Every now and then, Dr. Martin brings you a knock your socks off moment, and this is one of them. The American Heart Association is now linking non-alcoholic fatty liver to heart disease!
Dr. Martin says this is maybe the first time he’s seen the connection, at least in mainstream medicine. In the 70’s there was cirrhosis of the liver, but never non-alcoholic fatty liver. The study goes on to say that 1 in 4 people, including children, in North America have a fatty liver.
Join Dr. Martin in today’s episode to understand why the linking of fatty liver and heart disease is so significant!
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: Hello. Good morning everyone. And once again, welcome to another live this morning. Okay, this was a news article that came out, might have been on Friday, Good Friday. We weren't on. I think that's when I flagged it. And this is a very interesting paper. It talked about fatty liver. And this is the first time that I've seen, maybe the first time I've seen the connection, at least in mainstream medicine. Okay? It's the first time that I've seen the connection in mainstream medicine where they say this. Okay? Now this is from the American Heart Association. They link, listen to this, okay? This is very, very significant guys. Every once in a while I bring to you a this is going to knock your socks off moment. Okay? Now I think this classifies as a knock your socks off moment. Okay? Because it is so significant.
I just can't get over the significance of this, that the American Heart Association would finally admit to this, or at least maybe see the light. Okay? Because here's what they're saying. Non-alcoholic fatty liver, and actually they mentioned two types of fatty liver, which was interesting, but non-alcoholic fatty liver. Okay? Which I talk to you guys about all the time, is an epidemic today. They admit that it's an epidemic. As a matter of fact, this article went on to say that one out of four people in North America, one out of four, 25%, and including children. The American Heart Association, what are they talking about the liver for? But they are. Like I said, a knock your socks off moment. They're saying non-alcoholic fatty liver.
Guys, I'm just telling you this to remind you, when I was in school in the '70s, I never saw that term. I saw cirrhosis of the liver, alcohol induced cirrhosis of the liver, but not non-alcoholic fatty liver. If I saw that in the 1970s, I can't remember, and I don't think it was ever in any of my textbooks, but here's the American Heart Association. Okay? One out of four people in North America, including children, have non-alcoholic fatty liver. Okay? That is in itself an epidemic. Isn't it? Think about it. 25%.
But here's what else they're saying. Okay? In a peer reviewed journal called Atherosclerosis, the American Heart Association is now linking non-alcoholic fatty liver to heart disease. Well, holy moly, that is incredible. And you guys know, if you've been following me for any period of time, what happens in the liver doesn't stay in the liver. It's not Las Vegas. Okay? What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. That's what they say, right? But the liver is the key and they're admitting it. It's the key to heart disease. What? What? It's incredible, guys.
Now, they don't even go on to talk about why that is. They don't. They just say it is a key to heart disease. Liver, heart, okay? I'm going to show you a liver on my chart here. See? What happens in the liver is very, very important. And it's linked to the heart, according to the American Heart Association. I hope medicine, from this article, will wake up.
Now, let's go over why it is linked to heart disease. Why? The liver is a very important place. It's a very important organ. Okay? There's 600 reasons for it. Guys, you can't live without your liver. You just can't. If you get cirrhosis of the liver, for example, you're not going to live, because it'll kill you. But what they're saying in this article is non-alcoholic, really non-cirrhosis. It's fatty liver. Extremely dangerous to your heart.
Yeah. Yes. Because, okay, let's go over this. When you have fat deposited in the liver, that guy right there, when you have fat, and for those listening on a podcast, I just pointed out to a picture of the liver. When you have fat in the liver, your body reacts to that. What does it do? It turns that fat into triglycerides, TGs. It is the number one reason I want you to send me your blood work when it comes to your lipid profile, is I want to have a look at your triglycerides. They're so significant. And I can just tell you, for years and years and years and years, basic physiology, biochemistry, has been forgotten. It really has. The world got duped. Cardiologists got duped. Doctors have been duped.
Have I become your enemy because I'm telling you the truth? The truth is this, it ain't cholesterol. I just don't know how many times I can say it. It's not cholesterol. It's triglycerides. The connection between fatty liver and the heart is bad lipids coming out of your liver when the liver is full. And you know what the problem is with fatty liver? Here's a big problem with non-alcoholic fatty liver. And guys, it's not just me saying it, this is what this article was all about, because one of the biggest things they were saying is it's one out of four. One out of four. And it's misdiagnosed. It's missed. Why? Because there are no symptoms necessarily. I've got a fatty liver. How do you know? Well, I see fat. Well, that could be, but a lot of skinny people have fatty liver. A lot of skinny people are very unhealthy because you can't see their fat. It's only in the liver. And they have some visceral fat. And you would think visceral fat would show up, and sometimes it does.
You see women today, and men. Men, it was not unusual, okay? Because even in my day, when I say my day, I'm bringing you back to the '70s. You didn't see it often, but you would see men with beer bellies. We called them beer bellies. Okay? You remember that? "Oh, that man's got a beer belly." Generally, people were thin comparatively in the 1970s, generally. Today, not so much. But you never, maybe once or twice in 20 years of practice, in those days I saw a woman with a beer belly. It really wasn't beer. Okay? But today it is common. Look at kids, but they don't drink beer. They're getting 20 teaspoons of sugar a day on average. On just the average. They've got sugar bellies.
Okay, so sometimes it's visible, you've got abdominal fat. And when you have abdominal fat, you can bet your boots you've got fatty liver. You can bet your boots. Bet. Skinny people can have fatty liver without any symptoms. A fatty liver, what's the symptoms? I'm feeling all right, but there's a process going on in the body that finally medicine is taking note of. It's not drugs. You don't get fatty liver from a lack of a statin drug that lowers your LDL cholesterol. You get fatty liver from food, sugar, especially high fructose corn syrup and crappy carbohydrates that turn to sugar rapidly and make a beeline for your liver. Your liver, the Costco parking lot, always full. It's our lifestyle. It's the way we eat. We're carb loaded. And the AHA, wow, I can almost tell you guys that I would've never thought I'd see it, linking liver to your heart. What's the connection? It's triglycerides, the bad fat balls that are going through your blood vessels.
And then listen, here's what they said too, I've got to bring this up. Okay? There are two types of non-alcoholic fatty liver. Okay? They say there are two types. I agree with this, by the way. There's non-alcoholic fatty liver. Okay? NAFL. Okay? They often put it in brackets. NAFL, non-alcoholic fatty liver. They had to make up a category because anytime in the liver before, it was always alcohol. Alcohol goes to the liver. And anybody that knew anybody that died of cirrhosis of the liver, okay? It was alcohol. But then they're saying this, I liked it, they call it NASH. N-A-S-H. Okay? And they're saying it's non-alcoholic steatohepatitic. Hepatic, hepatitis. Hepatic is a big medical word for liver. When you get hepatitis, okay? What's that? Oh, that's inflammation of the liver.
Well, they're saying, okay, and this one here, they're saying, the NASH, hepatitis like inflammatory condition of the liver. It gives off inflammation and inflammation can be very damaging to the heart and the blood vessels. Remember what I've always said about inflammation. You kick me in the knee, you want inflammation to come, okay? I don't want you to kick me in the knee, but if you do, inflammation will come. Why? It's your body's ambulance system. You get an infection, you want inflammation. Why? Because it's your body's ambulance system. It's bringing more T-cells and more protein and more healing elements. And they rush around in your body to fight the infection or fight the injury. That's your body's response to injury or infection. But what they're saying about the liver is it can become inflamed without an infection. How can that happen? When the fat sits, it packs itself like the Costco parking lot. It can give off inflammation. And that inflammation is, first of all, destructive to blood vessels. It's not meant to stay there.
Inflammation should be temporary. You got an infection, okay, but your immune system comes, it fights the infection, and it goes away. That's your immune system. You ever had a cold? A little virus. You can't see it if your life depended on it. Ooh, we talk about viruses and I get a headache, because nobody wants to talk about your immune system. But your immune system works because you get a cold and you're, I mean a little cold. It's no fun, right? You're all stuffed up and you're, "Oh." Well, that's inflammation. And you get a headache and you don't feel good. And a little wee virus can knock the living stuffing out of you. And that's all right for a few days, right?
That's inflammation, guys, but if that sticks around, well, now it starts to damage, right? Think of an autoimmune disease like rheumatoid arthritis. Inflammation gone amuck. What happens? That inflammation starts to destroy the joints because it wasn't meant to last. So the AHA, the American Heart Association, they're seeing the connection between the inflammation coming out of the liver and affecting the heart. But guys, they didn't even mention it, maybe they meant to and they didn't, but I'm going to tell you the biggest problem. Inflammation, for sure, it's probably a double whammy, but what they didn't talk about is triglycerides, those fat balls.
Even though the American Heart Association came out with this study and article, and it's really interesting and I get them high fives, they didn't say stop eating sugar. It's not steak that gives you heart disease. It's not meat, guys. I'm sorry, it's not. It's not blubber, the fat that you're eating from eggs or bacon or steak, or cheese for that matter, that kind of fat don't clog up your arteries. Triglycerides clog up your arteries. And inflammation damages arteries.
So those triglycerides get stuck on your blood vessels and clog your arteries to the heart, to the brain. Cardiovascular disease is still the number one killer in our society. And the reason we're not doing well with it is because we're looking for love in all the wrong places. They want to hammer down your cholesterol, from dieticians to the heart doctors, medicine in general, nine out of 10 gurus that I know, "Get your cholesterol down. Quit eating meat and not too many eggs and certainly not bacon." And they've got it upside down, guys, because you need cholesterol in your liver. When you have fatty liver, your liver's not working properly. Bad, whoop, elevates your triglycerides.
I looked at somebody's blood test this morning that Nick or Jeannette, can't remember who, sent it to me. And their triglycerides were through the roof. I should say it. I don't say it when I send back the results of the blood. I say, "Your triglycerides are high and your HDL is low, not good." There's two things I want to tell people when that happens. I should maybe say it. You've got fatty liver. You've got high triglycerides. Hello? You've got high triglycerides and low HDL? You've got fatty liver. There, I said it.
No, but seriously guys, and this is very important. Listen, Linda, listen. You also have another condition because fatty liver does not occur independently of this. Nowhere to be mentioned in this article. Okay? So I'm happy they wrote it. I'm happy they said it. I hope it gets some ink. I hope it gets read by cardiologists and doctors all around and dieticians, but I'm not hopeful. Okay? Because there's two things. If you have high triglycerides and low HDL, what is HDL? HDL are the FedEx, Canada Post, US Postal Service, Amazon trucks, whatever, on the highways and byways of your blood vessels that hitch their wagon to triglycerides. Where do they come from? Your liver. Your liver.
So one, you've got fatty liver, maybe no symptoms. "I've got pain in my liver." Eh, you probably don't. There's no symptoms. Number two, this is very important guys, and I should say it, like I said, I don't even write this down when I send an email back or whatever. I should do it, but I don't do it. And here's what I should do. You have fatty liver, and two, you've got insulin resistance. 100% for sure. Insulin resistance. The Metabolic Reset, the book that I wrote, was all about insulin. Because if you have insulin resistance, it leads to heart disease and heart and stroke. It's the underlying condition.
When you have Alzheimer's, you have insulin resistance and fatty liver too. When you have diabetes, it starts with insulin resistance. You don't become a diabetic overnight. One day I'm not a diabetic and the next day I'm a diabetic. Yeah, that's medicine, but that's not true, guys. There was a process that took place. It started in your liver because of the choice of food. We become carboholics, sugarholics. Your body was never meant to have 20 teaspoons of sugar a day, kids. "Yeah, but Dr. Martin, I'm drinking orange juice." It's not meant, don't drink sugar. That goes right to your liver without passing go.
You see why I'm so passionate about the reset, guys? I know, and I know, and people come on and they're, "Oh, Dr. Martin, it's so hard." Yeah, I know, but you're a carboholic. Since when if you're an addict is it going to be easy? I didn't say it was easy, but I think you should do it nonetheless. Boy, boy, incredible. I wanted to call you all up individually and say, "I want you to watch the show Monday, because I'm going to tell you something that will reinforce what I've been telling you for a long time." This is so key. Look guys, you can't control everything in life, you just can't, but you sure can control what you eat. And again, they didn't even say it. They didn't talk about food. They didn't go that far, but it's so obvious it's incredible.
You can't get non-alcoholic fatty liver through osmosis. Your liver is the parking lot. And when you eat fat, it don't go to your liver and get stored as fat. Sugar gets stored as fat. Nobody ever got fatty liver when they're eating eggs, meat, and cheese. It won't happen. It won't happen. I've got text books to the left of me here and right behind me. I've got a lot of medical books there. You look in the books in the 1970s, non-alcoholic fatty liver, try and find it. You'll find cirrhosis, but you won't find non-alcoholic fatty liver because people weren't eating.
You know what I told you, in the 1950s, when I was a little boy, this is just nutritional history. I love nutritional history. I majored in it, in nutrition, I majored in it. Nutritional history, one of my majors that I took. I love history. And one of the things you do with history is you should learn from it to not repeat the mistakes of it. Okay? But nutritional history in the 1950s, this is just a fact, you know how many pounds of sugar Canadians and Americans were consuming? How many pounds? 25. You've seen a 25 pound bag of sugar. Yeah, I have, 25 pounds, okay. Still pretty heavy, right? I always tell my grandchildren, "Grandpa used to have ice cream and cookies too you know." But in the 1970s, it went to 50 pounds. All my four kids were born in the '70s. 50 pounds of sugar. Cereal, orange juice. Not that we didn't have that stuff, it just got worse and worse and worse. Crappy carbohydrates.
And you know what it is today? It's a dump truck load of sugar. I feel sorry for kids because we've been duped and we don't read labels properly. We're looking for calories. Calories. "How much fat is in there? I eat fat free." See, the fat free craze started in the 1970s. "Fat free this, and don't eat butter, eat margarine because it's fat free. Fat free yogurt and fat free this." True or false? They had this idea, "Well, fat makes you fat and fat gives you heart disease." No, it don't. I hate to burst your bubble. No it don't. No it don't. No it don't. No it don't.
Okay, I get excited, but it's just because, guys, if you learn that lesson today and you put it into your craw, you're going to be way ahead of 99% of the population. The news behind the news. My job is to bring you news behind the news and tell you the truth. And things are changing. It's good. At least they're admitting it. They're acknowledging it. It's incredible to me. I get excited about that. Maybe there's some hope.
Okay, so guys, what's Friday? Question and answer Friday. We did it on Thursday for two weeks. Well, we're going to go back to Friday. Are you a member of the Martin Clinic Facebook group? You're not? Why not? Okay, join our community. If you don't get our emails, make sure you get our emails. Sign up at MartinClinic.com, okay? Folks, this is an important podcast, guys. Okay? If people can't watch us live, just remind them, they can watch The Doctor Is In Podcast. Okay? Okay, good. Okay guys, we love you dearly, and I say that and I mean it, I really do. Okay, I'm going to 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!