The Dr. Josh Axe Show - 7 Things I Wish I Knew in My 20's

Episode Date: June 4, 2024

The habits you build in your 20s can make or break your future health and wellbeing. In this must-listen episode, health expert Dr. Josh Axe reveals the 7 keys to thriving in your 20s.  Dr. Axe shares: How your friends impact your future The #1 skill people in their 20s should learn How to boost and protect your fertility Finance tips that will set you up for success Don't let this crucial decade pass you by. Tune in to get Dr. Axe's proven strategies for setting up unstoppable health momentum in your 20s and beyond.  Want more of The Dr. Josh Axe Show? Subscribe to the YouTube channel. Follow Dr. Josh Axe Instagram Twitter Facebook Tik-Tok Follow Leaders Instagram Twitter Facebook Email Newsletter ------  Links:  https://discover.nutrition.org/content/teens-and-nutrient-deficiencies-growing-public-health-crisis https://www.hsis.org/the-hidden-nutrition-shortfalls-putting-young-health-at-risk/  https://theconversation.com/nutrition-in-adolescence-multiple-challenges-lifelong-consequences-and-the-foundation-for-adult-health-175071  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10502556.2023.2179837?journalCode=wjdr20  https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/how-to-invest-in-your-20s  https://www.aecf.org/blog/spotlight-on-youth-mentoring  https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/intimately-connected/201901/do-contraceptive-pills-affect-attraction  https://behavioralscientist.org/quality-sex-relationships-birth-control-pill-research-effects/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Dr. Joshax show. Each and every week, I explore the science and principles and how to grow in body, mind, spirit, and take your health and your life to the next level. On today's episode, I'll be sharing these seven keys to staying healthy and optimizing life in your 20s. Now, listen, I think this can benefit everybody in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and beyond. But if you're in your 20s specifically, these are principles that will radically, I guarantee it, change your life. By the way, make sure to subscribe to this channel and hit the notification bell so you don't miss a single episode. Number one, have a healthy friend group. Listen, here's a reality.

Show me your friends and I'll show you your future. If you are running around with people that are not ambitious, that are not purpose driven, that don't want to live meaningful, fruitful lives, then they are holding you back in life. They are keeping you from doing the great things that God has called you to do. You're wasting your talents. And I can tell you there's so many people that get later on in life and they say, I wish I wouldn't have wasted life in my 20s. So if you want to be one of those unique individuals, the top 1%, then what you need to do in your 20s is find a friend group of iron sharpens iron, people that help you grow and go to the next level in your life. If you're going to grow, you need to hang out

with a group of people that are committed to grow themselves. Here's what I would do as an exercise. Write down the five people you spend the most time with. And I want you to rank them on a scale of one to ten. Ten being they help you grow tremendously. They help you grow in your character. So you are more loving because of them, more grateful. You learn so much from them.

You're more wise. They're very disciplined. So you're more disciplined. So write down on a scale of one to ten, where do those five people rank? and be brutally honest with yourself. And then I want you to think about who are some people, some groups that you could go to start spending time with? And maybe you're not gonna know them,

so you'll actually have to go and find the group. But if you do, write down, even if it's just one person that's not in that five that you need to go and spend time with and go and spend more time with those people. Now here's something I've discovered. I've had a couple times in my life where I've had to make this transition.

One of the first was when I was in my 20s. And I remember feeling like what I had to do was I was hanging out with a bunch of frat guys and saying, you know what, these guys are just corrupting me. Like they're not making me better. And I just felt empty inside. And by the way, this is one of the reasons you know. If you just feel like you've got a lot of pleasure in life in terms of just whether it's just going out and drinking or whatever it is. But you just feel like a sense of like emptiness.

Like you know you're called to have. You know you're called for more in life. You know you're called more to do with your life. And I just felt this emptiness. And I remember praying and saying, God, would you send me a flood of great men into my life that can help me grow? And then I started going to things like church groups and entrepreneur, like other growth groups and things that were motivated, inspired, purpose-driven people were,

met a group of guys. And over time, became closer and closer with them. But I did have a period there were a couple months where I felt a little bit where I was with by myself more. Now, looking back, it was very healthy. I was by myself more and it gave me more time to reflect, to finally think, to read and learn and grow, but also at the same time, start developing better friendships with people. But I'm telling you, listen, there's another saying it's this. It's that it doesn't, you know, success is not about what you know, it's who you know. And anyone in business will tell you that if you want to be successful, it's not just what you know,

