Dr. McLanahan is a graduate with high honors of Swarthmore College, and she has an M.D. from Wayne University and a family practice specialty from the University of Massachusetts.

For twenty years, she served as director of stress management for Dr. Dean Ornish's research, using Yoga and lifestyle changes to reverse heart disease and cancer. She now practices integrative medicine at Yogaville.

Dr. McLanahan has made multiple study trips to India and Asia, where she visited centers that use Yoga and other natural means to prevent and treat disease. She is the co-author of the book, Surgery and Its Alternatives and helped to write the books, Dr. Yoga and After Cancer Care. She also appears in two DVDs, Living Yoga and Health, Yoga, and Anatomy.