Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners.
Some of today’s topics include:
- Apple cider vinegar
- Colostrum
- Dr. Martin’s daily diet
- Low potassium levels
- Himalayan salts & iodine
- Thyroid meds & low calcium levels
- Ideal fasting insulin levels
- Teens on birth control
- Cluster headaches
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. Hope you're having a great start to your day. Question & Answer Friday, last day of the year. Let's get going. We love you guys, thanks for coming on. We got some great questions, both John and Lise, okay? They asked me about apple cider vinegar, but John asked about colostrum and Lise says, "Apple cider vinegar, good for you or not?"
Well, look, apple cider vinegar, when it first hit the hit parade about 10 years ago, maybe, everybody, from coughs, colds, to pimples on your nose, it fixed everything. It had such hype because, remember, guys, before I did the lives, I had a radio show for 20 years. If you think I didn't get asked about apple cider vinegar every week on my show. It just became the new kid on the block and it fixed everything.
And you know what? I used to tell people then, 10 years ago, I think it was 10 years ago, 10, 15 years ago. Not that I don't like apple cider vinegar, because I used to tell them, I prefer balsamic vinegar. Now, that's a little bit sweeter, but really, the only thing that it does, I used to tell people, you've got digestive issues? Well, taking a little, one ounce or two of apple cider vinegar, I mean, go for it. See if it doesn't relieve the heartburn because you have low acidity, not enough acidity. When you add some balsamic vinegar or apple cider vinegar, yeah, I found it good for that.
But again, I just remind you. The problem when you have low acidity in your stomach, and then your body overreacts and your proton pumps in your stomach start producing more acid. And the problem with that is, that acid don't stay in your stomach, it starts to travel up the esophagus. What is that called? Heartburn. Why would you have low acidity in your stomach? Because you're eating too much sugar. It's a problem of insulin. That's what creates, it's the biggest problem in the stomach is when you are a crappy eater.
And usually, you can reverse that. You can reverse heartburn when you change your diet. But I got no problem in the meantime. And here's the other thing with heartburn, just because I happen to be on that. Don't eat at night. Stop eating after supper, don't eat. I call that Netflix syndrome. We want to watch a movie or a TV series and we want to eat. The Netflix syndrome.
So many people have heart and hiatus hernias and all sorts of problems, digestive issues, I say, "Well, change your diet. You're eating too many crappy carbohydrates and sugar. Stop that. Your stomach will give you a high five when you do. And then, don't eat at night. Practice intermittent fasting." You got digestive problems, let your digestion have a rest many hours before you go to bed. These are habits, guys. How many days does it take to form a habit? 21. That's what I learned in psychology. If Dr. McEwen is on. That's what I learned, Doc, in psychology, in university, just enough to make me dangerous. I learned that it took 21 days to form a habit. And then, about six weeks to really cement that habit.
So apple cider vinegar. Is it good for you? Yeah. Does it fix everything? No. So when you see all the hype, the mother, you got to get the mother of apple cider the vinegar and eh, I heard it all. And again, I'm not against it. Now, I think it was John asking, yes, it was John, about colostrum. Well, colostrum, what is colostrum? Well, colostrum is what the baby gets when you breastfeed. You have to remember how old I am. The world went stupid. Sometimes, it's still very stupid, but the world went stupid in the 1950s, 1960s, ah, breast milk. There's not enough. Brought to you by Gerber's. They wanted you to have formula.
And then, of course, that's turned now 180 degrees where there isn't a doctor in the world, I think, anymore, that wouldn't say, "Yeah, it's best to breastfeed." Yeah, because you know what I said the other day? Nature always wins. Yeah, well, you can't outdo what God wants you to do and that's breastfeeding. Because when you're breastfeeding, the baby gets your bacteria, probiotics, right on your breast. Two, it gets colostrum. And that's colostrum, when you take it as a supplement, comes from mummy cow. Once they've had a baby, they take the colostrum in the first couple of weeks. And do I like it as a supplement? Yeah, I like colostrum because I think, John, you were asking, "Does it fix leaky gut?" Well, certainly not on its own.
And apple cider vinegar, is it good for leaky gut? In a way, because if you have more acidity in your stomach, it really helps with digesting of the food. Leaky gut can come from two ways, right? One, from the upper digestion. If you don't digest your food properly and food comes in too undigested, there's a lot of autoimmune that takes place because of that. Bad stomach is not good. And yeast can get from the stomach into the bowel.