more importantly is it's who you know. And you need to pursue, just like you would pursue a spouse, just like you would pursue something in athletics, like running to win the race. You should pursue great friendships and finding the right people in your life in the same way. Now, some people feel guilty for leaving their friends behind. But they're making that choice. You're not in a way. They're choosing to be stuck in life and to commit themselves to mediocrity. You're pursuing greatness and the only way for you to be great is to run around with other people that are committed to being great and their character and their skills and growing in life. And so don't feel bad about it. Here's another rule. If you wouldn't have your future kids or someone you deeply love,

if you wouldn't want them to hang out and spend all their time with those people, then you shouldn't be spending your time with them yourself. Here's what I encourage you to do, get involved in your community. It could be church groups, could be volunteering, could be an entrepreneur. group, could be a Bible study, a book club, learning new skills, some sort of athletic group, but some sort of group where people are committed to both their character and growing in an area of life. You know, here's the reality. Most people in their 20s today are obsessed with this alcohol culture, you know, and listen, alcohol, listen, if you have one or two glasses, one or two days a week and you do it with friends, having deep, meaningful conversations, that's fine, and that's one

thing. But going and drinking to be, you know, basically just to get drunk on a regular basis, studies show it destroys your lifespan, hurts your mental health, it's just not good for you. But basically, the moral of the story is is principle number one. Find a healthy friend group. By the way, there's a study done at Duke University, and they found out, hanging out with more disciplined people than you makes you more disciplined. And so you want to hang out with people that are better than you at things, and that will cause you to grow in your life. By the way, remember this.

This doesn't just impact you in your 20s. This then will set you up for the rest of your life. It will then impact your 30s, 40s, 50s, and beyond. So there's no more important time than the younger you are, the earlier you wanna start making these changes. Here's principle number two, learn to cook. Learn to make food for yourself. You'll save money, you'll be healthier,

and you're gonna learn a life skill, that is great for building better relationships. I mean, this is something I was committed to. My mom and my grandmother taught me how to cook. And then when I eventually got into grad school, I started learning to cook myself, started experimenting, trying things in the kitchen, and I became a really good cook.

In fact, if I wasn't a doctor and an educator, I would probably want to be a gourmet chef. I started to love food because of this. But people in their 20s usually eat out more after moving out with their parents. And they also don't eat enough nutrient-dense foods that are going to help their mind, that are going to help their body continually get healthier. And nutritional deficiencies in teens also carry over into the 20s affecting development. Now, teen girls in particular have low intakes and girls in their 20s,

low intakes of protein, iron, magnesium, folate, B6, and B12. So there are major deficiencies that we have in people in their teens and 20s. Now, the best way to deal with that is focusing on getting a lot of meat. That's ideally organic, if you can afford it. If not, it's okay. But meat, vegetables, fruit, things like sweet potatoes, rice, beans. but eating those sort of nutrient-dense foods will really help your life. Here's another crazy step.

25% of adolescent girls have anemia, a condition where someone does not have enough quality, red blood cells that are carrying oxygen to their tissues. Now, this can be linked to painful menstruation, just general up and down mood. It can be associated with just feeling fatigued and weak and tired all the time. a number of mental health issues, depression, anxiety. So a lot of girls today in their teens and 20s

are dealing with blood deficiency in order to cure that, getting more quality red meat, beets, green leafy vegetables in your diet, taking a multivitamin, all of those can help. And specifically, if you have that exact condition, taking the herb Don Quay and an easily digestible food-based iron will help that tremendously as well. But basically, one of the cures to all of these vitamin and mineral deficiencies are making food for yourself at home.

When you're eating out, the reality is it is typically void of any vitamins and minerals. And so you really want to be able to make home-cooked meals. My brother-in-law now is in his 20s, and he's learned how to make sourdough bread. I'm talking about like the real deal, better than any restaurant you've ever been to, sourdough bread. And he's also got a crock pot he's experimenting with. He's got a blender. so he's always making different foods. And this is what I did in my 20s.

For instance, I decided when I was in my 20s, I wanted to learn how to make a great breakfast. And so I experimented with a lot of different pancake recipes using gluten-free flour, corn flour, almond flour. So I used all these different flowers. And by the way, sometimes it weren't good. And I just kind of ate it anyways because I didn't want to waste the money. But over time, by the way, the first recipe I ever put in any cookbook I ever had,

it was a recipe for blueberry pumpkin pancakes. And I discovered that recipe because myself and my friend Brian in college were testing out all these different recipes. We tried just blueberry. We tried chocolate chip. We tried banana. And our favorite was mixing blueberries and a little bit of pumpkin. And they just, they tasted incredible. And, you know, we learned that from that process.

