Dr. Martin looks at the top 4 selling medications in North America. These top drugs manage the symptoms associated with high cholesterol, thyroid issues, diabetes, and high blood pressure, but often have significant side effects.
The big pharmaceuticals are often “looking for love in the wrong places.” They are looking to profit from the management of symptoms and not actually finding a cure. Oftentimes, the drug may help one thing, but cause another problem.
In today’s episode, Dr. Martin focuses specifically on the side effects of these drugs. He explains what the drugs do, and shares the side effects that need to be countered. As always, the solution boils down to the food choices we are making!
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: Good morning and welcome again to another Live this morning. Hope you're having a great start to your day. I just want to comment a little bit on an email that we put out. I think it was, yeah, it was yesterday. Top four medications, the top four sellers in North America in terms of medications. I want to focus in a little bit on their side effects. The reason I want to do that is these top four selling meds have really done or put very little dent into the conditions they're supposed to be treating. And yet they're the top four selling medications. And again, please... not telling you not to take meds. I don't do that. I want to give you information. Look at some research on these things and top side effects. Okay?
So the number one selling drug of all time is a statin drug. It's called Lipitor. And even today, there's nothing that has outpaced the sales of Lipitor in terms of revenues. Unreal. And again, based on what? Based on a premise that cholesterol is the cause of heart disease. And really, if you were to do a deduction, if statin drugs are the number one selling drugs, there should be a huge dent in heart disease. And it's been just the opposite, guys, just the opposite. So as I often say, we're looking for love in all the wrong places. It just doesn't add up, guys. It doesn't add up. They've got it wrong. They've got it wrong. They're not looking at the right thing.
They're looking at cholesterol when they should be looking at inflammation caused by insulin. The number one side effect of taking a statin drug, there's a lot of side effects, but the number one side effect is the depletion in your body of CoQ10. Now CoQ10, your body makes. Your little mitochondria, okay? Your mitochondria, remember what those are. Those are your battery packs within your cells. In your muscle cells, in your heart cells, in your brain cells or whatever you got mitochondria there. They're battery packs. They release ATP.
In order for them to work properly, to release energy, your battery packs need CoQ10. You get CoQ10 when you eat from the animal kingdom. It boosts your production of CoQ10. When you take a statin drug, you better take CoQ10 with it because you are depleting CoQ10. And the biggest effect that CoQ10 has is in the depletion of the mitochondria, especially in muscle cells. Now, the last time I checked, your heart is a muscle. Is it not? It's a pump made of muscle. There's a lot of electricity in there too. CoQ10, it's important. Cholesterol meds lower CoQ10. They affect your mitochondria. Very, very important to understand that.
So like I said, I'm going to bring you the top four. If you get our emails, we wrote about this, but this is really important. Sometimes you can take meds. You need to understand what you need to do to negate the side effects of those meds. That's numero uno, okay? The number one selling is a statin drug. I really find it frustrating that that is the case, based on a lie of cholesterol causing... Your body can't live, guys, without cholesterol. When you look at cholesterol, people think, "Oh, that's bad," but it's… You need it. Every cell in your body is made up of cholesterol. Your brain is made up of cholesterol. Your body makes cholesterol. God doesn't even trust you to eat your cholesterol. You only have to provide 15%. He provides 85% made out of your liver. You better be eating it.
I don't know if there's anything in medicine that has bothered me as much as that. And today it still goes on and on and on and on. And I tell you, if you did a survey in your hometown, go door to door, take a survey of your neighbors and your friends and go down the street. "Oh, cholesterol, yeah. I got to keep it down, right? I got to get my cholesterol down." Why? You actually want to get your cholesterol up. You want to be healthy, get HDL up. Science, guys. And I just remind you, I've been screaming for a long time about that consistently, consistently. It just wasn't right. And here we are today, the number one killer in society is heart disease and stroke. It's been an international tragedy because we have started with faulty science that cholesterol is the cause of heart disease. It is in a way, because if you have low cholesterol, you're in deep trouble.
