476. Sarcopenia

Transcript Of Today's Episode

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Dr. Martin: Well, good morning everyone. And once again, welcome to another live here this morning. Hope you're having a great day. Okay. Let's get going. [00:00:30] And this morning, two studies, both have to do with your muscles. I think you'll find this interesting. It's very important. Very important. Okay. So there's a word that we use in medicine. It's called sarcopenia. That's just wasting of your muscles. Okay. Sarcopenia. So I want to talk about two studies that came [00:01:00] out, and one of them showed that in less than eight weeks... It doesn't take long to lose muscle. Less than eight weeks you can get sarcopenia. So if you've ever been sick, or you don't feel well, your muscles waste away very quickly. In eight weeks, two months, you lose a vast amount of muscle. And that's not good. [00:01:30] It's not good. But the other study on muscles, it said this... By the way, the first study was done at Tufts University.

Another study showed that if you increase your protein by five percent, just five percent. Increase your protein by five percent, you will have increase in muscle, [00:02:00] five percent, and three times the fat loss in 12 months. Increase your protein, you decrease fat in your body. Not fat that you're eating. Isn't that interesting? I've always said that protein is sort of the king of the castle. And just basics, again. You have three, what we call [00:02:30] macros. You have carbs, protein and fat, okay? Those are the three macros. Those are the three things that we consume in a day. They come in combinations, are all alone, and since we're talking about muscle... And by the way, I know Tony Jr. actually wrote an email [00:03:00] about this, and I can't remember if I actually did a podcast on this, but it was the test that talks about your longevity, and that is if you lay down on the floor, lay flat on the floor, and not have a chair beside you or whatever, can you get off the floor and stand up on your own?

If you can't, and this is a huge issue [00:03:30] for seniors. As people get older, they have trouble... You see them trying to get out of a car, trying to get out of a chair. And what that study showed is if you can't get off the floor on your own, your morbidity, your mortality goes up like in a rocket ship. And [00:04:00] you wonder why is that? Well, because muscle strength and movement is essential for your body. It's essential for your health. It's essential for fat loss. Okay? So one study is showing that you rapidly lose muscle mass. It's like the gallbladder I talked about yesterday. Use it or lose [00:04:30] it. Muscles, use it or lose it. Now I went to the gym yesterday. Okay. There was a lady there, and I was there probably about a half an hour. I don't need to be in a gym for a long period of time. I have very specific things that I want to do.

She was on the treadmill. Guys, listen, [00:05:00] please don't misunderstand what I'm going to say to you. Okay, the treadmill. But I love walking. I do. I walk. I love walking. It's one of my therapeutics that I use. Walking is a therapeutic, and any movement is good. So please understand where I'm coming from. But I almost went over... You know how I care [00:05:30] for ladies. Almost every time we do a podcast or a Facebook live, I'm talking to ladies. And I wanted to go over to her. I didn't do it, but I wanted to. I didn't know her. Get off the treadmill and come with me and lift weights. I'm not saying don't do the treadmill. [00:06:00] I don't like the treadmill so much. It's not the greatest, but I understand it, because again, it always comes back to the message. You know, the message came out... I've told you the story of my father. Probably the first guy in the universe that ever jogged. I'm talking 1967, right? The year of Canada Centennial. My dad started jogging when he found out he [00:06:30] was a diabetic. It was wonderful. I didn't even know what he was doing when he started. Dad, what are you doing?

The only people that ever ran, the police were chasing them. But he actually started running, jogging. There was no such word, but my dad was the first guy ever, that I knew of, certainly in my hometown, that ever jogged. And within about a month, I said, "Dad, if you're getting up early, wake me up. I'll go with you." [00:07:00] And I mean, I couldn't even run around a block without dying. I remember the first time. And then I taught my brother... Well, I didn't teach him how to run, but my older brother... We lived together in university. He said, "You know what? I think I'm going to start running with you." By then I was into a habit, and he came out running. I remember, I laughed and laughed. Here's my older brother that played junior hockey, was quite [00:07:30] the athlete. He was dying. He didn't even go around the first block. My brother is what, 72, 73 now. He still jogs.

