Have you heard this phrase, “personalized medicine?” Everything is better when it’s personalized, right? The question to ask is not whether this customization is good or not (it is), but who exactly the customer is.

The conventional medical model states that you are a collection of cells containing DNA, and that this DNA determines your biologic fate. Thus, control the DNA and your control a person’s health.  So, the customer, the “person” in the personalization is your DNA, not you as a person with feelings, thoughts, experiences, and memories interacting with an environment altered by your food, water, air, changes of seasons, stage of life, etc.

Genetic determinism is appealing to some physicians because it seems to hold the promise of the ultimate cure. If you can attribute a disease to a single gene, you can create a highly targeted treatment using gene therapy.  Unfortunately gene therapy has had very limited success after decades of trials and billions of dollars in research, and even some tragic deaths and disabilities of test subjects, some of whom were children.

Insurance companies are pushing for pharmaceutical companies to use genetic tests to figure out which drugs are likely to work for a patient. This is really more about saving the insurance company money for expensive drugs, but it’s a good start.

Entrepreneurs like the idea of genetic determinism because they can sell gene kits to anxious medical consumers. While they have profited handsomely from these pseudo-science endeavors, our health has not profited from these tests.

In her 2010 article in Newsweek, science writer Sharon Begley observed, “An estimated two thirds of the early studies linking an aberrant form of a gene to a particular disease turned out to be mistaken.” Back to the Genetic Future, Newsweek, 11/14/2010

According to Begley, family history of disease is a better predictor of disease than genetic tests with respect to diabetes and heart disease. Most of the studies linking a single gene to a single disease did not pan out in predicting actual disease risk. (For example, these studies and this large international study investigating heart disease and genetics.

Endobiogeny is a theory of terrain, the ecosystem of the body. The terrain in endobiogeny is based on your genetic heritage. But what we are interested in is how your genes are being expressed by your hormones due to the demands of your internal and external environment. Genes matter, but so do hormones, lifestyle, thoughts and emotions. Personalized medicine MUST be focused on the person.

Think about it. Little boys don’t grow mustaches or get prostate cancer—because the genes related to these activities are not “turned on” in childhood.

Here’s another consideration: people whose heritage is from one country, say India, but grow up in the US have increased rates of certain cancers and decreased rates of other cancers based on whether or not they live in India or the US. Why is that? It’s speculated that in part, the change in climate, food and lifestyle changes the pattern of genes expressed to reveal new risks for diseases (or reduced risk) that were hidden in prior generations.

In the endobiogenic approach to medicine, it is not unusual to spend one hour or longer on your medical history—including family history. The timeline of your disease(s) is a better indicator of how certain genes were turned on or off, intensified or dampened. This detailed personalized history reveals crucial information about your biologic individuality, which cannot be obtained with laboratory testing, imaging studies or genetic analysis. It’s important to understand the person who has the disease and not the disease that has the person, as Sir William Osler said.

What’s so important about genetics and why should we care? The subject of my next blog…

In the previous blog post about Endobiogeny, I mentioned that the body is a system. This is not just a philosophical point or a warm fuzzy notion. It is the basis of how everything works in the universe, from the cell to the economy, from bees to transnational organizations.

Systems medicine is the basis of how in endobiogeny, we create a framework of understanding of how and why diseases come about and health can be restored. It’s the basis of the amazing blood analysis system the biology of functions (get a general overview here, healthcare providers here, or read the details here). Let’s take a closer look at this concept.

Consider an ecosystem such as a forest. This forest is like a person. It is composed of many trees, as a person is composed of many organs. Each tree is composed of many branches, which are like layers of tissue that make an organ. On each branch are many leaves, which are like cells that make up a tissue. Each leaf on each branch on each tree in this forest lives for itself, but what it does affects the tree. Similarly, every cell lives for itself, but it also lives for the whole person. Our body, like the forest, constantly strives for that perfect balance between the needs of an individual cell and the needs of the whole body. This state of balance is what we call “wellness.” What happens to the tree (the organ) affects every leaf (the cell), its neighboring trees (other organs) and eventually the forest (the whole body).  The opposite is also true, what affects the forest affects the leaf. All are interconnected and interdependent.

