So, you’ve scheduled a spinal fluid examination. You’re a little concerned about the procedure itself (don’t be – it’s a very routine process that’s only slightly more involved than your standard [...]

I’ve been practicing as a neurologist and medical doctor since the early 1990s, and I’ve done thousands of spinal fluid examinations. I know the procedure sounds painful and high-risk, but trust [...]

You are familiar with the conventional process. You see a doctor.  They diagnose your condition, and you are prescribed medication to treat your brain or nervous system. It works – to an [...]

Does the healthcare delivery system work? It is a huge, multi-faceted question, one that demands nuance and objectivity, professional and personal experience. In this article, I will break down [...]

Understanding concussions: conventional treatment, functional medicine approaches, and the gut-brain connection Concussions are not uncommon. Estimates suggest that 3.8 million concussions occur [...]

Understanding and treating traumatic brain injuries ‘Traumatic brain injury’ are three words most of us don’t want to hear – not about ourselves or our loved ones. But life – and [...]

A functional medicine approach to inflammation and Alzheimer’s disease   When a degenerative disease changes our or a loved one’s life, we all wish for a quick and painless solution, a [...]

New Trial Shows Potential Multiple Sclerosis Treatment Breakthrough Just under one million people in the United States live with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a disease that impacts the central [...]

Looking for a Magic Bullet Alzheimer’s Treatment As a society, we’re always looking for that magic bullet. This rings particularly true when it comes to health. We want a miracle cure for [...]

The future of fibromyalgia treatment is here today Photo by Peter Conlan on Unsplash Consider that fibromyalgia is one of the most prevalent chronic musculoskeletal conditions, and yet it is [...]

Functional medicine and the future of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) Reports suggest that between 12,000 and 15,000 people in the United States live with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), [...]

An estimated 5.8 million Americans over the age of 65 live with Alzheimer’s disease, a brain disorder that causes memory and thinking abilities to deteriorate over time. Many that develop the [...]

The United States is home to an estimated one million people living with Parkinson’s disease (PD), with approximately 60,000 Americans diagnosed each year. PD impacts people’s everyday lives and [...]

Utanapishtim spoke to Gilgamesh, saying:  “Gilgamesh, you came here exhausted and worn out. What can I give you so you can return to your land? I will disclose to you a thing that is [...]

Samantha, a local bank manager, came to see me recently for her migraines. At the time of our first visit, she told me she was having as many as 8 migraine attacks a month. For her, an attack [...]

This is a common scenario in my office: “Do you believe in fibromyalgia? My doctor doesn’t. My doctor says it does not exist.” For the record, I do believe in fibromyalgia, and it does exist. [...]

When I decided to write The Healthy Brain Toolbox: Neurologist-Proven Strategies to Prevent Memory Loss and Protect Your Aging Brain, it was because I thought it was high time to set the record [...]

I’m Dr. Ken Sharlin, a practicing functional medicine board-certified neurologist. When my nurse says the next patient waiting to see me is a 34-year-old woman with numbness and tingling whose [...]

What Is Memory Loss? The words “memory loss” makes me think of my patients who struggle with completing sentences, recalling words or names, repeating the same question, forgetting conversations, [...]

If you are bothered by headaches it may be helpful to know that all headaches are not the same. A narrow definition of headache would include pain in any part of the head, often parts of the [...]

Meet Mike, Brain Tune Up! Protocol Memory Loss patient. Discover his story, share his journey before and after our treatment.

Don’t accept memory loss as a fact of getting older. Sure, we all occasionally misplace things, forget an appointment, or lose our train of thought.

Thanks to modern imaging, breakthroughs in genetics, microbiology, our understanding of the brain’s immune system, and cell biology we now know that Alzheimer’s disease has many causes and those [...]

Neurologist Dr. Ken Sharlin explains Early Onset Alzheimer's Disease and how people are being misdiagnosed and what you need to know about Alzheimer's.

