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. We're talking this morning about IBS. Very common. What are they saying? 50, 60, even higher percentage of the population [00:00:30] struggle with IBS. Irritable bowel syndrome. Very common. 60, 70% of the population. Again, if you look at it, as long as human beings have an intestine, you've got a gut. If you don't have a healthy gut, that is no fun, isn't. Okay? So, this morning, what we're going to do is we're going to talk about the symptoms, [00:01:00] the causes, and then the fix. We'll try and get through all three. You'll be a little bit surprised by some of the causes, I think.
When a doctor gives you a diagnosis, you have irritable bowel syndrome. It was almost like in the 1980s when they said, "Oh, you got chronic fatigue syndrome." Usually when a doctor [00:01:30] gave you a diagnosis like that, it's because they couldn't find anything else. It's sort of a vague diagnosis, because your bowel's irritated. Well, you didn't have to go to a doctor to find out that your bowel was irritated. It's irritated. It's bothering you. And then they say, "Well, you got a bowel that's bothering you. IBS. Irritable bowel syndrome. Your bowel is irritated." "Yeah, [00:02:00] I know. But why, doc? What do I do about it?" That's the most important thing.
I tell you that it is much more common today than it used to be. Not that people didn't have digestive issues, of course, they did. But today it is like... I hate to use the word epidemic, but it's worse than an epidemic. If anyone listening or this morning watching that [00:02:30] has IBS, no fun. You got a bad gut. I'm going to go over the causes. But let's go over to the symptoms first. So what is it? Well, it can be anywhere from pain in the gut to fluctuations of diarrhea or constipation, gas, bloating. You know how many women tell me they're bloated all the time? And that can be part of IBS. The [00:03:00] gas, your stool might be changed, mucus in the stool, what can cause it? So, a lot of those symptoms, you're well aware of that. Let's go over some of the causes of these things. One, the number one cause of IBS is Candida, yeast. So last Tuesday, Candida albicans... [00:03:30] What is Candida? Yeast. It's fungus. In my opinion, is the number one cause of IBS. Irritable bowel syndrome is an overgrowth of Candida.
Now, a little bit of yeast, little bit of Candida, isn't going to bother you, because it's actually part of your gut. To have some yeast there is part of your digestive track. But when it's overgrowth, when you get an overgrowth of it, [00:04:00] then think of it. What is yeast? Outside your body, you make bread with it. So a lot of people that get bloating, especially women, yeast, it's Candida, it's fungus. And we talked about this last week. One of the number one reasons, the double edged sword of yeast, is the double edged sword [00:04:30] of antibiotics that causes yeast. I tell you. It's one of the number one reasons. And you know what? I'm a history guy. I take your history. I'm interested. Tell me about your past. Tell me about your... And one of the questions I always ask in the clinic, were you one to take antibiotics? Ear infections, throat inf...
You see kids that start getting digestive issues? You see kids that start getting food intolerances? Go back. [00:05:00] You look. It might take a year or two before the flora, the microbiome of the gut gets changed. And it takes a while for yeast. And then of course, you feed the yeast and it bloats. And this can cause constipation, it can cause diarrhea, it can cause gas, it can cause bloating. This is one of the main causes of IBS, irritable bowel [00:05:30] syndrome, is Candida. Secondly, let's just go up a little bit, because it's the same thing. But, a lot of times... You might've heard this term called SIBO. Small intestine bacterial infection, called SIBO. Now, SIBO, it's... Ladies you'll understand this. If you get a bladder infection, ladies, there's a bacteria involved. You take an antibiotic. But [00:06:00] if you ever get a second one, it's not a bacteria, it's yeast.
So when you hear the word SIBO, S-I-B-O, I like to call it SIFO, S-I-F-O. And the reason I call it SIFO is because it's not caused by a bacteria, it's caused by fungus, yeast or Candida. That's what gets into the small intestine. I call it SIFO, [00:06:30] not SIBO. If you want to call it SIBO, go ahead, but all I'm saying is, in medicine, if you Google it, they'll tell you there's a test for it. You can get a test, I think, only in the United States, as far as I know. But you've got to treat it with antibiotics. The only problem I found with that, and not just me, all my experience over the years, is that it comes back. It might give you... It's just like a bladder [00:07:00] infection.
