Mark Hyman: THIS Hidden Toxin Is in 73% of Foods on Grocery Store Shelves!

1. 0:00 – 1:33

   Intro

   1. MHDr. Mark Hyman0:00

      The average newborn baby today has 287 toxins in their umbilical cord blood before they take their first breath.

   2. SPSpeaker0:07

      [air whooshing] The ongoing debate over which foods are most healthy is the subject of- Co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Function Health, Dr. Mark Hyman.

   3. JSJay Shetty0:17

      What is inflammation doing to your body?

   4. MHDr. Mark Hyman0:19

      Inflammation is at the root cause of almost all chronic illnesses and aging itself. That visceral fat is like a incubator for inflammation. You have fire in your belly. Causes heart attacks, strokes, cancer, diabetes.

   5. JSJay Shetty0:32

      What are the highly inflammatory foods?

   6. MHDr. Mark Hyman0:34

      The sugar and starch. In America, average, we eat a pound of sugar and flour a day per person.

   7. JSJay Shetty0:39

      What do you think the US healthcare system needs to be focused on?

   8. MHDr. Mark Hyman0:42

      All the ultra-processed food, which is 60% of our diet. You know, we have a whole food system that's turned into ultra-processed food that we're consuming in massive amounts. It's 73% of what's on the grocery store shelves. [chuckles]

   9. JSJay Shetty0:52

      Can someone know that they have some symptoms of an autoimmune disease?

   10. MHDr. Mark Hyman0:56

       You might be a little bit tired. You might be a little constipated. You might... A little dry skin. Your nails might crack a little bit. You might feel a little depressed. You might have lower sex drive. Gain a little bit of weight. And people don't think of these as a disease, but when you add them all together...

   11. JSJay Shetty1:08

       If someone's listening right now and they're thinking, "I feel like crap," what do they do? The number one health and wellness podcast. Jay Shetty.

   12. SPSpeaker1:19

       Jay Shetty.

   13. JSJay Shetty1:19

       The one, the only Jay Shetty.

   14. MHDr. Mark Hyman1:22

       [laughs]

   15. JSJay Shetty1:24

       Hey, everyone. Welcome back to On Purpose, the place you come to become happier, healthier, and more healed, where we talk to the experts and the thought leaders who illuminate

2. 1:33 – 5:39

   Overcoming a Life-Threatening Health Crisis

   1. JSJay Shetty1:33

      to us how we can truly transform our lives. Today's guest is one of your favorites, one of our favorites here on On Purpose, someone that I know personally and grateful to know off the screen as well as on the screen. I'm talking about none other than Dr. Mark Hyman. Dr. Mark Hyman is a practicing family physician, founder of the UltraWellness Center, and founder of the Functional Medicine Center at the Cleveland Clinic. A leader in functional medicine, Dr. Mark Hyman authored 15 New York Times bestsellers and hosts The Dr. Hyman Show, a podcast that you should definitely subscribe to if you haven't already, and he's known for his food as medicine philosophy and work in addressing the root causes of chronic disease through nutrition and lifestyle. Please welcome back to On Purpose, Dr. Mark Hyman. Mark, it's always great to have you on the show. Uh, I'm so happy to have you back.

   2. MHDr. Mark Hyman2:28

      Thanks, Jay. It's good to be here.

   3. JSJay Shetty2:29

      Yeah.

   4. MHDr. Mark Hyman2:29

      I love this place. [laughs]

   5. JSJay Shetty2:31

      [laughs] Mark, I'm actually really grateful you're here because we actually had a date scheduled for you to be on the show.

   6. MHDr. Mark Hyman2:36

      Yeah.

   7. JSJay Shetty2:37

      And then I sadly learned from your team-

   8. MHDr. Mark Hyman2:39

      Yeah

   9. JSJay Shetty2:40

      ... that it had to be canceled, but it was for quite-

   10. MHDr. Mark Hyman2:43

       'Cause I almost died. [laughs]

   11. JSJay Shetty2:45

       Yeah, it was really extreme.

   12. MHDr. Mark Hyman2:47

       Yeah.

   13. JSJay Shetty2:47

       Talk to us about this near-death experience because I've known you to be a longevity expert-

   14. MHDr. Mark Hyman2:53

       Yeah

   15. JSJay Shetty2:53

       ... a health expert. You always look in great health. You always feel in great health. Every time I've been around you, your energy's radiant.

   16. MHDr. Mark Hyman3:00

       Yeah.

   17. JSJay Shetty3:01

       You, you carry it with you. I know you practice what you preach. I know it's not made up.

   18. MHDr. Mark Hyman3:05

       Yeah.

   19. JSJay Shetty3:06

       You're, you're an authentic person, and the work that you do, it impacts millions of people worldwide, and then you have a near-death experience.

   20. MHDr. Mark Hyman3:13

       Yeah. [laughs]

   21. JSJay Shetty3:14

       Walk, walk me through what happened.

   22. MHDr. Mark Hyman3:15

       Yeah. Uh, you know, thanks, Jay, for asking. I, um, I joke that my biological age is 39, but my back age is 139. [laughs] And when I was 32, I lived in Idaho in a logging town. I was chopping wood and carrying heavy wood, and I ruptured a disc, and it, it basically caused massive damage and a permanent paralysis of my right calf. So I've limped for 30-odd years, and my back's just degenerated, and I developed, you know, a lot of degenerative disc disease. And so I've had a lot of back pain, and I ended up having an injection, which is a pretty common treatment to help relieve pain, and one of the risks of injections of any needle is infection. And in a closed space of the spine, it just took off, and very quickly, within a couple of days, I couldn't walk. Uh, within a week, I had surgery. They opened me up. They closed me up because they couldn't reach the abscess. It was on the front. And they said, uh, "We can't do anything," and basically left me to die. Gave me antibiotics and said, "Cross your fingers, and here's some painkillers," and then-

   23. JSJay Shetty4:17

       They said there was no, no cure?

   24. MHDr. Mark Hyman4:19

       Mm-mm. And, and then a friend of mine was, uh, a doctor called me. He said, "What's happened? I heard you're sick." And I told him. He said, "You need a second opinion." So I got an opinion from the top neurosu- surgery center in the world in UCSF, and they said, "Get out here right away." So I took a ambulance jet [laughs] a- and had sur- another surgery a month later that wa- really relieved the abscess. But in that intervening period, I got septic. I was feverish. I lost 25 pounds from where I am now. I was in bed. I couldn't eat sitting up. I literally had to lay down with four pillows under my leg. And after the surgery, thank God, it worked, but it was a, it was a Hail Mary surgery, and they said I was maybe a couple of days away from dying. And I remember, you know, going under anesthesia on the day of the second surgery, and I was like, "This could be my last moment of consciousness." [laughs] In the aftermath of that, you know, I had to... I was on a walker. I couldn't stand up. I couldn't brush my own teeth. I couldn't wipe my own ass. [laughs] Like, it was like, it was bad. And I had to depend on other people. But slowly, you know, just determined, I clawed my way back to health and using every principle that I know of how to create health. And I'm 65. I'm not a spring chicken. [laughs] And I, I know what to do, and I did it. And it... And I wasn't sure if it was gonna work at 65. You know, how much can you get back? But I

3. 5:39 – 8:15

   What is the Key to Healing?

   1. MHDr. Mark Hyman5:39

      put on more muscle, and I'm stronger than I was even before the surgery. Uh, and I just did it every day. It was like compounding interest. Every day, I ate the best I could. I got in the gym with my physical therapist, a trainer every day, sometimes twice a day. I got treatments and acupuncture, and I just clawed my way back. Just took my supplements, took my creatine, took all the things I needed to do.And, uh, it took about five months and, and then I really started to kind of come back, and it's only been seven months from the recording of this podcast. And so I'm, I'm back, and I feel good, and I feel actually better than I ever have because I've doubled down on my health practices. [laughs]

   2. JSJay Shetty6:16

      Oh my gosh.

   3. MHDr. Mark Hyman6:16

      But it sort of shows you, you know, if you, if you know the laws of nature, the laws of biology, how the body works, how it's designed, how to create health, right? 'Cause doctors don't learn about that. They don't learn about how to create health. They learn about how to diagnose and treat disease, which is important. But if you say to your doctor, "How do I create health, Doctor?" And they're like, "Well, I don't know. Just eat better, exercise." But there's, it's, it's a very specific methodology. It's really what functional medicine's about. It's about how do you create optimal function-

   4. JSJay Shetty6:42

      Mm

   5. MHDr. Mark Hyman6:42

      ... and how do you create optimal health, and what is the science of that? And so doing that, I was able to actually build myself back up and create health and actually feel better now than I did before the surgery. [laughs]

   6. JSJay Shetty6:54

      Oh my gosh. What did it take for you to rebuild? Because we always talk about being proactive.

