Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners.
Some of today’s topics include:
- Lack of taste since COVID
- Low vitamin B12
- White blood cells & immune system
- Postpartum depression
- The Dutch tests
- Burning, dry eyes
- Fatty liver disease
- Zinc supplements
- Long-term side effects of medications
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. Welcome again to question and answer Friday. Okay, let's go to the questions. Some very good questions came in. Denise is asking: since having COVID last December, I still have tingling and no taste or little taste in the mouth. Do you have any remedy to solve this? Well, I'm going to tell you, first of all, that it's been pretty common. People that have gotten COVID have found that there's actually a term that they're using. It's called long COVID.
You know, some people had COVID and they didn't even have any symptoms. And some people got really unwell and others unwell plus it lasts a long time. So yeah, I think there are things, first of all whenever, Denise, it comes to tingling in the mouth or a lack of sensation or whatever. There's a couple of things I always look for.
One, I'm always looking for a lack of B12. Okay? B12 has a lot to do with neurological. Of all the B vitamins, it's the most important. Make sure your levels are good, Denise. A lot of times in infections or post infections like COVID, people have low B12. They don't know they have low B12 because they haven't been tested, but that's something that I would highly recommend. It's something that we did in the office. Every patient who'd ever come in, we'd check their B12. Oh, it's really important because it's a real important metabolic neurological vitamin. And a lot of people, they have no idea they're low in that.
The B12 blood test by the way is 100 years old. You know, it's time to put it to bed and make a new one. Really, give it a birthday party. Just because doctors used to think B12 is important. Okay? And now they hardly even look at it. And the ranges are crazy because if you're over 200 and something, they say you have normal B12. Listen, B12 is a very finicky vitamin to start off with. If you have any kind of digestive issue, you're probably low in B12. If you're on any medication, you're probably low in B12. It's a finicky, large structure vitamin. Okay? I like 800 to 1200, very high B12. It's a water soluble vitamin. Nobody ever croaked from having high B12. So look at that. Okay? Good question.
And then the other thing I would tell you, whenever it comes to the mouth, again, taste is zinc. Okay? Zinc. Now, if you've followed me at all in the last several years, I don't necessarily want you to take a supplement of zinc. Not that you can't; you certainly can. But most people I would rather them eat their zinc. And so you get zinc in red meat and you know, eggs, meat, and cheese, you're going to get some zinc. So if you like any of those things, eat more of it.
But look, if you got those symptoms, it might not be a bad idea. I have zinc in my Blood Boost. I highly recommend that. To people that have, and I'm going to talk about this on another question. But if those are your symptoms, look at those two things. One, B12 and that's primary. Secondary look at zinc and you might be low in zinc. Don't take more than 50 milligrams of zinc a day if you're going to take it in a supplement. I don't like it as a supplement on its own. I put it in Blood Boost. The reason is because I surround zinc with a lot of other things that help to absorb zinc. But you can eat it, too. Okay? Good, good question. Okay?
Now Agatha and somebody else... Hold on a minute. Tracy. Agatha and Tracy asked about white blood cells. Okay. So Agatha, if my white blood cells are low, does that make my immune system low or is that the same thing? Very good question. Okay? Now, let me answer this one too at the same time. Tracy is asking the question. What makes leukocytes and neutrophils low? So what makes those white blood cells low? Okay? So let's talk about that.
First of all, white blood cells are really important for part of your immune system. What makes them low? Believe it or not, people often will get a virus and that virus can attack their bone marrow and they don't make enough white blood cells.
Now of course you can have enormous amount of white blood cells like crazy. Have you ever seen leukemia or whatever? When you see it in blood, it's scary because you have millions of white blood cells. But usually they are immature and they're not working properly.
Look, a lot of people have low white count. I relate that more to a lack of vitamin D. Okay? So yes, it is related to your immune system. Sometimes your bone marrow is being attacked by a virus. You're not even making enough white blood cells, but you make white blood cells and your T cells, especially those coming out of your lymphatic system are really, really important to fight infection.
