807 - Dr. Josh Axe on Developing a Life-Changing Mindset That Helps You Heal (Physically AND Mentally)
===
[00:00:00] What's going on, everybody? It's Sathya Sam here. Welcome to Unleash the Man Within. Today, I am sitting down with Dr. Josh Axe. Uh, you may know him. He is really one of the world's Functional medicine practitioners. And this guy has been on the scene for a long time. I'll tell you, I was telling a couple of my friends, Hey, I'm sitting down with Dr.
Axe. You know, have you guys heard of him? You know, I, I was just starting to discover his stuff. Uh, when the interview opportunity came about. And I had one friend in particular who was like, Dr. Axe, dude, I've been reading his stuff for like forever. Uh, this guy is really changed a lot of people's lives and we wouldn't always bring someone like this on because you know, we talk about porn addiction and recovery and healthy relationships and, um, you know, kind of a little bit more in the personal development space.
Uh, and occasionally we'll bring someone on to talk about functional medicine. Sure. But Dr. Axe has just launched a book. Um, actually at the time of this release, it's been out for a called think this. Not that it's a New York times bestseller already. I [00:01:00] think it was like within the first week it got launched.
Um, very, very popular concept and it's all about the mental life. Okay. It's all about how to get your thoughts in order, belief systems, things that you and I Are feverishly passionate about I was so excited to bring them on and talk about it. And, uh, the cool thing is, you know, some doctors, they, they sort of have a message that comes from their education.
There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, there's a lot of things really good about that. And Dr. Axe has released tons of books and tons of content over the year from his education and his clinical practice. But he has a really powerful story that undergird this book. It's the whole reason he wrote it in the first place.
And it, um, I think it really is the reason that his book has been so well received because it's not just the education and the well of wisdom that Dr. Axe is, it's kind of, um, anchored by. A personal experience that was really powerful, uh, kind of a, almost like a life threatening situation. Uh, and we get into all of that [00:02:00] today in our conversation.
So I know you're going to enjoy it. Uh, I think especially when we talk about recovery, we know that the men, the mindset, the mental, uh, kind of picture is really important. And if we don't master that area, it doesn't really matter what else we do. Um, it's gotta, it's gotta improve for us to walk in integrity and freedom.
This interview is going to help you do that without further ado. Here's my interview with Dr. Josh Axe.
Sathiya Sam: All right. Well, I have the privilege of having Dr.
Josh Axe here. Uh, I cannot tell you how many of my friends are jealous [00:03:00] right now that I get to sit down with you, man. You, you are a legend and it's a real honor to have you here on the show.
Dr. Josh Axe: So thea, great to be here. I'm honored, honored to be on.
Sathiya Sam: Yeah, we, uh, we had a fun interview on your show. Uh, really good conversation. Definitely encourage my audience to go check it out. Um, you are up to some cool stuff. So I think my first question for you is, you know, we've had functional medicine practitioners on the show before, and usually everything starts with the gut.
We all know the gut's super important. Um, I think, you know, if you go a little bit further out, you'll start to talk about your endocrine system. Um, I think if you get a little bit deeper into the individualized component, people start to talk about blood work. Food insensitivity is some of those markers.
Um, you are talking a lot about mindset these days, and I guess I want to know why and how does this tie into a functional medicine? Oh,
Dr. Josh Axe: um, I would say this, I've worked with tens of thousands of patients in person and, you know, spoken to a lot more than that, uh, on, on an online, on the online platforms. [00:04:00] And. I found that by far the number one thing that makes somebody unwell today is not diet or exercise or a lack of a nutrient.
It's, uh, somebody that has, uh, I would say mental and spiritual issues. You know, I think if somebody has a lot of, uh, worry and anxiety and there's a lot of, uh, sort of, you know, mindset roadblocks or there are, Uh, things going on spiritually in life that are off. I think those are the biggest things that make somebody sick today.
Um, and so I really wanted to write a book a month. So here's another big one. When I decided to write this book, or a similar book, I, uh, had a health crisis begin. And this is, most people don't know this. I went and I was lifting weights and had a minor back, I had a minor back injury. And I thought, I'm going to go and get something called stem cell.
Went and got it done. Well, something went wrong when they did stem cell, which they were using my own stem cells to help heal my body after I had herniated a disc in my low back. And somehow the needle had got bacteria on it, got [00:05:00] infected and I kept getting worse and worse and worse. We didn't know what it was.
Three months later, I woke up. I couldn't walk. Pain was so severe. I had to have an ambulance bring me to a hospital, get an MRI. I was in Puerto Rico at the time. So then I had to take a medical flight to Florida where a doc sat down with me and he said, listen. this is really serious. He said, you have a spinal infection.
The infection has gone from being in your disc into your bone. Now it's by your spinal cord. And he said, this could kill you. And he said, best case scenario, you're going to have chronic pain the rest of your life. And you'll be the first one to know when bad weather comes through, because there's going to be so much damage.
And he said, or worst case scenario, again, you could die, or you're going to be permanently disabled is very likely. And this was, um, not that long ago. I mean, a year and a half ago, a little over a year and a half ago, you're in eight or nine months. And by the way, a week ago from doing this interview right now was the first week I had actually been able to get up on a walker.
I didn't walk for 10 months. Um, and then two months on a walker. So on a, for an entire [00:06:00] year, I couldn't walk on my own, but I wrote this book Think this, not that from bed, from the whole thing. And I went from listen, dead lifting, squatting, running, swimming, biking, like being thrown my two year old daughter in the air to that.
And so in this book, I had a lot of time to pause and reflect and think about what are the most important principles of my life? that have blessed my marriage, that have blessed my business, that have blessed my health. Um, and I put all those into one book. And um, and so, and it hit the New York times bestseller list the first week out and that's been exciting.
But the thing that I was grateful for that excited about that. Uh, but again, the biggest thing is I think a lot of people said, well, this has been very, uh, This is one of the best books on growth I've ever experienced. I think a big part of it is there really has a biblical backbone to it really getting into how do we transform our lives today and live a purpose driven life.
