Medical Disruptor™ by Dr. E

If you have not slept properly in years this episode is for you.

You lie down exhausted and your brain goes a million miles an hour. You wake at 3am for no reason and you are running on empty.

This week's guest on the Medical Disruptor, Dr. Daniella Marchetti, holds the highest credential in behavioral sleep medicine. She works with veterans at the VA and with women in private practice, and she noticed something that changed how she treats insomnia.

The gold standard treatment for getting a good night’s rest was built on men's sleep. Women's sleep is different. The hormone shifts are different. The daily load is different. And when treatment does not account for that, women drop out of it.

In this episode she explains why being wide awake and wired at night is usually not anxiety. It is your nervous system doing exactly what it was trained to do. We talk about how your sleep tracker may be making things worse by turning rest into a score you keep losing.

She explains what melatonin actually does, why the doses most people take are far too high, and what she recommends instead. She also shares the one question to ask a provider before you trust them with your sleep.

It’s time to get a good night’s sleep.

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Chapters

0:00 - Introduction

5:02 - Why Women Need a Different Sleep Treatment

9:13 - Are Wearables Making Your Sleep Worse?

16:47 - "Mom-somnia": Why a Mother's Sleep Changes

28:56 - Ambien, Lunesta and the Truth About Sleep Meds

32:30 - The Truth About Melatonin

Guest Links:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/drdaniellamarchetti

Website: https://daniellamarchetti.com

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Have you been exhausted, carrying weight you cannot lose, losing your words mid sentence, feeling older than you are? Those are not four separate problems. They are energy problems, and your body makes energy in one place.

We all learned that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. Then we closed the book and never thought about it again. Which is pretty rude, when you think about it. That little thing has been working double shifts for you since the day you were born. It got you through tenth grade biology and you paid it back with four hours of sleep, a drive thru coffee, and a vitamin you bought in 2022.

Dr. Benjamin Busch worked in the emergency room for twenty years. Then he left and built a practice that measures your energy instead of guessing at it.

In this episode of the Medical Disruptor, he explains what VO2 testing shows, why a normal lab result only means you look like most other sick people, and how food, toxins, and hormones break the way your cells make energy. We also talk about brain injury treatment, why fibromyalgia was never a mental health diagnosis, and the money reasons the system is set up to manage you instead of fix you.

This show gives you the conversation you did not get in your fifteen minute visit. Nothing is for sale here. Just real, board certified clinicians who trained inside the system and will tell you where it falls short.

You are not lazy. You are not aging badly. You are running low on power.

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Chapters

0:00 - Introduction

3:05 - Why He Walked Away From the ER

11:44 - Inside a Mitochondria-Focused Practice

16:11 - Why the System Profits From Sickness

22:16 - How Modern Life Damages Your Mitochondria

27:34 - Intranasal Biologics for Brain Healing

Guest Links:

FB: https://www.facebook.com/ViveWell.Health/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/vivewell.health/

YT: https://www.youtube.com/@ViveWell.Health

Website: https://vivewell.health/

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Half of the people who show up with a heart attack have completely normal cholesterol.

That statistic is exactly why I brought back Dr. Philip Ovadia, a board certified cardiac surgeon who spent years operating on hearts while morbidly obese and pre-diabetic himself. In 2016, before Ozempic or any of the GLP-1 medications existed, he lost 100 pounds and reversed his own prediabetes, and it changed what he believed about the disease he had spent his whole career treating.

We get into why insulin resistance carries six times the heart disease risk that elevated LDL cholesterol does, based on the Women's Health Initiative data, and why nearly 90 percent of adults are walking around metabolically unhealthy without knowing it.

Dr. Ovadia walks through fasting insulin, a simple and inexpensive blood test that can flag this risk years before a cholesterol panel ever would, and explains why imaging that actually looks at your arteries tells you more than blood work alone ever can.

We also talk honestly about statins, what the real numbers behind their benefit show once the marketing is stripped away, and why he now tells patients that meat, not cholesterol, belongs back on the table.

It is a conversation that reframes what actually predicts a heart attack and gives you real questions to bring into your next cardiology appointment.

Normal cholesterol does not mean a healthy heart.

