Dr. Lori Rose teaches biology and nutrition, and is the founder and instructor of the Holistic Wellness Pathway at Hill College. She started the bi-annual science poster conference that is now held on both the Cleburne and Hillsboro campuses, as well as the partnership with Hill College, Cook's Children's Johnson County Alliance for Healthy Kids, and the Cleburne ISD for the bi-annual school garden planting.
Rose will use the grant to attend professional development training from Metabolic Healing, a practitioner-training program that provides education in functional nutrition, nutrigenomic biochemistry, and functional lab assessment. She plans to incorporate her training into the Hill College Holistic Wellness Pathway, providing the only holistic nutrition, wellness coaching, or herbal program that dives this deeply into functional nutrigenomic biochemistry and lab assessment in the country.
So, I am only one lesson in to my 30-lesson functional biochemistry training, and already have a new tool to teach not only my nutrition and holistic pathway students, but my biology students as well. One of the challenges of all teachers is to make the subject they have to teach relevant and meaningful to the student, preferably all students in the classroom. This can be quite a challenge, but luckily for me every one of my students is alive (Biology) and eats (Nutrition). I don't usually have to reach too far to find something that all students can relate to on a day-to-day basis. Except the citric acid cycle. (Hang in there, because this may be relevant to you or someone you know, too!)
When transforming my classroom into a project-based atmosphere, cutting some topics out in order to dive deeper into the "most important" topics was imperative to fit everything into the time I have with my students. As thrilling as the citric acid cycle that happens inside all of us every time we eat (pending we have supplied our body with the proper nutrients and co-enzymes) was to me, I just couldn't see how diving deeper into this circle of chemical reactions had any day-to-day application for my students once they left the classroom. Until now!!!
One of the three modules I am getting trained in is lab test assessment, and I jumped in there first because I thought it would be most the beneficial to my holistic pathway students. The first lab test we learned about not only gave me an "in" to the citric acid cycle to my students, but also made it imperative to understanding how reading lab tests measuring citric acid cycle byproducts can help anyone with malnourishment, oxidative damage or blood sugar issues, and potentially thyroid issues as well. That's the majority of Americans, by the way.
For example, lab results high in succinate but low in fumarate can indicate a lack of FAD, which can come from lack of B-vitamins in the diet or genetic SNP issues, thyroid issues, or oxidation stealing all of the FAD needed to neutralize free radicals elsewhere. High pyruvate levels can stem from low vitamins and minerals needed to complete the conversion of blood sugar into energy, exacerbating problems with high blood sugar. High levels of citrate, cis-aconitate, or isocitrate can even indicate high ammonia in the body, possibly stemming from gut microbe imbalances causing mental and behavior issues similar to autism! My teacher had multiple clinical examples of how identifying this particular pattern and addressing it with nutrition and supplements reversed mental and behavior issues in children as young as 2! Identifying these issues with blood tests can indicate proper nutrition, supplement, and herbal protocols needed to support the biochemical pathways required to bring the body back into balance!
I am just hitting the highlights here. And to think, I used to skim over the citric acid cycle. Frankly, I think I may have met the limits of my cognitive capacity with this program. I would usually be done with a 4-week program (that's what this 1 blood-test module was supposed to be) within a week, but the first lesson was so much so fast and so deep that I backed off a took a break to let it all sink in. I may actually listen to it again before moving on (gasp!). No doubt once my application of this newfound knowledge in the classroom and clinical setting with my holistic pathway students begins, my understanding and application (and hopefully cognitive capacity) will improve. I can't wait to tell you what I find out in lesson 2! This is seriously a dream to come true to be learning from these teachers, and a very unique thing we will be offering to our students. I am honored to have been awarded the opportunity to attend (attempt) this course!
-Dr. Lori Rose
Rose will use the grant to attend professional development training from Metabolic Healing, a practitioner-training program that provides education in functional nutrition, nutrigenomic biochemistry, and functional lab assessment. She plans to incorporate her training into the Hill College Holistic Wellness Pathway, providing the only holistic nutrition, wellness coaching, or herbal program that dives this deeply into functional nutrigenomic biochemistry and lab assessment in the country.
Blog Post 1
Biochemistry of lab tests: new perspective of the citric acid cycle
When transforming my classroom into a project-based atmosphere, cutting some topics out in order to dive deeper into the "most important" topics was imperative to fit everything into the time I have with my students. As thrilling as the citric acid cycle that happens inside all of us every time we eat (pending we have supplied our body with the proper nutrients and co-enzymes) was to me, I just couldn't see how diving deeper into this circle of chemical reactions had any day-to-day application for my students once they left the classroom. Until now!!!
One of the three modules I am getting trained in is lab test assessment, and I jumped in there first because I thought it would be most the beneficial to my holistic pathway students. The first lab test we learned about not only gave me an "in" to the citric acid cycle to my students, but also made it imperative to understanding how reading lab tests measuring citric acid cycle byproducts can help anyone with malnourishment, oxidative damage or blood sugar issues, and potentially thyroid issues as well. That's the majority of Americans, by the way.
