Op-ed: New Tools for Proactive Health- By Roberta Kline, MD

Heart disease, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, liver and kidney disease, and many types of cancer are just a few of the health conditions that women can face, especially as they age. The general advice is to eat healthy, get adequate sleep, exercise regularly, and manage stress. You do your best to follow these, as well as get your recommended pap smears, mammograms, and basic bloodwork. Later in life, you may get a colonoscopy and bone density.

That’s a great start, but how do you know what you’re doing is working?

Wouldn’t it be great to know more about your body and how it’s functioning – before you develop a serious disease?

The truth is that these health issues often provide clues long before you have symptoms, and being proactive with your health includes getting the right tests at the right time. Some tests evaluate predispositions for health issues, enabling a personalized plan. Others help assess how well these strategies are working and where you need to adjust.

Advancements in lab technologies have made it possible to do in-depth analyses of most aspects of our genetics, epigenetics, biochemistry, and cellular functioning. While each woman’s needs differ depending on age and health history, here are some of the tests I often recommend for proactive insights into one’s body and why.

1. DNA: Learn about your risk for inherited diseases (genetics), predispositions you can alter through diet & lifestyle (nutritional genomics), and potential issues with medications (pharmacogenomics). This enables you to create a personalized plan for screening tests, diet and health strategies, and medication choices.

2. Metabolomics: Learn how your organs and biochemistry are operating at a cellular level with blood, urine, or saliva tests. With these you can detect early changes in every aspect of your biology, including blood sugar, vitamins, and minerals, hormones, bone metabolism, heart disease, stress, inflammation, cognitive function, and much more. Detected early, many of these changes are reversible.

3. Microbiomics: Learn how your gut is functioning in response to your DNA, diet, and lifestyle by looking at the bacteria that play a key role in your body’s biology and biochemistry and how your gut may be impacting your health.

4. Epigenetics: Besides learning how fast your body is aging, you’ll learn how your past and current health practices and life experiences impact your health by altering your gene expression – and how you can improve this.

5. Imaging: Detect abnormal masses or structural abnormalities in the body including tumors and cancers, aneurysms, low bone density, brain volume, blood vessel calcifications, and much more. Although CT and X-ray technologies play a role, MRI and ultrasound are safest for regular screening because they don’t involve radiation. The advent of whole-body MRI makes it now possible to see the whole body in one scan.

Despite the potential benefits, none of these strategies are currently standard in our current disease-based health model.

It will be challenging to change our healthcare system from a reactive model to a proactive one, and will require a fundamental shift in how we approach health and healthcare. Prevention and early detection strategies are often more resource-intensive in the short run, even though they offer long-term savings and better health.

But you don’t have to wait for the system to change. As we work to create a different global mindset and reprioritize resources, you can already benefit from the many innovators creating new solutions that exist today.

ROBERTA KLINE, MD (Educational Dir. /Women's Diagnostic Group): Dr. Kline is a board-certified ObGyn physician, Integrative Personalized Medicine expert, consultant, author, and educator whose mission is to change how we approach health and deliver healthcare. She helped to create the Integrative & Functional Medicine program for a family practice residency, has consulted with Sodexo to implement the first personalized nutrition menu for healthcare facilities, and serves as Education Director for several organizations including the Women’s Diagnostic Health Network, Mommies on a Mission. Learn more at https://bobbiklinemd.com 

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Balance and Longevity: Starting with RESET

Produced by: Dr. Roberta Kline (Assoc. Editor of the Women's Health Digest)

We all reach a point in our lives where we've gotten stuck in ruts where it seems really hard to even conceive of CHANGE. Change can be very scary, especially when, when it's on a larger scale. You know, the way we eat, the way we exercise our whole lifestyle is often very intertwined with our social interactions, with our work, with our expectations of how we're supposed to behave, how we're supposed to live our lives in our current world. That pressure to do and produce and be busy all the time is actually very detrimental. 

