Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners in today's episode.
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
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Dr. Martin: Good morning everyone and welcome to another live this morning. Hope you're having a great start to your day. Okay, let's get to the questions. Question number one comes from Marie. "Do you have any suggestions to reduce cataract growth?" She has dry eye. Somebody asked that question too a little farther down, so maybe I'll answer both right away. "I currently take four DHA, two probiotics, and two Navitol." Try upping your Navitol. You got cataracts. Let me tell you what cataracts, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, whatever. Again, it all comes down to circulation. All comes down to circulation. Cataracts, glycation. That's what happens inside, behind the eye in those blood vessels. And you got glycation, you got inflammation, you got oxidation. That's what happens in those little blood vessels in behind the eye.
And my experience in the clinic is this, and I did this for years, high DHA and the combination with Navitol. You put the two together and the results, and you can actually go on the Martin Clinic website and look at the reviews under DHA. But again, I always use the combination. I showed this to ophthalmologists that would listen and optometrists. I said, you know because even ophthalmologist says, well use the elderberry or whatever for the eyes and no problem, but something better, and I proved it to them, but they were always measuring. And again, it's circulation. So keep doing what you're doing. I would up your Navitol and let me just see. I want to get to that same question because somebody asked me this here.
Okay. It's Darlene. What would your protocol for taking the Martin Clinic DHA supplement for dry eye? Just wonder if it's a bit different, the usual dosage. Yeah. I do recommend if you've got dry eyes, go to a higher dose, four to six capsules of high DHA. Okay? That's a lot of DHA, but your eyeball is made up of DHA. And it lubricates those blood vessels in behind the eye. And with the combination of Navitol, which is a powerful antioxidant, it protects against oxidation, inflammation, and it elevates. It opens up those blood vessels because it elevates your nitric oxide. More blood, more blood supply, the combination. Okay? So Darlene, that's what I would do. I would take two to four Navitol and four to six DHA. Do that for about a month and see what happens for dry eyes. It's unreal. Okay? The results always astounded me in the office.
Okay, Lorna, "I was at the health food storage during a conversation with the clerk, told my husband not to take more than one vitamin D with K2." I'm getting a migraine. Lorna, I'm getting a migraine. One vitamin D with K2. One drop? That would be a 1000 IUs. Guys, a thousand IUs is for a mouse. Ain't for human. Vitamin D has been so miscalculated. And let me tell you why this clerk said what she said. Oh, you can take more vitamin D if you want, but it's that K2 that's dangerous. No, it's not. No, it's not. K2 is not dangerous. They're mixing up K1 with K2. K1 comes from the plant kingdom. It's not dangerous either, but it can thin your blood out. That's why this person who mixed up K1 with K2, K2, you know what K2 does? It takes calcium and puts it where it belongs.
You see, God in food gave you calcium. Dairy, calcium. Everybody knows that. But what they don't know is in the dairy or in meat or in eggs or cheese or whatever, in the animal kingdom, you have calcium. Okay? But with the transporter of calcium, which is vitamin K2, not K1, K2. And K2 brings that calcium. It doesn't keep it in your bloodstream. It puts it in your bones and in your teeth. The problem is, when you're eating vegetables only, you have a little bit of calcium there, but you don't have the transporter of K2. So guess where that calcium stays? Or if you take a calcium supplement, you know where it stays? In your blood. That doesn't belong in your blood. It belongs in your bones.
So look, you go to the health food store, you have people that some of them are very, very up to date and they know their stuff. I heard a lot of nonsense from people at a health food store, okay? Just because they hear something and they mix it up. Example, K1 with K2. Another example, oil of oregano. Don't take that all the time. It's an antibiotic. Yeah, but it doesn't work like a synthetic antibiotic, what your doctor prescribed. That kills all bacteria, good, bad, and ugly. But oil of oregano doesn't do that. It's a natural antibiotic, but it only kills the bad guys. It feeds your good guys. How do you like that? But you'll hear that at the health food store. Okay? Well, most times. I had to undo all that with people that shopped at health food stores. And I said, "Well, I know what they say, but they really don't know what they're talking about. " Okay?
