We all have at least one genetic weak link, do you know yours? We can simply look into our family history and get a good idea of what might be expressed at some point in life.
I personally believe our genes do not have to be our destiny, but if you’re not careful they easily could be.
Unfortunately there is no such thing as immortality. As much as many of us strive to live the healthiest lives possible the reality is someday we won’t physically be here.
In my early years I had no concept for the aging process. I realized I was growing, getting older, but I never witnessed many of the things I do now. Of course I’m still young, but when you’re as active as I have been my entire life you notice the small changes in recovery time, output and exercise performance in particular. Now I’m starting to notice the even smaller changes, like increases in skin lines around the face (I think my wife calls these crows feet?). My hair line continues to recede a bit and I can grow a gnarly beard with ease.
I have no intention of trying to defy nature and live forever. I realize the attempt is futile and boring. But what I do want to do is not let nature grab her hold too early because of some man made cause that I can avoid. What I am referring to is expression of our genetic tendencies based on our lifestyle choices. Everything from auto immune disorders to heart disease fall into this genetic realm.
Yes, that’s right. I’m saying that we can in a sense elicit some control over our gene expression based on our environment. Some things we have more control over than others, like diet and chemical exposure to name a few. Others not quite as much, like radiation or continuous environmental pollutants.
We are not our genes, but we do have a window in what our weak links may be. I personally have an extremely strong family history linked to both high blood pressure and macular degeneration (basically late onset blindness). It does have its genetic roots, but the lifestyle causes like smoking or poor diet will ultimately lead to an early onset. I truly believe this and it’s now backed up scientifically.
A cool couple of videos discussing Epigenetics, the idea that we are not limited by only DNA.
What Turns Us On?
You know what I mean, what turns these genetic weak links on?
Stress that cannot be resolved.
This includes not only psychological stressors as many of us first think of, but also our overall environmental stress (foods, air, water, movement etc). For someone like me the first thing that pops up is chemical, as in food and nutrition. This has huge potential for speeding up these genetic switches.
Obviously we can’t stop there as everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is connected.
I picked on the stress that I most often see unresolved, food, but where did it originate? Is obesity, heart disease, cancer really a psychological issue, a movement issue or a food quantity/quality issue? Are there not issues in our environment beyond our control, like pollution and sanitation?
I think we understand it’s all of these.
Figuring out where your unresolved stress lies and finding resolutions is the beginning to living your healthiest life possible.
Here are some tips that I’ve found useful for myself and clients that greatly increase the ability to resolve stress while reducing the potential of exposing genetic weak links:
1) Eliminate the “dirty dozen“. Pesticide, herbicide and fungicide exposure has been linked to the onset of tumor formation and various cancers . When we consume these toxic chemicals it heavily burdens our system taking precious life force away from other processes. Simple changes in food quality by going local and organic will increase your health and decrease your chance of genetic predispositions.
2) Choose a diet that best suits your physiology. We are all different and therefore need different things, however there is a general baseline that would best serve our healthy endeavors.
- Eat more REAL food
- Choose higher quality fats and proteins
- Reduce and eliminate the reliance of processed/un-soaked carbohydrates
3) Move within your limits. Picking an exercise program that is within your limits and not overly forceful. Find things that you enjoy doing and it will be much more sustainable.
4) Eliminate environmental chemicals which place a heavy burden on the body’s ability to regulate normal functions. Here are a few simple steps that will get you started today.
8 Ways To Reduce Your Chemical Exposure
5) Enjoy life. Get plenty of rest and allow your body to fully recover. This helps keep all bodily systems functioning as efficient and effective as possible. Reducing stress and tension at all levels allows you to become more adaptable therefore keeping sickness or gene expression at bay.
For more information on choosing higher quality foods for you and your family don’t forget to sign up for my FREE guide to the right of this page.
I completely agree with this! Throwing up our hands and saying it’s in our genes and out of our control is one more way to be lazy, play victim and not take responsibility for our health.
In addition to the heavy influence of our environment on our health, what we think has an incredible force as well. I’ve been reading works by biologist Bruce Lipton (latest books are Biology of Belief and spontaneous Evolution). He basically says that our subconscious programming determines who we are in the world. If we can change our subconscious, we can change everything from our health to our relationships. If we decide that we’ll get sick, we get sick. If we decide that our genes have little to nothing to do with our health, so it will be.
Health isn’t nearly as cut and dry as most science and medicine would like it to be.
Thanks for another great post Brian!!
Paige | simple mindfulness recently posted..What’s the Meaning of Your Life?