And, um, and all that being said, like going back to this, this initial thing I had going [00:07:00] on, you know, I grew through so much through that process. Like there were emotions I'd never experienced before, like despair and hopelessness. I'd never truly felt hopelessness.
Sathiya Sam: Hmm.
Dr. Josh Axe: when I got that diagnosis and I decided after 48 hours of feeling like there was no hope, I realized this is not helping me.
And I also had to realize, I, I, I started thinking, you know what, my God is so much bigger than this. I'm not going to be labeled by or believe that a doctor that tells me I'm going to be permanently disabled. I'm going to decide to go and do what the top 1 percent of the 1 percent would do in order to get healthy.
So I started doing my research. I went in. And started getting treatments and one of the doctor recommended he said the only option you have is to do antibiotics for three months IV because that most people don't realize how serious this Uh, this issue was, but because the infection was in my bone and my spinal cord.
And so,
Sathiya Sam: that's yeah.
Dr. Josh Axe: and so he said three months, six months, I'd be six weeks on oral afterwards. But I went and read a [00:08:00] study on, and I knew how hard that would be on my gut microbiome and my cells and everything doing that long of, of, of, of antibiotics. So I went and found a study that found that if you get in the hyperbaric chamber every day, Okay.
Uh, for 30 days, you can decrease the antibiotic time dramatically to just four weeks. And so I did that. I got in a hard bear, a hyperbaric chamber, which a hyperbaric chamber is where you get in and you fills your body with, you have increased oxygen and then it pressurizes it to drive the oxygen deeper into your cells, tissue and bones.
So that's what it was. It was, it was doing that. And then,
Sathiya Sam: can I interrupt you and just ask why? Why would that shorten the time? What's what's the mechanism there?
Dr. Josh Axe: well, um, oxygen acts as a natural antibiotic. And so if you have an infection, uh, oxygen. Um, yeah, oxygen is a natural antibiotic,
Sathiya Sam: Wow. Okay. Got it.
Dr. Josh Axe: reason why and if you think about oxygen, uh, increasing it to an area for a period of time, you're also getting more, it tends to also, uh, help accelerate and bring more blood flow [00:09:00] and nutrients to the area.
So, so, so, yeah, oxygen is really important for the vitality of all your organs and tissues, um, for that reason. But yeah, I went and did that. only ate meat and vegetables pretty much. Um, and uh, did everything I got on an IV for four hours a day as well of Of a lot of natural things and it took me a long time to heal.
Um now i'm probably 85 I'm back weight lifting. I'm swimming. I'm, you know holding my two year old, you know, my well actually just turned four yesterday So i'm back to kind of doing all these things I'm much better off than he said I would be and I think i'll be a hundred percent here Uh by the end of this year, so, you know praise god for all that But all I just think Sorry, that was a long answer your question, but this book was really birthed out of me realizing with patients in the past and my own mom who beat cancer naturally, um, mindset was the most important part of her, her healing.
And I found in working with patients again, it is the number one factor in healing. Now, I think food is [00:10:00] really important and I think exercise is really important, but I really believe that our mindset and belief about our health. And, and let me give you an example of this. Like there's something called the placebo effect, which most people have heard of.
In World War One, um, the main practicing physician, uh, ran out of morphine. And, and everybody knows morphine is an incredibly strong drug. Well, think about how crazy this is. He was treating men, soldiers who had lost their limbs, and excruciating, unbelievable pain. And when he ran out of morphine, so he said, Well, I want to give peo I need to give people something.
So he started giving them sugar pills. 30 to 40 percent of the men had the same amount of pain relief With a sugar pill as with morphine
Sathiya Sam: Wow.
Dr. Josh Axe: that your body can create that amount of of Neurochemicals to they go and medicate an area and and essentially numb the area in a very similar way We see this with healing and overcoming issues.
I mean placebo effect has been done with lowering blood pressure [00:11:00] reversing, uh, diabetes, losing weight. I mean, you name it. I mean, so all that being said, I read all the clinical literature and part of it's connected to something called neuroplasticity where your brain will start creating new neural pathways, sending new stem cells and growth factors to repair an area if you believe that it's going to do that.
And so I started activating that as well. Now on the opposite end, I want to say, I also realized if I didn't believe I was going to heal the effects, it's called the nocebo effect. And here's a real. study that might surprise a few people. There's a study done on a man who was diagnosed with liver cancer.
And he was told he had three months to live. The man died three and a half months later when they went and did the autopsy, they found he didn't, they misdiagnosed him. He had a small benign tumor on the side of his liver could have been removed, not cancer at all. Could have lived another 30, 40 years.
Sathiya Sam: What?
Dr. Josh Axe: Yeah, and by the way, there's there's not there's there's there's tens of thousands of cases like that. It's not one I mean, this is one study, but there are numerous instances. [00:12:00] So really what we believe about healing is important We know this is biblical I mean Jesus is like Jesus is not telling people listen go and take this up this Medication or get chemo or do this?
He says your faith has healed you or your belief has healed you So we know historically we know biblically we know via the scientific evidence today You It is very potent, uh, in terms of, and I'll give you an example of this too. I know you talk a lot about masculinity and being a real man and overcoming porn addiction and things like that.
We could give somebody an antidepressant or an anxiety or maybe something to, uh, help them with motivation, like an Adderall. I mean, there's a number of medication things we can medicate with somebody. Um, that might help the problem temporarily, but typically again, most of our health issues have a really, really strong spiritual and mental component.
Sathiya Sam: Yeah, it's really true. I, um, I wonder if you can maybe make a distinction [00:13:00] between. Brain health and mind health. Cause it sounds to me like what you're talking about is a lot more in the mind arena. Um, and I know like, even when you talk about functional medicine, like we'll talk about gut health because neurotransmitters are synthesized in the gut and, you know, dopamine levels.
And there's all these things you can monitor, but you're talking about something that even supersedes brain health. You're talking about the mind in particular. Can you just make that distinction for us a little bit more clear?
