The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka - 71. Dr. Josh Axe Reveals How to Boost Testosterone & Heal Nutrient Deficiencies Naturally

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

Key takeaways you’ll learn in this episode: 5 Why’s, the 5 layers of questioning for a more accurate diagnosis. Biggest differences between Eastern and Western medical practices. Top ways to naturally boost testosterone. Connect with Dr. Josh Axe: https://draxe.com/ Get weekly tips from Gary Brecka on how to optimize your health and lifestyle routines - go to https://www.theultimatehuman.com/ For more info on Gary, please click here: ⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/thegarybrecka Use code “Ultimate” for $150 off your order of the best cold plunge & sauna in the US: https://bit.ly/3yYE3vl ECHO GO PLUS HYDROGEN WATER BOTTLE http://echowater.com BODY HEALTH - USE CODE ULTIMATE10 for 10% OFF YOUR ORDER https://bodyhealth.com/ultimate How would you react if your doctor told you you only have a few months to live? Gary Brecka is joined by Dr. Josh Axe, the host of the Dr. Josh Axe Show and a New York Times bestselling author! Dr. Josh shares his powerful journey of learning to help his Mom through cancer and how helping her set up her mind for success may have played the biggest role in her recovery. Through overcoming his own severe spinal infection, he emphasizes the critical role of community and a positive mindset in achieving longevity and optimal wellness. With practical tips, inspiring stories, and groundbreaking insights, this episode is packed with valuable information that could revolutionize your health journey! 00:00 - Who is Dr. Josh Axe? 03:30 - What did his Mom’s cancer teach him about health & nutrition? 07:15 - How your mind impacts your physical response to an unwanted diagnosis.  10:00 - 5 Why’s, the 5 layers of questioning for a more accurate diagnosis. 16:30 - Negative impacts of birth control. 24:00 - Biggest differences between Eastern and Western medical practices. 28:00 - What’s causing endometriosis and how can it be improved? 35:00 - How does Chinese medicine treat hyperthyroidism? 43:30 - Why you must believe in the best-case scenario for your health outcomes. 50:00 - How Dr. Josh Axe learned to walk again, his protocol to overcome spinal infection. 55:00 - How young is too young for hormone therapy? ( negative TRT Therapy side effects ) 01:05:45 - Top ways to naturally boost testosterone. 01:09:00 - What helps men support their mental health? 01:15:00 - How SSRIs and antibiotics deplete your nutrients. 01:17:00 - Are statin drugs causing more heart disease? 01:19:00 - How to know if studies were performed well. 01:22:15 - Why visualization is the first step. Who’s living how you want to do? 01:24:00 - Dr. Josh Axe’s #1 tip for better health! Follow Dr. Josh Axe on Instagram: @drjoshaxe https://www.instagram.com/drjoshaxe/ Listen to His Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@drjoshaxe Gary Brecka: @garybrecka The Ultimate Human: @ultimatehumanpod Subscribe on YouTube: @ultimatehumanpodcast The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing or other professional health care services, including the giving of medical advice, and no doctor/patient relationship is formed. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from this podcast is at the user’s own risk. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their health care professionals for any such conditions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And I want to say this, the thing that irritates me the most about the medical profession and about a lot of doctors today is they're constantly breaking the Hippocratic oath, first do no harm. At one point they told my mom, you have a 40% chance to live. How is that helping her? Well, it's hurting her. This has happened tens of thousands, if not millions of times, where a guy went in, was diagnosed with liver cancer, and they said, you have three months to live. They then went and did an autopsy. They misdiagnosed him. He didn't have liver? No, he didn't have liver cancer. Had a small benign tumor on his liver. Could have been removed. He lived another 30, 40 years. When you take a medication, most people think all of the side effects are on the label. They're not. There's not a single drug

that doesn't cause a nutritional deficiency. I've seen every time I had a woman come in, we're getting off birth control control major Candida and yeast issues So it's been connected to numerous nutritional deficiencies. I also think it's causing and exacerbating Hypothyroidism the next half decade I believe that we will see three centuries of medical advancement in half a decade reason for that is because Hey guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. I'm your host, human biologist Gary Brekka, where we go down the road of everything anti-aging, longevity, biohacking, and everything in between. As you just heard, we have a very qualified guest on the podcast today. He's actually somebody that I have been following for years. I've read a number of his books. In fact, my wife said to me before the podcast today, she said, I think I've spent about $10,000

on his collagen over the last 10 years. So you've been a household name in our house even long before I switched careers from the mortality space into the wellness space. And so to have you on the podcast for me is an absolute honor. So welcome to the podcast, Dr. Josh Axe. Josh Axe Hey, thanks for having me, Gary. Excited to be here. I'm excited for you to be here. Josh Axe First off, I'm blown away by your biohacking space here. Oh, really? Thank you. you to be here. First off, I'm blown away by your biohacking space here. I mean, the amount of things you, yeah, the amount of amazing tools you have and congrats on all the, you know, amazing

things you've been doing recently. I mean, just really, yeah, so excited to chat. Yeah, yeah, I'm really excited to chat too. I told him before he sat down, I was like, this is going to be an easy podcast. I'm just so intellectually curious about what you've done over your life and, you know, and some of the hardships you've been through and how you solve those. But, you know, there's so many directions that we could go, but, you know, what I love foundationally, and we both have chiropractic origins. I went to National College of Chiropractic, you went to Palmer, and, you know, kind of a functional background. But, you know,

I love, you know, the basics of using nutrition, herbs, you know, botanicals, adaptogens to heal the body. Because, you know, philosophically, I'm of the mindset that we are not as diseased or pathological as we think we are. We're very often nutrient deficient. And sometimes just helping support the body's own natural process is the best, creates the best outcomes for us, rather than chemicals and synthetics and pharmaceuticals. So talk about your journey in natural medicine and your foundation in nutrition. And what are some of the things that you've done in nutritional science to really bring to the masses a way to heal themselves through nutrition?

Yeah. Well, to start, I got into space because I had a mom who was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was younger. So when I was in junior high, my mom was 41 years old, breast cancer. And my family lived in the medical model at the time where anytime we were sick, we got put on drugs, whatever the doctor said, we just did. And so she went through chemotherapy, had a mastectomy. And I still remember today, Gary, I remember her taking a comb through her hair, all the hair falling out. And just thinking to myself as a kid, there were two things I remember really distinctly popping in my head. I want to help people like my mom, and there's got to be a better way, a better way

than this conventional medical system. And so that really set me on a path of the next year. I do, I remember I knew nothing about health except for, I knew that soda and candy bars had to be bad. So that's a good start, man. How old were you then? 14. Okay. So that's a good start. Yeah. So 14 stopped eating those, started really working out more, studying nutrition, eventually went to chiropractic school, got my degree there. Later on, I actually went to Johns Hopkins and graduated there and really just spent a lot of time studying natural medicine. And right before I was about to open my own functional medicine clinic in Nashville, Tennessee, I got a call from my mom just in tears, just sobbing on the phone. I said, Mom, what's wrong?

And she said, I've just been diagnosed with cancer again. And I said, okay, well, what's the diagnosis? She said, well, they said I have lung cancer. They want to go and actually start doing a radiation treatment in three days. She said, what do I do? And I said, I'll be home. Got in a plane. I was in Florida, flew back to Ohio.

And we talked about it. We prayed together. And we just felt really led to take care of her all naturally. So we started, her diet was pretty much cooked vegetables, juice vegetables, raw vegetables, berries, a little bit of bone broth, wild caught salmon. And that was, I mean, that was her diet for the most part, beets and carrots, things like that. And then also started doing a lot of turmeric, a lot of medicinal mushrooms like reishi and cordyceps, worked on doing lymphatic drainage massage. And we were also really focused on her mindset. One of the things I realized was my mom had a lot of fear and anxiety in her life. So she started spending a lot of time in prayer, quoting scripture, doing everything she could to heal.

I mean, this is something I really appreciate about you as well, and some doctors in our space, is that if you want to reverse a disease, there's not a single supplement that's going to do it typically. I totally agree with that. And there's not going to be a single medication. It's follow a full-on protocol, do everything you can from all sides in order to help heal the condition. So that was very much our mentality. That's how I was taught and trained. So we did that with my mom, went back four months later, redid a CT scan. And I'll never forget this. We got a call from the oncologist. And before they even told us the results of the CT scan, they said,

what have you been doing? Started sharing. And they go, well, this is highly unusual we don't typically see this yeah but the tumors are shrunk by 52% we want to see you again in nine months went back nine months complete remission and so now my mom's these are nodular tumors in the lung yeah she had to Wow yeah yeah Wow and and now my mom's in her 70s you know in great shape she's bringing her grandkids to Disney World. I mean, we practiced a lot of visualization. One of the things she did was I asked her, I said, what does your ideal future and vision look like? She said, bringing my kids to Disney World, you know, when I'm in my 70s and 80s.

