Pursuit of Wellness - Dr. Josh Axe: Healing Through Mindset, Thyroid Issues, Fertility, Hashimotos & PCOS

Episode Date: June 17, 2024

Ep. #108 On today’s episode of Pursuit of Wellness, Dr. Josh Axe joins me for an inspirational episode emphasizing the importance of mindset. In the past couple years alone, Josh has overcome tremendous adversity and today discusses some of the ways he has maximized his healing, including utilizing the ABCDE Method and amplifying the placebo effect. We talk about negative self talk and how to overcome fear, worry, and any limiting beliefs that are holding you back. We also dive deep into topics like PCOS, fertility and Hyperthyroidism. Whether you're seeking relief from chronic pain or striving for greater happiness and fulfillment, tune in for invaluable insights for your journey toward holistic wellness. For Mari’s Instagram click here! For Pursuit of Wellness Podcast’s Instagram click here! For Mari’s Newsletter click here! For POW Brand Promo Codes click here! For Dr. Axe's website click here! For Dr. Axe's New Book click here! Sponsored By:  Bite is offering our listeners 20% off your first order. Go to trybite.com/POW or use code POW at checkout to claim this deal.  Treat yourself to the best bras and shapewear on the market and save 20% off at honeylove/POW  Tight now Hungryroot is offering POW listeners 40% off your first delivery and free veggies for life. Go to Hungryroot.com/POW to get 40% off your first delivery and get your free veggies Show Links: Bloom Colostrum  Think This, Not That Topics Discussed 02:59 - Dr. Josh Axe’s ethos around mindset 05:46 - Starting with the end in mind   07:31 - Overcoming limiting beliefs  13:02 - Adopt new empowering beliefs and the ABDCE method 20:25 - Josh’s story 24:30- Pairing antibiotics with hyperbaric chambers  25:55-  Maximize healing and amplifying the placebo effect 26:44 - Creating a plan  30:59 - Inspiration for his book 31:45 Mindset for fertility and overcoming fear 40:09 - Recommended diet for getting pregnant 44:05 - Benefits of acupuncture 47:24 - Hyperthyroidism and Hashimoto's 55:02 - Long term health implications of Hyperthyroidism 56:49 - Causes of Hyperthyroidism 57:28 - Coming off birth control and managing stress 01:00:34 - Recommendations for PCOS 01:03:02 - Tip for a healthy, positive lifestyle

I don't think people realize how much our mindset, the way we think about things, our beliefs impact our physical health. This is the Pursuit of Wellness podcast, and I'm your host, Mari Llewellyn. What's up, guys? Welcome back to the show. And today we have a very special guest, Dr. Josh Axe. I have to say, this conversation was almost like the universe giving me a sign. It was very in line with things that I've been struggling with recently in terms of my personal health, my sort of mindset around health. I tend to be pretty obsessive and controlling about fixing my problems and this was a really big wake-up call for me about the negative spiral we can get into about different issues we have whether it's acne and injury stomach problem hair problem whatever it may be so if you're

listening and you feel like your mindset around your body or something you're struggling with is making it worse, I would highly recommend you listen. Dr. Josh Axe is the co-founder of Ancient Nutrition and founder of DrAxe.com. He earned his doctorate from Palmer College and his Master of Science in Organizational Leadership from Johns Hopkins University. He joins me today for an inspirational episode emphasizing the importance of mindset. He has me today for an inspirational episode emphasizing the importance of mindset. He has gone through tremendous adversity and today he discusses ways he maximized his healing by using his mind. I feel like the mind is so so important and we don't even realize it. We talk about negative self-talk and how to overcome fear, worry, and limiting

beliefs. We also dive deep into topics like PCOS, fertility, hypothyroidism. Whether you're seeking relief from chronic pain or striving for a healthier lifestyle, this episode is for you. We cover so many different topics and I think you guys are going to absolutely love it. Also guys, just a reminder, we just dropped our brand new product at Bloom. It's our colostrum and peptides it is grass-fed it is third-party tested it is sourced from family dairy farms here in the u.s and it is the best quality colostrum on the market and it's so freaking good you can add it to your greens you can add it to water your favorite beverage it is amazing for immunity and gut health hair skin and nails and

so much more highly recommend you guys check it out. It is available on Amazon. Without further ado, let's hop into Dr. Josh Axe. Dr. Josh Axe, welcome to the show. Maureen, thanks for having me. Excited to be here. I am so excited to chat. You just released your new book, Think This, Not That, all about mindset as medicine, which

I feel like is so, so important. Having gone through my own health journey with acne and gut health and PCOS, trying to detach from my diagnosis or my health problem has been kind of a struggle for me. So I'm really excited to get some advice from you today. What is your ethos around mindset and health? Well, you know, I'm excited to the way, I'm excited to talk about everything today. I know we'll talk about mindset, hypothyroidism, you know, infertility, all kinds of things, you know, and natural healing. But I, the thing that I always say about mindset is it ties into all kinds of things, our identity, our purpose. And I don't think people realize how much

our mindset, the way we think about things, our beliefs impact our physical health. I'll give you an example of this. I mean, if you go back all the way back to sort of what founded the way we do blind placebo studies today, you know, like a lot of Western medicine, you know, back many years ago during one of the world wars, one of the practicing physicians ran out of morphine.

And we all know morphine's an incredibly strong drug. And the practicing physicians ran out of morphine. And we all know morphine is an incredibly strong drug. And so because he ran out of morphine, he's like, I have to take care of these fallen soldiers. I have to give them something. And so he essentially gave them sugar pills. Well, the crazy part was about 30 to 40% of them saw almost the exact same pain relief from these sugar pills as they would have given morphine. And that's my, I mean, think about that, that your own body can produce the same neurochemicals to numb pain as morphine.

And so I think when it comes to our physical healing, whether somebody is trying to heal from autoimmune disease, inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, no matter what the condition is, a big part of it happens in the mind. And I can tell you from working with tens of thousands of patients, one of the most important parts of healing is your mindset and the way you think about your condition, about healing in the first place. And I think there's a combination of things that happen. One, I think that you actually do help heal your body through positive thoughts. I mean,

there's something called neuroplasticity too, where your body will start creating new neural pathways in order to repair itself. I think your body will send new growth factors, stem cells, everything to that place that needs healing, whether it's the thyroid or the liver or the reproductive organs. And so all that being said, if we're just talking about health alone, again, I don't think people realize what a big impact our thinking has on health. And I think current science today proves that. I also think if you go back and look at what some of the wisest sages and saints and philosophers and practitioners have said throughout history, for instance, the Bible talks constantly about

your faith or your beliefs or your thoughts will heal you. And so it's something I'm very excited about because I think it helped save my life. I mean, I almost died about two years ago. And so that's really what sort of ignited in me this awareness about mindset medicine and just really how important it is for us to be able to heal. But I think that to answer your question,

