What he reaches for instead of an anti-inflammatory
If you are over 60 and searching for the safest anti-inflammatory to take every day, this is not the answer you were expecting. Dr. Martin does not pick one. He goes one layer underneath the question.
A note on where this comes from, because it matters. The episode is about a study on MS, not about seniors in general. What travels across is his reasoning and the cause list, not a claim that he named a safest daily pill for anyone over 60. He is not writing a prescription here and he is not telling anyone to stop one.
Why he says inflammation is not Houdini
A study had landed saying inflammation was destroying the nerve cells, and he liked it. His problem was that it stopped one layer too early.
Dr. Martin on the study:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1795But what they're not saying, and you know our saying here at The Doctor Is In, well, inflammation is not Houdini.
Houdini is the joke, and the joke carries the rule. Inflammation does not appear out of a locked box. It does not vanish on its own either.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1795There has to be a cause of inflammation.
Medicine will agree that inflammation sits at the root of chronic disease. He agrees too. He just does not stop there, and that is the whole difference in approach.
Dr. Martin on what that means in practice:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1795The point is that we have to go down another layer.
He says that immediately after calling the anti-inflammatory route a bandaid. Not useless, not wrong, a bandaid. It covers the thing rather than answering it.
Inflammation is your friend until it is not
This is the part people miss, and it is why he does not treat inflammation as the enemy.
You want inflammation. You get an infection, you want your body rushing in with proteins and enzymes and healing factors and blood supply. You come down hard on your knee, it hurts terribly, and that is inflammation doing its job. He compares it to insulin. Insulin is your friend until it is not, and inflammation is the same. The problem is not that it turns on. The problem is when it never turns off.
So the question he wants a woman over 60 to ask is not which pill quiets it. It is what is keeping it switched on.
Cause one: leaky gut
Dr. Martin on the layer under the inflammation:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1795Well, leaky gut is the cause primarily of inflammation in the brain.
He describes two borders, both invisible. One sits between your blood and your gut, the southern border as he calls it. One sits between your blood and your brain. He says a compromise at the southern one does not stay there.
Then he goes down one more layer, because that is his habit. What causes leaky gut? He says antibiotics, and that he does not even think it is close. He is careful with that. There is nothing like an antibiotic when you need one. He calls it a double-edged sword, because it does not care what is in its way, and the good bacteria at that border go with the bad. More on all of it in all disease starts in the gut.
Cause two: bad sugar and bad flour
The second and third causes he names are things you eat, and he groups them together at the end of the episode: bad oil, bad sugar, bad flour.
On flour, his point is that it is not simply sugar. He describes it as sugar molecules holding hands, and says today's bread is nothing like bread a hundred years ago. It is fast food with the nutrients gone. He calls that combination inflammatory, and he says it plainly.
This is the one that catches women over 60 out, because none of it looks like sugar on the plate. Toast, crackers, the roll with the soup. If you want the long version of what sugar does downstream, he goes through it in it only takes a month of eating sugar to get fatty liver.
Cause three: the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio
Here is the one almost nobody is watching.
Omega-6 and omega-3 are both fats you need. His point is about the balance between them. At roughly one to one, he says the body handles it fine. What he sees reported now is 20 to 1, 25 to 1, 30 to 1. And the biggest source of the omega-6 is the oil he says belongs in your car. Canola, safflower, soy oil. It is what the fast food is cooked in, and it is in most of what comes in a packet.
Dr. Martin on the ratio:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1795And omega-6 to the omega-3 ratio is going to cause major inflammation in the body.
Which is why DHA keeps showing up in his answers. Not because more oil is better, but because the ratio is out.
What he actually used
Dr. Martin on his own protocol, on an episode about MS:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 1795My protocol with MS calls for probiotics and high doses of curcumin.
Read that as what it is. He is describing the protocol he used for one condition, in the episode this article comes from. It is not a recommendation for every woman over 60 and it is not a treatment claim.
What is worth taking from it is the logic. Probiotics because they go at the root of the root, the border itself. Curcumin because he calls it very anti-inflammatory and pairs it there. Then DHA, high doses, because that is the other side of the ratio and he says it takes the temperature down. He also mentions keeping the liver clean and laying off the crappy carbohydrates, which is the same food answer arriving from the other direction.
Anything you take alongside a prescription is a conversation for you and your own doctor, not something to sort out from a podcast.
Common questions
What is the safest anti-inflammatory for seniors?
He does not name a drug. His first move is to find what caused the inflammation, and on this episode his own protocol used probiotics with high-dose curcumin and DHA.
What causes inflammation in the body?
He names leaky gut first. Then the food: bad oil, bad sugar and bad flour, and a skewed omega-6 to omega-3 ratio.
Is inflammation always bad?
No. He says inflammation is your friend when you have an infection or an injury. It becomes a problem when it does not turn off.
Does curcumin help with inflammation?
He calls curcumin very anti-inflammatory and used high doses of it in his own protocol, paired with DHA oil.
What causes leaky gut?
He puts antibiotics at the top of the list and says he does not even think it is close. He is clear he is not against antibiotics when you need one.
Read next: Arthritis In Women Over 60: What Is Actually Happening In The Joint and The Inflammation That Helps You And The Inflammation That Does Not.
Go after the cause
Martin Clinic's Inflammation Formula is the one he built around curcumin. It is not a painkiller and it is not a prescription, it is the supplement side of the approach on this page.
60-day money-back guarantee. Often taken alongside Quercetin. Always check with your own doctor before adding anything to a prescription.These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Always consult your healthcare practitioner before starting a new supplement, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition.
