EP171 The One About Autoimmune Disorders

Transcript Of Today's Episode

Dr Martin Jr: You're listening to The Doctor is in podcast, from MartinClinic.com. Although we share a lot of practical, and in our opinion, awesome information, what you hear on this podcast is not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease, it's strictly for informational purposes, so enjoy. Hi, I'm Dr. Martin Jr.

Dr Martin Sr: I'm Dr. Martin Sr.

Dr Martin Jr: And this is The Doctor is in podcast, and today [00:00:30] we want to talk about autoimmune disorders. Now, what's really unfortunate is the amount of people that now have autoimmune disorders. I remember reading a statistic, not long ago, that if you're a woman, you have a 1 in 9 chance of developing an autoimmune disorder. So they've exploded in diagnosis over the years. They've just become so much more common.

So what we want to do today is talk about autoimmune disorders in general, [00:01:00] talk about what we think is going on, and then five of the biggest causes of autoimmune disorders, and then we'll talk about what you can do naturally to help fix what's going on in the background. So as I mentioned right up at the start of this episode, they have become ... I mean, you've been in practice 45 years.

Dr Martin Sr: Crazy, you see it every day.

Dr Martin Jr: Compared to when you started.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: So if you go back to when you started, did they have electricity back then?

Dr Martin Sr: I know, I'm [00:01:30] ancient.

Dr Martin Jr: I remember, I know you lived in a world where despite science, you had to walk both ways up a hill, to school, both times.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah [crosstalk 00:01:39]

Dr Martin Jr: The school was-

Dr Martin Sr: On snow shoes.

Dr Martin Jr: Yeah, both ways.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: So for some reason there was a tilt in the axis or something, you had to walk-

Dr Martin Sr: I told you guys that, and then I was telling my grandchildren that.

Dr Martin Jr: Oh I know, 'cause my kids have said that you were telling them that as well, so-

Dr Martin Sr: Of course, yeah. But you know, I'll tell you, just to give you a little background [00:02:00] in that sense, the first time I saw a real epidemic of autoimmune was in the late, let's say mid 80s to the early 90s. The first wave of real difficult diagnoses in terms of autoimmune, and that was on chronic fatigue syndrome. Because that really is an autoimmune disorder, so is fibromyalgia in that sense. [00:02:30] 'Cause fibro's just a symptom, I believe, of chronic fatigue. But that was the first wave. And now, in our practice, of course we see autoimmune. I see it every day.

Dr Martin Jr: Well yeah, and now there are over 100 different types of autoimmune disorders. Of course the most common ones are things like celiac, Hashimoto is so much more common.

Dr Martin Sr: Oh I know.

Dr Martin Jr: The amount of women who are getting diagnosed with Hashimoto's is just unbelievable. We'll talk about that [00:03:00] in a few minutes, about what's going on in the background, but Hashimoto's, lupus-

Dr Martin Sr: MS.

Dr Martin Jr: MS, especially in the Northern hemisphere, MS is definitely growing as well. And then you got asthmas, asthmas like crazy. I remember you used to talk about asthma being the canary in the coal mine in a lot of ways, which is interesting. A lot of inflammatory bowel diseases now. Psoriasis, eczema, rheumatoid arthritis, ALS is another.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: So, [00:03:30] so much more common, but there are other ones as well that are not "officially", and I'm doing air quotes here, for those that are wondering, that are not officially diagnosed. You mentioned chronic fatigue syndrome. You've mentioned fibromyalgia, and also Meniere's disease as well, right?

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: Which is an inner-ear issue. For a lot of people it could be treated as if it's an autoimmune disorder, and the information that we're going to share today will help along the lines of that [00:04:00] as well. Here's the thing, we put out an email not long ago asking the question, "Can you have a hidden autoimmune disorder?" Because here's the thing, here's the most common symptoms of an autoimmune disorder. Now again, we'll get into this in a lot more detail in a second.

