Josh Axe - The Collagen Diet: A 28-Day Plan for Sustained Weight Loss, Glowing Skin, Great Gut Health, and a Younger You

T here are personal crises that stop you in your tracks, and there are others that spur you to search for answers and strive to make your lifeand the lives of othersbetter. My moms second cancer diagnosis was the latter.

Those of you who have read my books and follow my YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook videos know the story: I was in my mid-twenties and finishing up my training as a doctor when I received a tearful call from my mom. She had survived a tough bout of breast cancer when I was thirteen, and ever since her treatment, shed struggled with her health. She was fatigued, depressed, and had hypothyroidism. The vibrant, athletic woman Id known in my youth had become a shadow of her former self. In fact, her diminishmenta result of the medications shed taken to fight off breast cancerwas the reason I had decided to go into the medical field. In the years following her diagnosis, I became determined to understand the causes of ill health and find better ways to address themones that didnt leave you with long-term symptoms that undermine your ability to live a full and fulfilling life.

I was immersed in this quest when I picked up the phone and heard my moms tearful voice. She told me that her doctor had found a tumor in her lung. Her words broke my heart. Anyone who has heard a loved one utter the words I have cancer knows what a gut punch it is. It brings you to your knees. But as a health care practitioner, I was more prepared for it than I had been as a child. Id been studying functional and integrative medicine and had learned a lot since my mom had faced her first cancer diagnosis. I recognized that this crisis was a call for me to step up and help. I knew that making some super-healthy tweaks to my moms diet and lifestyle could bolster her ability to fight the disease. But I also knew that if I wanted to give my mom the kind of guidance shed need to beat this illness once and for all, I would have to learn a lot moreand quickly.

From that day on, I made it my mission to read everything I could about food and healing. I learned about the ketogenic diet and its ability to reduce the corrosive effects of high blood sugar, insulin, and inflammation, allowing the bodys innate healing mechanisms to step forward and take over. I investigated the healing properties of herbs and spices, which contain thousands of compounds that bolster the bodys ability to fight disease. Studying Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine led me to a trove of medical wisdom that is used successfully in many parts of the world but is sadly underutilized in modern American health care. And I learned about bone broth, which contains key amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) that are absent in the types of muscle-meat protein most of us consume today.

Together, my mom and I carefully crafted a diet and lifestyle that would allow her to tackle her new health challenge from every angle: physically, emotionally, and spiritually. She ate a nutrient-dense diet of whole foods rich in antioxidantsfoods like wild-caught salmon, leafy greens, mushrooms, and berriesand healing spices like turmeric. She also drank lots and lots of bone broth, which contains beneficial compounds that improved her energy, sleep, and ability to properly digest the rest of the food she was eating. After nine months on the protocol we designed, she beat cancerwithout the use of dangerous drugs or toxic radiation treatments. Today, not only is my mom cancer-free, she is truly thriving. Her chronic fatigue, her thyroid problems, and her depression are gone. Shes as healthy as she was before her first cancer diagnosis. She has, blessedly, returned to her old self.

My days and nights of intensive research paid off in a spectacular way that defied my moms doctors expectationsand they led me down promising new avenues of healing Ive continued to explore as a functional medicine doctor to this day. One of the most exciting things I stumbled on during that time was bone broth and, more important, collagen, the powerhouse protein it contains. Ive been studying this remarkable substance ever since.

Collagen is most famous for being a critical building block of healthy skin, so you may recognize it from the labels of beauty products. But its importance for health is far more than skin-deep. Collagen is the most abundant protein in the body. Its found in skin, nails, bone, cartilage, tendons, muscles, the gut lining, the disks that cushion your vertebrae, blood vessels, and the outer layer of your organs. Because its woven into so many tissues, it plays a vital role in countless aspects of your health. In fact, new research is demonstrating that collagen and the compounds it contains may help regenerate new tissue, aid in gut repair, boost your immune system, and even increase your life span.

Based on my research, I believe its the unsung hero of anti-aging medicine. It can help you

avoid the aches and pains of aging

stave off wrinkles and sagging skin

heal persistent gastrointestinal issues or food sensitivities

build your immune system, strengthening your resistance to cold and flu bugs