“If you have the emotion of worry, it causes disease in the upper GI – that’s a fact. The emotion of fear affects your adrenals, kidney, and bladder, grief and depression affect the immune system, and the emotion of anxiety affects the heart,” reveals Dr. Josh Axe.
The bestselling author and functional health superstar brings energy and enthusiasm to this wide-ranging interview on all matters of healthy living, especially the insights in his new book, Ancient Remedies: Secrets to Healing with Herbs, Essential Oils, CBD, and the Most Powerful Natural Medicine in History.
Dr. Axe starts off by describing how his mother’s cancer diagnosis led him down the path of functional medicine. You’ll learn the importance of mindset and diet for healing and wellness, and we’ll also explore the divergent approaches of western and eastern medicine, and how we can better integrate a holistic approach to healthy eating, healing from disease and dysfunction, and experiencing vibrant health.
Dr. Axe discusses the “like supports like” concept, extending beyond the familiar idea of consuming organ meats to nurture the function of the corresponding organ in your body to describe how numerous plant foods resemble organs in appearance (carrot looks like eye; walnut looks like brain) and can provide accordant nutritional benefits.
This fast moving show contains tons of takeaway tips for healing herbs like astragalus (overall immune boosting) and tumeric (not just anti-inflammatory but also helps getting blood moving – nourishing your “Chi” energy in Chinese medicine). Dr. Axe brings a lot of spirituality to his health insights, and you’ll appreciate his emphasis on living in gratitude. One of his final takeaway insights is to perform a “spiritual triathlon” every morning, such as a gratitude exercise.
Here are some of the most important points Josh makes in the show that pertain to his book, Ancient Remedies:
- Heal your body using food as medicine
- Mindset is so important for healing
- Just how many of our common ailments are caused by the foods we eat
One topic we spend a good amount of time on is the idea that Like Supports Like. Meaning, consuming foods that look like organs actually supports those organs. Some examples include:
- Tomatoes look like heart chambers – and guess what? They’re cardio-protective. Studies show that eating tomatoes reduces blood pressure, and protects the heart from damage during a heart attack.
- Reishi mushrooms resemble kidneys and adrenals – and boost energy and stamina, even in people with conditions like fibromyalgia.
- Coconuts look like heads – and coconut oil is good for brain health.
- Carrots resemble eyes – and are good for vision.
- Walnuts look like mini brains – and are the best nut for brain health. Studies show that eating walnuts improves cognitive processing speed and memory.
- Celery stalks look like bones – and protect bone health.
- Ginger looks like a stomach – and is an antidote for nausea.
And what about like supports like when it comes to organs themselves? And what about the carnivore rationale? Here’s a quick list of the colors and tastes of foods that activate and support specific organs:
- Green – detoxification
- Orange – digestion
- Yellow – immune
- Blue – hormonal/endocrine
- Red – heart
- Sour – liver
- Sweet – pancreas
- Bitter – heart
- Umami – lungs
- Salty – adrenal
Dr. Axe also brings up the importance of eating right for your element. By that, he is referring to how there are 5 elements in both Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurveda (the Doshas). Think of it like an ancient personalized health plan; similar to enneagram tests, but for diet.
The founder of Ancient Nutrition, Dr. Axe is a certified doctor of natural medicine (DNM), doctor of chiropractic (DC) and clinical nutritionist (CNS), who is fueled by a deep passion for helping people get healthy, by empowering them to use nutrition to fuel their health. He is the bestselling author of KETO DIET, Eat Dirt, and COLLAGEN DIET, and his newest release, Ancient Remedies. He also founded the natural health website DrAxe.com, one of the top natural health websites in the world today, that focuses on nutrition, natural remedies, fitness, healthy recipes, home DIY solutions and trending health news. Dr. Axe is also the co-founder of Ancient Nutrition, which provides protein powders, holistic supplements, vitamins, essential oils and more. Check out his recently launched podcast, The Dr. Axe Show which features interviews with top health influencers such as Dr. Oz, The Skinny Confidential, Dr. Perlmutter, Dr. Will Cole & many more! He also loves to share useful health tips on his social media channels, so connect with him on Facebook and Instagram if you’re interested!
TIMESTAMPS:
Brad introduces Dr. Axe who brings a wide variety of ideas about Eastern philosophy, Western medicine, spirituality, etc. [01:23]
Dr. Axe got into natural medicine because of a health crisis in his family. His mother’s cancer went into remission after using natural medicines. [04:06]
Our emotional health is the biggest root of all cancer. [09:11]
Many herbs are beneficial to dealing with cancer. [12:48]
Western medicine looks at double-blind studies and is influenced by the pharmaceutical industry whereas Eastern medicine has millions of case studies from the past 3,000 years and looks at the whole picture. [16:16]
Two primary things you have to do is have a look at your mindset and your lifestyle. [21:39]
If you go into an ancient apothecary, you see things like herbs, spices, mushrooms, and organ meats. Dr. Axe enumerates various herbs and their purpose. [22:29]
Like supports like. If you have a liver problem, eat liver. [27:35]
You have to get away from the news. It is fear-driven. [31:44]
Love is not a feeling. It is a choice. [34:55]
Different foods are good for different people and for different reasons. Different emotions affect different organ systems. [39:14]
The carnivore diet is not good for people who are angry and frustrated. [42:52]
Overthinking about your diet adds to your stress. [46:05]
Five organ systems work together. [46:16]
Is there a scientific rationale that these foods that resemble organs can nurture those organs? [50:35]
They need to teach nutrition in schools instead of calculus. [55:02]
If you are going to be healthy, you have to take care of your whole body. [58:50]
LINKS:
QUOTES:
- “I have learned, from spending so much time studying ancient medicine, that emotional health is the biggest root of cancer.”
