1659. 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 how are you? Once again, welcome to another live here this morning. Just going to hook up my mic and wait for a few people to. Thanks for coming on. We love you. You know what today is? Q and A. We got lots. So let's get going. Babeta. "Can Dr. Martin address why there are cysts on the kidney?" Well, good question. Why? Look, I don't know why as much as you don't want those cysts to become tumors, okay? Why did your daughter get cyst on her kidneys to start off with? It could be a lot of things. So I'm not too concerned about cysts on the kidneys unless she's got severe polycystic kidney disease. Look, anytime you talk about kidneys, here's me. Okay? When you don't drink enough water, what do we call the kidneys? Niagara Falls. Constant, constant water and only water is water.

Okay, so that's number one for kidneys, because kidneys need to be flushed. Is it possible that your daughter was dehydrated? Yep. Possible. Secondly, polycystic kidneys, poor functioning kidneys. The biggest food that causes that is sugar. Sugar is very, very destructive to kidneys. So two things, water and lay off the sugar because kidneys are all about blood vessels. They're all about blood vessels to the organs. Okay? Your kidneys, it's like your eyes, guys. It's circulation, circulation, circulation. When you get cataracts, when you get glaucoma or whatever, it's circulation, damaging, and that can happen through hardening of the arteries, atherosclerosis. You can have glycation of the arteries. Sugar causes glycation. Sugar is a big factor in atherosclerosis when you get hardening of the arteries and a little capillaries to your kidneys and to your eyes. Okay, so two things, cut back on the sugar and water.

Okay, Linda, let me do this. "Had a blood test yesterday and this evening the doctor called to say that I have high creatine." No, your doctor didn't call you to say you had high creatine. You had high creatinine, and it's amazing today that they still mix that. Look. I don't think he said he or she said creatine. They said creatinine. Now, creatine is one of the Cs that you find in steak. That's creatine. Okay? That's an amino acid. It is good for you. I love creatine because I love steak and you get a lot of creatine in steak. Now, creatinine, that's another thing that is when you're creatinine levels are high, you have kidney stress. And what did your doctor say? "After many questions, it would determine that I should stop taking Dr. Martin's bone broth for two weeks." Look, I don't agree with that at all, Linda, because it's not the problem. You know, because doctors, again, here we are in 2025 and they still think that protein damages kidneys. No, it doesn't. Sugar does. Sugar does. Crappy carbs do.

They'll tell you what are you having for protein or you're having bone broth, which is collagen protein that's not affecting your kidneys in a harmful way. I'm sorry, it's not and it never does. Protein's not hard on kidneys. I know, because this is the way they're taught. Oh, you got protein in your urine, you have higher levels of creatinine. And what they're taught in medical school when they don't know anything about nutrition, they're told that it's protein. It's not protein. It might be protein in your urine. You get protein in your urine when you're eating too much sugar. Now, I'm not saying for you, Linda, that you're eating too much sugar, but generally you got high creatinine levels. Your kidneys are under stress and you might not be drinking enough water, and like I said, the two things that I always go to in kidneys. So I respectfully disagree with your doctor. Respectfully, okay? Their thoughts on nutrition and kidneys have been wrong for 50 or 60 years or more.

Okay, that was Babeta and Linda, first two questions about kidneys. Diane, "why would you get nausea upon waking up in the morning?" Usually high levels of cortisol. I saw that all the time in CFS, chronic fatigue syndrome, nausea in the morning unless you're pregnant. But seriously, guys, usually nausea, high levels of cortisol, stress on the inside. That'll give you nausea. Now look, you might be low in B12. That's always a possibility and that could get, well, listen, high cortisol can knock out your B12 too, so I used to monitor that and if they were low in B12, of course we took care of that, but that's usually the reason. Diane, okay?

Carol, "a friend has an autoimmune disease called idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura." Oh, only give medicine a chance to keep you confused. It's an autoimmune disorder, low platelets. So you got to be careful because your friend has to be careful when they don't make platelets, they can't clot. Meaning if they have internal bleeding, they won't stop bleeding. If they cut themselves, they got to be very careful because they don't have enough platelets. Platelets clot the blood. You don't want them too high because then you've got blood as thick as molasses and you don't want them too low, otherwise you cannot stop bleeding. Look, it's an autoimmune disease. There's no quick fixes or whatever. Why did it start originally? For me, it's a factor of leaky gut. That's what I usually saw in my office. Any kind of autoimmune I saw leaky gut. "Would the reset be beneficial?" Certainly worth a try. Look, you're not going to cure it, okay? Will it get better? Try it. The reset is good for you anyway. I do the reset for 30 days. I'd certainly have them on probiotics too. Okay, thank you.

