The Habit Healers

Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA
  • 4.7 (239)
  • Alternative Health
  • Updated Weekly

Welcome to The Habit Healers Podcast—where transformation starts with a single habit. Hosted by Dr. Laurie Marbas, this podcast is for anyone ready to break free from chronic health struggles, rewire their habits, and create lasting healing. Through powerful stories, science-backed strategies, and real-world tools, we dive deep into the micro shifts that lead to massive health transformations. You’ll learn how to heal beyond prescriptions—how to nourish your body, reprogram your mind, and build the habits that make vibrant health effortless. Whether you’re looking to reverse disease, boost energy, or finally make health a way of life, this podcast will show you how. Because true healing isn’t about willpower—it’s about design. And you’re always just one healing habit away. drlauriemarbas.substack.com

  1. 5h ago

    She Reversed Prediabetes With 6 Habits That Don't Require a Gym, a Diet, or a Doctor's Visit

    Can you reverse prediabetes naturally and lower your fasting blood sugar without medication? One of my Substack readers went from a fasting glucose of 116 to 91 in four months using six small daily habits, and I’m walking you through every one of them. If you’ve seen a fasting blood sugar reading land somewhere in the prediabetic range of 100 to 125, you already know that particular kind of quiet panic. Most people respond by trying to change everything at once, and most of them quit within three weeks. In this episode I share the story of a 64-year-old reader who did the opposite. She built a system so small and so portable she could run it in a hotel room, at a holiday dinner, or on a Tuesday in February. We talk about what’s actually happening in your body when insulin resistance starts to build, why your muscles are the largest glucose disposal system you have, and how a habit that takes 45 seconds can pull sugar out of your blood without insulin at all. What you’ll learn in this episode: * What a fasting blood sugar of 116 really means and why the prediabetic range is a warning, not a verdict * How walking after meals and simple movement activate GLUT4 transporters to lower post-meal blood sugar spikes * Why protein at every meal flattens your glucose curve * What the Arizona State research on apple cider vinegar and blood sugar actually found * How berberine activates AMPK, and why you should talk to your doctor first * Why three meals a day with no snacking improves insulin sensitivity overnight Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/she-reversed-prediabetes-with-6-habitsCheck out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about Get full access to The Habit Healers at drlauriemarbas.substack.com/subscribe

    She Reversed Prediabetes With 6 Habits That Don't Require a Gym, a Diet, or a Doctor's Visit

  2. 1d ago

    Why Do the Earliest Signs of Parkinson’s Show Up Outside the Brain?

    What if the earliest signs of Parkinson’s disease show up in your gut, years before the first tremor? In this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I walk through what the research on the gut brain connection, diet, exercise, and sleep is telling us about how Parkinson’s actually begins. I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, a board certified lifestyle medicine physician, and this is one of those topics where the science has quietly shifted underneath us. We’ll look at why constipation, loss of smell, and acting out dreams can precede a diagnosis by decades, what alpha-synuclein and mitochondrial stress have to do with it, and why the neurons hit hardest by this disease are the most energy hungry cells you have. Then we get practical. I’ll share why Mediterranean style and plant forward eating patterns keep showing lower Parkinson’s risk and slower progression, what happened in the high intensity exercise trials, how deep sleep clears metabolic waste from your brain, and which environmental toxins are worth taking seriously. What you’ll learn: * Why the gut microbiome and intestinal inflammation may be where Parkinson’s disease starts * How a Mediterranean, fiber rich, plant based diet supports brain health and lowers inflammation naturally * What high intensity exercise did to motor symptoms in people with early Parkinson’s * Why sleep quality drives the brain’s overnight cleaning system * How chronic stress and cortisol worsen Parkinson’s symptoms day to day * Which pesticides and solvents are linked to higher Parkinson’s risk Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/why-do-the-earliest-signs-of-parkinsonsCheck out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about Get full access to The Habit Healers at drlauriemarbas.substack.com/subscribe

    Why Do the Earliest Signs of Parkinson’s Show Up Outside the Brain?

  3. 2d ago

    Alcohol Raises Cancer Risk. If You’ve Been Drinking for Years, What Does Cutting Back Now Change?

