The Dylan Gemelli Podcast - Episode #162: 81 Minutes Of The Best Biohacking & Longevity Advice Featuring Dr. Josh Axe PART 2

Starting point is 00:00:00 I was diagnosed with a serious spinal infection and told I may never walk again. So I did not walk on my own for an entire year. I was in bed. Pretty much 24 hours a day outside of the two hours. I would literally crawl on my hands and knees and get in a pool. Do you feel that your level of connection with God and your positive attitude and your outlook was a key factor in your healing? Absolutely. You know, one of the things that I believe really strongly in is faith-based healing.

Starting point is 00:00:22 Think about what Jesus said in the Bible. Jesus never said, eat this food. You'll be healed. He said your faith or your belief. That's what healed you. The conventional blood tests are looking at so little and there's almost no depth at all. You know how many people I know that have had blood tests done

Starting point is 00:00:35 and they've been said, you're totally fine. And then a few weeks later, they were diagnosed with cancer. A few weeks later, somebody had a heart attack. You know, there was a Nobel Prize winner in the 1950s named Otto Warburg and he said, I now know the cause of cancer. It's two things. Here's an interesting question. How much do you actually know about the way your everyday habits are supporting how you age?

Starting point is 00:00:54 We hear so much about longevity right now. sleep, protein, strength training, nutrition, all of these things matter, but there's another layer that doesn't get nearly as much attention as it should. What's happening inside your cells? Your mitochondria produced the cellular energy that your body relies upon every day. And mitochondrial dysfunction, that's considered a central hallmark of aging. And that's why I've been so interested in the work timeline does with mitapyr. Midepure is their pure and patented form of uralithine. It supports mitochondrial function and cellular renewal by activating mitapagy, your body's natural process for clearing out damage mitochondria. But rather than just tell you about it, Timeline wants you to think

Starting point is 00:01:36 about your own longevity habits. So they've created a longevity quiz that takes just a few minutes and it looks at some of the everyday habits that can support healthy aging. And the best part, if you complete the quiz, timeline will send you a free sample of might appear gummies. So take the quiz, learn a little bit more about how you're supporting the way you age and try might appear for yourself. Go to timeline.com slash gemelli to take the longevity quiz and get your free gummies. That's timeline.com slash gemelli. All right, everybody, welcome back to the Dylan Jameli podcast. I am in my favorite studio. I've been in a lot of studios all over the United States, hopefully soon in the world, but this is my favorite. And I'll tell you what, I'm starting to fill it

Starting point is 00:02:20 home and here with my friend. I appreciate the hospitality and allowing me to be here with you. And this is our second interview and we have something special coming on top of this for everybody. But I came down here in February and had a high expectation. And when I left, it was far beyond what I would have ever dreamed of. And the friendship and the back and forth was such a huge bonus. and I'm thankful to call you a friend, a brother, and the things that I get to share with you, learn from you, which is just astounding. And I told you before,

Starting point is 00:02:58 I've been learning from you for like 15 years now and you had no idea. But the work that you do prior and continue to do, it's heartwarming, it's helpful, and it showcases who you are and what you stand for. And you stand for everything that I stand for. And so it's so nice to sit. here and converse with you, relate with you and share you with my audience and you already have a

Starting point is 00:03:23 huge audience. It's just the level of gratitude that I have for you, just for who you are. It's amazing. Family man, brilliant, knowledge, wisdom and what you do. Now, he has a new book coming out with Dr. Will Cole. It's called, Heal Yourselves. And it's one of many of the things that you put out. I can't give you enough love and accolade, my friend. So welcome part two. with Dr. Josh Axe. Hey, Dylan, thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here, excited to talk all things, health and nutrition and everything else today. So thanks again.

Starting point is 00:03:56 I love coming to see you down here. It's awesome, and I hope to have many more with you. So as always with you and I, we're limited on time. So I'm going to drill you today for everything that I can. And you know how we do this. So we're going to go all over the place. But I do want to start with heal yourselves because I was able to start reading it. And I got an advanced copy.

Starting point is 00:04:16 and I find that you have taken it to another level. Mitochondria is the big buzzword these days. And everybody talks about it, but I don't know how much they really know. Give me the background on how you formulated the book and why. Yeah, I think the big thing that we looked at was, how do we reverse irreversible conditions? And part of this was birthed out of,

Starting point is 00:04:41 but some people know this, some people don't, but about three and a half years ago now, I was diagnosed with a serious spinal infection and told I may never walk again. And I went into a doctor's office. Actually, it was flown there. I was on my back. And he said, Josh, you'll likely have to have your spine fused and be permanently disabled. And for me, it just wrecked me for about 24 hours until I really spent time in prayer

Starting point is 00:05:07 and felt like God said, listen, you're going to be okay. And then I thought, you know what, I'm going to do everything I can to heal. But I need to figure out how to heal irreversible conditions because, I would go and do research online. And I thought, okay, well, this doctor told me one thing, but let me go and find people that reverse this condition. And there was almost nobody. Now, I did find one person, one person,

Starting point is 00:05:28 who was able to fully reverse this type of the damage done from the sort of spinal infection. One thing that was hard is I knew someone else, or I know someone else who had the same thing happen, and they had to have their entire spine fused. And so I said, okay, well, what's actually happening? well, there's an infection in my bone. So I need to get rid of the infection.

Starting point is 00:05:48 And then I need to create regeneration to where that tissue is completely new and healed and younger. And how do I do that? So I started doing research. And one of the things they came across was oxygen. The more oxygen I could get to the area, the better that area would heal. And then I read about, okay, what about blood flow in a similar way? Okay, the more blood flow I can get there, the more stem cells I can get there,

Starting point is 00:06:08 the better it can heal. Okay, what else creates tissue regeneration? Well, I got turned on to this peptide called BPC-157, TB-500, this sort of blend. And that creates something called angiogenesis, which is new blood vessel formation, new oxygen to an area, tissue regeneration and healing. And so I said, you know what, I'm just going to do everything I can. And by the way, Dylan, I didn't walk for an entire 10 months and then two months on a walker. So I did not walk on my own for an entire year.

Starting point is 00:06:34 I was in bed pretty much 24 hours a day outside of the two hours. I would literally crawl on my hands and knees and get in a pool. I mean, that's how bad I was for an entire year. And this was, again, just three and a half years ago. And I decided, and so I said, I'm just going to do everything I can to heal. And so I started doing all the things we've talked about. I was doing everything from methylene blue IVs to all kinds of things. But I did learn what made the biggest difference and what made the most impact.

Starting point is 00:07:04 And I continually did a few things were big for me. I did hyperbaric oxygen, so really driving oxygen. and deep into my body. I did those peptides and I ate very, very cleanly. And then I just continued to move and did sometimes hot and cold therapy, getting more blood flow to the area. I did that consistently for a year. And then I started walking. And then I started getting rid of pain. And then the doctor told me, he said, at your very best, you'll have chronic pain every day the rest of your life. Well, now it's been three years since then. I have zero chronic pain. I am the best shape of my life. I feel great.

Starting point is 00:07:40 I'm walking around, you know, throwing my, you know, two-year-old and six-year-old daughters in the air in the pool. And I just feel fantastic. But God used that situation to teach me how to heal ourselves for cellular healing. And I thought, you know, I want to take this exact same principle and teach people, how do we support healing everything from autoimmune disease to cancer to these diagnoses that people get and they don't know what it is? Old injuries that never healed, how do we heal those things? So the book I really walk through, how do you heal anything? I love that. And I always say, I don't believe in any way, shape, or form that there's no incurable disease or injury, infection, etc.

Starting point is 00:08:23 I believe that God gave us a cure for everything. He already knew what was going to happen ahead of time. So he knew, do you feel that your level of connection with God and your positive attitude and your outlook was a key? factor in your healing on top of the modalities and things you were doing? Absolutely. You know, one of the things that I, uh, I believe really strongly in is faith-based healing. And I think there's good research on this in terms of prayer and your belief. I mean, I mean, think about what Jesus said in the Bible. Jesus never said, eat this food. You'll be healed. This you'll be healed. He said, your faith or your belief. That's what healed you. And I found this in so many patients that if they really

Starting point is 00:09:04 believe that they're going to be healed. More often they will be versus those that don't. And so I absolutely believe it is the most important part of healing is prayer. In fact, when my mom was diagnosed with cancer and given a less than a 40% chance to live, the first thing we did is got down on our hands and knees and prayed and said, God, would you please heal my mom? And then we started believing that and visualizing. Yeah, my mom even went so far as to, you know, picture herself 20 and 30 years in the future with her grandkids at Disney World. I mean, just seeing and believing and moving towards that future. You know, I do want to say that I came across a study quite a few years ago,

Starting point is 00:09:43 and I remember from the studies, there was a scientist who was breaking down why he believed that you can, why the placebo effect works, and how to even amplify the placebo effect. And the placebo effect is where you believe something. And even if, like, so if you have a sugar pill, if you believe that it's helping you, most of the time it will. Yeah. which is crazy. But the most important part of the placebo effect is being able to visualize that future and

Starting point is 00:10:09 believe it's going to happen. So you see and you know exactly what it is you want. So if you're saying to yourself, hey, I'm 30 pounds overweight and I'm a type 2 diabetic and have insulin resistance. If you're picturing yourself and saying, you know what, I can see myself one year from now, 30 pounds lighter. I'm looking at my A1C numbers and my fasting blood glucose and those numbers now. I went from a 6.8 down to a 5.4.

