by Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D. |
Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine once said, “Let food be thy medicine.”
In fact, food is the original and best
medicine. Today this idea has
become one of the guiding principles
of healthy living. “An apple a
day keeps the doctor a day.” Every
schoolchild knows that one. Beyond that
there are certain foods that activate our
body’s natural healing force. When this
takes place—when we eat specific foods in
a carefully chosen way—we are able to
prevent and heal scores of ailments safely
and effectively.
Ancient wisdom, mixed with modern
medical science, shows us exactly how
nutrition can be used to fight disease and
foster well-being. Further examples utilizing
this concept include using salmon as
medicine because of its rich content of the
salubrious fat DHA, important for optimal
brain and cardiovascular function. Soy,
known for its isoflavones, which are
anticancer and the ancient yogic food combination
of mung beans and basmati rice
for healing chronic illness, especially in the
elderly are other examples.
My intense interest in this topic led me
to Jackson Hole, Wyoming in early June to
attend what turned out to be one of the
most enlightening medical conferences I
have ever been to.
The theme was “Food As Medicine:
Integrating Nutrition into Clinical Practice
and Medical Education” and was
sponsored by The Center For
Mind-Body Medicine in
Washington D.C. in association
with The University
of Minnesota and
Georgetown University
School of Medicine.
The conference was
underwritten by a
grant from the H.P.
Wallace Foundation.
As we sat relaxing in
the lovely lobby of the
Snow King Resort during a
break, noted psychiatrist James Gordon, M.D., the director of The
Center for Mind-Body Medicine, told me
that this program had been in preparation
for over six years. It sprang from a course
taught to medical students at Georgetown
by Dr. Gordon and his colleague and
program director, Susan Lord, M.D. “It’s the
course we would have loved to have taken,”
said Dr. Gordon.
In addition to Drs. Gordon and Lord
other members of the distinguished and
experienced faculty included Drs. Jeffrey
Bland, Leo Galland, Michael Hirt, Robert
Lerman, and Leah Morton. About 100 participants,
including physicians, dentists,
nutritionists and educators, came to
Jackson Hole to spend a week together,
getting to know each other, enjoying the
beautiful mountain environment and
learning innovative therapeutic uses of
nutrition.
The meals served at the conference were
organized by Dr. Lord to exemplify what
we were learning: to take better care of
ourselves and guide our patients. The food
was absolutely delicious and gave all the
participants the experience of knowing that
if you eat well, you feel well and can have
great energy and enthusiasm for life.
Moreover, each day the conference began
with yoga class which was so well attended
that a second room had to be opened to
accommodate all the people who
wanted to start their day
in a very positive way.
Like most of
the physicians, I
received very little
nutritional
education in
medical school
and as an
anesthsiologist,
healthful eating
was not part of
my training. I’ve
been studying holistic
health and nutrition
on my own, however, for over
20 years. I have learned about Eastern
healing philosophy from Yogi Bhajan,
master of Kundalini and White Tantric
yoga. Yogi Bhajan is also an expert in the
healing nutritional practice of India called
Ayurveda. I have also taken workshops
with the immortal Paavo Airola, Ph.D.,
author of the timeless book, How To Get
Well and the great natural healing pioneer
and author, Bernard Jensen, Ph.D. Plus, as a
clinician treating patients with cognitive
decline and chronic pain, as well as other
conditions, I have a rich and varied experience
in prescribing dietary change to help
my patients heal. Having said all of that I
want you to know that this conference
presented me with challenging, new and
highly useful information.
At first glance much of the material was
familiar. Although I had not studied it
completely, I had heard about most of it.
Much more importantly, before attending
this conference I did not understand fully
the impact this material is going to have
upon the lives of so many people. Upon
delving deeper into this subject however, I
realized just how profound this work is and
I can tell you without hesitation that this is
the future of medicine.
Let’s take the concept of food and
nutrients as information-rich biochemical
messenger molecules. This is far-reaching.
As a board certified anesthesiologist, medical
acupuncturist and author of three
books incorporating integrative concepts
including yoga and meditation, I believe I
understand the theory behind messenger
molecules. This idea forms the entire basis
of mind-body-spirit medicine. For example,
in acupuncture, when low frequency
electrical stimulation is used, the pituitary
gland is activated. Scientific studies have
disclosed that this stimulation causes ACTH
and endorphin release. Then as described
by Candace Pert, Ph.D. in her book
Molecules of Emotion, these chemicals act as
couriers of information traveling in the bloodstream from the brain to other areas
of the body such as the immune system,
where they can exert an effect. ACTH, for
example, acts on the adrenal glands to cause
the release of the hormone cortisol, which
itself has a myriad of effects on the body,
mind and emotions. Moreover, endorphins,
released as mentioned from the pituitary
gland, produce a number of positive effects
via the activation of second messenger molecules
such as cyclic-GMP to produce pain
relief and relaxation. This latter effect is
induced by genetic activation of DNA to create
new proteins.
