292. Dr. Josh Axe: Why Your "Normal" Bloodwork Is Lying to You and What to Test For Instead

21:18Gary Brecka:Like it's not drugging you to sleep. That's right. calming you to sleep. And that's what a lot of people notice. So when you're doing, if you're trying to increase your sleep long-term and improve it, ashwagandha and reishi mushroom are probably the two best for that long-term balance. To your point, if you take valerian root, you're gonna wake up in the morning groggy. Right. And nobody likes that. So I agree. I think apigenin, which is found in chamomile tea, magnolia bark, to your point, tryptophan, theanine, these are really amazing. These are great herbs or herbal compounds that calm the body, but also they're not going to give you that drowsy feeling the next day.

21:58Gary Brecka:So let's talk about blood work. I mean, more classic blood work. Because everybody wants to know, I would say in 10 years in this space, the most common question I get is, where do I start? Yeah. Right? I mean, how do I get through the paralysis of analysis and where do I start? What biomarkers should I pull? Why should I pull them? And I am a huge believer in data. No matter what direction you're gonna go with your treatment, whether it's gonna be Eastern, Western, combination of both, what have you, data is just, you know, helps you drown out the noise. Yeah. So what are the must-have pieces of data that you get on a blood panel?

22:36Yeah, so when I'm looking at blood work, the first thing I'm trying to do is go as far upstream as possible. You and I talked about this on my show, right? Yeah. What's the first domino? We wanna find those dominoes first. So I tend to look at cortisol and insulin very high up, and insulin probably the biggest. So fasting glucose and insulin levels and A1C, I think those are critically important markers is knowing what your blood sugar is. Along with that, I wanna know what your micronutrients are. You know, I actually think that this is the most under-tested thing on the board by far is micronutrients.

23:10If somebody goes and gets a blood panel, most often they get zero nutrients checked. Oh, yeah, yeah. And if they do, it's iron B12 and sodium. I mean, that's maybe what they're getting tested. What about magnesium? What about zinc? Yeah, to your point. Silica. Folate. So these nutrients are so important. So that's the other thing I always run is we run a really, I like to run a really expansive micronutrient panel. Because you know this, if somebody's vitamin D is in the tank, But even more, and again, some people check for that. But if your zinc or magnesium is in the tank or folate, your body has a very hard time healing.

23:54I'll share with you a story as an example for this. So when I had my spinal infection and didn't walk for a full year and I was so sick, for the next two years after, I was rehabbing, doing everything I could, but I battled low energy. I mean, Gary, I was exhausted constantly. And part of me thought, well, it's just overcoming this infection. But then two years later, I'm like, I'm still exhausted. Finally, and I had blood work done just because every time I was going in to get stem cells, they would do a basic panel. You weren't anemic or anything like jumping off, right? That's right. So finally I said, okay, I want to do a really advanced panel on myself.

24:24And I did, and only two things showed up. Ribophob and vitamin B2 was almost zero. I mean, it was like non-existent. And then my mitochondrial health, it said, was just absolutely depleted. Part of that might've been, I had to get on an IV antibiotic when I had my infection. And that's actually the IV. It's not as hard on your gut. but it's harder on your mitochondria.

24:44Gary Brecka:Yeah. And so then I just, I started supplementing with high dose vitamin B2 and taking more mitochondria support like CoQ10, PQQ, NAD plus. And my energy, Gary went from a six out of 10 to a 10 out of 10. And it's been that ever since. Really? And you know what? The single biggest one was vitamin B2. When I took that, and it's so random, it's like vitamin B2, but that's the early phase. You know this better than anyone I could interview or talk to. That's that first phase of the methylation cycle. No question. And I have the C677 variant. Of MTHFR, yeah. Of MTHFR, and that was showing up in my blood work as well.

25:21So getting that advanced panel, looking at micronutrients, being able to tell that I was, that was the first time I'd actually tested for my genetic variant and methylation showing up. And so that completely changed the way I supplemented. So that was big. And then the other few other markers, and I'm seeing these pop up all the time, APOB for heart health and LPA. Huge. If you're running a hormone panel like I do, you really also want to look for not only the standard thyroid markers, but T3, and then, of course, TPO. You want to look for the antibodies. You want to look for that as well. And then here's just a few others that I like.

25:59There's one called F2 isopronanes. This is looking at body-wide oxidative stress. Wow. And there are so many people today who have major oxidative stress, and this is why I know a lot of your therapies you're dealing with hydrogen.

