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. How are you? And welcome again to another live this morning. We love having you guys on.
Saying hello to our dear friends and followers, those who can join us live on Facebook in the mornings, five mornings a week. And we look forward to it. Let's talk about metabolic health this morning. Okay?
Metabolic health. And I really want to go over how do you know? How do you know? And the good thing is, you can know.
And I want you to be able to interpret where you're at. Really are gone are the days, or at least they should be gone, when you can't interpret blood tests. And so let me read to you where this came from. Okay, because people ask me, what did you get that 93% of the population in a 2022 study?
So this is the most recent. Let me read it to you. A 2022 study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that only 6.8% of adults in North America, one in 15, had optimal criteria for five key health indicators for metabolic health. Okay?
And guys, that's frightening. That is absolutely frightening. Less than 7%. Has that changed?
I don't think so. If anything, it's gotten worse. But I want you to know. I want my audience to know where you're at.
Okay? When it comes, because when you talk about metabolic health, okay, what is metabolic health? How your body breaks down food, how your body breaks down energy. That's metabolic metabolism.
And we go right to the root, which is your mitochondria, how you're producing ATP. And when that gets out of whack, and 93% plus of the population are on a whack, and what is it affect? Your blood pressure, your blood sugar, visceral fat. And what does that do to you?
Set you up for all the chronic diseases. Heart disease, number one, Alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, autoimmune, all the chronic diseases that is ravaging our society today. All the tea in China, all the tea in China is not going to fix our disease care system. It really won't.
I don't care how much money you throw at it. It's not money. It's lifestyle. It's people, individuals taking control of their own health.
And my reason for doing this live, podcasting, writing books, sending out newsletters, emails, info, info, info, is to get people, lay people, to understand where they're at, to understand where they're at. And again, how do you know? Well, if you can interpret your blood work, if you can understand that, you don't have to be a doctor to do it.
Believe you me, as a matter of fact, and I talk about this all the time, doctors are looking for love in all the wrong places. It's unfortunate. But it's the way it is. They don't look at metabolic health.
You've got a problem, they wait till you have a problem, and then they give you a pill. You've got high blood pressure, here's a pill. You've got high blood sugar, here's a pill. And they want to put you on pills for cholesterol.
It's the number one in the world, is statin drugs. And they look at cholesterol, but they look at it the wrong way, in all due respect to them, in all due respect. And the proof in the pudding, guys, the proof in the pudding is look around. The proof in the pudding is, I don't care where you live, Canada or the United States, we spend a fortune, and it's on disease care.
And here we are in late 2026, and we still are spending a fortune. And I'm not saying we shouldn't have hospitals. I'm not saying any of that. I'm just saying, is that you and I, we have to take control of our own health.
We can't rely, like my parents' generation, they relied on doctors. And that's why they were duped. When the world went stupid and fat free, they didn't have enough information even to argue. If they told you not to eat an egg and don't have bacon and eggs in the morning, you're better off having cereal and frosted flakes are great.
People didn't fight back because they didn't know. But today, we have social media. We have podcasters like me. We have information like we never had before.
And you can bury your head in the sand. My audience doesn't. They want to hear. I always tell people, God gave you a brain.
Use it. But I've been talking about this for a long time, metabolic health. Wrote a book in 2011, Serial Killers, Two Hormones That Want You Dead. And one of them was insulin.
And insulin is a food hormone. So what do you want to do? You want to test. And you want to be able to take your test.
I actually have this in my book, Sun, Stake and Steel. There's a whole chapter on interpreting your blood work. It's not that confusing if you understand, if you get a basis, if you get a foundation to understand biomarkers to look at. And I want people to be able to understand that.
So let's go over it a little bit today because people have asked me, like, Doc, why are we so sick today? You would think we're healthier. You would think that we would be healthier than ever. No, we're not.
Because people are really not getting the memo. You know, we don't dismiss food, but they're telling us still today to eat the wrong foods. They have a mantra, moderation, everything in moderation. That is the dietitian's playbook.
Everything in moderation. And it really is elimination. If you want to be healthy, your body, you have to give it the right fuel. That's your metabolism.
You've got to keep insulin, what? Down. We overuse it. We overuse the pancreas.
We overuse insulin because of the way the vast majority of people eat, 93%, less than 7%. Eat right. And you can test it. So when you get your blood work done, learn how to interpret it.
Again, even from a lay person's perspective, we give you the keys to look at. Make sure you get your blood work. Make sure you can look at your results. The doctor's going to have their interpretation.
And that's all right. I mean, that's the way it is. And good luck trying to change that. They have a way of looking at it.
