Interview with Rebecca Hart

Interviewer:
So glad to talk to you today. We’re doing a Spotlight series on the top functional medicine practitioners in the Pooler–Savannah area. And of course, you are my number one. I wanted you to tell our community a little more about you—what you do, what you specialize in, what you’re passionate about, and how our community can find you and work with you.

Rebecca:
Oh wow, thank you for having me. I’m honored.

I guess first I need to start with functional medicine. Functional medicine is getting to the root cause of the problem and not just masking it with more pills. And when I say pills, that can also be supplements. I have a lot of patients who don’t want to fix their diet, and I always tell them, I cannot out-supplement a poor diet. Lifestyle changes are huge.

There are a lot of people who come in with their lifestyle completely dialed in. They’ve got their diet honed in, they’ve got their exercise routine honed in, but they’re still not feeling their best. So, we do a full workup.

At our clinic, it’s myself and two other functionally minded nurse practitioners. I went back and got my Institute of Functional Medicine certification in 2020. At that time, I was one of only 1,300 IFM-certified practitioners worldwide. Now there are around 3,100 globally, so it’s growing in popularity.

As far as what we do, we look for root causes. That could be autoimmune diseases, hormone issues, diet changes—the list goes on. Some people come in saying, “I just want to age gracefully,” which is a good goal. But many of my patients are chronically ill. They may not be acutely sick, but they are very sick and often dismissed by the medical community. Their labs look normal, but they don’t feel normal.

That’s why our clinic is called Faith, Hope and Wellness. You have to have faith, then you can have hope again. Many patients tell me, “I finally feel like I was heard, and I have hope for the first time in years.” Then, they can move toward wellness. A lot of what we do is listening and empowering the patient: “Yes, something is wrong with you, you are validated, and we’re going to fix this.”

Functional medicine is work. It’s not a quick fix. It involves a lot of education, teaching patients about their bodies, and a lot of investigative work. Autoimmune disease, for example, could be caused by six or seven different things irritating the immune system. Often it’s multifactorial—maybe fixing the gut addresses 20–30% of the problem, but then we need to look at toxic load, environmental factors, and more.

Interviewer:
What do you see as the top environmental toxins affecting our health today?

Rebecca:
Roundup is a big one. It’s been tied to lymphoma. BPA plastics are another huge factor. They’re found in things like women’s leggings, dental composite fillings, and many women’s health products.

The average woman puts on more than 100 chemicals before leaving the house in the morning—through shampoo, conditioner, face cream, makeup, dish soap, and more.

Our microbiome is suffering because of this toxic load. The microbiome is incredibly complex, and it’s what makes us complex. When we lose diversity in our microbiome, we see more chronic illnesses, autism, and inflammation-driven diseases.

Roundup, for instance, disrupts the shikimate pathway—a bacterial pathway. It doesn’t necessarily kill us directly, but it damages our bacteria. That’s why microbiome health is so important.

Interviewer:
How do you feel about antibiotics, given the controversy around overuse?

Rebecca:
There is definitely overuse of antibiotics. I don’t like to jump to them, but there are times when they’re necessary. For example, in severe Lyme disease cases, herbs are great, but sometimes antibiotics are required. The key is whether the benefits outweigh the risks.

That said, many young adults I see today were C-section babies and had multiple antibiotics between birth and age three. Those early exposures have lasting effects. I go through a full health history with every patient—from birth until now—because those early factors matter.

I’ll share an example. One of my patients, now 49 years old, was a C-section baby and had chronic diarrhea. She couldn’t drive from here to Atlanta without fear of an accident. We did a stool test and found her microbiome was extremely depleted.

C-section babies don’t pass through the vaginal canal, so they miss out on the mother’s microbiome. A Harvard doctor, Dr. Oban, has researched this. She tests babies delivered by C-section and finds their microbiomes don’t match their mothers’. She developed a method of swabbing the mother’s vaginal microbiome and transferring it to the baby’s face immediately after delivery. In those cases, the baby’s microbiome matches the mother’s.

This “seeding” process has been linked to lower rates of asthma and allergies in children.

Interviewer:
That’s amazing. You also mentioned a patient who rebuilt her microbiome by traveling?

Rebecca:
Yes, I had a patient with chronic diarrhea and very low microbiome diversity. She was eating all the right things, but her body wasn’t producing butyrate—a postbiotic that prevents diarrhea. I told her to garden, play in the dirt, swim in the ocean, and hike. She took me literally and traveled to Antarctica, Spain, Costa Rica, South America, and South Africa.

By eating diverse foods and being exposed to different microbes, she rebuilt her microbiome and started absorbing nutrients again, including B12. Her diarrhea improved significantly.

This shows that probiotics aren’t the only answer. Exposure to nature—soil, water, air—introduces countless microbes we haven’t even discovered yet.

Interviewer:
What about probiotics? Many people just grab one from Amazon and start taking it.

Rebecca:
That’s true, but not all probiotics are created equal. Most probiotics on the market contain only a few strains. They can create a monoculture instead of diversity. And many don’t even survive stomach acid to reach the large intestine where they’re needed.

That’s why it’s important to choose high-quality probiotics that are bile-resistant and proven to survive the digestive process. I also recommend switching brands every couple of months to prevent monocultures.

Sometimes we use testing—like PCR testing—to see which strains a patient is missing. If someone has zero of a certain strain, we may keep them on a probiotic longer to rebuild balance.

But ultimately, lifestyle and exposure to natural environments are just as important, if not more so.

Interviewer:
If someone already has a primary care doctor, why should they also see a functional medicine practitioner?

Rebecca:
I encourage patients to keep their primary care doctor. I don’t want to be on call 24/7, and primary care is important for acute needs.

