In the last episode, Dr. Martin didn’t get to all the questions and wanted to answer another asking how to prevent a brain aneurysm. Dr. Martin groups the question with how to prevent a stroke as both conditions have to do with your blood vessels.
Dr. Martin goes over an anatomical chart that lists what can put you at risk of aneurysm or stroke. High blood pressure, heart disease, and hardening of arteries, all put you at risk. You want to keep your blood vessels healthy, which means keeping them open and without damage.
A lot of people have damage in their blood vessels, and they don't even know it. The best way to have healthy blood vessels is to change your diet. Although the concept is simple, it’s not going to be easy but it will be worth it.
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 once again, welcome to another Live this morning, and start of a new week. Hope you're having a great start to your day. I hope you had your vitamin C. Can't start today without coffee! I'm going to go over some of the questions I didn't get to on Friday. Good Questions and Answers Friday. But today, I think I'm going to name it because somebody asked me a very good question, "Doc..." Anne asked, "is there any way of preventing a brain aneurysm, or stroke?" While she did not ask about stroke I'm going to bring it in, because it's very important that we look at that, okay? Now, I am going to show you what an aneurysm is.
So let me show you... if you're listening to this on a podcast, of course you can't see it, but I'm going to show you what a stroke looks like in the blood vessels that are going up. You can see that red, very dark red spot. That is damage in the brain done after a stroke, okay? And then you see the blood vessels going up into the brain, and an aneurysm is just when one of those blood vessels just lets go. A clot causing a stroke is a different thing, but can give you very, very similar symptoms, okay? But I want to read to you because I found this interesting. I hadn't looked at this in quite a while. Here's what it says here about a blood clot.
Let me just read it to you. A thrombus, or blood clot, forms on the roughened surface of the atherosclerosis plaques that develop in the wall of the artery. We'll talk about that. The thrombus can enlarge and eventually block the lumen of the artery, okay? Part of the thrombus may break off and become an embolus. An embolus travels through the bloodstream and may block smaller arteries, okay? So that's more of a clot, and aneurysm is just where the blood vessel let's go and the blood just leaks out into the brain. And usually very deadly, okay?
It's interesting, because I want to read this to you. This is right from this anatomical chart. What puts you at risk? Let me read off the list and then we'll talk about this for a minute. Okay? Your blood vessels. You want to keep them open, one. You want to keep them without damage. Because a lot of people have damage in their blood vessels, and they don't even know it, but here's what they're saying. What puts you at risk for a stroke or an aneurysm? Hypertension, high blood pressure. They're right. That puts you at risk. Heart disease. Puts you at risk. atherosclerosis, hardening of the arteries. Puts you at risk.
They say previous TIA. So these are little mini strokes that people have. And sometimes they had a little episode, but they didn't have any more than that. They might've just got confused or slurring of the speech or whatever. And then it went away and they never... unless you have an MRI done or whatever, you don't even know if you've had anything. You got to understand. This is done in the 70s. High cholesterol. Well it's the opposite of that, but we'll talk about that in a minute. High alcohol consumption. Okay. High alcohol consumption. Obesity. Remember, this is written in the 70s. Obesity. Yep. Diabetes. Yep. Written in the 70s, guys. Cigarettes, oral contraceptives. Oh, oral contraceptives. Yeah.
You know what's at the bottom of their list? Family history. They got that right. Now, you can have genetics, you can have family history. Everybody does, by the way, we all have weaknesses. All of us. Some of us won't admit it, but we all have weaknesses, okay? And I told you a little bit about my family history. Lots of diabetes in our family, lots of diabetes, lots of cancer in our family, not heart disease, but cancer, and lots of diabetes. So let's go over this. You want your blood vessels to be pliable. Think of a hose with water going through it. You don't want little kinks in there. You don't want your hose to get full of sand, that the water can't get through. Think of your blood vessels, guys, 60,000 miles, one and a half times around the equator in your body from arteries, veins, capillaries. And what I mentioned the other day, and this is why blood sugar is so important.
The first thing that gets damaged in your body, if you're a carboholic and you like your sugar, is your little capillaries. It starts with that. That's why diabetics have so much trouble with their eyes, with their kidneys, with circulation. Little capillaries. Starts with that. And a lot of people, even, I'm sure people that are listening this morning, have blockages that you have no idea but you don't have any symptoms. You have a little lining in your blood vessels, okay? It's called your endothelial wall inside your blood vessels. You want that to be nice and smooth, one, not sticky, two. It's Teflon, okay? You ever cook with a Teflon pan? It doesn't stick. The butter doesn't stick to it. You want your blood vessels to have that smooth, slippery... so that blood that goes through there doesn't stick to that surface.
