Dr. David Jockers

A multi-day water fast triggers real biological changes (a shift from glucose to ketone fuel, autophagy, gut bacteria shifts, growth hormone rise, stem cell activity), but the case for an annual seven-day fast as broadly preventive of chronic disease sits at the contested end of the fasting literature. The episode walks through what happens day by day, plus a detailed preparation and re-feeding protocol. The advocate framing ('heals everything') is well past mainstream evidence; the underlying biology is real, the population-level disease-prevention claims need separating from the marketing.

In this episode, functional-medicine practitioners Dr. Josh Axe and Dr. David Jockers argue that many chronic conditions, insulin resistance, thyroid problems, fatty liver, and low testosterone, share root causes you can fix naturally, often framed around mitochondrial health. Part of this is genuinely true and important: 'chronic disease' is not one thing, and for some conditions lifestyle change is powerful. Substantial weight loss can put type 2 diabetes into remission for some people, and can markedly reduce liver fat and inflammation in fatty liver disease. But other conditions, like autoimmune thyroid disease or many causes of low testosterone, respond very differently, and no single 'root cause' or supplement fixes them all. The right approach is to weigh each condition, and each claim, on its own evidence. Both speakers have commercial interests in supplements and programs.