EP209 Gut Health Part 2

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 Sr.: Well, hello, I'm Dr. Martin Sr., And we are on episode podcast number 209, [00:00:30] and what I want to do this podcast is talk about and continue on all things about the gut. In the last podcast, and if you haven't listened to that one, I'd certainly invite you to go and do that, we talked about two things mainly about the gut. One was the micro biome that you have three pounds, literally, of bacteria, 100 trillion bacteria with their own DNA [00:01:00] it seems, and they really influence every aspect of our health from the immune system to our inflammatory balance. And we went into great detail about that.

Dr. Martin Sr.: And then, we also talked about the lining of the gut, which is your intestinal barrier between your gut and your blood called the epithelial cells. They're very microscopic, and they sort of are the border guards [00:01:30] that are so important between .... They're the gatekeepers between your gut and your blood. And then we talked about 12 ... Well, we didn't get to all 12, and I'll mention that as we went through. We talked about things that have a major, sort of lifestyle factors, that have a major effect on both the bacteria in your gut and the lining of the gut. And we talked about sugars and how that creates inflammation, [00:02:00] feeds bacteria and yeast, and seed oils, the crappy carbohydrates. And I talked about the history of that, how it started with Crisco, and we talked about gluten. We talked about artificial sweeteners. We talked about even a baby coming out of the womb and whether it was by C-section or natural birth. And we talked about breastfeeding, gut infections.

Dr. Martin Sr.: We talked on stress being a factor and even just [00:02:30] a sedentary lifestyle. Talked about sleep, how even just missing ... Not getting the right sleep in just over two days has affects a change on the gut lining. We talked about antibiotics, well established, that antibiotics, even though they're the greatest discovery of the 20th century, have really now become, to some extent the curse of the 21st because of what it does to the gut, and [00:03:00] again, these are well established things.

Dr. Martin Sr.: And then we didn't get too much of a chance, but we talked about non steroidal anti-inflammatories, things like Advil and even just stuff over the counters. That medication that you would take for a headache or sinus pain or whatever, a pain reliever. A lot of these non steroidal anti-inflammatories can really be disruptive.

Dr. Martin Sr.: One of the things, a class of drugs that really [00:03:30] do affect your gut too, are drugs that you would take for GERD, acid reflux. And what happens is if you take these that your gut is ... Your stomach, especially is where it should be very, very acidic. It's a furnace, which is meant to break your food down and to keep certain bacterias and things out of your gut. And if you don't have enough acidity, [00:04:00] or you're taking a drug to reduce the acidity because you're getting acid reflux, this can have a profound effect on the gut.

Dr. Martin Sr.: We talked even about SSRIs, which are antidepressants, and antidepressants, by the way, we're meant to be taken over a shorter period of time to get you out of a crisis emotionally, but now are used [00:04:30] ... I've had patients come in, and they're on antidepressants for 20 years, and they can't seem to get off. But what these do, again, they can change your gut bacteria.

Dr. Martin Sr.: Toxins, we talked about BPA in plastics and [inaudible 00:04:48] phosphate and Roundup and stuff like that. These toxins have a tendency to change the lining of the gut, kill friendly bacteria.

Dr. Martin Sr.: So, [00:05:00] let's talk a little bit about consequences. So, what happens when you get a condition called dysbiosis, which is an overgrowth of candida yeast because you don't have enough friendly bacteria, or you have damaged lining to the gut. The gatekeepers are not there. The endothelial lining is affected, and here are some of the possible [00:05:30] consequences.

Dr. Martin Sr.: So, I want to spend more time on this podcast looking at okay so what happens? And some of these things might surprise you. Probably not if you're one who has listened to other podcasts, and we talk about how important the gut is for everything. As I mentioned sort of on the top of the program here, that these bacteria influence [00:06:00] every aspect of our health, and it's almost universal in what it can do in terms of your body. So, let's look at some of the consequences.

Dr. Martin Sr.: One of them ... Let's talk about one is allergies. So, if you wonder where allergies come from, most allergies actually are because of your gut. There's a huge increase today in asthma, and children [00:06:30] that are on antibiotics as little kids often develop asthma or dermatitis, and if you look at your skin, your skin is a major organ, and it's really a reflection. You look at your skin, you look at the condition of your gut. So, not only like dermatitis often comes with some form of allergy, but if you look at skin conditions like acne, [00:07:00] rosacea, psoriasis, eczema. Again, all of these have their root in what we call a leaky gut. Okay? So where the gut is really at the forefront of why a person would have these type of skin conditions and allergies.

