Hard-hitting medical truth.

Cutting through conflict and confusion to the understanding you're searching for.

Join Dr.

Peter McCola, world-renowned medical expert and practicing physician for this edition of the McCullough Report.

Your life may depend on it.

Let's get real.

Let's get loud on America Out Loud Talk News and Focal Points Substack.

I'm Dr.

Peter McCullough, your host.

And it's a great pleasure to welcome to the show, Dr.

Craig Wax.

Dr.

Wax has been on the show before, but now he's back with a new book, Health is Number One.

And yes, it is.

Dr.

Dr.

Wax, welcome to the show.

Thank you very much, Dr.

McCullough.

Thank you to your audience.

Wow, terrific book.

I've read it cover to cover.

Health is number one, maximizing your health.

Craig M.

Wax, DO, America's Family Physician.

I love it.

I love it.

Talk about someone who's willing to have accountability, step up, and give America health advice.

Thank you so much.

No, I definitely appreciate that.

I I present everything that I possibly can in the simplest, simplest possible way for people to decide what how they want to play it, because you know what?

Smart individuals makes for smart groups.

Wow.

Well, Craig, uh kind of give us the background.

Is this your first book?

And what uh or if you had others and and what motivated you to do this?

Oh, thank you.

I I super appreciate that.

Uh appreciate this opportunity, Peter.

Um, I've been writing this book for 25 years.

I've been a physician for close to 30, but I've been writing it for 25.

And, you know, I keep stepping away from the project.

I'll publish an article, an editorial, um, you know, some data.

Um, and then I'll come back, you know, because you know, when you're in private practice, you're constantly being pulled in different directions.

I mean, patient directions, insurance directions, government directions, um uh directions for patient freedom, patient uh directions for physician freedom.

So we all get pulled in many, many directions.

So I kept stepping away from the project, and finally, in the in the past year, I decided, you know what, time to find the question.

We've just lost Dr.

Wax.

So um while he's uh reconstituting his screen, let me tell you health is number one, maximizing your health.

It's a wonderful read.

And uh I can tell you, and it looks like he's working his way back.

Uh it's it's masterfully done.

It has a total of uh a total of 19 chapters, ways to contact uh Dr.

Wax, and I think very importantly, you know, walks you through all of the things that you have to think about as a patient.

Now he has a moniker, which is pretty fun.

I'm gonna add him back to the program here as soon as he reappears.

The moniker is called Heino, H I N O.

And let me tell you, Dr.

Wax, I've been filling in uh since you've uh uh left us for a minute, and I introduced the moniker, Heino, H I N O.

So anyhow, you can take it from here.

Now you were telling us about your motivation, how you got to the point of actually.

Right.

So Heino is for health is number one.

You know, that's uh the the going acronym.

So thank you for you know putting it together in that way.

Um I've wanted to help people with their health all my life.

I mean, I my first words weren't mommy or daddy, it was doctor.

And interestingly enough, mommy and daddy weren't doctors.

You know, mommy was uh a hairdresser that went back to nursing school in the 70s, um, and dad was uh uh a migrant Russian upholsterer son who um started a furniture store.

So, you know, neither neither were really um uh in in this, but I've always wanted to do it since you know, I mean, I read a book in 1977 as a youth.

Um, maybe you've heard of it, The House of God by Dr.

Wilson Dr.

Samuel Shem that was all about you know what it was like to do internship when you go from an academic setting to an actual setting where you're saving lives and you've got blood and you've got bile and you've got urine and everything you could possibly imagine, like the best and worst of life is right all there, and you don't necessarily have any control of it, but you know, you try, you know, because it's our it's our plight to sort of try to order things um and and get things set up right.

But at any rate, so um I really really thought that book was great.

And interestingly enough, flash forward as quickly in 2018.

I had the privilege of speaking on the same stage for a patient physician uh organization in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and the keynote speaker was Dr.

Samuel Schem.

And I was just completely taken aback because here I was meeting one of my heroes, you know, um, in all of this.

He had a full career as a psychiatrist, although, you know, the book kind of made it sound like he was internal medicine or or emergency department.

Having said all of that, I had the privilege of quoting his book in my presentation, and he was impressed, and he said, you know, um, have you written anything?

And I said, Yeah, I have.

He said, Well, let me write something for your book.

So I actually sent him the text, and he sent me three glorious, glorious glowing sentences for the back of the book.

Do you have access, Peter?

Could you read that?

Uh yes, I do.

Let me just um Yeah, it's it's on the back of the book.

I'm so glad you brought that up.

Um, this is uh the comments were by Dr.

Samuel Shem.

They're uh they're the first set of of comments.

Okay, oh, here we go.

Yeah.

Um Thank you.

This is quote from Dr.

Shamel uh Samuel Shem.

Now let me just say the House of God, uh House of God in man's fourth best hospital.

That was written in Bellevue Hospital in New York City.

And uh it was around the time when I was in medical school, that was uh, you know, widely read.

It was at Bellevue was a smaller version of Parkland Memorial Hospital where I trained and incredible.

But this is what uh, and I didn't realize uh Shem was a psychiatrist.

I thought he was a medical doctor too, but interesting.

But here's his comments about your book, and we're talking about health is number one by Dr.

Craig Wax.

Dr.

