A staggering statistic is that 60 million Americans are on Proton Pump Inhibitors. PPIs stop the stomach from producing excess acid, which in turn reduces acid reflux and GERD. Instead of fixing the root cause, the diet, people are relying on these prescriptions that were never meant for long-term use!
New guidelines published by the Journal of Post-Acute and Long-Term Medicine, is now telling doctors to stop prescribing Proton Pump Inhibitors long-term. The benefits of taking PPIs are outweighed by some pretty serious side effects!
Dr. Martin discusses these side effects in today's episode. He explains how proton pumps work, and what happens when we don’t have enough acidity in the stomach. He also shares what can be done to get off PPIs permanently.
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
Announcer:Â 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:Â Well, good morning, everyone. Once again, welcome to another live and another great day. Okay. Here we go. Okay. We got another good story here. It was actually new guidelines published by the Journal of Post-Acute and Long-Term Medicine. Okay? This is a journal. It's sent out to the doctors. These are new guidelines, okay, published by the Journal of Post-Acute and Long-Term Medicine, telling doctors to stop prescribing PPIs, Proton Pump Inhibitors, like Nexium, Prevacid, Prilosec. These are the popular ones. They're telling doctors to stop prescribing PPIs long-term. They were only made for short-term. I know people that have been on PPIs for 20 years. "Oh, doc. If I don't take them, I get acid reflux, and I got GERD, and I got... I mean, it will just burn. You might as well put a match down there and burn the esophagus."
Hey, I get it, but I've said this for a long time, and medicine is saying it now. They're saying to their own doctors, "Stop prescribing these long-term because the benefits that you get from taking PPIs," and we'll explain this in a minute, "are outweighed by the side effects." Hey, that's medicine telling doctors, "Look, they were never meant to be for long-term, and we want you to stop prescribing them long-term because of their major side effects." This is part of the journal. It says here. They name eight side effects that are very serious when someone is taking PPIs like Nexium, Prilosec, and Prevacid. Okay? You might have some other names that are in there, but these are called Proton Pump Inhibitors.
Here's what the article said. "It increases your risk of heart attack and stroke." Imagine a medication meant to stop the acid from going up the esophagus increases your risk of heart attack and stroke. It increases your risk of hip fractures. It increases your risk of chronic kidney disease. It increases your risk, number four, increases your risk of dementia and Alzheimer's. We're going to talk about all these things in a minute. It increases, number five, your risk of lung disease, lung disease. It increases your risk... and this is well-established, this one.
Number six. It increases your risk of osteoporosis. Of course. This was the main one that they talked about, even about 20 years ago, that there was some warning even put out on the labels of these medications. "Be careful because of osteoporosis and hip fractures." It demineralizes the bone. We'll tell you why in a minute. Number seven, liver cancer. Wow, that's serious. Number eight, iron deficiency anemia, iron deficiency anemia.
I would put number nine. They didn't put it here, but anyone taking, anyone taking a PPI, meaning PPIs or Proton Pump Inhibitor. So you have little pumps in your stomach, guys. Okay? You have pumps in your stomach that release acid. Remember, your stomach is very acidic. It is a furnace. It mulches your foods. The whole digestive thing starts in your mouth. You need to have enzymes, and saliva, and all these enzymes in your mouth. As soon as you start eating, it breaks food down. When it gets into the stomach, now the furnace takes over, and it mulches that food down to really micro-size nutrients. It mulches it down, but you need to have high, high acidity in the stomach in order for your stomach to do that, and proton pumps are just releasing acid into the furnace.
You get that. You understand that. You need that. The only place you should be acidic in your body is in your stomach. You want to be highly acidic in your stomach. The problem often is that you don't have enough acidity. When you don't have enough acidity in your stomach, your body overreacts to that. Your proton pumps release even more acid. The problem is when you don't have enough acid in your stomach and the proton pumps actually start overworking. Guess where that acid goes up? It goes up the esophagus, and that's when you get that burning. You got a little flap there. You got a little valve there that keeps the acid in the stomach. It's not some woes to let it escape and come up the esophagus. But a lot of times, because of low acidity, over a period of time, that little flat door doesn't stay shut. So it opens up, and now the acid crawls up your esophagus, giving you major discomfort. A lot of people think they're even having a heart attack when they get acid reflux. Okay?
