Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners 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: Well good morning everyone. Once again, welcome to another live this morning, question and answer Friday. Okay, got to get to these questions guys. Okay? Because otherwise we'll never get done and Anna is asking, "Dr. Martin always finds studies and can you provide some of the study pages of what he follows that I can sign up for, please?" Well, listen, Anna, I'm answering that because yep, I read I don't know how many studies a day. Some of them I just glance over if I'm not terribly interested, but I sort of flag studies that I really like. My problem is, Anna, in terms of getting the studies to you, I would have to post them and I would post them probably on our private Facebook group and sometimes I do.
The problem is I'm a dinosaur and for me to have to post all the studies that I read or I find interesting or that I talk about in our shows, that is going to require some work on. I don't have a staff around me. Because a lot of podcasts, they got a staff and in the studio or whatever and they have a study and they put it up and you know what? I am a dinosaur. I just have a hard time. I find it labor intensive for me to do that. So I get it, Anna. I will try and post it more afterwards or before on the private Facebook group. I guess I could do that. Maybe I should, but I really don't have a staff doing it. I do it. Okay, but I appreciate it, Anna, and it's not the first time I've been asked. Anyway, thank you very much.
Lise is asking about her grandson, autistic diagnosed at four, he's now almost eight, was diagnosed with ADHD too and he's on medication aggressive behavior. Listen, all of that said the hardest thing to do with an autistic child because I saw, I'm going to say hundreds, but it might've been higher than that in my practice over the years, and I've always talked about autism as something that, look, it's probably been around to some extent, but nothing like today, and I always link it. I've told you this on this program for years and years and years, and I did it on my radio show, The Doctors Is In radio show for years and years and years that autism was linked to the gut. Okay?
Now there's a lot of talk about vaccines and all that. And look, they could be factors for sure, but it still disrupts the gut. It disrupts the microbiome, and I believe, okay, this is me that one of the biggest issues is antibiotics. I think it's an issue because it causes leaky gut. Again, I'm not telling anybody not to be on antibiotics. I think I'm going to do a program just because I thought about it this morning. I'm going to do a program. If you're taking this medication, make sure you're taking this supplement. And the number one supplement for any medication really is a probiotic because a lot of medications or most of them will disrupt your microbiome.
The problem is these kids, autistic kids are canaries in the coal mine. They're fragile. Young age. Mommy, the placenta mommy, before she was, I did case studies. I was a history guy. I'm a history taker. The vast majority of kids' autism, mommy was on antibiotics. The vast majority, some of it might've been C-section. Too many of those today, again, a wonderful thing. C-sections can save a baby's life. A C-section can save mummy's life. But I'm not just saying it. Even the colleges of physicians and surgeons all around North America have said it. We're doing too many C-sections. Problem with a C-section is the baby don't go through the birth canal and with all the microbiome gets mummies, bacteria, and there's a lot of good guys there, and they get it in the placenta on the way out. Look, it's really, really important, some of the things I talk about.
Okay, now let's get back to your 8-year-old grandson. Here's what I would do, Lise, probiotics, if you're not going to swallow them, open them up, put 'em in an apple sauce or put it in a yogurt or whatever, okay? You got to fix that leaky gut. It will help. You're not going to reverse it, but it will help. Any way you can get high DHA oil into that child. I'm telling you, what a difference, and I've proven this to people. What a difference in behavior with the ADHD and the cognitive and the aggression. I've seen it high DHA, you got to put a pin prick in those capsules and get that oil, get that fat into that child. Okay, so probiotics, number one, I would have them on Navitol because it crosses the blood-brain barrier and that combination vitamin D, okay? And usually they're full of toxins, their liver's full of toxins, and then they don't eat right. They usually drink the wrong stuff and that kind of thing. So Lise, these are things that I would suggest.
