Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners.
Some of today’s topics include:
- Probiotics & prebiotics
- Purpose of yawning
- Use of sun lamps
- Hyperlipidemia
- Cortisol resistance
- Vitamin D for kids
- Peptides for healing
- Can Parkinson's be reversed?
- Blood pressure & vitamin K2
- Atrophied pancreas
- Uric acid in blood
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, everyone. And once again, welcome to a Friday edition of Facebook Live, soon-to-be podcast. So, Question and Answer Friday. One of the questions that was asked was about probiotics. I didn't write down the first name. I should have. It was my fault. I was looking at yesterday, we talked about probiotics and leaky gut, how do you know if you have leaky gut? And we went over seven or eight signs that you probably have leaky gut. And that was a very popular broadcast yesterday. So, thank you for that. People were asking, afterwards, "Okay, probiotics, talk a little bit about them." Well, I did yesterday, but I'm going to give you what I like. First of all, not yogurt. I told you that.
Now, I'm not against yogurt, by the way. Used to be til I got a hold of Canada. Remember I've been doing a radio show for a long time, and I used to rail against women who made yogurt, the number one breakfast in Canada and the United States, yogurt. Greek, plain, yogurt, or make your own yogurt. I was reading about yogurt in the Bible this morning. So, you know that, I like dairy, don't ditch the dairy, switch the dairy, get away from milk in the grocery store. If you have a cow in the backyard, drink milk, otherwise, don't drink milk, drink water and coffee. And if you insist, tea.
Now, bacteria, remember, you got my permission, when you step on a scale, to take 3 pounds off. Tony Jr. probably give you a 5 pound off, take it off, it's bacteria. Nothing you can do about it. You got trillions of them and they make up 3 to 5 pounds of your body weight. Isn't that incredible? So, again, you have my permission. You step on a scale, take off 3 pounds. I'm serious about that, okay? Now, the best way to heal leaky gut is with probiotics and diet... Of course, don't feed the bad guys. The bad guys need to eat, and they love sugar. Probiotics are the best things since sliced bread. And I use that expression, because sliced bread ain't good for you.
But probiotics need to be number one, broad spectrum. What does that mean? Different strains of bacteria, multitude of stains. You know why? Because different strains do different things. Lactobacillus does these things, good for relining the gut and other things. L. reuteri, for example, will go after your yeast. L. rhamnosus, all Latin names, that's medicine that does that, that's all Latin, so you don't understand it. I can't stand it. They gave him all these big names, like L. lactobacillus reuteri. What does that mean? Different strains do different things. And I like broad spectrum. Some probiotics, actually, chelate things out of your body, like heavy metals. Some of them attack certain bacteria that don't belong in your body. Some of them attack your candida, your yeast. This is why everybody and their dog should be taking probiotics in my opinion, the best are broad spectrum, one.
Two, again, you can get dairy probiotics. The problem with dairy probiotics, you have to refrigerate them. And actually they're much better not even in the fridge, you better put them in the freezer. Now, you're traveling. Now, you're losing potency pretty quickly. The nice thing about soil-based probiotics is that they last forever. You could take a blowtorch to them and you're not going to destroy the bacteria. And they're meant to get past your stomach acid, and be distributed throughout your body, including your gut. You're replacing that bacteria. So, that's what I like.
And somebody asked yesterday, again, and I should've wrote the name down, but I'm answering the question now. "What about, doc, prebiotics?" Yeah. Prebiotics are FOS, fructo-oligosaccharides, again, big words. You find that in maple syrup, you'll find it in honey. Again, non-pasteurized honey, and that. And guys, you don't hear me talking about prebiotics too much. We put it right in our formula, but you know what's a good prebiotic that a lot of people don't realize? Omega-3, "Ah, these prebiotics, you need fiber for prebiotics." No, you don't. No, you don't. You have a good steak or fish, you got prebiotics in there. Your good bacteria like steak, it's fertilizer for them. They have a lot more children once you feed them. It's like fertilizer. You ever put fertilizer on your grass. That's what a prebiotic is, okay?
Like bananas are a prebiotic, but I don't want you to eat them, because they're like eating what? 39, 49 M&M's. If you got trouble with blood sugar, don't eat that stuff, you don't need it. You can do it by eating steak. I've always said that. People had this idea, "Only the plant kingdom gives you prebiotics." Who told you that? So, I answered the question on prebiotics and probiotics. And if you have more questions about that, don't hesitate. I want to give you as much information as I can.
