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Hey everyone, welcome to the Dr. Josh Axe Show. I am your host, Dr. Axe, and each and every week on the show, we explore the science and principles behind how to grow in body, mind, spirit, and take your health and your life to the next level. On today's episode, I'll be answering your questions on how to naturally treat and eliminate allergies. I'll be sharing my thoughts on the blood type diet.

Also, I'll be answering the question, is sunscreen safe? And also be going through how to reduce EMF exposure and a lot more on today's episode. And by the way, you could submit your questions to me on Instagram. I post question boxes regularly on my stories. So if you want to follow me on Instagram @DrJoshAxe, By the way, you can also send me a voice message and actually be featured on the show.

And you can go to the link at the bottom of the screen in order to submit your voice message. So again, remember, voice message and follow on Instagram @DrJoshAxe in order to be part of the show. And don't forget to subscribe. And thank you so much for sharing this podcast and this show. It continues to grow. Thanks for your support. Okay. First question here, how did you meet Chelsea?

Well, a few things. Number one, I prayed for Chelsea. In fact, I had a friend who was happily married, great wife, and we would do a prayer call on Sunday nights and really talk about our work week, sort of planning together. It was this iron sharpens iron relationship with a friend of mine named Pete. And for 2 years I'd prayed for Chelsea.

And one of the things I did is I wrote down what I was looking for and sort of my ideal spouse. And so I wrote down things like help me grow, mentally stimulating, physically breathtaking, spiritually on fire for God.

I wrote down, I want somebody that can turn lemons into lemonade, somebody who loved the water, water skiing, physical activity, all, all these, you know, different things I wrote down about her. And, and then I was, I, I, I was running my functional medicine clinic at the time. This would've been in 2011.

And, uh, and I had students regularly come up from, uh, from, from school that were chiropractors or studying functional medicine, and they would come and they would shadow my office. And so once, uh, I had somebody come and, um, and shadow my office, and Chelsea was one of those people. But my sister also lived with me at the time.

And so, um, she had came and ended up— and I didn't even know she was actually coming— was staying with my sister at the house. And so I met her and I was sitting there, I was reading a book by A.W. Tozer called Knowledge of the Holy. And she said, oh, I love that book. And I, and I, and so we started talking about this book that we had both read.

And, and so, and so really I met Chelsea because she was in chiropractic school. She came up to shadow my clinic and then we really just hit it off. Now I'll have her on the show here in the future. So by the way, subscribe. You do not want to miss this. We'll really get into, by the way, the story. When a man tells it, it's a lot shorter. When a woman tells it, it's a lot longer.

There's a whole nother part of it where she actually brought her— she had a dog that was 6 weeks old. Actually, by the time she brought it to my house, maybe it was like 2, 3 months old, but she had brought it to my house. And by the way, I'm not getting this whole story. You'll have to save it for this episode. But at first I had put this dog outside because I thought I had to go to the bathroom.

And then When Chelsea came to the house the first time, uh, the dog was outside and she's like, who put my dog outside? This little puppy. And so anyways, and so at first I don't think she was a big fan of that part of, um, me putting her dog outside, which I thought— I, I, I had never owned a dog before, so I thought, hey, it's a dog, it likes being outside even if it is, you know, the winter.

It's the winter in Nashville, so the, the, the, the weather was not— wasn't that harsh. It was like the upper 40s. But, um, but anyways, the, the moral of the story is this. I met Chelsea, uh, because she came up to shadow my office.

And I think for her, we had just had a really, really great conversation for about 30 minutes or so, talking about our spiritual life and things like that, and really connected on that and health. And, um, and so that's, that's how I met her. But I actually had talked to her cousin a couple months before, and I really admired him. He is actually, uh, amazing man of God.

He's a, a chiropractor in Knoxville, Tennessee, and just amazing person. And so I talked to him and really had a great connection. And I also realized, wow, she has a great family, cuz I, I knew him.

And, um, and, and to me, I think that, you know, when marrying somebody, I think today a lot of times people think about, okay, when I'm gonna get married, um, what most people do today is their number one thing they're going in looking for is, am I physically attracted to this person? That's the biggest thing. And for me, that was important. That was one component.

But what was equally important or even more important than that was, is this a woman of faith who loves God? Is this a person who has a really high character? Is this a person who has a great family? Is this a person that'd be a great mom one day and wife in that way? And so the physical attraction was there. That's important.

But I think there are so many other components that are as important or more important than that. That oftentimes we ignore. And so I always tell people if they're getting married, know exactly what you want and then work to become the sort of person that would attract that sort of person into their life. And so Chelsea was very spiritually mature. She was very wise and mentally stimulating.

Her and I could talk about, you know, medical physiology and we could be talking about theology and we could be talking about values and politics. And it was very iron sharpens iron, lots of sparks flying in those areas in a good way. And the thing is, is Because I knew when I wrote down, okay, I want a woman who is spiritually mature, mentally mature, all of these things, physically fit.

I knew writing those things down that now I need to become the sort of person that would attract that sort of person in my life. So I'm going to grow physically stronger and more healthy. I'm going to be growing spiritually. I'm going to be going and growing in my—.

