by Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D.
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If you are like most people, you
believe that your genes have predetermined
just about everything
about you. As you look in the mirror
each morning perhaps you see
your mother’s eyes or your father’s
smile. You may also be convinced
that your genes have already predetermined
the illnesses you are destined to suffer. In
her book, Living Downstream, Dr. Sandra
Steingraber describes her health challenges
in living with bladder cancer. Because her
mother, uncle and grandfather had all died
of various forms of cancer, many people who
knew Sandra assumed that she had inherited
cancer genes. They were not aware that
Sandra had been adopted. Her cancer, she
believed, was caused by exposure to environmental
pollution as a child. This reminds us
of the fundamental truth where supposed
genetic predispositions are concerned: external
conditions—the circumstances to which
your genes are exposed—contribute either
to maximum wellness or to disease, accelerated
aging and premature death.
I live and work in Tucson. Not long ago I
opened our daily paper, “The Citizen,” and
read the story of Vernon White, who served
in Vietnam in the late 1960s. Along with
tens of thousands of other soldiers, Vern was
doused with Agent Orange, the infamous
and highly toxic herbicide used to clear
ground cover in the dense jungle. According
to the Department of Defense, as many as
19 million gallons of Agent Orange were
dumped on Vietnam. Our government
admits that the toxin is responsible for the
terminal lung cancer from which Vern suffers.
His exposure to Agent Orange injured
his genes beyond their ability to repair
themselves and cancer was the result. Agent
Orange has been proved to be the cause of at
least 10 other types of fatal cancers in the
same way—by ruining good genes.
If you think that we are programmed in
advance by our genes to have cancer or not,
the sad story of Vernon White shows that
this is not always the case. He had excellent
genes until Agent Orange came along. The
Stockholm Study augments this knowledge.
In that research study, over one thousand
identical twins were observed for many
years. At the end of that time it was noted
that there was no correlation between the illnesses
the twins developed. One of a pair
might have developed heart disease, the
other cancer.
Many people are not aware of this type of
work, however. A recent survey conducted
by the American Institute of Cancer
Research highlights this point. Eighty-six
percent of people in the survey thought that
genes cause cancer. According to leading
researchers, however, only about 10 to 15
percent of cancers are genetic in origin; the
rest are caused by a combination of environmental
and lifestyle factors.
The food you eat is among the most significant
factors affecting your genes and
pushing them toward cancer by causing
mutation or disruption in their function.
That is, what you eat can either prevent
cancer and other chronic illnesses or help
cause them.
Consider the following: Imagine that you
are sitting in a lecture hall where I am at the
podium discussing food as medicine.
During the course of the lecture I announce
that I have a guest outside the room. I
describe him as a 55-year-old man who
works 12 hours a day, eats junk food, smokes
two packs of cigarettes a day, drinks alcohol
to excess, does not exercise, practices no
stress management techniques and has no
social support system or genuine faith. Do
you anticipate seeing someone who looks
younger or older than his chronological
years? You would guess that he would look
older and you would almost certainly be
right.
Before he comes out, I announce the
presence of another 55-year-old. This one is
happy with his life. He wakes up every
morning and as he says, “I shake hands with
God.” He eats well, following a primarily
vegetarian diet with some fish; he loves
organic produce, does not smoke or drink and
plays tennis four times a week, after which he
lifts weights. He is very content with his family
and has a strong and genuine spiritual life.
How old do you imagine he would look?
Younger than his years, correct?
Finally, both men come out of hiding and
both your guesses prove to be right. The first
man looks 70 and the second looks 45. There
is a quarter of a century difference between
them, judging by looks alone. The first man
has done everything he could to push his
genes to express themselves in a negative way,
while the second has encouraged his genes
toward the expression of optimal well-being.
They have had a choice—a say in what their
genes would and would not do. The same
choice now faces you.
Because you eat so often, your food is the
single most important way to maintain your
genetic integrity or to destroy it. Many excellent
scientific studies underscore this vitally
important truth. Richard Weindruch, Ph.D.,
has conducted research into how genes are
affected by dietary change. The results were
published in Scientific American in 1996. His
paper, “Nutrient Modulation of Gene
Expression,” illustrates that simply by reducing
the number of total calories eaten, the life
span of a lab mouse could be prolonged by 30
percent. In human terms, that would translate
into extending the predicted life span from an
average of 76 years to a ripe old 93. You would
be very satisfied with that life expectancy,
wouldn’t you? I’d gladly settle in advance for
90-some good years.
