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. And once again, welcome to another live this morning. Hope you had a great Easter weekend and we appreciate you if you can say hello and come on with us this morning as you get your notifications. Okay, let's get back to our questions. Let's try and finish up from Friday here. So someone asked, okay, now I don't have your name because I just wrote a few questions down. I'm glad I wrote some of them down. Okay. One was asking about plasma. Can I donate plasma? Okay. Yeah. Okay. Plasma is different than just donating a regular blood donation. But plasma can be very effective in saving people's lives, especially if they have a rare disorder. And one thing about plasma, it's mostly water. It's got to be 90 something percent water. So you know what that means? You can do it more often. And they use those clotting factors in the plasma and whatever for people with oftentimes rare conditions or rare cancers. And you get longer shelf life with plasma. So yeah, if you want to donate plasma, go for it. And I've recommended people, especially with high ferritin or whatever, to go give blood. And a condition called hemochromatosis. It's not a bad idea. But the plasma, yeah, for sure. Okay?
Somebody else was asking as I continue to go through, oh, I want to scream this morning. Sorry if I don't have your name. Okay? Someone was asking about DMSO and should you be taking it as a supplement? Nope. I don't recommend that. Now, like DMSO, what it does is you get rapid crossing the skin barrier with it. And I know in medicine they'll use it therapeutically to... Where did I see them using interstitial cystitis, which I answered a question about that the other day on interstitial cystitis. Pain in the bladder, almost exclusively in women. And they'll use that DMSO in a treatment with interstitial cystitis. But for the lay person or whatever, now you don't have to take that. And usually you'll get an industrial grade, not a pharmaceutical grade. I don't recommend it. I don't recommend you take it. Again, it sort of got hot. This is 25 years ago, maybe less than that. But I got asked that on my radio show and somebody said it's the best thing since sliced bread. No, I never saw that in my practice and people didn't know how to use it and I wasn't big on it right out of the gate. And it sort of waned. I haven't even heard about DMSO in quite a bit. Nobody's even asked me about it and I can't say that I've even come across any studies recently on it. So no, I don't recommend it. You don't need it. Unless you know something that I do.
Okay. Somebody was asking about, "Dr. Martin, what do you think about Ray Peat's carrot salad for getting rid of estrogen, estrogen dominance?" Well, to be honest, what is it in there that would get rid of extra estrogen? Fiber? It's probably a loaded fiber salad. And I don't know. I'm not saying I'm against it. I have no experience to tell you whether it's good. To me, getting rid of extra estrogen doesn't necessarily happen. I like dim better. And dim is an extract from broccoli. The problem with broccoli, and I love broccoli, is that you got to eat a bushel of it to get the amount you would in a supplement and a dim, D-I-M supplement. Guys, this is one of the reasons I like flaxseed because flaxseed has a lot of lignans and lignans and dim, they take out the extra estrogen in your body. Does Ray Peat? P-E-A-T, right? I read some of his stuff. I got no issue. I mean, does that particular carrot salad do it? I'd never heard of it, to be honest with you.
And I'll tell you one thing about dim, and I could prove it because I used to measure estrogen. And I used to have a scan in practice that actually showed estrogen on your skin. It was incredible. Men and women, but mostly women, of course. But men had a lot of estrogen too, and they shouldn't. And you got factors like xenoestrogens, like almost every chemical mimics estrogen. And so you want to wipe that out because women, you need balance between estrogen and progesterone. They got to be balanced. So that's why, again, I like them. I showed that in thousands of cases that with dim, I could actually prove it to you. I could prove it to you. Lower the estrogen. And like I said, I used to have a scan, which was very useful to look at estrogen. And women, some men, women, they had like leopard spots all over their body, especially in their breast area. Very dangerous. Estrogen is a growth hormone. It makes you a woman and it makes men women too, but you don't want too much of it.
And we live in a world where there's way too much estrogen. And I know they talk about like HRT therapy and giving estrogen. I was never a fan of that. We already got too much breast cancer. In men, we already got too much prostate cancer. We already got too much ovarian cancer. We already got too much uterine cancer. These are cancers where estrogen is involved. You want to dim it out. So Ray Peat's carrot salad, hey, go for it. But does it actually lower estrogen? That I'm not sure of. Okay? So I don't want to be negative, but I think I get the idea. It's not so much the carrot. It's the fiber. And that's brushing away the extra estrogen. To me, fiber's overrated, but again, I don't want to be negative. Okay?
Okay. Let's see if I remember anymore. So there was the Ray Peat and I remember talking about plasma, asking a question about plasma. Oh, a woman, I think she's in her 70s, she asked me about edema because she's got swelling in her ankles. Why? She's asking. Well, a couple of reasons, possibly. Okay? Kidneys, there may be dehydration involved and the body's holding onto fluids. They'll show up in your ankles. You may have some type of vascular disorder you were asking about in the same question, you were asking about arteries that you were seeing superficial in your legs. Look, you may have a vascular condition. There's a lot of things with swelling of the ankles because I've seen it in people that had congestive heart failure, kidneys or heart, dehydration, circulation. Those are the things I would look for. And then I remember, it's funny because it was also about circulation. And I wish I had your names. Okay? I should have checked my iPad before I got started. Anywho, I had it on Friday. They were asking about her husband's sores, oozing, sores in the legs. And it feels like he's drowning in his fluid. And I can't remember if there was more detail than that.
