Foods, toxins, vaccinations and microbes directly affect the physical function of your genes. And so do your emotions!
You can also listen to an audio recording of this blog.
We each have our own genetic makeup that makes us who we are. While that genetic makeup is obviously influential in our lives, it is not the sole determinant of the health and behavior patterns we adopt for ourselves, and also pass on to our children. That is most definitely within our control – whether we like it or not!!
Such influence can be described as environmentally influenced fine-tuning. While you are not changing the original broadcast pattern itself, you do influence how that pattern is displayed.
In my book, ‘Eat… Think … Heal’ I devote an entire chapter to this subject. The chapter is titled ‘Am I stuck with the genes I inherited?’
In my previous article and audio recording, I described the work of Dr Frank Pottenger in the 1930’s. Dr Pottenger fed cats varying degrees of processed and denatured foods, showing the impact of this diet on subsequent generations, causing deteriorated facial structure, social malaise, and reduced capacity to reproduce. The condition of the offspring worsened with each generation. The group on the poorest diet was unable to reproduce within a few generations. These findings also correlate with the work of Dr Weston A Price, who studied traditional peoples as they moved away from their traditional diets to a western diet consisting of processed foods.
The fact that the conditions continued to deteriorate further with each subsequent generation indicates a high degree of inherited characteristics and behaviour. If genes are unalterable, how can so much change occur so quickly? As Dr Bruce Lipton revealed to the world in his book ‘The Biology of Belief’, genes are in fact impacted by the environment.
This revelation by Dr Lipton shows us that we are not at the mercy of our genes. We can influence our genes directly through our own environment. Studies show that this includes the food we eat, as well as our exposure to toxins, vaccinations and microbes, as well as our emotions.
When Dr Lipton’s work first hit the headlines more than a decade ago through his popular book, it was not well received by geneticists. Today, this field of ‘epi-genetics’ is a widely recognised field of study. It emphasises the potential for nutritional and environmental factors to influence an adult, the baby in the womb, as well as gene regulation in future generations, resulting in numerous changes to physical appearance and behaviour.
Dr Lipton says that this story of epigenetic control is the story of how environmental signals, not our DNA, control the activity of our genes. Such control includes social and emotional experiences.
It is these experiences that Cyndi Dale refers to in her book ‘The Subtle Body’. She writes that “Epigenetics suggests that social and emotional events can be chemically programmed into non-DNA substances, which in turn influence DNA activity. These events are passed down inter-generationally.”
Why are twins different? In an article recently published in the New Yorker magazine (May 2nd, 2016), a layman’s answer is provided. They explain that idiosyncratic events are recorded through idiosyncratic marks in their bodies. When scientists sequence the genomes of a pair of identical twins every decade for fifty years, they get the same sequence over and over. However, the epi-genomes tell a different story. The pattern of epigenetic marks on the genomes of their various cells, virtually identical at the start of the experiment, diverges over time.
So the impact of our environment, in all its various forms, leaves a memory and changes the way our body responds.
We pass on both positive and negative environmental influences. This is very well demonstrated in a famous study on ‘Agouti mice’, showing how diet can cause improvement in physical characteristics. In this study, mice with the abnormal agouti gene were fed a range of dietary supplements. The agouti gene predisposes mice to a yellow skin colour as well as obesity. Although there were several levels to the experiment, one very clear outcome is that the ‘agouti’ mice that were fed a particular food supplement produced offspring whose skin colour changed to brown which is a normal colour for mice. These offspring also showed reduced incidence of obesity, diabetes and cancer. So even though the offspring still possessed the agouti gene, the environment altered the physical display of this gene and impacted enormously on the health of the offspring.
The studies by Dr Pottenger and Dr Price show deterioration over multiple generations. The ‘agouti mice’ study shows that improvement can also occur. Although the study was not conducted over multiple generations of mice, we can deduce that as environmental factors continued to improve, the health of future offspring of these mice would also improve.
Conclusions
So the food that we eat, the thoughts that we produce, and the toxins that our bodies are exposed to all impact how our own genes express themselves, and are then passed on to future generations, in both positive and negative ways.
Even without the impact on our offspring, the epigenetic influence can be profound. According to Dr Bruce Lipton, several studies show that only 5 percent of cancer and cardiovascular patients can attribute their disease directly to heredity. This means that their own environment has a direct influence on their wellbeing.
We have a choice as to the environment that we expose our bodies to. We are not at the mercy of our genes as was previously thought.
What can you do?
There are four simple steps that we can take to improve the epigenetic response of our genes.
- Eat fresh, chemical-free unprocessed foods as much as possible. Include fermented foods to allow your gut to build up stores of healthy microbes. I include here my recipe for fermented tomato sauce. This will have a dual benefit of (a) removing a processed product from your diet, by no longer purchasing processed tomato sauce; and (b) adding good bacteria to your gut to help build a healthy microbe population. This recipe includes the use of liquid whey to aid the fermentation process.
- Be conscious of your thoughts. Your emotions influence your body as much as your body influences your emotions.
- Avoid toxins as much as possible. This includes drinking filtered water. Research for yourself to form an opinion about fluoride and vaccinations.
- Look for family history of health or behaviour patterns. If you are interested to overcome inherited patterns, please contact me. As a practitioner of vibrational medicine, I may be able to assist with the release of inherited emotions and epigenetic programming, which can directly impact on your emotional and physical health.
Want to know more?
To learn more about epigenetics, you can read my book ‘Eat … Think … Heal’. I also recommend Dr Bruce Lipton’s ‘Biology of Belief’. To learn more about traditional foods and their benefits to your health, I recommend Sally Fallon’s ‘Nourishing Traditions’ book of recipes and research. To learn more about vibrational medicine specifically, the second section of ‘Eat … Think … Heal’ is dedicated to forms of subtle energy including a full chapter on vibrational medicine.
Your environment determines how your genes are expressed. And you are in charge of your own environment. Start with these simple steps and please contact me for any further clarification or to discuss possibilities with vibrational medicine.
In the meantime, remember “Let nature be the doctor”.
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