Adderall, Abortion, Alkaline Water - Q&A with Dr. Josh Axe

My friend had an abortion and regrets it. How do I help her heal? You know what? I did something that's not right and I want to live differently. Have you lost friends because of your beliefs? Is birth control really bad for women? Yes, it is really bad for women. Who are some of my favorite health experts? What is the effect Adderall has long-term? How does it change our brain chemistry?

Are football and other contact sports a good idea for young children? I lost friends, I think, during the pandemic. Move out Immediately. Hey everyone, welcome to the Growth Lab Podcast Q&A edition. I am your host, Dr. Josh Axe. I'm a graduate of Johns Hopkins University. I'm the founder of draxe.com, Ancient Nutrition, and Leaders. And today I'm gonna be answering your questions.

And by the way, if you want your question to get answered next time, post below your questions. I'm gonna be continually doing this on YouTube and it's part of the podcast. So ask your questions, please. First question, here we go. How do I get better sleep at night?

Here's how you— well, first let me say sleep is critically important because studies have shown if you get less than 7 hours of sleep a night, it— your body, it slows your metabolism. Your body cannot lose weight as well. And the other thing it shows is it weakens your immune system.

So if you can get 7 hours of good sleep or more a night, it's better for your brain, better for your immune system, better for your metabolism. There are loads of benefits. When it comes to getting better sleep. Here's how you do it. Number 1, look at your diet. If you're over-consuming carbohydrates, it will affect your sleep, especially if you are consuming too many carbohydrates at night.

You're telling your body something. For instance, if you're carbing up at night, oftentimes you're telling your body, hey, you're gonna go and run a marathon, or you're about to do something where you're gonna expend a lot of calories, and you don't. So then your body stores that as fat.

And so, one, consuming foods that keep your blood sugar balanced is important and not over-consuming carbohydrates. The next steps that are really important for sleep, one of the first things you can do, the sooner you can get outside or have natural sunlight hitting you or just basically get yourself exposed to outdoors, the better. It starts to sync up your circadian rhythms.

Your circadian rhythms is something to where your body has a natural rhythm of when it knows to Change its hormonal levels. So, for instance, when you wake up in the morning, your cortisol levels should start to rise, which allows your body to be more alert and more engaged, more connected, and improves performance. And when you're going to sleep at night, cortisol should start to drop.

Your body— you should be less alert, and melatonin should start to increase, which allows you then to get better sleep. And so, some of the ways that can help this, some of the things that you can start to do, one is you need to stop using so much blue light.

So, if you got a cell phone and it's constantly giving off this blue light or a TV or computer screen, either shut off the light or at the very least, get those blue blocker sunglasses. Have you ever seen anybody wearing those orange sunglasses at night? I do that after dinner. As soon as it gets dark, I put on those glasses if I'm going to watch a show. Or be on any sort of mobile device at all.

And it actually helps. Studies have shown it actually helps you get better sleep. Another thing, a few things that are really important. One is, is that you kind of have a routine at night. Your body likes routine. And so, an example of this would be journaling before bed. That's one of the things. Oftentimes, people can't sleep because their mind is racing.

So, if you can do something to calm your mind and kind of allow your, your, yourself to stop thinking. Journaling is a great way to do that. If you don't want to journal, then you can, uh, you can speak some of your thoughts out loud. You can also even journal via, uh, an, an audio app and say things to get it off your chest or off your brain. So that's another thing you can do.

And then clinically, here's a few other things. One, you should be sleeping at a temperature between 60 degrees and 68 degrees, around there. Okay, so you should be in the 60s when you're sleeping. That should be where the thermostat's at. Studies have shown that will help you sleep better. Other studies have shown it needs to be dark. Okay, so you want the room very, very dark if you can have it.

So, dark and cold room. Another thing that's been shown to help people sleep better generally is taking a cold shower. That could be in the morning or at night, or doing a cold plunge, or doing cryotherapy. Most people, Uh, the majority of people sleep too hot at night. So if you get hot while you sleep, you need to be doing things to cool off your body temperature.

And actually, the biggest thing that raises your body temperature at night tends to be eating too many carbohydrates before bed or at dinner. Okay, so, so that's one thing that will really rev up your body temperature because your body has to burn all of those, those calories. Um, but again, as we're talking about Some of these changes you need to make, again, getting your body cold can help.

