Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners.
Some of today’s topics include:
- Stevia in coffee
- Why to take probiotics daily
- Growth spurts and growing pains
- Fasting in women and hormones
- Connection in thyroid, gut health and food allergies
- Caralluma fimbriata cactus
- Lamb liver vs. beef liver
- Best support for telomeres
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. I hope you're having a great start to your day, because I am. Okay, here we go, Question and Answer Friday. Got some good questions. Hannah is asking a question that I really don't have an answer to, at least partly because she said, "I need your guidance on Cedar tea." I think I talked about this last week for lung health. And I guess it's her husband who suffers every winter from allergies and a wet cough. Is it safe to drink? I think so, cedar tea. Now are you telling me Hannah… And listen, I have no experience with Cedar tea. I have experience with pine bark tea. I've told you the story many a time of Jacques Cartier. I know my grandfather used pine bark extract and made teas. That was my grandfather.
People use chaga tea. I can only tell you what my experience is and I've had a lot of experience, but I've had no experience with Cedar tea. I think it probably is good. Is it good for the lungs? I'm not sure. Is it safe? I think so. I have never heard that it wouldn't be safe. But again, you want my guidance. Well, I'm sorry, Hannah. I can't give you any more guidance because I know what I know. People have often asked me, "Doc, why do you have your own supplements?" Well, I know what works. I know what works. And clinically, I had to get results, clinically. And 30 something years ago, when I stumbled across pine bark extract, for example, I got results. I had trouble getting it. I brought it in from France. My patients wanted to choke me to death, including my wife. "You better never run out of that." My wife threatened me because she felt better with it.
You see, that's why. You look at our products and I don't apologize because we formulated that based on getting results. And so when you ask me about a Cedar tea and a lot of times it's not because they're no good. 100%, they may be great. I've never heard that it was specifically for lungs and allergies. I know pine bark extract for lungs, allergies. And for the lungs, vitamin D is essential for your lung function. Probiotics, leaky gut, leaky lungs, when you have allergies, I always would turn to the gut before I would turn to the lungs. Sinuses, lungs, if he has a dry cough. Again, I'm just going to give you, Hannah, my experience because whenever you get something in the lungs, a fibrosis or whatever, I do circulation, I do the gut. And if you find something better than pine bark extract in Navitol, good luck. I haven't found it. I haven't found it. Okay, so I hope I answered your question, Hannah.
Linda. "Can having Stevia in my coffee," I'm just teasing, "Daily, be hard on my pancreas?" No, it's not really hard on your pancreas. I don't like Stevia personally. I just never liked the taste of it. That's like asking me about steak and liver. I wish I liked liver, but I don't. I like steak a lot better. And Stevia, I'm not big on the taste of it, but it's a much better sweetener than anything artificial. Now you got to be careful because food companies, they often take shorts. And Stevia, "Oh, it's Stevia." But is it really Stevia? And I think they make, what is it called? Nick you know this and Jeannette you know it. What's that one when they get erythritol and Stevia together? You can buy them together. One's a sugar alcohol.
And they don't bother your pancreas. Okay? Now, if you want to put a little bit of Stevia in your coffee during the reset, I'm not going to have a conniption, because it is a natural sweetener. But don't live on that stuff. If you want to put a little bit of Stevia in this or that, I got no problem with that. Okay? Personally, I just don't like the taste of it more for me. And you know what? I'm fussy. I'm sorry. Okay.
Enza. "Why do you need to be taking probiotics daily once the good bacteria is established?" Well, that's a very, very good question, Enza. Very good question. Look, probiotics are in our fabulous five. If you have not heard that podcast, the fabulous five, go and listen to the podcast of the fabulous five. Probiotics are one of our foundational supplements. And one thing, let me just say this, when it comes to taking a probiotic, if you have regenerated your bacteria, your microbiome, why do you need it? Well, first of all, let me just share something. When you step on a scale, take three pounds off. Those are your bacteria in your body. You got three pounds of it. Tony says five pounds. But I won't give you five pounds to take off your weight. You got bacteria in there. But you know what it takes to make three pounds of bacteria? Trillions. Not billions, trillions and trillions. So even parents have asked me, "Can I give a probiotic to my baby?" Yep.