Keith. "My question is, can my vitamins be absorbed properly in the morning without any food for 10 or 12 hours?" Yeah, well look, I like a little bit of food when I take my fat soluble vitamins. Okay, so when you take vitamin D, I like maybe a touch of food because vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin, right? But it's not necessary. Okay? It's probably a little bit advantageous, but look, a lot of times will not have anything in the morning, just coffee. And I take my supplements. I'm not too worried about it. I can absorb them and I can prove it too by the way. Back in my clinic days, we would have people checking their vitamin D, checking their B12 and they were absorbing it. Maybe a little bit better with food, the fat soluble but I'm not too worried about it. Okay?

Anne, "can taking the Martin Clinic B12 regularly cause high hemoglobin?" Well, it can elevate your hemoglobin. You want to elevate your hemoglobin. Will it cause high hemoglobin meaning a pathological high? No, I've never seen it. I'll tell you why. Okay? Because I'm going to give you an answer to why. Look, if you're low in hemoglobin, okay? Remember, every time you breathe, your red blood cells go by your lungs, and in the middle of your red blood cell you have hemoglobin, okay? That's a protein. Oxygen, when you're breathing hemoglobin, oxygen sticks to hemoglobin. It's like Velcro. You need that. But if you take B12 and you're low in hemoglobin, it's a factor. It will help that because B12 will help you to produce red blood cells, but it's not going to give you high hemoglobin where it's now too high. It won't do that because first of all, B12 is a water soluble vitamin.

Like you are never overdosing on B12. Okay? Like people, oh, I got too much B12, okay, what happens? I used to sit and fold my arms with doctors. Dr. Martin B12 is way too high on one of my patients that is one of your patients. What should I do? Nothing. Why? I said, well, B12's, water soluble. If it's high, good, but you're not going to croak because you've got high levels of B12. I've never seen it. What does it do? And usually if someone has very high levels of B12, what's happening, and we explain this in the past and we'll do it again. Look, B12 in blood, that test is a hundred years old. We should put it to bed, give it a birthday party and put it to bed, because it's not that accurate because it doesn't tell you what your B12 levels are in your cells. That's where B12 belongs.

So if you have high numbers of B12 in your blood, better, but still, I've seen people very high and what's happening, you store B12 in your liver and sometimes with fatty liver, the B12 is knocked into your blood. It's still not in your cells, but it's in your blood and it's high and your doctor's freaking out and they don't understand that process because they don't study B12. They should. They used to, but they don't do it anymore. So most physicians B12 to them, well, unless you have none left in your body, they don't even think about it. Too bad because it's an essential vitamin. Okay, and that was Anne, it will not cause high hemoglobin.

Gail, "I believe I have neuropathy. Wake up with hands numb and cramping of feet and ankles," Maybe, a cramping of feet and ankles usually, "and numbness in my toes." Okay, you got numbness, baby toes all the time. Gail, are you diabetic? And if you are getting cramping, you are probably low in electrolytes like magnesium and potassium electrolytes, but the numbness, that's another puppy and that's usually neuropathy for sure. Now, are you diabetic? Diabetic neuropathy. Saw that a thousand times in my office or more. Here's my protocol. The reset, get your insulin down, your insulin resistance down, cut your sugars down big time. Do the reset. B12. What I combine with neuropathy with great success is B12 with Navitol, pine bark extract. Why? Pine bark extract is the greatest substance for elevating nitric oxide. Opens up your blood vessels. B12, the nerve vitamin that protects your myelin sheath of your nerves is what? B12. So I love combining B12 with pine part extract ,Navitol. Okay, thank you for the question. That was Gail, and get on electrolytes if you're crampy. Make sure you're drinking enough water too, okay?

Deb, "Dr. Barbara O'Neill teaches the same thing as Dr. Martin." Ah, does she? I don't know. "Except about coffee. She is so against it. How can two teachings be so similar and yet this one subject be so opposite?" Well, you're trying to get me to have a fight with someone, aren't you? No. Listen, if I had, what's her name, Dr. O'Neill, in my presence, I would tell her I'm going to show you 150 studies or more on the benefits of coffee. Look, I would say, Barb, listen, you're wrong about coffee and I know why you do it because you talk about coffee as being a diuretic. I don't even know you, but this is what all the gurus say that don't like coffee. Here's what they say. It's acidic. No it's not. It's a diuretic. No, it's not. Okay. Caffeine. It's a drug. No, it's not. Okay. It's not. And I tell you guys the benefits. Do I go a week without telling you how good coffee is for you? Okay, give her my book. Sun, Steak, Steel, Sleep, and then a whole chapter on coffee and its benefits.

