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: Good morning. Good morning to you. Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends. Guys, we love you dearly. Thanks for coming on. We appreciate you guys more than you know. We're going to do a little bit of teaching. I get asked this so much on heart disease, but we'll talk about that this morning as you come on. Now, we sing a song. We don't sing it like we should, but there's an old song, sing it in Sunday School and that and some of you might've sang this as kids or whatever. Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings and see what God has done. I don't know, have you ever sang that song? I certainly have. And this morning on the American Thanksgiving, hey, not a bad idea. Not a bad idea to give thanks in all things. Not always easy is it, but it's something that we should practice. And that is giving thanks, giving thanks.
Now, a lot of times we can get very negative. I talked about this. This is a little lesson that's in our book, the new book coming. I think we can announce it unless somebody tells me differently. We'll be ready Black Friday. You know when Black Friday is? Tomorrow. So from what I heard and nobody told me any different, Rebuilding Your Temple will be available tomorrow. So we're really excited about that. There's a lot of little devotionals daily. And again, the blend of, and this is what we'll do this morning. We're going to talk about health, but we're also going to talk about your spiritual health. And one of the best habits you can get into is giving thanks, giving thanks. And I think if we really think about it, we do have a lot of things to be thankful for.
We talked about it yesterday in a little, wee lesson. Well, life is short and full of trouble. And it's true, isn't it? Okay, life is short and full of trouble, but nonetheless, there's a lot to give thanks for, okay? And I try and practice that guys. I try and put a new song in my mouth, even praise to God, thank him. I'm alive. I think of my daughter who many of you knew was in a really catastrophic accident that has permanently disabled her. And I talk to her every day of course, but she's got such a good attitude. Well, dad, I'm alive. Well dad, my boys are alive. My husband didn't die. We should have all died in that accident. So giving thanks, it's a great thing. And I want you to reflect today on that. What comes out of your mouth, even physically, it makes a difference, okay? Even physically, it makes a difference.
Okay, so let's talk this morning about heart disease because I get asked this all the time. And why not go over it, what causes your blood vessels to be damaged? What is it? And a lot of this is repetition, but let's just go over it because to me, they look for love in all the wrong places because they're looking at cholesterol. And cholesterol has been blamed for heart disease way back when ever since President Eisenhower. When I was a kid, you know who the president was? Eisenhower. Then after that, when I was 10 years old, it was President Kennedy and then Lyndon Johnson. But when Eisenhower, he was playing golf and he dropped in a sand trap. Now, I've been in a sand trap before and I should have had a heart attack for all the swings I had to take to get that ball out of the sand trap.
But Eisenhower dropped right there and had a massive heart attack and the world went silly. The world went stupid because one man, one man, you know what he said? One man, Ancel Keys said, you know what I know why President Eisenhower had a heart attack. Cholesterol. His cholesterol was high. And you have to understand something, okay, even way back when. Go back to 1955 or whatever. You know what the FDA would say? Smoking's good for you. Now, can you believe that? But they actually did. My doctor, okay? Advertisement on magazines. My doctor smokes Camels cigarettes. They're good for you. Are you kidding me? I mean, when you say the science is settled, guys, science by definition is never settled. But that's what happened. He got his face on the cover, Ancel Keys got his face on the cover of Time Magazine, big hero because he found out what caused heart disease.
And then here's what happened. The food industry, especially the cereal industry headed up by Dr. Kellogg's, they got involved big time and they said, yeah, it's cholesterol. We got to stop eating eggs. Let's change everyone's breakfast. No more eggs, no more bacon, no more sausages. Eat our cereal. We'll even put a heart on the box like Cheerios, heart healthy. Guys, that's what happened, well documented. And ever since you can't get it out of the craw, the craw of cardiologists, physicians, it's cholesterol. And now they've gone into the weeds because they haven't even made a dent in heart disease. Heart disease is worse than ever. And then they got a boogeyman. By the 1970s they got a boogeyman, LDL cholesterol, it became the boogeyman. It wasn't just cholesterol, it was LDL. You know why it was LDL? Because they found a medication to lower it called statin drugs, the number one selling medication of all time. It's hard to believe based on a false premise, but that's exactly what happened.
And you know what? I had the privilege of watching it. I don't know if it's a privilege or not, but I watched it. I watched it happen. I was even taught in school in 2000 hours of nutrition that cholesterol is a bad guy. You got to lower your cholesterol. I never bought it guys. You go back to high school, every cell in your body's got cholesterol, since when did it become a bad guy? It's like blaming the police because they're at the crime scene. So let's talk about that. Let's talk about, I'm going to give you what, five or six reasons that you get atherosclerosis, okay? Meaning hardening of your arteries. What happens? Why does it happen? Well, let's talk about that. Again, these are just basic points, not going to get too deep.
