Biblical Medicine: An Ancient Healing Miracle? (video)

Video Transcript: Biblical Medicine: An Ancient Healing Miracle?

Dr. Josh Axe: All right. We’re going to talk a little bit about biblical medicine here. And so let’s dive in. So I love this verse. James 5:14: “Are any of you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray for them and anoint their head with oil.”

So in the bible, when you read there was actually an oil blend. Eric Zielinski talks a lot about this in his book and you can check out his website and he gets into this, but “Are any of you sick? Let them call the elders of your church. Pray for them and anoint their head with oil.” There’s a very specific oil blend. It was cinnamon. It was cassia. It was myrrh, calamus, and olive oil.

And they would just pour it over your head, but can you imagine. Have you ever used cinnamon oil? I mean these are powerful oils. They have so many benefits and so they used essential oils and prayer for healing, so again, I want to talk about biblical medicine in terms of prayer, using essential oils, and acting in faith.

Healing oils in the bible, some of my favorites: frankincense. You know frankincense has as compound in it called pinene, beta-pinene, And pinene has been shown to really support your brain and nervous system. I saw a study that really talked about if somebody is in a car accident or has a head trauma, using frankincense oil and it actually calming brain or neural inflammation. So frankincense too is used in a lot of church ceremonies. That’s why it’s called frankincense. It’s incense, okay.

So they would use it an incense so you would smell that fragrance and for years it’s been used for spiritual connectivity with God. And the reason why it would work that way is it can help clear your mind, because think about it, if you have inflammation going on anywhere in your brain in these areas, it’s going to cause you not to be able to think as clearly. Some things like brain fog. Frankincense is going to help clear some of that out.

It’s going to help reduce some of that inflammation and really helps modulate and supports the brain, which is why people noticed that clear thinking and prayer.

You ever try and pray when you’re just sick or have a migraine headache or headache and not feeling well? Its hard to do then and so people would use frankincense to actually help their body when they’re spending time with God and in church ceremonies.

Myrrh essential oil, and by the way frankincense has powerful anti-cancer benefits. Myrrh oil, what’s interesting is myrrh is probably the most bitter of all the essential oils. If you ever taste myrrh, it’s also very more thick and goopey, but myrrh, when you are looking at clinical studies actually probably has even more powerful results against cancer than frankincense, and those are probably my top two. I mean there are some other amazing ones including oregano, and some of the carvacrol and thyme oil and some of the other things there but, that being said, myrrh oil, because it is so bitter—here’s the thing to know about cancer.

Cancer likes damp. Microbes, bad microbes, like a damp environment so when I’ve talked about dampness earlier, getting more bitter herbs and foods and these things. As we’re talking specifically about cancer. Abnormal cells, viruses, bacteria, lyme, these different things, they love to thrive in a damp environment.

Myrrh is probably the most anti-dampening of all the essential oils. I just do a drop of myrrh on my thumb and frankincense, rub it on the roof of my mouth. Actually our dogs, one of our dogs had some dental issues and so we just started brushing his teeth with a little bit of myrrh. It’s amazing how great it was for his gums there as well.

Lavender oil and spike are very, very similar oils in terms of their properties of really calming the body, reducing cortisol. This is so important. This is why I’m a fan of things like lavender oil. Why I’m a fan of, I’m sure somebody will talk about it, CBD oil. We live in this sort of fight or flight state all the time. These emotions. And when you’re in a fight or flight state, here’s the thing to know. Your blood and energy leaves your body and goes somewhere. So think about it. If you’re running or fighting somebody your body says “well I need to send all the blood to the brain for—one area of your brain for alertness, and then to the extremities to either fight or fly.”

This is why you can’t run a 5k or be in the middle of a hard workout and eat a cheeseburger. Because you’ll throw it up, right? Your body is literally like, “Whoa. What are you doing? I have all my blood in the brain and extremities.” You don’t have any blood in your gut and in your liver and these organs because it has to send energy somewhere so that’s why you—your body operates on a spectrum. It’s either protecting itself or regenerating and healing. It can’t do both. So it’s either here or here.

