One of the greatest fears people have is losing their memory. Nobody wants their body to outlive their brain, but it’s happening more and more. Alzheimer’s is now the number one killer in the United Kingdom, taking over cancer and heart disease. In Canada and the United States, it’s number three!
A recent study from The Dementia Research Institute in the United Kingdom is showing that a healthy microbiome can trigger the formation of new brain cells in adults. According to the study, If you have a healthy microbiome, your gut will produce what it needs to help with neurogenesis, the regeneration of brain cells.
This is a major discovery that should be heralded across the nation, but sadly won’t be. Listen to today’s episode as Dr. Martin shares what we can do to improve the health of our microbiome, and ultimately our brain.
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, and welcome once again to another Live. Hope you're having a great day. Great start to your day. We thank you, our audience, and putting up with my shenanigans on a daily basis. And I just try and flag these studies that I think you will find interesting. And we're always trying to, at this place, talk about prevention. And here's one I flagged out of the United Kingdom Dementia Research Institute. Boy, oh boy. This is a big, big problem. Today one of the greatest fears that people have is losing their memory. I mean, you don't want to outlive your brain, guys. I think that's really a goal of all of us. We really don't want to outlive our brains. And this study was very interesting, because it found, if you have a healthy microbiome, and we'll talk about that in a moment, but here's the study... How a Healthy Microbiome Triggers Formation of New Adult Brain Cells.
And here's the mechanism. If you have a healthy microbiome, your good bacteria secrete indoles, I-N-D-O-L-E-S, indoles, that produce neurogenesis. You know what that means? Regeneration of brain cells in the hippocampus. So again, let me just break this down for you. Healthy gut, healthy brain. Leaky gut, leaky brain. Okay? And what happens in the leaky gut? You got garbage, literally garbage, and bacteria and viruses and heavy metals and candida, and whatever. These things don't belong in your blood. But if they get into the bloodstream through the gut, they can travel to your brain. Okay? But on the flip side of it, is if you have a healthy microbiome, your microbiome will produce substances that help with neurogenesis. Adult brain cells regenerate. And that's really an important factor, isn't it?
Now, in school, okay? Let me just tell you about what you learn in school. And look, it's true. By and large, it's very true. Okay. You learn that your liver, your kidneys, and your intestines can regenerate. Okay? So in medical school they teach you that your liver, your kidneys, and your intestines have an ability to regenerate. Okay? And then they'll teach you, if you get damage in your lungs, it's permanent. If you get damage in your heart, it's permanent. If you have a heart attack and you have heart damage, it's permanent. If you get anything to your brain, it's permanent. Now, by and large, that's true. Okay? By and large that's true. You get lung damage. It's very hard to regenerate lungs. It's very hard to regenerate a heart that's been damaged, the muscle. Okay? And brain cells, according to medicine, generally, if you lose them, you're out of luck. And I get what they're saying, and I don't vehemently disagree, but I do disagree to some extent. Because I've seen the opposite happen, even in my own practice.
And medicine never takes into account, as we talked about yesterday, they never take into account food and how food can be... You need food to survive, but good food regenerates. Obviously in the gut, we've proven that 1000s and 1000s of times. In the kidneys, where kidney function was starting to decrease and the creatinine levels in blood was going up, and protein levels in blood are in the urine going up showing kidney damage. But the kidneys regenerate. And we certainly know, and everybody agrees with this, that the liver has an outstanding ability to regenerate. Your liver, because it's such a filtration, your kidneys are filters too, but your liver, it does 600 things. And your liver is so important for producing hormones and your thyroid hormones and producing cholesterol and bile. And you need your liver to work. And isn't it amazing that God gives it an ability to regenerate? The liver can regenerate.
Now, if you get severe cirrhosis and cancer of the liver, meh, it's pretty difficult. But before that, your liver has an amazing ability to regenerate. And this is why you'll hear doctors about concussions. You have a concussion, you got brain scar tissue and that isn't coming back. But one thing about science, guys, when you hear science, follow the science. I like that, except I find the world in general doesn't follow science at all. Because science, guys, by definition, is always evolving. Science is observation, repetition. And the more we learn, the better our microscopes become, the better we understand things, we find out things that... When they say the science is settled, I don't like that. I don't like that. It's not that there's some things that are not settled, what they really mean is, "Don't come back at me, because I want to end any discussion by saying the science is settled." Right?
