801. Q&A with Dr. Martin

THE DOCTOR IS IN Podcast


Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners.

Some of today’s topics include:

  • Purpose of iodine
  • Collagen for hot flashes
  • NAD
  • Exploding head syndrome
  • Autophagy
  • Type I diabetes & carbs
  • Lipedema in men
  • Probiotics after antibiotics
  • Heart palpitations
  • Infrared lights & melatonin
  • Flaxseed

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 welcome to another live this morning and hope you're having a great start to your day and back from a couple of days of little mini vacation here, and I missed you guys. I just want to go over just for another minute... We sent out an email this week. Now, if you don't get our emails, you should sign up and make sure you get our emails because we've put a lot of information out there on our emails. Okay? Like we go into deeper dives oftentimes on our emails. So if you would like to get that and you don't, then sign up at martinclinic.com, I think. Guys, I don't know. I think so. I'm just going to take a minute here with products. Okay? And look, what's happened as... The Martin Clinic was established in 1911. Okay? By my grandfather, David Martin in 1911, unbelievable.

So we're now into fourth generation and Tony Jr., who is my boss, Dr. Martin, I don't know, junior. He's got a son, Anthony Ethan Martin, and now a grandson Anthony Shay Martin. So the fifth. But oh boy, it's hard to keep track. But the clinic guys, as you know, I'm not in practice anymore. I'm doing this, trying to get out to the masses, doing the podcast had been very popular and we developed our own products as you know. And we had our own family and friends. I mean it. Our business was family and friends that had been with us for a long time. And we couldn't sustain that out of Sudbury, our office. And so, we've got what we call third party fulfillment shipping. There's been a few bugs, but we're ironing those out and it's going to be fantastic. It's just the way it is because we've grown so much and we could not handle it anymore in our office in Sudbury, we just couldn't do it.

It wasn't feasible and we couldn't hire enough staff to do it. And so, there's been a hiccup. And then of course, we had trouble with our ingredients and I'm going to tell you something, because I got all the complaints believe you me about... I'll give you an example. Okay? Our digestive enzyme, I'm sorry, people ask me, well what compares to it? I'm sorry? Look, Tony Jr. And I formulated it and we had to get results. You got digestive issues? You want results. So I'm sorry, like our manufacturer is saying, oh we can't get it. It's going to take time. We can get some stuff from China. Cheap. It's cheaper. We can get it tomorrow. Don't put that in our product. I'm sorry, don't do it. We're not compromising. And I mean it. It's been tough and I know a lot of people and every day, I get it. Okay? And I do.

Listen, you know who I get at the numero uno from? My wife. See, you better get me some product and I mean now. But Rosie knows a lot of the other stuff don't work. So we have to wait, unless COVID, all sorts of issues guys, but we're resolving them. Now we're catching up. And anyway, the good news is, fulfillment will be even better than it used to be, but within a week or two, we should be right up to snuff. Okay? I just wanted to bring that out guys because I've been asked so many times about it and there's a shift going on. And the reason is because we're growing and we thank you for that. But I'm telling you, Tony Jr. and I talk about this all the time. We will not compromise on the quality of the ingredients. If it ain't the first class ones in, we're not putting it in. Okay?

So Charlene and wait a minute, somebody else was asking about iodine. Marv, what is the purpose of iodine? And Charlene asking, do we get enough iodine eating, eggs, meat, and cheese? Yep, you do. Now, iodine is essential and I've said this before, but okay and let me say this, you need iodine for your thyroid to work. Now you don't need just iodine. Your thyroid, remember, it is such an important organ and it's a finicky organ on the best of days, it needs nutrient. It needs iodine, it needs selenium, it needs B vitamins, even B12. It needs vitamin D. Yep, ViDerma, for it to work properly. And I'm going to tell you something, and I mentioned this the other day, if you don't get enough amino acids, protein, it will be sluggish. It will not work the way it should. You have to start with the thyroid with nutrition. One of the reasons I talk about the reset so much is that when you are eating eggs, meat, and cheese, that's the positive side. You're eating eggs, meat, and cheese. Why? Nutrient dense, iodine, selenium all your B vitamins. B12. Okay? Very important.

