Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners.
Some of today’s topics include:
- Red ginseng tea
- Drinking coffee & low iron
- GABA vs. cortisol
- Cold pressed canola oil
- HRT long-term use
- Gluten & blood pressure
- Sourdough bread
- Elevated liver enzymes
- Magnesium deficiency & acid reflux
- Stem cell therapy for dementia
- Xanthan gum
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. Hope you're having a great day. Great to have you come on with us and say hello to a few folks here and we appreciate our audience. And Friday is, guess what, question and answer Friday as our fun time as usual. Okay, let's get going.
Alanis, "is red ginseng tea good for hot flashes?" I have no idea, Alanis. Well, I shouldn't say that. I worked with ginseng 30 years ago. Okay? I used to have a producer here in Canada that really wanted me to look at it, use it with my patients, and to be honest, I never found too much. Now red ginseng tea, look, here's what I would say to you, Alanis. If you find it good for your menopause and hot flashes, go for it. I got no problem with it. Not going to hurt you. Tea, why drink tea when you can drink coffee? That's my whole, no, but listen, if you find it work, to be honest with you, I never got a lot of good clinical results with that. So I would say there's things far superior to that clinically, as far as I'm concerned, as far as my experience goes. You're asking me, so I got to tell you what I saw. So ginseng, red ginseng, nah, it's alright, but nothing to write home about if you're asking me. I mean, I put together a menopause formula for the reasons that I had to get results in my clinic, and that's what I find to be the best, okay? So thanks for the questions, Alanis.
Let me just see here. Okay, Deb, "what causes polyps?" Well, hard to say what causes it. I know what makes polyps grow. So, if you get a colonoscopy, for example, and they say you have polyps and are they precancerous? Maybe. Maybe. I'll tell you what makes them grow. There's two growth hormones. One is insulin. That's food. We know that. And the other one is estrogen. It's a growth hormone. It makes a woman, a woman, it makes a man, a woman too. It makes things grow. So I always tell people, look, polyps why? But stop the growth, don't feed them. And one is insulin and the other one is estrogen. Okay, so get them both down, Deb, if there's any polyps for you or for your family or friends.
Okay, Jean, "as per coffee subject, this am." Okay, so what day did I talk about coffee? I thought I'd talk about coffee every day. Okay, Jean, "I have low iron most of the time, so could having coffee with meals contribute to that?" No, absolutely not. What has coffee got to do with low iron? Nothing. Drinking coffee with meals is actually good. I highly recommend it because it will lower your insulin response. They've done studies where they put coffee up against metformin, a medication for blood sugar and coffee does very well as far as iron. There's no connection. I usually have four cups of coffee a day, which is beautiful. It's what I recommend. And one with breakfast and one right after supper, only one with breakfast. Guys, you ain't getting me to turn against coffee, okay, not going to happen. You might as well get used to it. When I say coffee is the real vitamin C, I mean it and I double down on it all the time. Coffee is good for you. It got a bad rap because people that don't drink coffee, they want to tell you nonsense. And it's exactly that nonsense. It is a powerful phytonutrient with a thousand phytonutrients in it. Okay, thanks Jean.
Oh, this is same Jean. "My lipase test has been in the eighties ever since I started eating the Martin way. My doctor doesn't think it's a concern." Neither do I. Why are you worried about it? About it? Why are you worried about it Jean? The Martin way is eggs, meat and cheese. Best foods in the world. Bring me anything, anything and put it up against eggs, meat and cheese on the planet, as far as a nutrient profile, and you will find out that nothing is better than eggs, meat and cheese. No vegetable, no fruit, nothing. I'm not saying the other things are no good, I'm just telling you. You want to bring a profile and do a nutrient profile. You're going to find out that the animal kingdom, for people that don't believe that, I don't know what to tell you. If you think fruits and vegetables are better for you, than the animal kingdom. It's the plant kingdom. I didn't say it was no good. I'm telling you, it is good. There's good, better and best. There's good, better and best. The best is the animal kingdom the best for nutrient profile, okay? When I tell you to eat eggs, meat, and cheese for 30 days exclusively. It's because it's sound advice. Okay, Jean, thanks for the questions.