   7. MHDr. Mark Hyman6:59

      Mm.

   8. JSJay Shetty6:59

      We always talk about being well first-

   9. MHDr. Mark Hyman7:02

      Yeah

   10. JSJay Shetty7:02

       ... which you've focused on, and you have.

   11. MHDr. Mark Hyman7:04

       Yeah.

   12. JSJay Shetty7:05

       And when you end up in a position like that, it's hard mentally.

   13. MHDr. Mark Hyman7:09

       Yeah.

   14. JSJay Shetty7:09

       And then, of course, it's harder physically.

   15. MHDr. Mark Hyman7:11

       Yeah.

   16. JSJay Shetty7:11

       As you said, your body is 65.

   17. MHDr. Mark Hyman7:13

       Yeah.

   18. JSJay Shetty7:13

       Even if your biological age is 39, there's a reality to that.

   19. MHDr. Mark Hyman7:17

       Yeah.

   20. JSJay Shetty7:18

       What were the key things you had to work on? You talked about building muscle again. What, what were the things you had to do in order to get back to standing in front of me right now and-

   21. MHDr. Mark Hyman7:27

       You know-

   22. JSJay Shetty7:27

       ... looking great?

   23. MHDr. Mark Hyman7:28

       The, the biggest, um, component, I think, of, of your health is the thing that's between your ears. [laughs] It's, it's your mindset.

   24. JSJay Shetty7:36

       Mm.

   25. MHDr. Mark Hyman7:36

       Something you talk about a lot. It's your determination. It's the belief that you can actually get better. And, and I was physiologically depressed. I lost half my blood volume, so my blood count was half of what it should've been. I was super anemic. I- my hormones all were in the toilet. My testosterone, my, um, thyroid, nothing was working. I was, you know, very n-n-nutritionally depleted. I hadn't been able to eat. And, and so for me, it was, it was just the will to get up every day and do the little things, even when my mind was like, "Just stay in bed."

4. 8:15 – 9:52

   Breaking Free from Chronic Pain

   1. JSJay Shetty8:15

      Mm.

   2. MHDr. Mark Hyman8:15

      "Just give up. It's not worth it." You know? And I think for a lot of people, it's hard to divorce your thoughts from reality. I think you, you, you know, you lived in a monastery, and that's basically what you learn is how you're not your thoughts. You're not your beliefs. You're not your body. You're not... [laughs] Right? And, and so, you know, but when you're in it, like it's, you're in a body. You're in a physical body that feels bad. How do you, how do you fix that? And so that's what I've done for 30-plus years with my patients with functional medicine is when they feel bad, and a lot of Americans out there [laughs] feel bad. You know, n-n- six out of 10 of us have a chronic illness, and 93% of us are metabolically unhealthy. M-most of the population has what I call FLC syndrome. That's when you feel like crap. [laughs]

   3. JSJay Shetty9:01

      Mm.

   4. MHDr. Mark Hyman9:01

      You know?

   5. JSJay Shetty9:01

      Yeah.

   6. MHDr. Mark Hyman9:02

      You know, whether it's just little things like painful periods or headaches or constipation or joint aches or skin rashes or whatever it is, you know, people suffer, and there is a way through that. And so for me, it was, it was a mindset of not believing my thoughts, and no matter how physiologically depleted I was, to just do the, the baby steps every day that got me to where I am now, which is feeling awesome. [laughs] And I was in the gym at Equinox working out for an hour this morning.

   7. JSJay Shetty9:28

      [laughs]

   8. MHDr. Mark Hyman9:28

      I was like, "What?" [laughs] Yeah.

   9. JSJay Shetty9:31

      Well, that's amazing, and, and I'm so, I'm so glad that you've, I mean, you've helped so many people over the years, but it's a special feeling when you reuse your own work to rebuild.

   10. MHDr. Mark Hyman9:42

       Yeah.

   11. JSJay Shetty9:42

       I mean, you must have so much conviction and confidence in everything you're about to share-

   12. MHDr. Mark Hyman9:47

       Yeah

   13. JSJay Shetty9:47

       ... in this episode now to help everyone else. You must have a double sense

5. 9:52 – 15:03

   The Powerful Tool That Can Reprogram Your Body

   1. JSJay Shetty9:52

      of-

   2. MHDr. Mark Hyman9:52

      Yeah

   3. JSJay Shetty9:52

      ... affirmation that this stuff works because you've-

   4. MHDr. Mark Hyman9:55

      Absolutely

   5. JSJay Shetty9:55

      ... had to do it in the most dire of circumstances.

   6. MHDr. Mark Hyman9:57

      Absolutely. Absolutely, and I had to track all my blood work, and I had to track my, my nutrient status and, you know, adjust it and customize it. But it was, you know, having the, the knowledge that I have and the data I have, which really now is, is through the magic of technology and the explosion of the changes in our scientific framework of how we understand the body. Like, we're in this, like, paradigm-shifting moment in, in medicine, in healthcare, and, and the, the, the promise of actually reversing chronic disease, of creating health, of people getting free from a lot of the suffering, the needless suffering that they have, is, is now really possible, and that's really what I'm so excited about.

   7. JSJay Shetty10:37

      Yeah.

   8. MHDr. Mark Hyman10:37

      I mean, I'm just l- like 65, but I'm working harder than I've ever worked because I believe that there's this moment where all the things that I've done one-on-one with people or through my books or, and, you know, people come up and say, "Oh, Dr. Hyman, you saved my life," or whatever. I'm like, it's one by one by one. But what if, what if this can scale through, through, uh, the ability of technology to make sense of all your personal health data, g- customize an exact plan for you, and guide you exactly on what to do, when to do it, and how to adjust it over time?

   9. JSJay Shetty11:05

      Absolutely.

   10. MHDr. Mark Hyman11:05

       It's, it's, that's where we are. It's pretty, it's pretty cool. [laughs]

   11. JSJay Shetty11:07

       Absolutely.

   12. MHDr. Mark Hyman11:08

       Yeah.

   13. JSJay Shetty11:08

       What do... If someone's listening right now, and they're saying, "Dr. Mark Hyman, I feel like crap."

   14. MHDr. Mark Hyman11:14

       Yeah.

   15. JSJay Shetty11:15

       Like, if someone's listening right now, and they're thinking, "I feel like crap"-

   16. MHDr. Mark Hyman11:18

       Yeah

   17. JSJay Shetty11:18

       ... where should they start? What do they do?

   18. MHDr. Mark Hyman11:20

       That's a great, great question. You know, there's a more serious version, Jay. It's called FLS. [laughs] It's when you feel like shit.

   19. JSJay Shetty11:26

       Yeah, yeah, right.

   20. MHDr. Mark Hyman11:27

       [laughs] But, uh-

   21. JSJay Shetty11:28

       Yeah

   22. MHDr. Mark Hyman11:28

       ... you know, I, I, um, you know, have found that food is the most powerful tool to change your biology. It's basically code or instructions that changes y- your physiology with every single bite. It changes your gene expression. It changes your hormones, your brain chemistry, your immune system, your microbiome, your neurotransmitters. Everything is changed, not in, like, years or decades but literally in minutes. And, and so food is the most powerful way to quickly shift your biology, and most people, Jay, have no clue that what they're eating is making them feel bad.Or that their sense of how they are and their conditions that they're suffering from are caused by food. And so what, what I've done through functional medicine is, is i- it's often called an elimination diet, but I like to call it an addition diet because you're, you're adding in all the healing medicinal foods in your diet and you're taking out the inflammatory foods. And so, uh, I created a, a program that I've used my patients called the 10-Day Detox Diet. And sometimes I would have people on it for a year. You know, if I called it the, uh, 10-Year Detox Diet-

   23. JSJay Shetty12:33

       [laughs]

   24. MHDr. Mark Hyman12:33

       ... nobody would do it.

   25. JSJay Shetty12:34

       No one's gonna sign up. Yeah.

   26. MHDr. Mark Hyman12:35

       No one's gonna sign up. But, but I call it the te- 'cause in 10 days it's, it's kind of miraculous. And I run programs around the world where I have people come together and we spend a week. And, and the average reduction in symptoms from the FLC syndrome, you know, whether it's, you know, sinus issues or allergies or irritable bowel or headaches or joint pains or acne or insomnia or depression or all the little stuff that isn't like, you know, cancer or dementia or, you know, a heart attack that's more serious. All that stuff, literally you don't have to suffer from.

   27. JSJay Shetty13:06

       In 10 days?