Now listen, if you're cold temperature and your extremities are always cold, then you may want to do things to heat your body. But for most people, it's getting the room cold. And then from a supplement standpoint, melatonin is probably the most effective supplement. CBD oil, about 20 to 40 milligrams at night can work. Magnesium, typically about 300 to 600 milligrams, can also help you sleep.

And also using an essential oil, diffusing it by your bed, something like a lavender Or chamomile essential oil. As an herbal tea, chamomile tea is also fantastic. So those are some things you can do to get better sleep at night, some of the top tips. Here's another question that came in. This was a question on a social media, on Instagram specifically. My friend had an abortion and regrets it.

How do I help her heal? First off, that's an incredibly heavy question. And here's what I would say. Um, first off, your friend has regrets about an abortion, right? She has regrets.

Um, what I found, and I'm going to share this for myself and for the many patients I've worked with and in my studies of psychology and theology, if you have somebody who regrets something that they feel like they've done that's morally wrong, um, one of the things I think you can do to help her heal is encourage her to, um, Uh, get it out in the open. Share how she feels. Share that with you.

Share it with a counselor if she does need counseling. Uh, then, then encourage her to seek a counselor. Uh, the other thing I would say is, for myself, if I know that I've done something wrong, I don't want to live or live in a state of guilt and shame. I do think if you've done something wrong, there should be— it's normal to feel a sense of guilt and shame.

But then in a healthy way, it should turn into conviction that, you know what, I did something that's not right. And I want to live differently. And there's actually a word for this in the Bible, and the word is repent.

So one of the first steps that once you know, once you do something wrong, one of the things that is talked about in, in the gospels is Jesus says, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. He says repent. What repent actually means in Hebrew, uh, and in Greek thought is you're doing a 180. So you were going down this one path. And now you're gonna go in the exact opposite direction.

And oftentimes you're gonna encourage people to follow you in a different direction. So one of the greatest things she can do is do a 180 in her mindset and her beliefs and her convictions and how to move in a different direction, and maybe even share her experience with other people, helping them heal, helping them understand what's morally correct and right.

So I would say that's one of the things she could do. I would also say just reading things that are spiritually rejuvenating. You know, part of this question as well, I saw here that was. Are there any supplements that are good for her after this? You know, here's the thing I just wanna say is, is that there are no supplements for the soul, right?

I, I sometimes see people with depression and anxiety and issues like this where they're feeling shame and, and guilt and regret, and we maybe wanna change our diet for that. And there's— this is a, this is a soul issue. It's a spiritual issue. So I would say that, listen, there are, are, are, you know, eating healthier is better for mental health.

We know that fish oil is good for reducing mental inflammation. Uh, getting more fruits and vegetables are good for, for, for the nervous system. Certain mushroom like lion's mane. But going back to this is that, you know, you really want to feed your soul and your purpose.

So reading books like the Bible, reading spiritual growth books, going to, uh, you know, a church or a synagogue and spending time and connecting with your creator and praise and worship and learning and growth, doing things to nourish and feed the soul and the spirit. That's the way you truly heal guilt and shame and depression and anxiety at their root, where they start.

And so I would say, what can you do to help her heal? Encourage her, bring her to a spiritual, uh, to, to, to a worship service, uh, get her, give her a book that can help her heal. Just be there for her, encourage her, and help her in that way. Uh, and, and listen, sometimes with people, if they do things wrong, I think we're living in this, a society today.

That says we should just be nice to everybody or just stay out of everybody's business. Just be nice. And I don't think that that's love. I think love is a combination of being incredibly caring to where someone's at in their life, but also telling them the complete and honest truth. So if somebody has done something wrong, don't say you didn't do anything wrong. Say, you know what?

We make mistakes. You did something wrong, and here is the best way you can go to hit— know that I'm here for you. I'm here. I'm here for you no matter what. But I think if you truly wanna heal, doing things, you know, doing whatever you can to heal your soul, that's what you need to do is focus on, you know, where were you wrong? Are there mindsets you need to change?

Are there some things that you need to think differently about? Hey, let me help introduce you to some people or bring you to some places that can help you heal mentally and emotionally. And so that's what I would say. If you have somebody, again, and this specifically the question here, my friend had an abortion and regrets it, how do I help her heal?

