Made for Health | Peptides | Lyme | Chronic Infections | Long Covid | Insulin Resistance | Hypermobility

🎒 Back-to-school season brings changing routines, new exposures, and added demands on the whole family. Support your family’s health this season with Richmond Integrative & Functional Medicine’s Back-to-School 2026 resources.

Back-to-School 2026:

https://richmondfunctionalmedicine.com/lp/back-to-school-2026/

In this Made for Health minisode, Dr. Aaron Hartman continues his series exploring one central question: Why are you still sick?

Maybe you've gone from provider to provider. You've received pieces of the answer, tried different treatments, and improved somewhat—but your body still feels stuck.

One condition Dr. Hartman believes can sometimes sit underneath that complicated picture is Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, or MCAS.

Mast cells are part of the immune system and are found throughout the body, including tissues associated with the skin, gastrointestinal tract, bladder, blood vessels, and nerves. Because of that widespread distribution, mast-cell activation can potentially produce symptoms across multiple systems rather than creating one simple or predictable symptom pattern.

Dr. Hartman discusses symptoms such as rashes, hives, food and chemical sensitivities, reactions to supplements, heart palpitations, gastrointestinal problems, brain fog, and fatigue. He also explains why MCAS can overlap with conditions such as mold illness, Lyme disease, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, nervous-system dysregulation, and other complex chronic health problems.

Key Topics Covered

• Why Mast Cell Activation Syndrome may be overlooked
• How mast cells interact with the immune system
• Skin symptoms, hives, and rashes
• Food, chemical, fragrance, and supplement sensitivities
• Palpitations and rapid heart rate
• Diarrhea, constipation, and gastrointestinal symptoms
• Brain fog and chronic fatigue
• Why MCAS can resemble many other chronic illnesses
• Mast cells and neurological symptoms
• Interstitial cystitis and other less obvious presentations
• The overlap between MCAS, Lyme disease, and mold exposure
• Why some highly sensitive patients may need mast cells stabilized first
• Challenges surrounding laboratory testing for mast-cell mediators
• Histamine, prostaglandin D2, and tryptase testing discussed in the episode
• Why sample handling may influence test results
• Clinical criteria and treatment-response trials
• Identifying the trigger behind mast-cell activation
• Stress and nervous-system activation
• Food and environmental chemical triggers
• Mold and Lyme disease
• SIBO and gastrointestinal triggers
• Hormonal shifts, menstrual cycles, and menopause
• Concussion, infections, travel-related illness, COVID, and other possible triggering events
• Why understanding when symptoms began can provide important clues

In This Episode, You Will Learn

✅ Why Mast Cell Activation Syndrome can produce symptoms throughout multiple body systems

✅ Why someone with MCAS may become unusually reactive to foods, chemicals, fragrances, or supplements

✅ How mast-cell activation may overlap with Lyme disease, mold exposure, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and nervous-system symptoms

✅ Why laboratory testing for mast-cell mediators can sometimes be difficult

✅ Why Dr. Hartman also relies on clinical history, symptom patterns, and response to treatment when evaluating suspected mast-cell activation

✅ Why calming mast-cell symptoms may sometimes need to happen before aggressively addressing mold, Lyme, or another underlying trigger

✅ Why improving symptoms is not necessarily the same as identifying the root cause

✅ How stress, infections, environmental exposure, gut dysfunction, and hormonal changes may potentially trigger mast-cell activation

✅ Why asking “When did this begin?” can be one of the most useful questions in a complicated chronic illness case

Follow Dr. Aaron Hartman and Richmond Integrative & Functional Medicine

🌐 Website: https://richmondfunctionalmedicine.com/

🎒 Back-to-School 2026: Back-to-School Bundle

📺 YouTube: @AaronHartmanMD

Mentioned in this episode:

25% Off Back to School Support for Parents

Back to school asks a lot of parents, too. Support your body through the season with three physician-reviewed, foundation-first essentials: Twice Daily Multi, Quercetin + Nettles, and NAC.

Back to School Support for Parents

25% Off Back to School Support for Parents

Back to school asks a lot of parents, too. Support your body through the season with three physician-reviewed, foundation-first essentials: Twice Daily Multi, Quercetin + Nettles, and NAC.