   28. MHDr. Mark Hyman13:07

       Yeah. And, and there's a 70% reduction in all symptoms from all diseases in 10 days. I mean, I had... I was like, when I first got to Cleveland Clinic, I, I gave a talk and this gentleman comes up to me and says, "Dr. Hyman, I have rheumatoid arthritis, but I did your 10-day detox and it went away in 10 days. Is that possible?" I'm like, "Yeah, it's possible. It happened to you." [laughs] You know?

   29. JSJay Shetty13:28

       Walk me through the, the two types. What are the medicinal foods?

   30. MHDr. Mark Hyman13:31

       Yeah.
6. 15:03 – 18:51

   How Inflammation Silently Damages Your Health

   1. MHDr. Mark Hyman15:03

      grains, uh, and add in all the foods that are healing. Alcohol, caffeine sometimes, and then add in, you know, lots of fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, you know, good quality protein, lots of good fats, avocados, coconut, o- f- all that stuff. It's just pretty simple. It's like, it's not that hard and it doesn't have to be that expensive. And, uh, i- in a very short amount of time, people feel better. The first few days people feel bad because what happens is when you stop eating the foods that you're reacting to, uh, you get what's called a, a die-off reaction. So basically all the immune cells that are busy dealing with all the crap you're eating all the time have nothing to do, so they form these things called immune complexes, like they glom together, and then it's like, uh, you feel like you have the flu. And that lasts maybe a couple of days, and then after about day three, four, or five, you're like sleeping better, you have more energy, your head's clear, your symptoms are getting better. And even in five, six days, 70% reduction. And i- uh, and, uh, you know, we, we have an online program. It's called the 10-Day Detox Diet. You can go to 10daydetox.com. We've done it with thousands of people and it's, it's like I'm always astounded when I see like, does this really work that well?

   2. JSJay Shetty16:08

      Yeah.

   3. MHDr. Mark Hyman16:09

      You know, 'cause it's like, it's, it almost sounds too good to be true.

   4. JSJay Shetty16:11

      That's incredible.

   5. MHDr. Mark Hyman16:12

      Uh, but it's just, it just shows you that food is medicine.

   6. JSJay Shetty16:14

      Yeah.

   7. MHDr. Mark Hyman16:14

      And it's not, it's not metaphorically medicine, it literally is medicine. And a lot of people have digestive issues.

   8. JSJay Shetty16:20

      Yeah.

   9. MHDr. Mark Hyman16:20

      And i- it's really a continuum. A lot of people have this low-grade inflammatory stuff going on in their bodies and, and it's really, it's unfortunate because we know how to fix it. You know, when a baby comes out, it's generally perfect, right? [laughs] It's beautiful, it's healthy, everything works, right? And then things break down. But imagine it like if your computer's, you know, not working or it's on the fritz and like my WhatsApp wasn't working today and I just had to reboot it, right? Or reboot my computer. How do you do that with your body? 93% it's been determined of our health issues are not genetic.

   10. JSJay Shetty16:52

       Mm.

   11. MHDr. Mark Hyman16:52

       It's everything that we're exposed to. It's what we eat, it's movement, it's sleep, it's stress, it's our gut microbiome, it's environmental toxins, it's our thoughts. Our thoughts actually transform our biology, literally. Uh, it's the biggest pharmacy is between your ears. [laughs] And so all those things you have control over.

   12. JSJay Shetty17:10

       You've probably been hearing about AI everywhere, and we all need to be mindful of the tools we trust in this new chapter of technology. Claude is the if you know, you know AI assistant that just feels different. While other AIs often sound like robots, Claude has been created with special research that informs its character, meaning that Claude just gets it when it comes to empathy and emotional intelligence. That's why millions of people are turning to Claude for parenting tips, dating advice, mindful habits like journaling, budgeting, and so much more. Claude has been thoughtfully crafted by Anthropic and its team of researchers whose mission is to design the most capable and secure systems that place people at the center. You can try Claude for free at any time, and for a special offer on premium capabilities with Claude Pro, head to claude.ai/purpose. That's C-L-A-U-D-E.AI/purpose. I wanna dive into each of those three areas of the... inflammatory foods. First of all, for anyone who's not aware or doesn't totally understand, what is inflammation? What is that doing to your body?

   13. MHDr. Mark Hyman18:25

       Yeah.

   14. JSJay Shetty18:25

       Why is it important to have medicinal foods and avoid inflammatory foods?

   15. MHDr. Mark Hyman18:30

       Yeah. Well, you know, Jay, inflammation is, is something that now is being understood to be at the root cause of almost all chronic illnesses and aging itself. You know, and you'll know if you have inflammation, right? You have a sore throat, you get an infected finger from a splinter, you sprain your ankle. You know, those are

7. 18:51 – 23:59

   The Hidden Dangers of Sugar Addiction

   1. MHDr. Mark Hyman18:51

      signs of inflammation.

   2. JSJay Shetty18:52

      Acid reflux.

   3. MHDr. Mark Hyman18:52

      Yeah, those are signs of inflammation. But there's another kind of inflammation that's a little more silent, and, and we can measure that through blood tests, like C-reactive protein, which we do f- through Function Health. And the, the amount of, of people who are inflamed is just so massive because of our diet. And so that creates this elevation in, in these molecules in our body called cytokines. And you... From COVID, everybody heard about the cytokine storm. What killed people was this overwhelming inflammation. And, and why did Americans die at a far greater rates? We are 4% of the population, but 16% of the deaths and cases of COVID in the world, so four times what we should've been. And it wasn't 'cause we didn't have access to medical care or we didn't have good doctors. It's 'cause we're all pre-inflamed. We're all metabolically unhealthy. And the, the worst kind of inflammation is th- that that comes from your belly fat. So I, I just saw a guy a couple days ago who was 52 years old and, you know, looked pretty healthy, but he had, like, a little gut on him, like, not big, and he had 32% body fat in his belly. And that visceral fat is like a incubator for inflammation. It's basically a fire in your belly. And that visceral fat causes heart attacks, strokes, cancer, obviously diabetes. And, and that, he ha- he had a blockage, a 90% blockage in his heart a- and, and it was because he had this inflamed, silent killer inside of him. And so, so it's not just the inflammation that you know by getting a sore throat. It's, it's the quiet inflammation that you don't know you have.

   4. JSJay Shetty20:26

      Yeah.

   5. MHDr. Mark Hyman20:27

      And, and that leads to all these things, like con- like, well, not just the obvious things like autoimmune diseases, which we can talk about, allergies, but, you know, things that are more subtle, whether it's, you know, m- hormonal issues like menstrual cramps or, um, issues like migraines or headaches or fatigue or... All these things are, are signs of, of this fire raging through your body that you don't know about that's killing you. And so by eating an anti-inflammatory diet and removing the inflammatory foods, like, your body will quickly reset. I mean, your body has this innate intelligence. This is what's such a mir- miracle for me when you think about it. Your, your body is a healing machine. Like, look what happened to me. Like [laughs] I mean, I was in bed. I was... I couldn't walk. I was on a walker. I was emaciated. I was close to death. And when I put the right inputs in, my body healed, and it, it's amazing. I've had patients who were 65 with heart failure, diabetes, hypertension, kidneys failing, f- liver failing, who actually, didn't take 10 days, [laughs] but, like, you know, three months they were off all their medications, all, they reversed all these conditions. The, even at 65 or 66 years old, the body can do that. And so that's really what I want for people. I want them to have access to the knowledge, the ability, and the tools to be able to do this for themselves and to try it. And I don't, I don't say... The smartest doctor in your room is your own body if you listen to it. [laughs]

   6. JSJay Shetty21:51

      Mm.

   7. MHDr. Mark Hyman21:51

      "Gee, when I eat this, my stomach doesn't feel good. When I have that, I get a headache." Uh, but most people don't connect the dots between what they eat and how they feel.

   8. JSJay Shetty21:59

      Yeah, we base it all on lifestyle, and we also, like the gentleman you were treating, we still live in this world of, "Oh, I'm not that big, small."

   9. MHDr. Mark Hyman22:08

      Right.

   10. JSJay Shetty22:08

       We're looking at this physical attribute-

   11. MHDr. Mark Hyman22:10

       Yeah

   12. JSJay Shetty22:10

       ... when actually the inflammation's all happening on the inside.

   13. MHDr. Mark Hyman22:12

       Yeah. Like, he was jogging every day.

   14. JSJay Shetty22:14

       Yeah, yeah.

   15. MHDr. Mark Hyman22:14

       He was eating healthy. He was exercising.

   16. JSJay Shetty22:15

       He's active, yeah. He's doing all the right things-

   17. MHDr. Mark Hyman22:17

       Yeah

   18. JSJay Shetty22:18

       ... but, but there's this hidden part. One of those hidden things is sugar.

   19. MHDr. Mark Hyman22:21

       Mm-hmm.

