The Top 1% in Health Do THIS | Best Wellness Trends of 2025

27:22Now, it's trending because of rising levels of burnout. Also conditions like ADHD diagnoses, digital distractions, and fueling the demand for mental performance enhancers. And I can tell you for myself, when I was a kid, I was diagnosed with ADHD. I had a very, very difficult time focusing. And I wish when I was in high school and later on in college that I would have learned about natural nootropics. And I can remember very clearly so many kids getting on Ritalin and Adderall in college when this would be a much healthier option doing these natural nootropics. Now, I also want to say sometimes I see these people, these executives more so than anybody, people that are trying to work 50, 60 hours a week, and they are burning out their adrenal glands, their thyroid, their testosterone levels because they're drinking coffee, you know, five times a day.

28:20And then they're trying to stack on top of it a bunch of these nootropics. And so they're just sort of burning through all their energy reserves, all their mitochondrial energy. and then later on they just crash and they feel drained. And maybe they become more susceptible to conditions like, you know, chronic infections or an issue like long COVID because they've just absolutely burned through all their cellular energy. So the thing I want to mention is I am a fan of nootropics and many of these herbs I'm going to talk about, but don't use them as a crutch or simply to be able to go more and more and more and more until you totally crash and burn.

28:54The way that I use nootropics are, this week on Friday, my next book I'm writing, I've got to turn in the manuscript. And when I'm working on writing and being creative, I like doing a matcha green tea with my special blend I have of lion's mane mushroom and ginkgo biloba, L-theanine, rhodiola, cordyceps. I like doing that. And I'll use that if I'm going to really go in for a session of maybe I'm going to write for a half day, do a four-hour session. I want to be really creative and focused and locked in. I will do that maybe once a week. But I'm not taking nootropics every day and relying on them and also pounding caffeine.

29:34I found for myself, I can handle one matcha daily or a half-half of coffee and a half-decaf, half-caffeine. But that's all my body can handle. Now, listen, some people can handle much, much more caffeine than I can. But overall, relying on caffeine and stimulants is not healthy. healthy. It's not healthy. However, there are natural things you could do like these nootropics that I am a fan of, and I want to walk through this with you right now. Here are some of the benefits of many of these nootropics. One is increased blood flow to the brain, which by the way is also great for reducing the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

30:09Ginkgo biloba is the single best herb for that, but copa is also beneficial for that. But overall, ginkgo is the absolute best for blood flow to the brain. Neurogenesis and nerve growth factor, lion's mane mushroom is great for that. So helping create new neural pathways and repairing the brain, lion's mane mushroom is great for that. Stress resilience and mood balance. So if you feel like caffeine gets you a little bit too hyper, L-theanine can sort of bring you down, reduce stress levels. There's big benefits of that. And then there's sustained energy. MCT oil, matcha, cordyceps are good for that.

30:50Rhodiola is kind of a blend of stress resilience and sustained energy, which is great. Another thing I love about Rhodiola Rosea is it's a mitochondrial booster. So it's even good for people with things like hypothyroidism. So I'm a big fan of Rhodiola for that reason as well. And as I mentioned with Rhodiola Rosea, there is a study on it showing it reduces fatigue. It improves exercise performance, but also it's been shown to increase attention during stressful tasks, and it can improve ADHD symptoms, including in teens. So that's why I'm a huge fan of Rhodiolo, maybe one of my favorites on this entire list.

31:25Another great nootropic for cellular energy are cordyceps mushrooms. Those have shown in studies to improve your VO2 max in aerobic capacity, but also your endurance in being able to study for longer periods of time. L-theanine is another favorite, as I mentioned. This also improves sleep quality. L-theanine is naturally found in green tea. So you've got both caffeine and theanine in green tea. So this is why I prefer, I do better with matcha than coffee because I've noticed that I don't get the jitters. I sort of have this natural calmness and focus when I do matcha versus coffee. Not to say coffee isn't beneficial for some people.

32:05It can be. I just personally prefer matcha for that reason. Of course, the longevity studies on matcha and its compounds, like on its EGCG content, are really amazing as well. But overall, listen, I'm a fan of nootropics. I think it's a great wellness trend if it's done cyclically, typically not daily, to where you are simply just adding it on to your stressful lifestyle of busyness and loads of caffeine and you're just adding it onto that. But I do think using it periodically, a few days a week to get in a zone of focus has major benefits. And of course, much, much healthier alternative than using a ADHD drug like an Adderall or a Ritalin or another drug that's in that class of drugs.

