Dr. Josh Axe (0:00)

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Visit vibrant-wellness.com today to learn what your DNA says about your detox pathways. Hey everyone. Welcome to Dr. Josh Axe Show. I am your host, Dr. Axe. And each and every week on this show we dive deep into the science and principles behind how to grow in body, mind and spirit and take your health and your life to the next level. Today I'll be discussing how to naturally boost and strengthen your immune system via diet, lifestyles, natural remedies like honey and traditional practices. And I want to mention so many people have a false idea about what immunization is. Now when we hear the word immunization, we tend to think of shots and that's the only thing. But we can naturally immunize ourselves and our kids via things like vaginal birth, breastfeeding, eating very specific foods as you grow up, eating local, consuming things like raw, local honey, and so much more. Episode I'm going to dive into how to truly strengthen your immune system and what you need to know about natural immunization. I also want to say there are so many lies and propaganda out there today about natural immunization now. A lot of it. It got even worse around COVID 19 when they started changing definitions in the dictionary and on medical websites around, well, the only way to reach herd immunity is via vaccination and the only way to actually truly protect yourself is a shot. And you know, people started to discard everyone from Dr. Fauci to others in the mainstream media. The power of getting sunshine, eating local food, taking vitamin C and zinc and vitamin D. We started to get away from the realities about how to strengthen our immune systems. And this is something we are very aware of in the Axe household. For instance, one of the things we do with our daughters is we, as they start, we have a one year old now and a four year old, but we give them very specific foods to naturally help strengthen and diversify their gut microbiome and their immune system. It's a form of natural immunization. Now that our daughter is one, we give her things like bee pollen or I'm sorry, our four year old, we give bee pollen. And so I'm going to dive into that and so much more. By the way, some of these ideas, I wrote a book on this back in 2000. I want to say it was 13 or 14. The book was called Eat Dirt. It was a national bestseller. And the book really dived into a lot of these topics that we're going to dive into today. But before I dive in, make sure to subscribe to the channel and hit the link in the Show Notes to subscribe to my weekly wellness newsletter. You'll find that link in the Show Notes. And so you won't miss a thing in those Show Notes you're going to get the Show Notes of the show. So if you want some of the references and the medical citations and things I'll go through today, then you'll want to make sure to go to the Show Notes and get signed up for the weekly newsletter or subscribe to the weekly newsletter so you can get the Show Notes. So I want to start off here talking about immunization. And as we talk about in our Western world today, in the United States, we tend to think of the only way you immunize yourself is via a shot. But I want to go through what the current schedule is. So you see, really the only way that medical professionals today tend to talk about immunization. And I just want to say too, there is a narrative out there that I don't believe is true around that vaccines eliminated certain diseases. You know what's crazy? If you go and actually read books and look at the research for yourself without the smoke and mirrors, you will start to notice that most of these diseases started falling off, going way down before some of these vaccines were even introduced. And so it's important to understand that as we dive into the truth. A lot of it had to do with better sanitation, quite frankly, because that sort of breeds pathogenic spread. But we'll dive into that more. So the current childhood vaccine schedule in the United States has continued to expand over the years as new vaccines have been developed by drug makers and you know, if we go back to the earliest 20th century, when you look at the different vaccines that were given, it tended to be smallpox, diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough. I can tell you for myself, when I was a kid, I think I remember receiving maybe a total of four shots. Possibly the ones I think that I were given was tetanus, diphtheria, probably smallpox, and then possibly mmr. But that's really all I received. So I really didn't get. And I was born around 1981, and I had far less. And around that, that 1980-81 time, a lot more were introduced, such as hepatitis, influenza B, pneumococcal disease, and a number of others. And this has just continued to expand over time. And I want to go through these charts here, so you can see the number of shots given and the number of diseases from 1986 to 2019. And then also looking at the current schedule in 2024. And you can see here, in 1986, there were about 12 shots. Again, I only remember receiving. So it was actually far less than this, even. But in 1986, it was 12 shots, 25 antigens and 8 diseases. By 2019, it was 54 shots, 70 antigens, and 16 diseases. Now, I want to say that the current schedule in 2024 is closer to 70 shots for some. And that's a lot. It's a lot. And I want to say that if somebody's immune system is fully developed and strengthened, their body can fight off many of these things we're talking about, such as, you see the number of influenza there. I mean, that's the flu, right? So one thing that tends to happen in a way that I want you to think about, the way that immunization works is when your body's exposed to something in a microdose or just exposed to it, your body then can fight it off better in the future, right? Your body creates antibodies to these things, and that's the way that works. Now, I want to go through another chart here. And this goes through the current adolescent schedule through the ages of 18 years old. And I want to go through also through the ages of 29 years old, the amount of shots somebody will get. And so here's a vaccine schedule. I want to list off the vaccines and the number of doses per. So from birth to age six, kids will get three doses of hepatitis B, two to three doses of rotavirus, five doses of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, four doses of influenza type B. Three to four doses, four doses of pneumocytes, six doses. I'm sorry, four doses of polio virus, two doses of mmr, two doses of chicken box, two doses of hepatitis A and around six doses of influenza, at least. Okay. And then, by the way, that's just 0 to 6 years old. And then from ages 7 to 18, we've got one dose of tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, two to three doses of HPV, two doses of MC, two doses of meningococcal B, another six doses of influenza. And then 19 to 29, we've got influenza. 11 more doses. We've got COVID 19 initial series in boosters, which is going to be around five. And then tetanus, that's going to be one booster every 10 years. But by the age of 29, most people have around 70 shots. 