Transcript Of Today's Episode
Dr. Martin Jr.: Hello, I'm Dr. Martin, Junior.
Dr. Martin Sr.: I'm Dr. Martin, Senior.
Dr. Martin Jr.: This is The Doctor is In podcast and this is episode 141. Today we're going to talk about a couple [00:00:30] of interesting studies that came out over the past few weeks and we haven't had a chance to do this for a while. Really there has been a few interesting studies that caught our attention this week, so we'll spend this episode just kind of talking through them. These studies are practical because a lot of times a lot of research necessarily isn't practical. You can't read them, they don't make any sense and they just don't have any real practical or clinical, anything you can use on a daily basis from them. These are studies here that are actually very interesting and [00:01:00] are quite practical, so we're talk about it.
The first one that we want to bring to your attention was on probiotics. There was actually a very well done study, it was a double blinded placebo controlled trial, and basically what they found was that older women on probiotics for one year basically resulted in 50% less bone loss compared to women that took a placebo. Again, just another notch in the belt for probiotics.
Dr. Martin Sr.: Leaky gut, leaky bones, right?
Dr. Martin Jr.: [00:01:30] Maybe share with us a few reasons why probiotics would help with bone health.
Dr. Martin Sr.: I think primarily probiotics would help with the absorption of minerals, preventing the loss of mineralization to the bone. When you think of it, we've done some podcasts on bone health and we've often talked about bones are more than calcium. People think calcium and [00:02:00] if you got osteopenia or you got osteoporosis, the doctor wants to give you calcium but there's so much more that goes into having healthy bones. We talked about that, like in the diet but you can have a great diet but yet have very poor absorption.
Dr. Martin Jr.: Yeah, I find that the calcium discussion is just so lazy when it comes to bone health. It's just kind of like they acted like the bones were just this single nutrient skeleton and all you have to do is just feed it calcium and it's going [00:02:30] to be happy and you're going to have strong bones and everything's going to go fine. However, we know obviously that's not the case.
What I also didn't like about or I still don't like really about the discussion of osteoporosis, and we have a lot of people that write to us or come into the clinic that are taking medications for bone health and rarely are they told to lift weights, rarely are they told to build their muscle up or consume protein. There's still this ridiculous [00:03:00] idea that protein is hard on your bones when it's completely the opposite, but it's one of those things that I don't know how we've gotten to the point in medicine where it's like calcium and bones, that's all it is. It's just one of those things and for a long time people were taking these drugs, calcium based drugs and then they found out that maybe not the best idea because of the hardening of the blood vessels for cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Martin Sr.: Yeah, and you know supplements of calcium, we've [00:03:30] said it before but it's worth repeating, taking calcium on its own is something we don't like because it rarely gets to the bone where you want it to get. It often sits in the bloodstream and that's a fact without having the proper minerals, if you're low in magnesium for example and potassium, these are keys, boron and other minerals, if you don't have that you're not going to get it.
Then I was reading a study today and I just, I'll go sidetrack just for a minute and then I'll come [00:04:00] back, I promise, but I was reading a study today about iron and a lot of women take iron supplements and a lot of times that iron really does not help to increase their, you know, they're constantly anemic. They don't realize, again, it's like calcium, there's a lot of other factors when you're building blood.
Dr. Martin Jr.: That's interesting.
Dr. Martin Sr.: This is what I tell my patients. Listen, when you're building blood you need a lot of co-factors. You need B12 for example because without [00:04:30] B12, iron will just sit in your blood. Well then iron becomes very toxic, but when you're taking other co-factors with it, and again we come back to the gut, probiotics. Probiotics are like, because when you have a malabsorption syndrome and you're not absorbing properly, these older people, no kidding, they're probably on medications, different things that affect their absorption.