We learned that through COVID. "Oh, the science is settled." It's not settled. It's not settled. And there's nothing better in scientific circles than to question science. Science should be questioned. It should be questioned. For me, in my basic training, intestines regenerate, the liver regenerates, the kidneys regenerate, the brain doesn't, the heart doesn't, and the lungs don't. Okay. I get it. But it's amazing, in my practice, I was never a researcher per se, like someone that's got a PhD and does strictly research. Thank God I was in practice for a lot of years. I saw real people with real problems, and I saw real results. Real results. And I beg to differ. When it comes to the brain, now listen. I want people to prevent dementia. Prevent it. And I had lots of people come, "Well, you know what? I'm starting dementia, doc, can you help?" "Well, I'm going to try, but it would have been better had I seen you years ago to try and prevent dementia."
Sometimes we got good results regenerating the brain. I particularly saw it in concussions. Real big changes. Now, let's talk memory for a bit and what to do. So this study is showing that if you have a healthy microbiome, those good bacteria that are on your side help to produce a substance called indoles that help neuroregeneration, neurogenesis, new brain cells. Especially, they said, okay, especially in the area of your memory center, the hippocampus. Now guys, that's good news. It's one of the reasons I tell everybody, including your dogs, to take probiotics. Friendly bacteria. "Oh doc, do I take too much friendly bacteria?" "No. Have you ever counted to a trillion?" Somebody said, "If you count to a trillion, you got trillions of bacteria."
When you step on a scale, minus three. I like that. I like that. Everybody likes that. If you step on a scale, take off three pounds. Everybody in the world has three pounds of bacteria. The key is not the three pounds, trillions of bacteria. The key is what is your bacteria made up of? And again, I just tell you for instruction, it's good, bad, or ugly. Your bacteria is good, bad, or ugly. Okay? It's just the way it is. And to have a good microbiome, what does that mean, a good microbiome? Well, it's a balance. It's a balance between good and bad. And you got very little, or none, ugly. You see, I think most people, when they talk about bacteria, they don't talk about the ugly. And the ugly is fungus. It's candida. It is yeast. And that makes a poison within your gut. And I believe it is one of the key factors that gets into the bloodstream from your bowel and enters into the brain.
And I sort of rest my case when I explain to people what Parkinson's is. What is Parkinson's? It's a neurodegenerative disorder, but why? And what they're finding is something that I've been saying for 50 years, just about. It's yeast. Yeast don't belong in your brain, guys. Yeast belongs in bread. You know what I mean? Yeast belongs in bread. It don't belong in your body. Now a little bit, not going to kill you. But if that yeast gets into your brain, it is very disruptive. So having a good microbiome is meaning that you have more good guys than bad guys. Because when you have more bad guys than good guys, you get the invasion of yeast. That is why ladies, you understand this. You understand it better than men. Men are silly.
No, but ladies, you understand. Ladies, you ever had a yeast infection? "Oh yeah, doc. I've had a yeast infection." "Yeah." Well, that's no fun. First of all, but how did you get it? A lot of times you had a bladder infection, you took an antibiotic. Or you had a tooth infection, you took an antibiotic. And women, because they got areas that are a lot more moist than men, the reproductive organs in a woman, is a field day for yeast because of the moisture there. Yeast is the first cousin of mold. Where do you get mold? In a damp basement. Oh. Well, ladies, your damp basement can create yeast. You guys know that. And you know what? You take an antifungal or whatever and it goes away. But a lot of people don't realize what I'm saying about the microbiome. Doctors, and even people that do research on the microbiome, they don't talk about candida enough. Yeast. They just don't. Do you know how many doctors told me, "Oh, you can't get yeast in blood. It would kill you."
"Yeah, it will. But it's very slow. It's a slow death." Okay? What came out of India, by the way? I think I probably mentioned this with the virus in India. What they were finding out is the people that ended up in the hospital, not only did they have low levels of vitamin D, which was a big story over in India, but they were finding that people that got really sick, they had mold in their lungs. Black mold. And I've told you the story of black mold in the past. Well that is a fungus. You can get yeast, and it can get into your bloodstream through leaky gut. And that affects the brain. Leaky gut, leaky brain. So what do you do? We want to protect our brain. We want to protect especially the hippocampus, your memory center. For new folks on with us, two centers of your brain that are... Generally, there's more than that in the brain, obviously. But there's two things that you should remember: your hypothalamus, hormones. That's all you have to think. Hypothalamus, hormones. horror-mones for a lot of women. Okay?
