Eager to Be Healthy - a Health and Happiness Podcast

Most of Dr. Quinto Pauletti's patients aren't sick. They're exhausted, foggy, and told their labs look normal. Doc Q runs a concierge practice in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He's barely been sick a day in his life, and he never saw his own father walk. His dad had MS and died when Doc Q was 12. That's what pulled him into healthcare.

We start with sleep, the first pillar, and why night shift is so rough on your body clock. I work nights, so this one's personal. Then stress: adrenaline is the fast alarm, cortisol is the slow burn, and life gets harder when the stress never lets up.

We also get into the blood sugar markers most panels skip, fasting insulin and triglycerides, why Doc Q sees cholesterol as a symptom of something else, and why NAD and peptides need a solid foundation first. His rule: the healthier you get, the fewer supplements you need.

Doc Q's book, Running on Empty at the Top, comes out October 27. Take his free assessment at runningonemptyquiz.com and find his practice, Q Concierge Doctor, at doc-q.com.

Full write-up, transcript and sources: eagertobehealthy.com

This is a value-for-value podcast, no ads and no sponsors. If this episode was worth something to you, support the show: eagertobehealthy.com/support

Always consult your healthcare provider before making changes based on health content.

Takeaways

- Normal isn't always optimal. If you feel off, keep asking.

- Sleep is pillar one. Dark room, same bedtime, same wake time.

- Stress is pillar two. Adrenaline sprints, cortisol runs the marathon.

- Ask for fasting insulin and watch your triglycerides

- Build the foundation before the fancy stuff

- As you get healthier, your supplement list should shrink

Chapters

00:00 Welcome

00:27 Meet Doc Q

01:35 Have you always been healthy?

03:42 Have you always been happy?

05:49 Concierge care, in person and online

07:15 Running on adrenaline

09:24 Night shift and your body clock

10:35 Geeking out on biomarkers

11:34 The full picture

13:28 Fasting insulin and triglycerides

15:08 Blood sugar and cholesterol

16:05 Burnt-out high performers

17:42 Fewer supplements, not more

19:02 Stress, the next big lever

20:47 Adrenaline vs. cortisol

23:34 One gland, two jobs

24:02 The short fuse

25:34 Why he wrote the book

28:39 Calm, clear, challenge

30:00 Foundation before the fancy roof

30:54 Where to find Doc Q

31:35 Closing

Guest: Dr. Quinto Pauletti · doc-q.com

Host: Michael Scott Eger · eagertobehealthy.com

Support the show: eagertobehealthy.com/support

Lexi Reid has a PhD in plant molecular biology. When the pandemic hit, she worked from a folding table in her bedroom, helping a Canadian company push emergency ventilators through quality and regulatory review. She worked all the time. And she stopped being able to paint.

She used to sell her art in galleries. Now she'd walk into her studio, stare at the supplies, and walk back out. What got her moving again was doodling during a Zoom call. Her breathing slowed. Her shoulders let go. Nobody needed a finished product.

Today Lexi is a creative wellness coach. She helps high-achieving women, a lot of them in science and tech, use short drawing exercises to ease stress. We talk about why play feels unproductive, why paper beats a tablet, and why it's hard being grown-ups all the time. You don't have to be an artist.

Lexi's free weekly newsletter and her free drawing challenge are at mindartwellness.com. You can also find her on LinkedIn.

Full write-up, transcript and sources: eagertobehealthy.com

This is a value-for-value podcast, no ads and no sponsors. If this episode was worth something to you, support the show: eagertobehealthy.com/support

Always consult your healthcare provider before making changes based on health content.

Takeaways

Chapters

Guest: Lexi Reid, creative wellness coach · mindartwellness.com

Right after her 89th birthday, Mark Steven Porro's mother decided she was done. No illness, no pain. She just stopped. Her doctor called hospice, a priest gave last rites, and all six kids flew home to say goodbye. She lived three and a half more years, and Mark, a bachelor in his fifties, moved back into his childhood home in New Jersey to care for her.

Mark is a designer, actor and writer who once played an assistant DA on Hill Street Blues. He tells how he treated caregiving as a role he played, so his own discomfort never landed on her. He got her out of bed and walking after a year, renovated her house with her help (she taste-tested the carpet samples), and created a Day of Beauty that ended at the mirror with one question: who is that pretty girl?

