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Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark
Why The Tongue Is The Secret Window To Your Health & Other Hacks | Dr. Josh Axe
01:38:39
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- [00:00]
Alex Clark
Is the copper IUD really healthy?
- [00:03]
Dr. Josh Axe
It's terrible. If somebody's been on birth control pills for up to 10 years, it increases the risk of hypothyroidism by 283.7%. I think the number one reason why women have hypothyroidism today is due to birth control pills. We have scientists and doctors today in labs creating things that are absolutely synthetic that have side effects on the body. In fact, there's a proverb that says when God blesses us, he will add no trouble to it. So God's blessing has no trouble to it. There's not a single medication without a side effect.
- [00:57]
Alex Clark
Today Dr. Axe is going to tell you why you should implement raw honey into your meal plan immediately. What your tongue can can tell you about your health. Why mushrooms are one of the greatest supplements you can take. He'll explain the current testosterone crisis and if multivitamins are actually necessary. Dr. Josh Axe is a doctor of chiropractic, certified doctor of natural medicine and clinical nutritionist with a passion to help people eat healthy and live a healthy lifestyle. He's also a best selling author of like a bajillion books. I couldn't even list them all or it would take 20 minutes. I gave you a little snapshot of what we discussed in this interview. But man, I don't know that I've ever had a guest on where we cover such a diverse amount of topics in one episode. It's like a powerhouse, jam packed situation.
- [01:43]
Unknown
We have going on here.
- [01:44]
Alex Clark
You can watch this episode on the real Alex Clark YouTube channel or culture Apothecary on Spotify. They do video now. Please consider leaving a free five star review telling people why you love Culture Apothecary. Of course if you are looking for a new charity to be involved in, well, my show counts. We are donor funded. We are produced by a non nonprofit so you can leave a tax deductible donation through the link in the show notes. Please welcome Dr. Josh Axe to Culture Apothecary. Radicalize us on why we need to be eating more honey.
- [02:16]
Dr. Josh Axe
So honey is nature's greatest superfood. It's the greatest natural sweetener ever. When you look at this is amazing. They, they went and opened up ancient Egyptian tombs, our archaeologists and they opened up canisters of honey and they were still good and they were 3,000 years old.
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Alex Clark
What?
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Dr. Josh Axe
When you think honey, think preservation. It helps preserve things. It helps things heal, it helps things regenerate. The people that have the longest lifespan are beekeepers. They live an average of 10 years longer than the average person, 20% longer. 76% of honey is fake. It's adulterated, it's been ultra pasteurized and it's been ultra filtered so it doesn't have pollen in it. The enzymes are killed off the antioxidants there. And so there's a study showing that if you do the fake honey versus the real, it's a very different, it's very different in terms of what it does to your blood sugar. People tend to worry about honey impacting their blood sugar. All the studies show it hardly has any effect on your blood glucose levels. Of all things that are actually sweet with sugar, honey and certain fruits that are low glycemic have the lowest effect on our blood sugar. And there are compounds in honey that have amazing effects that you could also buy isolated. Now one buy. Here's the thing I want to say if you're buying honey, it needs to be raw and it needs to be local to have the biggest effect on your body. Honey contains over 200 different types of microbials that act as a natural immunization. I know you've talked about vaccines before and immunizing yourself, you want to truly immunize yourself naturally eat more local raw honey.
- [03:47]
Unknown
You know what this is, this brings up a great question is people say.
- [03:51]
Alex Clark
Like before a certain age you shouldn't.
- [03:52]
Dr. Josh Axe
Give a kid one year honey botulism.
- [03:55]
Alex Clark
But what do you think?
- [03:56]
Dr. Josh Axe
Well, I think likely it's probably safe but I'm not going to recommend that on the show because of the risk with that. And so I think, you know, and I think honey really kids, you should start eating when they have their first teeth pop up. That's how you know, God, God taught us, hey, teeth come out now you can start giving them food. I think that's likely about the time they could probably tolerate honey. But again, I'm not recommending that. I'm not saying that stick to the earth. I, I don't want to open ask.
- [04:23]
Alex Clark
Your medical provider or whatever they say.
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Dr. Josh Axe
And last few things about honey here I just think are just so powerful. One again, it naturally strengthens your immune system. Most people don't take honey for allergies until they have them. The symptoms which studies show it does help, but it's even more powerful if you take it year round because you're naturally getting your body used to the pollen and the microbes that are local via the honey. So it's a natural immunization that strengthens your immune system. Studies have shown bee pollen decreases allergy symptoms by 40%. Studies have shown royal jelly, which is what the queen bee lives off of, increases longevity in animals by about 20%. Propolis has been shown to increase natural killer cells, fighting off cancer infections.
- [05:07]
Alex Clark
That's why I love that Necropolis spray for a sore throat. And cold so good that you can pick up at the store.
- [05:13]
Dr. Josh Axe
So when you're getting raw honey, you're getting all of those things, but also buying them in isolation. The royal jelly for longevity, the propolis for immune, the bee pollen for allergies. So I think honey is one of the most underutilized superfoods and medicines on the planet. And it's also great for like. So our daughter, who's now four, when she was about six months old, she had cradle cap. Okay. And she had major dermatitis redness on her skin. We tried some things, wasn't working. I decided, let me try Manuka honey on there. Three days later, 100% completely gone. And so when you have kids with things like eczema, if somebody has psoriasis, dermatitis, Manuka honey combined with certain things like essential oils, what honey does is it actually helps bring the perfect amount of moisture to the area, which allows things to heal more properly.
- [06:03]
Alex Clark
Yeah, I like Manuka Honey instead of like Neosporin or whatever.
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Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, it's incredible.
- [06:10]
Alex Clark
I've actually had a lot of chiropractors on the show, but nobody has explained the history of chiropractic. And how the heck you guys are able to figure out what's wrong with people when, like, a regular MD is like, I don't know, it's a mystery. I have no idea what's going on.
- [06:25]
Unknown
Like, you guys have this special set.
- [06:26]
Alex Clark
Of skills and have been so far ahead when it comes to holistic medicine, it seems.
- [06:31]
Dr. Josh Axe
Well, you know, I think it's a combination of chiropractors, acupuncturists, people that practice and understand more of what we'd call root cause medicine. And you will see in the functional medicine community, a lot of those people are chiropractors. A lot are osteopaths, some are MDs. But predominantly throughout the past 20, 25 years, it's been more chiropractors, osteopaths, and naturopaths who have practiced more functional medicine. And one of the things that I was always taught in School is D.C. stands for Doctor of Cause. Like, what is the root cause of this issue? Trying to get to the root of it. And so what chiropractors tend to look at is the nervous system. So the brain and how the nervous system functions. Osteopaths historically have looked more at multiple organ systems, the blood as well. When you look at their founder, it really doesn't matter what the modality it is. It's figure out what the root cause is, then figure out the best modality. When I mean modality, I mean diet, acupuncture, chiropractic adjustment, hyperbaric chamber, whatever it is to get people well. But today, I mean the medical system today, this is not how they think. I mean, they are trained primarily. You know what funds a lot of the schools and even the doctors are pharmaceutical companies. And these pharmaceutical companies today only want doctors to prescribe drugs. Pharmaceutical companies don't make a single dollar off of. If you go and change your diet off of avocados, off of grass fed beef, off of turmeric, they don't make any money there. And so they're really incentivized to pour their billions of dollars into the schools, into the doctors keeping them trained on only how to prescribe drugs. And that's really why we're so sick to them. And I don't know if you've seen the recent stats. When you look at the top 12 nations, the US ranks dead last. It's like we spend over, I want to say like 12 trillion in health care and yet we have a lifespan of about 77 years where Japan spends less than half and they're close to 84 years. And so really what we're doing today, where we're just pumping drugs down people's throats, it's not working. And so I think more and more, I mean, I've seen, you know, acupuncture, chiropractic, functional medicine just explode over the last 25 years in growth because people are learning that there are absolutely natural ways to heal that don't require drugs or surgery with all the side effects.
- [08:53]
Alex Clark
When I'm looking for a chiropractor, one thing that can be kind of intimidating to me and a little overwhelming is that everybody has like a different style and they all have these like different methods. And I don't even know. One of the things that you are really a big believer in is Chinese med medicine. And I have so many questions about this. I want you to explain chines medicine because I think to my Christian audience.
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Unknown
That might really freak them out.
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Alex Clark
They think that that's a little new age.
- [09:16]
Dr. Josh Axe
There are a lot of different techniques, but generally there's two camps of chiropractors. Well, actually there's really three camps, some that Are more on the medical side, some that are really focused on just doing chiropractic in order to optimize the function of the nervous system. And the way this works is you. We have joints that sort of start to have lack of movement. And what chiropractors will go is try and find the segments that need to be moved, help increase the movement in the area, help align the area, and that brings more blood and nutrients to the area. And nerves actually feed out of there. So there are nerves that go from our. You have your brain, which controls the function of every organ. And your brain sends messages down the spinal cord out to every cell, tissue and organ of your body to help your lungs breathe, your stomach to digest food. And if there is lack of movement and disruption around those vertebra, that can affect the spinal nerves, which can then affect the organs. So what chiropractors do is they a. To improve the function of our organ systems in order to help the body not only get rid of pain, there's a lot of medical studies on that, but even to improve digestion, to improve athletic performance, to overcome issues like allergies and asthma and colic in babies. And so that's sort of the idea around chiropractic. And then some chiropractors expand out into not just the practice of chiropractic. Many of them also practice things like nutrition, functional medicine, regenerative medicine, and really get to that root cause, not just with chiropractic, but also knowing, hey, if we're going to get to the root cause, we also need to address diet as well.
- [10:48]
Alex Clark
And one cool thing is that a lot of times, if you're really unsure where to start, like, how do I find my raw milk farmer and, you know, grass fed meat in my area or whatever, a lot of times your chiropractor will be the one that can hook you up with those people.
- [10:59]
Dr. Josh Axe
There's a lot. Yeah, absolutely.
- [11:01]
Alex Clark
If you just ask your chiropractor, like, hey, where do you know, like, where I could get raw milk and stuff? They a lot of times they know. Sometimes they do raw milk pickup at their office.
- [11:08]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah. You know, so I used to have a functional medicine clinic and as part of it, we did chiropractic, we did nutrition consults, we did some physical therapy. We did, we did a. It was more of a holistic health center. But we had people bring in things like raw milk and coconut oil and raw honey before it was even popular. We had somebody bring in kombucha all the time. And so it's yeah, that can be a great resource. You mentioned Chinese medicine. When I first heard about Chinese medicine, I grew up in a very conservative Christian household. I went through a Christian school that I was in eighth grade, went to church and, you know, and Sunday school every Sunday and Wednesday nights. And so my mom was one of those moms that was very much like anything that was Eastern and not Western, was New Age or of the devil. And so when I started hearing words like chi or yin and yang, I thought, well, that sounds kind of out there. But as I studied medicine and Eastern medicine, and by the way, when you look at the Bible that's in the Middle east, most of this people are very familiar with over in areas like Israel. In fact, the acupuncturist that I see, one of my closest friends, his name is Gilban Ami, he's from Israel and an amazing Jewish man. And he really believes a lot of the principles align more with the Bible than our Western medicine, our pharmaceutical pharmacia today that people look into. And so all that being said, and by the way, there's also thoughts in this. This might be a little. Christians might find this interesting, but many Jews believe. And not just. Not just the acupuncturist I know who's Jewish, but also one of my best friends, Jordan Rubin, and a lot of the Jewish researchers he knows in Israel, they believe there's a verse in the Bible that says, and Abraham sent his wife Katara and her sons east with gifts. And katara means incense. And they believe some of those gifts were the ideas of Chinese medicine. And when you look at the way Chinese medicine is taught in things like yin and yang, which seem really weird to us, well, yin and yang means yin is feminine and yang is masculine. And then also they're just two categories of things. So yin is more estrogen, yang is more testosterone. Yin is more internal. Yang is more external. Now let's jump over to Genesis. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and the night and the day and the land and the sea and the earth and the sky and man and woman. And so really, when you start to study it, if you kind of move biases aside and you decide, I just want to learn about how to help people heal, you start to understand that Chinese medicine's been around for around 4,000 years. It's been proven by millions of individual case studies. And one of the crazy parts as well is people think that our Western society is so far superior to Eastern practices or ancient practices. But Western medicine, the way we practice it today has only been around for 150 to 200 years.
