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Why Seek Help from a Clinical Nutritionist? |
More and more people are searching for healthier ways to live, eat, and improve their quality of life. Part of that goal is learning how to create increased vitality, greater resistance to disease, and reduced risk for degenerative illness. For many, the short term focus of masking symptoms for temporary relief poses raises a multitude of questions about the long term consequences. Nutrition and Epigentics Current research estimates that as much as 75% of our health after age 40, or more is dependent on environment and life-style rather than genetics alone. How we live, sleep, the foods we eat, and the environmental exposures we endure all play an additive role over the years. The new science of "epigenetics" suggests that all of these factors serve as important "signals" and "information" that influence cell function and how our genes express, or not. This new branch of science suggests that having a gene for a particular cancer may be far less important than the signals that would cause that gene to "turn on". Modern Clinical Nutrition Unlike simple dietetics of years ago, modern clinical nutrition is concerned with individual nutritional needs and optimization for enhanced wellness, rather than just the prevention of overt deficiency or the needs of the mythical "average" person. Clinical nutrition is biochemistry, physiology, endocrinology, and metabolism. Patterns of deficiency, excess and imbalance express through alterations in our chemistry, eventually creating observable symptoms. While the naming of a symptoms group can be helpful, the real issue is the underlying cause or causes that create or permit the expression of the symptoms. Any given symptom may have more than one cause. Eating foods that are immuno-reactive represents a challenge to the immune system and may either contribute to immunological overload, or may "up-regulate" various cell-signals leading to inflammation. |