I know I've kind of alluded around it, but I think we have to start with the end in mind. I think that's the big thing. What do you mean by that? So there's something that was oftentimes talked about, not as much today, and I'm going to use the Latin frame. It's called the sunum bonum, and it's the greatest good. And so some of this ties into our identity and purpose in terms of, and I think it's actually very important for our health. And so if you wanna be as healthy as possible, you also have to know what does your ideal life look like

and be in tune with that and then create a plan in order to make that your reality. So for somebody, and I think that this is all part of God's design. If you are living in tune with the way God created us, then that is going to lead to the optimal level of health. I mean, God created fruits and vegetables and animals and these sort of things. And if we're eating real things, if we are enjoying and spending time in nature, if we're living out our purpose in life, I think it's going to lead to happiness, fulfillment, better health. But if you're not doing that, it's going to make you sick. So I think for most people, and I think a

lot of people go through their life without actually thinking, this is actually exactly what I want in life. And also making sure it aligns with, as much as possible, what truly will fulfill them. Because if somebody goes and says, I just want to have a lot of money and a big house and a Lamborghini and a second home, and they get there, most people are gonna end up being disappointed, versus saying, you know what? I see the people that have lived the best lives, that are the happiest,

they actually are the people that sacrifice themselves the most. They give the most to others. They are using their gifts to make earth a heavenly place. And so I know that's kind of seems kind of maybe a little far reaching, but I do that's kind of seems kind of maybe a little far reaching, but I do think even our mindset and our health starts with, you know, thinking about the end. Yeah. How do we overcome limiting beliefs we have about ourselves, self-sabotaging thoughts,

negative thinking in general? Yeah. So I had this life-altering experience in high school. And by the way, I think everybody's gonna relate to this. I'm sure you will. I'm sure every person watching and listening to this will relate as well, because we've all had somebody in our life say something destructive and somebody say something that helped save us in a way.

And so I was a freshman in high school and I was a terrible student, absolutely terrible. And I had my freshman English teacher, her name was Miss Noble. She said, Josh, can you stay after class? And I said, yes. And she said, hey, what do you wanna do when you graduate? Oh, I'm sorry, actually, she didn't say that.

She said, what do you wanna do after high school? And I said, I wanna be a doctor. And the reason I said that, Mari, was that the year before, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had a mastectomy. She went through rounds and rounds of chemotherapy. I mean, I remember this day, my mom losing, my mom being bald. I remember her taking a pit, like a comb through her hair and all the chunks

of hair coming out. And just as a kid, just crying. And I remember remembering, there's two things I thought at the time. One, I want to help people like my mom. That's why I want to be a doctor. And also there's got to be a better way. Like this is the way we help heal people is through, you know, cutting off her breast and losing her hair and just, and being like 13 years old and thinking, I want to be a doctor. Well, the teacher asked me, what do you want to do after high school? And I said, I want to be a doctor. And she laughed out loud. And she goes, Josh, listen, with your GPA, you'll never get into med school. She said, my own daughter had a 3.8 GPA and barely got into med school. She says, you got an F on this paper.

You're getting a D minus in my class. She said, you need to try harder or you're going to fail. And that was it. And when I walked out of that room, what I thought to myself was, again, being a junior high kid, I thought, well, I can't be a doctor now. I'm not gonna get good enough grades. Two weeks later, my mom brings me to a physician who then talks about me like I'm not in the room. And he tells my mom, I still remember today,

he says, your son has a learning disability. He has really severe ADHD. I'm gonna write this drug for Ritalin. It should help. But he's going to have trouble learning his whole life. And then I remember thinking, well, gosh, not only can I not be a doctor, but there's like something wrong with me.

I have a disability. Like with my brain, I can't learn right. And so throughout high school, because of that reason, I thought, I'm just barely going to try. And so I barely't learn right. And so throughout high school, because of that reason, I thought I'm just barely gonna try. And so I barely graduated high school. The only reason I graduated was I knew my dad would be irate

if I did not graduate high school. So I graduated with a C minus, applied to a bunch of colleges, got denied by almost all of them. But one college I really wanted to go to, probably because I had a lot of good extracurricular stuff, they sent me a letter back and they said, here's the gist of it. You're not in, but if you come and take summer school, we'll let you in if you average above a

3.0. So I thought, okay, I'm going to do this. I'm going to go. I'm actually going to try. And the first class I had to take was English 101. First assignment was a paper. So I went, wrote the paper, felt good about it, turned it in. And a few days later, the teacher said, Josh, can you stay after class? My heart sank. I was like, oh my gosh, not this again, deja vu. And she asked me, she says, Josh, what's your major? And I said, I haven't chosen a major, Mrs. Williams. And she said, well, I want to let you know that I think you should consider being an English major or journalism major because you're a great writer. She said, you got the highest grade in the class

on this paper. I can tell you're really talented, great job. And I walked out of there. And I went through high school believing, the thing that kept ringing in my ear, I had this narrative of, you're not smart. Just over and over and over again. And so I literally believed I was just dumb

all through high school. And then I had one teacher tell me, you could be a great writer. You're good at this. And it radically changed my confidence in the way that I felt about myself. I mean, from then on, I got well above a 3.0 throughout college.

Much later on, when I went to Johns Hopkins University, I graduated there with a 3.9 GPA. You know, eventually became a doctor. And the reason I say those things is not to boast about any of it. It's to say, if I would have held on to the one single limiting belief of what that teacher said, none of that would have happened. I wouldn't have gone to Johns Hopkins, wouldn't become a doctor. You and I wouldn't be having this conversation now. And there are so many people today that have had a teacher, a parent, a coach, a pastor, whoever it is, say something to them,

and then it becomes part of their identity. They believe it wholeheartedly. So then they don't write the book, or they don't start the podcast, or don't try and do the triathlon, or whatever it is, this thing they've dreamed about doing. And I saw this a lot in my practice. One of the most common things I heard when patients came into my functional medicine clinic in Nashville was, my doctor told me I have to be on this drug the rest of my life.

Or my doctor told me this condition is irreversible. I can't tell you how many type two diabetics and people with certain types of autoimmune disease had come in and told me that. And then after care, especially type two diabetes, that's a great example of one. We reversed it almost every single time. And so that being said, there are so many limiting beliefs people have. And what we really want to do is adopt new empowering beliefs. And there's really a few ways that we can do this. One, one thing you need to do is, of course, identify.

Now, there's a Yale professor that did a really good job of this, and it's called the ABCDE method. And so he said, number A is activate. When was the first time that you had this negative memory about yourself? It could have been, you're not smart. You're not beautiful. You're not fast enough. You're not smart enough.

You don't have this certain skill set that someone else has, whatever it is. So identify, but when did it start? B, identify what's the exact belief about yourself that you have. C, here's where it starts really becoming powerful is what are the consequences if you continue to believe this false narrative

about yourself? Like for myself, okay, if I believed I wasn't smart, I wouldn't even apply to John Hopkins. You know what I'm saying? Like I wouldn't even have thought about it. I wouldn't even apply to becoming a doctor. I wouldn't even have thought about it. So that's going to be the consequences. I will not live out my dreams.

