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 solo minisode, Dr. Aaron Hartman continues his ongoing series asking a deceptively simple question:
Why are you still sick? Why does your body seem stuck even after you’ve addressed so many other pieces?
After years of working with patients dealing with mold illness, Lyme disease, autoimmune issues, gut dysfunction, SIBO, hormonal problems, brain fog, mast-cell activation, and other complex conditions, Dr. Hartman says one pattern increasingly stands out: the nervous system itself may remain dysregulated even after other contributors have been addressed. Pasted text
This episode explores what he calls a nervous-system triad involving limbic-system dysregulation, mast-cell activation, and vagal dysfunction, along with trauma, multiple chemical sensitivity, the “cell danger response,” and why some patients paradoxically feel worse when given treatments that seem biochemically appropriate. Pasted text
The central idea is not that chronic illness is “all in your head.” It is almost the opposite: your brain, nervous system, immune system, mitochondria, and stress-response pathways may all be communicating with one another—and sometimes the body has difficulty returning to a state that feels safe enough for recovery.
Key Topics Covered
Why nervous-system dysregulation may keep some chronically ill patients feeling stuck
Why “it’s all in your head” can be a damaging oversimplification
Big-T trauma, little-T trauma, and healthcare-related trauma
Limbic-system hypervigilance
The amygdala, memory, emotion, and threat perception
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and TILT
Mast Cell Activation Syndrome as part of the nervous-system picture
Vagal dysfunction and autonomic regulation
Fight, flight, freeze, shutdown, and overwhelm
Polyvagal concepts discussed in the episode
Chronic stress and the body’s sense of safety
The “cell danger response” framework
Mitochondria and inflammatory signaling
Why some patients feel worse from supplements or detoxification protocols
Reactions to glutathione, methyl donors, and other treatments discussed in the episode
Brain retraining and nervous-system regulation
EMDR, somatic therapy, parts work, breathwork, and tapping
Why trauma work may sometimes need to happen earlier in the healing process
Why foundational work involving stress, sleep, environment, and nervous-system regulation still matters

In This Episode, You Will Learn
✅ Why Dr. Hartman believes nervous-system dysregulation can remain even after mold, Lyme, gut, hormonal, or autoimmune contributors have been addressed
✅ How limbic hypervigilance may lower the threshold at which the body perceives something as threatening
✅ Why sensitivities to foods, fragrances, chemicals, detergents, supplements, or capsule ingredients may sometimes occur alongside nervous-system dysregulation
✅ How vagal dysfunction may influence patterns of shutdown, overwhelm, autonomic symptoms, and recovery
✅ Why trauma does not have to mean one catastrophic event
✅ How illness itself—and even difficult experiences within the healthcare system—can become physiologically stressful
✅ Why some patients can react poorly to treatments that appear “correct” on paper
✅ Why Dr. Hartman increasingly considers nervous-system work alongside detoxification, infection treatment, nutrition, and other functional-medicine strategies
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.
For a limited time, save 25% on the Back to School Support Bundle.
Visit the link below ⬇️ Shop the Back to School Sale
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.
For a limited time, save 25% on the Back to School Support Bundle.
Visit the link below ⬇️ Shop the Back to School Sale
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 deeply personal episode of Made for Health, Dr. Aaron Hartman sits down with Dr. Efrat “Dr. E” LaMandre, a family nurse practitioner, PhD in Integrative Medicine, host of the Medical Disruptor podcast, and a leading voice on medical gaslighting.
What begins as a conversation about why patients feel dismissed when their tests come back “normal” becomes something much more personal. Dr. E shares that she was recently diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer after months of back pain that she repeatedly minimized herself. The experience transformed her from a clinician who teaches patient advocacy into a patient navigating the healthcare system firsthand. Pasted text
Together, Dr. Hartman and Dr. E explore a rarely discussed side of medical gaslighting: the ways patients can begin gaslighting themselves. We may apologize for taking a clinician’s time, downplay symptoms, assume normal tests mean nothing is wrong, or ignore the internal sense that something has changed.
