1931. Visceral Fat: Your Hidden Health Threat

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. And nice to have you come on with us. We appreciate you guys.

So welcome again to the Doctor is in live Facebook podcast. Here we go. Okay, guys, a couple of questions came in. So let me answer those first and then we'll see if I can get to a study or two that we have.

Visceral fat. Okay. Visceral fat. How do you get rid of that?

It's a good question. Because visceral fat is different than any other fat. Visceral fat. What that word means is fat around your organs.

Okay. So it's not subcutaneous fat. Okay. You have fat under your skin and different puppy altogether.

Visceral fat is like an organ onto itself. And just in its presence. Okay. So let me get out.

I'm going to get five pounds of fat out. Okay. Unbelievable, isn't it guys? When you look at this, okay, if you're listening and not watching, if you're watching, what do you see?

Five pounds of fat. It's a foot long and six inches. Why? Okay.

Crazy. And when this fat wraps around your organs, okay, your gut, your liver, your pancreas, your heart, okay, all around there, that's called visceral fat. This fat has, like I said, it's separate from subcutaneous fat because it has its own line type of thing. And as soon as the body sees this in your body, you release what we call cytokines.

It's an inflammation storm. Your body sees this as a foreign invader. And your body's smart. So it releases a storm of cytokines trying to resist this fat.

And you develop a condition that's silent. You don't know it's there. And it is creating inflammation. Now inflammation, what does that do?

Well, inflammation, look, it's destructive. It's damaging. If you hurt your knee, you scrape your knee, your body's ambulance system. That's inflammation.

It brings extra enzymes in, extra protein. It wants the extra blood supply. It's extra protein. It wants the extra blood supply, your body's ambulance system.

And that's normal. But that is, you know, it's only going to last for a short period of time. But when you have visceral fat, that inflammation, it's silent. You really don't know it's there.

And unfortunately, medicine doesn't test for it, and they should routinely. But visceral fat is an entity onto itself, guys. That's what I'm trying to show you here. Okay?

And you can be, by the way, you can be skinny as a rake and have five pounds of visceral fat around your organs. And you would never know it because you're skinny. Because you're skinny. And a lot of people are skinny, but they're not necessarily healthy.

Like I said, for me, in my clinic days, being skinny didn't help you at all with me because you couldn't fool your biomarkers. And the thing with visceral fat, one way to test it, to see if it's there, is getting your CRP done, C-reactive protein. It should be a routine test in medicine, but it's not.

They still don't understand. They haven't got the memo on inflammation silent. And so C-reactive protein can be one way of, it's not the only way because you might have rheumatoid arthritis, for example, and your C-reactive protein is high because you have an inflammatory condition. But a lot of times, visceral fat is there.

You can't see it necessarily. And it can be very dangerous. How do you get rid of visceral fat? How do you get rid of it?

That's a good question. Because visceral fat, the thing that holds on to that visceral fat more than any other hormone is insulin. Insulin is a fat storing hormone. It will pack up.

Okay, again, guys, let me always remind you, always, what does insulin do? It takes sugar out of your bloodstream. Right? If you don't use it, right away is energy.

Insulin's job is saying, you're in a no parking zone, come with me. Then it tries to park it. Where does it park it? Well, if you have muscles, it'll be the first place that insulin looks for, for parking spot, for that sugar molecule.

Okay? So if you have muscle, it has limited parking spaces, but the stronger you are, this is why I always talk about muscle, stun, steak, and steal. Muscle. Why?

Because it's the best place to park. It is a mop when it comes to glucose. It'll mop it up. Okay?

No room there. Let's say there's no room there. Your insulin's going to look at your liver. It's the second spot that it looks for to park sugar.

Right? The liver, the Costco parking law. The Costco parking law. Why do we call it that?

Because today, more than ever in our history of mankind, we're carboholic. We've been lied to. We've been told, you need carbs. You need sugar.

We've been told that. And you need fiber. We've been told that. And you don't need red meat.

Limit your eggs. Butter? That's full of fat. But what people don't realize, because they've been lied to, that insulin takes sugar and stores it as fat.

In the liver. Now the liver, okay, only has so many parking spots in there. Okay? You're getting the memo?

It'll fatten up. Sugar will be turned to fat in the liver. Parking spots in the liver. When there's two things happen here, guys.

Two things. I want to just talk to you about this. When the liver is full of fat, no more parking. Your body's smart.

It sends out fat into your bloodstream. Triglycerides. They're made from carbohydrates. Triglycerides are not made from fat.

They're made from carbs in the liver turning to fat. Got it? That goes into your bloodstream. That's a negative thing.

Triglycerides are not good. They're fat balls. But they didn't come from fat. They came from sugar.

Okay? So now your body has a capacity to make triglycerides. And now when they run out of parking spots in the liver, you know what your insulin does? It does a third thing.

You know what it does? It makes more parking spots. So it gets rid of fat into triglycerides. They go through your bloodstream.

