Saoirse Ronan

You are now listening to The Model Health Show with Sean Stevenson. For more, visit TheModelHealthShow.com Welcome to The Model Health Show. You are about to hear the results of a groundbreaking study. This was a 12-week clinical intervention that resulted in study participants becoming one, two, three years biologically younger, again, in that very short amount of time. Houseway, how is that even possible? And by the way, when I say houseway, I actually talk to sway, all right? I was there at the studio in New York City, the most iconic morning show, sway in the morning. And being able to share this information with the community at large, more people, it's up to us to share this information, to share the empowerment, to share the science. Because everybody needs to be included in this. We have so much power to affect change in our lives, to transform our health and the health of our community. And we need this more than ever. So I'm very, very passionate about this. And I'm so excited to be able to share this with you today. Now, before we get to our special guest, another barrier of entry for stacking conditions with our health is the cost associated with it. When I first made the decision to get myself healthier, I was living not adjacent to poverty. I had my toes fully in it in Ferguson, Missouri. And I decided to get well, to become as healthy as I possibly could be. And that required me to do a lot of figuring out and finessing and taking risk even. Sometimes it was like, I'm ordering these goji berries from the Tibetan school to medicine or put this on the light bill. You know what I'm saying? And I don't think it's a great idea to take the risk with the goji berries, but I did. All right. And sometimes I get to the counter at the checkout. And, you know, I got the bad news. I'm going to take this off. I'll go ahead, can you take that off? Right? I've been there in that situation. 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Again, take advantage. The quality, the people behind it are all extraordinary. Wildpastures.com/model. And now let's get to our special guest and topic of the day. Dr. Josh Axe is a doctor of natural medicine and a clinical nutritionist who has helped millions around the world transform their health through the power of food, movement, and lifestyle medicine. Dr. Axe is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University. And with decades of work, he's emerged as a leading voice in functional medicine, as well as a New York Times bestselling author and host of one of the top health podcasts in the world. And he's here today to share the results of his clinical trial on reversing biological aging and the science that we can all apply in our day-to-day lives. Let's dive into this conversation with the incredible Dr. Josh Axe. We're on location in Nashville with my friend Dr. Josh Axe. Welcome to the show. Sean, thanks for having me. Man, excited to be having this conversation with you. Of course, yeah. The studio is beautiful, by the way. The team is amazing. Shout out to Tink over here. And listen, like the work that you guys are doing, you and Dr. Will Cole in this new project has just been blown my mind again and again. And you guys actually conducted your own groundbreaking study on reducing the rate of aging potentially, but also potentially reversing biological aging. Can you talk about that study? Yeah. So it started off when we were inspired by, I think one of our own practices in looking at what it takes to help somebody reverse a chronic illness, whether that be hypothyroidism or PMOS or low testosterone, we wanted to help people reverse chronic age. And then we also looked at this study at a Stanford that they came out and said about one out of every five people have one organ aging much quicker than another organ. And they found that the most deadly would be the brain aging too quickly or the immune system and then the third was the cardiovascular system like the heart. And so we said we wanted to do our own study. And so we took 110 of our own patients. We did pre-blood work in post. They went through about a 12 to 16 week health plan that included changing of their diet. And we would more customize and personalize the diet for different people. We kind of had four buckets of people with people with hypothyroidism or some sort of fatigue issue. We had a lot of women going through parimenopause and menopause that were having hormone imbalance. We had people with more metabolic-based issues. And then we had another group of people that might have been struggling with infections, like mold or lime and those type of issues. And then we created very specific protocols for diet and supplements for those people. And we also encouraged some lifestyle changes like daily walking and prayer. And we went through this study over a 16 week period. And the results were pretty phenomenal. I mean, the one that blew me the way the most was the average person, this isn't one person. The average person saw a reduction in inflammation by 196%. And this is based off of a CRP marker. So we saw major reductions in inflammation. We saw shortening of, or length of telomeres, which is important for anti-aging. We saw, and the other thing is, we just saw people seeing major improvements. And we graded 13 different systems at the body and organ systems. And across the board on average, most people saw an improvement in all of them. The biggest improvements though were in gut health and hormone health were two of the biggest. And so, but we had a number of people able to get off their medication. So the results were really pretty phenomenal. - And how long was the study? - 16 weeks. - 16 weeks. And by the way, you mentioned the different age range can be assumed with menopause. But the ranges of ages went from 32 to 72. - Yeah, so it's a really robust data set here. And you said this CRP, you know, this one of these markers of for aging. - I mean, it's 100 and 96%. - Yeah. - Can you talk about why that would have such a big impact on biological aging? - Well, yeah, you know, of course, I mean, most people know inflammation is a major problem. And inflammation basically causes you to have breakdown of your cells that causes oxidative stress, which then will cause your cells to age more quickly. And so when you're able to greatly reduce inflammation, you're slowing down how quickly those organs age or how much breakdown and damage is being done. Which, which, you know, I mean, here's what I would say aging is. The older you