The Habit Healers

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 shows about health anxiety. Here’s the part that surprised me most: anxious minds don’t notice health threats faster than anyone else, they just can’t let go of them once they do. I explain how that kind of chronic worry and rumination puts a real, measurable load on your body, raising blood pressure, heart rate, and cortisol, even when nothing is actually wrong. Then I walk you through a gentle approach drawn from acceptance and commitment therapy, and I share my Windshield Protocol, a five-habit system for shifting your attention away from the fears you can’t control and toward the forward-facing health habits you can act on today.
What you’ll learn:
* Why people with health anxiety struggle to disengage from threats, not detect them
* How worry and rumination quietly raise blood pressure, heart rate, and cortisol
* What the research says about symptom checking, reassurance seeking, and compulsive online searching
* A science-backed way to redirect your attention using acceptance and commitment therapy
* The five-habit Windshield Protocol for building controllable, plant-forward health habits
* The red flags that mean health anxiety is worth talking to a professional about
Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/are-you-driving-your-health-while?r=4t8jxg
Check out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about


Get full access to The Habit Healers at drlauriemarbas.substack.com/subscribe

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: that our cartilage is wearing out and that movement makes it worse. On this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, and I’m walking you through why that wear-and-tear story gets it backwards, and why your joints actually depend on movement to stay healthy. We’ll talk about how buoyancy, warm water, and gentle resistance work together to ease pain, what the research really shows when water exercise is compared to land-based exercise, and how to pick a starting point that fits where your body is right now. Whether you’re dealing with knee pain, hip pain, or stiffness that’s kept you from the gym, this is a practical roadmap for low-impact exercise that doesn’t hurt while you do it.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
* How much body weight aquatic exercise takes off your joints, and why warm-water therapy eases arthritis pain
* Why the “wear and tear” model of joint pain is backwards, and how movement helps protect your cartilage
* A simple four-week water protocol for knee osteoarthritis and joint pain relief
* Land-based options for low-impact exercise when you don’t have pool access, including stationary cycling and tai chi
* When to talk to your doctor before starting any exercise program for joint pain
Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/your-painful-joints-dont-need-rest?r=4t8jxg
Check out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about


Get full access to The Habit Healers at drlauriemarbas.substack.com/subscribe

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 leak, and researchers have measured it for over thirty years in conditions like type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and fatty liver disease. The biology is real. What the wellness industry got wrong is the products built on top of it. In this episode I walk through what actually damages the gut barrier, why common pain relievers like ibuprofen and naproxen matter more than most people realize, and how the gut connects to your metabolism through your liver. Then I give you a practical, research-backed gut barrier repair protocol you can start this week.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
* Why “leaky gut syndrome” isn’t a real diagnosis, but increased intestinal permeability is real and measurable
* How NSAIDs, alcohol, stress, and ultra-processed foods damage your gut wall
* The link between gut health, insulin resistance, and chronic inflammation
* How to build a fiber and butyrate floor to repair the gut lining
* What the research says about probiotics and zinc carnosine for gut barrier support
* The sleep and stress habits that drive overnight gut wall repair
Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/why-is-your-gut-leaking-and-what?r=4t8jxg
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 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 thing, and they don’t decline at the same rate. Power, your ability to produce force quickly, falls first and fastest, often twice as fast as strength. It’s what lets you catch yourself when you trip, push up off the floor, or react when you lose your balance. The reason comes down to what happens to your fast-twitch fibers and motor neurons as you age, and the good news is that a specific kind of training can make the fibers you still have larger, faster, and more capable. I’ll show you the one rule that separates exercise that works from exercise that does nothing, plus a simple at-home power test and three exercises pulled straight from clinical trials in adults over 60.
In this episode you’ll learn:
* Why muscle power, not muscle mass, is the real predictor of fall risk and independence as you age
* What powerpenia is and why standard sarcopenia screening misses it entirely
* How fast-twitch fibers convert to slow-twitch ones, and how to slow or partly reverse it
* The five-times sit-to-stand test you can use at home to measure your lower-body power
* Three explosive, equipment-free exercises for adults over 60, and the speed rule that makes them work
* How just two to three fifteen-minute sessions a week can rebuild functional power
This is practical, science-forward lifestyle medicine you can start today.
Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/your-body-isnt-losing-muscle-first?r=4t8jxg
Check out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about


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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 misleading, and the two properties that actually predict what a fiber does: whether it forms a gel, and whether your gut bacteria can ferment it. I break it down into a simple system you can use at the grocery store: GEL, FEED, SWEEP. Gel-forming fibers like oats and psyllium lower LDL cholesterol and steady your blood sugar. Fermentable fibers like resistant starch feed your gut microbiome and produce short-chain fatty acids like butyrate. And sweep fibers keep everything moving. I also share why fiber diversity, paired with fermented foods, may do more for your gut health than simply eating more.
I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, a lifestyle medicine physician, and my goal is always to turn the science into something you can actually live by. If you have ever added fiber and felt nothing change, or felt worse, this episode explains why, and exactly what to do this week.
What you’ll learn:
* Why “soluble versus insoluble fiber” is the wrong way to think about it
* How gel-forming fiber like oat beta-glucan and psyllium lowers LDL cholesterol
* What resistant starch and prebiotic fiber do for your gut microbiome
* Why short-chain fatty acids like butyrate matter for your colon and your brain
* How fiber diversity and fermented foods beat just adding grams
* A simple Monday plan to bring all three fiber types onto your plate
Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/what-if-everything-you-know-about
Check out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about


Get full access to The Habit Healers at drlauriemarbas.substack.com/subscribe