- [14:08]
Alex Clark
That's right.
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Dr. Josh Axe
Versus 4,000. So it's very different. So what Chinese medicine looks to do is bring balance to the body. And so they'll say things like, okay, you've got too much or too little yin or yang. And with a woman, you actually would. That would be looking at the difference between estrogen and progesterone. Okay, we've got too much estrogen, not enough progesterone. Let's. That's a form of yin and yang. Let's bring that now back into balance and harmony. Or it could be an issue like your body's too hot or too cold internally or too damp or too dry, or you have too much movement or not enough movement. And an example of that would be like IBSD and irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea. That is too much dampness, which is known as candida in Western medicine. And it's known as being too cold, which is why you're also having diarrhea, as an example there. So really, it's just looking at patterns and then using foods, herbs, acupuncture and lifestyle to then improve those patterns. So if somebody has IBS D, we're gonna say, well, we need to warm up the body. Let's do ginger herbal tea, and let's do chicken bone broth soup. And then we also need to clear up the dampness. So let's do some bitter foods like some parsley and some celery to help clear out the candida and dampness out of the body.
- [15:22]
Alex Clark
I love that.
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Dr. Josh Axe
And that really the philosophy.
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Alex Clark
As a Christian chiropractor, how do you feel about muscle testing? Is there a right way? Is there a wrong way? Is it demonic? Is it the occult?
- [15:34]
Dr. Josh Axe
The body speaks to us in a lot of different ways. And one one ways are symptoms right. If somebody has a. Their nose is running, your body's telling you something. If you feel worn down and tired, your body's telling you something. Well, your body. We can do different types of muscle testing, and our bodies can tell us something. Now, I will say I think that there are certain, certain forms of testing that might be more accurate than others and certain practitioners that might be more intuitive and can discover things more accurately than others. I think muscle testing can be fairly accurate with the right practitioner, but some practitioners are not going to be very accurate with it. Like, I'll give you an example of this. If you're asking me about muscle testing, when it comes to looking at maybe certain Muscles that aren't firing properly. I would tell you that I think that that's probably fairly accurate if you're asking me about that with testing for supplements. Okay, so, hey, is this supplement good for you? I would say if you have a very intuitive practitioner, it's probably fairly reliable for them, but for others it might not be. And so I, I don't have a really good answer on that one. I can tell people probably even more accurately what supplements they should take via looking at their tongue, hearing their symptoms, looking at blood work. And I really try and combine both east and west together. I like to be able to see what's going on via what their body is saying. But also having some blood work on occasions, really helpful too. Let's just remove all biases here and say, okay, if you test a muscle and you believe that that means something for your health, let me give you an example of this. Our body, in order to have a heart problem, it's not only your heart that tells you you have a heart problem. I can feel your pulse right here to maybe tell you of a heart problem. If you have left shoulder pain, even when you're having a heart attack, that can be a heart problem. Upper neck pain or lower neck, upper back pain, that can be a heart problem. Medical testing, blood tests, that's a heart problem. So to be able to test somebody's muscles, and this has been known for thousands of years, different muscle groups, different tendons and areas of the body are connected, different organ systems and how they communicate. And so again, if somebody has a gallbladder attack, they get pain in their right shoulder. Is that non Christian? Is that weird or strange? I. I don't know. So, so my point is for someone to say that muscle testing would be unchristian, I think that that's where somebody starts to adhere to one ideology. And it tends to be things that are Western that I understand are true. Anything that's outside of my understanding or anything that's not in the United States or Europe, that's evil, that I think that's what starts to happen. And let me say this, I do understand the concerns from the standpoint of, you know, when you look at Ayurveda and you look at even the ideas of the chakras, I actually think there's a lot of truth there. But I think when you look at the way that they start to treat it with things like Reiki, okay, well, what sort of spirit is influencing that form of treatment?
- [18:29]
Alex Clark
Right.
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Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, I have concerns there. And I wouldn't let A Reiki practitioner, especially a non Christian, practice that on me when they say that part of what they're doing is connected to some form of spiritual healing.
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Unknown
Right.
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Dr. Josh Axe
I'm going to go to my pastor, I'm going to go to a close friend. I'm going to go directly to God and pray to pray for healing. And so, you know, I do think I do understand some of the concern. However, I think what people tend to do is lump all of it together. Well, it's like, well, acupuncture and Reiki and Ayurveda and all of it. It's all bad and that's just not the reality. I know a lot of Jews, a lot of Christians who are acupuncturists who are into and treat people with eastern medicine and get better results with Western. I would also argue that. Do you believe that God created us to heal within a synthetic drugs? We have scientists and doctors today in labs creating things that are absolutely synthetic that have side effects on the body. In fact, there's a proverb that says when God blesses us, he will add no trouble to it. So God's blessing has no trouble to it. I love that there's not a single medication without a side effect. This is good. This is good. So, so. And I'm not saying there isn't a time or place for medications. 100% there are. I had a spinal infection, I almost died. And antibiotics help save my life. And so there's a time and a place where they're not going to do harm. They're actually going to do more, more health than harm. But I do think there's a lot of medications being prescribed that are not bringing a blessing. I think they are. It's trouble being added to it. For instance, you know, there's hardly a medication that doesn't have a major side effect. I mean, birth control is an example of this. If somebody's been on birth control pills for up to 10 years, that increases the risk of hypothyroidism by 283.7%.
- [20:12]
Alex Clark
Is this what happened to me?
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Dr. Josh Axe
I think the number one reason why women have hypothyroidism today is due to birth control pills along with conventional antibiotics. Now there are other things that contribute overstress, which can start to wear out the adrenal glands. Not getting proper sleep?
- [20:27]
Alex Clark
No. I went through 10 years of being on the pill and multiple years in a row taking antibiotics because I kept getting strep throat and yeast infections and whatever. I was always on antibiotics.
- [20:38]
Dr. Josh Axe
Here are all the nutrients that birth control pills deplete your body of vitamin B2, B3, B6, B9, B12, selenium, magnesium, zinc, all of those nutrients are required for something called methylation. And if you're not methylating properly. Have you heard some people have what's called a gene variant, the MTHFR gene variant?
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Alex Clark
Yes. I had so many questions for you about what that is.
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Dr. Josh Axe
A lot of women are pointing to that as being the problem of. It could be infertility, could be low energy, can be hypothyroid. And the reason why a lot of women are having some of these issues. It's not just the mtf, MTHFR gene. That's. That's one issue. The bigger issue, though, is contraceptive drugs to where it's depleted the body of all of the nutrients needed to create thyroid hormones. Gosh.
- [21:24]
Alex Clark
And you know what's so strange is kind of ironic, anyway, I should say, is that my favorite food of all time is oysters. I could have two dozen oysters in one sitting, like, no problem. And that's like everything that you're saying has been depleted in my body. I wonder if that's like, kind of why I crave those all the time.
- [21:40]
Dr. Josh Axe
Well, that and then organ meats are going to be incredibly high. Red meat, raw dairy. I mean, these things are going to be higher in those nutrients, especially the B vitamins that we just shared. Magnesium as well. And so when women have hypothyroidism, most doctors today, what they'll do is they will go and prescribe a drug like Synthroid, which never gets to the root of the problem. In Chinese medicine, it's known as a Chi and Yang deficiency. So really there's a deficiency of cellular energy, of nutrients, and of the body's ability to regenerate itself. It's being anabolic.
- [22:11]
Alex Clark
What do I have? Do I have more masculine or feminine in me? Because you looked at all my labs.
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Dr. Josh Axe
You have, based on your labs and what I'm seeing in your tongue, what's called a blood deficiency, which means we need to strengthen and build the blood, which is more known as Yang energy in Chinese medicine. And more yin is related to certain. It is a depletion of nutrients, but more so it's a working too much. It's sort of going, going, going and being busy and sort of, you know, decreasing that. But it would be known as a kidney yin deficiency, primarily in a kidney Yang deficiency. So it's actually both.
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Alex Clark
Okay, we have to talk about the tongue things. This is like the weirdest thing a doctor has ever done. Tell me, what does the tongue tell us about our health?
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Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, it tells people a lot. It's funny, you know, when we go to a doctor as a kid and they have to stick our tongue out, it's almost always just to look at your tonsils. But throughout Chinese medicine, or throughout. Throughout history, Chinese medicine practitioners, Japanese medicine practitioners, even in the Middle east, in India, they would look at the tongue to be able to read what was going on. Greek medicine, all the way back to Hippocrates, they would look at the tongue. And so here's a few things you'll see. One, most of us know this already. If there's a white coating on your tongue, that is candida building up or yeast overgrowth. In Chinese medicine, they call that dampness. And that's also connected too much phlegm, too much mucus. So it could be snot, it could be, again, phlegm all the way from your nose to something like ulcerative colitis, where there's mucus and phlegm building up in your colon. But we can tell that by if there's a coating on the tongue, okay, if the coating is white, it means that it's just candida. If it's orange or yellow, it means that it's dampness with heat, with inflammation. If you have ridges on the side of your tongue that almost look like bite marks or scrapes on the side of your tongue, you're a lizard. Well, maybe that or it could be that, or it could be a. What's called a spleen qi deficiency, which is really a digestive system deficiency tied to the pancreas and the digestive system. And so that we need to strengthen up the digestive system. If the tongue is too red, it is inflammation. If it turns blue, there's a lack of oxygen in your body. And if the color of the tongue, not the coating, but the color is more pale, that's indicative of a blood deficiency. And so there are ways to treat that blood deficiency. We need to do herbs like dong qua. You need to do iron, more red meat, more green, leafy vegetables, more organ meats.
- [24:40]
Alex Clark
Anytime I have my chai tea, my tongue looks kind of like yellow. Green on the top.
- [24:45]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, it would be a little yellow. The reason is, is chai is full of a lot of warming spices. And so if you already have a little bit of a coat, the black pepper in there, the cinnamon, those are more warming spices. Some of that might be to the coloring of the actual her in the tea. So if you have something that's brown, that can make your tongue look more orange or yellow, so you really want to do it in the morning before you eat anything to get the most accurate diagnosis.
- [25:09]
Unknown
You said that my tongue looked white.
- [25:12]
Alex Clark
Pale as a ghost. Basically, I'm like a dead person walking. That was your words exactly, right?
- [25:16]
Dr. Josh Axe
Well, no, those are definitely. Those are definitely your words. What I said was your tongue is more pale than it should be.
- [25:22]
Alex Clark
Okay.
- [25:23]
Dr. Josh Axe
Which means we need to build your blood, and that's. And there are different things that cause low energy, right? One is a blood deficiency, which could be anemia. Anyone with an. And it's like borderline anemic. When I say blood deficiency, think about the equivalent of pre diabetes to anemia. It's like you're sort of borderline anemic in a way.
