Epilepsy And The Blood Type Diet :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Epilepsy And The Blood Type DietAre people with certain blood types more susceptible to chronic seizures than others? Can a simple diet reverse this medical condition? And why didnt anybody think of this before?Theres a myriad of fad diets out these days Atkins, the fruit succus diet, Russian Air Force diet, and the Z unrivalled to name a few. However, the most recent craze is, The Blood Type Diet, based on the book, tucker Right 4 Your Type by Doctor Peter DAdamo. The diet focuses on an individuals genetic makeup (blood type) in determining which foods are best digested. DAdamo heads up the Institute for Human Individuality (IfHi), which seeks to foster research in the expanding area of human nutrigenomics. The science of nutrigenomics (naturopathic medicine) seeks to provide a molecular understanding for how common dietetic chemicals affect health by altering the expression or structure of an individuals genetic makeup (1). On the website, the five basic tenets of nutrigenomics a re listed as1. ill-timed diets are risk factors for disease. 2. Dietary chemicals alter gene expression and/or change genomestructure. 3. The degree to which diet influences the balance between healthy anddisease states may depend on an individuals genetic makeup.4. Some diet-regulated genes (and their normal, common variants) arelikely to play a role in the onset, incidence, progression, and/or severityof chronic diseases. 5. talented nutrition - that is, diets based upon genetics, nutritionalrequirements and status - prevents and mitigates chronic diseases. (1).The Blood Type Diet is founded upon the microscopic observation of how ABO types break down different foods, suggesting that one persons nourishment may be anothers poison. The book examines the demographic distributions of different blood types, and proposes that the variations, strengths and weaknesses of each blood group can be seen as part of humanitys perennial process of acclimating to different environmental chal lenges (2). DAdamo asserts that blood groups evolved as migratory mutations, with type O being the most ancient of the ABO group, and housing the largest tribe (40-45%), arcminute to type A (35-40%), dwindling in B (4-11%), with the rarest being AB (0-2%). People with type O blood (hunter-gatherers) are encouraged to be carnivores, opus type As can survive solely as vegetarians. Explaining the origin and spread of blood type B, DAdamo states, Two basic blood group B population patterns emerged out of the Neolithic revolution in Asia an agrarian, relatively sedentary population located in the south and east, and the wandering nomadic societies of the north and west (2).