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Chapters

0:00 - Introduction

2:15 - From obese surgeon to carnivore & "meat is medicine"

8:18 - Insulin Resistance vs. Cholesterol & the $15 Test

19:36 - Why Doctors Miss It: Fasting Insulin, CRP & GLP-1s

23:45 - Gut Health, Fiber, Fermented Foods & ApoE4

31:25 - Fixing the Cardiology Visit & What to Ask Your Doctor

Guest Links:

FB: https://www.facebook.com/ovadiahearthealth

IG: https://www.instagram.com/ifixhearts/

YT: https://www.youtube.com/ ⁨@IFixHearts⁩

Dr. Philip Ovadia New Book: https://stayoffmykitchentable.com

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Your thyroid does not make one hormone. It makes five. Your last panel probably only tested one.

That gap is exactly why I brought Dr. Amie Hornaman onto the show.

In this episode of theMedical Disruptor, she shares her own thyroid story, including the 25 pounds that showed up in a matter of weeks and the seven different doctors she saw before anyone gave her an answer.

From there we get into why testing TSH and T4 alone misses so much, what a full thyroid panel should actually include, and why she believes most people need more than T4 only medication like Synthroid to feel like themselves again.

We break down reverse T3 and what it means when it is elevated, then go into T2, a thyroid hormone that is not T3 or T4, has decades of research behind it, and may play a real role in metabolism and fat burning. We close with what to actually ask for at your next appointment so a normal result is not the end of the conversation.

As always, this is a free conversation with a vetted, board certified clinician, no products and no upsells, just information you can take straight into your next appointment. This is how we address medical gaslighting directly, by giving you the language and the data to advocate for your own thyroid health.

You are not fine. You are just not sick enough yet.

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Chapters

0:00 - Introduction

3:22 - Amie's 25-Pound Mystery & 7 Doctors

7:27 - Why TSH & T4 Alone Aren't Enough

19:55 - T2: The Forgotten Thyroid Hormone

28:08 - How to Stop Getting Dismissed

33:21 - "You're Just a DC, Not an MD"

Guest Links:

FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dramie

IG: https://www.instagram.com/dramiehornaman/

YT: https://www.youtube.com/dramiehornaman

Website: dramiehornaman.com

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What Is Actually Living in Your Gut That Is Making Every Other Symptom Worse ft. Izabella Wentz

Your gut symptoms have a cause. Finding it just requires someone willing to look past the standard playbook.

More than thirty distinct root causes including SIBO, parasites, celiac disease, bile acid malabsorption, food sensitivities, and exocrine pancreatic insufficiency can produce the exact same symptoms and most of them will never show up on a standard workup because the tests that catch them were never built into the protocol.

Dr. Izabella Wentz is a pharmacist, Hashimotos specialist, and four-time bestselling author who spent years watching her own body fall apart while the medicine she had been trained in had no answers for her. Explosive diarrhea, brain fog, anxiety, hair loss, fatigue. Each symptom managed in isolation, and none of them ever connected.

It was not until she started looking at what was actually happening in her gut that everything shifted. The IBS went into remission, her Hashimotos improved, and the acid reflux disappeared.

In this episode we get into why IBS is no longer being treated as a diagnosis of exclusion and what that means for anyone who has been handed that label without a real workup. Izabella walks through the first places she looks before any testing even begins, including medications most people never think to question and food additives hiding in products marketed as healthy.

She breaks down the functional tests that actually reveal what is driving symptoms and why parasite infections are far more common than conventional medicine is willing to admit.

She also explains the three conditions that have to be present for autoimmune disease to develop and why a disrupted gut barrier can precede an autoimmune diagnosis by a decade or more.

The Medical Disruptor exists to bring you board-certified clinicians who were trained inside conventional medicine, learned its limits firsthand, and came out the other side with real answers.

Your gut is not just a digestive organ. It is the command center for your immune system, your hormones, your brain, and your ability to absorb every nutrient your body needs to function. When it is compromised, everything else follows. And the longer you go without finding the actual cause, the longer everything else keeps breaking down.

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Chapters:

0:00 - Introduction

2:45 - Izabella's Decade of Dismissed Symptoms

9:58 - What IBS Really Is and How It's Diagnosed

16:47 - Medications and Food Additives That Trigger IBS

21:11 - Functional Testing to Find Your Root Cause

25:06 - The Gut-Thyroid-Autoimmune Connection

Guest Links:

FB: https://www.instagram.com/izabellawentzpharmd/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/izabellawentzpharmd/

YT: https://www.youtube.com/user/ThyroidPharmacist

Website: https://thyroidpharmacist.com/media/

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What Your TSH Number Isn't Telling You ft. Dr. Brittany Henderson

Your TSH can look "perfectly normal" and you can still feel exhausted, foggy, cold, and stuck at a weight that won't budge.

In this episode of the Medical Disruptor, I sit down with thyroid specialist Dr. Brittany Henderson to find out why.

