When Dr. Martin used to see patients in his office, he’d first use his eyes to observe, then he’d ask a lot of questions. He’d do this to understand a person’s story as to how they ended up where they are today.
A recent study out of the University of Cambridge is showing that the risk of developing psychosis, meaning, mental health issues later in life, often was associated with food in early life. Basically, what kids eat when they're kids is going to affect their mental health as they get older.
Join Dr. Martin in today’s episode where he shares his logic when it comes to dealing with health issues. From using the power of observation, to asking the right questions, his quest is to teach people to think for themselves.
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. Hope you're having a great start to your day. Okay, I've got a couple of studies that I'm going to bring to you this week, I think you'll find them interesting. I was thinking about this yesterday. I want you guys to know where I come from a lot of times. I think I've said this to you in the past, I am an observation guy. I was a guy that when you came into my office, I used my eyeballs, first of all, but I was always a guy asking questions, okay? So, in my mind, and I might not have expressed this always, but today, I just want to get you to think, when something happens or you see something, medically, I'm talking about, there's always a story behind that, right? There's always a story behind that. For example, when I see depression in a person, a person has been diagnosed with depression, it's clinical, in my mind, I go backwards.
I'm a guy that likes to look at the root cause, okay? Look, sometimes it's not as simple as one thing, but in my mind, I always try and figure out, "Okay, there's a root cause." And in my background, of course, nutritionally, I look at root causes coming from physiology rather than psychology, okay? Not that there's not stress and trauma and a lot of those things that make up, for example, one of the studies that came out, and this is why I wanted to talk about it, is the study that came out about high insulin in children. It's amazing to me that even a few years ago, very few doctors talked about insulin other than in medication. But they weren't talking about insulin resistance, I mean, some of them were, but very few.
You'll have to understand my background in nutrition. I studied Atkins in the 1970s, like that goes back a long time. And Atkins, who was a cardiologist, was an insulin guy. Not so much blood sugar, although that was certainly part of it, but he was interested in insulin because Atkins figured out that when you lowered insulin, you got a lot of good results. I mean, his primarily was weight loss, but I mean, this guy was no dummy, he was a cardiologist. He realized blood pressure and things like that all went down, was it the weight loss or was it the lowering of insulin? Lowering of insulin. So, I always ask questions, okay? That is how my mind works. I go back and I look at people. And so, this high insulin levels during childhood, here's the study that came from the University of Cambridge and was published in JAMA, which is the Journal of American Medical Association Psychiatry, in this psychiatry, so Dr. McEwen, you'd be interested in this. This study looked at high insulin levels in children, and they've been able to follow it for several years, and you know what they found out? That the risk of developing psychosis, meaning, mental health issues later in life, often was associated with food in early life.
Insulin, guys, is a food hormone. You don't have to worry about insulin if you're not eating, it's just as simple as that. I've taught you and you guys know this, that if you change your eating habits, the number one thing you will do is fix insulin resistance. Fix it. Health-wise, it is the best, best, best thing you can do for yourself, and you know me, I always aim at you or me. When I point a finger at someone, I find that I got at least three fingers pointed at myself. "Tony, don't try and fool anyone, especially don't try and fool yourself. Before you fix anyone else, you got to fix you. You got to practice what you preach." And I know that I'm preaching this morning to a very well-educated choir. But I always take note of new people on with us on a daily basis. The audience that we have is growing, growing, growing, we love that, and our audience for the Live Facebook is growing unbelievably and for our podcast. We appreciate that.
But I want to tell you that science is finally catching up to the importance of food. Has nothing to do with a balanced diet, you really want an unbalanced diet, in this day and age, you want an unbalanced diet. But isn't it interesting that the Journal of American Medical Association, their psychiatric journal has said, "What kids eat when they're kids is going to affect their mental health as they get older." So, it's always a question for me. In my days of practicing, when I had a child in my office, I just found it very uncomplicating. Just for me, I found that I could get a child on the right path very quickly if I could get their attention and mommy's attention, mommy and daddy's attention to their diet.
Primarily, when I used to test for insulin resistance, anytime that just generally I had a child with ADD or ADHD in autistic children, what I found was that they had... I can hardly think of an exception, they had enormous amount of insulin resistance or high-circulating insulin at a very young age. For some, it's more of the canary in the coal mine and some children are more fragile, and for whatever reason, sugar affects them much more than other kids, but at the end of the day, sugar affects everyone. It's never, ever positive, really isn't. I understand. I'm not saying that a child is never going to have sugar. I never make that my goal, by the way, I never make that my goal.
