Transcript of Special Edition Episode #100 Featuring Dr. Josh Axe!!

When we think of health, most think of diet, working out, or even stress levels. I, like so many others, overlooked the crucial importance of my mitochondria, When your mitochondria work better, everything works better. Maintaining muscle gets harder with age, and cellular energy plays a significant role in strength and function. My world turned upside down when I learned about Mitopure gummies. Mitopure gummies are longevity gummies and the only clinically proven form of urolithin A shown in human studies to help renew mitochondrial function, which is designed to support cellular energy so you feel stronger and more vibrant as you age. They are my key component to longevity and quality of life. Not only do they taste great, but they are sugar and allergen-free, non-GMO, and Clean Label Project certified. Support your cells and how you age with Mitopure gummies from Timeline. Visit timeline.com/dylangiamelli to save up to 39% off your Mitopure gummies. That's timeline.com/dylangiamelli. All right, everybody, welcome back to the Dylan Gemelli Podcast. So like I always tell everybody, I am one of the most blessed individuals alive. And as you can see, I'm on a different set here. I'm in Nashville, Tennessee, and I will tell you this, and I say this often, that I'm excited about my guests.

I'm excited about my podcast because I am. I, it's, I don't exaggerate that, but this one in particular to me is like my Mount Rushmore bucket list of podcasts.

Oh, wow.

It is. And when I started podcasting, I, I, was reaching out to the biggest names, but I was nowhere in the league to have you on my show. And I was so thankful when I got the message about doing an interview with you. And so the gratitude and appreciation I have to be here, I cannot put into words. And I can't give you the best introduction ever because I can't give you enough accolade. But I just— for the audience, just to know a little bit about you, as if they don't already. So My guest is a doctor of natural medicine. He's a doctor of chiropractic, he's a clinical nutritionist, and he's the founder of Ancient Nutrition, the Health Institute, and the Longevity Club and Clinic. He's a New York Times bestselling author, which I cannot wait to get into about the books that you've written, most specifically your most recent one. And I just interviewed on his show, and it is a top 25 health podcast. He's interviewed some of the biggest names out there. He is one of the biggest names out there. So my friends and my new friend, welcome Dr. Josh Ax.

Dylan, thanks so much for having me. I'm excited for the, the conversation today. I know when you came on my podcast, it was, it was really incredible conversation. So excited to, to, to continue that.

Well, like I told you now twice, I utilized a lot of your information when I was doing, you YouTube content, your diet content most specifically. And like I pointed out, I, I remember the potassium-rich foods cuz I was looking it up. And it's funny cuz at the time I didn't realize the importance of potassium and electrolytes like I do now. But man, I got a lot of stuff to get into with you. I, I follow some of your work now cuz I don't follow a lot of people and you talk about so many things of interest and intrigue to me. I wanna start though with your most recent book, and I'll tell you why.

Yeah.

Because you and I both are men of faith. We are not scared to talk about it. In fact, we promote the heck out of it. And that's one of the main reasons that I am so fond of you now. But your book, I want to talk about the motivation that you had to write that book, and then I want to get into some of the details about it.

Yeah. Well, it really starts with, I believe the Bible is the greatest book ever written about anything. It's the greatest book about wealth. It's the greatest book about family. It's the greatest guide for really any being successful in anything. And this, the same is true with health and with diet and with a number of other things. And so myself and my close friend Jordan Rubin said, let's write a book called The Biblio Diet. 'Cause a lot of people are following things like a paleo diet, which is based on evolution. We believe, you know, that God created the heaven and earth. It wasn't random chance. And so we said, let's go through and spend years studying the Bible. With the idea of what does the Bible say about health and healing? Because there's so many people, you know, with chronic pain today. There's so many people that are saying, hey, I want to maximize my life and let's see what the Bible says. And that's what we did. And we said, what are the foods talked about in the Bible and what is their scientific significance today? What is their historical significance? What did Jesus eat?

What did Jesus do? I'll tell you, there's a few things that blew my mind. Like, I learned that there's a couple occasions where a historian went and documented how far Jesus walked in a day, 26 miles, a marathon. Like he was, people don't realize he was walking and walking and walking all of the time.

Mm-hmm.

You know, there are certain foods talked about in the Bible like pomegranate. Yeah. Extra virgin olive oil. There are herbs that are referenced by Solomon like saffron, which is probably the number one cure today for mood disorders. So the Bible has all of these hidden secrets. It talks about regenerative farming. It talks about prayer for healing. And so, and when my mom had cancer, you know, I, I said, I'm gonna do everything we can to help her heal. Right. And one of those things was prayer along with some other ideas and advice from the Bible. And so we wrote the book, The Biblio Diet, because we just really believe that the Bible has the greatest wisdom for health and healing. And we wanted to, and by the way, a lot of it flies in the face of the modern world. And the Bible talks about, you know, eat red meat, do salt, have honey, consume dairy, butter. You know, so the Bible flies in the— the American Heart Association is just, you know, they're having a heart attack over there when they're reading the Bible, when you're saying what foods it's recommending. But we believe those foods, if they're consumed right, are incredibly healing.

And so, that's a big part of the book is walking through what the Bible talks about, the herbs, the food, the lifestyle medicine. And, and also what people in the Bible ate, like Jesus and, and Solomon.

What are, so, so what's some of the staples?

Yeah.

Of the, the biblio diet. I mean, like key components. And is it a high fat, high protein, low carb? Like what does it look like structurally macronutrient-wise? Yeah.

I think from a macronutrient standpoint, I would, I would say, when you look at, generally speaking, I would call it high protein, moderate fat, moderate carb.

Okay.

That's how I would call it. I would say it's high protein, high fiber.

Yeah.

And that's really what you want to heal. So, for instance, the most referenced foods in the Bible, red meat is very high up there. If you consider how much ruminant animals like cows, goats, and sheep, and different types of oxen are referenced. So, red meat. In fact, there's a passage where it's called Solomon's Provisions. You could go and look this up on Google or an AI, and I said, what are Solomon's provisions? What did Solomon eat? And there's a list of things like elk and wild deer and grass-fed beef and buffalo. I mean, that's what he was eating is mostly red meat. I mean, that was the biggest part of his diet. So, we know it's red meat and fish. Okay. Wild-caught fish and red meat. That's a big basis of the diet. After that, a lot of fruits are talked about, and the ones that are highlighted are pomegranates and figs. Now, yeah, berries are referenced, apples are referenced, but those are the most referenced fruits and those are some of the most healing fruits. In fact, you know, we talk about the apple today. When you look at artwork about the Garden of Eden, right, we always see an apple.

Well, in historic times, they didn't believe it was an apple. They believed it was a fig. So think about when Adam and Eve were, when they first sinned and ate the fruit. They covered themselves immediately with fig leaves.

Right, right.

So, so it's an, it's an interesting thing there. But overall, uh, by the way, this is really interesting. Figs, um, were believed in Roman culture to support, um, libido and support sexual health and sexual organs. If you think about this, there's an ancient principle and it's called this, like supports like. So if a food looks like an organ, it supports that organ.

I see.

Well, it looks like the testes.

I got it.

Generally, um, figs do, and they have these little tiny seeds in them. Yeah. Almost like sperm. And so, they believed that that was for fertility. And there's some great studies around figs. Figs were actually used as an anti-cancer poultice. They pulled dampness out of the body and pathogens. So, really, really powerful. In fact, fig leaf as well, we're going to start seeing this more and more as a medicine for healing. And then, of course, pomegranates. I mean, unbelievable. I mean, I've heard when you were on my podcast, we talked about urolithin A and pomegranates. More than any other food. Now, actually, I think, actually, I think a yellow raspberry might have more, which is really rare, but pomegranates are one of the only foods with ellagic acid. And ellagic acid, when you consume this, your gut microbiome, if you have the right gut microbes, will turn it into urolithin A. What's actually amazing is it actually doesn't only turn into urolithin A, it's urolithin A, B, C, D, and E. So it's multiple urolithins that are created when you consume pomegranate. And, and it's probably the greatest anti-aging compound in the world for supporting mitochondrial health.

So pomegranates are absolutely phenomenal for longevity, for reversing disease. I mean, to me, it's my number one fruit, number one fruit for anti-aging. Figs would be up there, plums would be up there, berries like blueberries would be up there, goji, but, but it's pretty amazing. So, so the Bible really highlights these antioxidant-rich foods. It highlights meat probably more than anything. And then after that, we're going to see a lot of references to things like sourdough bread. The grains consumed in the Bible were very different than the grains we have today. I mean, even the sourdough we have today, you know, that's, that's kind of comes from a, um, from a wheat flour.

Yeah.

