I have great news for you! WE ARE NOT VICTIMS OF OUR GENES! That’s right, we might have some not so great genes, but we can help control whether or not those genes are expressed.
Let’s take a step back first and talk about one of my favorite scientific fields; epigenetics. What is epigenetics? Epigenetics actually means “above your genes,” and this field studies what influences our gene expression.
Every year I make a birthday resolution - just like a New Year's resolution, except at the start of my personal new year. This year I was so excited about my resolution to meditate everyday. Yep. EVERYDAY. Every night before bed I lay on my floor, turn on my LED candles and let my mind be blank. It is wonderful.
Okay, "letting my mind be blank" makes it sound like it’s super easy. It’s not. It takes practice, but it gets easier quickly, and you can start off just doing five minutes a day and slowly build up to longer time. And fortunately, you will notice benefits quickly. Having experience in the past with meditation, I started with just 10 minutes nightly, and started noticing benefits that first week.
Most days are hectic, and people spend a majority of my time in front a screen, wether it be a computer or phone, and any spare minute is spent checking emails, Facebook, or Twitter. With all the digital distraction and stresses of life, it is easy to forget that you are part of something so much more. But don’t take my word for it, walking outside has been scientifically proven to improve health.
Now, we have heard a million times that nutrition can directly affect diseases such as cancer; however, it is often not explained to us how this actually happens. While there is a myriad of different ways nutrition can influence cancer, today I want to discuss angiogenesis.
A plant based diet is fabulous. You are cutting out a lot of foods that can cause cancer, heart disease, stroke, and several other ailments that everyone would rather pass on. While a plant based diet is full of amazing nutrients, it can be lacking in Vitamin B12. Once we, as humans, started washing our vegetables really well we stoped getting trace amounts of dirt which contained vitamin B12. Now, Vitamin B12 is most often found in animal products and it is essential.