And then thirdly, what your insulin does, it makes fat parking spots. And most people, they don't know it, have an unlimited capacity to make more fat parking spots. This is what this is, guys. When I'm showing you this, your liver is full.

Now your insulin must create more. If you insist on eating sugar and crappy carbohydrates, things that turn to sugar in nanoseconds, well, your body, you know what it does? Makes more fat cells. Makes more and more.

And that kind of fat around your liver spreading to your gut, around your pancreas, around your liver, and that kind of fat around your liver, spreading to your gut, around your pancreas, around your stomach, around your heart, very dangerous fat. It's called visceral fat. Okay? So again, that's how you make it, guys.

So what do you do? Is it calories? Nope. You can lower your calories.

You can have less calories and move more. I'm sorry. That won't do it. You might lose weight, but you won't lose visceral fat doing that.

You have to change fuels. You have to change fuel. I used to tell my patients, change fuels. You're running on twigs.

Pretend you're a wood stove. Pretend your metabolism was a wood stove. When you eat a piece of bread, that's a twig. Do you heat your house with a wood stove with twigs and paper?

That just burn like that? No. You want logs. Well, meat is a log.

Eggs are logs. Good dairy are logs. On the fire. Go to the airport.

Putting fuel in the jets. You think they went to the airport? Putting fuel in the jets? You think they went to the gas station and picked up 87 octane?

Nope. They got jet fuel. And jet fuel is 99% octane. That's meat, guys.

And when you eat meat, you don't make visceral fat. Why? Because you don't need insulin. You don't need insulin.

The key is insulin. You don't need it. You're having an egg. Did you have bacon and eggs this morning?

You don't need insulin. It's on the sidelines. It's having a siesta. You're eating a better fuel.

And again, our society has been lied to. We've been told different. And God love vegetarians and vegans and all that. God love them.

But that doesn't make them right. Right. When you understand how insulin operates. And I'm not telling people not to have fruits and vegetables from the planet kingdom.

I don't do that. And the whole idea behind the reset, the whole idea behind the reset was to lower your insulin. And that's what I'm saying. Dr.

Martin, what are you doing to me? Are you punishing me? Because you're not letting me eat carbs for 30 days. I know.

You'll thank me later. Because I'm going to be able to prove it to you through blood work. Okay. We're aiming at your pancreas.

We're aiming at that insulin. It's going to make such a difference in your life. You have no idea. You have no idea.

So somebody asked me, okay, doc, how do you get rid of visceral fat? Well, it ain't calories. It's fuel. Change fuels.

Lower your insulin. You lower your insulin, you're going to lower that visceral fat. And that's why I'm saying even skinny people can have a pile of visceral fat around their organs. Dangerous fat.

Okay. Here's another way. Okay. The primary way, guys, is food.

In my office, I was always saying this. Can I ask you a question? Okay. Says me.

Can I ask you a question? Okay. Okay. Do you eat?

Well, of course I eat. I said, good, you're going to like me. Because I want you to eat. Even if you came into our weight loss clinic and you saw our practitioners, you like eating?

Yeah. I thought I couldn't eat. No. If this isn't calories in and calories out, this isn't eat less and move more.

We don't do that because that's not science. We're going to show you, you have to eat, right? Yeah. Put your hand up.

Put your hand up if you eat. Okay. I eat. Now, second question.

What do you eat? It's not how much. It's what. Visceral fat depends on what you're eating.

Not how much you're eating. Calories got nothing to do with it. You have a chocolate bar. Okay.

Let's say granola bar. Oh, must be good. It's granola. And then you have an egg.

Same amount of calories. Right? Granola bar. We've been lied to, told that that's wonderful.

Right? The bars, you go to the grocery store. My word. The amount of, you know, what they call so-called energy bars or healthy bars.

Have this for breakfast. Have it as a snack. Guys, insulin comes out of the woodwork to break that down. You put it up beside an egg.

They're the same calories. Oh, but your body reacts 100% differently for that granola bar. Right? That energy bar compared to an egg because an egg, no insulin.

Insulin is on the sidelines whistling. I'm on my break. I don't have anything to do. What you're eating is pure energy.

I'm not going to have to store it. You're having an egg. You're having bacon and egg. We used to tell my patients that.

You like bacon? I love bacon, but I was told I can't have it. It's got fat. It's got celery salt, nitrites.

That's what they are. Since when is that bad for you? It's not salt that kills you guys. It's sugar.

I've been consistent for 40 years or more. It ain't salt. So, see the difference? It's fuel.

It's fuel. And by the way, who's going to eat 10 eggs? You could, but who does that? Again, to my patients, you like bacon?

Yeah. You like eggs? Yeah. Well, then enjoy.

You're going to like me. Can I have that every day, doc? Every day. Seven days a week.

You want to flip your bacon for sausages? Go for it. You mean it? I mean it.

Leave the toast behind. Yeah, but Dr. Martin, it's whole wheat. It don't matter.

That's going to be sugar in nanoseconds. Now you need a lot of insulin. I don't want you to use insulin. I want you to send your pancreas and insulin on a holiday.