Wax's fine book is sensible, cohesive, and holistic prescription for a path to good health.

His long experience seeing patients echoes through every word from scientific explanation to details of diet.

The good doctor is in.

Thank you.

What a great thing to say.

Man, this is terrific.

But let me read the other ones, Craig, since we're we're on the back card.

All right, I appreciate that.

Thank you.

So the next one is Teresa uh uh Catalina's former reporter for the Gloucester County Times in New Jersey.

So here, local uh Craig is in Craig.

You are in um uh New Jersey.

Remind me of the town again.

Yeah, it's Molica Hill, which is in uh sunny southern New Jersey, Gloucester County.

Um we're uh a suburb of uh Philadelphia, and we're about an hour inland from the Jersey Shore.

Okay, Southern New Jersey.

Is uh this is what uh Catalina says.

He's a doctor of all media.

So you're a doctor of patients, but you're a doctor of media.

So you're gonna get into later on telling us about how you got into the media.

Here's the next one.

This one's very impressive.

Joe Fallon Jr., MD, Chair of Endocrinology, professor at the Rowan School of Osteopathic Medicine.

He's also a uh uh radio show host.

Where is Rowan?

Rowan is um actually in Glassboro, New Jersey.

It's the artist formerly known as Glassboro State College, which was known for gosh, nearly a hundred years for teaching teachers.

And 25 years ago, um, or a little maybe maybe a little longer in the late 90s.

Um, there was a gentleman named Rowan, a philanthropist who invested in the school, and the school has grown by leaps and bounds.

I mean, not only did they have several undergraduate schools, colleges there, like the College of Communications, but they also have a DO school, they have an MD school, and they just opened up a veterinary school, and there's just no there's no stopping them now.

Wow.

And in what city is that again?

That's in Glassboro, which is uh one or two towns away from me.

Wow, fantastic.

Well, let's uh let's listen to what Dr.

Fallon says.

He's chair of endocrinology.

Dr.

Craig Wax is a good doctor to the bone to the bone.

He is first and foremost an individual who cares deeply for his parents.

He believes in the value of an individual and not the right of government to dictate health policy and specifically patient care.

He's a radio personality, an independent person.

And a present day Paul Revere.

Look, listen, and consider his messages.

Wow.

Here's the next one, Craig.

Well, well, thank you for that.

I I care deeply for my patients.

I did love my parents, but I care deeply for my patients.

And it shows.

It shows.

Love it.

Dr.

Jane Orient, someone who you and I know, Jane Orion trained also at UT Southwestern Parkland Hospital as I did.

She's the executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.

And I want you to tell us about how you got involved with that group a little bit later.

But what uh Dr.

Orient says is I look forward to reading Dr.

Wax's great insights.

Important to practicing physicians.

And then the last one I'll read is by Lisa Kaplan.

Now she's a lawyer.

Former director, division of JD.

Public Health.

Yeah.

Former director, Division of Quality and Public Health, Director of Private Sector Advocacy, the American Osteopathic Association, AOA.

So she's she's up there, Craig.

This is what she said.

Dr.

Wax is a terrific advocate for patients and physicians, and it's worked tirelessly to help ensure that patients get the right medical care and treatment they deserve that physicians are allowed to practice and provide the right care and treatment to them.

Wow.

With that, people interested in their health, young doctors, medical students, uh others in this space, a public health space need to get a copy of Health is number one by Dr.

Craig Wax.

Now, Craig, tell us a bit about how you conceived the book.

Sure.

Well, as I said, it was a long time in coming.

And as I as I say in the book, you know, before I was an adult, I was a child.

And, you know, um I had health issues, things like that.

I was overweight, you know, uh a typical, you know, child in the 70s, you know, and even in the early 80s that um, you know, had had the excesses.

I mean, the parents were working class people that tried really hard to provide us with everything that they didn't have, and that included penny candies.

But by this time, candies were a quarter, they weren't a penny any longer.

But um, certainly we had access to all of that.

And um it was a learning process for me because I thought that genetics were everything, you know, and we were taught, you know, in school, um, both primary school and secondary school and post-secondary school and even grad school, you know, we were taught about you know the the genetic that you're just a victim of genetics.

And I thought, well, hey, if my mother's overweight and she's a diabetic, well, that's just where I'm headed, no matter what I do.

And little did I realize it was exactly the opposite that when I championed diet, you know, vegetable-based diet with uh higher density vitamins and minerals and lower density calories, if you will, um, drinking water as the primary beverage instead of you know, we called it soda, some called it pop, you know, um, people called it different things, but but it's uh it's not only sugary, it it's toxic and it'll take the chrome off a bumper from what from what I understand, uh, you know, the famous apocryphal story, you know.

So having said all of that, I had to champion my own health in order to, you know, have social relationships and for my body and mind and you know, spirit to function all together as as a unit.

Um so besides that, too, before I was a physician, I was a patient.

And you know, just a week before I started college, uh, I was in an automobile accident, not my fault.

And both cars were total 40 miles an hour head on, if you can imagine such a thing.

You know, the talk of the town, if you will, broke two vertebrae in my neck.

And oh no.

It was, yeah, it was extremely painful and jarring, and I didn't know if I would go to college at all at that point.