And they have markers and they get into a panic mode. If certain markers are, you're going to have a heart attack, why your cholesterol is high. Well, I want to undo that. And of course, this is repetition, but it's good to go over it because I got asked yesterday, what about this?
Okay, so the first thing, it's not necessarily in order. I'm just going to tell you guys, you know how much I love A1C. Get your A1C tested, because it gives you an indication of your blood sugar, one, and your insulin. Now you can get a fasting insulin done.
Doctors usually don't do it, but you can get it done. I like it too, but I love A1C because the doctor ain't going to fight with you if you want A1C done. I want my A1C. It's routine.
Okay. Blood glucose? Yeah, I like that too, but you can take your own blood glucose at home. But that's not near as effective as looking at A1C.
Why? Because again, it gives you an average. A1C gives you an average of your blood sugar over a few months. It's called glycated hemoglobin.
And you need to know that. And if you're above 5.4, you're on the Titanic of metabolic syndrome. Doctors are looking for in the sixes, because they're looking for diabetes, but way before diabetes. Remember, I teach you guys this all the time, almost on a daily basis.
Diabetes, which is an epidemic today, was rare 100 years ago. I mean, it was there, but it was almost non-existent. Why? Well, what happened?
Well, we changed. We changed our food. We went from a high protein and low carb to a high carb and low protein and fat. We flipped the pyramid, the food pyramid.
Grains, you need grains. Eight to 10 servings of grains a day. Bread, pasta, rice, noodles, cereal. Grains, we need grains.
No, you don't. Anyway, check your A1C, guys. Check your A1C. If you're above 5.4, don't let anybody fool you.
You have a bad relationship with carbohydrates. You and carbs don't get along, so don't fool yourself. The worst deception is self-deception. People fool themselves.
And your blood sugar, if you're above 5.4, your blood sugar and your insulin is too high. Even if your blood test said, oh, that's normal, rings, we just know the research is telling you it's putting you on the Titanic of metabolic syndrome. Get a check. Okay?
Again, you know me, I love A1C. It's simple. It's not a hard test for the doctor to checkmark on your blood work, and you should get it done. At least a couple of times a year.
Be proactive. Be proactive. Okay? Obviously, guys, like check your blood pressure if you want.
You go to a pharmacy, check your blood pressure. Okay? You can do that. I want to just talk about blood work.
Okay? Get that done because somebody is just saying, what about checking my blood pressure? Yeah, check it. But don't check it every five seconds.
I've had people come into my office, they got a book, literally a book. Doc, you want to read my book? What's it about? My blood pressure.
Ten times a day. I got all the readings. You want to read my book? No.
I just took your blood pressure. You came into my office, I took your blood pressure. Okay? And even then, I don't build a foundation around it because you might have white coat syndrome even though I never wore a white coat in my life.
But people are nervous, right? I don't know how you could be nervous around me, but some people were nervous and their blood pressure went up. We call that white coat syndrome. But guys, I'm not against checking your blood pressure.
I'm not because it is a marker of metabolic syndrome. Okay? Check your TGHDL. If you want to know what your lipids, what they mean, are you, where are your triglycerides and where is your HDL?
Triglycerides, fat balls, three fat balls in the bloodstream. How do your triglycerides go up? Oh, you're a carboholic. There's nothing that'll send your triglycerides higher than sugar and especially high fructose corn syrup.
It packs up the liver with fat. Remember with fructose, okay? When a bear, like this time, I saw a bear the other day. I want to tell you, I saw a bear run right across the road about a half a block from where I lived.
Okay? And it was pretty big. You could tell that bear was getting ready for winter and it packed on the fat by eating blueberries. Okay?
We got so many bears in Northern Ontario that my sister used to say they're buying condos. Because we got lots of blueberries and they pack up blueberries. And I've told you this before, that it's almost incredible the number, okay? That the average bear will eat about 30,000 blueberries a day to get fat.
You can have some blueberries, you ain't eating 30,000 of them. But you see, as human beings, we're not meant to drink especially. Fructose, you want to have an orange? Eat it.
Don't drink it. The number one selling drink of all time is not even Coca-Cola. It's orange juice. And that gives me a migraine because people don't know what they're doing when they're drinking that.
Yeah, but Dr. Martin, it's trampa cana. I used to tell them in my office, and I don't care. It's going right to your liver.
It's going to pack your liver with fat. There's nothing like high fructose corn syrup and fructose in a juice. It goes right to your liver and builds fat. And when there's no more room in the Costco parking lot, which I call the liver, right?
I went to Costco the other day. Guess what? Monday morning, guess what? It was full.
