Get personalized root-cause care with Empower Functional Health.
Learn more at empowerfunctionalhealth.com
_____

Heart surgeon Dr. Philip Ovadia joins Judy Cho to discuss what may actually drive heart disease beyond a single focus on LDL cholesterol. Drawing from 25 years in cardiac surgery and more than 3,400 operations, he explains why insulin resistance, inflammation, metabolic dysfunction, diet, and vascular damage deserve more attention in heart disease prevention.

The conversation also examines statins, coronary artery calcium scans, CT angiograms, seed oils, processed carbohydrates, red meat, vegan diets, gut health, and nutrient absorption. Dr. Ovadia shares how becoming obese and prediabetic changed his own understanding of metabolic health, and why he now focuses on helping patients avoid the operating table.

We discuss the following: 

• Dr. Ovadia’s lessons from 3,400 heart surgeries
• Why cholesterol isn't the root cause
• Pharmaceutical and food industry influence
• How diet guidelines failed patients
• Dr. Ovadia's personal health transformation
• Seed oils vs processed carbohydrates
• Early warning signs of heart disease
• Coronary calcium scan and CT angiogram
• What a heart surgeon eats for breakfast
• Dr. Ovadia’s new book
• Can vegans have optimal health?
• When diet alone isn't enough

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EPISODE RESOURCES

• Nutritionist's Guide to the Carnivore Diet
• Dr. Philip Ovadia's Website
• Dr. Philip Ovadia's Instagram
• Stay Off My Kitchen Table Book
• Stay Off My Operating Table (First Book)

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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

📫 Tips and Weekly Updates

JUDY CHO RESOURCES

⛑️ Work with Us

🎙️ Podcast

📕 Inflammation Fix Book

📘 Carnivore Cure Book & Elimination Diet

📚 Articles

🎁 Free Resources

📗 Complete Carnivore Diet for Beginners

_____

*DISCLAIMER: This content is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. It should not replace professional medical advice.

Get personalized root-cause care with Empower Functional Health.
Learn more at empowerfunctionalhealth.com
_____

Peptides are everywhere right now: VIP, KPV, BPC-157, TB-500, Thymosin Alpha 1, GHK-Cu, GLP-1s, and more. They are being talked about for inflammation, gut repair, immune support, tissue healing, weight loss, recovery, and chronic illness—but they are not automatically safe just because they sound “natural.”

In this episode, Judy Cho breaks down what peptides are, why context matters, and the mistakes people may be making when they use them too casually or too early. Peptides can be powerful tools, but the wrong peptide, timing, or source can pose risks most people are not considering.

• What are peptides
• VIP (Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide)
• KPV
• BPC-157
• TB-500, Thymosin Beta-4 (Wolverine Stack)
• Thymosin Alpha 1, Mots-C
• GHK-Cu
• GLP-1s, natural peptides, 3D GLP1s, 
• Peptide risk nuance and examples
• Peptide grey market risks
• Four tactical peptide considerations

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EPISODE REFERENCES

• NwJ Peptide Article
• Taking VIP Too Early 
• Copper Toxicity
• Peptide Contamination: 1, 2

_____
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
📫 Tips and Weekly Updates

JUDY CHO RESOURCES
⛑️Work with Us
🎙️ Podcast
📕 Inflammation Fix Book
📘 Carnivore Cure Book & Elimination Diet
📚 Articles
🎁 Free Resources 

_____
*DISCLAIMER: This content is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. It should not replace professional medical advice.

Get personalized root-cause care with Empower Functional Health.
Learn more at empowerfunctionalhealth.com
_____

What if chronic stress is the real reason chronically ill patients fail to heal, no matter what protocol they follow? Dr. Stephen Sideroff has spent decades researching exactly what happens to the nervous system under prolonged stress, and what he's found challenges how most practitioners think about root-cause healing. In this episode, he reveals what conventional medicine gets wrong about stress, why some people are wired to stay stuck, and what it actually takes to get the body back into a state where healing is even possible. Watch the full interview to find out.

