855. Stomach Acidity

THE DOCTOR IS IN Podcast


Dr. Martin continues answering listener’s questions about digestive issues. 

He focuses his time in this episode teaching primarily about stomach acidity and why so many people have problems with their gut. 

He also touches on peptic ulcers, bacterial overgrowth and why the thyroid has a role to play.

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. Hope you're having a great start to your day. Let's get going, guys. I'm continuing on with questions. Actually, a patient asked for a friend, they think they might have a peptic ulcer. Okay, a peptic ulcer. Here's their symptoms: excessive flatulence, you know what that is, gas, bloating, going back and forth from diarrhea and constipation, nausea, lack of appetite, heartburn, reflux. Man, that patient is not having any fun.

When you have digestive issues, would it ever take away your quality of life? Think about this, okay? This person here, and many of you, or you know people that would identify with this, like just their GI, their gut doesn't work very well, right? And for some, it doesn't matter what they eat. They just don't do well. And look, the person wasn't far off track thinking they might have a peptic ulcer, but here's my two pennies on it. I believe this person has SIBO or SIFO. What is that? It's something that we see so much of today. SIBO, in medicine they call it SIBO. You and I call it SIFO. Now let me explain. SIBO is a small intestine bacterial overgrowth. Okay? Small intestine bacterial overgrowth. I renamed it CIFO, because it's really not a bacteria. Ladies, like your bladder, we talked a lot about bladder in the question and answers. It just seemed that was the question of the week. "What about my bladder?" And you know, let me answer someone else because they asked this, too. And I might as well talk about it. 

Sherry, Sherry, Sherry, baby. How are you, Sherry? Well, you asked a good question. "Can Dr. Martin talk about nocturia?" Do you know what nocturia is? Getting up to pee lots of times as a woman, horror-mones. The bladder, especially in women, relies very much on balance between estrogen and progesterone, okay, Sherry? And, when you're up frequently, a couple of things, one, you could be low in progesterone compared to estrogen. That weakens the wall of your bladder. And women, they can get that. When men are up frequently, it's not their bladder, it's their prostate. They got a swollen prostate, and they get up at night. And we talked about that. Estrogen for men, insulin, for men, two growth hormones. And ladies, even the bladder, insulin is a growth hormone. Estrogen is a growth hormone. Okay? 

And oftentimes in the bladder, what happens is you get an overgrowth of yeast. Why am I talking about that? Because, I want to bring it back to the small intestine. Now remember the small intestine is not that small. It's very wide compared to the large intestine. The small intestine is really, really, really important. It's there where your food is absorbed. That's a really important place. And, what happens to a lot of people is they get an overgrowth of yeast. How does that happen? How do you get an overgrowth of yeast in your small intestine? 

Well, antibiotics. We talked about that a lot. What antibiotics do, they can save your life. But if you've taken an antibiotic, and you didn't take a probiotic with it and after it, you could be in big doo-doo, because it will mess up your gut. It can mess up the small intestine, and then you can get an overgrowth, an overgrowth of yeast. It's the invasion of that species. And, doctors think bacteria, and they want to give you another antibiotic. "You got SIBO. Let's give you another antibiotic."

I don't like that, because it usually comes back. It might give you a little bit of relief at first, but guess what? Guess what? Guess what? Now, let me tie this into your gallbladder. What did I say about the gallbladder? Use it or lose it. That's how you form stones in your gallbladder. If you don't use it because you're not eating animal fat... The world went crazy on fat. Fat became the boogeyman. Don't eat bacon.  If you're going to eat meat, lean, lean meat. Why would you want to eat lean meat?

Somebody said the other day to me, "My doctor said I was in trouble because I was eating the skin on the chicken.” Ooh. I got an instant migraine. Ladies and their chicken. Okay, but at least eat some fat. "Doc, I'm eating avocado." Okay. I like avocado. It's all right. There's fat, but oh, you want that saturated fat. Your body's made for it. It's saturated with vitamins. It's a satisfied fat. Okay, got it? Use it or lose it. But why am I talking about that? And then, I want to talk about the small intestine. Well, bile gets poured into the small intestine, that's one. Two, here's the connection, use your stomach acidity. Use it or lose it. 

