Growing up, we assumed that if we were born to healthy parents, whose parents were healthy, we would live until a ripe old age. We weren't old enough to understand what that meant, or what it was down to, but subconsciously we were drawing conclusions about our gene pool.
More recently, research has established a new thinking on genes and how our genes work. Where genes once controlled our lifestyle, it’s now known that it’s our lifestyle that controls our genes. If we get the lifestyle right, our genes will continue to protect us.
How well we control our emotions, will determine our genes. Where genes play a part in determining hereditary illness, in some cases, living a healthier lifestyle, can change certain outcomes, which in turn set certain genetic markers.
Exercise, nutrition and emotional self-care are known to contribute to controlling our genes. We have to be sensible in our lifestyle choice. We get to have a say in how our bodies respond, when we’re stressed through our emotions and how well we deal with our emotions.
That would certainly explain why people with good family genes, no known hereditary history of illness, die early and why someone with a family disposed to early death through illness, live a long life.
Yes, I do often wonder what happens to our genes during a lifetime of stress and chaos. I most certainly think it does alter a person, to allow them to survive.
I think of the example of my niece, who ended up with Asperger's after her mother was under an extreme amount of stress, while she was pregnant. You would think that a child who develops in the womb with all those stress hormones going through their system would be genetically altered.
She became almost like a robot, with no fear and little understanding of the consequences of her actions. Obviously this created a lot of issues when she became hyper-sexual and chose to act out that way because it makes her feel good.
The sad part is that her dad was kind of oblivious to her behaviors, since he's definitely autistic himself. It would make sense then that even if you had the genetic markers for certain illnesses like Parkinson's in my case, there are things you can do to avoid it.
In my case I chose to quit drinking, since I knew more than likely it would cause the Parkinson's to come on at an earlier age. Both of my parents lived very unhealthy lifestyles, so it's amazing that they lived as long as they did.
My Dad is 84 and seems to still be going strong even though his mind is mostly gone. Dementia also runs in both sides so that is another thing I do fear, since my mind is the one thing I have going for me.
I actually went for psychological testing to find out how well my brain is functioning since I already have short term memory issues. I'm going to try to do what I can, to keep my lifestyle from making things any worse.
I think you've hit the nail on the head Randy. Asperger's tends to run in families and with your nieces' dad being autistic, that means his daughter could be too.
I personally believe there are things we can do to change our genetic markers and a better lifestyle is the way to do it. It makes sense that the more healthy we are and stay, the easier the transition into old age.
You're right when you say you're going to try to do what you can to keep your lifestyle from making things any worse.
I personally think we owe it to ourselves to do as much as we can to keep ourselves healthy; not only for us but also for our children. When it comes to keeping ourselves healthy; we can't put a price on our health.
Having Cerebral Palsy makes me more susceptible to certain illness; therefore it's important I keep myself well. That said, I don't think we're out of the woods. I believe we will all have something.
So even if our decisions are healthy decisions, we're still carriers, and that means some people will not have their normal threescore and ten, but that's common these days.
It's the beautiful features of our genes that make us disease survivors; like the spirit of our Ancestors, you'll know when you contracted it.
Thanks Tim. Yes, we're still carriers there's no getting away from that, but it's the spirit and lifestyle that change the way our genes work. I would say it's more the spirit, but a positive lifestyle contributes greatly too.
It's the mind that keeps our genes in check. I have seen it happen. I have seen it go the other way too, where someone with particularly good genes passed early, because she was emotionally weak. I know of someone who has been struggling with illness for 30 years and yet she's still going strong, because she is mentally strong.
Whether we have good genes or not if the mind is weak, we will succumb to illness quicker; our genes can't help with that, but that if the mind is strong, our genes can go the distance.
I agree, our emotional wellbeing kind of dictates our physical wellbeing.
My paternal grandparents both had great genes and were stubborn as hell and lived to 88 and 98. My father died very prematurely at 56.
Both he and my grandfather were heavy smokers; the difference being my dad had to live with my grandfathers, 'I'm right, you're wrong' attitude, whereas my dad was quiet and unassuming and I know for sure that contributed to his disposition to poor health.
Quiet and unassuming is fine as long as others don't take advantage of us to the point of us getting stressed. Unfortunately stress equals disease, equals poor health.
I am very much a believer our emotions contributes to ill health. I agree with this article.