6 Weeks To Superwoman!

Meet Emily!

A farm-town girl living by the sea in Newport Beach, CA.

INTEGRATIVE + FUNCTIONAL NUTRITION PRACTITIONER

Emily has an undergraduate degree in psychology from UCSB and a passion for the mind and its curiosities. Living a life-long active lifestyle has led her to investigate the wonders of the human body and its capabilities. She also earned a Masters in Nutrition and Exercise Physiology from CSULB.

With this unique background, Emily has converged these two interests, psychology & physiology to create a complete program for helping her clients find optimal health and overcome any barriers in their life.

The underlying cause is key!

Finding the answer to why a condition or symptoms may present themselves and not simply how to treat them.

Emily has gone beyond even the normal and expected integrative and functional aspects of care. Creating a therapeutic relationship between herself and her patients to establish a personalized lifestyle approach to health.

Her integrative health approach takes into account the whole person, including all aspects of lifestyle: mental, physical, social, and spiritual.

Join me today with Emily and explore some truly amazing aspects of health, life and social awareness that will change your life and help you create optimal health for you and those you care for.

EPISODE SNEAK PEEK....

1:40 Epigenetics & Your Health

6:04 Rocket Science for Optimal Health

7:05 Perpetual Goals for Long-Term Health

10:19 Tall Telomere "Caps" for Gene Health

12:15 Finding the 'Bad Apples' in Your Body

14:18 Happy Life = Healthy Life!

16:10 Life Hacks to Start Fasting!

19:47 Diet Like Adele!

Disclaimer:

This podcast is for general informational purposes only. It should not be used to self-diagnose, and it is not a substitute for a medical exam, cure, treatment, diagnosis, prescription, or recommendation. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Ryan: Hello everyone and welcome to another episode. I have a very special guest this week who specializes in a very interesting topic, and I'm excited to have her on. Her name is Emily Brown. She's an integrative functional nutrition practitioner, and she has a master's degree in nutrition and exercise physiology.

[00:00:23] Ryan: So welcome, Emily. 

[00:00:25] Emily: Thank you, Ryan. Thanks so much for having me. 

[00:00:28] Ryan: Yeah, absolutely. I'm excited to have you on here. So just to get us started, tell us a little bit about yourself, kind of like the elevator version of who you are and what you do. 

[00:00:39] Emily: Okay, well, yeah, you, you pretty much nailed it on the head. I really help people get to the root cause of their issues.

[00:00:45] Emily: Typically, people come to me, and they've tried everything, and they've gone to everyone to know avail. And so often, often they're a bit hopeless or, or feel like they just can't find answers to, to their issues, to their symptoms, to their [00:01:00] feelings. And so, through holistic health, functional testing, we get to really dive deep and get to the root cause.

[00:01:07] Emily: That's, that's really where the functional nutrition comes into play. So we're gonna be looking at everything from genetics to hormones, to toxins, nutritional deficiencies, and food and environmental sensitivities. Because once we know such a complete picture about somebody, then we take the guesswork out.

[00:01:25] Emily: And then we get to become very effective and efficient in the healing and health journey ahead. . 

[00:01:33] Ryan: Love it. Awesome. Very, very cool. Okay, great. So I have to admit, I'm super curious about the genetics aspect of what you do. In, in my practice and whatnot, that's not really an area I delve into and I feel like it gives such a deep picture of the person and allows you to understand so much.

[00:01:53] Ryan: I'm interested in how you use that and how it fits into finding the root cause for things and whatnot? 

[00:01:58] Emily: Oh, definitely. Okay. So [00:02:00] I, I am always of the mindset that the more data, the better. It really helps me to paint that complete picture of somebody. So of course, I'm always my N-of-one first. I do all the testing on myself.

[00:02:11] Emily: I love to figure out my own genetic foibles, if you will. And for instance, you know, I have a couple vitamin D deficiency related genes. And so one, once you know your shortcomings. It, it shouldn't be anything negative. You're born with it, kind of get over it. You just need to figure out how to close the gaps.

[00:02:32] Emily: And so for me, I always make sure I have a lot of vitamin D in my diet because I'm not gonna get it as much from the sun as other people. I'll also be sure to supplement and that's just something that I'm gonna be doing forever. And so it's really just about finding your shortcomings, understanding how to kind of offset those.

[00:02:51] Emily: Be it behaviorally, nutritionally. And then supplement wise, another one I have is within that FADS1 gene, which when you're thinking about fatty [00:03:00] acids, I don't do this big long conversion very well. Starting with the AAs, getting them all the way down to the EPAs and the DHAs, and so all that means it's nothing scary.

[00:03:13] Emily: All that means is I just need to make sure I'm having a lot of food that is all the way down the chain. All the way down, so I don't have to worry about all those conversions that I can't do. Does that, does that make sense? 

[00:03:28] Ryan: It does. It does. Okay. What type of foods would this entail that you'd be specifically targeting to eat?

[00:03:34] Emily: We're, we're talking about a lot of really good fatty fish and then the flax oils and walnuts, things like that. It's not bad homework for me. I love those foods. . 

[00:03:44] Ryan: Yeah, no, they're obviously sounds like great, great diet options. So how do you use this in your practice? Like when a person comes to you, what is the process for them finding out all this amazing information?

