Genomic Medicine? Edit thine own genes?!
For some, the thought of all aspects of both their current and future states of health being etched in stone comes as a relief.
It’s a relief because believing this as a truth removes ALL personal responsibility and effortful action towards better health from their lives.
Heart disease? Nothin’ I can do, “It’s in my genes!”. Diabetes? “My whole family has it, it’s in our genes and there’s nothing I can do! WRONG.
Now, there are very clearly genetic predispositions to all manner of disease states. The beauty though, is that MOST predispositions are just that.
And, to be clear, scientists are still at the very beginning of understanding exactly which actions and choices are best for which set of genes.
BUT! That does not mean that we cannot take into our own hands a number of aspects of our health that are very clearly “editable” via diet and life style.
Ketosis, fasting, exercise, heat and cold shock… ALL of these have massive long term positive effects on our health through epigenetics.
I like to think of epigenetics as an incomprehensibly massive set of “on/off” switches. In every second of every day our thought choices and emotions (due to the neuro-chemical changes our thoughts can lead to), our consumption choices and habits, our physical activity or inactivity, what stressors we expose ourselves to…EVERY part of every day we are flipping a myriad of epigenetic switches on and off.
We do this whether we are the hyper aware self optimizer OR the person who believes their genetic lives are written in stone. Epigenetics is happening whether you choose to guide it or not.
If you want an in-depth schooling on epigenetics from an actual scientists, I recommend Dr. Rhonda Patrick and Dr. Lucia Aronica.
Dr. Rhonda Patrick has created a fantastic resource called the Found My Fitness Genetics Genome Analysis Tool where you can upload your DNA data and in less than 5 minutes discover your most impactful genes along with what the current research suggests may be the most beneficial nutritional and lifestyle insights specific to those genotypes.
Dr. Lucia Aronica, Ph.D., is Lecturer at the Stanford Prevention and Research Center, Genomics Lead at Metagenics Inc., and editor of the peer-reviewed journal Life by MDPI. Her research investigates how diet, genetics, and epigenetics interact with each other to impact our health and longevity, and how to use this information to design personalized lifestyle interventions.
Both are fantastic resources!
Also, If you’ve not already taken a dive down the rabbit hole of running your own genome…DO IT! It’s so much fun! Once you have your genome in hand, there are many resources to guide and educate you on choosing the diet and lifestyle best suited to your genes to make the most of your genetics.