Mike, "what do you recommend to reduce a painful acid reflux and indigestion for my wife that may be caused by a treatment that she's getting for a deep vein thrombosis or a possible one, right?" Yeah well, a lot of medications cause side effects and gastric acid reflux. Look, start with the basics. I'm a big guy on digestive enzymes. Most people have some trouble with their digestion. Most not all. Okay? I love digestive enzymes because they're so good for you. They're pancreatic enzymes and lipase and amylase and protease and all the broad spectrum of those strains of enzymes are really good. I would do that. I would have her on aloe vera juice. I like that just to help with the burning and cool, the burning. Get her off sugars even though the medication might have caused it. Sugar is a huge, huge cause of acid reflux. And ask thousands of people who went on the reset, the 30 days without any sugars, what happened to their stomach and the acid stays in. Look, you want acid, you actually need acid. Problem is when it comes up into the esophagus, and it's usually because you're not making enough acid or it's a side effect of a medication, but that's what I would do. Thank you very much, Mike for that.
John, "could Dr. Martin discuss hemorrhoids?" No. Who wants to talk about hemorrhoids? Listen, when I was in practice, obviously I saw this thousands of times hemorrhoid people really bothered by that. There are varicose veins in the wrong area. Not that varicose veins are good anywhere, but having a varicose vein in the butt ain't no fun. Okay? Now, one of the biggest things that I think, okay, again, I talked about this yesterday on the program. People are fiber crazy, and they think that if they have a big stool, they win a prize of some kind. It always amazes me how people have been roped into the fiber craze. I'm not even optimistic that we're ever going to get over it because doctors love fiber, but it's overrated. And I think it's one of the biggest causes of hemorrhoids is fiber. Too much. Too much roughage. You're a carboholic.
A lot of people, you're going to get a huge stool. You know why? Think about it for a minute. People eat so many carbs that a lot of it is nutrient deficient and it ends up in the toilet. It doesn't get into your tissue, it doesn't get into your cells. It's not microsize. It's there for bulkiness. Look, I'm not telling people not to have anything from the plant kingdom. I don't do that. I do it for 30 days, but then I don't do it. Look, if you want to be a carnivore, you can be a carnivore, okay? I've never been big on that. Maybe therapeutically for a while. Yeah, I got no problem with that. You want to be a carnivore? Be a carnivore. You know me, I'm an eggs, meat, and cheese guy, okay? So I am big on the animal kingdom. Big, big, big, big, big because of its nutrient density. It's what your body was designed for.
Now, I'm not saying again that you can't eat from the plant kingdom. I'm not saying that at all, but don't live on the plant kingdom. Your body wasn't meant to live on the plant kingdom. So the plant kingdom, your nuts and seeds and fruits and vegetables and legumes and all this and that, they're all right. I can get you to live with that. I got no problem. But don't live and sustain yourself on the plant kingdom. Your body wasn't designed for it. It's overrated. And a lot of times digestive issues, I talked about diverticulosis yesterday, diverticulitis, ulcerative colitis and all the itises in your gut a lot of times is done by irritation, bulkiness. And it's amazing that people find out when they cut out that stuff that they do better.
And I'll give you a little secret. I used to use this in my office all the time. I'd make up a sab in my office or I'd get my patient to make it up at home. Use some Vick's. I like Mentholatum better. I found the ingredients in there better than Vick's. Mix it a little bit with some Vaseline or coconut oil and apply on the hemorrhoid. Really helps with inflammation and really helps with itchiness of the hemorrhoid. That was a little secret. Patients used to say, doc, why don't you make this public? I said, it's a secret. But now that I'm out of practice, there we go.