The parking lot was full. Early. Always full. That's the liver of someone that insists on being a carbaholic.
That's the liver because what turns the fat in your liver is sugar and the worst culprit. I was screaming like John the Baptist in 1980 when they turned our sugar into high fructose corn syrup. John the Baptist, hello out there. Don't eat that stuff.
They were adding it to Coca-Cola. They were adding it to Pepsi-Cola. They were adding it to all the sodas. They were adding it to all the cereals because it was cheap.
They lied and people died. They lied. They said, well, it's fructose. It's fructose.
That means it's good for you. Nah. And ever since then, since the 1980s when they introduced high fructose corn syrup into the world and the food industry, they lied. They said, this is healthy.
This is better. We're taking ordinary sugar and we're turning it into fructose and it's made in the lab. It's a syrup. High fructose corn syrup.
That's liquid, guys. A beeline for the liver. And what has happened since the 1980s? Obesity is out of control.
Childhood obesity. Fatty liver, out of control. In the 1970s, I never even heard of fatty liver. Try and find me a book in the 70s, a medical book that talked about fatty liver.
It'll talk about cirrhosis of the liver, but not fatty liver. What's fatty liver? Today it's an epidemic. Kid's gut.
Fructose pats on. That's why that bear was big. Bears are big, but they get real big just before hibernation. They're going to be burning that fat all winter.
You're not a bear. You don't need fructose. Okay? High fructose corn syrup.
Anyways, you know, guys, I've been screaming about that for a long time. So you know what your A1C is? When you get your lipids and there's a lot of confusion, okay? You got cholesterol.
You got HDL. You got LDL. You got total cholesterol. You got a whole reading there and it's confusing.
It's enough to give you a headache. Like, what's this all mean? And the doctor like, oh, you got it. I want to talk to you because your cholesterol's high and you're going to have a heart attack if you don't listen to me.
It's funny though, isn't it? That heart disease is worse than ever. And statin drugs, they put them in our drinking water if they could get away with it. They actually tried to in Britain.
There was a motion in parliament to put statin drugs in the drinking water. Look, you're kidding me. Guys, you want your triglycerides to be low. You want them to be down.
You want to look at numbers? I want you to get the generalities of it, okay? So just go through your blood work. Find your triglycerides.
Okay? TG. TG. Triglyceride.
What is that number there? Okay? But before you do that, look at another number. Go down the list and check your HDL.
Take out a pen or whatever and circle it. Okay? Dr. Martin wants me to check my triglycerides and my HDL.
The rest of cholesterol, he don't care. Your body doesn't care. Well, look, I'll give you something else in a minute. I don't want to confuse you.
Get your triglycerides. Get your HDL. Your triglycerides should be down compared to what? Your HDL.
Because it's a teeter-totter. You want your triglycerides to be low, fat balls, and your HDL cholesterol to be high. Okay? And I can live with if they're equal.
But here's the problem. In the bat, 93% of the population, 93%. You know what it is? Their triglycerides are high and their HDL cholesterol is low.
Nobody told them. Doctors, they're not taught in medical school to look for that ratio. It's being taught now, but not in medical school. Alternative medicine looks at this.
But it's hard to change a leper's spots, guys. Okay? So don't wait for your doctor. You need your doctor to get blood work.
Well, not everywhere. But if you do, that's all right. Just make sure you look at your own blood work. Okay?
And interpret it. And don't get in weeds. Well, that's the right thing. And every Friday I get asked, and it's all right, because I don't mind answering.
I mean it. I'm a repetition guy. How do you learn? Repetition.
That's the way I learn. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. That's how I learn.
Okay? Do you learn by repetition? No? Well, you're at the wrong place here, because you know me.
I repeat. Is it because I'm a senior? I don't know. I don't think so.
I repeat. Okay? So for 30 years on my radio show, I've been telling people to lower their triglycerides and elevate their HDL. And you do that primarily with food.
You lower your carbs. You lower your high fructose corn syrup. If you can, eliminate it. So bread and pasta and rice and cereals and sugars and sweets and orange juice and apple juice and any other juice that you want to name and lattes and all that stuff that they add sugar to, cut it out.
And your triglycerides are going to go down. And your HDL cholesterol is going to go up. Why is that so good for you? You want HDL cholesterol.
Why? Because it's Amazon trucks. They deliver cholesterol. You can't live without it.
It delivers. HDL cholesterol has two wagons to it. It's an Amazon truck with two wagons. One, it's delivering your estrogen, ladies, your vitamin D, your progesterone, thyroid hormones, testosterone, men.
You need cholesterol to deliver. And that's what they do. They deliver. And then they got a wagon on the back that picks up those fat balls in your bloodstream.
