Nutrition & Lifestyle

FDA & AMA Team Up to “CMEar” Dietary Supplements

By Erik Goldman, Editor

If you want to understand why so many Americans distrust the Food and Drug Administration and the medical mainstream, look no further than the FDA’s new online medical education program on dietary supplements. Produced in collaboration with the American Medical Association, this three-part continuing medical education (CME) course—and I use that term loosely—is part of […]

Dropping (Uric) Acid with Dr. David Perlmutter

By Kristen Schepker

Conventional medical wisdom holds that uric acid is a harmless, inert form of metabolic waste, and most physicians were trained to see it as a “trivial, incidental byproduct of our normal biology.” But contemporary research reveals that this compound is “anything but meaningless or unworthy of our attention,” says neurologist David Perlmutter, MD. In his […]

Food Triggers, Immune Dysregulation, and Autoimmunity

By Erik Goldman

We hear a lot these days about the impact of diet for boosting immunity. While it is true that carrots, kale, or oranges are good sources of immunity-boosting phytochemicals, it is also true that foods—even ‘healthy’ foods– can also cause immune dysregulation or autoimmune disorders in some patients. Compounds—especially dietary proteins– within ordinary foods, are […]

A 5% Investment in Self-Care Gives Big Health Payoffs

By Erik Goldman

Many people think “getting healthy” requires a total lifestyle overhaul, a major investment of time and money, and a lot of work.  Too often, those expectations solidify into an insurmountable obstacle, people feel intimidated, and consequently they never set out on the journey to better health. The truth is, devoting just 5% of the day […]

FODMAPS & IBS: Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater

By Sally LaMont, ND. LAc

What do apples, onions, hummus, and ice cream have in common? They’re all rich in FODMAPs: a set of short-chain carbohydrates that can set off the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), such as bloating, gas, cramping, constipation and/or diarrhea. Short-term adherence to FODMAP-free diets can be very effective in reducing the symptom burden associated […]

Eyeing Practice Evolution, Fullscript Acquires Emerson

By Erik Goldman

Fullscript CEO Kyle Braatz is on what he calls a “forever” mission: to establish a comprehensive technological infrastructure for the transformation of integrative and functional medicine into simply “medicine.” With the acquisition of its main competitor, Emerson Ecologics, Fullscript has taken a major step toward fulfillment of that mission. The deal, announced in mid-March, will […]

Addressing the Repair Deficits That Underlie Chronic Pain

By Russell Jaffe, MD, Contributing Writer

Roughly one in five people suffers from chronic pain of some sort. It is one of the leading causes of disability, reduced productivity, and escalating medical care costs.  While pain is often multifactorial, there’s a lot we as clinicians can do to help our chronic pain patients once we understand the relationship between inflammation, repair […]

All Choked Up: Harvesting the Health Benefits of Artichokes

By Sally LaMont, ND, LAc, Contributing Writer

Artichokes are the edible flower buds of a thistle plant called Cynara scolymus. The botanical name derives from a Greek myth about Zeus, who fell in love with a beautiful woman named Cynara. The story goes that Zeus was visiting his brother Poseidon one day on a small Aegean island, when he came upon the […]

NAC Supplements Face Ban Unless FDA Reverses Course

By Erik Goldman

Americans could lose access to N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) supplements in 2022, unless the nutrition and dietary supplements industries can prove to the Food and Drug Administration that this glutathione precursor was in widespread use as a supplement or food ingredient prior to the mid-1990s. Last year, the FDA made clear that it views NAC as […]

New Studies Strengthen Case for Zinc Against COVID, Respiratory Bugs

By Erik Goldman

Daily supplementation with zinc picolinate markedly reduced the prevalence of severe symptomatic COVID-19 among a cohort of high-risk patients in the state of Florida, according to data from a new case-control study. “Individuals in the control group were 5.93 times more likely to develop symptomatic COVID-19 infection as compared with individuals in the treatment group,” […]