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, maybe it is not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease. It's strictly for informational purposes.
Dr.Martin: Well, good morning, everyone. Folks, you're going to love this, this morning, I think you will. You might get a little bit upset if you've been duped. We're going to talk about why [00:00:30] and how to keep your cholesterol levels high. Why? First of all, and then how do you do that? So why on God's earth would you want to have high levels of cholesterol? Well, do you want to live longer? Do you want to live longer? People who have the highest levels of cholesterol live longer, just a fact. And, like I've said to you more than a thousand times I'm sure, if [00:01:00] cholesterol is not the boogeyman yet, it's made out to be the boogeyman every day, but it's not. And you only have to take five minutes of biochemistry to understand that cholesterol is essential, you can't live without it.
So, why? Well, you want to live longer, you want to be healthier, you need cholesterol. Now, I'm in the school, I just want to tell you ahead of time. I'm in the school not only have high cholesterol, but I'm in [00:01:30] the school that there's no such thing as bad cholesterol, there's no such thing. Guys, I know the difference between total cholesterol, your HDL, we're going to talk about that. And we're going to talk about LDL. And every time someone sends me their blood work to analyze, do I look at their total cholesterol? Nah, it's there. So, I guess I do peek at it, but I don't care. I want to know what your triglycerides [00:02:00] are, and I want to know what your HDL is. That's all I need to know. And I told you a thousand times, the reason I say that.
But let me give you a few more reasons there's no such thing as bad cholesterol. So LDL, because they found a drug to lower LDL, they found a drug, a class of drugs they're called statin drugs. And statins, as I've reminded you many times in the past, the number one selling drug of all time, the one that brought [00:02:30] in the most money ever is a drug called Lipitor. And it's got a few cousins Crestor and Zocor. And they marketed the life out of these things, and they changed almost every physician in the world that I know of, and they changed their thinking. Now, this happened a long time ago. It started in the '70s, it hit full pin in the '80s, and [00:03:00] it became the new normal. Cholesterol is bad, cholesterol is bad, cholesterol causes heart disease. Therefore, we must lower your cholesterol.
And blood work for the last 40 years or so is circled. They want to know your total cholesterol. They want to know, especially your LDL is, very few doctors talk about triglycerides, and they made it up. To the [00:03:30] marketing of the big pharmaceutical companies, you must give them credit because they changed the world's thinking on cholesterol. They just changed it. Wasn't like that in the '50s, in the '60s. It wasn't like that, cholesterol wasn't even a factor, nobody even talked about it. If you were a doctor going to medical school in the '60s, you weren't talking about cholesterol.
So, the number one killer today, still, is heart attack [00:04:00] and strokes. And I'm telling you folks, I'm telling you, cholesterol is not even a factor. Well, wait a minute, let me rephrase that. Bad cholesterol, which I don't believe there's such a thing, but bad cholesterol, LDL, has no bearing on heart disease. It has no bearing on heart disease.
So, why do we need cholesterol? Why do we need it? Well, number one to live long. [00:04:30] You want to live longer, you need cholesterol. How do you get cholesterol? Well, your liver makes 85% of it. Your liver needs cholesterol, your body needs cholesterol. How do you get it? 85% is made by your liver. Why? Because you need it. If you didn't need it, I've often used that expression, God don't trust you. So, your body makes it, 85%. You think your body's making a mistake, making cholesterol? You would [00:05:00] think so. According to the pharmaceutical industry, your body's stupid. What's it making cholesterol for? How stupid is that? Your liver is making cholesterol 85%. but God expects you to eat 15%, you got to make up. You think God made a mistake telling humans that they need to eat cholesterol? No, he didn't make no mistake. You have to make up that 15%. You got to eat it, okay? So, eat your cholesterol.
