The Shift

Shifting the Shift

2011-09-10T10:06:00.001-07:00

Thank you to everyone who has followed The Shift as I've muddled my way through medical school and shared about it along the way. It's been great to have you along for the ride. Please join me in the next phase at D'Adamo Personalized Nutrition where I'll be blogging at www.dadamonutrition.com/maura/. There, I'll be doing lots of things: sharing patient vignettes, telling you about the growth of the Store in Williamsburg and sharing any wisdom or amusing tales that I gather along the way.

Be well & see you in Williamsburg.

Oh, and if you can't get enough, follow me on Twitter: @DrMauraND.

D'Adamo Personalized Nutrition Opens in Brooklyn!

2011-08-22T10:10:00.001-07:00

Let the next chapter begin. This week, D’Adamo Personalized Nutrition opens a brand-new, gorgeous, state-of-the-art facility in trendsetting hub of New York: Williamsburg, Brooklyn. For those of you in the New York City area who have followed Dr. D’Adamo’s work (and my blog from my years in naturopathic medical school using the Blood Type and GenoType diets), we’re headed to your backyard. The space consists of a store where you can purchase supplements from the D’Adamo line, as well as a new line of basics from Vitamin C to melatonin. In the back treatment rooms, we will conduct nutritional consultations that will combine naturopathic concepts with Dr. D'Adamo's proprietary software to create customized wellness plans for customers who are interested in creating a personal lifestyle plan.

About a year ago, Dr. D’Adamo started talking about wanting to open up a spot in Brooklyn, which he has a big heart for, having both grown up and started out as a young doctor there. It has been inspiring to see it become a reality, with Dr. D doing some of the construction work himself on the new space. His father, in fact, practiced naturopathy for many years in Brooklyn when Dr. D’Adamo (the younger) was a child. For Dr. D, it’s an exciting closing of the circle. And it is for my colleague Dr. David Levi and me, as well: we spent four years in school training for this and we are eager to begin connecting with and helping the New York community. David and I will be full-time staffing the D’Adamo Personalized Nutrition Williamsburg. We’ll be doing everything from seeing clients to conducting weight loss groups to giving talks on relevant subjects. Dr. D’Adamo will also be seeing patients a few times a month in Williamsburg.

Get psyched, New York. This is the cutting-edge healing approach that you’ve been waiting for. Please come see us and monitor our Facebook page (D’Adamo Nutrition Williamsburg) and website (dadamonutrition.com) for photos and upcoming events including a Grand Opening Party on September 17. As always, feel free to contact me with questions and comments.

Metabolism, Heal Thyself

2011-04-08T10:23:00.000-07:00

For those of you who’ve been on the edge of your seats waiting to hear if my mom’s regimen of winter supplements worked to stave off her yearly bout of flu, wait no more. Recall, I put her on four things from D’Adamo Personalized Nutrition: Proberry Syrup that’s chockfull of virus-blocking elderberry, ARA 6 to build immune competency in the gut, the probiotic Polyflora that also enhances gut immunity, and Genoma Security that contains a number of immune-buttressing botanicals. I’m happy to report that Mom didn’t get sick once! It’s a small miracle, given that she works all day amongst germ-laden teenagers in New York City. Other things that helped her stay healthy this winter were keeping up her daily walks around the city and making an effort to temper her stress levels. Bravo, Mom. It’s interesting to note that the same supplement regimen that can help with keeping the immune system tip-top will also help with seasonal allergies that flare up in the spring. For more blood-type specific tips on how to triumph over spring sneezes and sniffles, go to http://www.4yourtype.com/2011_newsletter_v8n4.asp#Peter.

Now, to the case. Often a patient comes in without any major complaints; we call this a wellness visit. So it was with 33-year old Melanie, a native of Maine who was brought along by her three older sisters who are Blood Type Diet acolytes. With long blond hair, a faux leopard fur coat with matching flats and a hot pink scarf, Melanie was bleary-eyed when she arrived at 10:30 for her appointment. “I usually have had a few cups of coffee by now,” she said, faithfully having followed our instructions to arrive fasting so that we could administer the proper labs. Melanie was in good health, beyond suffering from the stresses of a lifestyle too rich, perhaps, in wine and heavy food. Melanie is a girl who enjoys the high life and didn’t go in much for diets and vitamin-taking. She described her job as that of a “personal concierge,” which, as she talked about it, sounded to me like she essentially throws parties for a living. Not a bad way to pay the bills, but also not a bad way to end up with some extra pounds, poor sleep hygiene, a smoking habit and a penchant for having a drink or four too many most nights of the week.

Very easygoing, with a ready laugh, Melanie told us a bit about her health history: she had survived an almost-fatal car accident about five years ago that left her with chronic back pain and stiffness. She had a history of depression. Her menses are very heavy with some clotting and she had recently gained about 10 pounds; her weight tended to fluctuate up and down. She drinks three or more drinks three or four nights a week (“because of her job”), skips breakfast most days and eats a lot of steak, heavy cheeses and breads. Her biggest concern is getting her body in top condition, as she wants to get pregnant in the next year or two.

By our tests, she proved to be basically fit. An O-positive Secretor, her phase angle (which reveals the health of the body’s cells) is high, her body keeps its water inside the cells where it belongs, showing that she had good water balance, and she is only slightly overweight. Her breath hydrogen tests revealed some dysbiosis—bad bacterial overgrowth—in her gut. Physical exam revealed no abnormalities other than a blood pressure of 135/80. In terms of body type, she is ectomorphic—long and mostly lean—with a little bit of weight around the middle. She doesn’t exercise, but work keeps her active most days.

Melanie made it clear that didn’t want to make any big changes. But then, our goal with her was not to significantly change her lifestyle but rather to introduce some gentle shifts in her daily habits to halt what was looking like a pre-Metabolic Syndrome picture, which is marked by a slightly overweight apple-shaped body, as well as hypertension, low HDL, high blood glucose and high triglycerides. We didn’t have the luxury of running these labs on the spot, but her blood pressure could’ve been better. Add smoking half a pack a day to the picture and the path from Metabolic Syndrome to more serious ills gets a lot shorter: type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease and the like.

One of Dr. D’Adamo’s valuable pieces of wisdom is that what we do health-wise—diet, exercise, supplements, stress management—in the decade we’re in completely sets up our health for our following decade of life. So this 33-year old’s drinking and smoking habits and lack of exercise not only aren’t setting her up so well for next year but also her 40s, to say nothing of not readying her body to bear a child. He impressed this upon Melanie. “You don’t have to go crazy with this,” he said, “a little here, a little there, will be fine.” The basic common sense algorithm for Melissa to follow was: eat more protein than carbohydrates and exercise a few times a week, enough to break a sweat. Certainly, diet is going to be the most important part of addressing her pre-Metabolic Syndrome state and we flipped a few switches in the SWAMI software to tailor the diet specifically for her: we removed any foods that would contribute to gastrointestinal overgrowth and we increased foods high in antioxidants and Vitamin B6 (this will improve her hormonal picture for less painful periods and increase her ability to get pregnant). We also emphasized foods high in choline, which maintains the integrity of the body’s cell membranes and, thus, overall health.

The supplements we put her on are as follows. Polyflora O is a potent probiotic that will populate her gut with good flora that will remove the dysbiosis-causing bugs. Hepatiguard contains liver-protecting herbs milk thistle and bupleurum that will help her liver process a rich diet and all of the alcohol she consumes. Deflect for Type O is going to be an essential part of her supplement regimen, as it will block harmful lectins in foods that aren’t chosen from her recommended list from wreaking havoc on her intestinal system, decreasing overall inflammation in her body. This product is especially indicated for Metabolic Syndrome, as it decreases the ability of lectins in certain foods to make the body insulin-resistant.

The last thing we put her on is Quercetin Plus. And now we’ve come to today’s Clinical Pearl. A substance found in lots of produce from apples to onions, Quercetin is a water-soluble bioflavanoid that has anti-mutagenic and antioxidant effects. Recent studies done at Kyoto University show that Quercetin inhibits the growth of cancer cells, particularly in the lungs. In a sense, as Dr. D describes it, this flavanoid acts as the department of sanitation in the lungs and filters garbage-like carbon dioxide. It literally acts as a shield around lungs exposed to smoke. The best thing for Melanie would be to quit, and she will when she’s ready. Until then, there’s Quercetin. Melanie looked happy with the changes we recommended. And though she seemed even happier to have a gigantic cup of coffee with milk and sugar, I have faith that changes will start to seep into her daily routine.

See below for more information on D'Adamo Personalized Nutrition's suppelements Quercetin Plus, Hepatiguard and Deflect. These will work for anyone trying to detox and lose weight this spring.

Check back in a couple weeks for more stories including that of a Parkinson's patient and an interesting pediatrics case.

Quercetin_SpecSheet

Hepatiguard_SpecSheet

Deflect SpecSheet

Histona Story

2011-02-02T09:49:00.000-08:00

Your faithful blogger is happy to report that she is in her last semester of medical school. After three and a half long years of studying, exam-taking, and practicing my nascent skills on patients who were, and are, well…very patient, I will launch out into the world as a practicing doctor in a few short months. But before that, I am pleased to be on another shift at University of Bridgeport with my favorite naturopathic doctor, the inimitable Peter D’Adamo. I am also working with him (and his colleague, my other favorite doctor Ginger Nash) at his clinic in Wilton two days a week. To say that I am excited about the exposure I am getting to Dr. D’Adamo’s body of knowledge and the GenoType system is something of an understatement. I’m seeing patients heal in ways I never thought possible, and this is largely through minimal intervention. But the protocols we are prescribing are highly personalized and highly specific, so they work in ways conventional approaches sometimes fall short. Too, the approach is natural, which is the direction healthcare consumers are increasingly demanding.

So, with that said, I am happy to say that I am returning to writing more regularly about patient cases, and the treatments we carry out. I dare say you’re not going to find this level of exposure to one of the greatest minds in natural medicine anywhere else, so stay tuned.

I founded this blog to inform my fellow naturopathic medical students about the kind of work Dr. D’Adamo is doing; many of them had expressed interest and curiosity about epigenetics and the application of the science behind D’Adamo’s work. But I hope to continue to write in more layman’s language so more people can understand. If you have any questions or comments, please keep sending them. Or if you’re interested in some topic in particular, let me know and I’ll try to incorporate it into the blog.

