What's the Latest Research in Personalized Nutritional Medicine, Foods, and Genomics?

The University of California, Davis is outstanding in its continuous assessment of the needs of personalized nutrition, targeting specific gene responses, identified after 10 years of research and development.

Also browse the paperback book, How to Safely Tailor Your Food, Medicines, & Cosmetics to Your Genes: A Consumer's Guide to Genetic Testing Kits from Ancestry to Nourishment. The Sacramento-Davis area is a research hub in the field of nutrigenomics and nutritional medicine. But you have to know where to look to see what, where, when, why, and how the research is being done and who is leading and/or funding the studies.

Sacramento focuses on the future vision of nutritional genomics identifying research targets and consumer applications. You have various conferences on nutritional genomics, personalized nutritional medicine, and preventive and integrative nutrition as well as metabolic and nutritional dietetics research and developing. Whereas, other universities are funded to develop only drugs, UC Davis studies the health benefits of fruits and vegetables as well as other nutritional-medicine-related topics.

When it comes to research, some consumers in Sacramento enjoy reading stories (life experiences) more than a list of paragraphs containing only news facts. When both are combined, the research also appeals to the general public.

Researchers at UC Davis Health System, often working with other UC Davis campus units, are exploring fascinating and relevant issues in the field of nutrition to discover new and better ways to treat people with a variety of diseases. Some researchers use sophisticated tools such as microarray technology or accelerator mass spectrometry to help pinpoint the role of nutrients in optimizing health. Others go right into local grocery stores and homes to find out what is available and what will help people choose the right foods.

A nutritional tip of interest to Sacramento consumers is that "bitter melon" may prevent type 2 diabetes. Bitter melon works by activating an enzyme that allows insulin-resistant cells to accept glucose, thereby preventing blood sugar levels from getting rising too fast. Bitter melon extract is sold in various health-food stores in Sacramento.

Sometimes this gourd is called Chinese cucumber. But it is prescribed widely to treat type 2 diabetes in some areas of the world. You can read more in the book, Secrets of Longevity, by Maoshing Ni, Ph.D. See the site, "Ask Dr. Mao."

As a 38th-generation doctor specializing in longevity, Dr. Mao (as he's known to his patients) knows the answers-and they're surprisingly simple and powerful. For example, raw organic, unheated honey in your tea can aid internal healing. Simple ideas such as why taking a walk after dinner each night can reduce the risk of stroke and heart disease are included in the tips that are organized into chapters on diet, healing, environment, exercise, and relationships. But what can Sacramento consumers look forward to in the area of nutritional research right here in the Sacramento-Davis Area?

Locally, according to the UC Davis article, "Nutrition Research from all Angles, "a number of key research centers at UC Davis facilitate the successful collaborations in nutrition studies, including:

• The Clinical Nutrition Research Unit, which brings together independent and collaborative nutrition research of 50 funded UC Davis faculty investigators from the School of Medicine, the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the School of Veterinary Medicine and the Division of Biological Sciences. One of 10 such units funded by the National Institutes of Health nationwide, the research unit provides laboratories, visiting professorships and grants for new faculty members.
• The USDA Western Human Nutrition Research Center, which will soon have a new fully equipped 49,000-square-foot home on the UC Davis campus next to the Genome and Biomedical Sciences Building and the School of Medicine's Tupper Hall that houses its basic sciences departments. The new location will enhance interactions and collaborations among the USDA center and the clinical nutrition research unit's administrative core, nutritional assessment core, and molecular biology and genetics subcores.
• The National Center of Excellence in Nutritional Genomics at UC Davis, which is supported in part by a $6.5 million grant from the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. The center focuses researchers' efforts on the study of "nutrigenomics" - how foods interact with particular genes to increase the risk of certain diseases.

"We are a research university without walls," says Judith Stern, professor in the Departments of Nutrition and Internal Medicine and in the Division of Endocrinology, Clinical Nutrition and Vascular Medicine. She has published numerous nutrition studies in collaboration with clinicians and researchers throughout UC Davis.

"Colleagues are always enthusiastically willing to get involved, and this makes my research better," she says. "Maybe it's because we started as a college of agriculture - and together we raised the barn."

At UC Davis Health System, research on nutrition comes from all angles. The research overviews in this issue demonstrate the breadth and depth of investigation into the relationship between diet and disease.

What is Nutritional Medicine?

Sacramento and Davis as a regional research area is outstanding in its studies of nutritional medicine, for example, with its clinical trials, research, and studies at UC Davis School of Medicine and the UC Davis Center of Excellence for Nutritional Genomics. Also in various studies, the health effects/benefits of different vegetables and fruits are studied. Nutritional medicine is a field that teaches healthcare practitioners how to use nutritional therapy as an adjunct or alternative to conventional medicine. One of the most outstanding books in this field is Nutritional Medicine, by Alan R. Gaby, M.D.

