A staggering statistic coming out of the United States is that 250 million prescriptions were written for antidepressants in 2020! Dr. Martin calls this an unintended consequence of locking down society because of a virus.
SSRIs like Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil were never meant to be used long-term. Their intention was to get you through a crisis. Dr. Martin shares 4 major side effects of the prolonged use of antidepressants.
Dr. Martin also shares the biomarkers of depression he has seen in his patients. From leaky gut, to being chronically low in B12, there are many reasons why people have depression. Dr. Martin unpacks this in today’s episode.
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 once again, welcome to another Live this morning. Should be an interesting morning. Health news behind the scenes, did you know that last year, 2020... Do you know how many prescriptions were given out of antidepressants like Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil in the United States alone? 250 million prescriptions in last year alone of either Paxil, Zoloft, or Prozac... antidepressants. Now, let me just unpack this a little bit, because I think this is very significant. I've often referred to the unintended consequences of shutting down society for a virus, the unintended consequences. I don't think anybody has any intention of hurting people per se, but the unintended consequences have been very dramatic, and one of them, one of the biggest areas is in the area of depression, the coming tsunami. I said it, it would be devastating and research and now any statistic that they have about overdoses, depression, anxiety are through the roof, they're through the roof.
And I want to talk about that this morning. It's a modern day scourge, remember I've been around long enough to be able to give you some history here. I watched in my practice when they came out with antidepressants. Okay, it seems like a fabric of our society today for people that are a little bit younger might think, well, antidepressants were always around, but they weren't. They were really made in the 70s and it came out, and if you look at any history of it, when it came out, they were told that they were to be used to get you through a crisis. And the problem is that they actually had a warning on their label. They were approved by the FDA to get you through a crisis. And it started this whole thing of what we call chemical imbalance. I'm going to tell you something in the 1970s... I mean, obviously there's been depression forever, but nobody ever called that a chemical imbalance. And that's true to some extent that is true, that there is a chemical imbalance, but that's not the first thing that happens.
So when you are on Zoloft or Paxil or Prozac, they are what they call SSRI serotonin receptors. Okay. They play with the chemistry in the brain, and they're not that effective in any long-term studies they've shown, they're just not. They're not effective in long-term studies, they don't do what they're supposed to do. They might get you through a crisis, but with some very severe ramifications. And the study that I looked at, where they were commenting on the study, that 250 million prescriptions in 2020 were given out of these three medications. The side effects of which by the way are legion, okay, the side effects of SSRIs are legion. And this is what this study was actually talking about was the side effects of this medication.
Let me give you what they said, four major side effects of prolonged use of SSRIs like Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil. And the study was interesting because they were talking about the benefits versus the risk. And that always should be taken into consideration, reward, risk. And this article was talking about the risk, and they're saying in the long-term, there's got to be a better answer. Now, they don't say what the better answer is, but I'm going to pontificate this morning on what is, but let me, first of all, tell you what they said and this is coming from this article. It says, “25% of those on antidepressants, like Prozac and Zoloft and Paxil suffer from sleep problems.” And the article was interesting because they talked about its upside down, what happens is that they often have trouble sleeping at night, and then they want to sleep during the day, they're knocked out, it's like a sedative. That even though they are depressed, they want to sleep during the day and not sleep at night, that's 25% according to this study.
Weight gain 25%, one quarter of the folks on these things gain weight, which is not good, that can create a whole cascade of other problems, gaining weight. The other one 70%, this was striking, 70% of people that take antidepressants, after several months suffer from sexual dysfunction, men, ED and women, a lack of libido. 70%. Listen to this, 45% increase compared to the general population of risk of death by stroke. So there's something with the SSRIs that obviously play with your blood vessels and are causing probably serious clotting. Now, you never hear about this stuff, do you? You don't hear about this stuff. And again, I'm not here to tell you, family, friends, whatever, to come off medications. I don't do that, I won't do that, I'm just giving you information. Information is power, isn't it? It really is because a lot of times people are like this. Like, I don't want to hear anything, don't tell me anything and I'm happy with that. Well, I'm not and I don't think if you're a regular listener to this program, that you're happy with that either, you want information. And this is shocking to me. I was there with the creation of these guys, I was there I saw him coming out and I had some opinions on it at the time, but neither here or there, I mean, obviously if 250 million prescriptions were given out in the United States alone last year. Wow, that's a lot. That’s a lot.