I think you wanna focus on helping her heal her soul. Next question: have you lost friends because of your beliefs? Yes. And by the way, I would be curious if any of you have been in this situation. And by the way, if I answer a question and you think you want to add to it some of your thoughts and your perspectives, feel free to do that in the comment section. I would love to hear from you.

So have you lost friends because of your beliefs? I lost friends, I think, during the pandemic, during this COVID pandemic. And I think it was very eye-opening to me to see how many People like, by the way, my belief system was very much regarding our freedoms and that the alarms that were sounded were not based on scientific evidence at all.

I think that a lot of the stuff we saw during that time, it was not based on scientific evidence. It was based off of opinions of a lot of employees that works for these organizations that actually used to work for pharmaceutical companies. And These are absolute facts because I went and did all of the research. Who worked where? Where are they at now?

So all that being said, I think I was surprised by the number of people that were just willing to give up their freedoms. I also had people during a time of war, I'm looking at a time of war between Israel and Hamas. I'm looking at certain people who are not standing their ground or not saying anything or not standing up for what's right, and they're easily fooled. Ruled by propaganda.

And so for myself, you know, and by the way, I'm also very understanding that some people, you know, some people have less courage than others, and that's okay. Some people have different perspectives than others, and that's okay. But I think for myself, the people that I want to build lifelong friendships and relationships with, I want them to be people of character.

And moral values that are biblical in nature. I want people that are loving, people that are generous, people that are wise, people that are willing to even give up their platform to speak out about what's right, and the people that respect what God says more than what culture says and being, you know, banned or canceled on social media.

So for myself, yeah, I think I lost some friends and even had some different, different friends I'd found Throughout going through this last season of life, because again, I found that I wanted to be around people that were courageous. I wanted to spend time around people that wanted to do what was morally right.

And when they saw, again, as we saw with Israel and Palestine, as we saw some of the wrong that was done to the Israeli people and some of the Palestinian people that were oppressed by a terrorist group, that, hey, we want to be praying for those people. We want to be loving those people. We want to be doing everything we can to say, We're for you in this time of need.

Um, so for myself, do I— you know, I, I— if I lost any friends, it was because I'm really trying to grow in my character, and I'm really trying to grow in my talents and using the gifts God has given me to change the world. And I think sometimes you just outgrow friends if you're a person that's wired like I am, who's saying, I want to be the best person possible.

I want to be in my 90s, and I want to have said, I, I ran a good race. I did everything I could To transform lives, to make— I believe we're all called to love God, love other people, and make Earth a heavenly place. And so I ask myself the question, what does heaven look like on Earth? And so this is why I do regenerative agriculture and help heal the planet.

This is why I do everything I can to— when I come across whether somebody's a stranger or a president, I want to treat them with love, honor, and respect. So all that being said, I am, you know, as I continue to grow in life, I'm spending more time with people that want to grow as well. Okay? And so anyways, yes, I have lost friends because of my beliefs, and I'm okay with it.

I know that God will bring more friends along my path who are on the same path that I'm on, wanting to grow in every way possible and live the best life possible. And I wanna say for you, it's okay to switch friend groups. It's okay to leave some of your friends behind.

Now, you wanna continue to love your friends and respect them and from the past, but I've had a few periods in my life where I said, you know what? Like, I need to, I need a different different group. I need a different group of people that have higher morals and higher values and challenge me to live with greater conviction and greater love.

And I wanna encourage you, if you're not, if you don't have a friend group right now that lives and challenges you in that way, to find new friends. Not to say you don't love and care for them, but move on. By the way, I just interviewed Dave Ramsey yesterday, and Dave said this, and I thought this was so good.

He quoted a study and he said financially, The 10 people that you spend the most time with determines your level of affluence or wealth. So on average, somebody who hung out with a group of people at their wealth level, they tended to make the average of that same amount of money.

So let's say for instance, you were making $30,000 a year and then you started hanging out with, uh, people that were making $100,000 a year. On average, years later, You would be making $100,000 a year versus if you stayed with that same friend group, you'd probably keep making $30,000 a year. Whoa, that's a big deal. Your friend group matters tremendously.

Now let's take it even beyond making money, cuz there's things so much more important. If you hang around with families that raise up great kids, your kids are gonna be healthier, better mental abilities, better performance, just better human beings. If you want to have a more mission-driven heart and be more like Mother Teresa, hang around with those sort of people.

