Iron Direct Primary Care Podcast

Alex Cunningham, better known as the Rasta Reverend, joins me fresh off the mats at Iron Direct Primary Care. Still buzzing from training, he jumps straight into the cold plunge while we talk about his unexpected journey from professional esports gamer and UFC superfan to rising MMA fighter with a purple belt in BJJ and a growing local following in Florida. We get deep into what real fight camp looks like — the training, the mental warfare, the recovery tools (cold plunge, red light, and everything else that’s keeping his body together), and how iron direct primary care gives combat athletes an edge that traditional medicine never could. With his next fight just weeks away on May 30th at Rise of a Warrior in Fort Pierce, Alex breaks down his preparation, what fans can expect in the cage, his viral fight prediction game, and the reality of being a sponsored local fighter trying to climb the ranks. This is raw, unfiltered conversation about the fighter lifestyle — the highs, the grind, the comebacks, and the mindset it takes to step in there. Whether you’re a die-hard MMA fan, an aspiring fighter, or just someone interested in human performance and recovery, this one delivers. Topics include: From PlayStation pro to stepping in the cageLessons from wins, losses, and title fightsRecovery, optimization, and staying healthy in a brutal sportThe upcoming May 30th fight at the Havert L. Fenn Center Get tickets for Rise of a Warrior – May 30th in Fort Pierce!Follow Alex @rastareverend on IG and youtube

Is your heart health a mystery? At Iron DPC, we’re bringing the future of cardiology to you. 🫀✨Most traditional heart tests only look for "clogs" once they’ve already become a problem. But what if you could see the plaque building up years before a heart attack happens?In this video, the team at Iron Direct Primary Care is excited to announce our partnership with Cleerly—an FDA-cleared, AI-powered heart imaging analysis that is revolutionizing how we detect, prevent, and treat heart disease.Cleerly isn’t just another scan; it’s an advanced AI digital care platform that works with a non-invasive Coronary CT Angiography (CCTA). While a standard CT scan gives us a "picture," Cleerly’s AI analyzes that picture to:Identify Plaque Types: It distinguishes between "hard" (calcified) plaque and the much more dangerous "soft" (vulnerable) plaque that often leads to sudden heart attacks.Quantify Disease: It provides an exact measurement of the plaque volume in your actual arteries.Create a 3D Map: It builds a personalized digital map of your heart’s blood vessels to pinpoint exactly where issues are starting.Early Detection: Find heart disease in its earliest stages, often before any symptoms appear.Precision Medicine: No more "one-size-fits-all" treatments. We use your Cleerly data to tailor your medications and lifestyle plan specifically to your biology.Track Your Progress: For the first time, we can perform follow-up scans to see if your plaque is actually shrinking or stabilizing over time.At Iron DPC, we believe in proactive health, not reactive medicine. Don’t wait for a symptom to be your first sign of heart disease.

We didn't change our minds because it was popular—we changed them because the data gave us no choice.Most people treat their diet like a religion, but in functional medicine, staying stagnant is a disservice to the patient. Join Sarah Zaldivar, PhD (Ex-Carnivore) and Stefan Hartmann, PA-C (Reformed Lipid Denialist) for a raw look at what happens when your clinical results and the latest research force you to dismantle your own dogma.We’ve taken the heat from our followers and challenged our own biases to bring you the truth about lipids, metabolic health, and the evolution of nutrition. This isn’t just about food; it’s about the intellectual humility required to adapt when the science moves forward.

Hot off the press the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association have new lipid guidelines. I am glad to see them implementing apo-B and LP(a) into the discussion. We at Iron DPC have been utilizing these for years at Iron DPC. We will will be incorporating much of what they advise here and incorporating it into the Iron DPC population. One of the most practice changing advise they provide is just focusing on the ApoB. I agree it is the single most important marker. I will at this point stop following the lipid NMR subfractionations as the cost is more at $24 and apo B is $5 and the apo B follows the lipid particle count closely.