But fatigue is a common, heat intolerance, rapid heart rate, hives, sensitive to the sun, hair loss, digestive issues, [00:04:30] sore joints, muscle pain, tremors, weight gain, or weight loss, memory, those are generic symptoms that can be a lot of different things across the board, but they're also common in autoimmune disorders.

So there are a lot of people who have thyroid going on for example, they've got a lot of these symptoms, and what they actually have is an autoimmune disorder, which is why, well it's not the only reason, but it's a big reason why, a lot of it has to do with lab values in general. [00:05:00] But it's a big reason why a lot of women who have Hashimoto's, they get on thyroid medication, and they don't feel better. Now they may feel better for a bit, but they've got to constantly adjust their medications, because the body's attacking its own thyroid.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: And that's really ... And we'll talk really, the definition of an autoimmune disorder is when your own immune system attacks your own cells. Again, you can have an autoimmune [00:05:30] disorder in pretty much any part of your body because your immune system is everywhere, and it can attack any part of your body. So if you have an autoimmune disorder of your skin, you may end up with something like psoriasis, or eczema. If you have an autoimmune disorder of the thyroid, Hashimoto's. If you have it of your joints you can have lupus, or rheumatoid arthritis.

It can attack your bowels. You can get inflammatory-type stuff. It can attack anything. If it attacks your brain stem, you can end up with ALS, MS, same [00:06:00] thing. So I mean, you can end up with this anywhere. But the reality is, they are three times more common today than they were even a couple decades ago. And if you're a woman especially, you're more likely to end up with an autoimmune disorder. And statistically speaking, women have what is now, what, 1 in 7, or 1 in 8 chance of breast cancer?

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah, it's 1 in 7.

Dr Martin Jr: 1 in 9 chance of an autoimmune disorder. So things are starting to add up. Things are starting to add up. So what we want to do today is [00:06:30] talk about autoimmune disorders, and talk about what we think some of the biggest reasons why we're seeing an explosion. And then also what we can do naturally to help fix them.

So what we have to do is start off with a conversation, I think, two conversations. The first one's about cause and effect. 'Cause in reality, the autoimmune disorder is the effect, it's not the cause. So you have to figure out what's triggering. At the end of the day, there's something that's triggering [00:07:00] your immune system to get funny, and start to attack its own cells. So there's always a cause.

Now that cause may be difficult to figure out, but there's always a cause. It doesn't just spontaneously, for no reason whatsoever, start. There's always a reason. There's always something that triggers your immune system to start attacking its own cells.

Now you and I, we have a ... We'll share it now, but a real [00:07:30] simplistic way of looking at the immune system. Now we'll give the warning now, this is an over-simplistic, overview of how the immune system works. It's obviously a lot more complicated than this. But this is a good overview of what's going on.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: From the time you are one cell. From the very beginning, that cell, once it starts to divide, there's a protein in there that basically ... [00:08:00] we like to tell people it's like a barcode. It's a protein that's a barcode, and that barcode gets in every cell of your body.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah, it's you.

Dr Martin Jr: It's you. And so imagine your immune system is going around scanning cells. If it has that barcode, if it has that protein, your immune system knows it's your own cell, so it scans it, "Nope, it's me." Scans it, "No, it's me." Scans it, "It's me." Scans a cell, "No, it's not me, we better attack [00:08:30] it. It's not supposed to be here." And that's an over-simplistic view of how the immune system works. But there's a lot going on there obviously. But that's the basic idea. Something happens along the way where the immune system no longer recognizes that cell.

Dr Martin Sr: Even though it's yours.

Dr Martin Jr: And it actually starts to view it as a threat.

Dr Martin Sr: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Dr Martin Jr: And starts to attack it. Now what's interesting, a lot of times it's caused by inflammation. Inflammation [00:09:00] can mess up that signalling between the cells, cause it to attack itself.

