It’s unbelievable how prevalent colorectal and colon cancer have become. The number of cases today is causing havoc in our society!
Dr. Martin talks about what is destroying our guts in today’s episode. Another way to put it is, what makes your gut susceptible to cancer? Or what destroys your microbiome? Number one reason on the hit parade is crappy food… sugars and crappy carbohydrates!
Nothing will destroy your microbiome quicker than processed foods. What we eat has changed dramatically over the last 50 years and Dr. Martin explores how that’s affecting our gut.
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 this morning. Hope you're having a great start to your day. I certainly am drinking my vitamin C. Okay. Guys, what I want to talk about today is what is destroying our guts. It seems day after day, I'm reading studies on colorectal cancer, the amount of cancers in the amount, colorectal cancer and colon cancer is unbelievable today. It is one of the fastest growing cancers. I don't mean in the stage of actually growing, but in terms of numbers, it is plain havoc in our society today. And I want to talk in general principles.
What is destroying our guts today? Now you guys know these things you really do, but it's good to reinforce what destroys our gut. And you could say, what makes your gut susceptible to cancer? What destroys your microbiome? Remember you and I are made of bacteria. There's trillions, not millions, not billions. Trillions of bacteria. You have more bacteria in your body than you have cells in your body, the state, okay? The state of your bacteria is going to be determined by and large your health, especially though in your gut. When you step on the scale. And I mean this, I used to tell my patients first, when you step on the scale, take three pounds off. Tony junior says five pounds. Him and I argue, so let's say four pounds.
We'll give, he gives a little, I give a little five for him, three for me, let's say four pounds. When you get on a scale, then take four pounds off. There's four pounds of bacteria, whether you're skinny or whether you're bigger, it doesn't matter. You got four pounds of bacteria. Now the problem is what kind of state is that bacteria in? So let's go over just generally. What destroys your gut? What destroys your gut bacteria? Now you guys are thinking along with me, you've got some of these down pat. I wrote eight things here. What destroys our gut? What makes us so susceptible to colorectal cancer, colon cancer, eh, you know what? For a lot of other cancers too, like pancreatic and whatever, but let's stick to the gut. Let's stick to the microbiome. Let's stick to these things this morning. And we've got lots to talk about, okay, let's get going.
Number one, on the hit parade, what will destroy your gut? Nothing will destroy your gut more than crappy food, sugar and crappy carbs. We are carbos we're sugarholic we don't realize it. 200 pounds of sugar a year, the average north American consumes. They don't even know because they never keep track. And people generally don't read labels. Cuz if they did the vast majority of people would realize they are setting themselves up for colon cancer and setting themselves up for a disruption of their microbiome. Why? Because they insist on eating sugar and especially high fructose corn syrup and crappy carbs with those crappy oils. So when you go in the middle aisles of the grocery store from cookies to salad, dressings to whatever else is in there, okay? From your breads to whatever, unbelievable crackers, you name it, crappy oils and sugar is a disaster for your gut.
It's a disaster for your microbiome. One of the reasons is, and you know, I mention this all the time. When I say don't feed the bears. I mean it because in your gut guys, in your gut, you got bacteria there, okay? You have some yeast there it's normal. You don't wanna completely eradicate yeast, but you wanna keep it at bay. And it's kept at bay when you don't feed yeast and you don't feed bad bacteria, see bad bacteria thrive on crappy oils and crappy sugar. They thrive. So what's the number. One reason that we see so much colorectal cancer.
What's the number one reason it's food and bad food. So remember that a junk diet is going to destroy your gut. It's amazing how many people, literally thousands of people over the years, in my days of practice, when I changed their diet, when I got 'em off the crappy carbs and no more sugar, it was amazing how much better their gut got. It was amazing. They couldn't get over it. Doc. I've had gut issues for 20 years, 25 years. It's so much better. Yep. So much better now. Number one, it's food. And when someone, some doctor, some guru, some friend, someone over the internet, Google tells you to avoid red meat for your gut run, cuz it's not true. There's no truth to it. Red meat doesn't affect your gut the wrong way. It affects it the right way, because it's so much nutritional value.
I read yesterday though. Someone online said, I don't do well with red meat. Well that's you, you gotta fix your gut first. Then fix your gut first. And you'll be able to go back almost invariably to eating red meat. Okay. So number one on the hit parade is what food always look at food. Food is medicine. It's either bad medicine or good medicine, but it's medicine. And it's amazing to me that in medical schools, even today, here we are in 2022 medical school are teaching about an hour of nutrition in there is several years of study. It's amazing. And that's why I've always said you might as well go to your plumber to get nutritional advice.
