Last week I ran a nutrient intake analysis (NIA) on a couple of patients of the clinic; let’s call them Ava and Paige. In both these cases, weight loss is one of the primary goals. An NIA is something we regularly do with individuals that we work with to ensure that not only is their…
“Red, raw tongue; red, raw gut.” —Jeghers, New England Journal of Medicine, 1942. In 1942 it was understood that what was happening in the gut was often reflected in the tongue. A red, irritated tongue was thought to mirror a red, irritated gut. This was seen in B-vitamin deficiencies, glossitis and ileitis. Simply correcting the B deficiency…
Cass Nelson-Dooley and I had a great time exploring the oral microbiome in our recent podcast. It got such a great response, I asked Cass to do a follow-up blog on the topic this month. I am convinced that as research emerges, we will be addressing the oral microbiome as carefully as we do the…
Two of the most useful — and often overlooked — components of the nutrition physical exam are the tongue and fingernails. Together, abnormal findings can often be sourced to gut. In this blog, I’m presenting a case where tongue and nails were extremely useful in providing clear treatment direction. Next month, I’ll give some additional…
Clinicians, if you read anything today, read this: A case of total body contact dermatitis of unknown etiology, hives and dermatographism. Ellen found my practice after listening to a podcast I did on allergic disease with Dr. Amy Meyers for her Autoimmune Summit. It’s at times like these that I’m glad I do outreach of…
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.
