Transcript Of Today's Episode
Dr Martin Jr: You're listening to The Doctor's 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.
Dr Martin Jr: Hello, I'm Dr. Martin Junior.
Dr Martin Sr: I'm Dr. Martin Senior.
Dr Martin Jr: And this is The Doctor is In podcast and this is episode [00:00:30] 184. Now, it's crazy to think about that. 184 episodes, so we've been doing this every week for a long time. There was a couple years ago where we took kind of a summer off and then we started getting emails from people.
Dr Martin Sr: Yeah, don't take the summer off.
Dr Martin Jr: Don't take the summer off. So we're heading into summer, not really. Because we're recording this, it's the May 8th today that we're actually recording this episode. And just literally this is the latest ever. I just picked up my motorcycle from storage, brought it home [00:01:00] today.
Dr Martin Sr: It was so happy to see you.
Dr Martin Jr: Oh, it was crying tears and separation anxiety and everything. It was fantastic. But this is the latest that I've ever gotten my bike home.
Dr Martin Sr: Yeah, usually we get it out some time in April, even if the weather is not fantastic. But this year, there was no getting it out in April. It was ...
Dr Martin Jr: Yeah, it would have been tough.
Dr Martin Sr: The climate change is rue because it's cold.
Dr Martin Jr: I don't like riding in snow. Yeah, I don't like riding in snow. But, anyways. So 184 episodes today, we're going to talk about something that was in the news recently and it affects [00:01:30] a lot of people and it's about proton pump inhibitors, so antacids. And proton pump inhibitors are a little bit different in the sense that they shut off the hydrochloric acid valves, they just turn them off. So it's hard to get heartburn if the valves are not even on.
Dr Martin Jr: But.
Dr Martin Sr: But.
Dr Martin Jr: There's a huge but. The problem with that is it's not like you don't need the hydrochloric acid. The problem [00:02:00] with heartburn is, in our opinion, modern medicine is looking at it completely wrong because it's not actually a problem of too much acid. It's actually a problem of not enough acid. And, that little valve at the top of the stomach, that little sphincter valve, not doing its job properly. And that creates an issue so the little acid they have, they don't have enough, goes up into the esophagus [00:02:30] and obviously creates a whole bunch of problems.
Dr Martin Jr: So, the pharmaceutical industry, because that's a big problem, and we're going to talk about what the actual causes of this common ... Why people get it in the first place and it's not what the TV would have you believe. But the pharmaceutical companies jumped on this because everyone of their commercials is basically telling people that they can continue to eat the exact same way they always have. But just take these little pills beforehand and [00:03:00] everything is going to go well.
Dr Martin Jr: There is no mention of, in the commercial, of a life-altering diet or any kind of change whatsoever. It's just like, "Hey, you're going to the ball game and you want to eat-
Dr Martin Sr: 10 hot dogs.
Dr Martin Jr: 10 hot dogs and drink beer and all that kind of stuff, take a couple of these pills beforehand and guess what, you're not going to get any heartburn. Here is the problem with that and this is what the news story was about is these things were never meant to be taken for any duration at all.
Dr Martin Sr: Temporary, right.
Dr Martin Jr: They were meant [00:03:30] to be temporary. And because most people were not aware of that and they continued to get heartburn every day, because once you have, and we'll talk about the cause later on but once you have a problem with stomach acid and insulin resistance and high circulating insulin and all these kind of things, you can end up with heartburn pretty consistently. So they have heartburn every day, so they're taking these proton pump inhibitors every day because heartburn, it's a good name for it, it hurts.
Dr Martin Sr: Yeah, it hurts. It hurts big time. It's very uncomfortable.
Dr Martin Jr: [00:04:00] It's very uncomfortable. And you know, nobody wants to live every day with heartburn so it makes sense. They just pop either an antacid or if it's a real problem, they start to take these proton pump inhibitors. And they're over the counter now. So I mean, anyways. Now, it comes out and we've talked about this years ago because even in their own literature that comes with these medications or these over the counter pills, it talks about not using them for a period [00:04:30] of longer than, I think it's two months. So what's happening now is that now the news is starting to say, "Hey, wait a second, you may not want to take them for too long."
