Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners.
Today’s topics include:
- Cholecystitis of the gallbladder
- Folic acid and B vitamins
- “Sounds” from our bodies
- Low red blood cell counts
- Geographical tongue
- Stones in the pituitary gland
- The Ketotic Diet for epilepsy
- Probiotics safe for a dog?
...and more!
Tune in to hear Dr. Martin’s responses!
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 morning, everyone and welcome again to another live on a good Friday. Hope you're having a great day. Let's get going. We've got lots of questions this morning. Mona says, okay. It's a good question. A lot of people struggle with this. "Why is it some people can swallow capsules and others have them float in their throat?" Well, usually, it's not always the case, but usually, some people just have a smaller esophagus and some people, it may be due to Barrett's esophagus where that flap doesn't close properly and you get all sorts of issues. So look, some people literally have to take their supplements and open up the capsules and just take the powder and I recommend if you have to do that, I recommend you make Dr. Martin's perfect smoothie and put your capsules in there. But most people have no problem, but if you do, you do. You're going to have to deal with it and why? Maybe you don't make enough saliva. There could be other reasons and I've been hearing this for as long as I've been in practice.
Lucy's asking about calculus. I can never say these words... cholecystitis. That's the word I know more than the other one, but all that is, that little culus is little stones in the gallbladder. So whenever you hear of cholecystitis, that's inflammation of the gallbladder. Why would that happen? Use it or lose it. Use it or lose it. I just remind you that 90% of all gallbladder problems happen to women and women, 50 years ago, this is the fact, believed that salad was better for them than steak and fat made you fat and fat gave you cholesterol and all the lies, all the lies. Ladies, look, just the way it is, so don't be offended. You're not like that. You know better than this, but why women lose their gallbladder much more than men, number one reason, look, there's hormones involved too, estrogen. Dominance can a factor, but the biggest thing, the biggest thing is use it or lose it. Your gallbladder is a reservoir. It's a little pouch for your bile.
Bile is needed, well, for a few things, but one of the things that bile does, it emulsifies your fat. You ever used a little dish soap? Dish soap, well, what does dish soap do? It picks up grease, so to pick up your fat, to emulsify it so that you absorb that fat properly, you need bile and bile helps with your pH too in your small intestine and that little pouches just pores bile. But what if you don't use it? What if you're eating a fat-free diet? Do you know how many vegans, how many vegetarians, they don't eat enough fat and I mean animal fat. They might have a few avocados and those are fine. I got no problem with that. They might have some olive oil. That's good. No problem with that either, but your gallbladder was made for animal fat.
So, if you ever want to know why someone that's a vegetarian and a vegan is 100% wrong, why do I say that? Because God gave you a gallbladder. Why would he give you a gallbladder if you didn't need it? Well, you need it because you are an omnivore. You can eat plants. 95% of all the plants on this planet, you can't eat. You can't. Most of them are poisonous, but women and you know me, I tease a little bit, but I mean it, women are famous, in the last 50 years, for eating salad. You're not a rabbit. Cows don't have a gallbladder and a rabbit doesn't have gallbladder and they eat salad. They eat grass. You ever see a cow mulch on grass? Well, they don't need a gallbladder because they're meant to eat grass so that we can have their good steak. Then you need a gallbladder, first thing. So you might think, "Well, gallbladder, if I don't use it, that's a good thing." No, it's not a good thing at all. Your fat soluble vitamins mostly are found in the animal kingdom. This is why I talk about it all the time.
So when get a little stone or whatever, it's because you didn't use your gallbladder. That's how it becomes inflamed. Now, once it becomes inflamed, now you got to take it easy. This is where some people find the eggs, meat, and cheese, but you can still do it. One of the key things, when you have any kind of gallbladder issue, don't eat at night. Now, we brought out a podcast earlier about the benefits of not eating at night. It showed that it lowered your triglycerides, elevated your HDL, lowered inflammation markers. It was all good. If you don't eat it at night, it's all good. But one of the benefits is it really does help your gallbladder, but you might have to cut back until your gallbladder starts really working again.
Remember ladies, if you don't have a gallbladder, you got plan B. What's that mean? Because bile doesn't come from your gallbladder; bile comes from your liver and your liver is still producing bile. The problem is now you don't have a reservoir. You don't have a little pouch and look, you can still live with that and you can still eat eggs, meat, and cheese. You might have to take it easy, not eat as much, shorten your eating window. Don't eat all day long and that kind of thing. You might have to do that so that your body adjusts, okay? But very, very good questions.
