316. 7 Reasons Why You Need Cholesterol

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 doctor share a lot of information. As awesome as the info maybe, it is not intended to diagnose, cure, treat or prevent any disease. It's strictly for informational purposes.

Dr. Martin: Well, good morning, and hope you're having... Are you having fun yet? I'm going to a couple of things. [00:00:30] We're going to talk about cholesterol for a few minutes, at least. The question I asked is, do you want to have high cholesterol or low cholesterol? Good question, right? Do you want to have high cholesterol or low cholesterol? Because it seems that there is never a day that I don't get asked that question. As a matter of fact, if you send me blood work or whatever, I'm always looking at cholesterol. [00:01:00] I think you guys know me, let's talk this morning. Let's do a little teaching. I think repetition is always good, right? Nothing wrong with repeating. Repeat, repeat, repeat. I'm that type of guy, by the way. When I was in school, I mean, I would write things out and then write it again, then write it again, okay? So, repeating, repeating, it got in there.

Dr. Martin: So I [00:01:30] just want to... Okay, now, the question always comes in around cholesterol. Here's the questions, "Doc, my doc was upset about my cholesterol numbers." Okay, and what were they. Okay, so my question is what is the number? I'm looking for two specific numbers, you guys know that. I'm looking at triglycerides, three fats, three fats, triglycerides, okay? [00:02:00] And HDL, your good cholesterol. "Oh, but doc, my doc says my LDL was too high." So what? Now let me get back to the first question, okay? Do I want my cholesterol to be high or low?

Dr. Martin: Well, there's two schools, okay? Just understand that there's two schools. One of them is guys like me who tell you [00:02:30] just biochemistry. Biochemistry 101, physiology 101. What is that? Well, what, what is cholesterol? Why do you need it? Cholesterol is not the boogeyman. So the question gets asked like this, "Okay doc, my doc, my family doc, or my doc says my cholesterol is too high." I usually say, "Well, let's look [00:03:00] at it because what is high?" "Oh, my LDL or my total cholesterol." Well, listen, I don't look at LDL and I have a reason for it, okay? Again, I just want to emphasize because I just want you to... I want to read a study to you. This came out on... I was going to talk about it yesterday so the day before. I can't remember what day it is. Every day is the same. Every day is like Saturday. [00:03:30] Isn't it true?

Dr. Martin: You get dressed up, but nowhere to go in the whole world. I can't get over it. The world's gone crazy. Anyway, okay, here's the study that came out. Atherosclerosis, what is atherosclerosis? Hardening of the arteries. Listen to how significant this is. Atherosclerosis progresses rapidly [00:04:00] in healthy people after the age of 40. Now that was the headline, but let me put Dr. Martin's paraphrase on this. Atherosclerosis progresses rapidly in so-called healthy people after the age of 40. Hardening of the arteries with no symptoms. Well, doc, hardening of the arteries is cholesterol. Plaque is made up of cholesterol. Guys, [00:04:30] blaming cholesterol for heart disease is like blaming the police because you see them at the crime scene. Cholesterol is always flowing through your blood.

Dr. Martin: Now just a couple of things as a reminder. I'm going to go over seven things this morning, why you need cholesterol. Ladies, you need more cholesterol [00:05:00] than men. We're going to go over that. Cholesterol is not the boogeyman. When you look at saturated fat, I had a steak last night. I like the ones that have more fat on. I don't want lean meat. What do you want lean meat for? Because I got asked this yesterday too. "Doc, my vegetarian daughter was showing me studies that red meat especially has lots of saturated fat and that's not good [00:05:30] for you." No, that's not true. Saturated fat is not the boogeyman. Cholesterol is not the boogeyman. It's not the boogeyman. We made it the boogeyman, but it's not the boogeyman.

Dr. Martin: I just want to give you basic biochemistry. God, who made you, right? He don't trust you enough to eat enough cholesterol. 85% of your cholesterol comes [00:06:00] out of your liver, not from food. Only 15% comes from your diet. If you're a vegetarian, you're probably getting only about 5%. If you're a vegan, you're getting 0% cholesterol. So your liver is going to have to make up for that because when, and by the way, and this is what has been the rub. You see, vegetarians, vegans want people not to eat meat. [00:06:30] They have reasons for it. Cows are causing climate change and animals are higher on the food chain than human beings are.

