360. All About Nitric Oxide

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 Sr.: Well, good morning, everyone. Hope everyone is doing well. I talked to you a little bit about this yesterday, we'll lead off there. I don't know if this is national study week [00:00:30] or not because I got about eight different studies that I want to talk to you about. So, I don't know how many we'll get through today, but we're going to get through a couple.

I want to start off with the nitric oxide study because we talked about this yesterday Tony Jr actually sent an email out to you. So, if you don't get our emails, make sure you sign up to get our [00:01:00] emails because there's a lot of teaching in that email and Tony Jr put this out. Him and I were going back and forth on this nitric oxide study because it's incredible.

They're saying that what's different about COVID-19 is that it is sort of a blood born problem, and it affects the blood vessels. So, unlike other viruses, this affects the endothelial [00:01:30] layer inside your blood vessels, and can lead to big problems and especially in the lungs. So, this is what they're saying. And actually, I think I mentioned it to you yesterday, they're they're looking and the Canadian government is actually supporting a study on nitric oxide to help. And it's going to be a spray that you spray up your nose, apparently, [00:02:00] that will really make a difference in this virus.

So, let me explain that just because I think we should spend a few minutes here. Nitric oxide, remember [inaudible 00:02:12], think of nitroglycerin. They never understood why nitroglycerin worked. They knew it worked for angina, so if you had an angina attack they would give you nitroglycerin. Usually, in those days, when it first started it was a [00:02:30] sublingual thing. You just melt in your mouth, and it would relieve angina. And then, they came up with patches, and sprays for angina because it gave you nitroglycerin.

Well, in 1980, around there, a couple of men won the Nobel Prize because they discovered, inside your blood vessels, the body made nitro and it was called nitric oxide. [00:03:00] Your body actually makes it. And the problem is, is when you don't have enough of it. So, nitric oxide is really an important substance that your body makes. We have a couple of studies that we're going to talk about of substances your body already makes. Problem is as you get older, especially in aging, you lower your ability to make nitric oxide.

Show you here what [00:03:30] I mean. Inside your blood vessels, you have a substance called nitric oxide, and it actually makes those blood vessels relax. And remember one or two weeks ... I don't remember exactly when, but we have a whole series, I think I did two videos and podcasts on atherosclerosis, hardening of the arteries. For those who will listen to this on a [00:04:00] podcast, I'm showing plaque inside of an artery. And we know that what starts that is inflammation. And, of course, that creates a loss of elasticity.

But the other substance is nitric oxide, and nitric oxide helps your blood vessels. Your blood vessels have like a Teflon layer, [00:04:30] if you've ever cooked with Teflon, butter just slides in Teflon. And your endothelial layer of your blood vessels is a Teflon like substance. And as long as things are sliding along like your blood goes through 60,000 miles of blood vessels, one and a half times [00:05:00] around the equator and your blood vessels need to be healthy because still the number one killer in society today, still number one, in terms of disease is heart disease, cancer is number two and it's creeping up very fast.

But still today, I mentioned this yesterday, I'm trying to think of who I was talking to. One of my patients, that's what it was. And [00:05:30] I was explaining nitric oxide to them. Here's what the patient said to me yesterday. "Doc, why aren't doctors talking about nitric oxide?" And I'm going to give you a general statement. It's just a general statement, there's exceptions to this. But heart disease, and I'm just a general statement, heart disease [00:06:00] has been hijacked by the pharmaceutical industry. Heart disease has been hijacked by the pharmaceutical industry.

So, what do I mean by that? Well, the pharmaceutical industry wants to manage heart disease. And their big thing, and you know this and I talk about it, I bet you I never go past a week without talking about this, they talk about cholesterol. Cholesterol [00:06:30] because, I hate to be negative, when they see plaque is atherosclerosis, it blocks up your blood vessels. And what doctors have said, and this is where I'm saying the pharmaceutical industry hijacked heart disease because they see plaque as cholesterol. Blaming cholesterol for heart disease [00:07:00] is like blaming the police because they're at the crime scene. They're not the bad guys. Cholesterol is always going to be flowing through your blood vessels, guys. This is hematology or whatever, physiology 101. You learn this day one, you're always going to have cholesterol in your blood vessels.

Of course, cholesterol is FedEx, it's Canada Post, [00:07:30] it's the US Post, it's UPS, it's Amazon trucks, they're delivering cholesterol. Your body needs cholesterol. You can't live without cholesterol. And your body don't trust you. God don't trust you. God doesn't trust you. You only make 15% of your cholesterol from your food, 85% is made in your liver. Your liver makes cholesterol, [00:08:00] 85% of it. It's not the bad guy, but it's been made the bad guy because they discovered a drug back in the 1970s that lowered your LDL.

