Functional nutrition & Alternative medicine

Alternative medicine, Functional nutrition & Naturopathy are so versatile and so effective in treating modern era diseases. While conventional medicine has no answers other than providing symptomatic relief. Though the role of Alternative medicine & Naturopathy is well established since the ages, a very promising and highly effective new model of started developing about 25 years ago in the United States and has been growing exponentially across the world. Its approach is largely based on scientifically researched nutritional interventions and lifestyle management. It uses the latest available genetic knowledge, and strives to personalise therapy to the individual patient. In the last 15 years, with human genome and microbiome mapping, a seismic shift has taken place in the understanding of human biology and neurology. These discoveries are so cutting-edge that your doctor, therapist or nutritionist may not be even aware of them.

Conventional medicine looks upon organs in isolation, forgetting, whole body is interconnected. What happens in one part has repercussions in other parts. It's a chain of events where one thing leads to another. If your stomach is not making enough acid or your brain is not making enough neurotransmitters, the chain gets broken, the cascading effect downstream is chaos.

If we imagine the mother earth to be a living human body which has countries as its organs and we, the individuals as the cells that are inhabiting it. How would you see yourself in this picture? " very important " as if the whole universe is revolving around you. Why? It's the individuals that make a nation or a world. If I ask you what is the total GDP of the entire world? Naturally it consists of the earnings of each and every individual. It means whatever each individual is producing, it counts and matters.

Same is true for each and every cell of your body. Just like mother earth, your body too is inhabited by around 30 to 50 trillion cells. Each cell has its own energy producing factories, its own respiratory, digestive, excretory, immune and neural system. Each cell in your body contributes to your total energy output and health, adding to the national GDP of your body. When cells in a particular organ start to malfunction, at first, we call it dis-ease, and then disease.

A Simple example is recent microchips shortage from China, auto industry world over in shambles. Due to the Ukraine war, the grain export is stuck, the whole world is in crisis. Why? because the world is intrinsically interdependent. Any disruption, malfunctioning would cause sufferings and chaos.

For example, in the conventional medical model, if two people present with chronic migraines, they might well be offered exactly the same treatment. Treating them both with pain killers will possibly remove the symptom but not the cause.

In Alternative medicine & Functional nutrition, both individuals are considered as very different from each other and that the root cause of their headaches are likely to be very different too. We look at their nutritional status, genetic factors, hormone balance, gut health, stress levels and environmental factors such as exposure to toxins to identify the specific underlying causes, and create a personalized treatment plan.

Alternative medicine & Functional nutrition is termed as “upstream medicine”, because it focuses primarily on identifying and correcting the root causes of disease right up to the cellular & molecular levels, which may lead to suboptimal functioning of a system as opposed to “downstream medicine” where therapy is primarily concerned with managing symptoms. Put another way, Alternative medicine & Functional nutrition is 'medicine by cause, not by symptom', 'medicine by organism, not by organ'.

Why Alternative medicine & Functional nutrition Succeed Where Rest Fails?

Today the medical profession is overburdened and overstretched, The Doctor patient ratio is terribly skewed and both, doctors and patients often experience the frustrating inadequacy of consultations, for they are too short and too infrequent to fully address the complexity of chronic disease management.

In these changing times, we often see patients with ongoing intractable symptoms ranging from chronic headaches to unexplained allergies, from abdominal cramping to debilitating fatigue, raised blood sugar levels that do not respond to oral therapy or to insulin, and so on. The conventional model of care is designed to provide medications to alleviate symptoms, but often the root cause remains unknown. The symptoms may be partially or wholly managed temporarily, but the underlying causes, the disease-causing factors, remain intact, leaving the patient open to recurrence and chronicity. This usually results in both the doctor and the patient feeling frustrated or even helpless, asking themselves if there is truly nothing else that can be done.

Alternative medicine & Functional nutrition fills this gap. It searches for the root causes of the disease and attempts to correct them through natural holistic means. This therapeutic approach is highly individualized and usually very effective.

Your bacterial genes are more powerful than your human genes

YOU ARE ONLY 10% HUMAN & 90% BACTERIA

When you look into the mirror, what do you see? An individual but that is far from the truth. You are not an individual but a colony, you are a community of around 50 trillion cells, each having its own life cycle and support system. This community of 50 trillion cells - that you call 'you', is actually only a small part of the "whole you"!! 90% of 'your cells' are not actually human cells at all. They are the cells of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and worms that live on & inside you. So in essence, 90% of you is made up of foreign cells.!! It doesn't stop here, believe me, 99% of your genes too, are not human genes at all, they are foreign genes - bacterial, viral, protozoal.

