Dr. Tracy McAlvanah's Wellness Blog

For functional medicine guidance, please contact  Dr. Tracy McAlvanah Although we’ve all read the stories about marriage being good for your health, a  bad marriage  is bad your health. In fact, bad marriages are far worse for you than healthy marriages are good for you. In other words, if your marriage is a constant stressor, you’ll lower your risk of chronic disease either going it alone or doing the work to make the marriage a good one. What’s more, the risks are higher for  women . Contemporary studies show marriage lowers your risk of many modern ailments, including heart disease, cancer, and even dementia. Why? Research into  adult attachment  shows humans are hardwired to depend on a significant other as a matter of survival. Though we may think it’s about love and romance, to the human brain, a long-term relationship is the difference between life and death. However, these benefits don’t extend to troubled relationships. It’s the human body’s life-or-death approach to relat...

For functional medicine guidance, please contact  Dr. Tracy McAlvanah New research has found a link between gut bacteria and  anxiety  — the diversity and quantity of your gut bacteria can affect your anxiety levels. Scientists believe this could play a role in treating PTSD, or post-traumatic stress syndrome. In the study, researchers subjected mice to stressful conditions until they showed signs of anxiety and stress: shaking, diminished appetite, and reduced social interaction. Fecal samples showed the stressed mice had less diversity of gut bacteria than calmer mice who had not been subjected to stress. When they fed the stressed mice the same live bacteria found in the guts of the calm mice, the stressed mice immediately began to calm down. Their stress levels continued to drop in the following weeks. Brain scans also showed the improved gut flora produced changes in brain chemistry that promotes relaxation. These biomarkers, according to researchers, can indicate whether so...

It’s an addiction to insanity in our culture, one of the most overfed populations in human history — the weight loss diet. Despite plenty of scientific evidence that diets don’t produce lasting results for most people and despite countless numbers of dieters, most of them women, thrown into a lifetime of damaging despair, low self-esteem, and self-hatred thanks to failing diets, our culture still blindly adheres to the low-calorie diet as the panacea for all life’s problems, including those extra pounds. The reality TV show The Biggest Loser provided the perfect high-profile platform for scientists to showcase what millions of Americans have learned the hard way: diets make you fatter in the long run. Why dieting makes you fat For most of our species’ history, meager food supply and bouts of famine have been the norm. As a result, the body prioritizes conserving fat and energy through altering its metabolism and fat-storing hormones. Metabolism slows dramatically for years E...

For functional medicine guidance, please contact  Dr. Tracy McAlvanah For decades, media experts have promoted a diet high in omega 6 fats — found in corn, soybean, canola, and safflower — to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease. We now know excess omega 6 fatty acids is connected to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity, psychiatric issues, and cancer. Omega 3 fats, however, are linked with lowered inflammation, better brain function, and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. Our grandparents ate a much different ratio of  omega 6 to omega 3  fatty acids than we do; omega 3-rich wild and grass-fed meats were the norm, and traditional omega 3 fats such as butter and lard were always on hand. Omega 6 fats promote chronic illness Introducing processed seed, nut, and bean oils into our diet while reducing grass-fed and wild fats has resulted in Americans becoming deficient in essential omega 3 fats, while having way too many omega 6 fats on board. In addition,...

For functional medicine guidance, please contact  Dr. Tracy McAlvanah You’ve probably heard that depression and other mental health issues are based on a lack of brain chemicals such as serotonin and GABA. Conventional treatment is to give medications that trick the brain into thinking it has enough chemicals. But new research shows in many cases mental health issues are related to chronic inflammation, not necessarily a lack of chemicals, and unstable blood sugar is often at the root of inflammation. How does inflammation cause mood issues? When the body is chronically inflamed, it sends  chemical messengers  to the brain, where they activate the brain’s immune cells, called glial cells. Chronic inflammation permanently activates the glial cells, setting off a cascade of destruction: Reduced production of brain chemicals such as serotonin, dopamine and GABA. Brain cells can’t produce vital energy to thrive. Cells degrade and die, releasing toxins into the brain, causing even m...

For functional medicine guidance, please contact  Dr. Tracy McAlvanah If you have an autoimmune disease, chronic inflammation, or signs of brain inflammation (such as brain fog), you may have noticed it can be tough to tame the inflammation. This is because the body can get trapped in vicious cycles that feed the inflammation. Luckily, researchers have pinpointed what perpetuates these cycles and ways to stop them. They include targeting two immune messengers called “nitrous oxide” and “IL-17.” The immune system triggers inflammation by releasing an immune messenger called IL-17. IL-17 triggers other immune cells to damage body tissue, such as the thyroid gland in the case of autoimmune Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism or joint tissue in rheumatoid arthritis. IL-17 isn’t all bad—in a healthy immune system it prevents infections. But chronic inflammation or an autoimmune disease create too much IL-17. Inflammation, IL-17, and “bad” nitric oxide IL-17 damages body tissue by activating a...

For functional medicine guidance, please contact  Dr. Tracy McAlvanah It’s an all-too-common scenario for teen girls today: That time of the month comes around they are home from school white-knuckling it through agonizing menstrual cramps, having only just endured a week of equally debilitating PMS depression and anxiety. It’s just your standard entry into womanhood, right? Not! Although hormonal irregularity is normal in the early years, excessive pain and anguish is not. It signals underlying causes of hormonal imbalance that may be alleviated through diet and lifestyle changes. Of course one must also consider the possibility of serious  medical disorders   such as uterine fibroids, pelvic inflammatory disease, or, most commonly, endometriosis, disorders that tend to be overlooked in young girls in early menses. Going beyond NSAIDS and the pill for teen cramps The conventional approach to severe cramps and PMS is the use of over-the-counter pain medication and low-dose oral ...