Number two, Levothyroxine. Why do they give that? Thyroid. And again, please, if you're on these meds, I'm not telling you to come off of it. I'm just giving out some information for your benefit. Do you know what the number one side effect of thyroid medication? Extreme fatigue, extreme fatigue. That's the number one side effect of it. Well, holy moly. I thought you were taking the med? Thyroid is your gas pedal. Thyroid is your metabolism. That's why I'm taking the med. Yeah. Side effect, extreme fatigue. Now I don't know if there's been anything misdiagnosed or mistreated like the thyroid gland. It's a victim. And we've often explained whenever thyroid is involved, whenever, it's rarely and I mean 99% of the time it's never the thyroid alone. It can happen, but it's very rare. You have to look at what makes the thyroid tick. The thyroid is a victim of other hormonal issues and other factors. You have to look at that.
Ladies, the number one cause of the thyroid going wonky is estrogen dominance. Estrogen messes up the conversion of T4 to T3. You need that T3. T3 is the hormone, the little bit of hormone that the thyroid will never function properly unless T3 is right. But T3 is finicky. If you have estrogen dominance, you're too much of a woman. It'll mess up your thyroid. If you have stress, cortisol. Cortisol is... and it goes on for a period of time. You can't convert T4 to T3 properly and even that stress disrupts your estrogen/progesterone balance because cortisol needs progesterone. It'll suck it away. That'll mess up your thyroid, so you're tired all the time. Your hair's falling out. You're gaining weight. Your eyebrows are thinning. Your skin is dry. You have very little libido. You're unwell and you know it, but nobody's put their finger on it.
And you might even be on thyroid medication and you're still not feeling good. As a matter of fact, you're tired. You're drained. It's horror-mones. It's a connection. You've got to look at that. You got to look at the liver for thyroid. Why? Because that's where T4 is converted to T3, 80% of it. By the way, you need cholesterol. You know how many women never eat cholesterol because they don't eat fat? Fat makes me fat. No it doesn't. They have this idea. They eat low fat and no wonder they have no T3. You need cholesterol for your thyroid hormones. So the thyroid is a victim, guys. It's not the main cause. It isn't. It's a victim. Have to look at all of that. If you haven't got our teaching on the metabolic storm, you got to get that. Get the teaching on our thyroid. We do a teaching on it. Try and make it simple so that you understand it.
Number 3, on the hit parade of medications, Metformin. Do you know what Metformin is used for? Diabetes. If you're a pre-diabetic, sometimes the doctor will put you on Metformin. You know what the biggest side effect of Metformin is? It knocks the B12 out of your body. You are going to be low in B12. It's the number one side effect of Metformin. I mean, you can get digestive issues, a lot of other side effects, but the number one side effect is B12. Now, think about this for a minute. Metformin is to manage diabetes. Diabetes is an allergy to carbs. You have an allergy. I always used to tell my patients that. I told them the cat story. True story. Lady came in with allergies and, "Okay, what are you allergic to?" "My cat." I said, "Well, get rid of it." "I can't." I said, "How do you expect me to help you if you love your cat and you can't get rid of it and you're allergic to it?" If you have diabetes, you have an allergy to carbs. You and carbs don't get along. You might like them, but they don't like you. As a matter of fact, they hate your guts.
It's not complicated, guys. It really isn't. I have diabetes, therefore I'm going to eat what I feel like, and I'm just going to take Metformin and then eventually insulin or both. That's how the world looks at diabetes today. And diabetes, as we've mentioned a million times on this program, it's beyond an epidemic. It is at the root cause of most heart disease, most cancers, most Alzheimer's. Diabetes, because diabetes is metabolic syndrome and 88% of the population have metabolic syndrome of some form. If you're a diabetic, it's carbohydrates. I always tell my patients, don't negotiate with terrorists. Carbs are terrorists. Don't negotiate with them because a lot of them... "Oh, Doc, I like bacon and eggs, Doc, but I got to have toast." You're negotiating with terrorists. The toast are your terrorists. The toast are going to elevate your blood sugars. And you and toast don't get along. "Oh, are you sure?" Yeah. Just pretend you're eating toast until your body... You know, you form a new habit and you don't do it anymore and you won't need it anymore.
