The five primary spheres of influence:
The five primary spheres of influence in the Radial are as follows:
Food, lifestyle, and environment
Nutrition, physical, signs, and systems
Biomarkers
Metabolic pathways and networks
Systems
The four distinct, interrelated steps include nutrition assessment, diagnosis, intervention, and monitoring/evaluation. The Radial core illustrates the intermingling of mind, body, spirit, community, and earth and its association with personalized nutrition care. All of these factors influence one’s health and healing. Mind, body, and spirit are viewed as wholeness versus distinct and separate physiological, psychological, and spiritual units. The value of community and social networks as a component of health and wellness must be considered since social contexts influence biological systems. An appreciation of our intimate connection to the earth and the healing power of nature to foster one’s health is also valued as an integrative concept of food and sustainable nutrition. The microbiome revolution has established that microbial signatures vary between individuals far more than genetics. Dietary habits and lifestyle affect the gut microbiota composition in dramatic ways. This vital influence must be taken into account. The composition of the microbiome and its diverse activities are involved in most of the biological processes, and thus, it is a key player in health and disease at all stages of the life cycle. The Systems sphere radiates from the core of the Radial and underscores the imbalances that are created by poor diet, unhealthy lifestyle behaviors, and environmental exposures such as chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, digestive and detoxification disturbances, metabolic chaos, neuro-endocrine-immune disruption, and nutritional depletion.
Metabolic Correction:
A modern, integrated concept of food as medicine emphasizes scientific understanding of nutrition with lifestyle behaviors in relation to a person’s ability to realize vital goals of healthy living. Food is valued as an instrument for vibrant health and an essential tool to kindle healing by restoring nutritional integrity. Diet assessments may not always coordinate with laboratory values of individual nutrients. This may be due to many factors, such as an individual having a greater need for a nutrient than the RDA, poor-quality food or supplements, a genetic variation, impaired absorption, exposure to a specific toxin whose detoxification requires specific nutrients, etc. You also see different types of food reactions. By definition, IgE reactions are true allergic reactions, while other reactions are food intolerances or sensitivities, measured with immunoglobulins (IgG) or white cells, and have significantly less literature support. Metabolic correction (MC) is the utilization of a synergistic combination of micronutrients and cofactors in their active forms and proper doses to maximize the function of metabolic enzymes. MC is a functional biochemical/physiological concept that explains how improvements in cellular biochemistry help the body achieve metabolic or physiologic optimization. The MC concept provides the biochemical elucidation of the utilization of nutrients for preventive and therapeutic purposes against disease. The MC concept becomes important since our food is decreasing in nutritional value; diseases increase the demand for nutrients, and medications can deplete nutrients. These nutrient insufficiencies are causing enormous costs due to increased morbidity and mortality. In summary, MC increases enzymatic function that enhances biological functions contributing to better health and well-being. A nutritional deficiency is defined as an inadequate supply of essential nutrients (vitamins and minerals) in the diet, resulting in malnutrition or disease. Tissue levels are low enough in one or more nutrients that pathology results primarily from the nutritional deficiency and from secondary complications. Nutrient deficiency is described in medical pathology textbooks; unfortunately, this is the start and end to nutritional education for most physicians. A nutritional insufficiency is a subtle deficiency of a nutrient sufficient to affect health but not severe enough to cause classic index deficiency symptoms. Problems here are more of a functional and biochemical nature rather than pathologic, but they may lead to the disease state. A nutrient dependency refers to a unique genetic or acquired dependency on supra-dietary levels of one or more nutrients. At the point where altered cellular function has evolved into clinical manifestations of nutrient deficiency, cellular activity will have been compromised for some time, and the compensatory responses that might have allowed a temporary adjustment to the deficiency would no longer be effective. Detection of subclinical changes in cell processes early in the course of a nutrient deficiency, when cell damage is minor and more reversible, can have a considerable impact on the prevention and treatment of disease. If subclinical deficiency is not corrected by providing the lacking nutrient, then prolonged marginalization of cellular activity may not only increase vulnerability to disease, but it may also exacerbate progression of existing disease and interfere with effectiveness of treatment, since all drugs require some level of metabolic support to achieve their desired therapeutic effects.
Integrative and Functional Medical Nutrition Therapy by: Diane Noland, Jeanne A. Drisko, Leigh Wagner
