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Decoded | Unlock The Secrets of Human Behavior, Emotion and Motivation
Why Modern Healthcare Keeps You Sick with Dr. Josh Axe
01:11:55
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- [00:00]
Dr. Josh Axe
So the majority of drugs that are being prescribed today and the conventional medical treatments are doing, at the very least 95% of it, should not be happening at all. People should be going into cellular functional medicine clinics and getting this type of care.
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Host of Decoded Podcast
I want to just make sure we really land on what you just said. What was that figure of what's actually prescribed that might not actually have been necessary?
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Dr. Josh Axe
It's definitely at least 95%. And here's part of the reason why.
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Host of Decoded Podcast
Your brain is wired for deception. But here's the truth. Patterns can be broken. The code can be rewritten. Once you hear the truth, you can't go back. So the only question is, are you ready to listen? Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Decoded. As you can tell, I'm in a totally different studio. And no, I didn't change my studio. I'm actually sitting here with Dr. Josh Axe and his absolute gorgeous, gorgeous studio in Franklin, Tennessee. This is like an epic building.
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Dr. Josh Axe
Hey, thanks so much.
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Host of Decoded Podcast
It's gorgeous.
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Dr. Josh Axe
Well, thanks for coming here to, you know, have a, have a conversation with me. And it's an honor to be be on your show. So thanks so much for having me.
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Host of Decoded Podcast
My audience, I'm sure, knows you well. I know I've known of you for such a long time because I swear for probably a five year period, if you googled any symptom and anything even quasi natural, it went to your website. So obviously you had all the secrets for a while. You were really so ahead of your game with how you even built the business. That was insane. Did you, did you think the content creation strategy was going to work because it was so ahead of your time?
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Dr. Josh Axe
Well, you know, I think that wasn't my first thought. My first thought was, I want to help sick people get well. And so, you know, actually the way that doctor actually come started was I would weekly write a newsletter, physical or I guess I'd put on a computer and then print it out and I'd hand it out to all my patients. So one week it would be the five top tips to boost your immune system. And another week it would be five, you know, the top 10 foods for women to balance their hormones. And then I had a few patients saying, hey, can I get a, you know, is there a website? I want to share this, you know, with my family member. And I went to one of my staff members and her husband was a graphic designer and a web developer, said, hey, would your husband make me a website? And then we can start posting these articles on there. And so that's really how it started. And then all of a sudden, one day I'm like, somebody said, you know, there's like 100,000 people visiting your site. I said, wow, that's amazing. And then I did become more strategic and really start thinking about, okay, what do I want to do? And there were a few other doctors in the space, and I saw they were putting out a lot of great content and articles. And one was Andrew Weil, another was Joe Mercola, there was David Williams. So there was. There, there were. And I said, okay, well, I want to do that. And because I love educating, I love writing, and that's actually very similar to how I started my podcast. Originally there was a radio show, Dave Ramsey. And one day I was driving, flipped on. I heard him answering questions about health. I'm sorry, about, about wealth. And I thought I could do that for health. I could, you know, do that, I think. And that's kind of how podcast and draxe.com and a lot of that started was I, you know, just creating something custom for patients that then sort of also led to then creating it for kind of, you know, anybody who wanted to educate themselves.
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Host of Decoded Podcast
And you really were the, the go to place for virtually any googleable condition that I could.
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Dr. Josh Axe
Oh, yeah. Well, you know what happened though? So. So we were ranked the number one natural health website in the world. Drax.com was. And then. And we were even top 10 health websites, period. Like, we over. We. We grew more the. The Dr. Oz show, all these other shows. And then Google made an update. It was called the Medic Update, where they penalized any site that had a natural health view. And then, and then. So a lot of people don't know this about Google. Google is, is a tech and pharmaceutical company. So they own part of like Glasgow, Smith and Klein, you know, these major, major pharmaceuticals. So. So they started like they went and had a whole algorithm to harm and put down. So we lost like 80% of our traffic. We're still putting out the same great content. It just shows up less on Google now because if you're a pharmaceutical company, you don't want people going and buying, you know, supplements or reading about how to eat healthy. They want people to stay sick. So that's. Anyways, I know it's not the topic of the show, your show. That's what happened.
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Host of Decoded Podcast
Conspiratorial.
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Dr. Josh Axe
That's what happened.
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Host of Decoded Podcast
They're on this page.
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Dr. Josh Axe
Well, that's not a conspiracy. That was something that happened at the end 2018. So.
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Host of Decoded Podcast
Well, and I think you Know, big picture conspiracy just means small group conspiring against the large masses. So technically, while there's like conspiracy theory, but it is an actual conspiracy. Right. It is a conspiracy specific group conspiring against people who were trying to get the word about natural and alternative health, which.
- [04:53]
Dr. Josh Axe
That's right.
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Host of Decoded Podcast
It's antagonistic to our best interest as human beings, certainly.
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Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah.
- [04:59]
Host of Decoded Podcast
And I'm so grateful for all the hard work that you did during those years because you really did move the needle significantly because I think before what you were doing, alternative natural health, people were like, all right, hippies, like, everybody get to the back of the bus. But you made it legitimized and you presented it in a really beautiful business like way.
- [05:15]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah. You know, I've been practicing for about 20 years now, and it's next year will be 20 years. And when I first got into practice, I'll give you an example of this. When I first got into practice, I would teach workshops weekly on Health. And 20 years ago, if I would ask people, how many of you know what an omega 3 fat is? Almost nobody knew what an omega 3 is now. Now today, everybody knows omega 3 fats are good for you. Almost nobody knew what a probiotic was. They're like a probiotic, what? And then, you know, and people used to come into my clinic. I was always the person. They'd seen 10 other doctors at least, and then they would come see me. Right. And now it's so different today. Like, I just opened a clinic here called the Longevity Clinic in Nashville. And we have people flying from all over. We've got really advanced therapies, blood work, testing, hyperbaric chambers, red light beds, IVs, ozone, and so just open that back up. But all that being said, now, oftentimes people come first, or maybe it's second. But people come so much earlier looking for natural health so much earlier compared to 20 years ago. So things have swung so far, and the natural health direction and which, which, which I'm excited about because the principles, they saved my mom's life, they've helped so many people. So it's. It's exciting to see.
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Host of Decoded Podcast
I'm sure Covid also helped, Right? I think Covid woke a lot of people up to the fact that maybe you know, some of us who are naturally more conspiratorially oriented. Before COVID we were already kind of on this natural health boat. I got on it when I was 23, trying to heal myself from lupus. And then Covid happens, right? And then all of a sudden, you Know whether it's from, you know, the V injury or from almost dying from COVID et cetera. And then you kind of like start to wrap your head around like, oh, this is actually much more orchestrated. This is not actually naturally occurring. Right? Yeah, it kind of woke people up. And I think now going back to this, like, people didn't know what probiotics were. I feel like now everyone knows what Akkermansia is. It's like just to look at the actual threshold of where we're at now, people are like, oh, does your probiotic have akkermancy in?