Because you're not talking billions of bacteria, you're talking trillions of bacteria. Big difference between billions and trillion. I know we throw that term around. When I was a kid, if someone was a millionaire, "What? A millionaire?" Today, millionaire is nothing. You hear about billionaires. True or false? So kids today would hear about billionaires. And then we find out that Canada's economy and the United States economy, they're trillions of dollars in debt. And we think, that's just ahead of billions. Trillions is a lot. And so Enza, what I'm saying is look, we came to the conclusion years ago. I used to say take probiotics twice a year. When I first started and I was preaching probiotics before anybody was preaching probiotics.
Remember, I had a radio show for 20 years and I did a lot of repetition on the radio show, repeat, repeat, because it was live and people would call me and ask me questions. And we used to laugh in the studio a little bit because they say Dr. Martin, probiotics, Dr. Martin, probiotics, Dr. Martin, probiotics. And even in those days, I would say, at least twice a year, make sure you're replenishing your bacteria. But you know what? Today we live in a world, antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, water is tainted to some extent. In Sudbury, there's 2100 chemicals in the water there. 2100. Air fresheners, hand sanitizers. I get a headache when I see a hand sanitizer. I want to scream. I want to shout, "Don't put that stuff on your skin. Don't wash your hands with it. Don't ever do that." But people do. And we live in a world that kills your friendly bacteria. Antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, plastics in the environment.
You know what they found with plastics? Plastics are on the highest mountain, Mount Everest, to the lowest part of the earth. And then they find them in the placenta of babies, Enza. They find plastic in the placenta of babies. What? Yes. Are we ever going to get away from it? No. What planet are you planning on living on? Look, I love this planet, I do. I try and do my part to keep it clean. But I'm not crazy, I know we aren't going to get away from it. 100,000 new chemicals have been created since World War II and the vast majority of them are surrounding us day and night. They're in our kitchen, they're in our cleaners, they're in everything. You can't pronounce it. They're in food. They're in, you name it.
So all I'm saying is good luck because all of that stuff plays with your microbiome. So do you ever really fully replenish your bacteria? In this day and age, probably not. So don't stop. Don't stop. Do you understand what I'm saying? So look, if you don't take a probiotic every day, that's up to you. I do. I recommend my patients, I recommend and my audience. That's what I'm saying, okay? And I love the question because it's a good question.
And listen, please, ladies, if you have a urinary tract infection, take an antibiotic. Stop it when the pain goes away and double up your probiotics because you are going to kill your friendly bacteria. Five days, five days of an antibiotic will destroy all your good bacteria. It'll get rid of the infection, but it's going to kill the good guys too. Then you get the invasion of the third army, candida, yeast, fungus. And that's a huge problem today. Okay? Huge, huge problem today in our society. Very good question, Enza. Thank you very much.
Anne, "My 12 year old has major growth spurt and growing pains." What is that, growing pains? Is it a reality? Yep. And it's usually when the end plates in bones are starting to close. And for some people, kids, it's a problem. But here's what I found over the years, my experience. Just going to give you my experience with this, Anne. Those kids who get growing pains are usually, here's what I found, they're low in vitamin D. They're low in vitamin K2. How do you get vitamin D? Viderma. But you live in Northern Ontario, you don't live where you can go out and sunbathe, you need to give vitamin D as a supplement. Our vitamin D has vitamin K2 in it, in perfect proportion. Because what vitamin K2 does, it takes your calcium and puts it in your bones where it belongs.
That's why in nature, think of what God does. God gives you cheese. Why is cheese so good for you? Well, it has a perfect proportion of protein, of fat, almost zero carbs and vitamin K2. Calcium needs to be delivered by the Amazon truck, vitamin K2 to your bones. Has to be put in your bone. You can eat calcium, but you need K2. That's why God put it in cheese. Everybody knows that dairy is a tremendous source of calcium. Drink your calcium. Yeah, I guess you could with cream. I'm not big on store bought milk. If you have a cow, milk it and drink it. But by the time it gets to the grocery store, they stripped everything out of there. It's all sugar. That's why 70% of the population are lactose intolerant. When I was a kid, there were no lactose intolerant in the 1950s. Do you know that? I don't remember anybody in my class. I don't remember any of my dad's patients ever complaining. Milk is different. They skim it. It's all sugar. It's white Pepsi.
