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Functional Medicine Reality Podcast

Functional Medicine Reality Podcast

Written by: Dr. Mark Su MD Functional Medicine Practitioner for Health and Longevity
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The Functional Medicine Reality Podcast exposes the truth about what really happens in healthcare and why so many patients with complex, chronic conditions are left searching for answers. Hosted by Dr. Mark Su, founder & leader of RootSeek’s nationwide virtual care team, this show goes beyond quick fixes to uncover the root causes of illness—like Lyme disease and co-infections, mold toxicity, gut dysbiosis, hormone imbalances, hidden infections, and heavy metal exposure.


Each episode reveals real patient journeys and expert clinician reasoning, showing you how functional medicine tackles chronic fatigue, autoimmune flares, brain fog, cardiovascular risk, and hard-to-solve cases where conventional medicine often stops short. From environmental toxins to stress-driven inflammation, from gut repair to longevity hacks, you’ll learn how to advocate, decide, and heal on your terms—with practical, next-step strategies you can trust. If you’ve ever wondered how to navigate “mystery symptoms,” controversial treatments, or cutting-edge testing, this podcast will be your compass.


Episode highlights:


  • Goes “behind the curtain.” We invite clinicians to think out loud, showing the decision-making process most patients never see.
  • Spotlights real patient journeys. Raw stories reveal the triumphs and trade-offs of navigating chronic illness, performance optimization, preventive care, and more.
  • Asks the hard, patient-centered questions. We challenge experts on controversies, practical constraints, and emerging evidence—so you can separate trustworthy insight from trend-driven noise.
  • Delivers actionable clarity. Whether you’re rehabbing an injury, hacking longevity, or just trying to sleep better, you’ll leave with next-step strategies backed by clinical reasoning.


The team at RootSeek (nationwide virtual care) is ready to empower you to advocate, decide, and heal, on your terms!

If you’re asking any of the following questions (or something similar), this podcast is for you:

  • Can functional medicine help with chronic Lyme disease, co-infections, or post-treatment symptoms?
  • How do I know if mold toxicity or environmental toxins are making me sick?
  • What’s the best way to detox from heavy metals, pesticides, or hidden chemical exposures?
  • Are my fatigue, brain fog, or joint pains linked to gut health or hidden infections?
  • How do functional medicine doctors diagnose and treat autoimmune conditions differently?
  • What advanced tests uncover root causes that standard labs miss?
  • Can functional medicine address chronic inflammation, histamine intolerance, or mast cell activation?
  • What are the most effective protocols for gut repair, microbiome balance, and leaky gut?
  • How do I separate real solutions from false hope when dealing with complex chronic illness?
  • What steps can I take now to reclaim energy, hormone balance, and overall vitality?



Tune in for transparent conversations that turn complicated science into practical truth and put the power of informed choice back where it belongs: with you.


© 2026 Functional Medicine Reality Podcast Alternative & Complementary Medicine Hygiene & Healthy Living Physical Illness & Disease
Episodes
  • 30. 3 Strategies for Medical Anxiety That Actually Work with Dr. Mark Su

    30. 3 Strategies for Medical Anxiety That Actually Work with Dr. Mark Su
    Jul 5 2026

    If your stomach drops every time your doctor's office calls, or you find yourself spiraling into worst-case scenarios before a test result comes back, you're not broken and you're not overreacting. Medical anxiety is real, and it's especially common for people who've spent years navigating chronic illness, uncertain diagnoses, or being told their labs are "normal" when they know something is wrong.

    Why this episode matters

    Most anxiety advice tells you to "just breathe" or "stop worrying." That's not helpful when your nervous system has been shaped by years of appointments, imaging, and being dismissed. In this episode, Dr. Su shares three strategies he uses himself, and has learned from over a decade working with his own therapist and from countless conversations with patients, to actually work with medical anxiety instead of just pushing through it.

    What you'll learn

    • Why confronting the anxiety directly, rather than avoiding or running from it, is the hardest but most effective first step
    • How to flip the "what if" spiral in the opposite direction, and why grounding yourself in the feeling of good news matters as much as the logic of it
    • The "so what" game, a simple but revealing exercise for uncovering the real root cause underneath your medical anxiety
    • Why the fear you're carrying into an appointment is often about something deeper than the appointment itself

    Dr. Su's perspective

    Dr. Su doesn't position himself as a therapist, and he's clear about that in the episode. What he offers instead is the perspective of someone who has walked this road personally and who has sat across from hundreds of patients carrying the same dread. These are the strategies he's seen actually move the needle, not textbook talking points.

