
Did you know men and women can respond differently to the same diet, supplement, or workout—simply because of biology?
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Let me ask you a question. Do you think men and women should be eating the exact same thing, taking the exact same supplements, doing the exact same exercise? Today, we'll be exploring the differences between men and women and what they should be doing differently in terms of diet, supplementation, and so much more. Welcome to the Dr. Josh Axe Show. Here's the truth. Men and women, in many cases, have very different nutritional needs. You know, for instance, women experience monthly cycles of estrogen and progesterone, which impact metabolism, nutrient absorption and cravings. They also have menstruation and blood loss. Women lose iron and other minerals through their monthly bleeding, increasing their need for iron, vitamin B12, and folate. During pregnancy and breastfeeding, women require more nutrients like calcium, choline, DHA, and iodine to support fetal development and milk production. And even when we see shifts during menopause and perimenopause, there's an increased risk of osteoporosis. Women need more calcium, magnesium, vitamin D and other nutrients. So the reality is men and women are very different. And we even see this with the diseases and illnesses women and men face. For instance, women are much, much more likely to develop autoimmune diseases and thyroid conditions, while men are at higher risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. There's body composition differences. Men typically have more muscle mass, increasing their need for calories, for protein, for zinc, to support testosterone and recovery. There are metabolic differences where men usually have a higher basal metabolic rate, meaning they burn more calories at rest and may need more macronutrients. So, as you can see, men and women are very different in their nutritional needs. Now, when it comes to women, here are the most common nutritional deficiencies and what women need to be aware of. The first is low levels of vitamin D. Now, across the board for men and women, vitamin D is insufficient. Okay, 94% of people are vitamin D deficient today. So getting vitamin D for women, especially for bone health. Remember, vitamin D is a pro hormone. You need it for hormonal health, so that is number one. And then iron due to menstruation. Iron deficiency is the most common or one of the most common deficiencies in women today. The symptoms can include fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath. If you're a woman and you're tired all the time, or here's another way to know, stick out your tongue. And if it's a pale pink, and if it's not a bright pink or a red, it tends to mean you have something called blood deficiency and you are iron deficient. So you can take an iron supplement by the way, to absorb iron properly. You want to make sure you get a food based iron or else it can also bother your stomach and you want to make sure it has vitamin C with it. You also want to be doing things like eating beets, green leafy vegetables and grass fed beef and even better organ meats like liver. You could take that in a tablet or a capsule, but that addresses iron in a pretty incredible way. And then the next one for a lot of women is magnesium. This is especially true if women are having PMS symptoms or perimenopause or chronic stress sort of issues. Magnesium helps relax the body, but this is a lot of women are deficient in magnesium and iodine. This is especially true for thyroid health, taking kelp or eating seaweed or eating organic strawberries. Again only organic because the conventional is the probably the most sprayed with glyphosate. So you want to make sure you're doing organic if you're going to have those. And for a lot of women you need more B vitamins and also B vitamin derivatives. And so that's going to be everything from choline to folate to vitamin B12. Now this is especially important during reproductive years. It supports fetal and brain development and liver health. So really important for women there as well. And and then also for women considering things that build strong bones with the magnesium, taking the vitamin D, Those together, vitamin K2 should be with your magnesium there. And really those are the biggest deficiencies most women have today. Now for men, zinc is at the top of the list. Zinc is essential for testosterone production, sperm quality and immune health and even prostate health. So you need it for all things reproduction and prostate. For men, zinc typically 30 milligrams a day. Pumpkin seed or taking pumpkin seed butter is a great food based therapy there for men and then also for men doing vitamin D. We mentioned this. This is important for both sexes. And then magnesium also important for men, but a few other nutrients, these are less common. These aren't as much micronutrients, but they are nutrients nonetheless. For men. One is Coenzyme Q10. This is important for heart health, sperm health, metabolic health and mitochondrial health. This is found in large amounts in organ meats, especially heart glandular. So men taking a multi organ supplement that has heart and liver especially. Now another thing I like for men to do is you can buy meat by forces of nature, ground beef and it has heart and liver in it. So consuming that on a regular basis. You can buy beef sticks from