Dr. Martin has previously urged listeners not to ditch dairy, but instead to switch their dairy. Now, the same thing applies to salt.
Did you know that table salt (sodium chloride) is stripped of all of its nutrients? Dr. Martin wants you to instead choose a Himalayan or a good sea salt that gives you all your minerals.
Why switch your salt? It has to do with dehydration, in which there are two types. The most commonly known one is a lack of water. People drink everything else but water and have no idea how dehydrated they are. The second one is salt. The type of salt you choose matters. Dr. Martin explains why in today’s episode.
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 again to another Live and hope you're having a great start to your day today. Today, we're going to talk about salt. You need it. You know, me and vitamin W, I'm really big on that. You know that. Vitamin W is water. You're like planet earth, 75% of planet earth is water and your body, I don't know if it's not the most important vitamin and that's why I classified it as a vitamin, you need water. And again, just by repetition, only water is water. Okay? Only water is water. Remember that. And dehydration, there really is two types of dehydration. One of them is a lack of water. That is so common in our society and people drink everything else, but they have no idea how dehydrated they've become because they're not drinking water. And you know me, I love vitamin C, which is coffee, but that's not water. Tea is not water. Water in fruit like watermelons, which is probably 90% water, yeah, but your body filters it differently. You need water. Water takes a direct route. It doesn't pass go, and your body puts it into your bloodstream in a nanosecond. I mean, it happens very rapidly and that's what your body needs. Okay?
Today though, we're going to talk about the second form of dehydration and that is a lot of people don't understand this, is the problem with salt. The problem with your salts, and potassium is a very important salt in that sense. It's a mineral your body needs. So let me try and explain this and really simplify it. You have a battle. I hate to call it a battle, but in order for what we call homeostasis, so balancing, there's a regulation between the inside of your cell and the outside of the cell, outside the cell wall. What controls the inside of your cell? The salt that's the most important on the inside of your cell is potassium.
So when you see a dried up fruit. You ever seen that? Yesterday I bought some cherries. I love cherries. I bought some cherries, Ontario grown. So this is the time of the year you get them, and for you folks in the Niagara region and all that that's pretty famous for cherries and things like that. Anyway, I bought some cherries and some of them, most of them were very good, but some of them were like prunes that were dried up and you see them, they're not as round and whatever. Whenever you see that, that is less potassium. Potassium inside the fruit keeps it firm. So think of that image when you think of salts and potassium on the inside and your sodium on the outside of the cell, and they've got a balancing act and you need that potassium to keep the water inside the cell. That's what keeps it firm. You need that potassium.
And a lot of people, especially if they have kidney problems, they have trouble. They have a dysbiosis between the two of them, the potassium and the sodium. Now, one of the things that affects that the most is insulin. I try and tell people that. Insulin affects at the kidney level especially. Your body knows how to regulate salt, it really does, until you don't eat properly. If you don't drink enough water, numero uno. Number two though is when you're eating carbs, especially your sugars, that disrupts that homeostasis there between the inside of the cell and the outside of the cell and there's a real problem.
When you don't drink enough water, your brain sends a signal to your cells to hold on to water. This is where edema comes from. It bothers me because in a lot of thinking, oh, you have edema, which is swelling of your legs. And oftentimes, oh, you're drinking too much water, let's give you a diuretic. No. You're not drinking enough water. But again, there's two types of dehydration. So this is really important. H2O, you need vitamin W, the water. And again, I just have to emphasize that, only water is water. Only water is water. Two, salt. We have lived in the last 50 years in sort of a salt-free environment. I'm not talking about sodium chloride, which is like a table salt which is stripped of all of its nutrients. I'm talking about real salt, real salts, like a Himalayan salt or a real good sea salt that gives you all your minerals. That's what salt is supposed to do.
We have gone away from eating salts because of the lie of high blood pressure. Now, again, the only time that salt can cause high blood pressure is in the absence of water. If you're drinking enough water, then you don't worry about your salt, you need it. The thinking was, let's get rid of salt to lower your blood pressure and it was the opposite. Today, seniors especially, they bought it hook, line, and sinker. They avoided salt like... I'm going to get low salt. I was looking at 50% less salt in I think it was pickles. Don't come with me to the grocery store because I read every label. I want to know what they're doing. But I was kind of laughing in my head yesterday when I saw pickles. They don't worry about how much sugar they're putting in there, they just said, it's 50% less salt than it used to be. It's a thinking that salt increases your blood pressure.
