FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE BLOG
Includes over 800 monographs reporting on emerging studies in the medical and scientific literature of practical clinical importance, easily searched for content.
Alzheimer's disease increased in women by common psychosocial stressors
As study just published in BMJ Open (British Medical Journal) identifies common psychosocial stress as a significant contributor to the development of Alzheimer's disease and other kinds of dementia.
Histamine intolerance
Histamine intolerance is a widespread phenomenon that can mimic allergy. It plays a role in many diverse conditions including IBS and inflammatory bowel diseases, asthma, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), complications of pregnancy, drug hypersensitivity, and intestinal permeability (by means of which it contributes to autoimmunity). It can be objectively evaluated with serum DAO activity. HI can be ameliorated by supplementation with DAO. Practitioners need to be astute in its diagnosis and management.
Food allergy testing with IgG4 is not recommended
"...food-specific IgG4 does not indicate (imminent) food allergy or intolerance, but rather a physiological response of the immune system after exposition to food components. Therefore, testing of IgG4 to foods is considered as irrelevant for the laboratory work-up of food allergy or intolerance and should not be performed in case of food-related complaints."
Neuropsychiatric illness, autoimmunity and the role of microbes
Neuropsychiatric illness often involves brain inflammation for which there may be an autoimmune origin. The authors of a paper* recently published in Current Opinion in Rheumatology set out to..."illustrate how microbes might participate in the pathogenesis of neuropsychiatric illness by triggering the production of autoantibodies that bind to brain targets."
Progesterone and irritable bowel syndrome, headaches and irritable bladder
Progesterone plays a role in preventing or ameliorating irritable bowel syndrome by inhibiting the release of histamine. This applies to numerous conditions including migraine, interstitial cystitis (painful/irritable bladder), dysmenorrhea and others.
Progesterone increases thyroid hormone
This 12-week randomized controlled progesterone trial documented that Free T4 levels were significantly elevated in progesterone-treated compared with placebo-treated women.
Hepatitis C antibody-postive patients need but often don't get confirmatory testing
Hepatitis C infection needs to be confirmed by PCR (RNA or DNA amplification) because antibody levels can remain high for many years after the infection is completely cleared by antimicrobial therapy or innate immunity. This is true for numerous other pathogens as well including Borrelia b. (Lyme disease). A paper just published in The American Journal of Medicine documents that RNA testing for hepatitis C is often not done.
Chronic Lyme disease, post-Lyme disease syndrome and insights from the pathophysiology of sepsis
Chronic Lyme disease, now correctly termed post-Lyme disease syndrome (PLDS), has challenged and confused practitioners and patients unfamiliar with the potential autoimmune sequelae of infection... The principles of managing autoimmunity, triggered by infection or not, entail discernment of the multiple underlying mechanisms contributing to loss of immune tolerance of self-tissue...This must be borne in mind by the clinician managing either autoimmunity triggered by Lyme or other infections
Brain atrophy is promoted by both high and low blood pressure
Brain atrophy, with progressive cognitive impairment, can include among causal factors neuronal loss due to diminished oxygen perfusion. Earlier posts have documented the importance of not over-medicating hypertension. A study just published in JAMA Neurology provides evidence that brain atrophy is promoted by low diastolic blood pressure in addition to hypertension.
Osteoporosis risk is increased by bone marrow fat linked to blood triglycerides
Excess accumulation of bone marrow fat promotes osteoporosis... A study recently published in the journal Radiology offers evidence that bone marrow fat tracks liver and muscle fat, and can be predicted by the level of serum triglycerides.
Autoimmune inflammation can elevate serum 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D
I have found that patients with an autoimmune component to their case often have elevated 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D (calcitriol). This is not the 25-hydroxy vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol metabolite) that we always test to determine vitamin D3 sufficiency. Often with normal and even low vitamin D3 levels, patients with various degrees of active autoimmunity are testing for elevated 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D levels. Now research published in PLOS One (Public Library of Science) shows how autoimmune inflammation and elevated 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D are associated.
Dementia risk is increased by even mild anemia
Dementia is afflicting a third of the senior adults in the US according to recent statistics. Anemia, even mild anemia, by diminishing oxygen perfusion in the brain that neurons require to function and survive increases the risk of dementia according to a study just published in the journal Neurology.
Breast cancer risk doubles with calcium channel blockers for hypertension
Breast cancer risk assessment must take into consideration chronic inflammation, which comes to the fore in light of a study just published in JAMA Internal Medicine (formerly Archives of Internal Medicine) offering evidence that use use of calcium channel blockers double the risk for breast cancer.
Dementia risk increased by higher blood sugar before diabetes
Our results suggest that higher glucose levels may be a risk factor for dementia, even among persons without diabetes.