1834. Overprescribed: The Medication Crisis in Modern Society

Join Dr. Martin in today's episode of The Doctor Is In Podcast.

 

TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE

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Dr. Martin:  Well, good morning everyone. And once again, welcome to another live this morning. Nice to have you come on with us if you can and don't be shy and say hello. Good morning to you. Okay. I want to talk about this guys because we've become over-medicated society, over-medicated. Here's a blanket statement that I've been using on my radio show for 20 years and then this podcast for 10 years. You know what I've been saying? Medicine has been hijacked by the pharmaceutical industry and the lab industry. Hijacked. There's a drug for everything and listen, there's a place for medication in our society. You guys know that? So I'm not saying you never take a med, come on. But we're over-medicated and it's unfortunate. And I just want to give you a few examples. You already know this stuff, but it's interesting to go over, okay?

Because I'm not against medication, but that shouldn't be the first thing. Okay. You got an infection, you take an antibiotic. I get that. Okay? I get that. We're not talking about that. We're talking about, for example, I'll give you a few examples where we're so over-medicated it's unreal. Think folks of mental health, depression. And for years now, and guys, I remember when SSRIs like Prozac came to the market. One advantage of being my age is I seen it. I remember when they came out and there was a warning about SSRIs that they're meant to be a bandaid, temporary, don't take them long-term, but guess what happened, of course. Like, oh, they must be working. So what happens? People are on them for 20, 30 years. Here's the problem with depression. Okay. Here's the problem with it. SSRIs don't fix the problem.

Now, you guys all remember the summer of 2022 when this was turned when mental health was turned on its head. Pardon the pun. Because after years of studying and looking at all the studies, they came to a conclusion that, for example, in depression, it wasn't a lack of serotonin. It wasn't a chemical imbalance. They looked at all the studies and came to this conclusion. It's not an imbalance. It's a problem with energy. It's how the brain through its mitochondria. It's an energy problem, not a chemical imbalance problem like they thought it was. So you have these uptakers of serotonin and it doesn't work. Okay. It doesn't work and it was never really linked properly to depression. So for example, okay, this is crazy, but for example, those who commit suicide, which is a big effect in depression.

Guys, I got a PhD not only in nutrition but in obituarology. My wife has given me another Ph D. She said, "You look at obituaries every day. Why do you do that?" Okay. So I have a degree in that, an extra degree. But it always shocks me when I look at ... I'm just talking about our hometown here in Sudbury, all the young people. You learn a lot in obituarology. You know what you learn? You find out where they want money donated to, the poor parents or the family, donate money to mental health. When you see that, it's either suicide or a drug overdose. And that's crazy. The amount of overdosing, but the amount of suicide. In Sudbury where I am from, one year they were talking when they looked at statistics about one a day, 30 a month. Crazy. But you know what? Almost without exception, guys. Almost without exception, they were all on antidepressants. Almost without exception. Nobody wants to talk about that.

Whenever you see mass shootings, right? It seems like every week there's a mass shooting. You know what they find out? Again, don't come after me. I'm just a messenger. Here's what they find out and you have to look behind the scenes because I don't want to talk about it. They're almost invariably on SSRIs. Suicide violence and it doesn't fix the problem. It's an energy problem. The brain, the mitochondria, which is an energy hog, your brain is an energy hog. 25% of things you eat the brain says, "You give it to me first. Give it to me first because it's headquarters up here and it's an energy issue." The brain is swimming in the wrong fuel. There's a lot of research, guys, and it started a long time ago. Research in food and mental health issues, for example, it started with epilepsy and they put them on what they call a ketotic diet, which is a high fat, very low carbohydrate diet because your body instead of burning glucose will burn ketones. Ketosis, that's what it means.

And they found out back in the 1920s that that can have, even earlier than that, can have a real major effect on epilepsy. And then they buried those studies. But it's the same thing I found in my practice if I did. The problem I found with any mental health issue in my office was compliance. I never saw bipolar or schizophrenia, depression. I was never the first choice of people. They didn't come and see me first. I wasn't a primary physician, if you know what I mean by that. Like you go see your doctor, but after years and years of either depression, bipolar, someone family or friend would recommend to these people, "Go see Dr. Martin. He'll do an analysis, look at all your blood work, do different tests, look at your hormones, see if there's an underlying factor." And then I would want to put these patients, let's say depression. I said, "Look, it's not just food, but food is a big component. If I can get you off sugar and get you eating eggs, meat, and cheese, try it for 30 days and see what your brain does. See how you feel."

