Embrace Your Uniqueness: The Beauty & Responsibility of Bio-individuality

In a world where there is comfort in similarity and in being part of a larger tribe, there’s also quite a profound pleasure in recognising and celebrating our uniqueness. Each of us is an amalgamation of diverse genetic traits, experiences, and environments, shaping us into distinct individuals. In the healthspace, we refer to this as bio-individuality.  We are all of us bio-individual; we are all unique. 

To me, this concept of bio-individuality is exciting, but its consequence isn’t simply that we should recognise our uniqueness.  We must also accept the responsibilities that arise with it. The first of these is that we work to understand the unique needs of our body.  As I suggested in last week’s blog, we are the stewards of our own health.  Just as we know our blood type, we should know our physical and emotional strengths and weaknesses, our family’s medical history (if possible), our odd quirks, and how we tolerate challenges.  We must know if we have a tendency to high blood pressure or high cholesterol.  Perhaps we have a family history of diabetes or heart disease.  How much protein do we need each day to feel our best?  Do we have a tendency to hold on to toxins?  What is our favourite type of exercise?  Are we naturally active or are we naturally more relaxed and sedentary?  Do we have sensitivities or allergies to any particular foods?

Another thing we should certainly know is how we react to medications.

That brings me to the larger topic of how we work with our physician.  When we visit our doctor(s), we must ensure that he/she/they also recognise our bio-individuality. Again, the premise of bio-individuality is that no two individuals are exactly alike, even in terms of their physiological makeup. Clearly, this is true.  It’s a concept that the US National Institutes of Health is now working to document and use when making recommendations about nutrition.  Indeed, the general intent is to develop a program that allows for precision (or personally tailored) nutrition.   

But  the concept of bio-individuality has profound implications for other types and areas of medical care, as well.  For example, how you might react to a particular drug may be quite different from the way your neighbor reacts to the same drug.  Why?  Because even if you are of the same gender and same age, your microbiome may be entirely different, your hormone levels strikingly different, and your fitness levels different.  Even differences in your mindset can impact the way your body heals or does not heal.

Sadly, because they can be pressed for time, our physicians may often use ‘rules of thumb’ and generalisations when thinking about how best to care for us patients.  For example, they’ll think about ‘average’ response to a drug and/or the ‘typical’ patterns of healing and change.   This tendency to orient around the average is something our physicians quite naturally pick up in medical school.  Most of the research that they read or discuss will present means or averages and discuss general tendencies.  If you happen to be ‘average’ that’s fine, but what if you are not?  You may in fact be an outlier, someone that is actually is quite different from the ‘average.’

When I was working on my doctorate, one of my professors insisted that we always look closely at the outliers in any research study.  He believed that they often were the most interesting cases and could have important messages for us.   The research I was looking at wasn’t medical but nonetheless it’s important to understand why certain subjects behave differently than the rest.  Why are they particularly affected by - or unaffected by - the research treatment?  What makes them particularly strong or sensitive?  Is knowing why something that might be useful??  Perhaps it might.  In any case, if you are an outlier, you probably want your physician thinking about these questions.

Did you know that until very recently most women were probably outliers in medical research?  Historically, medical research has centered around male physiology.  One strong reason why women of child-bearing age have been excluded from clinical trials is because of the potential risks to a possibly-unrecognised foetus.  Of course.  But another reason is that women’s monthly cycles and wildly varying hormonal levels can also complicate research analyses.  The effects of those hormones aren’t subtle.  Too often women have been excluded from research trials simply to keep the research clean.   

Happily, there has been some increased inclusivity over the past several decades.  According to one BMJ paper, there have been marked improvements in the legal requirements to ensure women’s participation in  pharmaceutical and medical research studies. Nonetheless, the authors of this 2020 paper insist that:  “Outlooks and practice in pharmaceutical research and regulation are still widely insensitive . . .  to the influence of sex and gender on health outcomes.”  Evidently, we have a ways to go before medical research is truly inclusive of all genders . . . and all races.  A recent Lancet paper, which analysed the diversity of subjects engaged in US clinical trials over the twenty years from 2000 to 2020, concludes bluntly that ‘minorities are underrepresented in trials.’  

Sadly, this means that if we are not white males and if we are prescribed drugs, we must be especially careful to ask our physician about how or if the effect of the drug might vary across genders and race.  After all, we are the stewards of our own health.

But recognising our bio individuality isn’t important only when we’re discussing or considering prescription drugs.  Knowing more about our bio-individuality can have enormous consequence for our lifestyle choices as well. Recognising our unique responses to diet, exercise, and stress empowers us to tailor lifestyle interventions that align with our individual needs, rather than with generic recommendations. 

One of the most tangible expressions of bio-individuality is seen in our response to the various diets recommended by social influencers.  We all know people for whom the keto diet has been tremendously beneficial.  But we may have other friends who swear by a vegan diet.   At first that might seem confusing, but why wouldn’t we see diversity in our responses to food?   Why should we imagine that any one diet would be universally beneficial? Our genetic makeup, the composition of our gut microbiome, and our metabolic efficiency, for example, all contribute to our unique dietary requirements.

And, research is documenting this quite convincingly

In 2018, Dr. Chris Gardner, a professor of medicine at Stanford University in the US and the Director of Nutrition Studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, conducted a year-long head to head comparison of low carb v. low fat diets.  Published in the prestigious JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), the study found that the two diets had virtually identical consequences for weight loss. 

In other words, it’s not that either diet was particularly effective or ineffective.  It’s was about how it worked for each unique subject.  That’s bio-individuality in action.

So, to wrap this up, l hope you will remember that our bio-individuality is not only a celebration of our uniqueness but also a call to action for a more personalised approach to healthcare and lifestyle management. By researching, acknowledging, and respecting our differences, we can pave the way for a more inclusive and effective healthcare system—one that recognises and caters to the diverse needs of every person.  That would be a good thing.

Yours in health &happiness,

Sarah