You want no plaque that builds up in the blood vessel. How does that start? Well, first of all, aging, I mean think about it. Someone that's older, they don't have the elasticity in their blood vessels that they once had. That's why I'm very big. Very, very big on a substance that your body actually makes called nitric oxide. What is nitric oxide? Think of nitroglycerin, explosion. Whewp! It relaxes the wall of your blood vessels. Your body actually makes it. When I was in school in the seventies, I can tell you this a hundred percent, we didn't even know nitric oxide even existed. We didn't know your body even made nitric oxide. Now, we knew back in the 70s that if you had angina, you were given nitroglycerin, right? Now they make it in a spray, they make it in a pad and people that have angina, chest pain because of the constriction of the blood vessels, they go into a spasm and they get angina pain. While they often use nitrile to open up those blood vessels, to give you instant relief, but your body makes it.
So you need good nitric oxide. It’s one of the reasons I love pine bark extract so much, because it does it in two ways. One, it elevates your nitric oxide, so does B12. Why Dr. Martin always talking about B12? Because it's so important for your blood vessels and you get it when you eat steak, not in plants. So I like to elevate nitric oxide. Another thing that elevates nitric oxide opens your blood vessels is VitDerma. The sun. You need it. Vitamin D is good for your blood vessels. Vitamin D, VitDerma helps to prevent aneurysms and strokes. It elevates your nitric oxide, too. VitDerma. Boy, is there anything that vitamin D doesn't do? I can't think of anything. It's essential, guys. So is B12. If you insist on being a vegetarian, or a vegan, you're making a huge boo boo. You're not going to get enough B12 that helps at the endothelial level of your blood vessels.
The other thing is, antioxidants that help to prevent damage to the blood vessel. Primarily, what damages the blood vessel is if you have high blood pressure all the time. High blood pressure, it's like inflammation. It just doesn't show up. There's something underlying. When you have elevated insulin, because you're a carboholic, your insulin is always high. When insulin is high, your cells develop insulin resistance and insulin resistance creates a condition in the body called inflammation. Again, not Houdini. There's a reason for inflammation, right? So, what does inflammation do again? I love what Tony Jr says. It's sickness without a fever. Okay? Because if you have a virus, you want a fever. If you have a bacteria, you want a fever, your body gets inflamed because it's sending the ambulance in to chase the virus and to protect your body. But if it stays there for over a period of time, it damages the blood vessels.
Primarily, that's where it starts in the blood vessels. Inflammation will dama... So, I was reading a study today, this morning, actually. Again here, they didn't even mention it. They didn't talk about inflammation. Remember, this chart was made in the 1970s. They didn't understand inflammation. Inflammation, they knew what it was, but they didn't understand it in terms of when it's not there for a reason to them. Okay? So inflammation, infection, or injury. Of course you're going to have it. You kicked me in the knee, I'm going to have inflammation at the knee. You're going to rub it to get more blood supply there, to get more enzymes, to get more protein, to get more blood to go to the area. But you don't want that staying there because that damages the blood vessels. It takes away the slipperiness of the blood vessel. It damages microscopically. And then you start forming the plaque. It's an injury site and you get a scar tissue. Do you know what... you've seen scar tissue before, right? It's not pliable anymore and it's sort of dead tissue. It's there to knit. The problem is, it blocks. Then you have plaque forming.
So I bring it back to food, to insulin. The study I was reading this morning, to finish it. I was reading about oral bacteria. This was a big story, and let me just see. 1980s, maybe, where dentists were saying "you need to come and see us because you can have plaque and gum disease. It's a low grade infection and the bacteria can travel through your bloodstream and attack your heart". You remember that? I think it was the 1980s. It also, they said, "come and see us because we're going to detect and see if you have gum disease". And they didn't know anything really about oral bacteria. Having lots of that, being the good guy that will kill those bad guys. That's why I love probiotics, guys. They go after those bad bacteria. Even in your mouth. That's why you don't want any alcohol mouthwashes, or stuff like that. You're killing all your good bacteria that help even in your mouth, guys. You need good guys. That is another reason that I like Oil of Oregano. Why do I like Oil of Oregano? Because it's a natural antibiotic. It only kills the bad guys. It's a great natural antibiotic. It's nature's antibiotic. Okay?