    Does alcohol cause cancer, and does quitting actually lower your risk? Most women have never been given a straight answer about alcohol and breast cancer risk, so today I want to give you one, including the study finding that made quitting look like the wrong move. In this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, and we’re walking through what the research on alcohol and cancer risk in women really shows. I explain why people who stopped drinking appeared to have higher cancer odds in the first two years, and why that number is measuring who quits rather than what quitting does. We look at what the evidence says about estrogen receptor positive breast cancer, why no level of drinking has been shown to carry zero added risk, and why switching to red wine does not solve the problem. Then I give you something practical: how to calibrate your own pour, how to count a week in grams instead of glasses, and how to set a target you can actually keep. If you have been sober curious, mindful drinking, or just wondering whether your nightly glass of wine counts, this one is for you. What you’ll learn: * Why the first two years after people quit drinking look backwards in the data * What the research shows about alcohol and estrogen receptor positive breast cancer * Why a standard drink is 14 grams, and why your usual pour is probably more * How to run a seven day pour count and find your real baseline * What changed in one month of no alcohol: blood pressure, insulin resistance, liver enzymes * The withdrawal warning signs that mean you should call your doctor before cutting back Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/alcohol-raises-cancer-risk-if-youveCheck out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about Get full access to The Habit Healers at drlauriemarbas.substack.com/subscribe

    Alcohol Raises Cancer Risk. If You’ve Been Drinking for Years, What Does Cutting Back Now Change?

  4. 3d ago

    The Real Reason Your Exercise Habit Never Lasts and What to Do Instead

    Why can’t you stick to an exercise routine? It may have nothing to do with discipline. In this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I explain the research finding that best predicts exercise adherence, and it’s not your trainer, your program, or your willpower. It’s how the workout feels while you’re doing it. I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, and I want to walk you through what happens in your body when exercise intensity crosses a boundary called the ventilatory threshold, the point where effort turns into distress and your brain quietly files the whole experience under “avoid.” Below that line, almost everyone feels neutral to positive during movement. Above it, almost nobody does. We also look at the diet research that shows the same pattern, where the best predictor of weight loss wasn’t which plan people chose but how consistently they could live with it. Then I give you the one habit to start tomorrow morning, and it’s simpler than anything you’ve been sold. What you’ll learn: * Why in-the-moment enjoyment predicts exercise adherence better than post-workout mood * What the ventilatory threshold is and why crossing it makes workouts feel like suffering * How to use the talk test to find your sustainable exercise intensity * Why moderate-intensity exercise you enjoy beats high-intensity exercise you tolerate over a year * What diet adherence research reveals about sustainable habits and weight loss * How to build a walking or movement habit that actually lasts Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/the-real-reason-your-exercise-habit Check out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about Get full access to The Habit Healers at drlauriemarbas.substack.com/subscribe

    The Real Reason Your Exercise Habit Never Lasts and What to Do Instead

  5. 4d ago

    Five Health Experiments You Can Run on Yourself Starting Monday

    Your fitness tracker, your continuous glucose monitor, and your home blood pressure cuff are all giving you real numbers. The problem is that most of those numbers are noise, and reacting to them can quietly make your health worse. In this episode I walk you through a hundred-year-old method that came out of a telephone factory, not a clinic, and show you how to use it on your own body. We talk about the three ways your health data misleads you: regression to the mean, confirmation bias, and the multiple testing problem that happens when you watch two dozen metrics at once. Then I give you the four-week N-of-1 self-experiment structure that clinical researchers use with individual patients: a baseline week, alternating intervention and control weeks, one variable at a time, and a decision threshold you set before you start. Finally we go through five metrics worth tracking and exactly how much change counts as real for each one. What you’ll learn in this episode: * Why adjusting your routine after every bad reading adds variation instead of removing it * How to calculate your personal baseline before testing any intervention * The A-B-A-B design that separates a real effect from normal day to day fluctuation * Decision thresholds for steps per day, sleep duration and regularity, resting heart rate, home blood pressure, and post-meal glucose * Why sleep regularity may predict risk more strongly than sleep duration * Simple sample experiments you can run this month, including post-meal walking and nitrate-rich leafy greens Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/how-do-you-know-if-your-new-habit Check out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about Get full access to The Habit Healers at drlauriemarbas.substack.com/subscribe

    Five Health Experiments You Can Run on Yourself Starting Monday

  6. 5d ago

    You Don’t Need to Exercise Every Day. Here’s How to Make Two Days Count.

