Institute For The Future

Personalized Medicine and Lifestyle

Health Horizons was a media partner for the 2014 Personalized Medicine World Conference here in Silicon Valley, January 27-28. Leading up to the conference we spoke with some of the scheduled speakers to preview their talks.

A Conversation with Dr. Jeffery Bland

11 years ago the first draft of the human genome was completed, and in the words of Dr. Jeffery Bland: “We thought we would find the cause of death in genetic code, but we found how people would actually live based on their genetic capability.”

Dr. Bland is the founder of Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Institute, an organization promoting functional medicine. Dr Bland’s work highlights the connection between genetic predisposition and environmental impact on genes. At the Personalized Medicine World Conference he spoke about how we should better engage consumers in the healthcare system. What excites me about Dr. Bland’s work is he is looking for the solution based on a systems approach.

In Dr. Bland’s words, we have reached the limit to how we can use pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceuticals will always have a place, yet we might have out-stripped their ability to meet our current understandings of health. “We now have complex problems, which don’t require one drug or one solution,” during our discussion he was quick to point out that pharmaceuticals have allowed us to solve some of the gnarliest health challenges of the past 120 years. Yet we are entering an era where pharmaceuticals will only be a single component in the healthcare ecology of the 21^st century, which will also include lifestyle and environmental impacts on genes.

Dr. Bland anticipates a shift in the healthcare system to where we think of genes as markers of a person's relationships with their environment and their lifestyle choices. When we reach that point, we will see health as something that can be empirically derived from promoting health and wellness. Our genes will be roadmaps that we can actively engage with to promote longevity and health. The big challenge for this kind of treatment remains making the leap from treating disease to creating health.