So, the number one reason people get a stroke or have an aneurysm; high blood pressure. But again, why? Because of low levels of nitric oxide, your blood vessels are not relaxing, you're starting to get damaged, a little bit of scar tissue, plaque formation in the blood vessels. Coming back to your diet. Sugar destroys your blood vessels. Damages them in a nanosecond. See, there less says well, diabetes, but you don't have to be a diabetic to damage blood vessels. Diabetes does damage it. Even in the presence of Metformin and diabetic medications. They're only meant to manage. You need to do The Reset, okay? You need to do the reset. Your body is unbelievable. “Fearfully and wonderfully made.” Psalm 139. I love it. Your body's unreal. It can regenerate. Even if you're older, it can regenerate, but you have to give it the right tools. You need the right nutrients and you got to do it by subtraction and addition. Subtract the bad crappy carbs and oils and put in butter.
Remember, I always talk about vitamin K2. K2, you need that too, okay? You need vitamin D, you need B12 for good healthy blood vessels. You need to reset. You got to get off the sugars. Get off the crappy carbs, stop smoking. We got that memo 40 years ago. Okay? And don't tell me about your uncle that lived until 110 and smoked and drank like a fish. That was by the grace of God. Believe you me. It had nothing to do with his smoking and drinking. Okay, you want to protect. So, B12 protects your blood vessels because it elevates your nitric oxide. You want to keep your blood vessels nice and slippery.
Can I give you a trick? Vitamin D, VitDerma, B12, high oil, fish oil, slippery. I don't think there's a cardiologist... Okay, and I mean this, if they've done any reading, would tell you not to either eat fish, or take a supplement. I have fish every day in a capsule, and I like a very pharmaceutical grade fish oil, high DHA. Because I want my brain… I want those blood vessels up in the brain. I want slippery. Okay? You want it to be nice and Teflon-like, slippery. Butter, K2. Cheese, K2, why K2? Because K2 literally takes calcium out of the bloodstream, helps your blood vessels. K2 takes calcium, hardening of the arteries. Takes it out and puts... You know where you want to have hard bone? Not blood vessels. You want your bone to be hard. Okay? And that's what K2 does.
So those are things that will help to prevent a stroke. You want to keep your insulin down. You want the lining of your blood vessels to be supple. You want them not to be clogged up. And folks, I know what it says here, cholesterol, because it was written in the 70s. Cholesterol, cholesterol. Well, what we know is, okay... What we know now is, cereal companies were wrong. And in order to have healthy blood vessels, you need to eat meat. Cholesterol is found in the animal kingdom. Eggs. Are eggs good for your blood vessels? Absolutely. Is meat good for your blood vessels? Absolutely. Is cheese good for your blood vessels? Well, of course it is. It's got vitamin K2. Is butter good for your blood vessels? Uh-huh. It's got K2. It's got fat. You want fat... fat turns to oil in your body. You got it, DHA, by the way, is fat. There's good and bad fat guys. The bad fats are your vegetable oils, seed oils, the middle aisles of your grocery store. Fast foods. They're clogging your arteries, because they cook that stuff in the wrong oil.
Do you know that McDonald's when they first started out, they used to cook their fries in lard? That's a historical fact. And what did they do? They made a big mistake. They switched out their oils for vegetable oils, seed oils that are made in a factory. They don't come out of nature. Okay? Soy and cottonseed and all this, but they hydrogenate them. And then they reuse that oil all the time. They cook. Add heat to that oil. That's bad oil, guys. That'll clog up your arteries and damage your arteries. And that'll give you elevated blood pressure. The idea with the high blood pressure... Look, I get it, they put you on meds to lower your blood pressure. I get that, that's medicine. Medicine. They want to manage that. You know, I get it. You don't want to have high blood pressure. I agree with them, but why not go to the root of the problem? Wouldn't that be better? I don't want you to have high blood pressure. I agree. It's dangerous. You don't want high blood pressure, but you want to go to the root. What caused it?