Michelle, "why do my feet get hot at night?" So do mine. You're weird, Michelle and so am I. No, a lot of people's feet get warm at night. There's actually, I should actually show it to you. I have a fan for just the feet, but a lot of people are like that. If you can keep your feet cool, it really makes a difference sleeping for a lot of people, a lot of people. And why that happens? Because we're weird. We're weird. Join my group Michelle, weird.
Linda. "What's the difference between GABA and cortisol?" I'm assuming Linda, that you're asking about a supplement with GABA and our cortisol supplement. Okay, I like GABA, I do. On its own, nah, I'm a combination guy. When things need to be combined, again, clinic, you come in, I test your cortisol. Okay, I better get it down. So when we formulate, it's to get to the root of the problem and fix cortisol. And if you'll notice our supplement, there's what? Eight ingredients in it at the right dosages. It's just clinical experience, guys. That's all I can tell you. Do I like GABA? You can get GABA. I tried it. I tried it in my clinic, GABA. Good, better, best. GABA is good. There's better. And then there's best.
Cortisol is the best in my opinion, and I'm biased. I've got to be the first guy to tell you that I'm biased, but I was never adverse to trying things in my office. I used to tell my patients, if I thought hanging you upside down from the building that we're in would help you, I would get up on the roof and hold your feet. I'm not against anything. People tell me, oh, Dr. Martin, what about this for cancer? What about that for cancer? What about this for that and whatever. Hey, if it's anything that I got any experience with you, I'll give you my opinion. I don't tell people not to try something. You want to try that? Go ahead. Like I said, for me, I've been around the block. You know what I mean? I look for stuff that just gives me consistent clinical results. Okay, thank you for the question, Linda.
Dale, "my friends are discussing cold press, canola oil." Now, I'm not going to read the whole thing, but your friends are asking about cold pressed canola oil. Now why, why would you use that stuff? "I know, but Dr. Martin, it's cold pressed." Yeah, it's probably better than the one that's heated, but why do you want that when there's so many better oils out there? It's a seed oil, it's rape seed. Canola's gift. It's canola, Canada's oil. You know the stuff that comes from Alberta? Canadian oil? Well, that's better than canola. Canola oil, look, it's a seed oil. I don't like them. Why do you want that? There's so many better oils out there. Olive oil is better than that. Coconut oil is better than that. Any omega-3, far superior oil. So I don't care if it's cold pressed. Why are you taking that? It's just going to elevate your omega-6. You don't need omega-6. You need omega-3. And if you're going to take something, take some olive oil. I like olive oil, cold press. I love olive oil. It's good for you. I love butter even better. There's no better oil for you.
So, like it's cold press. I don't care. Why do you want that? That's the question I would ask your friends. Why? What's it do for you? What does it give you other than omega-6? And today we're at 20-30 to 1 ratios of omega-6 to omega-3. You're not missing omega-6. You're missing omega-3, okay? Yeah, and I know they'll tell you it's good for cooking and all. No, it's not. Don't cook with that stuff. I don't care if it's cold pressed or whatever. It belongs in your car, not in your body. Okay, that's me. I'm very passionate about that because you see, let me answer Dale too this way. Why would that even be a consideration? I'll tell you why. Because you see, medicine still believes that fat makes you fat and that any animal fat or whatever gives you cholesterol. And they think cholesterol is the boogeyman. So these oils, well go down the grocery store, you'll see hundreds of them and because they are polyunsaturated. They, oh, well now you're not going to elevate your cholesterol and it's a good, it's just based on poor understanding. It's just based on that. And it's inexpensive and it's cheap oil, but it belongs in your car. That was Dale.
