The Integrative Healthcare Symposium kicked off with a keynote speech from Jeffrey Bland, Phd, the “father of functional medicine.” He addressed practioners from around the world who came to New York to learn more about integrative healthcare.
You can watch an interview with Dr Bland about last year’s symposium here.
This year, he tackled the Clinical Implications of Epigenetics, and gave an overview of how environment and lifestyle influence the expression of our genes—and the role they place in the development (or prevention of) of disease.
When describing nutrition’s role in health and how food talks to genes, Bland defined “inflamm-aging”: How eating white foods like sugar and fat leads to inflammation and accelerates aging.
About functional medicine: This approach to medicine addresses the underlying causes of disease, using a systems-oriented approach and engaging both patient and practitioner in a therapeutic partnership…By shifting the traditional disease-centered focus of medical practice to a more patient-centered approach, functional medicine addresses the whole person, not just an isolated set of symptoms. Functional medicine practitioners spend time with their patients READ MORE
alternahealthgrrrl 
February 10th, 2012 at 2:53 pm
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