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Newer medical therapies recognize that chronic diseases usually have many years of development and offer better laboratory testing to identify contributing factors for disease, which includes interventions centered on lifestyle choices (better nutrition, fitness, stress management, relationships, etc.) and latent nutrient deficiencies that may contribute to cellular dysfunction. The goal is to reverse or delay the disease process.

In the United States, health care is mainly for acute issues and patients must get ill or start to have symptoms before receiving treatment, which is usually extreme. Examples include surgery, powerful drugs, or end-of-life interventions.

Some of the therapies for chronic diseases fall within the categories of complementary, alternative, integrative, or functional. The terms can erroneously be interchanged or meld into one another. Consider their distinctions...

Medical events can be traumatizing to patients, and it is important to recognize contributing factors and treat the whole patient. What is medical trauma? Essentially, any medical-related event in which the patient perceives trauma, and it impacts other areas of their life can constitute medical trauma. As medical trauma becomes a more common term and enters medical conversations more and more, we can each consider if we are part of the problem or solution. How can each of our interactions with patients, clients, their family, and friends be empathetic, supportive, intuitive, and move the needle away from medical trauma?

The first bariatric surgery was performed in the 1950’s, but it was quite different from the type of surgery performed today. Some aspects of bariatric surgery have persisted – for better or for worse. According to Melissa Majumdar, MS, RD, CSOWM, LDN, co-author of the Academy’s Pocket Guide to Bariatric Surgery, 3^rd edition in a personal interview, one of the positive changes for the field is in the name. Bariatric surgery is now called Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery to show a broader scope of practice than just concern about a patient’s weight.

 

Author, Dr. Sara Gottfried, a Harvard-trained OB-GYN, private practitioner, and associate professor has made the interaction of food and hormones in women, her research and her passion. Taking precision medicine and the ketogenic diet, she has developed a modified ketogenic diet that allows women to balance hormones and achieve weight loss.

Here’s the hard truth: most research studies and diet plans were created for and by men. A woman’s needs and response to a diet are uniquely different from a man’s needs. This stark difference in how men and women are created has opened the door to precision, individualized medicine. 

As the weather warms up and people head outdoors, the concern for Lyme disease increases. It’s common knowledge that Lyme disease can be attributed to a tick bite, but many are unaware of what to do and what can happen. Symptoms may range from mild discomfort where the bite is to bedridden disability. Because diagnosing Lyme can be difficult, many people who actually have Lyme may be misdiagnosed with other conditions for years.