Genetics Or Epigenetics – NaPodPoMo

In today’s episode of Self Powered Healing, I’m going to talk about that age old question, is it nature or is it nurture? Only it’s going to be phrased a little different. It’s going to ask, is it genetics or is it epigenetics?  

One of my favorite college courses was genetics. It might have been a favorite simply because I found it easy to understand. Or maybe it was a companion course, the laboratory, where we got to play with fruit flies. But I think the real reason I found the course easy was that everything seemed to fit so nicely together. It was all so cut and dried. When you looked at things, it was easy to tell what the outcome would be. You just needed to know which genes were recessive and which were dominant.  

Of course, all of that was on paper. And the reality of life, though is not always this simple. Genes, after all, are merely codes. They are not all-decisive. They act as a set of rules or a biological template. However, genes are turned on or off by their environment. An environment that includes nutrition, stress, and emotions.  

Genetics is not always that simple. And as more is learned, the answer to that question, is it nature or nurture, tends to point more to nurture. Another way to say that is that epigenetics definitely plays a role in outcomes, sometimes overriding those genetics.  

What is epigenetics? The literal translation is that it is “control above genetics.” in plain English, it says that epigenetics tells us that gene expression is influenced by the environment, where you live, your family, what you eat, your emotions, your stress levels. Or as my friend likes to say, “Genetics loads the gun, but diet and lifestyle pull the trigger.”  

In Gabor Maté’s book, “When the Body Says No,” he suggests that the evidence for genetics in breast cancer is not high at all. The number of women at high genetic risk for breast cancer is small, and only about 7 percent of women who acquire breast cancer acquired it through genetics. The data also suggests that even for those with a genetic predisposition to breast cancer, environmental factors must be involved. If they weren’t, then more people with those genes would develop breast cancer. Heredity, it seems, appears to make little or no contribution to breast cancer.  

I also found this from Tom Laughlin, a man that worked with cancer patients for many years. He asked the question, “Why is it that children adopted at birth develop every genetically
inherited disease according to the history of their biological family,
except cancer?” Studies indicate that adopted children develop cancer along the lines of their adoptive families, not their biological one.  

Perhaps then we should reconsider that whole idea of having genetic testing done. What value is that information? For me, I don’t want to consider it because I don’t think I want to know. If I know that I have a gene for a disease, I know that I will be one that’s likely to worry about developing the disease. So you can count me out. It also suggests that the idea of removing body parts, such as breasts, to avoid cancer may not be warranted at all.  

All of this is not to say that genes don’t have a role, but what it tells us is that genetics alone does not decide. It seems that nurture, or epigenetics, plays a bigger role than nature, or genetics.  

Thanks for listening today. If you have any comments on this episode or on the whole NaPodPoMo concept in general, you can visit this page to leave comments either on this page or at SelfPoweredHealing.com/November2024. You can also find a listing and link for all November’s episodes on that same page: SelfPoweredHealing.com/November2024.  

By the way, Self Powered Healing is still looking for interviews with people who want to share a story of healing. Do you have a healing story? I would love to hear about it and see if maybe you could share it on our show. So if you’re interested in sharing, then visit selfpoweredhealing.com/share to schedule a chat.  

You aren’t committing at this point. You’re just having a chat with me to see what’s going on. It will be confidential unless or until you decide you want to share. And if you get there and there’s not a convenient time for you, send me a message because we’ll always find a time.  

And remember this always,  