It’s important to understand how triglycerides and HDL levels affect our heart health. Having high triglycerides and low HDL are significant indicators of metabolic syndrome, which is a major risk factor for heart disease.
Join Dr. Martin as he looks at various health headlines covering the keto diet, heart health and the potential dangers of having high triglycerides and low HDL.
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 this morning. We are so happy and thrilled that you're on with us when you can't come on live. Thank you. From the bottom of our hearts here at The Doctor Is In Podcast. Okay, let's go. We know what we're going to do this morning. Headline Thursday. We're going to do headlines just because there's so much health news, I can't even keep up to it. I was jotting notes down earlier and I said I did about 50 studies that I haven't really dug into that way I'd like to. Anyway, let me talk first, before we do that, let me talk first about the email we sent out this morning. Now guys, if you're not on our email list, you got to get on it. Why? Because we give so much information. We get into some details of these studies.
Now, what we talked about this morning is the importance of your triglyceride HDL. Now guys, when in doubt get my book. The reason is because you'll have it in front of you all the time. You can take notes. This is what I do with books. I buy a book and I mark it up. I make notes, I underline, I fold pages. That's me. I carve up a book that I really like to make notes for myself. Okay? Now guys, you can take our book, Sun, Steak & Steel and that chapter on blood work is, I'm telling you guys, the chapter on blood work is worth the price of the book by itself. Years and years of experience. Years and years of clinical practice. And I just lay it out there for the lay person. What tests, number one to order, because people ask that all the time. Doc, what tests should I order? And two, how do interpret those results when you get them? Because it's all Greek to most people, or Latin.
Labs are difficult to understand but I make it simple, guys, okay? I'm a simple guy. I just want to make things simple so that you understand what's happening. But what we did this morning, in an email, we talk about the ratio of triglycerides to HDL. Now, not only am I convinced, not only am I convinced, but when you look at all the research and really just be honest about it, the biggest factor for heart disease is not cholesterol. The biggest factor for heart disease is metabolic syndrome, which we talked about yesterday, is characterized by high triglycerides and low cholesterol. Just the opposite of what we've been taught. Guys, here's what I've said for 40 years. If cholesterol was at the root of heart disease, we would've got rid of heart disease already. And yet, here we are in 2025, and heart disease is worse than ever. It's worse than ever.
So the point I'm trying to make is this, you got to look at your triglycerides. And guys, even as lay people, even if you don't have any kind of background in medicine, you can understand this. You want to have low triglycerides and high HDL, okay? Because when you have low triglycerides, you know, that your body. When you have low triglycerides, tri-glycerides. Tri means three and glycerides mean fat and so three fat balls. When those are high fat balls are going through your bloodstream. And by the way, you do not send fat balls into your blood vessels eating fat. It's the opposite. It's when you're eating crappy carbs and sugars, that's when your triglycerides go up. Okay? So we talk about that in this newsletter.
And the thing that really, really saves your bacon for your heart is having high HDL. Your HDL, high density lipoprotein. Don't get into the weeds. You don't have to get into the weeds, okay? Just understand this. Physicians are going to scare the living life out of you about cholesterol because that's their training. Just understand it's their training. They can't think of anything else because they've been trained. If you have high cholesterol, you're going to have a heart attack. And they get trained like that in medical school and don't expect anything different. It's what your expectations are. I love physicians. I do. I love them. They're smart, but they're looking for love in all the wrong places when it comes to heart disease. And guys, this has been proven and proven, but don't hold your breath to change their minds, guys, because you have to understand there's an enormous pressure coming down from the colleges of physicians and surgeons. Enormous pressure from the medical establishment coming down to the individual physician to toe the line. You see high cholesterol, you want to lower it with a statin drug that's in their craw, that's in their thinking, if you know that, okay?
And I don't want you to fight with your doctor, I want you to understand how your body operates. I want you to understand what really causes heart disease. And remember what I said over and over again, sugar is the most destructive nutrient, wouldn't even call it a nutrient. Sugar is so destructive to your blood vessels. And guys, I'm going to tell you, it's sugar, not fat. Sugar gets stored as fat rapidly by insulin into your liver, into your muscles. And then the unlimited capacity just about to make fat cells. And fat cells, when they're full of fat, are going to secrete triglycerides. And the only thing that's going to go get those triglycerides in your blood are HDL cholesterol. They're going to hitch their wagon. The more HDL you have, the more they hitch their wagon to your triglycerides and they bring them down, they bring them back to your liver for processing. Got it?
