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 Jr.: Brandi, you have any questions for us?
Brandi: I have a lot of questions for you, so Rita, she's had her thyroid removed due to cancer. She wants to know if it's still okay to take our thyroid [00:00:30] supplement.
Dr.Martin Sr.: Go, Junior. They always hear from me, so you go first.
Dr. Martin Jr.: Yeah, definitely, because again, the thing that you have to understand is that when we built the thyroid supplement, we kind of looked at first ... My dad and I always talk about how the thyroid is a puppet, meaning the thyroid only does what it's told to do. If you look at how the thyroid functions, you have the pituitary and then, on top [00:01:00] of that, then you have the hypothalamus, as well, so those things have to be doing their job properly in order for the thyroid to do its job properly. Then after, once the thyroid starts to work, it makes T4, T3, T2, T1, and a little bit of calcitonin, so it's like it makes all these things and then your liver converts T4 to T3, which is what your body pretty much uses mostly. T3 is the active form of the thyroid enzyme, of the thyroid hormone.
Dr.Martin Jr.: [00:01:30] When somebody has a thyroid removed, you still need all those things functioning properly. You still need everything doing their job. You still need the hypothalamus, pituitary, and everything, so yes. See, the great thing about a supplement is it's not a drug, first of all, and second of all, like I said, ours was built with the whole process in mind, which is why, if you look at the ingredients in ours and you look at it compared to a lot of other things, [00:02:00] ours, people are like it's kind of a weird formula. It's got a lot of different things that you would never associate in a thyroid formula, but that they're there for a reason, so yes, absolutely. It's not a drug. It's not going to force an issue that doesn't need to be forced. It's going to support everything around the thyroid, which is why we definitely like it and yes, we would definitely recommend people without a thyroid using it. Many do. Many do.
Dr.Martin Sr.: Yeah, and just [00:02:30] if you think about it, too, ladies, if you have a total hysterectomy, for example, your body's got plan B, so you're still going to be a woman. You're still going to produce estrogen. You're still going to produce progesterone, not in the amounts that your ovaries would do, but you have plan B. It's the same thing if you lose your thyroid. Your body will adapt to that. Your body makes changes. [00:03:00] It will produce all the ... We talked about T1, T2, T3, T4, T5 because like Tony Jr. was saying, the brain, the hypothalamus, the pituitary, I mean, those are really the origins of your thyroid hormones. They're the ones that tell the thyroid to do certain things and so you get plan B. There will still be the conversion in the liver. [00:03:30] You might have to be on medication, but what the supplement will do is it will support and really help your body to make even that adaptation in a much better way even without having a thyroid.
Dr.Martin Sr: A lot of people are asking the question in case you're getting any more of these, Brandy, about the thyroid. One, if you are on thyroid medication, remember what I was saying in the last [00:04:00] couple of days about the thyroid. One, remember what your symptoms are because if you're tired and you're losing your hair and you got ridges in your nails and you don't feel good and you're gaining weight, those are all thyroid symptoms. It's important to remember that because it would be a good idea if you have any of those symptoms to support your thyroid, even if your blood tests come back within normal limits because [00:04:30] that is very common. We see that. I mean, incredible. Oh, my doctor said my thyroid is good and yet, you have all those symptoms. That's all I'm saying is it's never a bad idea. We have thousands, I mean literally thousands of people taking that thyroid supplement and a lot of them, they thought as far as their blood work goes, everything was normal.
Dr.Martin Jr: Well, and there's one more thing when it comes to pretty much all testing that people have to understand. [00:05:00] There's what they call a numerical count. You see that all the time. Well, they do a count of like a blood count or they do a thyroid hormone count. Do you have enough of it? Now, that's one aspect and that's important.
Dr.Martin Jr: The other aspect is you can have enough of something, but if your cells aren't using that stuff properly or if they're not doing their job properly because remember, a hormone has an effect on a cell and if that cell is ignoring that [00:05:30] hormone or that cell's not receptive to it, then it doesn't necessarily matter if you have enough of it. One of the things that happens a lot of times with blood testing is you're like well, I have enough or my blood levels are normal, but that doesn't necessarily mean that your cells are using it. You can have every symptom of thyroid, have normal testing. Well, what's going on? There's something going on there, so if your blood testing is normal and you have every symptom of thyroid, then obviously, there's something [00:06:00] going on with your thyroid that goes beyond just having enough of the actual thyroid hormones, but yes. That's a long way of saying yes. All right. Brandi, what's up next?
Brandi: Do you want to just touch on if Hashimoto's can be reversed, as well?
Dr.Martin Jr: Okay. Yeah. Do you want to talk about that, dad?
Dr.Martin Sr: Well, yeah. Again, I hate to use the word reverse. That word-
Dr.Martin Jr: Â Yeah, we like to use the word remission. We like the word-
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah, remission, get it better. [00:06:30] Hashimoto's is an autoimmune disease that sends your thyroid into hypothyroidism. Autoimmune has different components to it, so we have a whole protocol for autoimmune that will affect your thyroid. Part of is it ... Big on the thyroid is your diet because what Tony Jr. was saying is where your conversion of your thyroid. Now, we have a complete teaching on this called [00:07:00] the Thyroid Distress Syndrome. It is tremendous. Now, let me just share something. The conversion of thyroid hormone is done in your liver, so if you change your diet and empty your liver because one of the biggest problems with the thyroid is fatty liver. Fatty liver comes from our stinking, crappy diet, sugars and crappy carbs, so if you change that, [00:07:30] it's amazing what happens to the thyroid.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah, and with Hashimoto's, you always have to go one step reversed and see why is your body turning on itself. It's an autoimmune disorder and, a lot of times, you have to address there's always some kind of underlying gut issue always going on, so that needs to be addressed. There's always a dietary component that needs to be fixed and then you can work on supporting everything around the thyroid. Like my dad just mentioned, liver is a big [00:08:00] part of it because insulin, high circulating insulin can inhibit the body's ability to convert T4 to T3. Again, all that definitely plays in, so Hashimoto's, again, the word reverse is a strong word. Can you put it into remission or make it feel a lot better? Yeah, absolutely. A lot of people would say that, would say they've had success doing that.
