M.D., Ph.D., as well as systems biology and practicing lifestyle medicine, Bland founded the nonprofi t Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Institute (
PLMInstitute.org) in 2012. Seeking to transform the entire medical approach to chronic illness, the Seattle-based organization is a virtual and onsite hub for health professionals, researchers, educators and the public to share ideas and converse about how personalized functional medicine can be delivered to everyone as an improved standard of care.
Role of Genetics T e National Human Genome Research Institute, in Bethesda, Maryland, maintains that an evolved approach to medicine starts with using an individual’s genetic profi le to determine the best path to preventing, diagnosing and treating diseases. By 2003, scientists had delivered the fi rst essentially complete sequence and map of all the genes in the human body. T ree decades ago, the medical fraternity had few
reliable explanations for the origins of chronic health issues. Today, accepted factors include predispositions for a specifi c disease related to an individual’s genome, along with contemporary epigenetic infl uences such as nutrition, environment and lifestyle. None of these elements, however, necessarily defi ne our destiny. “T is genomic personalized medicine approach is
creating friends among all healing arts practitioners because it facilitates our using information to design a less-toxic environment, lifestyle, diet and treatment to meet an individual’s specifi c needs and particular circumstances that led to a disease,” says Bland. “Diseases are only names assigned to a collection
of symptoms,” says Bland. “They don’t indicate how the individual became afflicted. If 10 patients with Type 2 diabetes each had epigenetic variations that triggered getting the condition, it would be unwise to treat them all the same; it’s far better to treat those factors that specifically led to the disease.” Addressing the concern that genetic test results might be
used to deny someone health insurance, Bland notes, “T is is a signifi cant misunderstanding about genetic testing. Our genes don’t tell us how we are going to die. T ey tell us how we should live. Understanding how our genes can help us live to 100 is a model of enlightenment. T ose that practice this systems biology approach are counting on functional personalized medicine becoming the updated standard of care.” Physicians oſt en off er genetic testing services. At-home
DNA testing can be done using a saliva collection kit mailed to a laboratory, off ering both ancestry and health information that must be interpreted by an informed professional.
Linda Sechrist is a senior staff writer for Natural Awakenings. Connect at
LindaSechrist.com.
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