You take an antibiotic, it goes away. Why does it come back? Because you created a fungal infection because of the antibiotic. You killed all the good bacteria, you see? Unless you take a probiotic. This is very common. SIBO is something that you never heard of. I call it SIFO, you call it SIBO. It doesn't matter. All I'm saying is that can get up [00:07:30] into the small intestine, and in the small intestine is where all your absorption of your food takes place. So that can be a very irritating a problem. One, Candida, bacterial possibly, but I like to call it SIFO. One of the biggest causes of IBS are parasites, little crawlies into [00:08:00] the gut. And when you feed them sugar, they have lots of babies. And people get... I always laughed.
Whenever I put blood up on a microscope, or even did a stool analysis in a microscope, I'd show the patients. I had a big screen in my office. I used to laugh because people really get grossed out by that. But I was so used to looking at them it never bothered me. But it was amazing what lives inside of [00:08:30] your gut. And parasites, they're much more common. You folks that love your cats, you handle the cat litter. Everybody's worried about COVID. I'll tell you something that's worse than COVID is parasites. And we become... I'm not telling you to get rid of your cat, and I'm not telling you to get rid of your dog, but they sleep on your bed. In biblical times, and even today amongst the [00:09:00] Muslims, they're considered unclean. And again, don't come after me.
I'm just giving you the message that parasites are very, very common. You want to kill off those parasites. A lot of people don't realize, because doctors in general, unless a parasite bites a doctor, they don't believe in them. "Have you been over to Africa," they'll tell you. "Well, then you can get a parasite." [00:09:30] You don't have to go to Africa, folks, to get a parasite. They're much more common than you think they are. I remember in one of my books, I can't even actually what book it was that I wrote, and I had a chapter, "Sleeping With The Enemy." Parasites. Well, folks, you love your animals. I get it. But they're the biggest carriers of it, and cats are worse than dogs. An animal is meant to live [00:10:00] with parasites. Don't bother them unless they get an aggressive one. But generally, they don't because they can live with that. That's why they can eat off the floor, and they can go outside, and they can link their butts or whatever. They're animals.
Anyway. Don't want to offend anybody. Because I know now that the animal kingdom is higher than... A lot of people view animals higher than... That's one of the reasons people don't eat meat. I [00:10:30] had a lady in the office, little young lady there, "Doc, I don't eat anything with eyeballs." "Okay. You got little critters inside of you, parasites, with eyeballs." Anyway, I'm just teasing. Another reason to get IBS, we've talked a lot about this too in the past, is having a bad stomach. You see, digestion, guys, starts right away in your mouth, but you [00:11:00] got a little pocket about this big that is full of acid, and you need that. You need that acid. You need that to burn down the food.
And a lot of people have real trouble with their upper GI, their stomachs, and they has acid reflux. You know why? Because they don't have enough acid in their stomach. And your body will do everything it can to make more, in order to burn the... It's a furnace. Your stomach is a furnace. It's meant to mulch down [00:11:30] that food, put it into bite size before it gets into the small intestine. So make sure you have enough enzymes to fix your stomach. Bad stomach, bad gut eventually. You're going to get a bad gut from that bad stomach. Fix the stomach. Very important part of the digestive track. You need that high acidity. I'm a big guy on that, on enzymes. I take enzymes every day. [00:12:00] And because, especially as I get older, lipase, and amylase, and protease to break down foods. So that's another reason. Poor stomach acidity pouches.
This today is... I always tell people, patients, one of the biggest reasons you have pain and IBS is because of a condition called diverticulosis. You know what diverticulosis [00:12:30] is? It's little pouches in the bowel and they usually show up... So guys, if you have pain on your left side of your gut, generally, almost invariably, you have diverticulosis, little pouches. And the pouches, they get irritated very easily. Diverticulosis. It is very common [00:13:00] today. Can I tell you why? Can I tell you why? The vast majority of diverticulosis occurs in women. Now, Dr. Martin, why is that? Why do women get diverticulosis much more than men do? I'm going to chew you off. You're going to get mad at me, ladies. I had a woman the other day, after the show was giving me the... She said, "Dr. Martin, you degrade women."
Ladies, you know me. I love you guys. If it's on the right side, [00:13:30] it's not usually diverticulosis, it's IBS. But IBS can be from diverticulosis. If it's on the left... Salads. Chicken in salad. You're eating too much fiber. That's a big problem. If you bring it back far enough... I don't want to go on a rabbit trail, but I'm just going to go off for a sec, so have patience with me. I'm going to go on a rabbit trail for a second. What happened in the 1970s, late 60s, [00:14:00] 1970s? Cholesterol became the bad word, the boogeyman. It changed the whole world, guys. It created generations of eaters that were scared of fat, so they went low carb. They were eating less meat. They were eating less eggs. They were eating less dairy, like butter and cheese. "Oh, that makes me fat. That gives me cholesterol."