Back to School Support for Parents

🎒 Back-to-school season brings new routines, new exposures, and new challenges for the whole family. Support your family this school year with targeted nutritional support designed with whole-person health in mind. Get 25% Off the Back-to-School Bundle

In this episode of Made for Health, Dr. Aaron Hartman welcomes back Dr. Neil Nathan, a pioneer in integrative and functional medicine with more than five decades of medical experience. Dr. Nathan has spent much of his career working with the patients other practitioners struggled to understand—people living with complex chronic illness, mold toxicity, Lyme disease, multiple chemical sensitivities, chronic fatigue, and increasingly reactive nervous and immune systems.

Their conversation centers on a question that both physicians encounter regularly: Why do some patients improve to a certain point and then stop getting better?

For Dr. Nathan, the answer often requires looking beyond a single diagnosis or treatment protocol. A patient may have already addressed mold, Lyme disease, gut health, autoimmune issues, or nutritional deficiencies and still feel stuck. At that point, he believes healing may require exploring the neurological, emotional, energetic, and spiritual dimensions of illness alongside the physical ones.

The discussion also dives into the growing population of highly sensitive patients—people who may react to light, sound, touch, fragrances, foods, supplements, medications, or electromagnetic exposures. Dr. Nathan explains why these reactions should not simply be dismissed as psychological and explores how the limbic system, vagal system, immune system, and mast cells can become interconnected in chronic illness.

• Why complex chronic illness appears increasingly difficult to treat
• What Dr. Nathan means by a “sensitive patient”
• Sensitivity to light, sound, touch, fragrances, foods, supplements, and environmental exposures
• Mold toxicity and Lyme disease in complex chronic illness
• Environmental chemicals and the cumulative burden of exposure
• Dr. Nathan’s clinical perspective on electromagnetic field sensitivity
• Why some patients improve 50–60% and then become stuck
• Emotional, energetic, spiritual, and physical blockages to healing
• Trauma and neurological hypervigilance
• Big-T trauma versus accumulated smaller stressors
• The limbic system and the brain’s threat-detection response
• Vagal dysfunction and autonomic nervous system symptoms
• POTS, gastrointestinal symptoms, palpitations, and dysautonomia
• Mast Cell Activation Syndrome
• The connection between the nervous and immune systems
• Mold, mast cells, and hypermobility
• Cranio-cervical instability and the “spiky-leaky” concept discussed in the episode
• Thiamine deficiency and mitochondrial function
• Vitamin B1 and autonomic nervous-system health
• Oxalates as a potential source of inflammation
• Why dietary changes sometimes need to happen gradually
• SSRI and benzodiazepine withdrawal in sensitive patients
• Why medication tapering needs to be individualized and medically supervised
• Why Dr. Nathan refuses to use a one-size-fits-all mold-treatment algorithm
• The importance of truly personalized medicine

✅ Why Dr. Nathan believes some of today’s chronic illness patients are becoming increasingly sensitive and complex

✅ What distinguishes a sensitive patient from someone dealing with a single isolated condition

✅ Why mold, Lyme disease, environmental exposures, and immune dysfunction may overlap rather than exist as completely separate problems

✅ How trauma and chronic stress can contribute to a nervous system that remains hypervigilant long after the original stressor has passed

✅ Why the limbic system, vagal system, and mast cells may need to be addressed together in highly sensitive patients

✅ How autonomic dysfunction can contribute to symptoms involving digestion, heart rate, blood pressure, fatigue, and other body systems

✅ Why neurological sensitivity is different from simply labeling symptoms as psychological

✅ Why thiamine may deserve consideration when mitochondrial and autonomic function are impaired

✅ How oxalates can become another source of irritation and inflammation for certain individuals

✅ Why suddenly making major dietary changes may sometimes worsen symptoms in highly sensitive patients

✅ Why antidepressants and benzodiazepines should not be abruptly discontinued and why tapering needs to be individualized with the prescribing clinician

✅ Why the most sensitive patients often require treatment to move slower, not faster

Resources & Links:

🌐 Dr. Aaron Hartman – Richmond Functional Medicine: richmondfunctionalmedicine.com

🌐 LinkedIn – Dr. Aaron Hartman: Connect Here

📺 YouTube – Richmond Functional Medicine: Watch Here

🎒 Back-to-School 2026: Back-to-School Bundle

Mentioned in this episode:

25% Off Back to School Support for Parents

Back to school asks a lot of parents, too. Support your body through the season with three physician-reviewed, foundation-first essentials: Twice Daily Multi, Quercetin + Nettles, and NAC.