Look at all the side effects of trying to turn those proton pumps off. That's what PPI's do. They inhibit the proton pumps from even working. But guys, that's very serious, and it's well now documented that this is terrible for long-term side effects. Heart attack, stroke, dementia, Alzheimer's, osteoporosis. See, one of the things... Think about this for a minute. If you turn off the acid... Remember, your stomach is highly acidic. But if you turn that off, these medications work because they literally take your proton pumps and they stop them from working. What's the problem with that? Now, you're not mulching your food. If you don't mulch your food, you're not getting the vitamins, and the minerals, and the things that you need.
Now, you're not going to drop dead on the spot, but you really become malnourished. You don't have to go to the third world to be malnourished. You can eat unbelievably. But if you're not absorbing your food, if you're not absorbing your vitamins, if you're not absorbing your minerals, if you're not breaking down that food properly, then what happens is food goes into the small intestine, it's undigested, and it creates havoc in the small intestine, and you're not absorbing. You're not absorbing those things that your body needs.
Now, like I said, right out of the gate, you're not going to croak. But over a period of time, you create some very severe deficiencies, and one of them is saying that it will affect your brain. Dementia. Alzheimer's. It's because you need your nutrients. Your blood brings you your nutrients, but it only brings you what you give it. The life of the flesh is in the blood. Your blood will bring you all your vitamins, all your minerals, everything that you need to flourish, except if you don't have any or you have very few.
They talked about anemia. I agree. They call it iron deficiency anemia. Yeah, that can happen because even if you're eating a steak and you're not breaking that steak down properly, vitamin S, then you're not getting the heme iron that you need from that food. You're not getting it. We call that a malabsorption syndrome. One of the big reasons is the stomach, the stomach. Your body needs a vitamin, especially for your brain to operate properly is vitamin B12. B12 is a finicky vitamin on the best of days. Why do I say that? Because its structure is very large, and if you got any kind of stomach problems, especially if you're taking PPIs, if you're taking anything to suppress the acid in your stomach, you're not getting B12. You're not getting B12.
It was shocking. In my days of practice, when I would tell people they were low in vitamin B12, "Oh, doc. My doctor never said anything." I said, "First of all, the test for B12, blood test, it's a hundred stinking years old. Let's give it a birthday party and put it to bed." I used to like the saliva test. The point being is they're not getting at the cause of acid reflux or GERD. They're not getting at the cause of it. It's just putting a bandaid on a problem. Now, even the physicians are telling other physicians, "Listen. You write a script, and you put a repeat on it for months and months, and years and years." "Oh, you're doing all right? Are you doing all right?" "Yeah, I don't have acid reflux, doc." "Okay. Well, then keep it up." They're not even reading their own warning labels, and I'm going to say this. I'm going to say this. It bugs me. I'm going to say this to the pharmacist who should know better.
The old pharmacist. There was a time when the pharmacist used to pick up the phone and challenge the physician, challenge them. "You're giving Susie here another PPI. Do you know that PPIs..." and pharmacists know this better than anyone else. "Do you know, doc, that PPIs over a period of time and even in those days cause osteoporosis?" It was well-established. Hip fractures because they only thought about bones at that time as a side effect, not cancer like liver cancer, not chronic kidney disease. But now, it's well-established. They're on the warning labels, and I call out the pharmacists who do not pick up the phone, and call the doctor and say, "You know what? This patient has been on this for a long time. It's time we get them off. Don't you think, doc?" "Yeah, but... You know? Yeah, but."
Well, folks, let's look at the causes, first of all, of low acidity in the stomach. What causes the proton pumps to increase the acid even more? Getting GERDs, or getting Barrett's esophagus, or getting acid reflux, and all that. What causes that? See, I like looking at the cause of these things. The number one cause is what you're eating. 90% of the time when you have acid reflux is because you happen to be... I don't mean you. I mean, the world out there. When people are carboholics, number one reason why they get acid reflux, where the proton pumps have to overreact in the stomach. Why?
Number one cause. What is it? It is insulin. It's your body screaming at you, "Hello? Susie," or, "Joel. You know what the problem is, Joel? It's your diet, Joel. The reason you have acid reflux is it's because you're eating crappy foods." Mm-hmm. That's the number one reason, and 90%... This is one of the things even on the reset, even on the reset, people realize just how many carbohydrates and sugars they were eating when they change their diet, "Oh, my acid reflux is so much better." Incredible, isn't it? Incredible. That's 90% of the problem. 90% of the problem.