Dr. Stephen Sideroff is a clinical psychologist, resilience researcher, and assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UCLA. He is the founder of the UCLA Stress Strategies program and author of The Path: Mastering the Nine Pillars of Resilience and Success, a comprehensive framework built on decades of clinical research into stress, neurofeedback, and what separates people who heal from people who stay stuck.

We discuss the following: 

• Nervous system Balance
• The four horsemen of stress
• Recognizing signs of poor stress management
• Why recovery after stress matters 
• Resilience, trauma, and childhood wiring
• How to start managing stress 
• Breaking the negative mindset cycle
• Rethinking therapy and rumination
• Why change is so hard
• Getting chronically ill patients unstuck
• Protecting your energy from social media
• Judy's reflection and the Wholeness Method

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EPISODE RESOURCES

• Wholeness Method Website
• Dr. Stephen Sideroff's Website
• Dr. Stephen Sideroff’s YouTube
• Quantum Leadership Podcast
• The Path: Mastering the Nine Pillars of Resilience and Success Book

_____

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

📫 Tips and Weekly Updates

JUDY CHO RESOURCES

⛑️ Work with Us

🎙️ Podcast

📕 Inflammation Fix Book

📘 Carnivore Cure Book & Elimination Diet

📚 Articles

🎁 Free Resources

📗 Complete Carnivore Diet for Beginners

_____

*DISCLAIMER: This content is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. It should not replace professional medical advice.

Get personalized root-cause care with Empower Functional Health.
Learn more at empowerfunctionalhealth.com
_____

Anxiety is not just “in your head.” Sometimes the body is giving signals through blood sugar, caffeine tolerance, and how well your nervous system is being fueled.

In this episode, we talk about a simple shift that may help some people feel calmer and more stable, and why eating too lean may backfire.

• Anxiety, blood sugar dysregulation
• Fatty meats benefit
• Anadamide
• Caffeine
• Egg yolks, fatty red meats

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EPISODE RESOURCES

• Bellevue Stefansson Study
• Anadamide
• Anadamide 2
• Arachidonic Sources

_____

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
📫 Tips and Weekly Updates

JUDY CHO RESOURCES
⛑️Work with Us
🎙️ Podcast
📕 Inflammation Fix Book
📘 Carnivore Cure Book & Elimination Diet
📚 Articles
🎁 Free Resources 

_____
*DISCLAIMER: This content is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. It should not replace professional medical advice.

Get personalized root-cause care with Empower Functional Health.
Learn more at empowerfunctionalhealth.com
_____

Most people hear “blood sugar” and think the body has a lot of sugar floating around at any given moment. But the actual amount is much smaller than most people realize.

In this episode, I use a simple visual demo to show what normal, prediabetic and diabetic blood sugar levels look like. We also talk about insulin, the pancreas, and why repeatedly high blood sugar can create real stress on the body over time.

• Sugar vs. seed oils
• Risks of high blood sugar and insulin’s role
• Blood levels and sugar levels in the body
• Eating a banana or a soda
• Risks to the pancreas

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EPISODE RESOURCES
- Dr. Robert Lufkin Interview
- Carnivore Diet and Modern Day Sugar Crisis:
- Personalized Health Plan

_____
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
📫 Tips and Weekly Updates

JUDY CHO RESOURCES
⛑️Work with Us
🎙️ Podcast
📕 Inflammation Fix Book
📘 Carnivore Cure Book & Elimination Diet
📚 Articles
🎁 Free Resources 

_____
*DISCLAIMER: This content is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. It should not replace professional medical advice.

Get personalized root-cause care with Empower Functional Health.
Learn more at empowerfunctionalhealth.com
_____

Belinda and I dive into the hidden history behind our dietary guidelines, tracing how a 19th-century religious health movement helped shape the modern demonization of meat and the rise of fiber, breakfast cereal, and plant-based dogma. She breaks down how the Seventh Day Adventist Church, John Harvey Kellogg, and powerful food and academic institutions worked together to manufacture the "Blue Zones" longevity story, and why the real history of Sardinia, Okinawa, Ikaria, and Loma Linda tells a very different tale about meat, pork, and animal fat. Make sure to listen to the full interview to learn more.