These habits that we create as coping mechanisms sometimes don't really serve us in the long run. So when it comes time to change, how many of you have tried a drastic change in diet, decided to take on a really rigorous boot camp exercise program, thinking that, "okay, I'm going to do it this time". And most of the time it fails. And it's not because you fail, it's not because you don't have the willpower. It's not because you don't have the strength. It's because success comes from building upon success, building upon your inner strengths, rather than trying to push and punish yourself into something that may not work for you.

The idea of reset comes from a different framework. It's about making small changes to reset how we think, how we feel, how we act. That is more in alignment with our goals of where we want to be. In our evolution, we're always, as a species hitting a point of needing to grow, needing to change in order to adapt to a new environment, in order to be better at whatever it is that allows us not just to survive, but to thrive. Initiating a reset at these points in time also applies to our lives. It allows us to take a step back and say, "what do I need to change to grow, to become the person in whatever way that looks like for me, that I wanna be next. Where do I wanna go in my own growth and evolution so that I can have the energy, the vitality, the enthusiasm for living life the way I want".

WELLNESS PHILOSOPHY 101 

LONGEVITY is not just a race to get to however old you can be in terms of chronological age. It's not a competition, but it's rather a form of self-love... and that comes with BALANCE. Life throws us all sorts of curve balls, whether it's internal or external in our lives. Balance is something we need to work towards- in order to give us resilience.  Nature teaches us to (automatically) try to regain balance when we fall or when we stumble. 

As an example, if you've ever tried standing on one leg- it's a challenge, right? If you add to that challenge by maybe lifting that leg higher or doing some other pose that adds more challenge to, to your balance.  When you're focused and you're grounded and calm, it's much easier to stay in that balance. But if your mind starts wandering about, "oh, I gotta do this today, your to-do list" or something that happened yesterday, it's very easy for those thoughts themselves to throw you off balance. And then you'll either put your foot down because you need to some extra stability, or you might fall altogether. The goal of balance is not to be able to stand on that one leg for the rest of your life. That's not possible, but it's about, okay, how do you get back into that place of balance when something throws you off? That's RESILIENCE. And that, to me, is the core of creating health for as long as we can. 

RESET to me, is a very forgiving way that is full of self-compassion to make these decisions without judgment, without guilt, without all the 'woulda-coulda-shoulda's.  We are very good at that negative self-talk. But it really doesn't help us regain balance. It doesn't help us in our RESET. We can take these moments as "the past has passed". I've gotten where I am today with all the choices. What choice do I want to make now to take me down the path that will give me the health and the life that I am desiring now?

PART 1: RESET & EXERCISE
When it comes to longevity of however you're going to RESET your life, whatever new programs, new behaviors, new habits that you decide to incorporate in your health program, the worst thing to do is to do something because you think you should... you usually end up making it boring. Follow somebody else's instructions without really thinking, "is this really the right thing for me?"  As an example, I find that using creativity is the best way for me to exercise is to make it fun. Now, exercising on the treadmill is boring. You're not going anywhere. You're just walking in the same place for 15, 20, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, however long you do it. When you are walking outside, you have an ever-changing landscape. You're out in nature. But indoor in the treadmill. Yeah. Not so much.

This is one of the reasons why so many treadmills purchased with great intentions end up serving as clothes hangers, storage places, uh, you know, get donated or sold on eBay. It's because it really didn't fulfill a need that we all have. And that's for creativity and fun. So the first thing I do when working with clients is to find out what is fun for them. For me, when I started ballroom dancing, I realized this was an exercise I could do forever and never feel like I was exercising. It was just fun. So when, on the days that I work out on the treadmill, I decided to be creative and translate that into my workout. So now I chacha, I salsa, I swing, I foxtrot, I do these dance moves, obviously modified for the treadmill so I don't fall off. And I've done that in the beginning. <laugh>, it helps me have fun. It gives me joy. And before I know it, whatever time I'm on that treadmill flies by because I'm not focusing okay, on how many miles or how many minutes. I'm just one with the music I'm feeling the music, I'm moving with the music. And that for me is the best way to get my exercise in.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ROBERTA KLINE, MD (Educational Dir. /Women's Diagnostic Group) is a board-certified ObGyn physician, Integrative Personalized Medicine expert, consultant, author, and educator whose mission is to change how we approach health and deliver healthcare. She helped to create the Integrative & Functional Medicine program for a family practice residency, has consulted with Sodexo to implement the first personalized nutrition menu for healthcare facilities, and serves as Education Director for several organizations including the Women’s Diagnostic Health Network, Mommies on a Mission. Learn more at https://robertaklinemd.com/

