Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners.
Some of today’s topics include:
- Caloric deficit for weight loss
- Lipedema
- Benfotiamine to combat effects of glycation
- Tanning beds & lotions
- Unexpected bruising
- Nitrates and additives in processed meats
- Vitamin D with K2
- Canker sores
- High levels of B12
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: Well, good morning. Once again, welcome to another Live this morning, Question and Answer Friday. Always a lot of fun, a lot of fun for me anyways. John is wondering about my take on the idea that caloric deficit is the main driver of weight loss, assuming that macros and within normal parameters. I know there's a lot out there, John, about weight loss, calories, is it really calories? When you're eating keto, you're losing weight because of calories. Maybe to some extent, John, that's true. Although I'm not big at all on calories, even for weight loss, I'm not a big believer in it. Really, I never have been. The day you start counting calories is really what the yo-yo dieting is all about. Eat less and move more. I mean, guys, that's been since the 1960s and the early 70s. Eat less, eat less calories and you will lose weight. I guess so.
I think you know this, John, I mean, if you followed me at all over the last little bit, you would know that I am a big guy on changing fuels. Changing fuels. You just never hear me talking about calories and there's a reason for it. I know it exists, calories exist, but there's a reason for my thinking. Because you know, if you have a piece of steak, there's a fair amount of calories in that. But how your body takes that in and burns it is a completely different process from how your body takes in a piece of cake and burns that. The key to all of it, John, is not calories, it's insulin. If you want, you can call me Dr. Insulin, because if you can lower insulin resistance, you get the people that are on our weight loss program on The Reset. Primarily, it's to fix your metabolism, and weight loss happens to be one of the benefits. But it's not yo-yo, it isn't because The Reset is meant to fix your horror-mones.
Because when you have trouble losing weight, you got problems with horror-mones. Your hormones are mixed up. You're hungry all the time. For a lot of women, especially, they just look at food and gain weight. They don't even have to eat it. They work out, they're disciplined. You know, this is general, okay. Just a general statement. Somebody said online the other day that I'm insulting to men. "My husband won't listen to you because you're insulting men in general." Yeah. I go after men. It's true. I was always known more as a woman's doctor because I tested hormones. It's not that men don't have hormones. Of course, they do, but they don't have the balancing act that women have. Men don't have to balance anything. Women have got a lot of moving parts to their thyroid and to their adrenals and to those beautiful ovaries that are releasing estrogen and progesterone. I tell you, that makes for horror-mones in a lot of cases. Okay?
So, a woman that has hormonal problems better not be counting calories. They won't do well. They will be on the constant yo-yo dieting. That's what I don't like. To me, it's temporary. You starve yourself. You see, I want you at the cellular level, John. I want you at the cellular level to give your body the best fuel. The best fuel are relatively high in calories. But again, it's insulin. It's insulin. You have to fix that. It's amazing when you fix insulin resistance, what happens with the human body? This was done, I tell you guys, by trial and error at the Martin Clinic, because I mean, you name the diet... I've written books on diets. I wrote a book years ago. It's got to be 30 plus years ago on get rid of yo-yo diet. Quit counting calories. Don't count. I don't want you to count. I want you to change fuels. Okay? But thanks for the question, John. It's a good question because I'm sure it's always going to be out there brought to you by the food industry.
Karen, “lipedema, apparently 10% have it and don't know.” Now, I just want to make sure Karen that lipidemia is when you have swollen legs. Okay? Edema in the legs. Usually in women, their legs swell. Why? Well, look, whenever I saw it, of course I was doing biomarkers. I was checking. I was checking kidney function and liver function and these kind of things. At the end of the day, sometimes it could be genetics to some extent. Sometimes it's just the way it was for certain people. It was hard to pinpoint. A lot of times I found that the kidneys weren't flushing properly and the body was holding on to fluid. We talked about salts this week and what happens inside the cell, potassium inside, salt on the outside of the cell. Two oceans and you better get balanced. Then sometimes that was the case, but it's not always easy to get rid of. One of the things I do recommend by the way for lipedema is a rebounder. I really like the rebounder. I just find that mini trampoline is really, really good for anything circulation. It's good for your lymphatics. I really like it. Okay?