Monday morning, 10 a.m. There are six students working on the shift this semester, three fourth-year students and three third-years. Ten a.m. seems like a very leisurely start time to most of us, used to 7:30 classes and we are all in good spirits as we gather on our first day of seeing patients on shift. But the chit-chat quickly comes to a close as we begin a review of the six patients we will see. My first patient is Paolo, an easy-going 34-year old Argentinian who works in Manhattan as a personal assistant (“just to somebody rich, not famous” he replied to my nosy questioning). A friend of his had referred him to the clinic and he was there for the primary purpose of wanting to lose weight. Two years ago he put on about 40 pounds after quitting smoking and now he had a bad sugar habit that put him about 50 pounds overweight. His body impedence analysis showed, though, that his cells were functioning quite well, which indicated that his body was actually in good shape: his intra- versus extracellular water ratio was excellent and his phase angle (which is a measurement of the body’s overall health) was actually quite high at 8.2 (the higher the better). As Dr. D’Adamo said when he came in to consult, inside Paolo was an athlete who had gotten a bit off track with a lazy diet and sedentary lifestyle. We calculated him as an Explorer GenoType (for explanations on the various GenoTypes, see previous my blogs), gave him a strict prescription for exercise and gave him a few supplements: Polyflora O for some slightly gastrointestinal dysbiosis and Histona for metabolic function. We also ran a series of thyroid labs on him because of a family history of hypothyroidism. More on Histona after I introduce our second patient.

“He’s hungry,” warns 12-year old Mati’s mother as we fetch them from the lobby. Because we do a breath hydrogen test (that measures levels of bad bacteria in the gut) we need patients to arrive fasting. It’s past noon, and so I don’t blame Mati—who has a huge grin and red hair—for being a bit fed up with battery of blood tests we run on him before running him upstairs to begin taking his history and doing GenoType measurements. Mati is Hasidic and one of 10 children; his mom looks so young, trim and well-rested that I truly can barely imagine how she has five children who are already married. Ellen tells us that he has a difficult time concentrating and can’t fall asleep. He’s clearly a bright kid, and a keen observer; and happy, for that matter—he laughs loudly as we all crack jokes throughout the appointment. A doctor they see in Brooklyn put him on a Ritalin-equivalent that robs him of his appetite, which was barely present to start. Impedence testing revealed Mati to be, like Paolo, pretty healthy. What’s clear in Mati is that his nervous system had become off-kilter and simply needed to be reset.

The reasons for this were unclear. He reported having anxiety about not being able to fall asleep; clearly the kid was a budding insomniac and we were going to do our best to head this off as soon as possible. Mati came out as a Teacher (A+ Secretors with a lean body type are often Teachers) and we walked him and his mom through the diet. Since Mati subsisted on carbs alone, the change was going to be difficult. He was going to have to stay off wheat and introduce more of the superfood vegetables and proteins, such as turkey, salmon, eggs, yogurt, soy and kale. Mati looked at me with great suspicion when I asked him to limit the cookies. D’Adamo also gave this patient Histona, but this time for its effects on neurobiology. We also gave him Cortiguard (to stabilize his cortisol levels) and zinc (which is often low in patients with ADD). I also suggested that they seek out a kids’ yoga class, which would help Mati relax and focus.

Now, what exactly is in Histona that makes it good for someone who wants to lose weight and someone who has neurobiological problems? The answer is magnolia: yes, the beautiful pink magnolia flower. Magnolia is one of the only bioflavanoids that can cross the blood-brain barrier. Magnolia is one thousand times more potent as an antioxidant than vitamin E and specifically targets the brain cells. Its main components are honokiol and magnalol. Both of these have strong anti-anxiety effects and have been shown in studies to have cortisol-lowering effects; remember cortisol dysregulation is what’s keeping Mati up at night. Cortisol should peak upon waking and fall throughout the day. Mati’s is rising when it should be at its lowest. For Paolo’s metabolism, magnolia is excellent because of the same cortisol-regulating effect. High cortisol will effectively slow down the metabolism by hindering thyroid function and also by increasing insulin release, which causes the body to store unused calories as fat.

The key is cortisol. We see so many patients with cortisol dysregulation layered on top of other pathologies that I’m starting to believe that stress truly is the gateway to most illnesses. A recent study published in JAMA said, “"Effects of stress on regulation of immune and inflammatory processes have the potential to influence depression, infectious, autoimmune, and coronary artery disease, and at least some (e.g., viral) cancers." Dr D’Adamo told me, “Stress can be both provocateur and co-factor. In our line of work stress is an especially important factor, since when it does factor into the equation it is a sure sign that the compensatory mechanisms are no longer up to the task. I like to think of stress as the water that finds the crack in the sidewalk, which then seeps in and freezes, further weakening the structure.” We’ll check back in with these two patients in a couple of months.

For more on Histona, click here:

HistonaUlterior_SpecSheet

Get Your Goat

2010-12-12T07:43:00.000-08:00

Soon after Manny arrived at the Clinic it became clear that he was to become one of my more entertaining patients. As we sat down in the consulting room and began to talk about his diet and chief complaints, he launched into a story about the goat he recently acquired, and kept in his backyard in Bridgeport, so that he and his family could have fresh goat’s milk every day. Manny is a well-dressed, successful businessman who is originally from the Dominican Republic. He has close-cropped grey hair and a definite twinkle in his eye. “I got this goat as part of my get-healthy plan, but he’s taking over my life. All I do is milk him, and I can’t convince my kids to help,” he chuckled. He went on to educate me on the diet and general habits of the urban goat. As we shifted off the topic of the goat, it he told me that he was seeking treatment for chronic cough and shortness of breath. He was also concerned having gained over 50 pounds over the last couple of years. He was now obese at 271 pounds. He had no significant history of illness, rode his bike every day and lifted weights.

Lab tests revealed a couple of things. First, his cholesterol was high at 223 (HDL of 38 and LDL of 165). His hemoglobin A1C—which is a blood test that essentially measures blood glucose over a period of time—was slightly elevated, indicating a pre-diabetic state. It’s important to understand a little bit how diabetes works so you can understand how we treated Manny.

Type II diabetes, or adult onset diabetes, is quite common in overweight people over the age of 40. With this disease, the body is no longer sensitive to insulin, which is a hormone produced in the pancreas and allows your body to use food as energy. Properly functioning insulin senses blood sugar in your system and transports it to cells for fuel. When your body doesn’t use insulin correctly, it can’t metabolize foods properly. Your pancreas squirts out more and more insulin, but the body still can’t use it. The sugar from food hangs around in the blood because the insulin isn’t there to take it to the cells. This is why diabetics have high blood glucose; the whole process is called insulin resistance. The more fat you have and the less active you are, the more resistant your cells become to insulin. This may all sound fairly innocuous but the complications of diabetes are not: cardiovascular disease, nerve damage, eye damage, circulatory problems, and kidney damage are just a few.

Manny’s diet didn’t fit the pre-diabetic picture. He reported breakfast as oatmeal or eggs; fish or some other protein and salad for lunch and the same for dinner; snacks were oatmeal, dried fruit, nuts or a smoothie. He talked about how much he loved cheese. I probed him a little further: just how much oatmeal is he eating each day? He sheepishly admitted that he ate two, maybe three giant bowls each day. For a Type 0, who poorly tolerate carbohydrates, this is the equivalent of blood sugar suicide. With something as seemingly innocuous as oatmeal, Manny was basically driving himself into a state of not only obesity, but also full-blown diabetes. Type O’s, whose metabolisms cannot tolerate carbohydrates, tend to crave them and become addicted. Manny reported that his best friend was able to lose weight on a diet of oatmeal and cottage cheese. Perhaps, I told him, this friend had blood Type A, which can metabolize such foods. The key here is that not all foods are good for each body type or blood type and this is where the naturopathic doctor comes in to guide the patient toward the proper choices.

For his treatment plan, we sent Manny away with a list of Type O foods that he should adhere to as closely as possible. The list focused on proteins, appropriate fats such as olive oil and avocado and limited fruits. He was not allowed any oatmeal. As exercise is imperative in blood sugar regulation, he was to stay on his workout regimen. We also gave him two D’Adamo products: Deflect and Glycosia.

Deflect is among the most integral products from D’Adamo Personalized Nutrition and for Manny, it’s an important medicine. First, let’s look at how Deflect for Type O works. As we’ve talked about in previous blogs, lectins (proteins found in food) bind with carbohydrate antigens in the gut and immune system. If you’re eating the wrong kinds of foods for your blood type, the lectins will bind to certain cells and cause a multitude of nasty effects such as intestinal dysbiosis, immune dysfunction, leaky gut, metabolic syndrome, and weight gain. For example, in Type O’s the lectins in wheat germ will bind to insulin receptors and create the same effect as insulin on fat tissue, which is to store calories as more fat. This is, in part, why Type O’s on high carbohydrate diets have a hard time losing weight. Deflect does as its name suggests: it prevents lectins from binding to cells and, therefore, prevents them from doing damage. Particularly for Manny, taking Deflect is essential because not only does it prevent lectins from binding to insulin receptors, it removes lectins that are already bound there. Remember: insulin in excess translates to fat storage and less fat burning. The less insulin being released, the better—especially in individuals with insulin resistance and obesity.

For the specs on Deflect, click on: http://www.scribd.com/doc/45153220/Glycoscia-SpecSheet

Many people ask about the flavanoid resveratrol, which is one of the latest darlings of the supplement industry. Flavanoids are the pigments that occur naturally in fruits and vegetables, and is where all of the nutritional power is in these foods. It’s been touted for a range of miseries including high cholesterol, cancer and obesity. Recent studies have shown that even in low doses, resveratrol lends cells increased insulin sensitivity, which means that cells need less insulin and respond better to it, which means better fat mobilization. This is great news for diabetics and pre-diabetics. Resveratrol is one of the primary ingredients in Glycosia, which is the second product Manny will be taking to control his blood sugar. Quercetin is another component of Glycosia—like resveratrol, a flavanoid that is especially effective in heading off the complications by protecting blood vessels and, again, regulating insulin. Glycosia also contains herbs that control blood sugar and improve insulin resistance: salvia, salacia and maitake mushroom.

For more information on Glycosia click on: http://www.scribd.com/doc/45153220/Glycoscia-SpecSheet.

A month later Manny returned for a follow-up. He was very assiduous: I’ve never seen a patient keep more voluminous and precise records of his diet and exercise. Aside from Thanksgiving, he stuck to the plan and dropped 10 pounds in a month. His blood sugar, which he monitors daily, is at the high end of normal but starting to drop. With weight loss and blood sugar control (and perhaps all things in life), it’s progress not perfection. As far as I’m concerned, that he gave up oatmeal is a minor miracle. As for the goat, at his last visit, Manny claimed he’d been too busy and hadn’t milked them in a week. I don’t know much about goats, but this didn’t seem like a great idea and, then, goat’s milk is not on the Type O list of acceptable foods. The relationship between the goat and Manny may not be long for this world.

Mom Versus The Flu

2010-11-07T19:04:00.000-08:00

When I was growing up, my two brothers and I rarely got sick with the flu. Sure, we had the occasional nasty cold and strep throat but we never battled much with the flu that tended to wipe out large swaths of our classmates once the winter months set in. My mom would always credit the strong family immune system so it was with great surprise that I started receiving phone calls from her over the last couple of winters reporting that she’d was sidelined with flu symptoms. My mom, it should be said, works as an administrator in an all-boys’ high school in Manhattan and among kids, germs fly around like swarms of invisible clouds of disease just waiting to infect unsuspecting, weakened immune systems.

