594. Q&A with Dr. Martin

THE DOCTOR IS IN Podcast


Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners.

Some of today’s topics include:

  • Vitamin D and night sweats
  • Type I diabetes
  • Ginseng supplements
  • Willow bark
  • Castor oil packs
  • Candida cleansers
  • Herd immunity for viruses
  • Foot and leg cramping
  • Oxidized cholesterol
  • Sun exposure during cold months

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. Once again, welcome to another Live. We're going to be answering questions today. Question & Answer Friday. So always great to have you come on with us. Okay. Let me get to the questions here this morning. 

Joan is asking, "If I take 5,000 IUs of vitamin D a day at 81, why do I sweat so much at night?" Joan, very good question. You're still a woman. You're getting night sweats. It's still hormonal. I don't care how old you are. You still have hormones, okay? Because I've had over the years... "Look, I'm way past menopause. Why do I have imbalances or whatever?" Because you're a woman. Men don't have this. Now, what we talked about the other day when we did deficiencies of vitamin D, one of the signs is sweating. Sweating profusely can be a sign of low levels of vitamin D. A lot of people do that. Men do that. Women do that. It's one of the signs, even for babies. Babies that are always drenched, they're sweating. They could be low in vitamin D, okay? So that's why Joan is asking the question, she said, "Well, I'm taking vitamin D. Why am I still sweating at night?" Well, I have the feeling Joan, it's still your hormones. You have an imbalance. Now, obviously, you're way past menopause and your estrogen has come down and your progesterone has come down. It's normal. But they always have to be balanced. 

You have no idea how many women suffer, seventies into their eighties with imbalances of hormones. I used to see it all the time in my office. So get your hormones, Joan, balanced. You still could have more estrogen than your progesterone. That's what I usually see. We live in a world full of estrogen today. Every plastic, every chemical looks like estrogen to your body and progesterone can keep up. Like I said, you're always producing these things. Of course, you're not producing as much as you were. That's normal, but it's the imbalance that causes this. I'd be on our menopausal formula. I really would to help balance that.

Alan is saying, "Can I talk about type I diabetes and go deep?" Well, look, I mean, type I diabetes is autoimmune. Why do we see so much type I diabetes today compared to what we used to? Type I diabetes starts in the womb. It's the microbiome. It's leaky gut. Any autoimmune disease, any autoimmune disease in my opinion, starts in the gut. Not all of it starts in the womb, but a lot of it does right away the microbiome is affected. I was talking the other day about antibiotics being the greatest discovery of the 20th century and the curse of the 21st. Why is that? Because antibiotics disrupt the microbiome. Our bad diets disrupt the microbiome. Mommy has a bad diet. 

I've talked to you in the past about autism. What is Dr. Martin think about autism? Listen, you can look at medical books. You can look at my physiology or differential diagnosis and all this kind of stuff. You want to look at my textbooks in the 1970s. Autism wasn't there. You look under A, autism wasn't there. Why? Today it's like an epidemic. Why? I always ask that question. Why? Why do we have so much type I diabetes? Well, we know why we have type II diabetes, and 50, 60 or more percent of the population are effectively diabetics. They might not know it, but they really are. But type I diabetes is a different puppy.

Now, the treatment, in my opinion, is the same. Look, you have to be on insulin, all this kind of thing, because your insulin's not working properly. So you need medication. Look, I'm not talking about that. But what I'm saying to even type I, I treated hundreds of type I diabetes over the years. I mean, it's food too. You got to fix their food. That's really important. They don't do well on carbohydrates and sugars, even though they're told they need that because their blood sugar fluctuates. But what I'm talking about, Alan, this morning is what causes type I diabetes. I believe it's a disruption of the microbiome and these kids that get it, I think mommy had antibiotics or the child had antibiotics when they were young, very babies and ear infections. 