Dr Martin Sr: Yeah, and here is the headline that sort of bothered me. Because it says, "Doctors are warning." Okay? "That proton inhibitors could lead to some pretty serious side effects." Doctors are warning. So let me just say this because this is a pet peeve. I've meant [00:05:00] to mention this the other day when I did a Facebook about this. I meant to mention it because doctors are not warning, no, they're not. This is sort of a little bit of a news story but didn't come from the medical profession, didn't come from the Canadian Medical Association or the American Medical Association, didn't come from that at all.
Dr Martin Sr: It was a couple of researchers, when you dug up. And they're making [inaudible 00:05:24] of it. So, what I say is this, this just really bothers me because [00:05:30] this is something we've been talking about, like you say, for a long time. And they've known the side effects for a long time. And nothing has been done. As a matter of fact, I call on both these two professions where I think they've dropped the ball. One, the Medical Associations or whatever or the College of Physicians, Surgeons, or whatever, they didn't put out a warning to the doctors, they should.
Dr Martin Sr: Secondly, and once we get through the podcast, people will understand how serious the side effects [00:06:00] of these proton inhibitors are. Secondly, it's the pharmacists. These guys are professionals, right? I mean, they go to school for a long time, they come out, and they're professionals. But they have a conflict of interest because they [inaudible 00:06:17] but you know what, "Doctors, you guys are prescribing this way too much and way too long." That bothers me because these guys are professionals and as a matter of fact, in our province, Ontario, they're starting to end. [00:06:30] Maybe not a bad idea.
Dr Martin Sr: You know what? You can go to your ... If you just need a ... You got a sinus infection or whatever, you can go to the pharmacy. That hasn't happened yet but I think it's coming.
Dr Martin Jr: Where they'll be able to prescribe.
Dr Martin Sr: They'll be able to prescribe-
Dr Martin Jr: Some of these.
Dr Martin Sr: A short duration antibiotic or whatever.
Dr Martin Jr: And listen, they know drugs.
Dr Martin Sr: They know drugs, they know the side ...
Dr Martin Jr: I've had great conversations with pharmacists and they, at least the ones I've talked to, they understand-
Dr Martin Sr: All the side effects.
Dr Martin Jr: The side effects. They [00:07:00] talk to a lot of people. And in fact, a lot of times, a pharmacist talks to a patient a lot more than even their doctor would because they leave there with a laundry list of medication and the pharmacist is there, trying to explain to them ...
Dr Martin Sr: They're supposed to warn you right? But you know what-
Dr Martin Jr: But how many people have heard ... I mean, how many people have actually been warned by their doctors to not take this any consistent length of time?
Dr Martin Sr: I've never heard of one ... And listen, you know I'm a question guy. [00:07:30] So I get information out of patients, right? Because I want to know their story, I want to know where they're at, I want to know what's happening. I never heard, "Oh, my doctor said, 'You can't be on this antacid for long.'" As a matter of fact, they're almost encourage. You know, nothing's changed, so repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. Well. And like you say, now you can actually get some of these-
Dr Martin Jr: Yeah, they're right over the counter.
Dr Martin Sr: What is it? Prepulsid? Or which ones is ... The purple, what's the purple?
Dr Martin Jr: Yeah, purple one, Nexium.
Dr Martin Sr: Nexium. Right, you can get it right over the-
Dr Martin Jr: Is that right? Nexium? I think it is.
Dr Martin Sr: [00:08:00] You can get it. You have to go to the pharmacist.
Dr Martin Jr: Yeah, you don't have to go to your doctor to get a prescription.
Dr Martin Sr: But what bugs me, and I just ... Okay, I don't want to spend the whole time on this but pharmacists got to be much more responsible. You know what? This is your 15th time you've come back in the last three or four years to get this.
Dr Martin Jr: Yeah, that person is taking it consistently.
Dr Martin Sr: You know what? This should be flagged. Again, we'll get into what can happen with these things and I'll [00:08:30] tell you, when they start warning you about some of these major side effects, and I mean major side effects, look, I think people ... You know, just from the thing that I did on Facebook, you know how many of our patients have just sort of, "You know what, nobody ever told me that."
Dr Martin Jr: No, they don't talk about it.
Dr Martin Sr: Nobody ever told me that, right?
Dr Martin Jr: So let's talk. What we're going to do today is we're going to list some of the biggest problems when you consistently take proton [00:09:00] pump inhibitors. The biggest problems on different organs and different things that are going on and we're going to go through that just so that you're fully aware. But, let's first break down what's actually happening with ... What happens when somebody has heartburn.
