Finding Your Optimal Diet in a World of Food Sensitivities
The many iterations of food sensitivities in the “national eating disorder” community never cease to amaze me! While the topic of non celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) has occupied the headlines for several years now, and has resulted in millions of people demonizing gluten containing food, the latest research study from Norwegian investigators is challenging the […]
The Food Revolution
Amongst the many dramatic technology- driven changes such as self driving electric cars and artificial intelligence going on in the world we live in, the Food Revolution is happening almost unnoticed. While the majority of people living in the US and many parts of the world continue to stick to their traditional Western diet consisting […]
Sensory Deprivation for Relaxation
I am always amazed how things that first became popular in the 60’s and 70’s as counterculture or “new age” beliefs and practices like organic food, vegetarianism, sustainable agriculture, meditation, and even the use of psychedelic drugs like ketamine (now evaluated as a miracle drug for refractory depression) have returned, this time as mainstream businesses. […]
Sex as a Biological Variable: NIH Workshop
The NIH held a workshop on the topic “Sex as a Biological Variable” recently. Women make up half of the world’s population, but the great majority of medical research studies have been performed in males. It has erroneously been assumed that the results and recommendations from these male only studies equally apply to women. In […]
A Miracle Weight-Loss Molecule?
An interesting study describing the development and testing of a molecule first identified in obese laboratory animals and humans, which appears to play a role in modulating the brain-gut axis in a way to prevent further weight gain. The scientists at the pharmaceutical company Amgen modified the molecule so it stays in the circulation longer […]
Vegetarianism May Be Linked To Depression, Study Suggests
This large and well designed clinical study performed in men confirms results previously reported from surveys in women by showing that people who identify themselves as vegetarians or vegans are more likely to be depressed. Previous studies had shown that such an increased risk also applies to anxiety disorders. Like all published studies, the current […]
Is The Secret To A Healthier Microbiome Hidden In The Hadza Diet?
Even though they represent different races, live in very different parts of the world with different climates and plants, the few remaining hunter gatherer tribes in the world – including the Hazdas in Tanzania, the Yanomamis in Venezuela and the Asmat people in Irian Jaya – they have one important thing in common: their gut […]
The Human Microbiome: Emerging Themes at the Horizon of the 21st Century
There is an impressive assembly of the leading microbiome scientists attending the conference “The Human Microbiome: Emerging Themes at the Horizon of the 21st Century” which has been going on at the Natcher Conference Center on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus. The presentations about the latest analytical and computational techniques makes it clear […]
Detox: Does it Help Our Brain-Gut Health?
People love the concept of “detox” and a lot of different strategies such as juicing and fasting, and “cleansing” have been proposed to achieve this goal. Even though the concept goes back thousands of years, most are based on unsubstantiated pseudoscientific concepts that “cleansing” your digestive tract has health benefits over and beyond a general […]
American Psychiatric Association (APA) Meeting 2017
I was invited to speak at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) recently in a debate addressing the question: Can Gut Microbiota Affect Mental Illness? The event was organized by Erika Nurmi, MD from the Semel Institute at UCLA and had a prestigious panel of discussants including James McCracken, MD (UCLA), Chadi […]
Gut Microbiome Symposium in Brisbane
I just spoke at an international microbiome symposium sponsored by the Falk Foundation and organized by Dr. Gerald Holtmann in Brisbane, Australia. The conference highlighted the rapid progress that is being made in identifying the role of the gut microbes in a wide range of disease areas, including inflammatory bowel diseases, IBS, rheumatoid arthritis, pulmonary […]
Leading the Fight Against Excess Sugar Consumption
I was recently invited by Professor William McCarthy from the UCLA School of Public Health to participate in an Expert Roundtable on Added/Free Sugar at the Luskin Center at UCLA. The meeting was sponsored by the Kaiser Permanente Policy Institute in partnership with the American Heart Association and hosted by Drs. Sue Babey and William […]
The Brain-Gut-Microbiome’s Connection to IBD, Obesity and Anxiety/Depression
In the last 5 days I spoke at scientific meetings in NYC, New Orleans and UCLA on each of these topics. The growing interest in the topic of brain gut communication by specialists working in very different areas of research would not have been imaginable only a couple of years ago! Question 1: What do […]
Antibiotic Use and Inflammatory Bowel Disease
A couple of days ago I attended an interdisciplinary brainstorming workshop sponsored by the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation (CCFA) in New York City which began at the storied Harvard Club of New York and went on in a nearby hotel. Experts from widely different disciplines from environmental sciences, microbiology, neuroscience and gastroenterology pondered for 9 […]
The Korean Diet
During my recent trip to Korea, I had a first hand opportunity to experience a food culture which to a large degree is based on fermented foods. While the controlled fermentation of food evolved thousands of years ago as a technique to preserve and store vegetables and fish to be enjoyed fresh months later, there […]
16th World Congress on Pain in Yokohama
Who would have thought a few years ago, that our gut microbes may have an influence on the development of chronic pain? However, the exponential growth in interest of the scientific world in the gut microbiome in the last few years has made it possible to address this provocative question and provide intriguing data supporting […]
Nestlé Nutrition Institute Workshop 2016
I am attending the 88th Nestlé Nutrition Institute Workshop in Mexico “Intestinal Microbiome: Functional Aspects in Health and Disease” and gave a presentation yesterday on brain gut interactions and behavior. There is a growing consensus that the early life period is crucial for the programming of the gut microbiome. This starts during pregnancy with maternal […]
Gut Check
Jon Meachan’s article about Donald Trump in this week’s edition of TIME magazine, is entitled Gut Check – For Trump, intuition beats experience. No matter how much you believe that Mr. Trump lacks any intuitive or experiential qualification to become the next US President, the article raises an important point. Political and military leaders, investors, […]
3 Things Every Parent Should Know!
The first three years of your life are the most important time to shape the life long dialogue between the gut, its microbes and the brain; and the clock starts even before you are born! From the physical and psychological stress a mother experiences during pregnancy, to what she eats, to the way a newborn […]
Interview with Dr. David Perlmutter: Diet and The Mind-Gut Connection
Microbial Ecology
According to a recent article by Ed Yong in the Atlantic, the entire field of microbiome science has paradigm shifting implications: “If microbiome science tells us anything, it’s that everything is secretly ecology. The biology of oceans and bodies and soils is really about the connections and relationships between living things, many of which have […]
Launch of the National Microbiome Initiative and its Implications for All of Us
The launch of the National Microbiome Initiative (NCI) was announced on Friday, March 13 at the White House. Several members of the UCLA Microbiome Center attended the event which brought together scientist, industry representatives and funding agencies. The NMI has three major goals: To foster interdisciplinary research on fundamental questions about diverse microbiomes (including soil, […]