So she's doing that now. That's awesome. She's bringing you to Disney World right now? You know what? I'm not going to Disney World right now. We're sending, it's my niece and nephew. Our daughter's four now, one of our daughters. And so she'll be going probably, we'll probably be going next year, actually. But she loves that. But I learned so much through that process. And one of the things

that happens when people get these serious diagnoses, and you've seen this, it's like being a deer in the headlights. There's a lot of fear. And then the other thing is, these doctors will do this, and I wanna say this, the thing that irritates me the most about the medical profession and about a lot of doctors today is they're constantly breaking the Hippocratic oath, first do no harm. Because if you get a diagnosis or even diagnosis somebody and telling them, like at one point they told my mom, you have a 40% chance to live. How is that helping her? Well, it's hurting her. And so all that being said- There's a lot of evidence that if this surrenders, this surrenders.

Yeah. There's an old case study that was done. Again, this is one case study, but this has happened tens of thousands, if not millions of times, where a guy went in, was diagnosed with liver cancer, and they said, you have three months to live. They went back. The man died three and a half months later. And they then went and did an autopsy. They misdiagnosed him. He didn't have liver cancer? No, didn't have liver cancer. No, didn't have liver cancer, had a small benign tumor on his liver, could have been removed, could have lived another 30, 40 years. I mean, this constantly happens. And people could go and read individual case

studies about people that have been misdiagnosed and died in around that same timeframe when they didn't have to die. So there's no doubt the mind-body connection is so, so powerful. And that's one of the things when I did run my clinic that I was very conscious of is that when you're coming in, we're going to be a place that offers hope in terms of healing in our words. We're going to offer you encouragement. We're going to try and be realistic about what you have going on, but also very conscious about that. So one of my points with that was when my mom had her cancer, we laid out everything very specifically of what she was doing almost every hour of the day. You know, so for instance, eat this for breakfast, eat this for lunch, eat this for dinner. Here's

the exact supplements you're going to take in the morning. Here's what, you know, when you're going to take in the evening. Here's what I want you to do in terms of like, I asked my mom what she loved to do. She's like, I love horses. So we had her start going in horseback riding again and spending time. We had her watch... She didn't watch much TV. When she watched something, it was only funny movies. I mean, we went through every last thing to say, this is your ideal healing protocol. And she healed. And so that really taught me with patience is that I'm gonna walk you through exactly what to do, take all the guesswork out of it, and not only recommend a diet plan, a supplement plan, but also an entire lifestyle plan and support your way of thinking in order to get the best results possible. And you talk about the five whys, right? Yes.

And as sort of a foundation for determining a plan. Tell us a little bit about the five whys. Yeah, well, this is something actually developed by the founder of Toyota, which actually, in terms of making cars whenever a problem is wrong, how do you get to the root of the issue? Well, that's why they call it the five whys. Now, actually, Socrates is actually, we should probably credit him for it. I'd rather model myself after Socrates than automotive industry. Yes, it very much is the Socratic method of asking questions until you finally get to the root of the problem. So an example of this would be type 2 diabetes, and you and I have seen this thousands and thousands of times. I had patients come in with type two diabetes

and I would ask them, what did your doctor have you do? Well, they put me on metformin and that was it. Well, that's not getting the root of the issue. And so we need to start asking, well, what is type two diabetes? Why are your A1C levels high? Well, there's too much sugar in your blood. Well, why is your blood sugar too high?

Well, you've started to burn out the insulin receptor sites. Well, why is that? Well, there's too many carbohydrates in the diet, things that are breaking down into sugar quickly. Okay, well, why is that? Well, big reason is someone is not educated on what foods break down into sugar and which don't and which ones help support blood sugar balance. And so by doing that, we finally get to, well, here's the root cause. So one of the root causes is simply we need to lower your overall carbohydrate intake or other foods that are going to cause those blood sugar spikes. And maybe there's also nutritional deficiencies. Maybe it's trace minerals, could be chromium picolinate It could be magnesium. Maybe you're lacking certain types of antioxidants in your diet, such as those found in Cylon,

cinnamon, or fenugreek. And so what I really try and do is say, okay, let's get to the root of the issue. I mean, you've done an amazing job. I watched a video of you recently do this with high cholesterol and heart disease. I mean, that's such an easy one. All these doctors today are going and saying, well, here's a statin drug. Your brain, your nervous system, they're made of cholesterol. And so you're going to go— Your cell walls, your cell membranes, your hormones, vitamin D3. I remember the first patient I ever had came in to see me, and he was having nerve degeneration.

His muscle was wasting. His hair was thin. He'd actually almost gone bald over the course of a one-year period of time. Wow. Statin drug. That was it. Yeah. I mean, we talked about this actually before the podcast. I said, in my opinion, we're about to enter the most fascinating time frame of medicine, in my opinion, over the next five years. The next half decade, I believe that we will see three centuries of medical advancement in half a decade. And the reason for that is because you have the combination

of early detection, artificial intelligence, and big data. And you're able now to collect voluminous amounts of data on human beings in their natural environment, right? And we knew in the mortality space, when I was in the mortality research space, that some of the worst research that we would do is when we would study cells in isolation, right? Because human beings don't live in isolation, cells don't behave in isolation. We'd take them out, put them in a Petri dish

and grow them and look at how they behave in a laboratory and say, okay, when we put the cell back into the body, it's gonna behave exactly the same way. And then we put it back into a community and it behaves entirely differently, which is why I'm really a big fan of what you said about your mother's journey, because you were like, what is she thinking? You know, what frequency is she putting through her body? What sort of emotional state? And we know that emotions are tied to frequency and frequency is tied to cellular metabolism and um you know getting inflammatory compounds out not continuing to to assault the body and you know we we talked

about this and i think the very exciting thing is you're going to start to see polls of large data contradict a lot of mainstream oh yeah medical dog, and it will be irrefutable. And we saw this again in the mortality space, cholesterol was an easy one. And I did not see a single centenarian during my career that we processed a death claim on that didn't have clinically elevated levels of LDL cholesterol at the time that they passed.

And I'm not saying that no statins for anyone under any reason for any cause. You know, I'm not that linear, but when you say, okay, well, LDL cholesterol high, cardiovascular disease high, push LDL cholesterol down. Okay, so now we're all material for cell walls and cell membranes and hormones and vitamin D3 and all kinds of downstream consequences

that you may not be looking at in that study come out down the road. And we've seen this so many times in medical research, you know, with SSRIs, you know, and the serotonin hypothesis. And then 10 years later, we're like, wow, the incidence of suicide is increasing. The incidence of suicidal thoughts is increasing. The incidence of other ancillary psychiatric conditions, severe anxiety, depression. And because we just looked at one variable. And sorry, I'm taking a total. No, I love it.

I love hearing about it. This is your podcast. I mean, not mine. But hey, guys, I think the most important website you may ever go to is theultimatehuman.com. That's theultimatehuman.com. Because on theultimatehuman.com because on this website, we can directly interact with one another. You can give me suggestions for podcast guests and topics that you'd like to see me cover. You can ask me any question that you'd like. More importantly, you can sign up for my entirely free newsletter. It comes out every single week. I write

this so I can get the information to the masses on how to live a healthier, happier, longer, chemical-free life. You can also sign up for a pre-order of my book. And if you'd like to take the genetic test that I talk about all the time, it's available there too. And lastly, you can even see all of the products that I use in my daily life for a chemical-free, healthy living style. A lot of people ask me, you me, what do you use in your daily life, Gary? What do you brush your teeth with and clean your countertops with? Well, it's all there if you'd like to see it.

And you can, again, ask me any question that you'd like and get my free newsletter. TheUltimateHuman.com. I promise you that information will help change the trajectory of your life. And now back to The Ultimate Human Podcast. And so I'd love to talk about that journey for you because one of the things that you touched on was breast cancer, birth

control pills in women. And so let's, I want to talk a little bit about that. We were talking about breast implants and also about birth control, because I don't know what the percentage is of young women that are on birth control, but I imagine it's very, very high. Very high. Yeah, it's very high. You know, one of the things, as we're talking about birth control, I think this is important for people to recognize. When you take a medication, most people think all of the side effects are on the label. They're not. There's not a single drug that doesn't cause a nutritional deficiency. That's not on the label. There's not a single drug. And we could go through, this is on, you know, this is a drug

manual, it's online. I mean, anyone can go up and look this up for themselves. But if you're taking a simple drug, like, I mean, you know, this one metformin, vitamin B12, coenzyme Q10, magnesium, and it's depleting your body of those minerals. Well, birth control is one of the worst. Birth control depletes your body of almost every single B vitamin. Wow. It depletes your body of magnesium. I've seen every time I had a woman come in and we were getting off birth control, major candida and yeast issues. And they're getting off. That's right. Okay. Yeah.