The light from our phones. The constant updates. Like ping ping ping ping ping, it alerts your brain. Emergency emergency. All the time. We live in a crazier fight or flight state all of the time. And so I want to encourage you guys to be thoughtful about that. No. You got to get yourself out of the emergency state. It took me two hours to get here. The traffic in L.A. If you guys live here, wow. You have to do everything you can all the time to build peace.

Cinnamon oil is great for your blood glucose levels, which is really important. Insulin, balancing insulin is key to fighting cancer, especially certain types of cancer, like breast cancer. And then citrus oils are great for your lymphatic system, really supporting the liver and the lymphatics is important that you’re moving these toxins and things out of your body.

One of the last things I want to talk about here are how emotions affect our health. And I think it’s important to remember. When my mom was diagnosed with cancer, I remember thinking I’m not going to leave a stone uncovered. I’m going to do everything I can to figure out how to support my mom in healing. And what I came across was and realized too having a background in my relationship with God and knowing that it’s the most important thing about me.

What I believe in God is the most important thing about me. And knowing that the emotions affect our health, so I’m going to just say this today:

In terms of if you ask me how to heal from cancer, more than 50% of healing is emotional. This happens all the time. People will get a cancer diagnosis and they’ll think “I’m changing my diet.” And you’ll change it maybe 50%, maybe let’s say you change it 100%. Well you’re only 50% there at 100% changing your diet and having the perfect diet. So just know healing your emotions is the most important thing you can do period to fight cancer.

Check this out. How different emotions can affect your—by the way there is so many other different emotions too that can affect things or emotional blends that cause different problems, but here’s an example. The emotion of fear affects your kidneys, adrenals, and your reproductive organs. Think about how true this is. By the way our bodies tell us this. If a child has a nightmare and gets really scared at night, they can wet the bed.

Why would that cause them to wet the bed? Because the emotion of fear causes dysfunction of the bladder, the kidneys, that area of the body. But the same goes for a woman that has fear of failure or a man that has a fear of failure, but talking about women specifically. A woman has a fear of failure, fear of disappointing their parents, just they’re fearful of things in life can cause infertility, can cause PCOS, can cause all of these hormonal issues over time. Low self-esteem causes reproductive issues. And we know that inherently confidence strengthens your libido, strengthens your reproductive system. So again, we have to combat that fear. I’ll talk about how to do that in a minute.

Worry. Somebody studying for an exam. They’re worrying. They’re overthinking. They can actually give themselves an upset stomach. Worry affects your upper GI. Your stomach, your spleen, and your pancreas. So worry can actually contribute to diabetes. Worry can contribute to breast cancer.

Anger. Liver and gallbladder. And it’s not just anger. More so it’s the emotions of frustration and impatience. They back your body up. Impatience is feeling like I’m not moving forward fast enough. It’s trying to get out in front of God a lot of times, is actually what happens. But it’s like I’m trying to make things happen myself and things aren’t happening fast enough. That frustration. It all starts building up disease and dysfunction in your liver, in your gallbladder, so you can’t digest fats as well.

It starts to affect your—You know your liver is responsible for so many things hormonally? Your liver is responsible for getting rid of xeno- and phytoestrogens. Those bad estrogens we’re exposed to from plastics and Teflon pans and all these things. It’s your liver that has to deal with toxins. So looking at this, anger affects your liver and gallbladder or frustration and impatience. So if you know you’ve got that emotion, you’ve got to heal it to beat cancer.

Grief builds up in the colon and lungs, which is your immune system. I had a patient one time and her daughter moved away to college and her daughter was her best friend and two years later she developed an autoimmune disease. And we changed her diet, got about 50% better, but then it would not get any better, and we found out that she was still grieving feeling like she lost her daughter who had moved away for two years and she was living in the past thinking about her daughter and the good times they used to have. And so literally she was unable to move forward and heal and so we worked on that and her body healed. She beat autoimmune disease, not through diet. It helped, but it was because she healed her emotions.

