If you live in Canada or the northern US states, you’re more than likely low in vitamin D! And if you’re not supplementing during the dark months of December, January and February, it’s pretty much guaranteed you’re low in vitamin D.
Join Dr. Martin in today’s episode to learn the signs to look for and what to do to optimize your levels of vitamin D!
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 afternoon, everyone. And once again, welcome to another Live this afternoon. Hope you're having a great day. I want to talk about signs that you might be low in vitamin D, because most physicians, most not all, they do not test vitamin D. Because their teaching in their head is, the only reason you would ever test it is for osteoporosis. Now, there was a time that they would even look at... I'm talking 70 years ago, they would want to know your vitamin D because of rickets, but in medicine, vitamin D is considered for bones only. They don't look at it for the immune system like they should. And to me, it's been really a national... international probably, tragedy. And I mentioned to you yesterday that the research coming out… We learn more and more and more and more about this virus, and one of the things we've been talking about is it attacks fat in the body. I brought that to you yesterday.
So, if you have visceral fat, especially in around your organs, which is dangerous fat, you are much more susceptible to the virus, one. And we talked about if you had obesity, diabesity, which is a combination of obesity and diabetes, because the real pandemic going on is diabesity. And that just suppresses your immune system. We talked about that and then high blood pressure. But even before high blood pressure, people that were admitted to hospital and very ill, the number one was old age, but right there is lack of vitamin D. And yet that's not part of the narrative. So we don't hear about it. And I've been saying all along, it should be part of the therapeutics that we're considering. If you're going to spend a fortune, like our governments have been doing, why not give vitamin D to every kid, to every adult, to every senior in homes? Give them vitamin D. But it's not going to happen, but it should happen.
Okay? Now what I want to talk about is what are some of the signs that you might be low in vitamin D? Okay? Some of the signs, things that you ought to consider that… You know what? I might be low in vitamin D because again, the only way for sure to know is to have a blood test. Your dihydroxy 25 test, to check your vitamin D levels. Your serum, vitamin D levels. And I was screaming guys, blue murder. When in Ontario, they wouldn't do it anymore routinely. You have to pay for it. Unless the doctor puts down, "I am looking for osteoporosis." And a lot of doctors... "Well, you don't have osteoporosis. Why do you want to get your vitamin D levels checked?" And here are things that you are probably low in vitamin D, okay? Probably.
One, excessive sweating. You sweat a lot. That is a sign. Okay? I remember learning, this is 50 years ago. One of the signs of low vitamin D in babies is excessive sweating. Their head would be wet all the time. And that is a sign in babies of low vitamin D. Here's another one. When kids get leg pain, you know what they call the old days? They called it growing pains, right? They're often low in vitamin D. And if you're an adult and you get bone pain, especially in your legs, just your bones ache. You're probably low in vitamin D. Here's another one, muscle pain. "My muscles are sore." One of the things that they have found in fibromyalgia is that people that have fibromyalgia, which is like an arthritis in their muscles, fibromyalgia is a multicomplex condition. Okay? Because, "Oh, you got fibromyalgia." Well, that's what the doctor would tell you 25 years ago, when all your tests would come back negative and you weren't doing well, and you had muscle pain and you were just not well at all.
And they'd go, "Well, you got fibromyalgia." Well, I wrote a lot of books on fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue. And one of the things that I found out is that they were very high levels of cortisol and they had adrenal gland exhaustion. But the other thing that was very common was they're very low in vitamin D. Even for muscles. And if we have time today, I'm going give you 10 signs of low magnesium. But right now I want to stick to vitamin D. So, excessive sweating, you're probably low in vitamin D. Number two, is if you have bone pain. If you have number three, muscle pain. Number four, depression. One of the things I find out in depression doesn't even have to be seasonal. Now, of course, if you have seasonal depression, right? The dark days are upon us. I used to tell my patients, “In December, January, February…” You're coming out of it in March." But those December, January and February were tough months. Those were your dark, dark months. And those were your seasonal depressive months. And we saw a lot of it in practice. A lot of that, people that they just didn't do well once they got to the dark months. But one of the things they had in common was that they had low levels of vitamin D. They weren't getting no VitDerma man. They had no sun.
So all I'm saying is those are signs. Depression. And even when they look at non-seasonal depression... I was sharing a study today with my dear friend, Dr. McKeowen from the University of Tennessee, there's a real link. And you know what? I think I'll unpack it for you, on one of our programs, the link between again, inflammation and depression. Whenever they find depression, they find inflammation. Whenever they find inflammation, chronic, not always. They often find depression. It's the chicken or the egg, what comes first? And the Martin Clinic, we've been very consistent about this. We never blame anything specifically on inflammation. And the reason is, because inflammation is not... You should know the answer to this. Is not Houdini. There's a reason for chronic inflammation... I'm not talking about acute inflammation. You got an infection? You want inflammation. You have a virus or bacteria? You want inflammation, because that's your body's ambulance system. What you don't want is chronic inflammation. But if you have chronic inflammation, there's always a reason for it.
