Welcome to the first Between Mind & Body Newsletter

This is a space for longer-form reflections on medicine—what I’m seeing in clinical practice, what I’m learning from research, and how I’m thinking about health when symptoms, diagnoses, or data don’t tell the whole story. It’s a place to slow down, step back from algorithms and hot takes, and make room for nuance.

These notes aren’t meant to offer quick fixes or definitive answers. Instead, they’re an invitation into curiosity: to ask better questions, to sit with complexity, and to explore how biology, nervous system function, psychology, environment, and lived experience intersect in real human bodies. I’ll share clinical insights, evolving ideas, and conversations from The Trip Lab… periodically, and only when there’s something worth saying.

🎧 New on The Trip Lab: Cholesterol, risk, and why nuance matters

I just released a new episode of The Trip Lab focused on hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol) and why the “LDL is bad, statins are the answer” narrative misses important context.

In this episode, we explore:

Why cholesterol is biologically essential, not inherently pathological
The limitations of relying on LDL alone to assess cardiovascular risk
How inflammation, insulin resistance, hormones, and genetics intersect with lipid metabolism
When elevated cholesterol matters, and when it may be a compensatory signal rather than a disease
How advanced markers like ApoB, Lp(a), and triglyceride-to-HDL ratio change risk assessment
Why integrative approaches often complement (not replace) conventional treatment

This isn’t an anti-statin episode. It’s a pro-context one.

listen to the episode here:

The Trip Lab

What I’ve been thinking about lately

Lately, I’ve been returning to a question that comes up often in my work: why do we still call some forms of care “alternative”?

Historically, that word had less to do with evidence and more to do with economics, institutions, and what medicine chose to prioritize and reimburse. Over time, “alternative” became shorthand for anything that didn’t fit neatly into a reductionist model—even when those approaches addressed physiology, behavior, environment, and the nervous system in ways conventional medicine often overlooks.

Integrative medicine, at its best, isn’t about rejecting conventional care or replacing it with supplements and protocols. It’s about widening the frame. About asking better questions. About understanding health as a dynamic system shaped by biology, context, experience, and meaning… and treating patients accordingly.

That tension between oversimplification and nuance has been on my mind a lot recently, and it’s part of what shaped this week’s podcast.