Starting point is 00:10:32 and they're seeing that number, they're seeing their bite, they know that. That's the single most important part of that. And think about how the Bible teaches this. I'm even thinking about how God use this with Abraham. He said, you know, Abraham, look at the stars of the sky. Look at the sand on the ground. Like, that's how numerous your descendants are going to be. So there's this power of seeing and knowing this is the future.

Starting point is 00:10:52 I think that's an important part that sometimes people don't use in their favor. Another one is feeling it emotionally, like thinking about, okay, you know what? What are you going to be feeling a year from now when you're 30 pounds lighter? You've reversed type 2 diabetes. You know, what are you going to feel? Proud. You're going to be happy. You're going to feel lighter.

Starting point is 00:11:13 You're going to feel energetic. You're going to feel athletic. How are you going to, you know, so feeling that then. And by the way, I did this when I had my spinal infection. I pictured myself doing a triathlon again, running around playing with my girls. I pictured all that. And then I would feel just the sense of joy of that healing. And the last thing is this.

Starting point is 00:11:31 This is interesting. The third thing people can do to amplify the placebo effect is have a plan of how they're going to get there. Because sometimes you don't totally believe yourself versus saying, you know what, if I just do this amount of protein, this amount of fiber, if I walk daily, twice daily for 20 minutes, if I wait, train two days a week, you know, I will be there, right? And so having a plan to follow. But that's how people can amplify the placebo effect.

Starting point is 00:12:01 But I do think that generally, yes, our belief and our mindset about healing is the single greatest factor for healing. You can literally like pray or wish something into existence by your thoughts. I've done it multiple times. I remember the first time I learned about consolation and desolation. And when you're in that state of consolation, everything's great. And most people forget to pray when they're in that state. For me, and I don't know how you are, that's when I pray the most.

Starting point is 00:12:28 And when I'm in my worst, when most people are begging for help, that's when I pray the least. And you need to have that counterbalance in your mindset. And when you're able to get in that state of desolation and something's wrong and let it go and know that it's going to end, because if you start telling yourself this is never going to end, it's not. It's just not. It's going to get progressively worse. So I believe everything that you said to the highest level, because I've experienced it so much. I used to have that negative, negative mindset.

Starting point is 00:12:56 And then it would compound and compound. If you believe you'll heal, you'll heal. You will. You said something, I want to ask you. So you said you were throwing everything at your injury, which I did with my heart, too. Were there some things that work, some things that didn't, did you find that maybe you did too much and you had to cut back? And like, how did you decipher what was going to work and what wasn't? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:13:19 Yeah. So, and by the way, I do want to throw a disclaimer out there. When I say heal anything, I believe that the majority of time, when it's a chronic health condition, almost every time you can heal it. There are some genetic factors. There are some things that are challenging. But generally, again, I've seen people heal, again, cancer, autoimmune disease. I've seen people, even with, you know, neurological conditions, see sometimes it was a 100% improvement.

Starting point is 00:13:46 Sometimes it was a 50% improvement, but there was change there. I think generally I knew what would be the most effective after reading research and having some experience. But again, I definitely didn't know everything. Like one of the things that did surprise me was the peptides. I mean, that was something I was surprised at how effective it was at supporting healing. I would say if I had to put in ranking order the things I physically noticed the biggest difference was, I would say the I noticed the biggest difference was stem cell. I had stem cell injected in my facets and around the area and did an IV of stem cells.

Starting point is 00:14:21 I noticed the biggest difference there. The second were peptides. The third, and I would almost. in terms of rehab and getting back to where I wanted to be, this was very, very important, doing the right type of physical therapy. Now, the problem is, is that I would say 90% of physical therapy is not the right type. And it's the same thing in medicine. It's the same thing in almost in a lot of professions today is that, you know, people really had to, like, just like I believe in personalized nutrition, I believe in personalized functional training in functional

Starting point is 00:14:53 physical therapy. So like if you would go in and have an injury and you went to a physical therapist and they had you doing knee extension and back extension and just the same old stuff that people have been doing for 50 years, that's just not the most effective for most people today. Versus if you go in and are doing the right type of core training, you're doing things. Let's say like for me, I had a really rotated rib cage, rotated pelvis, my hamstrings weren't active. My serratus wasn't active. And so I worked with a really incredible therapist on retraining the way I walked and moved, it got different muscles to activate. Like when I was growing up, I played soccer and I was, and I did a lot of cycling. So I was so quad dominant that my hamstrings

Starting point is 00:15:32 and butt didn't really fire enough. And so went and retrain that. But that was a really big part of overcoming injury is finding the right type of trainer to retrain my body. And then, of course, I think diet is critically important, reducing inflammation. And then one, and I'll say this, I didn't feel things right away, but it definitely made a difference long term. I started noticing after so many months, I'm like, okay, my body is healing better now, doing hyperbaric oxygen therapy, you know, driving that oxygen deep into my body, you know, I came across a study that said, this was done on people that had what I had. It was called osteomyelitis, and that was an infection in the disc and the bone. And it found that most people got antibiotics for three months,

Starting point is 00:16:16 six months IV, six weeks IV and six weeks oral. I was able to cut it down to just about 28 days total because of the hyperbaric chamber. And I did that based on there was another study that said they were able to do that and see the results in healing with that. So, but I think those are the things that I saw the biggest difference with. I want to get into the hyperbaric, but do you know how you got the disease in the first place? Yeah. So I went in and I had injured my back doing CrossFit and weight training. And I had pain for years. I mean, a couple of years, I mean, it just was very, very bad. And to the point where I mean, I'd have to lay down every day. This is for two years.

Starting point is 00:16:55 It just was a lot of pain. And then I went and I got stem cell therapy. So this is where they took my bone marrow, concentrated it, re-injected into my disc and the facets around my bone in the joint. And I noticed like a 50% improvement. Yeah. I got it done another time. And then I got back to like 95, probably 90%. And so I was so close to 100%.

Starting point is 00:17:16 I thought, you know, I'm going to go do it one more time. and something went wrong. And I woke, the next few days, I felt just, I felt worse after the injection, which I usually didn't feel that bad. But then for the next few weeks, I felt worse and worse and worse. So finally one morning I woke up and I literally couldn't walk. I couldn't walk. We had to call an ambulance.

Starting point is 00:17:39 They had to come pick me up, fly me from Puerto Rico to Florida. It was, it was just shocking. And so it was from a stem cell injection. And something happened to where I don't know if a mycotoxin got in there or what exactly happened. But that's that's essentially what occurred. Now, I went and I actually, once I fully healed, I did get stem cell again, but I got it done at a clinic called Rehealth, where we did cultured umbilical cord cells. And it was just, it was like night and day. I mean, incredibly effective.

Starting point is 00:18:15 But there's a great, anyways, but that's how it happened. It was just, you know, the risk was like not one in a million, but close to one in a million. And, yeah, it was an unfortunate incident. Yeah. Was that a clinic out of the country? You don't have to name it. Well, it was, but let me say this. The clinic I went to originally was it's the most well-known and largest and most credible stem cell clinic chain in the entire country or maybe world.

Starting point is 00:18:42 So it wasn't like, I wasn't like, no, I was going to the top of the line U.S. established clinic. So it wasn't, no. Just a freak thing. Yeah. Wow. Oh, man, that's scary. But I mean, that's, that's, there's always a one and a million probability in anything you do, right?

Starting point is 00:18:58 Well, you know, and God used it for good. I mean, now I've learned so much about how to heal really challenging conditions from my own experience. I want to talk about the HBot a little bit. I've talked about it, but not in depth on my show. And so I'm curious as to kind of just to explain the whole problem. process and what one can expect from doing it. Like what types of things would you go there to heal or what's the expectation level there? Yeah. Well, let me tell. I first got turned on to hyperbaric oxygen therapy when I was researching my mom when she had cancer. Because my mom went through chemo quite a few years ago and in radiation. And one of the things hyperbaric oxygen is used for in terms of integrative cancer treatments is recovery from from the cancer treatments themselves. Yeah. Because most of the time when people go through chemo therapy and anybody with chemo and

Starting point is 00:19:47 radiation will tell you this, there's lasting damage after they have those treatments. So hyperbaric oxygen therapy is the fastest, in my opinion, the most effective way, along with dietary improvements to fully recover and heal from the side effects of chemo and radiation. So I started getting turned on to it there. Then my first year of practice in Nashville, this was 20 years ago, I started working with a lot of kids on the autistic spectrum disorders. and I came across research on the benefits for children following a diet that was gluten-free, casing-free, a very specific diet.