So it's a very good question. It's a very good question, kids. And look, I would give them vitamin D with the vitamin K2 and make them eat eggs, meat, and cheese. Often, they're deficient. They're not eating enough protein. They're getting enough healthy fat. You need DHA, you need ALA, you need CLA. You need those fatty acids found in eggs, meat and cheese. Okay? Thank you very much, Anne, for the question.
Celine. "Have you examined fasting just in women and how it affects our hormones?" Well, no. And maybe this is not phrased exactly, Celine, the way you want it. We often talk about fasting and it's not just in women, it's in men. I like intermittent fasting. I do. I'm not big on long fasting. I'm not big on that. I've said this before. If you get cancer, the doctor calls you and I got bad news and you got cancer, I recommend you go on a three day fast. Look, it's optional, obviously. But it's good for your. Why? Get rid of any growth, no feeding that cancer at all, at all. Start with three days and then eggs, meat and cheese. Because cancer hates steak. I tell people that. Cancer hate steak. Unlike what you will hear on social media or elsewhere, cancer hates steak.
Steak don't cause cancer, sugar causes cancer. Sugar is the root of it and sugar feeds it. So steak got a bad rap, but it's craziness. It's absolute craziness. It's the most nutritious food on the planet. You can't beat it. You can't. Bring me any vegetable in the universe and it's not going to beat steak. It just can't. It doesn't have what you find in the animal kingdom. Okay? And fasting helps because you remember the diagrams? As a matter of fact, I have it right here. I made some notes. If you see writing underneath. You know me. Here's the pyramid. Here's the pyramid. And the reason I have that pyramid is because when I want to teach about hormones come in that pyramid. The ovaries. Halfway up, the adrenals. At the top, your thyroid. And in the middle, insulin. You better fix insulin, and one way to fix insulin is fasting.
Now, when you are eating eggs, meat, and cheese, do you know that you are fasting without fasting? Technically you're not fasting because every time you eat, you need insulin. See, fasting, they talk about autophagy. When you're sleeping and you're not eating, your body does a cleanup. Your brain has its own cleanup system. The night crew comes in, your liver. When you're sleeping, they're in cleaning. It's like an office building, right? When do the cleaners come in? After the day is over. Right? Grocery store, they close it, the cleaners come in. They clean it. They restock the shelves and clean it. So your body works like that.
Now, let me just say fasting without fasting first. When you're eating the right foods, you are secreting so little insulin because it's pure fuel. Your body is not making number one, lot of debris. It's pure fuel. So your pancreas isn't going crazy squirting insulin to take sugar out of the bloodstream. And remember, if your body needs a little bit of sugar, it will take a piece of steak and make it sugar. That's how smart your body is. Okay? You don't need sugar to make sugar. Your brain needs a little bit of glucose. A piece of steak will do. I mean it.
Secondly, true fasting is not eating at all. And what we like at the Martin Clinic is that you eat within... Because the old fashion was never right. Eat frequently. Even today, dieticians, snack. Snacks are your worst enemies guys. They're your worst enemies. Do you want to lose weight? I always tell people, you see nuts and seeds there, get rid of them. Women know so much more than men when it comes to nutrition. It's like 99% more than men do. Men are dense. They don't know much about nutrition because they don't care. Women care. Is that true? Yep. That's generally true. Now, you men that are on with me this morning, you care and you're like me. I give you a high five. But let's be honest. Generally, women know a whole lot more than men. And women, because they read, "Oh, nuts, they have good old oils in there and seeds. They're so good for me." And they snack on that. Don't do it because you're not a squirrel. Squirrels use nuts and seeds to get fat for the winter.
They store them like bears store blueberries. They don't store them, they eat 30,000 a day on average because they want that fructose. And fructose dose makes them fat and they want to fatten up before winter. That's a squirrel too. But squirrels use nuts and seeds. That's why I tell people, those are overrated. Don't eat a lot of those. You think they're good for you? You know when you're trying to get hormonally well, I wouldn't do that. You know me? I like flax seeds. I do. You're not chewing on them necessarily, but they're good for you because they block estrogen.
So I've talked to you about that many, many a times. So I like that. I like flax seeds. And you ain't getting fat on flax seeds because you're not snacking on flax seeds. You're adding a teaspoon or so to a smoothie or whatever. But fasting's good for you. When you're not eating, it's good for you. But if you're eating the right things, you're fasting without fasting. I hope I answered your question. And it really does help when you get in that pyramid and you fix that insulin, you fix that insulin resistance, it has a big effect on the ovaries, big effect on the thyroid, big effect on your adrenal glands. Again, I hope I answered your question.