   20. JSJay Shetty22:22

       I find it really shocking when I was playing pickleball the other day-

   21. MHDr. Mark Hyman22:25

       Mm

   22. JSJay Shetty22:26

       ... and someone said to me that, "Oh, let's have this drink." Like, we didn't have, we, we, we didn't have any water accessible at the time. We were all feeling thirsty. It was pretty hot.

   23. MHDr. Mark Hyman22:35

       Yeah.

   24. JSJay Shetty22:36

       And, and he had these, like, packs of drinks, and so he handed it to me. My wife has trained me to-

   25. MHDr. Mark Hyman22:40

       Look at labels [laughs]

   26. JSJay Shetty22:40

       ... look at, look at labels. So I turned it around, and it was like 40% of your daily sugars-

   27. MHDr. Mark Hyman22:46

       Yeah

   28. JSJay Shetty22:46

       ... in this little pack, right?

   29. MHDr. Mark Hyman22:47

       Yeah.

   30. JSJay Shetty22:47

       It was tiny. It was... I don't even know what it was called.
8. 23:59 – 30:34

   Transforming Health Through Functional Medicine

   1. MHDr. Mark Hyman23:59

      are also addicted to food, and 14% of kids, which is a, a lot of kids. So it's, it's biologically addictive. Uh, a little bit's not gonna hurt you. If you're healthy, if you're fit, you can have some. It's, it's just the volume that we have in this culture. I mean, it's something that our bi- biology doesn't know what to do with. Historically, we were hunter-gatherers. We had 22 teaspoons a year. Now, the average person has 22 teaspoons a day.

   2. JSJay Shetty24:23

      Wow.

   3. MHDr. Mark Hyman24:23

      Yeah. And so-

   4. JSJay Shetty24:24

      That, that is mind-blowing.

   5. MHDr. Mark Hyman24:25

      Yeah, if you had-

   6. JSJay Shetty24:26

      22 teaspoons a year

   7. MHDr. Mark Hyman24:28

      A year. So you were a hunter-gatherer, you'd, like, get some honey. "Oh my God, I found honey," you know? [laughs] Um, and, and you'd eat it. Uh, but it, it was hard to get sugar. And-

   8. JSJay Shetty24:37

      And you were more active then, too

   9. MHDr. Mark Hyman24:38

      Yeah, you... And you were running-

   10. JSJay Shetty24:40

       Yeah

   11. MHDr. Mark Hyman24:40

       ... [laughs] all the time chasing-

   12. JSJay Shetty24:41

       'Cause you're looking for that jar of honey-

   13. MHDr. Mark Hyman24:42

       Yeah, yeah, yeah

   14. JSJay Shetty24:43

       ... once a year. Not jar, sorry.

   15. MHDr. Mark Hyman24:44

       Actually, I was, I was in, uh, Hadza tribe, which is one of the last hunter-gatherer tribes in, in, uh, Africa, and they, they, they eat a lot of honey. They eat, like, about 20% of calories is honey, but they're super fit, healthy, because they're just, like, eating tons of fiber. So they basically, all the roots and the tubers have massive amounts of fiber. Americans eat about eight grams of fiber a day. We were historically, as hunter-gatherers, having 150 grams a day. Uh, and, and fiber basically is like a sponge. So for example, if you take your Coca-Cola and you throw in a bunch of Metamucil, it's gonna have a very different effect on your blood sugar. It's gonna turn to gel, first of all, if you leave it there for long enough. And then if you drink it, it's not gonna cause the same spike. So it's just not a, it's just the whole context of our diet has just become highly processed, lots of sugar, and it, and it drives the visceral fat. So sugar and starch, and by the way, below the neck, your body can't tell the difference between a bowl of cornflakes and a bowl of sugar or a loaf of bread and a, you know, [laughs] a bowl of sugar. Uh, it's the same. In fact, it, sometimes m- in terms of glycemic index, the, the bread is worse 'cause it's pure glucose, whereas sugar is fructose and glucose, which has different effects on your blood sugar. But basically, they're both the same. [laughs] And, and what that does is that, is that drives the deposition of belly fat, and that belly fat, which is not just holding up your pants, it's, it's metabolically very active. It produces tons of inflammation, screws up your hormones, it causes infertility, it causes Alzheimer's disease, it causes cancer, it causes diabetes, causes heart attacks. It causes aging itself. And when, when you look around in America, 93% of us, well, 93.2% to be exact, [laughs] have this metabolic dysfunction. That means 6.8% of us don't, which is frightening.

   16. JSJay Shetty26:31

       Tiny, yeah.

   17. MHDr. Mark Hyman26:32

       Frightening. And, and that's not how humans evolved. We didn't evolve like that. People go, "The Native Americans, they're, you know, genetically diabetic." Well, no, they're not. Like, the Pima Indians 100 years ago had no diabetes, no obesity, um, no heart attacks, and now they're, you know, get, 80% get diabetes by the time you're 30. And even two-year-olds get type 2 diabetes 'cause they're just drinking tons of sugar, sodas, and flour, and all the commodities that we send to the reservations that are all the crap we shouldn't be eating. [laughs]

   18. JSJay Shetty26:59

       Yeah.

   19. MHDr. Mark Hyman27:00

       Uh, so, so yeah, if you put your genes in the wrong environment, the genes may load the gun, but the environment pulls the trigger.

   20. JSJay Shetty27:06

       Mm. I wanna give a shout-out to this incredible company that you brought my way, Function Health.

   21. MHDr. Mark Hyman27:11

       Yeah.

   22. JSJay Shetty27:12

       When you first brought it to me, I was so impressed at what it does because I think everything we're talking about, the challenge is we don't know until we feel something-

   23. MHDr. Mark Hyman27:23

       Yeah, yeah

   24. JSJay Shetty27:23

       ... in quite an extreme way.

   25. MHDr. Mark Hyman27:25

       Yeah.

   26. JSJay Shetty27:25

       Right? So we just don't know. As humans, we don't know these things. We were never taught them.

   27. MHDr. Mark Hyman27:29

       Yeah.

   28. JSJay Shetty27:30

       If I didn't meet my wife, if I didn't have this podcast, I wouldn't be educated.

   29. MHDr. Mark Hyman27:33

       Yeah.

   30. JSJay Shetty27:33

       I just, how would I know this?
9. 30:34 – 37:04

   Why Autoimmune Diseases Are on the Rise

   1. MHDr. Mark Hyman30:34

      they had cancer, and then they found it in an early stage, and then it saves their lives-

   2. JSJay Shetty30:37

      Yeah

   3. MHDr. Mark Hyman30:38

      ... as opposed to waiting until too late. So, you know, it's always... And, and the whole thing about the metabolic health. I mean, most doctors don't check insulin, which is extremely important to know about, 'cause insulin is what goes up first, not your blood sugar. And most doctors don't look at the right cholesterol test. ApoB is the most important. Just had a friend send me an article. He said, "Dr. Hyman, look at this article. It's about this latest new test for predicting heart attack risk. It's better than any other test." I'm like, "What is it?" I'm like, I looked it up and it's like, oh, it's called ApoB. I'm like, "I've been testing that for 30 years."

   4. JSJay Shetty31:10

      [laughs]

   5. MHDr. Mark Hyman31:11

      It's the most predictive, but when people check your LDL cholesterol, that's not the thing that matters.

   6. JSJay Shetty31:15

      Mm-hmm.

   7. MHDr. Mark Hyman31:16

      And, and so we do that, and we do p- deeper analysis of your metabolic health, your nutritional health, looking at toxins, your hormones, uh, and we're finding autoimmune diseases. I mean, I, I looked it up, uh, before I came on the podcast. I was curious 'cause it, it, you know, about 8%, according to the, you know, CDC, of Americans have an autoimmune disease. But when I looked at our data, we're seeing 33% have a positive autoimmune antibody, which is incredible. I mean, that's a third of Americans have some either autoimmune disease or pre-autoimmune disease, and there's stuff you can do about it and get to the root cause.

   8. JSJay Shetty31:54

      Mm.

   9. MHDr. Mark Hyman31:55

      And, and what's beautiful about it is that we use root cause medicine, not just, "Oh, you have an autoimmune disease, take this drug," or, "You have high cholesterol, take this drug." It's like, well, well, how do I solve this using all the world's scientific knowledge about how to best do this through lifestyle and dealing with root causes and creating health rather than just mitigating symptoms or suppressing symptoms. So it's, it's pretty exciting.

   10. JSJay Shetty32:17

       Yeah.

   11. MHDr. Mark Hyman32:17

       And, and I think, you know, we, we, we now have full body imaging for $499. You know, you can get your whole blood test for $499, dollar, $1.37 a day.

   12. JSJay Shetty32:27

       I'm really impressed by what you offered, and I love what Function Health has done so much that I didn't just invest. I got every member of my team a membership.