When high-frequency electroacupuncture
is utilized, the higher centers of the brain
are activated and the neurotransmitters
acetylcholine, serotonin, dopamine and
norepinephrine are released from Raphe’s
nucleus to penetrate deeper structures of
the brain where they have envoy-like effects
as well. Their signals generate positive healing
messages throughout the body-mind,
causing long-term alterations in pain perception,
attitude and behavior.
During yoga exercises and in particular,
in the course of the Medical Meditations I
have described in my book, Meditation As
Medicine, peptides and other biochemical
information molecules are again released
from the brain, having their effect in the far
reaches of the body. For example, according
to yogic knowledge there are 84 energy
points on the roof of your mouth that connect
to the pituitary, the command center
of your brain. When you chant a mantra or
ancient healing sound, these points are
stimulated in a certain permutation and
combination to send a pulse of intelligence
to the pituitary. When the pituitary gland is
activated to secrete in proper balance, a
quantum-healing signal is relayed throughout
your body.
That’s part of the background I brought
to the conference and why this new idea of
food as a messenger molecule is incredibly
exciting, stimulating and thought provoking.
Let’s delve into it a little deeper.
Food can send a positive or negative
signal to your body. In fact, in a manner not unlike acupuncture, this message can affect
your genes and the proteins they synthesize.
Some foods are very stimulating and present
a signal reflecting the frenetically-paced
microsecond world in which we live. These
are acid-forming foods or what Dr. Bland
refers to as yang foods. Yang is a Chinese
medical term meaning hot, or stimulating.
When your body is too yang this imbalance
can lead to pain from inflammation or may
also lead to hypertension. Red meat is a
prime example of a yang food. It is digested
to form amino acids which are themselves
further broken down as they enter the
bloodstream. Once in your blood, amino
acids may relay a stress signal to the
receptors on cellular membranes. This
harmful cellular stress effect, especially
when it occurs over and over again, may
cause the genetic machinery to produce
prostaglandins that can lead to the production
of an inflammatory response. Over
time this chronic condition of cellular “over
stress” may lead to illnesses such as arthritis
and autoimmune disorders such as lupus
and cancer.
 If the yang energy foods in your diet are
balanced with some nice alkaline foods
such as fresh organic fruits and vegetables,
including asparagus, kiwi fruit and
perhaps some watermelon, we are countering
that negative signal which may lead to
illness. This is referred to in Chinese medicine
as yin or something that has a relaxed,
soft or calming effect. In this way food can
serve to cause serious illness over time or
food can be the best healing medicine. For
those interested in pursuing this topic, an
article in the April 2001 issue of The Journal
Of The American College of Nutrition called
“Genetic Aspects Of Nutrition and
Toxicology,” discusses the mechanisms of
nutrient regulation of genetic expression.
What other topics were presented? Well,
I know a lot more than I did previously
about the importance of omega-3 fatty
acids such as the DHA I mentioned was
found in salmon. I also discovered how to
provide adequate amounts of this good fat
for optimal health and healing by using
vegetarian sources such as flax and hemp.
Moreover, up-to-the-minute protocols for
preventing and helping to treat cancer,
hyperlipidemia, coronary artery disease,
obesity and women’s health issues including
menopause were expertly covered.
Dr. Lord discussed mercury toxicity
during a presentation on dental health, but
if I could make any change in the course
material it would be to allow for a more
complete presentation of the timely environmental
public health issues of today.
Among those additional topics would be
genetically-altered foods, air and water pollution,
meat and poultry safety, the potential
physical consequences of global
warming and organic versus conventional
farming.
The camaraderie, the stimulating
innovative course material and the
new knowledge I gained made
me rush back to Tucson excited to share
with you this information on creating
vibrant health in a potentially toxic world.
This is the cutting edge of medicine.
Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D. is the president/
medical director of the Alzheimer’s
Prevention Foundation (APF) in Tucson,
Arizona. Dr. Khalsa and the APF are pioneers
in the holistic approach to the prevention
and reversal of memory loss. He is
the author of the acclaimed international
best sellers Brain Longevity and The Pain
Cure. His latest book, Meditation As
Medicine is a Los Angeles Times and Denver
Post bestseller as well as being featured by
Amazon.com. Dr. Khalsa’s fourth book,
which is in progress, will focus on nutritional
healing.
To learn more about the work of Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D., log onto his Web site:
Brain-Longevity.com or Meditation-As-
Medicine.com E-mail:
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To contact Susan Lord, M.D. program
director at The Center For Mind-Body
Medicine:
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