When I used to treat children, I would give them lesson 101 in nutrition. And by and large, I found children to be very intelligent, the children are smart, they really are. When they're in trouble mentally or even physically as children, they get it, they're not stupid, they're very smart. I would give them a little lesson and I would tell them, "Look, don't compare yourself to Susie or Joey down the street. This is for you, and I want you to understand that your medication is food." "Okay." "No really, it's food. So, you have to understand that when you don't eat the right thing, or you put the wrong thing in your mouth, it is going to negatively affect you." And they got it. I said, "Look, I'm not telling you, you can never have another piece of cake. I'm not telling you, you can never have ice cream, but I'm telling you that when you eat those things, you will not do well right on the spot, and then down the road, this is really going to be destructive for you." The idea is to form another habit and that is eating well.
I would get children and say, "You see, in the morning, I want you to start your day not with cereal." They look at me like, "You mean this, don't you, doc?" I said, "I mean it. I don't want you to start your day with cereal. I want you to start your day with protein." I said, "I'm going to teach you what protein is, protein and healthy fat." I said, "If you get this…” 5-year-old, 6-year-old, 7-year-old, 8-year-old, whatever, “...if you get this, it'll save your bacon," and I meant that literally, "It'll save your bacon. Got it?" "Okay." "You like bacon?" "Oh, I love bacon, doc." I said, "Well, have that in the morning." "You like sausages?" "Oh, I love sausages." "Okay, well have that in the morning." Start your day the right way, because mentally, if you don't, you're going to be bouncing off the walls or whatever.
Do you know how many children I saw in my office, and I used to scream inside. I would never scream at a child. I would scream inside, "Hey, this kid's got fatty liver already. Their liver enzymes were elevated already. You're on the road to diabetes." But they don't understand that, but they understand this. I said, "Do you want to be healthy? You want your mind to work properly? You want to get out of trouble when you go to school?" "Yeah." "Are you tired of not being able to focus? Are you tired of being wound up all the time?" "Yeah." "Well, this is going to fix it," and I would show them or at least teach them that this is a lifestyle, this is forever.
Now, you'd be surprised how many people come up to me even in my hometown, in the grocery store, well, not so much in the last year and a half, they can't recognize me with my mask on, but in the old days, before masks, "Dr. Martin." First of all, they'll be looking at my grocery cart to see if I'm practicing what I preached, okay? And of course, I didn't recognize them, they were probably 5, 6, 7, or 8 years old or whatever into my office and now they're 20 or 18 or whatever, and they said, "Dr. Martin," I said, "Hi, how are you?" "You know what, I am eating really good because you taught me how to eat." I said, "Well, I don't remember, but good for you." And I would give them the high five right in the grocery store. Yeah, you see, they got it. They learned a lifelong lesson in discipline, in self-discipline. There is nothing worthwhile, guys, in life that comes easy, there's nothing. You don't form a good habit easily. It's not easy, but it's worth it.
You look down the road and that's why I get people to look down in the future. I said, "You can't control everything, you're not going to control everything in your life. But I'm going to tell you, this will turn your life around, if you are an addict, you're a carboholic or if you have fatty liver, if you have high triglycerides or a very low HDL, if you have metabolic syndrome, if you have belly fat, if you have kidney problems, if you have high pressure, if you are depressed, you have a tendency to get depressed." I was looking, I think it was yesterday, drove by... They’re building, a new building down the street, and you start with the foundation on the building. You don't start with the roof, right, the roof is the last thing they put on. You start with the foundation and this is sets you up. I'm a big guy on giving recipes for success, not failure.
And this is why, when I look at someone, for example, here's a question that I don't ask, so if I see someone that's obese, I don't in my head say, "Well, they need to eat less and exercise more." That my friend is a recipe for failure, it's a recipe. I would never send a patient out of my office with a plan to eat less and exercise more. Guys, we've been trying that for 50 or 60 years now, talk about a failed experiment, okay? And God love Weight Watchers, and all of those things, look, if you want to go spend your money, go spend your money, I'm not going to tell you not to do it, but it's yo-yo, it's yo-yo, you ever seen a yo-yo, up and down and up and down, okay? My uncle, true story, my Uncle Jack passed away when he was way too young, married to my mother's sister, was the Canadian, so back in the 1950s, was the Canadian yo-yo champion.
Man, oh man, when he'd come and our friend from Pembroke, my mother came from the Ottawa Valley there, from a little town in the Renfrew area in that, but this guy, when he'd come up with his big family to see us and he would teach us walk the dog tricks, he could walk that yo-yo for 10 minutes without stopping, like it was unbelievable. I never seen anything like it, I was fascinated by that. But you know what yo-yo dieting is? Up and down and up and down. So, for me, I never would tell anyone to eat less, never, or have less calories, that'll help. And if you do that with kids, you might as well give them a complete recipe for failure. It doesn't work. It might work temporarily, but you're not fixing everything. Calories mean nothing, nothing. Don't count calories. You need to change fuels, that's the key. The key is to change fuels. When you do that, your body will thrive and there's no exceptions to that, none.
