Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners.
Some of today’s topics include:
- Benefits of alkaline water
- Autophagy & fasting
- Red rice yeast vs. pine bark extract
- FDA warnings on cheese products
- Vagus nerve & constipation
- Calcific and achilles tendonitis
- Pros and cons of butyrate
- Purecane sweetener
- Migraines in men
- Water retention
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
Announcer: You're listening to The Doctor Is In Podcast, brought to you by MartinClinic.com. During the episode, the doctors share a lot of information. As awesome as the info may be, it is not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease. It's strictly for informational purposes.
Dr. Martin: Well, good morning everyone, and once again, welcome to another live. Hope you're having a great start to your day. Okay, so let's get to the questions here. Got some good questions. Brenda, you asked a question last week about skin sensitivity and the sun last week, okay, this week she is wondering why the hives are mostly below her knees. I have no idea. I don't know why Brenda, hives urticaria can be very weird. Hives are weird to start off, okay? And if you find Brenda, that you are sensitive to the sun that you need to take vitamin D, you should see the new research on vitamin D. I'll comment on it next week. Unbelievable. The more they study vitamin D guys, I just don't know what to tell you. It is that important for your overall health. Every study now is just confirming it more and more and more. You get hives. Look, people that get lupus for example, have an autoimmune. They can be highly, highly sensitive to the sun. So I don't know why your hives would be in the lower legs if someone can answer from this group. I don't know. I'm not sure. Okay, Brenda. But thanks for asking the question.
Terry is asking, "is alkaline water good?" Yep, it's good. Don't pay for it. You know what I mean? Don't pay extra for alkaline water. Okay? Just put a little bit. What I recommend all the time is putting a little bit of salt in your water, okay? Salty water. Now, it doesn't have to taste salty. Just put some trace minerals in it. If you get a Himalayan salt or even a good sea salt, you got about 84 minerals in there. And trace minerals is what brings the pH up. That's why spring water has a high pH. It's got trace minerals in it, okay? But I get people, they're asking, can I spend thousands of dollars or whatever? And I tell 'em, look, I mean if you want to do that, that's up to you. It's your money. I, I'm just big on first of all, drinking water. I don't recommend tap water, okay? I just don't. And the reason is, is because you've got a lot of chemicals in there. I would rather at least filter them out and then add a touch of salt to it. And now you have presto alkaline water. So when you go in, you'll see it in the stores today. Smart water this, water that water and pay extra. And by the way, when you're my age, who'd would've thought, who would've thought that you would buy water today? Who would've thought?
Young people don't understand that. But when I was a kid, just to think of buying water, why would you buy water? But I'll tell you something. I've been preaching this for 50 years. Water. And only water is water. You need water. And every once in a while you see somebody say, don't drink water. It makes you pee. And this kind of thing. It is so stupid, I just can't get over it. One of the biggest things that thickens up your blood probably more than anything else, is the viscosity. When your blood is molasses, it's because you're dehydrated. And the problem with dehydration is most people walk around and they don't know they're dehydrated because they don't have a little light that goes on. And I've always talked to you about the sweet spot of water. What is it? 64 ounces or two liters. That's the sweet spot.
That is where 95% of the population, that's what they need in that range, okay? And I'm telling you, it's amazing what happens when you start getting a habit of drinking water. It's amazing. It is so good for your heart, it's so good for your brain, it's so good for your blood. Think of 60,000 miles of blood vessels in your body, 60,000. 1 and a half times around the equator. And your heart has to pump that blood. The thicker your blood, the harder your heart has to pump and water, which takes a direct root to your bloodstream, okay? Unlike anything else. Uh, Dr. Martin, I drink juice. Well, first of all, that's stupid. And second of all, I know there's water in juice, but that water has to be processed differently. When you drink water and don't pass, go. And it goes directly to your bloodstream in five seconds approximately.