Louise asking, "Hey, doc, what causes yawning?" Think about what that is. You're sucking for air. Nobody probably told you, and I used to see that a fair amount, because it was a question I used to ask on my questionnaire. Are you yawning all the time? Usually you're low in B12. You're not carrying enough oxygen, B12. How do you get B12? Steak, vitamin S. Now, get your numbers. You should be between 800 and 1200, at least, with B12. Remember, the B12 tests are 100 years old. I wish they'd put them to bed and develop a new one. We used to have a saliva test. That was a real good indicator of B12, much more accurate. Anywho, B12, usually if you're low or you're in the low end, "Oh, doc, my doctor says it's normal." Normal, what's that mean, normal? It ain't normal for you, because you're yawning all the time, low B12. That's the first thing I would look at.
And Linda, "On gray days without sunshine." Well, that's coming to a theater near you in Northern Ontario and probably Canada. And Linda's asking, "Is the sun lamp just as good?" Well, the sun lamp is not VitDerma. It's not bad. I'm not against sun lamps, I'm not, especially in the winter time. You're not going to see a lot of sun. I don't mind the sun lamp, but it's no replacement for what God has put up in the sky up there, the sun. So, I got no problem with that, because you're better off to get some of that, it'll help you to produce some melatonin. Remember, the sun, you need that. Even if it's cold, the sun is still good, because it'll help you to make melatonin through your eye gate. And when you darken your eye gate, pitch-black at night, and you're sleeping, you're making melatonin. Good question.
"I hear Dr. Martin." Oh, this is Linda still, "Talk about hyperthyroidism, but never hypo." Well, I talk about the thyroid a lot. I talk more about sluggish. I've talked about Hashimoto's, I talked about Graves' disorder. Those are at the extreme ends of autoimmune, when it comes to the thyroid, one very high, one very low. But what I mostly talk about is your balance of your thyroid. And a lot of people don't realize that their thyroid is not working at its optimal level. The thyroid is a very finicky organ at the best of times. And ladies especially. Not that men don't have a thyroid, we do, but we're not complicated, because we don't have ovaries. Ovaries, ladies, complicate your life, because you produce a womanly hormone called estrogen and the world is full of estrogen today, because any plastic, any fragrance, I mean, just about anything you can think of that you can't spell is elevating your estrogen. And estrogen, when it is dominant over your other little sweetheart hormone called progesterone, ladies, if you're out of balance, it is going to mess up your thyroid. You'll only look at food and gain weight. A lot of women lose hair. A lot of women, their eyebrows are start thinning out. Their skin gets dry. They get constipated. Everything slows down. It can speed up and then go crazy. But the vast majority of women with estrogen dominance, and then you add cortisol to the mix, now it becomes super complicated.
It was kind of funny, because yesterday, I don't know if Marine is on with us this morning, from Boca Raton, Florida, but I did a webinar with her group yesterday and one of her ladies, in the question and answer, on the Zoom, which I really enjoyed, by the way, we did a nutrition 101, but one of them said, "I went to my endocrinologist." I love endocrinologists, but usually they don't look at the big picture. They do tests, they limit their testing and then they sort of have tunnel vision. If the blood work doesn't come back and if... It almost has to slap them in the face before they get serious about horror-mones. You know how many thousands of women I saw over the years that fell through the cracks and then come in on the day one and I'd say, "Well, I tested your thyroid. It's sluggish. I checked your estrogen levels and they're through the roof. You didn't have enough progesterone. Your cortisol is high. No wonder you're messed up." And I can see a little tear come down their eyes. "Nobody ever told me that before." "Yeah, when did you start getting messed up?" And I used to ask the questions. "When did you start? When did you start messing up in gaining weight? After baby number two? Or did you have bad periods right out of the gate? You were estrogen dominant."
There's three traumatic events in a woman's life hormonally. The first day of menses and sometimes a little pre, babies and menopause. And any of those three can start off horror-mones for women. See, men, we don't have that. Think about it. We don’t menstruate... You want to give me a migraine, start talking about, "There's no more genders." I get a headache, because there's a lot of guys on here this morning, which I appreciate. But guys, if you don't figure that out about your woman and just like zip it, you have no idea what a woman goes through with hormones, horror-mones. There's very few women in the world that haven't had some type of traumatic experience with their hormones. I've seen women come into their menopause like a plane. I used to use that illustration. I said, "The plane is coming in to land and guess what? It hit turbulence." You ever been in a plane that hits turbulence? You know what I mean? Hold on tight and fasten your seatbelt. I used to tell that to women. I said, "Your plane is coming into land and you hit turbulence." "Oh, that's why I'm gaining weight. And that's why I don't feel good. And that's why I'm not... I used to sleep, doc, like a log. And now we don't sleep so much. And I'm getting hot flashes, and I'm sweating. I got to get up and change my night gown in the middle of the night. And my hair is thinning out."