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MEET OUR LATEST ROLE MODELS IN INNOVATIVE HEALTH: The Women's Health Collaborative proudly introduces some of our latest visionaries and champions in better health.  We are excited to meet and learn about these inspiring leaders in clinical care! 

"As an integrative doctor, my mission is to bridge conventional medicine with evidence based holistic practices, offering compassionate patient centric care that treats the whole person - body mind and spirit.  I am committed to exploring all facets of health, from lifestyle and nutrition to emotional and environmental influences, to create tailored treatment plans that promote healing and long-term wellness.  My goal is to empower individuals with the knowledge and tools they need to thrive, fostering a partnership in health and helping each person achieve balance, vitality, and overall a higher quality of life.  What you consume you become. Body, mind and spirit.” - Kimberly Zedalis -Integrative Center for Healing

AN OVERVIEW ON ENERGY HEALING

Written by: Roberta Kline, MD
Energetic healing has been practiced by many cultures and in many forms over the centuries. While mainstream medicine has embraced some forms of energetic modalities, by and large it has viewed most as “alternative” and “non-science based”. This is slowly changing as the science is catching up to be able to explain this ancient practice. 

The term "energy medicine" has been in general use since the founding of the International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine in the 1980s.  Energy medicine often proposes that imbalances in the body's "energy field" result in illness, and that by re-balancing the body's energy-field health can be restored.[5] Some modalities are described to "bring balance to the body's overall wellness", while others bring claims of  addressing pain, detoxing, cell regeneration or improve overall energy. 

Samples of energy therapies include:

• Biofield energy healing • Contact healing • Distant healing • Therapeutic touch • Reiki • Magnetic resonance therapy

• Colorpuncture • Light therapy • Polarity therapy • Bioresonance therapy • MORA therapy • Zero Balancing

ENERGY IS EVERYWHERE

Everything is energy. Quantum physics has demonstrated that everything exists as a vibrational energy. Some forms of energy have a frequency low enough to make the object solid and therefore visible and physically tangible, such as concrete, trees, mountains, and the human body. Others, such as sound, light, heat and gravity are invisible – but they are no less real. 

Every living thing requires energy to exist and function, and this comes in different forms. For example, in the human body are “energy generators” called the mitochondria. These tiny powerhouses in our cells convert fat, protein and glucose into ATP – the energy that fuels everything that is needed for us to be alive. (see review on the mitochondria)

While the science behind how energy exists and is utilized for health and well-being is quite complex, efforts have been underway for more than 30 years to create a more approachable understanding.

THE SCIENCE OF ENERGETICS: THE BIOFIELD

The Biofield is a relatively new term developed in 1992 to describe the concept of energy in a more unified way, integrating knowledge gained from traditional practices with that of modern science. [1] Three of the main scientific principles underlying our current understanding of the Biofield energy are thermodynamics, physics and quantum physics.

The First Law of Thermodynamics is a conservation law, meaning that the total amount of energy in the universe is constant, therefore it cannot be created or destroyed but only transformed. 

Physics operates on the principle that energy is the ability to do work, and there are 4 types of energetic forces found in nature: gravity, electromagnetism, and two related to atoms. 

