Palm Harbor Local
Welcome to Palm Harbor Local, the podcast where we celebrate and showcase the amazing small businesses in Palm Harbor, Florida! Hosted by Donnie Hathaway, a Florida native and Real Estate Ninja, each episode features interviews with local business owners. You'll learn about their dreams, struggles, and what they love about the Florida outdoors. Join us as we explore the inspiring stories behind some of Palm Harbor's most successful small businesses. From entrepreneurs to established businesses, we share the passion and dedication it takes to make it in the local business world. Subscribe now to get inspired and discover the incredible businesses in your community
Palm Harbor Local
Transformative Paths: Embracing Functional Medicine and Holistic Health with Dr. Jordan Axe
Dr. Jordan Axe shares insights into the transformative power of functional medicine, emphasizing its focus on root cause solutions rather than just symptom management. The episode explores Dr. Axe’s personal journey and offers key tips for listeners to take control of their health.
• Defining functional medicine as a holistic and thorough exploration of health
• The need to shift focus from traditional medicine to a more preventive approach
• Dr. Axe's personal health challenges leading to a holistic philosophy
• Importance of mindset and personal growth in health improvement
• Creating a supportive environment for patients to thrive
• Encouragement to find a functional medicine provider for personalized care
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Welcome to another episode of Palm Harbor Local, where we bring you inspiring stories from the heart of our community. I'm your host, donnie Hathaway, and today we're joined by Dr Jordan Axe. He's a chiropractor and the owner and founder of Axe Holistic Medicine. Now our show is all about celebrating those who have put in the sweat, overcome the hurdles and still find time to give back to the community. Hurdles and still find time to give back to the community. If you want to be inspired by how they got started, what keeps them going and what they're doing to make Palm Harbor even more awesome, you're in the right place. In today's episode, you'll learn the definition of functional medicine, how Dr Jordan Axe became a functional medicine doctor and his best tips for taking back control of your health. Now be sure to follow us on social media at Palm Harbor Local for behind the scenes content and join our weekly newsletter at palmharborlocalcom. Let's get started. So, dr Jordan Axe, welcome to the podcast.
Dr. Jordan Axe:Thanks for having me.
Donnie Hathaway:I'm excited to chat with you. We were just talking a little bit about health and and um kind of your approach and and some of the things that are important to you and stuff, so we'll dive into some of that. But first I want to start off with like um, like functional medicine, like how do you, how do you like define?
Dr. Jordan Axe:that, um, functional medicine, I would consider, is just right, what should be true health care right. It's like hey, talk to a patient, get a good history, do an evaluation, do the testing and then figure out what's causing their issue, their ailment, and then give them the things they're gonna fix it right. Yeah, not a shortcut, not a long cut, just exactly what it is right. To me that's just like what it should be right. And so what we call traditional medicine um is pretty much give a diagnosis and give a procedure, medication for it. It's not, it's giving medicine right. It's not like the practice of being, um, a doctor.
Donnie Hathaway:In my opinion, a doc, being a functional medicine doctor, is really just being a detective, you know it's funny you say that because I I looked up the definition before um, and it was that it was kind of like you know, like what you just said, like let's, let's take a history, let's talk to the patient, let's understand, like what's going on and then find a solution, like a root cause solution you know, and I'm reading that and I'm just like yeah, why isn't?
Dr. Jordan Axe:that's why I think innately, like if you ask me what a doctor was, they would kind of tell you. That's what it is right but that's not what they're doing, right right.
Donnie Hathaway:So how, like? How do we get away from that? And now it's like coming back. We're like that. That seems like what more people are are after now it's this functional medicine approach.
Dr. Jordan Axe:You know, and I think we always look at the root cause. My clinic was called the root cause clinic originally but we had a name change. But I think a big. The root of it is like how did medicine turn into this, like who made that decision? Right.
Dr. Jordan Axe:Like, how did we get here? You know it's like money, right, it's the root cause of all evil. And so I think obviously money and a lot of has to do with insurance and insurance reimbursements. It's like insurance kind of made sense but unfortunately what doctors are doing is dictated by the insurance, not by what gets the patient better. So you're following money instead of getting the patient better. It's made the whole thing go totally backwards and, um, you know it's, it's crazy. It's like hey, for an exam code, a lot of insurance is reimbursed a doctor 40 for an exam. That's why primary care doctors are going under. But then you can do this procedure that takes six minutes and you can bill a thousand dollars. So the doctor's, like I can spend 40 minutes talking to the patient and help them and get paid 40, or I could inject them and get a thousand. What do you think? What do you think the businesses that own the doctors are going to start to promote? Yeah, so you follow the money.
Dr. Jordan Axe:That's what's going to happen. Yeah right, it's common sense. I think that's the root cause is insurance and following those guidelines and where the money's going is there a way that we can?
Donnie Hathaway:can, I guess, like progress past that or move past that and get back to like let's treat the patient, find their root cause and, and really like, prevent a lot of the, you know, illnesses that we have today?
Dr. Jordan Axe:yeah, I mean, to me it's a. I guess I've been doing this long enough. It just seems so simple. Yeah, like I said, you don't need to be a doctor to like take a really deep history. Yeah, um, I remember I had this patient. She was. Her memory was totally gone.