Now, the other way it happens, of course, and I talk to you guys about this all the time. Leaky gut occurs, you take antibiotics, you take all the crappy foods, you feed the bear, sugar feeds candida, and then you have an invasion. You don't have enough friendly bacteria, you have too much bad bacteria, and then you have an invasion of the third army, which is yeast. Deadly. Slow death. Because yeast invades and it'll get through that little border, the blood gut border. Not endothelial, that's your blood vessels. Epithelial cells. And they're just bacteria, guys. They're good guys. They're on your side. But when they're not there anymore, that's why I'm so careful when I talk to you about antibiotics, because antibiotics are the greatest things since slice bread. They are the greatest invention. Greatest invention in medicine. Give medicine a high five for antibiotics. They save people's lives and they still do every day, but it's a double edged sword, antibiotics.
And the new studies on antibiotics, I was right, I said this 40 something years ago. When you take an antibiotic, stop when you have no more symptoms. The pharmaceutical companies were wrong, and they've admitted this now. Antibiotics, you just don't stay on them. "Oh, stay on them because that bacteria might come back." No, what they know is, if you go too far with the antibiotic, you are going to kill all your good guys. Five days, all your good guys are gone. Now, you have leaky gut plus you have an invasion of the army, yeast. That's what we call dysbiosis. Leave it up to medicine to give us a big word.
It's an invasion of yeast. So is colostrum good? Yeah, I like colostrum. I wouldn't spend any money on it, but babies need colostrum. Mommy gives it to them. Okay? So John and Lise, thanks for those questions.
Hannah. "Hey Doc, what do you eat in a day?" What you have to remember, I'm married to the number one cook in the world, and I mean that. And she's Italian. But I'm going to of something. I'm a very disciplined person, I have to be. I got bad genetics. I got diabetes coming up both ears. My dad had diabetes. My grandfather had diabetes. I look like my father. I told you that yesterday. I just know myself. I got to be extremely careful.
Hannah, I try and practice what I preach. I don't think ... Ah, there probably is a few people, but there's probably not a lot of people that eat more meat, eggs and cheese than I do. There probably are some, but not many. What I tell you every day, I practice. Does that mean I never have a carbohydrate? No, it doesn't mean that. When I'm doing the reset, but when Rosie makes her pasta, we don't have it much, I have a little bit of noodles and 20 meatballs. How's that? And the meat sauce, that's me. I don't have a lot of fruit. Do I like fruit? I love fruit, but I don't live on it. If I have a banana a month, that would be a treat. I hardly ever eat apples. I hardly ever eat grapes. I love them, but because of my body and the way my insulin is, and for me and for anybody that's in the 88% that are metabolically unwell, then fruit become God's candies. Proceed with caution. And I know fruit are good for you. I know. But what's more important is your insulin.
If you were to follow me around for a day, I am very disciplined. I have to be. And remember what I said about the 21 days. Let me tell you a little bit of story about myself. In grade 13, now, young people don't even know what grade 13 is. It used to be considered the first year of university, except you were still in high school. In grade 13, because my dad became a diabetic, my dad changed his life. I watched him, my dad was my hero. I watched him. I wrote a book years ago about my father's story and I compared him to a good friend of his, we'll call him Ed. That was his first name, I'm not going to go into any more detail. My dad and Ed.
Now, Ed's son was a friend of mine. We went to high school together and my dad and his dad found out they were diabetics, to me, it was on the same day, but who knows? Within a very short period of time, they both found out they were diabetics. And in my house, it was a radical change because my dad, now, you got to remember now, this is 1968. My dad comes home, tells the family that he's a diabetic. And I knew my dad wasn't well for a bit and that worried me. Anyway, the story is this. My dad, the next day, not kidding you, true story, started jogging on the spot. Now, 1968, the only people that ran were running away from the police. There was no jogging. He didn't go outside and "Oh, there's somebody running," which is much more common today. My dad was the first jogger that I ever met.
I said, "Dad, what are you doing?" "Well," he said, "I'm a diabetic. I got to get in shape." "Oh, okay. In shape? What's that mean?" But I love my dad so much, I said, "Dad, you're getting up early in the morning to jog. Wake me up, I'm going with you." That's a true story. But I watched my father in our house, steak, I'm not even exaggerating, my mother made us a meal and then made my father, my dad would come home late from practice, always ate on his own because we already ate.
And then, my dad would come home and I often would just sit right beside him because my dad, like I said, a hero. And I'd just sit there and he'd have his steak every night and I'm not kidding you. I said, "Dad, aren't you tired of that?" He said, "Well, I'm a diabetic. Me and carbs don't get along." Now, I didn't even know what a carb was. Now, I tell you that story to tell you the story of Ed. Because remember now, his son was one of my good friends. Ed didn't change his diet. Ed didn't exercise. Ed just kept going. He got on medication, but in five years, Ed was gone. He died. Now, all I'm saying to you, when you ask me what I eat, I learned that back in the sixties.
