The Toxin Nobody Checks For (It's in Your Clothes & Bed) | Alex Clark

25:07Cortisol and chronic stress aren't just mental. They create real physical strain on the body over time, disrupting hormones, sleep, metabolism and recovery. One tool that helps regulate the stress response, support detox pathways and promote recovery is a sunlight and infrared sauna. targeted infrared light and heat are absorbed at the cellular level, helping reduce stress and improve circulation. If you've listened to me for some time, you know I have been using my Sunlight and Sauna for years. They've led infrared technology for over 25 years with patented systems designed to deliver high quality infrared.

25:48Their impulse sauna lets you customize precise wavelengths to match your health goals. If lowering stress and supporting long-term resilience is a priority for you, learn more at sunlighten.com slash axe. Use code AXE to save up to$2 ,100 off Asana plus free shipping with additional savings throughout the year. Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned bread. My mind, of course, immediately went to sourdough. I'm curious for you, what are your favorite health trends that you've seen over the past couple years? One of the biggest episodes I ever did was with Sue Becker. She's this grandma from Georgia, and she teaches people how to make their own bread with freshly milled flour.

26:38She is all about milling your own flour because she says it's not necessarily that everybody is allergic to gluten. And it's not even necessarily the glyphosate, which isn't good. But the reason so many people cannot eat conventional bread anymore or gluten anymore is really because of the types of flour that we use in America. What we do to flour, to have it be shelf stable, the things that we're putting in it, things we're taking out of it, all of that is not ideal for the body. It's not the way that God intended us to eat bread. So she talks about how bread, the Bible says, it's supposed to be the bread of life.

27:13Like it's not supposed to be peasant food or something that nobody could have. It's supposed to be a very, very nutrient dense food item on your plate. And when she talked about the health benefits of milling your own flour, everything from warts being healed to. Yeah, she says there's a vitamin in freshly milled flour that you don't get elsewhere that usually when you have a war explosion, there's like a vitamin deficiency. Yeah, well, I mean, potassium is really high on that list. There's a number of other, you know. It's vitamin E or A, but I can't remember which one. Yeah, I mean, it's, well, I mean, they're both important for the immune system.

27:51I mean, vitamin A is actually the most, now this is more in third world countries, but it's actually the vitamin that we're most deficient in across the globe, along with vitamin D. And vitamin A is critical for immune health and skin health. So that would, it would make sense. And this also reminds me of, you know, when I looked at, when you look at all the research on, And, you know, foods being sprayed with things like pesticides very early. A lot of foods are harvested sometimes one month or at least two weeks before they're actually ripe. And what that does is, I mean, a lot of these foods only that last two weeks or month of ripening is when so many of the vitamins and minerals and the antioxidants like polyphenols are coming to are really developing.

28:32So a lot of these and then you bring it home and you may not eat it for another week. So a lot of these foods, by the time we're eating them, are completely depleted. But that makes sense with flour, too. I mean, a very similar thing where if you are milling it yourself there right then, that's when the nutritional bioavailability and the nutrients are going to be by far the highest. Yeah, and, you know, I think a lot of people hear that in milling my own flour, like, oh, my word, I don't have time for this. They think of it like washing your clothes with, like, a scrubber in the backyard, you know.

28:59And she says, no, it takes literal seconds. You just mill whatever you're going to need for that particular recipe. So if you're making, I don't know, cookies, then you're just going to mill the amount of wheat berries that you need. And she's like, it takes like literally 10 seconds. It's just boop. There it is. There's your flour. And you stick it in the recipe. She's like, it's not this intensive, long process. But by doing that, you're just giving your body so many nutrients that it's not getting from modern food and bread. So that was a mind-blowing episode. And then, you know, if you're interested in the clothing stuff that I just briefly talked about, I interviewed this girl, Hannah Dunning, which you have got to have on your show.