26:12Gary Brecka:What's it called again? It's called F2-ISOPRANES. Another good one to pair that with is - I want to make sure we put that in the show notes too. Yeah. Another great one too is doing one to pair with that on glutathione, right? You know, the GGT marker looking at that. But I think overall, if you're doing micronutrients, now I do think there's value in doing some of the standard CBC, CMP, like looking at those markers as well. Yeah. But I think if you were able to look at those things, and if I had to add one, now that of course this isn't a blood test, but the other thing I probably value the most, let me give a few more.

26:50Sorry, it's so hard for me to stop at one.

26:52Gary Brecka:You're like I am, dude. You start going down the rabbit hole and you're like, I did just think of another one that we always pull. I do think it depends upon the person, but I think that blood panel, number one. And then number two, hey, what are your symptoms? For a lot of people, a GI map is incredibly beneficial. I think for some people, I mean, I love a genetics variant test, not only looking at MTHFR, but COMT and AMO and VDL. Like I found out that I don't convert vitamin D well. So, and I don't convert omega-3s well. And so it very much changed the way I supplemented. And when I was able to get the blood work genetically and an advanced panel, I'm telling you, again, and it's like, Gary, I already know what to do.

27:32Generally speaking, I ate so healthy. I exercise constantly. But being able to dial in my foods and supplements, based on getting the right testing done. Yeah. It was completely transformative. And it's been transformative for my patients too.

27:45Gary Brecka:What micronutrient assay do you do? Because I've done the CNA, the cellular micronutrient assay. There's one by... SpectraCell. SpectraCell is a good one. And then Vibrant has one. Vibrant. We run, in my clinic, we run it through Quest. And it's one that I've just put together based on the markers I like most. Okay. So the markers that I really like for a lot of the nutrients, they're called RBC. So it's red blood cell, like RBC magnesium, RBC selenium. So it's actually testing, and this is so important. It's testing what's in your cell, not what's in your blood. I talk about this all the time.

28:22Gary Brecka:I mean, so much B12 deficiency shows high B12 in the blood. Yes. And it's a really hard concept to wrap your arms around, but we're pulling nutrient concentrations from the serum of the blood, not from inside the cell. and when the cell is not metabolizing it, using that fuel, it builds up in the blood. And we go, oh gosh, I better cut my B12. You know, no, you need to just change the form of B12 that you're using. I have put patients on, no, I don't have patients, I have clients, on B12 supplementation and their B12 has gone down because they start to metabolize. That's right. Much to your point.

28:55It's so important. It is so important. And you know, I see this too. Like there's so many companies getting into the marker game and they're like, I've got 50 markers. No, I've got a hundred. No, I've got one trillion. And you're like, okay, but here's the thing I encourage. Don't go for volume. Go for the markers that matter. Like I would much rather have somebody have fewer markers and test red blood cell, like looking at cellular magnesium and cellular zinc and MMA, which is the cellular B12. Knowing those markers versus the standard, I don't know, LDL cholesterol, it's so outdated when APOB and LPA are so much more important.

29:32I'd much rather do the right markers than just get 100 plus markers.

29:37Gary Brecka:And what do you do? Because I have the lipo little a variant. Yeah. And ApoB, it's not insane, Ty, genetic. I manage all of the other lifestyle risk factors to try to mitigate the impact that that has. PKSK9 inhibitors, don't touch it. Diet, somewhat. So what do you do for lipo a and little a? ApoB. Maybe ApoB. What I like doing there is, and listen, here's the thing. You're probably doing most of the stuff already. But I think from a dietary standpoint, I would really try and increase omega-3 intake, really increase nitric oxide, really reduce oxidative stress as much as possible. I think that's key.

30:17So the diet should look like lots of wild-caught salmon and fish, lots of blueberries, lots of pomegranate apples are actually pretty beneficial here. I would do garlic. I would do lots of steamed vegetables. and you actually don't want to go overboard on fat. Like you want to be careful. See, this is where it's so interesting and you've seen this too. There's this sort of conversation of people right now happening and a lot of them are in Maha and then a lot of them are on more of the conventional medicine where they're saying, don't eat seed oils, but eat all the butter and tallow you want, okay?

30:52And then there's another group here saying, well, butter and tallow will kill you but seed oils actually aren't that bad. In fact, they're better than that. I don't, actually, I think sometimes they can both be right because if somebody has a really backed up liver doing heavy animal fats in Chinese medicine, it really can create some sluggishness of the liver because the liver and the gallbladder are what deals with fat. So all that being said, I think for those people, you actually don't want to do high fat. You want to do low, moderate fat, but just do the right fats. And it's extra virgin olive oil really should be almost the only oil you're doing.

