Interesting study out of Johns Hopkins University is saying that those with hearing loss are five times more likely to develop dementia. The 12 year study followed 639 adults and determined that when you lose hearing, the brain atrophies.
There is a belief that says as you age, you lose hearing. Dr. Martin doesn’t necessarily buy that and says diet plays an important role, and especially glycation. Glycation is the loss of elasticity and sugar makes it worse!
Join Dr. Martin as he discusses the link between hearing loss and dementia in today’s episode.
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: Good morning everyone, welcome to another live and hope you're having a great start to your day. I've got a few studies here I want to bring out here this morning. We'll see how far we get. This first one is on hearing, okay? The importance of hearing. Okay? We don't talk about that that much. But here's a study. Johns Hopkins, 12 year study, 639 adults they followed. And those with hearing loss were five times more likely to have dementia. Connection between hearing loss and dementia. Now, I've seen studies like this before. I can't remember if I've ever commented on them or not, but it seems to be pretty significant. And usually aging, they say your hearing is not as good. I don't necessarily buy that. I think it's important to understand the connection between hearing and dementia. And what they're saying in this study at Johns Hopkins is that when you lose hearing, the brain atrophies. There's a center in the brain that shrinks when you don't hear as well. And I guess that's really important.
Now, like I said, I can't say that I don't think I've ever done a podcast on this at all, but we're all concerned about dementia, aren't we? We talk about it a lot. And I mean, this is one of the factors, one of the factors. But I want to tie this into diet because I think it's really important. Now, listen, you can work, you can get tinnitus. It can be a workplace thing or damaged eardrums, apart from food. But when you look at aging and hearing loss, you're looking at a process. Two processes. One of them is glycation. I've talked about this a lot. Glycation. Glycation is the loss of elasticity. Okay? That's glycation. And sugar in the diet especially, is very, very hard or creates a lot of glycation in the body, okay? It's a form really of oxidation, okay?
You and I, all of us are aging, all of us, and some of us are aging faster than others. And that is what we call free radical damage. I use the example, cut an apple in half, and you don't have to wait long right before your eyeballs. You get the browning of the apple, just cut it. And what is that? Well, that's oxidation. It's free radical damage. Now you put a couple of drops of lemon juice, and now lemon juice is an antioxidant. You put that on one side of the apple and you'll preserve the apple longer. Okay? So oxidation and glycation are sort of two heads of a coin. Glycation is a loss of elasticity. You see it in the skin, you see it in tendons, you see it in joints, and you see it in the eardrums. You see it in the ear canals. The ear canals should be flexible almost like a joint. And what they're saying at Johns Hopkins is that people who lose their hearing, a lot of it is due to that loss of elasticity in the canal.
So that's why I bring you back to food. I know there's other causes of hearing loss, okay? I'm just telling you that the one thing you can do is change your diet for lots of reasons. We talk about chronic disease and insulin resistance, creating inflammation in the body. Inflammation, then in turn left unchecked will destroy blood vessels. That's where they start. When you look at your ears, okay? Blood supply, eyes, blood supply, kidneys, blood supply, heart, obviously blood supply, brain, blood supply. So it's really important to protect your blood vessels. And when they call it like small vessel disease, that's one of the big factors in Alzheimer's and dementia. Blood vessels get damaged by sugar. Your body would rather do anything else than allow you to keep sugar in your bloodstream. Your body is smarter than we are. It knows how toxic sugar is.
So I know I talk about that on a daily basis. I got the can't help its. I can't help but tell you about sugar. And yesterday we looked at fructose, high fructose corn syrup being a major, major factor in damaging the pancreas. We already knew what it did to the liver, but sugar destroys blood vessels. And it starts with the capillaries. It starts with those little wee capillaries. Hearing loss is no different. Now, you can get scar tissue built up in there because of a lot of times the work environment. I see these kids today, and they live with pods in their ears, and I was there, so I know exactly what that is. Okay? Young people, they don't think down the road, they're blasting that music in their ears. Now, I want people to wear ear pods when you're listening to The Doctor Is In podcast when you're out for your walk. But you can turn the volume down because I'm pretty loud to start off with. My wife is always going, would you bring the volume down? Bring the volume down.
But isn't that interesting how they connect hearing loss to brain atrophy, the part of your brain that wants to hear. He who has ears to hear, let 'em hear out of the words of Jesus. Okay? So let me give you a couple of things, okay? Just to protect your ears, okay? One, obviously food, loud noises, turn down the volume, especially when you got 'em right in there. I love ear pods, by the way. I do. They're very convenient, but be careful, okay? And don't wear them all the time. Food important. One thing that lubricates and they've shown this is omega 3. Omega 3 lubricates the ear canal. It's almost like it dries up and that glycation, but omega-3 really helps with lubricant inside the ear canal. Okay? So that's one of the things.