And that's why I like to educate my audience, you guys, because you guys know. And I do a lot of repetition. Rinse and repeat, that's the way I teach. And I like to set some things straight. For example, on vitamin D. In Canada, they don't want you taking more than a 1000 IUs. And like I said, the math is so off. It's crazy how silly it is. But here we are in 2026 and vitamin D, you're going to end up in the emergency room. No. Well, maybe if you don't take vitamin D, you're going to end up in the emergency room. They scare the living life out of people and they don't know what they're talking about. And they're bought and paid for by the pharmaceutical industry, bought and paid for. Anyway, okay. I'm glad you asked the questions because if you don't ask, you're not going to get answers.
Okay, Lorna, "astaxanthin." I like it. It's an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory. It's good. I like it. I've seen a lot of research on it, but, and here's my big but. When you ask me about stuff, okay, you have to understand. Okay? You have to understand where I come from. And I'm biased, guys. I'm biased. But what I'm telling you is what I know from my clinical experience. Okay? I wasn't a researcher guy. I was a clinician. I had to get results. So when you talk about a product, which I like, by the way, astaxanthin or however you say it, I like it. But what I like better is one that I know I'm very familiar with, and that's Navitol, which is pine bark extract. The research on pine bark is probably the. Other than vitamin D, I don't think anything has been researched in the natural realm as much as pine bark extract. You don't hear about it unless you listen to me. But I'm telling you the studies.
And guys, I remember presenting a paper on chronic fatigue syndrome in France in 19, I don't remember now. I'd have to go back in 1990. I just did a small study in my office on chronic fatigue and the use of Navitol, the use of pine bark. I fascinated those researchers over in France. They had no idea it worked for that. I said, "Well, you guys know this because you've demonstrated this, that it crosses the blood-brain barrier." It gets into the brain. Most natural products can't cross that barrier. Navitol does. And I said, "Here's the results. With brain fog, with low energy, pain and fibromyalgia, very, very effective and cognitive, incredible." And I saw it in my office and I wrote a book about it and I presented it over in France in the mid '90s, probably 96 or 90, I don't know. Okay. I really don't. I'd have to look it up.
But I've been dealing with pine bark extract for, it seems like a century. Okay? I mean it. And so I compare that. Like you give me another antioxidant and I go, hey, it's good. I love it. It's good stuff. You want to take it? Go. I just like pine bark extract better. I like Navitol better. And it's the king of the castle when it comes to antioxidants and elevating nitric oxide. I think somebody's going to ask me about beet juice or beets. Beets are great. I don't like them. I don't like the taste of it, but they're good for you. 100%. They elevate nitric oxide, but not like pine bark extract. And I proved it, by the way, in my office, because I used to measure nitric oxide. I used to measure it. Okay. Thanks for the questions. We appreciate it. I'm very biased, guys. Okay? I admit that. I'm biased, but I have experience and I got to just tell you what I know.
Lorianne, "can you explain to me why when I used to get B12 shots, my brain felt like it had a cold shower? And now that I'm taking B12 sublingual, I don't get that feeling at all?" Well, probably because of the injection was going directly into your bloodstream and intramuscular goes right to your bloodstream and you probably had that little feeling. But when you're taking sublingual, which by the way, it's been tested, it's more effective. And to take B12 every day, you usually don't take a B12 shot every day, but B12, they're finding now and it's been tested. So I'm just giving you the research that if you take a sublingual and somebody asked this question the other day, "Well, Dr. Martin, can I swallow B12?" Well, not in a supplement because if you do, you're not getting it.
It's got to be a lozenge or whatever where you put it under your tongue and let it melt, because then it's going into your bloodstream. It's bypassing the digestive tract into your bloodstream, but slower than a shot for sure. But that's probably the difference. Okay. And that was Lorianne. And yeah, that's probably the difference. And you can tell with B12, by the way, not that I'm, everything counts with the blood test, but you want high B12, not low. And it's almost the higher the better, but a lot of times it can be high and you're still not getting enough B12 into your cells because that's where it belongs B12. Okay? They measure the blood part of it. And I find my sweet spot to be around 800 to 1200. Generally in my practice days, that's what I was looking for. But anyway, B12 is so good for you. You guys know that. It's a foundational supplement for sure.
Lorraine is asking if there'd been anything to hinder vitamin D3 and K2 absorption. Well, maybe if you don't have enough magnesium in your system, that might affect the absorption of it. You got generally, anybody with severe digestive issues might have, like I'm talking about a supplement, right? I think you are. You take vitamin D3 with K2, the drop. It doesn't get stopped in your stomach. It doesn't need to be broken down in there. So it gets into your system. I just tell you my experience, okay? Because you can measure, again, like B12, you can measure vitamin D. You can take a dehydroxy test and actually see vitamin D in your bloodstream. And I wish they did it more often. I wish insurance companies and the government would pay for vitamin D because it's so essential to find out what your numbers are.