29:36Hannah is an activist on clean clothing. And the stats and the truth bombs that she drops about modern American clothing will have you, I mean, your mouth on your jaw on the floor, basically. And so that was a super viral episode that I did. And then, of course, like, I mean, one of the most controversial episodes I've ever done, and I have no idea how you feel about it, is I had Dr. Brian Artis on to talk about the benefits of nicotine patches. I've got a strong opinion on it. What's yours? So nicotine, and by the way, for me, this is a principle of, I'm sharing Chinese medicine, it's 3 ,000 years old.

30:13So nicotine, let me just give this summary first. If you're using nicotine once a month in a small dose, that's fine. But if you're using it daily, it's creating heat. And it's actually in a similar way to THC. THC. So we know if you look at hemp or cannabis, CBD is known in Chinese medicine as the yin. So it's very cooling. It's moistening. It helps you sleep better. It calms inflammation. THC is sort of the opposite of that. It's the counterbalance to that. It's more yang energy. It's more going to drive heat in that way. So if you're doing a lot of THC over time, the danger there is excess heat, especially in the liver, causing inflammation.

30:52Nicotine is the very same thing. It's a stimulant that's very driving and causing heat long term. It's going to drive your fluids is my point. That's going to be the big problem there. Now, again, if you do that once a month and your diet's clean or even once a week in a small dose, your body's probably going to get away with it. But for people doing nicotine pouches, if they're doing it daily as a sort of natural, you know, like you'd use coffee or something like that, you're going to dry out your fluids over time. It's going to cause your skin to age more quickly. It's going to cause dehydration.

31:23So again, I think there's this quote, and I use it for almost everything, is the dose determines the medicine or the poison. So I think nicotine done occasionally is not a problem for almost anybody. But I think doing it as a daily habit, I don't think it's healthy. Yeah, that's fascinating. He talked about just how it can help chronic pain issues. And he was talking about, by the way, the smallest dose. It was a patch that you wear on your skin. You can order on Amazon, you get like seven milligrams and then you cut that seven milligrams into like three or four pieces. So it's like a sliver. I mean, it's very small.

31:58And he was saying long COVID symptoms that people struggle with, um, or, you know, joint chronic joint pain, things like that. And I will say I have received hundreds of messages since that episode came out of members of my audience saying like, for the first time, I don't have this, you know, severe back pain or whatever, which is, which is great. I'm happy for them. Now I've been too chicken to try it. I want to say this though too about that. You know how many people could take a steroid and be like, wow, I don't have this pain. I haven't had this pain in years. So my point is I'm not worried about it for short-term use.

32:29I'm worried about it for just daily long-term use. Yeah. Yeah. That's fair. So I haven't done it, but that's been a huge one, something shocking that I learned. And then recently I did this episode with my friend, Amy McDalia. She's a health practitioner, and she says that we shouldn't be farting. And that if you're passing gas, it's a sign that something is not right in your digestion and you've got some gut issues that need to be worked out, that you've got leaky gut or something else going on. And so that was the first time I ever heard. I thought tooting was good. I thought you got to have a meal and then walk around and then that's that's a sign of health.

33:08But she's saying the opposite. it. Yeah, well, really what's happening there is your body, if you're having gas, and to a degree bloating, you don't have the right balance of microbes, typically, or enzymes to break down the food. And that's what's causing gas. Now, I'll say this. Let's say somebody is going from a low fiber diet to a higher fiber diet. Let's say the average person does 15 grams of fiber a day. That is way too low. That's not good at all. You want to be closer to 30 to 40. But when you're increasing your fiber dose, you are going to have gas because your body over time is going to say, oh, you're eating more fiber now.

33:49Well, now we need to change what's in this gut microbiome in order to better digest and break down this fiber in the future. The same as protein. Anybody knows it's ever in their life switched to a higher protein diet knows they're going to have gas at first for the very same reason. Oh, we all have all this protein now. We need more of this certain type of bacteria and enzymes to break down this protein and amino acids. So here's where I would agree with her. Here's where I would disagree. Let me say that first. It can be normal and healthy if you are changing your diet and making your diet better.

