It’s probably not surprising to hear that sugar is detrimental to your brain. If you’ve been listening to Dr. Martin’s podcast for any length of time, you’ve heard him say this many times.
A recent study looking at sugar intake over time is showing the enormous effect sugar has on the memory centre of the brain, the hippocampus. That’s not good, but what is encouraging… is the study was presented at the recent Alzheimer’s International Conference. Researchers are starting to see how much sugar affects our brains!
In today’s episode, Dr. Martin teaches on what happens in your body with a prolonged diet full of sugar. He also talks about dehydration and making changes to your lifestyle to include intermittent fasting. Listen in to learn more!
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 and welcome once again to the Live. Good morning to you. Couple of studies I want to bring to you this morning. Total sugar intake over time... So this is a study that according to the Alzheimer's International Conference done recently, this study was presented there. And it's interesting because what this study did is they looked at sugar intake over time, especially sugary beverages and the enormous effect that has on the memory center of the brain. And, you know, for all intensive purposes, guys, remember this... Your brain, it's got more than two, but if you know these two, you're going to note over 90% of the brain, okay? One is the memory center, the hippocampus, and the other one is your hormonal center, the hypothalamus. Okay. So hypothalamus hormones, horror-mones for most women, and hippocampus for memory. That one should be, even if you got a bad memory, should be an easy one because of the word campus in there okay? Hippocampus, the memory center of the brain.
And what this study is saying, and again, it should get a lot more ink than it gets, but the study is saying that prolonged sugar use has a very detrimental effect on the brain and especially the memory center of the brain, okay? And just a little teaching. Here's what happens in a prolonged bad diet, a prolonged diet full of sugar. And guys, if you do nothing else for yourself, if you do nothing else for yourself, if you cut out sugars... You know, The Reset is partially it, you're not going to have any sugar. You've done yourself a big favor as far as your body is concerned. And one of the reasons is that we live in a sugar saturated world. Much different when I was a kid. I mean, why is sugar so detrimental? Sugar has been around for as long as mankind has been around. Well, it's because of the amount. We had no idea.
And by the way, God didn't want you to drink sugar. If you're going to eat fruit, eat it, don't drink it, okay? Now again, in Dr. Martin's perfect smoothie, you can have a few berries, put a few berries in, especially for the kids. Don't do it when you're doing The Reset because I want absolutely no sugar. But for kids, you know, make that smoothie for them. It's tremendous nutrition for them. With cream. Don't ditch the dairy, switch the dairy. Your body needs dairy, guys. Your body needs it. So don't throw out the baby with the bath water because of the amount of sugar that's found in milk today because they take the fat out of it. So don't throw the baby out with the bath water. You need dairy. Dairy is essential for human beings and especially children as they develop. They need dairy. They need mommy's milk, but they need dairy. Don't ditch dairy. Cheese, butter. Just switch the dairy. Get them off that milk. Get them off skim milk. Get them off grocery store milk, okay?
Now back to the study. What happens when you eat sugar? Remember yesterday, we talked about the brain and it being headquarters. And we talked about water and how the brain will let the rest of your body dry up like a prune to get its water and how most people, most, are severely dehydrated. They just have no idea because they don't have a clue and their body's not giving them necessarily the clues... They're looking for thirst, or they fulfill their thirst mechanism by drinking other stuff, other fluids, when the body is screaming for water. So we covered that yesterday, but when you consume sugar, there's things that happen.
The brain says, okay, I get 25% of that. I'm the federal government. I take off the top. I get 25% of what you're eating. You're eating sugar. You're eating ice cream. You're eating cookies. You're eating cake. You're eating crappy dinner or whatever you're eating, I get 25% of that. The problem with that is when you do it once or twice, or you have a little treat and you've been generally very good, okay, you can live with that. Your insulin, it mops it up. It says to sugar, you come here. So every time you eat sugar and crappy carbs, your insulin is out to do its job big time. It has to, okay? And insulin says to sugar inside your brain, okay, come here. I need to park you. And I will park you outside of the brain. Sugar is detrimental to the brain. Isn't it amazing how your body understands that? You're fearfully and wonderfully made.
It's unreal. Automatic. Insulin goes... “come here,” or blows the whistle as a traffic cop. You're parked in the wrong place. I'm getting you out of there. Sugar is so detrimental to your bloodstream, even for your brain cells. Detrimental. The problem is when you continue... and this study is confirming, when you continue to eat sugar, insulin can't get across the blood brain barrier like it used to. The blood brain barrier stops almost to a crawl. Your insulin. And remember what insulin does. It takes sugar out of the bloodstream. And in your blood vessels, in your brain, sugar stays because insulin just can't get across the blood brain barrier. Insulin wore out its welcome and the blood brain barrier resists it. And that has a major consequence inside the brain, especially in the hippocampus, your memory center. And the folks who study Alzheimer's have figured it out.
