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For many people, taking care of their health has started to feel like a second job. There is always another number to track, habit to add, or routine to perfect. More discipline seems like the answer, but constantly trying to optimize the body can make it harder to hear what the body has been saying all along. In this episode of Rooted in Wellness, I sat down with Justin Roethlingshoefer to talk about the line between caring for the body and controlling it. Our conversation gets into how discipline can become tied to self-worth, how tracking can slowly replace self-trust, and why even healthy habits struggle to last when the rhythm of life cannot support them. Justin has lived this contradiction himself. He spent years studying human performance and working with elite athletes, yet at 32, he was dealing with precancerous colon polyps and a bleeding ulcer while still appearing incredibly healthy. Being told he might not live past 35 forced him to reconsider what health actually meant. Today, Justin is a Human Health and Performance Expert, data-driven health strategist, USA Today bestselling author of The Power of Ownership, and author of Holy Health. What We Discuss: (17:12) Why losing 100 pounds left one client wondering why he did not feel happier. (21:48) How living by default affects the body, relationships, and daily choices. (26:27) When healthy habits become part of someone’s identity. (34:06) How HRV can provide useful feedback without controlling the day. (59:09) How Justin looked healthy while his health was falling apart. (1:15:24) Why good habits rarely last inside a life that cannot support them. (1:27:22) The 3-2-1 nighttime rule for making room for real rest. Listen now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Learn more about Mona Sharma: Download Your FREE Guide - 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started now at monasharma.com/12tips  Visit Mona's website: monasharma.com – Unlock powerful tools and wisdom rooted in wellness to elevate your health, energy, and clarity. Mona blends ancient healing practices with modern science to help you achieve lasting transformation. Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma Learn more about Justin Roethlingshoefer:  Website: justinroethlingshoefer.com  Instagram: @justinroeth  Justin’s new book, Holy Health, brings science and faith into the same conversation, offering a new way to approach health as an act of stewardship rather than another pursuit of perfection. Learn more at holyhealthbook.com

A normal cholesterol result can feel like permission to stop worrying about your heart. You exercise, try to eat well, get your yearly blood work, and leave believing everything is fine. That is what makes heart disease so frightening. It can continue developing for years while the tests you have been taught to trust give you no reason to look any further. In this episode of Rooted in Wellness, I sat down with Dr. Abid Husain to find out what can be missed when we rely on cholesterol and an EKG alone. We talk about the testing that can catch heart disease earlier, why women can have real heart problems even when traditional scans look clear, and how hormones, stress, blood sugar, sleep, and movement can change the picture. Most importantly, Dr. Husain shares what to ask for if you want a more complete view of your heart health before symptoms appear. Dr. Husain is a triple board-certified cardiologist and integrative medicine physician who has worked across inpatient and outpatient cardiology. After years of treating heart failure and atherosclerosis, he stepped away from conventional practice and spent the next decade expanding his training in functional and cellular medicine. Today, he brings these disciplines together in his practice and teaches a systems-based approach to atherosclerosis through his Next Generation Medicine course. What We Discuss: 05:55 Why cholesterol is the last number Dr. Husain wants to hear when assessing heart risk. 09:02 What can be going wrong years before the heart produces a single warning sign. 19:39 The overlooked blood markers that can reveal what a basic cholesterol panel misses. 33:25 How declining estradiol may quietly change a woman’s cardiac risk in midlife. 41:11 The real cardiovascular problem women were told was “just anxiety” because their scans looked clear. 48:37 What statins do beyond lowering cholesterol and why higher doses may come with a tradeoff. 1:01:04 Why the artery known as the “widowmaker” can turn someone’s first symptom into a cardiac emergency. Learn more about Mona Sharma: Download Your FREE Guide - 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started now at monasharma.com/12tips  Visit Mona's website: monasharma.com – Unlock powerful tools and wisdom rooted in wellness to elevate your health, energy, and clarity. Mona blends ancient healing practices with modern science to help you achieve lasting transformation. Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma Learn more about Dr. Abid Husain:  Website: interlinkedmd.com Instagram: @dr_abidhusain YouTube: @DoctorAbidHusain  Go deeper with Dr. Husain’s Next Generation Medicine course, a systems-based guide to understanding atherosclerosis: nextgenerationmedicine.co

