You may have heard of the pancreas but are unsure of what it actually does. In today’s episode, Dr. Martin teaches about the pancreas and talks about pancreatic cancer, one of the most prevalent and deadly cancers today.
Our healthcare system is all about early detection and not about prevention. Dr. Martin teaches prevention because he doesn’t want you to get sick in the first place. He wants you to change your fuel and stop feeding your body sugars and crappy carbs.
The number one reason we’re seeing so much pancreatic cancer is because of sugar, says Dr. Martin. Listen to today’s episode to learn what sugar does to the pancreas.
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. Guys, I want to talk to you about pancreatic cancer this morning. The reason I do that is because the latest statistics out of 2018... So this is 3 years ago, but they actually just published this. The pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly cancers. We'll explain why in a minute. We'll explain not only why it is so deadly, but we'll explain why it is so prevalent. And this is what this study was saying, that... there was over 500,000 new cases of pancreatic cancer in the USA alone in 2018. It is one of the most deadly cancers. And it's a terrible thing. I mean, it really is. I don't know if you've ever known anybody that's had pancreatic cancer. The chances of any kind of recovery from that are almost nil.
Now let me explain the pancreas. Remember, I mentioned this yesterday. The pancreas is a size of a ballpoint pen. Okay? So you see this pen, it's just about the exact size of your pancreas. And your pancreas, guys... So, okay. Let me just see if I can get a picture of it here. I do have one. So I'm just pulling out... For those who are listening on a podcast later, of course, you won't see this, but I'm pointing out the pancreas here on Facebook Live, and you can see the stomach here. And the pancreas just about covers the entire bottom of the stomach. Okay? And so the problem with the pancreatic cancers and what makes it so deadly is that it's usually never detected until it's too late until it's rapidly advanced and with very few symptoms. Although I'm going to talk to you today a little bit about what some of the symptoms, early symptoms of it, and you should be concerned about it, and then we'll talk about how to prevent it.
So your pancreas... You sort of have what they call an endocrine part of it and an exocrine part of it. So your pancreas does two main things. One, it releases enzymes through the ducts. So if you see this again, I'm just going to show the chart of diseases of the digestive system. I actually got this in the 1970s. I still kept it because I still like it. This Atlas here, but the problem… Most cancers of the pancreas occur in this area here just underneath the stomach where the ducts are, because what's happening is that the pancreas, one of its jobs is to release enzymes to facilitate digestion, pancreatic enzymes, and they're sent into the small intestine.
So again, picture small intestine here and from the stomach here, and the pancreas releases, through the duct system, enzymes into that area in the small intestine... Because in the small intestine, which isn't that small by the way, but it's wide. It's wider than the large intestine because the breakdown of food, of course, starts right in the mouth, but then into the stomach. You need a very acidic pH. You're breaking down food. It's turned into a mulch in your stomach. And that liquid is sent into the small intestine. And the small intestine is where your absorption, because of these enzymes coming into the small intestine, they're like, Pac-Man. They break down the food so that you pick up all your nutrients, and your nutrients that you need are sent into your bloodstream.
So you have that part of your pancreas. So it releases enzymes. So you're familiar with digestive enzymes, the pancreatic enzymes. So one. And then secondly, the one that you and I talk about almost every day without exception is insulin. So the pancreas releases enzymes and insulin. Now the pancreas does a few other things, but for the sake of teaching, if you remember that you really got it. So numero uno, enzymes, digestive enzymes released from the pancreas into the small intestine, and number two, insulin. Every time you eat, you need insulin. When you eat crappy carbs and sugars, you need a lot of insulin.
Now coming back to pancreatic cancers. Pancreatic cancers, the vast majority, over 80% of all pancreatic cancers occur in the area of the pancreas that releases the enzyme. It occurs in that area of the pancreas that releases enzymes. And this is one of the reasons it can be so deadly because first of all, it's hard to detect. Pancreatic cancer is very hard to detect because you're not looking for it if you have no symptoms. So again, and that's generally true in medicine generally, right? They're into not prevention of pancreatic cancer. They're into early detection of pancreatic cancer. But in that area, it's been a dismal failure because pancreatic cancers are usually found in their late stages. Rarely ever find a tumor. And again, I bring you back to the ballpoint pen. So not only am I showing you the size of the pancreas generally, and I talked yesterday about the ink in the pen representing the insulin. You never really completely run out of ink like the pen does, but your pancreas... If you're secreting insulin all the time... When you secrete insulin all the time, you're over using it.