I got them into a habit. But listen, you're on the treadmill. Okay. But make sure, make sure, three or four days a week you get in resistant exercises. [00:08:00] Muscle. Jogging is not fixing your muscle. You need to work on your muscles. Ladies, don't worry about osteopenia, don't worry about osteoporosis, because you don't have to worry about that if you do resistant training. Weights, lift, pull, get [00:08:30] strong. Like I said, if you go back in the seventies, it started. Aerobics, aerobics, aerobics. Your heart, your heart. You've got to get it going, get it up. So walking, or jogging or that kind of thing... Again, I got no issue with that, but what's even better than aerobics is [00:09:00] resistant training. It has many more benefits. And the more they study exercise, the more they realize that short 15, 20 minutes... I've talked to you in the past about... I use an app on my phone, Gym Boss.

I used it yesterday. I go to a gym. I sort of set up my routine, and then [00:09:30] I punch in that app. And on that app, the one that I like is something called Tabata, developed by the South Korean coach of the South Korean speed skating team. And it takes four minutes. 20 seconds hard. So if I'm lifting weights, 20 seconds hard, ten second rest, 20 second hard, ten second rest, [00:10:00] eight rounds. Four minutes. And I usually set up, for me... Okay, and I'm just giving you some ideas, and someday I'm going to get Rosie or whatever to film me, and I'll show you some things that you can do right in your house.

I like a little bit more of the high intensity because then I get my aerobics in, and then I'm strengthening my muscles. I [00:10:30] understand at my age, 68 going on 69, for me, I need muscle. And so do you, ladies. Because if you build your muscle, you have nothing to worry about as far as your bone density goes. Nothing. Oh Doc, they're more worried about osteoporosis. Osteoporosis became a disease in the 1970s and the 1980s. [00:11:00] Not that it was never around, but osteoporosis... And it's mostly women, although men can get it. But it's mostly women. But it's not soft bone, it's soft muscles. It's wasting away of muscle. I see women that are very thin. They're more susceptible to osteoporosis, but I say, "Okay, put your hand up here. [00:11:30] Let me see these. Let me see your pipes." And they kind of laugh at me. I go, "No, no. I want to see them." And do this. I always tease my grandchildren. I said, "See these things, they're illegal. Can't cross the border with these." I'm teasing.

But I'm just showing... Ladies, show me this, and then when they show me their muscles, I go, "Okay, now you're going to be fine. You don't have to worry about osteoporosis." Doc, do I need to take calcium? No, I don't like [00:12:00] calcium. Eat it. Don't take it as a supplement. That's not going to build your bone. It doesn't get to your bone. Think of your muscles. Increase your protein. So we got vitamin E, exercise, do the right exercises. Ladies, you don't have to use heavy weights. Do repetitions till your muscles are tired, [00:12:30] and you go, "Oh, I feel that. Yeah, okay." You don't need a heavy weight. You just do a lot of repetitions.

And if you do those 20 seconds, believe me, even take five pounds. Ladies, do the Tabata. And believe me, when you get to eight rounds of even five pounds doing this, or this, or whatever it is... Or even bands. You got bands? Do that eight rounds of 20 seconds. I'll tell ya, [00:13:00] you're going to get a workout. And what they're finding, by the way, even for your cardio is that short is sweet. Oh, I'm going to run a marathon. Nah, that's not good for you. Marathon runners... Long... You're not a horse. Long distances are for horses, not for human beings. And the marathon, you see these skinny guys run... You know what, they're find out, nah, they create a lot of free, radical damage. We're going to [00:13:30] talk about that in a minute. For a second, because I want to talk to you about that.

Food wise, so vitamin E, that's exercise. Do the right type of exercise. If you're not doing any exercise now, start. And ladies get off the treadmill. I'm sorry. Or if you want to use it a little bit, use Tabata, and four minutes, and that's it. And then do another four minute [00:14:00] Tabata with weights or resistance. And if you do 15, 20 minutes, three times a week or four times a week... I go for a walk every day, but I got to do weights three or four times a week, for me. And I'm telling you, the stronger the muscle, stronger the bone. Up your protein, food. Let me talk about weight loss just [00:14:30] for a second. Stop eating. Starve yourself. No. You're going to lose weight, but that's not healthy weight loss. I always tell people, cutting down on your calories. I mean, listen, if that would have been successful, it never is successful.