[00:03:57] Emily: First, I always like to start people with a a [00:04:00] functional health test. So the one I really like, it's in the form of bio energetics. And so it's gonna be measuring the body's frequencies and looking for anything outside of our optimal frequency. And so it's gonna measure the systems and then it's gonna measure.

[00:04:14] Emily: Getting a little bit more granular. So then we'll look at organs. We'll look down into nutritional deficiencies, those toxins, what could be impeding the body. We'll look at the whole hormone suite and, and really go from there. So anytime somebody's symptomatic, I like to start there. Let's get some answers.

[00:04:32] Emily: Let's get you healing as quickly and as efficiently as. . And then I like to use genetics as a little bit of a follow up, and a confirmation style test is called test pairing. So if somebody's doing these nutritional tests and chronically they're low and folate, like how I was in the beginning when I first started doing this, I was like, okay, something's going on there.

[00:04:54] Emily: I'm eating all this spinach. I'm getting all these nuts and seeds in my body. Why am I still low [00:05:00] in folate? Chronically? And that's when I went to. I got some genetic SNPs there that are gonna predispose me to low B vitamins. And so then once I know that is a little bit of a confirmation, it really anchors those foods are always gonna be present in my body and I'm gonna take a little bit of nutritional support in a supplement moving forward probably forever.

[00:05:22] Emily: So that's really, that's kind of the whole, the whole picture of, of the possibilities of what I offer. Some people like to just start with a food journal and A three day food journal is really where I start. So we'll look at what and when you eat, of course, but also the bottom has all of these holistic health components.

[00:05:40] Emily: So your sleep, you're gonna rank it. Was it good, fair, poor do you have a support community? What are your stress levels? What are your exercise and when are you doing that? So we can just work based off of that. That's a lot of information that I can really work with. If people like to go a little bit further, we can add on the functional [00:06:00] tests.

[00:06:00] Emily: And then even further, we would go look at, into the genetics. . 

[00:06:05] Ryan: Wow, awesome. It's like advanced rocket science level information for our health . 

[00:06:12] Emily: It is so wonderful. For me, every client is like this massive jigsaw puzzle with hundreds and hundreds of pieces and based on their goal, because that's always where we start and the conversation is, what is your goal?

[00:06:26] Emily: And then we'll work backwards, finding out all these hurdles that are standing in their way and try to close that gap. As quickly and as effectively as possible, but it's always based on the person's goal. So that's really where we start. 

[00:06:39] Ryan: Awesome. Yeah, no, absolutely. It makes a lot of sense. And that was something that was interesting in some of the information you sent me.

[00:06:45] Ryan: You talked about helping a person really dial in and find believe you worded it. Finding your why for seeking health and wellness. And that just really spoke to me because I have so many clients that, you know, you reach a goal, you reach a body composition [00:07:00] goal, or you get rid of an arthritic condition.

[00:07:03] Ryan: The pain involved with it anyways. Mm-hmm. and you address these things and then there's no. Why there anymore and things kind of fall apart a little bit. So I was interested in what you had to say. Speaking, speaking to that. 

[00:07:14] Emily: Oh yes. So this is, this is the psychology, the nutritional counseling coming in.

[00:07:19] Emily: So when we find that intrinsic value, something that's coming from deep within their own mental space, physical space, that's something that we can work with because. , when you start implementing positive habits, then they will be able to start chasing feelings like mental clarity or physiological feelings like strength.

[00:07:42] Emily: Those are achievable. And then it perpetuates healthier habits to continue. But when we're working on external values, like the scale. or like social media cues, then we can't ever, we can't ever fully achieve that and we don't [00:08:00] really get that full reward system that's innate within us. And yeah, I just find that once you really anchor into a person's why that intrinsic value, that's where the sustainability and the lifestyle health can come from.

[00:08:17] Ryan: Nice. Just to put it in my own thoughts here for my edification, and then for people who are listening. So let's say a person has an external goal, like they want to achieve a certain weight or they, you know, they, and they wanna look a certain way or something else along those lines.

[00:08:35] Ryan: If you take a step back from that, kind of go deeper into the person, so to speak, you're looking at, okay, what things could enhance them? Personally, that then would be a, a goal to drive towards or something that is just inherent that they always are working towards. Am I duplicating that correctly? 

[00:08:53] Emily: Yeah, yeah.

[00:08:54] Emily: I mean, you kind of go through a very open-ended question and you're really kind of trying to extract [00:09:00] other reasons, deeper reasons, more feeling based reasons for why they want to achieve that goal. So if somebody were to tell me that that's their goal. We would kind of be talking a little bit more, and maybe it's because they wanna be able to catch up with their grandkids or, you know, their, their friends are always going on these hikes and they can't quite keep up.

[00:09:22] Emily: So it's like, okay, so we need to bolster that social connection with your friends. That's what you're after. You're looking for that deep connection that you don't wanna lose. And so we'll work backwards from that. Or the, or the grandma or the mother who wants to stay fit for her children so that she can be that role to her truest potential.

[00:09:41] Ryan: Wow. I love that. That's really awesome. 

[00:09:44] Emily: That's, that's really the fun stuff. That's the stuff that sticks really. 

[00:09:48] Ryan: Yeah, exactly. And that's what I was talking about earlier. I was like, you get these kind of, not fleeting, but you know, goals that are, they're finishable, like you can get them.

