The Best Lifestyle For A Good Heart Health

 

In this episode of I Love Being Sober, Tim Westbrook sits down with Dr. Jack Wolfson, a board-certified cardiologist known as the Natural Heart Doctor, for a powerful conversation about heart health, longevity, and the lifestyle habits that truly prevent disease.

Dr. Wolfson spent years practicing conventional cardiology in one of Arizona’s largest heart groups before questioning the traditional medical model. Today, he focuses on root-cause medicine, helping people prevent and reverse heart disease through nutrition, lifestyle changes, environmental awareness, and holistic health practices.

Recorded live at Camelback Recovery Outpatient Treatment Center, this conversation explores the deep connection between mental health, stress, addiction recovery, and cardiovascular health.

Tim and Dr. Wolfson discuss why modern medicine often treats symptoms instead of causes, how chronic stress and trauma impact the heart, and what people in recovery can do to rebuild both their physical and mental health.

If you care about longevity, natural health, mental wellness, and living a sober lifestyle that supports long-term vitality, this episode will give you practical insights you can start applying immediately.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why heart disease remains the leading cause of death
• The connection between stress, mental health, and heart health
• Lifestyle habits that support longevity and disease prevention
• The role of nutrition and inflammation in cardiovascular health
• Environmental toxins and their impact on the body
• How people in addiction recovery can rebuild physical health
• Simple daily habits that support long-term wellness

About Dr. Jack Wolfson

Dr. Jack Wolfson is a board-certified cardiologist, bestselling author of The Paleo Cardiologist: The Natural Way to Heart Health, international speaker, and founder of Natural Heart Doctor. His work focuses on preventing heart disease through natural and holistic approaches that address the root causes of illness.

Learn more and assess your own heart attack risk here

About the Podcast

I Love Being Sober is a podcast hosted by Tim Westbrook, exploring addiction recovery, mental health, biohacking, and the lifestyle practices that support a fulfilling sober life.

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Watch the episode here

 

Listen to the podcast here

 

The Best Lifestyle For A Good Heart Health

A Conversation About Heart Health, Stress, Recovery, And The Lifestyle Habits That Support True Healing

Our episode of the show is a special one. We are recording live here at Camelback Recovery Outpatient Treatment Center with a live audience of people who are on the path of healing, growth, and recovery. Our guest is someone who has completely challenged the way we think about health and medicine.

Dr. Jack Wolfson is a board-certified cardiologist, best-selling author of The Paleo Cardiologist: The Natural Way to Heart Health, and founder of the Natural Heart Doctor, a practice focused on preventing and reversing heart disease naturally by addressing the root causes of illness. Dr. Jack’s story is fascinating because he did not start out practicing natural medicine.

In fact, he was a partner in one of Arizona’s largest cardiology groups, performing procedures and prescribing medications like every other cardiologist until he began asking deeper questions about what actually causes disease. That journey led him to step away from the conventional system and build a new approach centered around nutrition, lifestyle, environment, stress, and mindset, the real drivers of our heart health and longevity.

I am excited about this conversation because here at Camelback Recovery, we see every day how addiction, trauma, stress, and lifestyle choices affect not only mental health, but physical health, including the heart. We are going to talk about why modern medicine often misses the root causes of disease. We will discuss the connection between lifestyle, mental health, and heart disease, the foods and habits that create longevity, environmental toxins, and how they impact our health, and how people in recovery can build a life that supports long-term physical and emotional wellness. Dr. Jack, welcome to the show.

Thank you so much, Tim. It is great to be here. Appreciate it.

Origin Story

I am grateful to have you here. We connected a few months ago, and we saw each other at the farmers’ market. That was when we got you on the show. I am grateful to have you here. As always, we are going to save a few minutes at the end for Q&A. If something that Dr. Wolfson says resonates with you and you have a question, feel free to save that question, and you can ask it at the end, because I guarantee you, if you have that question, somebody else probably has that question as well. You were part of a large cardiology group doing what most cardiologists do. Procedures, medications, and the traditional model. What made you start questioning the system?

It is definitely very interesting. I also want to make sure that this is really poignant to a lot of you because a lot of you may not be thinking about preventing heart attacks or strokes or heart failure or atrial fibrillation as we get older. These things are impacting younger and younger folks. Hopefully, some of the advice I can give you and tips I can give you will make you better health-wise, improve your brain, and also prevent heart disease. I would like to say that I was born into the health world.

I was born into the cardiology world. My father was a cardiologist in 1970 when I was born. I was hearing cardiology stories. I am in my mother’s womb, and I am hearing my father talk about cardiology stuff. Ever since I was born, I was a kid, and I always wanted to be just like my father. I would do exactly that. I would go through four years of medical school, three years of internal medicine, and three years of cardiology.

You talk about time flying and things like that, which at the time felt like forever. Of course, the retrospective is 25 years ago. I did not finish my training until I was 31. I was in Chicago at the time and moved out to Arizona to join the biggest group in the state of Arizona, which a lot of people do. They left Chicago to come to Arizona for the reason of the weather. My career was really taking off. Everything was spectacular in my world.

I had all these job offers, and all this opportunity, and the place where I wanted to live, and everything was amazing for me. For my father, his life was not going so well. His life was getting sick. He was first diagnosed with depression and then a movement disorder that they called Parkinsonism. Eventually, at the Mayo Clinic, they would label him with something called progressive supranuclear palsy, which is a Parkinson ‘s-like illness. He had problems chewing and swallowing.

I used to say that he was like the life of the party. He was the joke teller, the storyteller, always invited people out for happy hour on Fridays, all the medical students, residents, fellows, and other doctors, on Friday afternoons. He worked hard and partied hard. That is how I grew up. I was like, “Why was this guy depressed? Why is this happening?” Eventually, we take him to the Mayo Clinic, and the Mayo Clinic has no idea why he is sick and dying. I am at an arts and crafts thing up in Scottsdale.

This is now 2004. I run into a friend of mine who says, “You’ve got to go meet this girl. She is over there walking around with her grandparents. Go say hello. Go talk to her.” I walk up to her, start talking, and she is, at the time, a 29-year-old chiropractor. She tells me all the reasons why my father is sick and dying. I am a cardiologist. Mayo Clinic, we have no idea why my father is sick and dying. Mayo says, “No reasons, no cures. He will be dead in three years.”