Linda, "I've been on HRT for 35 years." Okay? "I would like to know how to get off Estrogel. Very stressful when I try." Well, you know what, Linda? Look, I mean you just got to understand Linda, what you're doing okay with that estrogen. I understand where you're coming from. I understand you have horrormones. You better just block that extra estrogen. You got to be on dimm. If you don't come off of it, you better protect yourself in deep trouble in my opinion. So just be careful. What can I tell you? I'm not your doctor, so I'm not telling anybody to get off anything or whatever. Just understand when you are on HRT for 35 years, if you're on HRT for 35 minutes, I don't like it because you got estrogen coming out your wazoo even though you think it's low. Yeah, it may be low in terms of lower than it used to be, but it's all compared to progesterone. And doctors, God love them, but they just like, oh, you're all right. They don't look down the road and see what the side effects of that would be. Why do you think there's so much breast cancer and ovarian cancer and uterine cancer and all these type of cancers? It's part of the parcel. They just don't think of it. They give birth control pills to teenagers. They're full of estrogen. Anyway. I just say, Linda, protect yourself. Protect yourself.
Francis, "what do you think if I am sensitive to gluten, would it make a difference in my blood pressure?" Well, I don't know, Francis, you got to tell me. Be Dr. Francis. Don't eat any bread. Don't eat any noodles. Eat eggs, meat and cheese, and tell me where your blood pressure goes. Be Dr. Francis. Figure it out yourself. Gluten shmooten, I tell most people, unless they're truly Celiac. Gluten shmooten, because it's not the gluten, it's the carbs. But if you're happen to be in that category, well, isn't that wonderful? You can eat eggs, meat and cheese. Okay, thank you Francis for the question.
Natalie, "my doctor wants to test my thyroid again after being off Dr. Martin's Thyroid Balance opposed to the numbers with it being on it. How long should I wait to do the blood work being off of it?" Ah, two weeks? Less than that, really, but I guess to be completely sure, a couple of weeks. Okay, Natalie, thanks for the question.
Grace, "a study showed that sourdough bread is better than other kinds. Wondering what my thoughts are?" Well, it's fermented a little better. It's still bread and it's still going to be sugar in five seconds. I like sour dough bread. I like bread. Man shall not live by bread alone, the Bible says, okay, but I could. I love bread. Okay? I love bread, but it don't love me and it don't love you either. Okay? So sourdough, yeah, every once in a while you want to have a piece of sourdough bread. Well go for it, but you're not going to get me to tell you it's good for you because it ain't. We live in a day and age it's completely different. We live in a day and age, we're carboholics. We live in a day and age where 93% of the population is upside down because they have insulin resistance and they have some form of metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high uric acid, high triglycerides, and low HDL and belly fat. And that's metabolic syndrome. 93%. I want to be in the 7% that's not got metabolic syndrome.
And I know my body, me and carbs, I love them. I married an Italian. I love carbs, but they don't love me. So I carbs, I love pasta. I love bread. I love bread more than anything, I think. Ah steak. No, but seriously, I do. I love bread, but it don't love me and it don't love you, okay? So don't fool yourself. I don't care if it's 17 grain, 120 grain or sourdough, it's still going to be sugar rapidly, okay? Just understand that If you understand that if someone brings you a loaf of sourdough bread and wants you to have a little slice of it, okay? If it's not going to trip you up, I always used to give my patients a plan to succeed, not to fail. So if it's your birthday and you want a piece of sourdough bread, hey, go for it. But this is a lifestyle eating. If you are in that 93%, or even if you're in the 7% and don't want to become part of that 93% of the population, then you've got to be disciplined. It's a lifestyle. This kind of eating, what I talk about is a lifestyle eating. It's forever.
And if you get off the wagon for a day, if you get off the wagon for a day, don't beat yourself up. Come back on the wagon. That's the idea. Not to give up and fail. "Ah Dr. Martin, I had a slice of sourdough bread. I'm a loser. I'm done. I'm finished. I can't do this." Yes you can. Yes you can come on back on the wagon, even admit it, tell people on the Facebook group you cheated, but you can come back. We love you. We care for you. You can make it. You can do this. You can. Make it a lifestyle. Make it part of your DNA, become a low carb eater. Make your living eating eggs, meat and cheese. Okay? So yeah, sourdough bread. Nah. No, not in this day and age. Okay? Is it better than ordinary bread, eh? Probably. It's still very high carb that makes it sugar. So sourdough bread or a chocolate bar, what's the difference? Not much. Not much. I'm a one trick pony. I'm an insulin guy. Okay, so do you know where I'm coming from? Okay, Grace, thank you for that question.
