Andrea Cayea

My quest to genotype 50 people has been more challenging then I care to admit. I tried to put a few flyers around some of my local haunts but I did not get one call. So my new strategy has been to find people with large social networks (or big mouths) who need to lose weight or have expressed that they just don't feel good. My hope has been that one person would tell the next and they would come streaming in all wanting to know the secrets of their personal diet. It has not been that simple because many of my friends have given up on losing weight due to so many failed diets and being menopausal. Still I continue to bother them and have no shame in telling them that they need to shed a few pounds; that their future health and well-being is important enough to invest in.

My consultations with people go something like this...

First, I let them know it will take about 2 hours for the initial consultation. In the beginning I didn't tell people this and soon learned that they were, more often than not, stopping by between picking up kids and getting home to dinner. These distracted people are really hard to work with. I also realized some people need to know all the details while others just want the diet without the research behind it.
For those who want to know the whys and why nots, I have found Eric Morrison's blood type movie to be quite helpful. I can sit people down to watch the movie and know that in the end they have some basic understanding for the food choices. I have had a very good response to the video; two people actually watched it twice. Eric's “Explaining the Blood Type Diet” runs about 45 minutes so during that time I make a cup of tea for my guests to enjoy while watching, and then I get everything ready to measure and fingerprint them.

Once the film is finished I answer any questions and then take their health history. It’s interesting to see that many people don't really understand what diseases they have. I find many who are on blood pressure medication will deny they have high blood pressure because in some quirky way they consider it irrelevant if they take medication. They don’t realize that meds often only mask the disease. This is also common for those with high cholesterol who keep their condition under control with a prescription. Inquiring about their medications or the results of any tests they may have had is a good way to know their underlying health conditions.

Once I have their medical history I begin the body measurements; my husband Jeff helps me with this. I have a chair already measured that I know is 17 inches high so I always have them sit in that chair, it is my genochair. Standing and sitting height, weight (I let them write it down rather then say it), finger lengths, head measurements, waist, hips etc… Having witnessed Dr. D'Adamo and his team of interns measure people at the University of Bridgeport helped me understand the proper way to measure people, particularly leg bone length. I take all the information I need for an accurate Genotype and record it on a 5”x8” index card my husband created that contains data on one side and fingerprints on the other.

While I measure them I have a short discussion on what the measurements mean, this is often a bit abstract for most people. Getting them to understand how body measurements will somehow relate to the foods they can and can't eat is the most difficult part. They often look a little blankly at me, trusting that I know what I am doing. (I will mention Manning just incase they want to go look him up for more information.)
Once finished, our first visit is over.
In the beginning I used to figure out the genotypes of people and give them their diets all at the same time. But I have found that most people need some time to think through what we have discussed. The time between measuring and the receiving of their food lists helps them to prepare psychologically. It also gives me time to speculate what foods they might have questions about.

During the second meeting I go over the diet page by page. In this way I can address any initial concerns they have regarding its content. I like to show people the food on their lists that may not be familiar to them, so I make sure I have a few of those items around the house. I’ve even reached into my freezer to show them grass-fed beef or homemade flax meal bread. Samples sometimes become part of this second visit. O's always want to know where the bread is and A's want to see the fruit and vegetable list. Many A's have never eaten tofu or if they have it has only been served in some unappealing way. O's begin to freak out when they see the list of carbohydrates and wheat is in the red avoid section. This is when I begin to pull out bags of quinoa or millet to show them what they can have. Initially I was unprepared for the response of O's, thinking everyone would embrace the idea of not eating wheat, but the media has ingrained in us the idea that we can't live without wheat in our diets.

This sharing of information is the part of genotyping I enjoy most because I am able to impart years of food knowledge, both my own and from Dr. D’s work, with people. I send them on their way, knowing that in a few days they will be calling me as they wonder what ghee is, or how to buy fresh fish. And gladly I will be ready to share what I know.

When I told someone I was contemplating the start of a support group and possibly cooking classes so we can share our knowledge collectively,
I could see excitement in her eyes. At moments like those I know I am in the right place and doing what I love.

Many of the patients I care for in the Endoscopy unit where I work have low blood counts and receive blood during their hospitalizations. Since these charts have blood typing slips on them, I always look to see if I can guess the blood types of the patients. I had a whole family of Warrior A's last week that pulled out their blood donor cards as I guessed their blood types. All three were tall men with long heads.

