Functional Medicine, COVID-19 & Racial Disparities: Bridging the Gaps Webinar
I am so grateful for the participation of the panel in the roundtable discussion on Bridging the Gaps in Functional Medicine, COVID-19 & Racial Disparities.
Kara Fitzgerald, ND, received her doctor of naturopathic medicine degree from the National University of Natural Medicine in Portland, Oregon. She completed the first Counsel on Naturopathic Medicine-accredited post-doctorate position in nutritional biochemistry and laboratory science at Metametrix Clinical Laboratory under the direction of Richard Lord, PhD. Her residency was completed at Progressive Medical Center, a large, integrative medical practice in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dr. Fitzgerald is the lead author and editor of Case Studies in Integrative and Functional Medicine and is a contributing author to Laboratory Evaluations for Integrative and Functional Medicine and the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM)’s Textbook for Functional Medicine. With the Helfgott Research Institute, Dr. Fitzgerald is actively engaged in clinical research on the DNA methylome using a diet and lifestyle intervention developed in her practice. The first publication from the study focuses on reversal of biological aging and was published 04-12-2021 in the journal Aging. She has published a consumer book titled Younger You as well as a companion cookbook, Better Broths and Healing Tonics and has an application-based Younger You Program, based on the study.
Dr. Fitzgerald is on the faculty at IFM, is an IFM Certified Practitioner and lectures globally on functional medicine. She runs a Functional Nutrition Residency program, and maintains a podcast series, New Frontiers in Functional Medicine and an active blog on her website, www.drkarafitzgerald.com. Her clinical practice is in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.
Additional publications
The Utility of a Low Nickel Diet in Refractory Celiac Disease
A low nickel diet may be helpful for refractory Celiac Disease symptoms, according to this new study, published in the journal Nutrients. Especially if other contributors such as positive food IgE, SIBO, IBD, H pylori, and lactose intolerance have been ruled out and correct adherence to a gluten-free diet is ensured. Interesting points from this…
Fecal Microbiota Transplant Passes Phase 1 Clinical Trial for Alcohol Use Disorder
This phase 1 trial shows that FMT is safe and associated with short-term reduction in alcohol craving and consumption with favorable microbial changes versus placebo in patients with alcohol-related cirrhosis with alcohol misuse. There was also a reduction in AUD-related events over 6 months in patients assigned to FMT.” FMT = fecal microbiota transplant /…
From The Lancet – Very High Cortisol Predicts Poorer COVID Outcome
As with most things biology, there is a relatively tight range for optimal: insufficiency of compound X is a problem and excess of compound X is a problem as well, for a different, but related, set of mechanisms…. I have been particularly interested in this concept for the duration of my career, seeing this U…
Teach-In: Vaccines – Dr. Heather Zwickey Joins Us to Discuss the Latest in Vaccine Development, Efficacy, Preparation and Detox
Dr. Heather Zwickey joined us in July for a Teach-In webinar on Vaccine development, efficacy, preparation and detox. During her session, she lays out the history of vaccine development, details the mechanism of action of different vaccines, and discusses COVID-19 vaccines in development. She goes on to discuss how to maximize vaccine safety and effectiveness…
Early Cytokine Signatures Predict COVID Severity and May Guide Interventions
According to this new Nature paper, those with severe COVID are spiking higher cytokine signatures early on. This would suggest value in testing, including possibly IFN-gamma (see below), and addressing it early through anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle, as well as targeted anti-inflammatory nutraceutical interventions. This is, of course, a ‘standard’ approach used in Functional Medicine,…
More Robust Data Now Emerging on Vitamin D and COVID
COVID patients with poor prognosis have significantly lower serum levels of vitamin D compared to those with good prognosis, according to new data from a systematic review that pulled data from seven previous studies into its meta analysis. A total of 1,368 COVID-19 patients were included in the pooled results. Those with poor prognosis had…
New Data on Effects of Ketogenic Diet in Breast Cancer
This is an important new trial providing for the use of ketogenic diets in certain cancers, coauthored by our valued colleagues Dr. Thomas Seyfried and Miriam Kalamian. This randomized, controlled trial of 60 patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer and planned chemotherapy found that those receiving the 12-week ketogenic diet intervention experienced a…
Understanding Genetics of Aging with Harvard Professor Dr. David Sinclair
Harvard scientist and NYT best-selling author David Sinclair, PhD and I take a tour around the science of aging. If aging is THE root cause of all of the chronic diseases of aging, then arguably, if we focus on the aging journey itself, we might be able to stop playing “whack-a-mole medicine.” A lot of complex environmental, genetic, epigenetic and biochemical processes go into the aging journey, however, as Dr. Sinclair discusses, it looks like a very heavy lifter in aging is epigenetic changes – specifically, DNA methylation and demethylation (plus histone acetylation). In this episode of New Frontiers, learn about the amazing research going on at Dr. Sinclair’s lab, hear what’s getting translated to humans, and what you can do NOW to stop the epigenetic clock from ticking…. Listen and learn, leave us a 5 star review if you’d be so kind, and be sure to share with your colleagues! ~DrKF
From CDC: Weekly Death Counts for Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) 02-01-20 through 08-01-20
What do you think is going on here? The main report is that the death counts lag behind infection rates. But the pandemic (I like the term “patchwork pandemic”) has been raging through Florida, Arizona and Texas for quite some time now. Are we looking at a less lethal SARS CoV-2? It would appear so.…