Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners in today's episode.
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
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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 appreciate you coming on. Okay, so let's get back. We started Friday with Q and A, and guess what? I didn't get to half. I didn't. Okay, Andrea, "I know steak is king." You got it. Steak is king. Sun, steak and steel and I meant it okay? Sun, steak and steel. Okay, "what are your thoughts on tripes?" Did I even say that right? T-R-I-P-E-S? Well, it's considered an organ meat. Okay. Is it good for you? Yeah, full of protein. There's a lot of fat. Very good for you. Do I like the taste of it? No, I like steak better. Okay. It's like when people ask me about liver, what do I think? Well, I think liver is very good. It really is, but I don't like the taste of it. Therefore, everything for me is steak. That's number one. But in terms of nutritional quality, hey, liver is great. I've never tried. Is it really pronounced tripes? I don't know. It's the stomach lining, isn't it of beef or whatever, or lamb. Is it good for you? Yeah.
Noelene, "she can't get over." I think because I answered this question, but I don't know Noelene what you're trying to ask me second time, but let me answer it again. Repeating the question about estrogen. Okay, so it's a cream, estrogen, cream for the uterus and to reinforce the smooth muscle of the vagina. Look, I'm just going to repeat Noelene what I say all the time, what I've said for 30 years, and I'm just going to say it again. In my opinion, okay? Remember, it's my opinion, and I did bioidentical hormones for a lot of years. It's my opinion. I never used estrogen. I know estrogen is going down. I know lots of naturopaths. I know a lot of gynecologists that use bioidentical estrogen. And what do I think? I don't think much.
And the reason I say it, okay, there's a reason I do this because I always considered myself primarily a woman's doctor. Why is that? I was dealing with horror-mones all the time. So I considered myself a woman's doctor and I had my protocols, did 'em for years. And all I got to say is I don't like estrogen. The reason I say it is because women and men are dominant in estrogen, even though their blood levels, yes, they're coming down. You get it, you get older, your estrogen comes down. But we get so many xenoestrogens, okay? Almost every chemical mimics estrogen. So we're bombarded and what we have is estrogen dominance. And the key is not estrogen, especially when it comes to smooth muscle. It's progesterone. Okay? Progesterone, the pro baby hormone, that's what sinks like the Titanic, and you need a balance between the two. I don't like using estrogen.
If you've used estrogen, hey, good for you. But in my professional opinion, I never liked it. I didn't use it in my office. I used progesterone with great benefits. Estrogen is a growth hormone, and I know you need it, but you already got too much in my opinion. You think you have too little, but you have too much because of those xenoestrogen. So if you understand where I'm coming from, Noelene, if you want to use estrogen, I'm not telling you, listen, you got to make that decision, not me. Do I like it? No. And you can't change my mind on it. I am very adamant about it, and it's because I showed you guys this the other day. I used to do estrogen testing on the skin and women. It was amazing. And some men, amazing how much estrogen they had on their bodies. It was incredible. They had no idea. I spent my years in practice trying to lower estrogen. You already had too much, okay? And that's the way I look at it. And I love you Noelene, thanks for asking the question. Hope I answered it for you.
Okay, June, "I've been taking Synthroid," which is a thyroid medication, "testing that my thyroid is functioning well, but I have all the symptoms of a sluggish thyroid," yeah and millions of women do, even though they're on Synthroid or levothyroxine. I would add the thyroid formula. If you got all the symptoms of a sluggish thyroid. Again, you know my rule of thumb. Symptoms trump the blood test. The thyroid, because look, I don't dismiss blood tests. I don't dismiss TSH or T3, T4. I look at it, but I used to do this in my office, okay? Your TSH seems to be within normal limits. And of course that's from here to eternity. I mean, if you understood the numbers on TSH, I mean it's so crazy. It's unbelievable the range there, what they call normal. My dad taught me this. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it's a duck, meaning thyroid. If you got all the symptoms of a sluggish thyroid, your thyroid's out of whack. I don't care what your TSH says. That's what I mean by symptoms trump blood tests, it's like B12. The test is a hundred years old. Give it a birthday party and put it to bed. What's normal? What does that mean? How do you feel? That's what's important. Okay, so thanks for the question, June.
