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DNA is a history book – a narrative of the journey of our species through time. A shop manual, with an incredibly detailed blueprint for building every human cell. It’s a transformative textbook of medicine, with insights. These insights give health care providers immense new powers to treat, prevent, and cure diseases.”

Genetics and Genomics

Gene study exists in 2 facets: genetics and genomics. Genetics is the study of single genes in isolation. Genomics is the study of all the genes in the genome, their interaction with each other, and with the environment. Each individual’s history book is full of possible stories. The stories tell of their influence by factors such as diet, lifestyle, emotional state, and environment.

In clinical practice, we are privileged to have the ability to hear what our patients are presenting with, or their story. We have the capacity to order testing to look at their phenotypical expression. The phenotypical expression describes what each gene is telling the body to say. In other words, the “stories” told. This allows not only to offer better treatment of existing concerns but also to tailor the prevention of future disease.

DNA: A Patient Study

I saw this first-hand through the story of one of my patients, JP. When we met, JP told me “I would love to find relief from the gut pain I feel daily… I can’t remember the last day I had without some bowel pain or issue like gas and bloating.” Alongside her severe digestive symptoms, JP expressed significant anxiety, fatigue toward the end of the day, fertility concerns, and cravings for sweets.

JP was a bright, young individual experiencing undue suffering every day. The issues left unresolved by conventional care were not only causing daily pain and discomfort but put JP at risk for developing serious illness in the future.

To get to the root-cause of JP’s suffering, I ran the following tests:

Enterolab

This uncovered hidden celiac disease, as well as casein (dairy) intolerance.

MRT LEAP

This showed 35 “reds” and “yellows” (food sensitivities), suggesting severe intestinal permeability.

GI Stool Effects

Showing SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth) and various medication intolerances.

Neurotransmitter Testing

Showing imbalances that could aggravate and perpetuate her anxiety.

Heart Rate Variability

Showed a stressed system in need of rest and relaxation.

ION Panel

Her ION revealed numerous nutritional imbalances. These allowed for exploration into ‘nutrigenomics’, or how these nutrient deficiencies and imbalances affected JP’s gene expression and determined her health.

All of the above tests allowed for a greater understanding of the underlying imbalances that lead to JP’s debilitating symptoms. This allowed me to eliminate her lifelong digestive problems by cleaning up her gut, reducing her toxicity, balancing her hormones, and replenishing her nutrient depletions.

Her anxiety, however, began to worsen once her digestion improved. It was only in looking at her genome that I was able to finesse her diet and supplement program to heal her fully.

23andMe DNA Gene Test

Prior to the deciphering of the human genome, humans believed that once we knew the code of life in our DNA, we would answer all the questions related to the origin of disease. In reality, we learned that rather than disease being locked-in as hardwired “stories” in our genome, these characteristics included in our genes are dynamic. Each gene is in a constant dance with our environment, lifestyle, diet, stress level, and physical activity (or lack thereof).

In running the 23andMe DNA gene test, we uncovered genetic inefficiencies in methylation, neurotransmitter sensitivity (mood management), and nutrient usage (explaining the nutritional imbalances). We received information so we could optimize her diet and realized how to reduce her risk for the mood disorders most of her close family suffered from. The ability to improve her addictive behavior around sweets, and greatly reduce the risk of her developing the chronic illnesses she was particularly susceptible to getting.

Thanks to genomic testing, I was able to see where JP’s gene expression was hindering her healing journey. With that knowledge, we were able to build bridges where there were once roadblocks, and JP left my office with the gifts of vitality and robust health.

The Genomic Revolution and Paradigm Shift in Healthcare

“Our health and disease patterns are not hardwired by our genes, but are rather a consequence of the interaction of our genetic uniqueness with environmental factors.”
Jeffery Bland, PhD

Jeff Bland called this genomic revolution a paradigm shift in our model of healthcare from a deterministic, disease-centric model to a wellness-centric model. We assumed dominant and recessive traits were locked into our genes with no ability to change them. The assumption said that medicine existed to put a band-aid on symptoms and disease which we could not prevent or heal. Luckily, our new wellness-centric model asks not only “How do you get sick?”, but “How can you be well?”.

