11th Annual Thought Leaders Consortium: Next Generation Clinical Management of Chronic Neuroimmune Disorders
What is “pre-autoimmune disease”? You may be aware that this term has recently emerged in the medical literature to describe a concerning collection of neuroimmune symptoms that can vary in duration and intensity. To cut to the chase, pre-autoimmune disease is the next generation of disorders that will challenge health practitioners for years to come—an unfortunate legacy resulting from the convergence of decades of rising chronic disease rates combined with a fast-moving viral pandemic.
As we transition to the “new normal” in 2023, we face the reality of a spectrum of neuroimmune disorders that is growing in scope: long COVID syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, post-Lyme syndrome, post-Epstein Barr infection, post-cytomegalovirus infection syndrome, Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS), Alzheimer’s disease, and more. Are you ready?
Join the Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Institute (PLMI) at the 11th Annual Thought Leaders Consortium in Seattle this October. Our program features a faculty composed of leading innovators in the application of next-generation approaches to the management of complex chronic conditions. We will focus on recent discoveries, as well as the translation of this information into clinical practice through advances in assessment tools and personalized interventions.
Space will be limited because we have designed a learning experience that emphasizes skill development, faculty interaction, and dynamic attendee participation. We look forward to seeing you at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront Resort this fall, October 20-21, 2023. Together, we’ll explore the root causes of illness, the complexity of genetic and epigenetic influences, and the power of lifestyle, diet, and environmental and social factors that can impact therapeutic outcomes.
Hourly Schedule
Oct 19 - Thursday Night
- 6:00 pm
- Meet & Greet Cocktail Reception
Oct 20 - Session One: Advances in the Management of Neuroimmune Disorders
- 7:00am - 7:45am
- Registration
- 8:00am - 8:15am
- Wecome - by Nicole Fox
- 8:15am - 9:00am
- The Spectrum of Neuroimmune Disorders and What Has Been Learned About Them
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Speakers:
Jeff Bland, PhD
- 9:00am - 9:45am
- Clinical Applications of Diet and Lifestyle in Managing Autoimmune Disorders
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Speakers:
Dr. Terry Wahls, MD, IFMCP
- 9:45am - 10:30am
- Unique Features of Specific Plant Foods in Managing Neuroimmune Disorders
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Speakers:
Deanna Minich, PhD, CNS, IFMCP
- 10:30am - 11:00pm
- Break
- 11:15pm - 12:00pm
- The devastating synergy of phytonutrient depletion and environmental neurotoxins
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Speakers:
Joseph Pizzorno, ND
- 12:00pm - 12:45pm
- What genomic testing tells us about Risk to Neuroimmune Disorders
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Speakers:
Lucia Aronica, Ph.D.
Oct 20 - Session Two: Neuroimmune Assessment and Intervention
- 12:45pm - 1:45pm
- Lunch, with presentation Neuroinflammation and the Hormone Connection – Lessons Learned
- Sponsor: Dutch Test
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Speakers:
Mark Newman, MS
- 1:45pm - 2:30pm
- New Immune Assessment Tools and Their Relationship to Neuroimmune Disorders
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Speakers:
Aristo Vojdani, PhD
- 2:30pm - 3:15pm
- Personalizing Neuroimmune Interventions
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Speakers:
Elroy Vojdani, MD
- 3:15pm - 3:45pm
- Break
- 4:00pm - 4:45pm
- A World Of Inflammation: Personal Ecology and Neuroinflammation with Planetary Health in Mind
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Speakers:
Susan Prescott, MD, PhD
- 4:45pm
- Closing Comment
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Speakers:
Jeff Bland, PhD
Oct 21 - Session Three: Advances in Personalizing Neuroimmune Interventions
- 7:00am - 8:00am
- Breakfast , Neuroimmune Activation in Food Reactions & IBS: New Research & Clinical Implications
- Sponsored by: Diagnostic Solutions | Adverse food reactions, including immune-mediated food reactions and food intolerances are major contributors to common gastrointestinal and extra-intestinal symptoms. Emerging research also supports a primary role for adverse food reactions in the underlying pathophysiology of common functional gastrointestinal disorders, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and functional dyspepsia. Importantly, interactions among food components, the gut microbiome, the intestinal epithelium, and the gut neuroendocrine system, are now thought to be central to understanding how adverse food reactions trigger symptoms in functional GI disorders. This emerging understanding, in combination with gut health assessment of relevant microbial, immune, and mucosal factors using GI-MAP® stool testing, enables practitioners to gain relevant clinical insights and develop targeted, personalized treatment plans for patients experiencing adverse food reactions.
