Health in the Spirit

Ryan was going to be a professional baseball player. He was so sure of it that at twelve, riding to a game, he made himself memorize the moment so he could tell the story later.

Show Notes

Ryan was going to be a professional baseball player. He was so sure of it that at twelve, riding to a game, he made himself memorize the moment so he could tell the story later. Two years on, he threw a pitch that rolled halfway to home plate, and an MRI came back showing a bilateral fracture through his L5 — both of the little bridges of bone that hold the vertebra in place, snapped. No baseball. No running. No swimming. Six months to a year if he healed well. What happened over the next three months — a retreat he was dragged onto, a night of adoration, a healing service in Indiana, and a second MRI — is the reason he's a chiropractor today. His doctor's words: this might be the closest thing to a miracle I've ever seen.

In this episode

  • Cradle Catholic, mediocre faith: God as "the guy I see for an hour on Sundays"
  • The fall down the stairs in January, and the pitch in April that ended the season
  • What a bilateral pars fracture at L5 actually means, and how close it came to something worse
  • The Steubenville conference he cried about being sent to — and what happened during adoration
  • The healing service, the prayer team, and ten minutes on the floor he doesn't remember
  • The second MRI: not healing, but no evidence the bone was ever broken
  • Why he now asks patients who've plateaued whether he can pray with them
  • When sickness becomes an identity — and what has to be let go before healing lasts

Chapters

00:00 — Welcome and opening prayer
01:20 — Who Ryan is, and what the clinic actually does
03:19 — Growing up on the west side of Cincinnati, and a faith on autopilot
03:57 — Baseball, and a promise made in the back seat
05:37 — The stairs at St. Bernard
06:46 — The pitch that didn't reach home plate
09:13 — The diagnosis, and how bad it could have been
11:00 — Losing the whole summer, and getting angry
12:57 — Dragged onto a bus to Franciscan
15:12 — Adoration: "if this is real, give me something"
17:00 — Coming home a different kid
17:47 — The healing service in Indiana
20:04 — Resting in the Spirit, and waking up without pain
21:41 — Sprinting from the car to the front door
22:04 — The second MRI, and what the doctor said
24:13 — Why none of the rest of his life happens without this
26:51 — Doubt, and the one thing he can always go back to
28:00 — Ask for healing — and why sometimes it comes slowly
29:49 — Praying with patients who've hit a plateau
32:20 — Closing prayer

New episodes every Tuesday, 6 AM ET.

Show notes, blog, and full transcripts: healthinthespirit.com

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Got a healing story, a question, or a guest suggestion? ryan@healthinthespirit.com / annie@healthinthespirit.com

Health in the Spirit is recorded under the patronage of Ss. Cosmas and Damian, physicians who healed the body and soul without counting the cost.

This podcast is for education and encouragement. It isn't medical advice and doesn't replace care from your own clinician.

What is Health in the Spirit?

Health in the Spirit is a Christian health and wellness podcast with Dr. Ryan and Annie DeNome, a chiropractor and a theologian raising a family in Cincinnati, Ohio. Each week they bring holistic health, the wisdom of the healing saints, and the teaching of the Church into one conversation about how to live well, body and soul. Rooted in Saints, Scripture, and the Catechism, the show explores what the ancient wisdom of the Church has to say about the modern health crisis: nutrition, movement, rest, healing, and raising a healthy family. New episodes every Tuesday, beginning July 7, 2026.