They have a little antenna, an antenna, little, little, little, and they're looking for the sun. They're looking for viderma. And I'm telling you 80 to 90% of the population in North America are low in vitamin D. Okay? That's just the way it is. You all almost got to bring your physician to a dentist and drill their teeth without anesthetic to make them test you for vitamin D. Because all doctors can think of, not all... Most. "Vitamin D, that's just for bones." You know what guys? Vitamin D is the most essential vitamin for your immune system.
One thing that came out of the last two years, one thing that came out of it, vitamin D, viderma, if the truth be known, I mean you just got to read the studies. If people had good levels of vitamin D almost invariably, they didn't get sick.
You've heard about this because I've been telling you this for a long time. But the world doesn't know it because they're not reading. Like there's no money in vitamin D. There's no money in it. There's no money in it. So what happens? Something as cheap as vitamin D, either as a supplement.
Now I prefer the sun. You know that. Sunshine on my shoulder makes me happy. Sun. It's inexpensive. Now you live in Canada. You know, you might have seen the sun, but it's been 40 below. Okay? Well, that's when you supplement with vitamin D. That will increase your activity of your white blood cells.
Look, having low count of white blood cells doesn't bother me. It doesn't bother me. Some people, they just don't make a lot of them. But the key is to make sure your white blood cells are working properly because white blood cells, you can Google this and go look at it, watch them chase the bacteria.
Ask Nic and ask Ginette, who worked with me for years, they saw it and we would just like, I never got tired of looking at a white blood cell in a chase. I used to show patients white blood cells surrounding the bacteria and then destroying it. It was like ships on an ocean. They would surround it and destroy it right in front of my eyeballs on a 3,200 power microscope. It was just fascinating to watch. But those white blood cells, guys, it's not the number so much. It's how they are active.
Now, let me just say another thing about white blood cells. This has been studied, guys. Okay? You need vitamin D they have a little antenna, their battery packs get charged. Okay? Their battery packs get charged with viderma. Okay? It's like the Tesla vehicles. You got to plug them in. Well, viderma, vitamin D, supercharges your white blood cells. Number one.
What puts your white blood cells to sleep, guys? What puts them to sleep? Sugar. Yes, they've shown, same microscope, whatever. Give a person a teaspoon of sugar. One teaspoon. Now I talked to you yesterday about all the sugar there is in cereals and how many teaspoons of sugar they add in cereal. Kids are having dessert for breakfast. Craziness. But the studies have shown one teaspoon of sugar will put your white blood cells to sleep for an hour. They have a siesta when they should be out on guard and working.
Sugar destroys your immune system. Sugar destroys your immune system. So that's important. Denise, you're trying to get over COVID. COVID is dragging its ugly tail in your body. Make sure your vitamin D is good. Make sure your B12 is good because that has a lot to do with your immune system, too. And avoid sugar like the plague. Very good questions. Okay? So Denise, Agatha and I already hit Tracy. Here we go.
Ida - What do I do for postpartum depression? Well understand, first of all, Ida, what it is, what happens. I just had a great grandson, okay? So for my grandson's wife, what happened the other day, other than having a baby. Of course the placenta was delivered baby in, right? In the placenta. What is that placenta, and actually it almost shocked me. Her midwife told her with the placenta, you take capsules of it. They actually make out of the placenta, listen to what I'm going to say. I didn't even know this. They make capsules. They put the placenta in little capsules and they want the mothers to take it.
Excellent idea. Why is that? Because the placenta is full of progesterone and women that have babies, they leave all their progesterone in the placenta. Now their bodies are made to jack it back up, but a lot of times in postpartum depression, they're not making enough progesterone and they get estrogen dominance.
And when they get estrogen dominance, you know, "Doc, I got myself tested and my estrogen's actually low." Well, no, but they test it on its own. I don't care if it's low. It doesn't mean nothing. It doesn't, because you have to take the measurement of estrogen and progesterone. They need to be equal.