Back to School Support for Parents

25% Off Back to School Support for Parents

Back to school asks a lot of parents, too. Support your body through the season with three physician-reviewed, foundation-first essentials: Twice Daily Multi, Quercetin + Nettles, and NAC.

Back to School Support for Parents

🎒 Back-to-school season brings changing routines, new exposures, and added demands on the whole family. Support your family’s health this season with Richmond Integrative & Functional Medicine’s Back-to-School 2026 resources.

Back-to-School 2026:

https://richmondfunctionalmedicine.com/lp/back-to-school-2026/

In this Made for Health minisode, Dr. Aaron Hartman continues his series exploring an important question: Why are you still sick? Why does your body seem stuck even after you’ve tried so many things?

This time, he turns his attention to Lyme disease—an infection that can present in different ways and may sometimes enter the differential diagnosis when people are dealing with persistent fatigue, body pain, migrating joint or muscle symptoms, neurological complaints, or other unexplained problems.

Dr. Hartman shares examples from his clinical experience, including patients with symptoms such as chronic fatigue, widespread pain, Bell’s palsy, sciatica, and foot drop. His broader message is that when a patient’s symptoms do not fit neatly into the expected picture, clinicians may need to take another look at the history, exposure risk, symptom pattern, and appropriate testing rather than relying on one isolated result.

He also discusses the challenges surrounding Lyme disease testing, including antibody testing, Western blot testing, immunoblot testing, and symptom-based clinical evaluation. Current CDC guidance recommends a two-step, FDA-cleared serologic testing process and notes that antibody tests can be falsely negative during the first several weeks after infection. IDSA guidelines also recognize that a classic erythema migrans rash can be diagnosed clinically without laboratory testing.

Key Topics Covered

• Why Lyme disease may be considered when someone remains chronically unwell
• Persistent fatigue, body aches, and migrating pain
• Neurological presentations discussed in the episode
• Lyme disease and Bell’s palsy
• Dr. Hartman’s clinical experiences with unusual symptom patterns
• Why timing matters with Lyme antibody testing
• Standard two-tier Lyme disease testing
• Western blot and immunoblot testing
• The limits of relying on a single laboratory result
• The importance of symptoms, history, and possible tick exposure
• Dr. Hartman’s approach when clinical suspicion remains high
• The MSIDS questionnaire discussed in the episode
• Why chronic illness may involve more than one contributing factor
• When a deeper evaluation may be appropriate
• Continuing the search for overlooked contributors when someone feels “stuck”

In This Episode, You Will Learn

✅ Why Dr. Hartman considers Lyme disease in some patients with persistent or unusual symptoms

✅ Why Lyme disease does not always present in exactly the same way

✅ How symptoms such as fatigue, migrating pain, and certain neurological complaints may prompt further evaluation

✅ Why the timing of antibody testing can affect results

✅ How standard Lyme testing generally uses a two-step serologic process

✅ Why Dr. Hartman emphasizes looking at the whole clinical picture, rather than interpreting one test result in isolation

✅ How he approaches situations in which symptoms and previous testing appear not to match

✅ Why finding Lyme disease does not necessarily mean it is the only factor affecting a person’s recovery

Follow Dr. Aaron Hartman and Richmond Integrative & Functional Medicine

🌐 Website: https://richmondfunctionalmedicine.com/

🎒 Back-to-School 2026: Back-to-School Bundle

📺 YouTube: @AaronHartmanMD

Mentioned in this episode:

25% Off Back to School Support for Parents

Back to school asks a lot of parents, too. Support your body through the season with three physician-reviewed, foundation-first essentials: Twice Daily Multi, Quercetin + Nettles, and NAC.

Back to School Support for Parents

25% Off Back to School Support for Parents

Back to school asks a lot of parents, too. Support your body through the season with three physician-reviewed, foundation-first essentials: Twice Daily Multi, Quercetin + Nettles, and NAC.

Back to School Support for Parents

🎒 Back-to-school season can bring changing routines, increased stress, new exposures, and added demands on the whole family. Support your family’s health this season with Richmond Integrative & Functional Medicine’s Back-to-School 2026 resources.

