Send in the Clown, Part II

Today marks the return of Jane the Clown. Remember Jane from a few blogs ago? She’s a professional clown and refers to herself as Jane the Clown, so we’ve begun affectionately calling her that, as well. Jane visited the Clinic a few weeks ago at the urging of her friend Angela, a sharp nurse, who is here to lend moral support to her dear friend Jane, who is a little weary of diet protocols and a little leery of making any kind of lifestyle changes. When I greet them in the lobby and ask how the supplements have been working out, Angela sort of rolls her eyes and looks toward Jane who giggles sheepishly and admits to not being totally consistent with taking them. Angela gives Jane a playful nudge and asks her what it’s going to take to get her to get serious about her health. Jane replies by throwing up her arms, laughing and saying, “Give me a break, I’m here, I’m trying. This ain’t easy.” Indeed, the level of commitment Dr. D’Adamo asks of his patients is not insignificant but the willingness to change is the key, though our patients certainly come in with varying degrees of that. Having a friend who’s a personal cheerleader never hurts.

I take Jane back to the lab to have some final lab work completed and when we’re done there, we — Jaime and Ann the student clinicians, Barbara the UB resident, Dr. D’Adamo, Jane, Angela and myself — all troop upstairs to feed Jane’s information into SWAMI to determine her GenoType and to print out her diet and recipe guide. While Jane and Angela wait in the consultation room, the rest of us convene in the conference room to discuss Jane’s results. As Ann and I enter her data into SWAMI, D’Adamo peruses her measurements and results. Two things stick out. First, her fingerprint pattern is mostly whorls. Finding a majority of whorls in a woman is a big red flag for breast cancer and, in fact, Jane’s mom had the disease. Secondly, it’s clear from her overweight status, sedentary lifestyle and lack of energy that her metabolism is compromised. D’Adamo points out that she is predisposed to metabolic syndrome, typical of Type A non-secretors like Jane. As D’Adamo looks into his crystal ball, to use his words, he can see a not-too-rosy health picture if she continues as she is.

After Ann and I feed all of her measurements and lab results into SWAMI, the almighty software tells us that she is an Explorer. What exactly does that mean? Let’s look at all the first three GenoTypes and what they entail.

First, we'll examine Explorer so we can get greater insight into what characterizes Jane. Explorers are the idiosyncratic GenoType and, according to D’Adamo, probably originated 20,000 to 30,000 years ago. They are often left-handed, have a negative blood type, and are asymmetrical – meaning that their left fingerprints don’t match their right, indicating a stressful fetal period. It’s called Explorer because D’Adamo sees these people as glacial refugees — “ they never had the chance to settle down into a stable relationship with one environment…accordingly, they fine-tuned their responses but in unpredictable and inexplicable ways.” For example, Explorers are highly sensitive to their environments and chemicals; they have a tendency toward blood irregularities; they are hard to diagnose. Liver detoxification can be difficult, which makes them very caffeine sensitive and prone to skin breakouts. Diseases they are prone to include type 1 diabetes, anemia and breast cancer. On the upside, they have good gene repair, excellent physical stamina and retain memory into old age. What do they look like? They’re muscular with wide heads and “chiseled” features. Psychologically, they are broad and flexible thinkers, effectively take in several stimuli at once and have above-average intelligence like Julius Caesar, who D’Adamo speculates was an Explorer.

Our next GenoType, the Hunter, has an incredibly reactive immune system that attacks and usually overcomes whatever bugs come its way. The problem with this is that such a strong and swift immune response can lead to overreaction in the form of asthma, allergies and autoimmune disease. This is one of the earliest GenoTypes, according to D’Adamo and they can therefore metabolize meat quite well, but not grains. Hunters look tall and thin and are psychologically intense and often run on adrenaline, to the point of burning out their nervous systems; the pituitary-adrenal axis is often compromised in times of stress; D'Adamo thinks Michael Jordan is a good example of a Hunter. This GenoType is always Type O. Because they are so hyped up metabolically, they can burn out in middle age and the aging process can be difficult as a result. They are also prone to depression, gastrointestinal disease and joint problems.

The last GenoType we’ll look at for now is the Gatherer. As D’Adamo writes, “If you need to survive a famine —and many of our ancestors did—[Gatherer] is designed to get you through it. Gatherers have thrifty genes whose primary goal is to hang on to every ingested calorie for dear life—literally.” While this may have been helpful at one point, for Gatherers in present-day America, having genes that hoard calories means a tendency toward obesity, diabetes and a generally slow metabolism. Gatherers, then, are endomorphic, meaning they have more body fat no matter how hard they work on diet and exercise (think Oprah). They usually have O or B blood type. Because they have high estrogen, they can tend toward hormonal cancers. They also suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, high blood pressure and low thyroid activity. But the Gatherer will have an excellent capacity for mental endurance, are highly fertile and great family people, and are often “early adopters” of new ideas.

Next week, we’ll look at the last three GenoTypes, but right now, let’s get back to Jane. When D’Adamo gives her his crystal ball prediction (breast cancer and metabolic syndrome), Jane’s eyes widen and her usually jokey disposition drops as she listens intently to what Dr. D’Adamo recommends. For a patient, having the mirror held up in front of her for the first time is often the reality jolt she needs to make changes. We walk her through her new diet, which D’Adamo has altered in SWAMI to reflect foods choices that combat inflammation; he also planned her meals to be smaller to accommodate weight loss. The idea of the diet will be to decrease overall inflammation in her body, which will not only make it easier to lose weight, but will also address her complaint of significant back pain in the thoracic area. He advises her to do “elongating” exercises like weights and yoga. D’Adamo wants to get her stress hormones under control to get her metabolism back on track; her digestive problems will improve along with gastrointestinal recovery. Indeed, after a couple weeks on supplements, Jane’s complexion looks less sallow and she is eliminating more easily.

As D’Adamo wraps up the consultation, Jane asks about what she should be doing for her candida rash (D’Adamo recommends coconut oil for its lauric acid), hair falling out (he advises to take 8 mg biotin and 800 mg folic acid to rid the scalp of yeast that makes hair fall out) and uneven sleep. At this point, D’Adamo throws back his head, laughs and says that he thinks we have enough to deal with right now and, well, it’s all connected: with an ideal diet, a bit of exercise and correct supplements, anything is possible…even better sleep.