When you look at getting extra blood supply, one of the things that really helps is when you elevate nitric oxide. Okay? Nitric oxide. So hearing loss, and I found this in my practice too, B12 can be significant. Isn't B12 an important vitamin? Folks, you need to find out what your B12 levels are, because B12 is a superstar of vitamins that and vitamin D, especially as we get older. And B12, it does a lot of things. But one thing it elevates is your nitric oxide. It's another reason why I love pine bark extract Navitol because of elevating nitric oxide. Nitric oxide, think of nitroglycerin, an explosion, but what it does is it opens up the blood vessel, blood supply, blood supply, blood supply, very, very important. Okay? And so diet, B12, I like Navitol for elevating nitric oxide too, omega-3. Another one is CoQ10. CoQ10 in the ears can be really important. Okay? So again, mitochondrial, okay? The energy paths. I love CoQ10.
So that's one study, okay? That came out and I thought I would just bring it to you. Okay? So we talked about that hearing and its connection, loss of hearing, and connection to dementia out of Johns Hopkins University. Now, here's another one, bad news on oxalates. And by the way, somebody asked, did I answer this question last Friday? I can't remember because it was in the question and answers, and I think I might have answered it. Dr. Martin, someone said, or I read that coffee is high in oxalates. My friend let me tell you that that is not true. It's the opposite. Okay? What are oxalates? Oxalates are little glass. They're a byproduct of certain vegetables. Okay?
So when they tell you that oxalates, okay? When they tell you that being a vegan or being a vegetarian is the best thing since sliced bread for you, I beg to disagree. One of the things that we know about is 75% of all kidney stones are oxalates. Again, I'm not saying you can't have any vegetables. Please don't lasso me and say that's what Dr. Martin's saying. I'm not saying that. I am saying that you don't make a living eating fruits and vegetables. Don't make a living doing it. You can have them when you finish your 30 days of Reset. See, one of the reasons of the Reset, and this is all coming out in my new book, I put the Reset back in there, and the way I wrote the chapter on the Reset was by question and I give the answer. I had about, I don't know, 30, 40 questions on the Reset. And I answered it. So it was question and answer Friday in the book. But all about the Reset.
One of the reasons that I love the Reset is you're not going to have any oxalates for 30 days. And again, what this study is saying, okay, on oxalates, not only bad for the kidneys. So when people tell you protein, protein, that's bad for the kidneys, don't eat too much protein. Every day, I mean it almost invariably, seven days a week, I hear it. "Doc, how much protein can I eat?" Folks, listen, Linda, protein is the king of a castle and oxalates are the dirty rascal when it comes to your kidneys. What damages the kidneys more than anything else? Sugar and oxalates. Sugar's the worst. Okay? Sugar's the worst when it comes to your kidneys. So be careful. Chicken and salad. Chicken and salad. For years, I had to tell my lady patients, I know you love your salad. I know you do, but that doesn't make it good for you, okay? It doesn't make it good for you. There's too many oxalates.
Okay, now, kidneys, okay, we know that. Breast cancer, I've told you that. When you look at the density of breast tissue, okay, the density of breast tissue, one of the factors, I mean obviously guys, ladies, estrogen, too much of a woman. Estrogen is a growth hormone. When you combine that with insulin, no fun for breast cancer, okay? Insulin, estrogen. But the other one is oxalates. Oxalates are found in dense breast tissue that makes you more susceptible to breast cancer. Now, you're not going to hear this, you're not going to hear this anywhere else pretty well, okay? But it's a fact. And one of the things when they do mammograms and can create all sorts of issues, especially false positives, is dense breast tissue. A lot of women have dense breast tissue? And one of the reasons is oxalates in breast tissue. What the heck are they doing there?
But I haven't even told you about the new study yet. Okay? Oxalates, kidney stones, 75%, the other 25% are uric acid. What's uric acid come from? Why don't you get rid of uric acid? Insulin resistance, insulin, food sugars, crappy carbohydrates, very hard on the kidneys. Okay? So uric acid, oxalates, kidneys, breast cancer, a factor. It's a factor. Sugar's worse, obviously, but it's a factor. I'm telling you, you got to really look for these studies, but they're there. And then thirdly, the new one out on oxalates is heart disease and athesclerosis, hardening of the arteries. That little glass like it's microscopic glass. That's what oxalates are. They're sharp and they do damage. They do damage to kidneys, they do damage to breast tissue, and oxalates do damage to blood vessels. New study just came out in PubMed. That's where I found it.
