Transcript Of Today's Episode
Dr. Martin Jr: You're listening to The Doctor's 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.
Dr. Martin Sr.: Welcome to another podcast. Dr. Martin, Sr. here, flying [00:00:30] solo once again. Happy to do it by the way, really enjoy doing these rants, these podcasts. There was a story out this week on the prevalence of mental health issues in our society today. Very, very common, when we think of... And there's a massive increase. This study was suggesting that it's gone up 50% in the last few years, and that is the diagnosis of [00:01:00] any type of mental health disorder, but especially the ones that I'm going to mention, bipolar, depression, anxiety, even schizophrenia, much more common today than ever before.
Dr. Martin Sr.: And I definitely agree, and I want to... On this podcast, I would like to stretch your mind a little bit, get you thinking about what are the... Not only [00:01:30] are the implications of what we're talking about, think of how disabling for the individual and yet even for society that these mental health issues are. Like how costly it is in terms of how it affects a person, what it costs to treat a person with bipolar, and just obviously depression, anxiety, schizophrenia. I mean, just the fact that they would have to, obviously, would be [00:02:00] intervened at a hospital setting, in emergency rooms, medications, loss of quality of life and even employment. What that costs to society.
Dr. Martin Sr.: So these are very, very important disorders. When we talk about mental health it can be very disabling again. Not only for the individual but it certainly as if it's going up in the way that it is, and that these statistics are [00:02:30] really true. And I agree with them by the way, 100%, as a matter of fact I see it so much more today in my practice than I used to. Been in practice for 45 years and since the 1970s, this has become an epidemic. Bipolar, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia. Other cognitive issues are well established that these are almost a new phenomenons, when you look at for example [00:03:00] if you look at autism, for example. But I want to stretch your mind a little bit today. I want to you to think about this because I want to come at it from a little different angle. In two ways that this has become more prevalent. I believe that there's two major factors here and I want to touch upon them.
Dr. Martin Sr.: And that is one, our childhood. And why do we see so much bipolar as [00:03:30] people get older. Why do we see so much more depression. Why do we see so much more anxiety. Why do we see even much more diagnosis of schizophrenia. Why do we see that? Okay. I believe there's two major factors and that's what I want to talk to you about today. One of them has to do with the childhood. That is, for example, I am the type that... [00:04:00] And I think if you've listened to any of our podcasts, Tony Jr. and I, we love to reverse engineer. Meaning that, if you come in with a condition... I had a lady and I believe it was yesterday, that came into my office that had MS. I said, well that's MS, is an autoimmune disease, let's go back. And we would go backwards and we looked at her childhood. We looked at even her birth. We looked at all these factors because I [00:04:30] believe that there's always a story behind every disorder. And when you talk about mental health, I really want to talk about two things that happen.
Dr. Martin Sr.: Two major things that I believe are at the root cause of these disorders. Now let me elaborate on that. Number one is medications when you're young. Medications when you're young. Look, antibiotics [00:05:00] are the greatest discovery of the 20th century. I'll tell you if you have an infection, you need an antibiotic. Okay, come on. If anyone tells you they are completely anti-medication, then they really don't know what they're talking about because even for people that, let's say you were in a car accident, and you needed pain medication. Well you need antibiotics and pain medication. Come on. [00:05:30] These are the wonderful benefits of modern medicine. This is where big pharma has really done well. Come on. I mean at the introduction of antibiotics in the 20th century was the greatest discovery in medicine in my opinion. I mean you know them and steroids. Saved millions of people's lives. Especially antibiotics. I mean millions and millions of people [00:06:00] have their lives saved in modern medicine, emergency medicine, which I believe is the best medicine.
Dr. Martin Sr.: And that is antibiotics. Now the problem is, is what happens when you take an antibiotic. Right? Especially in kids who are on repeated antibiotic therapy. Doctors have gone overboard because when you get an ear infection for example, 99% of the time it's viral. It's not bacterial. [00:06:30] But mommy is crying because baby is crying. Right? Look, you can understand it. I understand that. Baby's screaming their head off, they got an ear infection. It's viral. It's not even bacterial but doctor often times prescribes antibiotics. But I just want to tell you what I see in my office because when I do reverse engineer, I want you to understand that when I see for example, bipolar. [00:07:00] I can almost invariably bring that patient back to their childhood and almost invariably they were on antibiotic treatment and more than once. Several times as children, antibiotic treatment.