Also upcoming this spring not related to UC Davis, is the Nutritional Therapy in Medical Practice seminar. Check out the various nutrition seminars. This one will be held May 13 to 16th, 2011 in Seattle, Washington. The seminar is sponsored by the Medical Educator Consortium and presented by Alan R. Gaby, M.D. and Johnathan V. Wright, M.D. It will be held at the Doubletree hotel, Seattle Airport, Seattle, Washington.

Alan R. Gaby, M.D. provided expert testimony to the White House Commission Complementary and Alternative Medicine, related to the cost-effectiveness of nutritional supplements. He's the editor of A-Z Guide to Drug-Herb-Vitamin Interactions and The Natural Pharmacy.

Dr. Jonathan V. Wright, M.D. is a Harvard graduate and University of Maryland M.D. graduate. He's the medical director of Tahoma Clinic in Renton, WA, where he practices medicine. He's the author of several best-selling books and is editor of his monthly newsletter, Nutrition & Healing.

What Do Genetic and Metabolic Dietitians Do?

Genetic and metabolic dietitians can consider entering the field of molecular medicine by focusing on molecular nutrition research within fields such as gene therapy and 'smart' foods. There's a career in nutrition that's linked to genetics--that of metabolic and genetic dietitian.

The work consists of planning diets based on the metabolic and genetic needs and requirements of an individual as prescribed by a physician specializing in genetic disorders or genetic research. See the article, What Dietitians Need to Know about Genetics. Genetics is central to nutrition therapy since genetic factors influence metabolism.

Dietitians have long been a vital part of the team that supports and treats those with specific genetic conditions, such as chromosomal disorders and inborn errors of metabolism. In these roles, dietitians benefit from a solid understanding of basic genetics principles.

Nutritionists look at smart foods that may override gene variants, whereas geneticists look at the epigenetic tags that switch on or off those gene variants. Some, but not all, genetic and metabolic dietitians/nutritionists wonder whether mankind is destined for a nutritional and genetic divide that may or may not yield a superior species of nutrition-enriched to exercise dominion over the nutritional have-nots. But the entire human genome really needs to be tested before anyone can make any real decisions about genes and foods.

On a smaller scale, though, you can tailor foods to specific genetic needs. That's part of what genetic and metabolic dietitians research and/or practice. See, Genetic Metabolic Dietitians International (GMDI). They also have a job listings site for members.

Also see the USA article of August 14, 2005, New Degree Programs Produce Chef Scientists. And view the article, "DeBusk RM, Fogarty CP, Ordovas JM, et al. "Nutritional genomics in practice: Where do we begin?" Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 2005;105(4):589-598. Also see the article, "Hot New Careers in Dietetics," by Mary Franz, MS, RD, LD in Today's Dietitian, Vol. 9, No.7, page 52.

The nutritional have-nots possibly also could be a genetic subset of humanity. It's a scary thought, but one discussed by nutritionists when they meet with genetics researchers to discuss the future.

Take a genetic dietitian, for example, having an informal discussion with a geneticist. The geneticist brings up the topic of self-directed evolution, of working with nutritionists and registered dietitians that specialize in genetic and metabolic issues.

The diets are tailored to the DNA in some ways, customized to genetic signatures and expressions based on testing that's not complete. You really need to test the entire genome to get the big picture and more of the details.

Nutrition-educated scientists and physicians may speak with genetics experts about self-directed evolution, where genetic technology is used as tools to correct health problems in society. But there's a hidden agenda. The technology also is used to enhance humanity.

Nutrition touting smart foods is as much of a branch of genetic technology as personalized healthcare is a branch of predictive medicine. Nutrition and genetics go together as far as researching food as medicine.

Nutrition looks at nature's randomness. So does genetics. Supernutrition research seems to move from correcting defects and common gene variants that pose disease risks to genetic manipulation of intelligence. Nearly everyone thinking of having a baby imagines the infant being healthy, eager to learn, and born genetically happy rather than genetically depressed most of the time. From the nutritionist's angle, super foods and smart foods are there to help make people healthier.

The nutritionist's role in this move towards mass re-engineering of society is that superfoods and whole foods along with supplements to replace the minerals and some natural vitamins taken out of the soil also can help at least 50 percent of the time, since genetics don't cover 100 percent of what happens to people as they thrive and age. Environment, stress, lifestyle, and nutrition play at least half of the role in what happens to us.

Do we end up with nutrition versus mass social engineering? Genetic and metabolic dietitians work in a medical setting and often read reports on what health trends are new in local gene therapy research. One topic might be the upcoming symposium on gene therapy at UC Davis, School of Medicine, in the Sacramento/Davis regional area.