Dr. Josh Axe: Yeah. Yeah. I'm not talking about physical, uh, neurological tissue, like your brain spinal cord and peripheral nerves. I am specifically talking about what Aristotle would have kind of correlated his three levels of, uh, of, of the spirit, which is being the, my, it's really the more than that might mind the heart and the well, or the gut.
So in the ancient times they would say, you know, part of your spirit or realizing mind, heart, and gut. But, but it's really that thing. It's really your soul and spirit. And I would also say. Awareness is probably maybe the one of the best words to describe what I'm, what I'm saying here. [00:14:00] Um, because, and here's something I found in patients, my patients that are the healthiest tend to be the ones that become the most self aware.
It's just like, think about if somebody is great with relationships,
Sathiya Sam: Hmm.
Dr. Josh Axe: need a high EQ, a high emotional intelligence to be good at relationships. You need self awareness, other awareness, God awareness, world awareness. You need to be aware. And so I think that that's a really important part. So when I talk about mindset, it awareness isn't everything, but it's more of like the spark.
It's one of those first factors. It's really important that you have a level of awareness of what's going on in order to even activate or move forward with some of those things. So when I say mindset as well. It really is. Imagine you have a table and you have the top of a table, that's mindset. And then it has legs on it.
Those are your beliefs about something. So let's say for instance, you believe that about something about success, um, let's say you believe you're successful. If, and you have a mindset around wealth or, or, or let's say a mindset of a success [00:15:00] mindset is, Oh, I believe if I have a Lamborghini and if I have a home that's worth.
a half a million dollars. And if I save a million dollars by the time I'm 60, and if I do this, that means I'm successful or I've, I'll have a smoking hot wife. Okay. So there's, you know, you can have all of these things that you say now, by the way, that's what the world says. It's definitely not what you and I say, but that's part of mindset as well.
I think is this idea of here are my cumulative beliefs about a specific area. Um, and I think that's a big, you know, and, and think about how that leads to flourishing. Or failure. If you believe that what all of your success in life is tied to building a million dollar company and, and having a really nice car and home.
Okay. If you believe that success versus if you believe no success is this, I ran a good race and honored God with everything I did. I had an incredible family life and marriage. My kids want to come home and spend time with me. I raised up world changing kids. [00:16:00] I, I was, uh, you know, uh, a spiritual leader.
To the people around me and rather than just being interested as a boss and their performance, I'm interested in their personal lives and I'd even take time to pray for them and bless their family and their personal life. So your mindset about things in life is almost a starting point for where you'll end.
You know, here's how I would put it. We, we, we tend to talk a lot about goal setting today. When it comes to success, well, that's the end point. That's an important part. Awareness is kind of the starting point though. You need to know where you're at right now. So I think it takes both of those things and knowing what those should be in order to be successful.
Sathiya Sam: Yeah, it's a really, really good point. Without that awareness, it's hard to just even get the ball rolling. You can have all these great ideas, but there's no, there's no spark. Like you said, there's no momentum. Talk me through what it was like to feel hopelessness. Cause I, I, I actually really related to what you said.
I had a pretty good life and it was actually when I was trying to quit pornography. That's the first time I can remember really feeling. Hopeless where it was like, [00:17:00] I do not see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm sure it's there, you know, still optimistic to some extent, but that's a really debilitating place when you're bedridden.
You know, you can't hold your, I'm like, I have a six month old. I can't imagine not being able to hold him. Like I can only imagine how devastating that was. What was it like to feel like that really deep sense of hopelessness? Yeah.
Dr. Josh Axe: you know, for, for, it was, here's what I would say for myself. I felt trapped. I felt like I was a prison in my own body. I felt like, um, I felt like my best years were behind me and that, and that all the things I loved and that were good would never. Um, be as good again. And I have felt because for me, being physically active is so important.
I was a triathlete in college. I were, I love working out. My wife loves working out. I love being active with my daughter. And so I thought, gosh, what if I. You know, can't ever throw my daughter in the pool in the air again, you know, I, what if I, [00:18:00] you know, you know, date nights aren't the same and, and, and a number of things with my wife.
And so I, um, so, and here's what I found the cure is, um, the cure is what you focus on, because what I was focusing on, I got the bad diagnosis from this physician, the infectious disease specialist. And then I went to the internet and said, well, I'm going to do my own research to see what the case, what the average case scenario is of somebody that has this exact spinal infection.
And I actually thought it would be better. And it was not, it was, you know, a lot of the same of, yeah, I'm, I'm on a cane now, or I have chronic pain. I mean, it was a lot of negative and I, and I couldn't find much information. Anything I did was not good. And then I, I, I had a moment after again, it was one to two days and I thought, you know what, this is not, I feel so bad.
And so at the, in the, you know, in a valley right now that this is not good [00:19:00] for me. And I said, and I just realized I spent time in prayer and you know, what's interesting, listen, everybody has different spiritual beliefs, but I, I really felt like the Lord said not in an audible voice, but really kind of impressed upon my spirit.
He, what I heard in my spirit was walk with me. And so, and by the way, I've never shared this on an interview. So, but I, um, but you're asking, and I know you've got a real strong spiritual background. So that's what I really felt impressed on me. And I was like, And then so I tried to try to say like for 24 hours do that what I thought that was and um, And so I tried, you know, I was reading my bible.
I was listening to praise and worship music I was trying to have a positive mindset saying I will heal And then I felt like I went back the next day and was really praying and listening and god was like no You're following me I said walk with me like, you know There's a time to pick up your cross and to bear the burdens of the world and to try and do it all on your own And he said but that's that's not what i'm saying You And so like, I kind of had this almost vision of like, I went back and said, walk with me.
So [00:20:00] I almost went back like in time of, of, and started seeing of God walking in the garden without an Adam and Eve and Spending time like looking at his, and the word that started coming to me as I was walking through my With of my own Notion of what the bible speaks of from genesis all the way through and it's just faithfulness God is faithful And then from there I felt like I kind of went forward into my personal life and thought about my own life of all The times god has shown up how faithful he was in bringing me along an amazing spouse How faithful he was in healing my mom of cancer how faithful he was of helping many of the patients I worked with who were diagnosed with you know, given a death sentence who are still alive today And how faithful he was for me and so for me You That was an incredibly powerful, one of the most supernatural experiences I've ever had is just be.