Starting point is 00:20:23 It was called the Gaps diet for supporting healing, leaky gut, and then also getting in hyperbaric chambers was very healing to them and their bodies. So that's where I first got turned on to hyperbaric oxygen therapy. And then with my own condition, I did deeper research. And so basically what hyperbaric oxygen therapy is you get in this chamber. And what it does is they used to fill the tank with oxygen, the whole thing you're laying in. But now you can just wear an oxygen mask. It's a lot safer because when you fill something with oxygen, it can be more, there's a risk of things becoming flammable.

Starting point is 00:21:01 So now you can just wear a mask. And so that risk is diminished by, you know, by a great amount. So you're breathing in oxygen. And then it's pressurizing, almost like you're going underwater. very deep underwater. So you're getting oxygen in your body, and then there's a great deal of pressure. What the pressure does is it causes the oxygen. It breaks it up and makes it essentially smaller, and then it drives it deeper into your tissue. So there's certain areas of the body that don't get as much oxygen. Right. So like your bone, your disc, a lot of organs, they don't get as much oxygen as they do

Starting point is 00:21:38 when you're younger. And so the more you age, the less oxygen you get to some of those areas. So what it does is it literally forces and drives oxygen into these areas. You know, there is a Nobel Prize winner in the 1950s named Otto Warburg, and he said, I now know the cause of cancer. It's two things. It's a lack of oxygen in the cells, and it's sugar because cancer feeds off of fermentation. And so whenever I'm working with cancer, those are the two things I'm looking at. Okay, we've got to get rid of sugar in most part in feeding, anything feeding cancer,

Starting point is 00:22:08 and we need to drive oxygen into the cell. But hyperbaric does that better than anything. Now, I do want to say there are other great ways to drive oxygen in the body. Deep breathing is great. There's a type of exercise called EWAT exercising without oxygen or with lower oxygen. So you can put on like a mask and breathe in. You're just getting less oxygen than normal. And then afterwards, all of a sudden your body brings in more oxygen and drives it a little deeper into the body.

Starting point is 00:22:36 So there are other ways that are free. You don't have to have a hyperbaric chamber, but doing, you know, different breathing techniques. and just generally exercise is good for driving more oxygen into your body. I have a question. So I wrote a paper in college. This was like 2001. And you know, the internet was very minimal at the time. And I was writing it on trying to cure diseases that were only having suppressive therapy.

Starting point is 00:23:03 So I was looking at AIDS, like HIV, herpes, things like this. And I came across a journey. German web study that showed that they were able to kill these diseases by smothering them with oxygen. And I was thinking, wow, like I found the greatest thing ever and still here we are today. And it's like something like this that you're talking about. Some people look at that like it's crazy or that it doesn't work. And then there's people that have used it. How effective is it at like, is there any merit to that that it could smother and kill a disease?

Starting point is 00:23:40 100%. I mean, I think if you think about cancer, almost like you would a parasite or a fungal infection, there is a level of when you're driving oxygen, those cells have a harder time surviving. I mean, a lot of them are anaerobic. I mean, they feed off of sugar. They don't need oxygen versus if you can drive more oxygen, it changes that environment. You know, in my, I have a brick and mortar. I have a physical location in Nashville and the Franklin. area of Nashville called the longevity clinic. And so we treat and take care of a lot of patients with issues like Lyme disease, parasitic infections, mold, long COVID. And we have a treatment in there. It's called Igbo ozone. So where oxygen is Ozone is Ozone. Yeah. And so it's a form of oxygen or

Starting point is 00:24:32 ozone. And what we do is, is you take somebody's blood and you put it through this filter. It filters out the infection and then it puts ozone into the blood of the person and then we put the blood back in the person. It's about a 90 minute session. But when we do that therapy over, let's say you do it three or four times with somebody, I mean, the results that we, the results that people see, again, with the things we talked about like Lyme or Epstein-Barr virus or CMV. And even seeing results with, you know, to your point, herpes and some of these other types of viral infections, there really are tremendous. And so there's two things. I think there's a great benefit of hyperbaric oxygen therapy, of driving oxygen deep into the bone and the organs of those tissues. There's also

Starting point is 00:25:16 great benefits of doing ozone combined with that where you're actually going. And ozone acts like an antimicrobial. It acts as a natural antibiotic or antiviral, killing a lot of these different types of pathogens. You're setting me on another journey here to get into this more. But I firmly believe it. And I know I didn't stumble upon that back then for no reason. And I knew that at the time. but it was kind of like, you know, I'm 20 years old and whatever, you know, people looking at me like I'm crazy. How often can one do that the hyperbaric chamber? And is it something that somebody should consider, even if they maybe don't have anything negative going on? Is there other health benefits? Well, yeah, I mean, it's absolutely used for longevity today. I mean, that's why I'm personally,

Starting point is 00:25:57 why I personally use it now is I'll get in a chamber for supporting longevity. Yeah. Of course, I mean, the area where it's actually most effective in terms of research is if anybody has ever had a serious burn. It's I mean, that's why they're in hospitals today, hyperbaric chambers. If somebody has a burn or gangrene or anything like that, I mean, it, because it kills infection. When you drive oxygen the area of the tissue can flourish and heal so much better. Athletes will use it for, for recovery quite often. But overall, I mean, we tend to use hyperbaric oxygen therapy for cancer support recovery. We tend to use it for, again, chronic infections. We've talked about anybody who's had a stroke, anybody that's had a concussion, any sort of thing where we want to drive more oxygen in their brain.

Starting point is 00:26:44 But you can use it for almost every type of condition. Everybody's going to benefit from more oxygen driven into every cell tissue and organ of their body. Would you find that to be effective on people that have heart conditions, maybe heart failure or blockage or anything like that? Would that have any efficacy? Yeah, I think so. I mean, again, more oxygen, better function and healing for, I think, numerous, numerous conditions. Now, I do think if I have somebody with heart issues, diet is the most effective thing, right?

Starting point is 00:27:10 So more fiber, more protein, a very metabolically friendly diet, high omega-3s, and then a lot of foods like pomegranates and apples and blueberries that are going to be very, very supportive of, you know, protective of the cardiovascular tissue. And then even herbs like garlic and turmeric and rosemary are very effective as well. So if I am taking care of somebody with like high Apo B, high LP, LP, L.A, That's the sort. I put them on kind of very similar to a Mediterranean diet along with lots of things like pomegranate and and garlic. And it's very, very effective. Yeah, I'm going to get it. And I want to talk about a cellular health diet with you in a second. I got one more question. If you were ranking modalities or things that people could use for healing because there's so many things. Yeah, there's a lot. I mean, and things for longevity. And it's confusing. And people are saying a lot, well, we have to have millions of dollars. to do this and that yeah, some of these things are expensive.

Starting point is 00:28:10 Some of these things you can't buy for your home, you got to go someplace to use it. But maybe give me your top three that you think hold the most value or merit for people to consider for longevity, for healing, things of that nature. Would you put the hyperbaric in that top three? Or what are you looking at? Well, if it's okay, let me do two categories. Let me talk about the ones that are free and foundational and the ones to build on top of that. Listen, you can get radically healthy without all of the latest biohacks or therapies in these

Starting point is 00:28:37 things. And the biggest need of movers there are, there's a couple things you got to fix. Cortisol and insulin are very important. And so with cortisol, it's building peace. It's, it's waking up and reading your Bible, it's spending time at prayer, it's going on walks. It's just doing things to just build a peaceful spirit, connecting with community. But that's going to help balance cortisol. When it comes to insulin, eating a diet that's high in protein and fiber, basically meat fruits and vegetables, meat fruits and vegetables, meat fruits and vegetables. You know, if you can do that, you're going to get radically healthy. And then get good sleep. So those are kind of the top three things, I think, for most people that are going to be the most efficacious. And then movement,

Starting point is 00:29:16 walking, weight training, some form of exercise. You don't need to go and lift a bunch of weights all the time. Now, that's great, but just move. Okay. Now, on top of those things, I would say, listen, I really believe so much in personalized medicine. So I think it depends on the person. I think the one that I tend to have a lot of people do up there pretty frequently the most with almost everybody benefits from is probably a PBM red light better panel. I mean, getting red light supports mitochondrial health, cellular energy. I think most people probably need a much higher dose than what they're getting with one of those panels or not.

Starting point is 00:29:52 They could probably do 30 or 40 or 45 minutes in front of it rather than a shorter period of time. So I think that that is a really phenomenal type of thing. therapy. After that, I would say, oh, it's so hard for me to kind of say just what my favorites are. We have something in our practice called a hawkett, which is a sauna where your full body is enclosed in a sauna and your body gets a little bit warmer than in a sauna and you're getting transdermal ozone while you're doing it and you're getting PEMF. You're getting like eight different therapies at once. So that's pretty cool. But if you don't have that, then I would say infrared sauna. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:30:31 I mean, in fact, infrared sauna might be number one. I mean, in terms of, because there is so much great clinical research on infrared sauna, there are so many benefits of heating the body, increasing circulation in the body, and what that does for detoxification, what it is for hormones, what it does for heart health. So if I had to go back and restart this, I would say infrared sauna or the next level above, that's Hockett, that you can find in certain advanced functional medicine clinics like the longevity clinic. But that's number one, red light therapy. And the number three, probably has hyperbaric oxygen.