This year, I am determined to help Mom head off the bi-monthly battle she wages with the average set of flu complaints: headache, aches, chills, fever, runny nose, cough, and deep fatigue—all of which come on quite quickly. Even though my mom is something of the family doctor and inspired me to start thinking along the lines of preventive medicine, she’s not a great one for taking pills. But when I mentioned that one of the products is a delicious berry syrup that literally magically bolsters the immune system and pounces on the flu, she acquiesced. I bundled up a care package of the three things—all proven D’Adamo products—she should take and shuttled over to her house to outline her regimen.

My mom is a non-stop individual. She looks after the lives of a couple hundred teenage boys and maintains the most active social life of anyone I know, so while no one likes being sick, my mom—and her social life—can’t really afford to be sidelined. This is Dr. Peter D’Adamo’s time-tested approach and I strongly (and as lovingly as a daughter can) urged my mom to follow suit and start the extra work of building her immune system for the winter slog. The following is what I told her, and I recommend it as the best preventive protocol to be taken during flu season; this same course can also help you fight an active flu virus.

First, I have Mom taking two teaspoons a day of Proberry 3 Liquid. This is the miraculous elixir I mentioned earlier, which contains the juice concentrates of elderberry, blueberry, cherry and raspberry, as well as pear. I told her to mix it in with her tea in the evening or just take a spoonful of it in the morning with yogurt or on its own. The key ingredient is elderberry, which, studies have shown, actually inhibits replication of the flu virus in the human body. Research has shown that in people taking elderberry, their immune systems actually recognized flu strains earlier and were able to perform more quickly and effectively to rid their systems of the virus. In fact, the recently released drug Zanamivir, which cost millions of dollars to develop, acts in much the same way as elderberry to disable the flu virus, but without the natural immune-enhancing effects. See Proberry’s full specs at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/41484521/ProberryLiquid-SpecSheet.

The strength of the immune system largely depends on the health of the gut. Why is this? The lining of the intestines is called the gut mucosa. It is constantly doing battle with pathogens that enter our system through the food we eat, as well as the billions of normal flora present in our gut at any given time. Because the gut has to constantly respond to this microbial onslaught, two-thirds of the immune system is found there. So if we suffer from any weakness in the lining of the gut—due to malabsorption, improper balance of flora, or chronic gastrointestinal issues—we have subsequently weakened immune systems. That’s why it is so important, particularly in flu season, to keep the gut strengthened and healthy. ARA 6 is an interesting product, comprised of larch arabinogalactan and quercetin. Larch is important for immune health due to several of its properties. First, it is a prime source fiber and of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA’s), which are integral to gut health; actually, SCFA’s have been found to improve colon cells’ resistance to disease. Also, larch is an excellent probiotic, meaning that it serves as good food for the healthy bacteria in the gut, allowing them to proliferate. Good bacteria, such as lactobacillus and bifidobacter are essential for gut and immune health. Larch has also been found in studies to bolster the activity of some of the main components of the immune system: macrophages and natural killer cells. Quercetin is included here for its anti-inflammatory and antiviral qualities. As a prophylactic, ARA 6 is an excellent adjunct to Proberry 3. For more information go to http://www.scribd.com/doc/41484109.

The last in the series of three products I have Mom taking through flu season is Genoma Security, which is a combination of five of the best immune-supporting botanicals. First, Andrographis paniculata is an Ayurvedic herb that has a number of functions. Here, it is included for its profound immunostimulating qualities; in a recent study it was found to be so immune-stimulating, it retards the progression of HIV. It also has antibiotic properties and protects the liver, among other things. Schisandra chinensis is an herb used in Chinese medicine and belongs to the adaptogenic family of herbs, which means that it helps the body respond to stress. In this case, the stress is on a body fighting off illness. It works at the level of the liver and adrenals to bolster the body’s fight against invading pathogens. Rhizoma Atractylodis Macrocephalae is another herb used in Chinese medicine to tonify the stomach and spleen qi, which means it increases the body’s use of nutrition and increases energy. It also helps with digestion and supports the liver. Scuttelaria baicalensis—from the mint family—is often used to help digestion but it also shrinks the body’s inflammatory response, particularly that of the mast cells, which are the immune system’s havoc-wreaking components. Scutellaria also help the body expel cells that are no longer useful to the body or have become dysfunctional. Lastly, eleutherococcus senticosus, or Siberian ginseng, is another adaptogenic herb that has immune-stimulating effects, as well as helps the body to respond to physical stress. For more complete details on Security, check out: http://www.scribd.com/doc/41484524/Genoma-Security-SpecSheet

That’s it for supplements. As mentioned earlier, because immunity begins in the gut, I advised my mom, who has Type O blood, to increase her beneficial foods and remove her avoids as much as possible, particularly anything with refined sugar. We also added Polyflora O, just to be safe. Because stress also lowers immunity, I pleaded with my mom (who is known to go out every night of the week), to spend a night at home every now and then and allow her body to chill out. Mom is an avid city walker, so I encouraged her to keep up her daily jaunts, as exercise is essential for helping the body fend off sickness. Will my sweet mother win the battle with this year’s fearsome flu virus? Check back in December’s blog to find out. Later this month we’ll look at one overweight man’s fight to lose weight and stave off diabetes.

For information on where to purchase these and other D’Adamo products, go to www.4yourtype.com.

Lyme Aid

2010-09-03T15:20:00.000-07:00

Doctors—naturopathic or otherwise—practicing in the Northeast will tell you that Lyme disease is an epidemic illness affecting large parts of their practices. Fewer than fifty percent of people who acquire Lyme disease don’t remember being bit by a tick and won’t actually manifest the bulls-eye rash commonly associated with Lyme. These patients won’t realize that they’ve been infected by the spiral-shaped bacteria called Borrelia burdorferi until they start manifesting other clinical signs and symptoms of Lyme that include fatigue, visions changes, memory changes, mood swings, nervous system abnormalities and joint inflammation. In fact, the first outbreak of Lyme in 1975 in Lyme, CT was actually diagnosed based on what, at that time, was considered a bizarre outbreak of arthritis.

When 11-year old Samantha’s mother Anne checked her in at Dr. Ginger Nash’s office, she had telltale signs of Lyme such as joint pain, headache and stomach upset after eating. But she had also been manifesting some of the less-common neurological symptoms that include anger, rage and malaise or what Samantha described as “just wanting to watch TV all day.” She never had a rash.

Her symptoms began three years ago when she was taken to a medical doctor who diagnosed her using the Western blot method. She showed four strong positive bands and was put on five months of antibiotic treatment with Amoxicillin (the traditional treatment of doxycycline is not given to children). The doctors then continued her antibiotic treatment with Zithromycin and Cefdinar, which she stayed on for months and months. After several years of antibiotics, Anne reported that Samantha’s joint pain—which had localized to her right shoulder, knees and feet—receded. Her stomach pain, which spread through her whole belly, was no better and she continued to have mood swings, deep fatigue and anger. Samantha is tall for her age is also very thin; she sat with her shoulders rolled forward, her long hair forming a curtain around her face. Her skin was translucently pale and she seemed emotionally empty.

After speaking extensively with Samantha and Anne, Dr. Nash had Samantha hop up on the examination table. Samantha’s tonsils were swollen, as were the chains of lymph nodes on either side of her neck. Thinking briefly, Dr. Nash told Samantha and Anne that her treatment would focus on supporting the immune system and interfering with the bacteria’s ability to communicate and create resistance to antibiotic.

The treatment plan was as follows:

· Type O+ diet guidelines: particularly no milk.

· Polyflora O, a NAP product

· Security, a NAP product

· Lyme nosode

· For inflammation: Ananese (sublingual bromelain), homeopathic biotherapeutic drainage, fish oils

I’d like to focus here on Security, which is a product recently formulated by Dr. Peter D’Adamo for the purposes of treating chronic, stubborn infections. The characteristic of Lyme that makes it so tricky to treat is the biofilm, also known as cysts, it forms when it penetrates deeply into tissues. As this biofilm accumulates, it becomes more and more resistant to antibiotic treatment. And even more amazingly, the biofilm has the ability to signal to the receptors on other bacteria so that all of them change their genetic makeup to adhere to the biofilm, then signaling their own followers. This is how the biofilm builds up and becomes increasingly impervious to the efforts of the antibiotic.

Biomedicine has focused on trying to interfere with biofilm communication. Herbal medicine, though, has a leg up on biomedicine because naturally occurring substances have existed for centuries that interrupt this kind of cellular signaling. D’Adamo has compounded five such substances in one formulation and the results, thus far, with Lyme have been extraordinary.

The first herb, Andrographis paniculata, has been used for thousands of years in the medical traditions of India. A recent study found that it directly interrupts the signaling between biofilm. Scuttelaria baicalensis, or Chinese skullcap, encourages the body to dispel faulty cells as well as regulates the body’s inflammatory response. It has, interestingly, been shown to increase the efficacy of antibiotics by decreasing the bacteria’s ability to flush them out of their systems. Schisandra chinensis helps the body to rebuilt adrenal gland cells, which regulate the body’s stress response. This herb bolsters the body’s ability to handle an strong immune response; further, biofilm seems to thrive in states of high stress so decreasing the about of adrenaline in the body is crucial. Rhizoma Atractylodis Macrocephalae is a Chinese herb that influences the energy of the spleen and stomach, which means it supports detoxification pathways: an essential when ridding the body of a heavy bacterial burden. Finally, Eleutherococcus senticosus is the final herb in the formulation. It’s also known as Siberian ginseng and many people in the West are familiar with is for its energy-producing and stress-reducing effects. But in the case of Security, it’s most useful as a modulator of the immune response; healthy tissue repair and renewal is incredibly important to prevent recurrence of bacterial infection.

Samantha continued her treatment protocol for three months. At that point, her joint pain and headaches had decreased significantly, and she had fewer mood swings and showed more interest in hanging out with her friends and life away from the television. Five months after treatment, Samantha is reporting no joint pain and her mother says her personality has returned to what it was pre-Lyme. She is no longer on Security or the homeopathics, but continues the Polyflora O to continue to support proper gut flora and fish oils to keep inflammation in check. Anne makes sure Samantha follows the Type O diet as much as it is possible kid who loves pizza and ice cream. But trading those in so that she can live a joyful, pain-free life that an 11-year old deserves? You’ll find no debate from me.