Have you ever caught yourself repeating a pattern you were sure you had already healed? The person or situation may change, but somehow you end up in the same kind of relationship, carrying the same fear, or reacting in the same way. You understand the pattern, so why does it still have so much power over you? In this episode of Rooted in Wellness, I sit down with Manex Ibar to explore why certain patterns can feel impossible to break, how the subconscious may influence the way we see ourselves, and what those recurring struggles may be trying to reveal. We also talk about the Sphinx Code, destiny versus free will, spiritual bypassing, modern distraction, and what nature can show us when we finally become quiet enough to listen. Manex Ibar is a modern mystic, spiritual innovator, and creator of the Sphinx Code. Described by the Financial Times as “The Extreme Spiritual Guide” and known as the Doctor’s Shaman and the Billionaire’s Mystic, he has spent more than two decades blending ancient shamanic traditions, depth psychology, human energetics, and nature-based practices to guide people through profound inner transformation. What’s Discussed (10:05) Why so many people feel disconnected from themselves. (12:18) Destiny, free will, and whether our patterns can change. (17:23) What the Sphinx Code reveals about the subconscious. (23:41) What happens when a wound becomes part of your identity. (42:14) Why the wound may also contain the way forward. (53:12) How modern distraction keeps us from seeing ourselves clearly. (1:22:13) The questions that can reveal what a recurring pattern is protecting. Listen to this episode to understand why recognizing a pattern is not always enough to break it, and what may be hiding underneath the part of your life that keeps repeating. 🎧 Thank You to Our Sponsors:  Timeline: Timeline’s clinically proven formula is now available at a new, lower price. Mitopure now starts at $79, when you go to timeline.com/MONA  Learn more about Mona Sharma: Download Your FREE Guide - 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started now at monasharma.com/12tips  Visit Mona's website: monasharma.com – Unlock powerful tools and wisdom rooted in wellness to elevate your health, energy, and clarity. Mona blends ancient healing practices with modern science to help you achieve lasting transformation. Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma Learn more about Manex Ibar & Sphinx Code:  Sphinx Code: sphinxcode.com Manex Ibar: manexibar.com Wisdom Quest: wisdom-quest.com Download Sphinx Code on Apple: apps.apple.com/us/app/sphinx-code/ Download Sphinx Code on Google Play: play.google.com/store/apps/sphinxcode

Most of us know when we are drifting away from ourselves. We feel it in the sleep that stops restoring us, the anxiety that starts to feel familiar, the energy that never fully comes back, the cravings that get louder, the workouts that drain us instead of building us, and the quiet sense that our body is asking for something we keep trying to override. The problem is that modern life has trained so many of us to normalize that state. We wake up and reach for our phones. We move through constant stimulation, blue light, low-grade stress, ultra-processed food, world events, long to-do lists, and the pressure to keep optimizing. Then we wonder why the body feels like it is always bracing, even when nothing is technically wrong. In this episode, I sit down with my dear friend and mentor Dr. Scott Sherr to talk about the cellular side of that stress loop. Dr. Sherr is a Board Certified Internal Medicine Physician specializing in Health Optimization Medicine and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, and his work sits at the intersection of mitochondrial biology, the autonomic nervous system, and advanced tools for recovery. We talk about what he calls the Sympathetic Spiral, why the nervous system is not broken, how mitochondria shift when the body feels unsafe, and why burnout, hormonal chaos, broken sleep, inflammation, and low energy may keep coming back when the body never fully gets the signal that it is safe to recover. What’s Discussed: 15:03 Why excitement, anxiety, and hypervigilance can feel so similar in the body. 20:29 The metabolic side of burnout and what creates the “wired but tired” state. 30:55 How high performers become accustomed to living in hypervigilance. 39:04 Why calming the nervous system can backfire when cellular energy is already depleted. 01:01:23 Why burnout is affecting people earlier and how to find the right entry point. 01:11:56 How methylene blue interacts with mitochondrial energy and oxidative stress. 01:24:57 The connection between estrogen shifts, mitochondrial stress, GABA, and sleep during perimenopause. My hope is that this conversation helps you stop blaming yourself for exhaustion that has a physiological root.  Learn more about Mona Sharma: Download Your FREE Guide - 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started now at monasharma.com/12tips  Visit Mona's website: monasharma.com – Unlock powerful tools and wisdom rooted in wellness to elevate your health, energy, and clarity. Mona blends ancient healing practices with modern science to help you achieve lasting transformation. Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma Learn more about Dr. Scott Sherr: Website: Troscriptions.com Instagram: @troscriptions OneBase: onebasehealth.com For Practitioners Explore the seven-module HOMeHOPe certification, cohort-based learning, clinical case discussions, and practitioner education Dr. Scott mentioned in the episode. Explore HOMeHOPe practitioner education Dr. Scott also invites you to the 2026 HOMeHOPe Conference, happening October 2–3, 2026, at the Drake Hotel in Chicago. The two-day event is open to practitioners and anyone interested in exploring the latest in health optimization, hormones, longevity, metabolic health, and more. Learn more and reserve your seat at https://homehope.org/homehope-conference-2026. Use code MONA for 10% off your ticket!