A second problem is, and this happens quite a bit, the body is not producing enough pancreatic enzymes. You see, your pancreas releases insulin, but your pancreas also releases enzymes: lipase, amylase, protease. Okay? Lipase for fat. Protease for protein. Okay? You need these enzymes. Okay? You need these enzymes in order to mulch your food down properly. Enzymes are like little Pac-Man. They get into the stomach, and they break food down. That helps big time, big time when you're a carboholic and you don't have enough enzyme because remember, if you're a carboholic, okay? Again, I'm not picking on you specifically. I'm speaking in generalities.
If someone. That's what I should say. If someone is a carboholic, their pancreas is overworked. When you overwork your pancreas, you get insulin-resistance, numero uno, and numero duo... I think that's right. Number two is your pancreas can't release the enzymes they are designed to release. The lipase, and the protease, and all these enzymes that help break your food down. Reason number two, but it really goes back to the diet again. Your body was never designed, guys, to eat the amount of carbohydrates that we eat. Think about it. It's near 200 pounds of sugar a year. That's a dump truck load. Your stomach, all of you, was never meant to use that much insulin. We overeat, we eat too frequently, and this creates havoc in the digestive tract and specifically, in the stomach that we're talking about today.
The proton pumps overwork, and they release way too much acid, and then they don't release it enough after. You overworked them. Your body was never meant to eat, especially the crappy carbohydrates today. I talked to you yesterday about this. The number one foods, calories consumed, and this is in the USA, but Canadians are no different. The number one is cakes, cookies, donuts. The number one food. Burritos, bread, noodles. Think about it. If you lived 150 years ago, 100 years ago, you didn't eat that stuff.
I mean, look, I always tell my grandchildren, "Grandpa used to have cookies and ice cream too, you know?" "You did, grandpa?" "Yeah. When I was a kid, of course, we had, but we didn't live on it. We didn't live on it." Then, came the introduction of cereals into the human diet brought to you by Kellogg's. It was liars, liars pants on fires. "Oh, don't eat bacon and eggs. They can't be good for you. Look at them. They're full of grease." Yeah. Your body likes grease. You want to lubricate your body? Eat oil, the good oils, and bacon oil and olive oil are the same. Just that bacon oil tastes better.
No, but they're the same. "Oh, don't eat so many eggs because you're going to get cholesterol," and they started this whole failed experiment, and it is has been disaster. Heart disease. You would think, "Well, jeepers, guys. We stopped eating cholesterol." You would think, "Okay. We've eliminated heart disease." No, it's gotten a thousand times worse. "We don't have any more cancer because we're eating so good. We're having frosted flakes. They're great." No, they're not. They're bad. It's full of sugar. "Oh, you got to have your grains because if you don't, doc, you can..." "If I don't have my fiber, my fiber..." That was the lingo that got the world hooked. "Oh, jeepers creepers. I need fiber." No, you don't. You need protein. You need fat because your body won't work properly, and you need cholesterol. It only comes from the animal kingdom. So Dr. Kellogg's who was a vegetarian, vegan, he was wrong.
I don't care what Netflix says. Somebody asked me a question yesterday. They sent me a link to a Netflix thing. I said, "Well, look, it's a religion, folks. It's not science." Think about this for a minute. How can red meat be bad for you when it's the only place you can get B12? How could that be bad for you? How could God put B12 only in red meat and then tell you not to eat it? How could that be scientific? How could you get heme iron? H-E-M-E. It's only found in red meat. It's only in the animal kingdom. If it's there, and then they say, "Oh, yeah, but you can't eat it. It's not good for you." Today, hook, line, and sinker, the world went for the nonsense. Then, they get Netflix or whatever, and they go, "Yeah. You don't need that stuff. It's not good for the planet. It's not good for you." Liars, liars, pants on fires.
I think they're very sincere. I'm not saying people are not sincere. That's different. I'm not questioning even their motives. They're sincere, but they're sincerely wrong. I know I'm preaching to you, guys, and I don't care. You can question me. That's what I'm here for. You question that. God gave you a brain, okay? Use it, but you have to think about things like that. Today, listen to this. I didn't even tell you the statistic. 60 million Americans, 60 million Americans are on PPIs, Proton Pump Inhibitors.Â
Guys, I rest my case. 60 million Americans. You see the pharmaceutical companies, and God love them. They do some wonderful things, and if people would just... "Okay. I got some acid reflux, and for the next week, I'm going to take Prevacid or whatever, and then stop because I'm going to figure out what's causing it." But you see, you can understand this. 60 million Americans are taking proton pump inhibitors. Guys, think about that for a minute. Must be a problem somewhere. You see, when you look for love in all the wrong places, you're not looking for the cause of acid reflux. What causes it? The overuse of the pancreas. Enzymes and insulin. You wear the pancreas down. It still works, but it's not working like it used to.