You know, I I had a choice to make either go to college in like a Philadelphia collar, you know, that kind of propped you up.

It was skin colored, but you couldn't miss it that it was a collar.

You know, so having said all of that, um, it was a very challenging two years.

And in the book, I I tell the story of going from doctor to doctor between here to Philly and even in Philly, waiting months and months and months and then hours and hours and hours in an office to just to get the bad news.

Sorry, we can't help you.

You know, and and at that point, you know, I I had some physicians that were really, really, I mean, their bedside manner wasn't great, you know.

Forgive me for dissing on surgeons, but you know, perhaps they were excellent spine surgeons, but man, were were they tough?

Um, there was no velvet glove there at all.

So, you know, I found out in no uncertain terms, hey, you know, you're a smart kid, get on with your life.

And I thought, wow, who are you to tell me that I've got to live with this, you know?

Just it was uh absolutely overwhelming.

So having said all of that, I set a course for good health.

Um, I I went to a college with a walking campus, and I walk miles and miles every day.

You know, it's almost like going to an amusement park and without even trying, you walk like five to ten miles, you know, without even trying.

So there was that.

Um I made better choices at the dining hall.

Certainly, you know, I I wanted to be attractive.

I wanted to date, so obviously I had to take care of myself in that way.

Um there was all of that.

And then when I found out uh in college uh uh about you know the major, I was a biology major, and I realized that although biology was fun and I could do it and I was pretty good at it, that it wasn't really employable.

I mean, I would be in a lab streaking petri dishes for whatever the minimum wage was.

And Petri dishes, if you remember, uh Pete in microbiology don't smell quite so good.

So there you don't want to come home with that smell on you.

Craig, can I uh just uh ask a few questions?

I can't help being uh a doctor who asks these questions every day.

So uh is your mom alive today?

Um my mother and father have passed.

Um and what age did your mother pass away?

Mom passed at 67.

Um, she was a diabetic, she had coronary artery disease, and and the worst part of the whole mess for mom was she started to smoke at 16 in the schoolyard in Philadelphia.

And you know, in like the early 1950s, it was stylish, you know, the cigarette companies had bought their way onto the big screen.

Sure.

And they look pretty refined, you know.

And plus, Craig, all the doctors smoked in the 50s.

Oh, that's true.

I mean, we've seen more doctors smoke camels than uh other brands.

Right.

You know, it's the best for your T zone, whatever that is.

And and how uh how old was your dad when he passed away?

He was he was 59, actually, which is you know, the age that I'm approaching now.

And well, it's it's it's an interesting story.

Um, where, you know, he owned uh a furniture appliances, uh home furnishing store, and he would always go in first thing in the morning, and he was in the warehouse, which was kind of a two-story thing, and he had climbed up the ladder to do something on the on the second floor sort of area, moving things around.

And it's unclear if he had a stroke on the ladder or the the ladder fell and he struck his head on the ground.

I I remember that fateful day.

Um it was when we got the call.

It was a traumatic death then.

Yeah, um I believe it was.

I I believe that it was.

I I don't think there were any other issues.

I mean, certainly when there's that kind of a question, you and your siblings go get MRAs, you know, um that is to say, an MRI with imaging to make sure that there's no blood vessel problems or anything.

So fortunately there weren't in any of the of the three of us.

Yeah.

So but but at any rate, so you know, with all that, I I had to think, well, obviously I wasn't going to smoke.

I mean, despite the fact that in maybe fourth grade, I took one of my mom's cigarettes out to the garage just to see what it was all about.

Because you know, she would say, I don't want you kids smoking, but she had a cigarette in her hand when she said it.

So it was pretty pretty disingenuous.

So this is what I ask every patient.

So I always ask them about their parents, and your parents were not long-lived.

You're you're almost certainly gonna live beyond their their lifespan.

That is the plan.

We can talk about my current health in a moment.

Go ahead.

Right, right.

But I always ask patients.

So if you were my patient, I'd ask you, what was your weight at age 18?

Wow.

Um I can tell you in my early teens, two things.

One is my waist circumference was a larger number than my leg length.

Okay.

That I can tell you.

So it's probably another four to six inches around what I have now.

I have a pretty normal 32 now.

So I think it was like 36, 38.

Okay, so I wasn't quite as tall.

Craig, give me a guesstimate on weight.

Come on.

Um, yeah, it's it's hard to say because I wasn't as tall.

So it might not be as impressive.

Well, what was it?

200 pounds, 190.

Yeah, I I I don't I don't think I got past that.

I mean, uh from what I remember.

But as I said, I wasn't as tall.

So the numbers not not directly comparable because there's two variables.

You're still dodging it.

So what I put you at 180 or 190 or Yeah, I would I think I think 180 is probably fair.

And I was probably maybe maybe five feet tall at the time.

Okay.

Well, 180, and you were you were still growing.

Now, where'd you go to Craig?

My BMI had to be over 30.

Let's just say that.

So, Craig, where'd you go to college?

So I went to the artist formerly known as Cook College of Rutgers University.

Okay.

Very good.

Which was the um agricultural environmental science school.

And I'm glad you brought me back to that topic because we talked about biology that wasn't going to do anything for me.

So they had a great food science program there.

They had food science operations management and food science research.

