Free and Inspired Radio: Recent Episodes
Philip Watkins
From bloated and tired to free and inspired! An exploration into natural medicine's ability to unlock your physical and mental competency presented by naturopath Philip Watkins.
The culmination of 15 years of solving digestive and mental health issues, Free and Inspired Radio is an opportunity to take the information into your own hands and learn about how natural medicine can help you regain your personal health sovereignty.
This episode focuses on serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine and how they affect your day.
Spore-based probiotics may be the answer to your IBS symptoms where other probiotics fail. In this episode, Philip breaks down what they are, what makes them unique and how they might be able to help.
Choline sounds like chlorine; in contrast, it’s a nutrient essential for your brain, cardiovascular system and liver. If ever there was a nutrient that epitomised the “is my diet enough?” question then choline would at least be in the top two.
In this episode, we’ll get to know your sleep stages and how they relate to unrefreshed waking, poor cognition during the day and why you might find it difficult to lose weight.
In this episode, Philip focuses on two vital dietary changes and what the first supplement to discuss with your healthcare practitioner should be to help with Crohn's disease, Ulcerative Colitis and IBD.
In this episode, we’ll break down what fatty liver is, how it’s diagnosed, why you need to know about it early, the best tests to do beyond your blood exams, and finally, what the evidence says about how natural medicine can help.
This episode covers how to find the right supplements for you and your health intentions, including how to use blood and functional testing to your benefit.
Herbs and spices in your kitchen are powerhouses of health benefits that go way beyond just making your food taste good. In this episode, we'll look at some of the key benefits and some essential tips on how to get the best out of your herbs and spices.
Welcome to a new segment on Free and Inspired radio - Most Prescribed. In this segment Philip reviews some of his "most prescribed" herbs and nutrients in the clinic; starting off with saffron for mental health.
Happy 2023! With change on the minds of so many we deviate from our usual programming and look at four things that might help you better help yourself in 2023.
In this episode we look at the four ways that the bacterial environment in your digestive system causes and sustains Hashimoto's disease.
The dietary inflammatory index is a way to classify how inflammatory your diet is and may hold the key to your health.
In this episode, we look at why unstable blood sugar and insulin resistance may be the most overlooked causal and sustaining factor in your mental health journey.
Building on one of the most popular episodes of the show, we look deeper into how probiotics might be able to help, allowing you to be more intentional when picking the suitable formulas for you.
Vitamin D is classified by some as hormone because of the way it works in the body but as well as benefiting bone health in this episode, we look at how it can help your digestion, immunity and mental health.
Neuroinflammation or as I call it a "hot brain" is one of the leading causes of poor cognition, memory, focus and attention difficulties. Not to mention being implicated in depression and many other mental health conditions. In this episode we introduce it and help you work out if it's affecting you.
IBS and gut symptoms can take over your day and life quickly. In this episode, we look ay my top three steps to being to take control of your IBS.
Melatonin works well for some in sleep but what about IBS, bone strength and even weight loss?
What happens if your SIBO test comes back negative but your IBS symptoms are still present? Maybe it's hydrogen sulphide, let's explore what how this gas created by bacteria in your digestion can be help or a hinderance.
Coffee is one of the first things people want quit but is that the right move? Let's have a look at how it helps and how it doesn't help!
Most of the time, people who have H.pylori from childhood remain asymptomatic, but thirty per cent of people develop symptoms and feel unwell.
And this is what this episode is exploring. H.pylori can be one of the leading causes of active gut issues in the upper part of the digestive system.
Saying dietary protein intake is critical for longevity and quality of life seems a little dramatic. However, protein is considered the most fundamental nutrient for animals and humans.
This episode will help you assess your dietary protein intake to ensure you get enough and highlight some of the vital functions of dietary protein in the body.
This episode explores Omega-3, Fish oil, depression, and your mental health. Fish oil has applications across multiple health conditions, but our focus for this episode is depression and other mental health conditions.
I’m going to try and look at some of the mistakes made in the negative studies and introduce how fish oil can be beneficial for depression and mental health.
This episode will explore what’s referred to as the silent epidemic occurring “right under our noses”, the ideas around how the bacterial environment in your mouth causes issues, and some tips to change it.
In this episode, we look deeper into what we know about the dynamics of hunger and the desire to eat. I’ll also offer some ideas on how you might be able to influence them over time, especially via the hormones in the gut and brain connection.
Meditation can enhance attention, memory, mood and your ability to regulate your emotions.