Dr. Jordan Axe:She was like she was young, like upper 20s or something like that oh, wow and um husband was like military and um, she had like 15 mris like her brain and a bunch of other stuff. And there's like, we don't know, you're depressed, take an antidepressant, right, that kind of thing. And I was like so, when I'm just taking a history, when did it start? Oh, you know 2013. Okay, when did you move to florida? That's about 2013. I'm like, okay, let's go down this path a little bit, like I'm not even looking for this, right, yeah, and I'm like and you moved into to, you know, so, a long story short. It's like, hey, there was mold in her house, right, did a mold test found it? She was excreting mold. Um, we did mold tests on her body, not her house, right, and um, she got out of her house, whatever, we did a mold detox and a month later, memory is back. You know, crazy. I didn't even get into anything with her yet. It was like a five minute conversation.
Dr. Jordan Axe:So it's just like a history like just be a detective, don't even think like a doctor, right, start there and then do the testing to narrow it down. Like some people, I'm like this could be a. Maybe you got a parasite, maybe something that you're eating, you know, I'll put like six plausible possibilities together. I let the testing narrow it down. Okay, we've narrowed it down to three things. Let's treat those three things Right. So it's not, that's not rocket science, right, and it's obviously being a good practitioner. You have like a lot of experience with the testing and knowing what to look for, but at the core it shouldn't be complicated.
Donnie Hathaway:Yeah, it's almost so like that scenario that you're talking about. It's like they're looking for something to treat, right. That's why they do like all the MRIs and all that kind of stuff right.
Donnie Hathaway:It's like, instead of finding out well, what's what's causing, what's the cause, and we keep saying that but, um, all right, so how did you, how did you get into this um, career? Is it something like you? Uh, like grew up like this is what I want to do, and you knew right out the gates. Or investing is extremely important, but it can also be somewhat confusing with taxes, asset allocation, stocks, bonds and funds. To know what to do with all this could be overwhelming jacob wade is a financial coach. And funds to know what to do with all this could be overwhelming.
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Dr. Jordan Axe:Not at all. I was going to be an engineer, okay, so I would love building things and that's always what I wanted to do. And then I was in undergrad engineering and started work for my brother who was a chiropractor and he was doing like a lot of health talks, getting out in the community helping people with their health and everything. And I started chatting with a civil engineer, mechanical engineer, and they were just sitting in cubicles. I was like I thought I was going to be like on the tractor, like knocking the building over, I don't know, you know, and I was like, hmm, and then I saw him in the community, like actually helping people. Um, engineers help mankind, obviously, but I just wanted to be a little bit more active anyway. So I started building equipment for him, actually like welding it together, building tables, building vibration plates, and I started. I went to a seminar with him about structural correction, chiropractic, where the engineers, like 100 years ago, created these techniques oh, wow where you use engineering principles and physics to like correct people's spine and get their posture back.
Dr. Jordan Axe:I'm like, okay, well, I can use my engineering brain and maybe go into chiropractic, really right, so it led me into there and, um, then I was having a lot of health issues kind of leading up to this, just sick all the time I was like the sick kid, okay, you know, chronic sinus infections, fatigued, some anxiety, um, and anyways, my brother said, go to this more holistic clinic, functional medicine doctor. Yeah, they did a bunch of testing. Hey, I went there for my eczema because it had gone out of control.
Dr. Jordan Axe:I was putting steroid cream on it, yep, and the steroid cream like, seemed like it wasn't working as well and I'm like, oh, gosh, what do I do now? Like you know, it's like on my body. I'm like is this going to like take over my body? Yeah, and I walk around and I see people that would have been. I would have been in that same boat, you know, it's like their entire arms. Right At the time, I thought it would kill me, right. Yeah.
Dr. Jordan Axe:Now I see people. They're alive, but, right, it doesn't look good, it doesn't feel good. The main thing and they said, your microbiome was just totally jacked and you took all these antibiotics for your acne when you were a kid and everything else happened. And I took Accutane also too, which is linked to autoimmune disease. So they're like, yeah, your gut's screwed up and it's causing your skin issues and it's turned into Hashimoto's thyroiditis, an autoimmune thyroid condition. So I went through their protocols for six months A lot of the same stuff I do at my clinic today and we did a lot of testing.
Dr. Jordan Axe:But the stool test was the meat and potatoes and skin totally cleared up in 60 days and my autoimmune antibodies were gone in four months Crazy, and I was like, hmm, like, hmm, my chiropractor, like doctor, behind my name, I'm learning about natural medicine. I would love to open a clinic doing structural correction but also offering everything holistic people, like a one-stop shop. People can get everything they need to get healthy. And 2016 opened up and that's kind of what happened and nice, it's been good did you in 2016?
Donnie Hathaway:was that like right out of school, or were you a chiropractor somewhere else?
Dr. Jordan Axe:uh, two years I worked for someone else learned how to get in the community? Yeah, learned how to talk in front of people yeah um live with my parents like spent zero money. You know they cooked for me and I saved every dime that I made working for a year yeah and uh, they helped me a little bit. I opened like four credit cards, you know 10 grand. I put all that money.
Donnie Hathaway:I'm like all right, I got a year to make, you know, be successful let's get it done and I just worked as hard as I could yeah, you learn, Like before you opened the clinic, like what did you learn in those in those two years, like practicing, um, living with your parents, that that set you up for for opening up your own clinic?
Dr. Jordan Axe:Yeah, it was really, uh, getting out in the community doing a lot of health talks Cause I knew if you open something from scratch, no one's coming. Yeah, every single person that walks through the door you're going to have to go out and meet.
Donnie Hathaway:Shake hands with the choir.
Dr. Jordan Axe:So that for me was just kind of that preparation and learning about the integrative, like integrating chiropractic with physical therapy. I was going to seminars, it was a time of prep and it was a weird time for me too, like that transition, like you used to be in school your whole life and like, like no friends, I'm like gonna do, I'm like, oh, like what is going on. But that's where, like I know, we're talking about mindset.