Rhonda is asking about folic acid. "How does it affect our natural killer cells?" Well, look, let me give you a little breakdown. Folic acid is a B vitamin. It's classified as B9. Now, if you've been around long enough, you know me on B vitamins, okay? I want you to eat your B vitamins. You'll notice on the Martin Clinic, here's what we are, okay? We're big on certain vitamins that you need to take and other ones that I want you to eat. I want you to eat. A B vitamin is one that you should be able to eat with the exception of vitamin B12 and I'll explain that. Now, a B vitamin, when you eat eggs, meat and cheese, you're going to get all your B vitamins. All of them, including B9. Folic acid, this is, gee, how many years ago, 60 maybe, or even, probably more than that? They realized that for women, especially in their first trimester of pregnancy, they were given, and probably even longer than not, they were given a prenatal vitamin which included B9, folic acid. Why? Because folic acid does two main things. One, it helps in the production of red blood cells. Well, baby needs that. Baby needs that, and it helps in the production of DNA. Baby needs that.
So when you look at vitamin B9, folic acid, a lot of people are anemic and the reason they're anemic, remember, I used to get people coming in and I'm observing them. A lot of my training came from my father, very intelligent man and my dad used to say, "Listen, because patients have inside information, one, and two, observe. Look." I said this the other day, I used to tell patients, "Hey, Casper. Casper, come here," and what I meant was, "I'm a teaser." I would say, "Casper, the ghost. You got no blood. You got no red blood cells. Well, you got some, but you don't have enough." In the production of red blood cells, you need folic acid, but I want you to eat your folic acid. Where are you going to get folic acid? In vitamin S, steak. Yes, in steak. Now again, if the doctor gives you a prenatal, no problem with that. You want to take a B-complex? I got no problem with that. But I'm telling you, I'd rather you eat that.
We have a product called Blood Boost. If you can find a multivitamin, multimineral multi-everything and I mean everything, stronger than that, good luck. You're not going to find it. That is our formula and you'll see, it's got folic acid in it and it's got everything else in it. These are for people that have a malabsorption syndrome. I give it out to patients that are anemic. I give it to patients that were getting chemotherapy or they couldn't eat. I said, "Well, if you do nothing else, take this and you got everything you need." So there are times when you need to take a multivitamin or even a prenatal. I put a lot of vitamin A in it. I put stuff that when you can't eat properly or you're having trouble absorbing or whatever, then I would give it out.
So how does it affect natural killer cell? Well, it is important for your immune system, all those B vitamins, but especially B12. Let me again, I've said this many a time, but B12 is a finicky, different vitamin. 80% of the population are low in B12 and vitamin D and B12 is an important B vitamin. It's the most important. Your nervous system doesn't work properly without B12. Okay? Your immune system works with vitamin B12. B12 is an essential vitamin and the problem is, if you've got any digestive issues at all, you're going to have trouble absorbing B12. This is why we're big on supplementing the B12 in a sublingual form. It's even better than getting a B12 shot. Did you know that? A lot of people, doctors in the 1950s, a little bit in the '60s, they were famous for giving out B12 shots, but they don't do it so much. Every senior home today, they should be giving B12. They don't do it like they should. Some of them get it, but all of them need it. When you get older, you need B12. You need vitamin D. Frustrated. Frustrated. Okay.
Sounds, I'm going to mention a few questions about sound because well, Linda said when she goes to bed at night, she gets gurgling. Well, what's happening and look, is it serious? Nah, it's not necessarily serious Linda, but gurgling is your tummy can be angry. It can be angry. The gut could be angry, but you probably have a little bit of a slow peristalsis, meaning movement of food. Then when you get to bed, your body's still breaking down food and you just take longer. It's slower for you and make sure you're taking digestive enzymes. Digestive enzymes, very important. It's important that you take digestive enzymes if you hear that gurgling, because I mentioned it yesterday. It's not what you eat as much as what you absorb. You want to be absorbing and if you're getting gurgling and some people, a lot of discomfort, bloating. It could be a sign of IBS. It could be, but I'm more thinking you need to make sure you're taking digestive enzymes. I take with every meal. I take them with every meal, digestive enzymes, and probiotics, of course. Linda's saying only when she goes to bed at night. Well, you know what? You hadn't finished digesting. So I would suggest, Linda, and I'm guessing because I don't know you specifically, but what I would say is stop eating much earlier. It's just you, you're very sluggish, slow digestion, stop eating way, way, way, four or five hours before you go to bed if you can.
