Dr. Axe EXPOSES Health Myths & Conspiracies | Michael Knowles YES or NO

Summary

Podcast Summary: Michael Knowles Show ft. Dr. Josh Axe – “Dr. Axe EXPOSES Health Myths & Conspiracies”

Date: June 4, 2026
Podcast: The Michael Knowles Show (The Daily Wire)
Guest: Dr. Josh Axe
Episode Theme: Debunking health myths, exposing modern health “conspiracies,” and exploring the relationship between culture, science, and wellness in a rapid-fire, humorous "Yes or No" format.

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Episode Overview

This episode features functional medicine expert Dr. Josh Axe in a playful, competitive round of “Yes or No” health questions with host Michael Knowles. Using wit and candid conversation, they dive into a wide range of health and wellness topics, challenging mainstream medical dogma and discussing alternative approaches. The episode merges pop culture, traditional wisdom, and new health trends, tackling controversial subjects with humor and directness.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Water Additives & Endocrine Disruptors

• Fluoride in Water

  • Dr. Axe [02:22]: Excessive fluoride acts as a neurotoxin; brushing with fluoride toothpaste occasionally is fine, but chronic exposure via water is problematic.
  • Michael Knowles [02:48]: Jokes about drinking alcohol instead of water, given the “hazards” of modern tap water.

• Estrogen in Drinking Water

  • Dr. Axe [03:00]: Birth control hormones, especially estradiol, accumulate in water, disrupting hormones—linked to declining male testosterone and female fertility issues.
  • Notable quote [03:40]: “Men’s testosterone levels have declined by 50% over the last 50 years.” —Dr. Axe

2. Testosterone, Plastics, and Lifestyle

• Low T: Environmental vs. Lifestyle Factors

  • Dr. Axe [05:24]: Low testosterone is epidemic; beyond inactivity, root causes include high environmental estrogens, mineral depletion, and microplastics from plastics (e.g. polyester in clothing acts as endocrine disruptor).
  • Actionable advice [06:26]: Eat more organic meat, cruciferous vegetables, increase vitamin D and zinc, and spend more time outside for hormone health.

• Plastic Exposure via Clothing

  • Yoga pants and polyester increase microplastics exposure. “It’s something like the average human being consumes a credit card worth of plastic a week.” —Dr. Axe [05:24]

• Coping with Cigar Smoke

  • Dr. Axe [08:05]: Sulforaphane (from cruciferous veggies) and NAC (N-Acetyl Cysteine) support detoxification.

3. Hard Drugs, Pharmaceuticals, and Weight Loss Craze

• Comparing Drug Risks
  • Guest (video prompt) admits to using meth for looksmaxing; argues it’s like a “better Adderall.”
  • Dr. Axe [10:54]: Methamphetamines and similar stimulants damage neurotransmitters long-term. GLP-1 agonists (like Ozempic) are “not a fan” in high doses—linked to muscle wasting, rapid aging (“Ozempic face/butt”), and malnutrition.
  • “Your muscle is a longevity organ.” —Dr. Axe [12:28]

4. Sanitation, Ancient Wisdom & Bible vs. Modern Science

• Dr. Axe suggests much of our longevity owes more to biblical sanitation practices than to modern medical science.
  • Michael Knowles [16:01]: Admits ancient Jewish law was “right the whole time,” noting examples like circumcision on the day when clotting is optimal.
  • Critique of contemporary over-medicalization at birth (unnecessary vitamin K and Hep B shots).

5. Microplastics, Yoga Pants, and Gender Issues

• Microplastics Ubiquity
  • “Is it easier to remove microplastics from your body than to convince women to stop wearing yoga pants?” (Consensus: It’s easier to detox plastics than change yoga-pant fashion [20:01].)
  • Exposure impacts hormones in both sexes; polyester and polyester blends are main culprits.
  • Humorous exchange: Knowles jokes about teenage distraction by yoga pants boosting testosterone [21:20].
• Cultural Observations:
  • Men wearing yoga pants: “His testosterone must be in the gutter…” —Michael Knowles [23:45]

6. Longevity Optimization & Obsession

• Extreme Biohacking
  • “Is chasing ultra-longevity (120+ years) as futile as a 43-leg parlay at Yankee Stadium?”
    • Dr. Axe [27:06]: Obsessing over health paradoxically undermines well-being; “enjoy the gelato” mindset is healthier than rigid restriction.
    • Community/social connection is the #1 longevity factor (Harvard study).

7. Ranking Seed Oils, Animal Fats, and "Diet Wars"

• Seed Oil Controversy
  • Dr. Axe [32:23]: Most processed, hydrogenated seed oils are not healthy. “Extra virgin olive oil is your go-to oil. The Italians did it. It’s working for them.”
  • There’s nuance: for some, animal fats can strain the liver more than moderate seed oils.

8. Nicotine, Zyn Pouches & Addiction

• Zyn Pouches: “Fancy Cancer Mints?”
  • High-frequency use is “very drying, very heating” (TCM perspective), increasing health risks — particularly for heart disease over cancer [36:41].
  • Michael Knowles [37:00]: Anecdote about nicotine pouch potency: “Green in the face instantly.”
• Use moderation: Both Axe and Knowles agree micro-dosing occasionally is less risky, but daily use is problematic.

9. Junk Food & Dental Health

• Arby’s:
  • “Is Arby’s okay for you?” —Unanimous no. Highly processed ingredients (“plastic cheese”), plastic exposure joke. [39:10]
• Root Canals vs. Tooth Extraction
  • Dr. Axe [40:57]: Pulling a tooth is often better than a root canal; “root canals are very prone to infection,” leading to systemic inflammation and heart problems.

10. Biohacks: Cold Plunges, Essential Oils, ADHD & Alcohol

• Cold Plunge vs. Acupuncture:

  • Dr. Axe [45:59]: Cold plunging can help athletic, “hot” bodies but can harm people with certain conditions like hypothyroidism or cold extremities.

• Essential Oils:

  • Dr. Axe [58:09]: Placebo effect for some, but studies show real benefits (e.g., stress reduction via lavender and orange oil diffusion). Use in moderation, some can be estrogenic.

• Screen Time, Diet, and ADHD:

  • Screen time is a bigger ADHD trigger than red dye. Modern kids consume far less sugar/soda/TV yet have more behavioral diagnoses; screens and processed sugars are primary concerns. Natural nootropics and herbs are better than stimulant meds for most.

• Alcohol:

  • Dr. Axe [53:12]: “A little bit of red wine on occasion for some people… that’s fine.” Social context matters; “Jesus turned water into wine.”

11. Big Sunscreen Debate

• Vitamin D & Cancer Trade-offs
  • Regular sunscreen use: fine to prevent burns, but otherwise, avoid chemical-laden products and use mineral sunscreen (e.g., zinc oxide).
  • Overuse of sunscreen is linked to vitamin D deficiency and possibly increased cancer risk [62:27].

12. Inflammation as Health Scapegoat

• “Is inflammation the ‘climate change’ of medicine?” [63:19]
  • Dr. Axe: Inflammation is midstream, not the root cause; deeper issues are usually poor lifestyle choices (diet, stress, plastics).
  • Next trends: Mitochondrial dysfunction and peptides as new “root cause” and therapies.

13. Personalized Medicine & Ethnic Diets

• Diets that work for one may not work for another; ethnicity and local foodways matter (e.g., Sicilians do fine with tomatoes/lemons, Japanese with seaweed and raw fish) [60:22].

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Men’s testosterone levels have declined by 50% over the last 50 years.”
  —Dr. Axe [03:40]
• “The average human being consumes a credit card worth of plastic a week.”
  —Dr. Axe [05:24]
• “If you have estradiol in your drinking water, it’s tied to this decline…”
  —Dr. Axe [03:40]
• “If you obsess about your health, you actually decline.”
  —Dr. Axe [27:06]
• “Your muscle is a longevity organ.”
  —Dr. Axe [12:28]
• “I have to avert my eyes. I need custody of my eyes. I’ll miss my gate for my flight.”
  —Michael Knowles (on yoga pants distraction) [21:20]
• “Is Arby’s okay for you?”
  —Michael Knowles: “I put a credit card on top and just eat it up.” [40:12]
• “Married men live longer because their wives force them to.”
  —Michael Knowles [55:46]

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Timestamps for Core Segments

• Fluoride & Water Contaminants: [02:00–04:15]
• Testosterone, Plastics, Lifestyle: [05:24–07:56]
• Meth, Adderall, Ozempic, GLP-1 agonists: [09:21–13:32]
• Sanitation, Bible, Ancient Wisdom: [15:12–18:39]
• Yoga Pants & Microplastics: [19:28–24:44]
• Seed Oils, Fat Wars: [32:14–34:31]
• Nicotine/Zyn Pouches Health Risks: [35:17–38:45]
• Root Canal vs. Extraction: [40:57–43:17]
• Cold Plunge vs Acupuncture: [45:37–48:14]
• Alcohol: Harm or Good?: [52:27–54:26]
• Big Sunscreen & Vitamin D: [61:24–62:59]
• Inflammation as Health Boogeyman: [63:19–65:53]

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Tone & Format

The tone is humorous, slightly irreverent, and deeply skeptical of mainstream narratives in both health and culture. Knowles pokes fun at his own vices (cigars, Arby’s, lack of exercise) while Dr. Axe provides science-backed, practical strategies—always with the caveat that over-obsession is itself a health risk.

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Final Thoughts

This episode is a rollercoaster through the world of modern and ancient health wisdom, full of myth-busting, challenging questions, and lighthearted banter. The takeaways: personalize your approach, don’t fall for every trend, ancient practices (including biblical ones) often have enduring value, and community/social connection far outweighs most biohacks for a long and healthy life.

