Dr. Martin discusses some recent studies he found interesting. He looks at studies showing a connection between loneliness and cancer, how fructose causes inflammation in the brain, studies on vitamin D and K2… and even a study on how coffee can be a fat buster!
There have been a lot of unintended consequences with COVID-19. One of them is the diagnosing of cancer has been delayed for many. Another consequence is loneliness. When we are lonely, our bodies are stressed. When we are stressed, our bodies create cortisol and this can affect our immune system.
Dr. Martin also talks about the dangers of inflammation in our brains, and how high fructose corn syrup is contributing to mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidization of the hippocampus; our memory centre of the brain. He cautions those who are metabolically unwell to especially avoid sugar.
Tune into today’s podcast to hear more about these interesting studies!
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: Well, good afternoon. Hope you're having a great day. Welcome to another live. Here we go. First study that came out this week, so I think I got six studies that I can see that I just want to pontificate a little bit about. First one on study on cancer, and they said, "What really aggravates and can set cancer ablaze is loneliness." Interesting study, loneliness. Now I've talked many, many times on these podcasts about the unintended consequences ... As a matter of fact, there is a study here on COVID. So I'll talk about that. The unintended consequences of COVID. One of them has been the delay, because even the oncologists have been saying that there has been a quite a delay in the diagnosis of cancer and every day counts in medicine because they're into early detection. Of course, I'm more into preventing cancer, so it doesn't come at all. But I mean, listen, when it does, one of the things that they've noticed, that it really affects loneliness. So I think this is an unintended consequence. This one is more of a general study that just loneliness any time, doesn't have to be through COVID, can be a real factor in cancer.
I just want to tell you why that would be, okay? Because the article never went into what does loneliness do to make cancer even worse. Well, let me tell you what loneliness does. Loneliness stresses the body the same way that the fight or flight would be very similar. The drip, drip, drip of cortisol. Some people are lone rangers, but most people are not. We're meant for each other. We're meant for fellowship. We're meant to look each other in the face, make eye contact. I'm a hugger. I love hugging people. All of that is almost been put on the shelf.
I was talking to a patient the other day, a former patient that was in the hospital and was there for almost a month with absolutely no family allowed to come in. I mean, that's got to be one of the... here you are trying to get better and they don't let you in. They don't let family in. Hospital is bad enough, but imagine when the family can't go in and visit. I'm sure this is a terrible thing for the end of life where family can't go in. That bothers me. To me, they've over reacted to this thing. In my opinion, they've overreacted. I know they want to be on the safe side, but I really think that, so you put a half-mask on and whatever that suit, and if you have to, in order to visit someone in the hospital. I can't get over that.
But, anyway, loneliness in cancer, what cortisol does, it affects your microbiome. It affects your hormones. It affects your thyroid gland. Stress is very hard. We looked at this earlier this week, that stress is very hard on your immune system. One of the things that stress does, cortisol does ... and stress, like I said, doesn't have to be a tiger chasing you. It can be the fact that you're lonely. That'll stress your body out. What it does is that cortisol really messes up your T-cells. T-cells are your Navy SEALs. Remember, we put up the live video there early in the week of that white blood cell coming out of the lymphatic system and chasing the bacteria. The problem with cortisol is when cortisol is in place, think of it, you're running away from a tiger. You don't care so much about fighting cancer at the same time.
So cortisol really, really suppresses the immune system, and one of the ways that does it is through T-cells. Now, let me just mention, when it comes to viruses and bacteria, cortisol also affects your B-cells. Your B-cells produce antibodies for you. They sort of flag. If they see something, they recognize it, they flag it. They call that an antigen, and now you develop antibodies. That is what we're looking for. I think if they tested people for antibodies, they might realize that a lot of people have antibodies to COVID. They should be testing for that because if you have antibodies to COVID, you're not going to get COVID. But cortisol suppresses your T-cells, the Navy SEALs. Those are your first responders that come racing out when you have a bacteria or virus or cancer cells.
You see, cancer cells, when your immune system is working properly, your immune system recognizes a cancer cell. They see it as a bad guy. That's a foreign invader. We don't want no cancer cell. Like, look, like bacteria and viruses, I believe that you and I fight cancer every day. I believe that. Every day you fight cancer. You fight free radical damage. You fight cancer cells. Your body is made to flag those and see them and get rid of them, debris, there's garbage, and mostly through your lymphatic system get rid of it. The problem is when you have high levels of cortisol, whether you're stressed or lonely or whatever, now your B-cells are not working, your T-cells are not working properly, and now you're much more susceptible not only to viruses and bacteria but much more susceptible to cancer and cancer growing. Then you add insulin and then you add estrogen. Those are growth hormones and it's not good.