And I became a really great cook by my practice. Here's the other thing is when I started dating for like my wife Chelsea, you know, when she would come over, I would impress her. I remember I made her this meal the first night night. The first night we went out, went on a date when Chelsea came from Atlanta and visited me in Nashville. And the next night I made her a meal. I made something. It was chicken that was with a gluten-free crust. I cooked it up in this coconut oil and olive oil. And then I did sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, some garlic. all sauteed. I did the side of sauteed kale with some garlic and onion and oil. And then I made dessert, this chocolate avocado moose. And I think I really impressed her. So also, if you want to get married, find a great spouse. One of the greatest ways to impress anyone is being able to make great quality food. Okay. And so learning to cook in your 20s can be an absolute game changer for your health, even for your relationships. In fact, Chelsea and I both learned to love to cook until we would have other couples over and make big gourmet meals from them and have a great time as well. So

learn to cook to get healthier and to live your best life in your 20s. The number three principle that is crucial for people in their 20s is exercise for longevity. I see a lot of people today, and by the way, I'm speaking from experience who are going and doing hardcore crossfit and hardcore marathons and triathons and doing things that over time start to actually destroy their body. Now listen, I would rather you exercise hard than be sedentary and never work out at all. But you want to find a happy medium where you want to exercise frequently, but do it in a way that's kind to your body. Doing just traditional weightlifting. It tends to be kinder to your body, especially if you are not going too heavy, trying to max out and you're protecting your body.

your low back. You know, doing heavy deadlifts, max out squats, again, some of the things I talked about, you'll pay for it later if you're injuring your joints. So walking a lot, you can do some running, but you want to do it on softer surfaces, like go to a track or a treadmill or a trail. You want to cycling is great, swimming is great, doing some classes can be great. If you ever get a trainer, get some of that helps you with functional movement. But here's just what I would say, working out wise do not abuse your body and your joints in your 20s because you'll pay for it later on and start feeling all these energy injuries typically when you get in your 40s i did this when i was doing crossfit i injured my back for the first time my wife doing crossfit injured her knee

to where she could hardly walk or or or well she could walk but she couldn't run she couldn't walk fast she couldn't be on her knee too much because she got so much inflammation in her knee. And so we were, we, we started paying for that in our 30s. So be kind to your body if you want to have great longevity in the future. Number four, stay off birth control. Birth control prescribed for every, it's prescribed for everything from acne to cramps to supposedly balancing hormones to also avoiding pregnancy, which also encourage sexual promiscuity, which by the way will destroy your soul and your mind and can even

damage your physical health. Doctors frequently tell women there is no reason not to be on birth control. It's normal, it's healthy, it's what all young women should be on. But here's the reality. That is one of the greatest lies of all time. Here's a reality according to the clinical studies, not the doctor who's tied to the pharmaceutical company that's going to get paid for you taking that and and basically hurting your health because of it according to studies birth control deplete

your body of vitamin B1 B2 B6 B9 vitamin A vitamin C magnesium zinc and probiotics it lowers platelets and leukocytes so it weakens your blood and weakens your immune system it lowers your sex drive it lowers thyroid hormones, including T4, so you have a greater likelihood of having hypothyroidism in the future. Did you hear me? If you've ever taken birth control, your chance of having hypothyroid in the future is greater.

And the number of women now who have had to get on thyroid drugs because they took birth control is immense. It also lowers free testosterone by as much as 61%. So now women are less, fit and less tone because they're imbalanced in that hormone as well. And it increases your risk of depression by 130%. And there are more serious side effects. I'm not done yet. Birth control also decreases your preference for facial masculinity. So women on birth control are more attracted to men with more feminine features. However, when they get off birth control, then they want a more masculine man. And

And then they have racial relationship issues which can increase the divorce rate. Multiple studies have found that women who go on birth control become attracted to significantly less masculine men than they did before. They were on birth control. And they're really more attracted to like a child, like a bad boy that are less dependable, sensation seeking, easily bored and adventurous, rather than the masculine man that is steady, that is disciplined, that is confident, that is responsible. And so you've got to know it is so important, women, that you consider whether you should take birth control or not.

