
Speaker
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Jeff Bland, PhDFunctional Medicine Founder and Pioneer
Dr. Jeffrey Bland is a personable and highly respected thought leader who has spent more than four decades focused on the improvement of human health.
He is known worldwide as the founder of the Functional Medicine movement, which represents his vision for a care model that is grounded in systems biology and informed by research that he has a unique ability to synthesize. His pioneering work has created the Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Institute (PLMI), as well as the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM), the global leader in Functional Medicine education. Since 1991, hundreds of thousands of healthcare practitioners have participated in PLMI and IFM programs, and this collective knowledge has positively impacted the lives of patients all over the world.
Dr. Bland began his career as a Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Puget Sound. He is a natural educator and became involved with numerous academic institutions during the years he spent teaching. This includes the significant contributions he made to the founding and accreditation of Bastyr University, the first federally accredited university offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in natural medicine in the US. In the early 1980s, Dr. Bland was hand-selected by two-time Nobel Laureate Dr. Linus Pauling to serve as Director of Nutritional Research at the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine. This experience marked both a personal and professional inflection point for Dr. Bland that has become an integral part of his career.
As an expert in a field he helped to establish—science-based nutrition—Dr. Bland has become an iconic figure in the natural products industry. He worked alongside other founders to establish standards for evidence-based formulations, quality ingredient sourcing, and ethical manufacturing practices that stand to this day. He continues to serve as a dynamic mentor and advisor to a new generation of industry leaders.
Dr. Bland is the author of best-selling books and over 120 peer-reviewed research publications. He speaks extensively, and his engaging style makes him popular with both professional and consumer audiences. Dr. Bland’s latest project is Big Bold Health, launched in 2018. He’s on a mission to transform the way people think about one of nature’s greatest innovations: the immune system. Through Big Bold Health, Dr. Bland is advocating for the power of immuno-rejuvenation to enhance immunity at a global level. It is an ambitious and purpose-driven effort that encompasses his active stance on regenerative agriculture, environmental stewardship, and planetary health.

Clinical Chronobiology: The Immune-Stress-Sleep Connection
Clinical Chronobiology: The Immune-Stress-Sleep Connection from PLMI on Vimeo.
Description: We’ve all felt the stress of the past couple of years, and patients are more ready than ever to address it. As clinicians, we need to understand how our patients’ stress is uniquely affecting their health and help them to create and implement a personalized plan to manage it. In this presentation, we’ll go beyond the HPA axis to discuss stress in the context of immune health and draw connections to the gut-brain axis. This will help you recognize the nuances in identifying and caring for patients’ individual needs and provide protocol templates you can utilize at your next appointment.
Learning objectives: Identify and assess the effects of stress and sleep on the immune system and how modifiable factors can help modulate health outcomes
Develop a stress management protocol and be able to summarize practical stress management strategies