Dr. Martin discusses a study from the Mayo Clinic that is showing the importance of omega-3 for those with metabolic syndrome. Since 88% of the North American population has some form of metabolic syndrome, the findings of this study apply to everyone.
Dr. Martin shares 5 signs that you already have metabolic syndrome. In medicine, they wait for your blood sugar to come back as high to diagnose you with diabetes. Dr. Martin encourages patients to practice prevention now and not wait for a diagnosis!
The study from the Mayo Clinic is showing how omega-3s, especially the longer chain fatty acids, DHA and EPA, decreases insulin resistance. Not only that, they can decrease the dangerous triglycerides in your bloodstream by 35%. This is a major finding and more evidence that we all need to be getting more omega-3!
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
Announcer:Â 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:Â Well, good morning, everyone. And once again, welcome to another Live. Okay, guys, I'm going to talk to you this morning about metabolic syndrome. And the reason I'm going to talk to you about it is a new study that came out of the Mayo Clinic. And that is on the importance of, again, Omega-3, DHA, EPA. Now, somebody asked this question. I might have to answer it tomorrow on the question and answer part tomorrow which we do that again. You got any questions? Don't be shy, guys. We appreciate all the questions that come in. You can put your questions for me tomorrow. No problem at all. We appreciate that. And it's one of our most popular segments are the Question and Answer Friday.
One of the questions that I saw was what's the difference between omega-3 in plants. Because there's omega-3 in plants. Hemp seeds, flax seeds have omega-3. They also have omega-6, but they have omega-3. And the omega-3 from the animal kingdom. So your meat, fish, eggs have omega-3. What's the difference between the two? Here is this in a nutshell. I've taught you this before, but I will teach it to you again. The longer the chain... So fatty acids, when you hear that term, fatty acids, there's good, bad, and ugly fatty acids. The very good ones are fatty acid chains. In the plants, you have a category called ALA. ALA. Are they good? Yup. They're small fatty acids. Then you get to the animal kingdom and you have fatty acids, EPA and DHA, with DHA being the longest fatty acid chain. What's that mean? The longer the fatty acid chain, the better your body absorbs it and uses it.
Oh, by the way, in dairy, you have another fatty acid. And I told you, was it last week, I can't remember, don't ditch the dairy. Don't ditch dairy. Because people often ditch dairy because they think it's bad for them, but in dairy, they have a very specific fatty acid and that's called CLA. CLA is not quite as long as DHA and EPA, but it's very good. And it does something very specific. So the fatty acid's called conjugated linoleic fatty acid. That's CLA. That's found in dairy. So don't ditch the dairy. I hoped you liked that segment. If you don't remember it, go back on our podcast and it'll be flagged don't ditch dairy. Because we name every podcast so that you can go and look and just look down, "Oh, I want to listen to that one." Go ahead, guys, and do that. So don't ditch dairy.
Now, what was the study out of the Mayo Clinic? It had everything to do about what we talk about every day, and that is metabolic syndrome. 88%, 88% of the population have some form of metabolic syndrome. "Okay, Doc, what is that?" Metabolic syndrome is caused by food. Why? How do we know that? Because metabolic syndrome, and we'll go over what it does, metabolic syndrome is caused by increased or high circulating insulin. And as you well know, insulin is a hormone you only use when you eat. The higher the amount of insulin that you need, the worse it is for your body.
Now, if you've got a copy of my book, The Reset, I go over this. And I talked about the elephant in the room concerning the pandemic. The elephant in the room, metabolic syndrome. So what are the signs of metabolic syndrome? This is why I have no problem commenting on your blood work. If you want to send me your blood work, I'm looking at three or four things specifically for metabolic syndrome. What are they? There's really seven, but medicine probably looks at five. And I shouldn't even say it, medicine's terrible for metabolic syndrome because they wait till you're a diabetic. This is diabetes without being diabetic.
You have metabolic syndrome when? You suffer from metabolic syndrome when? Numero uno, you've got abdominal fat. Metabolic syndrome shows up in the belly. It shows up in the belly. And what you see, okay, come with me. Are the malls open? Come with me. I always said this. So it's not like I made this up. Come with me to a mall, have a coffee with me and we will observe people. And you will see people today, if you had left the planet, let's say you went to live on Mars in the 1970s, you just happened to leave, you left the planet, you went to live on Mars, then you come back. And the year is 2021, the month of July. And you went to the mall to have a coffee. Any mall. Doesn't have to be a mall, but I'm telling you this so that you can relate. And you just observe. Look at people.
