1654. 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, and once again, welcome to another live this morning. Hope you're having a great start to your day. We appreciate you guys coming on big time. And let's see. Let's get to our questions. The very first one is Deborah. "Do weighted vests help with balance or they cause injury?" Well, I think they're good, but if you have a condition, you need to be careful. Look, I like the idea of a walking with a weighted vest makes your body work a little harder. Any kind of movement guys is so good for you. We talk about that all the time. Vitamin E exercise and the best, get strong. But weighted vests, yeah, I've never worn one to be honest with you. I've thought about it. I just never got around to doing it. Maybe people here could comment on that, but as far as balance, it might help your balance. You got to figure that out. Deb. I don't want to answer. I know because you're talking about ataxia, so you better figure that out by yourself and see how you feel walking with it.

Okay, Marilyn, "what is Dr. Martin's first choice in supplements to prevent or treat psoriatic arthritis or psoriasis?" Well, I like to get to the root of the problem. Okay, so Marilyn here's me. All my years in practice, whenever I saw psoriasis, eczema, whenever I saw the autoimmune condition of psoriatic arthritis, one thing I found 100% consistent, look to the gut. Any autoimmune in my opinion, starts in the gut. It's that dysbiosis. It's when you got more bad guys than good guys in the gut. The microbiome, whether through antibiotics, whether through all the chemicals we're surrounded by, whether through a loaded sugar diet. Tylenol, we've talked about that. But the biggest culprit in my opinion, is antibiotics, even though I highly recommend them if you need them, okay? So nobody can ever say, in all the years I had a radio show and podcasting.

If you need an antibiotic, greatest discovery of the 20th century, saved millions of people's lives. And even today, but, and there's a big but. Okay, antibiotics kill everything. Carpet bombing the microbiome, carpet bombing the gut. And to me, that's what starts autoimmune. So you need to replace it. Now listen to this. Okay? I watched a fair amount of it yesterday. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in front of a committee in the Senate hearing. Okay? And man, is he ever stirring it up in the United States. We need that and we need it in Canada too. Okay? Now here's what he said. Okay? And then I'm going to get to the microbiome in a minute. He said, Americans lead in five categories and it ain't good. Sickest nation on earth spend more money on health than anyone else, and yet we get the least bang for the buck.

This is in the United States, but I'm telling you, Canada's no better. People with the most diabetes live in the United States. People who take the most meds live in the United States. People who have the most chronic diseases live in the United States, and yet 1.3 trillion, I think they said they spend every year on healthcare because not healthcare, guys. It's disease care. And guess what he talked about yesterday? He mentioned it. We're not looking at the microbiome, and we should be. I almost fell out of my chair when I heard him say it yesterday. We don't even look at it. We should be. Yeah, I've been saying that for 30 or 40 years. Look at the microbiome. Look at the little bacteria. Look at the invisible war that we go through. It's inside your body. You can't see it. It's outside of your body too. You got a lot of bacteria on your skin, your largest organ.

But we have a dysbiosis. We have more bad than good. And then you get the invasion and always happens in autoimmune. You get the invasion of the third army, fungus. Not enough good guys. The Trojan horse comes in of fungus, yeast, candida albicans, and it can spread like wildfire through the body, by the blood, into the tissue, into the skin, leaky gut, leaky brain, leaky gut, leaky sinuses, leaky gut, leaky skin, leaky gut, leaky lungs, leaky gut, leaky brain. So I've been talking about, and I was shocked when I heard it yesterday. Okay, so look to the gut. Now, there's a question right after, so let me get to it. Okay, so that was Marilyn. So what do you want, Marilyn? Broad spectrum probiotics.

Okay. Sherry is asking a question. I want to sing Sherry, because when I see your name, it's an old song to me. Okay, "my naturopath told me it's better to get probiotics from fermented foods than a pill." Well, look, you go and Sherry tell your naturopath that I love them, but they're wrong. Okay? Now, I love fermented foods, okay? I do. I love fermented foods. Fermented foods are fantastic, but you're not going to get a broad spectrum. Look, I've been working with probiotics for 40 years. I can tell you, and I'm just going to toot my horn for a sec. Look, different strains, do different things. I've said that forever. I talked about probiotics in this book. I told you guys yesterday, one of the causes is leaky gut, fibromyalgia, leaky gut. Look to the gut. There's a dysbiosis. And look, fermented foods are good. They are very good. They get bacteria, good, but they're not broad spectrum. And you need certain strains like L reuteri and L rhamnosis, and listen, we pick the strains.

