Dairy’s trusted role in patient diets shifts as Tracy Harrison breaks down how it can drive inflammation, immune reactivity, and persistent symptoms that rarely get linked to food in clinical practice. She explains why lactose intolerance is far more common than most patients realize, how whey and casein can contribute to skin issues, congestion, joint pain, fatigue, and histamine overload, and why some patients tolerate goat or sheep dairy better than cow dairy. Tracy also highlights the problem of hidden dairy in packaged foods and how it can undermine a structured elimination. 

This episode gives practitioners a sharper lens for assessing symptoms that look unrelated at first glance and a clearer path for deciding when dairy deserves closer investigation in a patient’s case.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 The Devil in Dairy: An Introduction

02:58 Lactose Intolerance: A Common Misunderstanding

06:12 Immune Hypersensitivity to Dairy

09:00 Cow vs. Goat vs. Sheep Dairy: Understanding Differences

12:07 A1 vs. A2 Casein: The Protein Debate

14:53 Cross-Reactivity: Dairy and Gluten Connection

18:09 Symptoms of Dairy Sensitivity

20:57 The Myth of Dairy and Bone Health

24:11 Hidden Dairy: The Importance of Label Reading

26:59 Conclusion: Bio-Individuality in Dairy Consumption

Links

Take SAFM’s 10 CME course - The Essential Gut Deep Dive

Get weekly Clinical Tips in your inbox 

Learn more about SAFM’s practitioner training

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

Access daily quick tips on Facebook 

Most chronic disease protocols fail because the body won’t heal until it feels safe - and that sense of safety starts with the vagus nerve.

Tracy Harrison takes a closer look at what it really means for the body to be ready to heal. Why do some patients follow every recommendation yet still struggle to make lasting progress? What if the real barrier isn’t what they’re missing, but how their nervous system is responding to the world around them? In this episode, Tracy breaks down how the vagus nerve acts as the body’s communication bridge (regulating inflammation, digestion, fertility, mood, and more) and why chronic stress or unresolved emotions can quietly keep patients in survival mode. She also shares ways to restore vagal tone through simple, accessible habits like diaphragmatic breathing, gratitude, laughter, and restorative rest. These aren’t surface-level stress tips; they’re science-backed tools for helping the body feel safe enough to shift from defense to repair. For practitioners, it’s a call to move beyond managing symptoms and start cultivating an internal environment where healing can actually take root.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Why Chronic Disease Persists

01:26 Safety as the Foundation for Healing

05:47 The Vagus Nerve and Whole-Body Regulation

23:07 Breathing as a Pathway to Healing

28:04 Gut Health and the Parasympathetic Connection

34:03 Rest and Recovery as Medicine

46:03 Heart Rate Variability and Resilience

49:00 Healing Is State Dependent

Links

Take SAFM’s 10 CME course - The Essential Gut Deep Dive

Get weekly Clinical Tips in your inbox 

Learn more about SAFM’s practitioner training

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

Access daily quick tips on Facebook 

Functional medicine can only create real change when practitioners move beyond collecting information and start developing the confidence, efficiency, and teamwork that bring healing to life.

Tracy Harrison invites practitioners to think honestly about what it means to do this work well. How do you turn deep scientific knowledge into practical, lasting results for real people? How do you keep your passion alive without running yourself into the ground? Tracy explores what it looks like to move functional medicine from a niche movement into a more accessible, sustainable model of care - one that supports both the patient and the practitioner.

Tracy also takes an unfiltered look at the burnout so many practitioners face and why so many feel they have to do everything alone. She shares how collaboration, whether through hiring early, building a multimodality team, or integrating health coaches and pharmacists, can create more impact with less exhaustion. Along the way, she points out the power of group visits, shared education, and patient partnerships that make functional medicine more affordable and effective for everyone involved.

This episode is an honest, encouraging look at how practitioners can move past self-doubt and build a practice rooted in confidence, clarity, and genuine connection.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Confidence, Capability, and Impact for Practitioners

02:15 Knowledge vs Capability and Imposter Syndrome

09:10 Integrating Functional Medicine Into Managed Care

13:55 Efficiency and New Reimbursement Paths for Sustainability

16:18 Stop Doing It Alone: Build Your Team Early

35:20 Patient-Centered Care with SMART Goals and Accountability

44:50 Shared Medical Visits and Group Programs That Scale Results

54:13 Sustain Your Impact and Protect Practitioner Well-Being

Links

Take SAFM’s 10 CME course - The Essential Gut Deep Dive

Get weekly Clinical Tips in your inbox 

Learn more about SAFM’s practitioner training

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

Access daily quick tips on Facebook 

Limiting beliefs have a way of sneaking into the work of functional medicine practitioners and Tracy Harrison is pulling them into the light. Have you ever felt like you had to do everything on your own to be credible, or that you should wait until you know absolutely everything before you start? Tracy makes the case for why those assumptions hold you back and how confidence is built through real practice, not endless preparation.

