Town Hall Medicine Microbiome Talks

Last Updated on March 9, 2018 by Patricia Carter

SUMMARY:  I’m sharing two weeks of FREE access to the Town Hall Medicine Microbiome Talks from twenty-one key microbiome researchers and includes clinicians integrating microbiome into therapeutics!  This educational series is presented by University of Toronto’s Heather Boon PhD, Dean of Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and Stewart Brown, Founder & CEO, Genuine Health, a science based natural health company.  These talks are short and to the point, AND you can download the transcripts for later reading.  There has been a ton going on in the ivory towers of academia and science research uncovering just how important the gut microbiome is to health and well-being and its impact on the immune system.  Microbiome associations are now known for hypertension (34 percent population prevalence ), atherosclerosis (39 percent), anxiety and depression (10 percent), weight gain, obesity (29+ percent), autoimmune diseases (20 percent — mostly women), Type 1 and 2 Diabetes (36 percent), metabolic syndrome (34 percent), IBD (10 to 15 percent), asthma allergy, autism, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, stress-induced and progressive neuropsychiatric diseases, AND prolonged low-grade inflammation which is behind most all disease (51% of adults have at least one chronic disease, 27% of kids have one or more chronic diseases).  Yet none of microbiome — disease impact is pouring down to us mere mortals none the less doctors — I would know; I teach Microbiome CME.  When twins having 100% identical human DNA only have 40 percent of the same gut microbiota, imagine how different your microbiota is from everyone else.  Spoiler alert:  Your gut microbiota is 99 percent different from everyone else and our microbiota explains why each and every one of our bodies (and minds) behave so differently!  Knowledge is power, and these talks share how microbiome understanding is being put on the forefront of therapeutic integration to reverse and prevent disease.  Now that is aggressive preventative medicine especially since 70 to 80 percent of our immune cells reside in the health of our gut microbiome.  Enjoy the listen, and Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, early!

Background on Town Hall Medicine Microbiome Talks

This science based initiative shares my vision that knowledge is power They believe that through access to credible science-backed information, you can have the knowledge you need to take steps to live a healthier life. To give you that knowledge, they gathered top scientists, researchers, clinicians and thought leaders from around the world – some of the best of the best from such respected institutions as Harvard, UCLA, University of Western Australia, University of British Columbia and University of Toronto – to share their research findings directly with you. These experts are highly respected in their fields, and I’ve followed them for years.  Their work is changing how we think about our health and that diet and lifestyle can alter gene expression, and reverse and prevent chronic disease. For more on that, this post simply explains How Diet Pierces the Disease Epigenetics Process. The goal of Town Hall Medicine is to elevate the conversation on current health topics by providing information that is accurate, credible, proven and trusted


Sign up for your two-week FREE access, hop around the different talks, and jump UP the microbiome learning curve to better health.

Town Hall Medicine Microbiome Talks_FREE 2 week pass
Town Hall Medicine Microbiome Talks_FREE 2 week pass

Here are just some of the talks you may find interesting…  

  • Stress and aging is talked about under “The New Path to Health”. Noodle around these recent studies in this area:

[Kimball et al 2017] found that in women, skin gene expression progressively changes from the 20s to the 70s in pathways related to oxidative stress, energy metabolism, senescence, and epidermal barrier and that these changes accelerated in the 60s and 70s. The gene expression patterns from the subset of women who were younger-appearing were similar to those in women who were actually younger! Here’s a good ScienceDaily article on this study, and this post simply explains How Diet Pierces the Disease Epigenetics Process. Suffice it to say, these skin epigenetic findings makes all the sense in the world — Eating a diet that supports your gut microbiota does GREAT things both inside our bodies and on the outside — I see these “side effect facelift” transformations everyday! 

