Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners.
Some of today’s topics include:
- High calcium levels
- Magnesium dosing
- Effect of sugar & carbs on glaucoma
- Ringing in ears & balance
- Functional abdominal pain
- Diet & fertility
- How glutamine feeds cancer
- GGT kidney blood test
- Acupuncture
- Sunscreen alternatives
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 here this morning and Q and A Friday from Denver, Colorado. Okay, so again, well we've been here since what Tuesday in Denver and with Tony Jr. and at a conference. Very good. Enjoying the time here and I've got a couple of my grandchildren who work for the Martin Clinic and it's been a great, great time here in Denver, Colorado. Beautiful weather and what a beautiful place. I mean in terms of, I mean, you're right in the mountains there. The Rockies. Beautiful. Okay, let's get to the questions.
"My doctor said," okay, this is Diane. "My doctor said my calcium levels are high. I do not take supplements." Well, you should. "What causes high levels of calcium in the blood and what can I do about it?" Well take a supplement, well look, there's a couple of things that can cause high calcium. The number one thing that causes high calcium in the blood is two little organs that you have on the side of your thyroid. They're called the parathyroid glands, okay? They're called parathyroid. Now, it could be a problem with the parathyroid and it could be because you have a nodule maybe on your thyroid gland that's putting pressure on the pair of thyroids. Your doctor knows they've got to eliminate certain conditions. Autoimmune, for example, but usually high calcium levels could have kidney trouble, but generally, Diane, it's the parathyroid. You don't take supplements. One of the things with calcium is magnesium. Magnesium helps to lower your calcium levels. I would have you on vitamin K2 specifically to lower your calcium levels. Okay, so something going on there. Your physicians, when they see high calcium, usually they'll do testing to make sure and to find out exactly what it is.
Agnes, thanks Diane for the question. Agnes says, "on a live last week, Dr. Martin mentioned that magnesium being 200 milligrams. If that's so, why does the citrate say 150 and 350?" Listen, Agnes, I know it drives me crazy too. We have in Canada, look, it's frustrating, okay? Because the labeling laws, I don't know where they come up with some of this stuff. I really don't. You want to be confused is a lot of the labeling laws, and that's Health Canada, you have no choice. Now we're getting product. Now our products are being made also in the USA and the FDA has much, much different labeling laws. For example, on our cortisol, if you look at it, one of the ingredients on there, the green tea extract, it says it's synthetic. It's not, but it doesn't matter how many times you prove to help Canada that it is a natural product. They will not label green tea extract as natural. They just won't do it. They will in the United States, but they won't in Canada. Don't ask me why.
I used to be involved years and years ago in the nineties involved with Health Canada just as a consultant. They were so good because they wanted natural products to have their own dictatorial within the Health Canada was very good, but they've gotten away from all that now, and everything I'm telling you is crazy. Well, for example in Canada on vitamin D, you can't have more than 1000 IUs per dose. You just can't. Otherwise you need a prescription and I think it's because the pharmaceutical industry is trying to take over the natural products and they want to be able to control everything. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm right about that. Anyways, they're just complicated Agnes. So every capsule of magnesium citrate or magnesium bisglycinate, the two magnesiums we make have 200 milligrams per capsule of the magnesium. I don't know how to explain it to you because I can't even figure out their rules for regulations. Okay, thank you for the question.
Noelene, "what does Dr. Martin think about methylene blue?" Not much. Not much. Well, look, it's been around a long time, but it's a synthetic thing and someone, a guru on probably YouTube or whatever, started talking about this is the best thing that's ever been around in terms of a supplement. First of all, it's synthetic and it's been around a long time, but nobody's going around for years at least using methylene blue. I mean, I heard about it many, many years ago, but now it's because somebody promoted it like being the best thing for cognition and whatever, and I don't buy it. And when it turns your urine blue, I don't buy it. I'm not saying under certain circumstances I might recommend it, but there's things that are so much better out there and my opinion a lot safer. I'm not big on it. Okay? So like I said, it's getting a lot of hype. Now, I can almost guarantee you that hype is going to go away very soon. I've seen these things come and go and now we have social media and a lot of stuff comes and oh, that cures everything from warts on your nose to pimples on your toes. Now I don't, okay, that's me. I'm not convinced every week just about, I got asked about whether I like it or not. I really don't. Okay? I mean, I'm not convinced. Let me put it that way.