And what we're seeing in the world, postpartum depression is estrogen dominance with not enough progesterone. That's what it is. And when you have too much estrogen, your thyroid doesn't work properly. It's just the way it is. You don't convert T4 to T3 the way you should. Your thyroid slows down. You don't feel good. Your brain starts to play tricks on you. You can go into a very severe depression. Do you know how many women after having a baby gain 30, 40 pounds? 20, 30, 40 pounds and they never lost it? That was estrogen dominance.
So what do you do? That's why we have the Hormonal Formula because what I do with the Hormonal and sometimes I'll actually put them on the Menopausal Formula just temporarily to up their progesterone. But the key is not that. The key is to hammer down that estrogen. Hammer down the estrogen. Dim it out, okay? That's why I'm big on that. Very, very, very good question. Okay, Ida, thank you for that.
This goes along with it because Cathy is asking what are Dr. Martin's thoughts on the DUTCH tests? You know what the DUTCH tests are? They are looking at horror-mones. It's a test for hormones. You can actually order it.
Now look, we used to do it all the time in the office. We were testing for horror-mones: estrogen, progesterone, cortisone, testosterone. DUTCH testing is using dry urine to test. But guys, let me just say this. You can order it if you want. Google it. I think you can probably bring it in from the United States. I don't know if there's any in Canada. We used to bring those tests in.
But let me say this. I'm not that big on it. I used to do it and I was happy to do it, but you ask my staff. I never, ever did any testing in the office without you answering a questionnaire. And the reason is, and I had to drum this into my staff all the time. Symptoms trump testing. You got it? Symptoms trump testing.
So if you send me your hormone test without any symptoms, it don't mean nothing to me. I mean it. "Oh doc, my estrogen is high." "Okay. What are your symptoms. I want to know." Because I'll tell you, medicine has made a huge boo boo in no longer asking questions and they rely on the lab. They're lab rats. Physicians have become lab rats. They do testing. And if it's within normal limits, "You're all right." "Eh, doc, how come I feel so terrible?"
Here's what I recommend. Go on our website, MartinClinic.com and take the Metabolic Storm education there. Because we put it out there for you so you can figure out what is going wrong because we ask you a lot of questions. And if you answer the questions, you're going to find out what we found out in the clinic. And that is, you can have horror-mones and all your testing could come back within normal limits. Okay?
You know, I brought to you this week, guys, on the thyroid, how they miss the thyroid so often it's incredible. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it's a duck. It's a thyroid. "Yeah. But my doc..." I don't care what your doctor said. Okay? Thank you Cathy for that question.
When doing blood work, do you feel it best to fast beforehand for cholesterol, even though they don't require it? No, you don't have to. It doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Not for that. Some testing, when they do your glucose fasting or insulin fasting, then you got to fast. But not for your blood lipids. You don't have to fast for that because the food will not affect them one way or another. Good question. And we're going to come back to that because somebody else was asking that, okay? About testing. We'll get into it.
Alicia - What causes burning eyes, dry eyes?
Your eyeballs are drying out and your body overreacts to it. So it creates a lot of tears. Now the best, best, best thing to fix that is high DHA oil. So many people today. And especially look at me, I'm on a smartphone right now. That's how I am doing my podcast.
I'm looking at a screen a lot of hours in a day, that is very high. That drys your eyes out, and some people more than others, right? But for lubrication, there's nothing better than high DHA oil guys. Nothing better for your eyeballs. I love Navitol, of course, the pine bark extract, but the dry eye specifically is high DHA oil. Good for your brain. Good for your eyes. Good for your heart. Good for everything. Lubricates. Lubricates. Okay. Very good question. Okay.
-A chilly [inaudible 00:20:38]. What is it? How do I treat it? What's the cost? That's Joy asking. And that's where cold brings out bumps on your skin or whatever. Well, you know what, Joy? Move to Florida and you won't get it again. Okay. I'm just teasing. Okay?
