
88% of Americans are metabolically unfit—and poor cellular health is a hidden culprit.
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Dr. Josh Axe
Hey, everyone. Welcome to Dr. Josh Axe show, where each and every week we dive deep into the science and principles behind how to heal physically, mentally, spiritually and take your health and your life to the next level. Did you know that true healing starts at the cellular level? And throughout the years, we've seen different types of medicine continue to grow and become popular and get more to the root cause. You know, I think about many years ago where integrative medicine became popular and doctors like Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Andrew Weil, Daniel Amen started to become more and more popular in this space because they were more integrative doctors. And then we started seeing functional medicine become much more popular, where we saw everyone from myself to Dr. Will Cole to so many physicians out there start to practice more functional medicine. And then we started seeing more regenerative medicine. And then now cellular medicine take hold. And what cellular medicine really is about is getting to the root of the issue at the most microscopic level, at the health of your cell. And really cellular health is at the ground floor of longevity medicine. So if you want to look younger, feel younger, and actually cellular get younger, reverse your biological age. Cellular medicine is where it's at. And also I do want to mention, if you're a person struggling with almost any health condition, focusing on healing the cell will get you better results. For instance, if you have hypothyroidism, a big part of hypothyroidism starts in the cell and the mitochondria. Or let's say, for instance, you have heart disease that starts in the cell membrane of the cell. Or let's say you have methylation issues like the MTHFR gene variant that starts in the nucleus of the cell. Or let's say you have cancer that can be an issue with your cellular lysosomes to where your body isn't practicing autophagy and cleansing and detoxing, that can be very similar with if we look at issues like long Covid or mold or Lyme disease, those can be mitochondrial issues as well, which are all part of the cell. So if you truly want to heal, reverse disease and add years to your life and be in your 80s and feeling and looking young, the future is cellular medicine. And today I'm going to walk through the ideal diet, supplements, herbals and lifestyle medicine practices that can help you heal yourselves and reverse chronic illness. Before I dive in, though, make sure to subscribe to this channel and hit the link in the show notes to subscribe to my weekly wellness newsletter. There you'll get my top tips Just once a week, of the most cutting edge principles for healing your body, including the top diet and herbs to help you heal. And a lot of the things we cover in the show. If you want those in a PDF in a really amazing format, you can get those as well if you sign up for my weekly wellness newsletter, which again is in the show. Notes and why cellular medicine is so important is that it affects all of your organs. All right, for your organs to function properly, everything from your liver to your thyroid to your pancreas, your reproductive organs, those are made of cells. And if we're truly going to go and heal and repair an area, we need to focus on healing at a cellular level. And here are some key reasons why cellular health is so essential. Number one, we know that your cells create ATP energy for every organ, specifically in the mitochondria. They also regulate nutrient absorption and waste removal through your cell membranes. They also produce hormones. They create neurotransmitters and immune messengers. They also control gene expression and repair your organs and help your body actually get physiologically younger. And cells are the smallest functional unit in the body. You have over 30 trillion of them. And they do everything from what I mentioned, hormone production, detoxification, and immune system defense starts at this level, right? And there are different types of cells. You have natural killer cells which kill cancer. You have B and T cells which help bolster your immunity and fight infections. You've got cells responsible for, again, bringing in hormones and creating hormones. And of course, you've got cells that, or I'll call them microorganisms that also live in your body, that your cells communicate with. And so we're going to dive deep into cellular medicine and how to heal using these principles. Now, the first thing though, I want to explain the way that cells work. And think of your cells as tiny, self sustaining cities within your body. Each cell is like a bustling city with its own power plants. That would be the mitochondria, its own communication centers. Those are the receptor sites. They also have protective borders around the city. Those are your cell membranes. And then also there is this communication coming in and out like a central command system, let's call it the government or city hall. And that's the nucleus. And if you can repair different areas of the cell, you can actually reverse different types of chronic conditions and extend your lifespan. And just like a city's health and prosperity depends upon everything from clean energy to efficient communication to a strong infrastructure. The same is true with your cell. And let's start off with the cell Membrane. And by the way, the study of your cell membrane and using it to heal the body goes all the way back to. Well, it goes back many years, all the way to Otto Warburg, who said the key to reversing cancer is, is getting more oxygen into your cell. And then you also have Joanna Budwig, she was a Nobel prize winning physician and she said that the key to healing cancer relied in the cell membranes. Okay, so listen to this. This episode's about a lot of things, but one, it is definitely about fighting and killing cancer. And your cell membranes are the biggest part of it. So that's the alpine side of your cell. Now, the outside of your cell, your cell membrane is made primarily of fat and certain types of proteins and peptides. That's what the outside of your cell is made up of. It acts like a security gate and it controls what gets inside the cell and what gets outside of the cell. Now, according