Orthodox Health

Not everything called healing actually heals. In this episode of The Orthodox Health Podcast , Dr. Michael Christian & John are joined by Christian trauma therapist, Anastasia Gerali, The Reborn Anastasia, to discuss her journey from cultural Orthodoxy into New Age spirituality... & back to Christ. Anastasia shares how trauma, divorce, manifestation, hypnotherapy, yoga, meditation, psychic...

What if the greatest spiritual deception doesn't look dark What if it looks peaceful? In this episode of the Orthodox Health Podcast , Dr. Michael Christian & John are rejoined by our good friend Robert Sirico, who is a cantor, choir director, & doctoral seminarian. In the conversation, we move beyond the question of whether yoga is religious & examine the larger worldview surround...

Is the Fast making you weak… or is it revealing what modern life already depleted? In this episode of the Orthodox Health Podcast , Dr. Michael Christian & John continue the Apostle’s Fast arc with Dr. Michael Moeller, NMD, for a conversation on nourished asceticism, testosterone, men’s health, blood sugar, digestion, protein, metabolic resilience, peptides, berberine, & how to fast seriou...

Orthodox fasting is not self-destruction. In this episode of The Orthodox Health Podcast , Dr. Michael Christian & John build on two previous Orthodox Health conversations: the recent episode on nutrient pairings, & Episode 12, The Microcosm Within: Orthodoxy & the Microbiome . The core idea is simple: intake is not the same thing as reception . You can eat fasting foods and still feel...

During the Apostles’ Fast, many Orthodox Christians focus almost entirely on what they are removing: meat, dairy, eggs, oil, wine. But what if the deeper question is not simply, “What am I avoiding?” but, “What am I actually receiving?” In this episode, Dr. Michael Christian & John use nutrient pairings as a practical case study in one of the deepest patterns woven into creation: things are re...

What if sin is not merely a legal violation, or "rule-breaking," but a sickness of the whole person? In this episode of the Orthodox Health Podcast , Dr. Michael Christian & John are joined by Fr. Hans Jacobse for a deeply pastoral conversation on trauma, compulsion, embodied memory, prayer, & Orthodox healing . Dropping the day after Pentecost, this conversation asks what true healing loo...

Before Erika found Orthodoxy, she had spent years in theistic satanism, occult practice, ritual magic, & demonic spirituality... until the New Testament, the Jesus Prayer, & the life of the Church revealed that the “power” she had been promised was bondage. In this episode of the Orthodox Health Podcast , Dr. Michael Christian & John speak with Erika of Shire Skincare about her journey...

Modern medicine often treats the body like a machine. New Age wellness treats the body like energy. Orthodoxy gives us something deeper than both. In this episode of the Orthodox Health Podcast , Dr. Michael Christian & John ask the question underneath the entire post-Pascha body arc: What is the body? They discuss the machine model of modern medicine, the New Age reaction to medical reduction...

What does chiropractic have to do with Orthodoxy, the body, pain, stress, & healing? In this episode of the Orthodox Health Podcast , Dr. Michael Christian & John continue the post-Pascha Body Arc with Dr. Christian Nelson, DC, an Orthodox Christian chiropractor & founder of Advocate Wellness TX . Together they discuss pain, posture, nervous system patterns, stress, the esoteric roots...

What if your body isn’t broken, but protecting you? In this episode of the Orthodox Health Podcast , Dr. Michael Christian & John continue the Post-Pascha Body Arc with Dr. Edgar Urilov , a physical therapist &Orthodox Christian, for a conversation on pain, fascia, rehab, stress, & the body that will be raised. After speaking with Buck Johnson about emergency care & Nicholas Cerean...

In this episode of the Orthodox Health Podcast , Dr. Michael Christian & John sit down with USA streetlifting record holder Nicholas Cerean to talk about strength, discipline, fasting, injury, humility, & the body in light of the Resurrection . This is a conversation about the Christian body after Pascha: not as an idol, not as an afterthought, but as something to be offered back to God. N...

Christ is Risen! In this episode of the Orthodox Health Podcast , Dr. Michael Christian & John welcome Buck Johnson of the Counterflow Podcast to open the new Orthodox Health “Body Arc.” Buck is known to many as a podcaster, but he has spent over 2 decades as a first responder, making him the perfect first guest for a post-Pascha conversation on the body, because Pascha is not an escape from t...

Holy Week is not a reward for people who “nailed Lent.” It is medicine for the weak. In this episode of the Orthodox Health Podcast , Dr. Michael Christian & John walk from Lazarus Saturday to Pascha as a field guide for real people: those who are exhausted, behind, scattered, ashamed, or tempted to turn the fast into obsession. They unpack Lazarus Saturday as truth & return, Palm Sunday a...