Mushrooms are suddenly everywhere, and honestly, I love seeing this ancient medicine finally getting the attention it deserves. But between lion’s mane lattes, mushroom gummies, fruiting bodies, mycelium, and microdosing, how do you know what is actually supportive and what is simply great marketing? In this episode of Rooted in Wellness, I sit down with my sweet friend Alli Schaper to take you into the incredible world of fungi. We talk about the mushrooms that may support your brain and body, what to look for before buying a supplement, and how microdosing is changing conversations around our habits, grief, joy, and even our fear of death. Alli Schaper is the CEO and cofounder of SuperMush, host of Into the Multiverse, and cofounder and board member of Microdosing Collective, the first U.S. nonprofit dedicated to legal microdosing advocacy. She has been featured in Forbes 30 Under 30, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Goop, Bloomberg, and Summit Series. What’s Discussed: (08:16) Why functional mushrooms may be difficult to feel when your body is already running on overdrive. (19:06) Alli’s journey from chronic gut issues and multiple prescriptions to taking her health back into her own hands. (29:56) The difference between culinary, functional, and psychedelic mushrooms. (36:02) Fruiting body, mycelium, extract ratios, and what actually matters on the label. (54:52) Why mushrooms have remained part of human healing for thousands of years. (01:05:16) How mushrooms became what one of Alli’s teachers calls “instruments of joy.” (01:09:47) What to understand about microdosing, protocols, sourcing, and responsible exploration. Thank You to Our Sponsors: Timeline: Timeline’s clinically proven formula is now available at a new, lower price. Mitopure now starts at $79, when you go to timeline.com/MONA  Learn more about Mona Sharma: Download Your FREE Guide - 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started now at monasharma.com/12tips  Visit Mona's website: monasharma.com – Unlock powerful tools and wisdom rooted in wellness to elevate your health, energy, and clarity. Mona blends ancient healing practices with modern science to help you achieve lasting transformation. Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma Learn More About Alli Schaper & SuperMush: Website: allischaper.com Instagram: @allischaper    Website: supermush.com  Instagram: @supermush

Most of us were taught to treat the body like something to fix. Pain shows up, so we chase the pain. Stress builds, so we try to calm the mind. Tension gets louder, so we stretch harder. But what if the body is not working against you? What if it has been communicating through the very signals we keep overriding? In this episode, I sit down with Jason van Blerk of Human Garage to talk about fascia as one of the most misunderstood organs in the body, and why it may be a missing piece in how we understand chronic pain, stored emotion, tension, trauma, pressure, movement, and healing. We explore why pain may not always begin where it shows up, why the body is not just biomechanical, and how fascia may change the way we think about what the body holds, repeats, and struggles to release.  Human Garage,  co-founded by Jason van Blerk and Aisha Rodrigue, is a wellness platform that teaches self-guided fascial movement, breathwork, and body awareness techniques designed to relieve tension, improve mobility, and promote self-healing. What’s Discussed: 10:38 Why the body’s signals get overridden from a young age. 14:05 Why quick fixes may quiet pain without addressing why it was there. 20:32 What fascia actually is, and why it is more than most people realize. 22:31 How fascia may change the way we understand memory, emotion, and the body. 23:49 Why pain may show up in one area when the pattern begins somewhere else. 26:30 Why the body is pressurized, not just biomechanical. 35:17 Why trauma is not only psychological. 40:53 What can happen when the body finally begins to release. 46:50 How jaw tension may connect to what remains unexpressed. 01:00:24 Why breath and counter-rotation matter in Fascial Maneuvers. 01:05:08 A simple practice to help shift the body out of stress. Listen to this episode if you have been trying to think your way through something your body may still be carrying. Thank You to Our Sponsors: Carol Bike: Visit carolbike.com/mona and use code MONA for a special discount. Learn more about Mona Sharma: Download Your FREE Guide - 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started now at monasharma.com/12tips  Visit Mona's website: monasharma.com – Unlock powerful tools and wisdom rooted in wellness to elevate your health, energy, and clarity. Mona blends ancient healing practices with modern science to help you achieve lasting transformation. Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma Learn More About Jason van Blerk, Aisha Rodrigue  & Human Garage:  Website: humangarage.net  Instagram: @jasonvanblerk  Instagram: @aishahumangarage  Human Garage Instagram: @humangarage

