Human Genome Mapping A Failure In Finding Cures For Disease

Article Of The Week:
Human Genome Mapping A Failure In Finding Cures For Disease, Read Here

Doctor's Soapbox:
10 years ago, Bill Clinton announced that the complete human genome had been mapped. This was a huge day in science because the thought was that once we map the human genome, we can discover what genes cause what diseases and treat them accordingly by pharmaceutical methods. One quote by Francis Collins at the National Institutes of Health said, "you will see a complete transformation in therapeutic medicine."

10 years later, where are we? No better off. Medicine still has no answer for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or obesity. The genomes are mapped, we know which genes and gene variants are linked to which diseases, yet disease rates are increasing across the board, not decreasing. Where is the pie in the sky? It's fallen on the faces of the medical establishment. You see, there are genetic factors that play a role in cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. But far and away, the more important factor when determining disease risk and prognosis is environment/lifestyle. This was proven yet again in an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association. After studying 19,000 women with heart disease and finding 101 different gene variants that contribute to heart disease, they found that the fact that the women had a gene that was linked to heart disease had zero predictive benefit over 12 years as to whether or not the women developed heart disease.

So what determined whether they developed heart disease? Their lifestyle. How they chose to eat, move, and think on a daily basis.

Harold Varmus, the president at the National Cancer Institute summed it up in one great line, "Genomics is a way to do science, not medicine."

Mind-Body: Why the Disconnect?

Article Of The Week:

Mind Over Matter? The Psychology of Healing, Read Here

Doctor's Soapbox:

An often overlooked factor in health is the Mind-Body connection. For over 200 years, since Descartes promoted a separation of mind and body in medicine in the 1700s, mainstream medicine has neglected the mind in terms of its power to heal. Fortunately, science has recently taken steps to reconnect the mind with the body in the literature and in the healing arts. Unfortunately, this is not happening fast enough in mainstream medicine and a lot of patients are suffering and/or being exposed to far too many toxic treatments and prescriptions that would not be necessary if the mind was brought into the picture. The above article is perfect proof.

This article from the scientific journal Diabetologia studied diabetic patients (Type 1 and Type 2) that had foot ulcers. Foot ulcers are open sores which form when a minor skin injury fails to heal because of microvascular and metabolic dysfunction caused by diabetes. Up to fifteen per cent of people with diabetes, both Type 1 and Type 2, develop foot or leg ulcers with many suffering depression and poorer quality of life as a result. The researchers in this study found that "the way patients cope with the condition and their levels of depression, affect how the wound heals or worsens." Eureka!!!! Mindset matters! This goes right along with the findings of many other studies that have shown that the more depressed or negative a person thinks, the more often they are sick. Science continues to back this up folks, even if your medical doctors give no credence to it. Lucky for you, "alternative" practitioners like myself do recognize and acknowledge the monumental contribution a person's mindset makes to the healing process.

Let's take this a step further, if your mindset determines how quickly your body heals an ulcer, do you think it also factors into how quickly you age, and therefore, your lifespan? Absolutely! Negative thoughts increase the stress hormone cortisol in your body, just like physical or chemical stress. The body reacts to all stress the same, regardless of the mode of input. Increased cortisol leads to increased depression by depleting the brain's stores of serotonin. It also leads to atherosclerosis and increased LDL cholesterol. Does that sound like a recipe for heart disease to you? And what is the number 1 killer and robber of lifespan in America? Heart disease. Does mindset matter? You bet your life it does!