Dr. Martin Sr.: Well what does that do? The problem with antibiotics is that they kill all your good bacteria. They kill good, bad and ugly bacteria. [00:07:30] It's wonderful that it gets rid of the infection. The problem is is that you are also causing what we call a dysbiosis, a disruption of the microflora, especially in the gut. And you start... You know when you hammer one army, your good army. The bad guys are diminished too but the good army is not there to balance everything out. It's like an eco forest, you take one thing out and you change [00:08:00] the whole complexity of the gut. The major thing that happens, and we call it leaky gut, is that you have a proliferation of yeast. Candida. Fungus. And that fungus gets into your bloodstream. It never belongs in the bloodstream. You can have a little bit in your gut, who cares if it's in your gut. You can have yeast in your gut and so yeast in your gut doesn't [00:08:30] kill you but yeast in your gut, when it gets into the bloodstream can travel up to the brain.
Dr. Martin Sr.: It's well established and years later, years later someone that was completely normal maybe at one time. Had no symptoms of bipolar, had no symptoms of depression. Had no symptoms of anxiety. And even on [00:09:00] the extremer cases, those of schizophrenia, you see that there's a commonality and that is that they were on antibiotics as kids. Maybe they took antibiotics when they were teenagers. And they took an antibiotic for acne, for example, which is given out by medicine. Modern medicine loves to give antibiotics. You know you have a... Acne [00:09:30] is a bacterial infection in the skin. Well, no. Really that's secondary. What's on the skin really is usually hormonal, if you can knock their estrogen down. Because it elevates their testosterone. In women acne, your teenager acne. And listen, who wants to have acne? But often times they are put on a very, very powerful antibiotic and the problem is is what happens down [00:10:00] the road when you disrupt your... Remember you have more feel good hormones like serotonin and dopamine in your gut than you have in your brain.
Dr. Martin Sr.: When someone gets depression, I'm not saying it's the only reason, we'll talk about a few others in a few minutes but one of the common factors is [00:10:30] antibiotics. So the greatest discovery of the 20th century has become and could become the curse of the 21st century. I believe for example and that's me, I believe I can back up what I'm saying but I just want to throw it out there that one of the, I believe that the number one cause of autism is not vaccinations. I believe it's [00:11:00] not vaccinations. I mean vaccinations might be a part of it but I don't believe it's vaccines. I really don't. I believe that these are canary in the coal mines and I think I can prove my case by telling you that autism is leaky gut. Leaky gut, leaky brain, these kids happen to be canaries in the coal mine. Isn't it interesting that you are, I think [00:11:30] 75% more susceptible to autism. A child is 75% susceptible to autism when mommy has a C-section rather than a natural birth delivery.
Dr. Martin Sr.: I believe again, that's part of leaky gut because when you don't get the bacteria of mommy, you don't get the feces of mommy when you go down that canal. You get the microbiome and [00:12:00] the bacteria coming down the mucus canal through the birth canal for babies. They miss out on that immunity, I believe that's one of the major factors in autism. But when we're talking about mental health I want to go back to the idea of antibiotics. Antibiotics cause leaky gut and when leaky gut you get a yeast infection, and overgrowth of candida. I believe that that can have a major [00:12:30] effect on depression, bipolar, anxiety, and the likes of others like schizophrenia. So we see leaky gut. We talk about it all the time. It's very important but the use of antibiotics.
Dr. Martin Sr.: Now the other thing that I believe is another factor and again, when you look at the birth control pill, okay. So let's go back to birth [00:13:00] control and here's a man talking about birth control. What do men know. Well we don't know very much, it's true. My wife says that if you ever had a period you would've gone and shot yourself. Well I agree with that too. Because men are big babies. We agree a million percent. That we're just huge, big babies. But when you're taking... Ladies, young ladies. When you go on the birth control [00:13:30] pill. Now, some women go on birth control because their periods are so bad. And that is always because they're estrogen-dominant, they have too much estrogen. And isn't it funny that medicine uses estrogen in the birth control pill to help to regulate the periods, when the problem is estrogen.
Dr. Martin Sr.: Isn't it funny that they actually use estrogen to [00:14:00] help control the menses but I always tell my patients, I said, "Look, birth control is like you're going down the highway, you hear a knock in the engine and you turn up the radio," because it's not really fixing the problem it's just masking the problem. And birth control, the problem with birth control, okay, when you take the birth control pill, it depletes your B vitamins especially B12. [00:14:30] So now, okay. So not only antibiotics can be a big issue, but the birth control pill can be a big issue in the onset. It takes years, it doesn't happen overnight. But the onset of bipolar. The onset of depression. The onset of anxiety. Perhaps the onset of even schizophrenia. So here these young ladies, [00:15:00] they go on the birth control pill because maybe they're using it for birth control pill. I know mothers that have put their daughters on birth control pill when they're 13, 14.
Dr. Martin Sr.: I don't want to get into the moral question of that. I'm not going to do that. My job is to talk to you about what I see in the office and clinically. And look, there's side effects. Don't think for one second that there are no side effects to taking the birth [00:15:30] control pill. They're well established and it's not candy. So I think that a lot of times doctors never warn their patients. You know what, I got a little bone to pick. I really do because I believe that pharmacists, they got a huge degree, they're very smart people. Pharmacists. But you know what? I don't know, I haven't had patients tell me too much. When they go pick up their medication. [00:16:00] They get their prescription of birth control pill and the pharmacist should be reading the riot act to them. And they don't do it anymore as far as I'm concerned. I know they're a lot of good pharmacists out there and I don't want to minimize their work. I believe that pharmacists are very important part of the medical team.
