Kintsugi Heroes
Dr. Traci Potterf · 53 min
A functional medicine expert who spent her career teaching others to heal found herself slowly poisoned by lead paint and toxic mould in her own home — and had to fight her way back from the brink of suicide to prove that recovery is always possible.
If this story feels close to home
You don't have to be in crisis to call.
Dr. Traci Potterf is a functional medicine expert who spent her career teaching others how to heal. Nine years of living in a house with peeling lead paint left her slowly poisoned, developing tremors, vision loss, muscle pain, heart palpitations, skin lesions, and a cascade of neurological symptoms that no doctor could explain. When she finally discovered the lead contamination, her landlords gave her three weeks to leave during a pandemic housing shortage. She spent eight months homeless while her body deteriorated and the chemical poisoning pushed her toward suicidal thoughts.
What pulled her back was a deal she made with her mother: she would stay alive as long as her mom was alive. From there, healing came not from medical interventions her doctors couldn't offer, but from listening to what her body actually needed. She stopped fighting her need for rest, spent time on the earth and in cold water, used temperature therapy and basic tools she had dismissed as too simple. A year and a half later, she hiked for twelve hours at the ruins of Tikal without the debilitating soreness that once followed even gentle movement. She learned that recovery is not linear, that setbacks are part of the process rather than failure, and that the body's own intelligence often knows what mainstream medicine cannot provide.
Her story is for anyone in an unexplained health crisis, anyone told their condition is incurable, anyone who has felt abandoned by the system meant to help them. It is also for anyone who has stood where she stood and believes there is no way out. There is.
⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses suicide & self-harm prevention, which some listeners may find distressing.
If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available: • Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au
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