1877. Red Flags Every Man Should Know

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

 

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. Nice to have you on with us. We sure appreciate you guys very much.

And don't be shy. Say hello. Okay. I'm going to do a little one here this morning because someone asked me, Dr.

Martin, you're usually talking about women's health. And it's true. When I talk about hormones, most of the time, I'm talking about women, because women are complicated. What makes them complicated?

It's called ovaries. Okay. Ovaries, ladies make you beautiful, but it complicates things. Okay.

Men, not so much. But someone gave me a little jab the other day and said, you know what, Dr. Martin, you don't talk about men very much. Okay.

I used to laugh at the office because when men would come in, and this is not always the case, but a lot of times, okay. Why are you here? My wife. What's wrong?

Nothing. How are you feeling? Good. That was men, okay, generally.

And I really liked when they brought their wives with them for the consultation. You know why? Because the wife would tell me everything. Because men know everything's good.

But what I want to go over this morning, okay. How do you know? Okay. Because I used to do a questionnaire in the office, and of course, we got blood work.

And I look at specific numbers. Guys, you know that. I did things differently in my office. I looked at things because I was looking primarily for metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance.

And so when a man came into the office, first of all, he filled out a questionnaire. And my flags would go off on the questionnaire because I asked these questions. Okay. What's your energy like?

10 being high, one being low. Where's your energy? I know that's subjective, but I needed to know that. And like I say, men, they weren't always honest, because everything was good.

They might not have felt good, but they didn't want no doctor prodding them. Okay. But anyway, I asked energy, what's your energy levels like? Because guys, at the end of the day, and ladies, if you want, take notes, because I'm going to give you indicators that you're hubby.

Okay. He isn't doing as well as you might think he is. I want you to look for certain things. Of course, if you can get blood work, even better, and very specific blood work.

But the very thing that affects women, and that is estrogen dominance, two hormones, estrogen dominance, and insulin. Okay. Had the big effect on the body, the two hormones. Remember in 2011, I wrote a book with my son, the 100th year anniversary of the Martin Clinic, serial killers, two hormones, I want you dead.

What were they? Insulin and cortisol. Estrogen was in there, but I didn't put it in the title. So, I wrote a book, and I wrote a book, and I put it in the title.

Cortisol, guys, makes women beautiful, and turns men into women. So, we used to look for that, and we measured that. Because in a man, we'd measure testosterone. If their testosterone was down, their estrogen would dominate, and it never should be in a man.

Anytime you want more estrogen than testosterone. But a lot of men, and here's the symptoms, we'll go over these things. Here are symptoms in a man where estrogen is too high compared to testosterone, and insulin is too high, and they go together. They go together.

Okay. One, poor energy. Have a look. Men, have a look.

Ladies, have a look at your man. Is he dragging his butt? Energy is a big thing, guys, because it's never normal to be tired. I mean, at night, of course, you want to go to bed.

Oh, you miss a night's sleep, or whatever. No, no, but generally, the answer should be, what's your energy levels? Okay. I'm 74 years old.

If you ask me, what's my energy levels like this morning? Just about 10 out of 10. Just about. Now, I got a shorter wick.

You know what I mean by that? I got a shorter battery life than I used to have. Okay. Like, I'm not firing on all cylinders as compared to when I was a 30-year-old man.

Okay. I'm not. So that's sort of normal, but I shouldn't be dragging my butt either. So the first thing, and we used to ask the question, because of the mitochondria, your battery packs, how are they firing?

Belly fat in a man. Belly fat. What does it indicate? Well, one thing for sure, insulin resistance.

Okay. Location, location, location. As I go get my five pounds, it's just five or 10. It's so big.

See the fat? So the folks that are just listening to this on a podcast, I got a foot long, six inches wide of fat. But guys, if that's on your belly, if that's on your belly and you can see it, one thing you know for sure, because belly fat is an organ onto itself. One thing that we've studied, and there's lots of studies on visceral fat, the fat underneath the hood.

