One in every 10 people is affected by an autoimmune condition. You may be one of them. You may be at risk. And you most likely know people with an autoimmune condition. There are currently over 80 different kinds of known autoimmune diseases, but there are likely more that we don’t have a name for yet. Many with an autoimmune disease are at risk of developing one. It’s clear that autoimmune diseases are a serious health issue in our society. But what are the major factors that can cause or increase your risk of autoimmunity? Without understanding the root causes and risk factors, we can’t reduce your risks or improve your health. The job of a healthy immune system is to protect you from infections and diseases. Your immune system does this by attacking viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens that are trying to enter and harm your body. A normally functioning immune system can tell apart pathogens from cells that are part of your body. They don’t harm your cells, tissues, and organs, but only pathogens. However, if you have an autoimmune condition, your immune system has trouble distinguishing between foreign pathogens and your own tissues. It will end up attacking your cells, organs, and tissues instead of pathogens by mistake because it confuses them with foreign invaders. The most common autoimmune conditions include: - Celiac disease - Hashimoto’s thyroiditis - Graves’ disease - Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. - Rheumatoid arthritis - Reactive arthritis - Systemic lupus erythematosus - Addison disease - Sjögren syndrome - Type I diabetes - Psoriasis - Multiple sclerosis - Pernicious anemia - Myasthenia gravis There are 7 causes of autoimmune diseases: 1. Leaky Gut and Low Stomach Acid Levels  2. High Chemical Toxicity Load  3. Mold and Mycotoxins 4. Heavy Metals 5. Phthalates (plastics) 6. Blood Sugar Imbalance and Insulin Resistance (use a constant glucose monitoring) 7. Chronic Stress

Creatine is an amazing compound that our bodies make naturally. Long used in the gym for peak muscle performance, a flood of recent research shows that it has profound effects on brain metabolism, cognitive performance under stress (including sleep deprivation), memory, attention, and even mood support. It's also extremely safe to use. Most people need 2-3 grams/day as a baseline - with our bodies making roughly 1g/day from amino acids in the liver, kidneys, and pancreas. According to new studies, boosting creatine intake beyond baseline is extremely good for your brain in everyday healthy adults. One 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis (Frontiers) of 16 randomized controlled trials found that regular creatine supplementation led to improvements in memory and gains in attention and processing speed. These benefits showed up across adults (including healthy individuals). Another review highlighted particularly noticeable memory gains in healthy older adults. And if you're elbow-crawling at work after a night of insomnia, a big dose can have significant effects and kick in fast (within a couple of hours). In one double-blind, randomized study (Nature), participants running on fumes after 21 hours of sleep deprivation experienced a 10.3% boost in word memory performance (plus 17.7% faster processing) and 16–29% gains in processing speed for language, logic, and numeric tasks. A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis in Frontiers in Nutrition looked at 16 randomized controlled trials involving 492 adults. Creatine supplementation showed positive effects on memory, attention time, and processing speed. A separate 2023 meta-analysis in Nutrition Reviews focused specifically on memory in healthy individuals and found overall improvements, with particularly noticeable gains in older adults.

The lime is best known for its role in key lime pie and margaritas, but did you know it also has remarkable healing properties? An impressive array of research on lime juice from the National Library of Medicine indicates that it could either cure or greatly accelerate healing time from a variety of life-threatening illnesses, including: - Sickle cell anemia (SCA): According to the CDD, SCA afflicts about 95,000 Americans and is diagnosed in 1 in every 500,000 African-American births. A hereditary blood disorder, SCA is characterized by an abnormality in the oxygen-carrying hemoglobin molecule in red blood cells. A clinical trial on lime juice was recently found to reduce painful episodes (50.0% lime juice intervention versus 92.7% control); febrile illness (46.6% lime juice intervention versus 87.3% control), and hospital admission rate (3.4% lime juice intervention versus 34.5% control) for sickle cell anemia in children. - Malaria: Malaria is a mosquito-borne parasitic disease, which the WHO estimates causes 219 million of illness resulting in 660,000 deaths each year. A wide range of highly toxic drugs are used to treat the disease, but a recent study found that lime juice greatly increased malarial clearance when combined with standard drug therapy.   They concluded: "lime juice when used with the appropriate antimalarial may enhance malaria parasite clearance, especially in those with uncomplicated malaria." - Bacterial Agents in Food: A recent study found that ceviche, a popular dish naturally containing pathogenic agents from fish, can be completely sanitized with lime juice. Both Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Salmonella enterica (two common causes of food poisoning) were reduced to below detection limits through the addition of lime extract. - Disinfecting water: Lime has been shown to enhance disinfection by killing both norovirus and Escherichia coli. Lime has also been found to kill the cholera pathogen, which is believed to affect 3–5 million people and causes 100,000–130,000 deaths a year as of 2010.

BMI is a blunt instrument, and a growing body of research is making this clearer every year. New findings presented at the American Heart Association's EPI|Lifestyle Scientific Sessions 2026 underscore a point I've emphasized for a long time in functional medicine: body composition matters more than what the scale says. Researchers analyzed health data from nearly 2,000 African American adults over a median follow-up of 6.9 years, tracking who developed heart failure. Higher waist circumference and waist-to-height ratio were each associated with meaningfully increased heart failure risk; higher BMI, on its own, was not. Inflammation appears to be the connecting mechanism; visceral fat is not passive stored energy, it is metabolically active tissue that drives systemic inflammation, disrupts immune function, and contributes to cardiovascular damage. Inflammation accounted for roughly one-third of the link between belly fat and heart failure in this study. Worth noting: these are preliminary findings presented at a conference and have not yet been peer-reviewed, so some caution is warranted. That said, they align with a substantial body of existing evidence. A simple tape measure around your waist may give you more clinically meaningful information about your cardiovascular health than the number on the scale.

While most know pineapple as an exceptionally delicious tropical fruit, indigenous peoples used it to treat a variety of ailments. Unfortunately, much of this intimate plant knowledge was considered by early anthropologists to be based on mere "superstition" and subsequently disregarded, so that few in the modern world are aware of its formidable healing powers. Thankfully, research on the medicinal properties of pineapple has steadily accumulated over the past few decades, to the point where the conventional medical system has been compelled to take notice. Bromelain, for instance, is a protein-digesting enzyme extract from the pineapple plant and has even been found to be superior to the highly toxic chemotherapy agent 5-fluorouracil as an anti-tumor agent in preclinical research. This remarkable compound, concentrated primarily within the stem (i.e., fibrous core), which is often wastefully discarded, has been researched for the following potential medicinal applications: - Allergic Airway Disease - Asthma - Breast Cancer - Breastfeeding Problems: Poor Milk Production/Quality - Colitis - Colon Cancer - Constipation: Post-operative - Debriding Agent - Dyspepsia - Edema - Glioma (Brain Cancer) - Immune Disorders: Low Function - Inflammation - Irritable Bowel Disease - Influenza - Liver Damage - Lung Cancer - Melanoma - Myocardial Infarction (Heart Attack) - Osteoarthritis of the Knee - Sinusitis - Skin Cancer - Tendon Injury - Thrombophlebitis - Thrombosis (pathological clot) Bromelain extracts are actually composed of a variety of substances, including peroxidase, acid phosphatase, calcium, and protease inhibitors. But the main active ingredients are two enzymes: fruit and stem bromelain. Keep in mind that bromelain's potential therapeutic activity depends entirely on how you take it. When consumed on an empty stomach, the plant's enzyme enters the bloodstream and exerts systemic action. When consumed with food, its activity is mostly expended helping the body break down dietary proteins, easing the body's digestive burden.