to recent medical studies, what they found is, is that your cell membrane, the outside of your cell should be very fluid and mobile and flexible. Think about like when you have a child or even a baby, how plush and perfect their skin is. And it's very bouncy. Or when you were young, even in your teens or twenties, it's like you'd fall down, you get back up. You were very athletic, right? Part of that is being sort of your tissues being more responsive and bouncy, right? And this is what happens as we age. We start to get wrinkles, we start to get more brittle. Well, the medical journal's found that one of the things that happens in heart disease, for instance, is you get calcification or hardening of your arteries. Well, those arteries are made up of cells. And so what's happening is the cell membranes are becoming very hard and stiff, not able to move much. Think about if you have a stiff neck, back or joint, that stiffness that takes place, well, that happens in your cells as well. So for your cells to be healthy, we want to keep your cell membranes as bouncy and mobile and young as possible. Because what happens is if they get too stiff, nutrients can't get inside the cell, communication signals can't get to the cell, and toxins can't be moved out of the cell. All right? And that's part of what causes cancer, okay? If your cells can't get proper nutrients in and your cells can't flush toxins out, okay, you don't have that sort of where your cells are working like kind of like streams, like water is in, water's out. There's a natural flow of what's going on that causes cancer. In fact, in Chinese medicine, they called that a. They'd call it qi stagnation and blood stagnation. So they would say it's stagnation, right? Stagnation means nothing's moving, nothing's getting in or outside of the cell. And they said that is the root cause of cancer, and it's also the root cause of arthritis. It's the root cause of chronic pain for most people. Where you get this, it's the root cause of heart disease, where you get the stiffness of the outside of your cells. And so if you want to fix that or heal that, we need to start. We need to start getting the right nutrients in and doing things to help heal the cell. By the way, here's a few other things that are caused by cell membrane issues. Insulin resistance. That's poor glucose uptake, chronic inflammation, neurological issues, because that's poor nerve signaling. And here, here's another big one. Autoimmune conditions. This is where your immune system starts attacking its own cells because it's confused. Biggest symptoms of cell membrane issues can be brain fog, swelling, or joint pain. Difficulty regulating blood sugar. And the key nutrients for your cell membranes are essential fatty acids. Okay? Especially omega 3 fats. But it's omega 3 fats. It's monounsaturated fats and unsaturated fats. Those are the keys, but Omega 3s being the single most important. Joanna Budwig, who I mentioned earlier, who created the Budwig Protocol, which is one of the top natural cancer therapies used today. In fact, my mom, when she had cancerone of the things she did was follow the Budwig protocol, where she would eat one meal a day. And it was made up of this. It was made up of fermented, raw, organic dairy, like a cottage cheese or a kefir. So you have that fermented dairy, and it would be full fat, and she would also add to that flaxseeds and flaxseed oil, okay? So you've got this healthy saturated fats and all of the fermentthe probiotics found in the fermented dairy. And then you had all these omega 3s found in the flax and flax oil. And she would eat this as a big bowl of this once a day. And Joanna Budwig proposed that this actually fixes the cell membrane, which. Which increases oxygenation of your whole body, which then allows you to reverse and heal cancer. So omega 3s are at the foundation of this and especially mixing those with healthy saturated fats, like found in coconut or raw fermented dairy products like ghee or raw sheep's milk yogurt, those sort of things. And then the other thing, some other things that help the cell membrane would be phospholipids. Now, these are found in things like wild caught salmon. You can actually take phosphatidylcholine as a supplement. That's great. Choline used to be a B vitamin. It's a type of nutrient, very similar to a B vitamin, which supports the cell membrane. Choline is found in the highest levels in liver, so like beef liver and egg yolks, especially duck egg yolks. Okay. Very high in choline and vitamin E, also found in duck egg yolks and things like walnuts. Astaxanthin, that's found in salmon. If you get wild salmon, or especially sockeye or king salmon, where you have that bright red color, that's that astaxanthin that gives it its color. And then coenzyme Q10, that's found in heart tissues, in glandular, in the highest doses, a little bit in red meat, that's good for the heart. And then magnesium. These are the most important nutrients when it comes to healing that cell membrane. And so make sure that if you want to stay young and flexible and mobile and look younger and fight cancer, of course, that you heal your cell membranes using a lot of good fats. And so dietarily, you're going to want to do a lot more wild caught fish like salmon, flaxseeds, walnuts, raw fermented organic dairy products, even things like beef tallow and duck fat, if they're organic, is going to help. That's going to really, really help with healing those cell membranes. And actually, probiotics are also important. Number two, your cell receptor sites. These are like the antennas on your cell that receive messages from hormones and neurotransmitters and allow your body to communicate. One example of cell receptor sites being Damaged is type 2 diabetes or insulin resistance. Right? So if your cells get burnt out, okay, or damaged, like with too much sugar, well, then your insulin receptor sites aren't picking up those messages. So now you're not getting sugar and other nutrients inside the cells. So basically, part of what happens is your cells get malnourished and get sick and ill, and that leads to things like type 2 diabetes over time. But if you have pre diabetes, if you have insulin resistance, you have damaged cell receptor sites. If you have hypothyroidism in Many cases, you have damaged cell receptor sites. So really, almost any hormone