Now, I want to unpack with the rest of our time here this morning, I want to unpack depression. I want to unpack it, meaning I want to reverse engineer it. I want to give you my experience on what I saw in my practice and with my experience. And hopefully, this will be helpful to you. I always tell people, look, before you get to depression, and I probably shared this verse with you in the past, that in Proverbs 12:25, it says, "Anxiety in the heart of man leads to depression." So there's a lot of things about cortisol and that uptight and stress in a person's life that can really lead them on that road to depression. But I'll bring that back in a minute, but let me just tell you, if you reverse engineer depression. Here's what I found in my practice, very consistently, some more than others, but remember I used to do in my practice biomarkers. I would check these levels on people and here is what I found. Okay. Here's what I found in general, and I'm going to give you at least seven.
Okay. So if you have a pen, you want to write these down. I like writing, by the way, I like writing things down. I like taking notes. Okay. I'm an old fashioned guy. Maybe you're going to just type this up or what do you call that when you do that on a computer? I'm such an old guy. Okay. And this is not necessarily in order of significance, because they're all significant, but this is generally what I found. Okay. This is generally what I've found. Biologically, one, leaky gut, the change in the microbiome, the gut. So this can be something that happened in childhood. Antibiotics save your life, but they can cause depression because they can change your microbiome.
Wipe out your gut guys, leaky gut, you get garbage, literal garbage at a microscopic level, heading into your body and through the bloodstream, it becomes systemic and it's micro size. You can't see it with the naked eye, but you can see it with a microscope. And again, doctors are starting to clue in to the significance of leaky gut, but is it really really taught in medical schools? No. Are psychiatrists in general taking this seriously, the problem of leaky gut, the microbiome, the bacteria, what it does, even in mental health? They're not there yet. There are some that are really clued in, but most are not. And that's unfortunate because you need to fix that, people need to fix that leaky gut. And this is again, the double-edged sword of antibiotics. They're wonderful, they save your life, but there's consequences, severe problems.
I told you about autoimmune and I've never seen an autoimmune where there's not leaky gut involved. So I always, you got to aim treatment at fixing leaky gut. And for some people that'll take up to even a year... And remember, and we say this all the time. I think we put out an email yesterday on this that you don't have to have digestive symptoms to have leaky gut. Some people do, bloating and they don't feel good and all these digestive issues and gas and no but we used to call things like referred pain. So for example, somebody gets a neck problem and they got numbness in their hands and they go, where's that coming from? Well, it's called referred, it's not in the hand per se, it's coming from the neck, refer... And the same thing with leaky gut, leaky gut, leaky brain, and the connection between the gut and the brain where the microbiome in the brain are talking to the gut, they're connected.
One of the biggest ways they connect is through what we call the Vagus nerve, not Las Vegas, but the Vagus nerve, the 10th cranial nerve. You ever get butterflies, like your stomach's upset, you're nervous and whatever, what is that? Why would your stomach be upset if you're nervous? Well, the 10th cranial nerve, the Vagus nerve because it connects your brain to your gut. And this can be a big factor in depression, got to fix that. As a functional doctor, I used to look at a person holistically. I'm a reverse engineer guy, I would go backwards to look what's the problem, what caused the problem? I didn't like putting a bandaid on things and just say, well, this is it and here's a bandaid, no, unpack it. What are your deficiencies? What things are we seeing? One of them leaky gut. Leaky gut, leaky brain. Okay. So that was probably the most consistent thing.