34:25However, it's not healthy if this is just a continuous long-term thing and you're dealing with gas. So I agree with her. If you're dealing with a lot of that over time, your body doesn't either have the acidic, the proper pH in your gastrointestinal tract, or it's missing microbes, or you're not producing enough enzymes. There likely is some sort of problem with that in that long term. Another fascinating thing that I learned recently in the last few weeks was cradle cap is not normal. That's not an anomaly. It's not nothing. It is saying that there is some stuff going on, probably just that the baby has inherited from you and your mom and whatever is passed down in the toxin load bucket.

35:09But it is a sign of some sort of disruption, which I thought cradle cap just happens. And that's just I don't know stuff that is gooped on the baby. I don't know anything. I've never had kids yet. But that was crazy to learn. We had our oldest daughter had that. And Chelsea changed her diet. But I mean, I felt bad for her because she pretty much changed her diet to beef and sweet potatoes or beef and rice and some steamed vegetables. And that's all she ate. Because when she ate other things, it would cause, you know, it would cause some gas or it would cause, you know, we had the cattle crap. By the way, topically for cradle cap.

35:45Now, you obviously don't want them to eat it under one years old. But Manuka honey topically fixes that faster than anything. Anything else. If a parent is having that issue and you want to know the right thing to do topically. Very, very effective. So what is it? Because I forget now. What is it that is going on that causes cradle cap? Yeah, so it's a fungal issue. And so it typically starts in the gut, right? So I think, you know, doing everything you can to, I mean, the other thing we did is we did probiotics internally. And it's so important for kids. I mean, this is another thing. I mean, this is something I've seen just chronically over the years is so many kids today have gut issues, which is causing food sensitivity.

36:25I mean, food sensitivities now compared to 100 years ago are radical. I mean, so many kids today, of course we know, and there's other reasons for this, but issues with autism, with ADHD, with just kids having autoimmune conditions. Yeah, eczema. Eczema is chronic and serious for so many. And this is where personalized medicine is really important in figuring out and finding a practitioner that can really work with families and kids to find out exactly what the root is. And typically, you need to change the internal environment, right? So one thing that this was maybe the most surprising thing to me when I first started practice, this was nearly 20 years ago, is that, you know, what you're taught in school, what a lot of leaders did for a long time.

37:10And this still happens predominantly. It's always in conventional medicine. First off, they don't even think diet helps that much. In functional medicine, some doctors will still say things like, oh, every patient that comes in, I'm going to put them on keto or carnivore or vegan or just gluten free. What I found is, no, everybody is unique and we need to customize something for them. So like if I have a child, typically a child with eczema in Chinese medicine, we would call that damp heat. And so we need to reduce. And so like bananas are very dampening. Eggs are very dampening. Sugar in general is very dampening.

37:42So like dried fruit, that would be problematic. And so, and then you want to do things that are a little bit drying. Now, of course, kids don't like this, but bitter foods would be the best thing they can do. You know, if you could do some steamed veggies that are a little bit bitter, like broccoli rabe or, um, uh, anyway, there, there, there, there's a number there, artichokes and that sort of thing. So, I mean, those are hard for kids. But my point is, is that there are things that will clear out and change that internal environment that'll then help clear up the eczema. But you gotta be, I mean, again, it takes a level of being pretty diligent there.

38:12By the way, I remember before we were about to, start recording here. So you're very close to getting married. You guys have already been having discussions about your kids. And did I hear something like you guys are not going to feed your kids like, you know, a specific type of produce for their first two years of life? Yeah. So my fiance and I have an idea. And I know that once you become a parent, things change and you go in with these great goals and then, you know, life happens, which is totally fine. But this is just an idea that we have, you know, as something we would like to try to adhere to as much as we can, which is not giving our kids fruit for the first two years of life.