   13. MHDr. Mark Hyman32:36

       That's amazing. [laughs]

   14. JSJay Shetty32:37

       Because I couldn't think of a better gift-

   15. MHDr. Mark Hyman32:39

       It is

   16. JSJay Shetty32:39

       ... to give people than accessing their knowledge and knowing what's happening inside their body. Like, if I want people to perform at work and feel their best-

   17. MHDr. Mark Hyman32:47

       Yeah

   18. JSJay Shetty32:47

       ... and care about their health-

   19. MHDr. Mark Hyman32:49

       Mm

   20. JSJay Shetty32:49

       ... to me, it felt like the right thing to do. And so, and I know you've actually created a, uh, you've created a discount for our community.

   21. MHDr. Mark Hyman32:55

       Yeah, yeah, yeah.

   22. JSJay Shetty32:56

       For us.

   23. MHDr. Mark Hyman32:56

       Yeah.

   24. JSJay Shetty32:56

       So what are you doing for us? It's-

   25. MHDr. Mark Hyman32:57

       It's functionhealth.com/jayshetty, and you get $100 off your membership. It's a membership.

   26. JSJay Shetty33:03

       Amazing.

   27. MHDr. Mark Hyman33:03

       Twice-a-year testing, so it's, you know, 400 bucks, or $399. [laughs]

   28. JSJay Shetty33:08

       Yeah.

   29. MHDr. Mark Hyman33:09

       And, and, uh, and you get to know what's going on. It's... And the gift of health is, you know, what you did for your employees is amazing because there is no better gift than the gift of health. And-

   30. JSJay Shetty33:17

       Yeah, you only realize that when it, when it goes away.
10. 37:04 – 40:51

    Signs Your Immune System Needs Help

    1. MHDr. Mark Hyman37:04

       mercury, pesticides, herbicides. I mean, you name it, it's in there. And so all that has an impact, and they're called autogens. There's a whole science around this. The- these are environmental toxins that cause autoimmunity. And I've seen many patients with, with, uh, autoimmune diseases that we, I cured by getting rid of their heavy metals or detoxifying their bodies. Uh, and so these, these toxins are a huge factor. And then you've got all the modern stresses. You know, we don't sleep, you know, we're under too much chronic stress, you know, light pollution. Who knows what... EMF, I don't even know if that's a thing, but I'm not saying it is. I'm just saying [laughs] it's all this stuff that we never had to deal with, and we're just seeing our immune system become so dysregulated. And the ultra-processed food revolution has been another huge factor because in ultra-processed food, there's all these emulsifiers. Emulsifiers are basically the things that make stuff creamy and, you know, like if you ever got some of the, like, nut milks and they separate out when you put it in your coffee, it's 'cause they don't use emulsifiers, right? And emulsifiers basically make things creamy, and they're used in almost all ultra-processed food. And they damage the gut lining, and they, they cause a what we call a leaky gut, where the cells come apart and then food and bacteria leak in between your cells. And then right underneath your cell lining, which is just one cell thick, is most of your immune system. And think about why is, why is most of your immune system in your gut? Well, it's 'cause we're exposed to most of the foreign stuff every day. You're putting pounds of, of foreign food in there, and you're putting ... There's all the bacteria from your microbiome. There's three pounds of bacteria in there that is, you know, basically a sewer, [laughs] you know? And it is like one, you're one cell away from a sewer. And so when that breaks down, your immune system's gonna go, "This isn't me. What's going on?" And it starts attacking things, and then it creates just a lot of, of mistaken identity, things we call molecular mimicry, where it thinks it's attacking a bacteria or food, but it then'll attack your joints or your eyes or your, your, your nerves and get MS, and your thyroid gland. So basically, we're seeing this explosion. And, and the beautiful thing is, by understanding the root causes, that you can actually reverse it. I had an autoimmune disease. Um, I actually had, uh, mold in my house. I've, [laughs] I've gotten everything known to man. I got Lyme disease, mold disease, and I had ... I, I lived in an old barn. I got really bad mold poisoning. Um, and then on top of that, I had a root canal. Had it removed, had an antibiotic. The antibiotic caused something called C. diff, which is a bacteria that causes really bad gut infections. That turned into ulcerative colitis. My whole intestinal tract was just one big red mess, and I had to heal it. And so, uh, you know, there is a methodology for creating health, and that's, that's, that's, that's what I want people to know. That's why functional health is so important, because it teaches you how to turn on your own innate healing system. You've got a healing, regenerative repair, and renewal system. That's why I could come back from the dead, [laughs] because I knew how to turn it on, you know?

    2. JSJay Shetty39:59

       Yeah, yeah.

    3. MHDr. Mark Hyman39:59

       And that's what I want everybody to know, and that's really why I do what I do, why I have the podcast, why I write books, why I travel around speaking, like you. [laughs] It's the same, it's the same movie. [laughs]

    4. JSJay Shetty40:08

       Yeah.

    5. MHDr. Mark Hyman40:08

       Different, different story. [laughs] And-

    6. JSJay Shetty40:10

       What-

    7. MHDr. Mark Hyman40:11

       You know?

    8. JSJay Shetty40:11

       What are, what are the signs for someone who's listening of a weak immune system and a strong immune system?

    9. MHDr. Mark Hyman40:17

       Yeah.

    10. JSJay Shetty40:18

        How do they tell?

    11. MHDr. Mark Hyman40:19

        I mean, you know, the inflammation and immune system are a little bit different 'cause you're, you know, you're, you're, you can be inflamed but have a weaker immune system. So, uh, um, frequent infections, frequent colds, um, feeling run down. I mean, there, there are signs that, that your immune system's not working. Um, and, and, uh, you get, you know, less resilient to stress. You get sick more easily. And so there's, those are signs that there's problems. And, and one of the things we find through Function Health is that so many people have nutritional deficiencies. And nutrients like zinc and vitamin D and iron, these

11. 40:51 – 42:41

    Do You Have an Undiagnosed Autoimmune Condition?

    1. MHDr. Mark Hyman40:51

       play a big role in your immune function. And, and-

    2. JSJay Shetty40:54

       It's actually, even supplements is such a bad word for supplements.

    3. MHDr. Mark Hyman40:57

       Yeah.

    4. JSJay Shetty40:57

       Because it sounds like something that, you know, you're just supplementing. But it's like-

    5. MHDr. Mark Hyman41:01

       Yeah, like it's not necessary.

    6. JSJay Shetty41:02

       No. Yeah, exactly. That's what I mean, right? The word supplement in and of itself feels like it's an add-on-

    7. MHDr. Mark Hyman41:07

       Right

    8. JSJay Shetty41:07

       ... rather than like, this is necessary.

    9. MHDr. Mark Hyman41:09

       Right.

    10. JSJay Shetty41:09

        Right? Like, I think we're still-

    11. MHDr. Mark Hyman41:11

        Yeah

    12. JSJay Shetty41:11

        ... living in this time where supplements haven't become the norm.

    13. MHDr. Mark Hyman41:14

        Yeah.

    14. JSJay Shetty41:14

        People see it as some health hack tip as opposed to, no, this is just what your body needs as nutrients.

    15. MHDr. Mark Hyman41:21

        Yeah. My joke is I don't think anybody needs supplements, but only under certain conditions. They have to hunt and gather their own wild food. They have to drink pure, clean water, ex- be exposed to no environmental toxins, have no chronic stress, sleep nine hours a night, go to bed with the sun, wake up with the sun. [laughs]

    16. JSJay Shetty41:34

        [laughs]

    17. MHDr. Mark Hyman41:34

        Right? Then, then if you ha- do all that, you might not need supplements. [laughs] It's like the-

    18. JSJay Shetty41:38

        Yeah. I'm good with the last six, but bad at the first three. I mean, yeah.

    19. MHDr. Mark Hyman41:42

        [laughs] You haven't gone hunting today?

    20. JSJay Shetty41:43

        Yeah, yeah. No, I didn't go hunting today. Yeah.

    21. MHDr. Mark Hyman41:45

        [laughs] And, and so our soils have become damaged because of industrial-

    22. JSJay Shetty41:49

        Soil

    23. MHDr. Mark Hyman41:49

        ... The soil, right?

    24. JSJay Shetty41:50

        Yeah.

