Your Genes Are
Not Your Destiny
How much weight do you give genetics when it comes to your health? Do you blame them for that extra belly fat you’ve been carrying around? Or maybe you acknowledge that you have a higher risk for certain kinds of cancers that run in the family, and take actionable steps to reduce that risk.
Some genes can predispose you to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and a slew of other problems. But here’s a really great secret: predisposition is not predestined.
Ninety percent of our current health is controlled by the environment in which we bathe our genes—the food we eat, our exercise regimen, our resilience in the face of stress, and our exposure to environmental toxins.
If you come from a long line of overweight and sick people, you don’t have to sit back and accept that you’re doomed to become fat and sick, too: genetics are not your destiny!
Epi-what?
Epigenetics is the study of how our environment and behavior can influence which of our genes are turned on or off (1). That’s right—we’re born with many different genes but that does NOT mean they are all active. Genes can be activated or silenced from so many different things, like what you eat, how you move, and how you restore your system. Your thoughts, feelings, and social connections even regulate your genes, too. You can turn on genes that create health or disease, weight gain or weight loss.
This has been one of the biggest breakthroughs in medicine. Most people tend to attribute far too much power to their genes, but it’s actually your lifestyle impacting your genes that maps your health outcomes.
Look at it this way: genetics loads the gun, but environment pulls the trigger.
Sneaky SNPs
SNPs, or single nucleotide polymorphisms, are the most common type of genetic variation and can be caused by all sorts of internal and external environmental factors like our nutritional status, stress, mental health, and our biochemical individuality.
There are actually more than 100 million types of SNPs and there are 4 to 5 million present in a person’s genome, most of which have no effect—remember, just because they are present doesn’t mean they are impacting our health. SNPs can be identified through genetic testing and if they correlate to certain symptoms or diseases someone has, they can be a huge clue as to what actions will be most helpful.
Some SNPs can represent a greater risk for osteoporotic fracture; other SNPs are correlated to prostate cancer; and a specific SNP in the vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene has been associated with a higher chance of Crohn’s disease, which may relate to the inflammation-modulating properties of vitamin D. So, if it’s known a patient with Crohn’s disease has a VDR SNP, it makes sense to test vitamin D levels and supplement accordingly.
To sum up SNPs, they’re important puzzle pieces that reveal more about our individual genetic state.