You know what first thing you would observe? Remember, you've been living on Mars since 1970. You're back on planet earth. And you see something that you didn't see in the 70s. What is that? People are bigger. True or false? That's true. People are bigger, especially around the waist. 50% of the population, 50, half, including children, are obese. But I'm not even talking about obesity. I'm talking about belly fat. We've got sugar bellies. True or false? It's true. And so the first sign of metabolic syndrome is belly fat. You can be skinny as a rake and still have metabolic syndrome, by the way, because your fat might be inside around the organs. Because insulin, what it does, remember that now, insulin's job primarily is to take sugar out of your bloodstream. It can't allow it to stay there. It's dangerous. Sugar destroys blood vessels in a nanosecond. And so your body goes, "Hey you, buddy, come here. I'm going to park you." And the Costco parking lot is your liver, your muscles, number two. And insulin creates fat cells.
If there's not enough room in your muscles, if there's not enough room in the Costco parking lot, your liver, it will now make more fat cells because it's got to have a place to store sugar. It needs to create bins, storage bins. So it packs it around your liver. And most people, not all, most people will show up in their belly. Got that? That's how your body works. Your body is intelligent like you would not believe. Read your Bible. It talks about the magnificence of the human body. It's unbelievable. It is. So that's metabolic syndrome. Boy, I told a long story to tell you about the first sign. No, but observe, guys. Use your eyeballs. God gave you eyes. Look. Because you will see what's happening in the world.
Number two. When you have insulin at a high circulating insulin, it stores, it packs, it creates fat. When the liver is full of fat, what does it do to those fats? What does it do? "Out of here, fat." It sends the fat from sugar, not from bacon, not from eggs, not from cheese, it sends fat made from sugars into the bloodstream as, you guys should know this, triglycerides. TG. Tri, three, glycerides, fat, three fat balls. They go into your bloodstream. So when you send me your blood work, am I looking at cholesterol? Yes, but I'm more interested in your triglycerides. They need to be low. And your HDL, which is your FedEx trucks, your Amazon trucks, your Canada Post trucks, U.S. Postal trucks, or whatever, they're trucks in your bloodstream, and they have a hitch on the back. That's what HDL does. They have a hitch and they're looking for... What are they looking for, guys? Triglycerides, three fat balls.
And when they see it, they hitch their wagon to it. Isn't that interesting how your body is made? And then it takes those triglycerides and says, "No, you guys are dangerous. I got to get rid of you. So come here." And they bring back those triglycerides into the liver to be metabolized. Got it? So the sign of metabolic syndrome, one of them, abdominal fat. Two, triglycerides. Low is better. Three, HDL. They call it good cholesterol. It's high-density lipoprotein. It's the wagon hitcher. It is a hitch. I've got a truck and I can tow a boat on it. The trailer. Why? Because it's got a hitch. I got a hitch on it. And that's what HDL does. You get it? The hitch.
So when you see, oh, you got cholesterol, I hope so. Every day, I mean it, seven days a week, I get someone says, "My doctor said I got high cholesterol." You know what I'm thinking? Good. I want you to have high cholesterol because you need a hitch on the back of your wagon so that you can take triglycerides out of your body. Do you get it? You want them back in the liver so that they can be metabolized there. The higher your cholesterol is, HDL, the better it is. So you got that? Triglycerides, HDL, obviously fatty liver. That's a sign of metabolic syndrome. And listen, if you've got fatty liver, you're a diabetic. Don't fool yourself. Don't be deceived. You're already a diabetic.
"What do you mean, Doc? My blood sugar..." I don't care what your blood sugar is. It doesn't matter. Your blood sugar, remember, insulin is doing everything it can to get sugar out of the bloodstream. So don't wait till your sugars are high. If you have abdominal fat, you're a diabetic. You really are. Don't fool yourself. Don't wait for the diagnosis. Don't wait for diagnosis. Don't wait. Be preventative. Put it in your brain. You know what? I got trouble. And the problem is carbohydrates. Crappy carbs. Sugar and packaged goods and stuff fried in bad oil. And it'll elevate your insulin like no one's business. And you get high circulating insulin. You get what we call insulin resistance. And 88% of the population have some form of metabolic syndrome.
