One of your best defenses against bugs, against fungus is your stomach acidity. It can't get past it. Like even food poisoning. You're much more susceptible when you don't have enough acidity in your stomach. Salmonella, H pylori, C difficile, very difficult. That's what that means. That bug is so resistant to antibiotics, but when you have a good stomach, when you have a pH around one, it don't stand a chance. It can't get in. Your acidity, in your stomach kills it. It's one of the reasons we see so much pneumonia today. Lungs, pneumonia, yeah, you see the bug comes in and your stomach, if you don't have enough acidity, it don't kill it. It's such an important border there. I always talk about the gut and the gut blood barrier, but you've got a border guards too in your stomach and the acidity when it's at the top of its game, it is so hard to get past that. Okay?
Now the other thing I wanted to mention, okay, and I'll close with this because tomorrow what we'll do is we'll talk about, okay, what do you do? I don't want to leave you guys with, okay, PPIs work, but they're bad. They work nothing like them. They work, but they're bad. See, acidity is not bad in your stomach where it belongs. We'll talk about that tomorrow. We'll talk about, okay, what do you do? What did I do in my office for years and years and years and years with great success. Wasn't easy because people that get a lot of acid reflux, it is no fun under the sun for that. It ain't no fun, but it can be fixed. We'll talk about that.
But let me just say one more thing about what happens inside your body. Do you know that you need, "ecoutez-moi", that's French for listen, and then I should add, "ecoutez-moi, Linda." Listen, you don't make nitric oxide properly without your acidity in your stomach, and you guys know what nitric oxide is. That's probably a big reason for the link between when you cut down the acidity in your stomach. The link to heart disease is a lack of nitric oxide because you're not opening up your blood vessels properly. Nitric oxide, having a good acidity in your stomach helps you to produce nitric oxide.
Okay, thanks for being the best audience in the world, and I mean that sincerely. I always build you guys up, but the reason I do is because it's true. The best, okay? You ask the most questions. You are the good listeners. You know what? I'm going to start testing again because I can read the answers now. I never thought of that. Okay, close your books. What's the answer? Right? Teacher. That's "moi", okay. I want to be a teacher. I told you that. I'm into education. I want you guys to understand, fix yourself before you can help others. Okay? I love you guys dearly. Okay, Friday is what? Q and A. Send them. Send them to info@martinclinic.com. info@martinclinic.com. Those questions will get to me for Q and A Friday and perhaps Monday, depending on how far down that list we'll get in terms of questions. But send them in. We love them. And you know what guys? You guys love Q and A. Well, we get feedback. They love it. Okay? Well, we love it too. I'm used to it. Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened unto you. That's in the Bible. Okay, 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!