12/30/16 good friend and integrative medicine pioneer Jonathan Wright, MD and his wife Holly came over for dinner

We started talking nutrition (of course) and next we looked up it was 3.5 hour later! Following is a brief summary of a few of the many insights they shared with us.

*        Gestational diabetes. 90% due to a genetic/nutritional deficiency problem in tryptophan metabolism. When tryptophan is not adequately converted to serotonin (critical for sleep and mood) it is instead converted to xanthurenic acid. This molecule binds to insulin so it does not work as well. Almost all women respond to extra vitamin B6 (which helps decrease xanthurenic acid). This also may be a factor in autism risk.

*        Osteoarthritis. The cartilage degeneration appears due to mitochondrial dysfunction. Improved by niacinamide supplementation. Some 30 years ago Jonathan told me about the pioneering work of William Kauphman, MD on use of  niacinamide for both OA and RA. His work was duplicated by Wayne Jonas, MD.

*        Endometriosis. 75% report substantial improvement by avoiding all sources of gluten. Also good results with HCG injections.