Dr Martin Jr: So, as we mentioned, heartburn, if somebody has chronic heartburn, that's a failure of a few things that's going on. Right off the top, that's a failure. Normally, the PH of the stomach, obviously, is acidic. It's low. And as you're [00:09:30] secreting hydrochloric acid in your stomach, the PH drops.
Dr Martin Sr: Big time. Or at least it should.
Dr Martin Jr: It should. If you have enough hydrochloric acid, your PH levels drop and then that signals that little valve to close at the top of the stomach. That's how it's supposed to happen. It's like you put food in your stomach, hydrochloric acid gets secreted, the PH of the stomach decreases and then that little valve closes and that valve shuts off the [00:10:00] stomach from the esophagus, that's what happens. And that's a normal thing. And that happens every time you eat, right? Every time you eat, you put something into your stomach, you release hydrochloric acid, your PH of the stomach drops, and the valve closes. It keeps the acid in the stomach, it digests the food and moves down to the next part of the digestive system. You know, gall bladder, pancreas, liver, after and it goes in to the intestine. So that's normal.
Dr Martin Jr: But something happens along the way where all of a [00:10:30] sudden you do not secrete as much stomach acid as it used to. So think about it. You put acid into your stomach, it's not enough to bring the PH down enough so that that valve closes. So the valve doesn't close because the PH hasn't dropped enough. So now you have acid that can go into the esophagus a bit and give you heartburn. And that's a failure of stomach acid.
Dr Martin Jr: Now, there are different reasons why that happens. And you know, I've read [00:11:00] different things, different experts talking about as you get older, you're definitely more likely to have an issue with stomach acid and digestive enzymes and all these kind of things and it makes sense. We see that and we hear that all the time. But that's what's supposed to happen.
Dr Martin Jr: And now, when somebody has chronic heartburn, that's no longer happening. And then, the stomach is built for acid. The inside of the stomach can be very acidic, the acid doesn't ruin the stomach and it can handle it.
Dr Martin Sr: It's like a furnace.
Dr Martin Jr: Yeah, it can [00:11:30] handle it.
Dr Martin Sr: You know, it can take that heat big time.
Dr Martin Jr: But the esophagus, it's not built for acid. So you can imagine when it gets there, it's burning. Well, you do that enough times for a long time, that can also lead to some serious esophageal stuff like cancers.
Dr Martin Sr: Big time.
Dr Martin Jr: And all these kind of things. But, now, think about this. You take an antacid or you take a proton pump inhibitor and now you're no longer putting enough acid into the stomach at all but it's so little that it's not [00:12:00] even really go up into your esophagus but how in the world does food get digested? That first part of digestion, as the stomach empties into the first part of the upper small intestine and the gall bladder kicks in and the pancreas kicks in.
Dr Martin Sr: They're throwing bile in there and-
Dr Martin Jr: How in the world, imagine the strain on the digestive system now that this protein and these things that are supposed to be broken down in the stomach get into the top of the bowel relatively undigested. [00:12:30] I mean, that starts you ... So, that's where the problems really start when you start taking these drugs because you're not breaking down food. And there is a saying, "You are what you eat." But that's a half truth. You are what you absorb.
Dr Martin Jr: So when the food gets into your intestinal tract, now, that strains your gall bladder, that strains your liver, that strains your pancreas. They don't do their job properly. People also [00:13:00] forget that acid, part of the job of the stomach acid is not only to break down those proteins and other stuff and break them down into mush and all that.
Dr Martin Sr: Mulch it down to nothing.
Dr Martin Jr: Exactly. It's also designed to kill.
Dr Martin Sr: Bacteria.
Dr Martin Jr: You consume a ton of bacteria, a ton of candida, yeast, everything. It gets into the stomach, the stomach's contained. It digests it, it kills everything. And then once it gets through whatever is left [00:13:30] the gallbladder helps kill, now-
Dr Martin Sr: Yeah, the bile is very acidic.
Dr Martin Jr: That's right. Now, the food comes into the digestive tract, I mean, into the upper intestines. It's not broken down, there is candida, there is junk that shouldn't be there that gets into that top part, it overworks your gall bladder and you start having gall bladder issues. You start having fungus and candida and parasites that can get through that should never get through. [00:14:00] And that is extremely common.