70 shots. Okay. And the thing I would say is about this is that, like, when I think about the groups of people I know that are the healthiest and I'm going to ask this as a question, I want you to answer it in your head. The people that I know that are the least. That are the least likely to follow the current vaccine schedule and either get 0 or very, very few. Here's the groups of people that I know who get the least amount of shots. Number one is actually chiropractors. Chiropractors are very holistic. They try and do everything without the use of drug, surgery or shots. And that is the group that probably gets the least amount of these and is the least compliant. The next group is functional medicine doctors. Okay, again, that's another group. And then I would say naturopaths, acupuncturists, these are the other groups along there. But these natur. Medicine providers, and I know thousands of them, by the way, that are in these different groups. Holistic MDs, DOs, OMDs, acupuncturists, naturopaths. I know a lot in chiropractors. They are the least likely to get these. After that group, it's going to be homesteaders, homeschoolers, the Amish. It's going to be people that are really focused on gardening and taking care of themselves in that way. Those are the most likely groups of people. Now tell me what I missed. Okay, I would love for you to share. And by the way, have you seen that same thing? But these are the groups of people that I see that are probably the least likely to follow the schedule. And the thing I want to ask you is, do you think those groups of people are more or less healthy than the general population? Well, in my experience, that group of people is much healthier. And when I say much, I mean much healthier. I mean most of the functional medicine doctors I know and naturopaths and chiropractors. These groups of people, they're fit, they're healthy. They look like RFK Jr. Okay? A lot of them, they are much more holistic minded. They take vitamins and supplements, they're into gardening, they're into going to their local farmer's market, they're into biohacking. They're doing these things. And for them, those people, when they think about immunization, they don't think about it as solely this thing that the CDC or government dictates that you do in order to be healthy. They think about it as, I am naturally strengthening my immune system over time in different ways to boost my immune system. And the reality is this is that when we talk about immunization, there's also natural immunization. And that's the process by which the immune system strengthens and learns to fight off pathogens through exposure to antigens in your environment and food and other places in life. And I want to walk you through sort of the process of how this works, of how most people naturally immunize themselves over time. And it starts with through the mother and in the womb. It's called passive immunity. During pregnancy, mothers pass on antibodies such as immunoglobulin G or IgG to their babies through the placenta. And these antibodies protect the newborn from infections for the first few months of life. The key benefit here is this protection is temporary, but it provides a shield until the baby's immune system matures. And then via breast milk. Well, let me. Actually, there's one in between here. So there's in the womb, there's passing through the vaginal canal, vaginal birth. And when the baby is then covered in this good bacteria. And by the way, if you don't do a vaginal birth, one other thing you can do if you did C section is you can go and take, you can take the fluids and the bacteria from the mother. You can take a swab and you can then go and wipe it all over the baby's face and head. And I know plenty of mothers and family members who wanted to have a home birth. They weren't able to. And then they had to have a C section and then they went and then they covered the baby. And that's where the baby was getting some of those powerful immune boosters at that time. And this is also they tell you don't wash the baby the first week of birth at least, so they can continue to absorb into their skin and via inhale and in their mouth that good bacteria. So again, number one is via in the mother. This is why it's so important for moms to be healthy, is you pass off your immune system and those antibodies to your kids in the womb. The next is during the birth process and then after that it's via breast milk. Breast milk is rich in immunoglobulins such as IgA, which coats the baby's gut and prevents harmful pathways pathogens from entering the bloodstream, such as lactoferrin, which inhibits bacterial growth. It also has oligosaccharides, which feed gut bacteria. So the child starts growing more beneficial bacteria in their gut. These are all found in breast milk. It's the greatest superfood of all time and it supports natural immunization. Some of the other key compounds that mother's breast milk has are cytokines and growth factors. These support modulation of the immune system by the baby, such as your TH1 and TH2 immune system. There's live cells and there are a host of other things in the mother's breast milk that supports the antibodies of the baby. Now, once we get through the breastfeeding phase and those teeth start to break out, which is how you know that a child is ready to start consuming some form of food. It's via food. And so this should be introduced typically around that. It could be, let's call it six to nine month time period. And what they start to do is build up a tolerance to these foods they're eating and start creating certain types of bacteria in their gut that help them break down food. And exposure to these various foods introduces antigens. These are proteins that are recognized by the immune system, that now helps train the immune system to recognize and break down and deal with different substances that are out there. The other thing is, again, it really supports microbiome diversity. When you're consuming foods specifically like vegetables and fruits and grains like rice and meat, and healthy fats like avocado, you start to get more diversity in gut bacteria, which are crucial for gut and immune regulation. Also, you're getting other nutrients that support the immune system, like vitamin C, which is critical for white blood cell production. Zinc and beta glucans are important as well. So over time, and by the way, with our kids, what we start to do when they're little is we start to introduce microdose we actually buy from a company and I can't recall the exact name of it, but basically it has things like peanuts and dairy and a number of other things. And we give our kids this so they start building up exposure to peanuts and tree nuts, strawberries and eggs and dairy and the foods that many kids are becoming allergic to today because they were never exposed. And so what happens is when you get these microdoses, your body is able to create these antibodies or the right enzymes and bacteria to break down these foods in the future. So you really want to make sure when you've got kids that you are exposing them to a wide range of foods, including gluten and wheat and some of these products. Now, you're better off with something like an Einkorn. But you do want to expose them to these things early so they can produce the antibodies. And a lot of parents stop introducing things like peanuts to their kids early on. And so now kids are allergic to them because they were never exposed in the first place and their body was never able to adapt. Now, I want to say also over time there are other foods that really start to that continue to support natural immunization, such as local honey. Okay. Local honey contains traces amount of local pollen or around 200 different types of microbes. These help desensitize the immune system, reducing allergic responses to local environmental allergens and foods. And this provides antioxidants and antibacterial properties as well. And also, fermented foods also are going to help with something called your gut associated lymphoid tissue, which is going to be, which is a major part of your gut microbiome. So consuming raw local honey, consuming local vegetables. Now in my book Eat Dirt, I talked about this. When you're pulling beets or carrots out of the ground, if you would hold a microscope up to them or look at them closely, there's little brown specks on carrots. They're not like shiny unless you're buying the baby carrots which are peeled and sprayed with chlorine. But if you're, in many cases. But if you're doing the actual carrots you bought at your farmer's market or from a local store, you're going to see that they're going to