Guys, I've been saying it for 50 years, so it's not like I just came out of the closet today, okay, and tell you, oh, by the way, I changed my mind on coffee. I never changed my mind. I used to tell people back in the seventies, okay? Coffee is acidic. Well, I said, yeah, so is a tomato. Yeah. Well, when you eat a tomato or you drink coffee, it doesn't stay acidic because your body buffers it. Your body's got baking soda, your body has sodium bicarbonate. What? Yeah, your body does that. And so when you eat a tomato, it turns alkaline. What? Yeah, and so they bring up these old things that have been debunked and she's probably, I don't know her, so I'm just going to say, here's what I usually found. They were tea totalers. They wanted you to drink tea. You can have tea. It's good for you. Well, I'll tell you what, coffee is a hundred times better for you than tea. And tea has a lot of oxalates.

Now I'm not saying you can't have a tea. Remember what I said? Why drink tea when you can drink coffee? I feel sorry for you, but some people don't like coffee. Okay? Okay, I get it. I don't understand it, but I get it. God gave us a gift. The more they study coffee, the more they realize, holy moly, a thousand phytonutrients in coffee. Enjoy it. That's the difference, Deb. That's me, consistently me and look, ask her what she thinks about. I'll surprise. I don't know her, but I'm just going to ask you to ask her. Or you find out, does she like steak? What does she thinks better? Steak or fruits and vegetables. I'd like to hear her answer for that because most gurus that I know, oh, the plant kingdom's better than the animal kingdom. I don't agree with that at all. It's not true. It never was true. But I'd like to know what she says because that will tell me why she doesn't like coffee to some extent. Okay, anywho, I thank you Deb, for bringing it up and just got, look tell her I love her too besides that. Okay?

Brenda, "what is your view on copper water bottles and drinking cups? A lot of claims." When it's too good to be true, it's too good to be true. Okay, so when they tell you that drinking out of a copper cup, I'm not saying you couldn't do it, but when it tells you it cures everything from warts on your nose to pimples on your toes, run Forrest, run. It's nonsense. Now copper to some extent is like silver is an antibacterial, so is that good? Yeah, I guess so. Okay, I guess so, but guys, I see advertisement for copper bracelets, for example. Man, the best thing since, look, do you think that I didn't have thousands and thousands of patients over the years that ordered copper bracelets and whatever and they some liked it. Most after a month said that didn't do nothing for me. Look, if it helped you, good, I'll help you put the bracelet on. But most of the time, nah, wasn't very effective. Okay, that's me again. Individually, you get results. I'll give you a high five. I'm on your side. I want you to get results. If you find that copper has helped you, hey, I got no problem with that. But generally I've had so much experience over the years to say, well, I wouldn't bet my life on it. And that was Brenda. I'm not saying it's hocus pocus, I'm just saying it's not what it's all cracked up to be, okay, Bren?

Diane, "what would your opinion be for the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia?" Now trigeminal neuralgia is a problem with the cranial nerve that does this, okay, across your face, see? Nerve to the eye, nerve to the mouth, okay, and nerve underneath. Okay, tri, trigeminal neuralgia. Okay, so I like again what's a nerve vitamin? You guys know the answer to this. It's B12. So what did I do with trigeminal neuralgia? B12 and usually they were deficient in it, okay? They might've got a virus that caused it or whatever. I had them on oil of oregano. I had 'em on probiotics, but symptom-wise for the nerve problem, I had them on B12 and Navitol. Why Navitol? Again, nitric oxide opens nerves and blood vessels. Nitric oxide opens the blood vessels, more blood supply. You'll need that. You'll want that. And the B12 is the thing that helps with the myelin sheaths of your nerve, the coverings of your nerves. Okay, that was Diane.

Anna. "For uric acid, you like five, but the reference rates on my results," okay, well there's two US numbers and the US numbers are calculated in uric acid and Canadian numbers are calculated in uric acid. Two different numbers, okay? So if you get blood work done, what I did in my book, I talked about US numbers, but guys, it's not that complicated because whenever you get blood work, if it is high, uric acid is high, it's going to get flagged. Okay? It's going to get flagged. Okay? "So on my husband's range, can you identify the reference range please?" But the reference range, okay, so Anna, you're not asking me if your numbers are high, you just want me to talk about the ranges, okay? Just did. They're two different things altogether. The reason is because in the USA, they measure it differently than they do in Canada.