And let me just say it, okay? Tony Jr. put an answer out on private Facebook group the other day because someone, and I don't blame you, very upset that we don't have probiotic right now. I know I rely on them. My family relies on them. You think people scream at me. You should hear my wife, because we don't have probiotics, right? Look, I can go get another probiotic, but oh my word. It takes eight weeks to make every strain and one of the strains. It's been harder to get. Okay? And we don't compromise. It's got to be in the formula. I'm sorry. And I tell you, and it's supposed to be ready any day now. And it drives me crazy, guys. But I'm slrry, fermented foods. Look, I've proven it. I used to have GI doctors when I was in practice, send me patients to fix people's leaky gut. The ones who actually believed in it. Talk to doctors, leaky gut, and they might look at you sideways, okay? But it just, they're not keeping up.

But most doctors now, imagine even at a health hearing yesterday for the CDC and whatever, they mentioned, the microbiome. It's one of the most fascinating things in medicine now is microbiome. The link between your bacteria and your health. They're finally, finally acknowledging it. But don't wait on medicine. You do it. Okay? You do it. And we talk about it at our clinic all the time when I was in practice. I tell you on our radio show, so let's go back 20 years or more. I used to talk about at least twice a year use probiotics. Okay? I did for years. I said that. And then we had an ecumenical council. Tony Jr. and I, we talked one day and we came to a conclusion. You know what? People need to take probiotics every day. That's what we said. Never take any time off, in our opinion. We were seeing too much leaky gut. We were seeing too much problems. And we said, you know what? You need to take it every day. And we changed. We made it, eat it out of our clinic. Guess what? It's foundational. You need it. Take it daily. I was already taking it daily.

Look, yogurt. It's a fermented food, right? Okay. This has been measured by the way, okay? You're never going to get a broad spectrum. Take a four ounce yogurt, Greek yogurt plain. Is it good for you? Yes. Very good. Probiotic in it? Yes. You would have to eat 16,000 yogurts, four ounces to get the bacteria count of 50 billion. You'd have to eat 16,000 4 ounce yogurts. Now, who's going to do that? And one thing about probiotics, here's the best about probiotics. One, soil-based. They're the best. Why? Because they don't have to be refrigerated. And the better the strains of probiotic, it gets past your stomach acidity. A lot of cheap probiotics, they just don't get passed. And I used to send people to health food stores. Remember, I was in practice for a long time. Go get a probiotic. And then you know what? I wasn't getting results. What? Your skin hasn't cleared up, your acne hasn't cleared up, your psoriasis hasn't cleared up, your sinuses haven't cleared up, or whatever. And then I said, you know what? Let's make our own. Let's get them formulated the way I want them formulated. And when I say I, between Tony Jr. and I, he's more of a formulator than I am. He's smart like his mother. Okay? That's a good question.

Okay, so that was Sherry. Jeannine, "what causes intermittent twitching of the upper eyelid?" Well, it can be a lot of things. Ordinarily, what I found in my practice was low levels of magnesium could cause it. Sometimes potassium could do it. Low levels of potassium can cause eye twitching. Okay? Where your eyelid is, you get that to some extent, a dehydration. But again, that's turning back to your sodium, magnesium, and potassium. Okay? So look for electrolytes. Look for dehydration. Magnesium to me was the number one. Lack of magnesium was the number one cause. Usually when I put a patient on some magnesium, the twitching went away. Now sometimes you can go and Google it and they'll tell you it can be a sign of an autoimmune disease or whatever. I don't know. I am not saying, I saw that.