So look, you can get iodine from seaweed too, okay? And sometimes therapeutically, I would recommend it. That's fine. But at the end of the day and somebody was asking yesterday, I think. Yes, it was yesterday. Well, do I need to take supplements? Well look, you can't out supplement a bad diet. You just can't. If you insist on eating poorly and not getting enough nutrition, this is why I always talk guys, about the animal kingdom and the vegetable kingdom. Which protein is better? You get protein in the vegetable kingdom. Which protein is better? The animal kingdom. Why is that? Bioavailable. So when you want iodine, a mineral, okay? They iodized the salt, but that's table salt. I don't even like that. If you eat eggs, meat, and cheese, I'm going to tell you're getting enough iodine.

You're getting enough selenium. And look, if your thyroid is sluggish and I put you on, or I recommended thyroid formula, I have iodine in it. But I don't just have iodine in it, I have another eight ingredients in there. There's a reason I do that, clinically. Okay so, good questions because people have this idea they have to take iodine as a supplement. Not really because you can eat it. You can eat it. But if your thyroid is sluggish, then you might look at... And I wouldn't just give iodine on its own, I don't because I know how the thyroid works. Okay? So do we get enough iodine? Charlene is asking eggs, meat, and cheese on the reset? Yep. You do. You do. And Mara, what is the purpose of iodine? Iodine's an important mineral for your thyroid, along with others. Okay?

So good questions. We appreciated. Cheryl, what are your thoughts about collagen for hot flashes? I heard marine collagen works well. There's marine collagen and there's bovine collagen from bone broth. And I like bone broth. It's so good for your gut. It's a tremendous amino acid. I like it guys. And Dr. Martin's perfect smoothie for kids, but it helps because of the amount of L. glutamine that is in the collagen. Collagen is good for your hair, for your skin, for your nails. You know how many times people would come the office made for a followup visit and they said, my hair's better. You know who told me? My hairdresser. Oh your hair, what are you doing? I'm taking bone broth.

There's a marine collagen. Clinically, I never used it. I always use bone broth collagen, but I'm sure marine collagen is good. I heard marine collagen works for hot flashes and night sweat, Charlene. Well, I've never really specifically heard that. It's good for you. Would it be specific? I've never clinically experienced that, but hey, I like collagen. Collagen is the best protein in the world. Collagen is my favorite protein. So you want to use it as a supplement. You can take a Dr. Martin's perfect smoothie with four ounces of cream, heavy cream. Make your kids or your grandchildren a smoothie. And I'm telling you, Dr. Martin's perfect smoothie, and if they don't eat properly or whatever, at least you've given them that. It is so complete. It's so good for you. Okay, Connie, which of Dr. Martin's products help NAD? Okay. Now let me say this word. Just cause you want to get your tongue twisted, say this; nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide.

I remember in school having to say that word. And I said, why don't we just call it NAD? Which they did. They didn't call it NAD in the 70s. Okay? That's a chemical, your body actually produces it, NAD. It gives you energy. It's one of the ways your body produces energy. And when you go online, you can actually buy a supplement of it. Ah, you know me, I'm not big on that. Okay? I'm not big on that because guess where you find NAD? What boosts your NAD? Well, B3 specifically, I know that, which is niacin, but I'm not big on you taking niacin on its own. You would know me. I love B vitamins, eat your B vitamins. Now you might have to take B12. Okay? A lot of people are so deficient on B12, because out of all the B vitamins, B12 is the most finicky. It is a huge vitamin, molecularly. And it could be difficult to absorb it.

You don't have the intrinsic factor, if you are on almost any medication, you're not going to absorb B12 properly. It strips your body of B12. Okay? And you need the right acidity in your stomach. You need your small intestine to be working properly for you to get B12. It is a tough vitamin. That's why I'm big on it. But your other B vitamins, eat it. When you have steak, you're getting all your B vitamins. Did you know that? Eggs, B vitamins. There's your supplement. And it will boost your NAD. Here's another way of boosting NAD, like I said, your body makes it. You know what? When you exercise, you boost your NAD. That's why I love vitamin E. Boosting your NAD.

Oh, by the way, let me tell you what happens too because I was thinking about this when I looked at that question. Do you know what destroys your NAD? You're going to say sugar, huh? Yep. But you know what's really difficult on NAD? Is your chemotherapy. It's one of the reasons people that take chemo get so unwell, because it destroys their NAD, okay? So I'm just giving you a by the way because people have asked me that in the past. Like, why am I so tired taking chemo? Well, chemo is mustard gas, it ain't easy, okay? And it's really hard on your NAD. Okay, good questions. Appreciate it very, very much. Let me get back here, Andrea. I've done the reset. Not overweight. Wondering why I'm hungry all the time. Well, you know what, Andrea? You probably suffer from hypoglycemia, low blood sugar. The reset is really meant to fix that because when you increase your protein and remember what I've always said, protein is king.