You're a diabetic and most people are diabetic. They don't know it because they wait for their doctor to tell them they're a diabetic. "Oh, you're not a diabetic. Your blood sugar... Oh no. What is your A1C? You're in the high end. What's your insulin? You have insulin resistance. You're on the Titanic." Don't be duped. The worst duped that you can be is when you dupe yourself. Don't deceive yourself. Understand and just put your hand up. My name is Tony and I'm a carbolic. It's just the way it is and you can't get help. Most people, they don't get help because they don't even admit their problems. Oh, I can eat what I feel like. No, you can't. "My uncle lived till he was 103 and he drank and he smoked and he ate whenever he wanted." Well, that was by the grace of God, I can tell you that. It wasn't by anything scientific. It wasn't by anything other than the grace of God. Okay? So don't go that. "Oh, my mother lived till she was 110." Good for your mommy. You live on a different planet than your mommy did. We live in a different world. We live in a carb infested world. With so much disinformation out there, it's incredible. And I know I'm preaching to the choir, guys. I know you get this, but I got to preach it anyway.
When I see a medication that's number 3 on the best selling list, when the only stores that were thriving in any kind of bad economy are pharmacists, the pharmacies, that bugs me, guys. It's food, it's food. You got to figure that out. You got to help yourself before you can help anybody else. And you'll never hear it, rarely hear it from a physician. "You're taking Metformin. You better be taking B12. You're not making it." "Oh, I didn't see my number." Listen. The B12 blood test should be put to bed. It's a hundred years old. Give it a birthday party and put it to bed. You're low in B12. Okay?
Number 4 on the hit parade, drugs sold in North America, high blood pressure medication, Lisinopril. Number one side effect of that is low energy and headaches and dizziness. There were three put right up at the top. And again, if you're on it, I'm not telling you to come off it. I want you to understand what it does and to mitigate the side effects. Please mitigate them. But I always look at, "Okay, high blood pressure." What is high blood pressure, by the way? What is it? What causes it? You always go to the cause. The number one cause of high blood pressure is food. It's insulin. It's not salt, it's sugar. And they vilified salt and even today, because unless the physicians are keeping up on their homework and seeing these studies that are coming out, salt doesn't elevate your blood pressure.
As a matter of fact, if you don't have enough salt, you're asking for trouble because the problem was not salt. It's sugar. We're not even making a dent in heart disease, nevermind cholesterol, but with high blood pressure. High blood pressure, the number one thing, your body is screaming at you. Hello? Listen, body. I'm talking to you. High blood pressure is a symptom. It's the body yelling. You there, please listen. Your insulin. You're eating too many carbs, especially sugars. Stop. It's affecting your kidneys. That's number one. That's number one. It's affecting your kidneys. Sugar makes your kidneys hold onto salts. It's not salt. It's kidneys holding on and then your blood vessels go into constriction. That's numero uno cause of high blood pressure.
It's amazing what happens when you change your diet. Now you can have, of course, hardening of your arteries. That can elevate your blood pressure. Your heart's got to work harder. One of the big factors is a lack of vitamin K2. K2 is essential for your body. It's the Rodney Dangerfield of vitamins. It doesn't get a lot of ink. It gets no respect because people don't understand vitamin K2. Now I don't often tell you to take it as a supplement because I would rather you eat it. But we have a whole generation, or two, that are low in vitamin K2. "Oh, darn. I can't eat butter. It's full of cholesterol. I can't have cheese. That's dairy, Doc. That's no good for me." Who told you that? You get vitamin K2 in that. God put this in nature.