Starting point is 00:31:01 therapy in terms of my favorites. And then I think I think IVs are beneficial for some people as well, but I would say that the ones I just mentioned are my top three. Okay. So this is why I love these conversations. Next question. Since you brought up sauna, this is one of the ones now that I'm seeing more questions asked on. Infrared was really popular for a long time. That's all you really ever saw. But now I'm seeing more of the classic. The classic is kind of coming back into the picture. Sure. And it wasn't. I mean, it's always been there, but it seems like infrared dominated. In the past two or three years, I've really started to see more of a pushback to the classic and still the infrared.

Starting point is 00:31:40 What are the differences? And which one do you think is it sufficient for where maybe one person would benefit more with the other? Or do you find one to just always be better? Yeah, no, no. So what I would say is if you're getting in a classic sauna where you're getting the temperature up there around 180, one, I mean, you're getting. getting the temperature up higher. You're going to sweat more in there. And overall, it's going to create probably a greater level of detoxification.

Starting point is 00:32:09 Okay. I just via because you're just sweating more profusely. But the heat stays more in the exterior. Okay, still greatly beneficial, but the heat doesn't get driven as deeply. One of the benefits of infrared is with those infrared lights and wavelengths, they're penetrating deeper into the body. And so there is going to be more mitochondrial support. with infrared, if somebody has a low body temperature,

Starting point is 00:32:33 like if I have a patient with hypothyroidism or chronic fatigue or cold extremities, I prefer infrared sauna because we are really trying to drive heat into their body. And this is a principle of Chinese medicine, by the way, when you look at something like hypothyroidism, their body temperature is always in the 97s, not the 98's. And their body is not in mitochondria

Starting point is 00:32:55 not generating enough heat and body temperature. So they're cold all the time, their hair's thinning, you have all these issues that are related to poor mitochondrial health. So infrared sauna, for me, is superior there. Yeah. I generally prefer infrared for most chronic health conditions. But if it's for pure detoxification and wanting more cellular exchange, like fluid exchange,

Starting point is 00:33:19 I would say that the classic sonnas would win out. But overall, listen, they're both phenomenal. I don't think you can go wrong with either one. If I had to give an edge to one, I'd do infrared by just a hair. but they're both phenomenal. I like that old classic smell, like, you know, from when we were younger, because that was all that was around. Yeah, you smell the cedar.

Starting point is 00:33:39 It's therapeutic. Now, my infrared sauna I have from sunlight, I mean, that's, that is, they're using cedar in there as well. Yeah. But because those classic sanas, the heat is so much more, you know, I love going in there and, you know, pouring the water on the rocks. I mean, there is something very, even therapeutic, even emotionally for me about that, because I just have great memories, like going with my dad. We were, you know, and getting. it done. So I think they're both wonderful. The holiday in parties, I remember, and I'd go in there

Starting point is 00:34:05 in like seventh and eighth grade and that nostalgic smell. I have a concern sometimes with highly trained athletes that get in there that are already sweating a lot, losing a lot of electrolytes. Because, I mean, I love to sweat, but it's become like a problem for me personally because it's so much electrolyte loss and fluid loss between all the cardio and then something like that. Yeah, I mean, that's where with athletes, so again, this is some Chinese medicine, I'll kind of bring into this is that, you know, they're, let's say you have a professional football player. I mean, their body is generating a lot of heat. If you have somebody who's weight training all the time, their body's generating a lot of heat. And over time, that might put them in,

Starting point is 00:34:42 what Chinese medicine would be calling a little bit more Yang dominance. And that can be more inflammatory. And those people might benefit from cold plunge sometimes. And I think getting in a hot sauna, if they've already been sweating, let's say, you know, they're doing two days out in the summer, going to getting a sauna more, it's going to lead to de-hound. hydration, it's not ideal. But I'll just say that is a small segment and subgroup that may not benefit nearly as much from sauna. Whereas my patients, I take care of, it's a lot of autoimmune disease, a lot of hypothyroidism, patients with, you know, cancer or things like that. I mean, generally, they need more heat and more circulation. I agree. The first sauna I ever bought was a sunlight in one of

Starting point is 00:35:25 like 2013. I just was researching and that was one of the only companies even around that. then and then I I've had one at every place I've lived like because every time we move I can't take them with me so I've had several really nice ones and I'm I'm firmly with you there I just I miss the traditional but I stick to the infrared I find for the heart and everything you know for me personally so I want to talk about on the cellular side you know we've talked a lot about like how to really treat ourselves well but I'd like to get into a cellular health diet like what kind of food are going to provide the best structure and health longevity for ourselves. And I've also heard this term cellular hydration.

Starting point is 00:36:09 So I'd love to get into that too. But let's start with the diet and then talk about what is cellular hydration and how do we even go about doing that? Yeah. Well, in terms of the diet, the first thing I want to say is that I think everybody's unique individual and you need a diet customized for you. One of the things that Dr. Cole and I did in the Heal Yourselves book is we lay out the ideal cellular diet based on your condition.

Starting point is 00:36:29 So people take a quiz and we'll learn, hey, do you have one organ aging faster than the other? And this is really fascinating because most people have one organ. Like I'll just share like I had a family member, my father-in-law who died early at 60 years old died of a cardiovascular event. And, you know, muscles healthy, brain health, all of those organs very healthy, but one organ aging faster. And that's true for most people. I think about Dr. Cole very similar. His dad had the same thing happen. And for me, like I really want to do everything.

Starting point is 00:36:59 I can to help people uncover which organ is aging prematurely and reverse the age of that organ. And so what we do in the book is we lay out, okay, if your heart is aging too quickly, here are the exact foods and supplements to do. If your brain is aging too quickly, if it's your immune system, if it's your hormones, if it's your gut health, if it's your thyroid, we help identify that in the book and then customize it for those people. But generally, when we think about mitochondrial health, but generally when we think about cellular health. One of the most important components there is your mitochondria. Another one

Starting point is 00:37:33 would be your cell membrane. And then your nucleus. And so looking at these, and then your lysosomes would be another one. So it depends on the area of your, but let's focus on mitochondria and the cell membrane. When it comes to mitochondrial health, pomegranates are probably the number one food. I mean, beef liver would also be up there. Wildcott salmon would be up there. But there's a compound in pomegranates and they're they're in other foods to a lesser degree but like raspberries and walnuts called alegic acid and allegic acid can turn into something called uralithin a okay and your lithon a is something that creates mitochondria biogenesis and is great for creating mitochondria and creating more health than your mitochondria so pomegranates are going to be very very high on that list as our

Starting point is 00:38:17 berries are going to be very high on that list um your cell membrane is made up of fatty acids in fat so in that case, I would put salmon and sardines at the very, very top of that list because of EPA and DHA and then extra virgin olive oil. So when we hear you are what you eat, it's mostly true about fat and protein. And so I would say it's really what I talked about earlier. It's a, it's a, the ideal diet is low glycemic, nutrient dense fruits. Yeah. It's vegetables and it's very nutrient dense meat, especially things like wildcott salmon. I mean, that that is the, those are the foods most healing for the cells of most people. Dr. Ax, are you telling me that vegetables are okay to eat?

Starting point is 00:39:02 Because I hear these beer mongers telling us they throw out these things at you that don't want you to eat them and everything like that. I see that often and it drives me nuts. Could you clear that up? Yeah, I mean, from a personalized diet standpoint, there is a small subgroup of people. If they're having something called SIRs, it's a systemic inflammatory response syndrome. If somebody, and again, this is like 1% of the population, or if somebody has very severe mold toxicity, those people may do better for a period of time.

Starting point is 00:39:31 I'm not saying forever, but for a period of time on something like a carnivore diet. Because what happens is if you're eating meat only, meat doesn't ferment. Yeah. Okay, versus fruits and vegetables can cause these. And most of the time what people are having is a histamine response, or at least in a lot of cases.

Starting point is 00:39:47 Right. And so, or even a form of SIBO where there's this intestinal, over this bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine. And so the body's over responding. Well, when you switch to meat, it doesn't do that. It calms up for a time. But you should get the body to the point where you can slowly reintroduce foods. Right.

Starting point is 00:40:05 Like, you know, I would start with like pears and blueberries and sweet potato, things like that that are very avocado that are easier to digest and move those into the diet. But, no, I mean, listen, for at least 90% of people, they should be eating vegetables. I agree. I agree. One of my staples. I am finding over the last three, four years, because I told you I'd drink pomegranate juice daily. That is like the super, I don't like the term superfood, but if I was going to say, that would be like my number one. Yeah. It really would. Do you find that too with pomegrants? Well, here's what I would say. Most of the time, I don't like fruit juice. But if you're working out in the middle of a workout, that's the time to do it.

