Transcript Of Today's Episode
Dr. Martin, Jr.: You're listening to The Doctor Is In Podcast from martinclinic.com. Although we share a lot of practical and, in our opinion, awesome information, what you hear on this podcast is not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease. It's strictly for informational purposes, so enjoy.
Hello, I'm Dr. Martin, Jr.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: I'm Dr. Martin, Sr.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: And this is The Doctor Is In Podcast. [00:00:30] Today we want to talk about eight signs or symptoms associated with low vitamin D levels.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: Now we're recording this episode in November. It's going to air a little bit towards the end of November. And we're entering into the flu season. And there's always a lot of debate about the flu shot, whether you should or you shouldn't get the flu shot. And that's not the purpose of this episode specifically. We want to talk about vitamin D.
We're [00:01:00] huge fans of vitamin D, we love vitamin D for the immune system. We've said this many times and many people have said this, but it's no coincidence that this is the time of year when flu comes around. It's because people are no longer getting the levels of vitamin D that they should be getting.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: It weakens your immune system and just sets you up perfectly for the flu.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah. Just some things that I say to patients or whatever, that if I could get into senior [00:01:30] homes and take two vitamins with me, one of them would be vitamin D. That's for sure because the vast majority of people, if you take their serum vitamin D levels, the vast majority of North Americans and even Floridians, are low in terms of their D Hydroxy-25, which is their vitamin D levels in their blood.
And you need optimal levels because doctors always think of vitamin [00:02:00] D in terms of bone. Right, it's bone health. So that's why they're not, they're reticent to say, "Take extra vitamin D," unless they've taken a blood test and they see that your blood levels of vitamin D, serum D. But boy, I'll tell you. If a doctor tells you that your vitamin D levels are low in your blood, you are extremely low.
Like I said, getting back to the senior thing. One of the vitamins I take [00:02:30] with me because their immune system in the senior, I feel sorry for people as they don't get enough vitamin D. Certainly don't get enough sunshine, and good luck with getting sunshine in Northern Ontario.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: Well, this is one of the things we like to say about vitamin D. When you are low in vitamin D, it is direct ... And research has shown this.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dr. Martin, Jr.: There is a direct link between vitamin D deficiency and all-cause mortality in cancer prognosis.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: [00:03:00] Yeah.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: That's a fact.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: Whether or not your doctor believes in vitamin D like it's a Tooth Fairy. Or, it's Santa Claus, it doesn't matter. Research has shown that somebody who is lower in vitamin D, their chance of all-cause mortality increases. Meaning, die from something.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: Right. I mean, all-cause mortality is exactly that. It doesn't matter what you get, it kills you. That goes up and your cancer prognosis decreases.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: [00:03:30] Yeah.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: So, I mean, that's how important vitamin D.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: It's an easy thing to get checked, and yet it's vital for living.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: And, of course, the other one we like to mention, and we're not going to talk about it today is Omega-3 status. Very similar, you want a very good Omega-3 status. But so when it comes to vitamin D, vitamin D is absolutely crucial. And we're going to talk about eight things here quickly that are associated with somebody who has low-
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah, signs of it.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: Low vitamin D levels. [00:04:00] So let's talk about the idea of sore muscles and sore bones, joints.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah. Yeah, and this is very common, that people are sore. Some have even said that fibromyalgia, for example, which is just flareups of pain and very uncomfortable chronic pain. Now I'm not talking about pain that came, you got in a car accident, you crushed your spine, or whatever, and you got chronic pain. I'm [00:04:30] not talking about that. But people that just generally feel sore, they're generally one of the major causes of that, is low levels of vitamin D. And they're not taking enough vitamin D.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: No, vitamin D deficiency causes muscle weakness, muscle aches, and pains in both children and adults, right.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dr. Martin, Jr.: A lot of times, people talk about children and growing pains-
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah, growing pains.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: And a lot of times, that's just the kid. And if you look at their diet, and you look at the lack of sunlight, and all that kind of stuff, it just screams [00:05:00] vitamin D deficiency. And what's interesting is, that when they went and did a little bit more research, they found that the muscle pain at multiple locations. However, there's a strong association between vitamin D deficiency and pain reported to occur in the leg muscles. So leg muscle pain, highly indicative of vitamin D-
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah, calf pain.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: Calf pain and all those kind of things are strongly associated with vitamin D deficiency. And because there's a direct effect of vitamin D on muscle [00:05:30] cells. And muscle cells, in order to be healthy, need vitamin D. So it only makes sense that somebody that has pain, chronic pain, pain in the legs, weakness, there's a very good chance that they are low in vitamin D. And, if we talk about men quickly.