In this Scamdemic- A History series we remember the early 2020 history diving into the frontlines of medical freedom and institutional accountability. This is part 4 reviewing what was happening in November 2020 to early 2021.

Iron DPC's Registered Dietician Kelli Hanson has some great questions in this Q&A with Stefan.

I beat this flu/covid strain going around in 24 hours last week. What was my stack?Well, I had a baseline of optimized hormones, clean diet, reverse osmosis water with trace minerals added back, pre and probiotics from fiber/fermented vegetables, complex carbs, no added sugars, routine exercise, cold plunge, sauna.Patients have been calling in and coming in to Iron DPC office with the following symptoms:Fever, body aches, chills, sweats, cough, congestions, abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, headaches.I wasn’t sure if I was having symptoms or if I had just overtrained (trained chest/back at 5am at Wolf Fitness, then practiced tennis at 8am, saw patients, and then played a tennis match in the afternoon. But something similar happened 3 years ago so when I woke up the next morning with fatigue, bilateral arm tendinopathy, body aches and some GI upset I had a high degree of suspicion this was the flu because I have been seeing so many cases of this at Iron DPC. My friends in the urgent care system say they are seeing extraordinary levels of positive Flu A swabs, so we know the community has this. Logan checked my vitals and I hate a HR of 100 (tachycardia), when my resting is under 60, temperature of 99.9 (which is hot for me). What did I use acutely:Methylene blue 30mg in the AM. Quicksilver scientific sublingual glutathione and vitamin C and multi also straight away.At the HPA I did Cold plunge at 36F for 3 minutes. Then I did the longest sauna session I’ve ever done for 35 minutes at 190F. I injected 1.5mg of Thymosin Alpha 1.I Injected KLOW 1mg each. (both of which I filmed in the studio since I wanted to show how it was done. Editing it now and noting how I’m acting kind of stiff and slow because I was not myself.)I also took a 50mg Ioderol tablet due to the known antiviral and oxidative effects of iodine against pathogens.You can order most of this protocol on fullscript and integrative peptides. Integrative peptides we keep in stock in the office and the gut feeling has been flying off the shelf since the combo of BPC, KPV, akkermansia, colostrum bovine immunoglobulins has been so potent to stop the diarrhea and abdominal pain in people which I’ve spoken about in my Wolverine Protocol lecture. Thymogen oral has also been great at training dendritic cells to mature and identify and clear infected cells as described at length in my lecture on thymus peptides. The injectable peptides are also a possibility but are logistically a bit more challenging to obtain as they need to be distributed by one of us, reconstituted, kept cold, injected and more expensive especially at dose per cost. I would have all patients keep quicksilver scientific sublingual glutathione, vitamin C, multi on hand. Stock up on intranasal iodine and biocidin throat spray.I also would like all patients to have a household nebulizer and at least one vial of 20% nebulized acetylcysteine solution. Please see this old lecture from 2023 on this topic if still unaware of this essential mucolytic. Because when snot and congestion hits you don’t want to be without it and only rarely does a pharmacy carry it unless we specifically know the pharmacist and ask them to carry it. Commercial pharmacies stopped carrying nebulizers during the pandemic for some strange reason. This was frustrating because I was prescribing nebulized budesonide through nebulization extensively. They also denied my prescriptions for Hydroxychloroquine and of course I didn’t even try ivermectin with them. Pharmacies that were complicit in this included: CVS, Walgreens, Publix, Walmart. Commercial pharmacies still cause delay in patient care asking for prior authorizations for cheap medicines like tadalafil which I can dispense for $5 for 30 tablets. They deny medications based on outdated PA laws. For that reason I prefer never to use them.

