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 afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining today with a little teaching on vitamin D. Not vitamin C, but vitamin [00:00:30] D. Now of course, humans don't make any vitamin C, you have to eat your vitamin C. I'm not against vitamin C. I love vitamin C, it's good for you. But I always say that Linus Pauling, who was a pretty famous guy, especially when I was in school, won a Nobel Prize for his work in vitamin C.
Dr. Martin: He only missed out on one letter in the alphabet, [00:01:00] and that is vitamin D. I don't think Linus Pauling realized the importance of vitamin D because back then, especially in the early 70s, vitamin D was considered only for bone. And as a matter of fact, in those days I ... Guess how many I used that they recommended when I was in school? 200 international units, anything over. Because vitamin D, unlike vitamin [00:01:30] C is a fat soluble vitamin.
Dr. Martin: It's possible that you could take too much vitamin D because it's fat soluble, unlike vitamin C. Vitamin C, it's a water soluble vitamin. What's that means? It's like B12. If your body doesn't need it, it'll get rid of it. Vitamin C, the only side effect of taking too much vitamin C is you might get in a little bit of diarrhea. [00:02:00] So the idea with ... I just wanted to bring out a couple of points this afternoon more about the importance of vitamin D.
Dr. Martin: Because we know that vitamin D and bone, it helps you to absorb calcium from your diet. But more than that, do you know what they found? Is that every cell in your body it seems has a little antenna for vitamin D. It's [00:02:30] essential that your body needs vitamin D. I've talked oftentimes about the importance of vitamin D and the immune system, especially the T cells. The T cells, your little Navy Seals of your immune system. They are really important for your immune system, even if you ... And this is [00:03:00] why it's part of the thing that I talk about in terms of the natural flu shot. It's not vitamin C, although vitamin C is good for your immune system.
Dr. Martin: Far more important is vitamin D because vitamin D charges up your T cells, and your T cells come out of your lymphatics and they help you to fight infection. So anyway, the other thing is that [00:03:30] vitamin D is very anti inflammatory. I don't know if you ever knew that or not. Vitamin D helps to suppress your pro-inflammatory cytokines they're called. This is why vitamin D is essential, because it not only is good for your immune system, it's not only good for your bones, but it's very, very good to reduce inflammation. Most people that have rheumatoid [00:04:00] arthritis, that have these inflammatory auto immune diseases, they're usually very, very low in vitamin D! They don't even realize it. Because like I'll tell you, back in Ontario, you have to pay to get your vitamin D levels checked. You have to pay for it.
Dr. Martin: OHIP, the health insurance of Ontario, doesn't even pay for that test unless the doctor [00:04:30] is suspicious of osteoporosis. But when you go to the lab, they ask you for money in order to test your vitamin D because they don't see it as in an essential test. It's absolutely essential that you get your vitamin D levels checked. Low vitamin D will give you inflammation. Low levels of vitamin D suppresses your immune system. Low levels of vitamin D [00:05:00] will be a part of a cause of osteoporosis. Because osteoporosis is not just calcium, it's an inflammatory disorder. It's a disorder of absorption and malabsorption and leaky gut. Those things are all connected. Now, the other thing that's fascinating about vitamin D, it's an essential vitamin [00:05:30] because if you have good levels of vitamin D, it helps to prevent diabetes.
Dr. Martin: Yes, vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin helps your cells in your body to become more insulin receptive. Now remember, we always talk at the Martin Clinic about insulin resistance. Your cells resist insulin. They can't stand insulin because [00:06:00] of all the sugars and all of the vegetable oils that are used in processed foods. Your body resists and resists and resists insulin to the point of eventually becoming diabetic.
Dr. Martin: But what vitamin D does, vitamin D actually helps your cells become more receptive to insulin! Not less receptive to it, more receptive. [00:06:30] We call that increasing your insulin sensitivity. So you see, vitamin D is an essential vitamin. It's essential for everyone. Everyone needs, in my opinion, vitamin D because of its lack. And people are scared to go out in the sun today, and you don't get vitamin D from the sun if you have any sunscreen on. Look, is [00:07:00] it possible to get too much vitamin D? Yes, it is possible. Studies have been done by the vitamin D council showing that you would have to take 50,000 international units every day for six months in order to become toxic with vitamin D. Do you know what?
Dr. Martin: I can't say that I've seen it in all my years of practice. So I'm not saying ... It's a fat [00:07:30] soluble vitamin. Don't go crazy and take 50,000 international units every day. You don't need it. But certainly the benefits of vitamin D, and we talked about your immune system. Think of cancer and your T cells, and how your body is made to fight cancer. Vitamin D is essential as a vitamin. How much should you take? Every individual is different. [00:08:00] I tell you what I take. I take 4,000 international units. I'll go up to 8,000 international units during the winter months. I love the sun. I get out in the sun, especially when I'm able to come down to Florida. Good luck in Canada seeing the sun, or at least getting the rays of the sun to get vitamin D in the winter time. It isn't going to happen. So that's a good time to supplement, okay? Thanks for watching [00:08:30] today.
Announcer: You've reached the end of another Doctor is In podcast with your hosts, Dr. Martin Junior and Senior. Be sure to catch our next episode and thanks for listening.