And for anyone that I know, I recommend absolutely not. When it comes to birth control, the best advice I can give you is to, and this might sound old fashion, but to refrain from having sex until you're married. It's what the Bible teaches. It's what people that really have a high level of virtue. You want to know what the right thing is to do? Well, look at the Bible and the most virtuous people that have ever lived, and that's what they believed, and that's what they all attempted to do or did themselves. And so having sex outside of marriage is connected with emotional instability.

You're, you know, in the Bible, it says, and the two became one flesh. You're becoming one with another person. And then there are something, there's something called soul ties when that happens. And so it is very emotionally destructive to have sex outside of marriage. And so really my encouragement there is save yourself for that person, that one person that you're designed to be with the rest of your life. If you want to be blessed and doing that in your teens and 20s will help set you up for an amazing marriage and relationships in the future. Number five, find a job you love. The average American spends 90,000 hours of their lifetime working.

You have to love it or you'll be miserable. Now, let me say this too. In order for you to get the job you want to do in the future, sometimes you have to do things you don't like. So I think it's partly finding the job you love, but even more so it's using your gifts and talents. You want to find a job and you tend to most love those jobs. If you're doing things you like to do, let me give me an example.

If I were to try and do anything with a lot of math, like accounting, even if it paid well, I'm not going to like it. And a big part of it is I'm just not good at it at all. Versus my wife is very numbers driven. She actually, I've heard, she does most of the finances in the house. And it's because she enjoys it. She's very task oriented. She's very numbers focus.

It was great in math in high school. I was, you know, great. You know, later on, I got good at English and science. She was, you know, math. And so all that being said, you know, you need to figure out what you're good at, what your unique, God-given strengths and gifts are and work on developing those. I tell most people in your 20s don't worry about making the most money. Make money.

But more than that, get a job where you can learn and grow and develop the talents that you have. Think about where you're most talented and gifted. If you don't know, ask others. If not, try a bunch of things. see where you start to thrive. But more than that, more than anything, find a job where you can develop your gifts to set you up in your 30s to make money but do what you're most passionate about and can have the most impact doing. In number six, if you want to rock out your 20s and have an amazing life in your 20s, expose yourself from the good and eliminate the evil. How much time do you spend on social media and on TV and on media devices?

the average person spends two and a half hours on social media and two and a half hours watching TV. However, a lot of younger generations, people now, if you're watching this in your teens and 20s, it can be upwards of nine hours a day on devices. I would recommend you do two things. One, cut down on that time. Spend more time rather than sitting on the sidelines, get the game with real people. Don't just build relationships on social. Go out, meet people in person. Get, spend time outdoors, do more physical activities. Do your best to take whatever your media time is and cut it in half or cut it way, way down and replace it with things. The other thing is when you are on your social devices or on TV, whether you're watching a TV show, listening to music, scrolling on social, make sure the content is uplifting and it's good and not evil.

If something is making you feel terrible about yourself, if it's promoting sexual promiscuity, drug abuse, a lot of violence or just basically moral, you know, moral grayness, it is corrupting your character. It's corrupting you. It is keeping you from being the best you can be. We all want to get the end of our life and say, I ran the best race. I absolutely know that I used my time wisely. And if you in your 20s especially spend a lot of time on social media following people just for entertainment or things that are, again, morally gray or corrupt,

it is going to corrupt you. And so what I would recommend you do is, go through your social media, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, wherever you're on, delete everybody that is not causing you to become an amazing person. Delete all of them. Start following people in accounts,

start following things for leadership growth, personal growth, health accounts, spiritual growth, follow those people, follow Sadie Robertsons and Tim T. and people like that that have a great amount of character that are doing good in the world and focus on those things. You get what you focus on. If you focus on evil, you're going to become evil. If you focus on good, you'll become good. If you're listening to music that's terrible, it's going to make you terrible. If you focus on music that is uplifting and inspirational, you'll become inspiring yourself. You not only are what you eat, you become what you consume. The music you consume, the teximate.