32:54Number five wellness trend I'm constantly asked about that's been really popular in 2025 and going into 2026 is nicotine. Nicotine is a stimulant compound naturally found in tobacco. It's mostly associated with cigarettes, but today it's being used in gum and lozenges and patches as a nootropic. It activates the nicotine acetylcholine receptors in the brain, which are involved in attention, learning, memory, and arousal. And I see a lot of biohackers and productivity influencers are promoting low-dose nicotine as a cognitive enhancer and appetite suppressant. Studies suggest that nicotine can improve mental performance, especially in those people that are sleep-deprived.

33:43There are some early studies showing it may be beneficial for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's because of how it brings blood to the brain. Another benefit is it can be good for people who are trying to transition away from cigarette smoking and breaking that addiction. There are some benefits there as well. And it works by stimulating dopamine and acetylcholine. These are key neurotransmitters for motivation and learning. Now, let me share with you the clinical view from my perspective and the ancient view from Chinese medicine. Nicotine in Chinese medicine is known as a hot and acrid compound, which means it stimulates yang and moves chi, okay?

34:27Which in Western medicine, let's say you are really low in testosterone and you're not getting much movement. Your body is really sluggish. Doing a little nicotine on occasion can be helpful. However, if you would do this every day or even several times a week for a long period of time, it does something in the body because it dries up yin and agitates the heart and also depletes kidney essence long-term. Here's what this means in Western medicine. It dries up your fluids. It's going to cause dryness of skin, dryness of mouth. Think about, it's a very similar thing that happens when people use THC, right?

35:04THC, which is found in cannabis, people will notice when they do it in larger amounts, it causes that dry mouth, dry eye. You get that dryness, right? And that heat, it's going to cause that nicotine, very similar way. In fact, it's very similar in its properties to THC in in terms of the effect it has on the body physiologically. So it's going to drop those foods. Now, listen, this would be really bad for a woman going through menopause, right? Women are having hot flashes. Their skin's getting drier. Sometimes their hair thinner. I mean, they're noticing changes because when estrogen and progesterone decrease, those are yin hormones.

35:40Of course, they're feminine hormones. Yin is more feminine. Yang is more masculine. You are drying up your yin. So, you know, for nicotine patches for a woman going through perimenopause or menopause would be about the worst thing you could ever do. So I just want to say nicotine in small amounts, probably, you know, men that are older on occasion, that would be fine, you know, for them like once a week. Again, like I was talking about nootropics earlier, once a week, you're trying to get in a really focused zone. I remember Robert F. Kennedy Jr., many of you remember this. He's in this hearing where he is just being grilled for days on end.

36:17The guy's probably exhausted. He's been traveling over the country. He's been campaigning. He's been doing a number of things. You see him kind of slip in this gum, nicotine gum. For someone like him doing that for that one stressful period of time, hey, that might make sense. And for you who are saying, hey, I've got this deadline coming up. I want to do it for two or three days, once a month or on occasion. As long as you're not very dry and you don't have major heart issues or chronic fatigue or adrenal issues, right? If your adrenals are really depleted, it will make you worse as well. But as long as all those things line up and you just use it on occasion, you'll be just fine.

37:03But again, as you can see, though, nicotine is not good for everybody long-term because of how it dries the lung and dries out certain areas of the body and causes excess heat within the body. Now, here's some other reasons why it's controversial. It can be highly addictive, even in the gum form, can raise blood pressure, heart rate, and increase cardiovascular risk. I just mentioned the TCM on how it affects the heart. Western medicine shows it also impacts the heart. Long-term use can contribute to oral health issues. Again, the dryness and what it's doing into your oral microbiome. and not a good option for those with anxiety, insomnia, or yin deficiency constitutions like major menopausal symptoms, not ideal for those people.

37:43But it can be used on occasion for those for mental clarity and focus for short periods of time. Next up is kratom. Now, some of you maybe have not heard of kratom. Some of you might be very familiar with it, but it's a tropical evergreen tree that is native to Asia. Its leaves contain alkaloids that act on opioid receptors. Now, when we impact opioid receptors, think about opium. What do people typically take for that today? As a sedative and as a pain reliever, right? So that's why kratom is typically used today. Now, it also does have some other compounds that can oftentimes be used for energy, mood elevation, and of course, tied to being a sedative, anxiety relief and pain management there as well.