Starting point is 00:40:49 Okay, if you're going to do a juice, that's the time to do it. And pomegranate is probably the most therapeutic juice out there from a cardiovascular standpoint. The other one I would put in there for athletic recovery that's really phenomenal is tart cherry juice. Yes. And so there's great research on that improving sleep, improving, you know, melatonin. I mean, I really, really think that that's fantastic as well. But those are the two I tend to prescribe or recommend the most is pomegranate and tart cherry in terms of juices. But I also typically encourage people to take those during their,

Starting point is 00:41:19 drink it during right right before during or within two hours of working out that's when i do the pomegranate because i don't drink fruit juice at all i only do it for plaque in the arteries is why i did it's it's fantastic especially if people have high apob or or l p little a from from cardiovascular markers it's wonderful you know when i do it i after the the long cardio sessions i do i do it right after because i want some carbs yeah and i i don't like crave to eat carbs and that's like my go-to and i mix it with electrolyse right after i get done with like the heavy heavy, heavy session. And it's perfect. And it's, it's rather kind of hydrating and satiating for me. That is great. You know, and I'm not slamming gallons of water from being so thirsty because that,

Starting point is 00:42:01 it accumulates. It does. It makes you feel heavy and it's not the greatest thing in the world. Yeah. Well, you, you talked earlier about, or asked about cellular hydration. Yes. And, you know, our cells need, what tends to create the most cellular hydration is sodium and potassium. Right. Just getting the right ratios of those. And, you know, our cells need. And, what tends to create the most cellular hydration is, And for a lot of people, we're getting those. By the way, sugar also does. I mean, there's a number of things that help kind of bring more fluid in the cells and out of the cells.

Starting point is 00:42:27 Having a healthy cell membrane, healthy fatty acids. I mean, that's also important. But and having cortisol where it should be. If cortisol stays too high, that can cause some hydration issues. But most people today are not getting enough potassium. I actually think that's the most important thing. I know we want on this whole sodium kick. And I do think that there are some people.

Starting point is 00:42:49 people that, you know, could use sea salt more liberally. And I think that it's probably not as, it's definitely not as problematic as the American Heart Association said it was in the past, especially when we're talking about real sea salt. However, I think I would have preferred people being more conscious of getting more potassium in their diet than they would have even sodium, because I think especially when we're talking about cardiovascular disease, yes, more beneficial. And I don't think you typically want to get that as much from a supplement. I mean, you can. I mean, there are some electrolyte powders that have more of like a one-to-wean, ratio and there's more potassium.

Starting point is 00:43:22 That's where I would typically land and recommend it for most people. But a lot of it depends on activity. If you have an athlete that is sweating profusely, they do need to get a little bit more sodium. I mean, there's no doubt about I used to do triathlons. And I needed to do quite a bit of sodium. Or actually you could die. I mean, there are people that drink only water.

Starting point is 00:43:39 And you don't want to do that. But most people are not deficient in sodium. Yeah. Most people are deficient in potassium. And you're going to get potassium primarily from certain types of fruit. I mean, Kiwis are incredibly high, of course, bananas, but fruit tends to be high in potassium, the highest food. Coconut, of course, watermelon.

Starting point is 00:44:02 And then potatoes, especially sweet potatoes, and then beans. I mean, those are the foods that are the richest in potassium. And, I mean, a lot of people are not getting enough fruit, enough sweet potatoes or enough beans. And so, yeah, I do think that potassium is a bigger issue when it comes to cellular hydration. What sodium tends to bring more causes you to hold more fluid. Yeah. And potassium typically cause you to flush out more fluid. It's sort of like this sodium potassium, like pump and exchange it's happening.

Starting point is 00:44:32 I used to teach people. One of the reasons that they were holding and accumulating water taking growth hormone was sodium to potassium ratio. And like bodybuilders at the time couldn't even figure it out. And I said, look, you're supposed to get 4,700 milligrams of potassium. They'll say 3,500, but ideally 4,700. And sodium should be at like the 23 to 2,400, that ratio. And that's standard in like you said with, with athletes. So a couple things on my end that I've noticed.

Starting point is 00:45:01 One mistake that I made that I recently corrected was drinking RO water without putting back the minerals in it. That was dehydrating me. So I was drinking water and drinking a lot, which I thought was good for me. and I was actually dehydrating myself. Yeah, well, let me say this. I think, I still think reverse osmosis water is fine. I, I, I, so there, this is debatable, but I don't think, there's something called a TDS score and it's total dissolved solids.

Starting point is 00:45:29 And that's looking at how many minerals are in your water. I, this is just my personal opinion. I don't believe you actually should have minerals in your water. I think you should be getting your minerals from food, from fruits and vegetables primarily. And there's other food. There's plenty of other foods that have, you know. But I do believe that that's where you should be getting most of your hydration. But a lot of people that are doing, I remember in college when I was working as a personal trainer, you know, I was taught to drink a gallon of water a day.

Starting point is 00:45:59 Right? Everybody's walking around with their big gallon of water. Almost everybody walking around with a gallon of water. And that's probably a little bit overkill. Now, I do think you want to get quite a bit of water. I agree. But that's probably a little bit too much. So I switched to Ophora water.

Starting point is 00:46:16 Have you heard of that? Benazotti turned me on to them, but I'll have to show you. Is it a hydrogen water or more of an alkaline? Yes, both. Yeah, I like, I do. Now, listen, I do not think hydrogen water is some cure. No. But I do think it's beneficial.

Starting point is 00:46:31 I think it's a great little extra thing you can do. Yeah. And so I like hydrogen water. It's our whole home thing now. It's got ozone, hydrogen, everything. It is structured water. Yeah. Is what it does.

Starting point is 00:46:41 It structures the water. I'm even going to get it in my swimming. pool soon. Amazing. Yeah. So to get rid of the chlorine, because I have salt water now in the pool, but even that, you know, is, well, most people, when they think of salt water, they think that there's no chlorine in it. Well, it's about 60% less, I believe. So it is less water. But for some people, because there's so much salt there, it's a little dehydrating. If it's, if you have to keep your pool really, really warm. I'll tell you, though, man, it'd feel silky when you get out as opposed to that chlorine. Oh, yeah, yeah. We, we have on our pool filter.

Starting point is 00:47:13 now and when we're building a home, we'll do a higher upgrade than we have now. But we do a UV light filter. Yeah. And we do, it's a salt chlorinator. It's salt water pool. But it definitely makes a difference. I'm so glad you brought potassium up, though, because that's one of the things I've actually studied quite a bit. Heart palpitations when you have electrolyte imbalance. Yeah. Right. And I've struggled with that where I finally have figured out how to correct it. Avocados, for me, are huge on potassium. One of the things that I get a ton of. from there too. Well, the thing that's great about avocados is they're high in potassium and magnesium. Yes. And those are the two most important nutrients with any type of, you know, arrhythmia.

Starting point is 00:47:53 Mm-hmm. Yeah. And people don't realize even the slightest imbalance is really damaging for multitudes. It's not just heart rhythm, but it's important to get adequate amounts and to monitor. Yeah. I agree. So when you're looking at a blood panel, because I know you look at a ton, yeah. What are some of the tell-tale markers? for you that somebody has poor cellular health? Yeah, that's a great question. Well, I think so, yeah, so let me head on the cellular health and then some of the other most important markers that are out there.

Starting point is 00:48:25 So when I'm looking at cellular health, one thing we do is we can kind of look at like a mitochondrial score, and you can look at coenzyme Q10 levels. That's a really important nutrient for over mitochondrial health. You've got things. There's actually a score, not a lot of blood tests, do this, more looking at your pyruvate and sometimes lactate. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:48:42 I mean, that can be pretty important for mitochondrial, chondrial health. I mean, I think one of the most important ones, probably my single favorite, is doing what we call an omega-3 index. And that's in part going to impact the cell membrane. And so we talked about every cell's got the cell membrane. If the cell membrane is, you want it, you want it soft and spongy and resilient. If that's the case, if it's kind of soft and spongy, it lets the right things in, lets the wrong things or gets the things, helps detoxify. What happens over time is people, oftentimes your cells become hard and rigid. that memprane becomes hardened.

Starting point is 00:49:15 And you don't want that. So this omega-3 index, I think, is a good indicator of that. There's another type of score I like looking at markers, and they're related to oxidative stress, right? So oxidative stress causes the cells to age more quickly, increases cancer risk, heart disease risk, every condition you can think of. So there's one I really like called F2 isoprostates.