And part of it was, I don't know if I would have had it if I. Wasn't in bed. I couldn't move. I literally was bound just in my bed. There's nothing I could do And so I felt like I had [00:21:00] really time to like hear from the lord in that way And again, I want to be clear There's no audible voice But there was this vision and I feel like my mind and consciousness went to this place Where god kind of walked with me and in this word of faithfulness And then that's what I grabbed a hold of, you know I really grabbed a hold of god is faithful and then I said i'm going to focus just on You His faithfulness.
And so I spent time reading the Bible. I spent time and said reading stories about the 1 percent of people that were told you'd never walk again. And then they did.
Sathiya Sam: Hmm.
Dr. Josh Axe: And it's one of the most powerful things I could do. And, and by the way, this is a principle that is eternal. That is true with everything.
If you want to have a great relationship, don't go and study bad relationships. Go and study the best relationships, the top 1 percent of the 1%. If you want to be a good investor and be good with your money, study Warren Buffett and Ray Dalio, right? Like, well, like what are they doing with their money? If you want to be healthy, don't listen to [00:22:00] Dr.
Anthony Fauci or the government or whatever. They've never taken a nutrition class. They've never studied health. They've never studied vitamins and minerals. They only study pharmaceutical drugs. That's all they study. And so, Not to get off track here, but my point is, is that I really realized that I need to focus on only things that are uplifting and powerful and healing, and that was the only thing I looked at and I looked at and focused on, and I think that really optimized my, you know, my healing,
Sathiya Sam: I'm so glad you mentioned that because it is one thing we encourage people when they're in recovery to do as well because it's very easy to like a lot of people do have their stories of trying to quit pornography. I tried to do this. It didn't work for me. I couldn't figure it out. And it's not hard to find the more depressing content online today.
But when you expose yourself to stories of recovery, it just reminds your brain that This is possible. And I love what you said earlier. Like you said, what you focus on grows, right? Like this is a big deal. Like if we are really [00:23:00] being vigilant about what we're concentrating our energy on, that can go a long way.
And like, I mean, you're literally a walking example of it, you know, bedridden a year and a half ago. Um, and now able to do 85 percent of those things. How much of that do you attribute to the mindset part of it? Like, obviously there was a medical. Protocol here. Antibiotics clear the infection, but it sounds like the prognosis nonetheless was you weren't supposed to be doing some of the things you're doing.
Is it, is it mindset that gave you that lift? Is that what you think? Like how, I don't know. How would you slice this? Like what, what part do you think mindset played in, in all this compared to the medical interventions? Interesting.
Dr. Josh Axe: I would say that, and let me share my biggest limiting belief with my health. That kept creeping in. You can heal, but not a hundred percent. You can get 70 percent better and do a few of the things you can get back to walking and maybe not using a cane or a Walker.
And you can get to the point where, but throwing your daughter in the air again, [00:24:00] or lifting heavy weights or going on trips without pay that you may not be able to. So that was the thing that kept coming in. I think that's the difference that there's the mindset difference. Do I think I would have gotten 70 percent better with, uh, or even maybe eventually 80.
If I would have done all the nutrition, all the, you know, all the things I had to do, I do, but that actually, that extra, you know, 10 to 20 percent to get me back to 100. Um, I think there is a difference there. And so, and sometimes again, it's impossible to quantify it, you know, it is, but, but I can tell you.
In working with a lot of patients that, here's an example. I've had so many patients come in with type two diabetes or autoimmune disease, or men with testosterone levels that were sub 300, you know, just rock bottom. And their doctors told them this is irreversible. And them believing that it was reversible was [00:25:00] the most important thing.
Could be because it's, it's a combination of things. 'cause if you don't believe that, at least. You're not going to take the right actions
Sathiya Sam: No, exactly. Yeah.
Dr. Josh Axe: now. I do want to mention again. There are studies that show that if you believe versus if you don't, there is a difference. There is a physical difference. I mean, that's that in terms of actually the amount of healing that happens within your own body.
Um, and so I do think even, you know, Even with doing the right things, the mindset still will get you a degree, a few degrees more of complete restoration. Um, yeah. Yeah.
Sathiya Sam: you crush that limiting belief? Because I think people, I think people would resonate with that. You know, I definitely do and I've come a long way, but I definitely encountered those, those limiting beliefs that are holding me back in some area of my life. And I know for me, a big one is just not feeling good enough.
You know, I'm not good enough and it can drive a lot of my behavior. If I'm not careful, whether it's in my marriage or in my business or. My [00:26:00] spiritual life, um, and you know, we were talking about that a little bit on your show Uh, what was helpful for you to actually crush that limiting belief? Um, you talked about the power of You know hearing the right stories I I can only imagine how impactful that would have been for crushing the belief Is there anything else you learned along the way that really helped you?
Dr. Josh Axe: I want to go back and share a story. Um, That was really powerful. And then, and then I think everybody will get it from here and I'll, and then I'll give a really practical example, um, of what you can do. When I was a freshman in high school, I was not a very good student and I was taking freshman English class.
And I, and my teacher, there was no, her name was Ms. Noble. She said, Josh, can you stay after class? And I said, yes, stayed after class. And she says, Josh, what do you want to do after high school? And I said, I want to be a doctor. And the reason I said this was the year before my mom was diagnosed with, with, with a can't breast cancer, went through chemotherapy, lost all her hair.
And I remember it was just breaking my heart as a eighth grader thinking, I want to help people like my mom. I want to be a doctor. And so I was so confident. I said, I want to be a doctor. She laughed out loud. And she said, [00:27:00] Josh, listen, with your GPA, you would never get into med school. She said, my own daughter had a 3.
