Letter to GPs on the Importance of Fish and SNPs
In case you had not noticed, there is a fair bit of interest in omega-3s and single nucleotide polymorphisms and as a General Practitioner, this should greatly excite you.
Day after day, you see patients with a collection of diseases that you may treat as individual illnesses and pathologies. I had never really thought to try and seek a common thread until the science of oxidative stress was pointed out to me in an interesting little book by an Aussie biochemist.
For the last two decades, the scientific community has taunted and baffled me with the concept of free radicals and their role in the disease process. Until now, my medical colleagues and clinical leaders have not brought to my attention the current state of the reactive oxidative species art. I, like so many, have not looked. I regarded, with a paranoiac passion, the suggestion that foods and stress management could influence the health outcomes of my patients. Don’t mention herbs or botanicals; the only acceptable one is the foxglove!
I decided to visit some of the scientists in the local environment, those non-medical doctor researchers and scientists who work alongside us but, for all intents and purposes remain invisible to the world other than through scientific publications. Publications, that to my discredit, I did not read.
After interviewing over a dozen such folks (geneticists, medical scientists and researchers), reading the abstracts of many scientific papers, and attending oncology lectures at the Christchurch Public Hospital, I moved to the position that there is unequivocal evidence that free radicals partly and substantially rule and control our health.
Food takes central stage. Our ability as individuals to manage the waste and energy production from the combustion of oxygen and foods is epigenetically determined, and the SNPs determine the efficiency of which the intended process is conducted and completed. Alongside this, the energy conversion (into whatever state such as proteins and enzymes) the organism requires (for its survival and evolutionary opportunities) is also determined with some degree of variance.
This understanding of the variance of the expression for the biological processes is that which opens up for us practitioners an individualised approach to managing health outcomes and disease pathways for our patients.
A read of books such as Mismatch by Peter Gluckman, End to Illness by Dr Richard Agers, Switched On by Christine Houghton, In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, The Longevity Factor by Joseph Maroon, The Five Stages Of Health by Dr Ross Walker; and, a perusal of the scientific articles and papers in The Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the International Journal of Science and Nature – with the often-cited authors from prestigious institutions such as Harvard and John Hopkins – may well awaken a renewed enthusiasm for your scientific career of being a doctor.
Consider evaluation by DNA sampling of the SNPs in the patient before you check out on Google Scholar what MnSOD (Manganese Superoxide Dismutase – an antioxidant) is responsible for. This DNA sampling is available through such companies as Fitgenes. Check out their website www.Fitgenes.com.au.
I challenge you to look over the horizon.
Quite frankly, the standard consult of 8 minutes consulting and 7 minutes administration (if there are no emergency fit ins) – to sort and provide solutions for what is the most complex machine on the planet – is totally inadequate, depowering, and frustrating. I now feel respect from my patients for the excitement I have when delivering a new set of options to control well-being – and this is reflected in their respect for my appropriate fees (heavens, I mentioned fees!).
A shift in the General Practice healthcare model needs to be considered and, I suspect, will be demanded.
With the current ageing General Practitioner population and lack of new General Practitioners, the need for our own leadership and stewardship of our particular profession is most urgently called for.
Prescribed tick-box ministry medicine is out, and discussion of career pathways and remuneration is now due to rejuvenate our profession. National guidelines and fee controls need to be respected, but so do we and our patients. They want and should demand our time, and we need to be ready, educated, and not dismissive. Be educated and make your own decisions.