So we talked about that this morning in the email, okay? Get your triglycerides down by eating low carb, cutting out the sugar and eat your cholesterol. You want to elevate your HDL cholesterol. You want to elevate that. Guys, 85% of all the cholesterol that you need is produced in your liver. Now everybody gets that. You get 85%. God does that. Okay? God gives you 85%. We got to produce the other 15. That's why if you're a vegetarian or a vegan, I can almost guarantee you're going to have high triglycerides and low HDL almost guarantee because you're not meant to live on that. You're not providing enough cholesterol in your diet, and cholesterol is only found in the animal kingdom. Cholesterol. Think cholesterol, think steak. Think cholesterol, think eggs. Think cholesterol, think dairy, cheese, cream. Not milk. I don't like milk unless you've got a cow in the backyard. Like a pure yogurt, like Greek plain. It's got a few sugars in it, but that's from the dairy. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about getting that fat into your body. Healthy fat, because you need cholesterol.
Your body will live guys with 85% of the cholesterol needs. Your body will live, but it won't thrive. Your body thrives with cholesterol. You need to eat it. So don't let anybody on Netflix or any guru or anybody on TV or anybody on a podcast, don't let 'em trick you into putting fruits and vegetables first. I see advertisements for these fruit and vegetables supplements, okay? I'm not against fruits and vegetables, but they make it look like, well, you got to have how many servings of fruits and vegetables a day, otherwise you're going to die. No, you ain't. And guys, you've heard it here for how many years? I've been consistent. I've been talking about it. You need to eat eggs, meat and cheese. Put that on your plate first in the morning, start your day, not with oatmeal. Start your day with eggs, not with cereal. Start your day with bacon or sausage. Guys, that's healthy for you. That is what's going to save your bacon. That is what's going to save your heart because it will get your triglycerides down and your HDL up.
Now, we also talked in the newsletter, okay. Sign up if you're not getting it at martinclinic.com. You want to get those newsletters, those emails, because what we also talked about is fatty liver. And when you look at triglycerides, it's interesting because we put out some numbers at 1.64, okay? In the United States, that's 164. We just used a different metric, but comes out to the same. So in the United States, if your triglycerides are above 1.64 or 164, you've got some form of fatty liver. You want to get that triglycerides down. 2.48, severe metabolic syndrome. That's going to put your heart in big danger, guys. Fatty liver, 1.64 triglyceride. That means you know what it means? Fatty liver. It means your liver is the Costco parking lot. You go buy Costco, jeepers, it's always full. Well, that's someone who's a carboholic. That's how you get fatty liver. And isn't that wonderful that you can fix it? You can fix fatty liver just by cutting down your carbs big time.
That's why, how many of you, okay, did the one week reset? And I know guys, do you think, I don't know that that goes against the grain of nutritional gurus? Like Dr. Martin, he's a quack. He's crazy. How many at times, even on our private Facebook group, have I read Dr. Martin, I'm confused. Well, you're online, and I'm telling you the opposite of what you're learning online. I'm telling you the opposite, but okay, put your hands up if you want to answer this. How long have I been telling you to eat eggs? And don't count. Don't count. Just eat as many as you want. And meat and bacon. Have I been saying that for years? You bet your boots, and people have been so ingrained. Here I go with the grain again, lay off the grains. You don't need them. You don't need them. Get your cholesterol up. If you get your cholesterol up, your triglycerides will go down. You will avoid or fix fatty liver guys and your heart will thank you. Your heart will thank you. That's one study. No, that was our newsletter. I didn't even get into the studies. Yikes. Okay, and then we talked about DHA what that does to your triglycerides, it lowers your triglycerides and it helps heal your liver.
Guys, I've been talking about DHA omega-3 for I don't know how many years. People have tried to get me to change my mind. I don't know why. I'll read anything you send me. You want to send me a study, I'll read it. But guys, I'm going to tell you I know what the truth is and the truth will set you free. Okay? Here's a study came out. Keto. You know the keto diet. What is keto? Okay, the keto diet is a low carb diet, okay? And it comes from the word ketosis, which is you or me, burning a better fuel. That's all it is because if you lower your carbs enough, your body will take another route in terms of fuel. You'll start burning ketones. That's fat. Your body burns fat instead of carbs. Glucose. Now glucose, everything eventually turns into glucose, okay? But let your body do it, don't you add to the problem.
So keto, okay, let me read the study, is best for blood sugar control. I get a migraine. I get a migraine. I was showing my wife something, I got a PhD in obituaryology. My wife gave it to me. I look at obituaries all the time. Well, listen, one of the big reasons I look at obituaries all the time. I want to make sure I'm not in there first, okay? In the morning. But I do. I look because listen, I was in private practice for just about 50 years, guys. There's so many people I know and I'm always looking for, oh, was that one of my former patients or people that I know? And I look at obituaries and I get a degree, but I always read obituaries so I could tell you, okay, almost in five minutes a lot about a person that you read at the end of their life.
