LDL cholesterol tends to be looked at as “the problem” regarding vascular disease risk.  In reality, it is only part of the risk.  What is more important than simply LDL levels is the size of the particles.  Two persons with the “same” LDL level can have very different vascular disease risks. The LDL listed on […]

Modern humans have always had the belief, conscious or subconscious, that they could lead a less-than-optimal lifestyle and yet health care could prevent the ill effects.  This is particularly true thinking about medical care.  Why eat an optimal diet when the unhealthy food is so good?  Exercise is more effort than I want to put […]

Again, It Depends on Who It Hangs Out With In a previous blog I had discussed some of the research of coffee consumption and a reduced risk of diabetes.  It seems there are several phenols or phytonutrients in brewed coffee that offer diabetes preventative benefit.  I also made the point that this might be negated […]

Not if it keeps good company One of the more common statements I hear taking patient histories when patient comment on what measures they had taken already to try to resolve their health issues is “I did give up coffee”.  This statement implies a belief that coffee has negative health effects.  The origins of that […]

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 […]