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For listeners:
If you’re tired of health dogma and want a blend of deep-dive myth-busting and skeptical humor, this episode delivers. For detailed timestamps, see breakdown above to jump to your favorite hot-button topics.

Transcript

[Michael Knowles]

Folks, very excited to say I will be at the Zeal for America 250 rally this June 13th. I will be there with His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke for a powerful day of prayer and conversation as we mark America's 250th birthday. If you are within driving distance of La Crosse, Wisconsin, I strongly encourage you to be there in person. If you can't make it, we will also be offering a live stream so you can still take part. Go to CatholicVote.org America250 to get your tickets or to sign up to watch

[Dr. Josh Axe]

the most accurate here. For thousands of years, has been looking at somebody's tongue to tell what's going on with their health.

[Michael Knowles]

I don't know how vibrant my tongue is.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Okay, let me.

[Michael Knowles]

Okay, ready?

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yep. Let's see it here.

[Michael Knowles]

Welcome to yes or no, the bibulous battle to discover who knows whom better. My guest today is Dr. Josh Axe. How do we play? I will ask Dr. Axe. Say that five times fast. A yes or no question. He will select his answer away from my prying eyes. Then I will guess how he answered. If I guess correctly, I get a point. If I guess incorrectly, I lose a point. No matter what, I will probably end up drinking. Then it's his turn. Neither of us has seen the questions beforehand. Whoever has the most points at the end wins. The stakes could be higher. Let's get started. Dr. Axe, thank you for coming on the show.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Thanks for having me.

[Michael Knowles]

So I can't help but notice, because you're a doctor and you're healthy and fit and everything, you have a nice, responsible glass of tea.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

I do.

[Michael Knowles]

And I have enough gin to kill an elephant. So I'm gonna be drinking for the two of us. All right. Do you know the rules?

[Dr. Josh Axe]

I think so. Well, that makes one. I do have them.

[Michael Knowles]

That's good. I know. Yeah. I'm iffy on them. So if you were a woman, I would say you go first. But since you're a man, I will go first.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Okay.

[Michael Knowles]

Does fluoride in the water do more harm than just turning frogs gay? So now.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah. Yeah, I think it does. Okay, now, hold on.

[Michael Knowles]

I'm glad you told me that. So you're gonna lock in your answer.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

That's right.

[Michael Knowles]

I think you would say verbatim. Yeah, it does. I got it. Right. All right, here we off to a good start.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Here we go.

[Michael Knowles]

Why?

[Dr. Josh Axe]

So the issue with fluoride is, and this can happen with numerous different types of whether it's a heavy metal or compound, but doing Excess is going to actually be a neurotoxin over time. And so, listen, I think if somebody brushes their teeth on occasion with fluoride toothpaste, it's really not that big of a deal. The problem is that it's in our toothpaste, it's in our water supply. And when you're drinking, I mean, think about the amount of water we drink and we bathe in and how much we use on a regular basis.

[Michael Knowles]

Why, by the way, that's a lot of fluoride. She wants me to drink a lot more water, and I don't. I drink alcohol and coffee, black coffee, sometimes a fruity millennial seltzer or something. But I. So now you're telling me the water's bad for you?

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah, well, I'm telling you the water's good. All the stuff we add to it isn't. Is. Isn't good. So. Yeah, no, the fluoride in the drinking water. I actually, I did an episode on this not too long ago on all the other chemicals in our drinking water. We've got estradiol, which is estrogen, in our drinking water. So talk about making frogs or people more, you know, changing their biology in a big way. There are. I mean, there are numerous chemicals.

[Michael Knowles]

Where does that come from? I read somewhere that basically women's birth control ends up in the water.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

It does. And that's estradiol.

[Michael Knowles]

That is. That. Is.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

That is it. Yeah, for the most part. So, yeah, I mean, it's. We don't even. I mean, I don't even know necessarily how it's getting in the water, but it's there.

[Michael Knowles]

That's very scary.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah. And, you know, and when somebody has excess estrogen for men, it lowers their testosterone for women. Estrogen gets high, progesterone stays low, higher incidences of breast cancer, major hormonal issues, infertility. I mean, that's another big thing going on. But I think for men in particular, when you have estradiol in your drinking water, it's tied to this decline of. I mean, men's testosterone levels have declined by 50% over the last 50 years. I mean, so we're talking about dramatically, especially for men in their, you know, in their 30s.

[Michael Knowles]

You know, if it's just judged on the amount of tap water that one drinks a day, I'm gonna be he man. I'm gonna be GI Joe. My testosterone is gonna be through the roof. I might die of other conditions like dehydration or something, but that. Okay.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

All right, you're up. Okay.

[Michael Knowles]

I'LL clear my answer. All right.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

All right, next question here. Whoa. Is having low T, the male version of the dog ate my homework for men who don't work out? Like Michael Knowles.

[Michael Knowles]

Real nice. He gets one of these jibes in, like, almost every episode about how I. He calls me buttersoft. He calls me a soy boy. Cause I don't work out. I'll deal with Mr. Davies later. Okay, my answer. Correct. I have a buddy of mine. In fact, he might be in this room right now. He's a giant guy. He's tough, he works out. He's all these things, comes from Eastern Europe. But he was dealing with some of these issues, probably environmental factors, I don't know what. And I said, it can't be just he doesn't work out. It can't be just that he's not a big tough guy. There's obviously something else going on.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah. So, you know, we run blood work in my clinic. So I see, I mean, thousands of blood tests a year. And men constantly come in with low testosterone. But one of the bigger issues is they come in with low free testosterone. And the free testosterone is sort of what your body is able to utilize. And there's this other hormone called sex hormone binding globulin that goes and actually binds to your testosterone, so it can't be used. And one issue today that's causing it, so one is the high estrogen. We talked about that. So, like, even the clothes we're wearing, if people wear a lot of polyester constantly, polyester has microplastic. Those get in our skin. I mean, it's something like the average human being consumes a credit card worth of plastic a week. And so. And this is from, I mean, so much plastic bottles and Tupperware and chemicals and all the things we're exposed to regularly. So the estrogen going up, I mean, that's a major problem due to all these microplastics. The other issue is mineral depletion. So if men are low in magnesium, vitamin D. Here's another big one. Boron.

[Michael Knowles]

Boron. What's boron?

[Dr. Josh Axe]

It's a. It's a mineral that almost nobody knows about.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

So. But it's really important for male hormone production. And zinc's another huge one. In fact, most studies show vitamin D and zinc. If men are low on those two in particular, their testosterone will be substantially lower. So a lot of men are, you know, just, you know, they're eating a lot of processed foods, maybe not enough organic meat. I mean, our ancient ancestors were eating liver you know, I mean, they were, you know, so I get into a good pate.

[Michael Knowles]

I'm a foie gras man myself.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Okay, there we go. So all that being said, if men would start eating more, I think a lot more organic meat, getting some of the vegetables like broccoli in their diet, spinach, those types of things, that's going to have a lot of those minerals in there. And the other thing is it's just spending more time outside. Huge. Vitamin D is huge for. It's actually typically called not just a vitamin, A pro hormone because it's essential for actually creating more testosterone.

[Michael Knowles]

So Popeye, totally vindicated on the spinach.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Totally.

[Michael Knowles]

I don't really exercise almost ever other than chasing my kids around. But I do sit outside a lot to smoke cigars. And I have the swarthy skin, so I hope my vitamin D is okay. It seems like every guy that goes to the doctor and immediately you, like, walk in the door, they say you have a vitamin D deficiency.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Oh, yeah, it's, it's the biggest deficiency. Just because, I mean, our ancient ancestors, you know, these stats probably pretty well, but it's like up until, I want to say around 1900 over, it's like 50% of professions had some level of, you know, agricultural, you know, relationship. And so that's just not there anymore. So we just, we're spending a lot less time outdoors.

[Michael Knowles]

All right.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

By the way, on the smoking thing, can I mention something? Yeah, yeah, if you want to. Hold on.

[Michael Knowles]

Is it about how good smoking cigars is for you? Never mind, we're moving on. But no, you can tell me.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

It's a helpful thing here. If a male is smoking cigars, the two biggest needle movers at detoxifying the smoke are taking a supplement called sulfur sulforaphane. This is found in cruciferous vegetables.

[Michael Knowles]

Okay.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

And the other one is one called N acetylcysteine, which boosts glutathione. So if you can boost glutathione and you can take these, eat more of these sulfur containing vegetables like the cruciferous vegetables, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, those two things by far more than anything will help detoxify. Now listen, I'm not saying it's totally,

[Michael Knowles]

you know, you're giving me a pass,

[Dr. Josh Axe]

there's no side effects.

[Michael Knowles]

I'm clipping this out, giving it to my wife. That's great.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

But I am saying it is the top thing that'll help offset those side effects.

[Michael Knowles]

Maybe I'll just start.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Is that what you do in the show a long time, you know, I want you.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, no, thank you. I appreciate that. Maybe I'll start putting some of that like spinach or something in my cigars. Cause I know there are a lot of people on the left who put something that looks like spinach in their cigars and it looks like broccoli actually sometimes too. But I don't want that. I don't want the sin spinach. I want the good stuff, the good cruciferous vegetables that will detoxify me. That's a good hack.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah.

[Michael Knowles]

Okay, you're up. No, I'm up. Okay. Now, before we get to this question, there's a video prompt. You do meth?

[Unidentified Guest]

Yeah, I haven't done meth in two weeks, but I. I do meth. Yeah.

[Michael Knowles]

Why do you do meth?