Dr Martin Sr: Yep. Well we see it a lot. It's incredible, and like you say, it's so much more prevalent today.

Dr Martin Jr: Now, what's interesting is, so if we take that analogy, something has to disrupt that signal between the immune system and the cells. So what's doing that? What's the cause? Well there's a lot of different causes. [00:09:30] But we've narrowed it down to the five biggest causes of what's going on.

So imagine cause and effect, you have a cause, and that cause is leading to inflammation. And then the inflammation is basically messing up the way your immune system works, and then your immune system starts to attack its own cells, and then you end up with symptoms, and you have an autoimmune disorder.

So correcting the problem, in order to fix the problem you have to fix the cause, and [00:10:00] you have to get the immune system to start acting normal again. But, the nice thing is, if you can get rid of that inflammation, you can get rid of the cause, then the immune system just starts doing its job. They're just going to continue doing their job. They're going to be able to properly recognize for ... keeping it simple, they're going to be able to recognize its own cells and they're not going to attack it.

So if you have psoriasis, the immune system will no longer attack your skin cells. If you have Hashimoto's, no longer attack your thyroid. So that's the key, that's what we're trying to [00:10:30] figure out today.

So let's talk about those five big things. Now, the biggest one is leaky gut.

Dr Martin Sr: Absolutely. As a matter of fact, to be honest, I've never seen a case really, you talk about from MS to lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and we coin these things, leaky gut, leaky skin, leaky gut, leaky brain, leaky gut, leaky lungs, you know asthma. Leaky gut, whatever. [00:11:00] It's the key is, has to be the gut. It doesn't mean that it's the only thing going wrong, but it's certainly one of the key factors, because I've never seen exceptions to it, and-

Dr Martin Jr: Well, and that's the thing, leaky gut is, in our opinion, everybody who has an autoimmune disorder has leaky gut syndrome.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah, for sure.

Dr Martin Jr: But again, here's the thing, it's cause and effect. Leaky gut does not just spontaneously show up.

Dr Martin Sr: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Dr Martin Jr: Something has [00:11:30] to trigger leaky gut to start, and we have a great video on our website where we talk about all the different causes of leaky gut, things that can affect the way that your gut works, just at the basic level. Those things can be a cause of leaky gut, which then can lead to inflammation, which can then mess up the immune system, which can lead to an autoimmune disorder.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: So leaky gut, when we say leaky gut, there's a lot of things that can cause leaky gut syndrome.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: Stress [00:12:00] can cause it. Stress is a big cause of leaky gut syndrome.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: Cortisol inflames the gut, leads to increased permeability, meaning, things can get through the gut lining, into the blood that should never get into the blood.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: And that can cause a whole bunch of problems.

Dr Martin Sr: Cortisol, and if it isn't the original cause, it aggravates everything because it just, it's like the expression we like to use, it's adding gasoline fuel to the fire. It creates all [00:12:30] that enormous inflammation.

One of the biggest things that I see with leaky gut, and it's just because I'm always asking questions in the office. So when I see someone autoimmune, I'm always going backwards to see, "Now, were you on lots of antibiotics as a kid?" 'Cause that's a question I ask. Or, a couple of years ago, or whatever because ... And I look, antibiotics save your life, so I don't downplay the benefits of antibiotics, but the double- [00:13:00] edged sword of antibiotics is leaky gut. And boy oh boy, I'll tell you, it's almost invariable, it's one of the key factors for a lot of people that end up with autoimmune is they've had a series of antibiotics, sometimes lots of them, especially as kids, and it comes back to haunt them when they get older. I'm telling you, it's part of that equation because it's a big [00:13:30] factor, not the only factor in leaky gut, but it's certainly one of the main causes of leaky gut. Because you can't get away almost without exception, you can't get away from what antibiotics do, and they kill good, bad, and ugly. Antibiotic's a broad spectrum, kill your friendly bacteria, and-

Dr Martin Jr: And studies have shown they actually leave a little, almost a fingerprint for a long time after.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: We talked about this on a previous [00:14:00] episode.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: Some of your good bacteria never comes back.