You think your body is smart? It knows it needs water and nothing else is water. Okay? Nothing else. And this is what I try and get people to do, in terms of forming habits. Drink water. "Oh Dr. Martin, I don't like water." I didn't say you had to like it. You'll learn to like it. You'll develop a relationship with water and then you might have to force yourself. Men are the worst. I don't like water. I don't like the taste of water. Can I put something in it? Nah, drink it. Suck it up buttercup. If you knew how good it was for you, if a doctor told you, look, you've got to take this pill, otherwise you're going to die, you probably would take it. Well, I'm telling you how much you need water and how important it is. So drink your water my friend. Drink your water. It's key. And like I said, don't wait till you're thirsty first thing in the morning, get up and drink 16 ounces or a half a liter of water. Just do it. Don't allow yourself to have a coffee until you've had your water. You want to form good habits. Start with that and then have a coffee.
You know what I think about coffee? And this is why on the reset, I do talk about drinking on the reset. Okay? Drink water and drink coffee. Okay? Drink water and drink coffee. Two of the greatest habits that your body will appreciate is doing those two things in terms of water. If you drink juice, get rid of it. The only thing I will allow you, other than that, okay, you tea drinkers, I feel sorry for you. You can have some tea and you can have a smoothie. You can have a smoothie, but don't make it all fruit and don't make it all vegetables. You can have a protein smoothie. The best protein in the world is collagen protein. Okay? Put a few berries in. You can do that, especially for young people. If they want something to drink besides water and they won't drink coffee, okay? Okay, thanks for the question. Terry. You only asked about alkaline water and I went on for 10 minutes. Okay?
"What does autophagy, autophagy mean when you're fasting after 72 hours?" Nolene, let me tell you something. Okay? I want to give you my take on fast. Do I like fasting? I like intermittent fasting. Do I like fasting? Some people just eat once a day. Good for you. I'm big, really big on intermittent fasting. I like it. And you can do it because majority of people, they just don't eat at night. They have supper, they stop the earlier the better and then they go. And oftentimes they don't even need breakfast. If you do that or have your breakfast at 10 o'clock or whatever you're doing intermittent fasting. I find that to be very helpful. But you're asking a question about something I really don't like. Okay? And that is after 72 hours. I'm not for that. Now remember what the reset is, it's fasting without fasting. And I mean it. It's fasting without fasting because when you eat eggs, meat, cheese, okay, you are fasting without fasting. The biggest benefits I know about autophagy, autophagy, autophagy, I don't know what you call it. I don't care. That's the self-cleaning oven in your body.
And there's been books written on it, but I'm not big going 72 hours. I don't like it. Your body's not made for that, in my opinion. I'm not saying you could never do it, okay? But the only time I ever recommended that, and there seemed to be some studies on this, is if you get a diagnosis of cancer and then you go three days without eating to start. But I developed a program, the reset, that gives you the benefits of fasting without fasting. But even with that, I like intermittent fasting. Once you get into about 14 hours of not eating, you're intermittent fasting. But I'm not big on going beyond that. You know, can eat, you know what they call a 24 hour fast where you're only eating once a day. I like that too. If you can do it, do it. Okay? If you can do it, do it. But I don't believe you have to go beyond that in terms of not eating anything at all. And you're just drinking water and maybe coffee. I'm not big on it. I'm sorry. I don't buy it. Okay? And I know there's a lot of talk about fasting today and it's the best thing since sliced bread, eh? It's good. But prolonged fasting, I'm not for it. Okay? And one of the things I don't like about it is it elevates your uric acid. I'm careful about it anyway. I wouldn't do it Noelene. Okay? I wouldn't do it in my opinion. Okay?
And Rona, okay, Rona, you're trying to pin me down because she's asking the question. I thought I answered this last week, but maybe I did. Rona's saying, "I'm acutely aware of Dr. Martin's opinion on high cholesterol." I know. And Rona, you will admit this if you know me at all and have been following me at all, I've been consistent about it, haven't I? She said, "but I really am curious to know where he stands on red rice yeast supplements?" I thought I answered that last week, Rona, but maybe I didn't. I get talking and I, I'm a senior, I might forget. Okay? I like using that card, the senior card. Now, red rice yeast supplements were big 20 years ago, okay? Because there was some studies coming out. I had a radio show, people called me, asked me about it. What do you think, doc? And I go, well what is its biggest benefit? Well it reduces cholesterol. I said, now you have my answer. Why do you want to do that? Well, it acts just like a statin drug, like Lipitor or whatever. I know. So why do you want to lower cholesterol? Why do you want to lower cholesterol?