Janet. "I have high ALT." Okay, that's a liver enzyme. "Is this liver damaged?" Maybe. Your liver's stressed for sure. Clean out your liver, watch your food. Stay low carb. The liver gets gummed up when you eat carbs. Be careful. Okay? And you've had previous fatty liver, Janet, that's what you're telling me. Yeah, for you, your liver's, your weakness. Most people it is too. They don't even realize. Don't even think of the liver. People don't think of liver. If you mention liver, they think food. If they like liver or if they're like me. I don't like eating liver. But I'll tell you how important your organ liver is. And guys, you know that you follow me at all. I go back to that liver because when the liver, it ain't Las Vegas. That's what I think of a liver. It'll affect every area of your body. And today we got high fructose corn syrup, which is the sugar of choice, the sweetener of choice, and it goes directly to your liver. I talked about it this week. 1980, not a good year when it comes to nutrition, high fructose corn syrup, all the major companies switched.
Okay, Melissa, "someone I know is looking for advice." Well, how about that? "Been on low carb for three weeks. Not the reset, but working towards it. Does a clay colored stool mean anything?" No. There was a company around 30 years ago, they wanted you to analyze your stool every time you went to the bathroom. It used to make me laugh. Don't you have better things to do than analyze your stool? Now if there's blood in your stool, okay, I get it. Okay? And I don't mean to joke about it, but I can't help myself. Okay? I can't help myself.
Okay, Louise, "hesperidin benefits." What about it? It's a flavonoid. Fruits and vegetables. Coffee has hesperidin in it. Did you know that? Why would you take a supplement? It's in coffee, but I'll tell you what's a thousand times better than hesperidin, Navitol, pine bark extract, far superior. It's a flavonoid. It's a poly anthocyanin. It is the most powerful antioxidant in the universe. They found nothing stronger than that. Okay, Louise. Thanks for the question.
Alanna, "what's normal level of testosterone?" Well, you know what? I don't like to talk about that too much. It don't matter. I don't want normal. I want optimized testosterone. Okay? Optimized testosterone in men. Okay? Women have testosterone too, but not too much. Women need balance, men need optimizing when it comes to testosterone. I look for around 900, 1000 in men to optimize their testosterone.
Pam, "what are lectins?" How would I describe a lectin? A lectin is like a tea leader. Okay, what's that mean? Well, it bites off more than it can chew. Lectins sort of bite off minerals. I actually wrote about this in my book. Where's my book? Sun Steak and Steel. Okay, but I wrote about it in The Metabolic Reset too, so you can Google it. Find out where most of your lectins are. Look, this is one of the reasons of the reset, because you're not going to have any lectins for 30 days. Now are they the be all and end all lectins? Nah, they're not. But a lot of people, they don't realize that they chelate, they bite off certain minerals. Okay, any who? I'm not against lectins, but don't live on lectins. How's that? Thanks Pam for the question.
Angie, "did you ever find that a magnesium deficiency caused acid reflux?" Well, it could be a factor. You know me and magnesium, I love magnesium. I love magnesium citrate. I love magnesium bisglycinate. I love magnesium. I'm big on magnesium. Okay? Is it a cause of acid reflux? I don't believe so. Look, it can be an effect of acid reflux, but I don't think it's the cause of acid reflux. You get acid reflux when you don't treat your stomach for what it was made for. That is the number one cause of acid reflux. When you're a carboholic, your stomach, the human being's stomach, you were meant to eat meat and especially red meat. How do I know that? Because of your stomach acidity, it's around 1.5 until it's not. You're more acidic than a cow. You're more acidic than a rabbit. Why? Because rabbits and cows are meant to eat salad. They eat grass, so you don't have to. The number one cause of acid reflux is low acidity in your stomach, not high acidity, it's low acidity. Then your proton pumps go into action because you're not listening to your body and you're not eating meat, especially steak.
