Doctors Secret: How to HEAL Anxiety & Depression + Lower Blood Sugar for Good! Dr Rangan Chatterjee

Here are the top 10 key takeaways from Dr. Rangan Chatterjee's conversation with Lewis Howes on healing anxiety, depression, and creating lasting health transformations.

1. Stress is connected to 80-90% of medical conditions

Most health issues doctors see are connected to stress in some way. The stress response evolved to protect us from immediate dangers, but in modern life, it's activated by emails, social media, and daily pressures instead of predators.

When the stress response is chronically activated, it creates serious health problems. Short-term physiological changes like elevated blood sugar, increased blood pressure, and heightened alertness become harmful when sustained over time. These chronic stress responses contribute to conditions like diabetes, hypertension, and anxiety disorders.

2. Learning to trust yourself over external validation

Dr. Chatterjee emphasizes that while expert advice is valuable, many people have lost connection with their own intuition. We often look exclusively to authorities rather than filtering their input through our own experiences.

He suggests regular solitude practice helps reconnect with your internal wisdom. Just five minutes daily of undistracted time (like mindfully drinking coffee without checking emails) can help develop self-trust. This self-awareness allows you to determine which expert advice works for your unique body and circumstances.

Most people spend years changing themselves to please others, making it difficult to recognize their authentic needs and desires. Dr. Chatterjee shares how his father's death in 2013 forced him to examine whose life he was actually living.

3. Forgiveness impacts physical health

Holding onto resentment creates chronic internal stress that manifests physically. Dr. Chatterjee shares a case where a patient's high blood pressure wouldn't improve despite lifestyle changes until she forgave her ex-husband who had cheated on her.

Research from Stanford University's Forgiveness Project shows that forgiveness can lower blood pressure, reduce anxiety and depression, improve relationship quality, and boost self-esteem. Forgiveness doesn't mean condoning harmful behavior but refusing to let past events continue affecting your present and future.

Dr. Chatterjee also shared the heartbreaking story of a patient with ovarian cancer who could never move past her husband's infidelity 25 years earlier. While he can't claim resentment caused her cancer, research shows connections between emotional states and disease development.

4. Understanding the root causes of habits

Most habit change attempts fail because people target behaviors without understanding why those behaviors exist. Habits often serve as coping mechanisms for underlying emotions and stresses.

Dr. Chatterjee describes his "Three F's" approach: Feel (identify the emotion driving the behavior), Feed (recognize how the behavior temporarily satisfies the emotional need), and Find (discover healthier alternatives that address the same emotional need). This awareness creates the foundation for lasting change.

When someone has relationship conflicts or emotional stress, they often use behaviors like overeating, alcohol, or social media scrolling to neutralize uncomfortable feelings. Addressing the emotional root cause naturally reduces reliance on these coping mechanisms.

5. The importance of inner calm for overall health

Cultivating inner peace benefits relationships, happiness, and physical health. Dr. Chatterjee suggests adopting the perspective that everyone is doing their best based on their experiences and circumstances.

This viewpoint allows you to approach conflicts with curiosity rather than judgment. Instead of reacting defensively to criticism, you can ask what you might learn from it or recognize when others are projecting their own pain onto you.

Creating space between stimulus and response is a learnable skill that reduces stress. With practice, you can develop a "learner mindset" that approaches life's challenges by asking "What can I learn here?" rather than "How can I prove I'm right?"

6. Breathwork as a powerful stress management tool

The way we breathe sends powerful signals to our brain. Most office workers unconsciously change their breathing when checking email—faster, shallower chest breathing that signals danger to the brain, creating a feedback loop of stress.

Dr. Chatterjee recommends the "3-4-5 breath": inhale for three counts, hold for four counts, and exhale for five counts. When the exhale is longer than the inhale, it activates the relaxation part of the nervous system. Just five of these breaths (about one minute) can significantly shift your physiological state.

This technique provides a practical tool for interrupting stress cycles throughout the day. He practices breathwork and meditation first thing each morning as a preventative measure, but also uses brief breathing sessions whenever stress arises.

7. The healing power of touch

Affectionate, consensual touch significantly reduces stress hormones. Dr. Chatterjee explains that our skin contains CT afferent nerve fibers that respond optimally to stroking at 3-5 centimeters per second—the natural rate humans instinctively use.

Research from the University of Liverpool shows that when these nerve fibers are stimulated through gentle stroking, they send signals to the primitive brain that reduce cortisol levels. This effect works both when receiving touch and when touching others, including pets.

Interestingly, humans have high concentrations of these nerve fibers on the upper back, suggesting our evolutionary dependence on receiving care from others. This biological feature highlights our fundamental need for connection with other people.

8. The overlap between health, happiness and relationships

Dr. Chatterjee views health, happiness, and relationships as inseparable aspects of wellbeing. Improvements in any area naturally enhance the others, creating a virtuous cycle of overall health.

His unique experience filming BBC's "Doctor in the House" series, where he lived with patients for 4-6 weeks, revealed connections between health issues and lifestyle factors that would never emerge in traditional medical consultations. He witnessed firsthand how relationship dynamics, communication patterns, and daily routines directly impacted physical symptoms.

This integrated perspective helped him achieve remarkable results, including putting type 2 diabetes into remission in 30 days and reducing panic attacks by 70-80% in six weeks—all without medication, by addressing nutrition, lifestyle, and mindset factors.

9. The "Write Your Own Happy Ending" exercise

Dr. Chatterjee shares a powerful two-part exercise for aligning daily actions with life priorities. First, imagine yourself on your deathbed reflecting back—what three things would you want to have accomplished or experienced?

The second step is to identify three weekly "happiness habits" that guarantee you'll achieve that desired ending. Dr. Chatterjee's personal example includes having five fully present meals with his family weekly, making time for passionate pursuits like running and music, and publishing his podcast to help others.

This exercise brings clarity to what truly matters amid life's many distractions. Unlike New Year's resolutions that often fail because they come from "an energy of lack rather than fullness," this approach creates sustainable motivation by connecting daily actions to meaningful life outcomes.

10. Busyness is not success

Dr. Chatterjee left medical practice after 23 years because he recognized that being constantly busy doesn't equal success. Many people stay overly busy seeking validation and importance that historically came from tribal belonging.

He reoriented his priorities after reflecting on research about common deathbed regrets—wishing for less work time, more time with loved ones, living authentically, and allowing happiness. Rather than waiting until life's end to learn these lessons, he restructured his life to embody them now.

Despite leaving clinical practice, he continues his medical mission through teaching, writing, and podcasting. He's trained over 4,000 healthcare professionals in lifestyle medicine principles and receives daily messages from people whose health has transformed through his work. This broader impact, combined with better family time and self-care, creates a more meaningful definition of success.