That's the consequence. Okay, and then D is dispute it. Why is that not true? Why is that a lie? Well, okay, in high school, I did get an A a few times. And actually, it was the times that I tried. Is the issue really I'm not smart

or is it that maybe I am not learning in the right way? Maybe I needed a mentor or a tutor or maybe it's a different subject. Maybe I'm just, my mind isn't as good at math, it's better at science and writing. So, you know, so you have to dispute. And then E is exchange. What is the thing you need to exchange that lie for,

the truth, and then you wanna start reinforcing and building around that truth. And once you know the truth, ideally you wanna do everything you can to read books, listen to podcasts, do things to prove it out to yourself. Because what you can't do is you can't just start saying to yourself, I'm smart, I'm smart, I'm smart, I'm smart, I'm smart. Or I'm trying to think of the old, you may not have ever watched this, the old Saturday

Night Live, but there's this guy who said, I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like me. I'm trying to remember the guy's name. But- I've heard that somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. And so, but the thing is, your nervous system doesn't fully,

I don't, it doesn't fully believe you if you're the only one that just does that all the time. Yeah. You need to prove it out to yourself by going and getting small wins. Okay, I wrote this paper and I got an A. Okay, now I got an A in the whole class. Okay, now I did that.

And so you need to kind of have a plan for both learning and building up. And one of the hardest things to have happen, but one of the most important things in reinforcing your identity is having somebody that you admire, confirm that truth. There's a quote that I love. Actually, it's out of the book, The Lord of the Rings. It's a quote by Gerard Tolkien. It's this, the praise of the praiseworthy is above all rewards.

So when you have somebody that's praiseworthy, somebody that you admire, respect, somebody that's maybe ahead of you in life, could be a teacher, a mentor, pastor, those sort of things, and they tell you, hey, you're good at this. And they affirm you. It's really powerful. I mean, we're relational beings. And so we can affirm ourselves some, but we really also have to have affirmation from others. This is why our inner circle is so important. Like the people we spend time with, we become who we spend time with. And so picking your mentors, pursuing mentors,

having those people around us, I think that's another thing that people need to be conscious of in order to help start to build a stronger identity and overcome these limiting beliefs. I just got off the plane from LAX. Sorry, I had to. I just got off the plane from Austin. I'm in LA right now. And you guys know I don't go anywhere without my Bite toothpaste. It's the easiest thing to travel with and you can just pop it in your mouth for fresh breath. And the reason I like Bite is because it isn't filled with harsh chemicals, artificial flavors, and preservatives, which most commercial toothpastes are. I don't think many of us realize we swallow about five to seven percent

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That's right. I don't go to many of these, but we have a really big event and I am wearing a gown and I knew it was my time to take out my Honeylove shapewear. I hate the feeling of other shapewear. Honeylove just gets it. It hugs you in the right places, but it's also so comfortable. So whether you're a bride, a wedding guest, or simply seeking everyday smoothing, Honeylove is the go-to for all things shapewear. Honeylove has revolutionized compression technology so you no have to longer feel like you're suffocating while wearing effective shapewear. Plus they never roll down no matter how much you groove on the dance floor. Honeylove shapewear features lingerie inspired design details that you'll want to show off and

is made with breathable fabric that keeps you nice and cool. For a limited time only, you can get Honeylove on sale. Get 20% off your entire order with our exclusive link honeylove.com slash pow. Support our show and check out honeylove.com forward slash pow p-o-w. I think so many people listening will relate to this. And I think a lot of us walk around not even realizing that we have limiting beliefs about ourselves. Yeah. Like it almost becomes a part of your identity

to the point where you don't think of it as something holding you back. Like I've always struggled identifying with my acne that I've struggled with for 10 years. And when I get an opportunity to go to an event or to speak or to be on camera, my first thought is, oh my gosh, about my skin. But that's not even the limiting belief. It goes beyond that. It's like, well, what's underneath that? Is it that I'm afraid of the judgment or the rejection of the people I'm about to be around? And every time I push through that and go anyway, I get the affirmation that they're not rejecting me. They're not judging me because of my skin. If anything, I'm being more vulnerable. I'm putting myself out there. So just as an example for people listening, you may not even realize that you're walking around

with these limiting beliefs. That's so true. Yeah, and that's the case most of the time. And part of it, we're just so busy in life, but it's really important. I'd encourage everybody to go and write down what are your top three limiting beliefs in ranking order and start addressing those.

And it'll help you create just an amazing, amazing breakthrough in your life. I know you mentioned you had a life-threatening diagnosis happen to you about two years ago. Can you talk us through that story and how did mindset help you get out of that? Yeah. So a lot of people don't know this, but I injured my back lifting weights about three years ago. Well, actually, it was before that, and then it got a lot better, and then I had injured my back. And so I tried a lot of things, and I was still having a lot of back pain.

So I decided to go and get stem cell done. It's where they take your bone marrow, concentrate, ate it, and then they inject it back into an injured area. So I had severe bulges in my l5 s1 and l4 disc And I got it done and it helped me tremendously like unbelievably. I couldn't even believe it And I probably got back to 80 85 90 with that. I still had this little Nagging ache though in the left side of my back in my kind of ql area And so I thought i'm gonna go get this done one more time. And I went and got it done. And again, this was about

a year and nine months ago. And I just didn't feel right afterwards. I kept feeling worse and worse and worse. Finally, it was so bad. I started having to, I wore a back brace a few days. Well, finally one morning I woke up, I couldn't walk. The pain was absolutely excruciating. I had to call an ambulance. My wife and I were living in, and our daughter, we were living in Puerto Rico at the time, had to call an ambulance to come pick me up, bring me in to get an MRI. The MRI came back and it said, I have a spinal infection. I had to then get on a medical flight from Puerto Rico to Florida, sat down with an infectious disease specialist. And he said, here's his exact words to me.

He said, Josh, here's your prognosis. He said, best case scenario for you is that you're gonna have chronic pain the rest of your life. And you'll be the first person to know when bad weather's coming. He said, worst case scenario is this could kill you. And because it's really spread, he said, it's not only in your disc, it's now in your bones throughout your entire L5 vertebra.

And there's also an abscess now that's outside by the spinal cord of the infection. And he said, there's a really good likelihood you could be permanently disabled from this. Now, Mari, I just went from a few months before deadlifting, squatting, swimming, biking, running, throwing my two-year-old daughter, you know, eight feet in the air. And so for me to hear like, again, you know, I've been teaching people about health my whole career. I've been sort of leading the charge with a lot of other people with this. And I thought to myself that this can't be real, that I could, you know, this doctor, if he was betting, it seemed like he was telling me you're going to be permanently disabled.

And he said, you know, you might have to eventually go and have rods put in because this infection is so bad and a number of things. And I had about 48 hours of just absolute despair. There are emotions I can say I'd never experienced before. I had never experienced despair and hopelessness, but I did. And I spent a couple of days just mourning and praying and just having just incredibly hard time and just thoughts that were like crippling. And then after 48 hours, I thought to myself, you know what, this is not serving me.

