Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners.
Some of today’s topics include:
- Electrolytes & dehydration
- Diabetes & hypertension
- Optimal iodine levels
- Difference between DHEA and DHA
- Parathyroid glands
- Digestive enzymes
- Cold water therapy
- Norwegian spruce extract
- Flaxseed & lignans
- Long-time use of SSRIs
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: Good morning. Welcome to Question and Answer Friday. Hope you're having a great day. Okay, so, Dr. Martin, here's your questions... What drinks are good for electrolytes? You know what? I think next week I'm going to do a teaching on electrolytes. You know me, I am so big on Vitamin W, water. You have no idea how over the years... I saw dehydration, chronic dehydration, in my practice. It was absolutely incredible. When I say dehydration, obviously, it's water and only water is water and most people, most people, never get the memo on drinking water. I mean it. It is right up there for your body. So I'm going to do a teaching on it next week, I have to, because I saw this on electrolytes and the importance of your salts. So we're going to talk about that. I'm going to call it, I think, the tale of two oceans, okay? I'm just teasing you a little bit, just to give you a little tease so that you tune in next week. We're going to talk about the tale of two oceans in your body, okay?
But back to the question from Deed, "What is the best electrolyte?" This is from my experience. The best electrolytes, like stay away from Gatorade, Powerade. That stuff, yes, there's electrolytes and I probably told you the story before, but I'm a storyteller, okay, that means sometimes you get repetition. My grandchildren always find me funny, "Grandpa, you told us that already." I said, "Yeah, but did you learn the lesson? I'm going to tell it to you again." But, guys, I tasted Gatorade, the original Gatorade in 1970. I know, it was a little bit later than that. Might have been '71 or '72. The original Gatorade made by the University of Florida, the Gators, for the football team. You know what, guys, can I gross you out? True Gatorade, the original, before they were bought out by... Is it Pepsi-Cola that bought them out? It tasted like urine. I remember a guy giving me a little bit of the original Gatorade. Oh, my word, it was like a salt bath. It was just horrendous stuff and you can imagine, in order to pitch this drink and I mean talk about a drink that has made, not millions of dollars, billions of dollars. I mean then Coca-Cola got involved and Coke has their Powerade, I think, and Pepsi has their Gatorade.
I mean, this stuff guys is crap. It's crap, okay? First of all, the formula has changed because there's not enough salt in it. It really isn't a great electrolyte because there's not enough salt. Like I say, I promise I will teach this next week. I will show you what I mean by that and what's important. But long story short, I find, for me, we don't get enough salt, salt's not the problem, sugar is the problem. Your kidneys go south because of sugar, not salt. The only time that you can have too much salt in your body is if you're not drinking enough water. So the volume of water is really key, but they go together and I'm a big guy on adding salt to water and the best electrolyte drink is pickle juice. In my opinion, it's the perfect Gatorade. How do you like that?
You can actually buy pickle juice in little sports containers on Amazon. I've seen it, but you don't have to do that. Just go out and buy pickles, the big... I was in Costco... Look, I dehydrate so fast I make your head spin. Everybody is different, but I'll tell you what, most people, they have no idea. Wouldn't it be nice if we had a little bit of a light like we have in our cars? Check the engine light when our water went down, when our electrolytes went down. Guys, you have no idea. It is so important to make sure you have enough electrolytes. You need salt, not table salt. That really isn't salt. That is highly refined, stripped all of its minerals. I like the sea salt, good sea salt or Himalayan salt, the pink salt, because it got 84 minerals in it and you can just put it on your tongue if you want and then drink water.
But like I say, for me, the one that I like personally and I've told hundreds and hundreds of people over the years, you get cramps or whatever... If you get any kind of cramps, guys..."Oh, Doc, I'm drinking lots of water." I know, but you're not getting enough salt. It's a balance between the two, and dehydration, guys, you have no idea. Your brain is headquarters, it needs water and it will never, never go... It will steal water from all your organs in order for the brain, but a lot of times it's cognitive. You get lightheaded, dizzy, cognitive, your memory, your brain doesn't work. It needs water plus salt, okay? So if you want to try it, do you like pickles? Pickles are good for you. Now, make sure they're not adding sugars. But, and the higher the sodium content in pickles, the better it is as an electrolyte drink.