So again, I think your friend group is tremendously important. Yes, I've lost friends. People said, I don't wanna be friends with you because you stood up for this thing that I don't believe in. Uh, so I lost friends. People decided to not be friends with me. I decided not to be friends with people. And it's not that I decided not to be friends with them. I decided to spend less time with them.

I can be their friend. Without spending the majority of my time with them. Another question here, what are, who are some of my favorite health experts? You know, I've been in this industry for, for a pretty long time, and one of the things that I value most in health experts is people that also have high moral values, uh, people that also understand principles. They have a lot of wisdom.

Now, I've interviewed probably 1,000 health experts in my time over time and had conversations. And sometimes people just memorize facts and spit 'em out. Okay? So people are able to memorize, but they're not able to think. And I most respect people who can think. And here, here's what I mean is the people that really know how to think, they, they recognize patterns.

And so for instance, I, I might ask them something and they memorize this study and they spit it out. I, I may say, Well, um, hey, what are your thoughts on how to build great gut health? And I was on a panel at South by Southwest, and we all got— we got asked a question where one of the experts was asked, or all of us were asked, how do you know what's right?

There are so many conflicting information out there about diets, about keto or paleo or vegan, or how do you know what to believe? And the guy next to me who's an MD, very intel— very Very well respected. He said, well, just follow whatever the latest research says. You know, if it says it, you know, memorize it, repeat it.

Like you said, I just, whatever the latest research is, that's just what I, I, I tell everybody. And I thought to myself, you know what, that study that you could be quoting could have been funded by a pharmaceutical company. There, there's always, uh, there, there are mult— sometimes studies that contradict each other.

And when I answered the question, I said, all due respect, doc, but What I believe we should— how we know what truth is, is based on everlasting principles. And knowing, for instance, a study might come out tomorrow that says this fake vegan burger is good for you.

And I know that it's made with soybean oil and Yellow 5 food coloring and all kinds of other things that aren't actual food, versus knowing that for thousands of years, people have thrived eating real food, eating, you know, vegetables and wild organic meat and berries and, and some of those foods. And so all that being said, my favorite health experts are ones that are principled.

So here are a few. One is Jordan Rubin. Now, Jordan Rubin's a good friend of mine. He healed, he healed himself of Crohn's and colitis and IBS by following a diet that was based on the Bible. He drank a lot of goat's milk kefir, did a lot of carrot and celery juice. Did a lot of, uh, probiotic-rich foods, and he was able to heal himself.

And Jordan is a person that's incredibly principled, and also he's very in tune with spiritual health. And so I really respect Jordan. He's one of my favorite health experts. I also love Dr. Christopher Motley. Dr. Chris Motley is an expert in Chinese medicine and Asian medicine.

He's, uh, uh, he is, uh, his mom is, uh, is Korean, and so he's actually been over to Asia and has a real kind great level of expertise. And so Dr. Christopher Motley, I love learning from him when it comes to how to treat infections, whether it be viral infections, bacterial, Candida, parasites, mold toxicity. He is one of my favorites. So again, Dr. Christopher Motley. Um, I like Vani Hari.

She's a good friend of mine. She runs a website called Food Babe. The thing I love about Vani is she is so convicted as an expert. She really understands how to help families get healthy. She also does a lot of research herself. So Vani is one of my favorite health experts. You know, I really respect Dr. Andrew Huberman.

If you really want to go through what does all of the science and research say, which by the way, I agree with him on a majority of issues. There are a few things though I may not agree with him on because he is only about the science versus studying some of the history of things. And I think sometimes the science doesn't tell the full story.

I think it can tell a lot of stories sometimes, and I think it can be great. And, and I read a lot of scientific literature, but I think if that's your only guide is studies that maybe a pharmaceutical, uh, pharmaceutical company funded, it can be off. But overall, I think Andrew Huberman is brilliant, and I think a lot of his scientific research is fantastic. And so he's another favorite of mine.

I think Max Lugavere has some really great information out there. Uh, when it comes to, um, when it comes to using food as medicine. Daniel Amen is one of my favorite ones, especially when it comes to neurological health and brain health. So he would be up very, very high on my list. Daniel Pompa, Dr. Dan Pompa, when it comes to detoxification, he's another great health expert.

