What is Nutrioptima?

Nutrioptima is about the science of how to gain the optimum amount of nutrition from the foods that you eat based on diagnostic blood profiling. It is the science behind the biochemistry of how your body utilizes food in order to metabolize it for many uses.

About Diagnostic Blood Profiling

In order to generate a unique plan for an individual, the Healthy & Active Program uses the results of a combination of diagnostics; blood test, medical history, and your current health needs and goals. Combined, the results will reveal patterns that indicate what your nutritional needs are. These revealed patterns unlock the mysteries of your body – they can indicate the functioning of your organs, internal systems, thyroid and hormone functioning, and more. 

Revisiting the application of this research and philosophy regarding blood chemistry screening and diagnostic tools is necessary ine as it is an essential part of enabling such restorative and curative naturopathic applications such as metabolic typing for vitality and weight management.

Historically, alternative medicine did not involve the use of testing blood chemistry, as it was a part of allopathic medicine that required a medical degree. Purist practitioners considered it to be contrary to the diagnostic traditions of holism. However, the qualification of the naturopathic doctor to administer conventional blood work tests, plus additional tests has greatly increased added to ease of practice. I can imagine that those new to the profession could hardly fathom practicing without access to these tests today.

Blood Chemistry Profiles in Holism

An obvious conclusion is that blood chemistry is now essential to a naturopathic doctor’s practice. It provides accurate insights into the working of a patient’s metabolism as well any organ dysfunctions that could be resolved with the use of any of our core modalities.  It is important to get back to the basics and make use of the fundamental theoretical, and practical study of blood chemistry and what it can reveal about nutrition, hormones and other health factors that may be impacting the health of any patient. Furthermore, it is important that interpretations of blood chemistry be taught in a standardized manner that is inclusive of the study of this as a healing art in the last century.

The Healthy & Active Lifestyle Program  is a multifaceted experience in which you will learn about metabolism, blood testing, and importance of food and exercise. YouThe Healthy & Active Program takes the advances of modern medicine and combines them with a unique naturopathic interpretation to create a simple method of nourishing our body according to its needs. It will change your life. If you are a doctor consider that this program can change the life of your patients!

For more information about the Healthy & Active Program please visit our website at www.healthy-active.com. You may also call us in Toronto at (41) 440-2217 and ask for Adrienne Wright Bulow or Dr. Michael Rahman or email us at adrienne@healthy-active.com.

Your Health is the Result of How You Live!

Healing happens we address our lives and make changes that our good for health. Often these improvements in our own health also benefit the lives of our family, friends and employers.  The Healthy and Active Metabolism Program has an unofficial motto which, is "How we feel and look is a result of our diet and lifestyle.”

A Healing Crisis Is An Opportunity For Change

This means that if we find ourselves in a healing crisis and we want to look and feel better then something needs to change.   Changing our lifestyle habits and diet and also lowering our caloric intake is the simplest, quickest and most straightforward route back to health unless your condition has become very acute.

An explanation of holism.

Unfortunately, Western medicine often leads patients and doctors to believe that ill health can be managed and that there is not need to get to the underlying root cause of our symptoms.  This results on living on medications and when that happens, we become reactive individuals who are at the mercy of chemicals and dependencies, rather than proactive ones that know how to take charge of oourslves.

We can only cure ourselves by making big lifestyle changes. These changes typically have to do with what we choose to eat, how we think, what we choose to be stressed out about, our quality of sleep, how often we exercise and move our body, and our attitudes toward our self and our life.

Change Happens When You Accept The Necessity For It

Change will not happen unless you embrace the idea. We are only complete when our body, mind, and heart are healed, conscious, connected, and whole again.

Making healthy changes is not necessarily just about you.  Being aware of holism is also about the awarenes that everything that you do, especially the positive things that you do benefits yourself and the community at large.

Being healthy is not just a personal necessity, it is also an ethical and moral responsibility. What you do with your health impacts others.  Taking care of your health is one of the most socially responsible things you can doin this day and age.

First of all there are 48 million people in the United States Census Bureau without health insurance [1] despite the introduction of Obama Care in that country. Here in Canada, there are many naturopathic services, blood tests and special medications, treatments and procedures that are not covered by provincial health plans such as OHIP. [2]

Self-Care is a Gift to Society

It is responsible to treat the fundamental causes of why we get sick and treat the whole body by addressing the lifestyle factors that cause these chronic diseases.  These approaches are both medically effective and cost effective, thereby improving your life quality while at the same reducing the burden of health care costs on society in general.