have these brown specks on them. That's dirt, right? It's dirt. But those tend to be known as the ones embedded in there. They have soil based bacteria, soil based probiotics that actually help you better break down and digest that food you're about to eat. And there was a study out of Japan that found that if you're consuming foods locally, you're better able to absorb and digest those local foods. They also found that if you grew up eating certain foods. So for instance, they found people that are were Japanese better digested seaweed than people that weren't from an area where they grew up eating seaweed. Right. So it's important to recognize that you can build up and strengthen your immune system and immunize yourself via micro exposures to things over time. And this is also important for kids. You know, when I was a kid, people had chickenpox parties. Now I went and I got chicken pox, chickenpox just naturally at school once and I remember soaking in. I think my mom had me in oatmeal and baking soda bath a few times just to deal with it. But honestly I didn't feel too bad. I remember having a movie day or two and it was pretty great. But I was able to do that and that strengthened my immune system. And I think that if you would ask a practitioner that is more naturally minded if a child is better off taking a shot or actually getting it and beating it themselves, I think they would say beating it themselves. An example of that would be COVID 19. What offers greater protection? I'm going to ask you this. Getting COVID 19 just naturally or getting the shot? I'm not going to answer that. But there are studies that go out and show which one of those two created a stronger and a more protective immune response. We know this Dr. Marty Makery who was on the show recently. I remember talking my former interview with him, this was a few years back. During this time he went and shared his belief around that that the natural immunity is the strongest form of immunity. And so here's the biggest thing I just want to say. I don't know that I'm completely against, I'm not completely against any vaccinations at any time for everything. Let me give you an example. I've got a family member who has glioblastoma. It's a very deadly brain tumor. And we're going to go and do something called a dendritic, a dendritic cell vaccine where we will go and takewell actually once they remove the tumor from his brain, we'll take that tumor, they will take that actual tissue, they'll then create antibodies to the glioblastoma that he has specifically and we'll give him and he'll basically get a vaccine to those glioblastoma cells. I mean it's an amazing form of research, and it's the future of cancer therapy or certain types of cancer, of cancer treatment. So I think there is a time and a place for certain. But I think that probably one of the biggest things that I'm frustrated about is that we have put our sole focus on people strengthening their immune system via this way, this outdated way of doing things in terms of the way we're doing it today, versus we've totally lost building your actual foundation of how to strengthen your immune system. The government and medical practitioners, the cdc, the FDA should all be going out saying, listening, listen, people, if you want to strengthen your immune system, you need to ideally be healthy. As a mother, you need to breastfeed, ideally, you want to have a natural birth if you can. And if not, then here's the procedure to pass on some of the good bacteria to your child. You should be exposing your child to some of these things. Here's the sort of diet they should follow. Here are some of the ideal supplements and key nutrients. Right? We should be promoting eating locally and doing some of these things, but we're not. And it all has to do with money and these vaccines that are created by these pharmaceutical giants in the billions or over time, trillions of dollars that they're bringing in. And it's very unfortunate that now these other natural things aren't promoted. I can remember getting, when Covid was coming out, I went and did a podcast on Gabe and Rebecca Lyons podcast. And I went and talked about it at that time, how to naturally strengthen your immune system. Some of the things we're talking about now. And I got into vitamin D and zinc and vitamin C, probiotics and the research around those herbs like astragalus, echinacea and elderberry. I went through all this and then there was an article written about me, several that said Dr. Axe is being unscientific because I was talking about how I would go about treating and caring for and strengthening the immune system around Covid versus what the outside people were saying, which was this shot. This is the only answer. So I want to say it's very important that we change our mindset around this, because I guarantee, I'm telling you right now, listen, there's a principle in the Bible and it's by their fruit you will recognize them. This is something Jesus says, and if you want to be healthy, you should follow the advice of people that are very healthy. Who is healthier than functional medicine practitioners and chiropractors and naturopaths and acupuncture acupuncturists, and a lot of the homesteaders and those sort of people that are researching natural health. We're listening to the people that have only studied disease and never studied health. I mean, it's absolutely crazy. And so it's important to model and follow what those people are doing if you want to be healthy yourself. This is why I love Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. RFK, why I trust him much more than some of the other people in government that are talking about healthcare, especially those at the cdc, because he's actually healthy. Many of them aren't. And there's a big difference. He's in his 70s and still thriving and active and healthy, able to go and box and run and swim and is really fit. So there's a difference there. One of the biggest things that we have gotten away from doing when it comes to natural immunization is spending time outside in our natural environment. This is why I would say that I think this is one of the biggest reasons why kids are sick today, is they're sitting inside on their computers and watching TVs and video games and not exposing themselves to outdoor air and outdoor dirt. This is why I titled my book Eat Dirt in the past, because kids should literally be eating some dirt. Here's a reality. Gradual exposure to dirt, local pollen, and things in the air reduces your risk of allergies, according to a medical study. Multiple medical studies. And so we know that there are benefits around exposure to natural allergens. And the other thing is the soil. Like I said, playing outside in the soil helps educate our immune systems, reducing the risk of autoimmune diseases and allergies and a number of these issues. So over time consuming some of the natural foods, we talked about spending more time outdoors in our outdoor environment, getting your hands dirty in the soil when you're a kid. That means playing in the dirt when you're older means things like gardening, having pets and animals. But just exposure is important. Even exposure to things like the common cold is good for you. As long as your immune system is strong and can defeat it, then you're only going to get stronger as you go through it, in most cases, in that way. And so it's important to understand that if you're going to be healthy, that you naturally strengthen and support your immune system. So, in summary, over time, as we naturally boost your immune system, we want to focus on, number one, passive immunity that's provided by the mother via antibodies in the womb, via bacteria during birth and in breast milk. Number two, we want to have controlled introduction of antigens through your food. Things you'd even typically be allergic to, like peanuts and gluten, the environment and getting mild illnesses. Number