Dr Martin Sr: No.

Dr Martin Jr: It doesn't come back, which again, talks about the importance of a good probiotic. We get asked, especially this time of year, "If I'm taking antibiotic, should I take a probiotic?" Yes. You need to absolutely should be taking a probiotic. And you're right, I mean if you look at the history of people with autoimmune disorders, they definitely have a history, a big percent of them have a history of using, or having taken a fair amount of [00:14:30] antibiotics, or other drugs. 'Cause with a lot of other drugs that can kill the microbiome as well. There's a lot of other drugs out there, a lot of pain medications, and-

Dr Martin Sr: Well almost all drugs. Almost all medications, one of the side effects is certainly leaky gut.

Dr Martin Jr: Well 'cause they've discovered this concept of a microbiome, which is just a bacteria that is beneficial to us, and researchers are calling it another organ. You can't live without it. You'd be dead without it. You can't be healthy without a good microbiome. [00:15:00] So I mean they understand the importance of it.

When they did a lot of these drug testing, they never looked at the effect it had on microbiome 'cause they didn't know about it. And now they're finding out that a lot of the these things have a negative impact on your microbiome, which is again, why people should be taking probiotics, a good probiotic when they're taking medication, even if they're not. But that's what's going on. There's a lot of things, and it's important to understand that.

So a lot of times when it comes to naturally [00:15:30] dealing with an autoimmune disorder is fixing the gut. This is important to understand, just because you have leaky gut syndrome does not necessarily mean you're going to be having digestive symptoms. But a lot of people with autoimmune do have digestive symptoms. They either have a change of bowel habits. They get bloating, got gall bladder issues, or they've had their gall bladder removed. They got low stomach acid. They got a whole bunch of these symptoms, burping, or whatever, heartburn. So they may have a digestive symptom that's going on in the background, [00:16:00] but they gotta fix the gut. There's no question. A lot of the healing starts at that level.

Because one of the things that you and I have talked about quite a bit off-air that's fascinating is so what happens, what makes leaky gut a problem is what it allows into the blood. The whole point of your bowels, your gut lining, is to be what they call selectively permeable. They allow certain things in and they stop other things.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah, bad guys out.

Dr Martin Jr: Bad guys [00:16:30] out. Leaky gut basically just imagine the pores opening up a little bit and allowing more things in there. So they're allowing bad things to get in, undigested food, toxins, fungus, and that's what we want to talk about a little bit here, is we're starting to see how much of a problem fungus candidas is.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: You and I have talked about candida for brain, and studies come up now showing that it can cross the blood, brain barrier.

Dr Martin Sr: Scary.

Dr Martin Jr: Yeah, it's terrifying when you think about [00:17:00] it. But candida is a major problem. We're loaded with fungus now, it's everywhere. So the problem with leaky gut is it allows things to get in that shouldn't get in. But as we've mentioned before, a lot of those things shouldn't have even gotten into your gut in the first place. They should have been killed by your acid in your stomach, or your gall bladder. So it's really a systemic. So when we say leaky gut, leaky gut allows the bad things to get in. But the bad things can get [00:17:30] in 'cause they weren't killed when they should have been killed.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: So it's really a gut, digestive problem. Like digestion, there's five major components of digestion. You have the stomach acid, you have stomach, you have the gall bladder, you have the liver, you have the pancreas, and then you have the bowels.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: When it comes to those bad things not getting killed, well the stomach didn't do its job. The gall bladder didn't do its job.

Dr Martin Sr: Gall bladder didn't.