Calories don't... What is calories? It don't mean nothing when it comes to weight loss. It's what you are eating. I showed you the [00:15:00] study. Just five percent increase in protein intake, over a year, three times the fat loss. But let me just hone in on this for a second. If you look at eggs, meat, and cheese, the reason I say that all the time, all the time, all the time, all the time is because it's got everything you need. [00:15:30] Everything you need. So I didn't create it for weight loss, but if you're going to do a weight loss program, there's nothing healthier. Nothing. Nothing. Because at your cellular level, nutrition wise, mineral wise, everything wise, it is the best because it's got everything in it. Oh, no, I've got to have some carbs. [00:16:00] No, you don't. When you come out of the reset and you want to do low carb, yeah. Go for it. Of course. I got no problem, but don't tell me you need carbohydrates because you don't. You don't. You need protein. You need fat.

As I've often said, if your body needs a little bit of sugar, it will [00:16:30] take a piece of steak and turn it into sugar. If it needs it. Your body thrives on protein and fat. Your muscles need protein. Protein, protein, protein, the king of foods. All your building blocks. You need certain amino acids for your muscles, and these amino acids do not come... The [00:17:00] ones I'm going to mention to you are not found in the plant kingdom. They're not. Did I say plants are no good? No, I didn't say that. I'm just telling you, for muscle, you need certain amino acids. And these amino acids are found in the animal kingdom. That's why I talk about that all the time. So you want strong muscles, you need certain amino acids, the building blocks [00:17:30] of your body. You need L-Carnosine. Think of carnivore. L-Carnosine.

Where do you find L-Carnosine? Eggs, meat, and cheese. You need L-Glutamine, because it builds your human growth hormone. Your body makes human growth hormone. Of course, as you get older, you make less of it, but your [00:18:00] body needs L-Glutamine, and we think of L-glutamine is so good for your gut. That's why I love bone broth, by the way. I love bone broth protein. Why is that? Because it's got a lot of L-Glutamine. It's got a lot of L-Carnosine. It's got all your amino acids. All of them, but in eggs, meat, and cheese is where you get these amino acids. You've got creatine. You've heard of [00:18:30] that. Muscle. Guys that work out in the gym. You know, Popeye? Guys that've got big muscles. They know all about creatine, and they often take creatine as a supplement. But do you know that when you eat eggs, meat, and cheese, you're getting creatine.

Yeah, it's in your food. It's in bone broth. You don't have to go buy a supplement of creatine. It's in [00:19:00] eggs, meat, and cheese. Why do you think I talk about that so much? L-Arginine. Found in Vitamin S. These amino acids... L-Taurine, too, are essential to build muscle. When you don't have to think about those amino acids, if you're eating the right foods, because you'll get them right in the foods. I've talked to a few [00:19:30] people online, or whatever that they don't eat a lot of Vitamin S. They don't have steak... Either, they don't digest it, or they don't like it. I feel sorry for people that don't like steak, or roast beef, or hamburger but one of the things you can do... Make Dr. Martin's perfect smoothie.

I love that. And I'm suggesting you use bone broth powder in it. Give it to your kids. [00:20:00] Give it to your grandchildren. Give it to granny. Oh, if I could get into those senior homes. They just don't eat enough protein, and sometimes, they don't have an appetite or they're not given much protein. If I could only get in there, I would make them a smoothie. Do you like this? Oh, I've had people say, "Oh Doc, you got this at McDonald's. It tastes like a milkshake." Yeah. Make [00:20:30] it taste good. That's what the 35% whipped cream does. Add the heavy cream. Your kids will adore it. Your grandchildren will adore it. It's so good for you. It's so good for them, and put in a few berries for them. Okay. For them, put in some berries, put in some raspberries, or strawberries, or blueberries. Don't get those [00:21:00] fruit smoothies. Oh, can't handle that. Full of sugar.