Like I say, for me personally, I dehydrate so fast. I get up in the morning, I drink 16 ounces for you Americans, and half a liter of water for my Canadian friends. I don't even start my day without that. All I can think of is coffee, but what I'm doing, I discipline myself. The Apostle Paul says, "I beat my body into submission." I submit to drinking water before I drink coffee. You know what, guys? It's just a good habit. You get into habit. You have no idea how many men I saw over the years in my office. I would tell him, I said, "Well, I just checked your viscosity of your blood," which means the thickness of your blood and I said, "You got blood like molasses. Molasses. You're going to have a heart attack or stroke." "Yeah, but, Doc..." And men, this is men mostly, "I don't like water. How about juice?" No. "How about tea?" No. "How about coffee?" No. You can have coffee, you can have tea, you can't have juice, but that's not water.
I had to convince thousands over the years to form a new habit. Takes three weeks. Remember, 21 days. I said, "Once you start drinking water, in three weeks, you'll never stop." Not easy. "I don't like the taste of water." You'll get used to it. Now, like I love water. I love water. I do. I love coffee more, of course, but I love water. It's amazing to me, even in this day and age for me, I often, "You know what I'm missing out on? I need another half liter." So, in my opinion, the best is pickle juice. Just eating the pickles won't do it for you, although pickles, because they got vinegar, are very good for your digestive tract, okay? I like it. Okay, thanks, Deed, we appreciate it.
Mimi, "Does diabetes go hand in hand with hypertension and heart disease?" Well, yes, yes and yes. Reverse engineer any condition. My training in functional medicine, natural medicine, was always to go backwards. You got this condition, why? That was me. Not, "Let's fix this condition," although that was part of it, of course, but, for me, I want to know why. So, Mimi, when we reverse engineer, you got high blood pressure. You have to understand from all my years of experience, why do you have high blood pressure? "My mommy had high blood pressure. I guess I'm just like my mom." Yeah, yeah, yeah, a little bit of that, yup. There's always some genetics involved, of course. But you can always override genetics, always can override genetics, with lifestyle changes.
So high blood pressure, hypertension, what's the root cause of that? Well, right out of the gate, we just talked about it. You could be dehydrated. I'm seeing people with high blood pressure, they just don't drink water and then, of course, they're on meds. Their high blood pressure is regulated with meds, but they got all these other side effects including dehydration. You know how hard that is on your kidneys? But, generally, when you are eating sugars, you're a carboholic, the first thing that gets affected, I've taught you this in the past, the first thing that gets affected when you have a high carbohydrate diet, high sugar diet, is what we call angiotensin. What is that? Your blood vessels, the first thing that happens is inside the blood vessels because you've got too much sugar in your blood vessel.
Now, I know the insulin comes and grabs that, but there's an inflammation process that takes place and it starts to affect your blood vessels. Starts with the capillaries, eyes, kidneys, lungs. You can get high blood pressure, not just a symptom, it's your body's saying, "Hello," and thousands of people have done this. They did The Reset. They changed their diet, and you know what? Their blood pressure got better because you lowered insulin. Your sugars were down. So diabetes, a lot of people are diabetic and they don't know it. I got to do a teaching on this again, too, because I think it's just so important that people's diabetes is manifested in other ways. Blood pressure, acid reflux. Oh, I'm not a diabetic, but, ugh, I mean everything I eat, doc, you wouldn't believe the acid and if I don't take Tums or Prevacid or if I don't take an antacid, you have no idea what I suffer. Yeah, but it's your body telling you, you're really a diabetic, without the blood sugar being up here.