Heart disease, diabetes, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and obesity account for 75 percent of health care costs today, and yet these are largely preventable and even reversible through the changes in diet and lifestyle addressed in this book.

How effective are lifestyle changes when it comes to your health?  The medical journal The Lancet published a study led by Dr. Dean Ornish that followed 30,000 men and women in six continents and found that simple dietary lifestyle changes could prevent over 90 percent of cases heart disease.[3] Thus, the disease that accounts for more premature deaths and is more expensive than any other affliction is almost completely preventable, just by making changes to diet and lfiestyle.

Also notable is that the very same lifestyle changes that can prevent or even reverse heart disease can also help prevent or even reverse many other chronic diseases as well.

The key is food.  You are what you put in your mouth and you are only as good as what you eat. 

For more information about the Healthy & Active Program please visit our website at www.healthy-active.com. You may also call us in Toronto at (41) 440-2217 and ask for Adrienne Wright Bulow or Dr. Michael Rahman or email us at adrienne@healthy-active.com.

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[1] United States Census Bureau, 2012.

[2] Health Canada, Canada Health Act Frequently Asked Questions, Ottawa, Canada: Canada Health Act Division, August 19, 2011. Retrieved electronically February 14^th 2014.

[3] Can lifestyle changes reverse coronary heart disease? Ornish, D. et al.

The Lancet , Volume 336 , Issue 8708 , 129 - 133

An Introduction to HAP Metabolic Types

A very important part of the Healthy & Active Program is the diagnosing of Metabolic Type.  This is not information that will be revealed antwgere in full, because it is part of the proprietary process of diagnosis that is part of the Healthy & Active Program in the first place.

The Diagnosis of Your Metabolic Type

Extensive questioning is required of you by a trained practitioner about lifestyle, hereditary diseases and private habits in order for your metabolic type to be diagnosed properly.

The metabolic typing in this program is also assessed according to your dietary preferences, likes and dislikes and what types of foods seem to give a person a feeling of wellness and satisfaction, what types of foods make them feel full and other personal questions.

The Three Basic Metabolic Types

In general the three basic types are a Fast Burner, Slow Burner and Mixed Burner with many sub-definitions that have to do with how fast or slow your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems work and how efficiently your oxidative system works as well. 

For instance, some metabolism type crave sweets more than others while others can’t get through the day without a big dose of protein. Yet others crave pasta and bread products that are full of carbs, while yet others crave chocolate, alcohol and caffeine.

The sympathetic nervous system involves certain functions you can control, your parasympathetic nervous system includes functions you cannot control and that operate by themselves and your oxidative system refers to how quickly your body metabolizes food into energy.  The oxidative system is also known as the Krebs cycle or the citric acid cycle and refers to how carbohydrates and fats are converted into nutrients that can be used by your cells.

To use another example, a person with insulin resistance has an inefficient oxidative cycle because they might not be able to metabolize sugar. This is because the pancreatic function that is part of the parasympathetic nervous system has been damaged.

The reason that determining your metabolic type is so important is because it tells the HAP practitioner how quickly or slowly your body oxidizes (processes) foods and how the ingestion of different foods might act in your body.  So much depends on the diagnosis of the metabolic type. A food that that is alkalinizing for one person might be more acidic for another.  A good example of this is oranges which might have an alkaline effect on the system for one type and an alkaline effect on another.

Yet another element that comes into play during your diagnosis is your blood type as certain blood types are more metabolically efficient eating meat than others.

Any food can be either stimulating or sedating depending on your metabolic type as well.  For example, some people eat a plate of pasta and  then with great verve sit down at the computer and organize their whole schedule for the next three months. Others have to have a nap while their body slowly metabolizes the high carbohydrate content of the pasta.  The person who feels focused after eating carbs is likely a Fast Burner type while the person who needs a nap is likely a Slow Burner. To make things more complex, not everyone is an absolute type, which is why the diets and lifestyle recommendations of the HAP are tailored so uniquely to each individual.

One of the goals of the Healthy & Active Program is to have you eating the foods that keep your individual system as alkaline as possible so that you can be resistant to disease and the discomforts of natural aging.

For more information about the Healthy & Active Program please visit our website at www.healthy-active.com. You may also call us in Toronto at (41) 440-2217 and ask for Adrienne Wright Bulow or Dr. Michael Rahman or email us at adrienne@healthy-active.com.