We are on a gigantic wave of a medical revolution, and genomics is at the heart of that wave. Let’s paddle out together and see where the riptides might be.

About the author:

Dr. Murfin is wholeheartedly focused on her life’s mission to help people heal and achieve extraordinary outcomes. She believes that health is more than merely the absence of disease. It is a total state of physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social wellbeing through the creation of a whole and meaningful life. Dr. Murfin leaves no stone unturned to determine the root cause of illness or imbalance.

Breaking Bad Habits and Addictions Using the Functional Medicine Approach

Functional medicine is the only approach to breaking bad habits and addictions that doesn’t rely on a magic drug. There is no magic drug because pharmaceutical drugs have the potential to create other health issues. Instead, functional, or integrative medicine, coaches on methods of healing thyself. We continue from part 1 in the Mindfulness Series focusing on how our brain works and the actual creation of habits. Part 2 will explore the origins of, and motivation behind pattern behavior and understand how to change these ‘bad’ habits and addictions.

Pain: Conception of Patterned Behaviour

Life is painful, and there isn’t any person alive that’s exempt from trials and tribulations of life. Just the mere thought of a looming divorce, disease, job stress, or financial issues can send your blood pressure through the roof! This is the conception of behavioural patterns and the birth of bad habits. We then consume an externally sourced painkiller to relieve our pain and by consuming it regularly, we create a bad habit that can become an addiction.

Whether your ‘drug of choice’ is alcohol, chocolate, television, social media, sugar, or any catalyst to your feel-good hormones, it serves to divert attention temporarily from life’s difficulties. Making use of this pleasurable effect isn’t inherently bad unless we rely solely on external aid to ease the pain. It’s then that we are at the mercy of these temporary diversions with no tools to actually process and transform what’s troubling us. We paralyze ourselves from in moving forward and the transient pain turns to lasting suffering. We aim to avoid confronting what needs changing and are masters at practicing avoidance.

Overstimulation or Avoidance of Pain

Our society prizes instant gratification and encourages the avoidance of pain. It plays upon our biological drive to maximize pleasure and minimize discomfort. Our bodies are actually built to look externally for comfort. With time, cues and triggers develop which initiate learned response, like eating the chocolate or turning on the TV. The last post, explains how each repetition reinforces this habit pattern and modifies our perception to be continually seeking reward. Though this may lessen the immediate discomfort, it is a “band-aid solution” that often leads to both the consequence of not processing the pain and the fallout of the habit itself. We do ourselves a double injustice by not trying to find inner and lasting healing to the pain.

Finding Inner Sweetness To Heal the Pain

What then, is a better remedy to healing life’s pain? After taking the time to be consciously aware of the discomfort (as we practiced in part 1), become aware of what exists beneath that discomfort. What lies beyond the pain or emotional turmoil? Quietude. Peace. That is the inner sweetness we all desire and it can be achieved. In conclusion, let’s explore now how to find freedom from bad habits and addictions and change our lives for the better.

Changing Bad Habits and Addictions

You’re on your way to changing your bad habits for good! The first 2 steps below were discussed in Part 1 of the Mindfulness Series. Let’s continue with the remaining steps to finding freedom from addictions!

Functional Medicine Approach to Freedom From Addiction

Take five deep breaths
Observe & note the state of your body and mind when confronted with craving.
Close your eyes and shift your attention to any part of your body that is free of discomfort. It may be your left earlobe or your right big toe. No matter how small or how large, take time to observe one part of your body that feels GOOD.
Hold your focus on that point for one to three minutes.
Say a silent “thank you” for this part of you. Remind your body that you are doing your best to help it heal.

Mental force “is a physical force generated by mental effort. It is the physical expression of will.” _{p.295 Schwartz– The Mind & The Brain}In other words: where your attention goes, energy flows. The habits hard-wired into your brain can be shifted to patterning more conducive to healing by the power of will, or attention. Through the power of your pointed attention, with patience and dedication, it is possible to breed an unchangeable awareness of inner peace and balance. This experience can carry you through even the most difficult circumstances. Just as there is infinite sorrow to be found should you look, so too, is there infinite joy. The more we train the mind to focus on what’s right, the more things will fall into place.