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Speakers:
Thomas Fabian, PhD, CNTP
- 8:00am - 8:15am
- Review of Day One and Introduction to Day Two Program
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Speakers:
Jeff Bland, PhD
- 8:15am - 9:00am
- Impact of Selective Phytochemicals on Immune Epigenetics
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Speakers:
Austin Perlmutter, MD
- 9:00am - 9:45am
- 21st Century Perspective on the Interconnection among Mind, Mood, and Healthy Aging
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Speakers:
Kenneth R. Pelletier, PhD, MD
- 9:45am - 10:30am
- The Intersection of the Immune, Nervous and Endocrine Systems with Metabolism
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Speakers:
Bridget Briggs, MD
- 10:30am - 11:00am
- Break
- 11:15am - 12:00pm
- The Gut-Immune Interface and Neuroimmune Disorders
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Speakers:
Carrie Jones, ND, FABNE, MPH
- 12:00pm - 12:45pm
- Constructing a personalized treatment plan influenced by our ever evolving understanding
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Speakers:
Michael Stone, MD
- 12:45pm - 1:45pm
- Lunch | Select Nutrient and Gene Variant Analysis in a Targeted Diet and Lifestyle Analysis and Preterm Birth (SNGLI-PTB): Mid-Study Report.
- By: DNA Life
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Speakers:
Leslie P. Stone, Family Medicine/Obstetrics IFMCP
Oct 21 - Session Four : Advances in Repairing Broken Brain-Behavior Connections
- 1:45pm - 2:30pm
- What We Have Learned About the Prevention and Reversal of Neurodegeneration
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Speakers:
Dale E. Bredesen, MD
- 2:30pm - 3:15pm
- Psychoactive Plants and the Management of Chronic Illness
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Speakers:
Maya Shetreat, MD
- 3:15pm - 4:00pm
- Discussion Among Faculty and Attendees
- 4:00pm - 4:15pm
- Closing Comments
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Speakers:
Jeff Bland, PhD
Speakers
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Joseph Pizzorno, NDFounding President of Bastyr University, Educator, Researcher and Author
Dr. Joseph Pizzorno, ND is a transformational leader in medicine. As founding president of Bastyr University in 1978, he coined the term “science-based natural medicine” and lead Bastyr to become the first ever accredited institution in this field. This validated that health promotion rather than only disease treatment could be credibly taught, researched and practiced. A licensed naturopathic physician, educator, researcher and expert spokesman, he is Editor-in-Chief of PubMed-indexed IMCJ, Board Chair of the Institute for Functional Medicine, founding board member of American Herbal Pharmacopeia, and a member of the science boards of the Hecht Foundation and Bioclinic Naturals. He was appointed by Presidents Clinton and Bush to 2 prestigious government commissions to advise Congress on how to integrate natural medicine into healthcare. He is author or co-author of 6 textbooks (most recent Clinical Environmental Medicine) and 8 consumer books (most recent Healthy Bones, Healthy You with wife Lara).