[00:09:57] Ryan: And then where you at, you haven't dialed [00:10:00] in and what you're talking about is exactly that. So that is awesome. Yeah, that's liquid gold in the nutrition world right there. 

[00:10:07] Emily: Totally, totally. 

[00:10:08] Ryan: Okay, great. Now you gave me a little kind of piece of information that was mentally, a teaser there at the beginning when you were talking about genetics and whatnot.

[00:10:19] Ryan: And I wanted to ask you about, How do you apply this information? First of all, what is a telemere? And then how, and if I said that incorrectly, please correct it. And then how do you apply this when somebody's practically working with you? 

[00:10:33] Emily: Okay, so this is actually gonna be a very great little circuitous way back to the, to the why's, and the mental and the emotional health because telomeres are these little hats.

[00:10:43] Emily: I kinda like to call 'em hipster hats because you want 'em to be tall like a beanie, sitting really high on the hat. Okay. And so the length of the telomere, you want it very long. That means your gene will stay active and functioning, making its proteins or its enzymes or whatever it [00:11:00] does. For as long as it's wearing that hat.

[00:11:02] Emily: Now the things that degrade the hat would be poor diet. Lack of mobility, lack of social connections. These things like ruminating thoughts or anxiety. You can take these really cool quizzes about, about like the potential of your telomere, and a lot of it has to do with levels of negativity and pessimism and rumination.

[00:11:25] Emily: And so that's a. Great tangible reason to it kind of qualifies and quantifies negative thoughts in a, in a biological way, which many people kind of just sit with those like, eh, it's kind of nebulous, like, I'm a little negative. Nancy, what's it really gonna do? Well, it's gonna degrade your telomeres.

[00:11:45] Emily: Ipso facto. Your way of living . Yeah. And so things like fasting are really good for your telomere health. Things like fatty acids. , basically the antithesis of the standard American diet. . . [00:12:00] 

[00:12:00] Emily: Yeah. There's a reason it's called SAD. 

[00:12:02] Emily: Exactly, exactly. Yeah. But it's, it's really about inflammation, calming inflammation, allowing them to rebuild, which they can, and just getting everything out of its.

[00:12:14] Emily: Out of its way. There's kinda a really good analogy about rotting apples there. If there's one rotten apple in a bin of rotten apples, then mm-hmm , it offsets gas. And so every one, apples health is based on the one next to it. And if there's just one, I mean, that's where that old phrase comes from. Those gases will permeate and apple rot or cellular rot in this case, throughout the body and throughout the telomeres.

[00:12:43] Emily: So oily fish, seeds, nuts things like flax seeds and leafy greens. They're all just telomere crack. It's great. 

[00:12:52] Ryan: Telomere crack. I love that. Okay. Okay, so you, you've got me on two things there. One, [00:13:00] I, and this is obviously incorrect, but I had been told that telomere length was it always degraded. It was you could, you could slow it down.

[00:13:12] Ryan: You could maybe stall it, but it wasn't something you could rebuild and you just. Totally, you know, went the opposite way with that one, so I'm interested more about that. 

[00:13:21] Emily: Love it. Love it. Okay. So there's this enzyme enzymes are really how we rebuild and make connections and conversions. And that's what our genetics code for enzymes.

[00:13:31] Emily: And so there's this one enzyme called telomerase, and anytime a word has an a s e at the end, it's code for an enzyme. That's how it's pronounced, but basically you would see it as telomere ase. And so that is an enzyme that can contribute to the health and integrity of those telomeres. 

[00:13:52] Ryan: Okay. Yeah.

[00:13:52] Ryan: And then you can build enzymes by having a healthy protein diet and good facts. 

[00:13:57] Emily: Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And staying away from all [00:14:00] the negativity and rumination and really bolstering things like self-compassion. . 

[00:14:06] Ryan: And that was the next thing I wanted to ask you about because it is a nebulous area, you know?

[00:14:11] Ryan: Okay. I've observed in myself and with all my clients, those who are doing well in life, or, I, I'll even have a client who's going along and he's got this chronic situation with. Acne or weight or whatever it is, and all of a sudden something amazing happens to him at his job or his personal life, and these things just disappear.

[00:14:34] Ryan: For a period of time until, well, hopefully forever, but sometimes they don't. So that seems to lend itself towards what you're saying, but how is it that we, are there some studies that you're referencing or some way that it makes it very tangible? Can you explain that? 

[00:14:48] Emily: Well, a great resource would be the Telomere Effect.

[00:14:51] Emily: It's a wonderful book. She goes into huge details all about telomere. So that would be a really good place to look. Things like that. When you have [00:15:00] success in an area, it permeates through every cell of the body. Your cells feel positivity. They feel negativity. Even cancer cells, you'll have a worse prognosis when pessimism is present because it creates an environment that cancer cells can thrive and flourish, and that's just the power.

[00:15:20] Emily: Thoughts. And so if negativity can help cancer grow, just imagine what that one accomplishment at work can do. You know, it sells, sends all those feel good chemicals down to the gut. The gut and the skin are made out of the same cells there clears up the acne. Boom, . 

[00:15:38] Emily: Yeah, exactly right. Awesome. Okay, great, great.

[00:15:42] Emily: And then the other thing you mentioned was fasting. And that's kind of my jam. That's what I have people do is a lot of fasting. So how do you use that to improve telomere health? And length? 

