Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners.
Some of today’s topics include:
- Supplements and your kidneys
- Lion's mane and chaga
- Sleepwalking
- Consuming too much salt
- Nutrients in veal
- Grapefruit
- Thyroid function with no ovaries
- Colostrum
- Valerian root
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 another Live this morning, our Question and Answer Friday. Hope you're having a great start to your day. Let's get to the questions. One of them is… I'll put a couple of them together here, because Amy is asking, "Does taking too many supplements affect your kidneys?" Well, look, no. You should see the handful of supplements I take every day. Let me make an overarching principle. The good news in Canada, similar in the United States, but even more stringent in Canada is what we call Health Canada, and there is not a product on the market, if it's in Canada and it's for sale, it's approved by Health Canada. Now I can tell you with great experience that at one time, that wasn't true. Health Canada really did a smart thing years ago, and they created the natural health product directory. And that was a branch of Health Canada that specifically looked at all natural products, and they wanted them to be registered, one, to show their safety, had to have a safety record, and they could not make any claims unless it was approved by Health Canada. This came in the late '90s. Health Canada was the leader in the world for this. The rest of the world, if your product was approved in Canada, it was approved everywhere because Health Canada regulations were stringent.
So you asked the question. I mean, could it be hard on your kidneys? Well, it's not supposed to be. And again, I don't mean to minimize that. I mean, look, everybody's different. You've got a different fingerprint than me, okay? Amy, listen. Some people, they're very hypersensitive to certain things and things bother them. Well, Dorothy says, "Every time I take Navitol, it bothers my stomach. Why?" Well, you're different, Dorothy. I mean, there's probably, and I don't think I'm exaggerating, 20, 30,000 people a day take Navitol. Hey, I've been around a long time. I was saying to a patient the other day, "I think I've been taking pine bark for well over 30 something years." Navitol's pine bark extract. Their safety record is incredible. Approved by Health Canada, and if you, Dorothy, it bothers you, well, maybe it's not for you. But like I said, you just have to see your uniqueness. Everybody is unique. I get some people, when I say, "Eggs, meat, and cheese," and they go, "Doc, I can't have cheese. It bothers me." Well, then don't have it.
I saw an advertisement yesterday for lactose-free milk. That drives me crazy. Stop drinking milk. "Oh, I can drink it because they take the lactose out of it." Yeah, but maybe you were never meant to drink it. You drink mommy's milk and then drink water and coffee. You don't need milk. You don't. You know what I'm saying? I'm giving you an overarching principle, but I'll give you another overarching principle. Okay, this is really important. You know what kills your kidneys? Not supplements. Medications. I mean, the side effects are legion. There's two organs that are most sensitive to medications. Well-established, your kidneys and your liver. People take Tylenol like it's no tomorrow, and they have no idea what that does to their liver, or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories like Advil and things like that. I mean, they kill the kidneys. People take five, 10 medications, and their kidneys are not working properly. They can become very sluggish. That is the thing you should worry about the most because it's medication.
There are more people, I'm going to tell you something, just in Tylenol, and I think the latest statistic was 2018, 300,000 people in the United States alone were hospitalized because of the side effects of Tylenol. You can go look at it. Go to the CDC website. These are established facts. So look, I defend the natural products, but with a little disclaimer. And I'm saying to you, as an individual, if things bother you, well, you've got to figure that out, and everybody's different. But I won't condemn what I know to be safe for 99% of the population. So it's a good question, though. I like the question. I take a handful of supplements every day. Somebody asked me the other day, "When do you take them?" Well, me, I'm a senior. I take them in the morning because I'm going to forget. I've done that. I put supplements in my pocket saying, "I am going to take them after," and guess what? The next day, they're in my pocket.