This unit does out-patient blood transfusions as well as endoscopies because the volume of endoscopic procedures has been dropping. Doctors do more and more in the office. In order to make money the hospital accepts short term patients to make up the short fall. These "out patients" (they come in and go out) receiving blood are cancer patients. Each unit of blood takes about 3-4 hours to be transfused so we get to know the patient pretty well over the long days. Many of these people come week after week for blood, usually until they are too sick to come in or die. It is sad when they stop coming and it often takes me and my co-workers a few weeks to realize that the person is gone. However, new patients replace the old ones and the cycle continues.

This week I had a women come in who had stage four ovarian cancer, she was very frail. She needed to receive only one unit of blood and because she was frail I ran the blood over the full 4 hours. Her sister, (I'll call her Sue) and husband were by her side the whole time, holding her hand and encouraging her to drink small sips of fluid. I started a conversation with Sue and asked her some basic questions about herself and her sister's illness. She described how her sister had a swollen lymph node that on further investigation turned out to be stage four uterine cancer. Her sadness about her sisters illness was evident in her voice and posture.

I could see from the blood I was giving her, that the patient was blood type A. I suspected that she was a Teacher genotype and as I touched her fingertips, I could feel that she had very low fingerprint ridges. I also thought that possibly her sister shared her same blood type.

I gently asked Sue, "Do you eat soy by any chance?" She said, "I have it everyday."

My interest was peeked. "What type of soy do you eat?" " Oh I have soy milk everyday in my cereal."

I asked her if she ate tofu or tempeh? She said, "Yes, I eat those too."

I then asked her if she knew her blood type? She said that she was an A.

" I'm an A too," I said.

I asked her if she had heard of the Blood Type Diet?

"Yes, I have, I keep the book on my coffee table. You know my family and friends think I am crazy. I don't talk to anyone about how I eat. They all have something to say about it."

I smiled and knew exactly what she was talking about, at that moment we spoke the same language. Our relationship became deeper, we were two A's sharing a common experience, the Blood Type Diet. Just by having this information I suddenly understood her better.
We talked about Dr. D'Adamo for a few minutes and I told her about his latest book the Genotype Diet, she hadn't heard of it but promised she would read it.

When our 4 hours together were finished, I pulled the IV from her sisters arm and gently held pressure to the wound. Then Sue lovingly dressed her sister for the ride home, we talked briefly about hospice care. I knew this was the last time I would see them.

One last time I encouraged her to make sure she ate her soy. She smiled, and knew exactly what I meant.

Please be aware that I can not contact you if you leave a comment here asking questions, I have no way of getting your contact information. My personal email is Yippycayea@optonline.net

I am not sure if you are familiar with the story of the Navy's Flight 19, for me it is not only a tragic tale of human error, but at a deeper level, one of trust .

The story:
Flight 19 consisted of five naval planes and 14 naval and marine corps aviators (five pilots, the rest radiomen or gunners). The planes were Avengers--large, single-engined torpedo bombers used in World War II. Four of the planes were piloted by student pilots; the fifth was piloted by Navy Lt. Charles Taylor, who was the experienced officer in charge of the training flight.

All 5 planes and the men in them were lost due to Charles Taylor's errors in navigation and lack of trust in the radio broadcaster. It has taken sometime for the US Navy to decide what the cause of the failure was. But recently blunders by Taylor have come to light.

The mistakes are amazing, but they do explain what happened, unlikely as it was. They include: (1) getting lost in the first place, after taking over from a student pilot; (2) mistakenly thinking he knew where he was when he didn't, and broadcasting that he didn't need help; (3) thinking he was in the Florida Keys when he couldn't possibly be even after ground radio told him of his error; (4) causing the flight to proceed on a generally north easterly direction, and causing the flight to sometimes change direction 180 degrees back and forth; and (5) refusing, despite repeated requests, to change Flight 19's radio frequency to the more audible emergency channel.

Sadly these were young men who trusted Taylor and lost their lives because of that trust.

In the world of nutrition I see parallel misconceptions...
1) Getting lost in the first place. Many of us are lost in a world of one size fits all diets that just don't work.

2)Mistakenly thinking he knew where he was when he didn't, Many of us think that we can figure out how to find health and weight loss for ourselves, then we realize that it is nearly impossible to make sense out of the contradictory information we hear and read.
and broadcasting that he didn't need help; Taylor thought he could do it on his own, many of us do the same, and end up failing, and blaming the diet not the dieter.

(3) mistakenly thinking he was in the Florida Keys when he couldn't possibly be, and even after ground radio told him of his error; I see this all the time on the forums, people ask a question get an answer that is is not what they want to hear and many times they can't accept the truth so they continue to decide on their own truth. I call this selective hearing.

(4) causing the flight to proceed on a generally north easterly direction, and causing the flight to waffle back and forth People who start in the right direction but then begin to veer off in another direction. Often losing site of what they were looking for in the first place.

