Recommended Reading
The following is a listing of books that will be useful to help anyone start to untangle the web of their current state of health. They will also be helpful for the curious reader who hears conflicting health information and desires a readable and reliable source of information.
Today there is a litany of resources and books that many times are not helpful and often misleading. I’ve spent the last several years reading available popular books and have listed those I think will be the most helpful and are the most accurate. I have found many patients to be misinformed and I have put this list together as a starting point for discovery. Though I personally do not agree with every point in the resources below, those listed are from professionals who have worked through the medical literature and formulated accurate readings on their thoughts and research. My hope is that this listing will be a launching point for your personal and intellectual journey.
Reading List
The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living
Jeff Volek PhD and Stephen Phinney MD, PhD
This book dives deep into the science of cholesterol and fat biology and how fat metabolism is the preferred manner of energy production in humans. They focus on ketogenic diet, low carb diets and the science behind them. This book is a little technical and requires some degree of grasp of medical concepts. It is a thorough and deep read on ketogenic diets.
A Mind of Your Own
Kelly Brogan MD
Dr. Brogan is a practicing psychiatrist who after having her own medical issues realized that many mental health issues stem from brain based nerve inflammation. She is one of a handful of specialists in post-partum neuropsychiatry. She reviews the concepts of holistic mental health and then dives into how she, as a practicing psychiatrist, has gone from a pharmaceutical based practice to a 100% natural practice without using medications for her patients.
Ketoclarity
Eric Westman MD & Jimmy Moore
Ketogenic diets are currently being studied at Johns Hopkin’s to treat Lennox-Gastuat Syndrome and in the past were used to treat general seizure disorders. The Autoimmune Paleo (AIP) diet is a type of ketogenic diet. In this book Dr. Westman and Jimmy Moore cover how to implement a ketogenic diet. This book doesn’t deal with the science behind the diet or how to use it medically but mainly focuses on how to implement it. It’s a good add on to The Wahls Protocol and The Autoimmune Paleo Plan. This book deals strictly with ketogenic diets use as a weight loss plan. Using a ketogenic diet for weight loss should only be done under the supervision of a medical practitioner.
Why Can’t I get Better? Solving the Mystery of Lyme and Chronic Disease
Richard Horowitz MD
Dr. Horowitz is an internal medicine physician who moved his practice Hudson Valley, New York almost 30 years ago. He had no idea he was moving into the Lyme capital of the country. Over the years, treating many patients with Chronic Lyme Disease, Dr. Horowitz has developed a very specialized practice and way of evaluating and treating Lyme and MSIDS patients. He outlines his 16 point MSIDS map and treatment paradigm in this book. He follows the ILADS model. His book is a good overview of this treatment paradigm and he is a thought leader in this arena. He is not a functional medicine practitioner per sea and so doesn’t necessarily follow the functional medicine matrix systems based model. This book is great for anyone who currently has or is interested in Lyme, Multiple Systems Infectious Disease Syndrome or associated diseases.
The Autoimmune Solution
Amy Myers MD
In her book, Dr. Myers describes her own battle with Grave’s Disease and her journey that resulted in the resolution of her own autoimmune illness. She outlines the Functional Medicine approach and summarizes the key steps she uses in her practice to address autoimmunity. The audiobook comes with a 146 page guide that includes recipes and reviews the basic concepts in the book. This guide is very useful.
This book as well as Dr. Bloom’s are general works that address autoimmune diseases and are not all inclusive. Autoimmunity is a very complex topic and difficult to distill into one concise book.
The Immune System Recovery Plan
Susan Bloom MD
This is an overall general survey of the functional medicine approach to addressing autoimmune issues. Dr. Blum uses a modified 5R approach (actually a four prong approach) in her book. This book as well as Dr. Meyer’s are general works that address autoimmune diseases but are not all inclusive. Autoimmunity is a very complex topic and difficult to distill into one concise book.
The Autoimmune Paleo Plan
Anne Angelone
This short but concise book is dedicated to the concepts of what an autoimmune paleo diet (AIP) is and how to implement it. The book is full of ideas and concepts as well as recipes. This is one of the best concise resources for the AIP diet. It’s also available on Audible. This diet is usually used therapeutically by those with Hashimoto’s, Rheumatoid, or other autoimmune illnesses.
Missing Microbes
Martin Blaser MD
In this book Dr. Blaser reviews his 30 year career as an infectious disease specialist and how his research at Vanderbilt and now NYU have shown a link between overuse of antibiotics and multiple modern diseases ranging from Celiac Disease and Crohn’s Disease to Autism and MRSA infections. This book is research heavy and is a little dense but it a good primer on the risks of modern antibiotic overuse.