So Amy and Dorothy, and then someone was asking about Quercetin. "Can I take Quercetin every day?" Yeah, sure you can. I take it every day. "You do, Dr. Martin?" Yeah. Every time I drink coffee, I have Quercetin. Yeah, there's Quercetin in coffee. Do I like Quercetin? I love it. Do you want to take it as an individual supplement? Go for it. I've got no problem with that. I just know when you drink coffee, you get it. I'd rather drink coffee. Coffee is a powerful antioxidant. And one thing you guys, unless you're new on this program, one thing you would all agree with, I have been enormously consistent about that. As a matter of fact on the Martin Clinic vitamin list is vitamin C. The real vitamin C is coffee because it has Quercetin in it. It has polyphenols. It has antioxidants, like vitamin C. The coffee bean is so good for you, and I have been consistent, real consistent.
Matter of fact, let me answer this question because it was about coffee, and let me just get it. Mark's asking, "I wanted your thoughts on lion's mane and chaga coffee as an alternative to regular coffee." Mark, it may be very good for you. I like lion's mane. You know why? For your brain, your memory, your short-term memory, your cognitive function. There's a whole new thing, they call it nootropics for your brain. Lion's mane, we put it in our enhanced brain formula. I like it. Do I like chaga? Yeah, I like it. But as an alternative to coffee? I'm sorry, Mark. I feel sorry for people that don't like coffee. "Well, Dr. Martin, I like tea." I feel sorry for you. You like tea? Why? See, personal preference, okay? But I'm telling you, I said it for years when people were saying, "That makes you acidic." Oh, that drives me mental. Coffee is acidic. So what? Not when it gets inside your body, it isn't. It's not acidic. Your body knows how to buffer. "Coffee is acidic. It makes you acidic. It dehydrates you." No, it doesn't. No it doesn't. Yeah, if you have 30 cups. If you have 30 cups of anything, you're going to be in trouble. Okay?
And again, I've got to give you my experience, and research is pretty consistent in backing me up because I've said this for 50 years. Coffee is good for you. Coffee is anti-cancer. Coffee is anti-heart disease. It's an anti-inflammatory. It's an antioxidant. It's a polyphenol. It has Quercetin. It's not acidic. As a matter of fact, it'll make your tissue even more alkaline, in a sense. It's good for you. It gets rid of acid. And some people don't like coffee. I feel sorry for you. People have asked me on The Reset, "Oh, Doc, where am I going to get my vitamin C?" Well, you ain't going to get scurvy on The Reset. I'm going to tell you that right now. Could you get vitamin C? I mean, the Inuit don't get vitamin C. They don't die. I'm hoping they're drinking coffee, okay? But coffee is a real vitamin C because it is so complex that your body takes it in. Imagine you're drinking, you got Quercetin coming in, and Quercetin is very good for your lungs. Quercetin is very good for allergies. It's in coffee. But if you want to take it as a supplement, hey, go for it. I got no problem with that. Good questions.
Evelyn, "What causes sleepwalking?" Well, do they really know in terms of... Because you got to understand something, okay? Not so much for sleepwalking, but let me talk to you about sleep apnea. Okay? I'm telling you, I got medical books. Some of them are behind me here, and then I have a shelf over here. You Google... Well, don't Google it. But if you look at sleep apnea, for example, which is a lack of oxygen to the brain, it's not even in my medical books in the 1970s. Never heard of it. There was no such thing as those machines. You know, now, today, sleep apnea is an epidemic today. Hello? I tell people, "Look, there's a reason you have that. It's insulin." Now you'd have to go back quite a ways to find this on our podcast. But if you go on our website and look for podcasts, I talked about the fat tongue syndrome. That's sleep apnea. You know what they found out was sleep apnea? Why is it you got a lack of oxygen going up to the brain? You've got a fat tongue. Your tongue is obese. Why is that? Because insulin is a growth hormone, and for some people, and a lot more than ever before, they got trouble with sleeping. And one of the reasons is because they got sleep apnea because of a fat tongue. I'm serious. Some people think I'm joking, but I'm not. Do you get a fat tongue because you talk too much?