Okay, Diane, "Dr. Martin's video on glaucoma." Okay, I know we did an email. "What is the source of the video study he is referring to? What organization is responsible?" Diane, you sound skeptical, okay, and that's all right. You want to be skeptical of me, Diane, you be skeptical of me. I got no problem with that. Okay. You know what I do with my audience? Okay? I put out information and I ask you guys to think about it and okay, so glaucoma, "at the end of the day, I have spoken with an eye doctor and they don't appear to have heard about sugar and carbs as being the ultimate cause of glaucoma. Ultimately, they do not see the connection." Well, first of all, that does not surprise me, Diane, that doctors generally who know nothing about nutrition or very little would be skeptical. They shouldn't because I'll tell you where I got the studies. I actually have them in front of me here, and I can post these after if you want, on our private Facebook group. Diane, I don't know if you're in there or not, okay?
Where we got this was diabetology and metabolic syndrome, the Journal of Diabetic Medicine Association, and this is in 2024, the association between metabolic syndrome and the risk of glaucoma, okay? This one showed that individuals with metabolic syndrome had a 34% higher likelihood of developing glaucoma compared to those who didn't have metabolic syndrome. Now, another one, okay? Just reading to you, metabolic syndrome is associated with ocular hypertension, meaning pressure in the eye and glaucoma. This is out of the Journal of Glaucoma, Diane, okay, here's another one. Okay? Metabolic health, obesity and the risk of developing glaucoma metabolically healthy obese patients versus metabolically unhealthy, but normal weight patients and glaucoma, huge connection, Diane.
Okay, Diane, I haven't done it, but you could do it. Google put metabolic syndrome and glaucoma, you do it, but I have a service that sends me all these studies and when I'm interested in the study, I flag it and then we wrote an email on it. Okay? So Diane, you can show these to your doctor if you want your eye doctor, but again, I mean, it's not that I'm skeptical, it's that I'm skeptical. Like doctors, when you talk to them about, first of all, metabolic syndrome. Most physicians, they hardly even know what it is. And yet there's several studies, metabolic syndrome characterized by elevated blood sugar, elevated blood pressure, even slightly, belly fat, high triglycerides, low HDL, and then I add a couple elevated uric acid, and I think that's going to be part of it. They're going to agree to that. And low levels of vitamin D, that's metabolic syndrome.
Huge connection because Diane, let me talk to you about your eyes. If you look in your eyes, if you get an ophthalmologist or an optometrist, when they're looking at your eyes, you know what they're looking at. Yeah, they're looking at the lens and all that too. But what they see in the back is your blood vessels, and I always call them the highways and byways around Toronto. You go to Toronto, drives me crazy. I went to school in Toronto and I lived near the Don Valley. We called it even in the seventies, the Don Valley parking lot, okay? It was the Don Valley Parkway. But if you look in behind the eyes, you're going to see the Don Valley parking lot. You're going to see highway 401, you're going to see highway 404, you're going to see highway 407, all these blood vessels in the back of your eyes. Metabolic syndrome. And what does sugar do? Sugar destroys blood vessels.
Ask a diabetic, why do more diabetics get glaucoma or diabetic retinopathy? Why do they get it? Blood supply, the capillaries, the eyes, they get damaged. Sugar destroys blood vessels. You can't even argue with that because everybody. Ask a diabetic, that's why they have trouble with their eyes much more than the general population. Metabolic syndrome isn't diabetes, but it's the Titanic. You're on the road to diabetes. The last thing that happens is diabetes, not the first thing, it's the last thing. And before that is metabolic syndrome, which can lead to all these chronic diseases, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's, diabetes. You're on the road to those. And Diane, I want you to be skeptical of me. That's fine. I got no problem and I will defend my position. Glad you asked the question. I really am, okay?