And I said, wow, food science research, that's super, because not only would it provide me with everything that I would possibly need, all the math and science and even nutrition that I was seeking, it would also give me a backup with regard to you know getting employed if I didn't go to graduate school for whatever the reason.

And so what was your next step after uh the Cook College?

Right.

So after that, I went to the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, as I as I say in their typical accent on the North Shore of Long Island.

Oh my Lord.

Okay.

Yeah, I know.

I I came home with that poor poor accent.

Okay, but isn't it true that that's one of the older and more prestigious colleges of osteopathic medicine in the United States?

Well, no, I I appreciate that.

It wasn't one of the original six, but um I think it was I want to say it was chartered around 1976 by the Rockefellers with a Rockefeller donation because the Rockefellers were cared for by osteopathic DO physicians.

So they wanted to create a school that would provide physicians, especially primary care physicians to that area.

So that's where the school was, but even beyond where the school was, all the rotations that I did through third and fourth year were in Brooklyn and Queens.

And I have to tell you, in those urban settings, and you know if you've ever done anything in New York or Detroit, Michigan, or um certain, you know, cities in Texas, that you get a lot of inner city problems and things that you would never see and only read about in books.

That's that's uh that's so true.

So true.

Now, in the book, uh, you really introduce the audience to osteopathy.

Osteopathy and a very influential doctor, doctors still.

So can you can you explain to the audience, you know, what is osteopathy and what is the history there that influenced you so greatly?

Well, that's a great question.

In fact, um, you know, a lot of people uh say, uh, how many DOs does it take to explain what a DO is so the the question is the answer to that question is well it only takes um it it only takes one how wait hold on a second, let me get this one right here.

Um, it takes two, I'm sorry.

It doesn't take one, it takes two.

One to explain what a DO is and the other to actually practice.

So it's uh, you know, it's it's one of those things because a lot of people don't understand it.

They see DOs and they you know, they're you know, in offices with other physicians, in fact, for the last gosh, uh going on 150 years now.

So the whole concept started in 1874 with a with a physician in uh Lee County, Virginia named Andrew Taylor still.

He was a conventionally trained MD physician.

And um what he wound up doing was he thought, you know what?

I don't think like heavy metals like mercury and things like that are really good medications because they're toxic.

So there's got to be a better way to help the body help itself.

And because he was a hunter and an anatomist, and he totally understood the interactions of all the body systems and fascia, um uh fascial nerves and and blood flow and lymphatic flow, something which a lot of physicians completely overlook, um, because all of our cells are bathed in cellular fluid that's even more simple than blood.

I mean, that's where our immune system lives, and there's a lot going on there on a cellular basis at every moment, you know, and it's and it's it's as I said, it's often overlooked.

But in in any event, so he designed a whole curriculum around this, which had to do with hands-on diagnosis and treatment, and he didn't embrace like mercurials and bloodletting at the time and leeches and all of the things that conventional medicine was doing.

I mean, conventional medicine 150 years ago was pretty draconian, you know.

I mean, some of the things we do today are are are questionable, but even beyond that, it's uh it goes way back.

So having said all that, in 1850.

You know what the drug of the day was back then in allopathic medicine, uh it was cocaine.

Yeah.

So absolutely that was 1920.

That was the drug of the day, and you're right, they used mercurials.

Uh mercury uh salve was used for teething pain in babies.

Can you imagine mothers bathing their fingers in mercury and putting it in the baby's mouth?

I mean, these were extraordinary things that were done, uh uh uh like you said, uh bloodletting leeches.

Um it was it was we had just gotten past evil spirits.

We had just just were getting past evil spirits at that point, you know.

So still took it back to the body, the fundamental uh, you know, the fundamental organ systems, the the fundamental nature of the muscoskeletal system in so much of what people that's one of our biggest systems.

I mean, you know, the musculoskeletal system and the skin.

I mean, are the are the biggest systems, you know, and specialists today, you know, like well, we have a an eye specialist called an ophthalmologist and a ear nose and throat specialist, and we have a GI specialist and a GYN women's, you know, reproductive organs.

Uh and it's amazing that a lot of people get past the general education about everything into these really specific parts.

But sometimes they lose track of what they were taught or learned or make sense about the whole body communicating as a unit.

And that was one of the rules of Andrew Taylor still was that uh the body is a unit, you know, and and it communicates with other parts of the unit.

Now, again, this was before electron microscopes and even stethoscopes.

Um, so uh it it's uh it was kind of groundbreaking.

So in 1874, he he flung the banner of osteopathy to the breeze, if you will.

Um, and then in 1892, he had an opportunity to go to Missouri and start um the uh the first school of osteopathic medicine.

It was called the American School of Osteopathy at the time.

Um and I I talk a little bit about that in my book.

In fact, most of the chapters in my book begin with a quote, and most of them are influential and uh wise quotes of Dr.

Andrew Taylor still.

And that was in Kirksville, Missouri, if I recall, right?

Yep, yeah, that's correct.

In fact, he became so popular that not only did they have to build hotels to take to hold all of the patients that were coming from across the country, they actually built trains to to bring the people in to him because you know you'd but he didn't have an internet uh, you know, he didn't have telephone lines everywhere.

So people would hear about the lightning bone setter, uh as he was called, um, and people went there.

