Dr. Martin continues his teaching on telomeres in today’s podcast. Telomeres are the wick-like caps that protect your DNA. The shorter they are, the quicker you will age.
He shares a study from the Mayo Clinic that’s showing extreme tiredness is connected with the length of your telomeres... and those with shorter telomeres have a greater risk of heart disease!
Why should you be protecting your wicks? Listen to today’s podcast, where Dr. Martin unpacks this study.
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: Good morning. Hope you're having a great day. Nice to have you on with us this morning here. Let's get going guys, we've got a real good crew on this morning and we're going to do part two of telomeres. Now, you know what they are, okay, and I'll just do a little review. Yesterday we had a real good chat about telomeres, and telomeres are little wick-like substances that literally protect your DNA. We mentioned that yesterday the longer your telomeres, the less you age. You're going to age, everybody's going to age. Aging by the way, takes place inside the body before you see it on the outside of the body. Some people without even realizing it have shortened telomeres but they don't know it. But I want to talk to you today about a study that actually was interesting... I saw it yesterday after our session that we did yesterday on telomeres. Remember I was telling you about how good coffee was for your telomeres? A lot of people accused me of fudging studies on coffee. I'm telling you, I am not doing that. I've said it so consistently for so many years that when every guru on the planet was telling you to stop drinking coffee, I was consistent to tell you to drink it.
Somebody came online yesterday and asked... I saw it so I answered it right away. They said, "I read on another site that coffee elevates your blood sugar." I said it's just the opposite! Coffee acts like Metformin, the drug that they give to diabetics to lower their blood sugar. Coffee acts just like Metformin. This is why I often recommend to you to take coffee with your meal. It lowers your blood sugar. It lowers your insulin response. Now you can't out-drink with coffee a bad diet, okay? So I'm not telling you that. But it is helpful. It's helpful. And I talked to you yesterday about how to drink coffee; drink it black if you can. Don't use milk, use cream if you've got to use cream. I'm telling you to try and avoid sweeteners. You want to put a little cinnamon there, okay. But like I talked to you again about forming habits.
But here's another study that actually came out, and like I say I flagged it yesterday. I love the fact that I have a service that gives me these studies. Because I think you would never hear about these things. But this study, another study on telomeres... Remember, telomeres are wick-like... I showed you a candle yesterday and I showed you the little wicks. The longer those wicks are, the longer you burn. The longer you last, just like a candle, right? So they're important. Can I tell you, behind me are some of my medical books and to my left I have a cabinet with a lot of my old textbooks. Actually I have right here my Merck's manual. Merck's manuals are great because you just name a condition and it sort of gives you a Coles Notes version of everything, treatment and what to do in the medical world. But I'm going to tell you, we didn't have a clue about telomeres.
Now you see that microscope behind me there? Again, for those who are on the podcast I'm showing a microscope that I have in my office here at home. I looked in that microscope for many, many years and I taught myself. I liked it. It was a great tool. But the better the microscopes are, and every year they get better and better and better with the electron microscope, they found stuff that we just didn't know we had. And one of them was telomeres at the site of our DNA. So the Mayo Clinic came out with a study and let me read it to you. People with daytime sleepiness and fatigue, and we'll go over this, have a greater risk of heart disease due to shortening of their telomeres. This came out of the Mayo Clinic. They were noticing something, that if you're fatigued... One of the books that I wrote, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, I talked about being sick and tired of being tired all the time. Now, I tell you the number one reason back and this is when I wrote a book in probably the year 2000, maybe. I'm trying to think. But I said something which is maybe not true today because I haven't seen it, but it was true back then and that was the number one reason people visited their doctors in the year 2000, so 21 years ago, was because of fatigue. They were tired.
Physicians do their job in a sense, okay let's order some blood work because fatigue is your body saying, "Hello!" Trying to wake you up. It's never normal, guys. Look, if I miss a night's sleep, which is very rare by the way, but if I do I'm tired the next day. I'm tired the next day. I'm not at the top of my game. And you understand that. But there are people, and I'm sure even in this audience that are listening, they're tired all the time. They don't know what it's like to have good energy. They're exhausted. I've written several books on that. Energy robbers was one of them. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, the curse of the modern woman. I talked about that a lot, because it was a common sign.
But the Mayo Clinic is saying what they've observed is that when people are tired... And like I said not just because one day you're tired because you didn't get a good night's sleep or whatever, they're saying just tired all the time. One thing they found is that you have shortened telomeres. And shortened telomeres, according to them, you have a greater risk of heart disease. So let's unpack this a little bit just so that you understand what happens. Fatigue is a symptom. Fatigue is a symptom but also a condition. It's your body yelling at you. Now, if you have one day and then you get a good night's sleep... And this is generally me, I'm a high energy person. I don't go around during the day dragging my butt. I don't. And so it can't be age. It's not age. Although people would like to say that while getting older. Look, I have a good energy but it don't last as long. How's that? Okay. Like as you get older cars, things change. Your telomeres are going to be shorter than they used to be. But you don't want them to be real short. And that's what the Mayo Clinic is saying.