June, "I have ringing in my left ear," okay, "getting worse. It's now blocked and throwing my balance off." Well ringing in the ears is tinnitus, by the way, and you might have some inflammation in the middle ear. It's possible. It's viral, it's possible it's mechanical. They can do the procedure there, the maneuver and see if they can fix it. But if it's starting to lead to imbalance problems, June, and look, I mean people that have chronic tinnitus. Anytime you see an itis, I always think diet first. This is one of the reasons that people are amazed when they do the reset because they're itises, okay, arthritis, plantar fasciitis, tinnitus, a lot of it gets a lot better. What does sugar do? We already talked to Diane about what sugar does in the eye, but sugar glycates, it causes major problems, inflammation and glycation. What is glycation? Well, now your blood vessels are not near as supple. They're not as pliable. They lose their elasticity and your skin and your joints. They call it caramelized joints. Itis, even the middle ear tinnitus, do the reset. I like Navitol and B12 for anything nerve usually use a combination, even maybe some high DHA, that lubricates. Okay? That's my protocol. Thank you June for the question.
Krista, "I have functional abdominal pain. Some days the pain is intense. I cannot do anything. I've tried many things like acupuncture, massage. Can you help?" Well, look, I mean, Krista, if I was in practice. I was talking to my daughter last night on the phone, I said, I think it's been five years now that I've been out of practice. Okay, geez, time flies. So I haven't seen a patient in five years unless I bump into them, but it's been that long since I was in practice. But Krista, if you came to my office and you said, I've been diagnosed with functional abdominal pain, there's a lot of questions I would ask you, but one of the first things that I would do, I would have you on my examination table and the first thing that I would go look at, if you tell me you've been to other doctors, you can't find anything going on and it's been bugging you. I look at an abdominal muscle.
Now you been to a massage therapist, did they reproduce that pain? Because I could find if you had a minor tear in an abdominal muscle that can give you functional abdominal pain. And there are many cases over the years that I put my finger right on it and they go, oooh. I said, yep, you have a minor tear in the abdominal muscle or a severe sprain and it can be a real pain, and I knew how to fix it. What I would suggest, I don't know to what extent they looked at this for you, even a massage therapist, but if you got your massage therapist to call me, I'd show them how to fix it. Okay? Now you've eliminated all other things, right? Nothing like you don't have SIBO, you don't have H pylori, you don't have any of those other things, right, Krista? Okay. Anyway, send me a more detail at info@martinclinic.com. Send me a little bit of more info, but I feel sorry for you, Krista, but I knew how to fix those things if it was an abdominal muscle. Okay?
Carolyn's asking, "young friends of mine have been struggling for years to have a child. They finally resorted to adoption but would like to have another child. Specifically, what could each spouse be lacking in their diet and what should each do to take the increase?" Well, look, that's complex. I am going to tell you a funny story. A lady came into my office, this is years ago, probably 10, 15 years ago, and the waiting room was full waiting to see me and the lady yells out in the waiting room. Dr. Martin got me pregnant and my staff, they were dying laughing first of all, but they said, what you mean Dr. Martin helped you to get pregnant? Yeah. Yeah. Anyways, it was the funniest thing. Every patient that came to see me that day, they were still laughing about it because of the way the lady said it. Dr. Martin got me pregnant.
But you know what I used to do? I used to just balance out hormones and when a woman couldn't get pregnant, if it was on her side. Usually they didn't have enough progesterone and they were dominant in estrogen. And so I would elevate their progesterone and I would have them on our menopausal formula. I would have them on dim, I would have 'em on flax seeds. The men, usually, if they are sperm count is low, they might be low in testosterone. I used to work on that, but I didn't guess I tested and elevate vitamin D. They usually were low in vitamin D because that's important in testosterone and depending on that. Okay, good question. That's a true story, Carolyn, by the way.
Susan, "what do you do if you are vitamin D resistant?" Well, Susan, just get it in the sun. Just get your vitamin D from the sun. You have a resistant to. It's very rare. I'm not too worried about when I read the syndrome of vitamin D resistant. I mean, it could be a malabsorption thing, and I'm not too worried about, I don't rely only on numbers with vitamin D. How are you feeling, Susan? You good? Get out in the sun when you can. I'd be even with 400, I'd be still taking a few thousand IUs of vitamin D with K2. Try it with K2 to see if that doesn't help.
