Book Review
October 21, 2024
Review of Dr. Casey Means’ Good Energy
In her book, Good Energy, Dr. Casey Means explores the complex relationship between our metabolic health and the quality of energy we experience in daily life. Dr. Means is an ENT surgeon that graduated from Stanford University Medical School before eschewing it all to dive into the world of disease prevention. Drawing from her background in integrative medicine and her deep understanding of metabolic science, Dr. Means presents a compelling case for why energy levels are not merely a factor of rest and diet, but a direct reflection of how well our cells are functioning on a biochemical level. And this is the key, the understanding of the biochemistry of the why!
GLP1 Agonists - What does the science say?
September 30, 2024
Understanding the Action and Use of GLP-1 Agonists in Children – A Pediatrician’s Viewpoint
The United States, like much of the developed world, is facing increasing rates of childhood obesity and related health concerns. Despite years of research and various efforts, addressing this public health issue remains a complex challenge.
Smart Phones - Friend or Foe?
September 16, 2024
Are Smart Phones a benefit or a curse for the teenager in school? This is becoming a huge topic this past year or so. Logic would seem to dictate that this is a curse more than a benefit, but what does the data and expert opinion show?
Happy Kids, Healthy Kids
September 9, 2024
Section I
Upcoming Podcast and Current Book Review.
For all parents who love the content of this newsletter, I have a book for you to enjoy. It is a comprehensive look at parenting a child in modern times through the struggles of food, technology, stress and life in general.
Literature Review
September 2, 2024
Literature Review
1) Long Covid in children - the symptoms are getting more clarity in who has what . From JAMA: 898 school-age children (751 with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and 147 without) and 4469 adolescents (3109 infected and 1360 uninfected) were included in the analysis. The time between infection and symptom analysis was 1.5 years
Infant Intestinal Microbiome
August 26, 2024
Children are and always will be a marker of a society’s quality and focus on their health. When we look at the landscape of childhood health trajectories, we see a declination in quality and an inclination toward diseases of immune dysregulation and underlying chronic unchecked inflammation. What is the genesis point, or where is ground zero?
Sleep Part IV
August 12, 2024
Literature Review
1) Does oral health affect your life if you are sick and in intensive care? According to a new study in JAMA, the answer is yes. From the study: 10,742 patients - "toothbrushing was associated with significantly lower risk for Hospital Acquired Pneumonia and ICU mortality. Reduction in pneumonia incidence was significant for patients receiving invasive mechanical ventilation but not for patients who were not receiving invasive mechanical ventilation.
Sleep Part III
July 29, 2024
Sleep Part III
Finally, the other elephant in the room related to sleep is STRESS. Stress alters the function of the hormone cortisol and can significantly alter night sleep function. There are three major chemicals that affect sleep: cortisol, adenosine and melatonin.
Sleep Part IIII
August 5, 2024
Sleep Part IV
Continuing the sleep education from a few weeks ago.
Sleep is a most special event that we all need to continue to focus heavily on in order to live a healthy and long life. It may be the single most important event that we do daily.
Here are a few more quick hits on sleep from the Matthew Walker's Book and other publications.
Epigenetics
July 25, 2024
Epigenetics and Pregnancy
Epigenetics is the study of environmental signals and their effects on our genes. Our genes are not altered so much as they are read and used differently based on the environmental inputs. Epigenetic effects are critical during the pregnancy period as the environmental signals can alter an offspring’s outcome both in good and bad ways. Making sure that we control for better environmental signal exposure while pregnant can go a long way to protecting our children’s DNA from dysfunction and thus their outcome with health. It is well known that chemicals are generally negative insults to our epigenome while anti-inflammatory whole foods are positive. These epigenetic marks can be conserved over multiple generations making them extraordinarily beneficial or dangerous. Here we will discuss the lifestyle mitigating factors for a positive pregnancy and newborn outcome.
Sleep Restriction and Immune Health
Sleep Restriction and Immune Health
It has long been known that sleep is a truth teller of mood. The poorer the sleep quality, the poorer the emotional response. Every parent knows this with a child short on sleep. What are the cellular effects?
Reading Part II
Reading Part II
Let us follow up on last weeks newsletter on reading as a cultural advantage and a human need in truth. What do we know about the neuroscience of reading dysfunction or weakened ability to achieve the goal of reading proficiency? What is the frequency of concern?
Stress and a Woman's Ability to Conceive
May 20, 2024
“You must learn to let go. Release the stress. You were never in control anyway.”