Nurse Dr. Campbell's viral Iodine clip on my instagram and facebook stirred up a lost of questions.Find the IG clip here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DSzuwRlAFVH/ Find the FB clip here: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1618568346253852His full video: https://youtu.be/SWNLEQDgD4w?si=4eyn-ZlnyzPJv0PI Lecture on Iodine: https://youtu.be/gSTCizA7o2YIodine research: Brevard County is 58% iodine deficient! https://publichealthpolicyjournal.com/assessing-iodine-deficiency-and-halide-levels-in-brevard-county-florida-a-retrospective-practice-audit/We are working in the trenches at Iron DPC treating patients through an affordable method of care delivering anti aging medicine as primary care. You can register at IronDPC.com as a patient. If you are a provider and want to learn how to do this as well. We have a course that you can now enroll in. Check it out here ⁠https://stefan-hartmann.mykajabi.com/pl/2148697525⁠

Big Dawg Brady Flanders is Space Coast Young Republicans Secretary of the Treasury.Brady was born and raised in Rochester, NY, is a huge Dolphins’ fan, has always been entrepreneurially-minded, cut his teeth in sales/marketing from high school to his mid-twenties, closing millions in sales and moved all over the place, then left the suit and tie behind to live out of a converted campervan (affectionately referred to as Frank the Tank) to travel the US, moved to south Florida, left south Florida to walk from Key West to San Diego with his dog, moved back to Florida — but this time to the Space Coast — opened up his dream business here in Palm Bay, The Dawg Pound; saunas, cold plunges, red light therapy, compression, personal training, etc., and he has since jumped in headfirst with the Space Coast Young Republicans; 2025's winner of the "HIT THE GROUND RUNNING" award.Many have said the moment that bullet made contact with Mr. Kirk's neck, that a million new Charlies were instantly born — Brady sent in his official intent to run for treasurer of the club on the evening of September 10th, 2025.They activated the wrong dude.Garrett Jacobellis Vice President of the SCYRGarrett moved to Brevard County at 18 to attend the Florida Institute of Technology and quickly fell in love with the Space Coast. Originally from Chicago, he graduated from Florida Tech with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and now works as a full-time mechanical engineer. Garrett is passionate about civic engagement and conservative values—especially among young professionals.He joined the Space Coast Young Republicans in 2019 seeking a community of like-minded individuals and has since become a key leader within the organization. He previously served as Communications Director and Membership Chair before stepping into his current role as Vice President. Garrett also serves as the Chair of the City of Melbourne’s Independence Day Parade Committee, helping lead one of the largest patriotic celebrations in Brevard.Fun Facts:Born and raised Catholic in ChicagoFirst got involved in politics by attending a SCYR meeting in 2019—has door-knocked for campaigns every year sinceServed as Vice President of the Theta Tau Professional Engineering Fraternity for three years at Florida TechBelieves there’s no better place to live, work, and serve than the Space CoastStefan is also a member of SCYRJoin SCYR for fun and important events year round at https://spacecoastyr.com/

Lynne Hartmann guides this talk for the Osteopathic Society of Integrative Medicine. She discusses how daily practices of high omega 3 diet, cold plunge, strength training, sauna and more has made her healthier now above age 60 than she has ever been in her life. This lecture can serve both patients and clinicians who often are the sickest population. She is offering the Kurort Training Retreat in Melbourne Beach to heal and train sick doctors in these methods that have helped her and so many of Iron DPC's patients who follow the full protocol.See Kurort training program here:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fZ7lbKBnRl1a-T5NosrD2gALkcffapbDXSwbw3e4yQ8/edit?tab=t.0

My friend and mentor Pierre Cloutier MD stopped by my office while I was in the studio so I had him sit down to record. He's not one for a media spotlight. If you want to hear more from him comment below and maybe I can convince him to come back. Otherwise you can read his book: Personal Guide To Health https://bluenotepress.com/products/personal-guide-to-health or you can register for our Learn Functional Medicine course approved by Dr. Pierre at https://stefan-hartmann.mykajabi.com/signup