Dr. Jordan Axe:Earlier, you know, I started getting like tony robbins, like awakening within and like trying to get control of my thoughts and my emotions, which is big, and how we treat our patients now like incorporating. So that was a big thing personally that I went through during that time. Also, what led you to?
Donnie Hathaway:that um to? Is that something you've always been like, kind of like that personal development side of it, um, or did something happen that you, like I need to?
Dr. Jordan Axe:I need to learn more about this and be better myself mindset I think it was just when you're in school you don't they tell you what to do. And then it's like, okay, I've been preparing, I've had mentors, I've had school, and then it's like, now I'm just like floating out here, I can do whatever I want. I don't know what I want, I don't know what I'm doing, like you just kind of like almost had like a breakdown. You know, yeah and uh. Yeah, I wanted to learn, like you know, breathing and meditation, and just I don't even know. I think someone just gave me the book. Okay, it was life changing and just helped me get control over a lot of that.
Donnie Hathaway:Yeah, that was your first book, Tony Robbins Awaken the Giant Within, or what was the first book that really like kicked it off for you?
Dr. Jordan Axe:That's a great question. Actually, because I had the Hashimoto's issues, I was like, okay, you know, this is very dear to me, I want to really become an expert in this, in hashimoto's. So, um, dr karazian, he's a functional medicine doctor. I read his book on overcoming hashimoto's, so it was actually some hashimoto's books.
Dr. Jordan Axe:I just jumped into it like early on yeah to try to, but, um, that was the first more like motivational book and it's still my favorite book. It's like the first one's like my favorite one. Yeah, I feel like that's always the case. Right, like the first more like motivational book, and it's still my favorite book.
Donnie Hathaway:It was like the first one's, like my favorite one yeah, I feel like that's always the case right, like the first book for me it was um rich dad, poor dad. Yeah.
Donnie Hathaway:And kind of the same thing, like I was, I think at that point I was thinking about I'd considered real estate and, um, looking for something to like mindset, like I needed something, yeah, and and I jumped into that and it's still, it's like one of my favorite favorite books. Yeah, it's a big, big shift in my, I think, maybe because it's like that, that big, like shift big first yeah yeah right.
Dr. Jordan Axe:So it's like the stamps, the the time period right but even like today, it's like I fell away from a lot of that. But now I'm like man. I don't think I might open that book back up. You know, it's like something you always, if you're not moving forward with it, you're moving backwards, you're like losing.
Dr. Jordan Axe:You're losing it you know, it's like I felt like, oh, I got my mind right, I got this right, I got my business right, but then it's like, okay, now you know. So that's been like some the new year I've been thinking a lot about, like, okay, we got to get back into those habits that got us here. You know, yeah, it's not. Like oh, I check check mark, I can work on something else. Like no, there's no, you can't check these things off that stays with you.
Donnie Hathaway:Yeah, yeah, that's so true, I think I was talking to somebody um, but kind of the same thing, like the last couple years actually last year I kind of got out some of my morning habits and stuff too um, and I've kind of been thinking about like, okay, you know reading like I didn't read much last year and then that I had, you know, the last four or five years before that. So like getting back into the habit of like just reading a few pages every single night, or whatever it is yeah you know it's a big part of it.
Donnie Hathaway:Um, so you opened your practice in 2016.
Dr. Jordan Axe:Yep, what, what was the hardest part of like getting started, or that first year in practice? Um, everything, I mean it was, I remember, like the first patient walked in and she's like, oh, like, is there any other equipment? Like you know it was like like you don't have that rolling volume like high energy, like 10 people I'm like, oh my gosh, you know, I remember like I learned my own facebook ads, just staying up like three in the morning, like uh, it's a little bit too advanced for me now, but back then it was a little easier to run your own ads.
Dr. Jordan Axe:But yeah, just new people. And then I would say, right after that was just this realization of like, oh, I thought like I just hired someone and show them what to do, and then they knew that, and then they just got better at it on their own. And then, being like, no, actually you have to like tell them 10 times and train them on it.
Dr. Jordan Axe:Like 20 times, and then you probably still need to touch base with them and make sure they're still doing it that way, because I was such a self-starter I didn't realize starting a business. I just thought people were like me yeah right and like as we grow and start to hire people, like having, like I mean it sounds a little ridiculous, but that's kind of what I thought. You know, like I just show them once and then they would excel at it.
Donnie Hathaway:Yeah, linearly yeah ever after not the case.
Dr. Jordan Axe:Yeah, you know like and so that was that was hard and that was like, oh my gosh, like it wasn't really a natural skill set. I had right, that's like. It's like okay, I need to learn how to market. Okay, I need to. Now I need to, like, be a better doctor and learn these techniques and learn these testing. Okay, I got that. Oh, now the none of the staff knows what they're doing. There's no systems. Okay, now I have to learn how to create systems. Now I need to learn how to train staff. I was like it's, it was the best thing I ever could have gone through, because I probably, like, in a year or two, learned could take decades. It seems like you know cause it. Like in a year or two, learned could take decades.
Dr. Jordan Axe:It seems like you know, Because it was like you better learn this or you're not going to pay your debt off. You know. Yeah. I think what's his name. He's got that book like the Power of being Broke. Okay Right, it's like that whole situation and so it forced me to become a leader. And then it forced me how to like. I remember the book traction gain control over your business.