Number two, what destroys your gut? Medication. Nothing will destroy your gut more than bad food and medication, especially antibiotics. Now again, you guys know that I have to throw it out there because it's really important when you take antibiotic and who the heck in the world hasn't taken an antibiotic, right?
Come on. I can't think I've ever met someone. I mean that isn't a year old. I don't think I've ever met an adult ever that hasn't taken antibiotics in their lifetime, but I'm gonna tell you something. This is destructive to your gut antibiotics. The problem is they wipe out your microbiome. It doesn't take, 'em long to do it either five days, five days. And I'll tell you, it doesn't always happen overnight where you get digestive. Like some people do, you take an antibiotic and they get gut pain just from the antibiotic. But a lot of times it's delayed. You don't realize what's happened. You don't see it. I've written so many books over the years. And I've talked about the importance of the microbiome, the friendly bacteria, the war that goes on inside your gut. There's a war going on there. You don't see it.
It's invisible to the naked eye, but they pick it up microscopically, but you don't see it. But that doesn't mean it's not happening. So when you have bad food, when the foods that we're consuming, especially drinks full of sugar, my word. And then you get antibiotics like kids that take antibiotics for ear infections, throat infections and whatever. When they're little wee children, you know what that comes back to bite them later on in their lives with digestive issues, they formed the leaky gut and they don't know it. It's not like there's a little red light going off on the top of your head telling you, Hey, you got leaky gut. You just have to assume. You have to assume when you're on antibiotics of any kind. If your children are on antibiotics, I promise you, they got leaky.
Anti-inflammatories non-steroidal, anti-inflammatories many of them, even over the counter, like Advil and Motrin and you know, take it for a headache or whatever. You're not thinking about your gut. You're thinking about your headache and you take it and Aleve or whatever those are called. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatories they destroy not as much as antibiotics do, but just about, do you know any people live on over the counter medication daily for headaches or cramps or whatever. They're getting back aches, joint pains. They live on anti-inflammatories and because they're over the counter, you can get 'em without a prescription. A lot of people think, well, I mean, there can't be that many side effects. Otherwise the government would've taken them off the market, eh, don't wait for the government and listen. I understand why people take those things. I understand that I'm very sympathetic guys. All I'm telling you is short term gain long term pain because it creates leaky gut. It creates a bad colon.
Okay. So the real culprits are antibiotics. Non-steroid anti-inflammatories PPIs. You know what? PPIs are proton pump inhibitors. What's that mean? Well, I got acid doc. Okay. I got acid reflux. And if I don't take a medication, oh the acid. Okay. And all I'm saying is yeah, but it's a double edged sword. You feel better. You don't get the acid running up your esophagus, but you're creating other issues. I mean, I could spend the whole program on PPIs and what they do to your bones and what they do to your brain and what they do to your mineral absorption and your trace minerals and even your protein breakdown and these kind of things. I could go into that. But what I'm talking about this morning is your gut. It suppresses the acidity in your stomach. You're asking for trouble. You're asking for trouble in the colon. Okay. PPIs. And then steroids like prednisone. Cortisone. People take that for autoimmune or you know, like rheumatoid arthritis or whatever. They're on prednisone. How many people are on steroids to keep their inflammation down. They're miraculous. As far as lowering inflammation, they really are. But all the side effects, they destroy your microbiome. This is why so many people are getting colon and cancer today. Why is it gone up 300%
Food, medication and antibiotics? I've always said it. You heard it here. The greatest discovery of the 20th century become the curse of the 21st antibiotics have become the curse of the 21st. It is one of the biggest reasons that we see autistic children today gone up in the percentile. You destroy the microbiome, then infections, infections and gut imbalances. A lot of people don't realize it.
You love your pets. I know you do. And that's all right. I want you to love your pet. Okay? But a lot of times your pet has parasites and you let them lick you. That's how they kiss. They lick you. Right? Look, we live with infection. We live with parasites. And the problem is if you get an overgrowth of parasites, if you get an overgrowth, a bacterial overgrowth, one of the reasons cuz we got the world today has low acidity in their stomach because of our bad diets. The reason your stomach can I just sort of get off on a little rabbit trail just for a second so that you follow me here. Why do you want high, high acidity in your stomach?
Why do you want it's a furnace? Why is that? Why do cows not have the same acidity in their stomach? They got four stomachs by the way, but they don't need the acid that we need and contain, right? You want acid. You want acid in your stomach. You know, you ought to be able to melt the penny. If you swallow it, that's how much acidity ought to be in your stomach. What we have today, we have a society today where people don't have much acidity left in their stomach. You know why? Because, we are over consuming. Yes. Too much sugar. Oh, I hate to say this vegetables and fruit. You don't need high acidity to break down vegetables. Okay. And because we don't eat enough animal protein, listen to what I'm saying because we don't eat enough animal protein. One of the reasons that you need high acidity is to break down steak. Okay, chicken too. Not as much for chicken.
