How To Become the CEO of Your Health w/ Maria Menounos

In this conversation, Maria Menounos shares her extraordinary health journey marked by multiple serious diagnoses including autoimmune diseases and cancer, alongside her evolution into a wellness advocate and community builder. Together with Dr. Mark Hyman, they explore themes of mindset, resilience, proactive health management, and the power of connection and spirituality in healing and thriving. The discussion candidly addresses the challenges of navigating complex health issues and highlights practical approaches to becoming empowered as the CEO of one's own health.

Maria Menounos's Health Journey

Maria Menounos opens up about her extensive health challenges that began with thyroid issues like Hashimoto's and expanded to autoimmune diseases including type one diabetes and pernicious anemia, alongside brain tumors and pancreas cancer. Her story also involves caring for her mother, who was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a deadly brain tumor, during the same period. Despite grim diagnoses, Maria's journey from multiple surgeries and harsh treatments to regaining control over her health is one of perseverance, hope, and commitment to healing. Early life stressors, such as witnessing her father's severe type one diabetes struggles and living in a constant fight-or-flight state, also shaped her vulnerability to illness and fueled her determination to seek answers.

Mindset and Mental Resilience

A central theme in the discussion is the crucial role of mindset in health recovery and management. Maria emphasizes the importance of choosing "wonder over worry," a tool she adopted from her hypnotherapist to replace fear with curiosity and hope during health crises. Both Maria and Dr. Hyman acknowledge that while despair is natural, the decision to actively engage in healing—mentally, emotionally, and physically—is transformative. They stress how shifting from a victim mentality to one of agency—viewing life as happening for you, not to you—helps navigate pain, uncertainty, and setbacks. This reframing supports resilience, allowing individuals to "keep moving forward" despite challenges.

The Importance of Being Proactive and Engaged

Rather than waiting passively for a diagnosis or treatment, Maria advocates being proactive about one's health. She shares how early detection through whole-body MRI scans enabled her pancreas cancer to be treated at a curable stage. This mindset of prevention and early intervention is echoed by Dr. Hyman, who underscores the broken healthcare system's tendency to react only after illness becomes symptomatic. Taking charge means seeking knowledge, performing screenings, addressing root causes of illness—such as autoimmune triggers—and partnering with trusted healthcare collaborators. Maria's emphasis on empowerment involves becoming educated, asking questions, and engaging deeply with personal health data and options.

Tools and Practices for Healing and Thriving

Maria reveals her personal toolkit for maintaining health, which includes daily prayer and faith as the core nonnegotiables, consistent movement like trampoline exercise and resistance training, infrared sauna and red light therapy, hydration, clean eating, and sun exposure. She highlights the importance of calibrating and sometimes stepping back from supplements to allow the body to reset. Equally important is mental and emotional work, including therapies like EMDR to address unresolved trauma and inner wounds that affect physical health. Maria points out the necessity of nourishing the mind with uplifting content—such as inspirational talks and meditation—to counteract negativity and build inner strength.

The Role of Faith and Spirituality

A profound element of Maria's recovery and ongoing wellness is her unwavering faith and regular prayer practice. She describes beginning and ending each day with gratitude, asking for strength and abundance not only for herself but also for others in need. This spiritual foundation provides emotional grounding and a sense of connectedness beyond the self. Prayer and heartfelt intention act as a source of peace and healing, reinforcing a mindset of abundance and trust. Maria's experience suggests that engaging with something greater than oneself creates resilience and hope even in the darkest moments.

Navigating Health Challenges with Community and Connection

Both Maria and Dr. Hyman emphasize that community is medicine. Healing and health flourish not only through individual effort but through connection with others—friends, family, and like-minded allies who provide support, accountability, and shared purpose. Maria's creation of the Heal Squad podcast and community offers an example of how to build an encouraging environment that fosters learning, empowerment, and emotional support. She describes organizing events and regular gatherings that help participants feel less isolated and more motivated. Dr. Hyman echoes the research showing that social connections profoundly influence health outcomes, sometimes more than genetics or medical interventions.

The Healthcare System and Being Your Own Advocate

Maria criticizes the conventional healthcare system for its reactive approach and often poor environment, noting issues such as unhealthy hospital food and lack of individualized care. Both she and Dr. Hyman stress the need for patients to actively advocate for themselves and to build relationships with health collaborators—trusted medical professionals who function as part of a team rather than sole authorities. Maria candidly shares how she finally found a physician friend to guide her through complex decisions and medication management. This collaboration model supports safer, more effective, and personalized care, empowering patients to navigate their own healing journeys.

Lessons Learned and Giving Back

The conversation concludes on the powerful insight that adversity can be transformative and that suffering may catalyze growth, purpose, and contribution to others. Both Maria and Dr. Hyman acknowledge that their struggles with health have made them more compassionate, wiser, and dedicated to sharing their knowledge and resources. Helping others become the CEO of their own health is not only a mission but also an ongoing source of personal meaning. They encourage listeners to invest in themselves, embrace resilience, cultivate community, and commit to lifelong learning as keys to thriving despite life's inevitable challenges.