8 GPA and barely got in. She said, you're getting a D minus in my class. I wanted you to stay after cause you just got an F on your paper. She said, you'll be lucky not to fail my class. You need to try harder. And I walked out of there thinking, Oh gosh, takeaway was I don't, maybe I can't be a doctor. And then two weeks later, my mom brings me to a physician.
Who then talks about me like I'm not in the room. I still remember this, uh, diagnoses me with ADHD and he, what he told my mom was, I remember over listening this, he said, listen, your son has a severe learning disability. He has ADHD. He needs to be on medication. He's going to have trouble learning even with this.
Uh, and I remember walking out of there thinking. Well, gosh, not only can I be a doctor, I'm not smart. Not only am I not smart, I'm like medically not smart. I've got a disability. And so then throughout high school, I hardly tried. The only reason I graduated was I had an [00:28:00] amazing dad who would have killed me if I didn't graduate high school. And so I graduated with a C minus GPA, like I barely got through. And, um, and then even then though I wanted to go to college and my parents really wanted me to go. So I applied to all these colleges, got denied by all of them. I wanted to go to, except for one. It was university of Kentucky and they sent me a letter back, but here's what they said, they pretty much said, you're not in, but if you come and take summer school and take several classes, classes in average above a 3.
0, then we'll let you in. And so I said, okay, well, I'm going to do this. And so I went in the first class I had to take was English one on one and first big assignment was a paper. And so I went, I really tried turning and felt great about it. Few days later, the teacher, this is like deja vu. Her name was miss William.
She says, Josh, can you stay after class? And I, my, my, I just, my stomach sunk, I felt sick and she said, Hey, what's your major? And I said, well, I haven't chosen a major. I don't [00:29:00] have one. And she said, well, um, I think you should consider being an English major journalism major. She said, because you're an incredibly talented writer.
She said, you got the highest grade in the class on this out of 3040 students. She said, great job. And I walked out of there. And for me, it was like a, I mean, I'll call it a mindset transplant. I went from, it was like a diseased organ. I believed I was stupid. I had a disability. I I couldn't be a doctor to one teacher telling me you're gifted at this.
You're good at something. And then, then it was great. Then I averaged above a 3. 0 eventually changed my major to pre med went and got my doctorate. Later on, I went to Johns Hopkins university, graduated there with a 3. 9 GPA, uh, started a nutrition company of written books. I don't say any of those things to boast.
I say it does. I had one limiting belief because someone else that was very negative spoke that over me. And I, I, I believed it into my very soul. And there are so many people today that have one limiting belief about them and [00:30:00] it's destroying their relationships. It's destroying their, uh, careers, their health.
You know how many patients I had come into my clinic who doctors told them you have to be on this drug the rest of your life or your disease is irreversible. And they just believe them completely. And so going back to this, over time. First off, it didn't disappear instantaneously, but I saw probably a 40 percent improvement because I decided I'm going to listen to this person who is a virtuous, noble person, not this person who, um, you know, it was very negative and obviously has, you know, their own life issues.
So, so part of it is number one, it's, it's, I'm going to, I'm going to focus on this thing, these things that are positive, and then I'm going to do it consistently over time. And here's another thing I think that's important. You know, some people would try and do this with what I would call toxic positivity.
It's I'm just going to tell myself I'm perfect and wonderful. And then I'm worthy and [00:31:00] valuable.
Sathiya Sam: Yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Josh Axe: and nervous system don't believe you. And so what you have to do there is again, it's, you have to prove it to yourself in several ways over time and meditate and focus on just those things.
Like for instance, me feeling, I'm not. Okay. Um, or you, you feeling like there, there's a worthier value issue there. I think it really goes back to one. What does God say about me? And by the way, sometimes our limiting beliefs aren't just about ourselves or about others or about God, they're about the world.
I mean, there could be a lot of things, but I do think that it's consistency over time of the right thing over and over and over again. Many people have probably heard this, but in order to cancel out one negative thing, you need seven positive things. Thanks. That's why you really want to completely crush and eliminate.
The negative people in your life in terms of the time you're spending with them, the social media that's negative, the books, the media, all of those things, you want to crush them and get them completely out of your life and [00:32:00] focus on, I mean, there's a Bible verse and I think it's in Romans and Paul is saying, Whatever is, and I'm going to misquote him here, but generally it's whatever is right and noble and beautiful and good.
Fix your mind on those things. It also says fix your mind on Christ. It says only focus on those things. And so I think focusing on the right things consistently will create great improvement. Here's the other thing. You want to have multiple sources. You want to say it yourself. You want to have other virtuous people you are spending time with.
Sathiya Sam: hmm.
Dr. Josh Axe: circle. When they speak it over to you, it's powerful. There's a J. R. R. Tolkien quote, and he says this in Lord of the Rings. Um, the praise of the praiseworthy Is above all rewards in order for our identity to be impacted. We can say part of it ourself. It will get us part of the way there, but we also need to hear it from others.
So we need to have the father like figures and mother like figures and the peers in our life that are iron sharpens iron, that encourage [00:33:00] us and challenge us and call us to more than we are. So I think it's, you need to say it. Others need to say it. And you need to focus on and knowing God is saying it via his word is his written word.
Or his still small voice word. And so that's, and by the way, this is my mindset with all things in terms of like, when I have, and think about it like this, if I have somebody come in with a medical condition, let's call it hypothyroidism or low testosterone. I don't just give them or recommend Synthroid as a conventional doctor would, or even as a natural doctor would saying, Hey, let's do some B12 and ashwagandha.
I'm putting together a whole protocol. to help myself get well. So I'm going to recommend the mental and emotional things. If you have low testosterone, um, well, there's tends to be fear in your life and there tends to be, um, you don't feel like a winner. Um, there tends to be, um, A poor diet. There tends to be a lack of moving heavy things like weightlifting.
There tends to be poor sleep. And so I put together [00:34:00] a program to address every single issue from body, mind, spirit, and all those other physical components to help somebody heal. My point is, if you have A limiting belief or an area of your life. You need to fix, stack the odds in your favor. Don't just do the one thing, do all of the things necessary, put together a whole plan and protocol, and then be patient and consistent with it over time.