And so it's been connected to numerous, numerous nutritional deficiencies. And I think, now I don't have exact proof of this outside of me working with patients, but I think it also, because of the B vitamins, gets so low. I also think it's causing and exacerbating hypothyroidism. Oh, no question. And so the number of women come in, think about this, they start getting on birth control, the average age is around 14 to 15 years old. And then how many women, you know, after taking it 10 years, all of a sudden they were getting

a hypothyroid diagnosis when they're in their 20s. Right. And if you look at methylation pathways, you know, B vitamins are the most critical component for genetic methylation, for down regulating catecholamines, for helping with intestinal motility. And so you have this seeming myriad of unrelated consequences that come as a byproduct of nutrient deficiencies. You know, I always relate human beings back to plants sometimes. And I say, you know,

if you actually were to have a leaf rotting in a palm tree and call a true arborist or true botanist out to your house, they don't touch the leaf, right? They core test the soil and they go, you know what, Josh, there's no nitrogen in the soil. And they add nitrogen to the soil and the leaf heals. But the opposite is true. You take phosphorus, sulfur, nitrogen out of the soil

and you start getting the expression of this condition in the plant. For some reason, we don't think about human beings that way. We don't think that nutrient deficiencies can lead to the expression of disease. And I've never heard someone put it the way that you have where I did not know that every drug caused a nutrient deficiency has a link to some nutrient deficiency. And you could probably trace I did not know that every drug caused a nutrient deficiency, has a link to some nutrient deficiency. And you could probably trace, you could trace that nutrient deficiency to expression of all kinds of other conditions. Absolutely. And so what is the solution for birth

control if, because there's, you know, sometimes there are women that have abnormally heavy menstrual cycles and they become kind of anemic. So there are different reasons sometimes to use birth control other than fertility. But what are some of the must-go-to supplements for people that, for young women that are on birth control? What other alternative do they have? Well, just to emphasize your point, I think birth control obviously today is taken for as contraception. In addition, though, very frequently, it's for acne, it's for reducing cramping, or just... Here's what I was on the... I was on a podcast recently, and there's a woman who took birth control, and she said, well, my doctor told me I had zero symptoms. They just told me I should be on it just so I didn't have to get a period anymore. Just for convenience.

Just for convenience. Oh, listen, that is incredibly common today. And she said, every girl in my high school was on it, every single one. And so it's incredibly common. And so what I would say to that is, well, if you're having some sort of symptom, cramps, excessive bleeding, let's go ahead and look at what some of the deficiencies are. And so let's say if there's anemia or borderline anemia, and I've spent a lot of my career also studying Chinese medicine, so I'm going to share some of those thoughts as well. But a big part of it, they would call that blood deficiency. So we need to strengthen and nurse the blood and the red blood cells. In order for that to happen, the number one herb used is dong quai. Dong quai.

Yeah, dong quai is a blood builder. If you taste it, it almost tastes metallic. It almost tastes like iron. Wow. And so that's been used for centuries. The other thing is organ meats like liver, amazing, amazing blood builders. In fact, I think they're sort of nature's B-complex slash methylation support. I mean, they're really, when you look at organ meats, especially liver, adrenal, kidney, heart, I mean, they are very, very rich in those nutrients. So I think those support building of blood. And then I would look at diet. I would say, hey, let's use food as medicine here. Let's do a lot more grass-fed, pastured red meat, whether it be beef or lamb or venison or bison, but let's do more red meat. Let's do some beets or beetroot juice. Let's do a lot more grass-fed, pastured red meat, whether it be beef or lamb or venison or

bison, but let's do more red meat. Let's do some beets or beetroot juice. Let's do some leafy greens. But doing things to some bone broth, some things to really help nourish your blood. And then there are some other things I think that are good. I mean, you can take a easily digestible form of a food-based iron. That's something that people can do as well. What's like a food-based iron? Is that like iron-based glycinate? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That would be a great form. And so I think if you can go and... And this is how I take care of people. I know this is how you take care of people. It's a very personalized approach. I

think that's one of the other things that a lot of people are getting wrong that are even in the natural health space, is it's sort of like, okay, everyone should be on a keto diet, or everyone should be carnivore, everyone should be vegan. No, everyone is a unique individual that needs a very, very specific diet that is tailored for them. And because if I have somebody come in with liver cancer or an issue that's really related to toxicity, I will have them do typically some raw vegetables, vegetable juices, and more of those sort of foods. But if I have someone come in with inflammatory bowel disease, like IBSD, I'm having them stay completely away from raw.

Raw vegetables, no salads, typically no vegetable juices, and having them really focus on lots of bone broth, lots of soups, even rice, congee, things that are very easy to digest, nourishing to that digestive tract. And so I just think people are radically different and unique. And so we really need to customize something just for them. So in the case of, again, the person with anemia, let's do the foods, let's do the supplements, let's do some of those things that are going to help build up your blood. And there's also natural remedies for cramping. There's actually something called cramp bark in Chinese medicine. There is? Yeah, actually, and that's at least how it's...

And do they take that only when they're... Would a woman only take that during that phase of her cycle when she's having cramping? Yeah, in Chinese medicine, they typically prescribe it about three to five days before. Also, upping your magnesium intake around that time, around your cycle is a good idea as well. And so those are some things that I know help. We've seen a lot of women lately, you know, our clinic director is a functional OBGYN, and we've seen a lot of endometriosis lately, some even resulting in, you know, by the time they've come to us, they've already had a hysterectomy. But for women that are struggling with endometriosis, you know, what are some of the ways to get to the root of that

dysplasia? What are some of the dietary recommendations? And what have you seen in your clinical practice? Yeah. So one of the things, and what have you seen in your clinical practice? Yeah. So one of the things that we can do this with a couple of conditions, I think hypothyroid is another big one. Yeah, I'd love to pick a couple of big ones and be specific about them. But, you know, with endometriosis, you know, we really want to look at, I mean, basically you're reducing inflammation. So what happens in Chinese medicine, just to kind of give everybody a basic understanding that will help, is one thing they don't do is they don't diagnose you with a condition. They believe that it's too connected to your identity, and they don't want your condition to become part of your own identity.

To become who you are. Yes. Okay. And so there's a lot of wisdom in that. The other thing is, so they'll diagnose you with a pattern. Okay. And so there's a lot of wisdom in that. The other thing is, so they'll diagnose you with a pattern. So it tends to be this. They'll say something like, you have too little qi. Now, when I first heard that word, I thought that sounds kind of weird and out there. But honestly, it's just a different language, I mean, is all it is. It's a different

way of interpreting things. And so qi would most be connected to a gland, our adrenal glands, and as a basic understanding of the science that you speak so much on the show, cellular energy like ATP. And so your qi is basically, imagine your body has a battery. Where is it at right now? Is it at 80, 50, 20? Where's your body's battery? And that battery, that energy supplies energy to your whole body. So that's one thing you look at is qi. The other thing that we've heard is yin and yang.

And yin is a lot more related to what you consider the feminine, very connected to estrogen, whereas yang would very much be testosterone, okay? But also progesterone, because it's whatever is balancing out and harmonizing that opposing thing, or like melatonin and cortisol. Right. And so that's another concept. And the last few things here, and then I'll dive into that, is that your body can either be too cold or too hot internally.

So think about it. See that in Ayurvedic medicine too, because I'm a pitta kapha. Yes. Right? So that's why I have like a little bowling spot here. I tend to run warm. I mean, and I am, you look at the characteristics of all of those, and that's, I think, the oldest form of medicine, and it's all based on observation.

Astounding how accurate this practitioner was, this Ayurvedic practitioner was when I met with him about everything about me, just by looking at my tongue, my eyes, the pattern of hair loss that I had, my skin, and my feet. It was pretty astounding. Well, you know, sometimes people... The type of medicine we're practicing today has only been around 150-ish years. When you look at Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic medicine, they've been practiced for 3,000 to 4,000 years. Now, we're not doing double-blind placebo studies, but there have been millions of individual case studies done proving the efficacy of those forms of medicine. So to me, I mean, they are incredibly accurate in what they're looking at and doing, and they really

take more of a big-picture approach where Western medicine is more of a microscopic approach, but to your point. So yeah, your body can be too hot or too cold, to your point. A lot of people, more people today run hot, but someone with hypothyroid would tend to run cold, typically. Yeah, my wife's cold all the time. And then you look at your body's either too damp or too dry. Dampness, we would tend to call candida or it could be mucus, like in some sort of ulcer of colitis or Crohn's. And then you're going to have too much movement or too little movement going on in the body called stagnation or excessive movement. So that's what we look at. So with something like

endometriosis, we're looking at typically too much heat in a very specific part of the body down in the reproductive organ area for women. And so we really need to, and this is where, I mean, this is going to sound very basic, but highly anti-inflammatory diet. And the other thing, and now this is really unique about supplementation. So what they're going to do in Chinese medicine, it's almost all herb-based or food-based, but they'll try and combine certain herbs together. And so what they would try and do is they would try and increase blood flow to the uterus, okay? So they want to get as much blood flow there as possible to help regenerate and help heal the area, but also cooling the area down. So they might have you do an herb like dong quai, which helps build the blood,

but then they might also do an herb like black cohosh, which is going to actually help specifically more of that region of the body. And so they're going to combine things together. Another example, we're talking about Ayurveda that's done this, is they don't just believe food is medicine. They believe meals are medicine. So we're going to combine certain foods and herbs together to actually have it act as a medicine on the body. So the best example of this is turmeric golden tea, right? So think about for thousands of years, people have consumed turmeric golden tea. Well, what that is, is it's a blend of turmeric. It's a three spice blend, black pepper, long pepper, and ginger, and then something like a coconut milk or raw milk. Now think about that. It's really good. Yeah. Think about that combination though. I don't know. You probably remember this. So instead of water, it's coconut milk.