No, but look what happens. It's a circulation problem. Look at Raynaud's. Raynaud's is an autoimmune circulation problem. How do you fix it? I always, always, always start any autoimmune, I start with leaky gut. I always start in the gut. Fix your gut. Make sure your microbiome is good because that's where it starts. And then micro circulate.
And look. Another thing about circulation again. Okay? This is brought to you by the sugar. Okay, because what happens? And I talk about what insulin does all the time. Remember what insulin does. Insulin takes sugar out of your bloodstream. Why? Because the first thing that sugar does, if left unchecked in your bloodstream will destroy your circulation.
Ask a diabetic. Yep. Every minute of every day, seven days a week in North America, someone loses a limb and 99% of them are diabetic. What has circulation got to do with diabetes? Everything. And what does neuropathy have to do with diabetes? Everything, because sugar destroys blood vessels and blood, little capillaries that go to your nerves. Even your nerves depend on circulation. Neuropathy, painful feet, diabetes, and "Oh doc. I'm not a diabetic." Are you a carboholic? Okay? It's your body's warning. Sign. Change your diet. Okay. Let me keep going here.
Teresa - Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. What about it? I talk about it every day. Teresa. Okay? What to do about it. Cut out the carbs. Listen, your liver is a suitcase. Your liver is the Costco parking lot. Go by Costco. It's always full. If that store's open, the parking lot is full. It's a suitcase.
I told the story the other day. When I was teaching at the University of Tennessee, Dr. McEwen, she heard this story. She'd probably heard it before. My grandson, he's down visiting us and he's got this carry on. Okay? He had enough clothes for two 50-pound suitcases, but he had a carry on and he's not spending one plug nickel.
If you're over 50 pounds you got to pay. I said, "Josiah, you are never getting all those clothes in that suitcase." He said, "Grandpa, watch me." And at the end of it, he sat on it, then zipped it up. I said, "Well, my, I've never seen anything like it." Anyway.
But guys, that's the picture of your liver. When you insist on eating carbohydrates, they are converted in your liver to glycogen. When glycogen is full of fat, sugar turns to fat. Fat don't turn to fat. Sugar turns to fat. Carbs turn to fat in your liver.
Why do we see so much fatty liver, even in children? That is the scourge of our society today. Because they start their day with cereal or a fruit yogurt with 20 something grams of sugar. And they drink orange juice and they drink soda. They live on pizza and you know what happens? Their liver gets full of fat. Non-alcoholic fatty liver.
Listen, Dr. [Golub 00:25:01] Club will agree with me if he's still listening. When we were in school, Dr. Golub, did we ever hear of anything that had to do with a fatty liver? No we didn't. Not in the '70s. Now we heard about cirrhosis of the liver. Alcoholics get cirrhosis of the liver. But non-alcoholic fatty liver disease?
That wasn't in our textbooks. But we're sugarholics, we're carboholics and we have a whole new... Theresa, I could go on for two days about the ramifications of that to your heart.
Your liver is not Las Vegas. What do I mean by that? What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Uh-uh (negative). Uh-uh (negative). Not in your liver. What happens in the liver spreads. It spreads to your heart because your triglycerides go up and your HDL goes down when you have fatty liver. So fatty liver is yeah, it bad for your liver, but it is really bad for your heart. It is really bad for your brain. Because those triglycerides travel to your brain.
People that get strokes, people that have heart attacks, they don't have high cholesterol. They actually have low cholesterol. They have high triglycerides. They have fat balls that come out of your liver.
See how much fun I'm having. Okay. Theresa, if you go... I got probably about 20 podcasts on our website about fatty liver or more. Okay? Because I'm a big guy. The most important organ in your body is your liver. Ah, okay. Your brain, your heart.
