Did you know that LESS THAN 8% of the US population actually achieve adequate potassium intake? So outrageous. And on average, ALL ADULTS ingest a full 200% of our daily sodium requirement. We SHOULD be ingesting way more potassium than sodium, about three times as much. And we don’t. Not even close. We are the…
Are you enriching their lives with good, healthy food choices and lifestyle habits or are you angering your trillions of guests, pushing them towards causing disease? I wrote my thesis in medical school on stealth infections, where I concluded that health had much to do with how well we tended our microbial garden… I was…
A patient was in my office the other day explaining that she’s gotten rid of all her plastic cookware, purchased new pots and pans and wooden cooking utensils. “I am going crazy thinking about all the toxins and what to do!” she said, “It keeps me up at night!” After expressing my admiration for her…
Hey functional medicine clinicians, what do you think about e-cigs? A few thoughts plus a couple of case briefs.
We in functional medicine have long been aware that children can start out with a clearly identified food allergy. As the child ages, the primary allergic symptoms fade and some other clinically relevant presentation appears in its place. For example: we’ll see a classic milk allergy in infancy — often as milk colitis.
It’s winter. Chances are that if you live anywhere cold and dry, your lips have been chapped at least once this season. For most of us, we slather on the lip balm and all is well. But for some folks, the chapped lip experience is an entirely different animal: A relentless cycle of peeling and healing, peeling and healing that no amount of lip balm resolves. Lips are fissured and inflamed, making…
The flu is here. Very early in the season, it’s already at epidemic proportions, hitting those most vulnerable to its ravages — kids and the elderly — as it does each year. The virus mutated early, greatly limiting the efficacy potential of the flu vaccine. That said, the vaccine has had limited efficacy for years now. And we’ve known this. Influenza-like activity has been on a steady incline for the…
So here I am, comfortably into my 40s. In many ways, this is a grand time of life: satisfying career, happy home, a greater sense of well-being and contentment. But over the last couple of years, spectacles sit on the bridge of my nose more often than not, for any close-up activity. It started in my 30s: +1 “readers” when I was using the computer a lot. Not a big deal.
A patient named Barbara bounded into my office. She threw herself into a chair, and looked at me with eyes of terror, guilt and shame. I knew from her countenance that it was confession time. She launched into her story, retelling an all-too-familiar tale: She hadn’t stuck with her anti-inflammatory diet. Her food cravings, she explained, were out-of-control, and she was miserable….
Sometimes I rather humorously, and embarrassingly, ask my patients if they remember what was happening while they were in utero. Generally, they don’t recall. The reason I ask, after rephrasing the question (“Has your mom shared with you any difficulties she had when she was carrying you?”)…