In fact, even uh a gentleman who started the um the whole profession of chiropractic, his name was D.

D.

Palmer or Daniel David Palmer.

He was a magnetic healer that was down south, and he went to the school of osteopathic medicine to uh to all recollection.

He didn't finish, and he started his own unique hands-on profession.

That's so neat.

And these quotes from Still, you're gonna love this in the book.

I hope everybody gets a copy of this chapter three.

This is a good one, Craig.

You know, the chapter three is the title of the chapter is the osteopathic approach.

And still says to find health should be the object of the doctor.

Anyone can find disease.

Right.

Right?

So this is it sounds like still really influenced you in this whole idea of Haino, health is number one.

Yeah, uh 100%, because the what my goal is as a family physician, you know, um residents.

Trained family physician is to help everybody get their health working, get to get their health on, their best possible health, and stay there.

And to use their own power, people don't realize they don't have power.

As I said, when I was a child, I thought I was destined to be uh a fat kid gone fat adult, uh, diabetic, all kinds of vascular disease.

We realize diabetes is a vascular disease, not just a sugar disease, you know.

But what control do we have over that?

Ah, we have diet, we have exercise, we have sleep, we have stress reduction, we have don't poison yourself.

And it's well, right.

I mean, think about it.

I mean, do we poison ourselves?

I mean, we're talking about sodas before, but you know, we could talk about you know, overdoing coffee, we can talk about you know, um, alcohol.

We can talk about even cannabis is legal in New Jersey and and it damages brain tissue.

And you know, Craig, uh, where did you where did you do your residency?

No, I appreciate that.

So I did my um my internship uh at the time because they were residency was a three-year gig, and the first year of it was still a transitional year or uh rote, we called it a rotating internship in the osteopathic world.

So I did uh my my first year, that is to say, my internship with what were the the Kennedy hospitals here in Southern New Jersey and um Our Lady of Lourdes at the time in Camden.

So you know, it was a major hospital.

Um they they did heart procedures there, you know, catheterizations and they even did um, you know, organ transplants there.

So it was it was quite an inner city center, and it and it needed to be because uh the city of Camden had a lot of socioeconomic issues and uh social issues and a lot of issues that really needed care.

So we were very fortunate to have it there, and it was a great place for us to learn because as I said, in the inner cities is is where a lot of medical learning takes place.

Oh, for sure.

So from the time you you went to college and you describe yourself as is being overweight and to the time that you yourself found health, how long did it take?

Well, college was sort of a transitional point for me because as I said, I did a lot of walking and I was in charge of my own diet, and I could decide what to eat at the dining hall, um, what have you.

Uh and I still had the pleasure of youth at the time, you know, where we burn more calories without even thinking about it.

Um then you you you'll you'll know.

I mean, I'm sure you know yourself that graduate school is an extremely stressful time, and a lot of us make the mistake, and the schools don't teach you this.

That we make the mistake and we kind of shut down and we we don't eat right, we don't sleep right, we stay up night studying for things.

We we don't do things that are helpful to us.

Our exercise program dies almost completely, you know, because we're taking the car to different places, and you know, we got a lab on one day, we've got a uh a test on another day, and then we've got a full schedule of classes, maybe even have a little part-time job just to try to keep the roof over your head or what.

Um it's an extremely stressful time.

And internship, as you were saying, and and residency, even that I that I did at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine Consortium of Hospitals, again, an inner city program where I truly learned a lot.

In fact, I have some great role models from that time that really put in the time, put in the effort.

And if you were a student, intern or resident, and you spoke with and showed interest in certain physicians and their fields, they would spend time with you.

And the time they would spend with you was after your 12-hour day was over.

It would be like, hey, it's nine o'clock at night.

Let's go look at some x-rays.

Well, Craig, um we're kind of moving along in the interview.

We're gonna take a break for our commercial sponsors.

We're gonna come back and I'm gonna ask you some pointed questions and position myself as your patient.

So we're listening to the McCullough Report and Focal Points Substeck.

I'm Dr.

Peter McCullough, your host.

Let's pause right here.

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Well, I challenge you to find a broader array of great voices, a deeper bench of experience or a more dedicated collection of passionate patriots than here on America Outloud.

Now is our time, my fellow Americans.

America Outloud.

And justice for all.

Let's get loud on America Out Loud Talk Radio.

This is the McCullough Report and Focal Points, Substack.

I'm interviewing America's favorite physician, Dr.

Craig Wax, and his new book, Health is Number One.

Heino, Health is number one, maximizing your health.

And this is uh a book has 19 chapters.

It goes through, it comes starts out with great quotes, and it addresses uh so much about health, also about Dr.

Wax's personal journey.

But uh, what I want to do, Craig, is I want to have the rest of the interview where I'm a patient, and I want to ask you for brief advice.

Now, you've been in Mollica Hills, New Jersey for decades now.

I want to ask you for brief advice.

Okay.

So the first question, first question I want to ask you is what's your brief advice on diet and the aspect of diet is making healthy choices.

Yeah, a hundred percent.

Um what I would say is a vegetable-based diet is clearly established as the major diet for folks.

Now, you know, there has to be some fine-tuning with that because you know, some people are vegan vegetarians and that works well for them, and other people are pescatarians like I am, where I'll eat some fish but not shellfish and primarily vegetables.

