Dr. Zach Bush ON: The Importance of Gut Health & Why Dehydration Is Worse Than You Think

We know people should exercise, and yet. when we tell people who are overweight. and diabetic to go exercise, they don't. actually lose weight and they very. rarely improve their diabetes. Why is that? The best-selling author and host. The number one health and wellness. podcast. On Purpose with Jay Shetty. You know, what was your journey from. conventional medicine to internal. medicine? And how did you even move in. that direction? Because I think that. today we're seeing a lot more of that, but you've been doing this for a long.

time, so I wonder what that transition. was like. It was a stepwise journey into. a lot of left-hand turns and pivots, I. think, but the the journey began in the. Philippines. I took a hard left turn in. my career. I was going into engineering, took a year off, and then had the. opportunity to birth babies in the. Philippines with a group of. international midwives, and that. experience of being around the birth of. human life was so riveting and so. engaging that the idea of returning to a. program in robotics and machines just. couldn't capture my imagination anymore.

And so that was my entry point into the. health career, and initially thinking. maybe nursing, nurse practitioner, and. then eventually slippery slope took me. into the idea of just going ahead down. that medical doctor route. And that. journey came along in an interesting. point in human history where I didn't. realize in the 1990s, none of us knew at. the time that we were about to witness. the most extraordinary explosion of. chronic disease in human history. We were about to see the complete. collapse of the human immune system, the. human neurologic system, and the debut.

of things like attention deficit. disorder, gluten sensitivity, Lyme. disease, chronic fatigue syndromes, chronic pain syndromes, things that had. simply not existed 10 years, let alone. in the in the previous thousand years. And so it was a very interesting time to. enter into this world of science and. medicine at the point where we would. lose it all. And now we recognize, you. know, 30 years later that we're now in. the midst of the sixth extinction event. where we're losing biology at such an. extraordinary rate and we see not only.

cancer epidemics and autoimmune. epidemics and the rest, we're seeing, you know, pandemics and the results of. this real disruption of. neuroanatomy and attention deficit to. autism from Parkinson's to Alzheimer's. and this breakdown in our cell-cell. communication such that we would really. lose our self-identity. in this milieu of inflammation and. destruction at the cellular level. which of course is manifesting at the. macro level as well. And so we see the. dissolution of sociopolitical systems. and this polarization and the fear,

guilt, shame paradigms amplifying as our. biology collapses. So, never before so. interesting a moment to step into this. space and it's been a real exciting. journey into realizing that. the end is near of an old paradigm and. the beginning is nigh for everything. that we perhaps have not even yet. imagined because we are starting to. realize that to be human, to be human. health, is to really a description of an. ecosystem rather than a single species. trying to met out a survival paradigm.

within a complex ecosystem of life. You. know, one of the reasons why I've been. so interested in your work is because I. found myself going from being quite an. healthy individual to then randomly. having inflammation and having gut. issues and whatever it may have been and. none of them were things I could even. explain like I was living a generally. healthy diet or I was pretty active or. whatever it may be but still I'd started. to see all these things and so what. started in the first place at such a. global level? Like what has been going.

on with our health, the food system and. and everything else? What what's been. happening that has caused it today where. I think the majority of us either are. experiencing it or know someone who's. experiencing it. Yeah. I think I had to go into the problem. before I found some of the answers to. your questions there and diving deeper. and deeper into the problem I was as. trained in internal medicine, which is. general hospital care, kind of your. adult medicine and conventional. pharmaceutical model, running ICUs and.

the like, running I was a chief resident. training residents and med students at. the University of Virginia, and was finding that I wasn't finding. the answers to how do I make my patients. healthier. I was chasing disease and it. was getting more and more difficult. seemed every year to actually have a a. positive outcome with my patients and so. I felt like I needed more training. and I did endocrinology and metabolism. for another 3 years and that training. really took me into what is the. communication network of this exquisite. symphony that we would call a human. body. How does the liver talk to the. brain? How does the brain talk back to.

the adrenal glands? How do the adrenal. glands talk to those kidneys? And so. that was the fascination of that. hormonal network of communication and. that drove me down deeper into the. second half of that specialty, which is. called metabolism. How does energy get. liberated within a human cell to. manifest life? And the answer, which was. just becoming obvious, was that it's. actually not the human cells creating. the energy, it's these tiny little. microbes, these little bacteria that. live inside of our cells that was. liberating energy for the human cell to. to thrive upon.

And those little bacteria, often called. mitochondria, are very susceptible to. toxins. I was developing toxins to kill cancer. cells and was watching those toxins. damage this ecosystem within and then. make it very difficult for a cell to. recover. on a cancer journey. And so it was a realization that this. this paradigm of poisoning for the. effort of health was just a chasing for. the wind. So I'd spent 17 years of. academia becoming an expert in cellular. biology, becoming expert ultimately in.

this little niche of chemotherapy, realizing then at the end, oh my gosh, I'm chasing the wind. No matter how good. my chemotherapy gets, it's never going. to actually solve the problem that I. face because actually in human history. not a single cause case of cancer has. ever been caused by a lack of. chemotherapy. And so it was that kind of slippery. slope of root cause, root solution, root. cause, root solution to realize I'm not. anywhere near the root of this thing. But my chemotherapy was in vitamin A. compounds, which are nutrients obviously.

from food systems. And so that was a. backdoor into the question of what. happened in nutrition that we would. suddenly have all this cancer. If nutrition can kill cancer, where did. that nutrient base go? And that led us. then to some pretty exciting answers and. I had to leave the university setting at. that point cuz the research that I next. wanted to do couldn't really fit into. the paradigm of here's a drug, here's. the disease. And I was starting to want to ask deeper. questions about how does life happen? How does biology happen? So I left in.

2010, started a clinic that was you. know, based in nutrition and idea that. the nutrition could be the basis for. reversing chronic disease and perhaps. ultimately preventing it. And that was a. daunting and scary moment for me cuz I. had been trained nothing at all in. nutrition. And so I was desperately. looking for everything I could put my. hands on in the nutrition sciences to. try to find a path forward. And I was. finding that the nutrition sciences were. really disconnected from the deeper. understanding of how biology worked. We. were practicing on a 50-year-old beliefs. about nutrition with the food pyramid.

and all this. When in fact we kind of. knew already at the biology level that. that was a miss. But we hadn't matured that that science. And long winding path it turns out that. I found myself back to not recent. medicine, but ancient ancient medicine. And we find that long before Hippocrates. came along to say we are what we eat. kind of thing. Uh. Chinese medicine had recognized that we. we must you know, realize that we are a. manifestation of the nutrient nutrition.

and the connection to nature. And maybe deeper than Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, which was a deep deep uh field. that you've studied extensively with. your tea company and everything else. This science of Ayurveda dates back. 9,000 years and comparing that to like. 50 years of food science that we throw. at the at the wall right now, it's it's. been proven over and over and over again. in vast different, you know, people's. groups and genetics and everything else. And so, in the end that long winding. path took me back into this indigenous.

realization of we are of nature, we are. of the earth. Each one of us is of the earth and this. is. why we call ourselves earthlings, I. suppose. But this human condition. identifies that nature intended us into. our existence and into our resilience. and into our full potential. And it's in this last 100 years where. we've accelerated this march away from. that nature and the convenience. lifestyles and the technology boom and. everything else. And this has been that. pivot point of how did we lose health? We simply distanced ourselves from.

nature further than we'd ever been and. we did it at these fundamentals, as you. point out, of the food system. And so, that was my slippery slope into. what's happened to the food, which took. us into what happened to the soil, which. has taken us into a realization of, "Oh. my gosh, we became chemically dependent. both in our farming practices and our. pharmacy of the hospital.". And when we took both of those. industries and said, "We will. technologically create a new chemical. that will allow us to grow food better. and be healthier.". We lost our underpinnings. We lost the.

foundation of nutritional health on the. planet and the vitality of humanity. It's incredible, isn't it, that it feels. like such. small, simple changes, but then they. achieve incredible scale. Right? Like the idea of. if you could find that to be the root, but the rate at which we've all been. negatively impacted by it has been. colossal. I guess right now the individuals that. are listening and and all of us, it's. kind of we're in a challenging place.