And I also realized, and I'm a person of faith in God. And so I just said, you know what, I just need to, I'm just gonna pray. I'm gonna pray and see what God says about this. And I think what was really put on my heart is that God is bigger than any diagnosis. And I'm gonna do the best that I can to heal and to allow myself to experience a miracle. Because, you know, we read those stories about people who were told, hey, you're paralyzed and you'll never walk again,

and then they do. And so I thought, I'm going to be one of those people. And so I decided I'm going to do everything I can to heal. And now the doctor was recommending, he said, we're probably gonna do about six weeks on IV antibiotics and another six weeks of oral antibiotics. So that's 12 weeks of antibiotics. That's three months of antibiotics. And I had not taken a medication really truly since high school, like 20 years. I was 40. And so I started doing all this research and say, okay, I want to do everything I can to heal to where I don't have to do these antibiotics and I maximize my healing. Well, I came across a study in hyperbaric chambers and there was a study on if you take antibiotics with hyperbaric chamber, it drives it deeper into the disc

and people were able to get down their time on antibiotics down to four weeks. So really shorten the time. And so I got in a hyperbaric chamber, a hard chamber at 2.5 ATA, just about every day for a little over a month. So every day and what about five days a week? And then I extended it to about 40 days,

and then a little bit after that, too. And then I started doing IVs of things like, if you've heard of something, methylene blue, ginseng silver, doing a lot of nutrient IVs, super high-dose probiotic. I got these things called bacteriophages. They're actually pro-viruses. They're used a lot in Europe

for antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. So I started doing a lot of this phage therapy. And I just said, I'm gonna do everything I can to maximize my healing. And I'm gonna believe I'm gonna heal as well. This is interesting too. We talked about this earlier, the placebo effect. But I read this article by a researcher,

and he said, you can amplify the placebo effect. He said, I found that when you have a very clear vision about what you want in life, that amplifies the placebo effect. Like knowing I wanna be pain-free or I wanna walk again or I wanna throw my baby girl up in the air in the pool again, right? So you gotta visualize and be clear, this is what I want.

And the second thing he said was, is that you wanna tie emotions to it. Like you want to feel it physiologically and emotionally, like you're in that place already. So I started picturing myself throwing my two-year-old in the air and her laughing and giggling and me hugging her and like just feeling strong, feeling excited, feeling full of joy. So I started just feeling that and visualizing that on a regular basis. And the third thing is,

is that you have a plan, a very, very detailed strategic plan in order to how that's gonna be your reality. So I started picturing myself one year from now doing all those things. And so I followed this plan. And after about two weeks, I started feeling about 1% better.

And then a little better, a little better. Now, this infection was so bad and the pain is so severe, I didn feeling about 1% better. And then a little better, a little better. Now, this infection was so bad and the pain is so severe, I didn't walk for 10 months. Wow. And I couldn't sit in a wheelchair either. So I was literally in bed on my back for 10 months. Now, I could crawl after a couple months

and I would crawl out and get into a pool where I could move some. And then I was on a walker for a couple months, but I didn't walk on my own for a year. Wow. And so I now, a walker for a couple months, but I didn't walk on my own for a year. And so I now at this point in time am probably about close to 90%. I think I'll be 100% by the end of this year.

One of my prayers, by the way, a limiting belief I had was, and I had to, I mean, this was a internal battle. I kept thinking, well, I can heal some, but I'll never get back to 100%. Maybe I can get back to 80, but I'll never get back to 100%. And I had to say, no, I will be back to 100%. And I prayed during this time too. I said, God, refine me. And Lord, I pray not only that I get back to 100% physically, but that I grow spiritually and mentally far greater than who I am right now. And I really tried to lean

into that and lean into my suffering. I'll give you an example of this. It is so tempting for people to get in a victim mindset and mentality and say, you know what? Because I had these thoughts creeping in of like, the doctor made a mistake with my injections. This is unfair. This never should have happened to me. What if I wouldn't have done this? Could I go back in time? And I realized that's not serving me. And so I realized also I need to be serving others and showing other people how to walk through suffering. And so I was very conscious of my wife, my daughter, who was then, by the time I was going through a lot of this, she was about to turn three, and my parents, my in-laws, my friends coming over, that I would walk through this nobly.

And so I didn't complain the whole time. And I said, I want to show my daughter what it's like to live in a state of joy even during suffering. And so there were a lot of opportunities I had. I'm really grateful. I mean, it's hard to say. I mean, one, I still wish it wouldn't have happened because there's a lot of healing

that I still have to go through, I believe, in terms of even physically. But I learned, I grew a lot through the process. I'm definitely better than the doctor said, the best I could possibly be. And so that was my past, you know, year and nine months. I think many of us really value eating healthy, and we're trying to cook more and come up with fun healthy recipes and that's where I found Hungry Root. Hungry Root is the easiest way to eat healthy. They send you fresh high quality groceries, simple recipes and essential supplements.

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life just go to hungryroot.com slash pow to get 40 off your first delivery and get your free veggies for life. Just go to HungryRoot.com slash pow to get 40% off your first delivery and get your free veggies. That's HungryRoot.com slash pow. Don't forget to use our link so they know we sent you. Do you think you would have ever have written this book or had this ethos on mindset had you not gone through that? Well, here's what I'll say. I was already gonna write a book that was more mindset related before this happened. Wow.

And the reason was, is I used to notice in patients, again, mindset was one of the most important parts of healing. And so I did wanna get into it. Now the book radically changed because through this condition. And I think it came out better than it could have ever come. I mean, this is by far the best book I've ever written times 10.

Like when people get it, I think they're gonna be like, wow, this really is a life altering book. So I think the book came out very different and much better because of it. It's almost like your pain became your purpose. That's right. I think that's such a powerful yeah statement and so true i want to ask your thoughts on mindset for fertility i'm talking a lot about fertility lately i'm trying to have a

baby with my husband and i feel like mindset has played a really big role in holding me back a little bit and i've heard you speak about, I think you called it ancient medicine. I heard you mention worry and I resonate with that a lot. So how do you approach mindset with fertility? So I've worked with a lot of women on fertility and we've seen really good results. And one of the things I have to address, and by the way, this is true for fertility more so than other conditions, but it's also true with a lot of other conditions is that if you overthink your condition and focus on it too much, you'll stay sick. It's a form of stress. It's a form of stress. I mean, I see this a lot. I saw this a lot with my Lyme disease patients. I saw it a lot with certain autoimmune patients,

inflammatory bowel patients, and infertility as well, is that you get this vicious cycle where all you think about is your condition. It's all you think about. And I truly believe that it actually keeps your body from healing and keeps your body in that sick state. And so even though it's one of the hardest things to do, one of the things I encourage people to do is that do everything you can to take your mind off of being sick. Now, listen, you want to do your due diligence and sort of learning some things and how to heal. You want to do your due diligence and being practically creating a plan in order to do some things to heal. But outside of that, don't think about your condition. Do you

know in Chinese medicine, they never diagnose anyone with a condition? Wow. And I don't believe Ayurveda did either. They would diagnose you with a pattern. They'd And I don't believe Ayurveda did either. They would diagnose you with a pattern that'd say, hey, you're out of balance. So for instance, Chinese medicine, your body's too hot internally. Okay. So maybe there's inflammation or it's too cold, like in hypothyroidism, right? IBSD, or there's too much movement or too little movement like constipation or your body's too damp. There's too much moisture like phlegm and mucus and candida, or it's too dry. Like that can happen in menopause. And so rather than giving you a label, they would diagnose you with a pattern. And it's a lot, I mean, if I just told

you, if I told you, you have this condition versus, hey, your body's too warm. Let's start doing some cooling foods. Let's just bring your body back into balance. It's a lot less intimidating. In a way, I actually think it's breaking the Hippocratic oath oftentimes when we diagnose people with these medical conditions, because it's doing harm. You're taking hope away from people.