And when you have protein in your diet, the most bioavailable eggs, meat and cheese, okay? 99.9% of the population fix their hypoglycemia. Okay? But you can get hypoglycemia by the way, from having high stress hormones, cortisol. That's because it can fluctuate your blood sugar. So make sure you control that. It's really important to do that. I'm not big on snacking, by the way. You can snack. If you have the right snacks, it's not the end of the world, but Andrea, you might find that you need to snack a bit if you are hypoglycemic. But let me share this; whether you are hyperglycemia, which is high blood sugar, or you have low blood sugar, the eating is the same because what's going to save your bacon is when you eat protein and fat. Now not garbage fat, saturated, satisfying. You know what I call saturated fat?Like the fat you see on steak or hamburger, that's satisfying fat.

It's not looking for anything else. It's a complete fat and your body loves that fat. Your body loves that fat. So Andrea, you might suffer from what we call hypoglycemia and you might not even know it, low blood sugar. Janine, exploding head syndrome. Okay. Well, here's what I... And Janine, it's not like I haven't heard about it. I have heard about it. It's rare. It's usually what I call a part of a sleep disorder. And nobody else hears that sound only you. Here's my little take on it, Janine. You know what? If you have prolonged stress over a period of time, high levels of cortisol over a period of time, you might not even realize that your body is in that fight or flight state. This, in my opinion, is the reason that people get exploding head syndrome. It's part of a sleep disorder.

And cortisol, which is your friend, if someone's chasing you down an alley and you're running, or you're going to turn around and punch them or kick them, cortisol is your friend. But if cortisol is excreted over a period of time unabated, it can give you weird symptoms; nausea, lightheadedness, depersonalization, like you just feel like you're in somebody else's body. All these things, I believe are symptoms of high cortisol. And of course, high cortisol and fluctuates your blood sugar, which we already talked about. Okay? Now Ron is asking a good question. What is my take on auto, and here I go, autophagy, autophagy, what do I think of that?

I love Dr. Bequine because she teases me. I'm a Frenchman, okay? I have trouble with words like that. Autophagy, I don't know, who cares? Here's what I know about it. Your body self cleans itself, especially your brain guys. So when you are sleeping at night, your body, it's like a self cleaning oven. It turns itself on to clean itself. Your brain has its own cleaning system. We didn't even know that. I didn't know that in school, that the brain had its own, what we called, not lymphatics, but glymphatics. Your brain cleans itself at night, but only when you're sleeping. See, that's the problem when you don't sleep. So guys, I'm using my phone here right now. So I can't show you, but you know this. Can I give you an illustration of what autophagy is? Or whatever, okay. Can I give you an example?

When you go in an airplane and you turn your phone, no data comes in. Okay? Right? Airplane mode. Right? Look, I don't know much about my phone, but when they tell you in the airplane, turn your phones off or at least put them into airplane mode, no data's going to come in, right? That's when your body is self cleaning. Now, there's books out there and whatever people talking about fasting. And it's true, when you're not eating, and this is why we love eating in windows or intermittent fasting, which is good for you because you need to sleep for your brain to clean itself out. But fasting helps because when you're sleeping at night, your organs really go into the airplane mode. They're not receiving a lot of data. They just self clean, especially your liver. Your liver works the night shift. Even your kidneys are resting.

You're detoxing, but they're resting. They're not working very hard. If you don't eat, that helps. And this is why you talk about... And I've talked about this in books that I've written in the past about fasting. And do I like intermittent fasting? Yeah. Let's say you stop eating at six o'clock at night and don't eat till the next morning. If you get to about 10 o'clock, you're well into the 14 hours. In my opinion, it takes about 14 hours to do an intermittent fast. 12, 14 hours of not eating. That's actually good for your body. Okay? It is. And your body cleans itself up. It has its own self cleaning oven guys. Now, I've written about this that if you get the diagnosis... Let's say today you get, heaven forbid, but let's say you got a diagnosis or somebody in your family gets a diagnosis of cancer.