    25. MHDr. Mark Hyman41:50

        And, and the way your plants get nutrients is because of the organic matter in the soil. It has a symbiotic relationship with the microbes in the soil and with the plant roots that then allows it to extract the nutrients. But if you basically grow plants in dirt, not soil, where there's no nutrients, uh, or they're not accessible because the body, the, the, the plants can't get them because they don't have the right organic matter to create the symbiotic relationship, your broccoli today has 50% less nutrients than it did 50 years ago. Plus, you know, we do a lot of things that cause more stress to our bodies and we need more nutrients. And, like, magnesium is a very big nutritional deficiency 'cause when you're stressed, you pee out magnesium. [laughs] And then we don't eat a lot of magnesium-rich foods like nuts and seeds and beans and leafy greens, right? It's not a big part of Americans' diets. So a lot of people are low in magnesium,

12. 42:41 – 48:06

    A Simple 10-Day Reset for Your Body

    1. MHDr. Mark Hyman42:42

       uh, and low in vitamin D. We see 80% of people being insufficient or deficient in vitamin D, which is incredibly important for immune function. And, and I mean, COVID, uh, if your vitamin D was low, you were 75% more likely to end up in the ICU and die. Whereas if your vitamin D was over 50 in this big Israeli study, there were no deaths. So it that- it's that powerful. There, there, there are things that regulate almost every biochemical reaction in your body, and you've got 37 billion trillion chemical reactions every second happening. And every one of those... And that's a big number [laughs] I don't even know how many zeros that is. A lot of zero- I think it's 27 zeros. Um, and, and every single one of those reactions requires a nutrient to work as a co-factor for the enzymatic reaction, and most of us are deficient. In fact, with Function Health, we do deep nutritional testing, omega-3s, vitamin D, all the B vitamins, iron, so forth, and we find 67% of our members, who you'd think would be forward-thinking about their health, are deficient in nutrients. Not-

    2. JSJay Shetty43:39

       Mm

    3. MHDr. Mark Hyman43:39

       ... at the level that I would think would be optimal, but at the level that prevents a deficiency disease. So, like, not the ideal amount, but the m- bare minimum-

    4. JSJay Shetty43:48

       Yeah

    5. MHDr. Mark Hyman43:48

       ... so you don't get, like, rickets or scurvy or, [laughs] you know? Like, and that's not... And that's 67%, so if you expanded the criteria to be what's optimal, it would probably be even more.

    6. JSJay Shetty43:58

       Yeah. It's, it's scary to think about it, but it's so important to start being aware right now.

    7. MHDr. Mark Hyman44:04

       Mm.

    8. JSJay Shetty44:04

       Can someone know that they have some symptoms of an autoimmune disease? Like, is it possible?

    9. MHDr. Mark Hyman44:10

       Well, uh, there's pre-autoimmune disease, like there's pre-diabetes or pre-hypertension, and I don't like those terms because they imply that it's, you haven't gotten into trouble yet. But, but you are in trouble. You're, you're... There is something bad happening. And so you have to actually look at, at the, the blood work to help you identify if you're heading in the wrong direction, and you can see. But then you could, you could be somebody who's suffering from low-grade symptoms. You might not know it. Like, thyroid is really common. You might be a little bit tired. You might be a little constipated. You might... A little dry skin. Your nails might crack a little bit. You might be losing the outer third of your eyebrow. You might feel a little depressed. You might have lower sex drive. And these things people don't really medi- gain a little bit of weight. I mean, people don't think of these as a disease, but when you add them all together, it's an autoimmune thyroid issue, right?

    10. JSJay Shetty44:55

        Mm-hmm.

    11. MHDr. Mark Hyman44:55

        And even, even gut issues. You know, irritable bowel, and a lot of people have digestive issues.

    12. JSJay Shetty45:00

        Yeah.

    13. MHDr. Mark Hyman45:00

        And i- it's really a continuum from irritable bowel to autoimmune bowel disease, which is where you get colitis or Crohn's disease. And so it's a continuum. A lot of people have this low-grade inflammatory stuff going on in their bodies and, and it's really, it's unfortunate because we know how to fix it. And, and this is really what we do in functional medicine. It's why I think testing and understanding what's going on with your body before you get in trouble. It's like, y- you know, the first symptom of a heart attack, you know what it is for most people? For 50% of people with heart disease, the first symptom is sudden death. [snaps fingers] Dropped dead of a heart attack. Like this guy I was telling you about, he was jogging and he kept having chest pain, and he was ignoring it, and then he finally decided to go check it out 'cause his [laughs] girlfriend made him go. And, and, uh, turned out he had a 90% blockage, and he wouldn't have known. He, he could have literally just dropped out of a heart attack like that.

    14. JSJay Shetty45:49

        What are the shifts we should be making right now? If someone's listening, they're gonna go get the test if they can. If they can't, because-

    15. MHDr. Mark Hyman45:56

        Yeah

    16. JSJay Shetty45:56

        ... you know, for whatever reason, they don't live in the States, 'cause we're not available internationally.

    17. MHDr. Mark Hyman45:59

        No, not, not yet. We're getting there.

    18. JSJay Shetty46:00

        Yeah, not yet. Yeah, I get a lot of that in my comments section.

    19. MHDr. Mark Hyman46:03

        Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah.

    20. JSJay Shetty46:03

        Like, "Hey, Jay, like when are we..." Yeah.

    21. MHDr. Mark Hyman46:04

        [laughs]

    22. JSJay Shetty46:05

        There's a lot of people I know in UK and Europe who really want it-

    23. MHDr. Mark Hyman46:07

        Yeah

    24. JSJay Shetty46:07

        ... and, and Australia and other places. But, uh, you've got your results. You know what's going on. Where would you encourage people to begin if they un- they don't have anything serious right now, but they wanna make sure they get this right?

    25. MHDr. Mark Hyman46:19

        Y- yeah, I mean, I, I'm not trying to sell anything here, but I, I think doing a, um, a short-term reset is powerful. I, I, the way I think about it is how, how do you turn your body back to its original factory settings? You know, when a baby comes out, it's generally perfect, right? [laughs] It's beautiful. It's healthy. Everything works, right? And then things break down. But imagine it, like if your computer's, you know, not working or it's on the fritz and, like, my WhatsApp wasn't working today and I just had to reboot it, right? Or reboot my computer. How do you do that with your body?

    26. JSJay Shetty46:50

        Mm-hmm.

    27. MHDr. Mark Hyman46:50

        And that's really what the, this dietary change that I call the 10-Day Detox Diet is about. It's about really putting your body back to its original factory settings. For most people, it will create a dramatic shift. If you don't get better from it, it's usually 'cause there's something more serious, like you have Lyme disease, you have mold exposure that's causing toxicity, you have maybe environmental toxins or Lyme disease or something serious, uh, that needs a- another treatment. But for most people, just a simple 10-day approach to resetting your system by getting enough sleep, by cutting out the bad stuff, by j- taking walks, by doing little breathing exercises, and radically changing your diet, you go, "Oh, my God."

    28. JSJay Shetty47:32

        You could do that at home.

    29. MHDr. Mark Hyman47:33

        It's-

    30. JSJay Shetty47:33

        This isn't... You don't... Yeah.
13. 48:06 – 52:44

    The Secret to Healing: Treat the Root Cause

    1. MHDr. Mark Hyman48:06

       'cause 93%, it's been determined, of our health issues are not genetic.

    2. JSJay Shetty48:10

       Mm.

    3. MHDr. Mark Hyman48:11

       They're from our collective environment, what we call the exposome, not our genome. Our exposome is, is what it sounds like. It's everything that we're exposed to. It's what we eat, it's movement, it's sleep, it's stress, it's our gut microbiome, it's environmental toxins, it's our thoughts. Our thoughts actually transform our biology, literally. Uh, it's the biggest pharmacy is between your ears. [laughs] And so all those things you have control over, which is what's so exciting to me. It's about being empowered to actually make those changes. And, and people just suffer so badly. I mean, I think I told you maybe that I did a, a program with a f- a faith-based wellness program with Rick Warren at this church where we got a quarter of a million pounds lost off of 15,000 people in a year. M-By doing a, a faith-based wellness program. And the amount of people that had radical changes in their health was just so remarkable. This one woman had been in and out of psychiatric hospitals. She'd been on every psychiatric medication you could imagine, from antidepressants to anti-anxiety medications to antipsychotic medications. She was, you know, about to commit suicide. You know, she, she was also overweight, and she did this dietary change. Essentially, I did the faith-based wellness program, included the, the 10-day detox diet, and she's like, "I'm completely cured. Like, I don't have any depression. I'm off all my medications. I feel good." How is that possible? And, you know, that's the other thing, Jay, you know, there's so much mental illness. There's so much depression, anxiety, bipolar disease, you know, m- m- think more serious things like severe OCD or even schizophrenia. These things actually are physiological problems or not always emotional problems.

    4. JSJay Shetty49:48

       Mm.

    5. MHDr. Mark Hyman49:48

       So sometimes they are, like, you know, your spouse dies, you're depressed. Yeah, I get it. You know, but a lot of times, and for many people, there, there's actually a physiological reason. You know, we talk about the mind-body effect, which is how the mind affects the body, which is profound, but there's also the body-mind effect.

