Articles

The "set point" is the brain's target weight for a person's body. Just as the body works to maintain a fairly standard temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, it also works to maintain a body weight that is physiologically comfortable. The set point is maintained by the hypothalamus, and is often genetically influenced. However, a number […]

Obesity has become a major health crisis in the United States. In the last two decades, obesity rates have doubled among adults. As many as 60 million people, or 30% of the adult population, are now obese. Youth are at risk too. Since 1980, obesity rates have doubled in children and tripled in adolescents. And […]

Senate bill S.959, now being called the "FDA Power Grab Bill," would widen the powers of the FDA and allow it to disallow entire categories of compounding drugs in "complex dosage forms," including time-released and transdermal patches. It would give the FDA authority to ban bioidentical hormones and restrict access to compounded medications, even when […]

Fibromyalgia can cause pain anywhere in the body, but the most common sites include the neck, shoulders, back, hips, arms and legs. Optimal treatment of fibromyalgia requires a multi-system approach that can include addressing underlying viral infections, hormone imbalances, and nutritional deficiencies. Now, two new studies show that supplementing with coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) may help […]

For patients with severe symptoms, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome can be extremely debilitating and can interfere with the basic activities of daily life, even bringing psychological distress and social isolation. A Relatively New Diagnosis Fibromyalgia is not a new syndrome, but it is surprisingly not well recognized in medical practice, even though it is […]

How Does Poor Gut Health Affect Your Thyroid Health? Your gut is home to 70% of your body's immune system. Tissues within the gut store immune cells that attack and produce antibodies against foreign substances such as viruses or bacteria. A healthy intestinal lining allows nutrients and other biological substances to be filtered through for […]

Symptoms of Thyroid Dysfunction Can Be Mistaken for Mental Illness For patients with undiagnosed Hashimoto's thyroiditis the picture can be even more grim. Cognitive symptoms associated with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, including mental abnormalities, depression, irritability and confusion, can appear long before a patient shows signs of actual hypothyroidism. Patients can be mislabeled as having a major […]

To properly treat hypothyroidism, you must first know your Ts. Thyroxine, or T4, is the thyroid "storage hormone." Triodothyronine, or T3, is the "energy hormone." For the body to use T4, it must first convert it to the active hormone T3, giving energy to every cell in the body. Another critical thyroid hormone is reverse […]

What is an autoimmune disorder? Simply put, an autoimmune disorder is a condition where the immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys healthy body tissue. In Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, the immune system attacks and kills thyroid cells. This "attack and destroy" can cause wild symptom swings from hypothyroid to hyperthyroid, and back. Each attack destroys more and […]

Some people can take the "good" along with the "bad" in life, but for others, any stressful life event — whether the loss of a loved one, a dramatic break-up, or a layoff — can all act as depression triggers and lead to a downward spiral. Tips On How To Effectively Manage Your Mood Working […]

Blaming "bad genes" on diseases like diabetes is a convenient way to escape the obvious things we can do individually, and as a culture, to prevent the escalation of an already epidemic problem. Diabetes is a combination of nutritional and hormonal imbalances. It's important to correct these imbalances at an early stage, before pre-diabetes develops […]

Untangling cause and effect can challenge even seasoned clinicians, and the potential for missed diagnoses is growing these days. Most mental-health counselors rely on primary-care doctors to spot medical issues, but those physicians are increasingly time-pressed and may not know their patients well. Neither do the psychiatrists who mainly write prescriptions and see patients only […]