When I went to school, nutrition, 2000 hours of it. Oh, yeah, it's crazy. But they were teaching me something different. "You need a balance diet. You can't live without carbs. Cholesterol is bad for you." I got taught that. But, Hannah, I knew better because of my father. He knew what to do for diabetes. He knew that him and sugar didn't get along, him and carbs didn't get along. I got the memo when I was living at home. And in grade 13, I never ever ever, and I mean this, have ever had another soda. Did you know that? Because I used to love soda. I never had another pop. Now, I had a few diet pops. Ooh, they were are terrible. My dad drank Tab. Oh, they were terrible stuff. And the odd time I'd have a little bit and ooh, I hated that stuff.
But it's habits, guys. And for me, I never had another chocolate bar ever. Not one because I just knew that wasn't good for me. My dad didn't have that. He said, "That's sugar, son." He said he couldn't have it. He didn't tell me not to have it, but I watched him. So that's where I come from, guys. Long ago. I mean, that's over 50 years ago, guys, but I knew better.
So when I got taught nutrition, I studied it, I loved it. There was a lot of good stuff in there, but when they used to tell me about the balanced diet, nah. I never bought it. When they used to tell me, "Not too much meat," it's not true. And it was because already, the cereal companies were taking over the education of dietitians and things like that. They were taking over. "Well, you got to have your oatmeal because it's good for you. It's got fiber." And I'm telling you guys, I got taught fiber. And I said it then, and I'll say it today, fiber is overrated. You don't win a big prize for having the biggest poo. There's no prizes for it. I've been very consistent, guys. Very consistent. So Hannah, thanks for the question. People ask that every week, by the way, "What does the doc eat?"
Well, like I said, that's the way I eat. Does it mean I never cheat? Look, when my wife makes pasta, uh ... But I realized it's not the noodles that I like. It's not the spaghetti that I like. It's the sauce. It's her meatballs. It's the sausages. You'd die for that stuff. I live on that. Okay. Good question, Hannah.
Rita. "What does it mean to have low potassium levels?" Well, if you have low potassium levels, there's a couple of things. One, the most people that have low potassium are people on medications and the number one reason your potassium levels go down can be very dangerous, is when they put you on blood pressure medication, especially diuretics. And you got to be very careful with that. Low potassium can give you cramps, not only muscle cramps and that, but your heart's a muscle. Got be very careful.
Now, the other reason is, and I mentioned this yesterday, your kidneys are operated by a very complex hormonal system. And when everything is in balance, your kidneys run good. But here's what I always tell you will throw your kidneys off and can give you very low potassium levels. One, when you're a carb-holic, it always comes back to that, isn't it? Because when you're a carb-holic, it affects your kidneys big time. Affects your liver for sure, and kidneys too.
Secondly, when you get dehydrated. Kidneys are Niagara Falls. You need to drink water. And only water is water. And 80% or more of the population, they don't know it because there's not a little light bulb on their head that says, "You are dehydrated," and they insist, most of them are men, they insist, "I don't need water. I don't like water. I don't like the taste of water. I like juice. I'd rather drink this. Ooh." Quit being a baby. Suck it up, Buttercup. Your kidneys need water. Your kidneys are Niagara Falls. Go to Niagara Falls in the morning, go in in the afternoon, go at night, and what will you see? Water flowing. That's your kidneys. Because your kidneys, you need to keep it clean. Detox. And it'll really mess up your electrolytes if you don't drink enough water.
Lynn is asking, "I only use Himalayan salt now." Well, Himalayan salt is wonderful. Why? It's got 84 minerals in it. It has all your trace minerals. Okay, Lynn and Greta? Drink water and get off the stinking carbs and sugars. Do the reset with me if you've got a problem with your potassium levels.
Now, Lynn is asking another question, "Do I need iodine?" Well not if you eat eggs, meat and cheese. One of the highest sources of iodine is in meat. It's in eggs. Eggs is a perfect food. It's got iodine for your thyroid. And one of the reasons we see so much thyroid problems, one of the reasons is when people are carb-holic, "I got to be careful, I can only have one egg a week." Do you know how many people told me that in practice? "One or two eggs a week. My cardiologist told me that. Because of cholesterol." I said, "Well, your cardiologist, you should have gone to your plumber because your plumber knows more about nutrition than your cardiologist does."
Look, guys, it doesn't mean I don't love your cardiologist, okay? It's just they don't know anything about nutrition. Himalayan salt has iodine in it. But if you're eating eggs, meat and cheese. Look, if you got a thyroid problem, I have a thyroid formula with iodine in it, but it's not just iodine. I got selenium, I got ashwagandha, I got everything that you want in the thyroid formula. So good question.