    Connect with Dr. Su and RootSeek Health:

    Download the free Lab Results Guide:
    If your labs keep coming back "normal" while you keep feeling anything but, this guide will help you understand what might be getting missed.


    Download at https://labsoptin.rootseekhealth.com/labs/

    Have a question for Dr. Su?
    Once a month, Dr. Su opens one hour to five people only. Real questions, real answers, real direction.


    Book your spot: https://go.rootseekhealth.com/askdrmark

    rootseekhealth.com | @rootseekhealth | @drmarksu

    Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. Information discussed is not intended for diagnosis, curing, or prevention of any disease and is not intended to replace advice given by a licensed healthcare practitioner. This podcast and its guests may have direct or indirect financial interests associated with products mentioned.
    Show More Show Less
    10 mins
  • 29. Lyme Disease Treatment Isn't Working? Mold Might Be Why. With Joia Mattheson MS, CNS

    29. Lyme Disease Treatment Isn't Working? Mold Might Be Why. With Joia Mattheson MS, CNS
    Jun 28 2026
    You did everything right.You pushed for testing when your doctors wanted to wait. You found a Lyme-literate practitioner. You went through the antibiotics, got through the rough stretch of feeling worse before better, and slowly started to climb back toward yourself. Months later, you're about 80% recovered.And then you stalled.If that sounds familiar, this episode is worth your full attention.Joia Mattheson is a functional nutritionist, a licensed dietitian, and a former civil engineer who brought both analytical precision and hard-earned personal experience to this conversation. She came to Dr. Su with a genuinely complex picture: Lyme disease, Bartonella, reactivated Epstein-Barr virus, multiple coinfections, a hemochromatosis carrier gene, and a clotting factor variant. She had seen urgent care, primary care, an integrative rheumatologist, a naturopath, and a Lyme-literate doctor. She had done more research than most practitioners ever will.And nobody had seriously looked at her home yet.Her ERMI environmental test came back with a HERTSMI-2 score of 38. The highest Dr. Su had seen in two years.What you'll hear in this episode:In this real, unscripted consultation, Dr. Su walks through Joia's full case live, including labs she uploaded the morning of the recording. You'll hear him explain his three-category framework for organizing complex chronic illness, bugs and toxins, self, and interfaces, and how he uses that structure to figure out what to address first when five or more root causes are all present at the same time.He explains why mold related illness so often becomes the missing piece for patients who have already done significant Lyme treatment, why mycotoxins can suppress the immune system in ways that make every other infection harder to clear, and why removing yourself from a toxic environment can sometimes be the fastest single move you can make toward getting the rest of the way well.You'll also hear an honest conversation about what it feels like to be a knowledgeable patient navigating a system that still doesn't agree on how to interpret a Western blot, what it means when your cholesterol suddenly spikes during a mold exposure, and why fatigue and brain fog are almost always the very last symptoms to resolve, no matter how well the rest of treatment is going.This is what root-cause medicine actually looks like. A real patient, real labs, real clinical reasoning, and no scripts.Key moments in this episode:Why a positive Western blot got called a false positive, and what that cost Joia in time and treatmentDr. Su's three-category framework for complex chronic illness and how to use it to find your sequenceWhat a HERTSMI-2 score of 38 means and why it shifted the entire conversationThe "two for one" argument for addressing mold before continuing Lyme treatmentWhy fatigue and brain fog are predictably the last things to improve, and what that means for your expectationsMycotoxin binders: the options Dr. Su actually uses, from prescription cholestyramine to CellCore and beyondTreating fungus inside the body: the antifungal regimen Dr. Su reaches for most oftenReactivated Epstein-Barr virus as a long-term sequencing consideration, not a front-end priorityHemochromatosis carrier status and iron overload as a quiet background player in chronic illnessAbout Joia Mattheson MS, CNS, LDNJoia Mattheson is a Certified Nutrition Specialist and Licensed Dietitian Nutritionist with a background in civil engineering and a deep personal history with complex chronic illness. She runs her own functional nutrition practice, Joia Health, where she works one-to-one with clients navigating their own root-cause healing journeys. She is now accepting new patients.Website: joiahealth.co Instagram: @joiahealth Email: hello@joiahealth.coConnect with Dr. Su and RootSeek Health:Download the free Lab Results Guide: If your labs keep coming back "normal" while you keep feeling anything but, this guide will help you understand what might be getting missed. Download at https://labsoptin.rootseekhealth.com/labs/Have a question for Dr. Su? Once a month, Dr. Su opens one hour to five people only. Real questions, real answers, real direction. Book your spot: https://go.rootseekhealth.com/askdrmarkrootseekhealth.com | @rootseekhealthDisclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. Information discussed is not intended for diagnosis, curing, or prevention of any disease and is not intended to replace advice given by a licensed healthcare practitioner. This podcast and its guests may have direct or indirect financial interests associated with products mentioned.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 32 mins
  • 28. Why Your Probiotic Probably Isn't Working, And What to Take Instead