Okay, Louie or Louis. Hi Louie. "Dr. Martin, what is hyperhidrosis?" That's when you sweat a lot. That's people they have a shirt on mine and they got big, big sweat marks and they sweat like nobody's business. What causes it? I dunno. People have asked me this for centuries. What causes hyperhidrosis? I don't know. It's the way you're built. It ain't no fun. The medical treatment for it, Botox or whatever. Nah, I don't recommend that. I don't know what to tell you. Okay? I really don't know what to tell you to the extent that food could be a factor. I don't know. Are there any supplements that magically help with hyperhidrosis? I haven't found one. In my office, if a patient came in and that was their primary complaint, I would do what I did with every other patient and that I was checking for deficiencies. If you were low in magnesium, you were low in vitamin D, you were low in omega-3, I fixed that. I would address that you were low in B12. Sometimes it could be that because I thought that was fairly common in hyperhidrosis. But there's no magic. There's no magic. It's the way you're built. Okay, anybody got any answers on that magic that maybe I'd never heard of it?
Okay, Syl, "I'm hearing that nicotine is a nutrient. What are your thoughts?" Well, they're both. Nicotine is very addictive. Nicotine gets to your brain in about eight seconds. Nanoseconds. Okay? So that's why the big tobacco companies knew exactly what they were doing. They hooked and they lied and they got caught. Remember there was actually movies or a movie that I remember, but they got caught. And all those bandits in the cigarette industry, they moved to the food industry. That's a fact, guys. Okay? Philip Morris is one of the biggest food companies. They bought up food when they had to get out of the tobacco companies because they weren't making any money anymore and they got exposed, but they had lots of money. So what did they do? They got into the food industry.
Nicotine, now look it, you do have traces of nicotine in the plant kingdom. For example, there is traces of nicotine in potatoes, in tomatoes, in bananas, in eggplants. But look, there's somebody on the internet or whatever, and guys, look, let me just give you some of my background, okay, so you understand where I'm coming from. When you have a radio show for years like I did, guys, I've been doing research for a long, long time. Of course, my specialty is food, PhD in clinical nutrition, natural medicine, and I'm a food guy. So I know that there are traces of nicotine in food. But I like this example because it's probably the most popular example that I can give to you. In the 1990s, I was at a conference in California, the biggest natural product conference in the world every year in March is in Anaheim, California.
And one year, because I wrote a book on chronic fatigue syndrome, I was the guest speaker at this conference, thousands of people. And I gave a dissertation on my book, chronic fatigue syndrome. It was very well received and a guy after me was a guy by the name of, I think it was first name was Peter. Peter Dedamo. You can look this up. He wrote a book on eating for your blood type. Okay? Eating for your blood type. So if you were a certain blood type, you're supposed to eat meat. And if you were another blood type, you're never to eat meat. Now I listened. Okay? I listened. When a guy has a theory like that and nobody else really is buying that theory, I'm skeptical. I was skeptical when I heard it because I get a PhD in nutrition in food. So if someone tells me, well, your body wasn't built to eat meat, I go, you know your blood type, I was skeptical because that don't make any sense to me.
How are you going to get your B12 if you can't eat red meat? Are you supposed to take a supplement the rest of your life because whatever is your blood type? And this one guy says it, and it was all evolutionary biology. I didn't buy it guys. Okay? I didn't buy it. I got asked about it on my radio show 10,000 times. Look, he might be a lot smarter than me. He sold a lot more books than I did. He sold millions of copies of that book. People are always looking for. You know how many people came to my office and said, I'm not supposed to eat meat doc because I'm type so-and-so in my blood. I got a migraine. I said, you don't have to buy it because this guy said it. It doesn't make any sense.
And now I hear on the internet, they're talking about nicotine as being the greatest thing since sliced bread. I don't buy it, but I understand there's some nicotine in the plant kingdom. Is it going to cure your cancer? I don't buy it. I don't buy it. Now, if you can convince me otherwise, I'll buy it. But I'm skeptical. Science, by the way, should be skeptical. Okay? You want to be a skeptic in science. I read a lot of studies every day and I read it with a skeptical eye. Doesn't mean I don't read it and look at it, but I always said, well, God gave me a brain, use it. That's me. So when you're asking me about nicotine, it's a good question. Yeah, it's a nutrient. Does your body need it? Maybe a little bit traces. Therapeutically? I don't know. I'm not convinced. Okay? That's my answer and I'm sticking to it. Now, if you show me research and that's going to change my mind, I'm open to it.
