The Habit Healers

Is rebounding on a mini trampoline real exercise, or just an infomercial leftover? In this episode I unpack the science behind rebounding and the famous NASA study everyone quotes, because the truth about that “68 percent” claim is not what the marketing says. I’ve had more patients ask me about rebounders than almost any other piece of equipment, so let’s talk about what the research actually sho...

If you can’t stop googling your symptoms, re-reading old lab results, or lying awake worrying that every ache is something serious, this episode on health anxiety is for you. I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, and I want to show you why your attention gets stuck on health fears, and the simple, science-backed way to redirect it. On this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I unpack what the research actually...

If joint pain has slowly pushed you out of the activities you love, water therapy for joint pain might be the most underrated place to start. In this episode, I explain why aquatic exercise works so well for arthritis and knee osteoarthritis, and how simply standing in chest-deep water can take most of the load off your aching joints. For years, many of us were told the same thing about joint pain...

Is leaky gut real, or just a wellness buzzword? In this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I separate the real science of intestinal permeability from the zonulin tests and supplements being sold around it, and I show you how a leaky gut wall can quietly drive inflammation and high blood sugar even when you have no gut symptoms at all. Here’s what I want you to know: the gut wall really does le...

The first thing your body loses after 60 isn’t strength, and it isn’t muscle mass. It’s muscle power, and almost no doctor is testing for it. In this episode I walk you through powerpenia, the newly named decline that predicts falls, mobility, and even longevity better than the measures most clinics actually track. Here’s the part most people miss. Muscle strength and muscle power are not the same...

Everyone is talking about fibermaxxing right now, but here is what most of the advice gets wrong: piling on grams of fiber does almost nothing if you are only eating one kind. The word “fiber” on a nutrition label barely tells you what it will actually do inside your body. In this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I walk you through why the old “soluble versus insoluble fiber” framework is mis...

Why does eating out on vacation wreck your blood sugar, even when you order the “healthy” thing? In this episode I explain how to eat well while traveling without chasing perfection, using a mindset borrowed from doctors who practice in the world’s hardest places. Here’s what I want you to know: travel doesn’t just change what you eat, it changes the biological conditions your body uses to process...

Could weak glutes be the hidden reason behind your low back pain, aching knees, and shaky balance? If you sit most of the day, your glute muscles may have quietly stopped firing, a problem sometimes called dead butt syndrome or gluteal amnesia, and the effects reach a lot further than a flat backside. In this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, and I want to walk you throu...

Nearly half of all dementia cases are linked to risk factors you can actually do something about, and most of them have nothing to do with your genes. In this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I break down the 14 modifiable risk factors for dementia identified by the 2024 Lancet Commission, and exactly what they mean for protecting your brain. I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, a board-certified lifestyle...

Can you lower your blood sugar while sitting? It turns out there’s a small muscle in your calf that may let you do exactly that, and almost no one has heard of it. In this episode I break down the soleus push-up, a seated movement that helped blunt after-meal blood sugar spikes by up to 52 percent in early research. Most of us sit for ten or more hours a day, and we’ve all been told the fix is to...

Why does some people’s strength training transform their body while yours just leaves you sore? If you’ve ever wondered why your workouts aren’t working, this episode is for you. I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, and today on The Habit Healers Podcast I’m using one of the oldest crafts on earth, blacksmithing, to explain exactly how your body builds muscle, energy, and strength at any age. The science of bui...

Chronic inflammation is one of the biggest hidden drivers of aging, heart disease, and metabolic decline, and most of us have no idea where we stand. In this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I’m walking you through “inflammaging,” the slow, silent rise in inflammation that accumulates as we age, using a surprising parallel from nature that finally makes the whole process click. I’m Dr. Laurie...

Loneliness is now considered a health risk on the level of smoking, and most of us have no idea how much modern life has quietly stripped human connection out of our days. In this episode, I break down what social disconnection actually does to your body, and the nine small habits that can rebuild it. We’ve engineered face-to-face contact out of almost everything: banking, groceries, work. Each ch...

If your brain won’t stop thinking about food, even when you’re not hungry, you’re experiencing something researchers now call food noise. In this episode, I explain what food noise actually is, why GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Mounjaro quiet it, and how to turn down the volume naturally, with or without medication. For years, constant thoughts about food got blamed on willpower and poor self...

Your sense of smell may be one of the earliest warning signs for brain health and cognitive decline, and almost no one is paying attention to it. In this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I explain why smell training could be one of the simplest things you do for your brain. I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, and in this episode I walk you through the surprising science connecting your nose to your memory...

I have a confession. When someone describes a baked good as “healthy,” my expectations drop. I start picturing dense, dry things that taste like obligation. The kind of food you eat because you should, not because you actually want to. This week’s live cooking session with Chef Martin Oswald changed that. He walked the audience through a muffin recipe where every ingredient pulls double duty, and...

Why are so many healthy, active women being diagnosed with atrial fibrillation? If you or someone you love recently got an AFib diagnosis and can’t understand why, this episode is for you. In this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I answer a letter from a longtime reader: three active women in their seventies, all diagnosed with afib in the same year, all already eating well and staying active...

After 50 years of eating plant-based, my guest, Victoria Moran, was already doing almost everything right, and her cholesterol still had room to drop. Then she added four specific things to her plate, and her total cholesterol fell from 156 to 127. No statin. In my practice, I hear the same frustration constantly: "I eat clean, so why are my numbers stuck?" Victoria's story shows that the Portfoli...

Your doctor said your bloodwork looks normal. But normal only describes what they actually tested. In this episode I walk you through eight tests your annual physical almost never includes, four blood markers and four at-home assessments, that reveal not just where your health stands but where it’s heading. We start with the blood tests your standard panel leaves off. I explain why fasting insulin...

What if you could stay strong, steady, and independent as you age without ever setting foot in a gym? In this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I break down the science of NEAT, non-exercise activity thermogenesis, and exercise snacking, and how tiny bursts of movement woven into your day can lower your risk of early death as much as a structured workout. I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, and one of the...

Your morning blood sugar might be climbing before you even get out of bed, and the order you do things next can either calm it down or send it higher. In this episode I walk you through the morning blood sugar stack, a simple way to rearrange the morning you already have. If you’ve ever wondered why your blood sugar runs high in the morning, the answer starts with something called the dawn phenome...

Can you lower thyroid antibodies naturally, or is Hashimoto’s thyroiditis just something you have to live with? After thirty years with this disease, here’s what I’ve learned: the answer lives in an unexpected place, a coral reef. In this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, and I’m sharing the framework that finally made sense of my own diagnosis, and later my son’s. Hashi...

I want you to try something right now. Sit down in a chair. Now stand back up. Did your hands go to your thighs to push yourself up? Did you lean forward and rock a little to build momentum? If so, you are not alone. And you just identified exactly why this week’s Substack Live with my friend Maxime Sigouin matters so much. Maxime has been in the fitness space for over a decade. He has helped more...

I’ve been cooking at home long enough to know the feeling. You open the fridge at five-thirty, stare at the contents, and realize you’re about to spend the next 45 minutes assembling a meal from scratch, just like you did last night, and the night before that. Meanwhile, a restaurant kitchen is cranking out 200 plates in a single evening across 30 different dishes, and every single one tastes not...

How hard should you actually be exercising? It turns out your own voice can tell you. In this episode I break down the talk test, a simple and free way to find your ideal moderate-intensity exercise zone, sometimes called Zone 2, with no equipment required. I walk you through the fascinating research showing that the moment your speech shifts from comfortable to effortful lines up almost exactly w...