LISTEN:
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B.Rad Podcast
Brad (1m 23s): Introducing Dr. Josh Axe, everybody. Yes, that’s right. That Dr. Axe.com purveyor of the sensational health website and bestselling author of numerous books. We’re going to talk about his new release called ancient remedies secrets to healing with herbs, essential oils CBD and the most powerful natural medicine in history. But this show is a wild one people because Dr. Axe likes to go big picture on y’all. And he talks about all matters of healthy living. We’re going to get into the integration of Eastern philosophy versus Western, the origin of Western medicine versus Chinese medicine. Brad (2m 6s): He’s steeped in that knowledge and that study. And it’s very interesting to hear these insights brought into our somewhat narrow view of Western medicine, where we isolate on a disease diagnosis and an organ that’s not functional instead of backing up and looking at the big picture. And Dr. Axe brings a lot of spirituality to the picture. He talks us through how that’s a big part of his daily life and how mindset is so important to healing. You’re especially going to love his introductory story of what led him down the path of functional medicine, which was his mother’s cancer diagnosis and how the family came together and integrated these alternative treatments, including mindset, mindfulness, meditation, things that get that emotional pain and emotional stress out of your body, which is so closely associated with disease. Brad (2m 57s): He also talks about the subject very passionate to me like supports, like how it consuming the organs from an animal will nurture and support organ the similar organ function in your own body. But Dr. Axe takes all the way over to the vegetable family, talking about how carrots look like eyes. If you slice it up and you see an eyeball right there, a Walnut shaped like a brain, and that’s going to be a fascinating new insights that I’ve never heard before. So much more from Dr. Josh Axe. I think you’re really going to appreciate his kinder, gentler approach to health and not just obsessing on your food choices, but making sure to live in gratitude and have a healthy, happy balanced life. Brad (3m 39s): Here he goes. Find his new book, Ancient Remedies wherever books are sold and follow him at doctor Axe, A X E .com. Dr. Josh Axe. I got ya. I’m so happy to connect. You’re you’re a larger than life presence. And now here we are with a wonderful conversation. We got a lot to talk about, especially your new book. So thanks for joining me. Dr. Axe (4m 0s): Hey Brad, thanks for having me on, appreciate it. Excited to talk everything Ancient Remedies. Brad (4m 6s): Well, it’s nice that ancient remedies are coming to the forefront because it seems when we look around, we have a disaster on our hands, which is a Western medicine. I know it’s great when you’re sick and the sick care model is doing well. They came up with a vaccine very quickly. I had an appendix removed from my body, and so I’m still alive years later to talk about it, but all the other stuff, the, the healing, the wellness, the world that you’ve been into, I’d love to kind of go back to the starting point and how you, you know, how you got into this, this pipeline and, and took it all the way into the, the functional medicine world. And now your position is, you know, one of the influences on the internet and leading authors. Dr. Axe (4m 49s): Yeah. So, you know, I got involved in the, in natural medicine through a health crisis in my family. Growing up, my family was into fitness, but we knew nothing about nutrition. And we also lived in the medical model. So when we were sick, we went to the physician, we got prescribed drugs. We didn’t know any better. And when my mom at 40 years old was diagnosed with breast cancer, we went through all the conventional medical treatments. She went and she had a mastectomy. She went through rounds and rounds of chemotherapy. And I can still remember this day, her losing her hair and just how sick she got. And just thinking to myself, two things, there’s gotta be a better way. And I never want to see I’m going to have to go through this sort of suffering again. Dr. Axe (5m 32s): And so she was diagnosed as being cancer free, but the crazy thing was after my mom’s treatment, she really seemed like she had more health problems than ever before. My mom went. And she, you got put on antidepressant drugs,.Got diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, thyroid issues, major digestive issues. And this went on for years. And finally it was well over a little bit, over 10 years. And I decided I wanted to become a doctor and learn how to help people heal using food as medicine and some of this stuff. And so I went, started studying and I got about a year away from graduation, or maybe actually less than it was probably a few months from graduation. I got a call from my mom and she says, I’ve got bad news. Dr. Axe (6m 12s): I’ve been diagnosed with cancer again, what do I do? It’s on my lungs. I said, I’ll be home. I flew from Florida back to Ohio where I grew up. And I’ve been really fortunate at the time to working with some doctors who practiced more functional medicine. And I’ve been learning about this. And I just spent a lot of hours just reading and researching how to support cancer, how to fight cancer with food, with supplements, with lifestyle, all this stuff. And so with my mom, we decided to take an all natural approach. And so we, she started juicing some vegetables, and along with the vegetable juicing vegetables, she pretty much ate, cooked vegetables, wild, organic meat, and berries and bone broth. And that was pretty much it. Dr. Axe (6m 52s): She ate those foods. We started using, you know, and I started doing research on ancient, you know, remedies and herbals for cancer. And I started coming across some amazing stuff, especially in Asian medicine, talking Astragalus. Talking about tumor and talking about Reishi mushroom. So I started reading all this info. So we started putting her on those herbals. And also we really looked at her stress and her mindset. We had her start overcoming fear and worry, but really focusing on, you know, visualization and praying, praying for healing and just reducing stress too. She had a lot of stress in her life. So she started getting outdoors more. So we did all this stuff. We went back to her in colleges where we did a CT scan. Dr. Axe (7m 36s): She called the next day. And her oncologist said, this is highly unusual. We don’t typically see this, but the tumors have shrunk by more than half. She said, come back in nine months, went back nine months later, complete remission. And today my mom is in the best shape of her life. She’s in her late sixties and water skis. She, she, she says she feels better now in her sixties, in her thirties. And so anyways, that’s a big part of what led me to practice the way that I practice using a lot of these, you know, ancient, you know, ancient and ancient diet and ancient remedies to help people heal. Brad (8m 10s): Was this in concert with whatever medical treatment she was directed to follow? Dr. Axe (8m 16s): No. Brad (8m 17s): So you just went that natural route and went all in, basically, Because most people that have a recurrence would, you know, what would be terrified? Dr. Axe (8m 26s): Yeah, yeah, exactly. Unless it’s an, I, I’m not saying everybody should do what she did exactly. But what I’m saying is for her it worked. And here’s the other thing is my mom went all in to, she made all of the changes. She changed her mental and emotional health. She changed and upgraded her foods and supplements everything else. Yeah. No, but she, you know, she, she, no, she healed just, just doing what I shared. Brad (8m 50s): What about you, Josh? I had this question with Dr. Cate Shanahan. She said, know if I got cancer tomorrow, I would get on a plane and go to this clinic in Turkey where they’re using the, the low insulin eating and some novel treatments. But I would put that to you. What, what would happen? Dr. Axe (9m 11s): Well, for me, I, I would, I would do just what I shared, what my mom did now when I probably consult with some people too. Yeah. There’s some good doctors, you know, there’s, I’ve, I’ve heard of the clinic in Turkey. It’s very good. There’s another clinic in Spain run by Dr. Raymond. Hilu. There’s, you know, there’s some in other areas of the world, there’s one in Germany and another in Sweden. So, you know, there, there there’s some good holistic clinics and I think holistic treatment is fantastic. And also, I, you know, for me though, I think what I’ve learned as I’ve spent so much time studying ancient medicine is that our emotional health is the biggest root of cancer. It’s the biggest route. it’s not diet. So really I would really, first thing I would do is check myself saying, what is the healthy, emotional pattern that I’m experiencing, or what happened in the past, what memory or thing that’s happened that I’m still living with today that I haven’t let go of? Dr. Axe (10m 1s): So I would really start there and start doing the food, the diet, the holistic treatments, you