Mind Sattva: Practical Wisdom for Modern Life
A Nuclear Medicine Physician on Lifestyle Medicine, Cancer Prevention, and the Six Pillars of Health - Dr. Mythri Shankar
Only 5% of cancer is genetic. The rest is shaped by lifestyle and environment. Diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in her 50s, Dr. Mythri Shankar chose food over medication and brought her own HbA1c down. The protocol she built next is now helping her cancer patients address the other 95% through food, exercise, sleep, stress, and connection. Dr. Mythri Shankar is a nuclear medicine physician and integrative oncologist with 30 years of clinical experience across the US and India. A TEDx speaker and certified lifestyle medicine practitioner, she is the author of Ease and a co-author of How Healers Heal alongside Dr. Mitika Kanabar and 31 other women physicians. She leads the EASE Protocol and EASE Cancer, a 21-session program for cancer patients based on the American College of Lifestyle Medicine guidelines. In this conversation with Dr. Mitika Kanabar, Dr. Mythri shares the personal diabetes diagnosis that brought her into lifestyle medicine, the EASE Protocol she developed for preventing and reversing chronic disease, and a practical look at how food, exercise, sleep, stress, and connection are shaping how she practices, how she thinks about cancer recurrence, and how anyone in a caregiving role can stop burning themselves out trying to take care of everyone else. ✨ What you’ll learn: The lifestyle medicine paradigm shift - why prevention became central to Dr. Mythri's practice after years of scanning and treating tumors The personal diabetes story that launched the EASE Protocol - what Dr. Mythri saw when she turned over a bottle of metformin and read the side effects, and how she brought her hemoglobin A1c down through food alone How to actually adapt plant-forward eating to the Indian palate - Malabar spinach instead of kale, moringa and amaranth instead of broccoli, and the sambar trick that hides greens in flavor so the whole family will eat them The “I will change my religion, but I cannot change my food habits” problem - why food is the hardest behavior to shift, the colonial roots of ghee and oil as status symbols, and what actually moves a family toward change How the body remembers famine - why generations of survival instincts may still be shaping your blood sugar today, and why what we choose at the table can carry forward into the next generation Ultra-processed food, the SOS formula (salt, oil, sugar), and the dopamine engineering behind why one bite leads to another - plus where the food-addiction research actually is and where social-media misinformation has overcorrected Only 5% of cancer is genetic - and the lifestyle and environmental factors that shape the other 95% Caregiver burnout, vicarious trauma, and the “fill your cup first” rule - plus the How Healers Heal anthology Dr. Mythri co-authored with Dr. Mitika Kanabar and 31 other women physicians Resources Mentioned: Ease (book) by Dr. Mythri Shankar: https://www.amazon.in/dp/9393966001 How Healers Heal (anthology with Dr. Mitika Kanabar and 31 other women physicians): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GYZSF571 American College of Lifestyle Medicine: lifestylemedicine.org The Green Hub Foundation: https://www.facebook.com/thegreenhubTGFI Connect with Dr. Mythri Shankar: Nuclear Medicine Physician | Integrative Oncologist | Functional Medicine | Author of Ease | TEDx Speaker Website: https://drmythrishankarmd.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drmythrishankarmd LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmythrishankar/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@wellthgreen Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegreenhubTGFI Listen on Podbean | Spotify | Apple Podcasts Follow @MindSattva and @KanabarMD on Instagram
