Dr. Martin has often spoken about the unintended consequences of the pandemic. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is now reporting a shortage of Zoloft, which is an SSRI antidepressant. The FDA said they ran out because doctors were prescribing it to kids like jelly beans!
A tragic statistic is that nearly 13% of the population in the United States over the age of 12 regularly take SSRI antidepressants. Yes, that’s right. 13% of the population is taking antidepressants on a daily basis.
In today’s episode, Dr. Martin shares how food is the root cause of mental illnesses such as depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
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Dr. Martin: Well, good morning, everyone. Once again, welcome to another Live this morning. Hope you're having a great start to your day. Now, this might be a two part series because I've got to talk to you about this. It's been something that's been bugging me for a bit and we've touched on it before, we talked about unintended consequences. Actually, it came out yesterday in the province in which I live, that they said going back to school... This was the science table. So our premier has surrounded himself with what he called the science table. These were academic people mostly, and they said yesterday — I almost fell over — that returning children in the Fall to school is paramount. No more masks and they want to get these kids back to normal because of the unintended consequences. They even admitted it. While I've been telling them that for over 18 months. You lock down people, especially young people, not going to be good.
Now let me give you a little bit of a story. Jordan was on with us this morning, and I don't know if our dear friend too, Dr. McKeown from the University of Tennessee. And Jordan is working on her master's degree at the University of Tennessee and Dr. McKeown invited me to lecture to the class in clinical nutrition this past winter and we really enjoyed that by the way. Young people were — I call them young people, they were certainly younger than me — were really good.
Now let me go in behind the scenes here so that you understand where I'm coming from and I want to get you to think about this. During the pandemic, doctors prescribed so much Zoloft... What is Zoloft? It's an antidepressant. It's an SSRI, serotonin receptor. It's a medication called Zoloft. They prescribed so much of it since last March that the FDA actually put on their website that there was now a shortage of Zoloft. The FDA put that up. They were prescribing so much of it. Incredible, isn't it? Now it's interesting because I can't even think of a time in human history where grandparents, like myself... I've got 11 grandchildren and one great-granddaughter and another great-grandchild on the way. It's the first time in human history that in the world's mind, older people became more important than young people. Close the schools because Susie might get the virus and bring it home and kill grandpa or grandma.
Now guys, that's poor science, first of all. It's terrible science. It's craziness. Young people were never, never carriers of this virus and we know so much more than we did, but it doesn't matter, when they knew it, they should have stopped it. But anyway, all I'm saying is they made a huge boo boo and they're finally admitting it. Not everyone's admitting it, but closing down communication and friendships and normal life for young people has been a disaster. It was never meant to be. And I started digging and I saw that the FDA actually said that they ran out of Zoloft because doctors were prescribing this like jelly beans for kids. Listen to this, this is tragic guys. Nearly 13% of the population in the United States over the age of 12 regularly swallow these SSRIs. What? Yep, 13% of the population take these on a daily basis.
Now, listen, I was discussing with one of our Facebook friends, the people that tune in on our program, and we had a discussion yesterday because they asked me to speak on a Zoom in September to their group and I was happy to do it, but we were talking about this. It's amazing how the world operates today. When you're my age, we've seen an enormous change. I was born in 1952. It's amazing. And I brought to you, on these programs, the history of nutrition and the history even in medicine, and I talked about the great developments and some of the bad things that has happened in the food industry and the pharmaceutical industry. I mean, there's some good stuff for sure, and then some really bad stuff and it just so happens that in my lifetime, I've been able to watch it.
One of the things I'm going to tell you about are the development of SSRIs like Zoloft. When they first came out, I remember because it was early 1970s — and I've been in practice a long time — and I remember I flagged it in my mind because they were talking about using antidepressants and I was watching with enormous curiosity and the pharmaceutical companies that came out with this stuff, put a warning on the label, even back then, "Temporary use, never to be used beyond six months." Temporary use. That's been forgotten. You wouldn't believe over the years, I mean, hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of patients over the years that came into me and they were on SSRIs for 20 years. 20 years.
Now, why on God's green earth, would someone come and see a clinical nutritionist, like me, when their major problems were cognitive? Their major problems were often depression. Some parents clued in, and usually by word of mouth and of course, I had a radio show for 20 years, a syndicated radio show in health, and probably a lot of it was that too because I used to talk about these things. You got to get to the root. You can't put a Band-Aid and expect... I mean, a Band-Aid's fine, it's temporary, but I always used to look at what was the cause of these things? And clinically, I would zero in on a few things, and I can say this confidently, that almost without exception, there was always an underlying physical biological cost to these things.
I never ever dismiss clinical depression. I never dismiss anxiety and panic attacks. I never dismiss schizophrenia, I've seen a lot of it. Bipolar, seen a lot of it. Thousands and thousands of cases over the years. But if I could convince these patients, after looking at them holistically, doing the test of all their horror-mones, checking for leaky gut, checking their nutrition, checking their insulin, I could tell you, the results were amazing. Of course, I'd always tell them this, "I can't go home with you. I'm giving you information." I often enjoyed when the parents were there, often they were, and I would convince, or at least try and convince, the parents that listen, "As a family, you got a little canary in the coal mine here, that's hyper fragile to their food. Might not bother you, but it's going to bother that child," after I looked at the results.