Dr.Martin Jr: When it comes to an autoimmune disorder, the first question always, always you have to ask is cause and effect. The effect is [00:08:30] the autoimmune disorder. What's the cause of that? That cause varies from person to person. There's a few main causes, but, I mean, you have to kind of address some of those underlying things. Anything else about the thyroid, Brandi, people are asking?
Brandi: No. That's-
Dr.Martin Jr: All right. So let's ... Yeah.
Brandi: Greg has been eating low carb for about two weeks now and he wants to know why he's so sore and achy.
Dr.Martin Sr: He's weird.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah, no. [00:09:00] I mean, there's a few reasons for that. Now, one of the things that happens, especially if a person, it's one of the first times they're kind of switching that engine from burning carbs to burning fat and they start to get into ketosis and burning ketones for energy, one of the things that happens is that process of switching the fuel tank over, for some people, is miserable. They don't feel well. They get sore. They get achy. They call it the keto [00:09:30] flu. There's a whole lack of things that go along with it because the body has been so used to burning another source of fuel.
Dr.Martin Jr: One of the good things that once you get through the end of that, people, because there's a ton of research showing that low carb diets, people feel better because it is antiinflammatory, so their joints do feel better after. As a rule of thumb, for some people, making that switch, they could be miserable for a bit, real fatigued.
Dr.Martin Sr: Yeah. Stick to it.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah. One of the biggest things people [00:10:00] notice is they get fatigued. That's, again, that's a tough switch, but we know and there's studies that and we talk about this in newsletters, there's studies that when a person becomes metabolically flexible and they can go back and forth with ease between the different types of burning of fuel, the more metabolically flexible they are, the healthier their mitochondria are, the healthier they are. Yeah, you definitely want to get through this.
Dr.Martin Jr: I mean, a lot of people that are on this Q&A and [00:10:30] a lot of people that are associated with us in our Facebook group will tell you that when they first do that switchover, there's a range of symptoms. Some people get headaches and that's, I mean, that's almost like a withdrawal toxicity effect from all the carbs or sugars they're used to eating. Yeah, that happens, for sure. It's not uncommon. Some people don't get it, but most people that lived their life a certain way [00:11:00] and then they start eating low carb, it could be miserable for a bit, especially when they start doing your metabolic reset diet. They go from one way and then completely swing the pendulum the other way. It can be difficult for sure for people.
Dr.Martin Sr: The other thing, too, that just as an example that would be I often tell patients when they're starting a candida cleanse, for example, we talk about yeast and getting rid of it. Of course, when you're doing the metabolic [00:11:30] reset or even ketosis, if you're eating a keto diet, you're not feeding the yeast. You're not having any sugar, so one of the things that yeast does is it's an organism. It's like a pet. It's not a good pet. It's a bad pet, but it wants to be fed, so now you're not feeding it and now you get a die off. They actually in medicine call it a die off and so that can happen with candida, but it also, like you were saying, [00:12:00] whenever you have a drastic change in your diet, you're burning a much better fuel. All I'm saying is, Greg, don't quit.
Dr.Martin Jr: No. The body adapting-
Dr.Martin Sr: You're doing the right thing, believe you me. There's nobody that doesn't benefit from lowering the carbohydrates. It's as simple as that.
Dr.Martin Jr: The body will adapt. It definitely adapts, but it can fight you on it. It doesn't want to give up the ghost sometimes.
Dr.Martin Sr: Yeah.
Dr.Martin Jr: All right. Brandi, what's up next?
Brandi: Suzette is suffering from insomnia and anxiety and wants to know if Dr. [00:12:30] Martin had any suggestions for her.
Dr.Martin Jr: All right.
Dr.Martin Sr: Go, Junior. You start it. You always start. I'll go second.
Dr.Martin Jr: All right. I'll always start. Here's the good news. A lot of times, the same root cause of anxiety is the same cause of insomnia. Sometimes insomnia is just a symptom of anxiety. A lot of times, if you look at the physiology between the two, what you see, one of the things that we preach all the time with that would be looking at the cortisol levels [00:13:00] of a person because ... Listen, I don't care who you are today. If you're living on planet Earth right now with all the COVID stuff going on and all the lockdowns and you're in your house, humans were made for connection. We're made not to be six feet apart from other human beings. That's not how we're made. We function so much better with human contact.
Dr.Martin Jr: I don't care who you are. There's a level of stress and a level [00:13:30] of anxiety that's over everybody right now, so everybody's feeling that pressure. I'm sure there are a lot of people that have elevated blood pressure right now because of stress, which again, can be dangerous because look at New York City. The number one comorbidity for New York City COVID deaths was high blood pressure, so, I mean, these things all playing a part. Listen, so, I mean, there's a lot of anxiety going around, cortisol specifically, when it comes to anxiety, so you got to remember how cortisol works.
Dr.Martin Jr: [00:14:00] Cortisol is your stress hormone. There's really two things that happen, so if I get in a real stressful situation, your body will make adrenaline. Adrenaline's like a quick burn. It rises really quickly, disappears really quickly. What happens is is that also, cortisol levels go up. They go up and that's a slow burn. They stay up for a bit after. When cortisol is secreted, you're in that fight or flight mode. [00:14:30] Your blood sugar levels are going up. Your respiration is shorter and more shallow. You're not taking as deep of breaths and so naturally, as well, your cortisol cycle should be just before you wake up in the morning, your cortisol levels are the highest naturally. That's because your body's bringing up your blood sugar levels. It's getting your body ready to wake up for the day.
Dr.Martin Jr: What happens throughout the day is your cortisol level should actually drop off and then by nighttime, [00:15:00] they should be fairly low because you don't want to be in that fight or flight mode before going to bed. When people have elevated levels of cortisol and if you've gone through and looked at our video on the adrenal teaching, we talk about why cortisol levels stay off a long time. It's pretty much impossible to sleep well at nighttime if your cortisol cycle is off in any way. Your levels will be high. You're in fight or flight mode. The last thing your body wants to do when you're in fight or flight mode is take a nap or go to sleep. [00:15:30] It's just your brain can't. It doesn't function that way. If you do manage to fall asleep, you're waking up frequently throughout the night. Again, that has to do with elevated cortisol. The first thing that we always tell people that insomnia and anxiety is get their cortisol levels under control. That's one of the things that we would tell people to do.