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Dr. Josh Axe
It's so funny. And let me see. So, so Akkermansia, I have to just say it's. It's a great, it's a great probiotic. It's typically used though, because it's one of the probiotics that Most supports the GLP1 receptors in the body. So it's. There are studies around it for, for weight loss. I don't think it's the most important probiotic for most people. I think that probably some of the ones we're born with, like bifidobacteria, some of the soil based organisms that we're missing just because we're not eating locally as much anymore, probably more important. But I do like it. I think it's a good one. And then to your point on Covid, listen, I remember being in the midst of COVID and having like a heavy, like I felt this heaviness on my spirit because I was really discouraged that so many people were believing the lie. And then I was sitting there with a pastor and we were talking about stuff and he's into natural health. And the pastor said, you know what, Josh? He said, here's how you should think about this. He said, when we go through trials like we are right now, this is where your leadership gets to shine. Like he said, I think some of the greatest leaders ever, they would have only shown when they're going through something really difficult and challenging. And then later on when the truth is revealed or once they get through the obstacle, you know, it's. But all that being said, I now, looking back, I'm grateful for code from this standpoint. So many people woke up to the truth of how they had been lied to. From the government, from the cdc, from numerous medical organizations, from medical doctors, from the news channels and the media. And they're like, you know what? I need to start listening to more trustworthy people than these bigger organizations. And so I think to your point, here's the thing if it wasn't for Covid, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Would not be the head of the HHS today. And he's making some really good strides and changes, more than any other administration has ever made. But it's only because people. And the people that woke up were the people that were naturally truth seekers. They said, you know what? I want to know what the truth is. And those people were greatly blessed by. By that, because now they started being able to find out who they can trust and who. Who's lying to them.
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Host of Decoded Podcast
What you were talking about with the pastor, I always look at that as contrast. Sometimes when the darkness is so pervasive and so intense, it actually does this thing where it kind of. It highlights what's opposite of it. And I think that Covid was this great opportunity for contrast, because I think a lot of people. A lot of people. People gave their life to Christ. A lot of people woke up to. You know, maybe this is a big spiritual battle, and maybe it's not all as physical, tangible as we want to believe it is, because that makes us feel safe.
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Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, absolutely.
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Host of Decoded Podcast
On the topic of rfk, because I. I have some insider information. I have people that kind of work in legislation and things like that. It does seem like to some extent, his hands are getting tied in certain places.
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Dr. Josh Axe
They are. Yeah.
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Host of Decoded Podcast
And I wonder, where would you like to see more progress, specifically, because it seems, yes, he's made a ton of progress. And I think structurally, the world in which we live, our political system, to me, the fact that you can lobby feels insane. Like, why do we have. Why do we have lobby?
- [10:57]
Dr. Josh Axe
Sure.
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Host of Decoded Podcast
Structurally, what do you think is holding us back the most in our quest for, like, free access to real health knowledge that is not twisted or contorted by some sort of big pharma, big agriculture?
- [11:13]
Dr. Josh Axe
I think the thing that's holding us back if we want to get to the deepest realist senses. Gods with a little G. Yeah. So mammon. So in the United States of America, the. The biggest God with a little G is economic progression. And that's true of Republicans. It's somewhat true of now. Now, Democrats. Democrats, it tends to be more of this sort of sexualization. And media in terms of, like, fame is probably. And sex are probably more on that. But, but for. For. For. For. For a lot of people today in the United States, it's economic progression. And so what's happening right now? For instance, like, I've been very outspoken about glyphosate. Glyphosate is the main chemical in Roundup and It's sprayed on all of our food, it's sprayed on golf courses, it's all over. And it's been linked to killing good bacteria in the gut. It's been linked to, you know, childhood disorders, toxicity of the liver, the kidneys and the gut microbiome. And so it's a chemical that is damaging and harming the health and causing numerous health issues of everybody, of people cutting out immune disease, all kinds of problems. Now, Trump recently approved basically in the state of Tennessee. We called our local senator in Arizona and Florida, all over the country people were saying, I don't want a bill to pass to where the pharmaceutical companies can be let off the hook. Basically, here's what the pharmaceutical companies were doing. They came out and they said, we don't wanna be liable if somebody gets injured and have to pay out. So we have all been calling and doing everything we can to block it. Well, Trump is basically doing some things to protect them and help them. These big agricultural companies, Bayer specifically. Who bought out Monsanto and why would Trump do that? Is it because he doesn't want us to be healthy? No, he wants us to be healthy. Okay, let's call it his, the third most important thing to him. Okay, it's important to him and to rfk, it's number one. But determine the most important thing is economic progression. And so it's getting trumped right now because there's so much money in big agriculture. So much money. And so, so when. And so now going to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Like, I know in being friends with, you know, I know Robert F. Kenny, I'm on a, you know, a text thread with him and direct to him, I know Kelly Means and you know, who's like his right hand and Dale big tree. I know a lot of these people. And so he really wants to. Here's part of the problem. He wants to do so much. He wants to legalize peptides, he wants to do this with. He wants to make stem cells more accessible in terms of being able to get those to everybody because that's the future of medicine. I mean, stem cells, there's so much opportunity there. He wants to focus on, you know, getting less sugar out there. I mean, even so he started with, hey, if we're going to do sugar, we need to make it more cane sugar. Okay. Rather than high fructose corn syrup. That's like a minor step. It's good. But generally just eliminating and penalizing companies that do added sugar. Unless it's like raw honey or something, which I don't even think I'm actually sure if that is considered added sugar. It may or may not be, but basically that would be a big step. I know he does want to do at some point, which would really move the needle on obesity, on insulin resistance, on a number of issues. So he has some really great initiatives and things he wants to do that I'm totally in alignment with. I mean, I'm very aligned with what he wants to do. But to your point, he has to juggle this thing where the greatest God in America today, little G is mammon. It's economic progression. And so he's. And so if you're number two, so sometimes you're going to get bumped.
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Host of Decoded Podcast
You can't serve two gods.
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Dr. Josh Axe
That's right. That's right.
- [15:26]
Host of Decoded Podcast
Something's going to give.
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Dr. Josh Axe
And so, and so that's the, that's. And here's the other thing. He's not number Trump's number one. So I mean, Trump gets to make the biggest policy things. He's number whatever. Maybe he's number two in health care or number one in health care, but to overall. And so he just can't. Sometimes we're going to lose most of that. We've been winning a lot though. But, but, but, but there have been a time or two here we've been losing because of that.
- [15:48]
Host of Decoded Podcast
Absolutely. And thank you for sharing that because I think a lot of times people get really emotionally reactive and they're like, he's against us. And they're not really understanding the bigger picture of what's going on. And you know, bureaucracy and red tape are really a pain in the butt. Right. I'm, I'm sure as you know, like even as your company grows, it becomes things that were once easy and streamlined. Yes. You know, you've got more access, there's more people, there's more people to help. But literally the bigger something is, the more red tape and bureaucracy and sometimes the longer things take. Some of the biggest corporations I've worked with trying to get an invoice paid, one of the hardest things in the world. And it's not that they don't want to pay it. It's, you know, you're going to like 20 people to pay one thing. So I think some of it is just functionally the system that we're in is riddled with bureaucracy and red tape and maybe backdoor handshakes and deals that we'll never really front facing know about. Where would you like to see us progress forward in health? I know you mentioned briefly peptides and Stem cells?
- [16:52]
Dr. Josh Axe
Sure.
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Host of Decoded Podcast
Where would you. If, if you were in RFK's position and your hands were not tied, what would be the first things that you would prioritize looking forward at the next generation of kids that are going to become adults?
- [17:04]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah.