Look, guys, you know me. I'm not going to say never take an antibiotic. Come on. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is it's a double-edged sword. The very thing that can cure an infection, there's a double-edged sword to it. It disrupts the microbiome. A bad diet disrupts the microbiome. You know me. I talked to you about the other day. SIFO, not SIBO, SIFO. An overgrowth in the small intestine of fungus. What could that do? Okay, sure, it disrupts the stomach and you have digest... But even before that, yeast and fungal gets into the bloodstream can affect the pancreas. Autoimmune, MS. Parkinson's is not considered really autoimmune, but I consider it an autoimmune disease because it's a fungal infection of the brain. 

So to go deep, Alan, you want me to go deep? Well, I'm giving you I believe are the root causes, okay? Those are the root causes. All the chemicals that there is today, they disrupt the microbiome, your gut and all these seed oils, these oils that come in like margarine and things like that. Think of what that does. Your body doesn't even know what that is. Your body doesn't know what margarine is. Your gut doesn't know what that is. It goes, "What the heck are you doing to me?" All these artificial sugars, aspartame and others. Your gut doesn't even know what that is. It disrupts. You don't die right away. I took a diet Coke or a diet Pepsi, and you're not dying right away. But do you think that stuff's good for you? It disrupts your microbiome. Your body doesn't even know what that is.

Man thinks they're smart. They come out with all these things and "Oh, it's no calories and this and that," but your body does know what those things are. I lived through margarine. Don't eat butter. Butter is fat and saturated fats going to kill ya. It's going to clog up your arteries. You need to eat margarine. Your body don't know what that is. All these things are disruptors. I believe type I diabetics are canaries in the coal mine, just like I believe autism, they're canaries in the coal mine. Their system just couldn't take it and they develop these disorders. I've treated a lot of type I and I treat them the way I'd treat type II. I tell them, "You and carbs don't get along, man. You need to get on probiotics and you need to do that the rest of your life." You're not going to cure type I, but you will much better manage it. Food is something you can control. So eat right, eggs, meat, and cheese. There you go. Thanks Alan for the question.

Salwahan, I think. I don't know. I probably mispronounced it, "Does Dr. Martin recommend us taking a ginseng supplement?" Now, listen, let me give you my overall philosophy, okay? I want to give you an overall philosophy. I think folks, if you followed me long enough, you know where I come from. I'm going to give you my opinion on things that I use. There's a reason I use what I use in my office for years, okay? When you bring me something else like ginseng, I'm very familiar with ginseng. I'm not against ginseng. I just found something better. So whatever ginseng does, and again, it can be very, very good, I use something in my opinion that's better than that. 

So when you hear me talking about pine bark extract, okay, Navitol, it's because I had that clinical experience with it. So when you add it up and you put two things side-by-side, am I against you taking ginseng, Salwahan... no. Go for it. But I'm just going to tell you clinically it doesn't match up to pine bark extract, in my opinion. I defend what I say by clinical experience. Let me give you an example, okay? You have to understand the history of the Martin Clinic. Maybe I'll post a picture of the Martin Clinic. I actually have a picture of it in 1911. My grandfather, I'm third generation. Tony Jr. is fourth generation Martin Clinic. Martin Clinic, my grandfather, David Martin. He died in 1952. 

Now, I hate to tell you how old I am, but I was born in 1952. I was born in January, 1952. Don't forget my birthday. But my grandfather died in the summer of 1952 in August, okay? Yeah, I was just a little baby. I'm sure he carried me and I'm sure he laid his hands on me too, okay? But my dad would tell me stories of my grandfather, all his remedies were incredible. My dad and my grandfather, they had a cough syrup. They had ointments. They had... you name it. They had a cancer treatment back in the 1920s and 30s. I said to my dad one time, "Did they not want to put you in jail?" Cough syrups and ointments. But guess where my grandfather got all that stuff. From nature, from the bush, from barks and plants and things like that. 

