Why is my cholesterol still high after changing my diet? If you’ve cut saturated fat, eaten more plants, and your LDL cholesterol barely moved, this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast is for you.

I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, and today I’m walking you through what your cholesterol number is really measuring. Your body makes most of its own cholesterol, and your LDL comes down to a balance between what your liver sends out and how many LDL receptors are pulling it back in. Saturated fat, thyroid function, menopause, your genes, and even rapid weight loss can all shift that balance. Once you see it this way, a stubborn lab result stops feeling like a failure and starts making sense. Then we get practical: the foods and fiber with the strongest evidence for lowering cholesterol naturally, the supplements I’m cautious about, and when it’s time to talk with your doctor about your real heart disease risk.

What you’ll learn:

* Why saturated fat matters more than dietary cholesterol for most people’s LDL

* How LDL receptors in your liver set your cholesterol number

* How thyroid issues, menopause, and familial hypercholesterolemia raise LDL cholesterol

* Why rapid weight loss can temporarily raise cholesterol, and how to read that result

* The tests worth asking about: apoB, lipoprotein(a), and TSH with free T4

* How to lower LDL naturally with soluble fiber, nuts, soy, and ground flaxseed, plus my honest take on berberine and red yeast rice

Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/why-is-your-cholesterol-still-high

Check out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about

High blood pressure may be the most overlooked risk factor for dementia, and it’s the one you can actually check at home. In this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I walk you through what the research shows about blood pressure and brain health, and why the first step toward memory loss prevention isn’t a puzzle or a supplement.

I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, and I start with a remarkable study of nearly 700 Catholic sisters who agreed to yearly memory testing and donated their brains after death. What the pathologists found surprised almost everyone: many women carried a heavy load of Alzheimer’s plaques and tangles yet still ran their own lives. The difference often came down to small, deep strokes, the kind driven by years of uncontrolled hypertension. Dementia showed up when more than one kind of brain damage stacked together. Then I take you through two large trials that lowered blood pressure on purpose, including one across 326 villages where dementia was 15% less common in the treated group. And because so many people have white coat hypertension or masked hypertension, I explain exactly how to check blood pressure at home so you get numbers you can trust. If your pressure is already where it belongs, we talk about what comes next: hearing loss and dementia risk, physical activity and cognitive decline, and why a popular memory supplement fell flat in a six-year trial.

What you’ll learn:

* Why Alzheimer’s damage alone doesn’t always cause dementia, and what small strokes have to do with it

* How high blood pressure damages the small arteries deep in the brain

* What two large blood pressure trials found about dementia and mild cognitive impairment

* How to do a seven-day home blood pressure monitoring record the right way

* What your average reading means and what to ask your doctor

* Where hearing aids, exercise, and diet fit into a brain health planDr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/what-should-you-change-first-to-protect

Check out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about

If heart disease runs in your family, does changing what you eat even matter? In this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I share my own family history of early heart attacks and walk through what the research says about genetics, LDL cholesterol, and lifestyle, including a 2026 diet trial in people with familial hypercholesterolemia and a study of more than 51,000 adults.

I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, a lifestyle medicine physician, and this question is personal for me. My father had his first heart attack at 38, and my grandfather died of one at 46. So I take you back to the Dallas laboratory where two physicians discovered the LDL receptor and explained why inherited high cholesterol can start damaging arteries in childhood. Then we look at what happened when adults with a confirmed genetic cholesterol disorder switched to a plant-rich diet, why their results were encouraging and still not enough, and what that means if you already eat well or take medication. I’ll give you the single food swap that does the most to lower LDL cholesterol naturally, a realistic way to fit movement into your day, and the questions to ask your clinician about lipoprotein(a), a coronary calcium score, and heart attack prevention when your family history is the reason you’re worried.

What you’ll learn:

* How the discovery of the LDL receptor explains why familial hypercholesterolemia raises risk so early

* What a plant-based diet did to LDL cholesterol in adults with an inherited cholesterol disorder, and why an 18% drop still needed treatment

* Why a favorable lifestyle was linked to 46% fewer coronary events even in the highest genetic risk group

* The fat swap and fiber changes that help lower cholesterol naturally

* When to ask about lipoprotein(a) testing, a coronary calcium scan, and an LDL of 190 or higher

* How to use the Family Heart Health Worksheet to prepare for your next visit

Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/if-heart-disease-runs-in-your-familyCheck out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about

Is a blood sugar spike above 140 after eating actually a problem if you don’t have diabetes? If you wear a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) and feel a little sting every time the line climbs, this episode is for you.

Welcome to The Habit Healers Podcast. I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, a board-certified lifestyle medicine physician, and today I’m untangling one of the most misunderstood numbers in metabolic health. The 140 mg/dL cutoff comes from the oral glucose tolerance test, a very specific lab test with very specific conditions. It was never meant to grade your CGM reading forty minutes after lunch. I walk you through what a normal blood sugar range for non-diabetics really looks like, including a study where healthy people without diabetes or obesity still spent about half an hour a day above 140. We talk about why a single post-meal glucose reading can’t tell you whether sugar just arrived or has been sitting there for hours, using an airport baggage carousel to make it click. Then we get into what does matter: repeated elevations, your fasting blood sugar, your A1C, and a newer study linking more time above 140 with later diagnoses like prediabetes and high blood fats. Finally, I explain why blood sugar targets for people with diabetes are different, and why “just stay under the number” misses the danger of going too low.