- [17:05]
Host of Decoded Podcast
If you've been anywhere near the health and longevity space lately, you've probably heard the word peptides thrown around everywhere. Some people are calling them the future of medicine. Others are warning you that the space is going to get messy fast. The reality is that both things are probably accurate to some extent. Peptides are rapidly moving into mainstream health care. Clinics are prescribing them, biohackers are experimenting with them, and regulatory conversations are evolving quickly. Which means one thing is becoming very clear. Your education on peptides matters. That's why I want to tell you about a program created by Ashley Madsen. Ashley is a double board certified physician assistant and a longevity clinician who's been prescribing peptides in clinical practice for over a decade. She's also one of the few educators in the space who approaches the topic from a clinical physiology perspective. Not strictly hype. Her course is called Peptides for High Performance. It's a self based online program designed to help people understand how compounds actually work inside of the body. In the course, she breaks down things like metabolic peptides, mitochondrial optimization, growth and hormone support, regenerative repair and sexual vitality. But through the lens of real clinical strategy and safety. This isn't a peptide stacking course. It's about truly understanding the mechanisms, the physiology and how to use these peptides responsible in an industry that is evolving quickly. So whether you're a clinician, a serious health professional, or a biohacker who just wants to understand what you're really experimenting with, or maybe you just want to understand what, where the healthcare system is about to transition. This is one of the most grounded educational courses I've seen yet. Enrollment is open now and if you use the code busy300, you're going to get $300 off the program. Just head to the show notes and enroll.
- [18:49]
Dr. Josh Axe
And by the way, I want to go, I'm going to share that and I do want to go back and say this. Listen, be grateful for the progress we've seen and what we've been given. Listen, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Has done more in one year than the last 15 years for natural health of any administration ever. I mean, okay, there's food dyes, there's changing of sugar, there's the snap benefits. Trying to get people that are in need actually get them real food and not candy bars and Coca Cola. The vaccine changes. Are you kidding me? I mean, some of the things against pharmaceuticals and being able to do less advertising and I mean, he has made some major changes. The food pyramid. He redid it. So there's a lot of things he's done in one year, and he's got three, and he's doing a lot more. Here's where I'd like things to change. I want them to change more than anything philosophically and from a larger foundation of the way that healthcare works today. Because what's happened is we've taken a sick care system and we try and use that as our primary healthcare system.
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Host of Decoded Podcast
Yeah.
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Dr. Josh Axe
And so it's like we are number one in the world at emergency care. You break your leg, you're bleeding out in a car accident. I want to be in America. Okay. I want to get to an American hospital. We're here in Nashville. I want to go to Vanderbilt. Okay. Or St. Thomas or one of the great places we have here. However, you can never get healthy. You will never, ever get healthy in a sick care system by going to a conventional medical doctor today, you will stay sick. They know one thing, or maybe two. Here's a drug, or here's a surgery. That's it. Or here's a label, or here's a label, and that's it. So that's what you get. Here's the way that our healthcare system should work is when you're sick, primary care should be, you're going to a doctor. And I don't care if it's an MD or a DC or a do, but a doctor who has training, ideally be in school, unfortunately, I mean, actually, chiropractors, DCs, they get nutrition in school. Maryland and dos, literally get zero hours. Right now. It's wild. Now, I think maybe University of Arizona, you can take electives. So there's a handful, but most of them, you literally get zero hours as an md. But what should happen is, hey, I've got diabetes. Okay, what happens? Or I have Hashimoto's. I go into my doctor and they run blood work. The right blood work. Not the blood work that was done in the 1950s. The blood work.
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Host of Decoded Podcast
Sorry, it's like a general CBC.
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Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, CBC and CMP. Okay, well, okay, listen. It is beneficial to maybe know some of the cholesterol markers, and if you've got major liver issues with ALT and some of those things, that's fine. But what I really want to know is what are your micronutrient deficiencies? What are your levels of vitamin D, B12, selenium, magnesium, zinc? I want to know all of these nutritional deficiencies. What's your omega 3:6 ratio? So I know inflammation, you know, how healthy are the mitochondria of your cells? Like blood work? Can you can get that type of blood work today? It's offered by really advanced physicians that practice functional or cellular medicine. 99% of doctors don't run those tests. But the first thing that should happen is you should go in and get a really good health evaluation doing the right type of testing. And then what should happen is doctors should prescribe and create a very comprehensive protocol for you. And this is what I do in the Longevity Clinic, my brick and mortar here in Nashville. It's what we do at the Health Institute, which is my virtual practice that I do with Dr. Will Cole. What we do is we say, okay, we have all this information now. I'm going to lay out exactly what you should eat on a daily basis. And it's personalized to you because somebody with diabetes actually should be a very different diet than somebody with cancer or autoimmune disease. And so I'm going to lay out, ideally, breakfast, lunch, dinner, all your foods. I'm going to recommend these top supplements for you, exactly what you should take based on your blood work and your history. And then I'm going to maybe even recommend it depends on the person. But first off, that alone would create radical healing for somebody. And then maybe there's certain exercise prescriptions, maybe there is certain treatments. Hey, you've gotten a chronic infection like Lyme or mold. Let's do some powerful ozone. Or, hey, you've just had a stroke, let's get you in a hyperbaric chamber. Or you've got mitochondrial dysfunction and hypothyroidism, or chronic fatigue. Let's get you in a red light bed, need a detox, let's do sauna. So that's what should be happening today is people are going into their doctor, that's happening. And let's say something crazy is. Let me just say that's what should be happening. That's what should be happening. And then if you're an emergency, like I'm worried about somebody taking their own life, okay, and they're coming in and they had depression. We tried all these things, I'm referring them out now. Maybe somebody, you know, I would say this of medications or maybe, hey, this person needs to get on an antibiotic because they have severe pneumonia, okay? So there's a time And a place for that, but that's less than 5% of the time. So the majority of drugs that are being prescribed today and the conventional medical treatments are doing at least, at the very least 95% of it should not be, should not be happening at all. So people should be going into, you know, these cellular functional medicine clinics and getting this type of care.
- [24:04]
Host of Decoded Podcast
I want to just make sure we really land on what you just said. What was that figure of what's actually prescribed that might not actually have been necessary?
- [24:13]
Dr. Josh Axe
It's definitely at least 95%. And here's part of the reason why. If I have somebody come in with like, I counseled a woman yesterday and she's 29 years old and, and she's dealing with depression. Okay. I put together a protocol for her of saffron, of vitamin D, of zinc, of recommending exercise of foods, rich eating more salmon. We worked on her methylation patterns, really laid it out for her. And so most of the time, or if you've got inflammation, you don't need to take aspirin, you can take again high dose omega 3s and turmeric. So. But it's at least 95%.
- [24:53]
Host of Decoded Podcast
It's a big number. And immediately, as soon as you said that, all I could think about is my dad who just like throw a Z pack at it. I just need a Z pack. Right. And I mean, most of my childhood, I'm about to turn 41, I think I was on antibiotics most of my childhood.
- [25:07]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah.
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Host of Decoded Podcast
Which is sad and surely why I've had some of the struggles that I've
- [25:12]
Dr. Josh Axe
had as an adult. Well, I mean, you know, your chance of getting autoimmune disease goes up dramatically if you have gut microbiome issues. I mean, that's really where it starts. Leaky gut from that and then antibiotics, of course. The biggest root cause of it, When
- [25:25]
Host of Decoded Podcast
I was 19, I was in a relationship where a person ended up having bleeding ulcers. So by proxy, because he changed his diet to gluten free. Cause it turned out he had celiac. I just kind of went gluten free because that's what was in our house with all my roommates. And I lost 20 pounds. My anxiety attacks that I'd had all the time just suddenly were like, huh, weird. What's going on with me? And that Until I moved to Hawaii and I moved in with the Japanese family and I started eating rice all the time. Within one year I was in a full blown, what I now know to be my first like real lupus flare Went to the doctor and of course I went at that point, I was not really familiar with any sort of natural or complimentary health. Was in Hawaii. Went to a doctor that was just like, you know, here's what you've got. You're going to be on steroids for the rest of your life. And I was like, no, I'm not. There's no way I'm doing this. I found some hippie doctor in Hawi that looked like a Grateful Dead band mate. Like long. He's probably passed away now, Dr. Thal. And I remember he got there and he just laid it all out for me and it worked. I had to cleanse everything at the time. I don't know that. I don't know your thoughts on chelation therapy. It actually took a lot out of me at that time. I think probably the way they would do it now would be more supportive.
