Lottery commercials are everywhere, trying to entice you to play even while you know that the odds are against you. Somehow the get-rich-quick stories capture your imagination, and you might succumb to the advertising. Why? Probably because you want to be better off than your neighbors and have the financial advantages that winning the lottery could give. Yet, if you play the lottery, chances are poor that you win more than you loose, and are very poor that you win anything of significance. Most likely you just loose money.
You may wish you could have won another type of lottery — the so-called “genetic lottery.” Perhaps you envy the super models that just look so perfect, but your body appearance is constantly a disappointment. Maybe you wish to be a lot stronger. Maybe you weigh much more than you want — you figure you just have “fat genes” because everyone in your family is overweight, and dieting doesn’t seem to work very well. Maybe heart disease runs in your family and you are afraid you have inherited a weak heart. You know that genes control how your body forms and behaves, so you blame them when you don’t have the body you really want.
The genetic lottery is a one-time inheritance you received from your parents at conception. At least you can try again with the money lottery, but the genetic library is a one-time play. So you may feel that you don’t have any control over your genetic lottery. But is that really true?
You can’t change your genetics — you get the set of codes that you are born with. Apart from genetic changes that could occur due to radiation damage, your genetic codes are unaltered throughout life. That may be how you look at genetics: they are unalterable and you are stuck with yours. But epigenetics, where genetic expression can alter greatly depending on conditions, happens for all of us, and epigenetic expression can vary so much that you can look and feel like a very different person when your condition, your internal environment, changes. Because of this, you can “replay” your genetic lottery and take another shot at winning.
Your genes are unique, different from anyone else unless you have an identical twin. Yet, you can shift your genetic expression such that you can be strong or weak, very energetic or chronically tired, trim or obese, clear-minded or foggy — any of these are possible with the genetic codes you have been born with. There are a few exceptions — genetics so skewed that normal life isn’t possible — but those are quite rare.
Epigenetics are so powerful partly because you have many different genes that do different but overlapping functions. Interactions between genes can cause some metabolic results to be more or less evident. Some people will have less responsive, more recessive genetic responses, or more robust responses. We all have mostly the same genes: we are 99.9% genetically identical as humans. So many factors enter in to how those genes yield unique individuals that it is virtually impossible, even with modern science and supercomputers, to perfectly predict how genetic interplay will occur. We are getting close though, as genetic testing is now available that can predict levels of probability that your genetics will drive your body a certain direction. But they can only predict probabilities, because epigenetic expressions are strongly dependent on environment, which the computers cannot predict.
Epigenetics means you are in the driver’s seat, probably a lot more than you realize. We say in America, “you can become whatever you want to become.” That holds true for your genetic expression. If you really want to get to a proper weight and stay there, you can do it because your body will adapt to the care and feeding that you provide it. Even in late years of life, people have gone back to college to get Master’s degrees, gone from being couch potatoes to running marathons (in their appropriate age category), and overcome so-called age-related diseases that were supposedly impossible to beat. Most anything is possible, but you have to understand how to get there and decide that it’s worth the effort.
Mighty Mitochondria
If there’s one wish many of us have that trumps having and keeping a slim and trim figure, it’s to have plenty of strength and energy. We want to get up and take on the day with plenty of vitality to feel and be strong in all that we do. We focus on muscle strength, because we understand how to challenge and build muscle, but we often overlook energy — having good energy is elusive. To understand energy, we need to consider the energy factories that are in each cell — the mitochondria. These little power factories can either function well or poorly, and if they are running poorly, we won’t have much energy.
Cells can contain multiple mitochondria: while red blood cells do not contain any, liver and muscle cells may contain many hundreds. They are biochemical processing factories, which produce the Citric Acid (Krebs) Cycle. Mitochondria contain their own DNA, called mtDNA, which is less complex than cell DNA; however, proteins from the nuclear DNA can transport into the mitochondria, thereby influencing their function. This makes mitochondria a unique entity with special care and feeding needs. We want mitochondria to grow, regenerate, and multiply: the more healthy mitochondria cells contain, the more energy will be available to those cells. And muscle cells require high numbers of mitochondria to function, so muscle building is dependent upon mitochondria health and quantity. Proper muscle building will stimulate more plentiful and more active mitochondria.