Well, what happened? Especially ladies, [00:14:30] you know what became very popular? When I was a kid, this wasn't popular. Honest to God. And I'm not Noah's age yet. As it was in the days of Noah, know that I'm not quite there. My grandchildren probably think I am. But guys, in the 1950s and the 1960s, honest to God, ladies, you were hardly eating salad. It's not that salad... Of course, lettuce and that was around. But you didn't live on it. [00:15:00] Today, the vast majority of women live on salad and fruit. It's true. It's created a whole generation of gut issues. It's too much roughage. Remember what I say. Here's Dr. Martin's expressions. You're not a rabbit, ladies. Cows eat salad all day long. Salad is glorified grass. Cows eat [00:15:30] grass, no problem. They got four stomachs. All that roughage. All day long, they munch on it.
You ever see a cow out in the field? They're munching on grass all day long. But they got four stomachs. You got one. I tell you, salad is overrated. It can create diverticulosis. I've seen it a thousand times [00:16:00] or more. I've offended you. I didn't mean to degrade you, ladies. I'm on your side. I'm just telling you what I see. And you won't read that elsewhere. You're not going to see it on the internet. Dr. Martin is a loony tune. I know. But I'm just telling you the truth. The apostle Paul said to the Galatians, "Have I become your enemy because I told you the truth?" [00:16:30] So anyway, roughage, too much. Fiber, fiber, fiber. The whole cereal thing was based on fiber, right? No cholesterol in cereal. There's no cholesterol guys, unless you're eating animal foods. And I don't want to go down that rabbit hole too much, because I won't come back.
So if you have IBS, can I tell you some... We'll talk about this in the fix. Here's a big one. Here's a big one. [00:17:00] Number six on the hit parade. Stress. Think about it for a minute. I always tell people. "I know when I'm stressed, Dr. Martin. When my blood pressure goes up, I get uptight. Why is that?" Because something's bugged me. If they bug me, I can feel those butterflies. You? Have you ever been through that? Have you ever been through that? The butterflies? You know what that is. But a lot of people don't realize [00:17:30] their stress levels. They don't know that they're secreting cortisol all the time. Cortisol is the stress hormone. It's uptight. It's uptight.
And a lot of people don't realize that. But think of that butterfly effect. It's part of the fight or flight. And that's all right if I scare you, I come up behind you and scare you. Your body has adrenal glands. Your body releases cortisol. It releases adrenaline. [00:18:00] It's part of the fight or flight. It's for your protection. The problem with that is if it doesn't go away. It's not only the biggest problem with sleep. That's the number one issue with sleep. The number one issue, or a very important issue, is stress with the gut. Stress with the gut. Butterfly effect. It's the 10th cranial nerve, called the [00:18:30] vagus nerve. Not Las Vegas. Your vagus nerve. It's the 10th cranial nerve. It attaches your brain at the brain stem, back here, actually, to your gut. The 10th cranial nerve.
It's the butterflies. You got an exam? You got a test? You're uptight? You got a bad marriage? You got troubled teenagers? You got financial problems? [00:19:00] You got, whatever? That can create a diversion in the gut, I call it. Because let's say you're in the fight or flight. When your body's not thinking of digestion, you're not thinking of eating. You're thinking of fighting or running. But if that continues on, it can really play havoc with your gut. That's a big factor in IBS. So you understand that. And that's why I'm big on reducing cortisol. [00:19:30] I'm big on the... Okay. The other one. Number seven, food insensitivities, food intolerances. "Dr. Martin, should I get a food intolerance test?" Why don't you do your test? It's called the elimination diet. Eliminate a food and see how your gut feels.
Now, I just want to tell you something about food intolerances. Food intolerances are leaky gut. The lining of your [00:20:00] gut has been compromised. Again, that could go back to antibiotics a year before or two years before. Why do you see so many kids today with, what are they saying now, 70% of the population can't take dairy? I'm going to do a thing on dairy this week, because there's a great study that came out on metabolic syndrome and dairy. I'm going to share it with you. But I won't do it this morning because that's a rabbit trail. Anyways, I'm not [00:20:30] big on testing for intolerances. You do the test. Because if you have leaky gut and you get blood work done, you're going to find that you're hypersensitive to almost anything. I know people that have avoided meat, for example, I'll just give you an example, have avoided meat because they were told by a test that meat bothers them.