Do you ever hear me talking about LDL? Never. I don't talk about it because it don't mean nothing, honey. It don't. LDL doesn't mean anything. [00:08:30] There's a drug called statin drugs that will lower your LDL, but it doesn't mean anything. It doesn't save your bacon, do you know what I'm getting at? If statin drugs worked, we wouldn't have heart disease. It's the number one selling medication of all time. Lipitor, Crestor, Zocor, These are cholesterol lowering medications. And the problem [00:09:00] is not cholesterol because, if it was, we'd have won the battle by now. Everybody would be taking statin drugs as a prevention and you wouldn't have heart disease.

But heart disease is not cholesterol, guys. Plaque, atherosclerosis comes from the damaging effect of inflammation. And, you know me, I'm going to repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. [00:09:30] I'm sorry, I can't help it. I got the can't help its, I must repeat so that you understand and undo bad teaching. Even today, if you Google it, you're going to get bad teaching on heart disease. They'll tell you to eat a low fat diet, a plant based diet. Guys, it's not true. You need cholesterol.

How did I get on cholesterol when I was talking about nitric oxide? Because [00:10:00] I can't help myself. No, but I was making the point that the pharmaceutical industry, you must give them credit because they came up with a class of drugs that they pounded, they pounded, they pounded society. And they did it with the food companies, by the way, too, they were in cahoots together. One of them was promoting cereal for heart disease, [00:10:30] that's why you see hearts on the box of Cheerios, you see hearts on the box of oatmeal. You see a heart because it's sponsored by the American Heart Association or the Canadian Heart Association. And the reason is because they got together and they have this symbiotic relationship, but it's not based on truth, guys. It's based on nonsense. [00:11:00] It's not based on truth because when a doctor sees plaque, even in their mind, they think cholesterol. That's what they think. They've been drum, drum, drum, drummed into them. Guys, it's not true.

So okay, let's get back now. Okay, let's get back to the main causes. One, inflammation but inflammation is not Houdini. I [00:11:30] must repeat this. Inflammation inside of your blood vessels is very damaging, but what causes inflammation inside your blood vessels? The number one reason is insulin. High circulating insulin. That's what Martin Clinic calls it. In health it's [00:12:00] called insulin resistance. And insulin resistance or high circulating insulin is what causes inflammation in the blood vessels more than anything else. Free radical damage, oxidative damage and leaky gut, even the gut can have an effect on the heart and the blood vessels. I don't want to get into the weeds too much, but just to repeat, repeat, repeat inflammation.

[00:12:30] But listen what else insulin does, insulin lowers your nitric oxide. Remember nitric oxide actually affects the endothelial levels, the Teflon like substance inside your blood vessels. You need nitric oxide, it makes your blood vessels relax, supple, and you need elasticity in your blood [00:13:00] vessels. Hardening of the arteries takes away the elasticity of it. And, over a period of time, you get plaque, atherosclerosis. So, you see how I bring it back to the diet and even nitric oxide? How do you make nitric oxide, by the way? Your body already makes it. How do you elevate your nitric oxide? The number one thing, did you read a Tony Jr's email? He told you, number one thing that ... [00:13:30] I mean, insulin is there, absolutely. But it's a vitamin by the way. I'll just give you another clue. What vitamin is it? There's two, but the number one major one. It's B12, that's the number one. You see why I love B12? For your brain, for your blood vessels. You need B12.

Now, repeat, repeat, repeat, how do you get B12 in your diet? Red meat. It ain't in chicken ladies, and it's not in [00:14:00] the plant kingdom ladies. It's not. There's not enough B12 in the plants for mice. You need B12. And we talked about this yesterday, the vast majority of people are low in B12, vast majority of them. You see, when I look at blood work, I always tell people you can send me 10 pages, but I got a down job of five or six things I really look at because it [00:14:30] tells me everything I need to know. So, when you get your blood work done, I like looking at blood work because I zoom in on a couple of things. You guys know this.

So, when it comes to heart disease, when it comes to metabolic syndrome, when it comes to almost everything, I want to know what your triglycerides are because if you got high triglycerides, you got a bad diet. Simple as that, 100%, no exceptions. [00:15:00] If you have low HDL, HDL is high density lipoprotein, you have a bad diet. Triglycerides are you're eating too many carbs. And HDL is you're not eating enough eggs, meat, and cheese. Simple as that. The leading causes of heart disease: triglycerides, HDL, nitric oxide is a huge one. Your body makes nitric oxide.

You're [00:15:30] fearfully and wonderfully made, guys. I just don't know how many times I can tell you that. Your body is unbelievable. It already makes these things. But if you don't have a good diet you're not making enough nitric oxide. You need B12 to make nitric oxide. I estimate about 80% of the population has low levels of B12. It may be within the normal range in the blood work. Remember that blood test is [00:16:00] 100 years old, and I want you to have high blood B12, not normal. I want you to have optimal levels of B12. You need it for nitric oxide B12 is important.

What's the other vitamin? Vitamin D. Vitamin D is antiinflammatory. You are a human solar panel, and your blood vessels respond to that. Even your endothelial [00:16:30] levels of your blood vessels respond to vitamin D. Vitamin D is one of the greatest natural antiinflammatories that you can take. And remember what I said, inflammation is not Houdini. It doesn't come and destroy your blood vessels for no reason. There's always a reason. One of them is your bad diet of insulin. You lose that Teflon sliding. [00:17:00] You want your blood to go through there and not stick that.