There is a reason brain health feels so urgent right now. So many people are watching parents, grandparents, partners, and loved ones face Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, dementia, depression, anxiety, or cognitive decline, while quietly wondering if the same future is waiting for them. With Alzheimer’s projected to affect nearly 14 million Americans by 2060, this is not a conversation we can keep saving for later. Most of us think about the brain only when something starts to feel different, but cognitive decline can begin 20 to 30 years before a single symptom appears. That means the way we eat, move, sleep, manage stress, support blood sugar, and care for our metabolism may be shaping the brain long before memory starts to slip. And with only about 6% of American adults considered metabolically healthy, the connection between insulin resistance, inflammation, and brain aging becomes much harder to ignore. In this episode, I sit down with Dr. David Perlmutter to talk about why prevention has to begin while you still feel fine, which metabolic number he wishes more people knew, and what daily choices may be protecting or threatening your brain without you realizing it. Dr. Perlmutter is a board-certified neurologist, six-time New York Times bestselling author, and author of Brain Defenders, with decades of work connecting the brain to the body, gut, metabolism, inflammation, and the way we live every day. What’s Discussed: 04:45 How Dr. Perlmutter thinks about connection, gratitude, and what it means to be rooted. 12:20 The daily habit he says may be one of the worst for your brain. 17:54 Why brain decline does not begin the moment memory fails. 24:17 What ultra-processed food may be doing to long-term brain health. 27:08 How inflammation connects depression, anxiety, and neurodegeneration. 31:20 What “I feel fine right now” can miss about the future of the brain. 39:59 The key metabolic labs Dr. Perlmutter wants people to know. 46:50 Why your gut bacteria may act like a signal system for the brain. 57:17 How inflammation can shift the brain’s immune cells from protective to destructive. My hope is that this conversation helps you stop waiting for symptoms before you care about your brain. The choices you make today are not small. They are signals, and your brain is listening. Thank You to Our Sponsors: Timeline: Timeline’s clinically proven formula is now available at a new, lower price. Mitopure now starts at $79, when you go to timeline.com/MONA  Learn more about Mona Sharma: Download Your FREE Guide - 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started now at monasharma.com/12tips  Visit Mona's website: monasharma.com – Unlock powerful tools and wisdom rooted in wellness to elevate your health, energy, and clarity. Mona blends ancient healing practices with modern science to help you achieve lasting transformation. Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma Learn more about Dr. David Perlmutter: Website: drperlmutter.com Brain Defenders: drperlmutter.com/books/brain-defenders Instagram: @davidperlmutter

There is a point where “everything looks normal” stops feeling reassuring. You may be exhausted, bloated, itchy, inflamed, anxious, sensitive to foods, reacting to supplements, struggling with sleep, or feeling like your body is on high alert, yet the answers you keep getting are stress, aging, hormones, or nothing to worry about. Most people do not start searching for deeper answers because of one symptom. It is usually the way the symptoms keep stacking, shifting, and refusing to make sense. In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Tania Dempsey to talk about the immune patterns that can sit underneath complex chronic symptoms, why the body can stay reactive long after the original trigger, and what it looks like to investigate the whole system instead of chasing one symptom at a time. Dr. Tania Dempsey is a board-certified physician, founder of the AIM Center for Personalized Medicine, and one of the leading experts in immune dysfunction, MCAS, and vector-borne illness. She has spent over a decade working with patients who have been dismissed, misdiagnosed, or told their symptoms are not connected.  What’s Discussed: 00:37 What helps Dr. Tania stay rooted while working with complex chronic illness. 07:08 The everyday symptom many people brush off too quickly. 10:31 Why scattered symptoms may not be as separate as they seem. 16:45 How a deeper patient history can change the direction of care. 33:10 The immune pattern that can show up in surprising places. 38:33 Why the usual story about tick exposure is incomplete. 47:13 The hidden layer that may keep people stuck after years of treatment. 