I love Dr. Rebecca Lyon. I think knows a lot about metabolism. She's putting out some good research as well right now, uh, and on, uh, on her social channels. And so I would say those are some of my, those are, those are some of my favorites. I have a question here. Is Dr. Gundry wrong?

Dr. Gundry talks a lot about, uh, the plant paradox and lectins and phytic acid, and basically that a lot of plants are bad for you. You know, I don't know that he's wrong, but I will say he, the, the, the, the, I think he is, I think he's wrong on that. It's bad for everybody. I think that, for instance, foods like tomatoes, Uh, an eggplant or pumpkins.

I mean, you know, a lot of these vegetables and some fruits that have seeds, he would say a lot of these are not, are not good for you. Um, and I, I just disagree. You know, I don't think there's a lot of literature that backs that up. I think there was a couple stud— a few studies that back that up.

I think that when I look at ancient civilizations and people that live a long time, for instance, if you go to Okinawa, Japan, they eat eggplant. And people are living to be over 100 years old. They eat tomatoes, they eat, uh, you know, they eat some of the foods that have some of the seeds. They do a lot of rice over there, they do green tea.

Some of these foods have some of the, these enzyme inhibitors and, and, and lactic acid. And so here's the thing, if somebody has a healthy system, they may break down those foods just fine, and it's really not that inflammatory to their system. And because of the other compounds in there, it's actually anti-inflammatory. So do I think Dr. Gundry is wrong?

I don't think some of his research is wrong. I, I think that sometimes what happens is we kind of say this, you know, we, we have a blanket statement like everyone should do this. For instance, everyone should be on a keto diet, or everybody should be vegan. And what I found is, is that everybody is a unique individual and they tend to need a personalized approach.

So I think Dr. Gundry's approach for certain people with autoimmune disease? Absolutely. I think his diet and what he's recommending is spot on for those people. But do I think what he recommends every single person alive should follow, including myself? No, I do not. So I think he's right for a group of people and he's wrong for others.

Uh, another question here was, what is the effect Adderall has long term? How does it change our brain chemistry? Well, part of what Adderall does as a stimulant is it affects our levels of dopamine and our certain other chemicals like our good mood hormones, even like serotonin. And over time, your brain will produce less or have less of that hit.

And so really, it's like things will feel less exciting. You'll kind of be less locked in than you're used to. And so your body would have to heal, build that back up. Think about it like this. When with diabetes, if somebody consumes too much sugar, their insulin receptor sites get burnt out. It's a very similar thing with consuming Adderall. It's like sugar in that way.

It can burn out some of those receptor sites or negatively, negatively affect dopamine and other neurotransmitters, which actually affects your mood and your ability sometimes to be able to really connect with somebody in different ways. And so, those are some of the long-term effects of Adderall.

The thing about Adderall I want to mention as well is there are some natural things you should be doing, changing your diet, um, you know, using supplements like L-theanine or cordyceps mushroom, lion's mane mushroom, ginkgo biloba, fish oil. Doing some of those nootropics, I think, are much healthier and much better options.

And if you want to learn Figure, uh, know all of my opinions about Adderall and ADHD and how to naturally treat, treat it, go back and watch my episode, my podcast I did on ADHD. If you just search on, uh, on YouTube, uh, Josh Axe ADHD, you'll find some of my recommendations there. Another question, is birth control really bad for women? Yes, it is really bad for women.

Uh, one of the biggest things that birth control affects is our gut microbiome and even the, the, the biome of the reproductive system, um, and affecting some of the bacteria there.

And so, you know, one of the issues I constantly had when I, when I ran my functional medicine clinic and women I were working with got off of birth control, it was constant yeast infections and Candida was a major side effect. And so, it really affects the gut microbiome. It also affects the hormonal system in a really negative way.

And so, yeah, birth control can be really bad for women, especially once they get off it hormonally and from a GI, a gut and intestinal standpoint. So, yes. And by the way, if you want to learn more about this, I've done posts on this as well in the past. But yes, birth control has quite a few side effects. And, and do, you know, natural family planning is a, is a, is a better option.

How do you teach your kids a growth mindset early on? So I have a 3-year-old right now, and one of the things we're going through with our, with my daughter Arwen is, for instance, she's putting together puzzles and we are celebrating her as she works hard. If she can't get it and finally gets a piece, you know, and even if she doesn't get it, we, we get it. We let her know.

