Functional Medicine

What the Science Says About Food Additives

By By Charles Schmidt

(This feature was originally published on Undark.org on April 21, 2025) In a video posted to YouTube in September, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took aim at US health agencies that he said have allowed for the mass poisoning of American children. Standing behind packages of Cheez-Its, Doritos, and Cap’n Crunch cereal displayed on a kitchen […]

Webinar: AI for Functional Medicine– How FunctionalMind Can Enhance Your Practice

By Erik Goldman

AI technology, used ethically and responsibly, can free you  to spend more quality time face-to-face with patients, keep pace with the latest research, and practice personalized medicine at a scale that once seemed impossible. Watch this FREE demo and see how FunctionalMind—the first AI system purpose-built for functional medicine—can help you accelerate clinical decision-making, work […]

Are Nitrogen Fertilizers Exacerbating Pollen Allergies?

By Janet Gulland, Contributing Writer

Nitrogen fertilizers, widely used in agriculture, not only boost the quantity of pollen produced by grasses, they also raise the allergenicity of the pollen. That’s bad news for allergy sufferers. Researchers at Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, Belgium, compared pollen production from fertilizer-treated versus untreated Belgian grasslands and found a six-fold increase in pollen loads from the […]

The Melatonin-ification of Childhood Bedtimes

By Michael Schulson, Contributing Writer

(This article was originally published on April 8, 2025 by www.undark.org) Two years ago, at a Stop & Shop in Rhode Island, the Danish neuroscientist and physician Henriette Edemann-Callesen visited an aisle stocked with sleep aids containing melatonin. She looked around in amazement. Then she took out her phone and snapped a photo to send […]

The Uncertain Multigenerational Implications of PFAS

By Nicole Williams

(This article was originally published on January 27, 2025 by www.undark.org) My son was born in late 2019. A few months later, early one morning, I found myself looking into his eyes as he nursed and I wondered if I was doing the right thing. Trying to ignore my nagging worry, I continued nursing him, […]

Texas Lawmakers Rally Around State Level ‘Mini-MAHA’ Bill

By Janet Gulland, Contributing Writer

The Texas state senate voted unanimously in favor of a health and wellness bill that—if passed by the state’s house—will mandate daily exercise and nutrition education in public schools, require metabolic health training for all medical professionals, and force food makers to label products containing toxic additives banned in other countries. The goals of SB […]

Salt & Skin Disease: What’s the Connection?

By Erik Goldman

Say “sodium” in a medical context, and most people will reflexively think “hypertension,” not psoriasis. But dermatologist Katrina Abuabara and her research team at the University of California San Francisco have amassed considerable evidence suggesting that salt may play a role in development of psoriasis and other inflammatory skin disorders. Based on data from nearly […]

Why Alzheimer’s Scientists Are Re-thinking the Amyloid Hypothesis

By Joshua Cohen

(This article was originally published by Undark.org on Jan 7, 2025) For decades, scientists have been trying to develop therapeutics for people living with Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that is characterized by cognitive decline. Given the global rise in cases, the stakes are high. A study published in The Lancet Public Health reports that the number […]

Lemon Balm Improves Sleep Quality In Placebo-Controlled RCT

By Meg Sinclair, Staff Writer

These days, a lot of people could use some help in the sleep department. For many of them, phytosomal extract of Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis) could be just the ticket. Data from a recent double-blind crossover study of 30 people with chronic insomnia show that nightly supplementation with 400 mg of Melissa officinalis Phytosome® (Indena), […]

Are Weight-Loss Drugs Contributing to a Fall in the Obesity Rate?

By Joshua Cohen

(This article was originally published by Undark.org on Dec. 9, 2024, and republished here with permission) Earlier this fall, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported data showing that adult obesity rates — long trending upwards — had fallen modestly over the past few years, from 41.9 to 40.3 percent. The decline sparked discussion […]