Debbie, "I have been on EMC." You're a smart girl. Okay? "Eggs, meat, and cheese since 2019. My CRP is 7.2. I feel great. Uric acid is 281. How can I get my CRP down?" Well, look, Debbie, you're not my patient, so I don't know exactly. 7 for C-reactive protein. CRP is an inflammation marker. You got something probably Debbie going on. I need to ask you lots of questions. Okay? So you feel great. Always good. Your uric acid seems to be good, but your CRP is high. So you have a silent, probably inflammation going on somewhere. Why? I need to ask you a lot of questions, Debbie. But you're eating right. You're eating right. Do you have an autoimmune disorder? Do you have joint pain? Do you have osteoarthritis? I mean, inflammation can be a lot of things. So that's what CRP is, okay? And I love that marker, CRP, I really do, but I never take it alone Debbie. Like send in info@martinclinic.com. If you want to, just give me some detail. Do you have any results on A1C or your triglyceride? Because CRP a lot of times is a very good indicator of heart disease because of inflammation. Inflammation can be a big factor there. But if your A1C is good, if your triglycerides are good and your HDL is good, I'm not too worried about it. So anyway, thank you, Deb.

Two Debbies in a row, or is it the same Debbie? I don't know. Okay. "I just wonder if Dr. Martin can tell me what my husband can take for more energy? He can fall asleep on a dime." A lot of people would spend money to fall asleep on a dime, "and has no problem sleeping all night," which is a good thing. "He is taking two Navitol, vitamin D, B12, two," oh, he's got joint pain. A multi nutrient has no energy at all. Well, Debbie, can I ask a question? What's his diet like? Because what'll drain you like the Titanic is if your insulin is high. Has he got high insulin? I need to know that and I need to know one of the things that could be happening to him. How old is he? Is his testosterone low? That can be a factor, okay? Can be a factor. You may have way too much estrogen for a man. That often happens that men have more estrogen than their wives. That means their Titanic has sunk big time. Okay, so let me know more detail. I would be looking at food, but maybe you can rule that out. I don't know.

Laura, "I'm 64." You're a puppy. "How do I dim out estrogen? I was told that dim and menopause formula was not sufficient." I don't know who told you that. Look, if you look at that menopausal formula, and I give it to men, I got men on the menopausal formula, because of dim. But there's a lot of good things in there. Like I put in 1, 2, 3. I think we have six different, we've got dim. I love that because dim, okay, if you eat broccoli, okay? If you have broccoli, broccoli is good. Okay? Now, if you have diverticulosis or whatever, don't touch it. But you know what? Broccoli is good for you. Okay? I got no problem with it. It's good. An extract of that is dim. Okay? It's an extract. And the amount you'd have to eat, I don't know how many bushels of broccoli to get the amount of dim that's needed to lower your estrogen, okay? I like flax seeds. Why? Because flaxseeds have lignans and they hook their wagon to estrogen, too much estrogen, okay?

Remember guys, you need to know the overarching principle here. Dr. Martin, I'm in menopause. My estrogen is going down. Yes, but it's all compared to your progesterone. Women even in menopausal years have estrogen dominance. And here's some of the symptoms. Night sweats, bloating, fat storage. Women, they used to come into my office in our weight loss clinic and they were angry. Dr. Martin, I hate my husband. Oh yeah, why? Well, we're doing the same program that you put us on. He lost 10 pounds and I lost 5. I don't like him anymore. And I would say, well, you are too much of a woman. They kind of like that. Yeah, but you're all woman and women often have way too much estrogen. And estrogen is beautiful, makes you a woman, makes a man a woman too. Estrogen's wonderful. Except when it's out of balance with progesterone. Do you get it?

And when you have more estrogen than progesterone, estrogen is a growth hormone. It loves to store fat just like insulin. So hot flashes, night sweats, weight gain, bloating, brain fog. And guys, I've taught you this before. When you look at horrormones, you need to put the whole package together. Okay? Let's see if I have it. I always draw it. I usually draw it on every one of my yellow pads, but I don't think I did it on this one, but I'll do it again. Why? Repeat, repeat, repeat. I got my pen. Let me do it. Remember, I flunked art. Okay, here's what I used to draw to my patients. You'll see it in a second, okay, see that? See it? See that pyramid? Okay. Now on the top, you have your thyroid. In the middle of the pyramid, you have your pancreas secreting insulin. Halfway down the pyramid, you've got adrenals. Add renals on top of kidneys, cortisol, and on the bottom you've got your ovaries. And for men, right in the middle, a small little one, testes. Okay?