Remember, what I've said about that? Blood sugar is a lagging indicator. It's one of the last things that happens because your body is so unbelievably, fearfully, and wonderfully made, your body does everything it can to keep your blood sugars within these ranges. So when you show me your blood sugar, you can show it to me. Not as interested in them. I like your A1c more because that's a better indicator. What is that? That's an average. Remember, your red blood cells have hemoglobin in the middle of them. What's hemoglobin? It's a sticky substance, and every time you breathe, your red blood cells go by your lungs and they pick up oxygen, like Velcro. But you know what else red blood cells, the hemoglobin, sticks to? The Velcro sticks to? Sugar.
So you can actually measure that in the life of a red blood cell. I like that number better because it gives me a better idea, but I don't even rely on that. I often know because insulin resistance is the first thing to happen. Your cells can't stand the sight of insulin and they coat themselves to... "Yeah, insulin, why? You always harangue me? Will you get lost?" But insulin will do its job until it can't. See, diabetes is way ahead of time, guys, true diabetes. But a lot of times your body is giving you clues. I know I've done that so many times, but I I'm telling you, Lord willing, like as long as I do this program, I'm going to talk to you about insulin because it's a food hormone and a lot of people have what I could call a hidden diabetes. You have fatty liver, you have diabetes. You got A1c that's around 5.3, 5.4, even little bit lower than that, according to the new research, you really are a diabetic. "Yeah, but now my doctor..." I don't care what your doctor says. Okay? Good question.
Joanne, "A friend has Wegener's." I don't even think they call it anymore. I thought it was granulomatosis or... big words. This is a rare condition that can affect... it's like a vasculitis... It's a chronic... I believe it's all started with leaky gut, by the way. It's an autoimmune disease. So Joanne, if you're a friend, is there anything you could do? Well, listen, I mean, this is a very serious, rare disorder, but I would unpack it. If your friend is willing to do it, start with The Reset. Get on probiotics, like just do it and change your diet. Sometimes, it's amazing what happens when you flip out inflammatory foods like sugars and carbohydrates. So, again, you can bring a horse to water, Joanne, you might not be able to make them drink it. But if I was them, I'd be on that Reset big time. 30 days, they even feel some improvement in 30 days with this condition, you know you're on the right track.
Lynn, "Wondering your thoughts, Dr. Martin, on an article, four more cups of coffee, lowering your plasma concentration of circulating B vitamins." If you think, Lynn, you are going to get me to say anything negative about coffee, I'm sorry, I won't do it. I won't do it. My wife says, "You won't even read a study that's negative on coffee." True. There's nothing negative, Lynn, on coffee. There was a study out yesterday, let me see if I can find it quickly because another study on Vitamin C, coffee, okay? Because it's always good. Coffee, another vitamin C study. Here it is, Lynn. Listen, Lynn, don't you believe it, on coffee. Three to five cups a day... Okay, this is a study on Alzheimer's and Vitamin C, coffee. Lynn, don't you worry about your B vitamins. Eat your steak and drink coffee and you'll get all the B vitamins you need. All the B vitamins are in steak, all of them, and drink coffee. This one says 3 to 5 cups a day decreases your risk of Alzheimer's. Well, woopie-doopie. See? Lynn, I don't bite. I can't go against coffee. I just can't. It's too good for you.
Okay, Wendy, "Optimal levels of iodine." Well, everybody is different. But, listen, your thyroid don't work without iodine. Your thyroid don't work without selenium. Now, if your thyroid is wonky at all, then I recommend you get on our thyroid support because you can get it from kelp, seaweed and this and that, you can get iodine. But it ain't in the soil anymore. There's big problems in North America with the way we fertilize, and soil erosion, and all this and that, and the pesticides and the herbicides. There's very little iodine left in the soil. So if you got any trouble at all with your thyroid, we have in the Thyroid Formula, the best combination for that, in iodine and selenium and several other things, okay? But if you want good thyroid health, I mean, look, guys, again, I'm going to tell you: eggs, meat, and cheese. That's how you get selenium. It's found in the animal kingdom, not in the plants, and sea vegetables will have good sources of iodine, okay? But if you have trouble with thyroid and this is not just for maintenance, but your thyroid is wonky, could be a lot of reasons for that, too, then I recommend the supplements.
