A Routine Procedure Nearly Destroyed His Health—How Dr. Josh Axe Recovered

Alex Clark (0:00)

How do you feel about one olipop a day?

Josh Axe (0:02)

Listen, doing an olipop here or there is fine. I don't have a problem with that, but I still think people should be aiming for about 30 grams of fiber from food sources.

Alex Clark (0:09)

Your menopause trajectory is determined in your 30s?

Josh Axe (0:13)

I could make an argument for five years old. Women used to hit menses at 17 years old. Now they're hitting it at 12 to 13 years old. 17 versus 12, that's five years of premature hormonal aging. So no, I don't think it's 30 I think it's zero through 40 I think that women are aging much, much faster. I mean, think about all of the hormones in the milk supply. Think about all the microplastics, all the things they're exposed to. And this is why these girls are hitting menses so much earlier.

Alex Clark (1:04)

Today's guest has spent his career teaching millions that the body can heal. And then, at 42, a routine medical procedure left him facing the possibility that he might never walk normally again. Dr. Josh Axe is a doctor of natural medicine, clinical nutritionist, and one of the biggest voices in food, herbs, functional medicine, and faith-based healing. And he completely healed himself naturally. Now, he's got a brand new book co-authored with Dr. Will Cole, another great friend of the show. It's called Heal Your Cells. Today, we dive into everything from getting off thyroid beds to the best food for a wet cough, how to avoid gallbladder surgery, if Dr. Axe believes the body keeps the score, and why a hyperbaric chamber appointment three times a week could change your life. Also, go to Dr. Axe's podcast, listen to him interview me on my super controversial morning beauty smoothie, and not giving my future kids fruit before they're two and tons more. Watch on the real Alex Clark YouTube channel or Culture Apothecary on Spotify. Leave a five-star review before we start. Let us know the guest that we should have back on. Welcome Dr. Josh Axe back to Culture Apothecary.

Your entire career has been about teaching people how their body can heal. But you actually went through something where you wondered if your own body could heal.

Josh Axe (2:18)

Yeah.

Alex Clark (2:18)

Because at 42, doctors told you, you may never walk again.

Josh Axe (2:22)

Yeah.

Alex Clark (2:22)

What exactly happened?

Josh Axe (2:24)

So I went in for actually a natural procedure, stem cell procedure. I had injured my back lifting weights a few years before and I'd done stem cell, and I probably got 70 percent better. I mean, I was amazed at how much it helped me heal. And I went back in, got it done, and then something went wrong. And I ended up feeling just worse and worse every single day to the point, one morning I woke up and I literally could not walk. The pain was so excruciating, I couldn't get out of bed, laid in bed a couple more days, still didn't get better. In fact, kept getting worse. I called an ambulance, they came and picked me up. I was in Puerto Rico at the time and went and got an MRI.

I got the report back and it said I had a spinal infection that had migrated from my disc into my bone, and now there was an abscess growing in my spinal cord. I immediately had to get on a medical flight to Florida, met with an infectious disease specialist. He looked me in the eye and he said, this is really serious, it could kill you. He said, the most likely outcome is going to be, you're going to be permanently disabled.

Alex Clark (3:20)

Oh my gosh.

Josh Axe (3:21)

What's so crazy, Alex, is just a few months before, I was playing in the pool with my two-year-old daughter, throwing her seven feet in the air in the pool. I was lifting weights, I was cycling and swimming and felt like I was in pretty good shape, but I just had a little bit of nagging back pain. And then I was told that I may never walk normally again, I would likely have to have my spine fused. And I gotta be honest, I mean, for 48 hours, I felt like my life was over.

But then I just really pressed in and prayed. And I just felt like God said, listen, I've got you, just walk with me through this. And I just spent time praying. And I said, you know what? I'm gonna do everything I can to heal.

And one of the things that's so difficult about the area where I had the infection was, it has almost zero blood supply in your bone and in your disc and your spine. And so I did all the research I can on how could I flood this area with oxygen and blood in stem cells so it can actually heal. And so I started getting in a hyperbaric chamber every day. I started following a really specific type of diet. I mean, I was doing IVs. I was, I was pink blue every single day because I was doing methylene blue IVs, silver IVs, every sort of nutrient you could think of doing everything I could to heal. And I did this. By the way, I didn't walk for an entire year. I'm talking about, well, 10 months I didn't walk on my own, two months on a walker. And then I just started continuing to do everything I could. So what did you do?