Lineage Provisions or Berski that's B, E, R, S, K, I. Those also have heart and liver in them. Major, major benefits there. And for heart health, for building muscle, for mitochondrial function. So that's great. But for men, really, organ meats and sardines are gonna be great sources as coenzyme Q10 as well. And then creatine, this is naturally found in red meat. Supports muscle strength and brain health, especially in aging men. Typically, 5 grams daily or so is what you want to do. Now, that's not to say that if a woman has immune deficiency, she shouldn't be supplementing with zinc. Or if a woman is having brain issues or needs to build muscle mass, she shouldn't take creatine. But we look at them side by side. What you need the most, women need more, you know, certain B vitamins, iron and the such, okay, Iodine, selenium. Where men need more of what we Talked about with CoQ10, zinc and creatine is more needed. Now, there are also herbal recommendations for men versus women and for women doing more, what we call yin building adaptogenic herbs and blood building adaptogenic herbs. So for women, I love dong quai. This is one of the most prescribed herbs in Chinese medicine. It's great for menstruation, it's great for menopause. But dong quai is at the very top of the list, followed by ashwagandha. Now, ashwagandha helps lower cortisol levels, which a lot of women have high cortisol and get anxious. So ashwagandha is very good for that. Makaru is another one I love for women. And then another favorite you might have not even heard of yet. But shatavari, also known as Shatavari. But shatavari was used in Ayurvedic medicine to help regulate hormone production. I'd also say Vitex. Vitex supports estrogen and progesterone balance in the body. So for women, those adaptogens like Ashwagandha and Shatavari and Don Quire Gray, along with those hormone balancers that we talked about, like Vitex. And then also there's a difference between premenopause and menopause. When you're going through menopause, women, you need more estrogen and more progesterone production. Increasing those. And that's where I really like taking black cohosh, wild yam, red clover are going to be at the top of the list for those herbals. Now, I also want to mention, for women during their cycle, during hormone fluctuations, you need More and less of certain nutrients during different times of the month. So right before and going into that early part of your cycle, you want to really build your blood. Okay. If you have any sort of bleeding at all, you really want to make sure you build back your blood as much as possible. Now, by the way, this is also very important for breastfeeding or post pregnancy. You know, your body actually sort of uses some blood to produce breast milk. So a lot of women also get sort of a level of depression post birth. Part of it, I think, is due to blood deficiency. So we really have to build the blood back up. This is why one of the ancient therapies for women post pregnancy has been consuming placenta, their placenta, because it's a lot of blood, it's a lot of those nutrients that they lost during pregnancy, they actually get to take back. My wife Chelsea did this after giving birth to both our daughters, Arwen and Aylin. We encapsulated her placenta, had her start doing that. We also had her consume a diet of mostly soups, a lot of red meat, a lot of goji berry, a lot of dates, a lot of things to start to build back her blood over the next three months. And during really, especially when she's doing more heavy breastfeeding, we're really focusing on building her blood as much as possible. So for women, that early phase of your cycle, you want to focus on building your blood and then you want to keep carbs not too high, but a lot of blood building foods, the beets, the green leafy vegetables, the grass fed beef. Then as your estrogen starts to increase and get to the top there, you want to increase your carbohydrates, especially with sweet potatoes and rice, two of the best there for supporting those carbohydrates. Oatmeal can be okay as well, doing more fruit like berries and apples, those. And then when you're coming down, we really want to start focusing on then detoxifying your liver. So more steamed cruciferous vegetables, getting rid of any excess extract estrogen in your system, that can sort of throw things off as well. And you can take herbs like milk thistle then. But for women, not only are there very specific nutrients you want to take, you also want to focus on eating different foods and supplements during your cycle. And I did entire podcasts on this in the past and you can look up, you know, Dr. Axe, women's hormones and go and watch that one on women's cycles and what to eat in terms of the right seeds, right nutrients, right Foods on your cycle. So women, as you're going through perimenopause and menopause or post menopause, there are some very specific foods you want to start eating because what starts to happen is you have major estrogen loss and to a degree, some progesterone as well after menopause. And it can affect everything from your brain health to your collagen production. So how young you look, your mood, your sleep. So nutrition and exercise become more important than ever. And for those women in Chinese medicine, they would say you want to do something called building yin, which is this. It's moisture and coolness your body. This is why you get hot