You know what? I brought this to you a couple of weeks ago. Go look at it, relisten to this again if you want. If your A1C... What is A1C? It is what they call glycated hemoglobin. What's that mean? It's not that complicated. Really isn't. It's sugar attaching to a red blood cell. Once sugar attaches to a red blood cell, the red blood cell can't get rid of it. It's like they got hooked by a fishing hook. So the sugar latches onto it. And over a three-month period, you can measure how many red blood cells have been hooked by sugar. And if your A1C, and remember the new research on it, it's incredible. They're even talking about a number 4.8 and above. It's still within normal range. But according to new research, that A1C is a real indicator. When it's above 4.8, you're on the Titanic. Turn the ship around. You must take steps to fix the problem. So high A1C, even though it's within normal range, don't wait for that. If you have elevated A1C, you need to make an adjustment in your diet. It's an adjustment in the diet. Fatty liver.
And the last one is high levels of uric acid in your bloodstream. Everybody makes uric acid. It's a by-product of fructose. But everybody makes it. It's just the way your body works. But if you can't get rid of your uric acid. Doesn't come from meat. It comes from fructose, especially high-fructose corn syrup, which is the sugar of choice of the food industry. I've talked to you about that a million times. So I didn't even get to the study yet. I am going to get there. I just haven't got there yet.Â
Now, what does metabolic syndrome do? What does it do? At least five things. So if you're taking notes, number one, the first thing that happens when you have metabolic syndrome, abdominal obesity, high triglycerides, low HDL, elevated A1C... Oh, I forgot one. I forgot one. I'm sorry. And it's one of the most important, I'm sorry. High blood pressure. High blood pressure is metabolic syndrome. Sorry, I forgot. I'm a senior. I hide behind that. Whenever I forget something, I tell people I'm a senior. What do you expect? So you got that one? High blood pressure, very important.
What are they saying now? In Canada and the United States, 50 to 60% of the population have high blood pressure. It's a gift that keeps on giving to the pharmaceutical industry, but they're not fixing it. They're managing it. Where does it come from, metabolic syndrome? Food. And they blame salt for what sugar does. I'm sorry, guys. They blame salt for what sugar does. And my generation and the generation ahead of me, my parents' generation, eliminated salt out of their diet because of high blood pressure. Oh, it's salt. No, it's sugar. I'm sorry. The only time salt will bother you is if you're not drinking enough water. So you got metabolic syndrome, add in your high blood pressure.
Now metabolic syndrome, number uno, it's a direct correlation. You have to get this. This is so important. And if you do, you're ahead of 99% of the doctors I know. Food causes metabolic syndrome. Got it? Food. It elevates insulin if you eat the wrong foods. Change your fuel, change your fuel, change your fuel. Metabolic syndrome caused by high insulin, high circulating insulin, or insulin resistance, what does that do? In your body, what does it do? First thing that metabolic syndrome damages is blood vessels. Because when you have high circulating insulin, you have a condition called inflammation. Your body burns inside. And right away, your blood vessels are affected by that. It's your little Teflon layer inside your blood vessels. And when you have insulin resistance, you lower your levels of nitric oxide. Remember nitric oxide. What is that? It's a little substance in your blood vessels that dilate your blood vessels, relax, relaxes your blood vessels. It's called nitric oxide. We all have it.
Problem is when you have a high elevated insulin, because you get metabolic syndrome, your nitric oxide goes down. Your inflammation goes up, your nitric oxide goes down. That's terrible because it increases your risk of heart attack and stroke. Still the number one killer in society today. What's the number two killer in society today? Cancer. And in North America, they're neck and neck. And when you only trying to manage things and you don't try to prevent things, you get into real trouble, real trouble.
So what am I saying? Metabolic syndrome can be fixed. And I didn't even tell you about the link between metabolic syndrome, heart disease, cancer, and your memory, dementia and Alzheimer's. It affects the brain. The number one killer in the United Kingdom and number three in Canada and the United States of America is Alzheimer's and dementia. And it's happening at a younger and younger and younger age. And again, it's not medication, guys. It's not the answer. Now, you're in a little exclusive group. I wish I could high-five every one of you, thanking you for coming on and listening to this old guy talk in rants. But I can't help myself, guys, because this discovery would save the bacon of the world, but people are not listening.