This is what I found too. Generally, people were bad eaters, heavy in sugar and seed oils, vegetable oils, the middle aisles of the grocery store, the fast foods, living on that kind of stuff. And again, what does that do? Well, it changes your microbiome, it plays with inflammation in the body, inflammation in the body, inflammation in the brain, changes in hormones, the hypothalamus. Not only the memory center of your brain gets affected by that but even the hypothalamus. This is the hormonal center of your body, plays with the thyroid, plays with the adrenals, plays with the sex hormones, bad food. You can never undo a bad diet guys. And this is why I always talk to people about the first thing you need to do even in leaky gut is change your fuel. The first thing, that's your pyramid, you start with the foundation. You ever seen a house being built or a new building going up? They start with the foundation, it's important to start with the foundation and food, it's what you can control.
So I saw leaky gut and I saw a bad diet, almost invariably with very few exceptions. Number three, and again, these are not necessarily in order of their significance, but here's what I found. Low levels of B12 almost consistently. And again, repeat, you do not get B12 and you won't even get enough B vitamins, all your B vitamins, unless you're eating red meat. I think that one of the reasons we see so much anxiety and depression is a lack of B12. People are consistently low in 70, 80% of the population are not optimized levels of B12 and your brain will not work properly without B12. I always, and again, if you follow me in all this, but I rest my case and I have to do it almost every day. "Yeah, but I've been online and it tells me to avoid red meat," almost every guru I know they vilify red meat, "You can have a little bit of chicken, but don't eat too much red meat because it's cancer, it's cholesterol, it's this, it's that and the other thing."
It's unbelievable how the poor farmer is getting hammered. I usually fold my arms if I'm talking to a person live and I ask them, can I ask you a question now that you've told me that red meat's no good for you, where do you get B12? I'm waiting. Well, in a supplement. Okay, okay, but where do you get it in food, chicken, salad? No, in red meat. Guys, your brain, your hormones, your synapses in your brain, your neurotransmitters in your brain, do not work properly without vitamin B12, just don't. And if in red meat alone, B12 is found well, let's make a little deduction. Must be good for you, aha. And one of the biggest problems in our society today is we have been lied to by the food industry, the pharmaceutical industry, they're liars, liars pants on fires. Okay, they really are when it comes to this, there's no money in B12 guys, nobody got rich on B12, nobody, it's found at the butcher shop, aha.
Now, there's a lot of people that don't absorb B12 properly, they need to take a B12 supplement or shot. And I used to give lots of B12 shots, but in the latter years I was just giving the sublingual B12 because it's better. I'm a big guy on getting B12 every day, if you're low in it, take it every day. And I don't know how many thousands of patients told me doc, soon as you put me on B12, what a difference. Not only in energy, but in depression. Yeah, you need it. They're consistently low. I've often asked my physician friends, why is it that you don't look at B12? The doctors in the 1950s and 60s I mean, they carried it around in their doctors bags, B12 to give you a shot. And today, I mean, you almost got to pull their teeth out without anesthetic to give you a B12, but your brain doesn't work without it. Your neurotransmitters absolutely need it, consistently low, but no one's ever talking about, let's give you B12.
And here's another one, consistent, I can think of two cases out of all the years, they're extremely low in vitamin D. The solar panel in their brain, their neurotransmitters in their brain have solar panels for vitamin D. B12 was low, vitamin D is low. And one of the reasons, okay, just let me say this about the animal kingdom in food because you guys know me, there's three kingdoms of food, you're to eat from the two of them. There's the animal kingdom, eggs, meat, and cheese. Okay, there's the plant kingdom, fruits and vegetables. And then there's the human kingdom of food, man-made foods. They're really man made, they use stuff from the animal kingdom and the plant kingdom, but then they tweak it. Could they cook that in seed oils, vegetable oils, which are not vegetables at all. And then they add that antichrist of sugars to them, the high fructose corn syrup. There's nothing that will get your brain going backwards than the human kingdom of food. Manmade.
They changed the flour, they changed the oil, 30 to one almost in Omega-6, compared to Omega-3. They scared the living life out of people to keep them out of the sun, true or false? True. They scared the living life out of people. The sun is bad for you, so people are chronically low in vitamin D and your brain and your neurotransmitters, your serotonin, your dopamine, and people don't realize the importance of these vitamins, B12, vitamin D. And here's another one. Now, you know coffee is vitamin C, but we could actually call this a vitamin. I'm actually writing another book right now. Okay. And I'm just about finished the outline of it. Okay. So when I get my skeleton, my outline, then I fill in. But one of the things I talk about, and I probably talk maybe too much about it is cholesterol. You need cholesterol in your body. People are very low, they don't have enough cholesterol. We talked about this yesterday, but your brain needs cholesterol and your neuro-transmitters need cholesterol. We got away from eating from the animal kingdom, we went to the human kingdom and the plant kingdom.