We are proud of you for trying. So remember, growth mindset is about celebrating the effort in kids. Kids knowing you tried really hard, you gave a full effort. That's what we're congratulating on you. We're not telling you you're smart or you're perfect, or you can be any single thing you want to be in the entire world. And we're not giving you a trophy for every little thing.

No, a growth mindset is about we are celebrating as you grow mentally and get smarter and better. We're celebrating your growth, not your, uh, necessarily your performance or telling you you're perfect. Uh, and so again, we're, we're celebrating work ethic more than, um, the actual outcome.

So for instance, if your kid is playing in a soccer game and your kid tried really, really hard, and then they also showed good sportsmanship, they helped another person out on the field, but they lost the game. Maybe they even got blown out. After the game, I would sit down with my daughter Arwen and say, Arwen, you know what?

You didn't win the game, but I want to let you know I am so proud of you for when that other little girl fell down, when you helped her back up. I am so proud of that. I want to let you know that I saw how hard you tried and that you were running as hard as you could. And you did when we were practicing this week and I asked you to do this thing and you did it out there.

I wanna let you know, I am so, so proud of you for giving it 100%. That's how you teach your kids a growth mindset, uh, is, is celebrating work ethic and discipline and character. When choosing a partner, how do you know if they will help you grow as a person? Well, you, you know it if they do it while you're dating and if they're also committed to growth while you're dating.

You know, when I, when I, when I married Chelsea, by the way, I had this prayer. I, I prayed for Chelsea. And I had a friend of mine, and I would always pray this to God. I said, God, would you spend— send me a wife that helps me grow, that is mentally stimulating, physically breathtaking, and spiritually just on fire for you? That was my, that was my prayer. And so I knew what to look out for.

And so when I, when I met Chelsea, I said, I want somebody that helps me grow. And after being with her a little bit, she would ask me deep questions and she would challenge me on some things that maybe I thought. Then I thought, okay, you know what? Maybe she's right. I need to think differently here. So. So, so one, um, I, I could tell Chelsea had a really, really high level of character.

The books she was reading, uh, you know, just her, her, her moral standards were incredibly high. And so I knew that, you know, when you're around somebody who helps you grow, it's not that they're telling you what to do. Oftentimes they're convicting you because they're virt— a virtuous person.

You like, for instance, my wife, when I see how well she cares for our home, or when she sits down with our daughter and she says, Arwen, I love you, or, you know, and she's encouraging our daughter, but she's also disciplining our daughter. I think I just, I fall more in love with her every time because my wife has such great character.

So if you're choosing a partner, how do you know they'll help you grow? Well, if they have great character and they're committed to growing in their character, it's going to naturally convict you to grow and become a better person. So I would say, Finding a great partner is about finding somebody who has great character and somebody that's committed to learning and growing.

That tends to be the way that you'll know. I keep finding black mold in my shower, sink, and toilet. What are the dangers of breathing this in, and is there any prevention measures I can take?

You know, here's the thing about black mold, and when I practiced as a, as a full-time physician, we had a flood in Nashville, and so for a couple years I had so many patients coming in with mold issues, and what I found is, is that most people— well, let me say this, it depends on the person and your genetics.

Some people can tolerate and detox black mold fairly well, and other people, it'll just wreck their whole system. In fact, there are studies around this. There's a certain percentage of population, very fam— fam— if you're familiar with, for instance, some people can absorb most B vitamins, but some people really need methylated or Or liver or certain types of vitamins to even absorb them.

It's a very similar thing genetically. Some people have a lot more difficulty with black mold. Now listen, black mold isn't really good for anybody. And over time, if it's— if you have black mold and then maybe you have a virus you're exposed to and then you have Candida, it all will add up and start to crash your system and your immune system.

But if you're a fairly healthy person, you're on a little black mold here and there, Your body's gonna probably tolerate it just fine for a period of time. Okay? You're not gonna have a problem for a period of time.

But if you're one of those people that does genetically does not cycle out black mold well, or mold in general, yeah, it, you, you're gonna start over time having brain fog and then digestive issues, and then it's just gonna wreck and weaken your immune system to where you then have fatigue. It, it, it'll cause major issues.

So, so what I would recommend is one, if you live in a house with a lot of mold or black mold. One, try and move out. If you're already having symptoms, move out immediately. If you're not having symptoms and you're a fairly healthy person, do your best to start working towards— or if you have a new lease coming up or whatever it is— to start working towards getting out of that place.