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Lucia Aronica, Ph.D.Lecturer at the Stanford Prevention & Research Center, R&D Lead, Genomics, Metagenics Inc
Dr. Lucia Aronica, Ph.D., is Lecturer at Stanford University and Instructor at the Stanford Genomics Certificate. Her research and teaching focus on nutrigenomics — the science of how nutrition, genetics, and epigenetics interact with each other to impact our health and longevity. Dr. Aronica has recently launched a new certificate course in epigenetics for healthcare professionals available at https://draronica.com/
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Susan Prescott, MD, PhDPediatrician, Immunologist, Award-Winning Author, Professor, Founding Director of “The Origins Project” and “Nova Network"
Prof. Susan L. Prescott MD, PhD, is a pediatrician, immunologist, artist, and award-winning author, internationally recognised for her cutting-edge research into the early environmental determinants of health and disease. Her work promotes awareness of the interconnections between personal and planetary health in a way that inspires wiser, creative, integrated approaches, grounded in reciprocity, for social and ecological justice and flourishing futures.
Susan is Professor of Pediatrics at University of Western Australia in Perth where she is founding Director of The ORIGINS project, an intervention birth cohort of 10,000 families aimed at improving all aspects of longterm physical and emotional health. She is also founding Director of the Nova Network (formerly inVIVO Planetary Health), a global trans-transdisciplinary network focused on transforming health of people, places, and planet, based at the Nova Institute for Health in Baltimore, and Editor-in-Chief of Challenges journal which promotes interdisciplinary discourse. She is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the prestigious Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. She has been awarded more than $52 million in research grants as chief investigator and received numerous awards. She was the founding President of the DOHaD Society (Developmental Origins of Health and Disease) of Australia and New Zealand, and a previous Director of the World Allergy Organization. In addition to over 350 scientific publications, Susan is author of several books for the public—The Allergy Epidemic, The Calling, Origins: Early-life solutions to the modern health crisis and gold medal winning book The Secret Life of Your Microbiome.
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Bridget Briggs, MDFamily Medicine Physician who specializes in functional medicine and epigenetics
Dr. Bridget Briggs, MD has been empowering patients to live inspired healthy lives for over 20 years. Her integrative approach and profound knowledge of genetics, epigenetics, nutrigenomics and biochemistry has paved the way to her advanced methods in precise, personalized, preventative medicine. Dr. Briggs is a board certified Family Medicine Physician who is at the forefront of the emerging science of genetics and how a patient’s DNA can be altered to prevent disease or treat current ailments with a personalized treatment plan.She specializes in functional medicine, bio-identical hormones, lipidology, women’s health, pediatrics, geriatrics, detoxification, nutritional and dietary support.Her expertise in genetic testing and interpretation allows her to develop a precise treatment approach leading to improvement in all areas of disease ranging from chronic migraines, fatigue, anxiety, depression, autism, GERD, IBS, SIBO issues among others.
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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.
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Kenneth R. Pelletier, PhD, MDClinical Professor of Medicine University of California School of Medicine, NYT Bestselling Author
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Michael Stone, MDIFM Linus Pauling Award Winner, Writer, Researcher, and Educator
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Elroy Vojdani, MDFunctional and Predictive Immune Testing Authority
Dr. Elroy Vojdani is the founder of Regenera Medical, a boutique Functional Medicine practice in Los Angeles, California.
Upon graduating medical school from the University of Southern California and completing his residency at USC Keck School of Medicine, Dr. V began his career as an Interventional Radiologist, diagnosing and treating complex, late-stage cancers and other extremely debilitating diseases. While this experience gave him unique insights into hospital based medicine, his desire to stop disease before it reached the point of becoming a chronic illness remained at the core of his desire to practice medicine. Today, he continues in his father’s footsteps – pioneering to find answers to medical conditions that go undiagnosed and untreated.
Dr. Vojdani has co-authored over 20 articles in the Scientific literature and continues an integral role in research related to Autoimmune, Neurodegenerative, and Autoinflammatory conditions. He is also the co-Author a medical textbook entitled “Food Associated Autoimmunity”.
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Dale E. Bredesen, MDProfessor, New York Times Best Selling Author, Founding President of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging UCLA
Dr. Bredesen graduated from Caltech and received his MD from Duke. He served as Resident and Chief Resident in Neurology at UCSF, then postdoctoral fellow with Nobel laureate Prof. Stanley Prusiner. He was the Founding President of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.