Dr. Martin Sr.: Auto-immune. Secondly, auto immune. So, from type one diabetes [00:07:30] to MS, Crohn's, ulcerative colitis, these are auto-immune disorders, and generally ... And I have to say that over the years, I don't think I've ever seen an exception to this, that auto-immune starts in the gut. Let's look at the joints. Arthritis, and again, it could be rheumatoid arthritis, which is really an auto-immune disease. But if you look at [00:08:00] joints, like you would never think there's a huge connection between your joint ... Now, I'm not talking if you had a football injury, or you're bone on bone. I'm talking more about a general arthritis. A lot of that starts because of dysbiosis, and dysbiosis, again, is just a big word that is an overgrowth really of candida yeast.

Dr. Martin Sr.: There's a war going on between the bacteria, good, bad and ugly, and when [00:08:30] the good bacteria are wiped out, you get a yeast, a fungus, usually candida albicans that can take over the gut, seeps into the bloodstream causing an inflammatory condition that can result in joint problems and joint pain. We often don't think of the gut when we're looking at joints, but oftentimes it's true. If you look at [00:09:00] what goes on in the gut, we can look at even going to the heart. Think about it.

Dr. Martin Sr.: One thing doctors pretty well agree with today that certainly is a big change is that cardiovascular disease in general, heart disease, stroke, heart attacks, or whatever ... I mean, when they're really reading and understanding, they'll admit that inflammation is really at the root of [00:09:30] heart disease. So they're pretty well in agreement that there is definitely an inflammatory response, and they might not relay that though back to the gut because the gut, when the body is ... When there's an imbalance in the gut, then you create an inflammatory response. Well this can affect your blood vessels. This can attack the lining of your blood vessels causing [00:10:00] atherosclerosis and down the line cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Martin Sr.: So, it's very important to look at the gut. We, at the Martin clinic, always talk about the three seeds of disease, and before inflammation ... Inflammation is not Houdini's. So, we talk about leaky gut as causing inflammation. The other one is high circulating insulin, and that's a huge factor in cardiovascular disease. And we also talk about [00:10:30] oxidative damage, which is free radical damage and glycation to be all factors in cardiovascular disease. But certainly one of them is the gut. The other one, of course, is just IBS and the gut itself. IBD, inflammatory bowel disease, diverticulosis. We see this so much more today. [inaudible 00:10:54], colorectal cancer. I mean, these are like epidemics [00:11:00] today compared to what they used to be.

Dr. Martin Sr.: I mean IBS can be incredibly disabling where they have inflammatory bowel disease, and usually when a doctor says you have IBS, they're not getting really at the root why do you have IBS. Oftentimes it has to do with an overgrowth of yeast, not enough friendly bacteria, leaky gut. All of these things [00:11:30] can be a factor.

Dr. Martin Sr.: We talked about depression and anxiety. The gut brain access oftentimes ... And this is why we talk about you've got more hormones in your gut than you have in your brain. You have more serotonin and dopamine in your gut than in your brain, and the connection between the gut and the brain is well established, and it's very, very important to look at treating depression even and [00:12:00] fixing the gut in depression. And this is, again, in medicine, I think, is just an area that is missed, that people are depressed, and depression and anxiety today are just major, major issues in our society. We've done podcasts on them, and my practice has really changed in so many ways because one of the things that I probably treat the most in the office, I mean [00:12:30] leaky gut would certainly be at the top of the list, but the idea of anxiety and depression, anxiety even more, and I see ... I don't know if it's because I test cortisol or whatever, but it really is ... It seems that we live in a different world today, and there's so much anxiety, and anxiety can lead to depression too by the way.

Dr. Martin Sr.: Very few depressed people start out depressed. They start [00:13:00] out with anxiety and then get depression, and what we're saying is there's a major link between that and your gut. So, I always look ... If I have someone that has anxiety, I'm always testing to see if they have any leaky gut, any dysbiosis, because I know there's a major connection between the health of your gut and the health of your brain.