In addition, you can have somebody come, and there are, there are black mold removal services. There are mold removal services. That's a good option. I'd also highly recommend getting an air purifier. There's a purifier I love. I think it's called IntelliPure. I don't promote them anyway.

They're just— that's what we have in our house because I was looking for what are the best filters on the market and they were one of the best. I think it's IntelliPure. So, I got one of those in those areas. And then, you can get things like tea tree oil essential oil with vinegar, certain cleaners that clean mold.

And you just— for instance, if it's in the shower, basically what Chelsea and I did, we lived in an apartment for a time and then we eventually renewed our lease. We, uh, we, we created this own— our own concoction of vinegar and tea tree oil and oregano and all kinds of stuff. And we sprayed every time before we got outta the shower. We just sprayed and then it just stopped coming back.

So, so those are some of the measures I would say you can take. And then taking a, a probiotic just naturally for your digestive system would probably be one of the most important supplements to take.

Um, and if you know you have mold toxicity and you've got issues, I'd see a functional medicine practitioner and possibly take some anti-mold supplements like Uh, olive leaf extract is one of my favorites. There are many, but a functional medicine practitioner could tell you, or you could just Google search Dr. Axe mold recommendations, and I've done more, more recommendations on that in the past.

What age do you think is appropriate to give children cell phones? You know, by the way, first I want to say I want to consult my wife before I tell you exactly, but I would say I would not give them one before, before high school. I think probably freshman year of high school or junior or senior year.

I mean, that's probably what I would say is high school, but I would not give a child a cell phone before high school. That's me personally. And then I think the big thing is restricting the time usage when they're at home after school. Hey, you get 1 hour time on a total on your phone and then there's no, no time.

I mean, my parents, I didn't have a cell phone, but I also had restrictions to the amount of time I could even just talk on the phone. I mean, we had, you know, same thing with television. You get 30 minutes of television and you need to spend 1 hour outside. And you have— I mean, my parents had very, you know, at the table there are no cellular devices.

So I would say just be conscious and think through, okay, at what age does it make sense when they're driving? You know, so I'd say 14, 16 years old. But the other thing I would say is, who are the parents you know? Who have already raised kids and they have the best kids and they've already dealt with this. What have they found? What do they do? That's something else to think about.

There's also a book I know that I think gets into this and other great things to do as a parent. I think it's called Habits of the Household. That's the book. Check it out. Habits of the Household, I believe, is the title of that book. Another question. I love going shooting at the range, but I'm pregnant and have heard mixed opinions on whether it's safe for the baby. What do you think?

You know, if you're pregnant, I, I would not, I would not be shooting off a gun. And the reason is, is that, that, that's a very loud noise. The, a baby is going to hear that. There's some great research around this by Bruce Lipton. He really gets more into quantum physics, but, but he really talks about, you know, speaking sweetly to a baby, saying, I love you.

You know, you know, those, like, it affects the baby. They're able to actually do some tests to be able to see how it affects the baby. Well, I'm sure shooting off a gun, it's going to put you in a fight-or-flight state. That loud, listen, whether you try to or not, it's doing something to your nerve system for that time being. And I would say doing that regularly is probably not the best.

Now, listen, once you've had the baby, getting back out, I think going to a shooting range, I think that's fine. In fact, Chelsea and I have been to a range before together. And so anyways, I think, hey, if you love doing that, that's fine, but I would not recommend it. Are football and other contact sports a good idea for young children?

Well, you know, I think from the standpoint of it building discipline and work ethic and leadership skills, yes. I think for character growth, athletics and sports are wonderful. Do I think the high-contact sports are good for the spine and the brain? It depends more on the position. You know, I think that certain positions are going to get hit a lot harder than others.

But I would say football in particular and rugby are probably the most violent and probably have the most side effects to the spine long-term. So yes, there are side effects. I don't think that level of a contact sport is good for most people, but I think soccer, even heading the ball, isn't really that much. I think that basketball isn't that.

So I think generally football and rugby are the ones that you'd probably need to be the most concerned about. But I think even so, if you take enough precautions and have your kids seeing, you know, a chiropractor and doing physical therapy and doing things that are healthy for them, eating healthy to reduce inflammation, can help negate many of those effects.