It's actually harming them. First do no harm. And so I think really Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, these ancient forms of medicine, biblical medicine had it correct in that way. So I do think the mindset of fertility, here's what it is. And again, my best reference is I spent most of my career studying ancient Asian medicine. And there's really two main reasons when it comes to fertility that somebody, well, the first is conception and the next is carrying. Okay. Conception has to fertility that somebody, well, the first is conception and then the next is carrying. Yeah.

Okay. Conception has to do more with, from a Western perspective, cortisol. Caring has to do more with insulin. Okay. And so conception is really focusing on those adrenal glands and that's tied more to the emotion of fear. Here's an example. Fear you won't get pregnant.

Fear of letting down your spouse. Fear of letting down your parents. Fear of failure. What if this never happens? So you're thinking about your, and it's disrupting your future. And so that really can limit those, or, and so in Chinese medicine as well, every emotion impacts an organ. And it's not just Chinese medicine, it just does. So if somebody has, think about if a kid gets really scared at night, they can wet the bed. Why? Well, because being frightened, that type of fear impacts the bladder. We know anxiety can cause your blood pressure to start to go up. Okay. Anger, uh, you know, if somebody drinks a lot of alcohol or becomes an alcoholic, it can cause anger issues as well. So we know anger and the liver are connected.

Grief, if you've had something bad happen to you and you're still living in the past, um, that, that tends to be immune system. I mean, or you're going through a divorce or you lost a loved one. And so different emotions impact different organ systems. Worry is what affects the pancreas slash spleen and typically affects caring, which can also cause infertility. So really it's typically the emotions of fear and worry that most impact fertility.

So now if you can go and say, okay, I'm going to work on facing my fear and reducing my worry and focus on the opposites of those, then it's really going to support fertility in a pretty significant way. And so for instance, if you have fear of letting down your spouse, well, then maybe there's a conversation and say, you know what? I have this fear of letting you down. And like what I would tell my wife if we would have been in that situation was,

listen, I love you no matter what, no matter what. We can adopt kids, you know, God's will be done. And so I think that there is, you know, those conversations relationally happening. So maybe some of those things can subside. I think also one of the greatest things that in my own life that I think has helped me overcome fear and worry

is faith in God, knowing that God is for me, not against me, that he has got a future and a hope for me. And so knowing that the most praiseworthy person of all is for me, that's really, really empowering. And so I think if you can have a positive outlook on the future, you can build and grow in your faith. You can have those great

people around you that are supportive and loving. In Chinese medicine, there are ways to actually build those two, those organ systems. And so the fear, one, you want to overcome that and say, and I actually, in order to overcome fear, the best way to do it is face it. So you can't push it in the corner or slide it under the rug. Okay. So you need to say, this is my fear. How can I naturally, you know, overcome it? And it's through minor confrontations. And so, and a lot of times with this particular infertility, it's a lot of times there's a relational thing going on there. And so, you know, talking it out with your spouse,

your parents, or whoever is around you is very helpful. But in Chinese medicine also to overcome it is you wanna go deep. It's really tied to going deep in life. If you're spending time being busy and doing a lot of superficial things, it actually weakens that channel in the body versus if you spend some time in prayer,

reading books that go deep, having deep, intimate conversations with people, it actually really helps build that. And then the other one is worry. And what worry is, it's a lack of safety and security. It's a lack of comfort. And so, you know, what your body wants to feel like in order to carry a child, and they call it the earth element in Chinese medicine, is you want to feel like you're on a couch. You got a nice fireplace in front of you. You got a nice warm blanket around you. You got a cup of hot cocoa or tea. You're reading a book. You've got your family and loved ones there, and you're just absolute comfort, relax, safety, protection. If you can get your body into that state and your mind into that state, boom. Your fertility just goes up dramatically according to these ancient

forms of medicine. But a lot of times people don't think about that part of it. We think about, is there a supplement I can take or a medication or I need to do more, more, more, more, more. The reality is you need to do less. You need to get yourself in a comfortable state where you're at peace. Now there are some foods and supplements and we can talk about all those that are really good for fertility. But the mindset portion of fertility is more than 50% of it. It's a huge piece. Wow. I mean, that really resonates with me because I feel like I check every box when it comes to exercise and health and supplements. I can follow all the instructions, but the worry is what takes over. So I think that's really powerful. I think two words I heard you say when I was researching you was peace and purpose when it comes to fertility.

And I feel like that really resonated with me. I love those two words. That's my goal. To switch to the functional medicine lens a little bit, what food and supplements would you recommend for women listening who want to get pregnant? Yeah. So in Chinese medicine, you want to build what's called the, it's basically you want to strengthen the adrenal glands and reproductive organs, and you want to strengthen the pancreas. Again, think about, you need to get cortisol and insulin. Those are the two primary hormones we have to get balanced. We know cortisol is fight or flight state. That's fear. I mean, it's that sort of, or it's not, it's fear, but most of the time, it's not the sort of fear people, sometimes it's not exactly what they think of. It's also,

it's getting out of the fight or flight state. Bus busyness, rushing around all the time. In a way, that's a type of fear. And so, dietarily, you want to consume foods that are blueberries and blackberries. That dark purple would be very nourishing. Wild caught fish like salmon is going to be very, very good. Bone broth, it's going to be very, very good. So those are more for that adrenal channel. Lots of mushrooms, shiitake, maitake, reishi, cordyceps. So, I mean, that's one of the best of all. Rice, long cooked, ideally something like a congee. You could make that with like a basmati or a jasmine.

That's also going to be very nourishing for that channel. And so, and then even beans are okay, but doing some of those in Chinese medicine would be very good for that channel, and that's conception. And then also carrying, which also is tied to conception. Those are foods that you think of when it comes to fall weather, Thanksgiving even.

Typically the color is orange. So I mentioned black and blue earlier. This is more orange foods. It's sweet potato, It's pumpkin. It's butternut squash. It's going to be grass fed beef. It's going to be herbs like cinnamon. And so it's building the blood, it's warming the body and it's doing a lot of soups. Like raw food is what you absolutely do not want to do raw food. You want to do mostly, again, just chicken, vegetable soup, beef stew, you know, things that are warming internally, sort of that, again, think about it's winter. You got a nice bowl of soup.