Okay, Catherine, she's 70 years old. Well, you're still a puppy, Catherine, okay? You're a puppy at 70 years old. I'm older than you. Okay, "my last test showed low traces of ALP," okay and that is an enzyme. It's present in your blood. If you are low in ALP, you might have certain conditions. The reason they take that test is to check your liver and to check your bones. Okay? The ALP enzyme, it's in your blood. Everybody has it. If you are high in it could be serious, could be liver disease, could be kidney disease, could be a bone disease. If you're low, usually. Okay, this is just me. I don't know if it's just me. I think there's some research on this. If you're low in ALP, you're probably low in vitamin D. That's what I would look at. If you're high, you could have hepatitis, you could have fatty liver, cirrhosis of the liver, but with low, I usually saw low vitamin D, maybe some osteoporosis. Okay, get it checked out. Thank you for the question, Catherine.
Jenny, "I take 10,000 IUs of vitamin D daily. Would you overdose on vitamin K2?" Like Jenny, I don't fully understand. Okay? Are you taking our vitamin D 10,000? That means 10 drops with K2. First of all, you ain't overdosing on vitamin K2, okay? I've never read a case anywhere at any time. I know why you're sick. You got too much vitamin K2. Never seen it, never seen a case of it. We put vitamin K2 into our vitamin D and it should be taken like that because vitamin D, good for your bones. That elevates calcium. What K2 does with it, it takes the calcium and puts it where it belongs. Okay? And you guys know this. I always talk about the importance of vitamin K2 and how God gave it to us in food, calcium, eggs, meat and cheese.
Calcium, by the way, the best sources of calcium are found in the animal kingdom. Now you can get calcium in plants, but the best source is not salad. It's an egg. The best source, the most bioavailable calcium. "Well, Dr. Martin, I thought you didn't want me to take calcium?" I don't want you to take a calcium supplement. I want you to eat your calcium because when you eat calcium from the animal kingdom, eggs, meat, cheese, dairy, you get vitamin K2 built in with it, okay? I always said God knows what to do. Why? Because you need calcium to end up in your bones, not in your bloodstream, okay? And a factor in atherosclerosis. I don't like calcium as a supplement. I don't not without vitamin K2. And that's how you get it in nature when you eat, okay? You ain't overdosing Jenny on vitamin K2 that I guarantee you. Okay? No way, Jose. Okay, thank you very much. Very good question.
Denise. "My A1C is 6.08 and my doctor wants me on a statin as I'm a high risk for heart attack." Well, Denise, I think I get your question without a lot of other questions I would have answered if you were a patient. I don't know what the correlation is between your A1C and taking a statin drug. A statin drug, well first of all, won't lower your A1C. The only way to lower your A1C is to eat right. If you, Denise, I can tell you without any doubt in my mind, you're a diabetic. Now, I don't know if you've been diagnosed as a diabetic, but when you got an A1C of 6.8, you are diabetic. So at the end of the day, you have an allergy. To what? Carbohydrates. You and carbs don't get along Denise at all, at all, at all.
Now, why did the doctor say you were at risk for heart attack? A1C to some extent, he's right or she is right about that because diabetes, for example, diabetics have a much higher risk of heart disease than the normal population. And that's proof in the pudding that sugar and crappy carbohydrates that turn to sugar rapidly are a big problem for your heart, right? Think about it. What would diabetes used to be called? Sugar diabetes. You have an allergy? Look, I'm not big on statin drugs, okay, because it's looking for love in all the wrong places because your doctor and 99% of all doctors think the same way. You have a high risk for heart disease because of your diabetes. Okay? If you have a high risk for heart disease, doctors think, well, heart disease and cholesterol go together. So therefore, I want to put you on a statin drug.