Phyllis, "What is the difference between..." This is a good question... "What is the difference between DHEA and DHA?" Okay, that's a big difference. Well, DHA, Phyllis, and somebody asked another question about DHA... Debra, “How much DHA oil does Dr. Martin take a day?” But DHA, remember we talked this yesterday, DHA is long chain fatty acids. It's a fat and it's the best because it's long chain. Your brain is made up of DHA. Now, DHEA is different because that is produced by your adrenal glands, and a lot of people, when their adrenals are exhausted, they're stressed for a long period of time... Natural practitioners, some doctors, but mostly natural practitioners, would often give DHEA, okay? Your body already makes that, but in exhaustion, sometimes you get low in it. I'm not big on DHEA like in terms of a supplement. I've used it in the past. I never found it to be that great on its own. I never did. Like, use our Cortisol Formula. So you got the difference now? One is actually what your body produces, DHEA, and if you get exhausted, whatever, and high stressed for a long period of time, you can be low in it. The other DHA is an oil, when you eat steak, when you eat fish, DHA.
And how many grams do I take? I do a therapeutic dose every day because I'm very big on prevention. I want to protect my brain so I take therapeutic doses. What do I mean by that? I take 6 grams. If you look at our high DHA, in two capsules you get about three grams, okay? Just about it. So I take four of those capsules every day. Now, if you've had a concussion, I recommend about 10 of those a day for a couple of weeks. The studies are clear. There's no oil like DHA oil. EPA is good. Remember, I taught this yesterday. ALA is good. Those are all good. EPA is good. ALA is good. CLA, don't ditch the dairy. You need CLA. It's a tremendous fatty acid, but the king of the castle is DHA.
So when you go to the store and you read a label on an omega-3, because remember, it's the umbrella is it's an omega-3. Is omega-3 good? 100% good for you. I love omega-3, but specifically the DHA. When you look at a product, see how much DHA oil there is in there. It has to put it on the label, guys. Read your label. I know a lot of it looks like Greek to you. Labels can be, "Oh, what's that mean?" But, like I said, just learn to look at the label and then you'll see what you're getting, and DHA is the one that is the best for your brain. It is the one that is the best for your heart. It is the one that is the best for inflammation. It's DHA. I've taught that for years and years and years and years and years and I'm sticking to it because therapeutically I've seen it. I taught you yesterday that DHA will elevate your good... all cholesterol is good... but what the world calls good cholesterol, HDL. It's like a drug, guys. It's unreal how good it is. No side effects. Slide out of rooms because you're so slippery. Oil. Oil. You need fat. Your brain needs fat and that's the best fat, okay?
So let me get back to questions here. Charlene asking, "Why the body produces high calcium?" Well, usually, usually it's not because your vitamin D is high, by the way, because that's what most doctors will tell you. When you're producing too much calcium in your blood it's not because you're eating too much calcium. It's usually because of your parathyroid glands, okay? See what I'm pointing to? My thyroid, and then you have tiny little parathyroid. They help to regulate your calcium inside your body. Those can be wonky. That can be a problem, parathyroid. What do you do if your calcium is high? You need vitamin K1 or 2? I'm asking. I want you to think. You need Vitamin K2. Vitamin K2 takes calcium out of your bloodstream and puts it where it belongs, okay? Another traffic cop like insulin. It says, "You, Calcium, come here. You don't belong in blood because you're going to harden arteries." Not good. Calcium belongs in your teeth and in your bones and your body needs calcium, there's no doubt about that. But eat your calcium the way God wanted you to eat it: in cheese and butter, because that's how you get calcium with vitamin K2. We put K2 inside of our vitamin D to take calcium and put it where it belongs, okay? Good question.