Send it away for 30 days. All expenses paid. Send your pancreas on a holiday. It'll help save your life.

So, when you want to get rid of visceral fat, get rid of insulin or lower it. Got it? Okay. Secondly, build muscle.

There's nothing that will soak up sugar like your muscle. And you guys know that I talk about it all the time. You want to lower your triglycerides? Build muscle.

Get stronger. Doc, I'm 80 years old. I don't care. You can get stronger.

You can get stronger than you are today. Get stronger. I don't want you to be Arnold Schwarzenegger. Okay?

I don't care about that. Get stronger. Look, any kind of exercise is good. Any kind.

You go for a walk? Wonderful. It really is. It's good for insulin too, but there's nothing like muscle.

Okay? Nothing like. And the third thing to do, because this has an effect on visceral fat. You want to get rid of this around your organs, guys?

You want to get rid of this around your organs? Okay. What do you do? Lower your cortisol.

Cortisol makes visceral fat because it elevates insulin. I wrote a book in 2011, Two Hormones That Want You Dead, insulin and cortisol. And I meant it. Two Hormones That Want You Dead, cortisol, stress.

Okay? Stress, that stress hormone. It's on your side, guys. Cortisol saves your life.

You need cortisol. I don't want you to get rid of cortisol. I want you to lower cortisol. You need cortisol.

Somebody's chasing you. You need it. You need it. You need it.

You need it. You need it. It's part of your circadian rhythm. It gets you up in the morning.

Cortisol is a hormone. Your body needs it. It's when it never gets a break. And that's what happens.

I've always talked about that because cortisol pours gasoline on the fire of inflammation. Cortisol, always, almost every cancer that I've ever seen in my office. And guys, they didn't come to me first. I was their last resort for a lot of cancer patients.

But it was amazing when you took a history of a cancer patient. Not only did we measure cortisol, and it was through the roof, it had been through the roof for several years. Family dynamics, divorce, separation, financial, loss of a loved one, child gone astray, addiction or whatever in kids. And I'm telling you guys, I could write books a while.

I did. And that's not taken into consideration. I'm telling you, guys, I could write books a while. I did.

And that's not taken into consideration. I did. And that's not taken into consideration. Trying to get a doctor, it's not their training.

They don't look at cortisol. In medicine, they're trained, well, you don't have Addison's. You don't have Cushing's disease, because that's all we can think of when they think of the adrenal glands, adrenal on top of kidneys. Guys, cortisol could be secreting at a high level for a long time.

And it does a lot of bad things, pours gasoline on the fire of inflammation, and it develops visceral fat. That's important, guys. It's important. And I've always got people to lower their cortisol, because it's not meant to have a full-time job.

It's just not. And we live in a world today that is worse than ever, guys, because listen, I talked about cortisol. I wrote a book on chronic fatigue syndrome, and I think I was the only guy on the planet that talked about adrenal gland exhaustion. Because they kept looking, and in those days, they kept looking for a virus.

It's the Epstein-Barr. It's monolike. Right? Well, it's like mono.

It's a virus. Nah. I said, that's not the primary cause. Because when they tested for Epstein-Barr, for example, less than half the patients who had chronic fatigue syndrome had Epstein-Barr.

So it couldn't have been the cause. And by the way, Epstein-Barr, a lot of people have Epstein-Barr, and it never gives you one symptom. It just lays dormant. It's not that.

I argued against that. I said, that's not it. And I did a lot because I wrote a book. I did a lot of radio shows, TV shows, interviews.

I must have done about 500 of them. And I said, nah, it's not a virus. It's adrenal gland exhaustion. It's cortisol.

And it doesn't get turned off. And then it drains the living life out of you. And it creates an inflammatory response. And we didn't even know it back then.

It helps develop visceral fat, fat around the organs, a dangerous fat. Okay? Anyway. Well, I never did get to the second one.

Somebody asked about visceral fat. I'm glad you asked. Don't be shy, guys. If you want me to speak on a topic, let me know.

Okay? Now, don't do it in the scrolls so much. Okay? Like, try and send it to me at info at martinclinic.com because a lot of times I just don't see it.

I, you know, guys, I see the scroll going by me, but at first, because I want to see your name to say hello, I see it. But once I start doing my show, hey, I'm a senior. You can't do two things at once. I can't.

Can't look at the scroll and talk. Well, sometimes I do a little bit. Okay. Guys, we love you dearly.

What an audience we have. I'm so proud of you guys. And that's something we went over the three million downloads on the Doctors In Podcast. And if we just had the amount of views on live, well, we'd be into the five and six million views.

Incredible. And downloads over three million. Just went over the three million mark. Unreal, guys. And that's all because of you. 

Okay. Friday is what? Q&A. Unreal Q&A because I'm going to answer as many questions as you send in. Okay? So I hope you appreciated that little teaching this morning on visceral fat and triglycerides, which is very dangerous for your heart. 

Love you dearly. Talk to you soon. 

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