“To keep the body in good health is a duty; otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.” Buddha
This past week, we buried my boyfriend’s mother who was almost ninety- three years old and we celebrated my seventy- second birthday without my twin sister who died thirteen years ago of cancer. His mom had been gradually slipping away for almost four years confined to the bed, and suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
What does this mean for us survivors, aside from the terrible emotional toll the loss causes. Are we doomed to follow in their footsteps and suffer the same end?
According to functional medicine practitioner Dr. Mark Hyman, the answer is a resounding no! Our genes don’t have to determine our destiny. While we can’t change our genetic makeup, we can change how they are expressed. We have the power to influence it. Phew, that’s a relief!
What is functional medicine? Dr. Hyman believes it is the future of conventional medicine available now. It seeks to identify the root causes of disease and views the body as one integrated system, not a collection of independent organs divided up by medical specialties. It treats the whole body system, not just symptoms.
While a conventional doctor names the disease and sends the patient to that specialist, the functional doctor acts like a medical detective to find the underlying causes to restore balance and optimal function in the basic systems of the body.
In his docuseries, “Longevity Roadmap”, Dr. Hyman discusses how quality of sleep, environmental toxins such as mercury and arsenic, poor immune health, processed diet, gut disfunction, inflammation and more can sabotage our healthspan (how long we will live a healthy vibrant life) v. our lifespan (how long we actually live) and what we can do to improve our healthspan. It is an approach to health that relies on taking care of the body to avoid the inevitable diseases of aging like heart disease, cancer, diabetes and dementia.
I grew up in a family that believed in this type of approach to health. My father’s guru was Dr. Abe Shapiro, a Brooklyn chiropractor who according to my dad could cure any ailment one could come up with. So every Saturday morning, for as long as I can remember, we loaded into the car and made the trek from Hewlett to Brooklyn for our adjustments. There were no excuses allowed. Unfortunately, Dr. Shapiro died of leukemia before my dad was diagnosed with his own rare form of cancer. But we hardly ever got colds or viruses as kids.
My dad would leave about fifteen to twenty vitamins on the kitchen table for each of us to take each morning. I just couldn’t swallow that! My parents were also the first to join Jack Lalanne gym when it opened in nearby Woodmere. Like Jack Lalanne, the godfather of fitness, my dad believed in incorporating nutrition into fitness. Jack Lalanne informed the general public how eating a proper diet could change your life. He introduced weight training and nutrition to the masses (even encouraging women, and the disabled and elderly ) to exercise and work out with weights, a bizarre concept at the time. Lalanne was ahead of his time in believing that physical exercise and nutrition would be the salvation of America. If more of us listened, perhaps we would not have one in six people suffering from at least one chronic illness and taking a million pills each day. Functional medicine is based on many of those principles of good nutrition and working out.
Which brings me to my bone to pick with traditional medicine. I went for my annual physical last week and my blood panel revealed a cholesterol score of 262. My HDL was good (75) and the triglycerides were in the normal range as well (90). However, my internist is insistent that I begin to take a statin to lower my cholesterol below 200. After some extensive research, I determined first, that statins can cause many terrible side effects such as muscle damage, muscle weakness, pain and more importantly can increase the risk of diabetes in post-menopausal women by 48%. There is no significant proof that it prevents heart attacks in women unless they have heart disease to begin with.
At my appointment tomorrow, I will ask the doctor to do further testing of my blood (an NMR particle size test) and a calcium MRI test to determine the amount of plaque. I will also alter my diet to eat less carbs, more protein and fruits and veggies and exercise more. I do not want to take this medication and will advise my non-functional medical doctor of my plan tomorrow.
As of now, most functional medicine practitioners do not accept health insurance, which is the main reason I have not switched. However, the Institute for Functional Medicine claims that insurance based models are likely to become more mainstream as both evidence and demand for functional medicine is growing and gaining popularity.
As for me, I intend to keep following Dr. Mark Hyman’s podcast “The Doctor’s Farmacy”, keep reading his books on nutrition and food such as “The Pegan Diet” and “Food: What the Heck Should I Eat?”. I will continue to rely on his docuseries “Longevity Roadmap”. I want to be as healthy as possible for as long as possible. Like Dr. Hyman, I want my healthspan to match my lifespan.
“It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.” Mahatma Gandhi