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.
Fatigue: inflammation and autoimmunity
Severe fatigue, associated with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) or another disorder, has as a core underlying cause chronic inflammation...there are sufficient robust multiple lines of evidence to support the proposition that the severe fatigue and profound disability experienced by people with the neurodegenerative, neuro-immune and autoimmune diseases discussed here is largely driven by peripheral immune activation and systemic inflammation either directly or indirectly by inducing mitochondrial damage.
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.
Prof. Y. Shoenfeld talks about ASIA: autoimmune syndrome induced by vaccine adjuvants
Professor Yehuda Shoenfeld of the Zabludowicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases, Tel-Aviv University talks on ASIA—autoimmune sydrome induced by adjuvants (used to magnify the immune response to vaccines). He does not argue against the immense benefits of vaccines, but explains briefly why clinicians must be aware of the potential for autoimmune complications in a percentage of the population that may be predisposed. Morever, he discusses how the process in ASIA is relevant also for the loss of tolerance involved in conditions such as environmental and chemical sensitivity, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia, narcolepsy, sick building syndrome, reactions to silicon implants, Gulf War syndrome and others.