I grew up around that. Not that I knew my grandfather so much, but my dad, he had all these secret potions. He used to show me how to make up some ointments. I'm serious. If you go back, I've got a long history of that. Did my grandfather use ginseng? Maybe. But after all these years of practice, I'm telling you what I like and what I use, what I get results with. Because somebody else's asking about chlorophyll. I think I answered that question last week. Do I like chlorophyll? It's all right. It's good. Do I like ginseng? Yeah, I do. I just like something better. So that's where I come from, okay? That's where I come from, guys. I got to give you my clinical experience with things, okay? Some people, let me give you a question I was asked here. 

Marilyn's asking about willow bark. Yeah, willow bark. That's how they make aspirin. How do you think they make all these drugs? They're all natural originally and then they synthesize them. They make them synthetic. Almost every drug comes from nature. Antibiotics come from nature, okay? That's where they come from. So is willow bark safe? Yeah. I don't mean, she says there's synthetic version aspirin. Look, aspirin. I think we're at 900,000 views, almost a million views of the little teaching I did on aspirin. When the FDA was finally telling people, "Don't take aspirin every day. We don't recommend it." Because a lot of people take aspirin every day. Now, I'm not telling you not to do it. Between you and your doctor, you decide that. All I'm saying is what the FDA said. This is two or three years ago. Like I said, I think we're near a million hits on that teaching. If I can find it, maybe I'll post it again. But all I said was what the FDA said. So just understand, I'm sure my grandfather used willow bark. I know he used pine bark. I know he did, okay? What are your thoughts on liquid chlorophyll? I like it. I got no problem with it. 

Somebody asked me something else. What does Dr. Martin think of castor oil pack? My grandfather, he had these packs. He would put over your liver and over your stomach if you had ulcers and stuff like that. I used to make up this stuff. My dad would show me how to make it, to put a plaster using sulfur. I can't even remember half the stuff that was in it. Do I like it? Yeah, I like it. But I got to tell you something, okay? My expertise is in food. So if you're trying to detox with the castor oil, again, I've got no problem with it. But I found something better to detox you with. Because people always ask me, "Doc, what about a detox?" Well, The Reset is a detox. Why is that? Because it will empty out your liver and your liver is the primary organ, even more than your kidneys and even more than your lungs. 

Your liver is a primary organ that will get rid of toxins. That's one of its biggest functions. It produces glutathione. Glutathione is like Velcro. So your body already has an internal detox. It really does. The reason people get so toxic is because they develop fatty liver. How do you get rid of fatty liver? Get rid of the carbs. Is there anything better to detox your gut and your bloodstream than probiotics? No. No. So what I'm saying to you is I got no problem. You got home remedies for this and that. I'm only going to give you my experience and what I know. I know how to empty a person's liver. The Reset is the greatest detox you can do for yourself. It helps your kidneys, helps your lungs. It gets rid of fungus. How do you get rid of fungus? How do you get rid of candida? Don't feed the bears. They eat junk food. Don't put your garbage out for candida to feed on that, okay?

Maxine's asking a good question, "Do our bodies become resistant to candida cleansers if taken for a long period of time?" No. It's like probiotics, Max. Your body doesn't get used to a probiotic. Your body needs... You're always, always replacing bacteria. Candida, I tell patients, yeast is very hardy. It loves moisture. It's a cousin to mold. When it gets into your lungs, when it gets into your brain, when it gets into your urinary tract, when it gets into that bladder, it gets into the gut. It loves moisture. That's why it adores the human body, especially sinuses. When you get post-nasal drip, it's into your lungs. This takes a long time to get rid of. So your body doesn't really get used to these things that we use in a candida cleanse. The body doesn't get used to it. You need it. You don't need it if you don't have candida. But if you suspect that you have fungus or yeast or candida, you got to get rid of that. It will take you a long time. Probiotic... You're always killing off your bacteria. You need to replace it. You know us at the Martin Clinic, we've been consistent on probiotic. So no, I don't believe your body gets resistance to it.

Colleen wants me to talk about herd immunity, okay? It's a good question. What are they saying? I mean, I don't know if this is true, in a sense. We'll all have herd immunity if we hit 70% because herd immunity is when enough people have the antibodies for a virus or any virus, if enough people have it and I've seen I think 70% or whatever, we have herd immunity, then we go back to normal. You know what? I'm just going to tell you a couple of things. I don't think we're ever going to go back to real normal. That's me. I think there are people that just love this so much. 