Erica, "What's the connection with thyroid, gut health and food allergies?" There's a connection. I got diagnosed with thyroid disease. So do you treat the thyroid and the others get resolved? No. It's the other way around. You treat the others and the thyroid gets resolved. Now I'm not saying you can't treat the thyroid. As a matter of fact, if you look at our thyroid supplement, I'm just going to toot the horn a little bit here. You look at our thyroid supplement, you read about it, you read every ingredient in there. We looked at the thyroid this way, that way and every which way you make thyroid hormones, and we address in a natural way.
But Erica, you better fix your gut because 20% of your conversion of T4 to T3. T3 is the hormone that your thyroid needs to function properly. It needs a lot of other things too because the thyroid is just a puppet. It's got a lot of strings attached to it. And if you don't know that and that's why again, I show you the pyramid. I show you the pyramid because the thyroid's at the top, but it's connected. And what I didn't draw within that pyramid is your gut. But you see, if you have food allergies, you got to fix that. But that's leaky gut.
There isn't analogy in the world that doesn't start in your gut. So Erica, yeah, you got to fix the other things. And you know what? If you go on our website and listen to the teaching on the metabolic storm, answer the questionnaire there and you'll figure out what is your main problem. If it's thyroid, it'll show up there. But there's a lot of other factors and you have to understand that. You don't have to be a medical doctor to get it. You just have to understand how your body operates. And we teach that. We teach it, we try and simplify it, because I'm a simple person. I really am. I need to have it simple. For me to understand it, I simplify it. Okay.
Melisha. "Does caralluma fimbriata herb," I probably destroyed that name, "Does it curb your appetite?" Well, I've heard of it before. It's similar to cambogia. And cambogia is a derivative of the cactus plant. It does help, to some extent, to suppress the appetite. Because it's a heavy, heavy fiber cactus plant. Garcinia cambogia. Remember that guys? Remember it hit big time 30 years ago. It was like, "I'm going to lose weight. I'm going to use garcinia cambogia." It was from the cactus plant. I knew all about it. Remember, I had radio shows. I had a TV show. I have to answer questions all the time. And that was like a big, big, big thing. Does it work? You know me, I'm a food guy. I'm a food guy. I'm not saying that this particular one, caralluma, isn't good. I'm not saying that. But what I am saying is there's nothing better to reduce your appetite than to eat high protein, high fat foods. Because that's what we have in nature. That's what God has given us.
If you eat a steak, if you eat cheese, if you eat eggs, there's nothing more that will suppress your appetite than not. Why? Because you see, when people are hungry all the time, that is a hormonal issue. They're leptin resistant. Leptin tells you, you're full. But when you're cells, at the cellular level, I'm putting my finger out like a cell right here. And all I'm saying is when you give a cell the right fuel, it will make your leptin work. It'll say, "Hey, you fed me. You didn't give me bad fuel. You didn't stoke the fire with paper and twigs, like carbohydrates, crappy carbs, oatmeal, cereals, bread." You want to be hungry all the time, eat bread because your blood sugar goes up. And what goes up has to come down. Your insulin goes crazy, takes the sugar out of the bloodstream and then you start over again. So look, if you want to take a supplement, take a supplement. But I'm big on eating the right foods. So thank you very much Melisha for the question.
Rakia is asking, "Is lamb liver as beneficial as beef liver?" Absolutely. Lamb is fantastic. A very, very high source of B12. I don't talk lamb too much. I guess I should. But lamb is very good for you. So lamb liver, 100% would be as good as beef liver. For sure. Lamb is fantastic.
Okay, Kathy. She is prone to calcium oxalate kidney stones. Now Kathy, you say now you're eating eggs, meat and cheese. Eggs, meat, and cheese don't give you calcium oxalate. You know how you get oxalates? From salad. When you women eat your salad, you make oxalate. That's one of the reasons I take people off vegetables, like salad. When you're not eating salad, you're not making oxalates. But Kathy is saying, she just had a 24 hour urine test and she's still got a lot of calcium in her urine. Well you want calcium to some extent, Kathy, to be in your urine. You're excreting it. Your body's smart.