Seriously. It's amazing when people do The Reset. A lot of times they figure out, "You know what? I'm sleeping so much better." So instead of a machine, and I get it. I mean, look, you can't drive a car or whatever if you've been diagnosed with sleep apnea. But why is there sleep apnea and there was no sleep apnea in the 1970s or the 1980s? Why? I mean, there might've been a few cases, but why is there so much today? It's insulin. Insulin resistance. Some people get a fatty tongue. Not everybody. See, insulin affects people in different ways. Some people, they get acid reflux because their insulin resistance is high. Some people get joint pain. "No, my blood sugar is normal." No, it's high normal and you have insulin resistance, creating inflammation. Remember what I've always said, diabetes, like blood sugar that's actually gone through the roof, is the last thing that will happen to your body. And I tell them, "You're really a diabetic." Modern medicine has numbers, and if you don't fit into those numbers, you're not, according to them, a diabetic, but you're a diabetic. And sleepwalking, I'm not even saying that because kids sleepwalk, right?
What is the actual physiology of sleepwalking? I don't know. I've known people that have had it, and I find when I used to get them in my office, I mean, they usually had other issues. They weren't coming to see me because of sleepwalking. And just generally, I found they weren't good eaters. They had low levels of B12, generally, and low levels of vitamin D. So I would always fix those things because, like I said, I don't think I ever had anybody come into my office in all those years. The reason they came, oh, is by the way, they sleepwalk. No. Okay? Good question.
Oh, Linda is asking, "Is there a certain amount of salt we should have a day?" Well, let me tell you that you need salt. I'm big on salt. Don't blame salt for what sugar has done. Tony Jr. and I did this one together, I think. We talked about what cardiologists got wrong. Look, I love cardiologists, okay? All I'm saying is anytime they put out a blanket statement, they got it wrong. They got it wrong on cholesterol. They got it wrong on butter. They got it wrong on cereals, and they got it wrong on salt because salt will never bother you, ever. Never give you high blood pressure unless you're not drinking enough water. You cry salt. Your blood is salt. Your tears are salt. Your saliva has salt. You're salt, not sugar. Sugar is out of the bloodstream. Salt is in it. You need it. Your kidneys don't work without salt. Now, like I said, salt only bothers you when you are dehydrated. Now your viscosity, the thickness of your blood will increase if you don't drink water. Okay? So you need salt. How much? Lots. I love salt. Salt is good for you. Put it on all your food. Put it in your water if you're thinking you're not getting enough.
Remember I did the teaching on the two oceans, the inside of your cell and the outside of yourself. There's two oceans there. You need potassium on the inside of your cell and you need sodium on the outside of the cell, and they look at each other and they want it to be balanced between the two. You need salt. If you got high blood pressure, I'm going to tell you something. It's not because you're consuming too much salt. Nope. Now you might be dehydrated. That could be a factor. One of the biggest things, remember, the most sensitive organ to sugar, the most sensitive, your blood vessels, yes, it doesn't take long actually for your blood vessels to get damaged when you're a bad eater. But sugar, the organ it affects more than any other organ, I know it affects your liver and lungs, it's your kidneys. Your kidneys are hyper-sensitive to sugar. Your kidneys are hyper-sensitive to insulin. They'll hold on to water and they will release your salts. That's what edema is. Often happens. Again, people, "Oh, Doctor, I'm not a diabetic," but effectively you are because your kidneys are being affected by sugar, and they're hyper sensitive to sugar. Hyper sensitive. Okay? All good questions. We appreciate that so much.
Okay. Let me see now. Betty is asking, "Does veal have more nutrients than regular meat?" I like veal, okay? You've got to mortgage your house to eat it. It's very good for you. Does it have more nutrients than, what, steak? No. No, but it's good for you. Okay? Veal is good. Now, is it classified as a red meat? Yeah. It doesn't have the same amount of B12. I think it has a little less than your steak or liver. You don't hear me talking about liver too much because I don't like it. I'm just being honest with you. I don't like the taste of it. Okay? Why have liver when you can have steak? Okay? My dad used to like liver. My mom, every once in a while, would make my dad liver. Oh, I couldn't stand it. Good question, though, Betty. What's the difference? Uhh, who cares? Eggs, meat, and cheese and all the meats are good. Even chicken. You can have chicken, but it's not as good as steak. Okay? It just isn't. It doesn't have the heme iron and it does not have B12. Doesn't have all the amino acids that red meat does, but it's still good for you. Okay?