Um, it was still more nutrient-dense than that. They tended to be oftentimes a blend of an ancient wheat, similar to an einkorn or a red wheat flour, and then rye and then barley. And so you're gonna have these grains that are very nutrient dense. They're immediately milled, so they're fresh, and then they're fermented. And when you ferment them, you kill off something called phytic acid. Yeah. Phytic acid binds to all the minerals. So most people, if you're eating regular bread today that has not been sprouted or fermented, you're absorbing almost none of the nutrients 'cause they're bound up. Well, fermentation will break that down and also break down the gluten. And starches so they're easier to digest. So when you're eating sourdough bread, you're absorbing almost all the nutrients actually in the food. And so we've heard the principle, you are what you eat. It's not completely true. You are what you digest.

Right.

And so a lot of people aren't absorbing things. So sourdough bread is referenced frequently, raw milk and dairy. Now, this is important. There is a book written years ago and it's called The Devil in the Milk. And the book was written about some time in the past 1,000 years, probably even, even closer to where we are today, a genetic variant started cropping up in dairy. So, you know, you're familiar with MTHFR and a lot of these gene variants that may affect methylation or inflammation. So, so there's a lot of genetic variants that can impact our health, right? There is a genetic variant that impacted cows. They started creating a type of casein, which is one of the two proteins in milk, whey and casein, that changed the actual protein structure. Is it's called beta casein A1. Yeah. And this casein is more inflammatory than gluten, very hard on the body. This is why so many people are allergic to dairy today, have massive, you know, sensitivities. And so, and this is why you, you've probably heard some people can consume goat milk and have no issues with goat milk, but they're allergic to cow milk.

Well, goat milk and sheep milk is all A2 milk.

Right.

Some cows have only A2, but most today have this A1 in America. And so, all that being said, the milk they were consuming in the Bible tended to be raw and then oftentimes fermented. So, you're getting this high dose of probiotics, you're getting loads of enzymes, you're consuming something that was fresh and rich in fat-soluble vitamins and minerals. So, that's talked about. And the last thing I would say, a couple other foods, vegetables, salt, and honey. So, I mean, really, if you can listen, if people consumed a diet of wild fish and red meat, super nutrient-dense foods like pomegranates, berries, and figs, and apples, vegetables, honey, salt, and a little bit of ancient sourdough grain bread, you're going to be pretty healthy. That's the diet.

Right. So, you're telling me they weren't spraying stuff with glyphosate back then.

That's right. Yes. That's it. Yeah.

And the cows were actually grazing on grass and what they were supposed to be. They're not being fed a bunch of garbage.

That's right.

See, people like to twist things and they don't like to listen and understand. And we also have been brainwashed and things have been put out there that are inaccurate when it comes to diet and fats. And I talked to you about my fear of fats all these years. Talk to me a little bit about that diet structurally on the type of health benefits that one could expect or obtain from that kind of diet because You and I both know that you're covering all the bases on everything that you just listed.

Yeah.

But for people that are, you know, misconstruing information or being fed the wrong things, how is this going to be beneficial top to bottom for everybody?

I mean, I, I would say, I mean, the two things that come to mind here are longevity and cellular regeneration. Mm-hmm. Okay. So, so, so when I look at what your cells need, Your cells are made up of predominantly fat and peptides in the cell membrane. 90% of it, of the cell membrane's made of these, these, these fats and peptides within the cell, the mitochondria and some of these other organelles, the organs of your cells. They need things. Mitochondria really likes antioxidants. The cell membrane's protected from damage from antioxidants. So we want to consume a food foods that have healthy fats, healthy proteins and peptides, and phytonutrients like vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, so the cells can function properly. So when we think about things like red meat, red meat is going to be very high in iron and ferritin, right? And it's also very high in B vitamins. And then when we talk about red meat, it's not just the muscle meat. It's also the organs. Yeah. Like liver, like heart. I mean, these are incredibly nutrient-dense. I mean, heart is the highest food in CoQ10 and probably in mitochondrial nutrients because your heart as a muscle, of all organs in your body, I don't know if it's the heart or brain, but it's probably one of the top 2 organs that's high in mitochondrial mitochondria.

So red meat is going to be a powerhouse for all of these B vitamins, for iron, for building your blood, building strength, supporting growth hormone and regeneration. And then we've wild-caught fish, especially if it's omega-3 rich, anti-inflammatory. Some fish might have things like astaxanthin or other phospholipids that support the cell membrane as well. And then we've got these fruits. We talked about pomegranate, that being a, you know, a, a great, of great benefit to the mitochondria for anti-aging and cellular energy. And of course, again, figs are gonna be similar in that they're actually very good for colon health as well. The type of fiber in there is a natural colon cleanser. Apples as well have pectin. These types of fruits actually are not natural binders. They'll pull mold and parasites and toxins out of your system. And so overall, and then you got the fat-soluble vitamins, you know, a little bit of raw dairy. Now, I do want to say this. I do think people, some people need to be careful with their saturated fat intake. This is not a, you know, it's so funny. I am, I'm a big supporter. Generally of a lot of Robert F.

Kennedy and the Maha movement and what they're doing and what they're doing there. And, and, and I'm a big supporter of a lot of the ideas there. I think he's done a great job, but I also see some people out there who are, I'll give you an example, might be some of the people that are part of the carnivore movement.

Yeah.

They're, they're, or keto movements and they're saying eat as much butter and as much fatty red meat as you want.

Yeah.

I don't think that's a good idea. Yeah. And, and, and I think that for most people, they're better off with a filet mignon than they are a really fatty ribeye, you know? Yeah. And so I think, listen, that you, you, you gotta strike a balance. Yeah. You want fats, but you don't want to go overboard. And I mean, some of it's dependent upon the person. Like if I have somebody who has MS or epileptic seizures or certain neurological conditions, I really like a keto diet. Mm-hmm. Like eat more animal fat. But a lot of people with heart issues, for instance, they gotta find that healthy balance. I would rather them get a lot of their fats from wild salmon and extra virgin olive oil. Those are better choices for those people. So I wanna mention like my, my greatest level of, of passion and expertise of seeing people see transformations is I'm a big believer in personalized nutrition.

Mm-hmm.

I don't believe there's one diet for anybody. I think every time I take care of a patient today, I am customizing a plan just for them. And I learned this early on in practice. If I had somebody come in with inflammatory bowel disease or IBS, I'm going to have them consume mostly soups and warming herbal teas. We really got to warm it up, make it easy for them to digest. Someone with cancer, I might have them do more raw foods and vegetables and a little bit more heavy on fruits and vegetables. And this person, a little bit more heavy on meat and broth. So we need that personalized approach. And I think even within a biblical diet or cellular medicine diet, we still need a level of customization and personalization there. But generally, a biblical diet for most people that are generally healthy or people that have mild to moderate health conditions, they can be completely reversible with a biblical diet. Now, again, I do believe people with certain very extreme conditions, we still need to take those foods and we need to concentrate ones more than others. But again, for the general population, I think a biblical diet is generally the, you know, a perfect diet.

I always say, I know when I'm talking to somebody of some sort of brilliance when they talk about personalizing for each individual and understanding that just because one thing works for one, it does not necessarily work for the next.

Yeah.

And there is a slew of things to look at when you're structuring diet, training, really anything.

That's right.

You know, medication, supplements. You gotta go down a list. And I point this out because I see so many people that take on like hundreds of clients. If you are doing well at what you're doing, you can't take on hundreds of clients. Sure. 'Cause you can't personalize for a hundred people.

Did you know the average doctor visit is 7 minutes?

Wow.

And the amount of time the average doctor looks at a file is probably around 30 seconds. Seconds.

I was gonna say.

So think about that. And that's the care people are getting today in conventional medicine versus if you go to a really high quality doctor who's practicing regenerative medicine or functional medicine or cellular medicine, there's, there's a, a much greater level of care and personalization and everyone deserves that type of care. And that's the only type of care that's gonna get you true results. Absolutely. And in, in reversing, like We see, I see people all the time in my, my practice reversing hypothyroidism, reversing autoimmune disease, reversing IBD, seeing incredible results with, you know, reversing infertility, getting testosterone through the roof because everybody, everybody needs a personalized approach.

You know how many times that I've seen it said you can't reverse this and can't reverse that? And it's just like, I had that, I found some plaque in my arteries on a calcium score. And then I found I had a high Lp(a) and it was, oh, you test this once and you're kind of stuck with it. And oh, you can't ever reverse plaque. You gotta harden it with a statin and, you know, let it calcify. And I was like, you know what? This is just a load of crap. Yeah, I can do all of this. And, and I had an episode and I started having crazy heart palpitations after about 2 years after I found out that I had the plaque and I refused the statin. I took Repatha and Vascepa, which is like the purest form of fish oil and yeah, much better form. And I thought, oh no man, don't tell me. 'Cause I never had any side effects that would correlate to having more plaque or yeah, blockage. And I got in there and they put the catheter in and I was just at this fear like, man, did I, did the blockage go up that much?