Jared T, "Is there anything else to support gut health other than probiotics, collagen?" I like that. "Bone broth, oregano." Yes. I mean the one thing that I would add to taking care of digestive health is digestive enzymes. Listen, I used to call them American Express. Remember the old commercials? Don't leave home without it. Don't leave home without your American Express card. I used to say it, I probably haven't said it as much lately in the last few years because that commercial, you don't even see it anymore. But I used to call digestive enzymes American Express. Don't leave home without them. Digestive enzymes are just good for you because they help to break food down. They're very good for leaky gut, okay? Of course, I love our Digestive Enzyme because we make them, even with oil of oregano, we put in everything there to get rid of SIFO, to get rid of the bad bacteria and fungus. But I love digestive enzymes, okay? That's why pickles are good, by the way. They act like an enzyme. The vinegar in there. They help with your pH in your stomach, okay?
Paul, "Can I get vitamin D through the window on a sunny day or winter day?" Nope, you can't. So on a sunny day, if you put your arm outside the window, you'll get some VitDerma. The sun has to hit your skin and not through a window. Now, I'll tell you one thing that you do get, you get some production of melatonin on a sunny day, even inside if you're looking outside. You get a little bit because your eyeballs are picking that up and they actually help you to make melatonin. That's why you always feel better on a sunny day. True or false? "Oh, I don't like the sun." Okay. I know, but I don't say the word weird anymore, I say you're unique. I have to be woke. I don't want to insult people.
The sun, VitDerma, did you get your boost today? Oh, what if the sun's not out? Okay, well, wait till tomorrow. When it comes out, get out. But in the wintertime, no, that's why I'm big on the supplement of vitamin D when you don't see the sun. If you have high levels of vitamin D, by the way, now some people get that. That's kidney... that could be your liver. It's gummed up. It's not because you're taking too much vitamin... I don't want to get into that too much, but get in the sun because when you get in the sun, your body never allows more vitamin D made from the sun ever. Your body knows how to 100% regulate that. No sunscreen, because you don't get vitamin D through sunscreen. Ooh, wasn't I right about sunscreen? They're starting to pull all of them off the shelves. There'd been a huge recall. They're cancer producing. Ooh.
Anyway, Debbie, “What's Dr. Martin's opinion on having a cold shower?” Ooh, well, let me finish the question. "Or jumping into cold water for your metabolism for burning brown fat?" Well, let me just tell you this, okay, Deb, and you know me, I'm a joker. But why would you want to do that to yourself? No. Okay. No, I mean, I think there is some benefits to cold water therapy. There is. It does seem to help your metabolism. But listen, no amount of cold showers or jumping into a freezing lake, you're never going to have a cold shower and outdo a bad diet. There's so much stuff on the internet on how to lose weight. Just drink cold water. If you drink cold water... By the way, I like cold water. I like cold water better than hot water. Some people like hot water. They pretend they're drinking a tea and they boil their water. I don't care. Drink water. But cold, yeah, they're seeing probably a little bit of benefit there, but, nah, not for weight loss, okay? Not for weight loss.
There's only one way to fix weight and that's to change your fuel, and I don't mean to be facetious and I don't mean to joke in a sense that... Debbie, I appreciate the question, so please, I mean that. Like I like to tease a little bit, okay? So you got to understand me. It's who I am. I don't know if it's because we had 11 kids in our family. I love teasing. I got teased a lot when I was a kid. My older brothers, oh, man, they were brutal. And I got sisters. My word, I love my sisters, but, boy oh boy, you better have a thick skin around those girls and I learned to dish it out, too. Anyway, it's a good question. It really is. I don't mind you asking because there's so much nonsense on the internet. I mean, there's a lot of good stuff, and don't throw the baby out with the bath water. I want you guys investigating these things, okay? I do. I like it.