flashes, this is why you get night sweats. Is your body, because of the lack of estrogen and progesterone, your body can't create enough fluid and cool itself. This is also why sometimes there's dryness vaginally as well, or dryness of skin. Your body isn't moistening itself very well, so it's not cooling itself either. So there are foods in Chinese medicine called yin producing foods. That's yin. You could look this up online, yin producing foods. But you want to consume a lot of those foods that support building moisture to help bring those hot flashes down, balance your hormones and keep your skin younger. Foods that do that one would be eggs like egg yolks, especially duck eggs are even better foods rich in omega 3 fatty acids. Wild caught salmon, sea bass, sardines, halibut, mackerel, all good fish. You want to get more of those omega 3s. You also want to do things like yogurt, coconut yogurt, A2 yogurt, sheep milk yogurt, or goat's milk yogurt or kefir. But doing some of those fermented dairy products with some flax seeds or flax meal. Flax is very estrogen supporting and would be a great choice as well for you sweet potatoes, very yin, very supporting of the body. But those are some of the foods you want to incorporate. You can look at yin producing foods. A lot of steamed vegetables would be wonderful as well. Now I also want to mention, during menopause is when the most vitamin D is lost. It's the most important. So supplementing with vitamin D or really getting more sunshine or getting a vitamin D lamp as much as possible is going to be very helpful. So you really want to focus on increasing vitamin D, magnesium, vitamin K, those things that really support bodies, bone strength and health are very important there as well. For women going through that phase in life. Also I want to mention this. The condition that is more common in women than men by far is autoimmune disease like Hashimoto's lupus, rheumatoid arthritis. 75 to, in some cases, 80% of women are responsible for autoimmune disease or those cases. So women are much, much more prone to autoimmune disease than men. And I think there's quite a few reasons for that. One, autoimmune disease is where your body is getting in this inflammatory response. This tends to happen when cortisol gets elevated. Okay. So if cortisol gets too high, where your body gets in a fight or flight state, where you get more anxious or worrying about things, that's another major factor. Another one is not dealing with past trauma. Men team to kind of, you know, get hit and move on more often and sort of let go of things. You ever see the old sort of idea where sort of men will fight it out and be over it a few minutes later and not remember it? Whereas women will tend to sort of hold onto it much longer. If you're holding on to a grudge, to unforgiveness, to resentment towards your partner, if you're just remembering things constantly, that actually causes autoimmune disease. It's sort of the self affliction where you're remembering something negative over and over or if you're very hard on yourself. I see this with a lot of women too. Your mom said something to you one time or a coach or a teacher and you're just, or you're just, you're beating yourself up. I'm not pretty enough or I'm not enough good enough wife or I'm not doing that. Like you feel like you need to do more and more and more, you need to look perfect on the outside. It's a form of self abuse you and you need to break the cycle and live in a state of God loves you, you're protected, you're secure, right? So I think having the right mental frame, you know, my mom used to love this pastor, female pastor, watching her online, Joyce Meyer, and she has a book and I think it's like, I think it's one of the top five selling Christian books over the last 50 years. And I think it's called something like Battlefield of the Mind, something like that. But I think that's really popular because I know a lot of women struggle with this, with negative thoughts and thinking about themselves. And this causes autoimmune disease and it causes nutritional deficiencies. So going and actually addressing Those things and saying, you know what, like focusing on building your esteem and value via biblical knowledge and being around other positive, encouraging women, not knowing you don't have to be perfect. It's okay. We may make mistakes. That makes us human. So dealing with that is very important. With that, I just wanted to get to the root there too, because there's nutritional deficiencies. There's also deficiencies of things that aren't per se nutrients. They're virtues, like love. We've all heard this, right? Men want to. Women want to feel loved. Men want to feel respected. If you have a lack of love, that's going to lead to. That's a deficiency that leads to autoimmune disease. That can lead to miscarriage. Actually, according to Chinese medicine, it can lead to depression, anxiety, it can lead to all kinds of health issues. And so also making sure and being in relationships where you are loved or nourished and your spouse isn't doing that, just let them know because sometimes you don't say it. So you want to share that and do everything you can to deal with those deficiencies. Here's a few other things. Depression and anxiety. Estrogen plays a role in serotonin regulation. Okay. Women are more likely to deal with those conditions, especially during PMS and during menopause. Okay, so, so, so