get, typically the worse your body is at repairing itself. It's really your body's able to less heal less readily. This is why, I mean, you can spray an ankle when you have some sort of injury when you're 15 and you're playing three days later. - Walk it later. - Walk it off, walk it off then. When you have that happen in your 40s or 50s or 60s, it can take months. Sometimes you don't feel like you ever fully recover from it. I mean, and that's because, and that's why a lot of these more advanced therapies like stem cells or using peptides like BPC157, why we're seeing a lot of people gravitate towards us because for a time in a way, they help in an area of the body increase that healing mechanism, that ability to regenerate. But the biggest thing that causes you to degenerate in the first place is chronic inflammation. So if you can decrease inflammation, people will look younger, they'll feel younger, they'll actually physically be younger when you can do that. - Yeah, and this is what's so interesting about, well, just one of the things interesting about the study, you mentioned the telomere effect. And so in the study you guys found that telomeres actually grew longer. - Yeah. - And so we've had on, you know, so the Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn was, she received a Nobel Prize for the discovery of telomerees adding effect to the telomeres, but her co-author, we've had on the show Elissa Eple, so we're deeply invested in this kind of telomere science. But being able, essentially, you guys found that, it was estimated one to three years of regained youth through this protocol that you guys did. Also, you mentioned the gut improvement. There's a 35% improvement on average in gut health. - Yeah. - 35% improved cardiovascular regulation. The list goes on and on and on. Like it's so remarkable what can happen in just, three month period. It is. Yeah, yeah, in three to four months, somebody can see radical healing. If they do the right thing, and here's something I share with a lot of patients, Sean, is that I said, you don't need a pill, you need a protocol. And that's how people truly heal, you know, because a lot of times people say, hey, what's the supplement? What's the medication versus what I found? And I really learned this early on. So my mom was diagnosed with cancer. The first time she went through conventional treatments, she looked at me, went through chemotherapy. And this is when I was in junior high. And this is this is quite a long time ago. This is back in like 1994. And then about 11 years later, 11, 12 years later, my mom was diagnosed with cancer again. This time, I was about a year away from graduating, to be opening a functional medicine clinic in Nashville. And we went all natural. And and I put together a protocol for her that included her diet was 50% vegetables. It was vegetable juices, raw vegetables and cook vegetables. It was a lot of berries and pomegranates, wild salmon. And then we did a lot of herbs. And we did actually a mushroom blend of Rishi and quarter steps. We did a lot of tumor, I can curcumin. And and a lot of reducing stress, getting like this, the perfect protocol to get her body in the perfect healing state. And my mom was able to completely heal and reverse cancer lung cancer without chemotherapy, without radiation, without surgery. And she saw those biggest improvements over four months, tumor shrunken half a year later, complete remission. I bring that all up to say, that's the way I think about all my patients, no matter what they have. It's not, I'm just going to recommend this one supplement or a general diet. It's, I go and personalize based on that person's unique biology, the most healing foods for that person. So let me give you example. Here's what happens with most doctors. One, let me say this, there's three buckets. Most doctors say, don't give any, any advice for diet. Okay. Some doctors will say, well, I'm going to recommend everybody go keto or everybody go vegan or everybody go carnivore, or I'm going to give you a list of things that, you know, that you can't eat and have a big list of everything you can eat. Now, what I do is I create meal plans to say, okay, if I do your blood work and you have high APOB and LPA and, you know, your HDL to LDL cholesterol is off, I'm going to find out what are the most healing foods. Okay. What are those? Pomegranates, wild blueberries, extra virgin olive oil, not any extra virgin olive oil, high polyphenol, extra virgin olive oil, wild cots, and I'm going to put together the most healing plan for that individual. And if they do that and they start walking or start doing the right stuff, I mean, it is amazing how fast the body can heal when you, when you have the right in a really in depth, personalized protocol. Yeah. I want to come back and talk more about this personalized versus the cookie cutter approach that we see in conventional medicine. Yeah. But I just want to point out how extraordinary the story is and experience with your mother, but it's not, it's not unusual. It's not something that's isolated. This is very, very well documented in case after case after case, what's possible when stacking conditions, basically, you are putting all of these personalized kind of anti anti cancer supportive protocols together for your mom. And again, it was for her and so much can happen and just to circle back again with this your study again, it was four months and one of the things that you pointed out specifically in the book was how quickly the gut can heal. Yeah, because I know oftentimes people that are coming in for gut related issues, they've been suffering. I've been suffering for months, oftentimes years at a time, yeah, it just seems like I'm so far away from healing, but you shared some of the data on how quickly you can actually see some really positive changes. Yeah, well, and some of these people were seeing radical changes in in four weeks, you know, it wasn't just for months and people are already starting to see improvements, but you know, and I think it comes down to this as well. Sometimes people will change their diet and they will get on the right diet, but their cortisol still high. And so, you know, when we can add in, you know, hey, getting outside and going on your walk in the morning, hey, let's spend some time in prayer, let's do everything we can to also spiritually and emotionally get your hormones in that perfect healing state, because that's the thing if your cortisol is high and you're living in fight or flight state. That's