Back-to-School 2026:

https://richmondfunctionalmedicine.com/lp/back-to-school-2026/

In this episode of Made for Health, Dr. Aaron Hartman welcomes back Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge, a leading expert in emotional and behavioral dysregulation with more than 30 years of experience helping children and families. Their conversation explores what happens when the nervous system becomes chronically overwhelmed—and why addressing behavior alone may miss what is actually driving a child’s struggles.

Dr. Roseann explains dysregulation as difficulty moving effectively between states of stress and calm. When the nervous system’s “stress cup” keeps filling without enough opportunities to release that stress, children and adults can remain chronically activated. That activation may show up through anxiety, emotional outbursts, attention difficulties, shutdowns, impulsivity, sleep problems, or other physical and mental health challenges.

Dr. Hartman and Dr. Roseann also take a close look at screen time and device dysregulation. Rather than framing technology as inherently bad, Dr. Roseann emphasizes the importance of boundaries, especially because children can have difficulty disengaging once they are deeply absorbed in stimulating digital content.

The conversation then moves into the heart of Dr. Roseann’s work: helping families regulate the nervous system first. Nutrition, gut health, magnesium, neurofeedback, PEMF, and other tools may all have a role, but she stresses that lasting change also requires consistent daily practices that help reduce nervous-system activation and create greater capacity for stress.

Key Topics Covered

• What emotional and nervous-system dysregulation can look like in children
• Why people can appear highly functional while living in chronic fight, flight, or freeze
• The “stress cup” and why accumulated stress matters
• ADHD, anxiety, OCD, PANS/PANDAS, sensory challenges, and dysregulation
• Device dysregulation and screen-time boundaries
• Why smartphones and short-form content can be difficult for children to disengage from
• Why simply removing one physical stressor may not fully regulate the nervous system
• Nutrition, magnesium, gut health, mold, and nervous-system support
• Big-T trauma, little-t trauma, and chronic everyday stress
• Sympathetic nervous-system activation
• Why consistency matters more than searching for one “magic” intervention
• Breathwork, somatic exercises, Tai Chi, prayer, art, and other daily regulation practices
• Neurofeedback, PEMF, and brain-based tools
• Polyvagal theory and vagus-nerve regulation
• Why parents need to regulate themselves before helping a dysregulated child
• Co-dysregulation versus co-regulation
• Generational patterns and emotional regulation within families
• The CALMS Dysregulation Protocol®
• Regulation First Parenting®
• Dr. Roseann’s book, The Dysregulated Kid

In This Episode, You Will Learn

✅ Why dysregulation is about the nervous system’s ability to move between stress and calm

✅ Why chronic stress can affect the nervous system even when there has not been one major traumatic event

✅ Why correcting behavior may be ineffective when a child is already highly dysregulated

✅ How technology and device use can add another layer of stimulation for children

✅ Why supplements or advanced therapies alone may not replace daily nervous-system regulation

✅ How simple practices such as breathwork, movement, art, prayer, Tai Chi, and somatic exercises can become part of a daily regulation routine

✅ Why parents’ nervous systems influence their children through verbal and nonverbal cues

✅ How families can shift from co-dysregulation to co-regulation

✅ Why Dr. Roseann believes parents need to stop personalizing a child’s dysregulated behavior

✅ How the CALMS Dysregulation Protocol® gives families a practical framework for responding differently

Follow Dr. Aaron Hartman and Richmond Integrative & Functional Medicine

🌐 Website: https://richmondfunctionalmedicine.com/

🎒 Back-to-School 2026: Back-to-School Bundle

📺 YouTube: @AaronHartmanMD

Mentioned in this episode:

25% Off Back to School Support for Parents

Back to school asks a lot of parents, too. Support your body through the season with three physician-reviewed, foundation-first essentials: Twice Daily Multi, Quercetin + Nettles, and NAC.

Back to School Support for Parents

25% Off Back to School Support for Parents

Back to school asks a lot of parents, too. Support your body through the season with three physician-reviewed, foundation-first essentials: Twice Daily Multi, Quercetin + Nettles, and NAC.

Back to School Support for Parents

🎒 Back-to-school season brings changing routines, new exposures, and added demands on the whole family. Support your family’s health this season with Richmond Integrative & Functional Medicine’s Back-to-School 2026 offer.

Back-to-School 2026:

https://richmondfunctionalmedicine.com/lp/back-to-school-2026/

In this Made for Health minisode, Dr. Aaron Hartman continues exploring a question he hears frequently from patients: Why am I still sick? Why am I not getting better? What has been overlooked?