No, but liver I'm telling you it's the Rodney Dangerfield of your organs. Nobody gives it any respect because they don't understand it. They're still focused in on cirrhosis of the liver, but they're getting cirrhosis really of the liver through fatty liver disease, which is a food problem. It's a food problem. It's carboholism. Not alcoholism, carboholism. I'm telling you.
And this goes along with the question Laura is asking, what if your HDL is two and a half times higher than your triglycerides? Well, good for you. Look, it can happen, but that's all right. Nothing wrong with that.
Now look, the key is... Okay. Remember Laura, I got to give you a little bit of numbers that I look at. Okay? Now the best number for a woman is to have her triglycerides under one. Or in the United States, under 100. Okay? A hundred or less or one or less in Canada. That's really good.
But you need to compare that to your HDL. Why is that? Triglycerides are [inaudible 00:28:28] and HDL is the Amazon truck or the FedEx trucks or whatever trucks on the highways of your blood vessels that hitch their wagon to those triglycerides and take those dangerous triglycerides out of your blood vessels, back to your liver so that your liver will metabolize them. Okay?
That's really important, guys. That is what I call nutrition 101. And I'm telling you, medicine... Hook, line and sinker got duped into cholesterol. Folks, you cannot live without cholesterol. Your heart will not be solid without cholesterol. Why is that?
Well, God don't even trust you. 85% of your cholesterol, your body makes it. The other 15% is your responsibility. You better eat it. And the only way to get cholesterol is in the animal kingdom. It's not found in the plant kingdom. It's just not there.
So HDL, specifically high-density lipoprotein hitches it's way to your bad triglycerides. So if they are two and a half times higher, even higher than that than, your triglycerides, you just got more Amazon trucks on the highways of your blood vessels. That's not bad for you. Okay? That's not bad for you. I shoot for about two and a half times better, but it's a good question, Laura. Thanks so much.
Dee - Taking one Navitol, have a loss of energy, finishing radiation treatments for breast cancer. Exercise, eating well, plenty of sleep. What else I can do?
Well, listen, I would up your Navitol because one to me, especially with what you're are going through Dee, I would up it. I would be at four. I go with a therapeutic dose.
Look, Navitol is great. I don't think there's anything better on the planet. If you're eating well and doing everything you're supposed to Dee, good for you. You're doing the right thing. Make sure, Dee, demand from your doctor, find what your B12 levels are and find out what your blood vitamin D, your D-hydroxy 25, find out that number because that is so essential. Okay?
So up your Navitol. I'd go to four a day. Find out your B12. If you're not taking B12, I would, especially with radiation. You've wiped out your B12 and vitamin D. Okay? So those are the things that I would do, Dee.
Francis - Can I add a zinc supplement with clinical depression and low energy?
Ah, you could, but that wouldn't be my number one. Clinical depression. First of all, clean up your diet. I mentioned this in Dr. McEwen at the University of Tennessee the other day. I reminded them because they're psychology students and Dr. McEwen is a psychologist. Okay? Smart.
Depression is an inflammation disorder. That's high circulating insulin, okay? Leaky gut, okay, or oxidative damage. Those are the three seeds of disease that create inflammation. Inflammation is not Houdini. If you get depression, if you have major depression... You know, I'll tell you there was an orthomolecular psychiatrist by the name of Abraham Hoffer. This guy was a genius and talked about sugar and depression just eliminating it, just doing that. And he was a smart dude, man.
And it's unfortunate. You know that even though he was a psychiatrist and he was as smart as a tack, a lot of his work, you know, sort of got pooh-poohed because he wasn't talking about taking antidepressants. He was talking about nutritional deficiencies, and one of which was B12.
Now what Dr. Hoffer never got to because he didn't live long enough to see it, was the advancement of vitamin D in the brain. But I'm big guy on getting insulin down, get insulin down, get insulin down, fix leaky gut for depression. For zinc, look, eat steak, you got zinc. Drink coffee, you got zinc. Okay? No, but I mean, look, you can do it. Like I say, I like surrounding zinc with other things. Okay?
Beth - How to take calcium out of the joints?
