Health Information Release & Consent

Last updated: September 16, 2026

Release version 2026-09-16-v1. Effective September 16, 2026.

This release describes the consent for health information provided to DrAxe.com, operated by Axe Media Inc. (“we” or “us”). It covers the Marker Reader, quizzes, Ask Dr. Axe, and the retention schedule below. This page does not itself collect consent or activate a reading. It supplements our Privacy Policy and Medical Disclaimer.

“Release” here means permission for the limited collection and use described below. It is not permission to obtain records from your clinician, disclose information to a clinic, sell your information, or waive your legal rights.

1. What health information means here

Health information includes information you choose to enter, upload, or communicate through our tools, and the educational results we derive from it:

• Lab values, marker names, units, laboratory reference intervals, test dates, and information contained in a report you upload.
• Quiz answers and results about symptoms, habits, health goals, or conditions.
• Health facts you type, such as medications, supplements, age, health history, or a concern you want to understand.
• Chat messages, generated responses, and health facts or inferences associated with those conversations.
• Your generated readings and the email address or account identifier that connects this information to you.

The source is you and the results our tools generate from what you provide. We do not retrieve your clinician’s records or THI’s clinical records. Submit only your own information and only what the tool needs. Remove unnecessary identifiers, such as government identification numbers, insurance numbers, or another person’s details, before uploading a document.

2. Providing information is voluntary

You may read public educational content without providing health information. You choose whether to use a tool and which optional facts to provide. A reading needs the values it analyzes; if you decline the necessary collection and processing, we cannot produce or save that reading. Declining does not prevent you from seeking care elsewhere.

The account flow asks you to acknowledge this release at sign-up. Creating an account does not require you to supply lab values or a medical history, and that acknowledgment is not blanket consent for every future health-data use. We will request the applicable consent at the point of collection where required. Existing account holders will be asked before their first upload. Newsletter or marketing consent is separate.

3. What you authorize us to do

When you choose to provide health information and give the applicable consent, you authorize Axe Media to collect and process that information for these purposes:

• Provide the tool you request. Analyze your supplied values against Dr. Axe’s editorial ranges, produce and display your reading, generate quiz results or chat responses, and provide relevant educational context.
• Keep your results available to you. Save a signed-in reading and its supporting values to your account. If you are not signed in, hold the reading and supporting values against the email address you provide so you can claim them after verifying control of that address.
• Improve the service in aggregate or de-identified form. Use patterns that do not identify you to assess usefulness and improve the tools. Removing your name alone is not sufficient if the remaining information can still identify you. We do not attempt to re-identify de-identified information.

We also process information as necessary to secure the requested service and resolve a support issue. Authorized personnel may review limited chat content for quality or safety within the Privacy Policy’s purposes and access restrictions. This is not permission for unrestricted staff browsing, publication of your story, unrelated AI model training, or a new use of identifiable health information. Where an improvement activity requires a separate choice under applicable law, we will request that choice separately.

4. Who can process it, and what we never do

We do not sell your health information or personal information. We do not share it with advertisers, ad networks, or data brokers, or use it for targeted advertising. This site’s data model is first-party: the information serves your use of DrAxe.com.

We do not send your health information to THI, Ancient Nutrition, an employer, insurer, clinician, or another independent recipient without your specific direction. Clicking an outside link is not that direction. This release does not authorize a transfer to THI or anyone else for their own purposes.

To operate the tools, personnel with a service-related need and providers acting on our behalf may access the information needed for their work, such as hosting and database storage, AI processing, and delivery of account or results messages. These providers may process information only for the contracted service and must protect it. That operational processing is distinct from giving another company your information for its own use.

We may disclose information when legally required. Any other disclosure must have a valid legal basis and comply with applicable consent requirements. The Privacy Policy describes legal and business-transfer circumstances; those provisions do not override consent required by health-data law or authorize sale of your health information. If you ask us to send information to a third party in the future, we will identify the recipient, information, and purpose and obtain any separate permission required before sharing.

5. Your reading is educational

The Marker Reader compares user-supplied values with Dr. Axe’s editorial “optimal” ranges. These may differ from a laboratory’s reference intervals and are not diagnostic criteria. A reading does not diagnose or rule out disease, prescribe treatment, establish a clinician-patient relationship, or monitor you for urgent conditions.

You may enter a value, date, or unit incorrectly, upload the wrong report, or provide incomplete information. Automated extraction may also make mistakes. We do not verify your lab data or the clinical context. Check any extracted values against your original report and discuss results with your own clinician. Never delay care based on a reading. For a medical emergency in the United States, call 911.

