Ask Dr. Emily: Recent Episodes
Dr. Emily Franklin
I’m Dr. Emily, and I’m a holistic doctor with 25 years of experience treating patients using diet, lifestyle, herbs and supplements. My specialty is guiding people in reversing and preventing chronic disease, and vastly improving health and quality of life, along the way. I’m here to help you make positive, powerful, and lasting changes to your self care, so that you can and DO achieve vibrant good health, naturally, and affordably.
Did you set new goals for yourself at the start of this new year?
How's it going with reaching them so far?
I have a new tool I want to share with you, to help you achieve more success, more easily, with your efforts to make positive changes in your life!
https://dremilyfranklin.com/how-to-change
The year in review continues! Last week, I shared the top 5 most viewed posts of 2022. Today, we look back at the favorite recipes of the last year.
https://dremilyfranklin.com/top-10-recipes-2022/
Today, we’re having a look back at 2022, and my top 5 most popular posts of the past year!
https://dremilyfranklin.com/top-5-posts-2022/
Happy new year!
I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season, however and whatever you celebrate! ✨
To me, the very best part of this season is the solstice, when the daylight hours start getting longer once again. Hallelujah!
Can’t happen fast enough, IMO. Winter has officially barely begun and I’m ready for it to be over already. LOL. 🤣 How about you?
In the spirit of holiday celebrations, I wanted to share some good news with you!
https://dremilyfranklin.com/happy-announcements/
Do you like eggnog? I sure do! It is creamy, rich, and satisfying, and loaded with delicious spices that warm you up from the inside during cold weather. To me, eggnog is the classic holiday drink.
We typically think of eggnog as a very naughty holiday indulgence, being full of calories, especially fat, sugar and alcohol. But, perhaps surprisingly, eggnog can actually be quite good for you, when made low carb and with quality Paleo ingredients, such as my eggnog recipe.
https://dremilyfranklin.com/low-carb-paleo-eggnog
As part of my ongoing discussion about how to get through the holidays without doing undue damage to your health, let’s talk about wine!
Because drinking wine can be a festive and enjoyable part of the holiday season (if you have a healthy relationship with alcohol), and it can also have many health benefits (especially red wine), when consumed in moderation.
https://dremilyfranklin.com/wine-good-bad-ugly/
Hiya peeps! Today we’re going to talk about chocolate!
Are you a chocolate lover?
For many people, chocolate is one of life’s great pleasures.
And, happily, when you choose good quality dark chocolate, it also has many health benefits, so you can enjoy your chocolate treat without guilt.
That's what we're going to talk about today.
https://dremilyfranklin.com/health-benefits-dark-chocolate/
A message of gratitude to you, my listeners, and heartfelt wishes for a happy, healthy Thanksgiving!
What are you thankful for?
https://dremilyfranklin.com/happy-thanksgiving/
A message of gratitude to you, my listeners, and heartfelt wishes for a happy, healthy Thanksgiving!
What are you thankful for?
https://dremilyfranklin.com/happy-thanksgiving/
The weeks before and during the holiday season is a time when sweet and carby treats are everywhere. Do any of the following sound like you:
- Does seeing sweets spur cravings for you?
- Do you have a hard time avoiding eating carby treats, especially this time of year?
- Does indulging in these treats throw you off track – for days, weeks or even months – from your healthy eating efforts?
If any of these describes you, then stay tuned, because today we are going to talk about:
- how to avoid overeating sweet and carby treats even when they’re all around you
- how to quiet carb cravings that are starting to get the better of you, and
- how to get back on track when you’ve gone off-roading in carb-land
so you can get through the holiday season with your health (and waistline) intact!
https://dremilyfranklin.com/sugar-is-everywhere/
The weeks before and during the holiday season is a time when sweet and carby treats are everywhere. Do any of the following sound like you:
- Does seeing sweets spur cravings for you?
- Do you have a hard time avoiding eating carby treats, especially this time of year?
- Does indulging in these treats throw you off track – for days, weeks or even months – from your healthy eating efforts?
If any of these describes you, then stay tuned, because today we are going to talk about:
- how to avoid overeating sweet and carby treats even when they’re all around you
- how to quiet carb cravings that are starting to get the better of you, and
- how to get back on track when you’ve gone off-roading in carb-land
so you can get through the holiday season with your health (and waistline) intact!
https://dremilyfranklin.com/sugar-is-everywhere/
Are you struggling with prediabetes or diabetes? Have you tried all sorts of things - lowering your carbs, doing intermittent fasting, taking supplements – and still can’t get your blood sugar to drop down to or stay in the optimal range? Or, do you have a family history of diabetes and want to do everything you can to minimize your risk of developing diabetes?