Sorry. I know these are really long answers. It's just
Sathiya Sam: so good.
Dr. Josh Axe: but I hope it's helpful.
Sathiya Sam: that was literally a master class in like belief systems. That was really, really helpful. So you just used a word that I actually want to ask you about. I'm so glad you used it. You talked about consistency. I have to imagine in your line of work when you're working with a patient. You're, you know, you're getting in their analytics and their numbers.
And you, like you said, you start to put a plan together and I love your holistic approach. That's not just the physiology, but the psychology, the spirituality. I have to imagine one of the things you're always thinking about is. How do I get them to be consistent with this? [00:35:00] Because you and I both know as practitioners, we could come up with the best plan in the world, but if they only do it once a week or when they feel like it or whatever, it doesn't really matter what you've contrived. What are some things you've observed over the years that help people to be consistent with something, uh, long enough to, I guess, get their desired outcome?
Dr. Josh Axe: Yeah, because I've done this a lot. I know exactly. What the research says as well and, and the Bible. So let me, let me get into this. The number one thing you can do to fix motivational issues. Is change your friend group. Duke university did a study and they found if you want to get healthy or improve in any area of life, the top thing you can do is hang around with people, more disciplined than you are. number one thing,
Sathiya Sam: Wow.
Dr. Josh Axe: number one thing. And so Psalms, the Psalms talks about this, Jesus talks about this. I mean, you know, good, you know, uh, so, so this is, this is a biblical and scientific principle. Here's what I had patients do. Uh, or more [00:36:00] often today than I did even then, because I'm more aware now, but I will have people write down who are the five to seven people you're spending the most time with.
And now I want you to grade them on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being, they transform you for good, they encourage you, they love you, they speak life into you, they call when you're doing something wrong, they call you out on it. So I want you to scale, rank them on a scale of 1 to 10. And most people are not, I mean, you know, and then I'm like, I want you to be really, really somewhat ruthless with this too.
I don't want you to like give people extra bonus points and they do that. And I say, okay, well let's now write down who are people. That you could go and build a relationship with, that they're going to be much higher in all these numbers. And I want you to pursue relationships with these people and cut these other people out of your life.
That is the single most important factor for most people. The next one is using pain for your advantage and pleasure. I want you to write down if you continue with this action. Let's say you have type 2 diabetes. Do you know what all the side effects of type 2 diabetes are if you don't fix [00:37:00] it? Okay. It's obesity, which is going to affect your self esteem.
It's pain. Uh, polyneuropathy, it's nerve degeneration, so you're, you're going to lose the function of your and probably lose a foot and some toes and not be able to walk in the future. Well, let's go deeper than that. Okay. Tell me about your kids. Okay. Do you want to be at their wedding? Okay. And we keep going deep and I build pain in their life purposely to let them see, here's the path.
If you continue to go the consequences, if you go down this path, okay, now let's talk about if you reverse this type two diabetes, let's talk about what your life is going to look like. How much more confident are you going to be when you lose 30 pounds and you know, you've got, and also what's your wife going to say?
What do you think she's going to start thinking? About you and I, and, and we write down all these positive effects and then we let a really specific plan. And when I write out the plan, what I try and do is make swaps rather than a hundred percent, everything [00:38:00] changing, because again, somebody who's going to have a desire, I want to transform the desire, not always change the desire.
You and I talked about a little bit of this when I was on your, when you're on my podcast, we want to transform the desires. And so it's not, listen, people are going to want some people like things that are sweet. Some people don't crave them as much. So I'm going to go and find, you're going to do some dark chocolate.
We're going to use some Stevia. We're going to use some monk fruit. We're going to do sweet things that are the least damaging to your body and the most health promoting. I'm gonna have you do blueberries. I'm going to do a sweeter smoothie in the breakfast for breakfast with these. What's your favorite fruit.
Okay. What are your three favorite fruits? Okay. Those are the fruits we're going to use. Cause if you hate blueberries, but that's the thing I'm trying to force on you, but you love strawberries. Well, Hey, let's try. And so, so that's really the approach I said, I would say I would take is I try and get people to change their friend group, try and create a lot of pain in their life, try and point them towards the pleasure, try and create swaps in a very specific plan and protocol for them to follow.
That's easiest for them to [00:39:00] follow.
Sathiya Sam: yeah, the friend group one must be difficult. I have to imagine you get a lot of resistance there. Okay,
Dr. Josh Axe: I always have two very distinct groups of people. Okay.
Absolutely not. Can't do it. That's impossible. Here's the thing. It's, it's actually, um, it's harmful compassion. It's, it's harmful empathy today in our more feminized society. You know, we went from being more masculine to this is one of the most feminine societies in the history of the world. Um, and if I need to elaborate on that, I can, but I think you've probably spoken on this to a degree, some to your, your audience.
But, um, But, but, but, you know, uh, there, there's this professor at Yale and he did a great study and he shows that if you have empathy, but it's not balanced out with the other virtues like wisdom and courage and justice, you actually will harm the person because in a way you're going to cause enablement.
It's like, Hey, are you really doing your son good if they're 40 years old living in your basement still, like if you're a mom and kind of [00:40:00] like, are, is that really helping them? No, you're killing them. You're kill. You've just killed their potential. You've wasted their entire life. You've helped them enable them to do that.
So you might be compassionate or have empathy. But in, in Aristotle talks about this, that virtues, if they're not combined with other virtues, they're deadly. And so it's like truth without love. Like, like, like a lot of these political commentators, here's a great example of this. You know, you're a bad person.
You're like, like, and maybe they're speaking truth and just raw and filter truth. But if it's not done with love and compassion, it's harmful. But the same thing, if you have love and empathy and compassion and kindness without any form of justice and wisdom or truth, Well, then you're doing the same thing.