Here is generally what I found... In depression, in schizophrenia, in bipolar, the three. Underlying causes... Now, Dr. McKeown, who knows this stuff inside out, a professor at the University of Tennessee. She sends me a lot of this research and I appreciate it. And by the way, let me just say this, this comes from the World Health Organization and they came to some conclusions. If you lived in a developed world, like if you live where we live, in North America, that's developed world, as compared to an undeveloped places like India, Pakistan, and name some other countries. Your chances, your outcomes, long-term, of schizophrenia, bipolar, and depression are better in an undeveloped world. According to the World Health Organization. Why do we have so much? The real pandemic behind the pandemic. I understand there's human beings, we've got a spiritual side to us. I can preach on that, and I have, but physically, physically guys, this is really important. So is there anyone watching today and will be listening on a podcast later, that doesn't have someone in their family, friends, or close to them, that have one of these three conditions: bipolar, depression, schizophrenia.
The World Health Organization says you'd be better off living in India than living in North America, and this is what I want to get at this morning. You know me, I'm a diet guy, I'm a food guy, and here's what I found in those three conditions. Almost invariably, 99%, I think I could say that with all certainty. That 99% of patients that I saw, that suffered from one of these three conditions, had insulin resistance. They had high circulating insulin. They were bad eaters, or they might've eaten what others ate in their home, no differently, but they were the canaries in the coal mine. Their brain played tricks on them, and one of the biggest problems, and again, why we have an epidemic today, is food. Is food. 37% of us North Americans, you know where we get our sugar from? Snacks. 37% of all sugar consumed... And listen, guys, like I said, born in 1952. Now you know how old I am. Born in 1952.
In the 1950s… This is just a history of nutrition. Repeat, repeat, repeat so that you understand there's a huge change in a lot of things, obviously lots of progress, but in some areas, way downhill. In the 1950s, when I was a little boy, North Americans consumed 25 pounds of sugar a year. By the time my children were born, four kids all born in the 1970s, they were consuming 50 pounds of sugar a year. Where did that come from? Cereal. When you consider, sugar in the 1950s was sugar. Sugar in the 1970s, when my kids were children, was sugar and then it flipped to high fructose corn syrup, and now that's up 300%. The results of eating that much sugar have been catastrophic on our society. Mental health, big time. You need to start with food. You need to start with food.
Just one more thing about what the World Health Organization says, that long-term outcomes when you take an SSRI, meant to be short-term, but if you take it long-term, the results are no better than placebo. Guys, I didn't say that, the World Health Organization has said it. But it hasn't seemed to have affected the medical profession because they give it out like candy and that's all right, temporarily, but you better get to the root of the issue. Up here, the way you think, the way you see life, is often determined by physiology. Not psychology, physiology. There's a big difference. And that's what I love about Dr. McKeown, She marries the two. Physiology, you need to look at that.
It's incredible. We're losing generations of our kids to not only mental health issues, but addictions. I mean, it's incredible. Suicide, it's a national disaster, but these children are set up from a very young age, because they're hooked, they're hooked on sugar. And 37% of that, according to recent research, is coming from snacks: cookies and ice cream, and you name it. Go to the middle aisles of your groceries, are there more snacks there? The food industry is rolling in the dough, and these kids are canaries and a lot of adults too, obviously. But I look at a young generation, why did we throw them under the bus? Why are we more important than kids are? I look at my grandchildren and I look at me... I read Psalm 90 this morning, verse 12, "Lord teach me to number my days so I can gain a heart of wisdom." Hey, I'm 70. 3 score and 10, just about.
But that's all right, I mean, I'm thankful. I still have my health, I'm very thankful, and I enjoy every minute of it, like I said, but who's more important than me? My grandchildren. If I had known grandchildren were that much fun, we'd have had them first. I want them to live their lives, don't worry about me. I get old and whatever, nice to have a family to rally around you, but guys, listen, your kids are more important, you know that. What in the world were we thinking? Prescribing more Zoloft... They ran out of it. Holy moly. When I read that headline, I just about passed out. And nobody talks about it, it drives me crazy. And nobody's talking physiology, nobody's talking about food and sugar and how toxic it is on our young people. And they get indoctrinated: meat is bad and sugar's good. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?
Let me read this study to you. This was in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry, "Insulin resistance in children..." This is coming from them. They could have called me 30 years ago, I would've told them this, but that's alright. "Insulin resistance in children increases the risk for mental health later in life." You don't get away with it folks. If you have insulin resistance, your cells resist insulin. They're so tired of insulin hanging around... You know me, and using the illustration of a bad neighbor. Have you ever lived beside someone that was a pesky neighbor and they're always at your door or they're always phoning you or interrupting or whatever, have you ever had that? Okay, well that's what insulin is, if you use it too much. It's a pesky neighbor because it can't help it. You eat carbs and insulin is going to come knocking at the cell wall of your cells and going, "Knock, knock, knock, knock, hello. I'm here again. You ate sugar, now I must open up your door so I can put the sugar in." Can't have sugar in your bloodstream guys.