Tracy also looks closely at the practitioner-patient relationship and asks a hard question: what happens when we carry the weight of “fixing” our patients instead of helping them take ownership of their own choices? From moving past overreliance on labs and supplements to creating a true partnership based on education, accountability, and community, she shares a more sustainable way forward.

How much impact could you have if you let go of old assumptions and focused on wisdom, collaboration, and practical action? This episode is a reminder that the future of functional medicine depends on practitioners who are willing to rethink, adapt, and lead with both insight and courage.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Truth Telling on Limiting Beliefs in Functional Medicine

02:15 The Myth of Practicing Functional Medicine Alone

06:44 Stop Waiting Until You “Know It All” to Begin

13:50 Patient Responsibility and True Healing Partnerships

20:37 Rethinking Lab Work: Beyond “Within Normal Limits”

32:21 Medications, Myths, and Functional Wisdom

41:59 The Limitations of Stool Tests and Functional Gut Health

51:07 Parasympathetic Activation as the Foundation for Healing

Links

Take SAFM’s 10 CME course - The Essential Gut Deep Dive

Get weekly Clinical Tips in your inbox 

Learn more about SAFM’s practitioner training

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

Access daily quick tips on Facebook 

Food sensitivities often play a bigger role in chronic health problems than many practitioners realize. 

In this episode, Tracy Harrison unpacks how foods that look perfectly healthy on the surface can still trigger immune responses that drive inflammation and dysfunction. She explains the differences between IgG and IgA mediated reactions, explores why intestinal permeability matters, and points out the impact of common medications, toxins, and microbial imbalances on immune tolerance. 

How often do we assume patients without gut complaints can’t have food sensitivities? What if the clues show up instead as joint pain, skin issues, or fatigue? Tracy also talks through the limitations of food sensitivity testing and why context is everything when interpreting results. 

Practitioners will walk away with a clearer sense of why most food sensitivities are acquired, how they can be reversed by addressing upstream dysfunction, and what it looks like to guide patients through elimination, reintroduction, and restoration of tolerance in a way that sticks.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Introduction to Food Sensitivities in Functional Medicine

02:07 Myth: Food Sensitivities Don’t Exist

03:02 Food Sensitivities vs. Allergies Explained

07:00 Limitations of Food Sensitivity Testing

10:07 IgA Antibodies and Gut Health

15:11 Intestinal Permeability and Chronic Disease

17:05 How Food Sensitivities Manifest Beyond the Gut

20:29 Gluten, Zonulin, and Leaky Gut

26:11 Addressing Root Causes of Food Sensitivities

Links

Take SAFM’s 10 CME course - the Essential Gut Deep Dive

Get weekly Clinical Tips in your inbox 

Learn more about SAFM’s practitioner training

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

Access daily quick tips on Facebook 

So much of functional medicine celebrates the latest science, but how often does that knowledge actually change a patient’s life? Tracy Harrison invites us to look closer at the gap between information and transformation. Why do so many people collect new diagnoses, run more tests, or add another supplement yet still feel stuck? What gets in the way of real change, and how can practitioners guide patients through it?

In this episode, Tracy explores why lifestyle shifts are the real turning point in healing and how practitioners can become better partners in that process. She shares the simple power of telling a patient, “I believe you can get better,” the importance of setting clear and realistic expectations, and the hidden risks of overwhelming people with too many interventions at once. With stories and analogies, she points out how addressing root causes together, rather than chasing quick fixes, leads to lasting outcomes for both patient and practitioner.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 The Limits of Endless Labs and New Diagnoses

01:05 Optimizing Clinical Outcomes in Functional Medicine

05:15 Why Science Alone Cannot Heal Patients

07:34 From Knowledge to Action: Breaking the Cycle of Permanent Patients

09:49 Mastering the Art of Facilitating Lifestyle Change

16:56 Placebo, Nocebo, and the Biochemical Power of Practitioner Engagement

20:28 The Healing Impact of Saying “You Can Get Better”