Then stick around, because today, we’re going to talk about how environmental toxins and diabetes.
Toxins are often the root cause and the key for effectively reversing diabetes. And today we’re going to talk about the magnitude of our modern toxin burden, how environmental toxins can cause and worsen diabetes, and what you can start to do right away to reduce your body’s toxin burden to help prevent and reverse diabetes.
https://dremilyfranklin.com/reversing-diabetes-naturally-part-4-toxins/
This is Part 3 of a 4-part series on Reversing Diabetes Naturally. Here's a quick summary of the contents of this series:
- Part 1 – It Starts With Food
- Part 2 – Digestion and Diabetes
- Part 3 – Improving Immunity
- Part 4 – Taking Care of Toxins
Today, we’re going to talk about immune function and diabetes, and how immune challenges can cause and worsen blood sugar regulation problems and lead to diabetes, and how improving your immune system can help prevent and reverse diabetes.
https://dremilyfranklin.com/reversing-diabetes-naturally-part-3-improving-immunity/
This is Part 2 of a 4-part series on Reversing Diabetes Naturally. Here's a quick summary of the contents of this series:
- Part 1 – It Starts With Food
- Part 2 – Digestion and Diabetes
- Part 3 – Improving Immunity
- Part 4 – Taking Care of Toxins
Today, we’re going to talk about digestion and diabetes, and how digestive issues can cause and worsen blood sugar regulation problems and lead to diabetes, and how fixing your digestion can help prevent and reverse diabetes.
https://dremilyfranklin.com/reversing-diabetes-naturally-part-2-digestion/
Are you - or someone you love - struggling with Type 2 Diabetes or Prediabetes?
Then you’re going to want to stay tuned through this 4-part series on Reversing Diabetes Naturally – I’ve got lots of great info, tips and tricks coming your way, including:
Part 1 – It Starts With Food
Part 2 – Digestion and Diabetes
Part 3 – Improving Immunity
Part 4 – Taking Care of Toxins
Today, in Part 1, we’re going to talk about food, and how to use food to reverse – and prevent – diabetes. Let's get started!
https://dremilyfranklin.com/reversing-diabetes-naturally-part-1-food/
"What do YOU eat?"
I get this question a lot. And it makes sense that people would want to know those details (beyond our natural human curiosity about what other humans are really up to in their lives! 😜)
As a holistic doctor with a primary focus on guiding people through changing their diets - often drastically - when I provide concrete examples of specific foods and meals (like what I eat), this is like giving you street signs for your road map. This is especially useful when you're struggling, asking how in the world am I going to get from here (the way you are eating now) to there (the way I'm recommending you eat)?
So today I’m going to share with you the answer to that question, what do you eat, to provide you with some more of those street signs as you make your way along my Roadmap to Optimal Health.
https://dremilyfranklin.com/what-does-dr-emily-eat/
Eating healthy is one of the most powerful actions you can take to upgrade your overall health and quality of life, boosting your mood, your energy, and improving how well you age.
But what if you aren't fully absorbing all the nutrients that you are so diligently consuming with all your carefully chosen healthy foods?
Today we’re going to talk about 5 easy ways to boost your absorption of nutrients to help you optimize your health.
https://dremilyfranklin.com/5-ways-boost-nutrition/
Chronic inflammation is one of the main problems behind most health issues – it causes pain, stiffness, swelling, and slows healing. It gets in the way of proper circulation, which leads to our cells, tissues and organs not getting all the nutrients that they need in order to function optimally, hinders their ability to clear waste products properly. And all this leads to and exacerbates disease.
One of the quickest and most effective ways to begin to reduce the inflammatory nature of your diet, reduce systemic inflammation, and improve your overall health, is by improving the Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio of your food intake.
And that’s what we’re going to talk about today!
https://dremilyfranklin.com/optimize-your-omega-6-omega-3-ratio-for-better-health/
In this final post in my series on bloodwork – on the basic and advanced markers to test and what you can learn from your bloodwork - we're going to look at another of my favorite bloodwork analysis tools, Bloodsmart.
Like the Functional Blood Chemistry Analysis (FBCA) that I talked about last week, Bloodsmart gives us a lot of really valuable information from a fairly basic and inexpensive set of bloodwork.
With the Bloodsmart analysis, we can forecast infections and inflammation, xenobiotic and heavy metal toxicity, hormone imbalances, and metabolic health - all without directly testing these. So we can learn a lot - while saving time and money - to guide decision making about treatment priorities and methods.