You're damaging somebody. So anyways, I think that's an important correlation for people to pick up on. And by the way, I forget what you even asked me. I don't even know how I got off on this tangent, but, uh,
Sathiya Sam: was good. It was good. I think that was a better answer than what I would have got. I mean, I [00:41:00] was just, I was observing that of the different things that you were suggesting, um, changing your friend group would be, you know, and yeah. So you mentioned the one group, tell us about the other group.
Dr. Josh Axe: So, and, and by the way, I could tell if somebody was going to see results. Within minutes in my practice,
Sathiya Sam: Hmm.
Dr. Josh Axe: like I would see somebody's future a few months from now, a few years from now in my practice, and I'm not trying to act like I'm some Oracle, but let, let me just give you an example because honestly, the mindset and attitude was a huge deal.
I w I would sit someone down on my second visit and I would go through an eating plan with them. And the first visit also, I would have them write down what they typically ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And I would tend to say something like, okay, I see you're eating special K and skim milk for breakfast or.
The bagel and cream cheese or the McDonald's or whatever it is. And I would say, okay, I'm going to customize something for you. But before we do that, even before I see a next visit here, this would be a good replacement for you. Do a berry smoothie, grab your favorite berries, a [00:42:00] little bit of almond milk or coconut milk, some protein powder.
I recommend collagen or something. It could be chocolate, vanilla. Just make sure it's natural. Try that for breakfast. And I would always get one or two responses. It was hardly ever in the minute. It was like, that sounds great. I can do that. That sounds great. Hey, you're telling me I can do a milkshake or a berry shake for breakfast.
That sounds great.
Sathiya Sam: yeah,
Dr. Josh Axe: then the other group would do something like this. They would say, Oh, I can't have this. Oh, I can't have my favorite thing. Are you sure? Can I, can I have this at least? Or can I have this? You know what I'm talking about? Like there's a very much like I'm focusing on all the things you're taking away from me with this very negative mental attitude.
And the other one was embracing. I'm going to do this. I'm going to make the transformation. So most people fell within one to two in one of the two buckets.
Sathiya Sam: That makes sense. Yeah. And I, I mean, that's definitely very similar to the demographics that we're working with in our company. Um, and it, it's very predictive. Like you said, it's very predictive. You can kind of see the future based on some of these responses. [00:43:00] Right.
Dr. Josh Axe: And now listen, sometimes people surprise
Sathiya Sam: come around or yeah, yes.
Dr. Josh Axe: constantly, but if we're doing percentages, this is fairly true. Yeah.
Sathiya Sam: So what happened for you? Like, cause, so you, you talked about kind of making that decision while you're still bedridden, which is okay, I'm going to focus on. What I know the body's capable of. You're exposing yourself to stories of other people that have made it. You're being really intentional. Um, I have to imagine it's still a roller coaster.
Like there's still some days where you're waking up and it's, it's difficult, or you're getting inundated with the negative belief systems again. Um, any advice for when you're a little bit further down the road and just to contextualize this a little bit, you know, we, we have guys, one of the biggest things we tell people not to do in our program, which is very counter intuitive.
Is we say, don't count streaks. We're not interested in your streak because anybody can have a streak for a month or a few months. We're much more interested in tracking the trends, tracking the trends over longer periods of time. That's a [00:44:00] lot more valuable for us. And the other issue with, with street counting is that, you know, you have your 30 day, your 40 day streak, and then you have a slip and it feels like, Oh, the wind just got sucked out of your sails.
Like the last 40 days were just a total waste, which if we're tracking trends and we can zoom out, we can actually see. No, you're killing it, man. This is just a little bump in the road. You can carry on. But I think without that perspective, like you said, you can get very focused on what's not going well and it can actually derail.
Sometimes it's months. Sometimes it's even a year of work for some of our clients over one little thing. How are, how did you stomach some of those bumps along the way and not, not get so discouraged that you self sabotaged? Yeah,
Dr. Josh Axe: One being. An eternal perspective, you know, for me being able to realize like, you know, what, um, God never gives me more than I can bear. Um, [00:45:00] and I'm accumulating for myself treasures in heaven and I'm called to bless other people. And all I can do is turn a lemon into lemonade.
You know that that's all I can do. So I think that awareness too, of like, I'm doing something for eternity. I'm called to bless others, removing the focus from myself to others. I'll give you an example of this. I mean, I was in really excruciating pain. Like I, and I didn't take painkillers, but maybe one day because I knew the side effects on my liver and that it actually wouldn't help me heal.
So I decided to bear the suffering, but I never complained. Now, would I say that a few times I've vented to my wife? because I needed to kind of like share the way I was feeling. Yes. But like with my three year old daughter, um, I knew that she would see the way that I was going to get through this. I knew my wife was going to see the way I got through this.
I knew my father in law, my own parents, my friends coming over. And so I decided to, and one of my prayers was the God, I said, God, um, let me come out of this physically. [00:46:00] Stronger, but more so spiritually and mentally stronger than I was before. Let me be, be more like you. After this process, I said, I gave God permission.
I said, got to refine me. Please do this process and let me bear my suffering nobly and let me show others how to bear with their suffering. Um, and so that was really conscious for me is I wasn't living for myself.
Sathiya Sam: Yeah.
Dr. Josh Axe: I was living for my family and for others and demonstrating I'm not going to complain.
I'm not going to moan. I had a friend stop over and, uh, he said, what have you been doing? And I said, I'm writing this new book, think this, not that. And you know, and our when my daughter's been crawling in bed with me, we've been watching paw patrol and you know, whatever her other favorite show was and enjoying that.
And you know, and just, you know, just in running my business, doing these things, he goes, gosh, if I were you, I would just be eating, you know, Pringles and drinking soda all day. And I said, you know what? I said, I've got a lot of purpose. You know, and I have so much purpose. I know God has called me to do [00:47:00] something.
I have a limited time here, whether I'm hurt or not hurt. I have a limited time here. I want to maximize my days. Um, and so that was very much top of mind and knowing that this life here on earth is a speck of sand on an endless timeline and our life here is eternal. ramifications every moment, everything we do.