Why? [00:05:30] You want to live longer. Two, your brain is made up of cholesterol. You want a healthy brain? You better eat cholesterol. Now, remember cholesterol is not found in the plant kingdom. Why do you think in this day and age, especially in the younger generation, they're being told don't eat animal products? That fat is bad, it's full of cholesterol. And there's a whole generation, [00:06:00] now, being taught in schools, being taught on the internet, being taught by their peers, oh, don't eat that stuff, it's not good for you. And probably just about every day that I do one of these podcasts, I remind you that cholesterol is only found in the animal kingdom. Your brain is made up of cholesterol, your cells are made up of cholesterol. Every cell in your body, the outer wall, the inner tube of your cells [00:06:30] is cholesterol. That's why 85% of it comes out of your liver and the other 15%, you better eat it.
How do you get cholesterol? In eggs, meat, and cheese. It's found in the animal products, it's not found in the plant kingdom. But just understand what's going on, you have to understand there was a huge paradigm shift that occurred in nutrition, I watched it happen. You know what? There's some advantages to being old. I can tell you with my long history of watching things, observing [00:07:00] things I watched in horror in the 1970s as people got this cholesterol, they were changing their butter for margarine. I used to tell my patients, "What the H are you doing?" And boy, did they ever have a good marketing strategy? People from my hometown used to travel into Quebec to get their margarine because it looked like butter. [00:07:30] It was the same color you see? And in Ontario they wouldn't allow that. You had to have a difference between ... I think the farmers put up such a fight that they said, "Well, margarine isn't butter, but it looks like butter."
And so, I remember people used to travel into Quebec, I'm not kidding you, to pick up the margarine that looked like butter. I'm serious, I watched it happen in horror because my biochemistry said, that's insanity. [00:08:00] Why are people doing that? Why are you eating margarine? Why are you having vegetable oils, polyunsaturated fatty acids when your body needs fatty acids, they need saturated fat and long chain fatty acids for you to be healthy? Your brain is made up of cholesterol, your cells are made up of cholesterol.
Here's another one, even for the absorption of [00:08:30] vitamin D. Now, do I have to tell you how important vitamin D is? Do I have to tell you? You know it. Vitamin D, I hate to admit this, but it's probably more important than coffee, vitamin C. You want to have a short life, stay out of the sun, you'll have a short life, or a shorter life. You won't be healthy. All cause mortality is raised when you have very low cholesterol and you have low levels of vitamin D. But you need cholesterol to absorb [00:09:00] vitamin D in your gut, did you know that? Do you know why? Because cholesterol makes up a big part of your bile. Bile's important you know.
God gave you a gallbladder and a lot of people have lost their gallbladder. You know why? Because they didn't use it. Use it or lose it, that's what happens with the gallbladder because gallbladder, and I've mentioned this to you many a time. The reason that you get stones in the gallbladder is not because you're using it, [00:09:30] it's because you're not using it enough. And then, you use it a few times and, you see, your gallbladder's just a little reservoir of bile. It's just a reservoir. Bile comes from your liver into the gallbladder, it's just a little reservoir, a little cup. And then, when you eat fat you pour that bile in to absorb the fat soluble vitamins. Vitamin A, we talked about that yesterday, it's important, you're invisible shield. You need [00:10:00] bile, cholesterol, which is the big part of bile to absorb your fat soluble vitamins. Why would you want to lower your cholesterol? Tell me, give me a good reason.
Your body's smart. You completely go against nature when you're lowering your cholesterol, you're going against God, you're going against nature. And I know it's been drummed into us, but it ain't true. [00:10:30] You need cholesterol for your brain, you need cholesterol for your cells, you need cholesterol for your bile. Bile is mostly cholesterol. Cholesterol helps even with your pH and, remember, cholesterol, very important, is a transporter. Cholesterol transports your hormones. You want to have good hormones? You better have FedEx trucks, or Canada Post, or US Post, or Amazon trucks [00:11:00] on the highway of your blood vessels.