And going back to cholesterol. Now, I read an article yesterday on apo. So what they're doing now is a small particle cholesterol and large particle cholesterol. Okay? Apo A and B and guys, to me, it's a smokescreen. It's just another reason because LDL, when you really look at it at LDL cholesterol, and there's been a lot of pushback on that. Well, you lower the LDL. What does that do? So what did they do? The pharmaceutical companies, they're not stupid. They got a cash cow. So what do they do? And the lay person, what do they know? Here's what they did confuse even more. Well, yeah, maybe not LDL, but we got to look at those small particles. Anything to keep you on a statin drug? Statins should have been fired a long time ago.
We talked about it even in the last few days about statins and your brain. Well, they destroy the mitochondria. They destroy your spark plugs in your battery packs. The coQ10. Everybody will agree to that. Your doctor might not talk about it, but they ought to know that. I push back against pharmacists because I tell you, most pharmacists, when they fill out a prescription for statin drugs, it's malpractice and you can tell 'em I said so. It's malpractice when they don't give you ubiquinol, meaning coQ10 as a supplement because that's what statin drugs do. So what got vilified? Cholesterol and fat were vilified at the same time. Well, look at your arteries. It's all clogged up with yellow fat. Well, like I said, cholesterol's not the villain.
Yes, it's in your blood vessels. Of course it is because it's a carrier. Okay? I don't know if you drove down the highways in the United States today because it's Thanksgiving, maybe there wouldn't be too many trucks on the road. I don't know that. Do they ever take a day off? But you go down the highways and byways in Canada, United States, you're going to see a lot of transport trucks. Won't you? Come on. Well, they're carrying, cholesterol carries. You can't live without it. It carries your hormones, men and women, you need them and they got a wagon. I don't care so much about your LDL, although if you want to send it to me. I used to tell my patients that, you're asking me to look at stuff I'm not interested in. Well, Dr. Martin, what about my total cholesterol? Who cares?What about my LDL? Who cares? Well, I do care. Okay? I don't want it to be too low. They want it low. I don't. Okay, I don't.
But the key is your triglycerides. And remember your HDL, your high density lipoprotein. You ever seen those transport trucks that got two trailers attached to it? They're longer. They got two of them. Well, think of that as your HDL carrying hormones. Ladies, your estrogen, your progesterone being carried through your blood vessels. You need that. Transport it, your TSH and all that, it's needed, but they got another wagon, the HDL. This is why I always want to look at HDL because it's got another wagon attached to it at the back of the first trailer is the second trailer. You know what that one does? It takes your triglycerides, your fat balls, your three fat balls, try glycerides. They're dangerous. Triglycerides are dangerous. They clog up your arteries. But if you have enough HDL, the wagon in the back carries the triglycerides back to the liver for processing.
How do you get elevated triglycerides in the first place? How do you get elevated triglycerides? Sugar. It's not salt, it's not cholesterol, it's sugar. When the liver is all gunned up, when the Costco parking lot, okay, we got a Costco just up the street. The moment that store is open, the parking lot is full. And that reminds me of people's liver. Liver has a lot to do with heart disease. Why? Because when the Costco parking gets full and it only gets full when you give it sugar, especially high fructose corn syrup. Well triglycerides go into your bloodstream. You better have enough HDL. You better have enough cholesterol to go get it. That's why I love that ratio. I want to know your triglycerides and your HDL. I like LDL too, but not for heart. LDL is your immune system. It's so important.
So, the number one cause of heart disease is sugar, not fat. Sugar makes you fat. Sugar makes your liver fat. Sugar puts bad fat into your bloodstream via triglycerides. It's not cholesterol. One. Two, here's what sugar does too. Glycation. You know what glycation is? Glycation. It's not really, I could guess sort of a hardening. Think of red blood cells, okay? They get glycated and you can measure it. Sugar attaches itself to the middle of your red blood cell the hemoglobin. We can measure this. You know me. Why do I love A1C? Why do I love it as a blood test? Because it tells you. It tells you if you have elevated A1C, your sugar molecules are glycating. They are hitching their wagon to the middle of your hemoglobin. Can measure it. If you don't think sugar is destructive, I don't know what to tell you. And we talk about that. It's a big cause of heart disease and glycation because it takes away from the slipperiness.