One of the muscle weakness in men, we talk about low testosterone a lot of times. But you need vitamin D. One of the precursors or one of the things necessary for testosterone levels is vitamin D. [00:06:00] So it's kind of a double whammy for me. Vitamin D has a direct effect on the muscle cells, but it also affects our testosterone, which also affects muscle weakness, and those kind of things.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: You can't have good levels of testosterone.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: It's impossible. It's impossible to have good levels of testosterone. And because so many people and so many men are low in vitamin D, it's also a fairly large reason why a lot of men are also low on testosterone. But we had a podcast a few weeks ago that you can go listen to, where we talk more about testosterone. But that's how important vitamin D is. So a [00:06:30] sign or a symptom is muscle pain, weakness, aches, that there's a good chance that you're low in vitamin D.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: And I just say this, too. That I find and I don't know if there's ever been a study to confirm this. But I just noticed this is observational, Dr. Martin observational stuff, is that you know what I find a lot, is imbalance. People, and again, does that come back to the muscle weakness? Probably, right. But again, if you link a vitamin and most of the people [00:07:00] that have imbalance, and they're not steady on their feet, which is so common for problems with seniors.
Again, it's just such a big issue, is the relationship of low levels of vitamin D to even imbalance. So it's something to really look at, right. And vertigo, but more of just they're spacey in a sense, and they're not steady on the feet. A lot of people are not, and especially [00:07:30] as they get older, too. That can be a major symptom and a big problem, right.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: All right. So the first one was muscle pain, weakness, aches. The second one is, obviously, a poor immune system.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: There are really a couple of big reasons why some people get sick more often. One of them is elevated cortisol levels.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: When somebody has high levels of cortisol, adrenal weakness, or fatigue, they get sick way more often.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: But another big reason, obviously, and it leads into the whole [00:08:00] flu season, is low vitamin D-3 levels. So many studies showing the effect that vitamin D has on the immune system, has on lung health, respiratory infections, and everything. It is one of the single most important things a person can take or do this time of year to help strengthen their immune system for that.
So very, very, again, strong symptom is somebody who has a weak immune system or the inability. Because you could put a person with the flu in a room with 10 people, [00:08:30] and not every person in that room is going to get the flu.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: No. Absolutely not.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: It doesn't work that way.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: And it's not that they don't come into contact with it. They all come into contact with it-
Dr. Martin, Sr.: It's the host, right.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: It's the host. Is your body ready to fight it off? Or, is it letting it get in and do its thing? Right.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: Your immune system is the difference between everybody in that room. And the immune system is also, it fluctuates, right, based on what you're [00:09:00] eating, based on the amount of sleep you're getting, based on vitamin D status. There's sunlight, all that kind of stuff. So, but at the end of the day, a weak immune system is a strong indicator, again, of low vitamin D. So that's the second one.
Here's another one that a lot of people do not associate with vitamin D status, and that's high blood pressure. Vitamin D has been, again, linked to heart disease and a higher risk of high blood pressure. And people just do not associate, because magnesium is strongly associated with high blood pressure.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: [00:09:30] But, again, vitamin D. It can cause high blood pressure for people. So, again.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: And that's cardio, that's big time. You are at a much higher risk for stroke and heart attack, with high blood pressure, right. So imagine, vitamin D. There you go. Magnesium.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: Yeah, and vitamin D. So that's the third one. So high blood pressure. Another one, obviously, has to do with, not only seasonal depression, but depression, in general. And then we can even extend that to memory [00:10:00] issues, because we like to talk about a study that showed that low vitamin D is associated with a real high, high risk of developing dementia. And that's a major issue.