because I think people want to be. healthier, but they feel extremely. conditioned by how they've been raised, how they grew up, the kinds of foods. that they've been exposed to, the types. of conveniences you said that they have. already. And I find that that's probably one of. the hardest things is. habit change. Because like you said, we've marched so far away from being at. one with the environment or being at one. with the soil or being so close to our. food, and now we're being so far away. that it almost feels more abnormal to go.

back to nature because of the. conditioning. that exists. And so, how difficult have. you found it to help people actually. reconnect with that which we've. forgotten? When that's actually who we were, if. that makes sense. I think it's almost impossible when you. sit down with somebody in the construct. of I'm going to I'm going to prove to. you that you're wrong. But it's incredibly easy to get there. when you start in a state of compassion. Compassion is a much different energy. than empathy. And I think we've lost.

compassion for our belief in empathy. Empathy is that effort to bring my. energy, my vibration to your vibration. Let you be the tuning fork cuz you might. have been just been diagnosed with a. condition. If I sit down with a cancer patient, their vibration is in fear and, you. know, maybe guilt and shame cuz they're. going to leave their children behind at. a young age or whatever it is. And so, if I dive into empathy and try to match. that vibration, we get stuck there. We.

get stuck in the fear, guilt, shame. paradigm, and I'm suddenly steeped in. fear of like, I don't think I'm equipped. to help you free yourself of this. disease. I think you are going to die. I. think that, you know, and so I have. these deep fears within me around the. death of my patient, and they have that. deep fear of death within themselves. And so, that's typically where we go as. humans right now as we're taught that. this empathic state of, what is the. vibration of the other person across. from you? Can you match that? Therefore, you're in it together. Whereas. compassion is a much different state of.

recognizing where they're at, listening. to the song they're singing, but not. becoming part of that symphony, and holding this other space, this other. potential reality of okay, yes, this has. happened, but what is the alternative to. it? And I think you lose that when you. slip into that fear state, when you lose. your creativity as soon as that fight or. flight state kicks in on your. sympathetic nervous system. The creative part of your brain shuts. down when we stimulate the adrenal. glands, which is of course what we're doing to. our children with Adderall and all this. We stimulate with drugs those adrenal.

glands and they lose their creativity. So, we have whole generations now that. have been taught to answer. multiple-choice tests at the cost of. their own creativity and performance is. linked to their adrenaline levels. That is basically the same thing that's. happening in every doctor's office in. the world is the physician is afraid. that they're not going to prevent death. in this patient and the patient is. afraid that they are dying. And for all that fear of an end point, we can't imagine life as a continuum, as. a continuing.

energetic event that's vital and. constantly regenerating itself. And so, that's kind of the. the death spiral that we were in. And finding our way out of that had to. do with realizing that nature has never. seen an end point, has never seen death. of an individual or a species as an end. point, always new potential energy. And. the beauty on this planet has continued. to get more rich, more diverse, and. ultimately more intelligent with every. single iteration. We call it the sixth extinction that.

we're in because there's been five. others. And yet life booms on this planet in. ways that we couldn't have imagined. before that last extinction. 60 million. years ago, the dinosaurs were walking. around on top soil levels that were 30. ft deep. We're lucky if I find 3 in of. good top soil on the earth right now. 30. ft deep top soils, root systems of ferns. and palms that allowed for those forms. of vegetation to fuel those dinosaurs. into to these massive bodies because. there was so much nutrition, so much.

energy available. And then the top topsoil died. An. asteroid hit, choked the topsoils out, and life on Earth disappeared. for a moment. And then it came back, not with. dinosaurs, but with birds, mammals, humans, not with palms and ferns, but palms, ferns, and flowering trees, deciduous. trees, flowering plants, wildflowers. And so this has been a journey of. iteration on this planet of life more.

rich and more intelligent at every. single turn. And this needs to be. embraced as a society right now as we. anticipate the death of many things. We need to get excited for what will. come next. More richness, more beauty is. going to happen, and that's programmed. into the matrix of life. It will get. better, it will get more diverse, and it. will get more intelligent. And if we imagine the Earth leaping from. dinosaurs to birds and mammals and. humans, where do we go from birds and. mammals and humans to what? What species has this Earth already.

imagined and already coded for in the. virome? The virome is a description of a library. of genetic potential. It's all of the. viruses of the planet. It's a database. Those viruses are new potential genes. waiting to be expressed by whatever life. happens next. Right now in my body, there's 10 to the. 15 viruses coursing through my. bloodstream. It's 10 billion viruses in. my bloodstream right now. Not the same. viruses repeated, different viruses, 10. billion new genes.

checking in with every cell in my body. saying, "Is this an opportunity? Is this. an opportunity? Is this an opportunity?". So, as I let go of my own biology, if I. let go of fear, guilt, and shame, is. there a possibility for me to leap. forward with my own biology, with the. genes that are within me right now. coursing through my bloodstream? Because I'm a microcosm of extinction. and rebirth. And this is where medicine really failed. us is it was a belief of scarcity rather. than abundance, death rather than. rebirth.

Fear of being that everything was. against us rather than perhaps. everything is for us. And this has been that slippery journey. for me of realizing at each turn I. under-estimated our potential and we are. sitting here at the pinnacle of a great. rebirth of humanity if we choose to go. that direction. I guess if anyone's. feeling that way on a personal level. where they're living in that scarcity, they're living in that fear, they're. living in that insecurity of.

and just challenge of I don't know what. to do, I don't know where to start, there's so many things that I need to. sort out with my health, there's. you know, I'm worried about I keep. hearing about my nervous system and the. microbiome and it just feels like. overwhelming. Mhm. Because we've been so. uneducated and untrained in our bodies, right? It's almost like we've been given. these bodies since we've been born but. we're so uneducated about how to use. them and what they need and what's good. for them and what's bad for them and so.

if someone's feeling in a state of. overwhelm, where do you suggest they. begin? We've. been working for the last 15 years in. our laboratory and in our clinics to. sort out what's the simplest. approach to beginning again because I. think we really are at the end of. physiology. When we see 2-year-olds with. osteosarcoma, when we see 15-year-olds. with you know, psychotic major. depression, when we see a 20-year-old. with life-threatening autoimmune. disease, all of these conditions are saying that.

we need a a radical revolution and so. we've been working through all of the. complexity of the diseases and the root. causes and everything else to find then. there's really eight very basic things. that start to build physiology from the. ground up at the cell level and. therefore the organism level and from. the organism to the species. And those eight things really revolve. around some very basic lifestyle. interventions. The first of which is. coming out of fear. And so we spend the first segment of. this uh.

process of finding self within the. context of all the anxiety that you have. that you might feel like you're dying, that feel like it's hopeless, feel like. all the cards are stacked against you. How do we get out of that paradigm. quickly? And that's an effort of really bringing. the arrow inwards cuz right now the. medicine and the world at large are. trying to point outside of you to say, "There's your problem. There's your. problem. There's your problem. There's. your problem. There's your problem.". And so turning that arrow inwards to. say, "Where's my solution?". And you and I talked about this briefly. before the podcast started of like, "How. did you know your journey? How did you.

get from North London. to Los Angeles and everything in. between?" And you answered very. beautifully. You said, "I I just. listened to my intuition and I never. tried to judge it for did it make sense. or not.". And that's basically what's happening at. our clinic is we had to go inward and. ask, "Where does this health come from?". because I wasn't trained into health. I. was trained into disease management. And so as. myself and my colleagues started to put. that arrow inward, we found, "Wow, this. is really exciting. It's super simple in.

the end. It's not a thousand diseases. against humans. It's one health waiting. to to emerge." And so as you come out of. the fear paradigm and that external. definition of self and you become you, then your guide is your your future. self, your highest self, whatever is it. being expressed to make you alive today. with a self-identity, which is pretty. bizarre. It's strange that you know you. wake up every morning and you know. you're Jay. Uh strange that I haven't woken up and. at some point thought, "Nah, I'm Jay. Shetty." cuz we're we're really the same.