Think about it. He gave you perfect foods, butter. What does that give you? Calcium. Again, I don't want people to take a calcium supplement. You're wasting your money. Supplements of calcium don't get to your bones, but in nature, butter, cheese, cheese curds, you get calcium. You need that. Not just for your bones. You need calcium for your heart. The problem is, is if you just take calcium as a supplement, it ain't going to get to where it needs to go because you were meant to eat it. And when you eat calcium and butter and cheese, especially there's some in eggs, vitamin K2, there's some in meat. It's only in the animal kingdom. It takes calcium that you're eating, the K2 in cheese and the K2 in butter takes calcium and puts it where it belongs. It doesn't belong in your bloodstream. It needs to be taken out of your bloodstream.
That is why in nature, when people tell me, "I'm a vegetarian," I get a headache. "My granddaughter is a vegan," I get a double headache. I get a migraine. They don't know what they're doing to themselves. You want to harden your arteries? Now you're going to eat calcium in vegetables and you can get calcium in that, but you're not delivering the calcium to where it belongs. It's incredible. It's incredible to me. And vitamin K2 is very important for your blood pressure because it'll take calcium out of your arteries. Calcium don't belong in your arteries. Hardening of the arteries doesn't belong there. It belongs in your bones and your teeth.
And a lot of people, they'll get the side effects when they're taking high blood pressure medication of dizziness and they get lightheaded and they get headaches. You got to get to the root causes, guys, and help yourself as much as you can, as much as you can. Anyway, there's been some really good studies and maybe we'll do that tomorrow. Again on DHA. Man, there must've been four studies this week that I flagged on DHA. Incredible, incredible. One out of Tufts University was really good. Maybe we'll talk about that tomorrow.
Oh, here's one on vitamin K2, by the way, I picked up this week. Okay? Just talking about vitamin K2. I almost missed it. The risk of cardiovascular disease is decreased in smokers. Now we all know what smoking does. Smoking ain't good. Do we all agree on that? Okay. But vitamin K2, what they've shown is vitamin K2 in smokers helps to prevent Alzheimer's, and here's the three reasons that that happened. One, it decreases neural inflammation. That's vitamin K2, guys. Now we put vitamin K2 in our vitamin D. Okay? So for those who need to supplement, it's in our vitamin D, but again, I want you to eat it. Vitamin K2 prevents Alzheimer's in smokers. Why? Because K2 lowers inflammation. K2, remember, K2 is found in the animal kingdom, not the plant kingdom. It's not in plants. It's in butter and cheese. "Well, Doc, how can I use butter if I'm not eating bread?"
Somebody asked me that. I said, "Well, put it on your steak." When I barbecue my steak, the last thing on there, I melt butter on it. We cook with butter. Add butter. Cheese. I'm so big on cheese. It's one of nature's perfect foods. People, "Oh, Doc, it's fattening." Smokers, imagine, they get the benefit of vitamin K2 and it has a real decrease in Alzheimer's for them. You see your brain, guys, your brain needs vitamin K2. One of the things that happens in your blood vessels up there, they call it small vessel disease. And that is the hardening of your little arteries in your brain and your carotid artery. You need K2. You need K2. Takes calcium and puts it where it belongs. So important. Good study. Right?
Okay? So imagine what it does for a non-smoker. That's what it does for a smoker. It helps. And you're a non-smoker. Even better. Okay? So thanks again. Now, Friday Question and Answer... private Facebook group, join it. If you're not a member. If you don't get our emails, please sign up for emails. We do a lot of teaching in the emails. You want to sign up for that. If you haven't gotten a copy of The Reset, get a copy of The Reset. Someone was asking a question this morning about the thyroid. If I got low thyroid, don't I need carbs? No, I answered that question. You don't need carbs for your thyroid. You need protein. You need fat. That's what you need. Okay. We love you guys and we 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!