New statistics are out on mental health and they’re showing an 80% increase in prescriptions for anxiety!
Researchers followed 35,000 people in the last couple of years and monitored the side effects of anxiety drugs. The reported side effects are crazy!
Join Dr. Martin as he unpacks this study and shares the hidden dangers of long-term use of these prescription meds.
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
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Dr. Martin: Well, good morning, everyone. And once again, welcome to another live this morning. Having my coffee. I want to read to you a study. Incredible, okay? Because of what we are going through as a society. And there's been few, if any, that haven't been affected by the last two years. You'd have to literally have lived on another planet, not to have been affected. And the new statistics are in on mental health and guys, it's not pretty. It's not pretty. There is an 80%, they said, increase in anxiety, depression, but here's the study. 80% increase in the prescriptions for anxiety, the prescription antianxiety medications like Prozac and Lorazepam and Zoloft and Paxil. Those are household names today because of the amount of prescriptions that are given for those meds, Zoloft and Prozac and Lorazepam. And guys, the problem with those meds... Okay. So we know what the problem is.
We see the side effects and we've talked about this. You and I, you're a human being, so am I. We need each other. There's very few people that do well as lone rangers. Do you know what I mean by that? Do you remember the Lone Ranger? I'm dating myself. I used to love that show when I was a kid. I mean, I loved that show. I had a mask. Or was that Zorro? No, I think the Lone Ranger had a mask too. You guys let me know if I'm wrong. But listen, the tsunami of mental health we're going to see in the side effects of this. Politicians and physicians really, rally bug me. I mean that. They bug me because they haven't thought about anything else, about the ramifications. It's permeating our society.
This study is showing that the prescriptions are up 80%. This is for anti-anxiety. I'm not even talking about meds for depression, necessarily. Anti-anxiety meds. The side effects of the meds are incredible. The prescriptions are up 80%, 80% in the last two years. I don't know how that happened because I've had so many people tell me they can't even get to their doctor. It's all on Skype or whatever. But anyways, all I'm telling you is this study shows researchers have followed 35,000 people in the last couple of years and the side effects who have been put on these meds. The side effects are crazy.
They're crazy. And what's happening inside a person's body when anxiety takes over? It's not pretty. A lot of people, they don't realize that physically anxiety has a major effect on people. The number one thing it usually does, it's not always the case, but well over 80% of the cases of people that actually have anxiety they have trouble sleeping. They either can't get to sleep or they can't stay asleep. Now what that does inside the body is incredible because when you don't sleep, your cortisol goes up. And when cortisol goes up, you can't sleep. Cortisol is meant for the fight or flight. It's meant to put you into a state, increase your blood pressure, temporary increase your blood sugar. Your body doesn't think about digesting anything. It doesn't know how to calm you down in a lot of ways. So you get into a hyper state. And that's all right if I'm scaring you. That's all right if I'm coming behind you and it's dark at night and you hear footsteps and your body is unbelievable.
You have two little glands. They're literally this size, the chestnut size, and they're called adrenal on top of your kidneys. And God gave you that to protect you. If a tiger is chasing you, you want cortisol. You want adrenaline, short burst and cortisol longer lasting in case you got to run a little farther. Cortisol. Cortisol is something your body makes. It's a hormone and it was always amazing to me in the last maybe 10 years, maybe a little longer than that. 10 or 12 years of my practice we found, and you can ask Nick and you can Ynette that work with me every day, we saw an enormous amount of high levels of cortisol.
People they didn't even realize. They'd come in and they weren't sleeping. They were fatigued. Sometimes their heart would race. They had all sorts of symptoms and they couldn't figure it out. Because when you did your blood work or you talked to your doctor a lot of times, nah, don't worry about it. But it's a big problem because cortisol, remember what cortisol does. One of the biggest things that cortisol does, it pours gasoline on inflammation. So if you already have inflammation from three things, remember leaky gut. And by the way, when cortisol is being secreted... So remember this, you know what I mean by that? Oh, like you're uptight. And guys, I got to tell you, in the last couple of years, even mwah okay? Me. I got to be careful because I can be so angry all the time because I don't like it. Look, one of the things that has bothered me the most in the last couple of years is when they throw kids under the bus. I got grandchildren.
