It’s being reported that 45 to 60% of patients seen in the emergency room are deficient in potassium. This is a dangerous situation!
There are certain electrolytes that we all need. Potassium, magnesium, and sodium are all very important for our bodies. Dr. Martin looks at why so many people are deficient in electrolytes like potassium in today’s episode.
He also explains how dehydration and a lack of water can affect your heart’s electrical grid. The vast majority of people who have a heart attack is when their heart goes into afib.
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
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Dr. Martin: Well, good morning. How you doing? Good to have you on with us this morning? You know what we're gonna talk about today? I was reading an interview with an emergency physician emergency doctor. I have an emergency doctor in my family, much appreciated Dr. Sam married to my daughter. He's a smart guy. I know he is my son-in-law, but he's a top notch physician. He really is. They see so much, he'd been doing it for 25 years. And what a doctor now I'm not quoting him. Although I think he would agree with this doctor here.
Here's what it said. We're gonna discuss this 45 to 60% of his patients that he was seen in an emergency are deficient in potassium. That's very dangerous by the way, 45 to 60% are deficient in potassium. Now we're gonna get into this. Why are people so deficient in electrolytes like potassium?
I'm gonna tell you the bottom line. There are two reasons for, and when I say electrolytes, okay, he talked about potassium. There are electrolytes that you need, obviously potassium, and magnesium, very, very important. Sodium. Yeah, you need salt. You cry salt. You got salt in your blood. You need sodium. I don't like sodium chloride, but I like sodium. And not the bleach sodium that they put in fast foods. You need chloride. You need sodium and you need calcium. These are minerals that we need. They're electrolytes and they need to be in balance because otherwise, you can be in big trouble. Now I'm gonna tell you, he mentioned this in his article, the emergency physician, he said this, and I'm quoting him. The vast majority of people who have a heart attack are when their heart goes into a fib. Your heart is an electrical grid. And when that electricity gets outta whack, it can kill you.
It's not cholesterol, okay? It's not that nobody ever had a heart attack because of cholesterol. Imagine all these years looking for love in all the wrong places when it comes to your heart. Well, they've not for cancer too. Look, electrolytes are very, very important. Now, let me tell you what sugar does.
Sugar is not an electrolyte. Sugar is an anti-electrolyte. What is an anti-electrolyte? Something that puts you on a whack sugar puts you on a whack in a lot of weight. We all know what high blood sugar does. Ask a diabetic. We know what sugar does to blood vessels and your body is tightly regulated. So your sugar won't go up and your sugar won't go down. It'll keep it in a very tight range. That's how your body operates till it can't do it anymore. That's diabetes. But way before you get to diabetes, you got trouble with sugar, honey. But electrolytes are really, really, really important. And unfortunately, until it's almost too late, you don't get doctors talking about it. My friend, listen, you need water and salt. Okay? You need magnesium salt. You need calcium salt. You need potassium, salt. You need sodium. You need those electrolytes.
First of all, there's nothing that will affect your electrical grid. Like a lack of water. Now, you know that I've classified water as a vitamin, vitamin w, it's quite simple. Only water is water. Your body needs it. When you understand any basic histology, the study of blood. When you understand you got 60,000 miles of blood vessels, when you understand that blood is the river of life, you can't live without it. And what makes your blood flow? I know there's a pump, your heart pump. What is it? A hundred thousand times a day, but we don't even think about it. Nobody thinks about their heart till you got a problem with it then is serious. Isn't it then serious. My next door neighbor, the other day, right across the street, the ambulance is there and she had a mild heart attack. I bet you, when she woke up in the morning, she wasn't even thinking about it and listen. That's where medicine excels in emergency medicine. That's what medicine is cause that's real medicine, emergency medicine. The problem with generalized medicine is they're into the detection and not prevention. When I say 80% of the population is low in water.
Isn't that crazy. Even today, even in medical school and nutritional or whatever gurus that are colleagues of mine, about that watermelons full of water, just eat watermelon coconuts are full of water, just eat coconuts. And uh, only water is water. Water on its own takes a direct route to your blood. It goes into your blood in nanoseconds. But if you put something in it, including coffee, now, you guys know me. How much I love coffee. I've always been right about coffee and I won't back down. No, I'm right. I told you, but coffee's not water, tea Isn't water. There's water in it. Every fruit that I can think of has water content in it. That's how God designed it. It's good for you. I'm not against that, but that's not water.
Water is water and you need to drink it. And here's what I know. Here's the sweet spot on water. 64 ounces for my American friends and two litres for my Canadian friends. That's what you need. That is the sweet spot for vitamin w. Now you need that. Plus you need salt. And of course, guess what? Gut vilified, you know, I don't want to be negative. Okay. Have cardiologists ever got anything? Right? Don't eat butter. Good. Butter's no good for you eat Margarie. If you eat butter, you're gonna get cholesterol, right? Don't add salt. Salt's gonna elevate your blood pressure. Don't blame salt for what sugar does, basic nutrition. It's what sugar does to the kidneys that affects your blood pressure.