it's the opposite end of the spectrum and healing mode right rest digest parasympathetic that's repair mode that's healing mode sympathetic is survival mode you have to get into repair mode so it's that combination of getting your body the right. I would say there's kind of three things I focus on toxicity deficiency and cellular energy so if I'm remodeling a house. I'm saying, what do I need to get rid of? Okay, there's termite damage, there's water damage, we got to get new drywall, new boards here, let's get rid of that. Now we need new material right so we need peptides and proteins and fatty acids and vitamins and minerals, we need the right building blocks. But then your body needs the workers that are energized in order to actually do the remodel itself and this is really tied to myocondral health to cellular energy and so but when you can but the thing is the biggest thing that drains that battery is high cortisol right so you've got to look at all of these things in combination together if you're really going to help somebody heal, heal completely and quickly. Yeah, thank you for sharing that because it's not just about the food as well which food is incredibly powerful and the exercise practices all those things are great but it's a stress management piece is huge. You got to sleep to your credit because I know this is something you've written about selling book on you've talked about for years stress and sleep are the two most overlooked things that are essential for healing. Yeah, those the double S got to pay attention because you know you've seen this I know you've seen this multiple times just time and time again people can just be like so adamant about their guy like just like locked in on it and they're training you know they're doing crossfit whatever it is they like they're so locked in on their exercise and their nutrition. But then they still manifest you know a condition that might seem like where did this come from yeah and then after further investigation you find out they're sleeping four hours a night or you find out that they're dealing with you know somebody that they lost and they're they're not processing it and they're just really struggling with their with their mental health yeah and we know like I'm sick and tired of having this like mind body like you can't have one without the other like these are the things that they're looking for. And so if you're not paying attention to your mind to your spirit you know to you know your application of this like these are the things that can be game changers and as a matter of fact I think it's the biggest domino. Yeah, I absolutely agree it's the biggest domino. Yeah, if I think about and this might seem crazy for me to say because I've been saying food is medicine now for 20 years. But I do think our spiritual mental emotional health is a bigger factor to our health generally speaking than what we eat now I think what we it's a huge deal okay but I might call one a and one B but I do think the two and when I look at things hormonally I really think that you know most most doctors if somebody comes with a thyroid issue they're focused on the thyroid. I'm not I'm focused on cortisol and insulin first I mean cortisol and insulin those two hormones are the hormones that impact every other hormone and typically if you can fix those two hormones you're fixing testosterone you're fixing estrogen you're fixing thyroid hormones. This is a great opportunity to circle back and talk about the difference with our conventional approach to medicine to healing to treating patients. And largely this is kind of one size fits all with so much of it right and the opposite approach which just seems so captain obvious at this point of personalized medicine personalizing or nutrition. Can you talk about this paradigm because right now more and more people are waking up to this like every everything isn't for everybody. Yeah well let me say this to when we're looking at the way our whole medical system is set up today it is incredibly outdated like let me just give you an example now I got a degree as a DC doctor car practice and then I also have a DNM which is doctor natural medicine. But the doctor natural medicine came after that this degree and mo and really I think schools generally speaking need to be completely changing their curriculum because a lot has changed over the last 50 years. And so most medical doctors the only training they're getting is pharmacology for the most part in terms of how to treat things and so if you come in with any health problem there's one solution. There's a drug or if it's a surgeon or an orthopedic I mean that or they're trained in surgery but that's really it is drugs or surgery those the solutions today there are so many advancements and looking at things like I just think about red light therapy hyperbaric oxygen therapy diet supplementation herbal medicine stem cells exesomes I mean peptides and doctors get of all those things I said and there's a lot of other things. Any exercise zero hours zero hours of training on sleep producing stress zero hours with patients so when you have a doctor graduate and then afterwards they're getting their see use through pharmaceutical companies and learning about drugs and so you know I think that schools whether it be osteopathic or chiropractic or medical. They need to add into a big part of the curriculum these things because doctors are not trained on any of these things I just mentioned whatsoever if they're learning about it it's self study like myself that you're learning after school that's everyone from doctor more kind man danger who we're in all everybody no one learns this in school so that's the first thing I'd also say that. What we call primary care today should not be primary care. If somebody has a health issue, they should not be going to a medical, a conventional medical practitioner first. They should be going to a doctor that practices natural medicine. The first thing we should be doing is saying, "Hey, let's work on your diet. Let's work on your supplements. Let's get better exercise. Here's some ways to reduce stress and get better sleep. Let's do those things." And then once you go through that program, if you still have a problem, by the way, it would be less than 10% of people. But if you still have a major issue, now I'm going to refer out to somebody who specializes in pharmacology, and then we're going to put you on a drug for a short period of time with a goal to get you off it as quickly as possible, because