God introduces me to this young woman, and she tells me all the reasons why he is sick and dying. The way he eats, the way he lives, the way he thinks. She tells me, “If you do not change because you are doing the same things as your father, you are going to die also.” I am like, “I do not want to die. I want to live. I do not want that to be me.” What happened to him was a torturous, cruel death, and he would die in three years exactly like they said.

Invoking alcohol, let us say that my father was a drinker, and he was a fantastic drinker. It did not affect his job. It did not affect his family life. In fact, everything he did about alcohol made him the joke teller, the storyteller. As I said, the life of the party, everybody loved this guy. There was no abuse or anything like that. There is no negative to his alcohol use except for the fact that he is dead, and that was a contributing factor.

Now I can go through it all metabolically, biochemically, on what alcohol did to liquefy his brain, amongst other things. It was not the only factor, and there were no other illicit drugs or anything else that my father was doing. That is the story there. Ultimately, to wrap this up, when I had that epiphany moment from this young woman, whom I would quickly marry and have four children with, I would leave the biggest group in the state of Arizona and start my own company in 2012.

That gets me in front of great people like you. That was that epiphany moment and that shift. There has been a lot of scrutiny when you leave the medical matrix. If you want to use that analogy of being inside the system, when you jump from the system, there is a lot that goes along with it. A lot of people come after you. Medical boards come after you because you are doing something different.

A lot of your friends, your family members, and colleagues are against you for what you are doing. I have lost so many friends. I have said some other really outrageous things in some circles. That has led to death threats that have led to people emailing the office and calling. You really have to have a lot of thick skin in the business of stepping out, no matter what that is. For those of you who have really taken these stances and really stepped out, it is not easy, but we are doing the right thing.

I can imagine. Thanks for sharing that. You talk about your father, and he was a big drinker, and he was a good drinker, so he never got sloppy, which is what I am hearing you say, and it never affected his job. We were talking before the show. The definition of an addiction is something you do repeatedly despite negative consequences. There were negative consequences to his drinking. He was not aware of them, though. Is that what I am hearing you say?

Yes. It is a matter of how that is going to impact the health down the road. Does it impact the brain? We clearly know that people who use alcohol have more brain-based disorders. Alcohol and atrial fibrillation, a very common heart rhythm problem, are definitely there. Alcohol and cardiomyopathy or congestive heart failure are well-known. Of course, everybody knows about liver issues along with it.

It is so cool to see that the public is aware of how bad alcohol is for you. When I first got sober fifteen years ago, if you did not drink, it was like, “You do not drink, what are you, an alcoholic?” That is how it was. Today, I do not think it is like that. There are a lot of people who do not drink because it is just not good for you. There is nothing good about drinking at all.

A lot of cardiologists, in particular, have recommended alcohol over the years. Two or three glasses of red wine are allegedly heart-healthy. Some of these cardiologists I can think of that I worked with, and again, cardiologists make a lot of money. When you make a lot of money, you spend it on various things. Sometimes they would have a wine cellar in their house and a wine refrigerator. They would invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into this stuff. It really perpetuates itself.

To your point, I think that a lot of people are really waking up to the dangers of it. Of course, the costs are related to it. People talk about, “I do not have enough money to buy your book, or I do not have enough money for this, this, and this.” Yet, they found the money for alcohol, for example. I think one thing, too, is that this younger generation, the twenty-year-olds right now, is moving away from alcohol. What are they gravitating towards as it relates to something else that would be mind-altering and potentially as detrimental?

The solution. People are searching for the solution. The solution numbs you out. Whether it is alcohol or some other substance or TikTok or Facebook or Instagram or exercise or fitness or doing anything excessively to numb out so you do not have to think about the painful thing, the thing that’s triggering, the thing that causes you to feel restless, irritable, and discontent.

When I was an undergrad at the University of Illinois, I remember doing a presentation. My presentation was on why smoking marijuana is better than alcohol. I came up with a whole list of reasons. I was doing both heavily at the time. That whole rationale. The point is that it is like we are picking our poison. Of course, I think that it is okay, maybe to have one vice, but when we start stacking up all the vices, it is a problem. There are healthier vices than others.

We are picking our poison. But when we start stacking up all the vices, it is a problem. Share on X

For example, sugar. Sometimes, and this is not my area of expertise, but sometimes I look at alcohol in particular as a sugar addiction. I know this. If I go extremely no sugar, I will start thinking about the liquor cabinet that I have not touched in a while. I could just go for a shot of tequila, whiskey, or a beer. What do I want that for? I am not trying to de-stress. I am not trying to hide from anything.

I want that carb rush. For some people, it is an alcohol addiction. For some people, it is ice cream, cookies, and cupcakes. For some people, the sugar addiction is potato chips and pretzels. Invariably, someone has one. Someone rarely has all three of those. The question is, maybe if you are thinking about alcohol, what would you substitute that for?

I would say something that is a healthy, organic, chemical-free option would be the best. If I were going to break down in that moment of avoiding sugar, I would choose an organic apple or an organic sweet potato cooked in coconut oil. I do not know where I am going with this conversation, but that is where I am.

I can tell you that when I first got sober, I was, to your point, experiencing the sugar craving because I did not drink anymore. It was cake, pie, ice cream, cookies, Jolly Ranchers, whatever I could get my hands on. I gained 20 pounds when I first got sober because I needed that sugar. It took me a while, and then I was like, “Wait a second. I gained 20 pounds.” I started on my path to exercise, fitness, health, and wellness.

I mentioned this as well to someone else who works at another recovery center. We were just out for dinner, husband and wife, like a week ago, and I was talking about that. She said sometimes when she is at meetings, some of the people who are in recovery will come in with bags of candy. That is their strategy. Ultimately, I think that life is to be enjoyed and we want to enjoy it for a long time. Can we just choose better coping mechanisms?

Can we just make better choices as it relates to the quality of our food? That makes a big difference if we get the chemicals out of our lives. I do not want to overstep my lane, but I am a freedom guy, and I am a believer. I am free to say whatever I want. You are free to say whatever you want. Let us all be free here. In this effort, there is no scenario where I drink a can of Budweiser.

