Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners.
Some of today’s topics include:
- Mercury in fish oils
- Low leptin levels
- Silent acid reflux
- Long-term effects of BP meds
- Acid reflux & indigestion
- CoQ10
- Cannabinoids in the gut
- Hot flashes
- Dry mouth
- Symptoms of low B12
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. Welcome to another live this morning question and answer Friday. As you get your notices that we're on. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. And we start this morning. Barbara is asking what about mercury and fish oils? Well, listen, if you get a cheap oil, omega-3 oil, possibly there's going to be some mercury in it. Mercury is usually found in the larger fish. Okay? So with our high DHA oil, which is a pharmaceutical grade oil, it's so strong, if the FDA had their way, they'd make you have a prescription to get it. Not because there's any side effects, only because it's so good. It's a pharmaceutical grade that filters that oil to leave the DHA at such a high level. Of course, they use very small fish like sardines and things like that. When you eat sardines, by the way, you're rarely ever going to get any mercury.
Now, look, I said this a thousand times and I'll say it another thousand times, we live in a polluted world full of plastic, full of heavy metals, we can't get away from it. Now that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be careful and that you shouldn't do everything you can from your water to the air sprays and the fresheners and the antibacterial hands sanitizers and stuff like that. Look, do everything you can, but just understand this, you're never getting away from all of these toxins, just not going to do it. So the idea with it, and it's a very good question. Okay? The idea with it, Barb, is to understand that you want your body primarily to be in the best of shape. Your body has its own filters. You know, like if you would use a brita, for example, for water, your body has that, your liver, if it's clean, it's amazing what it'll do. It'll keep the toxins out of your body.
If you don't have leaky gut, it'll keep the toxins out of your body, because it can't get into your bloodstream and don't put those sunscreens and all this and that right on your skin and then add heat. There's a lot of things you can do. Mercury, listen, I used to test for mercury in my office. I saw a lot of kids with mercury. The thing that I used to tell them, okay, the parents or whatever, whenever I saw mercury, dentists used mercury in their fillings still. I mean, that should be outlawed. There's no reason for it anymore. And unfortunately, dentistry and medicine and whatever, if you don't drop dead right away, they say, well, there's no real side effect, but I was never one that was too big on once you had mercury fillings to take them out because I usually found that then it was worse, they would leak.
So if you were replacing them, good, but like I said, primarily, you're not going to get away from all heavy metals. If you stay away from high fructose corn syrup, there's a lot of lead in high fructose corn syrup, stay away from it, don't buy cheap fish oil. That's what I would tell you. Don't buy cheap fish oil, but you're not completely getting away from it. And remember one of the greatest key leaders, what's a key leader? A key leader is glutathione, your body makes glutathione. It's your natural Velcro that attracts heavy metals and chemicals and all the garbage inside your body and Velcro, if your glutathione and your liver is where you make glutathione, how do you get high levels of glutathione? Keep your liver clean. How do you keep your liver clean? Stop eating sugar and crappy carbohydrates. It's the Costco parking lot, empty it. Okay. Barbara, thanks for the question.
Here's another one about omega-3. Cynthia, if I'm taking Navitol with omega-3, okay, that's our heart and brain formula and DHA upgraded, smart girl. Am I getting enough omega-? Well, absolutely you are. If you took one capsule of our DHA, you're getting 10 times more than any product you'll get on the shelf of DHA. You got to read your labels. What makes omega-3 so good? Look, I love omega-3, okay? In the animal kingdom, you're going to get your EPA and DHA in fish, in steak. Okay. The plant kingdom makes omega-3, but it doesn't make EPA and DHA. It makes ALA, and that has to be converted, and that's not an easy process to convert that to DHA and EPA. That's why when someone tells you to be a vegetarian, run, how can it be right when you're not getting the right omega-3? How can that be right? It can't be right.
So if someone tells you vegetables are better than meat, run, it's not true. They're not the super foods you think they are. Well, I'm sorry. High DHA is what your brain is made up of. But yes, Cynthia, oh yeah, you're getting good amount. Okay. If you're taking Navitol heart and brain, but if you're taking DHA upgraded, there's no better product. That is a pharmaceutical grade, the best product on the market. Now I'm biased. I'll tell you that right off the gate, but I'm right too.
