You’ve more than likely heard Dr. Martin talk about leaky gut, but you may not have heard of dysbiosis. It’s just another term for leaky gut syndrome, or leaky gut dysbiosis.
The number one cause of leaky gut in our world is antibiotics. They truly are the greatest discovery of the 20th century but they’ve become the curse of the 21st. The use of antibiotics will decimate your microbiome and must be followed up with probiotics. Dr. Martin says that any doctor or pharmacist who doesn’t know this, is committing malpractice.
Join Dr. Martin as he talks about dysbiosis and what leaky gut really is. He uses an illustration of shag carpeting to show how our small intestine works.
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 afternoon everyone. Welcome to another live today and hope you're having a great day. And I know I fooled some of you folks that like to watch us in the morning, but we have a rare afternoon session going on. I want to talk to you this afternoon about dysbiosis. Okay? Big word, isn't it? You know what dysbiosis is? Well, it's the opposite of symbiosis, okay? So when you have dysbiosis, it really is another term for leaky gut dysbiosis. And you know me, I have quite the imagination in my mind. I have pictures in my mind. So today I want to talk to you about dysbiosis and what leaky gut really is. Okay? Now, okay, leaky gut, the number one cause of leaky gut dysbiosis, which I'll explain in a second, is antibiotics. Greatest discovery of the 20th century has become the curse of the 21st.
Now, I got to tell you, I've been saying this for 50 years, okay? Like a long time I've been telling people, look, you need an antibiotic to save your life. Good for you, and you need an antibiotic. And they've done wonderful things. They really have, but they've created another problem. And that problem is leaky gut more than anything else. Look, there's other things that can cause a leaky gut, but let me show you, I want to use an illustration, okay? Now, I got two old carpets here and I want to show you, and I think you'll understand that by this illustration, your small intestine, it, it's small compared to the large intestine, but it's not that small. And in your small intestine, a lot of things happen there that are very, very, very important in the body, okay? Very important in the body. We know digestion starts right from the mouth down into the acidic stomach and then into the small intestine. Okay?
Now let me use two illustrations from two pieces of carpet, okay? Now, if you're listening to this on a podcast, not live, but podcast, use your imagination for a second because I'm going to show something that is a teachable moment here. Okay? Now, these are old carpets. I just cut a piece of them. See that? Remember the old shag carpets? You remember that? Well, this is what your small intestine microscopically looks like. It looks like a shag carpet with all what we call microvilli. Okay? I remember in school microvilli and a shag carpet. And when your small intestine is in good shape, you have a shag carpet. And it's not a small carpet. Because if you were to spread this small intestine out in terms of not its length, but its width. Do you know that this would take up the size of a tennis court? There's a large surface there in your small intestine, and you need that because that's very, very important, okay? Because in here in the shag carpet, you've got trillions of bacteria, okay, good, bad, ugly, okay? Good, bad and ugly. But if everything is copacetic, everything is in balance. You have more good guys than you have bad guys, and that's called you win.
And I'll tell you why. Because in this microvilli shag carpet, in your small intestine, a lot of things happen here. Most of your immune system is right in here, most of it, not all of it, most of your bacteria, about five pounds of it. Most of it is found in here, okay? So when you get on a scale, we always tell you at the Martin Clinic, take three to five pounds off it's bacteria. Okay? So you got bacteria there. So this is a healthy small intestine. Lot of things happen here. Your immune system, number one. Now in here, your food, when your food comes through your stomach. Remember in your stomach, your needs to be almost completely mulched, okay? That's why you need an acidic stomach. That's why a human being's stomach is much different than a cow's stomach when it comes to its pH. And I talked to you about that all the time. When people tell me I don't eat any acidic foods like a tomato, for example, I don't eat acidic foods. I'm nice, but they don't know what they're talking about. Tomato is acidic. Yes, here's a tomato, it’s acidic yes, but not when it gets into here. When it gets here, it's not acidic anymore. It actually becomes alkaline. Dr. Martin, steak is acidic. No, it's not. Any food that's acidic, once it gets into your small intestine, it becomes alkaline. Why? Your body has sodium bicarbonate baking soda, it makes an alkaline. There's only one of acidic food. There's only one. It's called sugar. Okay?
So what happens here? What happens in this tennis court the size of a tennis court, if it's spread right out, it would be the size of a tennis court. What happens there? Well, immune system, right? Big time. Two, you've got gazillions of bacteria. And listen, listen, Linda, listen. You got more signals from bacteria, neurotransmitters that are made for every time your brain talks here, your gut talks nine times more to your brain. You don't think that's important, okay? Vitamins are made in here. Actually, meat, not only are you eating them, but like vitamin D, you need a healthy gut for even the production of vitamin D.
Did you know that? And in here, okay, you couldn't see it, even with a microscope, you couldn't see it. You need an electron microscope to see this. When you get to the bottom of these little villi, you have one cell layer, it's called your epithelial layer. It's literally so thin. One of the examples I use in my head, it acts like a cheese cloth. Have you ever had a cheese cloth? It just allows food, micro size, vitamins, minerals, and your macros, right? Protein, fat, carbohydrates, whatever you're eating, if it's micro size goes through here, you have your little epithelial layer, okay? And in that layer, like what you don't see in here either, okay, is you have what I call tight junctions. Okay? So you've got that layer like a cheese cloth, and every little spaces there, it's like tight junction, okay? And those tight junctions are really important because you don't want anything to come in. You don't want bacteria in your blood, you don't want garbage in your blood, you don't want toxins in your blood, you don't want yeast in your blood. So you got it. Really important, isn't it? To have a healthy small intestine. The microvilli, very, very important. Okay?
