Michael Ash, DO, ND, BSc, RNT

Michael Ash, DO, ND, BSc (Hons), RNT, is a UK-trained osteopath, naturopath, and nutritionist with over 30 years of experience. Over a 25-year period, he built one of the largest integrative medicine clinics in the southwest of England before retiring from fulltime practice in 2007. At his clinic, he personally managed a list of over 10,000 private patients. Dr. Ash is now the managing director of Integrated Health Consulting, a boutique consultancy for complex health issues, the managing director of Nutri-Link, and founder and editor of the nonprofit educational company ClinicalEducation.org.

Since the early 1990s, he has researched and refined his expertise in the role of the mucosal immune system in health and disease, using Functional Medicine principles and practice, undertaking clinical trials, publishing papers, and contributing chapters to technical books on how to manipulate and reprogram disordered mucosal immune tissues.

Dr. Ash regularly presents at conferences and lectures around the world on the immune system and its complex relationship to foods, organisms, and toxins, with specific focus on the mucosal immune system or ‘wet tissues’ in the gastrointestinal tract. He has particular interest in the use of non-drug–based interventions to enhance synergistic interactions between the mucosal bacterial, viral, and fungal communities; local and systemic immune systems; and human function. For some time, he has been exploring the role of oxidized MtDNA in the activation and propagation of the intracellular inflammasome complex and its potential role in numerous chronic diseases as either a causal or amplifying factor. His developing research interest is in metabolomics that show the phenotypic expression of genes, the microbiome, environmental exposures, and conversion of food and how to translate this into clinical care delivery.