Belinda Fettke is an independent researcher known for investigating the historical, religious, and commercial influences on modern dietary guidelines. After her husband, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Gary Fettke, was investigated for advising patients to reduce sugar and refined carbohydrates, she began researching the origins of nutrition policy and public health messaging. Her work focuses on the intersections of religion, industry, and dietary recommendations. The interview explores how these factors may have shaped modern views on meat, plant-based diets, and chronic disease. 

We discuss the following: 

• Belinda Fettke’s background
• Kellogg, fiber, and sexual repression
• Birth of the dietetics industry
• Religious roots of nutrition
• Adventist studies and veganism
• Debunking the Blue Zones diet
• Okinawa longevity under scrutiny
• Ikaria's fasting and snail diet
• Loma Linda's "fifth blue zone" myth 
• Harvard's role in dietary guidelines
• Nutrition messaging in schools
• Ellen G. White's hidden writings
• Adventist influence on guidelines
• The demonization of pork

_____

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Nutritionist's Guide to the Carnivore Diet
• EFH Carnivore Diet Resources
• Exposing the Secrets of the Plant-Based Vegetarian Guidelines – Interview with Belinda Fettke
• Unveiling the Corruption of Our Dietary Recommendations – Interview with Dr. Gary Fettke
• Belinda Fettke's TruthZones Substack
• Dr. Gary Fettke's Website
• Supporting Dr. Gary Fettke

_____

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

📫 Tips and Weekly Updates

JUDY CHO RESOURCES

⛑️ Work with Us

🎙️ Podcast

📕 Inflammation Fix Book

📘 Carnivore Cure Book & Elimination Diet

📚 Articles

🎁 Free Resources

📗 Complete Carnivore Diet for Beginners

_____

*DISCLAIMER: This content is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. It should not replace professional medical advice.

Get personalized root-cause care with Empower Functional Health.
Learn more at empowerfunctionalhealth.com
_____

PCOS has a new name: PMOS, or Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome. The shift matters because PCOS was never really just about “cysts” on the ovaries. It has always been a broader endocrine and metabolic condition that can affect periods, ovulation, androgen hormones, insulin signaling, skin, mood, and long-term cardiometabolic risk.

In this short solo episode, I break down why the name is changing, what PMOS means, how diagnosis works, and why symptoms like irregular periods may be less random than they seem. I also touch on the deeper question: could some cases of PMOS be an early warning sign of broader inflammatory or biotoxin-driven dysfunction, including CIRS?

• PCOS has a new name; symptoms and diagnosis
• PCOS and Carnivore
• Causes of PCOS (PMOS)
• Insulin resistance
• Loss of period, androgen hormones, LH, SHBG
• Endocrine disruptors
• PMOS and low mood
• PMOS is CIRS?

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EPISODE REFERENCES

• PCOS in Lancet 
• Complete Wellness Panel
• Test CIRS: (start here)
• What is CIRS
• CAC Founder interview on Pre Pre Diabetes 
• Personalized Health Plan (symptoms)

_____
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
📫 Tips and Weekly Updates

JUDY CHO RESOURCES
⛑️Work with Us
🎙️ Podcast
📕 Inflammation Fix Book
📘 Carnivore Cure Book & Elimination Diet
📚 Articles
🎁 Free Resources 

_____
*DISCLAIMER: This content is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. It should not replace professional medical advice.

Get personalized root-cause care with Empower Functional Health.
Learn more at empowerfunctionalhealth.com
_____

MCAS is often treated like a food problem. But if your “safe food” list keeps getting smaller, restriction may no longer be the solution.

In this episode, Judy Cho explains why mast cell activation syndrome is not just about histamine, why food reactions can be a sign of a deeper immune threshold problem, and why the goal is not to fear more foods. The goal is to understand why the body is reacting in the first place.

• What is MCAS
• Causes of MCAS and histamine flares
• Mast cell symptoms
• Mast cell activation syndrome, root cause
• Mast cells and the nervous system, stress response
• High histamine foods
• Histamine liberator foods
• DAO-blocking foods, the DAO enzyme
• Supplements, medication supports for MCAS, histamines
• MCAS, histamine testing
• Histamine flares because of Carnivore.