Now I'm going to show you something, okay? Now again, if you're listening on a podcast, I'm showing you another piece of carpet. See the difference? Okay, there's your microvilli, got it? There is a small intestine, use your imagination, okay? That has been carpet bombed by an antibiotic. In five days of an antibiotic, your small intestine will go from this, okay? The microvilli and everything that happens there to this. It's been carpet bombed. What happens? Think about it. When you take an antibiotic and you do not replace the carpet bombing that it does, lot of things happen. One, it destroys those microvilli. What happens if you destroy your microvilli? What happens with that? You don't absorb food properly as much as you used to. You're not absorbing vitamins, you're not absorbing minerals properly. You can get a malabsorption.
Can I tell you something? And I've been saying this for a long time. I'd never ever, ever seen a case of autoimmune disease, rheumatoid arthritis, leaky gut, leaky joints, skin, psoriasis, eczema, Sjogren's, go to the gut, Crohn's, even celiac, ulcerative colitis, type one juvenile diabetes, autoimmune, MS, Parkinson's. Let me tell you what happens, because I used to test for this. That's what happens right here. I'm pointing to the non shag carpet. It's been carpet bombed. Well, let me give you an example. Do you know what happens right here in this shag carpet? The microvilli of your small intestine, this microvilli produces lactase. You know the enzyme. Why do we see so much lactose intolerance? Why do we see so much of it? What do you mean lactose intolerance? When I was a kid, what? Lactose intolerant today, it's what? 60, 70% of the population have some form of lactose intolerance. I'm going to tell you what it is. This microvilli, this is where lactase, the enzyme is produced right here. And when you carpet bomb that, no lactase. You don't even have the enzyme. I always say this, I don't want you to ditch dairy. I want you to switch dairy. The problem with dairy at the grocery store, the problem with milk… First of all, it's way too sweet. Way too sweet. It's been denatured, okay? I'm sorry. Unless you have a cow in the backyard, it ain't milk that you're really getting at the grocery store. You know what I call it? What do we call it? White Pepsi, because that's really what it is.
And then secondly, you got a big part of the population. They have no lactase to break down the lactose. Think about that. Why do you think that I go back to that gut, the gut, the gut. The gut all the time. Isn't it interesting when you see the difference? Somebody says like, Doc, you're crazy. What's carpets got to do with anything? No, but seriously <laugh>. And this is why. Look, here's what you do. Here's what you get your children to do. Here's what you get your grandchildren to do. Never, ever, ever allow antibiotic… You know what? It really bugs me. I wrote this down, okay? Because there are, now I want to talk about the microbiome just for a second, because I read this article. There are now 9,600 peer review studies on the microbiome. It is the most fascinating, newest part of medicine. The more they study it, the more they understand it, the more they realize, holy moly, this is the most significant findings in modern medicine is this bacterial war, this thing that goes on.
And so, friend, let me tell you something. It bugs me that if you get a prescription, you are a loved one, gets a prescription for an antibiotic. And when a pharmacist, 9,600 studies, when a medical doctor writes a prescription for an antibiotic and doesn't recommend a probiotic with it, it is malpractice. And even the pharmacist, I stick my finger out at them. Because if they would read, if they would keep up with the research, they would never let you leave a pharmacy without a probiotic if you're taking an antibiotic ever. Now, you guys know more about probiotics than 99% of the rest of the population. And yet it is one of the most studied new frontiers in medicine. It's the connection between the gut and the brain, the gut and the joints, the gut and your lungs, the gut and your liver, your gut, and your sinuses. It's a constant communication. I'm telling you, it's incredible.
And we need to protect our microbiome. And the vast majority of it is found in that small intestine. Some in the large, but mostly in the small where your absorption of your food takes place and those tight junctions get messed up. And the biggest culprit is antibiotics. The biggest culprit is antibiotics. And I could bring you some other things. I talked about this, I wrote about it in my book Metabolic Reset. I talked about c-sections and babies born by c-sections. They miss out on mommy's microbiome in that vaginal track. And in no wonder we're seeing so much autoimmune, no wonder we're seeing so much problems. Autism, I'm telling ya. I'm telling ya. Autism is leaky gut. Leaky gut, leaky brain. Why are we seeing so much depression? The transmission. You got more hormones in your gut in that microvilli here. You got more hormones. You got more neurotransmitters in here, sending signals to the brain. And one day they're going to do a study on the effect of antibiotics in kids and depression as they get older. And ADD and ADHD and autism one day they'll do it. Don't hold your breath, but I believe they'll prove me right. They'll prove me right. <laugh>.
Okay, now, I was just getting started. What's tomorrow? Question and answer Friday. So get your questions in. Get your questions in. We appreciate that. So we're going to have a good session tomorrow morning, Lord willing guys. I love you dearly. I know I say that often, but I mean it. I mean it, and we'll talk to you soon.
Announcer: You've reached the end of another Doctor Is In Podcast, with your hosts, Doctor Martin Junior and Senior. Be sure to catch our next episode and thanks for listening!