- [25:43]
Unknown
Okay?
- [25:43]
Alex Clark
So my conspiracy theory is that that day when you checked my tongue out a couple weeks ago, I just happened to have eaten a certain thing or it was cold out or whatever. I drank a certain thing. So I want you to look at my tongue again and tell me if it looks the same or if things have changed.
- [25:59]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, it looks the same.
- [26:03]
Unknown
It's the same. I have no blood.
- [26:05]
Alex Clark
I'm a vampire, so.
- [26:07]
Dr. Josh Axe
So what I'm seeing in your tongue right now is it's pale. There's a little coating in the middle, and it's a little bit orange. And that's tied to your digestive system. And so what we need to do is we need to build your blood and we need to strengthen your digestive system.
- [26:20]
Alex Clark
You showed me a chart, and it had all these pictures of all these tongues and what they mean and all that. And probably a thousand people said, where can I see this chart? So where can they get that? Is that something specifically with you? They have to go to you to get that, or can they Google it?
- [26:34]
Dr. Josh Axe
No, they can Google, and they just simply need to look up tcm, which stands for traditional Chinese Medicine Tongue mapping. And if they do a search on Google or whatever search engine they use, they can look at sort of different mapping and different. Different examples there of what tongues look like, and maybe compare theirs. Another great thing to do is just go see a TCM practitioner in acupuncturist. They could tell you what's going on, the pattern in your body, give you some advice on what to do next. The thing I love about Chinese medicine, it's just. It's very accurate. I think it's more accurate than Western medicine. It gives you a better picture. I'm Obsessed of exactly what's going on.
- [27:07]
Alex Clark
I want to learn everything. Like what are the books I should be reading about Chinese medicine that'll like really radicalize me.
- [27:12]
Dr. Josh Axe
Let me say this. There actually are not that many good books now. I wrote a book years ago. I think it's a. Maybe the best for the average person to read on the topic. It's called, it's called Ancient Remedies. And, and that book really gets into all of this.
- [27:26]
Alex Clark
You had this whole little formula for me of like what I need to be doing to warm and warm my blood. That's right. And recipes and all kinds of cool things. Could you. We don't have to go through my whole thing. But just like, so they have an idea. Like it was such a customized cool plan. Like can you just give a couple examples of like what you had told me to do?
- [27:47]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah. So. So with you in particular, again, we need to build the blood and we need to build up that the kidneys and digestive system. And so what we want to do is focus on the foods and herbs and supplements that are going to help you do that. So in order to build the blood from a food standpoint, it's going to be some of the things I mentioned earlier. It's red meat, it's organ meats, it's steamed green leafy vegetables, it's beetroot juice. Those things in particular are going to help really build the blood. So foods that are reds and greens tend to be the most blood building.
- [28:15]
Alex Clark
Everything was like, we need to warm up your body, warm up your womb. Like you really like lamb and stews. That's right, Soups basically like treating like my body's in like hibernation winter mode.
- [28:25]
Dr. Josh Axe
You know, now, but again with hypothyroidism, people's body temperature lowers. We have to raise it up.
- [28:29]
Alex Clark
Do you think this tongue thing is connected to the Hashimoto's 100%?
- [28:33]
Dr. Josh Axe
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So in Hashimoto's there tends to be a few different. Now there can be multiple causes, but it tends to be an adrenal issue with what's called your adrenal yang. And your. It's connected to your gut as well. Your gut microbiome, that's the autoimmune component there with your tongue in particular. Not everyone with Hashimoto's also has a blood deficiency, but that's why I'm recommending you get more of these blood building foods that we talked about like in the goji berries are included in that too. Now the other thing that everybody across the board with Hashimoto's has is their adrenals are overstressed. And so there's a lot of adaptogenic herbs that help that, like ashwagandha. And then one I really like if you also have autoimmune is astragalus. So ashwagandha and astragalus both are adaptogens. They both strengthen the adrenals. 1 Astragalus strengthens the digestive system and your immunity as well.
- [29:25]
Alex Clark
I ordered every single supplement you recommended. I feel like you put astragalus on there. I think you have a capsule or.
- [29:31]
Dr. Josh Axe
Something that was on there, which I.
- [29:32]
Alex Clark
Am really thankful for because somebody else told me to do a liquid supplement of astragalus. Tastes like poop. I hate those liquid ones.
- [29:39]
Dr. Josh Axe
Well, a lot of these herbs are bitter. Yeah, very bitter.
- [29:42]
Alex Clark
It's awful.
- [29:43]
Dr. Josh Axe
And so they're. Yeah, they don't. They don't taste too good.
- [29:45]
Alex Clark
So my recommendation. And I mean, it's not bad. It's just some. And.
- [29:48]
Unknown
And is it.
- [29:49]
Alex Clark
Is there some benefits like it. It. I don't know, it starts working faster when you do the liquid version of these herbs.
- [29:54]
Dr. Josh Axe
The only thing I. I will say historically these were always taken as teas. Now, they didn't have the power to encapsulate things back then. But maybe there is an impact in terms of you actually tasting something, because with a capsule, you're not tasting it. Now, I still think that capsules are fantastic, but I think that certain. Drinking certain teas, I just didn't know.
- [30:15]
Alex Clark
If they're more biovit available or something.
- [30:17]
Dr. Josh Axe
No.
- [30:17]
Alex Clark
Oh, so I'm just suffering for no reason?
- [30:19]
Dr. Josh Axe
Not really.
- [30:19]
Alex Clark
Okay, well, that's.
- [30:20]
Dr. Josh Axe
Now, let me say there are some people that believe that if, you know, you can absorb things if they're held under your tongue. And it is true. I mean, your mouth and under your tongue, it does have the ability to absorb. Absorb certain things. But I think you're. Most people are going to get just as good a results doing the capsules versus the liquid.
- [30:39]
Alex Clark
Well, if you have to do any liquid supplements, I mix them all together.
- [30:43]
Unknown
I.
- [30:44]
Alex Clark
Whatever the amount is, I put it all in a shot glass.
- [30:46]
Dr. Josh Axe
That's right.
- [30:47]
Alex Clark
And I. Quick, because it is the worst tasting thing you've ever had. Do that quick. And then I have like an ollipop or something, like a strong fizzy, you know, kombucha. It's got to be something like that to kind of like get the taste off.
- [30:57]
Dr. Josh Axe
Can I tell you who else we do that with what my four year old, she loves that.
- [31:01]
Alex Clark
See and that's what you have to.
- [31:02]
Dr. Josh Axe
Me this is a lot of people have to do with my dad too in his 70s.
- [31:06]
Alex Clark
So okay, so talk about, you were going to talk about the Hashimoto's.
- [31:09]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah.
- [31:10]
Alex Clark
Because so many people have it.
- [31:11]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah. So Hashimoto's is known as a Chi and Yang deficiency with also a immune component where your immune system is overburdened. And so what we need to do is and here's what most people do, most doctors prescribe Synthroid or steroid to weaken the immune system. A lot of natural doctors will say hey let's maybe do some herbs and some vitamins and some dietary changes as well like an AIP diet or GAPS diet or something along those lines. Keto carnivore. But what Chinese medicine will really look at is saying okay, well we need to get to the root of the issue here. Let's first strengthen up the adrenals. We're going to do that with Ashwagandha, astragalus, dong Kwai, licorice root, rishi mushroom, some of these herbs, cordyceps. And then we also need to really support the digestive system. And that's going to be things like ginger, it's going to be doing chicken bone broth, soup, I mean soups in general, doing meat, cooked vegetables, bone broth. Those are gonna be the most healing foods for most people with autoimmune disease. Soups, soups and more soups and things like cooked sweet potato are fine as well. Pumpkins and pumpkins, squashes, rice cooked for a long time to where it's mush, that's called congee. If somebody consumes a diet like that predominantly and they take some of the supplements I talked about, now I talked about the herbs. I think a couple supplements that really help people with Hashimoto's are a methylated B complex and soil based probiotics. So high dose probiotics along with methylated bees along with the herbs I talked about. And then if people can then also just lower the stress levels almost every single time I have people with Hashimoto's reverse it completely get off their medications. I mean predominantly that happens and people with hypothyroidism either get completely off the medications or get just to the minimal dosage almost every single time.
- [33:08]
Unknown
Did you know that coffee shops are one of the top places where people fall in love in real life and in rom coms. I mean coffee really is the center of everything good.
- [33:16]
Alex Clark
Right.
- [33:17]
Unknown
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- [36:30]
Alex Clark
Oil, soybean, and whatever oil they found.
- [36:33]
Unknown
In the bottom of the dumpster. Every time you eat them, you can feel your brain cells getting slower. Like your body is saying, yeah, no, we're good. Just go ahead and binge. Watch Netflix for 72 hours straight. We'll be here, deteriorating, eating. But guess what? Masa chips are here to save you from that self inflicted disaster. These are 100 organic corn chips made with grass fed beef tallow. Real fat, not that weird vegetable oil stuff that makes you feel like you've just eaten a plastic bag and they're seasoned with Redmond real salt. Because hey, we're not here to ruin your taste buds like that other brand. These chips actually taste good.
- [37:06]
Alex Clark
Real food.
- [37:06]
Unknown
They're crunchy, they're satisfying, and they won't make you feel like you need a nap or that weird hot dog hangover that you get after eating 20 of your your body weight and seed oil snacks. You know, get it together. Okay, you say, I'm working on it. No, you're not. You're sabotaging yourself. But you can fix it. Masa chips, okay? It's a step in the right direction. Plus, with Masa, you're not just eating something good for you. You're actually doing something good with every bite. Because part of the proceeds go to supporting people doing real work, not just fattening up corporate executive bank accounts. So stop embarrassing yourself with those other chips. Get Mazda chips. Use my code real Alex Clark for 20% off your first purchase. Mazda chips.com code real Alex Clark for 20% off your first purchase.
- [37:52]
Alex Clark
Some of the medications people are taking that they're prescribed by their doctor be causing unknown nutrient deficiencies.
- [37:59]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yes. There's not a single drug that doesn't deplete your body of multiple nutrients. Not a single one. I mentioned birth control earlier. B2, B6, B9, B12, selenium, zinc, magnesium, actually vitamin C, vitamin E as well. So there's a lot of depletes the body. Antibiotics are the worst, though. Antibiotics deplete your body of almost every single nutrient. I mean, it's really crazy when you look at the medical literature and somebody could go look this up on Google or chat GTP or whatever, and look up what nutrients are depleted when you take an antibiotic drug, or is there a risk of any nutrient depletions? Look up any drug on chat GTP or Google. You're going to find a lengthy list there with all these drugs. Metformin, that depletes your body of vitamin B12 and coenzyme Q10. It increases your risk of heart disease and neuropathy, which neuropathy, of course, is a side effect of diabetes. Diabetes, the drug that they're one of the things they're trying to prevent with taking the drug for. So, yes, I mean, there are again, you know, Ambien. Like a sleep drug. Yeah.
- [39:01]
Alex Clark
Tell me that's what, you know, that's what I'm struggling with.
- [39:04]
Dr. Josh Axe
Magnesium. And that's also one of the minerals you need to sleep well. So what happens is, oftentimes you take these drugs and what it does, it starts to deplete your body of the nutrient that you actually need to sleep well. So you become even more dependent on the drug.
- [39:20]
Alex Clark
And I think magnesium is one of the best supplements. Like, if you want to notice a difference, like right away, if you've never taken any supplements, like, I think telling people to start taking magnesium, they're gonna be like, holy crap, I'm a new person.