As you progress through your path to greater physical and mental vitality and re-wiring old habits, try to approach each change from a place of gratitude. Conquer a challenge! Then, each step toward health is a gift to your future self and a “thank you” for being alive.

Pleasure Hormones Help to Create Bad Habits

Whether it’s gluten, dairy, eggs, or coffee, creating bad habits may be pleasurable but also bring some level of pain. A few things factor into why they are so hard to break. One factor is the plastic nature of our brains which refers to the ability for it to change. Most of these substances catalyze the release of pleasure hormones.

Neuroplasticity

Imagine your brain as a field covered with fresh snow. You walk from one end of the field to a birch tree on the other side. Looking back, you can see your footsteps clearly carving a path from your starting point to the birch tree. Now, imagine that every day for a week, you walked that same path- following your footprints from the previous days. As more snow falls on the rest of the field, your path to and from the birch tree has been dug down to the dirt. Let’s explore more about how the human brain works.

Creating Bad Habits: How Our Brain Works

This is how the brain works when it comes to creating habits. New connections are created by every act, word, and thought. Through repeated action, pathways in the brain become reinforced and turn into a habit. ‘Walking a path’ you’ve walked many times before are similar to habits like turning to chocolate or wine when you feel stressed or sitting on the couch after a long day. These habits become so ingrained in the brain that it happens almost automatically.

Now, imagine after a week, you decide to walk from your original starting point to a pine tree on the opposite side of the field. There is no path to this tree, so you have to trudge through deep snow to get there.

But you get there.

In the same way, adopting a new habit takes more effort than keeping to status quo, but it is possible. The human brain remains plastic long into adulthood so it is never too late to create new habits! As Dr. Norman Doidge, author of The Brain That Changes Itself, says, “…we don’t so much ‘break’ bad habits as replace bad behaviors with better ones.” It all starts with a shift in attention; cultivating curiosity toward the ‘automatic’ action and introducing the possibility of NOT acting on an urge, or of responding differently.

Here’s where mindfulness comes in…

Mindfulness & The Brain

Diana Winston of UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center describes mindfulness as “Paying attention to present moment experience with open curiosity and a willingness to be with what is.” In the context of creating new habits, this means creating pause. Take a step back when you get the urge to do something you’d prefer not to do. Notice how the body feels, listening to the stories in your mind, and put distance between the urge and the action.

Simply note the feelings in your body and mind as being pleasant or unpleasant. Know that even if your immediate feelings are very unpleasant, the long-term effects of making a healthy diet and lifestyle change will produce longer-lasting and more profound benefits than the transient giddiness of a “guilty pleasure.” Bad habits will ultimately lead to long-term suffering in the form of chronic illness, cognitive decline, or metabolic imbalance. Here’s an easy exercise that will help train your brain and create new and good habits.

Functional Medicine: Training Your Brain for Good Habits

Choose one daily habit you’d like to change.

For the next week, before acting on this habit, stop and take five deep breaths. Then, notice how your body and mind feel. You don’t need to change your habit yet; just notice the feelings that come before the action.

You may want to record your discoveries in a journal.

One Last Note:

KINDNESS is KEY. Remember: you are on this journey of wellness and vitality because you care for yourself. There is nothing inherently wrong with you. There are merely subtle refinements to be made in your physical health which can help you to feel more fully alive and ready to share your unique gifts with the world. Together, we are working as a team to optimize your health. We want to see you shine! Throughout this process, especially in times of challenge and transition, remind yourself that you are here at Linden & Arc Vitality Institute because you love yourself enough to want to feel better. Be kind in the way you relate to your mind and your body. Be curious about why you’ve developed certain habits and resist the temptation to judge yourself for them. If you take a step back or can’t find clarity at the end of certain suffering, choose to trust the process and keep going. Do this because you love yourself; because you’re worth it.

Interested in reading more on mindfulness? We recommend Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn, and The Mind & The Brain by Jeffrey Schwartz, M.D

“Mindfulness is about being fully awake in our lives. It is about perceiving the exquisite vividness of each moment. We also gain immediate access to our own powerful inner resources for insight, transformation, and healing.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

Welcome to your brain. We like to also think of it as your cerebrum, which represents the physical, your intelligence or mental capacity, and your psyche, or your emotional side.

