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. Let's get to a few studies here. Brand new study on vitamin B12. Now guys, I don't want to say I told you so, but I told you so on vitamin B12. It's more important. Here's the headline. It has a far broader role, the headline of the study. A far broader role than we thought. B12. I mentioned this yesterday on Q&A. So when you diagnose metabolic syndrome, what's the cause of metabolic syndrome? Why are 93% of the population have some form of metabolic syndrome? Meaning metabolic means processing, your metabolism processing food for energy. That's going south. It's not working properly. At the root of it is what? Insulin resistance. You can actually diagnose it. How do you do that? Well, through blood tests primarily, right? You can make a diagnosis on it. Okay?
Let me go over it again because we always every day, remember guys, these are podcasts that people listen to. They're not on live. They listen to it. I think we got five million approximately downloads because these are all turned to podcasts. And the reason I say it because I'm repeating myself a lot every day. It's repetition. And I'm trying to build a case here that my expertise was in metabolic syndrome. That's what the vast majority of my practice was. All has to do with insulin resistance, your cells at the cellular level. They're tired of seeing insulin and it all has to do with food. We're carboholics. And let's just go over it a little very quickly. Insulin resistance can be diagnosed. Metabolic syndrome can be diagnosed by the following blood tests. A1C. If it's above 5.4, you have insulin resistance. So blood sugar, slightly elevated. Even though it's not diabetic, but remember diabetes is the last thing to happen, not the first. Your body is dedicated to keeping you away from diabetes, dedicated to it. That's how bad diabetes is. Okay?
So A1C, high triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol. Those are markers. If you have high triglycerides, it's a teeter totter. Almost invariably you will have low HDL. You're in doo doo. You're in trouble. Your body's screaming at you. Belly fat. That's not a clinical thing in a way because it's not a blood test, but you can be skinny as a rake, by the way, and have visceral fat. So blood pressure goes up. Again, it's elevated blood pressure. That can be a sign. Where does it come from? Insulin resistance. Now there's a few things that I've added to the list just from my experience. Uric acid, with or without gout, because that's all people think of when they hear uric acid, that's all they think of. Vitamin D because vitamin D is so important for your metabolic function. I've added it to the list. That's why I want you to get it tested. And by the way, your immune system don't work without vitamin D, not properly. And then I added guys B12. B12. Why did I do that? Well, again, just clinical experience. Seeing what B12 does when you're low in it and 80% of the population are low in B12.
Here's what this new study says. Okay? So they're saying it. I've said this for a long time, but now the new study is saying it has a far broader role than we thought. Now, let me say something else. What they're saying is very important, but let me say this because it's really important. How do you get B12? In food. Red meat. Oh, but red meat's bad, doc. Red meat's bad. For 50 years, they've been saying it. Red meat is bad and it's all religion, guys. It's not science. It's a belief system. It's hard to change people's mind. They see a steak and a lot of people want to run, even though it's the best food in the world. Why? Because, well, one of the big reasons is B12. So I would get migraines in my office when I had especially women who were lied to and they bought it. They bought the chicken and salad story. They bought the low fat story. They were told it's bad. Fat is bad.
So they said, "Well, red meat's got fat. Might as well have chicken and I can add it to my salad." Okay. But that don't give you B12. There's no B12 in that. And what they're saying in the study, it's far more serious really than we thought. When you're low in B12, it affects what they're saying in this new study. It affects metabolic pathways. Oh, no kidding. Because first year medical student, ask them what they know about B12. Well, it's a nerve vitamin. They might learn. I don't know if they do that. If you don't have enough B12, you might get neuropathy. Nerve pain and anemia, but they don't even read B12 numbers unless it's flagged. They don't care. They don't talk about it. They're not telling their patients to eat more steak. That I can guarantee you. B12 they're saying is very important. This new study on what I've been saying for a long time, it's part of metabolic pathways. It's an important vitamin for you to process at the mitochondria, your battery packs within your cells. They need B12 to work properly.