Dr Martin Sr: Yeah, oh yeah. And that's why you see so much H. pylori today. H. pylori will never hurt you if you have a good stomach. If you have good stomach acidity, H. pylori, even C. difficile and others that now are becoming really super bugs and very resistant, but one of the biggest issues is this whole thing about, like you said, the stomach acidity starts there. And when people don't have good [00:14:30] acidity in their stomach-
Dr Martin Jr: And one of the longstanding side effects of antacids and proton pump inhibitors that most people are aware of and I saw this because my background is treating sports injuries. If somebody had a long history of this, their bones were terrible. Their little minerals that you need to get from food, you're not getting it if you're taking antacids consistently. Your bones are going to pay the price. And you know what's so funny? [00:15:00] A lot of these chewable stuff, they add calcium to it because they kind of know.
Dr Martin Jr: So they add calcium. It's a form of calcium that's pretty much useless for your body in the first place.
Dr Martin Sr: You're not going to absorb it.
Dr Martin Jr: You're not going to do anything with it. But they add these various forms.
Dr Martin Sr: [inaudible 00:15:16] for calcium, right?
Dr Martin Jr: All these things, that's right. Chew them for calcium, right? You got it. But it's funny because those things hurt your bones. In fact, if you go look up, that's one of the most common side effects of chronic antacid use [00:15:30] is weak bones. That's the first thing. But we're not even going to talk about bones. That's just a given. If you have a history of these things, your chance of osteoporosis is through the roof.
Dr Martin Sr: Through the roof. And guess who's the most susceptible? Women.
Dr Martin Jr: Yeah. Through the roof. Right. So we're not even talking that. Let's talk about a few of the common effects of proton pump inhibitors or antacids. And the first one we got [00:16:00] to talk about because if they're ... Again, we've kind of mentioned this on a previous podcast, the most common deficiencies. And we should do an episode on that because I think that would be good. B12-
Dr Martin Sr: You just ... There's not a chance that you're absorbing B12 if you're on an antacid. If you're on a proton pump inhibitor just assume 100%, you got a deficiency of B12. And probably iron, too.
Dr Martin Jr: Yeah, and let's talk real quickly about B12, just for a second because the problem is, [00:16:30] it's kind of a pet peeve of ours as well. We've gone through a lot of pet peeves today, it's kind of a-
Dr Martin Sr: It's not like my rants on Thursday.
Dr Martin Jr: Yeah, it's just kind of like a ... A little bit of a pet peeve is that ... I'm trying to think at the top of my head, I can't think of another vitamin that's tested so poorly. I read a thing from a researcher who said that the testing is so bad, it's worse than a coin flip if they're going to detect even if you have it. Then, there is no consensus on what optimal levels are. [00:17:00] So testing is-
Dr Martin Sr: The test is 100 years old.
Dr Martin Jr: It's terrible. It's a terrible test. And they rely on a test that's less than a coin flip. And even if you are on the low end, you're not low by their standards. So, they don't-
Dr Martin Sr: Well, I was saying to a patient the other day just on the thing of B12, nobody cares about B12 anymore. In the medical profusion, I hate to be negative, but in the old days, I mean, doctors actually gave you B12 shots. Now, I bet you there is [00:17:30] very few physicians even giving B12 shots anymore. Just because it's just not part of their ... They're not even looking for it. So, it's just a vitamin.
Dr Martin Jr: And they're not going to pick that up when you go there anyways because-
Dr Martin Sr: The blood work's so useless, right?
Dr Martin Jr: Because every system in your body uses B12, you can get symptoms anywhere. Now, you may get fatigue and that's a very common B12 symptom. But, here's a list and I put together, and we're going to put a nice graphic in our email to our newsletter subscribers. [00:18:00] So if you're not joined up and you'll get this graphic about how it affects every system. And these are things that you would never even associate with B12 but these are common. These are common.
Dr Martin Jr: So, it affects your cardiovascular system. So fatigue is a big one. Heart palpitations, that's a big one for B12. Shortness of breath, right. Somebody has a shortness of breath-
Dr Martin Sr: [inaudible 00:18:24] a flight of stairs and you're sucking for air. You know, you say, "Oh, I'm out of shape." But no, no.