TV you consume, the social you consume, you become that. So know that every time you're listening to that and every negative music, it's making you negative. It's taking your life in a negative direction. Every time you're listening to or watching or scrolling that positive thing, it's making your life more positive, generally speaking. But do those two things. Make sure what you're exposing yourself to is good and make sure that you have less time on tech devices and more.

time building real relationships with real people. Can I tell you, it's so much more meaningful for me, for me to spend, if I would just spend, you know, two hours a day scrolling like this, versus I'm going and hanging out with, you know, one of my best friends, Dan or Jordan, and having a real meaningful conversation about life, about the things we're called to do and laughing and having a good time, it is way more healing, healthy and better for my life to have that real in-person connection than to have a superficial, not-reel-fact, official connection with somebody via a social device. My last piece of advice, number seven here,

is if you wanna maximize your life in your 20s, find a mentor. 74% of those who had a meaningful mentor say that the person contributed significantly to their success in life. I can tell you for my life, here's the principle. You become who you surround yourself with. That includes the peers from step number one,

those your friend group, but also your mentor, group. Those two, number one and number seven, your peers and your mentors, they help mold you into who you become. And so you want to find mentors. You want to find mentors in two ways. You want to find mentors that are in person, actually in person, that are just a little bit ahead of you in life in some area. It could be there a little bit more spiritual, have more spiritual maturity than you. It could be they have more wisdom than you in some area. Maybe it's in business. Maybe it's whatever it is. You know, when I was in high school, I got grounded once for a long time, but my dad said, hey, you know who you can hang out with? Jason and Chastity Sloan, this couple.

And they were about, I want to say, nine to ten years older than me. She was my sister's basketball coach. He played football in college for a school in Kentucky called Georgetown. And they were, again, a young couple in their mid-20s. And they really were into fitness. And she was a strong Christian. So I started hanging out with them. And I learned about fitness and I learned about nutrition. And I grew so much in my health and understanding because of them. And then later on, when I got into college, I found a group of guys that were about three, two of them were about three years older than me who started mentoring me and God in my maturity. Then I got a business mentor, a doctor who was an amazing person who mentored me. And then I had Jordan Rubin. And so I've really

focused a big part of my life on having mentors in person to help me grow in different. areas of life spiritually, physically, in my career, find in-person mentors. In addition, find mentors online and virtually. For instance, as I wanted to grow as a leader, I read John Maxwell, everything he put out. Today, if I want to grow in my ability to understand psychology, I read and watch a lot of Jordan Peterson. I'll watch his YouTube videos. I follow his social accounts. I went back and watch his college lectures. I listen to his book on audio. I read a hardback book. So I have these people, the John Maxwell's, the Jordan Peterson's, the pastors that I really admire. And I am constantly reading and learning from them. And so find a mentor. And here's the other reality.

Leaders are readers. If you want to be a leader, you've got to be learning. Okay, leaders are learners. So always learning and growing in life. Here's another stat. People in business who are mentored report a 70% improvement in their decision-making skills and are promoted five times more often than those who are not in a mentoring program or who don't have a mentor at work. So the single fastest way, let's say two ways, but the fastest ways that you can grow in your career and become more successful are to have a mentor at work and to dedicate yourself into taking whatever skills you have to the highest level possible. If you want to advance in your life and career, do that. If you want to find a mentor, look within your community, like your church or synagogues or your

place of worship. Also, again, go out and find entrepreneurs. Look for people a little bit ahead of you in life. People that you respect and truly admire, both for, this is critical, both for their skill and whatever it is, but also their character. You know, I had a choice between I could have gone and mentored under one doctor who was really a great doctor. And I actually went and shadowed him one time, but I decided to choose another doctor who was equally as good, maybe a little less, but because he had incredible virtue. He was really generous, had an amazing relationship with his wife and kids, and so make sure that your mentors are good people. I hope this is blessed you. I know that these principles have allowed me to thrive in my health, my success of my career, and my relationships. And I truly

feel like I have a just beautiful, meaningful life, and I'm living a great life. And if you can start following these principles in your 20s, it's going to set you up to live the most significant life possible in your 20s and beyond. And I hope you've enjoyed this. By the way, think about if somebody else needs to hear this information. Maybe you're watching this and you're in your 50s. And you know somebody in their 20s. Share this with them, encourage them to watch it because sometimes it just takes one video, one book, one word of encouragement. to change the trajectory of someone else's life. So thanks everybody for tuning in here to the Dr. Josh Jack's show.

We're constantly diving deep into how to grow and experience breakthroughs in your body, your mind, and spirit. Make sure to subscribe, like. And again, thank you all of you for sharing this, because, again, I truly believe this can help bless someone's life, helping them create a breakthrough. I'll see you on the next episode.