Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners.
Some of today’s topics include:
- Low triglycerides & high A1C
- Cayenne pepper
- Thoracic aortic aneurysms
- Low B12 & dry lips
- Coffee & osteoporosis
- Berberine & liver damage
- Rhabdomyolysis
- TSH testing
- Quercetin for allergies
- Oil of oregano
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. Welcome to another live this morning, and thanks for coming on with us. We appreciate it more than you know. Thank you for our dear, dear friends who join us live. And of course we turn all these into our podcast that the doctor is in and we thank you for watching. Okay guys, let's get to the questions. Okay, we got lots of questions, hubby. Okay, good question by the way. Okay, this is from Kristen. "My hubby has low triglycerides," good thing, "and high A1C. What would cause this?" Well, look, that's a good question. Often they correct themselves together at the same time as A1C goes down, oftentimes your triglycerides will go down it, and your HDL cholesterol will go up. It's what you want.
Okay, but let me just break this down a little bit for you, Kristen, okay, and for those listening, your hubby, okay, your hubby, he's still got some form of metabolic syndrome. Okay? What's more important than the other? It's not that. It's just that sometimes the body takes longer either for the A1C to get better or the triglycerides cholesterol ratio to get better. Sometimes they do it and most times it's done together. As you change your diet, especially on the reset, when you do the reset, remember it's the primary goal is metabolic syndrome caused by insulin resistance. That's what we're aiming at. You get a legion of other benefits, but what is metabolic syndrome? It's caused by insulin resistance. When your cells at the cellular level can't stand the site of insulin anymore, it's diet.
So what are the problems with that? Well, you get high A1C, you get high blood sugar. So high A1C, even if it's in so-called normal limits. Remember, the last thing to happen is diabetes. The first thing to happen is insulin resistance. That's the first thing. So metabolic syndrome, 93% of the population have metabolic syndrome. 93%. What is that characterized by? High A1C. High A1C, which is a measurement over 90 days, 60, 90 days of your blood sugar. I like that the best. I like it better than an insulin test. I'm not against those. Blood sugar testing. I'm not against that either, but I'd rather have an average. High blood pressure, belly fat, okay? High triglycerides and low HDL. And I like to include high uric acid. So when you've got a combination one, two of those things, you have metabolic syndrome.
So what I'm saying to you, Kristen, is your hubby is triglycerides have gone down. That's very, very good for his heart. That's very, very good for stroke, very good. But he's got to keep being disciplined because he's got to get that A1C down too. And sometimes that's just lagging. It doesn't come as quickly. And that's all right. Rome wasn't built in a day, okay, if he's eating right, good. Now you mentioned it could be alcohol, possibly. Okay, it could be alcohol, but usually alcohol will elevate your triglycerides more than your A1C, but it could be. Okay. Thank you very much Kristen.
Ray, "what does Dr. Martin say about cayenne pepper?" I like it. I like cayenne pepper for the heart and circulatory system. Yeah, I like it. There's better things that I like more. You know how I talk. Okay. Okay, good. Cayenne pepper. I would go good, better, best. See for me, all my clinical experience, I usually categorize things. So if you ask me about something like cayenne pepper, I like it. I've looked at research on it. I like it. So I would say it's good. It's good for your heart. It's good for your circulatory system. Okay? I like it. I like things better. The best for your heart and circulatory system, obviously the reset, obviously food, obviously getting rid of those stinking carbs as much as you can and sugar. Okay? Obviously that. Supplement wise, high DHA, heart and circulatory system in Navitol, those combined. I like curcumin too, but the best heart circulatory over the years. Pine Bark Extract and high DHA. You need to lubricate. Those are the best and what I used to do in the clinic, of course, we'd measure that. Okay, inflammation markers coming down. We would measure blood pressure, of course, and we would see these things had to work. So there's good, there's better, and then there's best. And these are according to my experience. Thanks for the question, Ray.