If I'd have known grandchildren were that much fun, I'd have had them first. And a lot of things have been canceled for them. You go through high school, imagine missing a couple of years really. Anyway, I don't want to get into the politics of it too much. All I know is that even for me, I've had to be careful. I've had to talk to myself. It's alright if you talk to yourself. When you can't control a situation, there's no use getting all uptight about it. No use getting all uptight about it. And I got to remind myself all that and these statistics are showing it. Imagine 80% more prescription. And those are people that got to their doctor and they're on Zoloft, Lorazepam, Prozac. Now all I'm telling you temporary measures at best.
I've found over the years and the research is showing the side effects of these medications are legion. It is so disruptive to your body's chemistry, even to be on those things. That's why I was always big on naturally. And guys, you know me. Through the last couple of years, I have been trying to teach my audience about the immune system. You have one. Take care of it. When it's not this virus, it will be another one. I promise. Every year I promise there's going to be a new variant. This will never end, and we're never going to get to zero. Okay? I told that to someone yesterday. What are you aiming for, zero? Look, there's all always viruses. If I was to do a swab and put stuff under a microscope, a very powerful microscope that I use, you would always be shocked by the amount of bacteria and viruses that are out there.
Guys, we are meant to live with that stuff and look, if people have got to get on meds, okay. But just understand they were never, never, never meant to be taken long term. Never. I remember when Prozac came out. There was a warning from the FDA that these things were never to be taken more than six months. And I've known people that have been on Prozac are Lorazepam or Zoloft for 20 years, 25 years. One of the biggest side effects of these medications is what it does to your brain. Literally shrinks the brain over a period of time. And I used to say it back then and now research is 100% confirming that. You know what I used to say? The coming tsunami. Yeah. Well, the tsunami is landed and it's not pretty. People are desperate. And the damage done to young people, you wait. To these kids, the long term effects, because they're going to get on medications.
You get on Zoloft or something like that, and again like I told you, it was meant to be temporary. It's like sweeping a problem under a carpet so you don't see it. It sort of numbs you out a bit. I know, but that doesn't fix it. You want to get that cortisol down. Your goal should be to do it naturally. It may take some more time, but it's worth it. And I talked to you about when you pour gasoline on the fire of inflammation. It's ramifications in women, breast cancer. It is so common. And in men, heart disease. I've said that 30 years ago, I said that. People thought it was crazy. I said, "No, I'm telling you."
You're not meant to be stressed over a long period of time. You're just not. You get a shock and a trauma. What cortisol does it, kills your immune system. Why does it do that? You're not thinking of immunity if you're being chased by a tiger. And I don't mean Tony the Tiger me. Okay? I've often used the expression with cortisol as being... Okay. It's an accelerant. It pours gasoline on the fire. It's a diversion. What do I mean by that? Well, your body gets diverted from its normal function. Digestion, immunity, sleep. It's a diversion because your body is in a state of readiness. It's in a state of hyperventilation breathing. It's in a state of the fight or flight.
I just can't get over how amazing the body is. Right? I can't get over it. It's unbelievable. The intelligence of the human body, it's incredible. The more you study it, the more you're just fascinated by it, but you got to take care of it. And one of the things you do, if you are on meds, anti-anxiety, antidepressants, is to get to the bottom line and fix it. It can be fixed. It can be fixed. It might be a journey. Might not happen because there's some of you who know me. And I've told you when I go on my rants. Okay? Oh, because when I see stupidity, I can't stand it. Okay? I'm sorry. It's me. I can't stand stupid. You know what I don't like? I tell people around me all the time. You know what I don't like? Is when people lie to me.