- [26:41]
Dr. Josh Axe
And here's what I'd say about chelation therapy. Chelation just simply means to bind to and pull out of. Right. So, so, so chelation there, it's impossible to say. It's. It should be very personalized. But the people that do a lot of chelation, some of them tend to over chelate people, which is really. Can be really hard on your gut and liver. But that's, you know, it's gotta be done. Right.
- [27:02]
Host of Decoded Podcast
I think that probably happened to me because it was like, I got better overall. But there are some things that started to happen in the years after that, and I think likely they've certainly changed their protocols. This would have been like early two, early 2000s.
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Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, yeah.
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Host of Decoded Podcast
But it definitely set me off on. On the path that I'm not on now. And I do think that for many people, a health crisis, although it feels awful in the moment, I think a lot of time God uses health crises to actually catapult you to the next level. So I'm curious, just looking at, you know, you've had so many, I'm sure thousands of patients. How often is it that you have kind of seen a health crisis actually transform somebody's life for the better overall?
- [27:41]
Dr. Josh Axe
Well, I would say this. Anytime you're in a crisis, I think part of. When you look at the Asian root of the word, part of the half of the word's opportunity. And so. I think more than 50%, the majority of people will tend to use a crisis in order to support themselves or to heal. When you're at the bottom, I think that finally forces you to say, or when you have so much pain, you know, it Kind of forces you to change. And so I think, I think a lot of people use it for. Use it for good. You know, sometimes it takes a little while to figure out with certain people what's going on. Or I mean, this happens constantly. People go into their doctors and like, they'll get just the regular blood work and do a history, and they're like, hey, we ran these, you know, whatever, 30 markers that again, are from the Stone Age, and everything's fine, everything looks fine. And then people know, like, I'm not fine, something's not right here. And that's where we just need to go and search and do the right markers. And you need to see a doctor who's understood and dealt with complex cases in order to help you get well. But I think overall, most people will use a crisis in order to improve again. If you have enough pain, you're going to take action to try and make a change.
- [29:03]
Host of Decoded Podcast
I know when I was just doing your podcast, this came up around health habits and being able to follow through on things. And it made me think immediately. One of the things that we do with brain pattern mapping as a technology platform is it does predict these patterns of thought behavior and decision making. And with that, it also predicts where there's likely to be resistance or where someone's gonna be like, yeah, Dr. Axe, I'm gonna do that. And then you come back in six weeks, you retest them, and you're like, pretty sure this person's lying to me. I don't think they've actually done the protocol I've asked them to do. And it just immediately made me think. Something like this obviously is a. It would be a profoundly helpful tool. How right now do you try to anticipate whether somebody's going to adhere or not? Do you have a tool like that?
- [29:49]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah. Well, one of the things that I loved about when you were on my podcast is we talked about getting to the root causes and you talked about. It starts with perception.
- [30:00]
Host of Decoded Podcast
Absolutely.
- [30:01]
Dr. Josh Axe
And it's the same. It's the same medical practice. I noticed very early on if somebody would typically see good results or have a harder time. And here's an example. I used to. Now we even get more. We get even more detail. But I used to have people fill out like a three day diet diary what they're eating on a daily basis. And then we would run blood work and have them come back in a week. And then we would start going over all the bigger changes. But for that week, I knew I wanted them at least start doing Something. So I would typically just start with breakfast. And I would say, hey, what are you eating for breakfast right now? And, you know, it's a bagel and cream cheese or special case cereal with skim Mao. It's something like that. And I would say oftentimes, hey, here's a couple issues. I want you to do scrambled eggs and olive oil with an apple or berries. Or I'm gonna have you do this superfood smoothie with coconut milk and berries and protein and collagen, something like that. Okay. And I would get one of two reactions. One was. One group was like, oh, no, I can't have this. I love this. Oh, no, he's saying, I can't. And then the other group was, that sounds great. That sounds great. And of course, we know the one that sounds great. I'm gonna do that. That doesn't seem that hard. They would go and see the good results. It was this perception of somebody's taking something from me, and this is gonna be hard and difficult. Those were the two things that I think that people were perceiving, is that I'm having to get rid of something that I love, and it's going to be really hard versus another one was, oh, he's basically telling me I can have a strawberry milkshake for breakfast. Okay, that's not hard.
- [31:37]
Host of Decoded Podcast
Sounds great.
- [31:38]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, that's great. Hey, I can do this. I'm going to see good results here. I mean, it's, you know, so your perception about the results, you're going to see thinking the long. The other thing is, like, if I have people ask me all the time, how long is it going to take me to heal? It's a hard question to answer. Very hard. Some of it is, how diligent are you going to be with transforming your body and mind? You know, lowering the stress and diligent and taking the supplements and following the eating plan and walking outside more, you know, doing those things. So. So it depends. But for some people, three months seems like an eternity. Like, oh, it's going to take three months. And part of me is like, you've been sick for 30 years, you know, but three months, that's not that. But some people feel like it's a really long time, and others are like, well, 90 days. I can see that improvement. That's no time at all. So. So much of this is perception.
- [32:29]
Host of Decoded Podcast
Yeah. I was gonna say time is just all perception. Right. Even if you think about when you're a little kid, are we there yet? Are we there yet? And your Parents are like, do not ask me one more time.
- [32:38]
Dr. Josh Axe
Exactly.
- [32:38]
Host of Decoded Podcast
Right. And now I feel like I'll be like, oh, I gotta text that person back. And then three months later, I text them back and they're like, hello. Like, that was a long response time. But in my mind that three months went by like that. That was like one trip ago. I just got back. No, I went back for three months.
- [32:53]
Dr. Josh Axe
Exactly.
- [32:54]
Host of Decoded Podcast
So, yeah, the perception thing. I wonder, because I know we talked a lot on your podcast about self deception. I wonder about the people who initially. Right. Because I know that behavior will transition over time. Someone's resounding yes can slowly accidentally become a no. So I wonder how often people might have the immediate resounding yes, I can do that. And then might drop off.
- [33:17]
Dr. Josh Axe
Well, can you tell? Yeah, there's no doubt. I've seen a pattern in the People that are hyper enthusiastic tend to crash and burn a little bit more versus somebody who's very thoughtful about, okay, this means this. This means this. Yeah, I can do that. Okay.
- [33:32]
Host of Decoded Podcast
Yeah.
- [33:32]
Dr. Josh Axe
You know where it's more nonchalant. Like, I think the bigger the thing, like the bigger change you perceive it is now I want the biggest change possible, typically, because most people are just. And here's the crazy part, a lot of people, to them, they're doing the exact right thing. Here's the biggest example. I take care of a lot of women, and a lot of women come in telling me I eat healthy. And then I look at what they're eating and even some people listening right now, most of you, this is going to surprise you. And they're eating a lot of salads and a lot of smoothies or not eating very much. And that seems healthy. But a lot of women have autoimmune disease and GI issues. A lot of them have thyroid issues and hormone issues and eating foods that are cooling, like a cold smoothie, like a cold berry smoothie, or eating a salad, which again, is cooling. It's actually cooling to your digestive system. And it's raw. It's hard to digest. It's actually not healthy at all. Most people are much better off doing a lot of soups and herbal teas than they are salads and raw smoothies and raw nuts. I mean, that sort of thing. So. So anyways, that being said, yeah. And my big belief too, is everything should be personalized for the individual. You talked about rice earlier. You know, most people actually, as a grain rice is typically the least allergenic of all grains. And in Japan, people are eating rice like crazy. And they have no Okinawa. They eat a lot of rice. Rice and raw fish. And they're very lean, and they have very, very little intolerances there. But for you, highly, highly sensitive. So this is also why it's so important to work with a doctor that can help work and find what's your kryptonite. Because oftentimes there's a health. It could be broccoli. You think broccoli's got to be the healthiest food in the world, but for some people, it's terrible. So it just. It's so much is person dependent.