we all know that there's major side effects there of nutritional depletion, organ damage that are happening when you're on conventional medication. Now be on that. The other next thing is everything should be personalized. When I have a patient that comes in with irritable bowel disease, like Crohn's or Colitis, that diet I put that person on versus somebody who comes in and I'm working with, who is working with cancer, those diets are completely different. Like my mom with cancer, I had her eat a lot of raw foods in raw vegetable juices. I would never put somebody with irritable bowel disease on raw foods. It would destroy their gut. They're going to have flare ups. They need to be doing mostly soups. And so the most healing diet for somebody is the diet that most fits their biology. So when somebody comes in as a patient now, I look at three main things. What are their histories and symptoms? What is their blood work saying? We do much more advanced blood work today than let's say you'd get it, whether it's function or your conventional medical doctor, much different markers, like let me ask this. So when you were on my show, you said that magnesium is really important. And most everybody, all of your listeners, all my listeners, they know magnesium is a huge deal. How many people have had their magnesium levels tested to actually know if they're deficient or not? Almost nobody. I mean, we started finally doing this with vitamin D because it's so important. But nobody knows their magnesium levels, their zinc levels, their, you know, folate, their vitamin B12. And now we can test this at a cellular level to see how much is actually in your cells. So I look at that and then I also do something called tongue diagnosis and it's looking at their tongue. This is a, you know, a Chinese method of diagnosis. And then I'll take all of that data and then that will let me know the exact foods, supplements and other things that would be most effective for the individual. What if we could not only reduce pain, but restore function? That's what was seen in a meta analysis published in the BMJ, analyzing if a red light therapy could reduce pain in people with osteoarthritis versus a placebo. The study included 1,063 people and found that red light therapy significantly reduced knee pain in study participants and not only that. The results appear to have semi lasting effects with benefits seen up to three months after the treatment. The researchers stated, quote, "the positive effect from red light therapy seems to last longer than those of widely recommended pain killer drugs." And the icing on the cake? The red light therapy was also found to not only reduce pain, but to improve function of the participants' knees. I think one of the most powerful takeaways from this incredible analysis is the researchers are pointing to this seems to work better than pain killer drugs. Pain killer drugs are trying to target this with chemistry, and chemistry absolutely makes a huge impact. Our bodies are a conglomeration of chemistry, but our bodies are also a conglomeration even more so of energy, of light, of frequency, and that's why red light therapy and other light therapies impact our tissues and our function so deeply. We need to know that all of these things are available to us so that we have more ways to stack conditions in our favor, to heal, to perform at our best, and to live the lives that we truly want to live. Now let me give you one more quick example, because hypothyroidism has grown over 1,000% since the 1970s, largely driven by chronic autoimmune thyroiditis. But what if there was something that could be helpful in this battle? Well, the team of scientists took 43 patients with a history of leveled thiroxymedication use for autoimmune hypothyroidism to analyze the impact that red light therapy could have on the thyroid function. At the end of the study, the participants in the red light therapy group were able to cut their medication dose by two thirds versus the placebo group. The red light therapy enabled approximately 64% reduction in their medication requirement. Again, stacking conditions in our favor. Now, obviously, these results are incredible, and red light therapy is one of those things that we can utilize from the comfort of our own homes, which need to make sure you do your due diligence and get your red light therapy devices from the most reputable source. And for me and my family, that source is bond charge. Their devices are FDA registered, and they provide wavelengths and irradiance that have been verified in third-party labs, and they meet key IEC safety standards for electrical and EMF safety, and their red light therapy devices are something that I utilize personally on a regular basis. But right now, if you go to bondcharge.com/model, use the cold model at checkout, and you're going to get 15% off the store wide. All of their incredible red light therapy devices, their blue light blocking glasses, and all the incredible technology that they have, 15% off, again, store wide, go to bondcharge.com/model as bon-ch-a-r-g-e.com/model, right now to take advantage, now back to the show. Wow. So you're actually looking at your patient, you're looking at the blood work, and it tells the story. Yeah. So you're being able to complement what you're doing, because we're all so unique. Our biology is so unique, our microbiomes are so unique, it's just, it's crazy how, again, we come with this very superficial, and here's the thing as well, and we don't know that it's happening. We just want to help people. That's what we get into the field. We go to medical school, for example, but we have so much data affirming something like exercise, being more effective than many of the conventional drugs when it comes to treating depression. Yeah. When it comes to insulin resistance, you know, the list goes on and on. As a matter of fact, we'll put this study up for everybody to see. The Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA, you know, our big journal here, they reviewed all this data, and they found that the number one cause of chronic disease in the United States today is our diet. And then we're using drugs to treat problems that are caused by what we're eating. That's right. Instead of changing what we're eating, but our physicians don't have that education. That's right. Thankfully, it's starting to change. Yeah. There are whispers of change. But what I don't like, though, is that a lot of, you know, physicians that are really kind of diving in on this, they'll act like they've been doing it the whole time. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. Well, of course. Of course. No, you were just trying to give me Lucina Prilt yesterday. That's right. Welcome to the party. Yeah. Yeah. And even some of what they're doing, it's still outdated. You know, it's not personalized. A lot of what ends up being is, you know, the American Heart Association, it's still, you know, I mean, the low fat diet thing, I still see it happening. You know, so, but yeah, I will say the good news is I don't, listen, outside of different, you know, political agendas, I do think Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is doing a lot of good things for trying to get doctors more educated. I mean, now, listen, I don't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat, he's trying to pass it into where all doctors have MDs and DOs need to have nutrition courses in their medical training. Who is going to disagree with that? I mean, that's a no brainer every disagree with the person, but not the principal. Yeah, the principal, every doctor needs to learn how to counsel their patients on diet and nutrition. Of course, everybody wants that. We're just so silly, man. Again, because of the person, it's just like, this is something obvious that we should be advocating for is this is at this point with all that we know, but, you know, can get caught up in red tape because of, you know, that kind of stuff. It's so polarizing. Health should not be polarizing. Yeah. So, I hope it happens. I think we are to your point moving towards, I think doctors getting more educated on some of these things. Yeah. Yeah. This is amazing, man. And I want to ask you about your name, it's such a cool name. Where did acts come from? Well, so from what I know, it's like it's German and so that's where most of my ancestors came over from Germany. I do know I might also have some Indian on my one of my grandfather's side. So I actually don't know if it's a, if it's German or it's American Indian, but it's one of the two. Fascinating. All right. Just a great, like sports competitive name, you know what I mean? I know that you have been incredibly accomplished in that domain as an athlete, you know, even as recently as like in your early 40s, still competing as a triathlete, right? Well, I did. I did in my 30s, you know, I did, no, I was able to even in my, you know, 40, I was able to run bike swim, but yeah, I last competed in my 30s, yeah, yeah, yeah, now in college I was at University of Kentucky in undergrad. I was on a, you know, draft on team, so we would go and compete as a team. I think I actually think we, I mean, this is crazy. I don't fully remember this. I think we actually won like nationals like we won, but that was some time ago. Yeah. I mean, now, I mean, I don't, I don't do that much cardio. Now I'm very focused on maintaining muscle mass. And, and just also being able to do things actively with my kids, you know, we went to Park City last year, twice. And so being able to like teach my six year old how to snow ski and snowboard, I'm, I'm more into pickleball and snow skiing now than I am, you know, a distance, you know, cardiovascular. Well, you know, I'm bringing this up to say that, you know, one of the things that I first noticed about you, you know, years ago before we even connected was your, you know, it's just, it's on you. You could see that you're about that life, you're about your fitness and take care of yourself. And you've done so many incredible things over the years and experimentation, figuring stuff out and also teaching and helping so many people. But sometimes life throws a curve ball at you that you don't expect. And, you know, reading your new book, heal yourselves and to see the pictures and to know your story and what happened to you a couple of years ago was just like, I remember reading that part and like, I had to go for a walk. And because I can relate to it. And if you could, can you share the story, share what happened and where you are today? Yeah. So, I mean, you know, this is a little over 10 years ago. I had injured my back lifting weights. I mean, it was, it was part of being crossfit, like doing things for time and just not being smart, honestly. I mean, and everybody can I think identify with this, you know, when you're in your like 20s and early 30s, you just feel invincible. I mean, I, again, triathlons, crossway lift, and I didn't have an injury. I just felt great. And then weightlifting, I blew two discs in my back. And I couldn't move for like a month, felt really bad. And then it was able to get a little better. But then for two years, my back felt awful, chronic pain every day. And then even after that, I was, I had major chronic pain. And then finally, I got turned on a stem cell therapy, went and got stem cell therapy around my disc and in my disc. And then, after seeing the results of that, I probably got 70% better. And I thought, wow, this is incredible. And then I got it done one more time. And I was about 90% or so. And then I thought, okay, if I get this done one more time, I'll probably just be back 100% with my back. And I went to go get it done. And something went wrong. And then I kept feeling worse and worse and worse every day. And finally a couple of months later, I woke up in the morning and I went to get it. And I couldn't move. I mean, the pain was excruciating. And we called an ambulance. We're living in Puerto Rico at the time. We were in Nashville, but in Puerto Rico. And we called an ambulance, went and got an MRI done. The report came back and it said, I have a spine at an infection that had gone from my disc. It's in my bone in an abscess by my spinal cord. And so if you have an, I mean, think about an active infection, like if you have a scab and what, I mean, this was happening in my bone. And I took a flight to Florida. But I couldn't move. I mean, I'm on a gurney. They're wheeling me in and out. And I met with an infectious disease specialist. He said, Josh, listen, this could kill you. He said, listen, this is really sick. He said, you're most, you're most likely scenarios. You're going to be permanently disabled. We're probably going to have to fuse your spine. And he said, your best case scenario is you're going to be in chronic pain every day of the rest of your life. This is what he told me, worked for work. This one of the top infectious disease specialist in the country. And honestly, I got to show I mean, I'm a person of faith, but for 24 hours, I felt like my life