Functional Medicine meeting summary 10-22-2015
If you didn’t attend last night’s Functional Medicine Discussion Group, you missed a good one. We discussed differences between Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative Colitis and some of the diets that are commonly recommended by dieticians for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including the elemental diet, the specific carbohydrate diet, and the FODMAP diet. Dr. Marc Wishingrad, a conventional Gastroenterologist who specializes in IBD, gave his informed input on the topic, including how some of the pharmaceuticals work and the side effects. It was a real treat to have Marc join us.
Group member RD Lauren Cornell gave us a great case history of how she successfully handled a patient with Crohn’s Disease, who is now doing well and is off the meds. I also weighed in with my own case history of one of my patients who has Crohn’s and has responded extremely well to a nutrition based program. We both utilize UltrainflamX 360 in our protocals, as well as probiotics and various other nutritional supplements, including fish oils. Adam Banning from Metagenics gave us some of the scientific basis of the newly redesigned UltraInflamX 360 (no longer has fructose and a specialized form of curcumin, instead of turmeric) and their new SPM active product for the second phase of inflammation. We also had a vigorous discussion of food allergy testing with Dr. James, Dr. Toulon, and myself weighing in on the benefits of IgG and IgA testing, with input from Dr. Wishingrad about why immunologists don’t think this form of testing is valid. Metagenics once again treated us to some great, healthy food, this time from True Foods. You should really make our next meeting in November on Tuesday the 17th. Since a number of members have been having trouble getting there by 6, we have decided to change the time to 6:30. But try to get there a little early and you’ll have the best food choices. I will send an email in the next few weeks with the topic and a few papers to read.