And he went in and said, you have no blockage.

Amazing.

Yeah. And I had a CT angiogram said 30-some percent. And he went in there, he said, I don't see anything at all. Well, I found I had a low ejection fraction, which is maybe from the overtraining, could have been from prior drug use. I, I don't know. They don't know. But yeah, telling somebody that a lot of these things can't be reversed is nonsense.

Well, well, let me, let me share with you kind of the way that I, I see this, and I wish that all doctors were able to spend the amount of time in, in practice this way, but if, if I have somebody come in with, Well, let's talk about generally some of what you were dealing with, with the plaquing of the arteries. The first thing I do is I'm going to run some blood work and say, what's going on here? We're going to look at ApoA, ApoB. I'm also going to do micronutrient testing. What is your vitamin D levels? What are your magnesium levels? Like, we, magnesium's really important for heart health and what you have going on. So being able to test for those things, and then once I have that data and information, I'm creating a personalized plan for everybody. So So what is the, what are the ideal foods for you? Well, pomegranate's gonna be way up on the list, right? Extra virgin olive oil, wild-caught salmon, apples are fantastic. You know, certain types of green leafy vegetables. So, and I'm gonna create a customized diet plan that's gonna include these foods in your daily meal plan.

So here's your e— ideal eating plan 7 days a week. And then what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna look at, okay, what are the ideal vitamins and supplements? Well, for you in particular, garlic is amazing. Turmeric's incredible. There's an herb, the number one herb for this, what you have going on in Chinese medicine, was typically hawthorn or danshen.

Yeah.

So we're going to customize maybe even nattokinase, some of these proteolytic enzymes that help break down plaque. Let's create a custom plan of supplements here as well and herbal tinctures, and then let's do some holistic treatments. What can help with this? You know, I'm a big fan of ozone. Yes. And I mean, that's amazing for cleansing out— there's a type called Eboo for cleansing out your arteries. It's so powerful. So my point is, you know, what everybody should be getting when they go into their doctor is a very customized diet plan, supplement plan, herbal plan, the top holistic treatments, and the results people get when they do. I mean, again, you know, I see this with hypothyroidism. I have so many people come in with Hashimoto's and what the doctors do is they tend to treat the thyroid, right? Hashimoto's is not a thyroid, that's not a thyroid issue. That's an autoimmune issue that's affecting, it's starting in your gut microbiome and your adrenal glands and your mitochondria. So if we can go and boost in Chinese medicine, they actually called it a chi and yang deficiency. Chi is tied to ATP, that's cellular energy.

Mm-hmm. And yang means the body's not anabolic enough. Right. It's not regenerating enough. And so if we know, well, well, let's, well, well, let's warm the body up. You know, so let's get an infrared sauna. Let's do, you know, you know, red light beds. Let's do those things to get the red light and infrared heat up. And then let's go ahead and do, how do we boost qi and yang? Herbs like ashwagandha.

Yeah.

Rhodiola rosea. Those are amazing for that. What are the best foods? Well, one, people, I see this all the time, people with thyroid, they're eating a lot of salads and doing a lot of cold smoothies. Those are cooling. We need to warm the body. You need to be doing soups and red meat and things to build up become more anabolic. And then, there's peptides. These are amazing. And you can— there's some great peptides for autoimmune disease. I love thymosin alpha-1 for this. It's so fantastic. And combining that with BPC-157 and also working on the gut with things like KPV. So, we see people reversing their hypothyroidism constantly because we're practicing root cause medicine, cellular medicine, but it has to be personalized.

Ben: I want to do something with you here. This just came to me right now and I'd like to do this. So I'm going to name two things and I want you to tell me like the compare and contrast and the difference here. Low-fat versus high-fat yogurt.

Well, I mean, low-fat yogurt, you're going to be missing out on the best part of the dairy. I mean, you know, and by the way, especially with kids, there are studies done on kids and what they tend to be most deficient in, and it's fat-soluble vitamins, vitamin A, D, E, and K, right? And so, and this is important for brain health. We know vitamin D is critically important. So, so, you know, I would rather somebody do high-fat dairy, much rather than do high-fat dairy or high-fat yogurt than low-fat. Because again, you need it for your brain, you need it for your cell membranes, you need it for your hormones. I mean, in order for you to create estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, you have to have the right fatty acids and cholesterol. So, so I'm, I'm a bigger fan of the full fat, especially if it's raw and organic.

I'm so mad at myself for all the years I ate the nasty fat-free plain Greek yogurt. If I could just tell you egg whites versus egg yolks.

I mean, listen, that, that's a tough one. Listen, I, I, I want both. I really want both because I do think, I mean, you know, albumin is such an amazing source of protein.

Mm-hmm.

Has great benefits, but you know, the yolk itself, the, the phospholipids, and these are what make up your cell membrane. These are what also help support your cellular health. I mean, phosphatidylcholine is incredible. In order to methylate properly, part of that methylation cycle, you have to have choline. In fact, did you know choline used to be vitamin B4? But then they removed it at one point. When you think about how crucial B vitamins are for our health. Like vitamin B12 and folate. Well, choline is actually a type of a way of a B vitamin, and it's absolutely crucial. But egg yolks and then liver, yeah, are where you're gonna, gonna get all your choline. But it's really big for, for liver detoxification. So if you're not getting enough choline, your liver isn't detoxing properly as well. So, so I mean, if I'm picking for most people, let's say especially with autoimmune or chronic illness, I'm gonna choose an egg yolk. The egg white, people can have some sensitivities on occasion to it and can cause a little bit of dampness. But generally for most people, Listen, I think they interact together. They're important together. So I really always prefer the whole egg.

I love it. I do both. Yeah, I do 6 egg whites and 4 whole eggs every day.

Perfect.

Okay. Alkaline versus spring water.

Listen, I'm going to go with spring. I just think it's the most natural. I think, listen, if you're going to try and alkalize, eat more vegetables and more fruits. I mean, those are alkalizing. We know meat is more acidic, generally speaking. But you want to balance, you want to balance pH. And so if you are missing alkalinity, the reason is, is you're not getting enough fruits and vegetables in your diet typically, or you're exposing yourself to something that's pretty acidic. Now, I don't have a problem with alkaline water. I think alkaline water for some people can be beneficial. I also like hydrogen water, right? For some people. But generally speaking, I'm a, probably just because it's what God put here, it's just all natural. I'm probably a bigger bigger fan of spring water, but, but I like alkaline.

Okay, cool. All right, I'll move on. I, I, I want your opinion though on some, let maybe some controversial foods or people that have differentiating opinions on them. Sure.

Okay.

I, I wanna start with bananas because for the longest time everybody thinks it's the most potassium-rich food and everything, but then I, you know, and I hate bananas and this is why I want your thoughts on it, but I feel like it's it's not as good for people as they make it out to be. So bananas.

Again, for me, this is gonna be, it's all these answers are gonna be personalized medicine, right?

Of course.

Okay. So, well, now here's one thing to know. Bananas have been hybridized as a lot of fruit has, right? So if you look at what a banana used to be, had way more seeds in it.

Yeah.

It wasn't shaped like it is. And then, and then we've done a lot of crossbreeding. To get it to where it's at today. Less seeds, sweeter, you know, that, that, that type of thing. So, so, so one, but bananas today are probably a little bit higher in sugar than maybe they were historically.

Right.

They, for as a negative, they, this doesn't have to be negative, but basically in Chinese medicine, things have different properties. And that's how I'm gonna come at this. 'Cause I think people understand that better than the functional medicine view, but they have They bring moisture. So if you ever hold a banana, it's slimy, right? So, so an apple's not slimy, it's just wet. Okay. A banana's slimy. It's kind of like our mucus or snot. I mean, there's a level of sliminess there. If somebody is dealing with Candida or a cold or flu or anything, or colitis where you have any excess mucus in your body, if you have a white coating on your tongue, overgrowth of bad bacteria, you don't want to do bananas.

Okay.

Okay. Now, if you are very young or you're aging, you tend to want to support, you, you, you want more moisture in the body. Like, like menopause. This is a great example. When women go through menopause, their estrogen drops and their progesterone drops, they start having hot flashes.

That's right.

Well, why do they get hot flashes? The body now isn't as good at regulating its heat. It, it, it, it can't cool and moisten itself as well. So women'll get dry. And they'll get too warm because they can't cool themselves. Well, bananas are moistening and they're cooling. So, for a woman going through menopause, bananas might be a wonderful food for them to eat. If you're a young athlete and you're expending a lot of energy and creating a lot of lactic acid and your body's burning up any bacteria that's there and your body's moving a lot, there's not much stagnation, You can eat bananas, they're just fine. But for somebody that's struggling with autoimmune disease, leaky gut, Candida, any type of micro— any type of infection like Lyme or mold, bananas are a big no-no. There's so many better fruits. And so, and generally most fruits are safer, though there are certain populations where bananas could be beneficial.