What are the three seeds that we talk about at the Martin Clinic all the time? What causes inflammation? High circulating insulin, free radical damage, oxidative damage and leaky gut. And that's the link in depression by the way. In depression, you have leaky gut. It's almost invariable. Remember, you have more feel-good hormones in your gut than you have in your brain. Remember that. So what am I talking about here? I'm talking about vitamin D. But vitamin D... Remember, if you've got leaky gut, if you have issues, digestive issues, you're not absorbing vitamin D. I know you get vitamin D on your skin. I get it. But it's metabolized guys. It's metabolized in the gut. And if you got digestive issues and this is where the link is often with depression, because gut problems, leaky gut, leaky brain. Okay?
So, if you have someone in your family with depression and by the way, boy, depression is like an epidemic today. Because it's one of the unintended consequences of… you and I can't get together like we used to. People are people, we need each other. Okay? I feel sorry for young people because they're being deprived in a lot of ways of their childhood and whatever. And we're just setting them up for depression. We're setting them up because they're not communicating the way they used to. And of course you have all these smart devices and kids are spending too much time, I call it Netflix syndrome. They're way too much time in front of their games, and the computers, and Netflix and whatever, right? They're not communicating. But this leads to depression. But coming back to vitamin D it's common. Common, common, common. If someone is depressed, they're often low in vitamin D.
Now, let me just say something else about inflammation and vitamin D. Vitamin D's... and Tony Jr. Likes to say this a lot. Vitamin D is like a biomarker, right? If you got low levels of vitamin D, it's almost like you are a human solar panel, it's every cell in your body is affected by low levels of vitamin D. So you have a cascade of symptoms or you can have, a cascade of symptoms. So with vitamin D, one thing it is, it's tremendous as an anti-inflammatory. They've shown this over, and over, and over again. A natural anti-inflammatory is VitDerma. It's like taking two Advils. When you get out in the sun, without the side effects. No, it's a tremendous anti-inflammatory. It reduces all markers of inflammation, including CRP. What's CRP? C-reactive protein. Folks, get your doctor to test your C-reactive protein, CRP. And again, they often don't do it. But if you can ask your doctor to do the CRP. Because usually when your CRP is elevated, your inflammation is elevated, you have low levels of vitamin D. They almost go hand in hand. If your CRP is up, your vitamin D is down.
Here's another sign that you are possibly low in vitamin D. It's winter and you're not supplementing. Okay? Now remember, there's three ways to get vitamin D… the sun, numero uno. There's nothing like the sun, VitDerma. In 15 to 20 minutes, you get 10,000 IUs. 15, 20 minutes of sun, no sunscreen. And by the way, can I just say this? A new study came out and I got to unpack it before I teach it to you. This is a study came out. If you are a junk eater, high sugar, crappy carbs made by vegetable oils, you burn in the sun rapidly. Did you know that? So one of the reasons, and I didn't even write about this in the book. And I could, because it's a new study, is when you get off of those seed oils, those crappy oils, fast foods, the French fries cooked in the wrong oil and your cookies and everything in the middle aisle grocery store and blah, blah, blah. When you get off of that stuff on the reset, you know what happens? You can get more sun, you don't burn as easily.
Now that used to be anecdotal, but today the studies are showing that's exactly right. You can get more VitDerma. So the best way to get vitamin D one, is sun. Nothing like it. And you can never... Okay, let me just say it. I'm going to do it with my fog-horn here. You can never overdose with Viderma, okay? Now you can get too much sun and burn, but you'll never get too much vitamin D. It shows you how we were so wrong with our math. I've talked to you about this in the past, but it was bad math. I'm telling you guys in the 1970s, listen to me. When I was in school. You know what the recommended amount of vitamin D was in school? In our books or textbooks? Recommended vitamin D, 200 international units of vitamin... 200. Be scared. It's a fat soluble vitamin. Be careful the 200... You can't go above 200. Then they realized they were wrong. And then they went to 400 in the mid seventies, 400. Okay? And then they said, "Well, you know what?" Because vitamin D... And when they started studying it, realized people were extremely low. They went to a 1000. And they have a hard time coming off a 1000.
You know how many phone calls I got when I was in practice from physicians telling me, "Dr. Martin, why are you telling your patients to take five, eight, 10,000 IUs?" I said, "Well, they're extremely low. And if you get out in the sun, you get 10,000 IUs in a nanosecond. In 15, 20 minutes, you get 10,000." But guys, you're probably low in vitamin D if you can't see the sun. And the second way of getting vitamin D and I talked about it, yesterday, is in animal food. Eggs, meat, and cheese. You get some vitamin D in eggs, meat, and cheese. Especially fish, the cod liver oil, okay? And it was famous. Cod liver oil, I got it as a kid. They should give it out again. It at least give you some vitamin D and it'll give you good levels of vitamin A. I love vitamin A too, but you can't live on what you eat on vitamin D. You can't, okay? Unless you're Inuit and you live way up in the North. And they eat that every day, but you're not eating enough of it.