Well, there are studies showing that if they would do a three day fast, no eating for three days, you can have water and you can have coffee. And who said you can have coffee? Me. Don't break your fast. But you got to drink water, obviously. You need water. You're fasting. You need water. But there are some research that's showing that it really helps put the cancer rush, the cancer growth, to bed. It puts it to sleep if you can go three days. Now, anything you do with intermittent fasting is going to be healthy. So very good question. Let me just see if there was another part to that. Oh, Rona, didn't even see this is there. Especially negative effects with too much protein? Fake news, Rona. Fake news. Every day, I have to answer a question about too much protein, too much red meat, too much dairy, too much this.

And I hear it every day, and I just want to tell you and here's Dr. Martin in my expertise of nutrition, it's fake news. The only thing that will turn your autophagy off is when you're eating crappy carbs and sugars. It's not protein. Protein is the king of the castle. It's the king of the jungle. You need protein. And the most bioavailable protein comes usually, with fat. It does, think about it. Meat? Oh yeah, it's got fat on it. Eggs? Oh yeah, it's got healthy fat there. Cheese? It's got healthy fat. Yeah, with protein. I like them together. Together again, because protein is the king. So when you hear that, oh, you eat too much protein. It's going to affect your autophagy, no, it don't. Your body doesn't work without protein. I'm not saying you should do it. I'm just telling you what you could do.

If you never had another carb in your life, not one, not a gram of it, you would do well. You'll survive. Believe you, me. But you can't survive without protein. And you cannot survive without fat, okay? Saturated fat, satisfying fat. It's right in nature. God put it there for you to eat. It's perfect food. Okay? So Rona, I'm glad you asked me because it gets me on a tangent and I get excited as you can see because it bugs me. There's such an agenda. I was beside a guy yesterday and he was telling the cook that he was a vegetarian. It took me everything to mind my own business. I didn't know the guy. I felt like turning to him and said, you've been duped. You've been bewitched. Who duped you? Who fooled you into being a vegetarian? But I minded my own business.

Okay? Sometimes Rosie has to grab me and say, "Shut up. Don't start a fight. Mind your own business." I know, but I can't stand it. It's propaganda. I looked at the guy. I said, keep it up. No, I felt like saying, "Keep it up and you'll die young." I didn't say word. In my mind. I was doing this. Zip it, zip it, Tony. Shut up. Okay. No, but seriously drives me mental. Okay? Now Julie's asking a good question. Does type one diabetic need some carbs? No, they don't need carbs. Type one is autoimmune, guys. The pancreas don't work. They need to be on medication. But at the end of the day, type one diabetics do very, very well, very well. Now they might have to eat more frequently and things like that.

They have to monitor their blood sugar. At the end of the day, think about it. What is diabetes? You know my definition of diabetes, it's an allergy. If you are a diabetic, you have allergies to carbs. So type one diabetic, I know it's different. I know it's autoimmune, but at the end of the day, they have an allergy to carbs. Now they'll take a carb because if they're taking insulin, their blood sugar could go down. It could be very dangerous. It can go to ketoacidosis. And I get that. Look, I'm not trying to be a person's individual physician. I'm not. But I have 100s and 100s over the years, type one diabetics that they ate 90% protein; eggs, meat, and cheese. And they found that they did very well. They didn't get the fluctuations that they used to get.

Okay. Now listen, this is not individual advice, so just understand that. You know your type one diabetic, look, you got a problem. Okay. But this has been my clinical experience over the years. Thank you very much for the questions. Kathy, lipedema. Lipedema, I've seen it in men a few times. Yes, I have seen it in men, but it mostly happens in women. They pack on, in their legs especially, the upper legs thighs in their butt, fat just sits there. There lipedema is fat, okay? And lymphoedema, okay? There's lipedema, is when fat gets stored in the legs, I've seen them. Legs like tree trunks compared to the rest of the body, and that's fat. Is there anything you can do about that? Exercise is good, whatever, and then there's lymphedema. Lymphedema is when fluid gets in there.

So you have to differentiate between fluid and your lymphatic system is not draining and fat, which is lipedema. Fat. I've known patients over the years that have gone for liposuction, right? Gone to see a dermatologist or whatever and they actually took the fat out with liposuction. But lymphedema is different. That's when the lymph nodes, and you can get real swelling two in the legs or one leg, even with that. Gail is asking, how long would you increase probiotics after antibiotics? Well, look Gail, it depends, but at least a week. Go a week and you should be taking your probiotics with antibiotics. I'm big on it because some people say, don't take any probiotic. No, because you're going to wipe out all your bacteria with that antibiotic. You better put some back in with the probiotics. Okay?