Dr.Martin Jr: Also, you have to change your habits at nighttime. If you're used to a lot of blue light at nighttime, television and all that, you have to unplug earlier. Those things delay melatonin onset. They [00:16:00] delay things that have to happen that normally do happen that give you a good night's sleep. Now, it doesn't do it in everybody, but when you have already a problem with cortisol, those things make it much, much worse. That's where I would recommend starting. There's no question. Now, I don't know if you have anything else you want to add to that, dad.
Dr.Martin Sr: No. I was just saying I think you hit on it that a lot of times, people with cortisol and anxiety, they might fall asleep, but they don't stay asleep. Where you can help yourself then is [00:16:30] I find a lot of patients over the years, I would tell them put a couple of cortisol formula right beside your bed. It's not a bad idea. Drink a little bit of water in the middle of the night anyways. Take a couple more capsules of that. That seems to have helped a lot of people when they're waking up and then they're up at 4:00 in the morning and the day is pretty long after that or 3:00 in the morning and they can't get back to sleep. That's [00:17:00] one way to help.
Dr.Martin Sr: I don't know if anybody's asking Brandy about melatonin. The best way to get your melatonin is not to take melatonin, is to get out in the sun and get some Vitamin D because your body makes melatonin, but it makes it when you get in the sun. You need even sun to get into your eyeballs. Don't put your sunglasses on first thing in the morning when you go outside. Let your sun get about 10, let your sun, let your eyes get about [00:17:30] 10 minutes of sun and you start making a lot of melatonin. It's amazing. I just went out. Finally, we get a day where, I mean, it's still cool, but you could get some sun where we are. I know I'm elevating my melatonin levels.
Brandi: Can you also touch on for Grace how long it takes for the Cortisol Control to take effect?
Dr.Martin Sr: Well, again ... I'll answer first, Tony.
Dr.Martin Jr: You're breaking [00:18:00] protocol.
Dr.Martin Sr: Everybody's different, right? Everybody's different. It depends on how much anxiety you have and, you know what? Dosage. Don't be scared. I was texting with a patient this morning and I was just telling her. You know what? Like Junior was saying, we live in I don't like the word, but I'm going to say it, unprecedented times. I'm 68 years old. I've never seen [00:18:30] anything like this world has gone through in the last month. I mean, to shut the world down, literally, to bring it to its knees, how can you not be secreting cortisol, like this kind of thing happening with everybody. I mean, some worse than others. Don't be scared. If you have cortisol formula, up it, if you got to do it for two to three weeks to get it kicked in. I've had some patients [00:19:00] taking six or eight of those a day for a couple of weeks. Hey, it works, and then you can lower the dose.
Dr.Martin Jr: All right. Go ahead, Brandi.
Brandi: For women in their 20s and 30s, when they get acne, is this due to leaky gut or is this due to high estrogen?
Dr.Martin Jr: Both. Those would be the two biggest causes I mean, I would take a probiotic anyways. We recommend a probiotic [00:19:30] anyway, so I would be taking a probiotic and then figure out if they do have other symptoms, as well, of messed up estrogen. A lot of times, it's estrogen dominance issue going on. Again, when we say estrogen dominance, we should always probably clarify what we mean by that because when we say estrogen dominance, it's always in relation to progesterone. You can have low estrogen and even lower progesterone and still be estrogen dominant [00:20:00] because the ratio is messed up. We would ask questions based on that, do you have other estrogen type of dominance symptoms or other hormonal symptoms, but yes, generally speaking, those two things.
Dr.Martin Jr: Then you can't rule out the third cause, as well, so probiotics, big cause gut, second cause, for sure, estrogen, and the third cause, digestive enzymes. A lot of people get adult acne because [00:20:30] they have low digestive enzyme capabilities and they're not digesting their food properly, so that, as well, those three things. The gut and probiotics are kind of related, but one's more of a dysbiosis of the gut for probiotics. There's a direct in research, they call it the gut-skin axis. There's a direct connection between the health of the skin, which is the largest organ, and the gut, but then also, digestive enzyme wise, that's a big issue, as well. Usually those three things are [00:21:00] the cause for a majority of the people. Sometimes there's some dietary stuff in there, obviously, as well. Those would be my three things.
Dr.Martin Sr: Yeah, one thing, too, ladies, if you get acne, adult acne, your estrogen is higher than progesterone, for sure. What that does is elevates your testosterone and so testosterone is good in little amounts for women, much bigger amounts for men. [00:21:30] Yeah, again, those are all hormones. You can knock your estrogen down, get it leveled out, but exactly, the gut and the stomach because if your acidity in your stomach isn't high enough. As you get older, by the way, your acidity in your stomach goes down naturally. You're not making the enzymes that you're making when you're 20 years old. People go gee, how did I get acne? How does acne start coming up when my skin, [00:22:00] I feel like a teenager again. It really has to do a lot with the gut. I always start with the gut and hormones.
Dr.Martin Jr: Okay. Yeah. All right. Brandi, what's up next?
Brandi: John would like to know if your blood type affects your diet.
Dr.Martin Jr: Well, listen. There's been a ton of research, a lot of research that looked at ... When that book came out, I remember I was in school. I mean, I'm 46 years old and I remember when that book came out. It created [00:22:30] a little bit of a stir and since then, a lot of research has been done. The research is pretty conclusive that it doesn't. Now listen, a lot of times, people would eat the blood type way and they'd feel better because no matter what way you eat for blood type, you're cutting out a lot of the junky foods. If somebody eliminates sugar from their diet and somebody eliminates all the other junk from their diets and they feel better, it has to do more with that than [00:23:00] it did actually eating for their blood type. To me, there are a lot simpler ways to figure things out rather than eating for your blood type. Like I said, the research just doesn't back it up in any way. Again, people feel better doing it. Does it really matter if they feel better?
