Mind, Body, and God: A New Kind of Health Conversation | Dylan Gemelli, Dr. Josh Axe & Dr. Will Cole

WATCH THE FULL-LENGTH EPISODE HERE ON YOUTUBE! 

This one is different from our usual format, and I want to say that up front: this is a round table discussion, a collaborative show I did with Dr. Josh Axe and health coach Dylan Gemelli, releasing across all three of our channels at once. The idea is simple and, I think, overdue - three people who've spent decades in this space, in the same room, actually disagreeing with each other in real time instead of everyone nodding along.

We opened on cellular health, because that's where Josh's and my new book, Heal Your Cells, starts too. There's a 2023 Stanford study we cite in the book that found 1 in 5 Americans - 22 million people - have one organ aging measurably faster than the rest of their body. Clinically, I think that number is low. I'd put it closer to half the people I see. And what struck me hardest in this conversation wasn't the data, it was Dylan's story. He told us that despite being, in his words, "the epitome of walking health," he found a high Lp(a) and arterial plaque on his own labs - and that his dad died of a sudden heart attack at 59. If that sounds familiar, it's because it's almost exactly the story Josh told about his father-in-law Joel in our last episode. I don't think that's a coincidence. I think it's the reason all three of us do this work.

From there we got into the stuff that's genuinely useful and rarely explained well: why insulin and cortisol are the two hormones that, if you fix them, tend to bring everything else back into line; why a 3AM wake-up is a vagal tone problem and not just "bad sleep"; and some very practical tools (a 30-second gargling protocol sounds ridiculous until you try it - Josh swears by it more than any breathwork he's done).

The part I want people to sit with longest, though, is the faith conversation. Dylan made a case for "mind, body, and God" - not mind and body with faith as decoration, but faith as foundational to how our cells respond to stress. He referenced a Harvard study tying regular faith and community practice to a 33% lower risk of all-cause mortality over 16 years. I've talked about this before, but hearing it land in a room with someone who isn't a clinician, who came to it through his own breathwork and trauma work rather than through the research, made the argument hit differently for me.

We also got into peptides, the seed oil debate, the current protein obsession, and whether anyone actually needs fiber - and we didn't land in the same place on all of it. That's the point of this show.

A few of my favorite things we cover in this episode: 

• Cellular health as the root cause of chronic disease
• The Stanford study: 1 in 5 Americans have one organ aging faster than others
• Early puberty as a sign of accelerated hormonal aging
• Optimal vs. "normal" lab ranges: glucose, A1C, ApoB, Lp(a), hs-CRP
• Do statins actually work? Cholesterol vs. inflammation
• Dylan's health scare: high Lp(a), arterial plaque, and losing his dad at 59
• Insulin and cortisol: the two hormones that run the whole show
• Sleep as non-negotiable medicine
• The 3AM wake-up, cortisol, and vagal tone
• Vagal toning techniques: gargling, breathwork, nerve stimulation devices
• Dylan's "soul surgery": releasing buried childhood trauma
• Faith as a foundational pillar of health, not an add-on
• The future of peptides: Senate hearings, BPC-157, and the black market risk
• Integrative vs. conventional cancer care
• Why doctors resisted reversing type 2 diabetes 20 years ago
• Muscle as the longevity organ: weight training and mitochondria
• The diet wars: keto, carnivore, vegan, and bio-individuality
• The seed oil debate, unpacked
• The protein pendulum and whether anyone actually needs fiber
• Closing takeaways from Dylan, Josh, and Will

Products Mentioned:

• Heal Your Cells by Dr. Will Cole & Dr. Josh Axe - available at drwillcole.com/books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, independent bookstores
• The Dr. Josh Axe Show
• The Dylan Gemelli Podcast
• True Nutrition - custom protein blend builder, Dylan's daily protein mix
• Seed Oil Free Alliance - seed-oil-free certification, Dylan recently signed on as a partner
• Pulsetto - vagus nerve stimulation device
• Apollo Neuro - wearable vagal toning device
• Nuropod - vagus nerve stimulation device, referred to in the episode as "Neuropod," confirm spelling
• Cleerly - coronary artery plaque/calcium imaging scan
• RGCC ("Greek") blood test - used to personalize integrative cancer protocols
• Protocols/Practices Mentioned:
  • Optimal lab marker targets: glucose under 90, A1C ~5.5, triglycerides under 100, hs-CRP under 1, homocysteine under 7, ApoB, Lp(a), NMR particle-size cholesterol test
  • Pomegranate juice, used personally by Dylan to help bring down Lp(a)/arterial plaque
  • Vagal toning: 30-second gargling intervals (2 minutes total), breathwork, journaling, magnesium
  • Weight training plus zone 2 cardio for mitochondrial health and longevity
  • Astragalus, ginkgo biloba, lion's mane mushroom, bone broth for organ-specific longevity support
  • BPC-157 peptide for injury/tissue repair, sourced only from U.S. compounding pharmacies
  • Spore-based probiotics for gut/microbiome support
  • RGCC-guided integrative cancer protocol: high-dose vitamin C, liposomal turmeric, hyperthermia
  • 40/40/20 fat/protein/carb macro approach, Dylan's personal diet experiment

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Happy listening, and we hope you learned a little bit more on the art of being well!

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In Health,

Dr. Will Cole