Coconut or actual raw milk. Okay. Now this was about 10 years ago. There was actually a study that came out on how if you take piperine with curcumin, it increases the absorption of turmeric or curcumin. Well, think about when that was first done and how did they know that back in ancient Ayurveda. You're taking turmeric with black pepper, ginger, and warming spices, which those are going to open up the capillaries, increase circulation. So turmeric can now get to every cell tissue and organ of your body. And they also knew for absorption into the cell, we need some fat in this drink, coconut or raw dairy. And so this recipe has been around 3,000 years. They've been prescribing this to people with joint pain and arthritis and heart disease, this meal.

And yet just 10 years ago, we figured out, oh, you should take piperine with turmeric. So it's pretty incredible. Yeah. I mean, the science is catching up, not leading in this case. And again, this brings me back to big data, why I'm such a huge fan of large data and now artificial intelligence from the impact that it's going to have on medicine. Because you take pools of thousands or hundreds of thousands, even millions of people, and over a prolonged period of time, and you see that you could get the same kind of result. You might not need a randomized clinical trial when you have a population database that big. Hey, let me ask you, how far away do you think we are? So I've done

continuous blood glucose monitors. And if you think about these, if you do a blood spot test, you and I have had a lot of people do that to find, you know, micronutrient tests or whatever it might be. But I mean, how far away do you think we are from having that little needle in your arm you don't even feel and being able to pick up throughout the day, pull up your phone, every vitamin, every mineral, every, like, knowing exactly what you're deficient in, and then having the phone pick, you know, tell you back, hey, you're deficient in iron, go eat some red meat and iron and beets. I mean, I think that we're there.

It's just the race is going to be to consolidate it and turn it into a usable technology. We're probably 24 months away from really having that. The data is there and the technology is there. And I'm such a huge fan of that kind of personalized, hyper-personalized medicine, because we can process and manage data so quickly, just like you're talking about using a glucose monitor to record real-time information on the body, getting hyper-specific with targeted supplementation. I've always been a big believer that we shouldn't just supplement for the sake of supplementing, we should supplement for deficiency. Because even in Chinese medicine,

you could probably get absolutely deluged with the possibilities of things that you could do, but you have to ask yourself, what does this person need? That's right. What is that biome deficient in? And let's fix that deficiency rather than say, everybody should take turmeric and corkiment, everybody should take CoQ10, everybody should take ashwagand say, everybody should take turmeric and corkiment. Everybody should take CoQ10.

Everybody should take ashwagandha. Everybody should take St. John's wort. And all of those are amazing. So the argument is not whether or not they're good, it's whether or not the body needs it. So I wanna go back to endometriosis. You were talking about some of the T's and increasing the blood flow to that area,

which supports the hypothesis that I want to improve the body's ability to fix this on its own. Yes, exactly. And so by increasing blood flow to that area, increasing nutrient delivery to that area. So what are some of the things, you know, specifically that they could do if they've got a history of this or they're struggling with it now? Yeah, I would say, one, I think intermittent fasting can be great. I think you want to do everything you can to support your body in cellular regeneration. So that's one thing I would do. Another thing is, you know, give your body the building blocks that needs to reproduce a healthy organ tissue. I mean, I would absolutely take glanulars or organs of uterus and ovaries and some of those. So there are some really great female blends of organ and glanular tissue.

Wow. I would do higher dose omega-3 fatty acids. And you get the organ and glanular tissue. This is coming from animals. Yeah. I mean, I prefer probably beef and sheep in terms of animals over pigs. But yeah, and there's several great brands that have those organ meats and glandulars. For women. It's super interesting. I had dinner with Paul Saladino here at the house two nights ago. And he gave me the raw liver challenge and I passed. You know, we just threw it back and washed it down. And then I got the iron burps. But,

you know, one of the things that he sent me, he blocked my phone shut. He sent me so much stuff to read, but it was on this hypothesis of targeted liver for liver conditions, kidney for kidney conditions. And he sent me some studies. I haven't had a chance to read them yet, but there certainly is some validity there to the nutritional links. Well, so this is what they did. If we were to go into an ancient apothecary, which is an ancient pharmacy, what you would have found would have been herbs, spices, mushrooms, and glanulars and organ meats. I mean, that was the medicine of the time. And even today, if you look at a hormone, a thyroid drug that's more natural, like Armour.

Are you familiar with Armour? NDTs, natural dissected thyroid. Exactly, it's natural, it is, that's what it is. Now, in the supplement form, they have to deactivate the hormones because they want it very precise about what the exact dosage is. But natural practitioners would recommend that.

So when you would go in with actually a hypothyroid-like symptoms, they would probably recommend herbs like ashwagandha, because hypothyroid in Chinese medicine is known as a Qi and Yang deficiency. So Qi means it's really adrenal issue, because your adrenals are low, so we need to strengthen up your adrenals, and your body is missing Yang,

which is, it's not anabolic enough, it's not regenerating enough. It's not regenerating enough. And so herbs that really help that, again, ashwagandha is the primary herb in Ayurveda. To do that, in Chinese medicine, they have very similar herbs. So they would recommend those too. But to the point, the other thing they would prescribe and recommend would be actual thyroid tissue of an animal and try and get that dosage right. Wow. So these women that are struggling with endometriosis should think about some of these supplements that are organ-based, uterus, fallopian tube, ovaries. And what are some,

I mean, let's just put it out there. I don't have any affiliation with any of these guys, but what are some good brands of those types of supplements? Yeah. I mean, there's a couple that come to mind. I mean, Ancient Nutrition does have an organ blend. I think that's fantastic for women. Ancestral Supplements is another brand that's off the top of my head. Those are the two I'm thinking of.

And there are several others. There's another one, Heart and Soil. There's another one, too, and I can't remember the name of it. Heart and Soil, I think, is Paul's brand. Yeah, yeah, Heart and Soil. There's another one, too, and I can't remember the name of it. Heart and Soil, I think, is Paul's brand. Yeah, yeah, Heart and Soil. So those are the three I know that do some of those type of products. And I would say also higher-dose turmeric, ginger, galangal, some of those herbs would be good as well. And then I would say as a treatment, I think acupuncture is fantastic for endometriosis.

In fact, it's the best treatment that I know of for that specific condition. Wow. Even for putting it into remission, even. Yeah, yeah, I think so. And a lot of times, and I want to take time and give disclaimers, because sometimes when people hear Eastern medicine and Chinese medicine and Ayurveda and acupuncture, we don't understand it, and people sort of fear what they don't understand or maybe even discredit it. And the reality is, if you look at the health scores in, let's say, Japan, which they practice a form of Chinese medicine, okay, they're way healthier there than they are here. Oh, and longer life expectancy at birth, too. So this is what they're doing in Japan. If you want to know what they're way healthier there than they are here. Oh, in terms of life expectancy at birth, too. So this is what they're doing in Japan.

If you want to know what they're doing, it's all the stuff I'm sharing here. So the thing I would say that people need to recognize about acupuncture and the way it works is that they're putting needles in areas that are then connected to organ systems and have specific actions. So if somebody's having a heart attack, they'll start to have pain in their left arm. If somebody's having a gallbladder attack, they'll start to have a pain in their right shoulder. And there are points all over your body that are connected to organs. Why is your gallbladder your right shoulder? Yeah, why does kidney refer to the back?

Exactly, because there are those points there that are connected to it. And so what acupuncturists will do, they will go and put needles in the area. That brings blood flow to that area, but actually stimulates the gallbladder or stimulates the heart or stimulates the organ. So there are very specific spots for areas like the reproductive organs where they can put needles and it will impact that area. Big thing it will do is it brings blood and energy and nutrients to the area. So they're just moving energy or moving blood around in the body. Right. Hey guys, if you've been watching the Ultimate Human Podcast for any length of time,

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Echo H2O, enter the code ULTIMATE10 for a discount. And2o entered the code ultimate 10 for a discount and now back to the ultimate human podcast and so it as far as nutrition um where do you fall because i think philosophically we're on the same page i don't i don't think that any particular diet is the best for everyone you know carnivore keto paleo, raw food, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, what have you. I think they all have merit at different times. And I also think that in general for the masses, the biggest issue is that we are not eating whole foods. It's just a whole food diet.

That's the place to start is to getting processed foods and dyes and glyphosates and non-foods out of your diet. That's the place to start, is to getting the processed foods and dyes and glyphosates and non-foods out of your diet. Where do you fall in that sort of general realm of nutrition in terms of dietary recommendations? Yeah. So here's my simple philosophy, and you've already pretty much covered it, but it's this. Eat only real food specific for...that's personalized for you that's based on what your body needs and where you're deficient now I think there's another element here that tends to that we should think about which is seasonality mm-hmm but I would say yeah it's eating real food that's really specific to your basic needs and so again going back to this how do I find this how do I find out what my basic needs. And so again, going back to this- How do I find this?