So that was one study that came out this week and I found it pretty interesting. I flagged it and I said, "Well, maybe we'll talk about that." Here's another reason... this is a study done, but I want to give you another reason to do the Reset. Now thousands of you have done the Reset. Somebody asked me the other day, "How often should I do it?" Well, I really recommend you do the reset at least once a year. If you are in good metabolic shape, do it once a year and maybe twice a year. For some of you, it's got to be more frequent than that. I was giving you, probably a few months ago, a modified one where you would do the reset if you're really doing good, but you want to just reset things and empty your liver, then you could do the reset for one week. But the reset is a 30-day program and here's another reason why to do it.
So let me read you the study. It says, fructose, it causes mitochondrial dysfunction in the brain. This is for the brain. Fructose increases inflammation in the brain, one; causes mitochondrial dysfunction. Now, what is a mitochondria? Do you remember that? Pretend you're in school and I'm testing you. What's a mitochondria? Well, every cell in your body has a mitochondria. It's a battery pack. It releases ATP. Fuel. Fuel in, you eat good, good fuel into the cell. Your mitochondria love that, your little battery packs, and they release ATP. That means they are releasing a great energy. A lot of people are exhausted all the time.
One of the major reasons that people go to see doctor, they're fatigued, they're drained. They have no energy. In my lifetime, I can probably count on one hand, maybe two, days that I haven't had full of pee and vinegar. Water first; I'd have my water first in the morning and then I have my coffee, then I'm full of pee and vinegar. That's normal, guys. A lot of people don't have any energy. One of the ways they don't have energy and one of the reasons is because of fructose. Now, I'm going to get into this in a second, but here's another one. So fructose increases inflammation in the brain. Inflammation is not Houdini, but because of insulin and because of even fructose, the brain, there's inflammation. It affects the mitochondria. You're not going to get as much energy out of the cells in your brain because of fructose.
Three, it oxidizes the hippocampus. For the sake of your brain, guys, just think of two things, two centers in your brain. There's more than that, but let's just keep it to two. Hypothalamus: hormones. Hypothalamus: thyroid. Hypothalamus: adrenal. Hypothalamus: ovaries, testes. These come from the center in the brain called your hypothalamus. Now, what's the hippocampus? Well, you guys should know this because campus, school, university campus, college campus. Hippocampus in your brain is the memory center in the brain. What they're saying in this study is that fructose has a bad effect on your memory. Well, you always knew that about sugar. Sugar saturates the hippocampus and it's not good. Destroys healthy cells in the brain.
Now, they're saying fructose. Now, let me qualify that, a very important point. One, fructose comes from fruit. It's fruit, sugar. Now, if you were my age, if anyone out there is close to my age and you had nothing but fruit just about as a kid: bananas, oranges, grapes, apples, whatever, that would have hardly an effect on you. What has changed? 1978: mark it in your calendar, mark it in your history books. The food industry came out with a sugar. It is called high fructose corn syrup. It is made in a lab. It is the antichrist of sugars. It is a terrible sugar. It is different than all other sugars. We talked about it, how it makes a beeline for your liver and is stored in your liver and this is why half the kids in Canada and the United States already have some form of fatty, non-alcoholic fatty liver. Terrible thing.
But you know what we're finding out? Even in the brain. Even in the brain, it creates inflammation. That's never good because inflammation will destroy blood vessels, small vessel disease. Have you ever heard of that? That dementia or Alzheimer's can be a form of small vessel disease where the little blood vessels in your brain are shrinking, and high fructose corn syrup has a big effect on that.
Now, let me make another statement. I think it's important that you understand this. Is there a difference between high fructose corn syrup and eating an apple? Yes, there is. High fructose corn syrup will make a beeline; it is rapid. It is addictive. It is bad for you. But I have to qualify what I'm saying. Yes, the two are not the same. The fructose coming out of high fructose corn syrup, anything that you see sugar in, in the middle aisles of your grocery store, anything that sugar ... even in bread, you know what they're using? High-fructose corn syrup, and they can name it whatever they feel like naming it because the government's not calling them on it. So don't get fooled by, "Oh, it's natural sugar," but no, no, no, it's high fructose corn syrup they're putting in there. Cane sugar and all, that's high fructose corn syrup. They're liars, liars pants on fires.