So what they're saying is, yeah, it's really part of metabolic syndrome. Who knew? We just saw it as sort of anemia. If you have anemia, it may be a B12 shortage along with your iron. Every doctor in the world in the 1950s, and I'm not kidding you, used to give B12 shots. It was just part of their DNA. They just gave it out because they knew it was important. And then the big pharma came along and big food, the doctors got sidetracked on cholesterol for getting B12 because cholesterol, see, cholesterol is found in red meat. So it can't be good because everything the dogma of medicine is to get your cholesterol down. So guess what? B12 went down with it because they were telling people, "You have to limit your steak. You got to limit red meat. A hamburger is bad. It's full of fat." Well, it wasn't a hamburger killing you. It's the bun. They see bacon and they pass out because all they see is fat dripping off of it. That must be bad. And the whole world took it. Hook, line and sinker. They the whole world of medicine. And then of course the layperson, what do they know?
Here we are. We are in 2026 and the vast majority of people that go to their doctors still today are getting a lecture on cholesterol. It'll kill you. So part of that is diet. Limit your steak. And you know me, it's sun, steak, and steel. It's the opposite. And study after study and this new one, like I mean, I didn't just about fall over. I fell over because holy smokes, they're saying it. New study on B12, far broader role than we thought. Key in metabolic pathways. Even more, they said four things. Key in metabolic pathways. Yeah. It should be part of testing for metabolic syndrome. You got low B12. There's a good chance you got metabolic syndrome. Two, linked to aging. Yeah. B12 is now linked to aging, premature aging of the body. Yep. Why? I guarantee you one thing, premature aging of your brain. Because you know what's up here, guys? It's an electrical grid. It's a grid. B12 is important for the grid. Nerves don't work properly without B12. What do you think neurons are? They're nerve cells in your brain.
What's the best food for your brain? A steak or hamburger. Linked to ... Okay, here's the study. Metabolic. So that whole process at the cellular level, B12's linked to it big time. It's linked to aging. It's linked to muscle. What the study is saying, do you know that B12 is very important for your muscles? Oh boy, the more I study muscle. I want to tell you what we studied in school on muscle. I mean, you have to memorize every muscle in the body. Okay. But what did we know about it. Physiology of the muscle? Well, movement, strength that's part of it helps your bones. I've been preaching that to you like nothing will help osteoporosis more than muscle. Okay? So here's Dr. Martin. Get stronger. Okay? I'm not saying be a weight lifter and you're jacked up on steroids. I'm not saying that. I'm saying get stronger than you are. You can get stronger than you are. If you get stronger, that has to do with muscle and muscle has to do with bone. And what they're saying in the study is muscle needs B12. We always knew muscle needed protein. We learned that.
Muscle needs protein. And the more muscle you have, the more storage space you have for what? Sugars, carbs. Okay? I didn't know that in school in the 70s. Nobody taught me that. That muscles were bins. Storage spaces for glucose. That's why most diabetics, not all, but most. You know what one of the biggest problems is? They have a condition called sarcopenia. You know what that is? Low muscle. They don't have any bins to store the glucose. Insulin wants to store sugar. It gets rid of it. Remember, sugar cannot park in the bloodstream. It's too toxic. I need carbs. No, you don't, but you're going to eat them. Okay? But you don't need them because carbs, okay? Most carbs, they turn to sugar in a nanosecond. Insulin has no choice but to come to the rescue. It can't allow parking of sugar molecules in your blood. Has to take it out. So where does it love to park it? The first place it looks at is your muscles. What if you don't have a lot of muscle? You're in trouble.
And for today's teaching, you need B12 for your muscles to work properly. Holy smokes. Muscle. Wow. B12. I call it the steak vitamin. Now you guys know when I say steak, I mean red meat. Okay. You get studies that are really important and then you get studies that are earth shattering. This is one of them. I hope more people read it. I hope doctors look at this. Maybe they'll take B12 seriously for once. The whole new generation of doctors today and dieticians too. They don't take B12 seriously and they ought to. I've been screaming like John the Baptist for years about the importance of B12 and it's even more important than we thought. You know me and B12. I talk about it all the time and people I used to get in the office, okay? And I'm very sympathetic, guys. Okay?
