Western medicine has evolved based on drugs and treatments that have statistically been found to be beneficial to the general population, but today scientists recognize the fact that the condition is much more complex.
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Custom health
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There are a number of diseases for which the drugs are not effective at all, and then our reward came out in our loss: the drug also did not solve or cure the problem, but from the side effects of the same drug we certainly managed to suffer.
An article published in 2001 cited cancer, arthritis, diabetes, asthma and depression in the ascending order of receiving treatment that is ineffective for those patients. A decade later, as I deal unsuccessfully with diabetes, I realize that even though I’m already getting a third line of my disease, things are still not progressing.
So I decided to go for it and look for a more effective cure, and I did find: custom health.
Personalized Health deals with the customization of medical care and complementary care based on the latest research and innovative tests. At the beginning of my academic career I was convinced, like everyone else, that statistics determine. As a scientist I also researched large groups of data and treated the results as average.
This approach was fine as long as the study subjects were cells and mice. As scientific knowledge advanced, we realized that we need to address differences between people rather than what they have in common in order to understand whether the drug will affect them.
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Personalization for the treatment of chronic diseases will increase in parallel with technological development
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Advances in the genetic understanding of diseases have opened a window of opportunity for epigenetics, a branch of science that studies the impact of the environment on the expression of our genes.
Epigenetics identifies three mechanisms that can be likened to a switch that has two ON and OFF modes, and it allows genes to be turned on or off. And in short, the impact of the environment on gene expression. Our environment consists of a number of factors, the main ones being our diet (the material environment) and our daily conduct with the challenges of life (the mental environment).
When I was able to apply the basics of epigenetics to myself, diabetes became a balanced background disease that was not drug dependent, I manage it and it does not manage me.
In the last two and a half years, and precisely thanks to the Corona, there has been a revolution in the world of science, mainly technologically. I personally went after the new stream, next generation sequencing, and fell in love with the robots, which can handle masses of samples simultaneously.
Another change that has taken place in the population is consciously, every child today knows what a pen is and what exactly is done with it. Beneficiaries know the difference between an antigen test and a pcr test, and a serological test – information that was the domain of laboratory workers and scientists until recently. On the other hand there is great confusion in all that is said about genetic testing.
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Dr. Liat Edri. The change in diabetes treatment has proven itself
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So this is an opportunity to sort out the mess and point out three main types of genetic testing:
The first: Detection test (like corona test) – We produce the genetic material and try to detect the hallmarks of the virus.
the second: Testing a disease prediction survey based on genetic information. The genetic changes are inherited and aim to identify who is at high risk of getting sick or having offspring.
The third: A test for someone who is already ill, for example, with cancer. The purpose of the genetic test is to identify for each patient individually the most effective drug treatment for him.
A significant change that took place in the health basket in Israel while we were all married to the war in Corona is: Genetic flooring for metastatic cancer patients. This significant change means: a genetic test to adjust the drug treatment to the cancer. The test is intended for those who have already had cancer, and have a biopsy or surgical preparation.
Unlike a genetic carrier test, the purpose of the test to adjust the treatment is not to detect an early risk of developing the disease, but to locate the genetic mutations that caused the disease, and to tailor the most effective treatment.
At any given time, new drugs are emerging that are suitable for the acquired genetic changes. The tests are performed in Israel at the medical centers and with the commitment of the HMO to those who are suitable.
The Ministry of Health’s guidelines for comprehensive molecular profile tests are: The test is intended for patients with advanced or metastatic cancer of the following types: NSCLC – lung cancer, colon and rectal cancer (rectum), bladder cancer, thyroid cancer and cancer of unknown origin.
And what about the future? The personalization for the treatment of chronic diseases, diabetes and cancer will increase in parallel with the technological development and Big Data that are obtained from the individual characteristics of each patient – both clinical and genetic.
In the not too distant future, and thanks to the genetic understandings it will be possible to turn cancer into a chronic disease that can be lived with, similar to diabetes.
Dr. Liat Edri Ph.D, an expert in medical genetics, will deliver a lecture on “Personalized Health” as part of INSPIRATION 2022 – the largest annual conference in Israel for therapists in complementary and integrative medicine
The conference will take place on 5-6.7.2022 at the Wahl-Bar Ilan Center in Ramat Gan.