three, we want to focus on microbiome development fueled by diverse nutrient rich and fermented foods. Getting more polyphenols in your diet, also spending more time even outside. And number four is environmental integration. This is exposure to local allergens, microbes and food foods that are built up in your local region where you live, like raw local honey. And five, long term immune strengthening via holistic practices such as getting acupuncture via red light therapy and sauna, doing also things like herbs like astragalus foods like bone broth. A lot of these things, over time strengthen and build our immune systems. And so it's important that we focus on naturally immunizing ourself via these ways. Okay, so let's dive more into some of this advanced information. And before modern medicine and vaccines, cultures worldwide used herbs, foods, and traditional wisdom and lifestyle practices to enhance their immune system. So in Chinese medicine, they utilize a variety of herbs that are believed to strengthen the body's defense energy, which is the immune system, also known as. And they would use things like acupuncture, dietary recommendations, and qigong exercises to strengthen the body's natural defenses. Now, some of the herbs that tend to be prescribed for these issues, the most common was astragalus and then in addition, ginseng, reishi mushroom, goji berries, these were all believed to have immune boosting benefits and strengthen that type of qi that protects the body. There's a quote from the medical journal Frontiers, and here's what it says. The immunoregulatory effects of Chinese medicine include the stimulation of immune cell activation, regulation of cytokine production and inhibition of inflammation, production of antioxidant activity, and modulation of immune cell signaling pathways. And so we even see in medical science today the benefits of using Chinese medicine to strengthen your immune system. We saw a very similar thing. If you go back and look at Ayurveda, they focused on what are called the three doshas, your energies of your vada, your pitta, your kapha. They would recommend herbs like ginger, like turmeric, like neem, to help strengthen the immune system along with practices such as meditation and yoga. And there are studies showing that these various Ayurvedic practices strengthen the immune system, increase the natural killer cells and T helper cells in your body, which fight things like cancer and modern illnesses. In Native American medicine, they would actually have things like sweat lodges so they would sometimes cold plunge and do sweat lodges to sweat and detoxify. Sort of an ancient form of a sauna in order to heal. And we saw that in ancient Roman culture as well. Then we go back and look at things like European herbalism. They were recommending garlic. Many years ago there was a blend called Thieves, which is vinegar, which was a lot of other powerful spices like oregano and clove and even black walnut. Elderberry of course is a powerful herb that was recommended in ancient European medicine as well. So we see these herbs like garlic and elderberry and vinegar and others used in ancient cultures for treating and strengthening the immune system. Hey, do you want to have the most comfortable sleep of your life? I have been loving Cozy Earth's Bamboo Sheetza. Seriously, if you haven't tried these sheets, you're missing out. You need to upgrade your sleep routine like I have. Deep sleep isn't just a nice to have. It's essential for better energy, focus and overall health. These sheets are made from 100% premium viscose from bamboo. So they're quite literally the softest sheets I've ever put on my body. Not only that, they actually help me get to sleep faster and and stay asleep by keeping my body temp regulated throughout the night. 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Kennedy argues that our current healthcare system is overly dependent on pharmaceuticals, which often focuses on treating symptoms rather than actually preventing and building disease over time. And he suggests that a shift towards prevention could reduce the overall burden of disease and lead to healthier populations. And this is a no brainer. Now here's what he said. I want to give a quote from him. He says this I'm going to urge President Trump on day one to do the same thing they did in Covid, which is to declare a national emergency, but not for infectious disease, but for chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, childhood obesity and others. And he emphasizes the role of diet in health, advocating for the consumption of whole organic foods that are free of pesticides and chemicals. And as an environmental lawyer, he has highlighted the impact of environmental toxins on health. And he's campaigned for things like clean water, clean air, less exposure to chemicals. These are all things that are critical to strengthening our immune system. And also this is important. He's called for the ending of advertising that's direct to the consumer for prescription drugs. Did you know that the United States and New Zealand are the only two countries that can market drugs via ads on television and magazines to the general population? It shouldn't be that way. He also wants to reform school lunches. I mean, our school lunches today are absolutely abysmal. Can I tell you, Chelsea, with our four year old now, by the way, you guys know this, if you experience this with schools, Chelsea and I are going kind of touring some schools right now and the school lunches are actually, one was really impressive that we went to here in Nashville and the other we were looking at was just terrible. So if she goes to that when we're going to just be packing her school no matter what, honestly, we're going to be packing her school lunch every day. We actually were talking to her recently and we're asking her, we said, how many other kids pack your lunch? And she's in this little class with like 12 kids right now. And she's the only one, okay? The only kid that's packing her lunch. And she told us the other day, she said, what was the kid's name? Simon. She was like, Simon told me that my, that my lunch looked icky. And we're like, well, you know what, Chelsea and I were a little, I mean, Chelsea and I know enough not to get riled up about what another four year old says about our daughter's lunch. But we went then and told her, like, no, you have the best lunch. Here's why. You know, this has these vitamins, this has this, this has this. And so she was really empowered that she has the best lunch of all time and it's better than what the other kids are getting. And of course it is much better than what you're going to get in a school cafeteria. So. So I want to go through some of these studies and ideas around naturally boosting your immune system. And one of the things as I was writing my book that was Most surprising to me was around. I don't even know if it was surprising. I'd heard it before, but it was more confirming. And that is. Studies show that children who grow up with pets or on farms such as Amish children tend to have stronger immune systems and lower rates of allergies. Allergies dramatically, by the way. It's dramatic. I want to say. If you have a dog, your chances of having allergies is like 50% less. I mean, that statistically is very significant. And what's happening there is you're getting exposure to more diverse microbes. You have your dog running out and they're on the ground, they're getting their feet in the mud and they're outside and you're going back and cuddling, hugging or playing with your animals. Animal. And you're now getting exposure to a greater number of microbes. And that educates your immune system and your kids immune systems over time, helping your body better differentiate and fight different allergens. Here's another study. It's amazing. Amish children have the lowest rates of allergies of any group ever