Suzanne, "When sugar gets stored in the muscle, what happens to the sugar?" Well, it's converted to glycogen, stored fuel. That's what happens. Three areas where sugar gets stored. One, muscle, that's why the more bins you have... Make up some room, have bigger bins. The more bins you have, the better it is, the more room you have to store glycogen in the muscle. Then it won't store it in the second spot, which is your liver, the Costco parking lot. And when that is full, it'll make fat cells till the cows come home. That's what happens, Suzanne, to sugar. Your ability to make fat is incredible. And it'll start around your liver and it'll pack it up like a minivan going on a holiday, all the suitcases in it. And then when it's out of room, it'll make more fat cells, more and more and more and more. That's how your body stores sugar. Good question, Suzanne, never get tired of talking about why you shouldn't eat sugar. And sugar makes you fat, not fat.
I'm sorry, because Monica is saying this. I think she just took this off Google, but I could be wrong. "One out of three people have hyperlipidemia, which is elevated levels of cholesterol in the blood and elevated levels of fat in the blood." Well, I'm sorry, Monica, look, I know it's confusing. I know it is. Get to my session, get the truth and never sell it. And I ask people, I used to do this in my office all the time. "Give me 30 days of your life.” You came to see me. You spent money and time. Now, I would say you need to trust me, because what I'm going to tell you is going to go against the grain. I am going to teach you nutrition 101. I am going to talk to you about the cholesterol hoax. And don't worry about cholesterol, worry about sugar that will get sent into your bloodstream, Monica, as triglycerides.
In all due respect, and I mean that, I don't mind people challenging me, because I'm 100%, not 99.9%, 100% convinced. And I always use the example of what heart disease is higher than ever. Why is that? People eating more steak? No, they're eating less of it. People eating more eggs? No, they're eating less of it. People eating more bacon? They're eating less of it. It's not bacon. It's sugar, and sugar is going to elevate your triglycerides. Your fat balls in your blood. That's hyperlipidemia, Monica. Hyperlipidemia is not cholesterol, as a matter of fact, you want high cholesterol. Because cholesterol, in particular HDL, high-density lipoprotein, will hitch their wagon to your triglycerides and take them back to the liver, where they belong, to be metabolized. That is biochemistry 101, Monica. I don't mind repeating, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. That's me.
The pharmaceutical industry, the food industry, they pump out their propaganda 24 hours a day. I'm no match to the pharmaceutical or the food industry. I'm no match to them. I'm a little guy in Northern Ontario, Canada. But I try and make dents by giving people the truth, get the truth and never sell it. And I always used to say this, Monica, in my office, "Give me 30 days of your life and I'm going to prove to you that I'm right with blood work." And here's what we're going to look for. Your triglycerides and your HDL. And we're going to look at your inflammation. We're going to look at a lot of things, and I like your A1C and this a that, and it's going to all get better. And I know we can't use the word Eskimo, no Inuit ever died of a heart attack, and they eat nothing but blubber. They don't get hyperlipidemia, because lipidemia is really not cholesterol at all, it is triglycerides. And I think that, Monica, if you're new to this program, I tell you, I've been preaching that consistently, as long as I've been in practice, and that is 46 years. And now out of practice for a couple of years, not quite two yet.
Abe, "Can you have cortisol resistance and not gain weight?" Well, if your stress levels are out of control, it doesn't necessarily mean that you have cortisol resistance. I have to think about that. I haven't really thought about resisting cortisol. You resist insulin. You resist a lot of other hormones. Like a leptin resistance. I get that cortisol resistance and your body gets used to it, and you need even more. I don't know. As far as you being in good shape, good for you as far as you know, right? But your stress gets under control and what that does, Abe, you might not see it, but stress, remember what it does, it takes inflammation, the silent killer that destroys your blood vessels, and inflammation is a big factor in cancer. It's almost like an autoimmune. Your inflammation is good if I kick you in the knee. You want inflammation, because you're bringing extra protein and extra enzymes and extra blood supply to the knee. But you don't want that to stay there, otherwise it'll start destroying normal tissue and it's very silent. Inflammation is silent. That's why I love the CRP test. C-reactive protein. Get that test done, and you should, Abe, because then you'll know whether you have inflammation. Then you need to get that stress down, because stress just pours gasoline on inflammation. And watch your diet, because that has a big effect on cortisol too.
