The Healing Hierarchy: Why Your Body May Need More Than the Right Treatment to Heal | E175

🎒 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/ What if cancer is not simply an isolated enemy to attack, but also a signal to look more closely at the terrain in which disease developed? In this powerful episode of Made for Health, Dr. Aaron Hartman sits down with Dr. Nasha Winters, ND, FABNO, L.Ac, Dipl.OM, a naturopathic doctor and Fellow of the American Board of Naturopathic Oncology whose work focuses on metabolic and integrative oncology. Dr. Winters’ interest in cancer is deeply personal. At just 19 years old, after years of unexplained health problems, she was diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer involving multiple areas of her body and was told she may have only months to live. That experience ultimately redirected her education, clinical career, and understanding of health. Pasted text(20261018-195841) More than three decades later, she shares how that diagnosis changed the way she thinks about cancer, trauma, metabolism, environmental exposures, mitochondria, hormones, and the relationship between a person's biography and biology. Key Topics Covered Dr. Nasha Winters’ stage IV ovarian cancer diagnosis at age 19 Why her early symptoms were repeatedly attributed to existing diagnoses What changed when one physician recognized that something was different Her prognosis and the moment she decided she wanted to understand cancer rather than simply “fight” it The unexpected experiences she believes influenced her early survival Fasting and metabolic stress in cancer Childhood trauma and the Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACE, framework Big-T and little-T trauma EMDR and trauma processing Psychedelic experiences and confronting mortality Psychoneuroimmunology The relationship between emotions, stress, nervous-system signaling, and physical health Cancer as a disease of the individual “terrain” Environmental exposures and the exposome Mitochondrial health Metabolic dysfunction and cancer Insulin and growth signaling Hormone metabolism Integrative approaches to prostate cancer Integrative considerations in breast cancer Colon cancer and the rising burden of cancer in younger adults Why Dr. Winters believes patients should understand their individual terrain How integrative oncology can work alongside conventional cancer care Why patients may have more influence over their health than they realize

🎒 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

🎒 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

🎒 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

🎒 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