Hippocrates wrote “Let food be your medicine and your medicine be food”. After more than 2000 years, it is now scientifically established that food is the main engine of our well-being and nutrition is our best ally.

Our expert is a nutritionist biologist who teaches how to adopt a proper diet, just to adopt a conscious and healthy lifestyle. In fact, food plays a primary role in the regulation of cellular processes and gene expression.

For this reason, at the Hippocrates Center our nutritionist elaborates personalized diets in physiological conditions (pregnancy, infancy, menopause, sport), in pathological conditions (dyslipidemia, hypertension, gastrointestinal diseases, allergies, intolerances) and also deals with providing diets for vegetarians and for anyone who wants to follow a healthy and balanced diet.

The services offered for the assessment of body composition and for the correct evaluation of the best diet to follow are anthropometry, plicometry, impedance metrics, metabolism analysis, indirect calorimetry, metabolic holter and genetic tests. All effective tools whose sole objective is to turn food into our best ally.

MICROBIOTA AND HRV

In the light of recent discoveries on how much human health can depend on elements that until a few years ago were considered to belong only to organ pathologies (intestine or heart or brain separately), today it can be stated that the interaction of each cell stem, be it of the central nervous system, of the heart, of the lung or that regulates the immune system, must be understood as a complex and interacting entity, where in a surprising way it has been seen that one of the conductors are the germs that inhabit in our intestines, much higher in number than the cells that make up our body. A second aspect that concerns the maintenance of an efficient state of health is the regulation of stress.

The microbiota 

The population of microorganisms that colonize our intestines is called MICROBIOTA which differs from the microbiome which instead represents the genetic heritage of the same microbiota.

The microbiota influences the regulation of digestion, metabolism, synthesizing vitamins and releasing molecules that contribute to intestinal well-being, but it also has other important roles, such as cooperating with the immune system, assuming the ability to guide the body towards a protective system against pathogenic microbes and toxic substances; moreover, it has been identified that the metabolites produced by intestinal bacteria affect the activity of the central nervous system, including the regulation of mood, stress and the sense of satiety, earning them the nickname “second brain”, also acting on the psychological state helping to coordinate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and on the system that regulates the production of important hormones such as serotonin or dopamine.

The microbiota is an entity subject to variations, it changes over the course of life, from childhood to adulthood, adapting to the different phases and needs of the individual and is modified by external factors, such as diet, the environment or the amount of stress we are subjected to.

Maintaining the balance of the intestinal microbial population with our body is commonly defined as eubosis; while dysbiosis is the alteration of this balance, which can be associated with various pathological conditions.

How do we take care of the microbiota?

From a therapeutic point of view, the so-called probiotics can be used, live microorganisms that protect the microbiological balance or restore a state of health with respect to a pathological condition. However, there are still many difficulties in obtaining personalized therapies useful in a specific pathology and in a specific patient.

However, it should not be underestimated how a state of stress control (metabolic, neurogenic, psychic) through a modification of lifestyle (meditation, regulated physical activity and control of nutrition) can consensually intervene in a positive way on the intestinal microbial population.

HRV measurement

In the same way, today it is possible to determine our degree of stress, be it metabolic, hormonal or of another nature by measuring HRV (Heart rate variability) with simple devices. The term HRV defines an indicator that records the variabilityof the time it takes for the heart to complete two consecutive beats changes. Numerous studies state that it can be a valid non-invasive marker for estimating the activity of the autonomic nervous system.

The analysis of Heart Rate Variability allows you to understand, in a few minutes, the state of activity of the Autonomic Nervous System and know if there is a hyper or hypo activity, not very functional, of one of the two branches and intervene to restore the correct balance . This evaluation can be carried out using any biofeedback instrument or software, as long as it is equipped with good quality cardiac signal detection sensors (photoplethysmographic or pulse sensor) and a sufficiently powerful processor to manage a large amount of data while minimizing the occasions for error.

For the assessment activities HeartMath recommends using the emWave Pro Plus, the latest born among the training biofeedback tools, with which it is possible to carry out one-minute assessments with the “1-minute HRV Deep Breathing Assessment” application, to evaluate the activity of the vagus nerve during the respiratory act, or from 2 and more minutes with “HRV Assessment” to evaluate the activity of the entire system in resting conditions.
So in a simple and non-invasive way it is possible to open a window for the analysis of Heart Rate Variability and scan the cardiac activity in certain moments of the day (morning – afternoon – evening) and understand, for example, if there has been recovery from intense physical stress or emotional, but also if the training load is sufficient or excessive. Furthermore, it is possible to understand how much the persistence of some moods or the recurrence of some negative emotions (emotional loop) can affect the autonomic nervous system and modify the normal course of Heart Rate Variability.