[00:15:53] Emily: Well, so fasting. Fasting can just do, I mean, a, as you know, innumerable [00:16:00] benefits, but I really use it on a customizable basis for people.

[00:16:04] Emily: The, the form I really like in general would be time-restricted feeding. Kind of the principle around Dr. Panda, Dr. Sachin Panda down at the Silk Institute. And I love it because like I told you, psychology is my background. And when we have time-restricted feeding, emphasis on the feeding verse, things like intermittent fasting, emphasis on the fasting just right there, our brains are like, boom, I'm gonna, I'm on board for that time restricted feeding.

[00:16:34] Emily: And so right already we're kind of at a greater. Platform and, and maybe willingness there. And so what that is, is you're just working within, so let's say a 12 hour eating window, that means a 12 hour non eating window. Ideally, we wanna make that eating window smaller and shift closer towards the morning, then the evening.

[00:16:57] Emily: So for instance, like, 16 hour non [00:17:00] eating, you could wake up and eat from nine to five. Very, very simple. Now you're getting 16 hours without eating, and the benefits there are are vast because you know, What we're doing is we're giving the body a break from the very hard work of digestion and metabolism.

[00:17:19] Emily: And when, when we don't do that, it's at like when we're grazing or we're eating late at night, it's at the expense of things like cellular turnover, genetic expression, keeping all of those genes and telomeres happy on things like hormone synthesis, protein synthesis, fat metabol. . So that's really the principle.

[00:17:41] Emily: We're giving the body a break from eating. And also another thing that comes into play here is the way our genes are built. We're very light sensitive and stimulated. And so when the sun's up, our metabolism genes are active, they're firing. We are ready and [00:18:00] able to eat. However, when we're eating at night, Not only will we not digest the food very well, there's gas, there's bloating, we're not getting the nutrients in, but also that again is taking priority at the expense of all those wonderful rest and repair processes that we want to be happening.

[00:18:20] Emily: So that's really how I help and implement fasting is within the T R F principles. But this all then gets very customizable, right? Like if you have an very early work schedule, we can, we can make it adaptable to that. What if you are a woman trying to get pregnant, we'll adapt it to that if you have elevated cortisol or we're gonna work around that.

[00:18:43] Emily: So it's very, very customizable and therefore, lifestyle and very sustainable. So that's really why I like it, because of its flexibility. 

[00:18:53] Ryan: Nice, nice. Yeah, absolutely. And fasting, I feel like if that were just learned, [00:19:00] you know, in our, in our high schools where you're supposed to be teaching health education, then uh, we would have a whole different scene.

[00:19:08] Ryan: In regards to the current state of health, in the society. And also just, you know, in, in our personal lives. 

[00:19:15] Emily: Oh, don't get me started on the things I wish they'd teach us . 

[00:19:18] Ryan: Right. I was just talking to a client about this the other day and I was like, 

[00:19:22] Ryan: you should have learned, like I was going over something basic about protein being healthy.

[00:19:26] Ryan: And I says, you should have learned this in school. You know, he's, he's going to, to college for his post-doctor degree and he didn't know how to eat protein . I'm like. Come on. You know what's going on here? So anyways, yes. Yes. It's a volatile subject.

[00:19:42] Emily: Yeah, totally. So the, some of the cool genetic reasons that that works though, like what's going on?

[00:19:47] Emily: Why do we even want at a genetic level to. Not have food present. And there's, there's these genes, like AMPK and the CERT 1, the, the [00:20:00] Sirtuin Diet got really popular a while back. I think Adele did it. But essentially sirtuins can turn on this other gene, A M P K, that that really goes and tells our body to start becoming more like.

[00:20:15] Emily: Improve our vitality and improve muscle mass and fight inflammation and really work on breaking down fat. Becoming fat adaptive, working on our insulin resistance and blood glucose. And so when we activate A M P K, wonderful things happen throughout the whole body. And the way we activate A M P K is by bringing our cellular energy reserves down.

[00:20:41] Emily: That's fasting. So it's this big cascade that we can ignite, which is just a very, very powerful thing when you can ignite a genetic cascade. . 

[00:20:52] Ryan: Nice. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense actually. Okay, well, let me ask you this as well. I go over autophagy a lot with my clients, [00:21:00] especially those working on, you know, trying to heal and repair something.

[00:21:03] Ryan: Is that at all related to telomere health? 

[00:21:09] Emily: Autophagy, you know, the, the cleanse and decluttering system. Yeah. I don't know how related that would be to telomeres. More just Okay. More just within more like cellular health. Yeah. 

[00:21:23] Ryan: Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So maybe a circuitous effect if, if something was 

[00:21:28] Emily: there, I would say like a synergistic effect.

[00:21:30] Emily: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Little helpful buddies. 

[00:21:33] Ryan: Yes, exactly right. It all works together. Awesome. Okay, great. And then you know, you've kind of gone over how things aren't one size fits all, which I know is something you talked to me about. I was also interested in this point about. You know, there's so many messages out there about what's healthy, what's not, and you get onto a fad and you feel better for a little while, but it's not like, how do you suggest [00:22:00] people navigate this and, and not, not lose their mind while trying to figure out how to be healthy.

[00:22:06] Emily: First of all, I say get off Google . Go to go to a qualified practitioner because even, you know, I'll be working with somebody and we'll find out exactly what they need to, to do exactly what you asked. How do we get rid of the fads and the questions and get down to the personalization. and then all have found out that maybe they shared their plan with their friend.