That's why you can be skinny and have a lot of visceral fat around the organs. You can't see it, but you can see the belly fat. They're skinny, but they have a belly. That is dangerous fat because the body recognizes it as a foreign invader.

So it starts off a cytokine storm of inflammation. It's one of the reasons on the blood test. When I talk about blood tests, I like the CRP, C-reactive protein, because if that's elevated, silent inflammation, I'm not even talking pain here. I'm talking silent inflammation.

The body sees that fat, and usually with belly fat. So if you see belly fat, man, there's a good chance you have another silent condition going on. It's silent because you don't know it. And you know what that is?

Fatty liver. Fatty liver. Because that same fat that you can see in the belly usually means you've got a lot of fat packed into the Costco parking lot, your liver. Right?

Dangerous, guys. Dangerous. Because when you're packing fat, men, you're packing fat into the liver, you're elevating your triglycerides, and you're lowering your HDL. Now, liver gets involved in heart disease.

Liver gets involved in the brain. Okay? So belly fat, low energy, belly fat. They're red flags, guys.

And sometimes, ladies, you've got to be the one. Okay? You've got to be the one that sort of flags them. Because men, like I say, not all men.

I got a lot of good followers of men here. Okay? Lots. And you guys are educated.

And you guys ask questions. But generally, the world out there, many man boobs. Low testosterone, high estrogen. And remember, estrogen is a growth hormone.

The perfect storm in cancer is high estrogen. Okay? High insulin, low testosterone. Whenever estrogen is high in a man, it's a teeter totter.

If estrogen is high in a man, their testosterone will be low. It's as simple as that. It's teeter totter effect. So look for man boobs, belly fat, low energy, brain fog.

Okay? You know your better half, and he ain't better. Okay? You know that man, and you're like, ladies, he's got brain fog.

He can't focus. Can't concentrate. Okay? Sitting on the couch all the time.

Okay? Again, confusion, repetition. You know, just like, well, wait a minute, I forgot. No.

I'm a senior, so that's different. When you get to be a senior, you get a senior card. And I use that with great success. Oh, I forgot.

Here's my senior card. Okay? And people let you off the hook. Men.

Okay? Now we're going to get personal. Now we're going to get personal. Weak erections.

Okay? You know what that is, huh? Yeah. That's a major sign.

A major sign. Okay? Not only hormones. Okay?

Not only hormones. Estrogens going up, testosterone's going down, insulin resistance is elevated, and we can measure all these things. We'll talk about that test in a minute. Okay?

But you got problems in the bedroom, men. That's a sign. There's a huge connection between erections and heart disease. Because you're talking blood flow.

You're talking nitric oxide. Guys, you know what nitric oxide is? It opens up your blood vessels. You know, when I was in school in the 70s, we didn't even know there was such a thing as that molecule, nitric oxide.

I'm not kidding you. We never studied it. It wasn't until the 80s. I remember the first time I read about nitric oxide.

You know what I said? And this is a true story. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. What a God!

That's what I said. Because I didn't even know nitric oxide was a thing. And now you get the commercials on TV. Oh, this elevates nitric oxide.

So you have a molecule within your blood vessel that we didn't know about that helps to open them for blood flow. And when you have low levels of nitric oxide, usually, and again, you can test this. Okay? Blood flow.

Think about it for a minute. You need blood flow everywhere. You need it in your brain. And there's a real connection again between low blood flow in men.

And it can happen to women too. And their arousal. Okay? They don't get the nitric oxide.

But guys, I'm telling you, this is a big trouble with men. I always say I messed out on investing in the little blue pill, you know, like Cialis. Can you imagine? Like when I was in practice in my early years, nobody talked about that kind of stuff.

And now, you know, they've got commercials in the baseball game in between on medication. But the key is nitric oxide. And when you're low in nitric oxide, almost invariably, men, two things happen. Two things are present.

One, you're low in B12. And you only get B12 in steak. It's not in the plant kingdom. You're low in B12 and you're low in vitamin D.