Dr. Henderson is fellowship-trained at Duke, ran thyroid programs at two major academic centers, and now runs her own thyroid-only practice, the Charleston Thyroid Center. She told me flat out that TSH alone is not enough, and that most doctors don't even know how to read a full thyroid panel.

In this conversation we get into why TSH is actually a pituitary hormone, not a thyroid hormone, and why the "normal" TSH reference range was built on flawed population data that included undiagnosed Hashimoto's patients. I ask her what free T4, free T3, and reverse T3 actually reveal that TSH can't, and she walks me through why muscle mass is the missing piece in thyroid hormone conversion, since it's muscle tissue that activates T4 into usable T3.

She also explains why up to 95% of people with severe Hashimoto's or a thyroidectomy may need combination T4/T3 therapy instead of T4 alone, and we break down the real differences between levothyroxine, desiccated thyroid extract, and combination treatment.

We talk about patients who've been on the wrong thyroid medication for decades and what happens when it's finally corrected, plus the flip side: patients who never needed thyroid medication in the first place and how to tell the difference. Along the way we cover how birth control, inflammation, steroids, and menopause quietly throw off your thyroid labs without anyone telling you.

If you've ever been told your thyroid is fine while your body is telling you otherwise, this episode gives you the exact labs to ask for and the language to ask for them.

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#functionalmedicine #drefratlamandre #medicaldisruptor #NPwithaPHD #nursepractitioner #medicalgaslighting

Chapters

0:00 - Introduction

2:10 - From Duke-Trained Endocrinologist to Questioning the Standard of Care

12:38 - Why TSH Alone Is Not Enough

23:16 - Combination Therapy and the Muscle Mass Connection

25:17 - Desiccated Thyroid Extract: History and Misconceptions

35:19 - Pushback, Broken Guidelines, and Where to Find Dr. Henderson

Guest Links:

FB: https://www.facebook.com/DrHendersonMD/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/mythyroiddoctor/

Website:charlestonthyroidcenter.com | mythyroiddoctor.com | thethyroidfoundation.org

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Can you heal your gallbladder instead of removing it? Maybe.

In this episode I break down what's really behind gallstones, gallbladder sludge, and gallbladder pain, and what you can actually do before surgery.

I'm Dr. E, the NP with the PhD. Most people get told "you have stones, let's take it out" and that's the whole conversation. Nobody asks why the gallstones formed, or what happens to your digestion after gallbladder removal. That's what we're fixing here.

We cover:

What causes gallbladder sludge and gallstones

Why gallbladder attacks and biliary colic happen

The root causes doctors skip: insulin resistance, thyroid, hormones, bad bile

What gallbladder removal actually does to your body

When you truly do need surgery

Already having symptoms? Get checked by your GI first. If you're in wait-and-see mode, you deserve to ask the deeper questions.

Welcome to The Medical Disruptor, where smart humans get answers they won't hear anywhere else. I help humans go from medically gaslit to medically empowered.

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#functionalmedicine #drefratlamandre #medicaldisruptor #NPwithaPHD #nursepractitioner #medicalgaslighting

Chapters:

0:00 - Introduction

2:31 - Gallbladder Pain, Stones & Sludge

5:42 - The Root Cause Nobody Talks About

7:50 - Why the Gallbladder Gets Sluggish

10:04 - Life After Removal: Post-Cholecystectomy Syndrome

13:37 - How to Support Your Gallbladder Naturally

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Estrogen is the hormone women are told to fear, and never told it is actually the one they need most.

In this episode of The Medical Disruptor, I sit down with endocrinologist Dr. Cassie Smith to dismantle the hormone myth that's kept millions of women suffering: the belief that estrogen and hormone therapy cause cancer.

Dr. Cassie trained at one of the top metabolism and endocrinology fellowships in the country, was named chief resident, ran clinical trials, and then walked away from conventional medicine because the system was failing her patients, and failing her.

What she's seen treating thousands of women tells a very different story than what your doctor was taught.

We get into why "normal" thyroid labs don't mean you're healthy, how your gut secretly controls whether your hormones actually work, why TSH is a terrible standalone test, and why hormones done correctly can extend longevity and lower your risk of heart disease, dementia, and disease, not raise it.

If you've been hesitant about hormone therapy, this conversation will give you the context you need, so you can make a decision based on how hormones truly work, not on outdated fear.