Now, red rice yeast. It's an antioxidant. It's a fermented product. Look, I would just tell you Rona, that I'm a big guy on pine bark. Pine bark extract. And by the way, we're going to do a webinar next week, okay? Come out sending out an email for you to sign up. You get Tony Jr. every once in a while, okay? And daddy and son are going to do a webinar next week and we're going to be talking about Navitol amongst other things. Pine bark. Red rice yeast supplements versus pine bark. Not even close, in my opinion. It's not even close. And again, where it became famous is because it showed that it actually can lower your cholesterol. I don't want anybody to lower their cholesterol cause there's no bad cholesterol. There's only good cholesterol. I brought you a study this week that when you lower your L D L, this is the cholesterol that medicine aims at.
When I was in school in the 1970s, did I hear about L D L? I can't remember. I certainly heard about cholesterol, but in those days, other than the food industry, the pharmaceutical industry wasn't really involved in getting down your cholesterol. So there was no talk about L D L being the bad guy. You know what they're finding out? Truth be told, they're finding out that when you have low LDL cholesterol, you're going to die younger, but you have low cholesterol. Your immune system. Now they're showing L D L is very specific for the immune system and having a healthy immune system. Well that's important, isn't it? So I know Rona, you're acutely aware of my bias. So red yeast, if you want to take it and you know it does other things, yeah, I'm not against it. I'm just telling you it became famous for lowering cholesterol and I kept saying, why do you want to do that? Why do you want to do that? Okay, so Rona, I hope I answered your question.
Teresa, "what are your thoughts on the FDA putting warnings on cheese products?" It gives me a migraine, Teresa. How stupid. Why are they saying in particular levels of high estrogen for breast cancer? Stupid. Stupid. No, not you, Teresa. You're not stupid. But the FDA is stupid if they go and do it. Listen guys, you guys are well aware of this. There is a war on vitamin B, there is a war on animal products. There's a war on it. It's going to get worse. It's never going to end in my opinion. The globalist, the elitist who have all the money in the world and they have the media in their back pocket they're going after because of the climate, because of whatever. You can't eat meat because cows fart. Guys, you can't make this up. You can't make it up. If you would've told me 20 years ago, Dr. Martin, there's going to be a war on meat, not because of cholesterol, but because of cows destroying our planet. I would've said, you're crazier than two hoot owls.
But here is, they want us to eat the meatless, they want us to eat crickets. The elites won't do it, but they want you to do it. They want me to do it. And when they attack cheese, okay, does it surprise me anymore? Nope. Nothing surprises me anymore. They're after dairy. Okay? And when they tell you about estrogen in cheese, that is the crazy, crazy stuff. Now look, cows are given this and that. It's not like it used to be, but cheese is good for you. It's a perfect food. Why? High protein, high fat, low carb vitamin k2, calcium, where it belong, calcium should be taken in food. Guys, we live in a crazy world. You better be able to filter that stuff out. The propaganda. I feel sorry for young people today. They get it from the day they get into school. Propaganda.
And guys, I'm an old guy, okay? For me, I look at it, I said I never thought I would live to see anything as stupid as that, but I, I've seen it, it's going to get worse. And I feel sorry for kids, okay? I do because it's 100% indoctrination. It is not science by any stretch of the imagination. Okay? So when they tell you for breast cancer, you know what? Vitamin K2 is essential. Vitamin K2 takes calcium. What did I, I've talked to you about this. Calcified dense breast tissue is much more receptive to breast cancer. How do you get that out of there? By eating cheese. By eating cheese. Eggs, meat and cheese. Eggs, meat and cheese. You want me to change? Sorry, I'm sorry. It's the truth. What can I tell you? I feel sorry for people that are indoctrinated. Okay, Teresa, thank you.
Catherine, "can the vagus nerve be responsible for constipation?" Well, it could be, but remember, okay, you have to understand Catherine, it's usually not the biggest nerve first, it's the connection between the gut and the brain. Nervous system. You have your cranial nerves, the vagus nerve is the 10th. It's got an attachment in your stomach. Let me do this. Okay, here's the vagus nerve. I got butterflies in my stomach. What is that? That's your 10th cranial nerve. The connection between your gut and your nervous system, your brain. So if you stimulate the nervous system, the 10th cranial nerve, I guess it could help, but I wouldn't say it's the number one reason for constipation, although it's possible.