23:59 Setting Realistic Expectations and Avoiding Quick Fixes

35:28 Rapid Relief: Building Patient Trust and Confidence

44:54 Defining the Emotional Why Behind Sustainable Change

49:38 The Three Thumbtacks Analogy for Root Cause Healing

52:10 Moving from the Drama Triangle to the Empowerment Triangle

59:18 Facilitating Change Without Burning Out

Links

Take SAFM’s 10 CME course - the Essential Gut Deep Dive

Get weekly Clinical Tips in your inbox 

Learn more about SAFM’s practitioner training

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

Access daily quick tips on Facebook 

The antioxidant trap challenges the assumption that more supplements always mean better health. Tracy Harrison explains how oxidative stress, often seen as harmful, is also essential for normal physiology and for activating the body’s innate antioxidant defenses. She shows why hormesis, the right amount of stress in the right context, builds resilience, while too much can tip the body into harm.

Tracy challenges common myths, including the belief that compounds like curcumin or sulforaphane are antioxidants in themselves, when in fact they work as mild pro-oxidants that stimulate adaptive pathways. She also points to why whole foods, with their hundreds of synergistic phytonutrients, can never be fully replaced by capsules. Supplements have value in short-term, targeted use, but lasting health depends on diet diversity, lifestyle, and reducing hidden drivers of oxidative stress such as sleep apnea, food sensitivities, and blood sugar imbalance.

For practitioners, the takeaway is a more nuanced framework for clinical care. Oxidative stress is not simply something to eliminate but something to understand and work with. The key lies in knowing when to protect the body, when to challenge it, and how to identify the hidden imbalances that push patients into overload. When clinicians learn to see stress as both a risk and a tool, they can guide patients toward true resilience that extends beyond symptom management and into long-term vitality.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Introduction to Oxidative Stress and Antioxidants

01:16 The Antioxidant Trap: Five Myths for Practitioners

05:06 Hormesis and the Body’s Antioxidant Pathways

06:45 Bioindividuality in Oxidative Stress and Health

10:18 Why Antioxidant Supplements Act as Pro-Oxidants

15:25 Why Supplements Can’t Replace a Poor Diet

20:22 Whole Foods vs Supplements in Clinical Practice

25:05 The Role of Minerals in Antioxidant Defense

29:19 Lifestyle and Hidden Drivers of Oxidative Stress

38:16 Blood Sugar and Redox Imbalance

43:06 Key Markers for Assessing Redox Balance

Links

Take SAFM’s 10 CME course - the Essential Gut Deep Dive

Get weekly Clinical Tips in your inbox 

Learn more about SAFM’s practitioner training

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

Access daily quick tips on Facebook 

Infertility can be one of the most painful challenges a person faces, yet it’s often the body’s way of signaling that something deeper is out of balance. Could the struggle to conceive be pointing to hidden metabolic issues, hormone imbalances, or stress patterns that have been building for years?

Tracy Harrison looks at infertility through the lens of functional medicine and shares how five common but often overlooked imbalances can quietly undermine fertility. She talks about the early signs of insulin resistance that can interfere with ovulation, the impact of estrogen dominance driven by poor detoxification and everyday exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and the surprising ways gut health shapes reproductive outcomes. Tracy also examines how toxic load, oxidative stress, adrenal function, and subclinical thyroid issues can create an environment where conception and full-term pregnancy are harder to achieve.

For practitioners, this episode is a reminder to step back and consider the whole picture. Are we catching the subtle signs before they become bigger problems? Are we helping patients address the underlying conditions that set the stage for lasting reproductive health? Tracy offers insight and direction for identifying the true root causes and guiding patients toward solutions that support both conception and long-term well-being.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Infertility as a Multisystem Dysfunction

01:16 Insulin Resistance and Blood Sugar Imbalance

07:05 Estrogen Dominance and Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals

13:12 Gut Health’s Role in Fertility

17:01 Toxicity and Miscarriage Risk

22:29 Adrenal Thyroid Imbalance and Chronic Stress

Links

Take SAFM’s 10 CME course - the Essential Gut Deep Dive

Get weekly Clinical Tips in your inbox 

Learn more about SAFM’s practitioner training

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

Access daily quick tips on Facebook 

Most thyroid labs look fine on paper, but your patient’s cells may be screaming for help you can’t see.

Tracy Harrison offers a wake-up call for healthcare practitioners: long-term healing can’t happen without addressing the hidden hormone dynamics that standard labs often miss. In this episode, she explores why persistent symptoms in chronically ill patients, especially post-pandemic, may be tied to unrecognized dysfunction in the adrenal-thyroid axis. These are the patients doing “everything right” yet still cycling through flare-ups, fatigue, and stalled progress. Tracy names what many clinicians sense but can’t always explain: a revolving door of disease driven by intracellular hypothyroid function, subclinical adrenal imbalances, and unresolved stress physiology.