Like what warms you and fills you? Like that's the sort of feeling you're trying to create with the food you're eating. Now, of course, you want to keep insulin balance. So you're not eating like 17 sweet potatoes. But again, if you're doing a sweet potato, a Now, of course, you want to keep insulin balance. So you're not eating like 17 sweet potatoes. But again, if you're doing a sweet potato, a little bit of rice, a lot of organic meat, steamed vegetables, baked vegetables, a lot of root vegetables, carrots are fantastic for this as well, and beets. That's sort of the ideal diet. And in terms of supplementation for fertility, I really like ashwagandha. Again,

if we're building up those adrenals, I like ashwagandha a lot. I like cordyceps mushrooms a lot. I like Vitex. And then on the other side though, I think we really need to focus on insulin. And so there I like, it could be bayberry or berberine, but really cinnamon, chromium picolinate would be good in terms of a mineral. I think those would probably be the top ones in terms of really supporting fertility.

And acupuncture is amazing for fertility. Okay, I've been going. Absolutely amazing. I've been going and I'm laughing because you're speaking about how important warmth is. Yes. And I was cold plunging,

not every day, but I was doing it like twice a week. And I was cold plunging, not every day, but I was doing it like twice a week. And I told my acupuncturist and he was like, no, no, no, no. Yeah, you need to be doing infrared sauna. Okay, I'm doing sauna, but I have a traditional sauna. So I would say a traditional sauna is good. What a traditional sauna will do though

is you'll sweat a little bit more. And in a way, sometimes it can actually cool your body a little bit more versus an infrared, the heat goes deeper. And that's what we're trying to do with you. We don't want the superficial heat. We want to get the heat as deep as possible in your system. Okay.

So all about the warmth. Yes. And he said, yeah, he recommended warm foods as well. I'm doing acupuncture maybe every three weeks right now. I mean, I would kick it up to once a week or every other week. Wow. Why is acupuncture so effective? You know, when I first learned about acupuncture, when I first heard acupuncture, so I grew up in a household where my mom, you know, my mom thought, you know, everything that wasn't,

you know, part of the Judeo-Christian faith that it was evil. So when I first heard acupuncture and some of the words like chi and yin and yang, and I was, you know, I didn't know what to think. And then I started studying it and I thought it's just a different language and it makes so much sense. And so what acupuncture is, is it's going to areas of the body

that are connected to organ systems. So if somebody is having a heart attack, let me ask you this. Do you know where they have pain? I would imagine the chest. Yeah. It's actually your left shoulder. Oh. But it can be the chest, but it can actually be the left shoulder. If somebody is having a gallbladder attack, they can start having pain in their right shoulder. And this is true with actually quite a few different conditions. You can start having pain in different areas of the body that aren't that exact area where you're having issues. Well, the reason is what they found in Chinese medicine is

that different areas of your body, this is true with reflexology or Chinese medicine, that they are connected to the organ system. And so they found that if you go and stimulate the area, and so you needle the area, and what needling does is it brings blood and energy. It sort of activates an area. It will then impact that organ. And in Chinese medicine, the big focus is on typically tonifying, so activating or calming an organ. And what they'll try and do typically

is move blood to the area. And so for instance, you've got a gallbladder issue, maybe there's some points in that right shoulder they're going to go to and that's going to help calm the gallbladder or activate it to start, you know, for instance, you've got a gallbladder issue, maybe there's some points in that right shoulder they're gonna go to, and that's gonna help calm the gallbladder or activate it to start functioning better,

get more blood flow there, working on it in that way. There's a lot of points around your belly button for the stomach. There's a lot of points in your upper back for the lungs. And so there's a lot of points all over your head and feet as well for numerous organ systems. But that's what acupuncture is. It's really them going to different areas externally

in the body, on the skin, and needling those areas in order to drive blood, nutrients, oxygen, to drive energy to those areas so they can better function and heal. Something about it puts me right to sleep. Oh, yeah. What is that? Well, you know, so my guess is they're typically

probably doing the channels that are in your upper neck. And so those are really connected to your vagus nerve. And so what you can do with acupuncture, these needles is you can go and take most people are in, again, we talked about this high sympathetic state. And you can go and do those needles in that upper neck area specifically. And that will allow your kick on your parasympathetic, which then sort of brings your body into harmony and allows you to actually rest, turn your mind off. Yeah. Last time I went, he was helping me with implantation, and he put it in my scalp, hands, womb area, feet. I don't know, something about it's so calming. I just fall asleep.

Yeah. Same with my husband's doing it too. Yeah. One of my best friends is an acupuncturist. His name is Dr. Gil Bonami. I mean, I've learned so much. He's amazing. He's an Israeli acupuncturist. And I think the best in the world. Guy's just phenomenal. But yeah, it's amazing. I want to talk about hypothyroidism. There's two types of it, right? The fast one and the slow one. Well, I think there are multiple causes. I mean, it really depends on...

There's probably more than that. My point being, I think there can be several root causes. And then, of course, there's Hashimoto's. What is Hashimoto's? So Hashimoto's thyroiditis is where your body, it's really sort of hypothyroidism meets autoimmune disease. And what happens is your body starts creating antibodies to the thyroid. And so your body starts attacking your thyroid tissue.

That's what happens in autoimmune disease, which is also interesting in Chinese medicine. They believe emotionally, if you're a person that attacks yourself emotionally, like self-talk, like you're not smart, you're not good enough. Oh, you shouldn't have done that. That's so stupid. That actually can make your autoimmune disease worse because you're attacking yourself. But you, when you look at Chinese medicine, hypothyroidism is known as a Qi and Yang deficiency. Qi is really tied to in Western medicine that would be considered tied to your adrenals. And it would also be,

if we're talking about cellular energy, be tied to your ATP. So your cell is creating energy, your mitochondria. And the other thing is, it's a Yang deficiency, which means your body's not being anabolic enough if we're talking Western medicine. So it's really not regenerating enough. It doesn't have what it needs for proper regeneration. And so if we're getting to the root cause of this in Chinese medicine, we need to boost qi. And qi is, again, like your battery. If you have your phone battery, if your battery's know, 20%, your body does not have enough juice and energy

to regenerate the tissue. I mean, what's crazy, when you look at the body, so many of your organs are completely new and regenerated every year. I mean, your liver is regenerated every 150 to 500 days. So about every year, your liver is completely new. Your thyroid is completely new every year. Most of your glands and organs. Now, your brain takes a lot longer in certain other areas, but for the most part, most of your organs are, your blood's every four months. And so why aren't you healing? Why is your thyroid store not normal? Well, again, we need to go and address this energy problem and this issue with this yang deficiency. And so like ashwagandha, for instance, it's a qi yang booster. That's what it is, is an herb. So is rhodiola rosea. So are cordyceps

mushrooms. So is ginseng. So those are typically qi and yang boosters that help people with hypothyroidism. And if you know, like if I'm comparing the way that conventional medical doctors take care of hypothyroidism, most natural, but also those people that really focus on root cause, they're very different. You know, conventional medicine, they're going to say, here's Synthroid, here's just a conventional medication, and it never actually fixes the root of your thyroid issue. Natural doctors will tend to say, maybe let's go gluten-free or let's take a few of these supplements. And it's way better. I mean, you'll see good results with that. But if you want to fully reverse hypothyroidism, you really need to