imbalance in the body is as a result of damaged cell receptors. So again, type 2 diabetes, thyroid hormone resistance, weight gain. If you're holding onto a lot of body fat, which is known as leptin resistance, it's the inability to regulate hunger properly, where you just have major food cravings constantly. These are cell receptor site issues. And the biggest symptoms are weight gain, mood swings, like depression, cravings and appetite issues, and of course, hormone imbalance. The key nutrients for fixing your cell receptor sites are. Well, number one is stop over consuming sugar. Now, I want to go back to the. When we talked about the cell membrane, the biggest thing that will damage cell membranes is consuming bad fats, seed oils, okay, fast food, any processed fat, those cause major inflammation of your membranes. When it comes to cell receptors, it's going to be sugar. Sugar is devastating and incredibly damaging to your cell receptor sites. And so you want to stay away from sugar, of course. That's why it's linked to insulin resistance and diabetes. You got to be careful there. The, the nutrients that are the most healing to the cell receptors are vitamin D. Vitamin D actually acts on receptor sites and regulates over 200 genes in your body. Zinc is another big one. Zinc helps heal and repair damaged receptors. We mentioned Omega 3s before. Those are important. Chromium is a trace mineral. Chromium picolinate specifically enhances insulin receptor activity. Magnesium, again, is responsible. Berberine, which is found in bayberry and alpha lipoic acid and then even curcumin. But really, it's the things that balance insulin and blood sugar that you think of and help with tissue repair. It's the zinc, chromium, magnesium, berberine, gymnema, cinnamon are all going to be very good for the cell receptors. But the big thing is also stay away from excess sugar and refined carbohydrates. The third component of your cell that's crucial for healing, especially when it comes to genetic expression, is your nucleus. The nucleus of your cell is at the center. It's like the command center, the government of your cell. When your DNA gets damaged from toxins, radiation, and oxidative stress, mutations occur. This increases your risk of cancer. It increases your risk of not methylating properly, which can cause numerous health issues like premature aging and genetic disorders. If you have unexplained, you just feel like you're aging much more quickly than you should. That can be a nucleus issue. Abnormal cell growth in tumors, that can be a nucleus issue. Chronic disease just came upon you that can Be a nucleus issue. Some of the most important nutrients are. Number one are methylated B vitamins such as methylfolate, B12, B6 and vitamin B2. These are critical for DNA methylation and repair. Now, vitamin C and E also protect DNA from oxidative damage. So this really key with the nucleus is you want to stay away from toxins and emotional stress. Okay? Emotional stress, lack of sleep toxicity are going to damage the nucleus. And this is where you want to really up your polyphenol intake. Do more extra virgin olive oil, more blueberries, more egcg, which is found in green tea. Right. A lot of antioxidant rich foods. You also want to do a lot of sulfurane, which is what makes cruciferous vegetables so healthy. Broccoli, sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage are also great. And then nutrients like selenium and zinc are responsible for repairing the cell as well. Those are some of the most important things to consider. And then the next thing here is the mitochondria. This is the power plant. It's the engine that gives energy to all the rest of your cells and all of your organs and tissues by creating ATP. And you have hundreds of mitochondria in each cell. And mitochondria produce literally 90% of the energy that cells need to function. 90%. So it's supplying 90% of all of running your thyroid and your reproductive organs in your pancreas and your liver to detoxify. Your mitochondria are running and giving it 90% of the energy. And your cells have to have fuel if they're going to run properly. If you have any one of these symptoms, it's linked to mitochondrial dysfunction. One of the biggest is chronic fatigue syndrome or any type of fatigue. Chronic fatigue syndrome. Hypothyroidism is connected there as well. Adrenal fatigue, neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, metabolic disorders, heart disease. But the big thing here is if you're just tired, it's a mitochondrial issue. Biggest symptoms, again is low energy and low stamina, brain fog and poor memory, weak muscles, slow recovery from illness or injury. I'd also say chronic infections. If you have a chronic infection, that can be an issue there as well. The key nutrients for healing your mitochondria, one, one of the biggest is known as nad. It's also, you see it as NMN or nadh, but these are all very similar. But NAD boosters enhance mitochondrial repair and energy output. Okay, nad, it's a type of or a variation in the chain of niacin. But it's very, very powerful for mitochondrial function. In fact, a lot of people get NAD IVs or take that as a supplement because it's very beneficial for mitochondrial health. That's number one. Number two is coenzyme Q10. Coenzyme Q10 supports ATP production, which is why statin drugs are so devastating. Did you know that statin drugs, and I also believe some diabetic drugs deplete your body of CoQ10 and so it actually weakens you, it sucks the energy out of you. So you got to be careful with taking those drugs or do everything in your power to get off them and avoid them. So CoQ10 is big. L carnitine. This transports fatty acids into the mitochondria for fuel. By the way, I want to mention coenzyme Q10 and L carnitine are both found in the highest levels in heart tissue. So if you take a glandular like liver, you can also take heart. Heart is really good. This is why I also. There's a, there's a brand that I use, it's called Forces of Nature. Force of Nature and it's a grass fed beef patties so for ground beef but they add in heart and liver and it has very little taste. But I do that regularly. That way I Get more Coenzyme Q10 and L carnitine from that meat that I eat. So that's really good as well. But CoQ10, L carnitine, magnesium is required. Alpha lipoic acid NAD we talked about B vitamins, especially