Stress + Immune System
Authored by Dr. Barrett Is stress slowly killing you? It feels that way right now and surprisingly the answer might be yes! Lately I’ve been focusing my continuing education and reading on Psychoneuroimmunology defined by Merriam Webster as “a branch of medicine that deals with the influence of emotional states (such as stress) and nervous […]
Loneliness and Autoimmune Disease
Authored by Dr. Barrett This is the first article in a series exploring autoimmune disease with a holistic lens. Don’t miss upcoming articles diving into chronic infections, nutrition part 1 + part 2, hormones, environmental medicine and mind body medicine. I am fascinated by the connection between loneliness, social isolation, community and our health. I am […]
Hashimoto’s Research Update Summer 2020
Authored by Dr. Barrett I am starting up a new blog series to highlight research updates for Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis (HT). My intention is to review recent literature every 6 months. I am starting by pulling together a variety of research articles until I feel ‘caught up’ (will I ever feel caught up?!) and will then […]
Self Compassion and Autoimmunity
Authored by Dr. Barrett I have been writing about how self criticism and perfectionism have negative health consequences. If you missed those articles you can read them here (self criticism and autoimmunity; perfectionism and autoimmunity) The antithesis to self criticism is self compassion. Self compassion is extending the same compassion to yourself that you would […]
Relationship Between Autoimmunity and COVID-19
Authored by Dr. Barrett Davis et al. COVID: major findings, mechanisms and recommendations. PMID: 36639608 The figure above highlights a few hypothesized mechanisms for developing long-COVID. Today we are going to talk about the relationship between autoimmunity and COVID-19. Autoimmune disease develops when the immune system starts attacking your own tissues. In addition to genetic […]
Perfectionism and Autoimmunity
Authored by Dr. Barrett This is a follow up to Self Criticism and Autoimmunity. Perfectionists are often the harshest self critics. Brene Brown, Ph.D defines perfectionism as “a self-destructive and addictive belief system that fuels this primary thought: If I look perfect and do everything perfectly, I can avoid or minimize the painful feelings of […]
Self Criticism and Autoimmunity
Authored by Dr. Barrett We must take a holistic look at complicated chronic diseases. This includes exploring the connection between our mind and body. When we are critical of ourselves, it has negative consequences for our health and even impacts our immune system. According to Merriam-Webster self criticism is ‘the act of or capacity for […]
A Natural Approach to Hashimoto’s
Authored by Dr. Barrett According to the American Thyroid Association more than 12% of the US population will experience thyroid dysfunction in their lifetime. The thyroid is a gland that sits in our lower neck and releases thyroid hormones, which activate genes in virtually all cells of the body. These hormones increase functional activity, which […]