Transcript Of Today's Episode
Announcer: You are 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 is strictly for informational purposes. (singing)
Dr. Martin: Well, good morning everyone. So this morning, we are going to talk about a process in your body. You are fearfully and wonderfully made, never forget that. I mean, the human body is incredible. [00:00:30] It really is, what it can do. And we are going to talk this morning about a process in your body that happens. It is called autophagy. Is it pronounced like that? Well, I know auto is right, phagy, phagy, I don't know. I call it autophagy. And if you break that down, you will understand what it is. So auto, self. [00:01:00] Automatic, it happens automatically. Self, autophagy and phagy is the word eating. So self eating. Why is that good for you? Well, it can be destructive too. So, I will go into that a little bit, but let me just say this. Autophagy is when your body... If you look at it from a positive side, [00:01:30] your body, every four months, guys, you get brand new... Three times a year you get brand new blood. Your body is always making new red blood cells and they are always making new cells.
So autophagy is what happens to the old cells. Your body sees them as debris and your body turns on them, to get rid of them. So this process is very, [00:02:00] very good for you obviously. And what we are going to talk about today is how to speed up or make this process even better. And there are some things that you can do to make your body self-cleaning process even better. So we are going to talk about that. Now in a negative sense, if someone goes into starvation mode, [00:02:30] your body will turn on itself to get nutrition. So when you hear the word, and this is sometimes very confusing, I think for doctors, because... You know this and I have talked about this a lot, a condition called ketosis.
So when your body goes into ketosis, it just means your body is burning another fuel. It is actually good for you. [00:03:00] Part of the reset is your body is going to go into ketosis and you are burning another fuel. But there is a condition called ketoacidosis, which is very dangerous by the way. Diabetics in particular can go into a condition called ketoacidosis. And that is when the body literally starts to turn on itself. And it starts eating away at [00:03:30] muscles and that is very dangerous. That is called ketoacidosis. So what we are talking about today is the good autophagy. And so this is when your body is doing its own cleanup. And we found out over the years that you can help your body to do its own cleanup, and that is a good thing. And one of the things that has become very popular in [00:04:00] the last few years is intermittent fasting. Now you guys, if you don't know this, we at the Martin Clinic like intermittent fasting. We do.
And look, if someone is diagnosed with cancer, I like to encourage fasting. As a matter of fact, I have shown patients over the years that if they would do a three day fast, they get the diagnosis [00:04:30] of cancer and they should do a three day fast if they can. So, that is 72 hours without eating at all. Just having water and coffee or tea. I don't know why you would drink tea when you can drink coffee. That is my model. But all I am saying is that cancer needs fuel. And the problem with cancer cells, number one, they [00:05:00] need fuel and they love sugar. And if you don't believe that to be true, then what is a PET scan? A PET scan is a relatively new imaging. We have a PET scan here in our hospital in Sudbury. We have a big cancer center here for Northern Ontario and they use the PET scan.
Well, the PET scan don't work unless you give the patient sugar, radioactive glucose. They give [00:05:30] you a glass of radioactive glucose, and if you have cancer, you light up like a Christmas tree in the PET scan. It is not for pets. It is cancer imaging. That is why they use it. It finds cancer cells, PET scans. But when you consume sugar, sugar goes right to those cells because they need that dirty fuel. Cancer cells love dirty fuel. They don't like good fuel. [00:06:00] They don't like ketones. And so I recommend to my cancer patients, whether they are getting treatment or chemotherapy or radiation or whatever, one, no more sugar. Nada, none, none. Zero. No sugar. I even recommend temporarily that they have no fruit, no starchy carbs. I actually [00:06:30] will try and get them to do the reset, which is a 30 days of no fruits and vegetables. People always question that. But I have a reason for my protocol.
So in cancer, cancer cells need fuel. So, you cut off those food. Secondly, cancer cells are very destructive. They are like little Kamikaze pilots and they are destructive. They will [00:07:00] go after healthy cells. And one way to stop them is called autophagy. And in a negative sense, that is what they are doing, they are destroying, but they are not destroying bad cells, they are destroying good cells. That is what cancer cells do. They attack good cells and they multiply. And they are into bad things. But self [00:07:30] eating cells, autophagy cells can be very healthy for you. And one of the ways, it is not the only way, but one of the ways is to fast. And that is why we like intermittent fasting. I mean, some people use intermittent fasting for weight loss. And for a lot of people, it works for weight loss. But again, as I said to you yesterday, there is hindrances to weight loss, especially [00:08:00] in women, it is hormonal. Horror-mones, not hormones, horror-mones, ladies. That is what you have, horror-mones.