Dr. Martin: For a lot of people, look, I don't want to get into the politics. I just want to give you biochemistry. Biochemistry 101. 85% of your cholesterol comes out of your liver. You can't live without cholesterol. You can't. You can't and we're going to go over that. You don't want [00:07:00] to have low cholesterol. It's so good for you. Someone calls you fat head, take it as a compliment. Your brain is made up of cholesterol and you only find cholesterol in food in the animal kingdom. So when someone, like yesterday, right? Like, "Doc, send me..." Like why are studies... Well first of all, the studies that show that, for example, red meat's no good for you. They're all the same type of studies. They're [00:07:30] observational studies. What does that mean?

Dr. Martin: Well doc, what did you eat last week? I don't know. I can't remember. Well tell me what you ate for the last five years. What? I don't remember. Oh, you're a red meat eater and you got bad... You had a heart attack. You're a red meat eater. That must be the red meat. What they don't talk to you about an observational studies, was the person a smoker? [00:08:00] Was the person a drinker? Was the person a junk eater? They don't tell you that. They just know that, oh, that person eats hamburgers. It must be the hamburgers. Those are observational studies. I ask anybody, anybody, my colleagues or whatever, because a lot of my colleagues even in the nutritional realm, poopoo red meat. I always ask them to do this and I challenge them again, send me [00:08:30] a double blind placebo study, peer reviewed on the dangers of red meat. You won't find them. They're not there. They're not there because there's an agenda, guys.

Dr. Martin: You might not think about that. But I think about that all the time because I'm a scientist. I got PhD in clinical nutrition. I got to talk to you about food. I'm a food [00:09:00] doctor. So God gave you the animal kingdom and the plant kingdom. I'm writing a book right now, okay? I talked about three kingdoms of food. God's kingdom, okay, which is made up of two parts. God gave us two things. Animal products and plants, fruits and vegetables, legumes and that, right? That comes from our creator. [00:09:30] Then you have the third kingdom. That's man's made food. They're made up of vegetable oils, right? So when you have a cracker, you have a bagel, you have a muffin, manmade. Now you can make your own, but if you go to Tim Horton's, you're going to get a manmade one with vegetable oil with eight teaspoons of sugar in it. That's man's kingdom [00:10:00] of food. That's what's making us sick right there. That's what's making us sick right there.

Dr. Martin: Guys, you know what? You know me, I like breaking down the news for you, okay? In the health news. Something said, didn't you know what was said the other day? That in the United States it's almost four to one. You know who are getting the sickest in the United States with COVID-19? Four to one. Someone [00:10:30] said it and I haven't read anything about it since, like this is unbelievable. Four to one, African Americans are sick with COVID-19. Sick, not getting COVID-19 but very sick with it. It's four to one African-Americans. Why is that? What's the answer to that? It's not genetics. It's not genetics. It's food. African-Americans [00:11:00] are two to three times more likely to be diabetic. It's food. Too much sugar. They have a tendency to be more obese.

Dr. Martin: Guys, look, it's not racial discrimination. I'm just telling you the truth and they're more susceptible. Guys, listen, this is what's... This is important. Now, coming back to cholesterol, okay? cholesterol. What is it? [00:11:30] What is cholesterol? Why is it so stinking import? I want to bring you seven reasons. Number one, cholesterol is a transporter. It's going along the highway. It's FedEx, it's Canada Post. It's the US Post System. It's UPS. it's Purolator. It's the trucks. Thank God for the truck drivers, right? It's the trucks on the [00:12:00] highway. That's what cholesterol is. Its main purpose is to transport your hormones, your thyroid hormones, your sex hormones, men, testosterone, ladies, your estrogen, your progesterone. It transports it. It's FedEx. Look at the delivery.

Dr. Martin: I got a package in yesterday. It delivers your hormones. Why would [00:12:30] you want to have low cholesterol? Tell me why. It's not causing the atherosclerosis, the hardening of the arteries. Yes, you will see cholesterol at a plaque in your arteries. Why? Because they're driving around. They're bringing your hormones, but they're not the bad guy. They're not the bad guy. The bad guy is sugar because, because when you eat a lot of sugar, [00:13:00] it gets stored in your liver. When the liver is full, the suitcase is full, it sends that stored sugar, glucose into the bloodstream as triglycerides. You get triglycerides from your diet. That's the bad guy. That's the bad guy. Triglycerides, TG. There's no drug for TG really. I mean they come out with one now. [00:13:30] It's called Vascepa. It's fish oil for heaven's sakes.