And so I'm very, very aware of that and reading things to continue to reinforce that with me. So number one, I would say the thing that helped me and continuing to go back to it is we're made for eternity. There are eternal rewards. Also, my life is not about me as much as more about others. So my action right now, I'm in terrible pain.
I'm not going to say, Oh, I'm in terrible pain. I, I was. If I wasn't terrible pain and I really needed help, I would say, Chelsea, I could really use prayer right now. Would you come put your hands on me and pray for me? Okay. Someone else coming over. I gave a lot of people a chance to pray for, you know, listen, whether somebody was more or less spiritually mature with from for me, [00:48:00] whatever.
I also saw it as, this is going to be a good for somebody else too. I think it's going to help me heal,
Sathiya Sam: Yeah.
Dr. Josh Axe: but it's going to be good for them to pray for me.
Sathiya Sam: Yeah.
Dr. Josh Axe: going to give them an opportunity to bless them to be able to use the Their spiritual giftings or for them to be able to, you know, pray for me.
And so, um, I think that, that having the great, great people around me that were encouragers where I could share, you know what, I'm having this limiting belief and Chelsea saying, God is always faithful. Remember that? Remember you said that. I'm like, you're right. He is always faithful. Um, so I think those things really helped.
Sathiya Sam: Yeah. Oh, it's so good. Um, there's, there's just so much to unpack. Cause I think, um, it's, it's one thing when, you know, obviously you have the credentials, you have a track record, you've been doing the work you do for so long and you've changed so many lives. I think your, your story is really touching, Josh.
I really appreciate you sharing it. Um, and just grateful to God that you're well, you know, 85%. And the next time we have you on here, I'm sure you'll be a [00:49:00] 110, 120%. Uh, as you keep on this journey for people who want to get their hands on this book, obviously it's flying off the shelves. What's the best way for them to do that?
And, and, you know, you have a great podcast, very strong presence, um, on YouTube elsewhere. Uh, just if people want to connect with you in general, what are some ways they can do that?
Dr. Josh Axe: Yeah. Yeah. The first one's the book, uh, book. You can get that it's in bookstores nationwide on amazon. com. Um, the other place is my podcast. Um, it is, uh, you know, that's continued to really, really grow and flourish. We hit on a lot of mindset. topics, personal growth topics, also a lot of health. And so it's sort of mixture of growing and body, mind, spirit.
And I encourage everybody, Sophia, to check out the episode I did with you. Um, you know, uh, again, YouTube, iTunes, and then also if you would just search, I cover a lot of topics, health related. One thing we didn't get to, which I'd love to get into next time is how to, how to really. Increase your testosterone naturally so people could just go online and do a search though on youtube or itunes like josh ax testosterone [00:50:00] And and watch the video or something that i've done on that because I have covered it But i'd love to you know We'll cover it again on in something in the future.
Um, and I do want to mention what the book the book's called Think this, not that. And, um, if you go and buy the book on Amazon, you'll get a six digit code afterwards. If you then go to my website, joshax. com, I've got a bunch of free bonuses, a video series on mindset, the workbook. I just give everybody for free.
If anybody wants to take advantage of that as well. And then I'm at dr. Josh acts just on social. Most of them spend a lot of time on Instagram and, uh, and YouTube, but, um, it's been such an honor. So do you think, thanks so much for coming on. And by the way, Thank you so much for what you do. I think that, um, it is such a massive need.
I don't think people under, most people don't understand how much this sort of, uh, how much we need men to step up and be virtuous men today. And I think that it, it fixes the majority of the world's problems when men become more like Christ. So, so thanks so much for what you do.
Sathiya Sam: Yeah, you nailed it. Yeah, we believe if you change the man, you change the world. So, [00:51:00] um, we see that in the work you're doing. It was a real honor having you on here today, Josh. Thanks so much for your time. We'll put all those links in the show notes. God bless man. Thanks.
Dr. Josh Axe: Thank you.
Well, there you have it, man. Love Dr. Axe, uh, appreciate his transparency. Uh, and he did share a couple of things on this podcast that he doesn't share anywhere else, which is really cool. It means he trusts us collectively as an audience. He knows this was a safe place. And I think it showed that was a fantastic interview.
Go check out his book. Think this, not that. Um, and just so you know, like he kind of understated his activity on Instagram and YouTube, but we're talking about 2 million subscribers on YouTube, almost a million on Instagram. This guy has a huge audience of people that love his message. And so if you resonated with him, if you felt like there was a connection there, or maybe you just want to learn more about what he's up to and what he provides, check out his YouTube channel, check out his Instagram.
And, uh, obviously, you know, we, we talked about how. The mindset, right? Beliefs and thoughts, how mastering these [00:52:00] areas is a critical piece of recovery. And we also talked about that identity piece, didn't we? Like how, how we have to undergo this proper shift in identity. For us to really experience any transformation.
And that is certainly true of the recovery process. So look, if you're looking for some tailored help to actually make a lasting recovery from porn addiction and other sexual misbehavior, I'd love for you to check out my program, deep clean. We help hundreds of men around the world on a regular basis, quit pornography successfully.
We have a method that integrates science. Uh, you know, I was a researcher. And scripture because I was a pastor. Those two areas are very important for me to really bring about solutions that are actually effective, not just short term, but long term. If you're looking to quit porn, you're looking to quit it for good.
And you're looking to quit now, there's a link in the show notes. Click it below. Check out the case study video. See if this looks like a good match for you. And if it does, we'd love to speak with you and see how deep clean could change your life. I believe that if we can change the man, we can change the [00:53:00] world.
And that's, I'm so passionate about helping you. That's why I love that you're listening today. And that's why I'd love for you to check out the program. If that's something that you're looking for, regardless, I hope that the content today was a huge blessing to you. My last ask is that you just take a minute to think of anyone who might benefit from it and share it with them.
That's how we grow. And that's how we make this world a better place is by proliferating this content to the world. And you guys can play a part in sharing that. So that would mean the world to me in the meantime. Thank you so much for listening. God bless you. We'll talk soon. [00:54:00]