According to the New England Journal of Medicine, 25% of the adult population has a fatty liver! That’s an incredible finding because most is going undiagnosed. People don’t realize they’re already sick!
Join Dr. Martin as he unpacks this study and shares why it’s so dangerous to have a fatty liver. What they're saying in this study is your chances of dying go up by 80%. This is a major finding that needs to be addressed!
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. Once again, welcome to another Live. Hope you're having a great day, good start to your day. We got an interesting study I want to talk about today. This guys is... it's incredible. It's incredible. Now let me ask you a question. Do you get our newsletters via email? You don't have to put your hand up, but do you? If you don't, you missed an important email this morning. I'm going to touch on it as we teach, but I got to tell you about this study about liver. This came out of the New England Journal of Medicine, hot off the presses, and guys, it's going to blow you away. It's going to blow you away.
One quarter... Listen to what I'm going to say. One quarter, according to the New England Journal of Medicine, according to them, one fourth of the adult population have fatty liver. It's going undiagnosed. And usually when they find fatty liver, it's well advanced. One quarter of the population, adult population. Now I'm going to let the New England Journal of Medicine into a little secret. It's higher than that, but that's incredible guys. One quarter. This is unheard of. I've told you this in the past that fatty liver... Honestly, now we talked about cirrhosis of the liver, the scarring of the liver, liver fibrosis, but we never talked... I'm telling you in the 1970s, we never taught about fatty liver. Non-alcoholic fatty liver, nope, didn't even exist. It might have, but we didn't know about it. The liver and alcohol was well established, well established, but not the liver and sugar.
Think of what's happened to our population, guys. Think of what's happened to our population that we have liver disease. Incredible. It's a scourge on our society, it is. And I'm just going to make a prediction that this study that should... Every physician, every physician in Canada and the United States ought to get a memo, urgent, urgent, urgent, new study out of the New England Journal of Medicine. Urgent, urgent, please start looking out for fatty liver because here's what this study said. One quarter of the population, astounding. Two, not easy to detect because what they do for liver generally is ultrasound. And you got to understand that most doctors they're not ordering ultrasounds as part of a routine testing, unless you have symptoms. They might see a little bit of jaundice or you might have a gallbladder problem and they might order an ultrasound and then they would see fatty liver. But if you're not ordering an ultrasound.
So one, it's very common. Two, it's going undetected. This is what the study is saying, because we've taught this for so long. It doesn't take long for your liver, the Costco parking lot, to get packed up. The minivan, you're going on holidays and you've got no more space to put one more piece of luggage or... The parking lot, the minivan, the suitcase, the suitcase, packed up. Your liver is a storage facility. And what the New England Journal of Medicine is saying, we're over storing. And again, it's so dangerous. And this is the third thing they're saying. So one, one out of four, two, it's undetected. Usually til it's extremely late in the game. And three, the consequences of having fatty liver are legion.
What they're saying and what this study said is that your chances of dying if you have fatty liver are up by 80%. They couldn't get over it. They follow these people and they say, "Man, these people are dying young." What happens in the liver doesn't stay in the liver. You know Vegas? What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, not in the liver. Now, if you're thinking along with me, if you have been listening in the last few years, especially since I started the daily podcast, now we thank you for the loyal following. Can't get over that. By the end of today, this little Facebook Live will be seen probably by 10,000 people. And the reason is, is because you're sharing it, nevermind the podcast down the road. We appreciate that.
But if you've been listening and I know you do, we have been talking about fatty liver for a long time, and this is incredible. There's a way to know if you have fatty liver without an ultrasound. Are you guys with me on this now? How would you know if you have fatty liver with a simple blood test? I'm waiting. This is a little test. How would you know if you have fatty liver? What do I ask when you send me your blood work for me to analyze it? What am I looking for? Now let me just see. Belly fat, yes. Yes. That's good. Now what blood test? And Kim you're right. Michelle, you got it. High triglycerides, high triglycerides, three fat balls. Because when the liver... Listen, when the liver, when the liver gets full of fat, when the suitcase is full.