Relationships.

Wisdom in all these different areas of life in order to have chemistry with, attract that sort of person. And a marriage should really be iron sharpens iron. Both of you are growing, both of you are making each other more perfect, more holy, better serving each other.

And so, but it takes knowing the right type of person and pursuing that person and becoming the right sort of person yourself to find the, you know, the person of your dreams to marry. All right, next question here. How can I naturally treat Allergies. Well, let me talk about foods to avoid, foods that help heal, and the supplements you should consider taking.

And I also want to mention there are some things you want to do when you're in the midst of having the allergy symptoms, and then there are other things you want to be doing year-round that will help you build a sort of tolerance to where you're not going to have those same symptoms.

So the biggest foods you want to avoid One would be hybridized grains that are no longer the ancient form of grain and that are high in gluten. Okay. Gluten has been linked to severe, more severe allergy symptoms. By the way, there's also a difference between food allergies and environmental allergies, which I'm talking predominantly about environmental here.

But this will apply some— I mean, the foods I'm covering here also, also many people have allergies to. Or intolerances such as gluten. The next here is conventional dairy. That would be another one. Now, let me go back to gluten. I do want to mention this. There are studies that show even people that have celiac disease, that means they have a severe gluten intolerance.

If they're consuming sprouted and fermented sourdough grain that previously had gluten in it, many of them don't actually have the same symptoms or reactions to that type of bread. And so it's important to know that gluten isn't a villain. Gluten is found in barley and wheat, and I believe rye as well, and even some forms of, of, of oats and other grains.

But it's, it's eating them without, without going through the ancient preparations of, of making them more digestible. That's the real problem with gluten. So gluten isn't the big problem.

It's, it's, it's hybridizing the grain so the gluten levels are higher, and it's Not sprouting the grain and then fermenting the grain, which really helps helps helps break down the gluten and making it more digestible. The next food is conventional dairy. Very similar thing with dairy. Now some people are very allergic to dairy; some people aren't. I'm one of those people.

I don't tolerate dairy well. My one of my you know Chelsea though, my wife does really well with dairy, and so it just depends on the person. So conventional dairy, you want to stay away from that completely. But doing some raw fermented dairy like raw goat's milk yogurt or sheep milk yogurt, you know, that can be great for a lot of people. You want to stay away from hydrogenated oils.

Eggs tend to make allergies worse. Processed foods— doing lots of oils and high fat can sometimes make it a little bit worse. Alcohol, caffeine, sugar can all exacerbate allergy symptoms. Now, here are the foods that are most helpful. Asparagus— in fact, asparagus is used in Chinese medicine The tips of asparagus for actually supporting your lungs and your sinuses to reduce allergy symptoms.

Celery is another one. You want to consume foods that are cooling and that really help expel things from your body. So celery is one of those— cauliflower, pears, citrus fruits like grapefruit and lemon, berries. Wild-caught fish like salmon, chicken, bone broth, miso, rice, seaweed, ginger, and raw local honey are some of the best for reducing allergy symptoms.

And then in terms of supplements, here are the best supplements for helping you eliminate your symptoms of allergies: stinging nettles, butterbur, quercetin, vitamin C, Probiotics, specifically soil-based organisms, that's SBO probiotics, bee pollen, and then certain essential oils like peppermint, eucalyptus, lemon, tea tree oil are also beneficial.

And then there are natural treatments like acupuncture that are also going to help benefit and help you fight allergies as well. Chiropractic care can even be good. And then getting an air filter, okay, a filter in your home, whether it be IntelliPure, uh, Pure or Air Doctor. Those are a couple good brands.

But doing things to help cleanse mold and pollen and some of those allergens out of your home, all of those things will help. Now, I do want to mention, year-round, I think one of the best things you can do is take a teaspoon of bee pollen and a teaspoon of raw local honey every single day. So one— and here's the key though, local. It needs to be from your local city or region you're in.

So for instance, I'm in— if I'm in Nashville, Tennessee, I'm getting some from Nashville or Franklin or Brentwood or that middle Tennessee area. And I go to my local farmer's market, I buy bee pollen, I buy the raw local honey, and I do a teaspoon a day.

And if you do that along with doing higher dose probiotics, and then when you're going into allergy season doing higher doses of quercetin and stinging nettles especially, that will most likely reduce your allergy symptoms. Now here's another thing, um, by going to the farmer's market and getting your food there year-round, because you will get exposure to allergens.

If you have a garden in your own backyard as well, that's going to help build up your tolerance and reduce seasonal allergies. Because again, here's the thing with raw local honey: raw local honey contains over 200 different microbes and types of pollen from around your area that then, when you're exposed to it, it's a natural form of immunization.

Because again, it's, it's micro exposures over time that help build up your tolerance to the bigger exposure that most people get in the fall and spring of the year.

And so that's why the raw local honey plus the bee pollen, 1 teaspoon of each, having a garden yourself where you're spending out time outdoors, eating that local food that then has some of those microbes, and Buying food from your local farmer's market, those are all going to help you reduce those allergy symptoms over time.