Judy's got shingles. No fun. Okay? The herpes virus that was dormant when you got the chicken pox as a kid that gave you the virus, the herpes virus. And I'll tell you something with shingles, okay? Shingles comes out, I can't even think of a case. The immune system is suppressed and there's a lot of cortisol. There's a lot of stress hormone. That's when shingles comes out. I've seen shingles a lot of times with cancer treatment and that because your immune system gets bombarded and now you're immunosuppressed. And guess what? That virus, which was sitting dormant, herpes, can become herpes zoster, which is shingles, herpes simplex, which is a cold sore, right? But I always see the cortisol always, always, always is involved in that. It suppresses the immune system.
When you're in the fight or flight, your immune system, you're not worried about fighting a virus. Your body is ready to run or fight and your immune system gets compromised. So what would I do? Well, number one, let's build your immune system. Probiotics. Two, oil of oregano, very antiviral, very antiviral. Double up and triple up the amount of oil of oregano, vitamin D. Make sure, I would do the hammer. If you got shingles, I would do the hammer of 50,000 IUs a day of vitamin D for three days, okay? Vitamin A, eat steak, okay? Eat steak, eat eggs, lay off the sugar. Sugar suppresses your immune system big time. It puts your white blood cells to sleep. It gives them a siesta. So all of that. Okay, thanks Judy.
Carol, "what can make homocystine?" Okay, we talk about that. What is homocystine? Well, it's a blood test. Okay? I like homocystine. We put out a newsletter. Was it last week or I can't remember exactly when we put out a newsletter about homocysteine, which is a blood test you get. Okay? And I don't worry about it being too low. I guess maybe I always worry about high homocystine. We often describe homocysteine as smoke from a fire. Where there's smoke, there's a fire. So it can be an inflammatory indicator. One thing for sure if you're low in homocysteine, you're low in B12. I think that was a big part of our newsletter. We were talking about B12. People today generally have low levels of B12. I mean 80, 90% of the population do not have optimized levels of B12. And the blood test is very unreliable. It really is. It really is.
Now what could cause low homocysteine? Well, same thing. It's amazing. Even B12 levels being too low can give you low homocysteine. If you have kidney disease, certain medications like steroids and chemotherapy like methyltrexate, statin drugs can give you low homocysteine, too low, okay, too low. Sometimes I've seen it where it's an indicator of a neurological disorder or kidney disorder, but again, I don't take it low. Meaning let's say you come in or I look at your blood tests and they're really extremely low homocysteine. Well, I'd be asking a lot of questions. I'd be asking a lot of questions. But generally I got to tell you that most of the time what I've seen is high homocysteine level, which is smoke from the fire of inflammation. Okay? And B12, there's a big factor there. Thank you, Carol. Carol, how often should you check this out?Homocystine? Well, you got low, I don't know, couple times a year.
Heidi, "from the newsletter this week on B12. What about sublingual versus injectable B12?" Well, look it, let me just talk about B12 for a minute. When I was a kid, every doctor in the universe loved B12. I mean it, okay? Every doctor in the universe loved B12. My dad loved B12. Everybody loved B12. Our family doctor loved B12. Okay? It was given, like it was, I'm not going to say like candy, but just about. You were tired, you got a B12 shot. They wouldn't even hesitate, wouldn't even think. And here we are today, and doctors, when's the last time they've given a B12 shot? It's not part of their tool bag anymore. They just don't think about and because they don't see the significance of it. I know you guys do and I do. You know the significance of B12. I know the significance of B12. Everybody just about on the planet is low in B12. They don't eat red meat or they get older. They don't have the intrinsic factor. B12 is a very finicky vitamin to start off with.