So what happens is your body goes, oh, my pH is coming up because you're eating like a rabbit. You love carbs and sugar is terrible for your stomach. You weren't meant to eat it. Your body's not made for that. I'm not saying you never have it. I'm just telling you that if you live on carbohydrates, like 93% of the population today. No wonder we see so much acid reflux. It's the opposite of what people think. "Oh, Dr. Martin, I got so much acid." Yeah, because you're eating like a rabbit. You're not a rabbit. Rabbits have a high pH. You've got a very low pH, meaning your stomach is a furnace meant to eat steak. Yeah, and when you don't listen, Linda and Larry, you get acid reflux. And then you take Prilosec and people, "oh, well, I'm alright, I can eat anything I want as long as I have my pills with me." Yikes. And what they're finding now horrendous. Okay, but magnesium I like. Okay. I am not saying it's not part of it. I think when you eat a lot of sugar, you're very deficient in magnesium. And I'm big on magnesium. I love magnesium. Okay? I really do. So you're talking about someone in Australia. Hey, I'm not against that magnesium, but it's not the number one cause of acid reflux. It's not.
That's one of the things the reset does. The reset changes your stomach acidity, what you want. It helps your pH in your stomach, which what you want. You know another thing, why do so many people have H pylori today? We all do. But why is it raising its ugly head so much? Because the acidity in your stomach is out of whack. When you have a real acidic stomach, H pylori goes to bed and it sleeps and sleeps and sleeps. But today we got so many people with bacterial infections and SIBO and small intestine fungal infections. Why? Their stomach is, you got to look at the stomach as the gateway to the gut. It's the gateway. And you want that stomach to be so acidic, nothing gets past it. It takes your food, mulches it. Takes a piece of steak, breaks it down. It's meant for that, but you don't use it, you know what happens? The pH goes up and when the pH goes up, your stomach says, oh gee, I got to protect you here. Hey, Suzy, I'm going to protect you. I'm going to give you acid reflux. It's trying to do what it should be doing. But the problem is when the proton pumps start pumping out acid, it starts to go up the esophagus. And you have millions and millions of people with acid reflux, and a lot of people too have silent acid reflux, the coughing all the time, and their sinuses are always gummed up and they got phlegm in their throat all the time. It's just the body trying to, hello you up there? Would you change your diet? People don't listen. Okay, I get excited. I don't mean to. Thanks, Angie.
Paul. Okay, we got to get going. "What is the best protein to consume after workout? Is it better to eat protein before a workout? Before and after. Look, the best way really to work out, I mean if you really want to look at it technically, is to fast and work out. Now, some people can't do that, but the reason I say that is because you want to empty your bins. You got bins, you want to get rid of that glycogen in your muscles on an empty stomach, okay? Empty them and then have a protein after. What's the best protein? Collagen protein. That's why I love bone broth. Bone broth has got all your amino acids. It's got so much L-glutamine. I'm big on L-glutamine. Why? It repairs, repairs, repairs the gut. But really technically, if you're asking the question, what's the best thing to do for a workout? Try doing it when you're fasting, when you haven't eaten yet. That's, in my opinion, the best. All of it is good. Good, better, best. You like that? Anything you do, movement, move, good. Better, strength, get strong, better. Best. Do a workout to empty your bins so that you can have more space to fill them up. Thanks for the question, Paul. Appreciate it.
