Health Experts Reveal What’s REALLY Making You Sick | Roundtable

September 8, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

A striking fact from a 2023 Stanford study opens this conversation: roughly one in five Americans has at least one organ system aging faster than the rest of the body—and that single accelerated system more than doubles the risk of heart attack, stroke, or heart failure. For Dr. Josh Axe and Dr. Will Cole, co-authors of Heal Your Cells, this finding confirms what they see daily in clinical practice: most chronic disease is not primarily an organ problem but a cellular one. The real drivers, they argue, are two hormones—insulin and cortisol—and fixing them is the foundation for reversing conditions often labeled irreversible.

The Two Hormones That Run Everything

Mainstream medicine tends to look at organs: the thyroid in Hashimoto’s, the gut in colitis, the myelin sheath in multiple sclerosis. But Axe and Cole say this misses the underlying cellular dysfunction. “Really what it is is actual cellular dysfunction that’s going on here,” Cole explains. “They’re dealing with a downstream macro dysfunction, they’re not actually dealing with the root causes.”

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What you'll learn

1 (04:00) **Roundtable Introduction and The Core Premise of Cellular Medicine** - Drs. Josh Axe and Will Cole join the host to define the central problem with modern health: it’s not just about organs, but about cellular dysfunction.
2 (09:34) **When to Start: Early Cellular Aging Markers** - The conversation shifts to identifying signs of cellular aging at different life stages, from childhood to adulthood.
3 (13:20) **How to Reverse Organ Aging: Specific Protocols** - The doctors explain how to identify and treat a specific aging organ system with targeted interventions.
4 (14:36) **Cardiometabolic Markers: Beyond Standard Lab Ranges** - A deep dive into the specific blood markers that indicate real cardiometabolic health, moving past the standard lab reference ranges.
5 (19:33) **What is Insulin Resistance? A Simple Analogy** - Dr. Josh Axe breaks down insulin resistance using a memorable analogy and explains its downstream effects.
6 (24:23) **The Main Driver: Poor Sleep and Circadian Rhythm** - The panel identifies the single biggest contributor to both insulin resistance and high cortisol.
7 (33:57) **The 3 AM Wake-Up Call: Cortisol and Vagal Tone** - The panel addresses the common problem of waking up at 3 AM and provides actionable, non-medicinal solutions.

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Guests on this episode

Dr. Josh Axe Dr. Will Cole

Show Notes

Your hormones, your sleep, your stress, your diet — they may all be affecting your health at a much deeper level than you realize. Dr. Josh Axe sits down with functional medicine expert Dr. Will Cole and fitness and biohacking educator Dylan Gemelli for a no-holds-barred roundtable on what may actually be driving chronic disease, accelerated aging, hormonal dysfunction, and poor metabolic health — and why healing may need to start at the cellular level. In this episode, we learn why Dr. Axe and Dr. Cole believe cellular health could change how we approach chronic disease — and how to identify which systems in your body may be aging faster than others Uncover what’s really going on in your body with advanced biomarker testing for hormones, thyroid, and metabolism — plus a 1-hour consultation with a Senior Health Advisor! → http://mybloodwork.com Disclaimer: The bloodwork our team runs at mybloodwork.com covers a handful of the biomarkers listed in the guide above — including critical thyroid and metabolic markers — plus a 1-hour consultation with a Senior Health Advisor, but does NOT cover all 25. You will want to consult your primary or functional doctor for the entire list. Thank you to our sponsors! Sunlighten Sauna → https://get.sunlighten.com/axepodcast Manukora Manuka Honey → https://manukora.com/axe Watch The Dr. Josh Axe Show every Monday & Thursday on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@drjoshaxe?sub_confirmation=1 🎧 **Early Access!** Our listeners enjoy every episode before anyone else! Tune in below and join our exclusive group of listeners → Spotify → https://bit.ly/DrJoshAxeSpotify Apple Podcasts → https://apple.co/3JDvWcS Order our NEW BOOK, *Heal Your Cells* → healyourcellsbook.com Watch my free training on how to naturally balance your blood sugar and reverse your symptoms → http://DrAxeDiabetesClass.com Discover practical steps you can take today to start healing your thyroid naturally → http://DrAxeThyroidClass.com If you’re ready to start feeling like yourself again and balance your hormones, take my free class → http://DrAxeHormoneClass.com CONNECT WITH DR. JOSH AXE Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/drjoshaxe/ Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/DrJoshAxe/ TikTok → https://www.tiktok.com/@thedrjoshaxeshow/ X → https://x.com/drjoshaxe/ LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshaxe Website → http://thehealthinstitute.com Sign up for my newsletter → https://bit.ly/4oE9Jf3 Ask Dr. Axe → http://speakpipe.com/drjoshaxe CONNECT WITH DR. WILL COLE Website → https://drwillcole.com Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/drwillcole/ Podcast → The Art of Being Well CONNECT WITH DYLAN GEMELLI Website → https://dylangemelli.com Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/dylangemelli/ YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@DylanGemelliBiohacking Podcast → The Dylan Gemelli Podcast TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 — The Biggest Drivers of Chronic Disease 02:29 — Welcome to the Health & Longevity Roundtable 03:07 — Why Cellular Health May Be the Future of Medici