Sometimes the obvious deserves mention. Medscape recently highlighted an article from the journal, Neurology, (see link at end) which emphasized how the practice of 5 lifestyles patterns could lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by up to 60 percent. The rate of Alzheimer’s disease is climbing and it impact on society is growing as more…
Fats just do not get the respect they deserve and I admit that I have been in the disrespectful group up until recently. Over the years, fats have either been implicated as cardiovascular disease culprits or lauded as dietary miracles in the ketogenic world. They get attention but their contribution to health and disease reaches…
I can’t bring myself to spend a long time on this article as the “Duh!” factor is so overwhelming. The conclusion is so simple yet so profound I can’t leave it untouched. The community in which you live affects the length of your life. Wow, earth shattering news flash, right? The study looked at the…
Curcumin, the multi-tool of functional medicine just got nano-scaled. As the article notes, curcumin has frustrated scientists for years. It clearly affects multiple bodily processes like inhibiting NF-kB, TNF alpha, and IL-6. Each of these substances play a role in inflammation. However, our body’s limited ability to absorb curcumin and the swiftness of its metabolism…
I only know one person whose favorite color is orange, but they may be on to something with weight loss. Western University researchers identified a substance called nobiletin from oranges and tangerines which modify how animal metabolism handles lipids (fats). In a study of rats fed a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet, those rats fed nobiletin ended…
My son has already burst my Scrabble bubble by pointing out that vomocytosis is too long for the standard rules of Scrabble. Nevertheless, it will be a useful word to sound smart. All that aside, the relationship of vomocytosis and fungal infections intrigues me more than Scrabble success. Researchers from the University of Birmingham…
Modern medicine signs its name with “allopathy” when pressed for its roots. Allopathy basically means that we come against disease (pathos). If bacteria invade our body’s sanctuary, we respond with anti-bacterials. If cancer arises, we respond with anti-cancer agents called chemotherapy. This paradigm has served us well for decades in the acute war against disease.…
In a fast paced world where novelty drives our appetites, the typical American spends a lot of time and money eating out. Staying home for a home cooked meal takes time and can seem mundane. Going out for the latest new dish from restaurants offering endless variety draws us as does the need to get…
We can thank Harvard for the answer to an age-old health riddle. They appear to have found the link between stress and gray hair. For centuries, if not millennia, mankind has noted how high stress can trigger sudden hair graying. Many tried to find the exact mechanism by which this occurs., but Harvard researchers finally…
We live in an age of epidemic metabolic disease without clear answers for why. Many point fingers at dietary factors like sugars and trans fats. Others point fingers at lifestyle factors like sedentary life without exercise. While functional MD’s like myself acknowledge these factors, we also look at toxic contributors to diabetes, heart disease, and…