So just look at the reference range. And if you look at your blood work, if you uric acid is high, whether you're in the USA or Canada, it's going to get flagged as high. Okay? And you guys know how much I like that number uric acid. Why? Because I've added it to metabolic syndrome diagnosis. I've added it because most people think uric acid, they think gout. Not me. Most people that have high levels of uric acid don't have any gout at all. What it is though is a measurement. It's part of a measurement of metabolic syndrome. And the reason is because if you have elevated insulin and insulin resistance, one of the things that often happens is your uric acid goes up. Doctors think of uric acid mostly for gout only. Okay? Not me, I look at it, metabolic syndrome. Okay, so look up those ranges, Anna, okay? In Canada and the USA, I'd have to have it in front of me because.

Okay, this is June, not the month of June. Her name is June. Hi June, "I'm 77." You're still a puppy. "I have an A1C of 6.5." Too high. Now you're saying something here that I don't understand. Okay? I don't understand the way it was brought to me. June, maybe you said this right, but I don't understand your question because you've done the reset. You're eating good. Beautiful. "Is 6.5 A1C too high?" Yeah, it's way too high. Okay, but here's what you're saying. My doctor said no meds until my A1C is 5.7. So is this written right because I think it was written wrong to me. June, answer me, I think your A1C is not 6.5, it's 5.5 and your doctor said don't worry about it until it gets to 5.7. Well listen, 5.5 is a little above what I like. fIf it is that. If you're at 6.5, you're a diabetic with a 6.5 A1C.

And look, and you guys, you have to understand my answer to this. A1C, I love A1C. It's one of the best tests for insulin resistance. And if you have an A1C above 5.4, you're on the Titanic. You haven't hit an iceberg if you're at 5.5 June, and you are careful the way you eat, good for you. But you're almost there if you're at 5.5 and not 6.5 because your doctor said, well, we're not going to do anything unless you're at 5.7. Which by the way, I don't want you to take a medication. I want you to really be strict with your diet, which June you say you are. So clarify that for me. info@martinclinic.com. Are you at 5.5? Are you at 6.5? I think you're at 5.5, okay? Okay, lemme see, that was June and we love you June. Okay, couple of more. Lemme just see how many more I got. Yeah, I ain't going to get done today.

Okay, Lisette, you are asking, "what do you think of this man saying when you remove the cassian?" Okay, so cassian is a protein in dairy, okay? Casian, cassian, whatever, whey lactose sugar to make cheese, okay? "You remove the cassian and the whey lactose sugar to make cheese and ice cream that it becomes highly addictive because the protein and fat is so concentrated and it's basically dairy crack," he said. I've never heard that ever. Not even once in my life. Who's saying what? I don't even get it. If you remove the cassian in cheeses or ice cream makes it highly addictive or the whey or the lactose sugar. I don't even understand what he's saying there. It becomes too addictive because the protein and fat is so concentrated. Well that protein and fat is good for you. Now, ice cream. So a sugarless ice cream, is that what you're saying? I don't understand the question, so let me look it up, meaning Lisette, send me what you're talking about. Send me a link to the man you're talking about because I really don't fully understand what the question is. So send that to me please, Lisette. Okay, thank you. Dairy crack. I've never heard that term, really.

Okay, let me finish with this. Louise, "if you are in tryptophan, can this make you crave bread?" Well, tryptophan is a precursor to serotonin. If you're low in tryptophan, what has got the highest amount of tryptophan in food? Turkey. Okay, if you're low in tryptophan, can this make you crave bread? Well, maybe. I don't know. I've never, never, Louise been asked that question. I know what tryptophan is. If you're low in it, could you crave bread? Maybe? I don't know. I don't talk about tryptophan very much. If you eat meat, you're getting tryptophan. I mean the highest amount is in turkey, of course. That's why you want to sleep after you've had your Thanksgiving meal. I don't know. I'd never thought of that, to be honest with you. I don't think of tryptophan so much in terms of craving bread. Usually your leptin, I look at insulin because when your insulin levels are high, your leptin is low and then you crave. I look at that in ghrelin, ghrelin and leptin. I look at more of those two hormones. But I don't know. I never thought of the question you asked me. Never in my 50 years, never thought of it. I got to think about it.

Okay, I'm going to leave it there. Couple of questions I didn't really answer because I needed more info. Give me more info on those questions. I didn't understand them fully. So if you can send them more information or links info@martinclinic.com. Guys, we love you big time. Okay, so Monday we'll finish up Q and A. I just got to see how many more questions. Yeah, we'll be able to finish up on Monday. We love you dearly and we'll talk to you soon.

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