By Dr. LoBisco, ND
I have written before on the power of food as medicine. Still, coming back from my AZ journey with fellow travelers in the new era of medicine-functional medicine-what I was once again reminded of was the important impact of our environment on our health. This association begins deep at the cellular level. Dr. Bruce Lipton, cellular biologist, explained in his May interview with Eldon Taylor that a cell in a petri dish with toxins will self-destruct, a cell with the correct nutrient and growth factors will thrive. It’s the same cell but it lives within a different environment. Therefore, what happens to our body when we bathe our cells in processed foods, personal care products that contain hormonal disruptors and other toxicants, and stress chemicals? The answer is cellular malfunction that translates to disease.
I have written before on At the IFM conference last week, Dr. Bland examined the connection between food, environment, and relationships on our biology. He provided evidence that our biological environment doesn’t just consist of the genes we inherited from our parents. This genetic DNA imprint is expressed according to the signals it receives from the environment. Therefore, disease can be said to be “the proper cellular response to an improper environment.”
There is evidence that those who exhibit chronic diseases may in fact have less favorable “cells in the petri dish”, therefore, they must pay extra attention to the “nutritional broth” they feed into their body. Our genes are like the cards we are dealt. Some are given a “full house”, others “four of a kind”, and still others feel like they need to fold (aka “the folders”). (Is anyone in the mood for Kenny Rogers?) It’s these “folders” that tend to skew statistics in drug and medical trials. These are the “nonresponses,” “negative treatment resisters”, or “dropouts.” To some medical professionals, they may remain a mystery; however, it’s these wonderful outliers that are the heart and basis for the functional medicine model! This is because functional medicine provides the tools to explain, investigate, and initiate specific treatments for their optimal nutritional broth.
It’s these “folders” that tend to skew statistics in drug and medical trials. These are the “nonresponses,” “negative treatment resisters”, or “dropouts.” To some medical professionals, they may remain a mystery; however, it’s these wonderful outliers that are the heart and basis for the functional medicine model! This is because functional medicine provides the tools to explain, investigate, and initiate specific treatments for their optimal nutritional broth. Today, even conventional medicine is studying the genetically determined medication treatment responses to various drugs. Crazy medical terms that functional medicine leaders have been spitting out for years to explain this interplay on how our body processes environmental signals, such as SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) and methylation, are now making headlines.
Click here to read more about the headlines and some other valuable insights on cardiovascular health…
References:
MARK HOUSTON, MD, MS. Coronary Heart Disease Risk Factors, Noninvasive Cardiovascular Testing, and Metabolic Cardiology. June 2, 2012. IFM Phoenix, AZ. A New Era in Preventing, Managing, and Reversing Cardiovascular and Metabolic Dysfunction
JEFFREY BLAND, PHD. The Impact of a Toxic Environment and Unhealthy Lifestyle Factors on Cardiometabolic Disease. June 1, 2012.. IFM Phoenix, AZ. A New Era in Preventing, Managing, and Reversing Cardiovascular and Metabolic Dysfunction.
MARK HOUSTON, MD, MS . Release the Pressure: Effective Interventions for the Treatment of Hypertension. June 2, 2012. IFM Phoenix, AZ. A New Era in Preventing, Managing, and Reversing Cardiovascular and Metabolic Dysfunction.
Eldon Taylor. May 29, 2012: Biology of Belief and Spontaneous Evolution. HayHouse Radio. http://www.hayhouseradio.com/episode_preview.php?author_id=432.