Starting point is 00:49:38 And this is looking at basically, if any of these fatty acids in your body have been oxidized, and damage. So it's probably the gold standard for looking at oxidative stress. There's another one called 08DG, OO8DG that I really like, and that's also looking at oxidative stress. So I like these oxidative stress markers. But yeah, I like looking at the mitochondrial markers, the cell membrane markers, the oxidative stress markers to give me an indication on cellular health. You know, when somebody, I have two clinics. I have my physical clinic here in Nashville. I have people flying from all over the country to see us at the longevity clinic. I also have a virtual practice with health coaches that do

Starting point is 00:50:18 you know that that look at people we do blood work there as well. And there also look at high sensitivity high sensitivity C reactive protein and that's really looking at cellular inflammation. I think that's incredibly important. And then the other one and this is related to cellular health as well is looking at any type of insulin resistance, you know, at, you know, an A1C score, looking at fasting glucose or fasting insulin, those are very important. I think from a cellular health standpoint, the ones I mentioned are probably the ones that are the most important. But I'll tell you the other thing, though, one of the things I've noticed on doing thousands

Starting point is 00:50:57 and thousands of blood work panels is that most doctors are not looking for the right markers. They're doing your conventional CBC and CMP. And where they do those tests is because that's what insurance covers. And they're very cheap. Running those markers costs, I'm not over exaggerating pennies. I know. Versus when I'm talking about the scores that I look at, like an omega-3 index and mitochondrial health and co-Q10, all these others,

Starting point is 00:51:21 these are more expensive markers, but they matter more. They help me get to the root cause more of seeing what's going on. So I also like looking at micronutrients. Like what is somebody's vitamin D or their magnesium or their zinc or their vitamin B12? And most doctors are not running panels. Ferritin. Most doctors are not running panels looking at these micronutrients. and when you look at those,

Starting point is 00:51:43 that is really critically important because if I have somebody that's low in vitamin D or somebody's low in magnesium, almost no doctor's test for magnesium. None. And if you actually know, we do a test, I really love at our clinic here in Nashville

Starting point is 00:51:55 called the RBC magnesium. It's looking at the actual magnesium in your cell. So when most people, doctors today run and they do any nutrient test, they're looking at what's in your blood. Yeah. Okay. Well, you can a lot of times,

Starting point is 00:52:08 your gut can get things into the blood, but oftentimes it won't go. get into the cell. And so that is really the most important thing. So I have seen such amazing miraculous results in patients that come in and they've got like, I had a woman who had just chronic acne issues and skin issues. And her zinc was absolutely to the floor and in her omega-3 index. And she'd even been taking fish oil supplements. We got those levels corrected, acne completely gone. Completely gone. And same thing, PCOS, crazy results there. Men, same thing. They've never had their zinc tested. If zinc is low, vitamin D's low,

Starting point is 00:52:40 so in other nutrients your testosterone just cannot it tends to you have this hormone this sex hormone binding globulin that basically binds to your testosterone so you're you may have a testosterone level I saw this this week in a blood panel the man had testosterone levels and like it was like low 900s but it was all bound up and so his free testosterone was almost it was so low that his body couldn't use it yeah that was one of my first tell tell things that I always look for when someone comes to me and says, I need TRT. I said, that's the first marker I look at is let's look at your SHBG. Yeah. Because if that is high, we fix that. You're probably going to see an increase drastically right away. Yeah. And there are nutrients like zinc. Here's one. Boron is huge for

Starting point is 00:53:25 this, vitamin D that will free up that testosterone. Yeah. And it's it's a very, very, very big problem that most people just overlook. Yeah. And I love what you said because the CBC and the CMP, you look at and that's kind of where the doctor stop unless you go in and request for something. And then oftentimes they'll say, well, why do you want that? And I tell people, go find a different doctor or just do it yourself because that shows you a very, very minuscule baseline. And then it's, well, these look okay. And oftentimes they're really not because you and I both know this.

Starting point is 00:54:00 The scales just keep going like this. The average is like for testosterone, for example, I see that it's saying 200 is an acceptable score now, like right at the bottom. level and I'm sitting here calling that is the lowest quality of life for most people when a man's testosterone is that low when they when quest and lab corp throw out their ranges what is that actually based upon well it's it's typically looking at other people it's the the population of people going and getting lab range getting their lab work done and by the way that group tends to have more health problems yeah and looking at those as averages so those are looking at if you

Starting point is 00:54:35 are in disease state not what the optimal ranges are I mean the most classic example, this an easy one would be vitamin D. They say as long as you're 30 or above. Now some doctors say 20 or above, all right. And so let's say you're at 31. They'll say, hey, you're good. But optimal is probably 50 to 80. And most people are, you know, let's say you've got an autoimmune disease or

Starting point is 00:55:00 a thyroid problem, let's say Hashimoto's thyroiditis or low testosterone or whatever, name almost any condition. And you're at 31, that's too low. that's too low. I mean, you're, you should absolutely be higher than, I mean, in fact, there's evidence on if you have cancer, you should be closer to at least 70, if not 80 or night. I mean, that you should be much, much higher for providing cancer. So some of it depends on the individual. So there's not always this sort of hard number you should be, but for most people, they're too low. And so that's what we, and so when I have other people bring in their blood

Starting point is 00:55:32 panels, I interpret that completely different than their typical conventional medical doctor. And we're able to look at all these different markers together and really help people heal and reverse their condition because we're looking at the markers differently and then have different recommendations based on that. Would you say it's fair to say because this is kind of, I'm throwing this number out there, but would you say it's fair to say 95 to 90% of the answers to problems lie in the more intricate testing as opposed to just the basic panels? Yeah, absolutely. Now, Again, yeah, now, now again, yes. I mean, I mean, the reality is, is that the conventional blood tests are looking at so little and there's almost no depth at all.

Starting point is 00:56:19 Again, they're just looking to see, listen, I know, you know how many people I know that have had blood tests done and they've been said, hey, you're totally fine. And then a few weeks later, they were diagnosed with cancer. A few weeks later, somebody was diagnosed with or had a heart attack or maybe it's a year later, but a serious. health event. This happens all the time. And the reason is, is they're not looking, they're not running the right tests and markers, and they're not interpreting them properly. And then, of course, they're not making the right recommendations either. Yeah. I just budgeted into my yearly planning that I'm doing three to four panels a year. I mean, it may be overkill for some, but I have a condition. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I would say generally, if somebody's getting once a year, I mean, at least,

Starting point is 00:56:59 getting the right type of blood work. But again, not your conventional stuff that unfortunately insurance pays for. You want to get the panels done. that are more extensive looking at cellular health. Absolutely. All lies in the details and the numbers. The data is everything. I always tell people, don't tell me how you feel,

Starting point is 00:57:17 because how you feel can change on the drop of a dime. Yeah. So, and I think, too, some of the most important things are deal with stress and handle your sleep. I think that those are some of the key components to causing disease and causing all of these different,

Starting point is 00:57:36 chronic conditions that we see as well. But I like, too, that you brought up food as medicine. I've said that now for quite a while, too. I think that once we start to dial in diet on a personal level to see what works for you, I've put that at the top of the list for key components to becoming healthier long term because that's something you can control really forever, right, what you're putting into your body. So, but past that, I'm curious. I'd like to get a doctor. Act's current protocol. So could you give us like and the reason why that you are doing this? Are you on any peptides and what are your primary supplements that you take daily right now? Yeah, for my personal use. Yeah. Yeah. So I would say from a dietary standpoint,

Starting point is 00:58:20 I do very, very well in a Mediterranean diet. I mean, that's sort of my body thrives on it. I'm also a big fan of a Bibliot diet. You know, Jordan Rubin and I wrote a book on that. And I think for many people, that's the right diet for them. But from a, I, I am a, I am a, Again, I've just really looked at my own diet, and I've found that doing high protein, a lot of fish. I do the best with fish, and I do really well with chicken. And so I do fish and chicken primarily. Once or twice a week, I'll do like a grass-fed burger or some sort of red meat. I do okay there.

Starting point is 00:58:56 So I do high protein. I do higher fiber. So I do a lot of, I do quite a bit. I probably do one to two pieces of fruit a day. I do a lot of pomegranates, a lot of. of blueberries, a lot of blackberries, a lot of kiwis. Those are probably in apples and pears. That's probably what I do the most for fruit. I do a lot of sweet potato. And in terms of oils, I mean, the two I use almost exclusively for myself is extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil.

Starting point is 00:59:21 I take most of my stress on my liver. That's the way that I've, so and different people tend to have different stresses on different organs in terms, and it's based on the emotions you experience. So in Chinese medicine, I'm going with Chinese medicine. here. I'd be considered more of somebody that when I'm dealing with stress, I tend to respond with frustration. If I come across a roadblock or I want things to happen faster, that all affects the liver. And so coconut oil in particular is easier for the body to digest and break down than other oils because medium chain fatty acids kind of have a much shorter process of being used for energy in the body. So I do pretty well with that. But somebody with cardiovascular disease and more heart

Starting point is 01:00:04 stress, I wouldn't recommend coconut oil as much for them. I would recommend much more just stick to extra virgin olive oil and avocado oil. Yeah. And then, you know, I do, I do some some beans on occasion to, but that's my diet. I mean, I mean, pretty much. And then supplement wise, uh, I take the supplements now based on the advanced blood work panel I had. You know, I struggled with really low energy coming out of this chronic infection for two years. I was just exhausted all the time. Finally, I did this advanced blood panel myself and I found it was very deficient vitamin B2 this is ribofloven now I would have never taken ribofloven it's just a random supplement but my blood work showed I needed that I'll tell you that that caused my energy to go from a six to a 10 and I could just fix it yeah I mean that single supplement

Starting point is 01:00:47 so I take vitamin B2 I take every day I do a type of protein that's high in stem cell and bone broth and that sort of thing so very collagen rich protein powder I do trying to think I do an omega a three supplement. I do a superfood supplement that has like beet juice powder and pomegranate and things like that and a lot of greens and that regularly. I do a turmeric supplement. And then it's based on how I'm feeling. If I'm feeling like my joints need support, I'll do turmeric.