People ask me, "Well, doc, what about this and what about that? What about this and what about that?" I get asked every day and that's all right, I don't mind you asking, but I'm like a one-trick pony. Why would I recommend something that doesn't work? I won't do it. You want to do it? Hey, you live in a free society, go for it. But the key in your health starts with food. Kids must change fuel. They must change fuels. It's going from eating crappy carbohydrates, bread, pasta, rice, cereal, sugars, sweets, pastries, milk, juice, what they're drinking, now they must understand you're changing fuels. You're going to the gas station and you're no longer putting 87 octane in your gas tank, okay? You're putting jet fuel, a very high octane. That's the key guys. It is the key.
You have to understand when I speak to you day in and day out about food. I don't care if it's clinically there's depression, there is anxiety, there are hormonal problems, because when I see for an example... I talked to you about an obese kid, but if I see an obese, obesity in a woman, I'm not thinking, "Well, you know what, she needs to eat less and exercise more." Most women, most women, that's not their issue. They've done that, been there, done that, eat less, exercise more. They even got the t-shirt. It don't work. It's yo-yo dieting. Put an end to it, put an end to it. Get your kids as much as you can and your grandchildren as much as you can, teach them you're changing fuels. You're going to give your body everything it needs, and every little cell in your body is going to tell you how much they'd like that new fuel. Got it? Do you got that?
Guys, that is a teaching. You have to understand, okay? You name it, I studied it just about when it comes to nutrition. I've studied all of it, from veganism which is thrown at me a thousand times a year, vegetarianism thrown at me a thousand times a year. It's indoctrination, indoctrination, and cholesterol is bad and this is bad and don't eat meat, and if you do, it's got to be lean, and all this and that. I get that thrown at me all the time. Even studies, you got to filter through studies because what's happened is a lot of sponsorship is behind studies. A lot of sponsorships is behind these studies. The food industry is massive. It is powerful. And there's nothing more powerful when the food industry locks in with the pharmaceutical industry and big tech social media. The three amigos run the world, from Kraft to Coca-Cola to Pepsi Cola to Unilever, and you name it, General Foods, Kellogg's. There's about seven or eight of them left and they are conglomerates, and they push the narrative and it's hard to get people to see past that.
Guys, it's a narrative, it is indoctrination, and they hook up with the pharmaceutical industry. Do you think, think about this just for a sec, do you think the pharmaceutical industry, and please, I know they do some great things, I do, I don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water when I talk to you like this, don't throw it all out, I'm not talking about that, but when the number one selling medication of all time is a medication called Lipitor, it's not science, because if it was, we would have eradicated cardiovascular disease, but it's worse than ever. Because the answer is in fuel, it's in food. It's not in a medication, and I'm not saying you don't need medication, I'm saying that if you want to manage things, okay, you can manage things, but if you want to be healthy, you need to start with your diet, and it's nothing, nothing to do with calories. It has nothing to do with eating less.
Now look, I like intermittent fasting, okay, but that's temporary. That's all right, I don't mind that. But intermittent fasting is not going to save your bacon if you're a bad eater, it will not. I don't care what anybody said, that's not true, that is not a true statement. You have to do things in order. The first thing that needs to happen in you, in your children, in your grandchildren, is fix the fuel. That almost sounds like another book. Fix the fuel. You must fix the fuel. I like that, it's very catchy. Fix the fuel. It's the key. It's a key that unlocks success. It's the key. Not easy, it's simple, but it's not easy. You know my statement on that, I didn't say it was easy. We are surrounded by those big three that want you to fail. They really do, they want you to fail, okay? Now, I don't like to read into people's minds and figure out their motives, but they're in business. Their business is your failure, yeah? Their business is your failure.
So, let me finish off with this because somebody yesterday was coming at me. Generally 99%... I don't mind questions, I mean it, as a matter of fact, I invite questions, I do. But this guy was saying, "Well, doc, you got to prove it to me." I don't know if anyone's any more visible than me. I mean, I do show every day, five days a week. All of our material is on our webpage, martinclinic.com. We put all our teaching out there. Our podcasts are number one in Canada in the health field, and so is Facebook by the way, numero uno in Canada. So, what do I got to prove? What do I got to prove to you? Go on the private Facebook group in Martin Clinic and see the results when people change fuels. Anywho repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. There'll always be repetition like Ecclesiastes, there's nothing new under the sun, but there is new stuff, right? We learn every day, every day. Guys, again, have I told you lately that I love you? That's a song, isn't it? Okay, seriously guys, we do. If you haven't picked up a copy of our book, The Reset, do so and your friend and your family, makes a wonderful gift. We appreciate it, and we appreciate you very much. So, thanks for putting up with these shenanigans and Lord willing, we'll be back tomorrow. Love you guys, 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!