What we’ll talk about
The influence of genetics is often overestimated. You can have genes for a disease without the disease ever appearing in your family. Most genetically determined diseases are not based on a single gene, but on the interaction of several genes at the same time. The moment when they began to develop in a person is poorly determined in time. You may have genes directly for a given disease or simply genes that reduce the efficiency of some body system / organ (for example, a weak heart) We can think of these genes as the weak link in the chain.
Epigenetic field investigates environmental influences that can activate or silence our genes. If your body contains a weak link (genes for a disease / a weak organ) and you keep pulling on it, the part of the chain will gradually open and loosen until finally the day comes when you pull hard. And that’s when the disease manifests itself. The weak link in your health can be genes that make some part of your body weaker than others (e.g. immunity / heart / liver / digestion / thyroid gland). If you consistently overload this weak part of the chain with your lifestyle, there is room for health failure.
Genetics and Disease
The Complex Nature of Genetic Influence
While we know the cause of various bacterial and traumatic diseases (staphylococcal infection, poisoning, head injury, etc.), it is a bit more complicated for civilisation diseases.
Due to the fact that autoimmune disorders, diabetes or cancer are not linked to a specific culprit, and the moment when they began to develop in a person is poorly determined in time, the influence of genetics is often overestimated.
Very often, in doctors’ offices, after the diagnosis has been made, we can hear that it is probably a genetically determined disease, with which a person was already born. It is therefore not surprising that an extensive medical history is filled out by the general practitioner immediately during the first examination, where you indicate which hereditary diseases you may have in the family, from which your parents or grandparents died, and from which you are expected to die as well. A rather unflattering fate, isn’t it? And it’s even worse!
Genes as Weak Links in Health
In fact, you can have genes for a disease without the disease ever appearing in your family. How is it possible? There are at least two reasons for this:
1. Most genetically determined diseases are not based on a single gene, but on the interaction of several genes at the same time. And since you inherit half of your genetic information from your mother and half from your father, it may be your resulting genetic mix that brings together the necessary genetic background for the development of the disease.
As an example, we can cite schizophrenia, which is not triggered by one, but by five genes (we all have these genes, but we differ in their variants). And if the fates come together, it may happen that your mother will give you 3 of them and your father will give you the remaining two. In such a case, you may develop schizophrenia without ever having it in your family.
The word “can” is important, not must. How?
2. The fact that you have the necessary genes for a given disease does not mean that you will actually develop the disease. The presence of specific gene variants (or their combinations as in the case of schizophrenia) it only predisposes you to the disease in question, but it does not say anything about whether you are healthy or sick, even if the disease appears or you may not know about it for the rest of your life (and you will pass on the genes again).
The impact of the environment plays a key role here, especially the way you live. The level of stress, the amount of toxins you are exposed to, your food choices and your overall attitude to life, they all affect not only your body, but also your genes.
Epigenetic Impact
How the environment can affect our genes
One of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of the 21st century was the discovery that, although our genes are constant throughout life, they can be turned on and off. They are amplified or silenced.
Silent genes are those that are switched off at first glance – inactive. This can sometimes be good (as in the case of genes for schizophrenia), other times bad (for example, in genes important for health). However, if such a silenced gene receives an adequate stimulus from our environment, the gene can be activated and then begin to express itself.
In our example with schizophrenia, such an activation stimulus can be smoking marijuana or taking LSD, when schizophrenia subsequently breaks out in an apparently completely healthy person who, although he did not have it in his family, but unfortunately got a bad combination of genes from his parents.
Epigenetics (the Greek prefix epi- means above) is a young scientific field that investigates environmental influences that can activate or silence our genes. Only when we start to consider the epigenetic influences of the environment as well, does the emergence and development of civilizational diseases begin to make sense.
How does it look in practice?
You may have genes directly for a given disease or simply genes that reduce the efficiency of some body system / organ (for example, a weak heart). We can think of these genes as the weak link in the chain.
A hectic lifestyle, unhealthy eating, toxins, stress, they all pull this chain. If all the cells are solid, it will last. But if your chain (body) contains a weak link (genes for a disease / a weak organ) and you keep pulling on it, the part of the chain will gradually open and loosen until finally the day comes when you pull hard and the chain breaks. And that’s when the disease manifests itself.
In the case of schizophrenia, you can experience a series of wild parties that will pull on your chain and open a weak spot, until finally one particularly challenging party comes along that tears it apart, activates the genes to the required degree and the disease manifests itself.
Gradual development of disease
Unlike the aforementioned example of schizophrenia, where we can point to LSD and marijuana as the culprit, we unfortunately cannot find an obvious culprit at first glance in most civilizational diseases.
Whether it’s autoimmune disorders, diabetes or cancer, all these diseases develop slowly and creepily over years. The first year you may not feel anything, then for several years only alternating health problems will appear, and only in a few more years will the disease develop to such a form that you will go to the doctor, and he will diagnose it for you.
An example can be RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS, when your immunity (weak link) is constantly provoked by substances from the external environment, to which it loses tolerance after years (the chain weakens).