I talked about this yesterday. In cancer, you want your numbers to be in American numbers between minimum of 60 NGML, but I like closer to a hundred for cancer. In Canadian numbers, that would be 250, 200 to 250. You want that up there. So let me just say to you, Lorraine, get your blood tested for vitamin D. If you have to pay for it, pay for it. It's worth it. And then you'll find out if you're absorbing vitamin D. If you're taking vitamin D and you might not be taking enough, I don't know. But get back to me on that. Send me an email if you can info at Martin Clinic. It'll come to me and tell me what, if you have any numbers, what your numbers are. And if you're not absorbing it, to be honest, I've never seen that. If you're taking the right amount of vitamin D3 with K2, you're going to absorb it.
Even if you've got bad digestion with it, like I said, maybe if you're very low in magnesium, it's possible, but I could elevate vitamin D3 levels in my office pretty quickly by supplementation. I can't even think of an exception to that. There's just a lot of people were not taking enough vitamin D. I showed them their numbers and I said, "Nope, you got to get that up there, man. You got enough vitamin D in your system for a mouse, not for you. And your immune system won't work properly without vitamin D3. You need it. And you don't live in Florida." And then the people that live in Florida, they don't go in the sun.
Okay. Now, Janet, I don't know exactly the way I got this sent to me was, "what is the maximum recommended number of these supplements that should be taken daily?" What supplement? Any supplement? And maybe, Janet, this is not your fault. If you're listening today, Janet, can you tell me specifically what you mean by that? Like what supplements? All supplements? Because I could talk to you about hundreds of supplements. If you want to talk about vitamin D, what's the maximum amount? It depends. I talk about taking vitamin D hammer. That's 50,000 IUs a day for three days at the first sign of a bug, a cold or whatever. Do the hammer. DHA, it depends. Navitol, it depends. Maximum, what's going to happen to you? You know what I mean? I need to know a little bit more clarification, Janet, and maybe you've already done that and they just sent it to me without giving me what supplements you're talking about. And give me a little bit more information so I can give you a better answer. Okay? Thank you, Janet.
This is a good question, John saying, "can supplements be taken with coffee and be absorbed?" I hope so. I'd be in trouble. If taking supplements with coffee was not a good thing, of course it's a good thing. Okay? Look, there's always people, the naysayers that are going to tell you coffee, don't have this with coffee or don't have that with coffee. It's a bunch of bunk. Coffee's good for you. When you drink coffee, you're drinking a supplement. One of the most powerful supplements in the world is coffee, and I mean it. It's more powerful than vitamin C. The other vitamin C is ascorbic acid. Even though that's good, I'm not against ascorbic acid, but coffee's more powerful than that. There's nothing negative about coffee. There just isn't. I'm sorry. My wife says, even if there was something negative, you wouldn't talk about it. Well, she's probably right.
I used to tell my patients in the office, look at me. I want to change your habits. What do you drink? I drink juice. I drink milk. I do this. I said, "I'm going to stop all that for 30 days and you'll thank me later." You like water? Nah. I said, drink it. You'll thank me later. You're going to drink two liters, 64 ounces, and you're going to drink coffee. Like coffee? "I love coffee, but my doctor said," well, your doctor doesn't know what they're talking about. Even people at the health food store said, "Well, coffee's acidic." No, it's not. No, it's not. "Coffee dehydrates." No, it doesn't. They told you it did, but it doesn't. Coffee is one of the greatest supplements you can take. Do you like coffee? "I love coffee." Well, then enjoy it. "Well, Dr. Martin, I like tea." Well, tea gives you oxalate. You want to have a little bit? I don't care, but don't tell me it's better than coffee because it's not. Okay. Where have you heard that before? Right on this program. A million times. Okay, so that was John. "Can supplements be taken with coffee and absorb?" Absolutely.
