by Kari Hamrick, PhD, RD and Elnaz Karimian-Azari, PhD Introduction Since 2016, the US Department of Health and Human Services has brought a new level of awareness to the opioid crisis in America by declaring it a nationwide Public Health Emergency.1 In the US, it is approximated that 2.5 million people have been diagnosed with an opioid use disorder (OUD), and 4 in 5 new heroin users started out misusing opioid prescription pain medication.2 As part of the efforts aimed…

by Mark Houston, MD and Sara Gottfried, MD In the past, most of the emphasis on treating dyslipidemia and dyslipidemia-induced heart disease such as coronary heart disease (CHD) and myocardial infarction (MI) was directed toward low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (LDL-C). The mainstay in the traditional cardiovascular community for treating LDL-C has been to prescribe statins. Herein a two-fold problem emerges. First, many people cannot take statins due to their adverse effects; others choose not to take them. Second, evaluation of…

by Sara Gottfried, MD and Kari Hamrick, PhD, RD Did you grow up with parents who told you that breakfast is the most important meal of the day?  The word “breakfast” comes from breaking the overnight fasting period, and replenishing the body with a supply of glucose and other nutrients. It implies a period of metabolic rest that we know from ancestral health is beneficial, but in recent time, that period has shortened. While physicians and dietitians have touted the…

 by Mark Houston, MD and Sara Gottfried, MD A precision and personalized medicine approach to dyslipidemia and dyslipidemia- induced cardiovascular disease—including high LDL cholesterol, elevated triglycerides, low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and HDL function, and other related cardiometabolic conditions such as insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome—is completely different from the conventional medicine approach. In this article, we will review the major paradigm shift that has emerged in the past 10 to 15 years regarding HDL, which is best known for its…

by Sara Gottfried, MD and Elnaz Karimian-Azari, PhD The endocannabinoid system is a fascinating network involved in regulating many physiological, homeostatic, and cognitive functions—including appetite, immune function, pain, metabolism and energy balance, stress response, anxiety, mood, fertility, pregnancy, pre- and postnatal development, memory, and neurogenesis, as well as the well-known pharmacological effects of cannabis.1,2 In our developing understanding of network medicine, it’s important as clinicians to understand that the endocannabinoid system plays a role far beyond getting high and impacts…

by Sara Gottfried, MD Monday, 7:50 a.m. Cup of coffee in hand, I walked into my office and shut the door. I sat at my desk and reviewed my schedule of patients for the day. I was on call for my group of 14 obstetricians/gynecologists. There were 26 patients on the schedule, and several urgent slots remained open for the problems I’d triage throughout the day with the nurse manager and medical assistants. I could hear the clunk of messages…

by Sara Gottfried, MD; Kari Hamrick, PhD, RD; Lewis Chang, PhD We all know that it’s time for mainstream science to investigate—rigorously and on a large scale—whether eating a particular diet can help reduce or reverse chronic disease. While we have growing evidence on the Mediterranean diet, we know little about the molecular benefits and risks of eating certain foods, not eating specific macronutrients, or other emerging condition-based protocols that involve nutritional modulation, particularly related to insulin and glucose signaling.…

by Milene Brownlow, PhD; Sara Gottfried, MD; Nikky Contractor, PhD Here at Metagenics Institute, our goal is to keep you abreast of the latest scientific literature in health, nutrition, and personalized lifestyle medicine. As the ketogenic diet continues to grow in popularity in mainstream and clinical settings, we want to know what’s new and what patient populations or individuals may be uniquely positioned to benefit from a ketogenic dietary approach. In the past 10 years, citations for the ketogenic diet…

by Erik Lundquist, MD Metagenics Institute sat down with family physician Erik Lundquist, MD for a Q&A session to bust some myths about the Cannabis plant and glean current insights for our readers on the clinical utility of phytocannabinoids naturally found in Cannabis, like cannabidiol (CBD). Read on to learn how, based on the scientific literature and in Dr. Lundquist’s clinical experience, these unique bioactives with actions in the endocannabinoid system (ECS) may be relevant to you and your patients.…

by Sara Gottfried, MD and Melissa Blake, BSc, ND Hormones drive the many functions of our body and mind. For example, hormones and their receptors influence metabolic function, heart rate, appetite, tissue growth, and development. Ultimately, the body relies on the hormonal signals of a strikingly choreographed endocrine system. Most of the endocrine system is regulated by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-thyroid-gonadal (HPATG) axis, which is instrumental in regulating mood, reproductive health, and general homeostasis.1 Unfortunately, the HPATG axis is remarkably sensitive to…