Okay. I got like 4 more because I really want your thoughts on these. Yeah. Chicken. Hmm.

So, so here's what I'd say about chicken. Chicken is less nutrient dense than beef and fish.

Yes.

Okay. So, so, so, so that's, that's what I want to say. Now I do want to say this though. Different proteins have different properties based on their color. Okay. So, so red meat, it's red. Why is it red? Well, it's high in iron, right? You know? And so what does that mean? What it means, it's going to build your blood, right? So it's going to be great for iron. It's going to be great for blood building. It's also high in things like creatine. It's higher in, you know, it's higher in CLA, conjugated linoleic acid. So it's higher in nutrients. It's higher, generally speaking. Fish, salmon, that orange color, that means it's going to be better for the digestive system. Things that are orange are really good for your upper GI. Pumpkin, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, really good for bowel movements, colon health. They have a really great type of fiber. For, for, for, for bowel movements and detoxification. Okay. Chicken. Okay. Well, it doesn't have the omegas, it doesn't have the iron, does it have, but it's white in nature, which tends to be very good for the immune system.

Right.

Okay. And it tends to be the least reactive for people, for some people as well. So if people have sensitive immune systems that tend to overreact, things like chicken, things like white rice, things like pears, those white foods and light yellow foods tend to be the most immune boosting. So, think about the foods that you take when you're sick with a cold or flu. Chicken broth, that's light yellow. Garlic, that's light yellow. Miso, that's light yellow. Ginger, that's light yellow. So, chicken does have its beneficial properties, but if you're actually comparing them from a nutrient density standpoint, beef and fish are going to win.

Absolutely. I can't tell you how many years of choking down chicken. Oh my gosh, dude.

Especially, so, just so you know, when I was in undergrad, I was a personal trainer. I was really into fitness. I was, I mean, I was, and so, I mean, I followed the traditional bodybuilder. I ate 6 times a day. Chicken breast, broccoli, chicken breast, brown rice, tuna. I actually thought the canned tuna was worse in a lot of cases eating that. But, but I, yeah, I feel your pain.

I would, I don't even eat chicken anymore. The only thing I'll even touch is thighs. And that's funny because I wouldn't even touch those before.

By the way, that's what I'm having for lunch today. I'm doing this, I'm doing this vegetable stir fry with, with chicken thighs.

That's the only thing I'll go near. Okay. This one is a polarizing one. And it may, and it's funny because like people get mad if you say something bad about their oatmeal. So tell me oatmeal. What's your thoughts on this?

I think it's very person dependent. Now here's the point. Oatmeal does have a really good type of fiber. And I think with people with heart disease, now, now listen, this whole adage by the heart, heart disease, like the Heart Association saying eat more oatmeal. I think it's correct. Now, I don't think it's the single best food though for your heart. There are others that are better, but if we're talking about grains, it's probably the best for heart health and maybe the best for colon health.

Okay.

Okay. So, so oatmeal does have its benefits because it has some really good fiber in it and it has those benefits there. And also it's unique in Chinese medicine. It's known to support clearing certain types of viruses. I mean, so, so there, there are some benefits of oats, especially if it's been sprouted.

Yeah.

Easier to absorb the nutrients in there. It tends to be a pretty nutrient-dense grain. So I do like oatmeal for people who don't have bad bacterial overgrowth, who are looking for a type of, you know, heart-healthy grain option. I think it's a, I think it's a good option.

Yeah.

Now, here's what I would say. If I have somebody who's got autoimmune disease, I really try and do very few grains. In fact, the, the grains that people will, the grain that people will do the best with, with autoimmune disease is rice. Okay. You take a white rice, like a jasmine or basmati, cook it a long time to where it's mush, it's called congee, and you eat that. Okay. That's the best type of grain for people with any type of sensitivity. But, but again, I would say oatmeal for people with autoimmune disease, people who are trying to lose weight. It's not, it's not a good option.

Yeah.

It's not a good option. You know, if you've got a heart issue or you're trying to lose weight, pomegranates, apples, those, that, that, that, that's your best source of carbs. And then probably maybe even sweet potato, I think is a better option too. Less reactivity to it. So, so again, I think oatmeal is an okay grain for some people, but, but it's probably overconsumed. Like, listen, here's the reality. A lot of people are thinking I'm eating oatmeal. And I'm adding brown sugar to it and I'm adding raisins and I'm adding honey. And so that's carb, carb, carb. Yeah. If you're doing, let's say you're doing a half, like a small serving of oatmeal.

Yeah.

With a handful of blueberries and you're getting 20 grams of a collagen protein, another 20, 30 grams of a plant or animal protein, and you throw a few walnuts on top to get some healthy fats. Okay. You know?

Yeah.

I mean, some people do, but even for weight loss, I still, would prefer them probably eat something else than the oatmeal.

I agree. You know how many years I did oatmeal with protein powder, peanut butter, and raisins? Oh, I, I lived on that. I mean, and I can't even eat it anymore. Yeah. Can't. I, I just can't.

Okay.

I got 2 more now. I, this one I'm very curious cuz I, this is like a spectrum to spectrum with people. Some people are like, oh, the oxalates and you can't absorb. And yeah, some people are like, oh my gosh, this is so good for you, the fiber and And for your heart is spinach. Yeah. What's your thoughts on spinach?

I think most people, for most people, not everyone, for most people, spinach is a, is a superfood.

Okay.

Yeah. I, so, so when we get in the, you know, the oxalate conversation or whether that's everyone from, you know, Dr. Gundry to Dave Asprey talking about, you know, talking about oxalates, it, it's only an issue in a certain percentage of the population. That's the real one.

Overconsumption, right? Of eating too much.

Yeah. Yeah. It, it can be. I mean, if you're worried about, if you're not clearing well, your kidneys aren't doing well and you're worried about kidney stones, it can become a problem there too. But for most people, if you are sensitive to those things, there, there's an autoimmune-like response happening in the body or a histamine, but there's some sort of strong reaction. And listen, there, there's a time and a place to stay away from nightshades. Oh yeah. And oxalates and some of those foods. Okay. Absolutely. And then nuts. I mean, you know, the, the skin of, of almonds is incredibly high in a lot of these things. So, so all that being said, somebody with really severe histamine and mast cell and autoimmune disease, they probably should stay away from them. There are better options. But for, for somebody with heart health, somebody just trying to lose weight, somebody with even general hypothyroidism, I mean, longevity, steamed spinach.

Wow.

I mean, you are getting a super high dose of lutein and xanthine and just numerous vitamins and minerals. It is one of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet. I mean, green leafy vegetables, sprouts, and organ meats are statistically probably the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet. So, so I, I, I had a giant thing of steamed spinach the other night, and it's part of my rotation.

That's—

but again, it's part of a rotation.

Sure.

So I've been thinking, adding in other things like bok choy, Broccoli, cabbage, you know, just doing a well-rounded high vegetable diet.

Yeah.

Especially steamed vegetables is, is, is one of the greatest, you know, healing therapies there is.

Dude, when I started like cooking in grass-fed butter again and I sautéed the spinach, it was like a whole world. Oh yeah. To me, man, it was so good. One more that I want to ask you about, I'm very curious about this one, is pork, like ground pork, organic pork, like the, the, the, you know, the good clean version of pork.

Yeah.

Curious.

Yeah. So I got turned on to the dangers of pork from reading my Bible. You know, Moses, when he's going through the food laws, no pork, no shellfish.

Yeah.

And I thought to myself, well, okay, why did God, why did God say no pork in that time? And then when Jesus came, did pork suddenly now become healthy? Like it went from not being healthy to now it's healthy.

Yeah.

And it didn't. And so here's the thing. I don't believe it's necessarily, especially if somebody's not conscious of it. I don't believe it's technically a sin to eat pork, but here's what the research shows today. If we're talking about modern science, the number one source of dietary parasites today is pork.

Really?

Now the argument will be made, well, what if it's cooked really good? You won't get parasites. Let me tell you a quick story. I was living with my cousin who was studying medicine with me. And he's a big hunter. I mean, every year he's, you know, venison galore. And I loved it. I loved venison. And, and he went on a wild hog hunt and he went and killed a boar, brought it home, froze it, made sausage out of it, and then cooked it really well. He started eating it every day for about a month. And then I was walking around with his shirt off and I saw his back and he had these yellow lesions like breaking out all over his back. And he's like, hey. And he was like, oh, I was like, what is this? I'm like, I'm like, I think you've got a parasite. I think you did this. Like, you've got an infection. A lot of times cooking things does not fully kill all microbes.

