Functional Medicine Reality Podcast

Dr. Mark Su MD, Functional Medicine Practitioner for Health and Longevity
  • 5.0 (28)
  • Medicine

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.

  1. 2d ago

    35. Mobility vs. Stability: What Your Pain Treatment Might Be Missing, with Dr. Mike Melander

    If you've done months of physical therapy or chiropractic care and your pain still hasn't moved, you're not imagining it, and you're not doing it wrong. Something in the plan was probably missing from day one. Why this episode matters: Most pain treatment starts with the same assumption: get stronger. But strength only works within the range of motion you actually have access to. If a joint can't move the way it's supposed to move, no amount of strengthening will fix it, and in some cases, it can make things worse. Dr. Su sits down with Dr. Mike Melander, a chiropractor and Active Release Technique instructor, to explain the question almost no one asks before starting treatment. What you will learn: The difference between a mobility problem and a stability problem, and why it changes everything about a treatment planWhat "tissue quality" means, and why pain itself is an unreliable way to judge what's happening in a muscleWhy fibromyalgia and chronic Lyme patients often carry real, findable tissue issues, even when the root cause isn't musculoskeletalWhy chiropractic care and physical therapy work best together, not as competing approachesKey themes: Root-cause thinking applied to pain, not just complex chronic illnessThe overlap between structural pain and systemic conditions like Lyme and fibromyalgiaWhy "call me if you need me" is sometimes the best plan a provider can offerDr. Su's perspective: Dr. Su draws a direct line between what Dr. Melander does with tissue and joints and what RootSeek does with labs and systems. The tools are different, but the instinct is the same: don't stop at the first plan, look for what's actually driving the problem.  If this conversation named something you've been living with, whether it's pain that won't resolve or a chronic illness that hasn't had a clear answer, Dr. Su opens one hour a month to five people for real, direct guidance.   Book your spot: rootseekhealth.com/askdrmark Free Lab Guide: rootseekhealth.com/opt-in Links: North Shore Spine and Sport: northshorespinesport.comRootSeek Health: https://rootseekhealth.com/Guest bio: Dr. Mike Melander, DC is a chiropractor with 16 years in clinical practice and a multi-time Best of Boston winner. He has served as an Active Release Technique instructor since 2017 and practices at North Shore Spine and Sport in Newport, Massachusetts. 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.

  2. Aug 2

    34. Best Supplement for Longevity: Creatine, NAD, HRT, or Something Else Entirely with Dr. Mark Su

    What's the single best supplement for longevity? Dr. Mark Su gets asked this question constantly, and in this solo episode he finally sits down and gives a real answer. It depends on what you're after. Want to feel younger and better? Creatine is the cheap, convenient place to start. Want something more personalized? Hormone replacement therapy, guided by testing, becomes the conversation. Want to actually be younger, not just feel it? NAD comes into play. Want precision instead of a one-size-fits-all answer? Biological age testing shows you your rate of aging and, more importantly, which system in your body is the weakest link holding everything else back. Then Dr. Su tries something different. He takes the exact same question to Claude, his AI tool of choice, and reads through the response live on the show. What comes back is a four-tier hierarchy of evidence, from robust epidemiologic data at the top all the way down to practitioner opinion with weak or no data behind it, the tier where most peptides and longevity stacks actually live. The most defensible single answer that holds up under real scrutiny turns out to be structured exercise targeting VO2 max. But this episode isn't really just about supplements. It's about the difference between advice that sounds confident and advice that's actually evidence-backed, and why practitioners, whether they're working in longevity medicine or treating complex chronic illness through functional medicine, owe their patients honesty about what the data can and can't tell us. No overselling, no fear-mongering, no pretending there's more certainty than there is. If you've ever wanted a straight answer to "what should I actually take," or you've quietly wondered whether your own practitioner is being fully honest with you about the evidence behind your plan, this one's for you. In this episode: Dr. Su's real answer to the "one best supplement for longevity" questionCreatine, NAD, and hormone replacement therapy, and when each actually fitsBiological age testing and finding your body's weakest linkUsing AI to rank the real evidence behind longevity interventionsWhy VO2 max training is the most defensible single answer with real data behind itThe case for honesty and transparency over hype in functional and longevity medicineConnect with RootSeek: Get your free Lab Results Guide: Download at 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: rootseekhealth.com/askdrmark Subscribe and Leave a Review: If Functional Medicine Reality has been valuable to you, please subscribe and leave a review. It helps more patients find the answers they have been searching for. If you're focused on optimizing your health long-term, we have something coming for you. Stay connected at rootseekhealth.com. Instagram: @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.

