Healthier Than Ever

I was on my way to the hospital when I learned that insurance had denied a procedure my surgeon considered important before major surgery. A week later, the appeal was denied too. What followed involved tears, swearing at an AI chatbot, an email I regretted sending, and a surprisingly useful lesson in advocating for myself. Download the Free AI Advocacy Guide Practical prompts and steps to help yo...

What if the goal isn't to get rid of fear, but to turn down its volume? In this episode of Healthier Than Ever , Toni sits down with Dr. Marc Schoen, a clinical psychologist, author, and resilience expert who has been studying hypnosis since he found a book on his mother's shelf at age 13. He also happens to be her neighbor, and his work has helped her tremendously over the past few year...

Cancer vaccines have been making headlines - and during a recent oncology appointment at City of Hope, I unexpectedly got the chance to spend about 20 minutes talking with Dr. Turja Chakrabarti, a physician and cancer-vaccine researcher. I had asked my oncologist, Dr. Ravi Salgia, about the encouraging melanoma research combining a personalized cancer vaccine with Keytruda - the same immunotherapy...

When Karla Mans Giroux learned that her breast cancer had returned and spread to her bones eleven years after her original diagnosis, her mind went immediately to the worst-case scenario. Then her oncologist told her something she wasn't expecting: “This is a chronic disease we can manage.” Karla decided she was going to “manage the hell out of” her diagnosis. That decision eventually led her...

What happens when the rest of the world is asleep - but your mind is still racing? In this episode of Healthier Than Ever , Dr. Toni Balfour sits down with writer, meditation teacher, former insomniac, and longtime friend Meline Nadeau for an honest conversation about insomnia, anxiety, meditation, and the strange vulnerability of being awake in the middle of the night. Meline began struggling wit...

Keith Ayers: The Obligation of the Cured | Finding Meaning After Cancer When Keith Ayers was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma at just 22 years old, his life changed overnight. A law student with his future carefully mapped out, he suddenly found himself facing chemotherapy, uncertainty, and questions no one expects to ask at such a young age. In this conversation, Keith shares how conventional...

This isn't one of my usual episodes. It's a short, personal message for my friends, family, and patients - especially those who may be surprised to discover that I'm now hosting a podcast that includes conversations about living with Stage 4 lung cancer. For a long time, I chose to keep my own health journey separate from my work. When I was with patients, my focus was always on the...

Larry Miller built his own integrative cancer treatment before integrative oncology was a field anyone talked about. He's a licensed acupuncturist in Los Angeles now, an ultramarathoner, and someone I met in Chinese medicine school in the mid-90s. At 21, he was on a summer program in Washington, DC, when a cold that wouldn't clear turned into daily nosebleeds, then polyps, then a biopsy...

There is a mac and cheese ball at the center of this story. I did not see that coming either. In this first episode of Healthier Than Ever , my longtime friend Libby Silverman - television writer, producer, and co-host of the Do Over Divas podcast - sits down with me to help me tell the story of how I got here. How a healthy, non-smoking doctor of Chinese medicine ended up with a Stage 4 lung canc...

This is the official trailer for  Healthier Than Ever - a podcast about healing beyond the diagnosis. Dr. Antonia Balfour is a holistic doctor, a mother, and a non-smoker who was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer at 53. In this short intro, she shares the story behind the show and the heart behind the journey. If you're navigating illness, caring for someone who is, or simply seeking a deepe...