6. Retention schedule

• Email-only readings: delete the supplied values, uploaded files, and associated readings after 12 months from each reading’s creation if no account has claimed them. A newsletter subscription does not extend this period.
• Account health information: keep saved values, readings, quiz data, and other saved health information until you delete the item, request deletion, or delete the account, subject to any shorter applicable legal requirement. Claiming a reading moves it to this account schedule.
• Uploaded source files: we delete the original file within 30 days after extraction, keeping the values and reading under the applicable schedule above. An earlier deletion request or shorter applicable deadline controls.
• Backups: remove deleted information from active systems and let protected backups expire within 90 days, or sooner where required. Backup copies are not used for ordinary operations; if restored for recovery, deletion requests must be reapplied.

Chat collection and storage remain limited to what the Privacy Policy describes; this release does not create an additional chat archive. Operational logs and consent records are kept only as long as needed for security and to evidence your consent, and never hold a copy of your lab values or conversations. Information may be retained where law requires it, only for that obligation and only as long as required. Applicable deletion rights take priority over a longer default schedule.

Aggregate information that no longer identifies or can reasonably be linked to you may remain after deletion. We cannot retrieve an individual record from a genuinely de-identified aggregate.

7. Access, correction, deletion, and withdrawal

Email help@draxe.com to request a copy, correction, deletion of an item or account, or withdrawal of consent for collection or use of your health information. An in-account control will provide these choices when available. You do not need an account to make a request about an email-only reading. Do not email a lab report to make the request; tell us the address associated with it and the action you want.

We will verify your authority to act, normally by confirming control of the relevant email address, without requesting unnecessary health information. We will respond within the period required by applicable law. You may ask what categories of health information we hold, their sources and uses, and which recipients received your information. An authorized agent may act where applicable law permits.

You can withdraw consent at any time. Withdrawal stops future processing based on that consent; it does not make earlier lawful processing unlawful. Tell us whether you also want stored information deleted. We will explain any information we must retain and the legal reason, and notify relevant service providers of deletion where required. We may need to disable the affected reading or personalization feature, but you can continue to read public content.

We will not penalize you for exercising privacy rights. If we decline a request, we will explain why and provide any legally required appeal instructions. You can contact us at the same email address to appeal and can complain to the appropriate state regulator. This release does not waive those rights.

8. State consumer health-data notices

Your rights depend in part on where you live and which laws apply. The notices below summarize how this release works with the consumer health-data laws of particular states. The access, deletion, and withdrawal process above is available regardless of where you live.

California

We treat medical information you provide as confidential and do not disclose it to a third party for that party’s own use without your authorization. California residents may request to know, correct, or delete the personal information we hold, and may limit the use of sensitive personal information. We do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of; you may still tell us your preference and we will honor it.

Washington

We collect consumer health data only with your consent, use it only for the purposes in this release, and do not sell it or share it for advertising. Washington residents may access the consumer health data we hold, learn which service providers processed it, withdraw consent, and request deletion. If we decline a request, you may appeal by replying to our response, and we will answer the appeal within the time the law allows.

Nevada

We collect and process consumer health data only with your consent and only as this release describes. Nevada residents may access that data, withdraw consent, request deletion, and appeal a declined request through the same contact.

Connecticut

Health information is sensitive data that we process only with your consent. Connecticut residents may access, correct, and delete their data, withdraw consent, and appeal a declined request. We respond within the period the law allows.

Accepting this release is not an authorization to sell health information, consent to advertising, or permission for unrelated sharing. A separate choice will be requested if applicable law requires one for a proposed use or disclosure.

9. Why this is not a HIPAA authorization

Axe Media operates this site as a consumer publisher, not as a HIPAA-covered healthcare provider, health plan, or healthcare clearinghouse, and does not operate these tools on behalf of a covered entity as its business associate. You provide information directly for education. Accordingly, the information held by this site in that role is not protected by HIPAA, and this release is not a HIPAA authorization to obtain or release a provider’s records.

HIPAA status depends on the actual service and relationships, not simply a label or your agreement. Other privacy and consumer health-data laws may protect your information. The HHS explanation of covered entities and business associates describes the federal framework.

THI provides its own clinical services on its own site under its own terms and privacy practices. DrAxe.com does not hold THI clinical records or automatically send your reading to THI. This release neither governs THI’s care nor authorizes THI to disclose your records to Axe Media.

10. Version, changes, and consent record

The release version above identifies this exact text. If we change the purposes or scope of consent, we will explain the change and request fresh consent before the new processing when required by law. A revision does not silently broaden your earlier permission.

The acceptance record identifies the release version, the exact consent wording shown, the time of acceptance, and the associated account or verified email record. You can request a copy by contacting us.

11. Short-form checkbox consent

The exact sentence beside the unchecked checkbox is:

I've read and accept the Health Information Release. I understand this reading is educational, not medical advice.

The words “Health Information Release” link to this page. This short form accompanies the relevant collection notice and full release; it does not replace a separate consent or authorization required by law. The sign-up acknowledgment does not itself authorize an upload or an unrelated disclosure.

12. Contact

Axe Media Inc.
Email: help@draxe.com

For written requests, use the address in the Privacy Policy. This inbox handles site and privacy questions; it is not an emergency or clinical service.