Search Results: Mystery Illness
Mystery Illnesses | Part 3
CIRS: The Poster Child of “Mystery Illnesses”
When Environmental Illness Hides in Plain Sight
Many chronic illnesses appear mysterious because symptoms cross multiple systems. Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS) may explain why.
Mystery Illnesses | Part 1
The Myth of “Mystery Illness”
If your labs are “normal” but you don’t feel well, the mystery may be the model. A conversation on fragmentation, autoimmunity, and systems.
Unveiling the Mystery of POTS | Part 1
A Mystery Illness Sweeping the Country
What are the Key Things You Need to Know About POTS? Do you Suspect That You or a Loved One are Affected by POTS? Recently I’ve noticed POTS and dysautonomia…
What If Some Alzheimer’s Begins as Lyme Disease?
A new case study challenges which direction the causal arrow points
A 67-year-old woman had been dealing with joint pain for fifteen years. It moved around (a detail I’ll come back to). Knees mostly, sometimes hips and shoulders. She’d had several…
Concussions
Your Brain on Fire: What a Concussion Actually Is (and Why the MRI Says You're Fine)
A normal MRI doesn’t mean your brain is fine. A concussion is a secondary inflammatory cascade, a brain on fire, and an old hit you barely remember can be what set up the illness you’re fighting today. Dr. Aaron Hartman on what a concussion actually is.
Long COVID
Why Effective Long COVID Treatments Stay Off-Label for Years
The best tools for long COVID usually aren’t the newest ones. They’re old, repurposed, and stuck in a long gap between “we know this helps” and “you’re allowed to have it.” Here’s why that gap exists, and what to do inside it.
Long COVID
The Problem With Saying “There’s Nothing You Can Do” for Long COVID
Patients keep hearing there’s nothing left to try for long COVID. Meanwhile there’s a long list of repurposed therapies that have worked, sometimes dramatically, in real exam rooms. Here’s what’s actually on it.
Long COVID
Long COVID Isn’t One Disease. It’s Several Overlapping Problems.
Two people catch the same virus and end up with completely different illnesses. That’s the clue most of medicine misses about long COVID: it was never one disease. It’s more like a recipe.
Peptides & Biological Signaling | Part 3
When the Body Forgets How to Heal
What Peptides Are Actually For
Your body doesn’t forget how to heal all at once. It happens slowly: growth hormone pulses less, sleep gets shallower, injuries take longer, connective tissue stops holding.
Peptides & Biological Signaling | Part 2
Your Body Has Been Making Peptides Since Before You Were Born
The Cultural Story Around Peptides Got the Science Backwards
Everyone’s heard about peptides. Almost nobody has a clear answer to the most basic question: what are they? Here’s the explanation you’ve been waiting for.
Hypermobility
The Pentad Supersyndrome: Five Conditions. One Root Cause.
Connective Tissue & Chronic Illness.
If you’ve been told nothing is wrong but you can’t get off the couch — or you have a folder full of specialist notes and no unifying diagnosis — this framework may finally explain why.
Medical Blind Spots | Part 2
Medical Gaslighting
When Medicine Says It’s All in Your Head
If you’ve ever been told your symptoms are stress, anxiety, or “just in your head,” you’ve experienced what Dr. Hartman calls medical gaslighting. It’s not manipulation. It’s a structural problem in how medicine handles uncertainty. And it has a pattern.
Mystery Illnesses | Part 5
When the Mystery Won’t Resolve
Why You Can Check All the Right Boxes and Still Feel Stuck
You’ve done everything right—treated infections, addressed your environment, improved your labs—and you’re still not fully well. This is where many patients get stuck, and why recovery doesn’t always follow a straight line.
Mystery Illnesses | Part 4
When Everything Feels Like a Trigger
Mast Cells, Chemical Sensitivity, and Why the Body Becomes Reactive
When everything becomes a trigger (foods, chemicals, even medications) it can feel random. It isn’t. Here’s the biology behind it.