You are meant to eat meat. You're meant to eat it. And when you don't eat it, your acidity go down and your stomach is not near as acidic. Okay? You need acidity. And when you don't eat enough red meat, I always say red meat, cuz I'm a big fan of red meat. I go against the grain. That's what's good for your stomach. It helps you to produce more acidity in your stomach is when you eat steak. It's because you don't have enough acidity in your stomach and you didn't use your gallbladder over the years. Why do you think God gave you a gallbladder cows don't have gallbladders. Rabbits don't have gallbladders. Why do you need a gallbladder? Because you're meant to eat steak. You need a gallbladder, use it or lose it. And women lose their gall bladder.
I got off on a tangent. I'm coming back. Okay. So infections either para fungal. You know what we did at the Martin clinic when we changed the name of SIBO, which is very, very, very, by the way, underdiagnosed today, it's misdiagnosed. Oh you got IBS. You got IBS. Okay doc, I didn't need to come to a doctor for you to tell me that I got an irritated gut. I know I have an irritated gut. Why do I have an irritated gut doc? You got IBS. And I know about what is that? Well, most of the time it's misdiagnosed CBO, but really it's C small intestine bacterial change it. Martin clinic. We changed it. Small intestine, fungal yeast overgrowth. That's why we see so much, so much digestive issues and colon and cancer. What happens in the small and intestine?
You get an overgrowth of yeast you're in deep. It will take over your body, parasites. Okay? Junk food, medications, infections. Here's another one. I shouldn't go there. I'll never finish. See Theil it's so big today. Why? Cuz we can't fight it. Like we used to the overuse of antibiotic. Yes. Number one. But when you don't have enough good acidity in your stomach, you see your stomach is a barrier. It's a protector. Any bacteria that gets in there, when you can melt a penny, it'll kill that bacteria. It won't get to your gut parasites. Won't get to your gut. If you got good acidity in your stomach. But what if your acidity is not well, those bugs live. They live and they thrive. They thrive in moisture. Even mold. You get toxins. That's the fourth one toxins. The average person listen to this. The average person, when they do a blood test, the average person has over 200 chemicals in their bloodstream. On the best of days, over 200, 200 chemicals in their bloodstream on an average person from you, name it, those toxins, BPAs, plastic, PHS. I don't know how to pronounce it. Xeno, estrogen,
Anything that you can't pronounce? Anything that you have trouble spelling, read your label from your shampoos to whatever you wanna put something in your body, put it on your skin, your cleaning products. You know these antibacterial sprays. Oh, you know, and I've said this to you. I'm not a prophet nor the son of one. But let me tell you something. Cancer is coming to a theater near you. I'm not kidding you. When I see people spray, spray, spray, spray, bugs, bugs, bugs. We gotta get rid of the bacteria. We gotta get rid of that virus. We gotta get rid of that virus. We gotta get rid of that virus. That's all they think about 24 hours a day. And they're spraying all those chemicals. And they're using hand sanitizers. I get a triple migraine. When I watch people
I said, you know how much chemicals you're putting right into your body? Not only that, but you're destroying your microbiome. Those chemicals destroy your good bacteria. It creates an imbalance. Ooh. Number four, toxins, toxins.
Number five. The lack of digestive enzymes. Protease, lipases, pancreatic enzymes, your pancreas. You know what it does. It releases insulin. Wow. We need that. We don't need a lot of it, but we need it. But your pancreas does other things too. And one of them is it releases pancreatic enzymes to break your food down, to break your food down. This is one of the biggest problems in the gut. People don't break their food down low acidity and not enough digestive enzymes. So that food comes into your gut. Partially digested. Your body says what the heck is in there. And it creates inflammation because what it does, it sees it as a foreign invader. It's only food, but because it's not micros size, it's partially digested. What do you get? You get not only autoimmune, but you are disrupting your gut. You're disrupting it. You're creating an inflammatory response within the gut with a lack of digestive enzymes. We don't eat enough enzymes.
Here's another one. You guys know this stress. What does stress do? Did I just scare you? What does stress do over a period of time? It disrupts it. First of all, it diverts blood supply. Think about it. Your blood goes from your gut, cuz you're not thinking of digestion when you're stressed your body Isn't thinking, it's thinking fight or flight. So what does it do? It sends blood away from the gut into the muscles so that you can run or fight and you think, wow. Yeah, your body's made for that. Yes. If someone's scaring you, no problem. It only lasts a few seconds or whatever you're not. But what if stress continues? We live in a stress ball society today. I tell you, this happened about 15 years ago in my practice because you know what? I used to measure cortisol.
