The Forgotten Dialect:
Our Body Language
Part 4: Mindbody Research Continued
by: Dr. Roger Gietzen
Neurologist & Mindbody Medicine Specialist
Genetics
With the discovery of DNA, scientists thought they had found, not only the blueprints for our physical and behavioral traits, but also the agent which regulates expression of those blueprints. Our culture still misunderstands DNA to be the library and that which determines how the library is expressed. This is clearly seen in the media where the gene that causes different disease states has been trumpeted to be discovered. However, very few genes actually guarantee that you'll develop a specific disorder. Those are called single-gene disorders and they affect less than two percent of the world's population. Examples of single-gene disorders include Huntington's chorea, cystic fibrosis or beta thalassemia. Inheriting most genes means that you only have the potential to develop a disease. A single gene does not guarantee a single disorder and a single gene does not even produce a single protein product. Some genes have the potential to produce up to 300,000 different proteins (18). Because of this variability, the most important question to ask about our health may not be “what genes did I inherit”, but instead “what determines how I express my genes”? It turns out that our stress levels determine whether our body expresses genes of health versus genes of illness. A study looked at medical students at times of relatively low stress and compared them to times before important examinations. This study noted that high stress led to an expression of unique stress related genes (19). This is not alarming. What might be alarming is that the impact stress has on our genetic expression is passed on to our children (at least in mice) without any change in the physical DNA content. In one study, mice of identical genetic background were divided into two groups. One was subjected to a stressful childhood and the other had a nurturing one. Despite having the same genes the two groups of mice expressed those genes very differently depending on their environment (just as the medical students above did). But the researchers were amazed at what they found next. When they took the offspring of the two groups of mice (which were genetically identical, but half had stressful parents) and raised them both in the same nurturing environment, they were not the same. The mice that had come from stressed parents expressed a much higher amount stress related genes compared to their counterparts, without any difference in the DNA library or any personal experiences of a stressful childhood (20). It may very well be for many of us, that it's not the genes we've inherited that are at the root of our illnesses. Instead it's the stress coping skills we've inherited!
References18. Lipton BH; The Biology of Belief. Hay House 2008. 19. Kawai T et al; Gene expression signature in peripheral blood cells from medical students exposed to chronic psychological stress. Biological Psychology, 2007, October 76 (3); 147-155. 20. The Economist; Learning without learning. 2006, September 23; p. 89.
Learn more about Roger Gietzen, MD
The Forgotten Dialect, Part 1
The Forgotten Dialect, Part 2
The Forgotten Dialect, Part 3
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