But secondly, if your kidneys are having trouble filtering calcium and they make stones, food oxalates. Get rid of them, which you're doing. Two, your kidneys are Niagara Falls. If you go to Niagara Falls two in the afternoon or two in the morning. Have you ever been to Niagara Falls at two in the morning? I haven't, but I can tell you there's no switch where they turn off the water. The water isn't stopped two in the morning or two in the afternoon. That's your kidneys. Guys, vitamin W, I cannot emphasize enough how you need water. You need water. Your kidneys will not work properly, your liver doesn't work properly without water. Your blood has 60,000 miles of blood vessels, one and a half times around the equator. It's a river of life. The life of the flesh is in the blood and blood needs water to move it.
You don't want sticky blood, you don't want thick blood. And the vast majority of people, especially men, are dehydrated. "I don't like water. Why do I got to drink water?" Because 70% of your body is made up water. You're like planet earth, your body's made up of water. Your blood needs water. Your kidneys need water. Okay? Very important. And the other thing is circulation. Your kidneys need blood supply. And the worst thing that kills your blood supply to your kidneys is sugar. Get rid of the stinking sugar. So I hope I answered your question, Kathy. Very, very good.
Okay. Couple more here. Nickel rash. What causes it? Leaky gut. Leaky gut. You have jewelry and you get a nickel rash, leaky gut. It's like eczema. I've never seen a case that didn't have leaky gut. See, I used to be able to look at leaky gut and I would see it. But if you have a rash, your skin is just an organ. It's the organ you see. And it is directly related to your gut, your gut health. So when you see any kind of contact dermatitis, which a nickel rash is, fix the gut. You have a fungal infection, no exceptions to it. I'm telling you I haven't seen one. Okay? Very good question.
Connie, "What is the best telomere support?" Well, telomeres are little wicks, like a candle. I wish I had a candle. I don't have one here. You look at a little candle wick. What we found out, I actually did a little blurb. I wrote a little chapter for a friend that was writing a book, asked me to contribute and it was on creation. So I wrote a chapter on telomeres and it's fascinating because telomeres are like candlewicks, and they are part of your DNA and they tell you how long... The shorter your telomeres, that's not good. You age quicker.
Now what helps telomeres the most are probiotics because again, probiotics is very anti-aging. Vitamin E, exercise, is tremendous for lengthening the telomeres. Navitol, proven to lengthen your telomeres. And that is pine bark extract. High DHA oil lengthens your telomeres. Fasting lengthens your telomeres. Intermittent fasting or fasting without fasting. So all those things help very much with those telomeres. Tremendous. When I was in school, "Telomeres, what's that?" Didn't even know what it was. The name wasn't even in. You can look at all my old medical books, "Telomeres, what is that?" See, just discovered. In the last few years we got telomeres. Okay. Connie, good question.
And Gayle says I take methyl B12 and my B12 numbers are off the charts. Well, what do you mean by that Gayle? You know me and B12. First of all, the test for B12 is 100 years old. Then not numbers are all wrong. What's normal is not normal at all. You need high levels of B12. If you have high levels of B12, good. That's what you're aiming for. B12 is a water soluble vitamin. B12 is good for anything you can think of, including your brains and your nerves and your immune system and your homocysteine, your blood vessels, your heart. Is there anything B12 is not good for? No, I can't think of anything. It's just really good for you. Better to have high than low. And how do you eat your B12? Steak. Vitamin S. Vitamin S. Okay.
So don't worry about high numbers. Do you feel better with it? Yeah. If your numbers are in the 1400s, most people don't have to take it anymore, just eat steak. But if you find you have to take B12 and your numbers are high and you still realize that without it, you know how many thousands of people still take B12 and their numbers are high or normal? Because they feel better with it? Be your own doctor, to some extent. Okay. Good question.
Okay guys. Thanks for all the questions. I think I covered every one of them. I think I did. You guys are great and we appreciate you more than you know. And Monday will be an afternoon session. So we'll post that. Mondays and Thursdays, pretty well for sure, are going to be afternoon sessions next week. Okay? So you might put that on your calendar, Monday morning. Now that's subject to change. I really drive Brandi crazy because I change my times and make her job harder. But she still loves me. She told me that. Okay guys, I love you and I mean it. 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!