Is there a scenario where I would have a bottle of organic craft beer that I felt was free of pesticides and chemicals? There is that scenario. I would not consider myself totally abstinent from alcohol. I certainly feel that, because of the negative health consequences physically, what I saw happen to my father, what I know the medical literature says, I really want to be present in every moment. As we get older, these moments become fewer and fewer.

As I am around my wife and I am around my children, I want to remember every story. I want to participate like I really am there. Alcohol for me changes that. I am one of those people who, from the first sip I have, I am different. I behave differently. I think differently. I pride myself on being there and being in that moment and being in that conversation and really allowing what I hope is my full knowledge to impart on somebody else. If I am dumbed down, I am just not the same. I just choose not to do it.

Some people can just choose not to do it. There are people like me who, when I pick up one drink, it is game over. I do not know when I am going to be able to stop.

That also goes with sugar. I love this story. My wife and I found out we are pregnant with our first child, and he is now eighteen. She says, “Go to the store and get me some ice cream. Go to Whole Foods. Get me some organic Strauss’s ice cream. It is organic, so all the dairy is organic, the sugar is organic, and there are no chemicals. Vanilla ice cream that has like five ingredients. Milk, cream, vanilla, sugar, and eggs.” She says, “Go get me a strawberry. Get me a vanilla. Give me a chocolate.” I go there. I get her a pint of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.

I bring it home. We have dinner. She pulls out the ice cream. She takes a little teaspoon of the chocolate, and she eats that and a little teaspoon of the vanilla and a little teaspoon of the strawberry and puts it back in the freezer, and we go to bed. The next morning, she is in the mood for ice cream again. She is pregnant. Listen, do whatever you want. She opens up the freezer and guess what she finds? Nothing, because I ate everything. You talk about addictions, and it is like that first teaspoon that gets you going.

I understand. I would never encourage anyone at this point, and it is beautiful because our eighteen-year-old son has no interest. At eighteen, I was already drinking. My first experience drinking was when I was thirteen. My first experience getting sick and vomiting was when I was fifteen. In my family, it was almost encouraged. My dad was looking for more drinking buddies. He was so excited that here I was coming of age to hang out with him and his friends.

Medicine & The System

Let us talk about mainstream medicine struggles. Why do you think mainstream medicine truly struggles to prevent disease?

The way that the medical doctors are trained. They are trained in the paradigm of pharmaceuticals. First, we are brainwashed from day one about pharmaceuticals and why to use pharmaceuticals, why to do pharmaceutical tests, and things like that. We are never trained about the root cause of why people develop high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes, and why people get sick. We are never trained in root cause.

It is almost like in the recovery space where they said, “You do not have to do anything. Just take this pill, and now you are going to be good.” Unfortunately, the pill did not really work, but they gave you the pill because that is all they were taught. We peel back the root cause of why people have addictions and why people have heart disease.

Even the concept of addiction is a label, but it does not address the root cause. Just like coronary artery disease, strokes, cancer, fatigue, and overweight or underweight, or skin issues, gut issues, we never address the root cause. We will blame things on family history. We will blame things on your genetics. Everybody in this room has perfect genetics. Your genetics are perfect.

 

However we got here, built in the image of God, evolution, whatever version someone chooses to believe in, that is a conversation for a different time with a different person than me. However we got here, our genetics are perfect. We can run and jump and see and feel, and we can make babies. We can do some amazing stuff.

Why would we be genetically programmed for heart attacks, strokes, brain diseases, and addictions? We are not. Family history is true because we live and think as our family members did. I was following the same path as my father. If I had not gotten off that, then I would have suffered the same fate. Medical doctors were not taught that because the reality is that medical doctor education is controlled by the pharmaceutical industry.

Everything is funded by the pharmaceutical companies. All the commercials you see on television and all the ads, it sounds conspiratorial, but I would challenge you to prove otherwise. Invoking my wife in this as well, it was always about the root cause. You have to talk about the way people eat, the way people live, the way people think, and that is going to be the path to health and wellness.

Mental Health, Stress & The Heart

Let us shift to mental health, stress, and the heart. Here at Camelback Recovery, we work with people recovering from addiction, trauma, and mental health issues. How much does stress and emotional health affect the heart?

It is definitely serious. In younger folks, it tends to present as palpitations, heart-racing feelings, and sometimes chest pain. They go to the doctor, and the doctor is like, “You are fine,” or, “It is nothing serious, nothing that is going to kill you.” A lot of people feel like it is. A lot of people feel that the racing feelings, the flip-flops, and the skips are very anxiety-provoking, and the medical industry just does not really address them.

We want to number one say, “Listen. We hear what you are saying. We understand your concerns, and we agree with you. We want to help you with that. Here is the strategy to help you with that.” Identifying the root cause is key. What are the foods? What are the lifestyle things? What are the mindset issues that are interfering with that? Whether it is alcohol or other illicit drugs that will impact the heart and the heart symptoms, that is a factor.

As we get older, there is a condition called spontaneous coronary artery dissection, where, typically, a woman incurs a stressful event and her artery basically just tears open. I am not here to fear anyone. It is not that common. I am here to say that these things are preventable. Everything is preventable when you eat well, live well, and think well. The other one is called Takotsubo cardiomyopathy or broken heart syndrome. This is a 40 to 60-year-old woman.

She gets into a fight with the boss or her spouse, suffers a major heart attack, and everybody is like, “Why?” It was a stressful event that created a spasm in her artery. We all incur stress in our lives. We have to make sure we can deal with stress appropriately. We have to make sure to make ourselves as healthy as possible. When the stressor occurs, our body is better built to handle that.

For example, a person who is eating wild salmon, getting appropriate sleep, and getting outside in the sun while keeping the chemical burden low is much more likely to deal with stress better. I will also throw in a good community. Even what you built here, this community of people who are in community, they live longer than the people who do not. Social isolation is a massive risk factor for cardiac death. Big. During COVID, that was a serious problem. You have all these people now that are isolated, a lot of people who were at home by themselves for extended periods of time.