  3. Jul 26

    33. HRV Explained by the Man Who Helped Build the Technology, Vivek Menon

    If you've ever glanced at your wearable in the morning and felt a small wave of anxiety over your recovery score, this episode is for you. And if you've spent years feeling like your body is stuck in some kind of alert mode, tired but wired, never quite settled, this conversation might put language to something you've been feeling for a long time without knowing what to call it. Why This Episode Matters Heart rate variability, or HRV, gets talked about constantly in wearable culture, but most people have never had it explained in a way that actually makes sense. It's not a heart measurement. It's a window into your nervous system, specifically the balance between your fight or flight response and your ability to rest, recover, and digest. Understanding that difference changes how you interpret your own data and your own body. What Listeners Will Learn What HRV actually measures, and why it has almost nothing to do with your cardiovascular system directly  How a healthy nervous system responds to stress and recovers from it  Why comparing your HRV number to someone else's tells you nothing useful  How often you should actually be checking your HRV data  The difference between how a consumer should use HRV and how a practitioner uses it  Why some people benefit from tracking daily, and why others are better off not tracking at all Key Moments or Themes Vivek's path from Dartmouth to co-founding SPREN (formerly Elite HRV) after a decade at NxStage Medical working in dialysis care  The autonomic nervous system explained in plain language, fight or flight versus rest and digest  Why HRV shows up differently across your pupils, skin, temperature, and heartbeat, and why comparing devices or people is close to meaningless  The real story behind why some of SPREN's most successful users eventually stopped tracking altogether  How a practitioner might use HRV data differently than an individual tracking their own recovery  Vivek's honest take on where HRV research is headed, and why it isn't going away Dr. Su's Perspective Dr. Su brings this conversation back to something he sees constantly in his patients. So many people are living in a state of chronic stress that their nervous system has simply adapted to it as the new normal. HRV gives language and data to something that root-cause medicine has always paid attention to, the nervous system is not separate from the rest of the body, it's central to it. Guest Bio Placeholder Vivek Menon is the co-founder of SPREN (formerly Elite HRV), a company that has spent over a decade turning wearable and smartphone data into insights people can actually use for their health, wellness, and performance. Prior to SPREN, he spent ten years at NxStage Medical, working to improve quality of life for dialysis patients. He's a Dartmouth graduate with dual degrees in economics and biology. If you're focused on optimizing your health long term, Dr. Su has something in the works for you. Stay connected at rootseekhealth.com. If this conversation had you thinking about your own nervous system, your own stress patterns, or what might really be going on in your body, Dr. Su opens a small number of spots each month for a direct conversation. Ask Dr. Mark: Clinical First Steps Call 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 Connect with Dr. Su: rootseekhealth.com | @rootseekhealth | @drmarksu Connect with RootSeek: Get your free Lab Results Guide: Download at rootseekhealth.com/labs/ Learn more about SPREN: www.spren.com 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.

  4. Jul 19

    32. The Hidden Power of Lyme Disease Symptoms That Masquerade as Other Conditions

    If your symptoms have never fully added up, if you've been handed a fibromyalgia diagnosis that didn't feel complete, or if you've watched someone you love go through the medical maze with Lyme disease and come out the other side still struggling, this episode is for you. Lyme disease is the single topic that opened the door to functional medicine for me nearly two decades ago. And it's one I keep coming back to because it remains one of the most complex, politically charged, and misunderstood conditions I encounter in practice. In this solo episode I share my most honest, grounded, and clinically informed perspective on where things stand in 2026. What I Cover in This Episode: Why I've always referred to Lyme disease as the great masquerader, and what that means for patients who keep being told their labs are normal. Why standard testing in conventional medicine misses Lyme disease more often than most people realize, and why a negative result is not always a definitive answer. My honest take on both underdiagnosis in conventional medicine and overfocus in the functional medicine world, and why I think both conversations are worth having. Why fibromyalgia is the number one conventional diagnosis I connect to undiagnosed Lyme disease, and what patterns in your own history are worth paying attention to. Where I stand on antimicrobial therapy, herbal approaches, and why I'm cautious about leaning too heavily on any single treatment direction. How fear and chronic fight or flight activation show up in my Lyme disease patients and why addressing the nervous system is always part of the protocol for me. A personal story about preparing for a family walk in a wooded area and what it reminded me about how patients with Lyme history experience everyday decisions differently. Who This Episode Is For: I made this episode for patients who have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and never felt that diagnosis told the whole story. For anyone whose aches and pains just don't add up. For patients who have been treated for Lyme disease and made progress but still feel like there's a long way to go. And for practitioners who want a balanced, skeptic-friendly perspective on one of the most complex topics in chronic illness care. Key Takeaways: Lyme disease is underdiagnosed in conventional medicine due to symptom diversity and the limitations of standard testing. A negative result on standard two-tier testing does not close the investigation. Fibromyalgia is the number one conventional diagnosis I associate with undiagnosed Lyme disease. Herbal antimicrobials are my preferred approach for longer term treatment, always within a broader root cause framework. Fear and nervous system dysregulation are always part of the Lyme disease picture, and in my experience they are always worth addressing directly. Connect with RootSeek: Get your free Lab Results Guide: Download at 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: rootseekhealth.com/askdrmark Subscribe and Leave a Review: If Functional Medicine Reality has been valuable to you, please subscribe and leave a review. It helps more patients find the answers they have been searching for. 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.