For more information on Security, click here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/36435042/Genoma-Security-SpecSheet

The Big Sleep

2010-07-19T19:08:00.000-07:00

Darcy—a tall, sleepy-looking blonde 20-something in sweats—walked in the front door of naturopathic physician Ginger Nash’s New Haven office, trailing behind her mom. Darcy’s mom, Janet, a rather jolly woman with a shock of dark hair and dark-framed glasses, made herself at home on the couch in the waiting area as Darcy plopped down beside her. “Hasn’t slept in days,” Janet said, extending her thumb toward her daughter, a college student in New York City. “We don’t know what to do.” Darcy had the look that is all-to-familiar to naturopathic doctors: the bleary eyes and drawn complexion of sleep deprivation. In an age when 60 million Americans have insomnia, it’s a difficult not to encounter this diagnosis on a regular basis. As a medical student, it’s something with which I’ve had far more first-hand experience than I care to dwell on. When Dr. Nash brought Darcy back to her office for her intake, it appeared that Darcy’s insomnia had its origins in anxiety and depression over a significant trauma she’d experienced in the last year, as well as over her sister’s hospitalization due to mental health problems. As homeopathic scholars describe it, psychological illness can be passed down as miasms—a sort-of transfer of energy—from generation to generation within families; Darcy and her sister were suffering from the same subset of a disease pattern, though Darcy’s were of a less severe nature.

Darcy sat up attentively in her chair and described her symptoms quietly but articulately. She couldn’t fall asleep due to hyper ideation and when she did, she’d awake every two hours, having had disruptive, disturbing dreams. After almost every meal, she’d have cramping and bloating and had taken to eating as a way of coping with the stresses of schoolwork. Occasionally, she’d be doubled over in pain after a meal due to a “spasm-like” feeling on her sides. Despite the insomnia, she described her energy levels as “pretty good” and said that her exercise was walking around the city all day. Her menses are normal and she experiences bad cramping during the first day and a half of her period. She has migraines not infrequently and is quite worried about the acne that seems to be stress-induced. She stores stress in her upper back and neck where painful knots accumulate. A psychiatrist that Darcy had seen a month prior had put her on Ativan for the anxiety, but she wanted to discontinue it, fearing a dependence on the medication and because she was experiencing the annoying side effect of dry mouth; more significantly, it had stopped working for her, particularly at night.

Dr. Nash took all of this in, nodding her head and murmuring sympathetic, understanding comments as she wrote an occasional note on her clipboard. Naturopathic doctors are trained the same as their conventional medicine counterparts when it comes to basic and clinical sciences, but they also get extensive training in counseling. Often, patients will come to naturopathic doctors not only for medical prescriptions but also for a well-trained, sympathetic ear. Dr. Nash is no exception and she provided Darcy with some excellent feedback in that regard. To calm down Darcy’s sympathetic nervous system, Dr. Nash prescribed two NAP products: Cortiguard and Tranquility Base, both of which address concerns related to nervous system upset.

Cortiguard is an excellent product for anyone with mental and physical burnout. When we are chronically stressed out, the adrenal glands, which are located above the kidneys, continually pump out cortisol (the stress hormone) and at much higher levels than is normal. High levels of cortisol have been linked to insomnia, weight gain, type 2 diabetes, bone loss, infertility, and lowered immune function, among other things. Cortiguard is effective because it contains adaptogenic herbs that provide support directly to the adrenals to fend off exhaustion and return them to as much of a baseline as possible in terms of cortisol production. The herbs contained in Cortiguard are: bacopa leaf, boerhavia root extract, panax ginseng root, and eleuthero root. Cortiguard also contains Vitamins C, B1, B5 and B6, and alpha-lipoic acid, which are essential for a healthy stress response.

Read more about Cortiguard at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/34243296/Cortiguard-SpecSheet

Tranquility Base aims to relax the body at both the physical and mental level. It contains GABA, the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain, which means it has a sedative effect. L-theanine is the ingredient in green tea that keeps you from getting jittery after consuming that caffeinated beverage; it is a major amino acid that augments alpha waves in the brain, facilitating a calming effect minus drowsiness. Tranquility Base also contains two heavy hitters of calming herbs: lemon balm and chamomile.

For more information on Tranquility Base, click on:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/34534005 /Tranquility-Base-SpecSheet

As for Darcy’s gastrointestinal issues, Dr. Nash associated them with her anxiety; the gut has the same number of neurotransmitters as the brain and originates from the same fetal material. So, resolving her anxiety and sleep issues would significantly reduce her bloating and cramping. Dr. Nash also gave Darcy some guidelines for eating according to her AB blood type that might help resolve some food reactivity: consume smaller amounts of meat, avoiding pork, chicken and beef; focus on lamb, turkey and seafood with some eggs, dairy and grains such as spelt, but not wheat. Dr. Nash also put her on some homeopathic remedies to further support Darcy’s nervous system.

How is Darcy doing now? By all reports she’s sleeping better and has had a significant decline in anxiety and hyper ideation, which weekly therapy has also helped. She will continue on the both the Cortiguard and Tranquility Base until her symptoms resolve more completely. Adrenal repair is not a quick fix and continuing to support adrenal function, especially in students and the otherwise chronically stressed, is an ongoing process. It is important to note that a patient who suffers from this particular symptomatology will always have some an occasional bout of insomnia and anxiety; it is never completely eradicated. The worst part about this is the feeling of powerlessness patients feel. Therefore, the goal is to provide the patient with a set of tools for dealing with the occasional flare-up—whether adding Cortiguard for a month or practicing meditation— as means for coping. The key is keeping anxiety its accompanying set of terrors to occasional visit, not a permanent stay.

Good Bugs vs. Bad Bugs: Finding a GI Cure

2010-06-16T14:28:00.000-07:00

And we’re back. You asked for more patient cases, and so that’s what we’re giving you. For the next few months, I will be posting patient stories — along with, most importantly, treatment protocols — based on actual patients I saw while precepting in the New Haven office of top-notch naturopathic physician Ginger Nash who is a practitioner with Dr. D’Adamo at The Center for Personalized Medicine in Wilton, CT. She has graciously allowed me to share some of her patient cases, though any identifying details have been changed to protect the anonymity of her patients. Please, read on, and your feedback, as always, is welcomed and appreciated.

This month, we’re going to discuss everyone’s favorite system: the gastrointestinal tract. Bonnie, aged 28, entered the office and, right off the bat, her digestive issues were apparent on her face: she had the bloated, pasty-looking face of someone who isn’t processing her food well. As Dr. Nash started her intake, Bonnie munched on a turkey sandwich as she slowly told the story of her GI problems. She cannot tolerate fats at all, which leads to pain, foul-smelling gas and constipation. After doing some research on the Internet, she’s worried that she might have a fistula. She can’t remember a time she isn’t bloated. Dr. Nash had previously used the hydrogen breath test to determine the level of bacterial overgrowth in her gut. The breath hydrogen machine is a small apparatus that the patient blows slowly into after consuming a small amount of lactulose. The machine calculates the amount of hydrogen in the breath; only small bacteria living in the gut are able to produce hydrogen. A normal amount of hydrogen production after a meal is normal, but when the patient is suffering from malabsorbtion, undigested food backs into the small intestine and bad bacteria (like H. pylori) have a field day and overproduce hydrogen, as well as gas and a host of other problems. A number over 20 usually indicates absorption problems.

The turkey sandwich Bonnie brought in illustrates part of her problem: Bonnie is an A+ Secretor and Type A’s, as we know, do best on vegetarian diets. Type A people who eat meat will store it as fat, and will likely have a large number of digestive toxins. The bottom line is that Type A’s will have a difficult time absorbing protein because of low stomach acid and low levels of proper flora in the gut, which will result in bloating and constipation.

So, what does Bonnie need? First, she’ll require a product that will kill the bad bacteria. Once the bugs are killed, Bonnie will have a lot less gas. She’ll then need to repopulate her gut with good bugs and keep them proliferating. Of course, she needs to change her diet, as well: more fish, less meat and limit dairy while focusing on whole grains, vegetables, and fruits. Dr. Nash prescribed her ARA 6, Gastro-D and Polyflora A, which are products of D’Adamo that have proven highly effective at treating GI disturbances. Read on for brief synopses of the three supplements Dr. Nash prescribed and the rationale for each.

Gastro D: This is our bug killer. There are seven ingredients in this product. First, Safflower tops and bladderwrack help dispel the proliferation of H. pylori. Bentonite clay absorbs environmental toxins in the gut. Slippery elm absorbs excess stomach acid. Mastic gum and bismuth protect the stomach lining and mucosa. And, finally, cranesbill is a traditional herb used to address duodenal or gastric ulceration.

For full information on Gastro-D, go to: http://www.scribd.com/doc/33098484

Polyflora A: After we kill the bad bacteria, we want to replace the good flora. Polyflora is a probiotic. We all know we should be taking probiotics from time to time, since the stresses of everyday living and eating deplete our stores of good bacteria. But what’s unique about Polyflora is that it’s specific to blood type, which is important because blood group specificity has been found to be a marker of intestinal bacteria. That means that Type B’s will have different friendly bacteria than Type B’s than Type O’s. And if you take the wrong strain of probiotic for your blood type, it can actually cause unwanted inflammation in your GI tract. The proper probiotic will ensure that your body is producing proper digestive enzymes, decreasing food sensitivities and decreasing the intestinal permeability that will lead to malabsorption. Polyflora A contains the following ingredients: probiotic blend specific to Type A (Bifidobacterium bifidus, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus reuteri), Burdock root, Chicory root extract, and Jerusalem Artichoke.

Check out the complete product description at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/33098518

ARA6: With this product, we’re feeding the good bacteria; this is also known as a prebiotic. ARA 6 makes sure the good bacteria proliferate! The main ingredient in ARA 6 is larch arabainogalactan. In effect, larch acts to increase good bacteria like Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus, while decreasing bad bacteria. As a dietary fiber, it also increases short-chain fatty acids, which are essential for colon and gall bladder health.

Find all of ARA6's details at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/33098081/ARA-6-SpecSheet

Magnesium: For Bonnie’s constipation, Dr. Nash gave her this trusty standby.

Bonnie returned a month later and reported that her GI symptoms were essentially diminished. She had diligently taken her supplements and improved her diet about 60%. Dr. Nash took her off the Gastro-D and ARA 6, but kept her on the Polyflora A to continue to repopulate the gut and magnesium for any occasional continued constipation. I call this a triumph of good over evil…bugs, that is.

A Vaccine for Breast Cancer? And, Unrelatedly, How to Convince a Die-Hard Vegetarian to Eat Meat

2009-11-15T18:56:00.000-08:00

I’m back after a few weeks of midterm madness and, in response to my dear readers’ request for more information on how we’re formulating treatments, I’m going to keep going with the patient snippets. So without further ado, here are a couple of the interesting cases we’ve seen in the last few weeks.