And it doesn't matter, "Oh, my blood sugar is good." Who cares if your blood sugar is good? It's a lagging indicator. I'm not saying doesn't matter, it's not what I look for. I don't care about your sugars as much as I care about your insulin, the pesky neighbor that you can't get rid of because you're snacking, our kids are snacking, they're eating crap and then they snack and you snack. Your pesky neighbor is always coming around and your cells, you know what happened to your cells? Your cells develop a coating, they resist it. They're so tired of it. You're ringing at the doorbell all the time. The cells says, "Will you stop?" Insulin goes, "No. As long as you insist on eating crappy foods, I'll be back." And you develop a hardening, a resistance. That's physiology, guys.
But insulin's got a job to do, so it doesn't care. You develop resistance, your cell walls say, "I hate you, get out of my life," and guess what? Insulin's got a job to do, it'll just come pouring with even more. You get more of the neighbor because it has a job to do. It must take sugar out of your bloodstream. Guys, this is at the root. I haven't even talked to you about your microbiome, we'll do that tomorrow. This is at the root, I'm telling you. I'm telling you, it's at the root of mental health. One of the roots. Actually, I'll combine the two tomorrow, you'll see it.
But who's talking about that? Who is talking about that? Medicine has been bought and paid for, generally, by the pharmaceutical companies that make Zoloft — "Oh, just take some more Zoloft. Just take another antidepressant." — and the food industry. They're conglomerates. And they run the media, so you got to go digging for these stories, guys. My job, Dr. Martin's job, is to bring this to you, serve it up, so that you guys see it. I know you do, I know I'm preaching to the choir, and maybe there's some new people on with us this morning, there always is, and you don't know where I'm coming from, but I'm going to tell you something. This is instrumental in the catastrophe that we're going through. The diet, the thing that we can control... Can you imagine?
You want to know how sympathetic I am to addicts? For 35 years, I was involved in what they call the prison ministry, and I would go in there as a volunteer. You know what I saw 99% of the time that people were in jail? I mean it, it was 99%. Addiction. I mean, this is just a fact, guys. You go get people that are incarcerated, they're addicted. They're addicted to drugs — this is the last 20 years, that's what I saw at the most — and before that it was alcohol, and they just did stupid things. I always said, if I could get in and change their food, I could make a huge difference in there because there's such a connection to becoming an addict and bad food. I'm telling you, a lot of it, I know, is psychology, but it's physiology.
There was a psychiatrist that started the orthomolecular medicine, was a doctor, Abraham Hoffer, from Vancouver, who did a lot of research with inmates and sugar and getting them off sugar and how much better they got. It was incredible. Have you heard about that? Most people haven't. It never became mainstream because the pharmaceutical industry and the food industry will bury it. I'm so thankful for the venues that we have. It's one of the reasons that I got out of private practice, so I could do this on a daily basis and educate people instead of one person at a time, which I really enjoyed and it was a big part of my life and I loved every minute of it. I love people, I'm a people guy. Don't lock me down, I can’t handle it. I can't. I'm a people person. I'm a hugger. I was always one, I wanted to bring in physiology into psychology. Get to the bottom of things. It's amazing.
Again, why did I create The Reset? It does lots of things, but one thing it'll do is lower your insulin. You get rid of that pesky neighbor. Your cells at the cellular level, will take a different shape, and what that will do to your serotonin, what that will do to your dopamine, what that will do to your GABA, incredible. Incredible. We're going to do part two tomorrow. We're going to look at the microbiome because that's very important. Food and the microbiome are very important too, and you guys know that, but I'm going to repeat it tomorrow.
So headline... 37% of all sugar consumed come in the form of snacks. Parents, grandparents be careful. A kid's a kid, I get it. I get it. But kids are smart, and if you preach and you show by example, it really makes a difference because kids are very intelligent. They really are. They pick up things very early. Very early. The pandemic had unintended consequences. Destroying many children's lives. It's a tragedy. They'll be writing about this, I'm predicting. They'll write about this in years to come. How we lost our collective minds, how we threw children under the bus, how society threw children to the wolves. Incredible. The Bible tells me to be angry, but don't sin. I'll try not to. It's a righteous anger.
Hey guys, we love you dearly. Thanks for watching. We appreciate it so much, we really do. I take this responsibility on a daily basis seriously, because of folks like you. And we love that feedback, thank you. We appreciate it, we really do. Again, if you're not a member of our private Facebook group, the Martin Clinic private Facebook group, get involved in that. It's really good. We sure appreciate your feedback in there and your recipes and your questions and things like that. Our staff, Nic and Jeanette, Brandi, these girls, they're the best, they really are. They bug me because they're always asking me stuff, but that's alright, I love them anyways. But we're here to answer your questions and you guys in here, you got so many people in our group, I'm going to give you an honorary nutrition degree, okay? You deserve it. Okay, love you guys, 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!