As humans, we now live in a drastically changed environment than what we were biologically designed for, and we continue to see an increase in health issues that aren’t able to be addressed using the conventional medical model in society. Functional and Integrative Medicine seems to be the way of the future of medicine, and looks at the whole picture of a person’s state of health, addresses underlying causes and also looks at prevention rather than just diagnosing symptoms and managing disease.

The change in our environment includes a large increase in environmental chemicals such as heavy metals that can be problematic to our health if we are are overloaded with them and are unable to detoxify them efficiently. Heavy metals affect every cell in the body and can be related to chronic fatigue, autoimmune conditions, sleep issues, neurological conditions, digestive disorders and more.

This week’s guest, Dr Bruce Jones from Peninsula Clinical Nutrition, is a wealth of knowledge and is my Functional and Nutritional Medicine doctor that I’ve been consulting with over the last 2 years, to guide me through a detoxification protocol for reducing levels of heavy metals, which is assisting in healing my sleep (discussed in earlier episodes of the podcast), as well as overall health.

In this episode we discuss:

• What is Functional Medicine? What is Integrative Medicine?
• Epigenetics
• Heavy metals – what are they and how do they affect our health?
• Everyday sources of heavy metals
• Testing for heavy metals
• Lots more!

Guest info: 

Dr Bruce E. Jones is a Clinical Nutritionist in Private Practice in Mount Martha, Victoria, specialising in individualised Nutritional and Integrative Medicine, working extensively in the field of Clinical Metal Toxicology, especially as it relates to patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and autoimmune diseases.

He holds the degrees of MB BS (1980; University of Melbourne), Diploma of Obstetrics RACOG (1982), Diploma of Horticulture (2000) and an Advanced Diploma in Nutritional Medicine (2013).

He regularly teaches GPs, Allied and Natural Health Practitioners in Postgraduate Clinical Education. His key interests are in the twin sciences of Systems Biology and Translational Medicine, bridging the gap between medical research and clinical practice.

He served as Senior Lecturer in Integrative Medicine for 2.5 years (2010- 2012) at the not-for-profit National Institute for Integrative Medicine (NIIM), Hawthorn, Victoria, where he was engaged both in teaching and postgraduate clinical medical curriculum development. There he developed the curriculum for a Postgraduate Fellowship in Integrative Medicine (120h; four units-course) and successfully shepherded it through its formal accreditation process by the RACGP / AIMA Joint Working Party. Whilst working at the Institute, he developed a Heavy Metal Evaluation Program and was involved in collating data relating to the use of intravenous DMPS Challenge Testing conducted at the Institute.

He is currently undertaking a major Clinical research project relating to the use of urinary DMSA Challenge & Stool metals testing and has developed an improved testing method for enhanced trivalent metal detection in urine samples.

He is a member of the Australian Traditional Medicine Society (ATMS) and the Life Extension Foundation (USA). He worked for 13 years as a GP in Family Medical Practice (1984-1997) specialising in chronic pain management and counselling. Bruce’s enduring hobby is Ornamental Horticulture, linking the growing and understanding of medicinal plants to his professional medical interests.

Find Dr Bruce at:
Website: www.peninsulanutrition.com.au

Mentioned in the show:

• Live to 110 Podcast
• Australasian College of Nutrition and Environmental Medicine

The post Dr Bruce Jones on Functional Medicine, Heavy Metals and Our Health appeared first on The Wellness Couch.