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. …
COVID risks and risks of COVID might sum up today’s post, highlighting the possible two-way street between this coronavirus pandemic and autoimmunity diseases. Two questions have arisen from the COVID 19 pandemic. First, who is at risk? Second, after the infection is over what problems are left behind? Autoimmunity, or the condition where our bodies…
Initially the title sounds like a title for a bad horror film written by a biologist. Creeping fat brings up images of the old “Blob” movies. The reality is that scientists found a link between a gut bacteria moving through the intestinal walls of patients with autoimmune Crohn’s disease and a complication of fat accumulation…
While some mainstream media outlets and part of society continues to disparage breastfeeding, science continues to support the benefits of breastfeeding for infants. As a functional medicine pediatrician seeking to counsel parents on the best ways to prepare their children for the world, breastfeeding will always be in the top 5 to 10 practices. Without…
Our mothers may have taught us how to fold our clothes for easier placement in our dresser drawers, but proper folding appears to be important in the development of type I diabetes, an autoimmune disorder. Researchers have worked long and hard to understand how autoimmune diseases develop in search of prevention and treatment. Our understanding…
We may think of the rogue scientist who plots to control the world in the latest science fiction thriller, but our immune system also operates with rogue agents. For scientists studying autoimmunity, the search for potential rogue cells which triggered the disease process hit paydirt recently. Knowing that the majority of autoimmune patients’ immune cells…
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…
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more… offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
While parents of newborns may sometimes claim to have narcolepsy, this mysterious disease has presented a challenge to medical researchers for some time. Individuals with narcolepsy experience the frequent and sudden episodes of sleep during daytime hours. While sleep deprived parents of newborns know why they are falling asleep, those with narcolepsy and their doctors…