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 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.
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.
Vagal nerve activity moderates brain-immune relationships and is measured by heart rate variability
An exciting study with tremendous practical significance was just published in the Journal of Neuroimmunology that shows how vagal nerve activity, which can be measured in the clinic by heart rate variability analysis (HRV), is a key moderator of the brain-immune web and determines the immune and physiological responses to acute stress.