    6. JSJay Shetty50:06

       Mm-hmm.

    7. MHDr. Mark Hyman50:07

       So if you're magnesium deficient, you can be anxious, right? [chuckles] If you're vitamin D deficient or omega-3 deficient, you can be depressed or you can have ADD. [chuckles] Uh, if you're-- don't have enough folate or B12, you can get depressed. I mean, these are things that you can fix. If you have heavy metals, which I did, it can cause you to have depression and insomnia and anxiety. I mean, I'm treating a little girl right now who's got severe OCD, and it turned out she had a strep infection that turns into this autoimmune reaction against your brain that's causing her to have OCD behaviors like tics and weird things that we think is psychological. So I, I think, you know, I, I, I, I often call myself the accidental psychiatrist because I, I was treating people for all these physical things, and then these-

    8. JSJay Shetty50:51

       Yeah

    9. MHDr. Mark Hyman50:51

       ... psychiatric problems would get better. And I wrote a book about it called "The Ultra Mind Solution: How to Fix Your Broken Brain by Fixing Your Body First." And, and you can just get that off the table. And then, you know, if you have other deeper trauma or things, yeah. I think the revolution now in, in, in metabolic psychiatry, nutritional psychiatry, and in psychedelic medicine and psychiatry are, I think, gonna change the face of mental health care for the long term.

    10. JSJay Shetty51:12

        Absolutely. What are, what are some of the mistakes you see people making in curing autoimmune diseases? What are some of the mistakes? What are the things we get wrong?

    11. MHDr. Mark Hyman51:20

        Well, 'cause they don't treat the cause is, is the biggest thing. You know, I had a patient when I was at Cleveland Clinic who was a business coach, who was 50 years old, and she had a, um, a lot of problems. And I, I jokingly call myself a holistic doctor 'cause I take care of people with a whole list of problems, you know. [chuckles] And she had everything. You know, she had, uh, irritable bowel, she had reflux, she had migraines, she was depressed, she had prediabetes, and she had this horrible autoimmune disease called psoriatic arthritis. You know, the heartbreak of psoriasis, these horrible, thick, scaly, red, itchy plaques on your skin, and it also can attack your joints, and it was attacking her joints. She was on a drug b- and she was seen by the top doctors. And, and she was on a drug that cost $50,000, and it wasn't really fixing her. And she was seeing the top specialists for neurology for her migraines, psychiatry for depression, gastroenterology for her gut, endocrinology for her prediabetes, a rheumatologist for her arthritis and her skin [chuckles] issues, and a dermatologist. I was like, "Right, she had a doctor for every inch of her." And I said, "Gee, you know, you're getting all these medications. You're not really better. You're mitigating your symptoms a little bit. Maybe we think about treating the root cause." And so because she had so many digestive symptoms, and she'd been on lots of antibiotics, she'd been on lots of, uh, steroids for her arthritis, that really messed up the gut, too. I said, "You have reflux. You have bloating

14. 52:44 – 56:32

    How AI Is Revolutionizing Healthcare

    1. MHDr. Mark Hyman52:44

       after eating. You, you have, um, all these gut issues. Why don't we treat your gut?" So I basically gave her an antibiotic to kill off all these bad bugs that were in her gut, and I gave her an antifungal 'cause she had a lot of fungal overgrowth from all the steroids and the antibiotics to kill off the bad bugs. I gave her some probiotics. I put her on the 10-day detox diet, [chuckles] basically. Got rid of all the inflammatory foods, got rid of the sugar, processed food. She comes back in six weeks and she's like, "I'm all better." I'm like, "What do you mean?" She says, "Well, I stopped all my medications." "Well, I didn't tell you to do that." She's like, "No, I, I just was feeling so good. I stopped everything. I don't have migraines. I'm not depressed. My-- lost 20 pounds. My skin's cleared. My joints don't hurt. My reflux is gone. My irritable bowel is gone." And so if you treat the root, which was her gut in this case, and I just gave her, you know, I just gave her the elimination diet, and I gave her the antibiotics and the antifungals. I gave her probiotics, vitamin D, some fish oil. Not a lot. And in six weeks, not only was she feeling better, but she, like, saved the healthcare system, you know, tens of thousands of dollars. [chuckles]

    2. JSJay Shetty53:45

       Yeah. It's, it's almost like it sounds like magic-

    3. MHDr. Mark Hyman53:48

       It does. It's not

    4. JSJay Shetty53:48

       ... when you're listening to it, and you go, "Yeah, no, it's not," because we've just been trained to believe that this way makes sense.

    5. MHDr. Mark Hyman53:55

       Yeah.

    6. JSJay Shetty53:56

       But it's, it's, it's funny, we're, we're more convinced that a manufactured pill will solve our body than the things that our ancestors have lived off-

    7. MHDr. Mark Hyman54:07

       That's right

    8. JSJay Shetty54:08

       ... for years and years and years.

    9. MHDr. Mark Hyman54:09

       That's right. So if you, if you, if you don't know how to turn on the body's healing system, then yeah, you need medication. And, and what's so exciting to me, Jay, is like we're in this revolution in medicine right now where we're finally understanding root causes, and it's in the scientific literature, but it takes decades for that to get into clinical practice. I mean, to change medical education, to change reimbursement, to change how doctors practice. It's just such a... It's like, it's like we're all walking around thinking the earth is flat when it's really round.

    10. JSJay Shetty54:39

        Mm-hmm.

    11. MHDr. Mark Hyman54:39

        And so this paradigm shift is, is such a profound change in how we think about disease that it's gonna revolutionize everything we do. And it's, and it's only now be- accessible to people through things like Function because we're able to, through technology, be able to getThe amazing amount of world scientific literatures, you know, AI can read it in like five seconds, right?

    12. JSJay Shetty55:00

        Yeah, yeah.

    13. MHDr. Mark Hyman55:00

        And it can synthesize it, and then it's your own personal health data set. It's not like your, you know, doctor's treating you based on a study that was on 70-kilogram white men from Kansas, which doesn't apply to a, uh, an Indian guy, [laughs] you know? Or-

    14. JSJay Shetty55:13

        Yeah

    15. MHDr. Mark Hyman55:13

        ... somebody who's in like, you know, Vietnam, right? And, and so basically we are treating to the masses where we should be treating to the individual, and we call this precision medicine, personalized medicine. But medicine should be personalized, it should be predictive, it should be preventive, and it should be proactive, that you actually don't have to react like we do in medicine, but be proactive. And, and that's really, you know, my life's work. It's not only, you know, taking people with very serious illnesses and reversing them, but actually getting people earlier. I mean, Benjamin Franklin said it, right? "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." And so I can give a pound of cure, but it's a lot harder [laughs] than-

    16. JSJay Shetty55:51

        Yeah

    17. MHDr. Mark Hyman55:51

        ... an ounce of prevention.

    18. JSJay Shetty55:51

        Yeah. What are you most excited about at the forefront of medicine and functional medicine at the moment?

    19. MHDr. Mark Hyman55:56

        Yeah.

    20. JSJay Shetty55:56

        Is it AI? Is it-

    21. MHDr. Mark Hyman55:57

        Yeah

    22. JSJay Shetty55:58

        ... you know?

    23. MHDr. Mark Hyman55:58

        Well, you know, uh, as I said to you, like there's 37 billion, trillion chemical reactions in the body. It's... The body is so complex. Its b- its physics is complex. Uh, think about how complicated a rocket is, right? Like, I can't even understand that, but that's a knowable thing, right? Scientists and physicists can figure it out and then send a guy to the moon or build a spaceship that goes to Mars, like Elon Musk. But like the body is so infinitely complex, and we, we see it in this reductionist way where every different organ has a different specialist, and the body's all these different parts. But that's not how we're

15. 56:32 – 57:55

    The Truth About the Chronic Disease Epidemic

    1. MHDr. Mark Hyman56:32

       designed. Everything's an ecosystem. Everything's connected. You know, we're, we're one whole web-like organism where, where everything's interacting with everything else all the time. And, and so that paradigm of, of thinking that way... And functional medicine isn't a test, it's not a supplement, it's not a, a new specialty. It's literally a meta framework for thinking about the nature of health and disease based on root causes and based on the body's system, and based on asking the question why, not what disease do you have and what drug do I get, but why do I have this, and, and how do I create health, not treat disease? And when I create health, disease goes away as a side effect. And so that scientific paradigm is, is now emerging. And before it, it, you know... You know, it was frustrating for me doing this work for 30 years because, you know, it just... It was hard to convince people. Like, "Look, the Earth is round." Like, "No, no, no, it's flat. See right there? It's flat." And they go, "There's that disease, and it's real." I'm like, "Yeah, you know, rheumatoid arthritis is a thing, but it, it's not how we think about it. It... We're thinking about it the wrong way." And so I'm so excited now because of AI and, and, and the ability to synthesize massive data sets. I mean, you have 100,000 petabytes of data in your microbiome. A petabyte is a million gigabytes, okay? Your computer has four terabytes maybe, right? Which is 1,000 gigabytes or something. [laughs] I mean, it's just such a massive amount of information. That's just in your microbiome. And so you, your body is so complex,