Well, it's caused because you weren't taking medications. Nah, that's not the cause. Let me answer this because I'm only got the one question. I had four or five of them. Oh no, I had 10 of them that I didn't answer the other day. Oh, Sarah was asking about niacin vitamin B3. Well, they use that as a natural supplement niacin for blood pressure. Now I just got to tell you the way I operate and the way how I look at B vitamins. I'm not a big guy on taking B vitamins. I want you to eat your B vitamins. Now, the only one that I have an exception to is B12, and the reason is I have a very, very legitimate reason to talk about supplementation of B12. Because a lot of people, they can't absorb B12 even if they're eating steak. Anything in the digestive tract, that's not working, and B12 is a very finicky, a huge structure vitamin.
When you take biochemistry and you look at the way B12 is built, it's different. It's a big vitamin, and you need things to go well inside your body to absorb B12 properly. And if you got acid reflux, and you got low acidity in your stomach, and you got digestive issues, you're not absorbing B12 very well. If you're taking almost any medication that I can think of, especially Metformin, but high blood pressure medications, PPIs, which are proton pump inhibitors like Nexium and over the counter stuff. And even Tylenol and Advil, because you got headaches, or whatever. You're not absorbing B12. Your B12 levels will be in the tank. And remember, when they look at B12 and blood, it's a hundred year old stinking blood test and the vast majority of people, and I tell you every senior, almost every senior that walked into my office, was low in B12.
Most of them were on meds. The average person... Listen to this... the average person in North America. If they're over the age of 60, the average takes five prescription medications a day. That's the average. I remember a lady coming… Oh, I'm telling you we needed two pages. You didn't come into my office without filling out a questionnaire. This poor little old lady, she was probably 75, 80 years old. I shouldn't say that that’s old, I'm not far from that. Anyway, she was taking 26 different meds, 26. And when I went through the list with her, I said, do you know that 18 out of those 26 were for the side effects of the other eight medications she was taking. It was unbelievable. I said, holy moly. Your pharmacist must give you a high five every time you go into the drug store. "Hey, thank you for being the best customer in here". Like I said, I can help you, but can I talk to your pharmacist?
Like I couldn't believe it, but if you're taking any med, you're not absorbing B12 very well. It's a finicky vitamin. And when I did that lady, of course, she was extremely low in B12. Most couldn't live on the amount of B12 she had in her body and the amount of nitric oxide that she was creating. Because I used to measure that, and I'm telling you was unbelievable. I said, well, you're going to be tough sledding because you're on so many meds. But guys, that's what happens with B12 for a lot of people. And then of course seniors, they don't masticate properly and they don't absorb their nutrients like they used to. And those are really important. Okay?
So we talked this morning about blood vessels, how to keep them healthy. Okay? Change your diet. Change the diet. Not going to be easy. Nobody said it's easy. It's simple, but it's not easy. Okay. But it's worth it. It's worth it. That's what I tell people. It's worth it. It's better you stick to it. I see some people and I feel sorry for people that live with chronic disorders. Okay. I was reading on Saturday, I think, in our private Facebook group, I don't think they were talking to me, maybe more to the group. Just everything's so slow to get better and it's not dramatic. And I read stories of people that get dramatic results and this and that. I feel sorry for people. They live with chronic disorders, but Rome wasn't built in a day. Any change you make, will be beneficial. Rome wasn't built in a day. If you have chronic disease or autoimmune or anything that's chronic.
It's not easy, guys, but you got to stick to it. The three D's... desire, determination and discipline, and the fourth D isn't in there, discouragement. Because there's people around that will discourage you. They had, they think they have the gift. I have the gift of discouragement here, let me just open my mouth and discourage you. I know people like that. It's not part of the gifts that God gives you. Okay? Discouragement. Because there's people like discouraged people. You know what I like generally about the group? Is that we're pumping up tires and encouraging people. Encourage one another. Okay. Health is a journey. You're on the road. Get off the broad road with everybody else... Eat in moderation, eat balanced, I'm going to have a balanced diet. That's the broad road that leads to destruction. The narrow road is live on the animal kingdom mostly, some of the plants and man-made foods get off. And your sugars, especially your high fructose corn syrup.
Anywho, new study on Alzheimer's I want to talk to you about, probably do that tomorrow. Unless I go back to some of these questions. I did answer a few of them. Okay, Wednesday 7:00 PM. Webinar. Have you signed up yet? You'll love it. Tony Jr. and I. You get the tag team. Wednesday at 7:00 PM. Sign up. Don't ask me how, don't ask me how, I don't know how you sign up, but my staff knows how, go ask them. And have you got your Christmas gifts yet? The Reset, number one selling health book in Canada. Get that book. Available for Christmas. Great gift. It's a great gift. Okay. We 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!