Debbie, aged 56, came in to see us with late-stage breast cancer. She’s been seeing a naturopathic doctor in the UB Clinic and has arrived at the Personalized Medicine Shift for nutritional recommendations that will complement the treatment she’s already undergoing. After seeing her, Dr. D’Adamo recommended that she pursue allopathic oncologic treatment, continue with all of the prior recommendations made by her ND, and start with her personalized dietary recommendations that we’d be making to her. Dr. D’Adamo’s approach to cancer is unique; so let me try to explain it, as best I understand it. When cells become cancerous, they glycosylate in an unusual fashion. In his protocols, D’Adamo seeks to target and, as much as possible, halt aberrant changes in cell membrane glycosylation. When normal cells become cancerous, they show various antigens on their surfaces— most commonly the Tn and Thomsen-Friedenreich (T) antigens. Our patient is a Group A secretor, which makes her particularly well suited to this kind of cellularly targeted approach.

D’Adamo’s protocol, then, is several-fold. First, in the SWAMI software, he activated the oncology sequence that I’ve referred to in a previous blog here: it’s called Deep Blue and it tweaks diet preferences to fight cell glycosylation. We walked her through her diet carefully and made sure she understood particular food harmonics and foods to especially avoid and emphasize. We also tweaked her diet to enhance methylation, which will decrease generalized inflammation. Her supplements will be the following: arabinogalactan (ARA6), a snail lectin product (HELIX), and a marrubrium/baptisia combination (REKON). Later, D’Adamo would like her to take the probiotic Polyflora A to combat Tn induction via activity in the gut. If Debbie starts to receive chemotherapy, he recommends we switch her diet to enhance histone deacetylation, which will essentially open up all of her cells so they are most available to radiation.

The last thing he recommended is her getting the typhoid vaccine. This is a novel approach based on the approach originated by Georg F. Springer, MD (whose wife died of breast cancer). It’s known as the Springer Vaccine and it has shown 5-10 year cancer survival rates for late-stage cancer. What the vaccine does is stimulate the immune system to fight cancer cells that specifically have the T and Tn antigen. The vaccine is in three parts: 1) degraded O-group blood cells with T and Tn antigens, 2) the Salmonella typhii vaccine or typhoid vaccine, also containing T and Tn antigens, and 3) calcium phosphate, which Springer believed the T and Tn antigens stick to. The vaccine is given subcutaneously every six weeks “ad infinitum,” according to Springer. T and Tn antibodies are, thus, stimulated, and cancer cells stand less of a chance of survival. The Springer Vaccine, as it was originally conceived, was no longer available after Springer died in 1998 but the typhoid vaccine (which is a component of the vaccine) is accessible — and that is what D’Adamo is seeking to get for Debbie. We are currently seeking an allopathic doctor who can work in conjunction with us to administer the vaccine.
For more information on the Springer Vaccine, check out this article by Dr. D: http://www.dadamo.com/science_Tantigen.htm

Our next patient, Nadine, is a 50-year with a calming and lovely demeanor, which became a bit feisty when we told her — a lifelong vegetarian — that she, as an Explorer, needed to start eating meat in order to see her health shift in a positive direction. We see a lot of vegetarians coming into Clinic who would do well to be eating meat. They have the same pasty complexion, spaciness, fatigue and general lack of physical resilience. I’ve never seen one doctor or student clinician talk someone out of vegetarianism, try as they might. This case was interesting to me because I saw Dr. D’Adamo did the impossible: get someone who hasn’t put a morsel of animal flesh in his or her mouth in decades on the road to meat eating. Her chief complaint was chronic sinus headaches that started a few months ago. D’Adamo attributed these to vascular stasis and inflammation from a liver functioning improperly without adequate diet, which causes the sinuses to flare up and headache to ensue. We put her on a battery of supplements: Migrafew (with feverfew that is specifically useful in combating headaches), Collinsonia Plus (with Collinsonia canadensis that is indicated for sinus function and larch arabinogalactan, which is an immune-enhancer among other things), the probiotic Polyflora A, Explorer Activator (which contains NAG, milk thistle, artichoke and malic acid to support liver detoxification) and Explorer Catalyst (a complex supplement that also supports detoxification processes).

So how did Dr. D’Adamo convince her to try meat? I’m fairly certain Dr. D’Adamo would be a very successful car salesman if he needed another career. The man is very convincing. First, he drew a parable from a recent program he saw on National Geographic, which showed an eagle plucking a salmon out of a rushing stream. The salmon, he said, seemed to have a look on its face that this was part of the natural order of things, and indeed it is, exclaimed Dr. D’Adamo! I’m not doing justice to the eloquence with which Dr. D delivered this description, but Nadine backed down a little bit from her defense of vegetables after mulling over this story. Dr. D’Adamo then told Nadine about his friend, another hardcore vegetarian and a Type O who came down with pemphigus. He started to eat meat and most of his symptoms cleared away. What was the friend’s takeaway from the experience? “I refuse to die for the cause of vegetarianism,” he said. And this is what’s most important, probably, to impart to patients. If a patient is completely well, then why are they coming to see us doctors? If what they’re doing is working, then why are they here? We urged Nadine, then, to be open to changing something as important as diet, even as an experiment to see what shifts if she introduced more complete protein sources. To use another Dr. D analogy: an Explorer eating vegetarian is like putting low octane gasoline into the Porsche that is her body. It’s interesting to note, too, that D’Adamo, himself, is a Type A vegetarian. Ultimately what we tried to impart to Nadine is that if you can change your belief system, you can grow.

A week later, Nadine called in with some questions about her program and to give us an update on her progress. She’d been eating fish every night, as well as egg whites. Her headaches were gone and she’d lost two pounds. Red meat might seriously be on the dinner menu next week.

D'Adamo, Unfiltered

2009-10-22T17:05:00.000-07:00

Last week, Dr. D'Adamo was the keynote speaker at Grand Rounds at UBCNM. After the presentation, your faithful blogger solicited some questions from the audience. Here are some selected responses from the good doctor.

How did Dr. D’Adamo come up with the lists of beneficials and avoids? Did he test every food and, if so, how did he do it?

The starting point was of course, many of the empirical observations recorded by my father, James D’Adamo. This became the ‘framework’ from where values were added and subtracted, validated and discarded. To that I added the existing literature on direct food-blood group antigen interactions, mostly in the form of published lectin specificities. Certain foods for which I was suspicious, but could not find specific references in the literature were eluted via SDS Page electrophoresis and compared against banks of carefully categorized (ABO/A1-A2/Secretor/Lewis/MN/P1/Ii/CDEcde) erythrocytes. For a while I was also doing this against a simple benchmark I developed using categorized sera and measured myeloperoxidase activity to examine the effect of food constituents on viability prolongation of intracellular Candida inclusions in neutrophils.

I also began testing foods for the ability to induce opposing blood group antibodies: either through basic saline isohemagglutinins titration or a more advanced form of ‘block titration’ that I rediscovered from the work of Elvin Kabat using anti-IgG1-4 antibodies subsequently applied to the basic isohemagglutinins titers, or to the results of direct and indirect antiglobulin (Coombs) testing. I also scanned the published literature for relative concentrations of blood group antigens in dietary food sources.

I’ve also looked at other, more generalized, biomarkers of digestive disturbance to see how they related to poor food matching. These have included tests such as the urinary indican (Obermayer) and more recently sequential breath hydrogen testing.

Of course this was done in the mid 1980s-early 90s, long before CLIA!

Finally, there was just very simple reverse engineering from the pathophysiologies associated with these polymorphisms. For example, numerous studies have shown group A individuals (even normal subjects) have higher blood viscosity. My father has always recommended that his group A patients drink a bit of lemon and water in the morning. He felt that it helped with their inherent mucosity. Now, Dr. John Bastyr once told me that the juice of six lemons roughly equaled the anti-thrombotic effect of a conventional anti-coagulant, so I thought this was a recommendation well worth preserving, maybe even embellishing.

Another might be the difference in digestive phosphatase activity between the blood groups. Again looking at group A, we see that their levels intestinal alkaline phosphatase (IAP) is quite low, which compromise several assimilation functions. Now, besides the fact that the physical expression of the blood group A antigen actually inactivates IAP (not something you can not do much about) a quick look at the enzyme kinetics shows that it can be influenced, both positively and negatively, by the amino acid phenylalanine. Hence high phenylalanine foods are probably more bioactive in the digestive tract of blood group A individuals, especially with regard to mineral absorption.

My interest of late is more along the lines of ‘food inter-relatibility.’ Trying to find the multidimensional relationships between clusters of foods and whatever therapeutic objectives I have in mind. In trying to accomplish this I think I’ve become a better software engineer, since the methods behind actually accomplishing this (which has seen a simple manifestation in the ‘GenoHarmonics’ routines in SWAMI) is very much similar to what is known as ‘object orientation’ in computer science. You make certain ‘classes’ of foods and nutrients that together work on their own unique and specific clinical circumstances and data. You create whatever classes you need (‘AGE removal’, ‘Endothelial shedding’, ‘Overgrowth Inhibition’) then set them free on the person. It’s like looking the individual tiles in tile floor for a while, then stepping back and realizing that it is actually a mosaic. Perhaps amazingly (though not for a confirmed surrealist) the computer term for the ability of these objects, each in its own way, to respond differently to identical messages is known as a ‘polymorphism.’

As a student about to graduate, I really admire your career and the work you've done as an ND. What's your secret? If you could offer advice to naturopathic students just graduating and starting out, what would it be?

1) You have to be you own polymath. This involves surmounting serious confidence issues, since in our intellectual theocracy, one is made to feel that they have to gain permission from some properly endowed expert in order to think seriously about something. Not true, although you can expect a fair amount of flak from less imaginative quarters that may feel that you are ‘uppity’ and should have played by the game.

2) Don’t deprive your failures of their spiritual significance. Failures can crush and de-enervate you. They can also force you to re-evaluate your methods, question your basis and re-invigorate your appetite to get to the top of the mountain next time. Let failure hone the future ‘austere’ version of yourself.

3) Build your organization from the ground up. Keep it simple for starters, but never let an opportunity slip by that could increase your scope and reach.

4) Keep strong family ties and a mattress by the window. You’re in school now, where everything is ‘bubbly yours,’ as John Lennon used to say. However, it is a lonely profession you embark upon once you get out. You will be broke and most likely in debt in a world where people value wealth. You will have an ND degree in a world where most people will think your degree is a typo. A percentage of the people to who you describe yourself will think you are a weird quack. You will have your failures. Patients will die. You needn’t take it personal. Once you start thinking for yourself you are bigger than your profession, so let it off the hook every once in a while.

5) Love every patient, despite his or her best efforts otherwise. Throw their problems into the recesses of your subconscious. You’ll be surprised just when and where you’ll get an answer.

6) Don’t compete against your colleagues. A lot of ND’s seem to fight over the same patient pool. Develop the tools to bore your own shaft, sink a mine and excavate for your own patients. Much nicer!

What do you think the future of our profession holds? Do you think it's going to take off, as everyone says?