Dr. Martin Sr.: We've talked about in previous [00:13:30] podcasts how we never knew much about the blood brain barrier, but we know a lot more today than we used to, and it's similar to the gatekeepers that are in your gut. As a matter of fact, the more we look at and study the blood brain barrier, we realize that the gatekeepers are bacteria in to your brains. So now, there's a major connection, and how does the gut [00:14:00] have any effect on the brain? Well, we know that things can travel through the vagus nerve, by the way. The cranial nerve that is a connection. Do you get butterflies? Well, that comes from your brain to your gut, and that is the cranial nerve, the vagus nerve. Not Las Vegas but the vagus nerve.

Dr. Martin Sr.: And the other way and vice versa is the connection between the gut [00:14:30] and going up that way. If you don't have good, healthy bacteria in your gut and you have leaky gut. The gatekeepers are not there, and you've got an overgrowth of yeast, that yeast can travel up, and your brain is supposed to be protected from all these things, doesn't want to let any garbage in, but the same bacteria that are in your gut, they'll also line your brain, and if you have leaky gut, you can easily have leaky brain. And then you [00:15:00] get ... I'll go into the next one because you'll see the connection here.

Dr. Martin Sr.: Certainly neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's, and they're finding amyloid plaques, and the Parkinson brain is usually full of yeast. Isn't that incredible? How would yeast get up into the brain? Well, again, the same way it travels. It's snuck in through the gut. The lining, the gatekeepers, were affected [00:15:30] by different things and not enough friendly bacteria. The yeast overgrew, and it was able to waltz into your bloodstream and even systemically can go in to the bloodstream, past the blood brain barrier, and you can have neurodegenerative diseases, and this is one of the common findings in Parkinson's. And yet, you never hear really of modern medicine [00:16:00] ... You never hear of medicine treating Parkinson's as a yeast, as a fungal infection of the brain. I understand they want to lower your ... They try and use medications to effect the dopamine, and you can give a Parkinson's patient some relief. There's no doubt about that. But what we're seeing really has nothing to do with trying to fix Parkinson's or even [00:16:30] explain to the patient how they might've even got Parkinson's. And how heavy metals, for example, get across cross the blood brain barrier, because oftentimes with neurodegenerative diseases, there's mercury in the brain. There's a lead in the brain. How did that get across? Again, because of the barrier being compromised with not enough friendly bacteria.

Dr. Martin Sr.: I just hope [00:17:00] that you see that, as I talk about these things, that how common we see disorders today, there is so much more prevalence. So much of these things that I'm talking about are in ... I hate to use the word epidemic all the time, but certainly there is a major connection between the gut and these things that are so much more prevalent. They hit so much more of society today, especially in the Western world. Neuro [00:17:30] development disorders. And we've talked about this autism, and it's something that is ... It's sort of curse, isn't it? Like when you look at how frequent autism is talked about today and governments and how they're trying to deal with it, and we have a whole generation of kids that are autistic, and I mean it's incredible.

Dr. Martin Sr.: And again, I'm a simple guy. Like I look at okay, [00:18:00] if in the 1970s we never saw a lot of autism. I'm not saying that it wasn't there, but I certainly never read about it. None of my medical textbooks, any of my diagnostic books or whatever ... I'm telling you, you can look under A all you want, and you're not going to find something in the 1970s. Maybe in the late seventies, but certainly not when I was in school in the early 70s that talked about autism. And [00:18:30] today ADD ... And does that mean that there was no ADD and no ADHD, but isn't ... It just seemed that we get so much more of it today?

Dr. Martin Sr.: Is it because we're better at diagnosis? Well maybe, but I don't think autism, where we're down to, what is it? One out of 51, one out of 40 kids that are born today in North America are autistic. Like, it's incredible.

Dr. Martin Sr.: Now, is it the environment? [00:19:00] Is it our diet? Is it ... One of the things that I've talked about over the years that autism is a huge connection, I believe, to the overuse of antibiotics, and I believe autism starts in the gut. Mummy has leaky gut with dysbiosis, meaning a yeast or a fungal infection, and baby who is the canary in the coal mine, just happens to get in the placenta. I believe it starts [00:19:30] there ... And some people think that it's antibiotics as when babies are young, but I think that it happens even earlier than that, that there's a big effect between the good bacteria and not enough of them in the rates of autism that we see today.