Brenda, what are my thoughts on grapefruit? Well, again, I like grapefruit. I do. It's one of God's candies. Fruits are God's candies, and I say it and I say it and I say it because you and I live in a different world today. The world's changed, and grapefruit is good for you. I've got no problem with it. Don't drink it. Eat it. But don't live on it. I remember, this is years ago, the grapefruit diet. I thought it was the craziest thing. You should've heard me pontificate about that. The grapefruit diet. We just have grapefruit. Somehow those enzymes in there or whatever were breaking down your fat balls. I mean, that was the craziest thing I've ever heard in my life, was that. Well, not the craziest, but I was railing against it. I said, "What are you doing that for? You're starving yourself to death." There's no amino acids in grapefruit. Some of you remember that craze. I think it was 20 years ago or more. People would ask me... Remember, I had a radio show. So people asked me about that all the time. And I said, "That's crazy." I didn't say, "You're crazy." I said, "That's crazy." "Yeah, but guru so-and-so said it's wonderful." Eh, guru so-and-so doesn't know what he's talking about. That's craziness. Why would you do that to yourself? It's not good for you.
And like I said, we live in a different world, okay? 1950s, people were consuming 25 pounds of sugar a year. We're at almost 200 now and climbing. So fruit, sugar, fructose, see? Since the 1980s, fructose is up 300% and fructose gets metabolized differently. Doesn't mean it's no good for you in a small amount. And eat a fruit. Don't drink a fruit. And if you've got any trouble with uric acid, like I said, I'm going to do a teaching on that. You and fruit, you don't get along. So have very little. That's why I talk about berries and not bananas. I like that. Berries and not bananas. An apple a day will not keep the doctor away. It's a new saying, but I'm saying it because we live in a different world. We just do. There's so much stinking fructose. And don't add to it. So that's why I call them God's candies. Do you like that?
No kid is going to get obese or get sick by eating fruit. Okay? No, they won't. But if you've already got trouble with insulin, then you've got to be careful. That's what I'm saying. I said, like bananas, your body, a banana, I know... "Oh, it's got potassium. My doctor said I need to eat bananas." Yeah, but you already got trouble with insulin. Don't worry about your potassium because your potassium is coming out of your body because your kidneys are being affected by your insulin. I'm going right to the root of the problem. "I've got to have a banana." No, you don't. There's a lot of potassium in steak. Okay? I hope you understand where I'm coming from because I'm not trying to be facetious at all, Brenda. I mean it. So if you got no problems with insulin at all and you like grapefruit, enjoy. I mean it. Enjoy. Just understand where I'm coming from. Okay?
Chantelle. "I have no ovaries. Removed after breast cancer. How can my thyroid function properly?" Well, you know what? I'm going to give you some good news, Chantelle. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. God gave you a plan B. Okay? Because I've had thousands of women that have had complete hysterectomies, complete, no ovaries, no uterus, gonzo. And I say, "Well, the good news is you have plan B. Your body is still going to secrete estrogen. Your body's still going to make progesterone." Not as much as you used to have, of course, but you're going to still make those hormones. And sometimes I would have to give them supplements or whatever and make sure their adrenals were working properly, and cortisol formula really helped with that. And there's some times I had them on different things, but your body has plan B, guys. It's amazing.