[00:22:28] Emily: And sometimes even that can be detrimental because for in the off chance, maybe you do have an egg sensitivity. And so you told your friend eggs are out the window, kick eggs. And they do. But what if that was their only form of protein coming in? And now you just, you can't spread some false personal information at the detriment.

[00:22:49] Emily: Deleterious effects to your friend, and so my advice is always just find your own personalization. Just start with a test. I think they're just so valuable, so you [00:23:00] don't have to do all the guesswork. 

[00:23:02] Ryan: Right. Nice. I like that test don't guess 

[00:23:05] Emily: exactly. That's it. 

[00:23:08] Ryan: Nice. Although we say it, not everybody listens.

[00:23:10] Ryan: No. So there's still a lot of guessing, 

[00:23:12] Ryan: Not enough people. That's for sure. 

[00:23:15] Ryan: Okay, great. Well, I, I understand a little more about how you you know, use the, the genetic information and the telomeres and whatnot. You also talked about a diet that adele did or something that activated a certain set of, that was very interesting to me.

[00:23:33] Ryan: Can you speak to what that diet is and how that applies to what you do? 

[00:23:37] Emily: Yes. Well, I don't know. So she, she did what's called the sirtuin diet, and so that's working on that one gene, the S I R T 1 gene. Mm-hmm. . And in fact, that's also what Metformin, the, an, the diabetic drug also works on. 

[00:23:54] Emily: And so what it's doing, it's kind of helping your body choose fat for [00:24:00] fuel. It's kind of like a, a fasting mimicking. avenue So Metformin does it pharmacologically. And so it's telling your body to kind of preferentially choose fat as its fuel source and starts to pull the deposits from your body.

[00:24:16] Emily: And so it's really helping you break down a lot of fat. It really helps with the insulin and the blood glucose. Yeah. The thing that really activates the sirtuins is resveratrol. Mm-hmm. . So that's a lot of the reds and the purples. The, the red grapes, the purple grapes, the red onions, yellow onions.

[00:24:33] Emily: We've got all of those kind of deep, rich, colorful foods that activate that gene. . That's why, I mean, I have berries every single day. You don't have to do a full sirtuin diet. It's just kind of like implementing these wonderful, intuitive little tricks that you can do that you then know are making that food gene connection without it being such a huge dietary change or dietary lifestyle.

[00:24:58] Emily: Just pulling little [00:25:00] very impactful tips and tricks into your daily life can, can be all you need. 

[00:25:06] Ryan: Yeah, that's, that's great. Yeah. I feel like there's so much information out there right now that if you can just take the things that are salient to you, I think we're gonna start seeing people living to, you know, 150 in good health here very shortly.

[00:25:20] Ryan: It just, I've heard that repeated by a few people now I'm like, yeah, why not? 

[00:25:25] Ryan: You know? 

[00:25:25] Emily: Totally, totally. Yeah. When you kind of really start understanding your rhythms and leaning into them like that sirtuin one has a lot to do with your clock genes, which regulates your rhythms in your body. And when you understand and lean into your own rhythms, like for me, my one of my, one of my rhythms is I'm a dolphin, so that means I wake up early, I have a lot of energy in the morning, and then I kind of taper off in the evening.

[00:25:51] Emily: Most people will be bears, so that's kind of like a nine to five energy. But what this means is once I understand that, I now know I [00:26:00] can prioritize my exercise, my difficult task earlier in the day. Whereas if I try to exercise later in the day, exercise or do a lot of eating later in the day where my body is not primed for those activities, not only will it deplete me heavily even into the next day, I mean energetically, but 

[00:26:20] Emily: I just won't be effective. I'm gonna be. You know, I'm dragging myself through that exercise routine and just not enjoying it. And so when you, when I do it in the morning, there's the pleasure effect, the dopamine, the the physiological effects. And so that's one of the fun that's called chrono biology.

[00:26:39] Emily: That's time biology. So that's, that's a really fun one to explore too. But once you start leaning into those innate rhythms, . That's really where this synchronicity of you and your environment can really live in harmony. And a lot of those longevity studies have a lot to do with that. 

[00:26:57] Ryan: Yes, I've heard of that.

[00:26:59] Ryan: I've not heard of [00:27:00] the chronobiology. That's, that's a new one. That's pretty awesome. So it's like a step beyond circadian rhythm. 

[00:27:07] Emily: It's, yes. and it, it's kind of more about like your, your energy peaks really, but it does kind of encode your best times to sleep. It even goes into your best times. Like to be bold, the the the doctor who talks a lot about it, he kind of lists like when to ask for a raise, when you should be having sex, like when you should do all these bold tasks.

[00:27:31] Emily: That's kind of his wow. His thing. It's like you're finding those energetic peaks and really lean in. 

[00:27:36] Ryan: Wow, that sounds like a very dynamic way to live. 

[00:27:39] Emily: Yeah, totally. . 

[00:27:41] Ryan: Nice. Okay, great. Now I noticed on your website you, you cover a lot of different topics and one topic that we work a lot with that I think people will be interested in hearing your take on is fertility.

[00:27:55] Ryan: You know, and how that, how what you, you've gone over is some of this using your [00:28:00] understanding of a person's genome and lifestyle and, and, and can fit into helping a person find their fertility naturally, so to speak. 

