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Day two of the conference I discussed in the last blog concentrated on the microbiome which is this enormous population of micro-organisms such as bacteria that live in and on us.  The microbiome has been known to exist for many decades but was poorly understood until heavily researched in the last 20 years.  One of […]

The Microbiome as a Key in Health and Disease

October 13, 2022

It Is More About How They Are Turned On Or Off I participated in a conference this past week on the role of epigenetics in health and disease and how our lifestyle affects that.  Epigenetics simply means “above the gene”.  Our 30,000 genes harbor many mutations that can increase our disease risks.  These risks, however, […]

Our Genes Alone Rarely Determine Our Health Fate

October 11, 2022

I have written past blogs regarding the potential adverse impact of the use of proton pump inhibitors, the drugs commonly used for reflux.  These problems evolve slowly over time with ongoing use which obscured them during the clinical trials that led to the approval of these drugs as they tended to be shorter term studies. […]

PPI(Proton Pump Inhibitors) Use and Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease

September 27, 2022

The human microbiome, or the microbes that live in and on us are vast and diverse.  These microbes number 100 trillion with the majority residing in the digestive tract. For a perspective on 100 trillion, the number of microbes in the human microbiome is 10 times greater than the number of our own cells. As […]

Antibiotics and Our Microbiome

September 21, 2022

The hallmark of good healthcare is that it is “evidence-based”.  This simply means that decisions in care and preventative strategies are largely based on quality scientific evidence rather than empirical information.  This is not to say that empirically based knowledge, that based only on practical experience, is not important but that scientifically derived evidence tends […]

Diet and Disease

September 15, 2022

There is a tendency for us to have progressive inflammatory activity as we age.  This inflammation is a part of virtually every chronic disease from heart disease to cancer to autoimmune disease.  As would be expected all of these diseases become progressively more common with age in parallel to what is happening with inflammation.  This […]

When “Zombie Cells” Cause Chronic Inflammation

September 7, 2022

As sugar consumption was found to be strongly associated with health risks such as obesity and diabetes, a simplistic solution seemed to be the use of non-caloric artificial sweeteners (NCAS) – we could have most things taste sweet with no harm.  The problem has been that after 3-4 decades of consumption of NCAS, both diabetes […]

Why Artificial Sweeteners Contribute to Diabetes Risk

August 23, 2022

The discussion of the changes to our diet over the past 100 years that are driving the many chronic diseases common in society can be complex.  However, there are a few indicators which are key and relatively easy to look at.  Perhaps the most important indicator is the sugar to fiber ratio or sugar:fiber.  A […]

Simple Dietary Measures to Look at to Ensure a Healthy Diet

July 25, 2022

In a previous blog we discussed some of the research findings on long SARS-CoV-2 which is a persistence of symptoms after the infection has been resolved.  It seems that the inflammatory response which is part of the immune activation against the virus seems not to turn off when it is no longer needed.  That leads […]

Another Clue to Long SARS-CoV-2 Symptoms

July 19, 2022

Omega-3 fatty acids (FAs) are essential fatty acids.  This means that the body needs them for different functions, and they must be consumed as the body cannot make them from other sources.  Systems that are particularly dependent upon the availability of omega-3 FAs are the immune system, the cardiovascular system and the brain. There are […]

The Omega-3 Fatty Acid DHA Offers Protection Against Alzheimer’s Disease

July 12, 2022