Donnie Hathaway:You know, yeah, so it just oh gosh how do you so, how did you balance all that? Because I think that's that's a hard part for um, for a lot of like uh, entrepreneurs, business owners and they and they I'd say most of the small business community doesn't like get past that where they hire staff and and truly become like the ceo of their business. They just get stuck in like the I'm just working this job and maybe I have some staff that are trained to do some things right, but they're not like you're not like truly leveraging their, their expertise or whatever. So how did you like balance all of that in those first two years to to grow yourself and grow the business?
Donnie Hathaway:um was it just like late nights just?
Dr. Jordan Axe:yeah, uh. Well, you know, having mentors right is so important, just be able to call at night and be like, yeah, this is going on. Just getting that little bit of direction Just between my brother and my brother-in-law is a chiropractor, started a business. My cousin Just meeting people at seminars, I had a lot of good people in my corner, I just had to really reach to them for direction and figure out what the heck, what's the next step.
Dr. Jordan Axe:But you know, then you're, you're, you're fueled by it's new, it's exciting. So it definitely gives you some energy, you know, starting a new business yeah, yeah, like that.
Donnie Hathaway:So your business acts holistic medicine yeah what do you guys do there now?
Dr. Jordan Axe:um yeah, currently yeah, so, um, you know I'm still a chiropractor, so we still have that part where we do. You know we treat auto accidents and like help herniated discs and whiplash and we do my engineering mind like we do really good to have the right machines and techniques to fix that where a lot of the offices don't. It's just like a hot pack or whatever feel a little bit better. Um, so that's part of our clinic, but the bigger part really is that functional medicine side. We have multiple health coaches. I have another lead doctor, dr binner, who's just brilliant, like he's on vacation, he's like studying new research and tests that are coming out.
Dr. Jordan Axe:Yeah, so he just stays on the leading edge of all that. I send him my labs. I'm like tell me what to do, you know? Yeah, so the doctor and health coaches you know we just help a lot of hard cases and we just have an amazing team. So, yeah, just functional medicine, a lot of telemed, probably 80 on the phone, okay, and uh, we bring normally six months for someone where we try to get them well doing the right testing and health coaching. You know, keep them accountable, work on their diet, um, habits, mindset, training, breathing, exercises, all the supplements they need to be doing you know we're doing everything a to z.
Donnie Hathaway:So someone comes to you are they? Are they coming to you and saying like I, um, I have this issue and I want it to get fixed? Or, um, I just want to be a better version of myself, like, do you have a mix of that? Or what are your? What are your majority of your patients?
Dr. Jordan Axe:We get everything. Yeah, so I just want to be healthier to I'm dying, but a majority of it is, I mean, kind of people like myself. Like you know, I'm doing okay, I'm trying to make health changes but, like you know, my weight's not the way I want it to be. I'm like, I'm tired, I don't have the motivation I want. I just got diagnosed with autoimmune disease. I think my hormones are off, like my mood's not. You know, it's just like some of these aren't even diagnosable issues. Like you want to feel better and do better, right?
Dr. Jordan Axe:so, um, a lot of people, like people are going to their doctor for these things and they're like oh no, you know, you don't have liver disease, you don't have cancer, you're not anemic, you're, you're okay, you're depressed that's why you're tired, take an antidepressant. That's what's happening, where we're saying, okay, well, maybe your, your hormones aren't bad, but maybe they're not optimal yeah and let's let's not look at your hormones, let's look at your adrenals and your cortisol.
Dr. Jordan Axe:So that has to do with your sleep and your mood and controls your hormones. Like, let's get, optimize that, even though it's normal in your blood work right. Let's, to digest a piece of bread is the same amount of energy to work out for an hour. Is the same amount of energy to work out for an hour, oh wow. So let's optimize your gut health, because if it's working inefficiently and it's burning two hours of energy instead of one, okay, now you're, you're burning half your energy just because your digestive tract is working very inefficiently, just like a motor. Right? If it's self-consuming its own energy because it's so much friction, you're not going to make any horsepower. So let's optimize your gut right. 80 of your serotonin and dopamine made in the gut. It's released in the gut to give you mood, so you're not anxious, tired. Let's optimize the gut right.
Dr. Jordan Axe:So it's like we start there with a lot of patients. We do a lot of stool testing, okay, just like I did with myself. Then we normally work on. So that's number one. Number two clearing the liver. Cause your gut, if it's not working properly, spills over into the liver. Okay.
Dr. Jordan Axe:And your liver has like hundreds and hundreds of functions. So we clear the liver, then we do it. If there's like a mold detox, heavy metal detox, we get all this junk that's junking up your system, slowing you down, slowing your brain down, slowing your weight loss down, um, and then we do testing. I call it kind of a cherry on top. That's when we optimize all the hormones, because a lot of people are going even to a whole lot more holistic office and they're just getting hormones and it's like, well, well, your liver has to process your hormones and your gut is where you're pooping and getting all the excess hormones or non-precious hormones out. So I'm like, how can you do that when you haven't laid the framework down?
Dr. Jordan Axe:yeah sometimes I have to start over with patients, like stop doing all that stuff. We're going to do it in six months from now and it's going to work a hundred times better yeah right. So that's kind of our theory, that's kind of our process. We go through with patients and we've been able to help a lot of people with it, um, but the thing we do before all well, during the beginning of all, that is kind of that lifestyle yeah the mindset like what are you thinking, what are you reading?