They're saying the connection is these telomeres will predict damage to the heart. Heart disease. I need to unpack that a little bit more, because what's happening? And I've written about this extensively. But let me just tell you what also is happening, because just to say telomeres you go, okay, what do I do about that? Well one of them would be to drink coffee. Now we talked about that yesterday. Coffee's good for the heart because it lengthens your telomeres. But it does more than that. This is not just about coffee, okay? Let me just talk more about fatigue. When your body is fatigued, it's a sign that you have a silent condition going on. Nevermind your telomeres. I've written about this extensively, going back into the 1990s. That when you are fatigued, it's your body telling you, hello? Hello? Hello?
We brought my wife's car into the dealership yesterday because Rosie has an app on her phone. And when there's something... Even if her door's open in the car, my daughter had her car the other day. And my wife's phone is talking to her through her app. "The door's open." The passenger door or whatever it was. What? So she calls my daughter, "Would you close the doors please?" My daughter, "What? How do you know that I left the door open?" "Because my phone is telling me!" Oh my word, what a world we live in. But you get a warning signal. Like the cars are computerized today. Rosie brought the car in because the engine light was on. We don't know why. We brought it into the dealership, do you know what the dealership said? One of your caps... wasn't the gas cap, but on the engine an oil cap or whatever was just not tight. Okay. And they tightened the cap and the light went off. Okay.
But your body, guys, your body is better than a computer any day. The intelligence of your body fearfully and wonderfully made. I just remind you of that all the time. Your body gives you clues. We need to listen to those things. If you are fatigued, if you are tired all the time, one thing I know for certain you have inflammation in the body. Now again, we've got to go a step back. We have to go another step back. Inflammation, Tony Jr says it all the time, is not Houdini. Inflammation comes from something else. What causes inflammation in the body? Now you're sensing fatigue, but inside the body we know telomeres are shortened. We also know that you have an inflammatory response. You might not feel any pain. You might, but you probably don't. You have inflammation. But before inflammation comes, something else has to happen. And that's where we talk about, at the Martin Clinic, the three seeds of disease. Three seeds of disease.
All disease comes from these three things. Now we're not talking about viruses. We're not talking about bacteria. That's what people used to die of, by the way. So when you see a pandemic, that we just went through, before antibiotics and whatever when people died generally they did not die of autoimmune, they didn't die. Go back a hundred years. It's not that it was impossible, but very few people died of cancer. Very few people died of heart disease. It's unbelievable if you look at the history of medicine and you realize what did people die of? Well they died of infection. But in the last 50 years, 60 years, people die of inflammation. Not infection, but inflammation. Not that you can't die from an infection, of course you can. You can get sepsis and die. But that's not the vast majority of deaths today. We've lost sight of this. This is one of the unintended consequences of focusing in on viruses. I've been upset with medical officers of health, I've been upset with medicine through this. Because people are dying of cancer. People are dying of heart disease. It's almost like it don't count.
But coming back to inflammation. Inflammation is a second step. It's not the first step if your body going downhill. The first step is the three seeds of disease. One, you guys should know this by heart but I teach and repeat and teach and repeat, rinse and repeat. That's me. Insulin. It's a death hormone. It's a death hormone. Leaky gut and oxidative damage, free radical damage. So those three things... And by and large, when you think of it, it's food. Because insulin's a food hormone. Insulin never, never, never, never gives you trouble without food. I mean, I guess if you're born with type 1 diabetes, autoimmune, but that's leaky gut. Anyway, I don't want to get into that. So what makes you tired is inflammation. Inflammation. Remember you don't necessarily have to have pain. Inflammation makes you fatigued. But inflammation comes from a step earlier, which is either insulin resistance or high circulating insulin, eating the crappy carbs and sugars, leaky gut, and oxidative damage. Free radical damage. Part of the telomeres, what kills them or shortens them is oxidation. We're rusting out. It's no fun. It's part of life.
Now, let me add one more step so that you understand where I'm coming from. You're tired. And when you're tired all the time, we're talking at the cellular level. Because inside yourselves, you have a little battery pack. Inside yourselves you have a battery pack. What are they called? Your mitochondria. Batteries. Mitochondria release energy. You need food to give you energy and your mitochondria is your little battery packs and they release ATP which is energy and you burn fuel. We talked about the wood stove theory, you're burning the wrong fuel with your mitochondria, your little batteries. You're not giving them the right fuel. And you will operate but you're not going to operate at a high level. So now you have inflammation and inflammation inside of your body. We talked to you about this many, many a times is very destructive. Because inflammation is silent mostly. It's silent when you're not listening. If you're tired, you have inflammation. And you know at the cellular level, if you're tired all the time, that your mitochondria are not giving out the octane that you need.
