It turns out we have much more control over how our genes express than we ever thought, in fact, we have 80-90% control. How we influence our genes through diet, lifestyle choices, the thoughts we think and our environment is our key to optimal health.

This means that genes alone do not cause faster aging, illness or disease in most cases - our choices do. The probability of developing symptoms, illness or disease rests upon the lifestyle decisions we make.

You may have the genetic potential for heart disease, but through your lifestyle choices - you can effectively turn on or off certain switches that prevent heart disease from manifesting in your life.

We are fortunate that we now know that we have 80-90% control in how healthy we are.. or not. This control, however, requires an element of responsibility and yet, gives us hope that we will not be another negative health statistic.

When many people gain weight or develop health conditions, they often believe they inherited the problem from their parents. I bet you've heard, "My relatives have it too." Although there are some fixed genetic traits, such as eye or hair color, and some genetic aberrations, up to 80% of our genes are influenced by our environment, including our lifestyle choices.

Many experts now agree that chronic conditions and diseases are strongly driven by lifestyle habits (eating, activity levels, stress, etc.). For example, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, high blood sugar/diabetes, overweight, arthritis, chronic inflammation, and cancer are significantly driven by our choices. A lack of healthy nutrition, too little activity, and heavy stress disrupt our metabolic systems. Over time, the damage can become more pronounced as our genes and health decline. Put simply, every bite you take matters!

Many people follow the disease-based model of our medical system (rather than an optimal-health/lifestyle one). So when people develop symptoms or have negative test results, they enter a system that provides a "disease" diagnosis along with drugs or other treatments. Many of those treatments mask symptoms but don't fix or heal the underlying cause. So when people take their pills or get a stent implanted without improving their lifestyle, they are unlikely to heal. The system is both costly and counter productive, because underlying health is not improved by treating symptoms, and health will get worse again.

When I've had health issues, the first place I look is my lifestyle! And in every case, an adjustment to improve my nutrition, supplements, better activity or sleep have all resolved the problem. Even more serious injuries from a car accident all healed, without using drugs or surgeries (they were strongly recommended). It's becoming more widely known that a healthy lifestyle can turn off disease genes and turn on healthy ones!

The Lifestyle-Gene Connection

There is a growing body of evidence to support a direct lifestyle-gene connection (called epigenetics). It refers to the way the environment (and lifestyle) affects your gene function. What you eat and how you live can activate or suppress many genes, and your lifestyle can make you healthy or sick, depending on the daily choices you make!

Some research shows a direct link between a less-active lifestyle and turning off genes needed for healthy blood fats and glucose. That increases the risk for heart disease, diabetes, cancer, chronic inflammation, etc. And these problems can turn up in a matter of days of inactivity!

It's also known that a healthy diet with good quantities of veggies, fruits, fish, nuts, healthy oils, and appropriate activity are helpful for preventing those same diseases and conditions. One study showed that a healthy lifestyle affected hundreds of genes in men with cancer!