Dr. Jordan Axe:what are your relationships like? What are you eating, exercise, time management, right? So I was watching a video. He's like it's not. It's not about time management, it's more about energy management. And it started to be like I want to get home and I want to eat healthier and I want to read this and get some extra stuff done. I'm like I want to eat healthier and I want to read this and get some extra stuff done. I'm like it's six o'clock, I have four hours, but I'm tired. Yeah Right, I have the time.
Dr. Jordan Axe:Technically, people are saying they don't have the time, no, no no yeah. You don't have the energy left. Yeah, true, and for me that was my thing at the beginning of this year. When I'm doing having health coach, doing health coaching for myself is like let me get my energy up, let me get my mind right so that I can have the time, I can have the energy to do those things Right.
Donnie Hathaway:So it's really like laying the. It's almost like like you're building a house, right, you gotta, you gotta lay the foundation first, right. It's almost like like you're building a house, right, you gotta, you gotta lay the foundation first, right. And that's kind of figuring out like what's going on with your gut and all that stuff, like what you're talking about, and then and then you can work on on building up the walls and putting on the roof and everything. Yeah, um, yeah. It's interesting because, like traditional medicine, right. It's like oh yeah, let's, let's take, take this, let's try to solve this issue with this, with this medicine.
Dr. Jordan Axe:that might create more issues and stuff yeah, um, yeah, we do it with natural health too, in a way. Yeah right, covering stuff up, or here's a supplement pill instead of a medication for a condition. It's like well, is that really fixing the? What's triggering all this right?
Donnie Hathaway:yeah, so when it's it's almost like that that should be, like, like why isn't that healthcare from an early age? Like let's you know, in, in. Can you do like the um, like the stool, testing yearly or how often? Like would you do that? Cause, like things are changing right, your diet's changing a little bit your body's changing I mean because that like literally saved my life.
Dr. Jordan Axe:Essentially, I do one a year. Okay, it's always been my my weakest link. But for a lot of patients, we do regular blood work. We do, um, a dutch stool test. We do a lot of times do a dutch test that's to look at like your cortisol and like deficiencies and your hormones and all that. So, yeah, once we fix all that, like, hey, let's touch base. You're doing great, you have your resources, you're your own doctor. Now you know what you're doing. Let's do a checkup in six months, um, and, yeah, let's. It's been a year now. Let's go ahead and redo that stool test and make sure everything's on the straight and narrow and get everything optimized before something else happens.
Donnie Hathaway:So, yeah, absolutely, we want to stay up on that every six months or whatever, and it's like to me that makes sense, right, Like we should all be doing that. Yeah, you know.
Dr. Jordan Axe:But yeah, people go, oh, you know, I got my yearly health check or whatever. Oh, yeah, you know. But yeah, people go, oh, you know, I got my like yearly health check or whatever. Oh, I'm good, I'm like, what's that even mean? Like what did they even check? Okay, like you're not diabetic.
Donnie Hathaway:Okay, what about everything else going on in your body? Yeah, I think they they legit. Just have a conversation, right yeah that's the conversation you have with, with the, with the uh, with the gps, and yeah, so yeah, like we're talking about testing yeah one of them is a organic acids test.
Dr. Jordan Axe:A lot of people don't know about it. That's what I give to sometimes kids or I give to my healthy patients that they don't even know what direction to go. I just want to optimize things. My blood work was normal, my cholesterol is good, all that's good, and organic acids test basically shows you if you have any like mitochondria, energy deficiencies, some vitamin deficiencies. It's got like a gut biomarkers. Is there anything that's overgrowing in your gut that you don't know about? Um, it's got a liver section on it and it's got like your neurotransmitters, like you're like the brain. Everything's fine, correct. So I love that test for prevention. So I know some people watch your channel. You know like successful people, real estate, all that, like just be a better. You sharpen your brain, make sure you don't have anything coming down the pipeline. Um, that's a cool test a lot of people don't know about yeah that's pretty cool.
Speaker 4:It's a urine test, you just do it at home nice, simple simple I like.
Donnie Hathaway:So let's go back to the mindset that you were talking about, right, because I think that's a big part of it and I feel like the last couple, last few years that we've we've had as a society, like mindset is even more critical, I think, than than it ever has been before. You know, talk to me about like, like your approach to like managing your mindset and, um, like, what are you helping your, your patients with?
Dr. Jordan Axe:oh, mindset, yeah, it's such a, it's such a big one. Well, I mean, I think, finding purpose. You know, starting at the top, like why am I waking up? Why am I going to work, like you know, like, obviously, finding that big, why I think, is really big, um, this changed for me over the years but, you know, when I was originally starting out, it was like I have to get the word out that, hey, you don't have to live with these conditions, like your doctor, just because he doesn't have the answers doesn't mean you're hopeless. Like I had this message. I'm like I got to get this out to the masses. Like this message essentially, right, it's like the gospel, it's like the health gospel. Yeah.
Dr. Jordan Axe:Right, I got to get this information out and that was a driving force between starting the business and everything else. So I think identifying that and for some people it might be something more simple, like you know, I just want to make everyone smile, right, and maybe by making them smile they're more likely to do whatever or find the Lord or whatever. You know, it could be just something simple. It doesn't have to be starting a business, but I think figuring that out is first and that can change too, like you said, like it changed for you.
Donnie Hathaway:I think when I first like heard that concept of, like you know, find your why it was when I got into real estate, it was like to find that yeah I thought I had to like have it figured out from like day one of like my ultimate, why that's never going to change. Yeah. And I struggle with that, but like realizing, like, oh no, that changes, you know.