Their message is not to reject conventional medicine. It is to understand what each clinician can and cannot provide, continue investigating when symptoms persist, and build a healthcare team capable of looking at the whole picture.
Key Topics Covered
What medical gaslighting actually means
Why normal laboratory results do not automatically mean a patient feels well
Why patients may feel dismissed even by well-intentioned clinicians
Populations most affected by medical gaslighting
Why women may be especially likely to minimize their symptoms
Fatigue, migrating pain, unusual sensations, and GI complaints that can be difficult to fit into conventional diagnostic categories
The habit of “pre-apologizing” before describing symptoms
How patients learn to become “good patients”
Why people sometimes trust test results more than their own bodily experience
Intuition as a form of pattern recognition
The importance of knowing when something is different from your normal
Why self-advocacy does not mean rejecting doctors
Understanding the limitations of individual medical specialties
Why conventional testing still matters
How to build a multidisciplinary healthcare team
Choosing clinicians and researchers over unqualified health advice
Avoiding overwhelm when facing a complex diagnosis
Why healing plans may need to be implemented gradually
The emotional and mental challenges of serious and chronic illness
Hope, family, purpose, and continuing to move forward

In This Episode, You Will Learn
✅ What medical gaslighting can look like even when the clinician has good intentions
✅ Why being told “your tests are normal” should not automatically end the conversation when symptoms persist
✅ How patients can unknowingly participate in their own medical gaslighting by dismissing or minimizing what they feel
✅ Why Dr. E now tells patients to get concerning symptoms checked instead of talking themselves out of evaluation
✅ Why self-advocacy is not the same as being confrontational or distrustful of medicine
✅ How intuition can reflect years of subconscious pattern recognition
✅ Why every specialist has a particular role—and why complex health problems may require an entire team
✅ How to decide whose medical advice deserves your attention when everyone around you has an opinion
✅ Why you do not have to make every lifestyle or treatment change at once
✅ What becoming a patient taught Dr. E about exhaustion, uncertainty, hope, and the emotional burden of illness
Connect With Dr. Efrat LaMandre
🌐 Website:
https://www.drefratlamandre.com/
🎙️ Medical Disruptor Podcast:
https://www.drefratlamandre.com/e-podcasts
Dr. E shares additional education and updates under Dr. Efrat LaMandre across her social platforms. Her official website describes the Medical Disruptor podcast as a show featuring credentialed clinicians who examine the limits of conventional care while exploring integrative solutions. Dr E.
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.
For a limited time, save 25% on the Back to School Support Bundle.
Visit the link below ⬇️ Shop the Back to School Sale
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.
For a limited time, save 25% on the Back to School Support Bundle.
Visit the link below ⬇️ Shop the Back to School Sale
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 exploring an important question: Why are you still sick? Why does your body seem unable to get back into a healing state?
This time, he focuses on dysautonomia and POTS—Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome—conditions involving dysfunction in the autonomic nervous system, which helps regulate processes such as heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, digestion, sleep, and the body's response to stress. Pasted text
For some people, the signs are dramatic. For others, they can be subtle: feeling lightheaded when standing, experiencing a racing or pounding heart seemingly out of nowhere, waking suddenly at night, struggling with brain fog, cold hands and feet, unusual skin color changes, temperature intolerance, or simply feeling significantly better after fluids, electrolytes, compression, or time spent calming the nervous system. Pasted text
Dr. Hartman explains why dysautonomia can easily become one more overlooked layer in complex chronic illness—and why identifying what originally disrupted the nervous system may be just as important as identifying POTS itself.