And you might also have a deficiency, and acupuncturists could typically tell you this. And a lot of acupuncturists will put patients on things like astragalus and other herbs to help strengthen their immune system over time to better deal with it as well. All right, next question. What is the best way to consume turmeric for inflammation?

Well, I would say you want to be consuming— if you really want to reduce a lot of inflammation, you could do probably 3,000 milligrams of turmeric a day. And you want to take it with a warming spice like black pepper or ginger or galangal, something warming. And if you want to take it, you could take that as a supplement. Many supplements today have that combination of black pepper or piperine.

With the turmeric. And so you can take that as a supplement. That's one way. Another way is— and you can save some money this way— if you add it to a smoothie. And, and turmeric blends well with certain flavors. I think it blends very well with vanilla protein powder.

So for instance, if, if I were going to go downstairs to my kitchen right now and make an anti-inflammatory smoothie, here's what it would look like. I would put in About a, you know, a big heaping teaspoon of turmeric. So about 3,000 milligrams. And then I would add in some black pepper or ginger. I would do probably about an 8th of a teaspoon of something like ginger.

And then I would add in a big scoop of a vanilla bone broth protein powder. I'd also add in a little bit of vanilla collagen, so about 30 grams of protein. And then I might add in a little bit of coconut milk. As the base, and I'd blend that up and drink it. You could also add in some pineapple there, and that's really going to taste amazing.

You've got vanilla, you've got pineapple, the turmeric with the ginger. You're going to really love the taste of that sort of smoothie. And you're getting— again, ginger's anti-inflammatory, turmeric's anti-inflammatory, pineapple, it has boswellia— that's our— or bromelain, I mean. That's anti-inflammatory. And bone broth. So you've got an amazing superfood smoothie there.

With loads of benefits for reducing inflammation. Now, along with turmeric, a couple other things I really like for reducing inflammation are boswellia, which comes from the frankincense plant, and getting omega-3 fatty acids. I do about 1,000 milligrams of boswellia a day and about 1,000 to 2,000 milligrams of an omega-3 supplement a day.

But if you do that superfood smoothie I just shared with you for the superfood anti-inflammatory smoothie, if you add in some boswellia, Some omega-3s, some of the bone broth protein I mentioned in the smoothie, you are going to notice an incredible difference in your joints.

In fact, I challenge many of you to try out this vanilla pineapple anti-inflammatory turmeric smoothie, and your joints, your organs, your entire body is going to thank you for it because it's going to really reduce inflammation. All right, next question. Can you talk more about visualization and how to get started? I feel stuck.

You know, if you're feeling stuck in life, I do think visualization is a step you want to take. Now, before that though, before you start visualizing, I do think you want to, you, you want to think about what is it that you really want in life, and are you committed to going and getting it? What is it you truly desire in your heart? Well, let me share this for me, okay?

When I think about visualization, I really want to be physically active. So I, I had the spinal infection about a year and a half ago. Wasn't able to walk for a year. And I got to the point, you know, and I'm at the point now where I really wanna be able to throw my 2-year-old daughter in the air. I wanna get back to cycling. I wanna be able to run.

And I'm already back to now being able to lift weights, carry my daughter around. So I've seen some good progress, but I am visualizing very specifically and seeing myself playing and running with my daughter. Maybe we're doing a triathlon one day, we're out cycling, and so I can see us.

Yeah.

Doing those things together. And I really want that. Okay? So the first thing is you need to want something badly. What is that thing you really want? And then you want to visualize it very specifically. Okay? And so here is how I do this is I cl— I get into a quiet place, I close my eyes, and I start visualizing exactly what that would look like.

So for instance, if I see myself doing a triathlon with my daughter Arwen or my other daughter Aelin one day, I see us 15 years from now, or, or let's say even 14 years from now, and Arwen's a senior in high school and Aelin's a freshman in, in high school, and we're, we're signed up together.

And I see myself and I've got a bike and it's black and it's got some white gloss on it and it's a certain brand. Maybe it's, I don't, I don't know, Bianchi. And then my daughter's on her bike and that's, you know, purple. 'Cause my daughter Arwen loves purple. And my daughter Aelin, I don't know, she, maybe she'll like pink and maybe Chelsea's doing and she likes light blue.

And we're on these bikes. Together and we're riding down the road and I picture us and we're in Nashville, Tennessee doing the Olympic distance triathlon. And I see us going up and down the hills, smiling together, training together, doing all these things. We cross the finish line. I am picturing exactly what it looks like, every detail I possibly can.

And I picture us and I'm so proud of my daughters for finishing the race. I'm so excited I have the physical health to be able to do this sort of triathlon when I'm in my late 50s, and I'm just really excited about it. So that's what I would say is you need to want something badly and make sure it's a priority, something that really matters. The thing about what I shared is it's a great thing.

I'm getting fit together with my family. We're doing something that we might all find fun together. Okay? So that's a desire. I visualized it very specifically. When I do it, I get in a quiet place and I'm very specific with what I'm seeing, and then I write it down. Okay?