Carol, here's another sound. I'm getting pulsating tinnitus. Now remember, tinnitus, nine out of 10 times it's the body saying, "Hello, you. Your insulin is high." But pulsating tinnitus, you'll hear shreet, shreet and you're hearing it or you feel it. It's a sensation. Usually, not always, but usually it'll go back to that folic acid. It'll go back to B12. Can be anemia. It's often a sign of anemia. You have a low blood count. Somebody was asking, let me get to it. Hold on a minute here. Somebody asked me the question. Barbara is asking the question. "Could you explain what to do for low red blood cell count of 70? What could the cause be?" Well, you're obviously not making, not, Barbara, red blood cells. That could be several things. Not eating enough vitamin S. Eat more steak. You might have to take B12. Like I said, I'm not necessarily big on taking a B complex. I'd rather you eat it. Okay, I'd rather you eat it.
What produces red blood cells? Heme iron. Heme iron. Where do you get heme, H-E-M-E iron? Not from spinach, you get it from steak. Not from spinach, you get it from steak. You need that to make red blood cell count go up. Now, there could be reason. Anytime you see a low red count, a doctor, what they're thinking is maybe bleeding. It could be heavy menses. It could be… look, there's a hundred questions I would ask you before I gave you a 100% educated guess, but that's all I'm doing because first of all, when I see numbers of 70, I want to see other things. I want to see your B12 because a lot of times, "Oh, my B12 is normal." "What number is it?" "Well, 400." "Nah, I like 800 to 1200, okay? I want to optimize your B12." So we heard about sounds.
Mona's asking, "What's the best time to get a true reading of your blood test?" Well, that depends. Your doctor knows that. If he wants fasting, blood, probably a little bit better fasting. Whenever I did blood work in the office, we did it fasting. It was fasting. I wouldn't even let you drink water because I was doing a lot of saliva tests and I wanted your pHs, I wanted all that, but fasting is probably the best, Mona. But again, you can still get very good readings.
Charlene's asking about geographical tongue. What that is, again, any time you get in the mouth or tongue, usually low B12. Now, it could be low zinc. It could be low zinc. Again, if you're eating enough steak, you get zinc. If you're eating enough steak, eggs, meat, and cheese, you're going to get enough vitamin A. A geographical tongue can be a sign that you're deficient, or you have a malabsorption of those things. It's not that you're not eating; you might have a malabsorption. You don't have enough friendly bacteria. You can do a test to find out if you should take probiotics. What do you do? Prick your finger. If it comes out red, you need a probiotic. It's just because you're in a war at time for good and bad bacteria.
So this could be an issue. Geographical tongue, what I found, generally, can be a deficiency or malabsorption. You're not absorbing properly B12, zinc, and generally. Vitamin A, you might not be absorbing that properly, or you're not getting enough. Only when pregnant, well pregnant, now you're eating for two and sometimes, the baby's taking yours and you're not getting enough. But again, when you usually have a healthy diet with probiotics, you are going to absorb everything you need. You might need digestive enzymes. For some people, they need digestive enzymes. I take digestive enzymes every day. I'm getting old, if you haven't noticed.
What causes a stone in the pituitary gland? Well, let's just talk about the pituitary. Okay? So you know me and the brain. You know me and the brain. I don't want to get complicated. I want you guys to understand that. You got your hypothalamus, hormones and you have your hippocampus, memories. But your hypothalamus talks to your pituitary and the pituitary gland is an endocrine gland that sends this signal then, to your thyroid and your adrenals and your ovaries. So that's how it works. The hypothalamus, the endocrine center of the brain to the pituitary gland and it's just a little pea-sized gland in your brain. How could you get a stone in there? Well, it could be two things. I always say this. If you ever wonder what makes things grow, okay? Grow, grow, grow. What makes things grow? Insulin is a growth hormone, food, carbs, crappy carbs, sugar. That'll get you a little stone sometimes in the pituitary. Is it dangerous? Nah. It's not good. Two, estrogen. Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to estrogen. Estrogen makes a woman a woman, and a man, a woman too, because estrogen is a growth hormone. That's why we see so much breast cancer today.
