Blackhawk Center For Digestive Health

05/09/2024

🌟Discover KPV peptide to targets mast cells to reduce chronic inflammation, mold, and other infections, enhance autoimmunity, treat IBD, and wound healing. Embrace a future where enhanced health and quicker recovery are within reach!

👉Book a free discovery call today with The Real Gut Doctor!

01/22/2022

Stress is always present, dealt with in different ways, and when persistent always brings health problems. Here is one way that research has shown to bring more…

09/29/2021

AFH Regenerative Anti-Aging Medicine: Top 10 Benefits of Meditation

Meditation is the routine exercise of focusing and training your mind in a deliberate way. In the process, self-presence and awareness of your surroundings is increased.

There are two major broad techniques of meditation:

The first is focused –attention meditation. This is where one directs attention to a single object, thought, sound, or visualization. All distractions are pushed out of the way. Meditation may focus on breathing a mantra, or calming sound.

The second is open-monitoring meditation. This is where you focus on broadening the awareness of you surroundings, follow you train of thought, and sense of self. You may become aware of suppressed thoughts, feelings, or impulses.

In our busy schedules a simple exercise of hourly breathing exercises may also help. You can set your phone to chime every hour and then take deep breaths: five seconds drawing air in, holding for five seconds, and then slowly exhaling over five seconds. You can repeat this five times every hour.

Practicing meditation has many health, regenerative, and anti-aging benefits. We will discuss the top 10.



1. Reduce stress.
Most people practice mediation to reduce stress. Normally, mental and physical stress cause increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol. This produces many of the harmful effects of stress, such as the release of inflammatory chemicals called cytokines.
These effects can disrupt sleep, promote depression and anxiety, increase blood pressure, and contribute to fatigue and cloudy thinking.
2. Control Anxiety
Anxiety is controlled when stress is controlled. Several studies have shown mindfulness meditation helped reduce anxiety symptoms in people with generalized anxiety disorder along with increasing positive self-statements and improving stress reactivity and coping. Yoga has also been shown to have this effect combining meditation and physical activity.
3. Foster emotional health
Studies have shown meditation decreased negative thoughts when exposed to viewing negative images and reduced inflammatory chemicals called cytokines, which are released in response to stress that, can affect mood, leading to depression.
4. Increase self-awareness and generate kindness
Certain types of mediation such as self-inquiry meditation is designed to help you develop a greater understanding of yourself and how you relate to those around you. Other forms teach you to recognize thoughts that may be harmful or self-defeating. p\Practicing tai chi may be associated with improved self-efficacy, which is a term used to describe a person’s belief in their own capacity or ability to overcome challenges. Not only can meditation help with self awareness but positive feelings towards others as well as yourself are increased. Metta, a type of meditation also known as loving-kindness meditation, begins with developing kind thoughts and feelings toward yourself. This form of meditation demonstrated its ability to increase peoples’ compassion toward themselves and others. In one study, practicing metta meditation 3 times per week improved positive emotions, interpersonal interactions, and understanding of others after 4 weeks
5. Enhances attention span
Focused-attention meditation is like body building for your attention span. It helps increase the strength and endurance of your attention. Studies showed people who listened to a meditation tape experienced improved attention and accuracy while completing a task, performed better on a visual task and had a greater attention span than those without any meditation experience, and can reverse patterns in the brain that contribute to mind-wandering, worrying, and poor attention. One study found that meditating for just 13 minutes daily enhanced attention and memory after 8 weeks.
6. Mitigate age-related memory loss
You can keep you mind young by improving attention and clarity of thinking. Kirtan Kriya is a method of meditation that combines a mantra or chant with repetitive motion of the fingers to focus your thoughts. Studies in people with age-related memory loss have shown it improves performance on neuropsychological tests. multiple meditation styles can increase attention, memory, and mental quickness in older volunteers. Meditation can also help improve memory in patients with dementia. It can also help control stress and improve coping in those caring for family members with dementia.
7. Helps fight addictions
The habitual practice of meditation increases your mental discipline so that you can break dependencies by increasing your self-control and awareness of triggers for addictive behaviors. Research has shown that meditation may help people learn to redirect their attention, manage their emotions and impulses, and increase their understanding of the causes. Meditation may also help you control food cravings. A review of 14 studies found mindfulness meditation helped participants reduce emotional and binge eating.
8. Improves Sleep
Studies show practicing mindfulness meditation allowed people to say asleep longer, improved insomnia severity, and helped people control or redirect the racing or runaway thoughts that often lead to insomnia, and helped relax the body, releasing tension and putting people in a peaceful state in which you’re more likely to fall asleep.
9. Control Pain
Pain is modified by your state of mind and when you are more stressed you perceive more pain. One review of 38 studies concluded that mindfulness meditation could reduce pain, improve quality of life, and decrease symptoms of depression in people with chronic pain. A large study showed meditation was associated with decreased pain. Meditators and non-meditators experienced the same causes of pain, but meditators showed a greater ability to cope with pain and even experienced a reduced sensation of pain.
10. Decrease Blood Pressure
Meditation reduces the strain on the heart and therefore improves overall physical health. Over time, high blood pressure makes the heart work harder to pump blood, which can lead to poor heart function. High blood pressure also contributes to atherosclerosis, or a narrowing of the arteries, which can lead to heart attack and stroke. Several studies showed meditation helped reduce blood pressure. This was more effective among older volunteers and those who had higher blood pressure prior to the study. In part, meditation appears to control blood pressure by relaxing the nerve signals that coordinate heart function, blood vessel tension, and the “fight-or-flight” response that increases alertness in stressful situations.