So I'm gonna write down exactly all the details I'm seeing, the type of bike, the road, the city we're in, the smells, the emotions I'm feeling. I write that down and then I create a goal out of that. Okay? So I have a goal in, you know, 20— see, see, see, what, what, what would that be? So, What'd I say? 14 Years from now. So that's gonna be in 2038.

You know, Josh and Chelsea and Arwen and Aylan, and maybe we have one other, you know, child at the time and we're all, we're doing a triathlon together. Okay. And so, and I write that down as one of my, maybe that's on my, that's gonna be more of my long-term goal list.

And then I need to write down, okay, in order for that to be true for me to be able to do that at that age, what are the things I need to do? What is the exact plan I need to create and process? Okay. Well, I need to continue to, Get on my Peloton a couple days a week, get out on a road bike one day a week.

I need to continue swimming and I need to do, be able to do some walking and running and, and, and, and create the sort of plan to do that. And then diet-wise, here's what I'm gonna do. But, but that's really, you know, visualization. You just need to go through that process.

And once you get through the priorities, the vision, the, uh, strategy and the plan in order for, to make that a reality, then you plug that in your daily schedule and you make it a habit.

Yeah.

In order to, um, to continue to grow in, in that area in life and prepare for that. Um, but here's the thing, your visions, if you feel stuck, one of the greatest things to help get you unstuck is to get really excited about something.

What is something you could get really excited about that would have a big impact in this world, that would be meaningful, that would make your life more significant? What is that thing? And then go after that full force. And if you don't know what it is, think about it.

Read books about people who have found that themselves and what they're sharing and ask other people, but be finding that thing, that thing that you're like, gosh, I want to help. Again, I've shared this before, like my mom battling cancer that impacted my life so significantly.

I said, I want to go and help people like my mom never get cancer again or fight cancer naturally, or just help families stay healthy without drugs and surgery, using food as medicine, lifestyle medicine, mindset medicine. This is something I'm deeply passionate about.

I started this podcast because I said to myself, I want to help people grow physically in their health, but I also want to help people grow in their mind and spirit so they can be completely healthy in all these areas of life. And I have a vision for it being, you know, one of the top 10, you know, uh, Podcast in all of health.

And so I'm gonna go after that with all my heart and soul, create a plan, a vision. I can see it in the future, what the set looks like, design, the guests coming on, you know? And so I, uh, that's— but, but you wanna get detailed, you wanna get excited about it. You wanna have something you truly desire and go hard after it.

So, so, so that's really the part of the process of visualization, what it should look like. All right, next question here. Do you have any advice on how to manage time on social media? I do. Number one, know what are your biggest priorities in life? What, what, where are you trying to get? Where do you want to go in your life? And, and, and you need to be able to answer this question.

What do you want your life to look like in, let's say, 5 years, in 10 years, 25 years? Okay. Write down your priorities, your goals. And then visualize what that looks like. Okay. So, so that, that's so, and, and I know you just asked, well, how do I manage time on social media? It, it really does start with all the things I just shared.

I know this is more big picture thinking, but, but you need to be, be aware. 'Cause let me give you an example. Like right now, I wanna write a book on a biblical diet here in the future. I wanna write a book on regenerative medicine, on cellular medicine and longevity. I also wanna, wanna write a book on spiritual growth. I also wanna write another book on I have all these books I want to write.

And so I know that if I'm spending, like the average person does, 2.5 hours a day watching TV and 2.5 hours a day on social media, I don't think I'm going to be able to write those books. And so, and I also know that I want to spend a lot of time with my daughters and my wife, and I want to spend time, you know, uh, I want to spend a lot of time doing a lot of things.

So my point with this is You need to have some things you really want and say no to the other things.

Okay?

Part of the reason why people get sucked into social media and TV and everything else, basically just entertaining themselves all day long, is because they don't have something that they truly desire. They don't have a purpose. According to studies, only 25 people are clear about what their purpose is. What is your purpose? Do you know what it is? You have to know what it is.

And part of finding your And so finding your purpose, as I've talked about on the show many times before, is what are you gifted at? What breaks your heart and what's that thing you're passionate about? What are your current opportunities? And so figuring out that thing, you're like, that's not right in the world. I want to go and help that.

And then, and then what, what are your giftings that align with helping remedy that situation or doing that good in the world? Right? So it really starts with those things. Okay? Now here's another thing to think about. What are the consequences of you spending too much time on social media? Do this, do this exercise.

Write down what's at stake if you spend, like the average person does, 2.5 to 3 hours a day on social media. And Gen Z's longer, closer to 4 to 5 hours. But if you are spending, let's say, 3 hours a day on social media, what are, what are all the things? What's at stake? What could you have spent those 3 hours? Well, what else could, could you have spent doing? Also, look up the studies.

If you spend more time on social media, for the most part, it hurts your self-esteem. It's hard on your neurological health. You get worse sleep at night. It causes anxiety. You're more in a fight or flight state. There are loads of negatives. So look up, do a search online. What are all of the negatives of spending time on social media? There's a new book out by Jonathan Haidt.