women deal with these health conditions more than men. Women also deal with more insomnia, but also need to sleep more, especially during perimenopause and post menopause, when fluctuating hormones and stress can disrupt sleep. One in four women, this is really high. One in four women experience insomnia. I mean, this is really chronic, chronic sleep issues. Thyroid disorders way more prevalent in women, especially after pregnancy or if they've taken contraceptive drugs. One in eight women will develop thyroid problems during their lifetime. Risk factors for these conditions in women. Listen, there is an element of epigenetics here, of those genetic switches getting turned on. Postpartum immune shifts that can happen, and hormonal shifts. Chronic stress, inflammation, poor gut health, hormone fluctuations, history of trauma and emotional stress like we talked about, and holding onto those longer. And certain nutritional deficiencies like we've talked about. And then let's talk about men. What you're more susceptible to. Higher rates of cancer like prostate, liver, bladder, colorectal and stomach cancers. Lung and prostate cancers are also more common in men. Type 2 diabetes, you know, the insulin resistance and blood sugar issues. One in five men will develop diabetes. Many more than that will have insulin resistance. Here's another big killer of men One in four men die of heart disease. I've experienced this in my own life with, you know, one of my best friends and father in law dying early from this. It happens. It happens so frequently. So men dying early from these chronic conditions, again, heart disease. And it's heart disease generally, but it's poor circulation, high blood pressure, damaged blood vessels, myocarditis, obesity, smoking and alcohol abuse, low testosterone, which reduces sex drive, erectile dysfunction, and even takes years off your life, causes you to age more quickly if testosterone's too low. Men tend to be much more on certain medications, especially blood pressure meds. And the other big one for men is low testosterone, which reduces sex drive and erectile dysfunction. But not just that. It actually causes men to age more quickly, taking years off their life with low testosterone. And it's sex drive, but it's also motivation. I mean, when men have low testosterone, they don't feel like a man. I mean, it just changes their personality. And that's the other thing about hormone imbalances. When your hormones change, a lot of times it affects who we are or who we feel like we are. Now, a lot of economists are saying a recession may be on the horizon. And that's why I believe now is the time to take steps towards protecting your financial health, just like you would protect your physical health. Historically, during economic uncertainty, gold and silver have doubled or more in value. I want to tell you that personally, I've always been a believer in biblical wealth. You know, the Bible talks about us having things like land and gold and silver and livestock to support ourselves economically. And I remember even my dad when I was young, I remember being eight years old, my dad actually gave me my first piece of silver because he always believed in diversifying and it really always served our family. Now today, when buying gold, I personally trust preserve gold. And right now they're offering a free wealth protection guide. You can actually get this guide. You just need to text AXE to 50505 or visit preservegold.com axe have you ever had your car's engine light come on only to have the mechanic say, hey, everything looks fine? That's what it feels like when your labs come back normal, but you still feel off. Maybe you're exhausted, you're foggy, you're moody. You have these unexplainable symptoms, like your body's trying to tell you something, but nobody's listening. Listening. Most blood work is like popping the hood and glancing around. It might catch something really obvious, but it's not looking at the engine or inside the engine. And your engine, that's like your cells. That's where real healing starts at the cellular level. Because if your cells are stressed, inflamed, or hormone resistant, your body can't do what it's designed to do, no matter how normal your labs look. Listen, if you, if you're tired of feeling like something's wrong, but no one can explain what, go to BeyondBloodwork.com and find out what your cells are trying to really say. I want to talk about more differences between men and women. One of these has to do with fasting. Okay? I've worked with tens of thousands of patients and across the board, generally speaking, men tolerate fasting better than women, especially if they have improved insulin sensitivity and they're not too overweight. But the big thing there is insulin sensitivity. Okay? I've seen a lot of men do very well with intermittent fasting. Women, your hormones are up and down and changing constantly. So not eating, or if you have hypothyroidism or something else as well, where there's a stressor, fasting is a type of stress. Now, sometimes stress can be good, a little bit of it, right? That's not too much for the body. But if you're sick or ill, you don't want to be too aggressive in fasting. You want to do more of a 1212 fast where you, you don't eat for half the day. So maybe eat breakfast around, you know, 7 or 8am and you eat dinner early, like 5 o' clock. Okay. Or a 14:10 eating window. That's okay. Women do great