[00:28:08] Emily: So one of my, one of the offerings I do, it's. One, one time a year, I run a holistic hormone academy.

[00:28:15] Emily: It's six weeks. It's a very intimate group of women only, and it's really about optimizing women's health because once that is the goal and that's achieved, reproductive health and fertility will fall into place. But I so it's like making sure your whole body is optimized and functioning well.

[00:28:34] Emily: And so we, I start every woman with that whole panel of toxins, nutrient deficiencies, sensitivities, and hormones. And then we go through the six weeks and apply those results each week in a personalized way. And then they're, by the end of the six weeks, they're often running with the whole plan. But it's so powerful because so often, The things that impact fertility that aren't looked at are things like thyroid [00:29:00] health or nutrient deficiencies, but sometimes they'll be bolstering their foods or their supplements and still chronically low.

[00:29:07] Emily: Well, what we found is, well parasites steal B vitamins and so we haven't looked far enough up river to find the root of that issue. So toxins are a big part of these kind of undiscoverable or undiagnosed infertility or subfertility now we call it. Cause it's not on or off. Right. We just have levels of fertility.

[00:29:29] Emily: So those subfertility issues. Yeah, that, that's been a really, really wonderful and rewarding program. . 

[00:29:37] Ryan: Yeah, I'll bet. You know, it's it's a very dramatic topic for people and it's very important. So being able to help them naturally yeah, that's, that's just awesome. Yeah. And then you went over a little bit about this concept of lower and higher levels of different vitamins that influence it fertility. And that there are [00:30:00] parasitic problems that can lead to low B vitamins and whatnot. Mm-hmm. , how, how do you address that? How do you figure that type of thing out? 

[00:30:07] Emily: So for me, it's just, let's get rid of the hurdles, whatever the hurdles are, it's like if you're running a race and it's supposed to be a flat race and then somebody puts hurdles in your way, it's gonna slow you down.

[00:30:20] Emily: There goes optimization of the body. And so by doing a test like this, we find. All of the hurdles and work to remove them so that the body can go back to working the way it wants to, the way that you are feeding it, the way that you're supplementing it, cuz oftentimes we'll see a well-rounded woman. Food conscious and you know, a good movement program and she's doing all the things and still there's something missing.

[00:30:49] Emily: There's no result. And so we go in and we figure out what could be that impediment and take it out. So you would go through the testing process is a little cheek [00:31:00] swab and a hair sample and goes right off to the lab. They take that same sample and run it against homeopathics, herbals and nutritional supplements.

[00:31:09] Emily: That'll help kind of rectify either balance, hormones, detox, the parasites, the fungus which is mold. Virus and bacteria and, and so that's, it's a very comprehensive plan within that. So we get the answers and we implement them. And detoxing is usually, kinda priority for those, for those situations.

[00:31:32] Emily: It's like detoxing number one will balance hormones, number two or kind of in conjunction, and then we'll fine tune nutrients as kind of that tertiary goal. 

[00:31:42] Ryan: Nice, nice to the end of six weeks. Superwoman, 

[00:31:46] Emily: Basically. Yeah, they're all flying around here in Newport, . 

[00:31:50] Ryan: That's awesome. 

[00:31:51] Emily: You know, you know what I love the, one of the topics you brought up and one of your podcasts was having these presets like in metabolism and you can either have [00:32:00] that be heritable or learned.

[00:32:02] Emily: So you have that metabolic preset and you need to reset it in order to make change and I've had women like that and it's been so wonderful like that. What you just described is the epigenetics of metabolism. So you know where your habits, your behaviors, and your thoughts impact you. But within the scope of these women infertility, that's also impacting their children's children.

[00:32:29] Emily: And so when we talk in that way, you know, their children have stem cells, and so it's a three generation impact we're making. by changing these, these habits, these thoughts, these foods and behaviors. So it's really, really powerful, powerful work. 

[00:32:47] Ryan: Yeah. Yeah. No, I, I can think of that completely. And I, just working with clients over the past, you know, 10 years or so, there's been a noticeable [00:33:00] change in people and how resilient or not they are to the toxins, in our environment, whether it's because of a higher toxicity level or weaker bodies, or a combination of both. Mm-hmm. and you know, so we have that generational thing that you just talked about working in the other direction too, like it's been how many years since we've had this industrialization and poorer foods and less fasting and all the the variables that go with all of that.

[00:33:26] Ryan: It seems like right now there's kind of an awakening occurring not to be metaphysical or anything, but there's this like awareness that's coming up about, Hey, we need to change things, and so many people are getting on board and doing things like what you're saying. Just, just, you know, speaks to me in this idea of generational health.

[00:33:46] Emily: Totally, totally. I mean, yes, the toxic threshold is like huge out there. We're just inundated. We can't escape 'em. And so what we can do first and foremost is try to clear out the ones that we've [00:34:00] accumulated. I, I call these things like the barnacles of life because you know, we're going to eat sushi, we'll get a parasite here and there.

[00:34:06] Emily: We've been eating out, we're gonna have some plastics here and there, and so we just wanna clear them out and then implement daily, daily tactics like having a wide range of herbs. We've got anti parasitic antibacterial, antifungal within different herbs. And you know, as simple as having a little herb garden can be a very profound impact on, on your immunity moving forward and helping to prevent the buildup of things so we don't get chronic issues from this higher exposure to toxins. . 