I don't like that. I don't like to be deceived. See the world got deceived. It lost its collective mind in the last couple of years. It's deception because it was 24 and 7 news cycles. Somebody said, "You want to get rid of the pandemic? Turn off the news." Look, that's not going to happen. But all I'm saying is, look, I feel sorry for people. They get in this merry go round of the world and it never stops. I don't like to be deceived. And there's a lot of deception, but that's the same thing when the treatment of anxiety... And by the way, the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 12, anxiety leads to depression. Yep. That's long term. But anxiety leads to a lot of things because over a period of time, one digestive issues, stress, digestive issues gets your gastric juices going. It's good to secrete acidity in your stomach, but not when you're not eating. Do you know what I mean? If you're not eating and you got acidity that's coming up your esophagus. You're not even eating. What's that got to do? Yeah. But stress can be a big factor.
Stress has a major factor. Cortisol has a major factor on stomach. Cortisol has a major effect on the immune system because what happens when your cortisol is high over a period of time, your T-cells are not activated like they should be. You know what your T-cells are? Your T-cells are Navy Seals. I love Navy Seals. Don't you? Their training and what they go through. I love Navy Seals. Well, your T-cells are Navy Seals. That's what they do. I used to show my patients T-cells. Watch them chase a bacteria. You can actually Google it if you want and watch as T-cells chase down a bacteria. Oh, boy. And they would call out the army, "Hey, here we go, guys. We got a bacteria or a virus there. Let's go get it." That's your immune system. But it gets diverted, you see? It gets deceived because of stress. That's why the immune system goes down.
And when I talk about immunity, I talk about cancer too, because you got T-cells that hate cancer cells. And you got natural killer cells. Your blood, man. It's got everything you need to fight, but not if it gets diverted, not if it gets duped by cortisol. And when you don't sleep, you don't repair. We've often talked about fasting, right? Fasting without fasting. The reset is fasting without fasting because you're using such a good fuel. And I mean that. 99% octane. Your little mitochondria, your battery packs in your cells. You got trillions of them. They regenerate. They love that fuel. So it's fasting without fasting.
But they often talk about fasting. It's beneficial. But you know what's beneficial? You got to sleep. When you sleep, the night shift comes in. Two areas. I've often used that. On your phone when you go into the airplane mode, they tell you when you're flying put it in the airplane mode. What does that mean? Well, I don't know anything about anything about my phone. You guys know that. But if I put it in airplane mode, you know what? It doesn't receive any data. Oh, okay. Well, that's what happens when you sleep. Your body goes into airplane mode and everything sleeps. It rests. It's not getting any data unless your cortisol is up because if your cortisol is up, the night shift don't come in to clean up. You don't get a cleanup.
Cortisol is up, no cleanup. Hey, I kind of like that. What happens? Remember with your brain. It's 2% of your body weight. It's not that big, but it's important. We didn't even know this. I mean it. We didn't know this till even a few years ago that the brain had its own lymphatic system. They're called glymphatics. You know when they work? At night, when you're sleeping. This is one of the reasons that people... I'm going to go down a rabbit trail. Just for a sec. When you take a sleeping pill, your glial cells, your glymphatics in your brain, they go to sleep the with you because you're not sleeping really. I always tell people, "I know doc, but I need a sleeping pill." I said, "I know, but you're not sleeping." Oh no? Well, not really. Technically you're not because you're knocked out. You're sedated. And your glial cells in your brain, they don't come in to do the night shift because your brain is headquarters.
25% of all your food that you eat goes first to the brain. It's like taxes. But when you make energy, your brain takes that food to run the plant up there. Oh, don't give it the wrong diet. You know what I'm saying? And there's a lot of debris from that. You get a manufacturing plant, you got to get rid of the waste. But if you're not sleeping because your cortisol is high, your brain can't repair itself. Your brain has got a self cleaning oven there. When you sleep, your brain cleans itself. That's the glymphatics.
