1614. Q&A with Dr. Martin

Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners in today's episode.

 

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. Once again, welcome to another live this morning and hope you're having a wonderful start to your day. We sure appreciate you guys coming on with us and we're always happy to have you on. Okay, thank you for making The Doctor is in podcast on your favorite device. Thank you for making it so popular. It is the number one health podcast in Canada, and let's make it number one in the US to my American friends. Okay? So all you got to do is tell folks about it and it's nice because you can re-listen to these podcasts and give us a five star rating, okay? Show us love. We appreciate that. I know you do. But anyway, when you do that, it helps with algorithms. Facebook, if you put a like here, Facebook likes it and shares it on a podcast, the podcast like Spotify or whatever, they love that and they love the five star ratings because they share the podcast with other people.

So that's how, I don't know anything about anything. You guys know that when it comes to social media, but I know that that's it. So we love you guys. Thanks for coming on. Guess what it is? It's q and A Friday. Why don't we just get right at it as folks are still coming on, let's get right to the questions. And John is asking, what should he take for hyperthyroid? Okay, John, good question because I saw a lot more hypothyroid than I saw hyperthyroid a lot more, but I did see a fair amount of over the years hyperthyroid. And John wants to know how to get his TSH down. Well, look again, let me just give you a little bit of thyroid 1 0 1. The thyroid is complicated. Why? It has many strings attached to it. It's like a puppet. And we've been saying that at the Martin Clinic for a long time.

I used to tell my patients, you got thyroid problems, you got other problems. It's not isolated. It's not just your thyroid because your thyroid, you know how that song used to be the bone connection, your thigh bone was connected to your right? Remember that song? Well, your thyroid's like that. It's connected ladies. It's connected to your ovaries. Estrogen and progesterone have a huge effect on the thyroid. It's connected to your adrenals. When your cortisol is high, it drains the living life out of progesterone, especially in ladies, and that affects estrogen. The thyroid is very much affected in men by testosterone levels much less than estrogen in women. But still, your thyroid is very much affected by your pancreas, adrenals, pancreas, ovaries, testes. Your liver. Your liver has a big effect on your thyroid. So again, I never really isolate the thyroid gland because if your numbers are up, John, and I'm a big guy with thyroid on symptoms, okay?

So hyperthyroid, usually the thyroid is your gas pedal in your car. It's taking off and you're revved up and you could be losing weight and with both hypo and hyper losing hair. But I like to support the thyroid. First of all, John, by whether it's hyper or hypo, if it's graves, graves is hyperthyroidism, it's an autoimmune disease, and Hashimoto's is hypothyroidism. Okay, autoimmune. Now that can be a factor, and I don't know your case, John, if you just know your numbers are high. It depends on your symptoms. Is it really hyperthyroid? But I want to tell you one thing. Our thyroid formula was made to balance the thyroid. We don't start aiming just at the thyroid. We start up in the hypothalamus, okay? So in the brain, you know that I teach that all the time. You have your hypot, Tempus memory center, your thyroid, your adrenals, your hypothalamus is a important part of the brain because it affects your TSH.

Your thyroid stimulating hormone comes from there, tells your thyroid to produce more thyroid hormone. And so you've got to look at the whole body. That's why our formula for that is whether it's your numbers are high in TSH are very low in TS, h, it helps that. It also helps the liver because where is T four converted to T three and T three is what your thyroid really needs at the end of the day, guys, I always tell you one of the best foods you can have for thyroid and John, this would help you eat steak. Why all the amino acids like L-carnitine for example, very important for the thyroid to function properly and selenium found in steak, eggs, meat and cheese, really important. A lot of people are very low in selenium. Nobody has told them, nobody talks to them about selenium, but I do.

Selenium is very important, but when you eat eggs, meat and cheese, you're getting selenium. Selenium is found in Brazil nuts and a few other things, but that's not your major source. Your major source of selenium is in the animal kingdom. Eat your amino acids really important, Sean. Okay, I had to do a little diatribe on the thyroid because the thyroid is complicated, has a lot of strings attached. So those are the things John, I recommend. Okay, Joanne, how are you? Ear blocked. Hearing is muffled. What can I do to unblock? It's been two weeks. Well, okay, could be infection, could be allergy, right? Could be a viral in there, blocks it up. Could be a buildup in the eustachian tube of fungal yeast. Candida. All of the above could be in there.