31:28Gary Brecka:I do so much extra virgin olive oil. And I start every morning with a shot of really good expeller-pressed, cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil and a squeeze of lemon. Love it. That's the first thing I do in the morning before coffee, before water, even before I do my morning stack. And then about 25, 30 minutes later, I start coffee in my morning stack. People ask me health questions every single day about their labs, their sleep, their supplements, their genetics. I want to help every single one of them. And that's why I built Just Ask Gary. It's an AI trained on everything I know, including my protocols, my research, and my methodology.

32:04Gary Brecka:You ask the question, you get my answer. Any time of the day. Go to theultimatehuman.com forward slash AI and check it out. Now let's get back to the Ultimate Human podcast. Yeah, and then supplements, and you actually referenced this on my podcast, but bergamot is probably the most effective that I found for LPA, 3 ,000 milligrams of an omega-3 fat. And you want to, you know, a lot of these omega-3 supplements are oxidized. You want to do a triglyceride form or do a really high quality algae oil with phospholipids included. There's like one or two brands that do that and that's about it. Phosphatidylcholine or phospholipids?

32:42Phospholipids, but phosphatidylcholine will be part of the phospholipids for sure. Absolutely. So I do think that the omega is that, I think, and I think doing some of the herbals that are going to reduce oxidative stress, you know, keeping cortisol low, that's probably the other really big thing I think that's going to help LPA.

32:59Gary Brecka:Yeah. And that has to do more with lifestyle choices, like habitual patterns of that, that actually make you, allow you to feel safe in your own body. That's right. So some, what are some of those practices that people can do, especially women? I think women struggle with this more than men. I think very often women don't feel safe in their own bodies. I think for women, yeah. And here's the feeling you want to have. And I tell women this that are struggling with pregnancy. I think a lot of times when women are dealing with infertility, sometimes, to your point, they're not feeling safe and secure.

33:31And you want to feel, women, like this. I'm thinking about my wife, which she would want to. She would want to be curled up next to a fire with a blanket, with her favorite beverage. It's snowing outside, and her family's there, and she has nothing going on, and she's just at peace.

33:44Gary Brecka:that is my wife's utopia you just if sage is listening to this podcast she's like i'm going to pick it and i'm not coming home every time we go to colorado to our mountain home out there there's like a 40 chance she doesn't come back with me by the way hey we should do a ski trip this year we just bought a place in park city oh did you really yeah and so um and by the way i've saw i've seen your the pictures of your place in color the land is absolutely gorgeous yeah i so all that being said you want to get that feeling so i think there's a few things here now this may not be where everybody thought I was headed.

34:15There's a quote by A.W. Tozer, probably my favorite author of all time. And he says this, what you think about when you think about God is the most important thing about you. And it's a crazy quote, because if you think about this, what you think about when you think about God is the most important thing about you. How's that the most important thing about me? Isn't it my personality? Isn't it something else? But if you know that you're a child of God and you have this relationship with God, and if you believe he is for you not against you, that he is your protector, that everything he's doing every day is working out for your good.

34:49And you're walking and living with that mindset of, and also knowing God did not create you to be a productivity engine. You know, a lot of people get their sense of self-value and worth from, oh, I, you know, I finished the checklist today. I'm volunteering here. They're trying to be everything to all other people. Like when I think about my own daughters, and you know this because you've got four kids. I get the most joy when my kids are laughing and having fun and carefree. And listen, we want our kids to use their God-given gifts and be productive people, but we also want them living in a state of joy and happiness.

35:23And God, your Father in heaven, he feels the same way about you. He wants to see you happy and laughing and loving your life. So I think when we can get this perspective of, God wants me to be happy. He wants me to be whole. He wants me to work hard, but he wants me just as much to play hard, have downtime, relax, deeply connect with other people. So I think that if you can really focus on spending time in prayer and connection with God and understanding who he is and how much he loves you, if you can spend time connecting with other virtuous people that love you, that care for you, that are cheering you on, that are your encouragers, I think connecting deeply with God, connecting deeply with others.

36:00And this is interesting. In Genesis, there's this sort of where I think the most important things that make us healthy is how connected to God are we? How connected to people are we? How connected are we to nature? Walking outside, just walking, going on regular walks in nature and pausing every little bit and just taking a breath and saying, wow, God, you are good. Nature, it's amazing what you've created here. So I think it's some of, I think it's more than anything, a mindset, being able to adapt and have that mindset overtake you, I think it would help the most. What you think about God.