Paulette is asking, “What's my take on benfotiamine to help combat the effects of glycation?” Well, benfotiamine is B1. I think I answered this, I thought a couple of weeks ago, but maybe it wasn't about glycation. I wouldn't take it as a supplement. Look, B vitamins are very important, guys. B vitamins are very important. But I think again, if you know me, I don't talk about taking a B-complex. I don't talk about taking benfotiamine which is a synthetic. That's what it is. That was the word I was looking for, a synthetic form of B1. I know it's out there. You can take it as a supplement. But for glycation, it's food. Glycation is literal A-G–E. Okay? Advanced glycation end products. You know what that means? Your body is aging. Your muscles are aging. Your cells are aging. It's a form of oxidative damage. Number one thing is not a B vitamin to help that. The number one thing is do The Reset and get off sugars because there's nothing that will cause glycation more than sugar.
Think about this for a minute. Kids find this out with cavities. Dentist, when he sees cavities, will usually tell you that you're eating too much sugar. I mean, even as kids, we knew that. Going to the dentist in the 1950s, the dentists would tell you that sugar is destroying your teeth. You need to brush your teeth and all that, of course. No, but seriously, they knew it then. If sugar does that to your enamel, which is one of the hardest substances in your body, imagine what sugar is doing to your organs, your liver, your kidneys, your pancreas, your skin. I mean, it can destroy your enamel. Glycation is sugar. You can take all the B1s, B2s, B3, all the B vitamins and you're not fixing glycation unless you change your diet. You're not going to change oxidation. That's really glycation. It's a form of aging in the body. Caramelization of your joints in that.
How does that happen? Why sugar? Because think of what sugar does to your teeth. I'm not big on supplementing B vitamins except for B12, because that's the one that about 80% of the population don't get enough of. They don't eat enough red meat. That's how you get B12. Plus, any kind of digestive issue and even on the best of days, you're not absorbing vitamin B12. It's a hard, finicky vitamin. This is why when I talk about supplementing with B12, I think there's a question about it this morning. We'll get to it. But glycation, guys, is food. If you want to take antioxidants and all that, I love Navitol. You guys know that about me. There's nothing like pine bark extract. But glycation, if you don't change your diet, if you don't get rid of the sugar, if you do nothing else but get rid of sugar, sugar is very acidic. They always blame meat for being acidic, but you have a buffer. Your body is smart. It'll produce baking soda. It'll make you alkaline. It keeps your blood alkaline. But sugar, very acidic. Very acidic, and it's very disruptive. The food industry don't like to tell you that, but I'll tell you that seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Good questions.
Violet, "Dr. Martin had mentioned that putting things on the skin with chemicals then being in the sun is not good," true, “...that would go for tanning lotions in the sun and tanning beds, I presume.” Well, look, tanning lotions, if you put something natural on your skin like olive oil, coconut oil, they have some protective qualities to them. I like Rivera. Again, it's pine bark. Again, on the skin, I love that. You can go in the sun with it because it's completely natural. It's when you put chemicals, chemicals and heat don't go well together. Isn't it interesting that they have recalled... I mean, thousands of products, sunscreens. Even the FDA is admitting they're carcinogenic. Wow. I hate to say I told you so. If you can't pronounce what's on that label, don't put it on your skin, guys, and then don't bake in it. Good question. Tanning beds. Look, you don't hear me talking about it much. People need to be very careful with that. I wouldn't make it a habit of any kind. Look, you got to be careful. I much rather you go in the sun, get 20 minutes. I did 20 minutes yesterday. I mean, in pure sun. I got my VitDerma yesterday, you? When it's nice out, I get my VitDerma. I don't burn. I try and be very careful not to burn in the sun, but you need to get that VitDerma because it's so good for it.
Sophie, "What would cause bruising that I never had before, now I have?" Well, Sophie, get it checked because sometimes that can be a sign of not good things, including cancer. Get a check, Sophie. If you never had bruising before and now you easily bruise, I would have that check. Okay? One. Two, sometimes after you've been on meds for a while. So I don't know Sophie, you got to answer those questions yourself. Sometimes medication, even though it didn't bother you before, if you're taking an aspirin or any kind of blood thinner, steroids of any kind, antibiotics, I've seen that happen, can cause bruising. Tylenol, it never bothered you before, but I take Tylenol because I get headaches a lot or whatever, and it can gum up the liver and that can change things. So, all I'm saying is you got to answer those questions, Sophie, because I would do a deep dive, make sure that it's nothing serious. Now you're getting a reaction to meds, so check that out too. Okay?