Okay, Shelley. "A comprehensive E test. Is it a good idea?" Yeah, I like that. Why wouldn't you get it? Okay?
Anna, "what is glutamine and how does it feed cancer?" Well, look, in order for me to explain it to you, Anna, you're going to get into the weeds big time. Okay? Look, it's a byproduct and glutamine is an amino acid. Okay? But at the end of the day, let me just say this, because if you get into the weeds, you won't eat anything. What you want to avoid for cancer, okay, what you want to avoid for cancer is sugar. Cancer cells need sugar, and there's some guys on YouTube, glutamine that means you can't have any meat or whatever. That's a bunch of bunk. So I'm telling you what, cancer cells, okay, somebody asked another question and I'm going to combine them. Okay? Who was it? Okay, Martin, is asking that. I like your first name, Martin. Okay, "not sure why cancer cells are feeding on fat all this time. I thought cancer cells only feed on sugar. Should I not be eating the fat?" Martin says.
Okay, again, now I put out not a video. I've done this many a time. I've shown you there's cancer cells and then there's tumors. Okay? There's cancer cells, tumors. Everybody has cancer cells. Don't feed them sugar, okay? Don't feed them sugar. Make sure your vitamin D levels are good. Make sure your immune cells, and if your vitamin D is not good, your T cells are not working properly. Okay? Now, cancer cells need sugar. Tumors, they switch their fuel over to fatty acid, but not good fatty acids. As a matter of fact, when you're having a steak Martin, or when you're having fish with high DHA, the DHA comes into the tumor as a Trojan horse and destroys the cancer. All of that research had been, I mean, it should be common knowledge, but it isn't because they don't want to admit that DHA is that good for you.
So cancer cells, eliminate sugar. Don't eliminate meat. Don't eliminate eggs. Don't eliminate dairy. Don't do it. They do not feed cancer cells. Tumors, they're searching for bad oils like your vegetable oils. Don't touch 'em with a hundred foot pole because they will elevate your tumors. But if take DHA and you eat it, okay? Or take a DHA supplement, you guys know how much I love DHA. It'll come into that tumor and it's a Trojan horse and destroy the tumor. Okay? We posted it the other day, again in our private Facebook group. Okay?
"What is GGT?" Susan's asking about GT blood tests? Okay, well, you got liver tests and you got kidney tests, okay? And the GGT is the kidney tests, okay? And if they're flagged, biggest thing that affects the kidneys and the liver, sugar. If you got flagged, GGT test means your kidneys are stressed, and the first thing that stresses your kidneys is sugar. Okay, Susan, sugar, lay off the crappy carbs. Kidneys need water and low carbs, low sugars. You want to fix your kidneys, drink water, two liters a day, 64 ounces, and cut your sugars down. Same thing with the kidneys. That's a big effect on that.
Okay, Noelene, okay, "what does Dr. Martin think of acupuncture?" I love acupuncture. I actually took a course in acupuncture in an early 1970s. I don't remember a thing. I don't because I never practiced it. I liked it. If people needed acupuncture, I would refer them to an acupuncturist. I could have went on and be certified in it, but I just didn't do it. But Dr. Bennett, a good friend of mine in Newfoundland. I'm going to interview him one day. He is a specialist in acupuncture. I love acupuncture. I think it's good. I've got no problem with that.
Elsie is going on a cruise. "What does Dr. Martin recommend for sunscreen?" Cover up. I don't like sunscreen. You going to put something on your skin, put coconut oil or Revera. But to me, get your body used to it. Be very careful on your first couple of days. And then you can increase your time. Then cover up. Cover up as much as you can. Big wide hat. You can get these clothing now that you can wear. You can get them wet and they cover you up. And one of the things that people burn the most in they burn badly is when they're eating a lot of those seed oils. And when you're eating eggs, meat, and cheese, your skin is much more ready for the sun. I'm telling you, I've seen that over the years. Okay, guys got to go. I got a class at this conference early this morning. We love you guys and 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!