At it again

You know that when I return from a highpowered nutrition seminar, I come back all fired up. Today is no exception, except that I am more fired up than usual.

Last weekend, I drove to Orlando to attend an 8-hour seminar by Dr. Jeff Bland, unarguably one of the world's foremost nutrition researchers. Decades ago, Dr. Bland established the Institute for Functional Medicine that operates as a world-class research facility, delving into matters of nutrition and health. He and his colleagues have published their findings in some of the most prestigious nutrition and medical journals in the world.

The theme of this weekend seminar was "The Emerging Therapeutic Target: Improving Therapeutic Outcomes by Treating the Intersection of Osteoporosis, Cardiovascular Disease, Type 2 Diabetes and Arthritis."

Did you catch the meaning of that seminar title? Dr. Bland posits that these seemingly unrelated disorders have a common thread, and that they are treatable. Actually, he added cancer to that mix.

He made a few points that I will never forget:

• Functional medicine (i.e., treatment protocols that target the body's own biochemistry through nutrition) is not only the safest medicine, it is the best medicine.

• Disease has a long latency period (many years in most cases). The best time to target disease is during that latency period, before symptoms emerge.

• Genetics are a blueprint for health, but the defective genes may not be expressed. They are putting a tremendous effort into discovering kinases that either up- or downregulate genetic expression. Kinases are messengers that communicate with genes. Foods like broccoli and other brassicas can downregulate the expression of genetic defects. Other foods do the same. (I'm sorry but ice cream is not one of those foods.) In other words, by concentrating on high-nutrient dense foods each day, we can either forestall or prevent the development of disease during that latency period - and extend the years of healthy living. In many cases, symptoms are treated the same way.

• Organically grown vegetables are stressed by their more robust environment. The stress they encounter is counter-acted by the development of phytochemicals that help the plant thrive. Have you ever complained about how poor some organic vegetables look? Those are the ones you should buy - because they have struggled through their environmental challenges, developed "biochemical coping mechanisms" in higher antioxidant and other phytochemical levels, and you receive the benefit of this enhanced nutrition when you enjoy them.

I teach an individual program called Firstline Therapy that does just what Bland is talking about: helping prevent disease, normalize body composition, and extend your years of healthy living.

- Carol Simontacchi is the owner of the Island Nutrition Center on Sanibel. She can be reached at 472-4499 or on the Web at www. islandnutritioncenter.meta-ehealth.com.