The latest and greatest option for women to avoid cancer was published in 2010 by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA): “Women who have inherited gene mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 (BRCA1/2) genes have substantially elevated risks of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer… [the] women who are mutation carriers have cancer risk– management options that include risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy, risk- reducing mastectomy, annual cancer screening, and chemoprevention”. What they are recommending is, if you happen to possess this gene mutation, you should voluntarily have both your breasts and your ovaries removed as a “protective measure” against the possibility of developing either type of cancer! This is not modern, 21st century science, but medieval medicine at best!
For years we’ve fought the concept that we are inheriting bad genes, especially for breast cancer-prone families. Though we have accepted that we inherit high-risk genetic traits, because of these findings we feel partially vindicated; what’s passed on to us are un-mutated genes, epigenetically altered by our ancestors’ habits. It’s not our fault and nothing can prevent the diseases plagued by our ancestors.
Normally we do adopt, implement, and pass these on—but we can change all that! Even if our destiny were written in our DNA, we can rewrite it by espousing diet, lifestyle, and environmental changes to switch on genes that promote health and switch off genes that lead to diseases. This is accomplished through epigenetic therapy.
Epigenetics (epigenetic therapy) refers to the study of long-term changes in gene expression, which may or may not be inherited. Diseases such as cancer have been suspected of turning genes on or off and allowing for cancer to go undetected by the immune system. The exciting news is the research shows, inherited or not, the gene expression can change back in one generation through lifestyle changes.
We all know you can shorten your own life if you smoke or overeat, however what you may not know is that those same behaviors can also predispose your unborn children to smoke or overeat. This occurs because our bad habits can program our genes to work against us. However, by improving our habits we can epigenetically reprogram genes to work for us with the added advantage that we will bestow upon our next generation a better epigenome.
This is achieved with a lifestyle program that stresses a low fat, wholefood vegan or quasi-vegan diet, a regular program of aerobic exercise training, such as brisk walking, and a reduction of excess body fat in overweight patients fighting cancers in which obesity has a known negative prognostic impact. Utopia Cancer Center will guide you through this program to help you successfully reprogram your genes.