But if you followed me for any length of time, you know that I'm going to make a statement about fruit. Fruit are God's candies. What do I mean by that? Well, don't live on them. It's not the 1950s anymore, guys. Because people have so much consumption of fructose, high fructose corn syrup, and then you add fruit. Now, you're asking for disaster. So where fruit would be an apple a day keeps the doctor away, not so much anymore. I learned that as a little kid: an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Look, I would rather you give your kid or your grandchild an apple or an orange or a grapefruit, even a banana. But if you got any metabolic syndrome, I'm talking to you now. 88% of the population are unwell metabolically. That just happens to be a fact. It's not coming from me, it's coming from the CDC. 88% of the population have trouble and metabolic syndrome, metabolically unwell, is a problem with insulin.
So it doesn't matter what kind of sugar you're using, whether it comes from a fruit, if you're metabolically unwell, I would tell you don't touch bananas. Have one banana a month. "Why, doc? Well, I don't understand. Bananas, they should be good for me." Yeah, but the world has changed. The price of poker, guys, has changed. This is why I get, for years and years and years and years, I would tell patients, "No, fruit is God's candies." You ever tried to keep total sugars under 15 grams a day? I used to tell that to patients all the time that I had high levels of uric acid. I was asked the question last night, as a matter of fact, and it always comes up because they have an idea that gout, uric acid causes gout. Most people that have high levels of uric acid, by the way, do not have gout. But gout is uric acid, and uric acid is a by-product of fructose whether it'd be a grape or whether it'd be a soda. It doesn't matter as far as uric acid goes. It doesn't matter.
So remember what I said: uric acid is a by-product of fructose. Not purines, fructose. Good or bad or ugly fructose. It don't matter as far as uric acid goes. But take one step more, and what causes gout? You got to come back one more step and go, "Okay, what causes that?" Insulin resistance. High circulating insulin. You give insulin a job and it has a full-time job and then it does overtime. All the time, you are creating havoc within the body.
So let me just put it in a nutshell. This new study says fructose, not good for the brain. Inflammation of the brain, that means destruction of blood vessels. That's the first thing that inflammation does, it will destroy blood vessels. You need blood supply to your brain, guys. Then mitochondrial dysfunction, that'll give you low energy in the brain. Your brain needs to put off a good ATP, a good energy, but fructose isn't the best choice for your brain. You know what is? Fat. Saturated fat, DHA fat. Then third, oxidative damage that actually damages the memory centers in the brain, in the hippocampus.
Okay, guys, so look, be very careful. That's all I'm saying to you. Treat fruit, if you have any issues with metabolic syndrome, any issues ... Let me repeat, uric acid, high blood pressure, waist, sugar belly, high triglycerides and low HDL, that's all metabolic syndrome. Any of those things are caused by insulin, and insulin is a food hormone so make the right choices. So another reason to do the reset. On the reset, you will not have any fructose for 30 days. That will clean your brain out. Just another study that confirms the importance of the reset. I'm telling you, guys, the results are incredible.
Chromium picolinate, in the news. I've always loved chromium. We put it in our Insulin Balance. Why do I like chromium? Because chromium picolinate has always been ... they actually even use it as a fat buster. But chromium is really good because it really helps to regulate your blood sugar and it decreases insulin resistance. I love chromium picolinate. It's one of our foundational supplements within the supplement. One of the things that we use in our Insulin Balance. Now, here is what the study said. If you use 200 micrograms of chromium picolinate a day, you will increase your H-... this is new, guys. This is new. This will increase your HDL and lower your triglycerides. Chromium picolinate will lower your triglycerides.
Now, we know how to lower triglycerides: just don't eat any carbs. Triglycerides are a by-product when the liver is full, when the Costco parking lot is full, when the suitcase is full; when the minivan, you don't have one more suitcase you can put in there, your liver sends that fat, which was made from sugar, into your bloodstream as triglycerides. When your triglycerides are high, that's very dangerous for heart disease, heart attacks, and you want to have good cholesterol. So if you have chromium picolinate, they're saying that your triglycerides are coming down and your good cholesterol, your HDL, is going up. Isn't that good news? I love that. Another reason why to take Insulin Balance.
You know what does this, too? Did you hear the study about this? That if you have strong coffee a half an hour before doing a good workout, it becomes a fat buster. You're going to blow away more fat in the body with vitamin C: coffee, strong coffee. That's what the study said. I didn't make that up, guys. You guys think I make up studies on coffee because I always talk about it as being the real vitamin C, but it really is.
So here's another study. This is what chromium does, too, by the way. Chromium helps to balance your insulin. I've always said it, that coffee acts like Metformin. If you have coffee with the meal or just before a meal... I like to when I'm out in a restaurant or whatever, I'll order a coffee, and if it's at night I'll have a decaf. It's not the caffeine, guys. It's the coffee bean, what it does, incredible, it's showing in this study that it literally is a fat buster. How do you like that? Coffee, a fat buster. But we've always known and maybe very few even of my guru friends. When I was saying the coffee was good for them 40 years ago, they used to laugh at me. Coffee can't be good for you. Why can't it be good for you? I'd said it's an antioxidant. It's a polyphenol. It's fantastic. Why do people say it was bad for you? Oh, because they were tea drinkers, I don't know. But if you have a coffee before a meal, it acts like the drug metformin. Keeps your blood sugar down. Ain't that beautiful?