We humans have only a measly 20,000 genes. Corn has more genes than we do, 32,000!! The water flea has 31,000. Now, if we humans have so few genes, how come we are so complex?
We need to go back, down the time machine, 3 billion years ago, before even plants existed!! That time only bacteria and single cells could grow & divide without oxygen, on hydrogen sulfide, to them oxygen is lethal. As oxygen levels were rising, to protect themselves, these bacteria hop inside other organisms, in an anaerobic environment (as your gut).

This led to the creation of advanced cells which constitute the cells of algae, fungi, plants, all animals, including you and me:). The engulfed bacteria are your mitochondria, your energy producing power houses. However, they formed a symbiotic relationship, they got food and a stable, protected home, and the host cells got extra energy to fuel its functions & survival. And the human host also got the genetic material from those bacteria, in addition to 20,000 of its genes, it got 8 million unique genes from its gut population - bacterial, viral, protozoal, called the microbiome. Now, you can easily imagine, what influences your life & health more, 1% of your genes or 99% of your bacterial genes!! What you should be caring more about 🙂

Symbiotic Relationship With Bacteria

Imagine a vast empty space where the only living thing is bacteria and single cells, that is even before plants existed. That time only bacteria and single cells could grow & divide without oxygen, to them oxygen is lethal since there is no oxygen, these microbes thrive on toxic Hydrogen sulphide. Welcome to our earth 3 billion years ago.

Then the atmosphere started changing, Oxygen levels started rising and other forms of life became possible. As oxygen levels are rising, to protect themselves, these bacteria hop inside other organisms, in an anaerobic environment (as your gut) and into the cells of other living creatures, algae, fungi, plants, and all animals including humans. The arrangement was symbiotic. The bacteria will provide energy and share their DNA with the host in exchange for food and a protected home.
Today, in this 21st century, these engulfed bacteria still reside in our cells. These bacteria are mitochondria, the energy producing factories, the power generators, inside our cells. Anytime, you feel fatigued or drained of energy, remember its type of food you are eating that is causing injury to your Mitochondria, through inflammation and excessive oxidative stress, leading to a drop in energy producing capacity of these wonderful creatures.

The remaining bacteria started living in the oxygen free environment of our colons, making Essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals for us. If despite eating a healthy diet, you don't feel energy, know that it's your microbes feeling challenged and may be dying because of the foods you are eating. If you are feeling anxiety, depression, brain fog, it simply means that neurotransmitters, the feel-good hormones, like serotonin, Gaba endorphin etc are missing which are produced by these microbes. Not only that, genes from these microbes outnumber your genes by 100 is to 1, what we consider a hopeless genetically inherited disease, may actually be a reflection of disbalance in your microbes which can be treated easily.

Over And Above The Genes, Its Epigenetics

Let's understand how your human genes and genes from your microbiome shape your health. We often hear those diseases often run in the family. if your father is overweight, has a heart disease or diabetes or stiff joints, somewhere you presume that since you share the same DNA as your dad, you too are going to have the same health issues. To put it bluntly, this notion is dead wrong. Having certain genes indicate susceptibility to certain disease conditions. However whether these genes get triggered or not, depends on many factors known as epigenetics, which means environment inside and outside your cells. Epigenetics has established that genetic code is not your destiny. It also means that your environment is bigger than your genes. It decides ‘whether or not’ you trigger your disease susceptible genes into a full blown medical condition. Now, what influences the expression of the DNA in your genes or what constitutes Epigenetics. It’s your dietary habits, lifestyle, the makeup of your microbiome and stress that influences and determines if your genes for certain diseases will be turned on or not.
Though it's true that people living under the same roof may have the same health problems, it's not only because you share the same DNA but because you have similar food habits and live in the same environment, both of which shape your microbiome. The trillions of microbes inside your bodies, on your skin and even the air around you is remarkably similar. Recent cutting-edge research suggests that your human genes have relatively a minor role to play in determining your health & longevity. Your family history is actually the summary of the family's eating habits and lifestyle. The truth is, even the people who are not genetically related but live together sharing the same environment have strikingly similar gut microbiomes which is a better predictor of many health outcomes- including diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular health. Since you have similar gut bugs, you may share the same health conditions as your roommate or spouse.

So together your’ s and your gut buddy’s genes impact your health and longevity, from your skin to your hormones to your cellular energy levels. So much so, having the right gut buddies can make you thinner and happy and even cure your deadly diseases.

Now, what influences the expression of the DNA in these genes? Epigenetics has established that genetic code is not your destiny. It also means that your environment is bigger than your genes. It decides ‘whether or not’ you trigger your disease susceptible genes into a full blown medical condition. Your health coach helps you correct this environment by selectively removing foods, chemicals, toxins and stresses that triggers such genes, removing the root causes and thereby reversing disease conditions.