So a lot of people eat from the plant kingdom and the human kingdom, but there's no cholesterol in the human kingdom and the plant kingdom. It's only found in the animal kingdom and they avoid that. It's the craziest thing that I ever heard. It is an unmitigated disaster for society today, because they don't understand basic nutrition guys. And you do, but they out there don't. They've been lied to so much. “Oh, cholesterol, how many eggs doc can I eat in a week?” Uhhh 500. I don't care how many eggs you eat in a week. Have as many as you want. There's no need to count, your neuro-transmitters don't work without cholesterol, they just don't. And the world has tried with great success, indoctrination and hook line, and sinker, people went for it. Hook, line and sinker. No wonder we have a disaster on our hands, 250 million prescriptions of Zoloft, Prozac and Paxil. Man, oh man, why didn't I get in on that? Can you imagine if I'd have bought shares in those pharmaceuticals in the 1970s and just held on? You could be a multi-gazillionaire today, it's craziness guys. Okay.
Should I finish? Let me do a couple... low DHA, that's what I found. Bad food, low B12, low vitamin D, some of them, all of the above, low cholesterol, they just didn't have enough cholesterol, didn't have enough HDL. You got to have lots of HDL, you need high HDL. We got to contribute our 15%, it's like taxes. You need to contribute 15%, that's all God's asking you to do. He'll provide the other 85. Okay. Your liver mostly, intestines make cholesterol, but you got to eat the rest. So only found in the animal kingdom. Very low. They were low in magnesium, remember yesterday we did a salt program, magnesium is a salt and I like it, very important. Magnesium does about 300 things in the body, but one of the things that's important is that people are very low in it, they're low salt people, they don't get enough.
I've always been big on Epsom salt bath. Don't drink them, just get in a hot bath of Epsom salts, it's a good way to get magnesium. I love magnesium citrate, but it was one of the things I found deficient, isn't that amazing? And when you do a real good workup on people, this is what we found. Well, here's the 7th, head injuries. This was in about 50, 60% of my practice in depression, head injuries, inflammation, mess things up. Remember when I told you about the movie, Concussion about a good friend, Mike Webster. The whole movie's about him, of the Pittsburgh Steelers four Super Bowl rings, probably had about. I don't know how many concussions in his career, but if you've never watched the movie, get it, was tremendous movie. Will Smith should have won the academy on that, in my opinion. It's so good, watch it and then think of me.
Okay guys, nobody wants to talk about that, unpacking it, and hopefully today that would a little bit helpful to you and interesting. Okay. So Friday Question and Answer, Friday. So send in your questions, we're answering questions every day by the way, our staff is fabulous, and answering questions on our private Facebook group or chat or whatever, I don't even know what they do. Okay. I don't know, I just answer some of the stuff that they can't answer. Okay. If you want me to pontificate on your blood work, I'm happy to do it. But again, remember if you send me 80 pages of blood work, I'm only looking for certain things, okay? I'm sorry, I'm not going to go into the weeds, I don't do that, I don't, I have my things I'm interested in and I will guide you according to those things, because otherwise you're into weeds and I don't get into the weeds when it comes to blood work. Okay?
So somebody asked me today, this morning, early like the book, I got to get the book, The Reset book, I know, we sold out. It's been an enormous success and we thank you for that, we thank our audience for that. Okay. You guys did it, I didn't make that an enormous success, you did. And the third printing of that book is coming. Okay. We're expecting it right around Labor Day. Okay. So stay tuned. Okay. And September will be a good time or October to get this book as a Christmas present. Okay. To friends and family, to get them thinking about the major problem in our society today. And that's bad eating. Okay. So we'll talk to you soon. We love you guys. Okay?
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!