Dr. Martin Sr.: The problem is is that they should be... You can have a warning on the box but they should be taking every patient aside [00:16:30] and saying, "Look. You understand that birth control is, there can be some major problems with birth control. It's not candy. And they will deplete your B vitamins. And B vitamins are essential again, in your mental health." I don't know if you've ever heard of a orthomolecular therapy. There used to be a guy that, he was a psychiatrist doctor, [00:17:00] Abram Hoffer, I believe his name was. I took several courses from him and very, very good orthomolecular psychiatrist who really believed that almost every form of depression and bipolar, he did a lot of work with the schizophrenia. He believed that these were nutritional deficiencies. He was very, very, very big on B vitamins. I'm very [00:17:30] big on B12. You know that your brain shrinks with a lack of B12. If you're on the birth control pill you are low in Vitamin B12. It just strips it away out of your body. You need to replace that.
Dr. Martin Sr.: You're never told that so you don't know that. And B12 is an essential vitamin for your hormones. It's essential for every nerve in your body. B12 [00:18:00] is important for your complete neurological system, including those little synapses, those little, your neurotransmitters in your brain. I believe that this can be a major effect because when I reverse engineer, I have a questionnaire. People that come into my office, I make they fill out a very extensive questionnaire because I'm a history guy. I not only liked history, World history, I love World history. I read [00:18:30] the Bible every day. You want to read history. I love reading history. I really do but I'm also, medically, I'm very interested in your history. I want to know what your childhood was like. I want to know what medications you were on when you were a kid. These things are essential so I look at, for example, antibiotics, like I said, greatest discovery of the 20th century. Has become the curse of the 21st.
Dr. Martin Sr.: [00:19:00] Because off leaky gut and leaky gut, leaky brain, leaky gut, leaky joints, leaky gut, leaky skin. Leaky gut. Major, major issues and so I'm very big on that. I want to reverse engineer I believe that every autoimmune disease that I've ever seen comes from leaky gut. Do you think it's important? That antibiotics, that when you take these as children you better replace the good [00:19:30] bacteria. Now we know. I've been preaching it for well over 40 years. You got to replace that bacteria. The ones you're killing. Those are on your side. You got to replace that. It's very, very, very important. One of the things too, okay, so what happens when you're taking prescription meds, birth control, antibiotic and now a third I want to tell you, any pain medication. Any pain. Maybe because... [00:20:00] Ladies, you had bad periods, you were maybe taking a birth control pill but also you were taking lots of Tylenol and Advil.
Dr. Martin Sr.: Guys what we know about this is it kills your microflora. It's not as bad as an antibiotic but it does strip away changes. One of the things that it depletes, okay, and one of the things it depletes is [00:20:30] the mineral magnesium. Now listen we don't even get enough magnesium in our soil to start off with. But any kind of those pain medications, anti-inflammatories, steroidal, non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory medications like Advil and Motrin and all these others. Even aspirin. They strip away of your bacteria and they strip away [00:21:00] your magnesium. So not only are you deficient in Vitamin B12 but you're often deficient now in magnesium and your brain will not work properly. When they do studies on bipolar. They do studies on depression. On schizophrenia. When they do studies on anxiety. What do they see? They see big, big problems, [00:21:30] deficiency in magnesium. So you see, childhood medications. Childhood medications can lead to disaster. Down the road in terms of your mental health.
Dr. Martin Sr.: Why do we preach probiotics, probiotics, probiotics. Broad spectrum probiotics. Everybody [00:22:00] and your dog. Listen to what I'm saying. Everybody and your dog needs to be on probiotics and you need to be on soil-based, broad spectrum probiotics. This is why at the Martin Clinic, we do our own probiotics. It's our blend because they're every different. Bacterial strain has a job to do. They repopulate. [00:22:30] They're anti-inflammatory. They are anti-fungal. Some of them are very anti-viral. Some of them help to pick up your Vitamin D. I could go in today about the lack of Vitamin D, that's a big factor in mental health. I won't do it. For the sake of time today but I want to talk like I said, I want to emphasize the medications. And some of these medications we talked about are over the counter. Can [00:23:00] lead to major disorders when it comes to mental health later on. Okay guys. Thanks for listening. You've been great. If you have any suggestions for future podcasts, please just email us at info@martinclinic.com. Once again, thanks for listening.
Dr. Martin Sr.: Thanks for listening to the Doctor's In podcast from MartinClinic.com. [00:23:30] 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.