#12 - Lifestyle as Medicine: Small Habits, Big Health.
Today’s guest is Lifestyle Medicine Specialist Dr. Mark Rowe
Dr. Mark Rowe is reframing care around lifestyle medicine and habit-building so people can actually change and sustain wellbeing.
In today’s conversation Mark Rowe and Dr. Wells explore how lifestyle medicine can prevent, treat, and even reverse chronic disease by integrating movement, nutrition, sleep, and the mind–body–emotion connection. They discuss practical ways to improve gut health, lower inflammation, and use small daily actions to change long-term outcomes. Mark explains why people don’t have a knowledge problem so much as a habit-building problem—and how identity, journaling, and community help close the knowing–doing gap. The conversation lands on sleep and stress recovery as non-negotiables for high performance in work and life.
You will learn how lifestyle medicine works in practice (exercise, nutrition, sleep, relationships), why gut health and the microbiome influence mood, immunity, and weight regulation, and how small “butterfly” changes compound via epigenetics to shift health trajectories. You’ll also learn simple prebiotic/probiotic strategies, how inflammation links to diabetes, heart disease, dementia, and depression, and why journaling plus one-habit-at-a-time is the most reliable path to durable behavior change.
You will discover that most people don’t need more information—they need systems that make the right behaviors easier than the wrong ones. You’ll also discover how improving your gut environment can improve your brain environment, mood, and decision-making.
ackles the “knowing–doing” gap by turning medical guidance into daily rituals—one change at a time—so people actually sustain exercise, eat for their microbiome, and protect sleep under stress. That execution focus helps busy professionals lower inflammation and increase energy without relying solely on medication.
Key take aways:
Exercise is “the greatest pill” for body and mind.
Feed your microbiome: fiber, plants, fermented foods.
Sleep is a non-negotiable performance multiplier.
Change one habit; wire it in; then add.
Small choices reshape genes via epigenetics.
“I call exercise the greatest pill of all—it’s so incredibly good.”
Today’s Expert Guest - Dr. Mark Rowe
Dr. Mark Rowe is an Irish family physician, author, and global keynote speaker who founded the award-recognized Waterford Health Park and the Lifestyle Medicine “Be Well” Clinic. Practicing for nearly 30 years, he blends medical expertise with lifestyle medicine, positive psychology, and leadership science to help people and organizations flourish.
Dr. Rowe integrates whole-person care—movement, nutrition, sleep, relationships, and purpose—inside a medical practice, using simple habits, journaling, and identity-based change to make wellbeing stick. His message replaces “pill for every ill” thinking with measurable rituals and a systems view of health that spans gut-brain science, epigenetics, and inflammation, tailored for busy leaders and teams.
Follow Dr. Rowe on Instagram & Linked In.
Check out his website.
Explore his books!
A Prescription for Happiness: The Ten Commitments to a Happier, Healthier Life
In this groundbreaking book Dr Mark Rowe draws on philosophy, psychology and years of professional experience to explain what happiness is – and what it isn’t.
He explores how happiness affects your success in life and details how to apply his 10 Commitments to increase your well-being and reduce needless negativity.
This podcast contains advice and information relating to health and wellness. It should be used to supplement rather than replace the advice of your doctor or another trained health professional. If you know or suspect that you have a health problem, seek your physician’s advice before embarking on any medical program or treatment. All efforts have been made to assure the accuracy of the information contained in this podcast / interview / article as of the date of publication. The author and publisher disclaim liability for any medical or other outcomes that may occur as a result of applying the methods suggested in this material.