What have I talked to you about many, many, many a time? Xenoestrogens, your body thinks these things are estrogens, plastic, and I don't care what planet you think you're going to live on, you are going to be surrounded by xenoestrogens. You can't get away from it. It's in the water. It's in the air. Remember the other day I mentioned this to you? It's in the placenta for babies. This is why, again, it's another reason you want to take probiotics because they will leach. They will leach. Those bacteria are so intelligent. They will leech unwanted... "You, get out of here," and they won't let you cross the barrier between your gut and your blood. They won't let heavy metals or plastics or all these chemicals that look like estrogen get into your brain so that you could have a stone on the pituitary gland. Now, it may be benign. It may not be cancerous. That's good. So all I'm saying is you always look at growth hormones. One of them is insulin. That's food guys, that's food, and the other one is estrogen. You may be estrogen dominant and we live in an estrogen-infested world. This is why a lot of women… I even answered some questions this week about estrogen, because the doctor was suggesting that if you're in menopause and post-menopausal women, that maybe I'll give you some estrogen, even for the lining of your private parts down there, ladies. I don't like that. I don't like it.
Personally, I don't like estrogen and that is because we live in an infested estrogen world. You don't need any more estrogen. Often times, you're missing is that balance between estrogen and progesterone. This is one of the reasons I pump, pump, pump our hormonal formula that blocks that extra estrogen. It only blocks the estrogen. Look, you're always going to be a woman. I don't care if you've had a hysterectomy. I don't care if you had a complete hysterectomy. God gave you plan B and your adrenal glands will now secrete estrogen and progesterone. Don't worry about estrogen. Don't worry about it.
Now, I get off on little tangents, but I can't help myself. A person that is epileptic, Cecilia should take B12 daily? Yeah. Yeah, because B12 is a very important... for your synapses in the brain, your grid. It's an electrical... lot of electricity up in the brain and yeah, B12 is important for that. Absolutely. Now, remember one thing about epilepsy in 2021, it's exactly 100 years old. Do you know what's 100 years old? The ketotic diet. Yep, it's 100 years old this year.
In 1921, they discovered the ketotic diet for epilepsy. What is the ketotic diet? Very low carb and high fat and you burn a different fuel in the brain and it was shown to get rid of epilepsy. Isn't that funny now they don't even talk about it anymore. It's 100 years old. Of course, everybody's talking keto, but they don't know the history of keto. Who made it famous again was Dr. Atkins, a cardiologist, very intelligent man. And he started to go back and read the research and lowering your insulin and all this and that. He was one of my gurus. You'd have to study Atkins in order to get my PhD in clinical nutrition. It was just part of the history of nutrition. But one of the things we learned in history was the ketotic diet in 1921, it's 100 years old for epilepsy. Even today, a lot of children have epilepsy. If they go to sick kids in Toronto, I know this for a fact, they're put on a ketotic diet, very high fat, no carbohydrates or very low carbohydrate and yeah, B12 for sure. Barbara, we answered your question.
Nativity, "How is it that our white blood cells eat our bacteria and somehow, not one, but two kinds were found in my urine, giving me a UTI or bladder, kidney infection and ever since December and I'm on my third set of antibiotics?" Well, Nativity, I'm going to answer your question by telling you that the bacteria that you're finding in your urine is not your number one problem. Yeast is your number one problem. I know that for a fact, 100%, and I'm going to prove it to you because now you're on your third set of antibiotics. Nativity, I think you know me enough to know that you have a fungal infection, not a bacterial infection. Look, I never tell people not to take an antibiotic, never. But remember something, an antibiotic will kill a bacteria and you're wondering why it is that if your white blood cells, and I think you're referring to when I put it up on our Facebook page, I showed you actually, a live white blood cell chasing a bacteria.
You got that in your mind, Nativity, I think, and you are saying, "Jeepers, creepers, how come it's not getting rid of ... ?" because you have an underlying yeast infection in the bladder. It's fungus. It's candida albicans and boy, that's not easy to get rid of. Look, I'm telling you, I would say, Nativity, if you are on your third set and unless you got a major burning and major discomfort, I don't want that infection going up to the kidneys either. I don't. I'm on your side. Believe me when I tell you that. But ladies, listen. The problem with bladder, and the problem with women, men don't get bladder infections. We're a bunch of big babies. I think God protects us from that. We wouldn't know what to do with an infection, not that a man can get it. It's very rare, but ladies, it's the underlying yeast and the antibiotic, look, if you got burning and it's very discomforting, take an antibiotic, but take a multitude of probiotic.