Right.

Okay. And so, so I would just say this. And the other thing about pork is it's definitely higher in saturated fats if you're comparing it to beef or chicken or fish. The other thing is pork as an animal, pigs, they don't have sweat glands. They store and harbor toxins. That's what they do. A pig, I mean, it eats his own feces. I mean, pigs are, pigs are basically a toxin storage, you know, facility. That's what they are. So again, I haven't eaten pork for over 20 years. I don't recommend pork. I think it's a very unhealthy meat. That's my opinion.

I was curious.

Yeah. Yeah. That, that, that, that's my opinion. And, and, you know, here's what I'd say. If somebody loves bacon, try beef bacon. Whole Foods Market has it. You know, you can buy it online. I mean, beef bacon tastes amazing. So, so I would say there's other alternatives out there. And, and I, again, I think, I think that God said it's unhealthy for a reason. God's, you know, it's talked about in the Bible. Science proves it today. And so, you know, there are so many other great other meat options I would have instead.

Absolutely.

But by the way, this one is very controversial because, you know, I did a whole podcast on this and a video on YouTube and the YouTube interaction on my opinion on pork was like a million. Oh, I bet. A million views. It just, yeah.

There's certain foods and topics that just, man, they pull one way or another and you got people that are just, they get angry on one side and they support you on the other side. CC, C, I mean, it's just like, let's just have a conversation here, you know, and just get the facts on it. So awesome. Well, thanks for going through that rapid fire there with me.

Oh yeah, that was great. That was fun.

Okay, so let's shift gears slightly here. I, I, there's one more part of diet I want to talk about and then I want to get more into like supplement side of things.

Yeah.

But I want to focus on one more key component of diet. There is this battle that I see going on, and I've had some controversial guests that are very like pro-keto, pro-carnivore, and then others that are talking about people that are having problems on these diets and showing that the lack of carbohydrates is actually causing them to gain weight and throwing their blood markers off and things like that. I'll tell you my thoughts and opinions, and I'm curious to compare with you. So I think that to be metabolically flexible, we need to kind of mix things up a little bit. I think that going low carb 1 or 2 days is good, then having a higher carb day, mix it in there a little bit, maybe on a heavier workout day, you know, something like that. I personally prefer for myself a little bit higher protein and fat with a more moderate carbohydrate, but certainly not eliminating them. I don't think it's good to eliminate any nutrient all the way. So structurally for me, I would say I'm kind of probably 40% fat, 40% protein, 20% carb on most days. What do you feel on your end is the, the best structure?

And of course, again, person to person specific in certain instances, right? Yeah. 'Cause we'll have people that certainly need to have a lower carbohydrate diet. Yeah. Somebody that may not do so well on a higher fat diet. But for you in general, what are your thoughts?

I can't generally answer the question. I mean, I guess so. So here, here's what I would say. Again, it is all about personalization. Now, and here's what it comes down to. What do your cells need?

Right?

What do you as an individual, how much do your cells need? For some people, they need more carbs than others. Some people need more fats than others. And so I think that's an important thing to think about. And here's another really big one. How much can your body actually handle of that? Nutrient. So let me give you an example of this with myself. And by the way, this is, I think this is incredibly interesting and it actually ties into this question too.

Okay.

Why do people get diseases in different organs? Why does one person get breast cancer on their left breast and not their right breast? Why wouldn't they both get it on both breasts? Why does somebody develop heart disease? Another person develop fatty liver disease. Another person get IBS-D. Another person get cancer., right? And it has to do with the emotions you experience. Okay. So different emotions tax different organ systems. So if somebody is dealing with, and they're, so when we all come into conflict, everybody reacts differently. Some people get fearful. Mm-hmm. Some people worry, some people get angry about it. Myself, I deal with frustration and anger and impatience. Mm-hmm. It's like, I want it done now. Yeah. I want it done now. And so, and, and, and so frustration and anger, that all goes right to the liver, the liver and gallbladder. So people that are wired that way, they have a harder time digesting fat. And so they need to be very conscious of how much fat they have. And if not, it'll overwhelm the liver and cause things like, you know, gallbladder issues, gallstones when they're dealing with that. Now, somebody that worries a lot, think about, if, think about this, if somebody worries a lot, they'll say, oh, I feel like my stomach's tied in knots.

Yeah.

Yeah. That's upper GI. And so they need to be more friendly in diet to supporting their upper GI. Think about if somebody has a lot of anxiousness, that's all heart. Well, think about if you have anxiety about something, your heart starts to race, your blood pressure starts to go up. So we know they need to be much more heart-friendly in their diet and focusing on eating foods for that. If somebody has had something happen in the past and they're dealing with unforgiveness or shame or guilt in their past, that affects the immune system. And so we need to go back and heal those childhood traumas and fix that. And that's tied to your lungs and colon, your whole immune system. And so different. And then the last one would be your reproductive health, your reproductive organs, your testes or your ovaries. Those organs are tied to fear and your adrenal glands are tied. We know that, right? If you get really stressed, what happens? Or a fight or flight state, your adrenals start spitting out more cortisol and stress hormones. So we know different emotions Affect different organ systems. And so, the reason I say that is, well, you know, what should people's macronutrients be?

Well, for mine, I've got to be— do everything I can dietarily to support my body releasing enough bile. So, I take— actually, sometimes if I'm eating a high-fat meal, I take Ox Bile and Lipase or Tudca or digestive bitters with things like artichoke. Because those will help. And anytime I have a patient with gallbladder removal, they have to do that. If they do that, it's, it's an amazing therapy for them. And so for me, I, my, my, my protocol is typically probably around 40% protein, probably around 35% or so, uh, 35% or so carbohydrates, and probably around 25% fat. If I went up to that 40% mark, it's too much fat. My gallbladder can't handle it.

Can't handle it.

Yeah. Oh, but I think for most people, to be quite honest, I think it probably should be closer to 40, 30, 30. Yeah. 40 protein, 30 carb, 30%. I like that. I mean, if, if you just wanna know generally my belief on it, and here's the other thing, we have something called a biological clock. In the morning, our digestive system is as strong as our stomach specifically. So your body is better doing carbs in the morning. Okay. Liver gallbladder time in your biological clock is at night. So most people, it should look like this with their diet. Higher carbs in the morning and high— and protein's the same, right? All throughout the day. But higher carbs go like this in the morning and then like this, almost zero at night. Right. And fats go like this, almost very little in the morning and up more at night for, for, for most people. That's, that's my general philosophy. Okay. And that's tied into Chinese medicine, which is 3,000, like 4,000 years old.

So, yeah. What's your thoughts on coffee? Are you good with coffee? Are you against it?

What are your I think it's based on two things, your epigenetics and your current health terrain in your body. I think, like, I'll give you an example. My wife did an epigenetic test and it came back that she metabolizes coffee very quickly and caffeine. So my wife can drink multiple cups of coffee, multiple shots a day. She does really well. If I do more than one cup of matcha, not even coffee, I am like wired, wired. And I get that wired entire— my body just can't handle it. I mean, really. And by the way, it's going to be so interesting. You know, I do blood tests now for people. It's in its epigenetic test. And I just did this for my daughter that's 5 years old because she was having some swollen tonsils. And we're like, why are her tonsils swelling? Well, we did an allergen test. We found out she's allergic to dust, dust mites. Wow. So now we do some things like with her pillow and bedroom, just making sure there's very little dust in our house. But it was also interesting because I was doing it for my daughter. I'm like, well, I'm going to do one.

I haven't done one. I was MTHFR, so I was aware of that now and some others. But you can find out which epigenetic switches you most likely could have on, and it can tell you more what supplements are best for you. Wow. So, I mean, so it's really, really, really interesting testing.

I got to do that. I haven't done that.

Well, and it will tell you things like there's one for ApoB and A, like it'll tell you if you're more susceptible to that. And then it allows me to know what supplements and other things that are going to be most helpful. Okay. So, yeah, like there's one for glutathione. A lot of And here's another one for mold. 24% of the population has an epigenetic variant in their body where they do not detoxify mold. So, it just keeps circulating in their body. Wow. And if you know that, you know that you've got to be on more binders and do other things on a regular basis to cleanse mold. So, it's really—

Yeah. There's moving parts at all times that people aren't aware of.

Yeah.

Yeah. Wow.

I don't even remember what you asked me, and I got off on a little bit of a tangent.

We were talking about coffee.

Oh, yeah. So, generally, listen, if you don't have a— I prefer people have 1 cup of coffee if they're going to have it, have it in the morning and try not to have it after 10:00 AM. At the very least, and listen, at the very least, try not to have it after lunch. Okay.

Okay.

But, you know, some people do better than others. But listen, the half-life of coffee for most people, which means how long is it in your system, is close to 12 hours.

Yeah.

