Letter from Woodson Merrell , MD
Woodson Merrell , MD , ScD ( hc ), a graduate of Columbia University ’ s College of Physicians and Surgeons is one of the nation ’ s leading authorities on integrative medicine . He is on staff at a medical school and two academic medical centers in NYC . In 2000 , he founded one of the country ’ s premier academic programs in integrative medicine . Since 1985 , he has maintained a high profile private practice in integrative internal medicine and acupuncture on Manhattan ’ s Upper East Side . He is the author , with his wife Kathy , of The Source / Power Up : Unleash Your Natural Energy , Revitalize Your Health , and Feel 10 Years Younger ( Simon & Schuster ) and in 2013 of The Detox Prescription ( Rodale Press )
4 • INSIDE HEALTH
It ’ s All About Balance
I am pleased to introduce the inaugural issue of Inside Health , a journal dedicated to giving you the latest health information — with a particular focus on gut health — to help you regain your balance and restore your vitality . This is an exciting time in medicine and in the wellness community , as it seems almost daily we learn more about how to improve our health through lifestyle and natural therapies . Inside Health aims to provide insight into this fast-evolving new world of well-keeping .
There are five relatively new words and phrases you ’ ll be hearing a lot about — that will increasingly form the basis of how medical practitioners look at health , wellness and disease in the future .
• Personalized lifestyle-based medicine
• Precision medicine
• Genomics
• Epigenetics
• Microbiome
Inside Health will help you navigate these developments and incorporate them into your personal health practices .
We now have the ability to sequence our genome . The first run took 14 years and nearly $ 1 billion . Now it can be done in a day for less than $ 1,000 . Geneticists are rightfully ecstatic at this dawn of a new era---ushering in the most precise information we can get about our genetic make-up .
But we are not just our genes . In fact , many scientists look at our genome — our DNA — as the hardware . And this hardware is controlled more by the molecules that surround it — the epigene — than by the gene itself . Our environmental influences give messages to our epigene to tell our genes what to do ( as well as helping repair the genes ). Through lifestyle changes we are able to turn on and off many of our genetic susceptibilities .
Indeed , experts now say that up to 70 % of our health and disease is a product of how we interact with our environment . The air we breathe , the food we eat , our emotional life , the toxins that flood your system on a daily basis — all this adds up . Too often this results in a toxic internal stew — a mixture of bad thoughts , stress , and processed food with multiple artificial ingredients that utilize way too much energy to process . Couple this with constant exposure to pollutants such as plastic and pesticide-related chemicals that are hormone disruptors , which have been shown to create disease , and you can understand how our bodies are under constant attack from the modern lifestyle .
Diet is another battle we are losing . We are known as a “ meat-sweet ” nation , which refers to our collective overconsumption of saturated fat from animal protein and sugar coming from way too many refined carbohydrates and junk food . Advertisements everywhere scream out at us to get more of it . This has created an epidemic of overweight and obese people (> 70 % of U . S . population !) who are unhealthy and , to add insult to injury , consequently have a much more difficult time repairing the damage they are doing to themselves on a daily basis . Junk in-junk out---we are what we eat ; this is literally the case .
A year from now most every chemical and molecule in our body will be completely replaced , this is the natural process of life . Whole organs turn over into new versions of themselves , and what the body uses to create this new system is what we consume — the air we breathe , the water and other liquids we drink , the substances that come in contact with our skin and especially the food and other chemicals we ingest . These are the building blocks of our bodies day in and day out .
I am pleased to be working with Inside Health to help you build a better body . In addition to giving you the inside scoop on creating a healthier lifestyle , Inside Health will show you how to jump-start your digestive balance : including whether and how to use nutritional supplements in addition to whole foods to help improve your microbiome and digestive health , notably probiotics ( and pre-biotics that encourage the growth and function of the healthiest bacteria ) and enzymes that allow for proper digestive function , immune health and healthy inflammation .
When we say we are what we eat , we refer not only to our physical selves , but also to our emotional selves . The gut produces more of the “ feel-good ” chemical serotonin than the brain . The work of Columbia University ’ s Michael Gershon and others has highlighted that the gut even has its own nervous system---the phrase “ listen to your gut ” is actually physiologically true . There is so much we have to learn about this interplay .
Inside Health will help guide us through this wild and crazy and exciting new era . It will focus on our digestive system , teaching us how to refocus and retrain what we put into our inner world . It will look at this via all the newer lenses : Genomics , Epigenetics , Microbiome , Precision Medicine , and Personalized LifeStyle Medicineputting in perspective our relationship with all digestive and other lifestyle factors that can allow each of us to reach our optimal wellness potential .