First of all, statin drugs don't lower your risk for heart disease at all. If they did, we would've got rid of heart disease by now, but they don't lower your risk. And we've had a lot of years to research this. Now, if you were on with us on Monday night, we did our live webinar, we answered this question right at the top of the show on cholesterol. As a matter of fact, we put out an email yesterday on cholesterol, get that email because it's looking for love in the wrong places. I understand you're at more of a risk of a heart attack that I agree with a million percent, but you better lower your sugars, my dear. And the only way you're going to do that is avoid them like the plague. 6.8 A1C, avoid like the plague and a statin drug ain't going to protect you, in my opinion at all from heart disease. The research is very conclusive, but I'm not telling you not to take it because that's between you and your doctor. You need to be informed and that's why I'm so happy you asked. Okay, thank you very much, Denise. Much appreciated.
Susan, "can a topical antibiotic to treat a skin sore infection get into the bloodstream?" A hundred percent for sure. Anything you put on your skin is going to get into your bloodstream. Okay? Your skin is a barrier, but it's very porous. And when you put sunscreen on, for example, yikes. Yeah, it's toxic in my opinion. Okay, so yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. You need to take a probiotic. If you are putting a skin antibiotic, a topical antibiotic on, you need probiotics. Big time. Thank you very much. I appreciate the question. Okay, and it could contribute to candida and leaky gut. Absolutely it can, even topical.
Gwen, "my grandson had just started showing signs of Tourette's." Well, okay, and Tourette's syndrome. I always go back to the gut in kids. Okay, go back to the gut. Leaky gut, antibiotics as children makes some more susceptible to Tourette's down the road, fix the gut. The gut brain connection. The gut neurological connection through the cranial nerve. The 10th cranial nerve, the vagus nerve. Probiotic, high DHA oil. What a difference. Get off the sugars. Don't feed the bears as much as you can.
Sue, "coffee acts like metformin." You're smart Sue. "So do you drink it before a meal, during or after?" All of the above. Sue, the best time to drink coffee is always, okay, but really it does act like metformin. So taking it with a meal, coffee with a meal this has been shown guys in studies. Okay, coffee with a meal. I love coffee with a meal is so good for your blood sugar. It helps, but don't eat junk. Okay? Don't eat junk. But coffee does act like metformin. It's the real vitamin C. You heard it first on The Doctor Is In podcast. Where did you hear about the real vitamin C? Be honest. When everybody else was saying coffee ain't good for you. Coffee's acidic, coffee is a diuretic. Coffee, coffee, coffee. And I was saying right from the get go, 40 something years ago, coffee is the best thing since sliced bread. Better than sliced bread. No, but did I say it on this program? Have I been consistent? The real vitamin C is coffee. Ascorbic acid can't even light a candle to the benefits of coffee. I'm not saying don't have vitamin C, okay, but the real vitamin C is coffee. Thanks for that question. It gives me a chance to pontificate Sue.
Deanna. "My lips on my mouth are numb." Could be low B12. That's usually what I'd see with any numbness, any paraesthesia around your mouth, Deanna, get that checked.
Joy. "Does a person's size matter for taking vitamin D?" Yep. Yeah, the bigger you are, the more you need for sure. One of the biggest problems in obesity is low vitamin D. They don't know it, nobody told them, and they need more vitamin D and vitamin D is so essential for everything. Nothing works in your body without vitamin D. The sun, when I wrote the book, Sun Steak and Steel, I meant it. I meant it and there's a whole chapter on coffee in there too. That was Joy.
Deborah, "I have lower kidney function. I had a bypass, heart surgery and arthritis. Is the multi nutrient a good supplement to take with the above condition?" Absolutely. The multi nutrient, it's like eating 3 steaks. It's good for you, especially with people that have trouble with malabsorption or they're not getting enough in their food and yeah, absolutely. I love the multi nutrient. Okay, it is so good. We used to call it blood boost and I don't know how many thousands of people have found out what I said about it was true. I used to give it in my office. I said, take this, don't ask no questions and you'll thank me later. Okay, thanks for asking Deborah.