Yeah. So, really, if you go to bed at, You know, let's say 10, you're better off trying not to have it after 10, but definitely don't have it at night. It's just, even if you can fall asleep, it's not good. You're, it's good. Your HR, your, um, your resting heart rate will be higher than it should, which will impact your HRV, which, which means you will not get, get as restful sleep as you should.

Yeah, no, totally. I gotta work on that. I, I get going and then I forget and I want it and I like to take it before I do cardio and I like to take it when I really am needing to get locked into something I'm working with.

Well, hey, maybe the next step is half an, you know, you're doing half decaf. I know, you know what, to, to the coffee connoisseurs, that was a, you know, that's a, a terrible statement.

I only do 2, they're big cups a day, but I swear to you, sometimes it's like 1:30 and 2 o'clock. Yeah. I don't go to bed till normally like 1, but still, it's still, I think that lingers and I think it causes more anxiousness, I think sometimes throughout the day. For sure. You know, and yeah, you don't, sometimes you don't correlate certain things cause you don't want to accept it. You know what I mean? Oh yeah. So I, I think sometimes like I'll get a jumpy heart and I think, man, I don't want to say it's the caffeine, but I think it probably is. Yeah. You know, and I take Jardiance like I told you earlier, so I'm frequently urinating and peeing out glucose. Yeah. So I don't know if I got low blood sugar, low potassium, low electrolytes, and so, you you know, it causes several different things. And that, that's the awareness part. I think that, that I would wanna stress and, and that you're really good at talking about is the awareness of your personal body and what's affecting it and how. Yeah. And then formulating everything around it.

You know, but, but this is interesting. Part of the Chinese medicine view too is, is that to increase hydration, you want to drink warm liquids, not cold. Yeah. Yeah. And so, I mean, you know, yeah, there's, there's a great benefit of, of drinking certain types of herbal teas too. That now some are diuretics like dandelion, so that's, that's not an example of one, but there are, are others that are a lot like a hawthorn tea or a turmeric tea. Yeah. Where the, that, that would be, you know, can be really hydrating. And then like miso soup. Mm-hmm. Would, would be great too.

I know I said I wanted to talk about supplements, but I wanna shift something to herbs cuz you brought up herbs.

Yeah.

From the Bible. I wanna talk about some of the herbs that you think are the most beneficial that you would say maybe even be staples that people utilize every day because I, I, I don't see this talked about enough. I've talked about turmeric pretty intricately, but other than that, healing or beneficial herbs that we should be using every day, and then maybe some that people overuse that they shouldn't.

Yeah. Well, yeah, those are great. Those are great questions. Let's talk about culinary herbs. Yeah. Medicinal herbs and culinary are medicinal, but medicinals tend to be a little stronger. They don't taste good. So, so, You know, I would say the first thing people should focus on is get more culinary herbs. The United States has a very, very low consumption of herbs. It's like pepper, you know, people have a lot of pepper. Yeah. But outside of that, it's not many herbs. You know, when you go to places like Israel or the Middle East or Asia or India, they're using so many more herbs in their cooking and daily meals than we are today. And up until 150 years ago, Herbs were medicine. That's what, if you wanna do an apothecary or pharmacy, what would you have found? Herbs.

Herbs.

Yeah. So herbs should be used as our medicine today. You know, here, here's a great one. I, when I have patients come in with, with type 2 diabetes or insulin resistance, I will have them do 1 teaspoon, 1 to 2 times daily of Ceylon cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice. Really? And cinnamon clinically, there's so many great studies on it being a powerful blood sugar stabilizer, one of the most powerful. So simply, if you're doing a smoothie in the morning or oatmeal, 1 teaspoon of Ceylon cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice, which is a blend of cinnamon and ginger and nutmeg, it is, it's medicine. It's powerful. You know, if you're making burgers at home, you know, add in some rosemary. If you're making chicken, load up on the Italian seasoning, which is things like oregano and sage and thyme. You know, great medicinal properties. And oregano is a natural antibiotic. Thyme is a major booster for your lung qi and health. You mentioned ginger. Yeah. I mean, ginger is one of the greatest immune boosters and gut healers ever. It's also really warming, which is great for everything from hypothyroidism. It's great for weight loss. So I would say generally add in more culinary herbs to your cooking and just drink more herbal tea regularly.

Loads of benefits there of, of that. And then we have the medicinal herbs. Anytime I work with anybody, I am prescribing and recommending herbs as medicine, you know? So if I have somebody come in with diabetes, I'll look and say, okay, well, what do we, we need to stabilize blood sugar. So I'll recommend bayberry leaf, which is where berberine comes from. So we'll do berberine, we'll do Gymnosa. We'll do bitter melon. And then, so I'll do those and I tend to stack them with some of the more modern minerals or vitamins that are found in more supplements like a chromium and an alpha-lipoic acid. But I put together specific blends for that, for something like diabetes. But you should do that with your culinary. If you're like, I have diabetes or insulin resistance or need to lose weight, cinnamon, cinnamon, cinnamon, ginger, ginger, ginger, Fenugreek is actually amazing for it as well. Fenugreek. So find ways to incorporate more of these herbs in medicine. And then, but you know, there isn't a condition that can't benefit from an herb. By the way, 30, around 30% of our medications today that we use, they originally were an herb that they've now taken and make, made synthetically.

For instance, metformin was from lilacs. Yeah. Right. Aspirin, of course, we know is from birch trees. And so, You know, a lot of these drugs, that's where they were from. But the great thing about them is they don't have side effects. You know how many people died from supplements last year? I think around zero, maybe. I think it was like 9 people in the last 10 years or something. It is so low versus, you know how many people die from medications and the side effects? There isn't a single medication that isn't leaching nutrients out of your body. Like, here's an example of birth control. Now, people sometimes get like worked up about this one, but I just want to share. Birth control drains your body of vitamin B1, B2, B6, B5, B9, B12, magnesium, and selenium, and good bacteria. Jeez. And there is a study that found that if a woman's on birth control long-term, let's say up 10 years, their chance of getting hypothyroidism goes up by 287%. 'Cause here's why. Think about this. You actually, you mentioned this on my podcast. What happens if you pull a bunch of selenium out of the body?

Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Thyroid. Thyroid is sick. And same thing, these B vitamins are key for methylation. That's big for thyroid health. So, so many women today have hypothyroidism. One of the number one causes, I believe it's one of the top two causes, is due to they took birth control earlier on in their life. And the same thing, like, you know, we could talk about metformin that's pulling, you know, vitamin B12 from your body. Statin drugs depleting your body of CoQ10. Yeah. So, so herbal medicine and taking herbs, you're getting in some studies the same result or better in some cases, and there's no side effects. Right.

So, and it's just, there's the birth control especially, it's just going against God, man. And I just feel like it's, that's why the weight gain, there's so many things that go on there. Yeah. Just, I know it's gonna make some people mad, but the side effects don't lie.

Yeah. And I wasn't picking on— that's just one that's a little less known. I just— but it's really almost every drug you want to try and be on an herb or supplement or just heal yourself with food and lifestyle medicine instead. A few other just— you mentioned the most— the ones that most people can benefit from. Ashwagandha is incredibly powerful for thyroid health, for cortisol, for adrenals, for lowering cortisol and stress. That's one of my all-time favorites. Vitex for women that are premenopause, for menstrual cycle, for PCOS. I really love hawthorn for high blood pressure. Yeah. And garlic and rosemary. Those are all great for inflammation. Turmeric ginger, just drink a bunch of turmeric ginger tea all day. Yeah. That's absolutely fantastic. And then I would say just a couple more longevity, reishi mushroom, schisandra. There's one called fo-ti. Yep. Which, you know, is great for hair health, but also just for, for long-term health. So ginseng for, for even testosterone, but generally male chi, very good for that. There's a long list. I mean, there, there is, there are an ideal herb blend for every single, you know, condition and health goal.

Dude, I got so abusive with the cinnamon that it got toxic on me.

It was, it was so abusive with it. So, so cinnamon, 'cause it's a fat, so it has fat-soluble antioxidants. You can't overdo it. 1 teaspoon.. But if you start doing a tablespoon, it, it'll actually hurt you.

I don't, I don't even want to tell you how much I was, 'cause I was, I was just souping my oatmeal up with it when I was eating oatmeal. Oh my gosh. How much were you doing? Dude, I don't even know. 'Cause I was just pouring it in there and it just was into, and I was cut.

Yeah.

I was chopping apples and cutting 'em in there and putting the cinnamon in there and it tasted incredible. But it got to the point where I couldn't even eat it anymore. 'Cause I just destroyed myself with it. It was like a week of it and my wife and my mom were like, you gotta slow down. You gotta slow down. I was like, it's really, yeah, you guys don't know what you're talking about. You know, I was a lot younger and oh man. But I, I do know of the health benefits of cinnamon. It's just so good. Oh yeah. I use a lot of cayenne pepper and chives is what I kind of use on my, yeah, like my ground beef and meats and stuff and even my eggs and everything.