Dr.Martin Jr: One of the things I used to deal a lot with sports injuries and people would come up and ask me all these weird questions about injuries. I would say, "Does it make you feel better?" They're like, "Yeah." I'm like, "Okay. Well, then-"
Dr.Martin Sr: [00:23:30] Do it.
Dr.Martin Jr: Do it. Who cares? Do it.
Dr.Martin Sr: I got a personal story about that because back I think it could've been 2000 or '99, but I wrote a book on chronic fatigue syndrome. I was invited to be a speaker in Anaheim, California, Tony. You remember those conferences.
Dr.Martin Jr: A nutrition [crosstalk 00:23:52]. Yeah.
Dr.Martin Sr: The biggest health conferences in the world. This year, they canceled it because of COVID, remember?
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah, first time.
Dr.Martin Sr: They had [00:24:00] 100,000 people already signed up to go.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah, it's a great show. It's fantastic, yeah.
Dr.Martin Sr: I did that. I was a speaker one year. I was invited to speak and guess who was speaking with me on the same venue just a little, I think-
Dr.Martin Jr: Is it Dr. [Denamo 00:24:17], is that his name?
Dr.Martin Sr: Yeah, Dr. D'Adamo. I remember it was fascinating. Guess who is smart? Peter was smarter than me-
Dr.Martin Jr: Oh, yeah, that's guy's very smart.
Dr.Martin Sr: ... because I didn't sell near as many books as he did.
Dr.Martin Jr: You did close [crosstalk 00:24:30]
Dr.Martin Sr: [00:24:30] I sold quite a few books on chronic fatigue, but Dr. D'Adamo, I think he sold 5 million books. I'll tell you what. It always bothered me because to me, it wasn't science. Sometimes, you hide behind science. I don't like that either, but let me just see what I mean. Look, when you look at all the nutrients there are in foods, okay, I'm a nutrient guy, so tell me a food, [00:25:00] I'll tell you what's in it. I can just tell you what's in it. Then they say yeah, but if you've got type O blood, you've got to eat this way and you've got to avoid this. You know what? That used to bother me because then I'd say well, yeah, but your body, I don't care who you are, you need all those nutrients. You need every amino acid. You need B12. You need K2. You need L-carnitine, L-lysine, [00:25:30] L-arginine. You need all those things. Some of the things you were just talking about, Dr. D'Adamo, are not in there for that particular person. Well, what are they supposed to do?
Dr.Martin Jr: They would be deficient. The dietary, yeah.
Dr.Martin Sr: Yeah, what are you supposed to do, take a supplement the rest of your life? I never liked that book, but like I said, he was a lot smarter than me. He made a lot more money than me.
Dr.Martin Jr: I remember when the book came out and reading it. Like I said, I was in school at the time and it was fascinating. It was [00:26:00] interesting, but, like I said, the science now. They've done enough research on it. I wouldn't recommend that way for somebody for sure. Same with my ... You wouldn't recommend that for other people either. All right. Brandi, what's up?
Brandi: Evelyn says, "I've been on the Cereal Killers Revisited Program for about a year-and-a-half, lost 30 pounds and almost as much inches. I was able to get off my antacid meds, but it hasn't made any difference with my [00:26:30] blood pressure. I'm still on meds. I also take two Navitol daily."
Dr.Martin Jr: First of all, congratulations. A lot of that stuff's amazing, so that's good. Now, blood pressure is, a lot of times, a lagging indicator. Sometimes, for some people, blood pressure comes down pretty quickly and it regulates pretty fast. The number one cause of high blood pressure is definitely high circulating insulin, so you still may have a little bit of insulin resistance in you left. Also, I [00:27:00] don't know if you're exercising, if you're moving. I don't know what your stress levels are like because cortisol and blood pressure is a ... Cortisol is an accelerant. The more cortisol you have, the more inflammation, the higher blood pressure.
Dr.Martin Jr: There are other aspects. The biggest thing right away when somebody has high blood pressure is dietary, but there you can could be fully insulin sensitive and if your stress levels are through the roof, your blood [00:27:30] pressure's going to be high. I mean, there's no getting around that. Also, if you're not getting your blood vessels working out via exercise, also, I mean, it's so there are a few other reasons for that.
Dr.Martin Jr: For a lot of people that are really highly insulin resistant and it looks like you've made some great changes, lost weight and lost inches, which is awesome. You've added years to your life, but I would definitely work on getting that [00:28:00] blood pressure under control and I would recommend taking assessment of your stress level because that, again, that might be a big cause of it. Are you moving around? Are you lifting weights? Are you doing those kind of things to help with that aspect of it, as well? I don't know if you have any-
Dr.Martin Sr: Sometimes you can just because you want to check all the boxes, check your magnesium. If you're taking it real good, but some people, they don't have enough [00:28:30] magnesium in their body. Could be dehydration, too. I'm always looking at things that'll keep your blood pressure high, but you did the right thing. Good for you. You're a superstar. There's no doubt about that.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Brandi: Can you talk about the best way to boost your immune system?
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah. That's the first time we've heard this question in a while, I guess, eh? It's a good question because, all right, let me just quickly rant for two seconds [00:29:00] here. In this time, there's nothing more frustrating than reading official press releases from dietary associations saying that there's no food that will boost your immune system. That's idiotic. That's a terrible statement to make because we can tell you with 100% certainty that diabetics are way more likely to get an infection. Diabetics are way more likely to get diabetic lung. [00:29:30] Diabetics are more likely to also, when it comes to COVID-19, are one of the highest at risks for serious infection and death.
Dr.Martin Jr: A diabetic doesn't get there by accident. A diabetic is a lifelong high circulating insulin because of dietary choices, so if diet can make them a diabetic and, therefore, make them more susceptible because it weakens their immune system, then the opposite [00:30:00] always has to be true. That's how it works, so the opposite of that means a diabetic can eat foods to improve his diabetes and, therefore, as a result of that, their immune system gets a lot stronger. What percentage, dad, of people are metabolically healthy?
Dr.Martin Sr: 12%.