- [39:31]
Dr. Josh Axe
For most people, I think the ones that move the needle the most are, number one, magnesium. Absolutely agree with you. Number two, vitamin D, and number three, zinc. And then if somebody has a thyroid issue or an adrenal issue, B vitamins are probably ranked number four there. But in terms of the nutrients, yeah. Magnesium is responsible for over 300 different functions in your body.
- [39:51]
Alex Clark
Wow.
- [39:51]
Dr. Josh Axe
If you're deficient in magnesium, it can ruin your sleep, it can ruin your digestive health, it can ruin your cellular energy. It can make you feel just old and awful.
- [40:02]
Alex Clark
I feel like I've heard before that you're not supposed to be taking zinc every day, that that can cause problems. So how often do you take the zinc?
- [40:08]
Dr. Josh Axe
You can't take zinc every day if it's an isolated zinc supplement. Because what'll happen is it'll start throwing your copper off.
- [40:15]
Alex Clark
Okay, see I knew there was something.
- [40:16]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, you need a balance of, of zinc and copper. What, what zinc does. Zinc really helps repair your gut lining, repair tissues and strengthens immune function. Copper is an anti parasite and it's also it fights infections. So if you get too much zinc, copper can start to decline. So it actually weakens your body body's ability to fight things like Lyme disease, Covid different types of infections. So I've actually seen people over supplement with zinc and then their Lyme symptoms or other symptoms got worse and they thought they were doing great the whole time thinking oh so I'm taking zinc, this is going to help me better fight and strengthen my immune system to fight this off where they took too much of it. But if you take a food based zinc that also has copper, you can take it for a pretty long time, years. And it typically not be an issue if it has some of those other minerals like copper in it. But for the most part if you're sick taking it for a month, there's really no issue.
- [41:13]
Alex Clark
There is a multivitamin really necessary.
- [41:16]
Dr. Josh Axe
My philosophy in medicine is very personalized. I believe everybody should have a very unique diet customized to them. I've had so many people before who have had their friend go and do a diet and saw great results and they tried it and they're like this did not work for me. In fact it made me worse.
- [41:30]
Alex Clark
I've showed it before and I tried to give a disclaimer like do not just start taking this cuz I am. Everybody wants to know, please share your supplement routine. Please share what you're. I'm like I could, it could totally jack you up if you get on what I have going on. Cuz I'm a vampire zombie woman who has no blood.
- [41:45]
Unknown
So like you don't what?
- [41:46]
Alex Clark
I could mess you up if you start doing what I do well.
- [41:48]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah. So like if, if, if another woman has, has low energy in Hashimoto's then there's a really good likelihood what you're doing is great for them.
- [41:58]
Alex Clark
Right.
- [41:58]
Dr. Josh Axe
But if somebody has cancer or inflammatory bowel Disease or something, they, they really need to be on pretty different supplements.
- [42:05]
Alex Clark
Yes.
- [42:06]
Dr. Josh Axe
You know, when it comes to multivitamins, I think that if you're going to do a multivitamin, it should be a food based supplement. That's something I've said a couple times now. A food based supplement is where you are taking the nutrients from a food and multiplying it. Or it's very similar.
- [42:21]
Alex Clark
Broccoli, like they have that like broccoli supplement or Brussels sprouts or something, right?
- [42:25]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah.
- [42:25]
Alex Clark
Like greens.
- [42:26]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah. And if you look at some of the larger supplement companies out there today that are in natural health food stores, you know, several of them are food based supplement companies and so.
- [42:36]
Alex Clark
Or beef liver.
- [42:37]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah. So they'll have things like liver in there. They might have again, broccoli might have sprouts, might have beetroot juice, might have herbs. But also the nutrients themselves, some of them are cultured or fermented nutrients, Those tend to be more bioavailable and better digested as well. So my point there is if you're gonna take a multivitamin look for something that is either organic or food based and you tend to do better with that. Brands like Ancient Nutrition, Garden of Life, Megafood, these are ones we've all seen in the past. You know, those are more food based brands versus Thorne or designs for health Health. Those aren't bad, they're less food based but they're still fine companies and some of their, some of their products are fine quality. By the way, I'm not endorsing or recommending any supplement company right now. I'm just giving examples of food based versus non food based companies.
- [43:25]
Alex Clark
Is there any supplement company that's super popular, like this is trash. Literally never take their supplements.
- [43:31]
Dr. Josh Axe
Let me just tell you something I would never do. I'd never give my kids like or I would never take a Centrum vitamin.
- [43:38]
Alex Clark
Okay.
- [43:39]
Dr. Josh Axe
And I would never have my kids probably take Flintstone vitamins either.
- [43:42]
Alex Clark
Oh well that, yeah, that's a given.
- [43:44]
Dr. Josh Axe
A lot of people don't realize this when you look at the really cheap supplement brands that you're going to go and buy in a drug food store. A lot of those nutrients, they basically grind up limestone and they pull out the minerals from those. So it's all very synthetic. And there are studies showing like if you take an isolated calcium carbonate supplement, it increases your risk of heart disease, of dying of a stroke and having a heart attack. Because what happens is you take the synthetic calcium, there's no magnesium with it, there's not these other nutrients. And it circulates in your blood. Well, your body doesn't know how to use it. It actually gets lodged in the cholesterol in your arteries and starts to cause calcification of your arteries. So calcification, calcium, calcification of the arteries, that hardens your arteries, increasing your risk of heart disease. So if people are taking synthetic vitamins, multivitamins, I actually think it could increase their likelihood of dying if they're taking synthetic multivitamins and vitamins versus doing the food based.
- [44:42]
Alex Clark
How do you know if a supplement brand is truly using the highest quality or they're using synthetic fillers?
- [44:49]
Dr. Josh Axe
I think it's just learning how to read ingredient lists.
- [44:51]
Alex Clark
So what should we be looking to avoid?
- [44:54]
Dr. Josh Axe
Well, well, there is a type of. When you look at a supplement, one of the things you do want to look for that sometimes they just say C, but it could be a sarcomesis. It's a type of yeast or bacteria next to the vitamin. Those tend to be good. I think some of the methylated nutrients tend to be higher quality as well. So if you're looking at your vitamins and minerals, you're seeing that on there. Those tend to be higher quality, along with having more of the fruits, vegetables, herbs, those sort of things in the supplement as well. Some of the things you want to stay away from are food colorings, food dyes, a lot of magnesium stearate. Again, just things like just plain calcium carbonate.
- [45:32]
Alex Clark
Are seed oils and supplements bad or is that fine?
- [45:34]
Dr. Josh Axe
Well, seed oils in anything are bad. Now I don't look at a lot of synthetic brands, so they might be sneaking seed oils.
- [45:40]
Alex Clark
Oh, yeah, it'll say like soybean oil or sunflower oil.
- [45:42]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, you don't want to touch those.
- [45:44]
Alex Clark
Okay.
- [45:44]
Dr. Josh Axe
Those are just the cheapest, worst brands that are, you know, terrible for you.
- [45:47]
Alex Clark
I have gotten so many questions about mushrooms. What are the different mushrooms that we could be taking as supplements? What are their little jobs that they do for the body?
- [45:57]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah. So we've talked about Chinese medicine. This is why mushrooms are so popular today, is in Chinese medicine. They're prized as being the number one food to support immune health. Now, there are many benefits of mushrooms, but let me go through the top ones and all their individual benefits. One of the first one is known as Trinity's versicolor. It's known as turkey tail.
- [46:15]
Alex Clark
Yes.
- [46:15]
Dr. Josh Axe
And it's very, very brightly colored. If you look at pictures at it, it's beautiful. It's got green and blues and purples and oranges. And browns and reds and yellow. It's just very colorful. It has really strong antiviral properties. So if somebody has a virus or a bacteria or a parasite, any sort of infection they want to fight, Turkey tail is the best, whether it's the common cold or flu or even things like Lyme disease. I really like turkey tail for fighting infections. The next one is for the brain. That's lion's mane. Mushroom room. Lion's mane almost looks like a mop. And there's actually a principle in Chinese medicine, if a food looks like an organ, it supports the organ. So it looks almost like a brain with tentacles coming out, which is almost like your microvilli in your gut. Lion's mane is known to support the gut brain connection.
- [47:03]
Alex Clark
Okay, love.
- [47:05]
Dr. Josh Axe
And it has something called. It supports something called nervine growth factor, which is growing in regenerating nerve tissue, which is really powerful. It's been shown in medical studies to improve the symptoms of dementia and Alzheimer's, improve cognitive function and focus. So lion's mane is amazing for that. Reishi mushroom is the most prized mushroom in all of eastern medicine in Israel, throughout the entire world. It has the best longevity benefits. So if somebody wants to add years to their life, they should be doing rishi mushroom on a regular basis.
- [47:33]
Alex Clark
Who doesn't?
- [47:34]
Dr. Josh Axe
It's known as the mushroom of immortality. One other one is cordyceps. These are grown on. They grow on caterpillars and these were prized for boosting testosterone in kidney yang. It's also very good for hypothyroidism. And then another group would be maitake shiitake. There's a lot of anti cancer properties of those types of mushrooms as well. All of them across the board though, for the most part have anti cancer properties. And last one I'll mention is chaga. This is something that's a fungus that was prized in Russia and Siberia. It reduces inflammation and supports athletic performance.
- [48:06]
Alex Clark
When you are taking these, is there a rule like, you know, take these for like three months and then you need to switch to something else and stop.
- [48:14]
Dr. Josh Axe
Or these are something you can do permanently because they're really a food. And what I tend to do is buy a multi mushroom supplement and do those or do a mushroom coffee or mushroom tea. But I tend to do one that has a blend of all of them. Or if I have a certain health goal, you know, let's say I'm writing a book, I really want to be able to focus. Well, maybe I just take lion's mane there if I'm sick Maybe I just take turkey tail, but as a general rule, I take a multi mushroom or a reishi daily.
- [48:40]
Alex Clark
Everybody wants to know about mushroom tea and coffee. Do you have a favorite one?
- [48:43]
Dr. Josh Axe
I don't.
- [48:44]
Alex Clark
Okay.
- [48:44]
Dr. Josh Axe
I just do, to be honest. Sometimes I just buy the raw ingredients myself and just simmer it and just. And drink it that way.
- [48:50]
Alex Clark
Okay.
- [48:50]
Dr. Josh Axe
We own a mushroom farm, so that. So for me, it's a little bit different. Jordan Rubin and I, we own 4,000 acres of certified regenerative organic land, and we actually have a mushroom farm. So I can get mushroom. All these mushrooms.
- [49:02]
Alex Clark
You've got it all in your yard.
- [49:03]
Dr. Josh Axe
Box is sent to me anytime. So.
- [49:05]
Alex Clark
So do we actually need to be buying food at the grocery store that says organic?
- [49:08]
Dr. Josh Axe
Are those foods more nutrient dense? And the answer is not always. Okay. Sometimes the nutrient level is very similar. And when you look at the really big organic brands and they're doing mass producing a lot of food, it's not always more nutrient dense. It might be slightly more, but it's not always more. However, I do believe if you're going to your local farmer's market or you're buying from a small mom and pop certified organic brand, most of the time, those foods are gonna be more nutrient dense. Now, the benefit of organic, though, beyond that, though, is that it does not have herbicides, pesticides, and chemicals sprayed on it. There's a study I read recently that said glyphosate, which is the main chemical sprayed on all these foods today. It's found in Roundup. That herbicide, it alters 54% of our gut bacteria. I mean, it is absolutely crazy how bad it is for us. I think there's a lot of conditions today, everything from low testosterone in men to hormone imbalances in women to cancer. In fact, there's other studies on Roundup. Increasing cancer risk, different forms of lymphoma, blood cancers going up. And so that. That's the biggest benefit of. Of eating organic. It's not just the nutrient density, which might be slight, but it's much more. You don't have to worry about glyphosate and all of these chemicals and herbicides being left on our food now. Well, there are tricks to help get this off. Taking your fruits and vegetables, soaking them in baking soda and rubbing them down for one minute actually eliminates over 90% of the pesticides and chemicals. So that's.