To find out more about mediation and how we use it as a part of our All Functional Health Anti-aging and regenerative medicine programs email info@jeffreymarkmd.com, request an appointment at www.allfunctionalhealth.com, or call (925) 736-9828. We’ve helped thousands of people on their health journey and we look forward to helping you. Take care and stay healthy.

Jeffrey Mark, M.D.

Now accepting Telehealth appointments - Schedule a virtual visit today! Trusted Functional Medicine serving Bay-Area San Ramon, CA, Turlock, CA & Chicago, IL. Visit our website to book an appointment online: All Functional Health

09/25/2021

Improve your gut, stress, sleep, energy, memory, learning, hair, skin,
body & health.
With Peptides

09/23/2021

September is National Food Safety Awareness Month. And today I'd like to talk to you about who's at risk for food poisoning with severe symptoms of food poisoning, food safety tips, and testing and treatment.

So, anyone can get food poisoning. But there are certain people that are more likely to get sick from food poisoning. And these include people over age 65, younger children under age five, people with weakened immune systems, and pregnant women.

There are five signs of severe food poisoning. So if you have these symptoms, you should definitely contact your primary care physician, or give us a call if you have the following: bloody diarrhea, fever higher than one hundred two degrees Fahrenheit, frequent vomiting, dehydration, and diarrhea for longer than three days. These are all severe findings that we need to do further evaluation.

Here are four steps that you can take for preventative measures: clean, separate, cook, and chill. So these are from the CDC guidelines. You want to wash your hands, and all the surfaces involved in cooking; thoroughly wash your hands for at least 20 seconds. Some people will sing the alphabet which takes about 20 seconds, and make it just to make sure there are lots of suds and so on, and to wash thoroughly. You want to make sure you're rinsing your fruits and vegetables. while you're running water. You don't want to contaminate your fruits either so you want to separate them between raw meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs because they can have salmonella and other types of bacteria present. So you just have to be careful when you're using cutting boards to keep those separate as well. And to make sure that you separate meats and vegetables when you're packing at the grocery store as well. Next, you want to make sure you cook adequately.

So you want to make sure that for certain meats and poultry, they reach a certain temperature, and you have to use a thermometer generally because you can't tell by just looking at texture and color. So these are the temperature guidelines: 145°F for whole cuts of beef, pork, veal, and lamb (then allow the meat to rest for 3 minutes before carving or eating), 160°F for ground meats, such as beef and pork, 165°F for all poultry, including ground chicken and turkey, 165°F for leftovers and casseroles, 145°F for fresh ham (raw), 145°F for fish or cook until the flesh is opaque. You want to make sure that the food is chilled promptly after eating. So you want to make sure that when the food is perishable it needs to refrigerate within two hours. And if the temperature outside is 90 degrees Fahrenheit, you want to make sure you get it in the fridge, within an hour. And then if you defrost you want to try the defrost, refrigerator, right on the countertop because there is uneven heat distribution of the food as the surface of the food tends to thaw quickly and reach a higher temperature than the core. Here are some food safety guidelines based on the four principles that we've discussed above. So again, to keep things clean. Make sure you cook at the right temperature. And you want to make sure that you pay attention to the food that's been sitting in the room for one, two hours, and if it's over 90 degrees not more than one hour. Then you want to make sure that you serve at the right temperature as well. And the guidelines here can be further explored on the CDC website as well.