38:30And it's used as a natural alternative to opioids and stimulants and antidepressants. And it's promoted on social media, typically for chronic pain, anxiety, and fatigue. Some people use it to wean off of other addictive substances like cannabis or opioids or other things that might have more serious side effects. In fact, there was a 2018 study that was published in the Journal of Drug and Alcohol Dependence. And they found that the most common reason people took Kratom were for 91 % of the time for pain relief, 67 % of the time anxiety relief, and 65 % of the time depression, you see. So again, it's pain relief and it's anxiety and depression are why people are taking it today.

39:12Now, from a traditional Chinese medicine point of view, again, very similar to nicotine, very similar to THC, it is hot and it is dry. Okay, so you're going to use up all of these yin fluids and you're going to experience for a period of time this calming of your shin. Okay, this calming of the body. But it's going to deplete your yin and impact the liver negatively with long-term use. Again, here's the thing. You got chronic pain, you're going to need to, let's say you just had surgery. And you're trying to decide between, do I take this oxycodone that I know is very hard on the body? or do I try and do less of that or none of that and I try and take kratom instead?

39:55Of course, kratom is going to be much, it's more natural. It's going to have less severe side effects, less heart on the liver. It's a much better option if you can do that compared to these, again, oxycontin, oxycodone, some sort of drug like that that is typically prescribed. But still, over time with long-term use, you are going to dry out the body, okay, those fluids, which is going to aid you in certain organ systems like your liver, your heart, and your adrenal glands. So it's not something you want to do long-term. But again, as a medicine, as a natural form of medicine for short-term use for a week or two, yes, kratom can be great for those reasons.

40:39If you struggle with allergies, poor sleep, or just feeling off at home, you might not realize how much your indoor air quality is to blame. And unfortunately, most air purifiers don't actually clean the air. They filter a few particles, but they miss the mold spores, the VOCs, and even wildfire smoke that can trigger inflammation in your body. And that's why I personally use Jasper Air Scrubber in my own home. And I can honestly say the difference is incredible. Jasper's medical-grade purification actually scrubs the air, not just filtering it. And you can feel the difference, too. It's fresher.

41:16It's lighter. It's easier to breathe. and it's whisper quiet so you forget it's even running. On top of that, filter changes take 30 seconds, no tools, no mess. If you want to support your family's health naturally, head to jasper.co forward slash axe and use axe to save$400 off your Jasper Air Scrubber. Again, that's j-a-s-p-r dot c-o forward slash axe to get$400 off your Jasper Air Scrubber today. Now, I want to say this. What was oftentimes done in Chinese medicine is very rarely did you take a single herb by itself. That's very popularized in Western medicine today. What you would typically do in Chinese medicine and, of course, Ayurvedic medicine as well, is you would tend to combine multiple herbs so where you didn't, you could take certain herbs longer term.

42:14Okay, so what's happening today is somebody might be taking, I don't know, whatever dosage of kratom or other herb like a thousand milligrams. What they would do in Chinese medicine is you might only take 200 milligrams, but then you would take other things with it that might even offset the damage that something like kratom would do. And here's an example. Okay, CBD is very yin boosting. It's going to have the opposite effect of kratom or even THC. So when you are taking CBD with a THC or kratom or nicotine, it is helping balance it out somehow. You can still have those side effects. But if you do a half dose and then you add CBD to it, you're able to take it longer term.

43:01So one of the things that I consult and recommend patients do, let's say you're dealing with chronic pain. You can take kratom for a period of time. But let's also add in CBD and turmeric and magnesium and some other things that are also going to relieve pain, but also help bring some more fluids to the body, support heart health, and nourish those organs that maybe where kratom is being too drying in the body. So a lot of times you can combine kratom and other herbals that might have certain side effects with other herbs that help offset that and do lower doses and do it for a longer period of time.

43:37Our next wellness trend that I am a huge fan of is ozone therapy. Medical-grade ozone is a triatomic oxygen gas, so it's O3. So when we tend to think of oxygen, what's oxygen? It's O2. Ozone is O3, and it's used to enhance oxygen utilization, reduce pathogens, and support mitochondrial health. And it can be administered typically through IVs, also through insufflation. Also, it can be due in something called major auto chemotherapy, where you actually take your own blood, goes into a machine, they then add an ozone, and then they put the blood back in your body. Okay. If you've ever heard of something called EBU or a 10-pass ozone machines, these are these ozone that literally take your blood 10 times and add ozone to it.