If you want to protect your brain, and we talk a lot about protecting your brain. Listen, if you're worried about your brain, we got a great training video on our website, where you can go and watch, where we talk about brain health. And we have a whole bunch of videos, as well, for different conditions. But at the end of the day, seasonal depression, [00:10:30] vitamin D is crucial when it comes to that.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: And brain health, in general. And anxiety. It's so good for your brain, all around. But if somebody has seasonal depression, I mean, that's screaming vitamin D status. Just absolutely screaming vitamin D status. So that's the fourth one.
The fifth one, as well, would be gut trouble. Any kind of digestive disorder. I mean, makes sense, right. I mean, you have to, you rely on a healthy gut to get-
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Vitamin D.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: [00:11:00] Absolutely. Right. So it only makes sense that it kind of compounds itself. It becomes more of a problem from there. But, yeah. The health of your gut needs vitamin D.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah. Probiotics.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: Probiotics.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: To absorb vitamin D, right. You don't have enough. You take an antibiotic, we talked about that. Certain things that change the microflora, bad diet, full of sugar, feeding yeast. Well, now you're not going to absorb vitamin D the way you should, right. So, yeah. It's very, very important to [00:11:30] have a healthy gut and to absorb vitamin D.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: And here's another one that we, because you and I were talking before the podcast, and we were just writing down some of the top symptoms. Another one that we didn't mention before the episode that we'll mention now, so it's really the ninth one, is hair loss because it's amazing the effect.
Vitamin D stimulates hair follicles. So it only makes sense that a deficiency in that can cause some real issues with hair loss. So that's just another one that I [00:12:00] wanted to add because we got a list that we wrote up, and it's not on there, but I just started thinking about that. So we'll add that in.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: So that's the sixth one, excessive sweating.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah, excessive sweating is often a sign of low levels of serum vitamin D. It's amazing, that in babies, oftentimes they sweat. They really even get even a cradle cap, isn't that what they call that? Where they get that, and oftentimes, those kids are, those little ones are low in vitamin D. So [00:12:30] there's a major connection based between the sweat and vitamin D.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: Yeah, so it's interesting. So that's another symptom there. And then we talked about brain health, as well, right. Dementia, we talked about those things. Another thing that is interesting is the affect or how it can trigger a metabolic disorder, such as diabetes, Type 2 Diabetes.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah, yeah.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: So, I mean, just again. It goes to show you. And every cell in your body essentially has a vitamin D receptor.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah, [00:13:00] a little antenna, I tell people.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: Yeah, it can influence every cell in your body. So it makes sense that you can get symptoms literally all over your body when you have a deficiency of vitamin D. But at the end of the day, if you're listening and you're like, "You know what? That sounds like I have a few of those things," there's a good chance that your levels are not optimized, and you and I talk about this all the time. It doesn't matter. People ask us about testosterone levels. They ask us about thyroid levels. They ask us about all these things. And we always come back with the same [00:13:30] thing.
People say, "Well, what should my levels be?" Well, here's the thing. You can have two people at the exact same level. One will feel fantastic and the other one won't. Some people need higher levels to be optimized to feel better. So they just need higher levels. So, again, the number one question always is, "How do you feel? How do you feel?" And that is a good guide for a lot of things. But when it comes to vitamin D, we just don't associate some of the symptoms we have with low vitamin D. So it's hard to know how we feel and how to relate that to vitamin [00:14:00] D.