know, I think those are fantastic as well. And so I would probably absolutely consult with some people and incorporate those. Brad (10m 14s): So we hear this a lot that the, the there’s lifestyle related stress related, you know, triggers for cancer, but physiologically what’s happening there. When you’re running around in this fast paced, stressful life, carrying a lot of resentments and stored energy, that’s not healthy. How is that causing the cancer cells to mutate? Dr. Axe (10m 38s): Yeah, sure. Pretty easy. So, so the way this works in ancient Chinese medicine is, and by the way, some of this terminology, I will explain, but here’s what they call it. They call it, they call it Qi stagnation and blood stagnation in that area is what causes cancer. So essentially we don’t have a healthy environment in that area. One, because, so here’s what Qi stagnation. Qi in Chinese medicine is essentially your body’s a battery. So think about your phone, right? Like what’s your phone battery at? Is it 80% right now, 50% 20 based on where that is, is a big deal because that sort of helps energize and bring energy to your entire body. Dr. Axe (11m 19s): Okay. That’s a lot of that’s based on your hormonal system. So looking at that, how balanced is that hormonal system, or how are your adrenals doing? And so that’s Qi. Now Qi stagnation means that you don’t have the energy moving through that area of the body. And there’s something there emotionally that I’ll hit on that really causes that. The other thing is blood stagnation. What is blood? Well, blood carries nutrients to the body. Carries oxygen, and it carries nutrients. So oxygen and nutrients. So if somebody has breast cancer per se, and it depends on the side, you know, if somebody has breast cancer on their left side in Chinese medicine, the left side is yang and Chinese medicine which is giving. Dr. Axe (12m 4s): So somebody has been giving themselves and doing too much. So think about this. You have a mom like my mom, breast cancer in the left side, that, that the root cause emotionally for her that was causing stagnation and disease to build up in the area was she never said no. Hey, would you volunteer at the school rally. Would you do this? Would you make food for your family? Would you work full time? Would you literally give everything she had for everyone else had never taken care of herself? In Chinese medicine that’s the root cause of left-sided breast cancer. Now on the right side is yen. That tends to be a woman is not in touch with her feminine side. So there’s an example. Like I, at a doctor, I was talking to he’s, he’s more of a psychiatrist, who’s in the holistic realm. Dr. Axe (12m 48s): And, and he had a patient and her dad named her Hope because he had hoped she was a boy and raised her like a boy. So she never got in touch with those hormones. And so eventually she decided breast cancer on her right side. Anyways, you can see these things are deeply emotional, but that being said, so emotionally you give yourself, you give yourself, you’re giving yourself. So, so, so that’s the root there, but so how do you heal that? Well, one, you start caring for yourself. You start also meditating on how much God loves you. So you’re getting sort of loving to return. You get around encouraging and loving people who start nourishing you. That’s how you heal. So I’m using left sided breast cancer is that prime example that Qi movement you move Qi by consuming a lot of these adaptogenic herbs that support building Qi in the first place, Reishi mushroom is a great example of an herb that’s going to do that. Dr. Axe (13m 37s): Cordyceps do that more for the lungs and the breast tissue. But Reishi really does that. And then like, you know, the things that are gonna support more of that Qi flow, there’s certain herbs like a milk thistle is a really good one. So those bitter herbs are going to create that movement and then foods that are going to support blood flow and that sort of thing. Beets, gree. Leafy vegetables are going to be fantastic. All of those are gonna help build that blood builders, nutrients, tumeric tumeric is known as the ultimate. Like we tend to think of it as an anti-inflammatory in Chinese medicine. It’s the number one herb, to nourish the blood and move the blood. Which is also why there’s all these cancer studies showing tumor at the top or for cancer when the top five, probably because that’s treats that blood stagnation flow issue. Dr. Axe (14m 27s): So anyways, if I had cancer today, I would really use food as medicine. I know the foods that treat different types of cancer, but lung cancer, the emotional root or colon. That’s yo those are the two organs that are primarily responsible for your immune system. If you’ve had something had in the past and you’ve never, never let it go, it could be emotional abuse. It could be physical abuse. It could be, you’ve never forgiven a person for what they’ve done to you. And you’ve held on to it too. Your whole life unforgiveness. Or you have this hurt you’ve never talked about that you’ve kept inside. That creates stagnation in disease, in the lungs and colon. And so you have to overcome that emotional response. So that’s really the root cause. According to ancient medicine. Brad (15m 8s): Wow. Very, very well said and, and, and compelling. And I suppose there’s, you mentioned some of the foods in the healing process, and of course, I’m sure there’s so many other modalities, mindfulness, meditation, therapy, reading, good books, and so forth, and working on that, on that entire pathway. Now, I guess speaking for the, all the oncologists listening today to the show, it seems like there’s a lot of resistance or this stuff is entirely disregarded, but we’r tiptoeing in the direction where it’s becoming integrated there’s studies that Tai Chi has become a central element of the, is it the Cleveland Clinic or the place in New York where they’re, they’re putting this into the mix now finally. Brad (15m 54s): So I wonder how you hear on the front lines, where you have opposition from classically trained physicians saying, what is this guy talking about? And then, you know, going through the, in the functional medicine world, how do we kind of make inroads further? And how do you answer to people that dismiss this as you know, nonsense in comparison to getting blasted by chemo? Dr. Axe (16m 16s): Yeah. So it all comes down to worldview. And so when you have somebody who has an Eastern or Western worldview today, our medical system is all based on Western civilization. So Greek medicine, as it, as it evolved over the years. And so Eastern medicine, they look at the body holistically. They’re going to look at more of a big picture approach. Even when they’re reading something. We can tell you how you break down and interpret the Bible like, like Jews and Eastern philosophy will look at the big picture and read it as a story in Greek with a breakdown, every individual word to say, what does that word mean? Neither one is completely right or wrong. I do think the big picture approach is going to lead you to a better final destination in most cases, because when you get that close to it and you’re studying one little thing, a lot of times you miss the forest through the tree, you end up in a, in a bad spot. Dr. Axe (17m 5s): That being said, you know, I think that’s the first thing though. Greek medicine, they look at individual, you know, like this one hormonal factor is off or Hey, the thyroid is off. Why is the thyroid off? Well, just because the thyroid is it’s diseased, it’s the problem versus Eastern medicine says, well, let’s take a step back. Let’s look at the big picture. Why is the thyroid off? Oh, it actually is due to adrenal and gut issues. And so we need to start there and focus on treating the whole person, the whole body, look at the body in that way. So the difference is the viewpoint is we look at the Western medicine, looks at things under microscopes and things like blood work and numbers. Eastern medicine looks at things in the big picture, the same thing too. Dr. Axe (17m 49s): Western looks at things. What’s the recent study that came out. What came out right now. Let’s look at that under a microscope, Hey, change, everything, do this right here. Eastern medicine steps back and says, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Hey, what have we been doing? And what’s worked over the past 3000 years. Let’s look at the pattern. Let’s follow that Western medicine prizes these double blind placebo studies. And unfortunately, the other thing is it’s very biased because of pharmaceutical companies. But all that being said, what Eastern medicine is going to do is they have millions of individual case studies over the past 3000 years, proving the efficacy of the way that, you know, Eastern medicine works with the body. Dr. Axe (18m 31s): So unfortunately we have this big Western influence that’s influencing people, but I would say, you know, the other thing I think it’s unfortunate, and this just shows the arrogance of a lot of people in the Western medical profession today there’s an arrogance of our way is better than your way. It’s a superiority. It’s a superiority complex where