54:03 A different way to understand anxiety when it feels physical. My hope is that this conversation helps you stop blaming your body and start asking better questions about what it may be responding to, so you can feel more informed, less dismissed, and more confident about the next step in your healing journey. Learn more about Mona Sharma: Download Your FREE Guide - 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started now at monasharma.com/12tips  Visit Mona's website: monasharma.com – Unlock powerful tools and wisdom rooted in wellness to elevate your health, energy, and clarity. Mona blends ancient healing practices with modern science to help you achieve lasting transformation. Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma Learn more about Dr. Tania Dempsey: Website: drtaniadempsey.com  ILADS®: ilads.org/resource  Instagram: @drtaniadempseymd  Facebook: @taniadempseymd YouTube: @DrTaniaDempsey

There is a specific kind of exhaustion that comes from spending years trying to heal yourself and still feeling like you have not arrived. You go to therapy, journal, regulate your nervous system, learn your patterns, and keep looking for the next thing that will finally help you feel peaceful. Then an old emotion returns or you find yourself in a familiar pattern, and it can feel like proof that there is still something wrong with you. The part we rarely question is what all that effort may be teaching us. When every difficult emotion, symptom, or setback becomes another problem to solve, healing can begin to reinforce the feeling that we are still incomplete. So what changes when we stop approaching ourselves as a project that always needs work? In this episode of Rooted in Wellness, I sit down with Panache Desai to talk about why “doing the work” can become its own source of pressure, what acceptance actually asks of us, and why being human was never something we needed to overcome.  Panache is a bestselling author, transformational speaker, and former guest on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday who has spent over three decades helping people move beyond endless self-correction and reconnect with the peace and wholeness already within them. What’s Discussed: 05:52 Why accepting your humanity can change the way you relate to yourself. 11:58 The emotion many people suppress because they believe it makes them less healed. 14:12 Why doing more healing work can leave you feeling even further from peace. 19:49 What happens when self-improvement begins from the belief that you are incomplete. 21:26 How healing can become an identity that keeps you searching for the next thing to fix. 37:05 Why changing your circumstances does not always create the safety you are looking for. 59:14 Why simple practices repeated consistently may matter more than another healing method. Listen to this episode if you are tired of turning every emotion, setback, or symptom into another reason to work harder on yourself. Thank You to Our Sponsors:  Timeline: Timeline’s clinically proven formula is now available at a new, lower price. Mitopure now starts at $79, when you go to timeline.com/MONA  Learn more about Mona Sharma: Download Your FREE Guide - 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started now at monasharma.com/12tips  Visit Mona's website: monasharma.com – Unlock powerful tools and wisdom rooted in wellness to elevate your health, energy, and clarity. Mona blends ancient healing practices with modern science to help you achieve lasting transformation. Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma Learn more about Panache Desai:  Website: panachedesai.com/call-to-calm-meditations/

Peptides are everywhere right now, and the promise is hard to ignore. When you are dealing with slow recovery, inflammation, low energy, gut issues, or the feeling that your body is no longer responding the way it used to, hearing that one compound could help, can make it feel like the answer you have been waiting for. The excitement around peptides is real, but so is the confusion. With so many compounds, protocols, and promises circulating online, it can be difficult to know what your body may actually need, what is worth paying attention to, and where to begin. In this episode, I sat down with Nathalie Niddam to cut through the noise and talk about what you need to know before following a recommendation, building a stack, or adding a peptide to your routine. Nathalie Niddam is a holistic nutritionist and longevity educator, and host of Longevity with Nathalie Niddam. After years of studying peptides, bioregulators, and regenerative health, along with managing a peptide community of approximately 36,000 people, she brings a grounded perspective to both the potential of these tools and the mistakes people make when using them without enough context. What’s Discussed: (16:47) The biggest mistake people make when starting peptides and why someone else’s protocol may not be right for your body. (22:22) What peptides and bioregulators are, how they work, and the difference between supporting the body and forcing an outcome. (27:13) What the current evidence around