But at the end of the day, from what I read in that question, the question, why? I mean, to me, from the sounds of it, there's definitely congestive heart failure and you got big time circulation problems. And I can't remember if he was a diabetic or not. Diabetic ulcers rarely heal if that's what's going on there. And again, guys, I bring you back to the premise. Okay? The premise, it's really important. Sugar destroys blood vessels. It's so toxic. And the way I always used to say it on my radio show for years is, if you don't believe me, ask a diabetic. Because guess what diabetics have trouble with? Circulation. That's why they're so much more susceptible to blindness. There's so much more susceptible to heart attack. They're so much more susceptible to strokes. There's so much more susceptible to kidneys. Why do you think there's so many dialysis places in North America compared to what there used to be? Diabetes. Sugar is toxic.
So I'm not sure if your husband is a diabetic. You were asking the question, but it seems to me. Okay? And that's what happens. And now, I mean, you got, I'm sure of it, congestive heart failure involved. Okay? Now, what would you do? Well, no sugar. That's for sure. Look, it's very difficult if it's advanced. Okay? But I never give up on people. I think it was your husband. If he was coming into my office, I'd have him on the reset. I would look for every deficiency, vitamin D, B12, omega-3. I look for deficiencies. Magnesium, very important for circulation. Okay. I have them on Navitol because it elevates the nitric oxide, opens up the blood vessels. High DHA, big time for lubrication, the blood vessels and that kind of thing. Is there hope? Vitamin D? They're usually very low in it. Vitamin D helps everything.
I got to hang on my memory. I'm proud of myself here this morning. I don't even have any notes, but somebody was asking about taking niacin B3. Well, you guys know this, but for the new folks, okay? I have an overarching principle when it comes to B vitamins. Okay? Do I think they're necessary? Absolutely they're necessary. B vitamins are essential, but here's the but. I want you to eat your B vitamins. When you eat eggs, meat and cheese and butter, you know what I mean? Good dairy. You're getting all your B vitamins, including B12. Now, because of my experience with B12, because of what I know about B12 and because of all the things I'm talking to you about, B12 is another puppy. Why? Because it's a finicky vitamin. It's a large molecular structure vitamin. And the vast majority of people today, for several reasons, don't get enough of B12. And so therefore, and this has been proven that 70, 80% of the population really do not have optimized B12. Doctors don't even look for it anymore like they used to. And you know what? B12 is essential. It's a nerve vitamin. It's a brain vitamin. It's the B vitamin that's the most important vitamin of them all. And it ain't even close is B12.
And so I separate that because you got to have almost like a perfect stomach to absorb it properly from meat. And you don't get B12 in the plant kingdom. There's enough for a mouse in a plant kingdom. It has to come from the animal kingdom food, especially red meat. Well, people say, "Well, red meat's acidic. Red meat's no good for you. Red meat, let's get rid of it. Let's eat bugs instead of red meat." That's what the world, the stupidity of the world. The world's gone stupid when it comes to B12 and us getting into the vegetable kingdom and the plant kingdom and not the animal kingdom. It's absolute insanity in all due respect. So getting back to B3, niacin, okay? Have I used it? No. Do I recommend it? Well, not on its own. I mean, look, they talk about cholesterol and it can lower your cholesterol and it's a natural cholesterol therapy. And you know what? To some extent, yeah. Okay. But like I said, I love B3. I just want you to eat it rather than have to take it. If you want to take it as a supplement, okay, go for it. But I'm much more in tune to you eating B3.
Like I just found when people, they emphasize, okay, when it comes to food on their plate, they emphasize the animal kingdom. I'm not saying only the animal kingdom. I'm not like that. For 30 days, yes. That's for metabolic syndrome. But after that, you want to eat from the plant kingdom, go for it. And I mean it. I'm not saying you can't have anything from the plant kingdom. So it's just that we got it upside down today and the plant kingdom and the grains and whatever, they're more important than the animal kingdom and people have been duped about that. And so they'll miss out on B3. They won't get enough of it. If you're a vegetarian or a vegan, then you need to take a V vitamins, including B12. And by the way, B12, sublingual, let it melt under your tongue. It's the best way to top up your B12. Any questions?
Okay. So there was that one. And what else did I read there? I cannot find it on my iPad, but guys, I can't remember the other questions. I'll have to go through them. There may be a few more. I don't think there was many more, but guys, sorry for this. You're dealing with several times a day, what do I do? I pull out my senior cart. Okay? And Sherry's saying, thanks, Dr. Martin for today's session. Well, I feel like I've blown it, but what do you want me to do? I just, okay, let's call it because I'm not seeing any questions that have come up. Somebody saying, "No, I asked a question, you haven't answered it yet." And scroll it, but I don't see it. Okay? Okay, Trish, you guys are very patient. Anywho. Okay. We love you guys. Okay, don't give myself a migraine. Okay? We love you guys. We'll talk to you soon.
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