They're called triglycerides. Come here, guys. You don't belong in here. I'm bringing you back to the liver and we're going to process you out of existence.
That's what cholesterol does for you. And they made it a boogeyman. They found a drug to lower LDL and they made LDL cholesterol a boogeyman. And I'll tell you something, I lowered my cholesterol.
Yeah, well, you're going to die younger. Says who? Stats. You want low cholesterol?
You're going to die young. You want low triglycerides? Not cholesterol. You want the fat balls down.
So check your A1C. Check your lipid panel. It's very confusing. They got apple A, apple B.
Those are weeds. You want to send them to me? I looked up blood for, I don't know, a few years. Okay.
I used to tell my bet, see all this? They're weeds. What? Weeds.
Yeah, don't get in the weeds. It don't matter. Look at the big picture. You don't need weeds.
Don't go in there. Get off the Titanic. Quit rearranging the deck chair. Who cares about the furniture?
It doesn't matter. Let's get your ship turned around. Let's get your life turned around. Let's get your body turned around.
Let's diminish your risk of having a heart attack. How about we diminish your risk of Alzheimer's? How about we diminish your risk of cancer? I'm not saying, guys, I'm not saying it.
What if I do a lot and I get sick? Okay. You're just putting the odds in your favor, guys. And this had been proven so many times.
I just, you know, put everything in your favor. I mean, you can walk out of here today after this program, get hit by a bus. You know what I mean? Like I used to tell patients that.
Okay. Do what you can do and do what you can control. You can certainly control what you put in your mouth every day. You have to eat, you know?
What did I read the other day? Look, I mean, this guy got cancer. I read this testimony. And you know what?
The second he got the diagnosis, he stopped eating for 30 days. Okay. Like, what? 30 days?
Just as water and no coffee? Are you kidding me? Look, guys, am I against fasting? No, I'm not against it.
But I talked to the vast majority of people, the vast majority. Doc, give me the basics. Give me something that I can do. Give me something that is doable.
Why is that okay? Because guys, I was a metabolic syndrome guru in my office. And I was a tester. I didn't guess.
I tested. And when people come in, we had all the blood work. And I go, there, you see your A1C there? You see your you see your triglyceride HDL ratio?
It ain't good. But the nice thing is, you're going to go home with a plan. And it's going to consist of food. Okay.
Do you eat? Oh, yeah, I eat. Okay. Well, then you're going to like me.
Because I ain't telling you not to eat. Oh, okay. We're not going to count calories. Okay.
You like eggs? Yeah, I like eggs. Yeah, okay. Okay.
You're going to like me. You like meat? Yeah, I was told not to eat them up, but I like it. I said, you're going to like me.
You like butter? Oh, I love butter. You like cheese? I love cheese.
Okay, because I like dairy. Good dairy. There's good, bad, and ugly dairy. I said, well, you've got to eat.
So I'm going to tell you what to eat. And I'm going to prove it to you, because your numbers are going to change. We're going to get you off the Titanic. We're going to change your number.
And we're going to be very specific. We're going to lower your inflammation markers. Get your CRP done. Do you hear me?
Get your CRP done. C-reactive protein. Ask your doctor. You know, it said those commercials.
Ask your doctor if this drug is good for you. Okay. I can't stand those commercials. They tell you what that drug does, and then they give you five minutes of side effects, including death.
I was listening the other day, and one of them said, and if you're dying, call your doctor. If you're dying, don't call your doctor. Get to the stinking hospital as fast as you can. Call your doctor.
You're dying. Like they said, one of the side effects is death. Don't get me going. I'm talking about blood tests.
I want you to be able to interpret. I want you to be able to get your CRP, C-reactive protein. Okay. And you want that look?
Because a lot of times people like inflammation markers, doc. Yeah. Because it's silent. If your insulin is up, often your inflammation is up.
Because insulin, your body responds to it. And if you have inflammation, you might have another very important marker in your body, which is leaky gut. Leaky gut. Inflammation.
Every autoimmune case I ever saw, every one of them had leaky gut. I don't care what it was. They had leaky gut and they had inflammation and their body was turning on themselves. And that's why we want these tests done.
I got others I want to talk about. We'll get to it. I'm way over time. Okay.
Let me breathe. Okay. Guys, what's tomorrow? Q&A.
Send your questions in. Don't be shy. I'm not shy. You don't be shy.
Don't be shy with me. Send me your question. Doc, what about this? What about that?
What do you think about this? We love your questions. Send them in. info at martinplanek.com.
They get to me and then we answer your question. Okay. Guys, love you dearly, sincerely. 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!