You see why cholesterol got into trouble? I'll tell you how it started. There was a guy named Ancel Keys, if you take any kind of nutrition course, you'll probably run into his name. I knew about Ancel Keys in the 1970s, he was a popular guy, his face was on the cover of Time Magazine because after President Eisenhower, do you remember that guys? [00:11:30] I do, I remember President Eisenhower, I was born in 1952. President Eisenhower, he was the president before President Kennedy. When I was a kid, President Kennedy, I remember that, I remember the day he was assassinated like it was yesterday. And I think I was in grade five, but I remember it. I'm a history buff, I drive my wife crazy because I'm always talking about people that [00:12:00] were part of my childhood, or whatever. And I tell my grandchildren all these stories and they probably say, "Grandpa, when were you born in the days of Noah?" I love history.
But you see, Ancel Keys, one guy after President Eisenhower had a heart attack, which was almost unheard of in those days, did you know that? When they did the autopsy on President Eisenhower, they saw cholesterol [00:12:30] in his blood vessels. They saw the plaque that created the heart attack, and they saw some cholesterol there. And the theory came right from then. And Ancel Keys was the guy who pushed this. He said, "Cholesterol must be at the root of heart disease." And remember, in the 1950s heart disease was almost nothing. People died, but they still died [00:13:00] from infection. But you know what Ancel Keys never even brought into the equation? Everybody and their dog, including President Eisenhower, do you know that president Eisenhower smoked four packs of cigarettes every day? And that created ...
Anyway, I don't want to get into all the physiology of what happens, but President Eisenhower, it wasn't cholesterol, of course cholesterol is present. They're the FedEx trucks on the highways of your blood vessels. They're bringing hormones. [00:13:30] And guess what else they're doing? They're trying to hitch their wagon to your triglycerides, I'll talk about that in a minute. But I wanted to give you the background of why people went from butter to margarine. Why people went from bacon and eggs to cereal. I mean, cereals have been around for 100 years, but people went hook, line and sinker. It started [00:14:00] in the '50s, but it didn't get a lot of ink until the '60s. And then, it was on steroids in the '70s. And the world changed. People were scared of eating butter, people were scared of eating bacon and eggs. "Oh, that's full of saturated fat and cholesterol. And that will just make you so sick. It will give you a heart attack." And the opposite [00:14:30] was true. It's exactly what happened.
I'm a historian I love history. When I was doing my PhD in nutrition. One of the biggest parts of our nutrition course was learning the history of nutrition. It was fascinating. Some of the stuff I just didn't know. I knew a little bit, obviously, about cholesterol, but some of it I didn't understand. Ancel Keys, who was he? He chose changed the world for the worse. [00:15:00] And you know what? People that went against him, I remember, there were some very, very courageous doctors who went against his theory and said, "That's not true." And you know what happened to them? They were vilified because, you see, there was a lot of money behind this whole push. The cereal companies were huge, and the food companies they went after the farmers like you would not believe. And [00:15:30] they changed our breakfast. People started eating cereals. "Oh, Frosted Flakes are great," said Tony the Tiger. Well, Tony the Tiger was an idiot. My name is Tony, they used to call me that in school, I'm not kidding you, Tony the Tiger. But they changed the world, guys.
And then, big pharma, they got into it after big food, they got into it. [00:16:00] And what did they do? They made a drug. They brought out a class of medications that will lower your cholesterol thinking it was good for you. Well, I don't know if big pharma thought about whether it was good for you or not, but they sure made a boatload of money, and they're still making a boatload of money, and they changed the thinking of 99.9% of every physician that I know. They changed their [00:16:30] thinking and the world has paid a huge price.
