Do your inherited genes cause cancer? I recently interviewed Dr. Kevin Conners who explained why the answer to this question is no, genetic defects are not the cause of cancer. But, he explains, these very same genetic defects often hold the key to reversing cancer and other debilitating chronic conditions. He expertly targets these genetic defects with a variety of protocols to help his patients turn their condition around.
It’s not as difficult as you might think.
Understanding Your DNA: The Simplified Version
We inherit a set of 23 chromosomes from Mom and 23 from Dad. They pair up and create our individual, unique DNA. Our DNA is a self-replicating material and it contains all the instructions our cells need.
Each cell in our body – all of the estimated 30 trillion of them — contains all of our individual DNA. However, each cell does not use all of the DNA it contains. Cells only use (express) certain genes that pertain to their particular cell type or needs. For example, a muscle cell only requires the genes needed for muscle cell function to be active, and all other genes that are not needed for that function are turned off. Ditto for the other estimated 200 types of cells — including skin cells, heart cells, and red blood cells. (source: Healthline)
It’s a beautiful design if you think about it. It’s organization at its best. No chaos from all genes working inside all cells simultaneously for functions that simply aren’t needed.
So what’s the problem?
As we age, our body cannot always process all the influences it is called to deal with. Lifestyle habits and an overload of toxic exposures often put extraordinary pressure on our body and we may struggle to remain healthy – or recover our health, as the case may be. Nutrition is one of those key lifestyle factors that can influence us for better or for worse.
Epigenetics and The Queen Bee Effect
The Centers for Disease Control defines epigenetics as the study of “how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work.” And because these behaviors and environmental influences are voluntary or under your control, epigenetic changes are reversible. They don’t change your DNA sequence, but they can change how your body reads a DNA sequence.
There are a variety of signals that can turn genes on or off, and as previously mentioned nutrition is a key lifestyle epigenetic factor.
Take for example, the queen bee. The queen bee and worker bees are 100% genetically identical. The only difference is that the queen bee is force-fed royal jelly, a protein-rich secretion from glands on the heads of “nurse bees,” from the larval stage to adulthood. The worker bees? They’re fed “bee bread,” a mixture of nectar, pollen, and honey (source: What It Takes To Make A Queen Bee).
It’s the royal jelly and the nutritional content it contains that switch on genes which result in the development of ovaries and a large abdomen for egg-laying. Meanwhile, the diet of the worker bees encodes for sterility. That simple dietary change makes all the difference if you’re a worker bee or a queen bee! It’s a fascinating insight into the study of epigenetics.
Simple Tweaks to Optimize Your DNA
As Dr. Kevin Conners, an expert in the understanding of genetic profiling, likes to say, “While your genes may ‘tell your story’, YOU get to write the ending. It is what you do with the information that makes the difference.”
There are simple, yet powerful ways to optimize your DNA. How? Take control of the signals that change the way inherited genes respond.
- Get serious about your diet. We can’t live off of royal bee jelly, nor do we need to. But we can eliminate cancer’s preferred fuel, sugar, from our diets, reduce grains and dairy, and add beneficial foods. For example, there are isothiocyanates (a class of bioactive dietary compounds) found in broccoli, cabbage, kale, and watercress; curcumin in turmeric and curry; polyphenols in green tea; and resveratrol in red grapes, cranberries, and blueberries that have been shown to favorably modify the epigenome (source: Epigenetic Diet: Impact on the Epigenome and Cancer). And that’s only the beginning.
- 20 minutes of exercise works wonders. When you exercise, you send signals to your cells and change how your cells respond. According to researchers cited in Cell Metabolism, it is possible for people who lead relatively sedentary lives to change their DNA in muscle fibers almost immediately with regular exercise (source: A Workout Can Change Your DNA).
- Decrease the amount of toxins your body is forced to deal with. An increase in toxins can result in our detox pathways being under distress or blocked entirely. The water we drink, the air we breathe, the ground that we get our food from — all play a vital part in the signals our cells receive. Bulletin: not only do toxins affect our personal health, they can affect epigenetics for generations to come (source: Toxins May Affect Epigenetics Through Multiple Generations).
- Pay attention to your emotional health. Your subconscious mind stacores your core beliefs that are developed from the womb to age 7. According to our Megan Van Zyl, PhD Hon, MA, NTP, one’s thought patterns, emotions, and beliefs can trigger a serious epigenetic response in the body. How much? Fear itself can cause over 30 different changes to hormones and neurotransmitter and over 1400 different changes in the stress response system and changes on the biological level that result in a toxic internal environment that causes cells to change and leads to a cascade of effects that can damage mitochondria (source: Setting You Free From the Fear of Cancer).
A Customized Diet for Your Individual DNA
Dr. Kevin Conners is an expert in determining how your particular genetic coding is affecting your health – and, more importantly, how to support any tumor-suppressive genes you may have. Through a simple at-home DNA cheek-swabbing test, he is able to identify the challenges in individual genetic expression as well as how to optimize your particular genetic potential.
It’s a real breakthrough for individualized healthcare.
Sit back and enjoy this interview with Dr. Kevin Conners. His experience just may hold the key for your recovery.
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