Guest Post by Andrew Graham, NP; Image by RitaE from Pixabay A standard component of annual blood work is the lipid panel, which includes both cholesterol and triglycerides. Most people are pretty familiar with the concept of cholesterol and why it is relevant to health, but a lot less is [...]
Image by Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay I wrote here on how elevated blood histamine levels can manifest systemically. I wrote here on its potential association with motion sickness. But the neurotransmitter histamine can play several other roles as well. Histamine Receptors Any signaling molecule in the body accomplishes its task via receptors, which [...]
Methylation involves taking a group of one carbon and three hydrogens (-CH3) from one biochemical compound and tacking it on to another. This changes the identity of both compounds. The process mostly refers to the “activation” of folate, and it involves passing the methyl group from one compound to another to [...]
We all know intuitively that being in nature makes us feel more peaceful. But studies show that it also can have a significant positive impact on your health—even in the smallest of doses. Nature and Your Overall Well-Being There are several studies out there that show being in nature (hiking, [...]
Starch is an efficient way for plants to store glucose, in polysaccharides (sugar chains). There are two main types of polysaccharides: amylose and amylopectin. The former is more of a single chain (so you have to release the glucose molecules one at a time) while the latter is a series [...]
Immunology 101 There are two parts to your immune system, called “non-specific” (this responds right away to toxic exposure, bee stings, trauma, etc) and “specific” (which takes some time, but is more targeted against specific invaders). Think of non-specific immunity like a sledge hammer, while specific immunity is more like [...]
Histamine in Your Body Histamine is an amino acid with several important functions in the body. The one we’re all most familiar with is its role in the immune system: it gets released in response to an infection or injury to help attract other white blood cells to clean up [...]
Immunology 101 Mast cells are a type of white blood cell that resides in connective tissue, containing small granules (small little packets) of compounds that play a role in immunity. The most well known is histamine, but others include leukotrienes (which also play a role in allergies), serotonin, ATP (your [...]
I wrote here on the general naturopathic approach to treating migraines. As a rule, migraine predisposition tends to boil down to one of four things, or a combination of the following: food allergies, estrogen dominance, a backed-up liver, and/or cervical vertebral rotation or structural problems. But what of those migraines [...]
What Ceramides Are Ceramides are the primary component of the top layer of your skin (the stratum corneum), along with cholesterol and saturated fat. Like the other two, they are lipids (fats), and they are in large part responsible for the integrity of your skin’s barrier against microbes in the [...]