Sir William Osler, one of the founders of modern medicine, once said, “The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease.” This is still a vital distinction to make today, and it is an underlying principle of...
Americans spend $5 trillion per year on healthcare, more than any other country on the planet. Spending that much, we ought to be the healthiest country in the world. Yet we continue to dramatically underperform. While there are many reasons for this, one that doesn’t...
Since they were first introduced in the 1960s, modern breast implants have exploded in popularity. Millions of women across the world have undergone implantation. According to the Aesthetic Society, “breast augmentation was the most-performed cosmetic surgery...
In December 2015, Danielle Valoras underwent a breast augmentation procedure. Over the next year, her health began to rapidly decline. She first noticed her recovery was taking longer than expected. Next, she began to experience fatigue and puffiness in her...
As we noted in our last post, close to a third of the world’s population suffers from MASLD (metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease). This is a huge global health crisis, and one that should inform patient care in our practices. The problem is that...
Did you know that a whopping 30 percent of the world’s population suffers from metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD)? As functional medicine practitioners, that should make us sit up and take notice! With such a large proportion of the world...
In 2011, Dr. Kirk Gair’s wife was going through a terrible health episode. She was experiencing a racing heart, severe dizzy spells, high blood pressure, and even nightmares. Her doctors initially dismissed her symptoms as a panic attack, but having a master’s in...
Think about the last time you saw a new GI patient. What does your intake appointment look like? You probably cover the basics—medication history, drug and alcohol use, history of infections, etc.—to narrow down or eliminate certain causes or conditions. You probably...
It happens more frequently than we care to admit. A new patient walks into your office with GI troubles. They have been to doctor after doctor and have tried treatment after treatment. But nothing works. The unfortunate truth is that over one-third of new GI referrals...
When you ask most people, “What is anemia?” you’ll likely get the same answer: “It’s when you have low levels of iron in your blood.” But as functional medicine practitioners, it is important to remember that the common definition of a medical term isn’t always the...
There is a pervasive myth in the medical world that hereditary hemochromatosis (HH)—i.e., iron overload in the blood—is a rare disorder. But this couldn’t be further from the truth: HH is the most common genetic disorder among Caucasians, and it can be found in all...
Imagine a man in his thirties—let’s call him Mike—comes into your practice. He is borderline obese and has diabetes. As a functional medicine professional, you determine that Mike has low testosterone, a vitamin D deficiency, and elevated homocysteine levels....