36:35Gary Brecka:Is the most important thing about you, essentially. Is the most important thing about. So what you think about when you think about God is the most important thing about you. Yeah. That is really profound. It took me a minute to stitch that together because I do sit in prayer every morning for a few minutes and my prayer and full confession here used to be like a wish list. Sure. Oh, I've had those. There's all the things I need. It was like Santa Claus, you know, this is what I hope you bring me for Christmas. And now it's purely about just giving thanks. And I know that sounds so altruistic and proofy.

37:16Gary Brecka:And I was never that guy because I have a deeply scientific background. But I think, and I pray for wisdom, not knowledge. I don't pray to be smarter. I just pray for wisdom. and, you know, I've never really framed it as how I think about God, but now that I'm processing it, it really does have a big reflection on what you think about yourself. If you think that God is judging you all the time, if you think that God is angry with you, if you think that life is a test and God is, you know, or you don't think he exists at all, you know, then that takes really meaning out of your life and purpose if he doesn't exist.

37:58So, yeah, I mean, if you think that God is this loving father and loves you and is fighting for you and you're partnering with him to change the world, it changes you.

38:07Gary Brecka:Yeah, yeah. So I also believe that faith is medicine. And I wasn't really intending to go down this rabbit hole on this podcast. I know that you believe that too. And I read your book about the biblical diet, and I think it's absolutely spot on. and it draws from recommendations that are clearly outlined in the Bible. And if you just were to follow that, you would be living a processed food and highly processed diet-free lifestyle, which I think really empowers the body to do the things that it does best, eliminate waste and what have you. But someone that is coming into your practice when you zoom out and you're looking at this whole person.

38:52Gary Brecka:So we went through the biomarkers. What else are you looking at in their ecosystem? Because I think one of the things that's missing dramatically from modern medicine is nobody asks about how are you sleeping? You know, what are your relationships like? What is your home life like? What is your career like? What are the stressors in your life going on? I mean, are you under like insurmountable financial pressure right now? Because that just crushes our cellular biology. Yeah, you're 100 % right. I mean, I'll never forget this. this is one of the first patients i ever had and they had ibs and they came into my clinic and this was like 18 years this is a long time ago 18 years ago but they came in and i got them on a gluten free diet casein free diet started doing more you know still proud of yourself yeah yeah and i was like and they were doing they were doing great and and like i mean amazingly well and then a few weeks later they come in and they were a wreck and i was like john i said hey what happened like Because I thought it was gonna be, I went and ate a piece of pizza.

39:53I went to this concert, like something happened. And he goes, nothing, my diet hasn't changed at all. And I'm like, what has changed? He's like, you know, I'm going through a divorce. I was like, whoa. And his symptoms were worse from stress than they were if he went and ate a piece of pizza. So there's no doubt that the spiritual and mental affect the physical in just a profound and massive way. You know, in Chinese medicine, they believe, and I believe this is absolutely accurate, different emotions impact different organs so anger is the affects the liver grief not letting go of the past uh or losing a loved one that affects the immune system and so different emotions affect different organ systems but and here when i find somebody that gets stuck let's say we did the dietary changes we get them on the right supplements and they get 50 better but not 100 90 of the time it's due to they've had childhood trauma or something happening and just the negative emotions.

40:49It's worry, it's anxiousness, it's fear. There is an emotion that's negative that's continually keeping them from healing. And so I think it's a huge part of it. You know, one thing that I'll do for patients is when I pray for people. But I think in addition to that is I really think being able to go and address that childhood trauma or why are you constantly living in a state of worry? And going back to what we talked about a few minutes ago of, hey, who is God? What's that relationship here? Going and spending time. And sometimes you can do that by yourself. You can do it with another person.

41:23Sometimes it's a counselor, right? Or a psychologist. But spending time and dealing with past childhood trauma and working through it where you see it, typically one of the most powerful tools is you see it from a different lens. Hey, what good could come out of this? Or just recognizing, hey, I'll share this for myself. When I was a kid, I had a teacher who asked me to stay after class. and I said, okay, so after class, she said, Josh, what do you want to do when you get older? I said, I want to be a doctor. And the reason I did is that was the first time my mom had cancer. I saw what she went through and I went, that's who I wanted to be.

