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: Good morning, everyone. And once again, welcome to another live here this morning, and hope you're having a good start to your day.
Okay, [00:00:30] I'm going to do some headlines again, and there's so many that came out in the last little bit that I just want to comment on them. Yeah, some really good ones. There's actually one on COVID, and I'll do that one tomorrow. Okay? I'll do that one tomorrow. I want to bring it up tomorrow. And the variant, so we'll give you some updated news on the COVID variant [00:01:00] that's everybody's talking about now.
Okay, so let's go through some headlines here, and yesterday we talked about ... One really wasn't a headline because I couldn't find it anywhere else that anybody even talked about it, but red meat may be beneficial in terms of cancer. We spent our time on that yesterday. Look at this study. [00:01:30] Study links five or few hours of sleep to the increased risk of dementia. Two studies I want to talk about, one about sleep and the other about food and dementia. Okay? Brand new study. Study links five hours or less of sleep.
Now, 70%, [00:02:00] just about. When you look at a modern day phenomenon, in terms of its numbers, you have to look at the problem with sleep. I'm not saying that ... Of course, as long as man has been on the planet, he's probably, there's been some sleepless nights. But to have like an epidemic, and I don't think I'm using that word [00:02:30] lightly because in North America, it's somewhere around 70%. They just struggle to have any kind of sleep or a consistent sleep. Now, I think there's a lot of factors that go along with that, and one of the main factors is insulin. The other one is cortisol, the stress hormone. But let me tell you why insulin is a factor in sleep, because remember, I've done some teaching [00:03:00] on sleep apnea and go back into the '70s and sleep apnea, never even heard of it. Does that mean it didn't exist? I don't know, but I sure didn't study it.
And I wish I had made an investment. And wouldn't it be nice to be a prophet? You kind of figure out. I was reading an article this morning on Bitcoin. [00:03:30] I didn't even know what that is. And apparently, it's worth about 50,000 U.S. Bitcoin. What? Did I remember people talking about it? It's a form of currency, but I'm an old goat. What do I know about Bitcoin? But I wish I would have invested in it. It's just skyrocketed how much [00:04:00] a Bitcoin is worth.
But can you imagine if you would have made some investments in companies that make sleep apnea machines that were non-existent but 20 years ago? And today, it's incredible. You have sleep clinics all over the place. They bring you in for the night, and they analyze your sleep. It's part of the fabric [00:04:30] of society today. But remember what the big cause of sleep apnea is. It's a fat tongue, and that's not because you're talking too much. It's because your tongue actually becomes obese. Maybe when the rest of you is not obese, but your tongue becomes obese. And that has a big effect.
I've just used this argument, like bringing oxygen to your brain. That is a bending. [00:05:00] What caused the lack of oxygen to the brain? It's insulin. Remember what I've said all along. Insulin's a growth hormone. And who knew? Who knew that insulin makes your tongue grow? And when you shrink your tongue, that helps with sleep apnea. Now, there's also, one of them is food. The other one is cortisol. Cortisol is the stress hormone. And cortisol [00:05:30] works on a circadian rhythm, meaning that your cortisol should be up in the morning, and then gradually, it comes down, and by sleep time, your cortisol is very low, or at least it should be, and you're sleeping.
But most people today, or a lot of people today, they're upside down there because their cortisol is too high at night. They might fall asleep, but they can't stay [00:06:00] asleep. And that is a huge, huge component of sleep problems. And what they're saying is in this study is that this prolonged lack of sleep ... We always knew what lack of sleep did to your immune system. This has been proven, and I'm sure that I've talked about this in the past. A night or two of a lack of sleep really suppresses the immune system and makes you much more [00:06:30] susceptible to a virus or a bacteria, mostly viruses. You had a long weekend or whatever it is, you don't get as much sleep, and they've shown that to be a real effect on your immune system.
But now, they're showing that it has a major effect on dementia, vascular dementia. What's the connection? We've written [00:07:00] emails about this, but I'll just go over it again. Your brain is what makes up 2% of your body weight. Even if they call you fat head, take it as a compliment. The more fat you have in your brain, the better your brain works. But it really only makes up about 2%. You ever seen the size of a brain? It's just not that big. But it's headquarter. The problem, or it's, I guess it's not really a problem, it's just the way your body works, is that when you [00:07:30] eat, 25% of what you eat, your brain wants for energy. It's like a manufacturing plant, guys. If it's making stuff, there's always going to be debris from that.