If you look at the molecular chemical structure of it, it is hard to digest on the best of days. And then we have the religion of veganism and vegetarianism that discouraged B12 and you can't get B12 in the plant kingdom. So we have all those factors. You got any kind of digestive issues, you're going to be low in B12. So it's my go-to with vitamin D. It's my go-to. Now you're asking the question, what's better sublingual or the B12 shot? Well, listen, this has been proven by the way, okay? Because most people need to take B12 every day. They're so low in it. The sublingual. Okay, what's sublingual mean? Under tongue. Let it melt in your mouth. Sublingual. B12 is the best B12. I talked to a person the other day and they said, well, I'm taking B12. I said, how? Well I take a capsule of it every day, I swallow it. I said, you're not getting that.
So do I like B12 shots? Yep, absolutely I do. But good luck. Well, the doctor ain't giving it. You can give it to yourself, I guess. But the sublingual proven, take it every day. There ain't ever in the history of giving B12. Has anybody ever died? I know why you died. You just overdosed on B12. Says no one that's smart because they've never seen it. I remember one time a physician called me, she was, I loved her. Okay? She was a patient of mine and then she saw another patient of mine and she said, Dr. Martin, Suzy Q, that wasn't her name. She's got high B12. What do I do? I said, well, tell Susie Q, who happened to be one of my patients too, that I'm glad it's high, better, high than low. Well, it's got flagged on their blood work. What do I do? Nothing. Because nothing's going to happen. It's not dangerous. It's a water soluble vitamin.
Even if it was fat soluble, I've never seen the case. Oh, I know why you're sick. You got too much B12 in your body. No you don't. No you don't. Anyway, I'm pretty adamant about it because I've been around the sun for a lot of years. I never seen a case where somebody got sick from taking too much B12. There's nobody in the waiting rooms of any hospital in any place in North America. I know why you're here. You got high B12 or I'll give you another one. I know why you're here. You got toxic levels of vitamin D. Nah, they don't see it. They talk about it. They talk about it. They scared the life out of people, but they've never seen a case of it. Anywho, that's me. Thank you very much, Heidi. We appreciate that question.
Joanne, "what's my advice on Ozempic and Wegovy or Wagovy injectable GLP-1 meds?" What do I think? Well, I've done a lot of programming on that. I've answered a lot of questions on that. I have to. Why? Well, it's so popular today. All I know is, okay, here's me. I get it. I mean, these meds, by the way, weren't created for weight loss originally. What were they created for? Diabetes. Did I like them then? No. Look, I'm on your side. Okay? I had a weight loss clinic. We had a division of the Martin Clinic. It was divided, but we actually had a separate weight loss clinic. Am I compassionate? You bet your boots I'm compassionate. Am I understanding? You bet your boots, I'm understanding. So when people want to lose weight, look, you got to weigh the benefits versus the risk of this medication. Ozempic or Wegovy or Wagovy or whatever you call it. We got a lot of side effects, sometimes permanent.
And one thing we know, research has born this out. When you stop taking it, the weight comes back. Okay? So whatcha going to do? Take it the rest of your life? From stomach paralysis to big time digestive issues to blindness. Listen, I am on your side. Just get all the research, get all the information before you do the GLP, okay? Just get all the information because I'm much bigger, okay, this is me now, okay? I'm going to give some advice generally. I'm much bigger, I don't care about calories. I never have, okay? I care about fuel. What I try and do and what I try to do in my office with very big success. Not everybody, because first of all, I look for deficiencies. Because if you're trying to lose weight and you got deficiencies, you better fix those and B12, vitamin D, all those things. For example, big time deficient, horror-mones, fix that.
