FALSE! Heartburn is most commonly a symptom of having too little stomach acid! There’s a reason we have stomach acid. In fact, there are several. Here are a few – Absorption of nutrients (iron, copper, zinc, calcium, B12). Stimulates the release of pepsin which is the enzyme responsible for breaking down protein. PROTEIN! As in amino acids, and remember those ESSENTIAL ones? Essential means we can’t make them ourselves. Prevents bacterial and fungal overgrowth. Heartburn is the Result of Our Stomach Acid Being Misplaced Heartburn is the result of our stomach acid being in the wrong place; ou ..read more

Cortisol is the main stress hormone. It is a catabolic hormone which means it breaks things down. Effects of cortisol include: Stimulation of fat deposits Increases blood pressure Increases protein breakdown Demineralizes bone Suppresses parts of the immune system, activates others Maintains mood and emotional stability Increases blood sugar Increases coagulation In the acute setting, cortisol prepares us for fight or flight. Back in the day, the release of cortisol helped to keep us alive. Fat gets deposited typically around our organs for protection (think famine). Our blood pressure would ..read more

Is the Ketogenic diet good for you? Well, let’s find out. What is the ketogenic diet?  A ketogenic diet (KD) mostly consists of foods that are high in fats (oils, meat, fish, eggs, cheese, and low-carb veggies like cauliflower and leafy greens) along with keeping your carbohydrate intake to less than 20 grams per day. Twenty grams of carbs looks like half a bagel or less than 1 cup of rice. By reducing carbohydrates, the idea is that the body is pushed into a state of ketosis where it primarily burns fat for energy instead of glucose. Fruit also usually needs to be restricted along with c ..read more

Cow’s Milk has traditionally been an essential part of our normal diets providing a good source of Calcium and Vitamin D. It’s the basis of most infant formulas in the form of whey protein, it’s what most of our cheese products are made out of. There’s a good deal of benefit we can get from it, but there’s also some risks to consider as well. We’ll break down what you should consider when you reach for your next glass of milk or cube of cheese.  Growth.  As previously mentioned, cow’s milk is with many of us from the beginning; we get most of our infant formulas from whey protein and ..read more

Functional medicine is a practice of medicine that has been around for decades, with aspects of this practice being used for centuries. It’s a whole body systems approach to wellness with restoring the function of our health using the 4 pillars of lifestyle change. Those lifestyle pillars are nutrition, exercise, sleep, and stress management (use of supplements are included under nutrition for my purposes). It’s also known as root cause medicine. With specialty lab testing to identify the dysfunctional parts of our physiology, we use these 4 pillars to restore our body back to it’s normal phys ..read more

When we’re under long term stress, our glucocorticoid hormones increase. When this happens, certain pathways get turned off in order to direct the needed energy that allows us to fight or flee. We’re going to talk about the reproductive pathway. When we’re stressed, this pathway is not seen as essential. We could be feeling generally well as we’re trying to conceive, but we’re likely getting bombarded with stress. There’s your SO, other family members, other kids to take care of, a job to do, a house to clean, the list goes on. So, what do we do about it? Well, sometimes, we need to take a bre ..read more

By Dr. Cici Carter As someone that has struggled with fertility, I hate this question, “when are you going to have a baby?” and it’s sister, “when are you having another baby?” In fact, most women do. So why do we keep asking it? Let’s all help each other out, and just never ask this again. The truth is, we have no idea what the other person is thinking when it comes to answering this question, but it’s usually never a positive thought. Most women are thinking, “it’s none of your business,” or “we’re trying and it hasn’t happened yet, thanks for the reminder,” or “I love my childless life righ ..read more

I know what you’re thinking, “another rant on how everyone should be on a gluten-free diet!” And you may be right but hear me out! There is actual science to support being on a GFD and there’s also clinical evidence that it really does help. When I started learning about functional medicine and going through some of the recommended diets for certain conditions, I knew from the bottom of my heart that once I removed gluten from my diet, I would feel better. I didn’t know which symptoms might be impacted, but I knew I’d come out of this feeling refreshed. I have continued to learn over and over ..read more

Why is the gut important? It’s the organ that has 2/3’s of the immune system, it produces the majority of neurotransmitters, it has more cells within it compared to the rest of the body combined, it houses the microbiome (a genome that’s 100-150 times larger than the human genome), and it has more metabolic activity than the liver. When it’s working properly The gut lining serves as the barrier between the outside world and the inside (like a nightclub where security is tight and you have to be dressed appropriately or else you won’t get in!). The gut is made up of tight cellular junctions wit ..read more

“Functional Medicine is a dynamic approach to assessing, preventing, and treating complex chronic disease. Functional medicine helps clinicians identify and ameliorate dysfunction in the physiology and biochemistry of the human body as a primary method of improving patient health. Functional medicine acknowledges that chronic disease is almost always preceded by a lengthy period of declining function in one or more of the body’s systems. Returning patients to health requires reversing (or substantially improving) the specific dysfunctions that have contributed to the disease state. Those dysfu ..read more