The Disease Delusion: Conquering the Causes of Chronic Illness for a Healthier, Longer, and Happier Life

Animal studies, like those by Dr. Michael Skinner of Washington State University, have shown that exposure to environmental toxins can result in epigenetic changes transmissible to the next generation and can create increased incidence of chronic disease.

One of the new biomarkers in the blood that we’ll meet again later is high-sensitivity C-reactive protein: hs-CRP. This biomarker is an indicator of chronic inflammation and, especially when combined with a companion biomarker in the blood, homocysteine, can alert us to a person’s early risk of heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, or dementia, four

But here’s the headline. In addition to the many well-known examples of biomarkers—cholesterol, blood pressure, triglycerides, or glucose in the blood—there are also literally hundreds of new biomarker candidates that can help to pinpoint changes in a person’s health well before disease develops.

Blood pressure, percentage of body fat, the level of glucose or triglycerides or cholesterol in our blood, the way that cholesterol is packaged in LDL or HDL forms: these are just some of the more common biomarkers, all of them signals that indicate how our genes are being translated into physiological, physical, and mental functions—gauges of our

Biomarkers are indicators of our functional health status.

The standard test measures the amount of glucose in the blood after an overnight fast; an elevated level is a hallmark of the disease. But it is possible for a person in the early stages of diabetes to produce a normal result on the fasting blood sugar test. A more telling measure is to determine how well the body can metabolize glucose; this can b

did your last annual checkup include an electrocardiogram: an EKG? If so, that display of your heartbeat provides a good check for the presence of heart disease. But it is possible to have a normal heartbeat as recorded in an EKG, get a clean bill of heart health from your doctor, and suffer a heart attack on the way out of the doctor’s office. It

In a watershed 1980 paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, Fries described the reserve of function in the body’s organs that, in youth, is well above what is needed for average everyday living. It’s like a savings account of extra biological capability that we can draw on when we need to—say, when we confront trauma, injury, or illness. At a

Dr. James Fries, a professor of medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine.