I recently wrote about the current state of our medical care system and its ability to keep our population healthy with regards to primary prevention. In this second installment, I want to drill down a bit further to address the importance of nutrition as a primary preventative health practice.
Nutrition as Primary Prevention
We now know we can prevent 80% or more of heart disease with nutritional and lifestyle change. We can reduce the rate of numerous cancers where improved nutrition has been shown to change the expression of hundreds of genes in patients with cancer. Similar interventions have been shown to increase telomerase, the enzyme that lengthens telomeres, the ends of our chromosomes that govern the rate at which we age. So, nutritional interventions are not only heart and cancer protective, but also likely increase life span.
As a health care consumer and client, I want to be put in a position where I have the information I need to optimize my health, not only react to medical and surgical problems as they arise. I want to invest in my health and in prevention, not just use my health care dollars to pay for diagnostic tests that tell me what I have already developed. Individualized medicine is the future of medicine. Individualized information suited to our long-term requirements is the key. My best recommendation, today, is to take a Convergence Medicine approach, to cover all bases, from the best of all medical traditions.
Can you count on the “business of medicine” to teach you, as a business client, how to create a comprehensive and individualized plan to protect your health? At this time, I don’t believe so. So what can you do? First, seek advice from groups that take an integrative, whole body systems approach. Second, consider specific blood testing and genetic testing to better determine your long-term risk. To increase your base of knowledge on nutrition, to make it more individualized, take a more serious approach invest in an individualized nutritional consultation, optimized to suit your specific requirements. Focusing on whole foods, limiting processed foods, eating organic and losing weight are all very important. But, the purpose of good nutrition is to optimize your metabolic systems, increase your energy levels and improve your quality of sleep and quality of life.
What do our patients say about Convergence Medicine and our Nutritional Program? Earlier this week, I received an email from a patient with longstanding chronic fatigue syndrome:
“I have lost 7lbs and I have been feeling pretty well with less severe fatigue! I have begun to feel optimistic and more in touch with joy. I am lighter in every way. I pray that this is my new way of life….”
Call us at 415-345-0099 or email info@anataramedicine.com. One of our doctors will be happy to discuss how Convergence Medicine can serve you.