41:57She said, she laughed at me out loud. And she said, listen, you'll never be a doctor. She said, my own daughter has a 3.8 GPA and she barely got into med school. And I said, okay. And then I walked out of there and then a little later I got diagnosed with ADHD. And so I had this thought in my head constantly, to Gary growing up that I was not smart. And so I honestly stopped trying in school.

42:20Gary Brecka:It's astounding how just one moment like that, because of the authoritative place that teacher was in your life. I mean, your friend telling you you're never gonna be a doctor would have rolled right off your back, but your teacher or your provider, I mean, parents do this to kids all the time, I think unknowingly. Yeah. Having that authoritative role and saying, because if anyone would know, your teacher would know, you can't be a doctor. It's huge. So that's a credible, that was a credible assault. Huge. So that affected me for years. And it wasn't until I got to college, which by the way, my GPA was so low, I barely got into college.

42:55I had like a low 2.0 GPA in high school. Really? Oh, yeah. And I had ADHD so bad, I just could not focus or concentrate. And then I went to college. Well, first off, I didn't get into college that I wanted to go to. I got a letter from them. I applied to a lot of schools, a lot I heard know from. I got a letter from them. and they said, basically, you're not in, but if you come and take summer school and you average above 3.0, we'll let you in. And I said, okay. So I went to school, it was University of Kentucky, went in, took summer class. And the first class I had to take, this first class that I was talking about, this other teacher was English class.

43:27I had to take English 101. And the first thing I had to do was a paper. So I turned in a paper, felt good about it. And she said, Josh, would you stay after class?

43:35Gary Brecka:Oh, no. And my stomach sunk. I literally thought, you know what? You're never going to be a doctor. This is again. And she goes, hey, what's your major? And I said, I haven't chosen a major, Mrs. Williams. And she said, well, I think you should think about being a journalism major or English major. Because she said, you know, out of the 40 kids, you got the highest grade in the class. You did a great job. Wow. And can I tell you, like, here's what I call it, Gary. It was a memory transplant. I went from believing I wasn't smart. I couldn't do it. Low self-esteem throughout high school when it came to academics.

44:05To all of a sudden saying, you know what? One person told me I could do it. I can do it. And then from there, I started taking all the hard classes in the chemistry and biology and biochem and started excelling and average above a 3.0. You know, much later on, I went to graduate at Johns Hopkins with a 3.9 GPA. And so all that being said, but my point was this. There's a lot of people who have had somebody lie to them or tell them something or they had some sort of childhood trauma. And it's literally 30, 40, 50 years later still sabotaging their mind and their health. Wow.

44:37Gary Brecka:Yeah. Yeah, because at that age, the gravity of something like that is so magnificent that you just carry it and carry it. And since you don't share it, nobody can check it. Like this got accidentally checked when you got to college. That's right. But nobody had a chance to really say, no, Josh, you can absolutely be a doctor if you wanted to be a doctor. So how do you go through that process with your patients? So we talked about the labs, but are you asking them questions about stress, lifestyle, diet, career? Do they feel like that's too invasive for them? No, I mean, the sleep and the stress in any type of, like those questions are in our intake form.

45:20I think if somebody gets stuck, then we kind of sometimes go layers deeper into this but I would say this, most of the studies show the single most beneficial, and this is kind of crazy, the single most beneficial thing for overcoming childhood trauma is a person just writing about it. Wow. Yeah. There's some great research on this. I got turned on to this from Jordan Peterson. And then there's a, I think it's Dr. Pennebaker. I think he's out of university, somewhere in Texas. But basically spending some time, five, 10, 15 minutes writing about your memories, like writing your own story and your highest of highs and your lowest of lows.

45:55And being able to write through and then identify, oh, this is when it happened. This is what I'm feeling. and then going through a process of, is this true or not? Is it, like for myself, is it true that I wasn't smart or was it that I wasn't interested in the topic and I just had a hard time, I wasn't meant to be sitting in a classroom for eight hours a day. Right. And so being able to come to that truth, the real truth, and then affirming that over time is part of the process I think people can really be helpful.

46:25Gary Brecka:Yeah, I think that's really good to frame that. Let's talk about heal yourselves. Yeah. What was the impetus for this book? And what do you mean by heal your cells? How do you heal? I wanna know. Well, one, I think you probably know more about healing your cells than almost anyone else I know. So I do wanna say that because, I mean, you are, I think one of the leading experts in cellular medicine. But I'll share this. So I was diagnosed with a spinal infection and you know this because you're one of the people I talked to quite a few, three and a half years ago and was told I may never walk normally again, that I'd likely have to have my spine fused.

