AI and Thought Full disclosure: I am a major fan of AI as it will democratize knowledge and lift up the general capacity of the world unlike anytime in human history. There are risks, to be sure. Alas, nothing great in human history was brought to bear without risk. Noah Hariri brings so much thought to bear as it relates to Artificial Intelligence and human growth. He has a must listen to you tube video entitled: The next 50 years: humanity, AI, power | Yuval Noah Harari

Sivers and Literature Leading Life "Last week someone asked why I prefer books. My immediate answer was that I love their quiet, non-commercial nature. No ads. No hype. Just quiet wisdom with deep rewards for a focused mind. But today I realized something more profound: Each of my biggest life-changing moments came from a single sentence deep inside a book." (Sivers D. 2026) I still prefer to hold a book in my hands, the weight of it, the rough-hewn pages beneath my fin

Pregnancy Changes the Story in a Mother’s Brain Something remarkable happens to a woman's brain during pregnancy. And I'm not talking about "pregnancy brain", forgetting where you left your keys or walking into the kitchen and wondering why you went there. These changes are much deeper than that. Dr. Hoekzema, a Neuroscientist, and colleagues followed women from before conception through pregnancy and into the postpartum period, using brain imaging to watch the transfor

The Story Your Brain Decides to Tell Two people walk into the same room. One has been told that she is there to make new friends. The other has been told that she is there to determine whether the people in the room can be trusted. Same room. Same people. Same conversations. But perhaps not the same experience. That is the fascinating implication of emerging neuroscience exploring how the brain constructs the story of our lives. We tend to imagine that our senses

Breakfast and Lunch Ideas Breakfast options:  Greek yogurt bowl: Plain Greek yogurt, blueberries or strawberries, walnuts, chia seeds, and cinnamon. Oatmeal upgrade: Steel-cut or rolled oats with berries, ground flaxseed, walnuts, cinnamon, and a spoonful of almond or peanut butter. Avocado toast: Whole-grain toast topped with avocado, tomato, pumpkin seeds, and a side of berries. Breakfast smoothie: Unsweetened milk or kefir, berries, spinach, chia or flaxseed, and unsw

Back To School Thoughts As summer winds down and the school year starts, our attention naturally turns to backpacks, school supplies, new clothes, sports schedules, and carpools. But getting ready for school is about much more than checking items off a list. It is about helping our children return to the classroom with the physical, mental, and emotional foundation they need to thrive. A few simple changes now can make the transition much easier. 1) Start With S

Literature Review 1) In this JAMA paper, "Of the 1173 participants (median age, 74 years experienced greater than or equal to 2 conditions by the end of follow-up (316 of 385 [82%], 327 of 385 [85%], and 350 of 403 [87%], respectively, among lifestyle, metformin, and placebo groups). The risk of multimorbidity was lower among lifestyle compared with placebo participants after adjustment for relevant covariates. There was no difference between participants in the metform

The Hardest Part of Medicine Isn't Making the Diagnosis Last week I wrote that one of the most healing words in the English language may be "no." I believed it when I wrote it. After today, I believe it even more. Today was one of the hardest days I've experienced in medicine in a long time. I drove home with a heaviness that is difficult to describe. Not because a child died. Not because I faced an impossible diagnosis. Not because science failed me. Not because of t

1) In this Nature paper, the authors engineered an enzyme capable of converting Nε-carboxymethyllysine (CML), a common advanced glycation end product (AGE), back into its native amino acid, lysine. Rather than relying on the body to degrade and replace damaged proteins, this approach directly repairs a key form of age-related protein damage. "AGE accumulation contributes to the stiffening and loss of elasticity observed in aging tissues by crosslinking collagen and inhibiting

The Healing Power of Saying No Why the path to health often begins with restraint! Every major faith tradition discovered something long before neuroscience or evolutionary biology could explain it. Growth often begins with restraint. During Lent, people give something up, not because chocolate, wine, or social media are inherently evil, but because saying no creates space. Space for awareness. Space for clarity. Space to notice how often our impulses quietly run the show

