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

🎒 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:
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For a limited time, save 25% on the Back to School Support Bundle.
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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 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.
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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.
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 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.
✅ Show Highlights:
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

🎯 Some Questions We Explore:
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?

💡 In This Episode, You Will Learn:
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

🌐 Resources & Links:
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.
Dr. Hartmans wrote UnCURABLE to help you take back control of your health and your hope.
Visit the link below ⬇️ to get your copy and start your transformation today.
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.
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 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 sits down with Dr. James T. Leathem, DO, a board-certified anesthesiologist and psychedelic integration coach, to explore ketamine therapy, psychedelic medicine, and a different way of thinking about mental health. Dr. Leathem shares his unconventional path from business to medicine, how a near-death experience helped redirect his life, and how his background in anesthesia eventually led him into ketamine-assisted care. The conversation focuses on depression, PTSD, trauma, chronic pain, neuroplasticity, and the importance of pairing the medicine with meaningful integration work.
Dr. Leathem explains that ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic used at sub-anesthetic doses in this setting. He describes how ketamine interacts with the glutamate system through NMDA receptor blockade, which can influence AMPA signaling and brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF. He connects these mechanisms to synaptic plasticity, dendritic spine formation, and a period of increased neuroplasticity that may create an opportunity for new patterns and behaviors.
But for Dr. Leathem, the medicine itself is only part of the process. He emphasizes preparation, intention, integration coaching, mindfulness, journaling, sleep, and daily practices after treatment. His analogy is simple: ketamine may help put out the fire in your "mental health house," but it cannot rebuild the house for you. That rebuilding requires active participation after someone becomes unstuck.
The conversation also expands into the default mode network, spiritual experiences, stellate ganglion blocks, autonomic dysregulation, traumatic brain injury, and the wider landscape of psychedelic medicine. Throughout the episode, Dr. Leathem emphasizes individualized treatment rather than a cookie-cutter approach.
Key Topics Covered
Dr. James Leathem's unconventional journey into medicine
How anesthesiology led him toward ketamine and psychedelic medicine
Ketamine therapy for depression, PTSD, trauma, and chronic pain
The difference between anesthetic and sub-anesthetic ketamine
Why Dr. Leathem prefers an individualized approach to ketamine therapy
IV ketamine and different routes of administration
Why the ketamine experience is only one part of the healing process
Preparation, intention, and psychedelic integration
The neuroplasticity window following ketamine treatment
NMDA receptors, glutamate, and AMPA signaling
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)
Dendritic spine formation and neural circuitry
Why mental health may involve more than the traditional neurotransmitter model
Ketamine and the default mode network
Psychedelic experiences and shifts in perspective
The role of daily habits after ketamine therapy
Mindfulness, journaling, sleep, and metacognition
Stellate ganglion blocks and autonomic nervous system regulation
Ketamine in patients with complex chronic illness
Dr. Leathem's clinical experience with traumatic brain injury
Classic versus non-classic psychedelics
Psilocybin, LSD, DMT, mescaline, MDMA, and other psychedelic medicines
Why psychedelic treatment requires attention to preparation, setting, and integration
Turning trauma and suffering into growth and personal evolution

In This Episode, You Will Learn
✅ How Dr. Leathem went from anesthesiology to ketamine and psychedelic medicine
✅ How ketamine works differently from conventional approaches focused primarily on serotonin and other monoamine neurotransmitters
✅ Why NMDA receptors, glutamate, BDNF, and neuroplasticity are central to the conversation about ketamine
✅ Why Dr. Leathem believes the period after a ketamine experience can be as important as the infusion itself
✅ How preparation, intention, integration coaching, and daily practices can help patients work with the changes that follow treatment
✅ Why ketamine may help someone become "unstuck," while long-term rebuilding still requires active participation
✅ How the default mode network may relate to ego, thought patterns, and psychedelic experiences
✅ How ketamine and stellate ganglion blocks are being combined in Dr. Leathem's practice when addressing certain patterns of autonomic dysregulation
✅ How ketamine fits into the much broader and evolving field of psychedelic medicine
About Dr. James T. Leathem, DO
Dr. James T. Leathem is a board-certified anesthesiologist, Certified Psychedelic Integration Coach, and co-founder of Gilbert Chandler Ketamine Therapy Clinic and Scottsdale Ketamine Therapy Clinic. His background in anesthesia provided the foundation for his work with ketamine and altered states of consciousness.
After beginning his career in business and marketing, a series of deeply personal experiences led him toward medicine. He went on to earn his Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine and build a career in anesthesiology before transitioning into ketamine and psychedelic medicine. In the episode, he explains that his clinics have performed thousands of ketamine infusions and that his approach combines the medicine with preparation and integration rather than treating the infusion as a standalone intervention.
His work focuses on helping individuals struggling with conditions including depression, PTSD, trauma, chronic pain, and other mental health challenges, while emphasizing personalized care and the potential for lasting behavioral and personal change.
Connect With Dr. James T. Leathem
🌐 Gilbert Chandler Ketamine Therapy Clinic:
Gilbert Ketamine Therapy Clinic
🌐 Scottsdale Ketamine Therapy Clinic:
Scottsdale Ketamine Therapy Clinic
👨‍⚕️ Dr. James T. Leathem, DO:
Dr. James Leathem’s Profile
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.
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

