Dr. Martin discusses over the counter medications and their effect on your microbiome. We often take these medications, usually for pain, with no regard for their side effects. In fact, 300,000 visits to the ER take place each year for serious side effects from these medications!
Despite the serious damage non-steroidal anti-inflammatories can cause to the liver and kidneys, most people don’t realize they also cause damage to their gut. They actually are very damaging to the lining of your gut because they kill your good bacteria!
Don’t miss this informative episode where Dr. Martin breaks down the long term effects of using over the counter meds.
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 here this morning. Canada is celebrating their Thanksgiving. Okay, let's get going. I was reading an article the other day and I just thought I would pontificate a little wee bit about it. The article was talking about what else, the virus, but just mentioning how effective aspirin is for the virus. Not that it kills the virus or anything like that, but I guess for the side effects, if you ever got COVID that a therapeutic would be something like aspirin, I guess, because of clotting which is one of the major side effects for people that get sick from the virus. So they were talking about the use of aspirin. Now guys, of course, as a therapeutic, I'm not against that at all. What I wanted to do is just give you a little bit of an overview of things that we think of that maybe we don't consider the side effects of, one of them being aspirin.
But these over the counter medications that are a big part of everybody's life... Well, I mean, not everybody, but certainly people with chronic pain, they live on this stuff, not necessarily even on meds that are prescription medication. These are OTC, over the counter medications. We limit in our minds, I think, the amount of side effects of these things. So let's just go over a little bit of pain. What causes pain? What is one of the underlying causes that we don't, at least the world, the mainstream media never looks at, or rarely looks at? I just jotted down here some of the side effects. These are over the counter, including aspirin, because 3 or 4 years ago, at least, I did a teaching on aspirin and we got over a million hits on it. And it was based on the FDA now telling physicians, and the FDA actually told Bayer aspirin and other makers of aspirin, not to encourage people to take these things on a daily basis.
You know how it was, especially my generation and even my parents’ generation, were told... And how many people were taking and even today still, I'm sure, taking aspirin every day? Now listen, I'm not telling people what to take or what not to take. Okay? I mean, if you've had a conversation with your physician and they're recommending you take an aspirin every day, well then you discuss that with your physician. This is for information purposes only. Because obviously as an individual, I can't counsel you, but I can just bring you the news. So this is, like I said, 3 or 4 years ago. The FDA came out with an edict and said, "Look, the risk of taking an aspirin every day versus the benefit, the risk outweighed the benefits," they said. They said, the FDA said.
And what they were looking at... And guys, this isn't just aspirin. This is Tylenol. This is Advil. They do different things, but at the end of the day, they're used... And aspirin is used to thin your blood out to stop you from clotting. And folks, if you have a heart attack and you think a stroke is happening, it's a great idea to use the aspirin. That's what the FDA was saying. But you don't do it every day because of the side effects, possible side effects of the meds. Let's just go over them. I wrote a few of them down here and I'll mention it to you. Okay? Stomach bleeding. Well, that's specifically for aspirin, but there are other medications, even over the counter, that you can get, like Aleve. Stomach bleeding, that's the number one side effect. And the problem with bleeding internally, guys, is you often don't know it. Stomach bleeding, damage to your liver.
I read an article maybe a month ago or whatever, again, on what they call iatrogenic disease, meaning what started it. And 300,000 last year, 300,000 visits to the hospital with meds, over the counter meds, like Tylenol and Advil and aspirin. 300,000. Serious, I mean, you don't go to the hospital for nothing, serious side effects. Damage to your liver. As I've mentioned to you many a times, the liver is such an important organ because it's a detox organ. It does 600 things your liver. And meds… You see, I always say this. Meds, it's like an antibiotic. It's supposed to be temporary. Temporary. You know, you got a real bad headache and you're taking an Advil or whatever, I get that. Motrin or whatever, I get it. But the idea of these things is you don't want to be on them for long period. Damage to liver, damage to kidneys. Tylenol is more damage to liver. Advil is more damage to your kidneys. Two of your major detox organs.
It kills your friendly bacteria. Now, for most people, they wouldn't even think of that, but that's really important. Medications, almost all of them, strip away your good guys, like an antibiotic, especially non-steroidal anti-inflammatories. They're very damaging to the lining of your gut. You see, there's two things in your gut that are more than significant. I'm going to bring to you a study that a dear friend sent over yesterday on depression and insulin. Then there's depression and your microbiome. We're going to go over some of these studies. Incredible, incredible. It just reinforces the importance of your gut. Well, what happens in the gut? There's two things, big things, that you need to think of. Remember, the war between your bacteria, good and bad. That's 24 and 7 that goes on. And as long as you have as many good guys as you have bad guys, it's called, you win, the microbiome. And every day there's new studies on the microbiome.