Dr. Jordan Axe:Yeah, and that's okay. Yeah, exactly yeah, but and you know it's a consistency of it for mindset, like I think the fundamentals for me is like reading and praying in the morning and maybe listening to something motivational, like listening to a video on success and like the eight ways, and you know, just like feeding my mind what I'm working on and reading, praying, like meditate, like I think breath work and like meditating anything in that kind of sphere is super important when it comes to mindset, because that's your time to focus and take all the things you're thinking about and kind of like organize them. Essentially, it's like, hey, you have all these words, but until you organize them into a sentence, it's kind of just gibberish chaos, yeah and so I think you know meditation is a way to do that and there's different types of breathing.
Dr. Jordan Axe:Um, there's box breathing, there's wim hof. You know, it's like it doesn't really matter, just start with one, just google one and just start it and then try another one and see what works yeah as long as just like working out.
Dr. Jordan Axe:Sometimes it just doesn't matter what you're doing, as long as you're doing it. So mindset to me is like getting those things together, those two or three things, and just trying to do them like five days a week. Yeah, right, for me that was my 2025. Like I have my things I want to do five days a week, not seven.
Dr. Jordan Axe:I'm good with five, yeah I have my other things that I want to do twice a week. You know I don't need to do a ton, so I think it's the mindset is finding those core things and doing them consistently and I and I yeah, I want to touch on like what you said, like five days a week, like that can be consistency.
Donnie Hathaway:It doesn't have to be like everyday consistent, you know, because it's hard to do that, especially starting from zero. So if it's like you're going like I need to work out, you know consistently we'll work out like one day a week, consistently.
Dr. Jordan Axe:If that's like your starting point, you know.
Donnie Hathaway:Yeah, yeah. So what is so? You mentioned like reading, meditating, praying, journaling any journaling- yeah, yeah, yeah. And you do those like that's like your morning routine. Do you have like any of that stuff at nighttime?
Dr. Jordan Axe:I should, but no, not really. I think. For me, um, what I like to do at nighttime is just think about the next day. Start to put a calendar together, kind of like a to-do list. Yeah, um, but no, that's a good, that's a. That's a great idea. Um, yeah, it was. I love this quote. It's like if everyone should be meditating 20 minutes a day, right, organizing their thoughts, but people say, well, what if I'm too busy? Well then you should be meditating an hour a day, right, yeah. So it's like if you're so busy you can't even do these things. Like, wow, you're so disorganized, like your kind of brain is so disorganized and you haven't really figured out, you haven't meditated. Like meditating is like you can figure out what's priority, what should I really be doing, what should I be cutting out?
Donnie Hathaway:like yeah, I love that. I think that's a good point, because I I feel like I've been more aware of that recently and it you, when you are, when you do you take that 20 minutes or whatever it is right, and then you have like your time block of like I'm gonna work during this time.
Dr. Jordan Axe:I think you're more efficient because one you've organized your thoughts, you know what needs to be accomplished and then, like mentally, you're a little bit more clear so you're able to like focus in on on that task yeah you know um, yeah, mindset is is everything yeah, the other, um, I feel like this was like more hippie science or whatever, but now it's become real science, like the fact of like yeah, there was, there's so many studies on this now, but it's like I could eat something and if, like, mentally I feel like it's unhealthy for me, it's gonna have like a negative effect on your body.
Dr. Jordan Axe:But if you like believe that you're gonna absorb the nutrients and you're gonna like it's gonna have a positive effect on your body, right, so it's just like what you believe about what that's gonna do to you is like more important is, obviously, what you're eating is important, but like your beliefs around that are so important.
Dr. Jordan Axe:There was a study about like they're putting like rats on the, on these hamster wheels or whatnot, and like to exercise and like hey, the ones that they want to do it because they knew it like helped them feel better. So the rats would go on there and, like all their health markers would go up. But there was another one that, at the same time, they would force them to do. They didn't have a choice, it wasn't like an open thing, they just were forced. These rats did the exact same action, but these had like their health markers went down and these went up. Yeah, and it was like they did the same thing, they ate the same thing, they did the same exercise, but like um, like their belief about, like their mindset around it.
Donnie Hathaway:Yeah, you know so I, I think I heard that too, so that that goes into like you, you can't force anybody to do anything. Right like they have to be ready, willing and able to like take care of their health right and so that's them, like walking in the door to see you um, which is why, I mean all these hell things get overwhelmed.
Dr. Jordan Axe:Overwhelming because there's so many things to do and it's like that's a lot of people like working out.
Dr. Jordan Axe:you know like, yeah, I don't have a good mindset about going to an enclosed gym for an hour. Some people like it. There's there's a social component, there's a get the frustration out. It's like therapeutic for them. No, I want to be outside. So for me it's like, hey, I can mentally enjoy like hard circuit for 15, 20 minutes. 15, 20 minutes, that's all I'm going to do. But if you would like force me to stay there another four minutes, it's just not good for me, right. So I think people are like, no, it's worthless, unless you can go do it for an hour, I'm not going to change my diet unless I can eat fully this way. It's like it's not true, right? And so it's just like making a small change, doing a crappy workout for five minutes. Hey.
Dr. Jordan Axe:And like you believed it, you enjoyed it. You got a little bit of a sweat on. That's great. That's helping you a lot, right. You know what I'm saying. So I think people are just overthinking it. It's like do what you, what's gonna like, what's gonna help you, right? And it's like don't, don't overthink it, don't think you have to do this grand thing. It's like, no, just do a little bit of it each day and it'll be fine, it'll be great.