I don't remember the name of the book. It's something like The Anxious Generation. He basically gets into all of the side effects today of spending too much time on social media. And it is absolutely mind-boggling how terrible social media is for our mental health.

And so you need to know the consequences and all the negatives of it, and then write down what you could replace it with and all the positives and where that could lead your life if you take those 3 hours a day you're spending on social media and then you start applying it to something else. Now, my wife has shared with me a great app that she uses in order to limit her time on social media.

It's called Opal, O-P-A-L. And this app is tremendous because it limits your time on social media. It's a productivity app. And so what I'd encourage you to download the app called Opal, O-P-A-L, and it will basically lock you out of your social media if you set a time limit on it.

So if you say, I only wanna be on social media For an hour and a half a day or 1 hour, 2 hours, or whatever time period you pick. And then it will lock you out. You can't get on for maybe certain periods and times within a 24-hour period. But that's what I encourage you to do. Download the app Opal to help you as well.

One other thing I want to mention, if you are spending time on social media, make sure that you're following accounts that help you grow. Don't be on social media primarily for entertainment. Be on there for growth, to help you grow and learn in certain areas.

Follow people that are helping you grow spiritually, people helping you grow in your health, people helping you grow in your mindset and as a leader. Follow mostly those accounts and then delete any account that's having a negative influence on your life. And that should help some as well. All right, next question. What do you think of people using Ozempic and Wegovy for weight loss?

There are 2 primary problems with using Ozempic and Wegovy for weight loss. Number one, according to clinical studies, is it causes you not only to lose some fat, you lose a lot of muscle. In fact, 40% of the weight you lose on these drugs is muscle mass versus if you were losing weight the right way, it'd only be 20 to 25%.

So you're losing almost Double the amount of muscle than you would be by using Ozempic and Wegovy, and that's gonna cause you to age more quickly. We know that muscle is one of probably the top 2 or 3 organs for anti-aging. It's likely number one. So if you're using those drugs, it's going to cause your body to age more quickly.

It's gonna cause you to lose more, more muscle mass and lose strength. It also causes malnutrition. It can cause a condition known as gastroparesis, where foods and nutrients don't move through your digestive system as quickly. And what it does is it causes, uh, nutrient malabsorption, and so it causes malnutrition.

If you look at the faces of people that are taking Ozempic and Wegovy, there's actually a term called Ozempic face where they're starting to look sunken in because they're losing muscle and it's causing malnutrition.

So remember Anyone taking Ozempic and Wegovy, while it may cause a short-term weight loss that might make you feel good, in the long term you're losing muscle mass and nutrients, causing malnutrition. So I know when long-term studies come out eventually, it's going to show it takes years off your lifespan, and it truly is one of the most dangerous, terrible drugs you could ever take.

Here's what you should do instead of taking Ozempic and Wegovy is you should do the natural approach instead. Now, even if you're just doing the supplements, berberine, chromium, cinnamon are all going to help you in balancing blood sugar, which oftentimes Ozempic is also used for the treatment of type, type 2 diabetes. But those nutrients are going to help you lose weight a healthy way.

In addition, you know, following a diet that's mostly meat, vegetables, and berries and then going out and walking and exercising regularly. If you do that, you're going to lose weight incredibly flat fast and do it the healthy way and extend your lifespan and reverse disease rather than taking these truly terrible and dangerous drugs. All right, next question.

This is a voice message from Valeria on the blood type diet.

I would like to know your thoughts on the blood type diet and how it affects each person's unique lifestyles.

So, so here's my professional opinion on the blood type diet. So one of the claims of the blood type diet is, is that, for instance, an O positive blood type, which is what I am, um, that, that those people do better with a diet higher in meat, in fat, and certain types of, of vegetables. Whereas, for instance, my mom, I believe, is an AB type.

And so I remember when I, when I had read this book years ago, um, She was supposed to be doing a lot more closer to a vegetarian sort of eating plan. Again, I don't think that's accurate. I don't think the foods we should be eating should be based on blood type. Now, is there possibly a little bit of truth in some of that? It's possible.

But do I believe that it is the most accurate and best diet to follow? I don't. Again, not to say there might not be some truth to it. I don't think we really know, and I don't think we have studies to prove that. So my advice is this. Listen to your body and follow a diet that, uh, really lines up with maybe the medical condition that you're, you're currently trying to fight.

And, and also, a lot of this comes down to awareness. Are you aware of which foods you do well with in terms of your body? I think for most people, most people should be eating organic meat, cooked vegetables, or some vegetables, getting some fruit, and then maybe some whole grains. Possibly some, you know, things like sweet potatoes, some healthy fats like avocado, coconut, and olive.

And I, I think for most people, just eating a whole food-based diet is, is, is, is the ideal. However, I know some people for a short period of time, as sort of a medical protocol for, for, for a year or two, could be on a carnivore diet.

I think some people for a short period of time, if they have a really toxic liver, uh, they, they could do vegetarian for for a period of time and still be healthy. But generally speaking, again, I don't think the blood type diet is the best sort of diet to follow.

