Day 1 Integrative Healthcare Symposium NYC

Pre-conference Sponsored by Metagenics

Dedicated to my friend and colleague Paige Adams: who would have been giddy over all of the MTHFR talk today!

WOW! Day 1 of the HIS in NYC this year did not disappoint at all. Eight hours of education Titled InflammAging-Clinical Care Practices that Improve Health Outcomes; there were presentations ranging from Chronic Inflammation Decreasing the lifespan, managing cognitive performance, resolving inflammation, the microbiome and the gut-brain axis, probiotics solutions and the gut brain axis, epigenetics the new way to treat patients with precision medicine! Below are just a few of the takeaways I gathered from the day of nonstop education.

Dr. John Troup shared that 50% of Americans are taking 1 prescriptions, 30% 2 prescriptions and 15% are taking 3 or more prescriptions! Our lifespan that our body can live is approximately 95-105 years of age, but our life expectancy is just 78-82 years old. That is unacceptable to me. Why are we wearing out and dying before our actual lifespan is met? One reason is INFLAMMATION. If we fix the underlying issue of chronic disease we fix the condition.

There are 4 pivotal points in our health trajectory:

• The 1st 1,000 days of life: starting with the prenatal exposure to chemicals that disrupt fetal epigenome and can result in a lifelong risk of disease. This is an evolving field of research. Did you know that only 2% of a child’s height is genetic? What does the other 98% account for?
• 25-40 years old: This is when the first signs of disease really start to rear its ugly head. The years that we are hard on our bodies by eating pro-inflammatory foods, shortening of DNA (telomeres) happens, cardio vascular disease expressions begin to show up etc. There is a 15 year span of increasing inflammation during this time!
• 50-65 years old: Healthy Aging years. Only 20-30% of aging is determined by genetics! The rest is by epigenetics!
• 65 and older: The vitality years. During this season lack of community with social isolation may affect health, lack of exercise, pharmacogenomics, declining mental health.

Dr. Joan Claria discussed the role of low grade inflammation in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and using SPMs to help activate IL10 as an anti-inflammatory cytokine response. There is no prescription to treat NAFLD..we must decrease inflammation with lifestyle modifications.

Dr. Dale Bredesen from the Buck Institute http://www.buckinstitute.org/ blew our minds with his information on neurodegeneration and treatments they use at the Buck Institute using their MEND program to treat dementia and beyond. Did you know 30 million people have dementia and 45 million will have Alzheimer’s disease? It is the 3rd leading cause of death. By the year 2050, 160,000,000 will have AD and there is NO cure!! Women are at the epicenter of AD: with 65% of the AD suffers are women and 60% of caregivers are also women. He discussed the link between Alzheimer’s disease and a depletion of BRCA1 (linked to breast cancer) in neurons. That BRCA1 depletion can cause cognitive deficits.

He discussed that we know the “what” in traditional allopathic medicine, BUT we do not look at the “WHY”? This is the root of functional medicine…uncovering the why and not simply settling for the What!

The Type 3 AD was discussed and the factors leading up to it: Some of the factors are symptom presenting <65 years old, ApoE4 negative usually, family history, decreased triglycerides (40-50), decreased zinc levels (50-60),adrenal dysfunction, depression, problems with math, exposure to toxins, excessive stress are some of the factors involved with type 3 AD. Did you know that sleep apnea can increase dementia and AD? If you take Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPIs) have your zinc levels checked. PPIs can decrease zinc levels and decreased zinc levels is one of the factors that could be associated with dementia and AD. Benzodiazepines and PPIs have been associated with cognitive decline. Dr. Mark Lyte discussed microbial endocrinology and when we change the diversity of the bacteria in the gut you change your health. Probiotics DO NOT establish in us. They move through us. Therefore he discussed taking probiotics that are targeted for specific areas. Dr.Nikky Contractor gave a great presentation on probiotics. She discussed in detail the Humane Microbiome Project that really ramped up in 2009 studying how the microbiome affects the function or dysfunction of our bodies. Fascinating information. There are >100 trillion bacteria of approximately 500 species in our body. We are 99% microbial!

She shared research on 2 strains of bacteria both Lactobacillus: L. Paracasei: 8700:2 and L. Plantarum that when combined decrease the viral load of colds and viruses. Decreasing the length and severity of the cold!

Tas Bhatia discussed epigenetics and how gene alterations are triggered by something. They don’t just “happen”.
Methylation was first discussed in 1983. 60-90% of our DNA needs to be methylated to work properly. She discussed the methylation cycle in detail.

Pathway Genomics is a lab company I can’t wait to learn more about and hopefully begin to offer to our patients soon. They have partnered with Metagenics as well to offer testing. www.pathway.com

This is just the PRECONFERENCE!! As you can tell, information overload is possible.

Love this job and the community that we have.
Onward~