47:05And I was just - From a bad infection. From an infection. I got in my disc, it spread into my bone. It was throughout my entire L5 vertebra and then I had an abscess by my spinal cord. And so when I got that diagnosis, Gary, three and a half, four years ago, I was just, for 48 hours, honestly, I felt like my life was over. Yeah. And I just, I spent time in prayer and I felt like God said, you're gonna be okay, And then I just said, you know what? How do I reverse an irreversible condition? A condition where the doctor is saying there's so much of an infection that your bone is gonna be completely gone and destroyed and your disc is gonna be destroyed.

47:41We're gonna have to put in, we're gonna have to fuse and put in maybe even rods. And I said, you know what? All I can do is spend time in prayer, asking God for healing and do as much research I can on how do I heal that tissue? How do I heal those cells that are damaged? And so I went down the rabbit hole reading every study possible. Then I came across a study, for one, on hyperbaric chambers, on how one of the best things you could ever do with that type of infection is get in a hyperbaric chamber. So I got in a hyperbaric chamber almost every day for 90 days. Wow. And then I started reading on natural ways to kill the infection, natural ways to, because the key is this.

48:23Did that help, or did you find that you got some relief from that? Oh, yeah. I mean, it was immensely helpful. Really?

48:28Gary Brecka:If you know me, you know I don't recommend anything I haven't personally tested. That's not a marketing line. That's just how I operate. I've been on the road my entire career. Different time zones, brutal schedules, no margin for days off. And so I'm constantly testing what actually works in my own body. NAD was something I keep coming back to. It's the molecule your cells use to produce energy and repair, and it declines faster than most people realize. When I found Symbiotica's liposomal NAD, the absorption technology is what got my attention. I tested it. I felt it. And it's been in my bag ever since.

49:00Gary Brecka:I'm always evolving what I put in my body. And this one has stayed on the list. I'm genuinely excited for you to experience it. This is the standard we hold every product to before it even reaches you. Now let's get back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. And so I started reading on, okay, well, why won't my disc or bone heal that well? You know, the big thing I found, they don't get much oxygen. That's right. Presence of oxygen. And so I'm like, how do I drive the most amount of oxygen in the area? Well, it's hyperbaric chamber for one, by far, hot and cold therapy, alternating those back and forth.

49:34It was doing certain supplements where I just really got my body in the most oxygenated place possible. And then it was stem cells and exosomes.

49:47Gary Brecka:And so - You know, it was initially a failed non-sterile procedure for stem cells that led you there. That's right. You walked your way out of it with - With stem cells. Stem cells. Isn't that crazy? I mean, listen, you know how many people told me? So for everybody listening, I ended up getting this spinal infection because I was having back pain that it got much better. And I'd had a stem cell before and it helped tremendously. But I went in and somehow my disc got infected that second time or that time I got it done. And so most people said, well, there's no way you'd get stem cell again. And I said, well, now I'm going to a different place.

50:21I went to see Dr. Rafael Gonzalez. Yeah, shout out to Dr.

50:24Gary Brecka:Gonzalez. I think the absolute world of him. And got those stem cells there. And I will tell you, I mean, what an amazing part of my healing. You know what else I got turned on to? I started reading, well, how do I create more angiogenesis and getting more blood to the area? Well, peptide combinations. Yes. Right, BPC-157, TB-500, GHKCU doing this combination. Press TNF-alpha and grease VEGF. And so what I did was, is I went in and I said, okay, I'm going to just do all these things simultaneously. And I'm going to follow a protocol. I'm not going to try and heal tomorrow. I'm going to try and heal over the next three years, get back to 100%.

50:55And I'm back to 100%. I have zero pain. In fact, I have less pain right now than I did four years ago before all this happened.

51:02Gary Brecka:And the tissue that was necrotic, did it come back? Necrotic is dead, right? Well, here's the thing. We never did a test for necrotic tissue. you could just see on the MRI. And when I did it with contrast, you could see the fluid, the infection, and you could see all of that there. It was just lit. And so, but honestly, I just didn't focus on that. You know, the other thing is like, I got more discouraged the more I read online. And then I have a friend I know who went and had the same thing done and he had to have his spine fused. So, you know, I could have fixed my eyes on, well, he didn't heal.

51:35And a lot of these other people didn't heal. But I just said, you know what, I'm going to trust God and I'm going to do everything I can in my power to flood these tissues with blood flow and oxygen. And I did, and my body was able to completely heal and regenerate.

