AANP Conference 2009 Submission

1. Contact information

a. Contact name: John Neustadt, ND

b. Presenter(s) full name/degree: John Neustadt, ND; Steve Pieczenik, MD, PhD

c. Address, City, State and Zip code: 1087 Stoneridge Drive, Suite 1, Bozeman, MT 59718

d. Day time telephone:

i. Clinic: 406-582-0034

ii. Cell: 406-579-9210 (cell phone for AANP use only)

e. Fax number: 866-648-7579

f. Email address: drneustadt@montanaim.com

2. The abstract is being submitted for: (a) Oral Presentation (90 minute)

3. Presentation title: Foundations and Applications of Medical Biochemistry in Clinical Practice

4. Short description of presentation: in this talk we present review the thermodynamics, kinetics and
data on the clinical use of biochemical testing (also called functional testing) and how it can be
applied in clinical practice, under a novel heuristic model, to correct the underlying causes of
disease and improve outcomes quickly and economically.

5. Abstract: In 1953 James Watson, PhD, and Francis Crick, PhD, unveiled their double-helix model
of DNA. On the day of their breakthrough, Dr Watson walked into an English pub and announced
they had “found the secret of life.” Yet, despite the vast amounts of clinically relevant information
their discovery and subsequent genetics research have yielded, in many respects Dr Watson’s
statement was naive. The genome is, indeed, the blueprint for biological life; however, post-
translational modifications of amino-acid sequences create many more proteins than the genes
coding them. With the human genome sequenced, research has shifted in the direction of a
functional analysis of gene products, and to the application of functional medical biochemistry.
This talk presents the fundamental concepts and clinical applications for medical biochemical
testing, diagnosis and treatment. This approach provides the framework for customized medicine
based on an individual’s unique biochemistry and allows clinicians to treat the underlying
biochemical causes of diseases instead of merely suppressing symptoms with medications. This
includes treating what have historically been considered purely “genetic diseases,” such as
alkaptonuria and phenylketonuria, by being able to alter the phenotype at the functional
biochemical level. This testing and treatment paradigm goes beyond genetics, which merely
provides data on the potential for acquiring a disease, by identifying the specific step or steps in
 biochemical pathways that are aberrant. With this data, phenotypes can be altered to effectively
optimize biochemical function to promote health and cure disease. This approach stands apart
from standard concepts of “Functional Medicine” by providing an underlying conceptual
philosophy based on thermodynamics, kinetics, biochemistry and clinical case management, and
puts forth the challenge to the medical field to redefine diagnostic categories and heuristic models
of disease that take into effect causality and not symptoms. It also has major implications for
sociological and economic foundations on which the medical system is based, and which are
failing. Medical biochemistry allows healthcare providers to conceptualize medicine and
healthcare from a completely different perspective that the speaker believes will decrease the
overall cost of medical care while improving outcomes. Learning objectives include: (1)
understand the historical precedents for individualized medicine; (2) understand the
thermodynamic and biochemical concepts underlying functional medicine; (3) understand a new
diagnostic nosology based on biochemical abnormalities instead of gross symptoms; (4)
understand how able to apply a holistic diagnostic and treatment paradigm to such diseases as
depression, migraine headaches, fatigue, and chronic pain based on the philosophy of treating the
underlying causes of disease; (5) compare and contrast the mechanisms of actions of
pharmaceuticals and nutritional interventions based on biochemical testing. Target audience is
clinicians, students, policy makers, researchers and scientists.

6. Biographical sketch: John Neustadt, ND is medical director of Montana Integrative Medicine

(MIM) and president of Nutritional Biochemistry, Incorporated (NBI) and NBI Testing and
Consulting Corp. Dr. Neustadt is coauthor with Steve Pieczenik, MD, PhD of the books, A
Revolution in Health through Nutritional Biochemistry, A Revolution in Health Part 2: How to
Take Charge of Your Health, and Foundations and Applications of Medical Biochemistry in
Clinical Practice. He also wrote the booklet, Thriving through Dialysis, with Jonathan Wright,
MD. Dr. Neustadt is an editor of the textbook, Laboratory Evaluations for Integrative and
Functional Medicine and a frequent contributor to the journal Integrative Medicine: A Clinician’s
Journal. He is on the editorial advisory board of the Journal of Prolotherapy and Remedies
magazine. Dr. Neustadt has published more than one hundred research reviews and is a frequent
guest on national and local radio health programs.