Dr. Martin Jr.: Yeah, it'd be interesting to see how many that were on antacids or all those kind of things that definitely [00:05:00] affect-
Dr. Martin Sr.: Well you know, it's almost interesting because a patient came in last week and she was 66, 67, my age just about. She wasn't taking any medications. She said, "You know how much flack I get for not taking medication?" She said, "What do I need medication for, I feel fantastic," and sure enough when I did all her biomarkers, she was healthy as a horse. She said, "You wouldn't believe the pressure, 'Well just take one.'" She said her doctor, even the pharmacist, [00:05:30] she said, "I got a friend that's a pharmacist and they can't believe I'm not taking medication." Well they're not [crosstalk 00:05:37].
Dr. Martin Jr.: Especially like statin or a beta blocker or something. That is a rarity nowadays, but you're right, it is interesting. Now one thing I want to point out about this study on the probiotics was they were using one of our favourite strands, and that's the thing, right? There are thousands and thousands of different types of bacteria, well millions really, but there are a lot of different types of [00:06:00] good bacteria. It's one of our knocks against yogurt for example. We have a couple of knocks against yogurt. A lot of it is very sugary, people don't realize the amount of sugar that they're getting.
Dr. Martin Sr.: It's pasteurized.
Dr. Martin Jr.: It's pasteurized, it's sugary, no question, and it's lactobacillus and there's not a lot of it in there so a lot of it gets killed by the acid in the stomach, so they're really not getting a ton. We tell people don't rely on yogurt for probiotics. It's not something that, especially if they [00:06:30] have a digestive issue to begin with, yogurt's just not one of those things that we would recommend for that. What's interesting is that yogurt has one strain, usually a lactobacillus, and like I said, not a ton of them in there but this study here was done on one that we like a lot which is lactobacillus reuteri.
Dr. Martin Sr.: Reuteri, yeah.
Dr. Martin Jr.: Yeah, it's been studied for a whole bunch of different conditions and very, very effective which is why we use it in our probiotic formula because we like it, there's a lot of different things that it does.
Dr. Martin Sr.: It goes after, one thing [00:07:00] that reuteri is famous for is it goes after candida, yeast. It kills bacteria so if you want a natural antibiotic out of your probiotic, reuteri is tremendous because of its ability to go after bad bacteria and go after candida. I love it. I always tell people, "Look, if you got a yeast infection or you're suspecting leaky gut, you better have reuteri in [00:07:30] your probiotic."
Dr. Martin Jr.: That's one of the benefits that's been studied quite a bit for reuteri, which is candida, but here's a few things if you're listening that this specific strain of bacteria has been shown to help with. These are studies that have been shown to help with. First of all, it's a tremendous anti-inflammatory so it's very, very good for that. Also seems to help with lowering stress and pain perception, which kind of goes hand in hand with the anti-inflammatory aspect. Also it's been shown to increase the amount of vitamin D absorption [00:08:00] obviously.
Dr. Martin Sr.: That would bring you right with the vitamin D absorption because I was going to mention that.
Dr. Martin Jr.: That's kind of what I was going to get at, exactly, which is exactly that. We'll come back around to that in one second here, but it's also been obviously shown to help with gut health. You've mentioned candida. Actually there are studies showing that it's good for the thyroid, improves wound healing, people heal faster so think of diabetics and stuff, the importance of that. It protects against infections. Very, very good actually for oral health, very important. Also a lot of people don't realize how reuteri [00:08:30] plays a key role in vitamin B12 as well.
Dr. Martin Sr.: The absorption of it.
Dr. Martin Jr.: Yeah, so there a lot of benefits but this is the one that we wanted to key in on here, is that it actually increases your body's ability to get vitamin D. It's interesting, again when it comes to bone health, everybody thinks calcium but they really should be thinking vitamin D. Vitamin D and bone health is crucial and magnesium and potassium [00:09:00] and those kind of things. Anyways, that was an interesting study that came out.
Dr. Martin Sr.: It just tells you again that what we at the Martin Clinic have, we sort of, we did a little bit of an adjustment I don't know how many years ago where we went from taking a probiotic maybe twice yearly, certainly if you were taking antibiotics, we always agreed with that, but now the Martin Clinic believes and every little bit of research that ever comes out confirms exactly [00:09:30] our shift and the shift is take a probiotic every day, every day, every day. Make it one of your foundational, because again here's what we say, leaky gut, leaky brain. Leaky gut, leaky joints. Leaky gut, leaky skin.