38:52The reason is, and this is his belief, so he has put this into my head and I'm like, I mean, I'm down to try, is he really thinks focusing on, you know, substantive food like, like bone marrow and meat and veggies and things like that or fermented foods like sauerkraut pickled onions, whatever. It would be better to start a kid liver. It would be better to start a kid on those foods and set their palate up than adding in sweetness, even natural sugar. And he kind of has the same mentality even around music. He's like, you know, for the first few years of your kid's life, like if you are only exposing them to the greats, you know, of classical music and beautiful, you know, instrumental classical songs, like you're setting up, you know, their taste for music to without adding in all this junk, you know, Jojo Siwa, whatever.

39:46He's like, you honestly are creating what their palate will be for foods, for music, for entertainment, all of those things. And so he's like, if we can avoid fruit for the first two years, then introduce it in. It's just, even though it's natural sugar, you're getting your kid to just prefer the sweet type of sugary foods over the more bitter fermented types of things. What are your thoughts on that? Well, one I would share, first off, I think from a philosophical standpoint, there's a lot of wisdom there. Now, I'm not going to totally agree with it, but I will say I think there's a lot of wisdom because here's what I found as a parent.

40:20So I have a two-year-old and a six-year-old, and then I've taken care of just thousands of kids in my practice over the years. And there is no doubt that what they eat when they're one and two years old, they tend to like later on in life. Like our kids right now, like they will sit down there and before they'll eat anything else, they are pounding zucchini and carrots and broccoli like you've never seen. I'm like, like, honestly, my daughter started having stomach cramps at night because she ate way too many, way too many vegetables that we would steam. And I'm like, hey, we need to back down because this specific type of fiber is causing you to have some stomach pain.

40:54And so we absolutely see that. Like our kids, they love salmon. They love grass fed beef. They love fruits, you know, too, but they they love these foods and um and they also love sour food like they'll sit there and sometimes eat a lemon and you're like what just because they started doing that when they were you know or just after one years old so he's like let's do liver pate let's do oysters and bone marrow before we do uh you know grapes and bananas let me say this i generally agree with that part of things i mean i want to say the first foods for our daughters were things like carrots and green beans and then we did i even think egg yolk we did salmon you know we did avocado very very early That might've even been the first that was up there with carrots and green beans.

41:37So, you know, and, and we do it, we do a mono diet. We start with one at a time for, for quite a few months and then add a second, you know, every maybe three days or week or something like that. So we had a protocol there, by the way, we even expose our kids to peanuts early on. So they wouldn't have these allergies because a lot of this stuff acts as natural immunization over time. That way they don't have allergies. They're actually kits you can get for that. I would say this, you know, and this is a little bit of a ancient Asian perspective. I would want to expose them to all five flavors and have them crave all five flavors.

42:09You want them to crave the umami. So even to your point, I mean, liver pate, of course, is going to be in that realm. Certain types of milk are going to be in that realm. Like kefir and stuff. Yep, exactly. So I think you're covered there. The sour, of course. Now you can get that from pickled foods to your point, like sauerkraut. You want them to do the salty, of course. They're going to naturally get that everywhere. And then you want them to do a little bit of the, you know, the, the, you know, some savory foods and you also want them to do, or bitter. And then you want them to do a little bit of sweet.

42:38Now, of course they can get a little bit of sweet from beets and from carrots. Um, there is a little bit of natural occurring sugar in breast milk as well. So, you know, I would say that, I'm listen, that's going to be better than what 90 % of people do with their kids. Yeah. No, I like that idea about all five flavors. I think he'd like it too. He's a big fan of yours. If you say it, he'll be like, I'm on board. But I think if If you do it, yeah, introduce those fruits wisely. I mean, I think generally speaking, some of the easiest to digest, I mean, blueberries, of course, would be just a natural sort of great food because you're getting sour and sweet and high polyphenol intake, which is great for the gut microbiome.