Okay. Kathy, what does it mean if you have low leptin levels? Well, what is leptin? I think that's important that people understand that leptin tells you're full, leptin tells you're full. Now low leptin levels can be a disorder like anorexia. Okay? You could have anorexia nervosa and that'll give you low leptin levels and you're not hungry. But I mean, that's a very dangerous condition, low leptin levels. But you get low leptin levels in this sense, when you have what we call leptin resistance. When you get insulin resistance, when you get insulin resistance, what follows soon usually is leptin resistance. Now it means your body has to secrete even more leptin to do the same job to tell you that you're full. So you can have leptin resistance, you can have low levels of leptin. That's a much, much, much more rare condition is actual low levels of leptin. And usually I found that in people who had eating disorders like anorexia. Thanks for the question, we appreciate it.
Okay. Back to the board. Carol, what is LPR reflex? Is it a symptom of something else? Well, Carol, LPR is silent. Okay. Silent acid reflux. Now, you know me, been very consistent about this. If you have acid reflux or even the silent acid reflux where you feel like you've got a ball in your throat or you don't really get a lot of symptoms, like you're not necessarily feeling that acid up there, but nonetheless, it's an acid reflux. Listen, here's a couple of things. One, you're making too much acid in your stomach because your stomach doesn't have enough acid to start off with and that is a sign of insulin resistance. These are things we talk about. Insulin resistance, 88% of the population have insulin resistance. One of the ways you can know you have insulin resistance is if you have acid reflux, even the silent one. You're eating too many carbohydrates. It usually happens to carboholics. And what I do is I get them on digestive enzymes. Because people can get that when they don't have enough enzymes, they're not making enough pancreatic enzymes, lipase, anomalies, and protease to break down food.
So I go at it with the reset. I go at it with digestive enzymes. I go at it with probiotics. Okay? Because when you get acid reflux, it's your proton pumps. You got pumps in your stomach that when they're not making enough acid, they make more. The problem with that is when the proton pumps, they don't turn off, you get acid going up into your esophagus where it doesn't belong and they give you PPIs and all this kind of stuff to lower your asset and that's a bandaid, it doesn't fix the problem. And then you get major side effects from taking those PPIs. They're not meant to be used for any period of time, very short term. People take those things for years. Change your diet, do the reset. Thousands and thousands have and it's helped fix their digestions, it's amazing. Okay, Carol?
What long-term effects happen when blood pressure meds for years? Well, look, you can Google that if you want, but it's not good. Now, I never tell people to come off their medications, never. I won't do it, they're not my patients so I don't tell people to come off medications, but you ought to be well aware of the side effects, long term of that blood pressure medications. And again, what elevates blood pressure? For most people one of the things that affects blood pressure the most is food. It's sugar because it constricts the kidneys. The kidneys are very finicky organs in your body. They are very sensitive to your blood sugar. If you don't believe that, ask a diabetic, but long before people become diabetic, they're kidneys and that affects their electrolytes and that elevate blood pressure. And then the other way is when you're elevated triglycerides and not enough HDL, a sign of that can be high blood pressure.
Not always, but sometimes. So it's amazing when you empty the liver, what can happen there? You empty the liver by going no carb. Okay. And then the side effects are legion from dementia to all sorts of issues. And again, I never get people to come off medications without making drastic changes to their diet. Jan, what's the difference between acid reflux and indigestion? Well, there could be a lot of things, Jan, that are different because acid reflux, we just discussed indigestion can be from acid reflux, but it can be from other things like SIBO or SIFO we like to call it, small intestine fungal overgrow. Medicine calls it bacterial overgrowth. Yes, there's bacteria there, but you can get indigestion from having [inaudible 00:14:17] I guess where you can have a bacteria in your stomach. That can be another thing. And again, that goes back usually to low acidity in the stomach. HPI lower is what I was thinking of. That can give you indigestion. Sometimes that's silence, sometimes it gives you symptoms.
So the biggest thing is fixing it. Do the reset. Make sure you're taking probiotics and digestive enzyme. Okay. I'm big on that. Gene Arjan, what is the top ingredient that Dr. Martin likes in CoQ10? Well, your body makes CoQ10. So if you're talking about a supplement of CoQ10, Gene, then the best form of CoQ10 is ubiquinol, O-L at the end, that's CoQ10. That's what your body makes, ubiquinol. So if you take a supplement of it and we have it in our heart and brain formula, Navitol with CoQ10 and DHA, okay? Now when you eat steak, you're elevating your CoQ10. CoQ10, when you take a statin drug, that's how CoQ10 became famous. Because when you take a cholesterol lowering medication, it wipes out your CoQ10. Now what is CoQ10? It's a very important piece of your mitochondria, your battery packs. Your heart is a muscle, CoQ10 is very important for heart muscle. The mitochondria in your heart, the battery packs, and imagine a statin drug kills CoQ10. Oh, I got my cholesterol down doc. My cholesterol went down. I said, why do you want your cholesterol to go down? My doctor.