Oh, here's another thyroid, Guylaine. "Is it true that the long term use of thyroid meds can affect your calcium levels?" Absolutely, it can. That's one of its side effects, is osteoporosis. And this is why I always tell people, "Look, your thyroid is a puppet. It's got a lot of strings attached to it. You got to look at everything." And ladies, I talk to you mostly because, not that men can't have thyroid problems, but it's mostly women. Why? Always ask the question? Why is it mostly women, 90 to 10? Now, it's 95 to five. Women get thyroid problems compared to men. 95% to 5%. There's a reason for it, it's called horror-mones.
Women are complicated. They got ovaries, ovaries complicate the universe. No, seriously, they do because for the thyroid to work properly, it's got to have balance between your ovaries, your cortisol, your liver, your gut. There's a lot of strings attached. And one of the problems with thyroid medication, it doesn't fix all of that. It manages it, but it doesn't fix it. And then, you take a med, and I'm not telling you not to take a med. All I'm saying is, yeah, it's one of the side effects is osteoporosis. So is high blood pressure. So is heart problems. I'm always big on fixing the problem rather than managing it. If you go on our website, and I don't know even how to do it, but get in our courses, take the thyroid, take the hormonal course. The storm. I think it's on our website, isn't it? Ash Ginette, ask Nicole, ask Brandy. Okay.
Anne. "What is a good fasting insulin level?" Well, I don't care so much because I don't look at that so much, Anne, and I don't mean to dismiss it because I'm a big guy on insulin, you know that. But as far as the blood test, now, I don't find it to be all that accurate. It's supposed to be under 25, what is it? mlU/L ... I don't know, but I don't look at that. I'm more interested in your A1C because that tells me more about your insulin.
I'm more interested in your triglycerides than your HDL. That tells me more than insulin fasting levels because if I can look at your triglycerides and your HDL, I can tell you what your insulin is, if you have insulin resistance, because that's what I'm looking for. Okay? So I don't want to be dismissive, Anne. If you get a fasting insulin test, send it to me, but I want your triglycerides, I want your HDL and I want your A1C because that gives me a better picture. That's what I look for. Good question.
Melissa was just asking about, "What happens when my thyroid was 3.8 has gone to 10?" Well, Melissa, you probably got some form of Hashimoto's or Graves autoimmune. Your body's turning on itself. But again, if you go to our teaching on the thyroid, you got to look at other reasons, Melissa, because the thyroid doesn't act on its own. It just doesn't. And that's why so many people fall through the cracks.
Francis, here we go with horror-mones again. "My daughter was on birth control at 16." Why was she on birth control? Because she had very bad periods. And again, what does medicine do? They want to manage them and that's okay. I understand it. Okay. And they usually give you estrogen in the birth control pill. Horse's urine, that's how they make it. And there's a lot of side effects to that. And she wants to get off the birth control. Okay, probably wants to have a baby. "What should she do for those terrible times of the month?" I tell you something. Let me tell you something on the last day of the year. If a man ever had one period, he would shoot himself because we're big babies. Ooh. When you have bad menses, hormones, you have too much estrogen compared to your progesterone. Got to fix that. That's why I dim out your estrogen. Our hormonal formula, that's why I love it, it dims it out. And that's what you got to do, you got to get that estrogen down. It's not that you don't have enough estrogen. You got too much. You're too much of a woman. Take it from me.
Sheila. "Doctor told me about cluster headaches. My friend has cluster headaches. What's the cause?" Hormones, too much estrogen, not enough progesterone, add in cortisol and you got cluster headaches, migraines too. These are always symptoms of hormonal issues and cortisol just adds fuel to the fire. Stress. Fuel to the fire. Cluster headaches. Get on the reset, change your diet, fix your hormones. What a difference that makes.
Okay, guys. Thanks for your patience. I did some rants today, but I can't help myself. Okay, so who's starting the reset next week? Now, I talked to you about this yesterday. Let us know on our private Facebook group if you're starting, just because we're going to pump your tires up. Okay? The first is tomorrow, so if you want to go through the weekend, let's officially make it on the third, but if you want to start tomorrow, go for it. Eggs, meat and cheese for 30 days. If this is your first, I'm telling you, guys, it'll change your life. Now, for those who've done the reset, you want to do a shorter version of it, a week, it'll empty your liver. You just want to get back on track and you've already done the first reset? You can do a week. If you want to do a 30 days, if you're starting for the first time, that's what we recommend. The 30 day program, it fixes, man, insulin resistance. It fixes it.
And it'll form habits. You'll know more about nutrition, believe you me, than 99.9% of the population. You'll figure it out and you'll realize how good this is for you when you lay off all those crappy carbohydrates with the crappy oils and the sugars. What a difference it makes in your life. Okay? Good.
Okay, guys, we love ya. Now, Monday, I'm going to be on in the afternoon, so I'm just telling you ahead of time, we'll post that. I'm going to be on, going into the new year, Mondays and Thursdays, afternoon. So talk to you soon. Love ya. Happy New Year.
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!