studied. Do you guys hear that? The lowest rates, only about 5% or less of Amish children have allergies and asthma compared to more than 25% of the general US population. That's more than 5x5 to 6 times more the US population versus the Amish. Here's a quote. Okay. The Amish have diets rich in fat, salt and raw milk, and they spend a great deal of time outside. They have the lowest rates of childhood obesity, the longest durations of breastfeeding, the most minimal exposure to tobacco smoke and air pollution, and taboos against indoor pets, TV and Internet. The Amish avoid all modern technology and as a result, they practice traditional single family dairy farming and use horses for field work and transportation. So they're spending much more time outdoors. A variety of farm animals are kept in addition to cows, such as horses, poultry, rabbits and other birds to which all the children of both sexes are exposed to from an early age. And so you see there, what's the difference? The Amish people? I mean, here's the biggest difference. They're spending more time outside. I want you to pick up on something here. If you want to strengthen your immune system and the immune system of your kids, one of the greatest things you can ever do is play outside and do any sort of gardening, even if it's a small herb garden in your backyard. That and doing that for you and your kids is phenomenal. So it's Spending time outdoors is number one. Secondarily having pets and spending time with your pets, again outdoors. And less screen time, less time with technology. Those are the things that really move the needle for the Amish. And they have five to six times less allergens and allergies and asthma. So what we really want to be able to do here is educate our immune system. The best way to do it, spending time outside. When you spend outside, you're exposed regularly in microdoses, which then strengthens your immune system. You know, one of the reasons why some people, you know, we see this a lot in Nashville. There's certain areas of the country, Kansas, I know the Ohio Valley. There's a number of places where allergies are terrible. So what happens with seasonal allergies is this, is that somebody will go out, typically in the spring and fall, and have major reactions. For instance, I have a friend, and if he spends time outside, he would have his eyes swell up. I mean, just very, very severe. And that's because his body can't deal with the pollen and the allergens. But if you do micro exposures, what I would have him do and what I have had, all my patients do, have had the same issue, is I have them start eating as much as they can food from their local farmer's market. So when their allergies are heightened, okay, I have them inside with an air filter when they're having a major reaction. But then when. When you're not having those major symptoms, I have them get outside as many hours as possible. I encourage them to start, even if it's a small garden of just doing herbs. And I have them start consuming local bee pollen and local honey, a teaspoon of each, every single day. And, you know, the results I've seen with that are extraordinary. I mean, the number of people who've told me a couple years later that they don't have allergies or they've been decreased by 90%, that is really, really phenomenal. I guess it's not a phenomenon. It's just the way the immune system works. You have to do these micro exposures over time. And if you're inside all the time and you're not outside very often and you're not getting those exposures, well, then when you have a big allergy hit, then you're going to have major issues. And so again, doing those things we talked about, and listen, for some people, it takes a little more than that. Sometimes you need to do acupuncture, and you need to. To take higher Dose probiotics for a period of time and take herbs like astragalus to help regulate your immune system and get more fermented foods. But generally speaking, those things will make a really, really big difference because they will educate your immune system. I mean, exposure to a variety of microbes teaches the immune system to differentiate between harmful and harmless entities, which reduces the likelihood that you're going to have an allergic reaction. You know, one of the things that I am incredibly excited about in Chelsea is we're building a farm and a homestead right now. And I already have a farm. We have a farm about an hour south of Nashville in Summertown. We've got about 4,000 acres that we own with Jordan Rubin and Nikki Rubin in Missouri where we do organic farming. But I don't live on it. I visit it, but I don't live on it. And so Chelsea and I just bought about 10 acres in Nashville and for a few acres of it, we are doing a homestead. And we're going to have cows and sheep and ducks and chickens. And my daughter keeps asking us to get a pig. I'm like, we're not getting a pig. It's going to be too much of a mess. And then people ask about goats. We might at some point. But the reality is I've been around families and friends of ours have goats and they're just, they can be a real pain in the neck. But we're going to have, we're going to have a lot of animals there and we're going to have a big greenhouse. We're going to have a large garden. But I'm incredibly excited about doing this because of the health benefits, but also just the enjoyment, the stress reduction and being able to do this we are incredibly excited about. And part of this has to do. There's a great study on this and they found that children on farms were exposed to more plants and more animal bacteria which are associated with more effective regulatory T cells which are crucial for preventing allergic reactions and at fighting cancer and at fighting immune disease and at fighting things like the cold and flu. There is a study done in Wiley and here's what they found. They said farm related exposure induces an anti inflammatory response of the innate immune system and increases the differentiation of regulatory T cells and T helper cells as well. And these are important for again, strengthen your immune system to fight all the diseases we just talked about. And there's this idea and this is why I called my book Eat Dirt. Think about that. Most parents are like, don't put that in Your mouth and stay away, Stay out of the dirt for us. Our daughter was like, we encourage her to get out there. Now, listen, if you've got a lawn and you're spraying it with chemicals regularly, then don't do this. But if your kid's getting real dirt and some of the just stuff, you know, around your dog and around your house and those, those types of things, you, you want them to be exposed and you want to expose yourself. And I can't overstate how important it is. And listen, you don't have to have a farm yourself, okay? Now if you do, that's wonderful. If you can have animals or just chickens in your yard, that's amazing. But just spending time outside is so crucial. And playing a little bit in the dirt, and there's something called the hygiene hypothesis and this, that suggests that a lack of early childhood exposure to infectious agents is bad for the immune system. You have these organisms, which, by the way, did you know that our bodies have about 37 trillion cells, but there's probably around 100 trillion bacteria in our bodies alone? So you probably have around three times as many bacteria that make up your body than actual cells. When you look at the three major world religions, you know, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, they all stay in their holy text. And of course, it's going to be the same in Christianity and Judaism that we come from the dust and the mud. That's where God created us from. And I think there's a reality there. If we are created to be closely connected to the earth and to the dust, into the mud, into the trees, into the grass, we, we, ideally, from the moment we're born or very early