The brain
and especially its memory function have long fascinated mankind. Its capacity to remember facts, events, and
more has remained a challenging mystery despite countless attempt to probe the
process. As a listened to a genomics
podcast by Illumina called, Illumina Genomics on iTunes, Dr. Ted Abel at the
University of Iowa discussed his team’s research into how our brains retain
long-term memories using acetylation and epigenetics.
Who knows how much investment is going into finding the
genes behind various chronic diseases?
Fixing what is broken always seems to take more energy and effort than
preventing the disease damage in the first place… an ounce of prevention is
worth a pound of cure. As a listened to
a genomics podcast by Illumina called,
Would you allow a government – academic collaboration to
collect and analyze both your genetic data and other medical markers of
health? This big-data driven mass
collection of health information is called biobanking and the little country of
Estonia in Europe has embraced it on a large scale. As a listened to a genomics podcast by
Illumina called,
The internet buzzes with fad diets
claiming amazing results for all-comers even to the extreme of becoming a
Breatharian (eating only air and light).
While I profess no interest in giving up food for a breakfast of air and
light, I do strive to guide others in finding an optimal nutrition plan for
them. Several factors go into my
patient’s optimal nutritional approach.
The
genomic revolution stands eager to answer the age-old medical question, “nature
versus nurture”. In a sense, we know
that the symptom of disease we see in patients results from both, only with the
advancing technology to sequence DNA have we begun to uncover the genetics half
of the equation. For chronic diseases
like type 2 diabetes,
The number of correlations linking methylation cycle SNPS (single
nucleotide polymorphisms) to various disease is growing. In this case, researching in Italy found
three gene SNPS in higher frequencies for patients with vitiligo. This autoimmune attack on one’s skin melanin
cells leaves behind an absence of pigment in coalescing patches. Stopping its progression across the patient’s
body and reversing the past depigmentation stands as a challenge to
conventional medicine and functional medicine.
A fellow functional MD, Ken Sharlin MD, alerted me to this article on Facebook. While no surprise to anyone in functional medicine, researchers found that the inflammatory marker, CRP (C reactive protein), correlated with faster cognitive decline in middle age study participants. The cohort study group of over 12,000 men and women to note that as the CRP marker rose,
Patients often ask whether their stress might be directly changing them physically; I always answer yes, and describe how our emotional and spiritual state interlaces with our physical condition. While they may be apparently distinct, both play an integral role in both good and bad health. Because of this, we at Sanctuary always pay careful attention to both as we care for their health needs.
The concept of cancer cells living off sugar has grown in recent years from just a functional medicine legend into mainstream science. Apparently, cancer does more than just grab a few morsels of glucose from the bloodstream like other cells. Scientists uncovered mechanisms by which mouse leukemia cells diverted glucose away from the body’s other cells,
Each year hundreds of millions of dollars are being poured into Alzheimer’s disease research and countless families are affected as a loved one begins the apparently irreversible downhill trajectory of this degenerative disease. Lives are being lost to this relentless thief. Are we any closer to discerning this thief’s entry points? Have we gained insight into how to contain this enemy?