You see, your stomach before the small intestine, it's a really important part of your digestive. People don't think about it unless they start having trouble with their stomach. They don't think about their stomach, what it does, what's happening there? Well, it's a furnace. And guys, you get this, your body, listen, does everything in the world to keep your blood sugars tightly regulated. Doesn't want you to go high. Doesn't want you to go low. We talked about that. That's why sugar's so destructive, because your body can't stand sugar. It really can't. But if you insist on eating it, you're going to create a lot of insulin to keep it regulated. 

Now, here's another thing, your stomach has to have a real, real low pH, very acidic between 1, 1.5. Your body wants to have high acidity, okay, in your stomach where it belongs. And, your body knows how to control that unless you don't eat right. And look, please don't misunderstand what I'm going to say. The plant kingdom is a good kingdom to eat from. So, don't look at me and say, "Dr. Martin doesn't like plants." I do, but not at the expense of the animal kingdom, please. And, "Oh, Dr. Martin with steak, it's acidic." Yes it is. You want that? You want acidic foods. You know why? Because, your stomach goes to work. It knows how to change your pH, right? Use your stomach or lose it. You want it to function. Your body was made for it. Got it? Use it. 

"Oh, Dr. Martin, I can't take acidic foods." The reason you can't is because your stomach's not working properly. You weren't using it. And when you feed your stomach garbage, like sugar and crappy carbs, your body doesn't work properly with that. That's why so many people, they're on antacids. They got acid reflux. They got all sorts of problems. They don't eat enough fat, and their digestive tract doesn't work. And when you don't break your food down properly, I mean, there's a cascade of problems.

When you don't have enough acidity in your stomach, your body tries to make more. The proton pumps, they're acid producing pumps. Your stomach is full of them. But when the proton pumps got to try and produce more acidity because you're not doing it naturally, it sends up that acidity into your esophagus, your esophagus isn't made for acidity. Your stomach is made for acidity. It's amazing what happens when you eat the right foods. Your stomach will thank you. When you do the reset, you know how many thousands of people have said, "You know what happened, Doc? My stomach got better. My bowel got better." Hello? Yes. Your stomach wasn't made for Tums. "I can eat whatever I want, and then I take a Tum ta da Tum Tums or Rolaids, or the purple pill."

Your stomach wasn't made for that. That's the worst kind of band aid that you can put into your stomach. Your stomach wants acidity. You need the acidity to stay exactly there. And, when that's working properly, what a difference that makes when your stomach... Your stomach acidity is for two things, two things. One, break down food. It's like a mulch. It mulches down. When your stomach's working properly, nothing escapes your stomach's acidity. You put a penny down there, it'll melt that penny if your stomach is good. I'm not telling you to swallow a penny. I'm just telling you when your stomach has acidity, what a furnace it is.

But, if you've always got flatulence, you're always burping, your stomach is gurgling, and it never seems to be settled, and you can't eat a normal meal without... Like, your gut's not doing well. I always start with the stomach. The stomach's not working properly. You want that acidity to do its job, to mulch everything down. The first thing is, it's the mulching. Got it? 

Second, kills... Listen to what your stomach does. Fearfully and wonderfully made, guys. Your stomach, high acidity, why? Because it mulches food and it kills bacteria. It kills yeast. That's why we see so much today. One of the reasons we see so much bacterial infections and C. Difficile, and H. pylori, when you have good stomach acidity, those things don't get into your body. Your stomach says, "Hey you, you're done like dinner. I'm going to mulch you down. You're finished."

Can't survive that high acidity. It just can't. Do you see why you want acidity in your stomach? Not only to break your food down, but you want it so nothing gets past the stomach like bacteria. A lot of people, they have SIBO, small intestine bacterial overgrowth, which is really in my opinion, SIFO, small intestine fungal overgrowth or fungus. Bacterial or fungus, if you have a good stomach, I'm sorry, it will not sit in your small intestine, because it's got killed already. And, that's the problem when you take any kind of antacid. That does not happen anymore. And now they're showing, when you take an antacid, you are so much more susceptible to any kind of virus, any kind of bacteria. You're more susceptible. 

Part of your immune system... We talk about this a lot, the immune system, but the immune system in the human being is complex, right? Yes, you need vitamin A, that invisible mask of your immune system. Yes, you need vitamin D that supercharges your T cells, your Navy Seals of your immune system. Yes, you need that. Yes, you want to plug the leaks of leaky gut. You want to plug those leaks. Leaky gut can really affect your immune system. But the other one, and I probably don't teach this enough, is the importance of your stomach, the furnace, And a lot of people, they got a huge problem there because of antibiotics, because of antacids that really decrease your acidity. "Oh yeah. But I get relief." I know, I know. You're not fixing the problem. You're actually making the problem worse. You're turning off the proton pump in your stomach, and a bad diet. You want your stomach to be acidic. Don't be scared of acidic foods that always bothered me. "Oh, a steak is acidic, Doc."