There are 6,347 genes in the typical lab rat.
Dr. Weindruch discovered that during normal
aging, when the animal was permitted to eat
as much as it desired, five percent of the rat’s
genes underwent an increase in activity and
five percent decreased. Ninety percent of the
rat’s genes showed no change in activity levels.
Are you surprised to learn that the five percent
that rose in activity were stress genes and the
five percent that fell were energy genes? This is
similar to what I see in patients who are aging
prematurely. They are fatigued, depressed and
stressed. They describe having chronic pain,
arthritis, memory loss and weak immune systems.
Some are recovering from cancer.
Unfortunately, until I ask, they have rarely
thought about how diet may have caused
many of their symptoms.
The rats in Dr. Weindruch’s study that ate
all they wanted experienced more stress and
less energy. The opposite was true among the
rats that ate less. They maintained their
youthful biochemistry even as they aged.
Their fur was shiny, they were sexually active
and they did not have arthritis, cancer or
memory loss.
Perhaps you are not interested in being able
to run a maze at age 60, but I know you would
like to have as much energy as possible and
you want to be active at every age and stage of
life. Merely by cutting down on your total
calories and eating better foods, you can send
positive signals to your genes, thereby increasing
your chances for a long, robust life.
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Because you eat so often, your food is the
single most important way to maintain your
genetic integrity or to destroy it. |
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Other researchers, most notably Roy
Walford, M.D., a retired professor of pathology
at UCLA, have conducted similar research on
larger animals, such as monkeys and even
humans. The results were similar. Walford’s
research showed that theoretically a person
can live for approximately 120 years without a
severe decline in quality of life. His research in
the famous Biosphere I experiment, which
took place about 50 miles from my desert
home, also showed that eating a low-calorie
diet decreased the activity of cholesterol genes
and thus reduced fats in the blood that are
associated with heart disease.
As a doctor specializing in brain longevity,
I can tell you that Dr. Walford’s research also
has very important implications for cognitive
function. Eating well modulates the genes that
regulate the production, as well as the quality
and quantity, of the important brain chemicals
known as neurotransmitters, such as serotonin
and dopamine. As a result, you can eat
to prevent or reverse memory loss and influence
mood. Using food as an anti-aging medicine
helps your brain to keep regenerating for
as long as you live. I have seen this many times
in my clinical practice.
Dr. Walford and his life extension enthusiasts
eat approximately 1,500 to 2,000 calories a
day. This is less than most men are used to
eating—but then again, in the United States
we eat too much. This is quite obvious to me
when I travel to Europe or Asia, where the
portions at mealtime are much smaller than
those we serve here and as a result, the level of
obesity is low. I recently saw a picture of Dr.
Walford and at 75 he looks at least 20 years
younger. He’s very active physically, jogging
every day. Intellectually, too, he is active, busily
writing and speaking in public about his
work.
The key to the Walford plan is what he
calls “undernutrition without malnutrition.”
This means being able to lower your caloric
intake comfortably without sacrificing nutrient
density or the positive messages that your
food sends to your genes.
All the research on caloric restriction points
out that you are constantly speaking to your
genes and the words are the food you eat. On
the surface of all your cells there are receptors
or chemical and vibrational handles. These
receptors are attuned to the energetic intelligence
pervading their environment—your
body. Moment to moment your body is
buzzing with signals of peace or stress. These
signals can be vibrational, chemical, nutritional
or hormonal. Regardless of the form they
take, they are transmitted as part of the vast
intelligence network linking mind, body and
spirit.
After a message is picked up by a cell’s
receptors, the machinery inside the cell
responds by synthesizing certain chemicals
called second messengers. These messengers
then communicate with the nucleus in the
center of the cell, where the genes are housed.
These genes pick up the signal and based on
the message received—peace or stress—they
synthesize proteins, such as enzymes and other
chemicals, like cytokines and leukotrienes,
that are then sent out of the cell as messenger
molecules. These new chemical messengers
communicate with other cells all over your
body. This is the basis of the science of intercellular
communication, the optimal functioning
of which is crucial to total health and
longevity.
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