thing. Like we're the same biology, same. thing. I. I'm in Los Angeles. See, I could have. bumped into the Jay wave very easily and. been like, "I'm Jay Shetty.". And yet you keep being you no matter how. close in proximity others are around. you, no matter how much food you share. the same, beliefs you share the same, you keep being you. And the really trippy thing is I get to. and that ICU setting see people let go. of the body and die. Heart stops, brain. waves come to a standstill. They leave. that body and then they suddenly. reanimate. We're doing chest. compressions, we're shocking them,

whatever is going on or sometimes they. just spontaneously come back into that. body. And they traveled after that body. stopped, after that heartbeat stopped. They traveled around sometimes in the. room, sometimes great distances around. the planet to visit loved ones, etc. Sometimes off the planet into the. cosmos. And at no point in that after death. journey do they lose track of their. self-identity. And so that is a very strange thing. about near-death experiences that is I. think has been under.

explored. Your identity preceded your. biological expression and will follow. your biological expression as your body, but you're you. When we begin health at. that point of realizing that's a. permanent condition. that can't be destroyed by biological. processes, that's your original math. That's the vibration you're going to. follow. For me, that's the anatomy of the soul. A soul is something that has been. captured by the religious world to.

describe the thing that will supersede. your life. But on the science side, it it is. perhaps a great description of the. energy field that allows you to organize. in your mother's womb. At the beginning. you're one cell that starts to divide. just like a tumor divides. And then suddenly around replication. 260, you start to differentiate. And suddenly. a cell becomes a kidney cell or a. neurological cell or whatever it's going. to become. And not only does it become a. unique cell, it knows where to migrate. to in a three-dimensional map to become.

that organ system. And we cannot find that map in a in the. inside the human cell or in biology. That map seems to be in the physics. field, which is to say in the. electromagnetic field, which is to say. in the space between everything. Your body is solid as it appears to me. right now is 99.999%. vacuum space. filled with an electromagnetic field, which is super dense that organizes the. reality of tissue around it. The this. solid is organized by the vacuum.

And so that thing that thing that. organizes Jay Shetty every millionth of. a second to reorganize cuz you disappear. and reappear constantly. approximately every millionth of a. second and you keep being you. You keep. coming back every millionth of a second. So 1 million times a second I'm. re-manifesting in front of you with a. map from that electromagnetic field. So. perhaps that's the anatomy of the soul. Perhaps that's the thing that holds the. original you. And we have set this world up for. disease by convincing you you're a whole.

bunch of identities outside of yourself. You're a son, you're a father, you're a. mother, you're an employer, you're an. employee, you're a boss, you're this, you're that. Bizarrely the more. altruistic those titles get, the more. likely they are to diverge you from. self. For me that was the title doctor. And that the whole world wanted to make. me feel like that was the most important. thing I had accomplished and this is. what gave me value in society. And it's been a long bumpy 30 years. since getting that MD kind of in behind.

my name to realize it's not the thing. It's not me. I'm something bigger than. that. I am something more true than a. compilation of somebody else's. curriculum and some doctor's title. And when you find that original. vibration of this is me, you become very. potent. You start to tune to something. bigger than the biology would have you. believe in. And in that you start to do something. different with your relationship to. everything. And that's the eight-point. journey that we've put together for the. journey of intrinsic health, which is.

our program that we've been helping. answer that question how do you get to. health? These eight steps are laid out. in this this eight-week journey and it's. about that change of relationship to. your food, to actually water. Water is. really kind of backwards as to our. understanding of how we hydrate and what. water is. And then we also get confused about our. breath and our relationships to each. each little respiration we take. We've. we're confused about what it happens. when we fast and and what is that. positive stress on the neurologic system. look like. We're confused about.

exercise. We do exercise kind of. backwards as well and so it's re-forming. the relationship to all of these. lifestyle things that have been you've. been told are important, but when you go. and do the thing that's important, you. don't get healthier. And that was a big question mark for all. of us in the medical field of like we. know people should exercise and yet when. we tell people who are overweight and. diabetic to go exercise, they don't. actually consistently lose weight and. they very rarely improve their diabetes. Why is that? We know movement is important and yet.

it's not working. And I think it's because of this. externalization of everything. And so. since you're not you and you're this. external representation of yourself, your relationship to all these things, food, movement, breath, fasting, the. rest are all backwards as well. And so. this is the eight-week journey into the. obvious. but in a completely new lens of. everything that's going to go internal. instead of externally sought after. And that's changed a lot of everything. and it's allowed me to close my physical. clinic where I'm seeing one inpatient at.

a time and go to a coaching model where. we are witness to the healing process. rather than mandating the healing. process. Rather than the prescriptive process of. an MD writing down eight prescriptions. and saying this will make you better, realizing that can never make anybody. better cuz those prescriptions are eight. externals, you know, stimuli that have. absolutely nothing to do with the root. cause of their disease. And so this has. It's an exciting journey of reversing. out of my education and into the. realization that there's nothing more. beautiful and potent than a human being.

in their own field in their own self in. their own original math. I'd love to. dive into some of those eight if it's. okay because I think identity is such a. cool one which you just touched on. beautifully there. You touched on water. there. I'd love to understand a bit more. about. that because I think that's kind of like. not even talked about. I've I've barely. heard. I know I know my wife's. I I I always call my water snob because. she's very very careful about the water. we drink and the water we.

you know, shower with and and everything. else. But if you could guide us to. understanding what you're sharing in. your eight-week program around water at. least as a high level, could you guide. us through that? Right now when we think. about liquid water, we tend to think of. the stuff in this glass here and tastes. good drink. It feels good to drink when. it's clean. And it has this kind of refreshing. quality to it for a lot of us. But my body is 70% water and not a. single ounce of that is in this form. The vast majority of the water within my.

body is actually in a crystalline. structure. Uh if you've ever seen Jell-O, eaten. Jell-O, made Jell-O, you see liquid turn. into a solid and that gel-like structure. within Jell-O is the result of complex. crystal structures of the water. organizing itself around proteins. And that's how I hold water. And it. turns out that my biological age and my. likelihood of disease correlates. perfectly with how much crystal water do. I hold. That crystal water is holding.

something. within it and it's light. In a very. amazing. biological phenomenon, this planet is. able to capture solar energy in. chlorophyll which are tiny little. mitochondria that live inside of plants, little bacteria. And these chlorophyll have been able to. take CO2 and turn it into batteries. And the battery is a long chain of. carbon. Double carbon bond is the most. efficient battery ever invented by. nature. That takes no energy to maintain.

the light within that. So, sunlight is. captured between two CO2 molecules and. then eight and then 12 in these long. carbon chains. And then we digest those by consuming. food and we liberate glucose, sugars, carbohydrates, fatty acids and in the. oils in our foods. And we package that. up in our liver and send it out to every. cell in the body. And it turns out the human cells don't. know how to use any of that glucose or. fatty acids. There's no mechanism for. releasing the sunlight. So, it has to. pass it down to the mitochondria living. inside our cells. So, it's basically the.

mitochondria in plants communicating. potential energy to the mitochondria. within us. Those mitochondria start breaking apart. the CO2. And start releasing sunlight back into. the cellular matrix. And that's what's being held within the. crystal structure of water. And it turns out that when I drink water. like this, I'm doing very little to. support the crystalline structure within. my cells. For this to turn into a. crystal, it takes a complex relationship. to a vast array of salts, mineral amino.

acid complexes, and protein structures. And that's where we kind of lost the. hydration story. If I drink this water, it's going to. feel good. It's going to feel like I'm. hydrating myself for a few minutes. But. I'm going to pee this out in the next 45. minutes. It'll If I haven't emptied my bladder, it'll be sitting in my bladder. It's no. longer in my body. It's outside of my. body again. Because this pure water has no reservoir. in my body. It has to pass quickly. through my bloodstream back to the. kidneys and get out to my urine. And so, the journey into health is.

really a rediscovery of how do you get. water into the crystal stage? And that. it's a complex journey in some ways, but. it is an exciting premise to begin with. is I need to be more full of light. How. do I become more full of light so that. I'm more vital so I can repair at a. faster rate than ever before because. there's more poisons in my environment. than any other time in human history, I. need more crystalline structure. And so. we re-evaluate water at that that. journey from your gut into the crystal. form inside your cells where it turns.