Yeah.

Those are all great that you mentioned cuz a lot of people just, I, they, I feel like they just use salt and pepper and that's it.

Yeah.

And, and I don't even like pepper at all and I kind of, came around to the understanding that salt's a hell of a lot more beneficial than people try to make it sound out to be. And I think part of the problem is, is that the, the Western diet is so focused on like salt heavy with additive. Oh yeah. And we're not talking about regular salt intake. And then agreed, this low potassium, high sodium diet causes a lot of problems.

Well, and to your point, it's important that you have potassium and sodium in balance. Yeah. So listen, sea salt's great, Himalayan salt's great, and some people need more of it, but you need more of it in combination with potassium, which you're typically gonna get from fruit and potatoes and beans, right? That's where, that's where we get potassium today. So if you're not getting enough of certain fruits, vegetables, potatoes, beans, then your potassium's low. And, and, and, and you, you wanna make sure you get enough of both.

And that's the balance that's so important of, of everything. Because like we, we talked about it earlier, is the balance, if it's off just a little bit, man. Oh yeah. You can be wrecked in a lot of ways and it could just be a small thing that causes a slew of other problems. And so let's talk a little supplement stuff here. Yeah. And, and if you were a personal trainer and everything back then, you obviously know for creatine. Yeah. And when I was in high school especially, it was like, okay, this is gonna be the best thing we could take for muscle and it was great to use, but it was really just looked at, you're gonna get strong and muscle building and then water retention. That was like the only thing that you could really hear about it or think about it. And now it seems like the past 2 to 3 years especially, it's just taken hold that everybody's got a better understanding of the benefits of it. Yeah. I've talked about it for women in menopause and like older, yep, older men and women because of muscle degradation and sarcopenia, but How do you feel about creatine in general?

Do you feel like it's good for everybody to be using? Do you think that the dosing sometimes where I see people mega dosing it or, or loading phase and all of that, I'm just curious as to all of your thoughts on it. And then also creatine monohydrate versus anything else.

Sure. So, so, so here, so one, I, I'm generally a fan of creatine. I think the benefits for, listen, we want more muscle. Yeah. As you age, you know, you want, you want more muscle. It's great for your metabolism too and blood sugar uptake. So, I mean, so, so you want more muscle, generally speaking. Okay. And creatine can help you get that. Right. There's strength gains there to your point. When you gain strength, it also helps bone density. There's benefits there. And then a lot of the new research is showing it's incredible for the brain. Yeah. And, and, and so it's great for that as well. You know, different organs have to deal with different byproducts, right? So your kidneys predominantly are going to have to deal with, with, with, with creatine metabolism. So there, for years you heard this, right? That, hey, you don't want to do too much. You got to be careful for kidney health. And I still think that's probably true. Yeah. I think it's probably less prevalent than people thought. You know, you could do more creatine maybe than you thought and do it more regularly and it's not going to affect kidney health.

But if there's one marker, if somebody has kidney disease, they don't want to be on creatine. But for most people, taking 1 gram of creatine a day up to 5 grams a day, I think has great benefits. I remember, you know, this is a few months ago or maybe longer than that probably, but Rory McIlroy, he's the a professional golfer. I won the Masters and they were at, and there was this video that surfaced of him saying he takes 30 grams of creatine a day. Ultra high dose. Yeah. Now listen, you know, you can have too many omega-3 fats. You don't want to go and have 15 grams daily. No. Or 30 grams daily. It's too much. So, so my philosophy is what's it like in food? Well, if I had a filet mignon right now, let's say an 8-ounce steak, I believe it's probably about 500 milligrams of creatine is going to be in there. So, so creatine is naturally found in grass-fed red meat, right? It's found in heart tissue, right? So, so creatine is a natural thing that can be really supportive to our body. And so I think, okay, well, how much can my body handle?

My body can probably handle definitely 1 gram. Yeah. 2.5 to 3 grams for most people. And if somebody really wants to do quite a bit, for a time, probably 5. But I honestly think anything over that is not— is probably not wise. Yeah. And I don't have necessarily a lot of research on that because I don't think there's a lot of studies on people taking ultra-high dose for a long period of time. But, but I would say for most people, creatine is an absolutely incredible supplement. I highly recommend it. Don't overdo it. Just do, you know, if you want to put on extra muscle, add in peptides, you know, bring in some other things to help support, you know, those, those health goals.

I don't like loading phases and I've got people that I highly respect that are like super pro and I'm just like in just total disagreement with it. I think it's completely unnecessary unless there's like this utter need for like a show or something. Yeah. Do it. Otherwise I just don't see the merit in it at all. I've never seen that. It's the same when I'd have people that wanted to like do this loading phase of testosterone too. It's just, I just find it counterproductive. There's no need to throw that much at your body to do something quickly that it can do over time in a safer manner.

Yeah.

Yeah. You know, I, I guess the, especially the older I've gotten, I've been more conservative with everything I do.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And you had a question about, you know, creatine monohydrate. I, I think, you know, generally, generally that's fine. You know, I actually take one called Cre-Alkaline. It's a little bit, it's buffered. Yeah. It's a little easier on the digestive tract. I actually was working with, I have a, I have a team that does, we have a whole lab where, where we work on creating supplements and different things. And so we're working now, we have a source that's actually soluble, which is, which is really great too. So yeah. But, but generally, yeah, it just depends if you have some GI issues.

I think the, the kre-alkalin, that's the buffer tends to be a little bit, though remember though that time there were so many different types of creatines coming out and I mean they were, the creatine ethyl ester was the one that did absolutely nothing and it was, was like 5 times the cost of carbohydrate. Yeah. It was just ridiculous. Yeah. So, so we've, we've talked a lot about vitamins and minerals and everything like that and balance, but if you had to say that, what, what was your, or would you say are your like staples that everybody should probably be taking that you can't get enough of from food that you definitely need to supplement if you had staple vitamins or supplements, what would they be? And what, like, what's your thought on multivitamins versus singular?

You know, that's a great question. So, so, so first off, I think if we can look at your history and do some testing, like I, I, I, uh, my, my, uh, my virtual practice is called the Health Institute. Yeah. So I have patient, patients come in from all over the world virtually, and I have a team of practitioners. And so sometimes we'll do blood work and look at history and determine what the best things are for people. So again, I know I've beaten a dead horse with this, but I really like to personalize for people. Statistically, vitamin D is the nutrient we're most deficient in. Now, the best place to get it is from the sun, but many people need to supplement as well. Okay. And it's great to test for that to know where you're at. Here's another thing that's interesting just quickly about blood work. Conventional medicine says, okay, 0 to 29 or 0 to 20 isn't ideal. Once you hit 20 or 30, you're good. But the reality is that's not optimal. In life, it's like, I don't want to be just not really sick. Like, for instance, you have great blood sugar or you have prediabetes or you have diabetes.

If you have prediabetes, they're like, you're good. Go on with your life. You're perfect. You're like, I'm— if you have prediabetes or insulin resistance, you're aging more quickly. You're gaining more weight than you should. You're— yeah. I want to be in the optimal range.

Totally.

So for vitamin D, it's probably 50 to 80. So, so all that being said, vitamin D, because it does so much for your hormonal health and your immune system and your cells, right? Vitamin D is going to be number 1 on my list. Along with vitamin D as a single nutrient, magnesium is going to be really high up there. It's so important for so many cellular functions. It's really important for relaxing those heart, you know, the vascular heart. For mitochondria. We mentioned mitochondria. For people with immune issues, zinc is really big and important. Those are some of the most important I just wanted to call out. And then selenium for thyroid, for autoimmune, that's really critical as well. But I would say those are as singles, those are, those are in my top of my head, the most important. And then I would say some B vitamins. If somebody knows they, they have MTHFR, taking a methylated B complex would be good. But ranking order, I would say, you know, taking a magnesium D combo, K2, because they support absorption of each other. That's going to be very high on the list. A probiotic. Yeah.

Is probably going to be my number 2 supplement because so many people have taken antibiotics in the past. So many people have poor absorption. There was a study out of Stanford that said if you take a probiotic supplement, a good one, you are increasing your absorption of B vitamins by double. Really? That's huge. Think about it. You double your absorption of nutrients by taking a probiotic. That's really critical. So probiotics are up there. Omegas are gonna be higher up there. I, I, I'm a fan of some superfood powders. You know, you might've seen this. There's a study that came out on Athletic Greens being essentially non-beneficial. Yeah. And, and you know, what, what they're putting in there is They're putting in a few synthetic vitamins and minerals, a little bit of, you know, greens powders and apple powder. And that's what's in there. And so, yeah, it's not gonna be a big needle mover for people. Listen, I don't think it's harmful, right? But it's, it's, it's, it's probably one of the lower grade superfood powders on the market. I'll give it a, I don't know, a D, right? It's not harmful. So let's give it a C minus, right?