At the core is one foundational principle – all healing is a parasympathetic activity. Tracy challenges practitioners to see beyond lab panels and protocols, reminding us that the nervous system listens to lived experience, not positive thinking. She connects the dots between sympathetic dominance, chronic inflammation, micronutrient deficiencies, estrogen excess, insulin resistance, and hormone conversion issues that derail recovery even when test results look perfect.

Through clear clinical insight, examples, and research-backed nuance, Tracy reframes how we evaluate thyroid and adrenal patterns in practice. This episode is an invitation to slow down, listen more deeply, and upgrade your lens on what healing truly requires. If you’ve been trained to trust the labs first, this conversation will change how you see everything.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 The Revolving Door of Chronic Illness

03:45 Healing Requires Parasympathetic Dominance

07:15 Intracellular Hypothyroid Function Explained

14:10 Nutrient Deficiencies Driving Thyroid Dysfunction

21:05 How Chronic Stress Suppresses Thyroid Function

28:15 Inflammation, Reverse T3, and Long COVID

39:55 Insulin Resistance and Thyroid Hormone Resistance

47:05 Running a Complete Thyroid Panel

54:05 Rethinking Thyroid Hormone Replacement

1:00:55 Hidden Physiological Stressors That Disrupt Healing

Links

Take SAFM's 10 CME course - the Essential Gut Deep Dive: https://schoolafm.com/gut-course

Get weekly Clinical Tips in your inbox: https://schoolafm.com/clinical-tips 

Learn more about SAFM's practitioner training: https://schoolafm.com/our-program

Subscribe to our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@safmchannel

Access daily quick tips on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AppliedFunctionalMedicine/ 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Perimenopause isn’t a syndrome to treat. It’s a complex, shifting transition that most women in their 40s are already navigating, whether they realize it or not. For practitioners working in functional medicine, failing to recognize and address the nuances of this phase can mean missing the real root of your clients’ symptoms.

In this episode, Tracy Harrison lays out five critical practitioner blind spots that lead to frustration and subpar outcomes. She challenges the idea that a fixed protocol can support women through perimenopause, reminding us that the only constant in this life stage is change. Hormones don’t decline in a straight line. Progesterone drops early and steadily, while estrogen tends to spike and swing before it ever goes down. This hormonal chaos can trigger anxiety, insomnia, mood swings, migraines, and even histamine-related issues that are too often misdiagnosed or ignored.

Tracy explains how common symptoms such as poor sleep, bloating, mood instability, hot flashes are often driven by overlooked mechanisms like GABA depletion, serotonin fluctuations, or impaired histamine clearance. She breaks down why alcohol can sabotage sleep and worsen hot flashes, why estrogen dominance is more common than we think, and how mindset and chronic stress directly influence hormone symptoms through the nervous system.

This episode is a call to meet women where they are, not with a standard protocol, but with a dynamic, personalized approach that accounts for the biochemical, emotional, and environmental complexity of perimenopause. If you want to truly support midlife women, you need more than hormone labs and supplements. You need to understand the full picture, and be prepared to shift with it.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Understanding Perimenopause: A Natural Transition

05:02 Why Protocols Fail in Perimenopause Care

08:06 How Progesterone Drop Triggers Mood and Sleep Issues

11:22 Alcohol’s Hidden Role in Anxiety, Insomnia, and Hormone Disruption

12:29 The Overlooked Link Between Histamine and Perimenopause Symptoms

16:21 Estrogen Dominance in Early Perimenopause: What Practitioners Miss

21:48 The Estrogen-Serotonin Connection and Its Impact on Mood

26:10 What Really Causes Hot Flashes and Night Sweats

30:00 How Stress Hormones Worsen Perimenopause Symptoms

32:09 Why Mindset and Thought Patterns Matter in Symptom Management

33:45 Partnering with Patients Through Perimenopause

Links

Take SAFM’s 10 CME course - the Essential Gut Deep Dive: https://schoolafm.com/gut-course

Get weekly Clinical Tips in your inbox: https://schoolafm.com/clinical-tips 

Learn more about SAFM’s practitioner training: https://schoolafm.com/our-program

Subscribe to our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@safmchannel

Access daily quick tips on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AppliedFunctionalMedicine/ 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm