Deanna Minich, PhD, Michael Stone, MD, and I aided by Eric Myers and Crystal Water at Feathered Pipe Ranch have made a very tough decision. We are going to postpone our “A Functional Medicine Journey: 4 Days to Optimal Wellness” until June 2021. A much easier decision, I have decided to donate half of our rental fee for the program to Feathered Pipe Ranch as a gift in 2020 to support their important work.
Earlier this week, whether it was a gift from the universe or a seemingly random yet synchronous choice by electrons in a Pandora program, the first song I heard the other morning was “For What It’s Worth” written by Stephen Stills and performed originally by Buffalo Springfield.
“It's time we stop.
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look - what's going down?”
It started me thinking. Who are the voices that I hear? Am I going to listen to voices of doom and gloom projecting a rather dark future or those of individuals who are being good stewards of their oaths and making commitments to public wellbeing? Or do I Stop, Breathe, Reflect and Choose to join those active in making a difference by providing education, care and indeed even entertainment and laughter as antidotes to COVID-19.
We're living in unprecedented times that have already shown the resilience of our community and ourcommitment to each other. I am impressed by the work carried on by many of my colleagues. Bethany Hayes, MD has written a daily blog keeping us in the Functional Medicine community up to date on COVID-19. Deanna and Jeff Bland, PhD presented “Personalized Medicine and COVID-19” on the Metagenics Institute on the 31 March. David Brady, ND, DC, Todd LePine, MD and Peter D’Adamo ND had an excellent webinar entitled “Current Controversies in Natural Therapeutics of immune Support” earlier this week. I am thankful for my family, friends, patients and fellow practitioners.
As a physician in private practice, my care and concern can be of crucial value to individual patients, but is rather muted in the outside world. This is why so much of my time has been committed to research and education over the last 14 years. Deanna, Michael and Erik Lundquist, MD are my co-Investigators on the LIFEHOUSE project. One of our focuses in this clinical trial is defining health as function. We are interested in the health defined as our functional capacities. We are exploring function by examining its physiological, physical, cognitive, emotional and behavioral components. In our work, a clear finding is that many people through their daily health care choices are Trading Away Their Reserves!
In his classic New England Journal of Medicine study, “Aging, Natural Death and the Compression of Morbidity”, James Fries postulated that healthy living choices by sustaining function could compress illness into the later years of our lives. Our work has unfortunately shown that poor choices contribute to a loss of reserves.
As we struggle with the new reality of a global epidemic, the elderly and those with chronic health conditions seem to be at the highest risk of poor outcomes with COVID-19. But as has been noted, not all poor outcomes are associated with these groups. Younger people and seemingly healthy people are dying with COVID-19. These deaths are not clearly associated with any known medical cause. Could it be that these represent individuals who have traded away their health reserves?
Perhaps these choices are as clear as violating Shelter-In orders or perhaps they are more subtle - years of eating SAD (the Standard American Diet), choosing other activities over physical exercise? Or maybe it is just the consequences of growing up in a world of electromagnetic overload with cellphone transmissions and devices at our fingers 24/7? Perhaps it is a consequence of increasing environmental toxic burdens interacting poorly with our genetic uniqueness?
While there have been excellent discussions focusing on solutions for bolstering immune health, perhaps another question we should be asking is how to replenish our reserves. Maybe a worthwhile consequence of our enforced staycations is the opportunity to focus on healthy behavioral choices. I have been reading an excellent book, “In the Shelter” by Padraig O’Tuama. He quotes James Allison, a former Catholic priest; “Sin is an addiction to being less than ourselves.” While I am not qualified to discuss sin, I might suggest that many of our poor healthy choices are an addiction to being less than ourselves.
During our now cancelled retreat, we had planned to explore how lifestyle choices interact with our genetics, our histories, our physiologies and indeed our spirits to modify our experience of health - indeed to define ourselves. The goal of the course is to provide tools to foster behavioral changes. Unfortunately, we have rescheduled for 2021 but we remain dedicated to providing these tools in different ways.
Starting this week and going forward, we will be offering a series of webinars focused on replenishing your reserves. These are generally going to be informal 30-minute webinars - some as standalone discussions and some as longer series.
On Facebook Live at Joseph Lamb, MD:
Bolstering Immune Health in Trying Times, Mondays at 4 PM PDT
Menu Planning and Helpful Hints for Trying Times, Thursdays at 4 PM PDT
And on Ring Central by invitation:
Basic Strategies for Selecting a Healthy Diet, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 AM PDT
Women's Health Concerns, 5 Mondays at 12 N PDT
Gut Health Concerns, 5 Wednesdays at 2 PM PDT
Cardiovascular and Blood Sugar Health 5 Thursdays at 12 N PDT
We will be repeating these webinars frequently over the next few months - details can be found at the Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Center by Metagenics FaceBook Page. To participate in the Ring Central series, you will need to be a current patient; new patient appointments can be scheduled by calling the PLMC at 253-853-7233.
And finally, we are working with Eric and Crystal at Feathered Pipe Ranch to see what format we can use to present the work we would have presented in June.
It is more important than ever that we stay connected and utilize the tools of social networking to support our community. I hope you will find my social media presence a place to garner inspiration, knowledge and resources supporting you on your/our journey of life as an online (and offline) community. Real and authentic community supports health; indeed, our experience and science shows we're better together.
Please Follow & share:
Instagram: @josephlambMD
Facebook Page: Joseph Lamb, MD
Facebook Page: Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Center by Metagenics
Website: www.JosephLambMD.com
Also, I've also coined a few hashtags; if any of my writings, words or upcoming webinars have helped or served you, please tag and use #joelambMD and #serveothersFM to bring awareness to finding opportunity to serve each other through functional medicine.
I appreciate your friendship and support! Look forward to seeing you.