I was reading a study even this week, again just seemed to be confirming that depression is an inflammatory disorder and at the Martin Clinic, inflammation, what do we say? [00:10:00] It doesn't come out of nowhere. It comes from leaky gut or it comes from high circulating insulin or it comes from free radical damage. We see it all the time and so here we are, here's the psychiatric profession saying, "You know what, there's a huge link between inflammation in the brain and what's going on in the gut to cause depression." Imagine that. Here we are, [00:10:30] right? Like it's, "Oh, you've come back to the gut." Getting a broad spectrum probiotic is something that all of our patients should be doing consistently [crosstalk 00:10:40].
Dr. Martin Jr.: I think it's important also as we go to the next study here, but I think it's important for people to realize one thing. Just because you're not having any digestive symptoms doesn't mean that you don't have a problem with your digestive system. Because people will say, "I got no digestive symptoms so my digestive system has to be healthy," but that's not necessarily [00:11:00] the case because for some people joint pain is a digestive symptom. For some people skin conditions, psoriasis, eczema, acne is a digestive symptom. Their digestive system is telling them there's a problem and skin, which is the largest organ, is being affected. It's one of those things that just because you may not be getting traditional pains or bloating or all these indigestion stuff does not mean that you necessarily have a healthy digestive [00:11:30] system and that's important to understand that. Sometimes it takes a little bit more convincing for somebody who has no digestive system symptoms to take a probiotic.
Dr. Martin Sr.: You never get enough good bacteria. Remember, it's always, I try and simplify this, at the end of the day it's always about what goes on in your body, in particular in your gut, between good and bad bacteria. It's just a matter of you having more good than bad. I don't [00:12:00] know if you can make it any simpler than that and having more good than bad calls, you win. You got a bigger army than your enemy and your enemy is candida, bad bacteria, we live in a world where every chemical in the universe wipes out good bacteria. Antibiotics wipe out good bacteria, stress wipes out good bacteria, a bad diet full of sugar wipes out good bacteria and makes the bad guys grow. [00:12:30] Again, I love probiotics so you know what? Get used to us, folks. [inaudible 00:12:35] talk about it.
Dr. Martin Jr.: Okay, let's go on to another study. This is one that came out again recently and it was interesting because this study found that 2,000 milligrams daily of omega three lower triglycerides and non HDL in patients with severe hypertriglyceridemia. They had really high triglycerides and what they found, because when you have really, [00:13:00] really high triglycerides, you're actually at a really high risk for pancreatitis as well.
What they found is that taking 2,000 milligrams a day of omega three significantly lowered the triglycerides. You and I talk a lot about triglycerides as a better indicator of cardiovascular disease than the generic cholesterol.
Dr. Martin Sr.: It's the boogeyman. Triglycerides is the boogeyman.
Dr. Martin Jr.: We've talked also not too long ago how studies have shown that triglycerides actually crosses the blood brain barrier.
Dr. Martin Sr.: [00:13:30] Dangerously.
Dr. Martin Jr.: It affects your hunger hormones, it can really mess you up that way as well. Triglycerides are really bad news when it comes to cardiovascular disease. This study here found that 2,000 milligrams a day, so it kind of addresses one of the issues that we talk about a lot of times when it comes to omega three because every once in a while a study will come out and it will say, "Oh, we didn't find anything with omega three." Then when you look at the study it's like, well they did 1,000 milligrams. Plus when you actually looked at the type of omega three they used, [00:14:00] if you looked at the EPA and DHA in that thousand milligrams, it was like less than 300 milligrams so really, they weren't getting much at all. It was just way too low of a dosage.
This one is 2,000 milligrams so it would actually be interesting to look at what would happen if they actually gave them more than that, because 2,000 milligrams in our opinion is low for a lot of things as well. If somebody was taking a really high quality DHA or omega three fatty acid, this study shows that it would lower their triglycerides. [00:14:30] We've talked in the past about why we love DHA. If you're not sure why we're talking about DHA, DHA is a type of omega three fatty acid. The two most popular ones are DHA and EPA. Now we like DHA because your brain-
Dr. Martin Sr.: Is made up of DHA.