43:15So, I mean, I think you could, you know, sprinkle on a few there. He also said in all of life, our kids will never be allowed to have pouch things. No pouches sucking on yogurt and applesauce and all this, I guess because he thinks there's tons of sugar just sitting on your table. Well, let me say this. So two things here, and I've discovered this even with art. The reason why I'm a little bit conscious of food packs as well, there's plastic, and even if it's BPA-free, there's quite a bit of plastic there. But yeah, I mean, you know, I do think it is higher in concentrated sugar. I mean, I would prefer a whole piece of fruit to a food pack in most cases.

43:50It's crazy even like mashed banana baby food and stuff, like in a jar at the store, how much sugar's in it. There's all kinds of sugar in this stuff. Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is why just mashing up the fruit yourself, I think there's an element of it still being better. And so the other thing that I think I'm conscious of that I'm seeing is dried fruit. Because like, you know, if you're buying dried strawberries and other things, they're a big cause of cavity because they stick to your teeth. Eating fresh strawberries is amazing. Do it all day, you know. But some of the dried fruit that's fully dried, you're seeing it stick to teeth.

44:21And I think this is a reason why it's increasing calories. Now, I do want to say this. It's way better than feeding them fast food or conventional fruit juice or eating Lucky Charms, right? I mean, conventional cereal. So do dried fruit before that. But overall, I do think if you're doing all the time in high amounts and not doing the fresh stuff, it's it's not quite as ideal as doing the the fresh. Yeah, I'm into it. Hey, I want to ask you for a favor and you may know this. You may not know this pre-orders make or break a book launch. So if our new book, myself and Dr. Will Cole, Heal Your Cells, has been on your radar.

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46:23Yeah, so we, I mean, there's definitely some controversial things. I think that we kind of have ideas of like what we'd like to do. But we know that life comes fast, right? Oh, yeah, it does. You'll see me and I'll be like, look at all of our applesauce pouches, you know. So I'm fully aware of that. I mean, all my friends have like five plus kids. All my best friends have very large families. I know all the goals you go into it and then how you change your mind. So we're not too proud to, you know, admit like, of course, that that can happen. Yeah. What is the thing that you've implemented in your life that you feel like has had the most profound and positive impact on your own health?

47:04I think a couple things.

47:10One, really making a conscious effort to read more than scroll. Wow. And I am totally addicted to Twitter. So I that is a really big thing for me. I love to read, but you can just get in this trap. And I mean, that's what the algorithm is for. It sucks you in and you can't set it down. Sometimes I have to put my phone on do not disturb so that those notifications are not popping up and I can set it down and I can read. And man, I feel so much better, more productive, even if it's just a fiction book, OK, by reading than scrolling. So that's that's one thing. Another thing I would say is changing out my bedding to be all natural fibers has been so impactful.

47:58There is a reason we used to say phrases like healing linens when we talked about like hospitals. We would say like we need to put healing linens on. There is power in natural, true, you know, linen and cotton to really heal the sick. and I think that I have the best sleep of my life sleeping on all natural bedding. It's just made a big difference, I think, than having like a polyester down comforter or something. I'm just going to understand. I mean, one, the mattress you sleep on is incredibly important and the sheets are too. I mean, think about this is like eight hours. You're rubbing against this thing.

48:31You're laying on something. I just had Gary Breck on my podcast and we talked about this for a while. It's something like 98 % of mattresses are covered in flame retardant material. I mean, that's a whole nother topic that I think is, you know, kind of interesting. No, it totally is. It's a lot to do the clothing, you know? So that's something I haven't done yet. That's on my to-do list once we get married because I want him to come pick out a bed with me. So I'm like, let's go pick together. But we'll probably get something from avocado or something like that. Yeah, it's a great burden. So that's one thing.

49:02And then another is natural light, you know, in the morning. Yes. As much as I can help it, you know, take my dog for a walk. Getting out within 30 minutes or so of waking up has been, that has been exponentially life-changing. Just the way I feel, I feel like I'm crazy, but I just feel like it also helps with like curbing cravings. Am I nuts? No, no, no. I think, listen, it's balancing cortisol. I mean, cortisol as a hormone is gonna impact insulin maybe more than any other hormone in terms of, and then impact your hunger hormone. So no, I think that's absolutely accurate. Better sleep at night.