But what I am saying is some people use intermittent fasting for weight loss, but I look at it more as therapeutics because intermittent fasting... So let me just explain why it works. We know what it does, [00:08:30] it goes after dead cells and damaged cells and it gets them out of your body, which is helpful in a lot of ways. It is a powerful detox. So, when you are intermittent fasting. So, for those who don't know exactly what that is, intermittent fasting can be done in a couple of ways, and the idea is you really go into intermittent [00:09:00] fasting when you have gone past 12 hours without eating.
So for example, if you stop eating at six o'clock at night and you go till six o'clock in the morning without eating, your body starts to go into what it is called fasting, after the 12th hour. But in my experience, it is much better to get into the 14, 16, 18 [00:09:30] hours. And there is a couple of advantages for it. Let me just explain, when you are not eating your body self cleans itself. When you are not eating. So, remember when you eat, let us say you just ate, you say, "Well, I stopped eating. It only took me 20 minutes to eat." Yeah. But then there is a whole pile of things that have to happen after you are eating. You are digesting your food and [00:10:00] your metabolism is working to process that inside your gut. And there is a lot of things happening inside your body, your body is working, working, working, working, working. And one of the things that it is doing is it is releasing insulin.
So you know me, I always come back to insulin. And insulin is on your side until it is not, because insulin has got a job to do and it will do the job. If you are eating, especially carbohydrates, [00:10:30] insulin's job is to get that stinking sugar you are eating. And you say, "Well, doc, I didn't have sugar. I had cereal." Yes, you had sugar. Lots of it. "Oh doc, I had oatmeal." I don't care, it is going to be sugar in five seconds. It is a carbohydrate. It is going to turn to sugar rapidly. Some more rapidly than others. Fruits and vegetables don't rapidly turn to sugar. [00:11:00] They do, but not rapidly. They are a little slower in the process. But at the end of the day, you still need insulin.
So insulin's job is to, hey, I am the traffic cop. Hey, you see sugar there? Out, come here. You ever see a traffic cop? You go, you stop. I always get a kick out of a traffic cop. You know how their arms are going, you come here and you stop and... [00:11:30] I mean, it is kind of fun. But that is what insulin does. Because insulin's job is to get that sugar out, out, out, out, out, out, out. And then park it either in the Costco parking lot, the liver or the suitcase. The liver is its primary spot. And when the liver is full, it will make fat cells like no tomorrow. "Oh doc, I am skinny." That don't matter. If you are eating crappy carbohydrates, [00:12:00] you can be as skinny as a rake and be very unhealthy. Because insulin, after a period of time is going to start damaging your body by creating an inflammatory response.
And inflammation will start to destroy your blood vessels. It starts with the blood vessels, but it will go to your tissue and whatever. And we have talked about this almost, I bet you, every day. [00:12:30] I can't help myself. My expertise is in food and how you digest it, what foods are good and what foods are bad, and I go through this. And I am trying to make you understand.
So insulin, you eat at eight o'clock in the morning, at 10 o'clock in the morning, you might be hungry again to have a snack. A lot of people do that at work. They take a coffee break and they have a snack. The problem is between eight and 10:00 [00:13:00] insulin never stopped working. And then you have a snack and it is working again. And then you have lunch and it is working again. Then you have a snack in the afternoon, it is working again. Then you have supper and it is... It never stopped working. So, what happens with that insulin? Your cells start resisting it. I don't like you insulin, you are around me too much. It is like having a bad neighbor. [00:13:30] They never leave your house. All I am saying is insulin, you need to give it a part time job. And that is what intermittent fasting does, because think about it. And a lot of people, by the way, you have a snack at night.