Dr. Martin Jr.: Yeah, it's mostly made up of fat. Your brain is made up of fat and DHA is kind of the preferred source of fuel for your brain so we're big fans of DHA when it comes to, especially for the type of patients [00:15:00] that we see in our clinic and a lot of them are worried about brain health so we talk a lot about DHA.
DHA, we've talked a lot in the past, studies showing that DHA improves everything from memory to cognition, also decreases the risk of stuff like dementia or age related dementia, so many different awesome benefits for the brain with DHA. Here's just another thing to add to DHA, we know it's great for anti-inflammatory and studies have shown this, that if [00:15:30] your blood levels of omega three are lower than they should be, you're more likely to die from things.
We're big fans also of DHA and here's another study showing why you want to take it. Again, the number one issue that we have when it comes to supplementing with omega threes is most people are taking one that's just not good. It just doesn't have enough of anything it, and two, that they're not taking a proper dosage. A lot of people are confused on the dosage.
Dr. Martin Sr.: They'll take one, "Oh, I'm getting a thousand milligrams." I said, "Yeah, a thousand milligrams of [00:16:00] what," right? Like it's omega three and it's good for you, it's never bad, omega three's great, but what you're really looking for in an omega three is that, like I said, I like looking at very high levels of DHA, EPA, but DHA in particular. It just sets it apart because it becomes not only brain food but very, very, very anti-inflammatory, right?
Dr. Martin Jr.: Let's talk about a third study just to kind of wrap up this episode here. There was one done on [00:16:30] B12 and what they did is they compared, and this is a question that we get asked a lot too.
Dr. Martin Sr.: Very [inaudible 00:16:35].
Dr. Martin Jr.: They compared the effect of a oral B12, so a sublingual B12, and specifically methylcobalamin which is the form of B12 that we like and that we use in our clinic, and they compared that to the injectable B12s because a lot of people will get B12 shots. They did this specifically in gastric bypass patients because remember, in order to get the right amount of B12 you need intrinsic [00:17:00] factor in your stomach, so patients that have had a gastric bypass before typically are very, very, very low on B12 which is one of the big reasons why people wanted to follow up the people here when it comes to gastric bypass so their energy takes a dive just because they're so low in B12.
This study looked at, okay, let's compare oral B12 to the injectable B12. You and I have been saying for a long time and other studies have shown this as well but this is one [00:17:30] that was done in gastric bypass which made it even more interesting. What they found in this study is that the oral B12 was equal to the injectable B12 which is awesome because you don't have to get a shot and a lot of people don't like needles.
Dr. Martin Sr.: It's not convenient either.
Dr. Martin Jr.: No, it's not. You have to go to your doctor and it's just one of those things that's not convenient. This study found that in people that have had a bypass surgery that B12 had the same effect orally as injectable. That's [00:18:00] great. This has been done for other scenarios as well which is why we really like the sublingual B12 when it comes to getting that.
Dr. Martin Sr.: Remember too, B12, and again we talk about this a lot, is so essential. The vast majority of people that I see, so I shouldn't maybe generalize in the population, but they know that they-
Dr. Martin Jr.: The number one complaint of people coming to your office is fatigue and inability to lose weight, right?
Dr. Martin Sr.: Yeah.
Dr. Martin Jr.: With [00:18:30] that in mind, B12.
Dr. Martin Sr.: B12. Yeah, absolutely, but it elevates your homocysteine levels which is a marker in the blood that tells you that your B12 probably is low. B12 brings it down and homocysteine can, it makes you much more susceptible to a heart attack, heart disease and again, so B12 is essential for the production of red blood cells, it brings more oxygen to the brain. It's important [00:19:00] even in weight loss. B12 is important for any kind of neurological, any kind of neuralgia or people that suffer any kind of anything with the nerves. Think about it, and B12 is a stress vitamin so it's one of the vitamins that is essential in the regulating of cortisol. Anyway, B12 is essential.
