The Complicated Patient: How to Approach Chronic Infections

Chronic viral infections, such as EBV or HHV-6, are complex conditions to test for and treat, but there are ways to resolve virus reactivation and autoimmunity.

Enhancing Bioactivity of the Gut Microbiome Using the Whole Turmeric Root

Since its discovery, the gut microbiome has become known as one of the most important influencers of health and disease and is a major topic of research.

Collagen and Lyme: Why This Connection is Key for Tissue Repair

Lyme is the most common vector-borne disease in the United States, according to the CDC, and it’s primarily caused by a bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi.

How Antibiotics Impact Mitochondria

Learn more about how antibiotics impact mitochondrial health, the consequences of antibiotic use and nutrients that support mitochondria in patients affected by antibiotic use.

Supporting Mitochondria: 3 Ways to Help Your Patients Boost Cellular Energy

Your patients with mitochondrial dysfunction need comprehensive support to beat symptoms of fatigue and optimize cellular energy production with treatments that incorporate diet, lifestyle and supplements for salugenesis.

Beyond Curcumin: The Other Bioactives in Turmeric (White Paper Excerpt)

The therapeutic potential of turmeric has been disproportionally focused on curcuminoids. However, clinical trials have shown that preparations of whole turmeric have shown some clinical benefit.

The Quercetin Paradox: The Secret to Preventing Toxic Quercetin Metabolites

Dose may be one part of what determines whether a substance is a medicine or poison, but quercetin in particular serves well as an example of how both dose and metabolism are determining factors in achieving the desired clinical outcome safely and effectively.

Why Your Patients Need Full-Spectrum Turmeric

Is there anything full-spectrum turmeric can’t do? New research shows the complete matrix of turmeric compounds provides greater bioefficacy and benefits for inflammation and the gut microbiota than isolated curcumin or curcuminoid supplements alone.

The Master Antioxidant: Bioavailability of Oral Glutathione Supplementation

Though there are many ways to support our antioxidant status and overall immune health, oral glutathione supplementation has been clinically demonstrated to be bioavailable.

How Mold and Mycotoxins Affect Immune Health

Mold and mycotoxin exposure can contribute to inflammatory issues and autoimmune disease in your patients. Fortunately, there are tests available to determine if mold or mycotoxin exposure is contributing to their symptoms, which may then require environmental rather than dietary intervention.

Improving Energy with Mushrooms

Many studies have shown that edible and medicinal mushrooms have antifatigue properties. This article focuses on the research demonstrating the benefits of Cordyceps and reishi mushrooms for your patients with chronic fatigue or other energy-related issues.

Reprogramming Inflammation and the Immune Response

When we discuss inflammation and inflammatory diseases, it is important to consider not just the cause of inflammation but whether the body is able to turn off the inflammatory response to prevent chronic inflammation. Fortunately, there are ways to support these mechanisms in your patients.

Making Sense of Medicinal Mushrooms and Their Impacts on Immune Function

Medicinal mushrooms offer an adaptive, intelligent approach to modulate and strengthen immune function. Different species contain unique key constituents, such as beta-glucans and triterpenoids, that are beneficial for immune health.

Using Phospholipids to Ignite Mitochondrial Function

Phosphatidylcholine is the most abundant phospholipid in the mitochondrial membrane, making it a crucial component to keep mitochondria firing on all cylinders. 

The Cell Danger Response and Chronic Disease Progression

Discover the top nutrients to support your patients with chronic conditions based on the latest research on the cell danger response and mitochondria.

Fundamental Principles for Building Immune Strength

Pharmaceuticals and pharmacological immunomodulating agents are often reactionary approaches to building immune system strength. For true resilience, patients must build the ten foundational principles of immune health.

Mitochondrial Dysfunction: Key Indicators That Might Be Overlooked

Learn how to test for and treat mitochondrial dysfunction, which is involved in many conditions, including autoimmunity and cardiometabolic disease.

Beat Fatigue with Phosphatidylcholine for Mitochondrial Health

The integrity of mitochondrial membranes is critical to cell function and energy metabolism. Recent clinical trials assessing patients with chronic fatigue have shown the benefits of membrane lipid replacement with phosphatidylcholine.

Research Update: Binding Capacities for Serum-Derived Bovine Immunoglobulins

Dysfunction of the intestinal microenvironment is the primary therapeutic application of the lifestyle medicine movement. While diet and lifestyle are foundational, certain rare supplements can also support treatment efforts.

36 Great Ideas from Mastering the Implementation of Personalized Lifestyle Medicine

On May 13-14, 2022 hosted healthcare practitioners at Mastering the Implementation of Personalized Lifestyle Medicine: Advances in Clinical Functional Immunity. Here are the highlights.

Osteoimmunology: The Emerging Bone-Immune Connection

Bone tissue is largely considered an inert mineral reservoir that provides a framework for locomotion and physical strength. However, if we drill down into the origins of bone cells, we find that the interconnected bone and immune cells' crosstalk plays a key role in not only bone mineral metabolism and bone remodeling but inflammatory signaling that can contribute to bone loss. In this article, we will review osteoimmunological interactions and nutraceutical options that are emerging as novel bone health options.

Case Study: Mold Illness

A 33-year-old male presented with a 20-year history of chronic eczema, chronic athlete’s foot, mild asthma and moderate seasonal allergies.

