by Bianca Garilli, ND Among the general US adult population, obesity rates (BMI >30 kg/m2) were nearly 40% in 2015-2016 and have continued to rise over recent years.1 This growing epidemic has spared virtually no demographic in the country, including the active duty military and military veteran populations.1 Active duty military obesity rates and consequences Within the active duty ranks, obesity rates have climbed from 5% in 1995 to 12.7% in 2008.2 Although lower than the general population, the observed…

Host: Deanna Minich, PhD, CNS, FACN, IFMCP Guest: Bridget Briggs, MD "Sulfur is part of our constitution." – Dr. Deanna Minich You may be familiar with small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), but what about its critical connection to sulfur? Drs. Minich and Briggs explore the SIBO-sulfur link in this cutting edge discussion, where they use a root-cause, personalized lifestyle medicine approach to examine gut dysbiosis and SIBO symptomology. Dr. Briggs shares valuable information on the clinical patterns related to sulfur metabolism in…

by Bianca Garilli, ND and Ashley Jordan Ferira, PhD, RDN Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is no longer a Western world phenomena, but rather a global epidemic, with research revealing an association between higher T2D rates and a country’s wealth or economic growth.1 As a clear example, in a publication titled “Prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the Arab world: impact of GDP and energy consumption”, it was observed that the higher a country’s gross domestic product (GDP), the higher the…

by Noelle Patno, PhD Colonoscopy is one of the most common medical procedures, used for screening various bowel diseases, including colon cancer, to examine for any pathological findings (e.g. polyps, ulcers, or inflamed tissue). Barriers to colonoscopy include patients’ fears related to invasiveness, pain, or complications.1 Complications may be as minor as bloating or as severe as bowel perforation (rare); factors that may predict increased risk for complication include insufficient bowel preparation (not completely cleaned out and therefore more difficult…

by Bianca Garilli, ND It’s a well-known fact that cruciferous vegetables, including broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, and many others, should be a major cornerstone of any healthy, nutrient-dense diet. Not as well known, however, is that the bioavailability of some of the most desired nutritional bioactives from the Brassica vegetables, including isothiocyanates (e.g. sulforaphane), will vary depending on numerous factors. These factors can be broken down into plant-intrinsic and plant-extrinsic components. Plant-Intrinsic Factors Mainly found in cruciferous vegetables, glucosinolates (GL)…

by Bianca Garilli, ND Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is characterized by chronic inflammation in the digestive tract and can be classified into two main conditions: ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD). Both of these debilitating diseases involve similar symptoms including bloody diarrhea, abdominal pain and cramping, fever, fatigue, and unintended weight loss.1 The two disease processes, although overlapping in many ways, differ in their pathophysiology:1-2 CD: This disease can affect any part of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and is…

by Bianca Garilli, ND It is well known that gut dysbiosis impacts various aspects of human health, from cardiovascular disease to asthma.1 Bacterial composition in the digestive tract can be influenced by many aspects of daily life: stress levels, environmental exposures, and dietary habits, including alcohol consumption, to name a few.1-2 The literature also suggests that alcohol intake may play a role in the makeup of human oral microbiota through several mechanisms including direct cytotoxic effects on bacteria, changing the…

by Ashley Jordan Ferira, PhD, RDN The digestive system begins in the mouth, which is home to 700+ unique species of bacteria.1 Research has shown that salivary2 and gastrointestinal (GI)3-4 microbiota possess diurnal rhythms; whether these daily patterns are a result of circadian biology and/or eating behaviors is unknown. The composition of one’s habitual diet has been shown to impact human GI microbiota, and emerging research suggests that eating frequency and timing of meals may also play a role,3-4 however,…

by Lewis Chang, PhD Gut microbiota, a community of trillions of microorganisms living in the gastrointestinal tract, play an important role in health and disease in humans. A loss in species richness and diversity in the microbiota has been associated with many metabolic disorders and disease states.1 Nutrition can have a significant impact on the microbiota composition. The Mediterranean diet is known for its various health benefits.2 However, little is known on how the Mediterranean dietary pattern affects the composition…

Lactobacillus salivarius UCC118 is a well-characterized and evidence-based probiotic strain. A feeding study led by Fergus Shanahan, MD and his research group at the University College Cork was conducted in patients with ulcerative colitis. This pilot-scale, open-label study aimed to determine the ability of L. salivarius UCC118 to adhere to human enterocyte epithelial cells. The bacterial strain was administered to patients with ulcerative colitis at ~109 CFU/day for 12 days. Biopsy specimen analyses demonstrated that the ingested bacteria effectively adhered to…