As Dr. Lolin and I went through Chiropractic College, we were repeatedly taught that patients will come to see us with three questions to be answered.

1) What’s wrong with me?
2) How long will it take to fix it?
3) How much will it cost?

Though our professors were correct, we are asked those questions all the time during our initial interviews with patients, our professors were incomplete.

For most of the patients we see, many of whom have been dealing with chronic health issues for years with little or no relief, the primary question is, “How did I get this way...How did this happen to me?”

The short, blunt, honest and sometimes brutal answer is “You helped create it.” After a patient overcomes the initial shock of my answer, sometimes quite indignantly, we gently explain how they unknowingly, and often through no fault of their own, contributed to the creation of their state of health.

In order to comprehend this reality it requires that we let go of some of the dogmatic views about health and disease that we were all raised with.

For instance, the idea that your genetics, your DNA, predetermines your state of health, happiness and potential has been promulgated as the central axiom of biology for the past forty years. The new field of Epigenetics shatters that myth as profoundly as the discovery that the world was not flat after all.

The new reality proves that your DNA is simply a blueprint for cellular function. The Environment is the contractor who has complete influence over how the blueprint is turned into reality. In short, every one of the 50 trillion cells that make up your body is constantly gathering information about its internal and external environmental in order to survive. As part of the adaptation mechanism for life, genes are able to be switched on and off, much like a light switch.

This understanding has spawned the new fields of pharmicogenomics and nutrogenomics. Parmicogenomic research is focused on creating new drugs to switch faulty gene expression, which manifests as a disease process, on or off depending on the needs of a particular case.

The field of Nutrogenomics is already proving its capability of doing what the pharmaceutical companies are attempting to do. The benefits of Nutrogenomics over pharmicogenomics are clear. Not only is Nutrogenomics consistent with Hippocrates admonition to “Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food” it is less expensive than drugs and free of the side effects that are always present with synthetic pharmaceuticals.

At this point, people often stop us and say, “So, am I to believe that what I eat affects my genetics?” That’s exactly what we want people to understand. Only with a firm grasp of that reality are our patients able to not only understand how they got where they are, they are empowered to re-create a better state of health and function.

Nutrition is only part of the story, however. We have categorized six primary environmental dynamics that have direct effect upon the expression of our genetics. These include 1. Posture, 2. Nutrition, 3. Exercise, 4. Rest, 5. Attitude and 6. Energetics.

In our last newsletter we addressed some issues relevant to posture. This issue will expound upon some more details about nutrition.

If we understand that the human body is really a colony of 50 trillion individual cells, organized into various functional communities we call organs and tissues, and that these communities exist in a symbiotic and synergistic state of communication and cooperation, and that each cell is always hyperaware of its internal and external environment and how its state of being ties in with the whole organism, then it would make sense from a functional nutrition point of view, to take a closer look at the internal environment of the cells.

Each cell in the body is a highly intelligent entity that can exist indefinitely on its own as long as it has a constant supply of the proper ratios and proportions of nutrients and has full removal of waste products. This understanding begs the question, “Since the human body is simply a matrix of 50 trillion individual cells, and individual cells can exist indefinitely, what is the potential of the human organism if it receives the proper ratio and proportion of nutrients and complete removal of toxins and waste products?”

The best way to see where a patient’s cells stand in regard to their level of nutrients is to look at their ratios and proportion of minerals. Minerals are needed by the cells to manufacture enzymes, co-enzymes and co-factors that enable it to utilize vitamins. The problem with most modern approaches to nutrition is that the nutritionist is simply playing trade with the patient. “You have Condition X which is the result of a deficiency of Vitamin Y. ..I’ll trade you...Take Vitamin Y and you’ll get rid of Condition X.” This is no different than the game played by medicine.

The reality is that the patient may be getting more than enough of Vitamin Y, but they have imbalances in their cellular minerals that are preventing the cells from utilizing the vitamin.

By utilizing Tissue Mineral Analysis, and in some cases, specialized genetic testing, we are able to develop individualized solutions to the cause of the problem, that, over time, led a patient to the point in their life where they are sitting in our office asking the question, “How did this happen to me?”

In most cases, health and optimal function on a cellular level can be restored over a period of 18-36 months. In extreme cases, especially those that have been heavily medicated, it can take up to 5 years.

The exciting news is that if faulty genes can be switched on to express as disease (All disease is faulty gene expression) they can, in most cases, be switched off.

The cells of the body have an incredible ability to adapt in order to survive. If we consciously live to provide each cell optimal environmental input, they can last indefinitely. What do you think the implication of that reality will have on your health?

Thriving cells = a Thriving Body. Sick cells can be made well again...so can sick bodies! It’s a process of re-creating your genetic “reality”.

There are no such things as unrealistic health goals...only unrealistic timelines.

Be well and live well!

In Health,

Dr. Pete