What kind of water do you personally drink? Is it alkaline water, tap water filtered, or spring? Chelsea and I drink mostly filtered water and spring water. We have a brand, I think it's called pH Prescription. It's a really high-end filter that does reverse osmosis And has a fluoride filter. And so we drink a lot of filtered water.

And then when we're out, uh, traveling anywhere, we tend to do a lot of spring water, whether that be Fiji or, or Evian. Um, uh, but, but we do mostly filtered water and spring water. And not to say I don't pick up some sometimes alkaline water, but I think we should be getting more alkaline minerals from our food rather than our water.

I think vegetables is gonna be, and fruits are gonna be our primary source. For alkaline minerals. Another question, do you eat all organic? No, I eat mostly organic, but I wouldn't say 100% of the time all organic. Let me give you an example. Chelsea and I go to the farmer's market. Not all of that food is organic. Now, it actually is, right? But it's not certified.

So, so, you know, we try and eat as much organic as possible, especially our meat. But, you know, Chelsea and I went on a, a date, uh, a date lunch last Friday, and we went to a restaurant called Cava. Uh, now Cava, um, I don't think their meat and vegetables are organic. And so we mostly meat and vegetables. We had hummus, we had, you know, just, it was rice, we had spinach.

It was very generally very clean, but not everything was organic. And so, um, so what I, I kind of follow the 95/5 rule or the 98/2 Like, I eat really, really clean, but on occasion I'll go out to eat. That food's not organic. I'll try and eat as healthy as I can. I'll try and get wild-caught salmon. I'll try and do vegetables, but not everything is organic.

I do my best to eat organic, especially meat, cuz I think that's the most important, but not 100% everything. I'd probably say it's closer to 95%. Uh, I always, I've always wanted to read the whole Bible, but I haven't been able to make a hobby of reading it every day. So I have read only a couple books. Do you have any tips for staying on track? Yeah. You know, just, just one.

I mean, making it a habit. What I would say is make it the first thing you do no matter what, no negotiables. And also being part of maybe a growth group or at your church can, I think, help bring it to more top of mind. But what I do, I wake up in the morning and I don't hold myself to reading the whole Bible all the way through, or, uh, or, or, or even, or even for even reading for 20 minutes.

I'm going to sit down, I'm going to say I'm going to read for 5 minutes. That's it, 5 minutes. So I'm going to spend 5 minutes, you know, or maybe even 1 minute. Hey, I'm grateful for this, this, and this. I'm going to read for 5 minutes, and then I might pray for a few minutes, something like that. But just don't hold yourself to an hour. Hold yourself to 5 minutes.

Just 5 minutes of reading, and maybe it's even a few sentences. I'm gonna read. What's the first thing that sticks out to me? I'm gonna read here, and I read for 2 minutes. Okay? And then I'm gonna sit there and think about how can I apply that to my life? Okay? And so maybe you also get a thing that's something not, that's not a Bible, it's a devotional. Okay?

But I would say what I tend to recommend people do is start in the gospel. Start, and if you wanna start with one chapter, I like John a lot. But I would say some of the first books to read are Genesis. Exodus, and then along with the 4 Gospels, uh, and then 1 John. I also like Acts and Romans, but I would stick with those books at first until you get in the rhythm and then have some devotionals.

And that's, that's what I would do. But I found for myself staying on track, I just make it, it's part of my habit stacking in the morning. I work on spiritual growth, I eat something healthy, and I work out. So I get all of that done in the morning.

And I think that, and then being around other people who are hungry to learn and grow spiritually around a growth group at something like church or synagogue, I think that's, I think that would help you. Uh, I think that would help you grow. All right. Well, hey, I wanna encourage everybody to ask your questions. I'm gonna do more of these Q&As in the future, and I want to answer your questions.

So by the way, please make some comments as well. Is there, is there a question that you enjoyed? Is there something I answered? Is there something else you want to add? Let me know that, but also ask other questions right now that you want me to cover on next episode. Remember, this is the Growth Lab. It's all about things that can help you grow. They could be health questions.

They could be spiritual growth or theological questions. They could be questions about relationships. They could be questions about psychology and mindset or leadership. You can ask any of those questions. All questions go here. So excited to answer your questions. And by the way, if you're not subscribed here to the channel, make sure to subscribe. I've got more Q&As coming out.

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Thanks so much for watching another episode of the Growth Lab podcast.