Steve Maraboli
Chapter 2a
Stress and a Woman's Ability to Conceive - The Healthy Mind Is Key.
How was it meant to be? Humans were designed to be excellent at handling acute stress while chronic stress on the other hand was never expected to be part of our day to day existence. We run from the tiger and survive the event or we die. That being said, chronic mental stress is the greatest disruptor of human balance and health. To truly know this fact and work towards alleviating it is the immediate route to a healthy life and a healthy pregnancy. Mental stress has profound negative effects on immune and hormonal function to the detriment of mom and her babe. Chronic mental stress is known to disrupt pregnancy conception and perinatal events. Perception of one’s stress is often more important than the event itself. Becoming aware of your perceptions and working toward a minimally stressed mind is a key to a healthy pregnancy. A woman should be honored and protected while pregnant to keep external stress levels low. In this chapter, you will learn why and how stress has the ability to hurt a pregnancy. The to do section gives tools to reverse the negative process.
Reading
Reading
May 27, 2024
If you want to spend any amount of time with your child beyond hugs, feeding and basic life duties, I would recommend reading above all else. I find it hard to believe that this is the first article that I have written on reading. I pondered that for a minute and concluded that this, in effect, was me taking this information for granted. That ends today.
For the children
May 12, 2024
What are the main preventable etiologies for childhood death under the age of five years?
According to the data compile by UNICEF, we see the following for the world:
1) Prematurity 18%
2) Pneumonia 14%
3) Birth Asphyxia 12%
4) Malaria 9%
Excess Weight Gain and Obesity
May 6, 2024
Excess Weight Gain and Obesity and Immune Related Diseases in 2 cases
I want to share a few recent case experiences that shed light on the patient provider experience in the context of a collaborative clinic model based on prevention and the patient first mentality.
What are the Underpinnings of Disease?
April 29, 2024
Section I
“It is your reaction to an adversity not the adversity itself that determines how your life’s story develops.”
Dieter Uchtdorf
WHY?
What are the Underpinnings of Disease?
What have we really learned over the last one to two hundred years of medicine?
We left an era where infections killed the majority of children and adults, especially during childbirth and the first 5 years of life. Science gave us antimicrobial medicines and vaccines that altered this landscape and humans began to live decades longer.
Unraveling the Mysteries of the Amygdala
April 15, 2024
Section I
Unraveling the Mysteries of the Amygdala: A review of a section of the book Behave by Robert Sapolsky
In the world of neuroscience, Robert Sapolsky stands as a luminary, a maestro of unraveling the intricate dance of our brain's circuitry. Among the many deep dives that he delves into, his perspective on the amygdala resonates profoundly for me.
Literature Review
April 8th, 2024
Literature Review
1) In a first of its kind study in mice, we see concrete evidence for how the mitochondria in obese individuals are a root cause of disease based on nutritional input. From the study: "Mitochondrial dysfunction is a characteristic trait of human and rodent obesity, insulin resistance and fatty liver disease.
Book Relook
April 22, 2024
The podcast this week is a must listen to for everyone as Dr. Stephen Porges is a luminary in the field of Psychology and trauma. His work has given us the Polyvagal theory and a key to understanding the root causes of trauma based behavior and disease suffering. This work is especially true for children in traumatic environments. Give it a listen and read his paper in Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience.
- Teenagers and Tweens
- Asthma
- Allergy season and School
- To Forgive
- Micro/nano-plastics
- Pregnancy do's and don'ts
- Measles
- Light and It's Impacts on Health
- Psychophysiology
- Literature Review
- Sugar, Immune Health and Two Studies
- APOE4 and the history of human disease
- Literature Review
- Resolutions? Do we need them?
- Christmas, Tradition and Holidays in General
- Science Update
- Literature Review
- Literature Review
- Respiratory Syncytial Virus
- 13 Years in the Books
- Covid 19 Post Mortem Part II
- Delaying Gratification and Dopamine
- Nature Deprivation Disorder
- Covid 19 Post Mortem
- Emulsifiers Redo
- The Power of Suggestion
- Musk and Rand
- Literature Review
- Maternal Nutrition and the Microbiome
- Literature Review
- Literature Review
- Fructose Story
- Literature Review
- Breastfeeding Versus Formula / Science versus Opinion
- Asthma, Allergies and Nutrition - The Story Part V
- Mental Health and Sleep for teens and college students
- Literature Review
- Sweating and Heat
- Dental Care and Health of Your Heart
- More on HDL Biology from the CETP side or Cholesterol Ester Transfer Protein