"What do people know?" Okay, Donna was asking, "what do people know about thoracic aortic aneurysms? Can they be caused or fixed by food?" Well, an aneurysm in your aortic artery, your biggest artery in your body is your aorta and an aneurysm there is not good. It can be very dangerous. Look, at the end of the day, what you want to do for your blood vessels. Food is very important. Food is the first step. That's why I like fat because fat don't make you fat and fat don't plug your arteries. Fat won't cause aneurysms. It'll be just the opposite. Okay? Remember, fat turns to oil in your body. It lubricates, okay? That's why fish is good. That's why steak is good. You don't see it turning to oil. But the high DHA in there is oil. It's fat. It lubricates. It lubricates your skin, it lubricates your blood vessels. It lubricates your joints. And that's why I like it.
That's why I like bacon too. I like bacon. People go, "Dr. Martin bacon gonna give me a heart attack." No, just the opposite. It has the same oil as olive oil. And if you asked any guru, any guru, I don't think there would be one of them that would say, oh, don't touch olive oil because olive oil is not good for you. I've never heard that. Maybe once. Cold pressed extra virgin olive oil. Excellent. I like it, but bacon's got the same oil. I like bacon better. Somebody said to me, Dr. Martin, I get tired of bacon and eggs. Why? Suck it up buttercup. I never got tired of bacon and eggs. I'm 71 years old. It'd be like, Dr. Martin, aren't you tired of coffee? Are you kidding me? Nah. Okay. You want to lubricate and heal. That's why I like Navitiol too.
Okay, Linda, "my sister just told me about Ivermectin." Well, that's a dewormer... "and it's known as a miracle drug and has helped many people. Wonder what Dr. Martin thinks of it." Well, listen, it's not what I do. It's not what I prescribe. I'm in natural medicine. Is ivermectin good? Apparently. It sure got shot down when we came through the virus, and I don't want to get into that into any kind of detail, but it was certainly controversial. Big pharma didn't like it. Nobody was making money on it. Anywho, I'll leave it at that. Okay, I'll leave it at that. Okay, thank you, Linda.
Beverly, "what causes serious outbreaks of facial blackheads, extreme xanthomas and conditions of this sort?" Well, Beverly, I'm going to tell you because you ask. Whenever you get an acute skin problem that come out with a vengeance. First thing I look at is leaky gut. Leaky gut, leaky skin. You try and just fix that by putting stuff on your skin. You got to go inside out. The skin is an organ. It's the one you see. You need to start in the gut because I guarantee you, I guarantee it because I used to see this all the time. A couple of things are happening. Leaky gut, usually fungus gets on the skin and it can come out with a roaring vengeance. And here's another thing that I want you to consider with that. Horror-mones, because I tested this. Usually what I would see, leaky gut, okay? The disruption of the microbiome, a fungal infiltration into the bloodstream comes out on the skin. And usually the perfect storm was horror-mones, meaning there was estrogen dominance. So, I would work on those things that I saw. Get estrogen down, fix leaky gut, and don't feed the bears, meaning don't feed the yeast. They're looking for sugar. They're looking for those crappy carbohydrates. Don't feed them. You don't feed them, they die off. Okay? So that's generally in a nutshell, Beverly, what I would see. Okay?
Carol, "can low B12 cause dry lips?" Yeah, possibly. Okay, anything around your mouth. I used to tell people, any kind of symptoms in the mouth or on the lips or whatever. Ordinarily I would always look at B12. That would be the first thing. But again, dry lips could be dehydration. A lot of people don't realize, again, because they're not thirsty. And when I say dehydration, you know me in water, okay? How many liters of water do you need a day for? My American friends? How many ounces? 64 or two liters of water? Everybody and their dog needs two liters of water every day. Okay, only water is water. "Dr. Martin, I like watermelon." Yeah, good for you but that ain't water. It's water in it, watermelon but it doesn't do the same thing guys. It doesn't hydrate like drinking water because only water is water, The Martin Clinic model.