Both of those vitamins affect nitric oxide big time. And you know me, I talk about this nitric oxide opening the blood vessels. And one of the biggest things that they've studied on Pine Bark Extra and Navitol, it increases blood supply everywhere. Because it's probably the number one thing that opens up the blood vessels.

That in the sun. Isn't that amazing? The sun elevates nitric oxide. So ladies, if a man won't admit it, and you know what's going on, okay, in the bedroom, that's a major sign.

Take it seriously. Take it seriously. And like I said, we'll talk about all the tests, get the testing done. Poor sleep.

Men, one, snoring. Okay, snoring. And again, guys, I bring you back to my school days. Okay.

Like my grandchildren say, Grandpa, when did you go to school? And the days of Noah was the arc around. That's how old they think I am. But no, in school, sleep apnea, sleep apnea.

We never heard of it. I mean it. I never studied sleep apnea. It wasn't a thing in the 70s.

And today, it seems like every second person's got sleep apnea. And remember here on this program, you've heard it here first. We talked about insulin resistance being the cause of sleep apnea. I know they talked about you're not getting enough oxygen up to the brain.

You're not breathing in the middle of the night. And some people, you know, a hundred times, they're not breathing. They stop breathing. But guys, why?

Why? If you got sleep apnea, almost invariably, you've got a few things going on. You have 100% insulin resistance. Number two, usually it goes with weight gain.

Now that doesn't mean skinny people can't get sleep apnea, but they rarely do compared to people that are overweight. That's just a fact. Plus, the biggest thing in here, and again, you heard it here first, is fatty tongue. They get fatty tongue.

Fatty tongue, sleep apnea. Insulin, guys, is a growth hormone, just like estrogen is. Makes things grow. Because insulin is a fat storage hormone.

And guess where it stores your fat? In sleep apnea. Your tongue. Fatty tongue.

Okay? Fatty tongue. This can lead, guys, poor sleep. Again, if you don't sleep or you get a poor sleep, if you have sleep apnea, you know what happens?

You're much more susceptible to Alzheimer's. Why? The biggest reason is because you're not detoxing your brain. Your brain is headquarters.

It needs a lot of energy. It takes 25% of all your food as taxes. It sends it up to headquarters, up into the brain. 25% doesn't matter what you eat.

25% goes to the brain to run the manufacturing plant up there. Whenever you have manufacturing, guys, you have waste. Okay? W-A-S-T-E.

You get waste products. And that has to be cleared. And the only time it's cleared is when you're into a deep sleep. The problem with sleep apnea, or any sleep disorder, is you're not getting the recuperative sleep.

So the self-cleaning oven doesn't get turned on at night. Your glymphatic system, the brain's detox system, not working. And this is one of the key reasons, okay? It's one of the key reasons that it can lead to Alzheimer's.

Now think about something else, because we talked about it earlier. Think of low nitric oxide. Okay? How do you know that in a man?

In the bedroom. Well, that affects the brain too, because the same nitric oxide down to the privates is the same nitric oxide for blood flow. And one of the biggest problems in Alzheimer's is blood flow. Decrease blood supply to the brain.

There's a lot of vascular problems in the brain. Okay? You can get a vascular dementia. So these things have an effect.

So poor sleep. Okay? Mood changes in a man. Okay?

There's anger there. Just under the hood. And it comes out a lot easier than it used to. Okay?

They get angry issues. They're frustrated. Easily. Okay?

We call those mood changes. If you see that, oftentimes it's not a psychological thing as much as it can be, or equally a physical thing. Usually their cortisol has gone up. Insulin's gone up.

Often a pre-diabetic thing. And you can tell that by the A1C. That affects the brain. Okay?

Usually there's underlying issues under the hood there. You can sort of pick them out. And again, you look at mood, you look at vitamins. Okay?

They have an effect on that. Vitamin D and B12. How do we talk about vitamin D and B12? Or the brain is shrinking.