Now, remember when I talked to you in the past? For those who are watching for the first time or you're new to this podcast, what I am showing now is the tip of a ballpoint pen. You see that little tip? That is the size of cancer after five years. Because people have this idea in their head, and I've done a lot of TV shows over the years. I had a publicist for several of my books, and I would do the tours of TV and radio, and I often, when I went on TV... You know what I learned something having my own TV show. You want illustrations. People like illustrations. So I often would bring my ballpoint pen, and I would show them, and I'd get the cameraman, said, "Come here. You see the little tip of the ballpoint pen. That's how long cancer takes five years to get to the tip. That size." I said, "Ladies," when I was talking about breast cancer, ladies, "you see that? How the heck are you going to feel that in your breast tissue? You won't feel that. Even a mammogram won't pick it up. And if they do, it's five years old. It's five years old. And most people, you fight cancer cells every day.
You know what we've lost touch of? And just a little side trail for a second, which drives me mental. In this whole virus thing, we don't talk about the immune system. Your body knows that there's something going on here. It's attacking it. And we'll talk about things that will attack a tumor. Somebody asked on Question and Answer Friday about polyps. You've heard of polyps in the colon, and you get a colonoscopy. And the doc says, "I saw a polyp. I took it out. I sent it to a lab to see if it was cancerous or not." And again, that's early detection, not prevention. It's not prevention. The cancer industry doesn't talk about prevention. It talks about early detection. And I think that's a huge mistake because by the time they detect it... I talked to you about breast cancer, ladies, but prostate cancer, men, and pancreatic cancer. When you talk about early detection, it's 80% they're showing, is already has metastasized.
So early detection for pancreatic cancer, the stats are not good at all. It's a rising cancer, pancreatic cancer. And you guys, even if you're just thinking for a moment, you know why we see so much pancreatic cancer. So much of it, but guys, I'm more into teaching you how to prevent. I'm not against early detection. I'm not, but it's not really what we should be emphasizing because the world should be looking at preventing cancer. "Oh, we found it. Now let's treat it." And the treatment for pancreatic cancer has been an abysmal failure. It really has. Again, because they can't find it in time. It's usually metastasized, and it's a deadly, deadly cancer, pancreatic cancer. On the rise today. Coming to a theater near you.
And just by simple deduction, why are we seeing so much pancreatic cancer? Number one reason. Number one reason is sugar. It's sugar. The pancreas has been overused. Overused. And when you eat crappy carbohydrates, and this is one of the reasons I set up The Reset. When you live on crappy sugars and carbohydrates, you're wearing out that pancreas in two ways. Insulin, which gives you insulin resistance. We talked about that yesterday, that people that suffer from insulin resistance, the ones that are in the top third, got all the diseases including cancer. And the ones that hardly used or didn't have any insulin resistance... How do you stop insulin resistance? How do you stop it? It's not eating less, guys. It's not eating less. Oh, if I eat less, I won't overuse my pancreas. No, it's changing fuels. It's changing fuels. It's a switch. There's nothing that will help you. Nothing that you can do more for yourself than switching fuels. Very few people are talking about it.
I read this study on pancreatic cancer and how prevalent it is and how deadly it is. And for heaven's sakes in the article, they weren't even talking about food at all. The first thing you need to do. Switch fuels. You know how I always talk about the pancreas going on a holiday to Hawaii? Give your pancreas a break. And even in the area, because I told you about the two areas, one of them is insulin. If people insist on eating junk, they're going to wear out that pancreas, not only to give you diabetes, but to make you much more susceptible to pancreatic cancer. Now, one of the reasons, this is important too, because remember I talked to you about there's two parts to the pancreas. And actually where you get the cancer the most is in the enzyme secreting part of the pancreas, the pancreatic enzymes that are lipase and amylase and protease. And they're sent into the small intestine to help digest your food.
