INTEGRATING NUTRITION AND LIFESTYLE - OPTIMIZING GENETIC POTENTIAL
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Functional and Orthomolecular Medicine- click here
What is Functional Medicine?

The term “functional medicine” was coined in 1993 to describe the medicine of the future.1 In fact, today, many complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM, practitioners use a functional medicine approach that includes the following:

1.    Patient uniqueness: Each individual is unique. This uniqueness encompasses voluntary activities, such as decision-making, personality development, and emotional response, and involuntary activities like metabolism of nutrients, cellular processing of information, and communication among the body’s organ systems. Functional medicine professionals realize that all individuals have unique metabolic patterns that affect their health needs and thus, the concept of individuality is central to every aspect of functional medicine, from clinical assessment and diagnosis to the broad spectrum of treatment modalities.

2.Patient-centered approach: Functional medicine practitioners use a patient-centered approach to support wellness. This means that in addition to considering the overall health of the patient, functional medicine practitioners consider the beliefs, attitudes, and motivations, as well as the physical, mental, and emotional aspects, of the patient.

3.Preventive care: Optimal health is not just the absence of disease. Even the most minor symptoms can foreshadow more serious conditions later in life. This often happens via the “snowball effect,” in which a “minor” imbalance within the body produces a cascade of biological triggers that can eventually lead to poor health and chronic illness. For this reason, functional medicine focuses on the prevention, instead of just the treatment of, even the most minor imbalances.2

Through changes in lifestyle, environment, and nutrition, functional medicine professionals rely on their knowledge of key physiological, genetic, and biochemical processes for establishing an innovative form of total patient wellness amidst the diversity of interests in health care today.1

References:
1. The Institute for Functional Medicine. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2002, from http://www.fxmed.com/aboutus/about-frame.html
2.GSDL Functional Medicine. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2002, from http://www.gsdl.com/gsdl/functional_med.html



Intestinal Health

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The Importance of Healthy Sugar Metabolism- click here
Intestinal Health - coming soon
They Myths on Dieting - coming soon
Blood Sugar Metabolism - an article from Metagenics

Achieving and maintaining proper blood sugar metabolism is essential for a lifetime of excellent health.  Prolonged unhealthy blood sugar metabolism can significantly affect the health of your nerves, eyes, blood vessels, kidneys and pancreas.  It can impact your weight, body shape, energy levels, blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, overall cardiovascular health and more.  Over 60 million North Americans have “insulin resistance,” a form of unhealthy blood sugar metabolism that frequently goes unrecognized but can often progress to the point where signs of significant health deterioration appear.

Don’t let this happen to you!  It is never too early or too late to learn how you can achieve and maintain healthy blood sugar metabolism and experience the benefits of sustained good health.  The illustration above was created to help you do just that.  By understanding how blood sugar metabolism works, and with the guidance of your healthcare provider, you can take the necessary steps to achieve and enjoy the long lasting benefits of healthy blood sugar metabolism.

Diet, Lifestyle and Healthy Blood Sugar Metabolism:
The illustration above begins by depicting the importance of eating a healthy, nutrient-rich diet containing unrefined carbohydrates from whole foods.  Through normal, healthy digestion, the unrefined carbohydrates in our diet are progressively broken down to smaller sugars, which are then absorbed through the intestine into the blood.  This sugar absorption stimulates the pancreas to secrete an appropriate quantity of insulin into the blood, which facilitates the delivery of sugar int cells through-out the body.

When insulin binds to insulin receptors embedded in the cell membrane, a signal is sent to sugar transport channel vesicles inside the cell.  These vesicles respond to the insulin signal by carrying sugar transport channels (“sugar entryways”) to the surface membrane of the cell.  The vesicles then fuse with the cell membrane, flatten out and position their sugar transport channels to facilitate effective sugar delivery from the blood into the cell.  The sugar then enters the cell and is used for energy production by the mitochondria (the energy factories of the cell) or is stored for future use.  The response of the cell to insulin binding and the resultant insulin signal is critical to healthy blood sugar metabolism.

Poor diet, obesity and lack of exercise are considered major contributors to developing poor blood sugar metabolism.  Incorporating lifestyle changes that focus on effective weight control, healthy eating habits and a program of regular exercise are very important to promoting healthy blood sugar metabolism.

Factors That Lead to Unhealthy Blood Sugar Metabolism:
Over time, inactivity and an unhealthy diet can lead to unhealthy sugar metabolism.  When we consume excess sweets and refined or processed foods the simple sugars they contain are absorbed very quickly and can cause a rapid and dramatic increase in our blood sugar levels.  With a high concentration of sugar in the blood, the pancreas responds by producing a proportionally high surge of insulin in an effort to help the sugar gain entrance into the cell.  In unhealthy blood sugar metabolism, the cell may be unresponsive or “insulin resistant’ and sugar delivery in the cell can be reduced.  The pancreas then tries to compensate by producing even more insulin.  Over time, these high levels of insulin can lead to a host of problems, including increased triglyceride levels, decreased HDL (“good”) cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, other cardiovascular manifestations and hormone disruption.

This “insulin resistance” may occur because, along with excess sweets and refined carbohydrates, an unhealthy diet is also frequently deficient in the nutrients necessary to support healthy cell membranes, insulin receptors and a strong insulin signal.  Unhealthy insulin receptors can result in poor binding of insulin and, in concert with other factors, a diminished insulin signal, thereby reducing sugar delivery into the cell.  These other factors include the negative effects of specific enzymes and cytokines, such as phosphotyrosine phosphatases, nuclear factor-kappa-beta (NF-kappaB), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha).

An unhealthy diet may even alter the way the generic information within our cells influences blood sugar metabolism.  Scientists now know that a poor diet, along with other contributors, can alter our genetic potential or gene expression.  Appropriate gene expression is important for healthy blood sugar metabolism because it stimulates sugar utilization by the mitochondria of the cells, producing energy and, in effect, clearing sugar from the blood.

Taken as a whole, excess weight, lack of exercise and an unhealthy diet can reduce the “sensitivity” of your cells to insulin and even impact their genetic expression.  Without effective insulin binding and signaling, the sugar transport channel vesicles remain static and unable to travel to and fuse with the cell membrane.  As a result, the number of sugar transport channels is reduced, leading to poor cellular sugar absorption and utilization, excel blood sugar and insulin, low energy and a host of other possible manifestations of deteriorating health.

Suggestions to Help Achieve Healthy Blood Sugar Metabolism:
Talk to your Health Coach Susan DeBoer for insights into assisting with this issues.

The information provided above is from “2001 Advance Nutrition Publications, Inc. MET519 7/01.



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