So what so-called health care did 50 years ago is they said instead of cutting sugar out, have as much sugar as you want and then cut your salts down. Well that's crazy. That's crazy. It's not science, guys. It's not how your body works. And then they created two types of dehydration in people, which is very dangerous. And that is they created a dehydration of a lack of salt and a lack of water. You can eat your water, they said. And you can drink too much water. Listen, nobody, and when I say nobody I mean, okay, one out of a kazillion, they go to the emergency because they drank too much water. Like it's not even statistically... it's not even important. No, there's a severe dehydration. So if you have edema, the best place to find that, I mean, ladies, you have trouble putting your rings on or off, look at your ankles. There's an imbalance there between water and salt, water on the outside of the cell and sodium and potassium on the inside.
So what do these salts do? They're natural antihistamines. One of the problems in asthma is a real imbalance in between your water and your salt. The lungs literally, you think in asthma, the lungs release way too much histamine in the lack of presence of salt and water. I've really helped hundreds and hundreds of patients over the years with asthma when they would start drinking and adding salt, add a pinch of salt to your water, it's good for you. Himalayan salt. Salt helps to get rid of toxins out of your body. It really does, because it allows the toxins to come out, not the water to come out of the cell, but the toxins to come out of the cell when you have enough good salt in your diet. It helps. It even helps with oxygenation. A lot of people don't realize they're really low in that. Muscle tone for bladder, ladies. You need your salt, okay? You need your salts.
And let me give you other benefits, it lowers your blood pressure. Yeah. Salt actually lowers your blood pressure. It doesn't increase it. Remember, the only time salt can bother you is in the presence of a lack of vitamin W. You got that? Take a note of that. Salt will never elevate your blood pressure unless the viscosity of your blood, the thickness of your blood, because you're not drinking enough water. And here's 50 years of experience, just about. H2O, two liters, for my American friends, 64 ounces. That is your baseline. That is what you need. You don't need less than that, some need more. Depends how much you sweat. But, again, these two things go together. You need water and you need salt. You need to replace your salts.
And some people, if you have kidney problems, this is one of the reasons I love magnesium. I love magnesium. And to me the best magnesium, in my experience the one that is absorbed the best, is magnesium citrate. It's chelated already. That means your body is going to take it in. But you know what? You can take an Epsom salt bath too. Like just Epsom salts. I try and encourage people that have trouble sleeping, Epsom salts. Put a cup in a hot bath. Those are magnesium salt, they're salts. And again, I like the pink Himalayan salt in terms of put that in your water. Lowers your blood pressure because it helps with that homeostasis in your kidneys, it literally helps to lower your blood sugars. That's why chromium salt, chromium is a mineral. It is found in the Himalayas. I love chromium. I use chromium. If you look at our insulin balance formula, I use chromium. It's an excellent thing for your blood sugar, but that's what these salts do. It lowers your blood pressure and it helps to lower your blood sugar.
Now you can't out-salt a bad diet. So just remember what I'm saying here. I'm not saying well, eat whenever you feel like and then just take some salt. Nah. The problem with fast foods, when they salt them, they're using table salt. Those have sodium chloride. It's not salt. It's been completely bleached and stripped of its minerals. So it's not salt, so don't fool yourself. Don't fool yourself. You know, we go to a restaurant and I got some pink salt with me. I add it. I put it on my steak, vitamin S. It reduces blood clotting. Salt reduces blood clotting. Your body needs that. And again, not in the absence of vitamin W. You need both. That's how your body works.
There's like two oceans there. You need water and you need salt. Is there any place in the world where they come together? Like fresh water like the Great Lakes and then sea water, the oceans. I can't remember my geography. But you need both. You need fresh water and you need the ocean. Blood clotting, lowers inflammation, increases your glutathione which is Velcro in your body. It helps your hormones, your feel-good hormones like serotonin and dopamine for your mood. It helps your memory, guys. Your brain needs salt. Your brain needs salt. It helps with the synapses of your memory. So don't avoid that. Don't avoid it. I know the old thinking is oh, it's going to elevate my blood pressure and this and that and people really, really make a big mistake. But if you understand you need the two of them.
One of the things, folks that I find to be really, really helpful is to just get used to taking more salt in. Put a pinch in your water. People ask me, “Can I put flavoring in my water? I don't like water.” I say put some salt in it. Real salt. Okay. Again, when you're sweating guys, some people sweat, like the thought of doing something they start sweating. I'm not like that. But man, I dehydrate quickly. And I found out for me, and this is a lot of patients over the years, that their dehydration wasn't just because they were losing water. It's just not enough to replace water. Water is great. You need that and you need your salts.