BPC-157 can and cannot tell us, and how to think about emerging science without ignoring real-world experience. (34:29) How to tell thoughtful peptide guidance from influencer hype and what to look for before trusting a recommendation. (40:01) Why larger peptide and supplement stacks can create new blind spots, and why intentional use may help you understand what is actually working. (49:30) Why food, movement, sleep, stress support, hormones, baseline testing, and body awareness still matter before adding advanced longevity tools. Listen to this episode if peptides have caught your attention, but you want a more grounded way to understand where they may fit into your health  Learn more about Mona Sharma: Download Your FREE Guide - 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started now at monasharma.com/12tips  Visit Mona's website: monasharma.com – Unlock powerful tools and wisdom rooted in wellness to elevate your health, energy, and clarity. Mona blends ancient healing practices with modern science to help you achieve lasting transformation. Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma Learn more about Nathalie Niddam:  Website: natniddam.com  Instagram: @longevitywithnat

Why do we sometimes pull away from the people we love most? Why can closeness feel comforting one moment and overwhelming the next? And why do certain patterns keep repeating even when we know we want something different? In this episode of Rooted in Wellness, I sit down with Thais Gibson to look at the patterns underneath how we love, cope, shut down, chase, self-soothe, and respond when our nervous system does not feel fully safe. We talk about attachment styles, core wounds, subconscious beliefs, emotional triggers, and why the way we learned to protect ourselves can quietly shape our relationships, stress, habits, and healing. Thais Gibson is a bestselling author, PhD, and founder of Integrated Attachment Theory™, a neuroscience-backed framework designed to help people understand and rewire attachment patterns. With over a decade in private practice and more than 30,000 students across 115 countries, she brings a clear, compassionate, and deeply practical lens to why these patterns form and how they can begin to change. What’s Discussed: (19:43) Why old habits and instant fixes may point to something deeper beneath the surface. (24:07) Rapid-fire truths on attachment styles, trauma responses, therapy, conflict, and relationship healing. (31:00) What attachment style really means and why it matters beyond romantic relationships. (50:01) The deeper needs that can drive chasing, withdrawing, shutting down, or searching outside yourself. (56:48) How self-soothing patterns can show up through cravings, numbing, and comfort-seeking habits. (1:00:15) Why early beliefs can quietly shape the way we love, react, and protect ourselves as adults. (1:20:07) How attachment wounds can connect to burnout, anxiety, emotional eating, and the body’s stress response. Listen to this episode if you have ever wondered why you keep repeating a pattern you thought you had already outgrown. This conversation will help you see attachment through a more compassionate lens and understand why healing begins with what your nervous system learned long before you had words for it. 🎧 Thank You to Our Sponsors: CAROL Bike: Visit carolbike.com/mona and use code MONA for a special discount. Learn more about Mona Sharma: Download Your FREE Guide - 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started now at monasharma.com/12tips  Visit Mona's website: monasharma.com – Unlock powerful tools and wisdom rooted in wellness to elevate your health, energy, and clarity. Mona blends ancient healing practices with modern science to help you achieve lasting transformation. Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma Learn more about Thais Gibson:  Instagram: @thepersonaldevelopmentschool Podcast: Breakthrough with Thais Gibson Podcast

Some seasons of health feel confusing because nothing looks dramatic on paper, but daily life tells a different story. You are exhausted in a way coffee cannot cover. Your weight is shifting even though your habits have not changed that much. Your hair feels thinner. Your brain feels foggy. And when you finally ask for help, the labs come back “normal,” and suddenly the conversation ends before anyone really explains why you still do not feel like yourself.  