into that gel battery storage place for. that light liberation from the sunlight. for the animation of life to happen. And. so that's a a little bit of a nutshell. of. a lot more content that can be drilled. into, but that's uh a little bit of that. flip on the head of water. Yeah, absolutely. I mean. and you and you said you can actually. test. you can actually see your age through. the quality of that crystalline. structure. You can test for that? How do you test. for that? The easiest way to test for it.

is a relatively old technology. It's. called a phase angle calculation, but. you use an impedance monitor, which is a. description of just measurement of. resistance, and it looks like EKG leads. If you've ever seen an EKG 12 leads. around the heart and all that stuff. They're sticky little pads. You'll put. one on the wrist, one on the forefinger, one on the ankle, one on the toe, and. then you lay perfectly flat and then and. you measure across that column of water. that's now at a an equal at lateral.

level to the earth and to the gravity. You measure the amount of electrical. resistance across that column. And from that you can calculate based on. body weight and your height and all of. this stuff, how much water is inside. every cell. And when you calculate that, then you. get a very good biologic age and. biologic estimate of your vitality. An ideal phase angle is up around 10, 12. I've never seen anybody at 10 or 12. The healthiest patients walking in my. clinic are typically around a seven or. an eight on their phase angle. Anybody.

coming in with disease, let's go with. cancer for for the endpoint there, is. typically around a four. Death happens at 3.5. And so what I just told you is ideal. health is 10. Death is 3.5. And cancer shows up at four. And here we're telling everybody they're. dying of cancer. As it turns out, when you look at the. simple reality of water inside a cell, cancer is one of the last symptoms of a. complete disconnect from the energetics.

of life. Cancer happens when you no. longer are connected to the energy of. that plant, of that chlorophyll, of that. sunlight that charged life in the first. place. And so, that's where we go with this. eight-week journey is where where did it. break down? How did you go from 10 to. three? How did you get from 10 to four, whatever it is. And then how do we start. to back you up that track of crystalline. water? How do we get your body to hold. more light energy so that you're more. vital, so that you accelerate every. enzyme process, detoxification, repair,

regeneration, protein structures. throughout all matrices. All of that happens automatically when. the light goes up. You mentioned a product earlier, the the. the gut supplement you probably got put. on by your nutritionist, but the journey. into that phenomenon was our. understanding of soil and food, and how. did it break down so quickly was the. question we were trying to answer. How. did we go from 1992 to 2002? That 10. years saw the complete dissolution of. human health across all ages, across all.

organ systems in a 10-year period, across all peoples really that were. touching Western civilization, Western. food systems. And in that journey we discovered. glyphosate. And glyphosate is the. primary herbicide or weed killer in the. vast majority, 90-plus percent of the. weed killers on the planet. We now. spend, you know, billions of dollars a. year spraying this thing into our. environment. We have an estimated 4. billion pounds of glyphosate being. sprayed into our soil and water systems. worldwide. And it turns out, as our laboratory has.

been studying this compound for a decade. now, every time you touch human cell. systems with glyphosate, it dissolves. the communication between them. It disconnects you from the boundary of. being human and it dissolves that to the. point where you don't know where your. begin or end of human biology and you be. your immune system has to turn on to. fight everything. So, you were eating pretty healthy. You were exercising. You were living a. pretty affluent lifestyle compared to. the rest of the world perhaps and yet. you weren't thriving. because there was a chemical now in your.

food that was dissolving the boundary of. an and your energy was now leaking out. of your body quite literally. We've. popularized the term leaky gut, but it's. much deeper than that that is happening. at the individual cell level that's. leaking light, leaking water outside of. itself. If you can't hold that. crystalline water, you can't hold the. vitality, the energetics of the plants. you're eating, of the nutrition you're. eating. And so, you start to fade with. your energy levels. And with less. energy, you repair less well and you. start into this chronic disease that. happened between 1992 and 2002, chronic.

fatigue syndrome, this chronic pain, everything mentioned. And so, that was your personal journey. And then you got put on a supplement. What What is that supplement? It's not. actually. a traditional supplement. Most. supplements are like pieces of the. nutrition cascade of a vitamin or. mineral or protein or whatever it is. This is way way upstream of that. This is not a nutrient. This is in fact. the the small carbon molecules that form. a redox signaling system which is a. fancy word for a wireless communication.

network between your cells. There's two ways cells can communicate. One is through hard fiber optic cables. They can pass light energy back and. forth for communication. And the other. one is through this more ethereal. wireless communication similar to your. cell phone. Your cell phone sits there. all the time with a a complex. transmitter in there, transceiver. really, can receive and transmit tiny. little signals, but it has to be picked. up by a cell phone tower that will. propagate that information at distance. so I can talk to my grandmother. For me to talk 3,000 miles away, I need.

lots and lots of connections between all. those cell towers to to cascade through. to carry that message. If you lose one cell tower nearby, you. your cell cell phone suddenly doesn't. work. Nothing broke in the cell phone is an. important real reality. It just can't. reach the bigger system. And so the disease of today is not. actually a disease of a single cell. It's a failure of that wireless. communication network. And so when a. single cell gets injured now, it can't. send out the signal of, "Hey, I'm I'm. injured. I need repair." And it sits.

there and accumulates injury. And with that accumulation of injury, we. reach cancer. Cancer is a single human. cell that has 20,000 unrepaired genetic. injuries in it. And so this journey towards cancer is. not only a loss of electric light and. light potential, it's a loss of. communication and loss of that. regenerative potential. And so we now. have a whole society of humans, 8. billion of us that are losing our light. We are dimming, and we are losing our our cell cell. communication. The cell phone towers are.

going down, and we cannot repair. But nature always prepares for the. worst. And the antidote, it turns out, to the death of communication, which is. happening at the human level, is. actually the microbiome, which is a term. that's now thrown around a lot, and I. think we all have a vague understanding. I think that's like bacteria or. something. But really what it's. describing is complex ecosystem. It's. It's thousands, if not tens of. thousands, if not millions of different. species of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and human cells alike, all getting into.

this coherent communication network. And. so the microbiome is a description of a. complex landscape of biodiversity. And each of those microbes, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and the like, are. making another variant of these small. carbon snowflakes. And when those carbon snowflakes go into. a liquid state, into the aqueous state. of your bloodstream, or into that. semi-aqueous state of the gel within. your cells, they're able to transmit. information long distances. And so we started extracting these from. fossil soils before the last extinction.

60 million years ago. Again, 30-ft. topsoil levels, the healthiest. microbiome the planet has ever seen. And. so, we tap back into the fossil layer of. soil and start extracting that. communication network. And the first. time we put this on human cells was. 2012. And I got to see in my lab, which. was rudimentary at the time, some of the. most ridiculous things happen under in a. petri dish that I just didn't even. believe possible. And it was a journey from stopping. asking questions about the cancer cells. we were talking and asking questions and.

studying to. healthy bio- biology. Is Are we. witnessing health in a petri dish? Is. that's what's really happening? Cuz so. many things were fixing and repairing at. such a rate I never imagined before. And so, it's been a very exciting. journey to realize that the Earth has. coded into her deep fossil soils. a communication network that can help us. out of our crisis, that can help us. beyond this isolation of the single. human cell and ultimately the isolation. of a single human species. back into an interpretive dance with.

life itself. This vast biology within us. and around us is ready to re-engage. We. just need those cell phone towers up and. running but in our bodies. And that's. what happened to you when you started. ION. Yeah, no. Thank you for explaining. that. It's It's incredible how. little we know. I mean, when I'm. listening to you, I'm just thinking to. myself. I'm like, we just we just don't. know enough. And. individually and collectively as well. But. one of the things you talked about.

water, we talked about a bit about. microbiome, which I want to get back. into. But. a big area that you're focusing on is. soil regeneration. I think that's been. something that's. been more recently talked about as. opposed to something that we've thrown. around as you were saying about the. microbiome. But. talk us through that very key element of. the environment. And again, if you can. give us that sort of synopsis version as. you did with water for us to just. understand the value of that because I.

want people to go and follow you and. figure out through your work that the. depths of everything we're discussing. today, but I think at least for the. benefit of this conversation, if people. could get a sense of. just the breadth of. areas that we may not be considering are. negatively impacting our health. Just as. you said, I had no idea when I was. taking iron, you know, what was really going on. behind the scenes. Well, I'm going to. step into that first point for you, too. You made the statement that we don't. know enough, and that's how I felt most.

of my life as a doctor, and that's what. led to 17 years of higher education and. chasing that proverbial knowledge so. that I'd feel less afraid. I feel like my whole world has just. flipped on its head in the last 15 years. to the point where I now realize I know. everything. But I don't know what up in my head. I have access to information throughout. the cosmos through something deeper than. my mind. And that's again where you are. acting from in your career, and not just. in your career, with your interaction.

with humans in general. Your recent book. on human relationships, not just relationship to human cells, to. human beings. How do we start to relate. differently than we have in the past? And that journey, I think, is really. exciting to realize we actually know. everything if we listen inside. And this. is the experiences I'm sure you had in. those few years living as a monk and. everything else. When you spend more. time in silence than you do talking, you. find you know so much. And it's not something up in your head.