I know especially women, they couldn't lose weight if their life depended on it because they're so hormonally out of balance, their thyroid is working at the rate of a snail, okay? It is not working properly. So doc, I tried every diet. Yeah, okay, I get it. But listen, the big thing is this. The overarching principle for me is this. It's fuel. I look at your mitochondria, I look at the ATP that gives out the fuel, the energy of fuel. If you want to eat paper and twigs on a wood stove, well good luck with burning that off. Burns too fast and you're going to be hungry all the time. And your body cells at the cellular level are not getting the energy they need. Your cells are overfed and undernourished. Have I said that a million times or more? You're overfed and undernourished. Most people don't realize. Dr. Martin, fiber. Well, what's that got to do with anything? Fiber's not full of nutrients. A steak is.
So when I get people, and I mean it. When I get people to change fuels. Eggs, meat. Meat, dairy, good dairy. There's bad dairy by the way. Don't drink milk. Okay? Again, unless you have, finish the sentence. Don't drink milk unless you have a cow in the backyard. Don't drink milk. Why do you need milk? You don't need milk. Limit your drinking. Well, when we had a weight loss clinic, you know what we took you off? No alcohol. While you're on our program, you can't drink alcohol. What? I mean it that'll shipwreck your weight loss program. That I guarantee it. Okay, so you got to listen, Linda and Larry. And what we did is we changed fuels.We went from crappy carbs and fat, like a donut, like a muffin, like a bagel, okay? And oh, Dr. Martin, it's whole wheat. I don't care. It's just sugar molecules holding hands. Stop okay?
Then I want you to have bacon. What? For weight loss? Yeah, it's a better fuel. It's a better fuel. Have eggs, have a hundred eggs, I don't care. You'll find out you don't need a hundred eggs. You could eat a hundred eggs, but you don't need it because when you're eating that much protein and fat, see in nature, God gives us protein and fat together. Eggs, meat, protein and fat. Dairy, good dairy, protein and fat, not carbs and fat, protein and fat. So I used to do an education program with a weight loss program. And if you want to take a shortcut, well yeah, you go GLP-1 drugs, it's a shortcut. But at the end of the day you got to weigh all those side effects and maybe permanent and you can't stop because if you stop the weight's coming back.
And that's why like to me, what I did, it was very important is change the way you eat. And why I did the 30 day program and sometimes it was 60, sometimes it was 90. I mean, people that had a lot of weight to lose, we'd introduce a few fruits and vegetables after 30 days. Very limited. And we changed their drinks too, by the way. Okay, no juice. It's Tropicana Dr. Martin. I don't care. No juice. You can have a smoothie even as a meal replacement. What? You can have Dr. Martin's perfect smoothie with cream. Okay, I like that. Okay. And you could do that. A heavy fat protein drink because it ain't calories, it's fuel, it's not calories, it's fuel. And the reason there's 30 days there is to get rid of insulin resistance. That's number one.
But number two is that people, when they get into about day 21st day, three weeks, they found out, you know what? Me and carbs, we never really got along. Man, it's like being in a toxic relationship. It's like being in a bad marriage. Gee, I didn't realize how toxic that was. Yeah, well your relationship to crappy carbs is toxic and sometimes it takes about three weeks to figure it out. How good you feel when you come off that stuff. Might take a week or two because you get a little bit of Stockholm Syndrome, if you know what I mean. You had a crappy relationship with the carbs, but you still liked them and your body goes, oh geez, I missed that. Yeah, until you don't anymore and then you figure it out. Anyway, did I answer your question? I got off on that was Joanne.
Okay, let me just do a couple more. We'll see if we can get these done here. Okay, Solia, how are you? Okay. Still struggling with acne. You're seem to be doing everything right. Make sure Solia, listen, acne, too much estrogen and that elevates in the woman, her testosterone. Okay, testosterone. You need a little wee, people, when I did bioidentical when I was in practice, Dr. Martin, can you test my testosterone? I don't need to test your testosterone. What? I don't need to test it. If your estrogen is high it'll elevate your testosterone. In a woman, you don't want that. You want to grow a beard, you want to get acne? Women don't need testosterone. They need a little bit. You need a balance between estrogen and progesterone. Solia, you're doing everything. Everything you're writing to me, I like. You're already doing the probiotics. Good for you because you got to start in the gut. I'd get you on the menopausal formula just to knock down with the dim, to knock down your estrogen, dim it out, and flax seeds add flaxseeds to your regime and you watch, it'll go away.