Anne, "How much vitamin D for a 5-year-old?" Look, vitamin D, in a way, gets a bad rap, because people are scared of it. You ever see stuff that sort of sticks like glue. Well, one of them is cholesterol. The other one is butter. "It gets you fat, eggs, cholesterol in eggs." Yeah. There's only cholesterol in the animal kingdom, of course there's cholesterol. But you know what I mean? You say something long enough and it sticks like glue, and people get it in their craw and you can't change it. So, here's what came out of vitamin D, two things came out of vitamin D since the 1950s. One, it's fat-soluble. Yeah. Okay. What's that mean? A, D, E, the other E, K, ADEK. Those are fat-soluble vitamins. So what? What does that mean? You can get toxic. I know, but like I always say, Anne, go to the hospital today, go into the emergency department. Call your doctor, ask if you can sit in. There's nobody coming in there with, "Oh, your vitamin D, no wonder you're sick." You sit in the sun for 20 minutes and you get 10,000 IUs of vitamin D, in 20 minutes, so do kids. Did they get sick?
Now, I'm not telling you to give them 10,000 IUs. Vitamin D has been vilified in mainstream medicine, because, one, it's fat-soluble. I got to, Anne, tell you a little story, because I just want to show you the insanity of things. Vitamin D doctors are scared of it. "It's fat-soluble. You can become toxic." And two, they see vitamin D only for bones, only for bones. Now, you know I teach 100% different from that. You are a human solar panel. Now, I had a physician once and she was actually a patient of mine. And she called me because one of her patients also happened to be one of my patients. And she said, "Doc, her B12 is really high." I said, "Well, how high is it?" It was around 1,200. I said, "That's good. That's what I'm aiming for." She said, "Well, the lab flagged it very high." Who cares? I said, "Well, B12, you want it to be optimized. You want vitamin D to be optimized."
Now, B12 is a water-soluble vitamin, and you pee it out when you don't need it. Vitamin D is not just a vitamin, it's a hormone. Your body needs it and people are scared of it. I'm not telling you what to give a 5-year-old, I'm not supposed to. Because I don't know your 5-year-old or whatever. I'll tell you what I take every day of vitamin D. I take 8,000, 10,000 IUs. And I'm starting now, because in the summer, I'm out in the sun quite a bit. And my vitamin D levels are excellent. I keep them optimized. If you can get a test of vitamin D, please do it. That is one of the most important tests you'll ever get done, so is B12. Make sure you get it done.
Elle, "What causes burning, tingling, numbness in the feet?" Well, usually it's called neuropathy and diabetics are the worst for that. If it's both feet, it's not your spine. You got a circulation problem. You got a nerve problem. Check your B12 levels, check your glucose, check your A1C and get off the stinking carbs. And a lot of times your B12 is low. You got very low levels of nitric oxide, and I love to give B12 with Navitol for neuropathy.
Cory, "What do I think of peptides for healing?" Peptides are just small amino acids. And I like amino acids, like for healing, I like collagen peptides. I'm a big guy on collagen. It's my favorite protein. But as far as the peptides, I mean, that became really big in especially weightlifting and this and that to elevate the growth hormone. Can I be honest with you? I find vitamin D to be better than peptides for growth hormone, yeah, the sun, VitDerma. One of the best things you can do for growth hormone and healing is sleep at night. Sun in the day, sleep at night. Sun in the day, dark at night, melatonin, sleep, repair, growth hormone, and even intermittent fasting, don't eat at night, Cory, don't eat at night, because that really helps. I like fasting without fasting. So, when you're eating eggs, meat, and cheese, you're fasting without fasting. But I still like with even The Reset, don't eat at night, give your body lots of time. You're going to produce more growth hormone, helps with healing. Good question.
Rosalyn, "My son diagnosed with Parkinson's. Can this be reversed?" Usually not reversed, but controlled much better by doing number one... Remember what I was saying yesterday about Parkinson's? What they're finding, almost consistently, is a huge fungal, yeast, candida infection in the brain. How did it get there? Where did it start? With the gut. Parkinson's is leaky gut. Maybe because of antibiotics, maybe because of a bad diet, maybe because of other things that we talked about yesterday. What gives you leaky gut? You got to fix the gut. You got to change the diet, because one of the things that yeast transports across the blood-brain barrier are heavy metals, like mercury, lead, cadmium. Oftentimes, in Parkinson's, people are full of mercury, or lead, cadmium. How did it get there? Yeast, candida, get rid of it. Don't feed the bears. Feed your good bacteria. Rosalyn, thanks so much.