We also get into his dad's half-popped popcorn that became Grandpa Po's Originals, life in Pézenas, France, and the advice every caregiver hears and skips: take breaks. Mark learned that one the hard way, with a stress-related medical emergency of his own.

Mark is the author of A Cup of Tea on the Commode: My Multi-Tasking Adventures of Caring for Mom, in paperback, large print, ebook and audiobook, with an annotated edition on the way. His next book, Slightly Unsalted, is about his dad. Find him at acupofteaonthecommode.org.

Full write-up, transcript and sources: eagertobehealthy.com

This is a value-for-value podcast, no ads and no sponsors. If this episode was worth something to you, support the show: eagertobehealthy.com/support

Always consult your healthcare provider before making changes based on health content.

Takeaways

- Play the role. Keep your discomfort out of the room.

- Small tasks give back dignity

- Movement still matters, even after a year in bed

- Wanting to feel pretty doesn't fade with age

- If a task makes you squeamish, hire a pro and just be there

- Take breaks. Put your own oxygen mask on first.

Chapters

00:00 Welcome

00:24 Meet Mark Steven Porro

01:38 Have you always been healthy?

02:45 Have you always been happy?

04:06 From the ballet to Hill Street Blues

06:16 Thick skin in Hollywood

08:37 Wine is cheaper than water

09:51 On vacation since he moved to France

11:22 Officially retired, now an author

12:19 Following every pivot

14:01 Dad's half-popped popcorn

17:51 Moving home to care for Mom

20:46 Hospice said say goodbye

24:46 Getting Mom walking again

26:09 Playing the caregiver role

29:35 "Why are you doing this?"

33:21 Why exercise matters

34:44 Giving back dignity

35:42 The carpet sample

37:02 Writing the book

40:11 A new wardrobe

42:00 Day of Beauty

42:59 "Who is that pretty girl?"

45:11 Tips for caregivers

47:48 Finding a good pro

49:15 The room where he writes

50:16 Next book: Slightly Unsalted

51:32 Where to find Mark

54:47 Closing

Guest: Mark Steven Porro · acupofteaonthecommode.org

Host: Michael Scott Eger · eagertobehealthy.com

Support the show: eagertobehealthy.com/support

Rebecca Lazzelle has fainted more than a thousand times. Doctors told her she was growing too fast, had low blood pressure, maybe POTS. It took a phone call with her sister, months of tracking, and a two-week experiment with no gluten to finally find the cause. Off gluten, her fainting dropped from about 10 times a month to about three.

Rebecca talks openly about her second marriage, which ended in addiction, codependency and domestic violence, and why she says "healing" instead of "healed." She shares what it was like to catch herself scanning a concert crowd for her ex after he'd moved out of state, and how she wrote her memoir by dictating the first draft on a road trip.

We also get into two rounds of Whole30 and the reintroduction step most people skip, the sugar hiding in dressings and bread, her cross-reactivity to quinoa and oats, and whether a gluten enzyme really helps. Rebecca explains the Emotion Code and Body Code energy work she practices, why she calls it physical therapy for your subconscious, and why it belongs alongside traditional care.

Rebecca is the author of What the F*** Was That? A Memoir of Betrayal and Reclaiming Myself and the mindfulness journal You Can F***ing Do This! Find her at rebeccalazzelle.com, where you can book a free discovery call.

Full write-up, transcript and sources: eagertobehealthy.com

This is a value-for-value podcast, no ads and no sponsors. If this episode was worth something to you, support the show: eagertobehealthy.com/support

Always consult your healthcare provider before making changes based on health content.

If you're dealing with domestic violence, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is free, confidential and open 24/7: call 800-799-7233, text START to 88788, or visit thehotline.org.

Takeaways

- Your normal might not be normal. Ask someone you trust.

- Track your symptoms. Patterns lead to answers.

- Get tested for celiac before you cut gluten

- Reintroduce foods one at a time and write it down

- Sugar hides in sauces, dressings and bread

- Healing is ongoing

- New tools work best alongside your care team

Chapters

00:00 Welcome

00:24 Meet Rebecca Lazzelle

01:31 Have you always been healthy?