[Unidentified Guest]

Meth is very similar in terms of its makeup to something like Adderall, but it's got a little bit better psychoactive benefits. And the reason I also like it to be longer acting for a looks Mexican context is stimulants cause appetite suppressants.

[Michael Knowles]

But you're a big guy. In other words, don't you need a lot of calories to.

[Unidentified Guest]

Well, no, I'm trying to maintain my leanness. Because the leaner you are, the more angular your face.

[Michael Knowles]

There are downsides to meth.

[Unidentified Guest]

It's not a good idea to do what I'm doing. I just really wanted to ascend hard.

[Michael Knowles]

Why are you doing it?

[Unidentified Guest]

Because I have enough willpower to be able to taper off of meth.

[Michael Knowles]

So the question, wow, if someone wants to ascend quickly, that is to looksmax and to mog are clavicular's enhancement methods including bone smashing, Hitting yourself in the head with a hammer still healthier than using a GLP1 peptide like Ozempic? I gotta guess what you would say is meth. And hitting yourself in the head with a hammer still better for you than Ozempic? That's actually kind of a harder question. I think you're gonna come down hard anti method, even if it makes you slightly prozempic. Okay.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah, you're right. Okay. I mean, now, now listen. I had to think about it for a second, but listen, it just do. I mean. Yeah, so a lot of these meth. And he's right, it's similar to Adderall methamphetamines. They are, you know, they're stimulants that over time actually start to degrade your dopamine and your serotonin. So they're really so long term. Actually, I Think they can be linked to depression and a number of different types of mood disorders. So it's not ideal. I mean, you know, a lot of people are toying with low doses of thing of different types of like mushrooms, for example.

[Michael Knowles]

Right.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Of psilocybin as well.

[Michael Knowles]

Micro dosing.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Microdosing, that's the, that's the term. And listen, of course it's less harmful than doing the full dose, but overall, yes, still not a fan. And I think over time it's going to sort of degrade and cause issues with a number of hormones and neurotransmitters. It's going to have bigger side effects. That being said, I'm not a GLP1 fan in high doses. Now microdosing that at least I like better because microdosing is typically 110 of a dose. It may kind of curb the cravings for people. But you know, the studies on GLP1s of people are losing about 40%. One study, 50% of their muscle mass is what they're losing. And so some people are losing, you know, 20 pounds of muscle. And when you lose that much muscle, I mean, it's aging your body very quickly. I mean your muscle is a longevity organ. It acts as an organ for insulin, for blood sugar. So if you're losing muscle and it's way harder to put muscle back on than fat, I mean, that's common sense for some people.

[Michael Knowles]

I mean, for some of us, you know, it comes on so easily. I've noticed this with the people who take Ozempic. They look old.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yes.

[Michael Knowles]

They get older.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

That's right.

[Michael Knowles]

They do get thin.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

We call it ozempic face and ozempic butt.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

So you have the most muscle mass on your butt and your leg. And so if you start, that's where you'll lose the most. And so people are starting to lose their curves. I mean, part of that, there's an attractiveness to that in men and women and you know, and that's because it's your muscle. And so, so, but yeah, it's, yeah, GLP1. The other thing it's causing is malnutrition. And that's where you'll start to see people, they'll get a little bit of sunken in looking. And that's where you're talking about that aging happening there. And that's, that's malnutrition. The, the, it's, it's causing things to move so slowly through your digestive tract that it's also causing poor absorption and nutrients likely. So, so there are, we don't even know this. I mean, the studies on Ozempic and GLP1s are like a year old. I mean, we don't have any long term studies. They're. It's, it's going to get worse and worse as time goes on. And the thing is people just need to eat protein and fiber. I mean, that'll, that'll fix it.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, but you can't shoot that up, really, you know. Yeah. I've never done a hard drug ever, though. I've been offered hard drugs a bunch. I thought it's kind of crazy. I thought hard drugs were expensive. Why are you trying it? But all these people, like, they offer you coke. I say, I don't want any coke. And then they say, well, here's some Adderall. It's like diet coke. You say, well, that, I don't know, it seems better than the coke or whatever. But yeah, in meth, I'd like to avoid it. I have enough teeth. I have staining on my teeth because of the cigars. I don't need teeth falling out of my head because of the math. Okay. Yeah. You're up.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

I'm up.

[Michael Knowles]

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[Dr. Josh Axe]

knowles video or photo prompt.

[Michael Knowles]

Okay.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

You know, I saw this post recently by somebody who, I want to say, worship science. And he said, you know, it's due to science and that over the past 100 years our lifespan has increased so much. And it was so interesting because when a lot of people don't realize this. I know you do, but probably the biggest thing that's increased lifespan historically is improved sanitation. And the Bible really teaches sanitation better than any other book out there today. And so it's so interesting that people will give science the credit, which is really a methodology. It's not even a. It's this system that's worshipped. But the Bible has been teaching this since the beginning of time.

[Michael Knowles]

Okay, so now what's the.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

So the question is this. Will you, Michael Knowles, admit the Jews were right the whole time?

[Michael Knowles]

Mm. Yes. You know why, though? You know, the crucial word were. It's not that the Jews are right. They say a lot of things. Now, some things they say are, look, the Jews are very successful in lots of fields. Much of their food is delicious, like pastrami and hamentaschen. They're very, very good. They get a few things wrong these days, sort of crucial things, pun intended. But yes, no, absolutely. They were right the whole time because they're the chosen people of God in the Old Testament. So, yeah, like, even I read somewhere, maybe I heard this from a Jewish friend of mine that they do the circumcision on day eight or something like that. And then science comes in later on and says, oh, actually, your blood is most likely to coagulate in an infant right at the time that they start doing the circumcision.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah.

[Michael Knowles]

You say, well, look, Jews are very good scientists, but that might just be aligning natural science with divine revelation.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah, well, what's interesting about circumcision is, you know, the vitamin K shots. I mean, this is a very controversial subject right now, and there are more and more people skipping vitamin K shots because, like, did God design a child's body to just not have enough vitamin K at day eight? I mean, is that a real issue?

[Michael Knowles]

Right. It was weird.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

No, it's not. I mean, there might be a small subset of the population where there's a nutritional deficiency, but for the most part, it's absolutely unnecessary.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, I. You know, when my first kid was born, we're in the hospital and they say, we're going to pump your kid full of vitamin K. I think we might have gone along with that one. The one we didn't go along with. They said, and we're going to give your kid a hepatitis B shot.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Oh, it's crazy.

[Michael Knowles]

I said, well, I don't think my kid is going to any whorehouses or shooting heroin or something. So why? And they didn't have a good answer other than they said, well, maybe your husband cheated on you. Excuse me.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

One way to ensure that the vitamin K happens like it should is once a baby is born, not to immediately cut the cord, wait about 10 to 15 minutes. And they say a lot of certain nutrients and are passed on to where actually you're more likely to not need vitamin K. Interesting.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, that's gotta be a very uncomfortable 10 or 15 minutes for Mama. You know, you're just sort of waiting there.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

But, you know, I think they. They probably don't notice that much. I don't know. I'll let my wife speak to that one or yours. We'll just stay out of that.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, I kind of want to go back to the real old days when the guys didn't go into the delivery room and we'd be sort of pacing in a blazer kind of nervously, often smoking. Actually, in the hospital, those days are gone. So we did.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

So did you do a home birth or did you do both in the hospital?

[Michael Knowles]

We did. They've been all in the hospital, though, not to be tmi, but the first one was an emergency C section. Second one, we tried for a natural one again, but that didn't work. Same issue, same time. So now we're kind of like totally hospital pilled. But I have friends who've done the home birth and some of them, they say it's like they walk down, sit in the little kiddie pool, and five seconds later their kid's out.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah, I mean, that's what my wife Chelsea did. I want to say our last was maybe like 37 minutes just in a, you know, hot, hot, hot pool in our. In our bathroom and comfort of our own bed. It was great.

[Michael Knowles]

That's pretty nice.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah.

[Michael Knowles]

Because the hospitals are not very comfortable at all. And then they come in and try to shoot your kid up with like, heroin addict drugs.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

That's right. Yeah, exactly. And not everybody can do it, but if you can, it's. It's a great way to go.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah. I'm up. Yes. Is it easier to remove microplastics from your body naturally than it is to convince women to stop wearing yoga pants? What would you say?

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Definitely the hardest question.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah. Is it. I find it very easy. Ask it. Is it easier to remove microplastics from your body naturally without a medical intervention than it is to convince women to stop wearing yoga pants? I think this one's pretty obvious. Yeah, obviously, for sure.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

I mean, I'll just give you an example. So My wife and I were on vacation in 30A this last week.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

And I had brought something up because I've switched almost 90 plus percent of my clothes over to wool and organic cotton. And I brought up something about trying to find her wool yoga pants because we were walking by the store, Aloe, like it's like a, like a Lululemon competitor or whatever. And I think she looked at me like I had a, like I had a third eye. So, so all that. But I know, well, since my wife is incredibly natural and she, she does, she's. He's made a switch to a lot of these things as well. I mean, listen, there's a number of, a number of places we're getting all of the microplastics from. I mean, microplastics, as I talked about a credit card a week, is how much people are eating.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, yeah. And that's, that's not even counting the ones that we just voluntarily eat because they're so delicious.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

That's right.

[Michael Knowles]

You know, so in addition to that, you're getting a whole unintentional credit card.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

That's right. Yeah, that's right. So. But you know, they are absolutely destroying testosterone levels in men and really harming estrogen in women. So it's. So I think, I think. But they're in our clothes. Like there are companies, if you look at again, Lululemon and a lot of these other companies, there are a lot of microplastics and all these polyesters that, you know, let's say you're not a woman doing hot yoga.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

You know, the amount of perspiration and the amount of heat, what's going on with those plastics rubbing against your body is, it's pretty high.