was over. And I remember just thinking, Lord, how could this happen? Like I just two months ago, I was taking my two-year-old daughter and like throwing her up in the air in the pool and very active. And then I just spent, I just spent time in prayer. And I felt like God was like, you're going to be okay. I've got you. And I thought, okay. So I then just decided, you know what? I'm just going to do everything I can do to heal, you know? And I'm going to call the best people I know. I mean, I was reading the book of Proverbs and it said, you know, they're success with wise counsel. I thought, who are my wise counselors? Who are those people I can call? I called a friend of mine, Jordan Rubin, Dr. Gheza Goli, some of these other functional medicine doctors I know, and put together a game plan. And I came across this research study in hyperburetor oxygen therapy, cutting down antibiotic time greatly. Like they would, so the protocol this doctor is going to put me on was a three months of antibiotics IVs in the world. And I thought, well, that doesn't, like that's going to be very hard on my gut, but I'm more concerned about healing my discs. But what is the best way I can heal? Well, people that got in a hyperburetor chamber every day for 28 days were able to reverse infections. So I went and got in a hyperburetor chamber every day, nearly for three months. And then I was doing, and I did all kinds of things. And, but by the way, it took me, I didn't walk for 10 months on my own in another two months on a walker. So I didn't walk on my own for a year, an entire year. And I didn't realize the discs and bones, they don't heal very quickly. And so the key was getting oxygen and blood there. So I was doing hyperburetor oxygen therapy. I was doing red light therapy at therapy deep in the area. I was doing, I started doing peptides. I noticed the difference with those. And then now it's been almost three, about two and a half years. And I'm 100%. I didn't have to have a spinal fusion. I went snow skiing like four weeks last year, playing pickleball, running around with my two daughters. Now I have a two year old and a six year old. All that being said, I, you know, and I actually feel stronger now before I have zero back pain. And it was really just a testament to how faithful God is because I couldn't have done it on my own. I mean, He led me. I mean, I just saw these divine interconnections of him. Introducing me to people, me learning about these advanced therapies and, and, and I was able to heal. And I think, and I love how God does this. He'll turn this pain into purpose. And I was able to learn so much about how to heal really difficult things. And I think now we're able to help other people with that. And so actually part of, I opened a local clinic. I didn't practice in 13 years. So I opened a local practice here in Nashville called the longevity clinic where we have people flying from all over the country where we do hyperbaric oxygen therapy and ozone and a lot of these more advanced things to help people. But, yeah, thanks for asking. I mean, that's, of course. Yeah. Yeah. This is an incredible story. And that's what I was going to ask you is like, what, what was the gift in it? Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, yeah. I love the book of Proverbs in the Bible. And as I was reading this, I'm going through it again this week. And Solomon is just says, above all else, in terms of something that's of great value, he talks about wisdom. It's one of the seven cardinal virtues. And so wisdom, wisdom. And by the way, it's, it's wisdom, not as everybody thinks it is. I am wiser as a doctor and I can help people heal even more advanced conditions now. But it's also wisdom and also teaching me to cherish every moment and every day. You know, like I think I'm even more reflective of like, I want to spend this time with my, my daughters now. I'm going to spend this time with my wife. I want this deep meaningful family time. That matters. Those things. Here's another thing. I want for me incredibly active doing everything to just, I'm so grateful that I can walk. Yeah. You know, yeah. It's, there's more value in those minutes. Yeah. For sure that I see is unlocked for you and also really appreciating this life. Yeah. To be able to do the things that you're doing. Yeah. So powerful. And also, you know, one of the blessings that came out of it was the accessibility that you're providing for other people, right? You just know how these things could be so helpful in their people who are struggling and they want to get out of pain. Yeah. And, you know, I want to go back a little bit and talk about those three buckets from earlier. Yeah. Toxicity, deficiency, energy. You know, all of these are involved in this healing process. So whether this is a, you know, physical trauma, you know, some kind of an insult happens or we're talking about a chronic condition or an acute condition. We've got to stack conditions for our bodies to do what they already know how to do, which is to heal. We're very good. Heal yourselves. Yeah. And so I want to ask you specifically about toxicity because we live in a very different world today than those biblical times. Yeah. You know, so what are the things that you're seeing that people's biology is faced with that's creating an impairment in healing? Yeah. Well, I think, I think, you know, I mean, when I say toxicity, one of the things I would say is too much of something. Okay. Because sugar isn't inherently toxic, but too much is, you know, we actually naturally can have parasites or candida. Candida is actually a micro organism that we should naturally have in our gut microbiome. You just don't want too much of it. And so I would say the biggest toxins we're facing today are, one, I would say pesticides and herbicides are very, very high up there like glyphosate that's found in Roundup. I would say a lot of the chemicals in our water supply forever chemicals, excess heavy metals like aluminum and arsenic, there are a lot of those things. And so I would say that those environmental and personal care product based chemicals and food based chemicals, those are taking the place of certain things on our receptor sites. It's causing hormone imbalance. It's is causing the liver to have to overwork. So then it. can't get rid of excess xenoestrogens and things like that. So I think that's one big bucket of toxicity. Another big bucket I do think is pathogens. When you go and back and read, and I love reading the Bible 'cause I actually think