Melissa, "What is your stance on nitrates and additives in processed meats?" Well, look, nitrates by the way, I've mentioned this before Melissa, but when you eat vegetables, you get nitrates. I'm not too concerned. They made a big thing about that. I don't know. 20 years ago, it stopped a lot of people from eating bacon. It did. Nitrates. What are nitrates? I'm not too worried about nitrates, to be honest with you. "What is your stance on nitrates and additives in processed meats and how they contribute to insulin resistance?" Well, they don't. Look, all I'm saying, Melissa, and I'm not dismissing your question. Okay? Please don't take this the wrong way. When I teach, I must speak in broad terms. I hope you understand that. You don't hear me often talking about go get organic meat. Preferably, yes, of course, of course. If you can afford it, if you got a butcher living next door to you. You live off a farm and the farmer down the street, you can go buy your meat and vegetables from him and all this and that or her.
Guys, great. But you have to understand for me, we get to 50, 60,000 people every week, up to almost three million downloads. I speak, Melissa, in generalities. You're better off eating a piece of processed meat than you are eating a piece of bread. I don't care if it's 17 grains. The reason is, Melissa, because of insulin. The biggest problem I wrote the book, The Reset, I set out, I tried to prove my point that the biggest problem in our society today is not a virus. It is metabolic syndrome. It's killing people, a lot more than the viruses. As a matter of fact, you can even get the virus pretty well and make you really sick, I mean, or hospitalized without getting metabolic syndrome first. Metabolic syndrome is caused by sugar, crappy carbohydrates made with vegetable oils. This is the scourge in our society, not processed meats.
When you have bacon... Look, I want kids to eat bacon and processed meats. Now I would rather they go to the butcher and get that cut right in front of... But when it comes to comparing, there's no comparison. I always laugh about the nitrates because nitrates... When you have vegetables, you get nitrates. They made nitrates the boogeyman. They're not the boogeyman. What does it do to you? What do vegetables do to you? They don't hurt you. Anyway, the process, I get it. Okay. Melissa, I appreciate the question. I really do. But again, you have to understand where I come from. I focus. I am laser focused on getting your insulin down. Tackle that problem. If you're on the Titanic, don't worry about the deck chairs. Change course.
If you already have, then you can start. Yeah. You know what? Every piece of meat that I'm going to eat is going to be the best cuts and the best, the best organic and whatever. If you can afford that. I talk to people every day, Melissa, who are on the Titanic. They're in deep trouble and I say, look, man, I can't make it complicated. I have to simplify it and say, you eat eggs, meat, and cheese and watch what happens to your body. You will not believe the changes. That's me. But I get it. I appreciate you asking the question because I like to get people to understand where I'm coming from. And I think Melissa, you opened that door for me to again, preach to the basics. Get your foundation. Then you can do tweaking. No problem with that. Okay?
"How good is A1C for diagnosing diabetes?" It's a lot better than just blood sugar. A1C is an average of your blood sugars for over three months because they follow your red blood cells along. Then a person who has some kind of hemolytic disease like thalassemia, like Mimi is asking, would that change that? No, it shouldn't change it even though that can give you a red blood cell disorder. But your A1C, it's sugar that attaches to them and they never let go. When sugar grabs a hold of hemoglobin, which is part of the red blood cell, it never lets go. So, do I like A1C? Yeah. I'd tell you that, if you're going to send me blood work, I'm looking for A1C. Blood glucose, not so much. I'm looking at your A1C because it gives me a better average. I've done a program on this. If you want to go back. I talked about the newest research on A1C. If you're over 4.7, you're starting to get insulin resistance. That's well within... I mean, that is well within normal limits according to the blood work. But according to the latest research, when you're in the 5s in the A1C, you're in trouble. You need to change. You're a lot closer to diabetes than you think you are for a lot of people. Okay? Good question.
