Nutrition

Nutrition is the study of how the body uses the foods we eat. How we digest, absorb, and eliminate food and its by-products is an important part of any nutritional assessment. If we take in too little or too much of a specific nutrient, we can develop nutritional deficiencies or toxicities. While we must eat to survive, poor food choices or the lack of good foods can lead to significant health problems and require costly medical interventions to reverse them.

It is not easy to get this nutritional balance right, however. Each day we are presented with a bewildering array of food choices and recommendations about what to eat, when to eat it, and what to avoid. We each have a unique genetic makeup and may have different requirements for the basic building blocks of life - carbohydrates, protein, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water – depending on the state of our health. The foods that make one person feel great may not adequately support another person's health.

Practitioners of holistic medicine are well educated in the use of specific nutrients and dietary interventions. They take into account each person's unique biology and lifestyle and create treatment plans to address health issues. In the hands of the holistic medicine specialist, food becomes a tool for both survival and therapy. This may involve the use of nutrition and lifestyle counseling to prevent diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, or atherosclerosis. It may also involve using nutrients for specific therapies to address existing medical conditions, such as osteoporosis, cancer, or chronic illness.

Vitamins, minerals, amino acids, botanical medicines and enzymes are often given as nutritional supplements to support health. One example is folic acid, a vitamin that is required for amino acid metabolism and nucleic acid synthesis and acts as a cofactor for some enzymatic processes in the body. Deficiencies of folic acid can develop in adolescents who are growing rapidly. Pregnant women need additional folic acid to prevent neural tube defects and other birth defects in their developing babies. Folic acid deficiencies may occur in the elderly who are not able to absorb it as efficiently as they once did. Recent studies have found that folic acid deficiencies are associated with elevated homocysteine, a risk factor in heart disease. Supplementing with folic acid can correct these deficiencies and reduce the risk of future health problems.

Nutritional therapy may also be used to treat existing medical conditions. Vitamin C, which was studied extensively by Linus Pauling, is a potent antioxidant that is often given to cancer patients during conventional therapy. It reduces toxicity, promotes immune function, and supports tissue repair. Fish oils containing omega-3-fatty acids are often recommended to cancer patients to slow or reverse the weight loss that often occurs. Fish oils are also known to reduce cardiovascular disease risk.

These are just a few of the many ways that nutrition is used to optimize health and overcome illness. When dietary guidance and nutritional therapies are provided by holistic medical practitioners, improved health and increased longevity are often the result.