And… look at this cognition and berries randomized cross-over study in 40 healthy older adults [Nilsson et al 2017]:   Participants given a mixed fruit beverage (150g blueberries, 50g each blackcurrant, elderberry, lingonberries, strawberry, & 100g tomatoes) daily for 5 weeks perform better in a working memory test than subjects given placebo!  Conclusions: The improvements in cardiometabolic risk markers and cognitive performance after the berry beverage suggest preventive potential of berries with respect to type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and associated cognitive decline.  Possibly the polyphenols and dietary fiber contributed to the beneficial effects.” These two slides (from my CME) show recent mechanism findings for microbiome changes due to berries for these conditions:

  • The FODMAP diet, the UMass IBD-AID diet, and fermentation is discussed in the “Love Your Microbiome” section. How cool that UMass IBD-AID researcher, Barbara Olendzki, noted that in clinic they see that genetics plays a role in certain food tolerance – for example, legumes are well tolerated by Latinos and Asians, but not so much by Caucasians.
  • Depression, autism, asthma, allergies, and autoimmunity is under “Impacts of Sanitizing our World.” 

Hop around and learn microbiome impact for what interests you!


Bios for Town Hall Medicine Microbiome Talk Organizers

Heather Boon, BScPhm, PhD  Heather Boon is also a Professor and the Dean for the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto. She is the Chair of IN-CAM (the Canadian Interdisciplinary Network for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research) and is the Past-President of the International Society of Complementary Medicine Research. She served as the Chair of Health Canada’s Expert Advisory Committee for Natural Health Products from 2006-2009. Her primary research interests are the safety and efficacy of natural health products as well as complementary/alternative medicine regulation and policy issues. She is the author of a textbook on natural health products and over 150 academic publications.

Stewart Brown, Founder & CEO, Genuine Health   At the heart of what drives Stewart’s ongoing work is his commitment to original research, validation of formulas and credibility within the natural health industry. His company is Genuine Health.


Best in health through awareness,

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References in order of appearance:
  1. Town Hall Medicine Microbiome Talks from twenty-one key microbiome researchers and clinicians.
  2.  Heather Boon BScPhm. PhD, Dean of Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto.
  3. Stewart Brown, Founder & CEO, Genuine Health, a science based natural health company. 
  4. Chronic Care: Making the Case for Ongoing Care.  U.S. Bureau of the Census. Projected Population by Single Year of Age, Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin for the United States: July 1, 2000 to July 1, 2050. Washington, August 2008.
  5. CME Microbiome Questions & Answers.
  6. The Gut Stuff blog.  UK twins, Alana and Lisa Macfarlane, who participated as “chief guinea pigs” for the British Gut project and learned that despite having one hundred percent identical human DNA, they only had 40 percent of the same gut microbiota.
  7. The Science Behind Food, Disease and the Microbiome. Gut microbiota is 99 percent different from everyone else and has a  major impact on disease status.
  8.  [Vighi et al 2008Allergy and the gastrointestinal system.  70 to 80 percent of our immune cells reside in the health of our gut microbiome.
  9. Learn How Diet Pierces the Disease Epigenetics Process!
  10. [Kimball et al 2017] Age-induced and photo induced changes in gene expression profiles in facial skin of Caucasian females across 6 decades of age.
  11. Science Daily article: Expression of certain genes may be key to more youthful looking skin.
  12. [Nilsson et al 2017Effects of a mixed berry beverage on cognitive functions and cardiometabolic risk markers; A randomized cross-over study in healthy older adults. 
  13.  Barbara C. Olendzki, R.D., M.P.H., L.D.N., is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Nutrition Program Director of the Center for Applied Nutrition. Interests include clinical trials with dietary interventions, teaching nutrition for graduate nurses and medical students, and seeing outpatients for nutrition counseling. Barbara specializes in cardiac concerns, gastrointestinal problems, diabetes, obesity, and inflammatory diseases. 
 ♥Last updated: March 9, 2018 at 9:48 am to redirect the Town Hall Medicine link, which changed after the initial free 14 day trial view window.

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