Okay, now look, I'd be on a probiotic for sure, and I like, okay, as a natural antihistamine, let's say it's allergies. If you want to open up in that area, I do a combination of what I love for natural antihistamine. I put cursin with natal. The two natal is a tremendous antihistamine, natural, and so is kerstin and it helps to unblock. So that's what I would do, Joanne, but figure out what's going on. You get water in the ear possible. Okay, Theresa, has big pharma moved the goalpost on numbers such as high blood pressure? Yes, when I was in school in the seventies, look, one 20 over 80 was always a good one. And I don't disagree with that. I mean that's ideal, but what they give high blood pressure medication for today. Now guys, I am really, really big on your second number, on your second number, your top number. It's not like we don't look at it. I'm telling you, I'm not saying you dismiss your top number. Of course you don't. But your biggest thing, I always said, you want to keep your second number under 90. Under 90.

So yeah, they've moved the goalposts because it used to be one 60 over 90, 95, a hundred even. It was maybe a little bit above what they ideal was, but they never put people on medication like they do today. But I never tell people not to take a medication. I won't do that. But at the end of the day, I'm big on blood pressure. It's significant and I'm big on controlling it, but I'm also very cognizant that it's a very important factor in metabolic syndrome. So when you get insulin resistance, one of the possible side effects of metabolic syndrome, it's elevated blood pressure. And generally why that happens is what happens at the kidney level because the kidneys are stressed by insulin. The kidneys are stressed by sugar. Sugar left unattended and the bloodstream will destroy your kidneys. Well, why kidneys? Think of kidneys and your eyes as blood vessels. You got an enormous amount of blood supply going to the kidneys.

They get affected. So when insulin is high, the body retains salt, blood pressure goes up. And that's why if you do nothing else, cut out sugar as much as possible. It makes an enormous difference in people. But they have moved the goalposts on blood pressure. For example, when you look at even B12 numbers, the goalposts have been moved in a lot of ways. Could they never look at it properly? Vitamin D, the goalposts should be moved and they haven't moved them because they don't see the significance of vitamin D or they don't see the significance of B12. So I like your question on the blood work result, normal ranges are wide. Well looking. For example, the thyroid, what they can consider normal in the thyroid, but they rarely look at symptoms and the thyroid can be out of whack. And yet the rangers are so wide. I talked about this yesterday. Anyway, good question, Theresa. Yes, in some instances they've moved the goalposts and that's to put more people on medication. Okay? Why do I feel nausea when I take navit ol or cortisol? Well, these look, just understand. I don't like to use the word weird. I'm told not to use that word unique. Well, that's different. I'm trying to be sensitive. Okay? So Lee, for you, there's no reason for it. And you have to understand that every day in North America, tens of thousands of people take natal and they take cortisol formula every day. Okay? Tens of thousands, I'm not exaggerating.

Do it on a daily basis. Don't bother them for you. I don't know how you're taking it. Maybe for you these, you've got to take it with food. I don't know. I never had trouble taking natal. I take it every day. I never have trouble with cortisol formula. I take it every day. But put your thumb up and you see that you are unique. Why? Because you don't have anybody else's fingerprint. Please. You're unique. And that's true of all of us, but in generalities, and I have to do that because of what I know. For example, Navit all is a water soluble supplement. You can't overuse it, okay? You just can't because your body, if it's got too much of it, it's water soluble. You're not not a fat soluble supplement, okay? Neither is cortisol formula, by the way, but I'm just saying you're not building it up. Like you know how they always scare the living life out of you on vitamin D because why? It's fat soluble. Oh, you are going to get toxic. You know how many times I hear it? Every day? Every day, seven days a week, somebody is told and it gets back to me that vitamin D is toxic. You have toxic levels of vitamin D. I can tell you there ain't a doctor almost in the universe that has ever seen, they use the word your vitamin D levels are toxic.