The Bredesen Laboratory studied basic mechanisms underlying the neurodegenerative process, and the translation into effective therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease, leading to the publication of over 220 research papers. He established the Alzheimer’s Drug Development Network with Dr. Varghese John, leading to the identification of new classes of therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease. His work led to the discovery of subtypes of Alzheimer’s disease, followed by the first description of reversal of symptoms in patients with MCI and Alzheimer’s disease, with a precision medicine protocol, and a recent successful proof-of-concept trial. Dr. Bredesen is the author of two New York Times best sellers. He is currently a professor at UCLA.
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Aristo Vojdani, PhDWorld Leader in Immunology Research
Aristo Vojdani obtained his BSc, MSc and PhD in microbiology and clinical immunology from Bar-Ilan University, Israel, with postdoctoral studies in comparative immunology at UCLA and tumor immunology at Charles Drew/UCLA School of Medicine and Science. He is a Clinical Professor at Loma Linda University in California, and an Adjunct Professor at the Lincoln College of Professional, Graduate and Continuing Education at the National University of Health Sciences. His ongoing research focuses on the role of environmental triggers in complex diseases, and he has developed more than 300 antibody assays for the detection of autoimmune disorders and other diseases. He has 17 US patents, over 200 articles, and 2 books, “Neuroimmunity and the Brain-Gut Connection” and “Food-Associated Autoimmunities: When Food Breaks Your Immune System,” to his name. He is the CEO of Immunosciences Lab in Los Angeles, California, the Chief Scientific Advisor for Cyrex Labs in Phoenix, Arizona, and sits on the editorial board of 5 scientific journals. His many awards include the Herbert J. Rinkel Award (American Academy of Environmental Medicine), the Linus Pauling, PhD Award (American College for Advancement in Medicine), and the Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Institute Lifetime Achievement Award.
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Maya Shetreat, MDNeurologist, Herbalist, Urban Farmer, Author, Founder of the Terrain Institute
Maya Shetreat, MD is a neurologist, herbalist, urban farmer, and author of The Dirt Cure and The Master Plant Experience: The Science, Safety and Sacred Ceremony of Psychedelics. She has been featured in the New York Times, The Telegraph, NPR, Sky News, The Dr. Oz Show and more. Dr. Maya is the founder of the Terrain Institute, where she teaches earth-based programs for transformational healing, including professional training programs for psychedelic-assisted approaches. She works and studies with indigenous communities and healers from around the world, and is a lifelong student of ethnobotany, plant healing, and the sacred
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Austin Perlmutter, MDAuthor and Board-Certified Internal Medicine Physician
Dr Austin Perlmutter is a board-certified internal medicine physician, New York Times bestselling author, published researcher and international educator. His mission is to help people improve their health by targeting the biological basis of “stuckness” in our brains and bodies. His writing, presentations, podcasts, and online educational programs explore how environmental factors influence our cognitive and mental state and have reached millions. Dr. Perlmutter currently serves as the managing director at Big Bold Health, a food-as-medicine company focused on helping people rejuvenate health through better immune function, where he is running a first-of-its kind study exploring the effects of plant nutrients on human aging through epigenetics.
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Thomas Fabian, PhD, CNTPDiagnostic Solutions Laboratory
Dr. Fabian is a leading expert on the role of the microbiome in health, immune function, chronic disease, and aging. His primary focus is on the clinical application of research in the microbiome and mucosal immunology fields in integrative and functional medicine. After receiving his PhD in molecular biology from the University of Colorado, Boulder, he conducted aging-related research in the biotechnology industry. More recently, he has served as a consultant in the microbiome testing field. Currently, Dr. Fabian serves as a translational science consultant and science advisor with Diagnostic Solutions Laboratory, and is a Science Advisory Board member with Designs for Health.