B1, B2, B3 and B5. Creatine is great for mitochondrial health. Now most people use creatine for putting on muscle, which is great for putting on lean muscle, but it's also great for the brain and great for the mitochondria. PQQ is a unique supplement that promotes mitochondrial biogenesis. Your body creating more of these engines in mitochondria. And then there's certain antioxidants that can be good as well, like quercetin. Green tea is also powerful for this. These are some of my favorites. Now I want to hit another one. A fifth component of the cell. This is going to be quicker, but it's lysosomes. These are responsible for autophagy. They're basically the waste system. Now may not sound like that fancy of a job of being waste removal and recycling for the city, but it is critical. It helps your body eliminate senescent cells. It activates autophagy, it activates, it supports detoxification. Milk thistle is Great for that. Dandelion is great for that. Quercetin is a powerful activator there. Bromelain, doing more fruit and proteolytic enzymes can be really good there. Like pineapples, kiwis, figs, and papaya is also very good. And then fasting, intermittent fasting activates these lysosomes, which act as the cleanup crew for your cells. And I want to hit on this again. I'm going to go through these really quickly. If you have poor cellular health, here are some of the biggest symptoms. Chronic fatigue, brain fog, hormone imbalance, skin issues like inflammation or slow wound healing, poor detoxification, chronic infections that just will not heal. Whether it's Epstein Barr, CMV mold, Lyme, long Covid, those are all can be related immune system dysfunction, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, autoimmune disease and cancer. These are all connected to poor cellular health. And one of the biggest ones, again, we talked about insulin earlier, but this is just true with all hormones. If you have a hormonal issue, PCOS is another big one. So it's erectile dysfunction or fatty liver disease. These are very much connected to cellular issues. And if you can heal the cell, you can reverse them. You can heal them. Now let me dive into what actually damages the cell. And this is out of a medical journal. Okay, here's what a prestigious medical journal says. They said too many free radicals damage cells over time. They said during inflammation and oxidative stress, reactive oxygen species disrupt cell membranes and fluid balance between the fluid inside the cell and outside of the cell. And this actually damages the cell membranes. They said the biggest things that can damage this would be pollution, poor diet, stress, smoking, alcohol, and just toxin exposure. The next thing here is toxin overload. Chemicals from food, water, air, especially household cle. Chemicals in your skincare products, pesticides, plastic, heavy metals. These embed into cell membranes, they impair your cell receptor sites and damage the cell. And so that's another big one is toxin overload. Inflammation, right? So if you're doing a lot of seed oils, a lot of sugar, that also damages the cells, we've of course talked about just generally a poor diet, mitochondrial dysfunction, we know, damages the cell as a whole. Dehydration. Do you know that your cells need water to transport nutrients and flush waste out of the cells? So without proper hydration, without electrolytes and water, that slows down. Number seven, and here's the biggest one of all that damages your cells is sleep deprivation. Sleep is when cells repair and regenerate. Not getting enough rest increases inflammation and oxidative stress. Another big one is radiation and emf. So these actually disrupt cellular communication, damaging your cell sedentary lifestyle. Right. Your body needs this constant blood flow in nutrients being distributed in order to heal. And then chronic stress. I mean, there's no doubt that cortisol getting high, this damages your cells and it suppresses the cells ability to heal. And this is linked to everything from getting the common cold or flu to even dementia. And so eliminating chronic stress or improving the amount of stress you have is important. And one of the biggest signs that we see when somebody has a lot of cellular damage is aging. And aging is the accumulation of cellular damage over time. What happens is when your mitochondria wear down and your lysosomes get damaged, you have more and more of what we call senescent zombie cells accumulate and this slows regeneration, increases inflammation, basically accelerates aging. Have you ever seen anybody when they went through a lot of emotional stress and you saw that maybe they went over a period of like one to two years like that. But you look at the person, you think, wow, you've aged maybe five to 10 years, not one to two, five to 10 with what you've been through. And that is due to when cortisol gets high, okay, that stress hormone. Well, now your cells can't repair and heal because all of your energy is going to protect yourself, not to heal. Think about it like this. Your body is either in a fight or flight state of protection, or it's healing and regeneration. Okay? It's doing one or the other. And so you want to be in this regenerative state as much as possible. Chronic stress, elevated cortisol, you are in the state of fight or flight. You're fighting, you're flying, you're doing something, but it's not regenerating and healing. And so you want to get in that regenerative state. When you get in that state, your body produces more stem cells, which regenerates tissues, and your body is better able to clean up and eliminate senescent cells. And part of this process I mentioned before is called autophagy, which means self infl eating. It's a process where your body recycles damaged cells. And I mentioned your lysosomes earlier. In your cells, they're responsible for autophagy. And they basically take certain parts of your cells that are damaged, remove those or take those and use them to build new cells in the future. That's what autophagy is. And it's most activated during fasting, also during exercise, also during things like increasing your polyphenol intake, like doing more green tea, more blueberries, just more of those antioxidant rich superfoods. Those help with autophagy in healing your body. Now one of the common questions I get from people is, hey, is there a way for me to