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Stop getting dismissed at the doctor's office.Get Dr. E's FREE 5 Red Flag Phrases guide here:

https://freechapter.lpages.co/5-phrases-that-are-red-flags/

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#functionalmedicine #drefratlamandre #medicaldisruptor #NPwithaPHD #nursepractitioner #medicalgaslighting

Chapters

0:00 - Introduction

4:38 - A Doctor Diagnosed, Dismissed, and Gaslit

11:10 - How Your Gut Controls Your Hormones

19:52 - Why "Normal" Labs Don't Mean You're Healthy

26:13 - What to Ask Your Doctor (and When to Leave)

34:58 - The Truth About Hormones and Cancer

Guest Links:

FB: https://www.facebook.com/ModernEndocrine

IG: https://www.instagram.com/modernendocrine_/

YT: ⁨https://www.youtube.com/@modernendocrine

Website: https://www.modern-endocrine.com/

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Menopause doesn't have to be miserable. Yes, we're going to age, and yes, our hormones are going to change, but we do not have to feel old, exhausted, foggy, and brushed off.

In this solo episode of the Medical Disruptor, I walk you through how to actually balance your hormones through perimenopause and menopause, in the order your body actually works. Most women get handed estrogen and sent home, and I'm going to show you why that approach so often misses the real driver, and what you need to address first.

I start by clearing up the difference between menopause and perimenopause so you know which stage you're really in, and then I explain why your sex hormones aren't the right place to begin. From there I walk through it in the order that actually matters: first insulin and blood sugar, which almost everyone skips, then cortisol and your stress system, which can quietly hog the raw ingredients your sex hormones need, and then your thyroid, where I explain why a single TSH number is not enough testing.

Only after those foundations do I get into sex hormones and hormone therapy, including the real difference between HRT and BHRT, what you're actually being offered, and why the type, dose, and route of delivery matter so much.

I also unpack the truth behind the Women's Health Initiative studies, the myth that menopause is simply estrogen deficiency, what estrogen dominance really means, and why testosterone matters for women too.

You're not stuck, and you don't have to push your way through this. I'm Dr. E, the NP with the PhD, and I help humans go from medically gaslit to medically empowered.

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"Fine" isn't the same as well. Stop waiting to collapse before someone listens. Build your case: https://freechapter.lpages.co/how-to-build-a-case-for-yourself/

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#functionalmedicine #drefratlamandre #medicaldisruptor #NPwithaPHD #nursepractitioner #medicalgaslighting

Chapters

0:00 - Introduction

1:25 - Defining Menopause, Perimenopause & Hormones

3:06 - Why Insulin Comes First

5:38 - Cortisol & Your Stress System

7:21 - Getting Your Thyroid Tested Right

9:15 - Sex Hormones, HRT & Finding Balance

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Why Your Brain Is Starving Even When You Eat ft. Dr. Matt Bernstein

What if the symptoms we call "mental illness" aren't really about brain chemistry at all, but about a brain that's literally starving for energy?

In this episode of The Medical Disruptor, I sit down with psychiatrist Dr. Matt Bernstein, who trained and taught at Harvard before everything he believed about mental health got turned upside down.

It started with what he was seeing in his own patients, and then it became personal when his own children got sick at home.

We get into the science most psychiatrists were never taught. Dr. Bernstein explains how brain insulin resistance can leave your neurons swimming in glucose but unable to use it for fuel, why mitochondrial dysfunction and inflammation may be the real root causes behind conditions like bipolar disorder and severe depression, and how a ketogenic diet can give the brain a fuel source it can actually access.

He also shares one of the biggest eye-openers for me personally, which is that the "relapse" so many people experience after stopping medication is often withdrawal, not the illness coming back.

We also talk about why the "chemical imbalance" story is incomplete and what's actually happening in the brain, how food, exercise, sleep, and metabolic health work together to heal the mind, and the difference between a clinician questioning the model and a health influencer simply guessing.

Everything you think you know about why the brain breaks down is about to be challenged. Press play and let Dr. Bernstein walk you through the science that changed his mind, and his entire practice.

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"Fine" isn't the same as well. Stop waiting to collapse before someone listens. Build your case

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#functionalmedicine #drefratlamandre #medicaldisruptor #NPwithaPHD #nursepractitioner #medicalgaslighting

Chapters

0:00 - Introduction

2:23 - When His Own Sons Got Sick

11:02 - The "Chemical Imbalance" Myth

18:04 - Why Your Brain Is Starving

22:20 - Switching the Brain's Fuel

29:09 - "Isn't This Just False Hope?"

Guest Links:

FB: https://www.facebook.com/accordmh

IG: https://www.instagram.com/accordmh/

Website: https://accordmh.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices