Chronic Disease

NAVIGATING THE COMPLEXITIES OF AUTOIMMUNITY: A Functional Medicine Approach to Autoimmune Disorders

By Erik Goldman

Autoimmunity and gastrointestinal disorders are inter-related and increasingly common problems. Because the different autoimmune diseases affect specific organ systems, patients are often shunted to specialists who approach these conditions through their relatively narrow specialty lenses.  Though they may manifest differently, most autoimmune diseases have the same common triggers. If we know what causes the immune […]

Restore Immune Tolerance and Optimize Health with Nature’s pHarmacy

By Erik Goldman

A healthy immune system naturally regulates between defense and repair. But when confronted by unrelenting challenges, it becomes overburdened and the repair functions take a back seat to defense. The result is a “repair deficit” characterized by chronic inflammation—a well-recognized cause and amplifier of chronic disease. When defense takes precedence over repair, intestinal permeability usually […]

Nutritional Support for Post-Menopausal Osteoarthritis

By Erik Goldman

According to the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, there are roughly 27 million American women in the peri- to post-menopausal years–that’s 20% of the US work force. And each year, roughly 2 million American women reach menopause. Women betwen the ages of 50-60 years have a 3.5-fold higher risk of osteoarthritis than men of […]

ARFID: When Food Trigger Avoidance Causes Trouble

By Erik Goldman

People living with chronic digestive disorders like inflammatory bowel disease often figure out the hard way—by trial and error—which food groups trigger their symptom flares. And since many go for years without competent medical and nutritional guidance, they rely on their own experience, the advice of friends, or online information to create their own elimination […]

Pain Brain: Chronic Pain Drives Cognitive Decline

By Jacob Teitelbaum, MD, Contributing Writer

A massive new study of data from over 19,000 individuals shows that chronic pain is associated with loss of hippocampal volume and increased risk of dementia. Compared with pain-free control subjects, those who had five or more areas of chronic pain showed neurological changes equivalent to eight years of excess brain aging (Zhao W, et […]

Low-Dose Naltrexone to Quell Chronic Pain & Cut Dementia Risk

By Jacob Teitelbaum, MD, Contributing Writer

If naltrexone was still patentable, you can be certain that the pharmaceutical industry would make sure that every physician was using it to treat patients experiencing chronic pain. It would also probably cost around $24,000 a year. But this drug is 60 years old, and available for about 75 cents per day. Since it is […]

Vitamin B12 Deficiency Often Eludes Detection

By Jill C. Carnahan, MD, Contributing Writer

Vitamin B12 deficiency is more common than many people realize. Large epidemiological surveys suggest that roughly 6% of all US adults under age 60 years are deficient, with the number rising to about 20% in people over age 60. Some estimates put the prevalence as high as 25%. Those are certainly big numbers, but recent […]

Dispelling the Mythology Of Low Midlife Metabolism

By Erik Goldman

It’s a common clinical scenario: A middle-aged patient comes in, saying something like, “I used to be so thin and now I’m not. I exercise as much as I did when I was younger, and I eat the same. But I keep gaining weight. I just can’t keep it off. It must be my metabolism.” […]

Diet, Inflammation, and Immunity: Modern & Traditional Perspectives

By Erik Goldman

Ayurveda–India’s 4,000-year-old system of medicine–can provide modern healthcare professions with many time-tested, lifestyle-based approaches to mitigate the burden of chronic inflammatory diseases that affect so many of our patients. In this free webinar, the core faculty members of the Maharishi International University (MIU)–the leading US ayurvedic training center–share their experience applying ayurvedic principles for improving […]

Anti-Nutrients: Finding the Forest for the Trees

By Deanna Minich, PhD, CNS, Contributing Writer

In recent years, a number of prominent health influencers have embraced the idea that there is a “plant paradox,” and that people should stop eating kale and other common vegetables because they’re allegedly full of toxic “anti-nutrients” such as lectins, oxalates, goitrogens, tannin, and phytates. In promoting this view, they are overturning decades of research—as […]