Starting point is 01:01:20 If my immune system needs support, I tend to do a stragglis or olive leaf. Do you do berberine at all? No, I mean, I don't have any, I don't think my insulin's an issue. Yeah. And that's why I wouldn't. And I only recommend it. Burboreen, when I recommend it, it's for a period of time and then I cycle people on and off of that. Because it's very cooling to the body.

Starting point is 01:01:39 It's also antimicrobial. But I do like it a lot for people with insulin resistance. It's one of the number one compounds that I recommend on a regular basis. And then I take a B complex. Yeah. Just based on I have MTHFR and I kind of looked at that. And that's for the most part. There's a couple other things I take.

Starting point is 01:02:03 You do a senolidic or creatine or anything like that? Oh, I do creatine. Yeah. Yeah, I do five grams of creatine a day. Sorry, there's all kinds of stuff I throw in my smoothie. I'm trying to even remember what I put in there every morning. But I think that those are, and then I do a magnesium glycinate at night. Yeah, me too.

Starting point is 01:02:18 But for the most part, and then in the winter, I do vitamin D. I'm getting so much sun. I get so much sun in the summer. I just don't do it. But the rest of the year. What about K2? Do you do any of that? Yeah, with when I take, the vitamin D I have.

Starting point is 01:02:31 has K in it. Okay. Because I know when I get asked that question, I always forget three or four things since the list is normally generally long. But I like you, there are certain things that I do cycle on and off of. I think people sometimes fall into this. Oh, I have to do this forever. And some of the things may be, but some not so much. Yeah. And I don't do peptides all the time. I just, I do them if I feel like I need them. Yeah. You know, so if I have, for instance, an injury I'm trying to overcome, I'll definitely do BPC-157, TB-TB-500, and GHK-C-U, that blend. I mean, that's the one I've done the most. I mean, I've done Epitalin.

Starting point is 01:03:07 Yeah. I've done MOTC and SS-31 for mitochondrial health. And so I've gone through. And then I've done N80 plus, like a niogen. You know, I've done those as well. Oh, one other supplement I take religiously. And it's another one I've noticed a phenomenal difference in my health. And it's called Glynec.

Starting point is 01:03:25 Never heard of it. It's an acetyl-sistine. plus glycine, but it's like, but yeah, glycine plus an acetylcyne. Yeah. And I found that because I have, I mentioned more liver stress than anything else, glutathion for me has just been incredibly helpful for my health. I mean, the things I've noticed the biggest difference, by the way, I also take NMN.

Starting point is 01:03:46 But the supplements I've noticed the biggest difference with are for myself, the ribofloven, the NMN, and the Glynac. Absolutely, I've noticed. improvements. I take NMN as well. And, you know, I had elevated ALT and AST for like two and a half years. And I mean elevated like 200s. And I had a fiber scan with Siggy and all of these and everything was perfect. And he was telling me I had the liver of an 18 year old. And I couldn't get it down, no matter what I did. And you know what did it? In two months, glutathione. Yeah. Knocked it down into the normal range.

Starting point is 01:04:25 Yeah. And it was, I went through the ringer and tried everything. And then NEMN, of course, you know, a lot of people don't understand the precursors for NAD and the importance of taking a precursor as opposed to just taking straight NAD. And that goes to the cellular side. One of the things I'm really glad not to go backtrack, but I'm glad you brought up cellular membrane. I brought this up to Will yesterday.

Starting point is 01:04:47 And I said, you know, mitochondria gets all the love, gets all the commotion and the talk. but the cellular membrane is what's protecting it and is kind of like, well, if we don't have a healthy cellular membrane, we certainly don't have healthy mitochondria. So I ask you, I'm getting to a point on this, is what do you do? Is it phospholipids that help to take care of the cellular membrane? Yeah, I would say, yeah, I mean, it's a number of things. Phospholipids are important. Omega-3 fatty acids are important. I mean, I would put those two probably at the top, but also just reducing oxidative stress is very important.

Starting point is 01:05:23 important as well so polyphenols and different types of antioxidants even glutathione these things will protect the cell membrane do a degree but you know phospholipids are found primarily in caviar so fish eggs is where they're probably the the highest amount you can find some phospholipids in salmon yeah um you can find them in egg yolks but they tend to be found in eggs but fish eggs are the highest um so yeah phospholipids are these really incredible type of sort of fat fats with fossil lipids or these sort of incredible anti-inflammatory or more protective types of fats that can help make up your cell membrane and then yeah the omega-3 fatty acids I think those are those are the two things I would recommend for people looking to build a healthier cell membrane aside from salmon which I know is you and I both our favorite fish are there any other fish that you recommend or that you personally eat anything that's omega-3 fatty acid I mean sardines are going to be the next in line that are incredibly helpful I after sardines, you know, mackerel is a really, really great omega-3 rich fish. I mean, tuna is.

Starting point is 01:06:31 I know people are concerned about mercury levels, you know, with, but really any type of fish that's going to be high in EPA and DHA. Do you have a concern with overconsumption of fish at all on Mercury side? I am far less concerned than most people. Yeah. And the reason I say, and now, listen, I'm not going and recommending people go and eat a bunch of swordfish or not worry about it at all. But no, it's not something I, I, let me tell you why. There was a study and there's multiple studies, but there's one study I'm thinking about in

Starting point is 01:07:05 particular where they went and they had women who ate a lot of fish. So they had higher mercury in their diet versus women who didn't. And they looked to see, okay, who had the healthier kids? And it's the woman that ate more fish. Think about Japan today. Do you know how much raw and wild fish they eat there and tuna a lot and they they don't they don't have problems and what they what they believed in the study was that when you're having things like salmon and tuna you're getting higher doses of omega-3s you're getting certain types of amino acids you're getting sometimes even you know these antioxidants like astazanthin and those the benefits of supporting your own detoxification getting rid of the mercury that's in there in the first place the neuroprotective properties the

Starting point is 01:07:51 reducing of inflammation, the benefits outweigh the risks of problems associated with the metals that are in there. There's also, by the way, I just want to say a difference between metals that are bound in fish and metals that you're exposed to in things like lead-based paint. They're not the same metal. Right. They're different. And so your exposure to this sort of metal that is in a food naturally or like arsenic that's naturally found in a certain level in rice and apples. the risk of that is almost nothing compared to a much higher risk if people are getting metals from, you know, herbicides or paint or other exposures. They are, there's a difference between those types of metals.

Starting point is 01:08:40 Excellent. See, I didn't know that. That's a good, good breakdown. One of my favorite fish. Okay. I mean, we have a noon stop. So, I mean, we can, we can go another 10, 15, I mean, whatever you want to go. Yeah, I'll just, yeah, I'll run a couple more.

Starting point is 01:08:56 This is a great interview. I know, I totally like, fuck it. We'll just roll. Yeah, I totally lost, lost truck and time too. No, I was watching. I thought, you know what, fuck it, man. Let's just roll. I'll just keep you longer.

Starting point is 01:09:07 One of my favorite, kind of a guilty pleasure that I over consumed was Chile and sea bass. Oh, yeah. Got a little expensive, got a little too often, but I mixed that in every once in while. What are your favorite types of salmon teeth? I get that indulgence. with the king salmon.

Starting point is 01:09:24 I didn't even know I just stuck with sock eye because I don't like the Atlantic one at all. And I don't do farm raised. But man, they ran out a sock eye and they had a copper river one once and then that king and it is just tastes like butter. Yeah, I mean, generally, you know, the copper river is known as the sort of the

Starting point is 01:09:42 creme de la creme of salmon. So there's no doubt about it. I mean, I tend to do sock eye. I like the taste of sock eye, but I love king salmon too. I don't have too much of a preference there, but I do a lot of saying. Yeah. A lot. Yeah, my girls love salmon. I mean, I would say it might be the most commonly

Starting point is 01:09:59 consumed meat in our house, maybe even above chicken and beef. I mean, we eat a lot of salmon. But we cycle through all of them. We do a lot of different. But I, you know, growing up, my parents made salmon patties at least probably one night a week. Really? And so, you know, now they would use, you know, they would get canned salmon. And it was probably pink salmon. And they use, you know, eggs, salting crackers, the classic salting crackers. And my dad would chop up onions and we would make these salmon pies. And I loved them. I loved them growing up.