Why do we see so much digestive problems? Because you see, guys, this is what I want to talk to you about. One of the signs, early signs, that something is run a muck in your pancreas... The pancreas is affected, it's starting to be affected in that area of enzymes is when you have digestive issue symptoms. I've said this in the past, and I'll say it again. In my opinion, when I talk about SIBO, which is not really SIBO, small intestine bacterial overgrowth, you guys heard of this, and you and I changed the name. Remember we had a vote? And we decided, well I probably pushed you a little bit, but we decided to call it CIFO, small intestine fungus overgrowth.
When you get an overgrowth of fungus, candida, yeast, in the small intestine, that is one of the greatest cancer producing... It could cause cancer in the small intestine. Yes, but that's all what I'm talking about mostly, where it will cause cancer. CIFO, we'll talk about this in a second, is in the pancreas where those enzymes come down the duct into the small intestine you get... How do you get CIFO? How do you get CIFO? How do you get an overgrowth of fungus in the small intestine? Well, you can have low acidity in your stomach. You're a crappy eater, and your pH in your stomach isn't acidic enough, and yeast can come in from the inside, but also you get it from leaky gut.
I'll tell you one of the biggest problems in society today. The two-edged sword is the overuse of antibiotics. They wipe out your good bacteria. You get an overgrowth of fungus. Yeast. Think about what yeast does. You want to make bread rise? What do you do? Yeast. It makes it grow, grow, grow. And in the small intestine, fungus will over grow. I know they say it's bacterial overgrowth... Yes, there's bacteria there, but I've always said it, it's like the urinary tract in women. You get recurring infections, the bacteria is there, but the wall of the bladder has become coated with a fungus, moisture, yeast. A woman's private parts. Think about it. There's a lot of moisture there. Fungus sits in the bacteria and E.coli or whatever can sit, and you take an antibiotic. What? Of course. Of course, you got pain. You have an infection. The doctor says here's an antibiotic. You know how many people take antibiotic? Even kids. Sinus infections and throat infections and ear infections. And all of it was viral.
And mommy, of course, baby's screaming, but it sets them up for a fungal overgrowth. Not only in the sinuses, it can happen in the gut. And I'm telling you, in my opinion, it's the number one reason for the excess in pancreatic cancers… numero uno. Numero duo is the garbage diet. Because guess what yeast feeds on. Sugar. Yeast is like a teenager. What does it want? Feed me. Feed me. Feed me. Sugar, sugar, sugar. I was in a coffee shop the other day, and a kid in front of me, a teenager, ordered one of these... It wasn't coffee. One of these drinks. Oh my word, the amount of sugar. I watched the barista go... He must've put 12 teaspoons of sugar in there. I felt like tapping the kid on the shoulder and saying, why don't you just have sugar? Why? Just say, "Can I have sugar, please, in that cup? And maybe put a little bit of coffee in it or chocolate or whatever. Just to flavor it." My word.
But, guys, you have no idea what that does to yeast. Yeast goes, "Yippee. You feed me. Thank you." Cancer cells go, "Thank you. I appreciate it. And now I'm going to grow, grow, grow." That's what happens. It's not a mystery. It's not a mystery. It's not genetics. Medicine wants it to be genetic, so they can find a drug. It's not genetics. It's food. It's food. So what do we do? What do we do? Change fuels, obviously. Change fields. Don't feed the bears. I know that seems simplistic. I know cancer's complex, doc. Yeah, I know it's complex, but the basic units, the basics is don't feed it. It wants fuel. Cancer needs fuel. Yeast needs fuel.
Remember Dr. Simoncini in Italy, an oncologist. Yes, I have told you this story more than a few times, but I'm a repeater. But I was on a TV show with him years ago. I'm talking about in the early 90s, and I was talking about chronic fatigue syndrome. I had just written a book. And he was talking about cancer. And he said, "All cancers are fungus based. They're yeast based." And he was an oncologist. He wasn't no dummy. And he said, "I looked at cancer under a microscope, and there's always fungus there. It's yeast based." He said, "We got to deal with that." Interesting, isn't it? I never forgot that. I was telling him about, and he found it interesting, about chronic fatigue syndrome. So often, they're full of yeast, full of fungus because of antibiotics. I mean that's 30 years ago. 30 years ago.
