In 1964, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson declared a “war on Poverty.” This program launched a number of anti-poverty initiatives, and the social safety net across the country has continued to expand. However, poverty, by the official government definition, when adjusted for inflation, has remained relatively constant since 1970. The War on Poverty appeared to have a good initial impact, but continued efforts and expansion of federal subsistence programs then failed to have much impact. Half of Americans pay no income tax, 12.6% are using food stamps, 5 million get federal low-income housing assistance, public schools are free (to individuals, not to taxpayers overall), 60 million children get the U.S. child tax credit, and the federal government distributes $29.6 billion in grant money to aid 42.6% of college students nationwide — massive money and effort has been put into helping the impoverished. The War on Poverty is ongoing, but the war is at best a stalemate, yet U.S taxpayers have spent over $22 trillion on this war since it started.
That’s not all. The gap between the rich and the poor is widening. While the top 1% of high-income Americans pay 40% of the total tax burden with our highly progressive tax system, the disparity continues to increase. As income-assistance programs proliferate, the poor are not only not catching up, they are falling further behind. Crime is rising particularly in low-income areas, 21% of Americans are considered illiterate, and 54% have a literacy rate below sixth-grade level. While some temporary inroads in the War on Poverty are being made, we are overall losing the war, becoming less educated compared with the rest of the developed world, and paying a high and increasing price in the process.
Theories abound as to why this is happening, but one thing is clear: poverty is infectious. Rising out of poverty, regardless of the hand-outs provided, is very difficult for those who start their lives impoverished. Poor segments of society are self-reinforcing. Belief systems of perpetual victimhood, inequality, lack of privilege, or other inhibiting rationales reverberate through poor communities. Even if they tell themselves that they can rise above their disadvantages, the belief that they are disadvantaged still roams their thoughts, if only subconsciously. Unless their core beliefs change, they are unlikely to grasp the opportunities that come, leaning instead on their victimhood expectations.
Most children in poor societies absorb these beliefs at a very young age. When older, these thoughts are ingrained, encoded into their brains. Even when they taste success and rise out of poverty, they may find it hard not to see divisions, and lack of opportunity, around every corner. That’s because the brain learns most at early age, and does so without judgement. These thoughts form the bedrock, the very foundation, upon which later, more nuanced thoughts develop. We also have learned that gene expression via epigenetics, or the ability of cells to choose which codes within their DNA to act upon (depending upon the mental, emotional, and physical environment) changes and stabilizes to match the frequent, ongoing thoughts the brain is producing. Such is the self-reinforcing nature of belief, which tends to make change harder, even when desired.
Perhaps you did not grow up in poverty. Maybe you had good parents, good schooling, and few traumas growing up. Yet your health isn’t great, and you are caught in a rut. Maybe your waistline has expanded and you aren’t as energetic as you’d like, or maybe you have some disease or condition for which you keep taking medicine. You didn’t grow up surrounded by thoughts of societal disadvantage, but your family was stressed out much of the time and you find stress has now settled into your life. To be free of any negative beliefs and subconscious programming, your young life would have had to be perfect, and almost no one has such a background.
Diet beliefs challenged…
We tend to let our children have what they want, especially when it comes to food. Getting them to eat the best food can be a struggle, and besides, who can resist when they start asking so sweetly for a cookie or candy. We forget that the first few years are highly formative, and we may not be modeling good eating patterns ourselves. Besides, it’s hard enough to keep up with them and manage a job, housework, and finances — we tend to give them what they readily accept and skip the hassle. Then, when they are older, perhaps we push them to better diets, or maybe they don’t like being overweight and try to eat better themselves. Perhaps they succeed, but often find themselves stuck at a high weight. Victimhood sets in: they must have “fat genes” that cause them to hold the weight. Are they correct?
As published in Nature Aging, researchers from the University College London conducted research to determine the effect of an early life high-sugar diet on genetics. They were seeing that those who started life with a high sugar diet had long-lasting changes in genetic activity, and a shortened lifespan, even when dropping the high-sugar diet later in life. They determined that a high-sugar diet inhibited a transcription factor — a protein that regulates the copying of DNA information to messenger RNA, which is key to how genetic information is expressed in cells — called FOXO (forehead box, sub-group “O”). This transcription factor is involved in glucose metabolism and is known to affect longevity. This inhibition of FOXO then led to a continuance of that negative genetic expression later in life. Their research was showing that early-life experiences changed the chromatin of DNA that caused the new expression to persist in latter years.
In a way, those of us who are overweight and think we are victims of “fat genes” are right, but it’s not the genes themselves, it’s the genetic expression of them which is stuck in a rut. And perhaps they are victims of sorts — victims to the high-sugar diet of their youth. But there is a way out…
The London research shows that early-life exposure to high sugar causes genetic expression to shift and tend to stay shifted in later life. In their experiments, they tried increasing the FOXO levels in adulthood and they saw genetic expression shifted and longevity improved. This shows that there is one “way out”, with higher FOXO levels.