they’ll sort of scoff at somebody that comes in with a different viewpoint because they can’t see everything with them as reasoning. They’ve only learned to break things down in one specific way. And so, anyways, the truth is, is they’re blind. They’re blind because they’ve never been taught to see the world or to see health, a certain light. So to them, they literally, they just can’t even see it. Dr. Axe (19m 12s): So to them, it’s not real, it’s a myth. And so they’ll literally call it a myth. They’ll talk about it. Like it’s a fantasy or myth, and that’s sort of the way it works. But you know, the good news is there are some physicians that are better able to see the big picture. The reason they usually see it is they start working with patients and realize it’s not working. I prescribed this medication. It’s not working. Or they have a health problem themselves. They try medication, it doesn’t work. So then they go on this journey and they find, Oh, I healed myself using this. That’s a common factor. I see an almost all of the doctors that start practicing natural medicine. They get sick or a family member gets sick, whatever they were doing, doesn’t working. Dr. Axe (19m 52s): And so then they find this, you know, Eastern medicine, ancient medicine start using. It works and then they change their, you know what they’re doing? Brad (20m 1s): Yeah. I like the, the anecdote from Dr. Timothy Noakes, one of the leading exercise physiologists in the world and doing his life’s work in the carbohydrate paradigm. And you, you finished your workout and replenished with carbs to fill the glycogen back up in your muscles. And he was battling pre-diabetic condition, even though he was a lifelong ultra runner and steeped in all the research. And so he decided on a whim to go keto, clicking on an internet banner ad. And he lost 22 pounds in short order and improved all his blood work. And so he stepped up to the podium at an international conference and he said, Hey, you know, what can I say? I’m 22 pounds lighter. And I feel great and here’s my blood work. And so, you know, how can you argue with tremendous success? Brad (20m 43s): I like your 3000 year scientific study too. That’s a good, a good track record there in the Eastern medicine. Dr. Axe (20m 51s): Yeah, absolutely. And I think, again, we’re talking about today is our system has created these double blind studies. But again, I think all of these individual case studies and we’ll work somebody, when you look at them again, you have to be a big picture person to be able to see this though. But yeah, I think that’s what, and I think that’s why TCM is still around and I are made, I think that is why these forms of medicine are growing back in popularity as well as, and, and it just makes sense to, if somebody has common sense and reads them, they’re like, okay, I get why this works nice. Brad (21m 21s): And so you extend this conversation into herbs, essential oils, CBD. This is the sub titles of your book going beyond just the making the good food choices and getting the superfoods. So how did these other things integrate into your, into your practice and your philosophy? Dr. Axe (21m 39s): Yeah. I want wanna, I want to be clear on this though, that I really think if you want to heal, the two primary things you have to do is you have to look at your mindset /your lifestyle. You know, like that’s key and then food. I think everything else is supplementary. Okay. I think herbs using essential oils, some of the other things are, are supplementary, but that I’ll also throw sleep in there with that lifestyle thing. Sleep is a huge deal. If you look at the research, I mean, it’s a big deal when it comes to beating disease. But I do think herbs are a great thing for a lot of people, you know, specifically. You know, when I use the word medicine up until 180 years ago, when you heard the word medicine, it meant herbs. Dr. Axe (22m 29s): Like that’s what a medicine was. If you even today, if you go into an ancient apothecary, which apothecary essentially means pharmacy. If you go into that in Asia today, or a lot of places, here’s what they have in an ancient pharmacy. You go in there, they’re going to have herbs and spices, mushrooms, and organ meats. Dry the organ meats known as glanular, that’s what, that’s, what was in an ancient apothecary that, people use to heal themselves up until recently. Listen, if we’re looking through all history, this is what they did. The reason is is there they’re just more nutrient dense or more compound dense, you know, plants or animal by animal products. And so, you know, the herbs and spices, I think just to cover a few, I think are really powerful for talking about inflammation. Dr. Axe (23m 13s): You know, tumeric is incredibly powerful as ginger, engalango and there’s other ones in Chinese medicine, skullcap. Rosemary. In fact, it’s one of the most powerful anti-inflammatory herbs. A lot of people, you know, don’t realize. And so again, I think inflammation, those are some great inflammation fighters. We’re talking about boosting your immune system. The primary immune boosters used in all of Asian medicine, in Indian medicine and in East, and actually Israeli medicine as well. You’re going to be using things like Astragalus. It’s actually known as the number one herb to help strengthen the gut brain connect or the gut immune connection. So it strengthens your gut and your immune system. So it’s really powerful for leaky gut syndrome, autoimmune disease. Dr. Axe (23m 56s): It’s also good for, it’s a good for a lot of things.Astragalus there’s some good cancer research there. So astragalus is probably my top one for long-term immunity. For short-term immunity, if you are sick or wanting to revert something immediately, probably elderberry and echinacea are two of the top. Now explanations more of a European or, but today it’s, you know, it’s a, it’s a great one to use that along with elderberry. Reishi mushroom. I mentioned this earlier, there’s loads of cancer studies on it, especially if you look at the cancer medical journals published in Asia. So Reishi has got a lot of benefits there for immune health as well. So those are some of the top there’s others. Andrographis and Chinese medicine was more for clearing out phlegm and mucus, olive leaf. Dr. Axe (24m 37s): Those sorts of things were pretty good. If we’re talking about hormone balance.g For men with low testosterone, the ancient remedy in China was a combination of Panax ginseng and fenugreek. If someone was much older, had a very severe deficiency, they’d use something called deer antler. And we hear these things. People think, Oh these are weird. So in Chinese medicine, low testosterone is due to two things. It’s a Qi and a yang deficiency. The way that it shows up in most women is hypothyroidism. But in men, it shows up more as low, low testosterone, or that’s what we call it. And so fenugreek is a big yang booster. Yang is more like it’s going to support testosterone, where Qi is more of going to support those adrenal hormones, adrenaline, and cortisol. Dr. Axe (25m 24s): It’s going to support more of those numbers. So if you’re older over the age of, if someone’s over the age of 50, 50 to 60, you’re going to do ginseng. If you’re under that age, ashwagandha is better because it’s more gentle as an adaptogen for that Qi for women. If we’re talking about issues like PCLs or infertility. PCLs specifically is an insulin issue, you got to focus on diet. That’s the biggest thing. But in addition, some of the herbals are going to help with insulin. We know cinnamon is very good, bitter melon. There’s lots of Holy Bazell, you know, are all good. I think if a woman is having more issues related to PMs, Bitex known as chasse berry is fantastic. A woman is having menopausal or post-menopausal symptoms and just kind of feeling off hot flashes, that sort of thing. Dr. Axe (26m 9s): Black cohosh is very good. So, so those are some of the best for hormones, for digestion, ginger, peppermint, fennel, those all work in a really great way. And I could go, I can talk about a lot Of herbs, but those are some of the best. Let me just hit on some of the mushrooms and then the glandulars here. So when we talk about mushrooms for lung capacity and endurance, if you have a infection, that’s a viral infection that’s affecting the lungs like a bronchitis quarter set mushrooms, cordyceps mushrooms are very good for stimulating and strengthening lungs. Reishi again, just long-term lifespan. Lion’s mane has been shown to help your nervous system, specifically your brain it’s actually medical studies are showing it support memory and focus in cognitive decline. Dr. Axe (26m 55s): And then turkey tail. Turkey tail is known as the mushroom that has the strongest antiviral properties. So if you want to fight a virus, use turkey tail. And then in terms of glandulars, you know, nothing is more nutrient dense than probably liver. I mean, liver has been consumed since the beginning of time to support your organ systems. It’s known in Chinese medicine. So there’s a principle called like supports like. That comes from a Chinese medicine. So we know you eat liver, it supports your liver, but it