Bio markers are indicators of our functional health status. They reflect how our genes are being expressed in terms of our own unique lifestyle and the various conditions and circumstances to which our personal environment exposes us. Blood pressure, body fat percentage, glucose, triglyceride or cholesterol levels in our blood, the WAY cholesterol is packaged in LDL or HDL forms; these are just some of the more common bio markers. All of these are gauges that indicate how our genes are being translated into physiological, mental and physical functions. When we encounter stress, eat junk food, get an infection, experience trauma, or are exposed to toxins, our genetic EXPRESSION changes in response. This change shifts the pattern of bio markers and in turn indicates that our health status is disturbed in response to our cumulative environment. Because we each have a unique genetic makeup, we will each experience disturbances in our health status in a different way.

What is important to note is that the above markers are the smoke signaling the fire of altered health status and suggesting there may be chronic illness lurking ahead. When they are detected and addressed early enough, they provide time to take steps to avert the potential chronic illness or alter its progression. How do we address these? Glad you asked. The WHO defined health back in 1946 as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Hippocrates, known as the father of medicine, believes that if organisms are provided the right environment, diet, and lifestyle support, they can heal themselves. This notion is somewhat counter to the current pill for every ill practices of Western Medicine. In this model, symptoms are addressed but the reason behind the symptoms are ignored. You may not know it, but there is a revolution of thought in the health arena. It’s called functional medicine. It asks one very simple question: Why? For example, when your check engine light comes on in your car, what do you do? You take it to your mechanic to find out WHY? It would be silly to cut the wire to make the light go off, but when we go to our doctors to get prescriptions for our symptoms, aren’t we essentially doing the same thing? This practice is precisely the reason for the poly-pharmacy conundrum that faces most people as they age. It doesn’t have to be that way. Our doctors have the technology through lab testing to see pretty much everything going on inside us. With attention to the input of our environments, we may be able to side-step the yucky part of aging through Compression of Morbidity. I teach this very thing in my IN.FORM classes. It’s about so much more than weight loss…it’s lifestyle transformation! Visit my contact page and let me know what could use a little transforming in your world. I definitely have a program for that!