Right. And, but there are so many others that are better. Like the one that I take now, It's really high in beetroot juice powder, which I think beetroot juice powder's fantastic for increasing nitric oxide. Right, right. Great for heart health, great for energy, great for building blood. So many things. So I, I, I do like superfood powders.

Some of those superfood powders have so many different damn names on there, man. And I'm just looking at it going, okay, is this really necessary?

Yeah.

Yeah. You can't, it, it's like reading a, a, an ebook. I've tried. I know, I read everything off of there.

It's crazy. Yeah. So again, I think those can be great. You know, let me, let me throw this up there. Actually, this, this is higher on the list for me. A protein powder that's where the base is, is bone broth. Really? Yeah. And bone broth is very high in collagen. Yep. And also throw other protein powders in there if it's quality. Maybe it's a plant protein that comes from pumpkin seed or, or pea. I like that. I like animal-based protein. So I would say, I mean, protein, getting more protein in your diet. Most of it should come from food. Yeah. But powders as well, especially a, a powder that's bone broth based. You're also getting something in there called glucosaminoglycans. If you're doing a protein powder that's bone broth based. Yeah. That includes glucosamine, chondroitin, and hyaluronic acid. I like it. And, and so that's really, really fantastic as well. I think those are my top. And then from there it's really condition specific. So for instance, diabetes, chromium and ALA and maybe berberine. Inflammation, curcumin and turmeric and boswellia, right? Hypothyroidism, ashwagandha. For scoli, maybe bladderwrack. Like there's a, you know, there's, so, so I would say if you have a certain condition, there's probably another formula that's going to be better.

What about heart? I mean, for heart, you know, I would say magnesium and omegas are the absolute most important. But then it's the herbs we talked about, really like hawthorn, like Danshen, like nattokinase. Yeah. So it's more of the herbals, I think. But in garlic, there's a lot of great research on garlic and heart health. Yeah.

And placking. Definitely. Awesome. Those are great lists, man. It's super, super beneficial. Ask you this, we talked about it a little bit earlier. I want to talk to you about cholesterol and the misconception and why it's important. Why do we need it? Yeah. Yeah. And why is it bad to be too low?

Cholesterol is your body's repair substance. So here's what happens, okay? You have inflammation, okay? You're eating too much gluten or too much sugar or something, and then your gut is getting inflamed, okay? When that gut gets inflamed, it causes leaky gut. Certain things start passing through in there. Maybe it's excess sugar, and then you have too much sugar, so it's not getting into the cell as well. So now you've got inflammation in your bloodstream. Okay. And your bloodstream, where's your blood? It's in your arteries, your veins. It's in these, these, uh, it's in your, your vessels, your blood vessels. And so what happens is over time, those inflammatory compounds start nicking and damaging those, those, the, the walls of your blood vessels. Okay. And so your liver starts to say, it's the organ responsible for this. Whoa, we've got damage to this pipe. We can't, We, we have to fix it, right? So it starts sending cholesterol through the bloodstream is, well, cholesterol's partly the carrier too, but it's, it's actually going there and it's, it's the, you know, it's like you got a hole in your wall and now we need to patch it up.

Yeah. That's what cholesterol is. It's going and patching it up. Now what happens is if that, that cholesterol's there over time, if inflammation occurs, well now it starts to oxidize. Okay. And oxidation is like when you take a bite of an apple, it turns brown. It starts, something starts to, it starts to change. But oftentimes it starts to harden and, and like scar causes kind of this, this hardening and scarring. So your blood vessels start to essentially shrink down because you have this hardening in this ca— a lot of times this calcification taking place and it's shrinking. Listen, and that whole conversation and thing I just mentioned, cholesterol is, is the thing that's trying to repair your body. So if you have high cholesterol, it means your body's in a high repair mode. Right. It's trying to heal itself. Okay. That's not the villain. Okay. Now, on high LDL marker or certain types of LDL, right? That's a sign that your body's in a healing phase and it's your body telling you there's excess inflammation and we need to lower inflammation. But you should not focus just on lowering LDL. You should focus on lowering inflammation in the blood, in the gut, and throughout the entire body.

Now, the other thing is You know, cholesterol is used to make vitamin D. So when you make vitamin D, here's how your body does it. Your body takes sunlight, it captures on your skin, and it takes cholesterol on your skin and sun, and that's what makes vitamin D. Now that then goes to your liver, which converts it into the type of vitamin D we test for, and it's your storage type of vitamin D, right? That then goes to your kidneys, which makes it the active form, which then actually goes to your cells where, where it's, it's used. So that's kind of the whole process of, of, of vitamin D. But, but my point there, you have to have cholesterol to make vitamin D, right? 25% of your brain and nervous system make vitamin D. If you want hormones like testosterone, you can't make it without cholesterol. Mm-hmm. So cholesterol is essential, especially for hormonal health. And for repairing your body anabolically. And so taking something like a statin drug is one of the— listen, there are so many better options than statin drugs. Yeah. So many better options. Oh yeah, I agree. You know, and so it's just, you know, I would say do more— the biggest thing is balancing blood sugar for most people, you know, taking chromium, taking ALA, taking cinnamon, taking things to balance blood sugar.

That's kind of the first thing you should do. And then we want to focus on lowering inflammation with things like, you know, turmeric is a, is a great option there for doing that. And yeah, those are, those are better and high-dose omega-3s. So those are, and when I say high-dose, I'm talking about 2,000 milligrams, 3,000 milligrams.

That's the best option. Awesome. Well, I know, I mean, I could go on all day with you. I know we've hit time probably and passed it, but I, I can't tell you how much I've taken from both conversations. Um, with you and how I knew coming into this it was going to be tremendous, but I didn't— you overexceeded expectations on both fronts, hosting and then, you know, being on mine. And, and I really appreciate the conversation, the insight, and the depth on which we're able to go together so quickly. It's really, really cool to share this with you, man. And I just, I just want to thank you for the hospitality and having me here, and it's been wonderful.

Well, hey, congrats on all the great stuff you're up to. You know, again, I know your, your podcast is incredible. You've had so many great guests. So again, I'm, I'm really honored to be on. So thanks so much for the invitation. And hey, I'd love to do this again. I'll have you on mine again as well. We, you know, we didn't even get into cellular health. Actually, my next book I'm writing is, is on healing your cells. It's gonna be great. We didn't get into peptides. So, you know, that, that can be sort of future conversation. I know you came on my podcast and we did touch on those things, but But again, I, I, I love having these conversations because my greatest passion is helping people heal naturally. Like my mom's life was saved with the things we're talking about today. Like my mom had cancer and we did an all-natural diet. We, we juiced vegetables, we did a lot of mushrooms, we did a lot of herbs and spiritual healing, and my mom reversed cancer all naturally with this sort of thing. So for me, this is such a, a passion of helping my mom, and then patients.

And I just, I want to see people radically healed and transformed. And so thanks so much for, you know, you having a similar mission. And, and, uh, and, and, uh, I love the conversation.

God aligns people for the right reasons to spread the word that he gave us to spread. And that's all I do, man, is, is simply try to work for him now. It's not about Dylan ever anymore. For the most part, I try to never be that way. It's, you know, we're human, but And I've had the blessings of doing this and the right people fall into your lap at the right time. That's all I can say.

Amen.

So tell everybody where to follow you. I'll of course link everything in the description, but give everybody the rundown.

Yeah, I say the best place is my podcast. Again, I have a great guest, of course yourself on there, and it's the Dr. Josh Ax Show, big on Apple. Big on YouTube. And if people want to learn more about something maybe that I didn't talk about or we talked about, they could always search on YouTube, Dr. Josh Ax hypothyroidism or Dr. Ax blood work. You could search on Google or on YouTube and find out more information there. But I'd say my podcast. And then also that I'm pretty active on socials. I have a clinic, a virtual and a brick-and-mortar. We have a clinic here in Nashville where people fly out from all over the world. We do a lot of different IVs and stem cell and hyperbaric chamber and things. And, and that's the Longevity Clinic. I have the Health Institute, which is a virtual practice, but those are some places. But I guess thanks so much.

Really, really appreciate you, Dylan. Thank you again. Honor and pleasure. And like I said, I hit another bucket list guest today, so I'm thrilled, man. But that wraps up another one, everybody. I know and guarantee you're going to take a lot from this, so I hope you enjoyed it. And I will have Josh on again, I assure you, at some point. So stay tuned for plenty more to come. Dylan Gemelli and Dr. Josh Ax signing off.