Numerous research studies have explored the mechanisms by which muscle building and mitochondria build up occur, as they are vital not just to muscle builders, but to all of us. In one such study, published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Fitness, researchers conducted animal studies where one gene, coactivator-associated arginine methyltransferase (CARM1), was removed. CARM1 is involved in methylation, which is the process of turning on and off portions of the DNA so epigenetic expression occurs. Without the methylation provided by CARM1, the animals had a reduced desire to exercise, and showed reduced muscle response and repair with exercise. Further study showed that the mitochondrial size and fractional area (size times quantity resulting in total effectiveness) was lowered without the epigenetic adaptive function provided by CARM1. They also determined that CARM1 effects autophagy, which is the body’s cleanup of old, defective proteins so that new replacements can be produced. In all, they determined that CARM1 is vital to DNA repair, signal transduction, transcriptional coactivation, mRNA slicing, and protein translocation. Finally, they noted that the responses to CARM1 deletion were sex dependent, demonstrating the complex interaction and overlapping of genes, epigenetics, and environment affecting the total outcome.
Be a mitochondriac
If you are pursuing health, build up your mitochondria. In a review study published in Integrative Medicine: A Clinician’s Journal, this simple summation is made: “Mitochondrial reactive oxygen leakage is a strong predictor across species for longevity—the better a species does protecting its mitochondria, the longer a species lives.” The mtDNA of mitochondria is susceptible to accumulation of damage over time. That damage comes primarily from oxidative stress, and the best protection against this stress comes from antioxidants found primarily in raw, living plants. Also, the research lists common drugs, such as aspirin, NSAIDs, statins, and antibiotics that damage mitochondria through increased oxidative stress. These common medicines are potentially causing permanent damage to your mitochondria.
Besides nutrition, exercise plays a huge role in improving mitochondria. Exercise may be energy depleting initially, but over time regular exercise is energy building, simply because it causes more and bigger mitochondria to develop. Again, epigenetics respond to environment, and whatever your genetic starting point is, you can adjust your genetic response towards greater health and vitality. High-Intensity interval training (HIIT) is a particularly effective exercise because it creates a greater stress signal to your body to improve its response, yet isn’t so long lasting as to increase long term oxidative stress significantly.
You are steering
Because you have a huge library of genetic codes, and methylation that allows genes to be turned on and off as needed, you are extremely adaptable to your environment. While your body may react somewhat differently than others around you to your environment, you will nonetheless react. Some base genetic codes are less helpful than others, but they all are subject to epigenetics, which means you can steer them through the environment that you provide them. If you are exercising, you put stress on your cells that tells them to change their behavior: they need to get stronger and have greater endurance. Physical stresses are the epigenetic signals to your cells to get better at handling those stresses in the future. Your body will work with the genetic codes you’ve already got to respond to the stress.
Nutrition is the other side of the coin from stress. While stress pushes your cells to improve, nutrition empowers them. If your genetic lottery isn’t a big winner, you can still win if you give yourself excellent nutrition so your cells, so your mitochondria can function optimally. Your biggest mistake could be to blame your condition on your genes, rather than taking what you’ve got and getting the best from it. Genetics do matter, but what you do matters a lot more. Science-based wholistic nutritional and exercise guidance, along with therapies that work in harmony with your body, will help you steer better. But the bottom line is: you are the driver!
Dr. Nemec’s Review
Your genes, your DNA is your blueprint. That blueprint is modified by the environment you make with your thoughts, with your diet, with the air you breathe, the water you drink, the sleep that you get, and the exercise that you do every day.
We are all given a base blueprint by our parents. If you live to be an adult, that blueprint is good enough to enable you to be healthy at 105, IF — AND WE MEAN IF — you epigenetically control the environment that those genes live in. It makes no difference if cancer runs in your family line, if heart disease runs in your family line, or obesity runs in your family line, because:
You are not the base blueprint. You are the base blueprint multiplied by the environment you choose to put that blueprint into.
Let us say this again: your health, your longevity, your healthspan (not lifespan), is dependent 100% on what you think, both subconsciously and consciously, what you eat, what you drink, what you breathe, when and how you sleep, and what type and how often you exercise.