So, there are other safety tips as well for certain types of food. Make sure poultry gets a good internal temperature for the meat and poultry to receive for your cooking. Seafood should be cooked to 145 degrees as well. And then for dairy, always try to pick pasteurized milk. This is because of the significant reduction in bacteria. For eggs, try to use pasteurized eggs as well. Sprouts you may want to make sure you wash thoroughly and consider cooking the sprouts, and other vegetables you want to wash thoroughly especially if you're making salads as well, Moving on to cheese, soft cheeses, usually made from pasteurized milk is fine. Other processed cheeses and hard cheeses are also fine as well. In general, you want to try to avoid unpasteurized cheeses. And then when you're grilling you want to make sure you separate between the meat, poultry, and seafood. After you've shopped at the grocery store, you want to make sure that you're keeping the meat chilled below 40 degrees in storage. And you want to clean again and cook to the right temperature as we talked about already. You don't want to cross-contaminate the foods either, and you want to make sure you refrigerate any leftovers as well.

So if you happen to have food poisoning and you get severe symptoms you should call your primary care physician, or give us a call. And you may need further testing such as a store culture and make sure you don't have something like salmonella, which can be more significant, especially for those immunocompromised groups, or the first set of groups that I told you about. You may or may not need antibiotics. We put people on polyphenols, prebiotics, and probiotics ( Probio 350, Probio Plus, ProBio 100, ProBio 30 SB, PomBioX, and ProBio Phyto (Rainbow)). Especially in children, there have been several studies that show certain types of probiotics can decrease the duration of foodborne illnesses and diarrheal illnesses by at least five to seven days; which is fairly significant, especially if there's a risk of dehydration.

So September is National Food Safety Awareness Month, but you don't have to practice food safety, just for the month of September. So hopefully you'll prevent food poisoning by following the safety tips I've mentioned above.

So for more information on restoring the microbiome, All Functional Health (AFH) programs, probiotics or nutrients, and regenerative anti-aging medicine, you can contact us at info@jeffreymarkmd.com, visit our website at www.allfunctionalhealth.com, or call us at (925)736-9828. We've helped thousands of people on their journey of health and we look forward to helping you as well. Take care and stay healthy.

Jeffrey Mark, M.D.

09/21/2021

We discuss the people at higher risk for food poisoning with severe symptoms, food safety tips, and testing and treatment.

07/29/2021

How long you live may be influenced by your gut microbiome. Join the discussion here.

03/03/2021

Can you remember a time when you sat down with excitement to enjoy a nice meal? Now, food has gone from fun to fretting. You're anxious about each meal, not knowing what might cause gas, bloating, and abdominal discomfort. These could all be signs of a common yet complex gi issue, called SIBO, or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.

SIBO can be tricky to discover and risk factors such as low stomach acid, alcohol consumption, food poisoning, or even sluggish thyroid function; are often overlooked. As bacterial levels in the small intestine increase, so does their activity such as fermentation. When fermentation increases in the small intestine, even healthy diets can cause gas, bloating, and intolerance to certain foods and probiotics.

When addressing this difficult persistent GI issue, it's important to identify the root cause, and take steps to rebalance the GI environment. AFH BioSpore is a dual-action solution for SIBO. Its targeted push-pull approach, gently restores the gut terrain, and is driven by two champions of GI health bacillus spores, and high concentration immunoglobulins bacillus spores are a novel probiotic that remain dormant until they reach the small intestine.

This dormant ability allows bacillus spores to be more gentle in the GI tract than other probiotics. Within the small intestine, they spring into action. Ready to detect and push out unwanted bacteria, they produce special compounds that repel and break down these unwelcome organisms.

Then high concentration immunoglobulin step in. This compound binds and gently pulls harmful toxins and bacterial components from the GI tract. The removal of these harmful substances, along with lifestyle and diet interventions, helps to restore the gut terrain and rebalance the GI environment.

Contact us about AFH BioSpore, the pharmaceutical grade, dual-action, antibiotics-free solution for SIBO, that gives you the freedom to eat worry-free.

I've treated thousands of people with SIBO. If you would like to get treated for SIBO or any other functional gastrointestinal problem pleases contact us at info@jeffreymarkmd.com, visit the website at www.allfunctionalhealth.com, or call (925)736-9828. To purchase BioSpore click on this link https://jcgmark.clickfunnels.com/exclusive-offer-checkout1606707217942.

I look forward to helping you on your health journey.

Take care and stay healthy.