Now there's another factor, and I need to bring this in here with fatigue. Your fight or flight. See me getting uptight? Cortisol. Cortisol is gasoline on the fire of inflammation. You already have inflammation, and now you're stressed because you're maybe not sleeping. You don't sleep, your cortisol goes up. If your cortisol goes up, you don't sleep. But it's not just sleep, although sleep's really important. Stress. And I've done some podcasts on this, but I'm just going to say it again. Again, the unintended consequences of lockdowns is stress. I was saying to Nic yesterday in a conversation with our staff, I said, "Nic we're human beings. We need each other." A dog's happy being the only dog. They're happy. They're content. But human beings we need other people. We need each other. We need to communicate. Not text, not Zoom. We need human contact. That's the way we're wired. One of the things that happens, the unintended consequences... And they're finding this out, and you put masks on children and it's the worst thing you can do for a kid. I see it even today out in the playground. Some kids got masks on. What in the world? We're meant to communicate. I need to see your face. I need to give you a hug and you need to hug me. That's the way the world is. When you see grandma and grandma can't see her grandchildren.
I got a degree in obituarology. I would tell people that. I look at obituaries. And anybody that's died in the last year the service will be at a later date. Oh that drives me insane. The virus has taken over the funeral homes. You can't go there. Oh, I just... See, my cortisol is up. We are going to see so much mental health issues. We're already seeing it. Suicides are off the charts. Drug overdoses are off the charts. Depression and mental health are off the charts. And guys, here's what you know what the world doesn't know. I'm going to teach you something that you already know, but the world doesn't know it and they're not even thinking about this. Because, listen to what I'm saying, fatigue is a symptom but let's bring it back. Inflammation is deadly. It's deadly to your heart. It's deadly for cancer. It's deadly in autoimmune. So if you have inflammation and now you're pouring gasoline on it.
Here's what I'm going to make as a prediction. I'm not a prophet, nor the son of one, but I'm going to tell you what's going to happen. We are already losing the battle on cancer, wait... Because they're not diagnosing it. Because it's not a virus. So medicine looks at delayed detection. I'm not looking at delayed detection. I'm looking at when people's cortisol is high, you are pouring gasoline on the fire and it's going to spread like wildfire. And ladies, where it's going to hit you the most is breast cancer. Breast cancer. I'm telling you. Coming to a theater near you. Breast cancer, which is already out of control, will be one of the unintended consequences of all of this. It bothers me. People are not thinking, the world is not thinking past their nose. They're not... Oh, we'll deal with mental health later. No you won't. It will be too late. The gasoline is being poured. Cortisol is so dangerous if it's been there for a bit. It's so dangerous, because it just adds fuel to the fire of inflammation.
If you are fatigued, listen to me. Look, the thyroid can be involved and there's other things. Absolutely, I get that. I understand all of that. But even with the thyroid, you have an inflammation problem and you must be aware of that. I should have finished. I go up a rabbit trail and I forget to finish my point because I talked about women. Now let me talk to men. When cortisol pours gasoline on the fuel of inflammation, the fire takes off. In a woman, generally, it's cancer. Generally. It's cancer and more particular breast cancer. Men, it's heart disease. It's a heart attack or stroke waiting to happen. You see, when I wrote this book here, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: The Curse of the Modern Woman, how many years ago was that? 30 plus? When I wrote that, I mentioned one thing in there that I just thought of now. You know what I said? People that have chronic fatigue syndrome, women that have chronic fatigue syndrome, were 50%... Because chronic fatigue syndrome and I was probably the first guy to mention it back in 30, 35 years ago... Was an adrenal thing. The adrenals were exhausted. Hormones out of whack in women. You know when I said? 35 years ago. 50% more likely to develop breast cancer. That was the statistic back then. Where are we today?
Mayo Clinic is saying if you have shortened telomeres that's going to affect your heart. It's going to affect everything. But how do you get shortened telomeres? They didn't mention that. Inflammation. The silent killer. And unpack it even, go back another step again. Digest, repeat, repeat, repeat. Inflammation comes as a result of your diet, primarily leaky gut and oxidative damage, which is primarily your diet again. So is leaky gut, primarily. When I get a study like this out of the Mayo Clinic, I flagged it. I said, yep... they're right. The fatigue, the unwellness that's going on in our society. It's much more dangerous than just being tired. Tired just is check the engine light. Check the engine light of your body. Your body's smart. It's trying to get your attention. These are warning signs. Why do you think I built The Reset? Turns off the warning signs. You're bringing your body into the dealership to get it checked. And you're changing it. You fix it. Unbelievable. Unbelievable.
I don't even have to work out today. I'm all charged up for the day. Hey guys, we really appreciate you guys. I mean this. I want to teach people, okay? You know that. That's my passion, is to teach these things about your health and your body. You can help by sharing this. If they can't watch the Lives, you can share the lives by the way. And do that, please. Share it with other people. You know that Facebook actually likes that? Yeah, they like it? See Facebook loves interaction. So we have a very interactive site. So Facebook actually likes that. Now here's another thing; podcasts. The Doctor Is In podcast. The more it's downloaded and you can tell people listen to the podcast. Get your smartphone and it'll come up automatically if you sign up for the podcast. You know what? Do that too, and tell your friends. We appreciate that. Tomorrow is Question and Answer Friday. So if you've got a question you want me to pontificate on, I'll be happy to do it. So send in your questions. We appreciate you guys big time, we really do love you 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!