[00:34:38] Ryan: Yeah, absolutely. 

[00:34:40] Ryan: Absolutely. There's enough awareness of this and understanding so that I feel like having a little herb garden and starting to cook with it, it's. There's almost no excuse anymore. Like there's very few people that I might be being a little harsh on some people, but I'm sure there's plenty of people, plenty of excuses.

[00:34:58] Ryan: But you know, there's a lot of [00:35:00] information out there, so like it's time to, to grab onto it and start changing, changing your life.

[00:35:04] Emily: Well, have you ever used an arrow garden? because I know it's cold for herbs for you right now, but they just sit right on your window.

[00:35:11] Emily: They're little hydroponics and you just buy the little pods. It's, it's awesome. You just get new pods coming and so there's like built in nutritional diversity right there, which is the name of the game. 

[00:35:24] Ryan: Nice. Yeah, no, I buy these little potted herbs, you know, like basil Yeah. And, and whatnot. And we, we keep 'em around and use them during our, our cold weather days, but but we also dry stuff from, from over the summer and whatnot.

[00:35:37] Ryan: So it's a, it's a whole thing. Yeah. Oh, lovely. Yeah, but you know, I definitely like the idea of being in an area that has Sun 24 7 as well. 

[00:35:45] Emily: I'm not gonna gloat . 

[00:35:48] Ryan: That's okay. So yeah, that was awesome. So I really like all this information about how you work on health and improve the generational health and people. Now, what about using this to [00:36:00] increase a person's personal longevity and personal health span? I, I mean, I know it's kind of intuitive if you're making it more healthy in, in their current life and their current lifestyle, but are there any specific ways to go about increasing longevity for a person?

[00:36:16] Emily: Sure. So person to person, we gotta find out really where we need to start working on. on on their health. We gotta find out where their weaknesses are and kind of start there. You know, if somebody comes and cortisol is elevated and their nervous system is dysregulated, which like, Given the past three years, if you're not, it's amazing.

[00:36:39] Emily: So you know, that would be priority number, priority number one, to have your body and your brain relearn how to get into that parasympathetic side. Because if you're only stuck in that sympathetic side, burnout is coming inevitably. And so I think it's just very case by case, person to person in terms of [00:37:00] finding, finding the missing link in their in their path towards longevity. 

[00:37:06] Ryan: I like that approach because I have a little, I've been interested in the Blue Zones and read about them. Right. And it's, it's all fascinating, but sometimes some, you know, especially working with individual clients and they say, okay, don't eat X, Y, and Z food because it'll decrease your longevity. But I know that X, Y, and Z client I have, that's the food they eat that has actually helped them repair their gut and do X, Y, and Z. And yes, so I, it's very, I feel like, yes, it's good to know about the common denominators and blue zones, but.

[00:37:38] Ryan: There's more to the picture than that, and I think you just spoke to that very succinctly. 

[00:37:43] Emily: Yeah. And what a lot of people don't take into account are the social factors like within the Blue Zones community is everything. And that has grown increasingly hard to achieve and cultivate in our continental United States.

[00:37:58] Emily: And so that's, that's a big one, [00:38:00] these social connections. But you know, I kind of have general rules of thumb that I like everybody to try and that's eat the rainbow every day. Two cruciferous vegetables every day, and two fermented foods every day. That, that's a little toolkit, well starter toolkit, if you will.

[00:38:18] Ryan: No, that's perfect. Yep. Yep. And then if you are, doing those things, what would be a similar toolkit for community? 

[00:38:28] Emily: I mean, okay. So I like to create a little mental health toolkit for clients and for myself. Yeah. And, and social is one of them, and support is one of them.

[00:38:38] Emily: And so I usually like to combine that like I'm working on. A little nutritional education outreach program for the Orange County Special Olympics program. And so wanna get involved in that way. So that's, that's how I do it. But every person all go through this toolkit with them will find the ones that they aren't able to fill out and we'll [00:39:00] figure out together how, what sounds good to you.

[00:39:02] Emily: I know you love to bake. Let's just start dropping some off at your teacher's circle. if you're already making some cookies, let just spread the wealth and go share some smiles through food that way. 

[00:39:13] Emily: Sense of service is, is huge. And more often than not, that is the missing link. So if, for instance, in my mom population, it's support and service, cuz typically when kids are present, their personal friends get put on the back burner. And so we always make sure to kind of elucidate how valuable. Their friends are, it's not something that they can sacrifice. And so support is massive, but also is sense of service because the, the impact that we get when we do something for somebody else is just huge throughout the whole body. So knowing that you can be leaned on is also just as important.

[00:39:55] Emily: And so doing something for somebody. Is great, but also [00:40:00] then allowing that person or another person to feel that. Benefit. So asking for help as well. Mm-hmm. calling a friend, calling a grandparent, asking a question, asking for help makes them feel amazing. So it's just a very simple thing to do. It can be very small.

[00:40:18] Emily: Um, but that is just, I mean, anyone can do that. It's achievable for anyone. Calling and asking a loved one a question or just for a little bit of support can really make them feel very close to you, and that's really bolster that sense of connection and community. . 

[00:40:35] Ryan: I like that. That's really great. Yeah. I mean, I can think of doing that and the re response that I would get, it's like I just, the thought of doing it, has some validity to it, I believe.