  5. Jul 12

    31. Why "Passing Code" Doesn't Mean Your Home or Rental Is Healthy

    If you've ever been told your labs are "normal" while you still feel exhausted, foggy, or sick in ways no one can explain, you already know how little "normal" actually promises. It turns out the same is true for the buildings we live in. Why this episode matters For anyone managing chronic illness, especially mold sensitivity, MCAS, or unexplained fatigue, your environment is often an overlooked piece of the root-cause puzzle. In this conversation, Dr. Mark Su talks with real estate developer Lou Minicucci of Minco Development Corp, along with recurring co-host Mike Schrantz, IEP, about what actually separates a building that just passes code from one that's genuinely built for health. What you'll learn Why meeting building code is a bare minimum standard, not a health standard, and how that mirrors the gap between a "normal" lab result and an optimal oneWhat FITWEL and LEED certifications actually measure, and why most buildings never pursue themHow lumber is inspected for mold before construction even begins, and why that detail matters more than most people realizeWhy low VOC materials matter cumulatively, even when every individual product is technically "compliant"The role of MERV filtration, ERV fresh air systems, and central water heating in reducing everyday exposurePractical questions you can ask about your own living space, whether you're moving, renting, or staying exactly where you areKey moments Lou's walk-through of the FITWEL and LEED certification process behind Newburyport CrossingThe mold inspection process during construction, and why it's so rarely doneDr. Su's "normal lab value" analogy applied to building standardsMike Schrantz's real-world perspective from working with chronic illness clients who are actively searching for a safer place to livePractical, no-pressure guidance for anyone who can't move or renovate right nowDr. Su's perspective Dr. Su has long said that healing happens on more than one front. This conversation is a reminder that the air you breathe and the space you live in are part of your health story, not separate from it. You don't need a fully certified building to make progress. Small, informed steps matter. A note on progress over perfection This episode isn't about needing a perfect home before you can get better. It's about understanding what's possible, what matters most, and where a person can realistically start. Curious whether your environment could be part of your own root-cause puzzle? Grab your free Lab Results Guide, or bring your questions to Dr. Su's monthly Ask Dr. Mark session, real questions, real answers, real direction. Get your free Lab Results Guide: Download at 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: rootseekhealth.com/askdrmark Connect with Dr. Su: rootseekhealth.com | @rootseekhealth Links: Minco Development Corp: mincocorp.comMike Schrantz's podcast: iepradio.comMike Schrantz's consulting: environmentalanalytics.netGuest bio: Lou Minicucci is a real estate developer with over 50 years of experience and the founder of Minco Development Corp. He's the developer behind Newburyport Crossing, a FITWEL and LEED certified residential community, and a Harvard Graduate School of Design alumnus known for his community involvement across the North Shore of Massachusetts. 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.

  6. Jul 5

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

    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 stepHow 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 itThe "so what" game, a simple but revealing exercise for uncovering the real root cause underneath your medical anxietyWhy the fear you're carrying into an appointment is often about something deeper than the appointment itselfDr. 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.

  7. Jun 28

    29. Lyme Disease Treatment Isn't Working? Mold Might Be Why. With Joia Mattheson MS, CNS

    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, LDN Joia 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.co 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 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.

  8. Jun 21

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

    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.

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About

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.

Information

  • Creator
    Dr. Mark Su MD, Functional Medicine Practitioner for Health and Longevity
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    35
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Functional Medicine Reality Podcast
  • Show Website
    Functional Medicine Reality Podcast

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