[Michael Knowles]

Now I found a flaw in your argument though, because you said the polyester yoga pants are causing a decrease in testosterone in men. However, I remember the first time I considered this question. This is telling tales at a school. Literally, I was about 12 years old and I remember 12 year old boy suddenly becoming aware of a lot of things. I remember I was taking a standardized test in seventh grade and I remember thinking these girls who were at that time beginning to wear these yoga pants, I said, this is a completely unfair advantage for the girls. They're gonna do better on the test, maybe on the SAT than I am because I am going to be distracted by the yoga pants. It was, however, shooting my testosterone through the roof. There was no question about that. So it's obviously a little give and attend here. That's true. But you cannot convince the women. I go. I fly around on a lot of airplanes. You know, I'm in the airport a lot. Women dress for the airport like they're going to bed with their beloved and they're wearing. And I think, I've got to avert my eyes. I need custody of my eyes. I'll miss the G gate for my flight.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

It's crazy. It's crazy. Yeah. I mean, especially, you know, if you get millennials and Gen X and it's. It's. It's 100% yoga pants all the time. Yoga pants to, you know, date night, yoga pants to travel.

[Michael Knowles]

Oh, I say only yoga pants for the private date night. The date night at home. But not at the restaurant, not at the public restaurant. That's too much.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Right?

[Michael Knowles]

And. And I love the idea of, like, Super 120s, like, really nice quality wool for the. That's like now. Now we're getting both.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

That's what I'm talking about. You know, I had Ali Best Stuckey on my. On my show once, and. And she was talking about how, I mean, you know, I work at A Lifetime Fitness sometimes here in Nashville, and people are wearing, you know, you know, bathing suits and bras to the, to the gym.

[Michael Knowles]

I got crazy. I'm telling so many bawdy tales out of school, but, like, one time my wife was going to one of these workout classes for girls. But now, because we have to pretend men and women are the same, some guy shows up, a guy who's probably a little light in the loafers, you know, a guy who kind of fell as a long handshake, you know what I'm talking about? And like, a little bit like Paul Lynde on Hollywood Square. So anyway, this guy shows up to the girls dance workout class, whatever, wearing, like, yoga pants, effectively wearing tights, which look a lot worse on a guy than they do on a. And it was very. But you're not allowed to say anything. So this is obviously wrong and abusive and just disordered. His testosterone must be in the gutter, in the tank. Yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Oh, yeah, I think that's a problem. I mean, I think. I mean, you've seen some of these studies around. Men who have low testosterone have more feminine characteristics. They tend to be more liberal.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, right.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

I mean, those are facts, right?

[Michael Knowles]

I know I initially was very skeptical of political psychology, this field. I had friends who were studying this in school, and political psychology I disagreed with, because I said, no, politics is a matter of reason. So we come to our ideas and we think through them. We're rational creatures. So you shouldn't just blame it on your biology. You know, you're a human being capable of reason. So I should be able to persuade you of my political views. But I've come around on this, which is that guys with the low T who are wearing the yoga pants who are like, there are environmental factors here that obviously incline people in different ways. The relationship between biology and your intellect, it's probably a little bit closer than I previously thought.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah, well, you know what else is crazy is, you know, you look at some of this birth control pills as an example and this one can be, you know, pretty controversial. But birth control pills, you know, that's causing estrogen to go up to where women think that they're pregnant. And what that's doing is, I mean, I've had so many women who come in after getting off birth control and their gut is a mess. Major candida issues, all kinds of health problems. But there are also studies showing if when women are on birth control that can negatively affect the man and their hormones infecting their testosterone, like from kissing or something.

[Michael Knowles]

How does the.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

I don't know, I don't know. Look it up.

[Michael Knowles]

That's scary. I'm a mackerel snapping papist, you know. And so we're totally opposed to artificial birth control of all kinds.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Right.

[Michael Knowles]

All right, that's good. Another argument in favor of nix the contraception, be fruitful and multiply.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Amen.

[Michael Knowles]

All right, war up.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Does pursuing a strict longevity lifestyle to live past 120 years have roughly the same odds of success as going to Yankee Stadium and betting a 43 leg parlay just without all the delicious foods and drinks?

[Michael Knowles]

Wow. Very complex question. How would I answer this? Yes, obviously, obviously. But people, I've noticed this especially increasingly, all these guys, they really want to optimize, you know, which, look, it's good to live healthier. Even I, and I'm not that into it, even I, I'd like to stick around a while. I like my kids, I like my job, I like what I do. So I'd like to do that. I remember, I think it was 20 years ago or something, I saw a special on people who were on a low calorie diet. These guys who were cultish about it, they said we've restricted our calories to 800 calories a day because that minimizes cellular damage. And in theory this should allow them to add 10 years or something to their life. And I thought, I kind of doubt that that's actually how it Works. But let's say that is how it works. What's the point of living? I mean, at a certain point, what are you living for?

[Dr. Josh Axe]

You know, I mean, something I found in taking care of, I mean, thousands and thousands of patients is. There is a. You definitely had a level of decline when you obsess about your health.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

You know, it's like, Chelsea and I, we'll take vacations. As I mentioned, we went to Europe last year, and you know what? I had some gelato, I had bread, I had pasta. We enjoyed it. And we still do that. We still do that back here some. So there's no doubt that, you know, following the 80, 20 rule or the 9010, where it's like, hey, you know, you do want to eat healthy. And. And, you know, this is a good Catholic and Christian. It's like, hey, our body's a temple of the Holy Spirit. There's this level of we're going to care for it at the same time, that's. You don't want to be obsessive about it because it's only going to harm your health.

[Michael Knowles]

It does seem to make an idol out of things.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah.

[Michael Knowles]

And this idea, you see this with the tech people now, too. They say, we're going to live forever. We're going to upload our brains to the cloud, and we're going to get all these weird robots on us. And we're just think like, hey, buddy, first of all, it's not gonna happen. Like, ancient pharaohs were talking about that, and it didn't work out well for them either, but let's say it did. Like, buddy, I have a way for you to live forever. I actually know a great way. Like, we were actually promised eternal life, and you don't need to eat some dumb diet and fill your head with robots in order to do it.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

That's right. You know, there's a couple people in particular. Brian Johnson's one.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Dave Asprey's another. I think those guys. And I don't believe any of. I'm pretty certain neither of them are Christians. I don't want to speak to that. But I just. I think that there's. But. But those are the two I hear saying the most. We're going to live to be 150 or 180 years old. And. And. But also, there's this level of obsessiveness, at least in Brian Johnson, of I'm going to do everything perfectly and everything. Right. There's this great meme on. On social media where they're saying here's Brian Johnson and here's the, you know, 90 year old Sicilian, you know, man on the beach who's going to live to actually be 120 in this, you

[Michael Knowles]

know, so no joke, you can look at the blue zones of like where

[Dr. Josh Axe]

people live to be.

[Michael Knowles]

That's right. And one of the key blue zones is Sardinia.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Sardinia.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, Sardinia. Where these people are basically living in the fields. You know, they don't have a particularly lavish or abundant diet. They have very hard work and these little, these little old Italians live to be like 300 years old.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

That's amazing. Yeah, part of that too. When they did that blue zone study, one of the biggest reasons I believe it was is a little bit hilly, the terrain and they bike and walk everywhere.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

And just that activity level and then eating the kind of the same local foods every day. Lots of sunshine, stress free living.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, I saw the Brian Johnson thing. I don't even totally know who that guy is, but he keeps showing up on my social media as this guy who says he's gonna live a thousand years. And he said, look at how good he looks compared to how he used to look. See how well. And the only difference I can really tell is I think he dyed his hair. But actually he doesn't look all that much better than he did five or seven years ago.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't think so. The thing that bothered me is he, for a while he took his son's blood and infused it into himself. So this is a process you can do. You can take the blood of someone else. Typically you don't take the blood of someone else. You take your own blood and you concentrate what's called prp, Platelet rich plasma. Inject it in yourself and there are healing factors in the blood. You can concentrate the most healing factors in your blood and put it back in your blood. But he was doing it with his son. In fact, there's a Bible verse and it says healing is in the blood. And so I do believe that, you know, having good healthy blood is very important for overall health. But I thought, well, if you're taking the healing factors from your son and putting it into your own body, what is that doing to your son?

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah. Cause I remember again, I'm not as scientifically educated, but I remember there was a case of an elderly person sucking up the blood of the young in order to extend his life. And I believe that person's name was Dracula.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

I was gonna say vampires. Yeah, there you go.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah. Do not like a rule of thumb for me. Don't model your life after vampires.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Agreed.

[Michael Knowles]

I think it'll work out better. Okay, before we get to this next very important question, I have a great offer for our audience which is that you can bring home the official yes or no party game only [e-mail] shop. We have over 200 cards, up to nine players. You too can stress test your closest relationships and see who knows whom best. Guys, we now have the all New America 250 expansion pack for the best selling game. It's now available for pre order. We've sold a billion of these already and it's obviously very limited edition. Special release. Beautiful box for America's 250th. A beautiful commemorative patriotic game. 120 brand new cards covering the great American debate. Was Truman right to drop the bomb? Is Canada America's evil top hat? That's an easy one. Secure yours [e-mail] shop. They will not last. Go to dailywire.com shop to get the yes or no game and the all new America 250 expansion pack today. Josh, it is now time for the rapid fire round. We changed the lights for it. That's how you know we're in the rapid fire round. All right, three questions, 30 seconds. No time to outthink each other, right? Wow. The score is tied 3 to 3. This could change everything. Okay, are you ready?