🔥 What if recovering from a concussion isn’t about pushing harder, but understanding exactly what your brain needs to heal without exceeding its limits? Read UnCurable (https://uncurablebook.com/) to explore how addressing inflammation, cellular health, nutrition, and the interconnected systems of the body can help support the natural healing process.
Concussion Recovery Requires More Than Rest: How to Support the Brain After a Traumatic Brain Injury
In this Made for Health minisode, Dr. Aaron Hartman concludes his series on concussions and traumatic brain injuries by answering the question that follows understanding the causes, symptoms, and biological effects of TBI: What can you actually do to support recovery? He walks through the framework he uses with patients, beginning with strategies aimed at decreasing inflammation and supporting the brain during both acute and chronic stages of recovery.
Dr. Hartman discusses nutrition, healthy fats, omega-3s, choline, curcumin, blood-brain barrier support, mitochondrial restoration, hormone balance, magnesium, sleep, graded exercise, brain retraining, vagus nerve activation, and therapies such as hyperbaric oxygen. One of his most important messages is that recovery must respect the brain's metabolic threshold. If exercise or cognitive activity leaves you feeling worse the following day or takes several days to recover from, you may be pushing beyond your current capacity.
Rather than looking for one universal solution, Dr. Hartman emphasizes evaluating the bigger picture, including the gut, hormones, environment, toxins, emotional health, and other factors that may influence recovery. He closes the series with a message of hope for people dealing with persistent symptoms after traumatic brain injury.
Key Topics Covered
The foundations of concussion and traumatic brain injury recovery
Why reducing brain inflammation is an early priority
The role of an anti-inflammatory TBI diet
Healthy fats, omega-3s, omega-6s, protein, and choline
Curcumin and other nutrients used to support brain health
Supporting the blood-brain barrier after traumatic brain injury
The relationship between leaky gut and leaky brain
Phosphatidylcholine and cell membrane support
Magnesium and its role in brain health
Mitochondrial restoration and energy production
B vitamins, CoQ10, and mitochondrial support
Hormonal changes following traumatic brain injury
Sleep disturbances and melatonin
Graded exercise during concussion recovery
Understanding your metabolic threshold
Why pushing too hard can worsen symptoms
Vestibular rehabilitation and neuro-ophthalmology
Brain retraining and cognitive exercises
Vagus nerve activation and nervous system regulation
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy and sensory deprivation
Long-term strategies for supporting brain resilience
Why gut health, hormones, toxins, and environment may need to be addressed
Hope for people living with persistent post-concussion symptoms

In This Episode, You Will Learn
✅ Why concussion recovery may require more than simply resting and waiting
✅ How an anti-inflammatory diet and specific nutrients may support brain health
✅ Why the blood-brain barrier, gut, mitochondria, and hormones can all matter during recovery
✅ How to recognize when exercise or cognitive activity has exceeded your metabolic threshold
✅ Why graded exercise and brain retraining should be approached carefully during the chronic phase of recovery
✅ How hyperbaric oxygen, nervous system regulation, and other supportive strategies fit into Dr. Hartman’s clinical approach
✅ Why persistent post-concussion symptoms may require looking beyond the brain at the whole person
Follow Dr. Aaron Hartman and Richmond Integrative & Functional Medicine
🌐 Website: https://richmondfunctionalmedicine.com/
📺 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.
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