Jeanine, "I used to have painful episodes in my knee for a year. One week pain and one week without pain. I noticed in the last three months, no pain at all. Wondering if the vitamin D and vitamin K2 can work that fast?" Yep. Vitamin D is very anti-inflammatory. Why do you think I love VitDerma so much? Vitamin D is tremendously anti-inflammatory. It is good for everything. From your brain to your toes, from your joints to your muscles. Guys, from your immune system, you name it and vitamin D just about does it. You are a human solar panel. Now, why do I like vitamin K2? Because vitamin K2, which we put in our vitamin D by the way, vitamin K2 takes calcium out of your arteries and puts it where it belongs, in your teeth, in your bones, where it belongs. Calcium is good for you by the way, but not when it's in your blood vessels. That's why I'm not big on taking calcium as a supplement. Eat your calcium, because when you eat your calcium... See what God does? You eat butter, you eat cheese and dairy. Well, God puts vitamin K2 in that, so that it would naturally takes the calcium you're eating and puts it where it belongs. Nature's got it right. Osteoporosis is not a lack of calcium. It's not. It's not. Good question, but yeah, vitamin D for some works rapidly.
Sarah, canker sores for her husband. Yeah, they're no fun. When you get repeated cankers, your microbiome by the way is not right. It's a sign of leaky gut. Because your microbiome, they communicate with all the other bacteria. It's almost like they messaged each other. You know how you message on your phone? Well, your microbiome in your gut messages the microbiome in your mouth and your brain and on your skin. They talk to each other. It's amazing. But when your microbiome in your gut is disturbed through antibiotics, bad eating, feeding the bad bears sugar, feeds yeast and that, that can cause certain people to make a lot of cankers. When they clean up their diet, it's amazing what it helps.
Secondly, I would open up a probiotic for your hubby and put it right on the canker. You know what else is good? Oil of oregano. You know why oil of oregano is so good and I like it so much? Because it can differentiate. You see, again, it's in nature. God gave it to us. What happens with oil of oregano? It kills your bad guys but not your good guys. It knows. It don't kill your good guys. It kills your bad guys. I would swish oil of oregano and probiotic right in the mouth. Open up a little bit of the capsule and put that probiotic right in there and fix the gut probiotics inside and out. Sometimes with cankers too, it's low levels of vitamin D. Sometimes with cankers too, it's low levels of B12. That's been my experience when I tested patients, because I was looking for deficiencies and often they had that. Okay? And the diet is really important. A couple of those little tricks there. Thanks Sarah for the question.
Tina, "Functional movement disorder beside The Reset, what supplement?" Again, these are just like spastic movements, neurological. Always, always look, Tina, I always look at deficiencies. Here's what I found over the years. Generally, they had leaky gut. They had a huge amount of yeast or candida. That's what I found. It's not always the case but I found that. The other thing is they were usually, usually, anything neurological, look at the neurological vitamin, which is B12. Okay, look at the neurological vitamin of B12.
Ferida is saying, "My B12 is 1,475 and I stopped taking it. I would like to know how long I should stop." Maybe for about a month. Here's what you need to understand with B12. B12 is a water soluble vitamin. The test for B12 is a hundred years old. It's highly unreliable. I always talk, Ferida, about optimizing B12. At 1,400, I'd like between 800 and 1,200. If it's at 1,400, just stop. You don't need it right now. The other thing is, remember, B12 is water soluble. What's that mean? It means you are not getting toxic on B12. I know why you're sick, you're taking too much B12. Nah. If your number is up there, your body is taking it in and not peeing it out probably because you needed it big time. So Ferida, stop for a month, start up again. When you feel good taking it... Because a lot of people realize once they take B12 and how much better they feel, don't worry about the number too much. Okay? Because numbers are what laboratories are into.
Labs live on numbers. Doctors, the old fashioned doctors, they didn't live on numbers. They live by, "How are you feeling?" "Oh, I feel real tired, doc." "Okay. Well, your numbers at the lab are not telling me that, but there's something wrong because you're not feeling good." "Oh doc, I feel great." "But your numbers are telling me your B12 is too high." Well, don't worry about it too much, Ferida. I remember having a conversation with a physician. She was actually a patient of mine. We had a mutual patient about a month after she came to see me, this physician. She phoned me, "Doc, Susie," or whatever her name was. "She's got high B12." There was dead silence on the other end of the phone, like me, I'm waiting. I said, "Doc, so what's that mean?" "It's high. The lab flagged it. What do I do?" she said, with this patient. I said, "How is she feeling?" Then she said, "Well, she's feeling very good." I said, "Well, I wouldn't worry about it too much." And I said, "Doc, remember, B12 is a water soluble vitamin. The body won't become toxic. It'll pee it out." Anyway, she was very open to... she was already a patient of mine. I said, "I wouldn't worry about it too much, doc. You know what I told you when you were in the clinic. I wanted you to get your numbers up. You had low numbers of B12." They weren't optimized. They were normal, but who made them normal? It's a hundred years old normal.