And folks, Alzheimer's by and large is a problem with the diet. Now I've been saying that for... seems like centuries. And I don't have to tell you guys I told you so. You know me, I'm a very simple person. I look at the big picture and I go, oh, you know, we're missing out on the diet. Something we can control. Boy, there's a lot of money to be made in keeping people sick. It's unreal. And you and I are in agreement. Who on God's earth wants to get Alzheimer's? Who wants to lose their memory, for heaven's sakes? But we need to teach this to understand what insulin resistance does. This is breakthrough research.
You know what's been a colossal failure? A medication called aducanumab. Wait a minute, let me say it right. A-D-U-C-A-N-U-M-A-B. Aducanumab. Aducanumab. I can't even say it. What a colossal failure! You know what that is? That drug? Aducanumab? I can't say it fast, sorry guys. My tongue gets twisted. Anyways, if you go back to an earlier podcast, it was a medication that the FDA approved. It didn't get past the committee. 11 out of 12 people on that committee voted against it. They said, nah, it doesn't do anything, plus it's got major side effects. And it's been a colossal failure. And by the way, can I just tell you how much it costs a year? And you know what? Here is a treatment for Alzheimer's that costs $56,000 a year to put somebody on this medication. 11 out of 12 people at the FDA said no, but the FDA approved it anyways. It went against everyone except one on their committee, and they approved it. It was really a scandal that it got approved because it didn't work.
And I read the other day that the Cleveland Clinic, which is... You know, there's Cleveland Clinics in the United States all over the United States, right? They're a big chain of hospitals and clinics, the Cleveland Clinic. I have a friend of mine that is an oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Fort Lauderdale. They won't use it. They said, no, we're not using it. They weren't impressed. It's creating a little bit of a civil war in medicine. You know, FDA says use it, and clinics and hospitals like the Cleveland Clinic are saying, no, we're not using it. A little bit of a civil war there. But here's a study that comes out of a conference, a recent conference on Alzheimer's. And they're saying it's sugar, man. It's sugar. And sugary drinks are one of the worst culprits, very destructive. Don't let your kids or your grandchildren drink orange juice. Don't do it. Eat oranges. You want an apple? Eat apples. Don't drink it because your body doesn't know the difference between a Pepsi and orange juice. It doesn't. Your body wasn't meant to drink sugar like that.
Boy, our generation, my word... and my parents' generation. The average American, I think I wrote this in the book on The Reset, is drinking 50 gallons a year of soda or juice. 50 gallons of it a year on average. And then there's a lot of my grandchildren have have worked either at Tim Hortons or Starbucks. And they say, Grandpa, if you saw the amount of sugar that goes into these drinks, these coffee drinks and so-called coffee drinks, or they said, Grandpa, it's like unbelievable. I think one of them calls for about 21 teaspoons or something. I get a headache just thinking about that. I really do. You see for me, if we just fixed that. Look, you're never going to get rid of sugar. I get that. You're never going to fully get rid of it and you can tax it, you can do whatever you want, but at least educate the public so that they can see. Publish these studies and big food and big pharma, nah, no, they're not interested. There's no money in it.
Look guys, can I say something? If it's your birthday and you want to go to the Dairy Queen, go to the Dairy Queen, okay? I'm not trying to get you to leave the planet. I'm not trying to get your kids to leave the planet. I'm a grandfather. Ah, you know, I understand all these things. But it's amazing how smart kids are and if they were taught and they were made to understand, look, sugar is meant for you to have a treat once in a while, okay? But you can't live on that stuff. It's detrimental. We have the third leading cause of death in North America. Number three is Alzheimer's, and it's happening younger and younger and younger. And the answer is not in your genetics. It isn't oh, my grandmother got Alzheimer's, okay? You can override your genetics, okay? You can override your genetics because by and large... Look, there's always exceptions, guys. Please don't come back at me with exceptions because I have to do a teaching on generalities, not exceptions. But in generalities, your diet, it's what you can control. Your diet. Reading labels, looking for sugar, looking for the bad guy.
Isn't that interesting? It comes out and I got to search high and wide to find it. Then a study telling us the answers before us, what sugar does to the brain over a period of time. Now the good news is you can reverse insulin resistance even at the blood brain barrier level. You can reverse it. That is one of the reasons we did The Reset. Okay, there was another study that came out on sugar. And when I say sugar too, I mean sugar numero uno and crappy carbs, okay? Just because I put them together because crappy carbohydrates not only have bad sugars, it's going to make sugar in five seconds. Plus it's usually made with seed oils, okay? They call them vegetable oil. They're not vegetable oils by any sense of the word. They're seed oils. They're terrible, from cookies to crackers to pizza, whatever. Most of them are made, especially the store bought stuff, is made with seed oils and that is a terrible inflammatory oil.
