Functional Medicine Reality Podcast

Got Lab Results But No Real Answers? Download your free guide: rootseekhealth.com/labs You've probably stood in a supplement aisle, or scrolled past an influencer ad, and thought, I have no idea if any of this actually works. Maybe you've spent real money on things that did nothing. Maybe your doctor shrugged when you asked. That confusion is not a personal failing. It's the supplement industry doing exactly what an under-regulated industry tends to do, and today we're pulling back the ...

Got Lab Results But No Real Answers? Download your free guide: rootseekhealth.com/labs Ready to find out what's actually going on in your body? Book a consult at rootseekhealth.com. What does alcohol have to do with functional medicine? More than you might think. In this episode, Dr. Mark Su sits down with patient and guest MaryJo for one of the most honest, human conversations the Functional Medicine Reality Podcast has had yet. No agenda, no judgment, just two people peeling back a topic th...

What if the knee pain you've been blaming on age is actually a statin side effect? That's a question worth sitting with. And it's one of the reasons I wanted to do this episode, because I see this pattern in real people, in real conversations, all the time. Someone's been on a statin for a few years. They're moving less, feeling foggy, their joints ache. And when they bring it up, they're told it's just part of getting older. It doesn't have to be that way. In this episode, I walk you through...

Hey friends, what if we stopped fighting over labels and actually started treating the mechanisms behind what's making people sick? That's the question driving today's conversation with Dr. Jessica Lasky-Su from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital. Here's the thing. Her team is working at the edge of some really fascinating science, genetics, epigenetics, proteomics, metabolomics, antibody profiling. And what we dig into is how long COVID research, viral exposures, and aut...

In this episode, I sit down with Sebastian, a family friend and college student, for an open and thoughtful conversation about health, food, mental clarity, and the overwhelm of modern wellness information. This is a rare and refreshing look at how the younger generation is thinking about health and asking questions many adults never learned to ask. Seb shares how his interest in lifting, performance, and nutrition gradually turned into something deeper. What started as a focus on strength an...

One of the questions I am asked most often by patients is this: “Don’t doctors get paid to prescribe medications?” It is a fair question. And if you have ever left a medical visit feeling rushed, unheard, or confused about why a prescription was offered when you wanted to talk about lifestyle change, you are not alone. The short answer, from my experience, is no. Doctors are not paid directly for writing prescriptions. I have never seen that arrangement in my own career. But the longer and mo...

Welcome back to the Functional Medicine Reality Podcast. I'm Dr. Mark Su, and today we're pivoting from the chronic inflammation world into the longevity space. I'm here with Cooper Paul, a pulmonary hypertension specialist at a major academic hospital in Boston and a true longevity medicine enthusiast who's taught me an incredible amount over the last few years. Here's the thing. We all know exercise is good for us. But what if I told you there's data showing that going from a low VO2 max to...

Alright, so here's one I get asked constantly: Do I really need to throw out all my belongings if there's mold in my house? If that question's been keeping you up at night, or if you're stuck wondering whether dealing with mold means going bankrupt and starting over, take a deep breath. This episode's for you. I brought back Mike Schrantz, one of the most networked indoor environmental professionals in the country. He's what I call a "doctor of houses and buildings." And we got into the real,...

From GI Struggles to Stability: Anti-Aging in Real Life A Patient Conversation with Jean In this episode, I’m joined by Jean, a long-time patient who generously shares her real-life health journey, not from a place of perfection, but from lived experience. This conversation is about what healing actually looks like over time. It is about chronic gut issues, instability, fatigue, and inflammation, but also about perspective, gratitude, resilience, and what it means to pursue longevity in a rea...

This is a deeply personal and meaningful episode. In this conversation, I’m joined by Mary Jo Anderson, who courageously shares her health journey for the first time publicly. This episode marks the beginning of a longer, unfolding story and a new chapter for both Mary Jo and this podcast. Mary Jo’s story is not just about chronic illness or Lyme disease. It is about what it feels like to slowly lose your health, to feel unseen and unheard, and to keep going even when answers are not coming. ...

I’m Dr. Mark Su, a conventionally trained physician, functional medicine practitioner, and lifelong student of the why behind symptoms. This podcast was born out of real-life questions, real patient stories, and a deep sense that the healthcare conversation needs more honesty, nuance, and humanity. Not perfection. Not dogma. Just reality. In this kickoff episode, I share three confessions, a few pivotal stories from my clinical journey, and the deeper reason this podcast exists in the first p...