Dr. Martin: You don't need to take a drug. Eat right, cut your carbs down, cut your stinking carbs down, cut... If you don't do anything else, guys, you want to have good blood work. If you don't do anything else, just do one thing. Cut the sugar out of your diet. Guys, that's science. So the whole world went upside down and it really started [00:14:00] early in the '50s but it never hit big time till the '60s and '70s when I was in school and they had this cholesterol-mania brought to you by the food industry, the cereal companies. Don't eat bacon and eggs. You can't have bacon and eggs. You're having bacon and eggs? Bacon, look at the fat in bacon. You know how many people today [00:14:30] still think bacon is bad for them?

Dr. Martin: Look, you only look at my generation, okay? My generation is the doctor generation. What do I mean by that? My generation and my parents before me, whatever the doctor said was religion. Whatever the doctor said was religion. That was my generation, okay, and my parents'. The new generations [00:15:00] coming up are not as hooked on what the doctor says. But the doctor said I have to watch my cholesterol. It was never true, guys. It was never true. If you know me, if you go back with me as long as I've been around, you know me, I have been consistent telling you that cholesterol is not the boogeyman. Your every cell in your body is made up of cholesterol. [00:15:30] Every cell in your body is made up of cholesterol.

Dr. Martin: You think you need cholesterol? Every cell in your body, your brain, the synapses connecting yourself in your brain is made up of cholesterol. You think it's important? It's important. We talked about your sex hormones. You can't even make hormones without cholesterol. That's why I told you 85% of your cholesterol comes out of your liver because [00:16:00] if you don't make cholesterol, you can't make sex hormones. You get it? Even, listen, even your immune system needs cholesterol for a healthy immune system. Now, we already talked about when you have a steak, you get zinc and you get all your amino acids and you get your vitamin A and you get your vitamin, there's some vitamin [00:16:30] D, the sun's better of course, but in food, vitamin D is found in eggs, meat and cheese. Did you know that?

Dr. Martin: Yeah, cholesterol. That's how you get cholesterol from food. It's eggs, meat and cheese. So doc, why are you giving us eggs, meat and cheese? Because it's good for you. It's good for you and your numbers will get better, and I'm going to show it to you just at the end of this, [00:17:00] okay? What else? Oh, oh, oh, yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I forgot. Without cholesterol, you don't make enough bile. What's bile? Well, bile is really important in the emulsification of fat, so that fat gets broken down properly. You need bile and bile helps with your pH because you got a very acidic stomach, [00:17:30] but once you're bound to be acidic, so you pour bile, part of it is sodium bicarbonate, baking soda and cholesterol into your gut to make you more alkaline. See the importance of it? You can't even digest.

Dr. Martin: Do you know that even on your skin, guys? Okay, let me show you here. Even on your skin, okay? You get the sun comes in here, okay? The sun comes on the rays, right? [00:18:00] Come right on your arms and legs. That's how you get vitamin D from the sun, okay? So it's a nice day, but I ain't going to get vitamin D today too much. You know why? Because it's too cold. It's not Florida. It's still, I think it's zero degrees or whatever, okay? So I'm not going to be parading around in a T-shirt today unless the sun gets a lot hotter. But anyway, but vitamin D gets synthesized here. Where? Where? [00:18:30] What happens here to get your vitamin D to be absorbed, synthesized? Cholesterol. You need cholesterol to synthesize your vitamin D.

Dr. Martin: Now, is there anybody on the planet that'll argue that vitamin D isn't important guys. It's part of your biochemistry. It's part of your biochemistry. Don't believe [00:19:00] the lie. You ladies, ladies listen to me. Doc, chicken and salad. Chicken and salad. Ladies, you need cholesterol. There's some cholesterol in chicken, but not much. You need red meat. You need steak. Ladies, whenever I ask a woman, what do you like? Chicken and salad. Chicken and salad. You and your salad. [00:19:30] You're not a rabbit. Why? Solid is glorified grass for heaven's sakes. I don't want to get in. I'm just teasing you, okay? Don't come after me. Because some people get really uptight, right? They get uptight.