49:38And then, I mean, full disclosure, shout out, they'd be sponsored my show, but I'm obsessed, obsessed with my Jasper air purifier. And we have four, we had, uh, so in January, uh, we, uh, this happened in Nashville. We had an ice storm and lost power for four days. I had all the, all the sinks tripping, everything went back to our house, turn the heat on, went back the next day and whole house flooded, whole house flooded. And we had just remodeled it and moved in six weeks before. Oh my gosh. I'd be freaking out about the mold. Oh yeah. So, so we were, so we had people there and we, I literally have, I might have eight Jaspers in my house going all the time.

50:19There are filters and we had other big, heavy, heavy ones going the whole time too. So, I mean, we were very obsessed about not having mold, but to your point, that's a, what a great product. It's such a great product and I won't travel without it. So now if it's one night, I'm not worried about it, but if I am going to be somewhere for a couple nights, I will have a Jasper either mailed or sent to the hotel. And then I leave it there and I gift it. I did. I tell the hotel, Hey, this is like a really life-changing product. Everybody deserves clean air. I'm gifting it, gifting it to you. If you want to take it home, or if you want to have it available for, for people when they check into the hotel, do that.

50:58Um, but I just, you know, call myself the airy godmother. So I do that or I check it, you know, when I'm flying and then I, and I bring it, but like, if you're going to be staying, you know, on a family vacation for a week, Airbnb, um, people in my audience do the same thing. They're like, Oh, we packed the Jasper in the car with all of our other stuff and our groceries and everything to go to Florida. Like you, when you do not have that fresh, clean air, you notice it, but I sleep so much better. Um, I love that my house doesn't have a smell. Um, unless I'm lighting my primarily pure, you know, natural candles, non-toxic candles.

51:32That's the only smell Like my team has to come to my place and do social media content with me. I'm always like, what does it smell like in here? Because does my house have a smell? Because growing up, like I would always know like that friend of mine, like I know what her family's house smells like. It's like weird. Because all the chemicals that you're using and whatever, furniture off gassing and all that, cleaning products. And, you know, with the Jasper, they're like, your house doesn't have a smell. Unless you're lighting a candle, it smells like nothing. And that is honestly ideal. That's what everybody should be striving for.

51:58We have been conditioned by cleaning companies that your house isn't clean if it doesn't have a clean smell. That's synthetic fragrance. That's not that has nothing to do with being clean. You can get just as clean of a house with something that is completely fragrance free. You know, whether that is Branch Basics or Molly Suds or I don't know, whatever you're using. I am a Branch Basics freak. So that's what I'm using. But you it's plant and mineral based. You can wash your produce with it and literally eat it. You're not going to get sick. If your kid, you know, obviously you don't want to just sit there and chug this stuff.

52:32But I'm just saying, if your kid accidentally got a little bit in their mouth, you don't have to call poison control, right? And what people don't realize is you're cleaning products in your home, even capped. So let's say you go to Target, you buy Branch Basics, but you still have Clorox and bleach and all that under your sink capped. It is still off-gassing chemicals into your environment. So without having an air scrubber or whatever, I mean, that stuff is floating around. You're still breathing it in. And there are families where their kid has severe eczema issues. They realize they've changed everything in the house, but they still had a box of old toxic cleaning products.

53:06They take the box out. They set it outside. They're like, we're just going to do an experiment. Let's put the cleaning products in the garage. Let's see what happens. Within days, that kid's skin completely clears up. Wow. You know, there are numerous studies on this. But on average, our indoor air is at least two times, if not five times more toxic than the outdoor air. So it's so funny. It's like, especially if you're in California, no offense to Californians in the summer, but, you know, you go outside and you're like, oh, you know, or they have the things like don't, you know, don't, you know, air quality alert, you know, in these areas.