I said, yeah, I know, but your doctor's not right. You don't want to get your cholesterol down. Plus you're destroying your CoQ10. Your hearts muscle. Why do you want to do that? You've been duped, don't be duped. Okay. You need CoQ10. And if you're going to get CoQ10 as a supplement, I tell people to eat steak. But if you need CoQ10, then make sure you're getting ubiquinol and not ubiquinone because ubiquinol as a supplement is the one your body really absorbs. Okay? I think that's what you meant Gene. Jojo. Okay, Jojo. I call my grandson Jojo. What about cannabinoids in the gut? Well, those are really in there. Jojo, your body makes endo, endo means inside your body, your brain, your gut, your organs make endo cannabinoids. We hear of them in a connection with medical cannabis benefits. How do cannabinoids connect with food? Well, your body already makes them, they're called endo.
I told my wife the other day, let's go get stoned, man. It seems the only new stores that are popping up in Canada are for marijuana. I said, I can't get over it. Every second store is for cannabis. I shake my head. Why do we want to get stoned for? Jeepers-creepers. Oh, I feel sorry for this generation, I really do. Now look, there are some benefits. There are some medicinal benefits. I tell people to be very, very careful with that stuff, very careful. Even with the medicinal part. Look, you have chronic pain for some with chronic sleep problems. But here's what I found, this has just been my experience. They work a little bit and then they don't work anymore. That's only been my experience, but the connection with food is like your bodies makes that stuff. So feed it with eggs, meat, and cheese. How's that Jojo?
Okay. Nancy. Nancy, you got horror-mones. Listen to what Nancy says. I am 70 years old. Well, Nancy, welcome to the club. Were you born in 1952? I tell everybody that is the year. Wow. Great people were born in 1952. Who? Me. So Nancy, isn't it fun being a woman? Here you are at 70. Here's what she's saying. I still experience hot flashes. Those are called horrormones Nancy. You're still a woman, isn't that wonderful? Here's what's happening. You got an imbalance between your estrogen. Yeah, you still make it, and progesterone. You still make that too. Pro baby, progesterone. Now listen, one of the things that could do that, it'll rob your progesterone is cortisol, stress. So Nancy, I don't know you, but oftentimes I put patients on my menopause formula or my cortisol or both. I get the cortisol down, they make more progesterone, it balances out between the estrogen and progesterone. Look, all those things come down obviously, they come down, but it's the balance. I used to have it in my office, a tight rope walking across Niagara falls for women.
It's a balancing act. That is why we call them horrormones. They're no fun when they're out of balance and that's what's happening Nancy. Either cortisol, stress that's messing you up or low levels of progesterone compared to your estrogen. That's how you can get better. Is there an answer to this so I can sleep better, Nancy? Yep. Okay. Carol, a diabetic lady is telling us that her doctor told her she must eat 50 grams of carbs each day to keep a healthy brain. What are my thoughts? Well, I just got, Carol, a headache. I just got an instant headache. Tell your friend that they would've been better off going to their plumber for nutritional advice rather than their doctor. Now I say that a little bit with tongue in cheek, but I'm pretty serious too. I hate to be negative. But in medical school they give doctors one hour or less of nutrition. So that's why I say, why not go to your plumber and ask them, what should I eat if I'm a diabetic? They got it wrong. Because when you're a diabetic, Carol, when you're a diabetic, you have an allergy to carbs.
I was the first guy to ever say that, it's an allergy to carbohydrates. You don't need carbs when you're a diabetic, that's the last thing you need. And your brain, by the way, it doesn't need glucose. And if it does, steak will turn into glucose. Did you know that? And Carol, your brain doesn't need glucose, it needs fat. If someone calls you fat head, take it as a compliment. It drives me crazy. I get a splitting headache whenever I hear nonsense like that. Diabetics should stay away from carbs. You know how many thousands of diabetic thousands I got them away from diabetes? I never cure anything, but I put them into remission when they understood that them and carbs don't get along. That's the problem. They have an allergy to carbohydrates. Did I tell you the cat story?
