Stop Blaming Your Genes
Here is a very important message if you want to live an active, healthy, quality of life for 80, 90, 100 years and beyond: Stop blaming your genes. Too many people rationalize unhealthy choices with words like, “why bother, it’s in my genes.” You can’t get away with this anymore.
The lifestyle choices that you make for yourself and your family can literally change the course of your history. A family history of heart disease or cancer used to mean that it was your destiny to get those conditions too because they were “in your genes.” Through the science of epigenetics we have learned that nothing could be further from the truth. Epigenetics, which means ‘around the gene’, has shown that your lifestyle choices, both positive and negative, significantly influence the expression of your genes.
The largest nature/nurture study ever done was on 44,000 pairs of twins. The study found that the primary determinate of cancer, in most cases, was environmental or lifestyle factors such as tobacco use, diet and exercise rather than the inherited disposition of a person’s family history.
A recent report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA found the activity of more than 500 genes in the normal tissue of thirty men with low-risk prostate cancer changed after the patients began eating diets higher in fruits, vegetables and whole grains and lower in red meats and fats while also implementing an exercise and stress reducing regimen.
After three months the men had changes in the activity of about 500 genes including 48 disease preventing genes that were turned on and 453 disease promoting genes that were turned off.
You may have inherited a lifestyle that causes Diabetes, heart disease or cancer. If so, it’s time to change the course of your personal history towards a new, healthier future.
Changing the course of your history is not rocket science. Eating a diet filled with fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and lean meats will keep you lean and healthy and they will activate healthy genes. Exercise, as a part of a lifestyle, reduces stress, strengthens your heart and muscles and has been shown to reduce the risk of nearly every disease.
Optimistic thinking has been shown to keep people motivated to make healthy lifestyle choices regardless of their circumstances. In addition, chiropractic care as a part of a healthy lifestyle, Lifestyle Care, keeps your spine and nervous system aligned, balanced and healthy and free from deterioration, this ensures that the vital messages between the brain and the body are optimized. Reducing stress is also important as stress has been shown to shorten the telomeres, or caps on the genes, which can reduce the life expectancy of your cells.
One of the life-changing principles of The 100 Year Lifestyle is “Change is easy, thinking about change is hard.” It is much easier to eat healthy and exercise regularly as a part of your lifestyle than it is to be on a weight gain-weight loss roller coaster or to chronically have to deal with being sick or injured.
Chiropractic care as a part of a lifestyle is a much better option than the crisis to crisis suffering that comes with an unhealthy spine and nervous system. Bringing these values into your home can literally change the course of your history and ensure a healthy future for you and your loved ones.
Article Originally from 100 Year Lifestyle
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