In the world of functional medicine, we deal with numerous occult infections. Viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi can sometimes find great hiding places in our bodies preventing our immune surveillance from eradicating them. Medical scientists must admit that even pharmaceuticals like antivirals and antibiotics may leave behind these hiding infectious agents. To fully eradicate these…
Our world is filled with not only lots of new people to meet and appreciate, but with a vast number of natural therapies which offer relief and restoration to those suffering from a chronic illness. As science advances, many of these new herbal friends attract our attention and gain our interests. New studies by researchers…
Mold is everywhere; so the naysayers claim. That truth of that claim does not negate that some molds are more problematic than others and that some molds can be an issue in our world of air-tight buildings. With that in mind, yes, the mold that college students like those a Vanderbilt found could be negatively…
Everyone wants to know why almost 1 in 10 children now have been diagnosed with ADHD, affecting their lives and the lives of their families. Numerous theories ask if some exposure or deficiency during pregnancy could be influencing brain development negatively. Toxins, deficiencies, infections, and various forms of inflammation are also implicated. As with autism,…
While the epidemic of diseases associated with inflammation rages, many search for explanations and mechanisms. With a little epidemiological sleuthing, one can quickly see a pattern linking dietary issues and higher rates of these inflammatory diseases. Many know that cardiovascular disease offers a number of links with poor nutrition lifestyles. Fewer recognize the nutritional choices…
With the increasing prevalence of autism and developmental delays in children, would you stop to read a headline like ‘54% of Pregnancies at Risk for Autism’? Most parents would at least read the first few lines of such a striking claim. Uppsala University researchers should have gotten everyone’s attention when they published their results earlier…
While mold toxins, mycotoxins, affect us in a variety of ways, their effects on the immune system seem to be a primary pathway. Though controversy exists over things like “toxic building syndrome”, research clearly supports immune modulating effects of these toxins. Researchers in a November 2021 volume of the International Journal of Molecular Science reviewed…
In functional medicine, we are trained to think about root causes and this requires thinking about the upstream. For example, according to this study Vitamin D can be traced far upstream in the development of ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Rather than simply waiting until a disease or symptom occurs and then responding with a…
Both conventional and functional medicine can agree that most people in our nation need more fiber. The average American diet includes more and more processed ingredients with less and less old-fashioned fiber, leaving many missing out on fiber’s benefits. We can all agree that most patients can see benefits like lower cholesterol, better gut health…
Most people know that their best chance at triggering an unwanted yeast infection would be to take some good old-fashioned antibiotics. These yeast infections caused by a particular type of fungus may manifest in various bodily locations but they all seem to share a common mechanism. Antibiotics, by their very design, kill off bacteria that…