51:48Gary Brecka:So this was the genesis of heal yourself. It was. And so I said to myself, okay, I want to write a book about cellular healing and about how to reverse irreversible conditions. So people that have gone to the doctor and said, you have MS or you have cancer or you have autoimmune disease even today, most doctors will say you can't reverse that. And whether it's reversing it or improving it by 90%, the focus is how do we heal your cells? And your cells essentially are almost like little bodies. They have organs, we call them organelles. And I started doing research on how to heal the cell membrane, which of course, fatty acids like omega-3s and phospholipids and preventing oxidative stress, high-dose glutathione.

52:30I mean, these things are amazing for the cell membrane.

52:31Gary Brecka:I've seen people go through these PK protocols and have life-changing. I mean, and to your point, hydrogen. Yeah. I mean, that's also incredibly protective against oxidative stress. And then doing things for the mitochondria. So I just broke down and looked at the cell and said, okay, you know what? Hypothyroidism, that's primarily a mitochondrial issue. So I started focusing on healing the mitochondria. Oh, a lot of these heart issues, this is more of a cell membrane issue. Let's focus on healing the cell membrane, digging into all that research there. So I think that almost any condition somebody's struggling with, whether it be hypothyroidism, infertility, low testosterone, if you can focus on going to furthest upstream or that main area where dysfunction starts.

53:08And if we can fix things there, you have your greatest chance of healing. And so that's what I put in the book, Heal Your Cells is all about how do you completely fix and heal your cells and that as a byproduct fixes and heals your organs.

53:22Gary Brecka:And what do you find is just a general practice or lifestyle choices somebody could implement tomorrow to have a healthy cellular environment. Yeah. I think first and foremost is you want to do a... There's three things I want to touch on in particular. One, you really hit on when I had you on my podcast, and that was we wanted to detoxify the cell. Yes. Now, if you think about it like this, your body's continually repairing and healing. That's what's amazing. That's one of the things that was most inspiring to me is knowing my body is continually regenerating. but your house is like a home being remodeled, right?

53:59You have certain tissues that are very unhealthy. It's like termite damage or water damage. We need to go and take that and remove that. That's the detoxification. We got to detox the cell. The second thing is we need to have the right building blocks and materials. You need the right amino acids. You need the right fatty acids. You need the right micronutrients. That's going to help rebuild healthy tissue. But the third thing, and this was maybe the most important, you need to have enough energy. Yeah. Most people do not have enough cellular energy. So think about hypothyroidism. You don't even have enough energy for your body to heat itself or create thicker hair or support your own metabolism.

54:36And so one of the greatest things you can do, and that's as tied to the mitochondria, is boost up that cellular energy. And that's related to just sleep better. Wear your blue blockers at night. Get your room black, dark. Get it cold. Stop looking at, you know, listen to an audio book rather than watch something before bed. But do everything you can to, one, sleep better, reduce stress. Part of that is having more fun. Schedule things you love to do. Schedule more downtime. Connect more with family. Walk in nature. Movement is, in fact, the number one thing somebody can do to boost mitochondria outside of sleep is build muscle.

55:14I mean, muscle is where your muscle and your heart and your brain are where by far the most mitochondria are. So the fastest way to build mitochondria is boosting your muscle mass. So weight training. So get some bands at home or some dumbbells, do that sort of thing. And from a dietary standpoint, meat and vegetables and low glycemic fruit. Oh my God, I am so glad you said that. Can you say that again? Yeah. Meat. Meat, vegetables, low glycemic fruit. I mean, if you're wondering what to do, the person I'm counseling right now and we're going through his natural cancer protocol, I'm having him eat salmon predominantly and other people would have them do chicken and fish and eggs.

55:52so get a lot of protein. And then it's pomegranate, it's berries, it's apples, it's kiwi. So he is getting some sugars. But it's so low. Yeah. Oh, I'm saying, no, with him, I told him, he said, well, what do I eat? Ideally, if I could just eat one meal, I'm like, salmon and cabbage. I mean, cabbage has vitamin U, sulfur. It's so incredible for the colon. In fact, that - Salmon and cabbage, salmon and cabbage, salmon and cabbage. Now I have them doing a little bit more -

56:20Gary Brecka:Fermented cabbage, like sauerkraut, or just cabbage? That's in the evening, yeah. And I have him do bok choy. I mean, he does other things, but generally his diet is pretty much salmon and steamed vegetables. And I have him do one piece of fruit a day and it's typically just, it's an apple or blueberries. And that's primarily it. But for most people generally, I think if you want to know what to do, meat, vegetables, low glycemic fruit. I would wholly agree with that. And then address the stress and - Address sleep. address the sleep and address the environment. Because, you know, like we talked about before, all cancer, regardless of its former origin, was at one time a healthy cell.