And I like electrolytes. I like salty water. Now, when you drink mineral water, you are getting minerals. That's what elevates the pH of the water. Okay? Mineral, spring water, okay, I like that the best, but I'm also big on adding some salt, okay? Now some people need to even add electrolytes, okay? Sodium. And when you get a good salt, a good Celtic or sea, a good one, real salt Himalayan, add a pinch to your water. It's very good for you. Okay? So that could be dehydration. Could be dehydration, and your body will suck water. When you don't drink it, your body will suck water from everywhere. Especially because a lot of times if you have dry skin, okay, you've got patches of dry skin, even on your lips, a lot of times that is okay, just got to tell you. See, your body is unbelievable, fearfully, wonderfully made. Okay? That's your body. And your body knows when blood sugar is elevated. Never good. Your body is so smart. If your sugar is elevated in your blood, you know what your body does? It takes water from everywhere it can from your skin, the skin around your elbows, the skin around your heels, the skin around your ankles. It takes the water out of it to put it in the bloodstream. Why? Because it wants to dilute that blood sugar. Your body is intelligent.
A lot of people don't realize that, especially when they're diabetic. What is the signs of diabetes? Polydipsia, hungry all the time. Polyuria, peeing all the time. Polydipsia, polyphagia, polyuria. You are thirsty all the time. Why? Because your body, it's smart. It knows that sugar is toxic. So if you insist on eating bad people like their sugar 200 pounds a year. Well, what happens? The body dehydrates because it takes water out of everywhere it can to make the river flow, to dilute that sugar. I don't talk about that enough, but that's so true. So when you look at your skin and you're dry, you go, yeah, maybe, yeah, I'm not drinking enough water. But secondly, my blood sugar is higher than it should be and your body's reacting to that. It'll suck your body dry of water in order to put it back in your bloodstream in order to dilute that blood sugar because otherwise it's going to destroy your blood vessels. It's a protective mechanism. Okay, got the memo? Good, thank you, Carol.
Janice, "is coffee something you should eliminate if you have been diagnosed with osteoporosis?" Janice, don't listen to the nonsense. That's nonsense. You want to protect your bones, get strong. You get osteoporosis, it's because your muscles are not strong enough. It's muscle. It ain't calcium. And when they tell you that coffee leeches out that calcium, what a bunch of nonsense that is. Why would you eliminate coffee? It's the real vitamin C. It's good for your bones. How much water? Two liters. 64 ounces. How much coffee? The sweet spot. Four cups a day. How do I know that? I'm a coffee expert. I've been preaching coffee for 40 years and more. Even when all of the gurus, "coffee is acidic and when it's acidic, Dr. Martin, it takes calcium out of your bones." No, it's not. Coffee's not acidic. It's acidic, maybe in the bean. But once it gets into your system, your body knows exactly because it's so beneficial. From your head to your toes, from your blood vessels on the inside to the skin on the outside, coffee is one of the best things you can do. It's the real vitamin C. And if you don't believe me, you need to get the book where I prove it. Sun, Steak and Steel, and I have a chapter dedicated to coffee. I double down. Okay?
And okay, here's what happens inside your body when you drink coffee, your body so smart, it releases sodium bicarbonate, baking soda. You've got baking soda inside. It's built in coffee. I'm sorry, Janice, I don't mean to pick on you, but when you get personal. Okay, and then Janice says, "I've been on the reset for 11 days." Well, good for you. "And it seems I have a dry mouth no matter how much water I drink and I drink a lot of water." Well, Janice, good for you. And the dry mouth, look, your body's changing, Janice. People don't realize this is a dramatic change for a lot of people. You are now burning a better fuel Janice, stick to the plan. Dry mouth, try a little bit of salt, okay? Salt up your water, but your body is going through a change. You are now burning fat instead of carbs. Okay? So good for you, so good you. Okay, Janice, stick to it my dear. You're going to win. Okay? Look at the prize at the end. It's worth it.
I tell you, people get discouraged because they get symptoms, okay? Not everybody, but a lot of people do. They get symptoms. Their body is changing. You change fuels and your body says, whatcha doing? I like the paper and twigs on the wood stove. You used to feed me that. Now you're not feeding me that anymore. Why are you doing that to me? But your body will thank you because now you're putting logs on the fire. What do you think is better to heat? Paper and twigs or logs? What do you think is better for a jet? 87 octane or 88 that you put in your car, or 99 octane that they put into a jet. What do you think is better for you? Your body is just reacting to the change. Somebody else asked a question. I noticed that before I opened up this morning. Let me get back.