That is where so many women get stuck. The symptoms are real, but the testing is often too narrow. The answer gets reduced to aging, menopause, stress, or needing to try harder, when the thyroid may be part of the picture that has not been properly seen yet. And for women over 40, that missing thyroid conversation can change how they understand their energy, metabolism, hormones, and body signals. Dr. Amie Hornaman joins me to talk about the thyroid patterns that are often overlooked, including thyropause, incomplete lab testing, reverse T3, Hashimoto’s, and why TSH alone does not tell the full story. Dr. Amie is a hormone optimization specialist, founder of the Advanced Thyroid and Hormone Clinic, and a leading voice in thyroid health whose work is rooted in both clinical expertise and her own experience of being dismissed by six doctors before finally getting answers. What’s Discussed: (08:23) The symptoms women are told to accept with age that may point back to the thyroid. (10:28) Why a small gland can affect energy, weight, hair, digestion, mood, and heart rhythm. (12:19) What thyropause means and why it may be missing from the menopause conversation. (20:09) The top signs Dr. Amie looks for when women feel like they are doing everything right. (25:59) Why TSH is only one signal and what a fuller thyroid panel can reveal. (38:13) Why weight loss medications may not work the same way when thyroid function is not optimized. (54:04) When biohacking becomes one more stressor instead of true support. Listen to this episode if you have been trying to understand why your body feels different, but the answers you have been given do not match what you feel every day.  Thank You to Our Sponsor:  Timeline: Timeline’s clinically proven formula is now available at a new, lower price. Mitopure now starts at $79, when you go to timeline.com/MONA  Learn more about Mona Sharma: Download Your FREE Guide - 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started now at monasharma.com/12tips  Visit Mona's website: monasharma.com – Unlock powerful tools and wisdom rooted in wellness to elevate your health, energy, and clarity. Mona blends ancient healing practices with modern science to help you achieve lasting transformation. Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma Learn more about Dr. Amie Hornaman Website: dramie.com Instagram: @dramiehornaman Tiktok: @dramiehornaman

There is a frustrating moment that can happen in your thirties or forties when your body starts to feel different, but you cannot quite explain why. Your energy dips in a way that coffee does not really fix. Your recovery takes longer. Your focus feels hazier. Your body feels less responsive, even when you are eating well, moving, taking supplements, and trying to do the things that are supposed to help. And the hardest part is how easy it is to dismiss all of it. You start wondering if this is just aging, if your hormones are the whole problem, or if you need to try harder with another protocol. But what if the shift you are feeling is happening somewhere where most conversations about energy, hormones, and longevity do not look deeply enough? In this episode of Rooted in Wellness, I sit down with Jennifer Scheinman to talk about why energy, recovery, focus, hormones, and body composition can start shifting in your thirties and forties, and what mitochondrial health, mitophagy, and Urolithin A may reveal about what is happening beneath the surface.   Jennifer Scheinman is a registered dietitian with nearly three decades of experience and the Director of Scientific Communications at Timeline. Her work sits at the intersection of nutrition, cellular biology, longevity, mitochondrial health, and Urolithin A, which makes her the right person to explain why energy, recovery, focus, and resilience may have more to do with your cells than most people realize. What’s Discussed: (08:51) Why energy, focus, and recovery can start feeling different in your thirties and forties. (23:36) What chronic stress may be doing beneath the surface. (26:09) Why Urolithin A is becoming part of the cellular health conversation. (34:45) What Mona realized after seeing her own toxic burden results. (42:08) Why healthspan has to include how you actually feel in your body. (45:06) The subtle signs that something may be starting to work. (55:10) How ancient practices connect with modern mitochondrial research. Thank You to Our Sponsor:  Timeline: Timeline’s clinically proven formula is now available at a new, lower price. Mitopure now starts at $79, when you go to timeline.com/MONA  MitoQ: Go to mitoq.com/mona and use code MONA for 10% off Learn more about Mona Sharma: Download Your FREE Guide - 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started now at monasharma.com/12tips  Visit Mona's website: monasharma.com – Unlock powerful tools and wisdom rooted in wellness to elevate your health, energy, and clarity. Mona blends ancient healing practices with modern science to help you achieve lasting transformation. Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma Learn more about Jennifer Scheinman (Timeline): Website: www.timeline.com/  Instagram : jenscheinman_nutrition