53:36Well, your indoor air is like that all the time. It's not way worse. So overall, yeah, cleaning air is so important. You know what it reminds me of? So when I was in college, this was when I was working on my doctorate and I was probably a year before I went out and opened my practice in Nashville. Phil. I went and started doing blood work. In fact, one thing, one thing I did a couple of years before, uh, in school, before I even opened my practice was, is I went into a clinic every week and I would do all the blood work there and go over all the nutrition consults and the blood work reviews. And I ended up doing blood work on myself.

54:09And I had a couple of markers that were absolutely through the roof of toxins. And I'm like, what is going on here? And I finally, you know, was able to search online and find, okay, well, what is this exposure from? And it was from dishwashing detergent. So like I'd be in the kitchen and, you know, cooking food while, you know, the dishwasher, you smell the fumes coming out from the dishwasher. Well, at the time, I mean, I switched to a lot of natural things, but I was still using conventional dishwashing detergent. That dishwashing detergent was causing me to have incredibly high levels of toxicity, messing with my brain, causing low gray.

54:42Yeah. I mean, so, so there are, so to your point, I mean, there are, these toxins can really, really damage your cells and body. And so really going through your whole house. And by the way, it's not that expensive typically to switch over to a brand like, you know, Branch Basics and some of these others. It's cheaper. It's literally cheaper. And what people don't realize is it's one product that does everything. Cause you know, they have their, it's called the concentrates orange and you just, um, for different areas of your house. So windows, floors, um, all purpose spray for your countertops, whatever bathroom cleaner, they just have you fill it with different amounts of water.

55:14So it's one product with water. Yeah. We've used the brand. It's excellent. So that's it. So it's like, it's one product taking one space in your sink and it does everything and it's completely non-toxic people use i use it as windshield wiper fluid you can use it for anything wash your car inside your car it reminds me of like so also when i was in college i had this uh dr bronner's thing and i want to say oh my gosh he's a weirdo that guy's a freak okay well well i i've never met him i do know though that there was a product at the time and it was like this might be overboard but i did something like brush my tea with it, wash my hair with it.

55:47Like it was sort of one of those things that kind of had everything. The product is great. So don't freak out if you're using it. He's just a person, like read the bottle. He's also like a furry. He's just a strange guy. Yeah. He's a weird guy. There are some strange, especially the old school people that were in the natural health space. Oh yeah. Oh geez. There are some strangers there. Okay. I want to ask you about this. How has getting blood work done? Because I've seen you post and talk about this. How has getting blood work done, improved your health and life? Well, it just gives you a window to understand what's actually going on.

56:18It's like, first of all, before I did that, the biggest mistake that I've ever made with my health, well, there's been many. One of the biggest mistakes I've ever made with my health was spending$1 ,200 a month on supplements before doing blood work. Yes. Wow. I was drinking herbs here, herbs this, herbs that. Who knows? Yeah, right. You're throwing stuff at the wall, seeing what sticks, and you have no idea what you actually need to spend money on. And so getting blood work done, testing, you know, 90 plus biomarkers, being able to see, okay, exactly where do I have problems? What needs fixing or what needs a little help here?

56:59A lot of it you can get from a food. You don't have to use a supplement either. You can just change some of your diet. You need a little bit more of this vitamin. You need to eat a little bit more of this. You know, you're all about that. It is so helpful. And I think a money saver to spend a little bit of money on blood work versus hundreds, even thousands on supplements. I think we are too, we're too reliant on supplements in America. It's just too much. It's like overboard. I can't stand it. And so that was a huge thing for me. Other mistakes I've made, You know, flu shot every year, fully vaxxed, birth control for almost a decade, ultra processed food exclusively almost my entire life until like five years ago.

57:37Yeah, there's been a lot. Yeah, I mean, yeah, five years ago, you just had a total, you know, epiphany and turnaround. It's pretty amazing. I just like went through my pantry with a garbage bag and I was just throwing everything out. This spice isn't organic. It's out of here. This spatula is plastic. It's out of here. I just had to do the whole overhaul because if I don't, I'm black and white. If I don't go all in, I'm not doing it. Yeah, you're an all-in personality. Yeah, blood work is something I've done with every patient now almost because it's one of those things where it's tests don't guess.

