There’s no shortage of strategies for building a healthier body. But if you don’t feel safe in your body, none of them will work. Dr. Jill Carnahan learned this the hard way. 

As a high-achieving physician who battled both Crohn’s disease and aggressive breast cancer, she realized the key to healing wasn’t just in protocols, it was in feeling safe enough to heal. 

For years, she followed the rules: the labs, the diets, the medications, but realized there was something deeper to health. That’s when she began to connect the dots between her emotional history and her physical breakdown. 

She discovered something most medical schools don’t teach: When your nervous system is stuck in fight-or-flight, your gut can’t digest, your cells can’t repair, and your immune system can't regulate. 

Your body isn't ignoring your efforts. It's protecting you the only way it knows how. In this episode, Dr. Carnahan explains how unresolved emotional patterns can trigger gut dysfunction, autoimmune flares, inflammation, and even resistance to treatment. 

She reveals why healing your gut starts with healing your story, and why no pill can replace the power of safety, connection, and nervous system repair. 

If you’ve ever felt like your body is working against you, this episode might help you understand that it’s actually been fighting for you all along. 

Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

-The gut is ground zero
How does one layer of gut lining determine everything from your immune health to your mood, and what damages it in the first place?

-When the immune system won’t turn off
Could mold, trauma, or long COVID be triggering mast cell activation syndrome?

-Your body won’t heal if it doesn’t feel safe
Your mental health could be the missing link to a healthier body. How do trauma, toxic beliefs, and stress shape your biology? What do you do when your body is stuck in fight-or-flight?

-The healing power of breath, belief, and rewiring
From breathwork to box breathing, what are some low-cost, science-backed tools that regulate your nervous system and accelerate recovery?

Guest Bio

Dr. Jill Carnahan is Your Functional Medicine Expert®. She uses functional medicine to help patients find the root cause of their illness and identify nutritional and biochemical imbalances that may be contributing to your symptoms. Dr. Jill will search for underlying triggers that contribute to your illness through cutting-edge lab testing and tailor the intervention to your specific individual needs. She uses nutrition, supplements, lifestyle changes, or medication to treat your illness, and always seeks the gentlest and least invasive way to help you find hope, restore health, and optimize healing. Dr. Jill is a survivor of both breast cancer and Crohn’s disease and is passionate about teaching patients how to live well and thrive in the midst of complex and chronic illness. She is also a widely sought-after inspirational speaker and travels around the world to teach physicians the principles of personalized and functional medicine. She is a prolific writer, speaker, and loves to infuse others with her passion for hope, health, and healing! She has been featured in Shape Magazine, Parade, Forbes, MindBodyGreen, First for Women, Townsend Newsletter, and The Huffington Post as well as seen on NBC News and Health segments with Joan. Visit https://www.jillcarnahan.com/ for more information and follow @drjillcarnahan on Instagram. 

About Your Host

Steve Hoffart is an award-winning pharmacist, entrepreneur, speaker and podcaster. As the visionary founder of Magnolia Pharmacy, Steve saw a need for a more personal pharmacy that could make a bigger impact. Today Steve and his team of experts deliver on that promise, working with patients and their physicians to solve medication problems and offer personalized solutions to achieve better health and wellness. As host of The Trusted Pharmacist podcast and through his combined reach of over 250,000 on social media, Steve shares actionable advice on nutrition, supplements, and wellness strategies while advocating for meaningful change in healthcare.