And then anxiety. That’s your heart, small intestine, and area of your nervous system. I was talking about this with again, I’ve mentioned several times Dr. Chris Motley. We were talking about an ancient Chinese proverb that says, “Depression is living in the past. Anxiety is living in the future.” We’ve got to live in the present.

So here’s the most healing emotions. Now I don’t have a study on this, but this is me in practice and knowing it’s joy, hope, and love. And what I do every morning in order for me to stay healthy is I do what I call my “spiritual triathlon.” I spend five minutes in praise. I spend five minutes reading my bible, and I spend five minutes in prayer. But my first five minutes every morning is getting grateful to just say, “Thank you, God.” It’s putting on praise and worship music and just thanking God for the body He’s given me, thanking Him for how He’s blessed me, thanking Him for giving me an amazing family and people, and a mission that I love. So grateful.

That emotion of joy, it references in the bible in Proverbs. It talks about there’s healing and it also talks about in the presence of God, there’s fullness of joy. There’s joy. So these emotions of joyfulness, having a great outlook about your future, knowing God is for you, not against you. Love. Love is not about yourself. It’s about sacrificing yourself for others. Giving of others. Helping others fulfill their hopes and dreams.

The root cause of depression is you thinking about and meditating on your own problems all the time. Mother Teresa said this she said, “If you want to heal depression…” This isn’t her exact words but essentially she said, “If you want to heal depression, love and serve others.” I get so much more fulfillment about helping others fulfill their dreams than fulfilling my own.

So let’s talk about this. How do you beat these? I’m not here to give you a sermon. I’m just here to share with you what I’ve done and what my mom did to beat cancer. That’s all I’m sharing with you.

My mom had the emotion of fear, so she wrote down these bible verses and she tape recorded herself and she listened to them of her saying them to herself and at first I don’t know that she believed them, but by the end she did. She believed and knew. And so I’m not going to read all of these. I’ll read a few of them. Joshua 1:9: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

I don’t have a lot of time so I’m going to touch on this just really quickly. Here’s another thing that “believing who God is, is the most important thing about you.” That’s an A.W. Tozer quote. And for me, I had a really good dad growing up. I had a dad who told me he was proud of me. I had a dad who told me he loved me and so for me, I naturally grew up kind of connecting God that way.

Knowing God was for me. God loved me. God was proud of me. He wanted a relationship with me.

But I look at a lot of people that end up in really rough places in life. A lot of times they didn’t have a good relationship with their mom or dad. And so they take that, how they feel like their parents were and the bad relationships, and then they think, “God’s the same way.” And He’s not.

And so again the more you can meditate in knowing how much God loves you. Just reflecting on that. I’m telling you it’s the most healing thing you can do. So meditate. If you have fear, write down all the verses in the bible, or someone else, maybe it’s another famous person. The problem is most famous people, the stuff that they think and say is so terrible. Its like you’re listening to this Miley whatever?

You’re going to listen and follow her? Wow! Sorry I’m way too blunt probably but—

God eliminates anxiety. You’re worried about your future? Here’s what Jeremiah 29:11 says: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the lord. “Plans for welfare, and not for evil. To give you a future and a hope.” He wants to see you win and succeed, but if you’re doing it all by yourself—You’ve got to partner with him. You’ve got to rely on your Father and know that He’s for you. He’s got this.

God heals grief. “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn for they are comforted. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wound, healing their pain and comforting their sorrows.”

So knowing, you got a broken heart? God can heal anything. And you do this by just spending time with Him and time with people that are going to encourage you and love you and impress these things upon you.

God removes worry. I love just meditating on Matthew 6:25-30. So write down these bible verses, these healing bible verses and meditate on these everyday. Pinpoint what is that emotion your—excuse me, whether you have cancer or not. What is that emotion you are personally experiencing and combat it. Go at it.