Other people are ovo, you know, uh vegetarians where they eat eggs and that.

And then some people, you know, feel strongly about reducing the carbs and they reduce the carbs.

Sometimes they increase, you know, the animal fats, you know, and cholesterol.

So they might eat free-range chicken or something, or might eat venison like deer because it has, you know, theoretically, less saturated fat.

So it's it's a bit different for everybody, if you will.

Um, my personal slant on it, the health is number one or high no uh slant is uh a vegetarian vegetable-based diet, fish but not shellfish, egg whites, but not the yolks, and every manner of vegetable, nut and seed that you that you can get your hands on, and you gotta stay hydrated.

And the primary hydration that your body wants and needs is water.

Wow.

So, Craig, let me ask you.

I mean, that sounds pretty good, but uh what would you say to uh pizza?

Uh I'm I'm a no-go on pizza, and no offense to my Italian friends.

Um I I'm a no-go on pizza, so it's sad for my Italian friends, but I'm also a no-go on bagel, so my Jewish friends don't know it's tough for them too.

Um especially the eastern European ones, right?

Right.

So let me just ask you in general about starch.

I think the word carbs is confusing because people could take an apple and call that a carb, and they could call, you know, a Dunkin' Donut would be a carb.

So let's call it start, start.

Well, there's a big difference between even an apple and apple juice, because an apple actually has some fiber to it.

It's got vitamins to it, whereas the juice is just sugar water from a natural source.

Well, there you go.

But but but let's focus on uh starch, which is sure.

I I always find that the best way to talk about so things made out of flour, rice and potatoes.

Oh, a hundred percent.

They are extra, they have a very high glycemic index.

Right.

They make your blood Blood sugars go off the wall.

But Craig, Craig, starch.

So things made out of flour.

I'll repeat this.

Flour, rice and potatoes.

That's 60% of calories in the American diet.

You can throw pasta under the bus with it.

Yeah.

So what I'm asking you is what do you say about those?

Do you say they're no go?

Just don't eat starch?

You know, I say minimize starch.

I say minimize your starches and use, I mean, there are smarter carbs you could get.

Like instead of white rice, you could use quinoa, which actually has some protein in it, and there are other ancient grains that you could use, you know, that uh I agree.

Or how about uh if you have pasta, how about having like the adamami bean pasta or red bean pasta?

Are you permissive there or are you pretty tight?

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

But you gotta watch because you know, uh let me share another thought with you.

One of the thoughts I I share in the book is I have enough willpower to say no, thank you, but I don't have enough willpower to say no more, thank you.

So once our brain chemistry gets started with something, it's like a piece of pizza.

I mean, I could eat a piece of pizza, and then I'll eat half the pie.

Oh, me know me.

I there's there's ain't no stopping this now.

We're on the move, as the song goes.

Well, isn't it isn't it true that you know there's always two brain chemistry.

Yeah, there's um healthy choices and portion control.

The portion control is the hardest on the foods that uh are the most uh you know obesogenic, like pizza, burgers and fries, chips, cookies, things like that.

And the food industry knows it.

I mean, the healthy foods tend not to overeat.

I never had a patient come in my office and say, Doc, I can't stop eating the Macintosh apples.

Well, you know, it's it's funny because I usually tell we we talk, I talk to patients a lot, and you know, my background is in nutrition and food science.

So I tell patients rather than pick a food where you can only have a little bit and forcibly stop yourself and be uncomfortable if you can even do it.

Why not pick a food like broccoli or cauliflower or or eggplant or some other plant-based food where you can have all you want?

There's no there's no moratorium on broccoli.

But but but Craig, when you can have all you want, it's broccoli, you never overeat it.

That's my point.

The healthy food, you naturally don't overeat the unhealthy food you do.

So you and I are uh cohesive on this.

Let me ask you another question.

Sure.

Smoking, vaping, smoking marijuana.

What do you say to all that?

Yeah, they're they're all no goes.

I mean, if you think about cigarette smoke, I mean, you talk about arsenic cyanide, formaldehyde, benzene, toluene, tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide.

I mean, the list goes on.

And I tell patients anything that you smoke or is a psychoactive component to it, it's a no-go.

Because, you know, as I said, there's no moderating it.

And how many brain cells do you have to lose?

Oh, and now yeah, what about the lungs?

Don't you think the lungs deserve clean, fresh air as opposed to smoke?

I mean, uh it must be uh obvious that that that's not good for the lungs.

Let me ask you something else.

Sure, absolutely.

Craig, how about alcohol?

To be honest with you, I I'm a no-go on alcohol.

I mean, and of course, yeah.

I as a young person, I experimented like everybody else, you know, high school, college, early adulthood.

Alcohol, you know, raises your blood sugar.

If if you know, if you have any any patients with diabetes, you know, their blood sugar jumps up.

It's bad for the liver, it's bad for the esophagus.

It's you know what?

There's even studies showing that alcohol can predispose to breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men.

Why in the world would you want to do that to yourself?

Yeah, and recently this the outgoing surgeon general, uh, I think he put cancer warnings on alcohol.

I'm with you.

I drank it when I was young, and if I had a tendency was to drink too much, us Irish uh head in that terrible direction.