And you know what guys? The reason I am even talking about it is because you have no idea how many people at the end of their obituary, the family writes, oh you can send money in to, okay? And it's usually one of three places, okay? And this is a big change. One is to Pet Save. Okay, send money to Pet Save. I wonder what they do with all that money? The second one is what they died from cancer. And thirdly, diabetes. Okay? Now, they might've had a heart attack and sometimes they put send money to the American Heart Association, the Canadian one, but they don't usually do that because you know how diabetics die. Usually they have a heart attack or they have a stroke. Sugar is so destructive to your blood vessels. If you don't believe me, guys ask a diabetic. They know. They know. Okay, got the memo? Low keto is best for blood sugar control. Hello? Yes. Lower your carbs. You know me. Change fuel. Go to rocket fuel. When you lower your carbohydrates, your body will, thank you.
Everyone, oh, doc, I need carbs. No, you don't. I'm not saying you can't have any. Once you get metabolically well. If you get in the 7% of the population, put your hand up if you guys are in the 7% of the healthy population that doesn't have metabolic syndrome, okay, isn't that wonderful? Get to the superstar status. How do you do that? You lower your carbohydrates. When you lower your carbohydrates, you're going to lower your blood sugar. When you lower your blood sugar, and I like measuring it by A1C, you are going to move into a category. You are going to get off the Titanic, and you are going to turn your life around physically, your health around. And guys, I know they try and make it complicated and they try and this diet, that diet, this diet, that diet. Guys. I could write a book about every diet that's ever been created in the last 50 years. And we used to have the grapefruit diet. That gave me a migraine, the grapefruit diet.
Guys, the key is low carb. Get your carbs down. Bread, pasta, rice, cereals, sugars, sweets, pastries, muffins, bagels. Okay? Get your grains down to very little. People think, doc, I can't live like that. I can't live like that. Well, I'm only telling you the truth. And study after keto is the best for blood sugar control. Wow. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Guys, I got to keep going because if I don't, we'll never finish. Okay, let's do a few coffees, okay? Because if I don't do these. Best time for coffee is in the morning. Okay? Look, these are studies guys. Don't say, oh, Dr. Martin, you only read good studies on coffee. Yeah, you're right. You have to admit, I'm the most consistent promoter of coffee when people thought it's acidic, it's no good for you. It's bad. The caffeine, it dehydrates. You're going to lose all your minerals and you're going to die if you drink too much coffee. I know you like it, but you shouldn't. You know what? They don't know what they're talking about. They're wrong. And I'm right. And I said this 50 years ago, and I'm more right today than I was 50 years ago every day, just about to get a new study on the benefits of coffee.
Let me give you a couple, okay? Let me give you a couple morning coffee drinkers, lower their risk of heart disease. 40,000 participants in a two lane university study. Aha. Coffee's good for you anytime. Now, I think the only negative thing is that if caffeine keeps you up at night, well, don't have caffeine at night. I got to have a coffee at night, but it's a decaf. And what is the sweet spot? And again and again, these studies are showing it. Four cups of coffee a day. That's the sweet spot. Okay? Coffee and this is another study, this one morning coffee drinkers lower the risk of heart disease. That was the headline. Here's another headline. Coffee increases your lifespan on average by two years. Woohoo. Whoopy doopy, isn't that good? What's the real vitamin C guys? Coffee. It's the real vitamin C. Isn't that wonderful? You get a gift, a vitamin that you love to drink.
And on the reset, here's what I got my patients to do for years and years, I said I'm going to create habits. It takes 21 days to form a habit. Okay? Here's what you do. Drink water. Two liters, 64 ounces every day, no exceptions, seven days a week. I will not allow you to have a coffee till you've had 16 ounces or a half a liter of water in the morning. You want more than that? Good for you, but you better have the minimum of that. If you were my patient, I lectured you on the importance of water. And only water is water. Coffee's not water. Coffee's great, but it's not water. Okay? You have to drink water. The best water is spring water, and you don't have to spend a fortune on alkaline water or anything like that. You don't, okay? Don't be fooled by that. You want alkaline water? Put a little pinch of salt in your water, salty water. It doesn't have to taste salty. It just needs a little pinch of salt. Now you're providing electrolytes.
Okay, so guys, water, two liters or 64 ounces. Number two. Then you have coffee. Then you drink your coffee. Got the memo? The sweet spot for coffee is four cups a day. And listen to this again, coffee drinkers lower their risk of heart disease. One, two, 40,000 people study from Tulane and coffee increases your lifespan by two years. What? I knew it, okay, guys, I got a lot more research, a lot of studies. I just scratched the surface guys. I got too excited about triglycerides. I'm breathing and I, okay, you know what? Tomorrow is question and answer Friday. We're right back to.
Actually, guys, can I just tell you, most of our podcasts have to do with questions you're asking. Almost all of, okay. And I'm reading studies and I look at stuff every day. Read, read, read, read, read, and I flag, flag, flag, flag, flag those important studies so I can bring them to you. And then we do question and answer because you guys are always asking questions. You know what the word doctor means? Teacher and a teacher that don't answer questions. Not much of a teacher. And that's one of the biggest issues I have with physicians today. They don't teach, okay? They don't teach their patients. Okay guys, we love you dearly and sincerely, and send your questions into info@martinclinic.com. We love you. 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!