And here's a problem. Here's the overarching principle that I just want you to understand when it comes to electrolytes. Okay? Understand this. It's really important. When you have high circulating insulin, which is high, can't get high circulating insulin. Any other weight is food. When people insist on consuming sugar, especially drinking it and crappy carbohydrates, you get a condition called insulin resistance or high circulating insulin and high circulating insulin. You know what it does? It retains. Now you have a fluid buildup. It retains your soul. Now you get edema and then you get excretion of your electrolytes. You get the excretion of potassium of magnesium. Those are the main two calcium. These are really important. You get retention. Then you get excretion and you're peeing out your electrolytes. Even in the absence of sweating, you know what electrolyte drinks are like, right? You know what my sports drink was when I was a kid, a garden hose, we go play football, our baseball in the summertime I lived in, when I was a kid, we got summer for about a week.
And when it got hot, we used a garden hose. that was my sports drink today. They got that Gatorade junk and all, I drank that stuff with a passion. I hate it. They make electrolyte drinks. And they are garbage. As far as I'm concerned, I don't like it. Especially when they add sugar. I don't know if I've ever told you. I tasted the original Gatorade I did in the 1970s, because you know where Gatorade comes from from the Florida Gators football team and their scientists, athletic therapists or whatever, and doctors there that were working at the university, decided like these guys, can you imagine in Florida playing football, all the equipment, all the sweating and you know, it could actually get very dangerous. And they developed Gatorade for the Florida Gators, tasted like urine. And I mean, it is actually worse than urine. Not that I've ever tasted urine, but this stuff was bad.
I remember we got samples in school. I said, well, who's gonna drink that? And then Pepsi and Coca-Cola got involved. Pepsi bought out Gatorade and turned it into a drink and you know them, they can't help themselves with sugar in the morning. I, I can't sing. I was gonna sing that song Sugarman and all these artificial sweeteners. And, uh, I don't like it, kids like it, but doesn't mean it's good for them. You getting the picture H2O water, H two oh, water will save your life. It's a vitamin. Don't wait till you're thirsty. You don't have a little red light on your head. It would be nice. If we did only drink when you're thirsty. Now that's not a good idea. 64 ounces and two litters. And some of you need more. If you're gonna work out, then you need even more than that.
How do I know that number by the way? Well, clinical experience, you know why? Because I used to test viscosity of blood. You know, when salt will bother you, salt will elevate your blood pressure when you're eating too much sugar and you're not drinking enough water. When the viscosity of blood viscosity is thickness of blood, 80% walk around, even kids with molasses, for blood 80%. If you are on any medication, any medication, name it to me. And it is a dehydrate. It'll dehydrate you any medication from Tylenol to Advil, to any prescription medication, any of them will dehydrate you. It takes water out of your body and gives you molasses for blood. You know, every senior citizen that I know just about they're on 5, 6, 7 meds, and they're chronically dehydrated. No one ever tells 'em that they used to come into my office. And I said, how do you like your molasses?
Your blood it's as thick as molasses. Now that's an old-time expression, but old timers liked it. Cause they understood it. Maybe kids today wouldn't know what I'm talking about when it comes to molasses. You remember that? No, but seriously, I used to look at blood all day long. Hey, you're thick as molasses, man. You know how much you're making your heart work overtime for nothing because you refuse to drink water. And this is why I've always liked this. I've always told you this. It's a good idea to add a little pinch of salt to your water. It's so good for you. Add salt, get a good sea salt. Cuz it's got minerals. Don't get table salt. That's been bleached, get a good pink salt, or a good sea salt. And that stuff's so good for you. Put it on your food. Yeah, but doc, I gotta high blood pressure.
I don't have anything salty. Oh you have no idea how that bothers me. You'll never take too much salt in the presence of water. They go together. That's why electrolytes are really important. Okay. So let me give you possible symptoms that you're dehydrated, electrolyte, dehydrated, not just water, salt too low in magnesium. This is very common today. Very common. First of all, there's no more magnesium or potassium in the soil anymore. Just about zero because of ization and the soil has been stripped of iodine. It's been stripped of potassium and magnesium. If it's not in the soil guys, it's not in your plants. Huh? Dr. Martin avocado. Yeah. I like avocado. It's good for you. I got no problem with it, but don't rely just on that for your salt potassium. I Dr. Martin, I like bananas. Cause my doctor told me to eat bananas.