And I haven't had a drop in 30 years now, Craig.

I think it's good for you.

Sorry, smartest decision I ever made.

Let's move on to other people.

I don't know what's Gaelic for muzzle tuff, but whatever it is, I'd I'd say it.

Craig, let me ask you something else.

The next thing, exercise.

Exercise and divide it into aerobic and strength exercise.

Uh what's your advice?

An hour a day.

No excuses, an hour a day.

Just like Ford used to say quality is job one, your job one is your health.

So I get up five o'clock every day.

I do one to two hours of something.

Let's just say Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I do an hour of muscle strength training at the gym or in the basement, or depending what the weather would be.

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, I do an hour and a half to two hours of something cardio.

Like today, I did uh lap swimming because the weather was cold and things like that.

I'll do a 20-mile bike ride.

And I, you know, I'm not out there, you're burning up, burning up the roads, but between five and seven in the morning, the sun's coming up, and there's a lot to say, and maybe you can actually point to the research for this, because I know you've got a great academic background, that seeing the first light of the day in your eyes that tickles your pineal gland and all in your brain, it it's hugely important for your health.

We're built to get up at the break of day.

We're not built to sleep in.

Wow, that's so awesome.

I get up also at five every day.

Today I got up at 4 30.

I just kind of naturally got up.

And I had a chance to interview Ron Kelly, who's the founding uh uh father of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.

And one of the things he told me, Craig, he says the human body was meant to be outside.

And then if you get outside and you do something, like you know, go run or bike or walk or something, that the human body is just better adapted for the entire day.

And what Kelly says is no matter what, you'll sleep better at night if you got outside.

Yeah, that's as close to a guarantee as you'd possibly get.

I would be interested to ask him what he thinks about grounding where you actually have to have your feet in contact with the earth.

That would be an interesting thing.

I've had patients ask me about that, and I haven't really had an answer for them.

Uh I didn't ask him that.

I I wish I would have.

Okay, so you mentioned aerobic and strength.

You mentioned an hour a day.

Um That's my job.

Before I go to my job, my job is my health.

And you know what?

If I can't be a good example for my family and my patients, and even for myself, what's my worth?

Wow, you're a terrific example.

If any of you have ever seen Dr.

Wax, I tell you what, he practices what he preaches.

Follow him on social media, because not only is he motivating us, he's working out, he's got his bicycle helmet on, but he's also showing us what he eats, which is very important.

So you'll get a picture of what Dr.

Wax is eating, and you can really, you know, understand that Dr.

Wax, Craig Wax, author of Health is number one, maximizing your health, he's the real deal.

Now I've got time just for a few more questions, Craig, but uh, but I have to ask them because this is kind of our opportunity to ask America's doctor about these important tips for life.

The next tip is the next question is sleep.

What do you recommend for optimal sleep?

So great question.

Different people need different amounts of sleep.

You know, when you're younger and you're growing, you need more.

When you're older or you're retired or what, you need less.

Having said all of that, I recommend six to eight hours of contiguous quality sleep.

And you know, some of us, you know, if we gain weight or this or that, we might get sleep apnea and literally choke while we're sleeping and can't oxygenate, can't produce our our hormones.

Uh bad things happen, as you know, and it affects the heart.

You know, sleep apnea is terrible, terrible pull on the heart.

Yeah, it raises blood pressure significantly.

In fact, you can die of sleep apnea.

Probably remember former Green Bay Pecker defensive lineman Reggie White.

He actually died of sleep apnea.

It was terrible.

He was actually formerly a Philadelphia Eagle too.

That's right.

Yeah.

I think it was an eagle before Packer.

Now, uh, Craig, what about napping?

Do you do you uh what do you think about napping during the great question?

So when we sleep, and and perhaps you've seen this, uh and and it's especially important if you have chronic pain.

If you get complete sleep cycles, whatever that is for you, you feel better, you act better, and you do better, right?

If you wake up in the middle of a sleep cycle, you feel startled and like the whole day is off.

It just doesn't feel right.

So the trick is to get to bed at the right time and to wake up when your body wants to naturally wake up.

And when you talk about napping, you have to be careful because you don't want to overnap.

Some people can take a 15 to 30 minute power nap in the middle of the day if they didn't sleep well last night or they're doing a lot of exercise and they just need to sort of recharge their battery a little bit.

Um that's a good thing, but you certainly don't want to take a two to three hour.

Wow.

And you know, it's so cultural too.

Down in Texas, Craig, we have, you know, more than half the state is Hispanic.

And many of the workers will actually take a siesta.

Yeah, if they're doing some landscaping and what have you, you'll see right around one o'clock.

They'll all literally lay down on your front lawn and take a nap.

And uh it's very cultural.

I know for me, Craig, if I take a nap during the day, I cannot get to sleep at night.

And so you know, I don't, I don't have that tiredness uh to fall to fall asleep.

Now I only it's all about natural sleep cycles.

And you know, you remember that old commercial, it's not nice to fool Mother Nature.

You know, it's so true.

Yeah.

So true.

Let me ask you a couple more questions since we're on this line.

What about your advice for stress reduction?

Someone who says they're stressed due to family, financial work, stress reduction.

The first thing when it comes to stress reduction, dealing with anxiety, dealing with depression, even adjustment disorders where they're temporary situations, but they're just not going away yet, and they're really wearing on you.