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Dr. Terry Wahls, MD, IFMCPClinical Professor of Medicine, Clinical Trials in the setting of Multiple Sclerosis, Linus Pauling Award Winner, Author of The Wahls Protoco Medicine University of Iowa
Dr. Terry Wahls is an Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner and a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Iowa where she conducts clinical trials in the setting of Multiple Sclerosis. In 2018 she was awarded the Institute for Functional Medicine’s Linus Pauling Award for her contributions in research, clinical care and patient advocacy. She is the author of The Wahls Protocol: A Radical New Way to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions Using Paleo Principles, and the cookbook, The Wahls Protocol Cooking for Life. Learn more about the current study Efficacy of Diet on Quality of
Life in Multiple Sclerosis at https://terrywahls.com/msstudy/. -
Leslie P. Stone, Family Medicine/Obstetrics IFMCPCo-founder Growbaby Health
Leslie P. Stone, MD, IFM-CP, board certified in family practice, with a fellowship in surgical obstetrics. She is an International lecturer on developmental programming of disease and application of individualized functional medicine care during pregnancy. Her passion is helping parents capture the miraculous during pregnancy by changing habits, their lives and empowering life in and out of the womb. She has been delivering babies since 1982 and has delivered over 5000 children. She is owner of Ashland Comprehensive Family Medicine Stone Medical in Ashland, Oregon where she continues to practice. Her undergraduate degree was from Washington State University in Physiological Psychiatry was followed by her MD from University of Washington Seattle, Internship in OB/GYN Oregon Health Sciences University, Residency at UCLA in Family Medicine, Surgical Obstetric Fellowship at UCLA Ventura and further Certification in Functional Medicine. She was the key author of the study, “Customized Nutritional Enhancement for Pregnant Women Appears to Lower Incidence of Common Maternal and Neonatal Complications” printed in – Global Advances in Health and Medicine. Dr. Stone co-founded GrowBaby, LLC with Emily Rydbom BCHN.
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Deanna Minich, PhD, CNS, IFMCPNutritionist, Scientist, Lecturer, Educator, Author Food and Spirit, LLC
Deanna Minich, MS, PhD, CNS, Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner (IFMCP), is a nutrition scientist, international lecturer, educator, and author, with over twenty years of experience in academia and in the food and dietary supplement industries, currently serving as Chief Science Officer at Symphony Natural Health. She has been active as a functional medicine clinician in clinical trials and in her own practice (Food & Spirit™). She is the author of six consumer books on wellness topics, four book chapters, and over fifty scientific publications. Her academic background is in nutrition science, including a Master of Science (M.S.) degree in Human Nutrition and Dietetics from the University of Illinois at Chicago (1995) and a Doctorate (Ph.D.) in Medical Sciences from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands (1999). She has served on the Nutrition Advisory Board for The Institute of Functional Medicine and on the Board of Directors for the American Nutrition Association. Currently, she teaches for the Institute for Functional Medicine, University of Western States, Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and Institute for Brain Potential. Through her talks, workshops, groups, and in-person retreats, she helps people to practically and artfully transform their lives through nutrition and lifestyle. Visit her at: www.deannaminich.com
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Carrie Jones, ND, FABNE, MPHChief Medical Officer, Nationally Recognized Functional Medicine and Hormone Health Expert NuEthix Formulations
Carrie Jones, ND, FABNE, MPH is an internationally recognized speaker, consultant, and educator on the topic of women’s health and hormones with over 20 years in the industry. Dr. Jones graduated from the National University of Natural Medicine in Portland, Oregon where she also completed a 2-year residency in women’s health, hormones, and endocrinology. She went on to get her Master of Public Health and was one of the first to became board certified through the American Board of Naturopathic Endocrinology for which she served on for several years. She was the first Medical Director for Precision Analytical, creators of the DUTCH Test and the first Head of Medical Education at Rupa Health and host of the Root Cause Medicine Podcast. She serves as the Clinical Expert for the Lifestyle Matrix Resource Center is on Under Armour’s Human Performance Council. Currently she is the Chief Medical Officer at NuEthix and Head of Medical Education at Metabolic Mentor University.
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