It's not an intelligence. It's a connection. The real truth within you will be. remembered rather than discovered. And so that is an exciting journey into. Let's take a deep breath and realize. nobody knows about crystal water or. nobody knows about all this stuff and it. doesn't matter cuz ultimately. it shows the layers that I can show you. in our laboratory will give you a a. glimpse of beauty that you may not have. been realizing in. but how you get to that beauty is. something you all innately know. Your.

relationship to your water, to your food. and ultimately to your soil and. ultimately to your planet is something. that precedes human intellect, human. uh consciousness. And so we are now in a. state of being where we can actually. realize, okay, if everything existed, our capacity to become human existed. before the moment we were human, what. does that mean for our connection to the. future? It's already here. It's already. connected. It's already manifesting. through the genome of the viruses,

through the genetic potential of the. planet itself. It's already here. So not. only do I know myself right now, I have. access to information of the future. because it's already coded for in. biology that hasn't quite yet appeared, but the information is already there. The same way I can remember the past. because it's coded for in my genes, then. all the trauma, all the remembrances, all the experience of my ancestors is. coded for in my genetic code. It's not. in my head, it's within every single. cell of my body resonating in a. crystalline structure that we would call. the fourth phase of water and we.

resonate in that liquid crystal state. to know self and then to express self. within that matrix. So deep breath for. all of us right now as part of the. podcast I'd like, you know what? We're. connected to all of it. We don't need to. know it in our heads because we already. have access to it. Beautiful, yeah. Then the soil. So how. does the soil come into importance? The. soil is a living life form, the most. complex living life form on the planet. and in life itself as we understand it. We've never measured a more beautiful.

system of than the soil. A teaspoon of soil has more organisms. than are humans on the entire planet. A. teaspoon. And so that there's a. complexity and a brilliance and a beauty. of that living ecosystem of soil that. dwarfs our current understanding of cell. biology. We don't We can't. actually. measure in a petri dish the behavior 8. billion different species in a teaspoon. of soil because we haven't developed. good enough scientific measures and fast. enough computers to compute that much. information so fast. So, we tend to.

study one species of bacteria and make a. whole bunch of conclusions that maybe. it's bad for us. Well, this whole concept of bad bacteria. and good bacteria with the probiotics. has really dissolved now. We realize. there is no such thing as a good. bacteria or a bad bacteria. There's only. a healthy ecosystem or a monoculture. Monoculture or the death of biodiversity. is is the demise of life. A push towards biodiversity is the. matrix of health. And it is unfortunate that over the last.

100 years we've developed a deep. economic and you know, physical labor. dependence on chemicals for our farming. and agriculture. These chemicals destroy. the biodiversity of every ounce of soil. we put these chemicals on. They function. as antibiotics. Glyphosate, that most. common of of herbicides, has been. patented as an antibiotic, anti-fungal, anti-parasite. It literally demolishes. life within the soil that it touches, and yet this is what farmers are trained. to use. We genetically modified all of. our seeds so that the food would be. sprayed repeatedly through its lifespan.

with that chemical. And so, Roundup. Ready seeds means poison-tolerant. food system. But, when as a microbiome you are not. prepared for that poison, or as a. consumer, as an animal upstream, you're. not prepared for that injury, you become. poisoned in a way in which you are right. not Roundup Ready. Neither was your. microbiome in your gut, which is your. soil system. And so, all this focus on gut health of. the last 10 years is simply a. description of soil is important. It's.

where life comes from. Life comes out of. biodiversity and relationship, cooperation of biodiverse inputs. Regenerative agriculture is a. description of this revolution that is a. foot that we are participating in. Our. nonprofit Farmers Footprint has been. part of this effort to increase. awareness and learning. and impact and innovation around the. opportunity for farmers to shift away. from the belief that they're there to. grow bushels of corn and instead they're. there to grow life within their soil. systems. And when every day they wake up.

asking, "How can I create more life and. diversity within my soils?" instead of. what can I kill today, which is what. chemical farming is, which invasive. weeds are now attacking, what, you know, I I see you life support do I need to. put my farm on. Oh gosh, I'm out of all. these nutrients, so I need to. intravenously inject all these nutrients. with all these chemical inputs. It's an. ICU condition in the farm just as is an. ICU condition in my hospital. And so this is a journey really into. realizing that we are doing ICU care. because we lost the matrix of life,

which is biodiversity, which is the soil. within your gut, soil beneath your feet. And it's exciting to realize that we can. participate this at every level. If we walk out in your yard right now, you have an American lawn. and an American lawn is the third. largest crop grown in the United States. There are 40 million acres of lawn, Kentucky bluegrass grown in this. country. There's only 120 million acres. of farmland. 40 million acres of grass. so that it looks nice or whatever it is.

We have lots of reasons, convenience, mow it, whatever. If we were to take that 40 million acres. of lawn and convert that to food forests. in our backyards, front yards, and the. rest, we would never go hungry in in the. next 70 generations there could not be. hunger because we would have so much. food bursting from every yard. In World War II, we came close. We had. lost the food system, we had lost supply. chains, we had lost economics, and so we. were growing our food in our backyards. again. By 1945, Americans and the. British in London and the rest were.

growing 45% of their food system in. their backyard victory gardens. We. called them victory gardens cuz the. campaign was if you don't grow your own. food, we're all going to lose the war. If you grow your own food, we will be. victorious. Russians long knew this. Russians had. really built really complex systems of. what we call today peasant farming. systems where there was a lot of. redundancy and a lot of hyper local. marketplaces for food systems. Russians. survived some of the worst fast. starvation events in in history during. World War II and they won the war.

against the Third Reich for their. resilience and a lot of that resilience. was their connection to nature, their. proximity to their food system. The Germans ultimately failed because. they had 3,000-mi supply chains and the. food couldn't get to them. Today, the United States of America is. failing cuz we have 3,000-mi supply. chains to the food that's not grown here. in this country anymore because all of. our soil is dead. The cost of putting seed in the ground. now exceeds the cost that it can be sold. for.

And so we have all these government. subsidies to keep telling farmers to. plant genetically modified crops and put. them under dollar expensive, you know, high-intensity inputs, which is. bankrupting basically every farm and. they're all on life support economically. getting these subsidies that we call. USDA crop insurance and all these fake. things. boosting up dead soil, dead dirt. And so if there is a belief of homeland. security, if there's really a belief of. nations are, you know, capable of of. safety, you have to begin at the soil.

And presidents long back have recognized. this. Franklin Delano Roosevelt said the. future of every country is in their. soil. And he said that because we were in the. Dust Bowl, which was a devastation of. our topsoil due to poor farming. practices and we were starving as a. nation. My grandfather worked in the. White House with. the Roosevelts and his he was the head. of philanthropy in the New Deal in. getting these soup kitchens rebuilt. And. so traveling around with Eleanor. Roosevelt serving soup lines that were. miles long of people starving in this. country because their topsoil had died.

So, twice in a single century we've. destroyed our top soils through poor. understanding of of biology originally. and now a codependence on chemical. farming and and antibiotics as a. mechanism for growing food. And so, for that we have 3,000 mile. supply chains and every city has now. become a really vulnerable island. And. we saw that in the pandemic, suddenly. grocery store shelves were empty because. the ships couldn't get into the ports, the trucks had stopped driving and there. was no food on shelves. It's a very desperate situation we're in.

in the United States, but unfortunately. we have exported that behavior of food. systems to the entire developed world. London is now as vulnerable as the. United States and the rest, Paris as. vulnerable. Los Angeles, where we sit today, has a. three-day food supply. To millions and millions of people. And so, if an earthquake happens and. disrupts the one highway system that. comes into Los Angeles, we will lose our food supply in three. days and we will have a massive riot and. humanitarian crisis on our hands.