on in life, we need to have exposure and connection to the earth and our outdoor environments. And if you don't have it, it's going to make you sick. These microorganisms are symbiotic, they're synergistic, they work with our bodies. And if you don't have exposure to these good forms of bacteria, you're going to be more susceptible to parasites and to viruses into a number of pathogens. And pets and farm animals are a great source of microbial exposure, as we talked about. And again, simply having a dog that spends a lot of time outside, simply having a small garden is great. But if you don't have that, get a swing set in your backyard and have your kids play outside constantly. Have rules around how much time they need to spend outdoors versus how much time they get to spend on watching a TV show set those things in motion. To where it's like you're giving them their daily medicine. Two hours outside every day. If it's raining and snowing, well, maybe it's 30 minutes or bundle up or wear a raincoat. But they want to spend as much time outdoors as possible. Listen to this study on pets. This was out of the Journal of Asthma and Allergy. They said pets are a major source of allergens. Levels of allergens in the home homes of pet owners are approximately two hundred and fifty fold higher than levels seen in homes of non pet owners. That's actually a good thing. You want to have some exposure to some of these allergens. I want to go back to something I mentioned earlier and just do a little bit more of a deep dive here on some of the practices that we have lost via, you know, mainstream medicine today. And can I just tell you, one of the things that just irritates me is that there are so many people in our medical profession that have just totally discarded God, nature, ancient history and medicine. The wisdom of those people. For instance, again, all of the C sections today. I mean, it's known that when you get around 5:00 in the evening, C sections go up because doctors want to get home. Okay? So it's not what's best for the baby, it's not what's best for the mother. Now listen, there are certain instances where C sections save lives but I think that they should probably be reduced by 90%. I think scheduling out a C section is not ideal. I don't think it's ideal for the mother. I don't think it's ideal for the baby. I know that this is going to be controversial but it is not something I recommend. I mean, I've had several people I know who have met with their doctors and their doctors said because you're a small person, the baby won't fit through your won't fit through. So we have to go ahead and schedule out a C section and take the baby out early. I mean, that's insane. That's just a complete lie. I mean, I know I'm thinking about a woman I know and she's about 90 pounds, the smallest woman and she had like 11 or 12 pound baby and no issues at all. So if a doctor ever has told you that, that is an absolute lie. I mean, listen, it's never, I don't know that it's ever happened in history where it was like, oh, the baby's too big to come out. It's just not. It's like saying God made a mistake. Like he made the baby too big. Baby's too big to fit out of the vaginal canal. It's absolutely crazy. And so I just want to say there are so many false ideas around birth today and breastfeeding and, and the medical establishment has lied to people over and over and over again. So I want to talk about this for a minute. During a vaginal birth, babies are exposed to their mother's vaginal microbiota. And there's a covering that babies get, and it's called Vernix caseosa. And this Vernix plays a crucial role in seeding the infant's gut microbiota, laying the foundation for a robust immune system. I mean, they're. There are a number of benefits of the Vernix, but one is actually protecting the baby from things like amniotic fluid. There's benefits around the immune system. The first beginning of life, I mean, it's important for there you actually have a microbiome of your skin and the bacteria you want to be living on your skin. So if babies aren't exposed to that, they're at a real disadvantage. And so again, if you've had a C, if you have a C section, if you're going to have a birth in the future, or you have a friend and they have to have a C section, again, there was no other way, which can happen. If that happens, encourage them to take some of that Vernix and coat the baby's head and face with that afterwards. It will strengthen their immune system. The other reality is the birth canal contains, you know, probiotics such as Lactobacillus reuteri and rhamnosus and other bacteria that build the immune system right from the moment that they come into the world. And research suggests that this early bacterial colonization plays a significant role in developing the infant's immune system, and it helps them fight disease later on in life. So when they're in their teens and 20s and 30s, I mean, at the beginning of life, it starts to make a difference. Babies born via vaginal delivery are thought to have a more diverse microbiome, which is associated with a lower risk of developing asthma, allergies, autoimmune disorders, and other immune system related diseases. And here's what a study found on this very specifically, there is a 55% decrease in the risk of food allergies as at 1 years old, when the abundance of microbiota in infants increases. Okay, so there are medical studies on what we're talking about, that when you have more of Those microbiota that the allergies are decreased by 55%. And part of this is due to again, doctors trying to have more convenience in their schedules and some of the money around it. There's also a study that shows that C section babies have different microbiotic compositions, often having more skin like bacteria that we talked about, which may delay the proper maturation of infant's immune and metabolic symptoms if they don't have that. And these changes in immune system function can last for two to seven years old from what they've seen in the studies. And so again, this is impacting, and I would say even beyond that. But in the studies they found that kids that were born C section versus versus not, they saw a difference in two to seven year olds. And the difference that they found was the kids that were born C section versus not. And the kids who were born vaginally naturally had less allergies, asthma, celiac's disease and obesity than the others. Now, one other thing they found that can mitigate the risk is that the kids that were then breastfed, even if they had C section, if they were then breastfed, those kids were. We're able to make up some of the difference with the bacteria in the milk. So listen, the ideal is both vaginal birth and breastfeeding. But if you can't vaginally birth, if you can get wipe some of the Vernix on and then breastfeed, you're going to make up for a lot of that loss there. And listen, I do want to say I know plenty of kids that were born C section and weren't given breast milk and they're still healthy. And I know some kids that did a lot of the right stuff and they have had immune systems laterimmune issues later on. But I do wanna say, statistically, if we're just looking at the data and evidence, there is a far, far greater chance of a child having a healthy immune system if they are born vaginally and if they are breastfed and if they have early exposures to these foods than if they're not. Now, I wanna talk about breastfeeding and the ways that this boosts immune system as well. Did you know that only 25% of infants are receiving exclusively breast milk at six months or their first six months of life? That's pretty low. I mean, I don't know what the statistics were before. It's something we should look up here. But I mean, I think that if we look back 100 years ago, I guarantee that number has dropped dramatically. And the reality is this, breast milk is highly nutritious and includes more basic