Oh yeah. Okay, so what does that mean? You mean you're going to die? The worst thing happens with vitamin D. Okay, and guys, the studies have been done on this. You have to take 50,000 IUs a day, 50,000. Who does that a day? Every day for six months and then you might get a kidney stone. But if you take vitamin D with K two guys, I would tell people just go out in the sun for 20 minutes. You get 10,000, 20 minutes. How can that be toxic?These try it with food. There's no reason you get nauseous for it, but I'm not dismissing it because everybody's unique. I know people that can't drink coffee. I feel sorry for them. I know people that don't even like coffee. What they prefer tea. What? I feel sorry for them, but guys we're all different, okay?

And in medicine, I remember my dad used to tell me this, if you don't put that in your thing that everybody's different, okay? You better figure that out because everybody is different. You talk in generalities, but when you have a patient in front of you, they're unique and they don't always follow a pattern, people are differently. So hey, I respect that. You got to figure that out. If you can't take it, what can I tell you? Okay, Marie, how are you, Marie? I'm hearing a lot online about the third, Omega-3, D, PA from source, from seal oils. I'm sure it's good. EPAD, H-A-D-P-A. I don't care. It's all good. Seal oil would be excellent, I'm sure of it, but okay, and I always come back to the, but Marie, there's good, there's better and there's best and the best Omega-3, and it ain't even close. Okay, the best Omega-3 and it ain't even closed is DHA. Why do I say that? Well, your brain's made up a, D, h, A and cholesterol. Your eyeballs are made up, a D, h, A and cholesterol. So I just know that. I know that I know.

So yeah, you get different oils. I love oil. The only oil I don't like is what you find in the middle oils of your grocery store. The seed oils, because they weren't meant for human consumption, they were meant for your car. I shouldn't say I don't like them because I put fully synthetic oil in my truck, fully synthetic. So when you go in the middle aisles of the grocery store and you see canola oil, fully synthetic, put it in your car, but don't put it in your body. But when it comes to Omega-3, and you guys know this study after study every week, every day I bring out new studies, I talk about the importance of Omega-3. By the way, guys, I've been doing that for 50 years. If people don't take Omega-3, I take, somebody asked me, Dr. Martin, do you like fish? Yes, I love fish in a capsule. I'm not a big fish eater, but fish is good for you a hundred percent. It's part of eggs, meat, and cheese. Okay? When I say meat, I mean fish. It's wonderful. It is excellent. It will beat any vegetable, any fruit, anything you want to put up against it. Okay? Fish is better than that. Okay? So I take it every day. I take fish every day. You have fish, Dr. Martin, every day. Yep. In a capsule, because I don't eat enough fish, I eat a lot of red meat, which is very high on Omega-3, by the way, guys.

Okay? Very high in DHA and EPA, but this certain seal oil, hey, I got no problem with it. You want to take it, you want to take extra, but you can't replace DHA, okay? You just can't. You got to make sure high, high DHA, I love that and it's good for you. And go on. The reviews on our site, because of the DHA that we put together, guys, it's not easy to make. It is a pharmaceutical grade, DHA, the way it's filtered to get DHA to get that high. I remember a manufacturer telling me one time, why do you do that? Do you know how complicated that is? BridgeIT? I would like to know your thoughts on a three day fast, only water and some herbal tea. There you go with your tea. How about coffee? No.

Look, Bridget, listen, I'm not against fasting, okay? I'm not against fasting for three days. There's some studies out there that I've read, I've looked at, I don't disagree with them. If you get the diagnosis of cancer, I've seen some studies showing that if you start off with a three day fast, you're getting a headstart on fighting that cancer. Very few people, in my opinion, can do a three day fast. Okay? If you're a diabetic, you can't do a three day fast. Well, certainly not to start out with. So I know there's a lot of people that they bank on fasting. I like intermittent fasting. I like eating within windows. Again, if you want to start on a three day fast, hey, I got no problem with that. You want to do it, go do it. But I'm a big guy on forming habits with food, eating the right food, high density nutrition, eggs, meat and cheese, some fruit, some vegetables. But you live on the animal kingdom, you know that. And then I like eating in windows.

