Food-As-Medicine programs: A Feasible Pathway to Health Equity-Universal Healthcare
Hipprocrates once eloquently and profoundly said, “let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food”. The role of nutrition in healthcare, and the optimization of good-healthy gut microbiome is understated, and poorly taught in medicine. The role that gut barrier failure-leaky gut plays, in the gut microbiome etiology, and perpetuation-worsening of autoimmune and chronic diseases, should be at the forefront of the science, and art of medicine.
The gut microbiome as the cure for several diseases, is well known. Diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and mental illness-depression/anxiety/ADHD are said to be heavily influenced by the gut microbiome. This is why Medical Cannabis works so well, as a plant that augments the gut microbiome, and boosts the endocannabinoid system (ECS). The ECS potentiates the gut-brain axis, and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Also, specifically, Indica, which has more cannabidinoid than THC does not cause psychosis, heart ischemia or liver injury as THC. Also, Indica potentially exponentially results in a boosting in the number of good bacteria in the gut. Of note, one of the treatments for encephalopathy is Rifaximin, an antbiotic which inhibits bacterial protein synthesis in the gut, thereby preventing ammonia formation.
The cure for cancer lies in the gut microbiome, where the good bacteria prevents the overgrowth of yeast, which can be the genesis, and augmentor of many chronic diseases, such as, fibromyalgia, and many autoimmune diseases. Adjunctively, the human autoimmune system is heaviliy regulated by the gut microbiome. The gut microbiome prevents cancer by sending signals/mediators to potentiate natural killer lymphocytes cells thereby improving immunosurveillance.
Summarily, the answer to Universal Healthcare and Health Equity is good nutrition, that can be consistently, and effortlessly provided by food-as- medicine programs, and nutrition security interventions, such as the one provided by Instacart Health. Thus, the best diet for mental illness-behavioral health, as well as obesity, is the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet, with green tea with organic cinnamon, and juicing with 1 glass of organic carrot/beet/ginger juice daily, with a resultant weight loss of 3-5 lbs weekly without exercise. The recommended weight loss per week is half a pound.