We are an island unto ourselves and our. food is 3,000 miles away and we're not. realizing it. Instead, we have 40 million acres of. grass that we can't eat. And we're spraying that with Roundup in. our backyards to kill the few. dandelions, which are the only edible. and anti-cancer compound that's in your. backyard right now. And so, we need to start realizing we. need to eat that dandelion green, not. the dandelion flower, even before it. flowers you're eating that green and. you're getting the nutrients and you're. getting life back in and and you go. beyond that and you say, let's get some. beets and turnips and all the rest.

Let's get some other root vegetables in. there. And suddenly your your backyard could. turn into a bounty of safety for your. family, for your community and the rest. And so, this is the paradigm shift that. Farmers Footprint is really working on. is. can we realize how vulnerable we've made. ourselves as individuals, and not just. at the biological level level of our. chronic disease, but also at the. societal level as we have divorced. ourselves from soil. Is there any way, I. mean, hearing that, is there any way. to have an optimal life still eating.

from a supermarket? Like the idea that. you know, I'm I'm assuming that the. majority people listening are not going. to rush to. start growing something in their. backyard, not that they should not, and. not that we're not encouraging it. I. think it's incredible when people can, but. again, going back to that conditioning, habit formation, all the challenges that. come with that, what can we eat or how. do we eat. in order to protect ourselves? Well, we.

learned it in space during the pandemic. Um, you might remember there was a. moment where we every place in the in. the country sold out of seeds. Mhm. And. so, we started growing again. Uh, and. we're seeing a very exciting movement in. young people right now. A lot of people. are leaving the cities to go start. farming. They've never farmed before. They have absolutely no idea, but they. have this deep knowingness inside of. them that I'm supposed to get not just. to a farm, but I'm supposed to build. community around that farm. So, I'm. going to take me and my best 10 friends, and we're going to move out into the. country, and we're going to start. farming. And the regenerative.

agriculture movement has been led mostly. by women and mostly by youth in this. country. And so, there is a real. movement, not just here, but now as. we've spawned Farmers Footprint UK, Farmers Footprint Australia, the Western. world is starting to reimagine its. relationship to food and soil. And it's. really the women and the and the youth. that are finding this path forward for. us, and it's because I think deep inside. of that feminine archetype that we all. have access to, male, female, or rest, that feminine archetype is about. nurture, and it is about connection. And.

that's ultimately what I believe the. regenerative agriculture movement is in. one word. It is a reconnect. It is a. reconnect to nature, and there's many. ways to do it. There's not a. prescription for here's a regenerative. farm. It's about listening into your. nature, listening into the reality. that's trying to express itself on that. piece of land and then being in support. of that rather than trying to. micromanage that thing. And so, that's a very much a feminine. archetype we can all connect to is how. do we let life start coming into our. lives in a biodiverse fashion.

It doesn't necessarily have to happen. just at the food in the soil. It can. happen with your community and the. inputs you're taking on. If your input. every day is CNN or Fox News, you're. going to become a monocrop almost. immediately. You're going to lose all. biodiversity of information. You're. going to become very monotonous in your. belief systems. You're going to. be very easy to push into a small box of. fear, guilt, and shame. If you go out in nature and spend hours. a day hiking and walking through nature. and smelling real soil and touching.

ferns and. being in awe of the wildflower and. bathing in in a waterfall, you can't be put in the same box because. you are seeing the complexity and beauty. of nature that predated our existence, let alone existence of a television or a. news channel or whatever it is. And so, the the excitement is for me is. as far as way as this might sound to you. right now to be growing your own food, all this stuff, you're just a few. seconds away from your introduction to. that universe. Get out to a park.

Forget a park even. Lay down in in. somebody's yard that has a tree. If you lay down on your back and look up. to the branches of a tree at a blue sky. that has clouds passing over, your brain. will start to rewire just with that. light pattern that's coming through that. tree because in that it's like looking. into a fire. If you can't do the tree, stare into a fire at night. If you can't. do a fire, stare into a candle. Because in the frequencies of those. inputs into our neurology, we we put in.

information in the form of storytelling. A recent study demonstrated that if we. look down at a fire, picture a fireplace. between us here, if we look down at a. fire around a campfire or the like, all. the cells in our bodies turn on. They. tried to figure out like how is how are. stem cells being activated by the fire. And it turned out that it had it had to. do with not just the fire and its. presence, but our our eye trajectory, too. If I looked past the fire and. didn't look into the fire, my stem cells. didn't turn on. But if I dropped my gaze.

away from the horizon and looked down at. the fire, my stem cells turned on. And I believe it's a story of instead of. chasing the future on the horizon, we. need to look down into. the energy that is between us. This fire. that sits between us, if we look down. for a moment, become present instead of. future-looking to that horizon, we can. become present enough to sit in. stillness and watch that. that vibrational experience of a red. coal. glowing and pulsing in the night.

There's something in that that remembers. ourselves. And it was around those fires that we. sang our first songs, danced our first. dances, and told our first stories as. humanity. And that runs all the way to data today. The place I have felt. as an Earthling for the first time in my. half a century, it's in the African bush, around fire, listening to African drums, hearing the. vibration of voices and tongues that I. have forgotten existed. And in.

remembering that, I find my humanity. again. I realize I am from here. I do. belong here, and I am of this place. That is remembered around a fire looking. down. And so, gather around a candle or. a fire, whatever it is, and start to. tell stories again of things remembered. or of yesterday if you need to, but. start telling story around flame. And. that is maybe your journey back into. growing a piece of food yourself in your. backyard. There's going to be a deep remembrance.

of you of this is what peace feels like. This is what that pause does. Staring. into the flame, you can find the silence. necessary to find that guiding. sense within you that we call intuition. That guiding sense that you have. followed in your career to bring you to. the success you've had. And so we all. have that immediately available. Before. we've even grown our own food, before. we've grown anything, all of that is. intact. And I have again and again seen people. on the deathbed. As a hospice doctor, I.

was admitting 80 patients a week to die. So I've seen a lot of things that we. call death. And even when biology is. completely failing and they have a few. heart beat beats left, a few breaths yet. to take, they can get into that fire moment. And they are crossing the veil and. they're back again, they're crossing the. veil and they're coming back and then. they open their eyes and it happens so. so often. Somebody who's been kind of in. this comatose, you know, milieu of. barely here, suddenly comes crystal. clear, looks you in the face and says a.

deep truth that may or may not make. sense as you the receiver, but in saying. it, you can see them reconnect to their. original self. And they are more true to. themselves in that moment of death than. they ever were in their state of living. in in a. state of disconnect. And so it it doesn't matter how close. you are to death, that fire light is. burning inside of you if not in front of. you. And in the silence in front of that. fire, you can remember why you came here. and why you did what you did.