test my cellular health? Yes, there is. One of my favorite tests for doing this. It's called an OAT test, oat, which stands for organic acid test, and it looks at mitochondrial health and your cell's ability to detoxify. So that is probably my favorite test to overall look at how your cells are doing. You can also do a DNA methylation test that looks at your biological age or even your organ age. There's a company called trudiagnostics, which I know is used by the health institute, that is the functional medicine or the cellular medicine group that I work with. And actually I train a lot of the physicians there at the health institute. So one of the tests they do is a biological age test and essentially something very similar to an OAT test and hormone panels. And they'll look at all of this and they'll actually be able to tell the age of some of your individual organs. It's absolutely incredible. So if you're a person saying I want to get testing done and I want to know where my cellular health is, because maybe you're struggling with long Covid, or maybe you're struggling with hypothyroidism or infertility or PCOS or low testosterone, whatever it might be. You, you can go to the health institute or go to anyways, you can go there or the longevity clinic and you can go and get these tests done and look at that. But again, I think an OAT test where you're looking at cellular function, you're doing a biological organ test of age of your individual organs. That's really powerful inflammation markers like high sensitivity crp, that C reactive protein, that's an inflammation marker, that can tell you a lot. So I think that can be great as well. And then, and then there's some actually mitochondrial tests. You can do an NAD plus test to see sort of the health of your mitochondria in particular. So those can all be tests that you can do that have, can tell you more exactly how your cells are. Are you tired of doctors dismissing your symptoms or worse, even making you feel crazy? Even if your blood work comes back normal, it doesn't mean your health is where it should be. Think of your blood like a delivery truck carrying nutrients and hormones, but the Real payoff happens when your cells open the package and use what's inside. If your cells are stuck in what's called cell danger response, triggered by stress, toxins or infections, they go into protective mode. In this state, cells close off and don't properly take in or utilize the hormones or nutrients they need from the bloodstream. Now, this makes the blood often appear normal, so doctors often miss the deeper issue, leaving you feeling tired, gaining weight, experiencing mood swings, and dealing with other symptoms while other cells remain in a state of limbo. Visit BeyondBloodwork.com to learn how you can start changing this in as little as 30 days. So I want to walk through the best food you should incorporate in order to heal your cells. This is going to provide the right proteins, omega 3s, and other nutrients to heal your cells. The first are green leafy vegetables that are steamed, in most cases, spinach, kale, chard, watercress, arugula. These are rich in folate, magnesium, chlorophyll. These support DNA synthesis, methylation, mitochondrial health, and the health of your nucleus. Okay, so green leafy vegetables that are cooked. By the way, I know that there's a lot of people have become confused today because so many people have written books about this diet or this diet or this diet's the best. You know, I'm thinking about, you know, Dr. Steven Gundry, who I've had on the show. I'm actually going to be seeing him. I'm speaking at an event with him this weekend in Austin, and he wrote a book on how plants are bad for you. Right. So he might tell you plants are bad. Dave Asprey might tell you plants are bad. I'm trying to think of some of the other influencers, the carnivore people, right. Might tell you all plants are bad. And I'm just not in that bucket. It's personalized medicine. They're bad for a small group of people. They're very healthy for a large group of people when they're organic and they're cooked or fermented properly. Okay. Vegetables can be an incredible superfood. And I have loads of studies that show people that ate more vegetables were healthier. So overall, we know that doing vegetables. But again, it all comes down to personalized medicine. If somebody has major mold issues and really, really strong autoimmune disease, they may not want to do vegetables for a period of time. However, with certain autoimmune diseases, you do want to do it. Someone I know, Terry Wahls, she is a medical doctor. She had Ms. And major autoimmune disease and neurological issues, was in a wheelchair and was able to walk and fully regain her health eating pretty much just meat and vegetables. Okay? So I want to kind of bust that myth because some people today have all started thinking, oh, I should only eat keto or I should only eat carnivore, I should only eat vegan. Every diet should be personalized, even when it comes to your cellular health. Okay? But overall, for the general population, if we're healing your cell, green leafy vegetables, especially if they're cooked like steamed, are some of the most powerful healing foods on the planet. Number two, cruciferous vegetables. Now, I only recommend cruciferous vegetables if they're steamed. Okay. Or baked. If they're cooked, they contain sulfurane and indole 3 carbinol, which have massive, massive benefits for detoxification, protecting your cells against oxidative stress and fighting cancer. Loads of benefits of those. Number three, wild caught fatty fish, salmon, sardines, mackerel, high in omega 3 fatty acids. My favorite being wild sockeye salmon. We're talking about astaxanthin along with those omega 3s, you know, all of these amazing, amazing fat soluble nutrients. So that actually might even be number one over on my list of the most healing food for the cell is wild caught fatty fish high in omega 3s. Number four, pomegranates. Pomegranates contain puna, gallicans and ellagic acid. These are compounds that stimulate mitophagy, which is clearing damaged mitochondria and they protect your telomeres. Another amazing thing about pomegranates is if you also have a healthy gut microbiome, your body will turn ellagic acid into urolithin A, B, C, D and E. You might have heard of urolithin A. You can take that as