I am sure what that led to regarding abuse of substances. My point is that we all have stress. If your body is uniquely built now with eating well, living well, and thinking well versus if you are someone who is eating a lot of unhealthy foods, not sleeping, lack physical activity, and not getting outside in the sun with no community, that person is at much higher risk of having a bad thing happen from this acute stress on chronic than the person who is going to be at much lower risk because they were eating the right foods, living the right lifestyle, and thinking the right thoughts.

Be that person over here. It really is achievable. Wild salmon costs more money. You and I are over at the farmers market, and like, “We are paying so much money for organic broccoli versus conventional stuff.” We really have to just do our best to spend our money in the places where it should be spent. We live in Arizona. When I travel around, I am always talking about sunshine. Our skin is a solar panel built to collect light. Our eyeballs are solar panels built to collect sunlight and natural light.

The sun creates vitamin D. The highest levels of vitamin D lead to the lowest risk of everything. The sun also hits the skin and creates what is called nitric oxide, which opens up blood vessels and provides better blood flow. The sun helps us create melatonin. When the sun goes down, we go night, night, and we sleep, and we recover. These people like, “What do I do? I live in Chicago. I live in upstate New York. I live in Canada. I live in Minneapolis. What do I do?”

I say, “Move. Move to Arizona. It is sunny in Arizona 400 days a year.” It is sunny here at night. The sun here is free. Go outside and soak up that sun. You and I were talking about Costa Rica at the farmers’ market, too. Consider yourselves fortunate if you do live here in Arizona. Even if you are here temporarily, the ability just to be outside in that is free. Going to sleep on time is free. Going to the floor and doing push-ups, squats, and lunges is free. Meditation and yoga are free.

The mental aspects are free. The food costs more money. Of course, we can come back and say, “If you are eating better and you are living better, you spend less money on medical expenses.” While I have it fresh on my mind, and again, this is not my area of expertise, but people who eat the most amount of seafood have the lowest risk of everything. Seafood is brain food.

 

When you are eating wild salmon, sardines, anchovies, and canned mackerel, these things are not expensive. A can of sardines could be two bucks, which just goes into your brain. If you are struggling with brain-based issues, anxiety, fear, worry, and depression, one of the things that can help you is eating seafood. The omega-3 fatty acids that are only obtained from that will help your brain, and it will help you cope with whatever you are dealing with.

Even if you are still using or abusing, if you can sneak that seafood in, my company has seafood in a capsule. We have that wild salmon roe in a capsule. Even if you are like, “I hate seafood,” you can swallow this down. You’ve got to just look at the food and say thank you to the creator for giving us that and for nourishing your brain. It’s so powerful.

Have you been to the Scottsdale meat market?

No.

They have one on 32nd Street and Indian School. They have the best salmon you have ever had. They have this New Zealand salmon, and it is melt-in-your-mouth. It is the best salmon you’ve ever had. I think there is one in Scottsdale, too. If you are a salmon fan, it will be the best salmon you’ve ever had.

Everything in the world today is crazy expensive.

That is true.

You are like, “I am going to get this salmon you’re talking about, and we’re going to pay a lot for that salmon.” You are like, “Somebody had to fish that salmon, package the salmon, ship it from New Zealand to get to Arizona.” There is going to be a significant cost associated with that. How is it possible that I can get a can of sardines that comes from Spain, Portugal, or Morocco into a can, and I can get that for $2 or $3?

When you do that, you are getting so much nourishment. I am a Chicago guy. I grew up on deep-dish pizza. I grew up with alcohol. I was not this organic lifestyle guy. I did nothing right back in the day. I would like to say that “If I could change, anybody could change.” It does not have to be that expensive to live our healthiest life.

In your experience, how do chronic stress, anxiety, and burnout show up physically in the body and the cardiovascular system?

It all plays in together because we talk about eating well, living well, and thinking well. The more we do incorrectly, the more our health suffers, but the more we do correctly, they are all intertwined. When we are eating better, we think better. When we think better, we eat better. When we are getting better sleep, more sunshine, and more physical activity, that also makes us think better. It makes us eat better. It all plays in so well.

The medical community, unfortunately, pays no attention to any of it. They say, “Eat less saturated fat and exercise more.” First of all, that is not true because we do not want to eat less saturated fat. Saturated fat is in coconuts. Saturated fat is in eggs. Saturated fat is in avocados. It is everywhere. If I take a bite out of my own arm, I am eating saturated fat. My body has that, and so do animals, and it is good, and it is beneficial. It is just about how we encompass all of that together.

Every little move that you make does make a difference. Every little bit of effort matters. Another cool strategy for those who do not like seafood is to make your own salad dressing or take your favorite salad dressing and blend in anchovies. Just get a glass jar of anchovies and put it into the blender with whatever your favorite dressing is. I grew up on something called Thousand Island dressing. Has anyone ever had Thousand Island dressing?

Yes.

My father thought it was the best salad dressing ever. It is mayonnaise mixed with ketchup. That is a pretty good combination. If you drop an anchovy in there, you can hide that taste well, but you will get the nutritional benefit of it tremendously.

There are ways to do it.

No excuses. We can do this. We can do it.

Do you see connections between mental health, inflammation, and heart disease?

Most certainly. At the top of the tree, we have symptoms. The symptoms can be brain fog, anxiety, fear, worry, depression, palpitations, and high blood pressure. These are all the top of the tree. Below the ground are the roots. That is the root cause of why we have anxiety and fear. Root causes include childhood trauma, post-traumatic stress disorders, bad food, and environmental chemicals. The trunk is the metrics, the objective data of how these things below the surface are causing this.

This is where these markers of inflammation come in. One is called oxidative stress. When you cut an apple, and it turns brown, that is the oxidation process. An avocado, you cut it, and it turns brown. Back in the day, when cars were made out of metal, the car would rust. That is the oxidation process that is going on in our bodies. If we say that brain issues are all about neuroinflammation, why is our brain on fire? Why are the brains on fire, leading to these symptoms?

All inflammation, all disease, and everyone’s complaints are from two things. Too much bad stuff, not enough good stuff. It really is that simple. It is so basic. Too much bad stuff. Childhood trauma is too much bad stuff. Alcohol and drugs are too much bad stuff. Bad food is bad stuff. All of the millions of chemicals we are swimming in is too much bad stuff. Not enough good stuff. Let us flip the script.