address all causes. And so you have to address, again, the chi deficiency, which is going to be tied to your purpose in life emotionally. If you have a strong purpose, you know what you're called to do, that will help that organ system. Also, if you have the right nutrients. Now, I just covered this on my podcast, and I think this is absolutely mind-blowing. Did you know that if you've taken birth control for 10 years, your chance of having hypothyroidism goes up by 283.7% according to one large-scale study. Wow, wow, wow. Wow. And I've known this for years, but I never see anybody talk about it. But one of the biggest causes of hypothyroidism in the entire world today, in America specifically,

is women that get on birth control when they're younger. I mean, that's almost my entire generation. So you know the most surprising thing for me when I got into my functional medicine practice? The amount of women who came in with hypothyroidism. Nobody told me when I was going to go and open up my clinic that almost every person I cared, almost every woman that would come in in their 30s and 40s was going to have, like young women starting families, was going to have hypothyroidism. And I started going and doing the research on this. Here's why this happens. When you get on birth control, your body, it starts pulling nutrients out of your, you start losing certain

nutrients. And the nutrients you lose are, according to, again, this is medical study, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, B9, B12. Now there's others too, and I'll hit on those in a minute. Those are the four primary vitamins that are required for methylation. Your thyroid and adrenals, they cannot function properly without these B vitamins. And so it's a major, major issue. Now there's other nutrients that are depleted with birth control. And anyone can go and look this up. It's all in the medical literature.

Selenium, that's another methylator. Also magnesium and zinc and probiotics and vitamin C. Those are the nutrients that are depleted when you're on birth control. What's crazy is somebody will go into their doctor, they'll prescribe them birth control for everything. Of course, we've talked about this. It's acne. Now it's conception, but it's just, hey, here's so you're comfortable so you don't get your period. This is a lot of women and girls today, and they don't know that it's depleting

their body of all these nutrients and their doctor's never putting them on higher doses of some of these things maybe to make up for it. Now, birth control still wouldn't be good for you and unhealthy, but still, at least, you'd be addressing some of those nutritional deficiencies. So most women today walking around with hypothyroidism, they are severely depleted in one or multiple of these nutrients. And it's part of what's keeping them

in a hypothyroid state. There are other things too, but I mean, that's pretty significant. So I would say you want to get on a methylated B-complex. Also consider selenium, zinc, probiotics. Might be valuable to get a micronutrient test where you can actually test to see, hey, what are you deficient in? And that can be helpful. Either way, though, I would take these nutrients and see how your body does. Again, herbs I mentioned, I would do ashwagandha, raleola, cordyceps. Dong quai for women is very good. If you also just feel weak and tired or have a pale tongue or know you're borderline anemic,

dong quai is a really powerful herb. So if you can do those herbs and you can do the diet we talked about and address those nutritional deficiencies for hypothyroid. I've seen amazing results. One of the things I really like for hypothyroidism is taking glanulars and organ meats. I like taking, now listen, you have to find a reputable right company, but I like taking thyroid tissue along with adrenal, thymus,

and some of those other organs, liver, that are gonna be supportive of those. And probiotics are important too, because you need to be able to absorb the B vitamins. I know I said a lot there, but when I have somebody I'm working with, I'm really working on addressing all those issues. I'm working on the diet, I'm working on the supplements.

I'm also working on the mindset. Hey, let's make sure you have a purpose. Let's make sure also you're sleeping well, because that's when your body heals and recharges. Huge. And I didn't even mention the yang part, which is important as well. But part of that's mostly warming your body,

getting more anabolic. So sleep will help that. Infrared sauna will help that. Warming herbs, like doing a lot of cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, fenugreek, that'll help that as well. What is the problem with hypothyroidism? Like, what are the long-term health implications of having a slow thyroid? Well, the most common symptoms are, one is low body temperature.

And I wish more doctors would just think about this. Why is your body temperature low? Because in Chinese medicine, it's just sort of obvious, like we need to go and warm the body. Like that's one thing we should try and do is naturally warm the body. But low body temperature, thinning hair, fatigue is the biggest one. You also will start to sometimes pick up a little bit of extra body weight, you know, visceral fat around some of those organs in midsection. Sometimes, now this is also tied to adrenals. Sometimes you can start to get a little bit dark under the eyes too. You age a little bit more quickly. And just fuzzy thinking, if your thyroid is off in connection, especially with your HPA access, it can really start, you just don't feel like yourself sometimes. Like you can't just think clearly or straight.

And so that can be another one. But fatigue is the biggest one, along with cool body temperature. Does this affect fertility? Oh, yeah, of course. Well, think about it. We just talked about this with Chinese medicine. I mean, if you are hypothyroid and your body is cold internally, it's going to affect you. Now, it won't keep most women, though, from conception. It will keep some, okay? And it just really depends. Because there's some women listening and they're thinking, well, I have hypothyroidism and I have no problem having kids.

Yeah, and so sometimes you're just fine with it. But my guess is if I looked at the medical literature, which I have not looked at this, but I would guess if somebody has hypothyroid, they have a slightly elevated risk of infertility compared to women who don't have hypothyroid. Is this also something that can happen from extreme dieting and exercise? Yeah. Well, so I think that, yes. I mean, you're wearing out. If you're overexercising, doing a lot of CrossFitter triathlons,

again, your battery is too low. I mean, your body is smart. If you've got a low battery, your body's like, I have to create a new human being. So it knows. That's why, that's what I taught. You have to get that battery,

those adrenal up with the B vitamins, the adaptogenic herbs, some of the other things, the rest. So, yes. Coming off of birth control, I've also heard that it can be very detrimental to the gut. Well, almost everyone starts getting yeast infections and candida. It's a major, because yes, that happens. And so what I have people do is get on a diet that's mostly meat, vegetables, berries, have them do cranberry as well, some other things so what I have people do is get on a diet that's mostly meat, vegetables, berries, have them do cranberry as well, some other things. But I have them do typically at least 100 billion IUs

of probiotics daily, at least. I tend to have them do like an Espio probiotic and another brand, do higher doses. But then also just give their buddy time. It'll tend to balance out, but it can take months. For some people, they've been on birth control a long time. It can take a year or two, but if people do everything else right, it'll balance out more quickly, but yes. I had candida and mold, was able to get rid of it using golden thread, Elysium, all the good herbs. Now I got my gut test back and I have H. pylori. I have

staph. I forget how to say the full word. SIBO, a parasite. And it's confusing to me because I am one of those people who lives an extremely healthy lifestyle, pretty much just eat meat, veggies, berries. And now I feel like I have this whole new can of worms. So what you've had happened is, is your bacteria has sort of migrated up too far into your GI, okay? And there are things you can do for that. One is, you're type A, okay? You're an achiever, you're a go-getter,

but you really need to balance work, life, and play. So you need to really have solid yellow lines around, not doing anything, not getting ahead. Reading a novel that's just a novel. Going on a walk, just to go on a walk and not thinking and walking as fast as you can. Just play, just going on a date and not talking to your husband about work.

