Remap Your Genes

Every January, you are  groggy with overeating, wrong eating (the two are different), sleepless nights spent partying and a reasonable amount of alcohol with less amount of hydration and water, hence making you  bloated, overweight, acidic, and feeling sluggish, groggy, foggy and listless. Obviously then, you wake up in the morning on a cold January day and decide to make some drastic new year resolutions which you are  fiercely sure of keeping throughout the year. As has been the trend over the last many years, by the end of February you have petered out and  slipped back into your old lifestyle which includes working long hours, sleeping less and eating mindlessly.

So now is the time to throw away all the resolutions and only make one resolution: To recode your DNA and change your gene expression with quality over quantity. How do you do that? Isn't genetic predisposition to disease a high factor for actually getting the disease? No. Research and data over the last 20 years has shown that our actual genes are just 2% of our risk of getting a disease, whereas 98% of our propensity to get a disease depends on our lifestyles.  And this is exactly what I do with my healing practice: to use the science of epigenetics to change the gene expression of patients who come to me with incurable diseases. Simply put, if your parents have type II diabetes, you have a 2% chance of getting it via your genes. As with life, work, opportunities, will you take the 2% chance and  mess with your health or will you take the 98% chance and stay healthy?

Surprisingly, changing your genetic codes is easier than you think. Just the consistency of following a healthy lifestyle on a daily basis and continuing the same every week starts showing gene changes as early as three weeks. In fact, the practices of reducing stress levels, like meditation and pranayama have demonstrated increase the length of telomeres, those tiny  shoelace kind of structures at the end of your DNA which shorten and get damaged due to accelerated ageing and disease. When these studies were published, it was a clear case that the consistency of following a lifestyle is far more important than relying on emergency medication and surgeries, including heart disease, cancer and joint replacements, to resolve any issue. I have myself helped many patients avoid surgeries, and I am just one small practitioner.

Hence, in my first health column in the new year, I'm not going to share steps on how to stay healthy with you because I have already done that throughout 2018. Instead, the importance of following that healthy lifestyle in reducing your risk of lifestyle diseases and cancer is what I am hoping to help you understand at the start of the New Year, so that you can utilise this year and change your own genetic code, and change your mind, body, attitude because of a lower rate of stress and disease. This science of epigenetics has to be implemented systematically, persistently and consistently for the miracle of being disease free. Simply following the rules of primarily focusing on a plant-based diet, moderate exercise and stress reduction techniques, without complicating your life with gym memberships, fad diets and detox centres, will do the trick of repairing your DNA.

Combined with that are practices of spending time with yourself via an activity you love, demonstrating gratitude (even if you don’t feel it initially) go a long way in decluttering your life, helping you get a clearer and crisper perspective towards your future and enjoying your present much more.

So start the year with a deep breath and tell yourself: 2019 is about me being the best I can be by choosing to change my genetic codes. Happy New Year!