As we age, our body undergoes many changes, including the loss of muscle mass. This loss of muscle mass has many negative consequences, including weight gain. This further results in a slower basal metabolic rate, which means that instead of efficiently converting the foods we eat into energy, we store what we eat as body fat. As functional medicine specialists, …
Why Do People Gain Weight as They Age?
As we age, our bodies go through a series of changes that can make it difficult to maintain a healthy weight. Experienced functional medicine doctors explain that weight gain is not merely caused by overeating or inactivity. In the following blog, we’ll explore nine science-based reasons why weight gain happens as we age and what we can do about it. …
What Is Leaky Gut?
Leaky gut describes a damaged intestinal lining. It’s a casual term for the scientific phrase “intestinal hyperpermeability”. Millions of people are walking around with leaky guts. You could be one of them. It’s a truly fascinating realization and an eye-opening diagnosis. Our gut is our digestive tract – the long tube that starts from our mouth and ends at our …
Why Am I Bloated & How Can I Resolve It?
Do you look a few months pregnant after you eat a meal? Does it get worse throughout the day? Is it difficult to zip up your jeans by the afternoon? Are stomach aches or gas and bloating something you’ve just learned to live with? Gas and bloating are about as common as breathing nowadays. But just because something is common …
The Irritable, Tired, Foggy-Brained Woman
Is this you? Maybe your wife or your friend? Are you looking for a functional medicine doctor in the Los Angeles area who can help? In my functional medicine practice, I treat women with these issues on a daily basis. Who are these women? It used to be working mothers typically in their 30s and 40s, juggling careers with children …
12 Reasons Why You’re Not Getting Better & What to Do About It
In my holistic health and Functional Medicine practice over the past 20 years, I’ve witnessed and helped hundreds of people heal, overcome, and triumph over their health issues. As a holistic doctor, I’ve also seen many people not get better and continue to struggle. Certainly not every ailment in the human experience is curable, and it’d be preposterous to say …
Are You Wearing Your INNER Mask? Understanding Germ Theory vs Terrain Theory
by Dr. Jamie Chan-Ortega, Ph.D. 12/20/20 Throughout this topsy-turvy year of the coronavirus pandemic, we’ve heard again and again to wear our masks, wash our hands, and social distance. These external measures of hygiene and safety are important and have their roots in germ theory, which undergirds public health. When it comes to germ theory vs terrain theory, there are …
Fatigue, Depression, & Protein Digestion: Connecting the Dots
written by Dr. Jamie Chan-Ortega, Ph.D. 9/26/20 TIRED. IRRITABLE. ANXIOUS, DEPRESSED. Chances are, one or more of these terms describes you or someone you know. It’s the epidemic of fatigue and mood disorders that’s been plaguing us Americans long before the coronavirus pandemic reared its ugly head, but that’s certainly seemed to intensify this year. Stress is at an all-time …
Social Media Overwhelm: Restoring Peace, Patience, and Presence
written by Dr. Jamie Chan-Ortega, Ph.D. 08/12/20 ONCE UPON A TIME we had to wait for the 6 o’clock news to find out what’s happening in the world. We’d get a palatable 30-minute dose and then be on with our lives. Now, information pounds at our front door; it bloats our bellies and spreads like weeds in the garden of …
Treating the Gut to Heal Chronic Illnesses
Do any sort of meaningful review of the latest scientific research and it becomes undeniably clear that a multitude of chronic health issues arise from within our gut. Now I’m of the camp that believes most health issues first and foremost start in our minds: the choices we make in how we react to stress and what we eat, our …