Quantum physics demonstrates that all matter is energy, composed of atoms and subatomic particles that are always in motion. This energy is never static in its natural state, rather it is vibrating at a specific frequency. Sometimes that frequency is readily measured, as in the electrical signals from various parts of the body. The ECG (electrocardiogram) measures the electrical activity of the heart, the EEG (electroencephalogram) for the brain, and EMG (electromyogram) measures electrical activity in response to a nerve’s stimulation of muscle. These are all standard in Western Medicine.

In addition to the physical body, our food, thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and consciousness are also composed of energy. The end result is a complex interaction of multiple vibrational frequencies that either work in harmony or are creating dissonance. 

“The concept of biofield regulation offers a shift from a mechanical, chemistry-based view of biology to an information-based view.” [1]

This, then, is the biofield: a complex energy field responsible for the generation, maintenance, and regulation of biological homeodynamics. Cell biology and biophysics research has validated that our own electromagnetic and other types of energetic fields play active roles in many biological processes including embryonic development, tissue repair, inflammation, pain, cell-membrane potential, cell signaling and other communication, and even as information encoded in our DNA. [1, 2, 3] 

The ongoing exchange of information that is required for living systems to maintain their integrity could be considered to be the true “language of life”. While much of this language has been described to date as electromagnetic, there is growing evidence for the role of quantum energy as well. [1]

ENERGY IS HEALTH

When that vibrational frequency or information flow is disrupted or altered, cellular health suffers and the end result can range from minor aches and pains to major illness. But now our knowledge of the Energy of the Biofield also provides the opportunity for healing in a much more effective way that can complement or even replace the need for more invasive conventional therapies. 

ACUPUNCTURE AND ACUPRESSURE

The ancient modalities of acupuncture and acupressure are now thought to operate within the connective tissue biofield that runs along the meridian lines, creating a rapid and effective communication channel [1] that may result in epigenetic changes. (see DNA methylation)

ULTRASOUND

With a wide range of frequencies available, clinical uses for ultrasound have expanded from limited diagnostic and treatment (such as lithotripsy for kidney stones) to advanced assessment and treatment of a wide range of tissues – even including surgical procedures. [4]

ELECTROMAGNETICS

PEMF (pulsed electromagnetic fields) devices have a wide range of frequencies available, and can influence cell membrane potentials of many different tissues to enhance communication and increase blood flow, decrease inflammation and activate a number of genes [3] possibly through epigenetics. 

Pharmacology is also leveraging electromagnetics to explore more effective ways of getting medications into cells. Drug delivery systems are being developed using nanoparticles designed to manipulate cell membrane electromagnetic fields to improve absorption.

No longer relegated to a few small corners of the healing world, energetic medicine has come into its own as an advanced way to view health and to promote healing.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ROBERTA KLINE, MD (Educational Dir. /Women's Diagnostic Group)

Dr. Kline is a board-certified ObGyn physician, Integrative Personalized Medicine expert, consultant, author, and educator whose mission is to change how we approach health and deliver healthcare. She helped to create the Integrative & Functional Medicine program for a family practice residency, has consulted with Sodexo to implement the first personalized nutrition menu for healthcare facilities, and serves as Education Director for several organizations including the Women’s Diagnostic Health Network, Mommies on a Mission. Learn more at https://bobbiklinemd.com 

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HEALTH TECH REVIEW:  NEUROMAGNETIC STIMULATION FOR PTSD SYMPTOMS Current report on Non-Invasive solutions for anxiety and post traumatic symptoms in military veterans 1/2/2023- Retired USAF Veteran Dr. Robert L. Bard presents an overview and his latest findings about conventional treatments and research on technical innovations that may be globally explored to manage PTSD symptoms.

REFERENCES

[1] Rubik B et al. Biofield Science and Healing: History, Terminology, and Concepts. Global Adv Health Med. 2015;4(suppl):8-14.