"What are your thoughts," Carol, "on thyroid diagnosis and getting off medica...?" Well, look, getting off medication, never get off any medication. Any medication, don't get off of it until you have done The Reset. Even then, you'll never hear me say, "Well, get off your meds." Between you and your doctor, if you're feeling great; the meds were never meant to be and forever although now they do. They put you on it, that's all... Just forget it. Fix your hormones. Fix them and see what happens.
Deidre, "What are your thoughts on Norwegian spruce extract?" Well, to be honest, it says it has lignans. Well, good for Norwegian spruce extract. I've never specifically never used it and you know me on pine bark, there's nothing better and there's nothing that's been more researched. I don't think there's a natural product that's been more researched than pine bark extract, as far as I know. I mean hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of studies, even more than curcumin and things like that. Pine bark. But, hey, maybe very good. I have no real experience with it to tell you. Here's what I know about lignans: flaxseeds. There's nothing in nature that has more lignans than flaxseeds, so that's why I separate the flaxseed from all other seeds. There's a reason to my madness. It's because when I say that nobody's paying me any money to talk about flaxseeds. Some people think, "Geez, he must be selling them." No, I'm not. I just like them because I know what they're made of and they have 100 times more lignans than anything else that I know of. There may be some lignans in Norwegian spruce extract, but I don't think they match up to flaxseeds. Somebody, yesterday, because I came on afterwards and they asked, "Well, flaxseeds, do you need to grind them up?" Well, your stomach will grind them up. Listen, you got diverticulosis or whatever, you better grind them up to a powder because you don't want those seeds at all irritating. But usually just a spoonful or whatever, tablespoonful. For women, ladies, it blocks estrogen in breast cancer. Lignans, okay?
Two more. Becky, "Can low vitamin A cause dizziness, lightheadedness?" Maybe. Usually, when you're low in vitamin A, the thing you'll notice, you're always getting infections. You got no immune system. Remember, vitamin A is the invisible mask and vitamin A is not found in the plant kingdom. So when you eat carrots, you're getting a precursor to vitamin A, but you're not getting vitamin A. Vitamin A is found in eggs, meat, and cheese in your diet, and steak is very high in vitamin A. So is fish. Now, the main symptom would be night blindness. You drive at night and eehh... You're low in vitamin A, okay? It's usually your eyes that will tell you first. Vitamin A, like you just don't hear much about it, do you? Through this whole virus thing, we should have been hearing lots about vitamin A, but we didn't. There's no money in it. Follow the money. There's no money in it. Nobody making money on vitamin A, and I want you to eat your vitamin A. The odd time I'll give a person a supplement of vitamin A, I usually do it in my blood boost because it's got good levels of vitamin A, but you can eat your vitamin A. There's some vitamins I want you to eat; some I want you to drink, vitamin C, your coffee.
Okay, and one more: "Can taking SSRIs," which are medications for depression, "can it affect your liver, thyroid, and weight?" Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Remember, and I did some teaching, I think it was even this week on SSRIs. Again, the take home point for that was they were never created... Prozac was never created to go long term. It wasn't. When they introduced it to the FDA, they had a warning on the label: "This is meant to be temporary. Don't use past six months." Now, people have been on them for 25 years. It wasn't meant to be that. Thyroid's involved sometimes; leaky gut, absolutely. Leaky gut is at the bottom of it a lot of times and we've talked about your diet and flipping that around.
Okay, guys, we’re way over time today, but I answered all the questions that I had. So thank you very much, guys, we really appreciate it. Share this and tell your friends because a lot of times they can't come on live with us, right? They can't. You can share it on Facebook. But you can tell them about our podcast, The Doctor Is In Podcast, that they can get on their smartphone. They can sign up for it, The Doctor Is In Podcast. You can sign up at the martinclinic.com or on your favorite device. Just get it sent to your device and then you get tired of me, listening, okay? No, but guys, we appreciate you. We love you guys. You guys have a great day and 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!