Aaron Hartman, MDFunctional Medicine Specialist | Clinical Researcher

Dr Carnahan | From Norman Rockwell Dreams to Toxic Realities

31 Dec 2024 · 1 min

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Dr. Carnahan recounts growing up on a central Illinois farm as one of five children in an idyllic (Norman Rockwell–like) childhood, later realizing that early-life chemical exposures—possibly even in utero—contributed to chronic health problems. She describes childhood allergies, asthma, and probable mast cell issues, and explains that despite no family history of physicians she was drawn to medicine to help others.

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I grew up on a farm in central Illinois. I was one of five children. Wonderful, idyllic, Norman Rockwell kind of place. And unbeknownst to me, some of the chemicals and things that I was exposed to, maybe even in utero, maybe even back that far, were slowly killing me. I had no idea. I lived a wonderful life as a child. I did have allergies and asthma and some pretty significant in hindsight, probably mast cell issues, but other than that, overall healthy. And. And I also didn't know I was a healer, but I knew I wanted to help people. And I thought, well, why not go into medicine? And for me, it was a big, big deal because there was no one in my family. It was farmers and my mom was a nurse, but there was no doctors.