Jody, "what do I think of stem cell therapy for dementia?" I like stem cells. Okay? It's not my area of expertise, but I do read a lot about it. Seems to have some promise. Okay? I'm not against it, but let's just remember what dementia is. It's type 3 diabetes, discovered in 2005. Won Nobel prizes in medicine for it, but then it got buried because people don't like that. The food industry didn't like the fact that you called dementia a sugar problem. Do you think they liked that? They hated that. Do you think they buried it? They buried it. Whereas if you went door to door and asked people, okay, what's the cause of dementia? You'd be lucky to find one person out of a hundred that would say, well, that's diabetes of the brain. Yep. So stem cell, Jody, hay, I got no problem with that.
Andrea, "xanthan gum. Is it allowed on the reset?" Well, why would you take it? Now if you're taking our bone broth, xanthan gum is used in our bone broth for thickening. Is there a better thickener in the world? Look, when you put something on the market, Health Canada has regulations and you got to follow their regulations. Otherwise, you can't sell a product in Canada. So xanthan gum, it's a thickening agent. Is there something better? I don't know. Okay, is it allowed on the reset? Well, yeah, but why would you take xanthan gum in anything else? Is it in cream? 35% whipped cream? Okay, look, and it's a good question, Andrea, because people ask me this all the time. When you're on the Titanic, if you're not on the Titanic health-wise, then you can spend time on the furniture, on the Titanic. Okay? You can rearrange it. But when you're on the Titanic and you're in trouble, and I tell you to do the reset for 30 days, don't worry about the deck chairs. Just trust me when I say eggs, meat and cheese. Oh, somebody said, "I can't find bacon, doctor without sugar in it." Okay, well, look, don't worry about the deck chairs. Worry about that after, after you get off the Titanic or you change courses.
Okay, you change course. You're going to hit the iceberg or you already hit it. So you have to understand, for me, I'm really big on the big picture. Get the big picture first, and then you can focus in. Everything, I get people, and God bless 'em, I agree with them. Everything has to be organic, everything has to be the best, everything. And I'm on their side. But you have to understand for me, okay, I'm talking to people every day, every day, every day, every day that know this much about nutrition. You know what they know? Nothing. They think carbs are good for them. They think that they can't live without carbohydrates. They think their brain, not going to work without carbohydrates. So I tell 'em, nah, you got to trust me for 30 days. Like I said, I don't get into the weeds in the first 30 days. I don't.
This podcast here today is going to go. By the time it's done, its cycle, it'll be 10,000 people by the end of the day, and then 40, 50,000 people in a week from now. We have people coming on live right now we're at 361. Somebody said, Dr. Martin's crazy, I'm leaving. Okay, that's live but then it gets shared and then Facebook shares it, and then we put it into a podcast and podcast. But I'm talking to the general masses out there that know nothing about nutrition, nothing or very little. They've been duped, and I'm trying to get their attention. I'm trying to get them to trust me. I'm going to give them the other side of nutrition because they've been lied to. That's a big picture, Andrea, but I'm glad you asked the question.
Tanya, okay we're almost done guys. "Are sesame seeds good for you?" Yeah. If you're a chipmunk, if you're a squirrel, they're good for you. They'll fatten you up for winter. The only seeds I like are flax seeds. And you guys know why I like them because of lignans. And what do lignans do? They block estrogen. So who was asking about estrogen this morning? Oh, Linda. Linda was asking about HRT. You better be on flax seeds.
Okay, one more question, I think, yep. Deb, "ocular migraines have a food trigger?" Well, again, Deb, I would tell you to be Doctor Deb. Figure it out. And if you're weird, just say, I'm weird. Don't feel bad about it. You're unique. Everybody's got their own fingerprint. You're different than everyone else. If you get ocular migraines and you find there's triggers to them. Here's what I usually find with ocular migraines. Here's me. Usually at the end of the day, it's hormonal. Usually not always. Usually what I found women that got ocular migraines, estrogen dominant, they were usually low in B 12. They were usually low in magnesium. They were usually low in vitamin D. That's what I found over the years, and they were very hormonal. Okay?
Okay, we're done. Thanks for the questions, guys. You have no idea how much we appreciate those questions. Okay? Have I told you lately that I love you? I haven't hey, since yesterday? Well, I mean it, when I tell you this, we love you. 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!