I always tell my patients this and I don't guess, I test. I always tell people, [00:19:30] look, I'd found that B12 shots, yeah, there's nothing wrong with them but I like to top up B12 every day and I think I'm right because of the fact that studies are showing that it's every bit as good but I think it's superior because you're [inaudible 00:19:46] it every day. B12's a water soluble vitamin.
Dr. Martin Jr.: One of the things subjectively that people would say when they were getting the B12 shots is that they felt good for maybe the first 10 days and then their energy tapered off and then it kind of slowly decreased, then they got [00:20:00] a shot and they felt better and it kind of went like a yo yo, up and down. Whereas once you can get your blood levels up with a sublingual and you take it every day, it's just like you have that steady level which is one of the reasons why we really like sublingual B12. Again, it's important to point out that they studied methylcobalamin which most people don't use methylcobalamin, they use the cyanide version of B12 so we make sure that it's a methylcobalamin.
Now this brings up an interesting [00:20:30] question. We just recently did a live presentation online, we did a webinar, we had a whole bunch of people on there. One of the things that we like to do after is we stick around usually for about 45 minutes to an hour after and just answer a ton of questions.
Dr. Martin Sr.: Answer any questions.
Dr. Martin Jr.: We always get a lot of questions, a lot of good questions and we enjoy doing that. Now one of the questions that we got this week, and I'm going to write a newsletter about it coming up but this would be a good opportunity because it's about B12 and we've heard this from a few different people as well. This is what the question was, it's like, "Hey, I'm eating [00:21:00] red meat and my B12 levels are still low, why is that?"
We kind of answered that on the webinar but lets just answer that question now. We kind of broke it down to really two primary reasons in a sense. One, it's something that, there's a saying that basically is you are what you eat and that's kind of a part truth because you really are what you absorb. You could be eating enough B12 but if you have any digestive issue whatsoever, any kind of issue, you can imagine you're not [00:21:30] going to get the B12 at all. Underlying digestive issue can definitely make that-
Dr. Martin Sr.: Any medication, any medication.
Dr. Martin Jr.: That's the second one, was medications. A lot of medications, just want you to list a few because you-
Dr. Martin Sr.: Well, like Metformin is classic and that's the diabetic medication of choice. Almost every diabetic is on Metformin or at least they start off on Metformin. They even start off on Metformin if you have PCOS [polycystic 00:21:54]Â ovary syndrome because they know it's effective in lowering insulin, but at the end of the day [00:22:00] if you're taking, this is my, you know what? I love the fact that we have a clinic because I don't have to rely on research. Research gives me clues, it gives me indications but patients give you reality. You know what, I just find that almost every medication from high blood pressure to diuretics to certainly antacids, we know that, I mean that just makes sense, but any kind of medication it seems to me knocks the B12 [00:22:30] out of your body.
You're better off at that stage to take B12 as a supplement because, you know what, it's water soluble so it's not like you're going to croak because you're taking too much B12. You're better off to have high levels of B12 than have low levels of B12.
Dr. Martin Jr.: That number, and we talked about this also on the webinar, when you go get your blood tested and they give you a number of what your B12 is at, that number, we hate that. Because somebody at that number can feel completely different than another [00:23:00] person at that number. It all has to do with whether or not your cells can actually do something with it and some people's cells are so resistant or they're not sensitive enough that they need a lot more B12 in their blood to get the same effect.
That's why the number one question really when it comes to any kind of health care is how do you feel? "I feel better when my B12 levels are higher." Okay, that's good. That doesn't, so a lot of time they get [00:23:30] fixated on a number or a doctor gets fixated on a number and it's like they don't even ask the patient, "How do you feel?"
Going back to that red meat question, not getting enough B12, there's a third aspect. One would be not absorbing it or a digestive issue, right? You got a digestive issue. Two is medication and the third one really I guess would be they need digestive enzymes. Sometimes that could be enough to fix the problem as well. Just as we age, one of the theories of aging is we lose digestive enzymes and the [00:24:00] ability to absorb stuff, so that happens as we age.