On purpose is your show. And it turns out purpose is not outside. of you. It's not something to go find, it's not something to go discover. That. purpose is you being you. That original math that vibrates to. animate your biology into a living life. form for a moment. that we would call a human lifespan. You're vibrating there and the purpose. is to be you in this form to take in the. light energy of the cosmos, of the food. you eat, and express it in vitality. within that liquid crystal of your body.

to vibrate. It's the vibration that. makes you alive. And that vibration can be shaped by your. thoughts, your beliefs, the words you. carry, and the feelings that you have. towards one another. And so this is our moment right now is. we can burn bright at our death moment. on our death bed, 60 years, 80 years. left, however long is there on our march. into that. We can rebirth now to come. off of hospice and become a new species, become a new humanity, become a new. expression as we lose fear, guilt, and.

shame because we look past the death. that we all fear and realize that life. is abundant and it's infinite and it's. always in its next transformation, next. expression, which is always chasing more. beauty and more intelligence in the. rest. And so we sit here around a fire. now talking about the demise of all. things. to realize the birth of everything. I. find your responses so refreshing. There is such a rejuvenation and rebirth. hearing the ideas that you're sharing. with the world because I can definitely.

personally attest to so many of the. things that you're mentioning, whether. it's lying down under the tree looking. through the branches, whether it's. deeply excavating and looking at the. roots of a plant, whether it's looking. out into the sky or cloud gazing, which. is. probably one of my favorite things to. do, which is why I live where I live, or. whether it may be just feeling. reconnected. One of my favorite things. was when my wife and I went to Hawaii a.

few years ago. and we fell in love with it because we. felt the people there. had their own language for a culture. that we've learned differently. So, having studied the Vedas, the worship of the sun and the moon are. such big parts of the Vedas, and when we. were in Hawaii, we would go out on a. kayak every morning and pay our respects. to the sun, and it always felt beautiful. to do it in the Hawaiian culture and.

through their traditions. And I. remembered. we walked around where they were showing. us the petroglyphs and the writings and. the stories on the rock and. there was this one particular one which. repeated itself which was a a expanding. circle and it was said that. whenever a child is born in Hawaii, its. umbilical cord is placed on the earth. and a. circle is drawn around it in that very. spot so they can always come back to. that and remember that they're always.

connected to the earth and that's where. they belong. It's incredible how these. very simple ideas can be so sacred and. so powerful as you said internally. You. you feel these things don't necessarily. make sense in your head or. you can't compute them in a logical. reasoning point of view but but you can. feel them. Even when we were there, you. could you could see it and you could. feel it. You mentioned twice there, you mentioned. at the beginning breath as one of the. elements. You then mentioned it again. when people are in their last breath.

Could you walk us through the same kind. of refreshing. insight on breath? The mechanism of. breathing is the the allowance to create. new life. And we exhale so that we can. breathe back in. Mhm. And if you've ever. been told suddenly in an audience like, "Okay, everybody inhale.". It's very hard to inhale because they. didn't tell you to exhale. And so to. really take a good inhalation, you got. to tell the whole audience, "All right, everybody exhale. Blow it all out. Blow. it all out. Blow it out. Now you can. inhale.". And in that exhalation, you're basically.

exchanging the the life force with the. environment around you. Um when I exhale, I I push out. millions of different little tiny. variants of my genetics through. something called microRNA. It's. basically my my version of expressing. a viral. message to the world of here here's who. I am right now. Here's what I'm. expressing genetically. here's what's. happening. So, I have a genetic signal. that I breathe out and I have a new. potential for life that I breathe out in. the form of carbon dioxide that I just.

derive from all the glucose and fatty. acids that I'm. deriving all of that sunlight from. So, I'm releasing sunlight and then I give. back the CO2 to the atmosphere so I can. breathe it back in. It turns out I need CO2 exchange. I need. to breathe it as much as I need to. exhale in because it's. really the the pulse of life. And it's the way in which I use oxygen. at the cellular level. So, I can't use. oxygen unless I've got CO2. So, I. breathe out a big gift of CO2 and the. atmosphere gives me back CO2 in an in a.

ratio that allows me to use oxygen more. effectively. And so, CO2 is really the coursing. bloodstream of of life itself. It's the. the currency of life. And so, that currency of energy is. pulsing with every breath and when I. start to develop a an addiction to. breathing, I don't take that deep breath. and I'm instead I have all these short. little breaths that I take all the time. cuz I'm in a fight or flight state. and I don't slow that respiration down. My neurology is reading all the time. panic. And so, in the same way that we're. addicted to water that can never turn.

into a liquid crystal and therefore. we're always thirsty, in the same way I'm always taking all, you know, 16 to 20 breaths a minute. because I'm afraid I'm going to run out. of air because I haven't been taught to. actually breathe. And so, the planet is now doing this as. well as humans. Uh. the planet can't take a deep breath. right now because its lungs are the soil. system. We've now killed 97% of the soil systems. of the planet. 97% of arable soils on. the planet are now depleted or severely. depleted of their metabolism, their.

ability to breathe. In an ideal state, this planet breathes. in a deep breath at night and then. exhales in the morning. And you can watch this happen, especially in humid areas. I live in. Virginia and along the Blue Ridge. Mountains at night if you stand up high. on on the mountains, you get to see that. the the forest of Virginia breathe in. and these it looks like banks of of. clouds suddenly get sucked down onto the. surface of the trees and then down into. the canopy and down into the earth. And so the trees are returning the.

breath to the soil and with it all the. water. In the morning, it exhales and all that. water appears on the surface as dew on. the grass and in the canopy and. everywhere. Well, that dew is now very cold cuz it. was breathed out by a. geothermal cooling thing that we call. the planet. The warming of the planet is not being. caused by CO2. or greenhouse gases. We've been given a. very. half-truth by our political systems that. with Al Gore and the rest of etc. CO2's.

are crisis and we've now pledged $40 by. 2050 to suck CO2 out of the atmosphere. atmosphere and all that cuz we've been. told it's the problem. But in fact, where there's a dying. patient at the bedside who can no longer. breathe or me addicted to my short. breathing or the planet that's lost its. lungs and now has emphysema, CO2 starts. rising in the atmosphere and the heat. goes up because we're not bringing that. into the earth and out of the earth into. the earth out of the earth on a daily. basis to cool the planet. We lost the lungs, therefore we lost the.

the exchange of life through CO2 and we. lost the geothermal cooling that comes. with breath. And so the planet has a fever not for. CO2 but for a lack of breath. And so this is the transit that we need. to do as a planetary, you know, participant is we need to be part of the. solution. We need to allow the earth to. breathe again. I find it interesting that, you know, you always find the micro story in the. macrocosm. And you find it fractally, which means. at every single level of expression of.

nature, you'll find the same truth. And here we were in the middle of a. pandemic where people were going blue. cuz the oxygen could not exchange from. their blood cells into their cells. perhaps in part due to a virus, but. deeper than that, we had covered our. planet in the highest levels of carbon. contamination in history cuz of the. largest fires that had raged for for the. year and a half before the pandemic and. then all the way through the pandemic, we had the the largest fires all over. the world that had ever happened. So, for all the poisoning in the atmosphere, we had cyanide in the air levels.

unprecedented. We were breathing in. cyanide, which causes this respiratory. failure. We were describing it again. just to the virus, but I think it was a. lot of different factors happening at. that time. We were losing our ability to. breathe. Meanwhile, the planet's warming up, warming up, warming up and CO2's going. up in the atmosphere. We can't breathe. Plants can't breathe. We couldn't. breathe as a species. And then we get. this extraordinarily tragic moment where. we watch a police officer with his knee. on the neck of an African-American man. and he dies in the streets screaming, "I. cannot breathe.". At every one of those fractal levels, we.

got to witness the suffocation of life. And it was suffocating in that moment. where the police officer is too afraid. to move. And maybe angry, maybe lots of other. negative emotions in there, but. ultimately it's fear. Fear of death. Fear of different being different. Fear. of. everything other than self. So, that knee stays on. And right now, we have our proverbial. knee on the neck of this planet. We are. not letting this planet breathe cuz. we're afraid we might go hungry. So, we're waiting for technology to save us.

so we have more and more genetic. technologies. We now have robots trying. to mine food out of the earth. We're. waiting for more and more technology and. we just will not let the knee off the. neck of the planet because we're afraid. she won't provide for us. We need to let the knee up. We need to. be confident that we are one species. that is the compilation of hundreds of. thousands of species that has made life. possible. We need to start to breathe. together. We need to move to a point. where there is grace rather than fear, where there is joy rather than guilt, there is love rather than shame. And to.

get there, we're going to have to trust. that we are supposed to be here. We are not the cancer of the planet. We. are the potential energy of the planet. We are the highest expression that the. planet has made so far, and we can stay. to play if we choose. And so, we need to take the neck off the. planet. We need to take the take the. knee off the neck of the planet. Take. the knee off the neck of one another. and start to move in a state of. abundance, and we will do this as we. find those quiet spots around the flame.

Breathe slower. Breathe deeper. as individuals, as a planet. And in so doing, start to feel the. future. And this is the mystery that we see. baking all over the world. I'm very. gifted in my career right now that I get. to travel all over the place all the. time. And so, the in the more than 1 and 1/2. million miles I've flown over the last. 10 years, I've gotten to meet nearly. every people group on the planet. And. I've spent time in so many continents. over the last couple years.