56:57Gary Brecka:That's right. And that metabolism shifted for a reason. We have believed for centuries that healthy cells can become sick. For whatever reason, we don't believe that sick cells can become healthy. I would totally disagree with that. Yeah, agree. And I think you would too. What are, I wanna wind the podcast down by saying, what are some of the things that have surprised you or shocked you the most about traditional Chinese medicine. Where have you seen it be effective over and over and over again? And even you're like, wow, it's worked again. Like really? I've had that experience with hydrogen.

57:35Gary Brecka:You know, people think that I always have an angle with hydrogen. I think that the role of hydrogen gas in the human body is one of the greatest discoveries of our millennia. I am that fascinated by it. But what is it about Chinese medicine, traditional Eastern medicine that has continued to surprise you? Well, one, I would say it's the combination of the accuracy and the effectiveness. You know, Chinese medicine is really built over—it's millions of individual case studies. There were practitioners that just kept finding patterns and patterns and patterns and saying, hey, you know what? This works for this condition.

58:09This works for this. And they found it to be repeatable. But I've really found that like, if I look at somebody's tongue and I can see what's going on there and put together a dietary plan for them, the outcomes will be better than any other sort of testing I could do. Wow. Better than anything.

58:26Gary Brecka:Ayurveda would tell you the same thing, right? The oldest form of medicine, I think, in the world. This very same thing. And so like, I can look at somebody's tongue and say, okay, you should not eat any raw vegetables. You know, for instance, as an example. Wow. You know, like if somebody's tongue is really pale and it's like a pale pink rather than a bright, vibrant pink. No raw vegetables, lots of red meat, do beets. I mean, I can tell from somebody's tongue. It's just incredibly, incredibly accurate. So I'm blown away by that. And just the level of personalization, think about it. We are just now in main, even functional medicine, stepping into a level of personalization.

59:02One of the challenges today, and I want to say downfalls, of even some types of functional medicine is I still see doctors doing this. no matter what the patient has going on, certain practitioners will put all of them on a ketogenic diet or all of them on low carb or all of them on a vegan or all of them on carnivore. Everybody is different.

59:21Gary Brecka:I totally agree with that too. So when you go to Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, they've been doing personalized medicine for over 3 ,000 years and fine tuning the exact herbs and diet, even lifestyle changes that need to be done for that individual. Yeah, wow. That's so fascinating. So you know that I wind down all my podcasts by asking my guests the same question. And I asked it to you before. Are you ready for it? I forget what it was. Okay, well, you know, I better get ready. Yeah, it's coming. There's no right or wrong answer to this. You had a great answer last time. So what does it mean to you to be an ultimate human?

59:57To be an ultimate human is to be like Jesus Christ. And I think it's this ultimately. It's you're taking, you're honoring God with your temple. You're seeing your body as a temple of the Holy Spirit. and you're doing everything you can to have your maximum impact here on earth. And so it reminds me of, you know, just I was meeting with Michael W. Smith. He's a famous musician. He was on my show recently and I was talking to him and he has a mentor and a friend. We have a friend of both of us. The guy's 96 years old and he just did a mission trip to Iraq at 96 years old. Wow. I mean, just incredibly healthy, incredibly well, but everything he does is to glorify God.

1:00:34He's eating to glorify God. He's exercising to glorify God. He's learning to glorify God. So he has just such an amazing mind with us. But I would say in order for people to reach their highest human potential, they need to grow in their skill and their character. Take your character to the highest level possible. Take your skill to the highest level possible. And you can only do those things and be most effective with your life if you are eating and moving and thinking and doing all these things to glorify God with your body. It reminds me of a Bible verse, one of my favorites. It's 1 Corinthians 10 31.

1:01:07Whether you eat, drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. So I really think to be the ultimate human is to use your gifts to help the maximum amount of people. Wow. Incredible, man.

1:01:19Gary Brecka:I always love having you on the podcast. Heal Your Cells. You're writing books faster than I can read them. Congratulations. I'll put a link in the show notes for the books. And also to those biomarkers that you talked about, because there was one or two in there that I'm not used to dealing with. So I'm gonna start going down the rabbit hole in those. But Dr. Josh Axe, thank you for coming on The Ultimate Human. I hope you'll come back again. And until next time, guys, that's just science.