Ask anybody that came to see me. I was very sympathetic. I said, "Can I tell you something? You're low in B12." Well, Dr. Marin, why didn't somebody tell me? Because they don't know what they're talking about. And B12 is an important vitamin and it almost goes hand in hand, by the way. I've seen exceptions, but generally this is true. You're low in B12, you're low in vitamin D. Why? They're both involved in your metabolism. They are essential vitamins. And somebody asked me yesterday on Q&A. I got a high number of B12. I got flagged. Who cares? Better high than low. It's a water soluble vitamin. No one has ever ended up in the hospital because they got high B12. Now they could end up there with low B12, but never high. Never high. And they don't even measure it properly because B12 in your blood is not near as important as B12 in your tissue.
Anyway, I just guys, I can hardly stand it. And then the fourth thing was, this is key to guys. Like they said, it's important in metabolic syndrome. It's linked to aging, premature aging. Well, yeah, your nerves here. It's linked to your physiology of your muscle. And then it says it's linked. Low B12 is linked to your increased risk of disease. For sure. B12 is so key. Like people, "Doc, should I take a B complex?" "Yeah, for sure. Eat a steak. You're taking a B complex. You're getting all the B vitamins." You always ask me that. How about a B complex? Yeah, I want you to eat your B complex. If you eat eggs, meat, and cheese, you got a B complex and you're getting B12.
Now, unfortunately, okay, this is just the way your body works. I told you this and I'll repeat it again. B12 is a finicky vitamin. You need a good digestive system to absorb B12 properly. Any medication, if you're on a med, so go to a senior home. You ever had a loved one or a friend in a senior home? You've been there? How many meds are they on? I remember late I visited her. She was on 30 meds. 30, 30. They spent the day giving her medication. Here, here's some water. Take your meds. I get a migraine. That's how we treat people today. If you don't think for one minute that the world has been hijacked by the pharmaceutical industry, I don't know what to tell you. What is it? 60, 70% of seniors are on a statin drug. Well, you're older. We got to lower your cholesterol. Says who? Your brain's made up of ... Anyway, every one of those patients, every one of them are low in B12 and they're low in vitamin D too. Every one of them.
I'm trying to remember an exception that I saw. Oh, you better be careful. You better be careful. I got vitamin D right in front of me here. You better be careful. Vitamin D. You better be careful. You're going to take one little drop of that? That can be ... I blow a gasket. The war. There's a war, especially in Canada on vitamins. There's a war going on. If the pharmaceutical industry get their way, they will make sure they're the only ones that can prescribe it. It'll have to come from a doctor. Can you imagine waiting for your doctor to give you a prescription for vitamin D and B12 and ... Yeah, take 1,000 IUs a day of vitamin D and be careful. 1,000 IUs of vitamin D is for mice, not for you. You can't operate on 1,000 IUs a day of vitamin D. You can't. You're just fooling yourself.
When I get excited, guys, because I get a study like this and then I just know that we are in the minority here. We're in a small group. I'm trying to preach it out there, but the world will not get this memo. I hate to tell you that. Now, I'm not trying to discourage you because you fix yourself first. Okay? The oxygen mask on a plane in the event that we need oxygen, the mask will come out of the ceiling and you know what they tell you? Put it on you first before you help someone else. You got kids? Put it on you first and then you put it on your kids after you. That's the same with supplements. You do it. And then whoever will listen, if there's any Linda's out there or Larry's out there, part of your family or friends, and sometimes you're never a prophet in your hometown. Jesus said that. "You're not a prophet," he said, "in your hometown." Jesus came from Nazareth and they didn't like him.
Oh, guys. Okay. I have to stop because I'm getting excited. Okay, I only got to one study today. I had five more I wanted to talk to you about, but I couldn't get past B12. I just couldn't. Okay guys, not too early to think about sending in your questions for Q&A, okay? Almost every day I answer questions that people have questions every day, right? Now we try and do a full session mostly on Fridays and Mondays of Q&A, but really a lot of this stuff other than a couple of days where I take out to do new studies, but it answers a lot of questions people ask. But send in your questions for Q&A. Okay? I promise I won't rant tomorrow. Wait a minute. That might not be a true statement. Okay. I don't want to lie to you. Okay, guys. We love you guys so much. You have no idea. Thanks for being the greatest audience in the world. The smartest. The smartest, are you guys. 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!