The stress hormone. I used to measure cortisol. And I'm not kidding you. My practice in the last 15 years, you know why I used to measure cortisol. It all started in my days studying chronic fatigue. Now remember my thesis for my PhD was on chronic fatigue, syndrome, nutrition, obviously nutritional chronic fatigue syndrome. I published that thesis published as my first book, chronic fatigue syndrome, the modern woman's curse. And in it, I talked about the adrenal gland. Nobody was talking about that. I talked about cortisol and what cortisol does folks. This is in the late 1980s and stress what it does and people you know, anxiety. Yeah. I mean people knew what anxiety was, but it wasn't a big thing. It wasn't part of medicine. I mean, unless you were a psychiatrist, medicine never even thought about cortisol. I mean, even today you can't get them to think about adrenal gland, those little wee glands on top, add renal on top of your kidney. You can't get them to think about it. Well, you don't have Addisons you don't have Cushings. I'm not what, why do I have to test cortisol for, Ooh, That gives me a splitting headache again.
But guys, all I'm saying is when you are stressed, when you're cortisol, the drip, drip, drip, drip, drip of cortisol. That's what I call it. The drip, drip, think of a tap and it's, you know, it's gotta drip. Well that adds up, right? Put a plug in your sink and let drip, and then you find out at the end of the day, boy, that was a lot of water that drip there. Right? Well a dripping tap of drip, drip, drip of cortisol. It is so disruptive to your gut. It, it affects the microbiome big time. It affects the lining of your gut and leaky gut. It's one of the big factors.
Okay. One of the big factors, it alters the nervous system. And one of the other ways too, I just wanna say that it affects the 10th cranial nerve. You know what the 10th cranial nerve is. Have you ever had butterflies? Yeah. I've had butterflies. Well, what happened when you got butterflies? I got my stomach was queasy. Well, how did that happen? Well, you were nervous about something and your brain talked to your stomach. Your brain talked to your stomach? I was nervous about a test or, you know, I, I'm waiting to hear about my medical test coming back and my stomach is bothering me. Why is that? Well, your brain talks to your stomach through what? The parasympathetic cranial nerve, the 10th cranial nerve. It's called the VA, not Las Vegas, the VA nerve.
And what happens in Vegas? Don't stay in Vegas. What happens in the brain? Don't stay in the brain. It goes down to your gut. You know what butterflies are. You can see it right there. How cortisol? Number one, it disrupts the blood flow too. It communicates between the brain and the gut. It disrupts the gut. You've heard of that. You know what that is.
Two more. I think two more. Yep. Two more. Okay. I'm just gonna say it now. Don't get upset with me. Fibre. You got some fiber fiber, fiber fiber brought to you by kellogs cereal. The cereal company started the fiber thing. Oh, you can't live without fiber. It's gone on. Yeah. I heard that for 50 years and I've been screaming against it when I studied anatomy. Okay. When I studied anatomy, not just muscles and all this and that. You Study anatomy, you studied gut. You know what human beings have? We don't have four stomachs. We have a gallbladder. We think our intestines are really large, but they're not that large comparatively because we're not vegetarian. We're not vegans. We're not meant to live on that. I'm not saying you can't okay. Please. Don't come after me and say, Dr. Martin, doesn't like vegetables or fruit. I'm not telling you that.
I'm just saying that when you live on that stuff, because doc, I need my fibre. Eh, why do you think we see so much diverticulosis today? Why? Why? Why, why? Why? I asked the question? Why all the time, why are we? If diverticulosis is like an epidemic. Okay. Little pouches in the mouth. Uh, why is that doc? It's not because we're eating red meat. We're eating less red meat than ever. Did you know that? Yeah. It's down about 30%. The poor farmer. We're eating more vegetables. We're eating more nuts. You're not a chipmunk. You're eating more seeds. People live on that stuff. That's not good for your gut. Yeah, but doc, I need my fibre. Nah, it's overrated. It's overrated. Okay. Why do you gotta go to the bathroom? 10 times a day? Are you gonna win a prize?
I know I go against the grain guys, but I can't help myself. I study anatomy and comparative anyway. Okay. And the last one, let me finish with this. What will disrupt your gut? A lack of each two. The best fibre is not fibre. The best thing for your gut to wash away the crud to go in your toilet. The crud that goes in your toilet is water. Not fibre water. H2O water, wash it down, wash it, wash away. The debris. Drink enough water. It's so amazing. What that does for your gut? Your gut health, your microbiome. You know what? They love water. Yeah. Everything needs water. You need sunshine and water to live. And so does your bacteria. You're good guys. They want sunshine? I can tell you how and water and good food. That's why they like steak.
Okay. I got excited. I didn't mean to. Yes I did. Okay guys, we got a great week coming up. We love you dearly. Talk to you soon.
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