All inflammation and diseases come from two things: too much bad stuff and not enough good stuff. Share on X

Let us get more good stuff coming in, and let us drop the bad stuff. If we have childhood trauma or ongoing trauma or post-traumatic stress, let us deal with that. That is not my bag. That is where we go to people like you, and we go to counselors and people who are professionals in how to unpack or recover from those things. That is the strategy, and it really is that simple. Get more good, less bad, and things will get better.

Speaking of less bad and more good, for someone in recovery, what are some lifestyle habits that can dramatically improve both mental health and heart health?

Eating seafood is a top-level strategy. The more time you spend outside, the better you will live. The longer you live, the more of your skin you get outside, the better. You have my prescription as a cardiologist to go outside and run around naked. You have my prescription for that. In my book here, I tell people, “Be careful coming over to our house because you’re going to see naked people walking around the backyard.” It is our family. We are not running a nudist colony.

The point is, it really goes back to how our ancestors lived at the time of Yeshua, 2,000 years ago. They are outside all day, every day. What do you think, they sit inside their stone-built hut watching TV, watching Netflix, and ordering DoorDash? They had to go outside, and they were outside all day long getting their solar panel into the sun. That is free. Go to sleep a little bit earlier. Be careful with all the artificial lights and all the tech. It is definitely killing us.

It is mentally affecting us through the images that we see. Again, all these people talk about. I am scrolling through, “These people have more followers. Why would Kim Kardashian have more followers than me? I am changing the world. Why does this woman have more followers than I?” I can get into that, and it could be upsetting to me. Ultimately, just really embrace the outdoors, embrace the food, embrace the mindset, and embrace your body.

Imagine if you were given only one cell phone for the rest of your life, you never got a new one, you have one phone for the rest of your life, how well would you take care of that phone? Your phone would be inside a safe, and it would be the most guarded safe you’ve ever had. You would probably sit right next to your safe, and you would take care of it.

How do you take care of your body? You got the one body. How do you take care of it? Try thinking about that as we dump garbage. We are all guilty of this. We dump garbage into our bodies. Mental garbage, physical garbage coming in. What does that do to us? Thankfully, the body is infinitely more resilient than the cell phone is, but it can only handle so much before it just taps out and says, “I give.”

Addiction & Lifestyle

Addiction is often about short-term relief that leads to long-term damage. Do you see parallels between addiction and the way our culture approaches food, medications, or lifestyle?

Most certainly, the way that we see food and how we are being sold the addiction. We are sold on alcohol. We are sold on cigarettes. We are sold on vaping. We are sold on the food from the time that we are born. We are sold on the simplicity. The parents are sold on simplicity. We are really doomed from the beginning. At any moment, the best time to get healthy was before you were born or when you were a young child. The second-best time is now. If we can really just take these baby steps.

The best time to get healthy was before you were born or when you were a young child. The second-best time is now. Share on X

The more off the deep end you go. We were talking beforehand, is health an addiction? What is the definition of an addiction? An addiction is something that becomes detrimental to you. Could we take health to an extreme? We know that exercise can be taken to an extreme because eventually it could lead to injury. If you are doing ultramarathons every day, then that will be an extreme. You will undoubtedly injure your body.

On that note, I did Ironman twice. The first time I did Ironman, great. I finished Ironman. The second time, I signed up for an Ironman. Ironman is a lifestyle. You run, bike, swim, sleep, work, and eat. My girlfriend at the time, when I signed up for Ironman for the second time, looked at me and said, “You did what?” That was the beginning of the end of our relationship. There are negative consequences for someone who over-exercises.

Could we be too meticulous about health? Probably. I could talk myself into a frenzy to say everything has a little bit of contamination to it. Even the best organic food in the world, even the New Zealand salmon, probably has some level of metals in there. I could look at that and say, “There is nothing safe for me, and therefore I will eat nothing and drink nothing, and then of course I will be dead very soon.”

Food & Nutrition

What are the biggest food myths you see people believing today?

I love to bag on oatmeal. As a cardiologist, when you insult oatmeal, you would think that I am talking smack about someone’s mother. You would think that I am insulting your favorite thing in the world. “How dare you say that?” The other thing is, I talk very positively about coffee. Any coffee drinkers in here?

Yes.

Coffee is heart-healthy when you drink the good stuff. Please drink the good organic glyphosate-free no mold mycotoxins stuff. It is not crazy expensive to do so. Coffee is heart-healthy. If I say something on social media, as I said, I have death threats for the things that I’ve said on social media, and it blows back against me. I look at that as always good because when I say something on social media, and it’s really outrageous, and a lot of hair comes back at me, and they say things, “That’s all good for the algorithm. That is all good for engagement, so more people see my message.”

Embrace the haters, embrace the doubters, and embrace the people coming into your life that say, “You cannot do this, or you are wrong about this.” I will tell you that you do a lot of these things, and they are right. Go with your truth. I certainly feel that based on common sense, the way that we eat is a certain way, organic, free-range, grass-fed meats, wild seafood, fresh, real food, not ultra-processed chemical food.

Embrace the haters and the doubters. Do not be afraid of those who say “You cannot do this” or “You are wrong about this.” Share on X

I understand that our ancestors went to sleep shortly after sundown. They woke up before sunrise. They watched the sunrise. They spent the day in and out of the sun. They watched the sunset. There were no chemicals back then. They were all physically active. I know that if we live that way, that is our best mental and physical strategy for optimal health, wellness, longevity, vitality, vigor, and to accomplish all your hopes and dreams.

What are some of the worst foods someone can eat?

The worst food is definitely artificial stuff, artificial sweeteners, and colors. If I have an addiction, it is sugar. My addiction is sugar. When I eat sugar, and I do, it is organic sugar. It is raw honey. Organic maple syrup would be my two favorites. If it is a processed sugar, it has to be organic. I am really trying to work on getting rid of any processed sugar and then only raw honey and organic maple syrup.