[2] Seema Bhattessa Pharmaceutical Drugs and the Human Energy System (Biofield) Global Journal of Medical Research: B Pharma, Drug Discovery, Toxicology & Medicine  Volume 20 Issue 6 Version 1.0 Year 2020

[3] Wu, Ziying et al. Efficacy and safety of the pulsed electromagnetic field in osteoarthritis: a meta-analysis. 2018 BMJ Vol 8 Issue 12

[4] Miller, Douglas et al. Overview of Therapeutic Ultrasound Applications and Safety Considerations. J Ultrasound Med. 2012 April ; 31(4): 623–634.

5) National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (2005). "Energy Medicine: An Overview".

Disclaimer: The information (including, but not limited to text, graphics, images and other material) contained in this article is for informational purposes only. No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice or scientific claims. Furthermore, any/all contributors (both medical and non-medical) featured in this article are presenting only ANECDOTAL findings pertaining to the effects and performance of the products/technologies being reviewed - and are not offering clinical data or medical recommendations in any way. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen, never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you read on this page, article, blog or website.

HEALTHSPAN: Living Longer with Quality of Life (feat. TELOMERES EXPLAINED)

Written By: Dr. Roberta Kline

Thanks to the many advanced health solutions and wellness resources available, our concept of aging and lifespan continues to evolve.  Our new generations who boast about "50 is the new 30" is no longer content with hoping to add a few years to their existence- instead seek true QUALITY OF LIFE even in the advanced years.  This means feeling healthy and vibrant and running at optimum performance as long as possible. 

RE-DEFINING TIME

A person’s chronological age describes how long a person has been alive. The biological age describes how well they are aging at the cell level.  HEALTHSPAN (years of good health) is now replacing LIFESPAN as the ultimate goal. This has spawned a huge global industry with people spending hundreds of billions of dollars on services ranging from aesthetic products and procedures to complementary and alternative therapies to optimize mental and cellular health, and that is only expected to grow with an aging population. [1] Grandview research

Knowing how to objectively measure the impact of these strategies to increase a person’s healthspan is a key driver behind development of technologies from lab tests that evaluate biochemical pathways to ones that look at biological aging. Two tests that evaluate biological aging are telomeres and DNA methylation.

TELOMERES EXPLAINED
DNA exists in our cells as tightly coiled sequences called chromosomes. Each cell has 23 pairs. Every time our cells divide to create new cells, our DNA also has to get divided and replicated. In order to do this, the chromosomes have to unwind and become vulnerable. 

Telomeres are specific sequences of DNA on the ends of our chromosomes that are designed to protect them from getting tangled or damaged during this process. This minimizes the risk of large-scale errors in the DNA when the chromosomes get transferred to the newly created cells.

But telomeres also have another function: they are a cell’s biological clock. Telomeres shorten over time, and one of the main ways this happens is when cells divide. Eventually the telomere becomes too short to protect the chromosomes reliably, and so the cell dies. In this way, the length of the telomeres can provide a good estimation of how many times the chromosomes have been replicated to form new cells. [3] 

It is also possible increase telomere length, thus resulting in the interaction of multiple factors such as female sex and genetics. Estrogen tends to be associated with longer telomere length. Errors in a person’s genes, whether due to rare inherited genetic mutations or more common smaller changes called SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) can lead to shorter telomere. [4] 

To review the telomere length, shorter telomeres are associated with an increase in the risk for many diseases associated with aging, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer’s Disease.[5]  Though studies have shown that telomere length is typically longer in cancer cells, because they have hijacked the normal internal clock. This is one reason why cancer cells can continue to multiply much faster and longer than normal cells.  But cancer is not the only way to lengthen telomeres. Dietary and lifestyle factors have also been shown to affect the length of telomeres. Chronic stress, poor diet, environmental toxins (including smoking), and lack of adequate exercise have all been linked to shorter telomeres, primarily by increasing the levels of oxidative stress. [4] 

Not everyone who experiences these stressors ends up with the same length telomeres, however. All of these interactions are under the control of genes, and having multiple errors in these genes called SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) can make a big difference in how much these factors affect telomere length. 

