Menopause and Metabolism: Why Weight Loss Gets Harder
The usual explanation goes something like this: estrogen drops, metabolism slows, fat moves to the belly. That’s true as far as it goes, but it treats menopausal weight gain as a single event with a single cause. In reality, several separate systems in the body drift off course around the same time: fat tissue, muscle, […]
Food Sensitivity Testing: A Field Guide to What Each Test Actually Measures
And When You Need an Elimination Diet Instead A patient handed me a lab report last year with forty-three foods marked “reactive.” Egg, garlic, oat milk, and black pepper all scored in the same red band as foods she’d never once eaten, and the report never explained what it had actually measured. It just gave […]
Science of Longevity: What Menopause Brain Fog Reveals About Midlife Inflammation
Somewhere in your 40s or 50s, your body starts sending signals that something has shifted. Sleep gets lighter. Recovery takes longer. Words go missing mid-sentence. It’s tempting to chalk all of it up to “getting older,” but researchers studying longevity have started zeroing in on midlife as something more specific: a measurable biological inflection point, […]
Estrogen Dominance: Separating Fact from Fiction
If you’re reading this you’ve probably already run into the term “estrogen dominance.” It shows up everywhere from wellness blogs to functional medicine clinics, usually attached to a long list of symptoms and an equally long list of supplements meant to fix it. The term isn’t an official medical diagnosis, and it’s worth saying that […]
High SHBG in Women: Why Your Hormones Look Normal But You Still Feel Off
Most women who get this result on a lab report have never heard of SHBG. Here’s why it matters more than most of the other numbers on that page—and what it may be saying about your body that no one has explained. What SHBG actually does Sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) is a protein made in […]
When GLP-1 Therapy Stops Working: Why your body might be “pushing back”
GLP-1 receptor agonists, semaglutide (Wegovy, Ozempic) and tirzepatide (Zepbound, Mounjaro), are among the most effective weight-loss tools in medical history. In clinical trials they produce weight losses of 15-25%, outcomes previously seen only with surgery. And yet many patients reach a point where the scale stops moving or begins moving in the wrong direction, without […]
Experience the Holidays Without Losing Yourself
For many people, the holidays can be a swirl of joy, nostalgia, overwhelm, pressure, connection, and overstimulation. It’s beautiful and meaningful, but also… a lot. And somewhere in the middle of it all, many people quietly notice a familiar feeling: “I don’t feel like myself during the holidays.” Our routines tend to shift. Our boundaries […]
The Real Art of Integrative Medicine: Knowing When to Prescribe and When to Pause
When people think of integrative medicine, they often picture supplements, meditation, or food-as-medicine. What they rarely imagine is a doctor with a prescription pad. And yet, some of the most important decisions I make as an integrative medicine physician involve deciding when to lean on conventional medicine—and when to hold back. This is where the […]
Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN): A New Approach to Healing
Many people are surprised to learn that a medication originally developed to help with addiction is now being used in much smaller doses to support the body’s ability to heal. This therapy is called Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN). What is LDN? Naltrexone blocks opioid receptors at full dose (50 mg) for addiction treatment. At very […]
When Your Gut Talks Back: SIBO in Women and Why It’s Often Missed
Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) is a condition that has gained traction in recent years, but its complexity, especially in women, remains underappreciated. While digestive complaints are common, SIBO presents a particular challenge due to its ability to mimic other disorders like IBS, food intolerances, hormonal imbalances, and even anxiety. For many women, this can […]