- [35:37]
Host of Decoded Podcast
I had a client a long time ago with Crohn's. This was, like, way back in the very early part of my career when I was seeing a lot of private clients in Malibu. And she had Crohn's, and she just. I'd been working for her at this point for maybe six months. And this one day, she comes to me crying. She's like, I just don't understand. I eat so healthy. Why? This was, you know, kind of like railing at God, like, why? And I remember just having this moment of, you know, I smell broccoli every time I come into your house. She's like, yeah. Every night I in the oven, do broccoli and cauliflower with, like, light olive oil and salt. And it was just. It was a God thing where I just. For no other reason other than beep, boop, like broccoli. I was like, why don't you try cutting out broccoli for a week? She's like, why would I? But broccoli's so healthy. And I'm like, well, I know with my autoimmune disease, when it comes to some of the Brassica family, I don't do well with the things that have that sort of sulfur, so why don't you give it a try? And in a week. She was like, oh, my God, this is genius. So what is it about some of that family of vegetables that can impact, I'm assuming. I don't know too much about Crohn's specifically, but it seems inflammatory. Is it an inflammatory too?
- [36:48]
Dr. Josh Axe
Well, to be honest, it's less so than other things. Like, nightshades tend to be a bigger issue if somebody's major, you know, majorly sensitive and in an inflammatory state. But there are these things called goitrogens in that, especially if they're raw or not really well cooked, that actually affect the thyroid and can cause more autoimmune like reactions, actually. So those can be in there for sure. But that's kind of what it is, is those goitrogens in there that affect the body. But again, it's different for everybody. That's the whole thing. I mean, that's why again, one of the things we talked about, and this is important in health, this is an important life principle. If you want to be the best you can be in any area, you need to develop a high level of self awareness and body awareness in that area. So it's like, okay, if I want to have good relationships, I need to become highly aware of my thoughts and my emotions and even be able to look at what's going on to a degree emotionally in the other person to see how I can best serve them and love them and understand, hey, that person's hurt. That's why they said that to me. And then ask rather than me lashing out, hey, is everything okay? What's going on with you? You seem upset. You seem more on edge to, you know, so, so. But the same thing in our physical health. Hey, I ate this. My nose started running a little bit. Oh, I started getting a little bit of redness on my skin. My joints feel really bad today. That's weird. I didn't even do anything strenuous with my joints yesterday. So being able to listen to your body and it's so hard because our mind is so full and we're so busy. But if you can go through a process, I mean, the most practical thing most people do today is like an elimination diet, right? And there's great value there. And then there are some food sensitivity tests, though, if you're only doing one antibody like IgG or IgE for a food allergy, it tends to be, there's a lot of false positives. So that's a major challenge. But I do think for some people you can do a food sensitivity test. It can tell you the foods and then you can say, you know what, I'm not certain these foods are affecting me this way, but I'm going to eat them. And now I'm going to be at least more aware that they definitely could be because there are some positives on here. I just know there are going to be some false positives. So there is benefit in food sensitivity testing, but it has to be done in combination with you being highly aware, listening to your body to really uncover, hey, this is what I'm not reacting well to.
- [39:12]
Host of Decoded Podcast
Is there a certain food sensitivity test that you typically recommend over others?
- [39:17]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, yeah, there is one. That's fantastic. It's out of. They actually Changed their name. I want to call, it's called like Precision Diagnostics. They're out of Atlanta, Dr. Gazagoli. And what they do is. So we have different antibodies in our body, right? So igg is actually typically where we come up with a food allergy. IgG tends to be food sensitivity. But he put together a test that also looks at iga, igm, looks at all the antibodies and shows every food you may have an antibody to. So if you have a food, for instance, where it's like every antibody is being released, when you have to your point, broccoli, there's a, there's a much greater probability then that that is one of the foods you're sensitive to. So because it's so broad and what it's looking at is the most comprehensive food sensitivity test. That's probably the, the one that I. If somebody's doing food sensitivity. Now, listen, I'll say this. Food sensitivity tests are definitely not the number one test on my list. I tend to really prefer like an intracellular nutrient test to see not. Because here's something people don't realize today. When you're doing a blood test, it's showing what's available in your blood. It's not showing what your body can actually use, because let's say you've got magnesium, it's in your blood. And first off, they don't even test for magnesium in your blood. Most people don't. But let's say you go to a functional medicine doctor and they're actually testing for that. That's not the greatest level of testing, because you really want to know what's in your cell, because then that's what your mitochondria is going to use to produce energy or your nucleus to turn on and off certain epigenetic sw. So you really want to be able to do that. So my favorite tests tend to be micronutrient tests that are looking at intracellular nutrients. I really like tests that are even looking at epigenetics, like, of course, mthfr. But epigenetic tests go way beyond mthfr, which is how well you're methylating. And this is really. And so if you're not methylating properly, you want to take methylated vitamins and there's methylfolate, which can support your body detoxifying better or in creating certain, certain other nutrients. But, but, but I like epigenetics because there, for instance, there are epigenetic tests you can look at to see, hey, can you detox mold? Like 24 of people have A genetic variant where they do not detox mold well, so they could walk in a moldy building and they're like. Or have dust or something else and they're like, it just wrecks them. And for another person they're like, so what? You know, didn't. I don't feel a thing. There's so there's a lot. There's a genetic variant where you can't convert the Omega 3s and flax and walnuts over to epadha, which is the type that your body uses, which is in salmon. But some people could do a bunch of flax oil and it converts well. And so that's a great thing for them to reduce inflammation. So I'm a big believer in personalized medicine. And if I can look at the micronutrient panel and also looking at organ function and I can look at these genetic variants, I can really put together a really precise personalized nutrition plan, which is what we do in my clinic. But we can put together something really precise also. Hormone panel, that's something else I think for women in particular. And knowing a men's free testosterone, that's important too, but that I really like. And then after that, I probably like a GI map the most. Seeing what's going on in your gut microbiome, and those are the ones I run the most. And then after that, very patient dependent. I might do a food sensitivity, I might do a heavy metal test, and there's a bunch of others, but those are the most common tests I run.
- [42:50]
Host of Decoded Podcast
Let me ask you a question. Have you ever noticed how you can know something is unhealthy and still do it anyways? You know you shouldn't react that way in an argument. You know that habit isn't good for you. You know that that thought pattern is irrational. And yet somehow your brain runs the same loop again. This is where a lot of personal development goes wrong. Awareness alone doesn't change the brain. Repeated behavioral input does. Your brain changes through neuroplasticity, through the pathways you strengthen with action, not just awareness. And that is exactly why I created Renew youw Mind. This program sits at the intersection of neuroscience, behavioral rewiring and biblical teaching around the command to renew your mind. Inside this program, I walk through what's actually happening in the brain when patterns form, why your prefrontal cortex shuts down under emotional pressure and how specific behaviors activate areas like the anterior mid cingulate cortex, which is responsible for resilience, discipline and the ability to push through discomfort. But the most important thing we talk about is pattern opposition. Because if you want a new life, you can't keep feeding the same neural pathways that created the old one. Scripture says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind, but most people were never taught how to actually do that. Renew youw Mind gives you the framework to begin interrupting destructive patterns, strengthen your ability to regulate emotion, and build the emotional resilience that is required to become a new creation. If you've ever felt like your reactions, habits, or emotional patterns are running your life instead of the other way around, this program was built for you. Renew your Mind can be accessed at Stan Store busygold. On this podcast, we've spent a lot of time talking about peptides. We spent a lot of time talking about MCAs. And I'm curious both your thoughts on MCAs, but I think even more so than just generally speaking, I'm wondering if you ever see mental health symptoms or what appear to be mental health symptoms seem to overlap with mcas, or whether diagnosed or symptoms that seem to match up with MCAs.