really supports it. It’s got 10 times the amount of B-vitamins that a steak does or green leafy vegetables. Dr. Axe (27m 35s): So the B12 is off the charts. The iron is really high, super highly absorbable form of iron. So anyways, liver is like that, that organ meat that almost everybody should be getting in their diet, but then there’s others too. You know, a heart contains really high levels of coenzyme, Q 10, which supports heart function and regeneration. You know, there’s spleen. There’s pancreas, you know, so all the organ meats are glandulars. If you have a organ issue related, if you have a disease related to that organ system, like the liver issue or gallbladder issue, then eat that organ. And it’s gonna support that organ. And there’s a whole nother, like, support like that is if a food looks like an organ system, it supports that organ. Dr. Axe (28m 18s): A walnut looks like a whole head. You crack it open as two hemispheres left and right support your brain. It’s high in colene. high in vitamin E, high in omega three fats. Same goes, I can go through probably 30 right now. I want to give you time to answer another, ask me another question. But that being said, you know, like supports like is something, I think that’s a really powerful ancient principle that a hundred percent is proved today with medical science as well. Brad (28m 42s): Yes. I’m super interested in that. You may know that I’m working with ancestral supplements, promoting the MOFO product, the male optimization formula with organs that can, I know, Dr. Axe (28m 52s): I didn’t know that, but it sounds great. Brad (28m 54s): It’s a formulation with a testicle, prostate, heart, liver, and bone marrow designed to, to boost testosterone. And again, we’re going back to our fixed and rigid beliefs where we might not buy into this stuff. We’ve sort of rejected organ meats in the modern diet for some reason. It’s inexplicably, really, when you look at the nutrient density. But boy, it’s, you know, I think with, with personal experimentation and, and assessing the results, we can, you know, make believers out of people. Just like you said, those doctors that have health problems and turn to it, probably in desperation to, you know, the, the, the world of, you know, the nutritional medicinal benefits of plants. Brad (29m 38s): But yeah, the, the organ meats, I feel like that’s has a strong following these days and you know, it can’t hurt. Dr. Axe (29m 47s): Yeah. I’m with you, Brad. Here’s the other thing, you know, I think some of this stuff is people just need to… Doctors. A lot of times you need to just start using more common sense rather than getting so deep in the weeds on this. Some of the pharmaceutical stuff it’s like, you know. We know this is a fact a hundred percent. If you want to build muscle, you’ve got to get muscle building proteins. There are certain amino acids, the branch chain amino acids, and the <inaudible> like, that’s going to help you build muscle. What are all the muscle building? You know, you’re going to get these types of aminos from the muscle tissue of the animal. The chicken breast, that’s a muscle the steak that, you know, the beat, that’s a muscle. Dr. Axe (30m 27s): Like the fish filet, that’s a muscle of the fish. And what does it do? It supports you in building your muscles. Bone broth it’s comes from the ligaments and tendons that connective tissue of the animal. So that’s going to help you build your joints. It’s also makes up the skin of the animals. So that’s going to help you with your skin. This stuff is common sense. So eating the same thing, same principle, you eat a liver, it’s going to support that organ in your own body. And so it’s a, you know, some of this stuff really is just common sense, but it’s amazing that I take a liver supplement and an organ meats supplements glandulars every day. And I notice a difference. I have more strength, more energy. I can tell my blood is healthier. I mean, it’s this stuff. Dr. Axe (31m 7s): It definitely works. Brad (31m 9s): Well back to the, the mindset component. We’re, we’re excited about the ability to ingest natural agents that, that boost health. And it seems like I appreciate you putting me the great attention on that one, too. Especially since you can’t make any money telling people to chill out and, you know, form a positive mindset. But what do you see are the, are the big challenges in a modern world today that are, that are sort of taking down that, that, you know, beautiful, loving mindset that we idealized? Dr. Axe (31m 44s): Yeah. So I, I would say I’m going hit on a couple things, and then I’ve something I think in terms of, cause I mentioned this earlier, there are certain emotions that affect different organ systems. And so, so, you know, I think there’s two big things to consider. One media. And I’m talking about social media and news channels. It Is a hundred percent fear-driven. The more time you spend watching the news and on social media where you’re following different celebrities and people that essentially have a certain political agenda, listen, it’s going to, it’s going to put you in a state of fear. You got a fear of virus. You’re going to fear, you know, losing your money. Dr. Axe (32m 25s): You’re gonna fear whatever you’re going to fear all this stuff. Brad (32m 29s): I’m afraid I’m not good enough. When I see all the leaders on social media live in living the dream life, landing their helicopter on their yacht. And so you nailed it. It’s a fear of missing out and a fear of all the stuff that they’re selling us too. Dr. Axe (32m 44s): A hundred percent. So all. So again, that’s where it starts is in social media has made it more of a problem today because literally it used to be, you turn on the TV. Sometimes you might watch a few minutes of news and that today on your computer, that you’ve got news on your social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, it’s so much political news constantly all the time. And it used to be just the politicians talked about it. Well, now, if I want to watch, if I want to watch sports, somehow it’s half politics. And so, and it’s news, that is all fear-based, they’re trying to strike fear in you telling you the world is falling apart. It’s a problem, whatever. Dr. Axe (33m 24s): Listen, you got to get away from that. That’s the first thing you got to know. It’s all about what are you filling your mind with? I’m filing my mind. I’m just sharing myself as I’m not trying to be religious here. I’m just, I feel myself with the Bible. Literally I listened to it on audio. I read it or I read a leadership guru. I love Simon Sinek. I love John Maxwell. I’m listening to these guys all day long. I’m listening to some of the nutritional people. I like to follow, you know, like, like healthy lifestyle minds. So on my Instagram, I went and deleted almost. I, you know, I had a business. I had some people who followed other people for me. And I said, we’re not following these people. So literally the only people I follow now are the people I agree with that are talking about like Bible verses spiritual stuff, being a good leader, like leadership principles. Dr. Axe (34m 9s): That’s what I follow now. So like, if you go on my social media on Facebook or Instagram, that’s all I follow. I’m not following these other people. And then news wise, I don’t watch news. I don’t watch CNN. I don’t watch Fox news. I don’t watch those news stations actually. Instead I will go to a site online that I think is more middle of the road and isn’t lying to me. And maybe I checked just to stay informed a couple of days a week. And that is it. You know? And sometimes the international stuff is better anyways. But all that being said, that’s, that’s where I’m keeping up with more things. But I think that’s important to know is that, Hey, if you’re those things are fear-based. The other thing is why is there not more love? The, the, the worldview of the world is completely wrong. Our culture is completely wrong in terms of what most people, 99% of people are sharing as the worldview. Dr. Axe (34m 55s): I’ll give you an example of this.. Media today will tell you every TV show, every movie, every song will tell you that love is a feeling. Love is not a feeling. It’s complete garbage. Love is a commitment. So love is not feeling something. Chelsea. There are probably days where Chelsea is like, okay, I don’t know if I love this guy. You know what Chelsea and I said, till death do us part, when we got married and we will be together until death do as part. Reason being is I don’t let feelings dictate whether I love her. I love her because I’ve chosen to love her. Dr. Axe (35m 36s): Love is a choice. Love. According to the Bible is actually at the word of God, which means sacrificial love, which means, Hey, I’m giving up the way, you know my dreams to fulfill your dreams. I’m doing what I can. I’m called to love you. And it’s a choice today. It’s like, Oh, I’m sorry. I fell out of love with you. I don’t feel it anymore. So all that being said, that goes with all these emotions, everyone is living in a state of victim mentality rather than saying, I take responsibility. I choose. And so anyways, what is crushing love