Delivering Digestive News, with expert advice for all of your gut's needs
11/04/2025
I just watched “Hack you Health: The Secrets of Your Gut” on Netflix, which is an informative and fun look at the human gut microbiome. I found this documentary unbiased and a nice balance between science and personal journeys (including that of the competitive eater Kobayashi). Highly recommend this documentary for those wanting to learn more about how gut health can affect the brain and vice versa, and maybe some insights into improving your own microbiome.
Delve into the digestive system with this lighthearted and informative documentary that demystifies the role gut health plays in our overall well-being.Watch...
We were joined by experts from Children's National Hospital and George Washington University for an informative discussion around the transition from pediatr...
03/01/2025
Stanford University researchers founds that fermented foods like kimchee, kombucha, cottage cheese and keffir increased the biodiversity of 36 study patients over 10 weeks, and also decreased 4 inflammatory markers. In this study, a high fiber diet did not show these findings.
Diet, microbiome and disease will be the next big wave of research, so stay tuned.
Stanford researchers discover that a 10-week diet high in fermented foods boosts microbiome diversity and improves immune responses.
01/30/2025
Just spent the past two days meeting with Shannon von Felden and Syed Ejaz of the EveryLife Foundation, and speaking with Mclean district Delegate
Richard (Rip) Sullivan, who is the sponsor of house bill 1782 for RUSP (recommend universal screening panel) alignment and supporter of house bill 2099 for prior authorization reform. With approval of both bills in the House, I left Richmond optimistic about Senate approval and grateful for everyone’s efforts to improve the lives of patients in the state of Virginia. Rare Disease Legislative AdvocatesEveryLife Foundation
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As physicians and advanced practitioners of gastroenterology, we practice in a “Brave New World,” the title of Aldous Huxley’s 1932 dystopian novel that depicts a frightening vision of the future. For health care, that scary future is now. Every day, I am inundated with misinformation spread by the media and internet about what ails the gut, and how diet and supplements can help cure us. Candida overgrowth, leaky gut, food allergies, probiotics, prebiotics--these have formed the basis of alternative approaches to management of gas, bloating, diarrhea and abdominal pain when there is no obvious cause or cure.
As we struggle to keep up with the information highway (or should I dare say, Hershey Highway, sorry Milton), we also have the pressure of healthcare integration, where gastroenterology practices partner with private equity to create more leverage in the marketplace, but at the same time, give up control of their practices. Surely, the landscape of gastroenterology will look vastly different in ten years.
When Huxley’s futuristic novel was published in 1932, my grandfather Dr. Chai Chang Choi (pictured above) was in his second year of medical school, three years after the discovery of penicilin. We now use penicillin- derived antibiotics to treat H. pylori and other infections of the gut, but these same antibiotics can wreak havoc on what we now call the microbiome, leading to c. difficile infection and irritable bowel syndrome. A brave new world indeed!
As we trudge valiantly into the rapidly advancing winds (a tad smelly perhaps) of progress and change, I wanted to create a learning environment for non-physicians that mirrors how medical students and resident physicians learn in the hospital, presenting all of the facts and clinical trials in an interactive group to arrive at the most likely diagnosis and best treatment.