Dr Martin Jr: That's a good chance [00:18:30] your oxygen, it's like your B12 is just not doing its job.
Dr Martin Sr: You're yawning a lot?
Dr Martin Jr: Digestive system. How does it affect your digestion? Well, it can cause diarrhea if you're low. And here is another one, too. A lot of people don't understand, they talk about this ... You know, a lot of people get a lump in their throat, that's a strong indicator that you got a B12 deficiency and a pretty good B12 deficiency. That whole lump in their throat, they have difficulty swallowing or they just feel like it's constricted. That's B12. They are low in it.
Dr Martin Sr: A lot of woman have that.
Dr Martin Jr: It's so common. [00:19:00] And we hear that a lot. But again, it's because they're B12 deficient and they're significantly B12 deficient. Muscular system, clumsiness, muscle spasm and twitches, shaky hands, weaknesses. Here is the nervous system effect. Confusion, dementia, dizziness and balance problems, feeling faint. Irritability or anxiety, memory loss, struggling to find the right words, numbness, tingling, burning of sensation of the hands, arms, legs and feet.
Dr Martin Sr: [00:19:30] And mouth.
Dr Martin Jr: And mouth. Poor concentration. I mean, your nerves need B12. So there's a lot of nervous system. And then even people don't even realize this. With your eyes and ears, aversion to bright lights, that's a big one. Tinnitus. There's a lot of cause of tinnitus but B12 deficiency is another cause of tinnitus. Worsening vision. Somebody is just like their vision is falling off. If your eyes are aging faster, now we get a lot of requests in our Facebook group to do one on eyes. So we'll do one. [00:20:00] We'll do a good one on eyes. But if your eyes are aging faster than they should be, there is a good chance that your-
Dr Martin Sr: B12 is low.
Dr Martin Jr: B12 is low. And here is the thing, if you are taking proton pump inhibitors, you are low in B12.
Dr Martin Sr: 100%.
Dr Martin Jr: Yeah, that's as close as a fact as we're going to give. That's a guarantee.
Dr Martin Sr: You know what? And I've said this before too. Almost every med takes the B12 out of your body, [inaudible 00:20:26] is famous for it. But if you're taking any kind of [00:20:30] antacid or proton pump, you just have to assume that your B12 is extremely low.
Dr Martin Jr: All right. So if you got a history of antacid or proton pump, you're going to be low in B12 and then we just shared with you all the effects that that can have on your body. You mentioned anemia. A lot of women especially are anemic for a lot of different reasons but another one is their digestive system isn't working and they're taking antacid or proton pump inhibitors. And then think of all the effects of anemia.
Dr Martin Jr: [00:21:00] And, you know what's funny-
Dr Martin Sr: And they're not eating enough red meat, either.
Dr Martin Jr: And they're scared away from it.
Dr Martin Sr: It's a bogey man.
Dr Martin Jr: Yeah, there is a systematic-
Dr Martin Sr: I had somebody in the office again today, just because I'm so used to answering it but it always surprises me when they say it again, "But Doc, I can't have that much red meat, it's going to give me cholesterol." And I said, "Okay." I have to always remind.
Dr Martin Jr: You got to give it to the cholesterol drug companies because they've turned that into ... That's still something that people [00:21:30] look for. I mean, it's great. But anyways.
Dr Martin Sr: It is what it is.
Dr Martin Jr: It is what it is. It's amazing that that's still a thing. But, you look at anemia and you've talked about this before, you and I off air, how when somebody has anemia, they look anemic. Right? You can look at somebody and guess if they're anemic.
Dr Martin Sr: They've got real dark circles. Like, I'm very observant in the office and you come in and go, "I don't even have to look at your blood work." I just turn around and I look at the patient and I said, "Man, you are anemic."
Dr Martin Jr: Yeah, [00:22:00] and they have all the symptoms or some of the big symptoms.
Dr Martin Sr: They don't feel good and their hair is falling out.
Dr Martin Jr: Yeah, and your hair needs iron. Right? And your hair needs iron. We have a great video on our blog section of our website on the different causes of hair loss. The hair is a great biomarker and if you're healthy, your hair generally is pretty healthy. When you're not healthy, hair is, like we've talked about before, it's expandable, it's like the guys in the movie. Your body will sacrifice your hair for your other things. So if you have a limited amount [00:22:30] of iron, it definitely isn't going to put it in your hair. It's going to send it where it needs it so the hair is going to get sacrificed.