In this episode we look at all that and more along with an invitation to a free introductory meditation course when you follow this link: https://dynamic.wakingup.com/shareOpenAccess/SC61DFF8E
In this episode, we’re looking at how one small dietary change immediately benefits your quality of life through the lens of your cognitive executive function.
N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is a nutritional compound that seems to be beneficial for everyone. Or at least that’s how the initial research presented. Let’s look into how it might help you. Especially for negative and repetitive self-talk.
So what the hell is SIBO?
Why is it important to investigate if you have irritable bowel symptoms such as bloating, diarrhoea, constipation and abdominal discomfort?
That's what this episode is all about. We'll be looking at the answers to these questions and some ideas about how people develop SIBO and the process of testing and treating it.
When it comes to questions in the clinic, probiotics and their uses are top of the list. Probiotics are one of the most frequent over the counter formulas patients are using or interested in using before attending their first consultation with me.
In this episode, we’ll look at what makes a bacteria probiotic, some evidence of its benefits, and how to choose the best ones for you.
Herbal medicine has some great scope in treating anxiety and depression. However, it does have its limitations and can also interact with other medications you’re taking. In this episode, we look at my top three herbs for mild to moderate depression and anxiety.
Your digestion and microbiome influence your hormones in a significant way. This article will explain why they may be the missing link in premenstrual symptoms, irregular cycles, and everything in between.
In this episode, we will tackle one of the most common digestive symptoms - constipation. We’ll be looking at common causes, solutions, where you can start, and your options if you have tried the most straightforward solutions.
In this episode, we’re going to break down some of the key reasons magnesium is one of the first interventions for me when patients initially visit me. We’ll look at some of the different forms, which one is best to take if you’re just getting started, and some of the primary functions of magnesium in the body.
In this episode, we’ll be looking at insomnia; what the most recent studies say about how the prevalence has changed during and post-pandemic, causes of insomnia in general and some solutions that you may or may not have considered.
In this episode, I’m here to tell you it can. Would you believe two dermatologists first spoke about the brain, gut, and skin connection in 1930?
I’ve been excited to do this episode. I feel that this relationship has been in the literature for a while; it’s only recently that the brain-digestion-skin link is helping people break free of their long-standing acne and skin issues.
For episode 23, we are asking whether there is a connection between the gut, your brain and chronic pain.
The answer is yes, and this is what we will be exploring in this episode, especially when it comes to IBS and osteoarthritis.
It wouldn’t be Easter without a special easter episode, would it? So, this week we are asking can you harness the health benefits of chocolate.
This episode will look at how chocolate, or some of its ingredients, got its reputation as being healthy and how some of the fantastic research can be misleading.
Our subject for this week is dedicated to Alcohol awareness month and asks, “Is alcohol good for me or not?”
In this episode, we will focus on how alcohol affects your digestion, brain, sleep and metabolism.
We’re going to shift gears and talk about the most common blind spots in the western diet by asking, Is fibre the missing link to improving your diet?
Nutritional research is often affected by region. This deviation is down to the fact that different areas eat different diets. But this isn’t the case with fibre. It seems almost ubiquitously low across all regions, bar a few, and this makes this episode appropriate wherever you’re listening to this.
In this episode, I’m going to introduce you to cortisol. The hormone that allows your body to deal with stress but may also slow your digestive system, metabolism and suppress your immune system at the same time.
We will look at how cortisol affects the body. We’ll also look at the best natural way to harness cortisol so it doesn’t harness you.
The answer is yes! And in this episode, we’re going to try and get up to date with how probiotics might help build your immune response and help hay fever, the common cold, not to mention some exciting research out of Hong Kong revealing how probiotics can help with COVID-19!
We have a special episode lined up for you this week as we are offering an exclusive sneak peek into the first e-book on philipwatkins.health - Can probiotics be beneficial for your brain and mental health?
Whilst we bring new episodes on the brain and the gut every week, this e-book has been created especially for those interested in improving the connection between the two and how the microbiome plays a role.
We'll introduce the brain-gut connection and the more profound components such as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and bring it all together to explain how the microbiome influences some of the more common mental health conditions such as depression.
The liver deals with digestive and immune function, vitamin storage, and detoxification.
In this episode, we are asking, “Do I need to give my liver some love?” and taking a journey into why this undervalued organ needs all the love you have.
"Everyone tells me to manage my stress as it's affecting my health. Honestly, I don't even know where to start or what managing my stress even means?!"
In this episode, I will attempt to deconstruct stress and offer better questions to build awareness of how it might affect you and what the science says about the whole thing.
The term "leaky gut," its symptoms and causes, are becoming highly ambiguous to my patients and listeners alike.
