Wear Your Best Genes

Do you have the misfortune of inheriting bad genes? Are you concerned that you might get breast cancer at 40, have a heart attack at 45 or go bonkers at 50 because members of your family have suffered from such a fate?

The good news is that even if we do inherit a less than optimal genetic structure that may predispose us to various potentially fatal health conditions, science is now indicating that we actually do have the power to influence whether or not we develop such diseases.  Life doesn’t have to be a waiting game.  Through our lifestyle habits we have control over whether or not these potentially harmful genes are activated or not.

To quote Dr Mercola, a trained medical doctor that practices natural medicine, “…once you understand that there’s something controlling your genes — that they don’t control themselves but are controlled by epigenetic coding that tells them to be expressed or not expressed — which is completely controlled by your environment and lifestyle — it just blows everything out of the water!”

By adopting a healthy lifestyle we can stop these bad genes from being switched on.  Even if we don’t have bad genes there is plenty of scientific research supporting the fact that conditions such as cancer and heart disease can be directly attributed to an unhealthy lifestyle.  By adopting a healthy lifestyle we can prevent such diseases, regardless of our genetic structure.

So what does a healthy lifestyle involve?  Research has shown that 95 to 99 percent (depending on which study you refer to) of all illness is stress-related. By eliminating as much stress as possible from our daily life, we can drastically improve our health, whether this be through formal stress reduction techniques such as meditation, or through removing stress-triggers from our life.  For example, maintaining only nurturing relationships and eliminating toxic ones, and finding a job that we enjoy.  Ensuring you get enough sleep so you feel refreshed and your body has time to regenerate each night is also important for stress reduction and healthy living.  The amount of sleep we need differs by individual, but experts say that between seven to nine hours is the optimal amount for most adults.

There are certainly other areas that can impact our health.  By eating fresh, natural organic foods and drinking more than two litres of filtered water each day we nurture our bodies rather than pollute them.  Toxins, such as those found in processed foods and the preservatives in food and alcohol can also have a very damaging effect on our health, as can preservatives such as methyl paraben, which is found in many beauty products (check the ingredients label in your shampoo, body wash, moisturiser and sunscreen and I am sure you will be alarmed).  For a healthy life we should all make a conscious effort to reduce or eliminate such toxins.

Daily exercise is also extremely important – at least 30 minutes per day, even if it’s just a walk.  The fresh air and sunshine will also do you the world of good.   Everyone needs vitamin D for optimal health and the sun is the best source of it. One of the biggest health issues our society currently faces is vitamin D deficiency as we are all so afraid of the sun.  Some doctors are now saying that the health risks associated with vitamin D deficiency are more serious than the risk of skin cancer.  So long as we are careful not to get sunburn, sun exposure is healthy and studies show that it vitamin D can actually have a role in cancer prevention.  You can’t absorb vitamin D while wearing sunscreen so spend a little amount of time in the sun each week without it (but only enough time so that you don’t go pink).

If we put these healthy habits into practice in our daily life we have the potential to live a long, healthy life, regardless of our genetic predisposition.  What’s more, scientific research in an area called epigenetics is now showing that the positive (or negative) lifestyle choices we make can actually be passed on to our future generations.

To quote Dr Mercola once again, “For many years we were secure in our beliefs that, no matter what we did to damage ourselves in terms of poor lifestyle choices, it only affected us. Our children would be born with a genetic clean slate. But now we are learning that this is not true, and epigenetic changes can be passed down for many generations. Each of us has far greater responsibility than we ever imagined!”

To quote a supporting article on the Epigenome Network of Excellence, “An expectant mother might well logically reason that what she eats will affect her unborn child. But the evidence is mounting that not only her children, but her grandchildren and subsequent generations will be affected by her nutrition. What she eats may not only affect her descendants as they develop, but potentially throughout their adult lives.”

This goes to show that our lifestyle is not only an important influencer of our own health and wellbeing, for but also for that of our future generations. …so live a healthy life in your best genes!!