I think following a personal— personalized diet that's based more on something like traditional Chinese medicine, to me, that is the most accurate way to know what you should truly be eating, is seeing a practitioner who's able to personalize and customize a plan for you based on Chinese medicine.

And so that's, that's, that's my, my personal belief, or Ayurveda, or one of these ancient, uh, prac— medical practices that's really been able to dial in what typically works best for certain people. But when I create a, a, a health plan for somebody, here's what I do, and here's how I decide what diet they should follow. One is I do a tongue diagnosis.

And so I look at somebody's tongue, and based on what's going on with their tongue and their symptoms and maybe their blood work, I look at those things cohesively. So if their tongue has ridges on the side, it's called a, a spleen qi deficiency. That could be issues with either the liver or the pancreas. So they're having digestive issues.

If there's a coat on their tongue, that's a form of Candida, and also known as dampness. If their tongue has a red tip, there's an issue with their heart. If the entire tongue is pale, that's a blood deficiency, which if it gets extreme, that's a form of anemia. So, so there are a number of things with it. And then I look at the symptoms.

So you got a cold body temperature, diagnosed with hypothyroidism, okay. Um, you have some blood work here. I can see your thyroid markers are often up there. There are some antibodies there as well, so you have Hashimoto's.

So based on that combination of looking at those Eastern and Western ideas, that's how I personally, uh, start to work with people for more of that Eastern meets Western functional medicine approach of helping diagnose and treat people. So if somebody would be in that situation I'm going to have them do a lot of organic meat.

I'm going to have them do rice and sweet potato as most of their carbohydrates, along with some fruit, specifically probably, uh, you know, blueberries. And then I'm going to have them do herbs like ashwagandha, methylated B vitamins. I'll have them do an organ supplement that has thyroid glandular and adrenal and thymus and some others in there.

And, um, and, and also do a nutritional, you know, profile where I probably have them take selenium and, and, uh, and some other things. And so anyways, that's how I know. Now, I know that's pretty complex, but that's how I practice medicine. Now, for the average person, how do you know what sort of diet you should follow? The best thing I can tell you is listen to your body.

Start off eating real whole foods. If you consume something like dairy and your nose runs, Or you get mucus within the next 3 hours, you're probably sensitive to it. Or if you eat a certain meal and the next day you wake up and your joints hurt or your skin is broken out somewhere, you, you know, you need to go back and track, okay, what is not right in my diet here?

And start listening to your body. But for most people, just eating mostly real food is the best thing to do. Uh, and then if you need some help, seeing a functional medicine practitioner can help. But again, I know this is a long answer. But I don't think the blood type diet is the best way to know for certain what you should eat.

Now, I think generally a lot of people see results on a blood type diet because on a blood type diet, he's, he's only recommending food, okay? Real food. And for most people eating a lot of processed food, when you focus more on real food, and there's also a combination of the placebo effect, you're going to get better results. Now, I'm not saying it's not not accurate at all.

Maybe there are some things to being an O blood type and an O positive and an A and AB and, and, or a B, B, some of those blood types. But, um, but I don't think there's any scientific evidence to prove that. All right, next question: is oat milk healthy? Generally speaking, no, oat milk is not healthy.

And the problem is this, is that it has a higher glycemic load because when you process Oats, first off, they're, they're a, they're, they're a grain that is then processed, which increases the glycemic index. And so it's, it's going to have a, um, in fact, there are certain types of sugar in that that I think have a glycemic load of 105.

I mean, anything over— now table sugar is 100, so 105 is even above that. So oat milk, the, the amount of sugar that breaks down from oat milk is very, very high. The other issue is it contains Processed seed oils like sunflower oil and safflower oil, oftentimes about 8 grams per serving. That's going to be predominantly processed omega-6 fatty acids.

That's going to throw off your omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, which is going to cause a lot of inflammation in your body. So is oat milk healthy? Generally, it's not. The problem is due to the excess processed carbohydrates that break down into sugar and the inflammatory fats you're getting from oat milk. Now I want to share with you my favorite, uh, milks in ranking order.

Now I want to say, if you are doing a lot of milks, if you've got a lot of dampness and Candida and mucus in your body, you really don't want to do any milk at all, okay? No milk at all, even plant-based milks. But the one you would tolerate the best would be a coconut milk. But let me share with you my top Milks in ranking order that are the healthiest.

Number 1 for most people is going to be coconut milk, specifically from the can, a BPA-free lining. Coconut milk is full of medium-chain fatty acids that help your body burn fat, lose weight. They support neurological health. They support cellular health, the health of, of every cell in your body. So, so loads and loads of benefits. Of coconut milk. That's my number one.

My second favorite milk would be raw organic goat's milk kefir. So this is going to be an animal-based milk that has A2 protein in it, A2 casein. That's going to be found in ancient forms of cows, goats, and sheep. Buying it raw, making sure it's organic, and ideally fermenting it, that's the next best. Now, some people will tolerate that very well and thrive on it. And others won't.