Glycation guys, you want to see glycation? Look at skin. Okay, see wrinkles. You see wrinkles? Rosie and I got married 53 years ago. It'll be on Saturday. Okay? I look at a picture of me when I got married and I look at myself today. If you don't believe in glycation, look in the mirror. And you know what guys? Listen, it's part of life glycation, okay? That's what happens in the blood vessel. Sugar causes glycation. The Teflon layer gets affected. The other part of it is oxidation, free radical damage. We're rusting out. You've got glycation and you've got oxidation. Okay? Part of aging. Blood vessels lose their elasticity. They lose the Teflon layer. Really important. You have a lack of lubrication. They're not as slippery.
One of the biggest things guys in lubrication is oil. Think of it. We need an oil change. Your car does and so do you. Okay? You need an oil change. That's why there's nothing like Omega-3. Okay? So omega-3 comes in different forms. It's just like lots of cars on the road, right? There's Hondas, there's Kias, there's BMWs, there's Chevrolets, there's Fords. Well, there's a lot of omega 3's. But the best one, the one that gives you the most lubrication is DHA. EPA, DHA. Those are the two best, omega-3 and you want to keep your blood vessels lubricated in spite of glycation, in spite of oxidation. This is why DHA is so preventative, not only for your brain, but for your heart. A lot of people, they don't have lubrication. They have a lot of inflammation.
What's the number one cause of inflammation in blood vessels? You can't even see it. You know what it is, guys? It's when you got bad oils. There's good oils, there's bad oils. Bad oils are manmade oils made in a vat and they're very, very high in omega-6. And that causes, when you don't have enough omega-3 versus omega-6 and linoleic acid and all that, what happens? There's inflammation that goes on. And when the body senses inflammation, you know what it does? It tries to, it tries to combat that. And you get a lot of macrophages and white blood cells that are out on attack and they'll attack your own body. It's really like an autoimmune disorder. It's having inflammation without a fever. Yeah, inflammation's good if you've got a bug, but you don't want inflammation hanging around, it'll destroy your blood vessels. It'll take away the slipperiness again.
So you have oxidation, you've got glycation, you've got a lack of lubrication, you have inflammation. They all connected to your heart and heart disease and your blood vessels, okay? Then you add stress. Cortisol, because cortisol, you know what it does? It pours gasoline on the flames of inflammation. Stress, who ain't stressed today, right? So that's a big factor. And cortisol is pouring gasoline on. Okay? And we all get stressed, but some people, they're really stressed and it never ends. That's very hard on the body because the body wasn't meant for that. Wasn't meant to be under attack all the time. Cortisol, it should be part of your circadian rhythm. It'll go up to get you up in the morning, but it should be going down so you get a good night's sleep.
What are they saying? 70, 80% of the population don't even get a good night's sleep. You don't sleep, you don't repair. You don't sleep, your cortisol's through the roof. Your cortisol's through the roof, you don't sleep. What a vicious cycle it is. But that very hard on your heart, very hard on your blood vessels.
Okay, one more, nitric oxide. Okay? We didn't even know about nitric oxide when I was in school. I'm not kidding you. I never heard of it. I heard of nitroglycerin, but I didn't know the body has nitric oxide, opens your blood vessels, your body has a molecule. Who knew? I didn't know. They won a Nobel Prize in the 1980s. They discovered, again, is science settled? Like folks, you're fearfully and wonderfully made. Give thanks for that. Like nitric oxide. We didn't even study it in the seventies. Didn't know it existed, but it opens up your blood vessels. And you know what affects nitric oxide? Well, a couple of things. One of them is the sun. That's why the sun is so good for your heart. It opens up your blood vessels. When you get high blood pressure. You know what it is? It is not because your blood vessels are open, it's because they're clogging, and your heart's got to work harder to push.
One of the reasons I talk about water, drink water for your heart. I used to measure viscosity of blood. You know what? The vast majority of people come in? I said, you've got blood like molasses. You're not drinking enough H2O, but nitric oxide is important, guys. Okay? Vitamin D, you know what the other vitamin is for nitric oxide? B12. And you know how you get B12? Steak. So when a cardiologist tells you you can't have steak, it's got fat, it's got cholesterol, it's going to elevate your cholesterol, you don't eat it, you're lowering your nitric oxide. That's not good. B12.
Okay, that was our little Thanksgiving lesson today. Okay? So guys, remember now tomorrow is Black Friday. Okay? So Black Friday sale is on, and you can order the new book. Now, if I hear anything different today, I'm coming on to make an announcement, but apparently that's what's happening. Okay? Thank you for coming on, guys. We appreciate you and you guys have a great day too. Again, to my American friends, happy Thanksgiving. We love you dearly and sincerely. You know what tomorrow is too, but it's not only Black Friday, it's Q and A. Yeah, Fridays are Q and A. You've got questions for me? Send them in info@martinclinic.com. Okay? I love answering your questions. I really do. Okay, 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!