Key Topics Covered
What dysautonomia means
What POTS is and how it relates to dysautonomia
The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems
Lightheadedness and dizziness after standing
Heart racing and unexplained palpitations
Brain fog and difficulty thinking
Waking at night with a racing heart
Cold hands and feet
Changes in skin color and circulation
Problems regulating body temperature
Sleep, mood, hormonal, and gastrointestinal symptoms
Why mild dysautonomia may be overlooked
Fluids and electrolytes
Compression garments
Nervous-system regulation
Dysautonomia after concussion or head injury
Long COVID and post-infectious dysautonomia
Lyme disease and nervous-system dysfunction
Hypermobility and POTS
Mast Cell Activation Syndrome
Autoimmune and gastrointestinal overlap
Why the patient's history can guide treatment
The NASA Lean Test
Physical examination findings Dr. Hartman considers
Why treating the underlying trigger matters

In This Episode, You Will Learn
✅ Why POTS is only one form within the broader category of dysautonomia
✅ How autonomic nervous-system dysfunction can affect much more than heart rate and blood pressure
✅ Why symptoms may sometimes resemble anxiety or panic
✅ Why someone can have significant autonomic symptoms without fitting a textbook presentation
✅ How POTS and dysautonomia may overlap with hypermobility, mast-cell activation, mold illness, Lyme disease, autoimmune issues, gut problems, and post-infectious conditions
✅ Why Dr. Hartman asks when the symptoms started and what happened around that time
✅ How concussion, illness, trauma, infection, or other physiological stressors may become part of the clinical timeline
✅ Why fluids, electrolytes, compression, strengthening, and nervous-system regulation may become part of an individualized approach
✅ How the NASA Lean Test can help collect heart-rate and blood-pressure information over time
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.
For a limited time, save 25% on the Back to School Support Bundle.
Visit the link below ⬇️ Shop the Back to School Sale
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.
For a limited time, save 25% on the Back to School Support Bundle.
Visit the link below ⬇️ Shop the Back to School Sale
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 special episode of Made for Health, Dr. Aaron Hartman shares the deeply personal story behind his journey from conventional family medicine into integrative and functional medicine—and why Richmond Integrative & Functional Medicine exists today.
The turning point began with his daughter, Anna.
When Dr. Hartman and his wife began caring for Anna, who had cerebral palsy and significant medical needs, they quickly found themselves questioning recommendations from specialists. One of the earliest moments involved a recommendation for a feeding tube because Anna was considered extremely small on a standard growth chart. Dr. Hartman and his wife declined, believing there might be another path. Months later, they discovered a growth chart specifically for children with cerebral palsy—and Anna was right in the middle of the expected range. Pasted text
That experience fundamentally changed how Dr. Hartman viewed expertise, medical decision-making, and the importance of looking at the right frame of reference for the individual patient.
From there, his family continued exploring alternatives when standard medicine seemed to offer only procedures, medications, or surgery. Their search took them into nutrition, genetics, advanced gut testing, functional neurology, rehabilitation technologies, neuromodulation, and other approaches that were often being used elsewhere long before they became familiar in mainstream American medicine. Pasted text
Today, Anna continues to make progress far beyond what her family was originally told to expect. Dr. Hartman shares how that experience shaped not only his life as a father but also his identity as a physician, researcher, and lifelong student of medicine. Pasted text
Key Topics Covered
How Dr. Hartman originally entered medicine
The difference between learning medicine and truly learning how to heal
How adopting Anna changed his personal and professional life
Raising a child with cerebral palsy and significant medical needs
Why his family began questioning specialist recommendations
Anna’s feeding-tube recommendation and the importance of the correct clinical reference point
Why medical experts can sometimes be wrong
Medical gaslighting and families with special-needs children
Looking beyond one-size-fits-all treatment
Why function mattered more than appearance in Anna’s care
Exploring nutrition, genetics, gut health, and functional neurology
Technologies and therapies used in neurological rehabilitation
Why Dr. Hartman became increasingly interested in root-cause medicine
His transition from traditional family medicine into functional medicine
The role of clinical research in shaping his thinking
IFM, integrative medicine, functional medicine, and advanced training
Learning about mold, CIRS, mast-cell activation, and hypermobility
How his understanding of chronic illness evolved over time
Why short conventional appointments were not enough for complex patients
The creation of Richmond Integrative & Functional Medicine
Why complex patients need time, curiosity, and individualized care
Moving the practice to a fully functional-medicine model
The role of faith, family, persistence, and continuing education
Dr. Hartman’s vision for the future of personalized medicine

In This Episode, You Will Learn
✅ Why caring for his daughter became the biggest turning point in Dr. Hartman’s medical career
✅ How using the wrong clinical reference point almost led Anna toward an unnecessary feeding tube
✅ Why Dr. Hartman began questioning the idea that specialists always have the complete answer
✅ How parenting children with complex health needs pushed him to investigate nutrition, genetics, neurology, and rehabilitation more deeply
✅ Why functional medicine appealed to him as a way of asking “Why?” rather than only treating the diagnosis
✅ How research helped him recognize that many “new” therapies are often built on decades of previous science
✅ Why conditions such as mold illness, mast-cell activation, hypermobility, and complex chronic illness required him to keep expanding his training
✅ Why he eventually realized complex patients needed much more than a 10- or 12-minute appointment
✅ How Richmond Integrative & Functional Medicine grew from a personal family journey into a practice serving patients with complex chronic conditions
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.