    28. Why Your Probiotic Probably Isn't Working, And What to Take Instead
    Jun 21 2026

    Ready to stop guessing and finally get a clear plan?

    Join Dr. Su for the Ask Dr. Mark Clinical Q&A Call, a small-group call limited to about five people each month where you can bring your real questions and get real direction.

    Book your spot: https://go.rootseekhealth.com/askdrmark


    If you've ever taken a probiotic for weeks, felt nothing, and quietly concluded they just don't work for you, this episode is for you.

    You are not wrong that something isn't working. You may just have never been told that the probiotic on the shelf and the probiotic in the research paper are often not the same thing at all.

    Why this episode matters

    The microbiome is one of the fastest-moving areas in all of health research, and most patients are either taking nothing, taking the wrong thing, or being sold on claims that have no clinical backing. Dr. Mark Su sits down with Ben Myers, an educator and representative for Microbiome Labs, for a conversation that cuts through the noise. Ben brings years of deep education in probiotic science, strain-specific research, and the expanding connections between gut health, mental health, and women's health.

    This is not a product pitch. It is a conversation between two people who want you to understand what is actually happening in your gut, and why that matters for the rest of your body.

    What you will learn

    The difference between dead-strain, live-culture, and spore-based probiotics, and why the category you are taking changes everything about your results.

    Why strain specificity is the single most important and most overlooked factor in probiotic selection, and how the same species name on two different bottles can mean completely different outcomes.

    The science behind psychobiotics, including how one specific strain has been shown in peer-reviewed human clinical trials to regulate cortisol, shift tryptophan metabolism toward serotonin and melatonin, and change brainwave patterns in people under stress.

    How the vaginal microbiome works, why recurring bacterial vaginosis and yeast infections keep coming back after antibiotics, and what precision probiotic therapy is starting to offer as an alternative.

    Why fixing the gut first is still the foundation, and how that foundational work connects to skin health, sinus health, mental health, and far more than most people expect.

    A moment worth noting

    One of the most honest exchanges in this conversation happens early. Dr. Su acknowledges how hard it is for patients to know who to trust in the supplement space, especially when practitioners themselves sometimes have financial incentives tied to what they recommend. It is a rare moment of transparency, and it sets the tone for everything that follows.

    Dr. Su's perspective

    The goal was never to overwhelm you with strain names and research codes. The goal is to give you enough of the picture that you can stop throwing things at the wall and start asking better questions. The research on the gut is not slowing down. And while we do not have every answer yet, we have more than enough to take meaningful, targeted action.

    Links and resources

    Microbiome Labs: microbiomelabs.com

    About Ben Myers

    Ben Myers is an educator and representative for Microbiome Labs with years of experience working alongside functional medicine practitioners. He came to this work through his own health journey and a deep passion for making complex science accessible. This was his first podcast appearance. It will not be his last.

    Ready to stop guessing and finally get a clear plan?

    Join Dr. Su for the Ask Dr. Mark Clinical Q&A Call, a small-group call limited to about five people each month where you can bring your real questions and get real direction.

    Book your spot: https://go.rootseekhealth.com/askdrmark

    Or download the free Lab Results Guide if you have ever been told your labs are normal while still feeling terrible:

    https://labsoptin.rootseekhealth.com/labs/

    Connect with Dr. Su

    rootseekhealth.com | @rootseekhealth

    Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. Information discussed is not intended for diagnosis, curing, or prevention of any disease and is not intended to replace advice given by a licensed healthcare practitioner. This podcast and its guests may have direct or indirect financial interests associated with products mentioned.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 16 mins
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