today? In the Bible It says, perfect love, casts out, all fear. They actually say the opposite of fear is love. So love is living in a state of hope and faith in God. Dr. Axe (36m 20s): And it’s also, when we’re talking about love, it’s not a feeling, it’s a choice. You’re choosing to love somebody, whether you feel it or not. I, that might’ve sound like a big soapbox there, but that’s just, that’s why we don’t have more, more love today. Brad (36m 35s): I love it. Listeners, look at this. We got Dr. Axe, the nutrition guy going off and getting to the heart of it. It’s, it’s so important to, to bring it all together, especially, you know, you and I live and breathe this health and diet and nutrition and all that all day long. But it really seems to me like just a narrow sliver of what it means to live a healthy, happy life. Especially when the emotions can destroy your health, despite your excellent choices at the, at the dinner table. Dr. Axe (37m 5s): .We have, we can’t completely separate this stuff again. Western medicine does. In fact, this happened many years ago where they said your spirituality and your physical health and your health, they’re complete in your emotion. They were completely unrelated. This happened many years ago. This is Greek medicine. Cause they separate everything. And Eastern medicine, everything is together. So I do talk about this stuff. I talk about it to family members. When I’m caring for somebody, helping them overcome a health problem. I talk about it too, because this is what ancient physicians did. It’s what I do today. But because these things, if you don’t know what love is, that’s going to affect your health like this. You know, it all matters Brad (37m 46s): Love it, man. Thank you. And back to the, the being blind and close minded and to the importance of being open-minded and thinking critically, I’m curious about your opinion on this carnivore movement, which I’ve been watching very carefully with great fascination. And you know, you talked a lot about the medicinal benefits of plants. So that’s a separate category from the integration of plants as the centerpiece of your diet. And so we have a little bit of progression here and, and uncertainty and, and breaking knowledge. So here he is. If you’re watching on YouTube,Josh is ready to pounce. Dr. Axe (38m 26s): So I can’t wait to hear all this. Yeah. So, so here, this might be a surprising answer or it may not be, but my answer is this. It depends on the person. Here’s one of the things I can tell you about Chinese medicine. And about all in medicine about just health. There is not one single diet that is specific to everybody. Now this may go, I don’t want to say it’s in contrast. I think when I bring this back around, I think there’ll be more alignment with the primal and paleo principle. But let me say this. I am, which by the way, paleo primal to me, primal means something different. Like I believe we have a God that created us and I’m a hunter gatherer lifestyle can be great, generally speaking for some people. Dr. Axe (39m 8s): And I think it’s healthier than traditional diet by Brad (39m 10s): fast food and lifestyle. Dr. Axe (39m 12s): Yeah, exactly. So here’s my belief system with this. And by the way, if you’re listening to this, have you ever done a diet and it worked for someone else in a fantastic way, and for you, you did not see the same results? Nobody is wired completely differently. Different foods are good for different people. For instance, if I have somebody who comes to me and they have liver disease, I will put them on some raw vegetables. But if I have somebody with inflammatory bowel disease, I will put them on zero raw vegetables. They’ll be eating all cooked vegetables and meat. So all that being said, I think it really depends on the person. This is what Chinese medicine says is there’s no one diet for everybody. It depends on what you have going on in your body. Dr. Axe (39m 53s): You know, I think based on the emotions. So here’s the other thing. If you have the emotion of worry, it causes disease in the upper GI, your upper digestive system. That’s the fact think about this. If you ever worry about something you say, Oh, my stomach is tied in knots. It affects your upper digestive system. The emotion of fear affects your adrenals in your kidneys and your bladder. Think about this. If a child gets really scared at night, they can wet the bed because they had fear. Somebody who has a lot of anger will call somebody like an angry, drunk, like anger affects the liver and the gallbladder. The emotion of grief, like depression, a sense of loss. Those things affects your immune system. Dr. Axe (40m 34s): And then the emotion of anxiety affects the heart. Think about raising your, your raises, your blood pressure. So all that being said, we know different emotions affect different organ systems based on the organ system affected or based on how you’re wired, different foods, support those people. There’s also, you know, in Chinese medicine it’s called the five elements, but you look at everybody falls in a different category of foods that they need to probably get a little bit more of. So for instance, in Chinese medicine, it’s kind of like taking a personality profile. So if anybody’s ever taken an Enneagram task or a disc profile or Myers-Briggs or any of those personality profiles, they do that in Chinese medicine. Dr. Axe (41m 14s): But then they say these are the foods that you need to be more conscious of eating and getting in your diet based on how you’re wired. Because if you’re dealing with a lot of worry, you need to really support that upper GI. Well, what foods support the upper GI? According to Chinese medicine, it’s foods that are orange. So it’s going to be pumpkin, butternut, squash, carrots, those sorts of foods. If you’re dealing with a lot of immune issues, it’s foods that are light yellow. It’s chicken broth, it’s ginger, it’s garlic. It’s those foods are more nourishing. So different, the different foods nourish different organ systems. And so going back to answering your questions, this it’s, what do I think about the, you know, a nose to tail diet or a primarily, you know, carnivorous diet. Dr. Axe (42m 1s): I think that fire elements so more the cardiovascular system, people, they will thrive on that diet. It is going to be a great diet. They can get away with not even vegetables probably, and be fine. I think that in some other people that have more liver gallbladder issues are going to have a harder time with it, because think about this different organ systems have to deal more with different macronutrients. So in protein digestion, your stomach and some of your liver and your kidneys, those are the organ systems that will deal more most with meat digestion. Dr. Axe (42m 41s): Whereas if we’re talking about starch or carb digestion, it’s actually more, your pancreas is taking the largest load of carbohydrates. Whereas fat is going to be almost all liver gallbladder. So think about this. If somebody has, like, let’s say for myself, let’s say I had a lot of anger and frustration and patients and all those things taxing my liver constantly toxin overload. And then I tried to go keto where then also my liver and gallbladder are dealing with fat. Constantly. Those are working hard. That diet is not a good diet for me. The keto diet is not good for that person versus somebody that has worry a lot of worry on their life, but they’re, don’t ever get angry. Dr. Axe (43m 22s): That’s not the emotion they experience where they have a lot of worry. So, and they over consume carbs that are pancreas is taxed. That person gets on a keto diet to where now there’s no stress on the pancreas. And the liver is a fresh, it’s healthy. It’s going, it’s digest all this stuff. So now the pancreas gets to rest. Now it gets to regenerate. It gets to heal. It gets to all of a sudden that person’s like the keto diet for me is a miracle because the keto diet is perfect for that person. So again, it really all depends which organ system are you stressing the most emotionally. And so again, the diet, I think it can be really like the people I can tell you right now. I interviewed somebody who eats nose to tail almost exclusively. Dr. Axe (44m 4s): And I looked at him cause I can tell he’s a fire element in Chinese medicine. That means he is going to do perfect on a keto/ carnivore carnivorous diet versus some other people won’t. It just depends. Brad (44m 17s): Wow. This is solving a lot of confusion and controversy by presenting it in, in the way you described. And I’m kind of coming to similar realizations, I think especially 12 years into living and breathing this every single day, I’m kind of realizing that personally, I haven’t found much difference from taking carbs all the way down to zero and going full nose to tail or, you know, being a little more flexible and liberal and enjoying my popcorn in the evenings. And then when I’m suffering in other ways like an over-training patterns or whatever, I’m blaming all these different dietary strategies for not making me feel optimized. Brad (44m 58s): When I think maybe we’re at the point now where yes, it’s, it’s highly personalized and