Yeah, but not once it gets past your stomach.  Your body will change its pH between your stomach acidity and the bile coming out of your gallbladder. That's why God gave you a gallbladder. You better use it or you're going to lose it. God gave you a stomach. Use it, use that acidity or lose it. That upper GI... That's why we at the clinic, we were so successful in fixing that GI. I was big on fixing the gut over the years, thousands and thousands of patients.

You know what else will kill your stomach, guys, kill the acidity in your stomach? Alcohol and high fiber foods. You're not a rabbit. You're not a rabbit. They don't need a stomach like you. Okay? Everything they eat is alkaline. So, they don't need the acidity that human beings need. Use it or lose it. And that stomach, by the way, a lot of times allergies between the stomach and the gut, psoriasis, eczema, that GI voice, it's a big, big deal. And it's a big, big problem in our society today.

You know, people always had gut problems. If you're going to be unwell, that's one of the areas you're unwell in. But today, it's more than a pandemic. It's more than a pandemic of digestive issues. People today live on acid reducers. People today live on stuff for their constipation or diarrhea or gurgling gut and flatulence, and you name it. People today, I feel sorry for them to have a bad digestive tract. I hope I answered the question. 

You know, I was thinking about this, it's really important, too, guys, really important. Because somebody was asking... Let me get to their question so that... Stephanie asked about hypothyroidism and she says, "My fingernails start to cave in or are going concave." You know what I said about the thyroid? When the thyroid is sluggish, look at your nails, look at your hair, and look at your skin. Observe eyeballs. I'm watching you. I used to tell my patients that, okay, "I'm watching, I'm looking." Because, I wanted to see their skin. I wanted to see their eyebrows. I wanted to see their hair. Ladies, never, never, never should you have thinning hair, ever. Okay, when you're 90. It's not normal. Men, eh, who cares about men? Right? Men have thinning hair. Don't matter. It doesn't. I look at men that got lots of hair and you know what I say when I see a man with a lot of hair and my age? I say, "I envy you. I used to have hair like that." But a man, it don't mean much. But, a woman? Mm, mm. 

Now, thyroid huge, when it comes to hair, thyroid huge, when it comes to skin. Thyroid, huge, when it comes to your nails, ladies. But here's another factor, your stomach, your stomach, because your hair is protein. You can't live without protein, guys. There's three macros. There's protein, there's fat, and there's carbs. One of them, you don't even need to live. I'm not saying you'll never eat it. I'm just telling you. You need nothing out of a carbohydrate to live. Because, if your body needs sugar, steak turn into sugar, did you know that? You need fat, and you need protein. But the problem with protein is if you don't have a good stomach, a good acidity, use it or lose it. You're not eating enough protein.

Your stomach acidity will change. It will become more alkaline. You want to use your stomach, use it. Produce more acid. Protein is the hardest of the macros to break down, but you need it. Your stomach needs to break down protein, because you need the amino acids. Your hair is protein. Your skin is protein. Your nails is protein. Okay? You need that. You have to understand the way I think. I'm looking at the bottom line with people. You never got into my office. I asked you a thousand questions out in the waiting room on a chart because I was really, really, really focusing in on your answers to those questions. Do you have leaky gut? Do you have low stomach acidity? If you don't use your stomach, you'll lose it. It won't work properly. You're meant to use that high acidity. I think I answered all the questions, two.

Okay, so guys, thank you very, very much. You guys are so great. You have such patience with this guy here. Thank you for making our podcast. The Doctor Is In podcast, so successful. I just can't get over when I look at the numbers. I can't get over how many followers we have on Facebook. We are up to almost 70,000 followers on Facebook and just about a million downloads on The Doctor Is In podcast. That's incredible, guys. That's incredible. It puts us in the big leagues, and I'm just a little guy from Sudbury, Ontario. But that's you guys, you do that. I don't do that. You do. We're still going to have question and answer Friday, you know, even though it's Tuesday. So, send your questions. I love answering questions. I really do. And every once in a while I'll pontificate. It's part of my nature. Okay guys, we love you dearly. 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!

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