Sometimes you've seen multiple doctors, received diagnoses, tried medications, completed specialized testing, and even worked with functional medicine practitioners, yet your recovery eventually reaches a plateau.

According to Dr. Hartman, one potential piece worth investigating is mold exposure.

He explains that mold and other biotoxins can interact with the immune system in complicated ways. One aspect of this is Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS), which Dr. Hartman describes in relation to activation of the innate immune system by biotoxins. He also discusses direct toxin exposure and how mold-related problems may intersect with autoimmune and inflammatory conditions.

The challenge is that mold exposure can be easy to dismiss precisely because it is so common. A water-damaged environment or mold around an HVAC system may look “normal” to someone who sees it every day, but Dr. Hartman argues that common does not necessarily mean harmless for every individual.

Key Topics Covered

• Why mold may be overlooked when chronic illness isn't improving
• Mold exposure and Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS)
• What Dr. Hartman means by the biotoxin pathway
• Innate versus adaptive immune responses
• Direct toxicity from mold and mycotoxins
• Mold and chronic inflammation
• Potential connections with autoimmune and autoinflammatory conditions
• Water-damaged buildings and environmental exposure
• Why common mold exposure can be easy to dismiss
• Mold in HVAC systems and indoor environments
• HLA-DR/DQ genetics and susceptibility
• Why some people may have more difficulty handling biotoxins
• Mold exposure versus immune-system dysregulation
• Urine testing for mold toxins
• Evaluating the building as well as the individual
• Mold as a possible complicating factor in chronic Lyme disease
• Dr. Hartman's clinical example involving Lyme disease, hypermobility, and POTS
• Binders, phosphatidylcholine, environmental changes, and gut support discussed in his clinical approach
• Why foundational health still matters when dealing with environmental exposures
• RIFM's Healthy Building Guide and mold resources

In This Episode, You Will Learn

✅ Why Dr. Hartman considers mold when someone with a complex chronic illness stops progressing

✅ How he distinguishes mold exposure, direct toxin effects, and CIRS

✅ Why a water-damaged building may affect different people differently

✅ How Dr. Hartman describes the role of HLA-DR/DQ genetics in the body's ability to handle biotoxins

✅ Why simply finding mold-related toxins doesn't necessarily tell you whether your innate immune system is dysregulated

✅ Why evaluating your home or workplace environment can be an important part of investigating possible mold exposure

✅ How mold may complicate conditions such as chronic Lyme disease, autoimmune disease, mast cell activation syndrome, long COVID, and other complex health problems

✅ Why Dr. Hartman continues emphasizing nutrition, gut health, detoxification, and other foundations even when addressing mold

Follow Dr. Aaron Hartman and Richmond Integrative & Functional Medicine

🌐 Website: https://richmondfunctionalmedicine.com/

🎒 Back-to-School 2026: Back-to-School Bundle

📺 YouTube: @AaronHartmanMD

Mentioned in this episode:

25% Off Back to School Support for Parents

Back to school asks a lot of parents, too. Support your body through the season with three physician-reviewed, foundation-first essentials: Twice Daily Multi, Quercetin + Nettles, and NAC.

Back to School Support for Parents

25% Off Back to School Support for Parents

Back to school asks a lot of parents, too. Support your body through the season with three physician-reviewed, foundation-first essentials: Twice Daily Multi, Quercetin + Nettles, and NAC.

Back to School Support for Parents

🎒 Back-to-school season brings new routines, new exposures, and new challenges for the whole family. Support your family this school year with targeted nutritional support designed with whole-person health in mind. Get 25% Off the Back-to-School Bundle

In this episode of Made for Health, Dr. Aaron Hartman, MD, and Dr. Jenski, MD, explore Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS) and the biotoxin pathway. They break down how exposure to biotoxins from mold, water-damaged environments, and chemicals can trigger complex immune responses, and how genetic factors such as HLA gene mutations may influence the way certain individuals respond to these exposures.

The conversation examines the connection between biotoxins, chronic inflammation, detoxification, and seemingly interconnected health problems. Dr. Hartman and Dr. Jenski explain why CIRS can be complex to identify and manage and why treatment needs to be personalized rather than approached with a one-size-fits-all protocol.