But functional medicine looks deeper, especially for complex, chronic cases. Conventional doctors often focus on “horses”—the common issues. “Zebras” are rare, unusual problems. And then there are “unicorns”—conditions so complex they seem almost imaginary. That’s often what I see: patients with chronic illness that doesn’t fit neatly into a diagnosis.

I collaborate with primary care providers and specialists. For example, I had a patient who thought she had long COVID. After testing, I found she actually had a pituitary tumor that had shut down her hormones. She hadn’t cycled in six years. When she went to Emory to see an endocrinologist, the doctor rolled her eyes when the patient said her functional medicine practitioner found it. But her husband stopped her and said, “No—you didn’t find it. Rebecca did.”

Unfortunately, many in the conventional system still dismiss functional medicine. But I’ve found that by listening carefully and piecing together the puzzle, we often uncover things others miss.

Interviewer:
You mentioned mold being a huge issue here in Savannah.

Rebecca:
Yes, I treat a lot of mold cases. Mold illness is one of the most misunderstood conditions—even among providers—because you can’t always see it. Patients are chronically ill, but their current house may look fine. If they were exposed in a previous home and haven’t detoxed, the toxins stay in their body.

About 25% of the population has HLA genetics that prevent them from detoxing mycotoxins. These people stay sick until you address it.

I can often tell when mold is involved—especially in women—because they develop histamine issues like reflux, hives, anxiety, and insomnia. They often have very low testosterone, even in their 20s.

Mycotoxins increase aromatase, the enzyme that converts testosterone to estrogen. So women end up with high estrogen, heavy cycles, PMS symptoms, and histamine problems. Low progesterone compared to estrogen worsens this. It’s a vicious cycle.

I had one patient, a teacher, who was exhausted and in pain from fibromyalgia-like symptoms. Schools are notorious for mold because in the summer, when it’s hot, they often turn off the air conditioning. By the time teachers return, classrooms are moldy.

She had severe estrogen issues, fibroids, and extreme fatigue. I suspected Epstein-Barr at first, but her labs pointed to mold. Her chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS) markers were off the charts. I started her on prescription binders, and within weeks, she was sleeping better, her pain improved, and she was functioning again. She told me, “Rebecca, I’m telling everyone about you. I finally feel good again.”

Interviewer:
That’s incredible. Let’s talk about long COVID. What are you seeing in those patients?

Rebecca:
Long COVID is often an umbrella term for underlying issues. For some patients, COVID reactivates viruses like Epstein-Barr or HHV-6 (human herpesvirus 6). Research from November showed that about 41% of people with COVID had reactivated Epstein-Barr, and over 60% had reactivated HHV-6.

That explains why so many long COVID patients feel so sick. Sometimes it’s not the virus itself anymore, but what COVID stirred up in the immune system.

I had a patient who suffered for four years after COVID. We discovered her Lyme disease had reactivated because her immune system was weakened. Treating the Lyme made all the difference.

Again, functional medicine requires investigative work. We ask: is this viral? Is it Lyme? Is it mold? Is it parasites? Is it gut dysbiosis? Often it’s a combination.

Interviewer:
That detective work seems to be where you really shine.

Rebecca:
Yes, that’s what makes functional medicine both challenging and rewarding. I also bring my background into it—I used to work with a critical care physician who was also a pulmonologist, internal medicine doctor, and sleep specialist. That gave me a wide lens to piece things together.

Many of my patients have seen multiple specialists—a GI doctor, a pulmonologist, a cardiologist, an endocrinologist. But those doctors don’t always talk to each other. Functional medicine connects the dots and explains the big picture.

Sometimes, it’s as simple as giving a patient a voice. Elderly women especially come in with stacks of records, saying no one has explained what’s wrong. I take the time to go through it. For me, this is also a ministry. It’s about helping people feel heard and validated.

Interviewer:
And when patients get better, they spread the word.

Rebecca:
Exactly. That’s how my practice has grown. When someone gets better, they tell their friends and family, and those people come in.

Interviewer:
I also love that you bring in both body and spirit—that holistic aspect.

Rebecca:
Yes, we focus on body, mind, and spirit. Many patients come in crushed—emotionally, mentally, and physically. Some have even been to major centers like Mayo Clinic or National Jewish Health in Colorado, but they still don’t have answers. They bring binders of paperwork, and they’re desperate.

Sometimes they’re tied to a diagnosis like fibromyalgia, but we ask, what’s the root cause of your fibromyalgia? For some it’s Epstein-Barr, for others it’s mold, for others it’s trauma.

At a conference in November, new research showed the strong connection between Epstein-Barr reactivation and long COVID. This is cutting-edge knowledge most conventional doctors won’t hear about for another decade. That’s why functional medicine is usually 10–15 years ahead.

Interviewer:
That’s powerful. As we wrap up, what final words would you like to share with the community?

Rebecca:
I always tell people: I learn two new things every day because research is constantly evolving. That’s the beauty of functional medicine—it’s forward-looking.

At Faith, Hope and Wellness, our first appointment lasts two hours for a reason. We dig deep—your birth history, childhood health, trauma, diet, lifestyle, everything—because all of it matters. Trauma carried into adulthood can manifest as chronic illness, and we address that too.

It’s not just me. I couldn’t do it all alone. I’m blessed to have Dallas and Lilia on my team. They bring their own specialties, and together we can help more people.

We see everything: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, chronic inflammation, mystery illnesses. Some cases are straightforward. Others require detective work. But our goal is always the same: listen, validate, and find the root cause.

One of our patients even regrew his hair after we discovered mold exposure at his workplace. His story is on our Facebook page. Stories like that remind me why we do this work.

If you’re struggling with your health and haven’t found answers, don’t give up. There is hope.