Dr.Martin Jr: Okay. For the 88% of the population that's not metabolically healthy, 88% of the population can eat [00:30:30] foods that boost their immune system. That's a fact. That's why when you read those statements, it's super annoying that they would say that. I understand what they're saying in a sense like oh, if you eat broccoli, you're not going to get COVID, but nobody thinks that. That's stupid. That's not what people are thinking. They want to know can I eat a certain way to boost my immune system. Yes, absolutely you can. If you've got high blood sugars, like we talked about in our webinar a few weeks ago, then yes, there are things you could do right now that will boost your immune system. That's first and foremost. [00:31:00] That irritated us beyond all measure.
Dr.Martin Jr: Then they say there are no supplement that can prevent COVID. That's true. No supplement has been tested for COVID, but let's take one step back for a second. Let's take one step back and look at the big picture. We know how respiratory tract infections, we know with flus, there are certain truths that come out of that. One is Vitamin D levels, blood levels. Somebody who has lower blood levels of D is more likely to get a lung infection. They're more [00:31:30] likely to get adverse effects due to thing, so it only makes sense to have stronger lungs, stronger immune system via making sure your blood levels of D are and we could do that for a lot of different things.
Dr.Martin Jr: I understand, in a sense, some of the stuff they put out, but other things is just flat out stupid and it's irritating. Right now, you're telling people that their diet has nothing to do with their immune system is idiotic. Considering that, what, 99% [00:32:00] or the biggest comorbidity is obesity, right?
Dr.Martin Sr: Yeah.
Dr.Martin Jr: It's just-
Dr.Martin Sr: Which is just a [crosstalk 00:32:08]
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah, it's stupid. It's so frustrating to hear that from nutritionists, dieticians talking about food as having no effect on the immune system. It's just dumb. Anyways, okay, I digressed for a few minutes there. Let's flip it over, so how do you boost your immune system? What can you do to boost your immune system?
Dr.Martin Jr: The first thing, as we mentioned, is you want to make sure your blood levels of D are good. [00:32:30] Again, we live up in the north. My dad and I, we live two blocks away from each other. Seems like 10 miles right now, except when I see him walking. He does the circuit, my dad, like he's on the Indy 500 circuit walking all the time. I see him, my dad and my mom, just whipping around like they're neighborhood watch security. They got their masks on and they got the little walkie-talkies pretty much like they're going to be looking over. Anyways, that's [crosstalk 00:32:59]
Dr.Martin Sr: I'm looking, making sure Brandy [00:33:00] stays in her house.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah. He's doing the laps, for sure. He's like he's doing this with everybody. He's watching. He knows what's going on. Anyways, but it's very hard at this time in the north. We got some people on here from Texas. I mean, they can go outside with their arms exposed, with their legs exposed, their face exposed, and they can get that wonderful Vitamin D this time of year. In the north, we can't quite do that yet. You're not outside in a T-shirt. I'm crazy. I'm [00:33:30] a little crazier. I'll go outside in T-shirt and shorts in the wintertime bringing the garbage to the curb. My neighbors think I'm nuts. I'm not doing it for Vitamin D. I'm just too lazy to go get changed. Has nothing to do with my Vitamin D levels.
Dr.Martin Jr: At the end of the day, you want to make sure that first and foremost, you want to make sure that your blood levels are good of Vitamin D. Now, you don't have to go test your blood levels to see if they're good. Just take enough Vitamin D every day. That's it. Take enough Vitamin D every day and make sure that [00:34:00] you're doing that consistently because that's one of the most important things for your immune system is your blood levels of Vitamin D. That's first right there, Vitamin D levels, done.
Dr.Martin Jr: We talked about dietary stuff. You want to definitely at this time and listen, again, it's very, very tough to be eating healthy right now. It's very hard. There's so much going on in our mental space that's making eating choices very difficult to make. People are depressed. [00:34:30] They're just when you have that caged-in feeling-
Dr.Martin Sr: Comfort foods.
Dr.Martin: Jr Yeah, it's just it's tough to do and I understand that, but the more processed food, the more sugar you eat, the weaker your immune system's going to be, so Vitamin D, definitely sugar, definitely processed foods. You can add some stuff here, dad. I've been talking about it for a while.
Dr.Martin Sr: I mean, and thanks for the rant, you see, because every morning, I get to rant.
Dr.Martin Jr: I rant every morning, too, but nobody listens.
Dr. Martin Sr: Now, you just did one. You just did [00:35:00] a rant-
Dr.Martin Jr: I just do it, yeah.
Dr. Martin Sr: …. because your blood pressure went up. I was monitoring your blood pressure.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah. I don't wear an Apple watch, but if I did, it would be telling me to breathe. It tells me off all the time, just breathe.
Dr.Martin Sr: The other thing and look, we talk about this quite a bit. The immune system, one of the biggest factors is your gut because your immunity, you need to have enough microbiome. You need to have enough good bacteria. That's very important, so probiotics, [00:35:30] but you hit it. Hey, wait. I talk about Vitamin S every day and that's steak. The reason I like it is because, well, it does a lot of things, but it gives you zinc. Even with this COVID that we're talking about, you-
Dr.Martin Jr: Dad, didn't you hear that WHO recommended not eating red meat?
Dr.Martin Sr: Yeah. We were going to start off with that, but-
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah. Since they said it, I got to get rid of all my steak. Because the WHO came out with that, I mean, listen, they're never wrong. They've been so right on everything [00:36:00] over the years. I mean, it's time to throw-
Dr.Martin Sr: I asked Brandy you want to see my blood pressure? That went up this morning when I was talking about, but zinc. They even said well, they were using it with this malaria drug and zinc and with an antibiotic, but it seemed to be pretty successful. Zinc, you get it ... I always tell people to eat their zinc. Get it in steak.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah, steak is loaded with it, so [00:36:30] yeah. Again, so there are definitely things to do for the immune system. Again, just look at the data. I always tell people when it comes to COVID-19, go look at the data. One thing is after this time is we know who's at risk. We know what the comorbidities are. We know these things, so work yourself backwards from there. If you have high blood pressure, lower it. I got diabetes, reverse it or bring it into remission. I got these things, just that's what I would work [00:37:00] on, for sure. Okay. Brandi, what's up next?