For example, lab results high in succinate but low in fumarate can indicate a lack of FAD, which can come from lack of B-vitamins in the diet or genetic SNP issues, thyroid issues, or oxidation stealing all of the FAD needed to neutralize free radicals elsewhere. High pyruvate levels can stem from low vitamins and minerals needed to complete the conversion of blood sugar into energy, exacerbating problems with high blood sugar. High levels of citrate, cis-aconitate, or isocitrate can even indicate high ammonia in the body, possibly stemming from gut microbe imbalances causing mental and behavior issues similar to autism! My teacher had multiple clinical examples of how identifying this particular pattern and addressing it with nutrition and supplements reversed mental and behavior issues in children as young as 2! Identifying these issues with blood tests can indicate proper nutrition, supplement, and herbal protocols needed to support the biochemical pathways required to bring the body back into balance!
I am just hitting the highlights here. And to think, I used to skim over the citric acid cycle. Frankly, I think I may have met the limits of my cognitive capacity with this program. I would usually be done with a 4-week program (that's what this 1 blood-test module was supposed to be) within a week, but the first lesson was so much so fast and so deep that I backed off a took a break to let it all sink in. I may actually listen to it again before moving on (gasp!). No doubt once my application of this newfound knowledge in the classroom and clinical setting with my holistic pathway students begins, my understanding and application (and hopefully cognitive capacity) will improve. I can't wait to tell you what I find out in lesson 2! This is seriously a dream to come true to be learning from these teachers, and a very unique thing we will be offering to our students. I am honored to have been awarded the opportunity to attend (attempt) this course!
-Dr. Lori Rose
Blog Post 2
Using lab tests and biochemistry to transform enzyme lessons
Hi everyone! I am back again with my next installation of how I am using the generous Hill College Faculty Research Grant I was awarded this summer. I finally got brave enough to venture into my lab test biochemistry course again. I figured out that I learn much better when I am using the learning as a distraction from something else….I am trying to distract myself from the joy of selling my house…so this time the course seemed much easier to me compared to my previous post, where my self-confidence was taking a bit of a hit from the complexity of the course. So not only did I learn a bit of biochemistry and functional lab analysis, but I also learned something about myself and how I learn optimally.
So, this installation was fascinating because it took what I usually teach in Bio II about the nervous system and overlaid it with nutrition, enzyme function, and modern health issues. I love interdisciplinary stuff like this because it really stimulates ideas on how I can take generally boring topics like enzymes (a’hem, I love enzymes, just sayin’) and make it extremely relevant to even my non-majors students (plus, my Holistic Wellness Pathway students will really benefit from this info).
So, usually the coverage of neurotransmitters in the nervous system looks like this:
Pretty much just “what are the neurotransmitters and what do they do” type stuff. However, when you overlay this with the biochemistry of what it takes to make these neurotransmitters actually work, it looks like this (taken from the Metabolic Healing course I am in):
Figure from Metabolic Healing lab analysis training course.
Now we are talking about enzymes, because students must understand that in order for serotonin, for example, to actually be created, they need to consume amino acids like tryptophan and co-enzyme vitamin B6 from veggies. This can take a Bio 1 lesson about parts of an enzyme and enzyme pathways and merge it with something super relevant like depression and anxiety. From a nutritional standpoint, sometimes it takes spelling out exactly why our food is necessary for optimal function for us to really prioritize healthy eating. And from a holistic health coach perspective, the last column provides the products of these enzyme pathways that can be seen on blood and urine tests to elucidate patterns that are going on in a client’s body.
For example, sticking with the serotonin neurotransmitter, if one of the Hill College Holistic Wellness Pathway students does a urine test on a client and finds high 5-HIAA in a client with insomnia, that can indicate a pattern of low serotonin to melatonin conversion.
Figure from Metabolic Healing lab analysis training course.
Or, if a client with depression, anxiety, and insomnia has urine test results high in xanthurenate, this could indicate a B6 deficiency plus another factor shunting tryptophan conversion to inflammatory quinolinic acid instead of serotonin and melatonin (like long-term stress, inflammation, or a gut infection with bacteria that increase LPS).
Figure from Metabolic Healing lab analysis training course.
While students of the Holistic Wellness Pathway aren’t qualified to diagnose, being able to use critical thinking to assess patterns between client presentation of symptoms and lab results is crucial to recommending nutrition and supplement protocols best suited to each individual client. I don’t know of any NANP-approved holistic nutrition school that provides this level of rigor, and I am honored to be using the Hill College Faculty Study grant to obtain the training that will allow Hill College students this type of education before they go on to become holistic nutritionists, herbalists, and wellness coaches. Plus, now my Bio 1 and 2 students will have a much more interesting time learning about enzymes and neurotransmitters!
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