Dr Martin Sr: Going to make red blood cells. It won't repair the hair.
Dr Martin Jr: So hair pays the price, right? So we talked about B12, we talked about anemia. Let's talk about the effect of proton pump inhibitors on the brain.
Dr Martin Sr: Yeah, because again, I think it does come back to partly if not the major things is what it does to your B12 and your brain. You know, we did a podcast I think a little while ago on how your brain shrinks [inaudible 00:22:59]. Atrophies, right
Dr Martin Jr: [00:23:00] It literally. The brain atrophies. And if somebody is like, "Well, I don't know what the word atrophy means." It's wasting. It's just a fancy way of saying wasting. So just think of the brain as rotting away, it's wasting away. And as we age, a little bit of that is normal. Our brains shrink in volume as we age. But, when it happens faster than it should, that's a problem. And, as we mentioned in that episode, dementia and Alzheimer's [00:23:30] are usually characterized by smaller brain volume. So it's not a good thing. You don't want your brain to shrink too much. And B12, if you're low in it consistently, your brain, which is why ... You know, I've read ... It's interesting, they call vitamin B12 ... They talk about dementia, for this specifically it mimics. It mimics dementia for some people.
Dr Martin Jr: And when they get their vitamin B12 levels up, it's amazing how much better their brains are. But yes, so brain is a big one. [00:24:00] Let's talk about the effect on the heart.
Dr Martin Sr: Well, we, again, talked about heart palpitations, bacteria that can affect the heart. We know like dentists have often said this that orally, if you got bacteria that can get into your blood stream because you got gum disease, you might not even realize it but that kind of thing can attack your muscles of your heart, it can attack, cause inflammation [00:24:30] and yeah. So the heart is affected when you don't have good acidity in your stomach because of, again, these bacteria, and-
Dr Martin Jr: And they would never tie that in.
Dr Martin Sr: No.
Dr Martin Jr: Never. If somebody died of a bacterial infection of their cardiovascular system, it would never get tied to that. Never.
Dr Martin Sr: No. No, it would be something they wouldn't even think of unless you're doing research in the area.
Dr Martin Jr: Yes.
Dr Martin Sr: But [00:25:00] you look at pericarditis which is something that's much more common today than ever where you get [inaudible 00:25:07] the exterior of the heart, the pericardium. And a lot of that is bacterial. And you know, even fungus. Fungus gets in, spreads through the bloodstream because of not having enough acidity in the stomach, big big problem.
Dr Martin Jr: All right. And let's just kind of wrap things up by talking about the effect on the immune system when, again, it goes back down to [00:25:30] the, if you look at the effect of not having enough acid in your stomach and then even worse, turning it off because of these proton pump inhibitors, then stuff gets through that shouldn't and that activates your immune system big time, that leads to inflammation.
Dr Martin Sr: Oh, big time.
Dr Martin Jr: And one of the issues with inflammation that a lot of people are not aware of because you know, inflammation can mean so many different things. I mean, there is systemic inflammation, there is [00:26:00] very specific inflammation around the ankle for example, where the ankle swells up. But the thing about inflammation that you have ... One of the aspects of inflammation is for example, this past weekend, my daughter, Addy, your granddaughter, was at a dance competition just kind of middle of Ontario, around the Orillia area. And as we're driving back, we got up early in the morning, we're driving back and as we started heading towards Parry Sound, which is a big lake, it [00:26:30] was really foggy.
Dr Martin Jr: And so you couldn't see a couple feet in front of your car. Well, inflammation does the same thing. So imagine cells that have to communicate with each other all throughout your body. They send signals back and forth and hormones are circulating. And then the hormone goes to the cell and the cell has an antenna, they recognize it and they communicate the message to the cell. And all of these kind of things.
Dr Martin Jr: Well, when you have inflammation, all that kind of communication [00:27:00] stuff, it gets messed up. And when that starts to happen too much then you start getting into autoimmune disorders because your immune system is not working properly, it doesn't know which cells are its own, it starts attacking things. So, inflammation, not only does inflammation lead to premature aging. It ages your brain faster, mid-life inflammation leads to dementia, all these kind of things.
