Much of our time in providing functional medicine care is spent in establishing balance in a patient’s body. Too little or too much of just about anything can be bad for the person sitting across from us. Take salt for example. It has gotten such bad press relating to blood pressure and heart disease that…
We have known for some time that various autoimmune conditions increase the risk of heart disease, but no big picture of the connection has ever been attempted. These cardiovascular risk factors have always taken a backset to the traditional risks of diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol. This research paper sought to bring the big picture…
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…
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…
The COVID 19 pandemic has hit us all like a real life fast-paced mystery spy thriller. Medical news has never gotten the media attention like this virus and the hoopla around it. Regardless of your opinions on the source of the virus, motives of the players, or response to COVID, we can all agree that…
Many parents come to our doors seeking help for their child whom they suspect has PANS or PANDAS. These parents have either heard of the possibility from their doctor or come to suspect it after some reading online or in a parenting group. Others have never heard of these acronyms but just know that something…
If your child has PANS or PANDAS, you have asked yourself at least once about what will happen if your little one gets COVID19. Like other parents, even a small risk of a deadly disease for your child sends chills up your spine. Unlike other parents, any viral or bacterial disease, however minor in other…
I have said this before, but we need to consider potentially removable triggers for a patient with autoimmune disease before just condemning them to a life of immune suppressing therapies. Discerning the root cause may avoid a lot of unnecessary therapy and prevent a lot of damage. I just don’t understand why conventional medicine ignores…
Understanding must precede therapy as scientists seek to adequately relieve the suffering of millions with autoimmune conditions. Initial understanding pointed repeatedly to an immune messenger or cytokine called Interleukin 1b as a critical factor in the development and progression of autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, and inflammatory bowel disease. For a number…
Fighting autoimmune diseases like Crohn’s disease requires a multi-modal approach including recognition that certain bacteria and certain foods worsen the condition. Focusing on one bacteria called adherent-invasive Escherichia coli for the moment, researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian took prior knowledge which implicated this bacteria and searched for the reasons behind the connection. …