And the second thing is, in that gut lining. So not only do you have the bacteria, but also you have what we call the epithelial cells. There are single cell, sub-microscopic, border between your gut and your blood. But again, guess what makes up that little lining there, that keeps garbage out of your blood. That's what we call leaky gut. What is that little lining made up of? Bacteria. When you take an over the counter medication for pain, you are stripping those bacteria, the good guys on your side. It's like taking antibiotic, guys. It's almost the same effect. Antibiotics will wipe away your good bacteria in 5 days. So people always ask me, "Should I take a probiotic when I'm taking an antibiotic? Isn't that going to kill all the probiotic I'm taking?" No it won't, and you better do it. And you better double up.
Look, if you got to take an antibiotic or even if you're taking pain meds temporarily, you're getting yourself through something, well then folks, listen, and you need to double up your probiotics for a short period of time. You need to replace that bacteria, the lining and the general microbiome, because there's a war going on in there. And it doesn't happen in a day in a sense that, oh, what happens if I kill my friendly bacteria? Well, you're not going to drop dead on the spot. But remember, yeast gets in, it invades because you have no friendly bacteria to keep that army down.
Look, mainstream medicine still has trouble with yeast. Unless ladies, you have a yeast infection, unless you have toe fungus, doctors, they just can't think that way. I feel sorry for them. They can't get it, that yeast can sneak into the bloodstream and spread throughout your body causing major problem like Parkinson's, MS, autoimmune, skin conditions, psoriasis, eczema, acne, leaky gut, leaky lungs, phlegm, constant sinuses, postnasal drip. That's all yeast, recurring ladies, recurring bladder infections. "Oh, Dr. Martin, I got to take another antibiotic." I know. I know what you're saying, but underlying all of that is yeast. And there's some doctors out there, oncologists, that believe that yeast is at the basis of all cancers. It's a factor in all cancers.
I was big, I've told you this many a time, but big on history. Like folks, tell me your history. Tell me your health history. I'm more than interested in it. "Oh, I was on a lot of pain medications for years." You know how many women, because their estrogen was through the roof, bad periods, bad PMS, migraines coming out the wazoo, and they lived on pain medication? They couldn't survive without it. Nobody ever helped them with their underlying cause, like, that was too much estrogen. You were estrogen dominant, and some of them as young teenagers. And here they are in my office and they're 40, 50 years old and they've lived with migraines all their life. And they had to live on, once a month, twice a month, five times a month or whatever, they lived on over the counter medications for migraines. And nobody ever told them about what the root cause was. And nobody ever told them that when they were taking these over the counter medication, they were destroying their friendly bacteria.
And one of the things these things do is destroy your levels, because what it does to the liver, it gums the liver up. It destroys your levels of glutathione. Remember what glutathione is. It's Velcro. Your body produces it to take toxins out of your body, heavy metals out of your body, take yeast out of your body. Glutathione. Your body makes it. Well again, when it's one of the side effects, it's one of the side effects of meds, over the counter meds. You don't need a prescription. And of course, if you have pain, you have inflammation. There's no doubt about that. And as we always say, I don't know if you get tired of hearing it, inflammation is not Houdini. Inflammation is not Houdini. It's caused by something else.
One of the biggest things, especially in joints, guys, one of the biggest things in joints is what we call glycation. Glycation, AGE, glycation end products. What? What is that? Well, glycation is almost like from your muscles to your skin, to even in joints, they lose some of their lubrication and glycation is like hardening, caramelization. It's a form of free radical damage. It's an oxidative thing. We talked about it the other night on our webinar with Tony Jr. and I. We talked about oxidation. Remember, the idea that you take an apple and cut it in half. What happens to it? Within a minute or so, starts turning brown. And really that's oxidation. And if that happens in your joints, well, we call that glycation. It's sugar, man. But also… So that's why we talk about… like inflammation will come from glycation and oxidation. You know, you could have old injuries too, of course. But I'm saying a lot of times it's unexplained. "Doc, I just got pain. My back, my knees, my shoulders, my elbows, my hands," or whatever. And a lot of times you have to take it another step back and go, okay, why do you have inflammation? If you have pain, you have inflammation. That just is number one.
But where did the inflammation come from? Well, oxidation, glycation, injury, long term, chronic, well, now you have a process of inflammation. And it's painful. Even a migraine, guys, a headache, it's inflammation. The brain's inflamed. That can be, there's other causes. Inflammation in the absence... Okay, listen to this statement. Inflammation in the absence of infection is bad news. Because people used to die, guys. A hundred years ago, most people died from infection, not cancer, not heart disease. Not that there wasn't any heart disease. Of course there was. Not that there wasn't any cancer. Of course there was. But most people died a hundred years ago from infection. My dad's sister, I never knew her. She died when she was 18 years old, my Aunt Blanche. I just saw pictures of her. And she got an infection. Viral, I believe. I think it was viral or bacterial meningitis. And she died from it and she was 18 years old. That's what people died of before antibiotics.