So, in this episode, I will attempt to clear up some of the confusion and look at some key points to simplify things a little more and help you perhaps prioritise your understanding along with your next steps!
In this episode, we'll be looking at why zinc, the correction of its deficiency or supplementation, can unlock your immune system along with assisting IBS and depression symptoms.
We've all been affected by histamine actions on the body at one stage in our lives, but hay fever and skin rashes aside, there are more profound effects of histamine in the digestive system and the brain that you might not be as clear. Most of my patients are surprised about how intrinsic this amine is, and this intimate relationship is exactly what we will explore in this episode.
In this episode, I’m going to introduce gluten, how it might affect you, and some of the disadvantages of a gluten-free diet.
It doesn’t take too many consultations into my practice day to have the “gluten conversation.” I don’t think I’m overstating things when I suggest that it might be the most hotly contested dietary conversation of the last decade.
Welcome to Episode 10! We've all been there. Lunch is over, the afternoon workload is looming, and the clouds in your brain are starting to form. Your brain always gets foggy around this time of day, and just as you feel it on the horizon, the bloating starts. Within a few moments, your eyelids are heavy, and you're ready for a nap. It must be 3 pm.
Episode 9 is upon us, and this week we’re going to be covering how your digestive system may be making your sense of fatigue worse.
In this episode, we’re going to be looking at how your digestive system can make you feel tired and foggy and how you can look into it a little further to help gain a better understanding of what to do about it.
In this episode, we will be looking at the next steps to take when your sleep aids stop working and you find yourself still waking up for no reason.
Now, it’s fair to say I prescribe a few things in the clinic that raise my patients’ eyebrows. No more so than when I prescribe a herbal and nutritional formula for blood sugar levels to be taken in the morning to fix a problem centred around waking up at night.
This episode will explore how taking some positive action to get your blood sugar levels can positively affect your sleep quality, especially the number of times you are waking up at night.
In episode 7, we explore a concept very close to my heart—nutrition as currency. I’ve been using this analogy with my patients for over a decade now. In this episode, we’re going to spend some time trying to introduce it to you.
After years of helping people break this question down relevant to their situation, I’ve created a framework that focuses more on a way of thinking over the long term than the more reductionist way of thinking we can get bogged down with when focusing on micro and macronutrient intakes.
Hope you enjoy the episode!
In episode 6, we ask whether your digestive system can make your anxiety worse. The answer is most likely, yes. This episode is all about helping you understand some of the different ways digestion and your brain interact to either amplify your anxiety or create it in the first place.
Solutions wise we’ll touch on include how increasing your dietary fibre can help and the role probiotics can play, explicitly suppressing the inflammation the immune system causes within the brain from digestion.
So, estimates on just how much the global anti-ageing industry is worth currently range from US$30 to over US$100 billion. Creams, serums and just about anything that can be applied or ingested most likely, it seems, has some form of anti-ageing potential. For a price, of course.
In this episode, Philip talks about another form of ageing, internal ageing. More importantly, we will look at your genes and how you can use bioactive ingredients in food to express their potential to reverse the ageing process.
The chances that IBS affects either you or someone you know, whether in the form of bloating, gas, constipation, diarrhoea, reflux or nausea, are pretty high in these modern times. Mostly, though, the mystery surrounding its solution or how it started in the first place can remain unsolved. This mystery is what we are here to explore in this episode and interestingly, it may be explained by another emerging condition, SIBO.
Probiotics, prebiotics or a combination of both? Let's take a more detailed look at some of the fundamental elements of antibiotic recovery and how you can take control. For example, probiotics can help with some acute symptoms, such as antibiotic-associated diarrhoea, especially in children. Prebiotics, in the form of dietary fibre, can help rejuvenate the diversity of the microbial environment. Combining the two may improve your natural resistance (read immunity) to opportunistic microbes moving forward as well. Enjoy the episode!
Food concerns often precede other google searches people make to solve digestive problems such as bloating, gas, or digestive discomfort. It's a common concern I see in the clinic too, patients report, "I just have no idea what foods I'm eating cause these problems."
Often, the solution can lie within addressing the function of the organs of the digestive system—those same organs breaking the food down and absorbing the nutrients that eventually interact with the body.
Welcome to the first ever episode of Free and Inspired Radio!
Are you new to natural medicine and what it has to offer? In this episode, join Philip Watkins as he deconstructs the naturopathic experience and some of the key things to consider when looking to natural medicine to solve your digestive or mental health problem.
Expect insights on herbal medicine, nutrition as a therapy and diet as a prescription, along with ideas on how long things might take to see a change and why this might be a blessing in disguise.