Daily in our office, we talk about one of my least favorite subjects: mold. Why would I daily spend time talking about or even thinking about something that caused so much harm to my own family? It comes down to the simple fact that my hatred for mold makes me want to fight it wherever…
As we determine the best course of treatment for a patient’s condition, we must weigh the pros against the cons and make a balanced decision. While a surgeon may be forced to choose cutting off a leg to save a life, there are usually other options to avoid unwanted adverse effects. With the pandemic beginning…
Whenever someone has a bright idea, they should always test out the secondary and tertiary consequences of their change before they implement them on a large scale. Any time we implement a therapy change for our patients, we have to consider if one therapy will interact with another therapy or might worsen another condition. The…
COVID 19 infections from SARS-CoV2 have been the gift that keeps on giving in so many ways such that we never know when it is over. Many government and public health officials prophesied an end to the pandemic with a two-week isolation, but that was obviously a pipe dream. Many medical professionals hoped that with…
We live in a changing world where many past traditions are now considered unhealthy or even immoral. One of those changed expectations affects meat, not only whether it is good or bad, but the idea that we can call a plant-based product “meat”. Moving beyond the psychology and honesty of this practice, some traditions should…
We see it everywhere these days, eyes glued to smartphones and tablets. This includes children of parents who hand over these digital devices to their young children to get them to calm down so mom or dad can take care of some pressing interaction like a doctor visit or simple car ride without behavior issues. …
New challenges can bring out new uses for old drugs. In the fight against the world’s most famous virus, we know of many old drugs and old supplements that have been tested to prevent and/or treat COVID-19. The newer therapies with big price tags often get more media attention, but many old drugs have offered…
Functional medicine looks to research for support of its protocol and therapeutics. Much of this accumulated wisdom requires piecing together data and finding from multiple different studies, then applying them to real world situations. Occasionally, that work is made easier by meta-analyses which combine multiple studies, or consensus groups that attempt to systematically bring all…
As a functional medicine physician, I get many questions about mold toxicity. While not everyone asks this question, some patients who feel rather terrible from chronic mold toxin exposure do wonder if their toxicity will kill them. I can assure that death by mold toxicity is quite rare, but I would argue that it is…
Adolescence challenges one’s parenting skills: your child moves from depending on you to possessing a much greater degree of autonomy as they develop their own identity. So many factors influence the path your child takes and the new self-identity they attain, especially hormones. Their own hormones offer enough turbulence and drive towards young adulthood, but…