This, it's got almost zero carbs, and maybe a gram of sugar if you put fruit in. It's nothing, though. I'm just trying to give you ideas on building up your protein, and building up your amino acids, so that you have strong muscles. And remember this, okay. Remember this, okay. [00:21:30] Tony Jr. talked about it in an email this morning. If you don't get our emails, make sure you sign up to get our emails, because we put a lot of education there. But Tony was talking this morning about fatty liver, but I'll bring this to your muscles in a second. When you eat carbohydrates, as you know, they are going to turn to sugar rapidly. So, let's follow [00:22:00] a piece of bread for a minute. Oh, Dr. Martin, it's whole wheat. I don't care. It's pumpernickel. I don't care.

It's going to be sugar in five seconds. Unless it's very low carb bread, but even so guys. Okay, let's just follow a piece of bread. You eat a piece of bread, turns to sugar in five seconds, and insulin, the traffic cop. [00:22:30] Remember that. It goes to mere sugar, sugar, sugar from the bread. You need to come with me. You cannot stay in the bloodstream. Sugar in the bloodstream is highly toxic. That ought to be a clue for every, every, every, every nutritionist, every cardiologist, any doctor of any kind. I mean, if they just think of sugar for five seconds, the first [00:23:00] day of medical school when they teach you that sugar is dangerous, diabetics know all about that. So, your insulin says to sugar, "Sugar, you can't stay in blood. You must come with me. Come here, follow me." Now, if you don't use that sugar as energy immediately, insulin is a storing hormone.

It's the traffic cop at Costco going, " [00:23:30] You cannot park there. Come with me. I'm going to park you somewhere else." Got it. Three places that sugar is parked. Muscles, liver and fat cells. Okay? Got it. Muscles, liver, and fat cells. Now the bigger your muscles, the more [00:24:00] room for storage. The bigger bins you have. Bins, muscles, legs... The stronger they are, the more storage space you have. They're bins. Muscles are bins, because what does insulin do? How does it store it? As glycogen. Stored energy is glycogen. [00:24:30] Okay? It stores glycogen. Stored carbohydrates are going to go into your liver. That's number two. Except when your liver gets full, because if you're a carboholic, your liver gets full very, very quickly. So insulin has something to do. It can't allow sugar to stay in your bloodstream. It must store it. Muscles, you don't have a lot of muscles, so hardly [00:25:00] any bins to store it.

So it turns to the liver. The liver is already full. You know what it does? It stores glycogen as fat. Fat cells. You want to see our population today, because we're carboholics. What happens? See obesity is a symptom of elevated insulin. Insulin always working because you're eating so many carbs, [00:25:30] has to store that glycogen as fat. As fat. See fat don't make you fat. Carbs make you fat. And when the liver is full, you start getting fatty liver because your body has to... Your insulin has to store that carbohydrate. It'll make as many fat cells it can. Now, some people don't have a lot of ability to make fat cells. You don't see it, [00:26:00] but a lot of skinny people, and they're bad eaters. They don't need a lot of protein, and they're making bad fat around their organs. You just don't know it because you can't see it.

We call that visceral fat. It's very damaging. You got that? So, this is why you want more muscle. Not only for sarcopenia, not only for osteoporosis. [00:26:30] You want it for your metabolism. It really helps. And a lot of women over the years... Okay, I'll just repeat this. Over the years, they go to the gym and they're on the treadmill for an hour. Don't do that. It literally is not good for you. You need to strengthen your muscles. It's the best thing you can do, in terms of vitamin E. [00:27:00] And you only need to do it three, four times a week, 15, 20 minutes. If you do four rounds of the Tabata, that takes you 16 minutes. That's one of the habits that I'm into. And I want you ladies to consider it. And eat more protein. Protein, protein, protein. Eggs, meat, and cheese. Protein, protein, protein. [00:27:30] And fat, very little part.

Got it. Okay. Thanks so much for putting up with me. Okay. So we got a lot of good studies coming, and a lot of things I want to talk about. If you are not a member of the Martin Clinic private Facebook group, please join. Get your friends to join. The family to join. And [00:28:00] if you have questions, if you want them done in a public session on Friday, then that's what I do on Fridays. And we're always listening, so we're trying to be as helpful as we can. Put out the education we can. Okay. Love you guys. Talk to you soon. God bless.

Announcer: You've reached the end of another The Doctor Is In podcast, with your hosts, Dr. Martin, Jr. and Sr. Be sure to catch our next episode. And thanks [00:28:30] for listening.

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