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Many of us take prescription drugs and often
time we are hit with side effects, adverse reactions, some
more severe than others.
And we can end up taking even more
drugs to counter act those effects.
But imagine if we could tailor which medicine works best
for us?
Revolutionary!
That's how Doctor Monnie Singleton, who
practices family medicine, describes the relatively new
technology of personalized medicine, also known designer
medicine and precision medicine.
It's the latest technology that is able to design treatments
whether they are drug treatments or medical device treatments
based upon a person's DNA.
Yes—you heard him right—medicine based on your own DNA.. your
genetic makeup.
Our age, lifestyle and health all impact
how we respond to medications.
But so do our genes.
With personalized medicine looking at
the DNA we specifically focus on looking at the variations of the
DNA, what has happened with those genes?
The more likelihood of contracting a chronic disease
is a result of having multiple genetic variations.
We’re talking customized healthcare.
Obviously, we’re all different.
And doctors say those very differences -- individual
genetic variations -- greatly impact our response to
therapeutic drugs.
We are beginning to focus more on the
genetics because we are seeing that's why causing the diseases
and that's important in metabolizing the drugs that we
are prescribing.
Dr. Singleton is Founder, President and CEO
of the Singleton Health Center in
Orangeburg, South Carolina.
The doctor, who has over 30 years of
experience in providing health care in rural areas, partnered
with Atlanta-based AlphaGenomix laboratories to provide the
required test.
He says roughly 20-to-25-percent of his patients
are now on personalized medicine.
I started coming here because I wasn't feeling right.
I was starting to feel lethargic.
No energy.
Patients like 32-year-old Johnathon
Ackiss, the father of a 5-year-old daughter and Sales
Rep for a major beer distributor, has always been
outgoing.
I like weight lifting.
We go hiking.
Anything outdoors I love.
Very involved in the community and the church.
I help them with youth ministries.
But Jonathon’s fun had diminished..
and he knew something was wrong.
Dr. Singleton diagnosed him with depression.
Using the trial and error method, the doctor gave
him samples to try -- drugs that generally are more effective and
with fewer side effects.
And then he wrote a prescription for
Johnathon.
I started out on a medication that was working
phenomenal and then after about four or five months the
insurance company decided not to pay for it anymore so he started
me on a generic.
Well, that generic was not right for me
because I fell right back in to depression.
He became depressed very, very rapidly.
And that’s when Dr. Singleton told
Johnathon about Personalized Medicine, and Johnathon took a
test that looks at his DNA.
We did the test.
Sure enough, the medication, that generic
medication that I put him on, he did not metabolize it
appropriately.
He was a rapid metabolizer so it didn't stay in
his system.
And then it gave a list of appropriate medications
and we got on one of those generics and within 2-months, I
was back to normal.
One of the things that we have found
through research that specifically looks at depression
is the more medications a person has tried for the treatment of
the depression the less the effectiveness is.
So it's very, very important that we find out
the right drug at the right time.
Another buzz word you’ll hear in this field is
Pharmacogenetics, which is a sub-category of Precision or
Personalized medicine.
Pharma looks at the science of the
drugs and genetics looks at a person’s gene, how the genes
influence the response that an individual gets from a
medication.
Pharmacogenetics tests are most commonly used for
drugs used in cardiology, and depression and or mental
illness, and pain management.
What we have here in America now is an explosion of addiction to
pain pills, which are opioids or in the past called opiates and I
think that we're seeing that explosion, number one because
they're more available, but number two because they're being
prescribed the wrong medications.
And pharmacogenetics tests are
especially helpful if you have failed to respond to multiple
medications.
Undergoing the test itself is pretty simple.
While in your doctor’s office, a nurse
practitioner swabs the inside of your mouth - and then sends it
to the AlphaGenomix lab.
The doctor has the results in
5-to-10 days.
We can see if the medications that the patient is
on are the correct medications and if not we can at that point
in time see what would be the appropriate medications.
Doctor Singleton says that some of the common medicines
either over the counter or prescribed medications simply
don't work for everyone.
As an example – when we look at medications that are prescribed
for cardiac arrhythmias, of
depression; medications that for the treatment of asthma, any one
particular drug does not work in 60 percent of the people that
are taking them.
When we look at medications lets say for
migraines, when we look for medicine for osteoporosis, when
we look for medications for arthritis - 50% of the time that
particular drug is not working the way that we think that it
should work.
Another example that is very frightening is
cancer drugs and drugs for Alzheimer’s disease.
They don’t work 70-percent of the time the
way we think they should.
Personalized medicine is going to eliminate having to take a
drug to counteract the side effects of another drug because
we’re going to find the right drug at the right dose and put
you on that medication to start with, and that is really going
to impact the cost of care.
It’s going to reduce pain and
suffering and it’s going to decrease any deficiencies in the
system.
And the doctor isn’t alone in his enthusiasm.
Statistics show the
field is expanding.
And just last year, the National
Institutes of Health awarded 55-million dollars to help
towards a landmark study on the subject.
We're going to over time find that this technology
is going to help to solve lots of problems with
chronic diseases.
And I think that just from the
standpoint of being able to eliminate diseases I think we
are going to be able to use this technology and do the same kinds
of things with eradication of chronic diseases that we did
with small pox.
I'm very excited about it.
Dr. Singleton encourages you to ask your
doctor about personalized medicine and in the mean time
you can learn more at ALPHA GENOMIX.com or our website the
balancing act dot com.
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