The Shift Has Begun

I knew this was going to be a different kind of shift when Dr. Peter D’Adamo showed up at the University of Bridgeport College of Naturopathic Medicine Clinic and started to rearrange the furniture and clean the shelves in the rooms where we — the six students working with him — would be seeing patients. Something very different was afoot here. It is perhaps an understatement to say that Dr. D’Adamo’s approach—based on decades of research on blood type and, more recently, genotype—is more progressive than what we learn in traditional naturopathic medical school classes. But nowhere else will you find someone more dedicated to the naturopathic principle of Tolle causam (treat the cause). And, while the science upon which he bases his findings is fairly high-level, his interventions (diet, exercise, supplementation and lifestyle recommendations) are well within the familiarity level of your average medical student toiling away in the clinical setting. So, though the six of us were still trying to absorb the scientific background behind The GenoType Diet upon which we’d be basing our patient visits, we all got our Windex bottles out and squirted away and made sure the chairs matched in the consultation room in preparation for what was to come.

Dr. D’Adamo is the author of the New York Times bestselling Right For Your Type series, which takes the ABO blood type as the primary determinant of diet and disease. A second-generation naturopathic doctor, he also started and runs the New England Center for Personalized Medicine in Wilton, founded the Institute for Human Individuality at Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine, has written four medical software systems including the SWAMI software that we will be using at UB, holds a number of patents in cosmetics technology and nutritional supplementation and, well, is a second-degree black belt. And those are only a few things on his resume; to say that the man is meticulous is an understatement. The idea behind the shift is this: to see a patient in a series of four consultations and to develop a diet and lifestyle regimen constructed around the patient’s GenoType. During the first visit, we take a comprehensive history, do a laboratory workup and a take a series of measurements to determine GenoType; at the second, we talk to the patient about nutritional recommendations based on our findings; the third visit will be spent making any changes necessary and addressing the patient’s concerns; and on the final visit, we do a wrap-up after eight weeks to see how the patient has progressed.

On his first few days at the Clinic, Dr. D’Adamo lectured us extensively on the science behind blood typing and his more recent work, which is the basis for his book The GenoType Diet. The GenoType Diet is based on something called epigenetics. Here’s how Dr. D’Adamo describes epigenetics: “[It] is the study of changes in the genetic expression that are not linked to changes in the DNA sequences but related to the influence of the environment on the genes being expressed or not — basically whether a gene is silenced or activated.” Thirty percent of our genes are not subject to epigenetic control — these are called household genes. The other seventy percent, or the luxury genes, are open to epigenetic change. Dr. D’Adamo describes them like this: “In these genes, it is almost as if there is a great, big volume on the gene, which the environmental conditions adjust upwards or downwards depending on whether more or less of what that particular gene codes for (enzymes, proteins, hormones, etc.) is required.”

In The GenoType Diet, D’Adamo likens this to a big town hall meeting in which various genes are competing to speak at the microphone. When a problem comes up, there are the people who get up first, talk the loudest and generally take over. Then there are the people, who make up the majority, who sit there quietly, listening and observing. D’Adamo’s goal is to get the right genes talking at the right time. For example, if you’re fighting off a cold, you want your anti-inflammatory genes speaking up, while you keep the inflammatory genes in their chairs. As D’Adamo puts it, “We want to be sure we’re hearing from the right parts of our genetic makeup and silencing the genes that are not so helpful. The genes that predispose us to certain diseases and disorders should be encouraged to stay away from the microphone. The genes that help us feel healthy and happy that lead to a long life and a vital old age should be invited to have their say.”

When the body becomes sick due to an imbalance in the body’s genetic response, the best way to get it back on track — in D’Adamo’s estimation — is through diet and nutrition because foods and supplements are the most effective way to silence and encourage genes at a cellular level. The body can, essentially, be reprogrammed to respond in a more genetically capable way and once this reprogramming is complete and the body is responding in healthier ways due to the repair of cellular damage, dietary restrictions can be eased.

We will continue to unpack the science behind Dr. D’Adamo’s work in upcoming installments of The Shift. As he said to us a few days ago, “Complicated things that contain truth will stick and distill; if something doesn’t contain the truth it will always remain complicated.” In the upcoming weeks and months, I hope to be able to get to highlight some truths and demonstrate how and why this approach works, as we follow our patients through their weeks of treatment.

In next week’s posting, I will discuss the six genetic archetypes, or GenoTypes: Hunter, Gatherer, Teacher, Explorer, Warrior and Nomad. I will also talk in detail about the measurements taken that determine a person’s GenoType and walk you through a visit with our first patient, including using the SWAMI software.

If you’d like to find out more while waiting for your next installment of The Shift, read more at dadamo.com.

And for more information on Dr. D’Adamo’s tips on keeping your immune system in top shape, as well as cutting edge supplements you can take to ward off other immune hazards, go to: http://www.4yourtype.com/2009_newsletter_v6n8.asp#SWAMI