Clinic Notes Digest

Lowering lipids causing more dementia? WDDTY did a recent piece about the importance of high-enough lipids to protect the brain – are statins behind the increase in dementia? I wouldn’t be at all surprised.

A reader recently sent me this fascinating case study/article about using B1 and B2 for mitochondrial CFS. A good reminder (thank you, J!).

Really like the look of the peeps on this expert panel on a PLMI Immune Ageing webinar. Could be a good one to check out. Free. Dec 5th.

I came across a child with possible PANS this week, which may have been triggered by chickenpox. However, you can have PANS or PANDAS without an infection trigger. For example, this was interesting from Dr Crista recently on breathing in mycotoxins triggering glial cells in the brain. In case it’s helpful, I came across this diagnostic flow chart, which I thought was nice and clear, although I think there are other, more unusual, symptoms that can happen too. I was looking at this because the child was having ‘strokes’ and I wondered if it could be seizures related to PANS.

Talking of useful charts etc, I saw this excellent overview from MediHerb of which herbs to use for immune support, complete with notes – what should you choose for what immune problem?

And another. How about this Prebiotic Recipe book from Invivo? Honestly, all these peeps creating fab resources for us! Personally, I ask patients to do the Microbiome Mash-Up. No, not a dance, but a veggie shot every day to start rebuilding their SCFA and oral tolerance levels. Here’s Tanya Borowski (looking gorgeous in an off-the-shoulder number!) making one for us.

Quote of the Week: an excellent reminder – for children and adults really – that if your efforts to resolve gut issues aren’t working, then look for brain and signalling issues maybe. I always recommend vagus work now in chronic gut and food intolerance problems, for example – come at it from both angles. I was saying it so often, I wrote a Vagus factsheet for patients!

If a child’s gut problems seem stubborn and irresolvable, the role of the brain should be considered….

Developmental disorders such as ADHD and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) can disrupt normal functioning in areas of the brain involved in activating the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve plays a crucial role in digestion, blood flow to the gut, enzyme release, and smooth muscle contraction for intestinal motility.

In children with brain developmental disorders, these areas may not function optimally.

This disruption can lead to various gut issues in children, such as bloating, distention, food intolerances, and leaky gut. Efforts to address these issues through dietary changes or gut-focused interventions may fall short as the underlying brain component remains a significant factor.

Datis Kharrazian

On a similar note, I notice that the Neuroplasticity Brain Retraining Gupta programme has had a revamp. I recommend this in my Healing Plan for chronic illness, especially multiple sensitivity and trauma-triggered illness. I had to do brain retraining myself. In fact, Gupta over stimulated me (yep, I was that bad) so I devised my own approach – hence the Healing Plan evolved. It’s had a really comprehensive revamp recently, though, so that may no longer be the case. People can get a free trial before they commit to anything. For interest, here are my Mind-Body Medicine top picks.

Did you know there is a change of name afoot for fatty liver disease? Steatotic liver disease is the overarching term for liver disease with metabolic or alcohol-related causes. The new official name for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is “metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease,” or MASLD, and MetALD covers patients with metabolic liver disease who consume moderate amounts of alcohol. It seems quite confusing to me, but I can see why removing the word ‘fatty’ and focusing on the metabolic change would help in patient consultation, understanding and compliance. The word fatty was thought to be stigmatising. (Announced in June at the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) Congress).

Newbie and looking for a room to practice from? Bit lonely on your own and like to be a bit more involved in a team? I see Neal’s Yard are looking for experienced, self-employed therapists to join 23 of their locations. Check it out here – there’s a location list there too.

And so to sleep…. Fittingly, the last bit for this issue is on sleep. I am finding more and more that sleep is a huge factor in chronic illness and inflammatory disorders, especially. I see NED did a recent overview on sleep and one of the posts they pointed us to was this one from IFM, where they discuss the oxidative stress consequences of losing it. I see they mention Qi Gong (amongst other things) that can help. I have found that personally, actually. That said, I find the two tops things causing sleep issues are usually a glucose drop in the night (esp if between 2-4am) and hormones (mine, certainly!!), so I tend to start there. And, if you fancy a lighter read on non-toxic headboards, I did a recent Magpie post on that here, a sort of mash-up of health and interior design – I’m nothing if not eclectic! Enjoy.