44:32So there are many ways to do ozone. This is continuing to trend with biohackers and also doctors of functional medicine who use this especially for treating chronic infections, autoimmune disease, and for its longevity benefits. In fact, there was a study in 2018, this was a randomized trial, and they found ozone therapy greatly improved fatigue and mitochondrial energy markers in chronic fatigue syndrome. So there are major, major benefits of using ozone. What ozone does from a Chinese medicine perspective is it clears out toxic heat and moves cheese stagnation. This improves circulation. It helps you fight pathogens.

45:15Now, too much ozone can deplete your body's yin and fluid. So it's again, like anything, you don't want to overdo it. But I really like ozone for if somebody has chronic infections. Now, if somebody is in a phase where they are absolutely depleted, and they know they have major overgrowth, I don't like doing that in phase one of a care plan for a patient. I like first strengthening their body, getting them in a little bit in an infrared sauna, and taking a couple months of building their body up and using nutrition first, Then I'll have them do ozone or even something like plasma exchange as part of a mold detoxification therapy or Lyme disease protocol.

45:56But again, ozone as part of a phase two or three plan for chronic infections is absolutely amazing. Also amazing for even the common cold or flu. So a lot of benefits there for immune systems and fighting infections. So again, ozone has major benefits for fighting infections. Number eight wellness trend is taking shalajit. Shilajit is a mineral-rich resin from Himalayan rock layers containing fulvic acid, humic acid, and trace minerals. And it's marketed as a testosterone support, energy booster, and longevity support. A clinical study showed that 250 milligrams a day of Shilajit for 90 days increased total and free testosterone in healthy men.

46:40And so overall, Shilajit helps raise testosterone and replenish something called chi in the body or cellular energy in the mitochondria. So I am a fan of Shilajit. I think it's a great supplement for a number of people. The only thing I'll say, I found in some people that if they have weak digestion or loose stools, that Shilajit may not agree with them. Okay, so if you've got digestive distress, then you may not want to take Shilajit. But for most everyone else, especially men with low testosterone, great benefits there of Shilajit. The number nine wellness trend, maybe the most popular of all, ice baths and cold plunging.

47:19Cold plunging is immersing yourself in cold water that is below 60 degrees to stimulate the nervous system and support metabolic resilience. It's really trending because Wim Hof, his influence on mental toughness culture and its benefits of being tied to cryotherapy and reducing inflammation, especially post-sports recovery, that's why it's trending. Here's a few studies. Cold exposure has been shown to increase norepinephrine by 200 % to 300%, improving focus, mood, and resilience. So there are studies showing that ice baths reduce inflammation, improve recovery in the short term, and have some benefits.

48:02However, again, however, doing too much too fast or just doing it whatsoever for certain people is not ideal. If you have hypothyroidism or chronic fatigue syndrome or low body temperature, you just get cold more easily. You have poor circulation. You should not cold plunge. It's not great for you. Okay? What you can do is while you're taking a warm shower, turn it cold for one minute and do some deep breathing exercises in the shower where the water is sending you at, I don't know what it is, 65 degrees, 60 degrees. That's fine. And then that's it. And then you turn it back up to warm. That is probably the ideal thing for the majority of people.

48:42Now, listen, if you're in the Tour de France or you're a CrossFit athlete and you're a male creating a lot of heat, generating a lot of heat, getting in something cold, especially if you're looking to recover more quickly, if you have a competition coming up like you'll see NFL football players do or the men in the Tour de France, yeah, it makes sense doing cold plunge. But this cold plunging, and listen, it will make you feel more mentally tough and maybe will make you more mentally tough. So I think doing some cold plunging on occasion can be fine. But doing it every day, all the time, it absolutely is going to hurt your body.

49:19In fact, from the Chinese medicine perspective, cold strengthens yang by challenging it. But excess cold injures your kidney yang. It's like this. Think about it like this. your weight training, okay? And you go to the gym and your body can handle the 25, 30 pound dumbbell curls. Okay. You're sitting there, you're doing those curls. You do a normal amount of sets, you put them down, you move on. Okay. And then let's say you go in there and then every day you do arm curls, not one day a week, every day. And then you're like, I'm going to start doing 40s and 50s. And you're kind of like, you know, straining every just constantly.

