The Concept of Epigenetics

We see healthcare professionals blaming genetics for modern diseases that have no other explanation. Family history of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, cancer, etc. I’m not buying it, and there is new evidence suggesting that illness is correlated with something called epigenetics rather than genetics.

It is true that our genetic blueprint is inherited from our parents; however, how those genes are expressed is entirely dependent upon environmental factors. This is the concept of epigenetics.

Have you ever seen a family that is obese? If the parents are obese, there is a good chance their children will be as well, but is that because it is encoded within their genes? I do not believe this to be true. Obese parents will likely raise obese children because they all live in the same environment, and children typically adopt the lifestyle of their parents atleast until adulthood. Parents control the environment in which they raise their children. Some major factors of gene expression include: exercise, diet, sleep patterns, stress, exposure to toxins or radiation, light, drugs etc. For those who have a parent with heart disease, that illness was technically caused by genomic changes triggered by environmental stress, rather than hereditary cause. If you choose an environment that is similar to a parent with heart disease, it should not come as a surprise that you may have a similar fate.
 
A great analogy would be that our genetics are like hardware that we are born with. Epigenetics is like the software which continuously reprograms itself to dictate how the hardware behaves. It is not the hardware that malfunctions when we become ill, it is the software that needs to be reprogrammed or upgraded. Our environment and lifestyle determines whether or not we can reprogram our software so that our hardware can function within said environment. You can never reverse a disease without changing the environment which brought on that disease. This is why some overcome cancer, and tragically some do not.

Illnesses and disorders in children such as ADHD today are much more common than they were 20 years ago. How can a child develop these disorders if there is no family history? Hint: the environment that children are born into today is radically different from our past environments. That modern environment is changing how genes are expressed in young children, leading to early onset of illness. It has nothing to do with “bad genes” we pass on to our children.

Here’s a good read:
http://naturalhealthperspective.com/…/epigenetics-lifestyle…