I have given a few commencement addresses, and honestly, they’ve usually come of as somewhat depressive affairs. The future for our profession? Probably OK for a while longer with our current working model. You guys will do well, since we now have newly licensed states that will need ND’s. Long term? Frankly unless we reorient our focus, I’m more pessimistic: More co-opting of our legacy from the top by the more socially acceptable mixer-type MD’s and from the bottom by the health food hucksters; more plagiarism of our teachings and wisdom by Madison Avenue. We need to stop worrying about what the ‘others’ think about us and stop believing that if we just act in the expected manner-- give everybody a low fat diet and some Echinacea, we are somehow going to be accepted on some sort of terms we could live with. So my major worry is this disturbing trend towards what some people consider ‘normalcy’: A kinder, gentler Naturopathy stripped of whatever bothers the pure scientists. As far as I’m concerned, you are not practicing naturopathy correctly unless you are making the ‘science-with-a-capital-s-apparatchiks’ apoplectic. We have a robust profession that contains innumerable insights into new resources for healing. We should be running towards these insights, not away from them.

I’m so interested in how the idea for GenoType took shape – how did this come to Dr. D’Adamo? Did it develop slowly after seeing lots of patients or did it come to him in a burst of inspiration?

Almost everything I do comes about thru a rather excruciating step-by-step process. Working with blood groups was easy; the starting point was my father. The Epigenotypes are a process at I began working on two decades ago; however it was a stop-start sort of thing, because I knew what I wanted the concept to comprise, but at point in the journey, the avenues of approach were not yet possible. Also at the end of two decades work with ABO, I had exhausted almost any possible point for further exploration in that area, so the idea of adjusting people to their genes, started giving way to the notion of adjusting genes to their owners.

I’d always been intrigued with inter-generational aspect of pathology. I think the miasms are a brilliant concept that deserves to be examined with an eye towards their epigenetic elements. I suppose I was trying to figure out a way to influence the patient ‘after’ the one who was actually in my office.

Two Newbies

2009-10-22T17:04:00.001-07:00

After last Friday, which was our first week of four new patients in four hours, we are beginning to get the hang of things. Dr. D’Adamo is continually and masterfully tinkering with the patient flow so that everyone is working at her most effective; the pace does not let up, though, as we go from lab to clinic room for measurements to consultation. D’Adamo has been using military metaphors to describe how we will all work in concert with one another so that everything gets done, and done well, and it seems applicable. So, when the clock hits ten, we are set in motion, a regular, well-oiled battalion, as it were.

Our first patient, Hillary, is an 63 year-old administrator at University of Bridgeport—a soft-spoken and agreeable middle-aged woman, simply dressed and seemingly mellow about her health concerns. Her chief complaints are hypertension that she’s had for five years (today it’s 130/90), borderline high cholesterol (210-220) with an elevated HDL, and chronic sinusitis. Lab results return that she is a type A non-secretor and her hydrogen breath test indicates moderate small intestine bacterial overgrowth, which is a more rare result, as most of our patients have come in with overgrowth at a much higher level. SWAMI tells us that she is a Warrior. One of the markers of Warrior is endothelial dysfunction, which speaks to her high cholesterol. D’Adamo says he wants to decrease her soluble endothelial factors by emphasizing plant-based proteins in her diet, especially glycitine and genistein—both of which are isoflavones found in soy products, which have protective effects on vascular inflammation and act as potent antioxidants. He also puts her on 100 mcg/day of selenium, Histona that contains magnolia for overall metabolic support, CoQ10 because she’s on a statin, and Genoma Cardia that contains hawthorn, which is known to improve cardiac health.

Dwight is our second patient, a charming 60-year old African-American man who has been brought to the Clinic by his daughter, a naturopathic medical student. Dwight is a pastor and former software programmer, which immediately captures Dr. D’Adamo’s attention. The two men have a brief chat about computer languages and then Dr. D’Adamo turns his attention to Dwight’s skin condition, which appears to be vitiligo, as his skin is mottled and dry in places. His other chief concerns are massive edema throughout both legs, powerfully debilitating allergies, and hypothyroidism. Of main concern is his incredibly allergic immune response: past IgE labs have been over 34,000. In the past he’s been on immunosuppressants such asCyclosporin, but he stopped because it increased his blood pressure. He is currently not taking anything. When we take his hydrogen breath tests, he blows the highest number D’Adamo has ever seen: 150. The doctor quickly determines that if we address his small intestine overgrowth, his immune response will quickly normalize. Dwigh is given his GenoType diet (he’s an A-positive secretor Teacher). Dr. D’Adamo also recommends a list of supplements for him: Polyflora, Intrinsa, Gastro D, apocyanum for edema, quercetin and arabinogalactan for mast cell stabilization, bromelain as an anti-inflammatory, and the homeopathic cistus Canadensis 30C for his skin condition. As part of our future plan for Dwight, we will propose a detox, as well as hydrotherapy.

Cancer's Deep Blues

2009-10-14T17:36:00.000-07:00

Today is our first day of seeing four new patients, as opposed to the two we’ve been seeing in previous weeks. Needless to say, it’s going to be a whirlwind. Dr. D’Adamo has even warned us to bring snacks. Dr. Ginger Nash, an excellent ND who works at The New England Center for Personalized Medicine with Dr. D’Adamo, is on hand to see patients. At ten o’clock on the dot, our first two patients arrive and it’s time to hustle. Jen and I meet James and his wife Liz in the lobby. They’re both in their 60’s, a sophisticated and stylish couple: he in jeans, a blazer and loafers and she in a white sweater wrapped with a belt, cool-looking chunky silver jewelry and red lipstick. After we’re finished doing James’s secretor test in the lab, we take him upstairs to start on his patient history and measurements.

As I peruse his intake forms, which he’s filled out, I notice that Liz has made little footnotes throughout, to clarify or expand on any points of interest; she is also holding Cancer: Fight It With Your Blood Type Diet by D’Adamo. James, it turns out, is a big-time state prosecutor but it’s Liz, I’m starting to think, who’s the brains behind the operation—at least when it comes to looking after the couple’s health. She, a Type O who beat breast cancer some years back, has had the both of them on their blood type diets for some time and has found it to be effective. They’re both very active: he plays racketball several times a week and she runs and does Pilates and I find they share a deadpan sense of humor. When James makes a few jokes that are dryly humorous, she says, “Oh, ignore his non sequiturs.” When she starts to talk about how much he loves sugar, he replies with a chuckle, “It’s always nice to bring your critic with you.” Despite the levity, their reason for being here is serious: a recurrence of James’s prostate cancer.

In 2004, a biopsy confirmed a malignancy in James’s prostate, with a Gleason score of 7, which indicates a more highly aggressive form of cancer. His prostate was removed in a robotic prostatectomy, which is less invasive and traumatic than an open prostatectomy. He had no chemotherapy. In the last five years, James has suffered from both impotence and incontinence, the severity of which, he jokes that no one really gave him a heads-up on. In a recent trip to his GP, lab results indicated that his PSA (prostate specific antigen) had gone from 0 to 4/5, so it appears the cancer is recurring, despite the removal of his prostate—a cruel reality that sometimes does occur to prostatectomy patients. In the next week, James will have an MRI of his prostate bed to determine where the cancer is and how far it’s spread. In the meantime, he and Liz want some dietary supplement recommendations to best contain the cancer and build up his vitality. It turns out, from his measurements, that James is a Nomad; he is also a Type B + secretor. We talked about the first three GenoTypes last week, so this time let’s talk about the last three.

As its name would suggest, Nomad is a GenoType that has developed over years of living in different environments, never too long in any one specific place. Their immunity, then, is a bit of a hodge-podge, as they never stayed put anywhere long enough to develop a specific survival strategy. “The price they pay for their more selective immunity is a problematic connection between their immune system, their cardiovascular system, and their nervous system, resulting in a lack of coordination between the three. This makes the Nomad prone to highly idiosyncratic health problems, such as chronic viral infections, debilitating long-term fatigue, and memory problems,” writes D’Adamo in The GenoType Diet. When they are healthy, their immune systems are very balanced; they also have an excellent mind-body connection and handle stress well. Personality-wise, they are quietly witty (like James), easy-going and optimistic. They fall at the extremes of the height scales: either quite tall or short, have a squarish head and have a higher number of red-headed, green-eyed people like Elizabeth I, who D’Adamo speculates was a Nomad.

Teachers, D’Adamo says, are remarkable for their immunological altruism. Developing from a time, perhaps, when people first started migrating and encountering other environments—and germs—Teachers can withstand a pretty strong assault of bacteria and viruses, without the quick immune response of the Hunter. The problem with this is that they can carry the precursor to disease for some time without any symptoms, until the disease state hits, and hits hard. They are particularly prone to digestive problems, lung disorders, and cancer. With the GenoType diet, the Teacher’s immune responses can be trained to be more effective, thus protecting the lungs, stomach, and colon, in particular. They are often Type A, or sometimes AB and tend to look wiry, with a more masculine body type. Like Abraham Lincoln, a probably Teacher, these people are balanced, spiritual and have great powers of analysis.

D’Adamo is a Warrior, in case you’re wondering (I’m an Explorer). Warriors are one of the newer GenoTypes, dating from several years B.C.E., nonetheless. This was a time in D’Adamo’s estimation when people lived in agriculturally harsh conditions and wars first started breaking out, so people had a lot of children to ensure the survival of the tribe. Warriors had to learn how to survive, so their strength and resilience is remarkable. When active, metabolism is great and Warriors burn lots of calories; when they’re sedentary, they put on weight very easily. In youth, they are beautiful, but they can age badly and early, turning rather round and insulin-resistant. They are also prone to stress-related illnesses, chronic gastrointestinal problems, hormonal imbalance and infertility and heart disease. Type As and ABs, they are intellectually very sharp and often need to force themselves to relax.

So let’s get back to James, our stylish and witty lawyer with a recurrence of prostate cancer. While we’re formulating his diet plan, D’Adamo throws a switch in SWAMI called Deep Blue, which is special for cancer patients. Essentially, Deep Blue tweaks the diet so that it includes foods with anti-cancer properties, such as:
• Anti-oxidants (petunidin, peonidin, cyanidin, delphinidin, catechins, quercetins)
• Lectins (cellular agglutinins)
• Mineral chelators, which deprive cancer cells of nutrients (phytic and oxalic acids)
• Cellular growth factor inhibitors (squalenes, polyamine production inhibitors).
Deep Blue also cuts out foods that might be detrimental to cancer patients. As for supplements, Liz has a long list that James is already on. D’Adamo reviews this and then adds a few (if you’re really interested, see below for descriptions from dadamo.com). After a long appointment, I show the couple to the lobby where Liz tells me they’re on their way south for a few days of vacation to bolster themselves for the fight ahead. We’ll check in with them again in a few weeks.