nutrition. And the reality is this, it's personalized nutrition. Did you know that the mother will start producing different, creating different nutrients and immunoglobulins and enzymes in the breast milk via what the child needs? Back 100 years ago it was around 70% at that mark parents were breastfeeding. And today it's around 25% at that six month mark. I mean, that is a major, major drop. What that tells me is that it's not necessary. If 70% was the population, what you could do, then it should still be closer to that or probably even higher because we have more opportunity to have vitamins and nutrients and not have some of these depletions that maybe some of those people had back in those days. But again, one of the things I think is so amazing about breast milk is this, is that again, it's personalized nutrition. That mother is able to produce the exact right nutrients that that child needs at exactly where they are in life. It's absolutely incredible. This is why breastfeeding is so amazing. Research indicates that breast, breast milk can adjust its immunological composition in response to the baby's current health, such as increasing specific antibodies when the baby is sick. It's absolutely amazing. This is so important for boosting and strengthening the immune system over time. And there's plenty of studies also showing that if a child's breastfed, less diabetes, less obesity, less cancer, and a number of other diseases. Let me say this as well. Breastfeeding is beneficial for the moment. It reduces the risk of ovarian and breast cancers, type 2 diabetes, and postpartum depression due to those levels of oxytocin that are flowing into the body. And I was talking about earlier, what the government and the CDC tend to fix our eyes on right now in the pharmaceutical companies is, hey, get these vaccines. Why aren't they talking about more about encouraging breastfeeding and spending time outdoors in gardening and having pets. I mean, Daniel, taking vitamins and minerals, these are the ways to naturally boost and strengthen your immune system. Now I want to talk about the nutrients that are most important for strengthening our immune systems. And they tend to be, number one, vitamin C. We know that this is high in citrus fruits, strawberries, bell peppers, broccoli, foods like spinach, goji berries, amla berries, So a lot of fruit and certain vegetables, you're going to find high levels of vitamin C. And this is crazy critical for your immune system. It's also critical for working with Collagen and glutamine for helping strengthen and rebuild your gut lining, which is where the majority of your immune system lives. So vitamin C is critical, vitamin D is critical. It's known as the sunshine vitamin. And it is very important for your body's immune response. And then zinc, that's the immune mineral, and this is found in higher doses, tends to be in meat and nuts and seeds. When we're talking, talking about zinc, especially pumpkin seeds. And then in terms of herbals that I really like here, I would say that can help modulate and strengthen your immune system over time. Number one, the absolute best, in my opinion is astragalus. This is a staple in Chinese medicine. It's believed to enhance immunity. And what it does is it helps naturally balance out your immune system and strengthen it at the same time. Sometimes our immune systems overreact, sometimes they're too weak. Astragalus helps with both. And then echinacea is especially effective for respiratory infections. If you have something that's affecting your lungs or your throat or your respiratory pathways, echinacea is powerful. Elderberry has antiviral properties. That's another good one. And then I also really like ginger. Ginger helps strengthen the immune system via the digestive system. So that's another powerful one that's used both in Chinese medicine as well as Ayurvedic medicine as well as Western medicine. And so those would be four I'd consider at the top of the list. And then probiotics, getting high doses of probiotics via soil based organisms, food based probiotics, and then food that have probiotics like yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi is wonderful as well. And I would say what I do if I get sick, sick, I do a triple probiotic dose at least I do very high doses while I'm sick. And then healthy fats, omega 3 fats can be important as well. And then lifestyle practices, if you want to continue to strengthen your immune system, you want to get seven to eight hours of sleep a night. You want to be doing things that support good breathing, like weight training, meditation, qigong, doing deep breathing exercises and stretching and indoor rock climbing, whatever you like to do. The idea there is move, but at the very least walk often. One thing I like too is getting a mini rebounder, mini trampoline. It's very good for lymphatic flow. I get questions all the time. If I'm not feeling well, what do I do? I like a mini trampoline. I like infrared sauna, I like A lot of those things. But listen, this episode is really about strengthening your immune system over time. Natural immunization. Your body is better off if you are able to keep it healthy. It's better able to heal and rebuild and strengthen your immune system. So regular exercise is important for that. And ideally doing some outside, like riding your bike outside, walking outside. Adequate sleep is so important for immune repair. You want to get ideally 8 hours of sleep a night. Right when it starts getting dark, try and go to bed. Use a weighted blanket, make sure your house is cold. Journal and read a book or listen to an audio book before you go to sleep rather than being on a device. These will all help you get better sleep and then just stress reduction. Doing things that really help you reduce stress. Write down the things you love to do, start doing more of those things, building good, meaningful relationships. And then diet wise. In Chinese medicine, it's eating a lot of foods that are yellow and orange. It's ginger, it's miso soup, it's chicken bone broth, it's going to be garlic and onions. These sort of foods are going to be good. And then a lot of the orange foods like sweet potato and butternut squash, pumpkin. And then doing a lot of organic meat, salmon, chicken, beef. So I would say do a lot of organic meat. A lot of cooked vegetables could be steamed, baked or sauteed. Certain fruits, roots as well, like pears and apples are pretty high on the list, along with berries. And then you could do some seeds as well. You could do a little bit of rice congee as well. Add a little bit of ginger to that, Something like that. And then staying hydrated, doing a lot of herbal tea. When people are looking to boost their immune system, I highly suggest that they drink a lot of herbal tea. Things like turmeric tea, holy basil tea, ginger tea throughout the day, as well as chai tea can be good as well. For that specifically. And then getting raw local honey. Do raw local honey. A teaspoon of pollen and a teaspoon of honey daily. And then propolis is also wonderful. And royal jelly. But I would say get a lot of this raw local honey on a regular basis as well. That's going to help strengthen your immune system. And remember as much time outside as possible. I want to mention here, eating more raw foods, if you want to strengthen your immune system, you can do raw milk if you tolerate it well. Not everybody does. If that's the case, don't do it. But if you do, make sure your milk is raw and ideally from organic. Okay? You want to buy raw. There was a research study on raw milk and this study found that asthma, rhinitis, respiratory tract infections, otitis, fever and C reactive protein levels at 12 months were reduced by, by 30% for children who consumed raw milk early on in life. And so if you're going to consume milk or give it to your kids, the only type of milk I think they should be doing is raw milk for the most