You must at baseline take care of your health.

Stay hydrated, vegetable-based diet, get sleep, make sure that when you're feeling stressed, you you change what you're doing.

You know, if you're in a stressful situation, remove yourself, take a fast walk, um, change your activity, change what you're thinking about.

You've got to interrupt that pathway.

We're learning so much about brain chemistry now with people like Dr.

Amon and others about neuroplasticity that we're actually in more control of what goes on and how things grow and work than we ever knew.

Wow.

Fantastic advice.

Last one, Craig, I have to ask.

I think it's my only vice.

Uh, you remember we're at the uh meeting, Association American Physician and Surgeons, a group that Dr.

Wax and I belong to.

Dr.

Wax has been a longtime member.

I'm a new time member, but uh, I think it's the top physician group out there.

Uh Craig, is my vice is coffee.

What do you say about coffee?

So that's a great question.

It's very controversial because you know, it's one of those things.

Some swear by it and some swear at it.

Coffee is not a simple substance.

There's there are multiple active chemicals uh uh in in coffee.

Some of them, you know, reduce body stressors, some of them increase body stressors, like the caffeine component.

The caffeine component is the is the feel component that people really notice.

You know, oh I'm I'm not human until I have my coffee in the morning.

Quite frankly, I would swap coffee for an hour's worth of cardiovascular exercise a hundred out of a hundred times.

Wow.

Wow.

Well, do you drink it yourself?

I I don't drink coffee.

I I don't do it.

It it's it's the amount of acid that's in it upsets my stomach.

Uh it I can I can taste it and I can feel it for six to twelve hours after I've had it.

The caffeine makes my heart race, you know.

I mean, you know, as a as a cyclist and as a as a middle-aged athlete, if you will, you know, because uh anybody who's into health is is athletic to some degree because athletic athletism should be the norm.

It shouldn't be sedentariness, because sedentariness, as you know, is is a is a risk for heart attack, stroke, cancer, you know, every different problem that that we've got.

But um Craig, are you saying we all should be athletes?

I'm saying that we all should practice athletism to some degree, an hour a day of some sort of exercise.

And as I was going to mention to you, Monday, Wednesday, Friday are my muscle strength training days.

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturdays are my cardio days.

And Sunday is my active rest day where I do an hour of yoga to stretch out and restore my fascia to its original movement.

And it it makes such a difference, such a difference.

And whether you've had an accident or or been injured in some way, or or you you've got a scoliosis or or something that you were born with, that it's so, so, so important to respect your spine and your tissues and all of your fluids.

And the best way to do that is with vegetables, water, sleep, exercise, and for gosh sakes, don't poison yourself.

Wow.

We're gonna have to leave it there, Craig.

I'm getting ready to go home.

My wife, my wife and I, we adhere to, we're probably 80% vegetarians.

I think uh for sure this whole week we've been vegetarian, so I imagine tonight's gonna be no different.

So I'm actually very similar to Dr.

Wax.

If you ask, uh that's the reason why we get along so well together.

We don't uh really have any any disagreements.

Um, but uh I really want to recommend Health is number one.

Uh health is number one, uh Maximizing Your Health by Dr.

Craig Wax.

Uh this is really a terrific book.

It has so many great little pearls.

What we've gone over today is pearls.

A pearl is like an important nugget of information you can hang on to.

Uh uh Craig, thank you so much.

Where can people find the book?

Oh, thank you kindly.

Um it's it's at my website, health is number one.com, all spelled in words.

Health is number n-u-m-b-e-r-o-n-e.com.

It's also on Amazon, the the published uh paperback copies.

Plus, if you're one of those people that likes to flip electrons, it's also on the Kindle mechanism.

Wow.

So he's covered it all.

If you're in New Jersey and you're lucky enough you can be a patient of Dr.

Wax, he's got the coolest practice.

Your practice uh in Mullica Hills, it's like an old house, isn't it?

It is.

It's um it's a it's an 80-year-old house that's got um some great history to it.

It's got great architecture, and we're very, very fortunate to uh to have the access we have to uh the main street and mullicahill and uh and uh and a good parking lot because a lot of downtown places don't have a parking lot.

And it makes a huge no street parking for us.

And every time I see Dr.

Wax's clinic, it reminds me when I was a kid.

I grew up in Buffalo, New York, and my mom used to take us to Dr.

Severson as a little kid, and Dr.

Severson, his practice was in his house, Craig.

So we would go there, and his wife would make us some something to drink or whatever, and we'd wait in the waiting room as little kids, and then uh, you know, one of us had a problem.

We'd go into another part of his house, which was the exam room.

I remember it uh today, you know, 60 years later, 55 years later, uh, as if it just was yesterday.

Well, we've talked to Dr.

Craig Wax, Mollica Hills, New Jersey, and his new book, Health is Number One.

Craig, thank you so much for joining us on the program.

Thank you for all that you've done for humanity with your broadcast, with your practice, and with your courage.

Thank you, Dr.

McCullough.

Thank you.

Let's get real.

Let's get loud on America Loud Talk Radio.

This is the McCullough Report.

And focal points, substack.

I'm Dr.

Peter McCullough, your host, signing off.

Thank you so much for listening and watching