In 1817, the English doctor, James Parkinson, described what has become known as Parkinson’s disease in a report of six cases he titled, “An Essay on the Shaking Palsy.”

ADRENAL FATIGUE EXPLAINED: THIS IS KAREN’S STORY Karen was the third person to see me in the past couple of weeks with nearly the same medical history.

It is through our actions that we can turn on health-promoting genes, and turn off disease-promoting ones. In this sense, it is reasonable to ask what can women do to reduce their risk of [...]

Although genes, the code of life found deep within each cell, play a role in our health it is estimated that their overall impact is relatively small.

This time of year abscission is all around us. But our word for abscission is Fall, the beautiful season in the Ozarks and much of this country when temperatures are moderate, humidity is low, [...]

Fans of James Maskell and Gabe Hoffman’s Functional Forum know of its partnership with The Institute for Functional Medicine.  The July Functional Forum scheduled for 5 pm PDT and 8 pm EDT on [...]

I read an article recently reporting on results of a drug trial hailed as the best news for Alzheimer’s disease research in 25 years.  Are we really on the verge of a cure? Dr. Sharlin Responds: [...]

The boardroom of healthcare leadership needs to be filled with innovative risk takers and those with solutions for our system that reach beyond the status quo.  In October 2015 I left my place of [...]

Is there really such a thing as non-celiac gluten sensitivity? Dr. Sharlin Responds: Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS) is different from wheat allergy and Celiac disease. It remains a [...]

This essay will appear in the October/November issue of Ozarks Living Magazine, under my column Grow Your Health In Somerset County, New Jersey, a 600-year-old tree sits in a church cemetery, [...]

Taking it to the next level. The Wahls Protocol uses functional medicine principles and a specific Paleo diet (The Wahls diet) to address autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis.  But in [...]

Facebook comment: There is no such thing as commercially available genetically modified wheat.  This is just “fear-mongering.” Dr. Sharlin responds: To suggest, by extension, that we are being [...]

Next month I will be speaking at the annual Wahls Seminar about how to talk with your doctor.  If you have multiple sclerosis or other autoimmune diseases you may, and, frankly, you SHOULD, be [...]

This essay will appear in the August/September issue of Ozarks Living Magazine, under my column Grow Your Health Summer Solstice, the beginning of summer and longest day of the year, brings me to [...]

CADASIL (“Cerebral Autosomal-Dominant Arteriopathy with Subcortical Infarcts and Leukoencephalopathy”) is the most common form of hereditary stroke disorder, and is thought to be [...]

Remarkable things happen in the Spring… New Year’s Day is the day of resolutions, but the weight of winter is still upon us in the cold weather and for some that tends to stifle the best of [...]

“Growing your own food is like printing your own money” says Ron Finley, the Guerilla Gardner of South Los Angeles in TED 2013. I am reminded of these words when a friend echoes them in [...]

Dorothy: Oh, will you help me? Can you help me? Glinda: You don’t need to be helped any longer. You’ve always had the power to go back to Kansas. Dorothy: I have? If you are an adult [...]

According to the Mayo Clinic Online Meralgia Paresthetica is a condition characterized by tingling, numbness and burning pain in the outer thigh.  The cause of meralgia paresthetica is [...]

A 2015 article in the journal Mitochondrion begins with the sentence, “Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain syndrome with unknown etiology.”[1]  It goes on to describe three findings that are commonly [...]

I am about to commit functional medicine blasphemy.  I am about to tell you something, well, not very nice.  Are you ready?  Here it is: You are not an MTHFR.  If you are a frequent flyer of the [...]

I was seeing a patient the other day in my office who had come in to review her lab results.  Her concerns include fatigue, poor energy, weight gain, and diffuse muscle soreness.  She owns a [...]

One of the first ideas I was introduced to in my education as a functional medicine doctor was the illness-wellness continuum. To me the idea that each of us lives on a scale between perfect [...]