So, where should we start to treat? At the level of the cell? The organ? The whole person?

Modern medicine is moving down to the level of the cell (the leaf). Powerful drugs have been developed mainly to block receptors (beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, acid-blockers, etc.). Powerful drugs have powerful side effects and often higher and higher doses are needed to maintain the original effect of the drug. Can you heal a broken heart with a blood pressure medication?

Holistic medicine is moving up to the level of whole body and mind-body interactions (the forest). This is an exciting area of treatment, but it doesn’t address the specific issues of physiologic balance that are real and need to be treated. Can you dissolve a clot in 5 seconds with energy medicine?

Endobiogeny spans the entire ecosystem, from cell (leaf) to whole person (forest)—because you cannot separate one from the other. There is a time and place for every type of intervention. But isn’t it better to be able to help the body balance itself at every level of function without aggression or force?

To understand your disease (or your dis-ease), I seek to understand YOU, a unique person with a unique ecosystem. The endobiogenist approaches your life circumstances, from pregnancy and birth to traumas to travel to understand how the trajectory of your life path has been altered, for better or worse, and how it has affected you physiologically, mentally and emotionally. Studies have shown that adverse childhood events are the single best predictor of lifetime risk of both physical health and mental health issues.

Do you want to partner with a doctor who knows YOU and your dis-ease?  Endobiogeny is a truly personalized form of medicine and promises to be the future of medicine…the subject of my next blog.

Modern medicine is at a crossroads: medicine without humanity, or “natural” medicine without scientific rigor. Yet there is, if we open our minds, a third way: a fusion of medicine—with its scientific precision and brilliance—with a humanistic approach—with its compassion and wisdom—that puts the care back into healthcare. This approach is called Endobiogeny. (read more here; healthcare providers, read more here)

Endobiogeny is an approach to medicine that seeks the key factors of health and the root causes of disease for each individual based on their unique genetic heritage and life circumstances, referred to as the “terrain”.

Endobiogeny starts with a theory of how the body works and why it works the way that it does. Every cell, tissue, organ, and the whole person are connected to each other to form a dynamic system. This system, constantly changing, constantly seeking perfect balance, is managed by your hormones (read more here). This manager ensures that the amazing collection of cells we call a human being thrives and grows and becomes the unique miracle that each of us is. Nearly every aspect of health and illness involves a hormonal imbalance that starts, influences or maintains it. So, understanding hormones opens ups a lot of understanding into the human condition, from mental to physical health, from digestion to cancer.

Each part of the body affects the whole and the whole affects the parts. That is why in endobiogeny, we find that it’s so important to evaluate every level of a person’s experience, from cell to body, from mind to emotions. (read more in my next blog here)

Finding the root: There are three levels of knowing in Endobiogeny, all in service of getting to know YOU and your story. This is what allows endobiogeny to be such a healing experience:

1. A detailed history, from conception to your present state
2. A detailed physical, that looks for clues about hormonal, digestive, mental and emotional imbalances on every inch of your body
3. A unique method of lab analysis called the Biology of Functions (get a general overview here, healthcare providers here, or read the details here)

Treating the problem: Once we find the root cause of imbalance, it’s time to treat (Read a case analysis of polycystic ovarian disease here). In this case, there are 3 levels of care:

1. Treatments: natural plant medicines are preferred because of their unique ability to work dynamically and intelligently with the body; however, all treatments are “on the table” for consideration, from drugs to surgery, from hyperbaric oxygen to osteopathic manipulations to acupuncture.  The number one goal is to keep you safe and healthy.
2. 2.    Diet, Drainage and Detoxification: The stomach is the storehouse of health. Nutrition and the science of metabolism: what we eat and how it is digested and processed plays a key role in health.
3. 3.    Lifestyle:  Body-mind interventions, counseling, and lifestyle changes may be recommended to address the deeper impact of illness.

The hallmark of wisdom is simplicity. How many pills do you take a day? More than three? How many supplements? More than six? Are you eating real food or do you have to buy your food a weekly subscription?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, your treatment is not simple. Ask yourself, “Is my current health plan wise? If not, I suggest you consider a wiser and simpler approach, such as that offered by the Endobiogeny.