A new study is saying that when you choose to go to sleep matters. Melatonin is what helps put you to sleep and it turns out that the greatest amount is secreted between 10 pm and 2 am. Dr. Martin says it’s reason enough to stop being a night owl and go to sleep!
Dr. Martin also answers questions about B12 in today’s shortened 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: Well, good morning everyone. Hopefully you're getting the notifications this morning. We're just going to do a short little live this morning. The traveling, as you can see, Cletus, good morning. Do you have to take your B12 under the tongue? Yes. That's the best way to do it. Okay, Kim says, new office setting. Okay, so guys, people ask this all the time about, and I'm glad you brought it up because I was actually going to talk about it. B12, first of all, yes, okay, because listen, B12 people that tell me they take a B complex and it has B12 in it, you're not getting the B12 from that, okay? And even if you take a B12 and its got cyanocobalamin or whatever, first of all, B12 has to be in the right form. It has to be either you get an injection of B12 or you take a sublingual.
And listen, the research is very clear on this. The research is very clear. The sublingual daily form of taking B12 in the methyl, okay? It has to be in the right form. Methylcobalamin. So when you see B12, make sure it has at the front of the name methyl, okay? Then it has to be sublingual. Let it melt in your mouth. Why? Because you can't just swallow B12, okay? If you're eating steak, you're going to get B12, but when you're taking a supplement, and how many times have I talked about the importance of supplementing with B12? Okay? How many times have I done that? Because B12, it's essential, and the vast majority of people are low.
And the old time physician, I talked about that the other day, they used to have a doctor's bag. I haven't seen that in so many years. Okay? Well, they even used to do house calls. They had a doctor's bag with a stethoscope and the blood pressure cuff and that kind of thing in their bag, but most of them had the ability to give you a B12 shot. To them, if you had any lack of energy, you got a B12 shot in the 1950s from physicians. That has been long lost because again, what happened is that most physicians, unless you have, I'm trying to think unless they get a blood test that shows you're deficient.
Now, listen, when you get a blood test of B12, high is around anything over 500 into the six hundreds, that's high B12. First of all, B12 is a hundred years old. That test, okay? And what we know today, and what I've been saying for over 40 years is B12 needs to be optimized. You need to have between minimum of 800. I like between the 800 to 1200 range. The other thing about B12, it's water soluble. When's the best time to take B12? Probably in the morning. Okay? Because B12's going to give you oxygen. It's going to help you make red blood cells. B12 is so important for your metabolism. B12 is good for everything from your brain to your toes, and I suggest taking B12 in the morning.
Now, listen, some people, a lot of my patients would take B12 and take their second one before going to bed at night. They found it helped them to sleep the extra oxygen, and just by the way, think about it, what is sleep apnea? They want to put oxygen up into your brain. They give you a machine, they pour oxygen up into your brain, but B12 gives you extra oxygen, okay? So yes, let it melt in your mouth. Yes,. B12 should be taken every day, okay? If you need B12 should be taken every day. As I get older and I monitor my B12 levels, and it was amazing to me. I was in the seven hundreds last year. I was surprised by that because I eat so much red meat and steak and I said I wanted higher than that, and I was only taking B12 once a week or whatever. Now I take it every day. I take B12 every day, every morning, okay?
So as you get older, you don't have as much intrinsic factor. One of the things that you need in your stomach to absorb B12 is the intrinsic factor, okay? As you get older, if you got digestive problems of any kind, plus any medication, especially if you're a diabetic, any medication though will deplete your levels of B12. It will deplete your levels of B12. You're on any med, especially metformin, you need B12. Okay? So did I answer your question about B12? Now my vitamin B12, this is Cayo, is 735 is high. I stopped taking it. No, it's not high. You're not even at optimized level. You should be 800 minimum. That's the lowest you should be, so don't stop taking B12 because you're in the seven hundreds. I told you I was in the seven hundreds and I started taking B12 regularly and now I'm around 1200 on my latest test. Isn't that good? That's the best. That is when you are optimizing B12. Okay? You got that? Thank you for just putting that comments that I can read. Today I can, because I'm sitting in my car, I can read. Usually when I'm on the set. I don't get that.
Okay, now, okay, just wanted to bring you two studies very quickly. One is on sleep. I'm always fascinated by sun, steak, steel and sleep, right? My book, Sun, Steak and Steel and Sleep, and here's a new study on sleep. We all know that melatonin is important for sleep, okay? Not the supplement. The fact is you make melatonin, okay? Your body makes melatonin. The best way to get melatonin in your body is actually don't put sunglasses on just by seeing the sun. So in the winter, you can't get vitamin D from the sun unless you're in Florida. You need sun to get on your skin, especially your arms and your legs. These are your biggest solar panels for vitamin D, but melatonin, just by seeing the sun, sunlight during the day. Don't put your sunglasses on at least for about 20 minutes. Let melatonin in your body, increase by the sunlight.
You know what, guys? Is there anything negative about the sun? My word is good for you. It not only builds up your vitamin D, but it builds up your melatonin. I'm not big. I tell you this, and I've been like this for a century, okay? I don't like melatonin supplements. People ask me that all the time. I really don't. I'm not big on it because I found over the years, and the research is consistent with what I found is that melatonin supplements are maybe effective for some people for a short period of time. After that, they lose their efficiency, but sunlight, increasing your melatonin by the sunlight, so just by being on a sunny day, because where melatonin comes in is through your eyeballs mostly to your third brain called your pineal gland, and you want to increase that level of melatonin inside your body by the sunlight. Got it? Not by a supplement, by the sunlight.
Now, here's the study. The study said, let me quote it. The greatest levels of melatonin secreted, okay, so melatonin, your body's ability to put you to sleep. The greatest amount secreted is when you're sleeping between 10:00 PM and 2:00 AM. Isn't that interesting? They're studying sleep because guys, listen, I've been in practice for a long time. We never even heard of sleep apnea. I mean it. When I was in school, sleep apnea, there was no such thing. And today it's an epidemic. Now, I already told you what it's caused by. It's caused by insulin resistance. It's a metabolic thing. It's not a lack of oxygen. It's fatty tongue.
But the more they study sleep, the more they realize melatonin, the best time for secretion of melatonin, the melatonin that your body produces, and one of the ways it produces is by the sunlight, but the other way is supplementing with vitamin D. Vitamin D3 will help to elevate your levels of melatonin in your body. Okay? Now, the best time for the secretion of melatonin to get you into that deep sleep. You got five stages of sleep, okay? To get you into that deep sleep melatonin between 10:00 PM and 2:00 AM. Go to bed. Don't be a night owl, and that's what that research is saying. Okay?
Now, the other thing that's important, I just want to mention it. My audience knows this. When we talk about detoxifying the brain, your brain has its own self-cleaning oven. Your self-cleaning oven works best only when you're sleeping. Your brain needs to detoxify. When does that happen? When you sleep. Do you think sleep is important? You bet your boots. Melatonin, not the supplement. Not the supplement. Melatonin, the hormone that your body makes is secreted between 10:00 PM and 2:00 AM at the most, okay? The most frequent secretion of your body's ability to put you into a deeper sleep is between 10:00 PM and 2:00 AM. That's important, guys. That's important.
Okay, I got a shortened version today, guys. We love you. I just didn't want to miss two days in a row with you, okay? We love you dearly. Thanks for coming on this morning. Question and answer Friday tomorrow. Okay? Hopefully back. 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!