See the site, Annual Gene Therapy Symposia for Heart, Lung, and Blood Diseases. The 9th Annual Gene Therapy Symposium for Heart, Lung, and Blood Diseases last year emphasized as its main topic, "Gene Expression." The intent of these annual interdisciplinary scientific symposia emphasized providing a novel and informal scientific setting for the dissemination and exchange of ideas and research findings by bringing together students, fellows, and junior/senior investigators who do not typically interact at other meetings.

The opportunity for investigators in divergent, yet relevant, fields to interact has significantly declined because of the sheer size and objectives of most meetings. Therefore, the goal at most of the nutrition-related seminars or symposia you may experience usually provide the opportunity for interactions that are not possible at larger meetings.

UC Davis research on nutrition and related fields is about encouraging synergy. Connecting people in nutrition and medicine is a good purpose as is facilitating new research directions and collaborations.

You, as a Sacramento consumer, research nutrition either for your needs or to enhance current approaches to gene transfer/gene therapy for the treatment of human disease. If you attend conferences, seminars, or symposia, you'll probably experience presentations that may also focus on unpublished works-in-progress, cutting edge technologies, and key thematic issues. Each year a focus topic is selected, for example, at the various UC Davis symposia.

In the 1990s, a local California gene therapy pioneer advocated research at the University of Southern California. The scientist and team studied a rare hereditary disease called SCIDS, which stands for severe combined immunodeficiency disease. You know it from the media as the "Bubble Boy Syndrome."

According to the July 13, 2010 Fierce Biotech Research article, Gene therapy targets 'bubble boy syndrome' by John Carroll, investigators at Children's Hospital Boston ramped up a small trial of a new gene therapy to treat "bubble boy syndrome." The scientists plan to recruit 20 boys with SCID-X1, a rare genetic condition that leaves them unable to fight germs.

A gene therapy trial for the disease had to be halted seven years ago after several patients developed leukemia, a major blow for the gene therapy field. Now researchers say they believe they have eliminated the threat of leukemia and are advancing a new gene treatment that could apply to other rare diseases as well.Without healthy white blood cells to ward of diseases, children with SCIDS usually succumb to disease in childhood.

Health trends currently are focusing on how science researches prototypes that might be used to cure hereditary diseases. For more information on the earlier stages of gene therapy in the 1990s, and future health trend predictions for 2011 from the point of view of 1997, check out the book, Visions, published back in 1997, by physicist Michio KakuMichio Kaku .

Health trends currently are pointing to how much work it takes. The body has 100 trillion cells, according to the book, Visions. Viruses seem to be 'aware' of just how to penetrate those cells. Does that mean that science is headed toward trends that use viruses to get inside a cell and correct the gene mutation?

Genetic and nutrition-related genomic researchers look at 'vectors' that can be used to move inside each cell. So by neutralizing a virus, scientists can insert a virus into a patient. The neutralized virus isn't supposed to make the patient sick, but might be able to deliver the correction to the gene.

This is all about the healthy trend called gene therapy. The world's first gene therapy patient in 1995 focused on a four-year old girl. The outcome of the experiment noted that 50% of the child's white blood cells had their genetic mechanisms fixed. But gene therapy has a long way to go. A lot of other experiments didn't work right. Sometimes the body's immune system attacks the virus. In such cases, the corrected genes can't replicate.

What's the current health trend as nutrition and integrative medicine connect? You need a "smart gene" or smart 'bomb' in a cell or gene to move the correction to the right area. After you finish that, then you need to find a way to set the gene to work at exactly the right moment. So far the trend is here, but the where is the correct mechanism to make gene therapy work?

Gene therapy is still in its infancy after 15 years of trying. But the trend is still on its way. It's a reality check of how long its going to take. Health trends of the near future have a lot to do. Scientists still have to find a cure for polygenic diseases. Those are diseases caused by more than one gene.

The next healthy trend is researching "germ-line therapy." Current research is on somatic cell gene therapy. The studies now focus on cells which are not involved with reproduction. Manipulating the DNA of human sex cells is called germ-line therapy. The goal is to banish diseases in future generations caused by faulty genes.

It's a controversial area of health, but a trend that's coming up in the future. The idea is to eradicate heredity diseases. It's on one hand tinkering with human DNA. And on the other hand, it's about preventing another generation from inheriting diseases through faulty genes that nobody would want to inherit.

Ethical questions will arise, for sure. But who wants to pass on the genes for diseases that have more than a risk of happening? That health trend is in its infancy now, perhaps in the minds of researchers, but more in the future because of what mechanics and equipment exists presently.

The field is called molecular medicine. It's about the mind-body link and also about the future of what happens to diseases caused by genes and passed on from one generation to the next. The question: is all human disease genetic? And will the next health trend focus on improving the immune system in all living creatures?