Almonds, those nuts and seeds with oxalates. You're not a squirrel, you're not a chipmunk. Lay off the nuts and seeds except flaxseed. Now you can have a little bit, but don't have a lot. There's a lot of oxalate. You know that almond stuff. Be careful with that stuff. Very high in oxalates. Don't make yourself a green smoothie. Very, very high and now you're drinking it. I don't like that. Okay? "Ah, Dr. Martin. I got to be alkaline." Ah, no, your body will take care of that. Lay off the sugar and you will be alkaline. I promise you. Your body knows how to keep you in a very tight pH so that your body stays alkaline, okay? But you need kidney function. So oxalates. Hey, I'm just bringing you this new study, brand new on damaging blood vessels and creating atherosclerosis. Wow. Who knew?
Do I have time to bring another study? Yeah, let's do that. Omega 3. Okay. Omega 3, okay. This is in PubMed too. Increases your life expectancy by five years. The higher the omega-3, and they can measure it. Okay? They can measure it. The higher your levels of omega-3 are in your body. It's like vitamin D guys. Okay, why do I have my fav five? Okay, I do, because I talk about these things all the time. Okay? Vitamin D, B12. I was telling someone yesterday, one of our listeners yesterday, that because they're asking me what should I be taking while I said, look in my office. I didn't guess. I didn't guess. I tested.
So I checked B12 and most people, most people, their B12 was enough for mice, not for them. I said, A mouse doesn't even live on the B12 you have. "Oh, my doctor said, my doctor said it was normal." Yeah, but your doctor is not reading. Your doctor doesn't know anything about B12. They got to go back to the 1950s in medical school when they taught B12, they don't teach it anymore. "Hey doc, do you give B12 shots?" What? They don't have a B12 shot. Why do you need a B? You're not low. Well, like I said, the B12 tests are a hundred years old and the normal ranges are way too low. Way too low. You function better when you optimize your B12.
And then there's vitamin D. Oh, it infuriates me when a doctor says, I'm not checking your vitamin D. Why do you need that check? You're not osteoporotic. Why do you need your vitamin D levels checked? Tell us the most important vitamin. The sun. I want to measure it. I want to know what my vitamin D levels are. It's one of the most significant blood tests that you can take, and good luck trying to get them to take it. Most doctors, not all doctors, but most doc, cause they don't know the significance of it. They're ignorant of a vitamin that would've saved people's lives during the pandemic. It would've saved people's lives. And they're ignorant of it. Nobody's told them in medical school. Do you think they teach them vitamin D other than bones? You know they're all scared skinny of vitamin D. "Ah, you can become toxic." Ohh, 90% of the population is low in vitamin D. They just don't have enough.
Your immune system functions at a very high level when you have the optimized levels of vitamin D. Study after study, after study, after study tells us that. And then this new study on Omega-3. Why is omega-3 so good? It's very anti-inflammatory. It puts the fire out inside. So does vitamin D by the way. But omega 3, oh, I've always talked about it. Okay. And the problem we have in our society today is the amount of omega 6. Once they introduce these vegetable oils, these so-called good oils. Yeah, they're good oils. All right? Canola and grape seed and rape seed, which is canola. I mean, they're made for your car. They're fully synthetic. There's not even a ounce of nature in them. And they're very, very high in omega six, which makes them inflammatory. You better fix that by, first of all, eliminating omega six as much as you can.
And then omega three is one of my fav five. I love omega 3. I love DHA in omega three because it's the king of all. Omegas is DHA. It's only found in the animal kingdom. Fish and steak, fish and steak. Fish and steak. I love omega 3. You want it to lubricate your blood vessels, your brain. You want your brain. You want to be a fat head, okay? You want to be a fat head. See, when you get hearing loss, your brain shrinks. And we talked about that. Your brain shrivels. What do you want? Omega-3. I love Omega-3. Okay? And the study says increases life expectancy by five years.
And when it preserves your brain guys and your blood vessels, omega 3. I don't want to live until I'm 110 if I don't know who you are and I don't recognize anyone. I don't want that, do you? I don't want that. People tell me I want to live till I'm a hundred. Yeah, well be careful what you wish for. I want quality, not quantity. You? Yeah. As much as it depends on me. Okay? Because always depending on me, there's a lot of factors here. You can get hit by a bus, right? You can't control the bus, but you can certainly control what you put in your mouth every day. Interesting studies. Hey guys.
Okay, I got a few more. We'll touch on that. I got a few more. Leave it to me. I'll go find those studies, okay? So that we can pontificate. Okay? What's Friday? Question and answer. Get you questions. Then you see I'm always answering questions. No, we appreciate them very much. Okay. Are you a member of the private Facebook group? I hope you are. We appreciate that group very much. Okay. 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!