Dr Martin Jr: The [00:18:00] liver didn't do its job. And then now you have the pancreas will give it a pass on there 'cause it's busy doing a lot of other things. But that's what's happening. So the upper digestive system failed as well, miserably. It didn't do its job. So they have ... If you have an autoimmune disorder, you have leaky gut, you have a digestive issue.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: Here's another thing, a lot of leaky gut can start off because your upper part of your digestive [00:18:30] system is not working, and it strains your gut. It causes inflammation. So if you can have a gut lining that's stopping stuff from getting in, but if your stomach acid's low, and your gall bladder is not there no more, or it's just not doing its job, your gut lining is being bombarded with junk. It's stressing it out.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah because the furnace is supposed to burn it down. When you think of what your stomach acid does. It takes anything [00:19:00] that's coming in, including candida, and it's supposed to kill it. It shouldn't get into even into your gut.

Dr Martin Jr: That's the problem. So when we say that leaky gut is a major cause of autoimmune, now here's the thing, a lot of people in this world have leaky gut, and a lot of them don't have an autoimmune disorder, that's the reality. But if you have leaky gut, some may have IBS, some may have joint pain. Some may have brain issues, some can have skin. A lot of skin [00:19:30] conditions directly tied into the health of your gut.

So there's a lot of things going on, but there's a percentage of people that when they have leaky gut and they get inflammation, and they get cortisol increases, and they get all these things going on, it eventually can mess up the way the immune system works, and then it starts to attack its own cells. So leaky gut can go to a lot of different things, and not everybody that has leaky gut that's going to have an autoimmune disorder, but everybody that has an autoimmune disorder has leaky gut. That's a [00:20:00] pretty safe thing, in a sense, to say.

So a big part of naturally dealing with an autoimmune is fixing the gut. Even if you don't think your gut is a problem, 'cause you're not getting traditional digestive symptoms. But I'm willing to bet that if you took a questionnaire of all the digestive symptoms, you would have them.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: You would have some for sure.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: If you have an autoimmune disorder, you have something going on gut. So leaky gut is a starting point for a lot of autoimmune disorders. [00:20:30] Whatever can cause leaky gut can eventually be the trigger that leads to an autoimmune disorder. So when we leaky gut is a cause, we're saying whatever can cause leaky gut can lead to an autoimmune disorder. So that's the first one, leaky gut's a big one.

A second big one, chemicals. Chemicals cause inflammation. They don't cause fevers like the old bacteria did. They cause a disruption in the immune [00:21:00] system, because the amount of inflammation they cause. We are living in a chemical world they're everywhere.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: Chemicals are everywhere.

Dr Martin Sr: 100,000 chemicals, new chemicals have been created since World War II. At least, like you say, you can't leave the planet. You're going to be surrounded by chemicals. You expressed this before. When we talk about plastic for example, it's in the air, you're [00:21:30] breathing plastic in. I always say that autoimmune is somebody that, the canary in the coal mine. We can put 10 people in a room and 10 people breathe the same air, drink the same water or whatever, but if you have any kind of sensitivity, or if your microbiome isn't right, those chemicals can cause your body to overreact to them, they see them as something that disrupts, [00:22:00] and then your body attacks, and you over attack.

Dr Martin Jr: Here's the thing with chemicals, so chemicals can hurt your immune system in two ways, one, chemicals can directly affect the way that the cells signal and talk to each other. So it can cut off radio communication. Every movie where it doesn't matter the movie, if the two main characters have walkie talkies, at some point [00:22:30] something disrupts their communication, at some point. It doesn't matter what it is, they're pushing on the button and they can't hear each other, that's chemicals can do that between the cells in your immune system, directly. But then chemicals also create inflammation, which can then disrupt further. So chemicals can be a double whammy.

Here's the thing, I mean there's a lot of studies we can look at, but one large study tested a bunch of people, tested their urine. 93% [00:23:00] of them had glyphosate in their urine, 93%. I want to read you a quote from a study that was done on babies. In 2005, researchers found 287, 287 industrial chemicals including pesticides, folates, dioxin, flame-retardants, and the break down of chemicals from Teflon in the fetal cord of 10 newborn infants from around the country. [00:23:30] So transmitted to the infants by their mothers, exposures before and during pregnancy. So kids are born into this world already loaded with chemicals. That's incredible to think about. So we live in a chemical world.

