Too much appeasing of a sweet tooth has been associated with an increased risk of developing autoimmunity.  While higher sugar consumption may do so, artificial sweeteners appear to increase the risk similarly.  This is a significant concern as either sugars or artificial sweeteners are added to almost all processed foods. Humans have 3 primary taste […]

This title may sound like some form of double talk but it is a reality.  I had a stark example of this concept last weekend traveling to Easton Maryland for our annual goose hunt with my grandson.  Traveling the 185 miles up the Virginia and Maryland Eastern Shore I traveled through this large expanse of […]

In the previous blogs we have discussed the role of the “exposome” which are the environmental factors we are exposed to that may contribute to autoimmunity.  One of the more common and important factors is diet/food.  This process involves an immune reaction against a food particle such as a peptide that then spreads to attacking […]

In the last several blogs we looked at the research on the human microbiome which corresponds to the onset of the many diseases that become more prevalent with age.  Keep in mind “with age” does not mean after the age of 60-70 but rather gradually beginning between age 30-40. This shift is hallmarked by the […]

In the previous blogs we discussed the interesting work on altering the microbiome with fecal medical transplant (FMT) to correct inflammation, inflammatory related disease, diabetes, and other chronic health problems.  The results are pretty dramatic.  The problem is that FMT requires endoscopy/colonoscopy, cost and further FDA approval.  Right now it is only approved to treat […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]