Donnie Hathaway:Yeah, you know like I, um, I started following this, this training program, and he, he talks kind of about that where it's like he's like if you, if you like, struggle with the workouts or whatever, like don't finish the workouts, like I, I have, like it's like an hour-long workout, but if that's too much for you or whatever, um, or you're just getting started, like, don't finish them, make it easy, so it's like it's not draining you. And then you feel like the, the want to come back to it, like oh, I left more on the table.
Donnie Hathaway:You know I left some on the table and I want to. I want to come back to that right and I've kind of like adopted that mindset and everything right. So it's like sometimes you just don't feel like reading a whole lot or meditating for 20 minutes or whatever it is right, so like let's meditate for two minutes yeah whatever I have in me that day, like that's, I'm just given 100 of like wherever I'm at that day yeah you know, which is yeah.
Donnie Hathaway:So if you had to pick, like the like, an overall, like if you know I need to focus on my health, like what are four to five things that I should, I should be focusing on yeah, if you're like, hey, I want to get healthy, like where do I start right?
Dr. Jordan Axe:yeah um, like I said, I think that morning routine is so important getting up earlier like I love getting up when the sun comes up and having, like you're filling your brain with good stuff, maybe a couple of pages in the Bible, a couple of pages out of a book you like like a video, like just get your positivity flowing in your brain, and then maybe meditating five, ten minutes, like now you're ready to crush the day. So for me I think that's number one getting that set um. Number two, like we said, getting your like your vision and your goals and, um, like, what the heck are you doing with your year, you know?
Dr. Jordan Axe:like letting that that's gonna be your, that's going to drive you to get everything else done. We're about like the other three things right, like that's what's going to push you forward. So that has to happen. And then I think, um, I'm a huge believer in functional medicine. Like you got to get your body and your internals right so you can do all this stuff, now that you have the why behind it, now that you have the morning, you know, routine to support it, um, I think finding a good functional medicine doctor sitting down, getting picking maybe one test that you or the doctor thinks is super important, take a look under the hood and optimize your health. Um, and you know, with that, having that accountability partner, having that health coach to with my health coach I did the same thing.
Dr. Jordan Axe:I'm like there's like three different types of like meditation I don't even know what it means anymore. She's like just do this one. I'm like, okay, I like that. You know what I mean. Like I'm like overthinking it right. She's like just do this, okay, shut up, okay, I'm good. Now my mind's there again, you know well. I think the fourth thing which we and you were talking about a little bit earlier was um, you gotta, you gotta enjoy life.
Dr. Jordan Axe:Yeah right, laughter is the best medicine yeah how funny is that that we have this quote, but it's like no one's talking about the quote that much and I'm like we're talking about medicine, but what about laughter?
Dr. Jordan Axe:You know what I mean it's like and I told you, like all the patients we haven't been able to help that I looked at which is really not that many people I like I could literally just think of them because it's like one person like a year or whatever, Like really. I'm like because I was upset that I couldn't help this person at least a little bit, and I'm like man, all they had no hobbies. They weren't traveling, like their marriage wasn't good, they didn't really have any fun people they were hanging out with. I'm like no good relationship, nothing fun, no hobbies. You know, uh, you know I think about some of these. It's guys and girls, but guys that I think of that are just like like not healthy at all, but man, they're like they're in their bowling league and they're like in all these clubs like in these great relationships and they're in these sports, getting a little bit of activity like they're, they're having fun and they're connected.
Dr. Jordan Axe:It's like we're made to have these good relationships and we're made to have fun and be outside and do sports. You know, it's like getting back to like those roots of a connection and enjoyment and fulfill like. So for me it's I would say that's kind of like the fourth thing yeah it's just enjoy be joyful and laugh um.
Donnie Hathaway:I love that and it's almost like like community right, like find your group of people that are, you know, doing similar things, and yeah, I feel like it's hard to like like work heavy and you got to have your job in nine to five or you know, you got to grind it out and and work so much yeah and and people kind of forget about, like enjoying life yeah you know, like, what is it that brings you joy? Like, go do more of that so off the sidetrack guys.
Dr. Jordan Axe:But like something else I was thinking about yeah, with this enjoyment thing, um is like it's that, that, that balance, that yin and yang of like you know, you could partially retire and just have all day to do all the fun things. But, to be honest, because I've slowed down, like last year a little bit now. Now I'm like really trying to push again. I was like man, they're not that fun when that's all you have to do. Like that, hey, I'm like really trying to push again. I was like man, they're not that fun when that's all you have to do.
Dr. Jordan Axe:Like that I'm productive, I'm getting like helping society, I'm like loving and helping other people with their goals, like I'm a positive impact. Like you feel, you know, like you've done something, you've worked hard for it, and then it's like you get done with your day and like, oh, I get to go golf. That golf round, for some reason, is 10 times more enjoyable when I had to work so hard for it and I was productive all day. And then I got to squeeze it in at the end of the day versus walk around, do whatever, grab breakfast, oh, we'll golf again, whatever, you know, it's like, yeah, it's hot, it's tired. I'm ready to go home. Why am I even golfing? Yeah, I don't know.
Dr. Jordan Axe:It's like kind of this realization of like it's so important. So maybe the fifth point is just balance.
Donnie Hathaway:Yeah, like really, and that's different for everyone too, right? Yeah, but it's, I think, I think you're, you're right. It's like what's your purpose, right, like? That's the main focus right but then you need times like I think it's like if you gave everything into all your patients, like you're gonna drain yourself and you're not gonna take care of yourself, right, right. So you're right.
Dr. Jordan Axe:It's like the, the balance of that right but when you have time away from the patients and you're laughing and enjoying life yeah, you're more filled and right, and then those patients you give that much more. It's that much more enjoyable.
