You
know that you are unique; that there exists no other like you.
But have you thought about what that means for your nutritional and
health needs?
In
nutritional and natural medicine, the term “biochemical individuality”
was coined in the 1950’s by nutrition researcher and Nobel laureate,
Roger Williams. In
his research, Williams learned that no two individuals had the same
requirements for specific nutrients.
Life circumstance, stress, age, genetics, diet, and many other
factors influence our body’s daily needs.
This
means that for most of us our optimal diet and our optimal supplementation
plan will change frequently throughout our lifetimes. It also means
that what is right in terms of diet and/or supplements for one person is
not necessarily the right thing for another person; even if that other
person is your spouse or your child.
Since
both food and vitamin and other supplements alter our internal
biochemistry, it can be at times helpful to understand more fully our own
biochemical individuality. During times of stress, or illness, or
when you just plain have more time to be pro-active in your self care, the
deeper understanding of your uniqueness can help motivate changes you may
be contemplating.
The
data that can provide more understanding of biochemical individuality
can be accomplished with blood, urine, digestive, hormone, hair or other
kinds of comprehensive testing.
If
you have had some tests ordered for you by allopathic physicians such as
an M.D. or D.O., you may have been told that your results were normal
and of no concern. This is great! It means that you had no
pathological conditions in need of immediate treatment. You
have no life-or-death problems to be worried about. However it is
not particularly meaningful in helping you to understand your
biochemical individuality. For this, smaller, optimal test ranges
and the holistic interpretation of a wide range of tests are required.
