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: I just want to go over a couple of tests that I get asked about all the time. And I think, anyone that's watching me today knows what I think about cholesterol, [00:00:30] and all this and that, and I'm often telling my patients that cholesterol, you can't live without it. Cholesterol is a made up boogeyman. Cholesterol is not bad for you. You need cholesterol. God doesn't trust you enough to eat enough cholesterol because only 15% comes from your diet and 85% comes from [00:01:00] your liver. So the idea with this is when you do have blood work, to understand a couple of things. These are two numbers that often you're getting tested in routine blood work, but it's not being explained to you because you're looking for love in all the wrong places. I want you to focus in on two numbers as far as your lipids [00:01:30] go.
Dr.Martin: Two numbers that are important. One, TG. So when you see a blood work, look for this because it's a very important number. Triglycerides, okay? The other one is HDL. HDL is your good cholesterol. And I want to explain the significance of these two numbers. Now, first of all, how do you make triglycerides? Triglycerides come out of your liver and [00:02:00] they're sent into your bloodstream when your liver is full of glycogen, fat. So as glycogen gets stored in your liver as fat, when the suitcase is full, your triglycerides, the glycogen is sent into your bloodstream as triglycerides. Those literally are your bad fats. But fat doesn't make you fat. Carbs [00:02:30] and sugars are the ones that affect your triglycerides because that's what gets stored in your liver.
Dr.Martin: So very important to understand. There's no drugs for this. There's only food. And when you cut your carbs down, you cut your triglycerides down, because you cut down the fat that is being made from carbs. It ain't fat. It's carbs. [00:03:00] And that's triglycerides. So here's some numbers. You want men to be under 1.71. I actually like a little bit lower than that, but this is in the normal range for a man. 1.71. So when you get your blood work, ladies, when your husband, who could care less, most of the time, because he's a man, look for this number. 1.71. But ladies, much more [00:03:30] important for you to have even lower triglycerides because triglycerides are your dangerous fats. So keep it under one. How do you do that? Watch your carbs.
Dr.Martin: Now, if you're not eating enough bacon and eggs and meat, you are going to have low HDL, low cholesterol. "Oh doc, I got low cholesterol." Well, that's stupid. Why do you want to have low [00:04:00] good cholesterol? Your body needs cholesterol. Every cell in your body is cholesterol. And one of the biggest things cholesterol does, it's the FedEx, it's UPS, it's Canada Post, it's US Post on the highways of your bloodstream, taking out HDL, grabs onto your triglycerides, and take them out of your body. That's why you want to have your [00:04:30] HDL, if you want to calculate, should be two and a half times higher than your triglycerides.
Dr.Martin: If your HDL... and remember, this is all about your diet. Triglycerides are carbs, and especially sugars, and HDL is fat. Fat helps you to elevate your good cholesterol so that you can take out the bad [00:05:00] fats out of your body. It's diet, it's diet, it's diet. So get your HDL up and get your trig down, and that's how you get good blood work as far as your lipids are concerned.
Announcer: You've reached the end of another Doctor Is In Podcast, with your hosts, Dr. Martin Junior and Senior. Be sure to catch our next episode, and thanks for listening.