The Truth About E-Cigs
Hey functional medicine clinicians, what do you think about e-cigs? A few thoughts plus a couple of case briefs.
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Age-Specific Phenotypic Expression of Food Allergies
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.
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SIBO and Chapped Lips: A Connection?
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…
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The 2014 flu epidemic: Let’s do what works!
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…
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Death, Taxes and … Presbyopia?
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.
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We Are What Our Gut Bugs Eat
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….
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Essential fatty acids, isoprostanes, and the origin of life
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?”)…
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Fingernails: A window into your metabolic soul
Nails. They’re a handy surface to decorate; they help us pick up objects, scratch an itch and protect our fingers and toes. But did you also know that nails can tell us a lot about your health and your well-being? For most of us, fingernails are completely renewed in about six months. That means that our nails are a six-month medical record incomparable to any physical exam component.
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A pack of smart, hedonistic creative types with a lot of anxiety and high brain dopamine: A case history of a family homozygous for the COMT Val158Met mutation.
I admit it. I’ve harvested a scientific nugget or two from the Daily Mail. Not long ago, sandwiched between a story on toast and the five-second rule, and a selfie of Zac Efron eating a worm, was this…
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Proteome, metabolome, microbiome, exposome: Glancing into the OMES with Dr. Richard Lord
Dr. Richard S. Lord, nutritional biochemist extraordinaire and Chief Science Officer at Metametrix Clinical Laboratory (now Genova) recently retired after 25 years. Richard was the director of the Medical Education team when I was in Atlanta at the lab. Richard was and continues to be, my teacher.
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Say It Ain’t So! The Standard American Diet (SAD) is Feminizing Our Men
I was reading an article the other day lamenting that men in the US are being all feminized due to the politically correct environment in which we apparently exist. But is this the issue? Can we blame politics for hypogonadism? I think not. However, I do agree wholeheartedly that there is a change occurring.
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Viva la Commensal Biofilm
Gastrointestinal biofilms are an important topic, and those comprised of pathogenic microbes are getting much well-deserved attention in the integrative medical community.
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Metabolic Syndrome: The Deadly Quartet
In a moment, I’m going to throw out a few rather depressing statistics about metabolic syndrome (MetS) and the state of health in the U.S. These stats need articulating.
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Autism and Cerebral Folate Deficiency
I work with a family with two young sons, both diagnosed with autism. They live in a large, West Coast city.
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Lead and Homocysteine Levels in a Series of Individuals Diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease
I recently saw a patient who had been diagnosed with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (PD) in 2000 when she was just 39. Her history was compelling in that everyone in her family was well –no neurological diseases, parents hearty and healthy at 80 — and she was a healthy child. However, her daughter has autism.
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