One of the best things you can do is not eat at night. I just know that because your body wants to get into rest and digest, and a lot of people never get into that. They don't get into that because they're eating all the time or they eat late. That's one of the worst things you can do. So again, you get the diagnosis of cancer. Hey, you want to fast. Hey, I got no problem. You want to fast. I know a lot of people online here with us this morning, they know all about fasting and they do it. I'm on their side. I love my audience. They know everything. I was reading yesterday, a physician was talking, his daughter's in medical school and he said online that your daughter hasn't taken one minute of nutrition and she's in her fourth year. Jeepers creepers.

So you guys know a lot about nutrition. You know I'm big on intermittent fasting, going 14 hours, stop eating at six o'clock at night and you do an intermittent fasting, you go to six in the morning. Well, that's 12. You go to eight, you're in 14. Now you're fasting. You're really into it fast at 14 hours and good things are happening there, you haven't eaten. But I like that because it cleans the liver. It really helps, but you can fast. I almost named this book, okay? Sun steak and steel. I almost named it fasting without fasting. If you eat the right foods, you're eating nutrient dense foods, you're fasting without fasting in a lot of ways, you are. Okay? Thanks for the question. And it says here, burgeon, okay? So I don't know if it was Bridget or T, okay? But thank you for the question.

Kim. Does drinking cold water restrict veins in your heart or cause fat to get stuck in your liver? Nope. Fake news. Cold water's actually quite good for you. Okay, guys, I really don't care how you take your water. I kind of recommend in the morning to drink colder water and get your metabolism jumped up a little bit more. But at the end of the day, guys, you don't hear me talking about hot or cold, do you? Maybe with coffee I do, but water now, cold water, if anything would be actually maybe a little bit better for you, but hot water, you like hot water.

I used to get people telling me, doc, I boil water and I drink it. Okay? They say, well, I try and substitute coffee with hot water. Well, you can't substitute coffee. No, that's not true, Kim. That does not bother you. It does not restrict your veins in your heart. Water is vitamin W and it's good for your heart. Do you hear me? It's good for your heart. Think blood flow. Think a river. You got a river. 60,000 miles of blood vessels, drink water to get the river going. It takes a lot of pressure off your heart and so does cold and it don't get stuck in your liver, okay? Or create havoc in your large intent. Did somebody say that online? Probably. It ain't true.

Tracy says, has a friend struggling with persistent cough for nine weeks? Well, they might've got a real bad bug possible, but I'm more a thinking Tracy. They got a fungal in their lung, a yeast and persistent cough. Now it could be a viral, might've been originally bacterial as possible. I'm not dismissing that. Okay? But a persistent cough. Here's me. I'd have 'em on keratin, I'd have 'em on natal, I'd have 'em on probiotic and I'd have 'em on. Lungs, lungs, lungs, vitamin D. So I'd do the hammer. 50,000 I use, this is what I would do for me. 50,000. I use a day for three days. Okay, Tracy, thank you because usually what happens, block the station tubes. You see, that's why I'm thinking more fungal, okay, that they got either a postnasal drip or whatever, and then they're getting a persistent cough. Had they been exposed to mold possible. I check all these things.

John, what do I think of? Heart calcium scans. I like them. Yeah, I think it's a good baseline. I think it's a good test. The imaging, there's not a lot of radiation, so I like it. It gives you a coronary calcium score. I got no problem with that, but at the end of the day, John, here's me. So I'm not against any diagnostics, okay? I'm not that big on mammograms. I think they're overused and a lot of people get false positives and they give you an enormous amount of radiation. When I was in practice, I used to tell my patients, look, ultrasound is better than a mammogram.

But again, I'm not dismissing them because you can get into trouble to dismiss them, but I would not big on them. But the coronary calcium score, I like it. Okay? But I always come back to, okay, so let's say you have a coronary calcium score is high. Well, how did you get calcium? Well, it wasn't you were eating calcium might be you were not moving calcium. That's why I am big on vitamin K two. That's why with the heart, if it gives you an indication that you're starting to get atherosclerosis, hardening of the arteries around the heart, I like that. But why did you get that? One of the things is oxidation free, radical damage sugar. One of the things I didn't say, the only thing, the other one is glycation. Glycation aging, atherosclerosis of the blood vessels when you lose the slipperiness is why I am so big on Omega-3. Good oil lubricates.