[00:40:45] Emily: Oh my gosh. Totally. 

[00:40:46] Emily: I mean, yeah, me, I'm like, let me get my list out. Let me get my notepad, like I'm gonna get you answers. We're gonna get you support. Like, oh, I thrive in that environment. 

[00:40:57] Ryan: Yeah, that would make sense with what you do for a living. 

[00:40:59] Emily: [00:41:00] I was just gonna say 

[00:41:00] Emily: the same about you. I mean, that's, that's the, the jobs chose us, or we chose the jobs

[00:41:06] Ryan: Right. Yeah. It's a flow back and forth there. Mm-hmm. , so. Okay, great. Well, I'm, I'm signed up. You know, I practically wanna do that women's course that you mentioned for six weeks. No. Might be a little outta place, but 

[00:41:18] Emily: no, I got, I got three and six month memberships that are welcome for anyone, any life stage, any age, anything like that.

[00:41:26] Emily: That's where all the personalization comes in. So doors are always open. . 

[00:41:30] Ryan: Awesome. Awesome. Okay, great. Well, if somebody did want to engage with you and, start one of these programs or get on your waiting list for the, for the Women's six week program mm-hmm. , how do they reach out? What's the best way to, check out these 

[00:41:44] Ryan: things?

[00:41:45] Emily: I love talking to new people. If you wanna just send me a message on Instagram, I kind of like to start a conversation because everything is, I basically, I will always start with a discovery call tell me about yourself, what you're trying to achieve, what your [00:42:00] struggles are, and we'll figure out together what of which of my offerings is the best for you.

[00:42:04] Emily: Whether it is that women only course, whether it's the three month, or the six month membership has the exercise and the movement component added to it. So you know, if you are kind of lacking in that area, then we would just figure out what's right for you. So send me a message on Instagram and I can just point you in the right direction and we'll have a little chat.

[00:42:25] Ryan: Awesome. Okay, great. And, for those who aren't on Instagram, your website or? 

[00:42:30] Emily: Yeah, www.genetic-garden.com. I've got the Holistic Hormone Academy tab. I got the, um, memberships, and then also my newer offering is the, the Cleanse. So that's a little kit that comes right to you. Your groceries get delivered.

[00:42:46] Emily: It's a little five day. Kind of cleanse or reset that's based on whole foods. It's also very holistic in that we're gonna work on detox and hormone health and intuitive eating and even a little bit of meditative [00:43:00] cooking and the benefits go way beyond the five days. So it's very cool cuz we do activate that food gene connection.

[00:43:06] Emily: And so there's a bunch of little sneaky tricks in there that maybe you don't even realize, but it's for long term health, even though it's just five days. 

[00:43:14] Ryan: Wow. That sounds amazing. Yeah. I'm looking at, your website is a, a, you know, absolutely awesome work here. It makes you just wanna stay on it and keep learning stuff.

[00:43:25] Ryan: So a cleanse kit, that sounds pretty awesome. Holistic hormone cleanse. 

[00:43:29] Emily: The classic one can be for anyone and you would just start it right away. Anytime you want. The custom one gets a functional health kit in the mail.

[00:43:37] Emily: So we're gonna find your, your food sensitivities because this cleanse, you know, it involves eggs and what if eggs is a sensitivity? Well then you're not gonna get the feel good results at the end of the five days. And so within the custom one, then I will customize based on those, those insights from the functional health test.

[00:43:55] Emily: So that one's a little bit. Much more in depth, but very fun [00:44:00] stuff. I do have a seasonal cleanse coming out too, so it's, you'll get, you'll get one every quarter. The menu changes based on seasonal foods and it's just really fun. Wonderful. 

[00:44:10] Ryan: Yeah. Sounds fun and wonderful. .

[00:44:14] Ryan: Well, thank you so much.

[00:44:15] Ryan: I really appreciate you coming on and sharing all this, amazing information. I definitely, this is, like I said, this what you're going over, the way you're applying this information. I feel like it's, the rocket science level of, okay, there are no barriers to people's health. There's nothing that can't be figured out at our current level.

[00:44:35] Ryan: Not that we won't learn more or anything, but this is pretty amazing stuff and I think someone able to work with you and get this level of knowledge about yourself, it's kind of invaluable. 

[00:44:46] Emily: I couldn't agree more. 

[00:44:47] Emily: It's really like my whole, my whole process and thesis is giving you the tools and the ownership to take control of your health.

[00:44:55] Emily: You know, these tests come right to you. I'm very accessible. Your health should be [00:45:00] accessible and in your own hands, and that's, that's just what I'm here to provide. . 

[00:45:05] Ryan: Awesome. Awesome, awesome. Okay, great. Thank you so much, Emily, for being here today. 

[00:45:10] Emily: My pleasure. 

[00:45:11] Ryan: Yeah. I look forward to, learning more about, I'm gonna go check out some of those books that you mentioned and whatnot.

[00:45:17] Emily: Perfect. Telomere Effect is great. I'll send you a list and we can put 'em up. Some of the ones I I referenced today. We can put 'em up in the notes too. 

[00:45:25] Ryan: I'll put 'em up there. Yep. Okay. Great. All right, I'm gonna end off here. 

[00:45:29] Emily: Sounds good, Ryan. Take care.