Do you have to be a victim of bad genetic expression? The answer is no, but it requires effort and overcoming embedded beliefs. FOXO over expression occurs under the opposite conditions of under expression — starvation rather than readily available sugar. This is demonstrated in an article published in BMC Developmental Biology, where researchers explore the function and production of FOXO. Since FOXO affects downstream insulin management, their results should not be surprising: FOXO expression occurs in response to nutritional stress, and over expression of FOXO acts in opposition to the insulin signaling that normally leads to hunger and increased eating. In short, fasting leads to increased FOXO expression, which leads to increased longevity.
Fasting on a low sugar, low protein, high plant fat diet mimics starvation by activating the fat-burning metabolism instead of sugar and protein pathways. This is starvation without starving, or fasting by eating, and has similar effects on lowering insulin resistance and increasing FOXO expression. But what does society tell us? We hear that we should eat plenty of protein and shun fat to stay trim. We are told that sugar is bad, but then we are flooded with it in most of our foods. Given the prevalence of obesity and chronic diseases, it seems the messages we hear from society about health are about as effective as those the impoverished communities hear about their victimhood.
Use your head
Epigenetic changes are meant to give us great adaptability to our environment. Your body stands ready to adjust to unexpected conditions from a vast library of coded options passed down from generations that survived war, famine, drought, and lavish luxury. So genetic expression does not have to be stuck in a rut. What gets stuck is what signals and controls all of your body — that’s your brain. It is capable of causing dramatic shifts in your genetic expression, for good or bad, depending on your thoughts — particularly your subconscious thoughts. And the thoughts impressed on your brain during your formative years that set your brain’s foundation are the strongest influencers.
What is happening with food exposure at infancy is just one way that early life sets the stage for later life. Early life trauma of any sort is recorded at an extremely impressionable time and has long-lasting effects. They are foundational for later life stress of all types. Core beliefs and subconscious replays cause the brain to send healthful or harmful signals throughout the body. Your body’s health depends upon your brain, so use your head! You are not a victim, you are not being unfairly singled out in life. You are loved by your God your Father. That message has to infiltrate to your core and become your foundation. Then your whole body will get the message.
Dr. Nemec’s Review
So much of our life is programmed. Our subconscious minds were programmed by our first years’ experiences, and unfortunately we did not have conscious filters to separate good from bad, so many have their destiny apparently preset by the time they’re six years old. These subconscious programs run 95% of your physiology and your mental emotional state, including your perceptions, beliefs, personality, and attitudes.
Well, then you say, I was defeated before I started. I didn’t have any chance at all. I grew up in a toxic environment — mentally, emotionally, physically — how can I ever overcome?
As subconscious programs develop early in life they control the majority of your mind and body, health and wholeness, but as we saw in the BMC study when a person does a physical act of fasting, this changes preset genetic outcomes. So you are in control after all: even with subconscious and genetic programming early in life, you can overcome by what you do today — it can epigenetically change your genetic outcome as the studies have shown.
Everyone in life has had adversity, has had hardship, whether be physical, mental, or emotional. Some children raised in the best environment money can buy still develop and mature no better than an impoverished child.
Why, what is the key factor?
Environment. It is absolutely environment that programs the subconscious mind early in life. It is epigenetically the environment turning on and off certain gene functions. Remember weak genes don’t hurt you: it’s the environment that turns on and off the genes, the mental-emotional-physical environment — and you are not in control of that in your early formative years, but you are 100% in control of your decisions, including what you decide to think about when you are an adult.
So why it is that rich children given everything they want can end up exactly the same, if not worse, as the impoverished poor child, who is neglected?
What’s the most important environment for development?
Is it financial state?
Is it diet?
Is it mental emotional stressors?
Is it toxic people?
The absolute most important environment that balances the majority of genetic programs is Love.
So instead of looking at what physical-mental-emotional disadvantages we have, what we should be looking at is how much love did we receive?
Many will say obviously not much. That’s why I am a victim. I’m a victim of not being loved enough. And this certainly is true whether you grew up poor, or you grew up rich: the only truly rich person is the one who has love and feels loved.
So then we go on a journey to find love that we never had and we get married or get involved with another person, and we think this person will love me, but as most marriages find out we’re looking for someone to do for us what only God can do: to give us unconditional love. This is His trademark. This so uniquely sets apart the things of the world, the things of people filled with the world, and the things of God.
So what’s the answer?
You can physically change your environment with diet and lifestyle changes that will positively affect your genes function, and your health, both physically and mentally-emotionally. You can start this today. There are no excuses, it’s just a matter of when you’re ready to take responsibility for your life and your health and stop blaming the people and the environment around you. You have the ability to change that environment yourself right now — you don’t need anyone else to change — you need to change.
This is what our program has been about at Revolution New Medicine for the last 40 years, empowering people to change their subconscious programming, their conscious programming, their diet and lifestyle, and most importantly, helping them reconnect back to the Family they came from before they entered this realm.
We are all the offspring of God, our father: whether we know it or not, whether we believe it or not, it’s placed in every one of our hearts, and this is the source of unconditional love that heals us and sets us free. So the answer is found within you, not outside of you. So let go of what you don’t have and grab hold — and hold on tight — to what you do have in your heart. Even if you don’t know it He IS there waiting for you to open the door.
“If you seek me, you will find me when you seek me with all of your heart.”
“I stand at the door of your heart and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into their heart and be one with that person, and they will be one with me.”
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 Total Health Institute 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 Total Health Institute 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.