You don't know it. Not enough fat. DHA in the brain. The brain shrinks.

Shrivels up like a prune. Okay. So you've got all those red flags in men. Okay?

You've got those red flags. Don't bury your head in the sand. Okay? Don't bury your head in the sand.

Men, don't bury your head. Because you can reverse a lot of this stuff. You really can. But you've got to know what you're dealing with.

So this is why I like those metabolic tests. So let's just go over them quickly. Okay? Here's the test that I want you to get done.

They're in my book, Sun, Stake and Steal, but I'm going to go over them with you. Okay? You want to know what your A1C is. Now we talked about this yesterday.

If you can get your fasting insulin and fasting glucose done. Okay? If you can get your doctor to do what they call a HOMA, capital HOMA-IR. Okay?

That's an insulin resistance test. It's very good. But the poor man's test is the A1C. And your doctor won't even hesitate for a minute to give you that test.

Okay? I want my A1C. Because that gives you a lot of indication. Anything above 5.4, guys, I say it, I say it, say it, say it.

If it's above 5.4, you're on the Titanic. Don't fool yourself. It's the way it is. Your cells at the cellular level, they got a bad relationship with insulin.

And they don't like insulin anymore. And they don't want insulin coming around. And they get tired of it. And so they resist it.

That is the start, guys, of metabolic syndrome. It's the start. It's the cascade. It is what heads the body down the road to chronic diseases like heart disease, like cancer, like Alzheimer's, like diabetes, obviously.

And even autoimmune diseases are affected. Even though I've got a new study on autoimmune and Parkinson's, we'll talk about that tomorrow. Because I ain't going to get done with the men here. But let's go over the testing.

So I want your A1C. Okay? I want your lipids. I want your triglycerides and your HDL.

Circle them, guys. Circle those two numbers. You're going to get a lot of information on a blood test. And it's confusing.

But if you look for two things in your lipids, I don't care about your LDL. I don't care about your APO-B or APO-A. I don't care. I care about your triglycerides.

Got to be low. And your HDL, cholesterol. Got to be high. Okay?

Equal with your triglycerides. Not bad. Better if it's above your triglycerides. Okay?

So get your blood work done. You got any of these things, get your blood work done, men. And ladies, insist upon it. Don't let them talk you out of it.

Okay? So you want that done. You want your A1C. You want your triglycerides.

You want your HDL. You want your CRP, C-reactive protein. It'll tell you years ahead of time if you have any inflammation markers. And inflammation can be silent.

You have no idea. But if inflammation's in your body, it can be very destructive. It affects the vascular, your endothelial layer, your teflon layer of your blood vessels. Inflammation damages it.

Not cholesterol. Inflammation. And those fat balls, triglycerides. Okay?

Get that done. And get your P12 done. Get your vitamin D, your dehydroxy 25. Get that done.

Get your ferritin done. I like looking at ferritin, guys. And a lot of men, they have way too much ferritin. Okay?

And when you have insulin resistance, oftentimes it sends your ferritin up. Ladies often have low ferritin. Men have high ferritin. That iron binding protein.

Ferritin. I like looking at that. And of course, get your testosterone done. Now remember, guys, testosterone should be optimized.

Optimized testosterone numbers. Because what happens if testosterone is down, you know your estrogen is up. And for a man, you don't need estrogen. Women need estrogen, not men.

It counters your testosterone. Get your liver enzymes done. Of course, these are all other things. Like liver enzymes and your kidney function tests, your glomerular filtration rate and that.

I like those numbers. But the big ones I talked to you about already. So we talked about that this morning. Men, they're not as complicated as women.

You're hard headed. Okay? You're hard headed. Mostly.

Not all men. Okay. Okay, guys. Like I said, we got some studies, brand new studies out that I want to talk to you about.

We'll try and do that tomorrow and Thursday. Friday is what? Q&A. Send your questions in.

Okay? Send your questions in. Q&A. Okay.

Guys, we love you dearly, sincerely and every other week. Talk to you soon.

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