If they would comply to that, if they would give it a shot, it was amazing how much better they felt if they would do it. The problem was I'm depressed. I find I need comfort food or whatever through depression like bipolar. It wasn't easy to get them to commit to a diet. I said, "Look, I'm not saying food is everything and your brain, the way you operate, you're a canary in the coal mine. Let's try food first. Let's just see if you cut out your sugar, cut it out and cut out the crappy carbohydrates, sugar and fat, i.e. Donuts or muffins or bagels." I said, "If you can cut it out, give me 30 days of your life. You're depressed. Give me 30 days of your life." And I'd have them on probiotics and things like that too. No, no. You know what I mean? I know that. But I was a food guy first. Let's go with changing your diet. You tried the med root, you haven't done well. The med root is a bandaid, but you haven't done well. You battled depression or anxiety or bipolar schizophrenia. You've done all that. You did the medical route.

And I'm not saying, you know what I mean? You got to abandon everything. All I'm saying is let's try it my way. Let's see what happens because it's not a serotonin thing like they said it was. It's not. It was fake news. I'm not even suggesting for a minute that we're going to make a big dent in this because the pharmaceutical industry, like I said to you guys, it is hijacked medicine. So you have mental health and it's medication and the results have been disastrous if you really think about it, disastrous. And I know like for example, this has been said about bipolar. Well, they're not on their meds. That's why they're recurring all the time. I can tell you I have seen bipolar so many times and they were on their meds and guess what? They were still going through episodes.

Anyway, okay let's talk about high blood pressure, for example. I don't want you to have high blood pressure. Okay? So let's put that out first. But nobody talks about in high blood pressure. Let's get you off sugar. And the number one reason for high blood pressure is kidneys and kidneys are hypersensitive to sugar and insulin. Let's get you off the sugars and let's see where your blood pressure goes from here. It's amazing. How many over the years? I don't want you to touch your meds. Stay on your meds till you don't need them anymore. Let's go after the root problem. Here's what I found with blood pressure almost every time. One, carboholics. Carboholics. Way too many carbs, way too much sugar. That has a major effect on blood pressure. Secondly, dehydration. Their blood was sludge. They didn't know it. I take a live blood test and I said, "You got sludge for blood." What? Sludge. You're dehydrated. You don't drink enough water. You need electrolytes. You need a little bit of salty water, but you better drink every day and you need two liters of it.

And people let, "Well, what's that got to do with my blood pressure?" I said, "Well, a lot. A lot." I don't know how many thousands of patients. They had no idea they were dehydrated. I said, "Well, your blood has got to circulate through 60,000 miles of blood vessels, one and a half times around the equator. That's what's going through your body. Your heart, it's getting the resistance because your blood is too thick. It's nice to have good blood, but you don't want it to be molasses and yet people have molasses for blood. Nobody tells them. They just are put on medications. And I used to tell my patients, give me 30 days. Give me 30 days and let's see what happens. Can you commit to that? 30 days. Drink water. Drink water. And you're going to do what I tell you to do. Drink two liters of it. 64 ounces for my American friends. "Well, doc, I'm going to have to pee more often." So what? Niagara Falls. Water. Your kidneys. Think of Niagara Falls. Ask Rosalinda and Janice and others from Niagara Falls.

Okay go to the falls. Two in the morning. Oh, there's no water going over there. Yeah, there are water going over there 24 hours a day. The water keeps going and going and going and going at Niagara Falls. Go have a look. Well, that's your kidneys and that major effect on your blood vessels. Major effect. It's not salt, guys. Oh, blood pressure. Better lower your salt intake. It's not salt. It's sugar and a lack of water. It's amazing what those two things do. When you cut out the sugar and drink water. Amazing. Want another med? Over prescribed acid reflux. PPIs, proton pump inhibitors. Man, oh man. I mean millions and millions of prescriptions. And here was the whole premise. Well, you got too much acid. You got acid reflux. You got too much acid. And I used to be John the Baptist in the wilderness screaming. No, it's just the opposite. You don't have enough acid in your stomach. So what will a proton pump inhibitor do to you? Not going to fix the problem.

And I always tell you guys, the problem with stomach acidity and not having enough acidity in your stomach is because of our diets. We went stupid because we were told to cut out the meat. Cut it down and yet your body, your stomach. You should have more acidity in your stomach than a lion. What does a lion eat? Plants? Nope. Meat. Meat. And a lion has very acidic stomach, but it's not even as acidic as a human being because you and I were meant to eat steak like a lion. You've been given that acidity. Now there's another reason for that acidity, by the way, too, because it kills bugs. You see, big part of your immune system, guys, is your stomach. It's a big part of it. When you have good acidity in your stomach, bugs first of all, can't get past there and two, they get killed there like H. Pylori.

