Stanwood Integrative Medicine

09/05/2025

Quick administrative post for all. The new year will bring some changes to the clinic and I will address those in the next few weeks but the most immediate change is that the clinic will now be closed on Mondays. If you have urgent or emergent health care needs, please make sure to go directly to the ER or urgent care clinic. I hope you all have an amazing weekend!

09/01/2025

Happy Labor Day for all of my hardworking (and retired) SIM followers. Labor day typically marks the end of summer and the return to the routine of school, work, sports, etc. I hope everyone found a moment to unplug and enjoy the summer. Today, I wanted to talk about supplements, particularly those involved in the methylation process. People know about MTHFR, this is a specific methylation process and they know it is important but on a broader sense may not understand why it is important. Methylation is a process in the body by which a methyl group (CH3) is donate to support a function like turning on or off genes. Poor methylation causes the mitochondria to not function well, increases fibrosis (scarring), and increases inflammation to name a few consequences of poor methylation. It is estimated that up to 30% of the population has some defect in methylation. Now we can test for poor methylation but it wouldn't change what we would do to support better methylation which includes the use of a methylated folate and methylated B12 (methyl cobalamin). Another "hot topic" supplement that support methylation is methylene blue. Please note that NOT everyone can use methylene blue (depending on medications currently being used like SSRIs or late stages of poor kidney function) but it can be used safely in a number of individuals. Please support your cells by making sure you are taking a good version of vitamin B12 and folate (look for methyl folate and methyl cobalamin).

08/29/2025

Just a reminder that we are entering into the Labor Day weekend. The clinic will be closed on Monday 01 September 2025 and we will reopen on Tuesday 02 Sept 2025. If you experience a medical emergency please go to the ER or urgent care.

08/17/2025

Greetings SIM followers! I hope everyone is doing well. We had a post a month or 2 ago about pain. This is such a complicated area in medicine that is difficult to treat and often only provides symptomatic relief for some individuals where the underlying cause is difficult to find. There are many individuals that will reach for "natural products" in the hopes that this will control their pain. One natural product is Kratom. I will be the first to admit that this is a plant product that I don't have experience with and don't know a lot about. There was an amazing podcast by Dr Huberman in which he had a discussion with Dr Chris McCurdy. Dr McCurdy has been investigating plant medicine for a number of years and has been specifically studying Kratom. The podcast link is provided below. This herb seems as if it can be quite helpful for some individuals but we have to be careful as this is a supplement that can have some significant side effects if caution isn't taken with respect to the types of products purchased. Kratom isolates are more potent than the total plant but they also come with a higher risk of respiratory depression as well. Please take a listen to this very informative podcast.

Explore kratom’s effects on energy, mood, and pain, plus safety risks and traditional uses, with expert insights on its biology and therapeutic potential.

08/10/2025

Happy Sunday All! I hope that everyone has been enjoying this amazing summer weather. Soon the children will be back in school and we will get wrapped up in all of the things associated with fall, the impending winter months and the holidays still to come. Today, I wanted to share some information about research completed out of Harvard (see the link below). The senior author, Dr Bruce Yankner describes this research and its' findings to include that the use of Lithium Orotate in the water of mice "reversed the disease-related damage and restored memory function, even in older mice with advanced disease. Notably, maintaining stable lithium levels in early life prevented Alzheimer’s onset — a finding that confirmed that lithium fuels the disease process." Now before you start just dosing with Lithium, normal levels are around 2mg per day. Small amounts of lithium are required for folate and vitamin B12 transport in the human body. Higher doses of lithium have been used in the treatment of mania and some forms of bipolar disorders. Lithium can be found naturally in foods such as legumes, tomatoes, mushrooms, cauliflower and cabbage.
The treatment is in the dosing. Before embarking on lithium supplementation, please talk with your health care provider.

https://hms.harvard.edu/news/could-lithium-explain-treat-alzheimers-disease?fbclid=IwY2xjawMGBeBleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETE0dDNhVHVFaUZCTWtLSGl3AR7Zwg7uLKC9CL6IDKfalGKOeaGek_OFTRa3tY6mNC0JnBnWvZTbeokAYbDHPQ_aem_ZKmwWfbZOVPRa_prBpeFLw

Study: Lithium loss ignites Alzheimer’s, but lithium compound can reverse disease in mice

07/30/2025

It looks like Wednesdays are inspirational posting days for this month...I hope everyone has been able to enjoy this amazing summer that we are having so far. Today I wanted to share some information about chronic use of common over the counter medications and a couple of prescription medications. When we get a minor injury we don't think twice about grabbing an over the counter pain relief (NSAID), particularly Ibuprofen or Aleve. If the pain is stronger, some providers will start to reach for more prescription strength medication such as Indocin or Celebrex. For short term use (less than 6 months), this is perhaps okay but there are reports that have been coming out over the past 3-4 years indicating that long term use (greater than 6 months) can start to have adverse effects. A similar finding is occurring with long-term (again greater than 6 months) use of oral corticosteroids (prednisone, etc). The findings are showing that there in an increase in all causes of death for individuals on long-term therapies of corticosteriods or NSAIDs. If you are one of these individuals that has been on these medications daily for many months, it is time to talk with your doctor about alternatives to help reduce your inflammation.