James’s Supplements:

Helix plus: As mentioned in Eat Right 4 Your Type, Helix has a powerful component, which helps the immune system to function more effectively and efficiently. This species, Helix Aspersia, is not the common edible snail (‘escargot’), but rather a hard to identify distant relative. The consumption of this species of snail may serve as a very potent protective agent, allowing your immune system to more accurately distinguish between healthy and unhealthy cells, especially in blood type A and AB.
Intrinsa: Created for use in his clinical practice, Dr. D’Adamo has blended two synergistic dietary nutrients, Butyric Acid and Caprylic Acid, with Larch Arabinogalactan to create a superior formula to protect and support stomach, intestine, and colon health. For this patient, in particular, it is being used to prevent histone deacetylation.
Polyflora B: Polyflora B was especially designed by Dr. Peter D'Adamo to deliver therapeutic levels of blood type friendly bacteria (probiotics) and growth media (prebiotics) specific for type B.
Rekon pro: There are times when the body needs immune support that goes deeper. Dr. D’Adamo designed his exclusive Rekon Pro formula for use in his clinic. Blended from botanicals historically known for their immune enhancing properties, Rekon Pro boosts healthy natural antibody function, which tends to drop with age and infirmity.
Scienca: Turmeric, quercetin and bromelain to protect against oxidative stress and inflammation.
Scutellaria: Scutellaria has been shown to decrease inflammatory cytokine production from human mast cells (immune system hormones which ramp up inflammation). Scutellaria also has a cell-regulating effect; encouraging the body to more efficiently remove cells which have become dysfunctional, either though age or malformation.
Itaru tea: Green tea, a powerful antioxidant, has been found to reduce cancer risk.

Send in the Clown, Part II

2009-10-08T08:57:00.001-07:00

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.

The Full Measure

2009-09-29T19:43:00.000-07:00

The D’Adamo shift starts at 9:30 each Friday morning and after a week of early morning classes that stretch into clinic work that often goes into the early evening, needless to say, each of the six of us students hurry into the conference room clutching large cups of something caffeinated. Dr. D’Adamo, on the other hand, is always ready to go; he swears by some special kind of green tea. As we all plunk into our seats, Dr. D’Adamo starts riffing on a variety of topics: the perils of using peppermint Dr. Bronner’s soap to wash your face, ways we can tweak the patient interview to make it run more smoothly, and the content of the different books he brings in weekly to show us. After taking a few of our questions, Dr. D’Adamo breaks to allow the first team to take the patient who’s just arrived. Our two patients today are a couple of friends who are acolytes of Dr. D’Adamo’s who have just come off his annual conference that was held over the summer. They are mad for the GenoType plan, have measured themselves already, and are eager to have their intake done and questions answered by the man, himself.

When Sue walks off the elevator with the two other students I work with, Jaime and Jen, I can tell she means business. This is a woman not to be deterred from her GenoType: she strides swiftly down the hallway, looking me straight in the eye as she grasps my hand firmly in greeting without much of a smile: she’s ready to get to work. And get to work, we do. Jaime and Jen are 4th-years, and therefore the student clinicians while I am a 3rd year, also known as an intern. One of the clinicians is tasked with taking the patient history and vitals while the other conducts measurements; I record measurements and generally provide assistance on measuring the patient.

Sue is thin, intense and knowledgeable. She’s a nutritionist and acupuncturist and favors the color purple: her sweater, t-shirt and socks are all shot through with different shades of the color. Her salt-and-pepper hair is straight and cut in a bob style. As Jen interviews her about her history, her eyes peer through frameless glasses out onto an invisible horizon as she recounts her lengthy and detailed history. Sue already knows that she is a blood type B+ and a non-secretor (more on what the latter means in a few paragraphs). She started on the Blood Type diet and has since switched to the GenoType Diet, after identifying herself as a Nomad (again, more on this later — so much to explain, so little time). Her chief complaint consists of a host of eye problems: chronic blepharitis, corneal ulceration and chalazians. In addition to the diet, she takes a few supplements for immune support including nucleotides, olives leaf extract and echinachea. She also treats her eyes with colloidal silver eye drops. Recently, she’s experienced vitreous detachment in her left eye, causing her to see “zillions of black floaters like a meteor shower.” Problems of lesser concern are an overly revved sympathetic division of her autonomic nervous system that causes sleep disturbances with night sweats, heavy metal toxicity, deep body coldness, a self-diagnosed goiter that sits to the left of her throat and sinusitis. We have our work cut out for us.

As Jen continues the patient history, Jaime and I get to work on taking Sue’s measurements, which will be entered into the SWAMI software to determine her GenoType. The first question that often comes up, and that Dr. D’Adamo addresses in his book The GenoType Diet, is why are these measurements taken to determine genetic makeup as opposed to having lab tests done? His answer to that is 3-fold: first, lab testing takes time and money; second, there are no lab tests for every genetic disorder such as Alzheimer’s so taking a good family history is as good as doing a genetic test for determining predispositions; and thirdly, and most importantly, most genetic diseases are not caused by one gene but by a combination of genes interacting, something which genetic lab tests don’t take into account. So, instead of lab testing, we take the GenoType measurements, which give a fuller picture of an entire genetic makeup.

I will walk you through some, not all of the measurements we do and why we do them.
First, we measure trunk length and leg length to determine whether the patient’s torso or legs are longer. These measurements are connected to the level of insulin-like growth factors 1 and 2 the patient was exposed to in utero. These factors determine leg length and height and are connected to risk for various diseases. For example, having short legs is connected to an increased risk of coronary heart disease. Tallness is associated with increased risk for hormonally-dependent cancers like breast and prostate cancer. Dr. D’Adamo has linked the various leg and torso lengths, and their ratios, with the various GenoTypes.

We also measure the length of the index (D2) and ring fingers (D4) on both hands, looking for the D2:D4 ratio. Finger length shows how much sex hormone a fetus has been exposed to in the womb, predisposing it to certain illnesses. “A longer ring finger means you encountered more androgens in the womb (androgens are a testosterone precursor); a longer index finger means you faced higher levels of estrogen,” says Dr. D’Adamo. From comparing the ratios of the two sides of the body, we also get information about the body’s symmetry. Higher levels of symmetry indicate less in utero stress. Finger length ratios also correlate to GenoType groupings.

Speaking of fingers, fingerprints are also a great indicator of developmental symmetry. We take a patient’s full set of fingerprints and then examine them to see if they’re one of three patterns: arch, whorl or loop. The more symmetrical your two hands are (index finger to index finger, for example), again, the calmer was your existence before birth. Many studies have been done linking specific diseases to fingerprint patterns and Dr. D’Adamo uses them as clues to a patient’s GenoType. What I found the most fascinating about fingerprints is that if a person has horizontal lines on her fingers, it indicates gluten sensitivity and malabsorption; this can be reversed with proper diet.

Jaw angle is the next measurement we take to help determine GenoType. This is called gonial angle. There are three basic jaw angle groupings: wide-angled, which lends the face an almond shape, and narrow, also called “lantern jaw,” and everything that falls in between those two. “Statistically,” D’Adamo writes, “an almond-shaped jaw seems to correlate to such disorders as toxemia during pregnancy, pernicious anemia, ulcers, and migraines in women, and to migraines in men. Square- or lantern-shaped jaws, on the other hand, may reflect more slippery tissue, and that may be why they’re more correlated with breast and uterine cancer: The cancer cells have an easier time detaching from slippery tissue and spreading through the body.”

Blood type is also factored in to GenoType, as is secretor status, which is a fascinating thing. Secretor status is linked to your blood type. Basically, your secretor gene controls whether you secrete your blood-type antigen in your body secretions like saliva, mucus, etc. Eighty-five percent of people are secretors and it is the non-secretors who have greater environmental sensitivities, a harder time burning fat, weaker defenses against parasites, and are generally your problem patients. Secretor status is determined by a blood test.

We take a lot of other measurements and since there’s not enough time here to discuss them all, I’ve included a complete list of the measurements we take at the bottom of this posting. Please pick up Dr. D’Adamo’s book The GenoType Diet for a further discussion of particular measurements, if you’re interested. At the end of the appointment, we take our full list and feed them into the SWAMI software, which then swiftly makes thousands of calculations to tell us the patient’s GenoType.

Back to our faithful patient, Sue, who, it turns out is an Explorer. Sue’s hydrogen is off the charts so D’Adamo diagnoses her with small intestinal overgrowth. Breath hydrogen is another factor we take into account when determining GenoType: we determine levels with a small machine that the patient blows into after ingesting a small amount of sugar in the form of lactulose, which transits the GI tract. If there is lots of intestinal overgrowth, the little critters will give off copious amounts of hydrogen. As we print out Sue’s diet and recipe plan, D’Adamo tweaks SWAMI to deemphasize foods that cause bacterial overgrowth. He emphasizes foods that have butyric acid (an anti-inflammatory particularly indicated for the GI), choline (which prevents inflammation), lauric acid (as is found coconut oil, which is useful for its antimicrobial properties) and lignans (high in phytoestrogens). He also recommends that she puts tomato slices on her eyes when they flare up, as tomatoes agglutinate staph, which he diagnoses are responsible for her infections.

Along with her brand new Explorer diet protocol, D’Adamo also gives her a long list of supplements to take home. For those of you interested, I’ve listed them below. Needless to say, Sue is in for an adjustment period as she comes off her old list of supplements and switches up her eating habits. But for this kind of patient, a challenge is just what she wants. We’ll visit with her in a month to see how she’s doing.

Next week in The Shift: Maura finally explains the characteristics of each GenoType.

If you have any questions or comments, please make them known! Email me at: maura.henninger@gmail.com.

Sue’s full list of supplements and why she’s taking them:
• Licorice: This was prescribed for her overactive sympathic nervous system. Licorice is known to block 11 hydroxysteroid, which is responsible for converting cortisol to cortisone, which can actually act as a precursor to cortisol, causing a build-up in the bloodstream. It is also a potent antiviral and anti-inflammatory.
• Methionine: Augments licorice effects.
• Potassium: Licorice can produce salt and water retention (this is called pseudoaldosteronism). Extra potassium is needed to counteract this.
• Cortiguard: An NAP product that contains bacopa leaf and boerhavia to maintain proper cortisol levels.
• Polyflora B: An NAP product that contains acidophilus and other healthy bacteria particular for B blood type.
• Deflect B: An anti-lectin supplement also produced by NAP for the B blood type.
• Burdock: He recommended either capsules or cooking up a “chunk” and eating it. It’s a blood purifier.
• Arabinogalactan: Support liver and provides immune support.
• Intrinsa: An NAP product to help balance GI flora.
• Fucus: Prohibits lectin binding especially in digestive tract.

The full list of measurements taken to determine GenoType:
Height, weight, waist circumference, hip circumference, somatotype, trunk length, leg length, upper leg length, lower leg length, upper leg space, tendon visibility, wrist encirclement, handedness, intracellular water %, extracellular water %, body fat %, lean muscle mass % (the previous four measurements are taken with an impedance machine), Carabelli cusp absence or presence, incisor shoveling absence or presence, cranial width, cranial length, gonial angle, blood type, PROP taster status, secretor status, caffeine sensitivity, lactose tolerance, ethnicity, present or absence of urine free radicals, urine analysis full reading, hydrogen breath test taken at 5 intervals, length of index and ring fingers, fingerprints on both hands with presence or absence of white horizontal lines.

