Episode Details

When someone is diagnosed with a disease, traditional medicine takes the pill-for-every-pain approach, trying to rifle shot medication to treat the loudest symptoms, not the system that created it.

And while medication has its place, it doesn't tell the whole story.

Sometimes getting well requires solutions outside of any medication I can dispense as a pharmacist, outside of a protocol a doctor provides.

This is where the science stops, and the spiritual side of healing and treatment comes into play. Going back to nature, community, diet, regulation, and meaning.

Dr. Patrick Hanaway knows this from lived experience. When he was diagnosed with stage four laryngeal cancer, what put it into remission wasn't a more aggressive protocol. It was rebuilding the internal and external conditions that allowed his body to heal.

He understands that a systems biology approach, not a drug-disease model, is what often determines whether someone recovers or simply manages decline.

How do we shift from attacking illness to cultivating health? How can the more spiritual side of disease treatment change outcomes?

In this episode, we talk about how to bring spirituality into your own healing process and how to get your body to repair itself.

Things You'll Learn In This Episode

The problem with "a pill for every pain." When we treat symptoms in isolation, what deeper processes are we missing that actually drive long-term health?

Healing is a biological process, not a technical fix What changes when we stop targeting parts and start working with the whole body, nervous system, and environment?

The overlooked role of community and nature in recovery Why do connection, belonging, and time in nature often shift health more than the most advanced interventions?

Listening as a clinical skill If patients' bodies already carry the answers, what happens when we finally slow down enough to hear them?

About the Guest

Dr. Patrick Hanaway is a board-certified family physician trained at Washington University. Dr. Hanaway served on the Executive Committee for the American Board of Integrative Medicine and is the Past President of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine. For more than 25 years, he has worked with his wife, Dr. Lisa Lichtig, in clinical practice @ Family to Family: Your Home for Whole Health Care in Asheville, NC. After 10 years as Chief Medical Officer at Genova Diagnostics, Dr. Hanaway became the Chief Medical Education Officer for the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM) where he oversaw the development and implementation of IFM's programs worldwide, while leading the GI Advanced Practice Module. In 2014, Dr. Hanaway worked with Dr. Mark Hyman to develop the collaboration between IFM and the Cleveland Clinic, where he was the founding Medical Director, then Research Director. The primary focus of Dr. Hanaway's work is to leverage his skills and perspective to add value in healthcare organizations through education, research, and clinical care, particularly in the areas of nutrition and the microbiome. In 2018, Dr. Hanaway was diagnosed with Stage IV Laryngeal Cancer. His life has been transformed through a functional and integrative approach in concert with chemotherapy, radiation therapy, community support, 'forest-bathing', and prayer. 'No Evidence of Disease' is considered a cure, though life continues to be filled with uncertainty. Importantly, Dr. Hanaway was initiated in 2009 as a Mara'akame [indigenous healer] by the Wixarika [Huichol] people of the Sierra Madre in Mexico. He is chairperson of the Blue Deer Center in upstate NY. Patrick holds community fires, leads ceremonies and pilgrimages to sacred sites, and offers traditional healing sessions around t