Lending Library Book Review: The Secret Life of Your Microbiome
Have you ever considered that your health is deeply connected to the world around you? The Secret Life of Your Microbiome by Susan L. Prescott and Alan C. Logan explores this fascinating connection, showing how trillions of microbes living within us are influenced by everything from the food we eat to our environment and even our emotional well-being.
This book challenges the conventional view of health by emphasizing the importance of biodiversity–not just in nature, but inside our bodies too.
I’m concerned by the number of people taking high doses of vitamin D for months or years at a time, based on impersonal recommendations by online social influencers and science journalists. Vitamin D is a hormone, with thousands of effects ranging from modifying our genetic responses to regulating many 
A few years ago I took a course that taught average individuals to make logical predictions about future world events based on data points, simulations, and trends. For example, at the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many predictions were made about the dramatic expansion and use of video technology for conferencing and surveillance. Predictions about our healthcare system were also made.
Respiratory viruses don’t cause chronic fatigue. Or at least that was the prevailing conventional wisdom before this pandemic and subsequent research that identifies somewhere between 10 and 60% of people with lingering symptoms 6 or more months following COVID-19 infection. We call this “Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2” (PASC). For the millions of people diagnosed with “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome”, “Fibromyalgia”, or even “Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome” (POTS) – all of unknown cause – the mainstream recognition of post-viral causes of fatigue might be accompanied by a sense of relief and hope: “Is this the cause of my symptoms too?”
I’ve been watching some great webinars presented by the Institute of Functional Medicine, that summarize current research about COVID-19. The science is piling up to support what many of us know to be true for other infections: our lifestyle habits play a key role in risk of developing severe illness, and we have more control over our risk than commonly acknowledged.
The principles of 
How Much Pressure is your Immune System Under Right Now?
When I sit with a patient who has complex symptoms, especially if they’ve worked with other skilled practitioners with no obvious success, I ask myself: “What piece of the puzzle is still hiding?” “What am I unable to see clearly?” Answers often lie in exploring the illness from a completely different or old-world perspective, such as the more interconnected concept of yin and yang that contrasts with traditional Western linear approaches. We can apply the same concept of balance to this pandemic too, with eye-opening results that I hope we can all take comfort in.
What is Lyme Disease? This question seems simple enough, and perhaps for the people who successfully recover on their own or with an antibiotic, the answer is simple. But for the 5% to 20% of individuals who develop persistent, debilitating symptoms for months to years after the initial infection, the definition is anything but simple. Depending on the circle you run in, the illness is called Chronic Immune Dysfunction (CID), Multi-Systemic Infectious Disease Syndrome (MSIDS), Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS), Chronic Lyme Disease, Persistent Lyme Disease, or it plain just doesn’t exist.