The global rise in the rate of asthma over the past 50 years is considered epidemic. Although all of the factors behind this rise are not clearly understood, many are and the good news is that most are correctable. This disease currently affects more than 22 million people in the U.S. alone, including six million children with a cost in 2007 of US $56 billion. This chronic inflammatory disorder is characterized by a complex interaction of airflow obstruction, bronchial hyper-responsiveness and an underlying inflammation.

The lifetime probability of being diagnosed with invasive cancer is now 44 percent for men and 38 percent for women, and an estimated total of nearly 1.6 million new cancer cases will be diagnosed in the United States in 2011. Cancer has also replaced heart disease as the leading cause of death among individuals less than 85 years old, and is responsible for one out of every four deaths. Despite extraordinary spending, cancer incidence in the U.S. is the highest in the world, and has not changed significantly in 50 years.

ANSWER: One foundation of naturopathic medicine is the concept of personalized medicine: the matching of an individual's specific needs to the appropriate treatment. The complexity of each individual's unique biochemistry, environment, nutritional status and genetic background sometimes makes this a formidable challenge. Here, we'd like to discuss epigenetics, a relatively new but rapidly growing science which has the potential to bridge the gap between "nature and nurture," by identifying the overlap and the interactions between our genes and our environment, with the promise of tailoring treatments to a greater degree of specificity than ever before.

The pomegranate, an ancient fruit whose regenerative properties have been celebrated for thousands of years, has been a source of interest for medical researchers seeking natural agents for the prevention and treatment of degenerative diseases. Numerous experiments have shown pomegranates to contain powerful antioxidant compounds that scientists believe may inhibit atherosclerosis, cut the risk of heart disease and help to modulate high blood pressure. Pomegranate extract's anti-inflammatory properties have shown it to be useful for arthritis sufferers, and it has also demonstrated anti-carcinogenic properties that appear to suppress certain types of cancers.

Infertility can be a very emotionally challenging condition, one that unfortunately appears to be growing in prevalence. Currently, approximately one in six couples fit this definition, which is the inability to achieve a pregnancy within 12 months of having unprotected intercourse (the probability of conception after 12 months of fertility-focused sexual activity in a healthy couple is roughly 84 percent).(1) This high prevalence of infertility has also led to very advanced diagnostic and therapeutic interventions which help some couples conceive, but also have high costs and rates of adverse effects.(2,3) In this month's issue, we highlight natural interventions which are often overlooked, yet may play a significant role in attaining a successful and healthy pregnancy.

Inflammation is playing an ever-increasing role in many of today's chronic diseases, and, at first glance, its bad reputation seems well-deserved. For example, chronic (sometimes called non-resolving) inflammation is thought to significantly contribute to the pathogenesis of many modern illnesses, such as atherosclerosis, diabetes, obesity, cancer, chronic respiratory and digestive diseases, neurodegenerative diseases and even the process of aging itself. In fact, in an article published in the reputable journal Cell, the authors claim that "... perhaps no single phenomenon contributes more to the medical burden in industrialized societies than non-resolving inflammation."

Answer: The optimal diet for children is not that greatly different from adults, with a few important differences. In fact, the precursors of adult diseases attributed to the Western diet and sedentary lifestyle are showing up with increasing prevalence among children, with growing evidence that disease progression begins quite early. Indeed, both under and over-nutrition during pregnancy appear to affect a child's lifetime susceptibility to atherosclerosis, as well as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity, at least partly through epigenetic mechanisms.(1,2)