Okay, Angela, "she's been eating for a week and what would cause my thighs all of a sudden to feel like jelly? Weak, tired easily." Okay, well, Angela, you're changing. It's a change. That's what's happening in your body. Your body is saying, hello, what are you doing to me? It's not used to it, but it will thank you. It will thank you because you are burning the right fuel. You see me? It's all about fuel, food, all about fuel. So when people tell you to don't eat red meat, they don't know what they're talking about. When people tell you not to have too many eggs, they don't know what they're talking about. When people tell you not to have any dairy, they don't know what they're talking about unless you have an allergy. If you have a specific allergy, okay, you're weird. No, unique, look, these are people, doc, I can't eat eggs. Well, don't eat them. You got a different fingerprint than me.
One thing you better learn in medicine, oftentimes we don't, is everybody's different. So when I talk about generalities, everybody should be eating eggs, meat and cheese, everybody. But if you can't eat eggs, some people can't. I feel sorry for you, but you can't. Look in the mirror and say I'm unique. Okay? But what happens? They take a brush and they paint everybody. Dairy is bad. Man, that drives me crazy. Dairy is bad. Why is it bad? Well, it doesn't do well with me. Well, you're weird. Don't blame the rest of us. Don't blame those poor farmers. I don't like milk either, unless you got a cow in the backyard. You know what I mean? But that's what they do. Red meat bad. Why? Because it has the most vitamins in it. It has the most amino acids in it. That's bad. Well, I heard, yeah, well, you heard wrong. Okay, you heard wrong?
Okay, let's just keep going here. Okay, that was Angela. Thanks for that question. I'm going to go from the bottom to the top. Now, "I just read that taking berberine for longer than three months could lead to liver damage." Well, Lindy, I don't know. I don't think so. I know people that take berberine. Look, I like berberine. Okay, why do people take berberine? Usually for their blood sugar. Okay, now I like some things better than berberine. Again, good, better, best. Okay. I like alpha-lipoic acid. I like curcumin. I like cinnamon even better. But I like berberine and I don't buy that, three months of that. I don't buy it. I've heard it too though.
Marie, "can muscle damage from Crestor be reversed?" Absolutely it can. Okay, so we talked about this was it yesterday? Rhabdomyolysis? What is that? Muscle damage. From, very common, a side effect from statins, cholesterol lowering medication. We dedicated a whole show or two to that. Okay? Can it be reversed? Sure it can. And usually if you have rhabdomyolysis, your doctor is going to take you off those statin drugs. Hopefully, I can't give you specific medical advice. I got to speak in generalities. But if anybody's got rhabdomyolysis, muscle damage and that statin drug are not getting along, need to talk to your doctor about it and for sure get on ubiquinol for sure. CoQ10 ubiquinol. Thank you for the question, Marie.
Carrie, "my question for Friday is regarding the thyroid." Okay? "I know that the doc says that if the TH is greater than 1, it equals symptoms." No, I didn't say that. You're close, but I didn't say that. Here's what I said. Ordinarily, when the TSH is above 1 ordinarily with symptoms, okay, because what I did is I used to look at numbers. I still do every day I look at numbers. You want to send me your blood work, send me your blood work. Happy to look at it. Okay? What I'm looking at is TSH. I like it in this sense. What are your symptoms? What is your TSH? Now, generally with exceptions, when it comes to the thyroid, I always take your symptoms and your symptoms trumps your blood work. Okay? Your symptoms trump your blood work. But over the years, and I wrote this in my book, Sun, Steak and Steel, there's eight blood tests that I would like you to get done. Get your doctor to do the eight tests that I write about in Sun, Steak and Steel, okay?