For a limited time, save 25% on the Back to School Support Bundle.
Visit the link below ⬇️ Shop the Back to School Sale
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.
For a limited time, save 25% on the Back to School Support Bundle.
Visit the link below ⬇️ Shop the Back to School Sale
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 exploring the question at the center of this series: Why are you still sick? Why does your body seem stuck even after addressing so many other pieces?
This time, he turns to something that connects nearly every structure in the body but often receives far less attention: fascia and connective tissue.
Dr. Hartman explains that fascia helps support organs, tissues, joints, nerves, and other structures throughout the body. For people with hypermobility, those tissues may be more lax or stretchy, which he believes can influence everything from joint stability and pain to nervous-system activation and complex chronic illness. Pasted text
And hypermobility doesn't always mean someone can still perform obvious “double-jointed” tricks. Dr. Hartman explains that people who were very flexible when younger may become increasingly tight and painful as they age because the surrounding fascia can stiffen and develop areas of restriction—even while certain joints remain hypermobile. Pasted text
Key Topics Covered
Why fascia and connective tissue may be an overlooked part of chronic illness
What hypermobility actually means
Why hypermobility is more than being “double-jointed”
The relationship between fascia and the nervous system
Why loose connective tissue may increase sensory input to the brain
Hypermobility as both a potential strength and vulnerability
Why hypermobile people may become tighter with age
Fascia, pain, and nervous-system activation
Ehlers-Danlos syndrome versus the broader hypermobility spectrum
The Pentad Super Syndrome discussed by Dr. Hartman
Hypermobility and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome
Hypermobility and POTS/dysautonomia
Gastrointestinal issues and connective tissue
Autoimmune conditions and hypermobility
Associations with ADHD, autism, OCD, and other neuropsychiatric conditions discussed in the episode
Bruising, bleeding, joint instability, and sports injuries
Nutrition and connective-tissue repair
Protein and collagen
Vitamin C and collagen production
Trace minerals and connective-tissue health
Bone broth, organ meats, and mineral-rich foods
Why childhood flexibility history may matter in adults
The Beighton score as a screening tool

In This Episode, You Will Learn
✅ Why connective tissue may deserve more attention when chronic symptoms aren't improving
✅ Why hypermobility affects more than just joints
✅ How Dr. Hartman connects fascia with sensory signaling and nervous-system activation
✅ Why someone can be hypermobile and still feel extremely stiff as an adult
✅ How hypermobility may overlap with POTS, dysautonomia, mast-cell activation, gastrointestinal problems, and autoimmune issues
✅ Why childhood flexibility can provide important clues even if you are no longer flexible today
✅ Why hypermobile athletes may sometimes experience repeated injuries despite being strong and highly trained
✅ Why Dr. Hartman pays particular attention to protein, collagen, vitamin C, and mineral status in hypermobile patients
✅ How the Beighton score can help identify physical signs associated with hypermobility
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.
For a limited time, save 25% on the Back to School Support Bundle.
Visit the link below ⬇️ Shop the Back to School Sale
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.
For a limited time, save 25% on the Back to School Support Bundle.
Visit the link below ⬇️ Shop the Back to School Sale
Back to School Support for Parents