Well, your doctor doesn't know what he's talking about. Okay. Here are the possible symptoms of an electrolyte imbalance, headaches, number, UNO. And again, I just gotta say it again. I just gotta reemphasize that I'm talking about your blood and what needs to be in your blood stream, water and electrolytes. Now listen, ladies, you can estrogen dominance. We've been spending a lot of time on that too much estrogen. You're too much of a woman that can give you headaches. Estrogen dominance gives headaches for sure. But a lot of times I fix headaches. A lot of times I fix migraines, water and magnesium and potassium. Yep. Lots of times. Cause I used to wanna get to the root issue and I used to test estrogen. Oh, you are dominant and we need to fix that. But a lot of people didn't realize it. They are dehydrated and they get headaches. Dizziness. Now that can be a lot of things, but I'm telling you, you gotta make sure, you know, my neighbour had me laughing yesterday because long story short, he does my snow in the winter and I cut the grass and he said to me out of the blue yesterday, he said, did you check the oil on your lawnmower? I said, what? Check the oil. I don't check the oil.
I have a motorcycle. I don't check the oil. Check the oil. How do you check the oil? I don't do that. I see if I don't have enough gas, but that's all I know. As you can see, there's not even an ounce of mechanic in me. Okay. He said, did you check the oil on that thing? I said, that's your job. I don't check oil. But guys, this is really important. Check your water levels. Check your salt levels. Your electrical grid depends on it. Headaches. Dizziness. A lot of times it's electrolyte. It's water missing in action. Cognitive impairment. Have you ever seen someone that's severely dehydrated? Eh, they don't do so well. Their brain is in a big fog. Poor digestion.
Listen. I know I'm controversial. Okay. I know I am, but I'm sorry. Fibre's overrated. Okay. It's overrated. Do you know what's underrated for your constipation? H2O And so it ain't fibre. It's not all brand. It's not oats that you're missing. Okay? I know serial companies told you that, but they're lying to you. You need water and salts, bloating, and exercise intolerance. I wrote down 12 things, muscle cramps, high insulin. It's a sign of insulin. Resistance retention, excretion, you retain. Then you excrete salt retention and excretion equals muscle cramps.
Have you ever had a muscle cramp in the middle of the night? You feel like somebody just stabbed you and you're outta bed in a nanosecond electrolytes. And remember again, salty water. You need water and you need electrolytes. I already talked to you about insulin resistance. Insomnia can be a factor. As I said, I wish we had a little red light on our heads that said, would you add water and salt? Check the oil, chronic fatigue, and sugar cravings. A lot of times electrolyte deficiency. When I talked to you about constipation. So 12 of them don't blame salt for what sugar did. It's amazing what happens on the reset. Now there's a big adjustment sometimes for certain people on the reset. And I might even get them to add magnesium, not a bad idea. I take magnesium every day. I take potassium every day. I happen to dehydrate very quickly.
Just the way I'm built. I think it has to do with insulin. I've told you the story of diabetes in my family, me and sugar. Don't get along. Look, I do really well with 64 ounces of water a day, two litres. I do really well with that. I won't even allow myself, although I need to put myself almost in handcuffs when I get up in the morning because I'm thinking of coffee, my reward for drinking. A bottle of water is I know I get a coffee after that. It's amazing how fast I drink that bar. Cause all I'm thinking of is coffee. I'm thinking of coffee. You're thinking water. I'm thinking coffee. Now, listen. I've learned over the years, 21 days to form a habit. See this face here. There are two things. I drink. Nothing else, water and coffee. I don't drink juice. I'll have a doctor. Martin's perfect smoothie. Every once in a while full of protein, collagen, and cream. Give that to your kids and your grandchildren. Make them a smoothie. They're gonna insist on drinking. Give them something worth drinking. But you see it's habits guys. It's habits.
Like I said, I know for me, I can dehydrate very, very quickly and I'm not on medication, but I dehydrate quickly. This is the way I'm built. I have to take very good care of that. And so do you, by the way, don't fool yourself. So do you, if we can teach our kids anything, wean them on water. Once they're off the breast milk, they need water. They don't need milk. They need cheese. You know me? I'm big on dairy. I'm not against dairy. I'm the dairy farmer's best friend. I just don't like the grocery store milk. Cause that's not what comes out of a cow. It's denature brought to you by modern society that thinks they're smarter than your body. They're not your body knows what to do.
Okay. Hey salty. If I call you that, that's true. That's what you are salty. You cry it. It's in your bloodstream. You absolutely need it. Okay guys. Guess what tomorrow is question and answer Friday. Looking forward to it. So send in you questions. It's not too late. Get 'em to me. We'll talk about them tomorrow. Okay. Now are you a member of the private Facebook group? Join up Martinclinic.com. You can download on your smartphone. The doctor is in podcast. Thank you for making it so popular. We appreciate that. You can share this on Facebook too. They actually like that when you do. Okay guys, talk to you soon.
Announcer: You've reached the end of another doctor's end podcast with your hosts, Dr. Martin junior and senior. Be sure to catch our next episode and thanks for listening.