So that is really, really important for that because it's a stress thing. You started to stress that upper GI area too much. And also when you eat, chew 30 times, never be on a device, look outside. It should take you an hour to eat lunch. You should just sit there and just slowly eat and take your time.

I just slammed my lunch before this. Yeah, you should go on a lot of walks. But really, it's all about being too in a hurry, and that'll help. Licorice root, SBO probiotics tend to be good for this. Acupuncture is good for this. There's a few other things we can talk about later. But I think that those are some things initially that would be helpful. It's funny you say that because my husband and I are both struggling with the same gut problem.

And we both have an issue with being constantly in a rush, like this urgency for no reason. We're both very obsessive. We're very routine-based. And I think letting go is like the key, but it's also the hardest thing for me to do. So hard. But I appreciate your advice on that because I kind of know that deep down, but hearing it from someone like you is really helpful. Yeah.

What is something you recommend to women who come to you that have PCOS? Because that's a topic that we hear about a lot from my community. Yeah, well, first off, no, PCOS is predominantly an insulin issue. There's all these types of diabetes. You got type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, type 3 diabetes, which is Alzheimer's. I guess we could call PCOS type 4 diabetes.

Alzheimer's, I saw someone, maybe that's type 5 diabetes. So all of these are insulin issues. So we want to take care of, we want to balance insulin. You know what's really interesting? I did a blood glucose monitor, a continuous blood glucose monitor from Levels. And the things that did and didn't impact my blood sugar were just really surprising. Driving. Oh. I'm like, is driving that stressful?

It is. Wow. So there are certain things. So I bring that up to say, and it's like, I can eat potatoes all day. That doesn't affect my blood sugar at all. But certain fruits, boom. Cherries.

Okay, that's for you. I ate three cherries and mine was like, whoop. Yeah. Now, I don't think that's everything. Part of it is how fast is it balanced and what is your resting and others. But I do think it whoop. Yeah. Now, I don't think that's everything. Part of it is how fast is it balanced and what is your resting and others. But I do think it's good to watch. And so my point is you want to be conscious of it's not just food.

You want to be conscious of the food. Chromium is great for this. Berberine is great for this. Cinnamon and fenugreek. Those are some of my, probably the fab four, I think, for blood sugar. But those are some things. And then getting a lot of protein, you know, more of a higher protein diet,

getting some of those healthy fats in, like avocados, olive and olive oil, and coconut, getting some good omega-3s via wild salmon. So I think if you got a really good, clean diet, you take some of those supplements to balance out blood sugar. Again, I think acupuncture's very good at this condition, like helping with that in particular as well. And then I think don't be rushing around. I think doing a continuous

glucose monitor would be really, really fantastic for people. And you don't have to have it all the time so it stresses you out, but wear one even for just one month and just pay attention. So now you're more aware. I mean, now that I've done it for a month, I don't need it as much. I would benefit less from it because I just know now because I really am aware of what impacted me when and how. But yeah, PCOS,

those things would help a lot. I could ask you a million questions, but I would like to end with just hearing one tip you would give everyone listening who maybe wants to live a more healthy, positive mindset moving forward. What's the first step they should take? Yeah. I would say prioritize and then have your priorities first thing. So I'll give you an example for myself. Every morning I do what I call a spiritual triathlon, and then I eat something very healthy, and then I get a few minutes, a little bit of time with my family. And so my spiritual triathlon is I go out and I just do a quick walk and just say, tell God everything I'm grateful for.

I then come in and I'll make my smoothie. You know, I tend to do a superfood smoothie with bone broth protein and collagen and some plant protein and berries and coconut milk. And then there's like 30 other things. So I don't wanna list them all, but I do that. And then I'll sit down, drink that while I read my Bible. And then I will maybe just spend a few minutes in prayer.

And then by then, like my four-year-old now is coming down, seeing her and spend a few minutes. And when I do that, it's like, it's when the morning, when the day. And one thing I tell people too, if a lot of these changes seem like a lot, well, just change breakfast. I mean, if you change breakfast,

you've changed a third of your diet. That's an incredible, incredible change. And I think today people need to continue to be aware that health is body, mind, and spirit. Work on your physical health, but also really devote some time working on your spiritual health, getting around other people as well that love you, that support you, that are pursuing their faith and growth in life, and other people that are healthy of mind because you become like the people you spend the most time with. And so your inner circle is incredibly important.

When you look at the Harvard study, there's a study done, I think it was a very long-term study, might've been 85 years, and they found the number one determining factor of longevity is having a great community and support group. And so it's probably the number one thing you can do for health. And so be aware of community and support group. And so it's probably the number one thing you could do for health. And so be aware of that and pursue that.

You know, I told somebody this recently, I said, you know, when I dated Chelsea, before we got married, or before we got married even, I wrote down all the things I was looking for in a spouse. I wrote down, I love my wife to be spiritually on fire for God and mentally stimulating and beautiful and help me grow. And she makes lemonade out of lemonade. So I wrote down all these things.

Being grateful, not entitled. And I found that in my wife. And people should do the same thing with their friends though. If you wouldn't recommend that your child hangs out with somebody that you're hanging out with, then you shouldn't be hanging out with them either. And so go and write down who are,

what are the characteristics of those people that you want to spend time with? Now, you also want to make sure you're becoming that sort of person in the reciprocal manner for that iron sharpens iron. But that's another thing I would say, just, you know, I think that's going to bring somebody, you know, health in body, mind, and spirit.

Beautifully said. Josh, where can everyone find you online? Where can they listen to the podcast? Where can they buy the book? Let us know. Well, one, I'm stoked to have you on my podcast. And so my podcast is The Dr. Josh Axe Show. And I've covered a lot of topics on Apple and on YouTube, but people could also search like Dr. Josh Axe hypothyroid or Dr. Josh Axe birth control on YouTube or Apple. And they could watch some specific podcasts where I've covered those topics.

My Instagram handle or social handle, I guess across the board on social and YouTube is at Dr. Josh Axe. And new books out. It's called Think This, Not That. It was a New York Times bestseller. Really excited about it. People could check that out on Amazon.

But thanks so much for having me. I love this conversation. This was so fun. Thank you so much. Thanks for joining us on the Pursuit of Wellness podcast. To support this show, please rate and review and share with your loved ones. If you want to be reminded of new episodes, click the subscribe button on your preferred podcast or video player. You can sign up for my newsletter to receive my favorites at marilowelland.com. It will be linked in the show notes. This is a Wellness Out Loud production produced by Drake Peterson, Fiona Attucks, and Kelly Kyle. This show is edited by Mike Fry, and our video is recorded by Louise Vargas. You can also watch the full video of each episode

on our YouTube channel at Mari Fitness. Love you, Power Girls and Power Boys. See you next time. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and does not constitute a provider-patient relationship. As always, talk to your doctor or health team.