Usually when I see chronic constipation, it's usually the thyroid. Okay? It's not a lack of fiber, it's a thyroid. The thyroid has become sluggish. The thyroid is a puppet. There's a lot of strings attached to that. And one of them to some extent is the vagus nerve. The 10th cranial nerve. Can you stimulate it? Yeah, you know, can stimulate it. Chiropractic was famous for stimulating the 10th cranial nerve, but constipation is usually two things. Dehydration. Doc, I drink water, not enough. And thyroid sluggish. Okay, sluggish. And you can have a slow peristalsis and the movement and there can be other factors. Hormonal, big, big changes in the gut oftentimes. And there definitely is a connection to the 10th cranial nerve.
Okay, let me just see here. I got more questions Vince. "I'm on the reset for three months. Lifting weights, feeling fantastic. Why do I have veins popping on my arms even upon waking in the morning?" Well, you're getting strong there, Vince. Popping veins. Let me see if I can find some in mine. Yeah, I don't see no popping veins in mine. I guess I'm not strong enough. Vince, I don't know, in the morning. Well you might need some water. You know that can pop up your veins, but I wouldn't worry about it too much. Vince, good for you. And keep it up. Good for you and keep it up. Get strong sun, steak and steel. Okay?
Andrea, "what causes calcific tendonitis and achilles tendonitis?" Let me tell you what the main cause of that is. Insulin resistance. When you are a carboholic, your tendons will pay the price. I get people with achilles problems, joint problems. Now look, if it's old injuries, I get it. Okay? But even then when they cut out sugars and crappy carbs, it's amazing what happens to those tendons. And why is that? Because you are lowering A G E apostrophe S called glycated end products. What is that? It's sort of an aging of the tendons in your body, aging of the skin in your body prematurely. It's called glycated end products. It's sugar attaching to a protein, but it's sugar. Eliminate. Get it down. It's amazing how much better your joints will feel. People can't get over it on the reset, they just can't get over it. That pain for years and years and years and years. And boy, what a difference that makes. Now, like I said, you have old injuries and you know, bone on bone and whatever. I get that, but it makes a difference in pain levels.
Okay, Alicia, well you're asking a question, I sort of answered it, but what causes blood sugar to drop past trying to get to 72 hours fast one to two times a year, but cannot get past 48 hours? I don't even want you to go past 48 hours, Alicia. Now if you want to do it, okay, but if your blood sugars are dropping like that, you know what? Your body's screaming at you stop. Why are you doing this to me? Because people think that prolonged fasting is good for you. I don't agree, but again, I'm telling you to fast without fasting, okay?
You see, come with me on the other side. What kills you? What makes your liver full? What makes your kidney stressed? What does your brain, why does that get inflamed? Everything that's bad. Okay, come with me for a second. It's sugar, it's food, but the bad food, not good food. Bad food does that. Okay, so when you fast, okay, temporarily not for long, I got no problem. And like I said, if you are a person that only has to eat once a day, but it's what you eat that counts. You can do all the fasting in the world. And if you eat junk, if you live on sugar, if you live on carbs, you're not going to do well. You see when your body has the best fuel, your little mitochondria, your battery packs, they want the best fuel. If you give it high density nutrition with lots of nutrients in it, it's amazing how little waste there is and how your body is healing itself, repairing itself when your little battery packs have the right fuel, give your body jet fuel and watch the difference. I double down on that.
Okay, Gabriel, my skin used to be perfect. Now, bad T-zone with red dots. What could cause this? Usually Gabriel, leaky gut of some kind. Anything on the skin, you look back to the gut. So you might have picked up a parasite, you might have some yeast. And it sounds like Gabriela, you used to have perfect skin, but when you don't always, always look to the gut, your skin is a mirror to your gut. If you got dots and you got whatever on your skin, then you got look at your gut. Gabriel, thanks for the question.