Kathy, "my husband takes a PPI." So a proton pump inhibitor, "for a hiatus hernia." You know what a hiatus hernia is, right? It's when the stomach sneaks through the diaphragm, which is a muscle just above your stomach. And if it's large enough, it creates a hernia there, a hiatus hernia. And if it's small, some people get no symptoms. But if it's large enough heartburn, acid reflux, regurgitation, no fun at all. Look, is there fixing it? I dunno. Without surgery, I dunno. But I had a lot of patients. I would tell 'em don't eat at night. Stop eating at night. Eat low carb. Take digestive enzymes. Can it heal? It can get better. I don't know. I think I've seen a couple of reversals, but most people, if they can get it under control or good, some people need to have surgery on it.
Caroline, "my mother has dizzy spells at 86 years old that cause her to fall." That ain't no fun and you can break a hip. And that's what usually happens in old people. They fall, they get dizzy a lot of times on so many medications. And I don't know about your mom, she was on a blood pressure medication, probably made her blood pressure go down too low. And they get dizzy, they fall. No fun at that age. Okay? This is one of the reasons Caroline, that I really like for people, even as they get older to get stronger. Now, I know they ain't parading off to the gym usually at 86 years old. But it's amazing that even just grip strength and being able to get out of a chair and all that really helps in terms of balance and not falling. Now there's medication, I get all that. I understand all those things, but what could be causing it? Yeah, you want to get the testing done. You want to make sure there's nothing in the brain. Could be middle ear. It could be different things there. Okay? So yeah, for sure. Get all the tests done. Really push the doctors to get that.
Cyril. "What causes nocturia? Why would you have nocturia? What's nocturia?" Okay is going NOC night. NOCT. Nighttime. Some animals are nocturnal, some human beings are nocturnal. They do better at night than they do during the day. That's where you get the word nocturia, which is uria. Urine knock at night. You're up frequently peeing. Okay? No fun. Could be caused by a lot of things. Sleep disorders in men, prostate enlarged in women, bladder descending, medications, diabetes. You see the body's smart. Your body knows that sugar is toxic trying to get rid of the sugar. So it gets up at night and it's peeing out the sugar. That's why you get in diabetes oftentimes before their diagnosis. You get frequent urination.
Your body is so smart, I got to get sugar out of my body. I'm going to pee it out. And that's why I used to like the pee test, the urine test for diabetes way before the blood test because if you're peeing out sugar, you got problems. Okay, let me see. What else did I write down here? Drinking too much before bed. Heart disease, diabetes, medications like a diuretic, prostate, bladder, women, a lot of times with women that get older, bladder starts descending. They don't have enough progesterone for that smooth muscle. And sometimes too, the other thing that could cause it is yeast or fungal in the bladder in a woman and the body. Just trying to get rid of it. Get you up at night. Go for a pee. Okay, thanks for the question. One last one. That was Cyril.
Teresa, "I recently had an endoscopy and my gastro doctor said I have an unusual flat stomach, looking inside the stomach." Like everybody wants a flat stomach. You don't want a tummy that comes out, but you're saying the geography of your stomach has changed. The anatomy is different than a normal stomach and, "waiting on a biopsy, but he said atrophic gastritis. What are your thoughts?" Well, maybe you're weird. I shouldn't have said that. I'm just teasing. You're unusual, but at the end of the day, you got to try again. Everything I have to say about gastritis and then irritation of the gut, do the reset. You should do it anyway. Okay, digestive enzymes, okay, and lay off the stinking sugars. Got it? Okay, thanks Theresa. We appreciate it. We love you guys. Okay. Appreciate all the feedback and remember now Monday next week, afternoon session. Okay, Monday. Okay, we'll remind you. Okay, love you guys, 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!