You know how I always talk about The Reset. You can empty your liver in seven days, you can fill your liver in seven days, just eat bad for seven days. Triglycerides. I've been shouting that from the rooftops for so long. Because everybody talks about cholesterol, cholesterol who cares? Well, I care. I want it to be high. “Oh, Dr. Martin, my cholesterol's high.” Let me give you a high five. You got high cholesterol. You're going to live longer, especially if it's HDL, you got high trigly... If you got high HDL, you're going to have low triglycerides. They go together. I'm not kidding you, listen to what I'm going to say. In the 1970s, when I was in school, triglycerides were much more important than cholesterol. I was taught that. And then came the 80s when they undid all of it. And doctors started focusing in... ah 70s, too, a little bit on cholesterol, cholesterol, cholesterol, cholesterol's the boogeyman. Cholesterol, quit eating, eggs, meat and cheese, it's going to give you cholesterol. It's hard on your heart. It's going to kill you. It's going to clog up your arteries.
I wasn't taught like that in school, did you know that? That's how old I am. I wasn't taught that. I was taught about triglycerides. Today, you hardly ever hear it. Would a doctor call you at home and say, "Oh, by the way, your triglycerides are high." They should, they should. And let me tell you another thing, triglycerides are directly proportional to the food you eat. Directly proportional to the food you eat. Triglycerides is food. Cholesterol is not food, primarily. Let me say that again. When you get your cholesterol numbers tested, 85% of cholesterol is made by your body, not by food. You're responsible for 15%, God does the rest. Cholesterol is so important that you're not to be trusted. You can't be trusted to eat enough cholesterol. So you only have to make up 15%, 85% is made by your body because cholesterol, your cells are made up of cholesterol. Every cell in your body, your hormones are transported by cholesterol. Your brain is made up of cholesterol. Your eyeballs are made up of cholesterol. You're made up of cholesterol guys, how can it be bad for you? How can it be bad? It's only bad when it's too low.
We got it upside down. And here is the New England Journal of Medicine, that's saying exactly what I've been saying for a long time. Fatty liver is deadly. Remember last week I said something like, "Your body would rather have fatty liver than diabetes." Everything in your body keeps you away from diabetes. Your body's smarter than we are. What do you mean by that? Well, your body knows how destructive sugar is. Oh, Dr. Martin moderation. We need some moderation. The number one drink in North America is orange juice, you might as well have two Pepsi’s. What's the difference? You weren't meant to drink fruit. You're meant to eat it. Your body will do everything it can to keep you away from diabetes.
Now, diabetes is a scourge. You see, again, most people... if you got fatty liver, listen to what I'm saying. If you have fatty liver, you really are a diabetic, it's diabetes without the numbers, you see. Because doctors again... and look, I know I sound negative, but I don't want to be negative, it's just their training. Doctors wait for numbers. You're not a diabetic because your A1C or your blood sugars, your fasting glucose, it's still within the range. Range, I can't stand it, range. Folks, if your triglycerides are high, you're a diabetic, but your body would rather have fatty liver than diabetes. You get it? If you get this, if you get this, you'll understand where we at the Martin Clinic come from. Tony Jr. and I, we talk about this almost every day. "Dad, they're missing it." I know. I know. "They can't see it." I know. I know. You see that liver? It's a suitcase. It's the Costco parking lot. And it gets full real quick. There's lots of traffic.
You know, go to Costco. We got a Costco in Sudbury, it's always full. It always amazes me. If I want to go see my patients from out of town, I go to Costco because I can see them all just about. They travel into Sudbury. Northern Ontario, there's only one Costco. It happens to be in our hometown. So I use it as an example, but whenever I go by a Costco parking lot, unless it's two in the morning, it's full. And it always reminds me of our livers, and when the Costco parking lot is full... Your body is so intelligent, fearfully and wonderfully made. It sends that stored fat from sugar into the bloodstream as triglycerides. And we make a huge boo boo by not eating enough eggs, meat, and cheese, not only for the liver and to empty it, but also to make HDL, high density lipoprotein. What is that? That is the cholesterol that travels through your bloodstream, looking for triglycerides to hitch their wagon. Your body would rather you have fatty liver than you be a diabetic.
Now think of the consequences of high triglycerides. What are the consequences of that? Well they're legion. Obviously the heart. I was listening to a cardiologist the other day. Wow, was that refreshing? A cardiologist from England, the United Kingdom. I'm going to quote him. Here's what he said to medicine, generally, cardiologists, you know what he said? Quote, "We missed the boat on heart disease." He said, "We missed the boat." "Well, here we are." He says, "Trying to hammer down cholesterol when the biggest factor is triglycerides, and triglycerides are caused by insulin resistance."