For those of you that have been with me a long time you know this story, it's a true story, by the way. A lady came into my office, sneezing, coughing, like unreal, and I'd only been in there a minute or so, and I happened to glance at the screen and I knew she had allergy because I saw all these mass cells in her blood, NAST, okay. Mass cells that release histamine. Okay. So I said to her, you have allergies. Yeah, that's why I'm here, doc. Oh, okay. What are you allergic to? My cat. Well, I said get rid of it. Oh, she said, doc, I can't. I said, well, I can't help you. How can I help you if you won't get rid of the thing that you have allergies to? I love my cat doc. I know, but you're allergic to it. This is a true story and I use the cat story with all my diabetic patients.
Get rid of the cat, get rid of the carbs. You have an allergy to them. I had one guy tell me, doc, I can't have eggs in the morning without toast. I said, you're a diabetic, no more toast. He said, are you serious? I said I'm dead serious. He called me a week later and he said, doc, I only pretend to have toast. He said I dipped them. I pretend I have toast in my hand to dip them in my eggs. He was one of the funniest guys. I loved it. I said, well, good for you, buddy. Glad you get rid of diabetes. Don't eat carbs whatever you do. Carol, thank you for the question. You want a healthy brain? Eat fat. Don't worry about sugar. Okay. And Carol's second part, out in Eastern Canada, specifically New Brunswick when you ask for a thyroid check, they only test T4.
You mean they don't do TSH? Okay. Look, to be real honest, taking a thyroid test without thyroid symptoms to me means nothing because the thyroid is so complex, it is a puppet, it's got a lot of strings attached and I don't care if you do a full panel, without symptoms, I want to know your symptoms. And then I got a little trick that I will maybe teach you, not today, that I can look at certain numbers and see pretty well. But I want symptoms. So your thyroid, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it's a duck. The thyroids involved, but that's too bad about New Brunswick. I never heard that before. Okay. Diane, after starting Dr. Martin supplements, I have dry mouth. Will it go away? Well, Diane, you know how I use that expression? You're weird. No, you're unique.
Usually, when you're on medications, that is a common, common, common symptom of people who take meds. They get dry mouth, common, Google it, but will it go away? I don't think it's caused by the supplements Diane. I just don't, I've never seen that before, unless you're completely unique. I never, never, never dismiss uniqueness. Meaning stick your thumb up all of us. There's what? Almost eight billion people now on the planet earth, we all got our different fingerprint. We're all different. You know what, to be honest, I've never heard that ever once. And I've been around a long time. I've been making my own supplements for a long time. I have never heard it Diane. Will it go away? If it's caused by our supplements, I don't know, but I'm not too worried about it. Like I said, I've never seen it so I don't have an experience. Are you taking any other medications? Let me know that Diane, I'll try and help you more. Vanda, my sister's acupuncturist said having high B12 can cause health problems like tingling in the fingers, feet and upset stomach.
No. Okay. Vanda, here's what I mean by that. If you got our email we sent out yesterday, we talked about what are the symptoms of low B12? Tingling, because B12 is very important for what we call the [inaudible 00:29:33] on your nerves. Like B12 does a lot of things from your brain to your toes. And I'm a big, big, big, big proponent of B12. It's another reason I tell you, how can red meat be bad for you when it really is the only source of B12 in nature? And your body don't work without B12. Now having high B12 is exactly what I aim for. The serum levels of B12, well, they don't tell you much, but I aim for between 800 and 1200. If they're at 1400, what's that mean? It's a water soluble vitamin. The waiting rooms are not full of people.
All I know what's wrong with you. You're in here, you're very sick because you got high B12. No. Look, maybe some people rarely, if they get high B12 might have a symptom or two, but it's the opposite. 99.9% of the population it would be the opposite of that. And I estimate that 80% of the population is low in B12 because B12 is a large structure vitamin. It's a finicky vitamin. You got any digestive issues at all, there's a good chance you're not absorbing B12. It's finicky because of its size and you need the intrinsic factor to even break it down. Anyway, Vanda, thanks for the question. Renee, I am convinced of eggs, meat and cheeses, and I have high triglycerides. Do you have any advice about mindset on the reset? Well, I got a lot of advice on mindset, remember my three Ds? Desire, determination.
This is a transfer in your mind. Okay? Because a lot of people want to be healthy. A lot of people want to lose weight. A lot of people, they have a desire, but it never gets transferred from the brain 18 inches to the heart. What do I mean by that? Now I am determined. That's the problem. Gyms are full in January and they're empty in February. They had a desire, but they weren't determined. Oh, I didn't know exercise was going to be so hard. You know what? To form a habit, it's not easy. You got 21 days, that's how much psychology I took in university just to find out about human behavior, it takes three weeks to form a habit, but you need not just the desire, but the determination. And then the third D is discipline. Discipline is every day. You know what the hardest word in the English language is? How to say no, especially with food.