Dr. Martin: Okay, so now, we talked about the important. Let me just finish with this, okay? When you get your blood work, I do a great teaching on this so if [00:20:00] you don't... If you've never seen it, get the teaching on your good lipids, okay? So when you get blood work done and they do your cholesterol, it's called lipids, your fats. They do a lipid profile, okay? They do total cholesterol. They do LDL, they do HDL, they do triglycerides. Two things that you need to do. One, [00:20:30] check your triglycerides, TG, and your HDL, good cholesterol, okay? Here's what you want, okay? This is a teaching in a nutshell.

Dr. Martin: You want your triglycerides to be low because those are your bad fats. Remember that. Triglycerides, three bad fats made from sugar, crappy carbs. That's what's makes your triglycerides [00:21:00] high. People that have a heart attack or stroke, do you know that 80% of the people that have heart attack and had stroke have normal cholesterol levels? That's a fact. How can they justify that? But the pharmaceutical industry and God bless them. No, seriously. I mean, they made us antibiotics and they made Medicaid. Okay, I get it. Beautiful. [00:21:30] I'm not against them. But when they talk about nonsense, I'm against it and they influence. Unfortunately, they influence even the teaching today in medical schools. The young medical doctors coming out today, they want to put you on Statin drugs all the time.

Dr. Martin: I asked this question, what the heck are we on so many Statin drugs? If Statin drugs were the answer, why is heart disease [00:22:00] worse than it ever was? Why? It's food. It's food. Food is your medicine when it comes to cholesterol. So listen, your triglycerides, they will go down as soon as you change your diet. If you have high, ladies, you want your triglycerides in around the one, okay? 100 [00:22:30] in the United States. Around one, a little bit lower if you can get it lower. Men, the normal is about 1.71, but I like it lower than that, okay? But this is really important, guys. It's always in relationship to your HDL, your good cholesterol. Why is that? Think about this for a minute. HDL is good cholesterol. Now, by the way, [00:23:00] your good cholesterol will go up if you eat cholesterol.

Dr. Martin: So one of them is cut out your sugars and the other one is eat animal fat, cholesterol, eggs, meat and cheese. You see, Dr. Martin, EMC, EMC, EMC, eggs, meat and cheese, eggs, meat and cheese. I know, I know. I'm a one trick pony, but this is science, guys. Because [00:23:30] if your HDL goes up... Think about this for a minute. HDL is good cholesterol. What does good cholesterol do? Well, good cholesterol helps with your hormones and everything I said. But here's specifically what HDL does. HDL is FedEx that hitches its wagon to triglycerides. It hitches. It's got a trailer. It's a [00:24:00] day trench Ford truck with an extra trailer on it to hook your triglycerides, bad fats, takes it out of your body. That's why you want to have good HDL. You get it? Do you get it?

Dr. Martin: HDL, how do you get your HDL up? You got to eat cholesterol and the highest source is in a stinking [00:24:30] steak and eggs and cheese, fat. That's why, listen, Eskimos don't get heart disease. They don't. An Eskimo isn't chasing a seal and, oh, I got the big one. Boom. They don't die like that. They eat cholesterol all day long. It's their diet. 99% of their diet is straight saturated fat. That's it. [00:25:00] They don't know what heart diseases. No, they die good because the polar bears eat them. Guys, you guys are smart. I love you. You're smart, smart. Brandy's going to be mad because I got over time.

Dr. Martin: Now, you have any questions? Tomorrow is question and answer day, okay? So send me in your questions that you want me to answer, okay? I'll try and get to all of them. If you're not in our [00:25:30] private Facebook group, you need to get in there, okay? What a group there. They have good discussions with each other and every once in a while I'll pipe in there, but it's a tremendous group, okay? So guys, love you. Talk to you soon. Sorry for the rant. No, I'm not. Listen, let me give you a little clue. If Dr. Martin stops ranting, please put me away in a home. Love you guys. Talk to you soon.

Announcer: [00:26:00] You've reached the end of another Doctor is In Podcast with your hosts, Dr. Martin Jr. And Sr. Be sure to catch our next episode and thanks for listening.

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