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Let's do it.

[Michael Knowles]

Okay. Rapid fire. Are seed oils actually fine for you and simply the government's favorite cooking lubricant?

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Here's what I think it's important to define seed oils. Cold pressed flaxseed oil. Absolutely fine. If you're doing highly processed seed oils, they're not the best, but in some cases they might be better than saturated fats for some people. So all that being said, do extra virgin olive oil as your go to oil. The Italians did it. It's working for them.

[Michael Knowles]

Yes. Okay, now hold on now you need to put your answer down on this. So I would say your answer. Our seed oil is actually fine for you based on.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Oh, no, actually, hold on, wait, hold on.

[Michael Knowles]

Wait, hold on. I was.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Okay, so here.

[Michael Knowles]

Wait. Okay, so hold on. Now you're. So I think you're now going to say because of that. Hold on. I think you're going to say no.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

No.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Okay.

[Michael Knowles]

Wow. That was a journey that we just. They're not fine for you.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

But here's the thing. So I know I just had 30 seconds, so give me 30 more. Yes. Seed oils are not healthy for people. When they are highly processed, hydrogenated seed oils. However, there's this big debate going on. By the way, this is a massive health debate between the Maha people. Yeah. And the people that are generally, you know, more of the conventional medicine science. Like, give an example. There's a guy named Lane Norton, and then there's a whole group of Mahars, and they're always arguing about this there. Lane is somewhat right in that when you look at the research, doing a lot of saturated animal fat, which is what a lot of the carnivore people, like Paul Saladino, they love it and they're talking about it all the time.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Generally speaking, sometimes the animal fats are going to be worse for you than the seed oils are. And that really bothers the carnivore people

[Michael Knowles]

because I hear from RFK Jr. RFK Jr goes around, he says, like, saturated fat is awesome. You should drink it in your morning coffee. I don't think he quite said that, but that's a version of that.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah. Again, I think it depends on the person. I think if somebody's following a lower calorie diet, more fruits and vegetables, mostly me, they can get away with more saturated fats, and then in that case, it's probably healthier for them. But I think there's a whole group of people that if they're doing a lot of saturated fats and just staying away from seed oil, like, different organs have to deal with different macronutrients. So if somebody has liver issues, for instance, your liver has to deal with all that saturated fat, and it's even harder on it, probably, than seed oils.

[Michael Knowles]

All right, well, we're going back to the palm seed oil, I think.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Exactly. So here's my ranking order. Number one, extra virgin olive oil. Number two, avocado oil. Number three, coconut oil, and then palm oil after that. But those are the oils people should probably be focusing on.

[Michael Knowles]

That's my wife, my sweet little Elisa. She's all about it. The virgin olive, she does some butter now. She's added more.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

A little bit here and there is

[Michael Knowles]

fine, but olive oil, the avocado oil, coconut oil, it kind of tastes a little weird, but okay. All right. All right, that's good. All right, next question. Very crucial one. Are Zyn pouches clean nicotine and not fancier cancer mints? Well, hold on. Okay, hold on. There's two parts to that question. Are Zyn pouches clean nicotine and not fancy cancer mints?

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Well, ask it one more time.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, I know how you want to answer, but that second part is Important.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah, yeah.

[Michael Knowles]

Are Zyn pouches clean, Nicotine, quote unquote, and not fancy cancer mints? You have to say yes. I said no. What are you talking about? The nicotine's not carcinogenic.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Here's my opinion on this, okay? So I'm an expert in functional medicine. That's my biggest focus. But I also have a background in Chinese medicine, okay? So here's what they say about nicotine in Chinese medicine. It's very hot, it's very drying. And over time, if you do it. Here's the thing. If you're doing it once a month, if you're doing it every other week, it's not a problem. But if people are doing the nicotine every single day like that. And the same goes for, by the way, you know, with some of the legalization of cannabis. I just have to clear some really quickly.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, sorry, what were you saying?

[Dr. Josh Axe]

And THC affects the body in the same way. So there's some of these doctors or some of these people in the natural health movement that would say, do as much. You know, THC is great. It's fine in cbd. And then the same with natural nicotine. They're probably fine in micro doses on occasion here or there, and your body can tolerate it. But if you're doing it every day, as some people have started doing. Cause they just hear, oh, it's okay now. It's fine. It's very drying, it's very heating. It's gonna cause some health problems.

[Michael Knowles]

But is it gonna cause cancer? I want my points back.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

You know what?

[Michael Knowles]

Let's go.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yes.

[Michael Knowles]

Oh, look, I agree.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

It's probably gonna cause more inflammation. Not to say they couldn't cause cancer. I'd be much more concerned with it causing a heart issue.

[Michael Knowles]

That's why I say to my friends, look, I prefer cigars. And cigars are. I sound like an addict. Cigars are actually not addictive. I've gone long stretches without cigars. It's really more for the taste and all that. You get a little touch of nicotine, but not that much. I had smoked cigars for 15 years before someone ever got me hooked on those terrible pouches. And. And I put one of those pouches in and I said, watch out. I said, oh, give me a break. I've smoked cigars for 20 years. I'll be fine. I was green in the face instantly. The amount of nicotine you get from a single little pouch is orders of magnitude more than you're getting from a cigar. And so I have friends. Look, I Dabble in them a little bit here and there. Maybe a little more than here and there. But I have friends who are doing. This is not an exaggeration. Hundreds of milligrams of nicotine per day. And I say, guys, that's like the equivalent of a carton of cigarettes sometimes. And they'll say, no, no, no, don't worry because it doesn't cause cancer. And I say, well, the risks from cigarettes, it's not just cancer, you know, it's not just emphysema. It does make your heart explode at a certain point. Like, I don't know, it seems not great.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah, again, in Chinese medicine and they've got a really. I think Chinese medicine is the most accurate form of an ancient type of medicine that's done. In fact, if you look at Japan today, who has the longest lifespan, their form of medicine is really kind of a combination today of functional medicine and this ancient Chinese medicine. But what it does in Chinese medicine is they'd say it dries up your fluids. So it's causing a cellular level of dehydration that over time probably is going to increase your. It's going to cause inflammation, increase your risk of heart disease. Now again, I don't know. I don't. I haven't seen a lot of study on nicotine pouches and nicotine.

[Michael Knowles]

Well, because they're like five minutes old. That's the other thing you say it's all healthy. Is it? There are studies on it.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah. I think we're going to see in the future, long term use, high dose use. There are side effects.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah. Okay. All right. As long as I get my points, that's all I really care about. You're up. Wait, no, hold on. I know I have one more. That's not true. Okay, crucial question. Is Arby's okay for you? Now the word is okay. It's not. Is Arby's really good for you? Is Arby's okay for you? You're going to say, unfortunately for me, you're gonna say no.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Growing up, my favorite thing in the world was Arby's. Five for five.

[Michael Knowles]

Really?

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Oh, yeah. So I'd get done with the soccer game or basket, you know, and it's like we would go and eat. I look back, I'm like, how did I do that? Yeah, I would actually eat five.

[Michael Knowles]

Awesome.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Crazy.

[Michael Knowles]

Awesome.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Crazy.

[Michael Knowles]

I just do the D, B and C. Cause when I was a kid, they didn't even have the double beef and cheddar. They only had you get a medium cheddar but there's not enough of that plastic cheese sauce on top of the ratios were off. So now they do double the plastic cheese sauce with double the plastic beef on that bun, which is probably made of polyester.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

And I used to love the horsey sauce that went with it. You also had the Arby's sauce that

[Michael Knowles]

sets your brain on fire.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Sea sauce.

[Michael Knowles]

That's a neurotropic, I think.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Oh, yeah. But if you think about what's in the sand. So let me break down mostly what's in there. So you've got the bun, which is a pure white, refined flour and gluten. So, I mean, that's just like a bomb going off in your body for your immune system. And. And then you've got the meat, which is probably the most processed meat on the planet with, you know, antibiotic residue and hormones and everything else. And then you've got the cheese, which I guarantee isn't real cheese. It's not. So.

[Michael Knowles]

It's not. You know what I do to mine? You know I do to mine? I get that bun with that nice plastic beef and the cheese in it, and then you know what I do? I put a credit card on top of it, and I just eat it up.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

It's so delicious. Exactly.

[Michael Knowles]

I can't.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

And that's why your testosterone levels.

[Michael Knowles]

It's through the roof.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

It's through the roof.

[Michael Knowles]

Okay.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

All right.

[Michael Knowles]

All right. Now one more. There's an extra one here. From a health standpoint, would I be better off pulling a tooth than getting a root canal? Oh, I'm actually. Because I've heard the stuff about this, and you're hip to the jive and this avant garde kind of health stuff. I would probably. Not that I want a root canal. I guess I would be inclined to get the root canal. But you're gonna say yes, it's better to pull the tooth?

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yes.

[Michael Knowles]

Why? What's wrong with root canals?

[Dr. Josh Axe]

So root canals are very prone to infection.

[Michael Knowles]

Okay.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

I mean, I can't tell you how many people I know. I literally just had a friend last week who had a root canal, found out it was infected, and went and had it removed. And now he feels amazing. He was having symptoms of brain fog, major fatigue, just felt terrible for a couple years and got the root canal fixed. They put an implant, and now he feels. Feels fine. I mean, this is a little bit less. You know, this is not a human case study. This is a animal case study. We had a dog who. I guess he didn't have a root canal, but you Know, dental issues.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

I mean, you get low grade infections in there. And when you look at the medical literature, your dental health is so closely tied to your heart health. I mean, the studies around dental, any sort of oral inflammation and heart disease is radically high. So the problem with root canals is you just have a really, really high degree of these micro infections. And typically they're not, they're not the type of infections that are going to kill you immediately, but it's a low grade infection causing this constant inflammation that just causes systemic inflammation of your, you know, your, your cardiovascular system, increasing your risk of heart disease. So. So I would rather have somebody pull a tooth.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Than typically get a root canal in most cases. Not to say some people get a root canal and they're just fine with it. But, but there are, there are a number of people. There's no doubt that increases the risk of infection.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, I know, I've heard this. And I also, I didn't go to the dentist for like 10 years or something. And then I. And we have heart disease in the family.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah.