And that’s what we’re going to talk about today!
https://dremilyfranklin.com/get-smart-with-bloodsmart/
When you have bloodwork done and you get your results back, what do your results tell you about the true state of your health? Usually, not much, right?
But your bloodwork - even a basic set of bloodwork markers - actually has a LOT to tell us about the state of your health, especially when we use bloodwork analysis software like the Functional Blood Chemistry Analysis.
And that’s what we’re going to talk about today!
https://dremilyfranklin.com/understanding-your-bloodwork/
Regular blood testing is one of the most important steps you can take to help prevent and reverse diseases of all sorts! With certain blood test results in hand, you can catch critical changes in your body long before they manifest as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and much more, and be inspired to turn things around. Having the proper blood tests can empower you to make changes that could add decades of healthspan to your life.
In my last episode, Essential Blood Tests to Get Regularly, I went over all the basic bloodwork you should do at least annually, and preferably more often than that.
Today, we'll look at several more advanced blood test markers that you can check occasionally, or when indicated by the bloodwork analysis report(s) you can get from me – to do a deeper dive into what’s going on in your body and discover more in-depth details about what needs attention and why. That way, you’ll have an even better idea of what you need to do to achieve and maintain optimal health!
https://dremilyfranklin.com/advanced-bloodmarkers-to-test/
Hi peeps! Oh boy, do we have a big fat juicy podcast today!
So first, I want to ask you - do you want to improve your health, naturally? Of course you do! Right?
Well, to do that effectively and efficiently, you need a good understanding of what’s going on inside your body.
And we can use a set of simple, common, and relatively inexpensive blood tests to determine your specific needs, deficiencies, challenges and imbalances, in order to guide you as you work on improving your health.
Which blood tests are essential for you to do regularly, to assess your health and then track your changes as you work on making improvements? That’s what we’re going to talk about today!
https://dremilyfranklin.com/essential-blood-tests-to-get-regularly/
This is Part 3 of a 3-part series on early indicators of Insulin Resistance, which is typically a precursor to and indicator of the likelihood of developing prediabetes and type 2 diabetes.
In Part 1, which was podcast episode 29, we reviewed the many physical, mental and emotional signs and symptoms for you to be on the lookout for, that can indicate that you are on a diabetes trajectory.
In Part 2, podcast episode 30, I talked about several common blood test markers that you can track to keep an eye on your insulin resistance and blood sugar regulation status.
Now, in Part 3, I’m going to share with you 3 DIY calculators that you can plug your own numbers into, to get an even better idea of where you are on the Insulin Resistance path.
https://dremilyfranklin.com/insulin-resistance-diy-calculators/
Do you like to have concrete ways to measure and track your health status and progress?
Would you like to be able to measure and track one of the most important health markers there is, using basic bloodwork?
Then stay tuned!
Last week, we talked about early warning signs – the many physical, mental and emotional symptoms – to watch out for, that indicate that you are likely heading towards insulin resistance (and thus prediabetes and type 2 diabetes).
Today, we’re going to look at several blood markers that can also give you that early warning – in a concrete, measurable way – so you know you need to work on reversing it!
https://dremilyfranklin.com/early-signs-ir-diabetes-blood-markers-to-watch/
Are you the type of person who likes to be proactive about your health?
Are you pretty healthy and want to keep it that way?
Then this episode is perfect for you!
Last time, in What IS Diabetes?, we talked about diabetes risk factors, and how to test yourself to see if you already have prediabetes or type 2 diabetes (50% of U.S. adults do), so you can know if these conditions have already begun to develop in you (and you can start working on reversing them!)
Today, we’re going to look at even earlier warning signs that you can be on the lookout for, so if you don’t yet have prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, you can keep it that way! We’ll talk about the many physical, mental and emotional symptoms that signal that you’re starting to have blood-sugar-regulation troubles and insulin resistance, and are heading towards prediabetes and type 2 diabetes.
https://dremilyfranklin.com/early-symptoms-insulin-resistance-diabetes/
Have you - or someone you care about - been diagnosed with Prediabetes or Type 2 Diabetes, and you want to learn more about these conditions?
Or, do you have Diabetes in your family (or have other risk factors) and are concerned about getting it yourself?
In that case, you might be curious to know:
- What are the risk factors to watch out for, that make you more likely to develop Prediabetes or Type 2 Diabetes?
- And what is happening in your body when Type 2 Diabetes or Prediabetes develops?