with that. Men can do great with that as well. But generally, if you want to do intermittent fasting, men tend to do better. But women, if you get yourself in the right state physically, you can do it as well if you want to do that. Sort of stress on the body that allows sort of repair and regeneration of certain organs, or greater levels of autophagy, if you're interested there. But overall, I think for most men and women, even though men do better with fasting, your overall best doing a 1410 window or 1212 window, where you're still getting in three meals a day, is ideal for most. Now, here's another one that's important. Women usually need more sleep than men. Women's brains require more recovery time due to more multitasking and greater use of prefrontal cortex functions such as planning and decision making, leading to a higher need for sleep. On average about 20 more minutes per night. Now, some of you might laugh at this already just by hearing What I just shared is that, like, it always amazes me like Chelsea is always doing multiple things at home. She's got Arwen on her hip, she's making bread, she's watching a television show and she's texting her mom and, and having our daughter Arwen memorize, recite a Bible verse back to her at the same time. And there's two or three people talking to her. She's doing all this at the same time. I can't do it. Okay. I can focus on one thing. And also, again, if, you know, if you're, if you're a woman, you're married, you're going to appreciate this too. Or maybe a female in general. But, you know, like, when I'm doing something, I am so locked in, there's, I don't even know anything else going on. So I'll be on, on the computer writing something and Chelsea will be talking to me and she'll say, did you hear anything I said? And I'll say, no, I did not hear a single word you said. Versus if she was doing the exact same thing. She's filling out, like right now. We're updating our passports. I'll say something to her, almost to catch her off guard, and she'll repeat verbatim what I just said to her for the past five minutes so she's able to do that. I am not. Women can do that. Men can't. And Therefore you need 20 more minutes, maybe you need more than that even, but you need at least 20 more minutes of sleep per night because your brain is so much more active. Do you know your brain utilizes more ATP and more energy than any other organ in your body? In fact, I want to say it's like 25%. One quarter of all of your body's energy goes towards your brain. That's a lot. And so that's why you need more sleep. Okay. The other thing is it's just more of these hormone fluctuations constantly also can affect your sleep. Okay. And demanding deeper sleep. There's actually a medical journal that dove into this as well. The other thing that happens to women is they tend to have more fragmented sleep. Now this is especially during the luteal phase of their cycle, of course, also during pregnancy and breastfeeding, but also during menopause. And so when you're getting sort of those chunks of broken up sleep, that also means you typically need a little bit more sleep as well. Studies show that sleep deprived women experience more cognitive and mood impairments than men, suggesting this sort of greater sensitivity to poor sleep as well. Now, I'm also amazed that my wife stays up with our 1 year old or gets up a couple times a night and she functions as well as she does. Okay. And I think part of that just also has to do with women being a little bit more typically calm, spirited and emotionally sensitive to others. But there's no doubt that when you are disrupting your sleep, it can cause mood to fluctuate. Now I want to talk about the differences between men and women in ancient forms of medicine like Chinese medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine says heart chi is more vulnerable in women, especially mothers, which can lead to insomnia when depleted. And men are more susceptible to something called kidney yang. Now, heart chi refers to this sort of emotional and mental state that's also tied to the health of your blood. And it's not your physical heart, it's your spiritual heart. In women, this heart qi is more depleted due to emotional labor, caregiving and blood loss. You know, I think for women, again, there's. You're more attuned to the needs of those around you, okay? That's how God wired you. But it's emotionally draining, okay? When you're more aware of those things, aware of all of the emotions of all the people around you, constantly, it can be depleting. And this is why for women, one of the biggest things you have to be aware of is listen, it's okay if you're depleted, if you're then nourished, okay, it's okay if you give, if you then get, okay. But too many women go through the day and, and it's work and work and we're going to do all these different things and serve everyone else around them, and then they never have any time to recover. And so for women, another need is we've got to do things to recover. And for men, here's another thing for you. Women need to probably are created to receive more and men are created to give more. And so for men out there, if you feel depleted sometimes, for you, it's not about doing less, it's about doing the right things more and pursuing your wife more. Even if you maybe don't, you know, you might. Even if your testosterone is not where you want it to be and you don't feel like