Dr Martin Jr: It also can lead to [00:27:30] autoimmune disorders and we see so many more of them today, again. Again, it would never get tied directly to the low acid in the stomach. But, from a functional healthcare standpoint, that plays a role. It's like in hockey, it gets an assist. These things get all assist. And then because of these things, you end up with autoimmune disorders or you end up with an infection in your heart or you end up ... So these are all little step by step things that happen.
Dr Martin Jr: At the end of the day, [00:28:00] you need your acid in your stomach big time. And you need every ounce of it that's secreted. It has a very specific purpose, it kills stuff, it breaks down stuff and when you don't produce enough of it, man, you may be able to do that once in a while but you do that consistently and that's what we're starting to see and that's why that article came out warning people. It's like, "Hey, if you've been on this stuff for a few months, you might want to get to the problem."
Dr Martin Jr: Now, let's end off, we got a couple more minutes. Somebody comes to you and says, [00:28:30] "Hey, I got chronic heartburn." What do you tell them?
Dr Martin Sr: First thing has to changed is your diet because the number one reason for acid reflux is insulin resistance. It's the body screaming at you that you and carbohydrates have a bad relationship. You and crappy carbs and these vegetable oils, very inflammatory. Your body ... It's a sign. It's one of the number one signs and I find [00:29:00] that the vast majority of patients, when they change their diet, watch their sugar content and just realize number one, that's it. It's food.
Dr Martin Sr: So you know, and we're food doctors so we just say, "Hey, change your diet. Cut that out." And it's amazing. That usually gets better with that one change. Secondly, of course, we look at a lack of digestive enzymes, we want to break the food down so we assist the body by giving it the proteolytic [00:29:30] and good enzymes to break it down with all our broad spectrum enzyme therapy because that really, really helps.
Dr Martin Sr: You know what the third thing is? Because I mention this to patients a lot. You're usually dehydrated. One of the things I find, you're just not drinking enough water. And water is important for proper digestion and so, again, I just say, "You know, your body might be screaming it's strictly dehydrated. So start drinking water." [00:30:00] A lot of people don't drink water, they don't think they need it. They drink everything else but they don't drink water. And water is water, only H2O is water. [crosstalk 00:30:09]
Dr Martin Jr: You know what's funny is when you did that Facebook live a while ago, it was Thursday morning, so it was your Doctor is In thing that you do every Thursday morning, you were talking about water. And you were just tackling how guys complain about water. And it's funny, so a friend of mine that I went to college with, his wife was watching it live.
Dr Martin Sr: Oh, that was hilarious.
Dr Martin Jr: [00:30:30] And she recorded the section of you talking to men and then she held the phone to a buddy of mine and was using you to lecture her husband.
Dr Martin Sr: And it was the face she had, that was [inaudible 00:30:42].
Dr Martin Jr: Oh, it was so funny. She had a face like a duck face. Like a kind of, "See, I told you so."
Dr Martin Sr: I told you.
Dr Martin Jr: And so you literally ... And he lives in Pennsylvania so you were literally giving a lecture on behalf of a wife to her husband.
Dr Martin Jr: She's holding the phone up to [00:31:00] her husband and you're lecturing him on a Facebook live. So I was laughing. Actually, I got a recording of it. She sent it to me so I'm going to send that out for people because everything I see it, I laugh because I just picture my buddy on the other end, getting lectured by you about drinking water. So he has to hear it from his wife and then you talking about it so you gave it to him as well. So, it was very funny.
Dr Martin Sr: But dehydration is an important factor.
Dr Martin Jr: Anyways, it was funny because even the faces you were making about men complaining about they don't like the taste. So [00:31:30] anyways, it was very funny but I just wanted to tell you that you played a part in lecturing a friend of mine in the US about drinking more water. But anyway, sorry, so we talked about a lot of stuff. At the end of the day, if you need to use proton pump inhibitors, and you're using them, that's literally a bandaid. That is the equivalent of driving down the highway, your engine gets loud and you just turn up the radio. It's all you're doing. You're not addressing the problem in any way.
Dr Martin Jr: So if you're serious about actually addressing [00:32:00] the problem, then the information that we shared today is a good place to start. There is no question. And if you are using proton pump inhibitors and you have been for a long time, again, look at all the things that may be in your future and I would definitely take steps to protect all those areas. But again, thanks for listening and 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. [00:32:30] If you're not 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.