Your Genetic Code Is Not Carved in Stone

[Guest guest]

Isabel, I know that the grandchildren of one alcoholic rat, showed their

grandfathers 'substance abuse' in their DNA. For many years I know that Lamarck

was right, whatever 'science' was saying. Ciao, D.

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Interesting. However, if the Therapeutic Products & Medicines Bill goes to a 2nd

reading, forget about taking 2000mg vit C/day [i take minimally 20,000 & lately

35-40,000mg/day]. Isabel

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This article came in a composite email. I've not been able to find a URL so it's

possibly not up on the web yet.

Your Genetic Code Is Not Carved in Stone

By Al Sears, MD

New research is revealing how your environment actually changes your genetics -

and it's putting you in the driver's seat.

In November, the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute released the

results of their groundbreaking study. They found that a mother's diet during

pregnancy not only affects her child, but also her child's offspring.

This means that the lifestyle choices a woman makes can affect several

generations of children - a revolutionary idea that flies in the face of

conventional wisdom.

For more than 150 years - since the time of Darwin - scientists have believed

that any changes to an organism cannot be passed on to the next generation.

According to strict Darwinism, if you were to change your diet, lose weight, and

become super-fit, your children would not benefit from your efforts. But we now

know there is something more at play: the " epigenome. " The epigenome plays a

powerful role in your health... and could make the difference between whether or

not you " inherit " heart disease or diabetes or something else.

Scientists in an emerging field of research - epigenetics - have discovered that

your genes are only 15 percent of the total genetic material you get from your

parents. For example, your genes give you many individualizing traits like blue

eyes or brown hair. The remaining 85 percent - the epigenome - is a scaffolding

of proteins that surround your DNA's double-helix pattern.

As it turns out, this " scaffolding " functions as an interface that interacts

with your environment. Based on the lifestyle choices you make, the epigenome

has the power to turn genes on or off, changing the way your body translates

your genetic coding into the proteins that make up YOU.

The Children's Hospital Oakland study, lead by Dr. , split

genetically identical pregnant mice into two groups. The mice had been bred in a

way that gave the scientists the ability to monitor a gene that determined both

the color of their coats and their tendency to develop chronic disease. So, by

tracking coat color, they were able to follow the effects of vitamin

supplementation across two generations of offspring.

The first group of mice received a standard diet. The second group received the

same diet, with the added benefit of supplemental vitamin B12, folate, choline,

and zinc. When the babies were born, the females from both groups were mated and

fed identical diets with no supplements. When the offspring gave birth, Dr.

's team discovered that the original mice that had the diet with extra

vitamins passed the benefits on to both their children and grandchildren.

Findings like these have powerful implications in both directions. It means

that, by making healthy choices, your efforts can have a positive effect not

only on your children but on your grandchildren as well. On the other hand, a

diet of fast food and sodas will not only wreck your own health, it could

predispose future generations to chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes, and

heart disease.

That helps to explain why so many schoolchildren suffer from high blood pressure

and low HDL (good cholesterol). The poor dietary choices their parents made are

coming home to roost.

This discovery gives us new insight into a long-standing debate between

Darwin and a guy you may never have heard of - French naturalist Jean-Baptiste

Lamarck.

Darwin's theory, which has been shaping the direction of modern science, can be

summed up in a few words: Genes cannot be affected by the outside world. In

other words, your lifestyle choices have no effect on your genetic code or how

those genes are expressed.

But Lamarck believed that if an organism changes during its life in order to

adapt to its environment, those changes would be passed on to its offspring -

and Dr. 's study is one of several that are proving he was correct.

So, guess what? It looks like you're no longer a " victim " of your genetic

programming. If, for example, if you decide to exercise vigorously to develop

new muscle, it now appears that it's possible for you to pass on a

predisposition to build muscle with exercise to your children... and perhaps

even further down your line of descendants.

Conscious decisions to improve your health will interact with your epigenome. In

turn, the proteins in your epigenome can turn off genes that would have

otherwise expressed themselves as disease in your descendents.

Instead of the old model, think of your genetic code as a library. You have

thousands of choices, but you never check out all of the books. The epigenome

interacts with your environment and your choices to determine which books to

" read. "

Your Genetic Code Is Not Carved in Stone

Vitamins like E, C, and A send messages to your genes that normalize cell

division. This alone can aid in preventing many forms of cancer.

For vitamins E and C, I recommend taking more than the U.S. government suggests.

Start with 100 IUs of vitamin E and 2,000 mg of vitamin C daily.

Here are four other nutrients that powerfully support detoxification and proper

genetic expression:

Vitamin B12: 500 to 1,000 mcg daily

Folic acid: 500 to 1,000 mcg daily

Vitamin B6: 10 to 20 mg daily

Betaine: 200 to 1,000 mg daily

Don't sit back and allow " bad genes " to ruin your health. Take action and make

yourself and future generations healthier.