Well people used to say, "Well, doc, I got H. Pylori." Well, everyone has H. Pylori. It's just weather yours got activated. And you know how it got activated? Because you didn't have enough acidity in your stomach. Why didn't you have enough acidity in your stomach? Because you're eating too many vegetables. You're living on the plant kingdom. You're eating salad when you should be eating steak. Do you think that made me popular? Well, not with doctors. I was popular with my patients, but not with doctors. Not with the general medicine. They thought I was crazier in three hoot owls, but you're designed. I don't care. You can try and convince yourself if you want, but you were designed to eat eggs, meat and cheese, dairy, butter, cream. If you have a cow in the backyard, milk right out of the cow because it's full of fat. Your body was designed for that. That's why the pH in your stomach is so acidic.

Okay. Remember two reasons. One, so you eat meat. You need that protein and your body breaks it down and needs a lot of acidity. You need a lot of acidity to break down protein. It's a big problem in our society today. People can't break down protein. You know why? Because they're so used to eating carbohydrates and their diet was carbohydrate loaded. It was never meant to be, guys. Never meant to be. That's why you've been given so much acidity in your stomach. And then secondly, like I mentioned, your immune system. Your stomach is a big part of your immune system. You should be able to take some acid from your stomach and it'll burn a hole on my table here. That's how acidic it's supposed to be. But people walk around and they have no idea. They're walking around with alkaline stomachs. You don't want alkaline stomach. You want alkaline blood but not stomach. And so what do they give you? PPIs, right? And you get them over the counter. You don't even need a prescription for them. And they decrease your acidity and you get, "Oh doc, if I don't take my PPI, I'm going to have terrible acid reflux." Yeah, but there's major side effects to PPIs because now you're not digesting properly. Now you're setting yourself up for major infection and you're not breaking down food properly, including proteins to amino acids.

Here's another medication that's way over prescribed. Sleeping pills. 70 to 80% of the population have trouble sleeping. The problem is a vast majority of them, they take an aid to sleep, not natural, a medication. I used to have patients come into my office and they tell me, "Well, I've been on this for years. Doc, I can't sleep." I said, "Well, you're not sleeping. You're sedated. Your brain, you know your self-cleaning oven you have in your brain? When you go to sleep naturally, your brain has a self-cleaning oven. You're sleeping but the brain is detoxing because again, anytime you have a lot of energy produced in the brain, you get debris. Well, at night when you're sleeping naturally, you have a self-cleaning oven. It's called your glymphatic system, but it does not work if you are on sedation rather than sleeping. You're sedated. You never get into that glial cells, the self-cleaning oven in your brain.

Guys, I didn't even know we had a self-cleaning oven in the brain in the 70s. When I graduated, we didn't know that. We knew we had a lymphatic system, but we didn't know the brain had its own lymphatic system called a glymphatics. It's a detox mechanism, but millions and millions and millions of people, they're put on a medication to sleep. And then I heard this a lot. "Dr. Martin, I only take half a pill." I don't care if you're taking only a half a pill. Your brain isn't detoxing. So you're getting short-term relief. You're sedated. I'll go to the pharmacy to give myself a migraine. I have a pharmacy right next door to me in our condo here. I got a pharmacy right next door. I go in there and they actually have a section called sleep aids. I say, "You know what? Why don't I just go through it so that I can give myself a headache, a migraine? I see Tylenol PM. I get a migraine. Over the counter medication to put you to sleep, nevermind what the pharmacist can give you to sedate you.

It's such a short-term solution, but it doesn't fix, number one, the problem. And secondly, it stops the self-cleaning oven, which makes you far more susceptible to Alzheimer's and dementia. So do PPIs, by the way. PPIs, you know what? They make you much more susceptible to Alzheimer's and dementia. Your brain needs nutrition up here. It needs amino acids. The hijacking of medicine because they don't talk to you about food. They don't talk to you about food as an alternative. It's something to start with a foundation. Imagine food and water. Vitamin W. Anywho. Okay. Guys, what's tomorrow? Q&A, right? Q&A tomorrow. Okay. Send your questions to info@martinclinic.com. They get to us and then we answer your questions. We try and answer everyone. Okay? We love you guys. Talk to you soon.

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