a supplement. It's fine, it has some moderate benefits. But if you actually can instead take pomegranate with high dose probiotics, and I think it's even better benefits because your body will create its own urolithin A if you can do that properly. So pomegranates, maybe the most powerful healing food and longevity food on the planet, is great for cellular health. Healthy fatty acids like you're going to find in extra virgin olive oil, avocados, walnuts, seeds like flax have loads and loads of good fatty acids which are great for cell membranes and reduce oxidative stress. Berries, specifically blueberries, blackberries, currants. These contain something called anthocyanins. These berries help protect DNA and improve mitochondrial Function and combat aging. Bone broth, this contains collagen, proline, glycine, glutamine. Also some bone broth, if it's from chicken broth contains chondroitin and hyaluronic acid and glucosamine. So bone broth is an amazing healing superfood. And then I would also say organs, organs in red meat. So glandulars, liver, heart, as I mentioned, really really nutrients. Red meat, whether it be elk or venison or beef or lamb, also very, very healing to the cells as well. If they are organic, really powerful. But glandulars even more so. Liver and heart tissue, spleen, thymus gland. These help repair your cells in a really, really powerful way. And then last, here would be green tea rich in egcg. These antioxidants in green tea help heal the body like nothing else can. And then I want to walk you through five supplements you might also consider taking. One would be take an omega 3 supplement I would recommend. And there are other things people are curious about like C15 that's good. Probably not as good as Omega 3s but still good. I would recommend doing a cod liver oil on a regular basis as one option. Especially if you're not eating salmon or sardines or a fatty fish that day. And then also walnuts, flax and chia can be good as well. So those are really good. Upping your omega 3 intake. Number two is butyric acid. This is a short chain fatty acid produced by gut bacteria. It's found in ghee and the highest level. So you could supplement or start using some ghee or really nutrient dense raw organic butter maybe you pick up at the farmer's market. This supports cell signaling, reduces inflammation and improves your gut barrier. So that can be great. Taking butyric acid or a ghee supplement or using some grass fed butter. Taking antioxidants can be great for the cell. I would recommend like a berry powder like pomegranate powder or goji berry powder or a mix that has a lot of these berries and fruits like even beets would be an example that can help heal the cells. Okay, so an antioxidant like a super red or purple powder. Mushrooms that are medicinal. Reishi, especially lion's mane, chaga, turkey tail, also very good. But doing more of these medicinal mushrooms, especially reishi is great for cellular health. Peptides can be amazing. BPC157 supports tissue regeneration. So for healing your gut lining. MOT C supports mitochondrial function. SS31 is a peptide that also supports mitochondria in reversing aging of your cells. I would have those as probably my top three BPC157, MOT C and SS31 as anti aging and cellular health peptides. Really, really incredible. And you could do those as capsules, sublingual. You can also do them as subcutaneous injections for major benefits. And there's one other I really like. It's called Epitalin. This has been studied for its ability to support anti aging by influencing telomere length and cellular regeneration. So those would actually be the top four BPC157, MOT C, SS31 and Epitalin for cellular health and longevity. Now there are also nine therapies that can improve your cellular health. One being fasting on occasion. Now you might pick one day a week and fast like the early church did in much of Jewish culture and religion, where you pick either a Wednesday or a Friday and you just fast the first part of that day. So oftentimes people just fast one day a week where they just eat dinner, typically an early dinner, and that's all they do that day. That can be great. All it takes is one day a week total of doing a form of a intermittent fast. Or you could reduce down your window to eat around 10 hours of sort of intermittent fasting. And if you can do this with light exercise too, especially walking. Improved benefits. There's a study showing that both calorie restriction and exercise regulate something called IGF1, which plays a crucial role in muscle strength and building more lean muscle mass. So loads and loads of benefits there. And it's highly anti inflammatory. So I would say the first two would be calorie restriction even if it's one day a week. Intermittent fasting. Red light therapy has specific wavelengths of red and near infrared light to stimulate mitochondria production and energy production. So I would say doing like a red light better red light panel is very, very healing for your entire body, including your cells. One of the brands that I use is I get an infrared light sauna regularly from a brand called sunlightening. And I just do really probably 20 minutes, a few days, a couple days a week. Now outside of that, if I'm sick or not feeling well or it's the winter, I use it much more frequently. But again, getting a infrared sonic have loads of benefits. In fact, I got a light panel, red light panel here in my studio here as well. That's a sunlight and looks really nice modern. But again, red light therapy and infrared light have loads and loads of benefits for healing your Cells and then hyperbaric oxygen therapy. This is breathing in 100% oxygen while being in a pressure chamber. And according to one medical journal, they say hbot, which is hyperbaric oxygen therapy, interferes with the detrimental effects of cellular senescence, so clears out senescent cells, also helps heal the mitochondria. So many benefits for anti aging when we're talking about hyperbaric oxygen therapy. This is how I healed my spine and I'm walking today. And so if you're not healing well, hyperbaric oxygen therapy really helps you heal faster. I've used it with a lot of kids with autism or the autistic spectrum getting more oxygen to their brain. I've worked with a lot of patients who have had strokes or some sort of lack of oxygen in the brain for a time and using to