it, in a sense, when you're created to do it, sometimes doing the thing gives you more energy. Have you ever done that? You're at a workout, you're like, God, I don't feel like being here. This is sort of a drain. And then all of A sudden you get 15 minutes in, you're like, okay. And then you have a great workout. Okay? It's that similar thing. Men buy your spouse roses or girlfriend roses, get her those nice chocolates, make sure it's dark, right? No, you know, none of the artificial stuff in there either. You know, take her out on a date night, schedule something that she loves, like do that thing, like get excited about pursuing your spouse and going after her. Do those things, making her dreams come true. Okay? That will give. And then women, when your husband does it, reward him, acknowledge it, receive it, do all those things. Because if you want it to happen again, I mean, you know, guys, you know, both men and women work like this. Again, reward that behavior. Listen, if he does the dishes, you know, be grateful for it. Even if you think in your head. Let me give you an example. This could happen, okay? He's only done it once this month. Well, you know, maybe he'll do it more if you say thank you. Okay? So I think going back and forth with sort of men pursuing your wife and women, receiving well and being grateful in that way will cause them to do that more. But again, there are needs that women have, there are needs that men have, there are dietary needs, there are supplemental needs, there are emotional needs. And being aware of those for yourself and for your spouse and communicating on those is incredibly healing. Now, for women, as we talked about these sort of heart foods, there are nutrients and foods for that. So in Chinese medicine for women, it's a lot of blood building foods. It's beets, it's dates, it's beef bone broth, it's calming, it's mushrooms like reishi mushroom, it's chamomile tea. It's doing a lot of things to sort of calm your body and nourish your heart. Okay? Those are all good things. For men, it's known as kidney qi, which is really testosterone boosting foods. It's herbs like ginseng, it's rhodiola, it's deer antler, it's tongkat ali. We mentioned zinc as a nutrients. It's red meat, it's organ meats. It's like pumpkin seeds, pumpkin nut butters and almond butter that has arginine. It's a lot of again, it's nut butters, it's salmon, it's red meat, it's organ meats. A lot of foods that are more yang building and strengthening there for men are the best. And so remember, women, in addition to the nutrients, you need to feel love, you need to feel cherished. You need to feel protected and safe. I remember when Chelsea was, when we were talking about getting, having our first child, getting pregnant, she said, I don't want to run a house anymore. I want to own a house. And I said, okay. Well, I was all for it, but I asked her why and her answer was, I'm nesting or I'm getting ready to nest. And I was like, okay, what does that mean? You know? And she explained, I said, okay, yeah, makes sense. Okay, let's do it. So we went and bought a house. So, but all that being said, because she wanted to have a house that was her own. And again, NA's didn't feel it's safety and security. She wanted to feel that and she wanted to feel loved. And me doing that, acknowledging, say, hey, we're going to do that for you. She felt more protected and more loved doing that. And for men, again, more respect. You know, feeling disrespected or powerless actually affects testosterone and mental health in men. According to studies, there's so many men today with low testosterone and poor mental health, it's really, really a tragedy for both men and women. Okay? And so focus on healing, using food as medicine, lifestyle medicine, but also that emotional medicine. And if you don't have those people in your life, pursue those types of relationships, I think it's very important that you're conscious of it so you can actually go and pursue that, you know, One study analyzed data from over 300,000 individuals and they found that stronger relationships increase the likelihood of health and survival by 50%. So again, you have nutritional needs, but you also have emotional needs. And you don't want to overlook those. Okay? So remember this. There is a difference between men and a difference between women in all of their needs, both nutritionally and emotionally. I want you to sit down today and think about what are your needs based on what I shared with you, okay? Write those down. What are the needs of if you're married, your spouse or your significant other, or a boyfriend or girlfriend, or maybe even your kids, Think about what those needs are. You know, one of the things that I know that I try and do with my daughters right now is make them feel secure, make them feel safe, make them feel loved, right? Lots of hugs, lots of kisses, you know, daddy, daughter, date nights, those sort of things as well. So this is for, even for your other family members as well, Knowing there's a difference between men, there's a difference between women, those energies. And we want to do everything we can to support those. I want to say thanks for tuning in here to the Dr. Josh Axe show, where each and every week we're diving deep into the science and principles of how you can heal physically, mentally and spiritually. Make sure to subscribe, like and share, and I'll see you on the next episode.