When it comes to B12, no matter what, you're a massive fan of it, I hear you talking about B12 quite a bit and a lot of people that come into our clinic are very low because they've got bad energy, they've got no energy and B12 kind of fits into that equation there.
I'll just mention this last study real quick in passing because we're out of time, but I've said this before, you and I, whenever I come across a coffee study it gets [00:24:30] my attention.
Dr. Martin Sr.: Put a check mark beside it.
Dr. Martin Jr.: If it's a bad coffee study, I just discard it.
Dr. Martin Sr.: We would discard it.
Dr. Martin Jr.: I don't even listen to it, but in reality there are a lot more positive, no question now, they're starting to find out that coffee's actually very good for you. Decreases all cause mortality and great for even your diabetes and stuff like that, right?
Dr. Martin Sr.: Anti cancer.
Dr. Martin Jr.: Anti cancer. Another one came out that they found that the caffeine concentrations equivalent to four cups of coffee which is generally what we, [00:25:00] people always ask us how much coffee can you drink or do you drink and research shows around four cups of coffee is awesome for you. It doesn't mean that more is bad for you or less isn't good for you, it's just that a lot of studies are right around that four cups of coffee and this one, the same thing. Around that four cup of coffee mark, they found, and this is interesting, it actually improved the mitochondria function of cardiovascular cells.
Dr. Martin Sr.: Woo hoo!
Dr. Martin Jr.: They're finding that it's very, very good for your cardiovascular system, specifically at the mitochondria [00:25:30] level which again is the battery pack of your cells, it's where you're healthy. If your mitochondria aren't healthy, you're not healthy.
Dr. Martin Sr.: You're exhausted.
Dr. Martin Jr.: You're exhausted. You and I look at cancer as a disease of the mitochondria, it's a metabolic disorder, so there's a lot to be said about the health of your mitochondria and the coffee seems to help that. Again, here's another positive win for coffee, so if you haven't had a cup of coffee yet or if you're listening to this over a cup of coffee, [00:26:00] enjoy that coffee, and now I'm thinking about a cup of coffee.
Dr. Martin Sr.: Yeah, so am I and I always tell my patients, I say, "Look, if somebody asks me to give up coffee, sorry, I'm not doing it."
Dr. Martin Jr.: Yeah, if a diet required me to give up a cup of coffee, that'd be very, very difficult. I would have to definitely count the cost.
Dr. Martin Sr.: See, that's what's nice. With our diet, and we talk about intermittent fasting, I like it because I can have my coffee in the morning.
Dr. Martin Jr.: Yeah, if you're eating low carb, coffee's no problem. Even heavy cream in a coffee if you're low carb is awesome. Fasting, a cup of coffee [00:26:30] can get you through a fast if you're fasting.
Dr. Martin Sr.: Because it helps regulate your blood sugar, you see.
Dr. Martin Jr.: Yeah.
Dr. Martin Sr.: People don't realize that.
Dr. Martin Jr.: It's very good for you. Anyways, I just thought I'd share that study that I came across that was just actually recently published again showing that, actually this was published on the first day of summer this year, two 18. Cup of coffee, about four cups, very good for you.
Again, we want to thank you for joining us today. If you have any questions at all, you can email us at info@martinclinic.com. Every Thursday morning we do a Facebook Live where a lot of people [00:27:00] jump on there asking a ton of questions, so that's another great way to interact with us. Also if you're not a newsletter subscriber, go to our web site, martinclinic.com, and sign up for our newsletters.
Let me just say one more thing, we have a new home page coming out in the next little bit that's going to have, we're really excited about, it's going to have a ton of training videos on a lot of topics that people ask us about so it's going to be a very good place to go and learn about things like fatigue and how to fix your fatigue, how to fix your hormones, how to protect [00:27:30] your brain. It's going to be, we're very excited about that. It's coming out in the next little bit. Again, thank you for listening and have a great day.