Dr Martin Sr: Oh yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: So there's no-

Dr Martin Sr: Toxic soup.

Dr Martin Jr: There's no question why we see an increase in autoimmune disorders, and here's the thing, you can't prevent that. You can't. You can do, you can reduce it. [00:24:00] You can avoid it as much as you can. But it is everywhere. You can go completely organic, plastic-free, fragrance-free-

Dr Martin Sr: They don't give you a straw in the restaurants anymore.

Dr Martin Jr: You can do all that stuff, but you're going to be exposed to chemicals. So you can't run from that, so the key is, you want to build up the defence your body has against chemicals. You want to make sure that your liver is working properly. You want to make sure [00:24:30] that your digestive tract is working properly. You want to make sure your immune system is up to par. 'Cause you can't avoid chemicals, they're everywhere. But chemicals can trigger autoimmune, and chemicals can also be a major cause of leaky gut as well. So chemicals are a big cause. But again, you can't avoid them. You can reduce exposure for sure. You can reduce exposure. But you can't completely avoid chemicals. So that's the thing. We talked about leaky gut, we talked about chemicals, you like to mention [00:25:00] heavy metals.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah, mercury, lead, cadmium. Your body is so receptive to those things because they do mimic, in a lot of ways their structure of certain minerals even like magnesium and potassium. So your body ... It's amazing how many people are walking around with mercury, lead, cadmium in their system and they don't even know it. Again, it's part [00:25:30] of the toxic soup. Lead, it's in the soil. Anything coming out of China, just about, has got lead in it. Women that wear makeup and lipstick and shampoos. You know what I mean? The high fructose corn syrup.

Dr Martin Jr: And that's where we talk about reducing your exposure.

Dr Martin Sr: Right.

Dr Martin Jr: There are better makeups out there, shampoos out there. You want to reduce your exposure.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: But yeah, it's amazing. So heavy metals, again, they can disrupt [00:26:00] the way the immune system works. They can cause a bunch of inflammation. But they are definitely can be for some people, the cause that leads to an autoimmune disorder.

Here's another one, and this is a big one as well. Vegetable oils, processed foods. Vegetable oils irritate the lining of most people's guts. When that happens, you end up with leaky gut, and when that happens, as we talked about, many times on this episode, [00:26:30] can lead to autoimmune disorders. Also, there's something to be said about the ratio between omega-6s, which are found in processed vegetable oils, and omega-3s. If your intake of omega-6s is a lot more than your intake of omega-3s, that ratio can lead to a lot of problems. Right now I think it's 18 to 1. I think it might even be higher.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah, very [crosstalk 00:26:58] well it's crazy.

Dr Martin Jr: [00:27:00] I thought I read somewhere around 25 to 1, but the last thing that I remember reading specifically was 18 to 1, meaning, we consume on average, 18 times more omega-6s than we do omega-3s. That ratio is a disaster. That ratio is a recipe for disaster. For some people, that alone can cause such an inflammatory reaction and a gut disruption that that alone could be the cause for some people of [00:27:30] autoimmune. So that's a big issue as well. We consume a ton of vegetable oils in our diet. If you eat out, if you buy packaged foods, they're all vegetable oils.

Dr Martin Sr: They last, you see.

Dr Martin Jr: And I ... Listen, vegetable oil is a tremendous marketing job. I mean vegetables are always healthy, in people's head, always. So how do you make an oil that's not [00:28:00] healthy sound healthy? Call it a vegetable oil.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah, 'cause it's really, you can run your car on this stuff.

Dr Martin Jr: [crosstalk 00:28:06] Yeah, they're not-

Dr Martin Sr: It's industrialized. Highly, highly processed.