Dr. Jordan Axe:So it's like balance is everything when you really start to look at it that way you know I've been in both where I was just just trying to have fun, and then I had where I was just trying to help as many people as possible and it was like neither situation was good yeah so how do you?
Donnie Hathaway:I don't think there's any tricks or whatever, but like finding that balance right, it's just like testing it out, like seeing what works for you yeah, um, yeah, that's a, that's a great question.
Dr. Jordan Axe:Yeah, I think everyone's different. Yeah, and they're balanced. But don't play stupid with yourself. We know a lot more but for some reason we just play stupid right, and I think that's the power between meditation and relaxation and journaling, because you know this stuff. Sometimes you just have to organize in your brain and write it out and you're like, well, duh yeah okay, there it is. Yeah, you know.
Donnie Hathaway:So just more that self-awareness do you think everybody has self-awareness, or is that like a? Is that like a muscle like you can exercise? And oh for sure, I think yeah that's.
Dr. Jordan Axe:That's definitely a lot of uh dust on that machine for a lot of people, and I think it's because we're so busy that we don't have time for it. Essentially, like you don't, people aren't taking the time to to look at what they're like, who they are, what's happening, because it's like work, work, work, family, family, family, ding ding ding on my phone, what you know. So, um, and that's something we mean you've been talking about today, it's like that's the whole. Well, if you're too busy, then you need to meditate for an hour.
Dr. Jordan Axe:Situation of going directly where you want to go and cutting out a hundred miles and figuring out what do I need to add, what do I need to to take out? Um, just for me, that's been. It's like do that, like figure out where you're going a little bit more yeah yeah and I hate to say that too, because some people just think they have to have it all figured out before they go anywhere, and that's even worse. That's true, right, you just need to start going and let the kind of some direction.
Dr. Jordan Axe:Yeah, but it's like hiking, right, it's like just just go up the mountain. Okay, now let me sit down, let me look, let me look at the map, let me let me self-correct, and then you need to start running again, right, but if you never get the map out and stop and look and you're, you're just plowing through a jungle. You have no time, you have no energy I think a lot of people are there.
Donnie Hathaway:They're, they're not aware, they're just yeah infinitely pushing forward to who knows where yeah, and I think that's like where the I've realized like a lot the last six months, whatever. It's like the meditation and just like being able to slow down, like that's where that really comes in to play. Is like to think through, like where am I going? Or let me take a self-assessment of like you know what's going on in my day-to-day, like am I truly being as productive as I can be or efficient as I can be, you know? But if you don't take time to like stop, then you're never gonna figure that out.
Dr. Jordan Axe:Yeah, I found for me like massages are a great way. I'm like man, is this my form of meditation? Cause it's like so ADD, I'm like, even if in my room, I'm like I'm thirsty, maybe I'll make some tea real quick. You know, I don't know like I'm getting a massage. I'm not really like allowed to move you're forced to stay still not supposed to be using your phone.
Dr. Jordan Axe:I'm like, yeah, okay, and it's like some people draw. When they're listening, they'll actually pay better attention because they're drawing. I'm like, well, they're listening, they'll actually pay better attention because they're drawing. I'm like, well, they're doing something, no, but it stops them from being able to do any. It's like I'm drawing and I'm listening. Yeah.
Dr. Jordan Axe:And for me it's like a massage. It's like, you know, like I'm getting worked on, so my mind's kind of like thinking about that and that's it, and then the rest of my mind is just totally cleared out and I have like my, all these ideas come to me, the things that are frustrating me come into my brain and I'm just like walking through it. Why am I mad about that? That's ridiculous. Okay, next time that comes up, blah, blah, blah. Right, and you're just taking all this information and like sorting through it. But, um, I think a lot of people, um, like, like I said, for me, I think massages have put me in a good spot for meditating, but for other people, yeah, just also like getting out on a mountain or just getting outside where there's no distractions, you don't have cell phone service. So I think, for a lot of people, finding where they can meditate, and then what and it's different for everyone yeah, right, some people could probably do it when they're driving. They're just kind of like, yeah, okay.
Donnie Hathaway:You know and they can process things, but I, you know, I was just thinking, like when you were saying that, like I, I used, I like to run and I would. Um, I've gone through times where.
Donnie Hathaway:I'm like, okay, I have a question or something I want to think through, like while I'm running, and I'll try to do that, like on the run, and I can't, like you know, really like focus on like that topic. Whatever I get, you know, I just my mind's going everywhere, but then, like towards the end of the run, like that's when, like more thoughts come to me for whatever reason. Right, I just thought of that I'm'm like that's kind of interesting.
Donnie Hathaway:Um, but you're right, it's like it's different for everybody, so you try a bunch of different things, right? Yeah, yeah, cool, all right. So how can people get in touch with you and and visit your clinic and learn more about you?
Dr. Jordan Axe:yeah, um, we're in tampa so, like I said, we're 80 telemed, but we do see people in clinic if they're local. But just our website, ax, holistic medicinecom, ax it's my last name tons of great resources on our website. You can find all kinds of stuff, um, and then you have my instagram youtube, dr jordan ax. Like my youtube I did on my on gut health. I did like a 10 minute video on, like my stool test and all the things I went through, just so people like know what I'm talking about.
Dr. Jordan Axe:Um, so I have some cool like 10 minute tutorial, a disease on some of the stuff we talked about, nice and uh yeah, just give us a call, answer questions and come to the office and hang out yeah, that's awesome joining me and thanks for being here.
Donnie Hathaway:Yeah, thank you.