"Oh, Doc, I thought you were going to give me a pill." Nah, you got to do something tough and you got to change your diet. It's not going to be easy. The food industry isn't going to like you. It's going to parade all of the crappy carbs in front of your face 24 and 7 on social media, on TV, on the internet, you name it. Junk. And they're going to tell you the opposite in nutrition. "Ah, leave that animal stuff alone. Don't eat that stuff. It's not good for you." Well, they're wrong. They're wrong.
So can I get to the study? I just had to do it, guys, because I want you to get this and I know most of you do. But look, we get new viewers, first of all, every day, every day, every day. So you just have to understand, for me, if I have to start with the ABCs, it's not a bad idea. It's not even a bad idea for me to go over this again and make you think your way through this. Now let me say this. Here's the study from the Mayo Clinic on omega-3 and metabolic syndrome. Another reason to eat your steak. Another reason to eat fish. I have fish every day in a capsule. You know me and DHA. I'm a big guy on DHA because it's the longest chain fatty acid. So let me get to the study. The study said that omega-3, especially the DHA, EPA DHA. EPA is a little shorter. DHA's longer. Those two have a real good impact on metabolic syndrome.
Here's how it happens according to the Mayo Clinic. One, it lowers insulin resistance. It goes to the cell. Now, remember, every cell in your body has a membrane. The outer membrane, the inner membrane. And it's like an inner tube. The inner tube is made up of cholesterol. So when you tell me, "Oh, let's lower your cholesterol," why do you want to do that? Why, why, why, why? You don't want to lower your cholesterol. You don't. And DHA, what it does, the omega-3 from DHA EPA gives your cells another little coating of healthy fat that says to insulin, "Hey, insulin, when you come near here, I'm going to help you to get through to the cell," which you want, because the less your cell resists insulin, the better it is. Insulin's got a job to do. And omega-3 helps with that outer wall. It makes it more slippery to allow insulin to do its job. Okay, one.
Two, when you take omega-3, either eating it by eating steak, eat it by fish, or take a supplement, you're helping the cell wall with insulin resistance, and number two, you're lowering inflammation. So you're putting oil on the fire, but a good oil. And it actually douses the fire. Omega-3. That's why it's so good for your blood vessels. Inflammation destroys blood vessels, guys. But omega-3 helps to lubricate your blood vessels. Got it? And it lowers inflammation. Wow, isn't that good for you? And it helps your ability of your blood vessels to dilate. Omega-3. Your blood vessels dilate. They relax with omega-3. Isn't that nice?
So here's the Mayo Clinic study, and I'll finish up with this. Because of what it does to insulin, omega-3, according to the Mayo Clinic, helps to... 1600 milligrams of DHA, our DHA has 2,700 milligrams, decreases your body fat. It helps to decrease your body fat because it's helping with insulin resistance. It decreases inflammation because it decreases your cytokines, inflammatory cytokines. It decreases insulin resistance. And this is really, really, really, really important, guys. Get this, take note of this. According to the Mayo Clinic, EPA, DHA, the longer chain fatty acids, decrease your triglycerides, the three fat balls that are dangerous in your bloodstream, by 35%. Isn't that good?
Eat your steak. You like fish? Eat your fish. Or do it like I do. I take a fish supplement every day. People ask me, "Do you like fish?" In the capsule, for me. It's just, I know a lot of you love your fish, and good for you. I wish I did. I just don't like fish that much. But I sure love it in a capsule. That's me. So isn't that good, guys? Isn't that good? What a study. And then we just went over metabolic syndrome again. You can't get enough teaching on it, in my opinion. Nobody knows about it. You guys know a secret that the world doesn't even understand. They don't get it. They don't get it, but you do.
Okay, I'm taking a deep breath. I love you guys. If you have any questions for tomorrow, Question and Answer Friday, tomorrow, we appreciate you guys coming on. If you're not a member of the Martin Clinic Facebook group, the private Facebook group, hey, become a member. We appreciate that. And we love that group. And we love you guys that come on and support this program on a daily basis. If you haven't got a copy of The Reset, get a copy of that book. You'll love it. I'm telling you, you'll love it. And you can give it away as a gift for somebody's health. Give it away, pass it on. People, they're not going to hear this. They just don't hear the stuff that we talked about today. And The Reset fixes metabolic syndrome. How do you like that? So love you guys. Talk to you soon.
Announcer:Â 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!