individualized. And if you just get rid of the junk food and go to meals that you like and enjoy and are eaten in a celebratory manner, maybe you’re now climbing up the ladder to, you know, the highest optimized diet possible without dealing with the nitty-gritty details and pricking your finger to get your blood values until you get scar tissue. Dr. Axe (45m 24s): Well, I can tell you Brad, I mean one you’re totally right. And the other thing along with that is, is that, you know, how many people, especially the people that have a chronic condition like Lyme disease is a good example of this or chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia or certain other conditions. Some of those people get so obsessed with what they’re eating, that they’re constantly thinking about it and stressing about it so much. That that is in fact, the reason they’re not healing. It’s a lot of piano, orthorexia people, a big deal because overthinking, it actually stresses your it’s your digestive system. That’s what’s most stressed. Dr. Axe (46m 5s): And a lot of disease starts there. Is that like, Brad (46m 10s): is that why? Dr. Axe (46m 11s): Yeah. Brad (46m 12s): So it’s overthinking, messing with the digestive system. Dr. Axe (46m 16s): So, so this is okay. So, so this is how this works in Chinese medicine. Two different organ systems are linked up together. Okay. So there’s five organ systems that work together. You have your detoxification system, which is like your liver gallbladder, your upper digestive system, your lower digestive, which actually includes the lungs so that your immune system actually, and then you’ve got your hormonal system with your adrenals and, and there’s one other cardiovascular. The brain is most linked to cardiovascular. That’s also linked to others. Kind of is the whole thing. So here’s the thing in Chinese medicine, there’s actually a chart that shows that it’s called the five elements and how the organ systems affects each other. Dr. Axe (46m 59s): The organ system that is most effected by your digestive system if it’s out of balance is your immune system. It’s the most effective. The second one that’s most effective and there’s two others. The other one that’s most of it just depends on the pattern. So they use the term in Chinese medicine, they, the mother child relationship. So in Chinese medicine, the digestive system is the child to the brain. And so your digestive system, I think it’s really out of hand and you’re overtaxing. If you are overtaxing, it says the child has done honestly starts affecting the parent because it’s such a bad child. Dr. Axe (47m 44s): Can you think about it like that? And then the other thing is the digestive system is directly connected to the immune system or not directly, it affects the immune system. So if it gets really everybody, if everyone wants to look at the chart, I’m talking about, it’s called the five elements of Chinese medicine. You’ll see arrows pointing to other there’s patterns of invading and nourishing. And so anyways it’s, but it’s pretty, pretty fascinating because they show holistically because this is how somebody with hypothyroidism, it’s not their thyroid in most cases. So if it’s just, most of the people with hypothyroidism, it’s actually their adrenal issue. Dr. Axe (48m 24s): It’s an adrenal iissue that’s affecting the thyroid. But Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, which is auto-immune, it’s the adrenal, but it’s more so it’s actually, the immune system is affecting the thyroid. Auto-immune affecting the thyroid. So that’s what starts happening there. Brad (48m 41s): Yeah. I’m thinking of a personal anecdote. When I was competing on the pro triathlon circuit and training and traveling and exhausting myself and things weren’t working, right. I was getting all the blood tests and you know, we couldn’t find what was going on. And then I was finally diagnosed with adrenal burnout. And boy, isn’t that nice to finally have a diagnosis and now I can figure out what to do, or God forbid, you know, take medicine or something. But then I went to a, sort of a alternative practitioner. He was doing acupuncture and more from the East side. And he said, look, there’s nothing wrong with your adrenals. If I put a gun to your head right now, you could go ride your bicycle a hundred miles through the mountains. And I’m like, yes, I could. Brad (49m 22s): But of course I wasn’t healthy at the time. And it was sort of a, a way to characterize the symptom rather than the cause. And literally, unless, I guess if you were taking a condition like adrenal burnout, maybe one or 2% of the people do have a dysfunction with that actual organ, they have a disease state, but the rest of us, the adrenal burnout is coming from crappy diet. You know, we’re not doing life supports, like we’re not getting the right nutrients in and we can back up a few steps like you described earlier in the show and, and look at the big picture rather than isolate on a diagnosis. Even though I guess it feels comforting to say that you have something wrong with you and walk around with that in your backpack. Dr. Axe (50m 4s): Yeah. I think, you know, I, I know the adrenal issue is related to adrenals, which was, you’re a hundred percent, right? Sometimes it is. If somebody let’s say I iodine helps. It’s probably the thyroid, or if it’s more anxiety related, because this it’s called the upper burner more anxiety-related, that’s affecting it. That’s more thyroid. But if the person also has digestive issues or they’ve got major fatigue or some of those issues a lot, most of the times, it’s not. But yeah. Brad (50m 35s): So speaking of that, like support, like, which is so, I’m so passionate about, and I’m trying to dig into the research and get the rationale for it. Dr. Shanahan made a great comment that even if you’re not into the dreamy Eastern philosophy, you can do an analysis of the liver and notice that those nutrients or like the Co-Q10 in the heart is good for our heart. So it’s very easy to understand, but I never have heard it applied to the plants. And the interesting list that you present that ginger actually does look like a stomach. Celery, stalks look like bones, but along those lines, do you have sort of a, is there a scientific rationale that these foods that resemble organs can, can nurture those organs in the same way that an organ can support an organ? Dr. Axe (51m 25s): Yeah. So I’ll let me answer that question. By the way, I have a great chart for this in my book, Ancient Remedies, I go through and show, Hey, here’s the organs, the foods that support which organs based on this. So here’s the thing. If somebody believes that we were not here and boom, there was a big bang, which is kind of ridiculous. There’s two rocks like slammed together. And all of a sudden you have spirits and lunch. Anyways, all that being said, if somebody prescribes to an evolution and there is no, God, it’s gonna be very hard for them to understand it again. It’s there. They’re not going to be in alignment with this. They’re not gonna understand it. There’s somebody who believes there’s a God that created the universe. Dr. Axe (52m 6s): Then this, this isn’t too hard to get to. And that he puts certain foods here and he wanted to make it obvious. Hey, use common sense. Like, Hey, people just get here on earth. You have a relationship with God and you start realizing the way God works. And you realize, Oh, he made it simple. If a food looks like an organ, it supports that organ. If it’s a food that is a certain color, it supports an organ. If a food has a certain flavor, it supports an prgan. And these are pretty easy patterns by the way, all that is true. So for instance, and I’m going to touch on these and then I’m going to touch on these organs. But foods that are light yellow, those support the immune system. Foods that are dark blue and purple, those support the hormonal system and some dark green. Foods that are light green, like granny Smith, apples, and things like that, that support the, you know, the liver gallbladder. Dr. Axe (52m 51s): .Foods that are red and brown, those support more of the cardiovascular system. It’s all, it’s all true. Foods that are sour, really activate and work with the lymphatics and part of the liver foods that are bid or work mostly with the cardiovascular and a little bit of the gallbladder for bio foods that are umami like me. So really activate the immune system. So again, different flavors, different colors. You tell us exactly what to eat. In terms of foods that like supports. Like I could use, you know, carrots as an it’s very easy. When you cut them, you look at them, they look like an eye they’re super high in beta carotene that converts to vitamin A, there are studies, medical studies showing those support eye health. Dr. Axe (53m 37s): Celery looks like your bones. Celery is the biggest thing about so celery it’s so high in electric, just a lot of electrolytes. It’s super alkaline. That’s going to support bone health, but there is some vitamin K some calcium there, but mostly it’s alkaline. So that’s why it supports bones so much. I can beats look like blood and red blood cells. Cut it open. You’ll see those