An issue on everyone's mind lately is the parasite Cyclospora. The good news is that, for the overwhelming majority of healthy people, this is more of an unpleasant gastrointestinal illness than a dangerous infection. Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal infection caused by the protozoan parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis, acquired almost exclusively by ingesting contaminated fresh produce or water. Humans are the only known reservoir. Unlike many enteric pathogens, the parasite'

The Medscape/Pediatric News article by Christine Bahls, "The Rise of Early-Onset Diabetes: A Looming Crisis," frames youth-onset type 2 diabetes as one of the most significant emerging pediatric health threats. Rather than viewing diabetes as an isolated endocrine disorder, the article emphasizes it as the downstream consequence of profound changes in childhood metabolism, nutrition, and environment. We are seeing this reality play out weekly in our clinic. We are diagnosing

Failing Them Why Are We? We are failing our children, the next generation. I have been spending an inordinate amount of time studying cellular biology and mitochondrial function in order to understand worsening disease trends. Thus, I want to revisit a landmark study that is one of the most comprehensive assessments of pediatric health ever conducted in the United States. Rather than examining a single disease or health outcome, Dr. Forrest and colleagues integrated d

Literature Review 1) The recent Journal of Pediatric Health Care study, highlighted by Medscape, reinforces that autism should be viewed as a condition affecting multiple body systems rather than solely a neurodevelopmental disorder. By comparing children and adolescents with autism to neurotypical peers, the investigators found significantly higher rates of numerous medical and psychiatric comorbidities, including anxiety, ADHD, depression, epilepsy, sleep disorders, gastroi

Do we listen to its signal? Pain: Your Body's Built-In Warning System Pain is one of the body's oldest and most important protective mechanisms. It isn't your enemy. It is a messenger. Imagine walking barefoot across your living room and accidentally kicking the corner of the coffee table. The sharp pain that shoots through your toe isn't there to punish you, it is there to protect you. Within fractions of a second, nerves carry a signal to your brain, telling you tha

Whitney McKnight's article in Medscape reminds me of many SPA newsletters covering inflammation. It is nice to see general medical literature exploring this rapidly emerging concept in pediatric medicine: that allergy, asthma, and depression may not be entirely separate conditions, but instead share a common biological driver: chronic inflammation. The article reviews growing evidence suggesting that inflammatory pathways may link these seemingly unrelated disorders and raise

Metabolites and Phenotypes In a brand new paper entitled. “Elevated Microbially-Derived Metabolites in Autism: A Possible Diagnostic Screening Test for a Distinct ASD Phenotype,” Dr. Flynn and colleagues investigated whether specific urinary metabolites produced by intestinal microbes could serve as predictive biomarkers for autism spectrum disorder. The study proposes that a large subset of children with autism may represent a biologically distinct phenotype characterized

"Because challenges are ubiquitous, resilience is essential for success in school and in life. ... We show that students who believe (or are taught) that intellectual abilities are qualities that can be developed (as opposed to qualities that are fixed) tend to show higher achievement across challenging school transitions and greater course completion rates in challenging math courses. New research also shows that believing (or being taught) that social attributes can be deve

or Better Yet, Live for Today Recently, there has been more death and morbidity in my life than usual. There is no easy way to discuss this topic. Death is finite and simultaneously infinitely painful for the survivors. Everyone learns in the moment how to deal with death. There is no on-the-job training. We are not born ready to accept this reality. It is simply thrust upon us. While I deal with illness and death more frequently than the average American, an occupational

Strengthen Your Lab Interpretation Skills Across Adult and Pediatric Care. Start with Basic & Advanced Blood Labs: A Functional Approach for Family Medicine, an on-demand course led by Drs. Chris Magryta and Erik Lundquist, then join the live Q&A on June 10 at 4:00 p.m. PST / 7:00 p.m. EST. Fullscript Academy's course-plus-live format pairs on-demand education with a live Q&A for practical training and direct instructor access. Course link You will learn how to: ·