That’s what we’re going to talk about today!
So you’ve heard my episodes or read my blog posts What Is CleanKeto, and Is CleanKeto For YOU, and you’ve decided that, yes indeed, CleanKeto is for you. Awesome!
(If you haven't checked those out yet, please do so before deciding to proceed with CleanKeto...)
Whether you’re wanting to do CleanKeto for a few days for a quick cleanse and reset, for a few weeks to give your health and vitality a boost, or for a few months – or even for life – to experience all the anti-aging, disease-reversing, life-changing powers of CleanKeto, this CleanKeto Success Guide is your next step.
And that’s what we’re going to talk about today!
For full transcript, visit: https://dremilyfranklin.com/cleanketo-success-guide/
With easy to use, inexpensive Urinalysis Reagent Strips (~15¢ per strip here), you can quickly test your pee at home and obtain some interesting and useful information!
Today we’re going to talk about which strips to get, how to use them, what your results mean, and what to do about them.
View the full transcript here.
If you’ve read my article What Is CleanKeto, you might be wondering if this anti-aging, health-enhancing way of eating could be right for you.
That’s what we’re going to talk about today: who is likely to benefit from CleanKeto, and who shouldn’t do it.
View full transcript on my website.
Have you heard the term Clean Keto, but aren’t sure what it means?
That’s understandable! Because it’s an often used term, but has no common or “official” definition.
Well, my version – which I differentiate from the generic term “clean keto” by calling it “CleanKeto” (one word) – has a very specific definition and set of characteristics that, when followed, have tremendous and often astonishing healing powers.
View full transcript on my website.
For the past fifty years, the medical establishment and the U.S. government have preached the same basic dietary rules: eat lots of carbs, restrict fats and overall calories, and exercise more.
But rather than our population getting healthier from following these recommendations, the rates of diet-related diseases – including obesity, diabetes, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, and dementia – have continued to climb, and are projected to continue doing so into the future.
So what’s wrong with this prescription, and what should we be doing instead?
View full transcript on my website.
When you’re working on optimizing your diet and your health, superfoods are a great place to focus, to get the biggest bang per bite.
Superfoods are those foods that offer exceptional health benefits, beyond what you might expect based just on their nutritional profile.
View full transcript on my website.
Beyond being a super tasty and beautiful addition to your plate, beets are a nutritional powerhouse that have tremendous healing powers – some might really surprise you!
View full transcript on my website.
Vegetarianism is often adopted for ecological, moral/ethical, and/or health reasons. But does it achieve what we wish it to?
If everyone became vegetarian, worldwide, would that actually be better for the environment, minimize harm to animal life, and improve human health?
That’s what we’re going to explore today.
View full transcript on my website.
As a follow-up to my article, Is Grassfed Meat Good For The Environment, I wanted to share some exciting new science on this topic!
View full transcript on my website.
There are many items that we know to avoid in our diets. For example, you probably already know that trans fats are bad for your health. But there are many other items that are touted as healthy, that really aren’t. And part of the problem is that there’s so much conflicting advice out there that it’s difficult sometimes to know what’s right, and how to make the best choices for achieving optimal health.
So let’s take a closer look at what vegetable oils are, why you should avoid processed vegetable oils, and which oils are the perfect fit for optimizing your health.
View full transcript on my website.
In the food pyramid and other standardized forms of dietary recommendations such as MyPlate, grains have made up the foundation of the recommended diet for a few decades now, encouraging people to eat 6-11 servings of “healthy whole grains” every day.
However, in contrast to the reported health benefits of grains, they are actually quite detrimental to your overall health and well-being. Rather than supporting the efforts you’re making to heal your body, grains can actually prevent you from healing, and do a considerable amount of harm to your body and overall health.
Let’s take a closer look at what grains are, why they’re so damaging to your health, and how you can begin making the necessary adjustments to your diet to achieve more optimal health and a better quality of life.
View full transcript on my website.
If you read my posts on the health benefits and the environmental benefits of pastured meats, then – if you weren’t already – hopefully now you’re planning to source more of your proteins from pasture-raised animals. Fortunately, finding high-quality grass-fed meats is getting easier, with more and more options popping up all the time. What follows is a list of my top picks!
View full transcript on my website.
Environmental health has been at the forefront of the public consciousness in recent years. The disastrous and increasingly negative consequences of global warming and the continued impact that we’re having on our planet have made climate change a cause that many are rallying behind, with good reason.
I discussed the health benefits of grass-fed meat over grain-fed meat in last week’s blog post; now let’s evaluate the claims being made about grass-fed meat’s benefits for the environment.
