“It takes all sorts to make a world”
English Proverb

You are ill and feeling desperate. Your doctor has labeled your symptoms with an annoying name. You are told it is a chronic illness and you will need a lifetime of drugs and medical supervision just to control the symptoms. It is, after all, your doctor reminds you a chronic disease. A large pit forms in your gut and life takes on a gloom, which follows you day and night.

Step back for a moment. You are infinitely different from every other person on the planet including anyone ever given the diagnosis slapped on you. Why should you be labeled in such a way and thrown into one big diagnostic soup? If you accept such a condemnation then your chronic disease will likely remain chronic. There is a more rational alternative for you, an individual with a unique constitution. Do not accept the dismal medical outlook given to millions of chronically ill people labeled with rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, colitis, crohns disease, multiple sclerosis or a slew of other names.

 As a physician who has worked with chronically ill patients for over 35 years addressing each patient as a separate entity I know that addressing the unique characteristics of each person is essential to the recovery of those with all types of chronic disease problems. With each new patient that walks into our clinic I ask myself, “what makes this person different? What factors led to the development of their disease? What actions need to be taken specific to their individual nature to permit recovery?” Unraveling these questions puts each patient with a chronic disease, regardless of their diagnosis, on the optimal path towards health renewal.

Understanding each patient's biochemical uniqueness is essential to reversing chronic disease and restoring their health.

Each of us is Unique

We all differ in countless ways as acknowledged by Hippocrates who said, “Different sorts of people have different types of maladies.” Conventional medicine and most “alternative practices” base their care on the name given to a person's symptoms rather than to the person having those symptoms. By focusing on symptoms rather than employing care based on causal factors chronically ill people are doomed to lifetimes of suffering.

Primary Causes of Chronic Disease

 At conception we receive a genetic heritage from our parents known as our genome. How we express this outwardly is our phenotype, which is modified through environmental factors and our behaviors.

Our genome is found in the chromosomes of each of our trillions of cells. It is estimated that there are 100,000 genes on our 23 pairs of chromosomes making each of us highly unique. As the science of genetics developed it brought about a revolution in understanding as new genes and how they express themselves were discovered. Little practical application of this understanding, however, has filtered into conventional or alternative medicine.

Each one of us are extraordinarily unique

Our genetic variability is astounding. One egg cell has eight million possibilities in terms of its genetic potential, as does each sperm cell, therefore, any two parents produce a combined zygote with any of 64 trillion (eight million times eight million) diploid combinations. It is no wonder that even brothers and sisters can be so different. Looking beyond a single family, each different set of parents generates another 64 trillion possibilities. Each one of us is extraordinarily unique.

In order therefore to help patients reverse a chronic disease it is critical to understand their own makeup. The “disease name” is a title for a manifestation of symptoms and does not represent the complex factors involved in the patient having those symptoms.

Our appearances differ greatly… some are small, some tall, some fat, some thin. There are color variations of black, brown, white, red, and yellow, different facial features, etc. The outward appearances, however, are but a glimpse of the internal variations. Likewise, the differences between chronically ill patients even those with the same medical” diagnosis” are enormous.

In the 1960's, Dr. Roger J. Williams, professor of nutritional biochemistry at the University of Texas described “biochemical individuality”:

“From a practical standpoint we cannot neglect the facts of biochemical individuality. Of necessity, for reasons involving inheritance, every individual has nutritional needs, which differ quantitatively, with respect to each separate nutrient, from his neighbors. The list of nutrients in the nutritional chain of life is presumably the same for every individual. If we were to indicate the quantities of each nutrient needed daily, however, these amounts would be distinctively different for each of us. Some individuals, in the case of specific nutrients, may need from two to ten times as much as others. Each individual has a pattern of needs all his own." ¹

 We inherit an array of traits that mold our biochemistry at birth which are continuously affected by environmental and behavioral changes throughout our lives.

Biochemical Individuality - Nutritional/Metabolic Needs

One major area of variance between individuals is seen in our nutrient requirements and our ability to excrete waste products i.e. our detoxification potential.²  Dr. Williams observed significant differences among supposedly uniform animals in their nutrient requirements and their abilities to excrete wastes.³  Some inbred rats on identical diets excreted eleven times as much urinary phosphate as others.⁴  Some inbred baby chicks required seven times as much alcohol to bring about intoxication as others;) Research into mercury toxicity has revealed sensitivities that vary as much as a million fold from one individual to another.⁵  

Nutrient requirements also vary widely.  Even among healthy human subjects a 200-fold difference has been observed in relation just to calcium requirements alone.⁶

We have vastly different nutrient requirements, different digestive and absorptive capacities, different hormonal outputs, different immune systems, different abilities to detoxify toxic materials, etc.

Consider your circumstances. Has your doctor simply named your symptoms and given you treatments or has he/she uncovered the foundational reasons for your illness? Is your doctor addressing the causes of your problems so your health might be restored or are you simply in a lockdown situation where new drugs and treatments are applied for each new symptom as it arises? Can your doctor tell you what makes you different from other cases with similar symptoms?

Even among twins, triplets, and quadruplets at birth, vast biological differences are noted. The adrenaline content of the adrenal glands varied within one set of quadruplet mammals by thirty-two fold.⁷ The repercussions of these many differences between patients in practice are enormous yet these differences are rarely considered let alone addressed.

For a physician to determine your care based on a “diagnosis” and not thoroughly investigate you as an individual puts the chances of recovering your health at great peril.

Genes have been isolated for many diseases e.g. cystic fibrosis, breast and colon cancer, crohns disease, diabetes, etc. Were genetics the sole reason, however, for the development of these problems we would expect to see similar amounts of these conditions around the world. Epidemiological studies, however, reveal population groups possessing similar genetic make-ups exhibiting different rates of chronic diseases.

Studies performed by Denis Burkitt, M.D. revealed that colon cancer, appendicitis, hiatal hernia, varicose veins, diabetes, diverticulosis and gall bladder disease were much more common in certain geographic areas.⁸  These ailments have been largely attributed to genetics by western medical science yet Burkitt found those same diseases rampant in western cultures rare in “primitive” ones. When these same individuals, however, moved to our western culture and adapted the western lifestyle they become afflicted with the same disorders.⁹  Numerous other studies have had similar findings.

If people of a set racial group in one environment get certain chronic diseases but in a different environment are relatively free from those same diseases, it indicates that the cause of the disease lies in environmental factors, not simply in the gene pool. In the chronically ill those environmental factors along with their own unique biochemical traits must be uncovered and addressed.

When these same individuals, however, moved to Western Cultures and adapted the Western Lifestyle, they become afflicted with the same disorders