You might have to stimulate your thyroid, depending. Okay? Naturally, somebody's asking this. Okay? Right here, Chantelle. “Do we need iodine?” Well, if you're eating eggs, meat, and cheese, you're going to get iodine in there. But I add iodine to our thyroid formula because the soil has very little left of it. It's been stripped away. So I like iodine. That's one of the reasons I love those pink salts and whatever. There's iodine in it. And you can supplement, depending. I have thousands on the thyroid formula. I put iodine right in there. But Chantelle, if you have no ovaries, don't you worry. But now, listen, if you have symptoms of a sluggish thyroid, well, then do something about that. Okay? But remember, your body has plan B. Your body has plan B. It will take over the production of your hormones that you need. Go by symptoms, Chantelle. Okay? If your thyroid, "Hey, I'm feeling good and whatever," your body just made a big adaptation. It's amazing what happens. Okay? And Cheryl was the one asking about iodine as a supplement.
John's asking about colostrum. Well, colostrum, I like. When you're a baby, one of the things that mommy gives off is colostrum, right away in the first month or two months. The milk from mommy is full of colostrum. Cows give off colostrum in the first month or so after having a cow. Is it good? Yeah, I like it. I like it. Do you need it as a supplement? Nah. I understand why they talk about it. I'm bigger on the lactoferrin, okay? And bone broth has lactoferrin and it elevates your immunity, and that's why you would take colostrum. Would it be good for the gut? Yeah, I think it would be good for the gut, for sure. But like I said, if you look, I mean, people have asked me this for years and years about colostrum. I said, "Well, there's a reason it's given." Mommy's got it. And I mean, not that you couldn't get it as a supplement. It's very expensive, and I think there's other ways to get it.
What's much more important for your gut are probiotics than colostrum. You want to fix leaky gut, colostrum will not fix leaky gut. Will not patch like broad spectrum probiotics will, John, in my opinion. But I'm not against it. I'm not against it. If you want to take a colostrum supplement, go for it. I'm not against it. I like bone broth better for the gut, and to fix leaky gut with probiotics. I use bone broth for many, many, many, many years. It is so good for you. It's got all the amino acids. It's got L-glutamine, and L-glutamine is what really helps regenerate the gut, and it's in bone broth. That's what I like, okay? But thanks for the question, John. We appreciate it.
Maria, "What are your thoughts on valerian root?" I like valerian. This is for sleep, right? Maria, yes. And you know what? Again, a lot of supplements, guys, I don't like on their own. Okay? And valerian is one of them. It's alright if you find it can be effective for you, good. I like a combination. If you notice, we like formulas. Complex. I mean, high DHA is not necessarily a formula, but I mean, it's omega 3 and it's highly filtered to get that high DHA in it. But generally, if you look at our supplements, the thyroid, you look at the adrenal, which is our Cortisol Formula, you look at our different probiotics, they're all lots of different supplement in the supplement because I like formulas. It's taken me years to develop formulas.
I'll give you an example. Our inflammation formula. Somebody said, "Well, you're not telling us everything that's in there." Well, we do it to the extent the law tells us. There's nothing secret in there, but we just don't tell you... There's some things we don't tell you in terms of its formulation because those are trade secrets. Okay? Because people want to steal them off of me. I did all the research and all the clinical trials, and then people all... I like formulas. I really do. Okay? Inflammation formula. I put 8 anti-inflammatories in there. Valerian I like. It didn't make my hip parade to get into the Cortisol Formula. I liked it, but it wasn't the best, in my opinion. I like Rhodiola better than Valerian. For me, I found that better in a combination with ashwagandha and a few other things that I like, and the reason is because I had to get results. I was in practice. If somebody came to see me, I had better get results. Some things over the years, if I'm not getting enough results from that, I don't do it anymore. That's where I come from.
Okay, guys, thanks for all those questions. I hope I answered all of them. I think I did. And we appreciate it very, very much. So don't be shy. Ask your questions. Okay? We love you guys dearly. Okay? Remember, a couple of housekeeping. On Facebook Live, be good, be nice. Okay? Let's not get angry with each other. There's enough anger in the world. We don't have to do it with our beautiful group, our Facebook group, too. The book is available. The Reset can save your life, guys, your friends. Makes a great Christmas gift. Shop early. And for those who can't watch, let them know they can download The Doctor Is In podcast. Thank you for making it so popular. We appreciate it. We appreciate you guys. Thank you so much. I 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!