A New Year, a New YOU: How to Make 2018 Your Best Year Yet

Interesting story about Cliff Young, but the 14 tips on how to live a better day, one day at a time are quite good.

To these I would like to remind everyone of the importance of epigenetics – those things in life that control and modulates how our genes are expressed. With good diet, restful and adequate sleep, good attitudes, social connections, balanced spine and proper exercise, one can achieve maximal wellness from the genes we were dealt. Indeed it is said that genes only control 8% of our health while 92% is determined by our habits – and habits can be changed for the better.

I would encourage everyone to get a few relatively inexpensive blood tests to give you some baseline information on some predictive biomarkers. By predictive biomarkers I mean to say those items that give us a good window into our long term – as in 10 year forecast –  health (or disease) likelihood. Below I will note the tests to ask your doctor for (of course we can order these as well) and the ideal and predictive goal values. They include:

– Hgb A1c (Hemoglobin A1c) which is a 3 month average of what your blood sugar level is and gives insight to sugar/insulin/inflammation and energy.  Goal is less than 5.  As a bonus, when you achieve this goal, your risk of Alzheimer’s gets reduced by approximately 90%, as per recent research.

– hsCRP (high sensitivity C reactive protein) gives insight to repair and inflammation as well as immune status. Very informative on cardiovascular risk, as opposed to cholesterol wherein 50% of the folks who have heart attacks have OK cholesterol levels!  Goal is less than 0.5 mg/L.

– Homoscysteine, a chemical byproduct of cell function, is a widely recognized marker of cardiovascular risk.  It is a window into our cells ability to detoxify via methylation. High homocysteine is associated with disorders ranging from heart disease to cancer to Alzheimer’s disease and osteoporosis. Goal is less than 6.

– Vitamin D, actually this is a hormone rather than a vitamin, it plays a significant role in a number of systems of the body including immune and neurological regulation, and bone health. When levels are low their is an increased risk of cancer, heart disease, autoimmune disorders, psychiatric and mood problems.  Goal is between 50 – 80 ng/mL.

And there you have them. I could name several others as well but these are important ones that everyone should be aware of and know what their numbers are. If they are not in their ideal range, then you would be doing yourself a good service to apply a plan of action to get them improved. Then retest them after a few months to monitor your progress. Note that these goal numbers are ideal functional medicine numbers. Your laboratory will have a much larger range identified as “normal”.  The problem with normal is that it is based on population studies of what is common. Need I say anymore? OK I will. Common is cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity, diabetes etc. Ideal numbers dramatically reduce the likelihood of these diseases coming our way.  Engaging in proper lifestyle changes will add years to your life and life to your years.

I look forward to working with you toward optimal health in 2018 and beyond.