Probiotics while you have an infection, you're taking antibiotics and you know what I say about antibiotics, take them until the symptoms decrease. When they decrease, stop the antibiotic. But then you should be for at least seven days, doubling up your probiotic. I often tell people who are taking three probiotics a day, go to six for about seven to 10 days. You are a person who has gotten recurring bladder infections, I'll tell you to double up your probiotics for even a month, double them up. You've wiped out your friendly bacteria and it takes time to get that back. But Gail yes, increase it seven to 10 days minimal. Sally, Jesse, my aunt and mom had this issue. I sneezed like crazy sometimes after eating. It's not always the same food. What's happening? You're weird, Sally and Jesse, okay? No look, is it a form of allergy?

I think for me, I think it's low acidity in the stomach. That's what I believe it is. Okay. So when I call you weird, I'm saying that with love in my heart for you. Okay? I like teasing a little bit. So you got to have a little bit of a thick skin around me because I do that with people. I say they give me a weird symptom, like I sneeze after I start eating. Well, that makes you weird. I should use the word different, peculiar. I sometimes tell people, don't donate your body to science, you'll confuse them. But I see it as low as acidity in the stomach. I'm sorry, Sally Jesse. I have to tease you a little bit, okay? Now I don't know if that's two people or Sally and Jesse or Sally Jesse is your name, your first name, like you got two first names. I don't know.

Okay, couple more. Terry, lately getting heart palpitations after eating. Okay, wondering why. Terry I'm going to suggest, usually that's stress. That's cortisol. Like I said, you can get really a lot of weird different symptoms with cortisol and it's a form of an anxiety almost. So be careful with that. That's what I suggested. Diane, what do you think of infrared lights? Does it help with melatonin? Well, not really. ViDerma helps with melatonin, the sun. I'd like infrared saunas. Are very good for you. I do. I've read a lot of research on infrared saunas being better than the old fashioned sauna. But infrared is therapeutically very good for you. Brendan, what do you think about LDL? I don't. LDL cholesterol, right? Is it an inflammation marker? And I ask, he says, because my wife's LDL has spiked from 125 to 250 range after a torn rotary cuff problem and diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Well Brendan, you tell your wife we're praying for her, okay?

LDL, I never looked at it much though Brendan, I really don't. It's not the boogieman. It's not a bad guy. Inflammation marker, I never really thought about that too much. I'm not necessarily saying, but in your wife's case, it may be an indicator. It seems to be, but that's not general practice. Usually, LDL got big because the pharmaceutical companies found that they can lower it with statin drugs. And I always say, well, you're looking for love in all the wrong places. Why do you want to lower LDL? You don't want to lower LDL. You want to elevate HDL, your good cholesterol. The thing you want to lower is your triglycerides. So is it a marker of inflammation? I like CRP much better, C-reactive protein. To me, that's the better indicator, but Brendan, thanks for the question.

Carlos, okay I'm going to close with this, is flax seed really all that healthy? I get mixed reviews. Well Carlos listen, there's no food in the world that has more phytoestrogens than flax seed. As far as I know, it's the highest. So if you're focusing only on the phytoestrogens, you're thinking, flax seed must be bad for me. Okay? But here's the big but, flax seeds have lignans, L-I-G-N-A-N-S, Lignans. And lignans, right in the seed block estrogen. That's why Dr. Martin, unlike a lot of other gurus out there who tell you to stay away from phytoestrogen... And by the way, I tell you to stay away from them too, but not flax seed because flax seed, God put lignans. And there's a 100 times more lignans in flax seed than there is any other seed. Any other seed, 100 times more.

So what does that do? It blocks estrogen. That's why even on the reset, Carlos, I've suggested that people use flax seeds even on the reset. I want to lower your estrogen. It's a good way to do it. Okay? So I allow it. I want you to put it in Dr. Martin's perfect smoothie even. So good for you. And that's why. Okay guys, we love you. I'm glad you were patient with me, it took a few days of just a little holiday around here this week. Now we're going to be back next week and we appreciate you guys. If you have questions, don't be shy. We appreciate it. Thank you for your support guys. We appreciate it. A little announcement making about shipping our products. Thank you for listening to us and supporting it, and we promise you our products will never compromise on that. We love you guys and we thank you. And we'll talk to you soon.

Announcer:  You've reached the end of another Doctor Is In Podcast, with your hosts, Doctor Martin Junior and Senior. Be sure to catch our next episode and thanks for listening!

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