it's the greatest health book ever written. And when I read it, it actually talks a fair amount about toxicity. I'll give you an example. The food laws, Moses gives these food laws where he says, eat this, don't eat this. Like he says, don't eat pork, don't eat shellfish. Why did he say that? Those animals, especially pork, are the greatest, even today, the greatest carrier of trickonomous or parasites out there today. So that was the toxin. He's like, don't eat that 'cause it's got parasites. Very similar thing with shellfish. They store things. They store heavy metals. They store dioxins. They store other chemicals. So even going back then, there's also these in the Bible. It talks about if you have mold in your tent, try and get it off one time, try and get off another. If you can't get rid of mold by the third time, burn it down. Burn down your house, if it is mold. So I mean, this goes way, way back in time. That's another bucket that people don't think of as a toxin. Mold, parasites, lime. These different types of infections that a lot of people, COVID, long COVID, right? So you want to do everything. You can't get rid of these pathogens. And different herbs can be used as medicine to best treat those conditions. And the other bucket I would say is this, emotional toxicity, being around toxic people, somebody that is bringing you down, like you're trying to follow a diet. You're trying to grow, like you want the opposite. You want somebody encouraging you, cheering you on. Iron, sharpen, iron, making challenging you, not just doing things that are comfortable. And so I think there's also this element of negative thoughts, fear, worry, anxiousness, grief, like living in that state. 'Cause the Bible, when it talks about health, it's mostly talking about, you know, being joyful, being grateful, you know, experiencing love. Like it's talking about these, it's saying, stay away from these, you know, like round up or glyphosate didn't exist then, or what I talked about it probably. All that being said, I think that those are the biggest things of concern when it comes to things that are toxic to the body. Wow, yeah, it's great, great, great. It's so powerful, you know, this mold conversation, this was one of those things, it was really a fringe kind of thing. But again, it's been around for thousands of years. This is one of those things, as you mentioned, even Candida, there's context here, you know, this isn't something we have mold spores, you know, but it's like this, there's this toxic level and the exposure as well can kind of make the poison. - Well, in the bigger issue, this is why I mentioned that Trinity because the reality is, if you're, if you're cellular energy is high, if your body's battery and your mitochondria are very charged up, most people can be exposed to mold. And it's a non-issue. It's not a big deal, at least exposed here and there too, to mold spores, not black mold, but just general mold. And it's not a problem. However, when your body's battery gets more and more and more depleted and your liver gets more and more and more and down, well, now just the littlest thing starts to be overwhelming to your body. And so these things all work, work, you know, together. - Yeah, can you talk about that, that energy piece because healing requires energy, just life requires energy. And there are certain things that we can do to kind of suppress that energy. And there's certain things we can do to kind of unlock that energy. - Yeah, the number one thing, by the way, nothing else is even close. The number one thing, by far, that affects your cellular energy is sleep. If you aren't efficient in sleep, you cannot heal. You can't regenerate. It's when your battery charges. You know, my grandparents growing up, they had this golf cart. So whenever we go to their house, we'd ride this golf cart. When the battery got down around like 30%, it would go like, our phones don't do this, but today, like golf carts, it would go as like half speed or slower, barely moves. And that's what's going on in your body. And so then your body has to make decisions. Okay, and this is, I see this in, here's a good example of hypothyroidism. You know, what's more important, keeping your heart beating or having thick hair. You know, it's keeping your heart beating. So hypothyroidism, it's like, well, the body, we can afford letting the body temperature drop a degree. So now you're in the 97s. We can afford having the hair get thin. We can afford, you know, having the skin get more dry and adding on wet metabolism, slowing down. Like, but your heart needs to be, your stomach's got to digest food. You got to breathe in and how, you know, oxygen and carbon dioxide. So all that being said, this is what a lot of people are dealing with is that they're exhausted, their batteries are low. So now their body can't heal as well and their body can't function as well. And there's so many people, if you adjust, fix, sleep and stress, boom. Now all the sudden, you know what, you can actually eat more of the foods you want. You can, you can reverse the condition your body can heal a whole lot better. Yeah, this is such a great analogy that you just use with the body's priorities. Yeah, this speaks to deficiency. You know, the same thing holds true with calcium. Your, your body needs calcium to clot your blood. Yeah. So your bone density might not be as important at the time. Yeah, you know what I mean? That's right. You got to take care of the river of life. It's the priority. Yeah. And so I remember coming across some research many years ago, looking at how our bodies will essentially leech minerals from our spine and from our hips to aid in these processes like, again, clotting the blood if you are deficient, right? And so sometimes you've got to really focus on getting those nutritional deficiencies met. And that can revolutionize your health. Well, and I can tell you too, you know, again, from looking at thousands of blood work reports. Almost everybody's deficient in something. And here's the other problem. Conventional medicine has their ranges in sick range. And so for instance, I have hardly ever seen somebody's blood work. Now I have a few times. There's people like, I had a guy come in. He was a former made like semi-prone baseball player. He's in his mid 40s. And man, everything was good. You know, it was like, you know what? You're just, you're good, you know? But most people that come in, when I look at blood work, we do micronutrient testing. And most people are deficient in zinc is