04:27 Have you always been happy?

06:04 Healing is a gerund

07:42 "How many times have you fainted?" "Zero."

09:19 When her body said no

10:42 Soccer, CrossFit and BodyPump

13:02 From no soda to rice and beans

15:03 Whole30 and an anti-inflammatory cleanse

17:10 Gluten-free noodles and sugar in recipes

19:49 Sugar is in everything

22:17 Donuts vs. the coffee drink

23:51 What's in the Whole30?

24:51 Why reintroduction matters

26:54 Two weeks off gluten

28:18 Quinoa, oats and cross-reactivity

29:13 Does a gluten enzyme work?

30:59 What energy healing is

33:14 A memoir dictated on a road trip

34:52 How sessions work

36:26 Where to find Rebecca

36:51 Energy work alongside medicine

37:51 A "charcuterie board of retreats"

39:41 Closing

Guest: Rebecca Lazzelle · rebeccalazzelle.com

Host: Michael Scott Eger · eagertobehealthy.com

Support the show: eagertobehealthy.com/support

JR Rennie spent nearly forty years running a custom software company. In 2015 the revenue dried up almost overnight. He kept the doors open so his employees and clients were covered, and he stopped paying himself. Ten years later that income is still gone. What he found instead was a calling: BrushFires Ministry, which he and his wife Buffy run to help believers discover the work they were built to do.

In this conversation we talk about what happens when the plan stops working. JR shares why he chose his team over his own paycheck, the day he said out loud, "I know you're behind this. What do you want?", and how months of prayer, scripture, and writing turned frustration into peace. He is honest about the hard parts too: marrying young, raising a son who has lived with epilepsy for forty years, and why faithful people still face tests.

JR unpacks the new wine and new wineskins metaphor, explains why he never prays for patience, and gives his short answer to how to be happy: love God and love other people. Michael shares the car crash that reminded him he was never alone.

Find JR at brushfires-digital.com. Free registration includes four books and a Romans 12 spiritual gifts assessment. The Design WorkShop helps you put your purpose into words.

Full write-up, transcript and sources: eagertobehealthy.com

This is a value-for-value podcast, no ads and no sponsors. If this episode was worth something to you, support the show: eagertobehealthy.com/support

Always consult your healthcare provider before making changes based on health content.

Takeaways

- Happiness follows circumstances; joy grows from loving God and loving others

- A hard season can point you toward your real calling

- Faithful people still face tests, and God stays present through every one

- Shema: listen with the intent to act

- Serving others is the surest way out of your own misery

- Your purpose has no expiration date

- Daily bread covers your needs; gratitude covers the rest

Chapters

00:00 Welcome

01:30 Have you always been healthy?

03:08 The year the revenue stopped

03:48 Employees first, paycheck last

06:55 Where faith came in

08:09 Faithful people still get tested

11:59 How his prayer life changed

13:14 Michael's car crash

18:09 Why JR never prays for patience

19:19 Love God, love others

22:01 The fruit of the Spirit

24:08 No expiration date on your purpose

27:19 "Your best days are ahead of you"

28:33 New wine, new wineskins

31:48 A ministry without a congregation

33:02 Happy comes from happenstance

34:47 Shema: listen with intent to obey

37:55 Waiting in survival mode

39:25 Daily bread, not filet mignon

40:33 Where to find JR

42:23 Closing

Find JR Rennie: brushfires-digital.com

Free: four books and a Romans 12 spiritual gifts assessment with registration

Host: Michael Scott Eger · eagertobehealthy.com

Support the show: eagertobehealthy.com/support

Elizabeth Kipp is a chronic pain management specialist, addiction recovery coach, Ancestral Clearing® practitioner, and bestselling author of The Way Through Chronic Pain: Tools to Reclaim Your Healing Power. After more than forty years of severe chronic pain, anxiety, and panic attacks, and more than thirty years of prescribed opioid and benzodiazepine dependence following back injuries and surgeries, she got herself out first. Then she built the map so other people could follow.