I get a lot of patients over the years to take their Epsom salt bath or take magnesium citrate before going to bed. It helps them to relax. Helps them to sleep. One of the things that I found for me, and I've mentioned this maybe in the past to you, if you're getting a lot of cramps, like Charley horses type of things where you cramp right up, a lot of people get that. Sometimes when they're doing The Reset, your body makes an adjustment at the cellular level and at the kidney level, your body's trying to make a balance and sometimes you'll get cramping. At that time I'm telling them, “Look, first of all, make sure you're drinking enough water. It's got to be at least two liters. And then add salt.” And for some, I would even get them to supplement with some potassium about 300 milligrams of potassium a day, somewhere around there, potassium salts.
And you know another one, like I find for me, pickle juice. So when you're looking at pickles, you don't want sugar added, one with no sugar but with very high salt. An ounce or two, I find that people, they sleep better. You can take some salt, like Himalayan salt, and put a pinch on your tongue. It used to be an old trick of mine to get people to sleep better was salt. I mentioned earlier the potassium salts. So guys, we need to take care of that. We need to take care of that. We don't get enough talking about the importance of salts. One of the ways to get your salt, by the way... A lot of people think, oh doc, I'm eating eggs, meat, and cheese. Therefore, I'm not getting my potassium. They think potassium, they think bananas. Guys, no. Okay? I've tried to convince you in the past that fruits are God's candies. Don't live on fruit. I might have a banana a month, it's like a treat to me. When you're eating fruits it's like eating dessert. Now it's much better to have fruit than it is to have a dessert, that's for sure. Better to have fruit than have ice cream.
But don't kid yourself. The problem we have in society today, the biggest problem that we have, is fructose. Now, high-fructose corn syrup is the sugar of choice for the food industries. I've talked to you about that. It is the antichrist of sugars. It is a terrible sugar. Your body doesn't know what to do with it. It is metabolized much differently, and it is on its way to the liver to give you fatty liver and that's one of the reasons we see so much fatty liver today. It is the sugar that the food industry duped us in high fructose corn syrup. Oh, it must be good. No, it's satanic, it's terrible. And when you're consuming that, you're taking away your salts. That's what I was saying. When you got high sugar, it gets the kidneys to excrete your salts. Now you have that homeostasis between the salts on the outside and your potassium on the inside. Sugar is one of the worst things, and especially high fructose corn syrup. It's a terrible sugar.
So when I talk to you about fruit being God's candies, don't overdo it if you've got any kind of trouble with sugar... then you can't have much fruit. This is one of the reasons on The Reset I just don't allow you to have fruit. If you have cancer, maybe a few berries, maybe a few berries. I mean do The Reset first. Anybody that you can talk into to doing The Reset, no fruit, no sugar, nada. Zero. None. Look, I like raspberries, I like strawberries, I like blueberries. I talked to you about cherries, I like cherries. But guys, I'm telling you I don't live on that stuff. You want your salts. Live on vitamin S. You eat eggs, meat, and cheese, you got a lot of chromium in there, you got a lot of potassium in there. You don't need a banana for potassium. Eat meat. You got potassium in there. “Oh, doc, I didn't know that.” Yeah, I know you didn't know it.
You're not missing anything other than I want you to add salt. I don't care. I want you to add, but I want you to add real salt. Just the difference, understand that. Okay? But in nature, God has given you these things, guys, they got potassium. You have magnesium in eggs. Did you know that? You got magnesium in cheese. Not just calcium, you have magnesium, you have potassium. But again, I'm a guy to add salt. Add a good salt because it's good for you. It's good for you. In meat did you know you have boron? These are nature's perfect food guys, eggs, meat, and cheese. Okay? You have it in there. Again, I'm a big guy on adding it. Don't ditch the salt, switch your salt. I like that. I said that about dairy, right? Don't ditch the dairy, switch the dairy. Switch it. Quit drinking milk. Don't drink skim milk, there's no fat in it. It's not natural. Milk is fat.
So don't ditch the salt, switch the salt. I'm getting warm to that idea. Maybe that's what we'll call this podcast. Don't ditch the salt, switch the salt. Switch it. That's one of the problems when you're eating fast foods. Not only those terrible vegetable oils and high carbohydrate, low nutrient. What are the big things? I mean, it's low in nutrients and part of that is it's very low in minerals. Very low in mineral salts. Okay? That's why I like spring water, guys. Spring water has minerals in it. It does. So, got the memo? Good. I'm glad you did.
Okay, so more teaching tomorrow. We've got a couple of new studies that came out and I flagged them and I really oh, wow, incredible stuff coming. Just fantastic and I think you'll appreciate it. And Friday again, just to remind you, is Question and Answer Friday. It's always a very popular program and send in your questions. Send in your questions and we'll try and answer them on Friday. So don't ditch the salt, switch the salt. 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!