one of the biggest ones. Women iron or ferritin is low constantly. B12, cellular B12, it's called MMA. I mean, that's low. I mean, it's selenium. So many women are low in selenium. All that being said, of course, vitamin D. But all that being said, if you're deficient in these, but again, the conventional ranges, here's how this works, like with vitamin D. They'll say, okay, you need to be above 29 in vitamin D and you're good, but if you're 30 or 31 or 32, they say, hey, you're good to go. But optimal is 50 to 80. So like you could be 32 and your doctor says, hey, your blood works totally normal, you're good, but that doesn't mean you're healthy or optimal. And so the reality is, is most people should be trying to get their blood markers into a functional medicine optimal, optimal range. - Thank you for enlightening people on that. You know, again, selenium, a couple of brazil nuts. - There you go. - Right, these things can be, but if you don't know, you don't know, that's right. So, and by the way, with that, a lot of people are wasting money on supplements 'cause they're not taking the right thing. You know, it's like they saw, maybe there's an influence or said, hey, everybody should take, I don't know, zinc. But if you don't need zinc and you take a bunch of zinc, and it doesn't have copper in it, well, then actually, now your risk of getting a parasite goes up, 'cause copper is important. Anyway, it is ideal to have really good blood work or testing to know where you're at, because then you can know exactly what is gonna, you know, obviously help you. Heal yourselves, it's available now. What else can people look forwards to in the book? - Well, you know, I think the thing we try and do for people is help create somewhat of the personalized approach. And so, heal yourselves is all about root cause medicine. And it's about longevity. So, my goal is to take somebody who was, like, let's say my mom, for example, my mom had cancer. We already get her to the point where not only was she cancer-free, now my mom's in her mid-70s. I was just a few weeks here, water skiing with her. She ran a 5K, got second or age, I know she got first in her age group this time. And this was just a few months back. She's brain or grand cause of Disney World. She's active in her mid-70s, my dad's same thing. My dad's, I think, 76. And he's super active and healthy. So, it's going from not only a chronic disease state to not having chronic diseases to longevity and being healthy. So, that's what we try and walk people through in the book is how do you do that? Also, how do you discover which organ is aging too quickly? We help people identify that. Then we have specific paths people can take in the book. For instance, if you have somebody who's dealing with infertility or a man with low testosterone or somebody with an issue with a weak immune system or digestive system, they can identify that in the book. And then we have a very specific protocol that they can follow in the book in order to reverse and heal. We dive a lot into herbal medicine, advanced nutrition principles, those are some of the things we get into. - Phenomenal, phenomenal. Where's the best place to pick up a copy? - I mean, I would say, I mean, your local bookstore, it's in bookstores nationwide, Barnes & Noble, but also Amazon.com is a great place people can find it there as well. - Awesome. Any other places for people to connect with you follow you? - Yeah, I'd encourage people to check out my podcast. You were on there, you can check out. We did a deep dive on sleep on the episode you and I did together so people could all check out my podcast is the Dr. Josh Act Show and then drax.com. That's my website. We have a lot. We just I just relaunch the whole site brand new last week where we have a lot of AI tools, a lot of protocols. I think it'll be impressed. If you go to drax.com and just search and see what's on there, I would say that's another place along with just social media with with my name is best place to find me. Amazing. This has been a great time, man. I've had a great time. You guys as soon as I got here, you immediately put me to work. You know, you're about efficiency, effectiveness, and you know, I was greeted also with a gift. I got you a gift as well. Hope you guys. Thank you so much for the holidays. And it's just been such a joy. I'm very grateful. It's my first time here in Nashville and it was you to give me to come out here. So, you know, I appreciate you so much. Well, Sean, I'm excited to hear. By the way, for you and anyone that comes to Nashville, we got a great local farm to table restaurant called Urban Market starts with an age like herb. And that might be a place you want to check out. Anybody else that visits be at the national area here for for my recommendation. How do you know I was hungry? I love you. Oh, yeah. Well, let's we've been interviewing back and forth for three hours. So I know you've worked up an appetite. So yeah, well, again, I appreciate you so much. Thank you for the hospitality. And we got to do this again. I agree. Thanks, Sean. The one and only Dr. Josh acts everybody. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode today. I hope that you got a lot of value out of this. If you did, you already know what to do. Sharing is caring. Share it out with somebody that you care about. Share it out with somebody that you low-keyed. Maybe they, you know, you don't really like them that much. But you want them. You want to like them more. You want them to get healthier. You're not withholding the goodness. And maybe if they get healthier, we can we can vibe a little better. But we don't want to withhold this information. Share it out. Share it on social media. You can take a screenshot of this episode. Of course, you can tag me. I'm at Sean model on Instagram. Tag Dr. Josh acts as well. I know that he would love to see the love. And you can send this directly from the podcast app that you're listening on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Pocketcats, Google Play. All right. There's so many different platforms. But I want to make sure that you're also subscribed to the YouTube channel because we do some exclusive stuff on the model health show YouTube channel that I don't want you to miss out on. All right. We want to immerse ourselves in the goodness. And speaking of which, we got some epic master classes and world-leading experts coming your way very, very soon. So make sure to stay tuned. Take care. Have an amazing day. And I'll talk with you soon.