Why Most People Don’t Heal — And How to Take Control of Your Recovery with Dr. Karen Shanks

What if your recovery plan and daily health choices mattered more than any diagnosis code ever could? In this powerful episode, Dr. Karen Shanks joins us to break down why true healing starts long before medications—and why movement, nutrition, sleep, trauma awareness, and agency are the real drivers of recovery.

Dr. Karen shares her journey from conventional internal medicine into a prevention-focused practice built on systems biology, root-cause thinking, and actually listening to patients. We talk about why chronic fatigue, post-op pain, and slow recoveries often remain unsolved—not because people are “broken,” but because the system is.

You’ll learn why graded movement accelerates surgical healing, how gentle loading reduces pain, why lymphatic flow matters, and how immobilization delays progress. We explore evidence-to-practice delays, flawed incentives in healthcare, and outdated measurements like BMI and low-fat dogma still taught today.

Most importantly, we dig into agency: you are hiring your clinician, not giving up control. We discuss the mind–muscle connection, epigenetics, neuroplasticity, and how everyday choices—protein intake, strength work, sleep, stress, connection—reshape your biology from the inside out.

Whether you’re recovering from injury, navigating chronic symptoms, or simply want better health, this episode gives you clear tools to start today. Share it with someone who needs direction, and comment with the one action you’re taking this week.