Inflammation – it’s at the root of every disease. So it stands to reason that in the case of neuropsychiatric disorders we also must look first for autoimmune-driven mechanisms in in every patient we see. I believe this should be part of the differential diagnosis just as it is when we do a workup for any other stated or suspected health issues.

By far the most widely used insecticides today in the home, businesses, agriculture and other settings, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), organophosphates have long been known to cause detrimental health effects. Despite the risks, these poisonous substances continue to be used and a recent publication in JAMA Neurology spotlights an especially disturbing case of neurotoxicity post-exposure to organophosphates that shows the lingering and potentially irreversible effects.1

The last few months have seen numerous investigations regarding the pandemic-level development of COVID and its wide-ranging array of symptoms that can vary significantly from one individual to the next. Now, findings from a recent study that explore the erratic mechanisms this virus possesses that can overtake our body, and in some cases our brain, point to what’s known as a bradykinin storm.*

Recently I experienced firsthand the effects of forest fires burning in Colorado.  I had never seen or felt anything quite like this. The smoky haze is almost palpable, skies are tinged with a drab color that is far removed from the blue we expect. Wildfires in California are especially bad now, in a year that was already marked by unprecedented events. David Salesin captured this shot in Sausalito the other morning around 10 am, looking out towards San Francisco. What is typically a vantage point of picture-postcard beauty is now sadly a reminder of not only the current terrible situation, but also that our planet is becoming more and more toxic every single day.

I’ve just spent the last week seeing our clinic filled with our PANS and PANDAS patients. As grateful as we are to be here for them, it is so troubling that we are seeing more and more of these children - and equally disturbing how long it took for many of them to get to us. While estimates indicate that 1 in 150 children have one of these disorders, I believe the numbers are in fact much higher. So often these diagnoses are missed because of the complexity of symptoms that can overlap with other conditions as well as the lack of familiarity with the disorders by parents and practitioners alike.

Alarming obesity rates and disease incidence point to a need for change….Research led by Queen Mary University of London, U.K. estimates that childhood and adolescent obesity is projected to contribute up to 14 percent of overall risk of multiple sclerosis (MS) by the year 2035.
The study, involving researchers from Queen Mary University of London, Barts Health NHS Trust, and the University of Oxford, used published literature from the U.K., U.S., Russia and Australia, to estimate and project based on observational analysis of data the proportion of MS incidence that could be attributed to two modifiable risk factors: smoking, and childhood and adolescent high BMI.1