This was my third IfHI conference, and I can't pick a favorite, but if I did, it might be this one... even though it was a hard trip for a number of reasons unrelated to the conference.

My favorite thing about it was all the usable information. That's to be expected since Dr. D'Adamo lectured for so many more hours than in previous conferences. Here are a few tidbits that I found relevant:

White Lines: these usually go across the fingerprint horizontally, side to side, not vertically from tip to end like most of mine are. That means I have less of them then I thought. Vertical ones are often caused by hormonal changes (I'm guessing mine are since I've had hormonal imbalances since puberty).

I AM Explorer: My ring fingers are longer than my index fingers, despite much controversy on the matter (many people I've had measure me have thought the other way around, but in women, 2 mm is enough of a difference to not count as equal). I was ready to stay in explorer camp whatever my fingers said when I found this out, due to a few other things I learned at the conference, but it was nice to know I'm measuring correctly.

Genotype Mix-Ups: If somebody is unsure and follows the wrong genotype diet, as long as it's within their blood type's possibilities, it won't do any harm. It won't have as much therapeutic value as the right one, but it's still good. So trying one or two to see which works best is just fine. (I tried two, and felt better on the explorer diet, so that's where I'll stay). Why did the gatherer diet make me sick? It didn't. Some things were going on that made me sick (hormonal imbalances and/or candida), and the explorer diet addressed them better.

SWAMI Genotype is Awesome: look for an IfHI practitioner near you! After seeing how it works, I can see how individualized it truly is, not only taking into account all the measurements, but also allowin the practitioner to input different goals and problems to address for the individual. I can't wait to get my own report.

Candida: It thrives even in the saliva of non-secretors. Os don't usually get a ton of it, but their immune system overreacts to even a little. In Os, candida activates a primitive part of the immune system, the complement system, which doesn't use antibodies, but damages cells. I'd imagine this can wreak havoc in the digestive tract as well as the immune system. Addressing the inflammation and strengthening the digestive tract are two strategies I'm using. The inflammation reducing aspect of the explorer diet seems to help me greatly. I have to say that I haven't totally "believed" in candida before, but now I think it's a big problem for me. It's not worth using antifungal medications because it will just bounce right back, in fact it seems that it's not really worth "fighting" the candida directly, but fighting the inflammation of damage therefrom seems to be the way to go. As I review my notes, I'll post more about this. Oh, and celiac disease makes one more likely to have candida problems. So, an O-non-secretor with celiac disease can have an interesting time of it.

Teachers and intestinal overgrowth. Once again, celiac disease makes this more of a problem (this applies to my son). There are a number of dietary things that can help with this. Burdock root is the first one that comes to mind. I think I'll do a blog about this subject and about the candida...so stay tuned.