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.
Systemic thyroid hormone effects with levothyroxine can fall short
Systemic thyroid hormone status—the systemic effects of thyroid hormone activity—has been further confirmed to be insufficient with levothyroxine therapy in a significant percentage of cases, even though laboratory levels of TSH and T4 are normalized...
Alzheimer's disease and blood-brain barrier leakage
Patients with early Alzheimer's disease have significantly more tissue characterized by blood-brain barrier leakage than do healthy control subjects...BBB leakage may help to provide a biomarker for early diagnosis, or at least a marker indicating vulnerability for the development of dementia.
Migraine, depression, Alzheimer's and lipid metabolism
"Taken together, our findings suggest it is possible that migraine is a neurologic disorder of 'minor' sphingolipid dysmetabolism..."
Systemic inflammation drives brain neurodegeneration
n a richly valuable paper published recently in Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience the authors describe the ways in which systemic inflammation causes neurodegeneration in the brain associated with cognitive decline and a host of neuropsychiatric disorders. In the short term this manifests the anorexia, malaise, depression, and decreased physical activity known as sickness behavior (SB) that occurs with inflammation due to infection. Permanent cognitive and behavioral changes due to neurodegeneration occur when inflammation is chronic. Discerning and targeting the causes of inflammation offers opportunities for treatment.
Traumatic brain injury and chronic neuroinflammation
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) even in it's milder forms can initiate a process of chronic neuroinflammation that causes a range of chronic neurodegenerative disorders. ..Judicious application of natural anti-inflammatory agents to minimize side-effects along with other measures guided by objective measurements is a standard for treating traumatic brain injury that can be applied to other neurodegenerative disorders as well.
Benzodiazepines associated with increased Alzheimer's risk
Benzodiazepines are well known to be deleterious to brain health with more than very short-term use. Research just published in BMJ (British Medical Journal) presents evidence that the use of benzodiazepines to treat anxiety or insomnia is associated with a substantial increase in the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
Nigella sativa, a true 'wonder medicine'?
Nigella sativa, also known as black cumin, produces seeds with a mind-boggling wealth of medicinal virtues. For colleagues and others who may not be familiar with the abundance of scientific evidence for the use of Nigella sativa seed extract in clinical practice, this selection of citations serves as an introduction to its wide range of indications.
Bipolar disorder and neuroinflammation
There is a massive amount of evidence supporting the importance of assessing and treating neuroinflammation in bipolar disorder and other neuropsychiatric illnesses. This makes necessarily the comprehensive examination of autoimmunity and its numerous underlying contributory causes.
Magnesium: insulin, brain, heart and inflammation
Magnesium may be the critical nutrient most commonly drained by modern environmental stress to suboptimal levels... Recent studies add evidence to its indication for insulin resistance, diabetes, cognitive impairment, atrial fibrillation, cardiovascular disease, and neurogenic inflammation.
Cognitive decline: major overlooked causes
Cognitive decline is fueled by that have not received adequate attention but have great practical, clinical significance.
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.
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."
Lyme disease, neuropsychiatric symptoms and autoimmunity
As with other chronic infections, the most devastating effects of Lyme disease can occur from the immune system losing tolerance for normal tissue as it cross-reacts while attacking the pathogen. A paper just published in The Open Neurology Journal reviews the body of knowledge on the neuropsychiatric symptoms of Lyme disease and other infections as an immune mediated neurodegenerative disorder, enlarged by a wealth of citations.
Osteoarthritis is an inflammatory disorder driven by complement
Osteoarthritis is an inflammatory disorder driven by the complement system, a part of the innate immune system.
Alzheimer's disease, memory loss and low level light therapy
A study just published in the JAD (the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease) offers evidence that low level light therapy can help brain metabolism and memory loss such as in Alzheimer's disease.
It's not too early for a plan to prevent cognitive decline
It's not too early for a plan to prevent cognitive decline
Low LDL cholesterol associated with worse cognitive performance
Low LDL cholesterol associated with worse cognitive performance