(5) refusing, despite repeated requests, to change Flight 19's radio frequency to the more audible emergency channel.In spite of repeated signals from their bodies that their lifestyle is not working, they fail to change who they ask for help. Relying on faulty information.

When the truth challenges our belief systems it is never easy.

One of the things with the D'Adamo diets is that they do challenge many mainstream ideas about food and dieting.
How do you trust someone when everything you have believed about food is challenged?

It is difficult for some people to trust Dr. D'Adamo, letting go of years of following "one size fits all" advice requires trust. For me once I accepted that he knew what he was doing with my BT A Warrior body, I was able to embrace my foods and find peace of mind and health. I don't want any of you to get lost in the storm and go down because of lack trust like the young men of Flight 19 did. Trust is needed to practice this way of life, it is needed when one moves from the BTD to the GTD and then again when following an individual SWAMI.

I encourage you to put trust in Dr. D's work. I know you will not be disappointed.

I really like to go to ethnic markets, here on Long Island where I live a simple drive to Queens or Brooklyn will transport you to the many cultures of the world. I am not much for adventure-some driving but my friend Claire is, she was a taxi cab driver so she has no fear of traveling to unknown places. I had wanted to go to Patel Brothers, an Indian Market, for quite some time so with coaxing from my friend and tales of the great prices I met Claire at the market.

It is not a large store but we where the only non indian people in there. I could tell by the stares that they were as curious about us as we were about the foods and what to do with them. We cruised the aisles and read the labels trying to figure out what some of the items were. We saw Flexseeds ( E is intentional) we knew they were mislabeled flaxseeds, all sorts of mustard seeds both whole and crushed in large bags, huge containers of yogurt, Dosa mix which is lentil flour rice flour and salt, fresh turmeric ( looks like ginger) and huge bags of rice. A lovely young Indian girl saw our distress and tried to help us figure out the different types of mustard seeds. I ended up buying a large bag of crushed yellow mustard seeds, which are not as hot as the brown ones to make homemade mustard. The bags of almonds were the reason I wanted to go to the store in the first place $10 for 4 lbs of nuts is a price that is unbeatable. I bought two large bags to make tamari almonds with, for DH. This helps him to keep away from the smoked almonds that have all sorts of avoids in them.

I bought a few other things just to see what they were like, fresh turmeric which I grated into my morning tofu scramble it made my cast iron pan orangy-yellow, Dosa crepe mix which has a tangy sourdough flavor yummy, a guava for my son which the women behind the counter told me she puts salt and pepper on when she eats it and a large bag of millet flour for making homemade crackers. I will certainly go back to Patel Brothers. I think next time Claire and I will look for an Indian restaurant to go to in the area and I will treat her to lunch.

I have worked as a nurse for over 20 years in the same hospital. I like my job as hectic as it can be and I have no regrets about becoming a nurse. I have never minded the way the hospital smells or the way people look in hospital gowns. I know I am in exactly the profession I was meant to be.

I remember when I told my guidance counselor in high school that I wanted to be a nurse, you see my science grades where never that good, she merely looked at me from behind her glasses and said, "Hmm, are you sure you can do this? Your grades are not that good." From that moment on my resolve was clear I was going to succeed and be a nurse.

In the past year of my career I have been able to work some extra hours in the Endoscopy Unit, when nurses needed vacation time or they were sick. As I got to know the nurses and supervisor of the unit, I was asked to take a short test so I could recover patients after conscious sedation. By taking this test it allowed me to move between two areas of the unit, intake and recovery.

Two weeks ago they offered me a postion part-time, just 8 hours a week, this means I will be trained to assit with the procedures, yet another area of the unit. I am really excited about going into the procedure rooms and observing the colonoscopies and upper endoscopies. During my interview I was asked, "Why do you want to work in Endoscopy?" I smiled and replied, " The GI tract is the most important part of the body. It is the true brain."

I am sure that my supervisor didn't really get what I meant but she certainly felt the passion in my words.

My acual start date is April 19, that is when I get to offically watch and assist with the procedures.

I have until then to learn all I can about the enteric nervous system, or the gut. Thankfully my library has health books on the gastrointestinal tract. My pile of books grows larger and I have started reading while standing in the kitchen. I am excited about this new challenge.

A few things I have learned:

There are more then a hundred million nerve cells in the human small intestine a number roughly equal to the number of nerve cells in the spinal cord.

The intestines work without any input from the brain, they are independant, of the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. They are what is known as the enteric nervous sytem.

The digestive process is not simple.

Serotonin is the neurotransmitter of the bowel. Serotonin is stored in the bowel.

Gershon MD, Micheal The Second Brain, 1998 Harper Collins: NY