When your brain takes fuel, 25% of your fuel, well, there's waste because of that. Your brain creates [00:08:00] a lot of waste, byproduct of energy. That's how your body works. The body's smart, knows what to do with it. But what they're showing is when you are sleeping is when the body repairs the brain. We've done teaching on this. It's called glial cells. G-L-I-A-L. Glial cells. Your body has [00:08:30] its own drainage system. We didn't know that a while back. We didn't understand it. We know that you have lymphatics, right? Under your armpits and your throat, your lymph nodes. That's your drainage system, but your brain has its own. It's called glial, our glymphatic system.
And guess when it works? When you're sleeping. The night shift comes in when you're sleeping. That's why sleep is so important. [00:09:00] That's why they're saying these studies that show that when you're not sleeping well, your brain doesn't repair itself. It doesn't get rid of the garbage like it should. This is why it's so important and even a factor in dementia.
We've talked about two things here. We've talked about insulin, the fat tongue syndrome. We should write a book about [00:09:30] that. Guys, it sounds kind of fun. The fat tongue syndrome, created by insulin, food. That's why the reset for a lot of people, it really helps them sleep. But then you have another factor, and that is cortisol. And if cortisol is high, if cortisol is out of balance ... And I think all of us have experienced that, what that means, right? Have you ever had something traumatic [00:10:00] or you're worried, and you go to bed and you can't sleep? What is that? Cortisol. It's a stress hormone.
And I guess for a night, it's not the end of the universe. But if it goes on, now, they're showing that your brain doesn't get the repair it needs. Don't take out the garbage for a while and see what happens. No, but your brain gets affected [00:10:30] by that, so this is really, really, really important. And this is why we emphasize everything you can to get a good night's sleep. And one of the factors, too, okay, so one is insulin, the fatty tongue syndrome. Two, cortisol, the stress hormone. You're stressed, you're worried, and your brain wakes up in the middle of the night or won't even [00:11:00] let you get to sleep because you can't turn your brain off. You know how many thousands and thousands of times I've heard that?
And ladies, just to you, who worries more, you or the guy next to you? You do. Yeah. The third factor is the amount of melatonin you make. Now, remember what that is. Melatonin is a hormone [00:11:30] that your body makes. A lot of people have asked me, "Doc, well, melatonin. That's a supplement." Yeah, you can take it in a supplement form, but your body makes melatonin, and it does it two ways.
Sunlight in the day, so even in the winter, you're not going to get vitamin D in the winter if you can't expose your arms and legs. Okay? But the sun is still good [00:12:00] for you because you're making melatonin. As the eyeballs, that's why, if you can, if you can, okay? I don't put everybody together. I talk in generalities. If you can, don't put sunglasses on for 15 or 20 minutes. Think of it as your eyeballs are getting sunlight. And as they do, your body is producing a hormone. It's called melatonin. Now don't look directly in the sun. [00:12:30] That's not good for you by any stretch of the imagination.
But you up your melatonin, and then remember, teach your kids this. Pitch black. Tell them that the bogeyman doesn't exist. Pitch, pitch black. You know why? At night. And that's why blue light, guys, that's why watching television, you're on your computer, you're on your smartphone or whatever, [00:13:00] and this is a huge, huge factor. It's a huge factor because that blue light, and it's well-documented now, decreases your body's ability to make melatonin. And I'll just put a little bit of my own spin on this. Supplements of melatonin. Like if it works for you, good for you. But a lot of people, I don't know. The body just, I think [00:13:30] sometimes they find it to be effective. Then after a while it's not effective anymore. This has just generally been my experience with this.
Now we're at three factors. One, insulin, which is fatty tongue. Two, cortisol, the stress hormone, and it's probably, I don't know if it's the biggest factor in a loss of sleep, third, melatonin. [00:14:00] And then fourthly, vitamin D. This is proven, guys. Vitamin D from the sun. It's not just melatonin. Vitamin D, every aspect of your body, every cell in your body has an antenna looking for vitamin D. It needs vitamin D, so this is why it is so important, guys, that [00:14:30] vitamin D, get your vitamin D levels up. It's not just for your immune system, although it does help big time. Vitamin D is a hormone. I know they call it a vitamin, but really it is a hormone. And we found out what the sunlight does in terms of its melatonin, but vitamin D helps you sleep. It does.