boosts nitric oxide. There are loads of studies on beetroot juice and beads for how those affect cardiovascular health Reishi mushroom looks like your adrenals. It’s been shown in Chinese medicine to support adrenals and immunity. You know, there’s a, here’s a, here’s a cool one, a tomato here’s, what’s crazy. Dr. Axe (54m 18s): A tomato has four chambers. Your heart has four chambers. Tomatoes are also high in lycopene, which loads a medical studies show is one of the most powerful compounds for your heart health. There’s a lot of these. you know, figs look like, you know, like your testes and those actually have little dots in them that look like seeds that look like sperm. In the Roman empire, in Greek medicine, it was the top thing used for male fertility. Olives looked like ovaries and avocado looks like a uterus. Avocados are really high in magnesium, which causes uterine relaxation and high in certain fats for hormone balance. So all that being said, yeah, I mean, there, there are plenty of medical studies showing these things work too. Dr. Axe (55m 2s): But the other thing too, you think it’s a, again for somebody that doesn’t believe there’s not a creator, just, I mean, nature, it says in the Bible, you know, nature declares the glory of God. It just, it, it proves the evidence that He exists. So all that being said, it’s, and this isn’t a religious debate. I’m just saying like, nature tells you what to eat. Brad (55m 21s): I think a scientist can get to the same realizations too. I’m thinking this would go over really well with a, you know, like an elementary school crowd where they’re just learning about foods. You could come in there with the carrot, slice it and say, what does this look like? It would be a huge hit, man. They’d get eating healthy. Dr. Axe (55m 38s): Can I tell you what Brad? I wish they would teach that instead of some of the crap they’re teaching in school. Now this one isn’t the worst. But like, I would literally have this conversation with another doctor the other day that said, what is the last time you used calculus? I’ve never used calculus. I would, this would have been so much more helpful learning these nutritional principles in high school. I never learned anything about nutrition in high school. You didn’t learn nothing. It’s like, but we’re teaching people calculus. Again, this is all great. It’s why our medical system, the way it is, it’s great. Somebody came up with, we should learn this versus what practically should we learn to be successful in life? How about we teach kids about nutrition? How about we teach them leadership skills and how to build character? Dr. Axe (56m 21s): How about we teach some of those things rather than calculus and some of this other stuff, just kind of crazy. Brad (56m 28s): And you can add to that list. How about financial planning, healthy relationship dynamics. Yeah. Before you go into calculus class. Yeah. None of that. None of that came through in high school, college or elsewhere. Dr. Axe (56m 40s): A hundred percent Brad (56m 42s): Dr. Josh Axe. I so much appreciate your time. We went all over the map. That’s what I, that’s what I like about your man. You’re, you’re, you’re covering a big picture here. And just to, just to finish, I’m curious, what have you landed on with all your experimentation and optimizing your own personal diet? Is there anything you would even characterize it as? I mean, you’ve written about keto, about collagen. Dr. Axe (57m 5s): Yeah. I would call it a, a TCM diet, a Chinese medicine based diet for the most part. Again, Brad (57m 11s): What does TCM stand for? Dr. Axe (57m 13s): Traditional Chinese medicine. But, you know, I would also call it a biblical diet. I mean, I think it’s the diet that we were created to eat and the diet. What do I personally eat? I eat a lot of vegetables. I eat some in ranking order. I probably eat equal to vegetables and meat products. Meat products are also liver and bone broth and those sort of things, but cooked vegetables probably more. So this is also seasonal, but fall in winter, you should be eating more cooked. Once you get to spring, you can eat a little bit more raw into summer, and then it should be it seasonal, eating and TCM. But all that being said, I eat mostly vegetables and meat. And then I eat some berries. I eat some healthy fat. Typically for me, I do better with things like coconut. Dr. Axe (57m 56s): You know, if I do rice, which I do, that’s the grain I rice and oats, I do the best with. I buy them sprouted and I cooked them for about 12 hours in a crock pot overnight so there’s no phytates, all of that that becomes very easy to digest the congee or porridge for, you know, congee rice for the rice and porridge and TCM. So anyways, so, so that’s what my diet looks like. It’s a lot of those foods. So I’ll do oatmeal with some, you know, berries and collagen for breakfast or bone broth powder. I’ll do a smoothie like with pumpkin and bone broth powder for breakfast, or maybe some berries I will do for lunch, a big bowl of chicken, vegetable soup, or I’ll do a grass fed burger with a lot of steamed vegetables. Dr. Axe (58m 37s): If I top them with something, maybe it’s a little bit of tahini or something like that, you know? So that’s kinda what my, you know, what my diet looks like for the most part. Brad (58m 49s): That sounds great. Boy, let’s get invited over people. The Axes are cooking it up. So Ancient Nutrition. We’re going to go grab a copy of that, where all books are sold. How else do we connect with you? And maybe you could also send us off if you had three or four really quick hints to, to recommend to someone covering all the spectrum that you covered from mindset to integrating foods, into your diet, getting rid of certain foods. Let’s lead with a few, a few quick tips, and then you can tell us where to connect. Dr. Axe (59m 20s): Yeah, no problem. So, and just so everybody, the book is AncienN Remedies. You can go on amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com or local bookstores nationwide. But again, just go online or go to Amazon and search Ancient Remedies. Dr. Axe, you’ll find the book it’s got over 80 recipes, tons of protocols. Think you’ll love it. In terms of here are the big takeaways. Number one, your, if you’re going to be healthy, you got to take care of your whole body, your whole your self as a whole person.. Start every morning, doing a spiritual triathlon spend time. What I do is I get grateful and I praise God. And I do that for 10 minutes. I then spend 10 minutes reading my Bible or a spiritual growth book. And then I spend 10 minutes in prayer meditation. Dr. Axe (1h 0m 0s): My meditation, if I read on love, I start thinking about like for instance, Corinthians 13, I start thinking about like. The diversity goes, love is patient love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It does not dishonor others. And I think about myself, love is kind like, who do I need to be more kind to, who can I be kind to today? That’s my form of meditation. It’s chewing on that thing about that. So one do a spirit start every morning, doing a spiritual triathlon. Number two, find that diet that works for you. Again, meat and vegetables tend to be really good for a lot of people. You know? So I think doing lots of those two things is where I would start for most people. And then I think again, I think the other thing we talked about is changing your mindset. Dr. Axe (1h 0m 44s): Stop subscribing to if you’ve got these people on Instagram and you’re watching the news all the time. Stop it, follow people that you’re saying. I see the fruit in their life. There’s a principle. The Bible is by, by their fruit. You will recognize them. There are people that talk and talk and talk and talk. And if somebody gives relationship advice, if they have a terrible relationship, why are you listening to them? Like, so anyways, I think by their fruit, you are recognized them, look at the fruit of people’s lives, boast their character, where they end up in different places, like all those things, and then model those people. That’s the ancient way today. It’s knowledge, it’s learning a bunch of facts. The ancient way you learn was you followed somebody that was actually true mentorship. Dr. Axe (1h 1m 27s): And you started model modeling the things that would work in their life. It was kinesthetic learning, which actually is the most effective form of learning. If you read the medical literature. So anyways, I would say those things to your spiritual triathlon, eat those super foods, especially meat and food, and then start working on transforming your mindset. Brad (1h 1m 46s): Dr. Josh Axe. Great show. Thank you so much for listening everybody. That’s a wrap. Thank you for listening to the show. I love sharing the experience with you and greatly appreciate your support. Please. Email podcast@bradventures.com with feedback, suggestions, and questions for the QA shows, subscribe to our email list of Brad kearns.com for a weekly blast about the published episodes and a wonderful monthly newsletter edition with informative articles and practical tips for all of healthy living. 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