These vegan health articles are presented to assist you in taking a pro-active part in your own health.
See All-Creatures.org Health Position and Disclaimer
Your inherited DNA is not your destiny. It can be altered by diet and lifestyle.
Remember studying genetics in high school? We were taught Mendelian genetics,
the concept that we inherit genes for our traits from each parent off a single
strand of their DNA—that beautifully coiled double helix. Every cell in our body
has the same DNA, 22 pairs of chromosomes and two sex chromosomes. A perfect
example of simple Mendelian genetics is blood type. If you inherit the gene for
type A blood from one parent and the gene for type B from the other, you will
have type AB blood.
However, most of what makes us look, behave, and develop as we do is not due to
Mendelian genetics. Although every nucleated cell has the same complete set of
chromosomes, each cell behaves uniquely. For example, stomach lining cells make
hydrochloric acid needed for digestion and cells under our tongues make saliva,
important for the digestion of sugars, our main fuel. Can you imagine if all of
this didn’t run smoothly? What if the gene that made hydrochloric acid was
somehow turned on in our mouth? Yikes!
While every cell contains all of the DNA that codes for every process in
our body, what actually gets expressed is very carefully regulated. The
cells do what they are meant to do by selective expression of some genes and
the suppression of others. Our DNA is kept tightly coiled around proteins
called histones (think of histones like a spool around which DNA is
wrapped). When the DNA is wrapped up, it cannot be transcribed or expressed.
Thus, histones play an important role in gene expression.
This brings me to the recent discovery of epigenetics, which means “on top
of” the genome. This is a very new discovery from late 20th/early 21st
centuries. It refers to the understanding that factors other than our genes
and the DNA base pairs that make up our chromosomes affect our phenotype
(how we look, feel, and behave). This doesn’t mean that smoking will change
your blood type, as some traits cannot be altered. However, there are many
thousands of genes that are significantly affected by environmental and
lifestyle factors, especially pollution, chronic stress, smoking, exercise,
and — especially — diet.
Epigenetics works partly by attaching small chemical side chains, a methyl
group (a process called methylation), to the DNA, for example,or an acetyl
group to the histone, to affect gene transcription. It could be due to the
process of unwinding a gene from the histone, so that it can be transcribed
and therefore expressed, or wrapping it up more, so that it can’t be
transcribed, causing suppression.
Here’s how epigenetics may work to reverse cancer. Dr. Dean Ornish took 93
men with early stage prostate cancer and divided them into two groups. One
group ate a low fat (11%) plant-based diet, had a support group for stress
reduction, yoga or meditation, and moderate exercise (walking 30 mins, 6
days/week). The other group had no diet or lifestyle intervention. After 12
months, all of the men in the intervention group had a decrease in their PSA
(a marker for prostate cancer) and none required any treatment for their
cancer. In the control group, there was a statistically significant rise in
their PSA and 6 men required medical intervention for progression of their
disease. Incredibly, on a DNA level, Dr. Ornish was able to show that over
500 genes were altered by this diet and lifestyle intervention. This
included the down-regulation of 453 genes that promoted disease, including
cancer (like the RAS oncogene), and up-regulation of 48 genes that
suppressed cancer and other disease.
Epigenetic changes to your DNA can be transferred to your offspring if
they occur before you reproduce. In 1998, researchers followed the offspring
of women who were pregnant during a severe ice storm in Quebec and found
that the more stress the women experienced, the more autism, metabolic
disease, and autoimmune disease there was among their children. On a
molecular level, the amount of methylation in the offspring’s T-cells (part
of their immune system) was entirely different depending on the amount of
stress that their mothers experienced while pregnant during this natural
disaster.
Your inherited DNA is not your destiny. It can be altered by diet and
lifestyle and chemical exposures. You have control over some of this, and
you should use it (especially when you are young and still desire to
reproduce). I agree with what Dr. Ornish prescribes: Eat well, move more,
stress less and love more.
Debra Shapiro, MD, is a Board Certified OB/GYN, a Vegan Lifestyle Coach and Educator, and Certified Health Coach. She is passionate about getting the word out about the benefits of plant based eating, and the vegan lifestyle, for the health and well-being of all living things and the planet we all share. Her website is A New View of Food.
Return to Vegan Health Articles
Visit Food Hazards in Animal Flesh and By-products
We began this archive as a means of assisting our visitors in answering many of their health and diet questions, and in encouraging them to take a pro-active part in their own health. We believe the articles and information contained herein are true, but are not presenting them as advice. We, personally, have found that a whole food vegan diet has helped our own health, and simply wish to share with others the things we have found. Each of us must make our own decisions, for it's our own body. If you have a health problem, see your own physician.