Why Do We Get Sick?
We are well, until one day, we are not.
The reasons we get sick or gradually lose our vitality are many. We used to think that this was simply genetics and therefore beyond our control. Thanks to the field of functional medicine, we now view the body in systems and also as a whole. All things are connected.
For a decade, as a patient-care manager in a functional medicine center, I saw many very unwell people come to our practice seeking solutions to medical mysteries. Most of them had seen multiple practitioners and tried various remedies, drugs, and procedures. Usually at the end of their rope, it occurred to them that maybe there was a simpler way, a more natural, down to earth solution.
In those early years, we were inundated with so many patients it hadn’t occurred to me to ask… “why do people get sick?” I just tried to show compassion, patience, and make our process as easy as possible. They had already been through so much. I guess I assumed those who came to our center had specific genetic factors that predisposed them to their particular illness.
Then one day I found a breast lump. One that would have to wait to be investigated until the COVID-19 nationwide quarantine lifted. I had four months to wonder and worry why this was happening to me, even though there was no breast cancer in my family.
Within that same window of time, three of my close friends were diagnosed with devastating diseases, two of whom anyone would have considered to be in top health. One had a family history of fatal pancreatic cancer, while for the other two – their illnesses came out of the blue. Why did they go from well to suddenly scrambling for life?! I wanted to know why, but even more, I desperately wanted to help. It was agonizing for me to stand helplessly-by and listen to their grueling journey as they navigated uncharted and confusing waters.
Around this time at the functional medicine center, we took an active interest in the new scientific evidence of gut-health, which was not so new after all. It was actually Hippocrates who said, “All disease begins in the gut.” We began learning about the gut-immune connection, the gut-brain connection, the gut-hormone connection, and many things in between. I began learning that many of the signs, symptoms, illnesses, and disease we wrestle with can be traced back to simple things like how we sleep, manage stress, and move our bodies and what we do and do not eat.
How is it so easily overlooked that, while we know we need to eat to live, so many of us have yet to connect that how we eat can prevent disease and promote life?
Genetic predisposition for heart disease, cancer, auto-immunity, weight-loss resistance, joint pain, hormone imbalance, anxiety and depression, chronic exhaustion can all benefit from healthy eating and health promoting lifestyle behaviors. What empowering news! But sadly… most of us don’t know this or, if we do, we don’t know where to even begin.
Epigenome = Epi (around) and genome (genes)
While genes play a role in how our bodies function or malfunction, there are also other factors at play – ones that we have direct control over. Nutrition, exercise, social environment, psyche, regeneration, stress, and the immune system all effect our epigenetics. Our genome is not fixed but influenced and impacted by our epigenome.
ROOT-CAUSE RESOLUTION
What I am learning for myself, with the clients working with me, and my three friends as they fight the good fight for their health - is that while genes play a role in how our bodies function or malfunction, there are also other factors at play – ones we have direct control over. There’s a biological connection between nutrition, exercise, social environment, psyche, regeneration, stress, and the immune system, that effects our epigenetics. Our genome is not fixed. It is influenced and impacted by our epigenome.
Epigenome = Epi (around) and genome (genes)
We all have epigenetic factors like food, environment, movement, stress, and mindsets, for example, that either turn our genes on or turn them off. Functional nutrition calls these factors the “soil” or “terrain,” and this is the area where you will find functional practitioners rolling up our sleeves and DIGGING IN!
With digestive imbalances at the core of nearly every health issue, we always back it up to the gut. From mental health to heart disease, from metabolism to your immune system, and everything between – what you eat and what your body can do with what you eat (assimilation) are key to reducing genetic vulnerability.
As the soil is key to the health of the tree, so too when we shift the soil where the roots of illness and imbalance are growing, health will shift too.
We are well until one day we are not. The reasons we get sick or gradually lose our vitality are many. We used to think that this was simply genetics and therefore beyond our control. Thanks to the field of functional medicine, we now view the body in systems and also as a whole. All things are connected.
When you make positive changes in something as simple as what you choose to put on your plate, positive changes occur in your epigenome - empowering you to be defensive against disease and proactive for your health.
For clients who choose to work with me, there is a natural, gentle and sustainable way forward. Through the proven principles of functional nutrition, I focus on your 7- body systems like a gardener – working to REMOVE, REPLENISH, and RESTORE. The roots of your health issues have grown in the environment you have created over many years. The cumulative stress and injuries your body has sustained need to be gently untangled.
By learning how to nourish and nurture yourself, in a safe environment and at a pace that promotes healing and prevents stress - new health and vitality can emerge. You can live a New Leaf Life!