And so you really need to listen to your body with that one. My third favorite milk would be a nut seed or something like an almond milk. Tends to be a little less processed. You want to still look for though, the sort of— if there are any added fats or sugar, I would recommend unsweetened almond milk or walnut milk or flaxseed milk, but some sort of nut or seed milk.

That is unsweetened and has minimal additives. Then my next favorite would be— in these last 3, I really just don't recommend, but the next best would probably be rice milk. It's going to be higher in sugar, but typically there aren't many additives there. And so again, if you're working out and doing it around workouts, it's going to be less harmful. It tends to be very non-allergenic.

The next would be oat milk, which I discussed, and then soy milk. The reason I don't like soy milk is it's high in—.

Soy protein.

Estrogens, certain types of estrogens that are going to cause your estrogen to naturally go high within your body. I, I think there is evidence that that could be linked to men having more feminine qualities and that lowering testosterone. And for women, that actually increasing your risk of certain types of estrogen-based breast cancers.

And so for that reason, I do not like processed soy, like soy milk. And that's not to say I don't like natto or tempeh or miso, where it's fermented organic soy. I think that, especially for women that are postmenopausal, is amazing for their health. But I think— so I don't think all soy is bad, but I think processed soy isn't ideal.

So if you want to know what are the healthiest milks you can consume: coconut milk, raw organic A2 dairy milk, uh, nut milks like almond milk, then rice, then oat, then soy in ranking All right. Next question here. Should we be wearing sunscreens? No and yes. Here's the reality. You want to get a little sun directly on your skin.

It's how your liver and body start to receive those UV rays and produce vitamin D. Okay. And you want to get— as most of us are very deficient in vitamin D. In fact, according to a recent survey, 94% of people are vitamin D deficient. That is an incredibly high number. We all need more vitamin D for the most part. And so you want to get some sun directly on your skin.

If you're wearing sunscreen, it is blocking getting those rays and then, and then getting the vitamin D that your body needs. But also, you do not want to get burnt. You don't want your skin to get pink or red or burnt because that can increase your risk of skin cancers like melanoma and cause your skin to age more quickly and cause it to get too dry and damaged.

So you don't want to do that either. So really, it's somewhere in the middle. You want to get, you know, 20 minutes on average of sun without sunscreen. And then if the sun is really strong, you want to put on something that is a mineral-based sunscreen like zinc oxide. Now listen, you're going to look silly because it's got a little bit of typically white on it.

Uh, you know, your skin will look maybe a little bit lighter or white, uh, because the minerals don't necessarily fully Go completely clear. But those mineral-based sunscreens are the healthiest. And you can go to the Environmental Working Group, that's ewg.org, and actually look up the healthiest sunscreens for your skin and for your body.

So I'd encourage you, go to ewg.org in order to look for the healthiest forms of sunscreen. So again, I do think, to answer that question, you should put sunscreen on before your skin actually gets burnt. All right, another question here. Do you have any tips to reduce EMF exposure? Yes, I do. And, and here's the thing about EMF exposure, a little bit isn't bad for you.

It's when you get a little bit day after day after day, all day long, where I really believe over time it's just another form of toxicity that adds to the burden of your, of your body. So here's what I'd recommend. One, get a phone protector. You can simply go to amazon.com or another website and find an EMF-blocking phone case. So that's one thing I would, I would recommend doing.

The next thing I would say is turn Wi-Fi off at night, and you can do this as a timer. So Chelsea and I, in our home, we have a timer attached to our Wi-Fi, and it goes off, I think, between— it's like 8 PM and 7 AM or something like that. But basically, we, we have it off. It's about 12 hours. We just— it's shut off. Around the house, um, our, our Wi-Fi.

And then when I go to bed at night, I take my phone and I always turn it on airplane mode. Okay, so it's completely off, uh, no signals, or I just turn it off completely. So I— but I turn my phone on airplane mode. And then almost always I use wired headphones. Now I do have AirPods, and to be honest, I have worn those a few times.

I rarely use them, um, but, you know, maybe once a week or something. To wear it where I kind of needed to. But for the most part, I only wear wired headphones to where I, you know, plug it in on my actual phone, have the wire. I know that's a little inconvenient, but I did it for, you know, I've done it for most of my life since I've had a phone. And so, um, wired headphones.

So again, phone protector, turn Wi-Fi off at night, turn your phone on airplane mode, wired headphones instead if you're going to use your phone, and then just be away from your phone One more. It doesn't need to be attached to your body all the time. Have it in a different area of a room or not on your body, and those will help reduce some of that EMF exposure.

Next question here, how do you stay consistent in your relationship with God? Well, number one is my consistency in anything in life, whether it be my physical health or my relationship with my family or business success, It has to do with good habits.

I've really created good habits in my life, and let me share with you what some of those are and some of the most important things you can do to establish and create a stronger and consistent relationship with God. Number 1, read your Bible daily and read books about the book.

So books that help you grow spiritually, and even if it's just 15 minutes a day in the morning, but create a habit in the morning. Or in the evenings, but in the morning I like to crack open my Bible, read that even if it's just for 5 minutes, uh, and spend, just spend even just a few minutes in prayer.

