Are Genes Really to Blame for Health Problems?

A very popular current and prevalent theme in the West is that sickness and disease are caused by our genes, something inherited that we can do nothing about. “Well my mom had high blood pressure, so it's no wonder I have high blood pressure...” Many today believe most of their health woes are caused by defective genes given to them by their parents and there is nothing that can be done. While it is true genes are what cause our bodies to malfunction, it is not true that they are out of your control!

You may be amazed to learn that over the age of 30, you are in control of 98% of how your genes express themselves, while only 2% lies outside of your control! How you live and what you eat either turns on the genes for disease, sickness and health symptoms or not. 

How Genes Function

To understand this and apply it effectively to increasing your health, you must understand how genes function. Genes are the instruction manuals for the body. They are the instructions for building all the proteins that make every process in your body work. You have approximately 25,000 genes in your body. Each of these genes gives instructions on how to create each different part and each different process in your body. This is an important process because your body is constantly re-making itself. Every thirty-five days your skin replaces itself, every month you have a new liver and every five months a new stomach. Everything in your body is in a constant process of regeneration and genes are what determine how everything new will grow. It knows this by following the instructions contained within your genes. The type of stomach your body will make is based on what type of stomach your genes tell it to make. If your genes are normal, meaning without any change or mutation, all your body parts and processes will grow to be normal. However, if there is any change or mutation made to any of your genes, the instructions get changed and changes in body processes can occur.

You Control Your Genes

It is true you inherit some genes from both your mother and father and if their genes had any changes made to them, you can inherit those gene changes. These are called inherited mutations BUT whether these genes are turned on or off is dependent on the things you do. Everything you do and don't do either activates these genes or allows them to lay dormant!  

Then there are acquired gene mutations, or changes to your genes that occur during your lifetime. Acquired mutations are created by the things you do as well such as the food you eat, how much exercise you engage in, what chemicals you expose your body to, if you allow those toxins to accumulate or regularly cleanse them from your body, how much stress you are under, the content of your relationships and the thoughts you think. Each of these things have an impact on your internal biological terrain (the health of your internal body) which then has an impact on your genes. The things you do create acquired gene mutations and turn on or off your inherited mutations. 

Families who see specific diseases or health related problems passed down generation after generation, have to look at the habit patters that are turning on inherited mutations or creating acquired mutations. The family is passing down the very causes for these diseased gene expressions including dietary and lifestyle practices, thought patterns and behaviors, exposure to toxins and how stress is handled. 

Most health symptoms are caused by the acquired gene mutations that occur over your lifetime. The Archives of Internal Medicine journal estimates 80% of all chronic diseases are due to lifestyle choices, or to acquired gene mutations and not dependent upon your inherited genes, which means you are almost completely responsible for the creation of health problems you experience!

How Lifestyle Factors Dictate Our Genes

This is an amazing example that shows how dietary and lifestyle factors dictate our health! The red squares on the left represent prostate cancer genes. After 3 months of lifestyle interventions, they were down-regulated, showing up as green in the picture on the right.

This picture is taken from the Ornish Study which took 30 men with low-risk prostate cancer tumors, and for 3 months put them on a low-fat (10%) plant-based diet, had them exercise for 30 minutes a day, 6 days a week, and participate in stress management sessions with yoga, stretching, and meditation for 60 minutes a day. 

Before the intervention of healthy dietary and lifestyle practices their cancer genes are show up as red in the picture on the left, however just three months later, the cancer genes are turned off, and show green. The men literally "turned off" these cancer genes with lifestyle changes. The red genes are the ones that promote the growth of breast, colon and prostate cancer. They also were bale to turn on the GSTM-1 genes. The GSTM-1 genes cause breast, colon, and prostate cancer cells to commit suicide. This was truly an amazing study!

You Control Your Health

All of this is good news, because it means you have almost complete control over your health. Just because diabetes, heart disease or cancer runs in your family does not mean that you also have to get it! What it does mean however, is that you will have to make changes, possibly significant changes in order to prevent mutations and changes to your genes throughout your lifetime.

The choices you make every day create your health. When your internal biological terrain is compromised, it creates acquired mutations that change your genes in a way that leads to health symptoms and problems. You have almost complete control over your health!

Lifestyle Practices to Implement to Prevent Disease Gene Expression

1. Adopt a low-fat (10%) plant-based diet. Your fats should be coming from healthy fats such as those found in avocados, nuts, seeds and oils like flax and olive oil. 
2. Eliminate bad fats. Bad fats include saturated fat and trans fats. Saturated fat is found mainly in animal products, meat & dairy. Trans fat is poison for your body. It is found in hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils like fried foods, margarine, fast food, cookies, processed food, crackers, chips, and snack foods. 
3. Eliminate added sugars and syrups including high fructose corn syrup (soda pop), malt, maple, fruit juice concentrates, dextrose, maltose, molasses, raw sugar and table sugar.
4. Exercise for 30 minutes a day, 6 days a week
5. Participate in stress management sessions with yoga, stretching, and meditation for 60 minutes a day. 
6. Avoid toxins found in convention produce and food products and cleanse your body every 3-6 months to remove accumulated toxins that come into your body from the environment and products. 

Candice Marley is a Holistic Health Practitioner, Holistic Nutritionist, Raw Food Chef, Master Herbalist, Ayurveda Consultant and Wellness Coach who utilizes foods, herbs, wellness coaching, Ayurveda, lifestyle refinement and a variety of complementary and natural healing modalities to help her clients succeed in meeting their health intentions, heal if sickness is present, and achieve optimum health and vitality.

For questions or individualized assistance you can contact through her web site at:
www.alignholistichealth.com
or Email:
alignholistichealth@gmail.com