Subsequently, health problems begin to appear (joint stiffness in the morning, which starts from the fingers), but it takes several more years before severe joint pain brings you to the doctor and he diagnoses you with an autoimmune disease, where your body produces antibodies against its own cartilage and bones, which is clinically referred to as rheumatoid arthritis. But then the disease is at such a stage that some processes are irreversible and you can only focus on reducing their symptoms (such as inflammation, pain, etc.).
Examples of weak links of health
As I mentioned above, the weak link in your health can be not only genes directly for a certain disease, but also genes that make some part of your body weaker than others (e.g. immunity / heart / liver / digestion / thyroid gland).
If you then consistently overload this weak part of the chain with your lifestyle, there is room for health failure (e.g. heart attack, immune hyperfunction, liver detoxification overload, digestive problems, slowed thyroid gland).
Due to the different strength of health, of course, individual differences arise in what your body can handle and what will cause problems for it:
SMOKING AND LUNGS:
If you have weak lungs (and detoxification), regular smoking can be very dangerous for you and lead to lung cancer. On the other hand, we certainly all know many examples of people who smoked all their lives and died old and content. Sentences like: You have to die of something are true, but it definitely shouldn’t be in your 30s. If you are not sure that you have a strong genotype (see the example with coffee), then it is better to avoid smoking.
ALCOHOL AND DETOXIFICATION:
Alcohol is not good for anyone, it is a powerful toxin. However, as humans, we differ in how well we metabolize it. So while you certainly know heavy drinkers who enjoy good health despite frequent binges, for you just two shots can be the reason why you don’t get up the next day from bed. If you have weak genes but drink to socialize, you will shorten your life excessively just to have friends.
ANTINUTRIENTS AND DIGESTION:
In terms of diet, for some people, industrially processed foods or foods rich in antinutrients can burden digestion and cause not only digestive problems, but also skin problems, for example, while other people, for whom digestion is not a weak link in the chain, can consume them without a problem. But how hypocritical can it be if healthy people fight for food with antinutrients are needlessly demonized? Always listen to your body about which foods are good for you and which are not.
CARBOHYDRATES AND HORMONES:
Another example of genetic variation that needs to be taken into account is the difference in how our body reacts to different food components. For example, how much insulin we produce in reaction to the consumption of carbohydrates. If you have a genetic predisposition to type 2 diabetes or obesity, and you constantly burden a weak link of health – in this case, the pancreas – by consuming excessive amounts of carbohydrates, you will gradually lose insulin sensitivity, the pancreas will tire and the disease will break out.
Just as the environment affects our genes, so on the other hand, our genes decide how strongly the environment can affect us. So how much can we pull on the chain before it breaks.
Let’s look at one interesting example that shows the interaction between genes and environment:
Relation between coffee consumption and infarct
We all have the CYP1A2 gene, which determines how efficiently we can do it in the liver break down caffeine (and other toxic chemicals).
Based on genetic testing, it was found that this gene occurs primarily in two variants (alleles) in the population, which are designated as 1A and 1F.
People with the 1F allele metabolize the caffeine from coffee slowly, so when they drink a cup of coffee, they feel its effects for a longer time. If an afternoon cup of coffee affects you for 6 hours afterwards and you can’t fall asleep at night, then you are probably one of them.
People with the 1A allele, on the other hand, metabolize caffeine from coffee quickly, so they get a big kick from coffee, but only for a short while.
Since there are studies that point to both positive and negative effects of drinking coffee on health, especially the risk of a heart attack, researchers in a study from 2007 focused on the connection with a variant of the CYP1A2 gene.
What were the results?
CYP1A2 gene:
o Variant (allele) 1A: Rapid metabolism of caffeine
– 1 cup of coffee a day reduces the risk of a heart attack before the age of 50 age by 61%.
o Variant (allele) 1F: Slow metabolism of caffeine
– 1 cup of coffee a day INCREASES the risk of a heart attack before the age of 50 by 112%!
Genes vs. Lifestyle: Who Decides Our Health?
The age-old answer to the question of whether drinking coffee is healthy is: How for whom.
At the same time, this example explains why there are studies that confirm both positive and negative effects on health not only for drinking coffee, but also for a whole range of other substances, drugs and diets: Whether the body will react positively or negatively to a given stimulus from the environment will always be depend on your genes.
But the coffee example should have pointed on something more fundamental. Although the verdict on drinking coffee may seem unflattering (it is not suitable for everyone), it gives us some hope: Genes are not our destiny, it’s our lifestyle and our choices that decide whether it manifests itself or not.
Having the CYP1A2 gene in the 1F variant does not mean you will die of a heart attack. It is an epigenetic factor in the form of drinking coffee that overloads the weak link of your health and makes you more susceptible to disease. And you then have a free choice whether to drink coffee or not.
Conclusion
Our health is influenced by the genes and their combinations that we inherit from both parents. Some of these genes can also predispose us to the development of disease. But it is the environment (diet, stress, lifestyle) that activates these genes or burdens the weak links of our health. And it is we who have the opportunity to change the effects of the environment through our own choice and thus decide whether we will be healthy or ill. If we understand the mechanism by which the civilisation diseases arise, it gives us hope that we can prevent them or reverse their course.