[Michael Knowles]

I thought like, this is not. And I smoke cigars and I. It's not. And I don't sleep that much and I. It's. Anyway, it's not good. I need to like go to the dentist more. But the brain fog thing got me thinking. I remember this a few years ago, I just, I was feeling tired all the time, you know, occasionally some brain fog, whatever. And I thought, is this because of some. I took an antibiotic. Is this because of this? Is it because Covid, whatever. Everyone's blaming everything on Covid. Do I have the longest Covid? But then I think, well, hold on. Also around that same time, I had my first and then subsequently second kid. And I work all the time and I'm always on airplanes. So I said, can I, am I. Should I blame it on. Is it something I'm doing? Like I just need to go brush my teeth more or something? Or is it, or should I not be blaming my tiredness on that?

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Well, I mean, I think the reality is this is that. And by the way, this is something that people in the natural health space are absolutely guilty of constantly. It's like, okay, well, I'm going to skip the sleep and not fix the stress, which are like the most foundation. I mean, honestly, I, I think that stress and emotional and spiritual health are a greater foundation to our health. And diet. Yeah, I think diet sits on top of it. But I do think that stress piece sleep, that's even more Essential diet sits on top. But with that, it's like, okay, well, I'm going to go and try biohacking and I'm gonna put a castor oil pack here and I'm gonna, you know, do an IV and I'm gonna be in a hyperbaric chamber. Those things are all great and beneficial. You know, it's way more beneficial than all these biohacks. Just getting outside in the sun, going on a nice walk and de stressing and doing those things. That's one of the reasons why. Listen, I think you're gonna live a long time. When I seen you, you have got a really great disposition. And I think that's gonna keep stress low. And I think. I mean, that's. That's a huge. It's huge.

[Michael Knowles]

I appreciate that. Cause no joke. One of my arguments for the, you know, occasional cigar is I'm not denying that there are risks associated with tobacco. One of my arguments for it is it is kind of a de stressor. And you read your book or whatever and even forget about the cigars for a second. The other day, I was feeling stressed. Professional stress, political stress, all that. I could feel it in my body with all the family stuff. And I took an hour or so and I pulled out my ukulele, one of my greatest medical devices. I just played my ukulele for a little bit. Back to calm, back to Zen. I felt it was very beneficial.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

I mean, one of the greatest things that gets. Most people live in this, what we call this parasympathetic state fight or flight work. Cortisol and stress hormones are high. One of the greatest things that come out of that is music, deep breathing, humming. I mean, you know, a lot of monks, they actually do this chanting, both in the, you know, you know, the Catholic faith, also Orthodox, and even in Buddhist Eastern and. Yeah, that's right. And so. But I mean, there are studies showing that's maybe the single greatest thing you can do to lower your cortisol.

[Michael Knowles]

Can I tell you something that people might make fun of me for right here? I walk around the office, even when we're doing tough business stuff. I hum and sing around the office. I do. People, they'll joke about it, but it's kind of. Sometimes you got it in your head, you know? Good. All right. That's great. You're making me feel better about that.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah. You're doing a lot. Right.

[Michael Knowles]

Okay, you're up.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Okay. Do you think cold plunging is better than acupuncture?

[Michael Knowles]

What do I think? No, I say no. I'M I'm open minded. I'm, I think it's the, the cold plunging I think could be bad for me.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

It is bad for you.

[Michael Knowles]

It is.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Okay, now let me see this. It's not across the board. Here's the thing. Let's say you got a male and he just finished a CrossFit competition.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

And he's got major in Chinese medicine. They'll call this Yang injury, this Yang energy or inflammation or heat. The body's generating lots of heat.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

It will recover faster if you bring the heat down, if you cool it off. So this is why Lance Armstrong and a lot of these, you know, professional cyclists, they do ice baths on the Tour de France, you know, daily. But for somebody. So here's the thing. A lot of men in their 20s and 30s that are generating a lot of body heat and they're lifting weights, cold plunging can be good for them. There's no doubt. I've seen a lot of anecdotal evidence where it's good for testosterone, actually. For some men, however, let's say you got a woman with hypothyroidism or chronic fatigue syndrome, or people where they've got cold extremities. Cold plunging is one of the worst things they could do. It actually can be really hard on the immune system. And some of it is like there's this old saying that the dose determines the medicine or the poison. For some people, if you want to, like, if you want to build muscle, trying to go in and trying to bicep curl 50 pounds, you know, like 50 pound dumbbells, it's just too much for some people. Start with 5, then 10, then work your way up and then just do what your body can handle. So if there is somebody and they have a little bit of inflammation, they're probably better off doing a 60 second cold shower.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, that's more my speed. Yeah, I can do that. There was one time during Lent I said, I'll try that. I'll do, I won't do hot showers. And for me that was, I mean, I was like, I climbed Everest. I'm not the most physically adventurous, but I thought like, okay, that's fine. And then when the cold plunges started happening and all these lunatics like my producer, Mr. Davies start doing this every morning, I thought like, I don't know, maybe if I just take the temp of the shower down to like 71. I don't know, like, we're not even talking, like, maybe that's the way to do it, you know?

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah. And again, I'm not against cold plunging. I think for some people it can be really beneficial, but I think for the majority of the population it's probably not. But again, the people that tend to do the best with it are athletes in their 20s, 30s, 40s, that are men that are like, for instance, when they're sleeping at night, they tend to get hot.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

You know, or they're. Or they're weightlifting a lot or exercising a lot. They tend to do well with cold plunging.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah. Okay. All right. I'm not doing that. All right, Clear.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Is getting kids off red dye in screen time better for treating ADHD than medications?

[Michael Knowles]

What would I say? Yeah, yeah, certainly with that. No doubt. The. And is the key. I don't know about the red dot. You can fill me in on that. The screen time thing, that is the big. I see this with my own kids. We limit it other than baseball season. They watch a little baseball, but otherwise we really severely restrict the screens. Flights. They get screens on flights and you know, maybe once a week, a little something. And when we're traveling or visiting, you know, family or whatever, friends, whatever. And they do more screen time, their behavior totally shifts.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I totally agree. Now, let me, let me hit on the red dye thing. Red dye is. It's a minor. I think there's majors and minors. It's a minor for adhd. I've seen it cause issues with kids, but it's not a major. It was funny when RFK Jr. One of the first things he did was come out and say food dyes are bad.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

And ban some of them. Or. Or recommended banning some of them on his way to being banned. I totally agreed with him. I stood with him with a lot of people, and I think he's totally right. Some people started coming and criticizing him, saying it's not a big deal. Why are you doing that? It's like, well, it was just low hanging fruit. I mean, sugar is a way bigger issue than food diets.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

I mean, there's no doubt about it. So, I mean, there's no doubt that that should be changed to a lot of the processed sugars, but it is a problem. But screen time is a bigger problem. I mean, screen time, to your point, all the devices.

[Michael Knowles]

You know what's crazy on the sugar thing, When I was a kid, I did not drink water really almost ever. Maybe eventually when bottled water was really popular, I started drinking plastic water. But when I was a kid, I really didn't drink a lot of water. I drank soda, diet soda especially. And Diet Snapple was basically my blood type from my whole childhood. I watched six hours of television a day. I watched Nick at night, all night long. It's probably why I. In a way, it's kind of like I grew up in the 50s. Cause I watched all these old shows, and I did all these things that they say you're not supposed to do. And then I look at my kids who don't watch much TV ever. My kids have never had a soda. They've never had one sip of soda. I give them a little, like, fruity Seltzer, and they think that's, like, the big, special treat. They think they're having a root beer float.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Oh, yeah.

[Michael Knowles]

It's a huge shift. But then I think to my own childhood, I say, well, I drank when I wasn't drinking sugar. I was drinking aspartame and getting visual migraines all the time. I was ODing on TV and I turned out fine. Fine. Maybe.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

I don't know. I think, excellent. You know, I was the kid growing up who had ADHD really bad. Had trouble studying in school. I had a doctor who prescribed it. I ended up taking it for three days. I got prescribed it once.

[Michael Knowles]

Ritalin, like, Ritalinity school.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Then Adderall. In college, I took it for, like, three days. And I thought I could actually tell it's changing my personality. And I was like, something does not feel right. So I just got off of it. But similar to. We talked about the meth earlier. I mean, over time, it's very addictive. Yeah, it's actually one of the more addictive drugs that they don't talk about, but it's not. And there are things today that people can do. There's so many herbals. There's rodeo and ashwagandha with MCT oil, with a number of other things that people can do. Like these. We call these nootropics. Yeah. They're just way better options today than the medications.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah. I remember in college, I never did this, too. I felt like it was cheating, kind of, because these guys who didn't have ADHD would just be popping Adderalls. And they called them smart pills. You're gonna pop a smart pill. But then one thing I heard about him is a friend of mine decided to take Adderall before some exam or something, or before a paper maybe. And he was supposed to take the Adderall and write his paper. But the problem was, he said, the thing with Adderall is you take it and then you Just get really fascinated by whatever you're doing at the moment it kicks in. So at that moment, he was watching YouTube videos, and he just watched, like, every video on YouTube for the next 36 hours and didn't write his paper, which seems like a very ineffective drug.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Wow. This next one's the hardest one. Hardest one we've come across for me. All right. Can alcohol be good for. For you?