And for all of the fear and guilt and. shame that we just exercised as a. planet, I have never seen more optimism, more excitement, more of that bubbling. energy of oh my gosh, it's about to. arrive. We are about to arrive. Something is about to happen. This is so. exciting to be alive right now. I hear. that all the time. It's so exciting to. be alive right now. So, what is the light that's shining so. bright in humanity as our biological. light dims? I think it's the original math. I think. it's the soul.

The energy that animates life is burning. bright right now cuz it is not. diminished by the energies that it was. putting into the biological expression. of humanity. It is burning brighter cuz. it says, "Look beyond the flesh to find. the truth." And in that energy field, you will find the new life that will. code for your new future. And so, we have to get to that hospice. moment. We have to let the lights almost. die out so we can cross the veil and see. the truth and then come back and change. everything. Incredible. Dr. Zach Bush,

if anyone's listening right now and they. want to find that optimism, maybe join. your eight-day program, like to learn. more about the solution aspect of. everything you've been sharing today, where where should they go? How can they. connect with you and connect with your. work? The easiest place for all the work. is zachbushmd.com. The journeyofintrinsichealth.com. is the eight-week program. Uh the intelligenceofnature.com. is is all of the deep soil science and. the supplements and everything else that. have come out of that soil science and. and the study of glyphosate and the.

solutions to it. Um there's an opportunity for you guys. to engage also just in in community with. us because uh it's one thing to take a. supplement or take a class, but. ultimately if we don't come into. connected community, we're not going to. create that future that we have. And so. there's an opportunity for you to engage. in the community platforms that we've. been creating across many of these. products, going deeper than the product. to to really start to create the. solutions for the future that are that. we can all feel is already here. And. that's my greatest excitement is. watching people come together. There's.

something called quorum sensing that I. find really beautiful. Uh when you get enough biodiversity into. a living environment, suddenly the whole. thing does something more intelligent. than any constituent can do. And so we need to do a quorum sensing. moment as not just humanity, but as a. planet. And so we need to connect to our. ecosystems and diversity and cultures. and for their diversity, the arts and. their diversity, the dance and the. storytelling in the flames in a million. different iterations and we need to. bring that in together for a very bright. flame to burn and for us to connect to.

that quorum sensing moment where we do. quantum intelligence not from the mind, but from that knowingness within you. And it's in that community connect that. we we hope to meet you. It's beautiful. Thank you so much. I. hope that everyone has been listening. and watching. I hope you go and check it. out. And Zach, we end every episode of. On Purpose with a final five or a fast. five. And these questions have to be. answered in one word to one sentence. maximum. And Zach Bush, these are your final. fives. So the first is, what is the best. advice you've ever heard, given, or.

received? Slow down. What is the worst advice you've ever. heard. or received? Stop moving. Stop moving. Question number three. What's something. that you used to value that you no. longer value anymore? Marriage. Interesting. In what sense? You said one word. Yeah. And now I'm I'm digressing. It was my most important value system.

through most of my life and. it's not to say that marriage is not. important on our human journey, um but. it was the Course in Miracles that. really unveiled what was happening in my. effort towards marriage and I enjoyed my. marriage, a 20-year marriage with my. wife and two amazing kids. And then she found a new path and there. was a decision whether to see that as. failure or. to actually, for the first time in our. 20 years together, practice the un part of unconditional.

love. And I realized during our journey. towards divorce, when I realized that. she was definitely going to take this. other path, it was a realization of. I really do love this person and I'm. sitting here telling her how much I love. her and therefore she shouldn't leave. me. Oh my gosh, what what is that? That is the deepest. condition I could possibly I love you. but only if you stay right next to me. and I own this thing. And so that was my journey personally. into deep heartbreak that led to the.

deepest joy that a person can have is. the exercise of unconditional love. And I certainly didn't do it perfectly, I didn't do it well, but my gosh, did I. live differently after that moment where. I realized I can love her on this path. that she knows she's chosen and we've. gotten to watch both of us bloom into. people we could have never become in. that marriage because it was a box That. was an agreement of no change. And as we back up, I think we're going. to realize that we put love and. relationship into a box of ownership.

just in the last couple hundred years. It never existed before. We developed. this ownership model so we could pass. wealth from generation to generation not. realizing when we built the box, we. would crush love, which is ultimately the capacity to see. beauty in another. And if for a moment you think you can. own another's beauty, you have stolen it. from them ultimately and they will. become miserable and you will forget why. you fell in love with them because you. can't see their beauty anymore. And so. in a radical way, we're going to have to. release each other from the boxes we put.

each other in. It doesn't mean the end of relationship, it's probably the birth of human. relationship maybe for the first time, but certainly in in recent modern times, we're going to have to release ourselves. from the box and we're going to have to. do partnership relationships in much, much radically different ways and. they're going to have to come out of the. fear of not having enough love. and start to come from an abundance. model where everything is love. Beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. Thank you for opening up and. that's really, really beautiful to hear. I'm glad I'm glad I asked us to go off.

piste. All right, question number four, what's something you're trying to learn. right now or a skill you're trying to. learn? Beauty. The witness of beauty. And the fifth and final question is if. you could create one law that everyone. in the world had to follow, what would. it be? Biodiversity. Could you expand so that we can. contextualize it? There's uh. a known phenomenon of blue zones around. the planet where people tend to live up. past 100 years and so here we are on the. number one health podcast in the world.

What makes people live longer than 100. years? And we've tried to boil it down. to nutrition and we found that almost. every one of them ate completely. differently and some of them ate only. cooked food, only meat, only veggies, the whole thing, only raw. We saw it. all. In the end, what we have found is. that those that will live under 100. years live in a culture and communities. that hold at their highest value the. opportunity for new connection to to. biodiverse ideas and peoples. And this was taught to me by a couple. out of Ikaria, Greece, a Grecian island. that that is an incredible blue zone. there. And they came and prepared a.

traditional five-course Greek meal for a. group of us and I gave this toast at the. end that said, you know, this is the. microbiome being nourished and we'll. live forever, we'll be like a blue zone. cuz the nourishment is so deep, the. nutrients are so rich. It was all from. So this beautiful thing. I was crying, everybody was crying cuz it's a. beautiful toast. And then guy from. Ikaria stands up and says, "Doctor, that. was very interesting, but you're. completely wrong.". And he said that the only reason we live. past 100 years is not for what we eat, but it's because every night there's a. chair set at our table hoping that.

somebody we don't know shows up. and shares that meal with us. In Ikaria, we never ask each other, "What did you. eat last night?" but we always ask, "Who. did you eat with last night?". And that's what we're missing from. society today. And so when we talk about. biodiversity, it's certainly true at the. soil level. If we don't start living for. the soil beneath our feet and enriching. that with every action we take, whether. it be a political move, a social move, an industrial move, economic move, if. it's not supporting the soil, we would. destroy ourselves in the same way.

if we continue to listen in the echo. chamber of our minds and those people we. are married to and we create these. nuclear families and we listen to the. same box every day, whether it be a TV. or our own brain, we will diminish our. biodiverse ideas and our biodiverse. capacity for creativity and therefore we. will lose the opportunity to stay in. play. Dr. Zach Bush, thank you for such. a fascinating and unique conversation, one that was full of refreshing insights. and ideas. And I'm hoping that everyone. who's listening and watching, wherever.

you are in the world, I hope that you'll. go and follow Dr. Zach Bush, learn more. about his incredible work. And I want. you to tag us both and share your. insights, your takeaways, the nuggets. that stood out to you. Maybe there were. messages or words that uh. ones that you're going to hold on to and. it's going to shift the way that you. practice your health and wellness. routines and regimes. And so, if you've. been listening or watching, make sure. you tag us and share what you learned. and what you gained from this episode. And Dr. Zach Bush, thank you so much for. your time, your energy, your presence,

and everything that you've shared with. us today. Thank you so much. Honored to. be heard and seen by you. Very grateful. Thank you. If you loved this episode, you'll enjoy my interview with Dr. Daniel Amen on how to change your life. by changing your brain. If we want a. healthy mind, it actually starts with a. healthy brain. You know, I've had the. blessing or the curse to scan over a. thousand convicted felons and over a. hundred murderers. And their brains are.

very damaged.