Well, that's not easy once a joint has become calcified. Your body is unbelievable. Fearfully and wonderfully made. Okay? It will regenerate itself to a certain extent. Okay? When you get my age, okay? When you get my age and you got damage to your joints, it's not easy to regenerate that or take calcified tendons or joints, but stay active.
One of the things that calcifies joints the most and we don't even talk about it, is what we call AGE's. Glycation end products. You know what it's caused by? Sugar. Honey, honey. It's sugar again, see?
Change your diet. You know how many thousands of people have said, "Okay, doc." I'm not kidding you. Once they did the reset, their joints were better. The pain levels went down. You know why? Because they were getting rid of glycation.
Now you're not going to completely regenerate a joint. Okay? Unless Jesus touches your joint. Joking, because I got to take a miracle, but do the best you can.
I like Inflammation Formula. It is one of the best formulas. I got eight anti-inflammatories in there. Okay? So I'm tooting my horn, but I like it. I take it every day.
Now, high blood pressure is a symptom of insulin resistance. Sure is. Weak pulse, how to translate poor heart rate, asking for parents. Well, Veronica, usually if they have a weak heart, they're probably suffering from congestive heart failure. And I mean, at first they can have high blood pressure. Then they can get low pulse rate. Their heart just, the muscle is not working. It's not strong enough and that can create a weak pulse.
Now there's other things too. Like the thyroid, it's always worth checking the thyroid. Because the thyroid is your metabolism. Your thyroid is your gas pedal in your car. It makes things work including it has a big effect on the heart.
But at the end of the day, if they're weakened, make sure they're drinking enough water because dehydration, you know, a lot of times seniors, okay? A lot of times seniors are taking lots of medications. You know what it is on the average in the United States and Canada? Five medications, the average. The average person over 65 in Canada and the United States is taking at least five medications.
I'm going to tell you, there's a lot of side effects to those medications. And sometimes they take blood pressure pills and yeah, your blood pressure goes down but there's side effects to those things. Okay. So anyway, good question, Veronica.
Mary - Does 36% I thought it was 35, contain high amounts of K2? Yep. What is the highest source of K2? Butter and cheese specifically cheese curds. Did you watch the whole program that I did on butter? I love butter, man. Butter, butter, butter.
Not on bread though. Okay? Not on bread. Butter on your steak. Put butter on your vegetables. Okay? Butter them up, buttercup, because it's a very high source of K2. And cream has K2, not the highest source, but it does. Okay.
Now Teny, now that could be Terry. It might be spelled wrong, but I've got T-E-N-Y. It could be Terry, I think, but I don't know. What are the long term side effects of high blood pressure medications and thyroid medications?
Well look, guys, there's always side effects. I am just going to go to my notes and I'm going to read you side effects and I did this this week. So if you go to the podcast or the podcast that will be coming out very shortly, Synthroid side effects (levothyroxine). Breast cancer. There's a correlation between taking these drugs, including Synthroid, for breast cancer. Just came out. A nationwide study out of PubMed that I read to you this week. I think it was this week.
Synthroid side effects: headaches, sweating, diarrhea, hair loss, hives, weight gain or weight loss, mood swings or heart palpitations. Lots and lots of side effects to those medications.
Now look, I'm not telling you not to take them. I don't do that. When you're not my patient, I don't tell people not to take a medication. I won't do that. But just understand there are a lot of side effects and people I know take Synthroid or whatever for 20 or 30 years and the doctor don't want to take them off of it. But you have to understand, there are many side effects to it. Okay? So buyer beware. Buyer beware.
Okay guys, I think I got to all of it. Thank you so much, guys. We appreciate you. You have no idea. Okay. Tony Jr. and I, we thank you. Our dear staff, Brandy, Jeannette and Nicole and the girls in the office and that, we thank you. We appreciate you guys. We do. We'd be nothing without you, honey. Okay? So thank you very much for watching. We appreciate it. We 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!