They also discuss strategies used to support the body during treatment, including omega-3 fatty acids and curcumin, while emphasizing the importance of addressing CIRS through a thoughtful, step-by-step process. This episode provides listeners with a clearer understanding of the biotoxin pathway, why chronic inflammation can persist, and how a structured approach can help guide CIRS treatment.

Resources & Links:

🌐 Dr. Aaron Hartman – Richmond Functional Medicine: richmondfunctionalmedicine.com

🌐 LinkedIn – Dr. Aaron Hartman: Connect Here

📺 YouTube – Richmond Functional Medicine: Watch Here

🎒 Back-to-School 2026: Back-to-School Bundle

Mentioned in this episode:

25% Off Back to School Support for Parents

Back to school asks a lot of parents, too. Support your body through the season with three physician-reviewed, foundation-first essentials: Twice Daily Multi, Quercetin + Nettles, and NAC.

Back to School Support for Parents

25% Off Back to School Support for Parents

Back to school asks a lot of parents, too. Support your body through the season with three physician-reviewed, foundation-first essentials: Twice Daily Multi, Quercetin + Nettles, and NAC.

Back to School Support for Parents

🎒 Back-to-school season brings changing routines, new exposures, and added demands on the whole family. Support your family’s health this season with Richmond Integrative & Functional Medicine’s Back-to-School 2026 offer.

Back-to-School 2026:

https://richmondfunctionalmedicine.com/lp/back-to-school-2026/

In this episode of Made for Health, Dr. Aaron Hartman continues his series exploring a question he hears constantly from people dealing with chronic and complex health problems: Why am I still not getting better?

You may have seen the specialists, received the diagnoses, taken the medications, completed advanced testing, or worked with integrative and functional medicine providers. Maybe you've made it 50% of the way—but something still feels missing.

Dr. Hartman introduces the Hierarchy of Healing, a concept he says has existed within naturopathic medicine for more than a century. Rather than beginning with the newest test, supplement, or advanced treatment, this framework asks whether you've created the conditions your body needs to heal in the first place.

That includes your physical environment, nervous system, connection with nature, food and water, and something medicine doesn't always know how to measure: meaning and purpose.

Key Topics Covered

• Why some people improve but eventually become stuck in their healing journey
• The Hierarchy of Healing in naturopathic medicine
• Dr. Hartman's Triangle of Health
• Creating an environment that supports healing
• Why feeling safe matters to the nervous system
• Trauma, chaos, and nervous-system dysregulation
• The relationship between mind, body, and healing
• Connecting with nature and natural rhythms
• Seasonal changes in food and lifestyle
• The microbiome, polyphenols, mitochondria, and the environment
• Nourishing the body with real food and clean water
• Giving the body what it needs rather than only trying to remove what's wrong
• Why meaning and purpose belong in a conversation about health
• The biopsychosocial model of healing
• Why foundational principles still matter in complex chronic illness
• Turning health information into meaningful action

In This Episode, You Will Learn

✅ What Dr. Hartman means by the Hierarchy of Healing

✅ Why the environment surrounding you can become part of your healing process

✅ Why nervous-system safety may matter when your body seems unable to move forward

✅ How natural and seasonal rhythms fit into Dr. Hartman's framework for health

✅ Why nourishment involves more than simply avoiding unhealthy foods

✅ How Dr. Hartman connects the microbiome, polyphenols, mitochondria, and environmental influences

✅ Why meaning, purpose, relationships, vocation, and creativity can be important pieces of a healing journey

✅ Why getting better shouldn't be viewed only through medications, testing, supplements, or procedures

✅ Why Dr. Hartman continues returning to foundational principles even when working with people experiencing significant chronic illness

Follow Dr. Aaron Hartman and Richmond Integrative & Functional Medicine

🌐 Website: https://richmondfunctionalmedicine.com/

🎒 Back-to-School 2026: Back-to-School Bundle

📺 YouTube: @AaronHartmanMD

Mentioned in this episode:

25% Off Back to School Support for Parents

Back to school asks a lot of parents, too. Support your body through the season with three physician-reviewed, foundation-first essentials: Twice Daily Multi, Quercetin + Nettles, and NAC.

Back to School Support for Parents

25% Off Back to School Support for Parents

Back to school asks a lot of parents, too. Support your body through the season with three physician-reviewed, foundation-first essentials: Twice Daily Multi, Quercetin + Nettles, and NAC.