The good news is that a person’s short telomere length is not irreversible. Recent studies have shown that providing the right dietary, lifestyle and nutritional supplements to reduce oxidative stress can reverse this process of telomere shortening over time. [5] 

DNA METHYLATION
Diet, lifestyle, stress and environment also affect our DNA in another way called EPIGENETICS. More broadly termed as epigenomics, this literally means “above the genome”. Epigenetics provides a way for genes to quickly adapt to changing environments, without changing the actual DNA. Epigenetic changes can turn genes on and off, modifying a person’s biochemistry without changing the DNA code itself. Because of this, these changes can be easily reversible if the situation calls for something different. [3] While there are several mechanisms to accomplish this, one of the best-studied is called DNA methylation.

DNA methylation works by utilizing a specific chemical your body produces to run your biochemistry: a methyl group, composed of carbon and hydrogen molecules. These methyl groups are used in thousands of biochemical processes throughout multiple biological systems every day. When a methyl group is added to a specific place on the DNA, it turns the gene “off”. This same methyl group can also be removed through a process called demethylation, and that turns the gene on. This is a normal process that controls everything from fetal development to how various cells can function differently even though they have the same DNA and the same genes. [7]

Researchers have discovered that over time, the natural course of aging results in fewer genes having these methyl groups attached to the DNA. [8] But, like the telomeres, this is a dynamic process that is also influenced by a number of different factors, including genes, diet, lifestyle, environment, and exercise. 

As with every biochemical process in the body, genes themselves control the whole process of methylation and demethylation. SNPs in these genes can impact a person’s ability to efficiently regulate DNA methylation. One of the best known genes is involved in producing the methyl groups necessary for DNA methylation, and is called methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase – or MTHFR for short. People with this SNP are predisposed to producing fewer methyl groups, and this is even more significantly impacted by diet and lifestyle factors. 

Aging is a natural process, and yet we are learning that the diseases commonly associated with aging may not be inevitable. As science continues to progress, it is providing clues as to how we can stay healthier longer. Telomeres and DNA methylation are two technologies to help people know how they are doing in the quest for a longer healthspan, so they can enjoy their later years to the fullest.

1)  https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/medical-aesthetics-market 
2) https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-alternative-complementary-medicine-therapies-market 
3) Genome.gov
4) Tsoukalas, D et al Association of nutraceutical supplements with longer telomere length. Int J Mol Med. 2019 Jul; 44(1): 218–226
5) Gruber HJ et al. Telomeres and Age-Related Diseases. Biomedicines 2021, 9, 1335.
6) Masood A. Shammas Telomeres, lifestyle, cancer, and aging. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2011 Jan; 14(1): 28–34.
7) https://www.cdc.gov/genomics/disease/epigenetics
8) Heyn H et al. Distinct DNA methylomes of newborns and centenarians. PNAS June 26, 2012 vol 109 no 26

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ROBERTA KLINE, MD (Educational Dir. /Women's Diagnostic Group)

Dr. Kline is a board-certified ObGyn physician, Integrative Personalized Medicine expert, consultant, author, and educator whose mission is to change how we approach health and deliver healthcare. She helped to create the Integrative & Functional Medicine program for a family practice residency, has consulted with Sodexo to implement the first personalized nutrition menu for healthcare facilities, and serves as Education Director for several organizations including the Women’s Diagnostic Health Network, Mommies on a Mission. Learn more at https://robertaklinemd.com/

Disclaimer: The information (including, but not limited to text, graphics, images and other material) contained in this article is for informational purposes only. No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice or scientific claims. Furthermore, any/all contributors (both medical and non-medical) featured in this article are presenting only ANECDOTAL findings pertaining to the effects and performance of the products/technologies being reviewed - and are not offering clinical data or medical recommendations in any way. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen, never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you read on this page, article, blog or website.