Correlation does not equal causation. We hear that often in medicine. For example, we know there are correlations between maternal illness during pregnancy and autism. We know that these two conditions, maternal illness and infant autism, travel together, but we don’t have a mechanism of action to prove that the former causes the latter.
News of pesticide effects on human health have littered the internet and social media. For some time, but the number grows each year. This study by researchers at the University of California San Diego, found increases in children’s blood pressure associated with pesticide exposure.
They took advantage of Mother’s Day pesticide use in Ecuador,
Our fallen world provides numerous examples of how adversity can impact our health. None of you need convincing of that reality and therefore this study appears bland at first. But read a little further and you will see that the researchers uncovered effects on children’s executive functioning and changes in stress hormones. They found measurable effects in the daily cortisol levels that varied in response to the children’s stress levels.
Today’s medical headlines blast us with tantalizing half-truths, tempting us to click their link only to discover the other half of the truth is not so exciting as the first. In the case of finding a link between increased methylphenidate (ADHD medication for children) use and increased anti-depressant use years later, the headline could read “ADHD Meds Cause Depression” but this would be misleading.
The vast advances in genetic testing ushered in a new era in which patients with illnesses are not the only ones to seek therapy guidance from genetic testing. Parents want to know what their children may face in the near and far term of life. Moving beyond the neonatal screening programs for cystic fibrosis,
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.
Rather than waste time debating whether or not Autism has increased or is just more frequently reported, more fruit will result from studies like this one by researchers at Kanazawa University in Japan. As the numbers of children diagnosed with autism rises faster and faster, Kyung-min et al chase a non-invasive test for diagnosing this debilitating childhood developmental disorder.
Why can’t we find the one cause of autism? Because… we are searching for what does not exist, the “one” cause. Autism remains a mysterious complexity and much of that complexity may lie in the fact that multiple causes may lead to it. Furthermore, multiple processes interact to produce what we see in children.
Had to pick myself up off the floor with this discovery. I could not believe it that a mainline academic institution would allow an article like this to be printed. I mean, how could the University of Massachusetts publicly admit that functional doctor’s like myself were right about omega 3’s and childhood aggressive behavior.
Just who does this American Academy of Pediatrics thinks they are? Just because they control board certification for all pediatricians, set the guidelines for pediatric well and sick care, and are the largest influence in mainstream pediatrics does NOT give them the right to make outrageous claim that we in functional medicine have been making for years.
I know I will hear from a number of my patient’s parents when this leaks out. I suspect that many will begin with “I knew it all along”. In this article, researchers describe their process for using 24 different metabolite markers in an algorithm to separate autism from non-autistic children. These markers primarily focus on methylation and transulfuration.
Functional MD’s like myself often find ourselves in the realm of medical concepts like methylomics, transcriptomics, and genomes when we are researching ways to alleviate our patient’s suffering. In searching for personalized therapy modalities for my patients, I find myself reading the latest research on a variety of issues. One research topic of late has received much attention in part due to the number of sports stars dealing with neurodegenerative symptoms after head injuries.
Have you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall of some conversation, listening in? Well, researchers are trying to do just that as your sweet little baby’s poop sends messages to his or her developing brain.
Research methods over recent decades have allowed scientists to “see” so many more bacteria in our guts and how they interact with our bodies.
My readers know that certain articles strike me as critical. Seeing numerous children in our clinic for the primary complaint of behavioral challenges means that I talk with numerous guilt-ridden parents. Guilty because they can’t fine the key to make their child better- to make them NOT difficult. By the time they see me,
Autism – its one of the day’s great debates.
Many spend their time arguing about whether vaccines or some toxin has created the epidemic. Others search for the magic gene convinced that genetics or epigenetics can explain it all. None of these avenues are wrong or fruitless as understanding origins may lead to therapies.
Experience with any identical twins quickly reveals that they are not clones one of another. Personality, demeanor, preferences, and other factors are very similar but not 100% copies. In terms of health, twins have a higher rate of sharing certain diseases, but rarely 100% there either. In the functional medicine world,
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 many children and families.
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 and bad natured debate as geneticists and social scientists argued over whether genes or the environment played a larger role in a person’s final work.
Baby’s brains begin as a collection of cells inside a mother’s womb. They separate out from other cells destined for other purposes and begin forming the nervous systems. Both the internal instructions of DNA and the external influences of neighboring cells ultimately combine to shape the future brain. Where the cells finally reside in the brain and how they interact with synapses and axons (the connections and the wiring of the nerves) determine how well it functions as we grow up.
While those in the natural world of Medicine can frequently demean the contributions of conventional medicine, I wanted to point out that cases like these do show us that there is a role for conventional medicine.
This little one was rescued by the advances of life support and cardiovascular surgery. As you can imagine,