Nativity, you need to be on the Candida and it might take you several months because you might be developing what we call interstitial cystitis, where that fungus gets right in there and don't feed it. Fungus eats sugar, no fruits, no sugar at all ‘til you get rid of all of it. I'm on your side. I don't want you to suffer, but if you go back… Can I make a little comment? We're locked down in Ontario again. I wrote a little note to the Premier of Ontario yesterday. I said, "What's the definition of insanity is repeat and repeat and then you get the same results? That's the definition of insanity. Why are you expecting something different?" Like, gee, we're locking down again. Anyway, stop. I'm not going to talk anymore about that. But ladies, if you're on your second or your third antibiotic, think about it, and I know a doctor, all they're thinking, they take a urine test and they see bacteria in the urine. I get it. They're training is, "Well, I got to give you another antibiotic because, obviously, the last one isn't working." "I know, but why isn't it working?" See, that's me. Why? It's not bacteria. Yes, bacteria is there. It's sitting on the wall of the bladder, but it may be E.coli. It might be something else, but let me tell you something, it's because yeast is lining your bladder and your urinary tract. It's fungal, 100%.
Okay, I get off these little tangents. A couple more questions and we're done. Chris is asking this, "If a person is certain they have leaky gut,” and we talked about that. Went into a pretty good deep dive yesterday, "is they're taking any supplements until those issues are resolved since they are not being absorbed properly?" Well, I think it's the opposite, Chris. First of all, you need to take probiotics because probiotics are what actually fixes leaky gut. You got to do the diet. Remember, don't feed the bad guys. Don't feed the yeast. Don't feed the bad bacteria. They love sugar. So it's diet, probiotic. But, for example, you don't wait to fix leaky gut if you got leaky gut, because you've got garbage going up into your bloodstream. Yes. Number one, probiotic. But leaky gut doesn't necessarily mean you're not absorbing anything. So you know me, I'm a food guy first, but there are some vitamins, like vitamin D. Don't stop taking vitamin D and if you need B12, don't stop taking B12. You absolutely need probiotic because that's part of the fix. You might need to take candida cleanse just to get rid of that yeast to give it a yeast buster, right? So good question. I appreciate it, Chris, very much.
Jan, "Is it safe for a dog to take probiotics?" Yes. I know a lot of my patients, give supplements, even Navitol, I know they'd given them to the dog for their bones and because it elevates their nitric oxide and probiotics. Yep. Yep. Okay. I'm not a veterinarian. I don't pretend to be, but I know over the years, a lot of my patients were giving their dogs the supplements. I was talking to my brother last night and my brother trains. He's a world-class trainer, Dr. Peter Martin, my brother. I wanted to tell you about that. He's a world-class trainer and breeder of black labs. I talked to him last night and we were talking about dogs because he's an expert; not a veterinarian, but he is an expert trainer of dogs and we were talking about that. He said today, one of his little pups, and he lives way up north, but he said, "If I was down south, it'd be in the three, $4,000 per little pup." His litter that's coming, he said, he's got a litter coming and he said the minimum price is $2,500 that he'll get for his breed because they are pure. Dogs are expensive. You spent that kind of money on a dog and then dog becomes part of the family and friend, I guess you're making an investment to keep them healthy. You go to the vet, then you might as well mortgage your house, right? So, yeah. It's not a bad idea. It's not my area of expertise in the animal kingdom, but yeah.
Last one. "What does a healthy immune system do when it comes in contact with a virus?" Well, the same thing that you saw, I don't know if you saw it, Catherine, because that's a good question. You see the white blood cell. Now you got T cells, they're the chasers, they're the Navy Seals. You have B cells. You know what B cells do? They see something that is foreign to them, an invader like coronavirus and B cells, what they do is they flag it. It's called an antigen and then you develop antibodies. You've heard about that with coronavirus. Really, what they should be doing, and again, this is just me and I think I'm right, is instead of testing for the coronavirus, I think they're over-testing, they should be testing to see if you already have antibodies, because if you have antibodies, well, it's like having a vaccine because that's what a vaccine does. A vaccine produces antibodies that give you a little bit of coronavirus so that you produce antibodies. They're doing it to stimulate your immune system to flag coronavirus. You're making B cells and your T cells are your Navy Seals. They're the ones that do the chasing. They're the Navy Seals of your immune system. By the way, they do not work without vitamin D. They don't work without vitamin D. You need vitamin D to make that work. You know what kills your B cells, your antibodies. You know what kills that? When your stress with cortisol.
Okay, so we got to all the questions, I think today. Thank you so much for all the questions. We appreciate it big time. It seems to be one of our most popular programs is when we do question and answer and we appreciate it. Again, you guys have a great Easter weekend. I want to wish you a happy Easter. Okay? The Martin Clinic, Facebook group, if you're not a member, you can become a member. You can get your friends to join. You can get your family to join. We appreciate it. We got a big, big community of people that are very intelligent, very intelligent people. I like it and you guys are thinking. I want you to think. Our book, The Metabolic Storm, if you haven't read that book, the number-one selling book in Canada. We love you guys. We'll 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!