Back to School Support for Parents

🎒 Back-to-school season brings new routines, new exposures, and new challenges for the whole family. Support your family this school year with targeted nutritional support designed with whole-person health in mind. Get 25% Off the Back-to-School Bundle

In this episode of Made for Health, Dr. Aaron Hartman is joined by internationally renowned Lyme disease expert Dr. Richard Horowitz, who shares insights from his 35+ years of experience treating over 13,000 patients with chronic Lyme disease and complex chronic illnesses.

Dr. Horowitz unpacks the 16-point treatment model he developed to address the multifactorial nature of chronic disease—including infections, inflammation, environmental toxins, mitochondrial dysfunction, and immune dysregulation. He explores how chronic Lyme overlaps with long COVID, mold illness, and autoimmune conditions, and emphasizes the importance of personalized, root-cause approaches to healing.

This eye-opening episode also addresses the medical and political challenges faced by Lyme patients and practitioners, the need for systemic change, and how advocacy and collaboration can help reshape the future of chronic care.

Show Highlights:

✅ What makes chronic Lyme disease so difficult to diagnose and treat

✅ Dr. Horowitz’s 16-point model and why it’s transforming chronic illness care

✅ The intersection of Lyme, long COVID, and other systemic health conditions

✅ How toxins, infections, and inflammation fuel long-term illness

✅ The political and institutional barriers to better care and research

✅ Real-world patient stories that highlight hope and healing

✅ Where patients and practitioners can access further education and support

Some Questions We Explore:

✅ Why are so many patients misdiagnosed—or not diagnosed at all?

✅ How can chronic Lyme mimic other diseases like fibromyalgia or MS?

✅ What’s the role of mitochondrial health and detoxification in recovery?

✅ How do we move from symptom management to root-cause resolution?

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

✅ What a truly integrative, systems-based approach to chronic illness looks like

✅ How to use Dr. Horowitz’s model to guide testing, diagnosis, and treatment

✅ Why collaboration between conventional and functional medicine is crucial

✅ How to advocate for better awareness, resources, and policy change

Resources & Links:

🌐 Dr. Richard Horowitz – Official Website: cangetbetter.com

📘 Book – Why Can’t I Get Better? by Dr. Richard Horowitz

📘 Book – How Can I Get Better? by Dr. Richard Horowitz

🌐 Dr. Aaron Hartman – Richmond Functional Medicine: richmondfunctionalmedicine.com

🌐 LinkedIn – Dr. Aaron Hartman: Connect Here

📺 YouTube – Richmond Functional Medicine: Watch Here

🎒 Back-to-School 2026: Back-to-School Bundle

Mentioned in this episode:

25% Off Back to School Support for Parents

Back to school asks a lot of parents, too. Support your body through the season with three physician-reviewed, foundation-first essentials: Twice Daily Multi, Quercetin + Nettles, and NAC.

Back to School Support for Parents

25% Off Back to School Support for Parents

Back to school asks a lot of parents, too. Support your body through the season with three physician-reviewed, foundation-first essentials: Twice Daily Multi, Quercetin + Nettles, and NAC.

Back to School Support for Parents

🎒 Back-to-school season puts extra demands on the whole family. Support your health this fall with physician-vetted, foundational supplements from Richmond Integrative & Functional Medicine. Get 25% off Back-to-School Support while the seasonal offer lasts.

https://richmondfunctionalmedicine.com/lp/back-to-school-2026/

In this episode of Made for Health, Dr. Aaron Hartman begins a new series with a question he hears almost every day: “Why am I not getting better?”

You may be doing everything you think you’re supposed to do. You’ve seen doctors and specialists. You’ve changed your diet, tried supplements, addressed your diagnosis, and worked hard on your health. Maybe you’ve improved 20%, 40%, or even 60%—but then something happens. Progress stops, symptoms linger, and you feel stuck.

Before jumping to more complicated possibilities like mold, Lyme disease, mast cell issues, hormones, or advanced testing, Dr. Hartman argues that it’s worth returning to the foundations. In his clinical experience, three of the most commonly overlooked areas are gut health, stress, and sleep.

He explores how nutrition, the microbiome, food reactivity, detoxification, stress and trauma, nervous-system regulation, and restorative sleep can influence the healing process. The goal isn't simply to chase the newest health trend. It's to identify what may be blocking progress, address what's lacking, and build a stronger foundation for healing.