I don't want to get into conspiracy theories or whatever, but I'm just telling you, I don't know. I think the world... Are ever going to get back to normal normal? I don't know, okay? So I'm not a prophet nor the son of one. Herd immunity. Yeah, I think it's true in a lot of ways. But you know me. I have focused in on your immunity. I'm not talking about herd immunity. I talk about your immunity because I'm really big on you taking care of yourself. You can't take care of other people unless you take care of yourself. It's like you're in an airplane, right? They tell you if the oxygen drops pass a certain percentage, automatically those masks are going to come out of the ceiling of the airplane. But you know what they tell you to do? I like it... They say, "Hey, before you put a mask on someone else, children or whatever, put the mask on yourself then you can help others." But isn't that true with any virus or whatever. You guys, I aim at you because if you have a good immune system, you can help others by sharing, by teaching immunity to others. But you got to do it yourself first. So numero uno, food. Sugar destroys your immune system. Vitamin D, vitamin D because you need vitamin D for your immunity to work. Everybody needs vitamin D. If you can't get the sun, and by the way, somebody asks you a question about the sun. I'll answer that in a minute. 

You need vitamin D. You need probiotics. Probiotics are very important for your immune system, that your microbiome be balanced, that you're not getting anything that's suppressing the immune system from inside out. Vitamin S, steak, because vitamin S has vitamin A, the invisible mask. I've talked to you about that all the time. Where do you get vitamin A? Eggs, meat, and cheese, with vitamin S, steak, okay? So I aim, guys, my whole motivation is to teach. I told you why I got out of private practice. I want to teach. I used to teach in the office. I taught individuals. I tried to explain to them why I do what I do, why I want them to do certain things. I used to try and explain it to them, take the time, teach them, okay? Every day... I love this venue because it allows me to teach and I'm sharing what I know. I said what my goal was, was always that I wanted to do that. The platform of Facebook and podcasts and other ways of teaching, it's tremendous. I reinforce your immunity, not herd immunity, because you can't control that. You can't control that. But what you can control is you and then influence who you can. Influence who you can, okay? So I think it's a very, very good question. I thank you for asking that.

Joanne is asking about... she's still getting foot and leg cramping. Look, there's a couple of things. One, magnesium, potassium, and I liked that Himalayan salt. But sometimes they still get some cramping. Be careful, Joan, about insulin. One of the signs of insulin resistance is cramping. Here's another sign. I'm not sure if it's you, I don't mention this enough, but one of the signs of anemia and you may be B12 deficient anemia. You may be iron deficient anemia. A lot of people are. I'm going to bring you a study next week about young people and iron… Because yesterday, I think it was yesterday, I talked about hemochromatosis. It's something we see a high levels of iron in a lot of people. Why was that? Fatty liver. I explained that yesterday. But there are millions and millions of people that were on the other end of the scale, low iron levels anemia or low B12 anemia. They don't know it. One of the signs. You're not eating enough vitamin S, steak, can be cramping, spasms in the muscles. So good question. 

Carolyn's asking, "What is the significance of oxidized cholesterol?" None. You must admit. I am consistent. Who cares about oxidized cholesterol? I don't. I don't care about cholesterol other than I want you to have high HDL, good cholesterol. I want you to put as many FedEx, Canada Post, US Post, Amazon trucks, delivery trucks on the highways of your blood vessels. That's what HDL is. HDL will deliver your hormones. HDL, when it sees bad fats like triglycerides will hitch their wagon to triglycerides, bring them back to the liver where they are metabolized. So when it comes to the truth about cholesterol, I don't care what your LDL is. I don't care what your total cholesterol is. I don't care what your oxidized cholesterol is. I don't care.

Now, you might care. Your doctor might care, but you can't make me care. Carolyn, it's not that I don't care about you. I do, but I don't care about cholesterol other than if you have low cholesterol, you're going to die young. Your body's made up of cholesterol. Your brain is made up of cholesterol. All your cells have a cholesterol layer and you need cholesterol. God doesn't trust you. God doesn't trust you. 85% of all your cholesterol is made in your liver and 15% you must eat. It comes from the animal kingdom. There is no cholesterol in the plant kingdom. 

So people that tell me they're vegetarians, I go, "Why?" People that tell me they're vegans, I go, "Why are you doing that? It's not right." How do I know that? Because you're not getting the 15% cholesterol that is your responsibility to eat. I don't know how I can make it any clearer than not. They made the cholesterol the boogeyman and it's not. Cholesterol is not the boogeyman. The boogeyman is triglycerides and triglycerides come from sugars, okay? Repeat, repeat, repeat. I will repeat it and repeat it and repeat it. You send me your blood work. I zero in. I zero in on I want to know what your triglycerides are because I can tell you if you have insulin resistance if you got high triglycerides and low HDL. Now, there's other things, but I could tell you what the state of your liver. We talked about that yesterday. 

Neil's saying he's getting dry lips doing The Reset. Your body's adjusting, Neil. Look, a lot of things happen when you're doing the reset so just make sure you are well-hydrated. You need water, water, water. Vitamin W. Make sure. You might not be drinking enough. You might not be getting enough salt, okay? A lot of people don't realize that. You might not be getting enough salt, Himalayan salt, okay? So that could be it, Neil. Your body's adjusting give it time. 

Rakaya, "Is there benefit sitting in the sun in the colder months?" Yes. When it's sunny out guys, look, vitamin D comes in on your arms and legs mostly, okay? So if it's a sunny day and it's cold, you're not going out in your birthday suit to get vitamin D, are you? No. But the sun is still good. Why is that? Two things. One, you are elevating your melatonin. Your body makes melatonin, but it also it increases its melatonin when you get vitamin D in your eyeballs. The sun, the rays of the sun. That's why I always tell you, don't put your sunglasses on right away, unless you have to. But most people, it's because you're not used to the... A nice, bright, sunny day, enjoy, even in the winter. Get outside. Let that sun coming in your eyeballs. Every cell in your body has a receptor for vitamin D in the sun. The other thing is even when it comes on your face, you know what it's doing? It's elevating your nitric oxide, NO. NO doesn't spell no, it spells nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is going to lower your blood pressure. Why? Because it opens up your blood vessels. It relaxes your blood vessels. That's why the sun is so good, even in the winter to lower your blood pressure because you elevate your nitric oxide. 

Take vitamin D as a supplement, though, because you're never going to get enough in the wintertime unless you're in Florida, okay? Even Floridians. Oh, they make me so mad. I want to spank them. Why? Because they don't go in the sun. The sun is the boogeyman. Just like cholesterol. It's the boogeyman. Even when they get in the sun, the first thing they do is put sunscreen on. Ooh, I can't handle it. Did you ever watch Gran Torino, that movie? It's one of my favorite movies because I love Clint Eastwood. He's always doing [makes a noise]. You see him in that movie. He's an old guy and it's the funniest thing. To me, it's funny, but he's got this attitude like [makes a noise], right? That's me when I hear something stupid like cholesterol is going to kill you. [makes a noise]. Clint Eastwood. Or when I hear the sun is so bad for you, it's going to give you skin cancer [makes a noise]. That's me, okay? So wonder where I got it. I got it from Clint Eastwood. 

Okay. I'm out of time. I got a couple of more questions, but I'll add to next week, okay? I'll add them to next week. I didn't get it far enough. Guys, we love you. Don't be shy. If you're not part of the Martin Clinic Facebook group, join. The Reset, number one, selling book in Canada. Thank you guys. We appreciate you for making that happen. See, you are a little evangelists for The Reset. I love it. Thank you, okay? Thank you. We appreciate it. Don't be shy. Ask questions, okay? We love you guys and get in that private Facebook group and don't be shy, okay? We love you. 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!

Back to blog