If I can do all that, then I can maintain some semblance of life that is to be enjoyed. Let us enjoy it. We do not have to get rid of the party, but the party has to change. It has to be the party with you and me now on New Zealand salmon with a bottle of Pellegrino. That is the party, and it is a fun party. It is a party we are going to remember.

I love remembering what happened. Going back to oatmeal. I am an endurance athlete. I cycle, and oatmeal is one of the things I like to eat. I do overnight oats, and I do the organic. I sometimes do them with coconut milk. Do you like that or do you not like that as a fuel for me? Is there something better?

A lot of what I say about oatmeal is admittedly to generate controversy and conversations. I want people to understand that there is no scenario where eating oatmeal for breakfast is better than eating eggs with an avocado or eggs with salmon. The nutritional value of those is infinitely better. The whole concept of carb loading, I think, is very debatable, and it is really not proven. The concept of how our ancestors ate was real food. They did not eat packaged food.

I am talking about distant ancestors. Our ancestors were sprinters. They would run towards food, or they would run away from being somebody else’s food. It was not, “Let us go run 26 miles and then let us bike 112 miles, and let us swim two and a half miles.” They were not doing that. For those who do it, that’s fine. It is fun and enjoyable. You could take that to extremes, and your body starts to fail because of it, or it impacts relationships because that is a big commitment.

I am not opposed to it, but I would also say our ancestors were active. They carried water. They made a shelter. They carried their kids around. It was more of this short burst activity. Science is really bearing that out that the best physical activity for us is going to be high-intensity interval training. Run up the mountain and slowly walk down the mountain. That is going to be best for us.

 

If someone wants to live to 90 or 100 with a strong heart, what are the non-negotiable lifestyle habits?

It is just reiterating a lot of the stuff that we said. Eat well, live well, think well. I do want to insult overnight oats again now that I thought about this, because this comes into a concept. I am extreme. I am wearing organic cotton underwear. We take the lifestyle very seriously. Number one, because I want to teach that to you and to people all around the world. I want to live it to lead it. I also do not want to die as my father did at 63. Here is where I am going with this for longevity. This is also simple. We want to get rid of plastic. Plastic is really bad. I’m not sure about the exact product of overnight oats. I believe that is a brand.

I make my own overnight oats. I usually have oats before I go exercise, before a long bike ride. Typically, I have eggs. This morning I had eggs with mushrooms and chicken.

Before I digress, too, chocolate is amazing. The darker the chocolate, the better. The added sugar and other stuff they would add to it are not good, but the chocolate component, which is cacao, is absolutely fantastic. Let me go back to when you say overnight oats. I recently saw someone advertising, a medical doctor, a pediatrician, talking about the oats that he has. He has these oats inside a plastic bag. He adds the hot water to the plastic bag.

It got me thinking, plastic is really bad. The literature on what plastic does. Just try to work towards eliminating plastic to the best of our ability. I do not want to overwhelm people here. Some of the little things I am saying, whether it is eating seafood or getting outside more often, are good. You do not have to go to the gym. You can just do push-ups, pull-ups, squats, and lunges. Every time you eat, go for a ten-minute walk outside. How about that? With as much of your skin showing as possible without getting arrested.

Rapid Fire And Personal Questions

Love it. Now is the time. We are going to open it up to questions. You had your hand up first.

Thank you so much. My father died of a heart attack when he was 62. That really resonates with me and runs in my family. I am a health nut. I am trying to reverse that with myself, just turning 50. I can relate to a lot of what you are saying. You had mentioned wild salmon capsules. How do you feel about supplements, and what would you recommend if someone relied on a lot of supplements for their health?

Thank you. I am sorry to hear about your father. What I think is so fantastic about a lot of stuff that we’re talking about is that everyone here has the ability to inspire other people. What a blessing that is, no matter what your addiction is or what your story is, whoever you are, if you become better and other people see you becoming better, how amazing is that? No one is going to listen to me talking to my kids, saying tech is bad if I am on tech.

I tell my kids, “You should not do this. You should not be eating this way.” They are never going to listen. As we grow older, we are an inspiration to the family. I am the patriarch of my family. I am the oldest male in the family. What I do and what my wife does, the kids see, and they do, and they follow. This is an ability for you. If I’m talking to a 75-year-old woman, it’s like, if you change and your kids see that and your grandkids, “Look at grandma.”

You see Grandma dancing at the wedding, that is so amazing. To answer your questions about supplements. Our mantra, this hundred-year heart method, is to eat well, live well, think well. Those are the foundational things. They are all equal. We can do advanced testing to see what your status is. We can get into evidence-based supplements. There are a lot of different supplements that are out there.

There are a lot of people in the health industry, and they talk about eating organs. They eat liver, heart, and kidney, and our ancestors ate that. If you see some of our Instagram videos, you can see our 8-year-old and 5-year-old daughters eating the bloody raw organs. They are eating it like another kid is eating M&M’s. They love it so much. Our 18 and 13-year-old boys are not quite as enthusiastic. They have been a little bit victimized by sugar as life happens.

Eating that is great, but you can also get that stuff inside of capsules. You do not even taste it. You just swallow it down. If we say that alcohol is a toxin to the heart and to the liver and to the kidneys and to the brain, maybe if you are eating those foods or swallowing those capsules, that is the concept of food as medicine. That would help to rejuvenate your organs. We have moved on as a company, Natural Heart Doctor, moving more towards food as medicine.

The wild salmon roe in a capsule, our liver, heart, and kidney are from unvaccinated New Zealand elk that are prairie grass-fed. They are free-range animals, and they are field-harvested, meaning they are out with their family and their friends, and then they are dropped by a marksman from a distance, and they are sacrificed, and they are blessed for our health benefit.

I do not write the rules. That is just God. That is just nature. These are the foods that we eat. Eating meat is mentioned over 300 times in the Bible. Even if you are vegan, as far as liver tonics, dandelion is a really good food. Garlic and onions are absolute superfoods. We talked about chocolate. We talked about coffee. Coffee is very healing for the liver. I usually recommend three to four cups of coffee before noon.

I do not recommend all-day coffee drinking, but the literature will tell us that people who have three to four cups of coffee before noon have a 31% lower risk of dying over a certain time frame compared to people who do not do that. That would be the optimal coffee strategy. The idea of caffeine all day, I think we can avoid that.