[Michael Knowles]

Oh, for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

So here's what's interesting. So there were all these studies in the past that said that, hey, a glass of red wine a night can be good for you. And I mean, I'm talking about for years and years and years. And then all of a sudden, the past three years, everyone's like all these doctors, everybody jumps on this bandwagon. They jump on the bandwagon together, and they're like, no alcohol. Even looking at it. Putting a dip on your tongue is bad for you. My belief is this. It's like, how does it impact your body? You know, I was thinking about this as we were talking about the nicotine thing. You know, Jesus turned water into wine.

[Michael Knowles]

His first public miracle.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Would he have. Yeah, exactly. Would he have turned grass into, you know, tobacco?

[Michael Knowles]

Yes.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

I don't. I think that a little bit of red wine on occasion. I'm talking about one glass or less, but I think doing a glass of red wine on occasion for some people, if they are really stressed and bound up and it's able to help calm them down. Yeah, yeah, that's fine. Now the problem is it's so easy to abuse.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, right.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

So easy.

[Michael Knowles]

Right.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

But I don't. Yeah. What do you.

[Michael Knowles]

No, I. Yes. And actually, you've gone even further than I would go. I would say. I don't know if it's good for your body. It might not be good for your body, but maybe in a way, you know, a glass of red wine helps you de. Stress or something. But the reason I would say it's good for you or can be good for you. You is that it's a social lubricant. You know, the point that it's our Lord's first public miracle tells you something. You know, he turned water into a lot of wine, very good wine for people who had been drinking for, like, five days at this wedding. And so it can be good as a social thing. It's very easy to abuse, you know. You know, I think it's a sin to be drunk, but not that, you know, maybe more than one occasion. I've had a little bit too much. But really, now that I'm an old man and I have to like, wake up the next day and do work, now, I really try to avoid that, but it is social and we're social creatures. So if you're, you know, like the kind of central human action is breaking bread together, and when you have a little wine with that, it's very, very important, I think.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah. You know, one of the things when I answer a lot of these questions, I'm always thinking about what are the trade offs and the nuances. By the way, this is one of the things I really love about you and what a lot of the way that a lot of people think, I think that are more on the conservative level is you gotta think about what the trade offs are. There's wisdom. Yeah. Like if somebody were to ask me, is a Snickers bar bad for you? Of course I'm gonna say, yes, it's bad for you. But if you're stranded on a desert island and have no other food and it's the only way to survive, is a Snickers bar better for you than starving to death? Yeah, it actually is. Right.

[Michael Knowles]

Right. Is there. And even, like, if there's this thing called Halloween that once a year we all kind of encounter, engage in as a festival. And it's a festival that is at worst about, like, demons and ghosts and devils and stuff. And at best, it's about, like, we all just have a little candy together. Probably having a little bit of candy one day a year. It's for a festival. It's like, it's probably fine.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah. And this is where again, it's like when it comes to health, I mean, the majors are so important. It's like, eat healthier, but not perfect. Yeah. You know, sleep good, keep stress low, spend time with your family. The. The biggest longevity study today at Harvard, it's almost 100 years old. Now, they found the number one factor for longevity is community. You have close family, close friends, support. I mean, so it's, you know, you gotta focus on the majors. Yeah.

[Michael Knowles]

And of course, like, my wife reminds me of this a fair bit. Like, married men live longer because their wives force them to, like, you know, like, I wouldn't go to the doctor, I wouldn't eat. I wouldn't eat 1000th as well as I do eat. I wouldn't. Like, the women are a very civilizing force. And that's true generally in community, but that's true when we get monkish. Well, even the monks have community Actually, when we get ascetic and like, sort of desert fathers, I don't know. They don't always live that long.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

By the way, men having daughters, if you have a daughter, you live longer, too.

[Michael Knowles]

Let's go. Let's go. Because I thought I was cursed that I could never have a daughter because I just kept producing men because of my virility. I just kept.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Well, and your high testosterone and my high tea, which has nothing to do with it, but it's still.

[Michael Knowles]

But then, now we have a daughter, you know, on the way. And I thought, this is great, because I don't know why the study said the men with daughters live longer, but I thought it's because my three boys would let me live out my final years on the curve on the street, they'd forget Dada. Who. But my daughter, my beautiful daughter, you know, she's going to take care of me.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

You know, it's funny. I had a. After I had a couple daughters, you know, Michael Hyatt.

[Michael Knowles]

I know the name.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

So he's a leadership expert here in Nashville, and he has got five daughters. I got another buddy, Isaac, he owns a. It's called Five Daughters Bakery. They make those health.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, I love five daughters.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Amazing. So I was hanging out with him this morning.

[Michael Knowles]

Very healthy food.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah. And I asked those guys, donut shop. And I was like, hey, what's it like having all daughters? And basically, both of them told me the same thing. They said, here's the thing we've noticed with our friends that have boys. The boys, once they get married, they just run off. You hardly see them. I mean, you see them some, but they said the girls, they stick around. They're always thinking about their dad taking care of you. So the fact that if you got one daughter that's gonna go along.

[Michael Knowles]

I'm good. Yeah, I know. I'm good now. Okay. All right,

[Dr. Josh Axe]

all right, next question here. Michael Knowles, do you think essential oils are essentially voodoo placebos?

[Michael Knowles]

Hmm.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

I mean, think about your wife on this one. She's gonna watch this episode.

[Michael Knowles]

Yes, she is. I'm gonna say no. I'm gonna say no, they're not voodoo placebos. Cause I don't think they're actively evil. But I do wonder if they're kind of placebos. You know, I think they're maybe morally neutral placebos.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Here's the thing. I think there's a large group of people that think they do more than they do. However, I mean, there's good studies. For instance, there's a study done at Vanderbilt and This wasn't like a double blind study. So it wasn't like the highest level of study. But people coming out of surgery, and I think the nurses included, had lower levels of stress when you were diffusing things like orange oil and some of the floral oils coming out of there. You know, I think our sense of smell is greatly tied to memories. It's actually really tied to stress levels. So I do think there's an element of, especially when it comes to stress and sleep, probably the strongest studies around essential oils.

[Michael Knowles]

But then I thought all the healthy people say all fragrances are bad. Like fragrance, just in general. I've heard this from some of my crunchy friends. That fragrance is always bad. This is one where my wife, who's a kind of a crunchy trad. She. She's very anti fragrance. I have a candle company, I sell candles and my own candles. We pay our mortgage on candles. She doesn't want the candles in the house. I think they're beautiful candles.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah. I think some essential oils here and there. Listen, if you walk into a kitchen, you're gonna smell such oils. Like if you're smelling herbs, those are the volatile compounds from oils you're smelling. So I mean, they're not. Again, I think in small doses, they're probably pretty good.

[Michael Knowles]

I saw it. This gets back to the nicotine thing. There's a product of nicotine mints that are supposed to be better than the other nicotine things. And, and the flavoring is not from some artificial thing, it's from essential oils. But then I thought, wait a second, are we supposed to have essential oils like in our mouths? Are we supposed to eat them or is that fine or.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah, I mean, I think so. So the dosages typically, I want to say, are around one drop, which is, I think around 60 milligrams. Like lavender oil, for example. There's a sleep study on it, improving sleep and insomnia. And I think it was around a 60 milligram dosage. So it was, it was essentially one drop of the oil. But so, so I do think doing them here or there in low dosage is probably fine. But. But I think, listen, I think all of it comes down to the individual. Let me say this. Lavender too, though, is more estrogenic. So, you know, doing a lot all the time is going to be a problem. So I think this is what, like my. One of my biggest passions is personalized medicine. Like, I think everybody should be on a diet that's unique for them.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

And some of it's based on your ethnicity, like, you should probably be eating, you know, lemons and tomatoes all day.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah. You know, I thought you were going to say, like, carbonara, you know, I mean, but.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

But I do think there was a study out of Japan that showed, okay, if you're Japanese and living in the coast, you're going to digest seaweed better and raw fish better than somebody who's, you know, in middle America.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

So. So. So there's no doubt. I think everybody should have be on a personalized diet. And this is where sometimes people say, oh, my friend was on keto or carnivore or vegan. And that worked for them, but oftentimes it doesn't work for the individual because everybody's unique.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, yeah, right. So, yeah, I need a diet of steady stromboli. It's time for the final round. The prompt will be read. We will both lock in our answers for ourselves. Then we will move our glasses. We'll move, actually the other guy's glasses to yes or no to see if we can read each other's minds. This round is worth double points. It could change everything because the score right now, seven even.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Wow.

[Michael Knowles]

Seven all.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Okay, so I'll put mine here.

[Michael Knowles]

Here we go. Put yours right here. Is big sunscreen causing more harm than good, including possible vitamin D deficiencies, increased cancer risks, and suppressed, suppressing natural alternatives like beef tallow? Big sunscreen. What are you going to say? You're gonna say, well, hold on. What am I gonna say? I know what I'm gonna say. You're gonna say, yes is what you're gonna say. And I'm also gonna say, yes. Yes, it is. And I now part. You mentioned my Sicilian heritage.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah.

[Michael Knowles]

I think my people have been in this sun for a very long time.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Long time.

[Michael Knowles]

Okay. Yeah, I haven't. I have generally not worn a lot of sunscreen, though I've heard seed oils can give you sunburns. I'd be curious your thoughts on that. But, you know, they tell us you have to put on the sunscreen so you don't get cancer. But then they tell us also the sunscreen gives you cancer. Is that true?