Can I just give you a little bit of proof? You know what the number one killer is? Chronic disease, what's the number one killer, still, today? Heart disease and stroke is still number one. I'll tell you something, if statins worked, if statins did, if lowering your cholesterol was a good thing we would've got rid of heart disease by now. True story, about 10 years ago, maybe [00:17:00] a little bit ... no, about 10 years ago in the House of Commons in the United Kingdom, there was actually a vote. It was shot down, but they actually came to the Parliament there to add statin drugs to the drinking water in the United Kingdom. That's how far this insanity went. Every cardiologist, every doctor just about cholesterol was made the boogeyman. [00:17:30] And you can't live without cholesterol. And the higher your cholesterol is ... there it is.
So, let me take ... you want to know? I can tell you whether you have metabolic syndrome in five seconds, send me your blood work. Tony Jr. and I were discussing this yesterday on the live and it's true, all I need to do is look at two numbers, and I can tell you where you're at. I can tell you where your liver's at, your liver's a suitcase.
Let me tell you how to elevate your good cholesterol, [00:18:00] well, cholesterol elevate it. Eat it, you have to eat that 15%. You've got to make up for what your liver doesn't make, 15%. So, eat cholesterol, eggs, meat, and cheese. How can I raise my good cholesterol? You must eat it. And it's only found in the animal products. Sorry, it's not in the plant kingdom, it's not there.
Two, exercise, vitamin E isn't that good? So, when you go for a walk, and you know me, [00:18:30] I'm big on at least three or four days, a week, 15 to 20 minutes short, but intense, if you can do it. And lift weights, there's nothing better in terms of your blood work, than short 10, 15, 20 minutes, you don't have to go long, of intense exercise. I like, I've shared this with you before Tabata, Tabata. [00:19:00] I don't know they say it, but it's an app that I have on my phone, and I use it every day. I use it every day and it's a four minute thing, 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off eight repetitions. Sometimes I do push ups. My gym's in my basement, so I have some weights there. I love the rebounder, I love that, so good for your nitric [00:19:30] oxide, but it's also good for your cholesterol. It'll elevate your good cholesterol, HDL.
The other one is lower your triglycerides. So, one you eat the classroom, and the other one you lower your triglycerides. What are triglycerides? Three fat balls, triglyceride fat, three fats come from, you guys know this, how do you get high triglycerides? By eating sugar and crappy carbohydrates. [00:20:00] So, when you lower your crappy carbohydrates, you lower your triglycerides. You eat cholesterol, so that you have FedEx trucks on the highway, Canada Post, Purolator [inaudible 00:20:15], a good friend. It grabs your triglycerides and takes them out. You know how you get a heart attack? Triglycerides, TG. So, exercise, eat cholesterol, [00:20:30] eat it, and cut out your crappy carbs and sugars because that fills up your ... that's. what happens.
Another one, increase your vitamin D. Yes, even the sun helps you to elevate your good HDL, did you know that? Isn't that funny? You need to eat cholesterol to get vitamin D because you want to absorb it properly, and you need vitamin D to elevate your good cholesterol. Well, they go together, incredible. You know another one [00:21:00] is glutathione. What is glutathione? It's amino acids. Your body makes them, but you need to eat eggs, meat, and cheese to elevate your glutathione, that'll actually elevate your HDL. What is HDL? HDL are the FedEx trucks, the trucks on the highways of your blood vessels picking up bad fat, which isn't cholesterol, it's triglycerides. [00:21:30] Guys, if you get this you're ahead of 99% of the doctors I know, 99%.
And here's the last one. Here's one other thing you can do. The best oil is a long chain fatty acid, an omega-3 that will elevate your HDL, you know what it's called? High DHA oil. You see, in Omega-3 you have DHA and EPA. And the higher the DHA, the higher [00:22:00] your HDL will go. I love that, DHA, high DHA oil.
Love you guys, talk to you soon. Elevate your cholesterol. There's no such thing as bad cholesterol, remember that. Talk to you soon. Love you.
Announcer: You've reached the end of another Doctor Is In Podcast with your hosts, Dr. Martin Jr and Sr. Be sure to catch our next episode, and thanks for [00:22:30] listening.