You see, when you get fatty liver, fatty liver just doesn't come on its own. It's caused by insulin sending the sugar and crappy carbohydrates that we're eating into... And especially guys, especially I say this, I say it, I say it, I say it, because we don't hear it enough. The worst food for your liver, the worst food in the universe for your liver is high fructose corn syrup. In my book, The Reset, what did I say? They give it 99 different names. You think the food industry isn't smart? Oh it's fructose, sucrose, glucose, blah, blah, blah, blah. Nah, nah, nah. It's high fructose corn syrup and guys high fructose corn syrup makes a beeline for your liver in nanoseconds.
Why is it that it's so metabolically dangerous? Why would high fructose corn syrup be so metabolically dangerous? Well, your body don't know what it is. It's artificial. It's man-made it's made in a vat. It was made originally in a laboratory. It's not natural. It's not nature. It's not honey. It's not maple syrup. It isn't even sugar cane. Not that I'm telling you to have a lot of that. Poor honey, you know honey, poor honey. I feel sorry for honey. I feel sorry for maple syrup, I do. Why do I say that? Well, you know what? A hundred years ago, you didn't die from eating too much honey, honey. You didn't die, oh, I got maple syrup. I remember as a kid in the springtime, my dad would get from his patients, maple syrup. I died for that stuff. I loved it. I mean, who doesn't like maple syrup or honey?
The problem is it all got messed up because we changed the sugars. We went from sugar, 25 pounds when I was a little kid to 200 pounds, why? Because they put it in everything? You can't even get ketchup without high fructose corn syrup in it. Most salad dressings. Don't come with me in a grocery store, I'll drive you crazy. I'm reading labels all the time. I drive my wife crazy. You read that label last time. I know, but I just wanted to see if they're changing it. If they got my memo, the food industry, they're so powerful and they got people hoodwinked. Don't you be fooled, fatty liver, fatty liver.
Now, if you got our email this morning, we talked about the thyroid. We'll do that tomorrow, we'll do that tomorrow. Because I don't don't want to start on something that I won't finish today. No, but guys, this is why... Look, obviously I look at lots of blood work every day I do it and I got no problem doing it, okay guys. If you want me to see your blood work, send it in to our staff. I'll look at it. But if I tell you that your triglycerides and your HDL are upside down, because that's what I say, they're upside down. You know what? You got fatty liver. My doctor didn't say... Don't wait for your doc. Don't wait for an ultrasound. You got fatty liver. And it's worse than just that because high triglycerides, they're fat balls floating through your blood vessels, extremely dangerous. Dangerous for heart attack, stroke... triglycerides. Um hmm.
You can see it on a routine blood test. And when you think of it, high blood pressure, how do you get high blood pressure? Your body's got to work harder if you got high triglycerides, your heart's got to work harder. Puts an enormous strain on your blood vessels. You see guys, we're getting to the root of the issue, the root cause. And this is what I'm emphasizing. And when I flagged this study, I said, "Man, oh man, medicine is finally getting it. They’re getting it, the dangerous fatty liver." And tomorrow we'll talk about the fog of war. Okay. We're going to talk about that. What happens? The fog of war. I just made that up, not the saying, the fog of war, but I'll teach it to you tomorrow, the fog of war. What happens when that liver gets gummed up, packed up and of course you know how to unpack it guys, I can't emphasize that enough. You can unpack your liver in a real hurry. Okay?
Now this week we're doing... Thursday's going to be Question and Answer. So get your questions in. Friday, I'm taking a day off. I'm going to miss you already. So get your questions in for a Question and Answer Thursday. And like I said tomorrow, we'll do the fog of war. Really interesting. We're going to talk about that. And if you didn't get those emails this morning, you didn't get that teaching this morning, then sign up at MartinClinic.com. Just go in and sign up. I think that's how you do it, pretty sure. You can sign up to get the podcast too. And you can do it on your smartphone. Listen to the teaching again. It's a good thing. It's a good thing.
I'm a repetition guy. That's how I learned. I'm a writer. And I always write, I like writing. That's how I got through school. I wrote and then I put it in point form and then I'd repeat it in point form. Repeat it. And the day of the exam, I told you I was a crammer. The day of the exam, I had it down into very short bullets for me. That's how I learn. That's how I learn. I'm a writer. I like writing. I can't get on a computer and put it in a computer because I'm no good at that. I do doot, doot, doot, one finger at a time. It's slow and tedious, but that's me. I like writing. And I got to have a very, very special pen. That's me, too. Don't take my pen. Ask the girls that work with me. Just don't touch my pen. You can use your pen, but don't touch mine. So get your questions in for Thursday. And did you get your Christmas gifts yet? Guys, The Reset, it'll save your life. Encourage your friends, do it together. Hold them accountable. 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!