View full transcript on my website.
With all the recent and growing hype about grass-fed meats, do you sometimes wonder:
Is pastured meat really better for you?
Particularly when the meats from pastured animals are more expensive than “regular” supermarket meats, this is an important question to consider.
Is it worth the extra cost? What really are the differences between them?
That’s what we’re going to talk about today!
View full transcript on my website.
Have you been diagnosed with elevated or Stage 1 or 2 high blood pressure (aka hypertension), and your MD wants to put you on side-effect-ridden prescription medications (that often aren't very effective)? If so, and if you – very sensibly – don’t want to go that route, what natural options do you have?
Happily, many!
View full transcript on my website.
Do you have high blood pressure and want to learn more about natural ways to address it? Then you’ve come to the right place!
You happily have several great natural options for hypertension, without any of the side effects of prescription high blood pressure medications. These natural options include: herbs, supplements, diet, and lifestyle.
Today, we’re going to talk mainly about my 4 favorite supplements for hypertension, with a brief touch on food.
View full transcript on my website.
One of my primary roles as a holistic doctor is to be a health detective. People come to me to help them figure out what is going on with their bodies, why things are going wrong, and how to fix them so that they can feel better, stop worrying about their health, enjoy life more, and have healthier longevity (ie. age better).
As a health detective, I ask questions like what are your main symptoms, how long has this been going on, what have you been eating, how is your sleep/mood/stress level, did something happen prior to the onset of the problem: a particularly stressful event, accident, loss, exposure to mold or chemicals, a cold/flu, food poisoning, etc.
View full transcript on my website.
Last week, I talked about the importance and health benefits of probiotic foods and supplements, and how to choose them, to enhance the number and diversity of the beneficial micro-organisms in your microbiome.
Today we will look at the flip side, and talk about the best anti-microbial foods, herbs, and spices that you can use to help reduce the number of disease-causing micro-organisms, aka pathogens, in your system.
View full transcript on my website.
You're probably familiar with probiotics, and with the importance of having a proper balance of them in your body for achieving and maintaining optimal health. But did you know that an imbalance of them - called gut dysbiosis - can adversely affect every aspect of your health?
Today we're going to talk about what a lot of those adverse effects are, the best food and beverage sources of probiotics (with links to recipes and products), how to choose your probiotic supplements and doses, and my favorite probiotics.
View full transcript on my website.
Last week, I talked about the importance of boosting your digestion by improving your levels of stomach acid, digestive enzymes, and bile.
One of the best ways to do all of that, naturally, is to regularly partake of the bitter flavor.
For most of us, this takes some getting used to, but the effort is well worth it for the health benefits, and, over time, most people come to love this under-valued and under-utilized flavor. And if not love, well, at least appreciate it more for its wonderful health benefits!
View full transcript on my website.
In my last article – on natural remedies for the symptoms and root causes of seasonal allergies – one of the remedies I talked about was boosting your digestion.
Today, I want to dive deeper into this very important topic, because one of the keys to achieving and maintaining optimal health is boosting your digestion.
View full transcript on my website.
Do you suffer from seasonal allergies, aka hayfever?
If so, you know how miserable and unrelenting the symptoms can be.
Help is on the way!
View full transcript on my website.
Did you see my article on the 4 main root causes of seasonal allergies , and now you’re wondering how to figure out which one(s) are plaguing you?
That’s what we’re going to talk about here.
View full transcript on my website.
Do you suffer from seasonal allergies, and wonder what the root causes are, so you can start to really fix them, once and for all?
In this 3rd article in my 5-part series on seasonal allergies, I cover the most common root causes of seasonal allergies – some might surprise you!
View full transcript on my website.
In this episode – the second in a 5-part series on seasonal allergies - we explore the most common triggers of seasonal allergies, and when they tend to occur, so you can get a better idea of what is setting yours off.
View full transcript on my website.
In this episode, we dive into what seasonal allergies are - aka hayfever.
Then we'll talk about the most common - and several less well-known - symptoms to look for, to determine if you or someone you care about might be suffering from hayfever.
Finally, we'll explore the differences between colds/flus and seasonal allergies, to help guide you in selecting appropriate and effective treatments.
View full transcript on my website.
Welcome to the new Ask Dr. Emily podcast!
In this introductory episode, find out more about Dr. Emily, and about what's in store for you in upcoming episodes - the content, the vision, and the goals, to help YOU achieve outstanding health, naturally.
Let’s get started! 😊
View full transcript on my website.