Live Well Clinic

By Sonja Fung, ND There is a trend in health care of “conventional” medical practitioners and “alternative” care professionals working together. This practice provides the best of both health care worlds in a fully integrated model of medicine that not only addresses the acute disease process and symptom management, but also treats the causes of underlying chronic disease. Integrating a holistic perspective in to traditional medicine can provide a full spectrum of health and healing. The Take Over of Chronic Disease Our society is experiencing a sharp increase in the number of people who suffer from complex, chronic diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, mental illness, and autoimmune disorders like arthritis and inflammatory bowel diseases. In 2005, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that 1 in every 2 Americans have at least one chronic disease. Think about how that number has increased in the last 7 years. Chronic disease treatment costs ...

When the body turns on itself: The rising auto-immune incidence in America By Dr. Sonja Fung The National Institutes of Health reports 23 million Americans suffer from auto-immune diseases. It lands on the top ten list for causes of death in female children and women under 64 years of age. Our immune system is like our protective army, diligently patrolling the body, looking for any molecular marker that does not belong.  When it finds something foreign such as bacteria, infected cells, or undigested food particles, it initiates a war on the unwanted foreign invader.  While the army is patrolling throughout the body, immune cells also frequently contact molecules that are your normal terrain like your blood cells, skin cells, or cartilage cells.  Just as immunological identification of invaders is important, recognizing that normal body cells are not invaders is equally crucial. When a person develops autoimmunity (AI), the loss of self-recognition ...

  By Dr. Sonja Fung, ND We all know how debilitating arthritis is in our life. It can be things like the inability to put on a shirt up to the inability to walk. But did you know that your digestive health can be a critical factor in the treatment of arthritis? Maintaining digestive health is key to the health of your body. Your intestines make up 70% of your immune system called GALT- Gut associated lymphatic tissue. For example, infection activates your immune system à intestinal immune cells present pieces of foreign cells to tell the rest of your body which cells to destroy à all your immune cells find and destroy the foreign cells à your body gets better and keeps you from getting sick next time. This is the normal function of your immune system. The question is, what happens when gut immunity breaks down? Intestinal inflammation causes a disruption of the integrity of your intestinal lining, thus allowing foreign cells and proteins to s...

Why do some people say sunscreen actually leads to more cancer? Physiology answers this.   The pigment responsible for tanning, melanin, has other important roles: it absorbs the UV rays and neutralizes bad free-radicals when skin is invaded by bacteria, fungi, and viruses, and from exposure to light. When you use a sunscreen, the melanin producing cells are not stimulated, which actually interferes with the skin’s natural ability to protect against the harmful effects of ultraviolet light. Without melanin, the UVA’s are allowed to penetrate deeper into vessels, nerves, and tissues, which can lead to harmful mutations that can possibly lead to cancer. How does your body naturally protect itself from harmful affects of the sun? Your body uses endogenous antioxidants to protect your skin cells from the oxidative damage to your skin. Your body’s antioxidants mainly come from the vitamins and minerals from colorful fruits and vegetables containing Vitamin C, E, zinc, selen...

By: Dr. Sonja Fung As I was mulling over what health topic to write on, I thought, why not talk about one of my favorite subjects, good food. I love good food. When I get a food craving, I will drive a couple hours, even, to get my fix. So when the topic of bone broth popped into my head, I let it slowly simmer on the back burner of my brain. To me, nothing comes closer to home cooking than a beautifully prepared soup broth. I grew up with bone broths. From my earliest memories, my family would always start dinner with a bowl of some type of broth based soup, usually made from chicken, pork, or beef bones. I was reading an article in Lucky Peach food zine a few months ago about bone marrow and the virtues of bone broth. It reminded me of a paper in the Townsend Letters I had read years ago, in medical school, about the healing properties of bone broth. I finally got a knock in the head as I was sucking down some divine bone marrow at Sense Restaurant a couple weeks ago...

What’s so special about antioxidants?             Without antioxidants, we would die very young. Antioxidants stop and block free-radical damage to our body’s DNA, repairing our tissues and organs and to resist aging. Free radicals are normal byproducts of our body’s metabolism of environmental toxins and chemicals, radiation, some pharmaceutical drugs, and even inflammation from exercise. Oxidative damage from free radicals is like what rust does to an iron rod, except in your body. In response, your body circulates a variety of nutrients for their antioxidant properties and manufactures antioxidant enzymes in order to control oxidative damage/stress. For example, vitamin C, vitamin E, carotenes, and lipoic acid are well-known and well-researched antioxidant nutrients. Your body can manufacture some of these antioxidants, but not others, and your body's natural antioxidant production tends to decline with age. What ar...

By: Sonja N. Fung, ND The American diet is filled with calorie-rich and nutrient-poor foods. No wonder there is an epidemic of childhood obesity, ADD/ADHD, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. People are overweight but starving! So what can we do about this crisis? The answer starts with your fork! The first step of living a healthy, vibrant life starts with optimizing your diet and nutrition. You and your loved ones can start by taking control of your body and your health. Instead of relying on fast food and TV dinners as your staples, you can save money and more importantly, your life, by buying fresh, organic (if possible) produce and proteins and cooking them yourself. Avoid the expensive packaged and processed foods filled with sugar, sodium, dyes, and a slew of other chemicals and preservatives, and be proactive in preventing future chronic disease! When talking about nutrition with my patients, I always tell them this: Food is medicine you put into your body 3 ...