Nicole, "Why can't we take a liquid vitamin D when taking a blood thinner?" Who told you that? Look, there's a lot of warnings out there that the FDA and Health Canada, they make you put it on labels and stuff like that. Even with omega-3, I mean there's labels, you're on a blood thinner. No, no, no. If the FDA could, and I mean this, if Health Canada could, and I mean this too, they would get rid of all supplements. They would. They don't like them. They just would. Because, you just need a balanced diet. You know that 70% of the population, 70%, take a supplement on a daily basis? 70% in North America. The FDA knows that. And Health Canada knows it. You go to the pharmacy, you see huge shelves full of natural products. Pharmacists don't like them, generally, other than they bring in revenue. So, there's all sorts of warnings. I've never seen vitamin D ever give someone, I mean it, a side effect. Is anybody allergic to vitamin D? You don't belong on this planet if you're allergic to vitamin D. You need to go with Elon Musk and go live somewhere else. You need the sun, VitDerma, that's why I talk about it all the time. You're a human solar panel, everybody is, your brain needs vitamin D, your heart needs vitamin D, your gut needs vitamin D, your bones need vitamin D, your blood needs vitamin D, your immune system doesn't work without vitamin D.
"My blood pressure is going up. Is it because of the K2? Should we stop eating butter and cheese?" Nick, please, don't do that. Don't do it. K2, what it really does is take calcium out of your bloodstream and puts it where it belongs. And MK7 that we put in our vitamin D is completely safe and people don't get enough of vitamin K2. It's the Rodney Dangerfield of vitamins. Don't ever stop eating vitamin K2 and butter and cheese, cheese curds are the highest source of K2. I love vitamin K2. I really do. And the one you would fear more is K1, for clotting, salad, chicken and salad. That's the one you should fear.
Mary, "What supplements would be beneficial for my atrophied pancreas?" Well, the best supplement would be for your food. If your pancreas is atrophied, then please do not eat carbs. And secondly, the supplement would be digestive enzymes, because your pancreas not only secretes insulin, but it releases a lot of pancreatic enzymes, like lipase, protease, amylase. Those are all pancreatic enzymes. And if you're atrophied, then you need a digestive enzyme. Don't leave home without it. Like every meal, you need to take digestive enzymes.
Mary Ellen, last question, "Recently went to ER, and the blood work showed acid in my blood." Well, you know what, Mary Ellen, there's only two acids you're going to get in your blood. And I don't know which one he said, but I got a good idea. If he didn't keep you in the hospital, then I think you had uric acid in your blood. I'm going to do a whole teaching again on uric acid, because it's just not gout. I would think, when they did your blood work, your uric acid was elevated and probably it didn't even have gout. And that happens. One thing I know for sure, if your uric acid is high, your insulin resistance is high. The other one, the acid in the blood would be ketoacidosis, very dangerous, shut your kidneys down. You're going to die if you don't fix it. So, I don't think it was that, Mary Ellen. I think it was uric acid they were talking about. You had high levels of uric acid, change your diet, get on The Reset.
You don't have to have gout to have high levels of uric acid. But it's part of metabolic syndrome. I'd put it there. There's not many people that do, but I do. I think that's what they're talking about. It couldn't have been, I don't think, your pH of your blood, because you see, your pH of your blood is always within a very tight, tight, tight, unless it's ketoacidosis, which is very dangerous, very dangerous. Your body's breaking down. It's eating itself. That's not good. Diabetics can get into ketoacidosis. It's deadly. Some people with infections, they get sepsis and they can go into ketoacidosis, dangerous, body is shutting down. So, I don't think it was that Mary Ellen, I think it was uric acid. Maybe you can let me know.
Guys, thank you. You're the best. I don't tell you that enough. You're the best. We got the best audience in the podcast world. We're often told that. One of the reasons that Facebook likes us, guys, is because of this interaction we're having, and your comments, and that they love them. Our podcasts are the same way. The reviews on it are incredible. We thank you for that. If you're not hooked up to The Doctor Is In Podcast, hook yourself up on your smartphone. Don't ask me how to do it. Just do it. No, I listen to podcasts all the time on my smartphone. It's a lot smarter than me, I can tell you that. I don't know how to use it most of the time. We love you guys, 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!