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…
There can be such an adversarial relationship between the average medical provider and the world of supplements or natural medicine. Each side lobs their stereotyped hand-grenades over the dividing wall, hoping to discredit the other. By its very name, however, integrative medicine should work to integrate the best of both worlds. By its emphasis on…
Who needs TV to watch the unfolding of a suspenseful plot when we have the developing interactions of our GI tract with our immune system? While observant medical practitioners of all flavors over the centuries have preached the connections between the gut and the immune system, contemporary researchers are the ones uncovering the actual connections. …
Mold and Children Concerned about your children being sick from mold toxicity.. (A word before digging into how mold can affect children: You may feel a little overwhelmed and stressed after the recent Toxic Mold Summit A great line up of both clinical types and environmental remediator types took the stage for several day…
Medicine boasts its fair share of long words. Cholestyramine is one of those long words which we use a lot at Sanctuary Functional Medicine when we’re caring for our patients who suffer from biotoxin illness such as mold. Typing or saying it over and over gets tiring, so we use the acronym CSM in the…