Remember when they came up with Teflon? My grandchildren always get a kick out of me because it seems that I was ... they say, "Grandpa, you saw every invention that every came in your lifetime." I said, "I know, just about." Born in 1952, and I've seen it all just about. As it was in the days of Noah, like [00:17:30] me, [inaudible 00:17:30] seen a lot of things. We saw Teflon. The chemistry industry, DuPont and others, they came up with Teflon. Was it good, bad or ugly? Well, I'll leave it to you. But remember it was the no stick pans. You guys know that. Well, , that's what nitric oxide does in your blood vessels. That's when you have a lack of inflammation [00:18:00] does inside your blood vessels, nothing sticks. That's what we're talking about this morning.

And then we find out that COVID-19, coronavirus is what they're seeing now is, is what they saw, you see, was a lot of blood clots. It was one of the one of the mitigating factors when people got really sick, they were developing blood [00:18:30] clots. It seemed to be different than other viruses in that sense. And it affected the endothelial levels of your blood vessels. That's what it seemed to attack, this virus. Isn't that interesting? But you can get your nitric oxide levels up by a good diet. So, nitric oxide goes up when you keep your insulin down because insulin creates [00:19:00] inflammation, and inflammation affects the Teflon. And B12, it elevates your nitric oxide. Nitric oxide needs B12. Nitric oxide needs vitamin D. You know why we love Navitol so much? Because that's one of the things that it does.

I knew this back in, I'm going to say, the late '80s, the early '90s. I was in the conference, I [00:19:30] went to France to give a lecture. It was a conference and I was one of the invited speakers there. And I gave a study on, I had done a small study, a 10 patient study at the time, and I published it, on pine bark extract and chronic fatigue syndrome. It became a 500 case study, [00:20:00] but I started with 10, and I published it. And they brought me to France to speak about it. And I just showed them the results of these 10 people that I gave pine bark extract to, and especially what it did for chronic fatigue syndrome, and it was very effective.

And I went to France. But there was another guy there, his name was Dr. Ronald Watson. He was from Salt Lake City, Utah. [00:20:30] And what university was he at? I'm going to say, oh yeah, Brigham Young, he was from bringing Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City. And he brought a study out, it mesmerized me because I can't remember if he was before me or after me giving the presentation, but I watched. And what he was saying, and he did a study on pine bark [00:21:00] extract and blood vessels, and it was a pretty large study. And what he did. And you could actually read this study if you want, look up Dr. Ronald Watson and you can see the study. I think it's still online as far as I know. And the study was pine bark extract in comparison to aspirin, I remember that I just sat there sort of flabbergasted. I didn't know that, [00:21:30] I didn't know anything about what he was talking about. I knew about what I asprin did.

Of course, aspirin's been around for 100 years. And aspirin thins your blood. But Dr. Watson said, and I remember this, I took notes. He said, well, pine bark extract doesn't thin your blood like aspirin does. But it acts like aspirin to take away the stickiness of [00:22:00] your blood vessels. And guess what he said? Because it elevates your nitric oxide. And nitric oxide was only discovered in 1982. Two men won the Nobel Prize for it in medicine. So here he was, I can't remember what year it was in France. Was it '91 or ...? I can't remember. It's been too long, but it was incredible, that little study, I took notes. And nitric oxide? Jeepers. [00:22:30] Nitric oxide, it was the new kid on the block.

So guys, just to wrap this up, I thought I would get to other study, but I got a lot of studies this week I'm going to bring to you. It's just fantastic, fantastic studies, you need to hear these. But I sort of got into this teaching this morning about nitric oxide, couldn't help myself because it's so significant. Not only for COVID, but [00:23:00] for heart disease in general. And so, guys, this is really important, take care of yourself. I know I'm preaching to the choir this morning, but this is what prevention is. And it always comes back to food, doesn't it? It always comes back to food. Lower your insulin. Wow, the one trick pony. Elevate your nitric oxide. Make sure you're getting a lot of B12. And look, guys, [00:23:30] where do you find it? Steak, vitamin S. From my book, Rosie typed out The Martin Clinic Alphabet yesterday. I put it in the book, I had to because I talk about it all the time.

What's vitamin S? Steak. What's vitamin C? Coffee. Oh, by the way, coffee elevates your nitric oxide. Tea, a little bit. Coffee, lots. That's why I call it vitamin C, [00:24:00] guys, coffee. Now, don't destroy your coffee with sugar. You're destroying it, all the benefits you get out of the coffee. Don't go to Starbucks and get a latte or whatever else they do with coffee. Is a latte in coffee? I don't know. I drink my coffee black. I used to put it four by four, I did. When I first started drinking coffee it was four by fours. You can change your habits.

I love you guys. You got any questions? Send them in. [00:24:30] We love you guys and take care of yourselves. Elevate your nitric oxide. Talk to you soon.

Announcer: 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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