Lori, what are you asking here, Lori? What are the pros and cons of butyrate? B U T Y R A T E. Now did I pronounce it right? Who cares? Butyrate. That's the way I've always said it. Okay, here's another thing. Okay, I get, ooh, I get a migraine, I get high blood pressure, I get excitement, I get, ooh, when people talk about butyrate, oh. The only way to get butyrate. Butyrate. It really helps with your microbiome and this and that and the other thing. It's the best thing ever. And I get uptight because I like butyrate. If you eat eggs and you eat meat and you eat cheese, you get a lot of butyrate. Your microbiome thrives with steak, not fiber. Okay?
Now I know, I know. It don't make me popular with the vegetarians and the vegans, but there's nothing better for your digestive tract. Nothing better for your microbiome. Those bacteria, when you feed them the right foods and there's butyrate in the animal kingdom and they talk about fiber like it's the only thing that they'll get your bowels moving and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know me, fiber is overrated, but if you Google butyrate, Google it, it'll tell you, oh yeah, when you have lots of vegetables and salad and salad and this and that, you're getting lots of butyrate. Nah, you're really not. You're getting lots of butyrate when you eat eggs, meat and cheese. Lori, thanks for the question. I know you didn't want to get me angry, okay, I appreciate it.
Mary. "There is a new sweetener on the market called Purecane. It is made from fermented sugar cane and has zero calories." Well, I've heard of it. If it is made from sugar, probably a little bit better. Not artificial, but okay, the jury is out. I'm not sure what I think so much. I try and get people, okay, generally, and I think you guys know this not to have to use sweeteners at all. And if you're going to use some, get some local unpasteurized honey and use a little bit. God gave us honey and he might have given us fermented sugar cane, okay? Okay. Be careful. I haven't seen studies on it yet. Now, I mean, we just went through a period where they were really questioning erythritol, which is a sugar alcohol. Go back and listen to the podcast on that. But if you get my principles, I'm not that big on using sweeteners or use very little in the first place, but I'm not saying it's bad, Mary. I'm not. I'm just saying that if you don't need it, don't use it. Okay? Don't use it. Okay?
Giselle, "my blood sugar, 6.9 blood glucose in the am, is that a concern?" No, not so much because your blood sugar's going to go up in the morning. I don't like people getting up in the morning and taking their blood sugar reading. Because you know what cortisol does? Cortisol is supposed to be higher in the morning and it's going to elevate your blood sugar. So what? It's not going to stay there. Okay, so no, I wouldn't worry about it should be higher in the morning, but it should level out too, right?
Rita, "why would a man have a migraine?" Well, men are weird. First of all, no men get migraines, women get them much more. That's just the fact. It's 90 to about 10%. Women get migraines and it's all based on estrogen, way too much estrogen, estrogen dominance, not enough progesterone. And that messes up their hormones and they get horrormones. And a lot of women get migraines because of estrogen dominance. I guess it can happen in men too. Men get estrogen when they don't have enough testosterone. So in a man you need to have very high testosterone. I would have that checked. Okay. Sometimes migraines can come because the liver is all gummed up. And again, when you lower your carbohydrates and other thing is dehydration. Men can get dehydrated and they can get migraine headaches from being dehydrated. Women too, but mostly women. It's all horrormones in women.
Fran, "why is your body holding onto water?" Well, again, because I'm not your doctor or whatever. I mean the number one reason that the body holds onto water is when you're a carboholic. You want to get bloated, eat carbs, and your body will retain. It will retain a sodium, it will retain it. If you are a carboholic, and if you're not Fran and you're still, then you got to look at your kidneys, you got to look at your kidneys. You may be dehydrated, but I would add some salt there. Okay. It's not because you're eating too much salt unless you are. And when I say eating too much salt, eating too many carbohydrates in the absence of water.
And Lori is asking, "are we allowed corn after the reset?" Yep. Yep. If you like corn after the reset, yeah, you can have some corn. I'm not against corn. I like corn. I like the taste of it. Is it the best veggie? Probably not, but it's still good for you. Okay. Don't touch the high fructose corn syrup though. Whatever. Okay guys, thank you so much for your questions today. We much appreciate it and keep them coming and sometimes I get a little off track, but it's hard to change a leper's spots. Okay guys, we love you dearly. 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!