The typical human body contains roughly 1.5 kilograms of microorganisms. That’s about equal in weight to the average human brain. It’s an interesting equivalence, given what we are learning about the myriad ways in which the gut microbiome influences the brain and central nervous system. Many common mental illnesses, including severe depression and anxiety, are […]
The brain-gut-microbiota axis provides a bidirectional route of communication between the gut microbes and the brain. The axis involves the vagus nerve, short-chain fatty acids, tryptophan, cytokines and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. New evidence suggests that gut microbes are involved in neural development and function, both peripherally in the enteric nervous system and centrally in the […]
Your cells are talking to each other. Can you hear what they’re saying? Physician and neuroscientist Jon Lieff, MD asks this simple yet profound question with his new book, The Secret Language of Cells. In this new and fascinating work, Lieff tunes in to the biological conversions taking place deep inside the body to show […]
March 2020 changed our lives forever. In a blink of an eye, our hugs and social routines, our business travel and vacations were taken from us. Almost overnight, the world shut down, filled with fear of the unknown, fear of sickness, fear of interaction. Digital meetings replaced social gatherings and conferences. Online classrooms replaced schools. […]
On October 15, 2000, the first edition of Holistic Primary Care rolled off the presses at Democrat Printing & Lithography in Little Rock, Arkansas, and into 60,000 doctors’ offices across the country. And just like that, an idea had back in 1986 had suddenly become a tangible reality, giving voice to a movement aimed at […]
For decades, the United States has failed to invest in primary care. The result is a situation that has sorely compromised the health and well-being of patients and practitioners alike. Though it consistently accounts for 50% of all annual medical visits, primary care represents less than 7% of the nation’s total healthcare expenditures, and receives […]
Doctors die by suicide at an alarmingly high rate. It’s a painful reality that is far too often ignored––or worse, intentionally concealed.
Treating patients in the midst of a global pandemic has become yet another factor contributing to physician distress and suicide in recent months. The stories of medical professionals lost to suicide amid the Covid-19 outbreak are shining new light on some long-standing and dangerous shortcomings in our systems of medical education and practice.
Medical Hypnosis is an emerging profession, and unfortunately the number of practitioners in the US is still limited.
Because the profession is small, good practitioners can be hard to find. The situation is further compounded by the fact that there are no states with licensure laws governing the practice of hypnosis.
Picture a lemon. Now imagine cutting a wedge from the lemon. Now, close your eyes and picture yourself biting into that bright yellow slice.
That saliva surge? It’s a complex physiological reaction prompted by a verbal suggestion, set in motion simply by thinking.
This simple example illustrates a core principle of medical hypnosis: the body responds to the thoughts, the emotions, and the past experiences of its “tenant.” That might seem like overstating the obvious, but it is a truth that conventional medicine does a good job of ignoring, dismissing, or misunderstanding.
A novel therapy targeting the gut microbiome could open new doors in the treatment of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.
Investigators at Arizona State University (ASU) found that autistic children who received fecal transplants experienced long-term improvements not only in gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, but in core Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) symptoms as well.
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