Love that. Three, four cups.

That is me. What I typically do is I usually have a couple of cups of black coffee. My father was a black coffee drinker. I became a black coffee drinker all those years in the hospital. At the nurse’s station, they had some super cheap coffee that the hospital bought them, and they had it in the styrofoam cups. That is how I grew up. Three to four cups of the good stuff, and then the first two are black, and then I will typically do a raw cream.

That raw cream has healthy fats and healthy proteins. When something like that is raw, like raw milk, raw cheese, or raw butter, it has the living bacteria that are good for our gut microbiome. Many studies show that the bacteria in our gut, when healthy, lead to healthy brains, too. That is the multiple benefits of that. I am sorry if I am coming across as overly dramatic. I am so passionate about it, and it is so exciting for me to talk about. I apologize. What was your name again?

We are at the top of the food chain, but wouldn’t it be nice if animals grew on trees? Quick question for you. Is it better to at least eat fried chicken livers versus no organs at all?

The answer is yes. Let us try to prepare it the best way possible. Chicken liver tends to be more palatable. The flavor is not quite as strong. Any way you can get it into your body would be the best way. If I were to cook it, I would probably cook it in chicken fat or some tallow, and maybe I would do an organic brown rice flour as a way to coat it if you wanted to do like a fried version. It does not have to be raw.

What is your social media?

My company is Natural Heart Doctor. If you Google my name, Jack Wolfson, you will find a lot of stuff about me. Some controversial things I have said. When it comes to animals, it is very important for us to respect them. There is no scenario where I eat an animal from a fast food restaurant or a conventional steakhouse. I am a Chicago guy with all the famous steakhouses. There is no scenario where I eat that. We only eat ethically raised animals that are sacrificed for our health benefits, and they are blessed, and they are prayed upon. We say a blessing and a prayer before every single meal, everything we consume, thanking our creator and thanking the animal.

That is a really cool way to live life. Growing up, I used to be somewhat of a hypochondriac to some extent or overthink a lot of stuff. For someone like me in recovery and not having a job right now, what they say is that what you do not know cannot kill you. I just try to use my best judgment with the foods I have available and around me, which I know is still probably a heck of a lot better than the alternative. Even if it might have some added this or added that, having the intention of eating as healthy as I possibly can with what is available or what I can afford. As you said, with the sardines, I grew up eating sardines. I am going to start buying those again.

To Tim’s point, if you want to spend a lot of money on various things, we definitely can, but there are a lot of ways that we could do it that can be very cost-effective and extremely nutrient-dense. Think about an egg. Can you imagine how it is possible that you could pay $3 for a carton of eggs? All the work and all the effort that it takes.

You got the chickens, you got to feed the chickens, house the chickens, and then you collect the eggs, and you package them, and it winds up in the store. How is that only $3 or $4? An egg should be a dollar an egg. It could be $2 an egg. The nutritional value is high. In most cases, it is not. The food aside, anybody can focus on getting outside more often. There is no cost for that.

Going to sleep an hour earlier, no cost on that. You do not have to go to the gym. You can just exercise as we said. As you said, you have a meal, and you’re saying grace over the meal. In addition to what I believe is right, it also helps us engage in what is called parasympathetic tone. We digest our food better if we are thoughtful before the meal.

If we eat slowly and chew. As a single guy back in the day, I would eat over the sink or over the garbage can. When you sit down, and you really enjoy the flavors and the taste and the conversations during meals or even by yourself. We are all guilty of standing over the sink. Let us all continue if we can all commit to moving forward. I am going to commit to this right now, too. Moving forward, I am going to commit to just trying to do better. That is all that I can do.

I appreciate you sharing.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here. I have a question. Does our body, like our heart or organs, recover from past bad habits? For example, for me, it was six years of hard drinking. Is that damage done already, or does our heart recover from that?

The answer is that recovery is definitely possible. The more you do it right, the more opportunity the body has to recover. When you cut yourself while putting up a fence, the body heals. You break a bone, and your body can heal it. If you are in a machinery accident and you lose a hand, it cannot be recovered. There are certain limits, but I do believe that the more we do it right, the more we recover.

Thanks.

Thank you.

I have two questions, actually. You had mentioned that everyone has good genetics. To clarify, when you said everyone has perfect genetics, are you saying that genetics have no effect on our health? I am a little bit confused as to what you said.

Thank you for asking. The concept of how we impact our genetics has been labeled as epigenetics, meaning above the genetics. We have this genetic blueprint, and we call that DNA. Our DNA is the architectural design. Let us take that into the architectural drawings to make a building. I would get the set of drawings to make the building.

We can either use quality materials and craftspeople who are the best, or we will get a fantastic building. We can use inferior materials and inferior tradespeople, cut corners, and the building will not be a good building. If the design was perfect, if the architectural drawing was perfect, which ours is, if we feed it what it needs, we will get the best outcomes.

That makes sense. Bouncing off of that, because you do mention organic food a lot, specifically with genes. Why do you tend to focus more on organic instead of GMOs? Is there a reason that you emphasize that if we already have the genetics that we are, and they are perfect?

We have to feed our genetics the right fuel. You cannot take a gasoline car and feed it diesel. You cannot take a diesel and feed it gas. It does not work. If we give our genes the right foods, it will get the job done. The problem with GMOs is that they are genetically modified to allow an inordinate amount of pesticides to be dumped onto the crop. Those pesticides kill pests.

We have to feed our genetics the right fuel. If we give our genes the right food, it will get the job done. Share on X

Those pesticides kill our gut microbiome. That leads to illness in us. That is why I am so adamant about eating real food that our ancestors enjoyed since the dawn of human existence. Pesticides and herbicides are less than 100 years old. Before that, humans never experienced any of it. It can be difficult. The world is against us.

Why do doctors tend to reach towards genetics and say it is genetics? It’s because that implies there is nothing you can do about it. You have this gene. You got this family history. It is your genetics. That is where the alcoholism comes from. Before alcohol, nobody was addicted to alcohol. It was in Roman times, and nobody ever had that problem. I hope that helps.