It's interesting, when you look at the history, and today people die of inflammation, but not from infection because inflammation is always there in the process of heart disease. It really is incredible. Inflammation left unchecked will destroy blood vessels, number one, but they will also destroy your joints. Ask a person with rheumatoid arthritis. Inflammation that doesn't go away, will destroy joints. It can slowly destroy elasticity in muscles and that. That's glycation. But again, inflammation is part of the process, but it's not the cause. You have to go back. And one of the biggest things that you and I talk about all the time, even in joints, even in joints, pain, is insulin. I can hear you saying it. "I knew you were going to bring that up." Well, yeah. Insulin is a food hormone. There's nothing, guys, listen, there's nothing that will destroy your joints and give you pain apart from an injury, you get hit by a truck, you get in a car accident, Okay, I'm not talking about that. But there's nothing that will destroy your joints and give you pain like sugar, because it elevates your insulin and elevates inflammation.
You can get inflammation going, "How did I get that?" Well, you better check your diet. And I get it if you want to take painkillers. I won't get into this for long, but we got a crisis in North America, big time. And that's an opioid crisis. People get hooked because of pain. They get hooked. I remember talking to a guy. I used to be involved in the prison ministry here in Sudbury as a volunteer. I remember talking to one guy, he had an injury. He was a hard rock miner. These guys made big money. I mean, they work like dogs, and they are strong as bulls. And I've known a lot of hard rock miners, and man, especially today, these guys' bonuses are incredible. They're just hard, hard workers.
Anyways, this guy was telling me a story. He got hurt in the mine. And he got prescription meds, was given opioids to kill his pain. And man, it ruined his life. He was so hooked that, like he said, "I would've stole off my grandma." He ended up in jail. He lost everything, lost his home, lost his wife, lost the kids, lost everything, ended up in jail, over opioids. He said, "Doc, I would've robbed my grandma to get the next fix of that stuff." Wow, that's powerful. But all I'm saying, guys is, think about that for a minute. And inflammation. If you've ever had pain, that is no fun. This guy obviously had an injury, but even his diet will help. Because you lower inflammation when you lower your carbohydrates and your crappy sugars. And as much as you can, you try and control your pain to get on the other side of it. No fun when it's chronic, is it? It's no fun.
And I get it. I get it. It's really important. And then you try and do everything you can naturally, as much as you can. And I found that if get your insulin down, if you get your insulin down in the Reset... That's one of the things, if you read the thousands and thousands of testimonies, many in there talk about their pain levels going down. It's one of the side benefits of getting your insulin down, because insulin on its own creates inflammation. Insulin on its own creates inflammation. The more crappy carbs and sugars that you eat, the more insulin you need. It's as simple as that. And the more you need, the more your cells at the cellular level were resistant, and the more they resisted, the more insulin you need. It's as simple as that. It becomes a vicious cycle because insulin will always, always do its job. It will secrete as much as needed to get sugar out of your bloodstream.
And at the end of the day, if you think about it, it's just common sense. Oh yeah? Yeah. Well, if you cut out sugar... If insulin's main job is to take sugar out of your bloodstream and store it, that's its main job. It's its number one job. Sugar is so toxic, is so toxic that insulin's got a job to do. It'll knock on your door if you insist on eating like that. You watch your family members eating all that sugar. You know what's happening. Insulin's knocking at their cell and saying, "Open up, man, I got sugar to put into you, and I got to store it somewhere. I got to store it. I'm going to use it as energy, and when you're not using it, I'm going to store it. Because I can't let sugar stay there no matter what. I got a job to do. You're blocking traffic. Out, move." That's what sugar does.
But you see, it's like a two-edged sword, because when insulin is up, you have inflammation. It's a side effect. The body responds to the amount of insulin, and one of its responses is inflammation. The other response is glycation, rusting out, oxidation. they're two sides of a coin. And so what happens, you're creating, already creating, inflammation because your insulin's going up, and the sugars are creating oxidation. Oxidation and glycation increase your inflammation. So you get a double whammo, inflammation from insulin and inflammation from oxidation. It's a double whammo. Now you're going to even have more joint pain. You're going to have more muscle pain. It's a vicious, vicious cycle. And when you take a painkiller, even if it's over the counter, it's not benign. There's side effects to that, and they're instant. You're destroying bacteria, your good guys. You're causing leaky gut. And again, I never tell a person not to take medication. I don't do that. All I'm saying is it's best to be aware, best to be aware of the side effects of that. Okay?
So guys, we've got a great week coming. Some interesting studies, a new study on probiotics I've seen, what's new. Did I tell you lately about vitamin D? Wow. Another study came out, just incredible. But we'll touch on some of these things this week. Friday. What day is it? Question and Answer. So Question and Answer Friday. And if you're not a member of our private Facebook group, please join up. We'd love to have you. Join that fantastic group. We appreciate it. If you can't watch the podcast, your friends can't or whatever, get them to tune in to The Doctor Is In podcast, and they can sign up for it on their smartphones and get a message when a new one is up. So all sorts of ways to listen to the Doctor Is In. Okay guys, we love you. 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!