So I think that's a really important thing, um, is to be able to read your Bible and then read books about the book. Now I do a lot of audiobooks, and so at night for about 30 minutes when I get in bed or when I'm getting ready for bed, I'm listening to a book about the book. Uh, right now I'm listening to this series from Chuck Missler.

I also might listen to a sermon or Something from, you know, Bishop Barron or from Craig Groeschel or who knows, some— somebody, you know, that's going to help me grow. And I love C.S. Lewis is another person I listen to constantly, A.W. Tozer. But I'm always listening to books about the book and just listening to the Bible app. I just listen to the Bible on audio.

I also have a Bible on audible.com. So read the Bible, read books about the book every day. And if you're not reading, then listen to. Those on Audible. The second thing I do is I mentioned I pray and I pray by myself. And then I also might pray with my family, you know, at family dinner where you're gonna, we're gonna grab hands together and we're gonna pray as a family.

And so prayer is a way to stay consistent with God where it's a habit. Just, you know, 1 minute, 1 minute prayer typically before, before we eat. The third thing would be hang out with strong people of faith, other people That are growing in their faith, and that will cause you to grow.

You know, if you've ever ran a race and somebody's running or walking a certain pace, you know, you're tempted to run at their pace. And so other people that are pursuing God in a meaningful way, they're going to help you grow. And by the way, of all the things I could share, this is one of the most important, the people you hang out with. And so, and by the way, I had a time in my life.

In college where I was hanging out with a bunch of frat guys, okay, at the University of Kentucky when I was there. And I realized after my first 2 years, I realized this is, I'm not becoming the person I wanna be. And so I changed my friend group and I started hanging around guys. Now let me, I wanna share with you a limiting belief I had.

I had this thing in the back of my mind and, and here's, here's what, what, what it, what it was. It was that Christians aren't cool. And, and I— and, and that was a limiting belief I had. And so I thought, you know, I want to go out and have fun, and they just don't have as much fun. And I realized, you know what, it's a different type of fun.

And I went and I started— I, I decided I'm going to go to, you know, this church group for people my age in their 20s and started hanging out with them. And we had a blast together. Now, we weren't drinking a lot or going to these big parties, but we were having an absolute blast together. And so I realized that it was more of an innocent fun, a different type of fun.

But, uh, and, and there was a little bit of— I, I miss a little bit of sort of the pleasure of, of drinking too much alcohol. But after some time, I realized like, you need to love what's good for you. And I started to realize like, I just don't want to do that anymore. I don't want to be that person.

I want to be, you know, a person that's, uh, that is doing something significant and meaningful with my life. And so I started developing these other relationships and it really helped me grow.

And And I've realized in my life, if I ever want to experience a breakthrough in my life and get unstuck, the greatest thing I can do is go find people that are growing in an area and go and connect with them and grow with them. And so that's another important piece of advice. The 4th thing is attend church and be part of a small group. Okay?

Go to actual church, be part of a congregation and worshiping, whether it's Protestant or Catholic or Orthodox, whatever it is, be part of the body of Christ in growing together. And then go a step further. This is really— most people aren't part of a small group, but go and do that extra thing on whatever night it is or whatever day it is. Be part of a small group in growing.

And last thing here, be really conscious of what you're putting in your temple. Social media, TV, podcasts, all those things. Only watch and listen to and read And expose yourself to things that are going to help you grow. Watch TV series like The Chosen. Watch great movies that have biblical insights like Lord of the Rings and The Lion King and other stories that have a good moral message.

You know, what is that movie? Sorry, I lost. I actually am hitting a blank here on Remember the Titans. That's that's what I'm trying to think of. But think about. Great movies with these great moral stories or shows. If you're going to watch something, watch those. If you're going to listen to podcasts, listen to people that are going to cause you to grow and become more.

If you're going to follow people on social media, follow Tim Tebow and Sadie Robertson and other people that are, you know, on fire doing good in the world. And that's going to help you grow as well, closer to God. I want to just say I love these questions.

I'm so grateful for all of you that have asked these, and I want to encourage you, don't forget you can go and click a link below the show and submit your questions. You could actually submit a voice message. Would love to answer those.

And on Instagram, on my stories, I'm constantly posting questions, or at least typically about once every, every other week, um, questions that then I will go and answer. So Always be following my stories and you can see I'll be answering. You can ask those questions or respond to polls on the stories and things like that in order to get your questions answered as well.

And want to say, hey, thanks so much for tuning in here to my show, the Dr. Josh Axe Show. Remember, each and every week by being part of this show, you're going to be growing in body, mind, and spirit and taking your health and your life to the next level. Hey, make sure Subscribe, like, and share this if you haven't yet.

And remember, every time you're subscribing and sharing, you're, you're helping change someone's life. I mean, I, I, I constantly have people telling me, Dr. Axe, somebody shared this episode with me and it, it changed my life for good. I experienced a mindset breakthrough, a health breakthrough, some sort of breakthrough in my life.

And so I just want to let you know you're making a difference by being part of this show. Thank you so much. I'll see you on the next episode.

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