Dr. Martin Sr.: Here's another one that might surprise you a little bit that's in the gut can have a relationship. I'm not saying it's the only thing, but it certainly can be a factor, and that is osteoporosis. [00:20:00] Again, osteoporosis is usually a malabsorption syndrome to some extent, and that is not absorbing the minerals like magnesium and calcium, low absorption of vitamin D. The gut ... Your vitamin D gets absorbed in your gut, and vitamin D is essential and K2 is essential for [00:20:30] strong bones, and so is magnesium, and so is calcium. So, decrease in friendly bacteria, increase in inflammation is osteoporosis and inflammation response.

Dr. Martin Sr.: Well, I think inflammation is a factor, and one of the factors in inflammation, of course, is getting back to leaky gut. We talked about skin conditions.

Dr. Martin Sr.: Let me talk about a one more metabolic syndrome. Excess [00:21:00] body fat, for example in obesity. Fat is an organ on its own, especially your visceral fat, belly fat. It can affect the live. It can give you a fatty liver where your thyroid hormones are converted from T4 to T3. The fact that if you have high levels of cortisol in your gut, stress in your gut, will not allow your conversion [00:21:30] of T4 to T3. Why am I saying that? Because your thyroid will not work properly without the right levels of T3, and this can be part of metabolic syndrome. Fatty liver is part of metabolic syndrome. High blood pressure, again, an inflammatory response, and high levels of uric acid can go back to your diet, no doubt, but also can have [00:22:00] an effect on inflammation, and inflammation would be certainly a major factor in metabolic syndrome.

Dr. Martin Sr.: And so, these are some of the effects that we see any time that anybody comes to my office, and I see any of these things, I'm always, always looking at the gut, because leaky gut is one of the seeds of disorders. And so, I'm [00:22:30] always analyzing the bacteria, the amount of yeast that the body is producing. So, that's me. That's the way I think. And I'm always looking at the gut brain, the gut skin, the gut metabolically, the gut even in bone, the gut and in neuro development and neurodegenerative diseases, in depression, and I look at all these things. Okay?

Dr. Martin Sr.: So, let me just close off here today [00:23:00] with, okay, what do we do? Okay, what do we do? We want not to have leaky gut. Well then you know ... I think you know already what I'm going to say. One broad spectrum probiotics. How do you correct broad spectrum probiotics? Cut back on sugars. Cut back on sugars. If you do nothing else, cut out sugars. Cut back. Don't feed [00:23:30] the bears. Do you remember me saying that all the time? Don't feed yeast. Don't feed your bad bacteria. Don't give them food. They're looking for love in all the wrong places. Don't give them sugar. Watch out for processed foods. Eat more eggs and meat. Okay, so eggs and meat.

Dr. Martin Sr.: Now again, I'm always telling patients ... Listen, I had a patient in this morning. I talked about doing a reset and just eggs, meat and cheese. Well, doc, [00:24:00] I can't have cheese. It bothers me. Well, then don't eat it. Listen to your body. Like everybody's different when it comes to that, and some people cannot tolerate eggs. So when I see that, just you have to be sort of the doctor to some extent and individualize.

Dr. Martin Sr.: But the biggest thing is get on probiotics. Don't feed the bad guys. Don't give them sugar and processed crappy carbohydrates that turn to sugar rapidly [00:24:30] and can have an effect on the health and lining of your gut.

Dr. Martin Sr.: Thanks for listening. We love your feedback and certainly would enjoy you just letting us know if there's any topics that you would like us to touch on. We are always trying to give you feedback, and we love when you let us know how you guys appreciate [00:25:00] the podcast.

Dr. Martin Sr.: And another thing if you're not part of the Martin Clinic Facebook group, we really want you to join that because it's a tremendous group of people that are really into taking care of themselves, and it's amazing the dialogue that goes on there, the back and forth online. I's amazing. And I always say my patients and people that are in the Martin Clinic Facebook group know [00:25:30] more about nutrition than just about 99% of all the the doctors and a lot of health professionals that I know. So, we really invite you to join the Martin Clinic Facebook groups.

Dr. Martin Sr.: So, love you guys. Talk to you soon.

Announcer: You've reached the end of another Doctor Is In Podcast with your hosts, Dr. Martin Jr. and Sr. Be sure to catch our next [00:26:00] episode, and thanks for listening.

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