    Is exercising only on the weekend enough? If you sit at a desk all week and cram your workouts into Saturday and Sunday, the research on weekend warrior exercise is better news than you think. In this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I walk you through what nearly 93,000 adults wearing movement trackers actually showed us about how much exercise you need per week, and why the total may matter more than the schedule. I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, board-certified lifestyle medicine physician, and I want to untangle the three separate worries hiding inside one question. The first is whether one or two days of moderate to vigorous physical activity can carry a whole week. The second is prolonged sitting, which is its own health risk and something your Saturday workout cannot undo for you. The third is the injury and soreness risk that comes from going from nothing to a lot in one session. We talk about the 150 minutes of exercise per week target, how to use the talk test to know you’re at moderate intensity without a watch, why strength training twice a week is enough for most people starting out, and how to ease in so delayed onset muscle soreness doesn’t derail you. What you’ll learn: * Why the weekend warrior exercise pattern held up against spreading movement across the week * How to hit 150 to 300 minutes of moderate activity per week on a packed schedule * The talk test for checking moderate intensity exercise without a tracker * Why breaking up prolonged sitting with short walking breaks lowers blood sugar * How to build strength training for beginners into two days a week * A four-week ramp that reduces soreness and injury risk Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/is-it-bad-to-cram-a-whole-week-ofCheck out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about Get full access to The Habit Healers at drlauriemarbas.substack.com/subscribe

    You Don’t Need to Exercise Every Day. Here’s How to Make Two Days Count.

  7. 6d ago

    The Cure for Sitting Disease Isn't Standing. It's This.

    Is sitting too much really the problem, or is it the chair? In this episode I explore the surprising science of floor sitting, sitting disease, and why your standing desk may not be protecting you the way you think. I share what researchers found when they studied the Hadza, a hunter-gatherer population in Tanzania who rest nearly ten hours a day, as much as office workers in the US, yet remain metabolically healthy. The difference is not how long they rest, it is how they rest: squatting, kneeling, and constantly changing positions in ways that keep muscles gently active. I also walk you through the sitting-rising test, one of the strongest functional predictors of longevity and independence, and share my complete twelve-week Floor Living Protocol so you can rebuild hip mobility, core strength, balance, and the ability to get up from the floor with confidence, no matter your starting point. If you have been worried about the health effects of prolonged sitting, back pain, stiffness, or fall prevention as you age, this conversation is for you. What you’ll learn: * Why sitting disease may actually be a disease of the chair, not of rest itself * What Hadza resting postures reveal about muscle activity, squatting, and metabolic health * Why standing desks trade one static posture for another * How the sitting-rising test predicts longevity and independence * My twelve-week Floor Living Protocol for hip mobility, core strength, and balance * How floor-rise training improves fall recovery, even in your seventies Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/what-if-sitting-disease-has-nothingCheck out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about Get full access to The Habit Healers at drlauriemarbas.substack.com/subscribe

    The Cure for Sitting Disease Isn't Standing. It's This.

  8. Sep 7

    When Does Stress Actually Raise Your Blood Sugar?

    Why is your blood sugar high when you didn’t eat anything extra? If stress and cortisol are spiking your glucose, the answer may come down to one thing nobody talks about: timing. In this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, and I’m unpacking the strange, specific way stress hormones raise blood sugar, and why the same bad phone call can move your numbers forty points one afternoon and do nothing the next morning. I’ll walk you through what cortisol and adrenaline actually do inside your body, using a story about a bank you will never forget. You’ll learn why stress on an empty stomach barely touches your glucose, why stress after a meal keeps it elevated far longer, and why carbohydrates can actually make your cortisol response bigger. Then we get practical: what stress management did to A1c in a year-long trial, where mindfulness helps and where it doesn’t, and the research on walking after eating that gives you a way through the wall insulin resistance puts up. What you’ll learn: * How cortisol and blood sugar are connected, and why stress raises glucose without food * Why unexplained blood sugar spikes often trace back to when stress hit, not what you ate * The fasting versus fed research that changes how you think about stress and glucose * Why walking after eating lowers blood sugar, and why walking before a meal doesn’t * The exact post-meal walk timing the trials used: 15 to 20 minutes, starting within 30 minutes What stress management training did to A1c in people with type 2 diabetes Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/when-does-stress-actually-raise-yourCheck out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about Get full access to The Habit Healers at drlauriemarbas.substack.com/subscribe

    When Does Stress Actually Raise Your Blood Sugar?
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4.7
out of 5
239 Ratings

About

Welcome to The Habit Healers Podcast—where transformation starts with a single habit. Hosted by Dr. Laurie Marbas, this podcast is for anyone ready to break free from chronic health struggles, rewire their habits, and create lasting healing. Through powerful stories, science-backed strategies, and real-world tools, we dive deep into the micro shifts that lead to massive health transformations. You’ll learn how to heal beyond prescriptions—how to nourish your body, reprogram your mind, and build the habits that make vibrant health effortless. Whether you’re looking to reverse disease, boost energy, or finally make health a way of life, this podcast will show you how. Because true healing isn’t about willpower—it’s about design. And you’re always just one healing habit away. drlauriemarbas.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA
  • Years Active
    2016 - 2026
  • Episodes
    269
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA
  • Show Website
    The Habit Healers

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