- [50:37]
Alex Clark
Yeah, that's all I do. Everybody's like, what's your fancy fruit and vegetable wash? I'm like, I don't Know what you're talking about. I just use baking soda and water.
- [50:41]
Dr. Josh Axe
That's it.
- [50:42]
Alex Clark
You brought up testosterone. We need to have a come to Jesus talk with the men.
- [50:46]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah.
- [50:47]
Alex Clark
We are seeing a terrifying testosterone crisis. Right. So what is happening and what will it mean for civilization if we do not fix this?
- [50:57]
Dr. Josh Axe
When we look at the statistics of how far men's testosterone levels have plummeted over the last 50 plus years, it's absolutely staggering. It's around 35%. That would be a man in their 20s today has an average testosterone of a man did in their 70s back 50 plus years ago.
- [51:13]
Alex Clark
So then is the fertility crisis that we're seeing, is it, is it equal blame between men and women of stuff that's going on with us or is it, is there a lot on the men here?
- [51:21]
Dr. Josh Axe
Statistically it's still skews towards the women.
- [51:24]
Alex Clark
Okay.
- [51:24]
Dr. Josh Axe
But men, more now than ever before also are contributing. There's no doubt about it.
- [51:30]
Alex Clark
And why are we seeing these testosterone levels drop like this?
- [51:33]
Dr. Josh Axe
Well, I think there's a combination of dietary toxicity and cultural and so, and here's what I mean. So when you look at chemicals like Roundup and glyphosate, those definitely decrease testosterone levels. When you look at phalates, these are found in everything from the receipts we buy at stores, those have chemicals that decrease testosterone. Plastics, microplastics, increase estrogen, decreased testosterone. The food we're eating, like vegan diets, those decrease testosterone. So a lot of our, the foods we're not getting, the nutrients we're not getting from red meat and organ meats and nuts and seeds. Some of those are a lot of the testosterone boosting foods.
- [52:15]
Alex Clark
Is ultra processed food contributing to the testosterone crisis? Like guys that are going to Wendy's every year, every day for lunch?
- [52:21]
Dr. Josh Axe
Absolutely. Seed oils, processed foods, all of these again, boost estrogen, decrease testosterone.
- [52:27]
Alex Clark
Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. The fast food is feminizing the men. So this for the women that are like, I just don't know what to do. Alex, I'm so on board with all of this, but my husband, like I can't convince him. I don't know what to say to convince him. I feel like saying what you're door dashing every day where you're going on lunch at work, it is making you more womanly.
- [52:46]
Dr. Josh Axe
It's just, it's destroying testosterone. Men, absolutely. All the ultra processed food is destroying testosterone. And men, and, and what men can do is just pick a different restaurant to doordash from, buy from, cava or a faux restaurant, buy, you know, Whole Foods Market, True food kitchen. I mean, there are other options out there where you can buy organic meat and even whole grain bread. Have you got me obsessed? Have your wife make sourdough for you and send it with some, you know, sliced turkey meat. But let me say a few other things about testosterone.
- [53:18]
Alex Clark
Yes.
- [53:18]
Dr. Josh Axe
That people need to know about. It's not just the men that have a low testosterone. Women, a lot of women now have very low testosterone as well. And it's because the microplastics, the processed food. The other thing is it's the feminization of society. Now, I know this might be a little bit controversial.
- [53:34]
Alex Clark
Not for my audience.
- [53:35]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, you're right. Exactly. Not for your audience. We have glorified. It's not even true feminism, but feminism today. But it's more the feminization of men. So it's like we're trying to make like victimhood almost women more like men and men more like women. And there's a study I came across on one of the number one things you could do to build testosterone. And you know what it was? Men going out and chopping wood.
- [54:00]
Unknown
Love. Yes.
- [54:01]
Alex Clark
And let's set up a camera. And you know what? And we can judge.
- [54:05]
Dr. Josh Axe
It was actually more effective than playing sports like soccer and basketball and other athletic events. Going out and chopping one in the backyard for men. And I think there's a combination of, it's a full body activity, but also it makes you feel like a man. I can tell you when my dad brought me out in my yard when I was a kid and he taught me how to chop firewood, it was probably the most outside of shooting a bow and arrow. Those are like the most manly things I remember my dad ever teaching me to do. So I think men have lost the art of being men. A lot of men today, when your testosterone goes down, you don't feel motivated, you don't pursue your wife as much. You're not attracted, you're not as attractive yourself. All of those things start to happen. But there's a lot of men today that are demotivated. They're not as ambitious. They ambitious as they used to be. And I think a lot of women see that and they're like, what's going on with my husband? What's going on with my, my, my mate here? And their testosterone has crashed. And so a few things, they can do it. They need, they need more certified organic grass fed red meat. So they need more meat. Brazil nuts are great. Walnuts are Great. More healthy fats from coconut, herbs like ginseng, herbs like ashwagandha, fenugreek, cinnamon. And they need to be working out and hanging out with other masculine guys is maybe the single greatest thing they can do, along with chopping wood to help get those testosterone levels up. And for women, they need to do more of those warming herbs that we talked about. Cinnamon, ginger, fenugreek, holy basil, ashwagandha, the cordycepsis are all good for women. And, and I think that when women have low testosterone, also sometimes that's correlated with hypothyroidism as well.
- [55:40]
Alex Clark
What are the top foods for gorgeous hair?
- [55:43]
Dr. Josh Axe
Well, number one is going to be bone broth. Bone broth contains about 90% collagen. That's, that's absolutely critical. And then foods rich in biotin, which is vitamin B7, are also important. I, I think raw milk can be pretty great for hair health. Healthy fatty acids, especially omega 3 fatty acids, we're going to get in wild cause got fish, flax and walnuts, love organ meats, are going to have a lot of those B vitamins that are going to be very supportive to hair health. And then there's actually just, in Chinese medicine, nettles and horsetail are two of the supplements that are high in things like silica, which are also very good for, for strengthening hair.
- [56:22]
Alex Clark
What would you recommend for chronic dry eye? This is one of my worst Hashimoto symptoms and it is miserable to deal with. I have a little warming eye mask and I'll lay there and have that on my warming up my tear ducts stuff, but it's horrible.
- [56:36]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah. So in Chinese medicine, this is typically tied to what's known as a kidney, which is also adrenal. So when I say kidney, it's adrenal yin deficiency. So your body is not producing enough fluids. And so consuming more foods that support that is going to be good. So foods that would support those types of fluids are going to be coconut, mango, banana, egg yolks, especially ducks are even higher in this. Duck egg yolks, cucumber, celery, miso and natto. So beans actually can be good for this as well. But a lot, but a lot of this, that's a sign of overexertion.
- [57:12]
Alex Clark
Well, funny. Every single one of those foods that you just listed, I either can't eat because it came up on my stupid IGG food allergy thing, or I don't like, so I don't eat.
- [57:20]
Dr. Josh Axe
Can I mention with these IgG food allergy tests that they're Fairly inaccurate.
- [57:26]
Unknown
Okay, thank you. I knew it. My instinct this whole time has been.
- [57:30]
Alex Clark
Telling me it's fake news.
- [57:32]
Unknown
I don't believe it.
- [57:33]
Alex Clark
The only thing I told you I.
- [57:34]
Unknown
Believe is the eggs because I, I do, like, start to get really sick.
- [57:38]
Dr. Josh Axe
If you're only doing an IgG in isolation, you're going to have a lot of false positives. So it's not. Here's the reality. It is telling you these, these food sensitivity tests, they are telling you some of the things that you're intolerant to, but it's also giving you some foods that you just might be eating a lot of.
- [57:57]
Unknown
And that's what it was.
- [57:58]
Dr. Josh Axe
And, and so, so you're going to see that now there's it. Now you can do a food sensitivity test where you not only do an igg, you do an ig, ige, iga I, where you do more of looking at other antibodies and immunoglobulins. And that will give you a better frame of reference of maybe across the board what you're allergic to. So it's more of an advanced food sensitivity test that is a little more accurate. But still, here's what I tell my patients. I still sometimes will have them do food sensitivity tests. But what I will do is say, listen, here's a list of foods. What I want you to do is these are the foods you need to pay attention to and you need to feel if, if your joints don't feel well the next day, if your nose runs, if you get phlegm, if you have any reactions. So don't use it as an absolute. Use it as something. These are the foods you need to be most aware of that you could be allergic to.
- [58:49]
Alex Clark
What would you give your child who has an ear infection before you ever gave them antibiotics? Products?
- [58:53]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, probably garlic, mullein oil. And so garlic is an antiviral, right, in the ear. Well, most often you rub it around the ear and so sort of the vapor there gets around the ear. So, so by. So there are some of those that you put directly in the ear and some that you just put around the ear. So you need to look at the brand and see what it recommends, because it, it actually depends on the brand. That's the first thing I would do. And, and one other thing that actually helps, that is chiropractic adjustments can help with ear infections. So that can be highly effective. Acupuncture can be highly effective. But a lot of times viruses need to run their course. Giving kids chicken bone broth soup with some herbs like thyme and parsley and garlic. Those are really strongly antiviral. You know what's so funny is like, why do we call it a cold today? You know, we call it a cold. Why do we call it a cold? That stems from Chinese and Greek medicine, that your body is too cold internally. So think about most of the remedies for getting rid of a cold cold. A warm bowl of chicken bone broth, ginger, herbal tea, garlic, oil of oregano, you know, cayenne pepper. These are all very spicy and warming foods to warm up your body from a cold. Now, there's two types of cold. You have the cold cold, which is your body's cold internally. And there's also a type of cold you can have where heat invades your body, and that's where you get a fever. Your body gets too hot, okay? And so you need to cool it down. And herbs that help with that, that are things like thyme, mint propolis found in honey, andro graphis, echinacea are, are going to more. Be more cooling and drive viruses out of our systems.
- [60:27]
Alex Clark
My dad gets this horribly hacking cough every single fall, winter, like clockwork. As soon as the weather starts to warm up, goes away. He's fine. As soon as it starts to cool down, this horrible cough comes back. And no doctor can figure it out. I mean, what would you. Where would you start on that? Like, what do you think?
- [60:46]
Dr. Josh Axe
There's a seasonal change that happens in the fall and through winter. And the number one common thing that starts to happen is the air gets more dry. It gets more cold and more dry. And so when that happens, almost every time there's dryness. And so a lot of people today have more candida and more dampness issues. People with that sort of hacking cough, what they do is they have a dryness, but then there's a little bit of phlegm and mucus that remains, and so that gets stuck in their throat. The best remedy for that is to eat a pear three times a day. What? So that's so it is. I mean, that's. That's sort. That's the ancient sort of remedy for that. But what I would say, it's a lot of yellow foods. That's what he should eat, and a lot of foods that bring moisture to the body. So what I would have him do is do a lot of chicken broth soup with chicken rice noodles, like, pho that you'd get at like a Vietnamese restaurant would be amazing for him. Or just chicken soup. Eating pears, apples would also be Good for that. But really, I mean, Pears would be just, I mean, it's the perfect remedy for what he has going on.