It’s fascinating to be here.

Weighing in at only 3 pounds, the human brain is unbelievably one of the largest and most complex organs in the human body. It is made up of over 100 billion nerves that communicate with each other through trillions of links, called synapses. Working similar to a computer, it requires specific components and specialized areas that work together to perform optimally. This also includes other important body functions.

Functional medicine, root cause medicine, and integrative medicine show the relationship of all body systems to one another. At Linden & Arc Vitality Institute, the brain is a huge part of the overall wellness process. Learn how it and your gut work symbiotically for your optimal health.

The Linden & Arc Vitality Institute team of functional medicine physicians offers a Collaborative Care Model that is designed to offer the highest level of care. With this model, our practice leaves no stone unturned and minimizes wait times. Dr. Lynne Murfin, Dr. Michelle Van Der Westhuizen, and Dr. Daniel Ruttle, Functional Medicine Physicians, as well as Dr. Ayla Lester and Dr. Trevor Hoffman, Naturopathic Doctors, work closely with one another on patient care at Linden & Arc Vitality Institute.

Contact us for a full assessment of your brain health today and ways we can help to prevent or reverse cognitive decline.

About the author:

There is a key to healing that is 100% free and you are consuming it right now!

Autonomic Nervous System

The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) regulates many of our essential body processes automatically. This saves us from exhausting our mental capacity every day. We try to keep track of the food we’re digesting, remembering to breathe, and other essential bodily processes. As well, it allows us to use our conscious mental effort for higher thinking. We perform simultaneous activities without having to remind our hearts to beat, all thanks to our ANS.

The ANS contains within it the wisdom of life itself. It is a primitive system concerned primarily with survival, not thriving.

Sympathetic Nervous System & the Parasympathetic Nervous System

Two primary subdivisions of the ANS are the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). These act as opposing forces, telling the body either ‘it’s time to react’ (SNS) or ‘you’re safe to heal’ (PNS). You may have heard of this as the ‘fight/flight/freeze’ response (SNS) and the ‘rest and digest’ body state (PNS).

The PNS activity must be dominant for optimal body and brain health, healing, and longevity, repair, growth. In this state, our body’s own repair and renewal mechanisms work better. Plus, any healing therapy implemented such as dietary supplements, nutritional IVs and injections, and ozone therapy, can be more effective. This is because they don’t have to fight against the body’s stress response before doing your body good.

Overstimulation of the Nervous System

The majority of our population sits with SNS dominance as their baseline. This is caused by the overstimulation of the nervous system, toxic exposure, psychological stress, and other perceived and physiological stresses inherent in daily life. Our bodies are stressed out! At any given moment, the average person’s body is preparing for attack, not attending to its own repair and optimization. Survival is the focus. Over time, chronic SNS dominance can lead to imbalance and disease of almost every kind.

The good news is, there is a bridge between your conscious mind and your ANS. With this key to healing, you can willfully shift your operating system from “panic mode” to a healing state.

What is this Key to Healing?

Your breath. While breathing happens automatically every day thanks to your ANS, it can also be regulated consciously by the mind. How the breath moves in the body also happens to be an easy gauge of your subconscious state. The body is in a stressed state when it exhibits shallow breathing, mostly visible in the movement of the upper chest, shoulders, and collarbones. The body tends to breathe in a relaxed state when the lower “belly” breath is initiated by the diaphragm movement. The diaphragm is the barrier between respiratory and digestive organs- found approximately at the level of the low ribs)

Knowing this, the breath can be a diagnostic tool. As well, the mind’s capacity to overturn autonomic breathing patterns can be the key to wiring our system to heal. There are a few more mechanisms by which conscious breathing works to heal your body.

Try it yourself: Deep belly breathing

Find a quiet, comfortable spot in your house. Sit on a chair, a cushion, or the floor. Set a timer and spend sixty seconds observing your breath.
Inhale slowly and deeply; exhale slowly; repeat.

Take note: Without changing it, where does your breath go?