Podcast Summary: The Dr. Josh Axe Show – "Why Men and Women Shouldn’t Eat the Same Way"
Host: Dr. Josh Axe
Release Date: June 12, 2025
Duration: [Podcast Length Not Provided]
In the episode titled "Why Men and Women Shouldn’t Eat the Same Way," Dr. Josh Axe delves deep into the distinct nutritional and health needs of men and women. He emphasizes that biological differences necessitate tailored approaches to diet, supplementation, and overall health strategies to optimize well-being for each gender.
Dr. Axe begins by outlining the fundamental reasons why men and women require different dietary plans:
Hormonal Cycles:
Menstruation and Pregnancy:
Menopause:
Notable Quote:
"Men and women, in many cases, have very different nutritional needs." [01:30]
Vitamin D:
Iron:
Magnesium & Iodine:
B Vitamins:
Notable Quote:
"If you're a woman and you're tired all the time... you tend to mean you have something called blood deficiency and you are iron deficient." [12:05]
Zinc:
Vitamin D:
Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10):
Creatine:
Notable Quote:
"Zinc is essential for testosterone production, sperm quality and immune health and even prostate health." [22:15]
Notable Quote:
"For women, adaptogens like Ashwagandha and Shatavari and Dong Quai... along with Vitex." [35:40]
Notable Quote:
"For men, it's known as kidney qi, which is really testosterone boosting foods." [54:10]
Dr. Axe emphasizes the importance of tailoring diet throughout the menstrual cycle:
Early Phase (Pre-menstruation):
Estrogen Peak:
Detox Phase:
Notable Quote:
"For women, during hormone fluctuations, you need more and less of certain nutrients during different times of the month." [45:00]
Autoimmune Diseases:
Mental Health:
Thyroid Disorders:
Notable Quote:
"Women are much, much more prone to autoimmune disease than men." [48:20]
Cancer:
Metabolic Issues:
Heart Disease:
Low Testosterone:
Notable Quote:
"One in four men die of heart disease." [60:45]
Mental Frame:
Relationships:
Fasting:
Notable Quote:
"There's a difference between men and a difference between women in all of their needs, both nutritionally and emotionally." [1:10:30]
For Women:
For Men:
Notable Quote:
"In Chinese medicine, heart chi is more vulnerable in women... and men are more susceptible to something called kidney yang." [1:05:10]
For Women:
Diet:
Supplements:
Emotional Health:
For Men:
Diet:
Supplements:
Emotional Health:
Dr. Josh Axe underscores the importance of recognizing and addressing the unique nutritional and emotional needs of men and women. By tailoring diets, supplements, and lifestyle practices, individuals can optimize their health, enhance emotional resilience, and improve overall quality of life. He encourages listeners to assess their own needs and those of their loved ones to create a supportive and health-conscious environment.
Notable Quote:
"There is a difference between men and a difference between women in all of their needs, both nutritionally and emotionally." [1:12:00]
Dr. Axe reinforces the message that understanding and respecting gender-specific health needs is essential for achieving optimal wellness. He advocates for a holistic approach, combining dietary adjustments, targeted supplementation, and emotional support to foster a balanced and healthy life for both men and women.
For More Information:
Note: This summary is based on the provided transcript and podcast information. For a comprehensive understanding, listening to the full episode is recommended.