So you see that pyramid, you need to balance the whole thing to feel good. And doctors, okay, even endocrinologists, God bless them. But their problem is they isolate everything. So gynecologists, isolate. Gynecologists not looking at your thyroid, right? Your endocrinologist is, or your family doctor. Oh, your thyroid numbers are normal, but you got to look at everything. You have to look at insulin, food. You have to look at stress, cortisol. You have to look at the ovaries, estrogen and progesterone. You have to look in men at testosterone, testes. If you don't look at the whole package, you're going to miss it. I used to teach this to anybody that would listen. Okay? So when you say, how do I dim out estrogen? Well, dim is the best way. Okay? Lower your cortisol, because cortisol actually is a factor in estrogen dominance. Cortisol robs progesterone.

And remember, it's a teeter totter. Estrogen and progesterone. Ovaries need to be equal. So when you're in menopause, yeah, estrogen's coming down, but progesterone usually is sinking even lower. That gives you dominance of estrogen. You see what I'm saying? And when you have estrogen dominance, your thyroid, ladies, your metabolism, your gas pedal slows to a crawl. Add stress. Cortisol robs progesterone even more. You got to know that. That's why for me, and I know naturopaths and physicians, a lot of them don't agree with me. I don't like using estrogen because I've seen too much breast cancer in my days, my practice days of ovarian cancer, and these things are on steroids today, breast cancer.

Why in the world in 2025 do we have more breast cancer than ever? Ever? We're not winning the war on cancer, but we're looking for love in all the wrong places. We're walking around. We got every week, listen Linda, every week we're accumulating one and a half credit cards worth of plastic. They're spraying the soil with xenoestrogens, things that mimic estrogen, plastic mimics estrogen in your kitchen, air fresheners, sprays, cleaners and antibacterial soaps and stuff you put on your skin and stuff you wash your hands with. And I hope you don't, but a lot of people do. No wonder we got so much estrogen today, and we live in an estrogen dominant world. And I know there's doctors and there's naturopaths out there that want to give you an even bioidentical estrogen. In my opinion, I don't like it. Are you going to get me to change my opinion? I don't think so. But that's all right. I want you to think. I give information and information. I love information, even for me, because it provides choices.

And what Kennedy didn't talk about yesterday, which I, if they brought me in front of a Senate committee, health doesn't start with the government. Health starts with you, okay? You got to make choices every day, what you put in your mouth every day. What are you going to eat? It's choices. And what I did like yesterday is they were talking about kids' food programs, and my word is all processed food. Let's change that. I love that. Okay, so we're going to have to have a question. Let me just see how many questions are left. We got to have another. We're going to have a Q and A Monday, okay? I didn't get to even near the amount of questions I wanted to get at, because I talk too much. Anyway, how do you like that pyramid? Okay, you like it? I can talk on that for a week. Never stop, that pyramid. Horror-mones. Horror-mones.

Okay, so Q and A Monday, okay? Tune in on Monday. Tell your friends. This will be turned into a podcast. Remind people, The Doctor Is In Podcast. When you go to The Doctor Is In Podcast, would you show us some love and give us a five star review? That just helps with algorithms. What is an algorithm? I don't know. Don't ask me. You see, Spotify and the others, they share podcasts if they're popular. Ours are being shared a lot, and that helps the algorithm, but apparently a five star review does too. So give us that. Look, I am not twisting your arm. If you like our program, do that. We love you guys and what an audience. Again, I just give you credit, guys. They're so stinking smart. It's beyond me. Okay? And thanks for listening. We'll talk to you soon.

Announcer:  You've reached the end of another Doctor Is In Podcast, with your hosts, Doctor Martin Junior and Senior. Be sure to catch our next episode and thanks for listening!