Where does that start? In the brain. In the hypothalamus. Hippocampus, this is the easy one. Campus. University campus. College campus. Your memory center. So this study, by the Dementia Research Institute in the United Kingdom, shows that a healthy gut microbiome triggers formation of new adult brain cells. Guys, that is a headline. It's a headline that should be all over mainstream media. Because like I've said to you in the past, pharmaceutical companies are interested in pharmaceuticals. Okay? Look, that's what they do. Okay. I get it. They do a lot of great things. But where they've been extreme failures is in the area of dementia, Alzheimer's. Extreme failures. The FDA approved a drug that they had no business approving for Alzheimer's. Everybody on the committee that reviewed the research said, "Hey, what are you going to give this for? It doesn't work." But, because medicine was screaming for a medication, they approved it for heaven's sakes. Anyways.
Guys, I want to help you and help me keep my brain. I want new adult brain cells. You? I haven't met anybody yet, that when I talk about dementia or Alzheimer's, especially when you get into your 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, are going, "Oh doc, I want to keep my brain. I don't want to lose my memory. I don't want to live without a brain, without memory. It's sad." And I'll remind you, the number one killer in the United Kingdom, and no wonder they have the Dementia Research Institute, the number one killer now, taken over cancer and heart disease in Britain, crazy, is Alzheimer's. It's number three in Canada and the United States for reasons people die. Medically, okay? Because you die from accidents and that kind of thing. Okay?
So what do you do? Numero uno, take a probiotic, please. Some people say, "Well doc, I'd rather eat my vitamins and supplements." Yeah, me too. I would rather you eat them, that's why I talk about food every day. Every day and I will, in a moment, talk to you about food, again. Because I'm a food doctor. Okay? My PhD is in clinical nutrition. It's in nutrition. So yeah. But probiotics are marvelous supplements. Why? Because it gives you billions of bacteria with different strains. So when you look at a probiotic, here's all you have to remember. One, how many different strains are there? So when I say broad spectrum, that means it's got at least 10. And they're all Latin names. You know why Latin was invented? To confuse you. Ooh. The nuns told me in high school that I would need Latin to get anywhere in life. Ooh. I hated Latin. Latissimus dorsi. Why doesn't somebody just make up like I hurt my back muscle. No, I hurt my latissimus dorsi. And when you read about bacteria, you read about all sorts of long names like lactobacillus reuteri, lactobacillus rhamnosus. Folks, Latin was invented to keep you ignorant. I can't stand it. Speak English.
But broad spectrum probiotics. You see, the more different strains you have, because different strains do different things. They just do different things. They have a different DNA. We didn't know nothing about bacteria in the 1970s. You know what we knew about bacteria? It was bad. Bacteria is bad. You don't want bacteria, wash your hands. Yeah. But there's good, bad, and ugly bacteria. You need the good ones. And now we know much, much more than we used to know. Okay? Hey, I used to make our own yogurt in the 1970s. Ain't no store-bought yogurt. Stay away from that stuff. Okay? Make your own if you want some fermented foods and bacteria. Okay? The problem with that is you don't get all the strains. I like different strains, because I've studied bacteria for a long, long time now. I studied different ones, and couldn't get even a good probiotic. And so guess what? We had one made for us. Anyway, okay. That's one thing.
Food. Stay away from sugar. Why do I say that? You guys already know the answer, but I'm going to repeat it. Sugar feeds the bad guys. Sugar feeds the bad bacteria. You got two armies. You got the third one, that's yeast, but I'll talk about that in a minute. Don't feed the bad bacteria. Bad bacteria are like teenagers. They want junk. They want sugar. They want crappy carbohydrates. Don't feed the bear. Don't give them that. And all of you know that yeast feeds on sugar. So fungus, the third army, the invasive army, don't feed it. So if you want to help regenerate up here, you want to have more good bacteria, and you want to feed the good guys. What feeds good bacteria? Food. Real good food. You see, good bacteria already have a brain for good food. They love eggs, they love meat, and they love cheese. Okay? They do.
And you want to give them a little bit of good prebiotics. Prebiotics, by the way, they're like fertilizer for your good bacteria. Okay? And some vegetables are good to feed the good bacteria. Don't give them sugar. Don't give them crappy carbohydrates. And guys, here's one. Don't give your microbiome, don't give it artificial sweeteners, like diet sodas and stuff like that. We didn't know that 30, 40 years ago. But don't give them the artificial stuff, because it changes the microbiome. We found that out. And you know me with gluten shmooten. Have you heard me say that? Gluten shmooten. I'm not big on gluten. Okay? Now listen, is there a possibility of gluten intolerance? Of course there is. But one of the reasons I do the reset, and you have no type of... for 30 days, you have no type of gluten, gluten, protein glue, that's found in wheat and in rye bread and in barley and that.