- [44:52]
Dr. Josh Axe
Okay, and you're talking about histamine, you're talking about mast cells, mass cells. I just wanted to make sure because so I'm seeing more and more patients. I mean, by the way, I hardly ever saw anybody with histamine issues 20 years ago, almost never. I mean, the last five years, I've seen way, way more people with mast cell and histamine issues. Now, let me tell you what I think the root is. For most people, I think it's stress. Because what happens is when you get really stressed out, you start to lower. In our cells, we all have mitochondria. These are our body's batteries, okay, that energize our whole body, give us cellular energy. When cortisol goes up, it's basically the biggest thing that's starting to deplete your battery, okay? That starts to get low. What happens then, too, is certain organ systems start to not be able to function at the level they should. And one of those areas is the digestive system. And so I think the biggest cause today, right now, and there's others, so I don't want to say this is the only one, but I think sibo, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, is the single biggest factor today, causing issues with mast cell proliferation and with histamine intolerance. And so there's a few things. One, reduced stress, especially if you're stressed while eating, if you are working over lunch break like you're eating while on the computer, while doing whatever, it's almost like this. So I used to do triathlons. I've ran a lot of 10Ks, 5Ks. If anyone here has ever done any sort of, let me just say, any type of workout, you can't eat a cheeseburger in the middle of the workout. Why is that? Well, it's because your brain, when you're working out, you're a little bit more in fight or flight, which is okay because there's all these benefits from it. It's sending blood to your brain to be more alert and your extremities so you can fight or run or use your muscles. But your body sends all the blood externally. But when the blood leaves, goes external, well, now you have less blood and oxygen internally, so you can't digest as well. Those organ systems are kind of taking a backseat for a time. Well, if you're in fight or flight, which is working, if you're in that state while trying to eat, you don't fully digest everything. And what happens is your body then starts to have certain types of bacteria start to creep up. It's small intestinal bacteria. All of your bacteria, for the most part, should be in your colon, your large intestine. It starts to creep up into the small intestine and like H. Pylori starts to creep up there and that. And now you can't digest your food properly. And then you start getting histamine because fermentation's happening. So you're having all of this reaction happening. And so then certain foods you can't digest well, like vinegar, citrus fruits, strawberries, leftovers. That's a big one. Like your body just starts reacting, overreacting to everything. But the, but the biggest thing there is we really have to get stress down. You should calmly do everything we can to support that upper gi. Walking around meals, doing a licorice root and ginger, herbal tea, eating smaller meals, not overeating. And when you're doing lunch or eating a meal, you're like, you're looking outside, you're taking your time, you're relaxing, you're just, you're in a more of a serene, peaceful state. That is the biggest cure for histamine intolerance today. Now, there are other supplements. Once the bacteria starts coming up, like, you can take like it's natural antibiotics, antimicrobials, Caprylic acid is one of my favorites. You know, grapeseed extract. Berberine is actually really good for this. And so, you know, putting together a cocktail like that and then doing more soil based, you don't want to do regular probiotics when you're having mast cell and histamine issues. You want to do soil based organisms only because they don't live in your gut. They actually act like bulldozers and help clear out bad bacteria out of your gut.
- [48:47]
Host of Decoded Podcast
Do you have a good source for that?
- [48:49]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, I mean I actually, I don't want to say Bran. What I want to say is the species you want to look for, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus coagulans, Bacillus clausi. It's the Bacillus species. Okay. So Bacillus is the species that you would look for of or the straight
- [49:10]
Host of Decoded Podcast
and that would somehow control what's overgrowing in the.
- [49:14]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, because different microbes do different things. So we talked about Akkermansia, that's more of one that may support metabolic health. Okay. And then you've got, you know, Bifidobacterium and things like that that might be more like immune health or acidophilus, digestive health. And then you've got the soil based and they're the probiotics that have the most antibiotic properties to where they help clear out yeast and Candida and H. Pylori out of your system and help remove things that are, you know, the bad bacteria you don't want. There is more of their, their, their
- [49:53]
Host of Decoded Podcast
how they work when it comes to the connection between gut and brain. Obviously I think at this point, like we were talking about your, you know, earlier on the show, people's threshold of understanding has changed. Right. Like people know more about that. I think that's very common. But I'm still interested how much overlap you see where gut issues or something that is more physical tends to kick off symptoms that appear to be psychological when they in fact might not actually be originating from a psychological means.
- [50:26]
Dr. Josh Axe
Well, I mean, it's really common. I mean really common. I mean there's no doubt. I mean, like here's a few examples I want to give. You know how many women struggle with seasonal effect, men and women, seasonal affective mood disorder. Right. It's very common. Part of that is a vitamin D deficiency. Okay. And so that's super common. I was just talking to my sister in law and she just had a baby about 10 days ago. And I'm really encouraging. I've said we got to get you on a diet right now to build your blood because women don't realize fully. I don't think we've had the conversation enough on how much blood you lose. I mean the placenta is so much blood and breast milk in part what you're creating there, it's a lot of the same constituents that is a blood. So you are losing. So women that deal with postpartum depression, I think the single biggest reason why. Now listen, I think maybe it's also a natural something that may naturally be there for other reasons. But I do think the biggest reason is they have a blood deficiency. And so they feel like they're mildly anemic. So when you're anemic, you feel tired, exhausted, unmotivated, just like. And that's been linked to their studies, depression. And so we want to build the blood. We want to do lots of, like, lots of soups, lots of red meat, maybe even an iron supplement that's easier to digest. Dong Hua, an herb like that, lots of cinnamon and ginger. We really want to do every beets. Like we really want to build the blood, but that's connected to depression. And then, I mean, there are studies showing certain B vitamins. We talked about D omega 3 fatty acid deficiencies. Zinc is a new one we've seen in recent clinical studies. And that has to do with. Zinc is the mineral that repairs your gut when there's damage there, it's necessary. And so I see it very frequently now. I also want to say this, though. On occasion I've seen people who think, well, the sole reason I'm dealing with depression is because of a nutritional issue. It's almost always a combination of, yes, your nutrition can get better, but also, who do you believe God says you are? How's your relationship with the divine? Do you have a purpose in life? I mean, there's a study that came out said only 25% of people are certain on their purpose. So I think issues tied to identity and purpose and our relationships, you know, all of those things even more so impact depression and anxiety. But I do think nutrition is, is a big player.
- [53:11]
Host of Decoded Podcast
We've gotten ourselves into a place where it seems like everything's very AI centric. So I think sometimes when people think about the future and technology, everything's AI But I think there's so many other ways that we are going to expand technologically beyond just simply AI. So I'm wondering what you think the future of medicine looks like, you know, including AI, but even beyond, because I think there's a lot beyond it as well.