How do I find out what my basic needs are? So the easiest way is to see somebody that probably practices some form of Ayurveda, Chinese medicine, and what they'll do is they'll look at your tongue, and they'll feel your pulse. And there's a tremendous amount you can tell from that. Now people could do this themselves.

You could look at a tongue map, and then go and look at your own tongue in the mirror. And if you have ridges on the side of your tongue, that's known as a spleen-shee deficiency, which really means that your digestive system and liver are overstressed. And so there are things you can do to help that, diet-specific. If your tongue is pale, that's a blood deficiency. You want to eat more blood-building foods. If there's a white coating on your tongue, that's dampness. You need to do probably a lot more bitter stuff. That'll help clear out that dampness out of your body. That's the best way to tell,

but you could also tell based on your symptoms. If somebody has hypothyroidism, low body temperature, we wanna really warm up the body. We wanna really do some things that are very nutrient dense, high in B vitamins that are gonna help. So for instance, if someone has hypothyroid, I'm gonna have them do a diet that's gonna be high in, in Chinese medicine, you'd call it foods that support the

adrenals and water element. And so it's going to be seafood, wild caught fish. It's going to be seaweed. It's going to be berries. It's going to be rice. Those are some of those foods that would help a condition like that. But I would say, yeah, it's based off of your symptoms or seeing a practitioner who knows exactly how to let you know what you're deficient in. And that's going to be the most accurate way. Yeah. And, you know, you kind of had your own interesting journey recently. We talked about it for a few minutes before the podcast. And I say lots of times, my audience knows this on the podcast, that I think some of the greatest interventions, the biggest impacts on humanity and mankind,

even innovations in medicine, come from people who solved the problem. And usually a problem in their own life, health issue. And it became their passion, their obsession. And now they're out changing the world. So I was shocked by the journey that you were on when you told me about it the other day, because I've been watching you for years and always considered you one of the pioneers as I was sort of getting into this industry 10 years ago. I was a huge fan. And then you went quiet for a while. Yeah, about two years, yeah. And so tell us a little bit about what happened on that journey. Yeah, so I mean, it was crazy. I mean, let me just say I was sitting down with a doctor not

far from here, Sarasota, Florida, and this is about a year and a half ago. And he told me, he said, Josh, I want to let you know your prognosis. And I said, okay. He said, best case scenario for you is you're going to have chronic pain the rest of your life, and you'll be the first person to know when bad weather comes through. And he said, worst case scenario, he said, this could kill you. And he said, there's a really good chance you're going to be permanently disabled from this. This is just a year and a half ago. It was so crazy, Gary. A few months before that, I was throwing my two-year-old daughter, Arwen, up in the air in the pool. I was squatting and deadlifting. I was, you know, doing, I'm a triathlete in the past. I was cycling, I was swimming and felt great. And I'd injured my back lifting too heavy than

I should have, but I was lifting weights and I herniated a couple of discs on my back. Well, I went and got stem cell therapy. In your back? Yeah. And I did a bone marrow draw, got it in my back, and it helped tremendously. I noticed a really big improvement. So then I thought, I'm going to get this done one more time and I'll probably get back to 100%. Well, something went wrong when I got the stem cell injection. And afterwards, I just didn't feel right and then I felt worse and worse and worse. Was it an infection? Yeah. And so what happened was, now I went and got an MRI, nothing showed up. And so I kept getting worse and worse and worse. So I thought, it's not an infection,

I cannot figure this out. Well, finally, one morning I woke up, I couldn't walk. The pain was so bad. It was so, I mean, I couldn't move at all hardly. When you say pain, is it pains in your low back? Yeah, L4, L5 disc in my low back in those discs. And so I had to call an ambulance. I was in Puerto Rico at the time.

Oh my God. Had to come pick me up, bring me to this hospital in Puerto Rico, do an MRI, get the report back. It says I have an. Oh my God. Had to come pick me up, bring me to this hospital in Puerto Rico, do an MRI, get the report back. It says I have an infection in my disc. It's gone into the bone. And when I looked at this MRI, my entire L5 disc was like lit up because the infection had gotten into the bone. And then there was also an abscess that had gotten outside of that by the spinal canal. And there was an abscess by my spinal cord, localizing the infection. And that's why when I met with the doctor, he said you could die because... So the disc was protruding even into the spinal cord through that ligament.

Wow. Yeah. And so when I got that diagnosed... And so eventually I had to take a medical flight from Florida, or from Puerto Rico to Florida, sat down with that doc. He shared that with me. And can I tell you, just, just let me share just kind of vulnerably from an emotional standpoint here, I had never felt so depressed, hopeless, just terrible in my whole life after, after getting that diagnosis. Cause this was a really, this is a very well-known, like a well-known infectious disease doctor in Florida. And I had never known what despair and hopelessness felt like until then. And after feeling that way for about

24 hours, I mean, I just felt just that it'd been the darkest I'd ever been because again, you get that diagnosis and then I go online and start reading and researching, as I know we do. And I thought, well, I'm going to find some examples of people that overcame this and got 100% back to normal. I couldn't find any. You couldn't find any? Oh my gosh. No. So the things that we're reading was just... Especially guys like you and I, all I need is one anecdotal story to latch onto. That's right. And so I got down to my hands and knees, and I just prayed, and I said, God, would you

heal me? And I believe you can heal me. And I just felt like the peace of God come over me. And the thing I really felt, like the Lord just said, just walk with me. We'll get through this. And so I decided I was going to believe for the best outcome possible. That's really... And by the way, that is a turning point for so many people.

That was a turning point for me is deciding I'm gonna believe for the best case scenario, I'm going to plan and do everything in my power to make that a reality. There's an old quote I love and it's, get on your knees and pray, then get on your feet and work. It's a very similar mentality. Love that. And so I started doing more and more research before, and I met with this doctor. He was recommending, I think at the time, something like six weeks of IV antibiotics and another six weeks

of oral antibiotics. So three months of antibiotics, and then that was it that was the treatment and i thought what what and let me say this i am i'm not one of those people out there that says there's never a time and place for medication i think there's a time and place like when i have a spinal infection so i started taking antibiotic but i also read a research study on hyperbaric chambers and one of the studies was on people with spine infections. And it found that they were able to cut down dramatically the antibiotic use time down to a total of four weeks. From several months. From several months. And so I went and started getting in a hard hyperbaric chamber at a 2.5 ATA.

2.5, yeah. So that's a lot more than the soft ones. That's right. And I did that for about two hours a day, almost every day, five days a week. And I was able to just do that four weeks of antibiotic time. I also was eating primarily meat, vegetables, and berries. I started doing IVs daily. What kind of IVs? I did a lot of silver. Vitamin C? Okay. I did Myers. Yeah, I did vitamin C, glutathione. I wanted to protect my cells from the antibiotics

because when you do IV, it can affect your cells as much as your gut. Doing a lot of supplementation like probiotics and a number of things like spirulina. And so I followed this protocol. After two weeks, I started feeling a little bit better, 1% better, and then 1% better than 1% better. This time we're doing this interview, so let me say this. So I started getting better, and then 1% better than 1% better. This time we're doing this interview,

so let me say this. So I started getting better, but I didn't walk for a total of 10 months. Hold on. You were in a wheelchair? In a wheelchair going to the hyperbaric? No, no, no. It was worse than that. I had to have a stretcher, a medical van come to pick me up because sitting put so much pressure on the disc. So it wasn't just standing. I couldn't sit. No, no. Yeah. So I, I, the only way I could get anywhere was crawl. So I was able to crawl. I crawled in the pool once I started being able to do physical therapy, but I didn't walk on my own or even sit in a wheel, sit for 10 months. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And then I got on a Walker. Actually this time last year, we're doing this

interview right now, I was on a walker. So I just started getting up. And were your legs just so weak? I literally had to kind of learn how to walk again. Yeah, I was so weak, I lost 40 pounds. Wow. You're not a big guy to begin with. No, no. I went from about 175 to 180 down to about 135, 140. Wow. Yeah. I lost 40 pounds. And, um, and, uh, now, now here's the thing I want to share. The good news is, is that I now am about one year removed and I'm already better than the best that doctor said I would be. I'm, I'm back lifting weights, carrying my daughter around. I'm doing this interview. I'm flying on planes all over the country. I mean, doing all of this.

And I think by the end of this year, I'd say I'm probably 80, 85%, but I'm continuing to progress. And so- Do you feel it right now? Do you notice that it's there? No, no. Okay, so it's not causing you constipation.

So I think by the end of this year, I'll be back to 100%. But it was a very, very focused protocol, including hyperbaric red light therapy, getting in a red light bed, doing red light, doing PEMF therapy on a regular basis. I did all of those, cold laser, all of it religiously. And the power of prayer, I believe mindset is really important for healing as well.

And so I did all those things, and praise God, I'm here and I'm healthy now. But yeah, a lot of people were like, hey, where were you? I was bedridden for a year and just sort of now getting back at it. But one thing I am grateful for is that this pain will be used for purpose. I learned so much about longevity, regenerative medicine through the process. Because I mean, there you are on your back, so you were probably just reading, studying. That's right. Yeah, trying to dig into this. So you only did the one four-week course of antibiotics.