heal that. I've used it with professional athletes increasing performance. Not just professional athletes, even high school kids getting in these chambers to increase their performance as well. So hyperbaric oxygen therapy is incredible for regeneration, for healing, for brain function as well. Especially if you can find a hard chamber even more than a soft. But they're both beneficial. Number five is cold therapy. Cold showers and ice baths can have some benefits for the cell, but even more so when you do it with contrast therapy, when you can do cold and hot together, that's going to optimize that circulation, which is going to help you heal. PEMF therapy, this is where you're doing pulse electromagnetic signals. Getting those into your cells improves cellular communication and can help the cell receptor sites. A very similar way of doing that, but even more naturally is just grounding, just spending more time outside. And that's where laying out in the sun and walking outside barefoot or being on a lake or the ocean or the beach loads and loads of benefits for healing your cells. Sleep optimization, of course, is huge. Listen, the more sleep you get, the deeper sleep you get, the better you heal. This is why I wear an OURA ring. Like I really look to do everything I can every day to optimize my sleep. And here's the biggest things I've seen have moved the needle with my OURA ring, especially looking at my HRV and the amount of deep sleep I'm getting. Again. Remember, deep sleep combined with total sleep is maybe the biggest indicator of if your body's healing well that night. And I have found that the more time I spend outside, the better I sleep. If I get my room dark and cold and I use a weighted blanket, that helps. And then if I wear Blue blocker sunglasses starting at dinner or when the sun sets, as soon as the sun sets, when it goes down, minute after it sets, I'll put on those blue blocker sunglasses. And with that, if I stop watching any TV one hour before bed, if I can do all those things, and also throughout the day, again, just go on walks, just be outside a lot and follow those principles, eat healthy, I get good sleep, okay? And so you want to do some of that. And you also might get a tracking device like Orwin because it's just so helpful. One of the greatest, I would actually say, if you want, you want to test, one of the best ways to test yourself is doing something that's a continuous test. So I would say my two favorite testing devices are an OURA ring and a continuous blood glucose, a continuous glucose monitor, okay? Because if you can tell what your insulin levels are all the time or your blood sugar, and you can tell how well you're sleeping in your hrv, I mean, you are able to tell so much from just those things. Okay. There's benefits of getting blood work, like I mentioned, you can go to the health institute or the longevity clinic and you can get some of the blood work done like the oat test and hormone test and the cellular age test and organ age test. And I would get. Those are good to do once a year or so. But doing those other things where you're continually testing just so many benefits. Another big thing that can just help your body in anti aging is spiritual growth. If you have the sense of, you know, your identity, you know your purpose, you know, you are filled with more self esteem and value and all those things from spiritual growth and being just more connected to God and other people, that's so good for your health. The hormone oxytocin is very healing and nurturing to yourselves. And so having close intimate relationships with other people and a close intimate relationship with God is also critical for cellular health. And so reading your Bible, attending church or synagogue and just doing things where you're connecting with God and others has so many benefits. I just want to encourage that as the last thing because even your mental and spiritual health absolutely impact your cellular health in a pretty significant way. So we talked about a lot today. But remember, if you want to get healthy, we need to heal your cell. I mean, if you want to reverse hypothyroidism, if you want to reverse and heal infertility and pcos, if you want to fix erectile dysfunction, if you want to age more slowly, reverse diabetes, any of these issues you want to focus on the cell. And we talked about the particular areas of the cell, everything from the cell membrane, which needs essential fatty acids, the mitochondria which needs certain nutrients like nad, the nucleus, the lysosome, the cell receptor sites. If those are functioning properly, you can reverse almost any health problem using the power of cellular medicine. And if you need more help with cellular medicine I mentioned before, you can visit the health institute or find a good cellular medicine doctor who can do this sort of testing and work with you on finding out what's going on your cells and completely healing and reversing those conditions. Because again, I really believe it's the key to healing at the root of all issues, which is the cell. Hey so I hope you've enjoyed this episode. Remember, every week I'm diving deep into the science and the principles behind how you can heal physically, mentally, spiritually and take your health and life to the next level. Remember to subscribe. If you're not subscribed, you're missing out. We have got so many incredible guests coming up, so many more incredible topics we're going to be diving into. So don't forget to subscribe. By the way, I love all the subscribers out there. I just want to say thank you because when you subscribe you make this show more popular, you allow me to bring on more high profile guests. We've got people coming on in the future like Mark Hyman, Danica Patrick, just some really amazing people. And so I'm really excited for you to all the subscribers out there because you'll be notified where other people won't and they'll likely miss on the episode. So thanks so much for subscribing, thanks for liking for commenting on these episodes, whether it be on YouTube or on social media. And also thank you all of you for sharing this. More people need to know the truth about healing at the cellular level. So thank you all of you who are on mission with me, sharing this on your social and text messages and just thank you so much. I can't wait to see you on the next episode.