07/16/2025

Happy Wednesday all! I am hoping that you are able to get out to enjoy the sunshine. Today, I came across an interesting article about longevity and psilocybin. Most individuals think about psilocybin with respect to overall neurological health to include support for anxiety, depression and PTSD. It has also been studied for chronic pain and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease based on the unique remodeling of the neural network in the brain by the psychedelic substances. A new article published in Nature has shown in both cell studies and mouse models that psilocybin can also enhance overall cellular longevity as well as increasing lifespan. This is an exciting development in the use of something provided by nature.

Psilocybin, the naturally occurring psychedelic compound produced by hallucinogenic mushrooms, has received attention due to considerable clinical evidence for its therapeutic potential to treat various psychiatric and neurodegenerative indications. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remai...

07/12/2025

Happy Saturday everyone! Hopefully you are all out enjoying this amazing weather today. I wanted to make a quick post about saturated fats. For years, we have been told that the saturated fats will negatively impact our cardiovascular health. A recent meta-analysis (analysis done a previously published research to generate an overall consensus on a topic) was released. This meta-analysis was done on randomized control trials (typically considered the “gold standard”) to see if there was a negative impact on our cardiovascular system with consumption of saturated fats. Showed that there was no statistical difference between low saturated fat consumption versus normal consumption of saturated fats with preventing cardiovascular disease or mortality.

Saturated Fat Restriction for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
Satoru Yamada 1, Tomomi Shirai 1,2, Sakiko Inaba 2, Gaku Inoue 1, Minami Torigoe 2, Naoto Fukuyama 2

07/08/2025

I hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July. As Farmer’s Markets are getting into the full swing of the season, I wanted to talk about one of favorite savory spices….garlic. Specially, we will talked about aged garlic. Garlic is aged by placing it into an alcohol bath for 20 months. One specific form of aged garlic is Kyolic garlic which is a proprietary method of aging garlic (still in alcohol) but allows for better quality control. There is new research showing that Kyolic garlic can improve your overall athletic performance but the mechanism is via improving the flexibility of your arteries (decreasing arterial stiffness). There are a number of articles that show the cardiovascular benefits of aged garlic. These other benefits include better cholesterol control, lowers blood pressure and it also improves the biodiversity of the gut microbiome. The benefits from supplementation of aged garlic is seen after 12 weeks of supplementation at doses of 1.2 grams per day. Just a little food for thought! Hope you all have a great week.

06/29/2025

Well it looks like there is too much going on in my head but there is another podcast that I fully feel is worth sharing. Several weeks ago, another SIM follower had asked for a discussion about pain. Although the question about pain was specific, I feel that this podcast goes has several areas which can be important for all suffering from chronic pain. Please take some time to take a listen.

“I frequently focus on getting people back to a good quality of life and giving them control of their life and their pain, rather than a promise to eliminate pain. In the acute setting, often, it's eliminating pain.” —Sean Mackey

06/29/2025

One of our SIM followers asked a question about a specific peptide, KPV. This is a 3 amino acid peptide (Lysine-Proline-Valine). It is a peptide that is an end portion (terminal fragment) of a larger hormone, Melanocyte Stimulating Hormone alpha (MSH-a). The full actions of MSH isn't well understood yet either. In frogs MSH is partially response for skin coloring but in humans there is still a lot of research working on all of actions for this hormone. There actually isn't much published on KPV but the articles that are available all report on the antiflammatory effects of this peptide. There is research on its use in inflammatory bowel disease and other research on its' use for skin conditions such as atopic dermatitis and eczema. Sadly due to rulings by the FDA late last year, we have lost the access to many peptides and I do NOT endorse the use of research grade peptides which can have a different purity than pharmaceutical grade peptides.

06/29/2025

Administrative note. Greetings SIM peeps! We are rapidly entering into July. Our clinic will be closed on 04 July and we will be open again on Tuesday 08 July 2025. If there are any medical urgencies or emergencies, please go directly to Urgent Care or the ER. I hope everyone has a safe and fun 4th of July.