It is one of the worst things you can do is eating at night before you go into bed. Because what you are doing, a couple of fold, one, you secreted insulin and insulin even from supper wasn't finished [00:14:00] working, now you used it again, and that pancreas... Because that is where insulin from, the pancreas is overworking. Insulin is a death hormone. It will kill you. It will kill you. And so the idea with intermittent fasting is that your eating windows... I know a lot of people, their first meal is lunch. Then they eat between 12:00 [00:14:30] and 6:00 and they are not eating all the time between 12:00 and 6:00, but they eat at noon and then they eat again at suppertime, and then they don't eat that. That is 18 hours of what we call intermittent fasting.
Well, here is what happens when you intermittent fast. Now, you can do it another way. Tony Jr explained it when we were, I think on our last live that we did together, is Tony Jr explained it as some people can do [00:15:00] it. They only eat once a day. They eat every day, but only once a day. They eat their supper and they don't eat any other time. Well, that is intermittent fasting. You are still eating every day. And by the way, here is me, other than for cancer, and I know there are people that recommend differently than I do, but this is just my experience. I have to give it to you. I am not a big guy on eating... I don't mind once a day, [00:15:30] but I am not a big guy, unless you have cancer, and you only do it once with cancer, you do intermittent fasting after, but you only do it once. Meaning that when I talked to you about that 72 hour fast, it is a good way to start with cancer, but not for the general population. I don't agree with it.
For me, my experience is if you want it and you do well and you feel good only eating once a day or twice a day [00:16:00] between 12:00 and 6:00 or whatever. I find diabetics do very well if they eat in the morning, but they stop eating about 4:00 or five o'clock in the afternoon. No more food after that. Now, they might not be able to intermittent fasting, they may not be able to do that immediately. People say, "Well, doc, I am hypoglycemic. I am low blood sugar. I have to eat frequently." Yes, until you don't. What do I mean by that? [00:16:30] I find if you are hypoglycemic, low blood sugar, if you do the reset, you will be able to do intermittent fasting after you fix.
Low blood sugar or high blood sugar are sisters. They are the same really. They are caused by the same thing. They are caused by insulin resistance. Diabetes hyperglycemia is not a disease of blood sugar. It is [00:17:00] a disease of insulin resistance. You have to understand the difference between that. Diabetes is the last thing that happens. And you know us at the Martin Clinic, we are always talking about, listen, put your hand up and say, I am a diabetic. If you are a carboholic, you are a diabetic. I don't care what your blood sugars are. It doesn't matter. Your body is so unbelievably well-made, your body will do everything it can [00:17:30] before it becomes a diabetic. It is not easy to become a diabetic in terms of what doctors consider diabetes.
If your A1C is over 5.7, that is diabetic. If your blood sugars 6.5 to seven or above, they consider that diabetes, but you know what, way before that happens, the guru of all gurus, [00:18:00] when it came to the research of diabetes, I love studying Dr. Kraft's work, not Kraft Dinner, Dr. Kraft. He died a few years ago, but he was the leading authority on diabetes and here I am quoting him, "If you are a pre-diabetic, you are a diabetic." He didn't believe in pre-diabetic. He believed you are a diabetic. And he said, "Look, if you are a carboholic, that is..." I am putting my words in his mouth, but [00:18:30] what he was saying is, I call it carbolic, but he called it, if you are eating a lot of carbs, you are a diabetic already.
That is why children today... We talked about it last week when I brought you an incredible study that suggested that children were consuming in the last 20 years, 300% more fructose and I exposed the lie of the [00:19:00] food industry because that is what they use. Whenever you see sugar added, it is high fructose corn syrup, always. They name it 50 other things, 50 different kinds of sugars, but it is high fructose corn syrup. It is made, it is industrialized. It is man-made sugar. I call it the anti-Christ of sugars. So, let us get back now... So, I talked to you about intermittent fasting. That is one way [00:19:30] when insulin is not present in your bloodstream. So, let us say you ate at six o'clock at night, by about eight o'clock, nine o'clock no more insulin.
So, that is very beneficial for your body because now your body starts to repair itself. It is getting rid of the debris. We call that autophagy. Autophagy cannot occur when [00:20:00] you have insulin present. If insulin is present in your bloodstream, autophagy cannot occur. And this is one of the big reasons that people who are carboholics and eat frequently, their body can't repair itself like it should. Here is another way that your body repairs itself, when you sleep. I did a teaching on this, but I will just repeat it. When you sleep at night, [00:20:30] the night shift comes on to work in two areas in your brain. Your brain has its own night shift, it has its own crew. When you are sleeping, they come to work. You don't know it, but your brain is being repaired. This is why we are so big at the Martin Clinic on sleeping, because your body goes into auto repair.