Logan and Stefan sit down to talk about functional medicine black pills: what we've learned from going to conferences all over the states and the world and from clinical practice and studying and applying this stuff every day. We love functional medicine but we approach it from my practical lens. We are working in the trenches at Iron DPC treating patients through an affordable method of care delivering anti aging medicine as primary care. If you are a provider and want to learn how to do this as well. We have a course that you can now enroll in. Check it out here https://stefan-hartmann.mykajabi.com/pl/2148697525Debunking Functional Medicine Myths: The Black PillsIn this episode of the Iron Direct Primary Care Show, hosts Stefan Hartmann and Logan Cahoon delve into the 'black pills' of functional medicine—controversial insights that challenge popular beliefs. They discuss the efficacy and expense of GI Map tests, the limited utility of SPECT scans, hormone testing nuances, long-term impacts of low-carb diets, the reality of natural remedies, and genetic influences on health. Through personal anecdotes and clinical experiences, they advocate for a balanced, evidence-based approach to optimizing health.00:00 Welcome to the Iron Direct Primary Care Show00:20 Introduction to Functional Medicine and Black Pills00:57 The Controversy of GI Maps05:37 SPECT Scans: Are They Worth It?08:05 Hormone Testing: Clinical Signs vs. Lab Results12:31 The Debate on Low Carb Diets17:51 Natural vs. Medical Interventions for Lipids and Testosterone28:54 Behavioral Issues in Children: A Personal Perspective32:29 Natural vs. Optimized: The Final Verdict00:03 Introduction and Functional Medicine Overview00:57 GI Maps and Parasite Cleanses05:37 SPECT Scans and Brain Health08:05 Hormone Testing and Treatment12:31 Low Carb Diets and Hormonal Impact17:51 Natural Ways to Lower Lipids32:29 Natural vs. Optimized Health38:15 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Welcome to episode 2 of the Iron Direct Primary Care Show! In this episode, we sit down with Randy Peace, an Iron DPC member. Diagnosed decades ago with a mitochondrial disease and given a grim prognosis, Randy refused to accept defeat. Instead, he dove headfirst into medical research—long before the days of Google and online forums—seeking answers in arcane European and Russian studies, many of which he had translated at his own expense.From Death Sentence to Self-AdvocacyRandy’s journey began with a devastating diagnosis and a lack of conventional treatment options for mitochondrial myopathy. Rather than give up, he became his own advocate, experimenting with a wide range of therapies, including experimental peptides and anabolic steroids. His relentless pursuit of knowledge and willingness to try unconventional approaches have made him a unique figure in the world of patient-led research.Adventures Abroad: Security Contracting and AfricaThe conversation also explores Randy’s background as a security contractor, with stories from Afghanistan, Iraq, and especially Africa. He shares fascinating insights into African culture, history, and the challenges of navigating health and medicine on the continent. From the mysterious Leopard Man of Sierra Leone to the realities of forced vaccination campaigns, Randy’s experiences paint a vivid picture of life and medicine beyond the Western world.Mitochondrial Health, Peptides, and HormonesA major focus of the episode is mitochondrial health. Randy discusses his personal experiments with peptides, the role of anabolic steroids, and the limitations of current medical understanding. He emphasizes the importance of hormones—not just for physical health, but for mental well-being—and challenges some of the dogmas of modern medicine.The Value of Anecdotal Evidence and Open-MindednessThroughout the episode, Randy and the host discuss the importance of anecdotal evidence, the placebo effect, and the need for open-mindedness in both patients and practitioners. They critique the rigidity of medical dogma and highlight the value of being your own advocate, especially when facing rare or poorly understood conditions.Key TakeawaysSelf-advocacy can be life-saving, especially when conventional medicine has no answers.Mitochondrial health is complex, and sometimes unconventional therapies can make a difference.Cultural and medical experiences abroad can reshape our understanding of health.The medical community should remain open to anecdotal evidence and patient-led research.Final ThoughtsRandy’s story is a testament to resilience, curiosity, and the power of taking charge of your own health journey. Whether you’re a patient, practitioner, or simply curious about the frontiers of medicine, this episode offers inspiration and food for thought.