- [61:48]
Alex Clark
I'll see if he'll do, if he'll do it. Why is the American Heart association in particular corrupt?
- [61:54]
Dr. Josh Axe
Oh, goodness. I mean, this would be a whole tirade I could get into. But I mean, it's a really sad truth that most of these organizations basically embrace an ideology from years ago and they never change. And here's the reason why. Ego and pride. They don't want to say they're wrong. And that is actually the number one reason. So this is why most doctors in the whole conventional medical system and the AMA and the American Heart association, all of them are. They're holding on to the past. They don't want to change it. And again, it's a pride issue. Doctors, many of them have a God complex. They don't want to be wrong. And so they'll hold on to these old things that they've done for years. And the medical system also does not support very well due to the pharmaceutical interests doing things that are non medical and even things that are new. They're very slow to adopt if it's not going to make money for the industry. And so the reality is the big issue is that there are so much money relying on these things and so much pride. It's money and pride. Those are the biggest reasons.
- [62:59]
Alex Clark
I also think it's incredibly disturbing if, if you look at the American Heart Association's website and you look at who the biggest, you know, sponsors are or whatever, canola oil is one of them.
- [63:10]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yes.
- [63:11]
Alex Clark
And you know, that's like this whole thing that they try to say, like they try to say seed oils, vegetable oils are heart healthy. What is your response to that?
- [63:19]
Dr. Josh Axe
Well, one, this came from the, just the most flawed studies of all time. I mean, like some, like one study in particular was back in the, the, you know, 1960s or 70s and they did, they, the study was done on animals, it was done on rabbits and they gave them red meat and they saw it increase their risk of heart disease. Well, one, rabbits are herbivores, not omnivores. Even their systems are not meant to eat meat. So that doesn't make any sense. And then also it's conventional meat. So. So people always throw the baby out with the bath, with water. Let me, let me share a statistic that I found stunning. I recently on my podcast, did an episode on the percentages of studies that are actually accurate. 51.6% of studies today are inaccurate, so less than 50%.
- [64:01]
Alex Clark
How do you know what's true and what isn't?
- [64:03]
Dr. Josh Axe
And here's why, here's why they found this in the study. One is there was so much bias from the pharmaceutical companies funding studies, but also cherry picking data. The sample studies, the sample size was too small of people, it wasn't reproducible. You know how many studies there are on red meat being bad for you A lot. You know how many there are though on it being good for you a lot too. Which one do you believe that red meat is the most amazing healing food or that, or that it's going to kill you? Well one, you need to go and look at the fine details. Was it actually done on certified grass fed organic regenerative meat? There's a very big difference between that and the conventional GMO fed, you know, cows today and their lifestyle, the way they're slaughtered, all of it. These are two very, very different things. And so, so the first thing we need to know is so many of these studies are not true. So just because you see it on Instagram or you hear somebody quote it, it doesn't necessarily mean it's true. So what we tend to want to do is look at something called a meta analysis, which is where we pool all the studies together on a topic or at least many studies together and we look at it over a long period of time to discover the truth. You want to do that combined with having a level of wisdom and common sense about what maybe ancients practice or what's been known for a long time and make your decisions based off of that information. You know, here's another thing. You might be like most of our listeners, they're not going to go and read the meta analysis. Well, then here's what I would say. There's a Bible verse I love and Jesus basically says by your fruit you will recognize them. Go and look at the people that are physically healthy. Go and look at the doctors that are helping people get the best results without the side effects. Like if I'm going to listen to somebody in the government about health, I'm listening to RFK Jr. Have you seen the guy? The guy is ripped, he's fit, he's healthy, in his 70s.
- [65:46]
Alex Clark
You're not going to listen to the man dressed like a woman.
- [65:49]
Dr. Josh Axe
My point exactly. You don't listen to that person or you're going to end up the same results with them. These are principles. If you want to be healthy, follow the people and the groups that are actually healthy.
- [65:59]
Alex Clark
Why is cholesterol not as bad as we have been told.
- [66:03]
Dr. Josh Axe
Well, cholesterol is your body's repair substance, specifically for the cardiovascular system. System. And here's another thing that people might find surprising. 25% of your brain and nervous system is made up of a type of cholesterol. We're just treating the symptom here. So when somebody has heart disease and their blood pressure is high and their cholesterol levels are high, what's going on there? Well, there's inflammation in their arteries. Well, let's use the law of first principles. This is something Elon Musk will talk about in terms of how does he design a rocket? Well, you break things down into their most basic parts, and you go back to the beginning, and then you work your way back. Okay, so there's inflammation. So what's heart disease? It's inflammation of the arteries. Why is there inflammation in the arteries? Well, it's due to. There's too much sugar in the bloodstream, and that's damaging the arteries, causing ROS in your bloodstream. And so. Well, how do we fix that? You stop eating sugar and you stop eating seed oils that get in the bloodstream that cause inflammation. So that's number one the way to fix that. But cholesterol is just trying to heal you. I mean, you have a damage in your arterial wall. Cholesterol goes there to patch up and help heal the area.
- [67:14]
Unknown
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- [69:36]
Alex Clark
What do you think about nutritionists that will say, oh, you have have heart disease or whatever, so it'd be a really, really bad idea to include animal fats in your diet?
- [69:46]
Dr. Josh Axe
Well, let me say this. I do think that not everybody is the exact same in terms of the diet that's best even for their heart health. But I would disagree with those people the majority of the time. Now I do believe, let's say somebody's had their gallbladder removed and somebody also has heart disease and very high cholesterol. Do I think those people might need to be on a lower fat diet? I actually do. But the fats they should still be getting are extra virgin olive oil and some coconut oil and some walnuts and some wild salmon. Now some people can do well on a keto or carnivore where they're doing higher fat and their liver and gallbladder can handle that. The reason why some people can handle a High fat diet and others not has to do with really the way God designed them and wired them internally. And the emotions we experience on a regular basis.
- [70:32]
Alex Clark
The emotions.
- [70:33]
Dr. Josh Axe
The emotions.
- [70:34]
Alex Clark
What do you mean?
- [70:35]
Dr. Josh Axe
Every emotion affects a different organ system. And let me go through the five major organ systems and the different emotions that impact those. Fear starts affecting your. So what do you think that when we're talking about fear, if somebody gets in a fight or flight state, what organs might be cortisol?
- [70:50]
Alex Clark
Your stress. Your brain's affected.
- [70:53]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, your brain, your adrenals and your cortisol level. Exactly. So we know for a fact fear affects your adrenals and your brain. And so. And then your body starts producing more cortisol. That's important to know. Now another example of that would be worry. Worry affects your upper digestive system. You've ever heard somebody worry and they're like, oh, my stomach, it's like it's tied in knots, you know, so we know worry affects that. We know that anxiety, if you're really, if you're really concerned about something, your blood pressure will start to increase. If there's a certain amount of stress that affects your heart and cardiovascular system. Grief, if something's happened in the past and you're still living with it today, could be emotional trauma, could be physical trauma, could be a regret or shame from the past and it still bothers you today. That impacts your immune system, your lungs and colon. And if somebody has a lot of anger, resentment, unforgiveness, that is the liver, that's the gallbladder, that's those, that's the lymphatic system. So. So different organ systems are affected by different emotions. And I bring that up to say if somebody has a lot of anger and resentment, unforgiveness, they won't digest fat as well.
- [71:58]
Alex Clark
Whoa.
- [71:58]
Dr. Josh Axe
And so they actually need to be more careful of the amount of fat they're eating. And they will not. They tend to need to be on a little bit lower fat diet for a period of time.
- [72:05]
Alex Clark
And this is all Chinese medicine.
- [72:07]
Dr. Josh Axe
It is. But again, it's not just when I say it's just Chinese medicine, it's part of Chinese medicine, but also Middle Eastern medicine. People knew this in biblical time, some of this, Greek medicine knew some of this. It's just, let me say, it's just not Western medicine. Most of Eastern medicine, Asian medicine, you know, Japan. Who has the longest lifespan today? The country of Japan. The number one form of medicine they practice is a combination of compo, which is Chinese medicine. Essentially, that's where it came from and western medicine, so they have integrative medicine where they combine these western ideas along with the eastern together. And because of that they have the longest lifespan.
- [72:45]
Alex Clark
Is it true that most US sunscreens would be banned in Europe?
- [72:50]
Dr. Josh Axe
Many, yeah, many. Now there's a lot more natural coming out. But when you look at the parabens and a lot of the chemicals found in the sunscreens today, yeah, many of them would be banned.
- [73:01]
Alex Clark
Many so in we like are putting this on ourselves, our babies, our children, because we think this is making us safer and actually it might be harming us worse than just going without.
- [73:10]
Dr. Josh Axe
It's similar to the food dye situation. I mean you and I went to Michigan together, marched together, which was such an honor. I mean that was such a, such a thing. And I know you and I care deeply about the health of our kids today and that's why we went there and we protested Kellogg's and all of the artificial ingredients, the food dyes, the BHT found in food supply and it's the very same thing. But most of those ingredients or the food dyes in bht, those are banned in Europe, including France and Italy and the UK it's banned in Israel, they're banned in Australia, they're banned in Germany, they're banned all over the place. It's the same thing with sunscreens. And here's how the US thinks about it is they say we need to have absolute concrete evidence in our double blind placebo studies that are funded by some groups that sometimes have an interest in this in order to ban or outlaw something. Whereas in these other countries it tends to be, well, if we believe that it's going to harm our kids or there's some evidence, let's just go ahead and ban it because we don't want to take the risk because this happens all the time. Think about how many times throughout history. I mean tobacco of course is the best example, but there's many others. Asbestos where, where we realize later on, 20, 50 years later, oh, we were telling people they could smoke to lose weight, but it was giving them cancer. The same thing's happening with sunscreen today. I mean sunscreen's so simple. Zinc oxide, coconut oil and some essential oils. You know, it's pretty, it doesn't need to be pretty easy combo.
- [74:36]
Alex Clark
Do you believe that big Pharma is hiding a cure for cancer?
- [74:39]
Dr. Josh Axe
No, I don't think they have a cure. Now do I think that if we would have spent trillions of dollars on nutrition and natural medicine the cancer industry this year will make around $220 billion, over $200 billion in that industry. And we've spent trillions and trillions of dollars. I think since the 1970s, we said, we will cure cancer.
- [75:05]
Alex Clark
Right.
- [75:06]
Unknown
And where's all this money going?
- [75:07]
Dr. Josh Axe
It's gotten worse.
- [75:07]
Alex Clark
Where's the money going?
- [75:08]
Dr. Josh Axe
Going in the pockets of, I don't know, the deep state, other. Other people, you know, you know, wealthy individuals that are taking advantage of people that are the most in need. When you look at the cancer industry today, I. I truly believe if we would have put all of those dollars into that, we would have. I think cancer would be reduced by over 90%. I mean, it may be completely gone. It'd be close to. Now. Let me say this. I believe that there is a really strong spiritual component to cancer, and this is why the pharmaceutical industry could never fix it. It's like depression isn't only a biochemical imbalance in a food issue. That's a spiritual issue as well. If somebody doesn't know their identity and their purpose in life, that makes them sick. You know, when I first opened my functional medicine practice in Nashville, the most common conditions I was seeing was hypothyroidism, autoimmune disease, low testosterone, diabetes, obesity. Today I have a virtual practice called the Health Institute. The most common issues I see are mental health issues.
- [76:11]
Alex Clark
Yeah.