Okay, let me see here. Cecilia, she has a senior nap in the afternoon and so do I. Cecilia, it's good for you. I talk about that all the time. You have a little snooze. Me too. You know what, Cecilia? I did that every day just about of my life when I was in practice for 50 years. You know what? I take about a 15 minute, 10, 15 minute siesta before I'd see patients in the afternoon. I did it every day. Okay? I regenerated my brain. Your self cleaning oven actually will come on in your brain just for a few minutes to help clean out the debris. You need a good night's sleep too of course. Okay, now what are you asking? Oh, she gets a panic attack when you wake up. Then comes a hot flash. It's been happening for years. Cecilia you got horror-mones. You don't have the perfect balance of estrogen, progesterone. And remember, if your cortisol is high, listen to this. Cortisol robs progesterone. When your cortisol is too high, it robs progesterone. Guess what? Estrogen takes off. That can give you a hot flash, that can give you a panic attack. All of the above. Weird, weird, weird is what I would say, Cecilia. But hey, welcome to womanhood. Love you dearly.
Chloe. "My hometown is Newfoundland," your home province. "And we enjoy eating salted beef, a jigs dinner. Go for it. Salt ain't the problem. Beef ain't the problem. Sugar's the problem. So go for it. Good for you. Okay? It's healthy. Big time. You know how much sodium we need in a day? Lots.
Okay, let me see. "I have optimal levels of vitamin D." Francine, good for you. "I still take a drop of vitamin D. I eat eggs, meat and cheese." Good for you. "Should I also supplement with more vitamin K2?" Look, you could. To me you're eating enough vitamin K2 and you got K2 in our vitamin D. I don't think you need any more, but if you want to take some more, I got no problem with that. I don't talk about supplementing as much with K2. Not that I don't because we actually supplement in our vitamin D with K2. But you know how much I love K2, but I want you to eat it. And it seems to me, Francine, you're eating it. It comes built in when you eat eggs, meat, and cheese. So Francine, that's up to you.
And this is Tara. "Had a partial hysterectomy, told I go into early menopause." Often happens. "I did have breast cancer in 2015." So I would take at least two menopausal formula you're asking for sure. Do the dim, dim that estrogen big time. Dim it, dim it, dim it even though you're going to go into menopause because all those xenoestrogens I talked about. Dim that estrogen out, especially with your history of breast cancer. Okay? You never want to come back.
Tess is asking about beef organ supplements. Hey, you can take that. I've got no problem with that. I'd rather you eat it, but if you want to take a supplement of it, go for it. I eat the beef.
Linda is asking about mullein or mullein, I don't even know how to pronounce it. Extract for lung cleanse, mucus phlegm. Yeah, I had patients take that stuff. I don't know if it was the best. I always liked quercetin better for the lungs and phlegm. I used to combine quercetin with Navitol, pine bark extract. Very good antihistamine very good. I always like quercetin more in terms of phlegm and oil of oregano too, by the way. Okay. Oil of oregano. A lot of times in mucus you're creating a lot of it. You got to fungus in your body's trying to get rid of it. That's why I love oil of oregano.
Okay, and you know what, I think I'll leave this because I'll bring these questions in tomorrow. There's a couple of things that were brought up here talking about Gail's, talking about a live blood cell analysis. I used to teach this. Okay, so let me do that tomorrow and I got a few other questions and I'll bring in a study or two because I think, gee, we almost got enough to do it. Another one. Holy smokes. Okay. Yeah, you know what? Let's do another one tomorrow. We'll answer more questions tomorrow. Okay? So we love you guys. Love you dearly. Talk to you soon.
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