So, again, at the end of the day, vitamin D is crucial for all-cause mortality, and it's so easy to get your levels optimized. It's so easy to take. It's so easy to do, that it's just a real shame if it's chronically low in people. It doesn't need to be. But we talked about this in the past, people are terrified of the sun. In the summer, a majority of people are low in vitamin D in the summer because they just do not go out in the sun. A lot of medications make people [00:14:30] sensitive to the sun. It affects their vitamin D status. So a lot of the medications people are taking, also affect their vitamin D status.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: And a lot of people use sunscreen.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: Yeah.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: And they block out the good UVB rays that you need to absorb vitamin D on your skin. And they're more worried about skin cancer than they are worried about ... I always tell people, "That for every person that ever died of melanoma," which is a deadly skin cancer. Nobody wants that. And [00:15:00] we're not telling you to go in the sun and bun like a lobster.
Never tell people to do that. Be careful. You don't want to overexpose to the sun. But the facts are, people that get melanoma are people that work indoors. I mean, it's a known fact. You'll never hear it because there's an agenda out there. There always is. And in the agenda with skin cancer, the boogeyman is the sun.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: And the remedy is the chemicals that you put on your skin, right.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah, yeah. And [00:15:30] you know, you've always said that. I kind of laugh about what happens in chemistry classes when you add the Bunsen burner to it. You add heat to-
Dr. Martin, Jr.: Yeah, you need every chemical reaction.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Unknown substances.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: It needs energy, right.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Exactly.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: I mean, you can't have a chemical reaction take place without energy. Energy has to be introduced to it. And sun is an energy. And the sunscreen is the chemical and there's a chemical reaction that takes place.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah, and even for our environmental friends, [00:16:00] they can't get rid of that sunscreen in the oceans.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: No, and that's another whole discussion.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: We don't want to talk about that.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: But, you're right. I mean, it's a ... Plus, we talked about this in a newsletter over the summer. A study showing the effect that the interaction of the sun-
Dr. Martin, Sr.: And chlorine.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: Chlorine, and sunblock has. And it creates nasty, nasty chemical. It just ... It's not good.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: It's the trifecta.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: Yeah, if you're swimming in a pool, you now have chlorine, which is a chemical. You have the chemicals [00:16:30] inside the sunblock you're using. And you throw in sun and it creates a nasty side effect, right.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah, yeah.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: It creates a nasty side effect. For a lot of reasons, people are low in vitamin D, and more so this time of year.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: Because you need your arms exposed, you need your legs exposed to get that vitamin D, and this time of year, it's funny. I wear shots in the house year-round. Year-round. And my neighbours think I'm crazy because it could be 30 below, and I'm bringing the garbage to the curb. I got shorts on, but I ain't getting vitamin D [00:17:00] at that time, because I'm not staying out there too long.
But it is, that's the reality of it. This time of year, and you don't get it from opening your window and having the sun come through the window. You need, it has to be direct exposure, it can't be through the car window. It may feel nice, that warmth. Sit in front of a window in the summer with the sun coming through, that warmth feels good. But you're not getting your-
Dr. Martin, Sr.: That's not vitamin D.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: You're not getting your-
Dr. Martin, Sr.: That's just feeling good.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: That's right. You're not getting it. So, again, if you're concerned about the flu, you want to definitely pay attention to your [00:17:30] vitamin D levels. But also, all-cause mortality, vitamin D is a year-round issue for people.
And if this is the time of year, you have to really pay attention to vitamin D level, as well. So, again, a lot of information. Those are some signs that you may be low in vitamin D. As a rule of thumb, most people are. Most people are.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Yeah.
Dr. Martin, Jr.: It's pretty safe to assume that most people are pretty low. So you want to take care of that. Again, we want to thank you for listening and have a great day.
Dr. Martin, Sr.: Thanks for listening to the Doctor Is In Podcast [00:18:00] from martinclinic.com. If you have any questions, you can reach us at info@martinclinic.com. If you're not a newsletter subscriber, you can head to our website and sign up for free. We also have a private Facebook group that you can join. It's a community of awesome people. Finally, I do a Facebook Live every Thursday morning at 8:30. Join us again next week for a new episode.