This podcast is another GREAT conversation with my friend Pejman (the other doctor K, haha) that we recorded recently. I also put this on our Youtube channel, but here is the audio. It's a long conversation, but we could have easily kept going!!

I think Dr. Pejman Katiraei is an amazing doctor, educator, and he has become my friend who I love having discussions with. He is a pediatrician, and when you listen to him talk you can immediately hear how much he cares for these poor children and families that he sees suffering from ADHD, OCD, PANS/PANDAS, autism, anxiety/depression, failure to thrive, early puberty, etc - he obviously has a big heart for these kids. He is a great question-asker, always asking the question - "WHY?" Why are these kids' brains inflamed? Why are their guts a wreck? Why are they folate or D3 deficient? Why are their mitochondria dysfunctional?

The question of WHY often leads an inquiring mind upstream to root causes like MOLD TOXICITY and MYCOTOXIN EXPOSURE. Mold toxicity is so prevalent today and yet so often overlooked in these kids - and in adults too, which is more my client population, but I work with kids as well. Both of us have come to this conclusion separately - by asking WHY it has led both of us to spend the last decade plus learning more about the science, evidence, mechanisms, and strategies to understand, detect, and correct mold-related illness, which we have both applied in practice with great success, even though we don't always use the same strategies. In this video we talk about a TON of stuff, including labs, supplements, gut health, LPS, heavy metals, parasites, and many other important topics, and I think this will be really helpful especially for a parent trying to solve their child's (or their own) health puzzle.

Let's face it - being in pain sucks. That's kind of part of it, right?? So obviously people with pain, especially chronic pain, want some relief. That's why pain is a leading cause of disability, and pain management is a multi-billion dollar-per-year industry. But WHY WOULD SOMEONE BE IN PAIN IN THE FIRST PLACE??? That's what a functional medicine approach looks at!

Pain has many mechanisms, and as a chiropractor I have seen and successfully treated a lot of pain. In fact, I probably saw more straight-up "pain" in my former practice doing more musculoskeletal work, and chiropractic care is great for pain relief and much more. Nowadays, I see pain from other causes like autoimmune diseases, and see great success by taking a functional medicine approach to pain.

Pain can have many forms - it can be from wear-and-tear and old age, injuries, autoimmune inflammation, it can be exacerbated by overuse, stress, food sensitivities, anything that can drive inflammation - or it may be "unexplained". It can be called shooting pain, burning pain, stabbing pain, growing pains, osteoarthritis, "bone-on-bone", numbness, tingling, neuropathy, bone pain, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, muscle pain, soreness, mixed-connective tissue disease, fibromyalgia.....you may be told you have "degeneration", or "inflammation", a "pinched nerve", or you may be told "everything looks normal". There are a lot of possibilities!

The point is that there are many mechanisms to pain, and a functional medicine approach considers all the possible root causes, then we look deeper to evaluate the mechanisms, then we develop strategies to control the root source of pain.

That's what this podcast is all about - - how you can determine a bit more about your "pain" by evaluating the mechanisms, looking at lab tests, looking for and eliminating triggers, decreasing you inflammation by following different dietary and supplement protocols to not only get you out of pain in the short-term, but also decrease your pain in the LONG-TERM by addressing the real root cause(s).

Genetic testing is fascinating, but I have a love-hate relationship with it as a practitioner. It is very trendy in the functional medicine/health world, and I think this makes sense - - so many people are trying to figure out WHY they feel a certain way or have certain symptoms, and testing can absolutely help answer some of the "why" questions.

BUT - - genetics doesn't always answer these questions, and in many cases can muddy the waters even more. I have seen TONS of people come to me with genetic reports who aren't any better off than before they tested their genetics, and are perhaps even more confused. One gene might say you NEED methyl B vitamins, while another gene might say AVOID methyl B vitamins. I have seen TONS of people who are taking certain supplements like methyl-folate for their MTHFR mutation, but they don't respond well to it and it's actually making them worse. I have seen TONS of people who spent a lot of money on genetic reports, or on "customized" supplements based on their genes, and still haven't found the good results that they were hoping for.

Does this mean it's worthless? Absolutely not, I have run TONS of genetic tests on myself and have found it very worth it, it's just not the whole story.

In this podcast, I dive deeper into these opinions of mine, which aren't necessarily PRO or CON, they are just the PROS and the CONS from what I have seen working with chronic and complex clients over the past 10+ years. I talk about the books I've read, people I've followed online, the tests I've run, I talk about the most famous genes (MTHFR and gang), the most important genes for autoimmunity, mold toxicity, etc, and I talk about definitions of genomics, alleles, SNPs, and a little bit of everything "genetic", which hopefully can help YOU make some better sense of genetic testing and how you can use this tool while solving YOUR health puzzle!