Can Genetic Predisposition(s), Diseases Be Reversed?

The following information has been gathered and compiled over a period of years, through personal experience, while traveling, teaching classes that include T'ai Chi, Qi Gong, herbal information, martial arts and other health related subjects. The article also contains feedback from students and anecdotal information from readers of my columns. The following are my opinions and deductions from those sources.

We can't physically change our genes or DNA but we can influence the disease predipositions we have because of our genetic makeup.

If we eat the same foods, have the same health destructive habits and continue the same lifestyle patterns and choices as our parents and grand parents, we will perpetuate the disease cycle and genetically related problems. The largest majority of us have choices.

Identical twins can have many differences. They can be right and left handed, one can be heavy the other slight. I knew twins when living on Kauai. One continued the lifestyle patterns of his parents and grand parents and suffered many debilitating diseases. The other grew his own organic produce, exercised regularly and watched his diet and mental attitude. The first died of diabetic complications some years ago and, as far as I know, the other is still alive and probably in his eighties.

One example of manipulating our genetics can be seen in homocysteine levels. High homocysteine levels are connected to vascular disease. If our family genetics have always lead to high homocysteine levels, we can assume that something in our genetic makeup doesn't allow us to properly process folic acid, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12. Increasing our intake of those vitamins may drastically reduce our homocysteine levels and overcome the genetic weakness.

Genetics are the cards we were dealt when we came in. They're our blueprint, the basic roadmap for our life. We can deal ourselves a new hand, make changes to our blueprint and the roadmap isn't the terrain. Unfortunately, it may require more than just a change in diet or adding exercise to our life.