Podcast Summary: "This ONE Thing Controls Your Energy, Healing, and Health"
Podcast Information:
In the latest episode of The Dr. Josh Axe Show, Dr. Josh Axe delves into the pivotal role of cellular medicine in controlling energy, healing, and overall health. Emphasizing that true healing begins at the cellular level, Dr. Axe explores how cellular health influences every aspect of our well-being, from longevity to disease reversal.
“True healing starts at the cellular level.” — Dr. Josh Axe [00:00]
Dr. Axe introduces the concept of cellular medicine, tracing its evolution from integrative and functional medicine to the cutting-edge focus on cellular health. Cellular medicine aims to address health issues at the most microscopic level, targeting the health of individual cells to promote longevity and reverse biological aging.
“Cellular health is at the ground floor of longevity medicine.” — Dr. Josh Axe [02:15]
The cell membrane acts as a security gate, controlling the intake of nutrients and the expulsion of toxins. Dr. Axe highlights the importance of maintaining membrane fluidity to ensure optimal cell function and prevent diseases like cancer and heart disease.
“If your cell membranes get too stiff, nutrients can't get inside the cell, and toxins can't be moved out.” — Dr. Josh Axe [09:45]
Key Nutrients:
These sites function as antennas, receiving messages from hormones and neurotransmitters. Damage to receptor sites can lead to conditions such as type 2 diabetes, thyroid hormone resistance, and autoimmune disorders.
“Almost any hormone imbalance in the body is a result of damaged cell receptors.” — Dr. Josh Axe [16:30]
Key Nutrients:
Serving as the cell’s command center, the nucleus houses DNA and regulates gene expression. Protecting the nucleus from toxins and emotional stress is crucial to prevent mutations and premature aging.
“When your DNA gets damaged, mutations occur, increasing your risk of cancer and genetic disorders.” — Dr. Josh Axe [22:10]
Key Nutrients:
Known as the cell's power plants, mitochondria generate ATP energy essential for all cellular functions. Mitochondrial dysfunction is linked to chronic fatigue, neurodegenerative diseases, and metabolic disorders.
“Your mitochondria produce literally 90% of the energy that cells need to function.” — Dr. Josh Axe [29:50]
Key Nutrients:
Responsible for autophagy, lysosomes act as the cell's waste management system, eliminating damaged cells and toxins. Enhancing lysosomal function supports detoxification and cellular rejuvenation.
“Lysosomes activate autophagy, which recycles damaged cells and promotes regeneration.” — Dr. Josh Axe [34:20]
Key Supports:
Dr. Axe outlines several factors that contribute to cellular damage, including:
“Sleep is when cells repair and regenerate. Not getting enough rest increases inflammation and oxidative stress.” — Dr. Josh Axe [50:10]
To assess cellular health, Dr. Axe recommends several diagnostic tests:
“Think of your blood like a delivery truck, but the real payoff happens when your cells open the package and use what's inside.” — Dr. Josh Axe [45:00]
Dietary Recommendations:
Supplement Recommendations:
“If you want to stay young and flexible, heal your cell membranes using a lot of good fats.” — Dr. Josh Axe [13:30]
Dr. Axe outlines nine therapies to bolster cellular health:
“Deep sleep combined with total sleep is maybe the biggest indicator of if your body's healing well that night.” — Dr. Josh Axe [55:40]
Dr. Axe reinforces the central thesis that healing and optimal health are intrinsically linked to cellular well-being. By focusing on nutrient-rich diets, appropriate supplements, and holistic therapies, individuals can reverse chronic conditions, enhance energy levels, and extend their longevity.
“If you want to reverse hypothyroidism, infertility, or PCOS, focus on the cell.” — Dr. Josh Axe [1:02:30]
He encourages listeners to pursue personalized medicine approaches and consult with cellular medicine practitioners to assess and improve their cellular health effectively.
Final Thoughts:
This episode serves as a comprehensive guide to understanding the intricate relationship between cellular health and overall well-being. Dr. Josh Axe provides actionable insights and practical strategies for listeners to elevate their health by targeting the foundational cellular level.
For more in-depth information, resources, and tailored advice, visit draxe.com or subscribe to Dr. Axe's weekly wellness newsletter as mentioned in the episode.