Key Topics Covered

• Why people can make significant progress and then suddenly get stuck
• The danger of chasing the newest health trend or treatment
• Why foundational health still matters in complex chronic illness
• Gut health and the microbiome
• Real food versus highly processed food
• Food sensitivities and immune reactivity
• Protein, minerals, and nutrition in detoxification
• Prebiotics, probiotics, postbiotics, polyphenols, and fiber
• Chronic stress and its impact on healing
• Health-related and healthcare-related stress
• Trauma and nervous-system dysregulation
• EMDR, tapping, somatic therapy, and parts therapy
• The default mode network and established brain patterns
• Why sleep is essential for repair and recovery
• Deep sleep, REM sleep, memory, and nervous-system regulation
• Why the basics should come before more complex interventions

Follow Dr. Aaron Hartman and Richmond Integrative & Functional Medicine

🌐 Website: https://richmondfunctionalmedicine.com/

🎒 Back-to-School 2026: Back-to-School Bundle

📺 YouTube: @AaronHartmanMD

Mentioned in this episode:

25% Off Back to School Support for Parents

Back to school asks a lot of parents, too. Support your body through the season with three physician-reviewed, foundation-first essentials: Twice Daily Multi, Quercetin + Nettles, and NAC.

Back to School Support for Parents

25% Off Back to School Support for Parents

Back to school asks a lot of parents, too. Support your body through the season with three physician-reviewed, foundation-first essentials: Twice Daily Multi, Quercetin + Nettles, and NAC.

Back to School Support for Parents

🎒 Back-to-school season brings new routines, new exposures, and new challenges for the whole family. Support your family this school year with targeted nutritional support designed with whole-person health in mind. Get 25% Off the Back-to-School Bundle

In this episode of Made for Health, Dr. Aaron Hartman welcomes Dr. Jill Carnahan, a leading expert in functional and integrative medicine, for a powerful conversation about resilience, healing, and the root causes of chronic illness.

Dr. Carnahan shares her deeply personal story—surviving breast cancer at 25, living with Crohn’s disease, and overcoming debilitating mold toxicity. These challenges became the catalyst for her shift from conventional to holistic, patient-centered care. Together, she and Dr. Hartman explore the connection between trauma, toxic exposures, belief systems, and spiritual healing in the path to true wellness.

This is more than a medical discussion—it’s an invitation to reclaim your health through compassionate, root-cause medicine that honors both science and soul.

• Dr. Carnahan’s journey through cancer, autoimmune disease, and mold illness
• Why trauma and belief systems play a critical role in recovery
• How conventional medicine often overlooks root causes
• The role of diet, detoxification, and the environment in healing
• Her shift from protocols to personalized, whole-person care
• The impact of spirituality and mindset in chronic illness recovery
• Insights from her new book and documentary

• How did Dr. Carnahan’s personal health battles shape her medical philosophy?
• What’s the connection between trauma, the immune system, and chronic disease?
• Why are environmental toxins often missed in conventional care?
• How can spiritual practices aid physical recovery?

• The importance of addressing trauma in healing complex illness
• Why belief, choice, and action are cornerstones of recovery
• Functional medicine tools for detox, gut healing, and immune regulation
• How to become an empowered advocate for your own health
• Where to start if you feel dismissed or overlooked in traditional healthcare

• Dr. Jill Carnahan – Official Website: https://www.jillcarnahan.com
• Book – Unexpected: Finding Resilience through Functional Medicine, Science, and Faith: Buy Here

Follow Dr. Aaron Hartman and Richmond Integrative & Functional Medicine

🌐 Website: https://richmondfunctionalmedicine.com/

🎒 Back-to-School 2026: Back-to-School Bundle

📺 YouTube: @AaronHartmanMD

Mentioned in this episode:

Get Dr. Hartman's New Book - UnCURABLE

If you’ve been let down by the system, you’re not alone — and you’re not powerless.

Get the new book UnCURABLE

25% Off Back to School Support for Parents

Back to school asks a lot of parents, too. Support your body through the season with three physician-reviewed, foundation-first essentials: Twice Daily Multi, Quercetin + Nettles, and NAC.

Back to School Support for Parents

25% Off Back to School Support for Parents

Back to school asks a lot of parents, too. Support your body through the season with three physician-reviewed, foundation-first essentials: Twice Daily Multi, Quercetin + Nettles, and NAC.

Back to School Support for Parents