- [53:34]
Dr. Josh Axe
Sure. Well, one, I think testing is going to get better. Now, some of that is due to AI, but some of it's just due to other technological advances. So let me give you an example of this. Like, I wear an aura ring And I. And there's other great, you know, things that you can do to test things. But I really like it because I, I like static tests, but I also really like dynamic tests that are telling me every day, what's my sleep score, what's my hrv, which is heart rate variability, which is actually a fairly good longevity marker, what's my resting heart rate, you know, what are my stress levels, all that sort of stuff. So. So it's nice being able to. And I also like continuous glucose monitors, right where you put that on and it's telling you what your blood sugar is that's greatly valuable. So being able to interpret those patterns over time in those tech devices, I've seen such great benefits of that for people. Eventually we're going to get to the point. Well, I talked about a GI MAP earlier. So if people don't know what a GI map is, it's where we do a stool test. And then we go and look for what are the microbes, like bacteria and yeast and fungi and even parasites. We look what's in your stool. Okay. To see the health of your gut microbiome. Now, that test is a little inconvenient because all this stuff you have to do, but it's super beneficial. And one day and same thing, like you go and have to give a certain volume of blood, we're going to get better and better at let's. This is just theoretical. I just thought of this like literally the other day. What if one day, every time you use the toilet, you get a urinal analysis and a stool analysis and it pops up on a screen in front of you. Here's what your microbiome has in it today. Here's what you excreted for this. Increase your potassium intake. Go and take bacillus subtilis or Akkermansia or whatever. That's gonna be pretty cool. Or how about one day, rather than doing a full blood draw, you kind of have a micro blood spot from whatever that thing is very similar, like a continuous blood glucose monitor. And on your phone every day it's telling you, here's your level of vitamin C, here's your levels of selenium. Okay, you need to increase it this much and do it three times a day. And here's the ideal foods to do. So I am incredibly excited about how tracking certain metrics are going to become real time. And you'll know exactly what you should eat, what you should do, how your body's reacting to in more of a dynamic basis. So I think that's the future. I think we're going to see much, much more of that. And I also think, like, some of the more expensive devices I think are going to be almost everyday things in people's homes. I think eventually hyperbaric chambers are incredibly beneficial. Infrared saunas are incredibly beneficial. I think we're going to see a lot more people have those in their house in the future. Um, yeah, I mean, I think those are a few of the things you
- [56:30]
Host of Decoded Podcast
brought up stem cells a while ago. And my oldest daughter has cerebral palsy and we've done multiple stem cell transplants.
- [56:36]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah.
- [56:37]
Host of Decoded Podcast
I'm curious to know what your take is on stem cells and where you think or hope stem cells will go in the United States. Because I know that that's one of the things you mentioned RFK was, you know, trying to push forward.
- [56:49]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah. So right now what the laws are, is you can pull your own blood, your own bone marrow, which is where your stem cells are. The thing I don't love about Listen, the negative of that is you're pulling it from yourself. And your bone marrow is also creates immune cells. So your immune system gets down for a little bit and your blood volume gets down a little bit. So there are mild side effects. Now listen, if you have tore your ACL or you've got major arthritis and it's keeping you from being active, I think pulling your own bone marrow is fine because you're going to be able to be so much more active and out of pain. So then cortisol is going to drop. So the benefits make sense. Now today, if you go to certain other countries and here we're starting to get access to this, you can like a woman can give birth and donate or get paid for her giving the umbilical cord that what we might discard at times, the umbilical cord, it's incredibly high in stem cells. Okay. So you can take umbilical cord tissue, pull stem cells from it. And what stem cells are is they are cells that can become anything. So if you take those cells and inject them in your knee and you have a partially torn meniscus, it can actually go and become that tissue that's missing and fully heal, or in most cases partially heal the meniscus or an injury you might have and help it restore functions. Because one umbilical cells, they're younger cells, they're those of an infant. And so they're ready to grow, develop, become anything. And so now if you go to other countries like Europe, Germany, Switzerland, places in South America and Mexico, they can culture cells. And that's where you take these umbilical cord cells and you culture them. You might get 10 to 100 times the amount. So you're just getting a much higher dose in the body. And that's what's happening in other countries today. We can't do that yet in America. Actually Florida and Utah, I think just passed laws where maybe they can now legally do that there. I think it's still slightly gray, but they have more rights in Florida and Utah than any other states to be able to use stem cells in that way. But stem cells are incredibly powerful. That's the best stem cells right now we're going to see in the future. Let me say this. There's actually a new type of stem cells out as well now called mu cells, which those can bypass the lung, which is where a lot of them get caught up and go to the more directly to organs. So people should keep their eyes out for those. But I think in the future we're going to see stem cells like here's what's happening now. If you go and get a stem cell IV and you have type 1 diabetes, in many cases you can almost completely reverse those symptoms for a few months. But then because they become those, those pancreatic or those beta cells that are damaged, okay, so, so some of those can regenerate. But oftentimes there's something living in your. You're still having an autoimmune response or still maybe there's a dormant virus that's still creating some of that what caused type 1 diabetes in the first place. And so everyone I know of then over time they'll eventually develop those same type 1 diabetes. But many of them, there's studies on this have been able to go without the drugs for maybe a full month or maybe longer. Maybe we can get to the point with stem cells where if it's done enough times and we find also continue to how to get more of the root of the issue where some of these autoimmune diseases can be completely reversed. Like I've sent people there with Crohn's colitis and ibd and for some of them they've completely reversed it because it's a little bit more cut and dry how to cure that versus a type 1 diabetes or certain types of these autoimmune responses. But I think the future is going to be we're going to see even greater reversal of autoimmune diseases and people will be able to get it more on a regular basis because. Because this type of stem cell. It's expensive, right? So it might be minimum $5,000 of treatment, but if you're getting the really good ones in certain areas, it might be 25,000. I mean, so. So it's a. It's an expensive treatment.
- [61:00]
Host of Decoded Podcast
There's been 10 to 15k over time.
- [61:02]
Dr. Josh Axe
Most of, on average, it's about 12 to 15. But. But as more people do it and as we progress technologically, the price will drop and. And we'll continue to learn how to. How to use them. Even, Even, you know, even better is Wharton's jelly. It's same.
- [61:23]
Host of Decoded Podcast
Yeah, it's the same.
- [61:23]
Dr. Josh Axe
Well, yeah, yeah, similar.
- [61:25]
Host of Decoded Podcast
Because I feel like now I'm seeing that offered more in the United States, but it was not as. Anywhere near as potent because we did one in Panama. It's not.
- [61:33]
Dr. Josh Axe
Again, the. The umbilical cord is superior to Wharton's jelly.
- [61:38]
Host of Decoded Podcast
What is Wharton's jelly?
- [61:39]
Dr. Josh Axe
Wharton's jelly is. It's the soft gelatinous connective tissue inside the umbilical cord and some around the. The placenta. Okay, so when someone says umbilical cord, stem cells, comma, I know you can get those from Wharton's jelly, but can you also get them from other tissues within the cord? Question mark? See, I think what it is, I think Wharton's jelly is higher in, like, hyaluronic acid, all the glucose aminoglycans.
- [62:10]
Host of Decoded Podcast
You know, the umbilical cord blood that my daughter had was CD34. And mesenchymal cells.
- [62:15]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, they're mesenchymal. Yeah, yeah. There's less of them. Cord lining, the epithelium, mesochymal there. Yeah, yeah. So. So Wharton's jelly. Yeah, so Wharton's jelly, it's the gel inside of the umbilical cord. And so there's a greater volume of it. And it's also high in things like glucosaminoglycans, like glucosamine and chondroitin and hyaluronic acid, which is amazing for joints. But oftentimes what you want to be able to do is not just do the Wharton's jelly. You want to get a more concentrated dose of the mesenchymal stem cells, which you can get some from Morton's jelly, but also often it's taken from blood of umbilical cord. It can be taken some from the epithelial lining of the umbilical cord. But, but, but what I've seen is from a marketing, from a. From a product standpoint, if somebody's marketing more of the Wharton's jelly, it Tends to be. It's great, but it's typically not as potent as when you're doing more of the other tissues from the umbilical cord. And there are other people that are greater experts in this. I've had Dr. Rafael Gonzalez, he runs a clinic out of Cancun and Cabo called rehealth. I think it's probably the best stem cell clinic in the world. And like, I've been there, friends of mine, Gary Breca, all kinds of just, you know, you know, physicians, that's where they go to get a lot of their stem cells done. But yeah, yeah.
- [63:41]
Host of Decoded Podcast
When we took my daughter for the first time, she was 15 months old, she couldn't open up her hands. Her legs were so spastic that she couldn't bend them at the end of the car seat, was still not sitting, couldn't stand none of that. And it was a four day treatment. On day four, she was sitting on my bed by herself with her hands open. And by the plane ride back through Dallas, she was pulling up on my luggage to stand.
- [64:05]
Dr. Josh Axe
It's unbelievable. So, so when I had, I had a spinal infection and didn't walk for a year. And I. And a big reason why I was able to fully heal, I mean, I'm literally 100%, I'm better than I was, which is crazy to say because I had a doctor tell me you're likely going to be permanently disabled because this infection was in my L5 L4 L5 disc and spread into my bone around the spinal cord. It was really severe. And, and I went and got stem cell done and, and literally about two or three days later, I'm like, my joints don't hurt. I mean, like, because my, I was in bed for a year, my whole body hurt, not just my back. Everything was so stiff I couldn't even extend my legs because I was in bed so long. And to your point, like all of a sudden able to, able to move. And the great thing is, like, you will notice the biggest improvements week one, and then they'll taper off a bit, but then you'll get another little jump forward, typically in three months in certain areas, especially if they're locally injected. So there's no. If you want something that's going to be truly transformational, there's nothing as strong as stem cells. I mean, I mean, there's nothing as strong. I'm a big fan of peptides. I use peptides. Those can actually help amplify. So when I got my treatment, I did a combination called CLO and it was like BPC157, TB500 and GHKCU and doing that with stem cell together. If somebody's ever had a joint injury or pain or anything like that, or even autoimmune disease, it is, I mean, incredibly, it's the most incredibly healing combo there is.
- [65:36]
Host of Decoded Podcast
Well, I'm definitely going to try to get that recommendation from you for my daughter. And we're definitely on the peptide train with her because she's old. Now that it's helping for sure, I want to leave the audience with one question because I know faith is important to you. Faith is important to me. When you look at the role faith and even just belief in a higher power plays in the healing experience, what are the best tips you can give somebody if maybe they're not yet accessing their faith, they don't believe and they're currently sick? How can you use one to support your healing?
- [66:09]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, well, you know, when I was in the need of a healing miracle, when my mom had cancer, and by the way, my mom healed from cancer completely naturally, no chemotherapy, no radiation. Her and I would both attest to, we feel like the biggest thing that allowed her to heal was prayer. When I think about my own miracle, I saw in my body going from being told, you're going to have chronic pain the rest of your life, you're going to be permanently disabled. My number one remedy was prayer. When you read generally what caused a miracle in someone's life, what was the one common ingredient? I bet above 90% of the time that common ingredient is it was prayer. It was prayer. And prayer is a two way communication between you and God. And that communication with you can be a verbal communication, but from him it tends to come like this. You're a conscious, a conscious voice, like, like all of a sudden you've got peace or I've got you, or I have a sense that this person I'm talking to, I need to ask this certain question or looking out for signs, wonders like, so when I had my back issue, I mean, you know, this is such a mental battle more than anything. And I kept having this thing creep in my head like, will I ever fully heal? Maybe I'll get 50% better, but will I ever get back to where I was? And that was so hard because I was like, you know, I'm teaching everybody about health, I'm like working out every day, I'm throwing my 2 year old daughter up in the air, in the pool, I'm cycling, running, I'm doing all this stuff and Then I was in bed and told, you'll never do that stuff again. And so I was praying, and I'm like, lord, I just, you know, help me fully believe that I will get back to 100%, because that's what I want to believe. And there were three times when I was at my lowest. One of the time, I was on my back in a ambulance, and I looked up and there's a little window in the top of the van, and I saw a rainbow. And then there are two other times where I saw rainbows. And to me, that was. God was saying, hey, this is a sign of a promise. You're gonna be okay. I'm gonna get you through this, you know? So I think that for people who are dealing with the issue and they're wondering, hey, what role does faith play? It plays the biggest role. I mean, even to go to more of the scientific standpoint around neuroplasticity, I mean, your beliefs around things make a major difference. Think about the placebo effect. I mean, you know, it originally started, I believe it was World War I, and you had these fallen soldiers in terrible pain. They ran out of morphine. These are soldiers that lost their leg. And the doctor tells the nurse, we got to give them something. So she just starts filling up syringes with saline, salt water or sugar water, salt solution. That's all. It was, injecting it to them. And 40% of them were like, hey, I saw pain relief. Like, I was getting morphine. So somebody's body, without having anything, was creating chemicals as strong as morphine. So your body will actually, based on your belief, will start moving towards something. But in addition to that, I also do believe we have a God who intervenes for us and works things out for our good and that prayer matters. And there are studies showing you have a greater healing outcome with prayer. So I think there's more of that natural element that we can understand of these chemicals in our brain. But I also believe there is a supernatural element. I would say this. It's not going to hurt. It's not going to hurt. If I was at my lowest and I had a major health issue and someone said, can I pray for you? And whether I believe in God or not, I'd be like, you know what? I want to do everything I can. And then here's the thing. Be on the lookout, though, because if somebody prays for you or you pray and you're healed, you know, there should be. That should be element of proof that, you know what, God is real. He's working for my good. He wants to have a relationship with me. And so, you know, I think faith is the single most important thing of healing. I think diet's very important. I think exercise is important. But I think that our faith and our belief is the single greatest factor in U.S. healing.
- [70:21]
Host of Decoded Podcast
I love that. Couldn't agree more. What is the best way for my audience to follow along with your work and just tap into all the amazing things you've got going on?
- [70:30]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah. If anybody has a health problem and they do want to see myself or Dr. Will Cole or our our practitioners we've trained, I have a online clinic called the Health Institute they could visit there. We have again the Longevity Clinic. That's where people come in person though. The other one, the Health Institute, we do everything virtual and then I would say my podcast, the Dr. Josh Axe show and then just check me out on Instagram, follow on there. And then I put out a lot of content on YouTube so somebody could search Dr. Josh Axe Hypothyroidism or depression or peptides. And I've done a lot of sort of more in depth shows on those types of things as well so they could find on there. But thanks so much for having me. It was a real blessing having you. Or one it was a blessing you coming on my show. That was fun. But I love what you do and getting to the root of issues, especially the mind. So thanks so much for having me.
- [71:21]
Host of Decoded Podcast
Thank you. It's been great to spend two hours with you guys. Thanks for tuning into this episode. I will see you next week. Your brain isn't broken, it's running. An old code break method is a system that maps your neurological patterns, decodes your emotional distortions and rewires your behavior fast. No talk therapy, spiral, no getting stuck in your feelings, just logic based rewiring in 20 weeks or less. Head to breakmethod.com and see what your brain is really up to.