In this episode of the Orthodox Health Podcast , Dr. Michael Christian is joined by guest co-host Gavin McCort, RDN, & Dr. Robyn Middleton, PhD to explore women’s mental health during Lent... covering anxiety, burnout, stress, perfectionism, distraction, & how the Jesus Prayer restores peace in a noisy, overstimulated world. It connects Orthodox spirituality with real-world mental health,...

Most men don’t fail Lent because of food. They fail because they can’t sit still with their own mind. In this episode of The Orthodox Health Podcast , Dr. Michael Christian & John are joined by Jonathan Lewis (The Tested Man) to break down the real battle of Lent... not physical, but mental & spiritual. When the noise drops... no constant stimulation, no comfort eating, no distraction... w...

Women are not tiny men. In this episode of the Orthodox Health Podcast , Dr. Michael Christian & John, are joined by Khouria Cathryn Barker, RN of The Sanctified Womb to unpack a neglected but urgent topic: women’s health, fasting, fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, recovery, & peace from a distinctly Orthodox perspective. Khouria Cathryn explains why women cannot simply approach fasting li...

Is Lent lowering testosterone… or exposing weak discipline? In this episode of the Orthodox Health Podcast , Dr. Michael Christian & John are re-joined by Gavin McCort of Temple Builder Fitness to discuss the real foundations of male strength: discipline, asceticism, training, & responsibility . Modern culture talks endlessly about the testosterone crisis , declining male strength, and col...

What is the minimum effective dose of Lent? If you’re overwhelmed by strict fasting rules, long services, & seemingly unrealistic expectations... this episode of the Orthodox Health Podcast gives you a grounded, strategic framework for a Lent that actually transforms you. Dr. Michael Christian & John break down a “Minimum Effective Lent” protocol ... the smallest viable ascetical rule that...

The Church does not begin Great Lent with a productivity plan, a diet, or a heroic list. She begins Lent with a doorway... forgiveness . In this Forgiveness Sunday episode of the Orthodox Health Podcast , Dr. Michael Christian & John sit back down with Fr. John Wehling to unpack why forgiveness isn’t sentimental, why it isn’t the same as reconciliation or access, & how the Rite of Forgiven...

The Sunday of the Last Judgment isn’t just about the end of the world... it’s about the end of your excuses. As we approach Great Lent, Fr. John Peck joins Dr. Michael Christian & John on the Orthodox Health Podcast to unpack the Gospel of Meatfare Sunday & the subtle spiritual danger that keeps most of us from repentance: delay. The demon’s best lie isn’t that God isn’t merciful... it’s t...

What if repentance isn’t about punishment, shame, or self-improvement... but about coming home ? In this episode, Dr. Michael Christian & John are joined by Fr. Michael Butler (Avg2Alpha) for a deep, pastoral conversation on the Parable of the Prodigal Son & the Church’s wisdom in placing it at the heart of the Triodion, just before Great Lent begins. Together, they explore repentance not...

We’re kicking off our 4-week Triodion mini-arc leading into Great Lent with a return guest, Fr. Zechariah Lynch, for the Sunday of the Publican & the Pharisee (Luke 18:9–14). The Church begins here for a reason: you can do “Orthodox things” with the wrong spirit. This parable is the first warning before the fast... don’t turn prayer, discipline, or fasting into a spiritual performance. The Pub...

In this episode of the Orthodox Health Podcast , Dr. Michael Christian & John are joined by clinical herbalist Presvytera Krystina Valadez to explore healing through an Orthodox Christian lens... cutting through both modern medical reductionism & New Age “wellness” spirituality. This is a conversation about right order : herbs without magic, prayer without superstition, suffering without d...

Winter isn’t an emergency, it’s a season. In this episode of the Orthodox Health Podcast , Dr. Michael Christian & John unpack what Theophany proclaims about reality: creation is sanctified, the body matters, & health can’t be reduced to control, hacks, or fear. We contrast communion logic vs. control logic , explain why modern life turns winter into a panic cycle (overstimulation, stress...

What if Theophany isn’t just a feast you celebrate... what if it’s a new reality you’re supposed to live from? In this episode, Dr. Michael Christian & co-host John unpack how Orthodox Christianity rejects both “flat secular materialism” & escapist spirituality , & why that matters for your body, nervous system, sleep, food, home, & daily rhythms . You’ll hear why “sanctified matte...