That's right. So after that, you went all natural hyperbarics. What do you think you attribute the greatest leap forward to, or is it kind of the combination? Is it the hyperbaric? Let me say this. I think in terms of protecting my cells and my body, the hyperbaric was a very, very powerful tool. But the one thing I didn't mention, which I can't forget, now most people wouldn't do this. You and I would, but most people wouldn't. I went and got stem cell therapy again. You did? Yes. So the first time I did it, my own bone marrow and... Was the second one your own bone marrow aspiration? The second one, I went and saw Rafael Gonzalez with ReHealth. This is a

Cancun, a clinic in Cancun. And I think they're the best in the world. I mean, their stem cells are... I'm a huge fan of Rafael. Amazing. And so I went there, got stem cell done in my disc with this incredible practitioner, and I could tell that also helped accelerate the healing process. But to answer your question, I think it's the whole protocol altogether, doing all of those things in combination to one another that really, really helped. You know, one thing that I noticed the difference was... So did Rapha's group put the stem cells right into the disc? I mean, into-

Yeah, we used his cells with a practitioner, a guy named Dr. Brian Scheiple. Okay. Really amazing doc. But yeah, I mean, it helped tremendously. You know, one thing I noticed a big difference with when my back, because after this, I still had a lot of, even when I was up walking, I couldn't sit

very long, a lot of back pain. When I would do contrast therapy, I would go and alternate between a cold plunge and a hot tub. I probably noticed the biggest difference immediately from alternating hot plunge and cold tub the next day than any other thing I did. Wow. So circulation, vasodilation, vasoconstriction, vasodilation, vasoconstriction. Dramatic improvement. Because those areas of the body have really compromised blood flow, so they're slow to heal to begin with. And that's why I healed so slowly. Most people don't realize this. The disc in the bone has almost zero blood supply. And that's why it took four to five times longer healing that area than

any other area of the body typically would. So this next, were you doing any exosomes? Yeah, we did as a follow-up. So we did stem cell therapy, and then we did some exosomes as a follow-up too. Wow. Yeah, I'm very close to Dr. Rafael Gonzalez. I'm a huge fan of his exosomes, of his stem cell therapy.

Well, congratulations on getting to the other side of that. Thank you. Thanks so much. That's amazing. One of the other things that we talked about before we started the show, and I'm a partner in a fairly sizable clinic, so we see a lot of hormone patients. And I said probably 70% of the patients that our clinical team sees that qualify for hormone therapy are actually not on hormones. And I've heard you talk about the risks of hormone therapy. I'm a fan of it and also not a fan of it, depending on the age and the circumstance. So talk a little bit about the risk, because, you know, the one thing that I see as a trend is younger and younger and younger patients, especially men, but also women, being put on hormone therapy in their 20s. Some even in their early, early 20s. A 21-year-old, or he was

21 when I met him, good friend, huge YouTube influencer. And he did blood work and gene testing with our clinic. And one of the things that popped off the charts was his testosterone level. And I was like, well, what are you doing on hormone therapy at 21 years old to get testosterone injections? This is a lifelong commitment. Who did this to you? And eventually got him off of that and titrated him off to a more natural pathway. And ironically, his testosterone is higher than it was when he started. But talk a little bit about hormone therapy because TRT is so popular now. And I think here too, you see a lot of clinics just using that single-dart approach.

Everybody gets the same thing. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about that. Well, the first thing is people are getting it because they're deficient. It is a problem. I mean, if you look over the last 50 years, testosterone levels in men have dropped by 33%. Yes. That is mind-boggling. I mean, men today...

Over what period of time? About 50 to 60 years. 50 to 56 years, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, the World War II study. Yeah. And so when you look at that, it's absolutely crazy. And then you've got men in their 20s that essentially have, you know, the same level of testosterone that during World War II or the 20 years after did in their 60s. Yes. And so there absolutely is a problem. I recognize the problem. The solution, though, of TRT therapy, and by the way, this is my general worldview when it comes to almost every medication out there, and I consider it to be a form of or very similar to a medication. I'm not saying it's identical, but there's forms, is that you are going to have some sort of side effect when you're doing something outside in

versus helping and supporting your body do it from inside out, creating more testosterone on its own. And so when you look at it, one of the issues is it's a contraceptive for men. And so men, the testes now are going to stop producing, it's going to lower sperm count almost to nothing if you take it long enough. And so now your body's going to stop, the testes are going to stop producing testosterone. And because you're getting, it's a very similar thing that can happen if you're adding any hormone outside to the body. And so, you know, and there are studies that show the longer you use it, the longer it takes to get your testosterone levels back to normal. And there are, I read a lot of studies.

This isn't one study I'm quoting. This is numerous studies on this. There are some studies that show if you use it two years, five years or more, some of the men never become fertile again or never get their testosterone, never are able to produce. Without exogenous testosterone. without exogenous testosterone. And so that's my concern. And so I'm not arguing against somebody in their late 60s or 70s and supporting them for a period of time doing testosterone therapy. That's not what I'm arguing against. I'm arguing against men in their 20s and 30s, and some of them even in their 40s, who may decide or change their mind that they want to have a family one day.

Or maybe their doctor never told them this has in a few studies been linked to there is a chance, whether it's 5% or 10 or 30, that, hey, this could make you infertile in the future. And again, there are multiple studies on this. One study shows it doesn't do that. They did a study showing that over the course of two years, everyone's came back to normal, but there are other studies showing, no, they didn't get back to normal and it does cause a level of infertility. So I just want men to know that there are some major side effects of this. And here's the other thing. There's a natural way. You don't have to do it this way. And this is how with every single medical condition, here's what I wish. I wish everything was flipped. I wish that

our conventional medical system was only emergency care system and it was secondary care. And I wish today what you and I teach was primary care. It's if you go to any hospital, any place, you come in with an issue, it's food is medicine, supplementation, those sort of things first, because if somebody, we were talking about heart disease earlier and high cholesterol levels. If somebody comes in and is truly has some form of heart disease, let's put them on a Mediterranean diet or a diet just for them. Let's give you an omega-3 supplement, let's do turmeric, let's do magnesium, let's do Hawthorne, let's do garlic,

let's prescribe walking regularly and exercise, let's have you do some of these polyphenols, let's do this, and then if that doesn't work, if we exhaust that for the next one to two years, okay, well now let's bring in a medication for a period of time, monitor you, and then actually try and get you back off again after three months. A lot of these medications, the idea should be you're on the medication for one month, two months, three months. We're monitoring you

while trying to get you off it because it's causing nutritional deficiencies, other side effects. But that's not the model today because follow the money. I mean, does somebody make more money if they keep you on a drug for one month or your lifetime? Yeah. I think that's the whole model of disease is if I can convince you that you have a genetically inherited disease, I can get you to subscribe to a lifetime of medication. You know, you have familial hypertension, you have genetically inherited hypothyroid, you have, you know, diabetes runs in your family. And if I can, you know, if you buy off on that, you know, philosophy, then you also buy off on a lifetime of medication. I have a condition that requires this medication. Let me ask you, how many times have you had somebody come in to

see you in your clinic and they've had a doctor tell them, you have to be on this drug the rest of your life and your condition is irreversible? Oh, it's a disease, they tell them, you have to be on this drug the rest of your life, and your condition is irreversible. Oh, it's a disease, they tell them. You have hypertension, idiopathic hypertension, which the average person doesn't know what that means. They just know, OK, I have high blood pressure. And if I don't take this for the rest of my life, I'm always going to have high blood pressure.

And when they ask why, well, because your grandfather on your mother's side had it, and your maternal father, your grandfather had it. And look at this, your uncles have it, and so does your older brother. So it's familial. But if you even take it a step further and say, well, if I inherited this condition from my offspring, then, I mean, from my ancestor, what gene did they pass on to me that caused this condition to exist? I always tell clients to ask their doctor that because, you know, you want to see their face go blank. You ask them, well, if this is familial, if it's genetically inherited, then what gene did I inherit that caused me to have this condition? And, well, we don't know.

No, we actually do know. We've actually mapped the entire human genome. And I think a lot of disease and pathology runs in families, not because you're catching disease or passing disease from generation to generation. That's actually very rare. You're passing in nutrient deficiency related to methylation.

And again, I think that the evidence is about to be overwhelming when you combine large data. I mean, our clinics see 10, 15,000 patients a month for genetic testing in an average month, a good month, you know, 20,000 new tests. So when the data, and we've been talking to different groups about helping us when the data, and we've been talking to different groups about helping us publish the data, the quantum analytics department at Harvard, their human flourishing study, their

longevity study. I think that, you know, you're about to see data start to contradict that notion of because disease is in your family, you genetically inherited it. Yeah. Right. So I'm taking a little diversion there. Most of us have a very difficult time meeting our protein needs and certain protein sources like whey protein and others can be as little as 20% absorbable. This is 99% absorbable, and it has all of the essential amino acids that the body needs to build lean muscle, to recover, to improve our exercise performance,

and most importantly, to repair after we have intense exercise. So this is called Perfect Amino by Body Health. It's, like I said, 99% absorbable. It only has two calories. Eventually, the caloric intake has virtually no caloric intake. It will not break a fast. It tastes amazing.