part. Now I do think maybe there's a time and place for if you're at a local health food store and it's not raw, but it's organic and it's fermented and it's natural, like a sheep milk yogurt or something like that, then I think that's okay too. But I really prefer raw. And as we're talking about natural immunization, that's going to be the best option by far. Now, one question I get often is what if I'm an adult and you're in your 20s, your 30s or beyond, and I have major allergies, I have major food allergies, I've got seasonal allergies, I've got sensitivities. What do I do then? Well, one, if there's season, seasonal, follow what I talked about. Eat a lot of local, have a garden bed outside, you know, have an animal, spend it out as much time outdoors as possible and do the local honey, the local pollen, propolis astragalus, vitamin D, zinc, do all of those things. Okay, get some acupuncture, that's going to help. There's a technique called the NATE technique, that's naet, it's Nambudrapad Allergy elimination techniques. And this is a non traditional therapy that combines kinesiology, acup, acupuncture and nutritional management. And it aims to reset the immune system's response to allergens. And this is something I personally did. So what you do is you go in and they do different testing using kinesiology and muscle testing, where they'll look at how you respond. And you can bring in your food sensitivity test, they can look at that as well. And what they will do is they will have you do an elimination diet and then do acupuncture points around some of the those areas to rebalance your body's energy while being exposed to the actual food and then have you stay off of it for a period of time and then reintroduce it. So it's sort of a combination between acupuncture, kinesiology and food therapy or elimination to start to reduce allergies. And some people have seen really great results from it. And so that's something else you may consider if you're in that position where you or a family member of multiple food sensitivities doing the NAET technique and you can find a local practitioner simply by searching online. So there is one case study. And again, remember, this is a one single case study. This is not a major medical journal. It's not looking at examining even 100 people. It's one person. But here's what it found. In this one case study. It said a three year old girl was intolerant to milk, sugar, egg whites, pork and other foods causing eczema and dyspno. She was treated with NAET technique which was a combination of kinesiology and acupuncture. After seven treatment sessions, within four weeks she was free of symptoms. And after three years she can still eat everything without any symptoms whatsoever. So listen, I can't say that this works for everybody, but I can say there are a few individuals in case studies. Over time I've seen where it has helped their allergies getting this mixture of acupuncture and kinesiology together to treat food sensitivities and intolerances, which of course impact the immune system. So I want to start to wrap up this idea around natural immunization here. Remember this is that shots aren't the only way to strengthen your immune system. There are many, many other ways to strengthen and develop our immune systems over time that are often overlooked. And a few of those more I want to just mention here before we close up, is intense intentional exposure to pathogens. Some still choose to practice natural exposure to certain mild diseases in controlled circumstances, such as chickenpox in children or Covid. More recently, this is known as natural immunization. This approach involves controlled exposure to diseases to stimulate the immune system to build natural defenses and long term immunity. And one way people do this are chicken pox parties. Historically, some parents intentionally exposed their children to chickenpox to ensure immunity for future infections. This practice has largely declined due to the availability of a varicella vaccine. So people are getting a vaccine instead of doing this. However, for my kids, if I were choosing one, I'm going to choose the chickenpox party. COVID 19. During the pandemic, some advocated for herd immunity through natural infection, which was heavily debated due to the risks associated with the virus. Again, you look at the countries that did the best with this. They stayed open, they kept businesses open, their people were healthier for it, and That's a whole nother topic. And by the way, if you've not heard the podcast I did on the Biggest Lessons From COVID my 10 lessons. This is a very popular podcast and I really think you'd enjoy it. Because if you're wondering more about the way that we treated that and the truth about what we should have done, go on YouTube and you can search Dr. Axe COVID 19 and you'll find that episode on there somewhere. Or you could search that on Apple or Spotify as well and you'll find it there too. I also want to mention that if you're a parent and you want to practice these natural immunization via using nature and you want to be able to make the right choices for you and your family about these shots, you need to look for a pediatrician or family doctor who is open to discussing your concerns and willing to work with you modifying the schedule or what you're going to do there for what's safe and appropriate for your child. You're the parent. It's not the government's job. This is your job. And so you want to do everything you can there to make the right decision. But I've heard some people say, well, my doctor said, well get a different doctor. Get a doctor who's actually healthy, get a doctor who actually follows the research. Get a doctor who is open minded and actually looks at not just the propaganda and listening to the pharmaceutical company who's educating them at this point, but actually have them go and look at the real research. And soand I know we live in Nashville, we've got a couple great doctors here that are amazing about this, but you just need to ask around, look at chats online, talk to people online about doctors that are friendly for vaccines or parents that share your same views and ask them who their pediatrician is or family doctor and switch doctors. I can't encourage that enough for most people. So here's the reality. There's a difference between synthetic immunization and natural immunization. And no matter what you do within synthetic immunization, you want to focus on natural immunization in all the ways we talked about. From the mom when the baby's in the womb, to the birth, to breastfeeding, to spending more time outside, to eating the right foods, you want to do all of it and have a practical approach to that. I'd encourage you take some notes from this episode. Write down some of the things you're going to do to strengthen your immune system and the immune system of your family. And your loved ones and I hope you've enjoyed this episode. This is a topic I'm very passionate about because I see so many people harming themselves and their kids because they don't know the truth in this reality. And that's why. Also, I just want to thank all of you listeners out there that are subscribed to the podcast that help like the show, that comment, that share this on your social channels or via text messages with your family and friends. This is making a real difference. A lot of people don't know all of the ways to build the immune system and that there are natural ways to immunize and strengthen your body like raw local honey and all these other things we talked about and it's important that the world knows. So thank you to all of you and I just want to ask you, please share this episode. More people need to know the truth. Also, if you're not subscribed, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss a single thing. I want to say thanks so much for tuning in here to the Dr. Josh Axe Show. I'll see you on the next show.