- [76:12]
Dr. Josh Axe
And this is tied to depression, anxiety, poor sleep, adhd, identity issues with people. And so I truly believe that the number one cure for cancer is Christ. It's building a stronger relationship with God. It's spending time in God's word. It's. It's praising God. It's living in a state of gratitude. I think that the emotion of fear is the number one emotion. Fear and worry that really drive cancer. But again, I do think there is a major, major emotional, spiritual, mental component to cancer. My mom had cancer, and she had breast cancer. I remember when I was in seventh grade, my mom came home and just started bawling and saying, I've been diagnosed with cancer. And our family lived in the conventional medical system, and we went through all the conventional medical treatments. My mom went and had a mastectomy. She went through rounds and rounds of chemotherapy. I remember my mom having a comb, taking it through her hair, all of her hair coming out. I remember just being a kid in seventh grade and almost never crying, but with that, just going and weeping my eyes out, because seeing your mom suffer like that was so hard. And I remember eventually my mom was diagnosed as being cancer free and Healthy. The thing that was crazy though, was my mom seemed sicker before. After going through all the chemo treatments, my mom was diagnosed with hypothyroidism, chronic fatigue syndrome. She got put on antidepressants and anxiety drugs. She was sick all the time. And then this was what inspired me to become a doctor. I went and I started, you know, I was in school and I was about just months out from opening up my own functional medicine clinic. And I get a call from my mom and she said, I've been diagnosed with cancer again. Just sweeping on the phone. I flew back, we prayed together, we talked about it. It. We decided to take care of her all naturally. So we started having her juice vegetables like celery juice and beaten carrot and spinach and ginger. We had her start doing mushrooms. We did a reishi cordyceps blend. We had her start doing turmeric. We had her start doing essential oils like frankincense. Her diet was mostly juice vegetables, wild salmon, some bone broth, lots of steamed vegetables and berries. I mean, that was like her diet. And we followed this diet for months. Months. After four months, he went back and redid a CT scan. The tumors had shrunk in half. Nine months later, complete remission. My mom reversed her cancer using food, but also spiritual medicine. The other thing I want to mention here is my mom had a list of Bible verses that she prayed every single day. By his stripes, I'm healed. You know, constantly meditating on his word. And we also did things that she loved to do. She started horseback riding again. She spent more time with my dad. She just walking in nature, but we prayed for her constantly. She spent a lot of time in praise and worship. And she would tell you she felt like part of her healing and breaking fruit from cancer. One was the nutrition part, but the other part was she had so much fear and worry in her life. She was a people pleaser. She constantly just didn't take care of herself. And once she started to just embrace the love of God and praise God, that was another big breakthrough. So my point there with cancer is even if the pharmaceutical companies were hiding a cure, I think they can hide, I think they're hiding improvements. I think that they know the studies on turmeric, the studies on mushrooms, the studies on a lot of these, you know, amazing therapies today, right? And that they are hiding those. But I don't think it would completely cure cancer. That's a really long answer I just gave you.
- [79:33]
Alex Clark
But no, I, I love that. Have you been radicalized on Pet health.
- [79:37]
Dr. Josh Axe
I have pets. Chelsea and I are actually building out a farm, a homestead right now where we're gonna have cows, sheep, ducks, chickens. And I already own all these because I have them own the farms that I own. Two farms, we have water buffalo. We have a lot of different animals, however. So my, my answer is, I think maybe I've been radicalized, but I don't know what you've mean.
- [79:58]
Alex Clark
So clarify what I've learned and I'm like dying. If anyone has a contact to Dr. Karen Becker, that is like, I do.
- [80:06]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, I know doctor.
- [80:07]
Alex Clark
You do?
- [80:07]
Dr. Josh Axe
Of course.
- [80:08]
Unknown
Look at that.
- [80:09]
Alex Clark
Okay, so I'll introduce you.
- [80:10]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah. Okay.
- [80:11]
Alex Clark
That's like a dream.
- [80:12]
Dr. Josh Axe
She's a rock star. She's incredible.
- [80:14]
Alex Clark
Well, I just read her book the Forever Dog Life that just came out this year and changed my life. And I just got my first pet ever. I've never owned a pet and I just got a job. I have a Pekingese. Looks like a little mop. Yes, great cousin it walking around and his name is Mochi. And so anyway, her book taught me so much about how like, it's really similar to our ultra processed food industry. When you look at the dog food industry and how sick it's making pets, it's just like you would for a child. Like it's important to be using non toxic cleaning products and making sure that they're drinking filtered water just like you do for yourself or your children. Basically the same principles that like we're practicing for ourselves and our family, human family. We should also be practicing for our pets, our cats and dogs. And they would live like 8 to 10 years longer a lot of the time than they are that, that your pets should not be dying after only a couple years. And it's because of the environment that we put them in, in the food that we give them, the fact that they eat the same like kibble crap every single day. Like that's not how dogs are supposed to eat. And so anyway, I just didn't even know anything about this. I mean, first of all, I just am learning all this stuff about human health for the first time. Then I read her book. I'm like, oh my gosh. So everything I'm learning when it pertains to me also applies to my dog. And so probably the weirdest wellness thing that I'm doing actually isn't for myself. It's for my dog. Moshi Only Dreams drinks spring water from Mountain Valley in the glass. That's what I pour into his bowl. That's so extra to people. But that's what he drinks.
- [81:46]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah. I mean, we're the same way with our pets. We've had King Charles Cavalier spaniels, and then we have Great Pyrenees out at our farms.
- [81:53]
Alex Clark
And those are huge dogs, right?
- [81:55]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, they're awesome. We're actually looking at getting a Great Pyrenees poodle mix called a Pyrodoodle as well. So anyways, we love dogs. We. I mean, we love animals. And so we feed our dog a lot of raw food. We filter, we give it filtered water. A lot of time outside, a lot of raw food. So we'll give it, like duck necks and chicken necks and things like that that are organic.
- [82:16]
Alex Clark
He's only eating raw food.
- [82:17]
Dr. Josh Axe
And then there's a brand that I love. It's called Cave Pets, and they have, I think, the greatest supplements and foods out there for dogs. It's organ meats, it's mushrooms, it's herbs. So again, the brand's called Cave Pets Pets. And so. So. And there's. There's some other really good raw companies out there and dog food companies. That's one that we give our dogs and they love. But. But Karen Becker is awesome.
- [82:40]
Alex Clark
Okay. I'm so excited. I was just saying that to the audience. Like, does anybody know? Because that would be so cool. But if you know her. Oh, I want to do a whole episode on pets so bad, because, you know, that's something. I don't really know any how the wellness podcasts are getting into that, and I really am interested.
- [82:54]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah.
- [82:54]
Alex Clark
Especially as a new dog owner. Let's talk peptides. I'm hearing all this stuff about peptides when you're taking peptides. I don't even know what that is. What do they do?
- [83:01]
Dr. Josh Axe
So one thing to know about peptides are they are naturally occurring in our body. And so we've got, of course, collagen peptides. We're all familiar with those that makes up our gut lining, our skin, hair and nails, our bones, our teeth, a lot of those different areas. You've got peptides in our stomach, gastric acid, known as BPC, which is where we get BPC157.7. And so that comes from stomach acid and stomach lining. You've got thymosin, which is from, you know, the thymus gland. And so. So Anyways, which is TB500, is a form. Form of thymosin. So one thing, I just wanted to point that out, that these are things that are. Can be naturally occurring within our body. These peptides, which tend to run and help facilitate our organ Function. Now, when you look at peptide therapy today, I think it's incredible. I don't think there's enough long term studies for me to just give definitive answers on everything. But when I had my healing process, which a lot of people don't know this, I went through a severe health crisis about two years ago where I went in for a real simple procedure of PRP and stem cells, which I'd had before, which really helped my back. I injured it lifting weights. And when they went in and injected my back, I somehow ended up getting an infection.
- [84:16]
Alex Clark
Oh.
- [84:16]
Dr. Josh Axe
And it went into my disc. It then spread into my bone. One morning I woke up, I kept feeling pain. It got worse and worse and worse. One morning I woke up, I couldn't walk. Chelsea and I were in Puerto Rico at the time. We had to call an ambulance, come pick me up. This is two and a half years ago. I had to take a medical flight from Puerto Rico to Florida. And I was in Florida, meeting with a doctor and he said, josh, listen, this infection is so bad it spread into your bone and now there's an abscess by your spinal cord. He said you could never walk again. This could kill you. He said, in all likelihood, you're going to be permanently disabled. I had 24 hours of feeling like my life was over. And I decided that I really needed to press into God. And I felt like God told me that I'm bigger than this diagnosis. And I decided I'm just going to do everything I can to heal. Because I went from, I mean, Alex, I was throwing my 2 year old daughter up in the air, in the pool, squatting, deadlifting, cycling, swimming. I was in great shape. And so to get this diagnosis and tell a doctor, say, hey, you might be disabled from this, I was just very hard to hear. So I decided I was going to do everything I could to help myself heal.
- [85:17]
Alex Clark
Yeah, what'd you do?
- [85:18]
Dr. Josh Axe
And so I started getting in a hyperbaric chamber every day for like two hours. A hard chamber.
- [85:22]
Alex Clark
Okay. You know who's doing that now and is like just singing the praises of hyperbaric chambers is Charlie Kirk.
- [85:29]
Dr. Josh Axe
Really?
- [85:29]
Alex Clark
He just started doing that, I guess. And like everybody's like, oh, Charlie, he's got his hyperbaric time. It's the whole thing with him. He's obsessed. I've never tried it.
- [85:35]
Dr. Josh Axe
It's amazing for longevity, it's amazing for fighting infections, it's amazing for. Amazing for brain health, lung health, anti cancer. I mean, there are lots of benefits of hyperbaric chamber. So I Did that almost every day. And I read a study that I could cut down on antibiotic time, which I had to take an antibiotic, by the way. It's the first time I'd taken a drug since I was 19 years old. And I'm 43 now, so it had been 20 years. But I knew with this infection how serious it was, I had to get on it. But they were recommending three months. I would found a study that said I could do it for probably four weeks, weeks if I would get in a hyperbaric chamber every day. And I did that. So I got in a hyperbaric chamber every day.
- [86:11]
Alex Clark
And how long do you stay in there?
- [86:13]
Dr. Josh Axe
Two hours is how long I did it. Now some people can do 60 minutes or 90, but I need again read.
- [86:19]
Alex Clark
A book or something.
- [86:20]
Dr. Josh Axe
I watched Bible studies, I listened to audiobooks. And then in addition to hyperbaric, I got vitamin IVs. I also did red light therapy. And then I did peptides. I did BPC1,157 and TB500. Those are known to be the best peptides for, for tissue regeneration, from healing, from injuries, from pain. And so I started doing these every day. Now I do want to mention I did these on the back half. I couldn't. I didn't do these early because I didn't get turned onto them early enough. But I didn't walk for 10 months.
- [86:48]
Alex Clark
Oh my gosh.
- [86:49]
Dr. Josh Axe
And then I was on a walker for two months. So I didn't walk on my own for a full year. All of the year of end of 2022 and all the year of 2023, for the most part, didn't walk. And then I. Because there's not much blood supply to your disc. And so it took a while for me to heal. But all that being said, I started doing and I did stem cell again. But I really believe that doing peptide therapy really helped me heal and recover. And so I did quite a bit of peptides. I would do them for, you know, like, like six weeks on and a few weeks off and then so I would sort of cycle through them. But peptides are really powerful at supporting your organ systems for tissue regeneration, for hypothyroid, for low testosterone. And here's the thing I like about them. They have less side effects than hormone replacement therapy.
- [87:36]
Alex Clark
Okay.
- [87:37]
Dr. Josh Axe
My opinion on hormone replacement therapy is there's a time and a place for it, but it should not be the first thing you try and do. If a woman is going through perimenopause or menopause, they should first do herbs like dong kwai and black cohosh and wild yam and do more foods that are going to support their health and lifestyle changes. And then maybe do peptides with it. And if those things don't work, then try hormone replacement therapy. Same for men. If men have low testosterone, do ginseng, do fenugreek, do red meat, do organ meats, go out and chop wood and lift weights. Those will get testosterone up. And then if you need to do peptides like BPC157TB500. So I'm a big fan of peptides done in conjunction with, with eating a good diet and taking the right supplements.
- [88:21]
Alex Clark
Is there a certain doctor that you really like to go to for peptide stuff or is this something you order? I don't even know. Like how do you get it?
- [88:27]
Dr. Josh Axe
Well, well, I mean, this isn't going to surprise you at all, but you know, the, the medical community is trying to ban and outlaw peptide therapy. They're trying to, every time they're trying, they're trying to make it a drug right now. So, so it's, it's different nationally, it's different state to state. So some doctors, because it's a gray space right now, now are prescribing.
- [88:48]
Alex Clark
We're about to have, it's going to be like raw milk all over again. We're have a black market for peptides.
- [88:52]
Dr. Josh Axe
Well, you know what, there's a good thing that we've got Robert F. Kennedy Jr. On our side now, isn't it?
- [88:56]
Unknown
And we can freaking say that.
- [88:58]
Dr. Josh Axe
That's right.
- [88:58]
Alex Clark
So good.
- [88:59]
Dr. Josh Axe
So good.
- [88:59]
Alex Clark
The MTHFR gene that we brought up earlier, how do you know you have it and then how can it impact health?
- [89:06]
Dr. Josh Axe
Well, there's a simple genetic test. People can get to test for mthfr and there's really two variations and some people just have one, some people have the other, and some people have both. And I want to say this to start. Just because you have the variation doesn't mean that you can't still methylate some and that you can't create things like methylfolate. It doesn't mean that. It means that it's harder for your body to do and you're not as good at it as maybe some other people.
- [89:32]
Alex Clark
Someone told me if you have a birthmark on your leg, then that might mean you haven't.
- [89:36]
Dr. Josh Axe
And I do do, I've never heard that.
- [89:38]
Alex Clark
Somebody said that's the sign. Like that's how you can tell.
- [89:40]
Dr. Josh Axe
I haven't, I haven't heard that or seen that yet. But, but I do know you can tell with the blood test for sure. And, and what this is is that so some people don't convert things as well, some people don't convert vitamins into the, their usable form as well. And one example of that is methylfolate and that's what the MTHFR really a big part of what it stands for. So when we eat certain foods like red meat or spinach and we get folate, our bodies then in order to utilize it needs a methyl group attached. So just like we talked, actually we're filming, we're talking about different forms of magnesium. So for your body to utilize it, you can't just have magnesium, you need magnesium glycinate or threonate or citrate. So it needs to have something attached. The same thing goes for certain B vitamins, like folate needs a methyl group attached. It's like your body gets a car without wheels and in order to use it your body's like, well we need to put these methyl groups, these wheels on the car so now it can drive places and do the things needs to do. So some people aren't very good at attaching on that methyl group in order to utilize it by the body. And there's other things, there's other enzyme reactions. The number one factor that really I believe impacts methylation is gut health. If somebody has an unhealthy gut microbiome, they're not going to convert as well.
- [90:52]
Alex Clark
And you've got a whole book on gut health, right?
- [90:54]
Dr. Josh Axe
That's right. Well I, I've, I've, yeah, I wrote one years ago called Eat Dirt. It's really all about how to heal leaky gut, support the health of our gut microbiome. That book is really focused on gut health. But I think with the mthfr, what people need to do, here's the thing they need to do in order to fix it. Number one, just eat as healthy as possible. Lots of red meat, lots of probiotic rich foods, focus on that. The next thing, outside of eating a very healthy diet, take a very high dose probiotic supplement. Ideally like even a trillion probiotics would be amazing, but you know, at least 100 billion that's going to support the absorption, help prepare your gut, then take a methylated B complex vitamin. So you need that, this is very important that it says something like methylfolate or methylcobalamin. Okay. And you'll actually be able to read that next to B9 or B12 on the supplement label. So you need to take A methylated B complex or methylated multi, and then another one I really like for people to take is a glandular or organ supplement like liver because it has most of those nutrients in a food form that also working with your gut bacteria is going to help people methylate properly. So that's really, I think the solution to helping people heal and overcome the.
- [92:06]
Alex Clark
The MTHFR gene is the copper IUD really healthy.
- [92:11]
Dr. Josh Axe
It's terrible. Copper IUDs are not healthy at all. And let me say this, going back to the birth control, I think it's better.
- [92:16]
Alex Clark
The best option of birth control, the.
- [92:18]
Dr. Josh Axe
Best birth control option is keeping your temperature, looking at your mucus, doing proper family planning. That is the best. It's the oldest, it's the most proven. That's the only healthy way really to do it. You can use condoms. There's, there's another option, but copper iud. Remember we talked about this earlier, Too much zinc, what does that do? It impacts copper. What does too much copper do? It impacts zinc. So what happens is when people do these copper IUDs, they're, they're, they're imbalancing their immune system. They're, they're going to cause immune issues long term and bacterial issues as well. It's also going to affect the gut microbiome. It's also going to cause deficiencies. So where it's not going to have the exact same negative effects as doing a contraceptive pill, it's a whole nother can of worms, a whole nother set of problems. You're going to have some overlapping, some not with copper IUDs.
- [93:09]
Alex Clark
If you could provide one remedy to heal a sick culture, physically, mentally or spiritually, what would it be?
- [93:14]
Dr. Josh Axe
Do my spiritual triathlon in the morning, morning and it's this. And then also have a superfood smoothie. This is what I do every single morning. The first thing I wake up and I get grateful. I say, God, I'm so grateful for you. I'm so grateful for my amazing wife. I'm so grateful for my daughters. I'm so grateful. So starting off by just saying everything you're grateful for, for just a few minutes is so spiritually empowering and it's so healing. I mean, part of health is what you focus on, on. So when you get grateful, it's very healing. The other thing I do right after that is I spend some time reading my Bible. And you know, God's word is a form of medicine. And then after that I spend some time with prayer, just really Connecting with God, maybe with that prayer. Maybe I'm meditating a little bit on his word, how I'm going to apply it that day. But that's my spiritual triathlon. And while I do that, I do a superfood smoothie. My smoothie tends to be room temperature, not cold, because that's not good.
- [94:08]
Alex Clark
You gave me. I was like, I don't know about that. But I'm like, listening.
- [94:13]
Dr. Josh Axe
So if somebody has hypothyroidism or autoimmune disease or a weak digestive system, your body cannot digest as well with cold food. So ice drinks and, and cold smoothies, ice cream are not good. So I have people do sweet potato smoothies or pumpkin smoothies, or I have them take blueberries or cherries, but at room temperature, or goji berries and add that in at room temperature. I have, I do a scoop of a bone broth protein or a collagen protein or stem cell protein, but something with collagen. I do another scoop of some sort of plant or animal protein and then I'll add in maybe some superfood powder and maybe a little coconut milk. And that's what I do most mornings for breakfast. And if people think about it like this, if they just change their breakfast, they're changing one third of their diet. That's a massive change. So if people would spend 15 minutes in the morning doing that spiritual triathlon while at the same time doing that superfood smoothie, I guarantee it would help them heal body, mind and spirit in such a powerful way.
- [95:12]
Alex Clark
Is this superfood smoothie of yours, Dr. Axe, on your website or something?
- [95:15]
Dr. Josh Axe
You know what, I, I talk about it on my podcast some. It might be on my website. I have a lot of versions of this. It's in books I've written in the. In the recipe section. But basically it's this protein. Two types, collagen and plant or animal.
- [95:29]
Alex Clark
Two types of proteins. So a plant based protein.
- [95:32]
Dr. Josh Axe
Animal in a collagen based protein. Protein.
- [95:34]
Alex Clark
Okay. And so that's like 40 grams of protein.
- [95:36]
Dr. Josh Axe
That's right. Most people need to be doing 30 to 50 grams of protein at every meal if they want to heal. The second thing is berries or some sort of superfood. And the third thing is either water or coconut milk. And so that's just kind of the simple smoothie recipe.
- [95:50]
Alex Clark
And the water needs to be filtered. Do not use your tap water. That's right.
- [95:53]
Dr. Josh Axe
100.
- [95:54]
Alex Clark
What is your Instagram at?
- [95:56]
Dr. Josh Axe
Dr. Josh Axe.
- [95:57]
Alex Clark
And tell us about your podcast, which I've been on so you can type in Dr. Josh Axe, Alex Clark, and you should be able to find his interview of me as well.
- [96:04]
Dr. Josh Axe
And you crushed it. Your interview is so good. Had so many things go viral from that conversation. So, yeah, my podcast is the Dr. Josh AX show and you can find it on Apple, on Spotify, on YouTube. And sometimes people want to learn more about specific topics. And you could search on YouTube or Apple like Dr. Axe hypothyroid or Dr. Axe testosterone or Dr. Axe, you know, leaky gut or whatever it is and see probably a topic that I've covered in the past or something like that on it. But yeah, your, your episode was, it was, it was incredible.
- [96:34]
Alex Clark
Thank you. Yeah, that's a really good tip. Is that in, you know, Apple podcast, Spotify? In Spotify, if you click on a show, it'll say search the show, type a keyword, and it'll bring up every episode or conversation where you've mentioned a keyword, which I really love that tool. And also, you guys, there is a transcript option on Apple Podcast. You can click Transcript for any episode and then there's a search bar within the transcript. So for example, for this, if you want to go back, you're like, oh, what was it that Dr. Dr. Axe was saying about Raw Honey? If you click on this episode in Apple, type in Transcript, Transcript, Raw Honey, then it'll take you to exactly what he said. You'll have the written words because so.
- [97:10]
Unknown
Many people like, what was, what was.
- [97:11]
Alex Clark
The mushroom supplements that were recommended? You know, you guys can search the transcript. So I've never really brought that up. But yeah, there is tools there for you to use. Thank you so much, Dr. Axe, for coming on the show.
- [97:20]
Dr. Josh Axe
This was so fun. I, I, I, I'm a huge fan of your show. I told you before we started, like, I've listened to several of your shows. It's. You ask incredible questions and you've got such a great audience too. I mean, I noticed just on your social of people that are just on fire for, you know, their health, their family's health. And so it was an honor to be on today. Thanks for having me.
- [97:44]
Alex Clark
I love that we did a deep dive into supplements on this episode and then we also talked a lot about mushrooms. Two things that I have not spent a ton of time on before with any guest. Please leave a five star review. Tell others why they should listen to Culture Apothecary.
- [97:57]
Unknown
What brought you here?
- [97:58]
Alex Clark
What was the episode that introduced you to the show? I'd love to know. Don't forget that we have a huge community on Facebook. The Cute Servatives Facebook group is for fans of my show. Like minded conservative women who really care about health and wellness.
- [98:10]
Unknown
Subscribe to Real Alex Clark on YouTube.
- [98:12]
Alex Clark
Follow me on Instagram at Real Alex Clark. You can find show merch@tbsamerch.com and get a 10 off discount with code Alex Clark. New episodes drop every Monday and Thursday at 6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern. We are on a mission to heal a sick culture twice a week where new guests bring their own unique remedy to do so. I'm Alex Clark and this is Culture Apothecary.