But over the years, I found that when I found the T S H above one, the majority of the time they had symptoms of a sluggish thyroid. Okay? Not always, but a lot of times that's the correlation. Okay? So you can get your T3, T4 done. You can get a full panel done. I find if you understand the thyroid and you understand that the thyroid does not act independently, only doing thyroid tests is a mistake that medicine makes. You got to look at the whole picture. You have to look at cortisol, you have to look at estrogen and progesterone, even insulin. And you have to look at liver because 80% of the conversion your body needs, your thyroid doesn't work without T3. It doesn't work without T3. The conversion of T4 to T3, most of the thyroid makes is T4. And then there's a finicky process of converting that to T3. Very finicky and relies on a lot of different things. That's why the thyroid is so difficult and medicine when they forget that all they can do. They're hijacked by the labs. All they can think of is tests, ranges between normal and abnormal are a hundred miles apart. Oh, your thyroid's normal. It's not really normal if it's not working properly. Even if the blood tests tell me that it is. Okay? So anyway, I'm giving you some inside information on the thyroid, okay? Thank you, Carrie.
Grace, "is quercetin help for cat and dog allergies?" I'm laughing a little bit because you know me and my cat story. Remember I told the lady, I said, why are you here? I have allergies. What are you allergic to? My cat? I said, get rid of it. Grace, I'm just teasing. Okay? Your husband has severe allergies. You can't go in the house with the cats and dogs. He can't go in the house. Well, it's a good way to get rid of your husband, isn't it? Now you're asking a serious question. So let me give you a serious answer. Quercetin, okay? Quercetin is fabulous for allergies. Try it. Try it. You might be able to keep the cat and dog and keep your husband. I can't help myself. Yeah, Grace, try it. I would do a combo. Okay, here's what I do, what I did with my patient. Quercetin and Navitol together and probiotics because any allergy starts with leaky gut.
Okay, Joan, "I have paraneoplastic syndrome." Yeah, I know what it is. Look, let me answer that, Joan, you send that question to me at info at Martin Clinic because nobody knows about this and I don't want to. I think there's some specific things that I would tell you. Just send me info at Martin Clinic. Send me that and I'll tell you what to do.
Kathy, "my niece and her family in Huntsville have pink eye." Yep. "And a friend have adenovirus keratosis. They went to emergency, said that that's what it is. Become very concerning. Just wonder what the doctor studies I can share with you." Look, pink eye virus and any virus work inside out. And I'm big on oil of oregano. Not in your eye obviously, but internally, probiotics will keep viruses at bay. Oil of oregano I love. Eat steak because that's got vitamin A and I like high levels of vitamin D. Keep your immune system up and a little bit of oil of oregano a couple of drops, and then use just ordinary soap wash. Very antiviral. Very antibacterial, very antifungal. I love oil of oregano.
And Nicole's asking about oil of oregano too. "10 drops a day, too much?" No. Well, look, the only way it would be too much is if your body's reacting to it and you can't take it or it's strong. So if it's burning your stomach or whatever, yeah, you can back off a bit. But 10 drops a day. I like oil of oregano. Can you take too much oil of oregano? Not really. But again, if it bothers you, some people, it bothers them and it's strong, but it don't kill your good guys, only your bad guys. How do you like an oil like that that leaves your good healthy bacteria alone and kills your bad guys? How do you like that? See, that's what God gave us in nature with oil of oregano. It's a gift. Thank you very much.
Colette, "what causes dental plaque and tartar?" Well, look, it's not my area of expertise, but usually with tartar and that not flossing. One of the best tools, I believe for your mouth is the water pick. I use that every day to really get at plaque and tartar causing bacteria in your mouth. Don't use mouthwash. Just clean. Go do a deep clean. Okay and orally. I always want to blame everything on sugar and yeah, it don't help cavities for sure. Colette, thanks for the question.
Okay, I think I hit everything. Yep, I did, good, I did it. Guys, thank you for all those questions. Okay, we love you. I haven't told you that lately, have I? Not since yesterday. Okay. Well, I mean it. And guys, we love you dearly and I mean that. Thanks for all the good questions. Thanks for being a great audience. Thanks for putting up with my shenanigans. It's much appreciated. Tell your friends and they can get the book, Sun Steak and Steel. Okay, love you dearly. 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!