Okay, so yeah, John, I got no problem with it. I think it's a good baseline. I do. Thomas, is gout and bunion the same thing? Nope, not at all. Well, bunions usually you'll get, you get a deformity there with a bunion and could be bad shoes. And women will oftentimes will get bunions because they wear these high heels. Your foot was never meant to be in that when they get bunions. But gout is a different thing altogether because it's crystals, it's uric acid crystal. Now sometimes uric acid crystals when you can get a deformity and gout will look like a bunion, but it's uric acid in there. And we've been talking about uric acid for a long time. As a matter of fact, you know that I have added uric acid as a biomarker in metabolic syndrome.

I've added it to the list. Now, I don't know if anybody else has, but I did it. It's just because I've been around the block for a long time. You can get high uric acid levels and not have gout at all. I've seen a lot of people like that. I said your uric acid is high. Uric acid means your insulin is high and you're not getting rid. Everybody makes uric acid, but when it gets high, it's a big, big indicator that your insulin resistance is high, especially fructose. And we talked about that quite a bit. High fructose corn syrup really elevates your uric acid levels. But they're not the same thing at all. Thomas? No. Okay. Bev, what do I think of bioTE drink? Well, I've never had one. Okay, it's an electrolyte drink, right? I thought it was brought out by a couple of NHL players, if I'm not mistaken.

Could be wrong, but it's got electrolytes. I like electrolytes. You guys know that A lot of people are dehydrated. I'm big on drinking water with salt. A Himalayan salt or a good pink salt or a good kosher salt that's got all the minerals in it. And you might need electrolytes. Some people, especially if you sweat a lot, one of the best if you can get pure is coconut water. It's an electrolyte drink. Pickle juice. It's an electrolyte drink. I never had a can of it. I've never had a bottle of it. Is it in a bottle or is it in a can? I can't remember, but I got no problem. If you want to drink it, I can't see where it would be bad for you. Okay. How much potassium does it have in there? How much sodium, how much magnesium? Those are electrolytes. You need those things, okay.

Okay. Is it safe to drink? It's got zero sugars, Bev says. Okay. Yeah. Well that makes it better. Yeah. Okay. Better than most Gatorades or Powerades. And they got Powerade zero. Gatorade zero. I don't like that stuff so much. They got artificial sweeteners in there. Theresa, Robert h Lustig, md. What about him? Do I know him? Yep. Have I read his book? Couple of them I think. Do I like him? Yep, I do. What does he say? Have you heard of this doctor? Yep. Yep. I like lusting because he was big on getting rid of sugar in your diet and he wasn't so much moderation. He was telling you get rid of sugar Lus. Okay, Dr. Lusty, he was big on really lowering carbs, okay? He liked fruits and he liked whole foods. I like it. He was smart. Okay? Nothing wrong with them. Good guy. Everything he said, probably not everything, but most I like him. Okay, what else are you asking me? Is there any truth that bacteria can destroy the pancreas after Metformin? Well, look, Metformin, okay? Which is the number one medication for diabetes. And even pre-diabetic, millions and millions of people are put on metformin. I always warn people about metformin. I had big reasons to warn people because I said, look, one thing for sure, if you're on metformin, it's taking away your B12 a hundred percent. It strips away your B12.

Now, a lot of other medications strip away B12, but Metformin is famous for it. And I used to talk about that on my radio show all the time. You got to be on B12. If you're taking metformin now you know me, and I'm a low carb guy, and I'd like when you're a diabetic, you and carbs don't get along. You have an allergy to, okay? So you can take all the metformin in the world that ain't going to fix that. It's a bandaid. And one of the major side effects of metformin, besides the fact that it takes B12 out of your body, it can give you, and I don't know how many patients over the years I saw where they had major digestive issues and I would ask them the questions. A matter of fact, that used to be on my questionnaire. Are you on metformin for digestive issues? What?

