Are we still spending time trying to prove/disprove the low fat effect? Apparently so. Lancet has just published another meta-analysis looking at randomized controlled trials, funded by NIH and the American Diabetes Association. Not surprisingly, low fat didn’t work when compared to low carbohydrate interventions. Low fat also lead to NO DIFFERENCE when compared to…
A 55 YO male presented to our office with a diagnosis of chronic Lyme. His primary symptoms are intense, migrating myalgias. In his own research (keeping a pain diary) he makes the discovery that 15 minutes after eating “natural” turkey lunch meat, he has a profound flare in pain. An ingredient in this meat? Carrageenan.…
A study just published in the International Journal of Obesity shows that kids who take antibiotics regularly (about 7 courses through childhood) gained significant weight, and do it faster than those who’ve never taking antibiotics. The study also demonstrated that this effect lasts long into adulthood. “Not only did antibiotics contribute to weight gain at…
The inspiration for this recipe was (horror of horrors!) a snickers bar dip that a friend and colleague was lamenting over. Of course, you’re never going to get a nutritionist to sanction of snickers bar free-for-all, and for good reason! But it’s nice to have a WOW recipe in your back pocket that you can…
I was interested in 10-12-15 NY Magazine article I Am Training for a Marathon. So Why Am I Getting Fat? I thought they might at least allude to what I see in athletes sometimes, where a common cluster of imbalances: gut dysbiosis, thyroid & adrenal hypofunction, sex hormone imbalances, vitamin/mineral depletions, subclinical mitochondropathy can show…
One of the cornerstone tools of functional medicine is the elimination diet, be it a straightforward gluten/dairy free plan, or an involved, customized removal of many different foods.
Interesting article in the NY Times about the Nobel Prize going to Dr. Tu Youyou, the woman who “discovered” that Artemisinin, an active ingredient from the plant Artemisia annua was effective against malaria. Turns out she leaned heavily on the ancient Chinese medicine concepts and texts in her work on the extraction process, but the…
Elephants: about a 4% incidence of cancer despite way more body mass and comparable life span to humans. Why?According to this just published JAMA study, elephants have 20 copies of tumor suppressor gene P53. In comparison, humans have just 2, and have cancer rates of about 11-25%. Arguably , humans are exposed to more carcinogenic…
An extract of wild blueberries (super rich in polyphenols) was recently shown to have antimicrobial and biofilm (plaque) busting activity-specifically with regard to Fusobacterium nucleatum, the bad bacterial actor in periodontitis. Potent anti-inflammatory activity was demonstrated by the WB extract’s inhibition of NFkB induced by F. nucleatum. Read more here!
When Dr. Richard Lord and our team were authoring the textbook Laboratory Evaluations for Integrative and Functional Medicine (LEIFM) in 2008, a major focus of mine was on the Elements Chapter. As I drilled down into the literature around minerals, I became enamored with each of them and their unique roles. Since I’ve been blogging,…