What you’ll learn:

* Where the 140 blood sugar rule actually comes from, and why it doesn’t apply to every CGM reading

* What normal blood sugar spikes after eating look like in healthy people without diabetes

* Why a single glucose reading can’t show insulin resistance or metabolic health on its own

* The lab categories for fasting glucose, A1C, and the glucose tolerance test, and what they mean

* When repeated high glucose readings deserve attention and a conversation with your clinician

* How blood sugar targets differ if you have diabetes or are pregnant

Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/does-your-blood-sugar-really-needCheck out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about

Thank you Luanne Novak, David Hawkins, Catherine G, Karen Frye, K Nauman, and many others for tuning into my live video with Chef Martin Oswald! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Functional fitness for older adults is really about one question: what do you want to keep doing on your own? In this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I walk you through ten everyday activities of daily living, from getting out of bed to carrying groceries home, and the simple strength, balance, and mobility exercises for seniors that protect each one.

I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, a lifestyle medicine physician, and what I see in my practice is that “get more exercise” rarely sticks because it’s too vague. So we get specific. I share what the LIFE study found when researchers followed over 1,600 inactive adults in their seventies and eighties, and why preserving walking ability is only part of healthy aging and staying independent. Then we go task by task: sit-to-stand practice for the toilet, supported step-ups for stairs and curbs, wall slides for reaching a cupboard, grip work for opening jars, and a walking progression you can start at two minutes. You’ll also hear how the LiFE trial reduced falls in older adults by building balance and strength training into ordinary routines, and how habit stacking, attaching a practice to breakfast or getting dressed, makes fall prevention exercise something you actually remember to do.

What you’ll learn:

* Ten everyday activities that support independent living and the movement each one requires

* Simple strength and balance exercises for seniors you can do at home with a chair, counter, or wall

* What the LIFE study tells us about exercise and mobility after seventy

* How to build fall prevention into daily routines the way the LiFE trial did

* When to use adaptations like a raised toilet seat, sock aid, or reacher while you build strength

* How to progress safely from small repetitions toward your weekly exercise targets

Dr. Marbas Substack Articles: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/10-ways-to-protect-your-independenceCheck out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about

Why am I hungry after a smoothie? If your healthy breakfast smoothie leaves you standing in front of the pantry an hour later, this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast is for you. I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, and today I’m digging into the science of satiety: why liquid calories don’t keep you full the way solid food does, and how to build a filling breakfast that actually lasts until lunch.

Most people blame the blender for destroying fiber. It doesn’t. So I take you back 200 years to a surgeon who could watch digestion happen inside a living stomach, then walk through the modern research on whole fruit versus smoothies, how fast juice and puree leave the stomach, and why a thick 100-calorie shake felt fuller than a thin 500-calorie one. We’ll talk about how your expectations change your appetite, what happened when people added liquid or solid calories to their diet for weeks, and where a high protein breakfast shake fits in. Then I give you four practical changes, a simple protein smoothie recipe, and a ten-morning test to find the breakfast that keeps you satisfied.

What you’ll learn:

* Why blending doesn’t destroy fiber, and what really changes when you drink a smoothie instead of eating a meal

* How gastric emptying and food thickness shape hunger and fullness

* Why eating whole fruit before your smoothie can reduce how much you eat at your next meal

* How eating slowly and making your smoothie thicker can help you stay full longer

* How much protein a filling breakfast needs and easy ways to get there

* A ten-morning comparison worksheet to test one change and keep what works

Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/your-smoothie-was-breakfast-why-areCheck out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about

How to Read a Medical Study and Actually Decide: Number Needed to Treat, the 10-Minute Triage, and Your Values

Your doctor says a new treatment looks promising. Before you say yes, there is one number you should ask for: the Number Needed to Treat. In this episode of The Habit Healers Podcast, I’m walking you through how to read a medical study in ten minutes or less and turn the results into a real decision about your own health.

I’m Dr. Laurie Marbas, and this is the final piece of our series on evidence-based medicine. We talk about why a treatment that “reduces risk by 20 percent” can still leave 99 out of 100 people with no benefit at all, and why the same Number Needed to Treat that makes a cheap aspirin reasonable makes a six-week surgical recovery a bad trade. Then I give you the five-checkpoint triage I use to sort a strong study from a weak one: the question, the design, the validity, the importance, and whether the people in the study are anything like you. And we finish with the part most people skip, which is that evidence-based medicine rests on three legs, not one. Best evidence, clinical expertise, and your own values. A treatment can be proven and still be the wrong choice for the life you want.

What you’ll learn:

* How to calculate the Number Needed to Treat and decide whether it is worth the cost

* Why relative risk reduction makes small benefits look enormous

* The 10-minute triage for evaluating a study without reading all 20 pages

* Red flags in study design: no blinding, no randomization, high dropout rates

* Why a statistically significant result can still be clinically meaningless

* How to weigh treatment options against what actually matters to you

Dr. Marbas Substack Article: https://drlauriemarbas.substack.com/p/how-to-know-if-a-treatment-is-actuallyCheck out the Habit Healers Community: https://www.skool.com/habithealers/about

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

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