Episodes

Literature Review 1) What has happened in the realm of cancer incidence over the last decade? As one would expect, it is climbing especially for breast cancer and GI cancers....studies on plant compounds and neuronal health in babies, covid statistics and more. Also, information on nutritional misinformation and how to spot it. Plus a recipe of the week. Enjoy Dr. M

This weeks guest is Ryan Conklin a self described - light chasing, storytelling, thread puller, adventure bound tracker and student of myth and maps. He is transformational coach by day, and bartender and hospitalitarian by night. He is a thinker that has a beautiful way of seeing grief and leaning into it in a grounding and therapeutic way. We dive into the deep end of the pool as it relates to grief processing and life after a death. Dr. M

Literature Review this Week 1) From Cell Host and Microbe - "The microbiomes of cesarean-born infants differ from vaginally delivered infants and are associated with increased disease risks. Vaginal microbiota transfer (VMT) to newborns may reverse C-section-related microbiome disturbances. Here, we evaluated the effect of VMT by exposing newborns to maternal vaginal fluids and assessing neurodevelopment, as well as the fecal microbiota and metabolome. Sixty-eight cesarean-delivered infants were...

Today’s guest is Dr. Doug Thompson, a 27 year veteran of dentistry since he graduated from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry in 1996. Dr. Thompson is a teacher, researcher and trail blazer in the field of modern dentistry. Today we travel down paths that lead to explanations as to why oral health is so important to systemic and truly whole human health. We look back in time and follow a timeline to the present-day research that says that we have scientific knowledge through laborato...

Here is a short written version of the fructose story in tandem with the podcast with Dr. Rick Johnson where we go deep. We are going to discuss the survival switch and fructose metabolism in specific as it relates to pregnancy. It will be another life changing discussion for many of us. Fructose is the natural sugar found in fruit, honey and root vegetables. Historically, humans consumed fructose in these natural whole foods and did so moderately. Since the 1970's, there has been a major rise i...

Asthma and Nutrition Part V Case presentation: DM is a 12 yo caucasian male who presented to integrative pediatric clinic for the first time at age 8 years with the chief complaint of moderate persistent asthma and allergic rhinitis. His past medical history relates one to three severe asthmatic flairs per winter requiring steroids and overnight hospital stays over the past few years. He had relatively mild disease in between major flares and was well controlled with a high dose inhaled corticos...

This weeks guest is Dr. Peter Ungar. Dr. Ungar serves as Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Environmental Dynamics PhD Program at the University of Arkansas. He received his PhD in Anthropological Sciences from Stony Brook University and taught Gross Anatomy in the medical schools at Johns Hopkins and Duke before joining the University of Arkansas faculty in 1995. He is an Honorary Research Fellow of the Center for the Exploration of the Deep Human Journey at the Univers...

Asthma, Allergies and Nutrition Part IV - The Story - Micronutrients Zinc is a mineral involved in over 100 enzymatic reactions in the body! It is necessary in adequate levels for cellular metabolism and is critical for the function of our immune system, our skin and our gut lining. At the cellular level, zinc is necessary for protein synthesis, DNA synthesis and cellular repair in wound healing.....as well as sections on the book the courage to be disliked and Derek Sivers recent work. Enjoy, D...

Asthma, Allergies and Nutrition - The Story Part III - THE NUTRITION STUDIES - THE TO DO There is good quality data on specific parts of a diet or nutritional plan as it relates to asthma. This section will detail these micronutrient and macronutrient benefits and how to implement them in an overall asthma plan. We will start by looking at a list of high quality nutritional interventions and then follow with an expanded view of a few critical players...... and a second section of mothers and dea...

This weeks guest is my former classmate and good friend, Dr. Jacquelyn Paykel. Jax, as I call her, is a tour de force in the world of Integrative Medicine at the Armed Forces level. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee with a degree in Anthropology. She then obtained medical and residency degrees in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. To round out her degrees, she completed an Integrative Medicine Fellowship at the University of Arizona a...

THE NUTRITIONAL STUDIES We know that the foods that we consume affect our intestinal microbiome, our immune system, our metabolism and therefore have a significant effect on inflammation. Is this knowledge translatable to asthma? Let us look specifically at nutrition as it relates to Asthma. Are there specific diet studies available that lead us toward a unified diet for better asthma health? Can we make good recommendations for our patients on a macronutrient basis with fats, carbohydrates and ...

Asthma, Allergies and Nutrition - The Story Here is a long form look at asthma and allergies as I am preparing a lecture on asthma and allergies for a conference in October. I will break it up into a few parts for your consumption. Asthma is now well known to be an inflammatory disease based on the response to anti-inflammatory medications and pathophysiological evidence making it a prime candidate for anti-inflammatory nutritional interventions. The Standard American Diet is filled with pro-inf...

This weeks guest is my friend, Dr. Paul Smolen, also known as Doc Smo by his friends, is a pediatrician with 38 years of experience caring for children and families. He is a graduate of Duke University (1974), Rutgers Medical School (1978), and Wake Forest University-N.C. Baptist Hospital (1982). At Wake Forest University he completed a residency in general pediatrics, served as chief resident, and completed a fellowship in ambulatory pediatrics. For over 38 years, he was an Adjunct Associate Pr...

Literature Review: 1) Is loneliness tied to an increase in death risk? A new study in Nature says yes to a degree of the pooled effect size of 1.32 for all cause mortality. (Wang et. al. 2023) In effect, that is a very large effect of the variable loneliness on death risk. Why would this be? Many reasons come to mind. The greatest of which is the control that our mind wields on our immune system. If we think in negative and in sad terms over a period of time, the immune system will shift into a ...

Outdoor Yard Safety Yard work season is here and for me, lots of happy times spent outdoors. I remember as a youth earning money mowing lawns. The work was fun and the money was happily accepted. My father was my mower safety coach. Unfortunately, despite good teaching, I still burned myself on the engine by not paying attention to where I was touching. I still spilt gasoline on myself. I still ran over projectile objects in the grass carelessly. Ah, youth.... Have a great day, Dr. M

Let us head back to the headwaters of HDL biology to find some more answers. If you did not read the original HDL piece or remember the basics of HDL biology, go back to Newsletter V13 #15 for a review. HDL as an associated biomarker of death risk has a U shaped curve with higher all cause mortality at very low and high levels of volume. Let us understand why? (Madsen et. al. 2017) Anything that causes more LDL, low density lipoproteins, to stay in circulation will raise one's risk of ASCVD or h...

Do you know if you have periodontal disease? Do your gums bleed? Do your teeth hurt? Do you have red and beefy appearing gums? Do you floss daily? Do you brush two times a day? Do you have sleep apnea? Why does this matter? Well it turns out that gingival and tooth related disease is highly associated with cardio metabolic diseases. The main reason is that the bacterial microbes in the oral cavity can travel via the bloodstream to places far and wide in the body leading to inflammation and heart...

This weeks guest is my favorite researcher, Dr. Richard Johnson. He is the Tomas Berl Professor of Medicine and the Chief of the Renal Division and Hypertension at the University of Colorado since 2008. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, with a major in Anthropology, and a graduate of the University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, he is a physician and nephrologist whose research has focused on the role of sugar, and especially fructose, in driving obesity, diabetes, h...

This week we talk all about sweat and heat liberation. Sweating is a very important tool that the human body and most mammals use to eliminate unwanted stuff. In this case, the body primarily is eliminating heat and toxins via liquid sweat. When we exercise vigorously or it is a hot day or we find ourselves overheating while fighting an infection, sweat will pour from our skin through glands and an endothermic reaction. The water that is released caries heat from the body with it. It evaporates ...

Breastfeeding Versus Formula Science versus Opinion I read with somewhat of a frustrated feeling a recent article in Scientific American entitled: It's Okay Not to Breastfeed by Kavin Senapathy. In principle, the reality of this statement is reasonable. Then you read the article as to what makes this reasonable. She states: "Exclusive breastfeeding is not imperative, and the “breast is best” mantra can be harmful to babies and parents, especially among marginalized people."(K. Senapathy 2023) Ag...

This weeks guest is Professor Marcel Nold, MD. Dr. Nold is a clinician scientist in the research environment of neonatal immunology and microbiomes at Monash University in the city of Monash in Melbourne, Australia. Professor Nold received his Doctor of Medicine degree at the JW Goethe-University at Frankfurt am Main, Germany, including final year rotations in Zürich (Switzerland), Montréal (Canada) and Capetown (South Africa). For his biomedical research training he spent six years at the Pharm...

Literature Review: This week we discuss articles about the Inhalation of polyamides or nylon in microsizes, masking and effectiveness, cannabis use in youth and covid 19 versus influenza and more. Part two is a look at research related to pollution and the risk of cardiac disease. Enjoy, Dr. M

Mental Health and Sleep for teens and college students, Mother's Day and a poem about mothers. Here are some highlights: Teenagers are sleep deprived and have been for decades. Nighttime sleep duration has consistently declined over the past few decades. Peak declinations occurred in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Girls were less likely than boys to sleep for 7 hours or more per night.... Enjoy, Dr. M

The Growing Brain and the Upstream Etiologies of Neurodevelopmental disorders - AUTISM This weeks guest is me! I re-recorded a lecture that I gave in Florida this month at the Annual International Conference for the Institute for Functional Medicine. My goal in this lecture is to look at the upstream reasons that we are seeing more Autism and neurological diversity in children year upon year. It is a wide ranging look at the current state of the science and my thoughts on a unifying theory. As w...