I was so concerned about people's cortisol. I'd look them in the eyeballs in the office and say, "Look, I just tested you. Your cortisol is through the roof." We got to fix that for a multitude of reasons. You're not going to get into self-repair. The other organ by the way, that works the night shift, I'm going to ask you. Which one is it? Which one doesn't go into airplane mode? Everything goes into airplane mode except your brain. It repairs itself. It has its own lymphatic system. What's the other one? What other organ gets really majorly affected when you don't sleep? I'm waiting. I want to see if you guys know for me.
Okay. Liver? Yes. Yeah. It's the liver. It's the liver. The liver needs to work the night shift because it detoxes your body and your brain. Okay? The cleaning crew come in, they clean up all the waste product. And secondly, your liver. Your liver is the big detox. Your kidneys get a rest. Okay? The kidneys get a rest at night, but your liver doesn't. It works the night shift, but that's all right. It's used to it. But what happens? You won't detox if your cortisol is too high. Your immune system, which is bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells. Okay? Let me just give to you a couple of things that I found consistent with high cortisol and things you got to watch for. Okay? Things you got to watch for. One, when cortisol is high, almost invariably, almost invariably, almost without exceptions is you have low levels of B12.
B12 is your stress vitamin. You know when they talk about B vitamins? Eh, don't worry about your B vitamins if you're eating eggs, meat, and cheese. You get a lot of those. But you need B12. Because if your cortisol is high, your B12's coming out of your body. Here's the second thing I found just generally, you are low in magnesium. The relaxing mineral, magnesium. Those things were consistent. Low magnesium, low B12, when your cortisol was high. Guess what other one I saw? Yeah, you got it, viderma. Vitamin D. Often low with stress. Now what comes first? Low vitamin D or high cortisol? It's hard to say. It just consistently I found that. Vitamin D was low. B12 was low. Magnesium was low. So those are things you should think about. Those are things you should think about. So isn't that incredible, guys? You know what?
I'm going to tell you something first. You have to take care of yourself before you can take care of anyone else. You know what? You fly in an airplane. The stewardess comes on and says, "Okay, watch the demo." And you know what they always tell you? If slight chance, they always say that, slight chance that you need oxygen. Don't worry about it. It'll fall out of the compartment above your head. Don't worry about it. You know what they tell you to do? Put your oxygen mask on first before you help someone else. Mama, even if you have children. Put your oxygen mask on first, then help. Make sure you fix yourself first, then you can help others. Okay? So none of us are immune from this stress that's been going on. Like I said, unless you're living on other planet, stress is high. Take care of yourself, diet, food. Eat the right foods.
Because when you don't feel good and you're stressed, you know what cortisol does? It elevates your blood sugar. And when blood sugar goes up, it must come down. Anybody that tells me, "Oh, doc, I got hypoglycemia." I said, "Yeah, you know why? It's because of your adrenals. You're a stress bucket." That's what happens when you see your body's getting your blood pressure up, your body's getting you ready to run from the tiger. Your blood sugar goes up. But when your blood sugar goes up, your insulin comes in and it crashes it. Ah, geez. My blood sugar went. I don't feel so good. Yeah. That's what happens. So these are things you got to control, guys. You can't control what's out there. You can't. I can't control that, but I can control the way I think. Put a filter in your brain, filter out the bad stuff.
If I can't control it, I'm not going to let it drive me mental. And you know what, guys? Fix yourself. Take care of yourself. Take care of your own health. Get the self cleaning oven working in your brain. Make sure the liver is working at night to detoxify your body. Make sure your B12 is good. Make sure you got good levels of magnesium and vitamin D. I could talk to you about probiotics and the brain. Oh, important. Okay. So guys, thanks so much for putting up with our shenanigans. Friday question and answer. Okay? And you know what? Tomorrow I was going to do an afternoon session. I'm going to do a morning session tomorrow. Just giving you a heads up. It's going to be tomorrow morning. I'm going to do a session tomorrow morning. Okay? So tell everybody. Tomorrow, I'm on. We'll put it up on the private Facebook group. I'm going to do a morning session. Friday's question and answer. Okay? Love you guys. Thanks for the birthday wishes. 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!