5 Safe & Effective Nutrients for Vulnerable Populations During COVID-19

Supporting the immune system with supplements often includes stimulatory herbs such as echinacea, andrographis, and elderberry. And these herbs are often coupled with high-dose foundational nutrients like...

Can COVID-19 Trigger Autoimmunity?

If we look back to late 2019 and early 2020, the medical community was beginning to understand autoimmunity differently, as a growing epidemic with deep roots in environmental triggers. Much of the tremendous rise of the wellness industry can be attributed to the increasing number of Americans finding themselves chronically ill secondary to a dysfunctional immune system. My own research to that time was dedicated to uncovering how that dysfunction is specifically triggered by factors in the environment.

An Integrative Approach to Autoimmune Disease

Fifty million Americans suffer from at least one autoimmune condition. Comparatively, only 12 million suffer from cancer and 25 million from heart disease. This statistic cannot be explained with genetics, as genes don't change or evolve that quickly. That points heavily to the idea that the environment in which we exist has changed drastically, and it is forcing us to live incongruently with what epigenetically creates health.

COVID-19 & Autoimmunity: What We Know Now

In 2020, the medical discussion was dominated by the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19, and rightfully so-this has been an unprecedented health challenge and crisis. With the first year behind us and vaccines now available, many want to put the pandemic in the past, and resume health care and life the way it was before. I've been guilty of this myself at times, but unfortunately, we are only just beginning our battle with COVID-19.

3 Ways to Naturally Treat Histamine Sensitivities

Let's start by stating the obvious here: COVID-19 has brought forth a cocktail of health issues! Apart from the blatant immune system problems, we also have a rise in metabolic dysfunction-think "Quarantine 15." To add more, while most people are cocooned in their homes and spending a lot more time indoors, there is an increased amount of exposure to indoor antigenic materials. So, it should be no surprise when you see patients with histamine-associated symptoms outside of the usual spring season.

The Innate Immune System is More Adaptive Than You Think

A few weeks back I spoke at the Microbiome 2.0 Symposium, part of the Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Institute's Mastering the Implementation of Personalized Lifestyle Medicine series. This was one of the first live events that I have attended since March of 2020! I was tasked with teaching on a variety of topics, but my first lecture focused on the gut-immune interface. As part of this lecture, I included a few slides designed to remind the clinician audience how the immune system interprets self from non-self, or more specifically, harmful vs. non-harmful encounters.

Mitochondria: 3 Ways to Help YourPatients Improve Cellular Energy

We all know what it feels like to feel under the weather: drained energy, lethargy, full-body aches, drowsiness, brain fog-sound familiar? They're the results of the immune system at work fighting off illness, and it goes without saying that the immune system demands a lot of energy to do its job. Mitochondria, the main metabolic engine, are abundant in immune cells to help meet those energy demands.

Glutathione: The Master of All Antioxidants

Antioxidants and detoxification are more than just marketing buzzwords. With health care professionals talking more and more about the importance of detoxification, almost everyone understands that antioxidants play a crucial role in this process and in optimizing overall health. There is significant clinical data that indicates a good detoxification protocol is a must for individuals with chronic illnesses. This patient type in particular needs to reduce their toxic burden as a first step in their healing process.

Functional Medicine Approaches to Treating Urinary Tract Infections

If urinary tract infections are one of the most common infections physicians see, and we are attempting to avoid unnecessary antibiotic use, what functional medicine approaches do we have?

Gastrointestinal Lab Markers That May Be Telling You to Use Immunoglobulins

In the world of functional medicine, testing has come a long way. Not only do we have more types of tests that can be performed, but the analysis has evolved, too.

Endotoxins: The Missing Piece in the Autoimmunity Puzzle

Sometimes healing leaky gut can be a conundrum, and new evidence supports the idea of endotoxins playing a role in patients that seem to stall in their treatment.

Autoimmunity: Common Protocols to Consider for Every Case

Fifty million Americans suffer from at least one autoimmune condition. Comparatively, 12 million suffer from cancer and 25 million from heart disease. This statistic cannot be explained with genetics, as genes don't change or evolve that quickly.

Beyond Bacteria: How Antibiotics Impact Mitochondria

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at least 30% of antibiotics prescribed in the outpatient setting are unnecessary-meaning no antibiotic was needed at all. With that, would it shock you to know that five out of six people are prescribed an antibiotic in outpatient care? Read more

Understanding the Pathology of Autoimmunity Through the Prism of the Gut

Dr. Alessio Fasano catapulted the understanding of GI involvement in immune diseases to center stage with his seminal research on zonulin and intestinal permeability. Notably, his 2008 Scientific American piece got the attention of almost every clinician I know. When his concepts were introduced at the Institute of Functional Medicine's Annual International Conference that year, we were collectively awestruck that a scientist finally, solidly, put on the map what we, as integrative and functional clinicians, have observed clinically for years. Read more

Assessing Immune Dysfunction: What You Need to Know

Age-Associated Changes Impacting Immune Function

Newborns have an immature immune system and are vulnerable to infectious agents. The immune system begins to mature with appropriate interaction with antigens and is enhanced by the changing microflora of the gut throughout adolescence and adulthood. Of course, aging affects all the systems of the body, and the immune system is no exception. The changes in immune system function that result from aging have been well characterized and are known as immunosenescence. Read more