And I go, "Did it bother you when you eat meat?" "Nah, but the test said it did." Well. No, it's not. That's not [00:21:00] true. It's because you got leaky gut, and your bowel is irritated. And when your bowel is irritated, the intolerance test can come up big time, because it measures inflammation in the gut. So do the elimination. Find out what's bugging you. Find out what's bugging you. And for some people... And by the way, the reason that we have 60-70% of the population [00:21:30] that can't take dairy is because they changed the dairy. They made it fat-free. And now it's full of lactose. Dairy has sugar in it. It's called lactose. But if you eat cheese, for example, a lot of people, they tell me they're intolerant to dairy. And I said, "Well, I separate dairy between cheese."
That's why I'm eggs, meat, and cheese. But you don't hear me say eggs, meat, and milk. I don't even say eggs, meat, [00:22:00] and dairy. I don't say that. Because a lot of people, they don't realize that yogurt, fat-free yogurt, it's not good for your gut. "Oh, it's got probiotic." Yeah, but it's fat free. And don't buy lactose free milk. That drives me mental, lactose free milk. Why are you drinking milk? You don't need it. "Dr. Martin, I need my calcium." No, you don't. Eat cheese. But find out. Because for some people, they... [00:22:30] I get all the time, "Oh, I can't have cheese." You can't have cheese? Don't eat it. "Doc, I can't eat eggs." Well then don't eat them, and fix your gut. If you fix it, a lot of times you can eat stuff again. Over the years, thousands of patients, "Oh doc, I can't eat eggs, or whatever." Now you can.
Some people can't. They never can. Okay. Don't eat them. Don't force the issue. Listen. Linda, listen to [00:23:00] your body. Your gut will talk to you. So here's the things that I found over the years that generally... Do the process of elimination. Like I said, dairy. And find out the difference, whether cheese is bothering you, or it's just milk, or ice cream, or whatever. Eliminate it. Gluten. I'm a gluten-schmuten guy. You know what that means? I'm not big on gluten being the problem. You know me. I'm [00:23:30] big on insulin. Because I always tell my patients, "It's not the gluten that's bothering you." They started a whole industry of gluten free foods. If I wasn't so stubborn, because I am, I would have invested in gluten free foods.
Not that I believe in them. Not even a bit. But it would have been a good investment, because the whole world went, "Well, the problem is gluten." No it wasn't. Well look, if you have [00:24:00] celiac, yes. That's an autoimmune disease. Celiac is you can't have gluten. It's called celiac sprue. But very few... "Oh, Dr. Martin, I felt better when I got rid of gluten." No, you felt better when you lowered your insulin, and you quit eating carbs. And don't go get those gluten free foods, they're full of carbohydrates. That's crap foods. Unless you're celiac. But if your celiac, stop eating [00:24:30] bread and noodles. "Oh, doc. It's gluten free." I don't care. It's insulin that's... Remember what insulin does? Insulin creates... Well, insulin does two things. One, it creates inflammation in the gut. That's why the reset is so good for your gut. Thousands and thousands of people on the metabolic reset.
I was aiming for their liver, originally, and their pancreas. I [00:25:00] was aiming at their pancreas and their liver, because they're attached and they're very important together, but I was aiming there, but we fixed their gut at the same time. So I recommend it for all IBS. I recommend it for diverticulosis. It will heal it. Even celiac. I'm not saying you're going to be cured from celiac. All I'm saying is you'll be a lot better. And Crohn's, any auto-immune that affects your gut, ulcerative colitis, you get [00:25:30] a lot better. It's not the gluten. Gluten-schmuten, that's what I tell people. It's gluten-schmuten. Because of the gut is irritated. You know what? Tomorrow, we're going to talk about the fix, because we're past time now. We'll talk about the fix of IBS. What to do to fix it.
We talked a little bit about it already, and you want to fix [00:26:00] these things. So what to watch for, parasites. What to watch for, low stomach acidity. What to watch for, eating too much fiber, too much roughage. Quit eating cereal. "Oh, Dr. Martin, I don't go to the bathroom unless I have my Bran Flakes or my oatmeal." Too bad, so sad. Why do you got to go to the bathroom so often? Anyway, I know I'm a big tease. [00:26:30] But seriously, that was brought to you by the cereal companies. Frosted Flakes are great. No, they're not. Cheerios, they're really good for you. No, they're not. Oatmeal is real good for you. No, it isn't. No, it's not. They're not. You guys are great. So tomorrow, we talk about the fix, how to fix the gut. I already talked about some of them already. Change your diet. If [00:27:00] you can, share this with your friends. So, love you guys, going to bring you some good topics this week. Talk to you tomorrow, Lord willing.
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.