And, thirdly, is you got to supplement, okay? And this time of the year, you got to supplement. Suck it up buttercup and take your vitamin D, you need it. It's good for you. I got 150 studies, at least, on the importance of vitamin D. From your brain to your heart, to cancer, to your bones, to your immune system, your little white blood cells, your T cells have a little antenna that... And they're waiting for vitamin D to come and charge them up so that your immune system would work. Oh, it drives me crazy when no one talks about the immune system that you have. But you want to supercharge your immune system. You're probably low in vitamin D if you're not supplementing at this time of the year. You're probably low in vitamin D. You're not being tested, so maybe you're not thinking about it. And I know my audience thinks about it, but I mean, when you look at your relatives and friends… Like every senior in North America should be on vitamin D at this time of the year. Every one of them, no exceptions. That's how strongly I believe in vitamin D. The case really is closed on vitamin D. It's essential. Okay? If you have poor immunity, meaning that you're always sick. If you are always sick, guess what? Your T cells ain’t juiced up with vitamin D. Those are the things that your Navy SEALs of your immune system going after bacteria and viruses.
Listen, if a kid catches a cold, it's all right. They get a cold or two, don't worry about it. I mean it. Their immune system is being built. So don't be scared of bacteria and viruses, you actually want it. Throw a party and invite the kids' friends over, let them get a virus, and a bacteria. Their immune systems will just charge up. But if you're older and you're constantly getting bugs, you're probably low in vitamin D. Now I can't tell you individually what to take vitamin D. I can't do it. Okay? And I won't do it. I'm going to tell you what I do. Okay? This time of the year... Now we're into our dark months. We're into December, we're into January. We're coming into February. Those are the three months that are the worst in my opinion, for vitamin D. People don't have enough of it. This is where for me, personally, I would take eight to 10,000 international units a day. Okay? Eight to 10,000 international units a day.
I've talked to you about the hammer, at the first sign that you're getting a real bug there's some real good research on taking the hammer, 20 to 50,000 IUs for three days, just hammer. And you know what? The Vitamin D Council have done research on this, so this is not coming from me, even though I got lots of personal experience in terms of practice and vitamin D. You know what guys? Like I've always said, the waiting rooms are not full in Canada nor in the United States with people that, "Oh, I know why you're here. You're sick. You've got too much vitamin D." No, actually it's the opposite. I'm telling you that waiting rooms are full, across North America. Just going to make a blanket statement people. One of the reasons they're extremely low in vitamin D, because you're a human solar panel and your body needs vitamin D, okay? Your body needs vitamin D.
So if you have digestive issues, you ought to be taking vitamin D. And by the way, just a little advertising, vitamin D, I like it when you combine it with K2, okay? K2, because K2... One of the things that vitamin D does... I mean, you guys, you know this. Vitamin D builds bones. Vitamin D, if you take too much of it would calcify to some extent. Not that it happens much. But K2, not K1. K2, vitamin K2 takes calcium. You don't want calcium in your blood vessels. You want calcium in your teeth and your bones. Okay? You need calcium, but a calcium supplement, never, never, never, never, ever gets to your bones guys. Calcium doesn't get to your bones, when you take calcium. "Oh doc, I'm taking Cal-Mag." Why are you doing that? Why do you take Cal-Mag? Still the number one selling supplement. At least it was a couple of years ago. They didn't get the memo from me. Why do people take calcium supplements? "Well, doctor I'm in my menopausal years and my doctor said to take calcium." No, because calcium don't get to your bones. Take vitamin D with K2, then it'll get to your bones. Eat your calcium.
Think about this for a minute. When God gives you calcium, he gives you K2 in it. So when you have butter, you got calcium. Did you know butter was high source of calcium? Yeah. Dairy is high source of calcium, but in your dairy you have vitamin K2. It's built in cheese. K2? Calcium, K2. Eggs? Calcium, K2. Butter? Calcium, K2. You see? Your body knows. It's built right in nature. We're so silly that we would rather give someone a calcium tablet. Why would you want to give someone calcium? They don't need calcium. They need vitamin D and K2, okay? That's how it works guys. That's how your body works. Calcium left on its own will stay in your bloodstream. You know what it's going to do? It's going to calcify your arteries. A lot of people don't realize that. That's why I... I'm not against calcium. I want you to eat your calcium every day. Eat it every day, eat cheese, have butter. Have your eggs, have calcium. I'm all for, but never without K2. And you don't take it as a supplement. You eat calcium. Got it? You got the memo? I know you guys get it.
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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!