Jenny, "Is it all right to take red yeast rice to lower cholesterol?" That's a supplement. Why do you want to lower your cholesterol? I think you know me enough and I'm teasing a little bit because get your cholesterol down. Get your cholesterol down. No. Get your triglycerides down and get your cholesterol, your HDL, especially up. So, when you have a supplement that says this will lower your cholesterol, why are you trying to do that? Again, I'm not coming after you personally, Jenny. Okay, I'm not. I'm just making a point. I can't get excited about lowering cholesterol. I just don't. To me, it's very bad science. It's very bad science. If you want, Jenny, send me your blood work. Tell me what your triglycerides are. I will look for your HDL and then I'll tell you what to do. I'll tell you what to do. But I'm not big on lowering your cholesterol. It's looking for love in all the wrong places.
What are you fixing? Every part of your body needs cholesterol. Your cells need cholesterol. Your skin needs cholesterol. Your brain needs cholesterol. Your hormones don't work properly without cholesterol. Why are we insisting on lowering it? I asked the question to my doctor friends. Why are you insisting on lowering cholesterol? Heart disease, doc. Heart disease. No. It's been a colossal failure brought to you by the pharmaceutical companies that make statin drugs. I hate to be negative. I'm not negative. I'm a very optimistic guy.
Jocelyn, "My husband heard on weightlifting YouTube, taking supplements, did they break a fast?" Well, look, technically, technically let's say for example, you take a high DHA supplement. Technically, you're breaking a fast. Let me just do a second of teaching on this. Let me do a second of teaching on this. Because even with intermittent fasting, if you want to be dogmatic about it, you would really only be drinking water to be dogmatic. Now The Reset is fasting without fasting, because the idea with The Reset is you're hardly secreting any insulin. So, the key is when you space out your food, let's say you stopped eating six o'clock at night and you go to eight o'clock the next morning, you've now gone 14 hours. Now you're into technically what they call intermittent fasting. Do I like it? Yeah, I like it. But you can do fasting without being dogmatic about it, because then you'd never take supplements. You're going to drink water and black coffee. But I don't preach that so much because I know from my experience that you are really still fasting when you take your supplements. You know what folks? I take my supplements in the morning. Why do I do that? Because I'm a senior and I'm liable to forget. Technically, yes, but in reality, no. Okay? In reality, no.
Now I got a lot of questions to go when I got... I'm running out of time. I got a lot of them. I'm going to come back next week and answer some of these questions, but let me just give you one of them. Oh, there's two of them. Let me answer this because Nicole asked the question and it really goes in with the question asked by Jocelyn, in this sense. About what we were talking about earlier with calories. Nicole says this, "Someone told me I needed to eat carbs to process protein in my muscles. Is that true?" No, that's not true. Remember what Dr. Martin is saying. If your body needs glucose, it will take steak and make it glucose. I talked to you about yesterday the huge difference between insulin driving amino acids into your muscles and into your cells, much better fuel. So you don't need carbs in that sense. If you never eat another carb in your life, I'm not saying you won't. Let's say you lived in the North Pole and there was no carbs. You would just have to live on fish and seal and whales, whatever they eat. You would live very well without carbohydrates. The reason is because your body is so smart, it will take steak and turn it into sugar if your body needs it. If your body needs it.
But there's a lot of stuff out there. It's nonsense in a lot of ways, it really is. Let's leave it at that. Let's leave it at that. There's three or four others and I promise to take them up. Now, you guys have a great day. If you got sun in your area, get out and get 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes. You know, 20 minutes gives you 10,000 IUs and you'd never overdose on the vitamin D that you get from the sun. You never do. Your body knows exactly how much it needs. Isn't that amazing about the sun? Your solar panels turn off when they don't need any more. They're filled up. I love that. But 20 minutes, 10,000 IUs. People are scared skinny. "Oh, I take a 1000 IUs of vitamin D, doc. I take a 1000." That's for mice. Okay. That's for mice. Anyway, I don't want to get into it. Okay. Love you guys. 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!