As many of you are aware, I can be skeptical of the government at times. However in this case I look forward to the research that this government based study may provide in the coming years. The National Institutes of Health are moving forward and enrolling 9 and 10 year olds in a tracking study…
Health education endeavors to motivate changes in habits and behavior patterns. Such changes are hard fought battles as people hold to habits tenaciously for four reasons. They are deeply rooted in our personality and culture. We do not understand our own culture well nor the origins of our habits. Likewise, we do not understand…
I’m always on the lookout for new concepts in research which have the potential to help patients live a healthier more Abundant Life. Researchers have been searching genetics, epigenetics and other reproductive factors to determine what impact both the father and mother have on the Next Generation. We know that the mother and father each…
The Neighborhood does not do well when it is on fire. In our last neighborhood report, we uncovered the truth behind the myriad of neighbors in our gut. In fact, the research now reveals that we journey through life with more bacteria neighbors in just our gut than the number of cells in our entire…
I regularly stumble upon research findings which shock others, yet provoke a sighing “of course” from the functional medicine MD crowd. In functional medicine, we recognize the amazingly interdependent metabolic network in which one process touches a hundred others. Our bodies function as an intricate interplay of millions of process simultaneously dancing together. So when…
Continued from last Friday! Any given neighborhood depends not only on its residents but also on the environment where they reside. Humans provide some partially understood infrastructure for the microbiome through a variety of genes like NOD2, IL23R, ATG16I, and IGRM. These genes both prepare hospitable homes for good bacteria and modulate how our bodies…
Just the other day, I asked myself why doesn’t someone come up with a test for choline deficiency. I constantly address this critical nutrient for patients, especially women of child bearing age and especially those with PEMT snps. Women of child bearing age are at risk of choline deficiency since they give away tons of…
Living in any neighborhood involves ,well, getting to know your neighbors. Functional medicine opens a window allowing us to interact those little bacteria living in our gut neighborhood for these neighbors profoundly affect our health. With about 1.3 trillion bacteria living in each of our gastrointestinal (GI) tracts, these neighbors abound beyond the number of…
Representing a classic Dr. Potter Blog: Five Little Letters Can Spell Big Trouble MTHFR = Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase. For some reason, you now know that you have a mutation. School bullies may have claimed as much in years past, but now it is confirmed. Does it really matter if it is 677 or 1298 or whatever…
Re-Presenting a classic Dr. Potter Blog: My most recent article, by the same title, light-heartedly approaches a topic that can be very frustrating for patients seeking answers in our current hyper-specialized health delivery system. Patients seek care from primary care physicians/providers (family practitioners, internist, pediatricians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and others) for complex issues, but…