Send in the Clown

2009-09-20T17:52:00.000-07:00

**Names and some details have been changed to protect the anonymity of patients.

Jane, our first patient, is a professional clown and 45-year old the mother of four daughters ranging in ages from 11 to 19. Jane’s friend Angela, who is a nurse and longtime patient and proponent of Dr. D’Adamo, has urged her for years to see him to address a myriad of mysterious health concerns. When I greet her in the lobby, I shake her hand and begin to size her up, as you can tell as much if not more about a patient’s health from what she doesn’t tell you as from what she does. Jane, who is about 70 pounds overweight, strikes me as a free spirit: a flowy purple sweater over a grey and blue striped tank top, black jeans, grey Pumas with a rainbows on the sides, and a necklace of pretty multi-colored gems. Her skin was sallow and her eyes had bags beneath them. She was cheerful, but her energy radiated weariness, as well. Her gray is wavy around her face and she greets me with a big, if not slightly tentative smile. With that, we headed upstairs to get her started on her intake.

On a patient’s first visit to the Clinic, we focus on a few things. First, we take a comprehensive patient history and do a modified physical exam that involves assessing the patient’s lungs and abdomen, as well as doing a Chinese medicine tongue diagnosis. Dr. D’Adamo has advised us that much can be gleaned from just a simple look at these three things. And then the fun begins: we begin GenoType measurements. Jane’s main concern is weight loss, but she is also tired all the time and has had chronic back pain for 15 years, as well as difficult rashes in her groin area and on her feet. She’s tried a number of weight loss programs from Weight Watchers to Weigh Down, with limited success, mainly because she has trouble with consistency. But with Angela’s help, she has been following some of Dr. D’Adamo’s protocols and has lost twenty pounds. Our task now was to assess what her GenoType is and put her on an appropriate regimen that would address her concerns.

Last week, I talked about how genes affect our health, the basic idea being that we are born with a set of household genes and a set of luxury genes and it is through the latter that we can affect and improve our health. In fact, humans have 30,000 genes and, as D’Adamo points out, this is fewer than most plants, which have 60,000. So, why are we humans so complex and varying? The reason lies in epigenetics: the way your cells affect your genetic activity, which is then passed down to your kids and your grandkids.

A little science lesson is in order here (believe me, I’ll make this as painless as possible). A lot of epigenetic programming happens inside the womb. If you go back to the town hall analogy I used in my first posting, you’ll understand Dr. D’Adamo when he says, “Right from the beginning, your town meeting is under way, with diet, environment, and genes beginning their lively debate. This debate has enormous significance for the being who will emerge into the world nine months later.” When you’re born, your GenoType materializes as a result of this prenatal environment, your preprogrammed genes and whatever occurred within the womb. This is when diet and environment — what the individual can control — begin to have an effect on health.

How exactly can we affect change on a gene? There are two ways. The first is called methylation. When a gene becomes coated with methyl groups, it winds up, effectively silencing it. Methylation is what determines your eye color, and a bunch of other things, before you’re born. But once you’re set free in the world, methylation continues, and this isn’t necessarily a good thing. For example, you want to methylate genes that cause you to store fat or have an asthma attack but demethylation can occur when you’re stressed out or eating the wrongs things, resulting in the wrong genes getting up to the microphone and wreaking havoc on the town meeting. “We don’t know everything about what causes either the beneficial or the detrimental methylation process to occur. But we do know that diet, supplements, and exercise play a huge role in quieting the genes we most want to silence,” says Dr. D’Adamo. (See The Economist article “The Origin of Diabetes: Don’t Blame Your Genes” for the more on gene methylation at http://www.4yourtype.com/distributor_links.asp under the heading Genomic News.)

The second way we can tinker with how our genetic destiny plays out is through histone acetylation, which is similar to methylation. An unwound DNA strand is six feet long; histones are like little spools that wind DNA into your cells. When DNA is all wound up in a histone, it’s silenced but if the histone is acetylated it — you guessed it — is no longer quiet and the problems start. Specific enzymes are needed to remove the acetyl group, spool up the DNA around the histone, and make everything nice and noiseless again. These enzymes are controlled, again, by diet, exercise and lifestyle. None of these elements are as important as what happens in the 9 months you spend as a fetus but, as Dr. D’Adamo says, “Diet and exercise can play a big part in altering our genes, especially if they’re geared, as the GenoType Diets are, to our existing genetic and epigenetic programming.”

So just how exactly do you figure out your GenoType, whether you’re a Hunter, Gatherer, Warrior, Nomad, Teacher or Explorer? That’s what our dear patient Jane wanted to know, as she was ready to start taking the weight off and addressing her rashes and fatigue. But it wasn’t as easy as having a quick look and making a diagnosis.

Here are just some of the measurements we took during our time with Jane that go into determining GenoType, the meaning and significance of which I’ll explain in next week’s posting: height, weight, waist circumference, hip circumference, somatotype, trunk length, leg length, upper leg length, lower leg length, upper leg length, tendon visibility, write encirclement, handedness, presence or absence of carabelli cusp, presence or absence of incisor shoveling, cranial width, cranial length, gonial angle, blood type, secretor status, body type, and caffeine sensitivity. We also took her fingerprints to examine them for patterns, did a urinary analysis to examine for any irregularities as well as presence of free radicals and administered a hydrogen breath test to determine the level of bacterial overgrowth in her gastrointestinal system. All of these figures are fed into Dr. D’Adamo’s SWAMI software, which does well over a hundred thousand calculations and feeds out not only her GenoType, but also a comprehensive diet and exercise plan, complete with menus and recipes.

But that would have to wait until next time, as we needed to send some of Jane’s labwork out before we had all our data in place. Needless to say, our little clown Jane left in a bit of a daze, but armed with a few supplements including Gastro-D to reverse bacterial overgrowth and Deflect for Type A to get help her cells fight off lectin assault and help her metabolism. (See below for details on the supplements).

Next week, we’ll examine why these mysterious measurements are taken and we’ll profile the 6 GenoTypes, as well as meet our next patient.

Some of you have been asking about Dr. D’Adamo’s take on H1N1, or swine flu, and what he recommends to both prevent and treat it. Please see http://www.dadamo.com/science_bloodgroups_influenza.htm.

Supplement Info (From 4yourtype.com):
Gastro-D: The DGL assists in protecting the stomach lining, and in combination with seven other synergistic ingredients, Gastro-D Complex is an essential supplement for individuals with occasional stomach problems.

In addition to DGL, Gastro-D Complex includes Mastic Gum, which may help to protect the gastric mucosa; Safflower Tops may help to provide additional support against H. Pylori infestation, especially for blood type O non-secretors; Bentonite Clay assists in attracting and soaking up environmental toxins; the inner bark rind of Slippery Elm protects the GI tract from excess acidity; and Bismuth helps protect the lining of the stomach from stomach acid.

Deflect for Type A: This contains N-Acetyl D-Glucosamine, Chondroitin Sulfate, D-Mannose, Cranberry concentrate, Pineapple concentrate, N-Acetyl Cysteine, and Fructooligosaccharides. Dr. D’Adamo has specially formulated this combination to correct previous lectin damage and remove lectins currently adhered to the body’s cells.

A Few Words on Blood Type

2009-09-13T10:02:00.000-07:00

Before I say anything about our first patient in the Clinic this week, let me first talk a little bit about the Blood Type Diet. Back in 1996, the book Eat Right For Your Type came out and became a sensation. Since then, Dr. D’Adamo’s books have sold 5 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 65 languages. Person after person, after reading my blog and learning that I’ve been working with Dr. D'Adamo have voiced their skepticism or humbly offered that they just don’t understand why it works. Certainly, this is understandable. People trying to lose weight will blindly look to the latest fad (Grapefruit! Cabbage! Fasting!) in a desperate attempt to knock off the accumulated baggage of nightly dances with Ben and Jerry, without any understanding of why the plan they’re undertaking works or even if there’s any science to back it up. Who cares why it works, as long as it worked for someone, right? With Blood Type, the research is actually there to back it up.

So what happens when you eat something and what does it have to do with your blood? I'll use myself as an example. I’m a Type 0. In a nutshell, I’m supposed to eat lots of proteins, including red meat, and stay away from wheat and dairy. Let’s say I eat a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast. That bagel and that cream cheese—and all foods, in fact— are packed with things called lectins, which are proteins found on the surface of the cells food. So, I’ve had my breakfast and the bagel bits and their accompanying lectins are swimming around in my stomach and they eventually enter my bloodstream where they meet my blood cells. Now, my blood cells will see the bagel and cream cheese lectins as foreign invaders (also known as antigens) and attack them with their own army of antibodies. This will result in the clumping of blood known as agglutation, literally the gluing together of tissues. This inflammation will lead to a host of health problems that can range from simple bloating, constipation and weight gain to full-fledged gastric ulcers and even severe respiratory allergies and autoimmune disorders. Bottom line: you want to reduce your body’s inflammation as much as possible. Dr. D’Adamo has tested hundreds if not thousands of foods and how they interact with each blood type, drawing correlations between disease and blood type. All you have to do is go on Dr. D’Adamo’s incredibly active message boards to see how many people for whom this has been an effective approach in everything from curing diabetes to lowering cholesterol to weight loss to simply clearing away that low level fatigue that seems to plague many of us.

I’m not going to take up any further space here by explaining each of the blood types, as my focus is D’Adamo’s more recent project the GenoType Diet, which is what we’re using in Clinic this fall.

For a good overview of the Blood Type Diet, check this Seattle Times article: http://www.dadamo.com/media/seattle.htm.

Do you want some basic guidelines on how to eat according to Blood Type?
Type O: Eat a high protein diet with lots of vegetables and fruit; limit grains, beans and legumes. Intense physical exercise suits you best, such as running or martial arts.
Type A: You’ll do best on a vegetarian diet. Dairy and too much wheat will make you feel sluggish and cause accompanying health problems; soy and pineapple will aid your metabolism. You’ll benefit most from exercise that calms your nervous system such as yoga, tai-chi, golf and brisk walking.
Type B: You are a balanced omnivore: you should eat meat, dairy, grains, fruit, vegetables, fish, beans and legumes in equal measure. To lose weight, avoid chicken, corn, lentils and peanuts. You should do moderate physical exercise that engages your mind such as tennis or cycling.
Type AB: This type is the anthropologically newest blood type, a combination of A and B. Foods that cause weight gain: red meat, kidney and lima beans, corn and wheat. Foods that encourage weight loss: tofu, seafood, dairy and green vegetables. AB’s are have the high stress profile of Type A’s so should also engage in exercises such as yoga, tai-chi, dance and hiking.

The Shift Has Begun

2009-09-06T11:26:00.000-07:00

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