Your brain specifically goes into auto repair. [00:21:00] That is so significant guys. What it does, they are called glial cells. Glial cells work the night shift in the brain. You want to know when your lymphatics are draining? Can somebody ask me now, I will do a teaching on this. "What about your lymphatics doc?" Yeah. Well, your lymphatics are your drainage tubes in your body. It is the sewage system. I [00:21:30] don't want to get too controversial because people, their heads explode when I do some stuff controversial, but let me just make it a little bit controversial. When cancer cells get into your lymphatics, there is two schools. There is the very popular school is that that is a bad thing, when cancer gets into lymphatics. This is why ladies, if you have breast cancer, doctors are going to usually [00:22:00] take out a few lymph nodes under your armpit, and they want to take out your lymph nodes to see if there is any cancer in there.
But the other school of thought, very controversial, but let me just say it. The other school is all good. It is in your lymph nodes because now the body is getting rid of your cancer. I like that second one. I think the body knows how to get rid of cancer [00:22:30] if you do everything you can to help. Right now I am pointing my finger at you, you have cancer in your body, and so do I. Your body is always dealing with cancer cells, always. And part of your drainage, your sewage system is going to have cancer cells in it if it is working right. Anyway, that is very controversial. It is. But I see it the other way and your body, [00:23:00] like I said, it goes into self cleaning. And the best way to do it is one, get your insulin down.
Now, let me tell you something about... And I just wrote this in my new book coming, when you are doing the reset, you are fasting without fasting, how do you like that? Fasting without fasting. And actually I am recommending intermittent fasting, even with the [00:23:30] reset, because when you are eating nutrient dense food, when your cells are getting everything that they need, every vitamin, every mineral, every nutrient, when your cells are getting every thing that need, they will do their own clean up. This is why the reset in my opinion is so good because it is fasting without fasting. You get the benefits of intermittent fasting without [00:24:00] intermittent fasting, even though I recommend even doing intermittent fasting. And one of the reasons you will find it much easier to do intermittent fasting on the reset is you are not hungry, because your little cells in your body are getting all the nutrition they need.
When you eat crappy carbs, when you eat foods that have very little nutrition in it, your cells are starving. And this is usually why [00:24:30] you need to eat frequently. It is one of the mechanisms your body is telling you, change fuels, change fuels, change fuel. This is what I talk about all the time. Listen, guys, I have been doing low carb eating 40 years. I did a diagram of... It is actually in my new book, because I did it again, but I have kingdom eating. I did that [00:25:00] 35, 40 years ago, handed it out to my patients, kingdom eating. Eat from God's kingdom and not manmade foods. That is what I talked about.
Because you see guys, when you eat nutrient dense foods, your cells get much better fuel. That is what ketones is by the way. And I don't necessarily care if you go into ketosis or not, but the idea [00:25:30] of ketosis is just your body is changing fuels. You are burning fat instead of burning carbs. I have a variation of that. The reset is a variation of it. And I am not going to go into detail today about what that variation is, but mine is a variation of it. It is not really a keto diet per se. It is not. You might not go into ketosis, but you don't need to.
Because people are checking themselves [00:26:00] to see if they are into ketosis. You don't have to go into ketosis to have a healthy diet. You don't. But anyway, that is for another day and another discussion. And I might do our part two tomorrow of autophagy because there are other things I wanted to talk to you about, but we are running low on time. So guys, if you get a chance, share this teaching. So, you just got to share it on your Facebook [00:26:30] page. Share it with others. Don't be shy to ask questions. Ask your questions, don't be shy. We are happy to... You know what? If you are not part, I think you probably are, but maybe you are not. If you are not a part of the Martin Clinic private Facebook group, please join up. If you don't get our emails please join up. Don't ask me how to do it, just do it because I don't know how to do it. [00:27:00] Love you guys, talk to you tomorrow, Lord willing. Talk to you soon. (singing)
Announcer: You have 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.