You mix it in water. I take this literally every single morning. If you're working out in a fasted state, you have to take a full spectrum amino acid prior to your workout to preserve your lean muscle and make sure that you're recovering properly and again it will not break your fast so the caloric impact is virtually zero you get all of the full spectrum amino acids it tastes wonderful i use it every single day you can go to bodyhealth.com forward slash ultimate that's bodyhealth.com forward slash ultimate and look for the perfect aminos they actually come in capsules if you're on the go or it becomes in several flavors that they make in a powder which

I love it's flavored with natural um uh means of flavoring so there's no artificial sweeteners in here so this is one of my absolute favorite products give it a try if you're working out at all you need a full spectrum amino acid go to bodyhealth.com forward slash ultimate that's bodyhealth.com forward slash ultimate i love their lab tested products you can actually see the absorption rate for all of their products they've got great electrolyte protein combinations my favorite is the perfect aminos bodyhealth.com forward slash ultimate and now back to the ultimate human podcast i i love this approach that you have that you know what so so back to the hormone therapy thing yeah um what are some things that you can do when you notice that you have low hormones

because i am astounded at the um age level at which these levels are becoming deficient, and sometimes clinically deficient. Yeah. I would say if you want to naturally boost your testosterone levels, let's talk about... Because there's tonkat ali, there's all kinds of... Yeah, and that's great. I would say lifestyle medicine, mindset medicine, and let's start talking about food as medicine. Let me start with food as medicine first. You know, there are several deficiencies and there are numerous studies that show certain nutrients, if they're low, is going to cause you to have low testosterone. If you start supplementing with those, it's going to help. Zinc and vitamin D in particular, two very important. We know you've quoted constantly, vitamin D is a pro-hormone.

Zinc is actually very critical for men's sperm count, testosterone. So those two alone, just taking 5,000 IUs a day of vitamin D and 30 to 60 milligrams, probably 30 long-term. Now, up front, you probably want to do closer to 60 milligrams of zinc. But doing those two alone will impact and help increase testosterone levels in almost all men across the board. From a supplement station standpoint, if you're an older man, I really like ginseng, Panex ginseng. I also really

like, there's Tribulus. We know that's been used for years for this. Fenugreek is another one. Fenugreek's a big one, yeah. That's fantastic. So I would put those up on the list. And there's loads of herbs. I could talk about all the others, but those are some of the easier ones to get that I would recommend. There's a study in ashwagandha showing that it does support it mildly as well. And then weight training, you know, go and just lift some weights. That helps boost your testosterone levels.

And then from the things you don't want, and then spending more time outdoors, getting sunlight early in the morning, getting outdoors, that's also going to help. Now, from a mindset standpoint, let me tell you a really interesting study. There was a study done on testosterone in men related to their mindset. And so here's what they looked at. They had men get on a rower, okay, just like we'd get on your regular rowing machine. And they had men row as fast as they could. One of the groups, at the end, they said, you lost. Another group of men, they said, you won. Now there's a third group, and I don't know the exact details of this part of the study, but another group, when the interview processed, whether they won or lost, they actually just believed they were winners. They had this

internal self-confidence. The men who lost had, I believe it's five to 7% lower level of testosterone. Wow. So you get off the rower and they'd be like, yeah, sorry, buddy, you lost. Yeah. The men who won had a five to 7% higher testosterone levels. And the men who believe that they were inherently winners, 15 to 17% higher testosterone levels. And I think this goes to show, and this could be a broader conversation about culture, making men feel guilty for being masculine, being men. But it's very important that men feel like they're men. There's another study done on men chopping wood. It actually demonstrated more than playing sport, more than playing soccer or

probably similar sports like basketball or others. Men going out and just chopping wood was far, far greater in elevating testosterone in men. Because I think one, it is a full body movement. You're using a lot of strength, but also there's, I feel there's something about your chopping wood. You feel like a man. It's like a primal. Yeah. That is a super man thing to do. Yes. I remember my dad bringing me out of the yard and teaching me, our last name's Axe, so it's pretty appropriate. With an S name like Axe, you better be good at chopping wood. But teaching me to chop wood, and I probably, I was a teenager, I felt more like a man that day than probably any time in my entire life. And so, but I think there's a lot of men today that don't feel like men. And this is even a relational thing. I think that there are, I mean, if you're a, any woman watching this,

men need to feel like they're winners, not losers. How can you make your man feel like a winner? Right. It is so incredibly healing and loving to be able to do that for your man. In a similar way, women want to feel loved and protected and pursued. And so, men, how can you do that for your women? But the psychology of even how these things affect hormone balance is really, it's real. I saw a whole talk on how, it was actually by a pastor, and he was talking about how, you know, no man has ever been nitpicked, nagged, or belittled into having a strong character. And, you know, the philosophical approach of that, I also saw, I want to say it was a Scandinavian study, or Swedish study study about the impact of patients when being delivered information about conditions on cancer were actually lied to.

And very similar cancers, one group told you qualify for a life-saving treatment and you're one of the lucky few, your chance of survival is virtually 100%. And the other people given the actual news about their cancer and the cancer outcomes and the demonstrative difference just purely from the mindset. And, you know, I think some of these things are the unexplained things that you see in labs or some of the unexplained miracle cures that you see when you take this whole body approach. I mean, I know on our side, when our clinical team is looking at testosterone, we actually start below testosterone and go from, you know, sort of the middle of the tree down into the root. And we start with vitamin D3. We look at DHEA. We'll look at whether or not there's a protein

called sex hormone binding globulin SH SHBG, in the way. And then we look at the nutritional components, the methylation components. And in almost every case, you see testosterone just boop. And if you think about it, you know, one of the largest hormone studies ever done was done during the Second World War because they had blood work on all the GIs, whether they were enlisted or drafted. And this is where, you know, when you're quoting that in the last 50, 60 years, you know, we've had such a dramatic drop in testosterone. A lot of this is because we use population data. You know, when you look at a LabCorp range, okay, and it says testosterone testosterone goes from 262 to 940. That range is based on the population. So as the population gets worse, the range goes down.

And so now somebody who might've been high end of normal 50 years ago, now like, oh my God, your testosterone's off the charts. It could be something wrong. So as the pop, it's like grading on a curve, right? I mean, if the highest grade in the class was a 75, a C, then all of a sudden the 75 becomes an A. Well, that's just average. You make an average people extraordinary because the population average is going down, right? And I think that's some of the challenges with a lot of the way that we

diagnose things is that as the population gets worse, we accept a lot more average results as being high end of normal. Well, you and I both know this from looking at a lot of blood work, and that is, so often people come in because they say, my blood work came back as normal. And so they think that I don't have anything going on, or their doctor might even tell them it's all in their head, and the reality is, well, you're either not testing for the right things, or your ranges are incorrect. Yeah. You know, I had one of our functional medicine practitioners tell me one time, if you take the advantage, if you take the vantage point that when you're looking at a client, number one, God didn't make a mistake. So in other words, they have an autoimmune condition. Don't assume that they woke up one day and started manufacturing antibodies to the colon

or to the thyroid. Think that the immune system woke up one day and was properly in that area. Maybe it's a heavy metal, it's after a viral pathogen, or maybe there's bacteria in the luminal wall of the intestine and it's actually after that and not the tissue. So number one, God didn't make a mistake. Number two, what nutrient deficiencies could be causing this condition to exist? And number three, what is the common link

between all of the symptoms that this person has? And it's such a refreshing way to look at human beings because you go, okay, first, I'm gonna assume, not that there's nothing wrong with you because we have a condition, but that the body didn't make a mistake. We just have to find out why it's behaving that way. And then secondly,

that could there be a nutrient deficiency? And one of the interesting things that you brought up that I didn't know was that all pharmaceuticals cause a nutrient deficiency. What are some of the other big ones that people should be aware of? There are strong links between NSAIDs, like cortisones and deficiencies of folate, which I think is why you have primary issues in the gut. Soon as somebody gets on methotrexate, they have a gut issue. Or they get on corticosteroids,

their gut goes to hell in a hand basket. And then shortly thereafter, so does their mood. Yeah. Right? So what are some of the other big ones that people should know about? Yeah. Well, antidepressants are very high up on the list.

A lot of B vitamins. It is really going to affect methylation. Those pathways. SSRIs. In a big way. So that's a big one. Of course, the most common one and maybe the most damaging of all in my mind in terms of just corporally across America are going to be antibiotics. I mean, of course they deplete your body of good bacteria. Right. But what else do

they put your body of? Every single B vitamin. There's a unique study. There's a study that came out of Stanford years ago, and they discovered that if you supplement with probiotics, your serum level of B vitamins that you're absorbing, your body can utilize, nearly doubles. Wow. So, I mean, it's a— If you stop taking antibiotics, it doubles. No, if you take probiotics. Oh, if you take probiotics. Yeah.