Dr Martin Jr: Go on YouTube and look at how canola oil is made, there's nothing natural about canola oil.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: Yet it's a vegetable oil, and it's healthy vegetable oil. So again, that's a big problem, which is why a lot of people do well when they increase their intake of omega-3.

Dr Martin Sr: Omega-3, yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: And then they lower their processed food, or their omega-6 [00:28:30] intake, and it's amazing how much better they feel.

The fifth thing that we want to talk about quickly are food allergies. There are a lot of people that have these hidden food allergies. They're not that hidden. They're getting a lot of symptoms, they just don't know that it's 'cause of a food allergen. They got mucus, they always have had asthma. They have headaches, or they have digestive issues. They have skin issues. They got bags under their eyes, or whatever. They got these symptoms. So when we say hidden, they're not hidden, [00:29:00] I mean their symptoms are there, they just are not, they don't know where to look. They're not sure what they are.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah, they can't equate it with-

Dr Martin Jr: No, it's funny because people will talk to us about, "Oh, I get a lot of asthma, and a lot of coughing, and a lot of mucus." And then it's like, "Okay." You ask them some questions, and it's usually around after a meal. Then you can narrow it down, it's like, "Yeah, you can't have dairy." Or, "You can't have eggs." Eggs is a common, unfortunately, 'cause it's such [00:29:30] a good food.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah, such a good food, but-

Dr Martin Jr: I can't eat eggs. I can't eat eggs.

Dr Martin Sr: And it's a lot worse today than it was. But again, that goes back to the change, I believe, in the microbiome, because now eggs, which are 100% good for you-

Dr Martin Jr: Every time I can't eat an egg, I blame mum. She was on antibiotics for what, seven-

Dr Martin Sr: Eight years.

Dr Martin Jr: Eight years?

Dr Martin Sr: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Dr Martin Jr: The whole pregnancy with me, on antibiotics.

Dr Martin Sr: She was, and as a little girl, for eight years, lost a kidney.

Dr Martin Jr: Eight [00:30:00] years.

Dr Martin Sr: In the 1950s that's what they did.

Dr Martin Jr: That's what they did. They just put them on antibiotics forever.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: So I can't eat eggs. That's probably the reason, I just like to tease her about it, but I can't enjoy-

Dr Martin Sr: She can't even eat eggs.

Dr Martin Jr: No, she can't even eat eggs either. But yeah, it's amazing, right?

Dr Martin Sr: I make up for it, for you both of you guys.

Dr Martin Jr: Yeah, and my wife makes up for it, and unfortunately, I just can't eat eggs.

Dr Martin Sr: No, yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: And even my kids can tolerate eggs, but they can't eat-

Dr Martin Sr: They can't live on them.

Dr Martin Jr: They definitely can't, and if they have eggs one day, they gotta take some time off [00:30:30] in between type of thing. But food allergies, again, are so common today that most people have an intolerance to a food, and they don't even know it. They don't even know it. And that, again, can trigger inflammation, can trigger an autoimmune disorder. Which again, goes back to eating, goes back to the gut to fix it.

So let's ... We've been talking a fair amount about some big concepts for autoimmune. [00:31:00] Let's talk about how to approach from a natural standpoint, how do you approach dealing with an autoimmune disorder? Now here's the thing, so an autoimmune, as we mentioned at the top, can affect any organ. So let's just say that you have Hashimoto's.

So here's the thing, you have to address the cause, you have to fix the gut, and then you have to help repair the thyroid. So there's three steps involved. And actually, there's a fourth [00:31:30] step, 'cause you have to help the immune system. So really there's four steps to dealing with any autoimmune. So if you have rheumatoid for example, well you have to identify the cause. You have to fix the gut. You have to help the immune system, and then you gotta do something to help repair, specifically for the joints. So it's a four-step process. Regardless of whether you have an autoimmune disorder. But let's start with food. Let's just again, with the way somebody should [00:32:00] eat if they have an autoimmune disorder.