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EPISODE RESOURCES

• MCAS Article
• MCAS Article 2
• Dr. Tania Dempsey Interview
• MCAS studies 1, 2, 3 
• Personalized Health Plan (symptoms)
• GI Map stool test
• Complete Wellness Panel

_____
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
📫 Tips and Weekly Updates

JUDY CHO RESOURCES
⛑️Work with Us
🎙️ Podcast
📕 Inflammation Fix Book
📘 Carnivore Cure Book & Elimination Diet
📚 Articles
🎁 Free Resources 

_____
*DISCLAIMER: This content is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. It should not replace professional medical advice.

Get personalized root-cause care with Empower Functional Health.
Learn more at empowerfunctionalhealth.com
_____

Why do people quit the carnivore diet even after it helped them at first? In this episode, Judy Cho breaks down the most common reasons the carnivore diet stops working for some people, from undereating and poor fat tolerance to electrolyte issues, thyroid and hormone changes, food boredom, cholesterol fears, and the pressure to do “perfect carnivore.”

A carnivore diet can be a powerful elimination diet, but it is not inherently well-formulated. This conversation explains why some people thrive, why others struggle, and how to tell whether the issue is the diet itself, how it is being done, or the body's current state of health.

• Cyclical and chronic dieters
• Mind-body connection and the bell curve
• Expectations and disappointments (planning is the antidote)
• Undereating, thyroid and hormone function
• Protein and poor fat tolerance
• Mindset: community pressure, your “why”
• Protect your eyes and ears. 60,000 thoughts.
• Food boredom
• Electrolytes, hormones, thyroid
• Heart disease and cardiovascular risk
• Perfect Carnivore
• Real talk

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EPISODE RESOURCES 

• How much to eat episode 
• Undereating episode
• Symptom journal
• Thyroid health on carnivore
• Gut support 
• ADH testing
• Cholesterol test panel
• Carnivore elimination protocol
• Ray Peat diet article
• Mercola and carbs article

_____
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
📫 Tips and Weekly Updates

JUDY CHO RESOURCES
⛑️Work with Us
🎙️ Podcast
📕 Inflammation Fix Book
📘 Carnivore Cure Book & Elimination Diet
📚 Articles
🎁 Free Resources 

_____
*DISCLAIMER: This content is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. It should not replace professional medical advice.

Get personalized root-cause care with Empower Functional Health.
Learn more at empowerfunctionalhealth.com
_____

Dr. Robert and I discuss why metabolic dysfunction may be the root cause behind many chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and even mental illness. We dive into how modern medicine often treats symptoms instead of root causes, why lifestyle and metabolic therapies can reverse disease progression, and how low-carb and ketogenic diets may improve long-term health outcomes. Make sure to listen to the full interview to learn more.

Dr. Robert Lufkin is a physician, radiologist, medical school professor, and New York Times bestselling author of Lies I Taught in Medical School. After developing multiple chronic diseases himself, he began researching metabolic health, longevity, and lifestyle medicine, eventually reversing his own conditions through nutrition and lifestyle changes. Dr. Lufkin now advocates for metabolic therapies and root-cause approaches to chronic disease prevention and reversal.

We discuss the following: 

• Dr. Lufkin’s background
• Why he questioned modern medicine
• Nutrition myths in medical training
• Pharma influence in medical education
• Biggest lie taught in medicine
• Obesity misconceptions explained
• Blood pressure and metabolic health 
• What is metabolic dysfunction
• Alzheimer’s and metabolic health
• Why Alzheimer’s is type 3 diabetes
• Cholesterol fear and statins
• Coronary calcium scan explained

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EPISODE RESOURCES

• Dr. Robert Lufkin Website
• Lies I Taught in Medical School Book
• Complete Wellness Panel
• Dr. Robert Lufkin Youtube and Weekly Video Podcast
• Dr. Robert Lufkin’s Instagram

_____
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
📫 Tips and Weekly Updates

JUDY CHO RESOURCES
⛑️Work with Us
🎙️ Podcast
📕 Inflammation Fix Book
📘 Carnivore Cure Book & Elimination Diet
📚 Articles
🎁 Free Resources 

_____
*DISCLAIMER: This content is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. It should not replace professional medical advice.