If your vitamin D levels are better, are in that optimal range, and I don't talk about [00:15:00] this enough, but one of the things that vitamin D does ... We'll talk about it tomorrow as they go through the, we're going to go through the COVID variant because it's worrying people. And anyway, I'll get into the teaching tomorrow. But vitamin D, guys. Vitamin D, it's not just for your bones and your immune system, and it is all about, but vitamin D is like a biomark [00:15:30] in your body. It reduces inflammation. Vitamin D reduces inflammation. That's why I like it. I love magnesium, too, for sleep. People are chronically low in vitamin D. They're chronically low in magnesium. You know what magnesium means? Relax. That's how I remember magnesium from my school days. [00:16:00] What does it do? It relaxes you. It relaxes everything, your muscles, your blood vessels, and magnesium is good to relax the brain, helps put it into the sleep cycle.
That's a very important mineral. A lot of people don't get enough magnesium. You see why that teaching, when I looked at that headline, and I said, "Man, oh, man, sleep is so important." [00:16:30] And what happens? And this is just something that I'm going to go off on the side just a little bit because I want you to follow me here, because what happens is cortisol, when cortisol is not balanced properly, and it's not allowing you to settle down, over a period of time, nevermind what it does up in the brain because you're not allowed ... The night shift is not allowed to come in and take that [00:17:00] garbage out of your brain. Body's unbelievable how it's able to do it, but it has an effect on the body's ability to take that out of there, all that garbage out of there, and therefore it's a big, big factor.
But then, cortisol over a period of time leads to anxiety, where you can actually develop anxiety. And it's so much more common today, by [00:17:30] the way. The world in which we live. But the unintended consequences. Okay? And you know me. I've said it right from the beginning. The unintended consequences of the world focusing in just on the virus, the unintended consequences, and we're really seeing it already because a lot of people, and medicine has really started to comment on this, but I've been consistent right from [00:18:00] day one, is that the coming tsunami is in the area especially of mental health. Anxiety. This is what they're finding, 70, 80% more anxiety today because we're human beings, guys. We're meant to communicate with each other and to be with each other.
I thank God for this method of communication. For 40 something years, my method of communication [00:18:30] was when a patient come into my office, one-on-one. As a matter of fact, do you know that yesterday, February the 15th, 2020 was the last time I actually saw a patient in the office? I was just making sort of a note of that. It was supposed to only happen at the end of May 2020, where I was going to go into full-time teaching and writing and enjoying the bigger audience, [00:19:00] in a way. But I used to be one-on-one. Now that communication with a doctor or whatever, don't you think that's important? It's very important, isn't it? And your communication with your family and your communication with friends and just the way we operate, we're human beings. We need each other. There's very few lone rangers that do well.
[00:19:30] I was out yesterday for a walk, and this lady was talking to her dog. Okay? Like a real conversation. I said, "Well, okay. Pets are wonderful, but they're not human beings." You and I need each other. And this is a big factor. Anyway, I don't want to get all the way down that road. I just want to say this. It's led to an enormous amount of anxiety, real [00:20:00] clinical anxiety.
And what does anxiety do? Well, number one, you ain't going to sleep right. You don't sleep right, you get anxiety. You get anxiety, you don't sleep right. It messes you up. Body's not made for that. And now, it's on steroids. It doesn't want to let up. And it's a true medical condition. It's not fun. And people, your heart [00:20:30] can race. Your gut is bugging you. A lot of digestive issues, cortisol doesn't cause it. I love Tony Junior's expression. "Dad, it's an accelerant. It's pouring gasoline on the fire."
And we're seeing so much of it. And anxiety is, it can affect your brain. It affects brain fog. And you have trouble focusing. You have trouble [00:21:00] turning that off. And the heart gets affected and racing for a lot of people, and then they feel very, very unwell. And a big factor, again, is the sleep. And the coming tsunami is not anxiety. Can lead to severe depression, where people are committing suicide like it's ... What are they saying? I read something the other day that I might've mentioned [00:21:30] it. One out of four teenagers in North America have contemplated suicide. The unintended consequences. This is why I've often called out the medical officers of health. Because I said, "Well, you're focusing in only on a virus here. You're not looking at the big picture."