49:54You're eventually going to injure yourself. You're going to tear a ligament, a tendon. The same thing is true with cold plunging. Okay. It's not meant to do every day, maybe one or two days a week. Okay. And then even then, some of you need to start off with the 10 pound dumbbells. That's a cold shower. Okay. You're not ready for the fifties. Okay. So, uh, and, and for, and all, and again, for people that have weak constitutions, if you're not healing well, you don't want to do a lot of cold. If you have digestive issues, you do not want to do cold. If you've got cold, damp, hypothyroidism, chronic fatigue syndrome, do not do cold plunge.

50:35Okay? Now, again, if you're a fairly healthy male or women, the reason I'm saying male, if you're a woman, you can recover and do some cold plunge. But your body's still a little bit more sensitive. You have less testosterone, which testosterone is very warming and anabolic. OK, so a male can handle cooling their body for a little bit because it will challenge it, but not over challenge it. It's easier for a woman to have their testosterone over challenge and it to break their body. OK, just like men can lift typically more weight, not all men. OK, but typically have the ability to do to the higher levels of the hormone testosterone.

51:13Very similar thing. So listen, here's the here's the reality. cool your body in the way that your body can handle. Okay. For a lot of you, it's no cold whatsoever. You're much better off getting an infrared sauna, much better off. Okay. In fact, almost everybody can benefit from an infrared sauna. Um, for some of you, it's, it's a cold shower for one minute, a few days a week. Okay. And for some of you, it's maybe two days a week of a cold plunge in the fifties. And, and then also you're doing other things for, you know, You're also lifting plenty of weights and doing other things that's going to help offset that cold plunge.

51:50Okay, so that's the Chinese medicine perspective, my professional opinion as well, and based on the medical studies. The number 10 wellness trend is sourdough bread. This is bread made with live yeast, lactic acid, bacteria, rather than commercial quick rise yeast. Why it's trending? Partly due to my wife loving it so much. You know, we've got celebrities like Carrie Underwood. Of course, Carrie's a friend. She's been on the show here. And so many homesteaders and influencers are now making sourdough bread. I was just having a conversation with Mallory Irvin. You might also know people like Sean Johnson.

52:25These are women who are also getting into making sourdough bread because they're amazing family women. And what kid does not love sourdough bread and butter? We all love it. Okay. The benefits are when you do sourdough processing, it's breaking down the gluten. You're getting more absorption of the minerals because you kill off phytic acid. It's lower glycemically. There are lots of benefits to sourdough bread. And it's been shown to, in studies, have less impact on your blood sugar. Now, I do want to say this, that you can have too much of a good thing, okay? If you have, let's say you have diabetes and major insulin issues, and you're eating bread and bread and bread and more bread, even though it's sourdough, it's going to impact your blood sugar, okay?

53:05Less than traditional bread. And if you had butter, it's going to impact it even less. But overall, it's not ideal for those who need to lose a lot of weight, are supporting certain levels of metabolic health. But again, it's much better. So again, I'm a big fan of the wellness trend of sourdough, especially if it's done in small to moderate amounts. And then the last wellness trend here is parasite cleansing. I started the show talking about this. Parasite cleansing is all about ridding your body, your liver, your intestines, your bloodstream of infections and parasites. I see a lot of TikTok influencers talking about how doing a parasite cleanse cured their bloating or their skin problems or some other health issue.

53:49That can be true. Parasite cleansing can be amazing. The most powerful herbs typically used as part of a parasite cleanse are black walnut, wormwood, clove, mimosa pudica, berberine, major benefits. But many of those herbs, it's important to know, are very hard on the gut. And so it's important to know that if you do not have a parasite, it's not doing you good. And it actually is probably going to deplete your digestive system some, putting you more at risk of a digestive issue. So again, I'm a big fan of parasite cleansing only if you have a parasite. Okay. Only if you have a parasite, you're certain you have a parasite or you likely do, then let's do a parasite cleanse and you can get lots of benefits from that.

54:33So those are some of the most popular wellness trends I've seen in 2025. I know we're going to continue into 2026. I've tried to expose the truth about how these should be used for your benefit. And as you can see, it's so dependent upon your own biology. Some people are going to really thrive on some, some not as much on others. But overall, you really need to listen to your body, be aware of your own internal body, and typically use them on occasion based on need. I want to say thanks so much for tuning in here to the Dr. Josh Axe Show, where each and every week I'm diving deep into the science and principles of how you can heal physically, mentally, and spiritually, and take your health and your life to the next level.

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