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.

Antioxidants in excess can increase inflammation and blunt benefits of exercise

Antioxidants, even glutathione, taken in excess can increase rather than ameliorate harmful inflammation...The use of antioxidants must be calibrated with careful consideration of the balance between protective and suppressive effects according to the needs of the individual patient.

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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.

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Autoimmune Autoimmune

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.

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Inflammatory bowel disease is associated with childhood antibiotic exposure

Inflammatory bowel disease includes ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease where the immune system attacks the large intestine and small intestine respectively. Considering the emerging science on the profound importance of the human micro biome for immune system maturation, regulation and tolerance, a study just published in the journal Pediatrics offering evidence that antibiotic exposure in childhood is associated with inflammatory bowel disease comes as no surprise.

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Autoimmune Autoimmune

Acute gastrointestinal infection can turn on autoimmune disorders

Autoimmune disorders can be promoted by a variety of factors that must be considered in case management.Acute gastrointestinal infection—such as a food-borne illness or viral gastroenteritis—can cause the immune system to lose tolerance for commensal bacteria (the ones that normally live in the intestines), contributing to the development of autoimmune disorders.

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