The Blood Sugar Solution
Mark Hyman MD
Dr. Hyman is a past board member of The Institute for Functional Medicine and currently is the chairman for Functional Medicine at The Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Hyman outlines how processed foods through sugar fluctuations and insulin variations are responsible for many medical illnesses. His book focus nutritional medicine and how it can be used to regulate hormones, modulate the immune system and effect detoxification. This is a good introductory book for those who are new to the concepts of functional medicine and is a very easy read.
Grain Brain
David Perlmutter MD
Dr. David Perlmutter is a thought leader in the area of functional medicine (FM) and neurology.
Grain Brain precedes Brain Maker and in it Dr. Perlmutter focuses on the negative effects on neuronal health caused by wheat. He discusses the concept of Alzheimer’s Dementia as ‘type III diabetes’ and how this neuron damage is started and propagated by wheat. This is a well-written, easy read and a good introduction to those unfamiliar with nutritional medicine, functional medicine or food based systemic inflammation.
Brain Maker
David Perlmutter MD
David Perlmutter is a thought leader in the area of functional medicine (FM) and neurology. In Brain Maker he focuses on optimization of brain function using functional medicine concepts. This is not a disease centered book but focuses on neurological function optimization. This is a great read for anyone, especially those who wonder what a focused FM approach in particular systems are would look like. The audible version comes with a companion PDF that has a brain optimization diet and meal planning.
Wheat Belly
William Davis MD
Dr. Davis is an integrative cardiologist who through years of clinic practice and research came to discover that wheat consumption, through the immunologic response to gluten and processed wheat products, is one of the leading causes of cardiovascular disease in our country today. This book is a thorough review of gluten containing wheat and it cardiovascular effects. This is a great book to read in combination with Grain Brain by Dr. Perlmutter. It will change how you view bread and make you reconsider you daily grain food choices.
Clean Gut
Alejandro Junger MD
Dr. Junger chronicles his own personal journey and how he developed Chronic Fatigue Syndrome starting during his cardiology training. After traveling to India and practicing there for two years he returned to the US and using his medical training and adding what he learned in India he created the Clean Program. This is a good read for those interested in gut health and how it relates to overall wellbeing.
Why Isn’t My Brain Working?
Datis Kharrazian DC
This is an amazing resource for understanding brain function and the myriad of reasons optional brain function isn’t achieved. Dr. Kharrazian goes from autoimmunity to the gut-brain axis and reviews how adrenal fatigue, gluten, stress, ect ... can impact your brain and lead to neurodegeneration. If you’ve already done a lot of changes, seen many practitioners and you still have ‘foggy brain’ this is a great resource to see what you may have missed. Like his other book, this is a complex work and it is best to be working with a functional medicine practitioner while you go through this book.
Root Cause
Isabella Wentz PharmD
This is a very detailed book about treatments specifically for Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. Dr. Wentz details her own personal story of treating her own Hashimoto’s and lays out the findings of her years of research that lead to her discoveries. This is a great book but a little complex, maybe not ideal for someone as a first read but if you want to understand autoimmune diseases and specifically Hashimoto’s then this is a great read.
Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms?
Datis Kharrazian DC
This is a large work that does a great job of addressing autoimmune thyroid disease. It is very detailed and complex but it covers almost every aspect of autoimmune thyroid disease and gives many of the treatment modalities. This book in combination with Dr. Wentz’s are probably the best two resources on the topic but both are complex and will require the reader to invest time in digesting the information. If you are new to integrative and functional medicine this may be a little hard to digest.
The Wahls Protocol
Terry Wahls MD
Dr. Wahls is professor of medicine at the University of Iowa where she conducts research on Multiple Sclerosis and Lupus using her medicinal dietary protocol. She developed this protocol after her own Multiple Sclerosis http://www.nationalmssociety.org/What-is-MS failed all the current conventional treatments. She then embarked on her own research to treat herself and in the ensuring years she developed her protocol that eventually resulted in the remission of her Multiple Sclerosis. This book is a great primer for those who would like to learn about other treatments for autoimmune diseases including MS, Lupus, Rheumatoid, ect.
The Disease Delusion
Jeffery Bland PhD
Dr. Bland is one of the founders of The Institute for Functional Medicine and considered one of the founders of functional medicine. In The Disease Delusion Dr. Bland lays out a new paradigm for evaluation and treatment of chronic diseases. This paradigm is a new way of evaluating disease and getting to the root cause of illness by using systems based biology, nutrigenetics, nutrigenomics and now metabolomics to uncover the true causes of modern chronic diseases. This way of thinking is the basis of Functional Medicine. This book is an excellent introduction to the foundational principles of functional medicine.