And Louise is asking, "What is the best fruit to eat? Less sugar, fewer carbs." Well, berries. Okay? I'm a big guy on berries. That's why I include berries in Dr. Martin's perfect smoothie. If you can get wild blueberries that we have in Northern Ontario, one of the most powerful antioxidants that you can eat is a blueberry, a wild one, especially. Strawberries, raspberries, berries. I like berries. They're low in sugar and they're good for you. Okay? I got no problem with that. Don't live on it, but it's good for you. Now, fruit. Well, you can eat an apple. It's not very high in sugar, but don't drink it. You can have an orange. Don't drink it. You can eat an orange. Okay? Those are good fruits. I got no problem with them. Avocados? They're fantastic. They're very low in sugar. And again, you're meant to eat fruit. Don't drink it. But you can drink Dr. Martin's Perfect Smoothie if you put berries in it. For sure, they're good for you with heavy cream, coconut, heavy, heavy, fat coconut milk. You want to use that? Go for it. Okay. Coconuts are good too as a fruit, right?
Okay, Monique. And Monique spoke highly of two bacillales that are helpful to the microbiome, lactobacillus rhamnosus and lactobacillus reuteri. Monica goes, "But Dr. Martin, they're not in your formula." Sure they are. We tried to hide our formula. This is years ago. Okay? You know what was happening? People heard about Dr. Martin because I had The Doctor Is In radio show, and I've written several books. I'd be on almost every radio show and TV show, whatever, right? And I'd talk about probiotics when nobody was talking about it and L reuteri and L rhamnosus. So what we did with our formula, people were trying to copy it. They didn't know what they were talking about. And it was a trade secret. So we put it in immune boosting formula and Health Canada allowed us to do it. And the L reuteri and L rhamnosus are in that.
Yeah, I would never put out a probiotic without L rhamnosus and L reuteri. And the reason is because they are very, very good for a lot of things. One is a major detox because L rhamnosus and L reuteri will go after fungus or yeast. They will go after heavy metals and help to chelate them out of your body. I love those two formulas. Look, I love all bacteria, good bacteria, but I really like L rhamnosus and reuteri. And believe you me, they're in our formula. Believe you, me. Okay. Thanks, Monique because she says, "I can't find them. They're not in your formula." Well, we tried to couch it. Okay. Monique, you're very sharp. I like when you're looking around cause Dr. Martin talks about those two bacteria and doesn't even put them in his formula. Is he crazy? No, they're in there, Monique. I promise you.
Kathy, here's another one. "Why would it say you can't take Cortisol Control before bed on the label?" You see my face? You see my cortisol going up? You see the fight or flight because I want to fight. It's Health Canada. They make us do it on the label. You know how many tens of thousands of people or more take Cortisol Control to help them sleep? Calms them down during the day, gets that cortisol down. And at night, tens of thousands of people take it to go to sleep and get into a better REM sleep. But the law in Canada is because there's a couple of ingredients in there and they say, "Well, don't take that before you go to bed." We got to put it on the label. In the United States, we don't have to put it on the label, but in Canada we do. It's the rules. We got to follow the rules. Otherwise, you can't sell products in Canada. It's the way it is. It gives me a migraine, but what are you going to do? Okay? That's why.
Okay, let me see. Let's do a couple of more here. Yeah, we'll probably have to do two sessions, right? Okay. Chaz. Hi, Chaz. I know you're on the program this morning. "Very familiar with the term healing crisis. You have to feel bad before you feel good. Okay? Can visceral fat eliminating toxins cause eczema?" I don't know if it could cause it. I've seen some reaction. Well, I'll give you an example. On the recent, you're burning fat. You're not burning muscle because it's not a calorie restriction. You're eating eggs, meat, and cheese, you're changing fuels, and sometimes you detox too fast. Okay? I've seen that happen. And some stuff can end up on your skin, the toxins. Is it possible? Sometimes a little bit of eczema? Maybe. But generally, that doesn't happen, but it's possible. I always tell people, look, your body just trying to get rid of toxins and sending it out on your skin. Just stay the course. Stay the course. You'll do all right.
Let's stop it there for today because let me just see here. Yeah, okay, we got Monday session coming. Okay? So Monday morning we'll finish this up. Thanks for all the questions. Don't be shy. Give us feedback. Send in questions. Don't be shy. Okay? We love that. Okay? Wednesday night, if you're in our little private Rebuild Your Temple Book Club on Facebook. I'm going to do a webinar there. Take your questions if you have any. Nice little group. We had a little session this morning. And we really appreciate folks that have joined us. Okay? So you can do that. It'll be Wednesday night, 6:30. And you can get Rebuild Your Temple and just temporarily, hopefully not permanently Sun, Steak and Steel is available only in Canada still. Okay? We're trying to get it to the United States. Okay, we love you guys. Talk to you soon.
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