At Revolution New Medicine we have taught Seven Basic Steps to Total Health for the last 40 years. These seven basics steps are foundational to producing an environment that epigenetically either promotes health at the highest level or disease. Genes do not make disease, no matter what you’ve been told. All blueprints are modified by the epigenetic environment they are placed in, all the factors that we’ve just mentioned, and the most important one by far that carries the most weight: turning on or off the genes — thus modifying the blueprint — are your thoughts, your subconscious thoughts and your conscious thoughts.
So if you’re diagnosed with cancer, it is absolutely not about a certain gene gave you this cancer. Such false information is circulating widely in the medical profession and on the Internet. This is so prevalent that when people are diagnosed with a certain type of cancer and they have a certain weak gene that supposedly predisposes them to that cancer, then they believe all they have to do is remove that body part and they will undo the cancer blueprint and they won’t get that cancer anymore. People believe this information so much they end up removing body parts because they think they’ll live longer, the cancer will be gone, and they don’t have to be concerned anymore.
Ignorance is dangerous
What is the definition of ignorance? It is lack of knowing. Lack of knowing what? Lack of knowing all the facts instead of not just some of the facts, thus skewing a potential belief or perception. So when you go to your doctor and get diagnosed with cancer, then the doctor says “cancer comes from your genes. Let’s check your genes and see if your cancer is because of these weak genes”. So you agree and have this genetic test and it confirms that you have the gene that predisposes you towards this type of cancer, and what is implied is that if you remove this tissue, then you will be safe from cancer. These are biased and skewed interpretations of the facts. What is never addressed in any of such doctor-patient communication about the disease is that:
the environment is what rules over the genes — the genes do not rule over the environment. We will state this one more time for those who believe that their genes are their destiny and if they remove body parts then they’re safe from that destiny — this simply is not true. It is the environment, the environment, the environment that rules over the gene and that environment is made by you with every thought, with every meal, with every drink, with every breath, with every night’s sleep, with every exercise you do.
Let us no longer live in the bondage of fear, and the lie that our genes are our destiny. Instead, let us live in the truth and in the proper understanding of the facts of what controls your life, your health, your longevity, and your genes. Let us live, producing an environment moment by moment with seven basic steps, producing the epigenetic environment that enables us to be healthy at 105. And remember the most important step is what you think subconsciously and consciously. At Revolution New Medicine we developed a protocol years ago to evaluate subconscious and conscious stress programming that form neural pathways to every gland, organ and tissue in the body. We also developed a unique treatment program to not only release faulty subconscious and conscious programming but to reprogram the brain-body connection to every single organ, gland, and tissue in the body with TRUTH.
The outcome is optimized brain-body communication which produces the highest level of health and life each moment. Your genes will never be your destiny. instead your thoughts and the actions you take with those thoughts — those will be your destiny.
You choose your destiny. Nobody chooses it for you. You can choose either health or disease, life each moment or death each moment — it’s all up to you.
Here are the ways we can help you in your health journey:
- Outpatient Comprehensive Teaching and Treatment Program-has the most benefit of teaching, treatment, live classes and personalized coaching. This program has the most contact with Dr. Nemec with 3- 6 month programs that can be turned into a regular checking and support program for life. This is our core program that has helped so many restore their health and maintain that restoration for years.
- Inpatient Comprehensive Teaching and Treatment Program-is our four-week intensive inpatient program for those that are not in driving distance, usually over 4 hour drive. This is the program that is an intensive jumpstart with treatment, teaching, live classes and coaching designed for all our international patients along with those in the US that do not live in Illinois. This program is very effective especially when combined with our new membership program support.
- Stay at Home Program-is offered to continental US patients who cannot come to Revolution New Medicine but still want a more personal, customized plan to restore their health. This program also includes our Learn Membership Program.
- Membership Program is our newest program offered for those that want to work on their health at a high level and want access to the teaching at Revolution New Medicine along with the Forums: both Dr. Nemec’s posts and other members posting. And also, to have the chance to get personalized questions answered on the conference calls which are all archived in case you miss the call. The Membership Program has 3 levels to choose from: Learn, Overcome and Master. The difference is at the Overcome and Master levels you received one on one calls with Dr. Nemec personalizing your program for your areas of focus.