So guys, when you read that pancreatic cancer, a deadly cancer, there's almost never an early detection to it. You need to prevent it. Change fuels. Don't feed the bears. If we can convince people, if they do nothing else... You see, eliminate sugar. That's not easy, the world we live in. I understand that. It's craziness. And you know, it doesn't matter over the years, how many thousands of cancer patients I talked to that would come to me once the diagnosis. And I... Listen I'm all in. "You're in for the fight of your life. I would have met you years ago, so I could change your diet. But now what do you do? Don't feed it. Don't feed it. Don't give it fuel. Don't listen to anyone that tells you that sugar in moderation is good for you. Don't you believe it? Not for a minute. Okay?
Here's some statistics on pancreatic cancer. If you're a diabetic, here's a fact on pancreatic cancer, hot off the presses. Four to seven times more likely to get pancreatic cancer if you're a diabetic. Hello! You know what bothers me about diabetes? Here's what bothers me about it. It's a food problem, one. Two, it's 100% preventable. It's an allergy, I talked to you about that yesterday, to carbs. Diabetes. If you're a diabetic, according to statistics, you are four to seven times more likely than the rest of the population to get pancreatic cancer. Yeah. Uh-huh. Of course. It's impossible to become a diabetic unless you're a carboholic. It's impossible. I'm not talking about type I diabetes, which is auto-immune. I'm talking about type II, a scourge on society today.
Lose weight. It's effective to decrease pancreatic cancer. I'm just reading some research here. I agree with it because you see I'm showing here again for those on a podcast later, you know what I'm showing? I'm showing fat here. A pound of it right here in my hand. You know what this fat does? It releases estrogen, and estrogen… I know it makes you a woman. Makes a man a woman, too. But it makes things grow. So when you lose weight, it helps. And the healthiest weight loss program is The Reset. Wasn't created primarily for weight loss, but it's the healthiest way. You're not starving. You're changing fuels.
Curcumin. Study after study has shown that curcumin is very effective in the treatment of pancreatic cancer. It's not talking about a cure, but I love curcumin. I love that Indian spice, and turmeric is good, but the problem with turmeric... Curcumin is an extract of turmeric. The problem with turmeric is it's poorly absorbed. I mean, to get the benefits, the curcumin. So curcumin is, in terms of studies, very, very effective. It's very anti-inflammatory. It's very anticancer. I like chromium picolinate. I use it in my Insulin Balance. Vitamin D. Vitamin D. Of course. VitDerma. There was a new study out this morning on VitDerma. Oh, it's so good. I'll bring it to you. I think probably in the next few days.
Here's another one. Vitamin C. Pancreas. Coffee. It's good for your pancreas. I've always told you about that. Right? Coffee acts like Metformin guys. There's another new study came out about coffee. And of course, this morning, when I read it, I go, "Woo-hoo." Because you know me, I love coffee. It's the real vitamin C. It is. It's the real one. The other one's not real. Ascorbic acid is not the real vitamin C. You know that. You guys know that. It's all right, but it's not as good as coffee. I hope you love your coffee. No sugar, please. DHA. High DHA. Again, they're showing omega-3, but the DHA, the longest chain fatty acid. And there's some studies on how effective it is in preventing pancreatic cancer, right? Pancreatic cancer. Probiotics. You want to kill that fungus? Kill that yeast. Don't feed it and kill it. Probiotics, broad spectrum, L. reuteri. L. rhamnosus. I love those two ones together because they go after candida and yeast and fungus. So you want that.
Okay, did you have fun? So guys, we appreciate it. It’s crazy eh about pancreatic cancer and how aggressive it is and that. So I hope that little teaching this morning helped you. Because I'm into prevention, guys. I want you and I to prevent these things. I'd rather you not get them. And if you get them, okay, you put everything on your side to win the battle. But I thought I'd just give you a little clarity on pancreatic cancer and why it's so prevalent today. So again, thanks for watching, guys. We appreciate it. You have no idea how much we appreciate it. Tony Jr. and I talked about it yesterday, and we just, we love our folks. We love you guys for your consistent, consistent following. And we appreciate that so much. Get your friends. If they haven't joined the Martin Clinic Facebook group to do that. That's a private group, but a great community. I'm telling you. It is wonderful. It is a great community of our folks, and there's a lot of good recipes, feedback, and stories. And I love it. It's great. Friday is Question and Answer Friday. One of our most popular programs is the Friday program Question and Answer. People like it. And I like it, too. It allows me to rant. I love ranting. I do. Okay guys, love you dearly. 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!