Brandi: Doug says, "I have fungus in my lungs, in my body, and now looking if I have it in my blood. I've been sick since December. I have to flush that out of my body very quickly. I've been on antibiotics and did fungus pills. Which diet or what do I need to do to flush that out of my system?"
Dr.Martin Sr: Well, I'd do a reset. Don't feed it at all. Mold is a fungus, [00:37:30] right? If you get mold in your lungs or whatever, it's a fungus. You don't feed it. Number one, it thrives on sugar and number two, it hates steak. Steak don't feed it. Don't give it any sugar. I wouldn't have any crappy carbs. I wouldn't have any crappy vegetable oils-
Dr.Martin Jr: Vegetable oils.
Dr.Martin Sr: ... at all. Anything that's inflammatory is going to make it worse. You need to be on a broad spectrum probiotic. [00:38:00] Absolutely you need probiotics. I would even your our candida cleanse. I would get that candida, get that fungus out of your blood. How did it get in your blood? Well, it sneaks in via the leaky gut, so you got to fix the gut and so if it becomes systemic, it's in your lungs .... A lot of people have it in their sinuses. They think they have an infection and they might have a bacteria in there, but if it's chronic, usually [00:38:30] there's candida underneath it. There's yeast underneath it.
Dr.Martin Sr: It's like women with bladder infections, recurring, recurring, recurring. I say well, it's not a bacteria. I know you're taking an antibiotic every time, but actually, you're making it reoccur because you're creating a yeast inside that bladder. Yeast loves moisture. Fungus loves ... That's why you get a fungus on your toe. [00:39:00] Why do you get it on your toenail? Because you sweat and the moisture. It's like mold. It really is. It's a cousin of mold. That's where it likes. It loves your sinus and loves your lungs. Fix it. Don't feed it. Kill it.
Dr.Martin Jr: All right. Brandi?
Brandi: Jen would like to know for a teenager with hormone imbalances, does the keto diet do them good or bad?
Dr.Martin Jr: [00:39:30] Do you want to answer first, dad?
Dr.Martin Sr: You're up.
Dr.Martin Jr: Does the keto diet do good or bad? No, the keto doesn't do bad at all. There's no question. Again, listen. It's funny. Not everybody has to go keto. Not everybody needs to do a metabolic reset. We talk about it a lot because a lot of people that visit us in the clinic or email [00:40:00] us, they got so many metabolic issues that they got to get a little bit more severe than somebody else. A teenager, somebody who's younger, they may not be metabolically damaged. I don't know much about the person, but so they may not have to go that. They may do very well just cutting out processed, crappy carbs, which is a combination of vegetable oils and carbs at the same time. Cut out sugar. Clean their diet up that way first there.
Dr.Martin Jr: Then a lot of times also, [00:40:30] one of the things that works really well for young people, even, obviously, women in general with hormonal issues, is our hormonal support formula. That was kind of built to help fix a lot of that kind of stuff, so that's usually what we would kind of recommend that way. Then clean up the diet, for sure, because every food that you eat, and this is important for people to understand, as well, every time you take a bite of food, that [00:41:00] food has a huge impact on our hormonal system. It's constantly raising insulin. Insulin is going to stop a bunch of things from happening. It's going to stop the thyroid from functioning properly. It's going to lead to elevated cortisol. It's going to lead to a whole lack of things, so you definitely want to clean up diet. Eliminate the junky stuff, for sure. Then I would do the hormonal support. To be honest with you, that's kind of what we would recommend there. I don't know if you have anything else you want to add to that.
Dr.Martin Sr: No, and just like you were saying, [00:41:30] I mean, food. The keto diet, it's always good. I mean, our metabolic reset is even stricter than that. We're not allowing any carbs, but that's for a short period of time. You can eat keto or keto-like. You should actually make it a lifestyle so that it's part of your lifestyle. You're always eating keto.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah, it's a tool in your toolbox, right? Yeah, you want it to be a tool in your toolbox.
Dr.Martin Sr: Exactly. It's only beneficial. [00:42:00] I haven't seen any really negativity about eating ... We're low carb people. If you're on today and you're like you're never going to convince us not to be low carb. We're just low carb. I'm a no carb guy for 30 days and there's a reason for it. I did it. I tested it in the office. I tested it with hundreds of patients. It started with diabetes and I just wanted them to get a rapid change. Then I found yeah, people actually, [00:42:30] no matter who does it, it's actually good for everyone. That's no carbs. You could do well by lowering your carbohydrates. There's no doubt about it. Your hormones, like you said, insulin is a master hormone. Every time you eat you need insulin. If you lower your insulin and lower your insulin resistance, you lower your inflammation. If you lower your inflammation, so it cascades [00:43:00] into all good things, so yeah, absolutely good for you.
Dr.Martin Jr: Okay. Now, we'll try to cut it off around 3:00-ish. We got about 12 minutes. I don't know if you want to ask us a bunch of questions, like rapid fire type stuff and we'll try to keep our answers short.
Brandi: A lot of the questions are being answered from your rants already, so I'm just trying to keep track of-
Dr.Martin Jr: Oh, so there's some benefit to a rant?
Brandi: Yes. What-
Dr.Martin Jr: Can I get my wife in here for a second so she can hear that?
Brandi: [00:43:30] Someone who has had melanoma in the past, should they now avoid the sun?
Dr.Martin Jr: Avoid the sun? Well, they should avoid getting burned, but they shouldn't be avoiding the sun. You need Vitamin D and the only way you make it naturally is when you're out in the sun, so you don't want to avoid the sun. You definitely don't want to avoid it. I think you cause more harm in the long run. There's no question you will by avoiding the sun than you would by doing it properly. I just wouldn't [00:44:00] burn.
Dr.Martin Sr: Yeah. Yeah. Don't overdo it. Get 15, 20 minutes and then cover up.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah.
Dr.Martin Sr: Just remember something about melanoma people don't realize and this is a fact. You can Google it and check me out. People that work indoors get melanoma. People that-
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah, indoor office workers get the highest rate.
