You Are What You Choose

“You are what you eat.” It sounds like  absolutely ancient nutrition advice. Recently the truth behind the saying is starting to be seriously investigated–with tremendous health implications.

Until recent years it was believed that identical twins would get the same serious illnesses because they possessed identical DNA.  Consider this: in many human and animal studies one twin will get a disease–even a disease believed to be genetically related, like cancer–and one will not. Clearly, something other than genes is at play. The twins made different decisions; perhaps about diet, perhaps about exercise, perhaps about career or even attitude. All choices you make will actually affect the expression of your genes.

Epigenetics studies how your genes are affected by your lifestyle, including all those factors that control the expression of the genes other than DNA. (Hence epi-, meaning “on top of”, -genetics.) In other words, you can turn on recessive genes through healthy habits and turn off dominant genes with bad health implications. These changes made using lifestyle choices may remain through the life of the cell and get passed on generation to generation.

Consider the implications: you can change your medical fate. If your father had heart disease, high cholesterol, or cancer, you do not have to have it as well. What you eat will affect your own physiology, as well as the genetics of future generations.

If you are looking for changes to make, please stay tuned for more blog posts and look for 101 Ways to Live Well. We will be coming out with more tips every month in the 101 Ways to Live Well series, and posting every week with the latest information in many health areas.

Have you beat the odds of your family medical history by changing your lifestyle? Please share your story. If you have any questions about epigenetics, I would love to hear from you! Please comment or email me at drclaps@clapschiropractic.com

~ by danclaps on June 16, 2012.