Jeffrey Mark, M.D.
Quadruple Board Certified Functional and Regenerative Medicine Gastroenterology Specialist

03/03/2021

Today I'd like to talk to you about a new vaccine that's just been approved, which is the Johnson and Johnson and Janssen joint venture. And this is a COVID-19 or SARS Cov 2 vaccine that's a single dose or single injection, which is an advantage over the two previous ones that required two injections. And it also is favorable in terms of storage in terms of not needing a deep freezer and maybe more convenient and other ways. We first tell you a little bit about what the mechanism of this one is compared to the others. So the way this one works is it's a real ad no virus, meaning it's actually a virus. That's the vector, what uses it to deliver into your body or get into your body, and it takes a virus but makes it relatively inactive in the sense that it's not going to be causing the flu or some other type of significant symptoms, but it's using the machinery of the adenovirus to deliver into the body and into the cells, and what's happened is that the actual DNA is manipulated so that a strand is inserted and this strand has the spike protein. So I can illustrate this for you. And what happens is that this gets placed in DNA machinery or the virus. Then you get inoculated or injected, and then your body incorporates this into the cells similar to like the Pfizer BioNtech and Moderna vaccine descriptions that I've given before, so it gets into the cell ribosomes decipher after messenger RNA is made from the DNA. And then the spike protein is made and then you make antibodies, the humoral response from the B cells and making antibodies and also a T cell response as well. So, this is the difference between Pfizer Biotech, and the Moderna in that this is a DNA based, and it's an agonal virus, and I've just lifted by a layer that gets into the cells, and it's also single injection which is a major difference and we'll talk a little bit about differences as well. So comparing the three, the efficacy of the Pfizer BioNtech, and Moderna vaccines were 95% and 94% respectively in terms of avoiding significant or severe disease death or hospitalization. But you have to recall that at the time that Pfizer and the Moderna were available there were fewer variants than we have now, namely, the UK variant, the South African variant, and the Brazilian variant at this time. Looking at Johnson and Johnson, efficacy is about 66% overall. But you have to break down the numbers a little bit further in that in the United States, the numbers, where there's less variation was 72% advocacy. And there's like I said less variance here in terms of the South African and Brazilian varieties, and in Latin America than in Brazil particularly. There's 66% efficacy and that's even with the Brazilian variant, and in South Africa where there's a prevalence of their specific variation of to 95% prevalence. There was 57% efficacy so even though they had this different variation of the original source code. there was still efficacy at 57%. Well, initially these numbers don't look as good as the others in terms of 94 and 95%. You can see over time though the data suggests that things get better over time and you make more antibodies as your body becomes more responsive, in the sense that, on day 28 there's 85% efficacy in terms of preventing any severe cold and that means hospitalization and death which is something that you want a vaccine to be able to do. On day 49, or 49 days after the vaccination or inoculation and this is a single dose inoculation, there was 100% efficacy in preventing severe COVID, death, and hospitalization. So again, over time by day 49, the vaccine becomes very effective in that severe COVID, death, or hospitalization is avoided. Even in Brazil and South Africa where these variants, as I showed you in terms of preventing any symptoms of COVID relatively lowered the severe reactions were avoided. So it's interesting to know that also that the adverse effects were actually lower in the people that receive the vaccinations versus the placebo. And this is a single shot as well so it doesn't need special refrigeration. And there are actually potentially fewer side effects from the vaccine itself, although there was not a direct comparison, the others. And the other thing is that Johnson. Johnson has shown a commitment to making this a cost-effective option in the sense that they're trying to make this a nonprofit venture, as per their printouts and website. So this is another option I think that will greatly help expand the rollout and the options for people to get a vaccine. If you have other questions about functional medicine and how it can help you with immune resiliency, brain health, and gut health, call us at 925-736-9828, email info@jeffreymarkmd.com, or visit our website at www.allfunctionalhealth.com. Thank you. Take care, and stay healthy.

Jeffrey Mark, MD
Quadruple Board Certified Functional and Regenerative Medicine Gastroenterology Specialist

02/28/2021

What are Symptoms Late Sequelae of Covid?

Common Long-Term COVID-19 Symptoms:

Fatigue
Chest Pain
Dyspnea
SOB/Shortness of breath
Cough
Anxiety and depression
PTSD
Difficulty concentrating (brain fog)
Headaches
Eating and digestive issues
Palpitaiton and tachycardia
Intermittent fever
Sleep problems
Joint and muscle pain
Reduced sense of smell and taste

If you are suffering from LONG COVID symptoms, we have developed a functional and regenerative protocol to help you boost your immunity and help combat these potentially debilitating late sequelae symptoms.

Please give our office a call at 925-736-9828 or request for more information at http://allfunctionalhealth.com

Jeffrey Mark, M.D.
Quadruple Board Certified Physician with 27 years of clinical experience

Frances Mark, Pharm.D.
Board Certified
Nutraceutical Expert Practitioner with 27 years of clinical experience
























Table as published in JAMA Network Infectious Diseases, Feb 19, 2021.