Dr.Martin Sr: I mean, farmers or whatever, they're in the sun all the time, whatever. If they get a cancer, it'll be a basal cell carcinoma, not a melanoma. Melanoma are people that work [00:44:30] indoors or they get them under their arms where they never get sun there.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah. There's a little bit of history. It's interesting because there's some research showing also the effect that insulin resistance has on that, so it is, for sure. I wouldn't avoid the sun. I just wouldn't burn.
Dr.Martin Sr: Yeah.
Dr.Martin Jr: All right. Brandi?
Brandi: What level of carbs would be acceptable for somebody to stick to to a day after the reset?
Dr.Martin Jr: Again, the easiest thing is why did they do the reset in the first place? [00:45:00] Were they diabetic? If they were diabetic or if they were messed up metabolically, then they're always going to want to keep a relatively lowish amount of carbs. Do they have to do keto? No, not necessarily, but they still want to be a lowish carb diet. Depends on their lifestyle, right? Are they lifting weights? If somebody's lifting weights, they can consume some carbs, especially after lifting weights and they're insulin sensitive. They don't get much of an insulin spike after, so there's a lot of variables [00:45:30] to that, but as a rule of thumb, depends what they went in for in the first place.
Dr.Martin Jr: Then if they were diseased, then you want to always keep your carb count relatively low afterwards. You could count a certain number if you're looking to stay keto. You could count a certain number if you're looking to do certain things that way, but if you're not, then you just eat a low carb diet. I mean, you go plus or minus a few grams of carbs. It's not the end of the world by any means because it's meant [00:46:00] to be a lifelong thing rather, so-
Dr.Martin Sr: Yeah. You make it a lifestyle. One of the things I recommend after coming out of the reset is one things happens when you reset is that once you get to the fourth week, you're feeling so stinking good that people get a little bit scared about having any carbs. They're not used to having carbs anymore and their body is burning that high octane, 99% octane. [00:46:30] It's jet fuel. Your brain feels better. You've emptied your liver. Everything feels better. As you start introducing carbs, you don't need much carbs. You find out that when you were eating that nutrient-dense foods that you needed very little carbs. They burn like think of a wood stove. They burn like paper and twigs, so why would you want to put paper and twigs back into the wood stove when logs [00:47:00] are so much better? They burn better.
Dr.Martin Sr: Does that mean you never have spaghetti again or you never have any noodles? No, but you've learned now to live without them, so you can have a little bit and enjoy it and maybe have a little bit of dessert once a week or whatever. Have a little bit of dessert. Just don't live on it anymore. Your body will tell you how much it loves you for doing that. I'm with you, [00:47:30] Tony Jr., because to me, to put a number on it, I can say 20 grams, but for me, 20 grams of carbs, look, I don't do well with carbohydrates. Some people do a little bit better. I find with me, I just don't do well. I fool myself sometimes because my wife's Italian. I don't do well. I do well strict. Again, if you're metabolically challenged, 88% of the population. [00:48:00] That doesn't come from the Martin Clinic. 88% of the population have trouble with their metabolic. Well, the problem with that is carbs foodwise, so don't have a lot. You get used to it. It's habits. I could tell you a lot of stories about my dad. I watched my dad as a diabetic in 1967. It changed my life because I started exercising. He lived [00:48:30] on steak six nights a week in the '60s.
Dr.Martin Jr: All right. Brandi?
Brandi: Dr. Martin, you always talk about Vitamin S as in steak, but what about other meats like pork?
Dr.Martin Sr: Yeah, they're all good.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah.
Dr.Martin Sr: All meats are good. You know me. I'm trying to make up an alphabet, the Martin Clinic alphabet.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah, but first of all, steak is a superfood. If you look at the actual nutrients in a steak-
Dr.Martin Sr: Hard to beat.
Dr.Martin Jr: ... there's no question it's a superfood.
Dr.Martin Sr: Roast beef, [00:49:00] hamburger.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah, there's a lot of meats.
Dr.Martin Sr: They're all good. They all got the B12. They all got the zinc.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah, if it's got red meat-
Dr.Martin Sr: I don't know of anything better than a steak.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah. Steak is so good for you because of the protein content, the amino acid content of it.
Dr.Martin Sr: It's almost a perfect food.
Dr.Martin Jr: Zinc and iron, it's just it's hard to beat, B12, but yes, yeah, meats in general definitely. All right. Brandi?
Brandi: Can you touch on neuropathy and if the [00:49:30] reset helps with it?
Dr.Martin Jr: Oh, yeah, for sure, because a lot of neuropathies, I mean, if it's a metabolic neuropathy, usually from a blood sugar issue with diabetics, then yes, for sure, no question. I would also take B12. I would take enough B12. I would take our Navitol, as well, because how it helps improve blood flow to the legs, for sure. I would take high DHA. Now, I saw a question in the chat just as it was going through. Somebody asked about dry eyes. I would take [00:50:00] high DHA for dry eyes. That stuff's phenomenal for dry eyes. High DHA and Navitol, for a lot of people, it fixes their dry eyes. All right. Brandy?
Dr.Martin Sr: Do you know my eyes are better? I just went and got these new glasses and the optometrist said-
Dr.Martin Jr: They match your beard.
Dr.Martin Sr: What?
Dr.Martin Jr: They match your beard.
Dr.Martin Sr: I'm color coordinated, but I actually needed, at 68 years old, less of a prescription [00:50:30] than I had when I was because she went back in my history and at 55. I've got less of my-
Dr.Martin Jr: People tell us that with Navitol. Do you know what? People tell us that with Navitol. It's amazing because it helps the blood flow to the eyes, for sure. All right.
Dr.Martin Sr: One of the big things in neuropathy, just got to say it, is ... Sorry, Brandy. No, is nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is what opens your ... It's a substance that opens your [00:51:00] blood vessels and when you have low levels of nitric oxide, you're much more susceptible to neuropathy, so get your nitric oxide levels up, B12 like Tony Jr. was saying, and Navitol, and lower your insulin.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah. All right. Brandi, [00:51:30] couple more questions still.