Place the palm of your right hand on the area of your torso that moves the most with each breath. If this is not the low belly, use the following steps to help your body relax.

Close your eyes and place your right hand gently on your low belly. Exhale fully through your nose and observe your hand moving in toward your spine as the belly contracts.
Inhale through your nose, and feel the right hand slowly drift away from your spine as you direct your breath into the low belly.
Set a timer for five minutes. Repeat steps 2 & 3, working on making the breath as smooth and full as possible.

Take note: Is there any resistance to deep belly breathing in the body or the mind?

If the breath is choppy or shallow, see if there is tension in your body and let go of it bit by bit on each exhale. You should feel your shoulders, your eyebrows, your jaw, and your glutes relax. Deep belly breathing will become more comfortable as tension is released.

Take note: How do you feel after five minutes of deep belly breathing?

Set a goal to practice deep belly breathing once a day for two weeks by following the above steps. Be sure to journal how you feel before and after each session. Write down any observations you have.

Set the intention to practice deep belly breathing for 40 days and train your body to use the breath to its advantage.

Resources:

Parasympathetic Repair pdf – click here.

Effects of Meditation and Pranayama – click here.

What is SIBO?

Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO for short) is a condition that affects 60% of people with IBS. It involves the overgrowth/accumulation of bacteria in the small intestine, an area of the intestinal tract which under normal circumstances (unlike the large intestine) hosts hardly any bacteria at all.

SIBO is not only prevalent in patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). 67% of patients with Celiac disease, 81% of patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, up to 88% of patients with Crohn’s disease, 93% of patients with Fibromyalgia and the list goes on:

Diabetes mellitus – 8-44%
Immunodeficiency syndromes – 30-50%
Obesity – 70%
Parkinson’s disease – 54%
Rosacea – 46%
Ulcerative colitis – 81%
Interstitial Cystitis – 81%

If SIBO is so common, why is it rarely talked about?

It is only in the last decade that the importance of our intestinal bacteria and bacteria overgrowth has become fully recognized. The year in which the Human Microbiome Project was launched (2007), knowledge of the human microbiome expanded. Prior to this ‘pro microbiome era,’ western society had an extended love affair with hygiene, cleanliness, and anti-bacterial products. Our germ-aversion fuelled by a growing consumer market for anything anti-bacterial led us to believe all bacteria are bad.

Our Growing Knowledge of the Microbiome

With our growing knowledge of the human microbiome, we now appreciate that certain bacteria are not only beneficial to us, they are essential to our survival and ability to thrive as a human species. A whopping 90% of Serotonin, our happy hormone neurotransmitter, is produced by the bacteria in our gut?

However, it is not only the number of intestinal bacteria that impact our health so dramatically, it is also the diversity, the balance between beneficial and potentially harmful bacteria, and, very importantly, which part of the gut they are colonizing.

This fairly recent understanding has led scientists to recognize SIBO as one of the most common underlying root causes of intestinal dysbiosis, and of irritable bowel syndrome.

Unfortunately, highly sensitive and specific testing to confirm the diagnosis of SIBO has not yet become widely available. As a result, SIBO has been one of the most common but also most underdiagnosed digestive problems.

What are the Signs & Symptoms of Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth?

Abdominal cramps
Bloating
Diarrhea
Constipation
Gas
Floating / greasy stools
Vitamin B12 malabsorption
Weight instability

What to do if you suspect you have SIBO

If you think you have SIBO, talk to your health care provider expressing your intention to gather more information. This small gesture is so beneficial in maintaining a trusting relationship. Who knows, you might encourage your physician to join you in learning more about this common condition!

Learn More About SIBO

Click here to read this article is a good starting point for health care providers who would like to learn more about SIBO. There are some basic principles to follow when treating SIBO. However, it is crucial that the underlying root cause (why you developed SIBO in the first place) is properly identified and addressed in order to prevent a recurrence. This is why it makes sense to seek help from a functional medicine-trained health care provider.

If you suspect you might have SIBO, or struggle with undiagnosed digestive concerns, contact Linden & Arc Vitality Institute, Our collaborative care team can support you in finding the root cause and healing your gut! Email us at [email protected] to schedule an appointment.

Tag: integrative medicine