58:04Because if not, you're guessing on so many things and being able to pinpoint, oh, this is the thing I need is so valuable. And I have more and more people, you know, groups of people that maybe weren't focusing on blood work in the past that are doing it. I have a lot of women before they want to conceive or get pregnant, they're doing blood work. especially knowing what certain nutrient levels are can prevent all the morning, you know, the morning sickness, the nausea. Of course, it's better health for the baby. And then really just every group can benefit from knowing what are my nutrient levels.

58:35Also, having it read from a functional medicine standpoint, not conventional, of looking at, hey, what are optimal levels, not what are average, is important. So anyways, I think it's been just so incredibly beneficial that more and more people are doing blood work. I think you want to do the right markers because a lot of these more traditional markers like LDL cholesterol, they're just not as helpful as the more advanced newer markers like ApoB. But anyways, all that being said, I agree. I think it's incredibly beneficial for so many people. Rapid fire. Okay. Okay. All right. Butter or olive oil?

59:10Butter. Well, okay. I have to say that. My fiancee's sub stack is running on butter. Okay. Okay. makes sense all right raw milk or pasture raised eggs oh that is such a good one i'm gonna say raw milk because i have an egg allergy but both are fantastic all right i agree air filter or water filter i'm gonna say air and then i'm spending money on glass bottled water okay all right obsessed with Lunen, by the way. Oh, wait, can I just say this? I know it's supposed to be rapid fire. Have you heard about, and I'm not sponsored by them, have you heard of this company called Lunen? I don't know. Okay, it's a glass-bottled water company.

59:58They're brand new. But what's really cool, and I'm just, like, hype about it, first of all, it's, like, adorable packaging. It's, like, super chic, and so I'm obsessed. I'm, like, a sucker for a cute aesthetic. But this water has never touched plastic. Like, even how they store everything, it's tested for BPAs, heavy metals. There's no plastic exposure. It's, like, the cleanest water. So I love it. And, you know, even Mountain Valley, they're coming after Mountain Valley with heavy metals or something. I can't keep up. I still drink Mountain Valley, too. But anyway, I just had to say that. So, yeah, I'm obsessed with this Loonan Water brand.

1:00:27Even the Wall Street Journal just came out with a post yesterday at the time we're recording this and said, like, this is like this Loonan Water is blowing up. It's like the ultimate saddest symbol because it's like the cleanest water. Oh, my gosh. All right. Salmon or grass-fed beef? Salmon. if I could eat one type of seafood, if I could eat one type of food for the rest of my life, it's seafood. I am a seafood freak, which I know you disagree with because I love my oysters and my mussels and all those things. No, well, no, I agree with the salmon. In fact, if there's one perfect food, I think the healthiest food on the planet is sockeye salmon or king salmon.

1:01:02And I think it's the healthiest food on the planet. Yeah, the mussel shellfish, you know my stance on that from biblical diet, but overall, I like the salmon. It's a grass-fed beef is great, but I love salmon. Well, thanks so much for coming on. Thank you for having me again. And you're going to be on my show too. I can't wait. Yeah. It's going to be awesome. Hey, everybody. Thanks so much for tuning in here to The Dr. Axe Show, where each and every week we're diving deep into the science and principles of how you can heal naturally. Thanks so much to Alex Clark here for sharing just her amazing experiences.

1:01:28I mean, she's interviewing some of the top people in the world and trying a lot of things on herself, including her$50 to$70 smoothie and so much. And we'd love to hear, hey, if you're watching on YouTube, what is the biggest thing you learned from the episode? What is something that maybe surprised you, something you agree with or disagree with? We'd love to hear from you there as well. And don't forget to subscribe. It's the number one thing you can do to support the show. And share this with a friend. You may just change and transform their life. Thanks so much for watching. We'll see you on the next episode.