Brandi: The menstrual cycle and why migraines are caused during the menstrual cycle.
Dr.Martin Jr: Well, the funny thing, well, there's nothing funny about it, but with headaches and migraines is that it's like a check engine light. If you look at a car and your check engine light goes off, there's a lot of things that can cause it. It could be as simple as your gas cap not being tight enough to a real serious engine problem. Migraines [00:52:00] are like a check engine light. There's a lot of causes. The most common would be hormonal, blood pressure, blood sugar, stuff like that, and menstrual because a lot of women, around their menstrual cycle, their hormones get so messed up that as a result of that, they get migraines. There's a definite-
Dr.Martin Sr: Very common.
Dr.Martin Jr: Oh, yeah.
Dr.Martin Sr: Very common with estrogen dominance.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yes, very, very common. In fact-
Dr.Martin Sr: Too much of a woman.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah. Estrogen dominance is definitely one of the major [00:52:30] causes of that when it comes to menstrual cycle and migraines. Usually, when people bring that under control, then usually that fixes the migraines associated with it. All right. Brandi?
Brandi: Best diet for IBS?
Dr.Martin Jr: Best diet for IBS? Simple, keep it simple, stupid, for sure. A lot of times, with IBS, in our IBS program, we talk about ... I got a long history of digestive stuff, so this is something I can speak [00:53:00] to from experience. When the stomach gets irritated, then everything irritates it. We call it angry bowel syndrome. Everything makes it irritated. Generally speaking, there's always some kind of underlying food sensitivity, allergy. There's something they're eating that's bothering their stomach.
Dr.Martin Jr: For example, you can't say metabolic reset for somebody because for myself, I can't eat eggs or cheese, so [00:53:30] eggs and cheese is two parts of it that I can't consume both of them, if I eat them consistently enough, would absolutely bother my stomach. Again, vegetable oils are terrible for the ... They cause an increased permeability, which is just a fancy way of saying leaky gut. It causes inflammation of the gut lining, so you want to simplify your diet. You want to definitely get rid of those crappy carbs. Listen, [00:54:00] this is something. We talk about this in our program, but one thing I will say and this comes from experience, this comes from talking to a lot of people, I'd cut down on fiber. I'd get rid of a lot of those fiber-
Dr.Martin Sr: Overrated.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah, a lot of those fiber foods for IBS, for bad gut, I would cut them out. They just kill your stomach. I think that's one of the worst pieces of advice that people give. They tell people to eat a certain way and then if you look at the amount of fiber they're eating after, it's way higher. They just can never get their stomach settled. [00:54:30] That's also, but I would strongly recommend watching our IBS program because we go into pretty good detail in there on how to fix your gut. All right. One more question, Brandi, and then we'll wrap it up.
Brandi: I have a lot of people asking about shingles and what you can do from pain left over even after the shingle virus is gone.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah, so chronic pain. There's a few different reasons why chronic pain sticks around. Personally, if that was me, I would be taking Navitol and [00:55:00] I'd be taking a fair amount of it because Navitol controls that master inflammatory switch. You just got to give it some time to work. It's a natural COX inhibitor. It does a whole bunch of stuff, so I would be taking that. Also, I would definitely eat to bring my inflammation levels down. I would probably also be taking some lysine personally. I would be taking-
Dr.Martin Sr: Well, you can get it in the bone broth, right?
Dr.Martin Jr: Yes, that's right.
Dr.Martin Sr: Yeah. Remember with the shingles, what happens [00:55:30] is that it's the herpes virus, so it doesn't go away. You're never going to get rid of the herpes virus once you get it. It's part of the chicken pox family. The thing is, you just don't want it to activate. Even if the rash has gone away, a lot of times, people don't realize that virus is still active. The way to put it to sleep is to get your immune system up.
Dr.Martin Sr: It's no different. It's a different virus, but think of what we're talking about when [00:56:00] we talked about your immune system a little while back because of COVID-19. Think about what we just said because herpes is a virus. You had it as a little kid with the chicken pox and it just got activated and that pain is part of neuropathy to some extent, so the very thing we were talking about earlier. Lower that inflammation. Get the circulation up. Get your immune system up. The [00:56:30] gut has an effect on that. Vitamin D has an effect on that. Lysine has an effect on that. Zinc has an effect on that. All of these things are part of the parcel for putting shingles back to sleep.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yup. All right. We said we'd cut off around 3:00. There's a lot of questions. Listen, we appreciate all the questions everybody's asking. We're going to do this again because this is a very easy format for us to do and we enjoy interacting with [00:57:00] all the questions. Brandy, is it possible you can maybe keep a list of some of the questions and we can answer them in a couple videos coming up and dad, on your daily Facebook Lives you can attack those questions.
Dr.Martin Sr: Yeah, like tomorrow morning, I'm still going to do question and answer, so Brandy, anything there that I'm sure you have a list for me anyway.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah, so again, thanks, Brandi, for hosting this.
Brandi: Oh, thanks for having me. Wasn't as scary as I thought it was going to be.
Dr.Martin Jr: No. See, it's not that [00:57:30] bad. Thanks. It made it a lot easier for us to answer the questions this way without having to go look for them. Again, everybody attended. There's a lot of people on this. We appreciate it. We're very thankful for the time that you guys took out of your day to spend listening to us answer some questions. Again, we're going to do this again probably next week, dad?
Dr.Martin Sr: Yeah, sure.
Dr.Martin Jr: Okay. Do you want to check the calendar?
Dr.Martin Sr: Let me check my schedule.
Dr.Martin Jr: Yeah. Do you want to check your schedule, see if there's anything in there that might prevent us from doing this next week? We'll plan on doing this next week again [00:58:00] because it was fun. It was nice and easy to do, as well. All right. Again, thanks, everybody. Have a great day. Stay safe. Feels like I got to say stay safe because everybody says it.
Dr.Martin Sr: Give the Don Cherry thumbs up.
Dr.Martin Jr: The Don Cherry thumbs up. Right. Have a great day, guys. Thanks a lot.
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