02/20/2026
Dr. Tieraona Low Dog at IHS 2026.
“The system we have today was not designed to study whole systems.”
Modern research is powerful. It excels at isolating single variables, mechanisms, and endpoints.
But chronic disease is not a single variable problem.
It is systems biology. Immunometabolism. Inflammation. Environment. Behavior. Time.
When we study complex, chronic conditions using reductionist models alone, we may miss the larger interaction of systems.
This is not a rejection of evidence-based medicine. It is a call to expand how we evaluate complexity in human health.
Dr. Low Dog is the Founding Director and Faculty of the Integrative & Functional Medicine Fellowship at the Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute, University of California, Irvine. The fellowship’s Instagram handle is .
Important conversation for the future of integrative medicine and chronic disease care.