Okay. But my point with that was going to be, though, when you deplete your body of good bacteria, you're now not absorbing anything as well. Yeah. And B vitamins are going to be a big one. Well, I always remind people that we actually don't eat to feed ourselves. The only reason why we eat is to feed our gut bacteria. That's what really feeds us. I don't know that we're capable. I don't wanna make too blanket of a statement, but I don't know that we're capable of even

taking a single nutrient from our food and having it show up in the blood is something the body can use without your gut bacteria. So we feed them and then they feed us, or eventually ATP feeds feeds us but i mean really got to think about there's an intermediary between your plate and your body eating yeah and it's your bacteria it's your gut bacteria i mean there are more back there are more microbes in our body than cells in our body and you got 37 million 37 trillion cells yeah and there are actually more

microbes yeah in our bodies. I mean, it's crazy. One other drug I just want to mention too, and I didn't mention it earlier, but statin drugs. I think this is crazy to me. People are prescribed a statin medication. They take it. Well, one of the nutrients it depletes is coenzyme Q10. Well, that's critical for your heart functioning properly. So in reality, we know that if you're taking a statin drug, you're increasing your risk of heart disease. I mean, that's the reality.

What about all of the studies that they point to that, you know, taking statins reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, mainly atherosclerotic and, you know, plaquing reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, mainly atherosclerotic and, you know, plaquing, narrowing, scarring. So here's my opinion on, and let me dive into something else here, a different topic, and then bring it back to this. There was a study done on studies. Okay. A study done on studies. And this is a really reputable study. Now, of course, after it came out, the pharmaceutical companies were freaking out about it, but 51.3% of studies today are inaccurate. They're lies. They're not true. Think about that. More than 50% of the studies we would go and read at cannot be trusted.

How are they not true? So here's what I mean. It's false data. Like what they're saying in the study is not true. And they give six reasons for this. I'm going to remember most of them. One is if you have a small sample size, its chance of being true is a lot less. If the population that you're studying of people don't actually have the condition, if it's a larger placebo group, it tends to be less accurate. If there is a strong

financial bias connected to it, they tend to be less accurate. If there's a lot of flexibility in the study, too much flexibility, it's inaccurate. And the other big one is cherry picking. If you're just cherry picking the data you want and putting that out to the public and people are reading that, that tends to... This was a massive issue when the war on fat started, remember? And when they finally blew that thing wide open, they were like, he left out entire contradictory data sets. It's like exculpatory evidence in court. They were like, he left out entire contradictory data sets. You know, it's like exculpatory evidence in court. It's like, we only want to talk about the facts that lead to proving our case, and then all these ones that disprove it, we're going to leave out.

And let me give you an example of how it's almost 50-50. When you look at the food studies done today? Let me think of, I could think of like 20, but let me pick one. So beef. There are loads of studies that show you eat red meat causes heart disease. There are also several studies that show, no, it reverses heart disease. Which ones are true? These are these. Right. Okay. So same thing, tomatoes. There are studies showing tomato, you know, and they're actually showing some that it causes heart disease. There are some on, I was going through this whole chart today on all of these. And so here's one of the other things that happens in studies. They don't get specific enough and clarify things. Like for instance, the beef study, if we're looking at grass-fed, grass-fed beef is radically different than conventional grain-fed beef.

Right. But when they're in the study, they're just saying red meat or beef. You and I are going to have a tomahawk after this, by the way. You know that, right? Yeah, I can't wait. I saw it on the fridge. I showed it to him right before the email. It's going to be awesome. Yeah, I can't wait. But I think that's how some of these studies are false is this contradicting data saying, well, this happened. Oh, we found out that's not true. And this happens more often in

the medical industry by far, but this happened in resveratrol. I mean, we saw a lot of people saying, oh, resveratrol is this miracle thing, but they were only testing it in a Petri dish. So then later on when they run human trials, they're like, oh, well, actually everything that we published for 10 years and we said that it adds 20 years to your life, this is false now. Right, right. Yeah, you see that pendulum swing a lot in medical science. SSRIs was also a big one recently showing these tail-end risks in, you know, suicidal tendencies and increased, you know, rates of suicide. One other thing that makes the studies false often, they don't do them long-term.

It's only a short-term study on, you know, and then when they do the full, as you're saying, 10-year study rather than the 10-month study. Right. Well, then you find out, oh, well, this was the actual effect that it had. Yeah, because you have the time for the adaptations in the body to manifest into whatever that condition is. So just to sort of bring things back full cervical, I mean, philosophically, you're a huge believer in nutrition, lifestyle, you know, our mentality, you know, on a state of optimal health. So where does somebody start? They're like, I want to go on this health journey. So many gurus to listen to, there's so many diets to pick out there. What testing do I do? Where do I plant the flag and get this journey going? Yeah, I think the first place somebody should start is figuring out,

what does my ideal life look like? What do I want to be doing when I'm in my 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s? What condition do you have? Do you want to reverse it? But just think about your health and your life and what you want to be doing in the future. Now, I'm going to say something that probably not a whole lot of people have said, but my answer is, who are the five people who are doing that? Well, exactly what you want to do in the future. I mean, if you look at the greatest way to learning today is via mentorship, mentorship, apprenticeship. I mean, that's how you... So it's like, today, we're listening to government officials. We're listening to people like Anthony Fauci and other people that probably have very poor health. Whether Anthony Fauci did, I don't know. My point is, there's a lot of people in government, the CDC, the FDA, pharmaceutical companies, even doctors that have very,

very poor health. That's not who you should be listening to. Listen to either the person who has extraordinary health himself or the person that helped that person get extraordinary health and follow the principles that that person's following. That's how we know. There's actually a Bible verse, I think, that's very relevant to this, and it's, how do you know who to follow or believe? By your fruit, you will recognize them. Who has the best fruit in their life? Who has the best health? Okay, well, let's start to follow their advice, model what they're doing. So if you want to be healthy, the greatest thing you can do is find other people that are living this lifestyle and just start to model them. Now, let me bring it back a little bit as well. Let's say you're just getting started in this natural health realm, and you want to make a big change. Here's one. Just change breakfast.

Wow. If you just change breakfast, that's a third of your diet. Right. I mean, that's immense, or if you're intermittent fasting, change lunch. But my point is, just make that one switch. Do a superfood smoothie for breakfast. Do a handful of berries, a little bit of coconut milk, some collagen and bone broth protein, and boom, there you go. You know, just make that change. But I would say the biggest, and let me go through my top things. If somebody really wants to change their health, the number one thing you need to do is focus on

your spiritual and emotional well-being. The top study I've seen on longevity, the thing that I think without a doubt will increase your lifespan, is your community and inner circle. So true. The Blue Zone research. Yeah. Hang out with other virtuous human beings that love you, that support you, that help you grow and become the best you. That's the number one thing. Number two, use food as medicine. Again, change breakfast. Just start to try and eat just real food, more organic meat, more vegetables, more fruits, getting those in your diet. Number three, walk. Walk a lot outside.

The most underrated exercise on the planet. Yeah, yeah. Josh, this has been amazing. I think there's just so much to chew on. I hope I can have you back again and we can take another deep dive. I'd love to. I wind down every podcast the same way. I ask every guest the you back again and we can take another deep dive. I'd love to. I wind down every podcast the same way, ask every guest the same question, so there's no right or wrong answer for this question, but what does it mean to you to be an ultimate human?

Well, to me, it's really tied to something in Greek called the synum bonum, and that is, we're called to do the greatest good in this world. I believe we're all called to do three things. Love God, love people, make earth a heavenly place. Take the Garden of Eden in Genesis and turn the entire... Gas pumps. Yeah, turn the entire place into a paradise. You know, when you read the book of Genesis, you'll see us in a garden. When you go and read the last book of the Bible, Revelation, the last two chapters, we're in a garden city. That's what we're called to create. So we need to take our, find our greatest unique gifts that God's given us. What

is that thing that God has called you to do that you can do? Take that to the highest level. If you're an artist, be the Michelangelo, be that person, and then grow in your character, grow in skill, grow in character, and use that for the good of humanity. And one of the things that will help you do that is being healthier. I once had a pastor come into my office, and he was my best patient. He never, you have people like this, they never missed a workshop, never missed a nutrition lecture, was everyone. And I asked him, I said, hey, why, I said, why are you my best patient? He goes, because I want to be doing mission trips when I'm in my 90s. And I said, you got it. Purpose.

And so that's, it's purpose. That's amazing. Awesome. Well, guys, you heard it here first, Dr. Josh Axe, where can they find you if they want to find out more about you, read up on some of your books, find out more about your clinics? How does my audience find you? Yeah, well, one area is my podcast. I'm going to have the longevity expert here, Gary, on. So again, it's the Dr. Josh Axe Show, so people can check out that podcast. And also, I've covered a lot of topics. And so if people just go on YouTube and search Josh Axe, hypothyroid, Josh Axe testosterone, they can find a lot of the things that I've taught YouTube on there.

And then on social, it's at Dr. Josh Axe. I got a new book out called Think This, Not That. It's really about mindset medicine. And those are the best places. But hey, thanks so much, man. I admire so much about what you've done and just helping people reverse disease and just really being a pioneer in this industry too. So thanks so much for having me. It was an honor. Thank you so much, brother. It's great having you on. Thanks, Gary. Yeah. And as always, it's just science.