I went to the hospital with chest pain, and they diagnosed me as having an artery clogged. Now you are saying that they tell you that “You are all right, and now I am concerned.” I do not know what to do now. I am very concerned about it. They said that it is not going to happen next month or in a couple of years, but it was going to happen from a heart attack. Do you advise me to go on with the surgery? Does it really have to happen?

Without giving you direct medical advice and without knowing all the details, what I would say is that if we could use all these things in a motivational way and we make changes in how you eat, live, and think, that is going to be your best strategy to live your best life so you can accomplish all your hopes and dreams. If we take a message like mine and we go into anxiety, fear, worry, and panic, that is not my intention.

I could see how people could easily take that. I would like people to take this message as motivational. “My body can do this. I am not genetically programmed for sickness. I am genetically programmed to give my body the tools it needs for longevity. I have the 100-year heart and the 100-year body. I have it.” I know in mainstream, they do not have it. The life expectancy of an American male is 76, and that of a female is 79. That has gone up by three years since 1980.

All the pharmaceuticals, all of the surgeries, all the stents since 1980, we have gained three years of life expectancy. I do not want to die as my father did at 63. You do not want to die as your parents did at 62. We want to live a long life so we can accomplish all of our dreams and live our best life. We are not going to get there in the traditional system. It does not work. We know that. Now we’ve got to choose better. Use this as an empowering way to say, “This is all exciting news. My body has got this. I have got this.” Just give the body what it needs. Take away what it does not.

Thank you.

That is a weird question, but how do you feel about fasting? I have a couple of friends who go on 3-day fasts or 4-day fasts, and they say that it cleanses their body and cures them from diseases or cancers, and that the body heals itself.

It is interesting because you ask about fasting, and I am in a room with presumably a lot of people with addiction. Now Tim gets me thinking, “Could fasting be an addiction?” I guess it could be for sure. Let us try to be careful with this. If you do fast, try to work with a health care professional in some way. It does not have to be a doctor in person. Maybe it is an online resource where you are doing it. Get educated before doing it.

That being said, if everybody in the room said, “I am going to do a 36-hour water fast where I am going to have dinner tonight, and then I am going to do nothing tomorrow except for water all day long and then wake up the following morning and have breakfast,” that is perfectly fine. There definitely is medicinal value to fasting. There is literature about it, and it goes back to every major religion having some semblance of fasting. There were a lot of good intentions, including health-related ones. I think fasting can be beneficial. It is not necessary, but beneficial.

Great questions, guys. I appreciate that. One thing that I heard the gentleman in the back talk about is progress, not perfection. When I first got sober, I was drinking, I was using, I was staying up at all hours of the night. I was doing all these things that were not good for my health physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. It is a process. You just do what you can. As Dr. Jack said, exercise. You can start with walking, get up with the sun, and go to sleep early. These are all the things that we can do that are free. With the food and the things that cost money, just do what you can.

To get a little bit more detailed in our planning, “What if we did this, what if we all create in the future cast, how are we going to do this?” You could even say, “For the next month, I am going to work on getting outside more. For April, I am going to work on going to sleep a little bit earlier.” We plan out these baby steps. “On May 1st, I am going to do a 36-hour water fast. Maybe some of that planning would be helpful. I am going to flip the script and say the best time to get healthy is now. The more changes we make and the sooner we make them, the better. Every little bit makes a difference.

It is like, “If I stop drinking, then I want to eat healthy, and if I eat healthy, I want to exercise. If I exercise, I want to eat healthily. Now I want to go to sleep earlier because I am eating healthy, I am exercising, and I am exhausted, so I want to go to sleep.” All these things feed off of each other. You just start with one thing. Start by taking a walk after you eat. Start with exercising. Start with whatever it is and make that commitment, and then you will see things start to get better. Is there anything I missed? Anything I should have asked you that I did not ask you?

I do not think so. I think I gave enough of my philosophy quickly. I appreciate you having me here, and I so enjoyed it. I enjoyed speaking with all of you and your young, attentive minds.

Closing Words

Where is your book again?

Tell us about your book. Where can people find you?

The book is available for free. We have people pay for shipping. If you are out in Arizona and you want to stop by our office on Scottsdale Road and Lincoln, you can always walk in and say, “Wolfson promised me a free book.” It tells a lot of my story in there, with what happened to my father and meeting my wife. A lot of this information is available on my website, NaturalHeartDoctor.com.

I am all over social media saying outrageous stuff, so you can pay attention to that as well. We hear so many messages from the side that is geared towards keeping us addicted, and the side that is geared towards keeping us sick. I fight every day to help people be healthy, as do you, Tim. That is what you and your team are doing here, just working to fight against what is working to keep you sick. Hopefully, the good side will prevail.

Thank you so much for being here.

 

Important Links

• Dr. Jack Wolfson on LinkedIn
• The Paleo Cardiologist: The Natural Way to Heart Health
• Natural Heart Doctor

 

About Dr. Jack Wolfson

Dr. Jack Wolfson is a board-certified cardiologist, bestselling author, and founder of Natural Heart Doctor, a holistic cardiology practice focused on preventing and reversing heart disease through natural and lifestyle-based approaches.

After spending nearly a decade practicing conventional cardiology in one of Arizona’s largest cardiology groups, Dr. Wolfson began questioning why modern medicine was focused primarily on medications and procedures rather than addressing the root causes of cardiovascular disease. This realization led him to transition away from the traditional medical model and create a practice centered on nutrition, lifestyle medicine, environmental health, and preventative care.

Known as “The Natural Heart Doctor,” Dr. Wolfson helps patients improve heart health through evidence-based strategies that emphasize whole-food nutrition, toxin reduction, stress management, sleep, movement, and healthy lifestyle habits.

Dr. Wolfson is the bestselling author of The Paleo Cardiologist: The Natural Way to Heart Health and a sought-after international speaker on topics including heart disease prevention, longevity, holistic cardiology, and natural health. His work has been featured in major media outlets including CNN, NBC, Fox News, The New York Times, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal.

Together with his wife, Dr. Heather Wolfson, he has built a global following by advocating for a proactive approach to health that empowers individuals to take control of their well-being through natural and sustainable lifestyle choices.