[Dr. Josh Axe]

So here's the rule. You don't want to get burnt. So here's what I think. Do I think putting on sunscreen is probably better than getting burnt? Actually, I do. But do I think generally putting sunscreen on, if you're not going to get toasted or burnt, you're way better off not doing sunscreen? Way better off.

[Michael Knowles]

What about. Is there a difference between, like you put on the banana boat versus put on.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Well, that's the other thing. I mean, like, we just, you know, we were just in Florida. We wore zinc oxide. Just, you know, it's typically called mineral sunscreen.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

That's healthy, that's safe.

[Michael Knowles]

It's like the old school one that kind of looks silly on your nose.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Right. Well, now, today they found ways to like, mix it with. With aloe and other things to where you hardly see, you know, the white. Yeah.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah. Okay. All right. Okay.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah.

[Michael Knowles]

Final question. This actually could change everything.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Wow.

[Michael Knowles]

All right, you're up.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

All right.

[Michael Knowles]

Wow.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Is inflammation the scapegoat for everyone's health problems? The same way that climate change is blamed for everything in public politics?

[Michael Knowles]

How are you going to answer? Well, first I'll figure out how I'm going to answer. How are you going to answer? This is the whole game, right?

[Dr. Josh Axe]

This is. This is a big deal.

[Michael Knowles]

You're going to say yes, and so am I. Yes. Oh, I. That I was the most unsure of.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

That was close.

[Michael Knowles]

Yes, but it is, it is, right? Because they all do. Again, I don't want to violate HIPAA here. My wife goes in, she says, you know, whatever. I have a toothache and they say it's inflammation. She goes in, she said, I stubbed my toe the other day. She said, yeah, well, it's inflammation. That's all they say.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah. You know, there's this practice that I do in getting to the root cause. And so it's called. It's actually called the five whys. It's just a Socratic method. You just keep getting why? To where you ask, you know, here's the reality. Inflammation, it's not the furthest upstream. It's more in the middle or close to upstream, but it's not the furthest upstream. It's like, okay, why do you have inflammation? Well, you have inflammation because it's almost always lifestyle. You're eating too much sugar, you've overcommitted yourself, and so you're really stressed out again. You're wearing fake clothing made of plastics. Again, that's always a minor thing. That's not a major. But those are the things. And then, yes, almost all of those things cause inflammation. So it's not the actual main thing that we need to focus on. Now, I will say for some people, I mean, you know, focusing on reducing inflammation, if that is your focus, yeah, you'll typically get dramatically healthier. But I still don't think it is the. It is kind of the. For years it's been like the main issue or driving everyone's talked about. And I don't think it's necessarily. Again, I think it's, it's one level off of being the highest upstream issue.

[Michael Knowles]

What's the next one going to be? You know, there's always some. It's like it was when I was a kid. It was carbs, it was like Dr. Atkins was the big one. And then it kind of. Now it's kind of back to that actually, I guess in diet where they say like you need to go carnivore or whatever, but then. But now inflammation is the big health meme. Do you have a prediction on what the next one will be?

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Well, I know. Well, I absolutely know what the next big thing is going to be in terms of. I don't know what the root cause. Well, yeah, I do know both. Number one, it'll be mitochondrial dysfunction. So in your cells you have mitochondria

[Michael Knowles]

and it's going to be powerhouse of the cell. I remember from seventh grade when I was looking at the yoga pants taking a test. Yes.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

So now we're going to level deeper than organ level. So we have our organs and then our organs are made up of cells which are then made up of organelles, organs of the cell. So the mitochondria is basically the adrenal, it's the energy producing part of the cell. And so now you can do some tests for. And we do this, I do this in my clinic. We test for CoQ10 and Carnitine and B12 and a number of factors that basically show your mitochondrial health function. Yeah, and I do think that's important. I think it's great for being able to know why somebody's fatigued and fix that issue. But of course that's not everything. But that'll be the next big thing in terms of the root cause. And then the next big thing will be, of course it's already here with its peptides. So it's not just going to be the GLP1s. We already see the BPC157 coming in. There are going to be all these different peptides, which peptides originally are found in organs and glands. So. So BPC157 is found in your stomach acid in your stomach lining. It's called body protective compound. Are you familiar with this?

[Michael Knowles]

Not at all. Okay, well, I know, I mean, I know of the peptide, I know of the fat shot, but that's all I know.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Oh, so talk to your wife about this. So peptides are Going to be absolutely massive and huge. And. And it's actually going to be a battle between the pharmaceutical companies and the natural health industry. Like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Just, I want to say made. He didn't legalize. He made them non illegal doing 12 different peptides now and there. But there are hundreds of them. But. But peptides are. So you've got proteins which are 50 chains of amino acids.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

And amino acids. A single peptides are between 2 and 49 chains of amino acids. So they're like collagen. That's a peptide. Creatine is a peptide. Glutathione is a peptide. But they're now all of these other peptides and that are. They're gonna be huge. Believe me, it's gonna be the biggest thing in medicine over the next five years.

[Michael Knowles]

I like the idea, though, of being really avant garde. Like now all the MAHA people are really like, we were talking about this for 10 years, whatever. And now I'm gonna just be like, yo, I'm the mitochondria guy.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

That's right.

[Michael Knowles]

I'm the mito. Because peptides are already big, so. But I feel mitochondria is undervalued right now. Like, I'm gonna go long. Mitochondria smart. I'm putting. I'm gonna put my credit card on the table on mitochondria. And then you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna eat it up. One a week is what I'm doing. Dr. Axe, thank you for being here.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Thanks for having me.

[Michael Knowles]

The final score. Two men who could not have possibly been more correct. 11 to 11.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Wow.

[Michael Knowles]

Wow. We're actually so close, we can almost finish each other's credit cards. Oh, okay.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

So one of the oldest forms of diagnosis was looking at somebody's tongue. Now, today, right. In functional medicine, like in my clinic, we do really advanced blood work. I can look at what's going on in your cell, test every organization, and that's amazingly accurate. But the next most accurate and the most accurate here, for thousands of years, has been looking at somebody's tongue to tell what's going on with their health. So, for instance, if somebody has ridges on the side of their tongue, almost like bite marks, that's called a digestive deficiency. Means your digestive system's weak if there's a coating on your tongue. We're familiar with Candida, but that means there's some sort of overgrowth of a parasite or Candida or microorganism. If your tongue is too red.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

There's inflammation. If it's too pale, it's a blood deficiency. If the coating's only on the back, there is too much microbes. Only in the colon. There's an issue with your lower intestine.

[Michael Knowles]

Okay. And so it sounds like I can't do anything right, but if your tongue

[Dr. Josh Axe]

is perfectly clear and sort of a bright, vibrant pink color, then you're perfectly healthy. What do you have to worry about?

[Michael Knowles]

I don't know how vibrant my tongue is.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Okay, let me.

[Michael Knowles]

Okay, ready?

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yep. Let's see it here. Okay, I see it. So here's what's going on with your tongue. Two little things, and these are easily fixable. You need to eat a little bit more foods that are gonna build your blood. It was a little less pink than it should be.

[Michael Knowles]

Okay. All right.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

And the other thing is your liver is a little bit overwhelmed. Could be cigar smoke and alcohol.

[Michael Knowles]

Couldn't possibly.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

It's called liver Qi stagnation, but they're minor.

[Michael Knowles]

What's the liver one is the ridges.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

No, that's actually. It's sort of collapsed in. It's like a little bit more scraping. It's a different side. But no, actually, your digestive system looks really healthy.

[Michael Knowles]

Really?

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah.

[Michael Knowles]

Okay. You know what I'm worried about with my liver? It's actually not. Believe it. Or despite this show where I. Yeah,

[Dr. Josh Axe]

I know you don't.

[Michael Knowles]

I'm not actually concerned about the booze or maybe the cigarettes. One of my real guilty pleasures. Every. Every so often. Not every day or every week. Advil. I take Advil, and I've heard Advil is just pure poison.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

It's really hard on the level. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I would say, you know, and so some things that really help that are. I mean, there's all kinds of things. A lot of herbals. Milk thistle, dandelion, turmeric. Turmeric's amazing.

[Michael Knowles]

Turmeric.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah.

[Michael Knowles]

The Indians are really into turmeric. They, like, coat their babies in turmeric,

[Dr. Josh Axe]

and that's actually good for your blood. Actually, if there's one herb that would. You'd really benefit from.

[Michael Knowles]

How do I do it? I take a turmeric.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

You can take it as a capsule. I do, like, 1,000 milligrams a day or up to 3,000. Or you could do a tea. You know, mix it with, like, a ginger turmeric tea. Okay, fantastic.

[Michael Knowles]

Otherwise my tongue is okay?

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah. I mean, generally, you're pretty healthy there.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah. Let's go. All right. I was very nervous for that, actually. I've been meaning to come to your clinic. I actually want to get the full magilla.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Come on in. We'll do your blood work. We'll do the whole thing for you and the whole.

[Michael Knowles]

Although now I feel like I want to quit while I'm ahead. Like you say my tongue looks basically okay if I go in for the blood work. They say actually, Michael, you have two weeks to live. It's not looking good, buddy.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Okay, let me say this. The reason why you're so healthy is you've got a good disposition, you're positive, you have a lower level, you handle stress way better than most people and that's. And those are really big things.

[Michael Knowles]

And my high tea and your high. That's obviously my high tea and your high tea. All right, this is. All right now I was gonna be very angry at my producer for this, but my. All right, thank you, doctor.

[Dr. Josh Axe]

Yeah, thanks for having.