In this conversation we talk about chronic pain as a nervous-system problem, not just a tissue problem. Pain is a signal the brain interprets. Stay in it long enough and the pathways rewire: more stress response, more hypersensitivity, more fight-or-flight. Long-term opioids and benzos can mask that signal without resolving it, and they often tax gut motility, breath, sleep, and the very neuroplastic recovery you need.

Elizabeth walks through de-identifying from pain: moving from "I am my diagnosis" to "this is sensory information moving through my body." She covers safety as a physiological requirement (you cannot digest well in fight-or-flight), trauma-informed breathwork and somatics for rapid down-regulation, Ancestral Clearing® for inherited survival stress that keeps the nervous system stuck, and practical recovery tools she used herself: sleep rhythm, anti-inflammatory nutrition, yoga, Tai Chi, and rebuilding trust in her own body.

Find Elizabeth at elizabeth-kipp.com. Book: The Way Through Chronic Pain. Free resource: 5 Ways to Relieve Stress, Anxiety, & Fear (https://bit.ly/5WaysToRelieveStress).

This is a value-for-value podcast. Support the show at eagertobehealthy.com/support.

Always consult your healthcare provider before making changes based on health content.

Takeaways

- Doing fine with chronic pain is not the same as being well

- Pain is a brain-interpreted signal; chronic pain rewires the nervous system

- Long-term opioids and benzos often mask symptoms without resolving root signaling

- De-identify from pain: sensory information, not identity

- Safety first: digestion, breath, and recovery fail in fight-or-flight

- Ancestral Clearing® and trauma-informed breathwork can release stuck survival patterns

- Small daily practices (sleep, food, breath, movement)

rebuild capacity

Chapters

00:00 Welcome

01:26 Have you always been healthy?

07:21 Nervous system, safety, and walking on eggshells

11:11 Decades on opioids and benzodiazepines

12:58 The brain cannot tell one pain from another

14:09 Sleep, breathwork, yoga, and anti-inflammatory food

18:17 Benzo withdrawal and rebuilding appetite

28:00 Inputs you can still control

35:13 Taste buds change when sugar leaves

39:57 Detox in a toxic world

44:50 The Way Through Chronic Pain

48:58 Where to find Elizabeth

50:30 Closing

Find Elizabeth Kipp: elizabeth-kipp.com

Book: The Way Through Chronic Pain: Tools to Reclaim Your Healing Power

Free: bit.ly/5WaysToRelieveStress

Host: Michael Scott Eger · eagertobehealthy.com

Dr. Radhika Achari is a board-certified behavior analyst with more than fifteen years of clinical work. She has spent her career helping other people build better lives. Her education in wellness did not happen only in a clinic. It happened through years of IVF, and then through raising a neurodivergent son.

In this conversation we talk about the difference between doing fine and being well. Radhika grew up physically healthy and active. The self-care part came later. A lot of us treat self-care like a fire extinguisher. We grab it after everything is already burning. She wants fireproofing instead: the boundaries you set before you are resentful, the rest you take before you are depleted.

Motherhood was not the plan she practiced for. Unexplained infertility. IVF. Hope and grief on a loop. A son through IVF. A daughter eighteen months later. Then a diagnosis that was not a surprise, and still not the plan. Functioning and being happy are not the same thing. You cannot pour from an empty vessel.

What she built from that is Analyze and Act, and an eight-week program called Bridge to College Independence. Parent track and teen track. Remote. She helps families hand over the real stuff on purpose: appointments, school, identity, when and how to disclose. The work is as much about parent burnout as teen skills. Autonomy, practiced early, becomes who you are.

We also get into Spoon Theory, the word "yet," task analysis, and why a palm tree outlasts an oak in a storm. I told her the truth about my own social awkwardness, the anxiety loop, and what changed after I learned to forgive myself.

No book. Website: analyzeandact.com. Free college readiness checklist. One-on-ones, and the eight-week course. Always consult your own provider before you change something real.

This is a value-for-value podcast. Support the show at eagertobehealthy.com/support.

Takeaways

- Doing fine is not the same as being well

- Self-care as fireproofing, not a fire extinguisher

- Functioning and happiness can live in two different rooms

- Hand independence to a teen on purpose, before college

- "Yet" turns a wall into a ladder

- Track what fills you and what drains you. No shame. Just data.

Chapters

00:00 Welcome

02:14 Have you always been healthy?