A lot of people, if they have celiac of course they can't touch that. But even a lot of people, they don't do good… "Doc, what kind of bread can I eat?" None. For 30 days, no bread. I saw it again yesterday. Someone was online and we were in the Facebook, and they said, "Yeah, but my husband, he's eating pretty well. He loves bacon and eggs, but he's got to have his white bread. He's just got to." I don't care if your brand is white, brown, black. I don't care what color it is, it's still bread, and it's going to be sugar in five nanoseconds. Okay. It's sugar. You're really eating sugar. So when you go on The Reset you're not having any gluten. Okay. You're not? And that can affect your microbiome. The idea is don't feed the bad guys. Don't feed the bears. Bears love junk food. That's why you hide your garbage. Right? Because bears will come. At least in Northern Ontario they come around. Okay? My sister used to say, "They're buying condos, there're so many bears." So avoid artificial sweeteners.
I think I should write a book about antibiotics. I really should. Because it's the greatest discovery in medicine. I mean, I don't think we could argue with that. Antibiotics have saved millions and millions and millions of people's lives. I mean, let's face it. The pharmaceutical industry, they did a wonderful thing when they came up with antibiotics. They really have. Wonderful. Right? You got to give them a high five. You just got to say the truth. And the truth is, thank God for antibiotics. Of course, the problem, the problem, the two edged sword of antibiotics, is the overuse of them. I talked about this when I talked about autism. They're looking at vaccines and vaccines and... Look, nah, for me, it was antibiotics, leaky gut. Babies got leaky gut. Mommy had leaky gut. Antibiotics, which are meant to kill infection, kill bad bacteria, they overdo it. Now they kill all the bacteria. Good, bad, and ugly.
There's a problem with that. And that creates havoc, because now you get an overgrowth of candida and fungus. It comes in, there's no bacteria to stop them. And folks, it will kill your brain. And the canaries in the coal mine are the kids. When they're on antibiotics as little folks. I have always tied in, always tied in, auto-immune diseases. Why is there so much auto-immune today? One of the big reasons there's so much auto-immune... Remember, all auto-immune starts in the gut. All of it. “Why is there so much auto-immune, Dr. Martin?” Why? Antibiotics. The overuse of them. And not replenishing that microbiome. And I believe, with the passing of time, I'm going to be right on this. Right now, ah, it's genetics, it's this, lupus and Sjogren's and rheumatoid arthritis. And it's, "Doc, you're wrong." I think I'm right. I think I'm right. Anywho.
So look, I'm not telling you to avoid antibiotics, but I know people who've been on antibiotics so much, I mean, they got a running prescription at the pharmacy. And ladies, you happen to be the canaries because you get bladder infections, and, "Ah, I got another bladder... I need another antibiotic." Be careful. And only take an antibiotic if you got lots of pain. Okay? When you're out of pain, stop, take probiotics. And take probiotics even with antibiotics. Anyway, I get a little uptight, guys, but it's because I'm trying to protect you. Okay? Be careful for those who are on PPIs, proton pump inhibitors, Nexium, Prilosec. Okay? Acid reflux. "Ah doc, if I don't take that..." Yeah, but it kills your friendly bacteria, especially in the gut and the upper gut, in the small intestine. And then you're going to get a condition called SIFO. Not SIBO, SIFO. Remember, we renamed it. At the Martin Clinic it isn't SIBO, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, it's SIFO. Small Intestine Fungal Overgrowth. Go back and listen to that teaching in our podcast. Go back and listen to that on SIFO. It's interesting.
Okay, out of time. Can you regenerate the brain? Medicine says no, we say yes. Can you regenerate those memory cells in the hippocampus? Yes, according to new studies. And it has everything to do with your bacteria, your microbiome. Okay? Maybe we'll do part two, because I got some other things I wanted to talk to you about. But anyway, we'll see how things develop in the medical world in the next 24 hours. I've got some other studies that I think you'll find interesting. Okay. So housekeeping, we really appreciate our private Facebook group. Again, we just encourage you, encourage you, encourage you to become a member if you're already not. And invite your friends and family. Two, did you get our emails? Are you receiving our emails? Okay. I think you'd appreciate them. Lot of good studies on there. Okay. Our emails. You get it? And the Question and Answer Friday is coming. So send in your questions for question and answer. Very popular program on Friday mornings. Okay. So send us your questions, and we'd be happy to answer. Okay. Love you guys. 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!