Nutrition & Lifestyle

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 […]

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 […]

Digestion, Inflammation, and Immunity: An Ayurvedic Perspective

By Charles Elder, MD, MPH

In recent years conventional biomedicine has begun to recognize that disruptions in the composition of the microbiome and the integrity of the gut lining are key factors in the pathogenesis of certain chronic disorders.  For example, we know that in celiac disease, exposure to gluten induces an immune response which in turn triggers inflammation. This […]

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 […]

Eosinophilic Esophagitis on the Rise, Responsive to Diet Changes

By Erik Goldman

Prevalence of eosinic esophagitis is rising the US. Though seldom life-threatening, this condition is highly burdensome for those affected. Over the long term, it can have detrimental impact on nutritional status and overall health. Fortunately, EoE is often responsive to dietary interventions if carefully implemented, said Bethany Doerfler, MS, RD, at the 2023 Integrative Healthcare […]

The Meat Industry’s “Cultural” Revolution

By Madiha Saeed, MD & Erik Goldman

The meat industry is about to undergo a “cultural” revolution…..a tissue culture revolution, to be precise. The soaring global demand for meat has opened doors to alternative ways of producing consumable animal tissue, ushering in the first major challenge to industrial-scale animal agriculture in history. Numerous companies worldwide, some backed by major investors, are now […]

Probiotics in Clinical Practice: Simple Stories, Complex Realities

By Erik Goldman

Twenty years ago, “the microbiome” was an obscure little domain within microbiology, and the term probiotic, to the extent anyone had heard it at all, usually meant eating yogurt and fermented vegetables in the vague hope it would promote longevity.  Today, the microbiome is one of the most widely known and fastest growing healthcare phenomena […]