Starting point is 01:10:28 So now I make my own version very similar. I get the wild, you know, sock eye salmon and I will do eggs. And I get married, I tend to use these Mary's Gone crackers. Yeah. And I'll crush those up. And then, yeah, do the pastured eggs and I'll cook those up in either usually olive oil or a coconut olive oil blend. And I love those, you know. It's so good.

Starting point is 01:10:49 It just reminds me of my childhood. But those are, I mean, you know, and I used to teach, I used to go to Costco or Whole Foods. And I would teach shopping classes in my patients. We would go up and down the aisles. And so I would recommend that as a recipe for a lot of the patients to try as that classic recipe. What about, I want to go to chicken and beef because I just want to know what you have, you know, because on chicken, I will do occasionally like skinless thighs. I don't care for breasts because I feel like they're so dry, but I like the chicken tenders.

Starting point is 01:11:23 And, you know, when I want to go lower fat days, I just load up on those. So I want to know which ones you prefer. And then also if let's say you, because, you know, we're grown, man. I mean, I eat 12 to 16 ounces of chicken at a time and it doesn't feel like much. Now, I'll put avocado in there to fill me up more so that I have a fat in there with it. I kind of mix them together with veggies. But tell me the chicken you like. And then a protein like absorption or how we're able to process it is with 12 ounces of chicken. I mean, we're looking at 70 some grams of protein. Are we, is that too much at once?

Starting point is 01:11:55 Yeah. So when it comes to chicken, we do a lot of chicken thighs and we'll throw those in a, we throw in it, we have an air fryer at home. And so we'll throw those in the air fryer sometimes and that's, and do it that way. I mean, I'll do breaded chicken at home, but we'll do, like I do a mix of, it's actually like this gluten-free flour. with rice and then actually we'll sometimes do coconut shreds it just depends on if we're making chicken parmesan or something else but yeah but we'll make these chicken tenders at home um i mean that's

Starting point is 01:12:28 probably the most often what we do or we'll do or sometimes chelts that does this shredded chicken into the crock pot and then we'll do those with like as tacos yeah so that's probably how we do chicken the most um in terms of the protein digestion here here's there's a really great phd that i follow online. His name's Dr. William Wallace. Yeah. And he puts out a lot of good research on this or post the latest research and gives his, it just gives his viewpoints of on that. And where you can eat 75 grams of protein, some of not all of that will probably be used towards muscle building because your body couldn't absorb that much at one time. It's not to say it's not going to affect your metabolism and maybe be beneficial for some people. But overall,

Starting point is 01:13:16 I mean, again, we know the absorption typically is probably somewhere between 25 and 45 grams of protein likely is what somebody could absorb in one sitting. Yeah. So, like, if you're trying to put on muscle, you'd be better off eating five meals a day at, you know, 40 grams. Yeah. Then you would be three times a day at 70 grams each probably if you're trying to be. And we know this because, I mean, bodybuilders and people in health and fitness have done this for years. Yeah. So typically people are probably a little bit better off spreading it out.

Starting point is 01:13:48 But some people don't want to spread. I mean, you know, it's a, it is a lot of work to spread it out. Now, I do want to say this. I don't think that all of a sudden at 35 grams, your body just cuts off and doesn't do any more. Right, right. So I think there's probably some incremental absorption from that next 35. But the first 35 is really where the greatest amount, I believe is happening. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:14:09 Yeah. And see, I don't know how much salmon you eat at once, but normally I do about 12 ounces. And again, it's like 70, 75 grams of protein. You know, I'm probably doing more six to eight ounces at a time. And I try and do, I probably do probably four meals a day. What I try and do is I try and do 40 grams of protein four times a day. That's sort of what I feel like my body does well with. I'll eat breakfast.

Starting point is 01:14:30 I'll eat around my workout, like a protein shake with, you know, fruit and things like that or some oatmeal. And then I'll eat two other meals. But I do about 40 grams. I'm just about a little over 170 pounds. And so I do, right point nine. That's just what I feel like my body tolerates you as well with. Definitely. I used to do one and a half and two when I was really trained and heavy.

Starting point is 01:14:52 Oh, yeah. You know, now I do, I don't know, I weigh 175 and I normally get about 230 right around there. I go pretty heavy protein on mine. One more question for you. This is not diet related. This is foundational. Now, you know that I speak on mind, body, and God. And I put God as my foundation of all aspects of life, but especially.

Starting point is 01:15:13 when it comes to health, well-being, everything. Do you agree with that? And if so, how has God foundationally helped you to become the healthiest that you can be? Yeah. Well, I think that the most important thing for myself and for my family is putting God first and faith first. And because God created us, and I believe that we were created to glorify God and enjoy him forever. And so with that, Like my entire purpose in my life comes from being a child of God, knowing I'm his child. I was created to live for eternity. And I'm called to be his hands and feet here and act like Jesus. That's about serving others.

Starting point is 01:15:52 It's loving others. It's discipling others to be more like Jesus, myself following Jesus, so I can be more like him. So everything comes out of that. So, and this is why if anyone's ever listened to my podcast, they'll hear me talk about God. Like I have decided I'm not going to have like my God, you know, my faith. life over here, you know, on one side of the room and my business life on another side of the room and my family. Now, for me, it's all woven in together because I believe that if I were to help

Starting point is 01:16:24 lead one person to Christ, and that's for them to become more like Christ and become more loving and generous and in that relationship, that that is a greater success than me, I don't know, winning an award or making a million dollar, whatever it is. Like, I, I think that that is a greater success of helping people both come into a relationship with God and helping people live more in alignment with the way God creates to live. And so I am, you know, that's, it really kind of penetrates and influences everything that I do. And when it comes to health, you know, again, I've worked with tens of thousands of people, working with them with chronic conditions, everything again from cancer to autoimmune disease to, you know,

Starting point is 01:17:08 to children, to elderly. And I do believe that people's faith is one of the single greatest factors in their health. There are studies around community and connection and in terms of the importance there, but living not only with community and connection, but one with a purpose. When I think about longevity,

Starting point is 01:17:28 there's studies showing that when somebody retires and doesn't have a purpose after retirement, that their lifespan is cut short. There's studies showing that, showing if somebody doesn't have community, their lifespan is short. And those are two of the greatest factors that cut people's life short.

Starting point is 01:17:45 We'll now imagine you're part of a community that's purpose driven for the most meaningful thing possible where you're gonna live for eternity. And so I think it's incredibly important for health. I think it's incredibly, and outside of the relationship side of things, which is the cornerstone of most important thing, even following good daily habits and rituals that should be towards making you more like God

Starting point is 01:18:09 growing you closer to Jesus, you know, whether it be taking communion or reading scripture or confessing your sins or praising God and worshiping, you know, any of these daily rituals that are part of whether it's the Protestant Church or Catholic Church or Orthodox Church today, I think are so beneficial and healing for all of us, for our physical health, but more importantly for our spiritual house. So there's a lot more I could say there. But for me, you know, one of the things I, so even when we take care of patients, we do like in our physical clinic, like we pray for patients and we do everything we can to support them in in experiencing and facilitating spiritual healing that then impacts the physical body. The richest I've ever been was when I became the richest in God and

Starting point is 01:19:04 having Jesus in my heart. And I will tell you, man, like no matter what, But it opens up the broadest spectrum of real reality of what life is and what we were intended to be. And when I was able to find that and understand what God is love means that we were created to love and that that's where our hearts are. For me, man, it's like the things that we do, I feel are God's work, but the best is just getting into someone's heart and putting him there. Even if they're not with him, they don't believe in him, don't follow him. placing it there so where you think about it and you feel it and once to feel it it's hard to say no it is and foundationally for me and i know for you that is the end all be all that when i found that foundation it's like i look in the mirror now and i feel good about myself because i know where my

Starting point is 01:19:54 heart is doesn't belong to me anymore belongs to him that's great so and and you know what else you know this when you find him he finds a way to bring you to other people that love him so that you can then give it to others. So one of the big things I want to thank you for is doing this with me and sharing that with everybody else. I will never, ever back off just like you said. There is no split this with business and God on the side. That's who we are and that's what we share. And I'm just so proud and thankful to share it with somebody like you who's so strong and profound and speaks it and lives it. I see it in your family. I see it in your pictures. I see it in your and I absolutely love it when I see it. I don't always comment, but I freaking love it. And I really

Starting point is 01:20:42 appreciate you, my friend, very much. Awesome. Well, Dylan, thanks so much for having me. It's always a pleasure coming on your show. So thanks so much. Your book is coming out September 8th, correct? Yeah, yeah. Okay. So heal yourselves. We're going to link that in the description. Where else can everybody follow you? Yeah, I would say my podcast, the Dr. Josh Axe, show social media. I just at Dr. Josh Axe and yeah again it's a it's it's been an honor i love coming here i hope to come back soon thank you for everything the hospitality and the friendship i appreciate it all my friend thanks dylan all right everybody that wraps up another one so stay tuned for plenty more to come dylan jemelli and dr josh axe signing off

The Dylan Gemelli Podcast - Episode #162: 81 Minutes Of The Best Biohacking & Longevity Advice Featuring Dr. Josh Axe PART 2

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