Okay, two more, and I'll do these quickly. Vitamin D, another one on vitamin D, every day, every day, every day, every day. And I mean seven days a week, I get a new study on vitamin D. Is it ever negative? Never once. If it is, I haven't seen it. It's unbelievable. What have I said about this virus? If we just gave everybody vitamin D... first thing they should do is check people's vitamin D levels. 80% are low. African-Americans, very low. Listen to this study. They're looking at the possibility in this study that vitamin D deficiency causes pernicious anemia. Pernicious anemia. Boy, vitamin D and anemia? I created a product called Blood Boost, and the reason I ... Look, it's got everything in there. You know why? Because if you want to get your blood back, you need hundreds of things, not just one thing, including vitamin D.
Your body is a human solar panel. Every cell in your body, including your red blood cells, have an antenna. We always knew that the white blood cells have an antenna for vitamin D. Now, we're finding out the red blood cells do, too. Vitamin D, is there anything ... Oh, I'm telling you. I just think that it's such a tragedy that it's not getting the ink it deserves, the vitamin D and what it does for your immune system and what it does even for anemia. Most people don't get enough vitamin D, it's craziness. Craziness.
Then the last one, vitamin K2 promotes healthy blood sugar metabolism. Here's another one. Here's another one, blood sugar. Chromium picolinate, coffee, and vitamin K2. Now, okay, repetition, repetition, repetition, what's the difference between K1 and K2? K1, the plants. So anyway, vitamin K1, is it good for you? Sure, it is. Vitamin K1. It mostly has an effect on blood clotting. That's vitamin K1. What is vitamin K2? Where do you get it? Where is it found? Is it found in the plants? Nope. It's found in cheese and butter. It's in the animal product. We always talked about it being like the Rodney Dangerfield of vitamins, because people don't talk about vitamin K2 very much, and they should because vitamin K2 takes calcium out of your bloodstream. It actually prevents hardening of the arteries. How do you like that? How do you get it? In cheese.
Guess what? Cheese and butter, cheese curds, highest source of vitamin K2, will actually help to stabilize your blood sugar. Cheese. "Oh, Dr. Martin, I thought cheese makes you fat?" No, sugar makes you fat. "I thought cheese gave you cholesterol." Yes, it does. Isn't that good? Don't you want high cholesterol? Why do you want to have low cholesterol for? You want to have low cholesterol? "Yeah, doc, I want to have low cholesterol." Okay, I guess you want to die young because that's what happens. You have low cholesterol, you're going to die young. "Oh yeah, but I died, but boy oh boy, my cholesterol was really low. Whoopee-doopee." Because that's what happens when you have low cholesterol. Your brain is made up of cholesterol. You need cheese to give you cholesterol, and cholesterol is only found in the animal kingdom. “Mange la fromage”. I just spoke French. “Mangiare” and that's Italian, too. “Mangiare, mangiare, mangiare”. I remember my father-in-law always telling me, "Mangiare, mangiare, mangiare,” come on. What's the matter for you?"
Okay, so guys, interesting studies, right? I always liked flagging those studies for you and just pontificating a little bit for you. Okay, tomorrow, Question and Answer Friday. Our book, top selling book in Canada, The Metabolic Reset: the Diet Your Doctor Won't Share With You." I talked to a guy last night. He said, "My doctor ... No wonder you called it the diet your doctor won't share with you." He said I'd never heard a doctor ever talk about eating eggs, meat, and cheese. As a matter of fact, most doctors tell them not to eat that. Yeah, because they don't know anything about nutrition, I'm sorry. I don't want to be offensive. I'm sorry. It's not their expertise and it really shows. We've been on a failed experiment for 50 years: the low fat diet and, well, look where it's got us, folks? 88% of the population is unwell. All the tea in China isn't going to pay for our healthcare system. It's going to crush us, I'm telling you.
Anyway, tomorrow Question and Answer Friday. If you're not a member of the Martin Clinic Facebook Group, please join. We'd love to have you join that community of followers, and the discussions in there are great and we'd love to have you. Invite your friends, invite your family. Okay, talk to you soon.
Announcer: You've reached the end of another Doctor Is In Podcast, with your hosts, Doctor Martin Junior and Senior. Be sure to catch our next episode and thanks for listening!