Dr Martin Sr: Well, number one, pretty simple. If you're going to do one thing, cut out your sugars, because sugar and yeast, like we said, there's always candida, always one of the side effects. If you're going to do nothing else, cut out the sugar in your diet. Cut it down to almost nothing. We always talk about eating low-carb, and eating crappy carbohydrates. [00:32:30] Get rid of that stuff. So diet has a big, big effect on autoimmune.

Dr Martin Jr: Yeah, diet is probably the biggest thing to start. So if you have a food allergy, identify it, and get rid of it, clean your diet up. Simplify your diet.

Dr Martin Sr: Rope it in.

Dr Martin Jr: Rope it in. Now if you have an autoimmune disorder, simplify your diet. Don't get too creative. Don't get too wild. Bring your diet in. Cut down sugar. Cut down processed foods. Keep your insulin levels [00:33:00] low, which means going a lot lower carb. A lot of people get great results when they go ketogenic, they start consuming less than 30 or 40 grams of carbs a day. They're not eating processed.

Dr Martin Sr: Anything.

Dr Martin Jr: You could do keto and eat processed foods, that's the thing. I mean a lot of people eat low-carb, and they have a very high-processed diet as well, because reading a lot of the vegetable oil stuff. Again, that's the first thing, cut down sugar, cut down vegetable oils. Cut down carbs. Reign your food [00:33:30] in. It's amazing, just by doing that, how much better people feel.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah, for sure.

Dr Martin Jr: Right?

Dr Martin Sr: Good results.

Dr Martin Jr: Right off the bat, so food is where you start. So identify the cause. Identify that cause, cause and effect. That requires work from people. That requires for some people, keeping a food journal, noticing when their symptoms, because the body will tell you. If you've got rheumatoid arthritis, and your joints are worse lately, well that's where you want to pay attention to what [00:34:00] you've been doing, stress, eating, exercise, all these things. You want to pay attention to see if you can identify what's going on.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: Then you want to fix the gut. In order to fix the gut, as I mentioned, there's five parts to digestion. Probiotics is a starting point, no question.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: You have to start with a good probiotic. But you need a good digestive enzyme as well for the upper GI part. You need a good digestive enzyme as well. That's a big aspect of that. So you have your gut, fix the gut. If [00:34:30] you go to our website, we have a great training on digestive health. Sign up for that, watch it. That's a great place to start.

Dr Martin Sr: Yeah.

Dr Martin Jr: Then you have to help the immune system. Well how do you help the immune system? What do you recommend for somebody that needs immune system help?

Dr Martin Sr: Again, you want to make sure you got good levels of vitamin-D, because your immune system doesn't work properly without vitamin-D.

Dr Martin Jr: So they want to optimize vitamin-D level?

Dr Martin Sr: Always optimize vitamin-D. I always say, [00:35:00] if you want to put your immune system to sleep, go back to food, eat sugar. So eliminate the sugar. Get your immune system where it can concentrate on what it needs to concentrate on, and not be put to sleep by your poor diet. But the big thing on immunity is getting your optimizing vitamin-D. That's why you always ... Some people are sensitive to the sun, especially with lupus, but then you gotta take vitamin- [00:35:30] D as a supplement. It's very, very important for you.

Dr Martin Jr: All right, so we've covered a ton of stuff on this podcast. We're about 40 minutes in, so we're out of time. Again, if you have questions, just email us. You do Facebook lives, there's a lot of ways to get a hold of us. Again, we want to thank you for listening. Have a great day.

Dr Martin Sr: Thanks for listening to The Doctor is in podcast from martinclinic.com if you have any questions, you can reach us at info@martinclinic.com. If you're not [00:36:00] a newsletter subscriber, you can head to our website and sign up for free. We also have a private Facebook group that you can join, it's a community of awesome people. Finally, I do a Facebook live every Thursday morning at 8:30. join us again next week for a new episode.

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