16. 57:55 – 59:02

    Understanding How Your Body Really Works

    1. MHDr. Mark Hyman57:55

       and we need technology and AI to help us start to understand that, and then apply it to you as an individual, and then help create a roadmap for looking at where your weak points are, and how do you correct those-

    2. JSJay Shetty58:08

       Mm-hmm

    3. MHDr. Mark Hyman58:08

       ... and then how do you optimize. And so that's what I'm so excited about, and that's, that's why at 65 I'm, like, doing this startup. I mean-

    4. JSJay Shetty58:15

       [laughs]

    5. MHDr. Mark Hyman58:15

       ... I was, I was with, uh, one of the, uh, one of the investors on a panel, [laughs] and I'm like... She's like... Somebody said, "Well, how do you, how do you, uh, figure out what companies to invest in?" They go, "Well, we invest in the founders." And I'm like, "Well, have you ever had a founder that's been on Medicare before?" [laughs]

    6. JSJay Shetty58:30

       [laughs]

    7. MHDr. Mark Hyman58:30

       You know?

    8. JSJay Shetty58:31

       That's so funny.

    9. MHDr. Mark Hyman58:31

       And I'm like, "What am I..." I'm like, I hope to live to be 100 and something, but, you know, I'm doing this because I don't wanna see s- so many people suffering that don't have to suffer.

    10. JSJay Shetty58:40

        Yeah.

    11. MHDr. Mark Hyman58:40

        And I get these calls every day from-

    12. JSJay Shetty58:42

        Of course

    13. MHDr. Mark Hyman58:43

        ... friends and, "Would you help this one? Will you help that one? No one can help me." And I'm like, I'm only one guy. I'm... I could, like, work 24 hours a day for the rest of my life, and I wouldn't make a dent in the amount of suffering there is in the world. But imagine if we could put, you know, 1,000 or 100,000 doctors in your pocket-

    14. JSJay Shetty59:00

        Mm-hmm

    15. MHDr. Mark Hyman59:00

        ... that are trained on the future

17. 59:02 – 1:00:56

    Expanding Access to Quality Healthcare

    1. MHDr. Mark Hyman59:02

       paradigm of medicine, and make it accessible to you in real time on a day-to-day basis to guide you and coach you and support you. That's what Function Health is aiming to do, and I'm so excited about it 'cause it's like, wow, we couldn't do this before. We couldn't take this ama- amazing complexity of human biology and help a single doctor understand. It's just hard. Like I, I see the patterns, so I can look at something quickly and I know in a few minutes, like, what to do. But it's o- it's only because I've seen tens of thousands of patients and millions and millions of biomarkers that I can make those connections, and I'm not that good compared to, like, what technology's gonna be able to do.

    2. JSJay Shetty59:39

       Yeah. What do, what do you wish doctors were taught today?

    3. MHDr. Mark Hyman59:43

       Oh my God. Don't get me started. [laughs]

    4. JSJay Shetty59:45

       [laughs]

    5. MHDr. Mark Hyman59:46

       My daughter just graduated from medical school. She's brilliant, and she, she's now going to be an orthopedic surgeon, which I think is great, because you need that. Like, you know, [laughs] if you break your hip, you need a new hip. Uh, so that's a kind of medicine that I think is... we're really good at, is, is acute care medicine. But what, what she didn't learn about was nutrition, which, okay, we have a, a, an, a chronic disease epidemic in this country. It's caused primarily by food, it can be cured mostly by food, and yet doctors know nothing about food, right? So nutrition. Didn't learn about the microbiome. Didn't learn about environmental toxins. Didn't learn about how to create health. Didn't learn about the body's networks and systems. Didn't learn about mitochondria. I mean, yes, she got... Like, her first, you know, semester she learned about the Krebs cycle and biochemistry, but didn't understand how to diagnose people with mitochondrial issues, which is our energy powerhouse and how, how everything works in our body. So those are the things that doctors don't learn anything about. Didn't learn about how to optimize your immune function. Didn't learn about how to treat, uh, gut issues in the right way by fixing a leaky

18. 1:00:56 – 1:12:20

    The Case for Regulating Ultra-Processed Foods

    1. MHDr. Mark Hyman1:00:56

       gut. So there's so many areas that, that are part of the framework of functional medicine that they don't learn anything about.

    2. JSJay Shetty1:01:02

       Yeah. So no wonder when you go and talk about how you're feeling-

    3. MHDr. Mark Hyman1:01:06

       Yeah

    4. JSJay Shetty1:01:06

       ... you're not getting the information that you need.

    5. MHDr. Mark Hyman1:01:08

       No. I mean, you, you know, you go, "Uh, Doctor, you know, I feel this and that and the other thing," and they go, "Well, you know, I did your exam. That's okay. Your lab tests look okay," 'cause they do a very limited set, "and, you know, you're fine. Just go home and take Prozac," you know? [laughs] But th- there are only one of two things that's true. One, either you're crazy and making it up, or your doctor's missing something. And nine times out of 10, they're missing something 'cause they don't know how to think. They don't know how to think about the human body except in a very reductionist way, and it's just not how things are. It, you know, we, we are a, a dynamic ecosystem, and everything is interacting with everything else in real time and changing, and how do you play with that? How do you, as a, as a, as a practitioner or even as an individual, learn how your body works? I mean, most of us have no clue how our bodies work and how to create a better functioning body.

    6. JSJay Shetty1:01:57

       Mm.

    7. MHDr. Mark Hyman1:01:57

       You know, we take better care of our animals than we do of our dog-

    8. JSJay Shetty1:02:00

       Yeah, yeah

    9. MHDr. Mark Hyman1:02:00

       ... of our health.

    10. JSJay Shetty1:02:01

        Yeah.

    11. MHDr. Mark Hyman1:02:01

        Right? I mean, you wouldn't feed your dog a Big Mac, fries, and a Coke, would you?

    12. JSJay Shetty1:02:04

        Definitely.

    13. MHDr. Mark Hyman1:02:04

        And a milkshake? [laughs]

    14. JSJay Shetty1:02:06

        No.

    15. MHDr. Mark Hyman1:02:06

        No.

    16. JSJay Shetty1:02:06

        No way.

    17. MHDr. Mark Hyman1:02:06

        But we give that to our kids.

    18. JSJay Shetty1:02:08

        Yeah.

    19. MHDr. Mark Hyman1:02:08

        Right?

    20. JSJay Shetty1:02:09

        A- as someone who grew up in London, England, and had the National Healthcare Service, and then you move to the United States, and of course, most of it's private-

    21. MHDr. Mark Hyman1:02:18

        Yeah, yeah

    22. JSJay Shetty1:02:19

        ... and there's not really any healthcare available as w- as far as I know.

    23. MHDr. Mark Hyman1:02:22

        Mm-hmm.

    24. JSJay Shetty1:02:22

        You know? What do you think the US healthcare system needs to be focused on?

    25. MHDr. Mark Hyman1:02:26

        Yeah, 100%. Well, I'm, I'm excited. I mean, I'm working right now with Medicare and with NIH on how to, how do things need to change because they're very open, and they're very interested in, in changing the way we look at things. And, and I think w- you know, the... even having access to good healthcare, which we don't in this country. I mean, in the UK you have the NHS, the National Health Service. It's great, but, you know, maybe the quality isn't always as good. The reality is that, you know, most of your health is not happening in the doctor's office. 80 to 90% of it happens with things that you can have control over. It happens in your kitchen. It happens, you know, [laughs] where you play and eat and pray and work. That's where health happens. I mean, my wife's now, uh, studying at Columbia for her master's in public health, and she's just so excited telling me that how she's learning about how they're talking about the real drivers of disease, and it's like 80 to 90% is not stuff that the doctor has control over. It's, it's, it's the environment that you live in, and it's your choices every day.

    26. JSJay Shetty1:03:26

        Mm.

    27. MHDr. Mark Hyman1:03:26

        And so those things you don't really need healthcare for.

    28. JSJay Shetty1:03:28

        Yeah.

    29. MHDr. Mark Hyman1:03:29

        And so I think if we can build a health system that activates people around that, then you won't need the doctor-

    30. JSJay Shetty1:03:34

        Yeah

Episode duration: 1:12:20