But listen to this study too, by the way. I think you're going to find this interesting, okay? So it goes along with what we're talking about because we're talking about sugar. I really enjoyed reading this study. So you've heard of all the benefits of intermittent fasting or whatever. Intermittent fasting, guys, isn't complicated. I am sort of an intermittent fasting like person, meaning that I like intermittent fasting if you can do it, but everyone can do some form of intermittent fasting, meaning this, okay? And I'll bring this study out to you so that you understand what I'm saying. I try and get people not to eat at night. Don't eat at night. Have your supper, the earlier the better. Okay, but it may not be possible for you, but you know, a lot of people, and they're busy and whatever, and they're working and then they come home and have a big supper. Okay, but don't eat at night as much as possible. Don't eat at night. And listen to what this study is saying. When melatonin is being released, now, remember what melatonin is, okay? Melatonin is a hormone. It's not a supplement, okay? It can be.
People want to talk to me about melatonin and I go, yeah, well, your body makes melatonin in the sun. But listen to this interesting study. When your body is releasing melatonin, you capture melatonin when you're in the sun, best time, morning. Don't put the sunglasses on if you can. Try and avoid your sunglasses for at least 20 minutes or so, because a lot of melatonin is picked up by your eyeballs. You're not looking directly in the sun, but it's a sunny day. You're making, your body's making melatonin. It's a hormone. Your body makes it. But it makes a lot more when you're in the sun, okay? Now your body's taking it in and storing it to be released at night. You actually release a lot more melatonin when you're in a very, very dark room. You know what mask really works is the one you wear over your eyes at night. Dark, okay? And the invisible mask you wear when you're eating vitamin S because it's giving you vitamin A, steak, okay? That's the invisible mask. You and I know that. We've talked about that many a time. There's nothing that will protect you from a virus like vitamin D and vitamin A, which is found in vitamin S, steak. Okay? Not in carrots. Carrots are good, but not for your immune system because you need pro retinol A, vitamin A.
So when it's dark, you're releasing melatonin. Your body's smart, you know. It's getting you ready for night-night, right? So listen to this study, okay? When your body is releasing melatonin, getting you ready to go to sleep probably from 6 o'clock on. Your body's producing melatonin to put you into a sleep. Your body when you're releasing melatonin... And guys, isn't this interesting, when you're releasing melatonin, you cannot, your body cannot release the same amount of insulin. What is the significance of that? When you eat at night, especially what happens when you're eating at night? Usually, okay, not always, you're not eating protein. You're eating snacks. When you eat a snack, you need a lot of insulin to take the sugar and say, come here, out, out, out, out. Problem is, when your body is releasing melatonin, you're not releasing as much insulin. And therefore you're creating a problem inside your body when you're consuming sugar, because sugar is going to stay in that bloodstream.
Remember insulin's job. It's the traffic cop. Hey, you sugar, get out. But what if there's not enough insulin for the snack that you ate? Now you're increasing your sugars in your bloodstream, which is extremely detrimental to your body. Never mind what it does up in the brain. It's what it does to blood vessels. Very damaging very rapidly, by the way. So I've often told my patients over the years, stop eating at night. Look, you really are fasting without calling it that if you don't. You know, like I've had people with digestive issues, acid reflux, bloating, gallbladder problems. One of my solutions to fixing the gallbladder is saying, look, it's 5 o'clock, stop eating. Give your body an enormous amount of time not only to digest, but to release melatonin without the interference of insulin. Makes sense, doesn't it? It's one way to help with not only digesting, because it really does, what a difference it makes for a lot of people. Thousands over the years.
What's your secret doc? Don't eat at night. If you stop at 6 o'clock and you don't eat until eight o'clock in the morning, that's 14 hours. That really is intermittent fasting. You know, some people go to 18 hours. They feel very good. But the key is to not eat at night and try not to, if you can, try not to eat late. It's a bad habit. It's a bad habit. And I know we're watching Netflix and eating. I understand that. What's a movie without popcorn? But guys, I'm telling you, these are interesting studies, I mean, they really are. And these are tools to help you. I don't want to get Alzheimer's. You? You're with me on that? I want my memory. I really do. Oh, my aunt lived until she was 110. And how was her mind? Well, yeah, but she had a healthy body, yeah, I know, I know. If you're sharp as a tack, well, good for you. And I'm happy about that. It's sad, isn't it, when we see memory loss and we're seeing it at such a young age now. It's an epidemic, guys. It is. And because it's the number three killer and nobody's talking about it, to how to prevent it. They're trying to bring medications out and they're aiming at the wrong thing. They've been a colossal failure. Control your diet, guys. I'm just pumping your tires because you know all this.
Okay, guys, Friday Question and Answer, send in your questions. I'm going to take Thursday off, okay? I'm just telling you that ahead of time. Going to take a day off Thursday. I promised my grandsons I'm taking them to a baseball game, okay? My three youngest grandsons. It's Grandpa heaven for me. I enjoy that, okay? So that's Thursday, okay? So just remind yourself of that, okay? And if you're not a member of the Martin Clinic Facebook group, please join that group. We appreciate it big time, okay? And it's a great group. So until the next time, which will be tomorrow, Lord willing, you guys have a great day. We love you.
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!