The Neighborhood does not do well when it is on fire. In our last neighborhood report, we uncovered the truth behind the myriad of neighbors in our gut. In fact, the research now reveals that we journey through life with more bacteria neighbors in just our gut than the number of cells in our entire…
I regularly stumble upon research findings which shock others, yet provoke a sighing “of course” from the functional medicine MD crowd. In functional medicine, we recognize the amazingly interdependent metabolic network in which one process touches a hundred others. Our bodies function as an intricate interplay of millions of process simultaneously dancing together. So when…
Continued from last Friday! Any given neighborhood depends not only on its residents but also on the environment where they reside. Humans provide some partially understood infrastructure for the microbiome through a variety of genes like NOD2, IL23R, ATG16I, and IGRM. These genes both prepare hospitable homes for good bacteria and modulate how our bodies…
No, I am not writing a veterinary piece this week on zoo animals. I am referring to Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders related to Streptococal infections. PANDAS is a well-known acronym in the medical world for several decades, yet a still mysterious constellation of symptoms with even more mysterious mechanism by which it wrecks havoc in…
Living in any neighborhood involves ,well, getting to know your neighbors. Functional medicine opens a window allowing us to interact those little bacteria living in our gut neighborhood for these neighbors profoundly affect our health. With about 1.3 trillion bacteria living in each of our gastrointestinal (GI) tracts, these neighbors abound beyond the number of…
Representing a classic Dr. Potter Blog: Five Little Letters Can Spell Big Trouble MTHFR = Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase. For some reason, you now know that you have a mutation. School bullies may have claimed as much in years past, but now it is confirmed. Does it really matter if it is 677 or 1298 or whatever…
Re-Presenting a classic Dr. Potter Blog: My most recent article, by the same title, light-heartedly approaches a topic that can be very frustrating for patients seeking answers in our current hyper-specialized health delivery system. Patients seek care from primary care physicians/providers (family practitioners, internist, pediatricians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and others) for complex issues, but…
Gut Punch to the Head? Traumatic Brain Injury receives more attention these days as more professional sports stars suffer from years of concussions and equipment designers work to lower the risk of long term consequences. Beyond that, as more and more youth are pressed into intense sports at younger ages, TBI effects are recognized earlier…
Prior to the discovery of genetic’s mechanisms of passing family traits, humans from the beginning of time have recognized that children carry characteristics of their parents. However, they simultaneously recognized that the chip off the old block sometimes fell further from the block than others. At some point, the headline “Nature versus Nurture” offered good…
What’s wrong? Are we really saving lives if we don’t heal the whole person? While medicine proclaims many advances in conquering disease, the reality of our failing approach to health care stands behind the smoke and mirrors of technology and public relations strategies. Though we “save” lives with acute interventions, we are faced with long…