Blog
A collaboration of researchers evaluated 780,000 immune cells from 130 patients and found different immune responses in those with severe COVID19 disease. The question then becomes one of the chicken or the egg, or in other words, are we seeing a cause or an effect here? With the age...
In line with our recent superhero blog about nanobodies, we look at another hoped for superhero in the fight against superbugs. While this hero’s name needs some public relations reworking, “peptide polymers” arose from research at the Melbourne School of...
Every kid loves a superhero. Then we grow up… and still look for superheroes, especially if we work in medicine. Our medical superheroes are needed for the disease or condition which is ravaging our patients’ lives. A tick-borne disease called ehrlichiosis succumbs to...
As we watch the plot of COVID19 play itself out both in science and politics, one question arises daily: “Why?”. For example, “Why does COVID19 cause brain symptoms?” More specifically, does it infect the brain directly or are the brain and its cells just...
The field of infectious disease plays out like a war game in which our immune system battles against viruses which each have their own secret weapons to disable or disrupt our defense systems. In the case of COVID, it too possesses various means of sabotaging our defenses in order to gain...
In high school, everyone joked that they would never use their Algebra 2 again, but mathematicians appear to be planning a takeover of the world with all their models of doomsday COVID 19 predictions. Mathematicians reported their model to predict which cities could become super-spreaders...
Many herbal medicines offer autoimmune sufferers opportunities to find relief without risking unwanted side effects. Those of us in the functional medicine world see patients daily benefiting from these natural options, yet conventional medicine demands mechanisms and explanations. ...
Surprises continue to arise out of the aggressive research into COVID 19 risk factors. As the numbers of infected patients continue to accumulate and politicians push the need to protect hospitals from overflow, we keep learning why some people get it worse than others. In this case,...
California Just Keeps on Giving
Many of us inside and outside California have grown tired of the gifts California offers. The latest gift of another variant of COVID-19 stands out as another gift to return when the store re-opens. With all the news attention that new variants gets,...
Multiple Defenses against COVID
Our immune system sports more defenses against COVID-19 than just antibodies. While the experts lose sleep over whether vaccines and antibodies will work against new strains, our amazing immune system offers more options. Researchers at La Jolla...
With the abysmal ratings of the recent Superbowl as an indicator, the world’s attention is clearly more attuned to the COVID-19 pandemic than the whiny stars of pro- sports. In the ongoing mini-series of COVID-19, the latest stars of infectious disease include a list of so...
While my recent post about a placental estrogen receptor pointed to the mechanisms by which mom’s systems can protect a developing fetus from inflammation, immune changes during pregnancy can also benefit mom. Medical scientists have long recognized that mothers tend to have milder...