Now, you don't have the enzymes, and you used insulin so much that every cell in your body is resisting insulin. Now, it's affecting your brain. We talked about this. It affects your heart. It affects your liver. Whatever, but one of the things it does, it affects the acid in your stomach. The stomach loses its natural environment to your diet. Numero uno. Number two. Oh, both of them are in the diet about the pancreas. Okay? So really, it's number three, but I want to bring it back because... Okay. One of them is a bad diet. Number two, bad diet, high insulin, not enough digestive enzymes. Got that?
Number three or number two on the chart, dehydration. What? Your planet earth. 75% of your body is water. Your planet earth. Water. Your stomach needs water. Somebody asked me the other day, "should I drink water with my meal?" Well, I actually recommend you drink water... Yeah. Drink a little bit of water before your meal, but listen. I do not start my day. I won't even allow myself to have that first cup of coffee. That's all I think about. When I get up in the morning, "Coffee. Coffee. Coffee. Coffee. Coffee. Coffee." But I'm a creature of habit. I know that while I was sleeping, I was becoming dehydrated. It's natural. It's normal. It's everything.
If you are a carboholic, you are going to be even more dehydrated. Water. If you're dehydrated, one of the ways your body will scream at you is, "Hello. Add H2O. You need water." "Hi, doctor. I don't like water." I didn't say you had to like it. You will learn to love it. Your body needs it. The only water is water. Only vitamin W is water. Your body needs water. Every cell in your body needs water. The river don't move properly without water, and dehydration, dehydration is a big problem with people, especially men. Men are so stinking stubborn, aren't they? "I don't like water. I got to have my six cups of coffee. You know what? If I was thirsty, I would drink water, but I'm not thirsty."
Don't wait. You don't have a little red light on top of your head. It's too bad. "Add water. Add water. Add water." It would've been nice if we had that, but it's amazing when you do start drinking water. Then, you realize how dehydrated you were because once you get that thirst mechanism working... Isn't that true? Once you get that thirst mechanism working, you realize, "Oh, gee. Was I ever dehydrated?" Juice ain't water. Coffee is not water. Tea is not water. That ain't water. Gatorade ain't water. "Oh, doc. Doc, it's got electrolytes." I don't care what it's got in it. It ain't good for you. Your body needs H2O. Water. Your planet earth. Your stomach needs water. I'm not too worried about the odd person that might be drinking too much water. I guess it can happen, but generally, nah. You want to have nice skin? Water. Don't dry up like a prune. It's just bad habits, and your stomach will appreciate it.
Okay. So I'm having fun again. I get my workout in the morning just thinking about these things. Okay. So 60 million Americans are on proton pump inhibitors, and medicine is telling medicine, "Cut it out long-term. These drugs weren't meant long-term, and the benefits you're giving to your patients are far outweighed by the side effects of people taking these medications." Change your diet, guys. Change your diet and start drinking H2O. I'm a big guy, by the way, very big on taking digestive enzymes. I take digestive enzymes every day, especially as you get older. Amylase, protease, lipase, and all the blend. I take digestive enzymes every day. I tell you. They work.
Okay. Love you, guys. This week, we will be on tomorrow morning again. Thursday, we're going to go in the afternoon. We're going to do an afternoon session Thursday. So tell all my Western friends that's for you. Okay? In the afternoon, we'll go at 4:00 on Thursday, and Friday is question and answer. Friday is question and answer. Okay? So get your questions in. Hey, don't be shy. We'll answer your questions as much as we can. Okay? If you're not a member of the Martin Clinic Facebook group, then become a member. If you don't have this book, okay? Number one selling book in Canada, and I'm telling you, it's amazing. You guys have done that for us. We thank you for it. It's a great book if I do not have to say it myself. No, but it's a good book. I think it's wonderful. Of course, I do. Okay. Love you, guys. Talk to you soon.
Announcer:Â 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!