So Renee, I just encourage you when you start the reset or whatever, get on the Martin Clinic Facebook group and tell people you're on it and they'll pump your tires up. I'll pump your tires up every day. You're doing the right thing and it's worth the four weeks of your life, the 30 days, it's worth it for close to a hundred reasons. Okay. Thank you very much. Jen, what are lectins? Well, lectins are proteins that bind to carbohydrates and lectins are found in legumes, nuts, things like that. And you know what? For some people they really could mess up their body, create inflammation, whatever. When you go on the reset, you're not eating lectins.
Okay. Now I think it was Dr. Gundry who came out with a book on the plant paradox. Right? I think that's the book he wrote. And I didn't agree with everything that was in there, but some of the things was interesting and I kept an open mind and read it and you know me and legumes and eating vegetables and all that, I'm not against that stuff, but don't make a living on it. And for some people when they get off lectins, lectins are found by the way in wheat, whole wheat brand. Oh Dr. Martin, it's whole wheat. I don't care. I'm not so much worried about the lectins, I'm more worried about the carbohydrate. I'm a carb buster. Not so much a lectin buster, but a carb buster. That's me. Okay?
And again, no problem. Shirley, what can I do to get my pH from acidic alkaline? Well, listen, understand this, if you're measuring your saliva or your urine, be very careful with that. Okay? Because first of all, your blood's not acidic. Your blood's alkaline, just slightly alkaline, and your body has every kind of buffering system to keep your blood within a very tight range of pH. Now what is acidic in food? It's sugar. It really is the only thing that's acidic. Tomatoes are acidic, but not once you get them inside your body, they turn alkaline because your body knows how to buffer it. It's like steak. When people tell me, ah, yeah, steaks are acidic and it's carcinogenic and blah, blah, blah, I hear it all the time. It's nonsense. Why do you think you have bile? Your body makes bile. Your body makes sodium bicarbonate. Baking soda, your body makes baking soda. I'm not big on you taking baking soda, your body makes baking soda.
So I used to measure pH, but I like to measure urine pH. First thing in the morning, your pH of your urine better be very acidic in the morning. Why is that? Because you're detoxing. Your first morning, urine should be very acidic. Then you know your kidneys are working well. But Shirley, like I know I don't want cancer to come back and you don't want cancer, don't worry about your pH if you're eating right. If you eat eggs, meat and cheese, cancer hates that stuff. Keep your estrogen down, keep your insulin down, keep your cortisol down to keep your cancer away. Michelle, are your probiotics score based? Uh-huh, google it. First thing that comes up is the Martin Clinic probiotics. Michelle, try it. I'm not kidding you. Hannah, does spring water need to be filtered? No, spring water doesn't need to be filtered because spring water has minerals in it. Okay? So if you got a spring, you want minerals. That's why I'm a big guy on spring water because it's got minerals in it. It's the way water should be.
John, your thoughts on antibiotics and dental work. Well, I know why dentists do it, but I don't like it. You're better off taking probiotics than taking antibiotics. Now, I don't want to give medical advice per se to individuals, I don't do that. I'm speaking in generality. Okay? And John wants me to talk about mal-absorption. Well, if you don't have enough intrinsic factor, you're not absorbing B12. If you don't have good digestive enzymes in your pancreatic enzymes, you got a mal-absorption syndrome. If you got SIFO, SIBO, you got a mal-absorption syndrome. If you got an overgrowth of yeast, a lot of times you got a mal-absorption syndrome, you're not absorbing the way you should. Does the reset help with lymphatic drainage? Yes it does. Yes it does, because it detoxes your body. It detoxes your liver. It detoxes that stuff. Now lymphatic drainage, the best thing for lymphatic drainage is vitamin E exercise. I love the rebounder because it's really good for lymphatic drainage.
Now you can get massage therapy, they drain your lymph nodes and this and that, but your body knows how to do that. Keep your circulation going and your lymphs will drain and that's why I'm big on vitamin D. And Sandy's asking the last question, how do you know if you have candida? Well look, if you've taken an antibiotic and without probiotics, you got candida, just about for sure. Now brain fog, there's a lot of symptoms that it could be. I got to do specifically a candida teaching again. Sometimes you can see it in your tongue, you can see it. And you know, there's a spit test that I was never too big on that, to be honest, but candida can be invisible and in a lot of ways you can't even see it, but if you have bloating and this and that, we're going to do a program on that. Okay. I went overtime, but we got them all done. Thank you guys for the question and answers. We love you dearly, and I mean that. 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!