Can integrative medicine also be used for some of the metabolic diseases?
People who are coming in with hypertension, diabetes, even obesity, you can certainly again, by looking at the underlying imbalances, the hormonal status, and guiding them with diet and specific diets, because everyone is different with their diet. I mean, some people do very well on special diets but someone else might not do so well with that. So it’s guiding them to actually find the right thing that suits their individual makeup. – Dr Hickey
How do you find out somebody’s particular makeup?
I think there’s going to be a big shift in that because of the information that’s now becoming available through genetic testing. But at the moment, it is a little bit of trial and error by trying someone on a particular approach and then changing it and measuring their metabolic markers. Some people will do very well on going onto a low carbohydrate diet, and that’s really all they need to do. But other people actually will do really well by going on a five two diet and intermittent fasting. At this point, I’m not finding it very clear exactly how to pick who’s going to respond to what, but I think in the future that will become apparent.
Also, with metabolic disorders, you still have to look at the whole person. You have to look at inflammation, if there’s any cause of inflammation, so with integrative medicine you do a really thorough assessment on that. You have a look and see if there are any underlying infections, if there’s any exposure to toxicity, heavy metals, that type of thing. You have to look at the gut. Often everything comes back to gut health. We do a really thorough examination of all of the systems.