05:18 Have you always been happy?

06:36 IVF, motherhood, and a plan that would not hold

11:36 How her son's diagnosis actually shows up

19:26 Analyze and Act / Bridge to College Independence

26:00 Autonomy, self-forgiveness, and the doomsday spiral

28:45 Spoon Theory and the social battery

32:33 ACT, "yet," and breaking a mountain into steps

39:34 Biggest life skill: oak trees and palm trees

42:04 Where to find her

43:05 Closing

Find Dr. Radhika Achari: analyzeandact.com

Host: Michael Scott Eger · eagertobehealthy.com

Lorraine Sanborn, a healthy aging educator, shares her journey of health transformation and resilience at the age of 72. She discusses the importance of positive social networks, self-care, and the role of companionship in maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle. Lorraine also reflects on her experiences as a caregiver and the valuable life lessons she has learned, promoting aspirational health for individuals over fifty.

Takeaways

• Resilience and positive mindset contribute to healthy aging.
• Companionship and pet care play a significant role in promoting an active and fulfilling lifestyle.

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction to Healthy Aging
• 03:10 Early Years and Health Journey
• 06:00 Life Changes and Resilience
• 09:04 Positive Social Network and Mental Health
• 12:00 Physical Health and Self-Care
• 14:58 Lessons and Relationships
• 18:00 Companionship and Pet Care
• 21:10 Caregiving and Aging Issues
• 23:58 Life Lessons and Aspirational Health
• 27:02 Promotion and Conclusion

Vanessa Cook was hospitalized for severe asthma at eighteen months old. By her late twenties she was living with asthma, eleven years of fibromyalgia, and a heart condition nobody had found yet — and she'd been told to expect a pacemaker by forty-five. She's thirty-seven now. No pacemaker, no heart medication, no asthma medication, and a résumé that includes ultramarathons.

In this conversation with Michael Scott Eger, Vanessa traces the turning point: the night her husband told her, through tears, that he was afraid he'd end up raising their children alone. What followed wasn't one fix. It was a five-mile obstacle course she had no business entering, two and a half hours of vomiting and crying, and a finish line that taught her she could do hard things — as long as she stopped trying to do them all at once.

We get into why the trendy protocols failed her, how she learned that even a "healthy" food can be the wrong food for a specific body, and why she now reads symptoms as messages rather than problems to silence. Vanessa also makes the case for whole-person care — the emotional and spiritual work a fifteen-minute appointment will never reach — and for walking into that appointment educated enough to ask, "can we try this first?"

Vanessa Cook is the founder of Starlight & Sage Wellness. Learn more at starlightandsagewellness.com.

Eager to Be Healthy is listener-supported and ad-free. Support the mission at eagertobehealthy.com/support.

• A symptom is a signal. Medicating it away can cost you the information underneath it.
• No protocol is universal. Vanessa's turnaround started when she stopped chasing trends and started paying attention to her own body.
• Your doctor gets fifteen minutes with you a year. You get 24/7. Showing up educated changes the conversation.
• Capability is built in small decisions, not dramatic ones. The finish line mattered less than the eight years after it.

Nahrin Chowdhury — founder, Unstressified Instagram: @unstressified — https://www.instagram.com/unstressified LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nahrin-chowdhury-73559b120 TikTok: @unstressified Website: https://www.unstressified.com

Takeaways

• Reframing trauma and stress can lead to personal growth and resilience.
• Embracing discomfort and stepping out of comfort zones can lead to new levels of happiness and fulfillment. Self-confidence is built by collecting evidence of overcoming unknown situations.
• Physical and mental strategies are essential for managing stress effectively.

Chapters

• 00:00 Unstressified: A Stubborn Premise
• 03:00 The Pursuit of Happiness
• 04:29 The Good and Bad of Stress
• 08:03 Reframing Trauma and Stress
• 11:30 Embracing Discomfort for Growth
• 15:40 Stepping Out of Comfort Zones
• 18:13 Adventurous Spirit and Openness to Change
• 25:23 Coping with the Unknown
• 30:12 Calming the Storm
• 37:51 Overcoming Fear and Embracing New Experiences
• 38:27 Pursuit of Happiness and Health