A lot of wellness advice assumes the problem lives inside the individual. Your stress. Your habits. Your discipline. Your food choices. Your ability to regulate. But what happens when you are already doing the things that are supposed to help and your life still feels strangely disconnected? You eat well, meditate, try to regulate your nervous system, maybe even spend money on wellness, but the second you return to your commute, your neighborhood, your apartment, or another day without real connection, something in your body still feels unsettled. That is the health problem hiding in your zip code. In this episode of Rooted in Wellness, I sit down with Tony Cho, a purpose-driven entrepreneur and regenerative placemaking visionary, to talk about why loneliness is not always a personal failure, why modern cities can dysregulate the nervous system, and why the future of wellness has to include the places, communities, and systems we live inside. And until you start looking at the spaces around you, you may keep trying to fix symptoms that were never meant to be carried alone. Tony Cho is a purpose-driven entrepreneur and visionary community builder helping cities evolve into living ecosystems that support human connection, creativity, and regeneration. His work bridges personal well-being, community design, and the future of the built environment in balance with nature and culture. What’s Discussed: (06:07) Smart cities vs. wise cities, and what modern development is getting wrong. (10:02) How ashram life shaped Tony’s view of community, ritual, death, and belonging. (21:13) Why regenerative placemaking starts with listening to the land, people, and culture. (38:09) Why loneliness may be a design flaw, not a personal failure. (1:07:16) What wellness spaces miss when they focus on biohacking instead of place and people. (1:12:13) Why third places matter for connection, community, and everyday belonging. (1:22:30) How ritual can bring people back to existence without dogma or rigid rules. Thank You to Our Sponsor:  Timeline: Timeline’s clinically proven formula is now available at a new, lower price. Mitopure now starts at $79, when you go to timeline.com/MONA  Learn more about Mona Sharma: Download Your FREE Guide - 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started now at monasharma.com/12tips  Visit Mona's website: monasharma.com – Unlock powerful tools and wisdom rooted in wellness to elevate your health, energy, and clarity. Mona blends ancient healing practices with modern science to help you achieve lasting transformation. Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma Learn more about Tony Cho: Website: ony-cho.com/generation-regeneration Substack: tonycho1111.substack.com/ Instagram: @tonycho Gaia TV Series: gaia.com/series/road-to-utopia LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/chotimelive/ YouTube: @RegenerativeLivingwithTonyCho Press: tony-cho.com/press

Weight loss can feel exhausting when every plan gives you another reason to push harder. Eat less. Cut more. Fast longer. Ignore hunger. Be more disciplined. But for so many people, that only leads to the same cycle: trying harder, feeling stuck, blaming yourself, and wondering why your body still feels bloated, inflamed, tired, or out of rhythm. In this solo episode of Rooted in Wellness, I’m looking at weight loss through an Ayurvedic lens, where the conversation is not only about calories, restriction, or willpower. It is also about the state your body is in while you are trying to change it. Because if your digestion feels off, your cravings feel louder, your stress feels constant, or your body feels like it is holding on no matter what you do, the answer may not be another extreme reset. It may be learning how to support your body in a way that feels more grounded, nourishing, and sustainable. What’s Discussed: (02:47) Why the usual “eat less, move more” weight loss advice may not be the full story. (05:53) How Ayurveda looks at digestion, Agni, and the body’s ability to process what it takes in. (08:37) Why pushing through hunger can become part of the same cycle people are trying to escape. (13:41) The role daily rhythm plays in cravings, energy, digestion, and feeling regulated. (22:00) Why meal timing matters, especially when dinner becomes the biggest meal of the day. (27:49) How warm meals, cooked foods, and digestive spices can change the way your body receives nourishment. (42:43) Why stress, inflammation, and feeling overloaded can make the body feel stuck. Listen to this episode if weight loss has started to feel like a fight with your body, and you want a more compassionate way to understand what your body may be asking for. 🎧 Learn more about Mona Sharma: Download Your FREE Guide - 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started now at monasharma.com/12tips Visit Mona's website: monasharma.com – Unlock powerful tools and wisdom rooted in wellness to elevate your health, energy, and clarity. Mona blends ancient healing practices with modern science to help you achieve lasting transformation. Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma Thank You to Our Sponsor: Timeline: Timeline’s clinically proven formula is now available at a new, lower price. Mitopure now starts at $79, when you go to timeline.com/MONA