I understand, but you've got to look at the big picture. Medical means everything. Doesn't just mean a virus. It means [00:22:00] everything. Mental health is a huge part of medicine, or at least it should be. Any doctor worth its salt will tell you that stress can give you a heart attack. I talked to you last week about breast cancer, which is the number one cancer now in North America. Number one. Not the number one killer, but it's the number one cancer, overtaking lung disease. And a big component, I've always [00:22:30] said this, a big component of breast cancer ... Breast cancer is a perfect storm. Usually, and this has just been my experience, it's a perfect storm of insulin, food, crappy carbohydrates, crappy vegetable oils, too much sugar, too much estrogen.
Maybe I'll mention this study here. Let me just read it to you. [00:23:00] New York Times. We live in a world invaded by plastic. New York Times just came out. I think it was yesterday. I flagged them. We live in a world invaded by plastic. When plastic degrades into nanoparticles, it's present in the water we drink, it's present in the air we breathe, almost everything we touch. See, plastic degrades, but it doesn't go away. [00:23:30] And what they're showing with this study in the New York Times, by the way, it affects your microbiome. That was the study. It affects your bacteria. It affects your microbiome. That has a big effect on your immune system. Has a big effect.
And they didn't even mention this, but I'm telling you, plastics look like estrogen to your body. Ladies and gentlemen. [00:24:00] It's a big factor because they're called xenoestrogens, and xenoestrogens, it's not estrogen per se, but your body thinks it's estrogen, so it wants it. There isn't a woman in the world that if your body sees estrogen that it doesn't want it. And men, when your testosterone is down, guess what your body will accumulate? Estrogen. That's how you get prostate cancer. But remember. Well, here's [00:24:30] what I said. It's a combination of things. When a woman gets breast cancer ... And how do I know this? Because of all the studies. But not only that. It's been my experience because I always ask the questions.
When a woman gets breast cancer, here's generally what happens. And remember, now, it's the number one cancer in North America. One, insulin. It's a growth hormone. [00:25:00] Your breast tissue, ladies, your cells in your breast tissue are so sensitive to insulin. You know how I said vitamin D, your cells have a receptor to vitamin D? They do. But they also have a receptor for insulin. And your cells, they want insulin, and they want estrogen. And in that mix, you pour on [00:25:30] cortisol. You pour on stress. And I've rarely ever seen an exception of it in all the years. It's a perfect storm of insulin, of estrogen, and of stress, cortisol. Some traumatic event, usually, in a woman's life, their cortisol never really goes down after that. And cortisol is a huge factor because it [00:26:00] suppresses the immune system.
When you're like this, it's thinking of fighting someone else. It's not thinking of fighting a virus or a bacteria or a cancer cell. It gets sidetracked. It's a deviation in the way your body works. It's a deviation. It gets sidetracked. You see? I talked about this yesterday. Every day, every day, [00:26:30] every day, folks, you and I fight cancer. Every day. Put it up in the coconut up there. Every day, you fight cancer, and your body's made to fight it. You want to put everything on your side. Interesting, isn't it, about sleep? And everything else that goes along with it.
Okay, so that's the teaching of the day. I thought I was going [00:27:00] to bring you a few more, but like I said, we'll look tomorrow. I plan on doing this with the variant tomorrow. I'm going to talk about it because what you can do, okay? What you can do. Okay. Now, thanks for watching. We appreciate it big time. Invite your family and friends to join us. Okay? On the Martin Clinic Facebook group. They're more than welcome to come in. Great group. I watched about 20 questions yesterday, [00:27:30] and people answered them. I didn't have to do it. They had good answers. I said, "Well, I've got nothing to add to that." It's such a good group. If you're going to do the reset, you want to join that group for sure, for sure. Because it's such a good supportive group. Okay, so we'll talk to you soon. We love you guys. We appreciate your faithfulness to this program [00:28:00] and to the podcast. And we really, really, really love you guys. 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.