Well, you taking metformin? Yeah. One of the reasons you got IBS, it really does strip away your bacteria. So what were you asking? Is there any truth that bacteria can destroy the pancreas after metformin? Can it destroy the pancreas? I have to think about me and bacteria. I'm big on that friendly bacteria and your microbiome. Can a bacteria, meaning a bacterial infection destroy your pancreas after metformin? I have to look that up. I don't know, Theresa. I guess it's possible, but let me give you a better answer if I look it up. Okay, if I look it up, okay, can your insulin spike without your blood sugar going up?

Well, not usually. Okay, because your insulin is spiking. It's got a job to do. Insulin's got a job to do. It's taking sugar and storing it. Insulin is a storage hormone. Now, if you are highly stressed and very high levels of cortisol that can move your blood sugar up even without eating sugar, to some extent, you could think of this and you're stressed out. Well, cortisol elevates blood sugar, which will elevate your insulin. That's possible even without food. Now, that doesn't happen all the time, but it can happen. And what goes up must come down. So good question, Suli Genin. Two more. And I'm done told not to have caffeine with Barrett's. Well, look, Barrett's esophagus is sort of almost like a precancer in your esophagus. The cells, the lining of your esophagus has been so damaged by acid coming up. So you got to figure that out guys, okay? Because are you told to stop caffeine or to stop coffee? Can you have a like caffeine? Does it bother the esophagus, but don't bother my esophagus? Now, a lot of people say, well, it's acidic, it bothers. I think that's overblown. But figure yourself out.

Try decaf. Decaf coffee is good. It's good for you. You know me and coffee. Coffee's good for you. Coffee is the real vitamin C. Does it have vitamin C in it? Yeah, trace of it. But that's not the point. It's so much better than vitamin C. That's what I mean by that for you take it. It's a gift. A lot of people, they knock coffee and they don't know what they're talking about. Oh, I read it this week. Well, Dr. Martin's wrong on coffee because it leeches out your minerals. No, it don't. No, it don't. And study after study, anti-cancer, antioxidant helps your liver, helps your gut. It's one of the best fibers you want to have fiber drink coffee. One of the best things you can do for your microbiome. So again, when it comes to Barretts, understand that Barretts, anybody that get Barrs is because they were eating, they were eating too much sugar and not enough meat because your stomach was designed for meat. And that amino acids, those proteins. And when you don't do that, you lose your gallbladder and you lose your stomach functioning properly. The acidity, the pH goes up in your stomach if it turns alkaline and your body tries to say, well no, you need to be acidic down here, so let's pump out more acidity. Problem with that starts going up the esophagus and you can get a Barrett's esophagus and that's no good. It's one of the reasons we see so much esophageal cancer today. It's sugar.

Okay, last one. Kathy, my boyfriend has been on statins for many years. I would like to know the best way for him to come off of them. Well, look, I could spend a half an hour. I don't tell people to come off medication. I give information. I'm an info guy, okay? I'm not big on cholesterol. You guys know that. As a matter of fact, I shouldn't say I'm not big on it. I like high cholesterol. I want you, Kathy, to look at your hubby's numbers. What's his triglycerides? What is his HDL? Those are the two numbers that concern me. I want low triglycerides and high HDL cholesterol. So I don't want low cholesterol. Okay? Now I know there's two schools. There's my school and there's big pharma school and they're big and they're a lot bigger than me. And they pump out cholesterol, cholesterol, cholesterol at the root of heart disease. I go against that. I don't think it's true. I try and explain myself. I don't say it without having lots of information about it. And what's dangerous are your triglycerides if they're high and your HDL cholesterol is low, okay, total cholesterol, who cares? LDL. Well, I want it high. I want LDL to be high. Why? I don't want it low. I want it high. Okay? But that's me.

And I think I'm right. I know I'm right. And I'm not being arrogant. I've been saying this for such a long time. Cholesterol's not at the root of heart disease. It's just not okay. And I probably didn't answer your question. What's the best way to wean him off? Well, you got to figure out if he's got in any danger. Not that statin drugs help in any way, in my opinion, but I can't tell you that. Love you guys. Thanks for the questions. We got a great week coming up next week. Tell everybody share this. We love you.

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