Dr Ron Roberts
See book keywords and concepts |
 Research groups have been trying to pin down the 'asthma gene' in susceptible families by analysing their chromosomes (the long strings of genetic material in the nuclei of cells that carry the genes). The idea is that members of the family who have asthma or allergies should be carrying a gene that non-allergic relatives do not have. A group of scientists in Oxford believe they have isolated the gene responsible on Chromosome 11. The most recent research shows that genes may also be linked to 'airway twitchiness' (see page 24) as well as allergic responses. |
Jack Challem
See book keywords and concepts |
 In fact, the scientists who originally proposed the thrifty gene idea have since abandoned it, although the idea still has some adherents.
For the most part, the genetic link between genes and obesity remains murky. Since 1994, more than fifty genes have been linked to obesity; however, none of them is considered the arbiter of a person's weight. Likewise, although a few genes have been associated with diabetes, none seems to influence the risk of developing diabetes in the majority of people.
A better argument can be made for modern foods being incompatible with our ancient genes. |
| The thrifty gene idea might work for bears hibernating over the winter, but it doesn't seem to be relevant to people. Overweight people can die of starvation just as quickly as skinny people, so storing body fat offers no real biological advantage. In fact, the scientists who originally proposed the thrifty gene idea have since abandoned it, although the idea still has some adherents.
For the most part, the genetic link between genes and obesity remains murky. Since 1994, more than fifty genes have been linked to obesity; however, none of them is considered the arbiter of a person's weight. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
See article keywords and concepts |
 Unfortunately, gene therapy will very likely be marketed and promoted in much the same way chemical medicine was: patients don't necessarily have to change their lifestyles or make proper food choice or engage in physical exercise, we'll be told. All they need to do is undergo these gene therapy procedures. So, even while gene therapy may sound exciting at first, it has many of the same pitfalls of conventional chemical-based medicine. That is, it takes away the responsibility from the patient. |
| REPPED: Is gene therapy the next wave in medicine? As the age of chemical-based medicine is now thoroughly discredited (prescription drugs are toxic, haven't you heard?), and drug companies are losing both profits and credibility, there's a mad dash to find something to replace the current drug racket. Could gene therapy be the next "big thing" for Big Pharma?
Interestingly, gene therapy has very real potential for enhancing human health, but not in the way the drug companies think. |
| So, even while gene therapy may sound exciting at first, it has many of the same pitfalls of conventional chemical-based medicine. That is, it takes away the responsibility from the patient. In fact, the more we talk about the genetic basis of disease, the more power we strip away from individuals. Go see the movie "GATTACA" for an interesting science fiction look at what a society might be like if everyone were judged on their genetic code, and not their behavioral choices or free will. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
See article keywords and concepts |
 How on earth can doctors think that DNA passed down through hundreds of thousands of generations could have a gene that would cause heart disease? That's ridiculous. They must not know anything at all about natural selection, because if someone caries a gene that kills them, guess what? They don't reproduce. So the genes that you have are genes that have survived and thrived through all of these generations, from healthy ancestry down to today, giving you the gift of a blueprint for perfect health. |
Bottom Line Health
See book keywords and concepts |
| Geneticists at DeCode Genetics say the gene is carried by approximately 13% of men of European ancestry and may raise a man's risk of developing prostate cancer by approximately 60%. The gene variant probably accounts for 8% of all cases of the disease, they say.
The gene is also twice as common in African-American men as in Caucasian men, helping to explain "a significant part" of why prostate cancer is more prevalent in African-Americans, DeCode's chief executive officer, Dr. Kari Ste-fansson, says.
. |
Earl Mindell and Hester Mundis
See book keywords and concepts |
 Biotech Terms to Come to Terms With
GM: Genetically modified
GMOs: Genetically modified organisms
GE: Genetically engineered or genetic engineering GEOs: Genetically engineered organisms
Roundup Ready: This describes genetically altered crops (namely, soybeans and corn) that contain a bacterium gene that makes them immune to the herbicide Roundup, enabling farmers to increase their production and profits by spraying without killing the crops. More than 90 percent of U.S. cotton is genetically altered. |
Bottom Line Health
See book keywords and concepts |
| Geneticists at DeCode Genetics say the gene is carried by approximately 13% of men of European ancestry and may raise a man's risk of developing prostate cancer by approximately 60%. The gene variant probably accounts for 8% of all cases of the disease, they say.
The gene is also twice as common in African-American men as in Caucasian men, helping to explain "a significant part" of why prostate cancer is more prevalent in African-Americans, DeCode's chief executive officer, Dr. Kari Ste-fansson, says.
. |
| ANOTHER PROSTATE STUDY
In a related study, researchers in Iceland report finding a variant gene that has strong links to prostate cancer.
Geneticists at DeCode Genetics say the gene is carried by approximately 13% of men of European ancestry and may raise a man's risk of developing prostate cancer by approximately 60%. The gene variant probably accounts for 8% of all cases of the disease, they say. |
Charles Barber
See book keywords and concepts |
 But, as Kandel points out, genes have another function, a transcriptional function, which is the ability of a gene to direct the manufacture of specific proteins in any given cells, the expression of which makes a brain cell a brain cell and a liver cell a liver cell. Although almost every cell of the body has all of the genes that are present in every other cell, in any given cell type only a fraction of genes, perhaps 10 percent to 20 percent, are expressed through the transcriptional function. The other genes are effectively silent. |
Dawson Church
See book keywords and concepts |
 Portions of the hypothalamus synthesize a hormone known as CRH (corticotro-phin-releasing hormone), which stimulates the production of a dozen other messenger molecules that influence stress and relaxation.
The gene that initiates the production of CRH is located on chromosome 8, a chromosome so vital to our function that is has scarcely changed for millennia: "CRH synthesizing and secreting neurons are found {in] their highest densities...in the prefrontal, insular, and cingulate areas {of the brain], where they mediate cognitive and behavioral processing.... |
Bradley J. Willcox, M.D., D. Craig Willcox, Ph.D., Makoto Suzuki, M.D.
See book keywords and concepts |
 We've found that Okinawan centenarians are more likely to have low-risk HLA gene profdes (or "elite" genes)—which means, in effect, that they have a better than average chance of avoiding problems in these areas.7
But another interesting finding emerged from our genetic studies—and this is the one you want to pay close attention to. We found that some centenarians did not possess the low-risk genes. In fact, some even had high-risk genes. This means some Okinawans remained slim, healthy, and robust for a full century despite "bad genes" or the absence of good ones. |
| In fact, landmark discoveries in the past decade have connected more than 250 genes or genetic markers to obesity, including the OB gene (Obesity gene), a defect associated with increased body fat in certain people; insulin, leptin, and grehlin, hormones that help control appetite and metabolism; and neuropeptides such as Neuropeptide Y, a hormone found in both the gut and the brain that influences appetite and obesity.8 Scientists can now even genetically engineer a mouse to be obese by giving it two copies of a superfat OB gene. |
Dawson Church
See book keywords and concepts |
| Rossi's comments of this exchange: "Evidence of psycho-biological arousal and behavioral state-related gene expression.... The therapist wonders how to engage the psychogenomic dynamics of immunological variables such as interleukin-1, 2, and IB associated with Cox-2 that has been implicated in rheumatoid arthritis that is Celeste's presenting condition."
Rossi: {Celeste's hand...surprisingly forms a fist]. Oh my goodness? Something new seems to be happening?
Celeste: Yeah!...
Rossi: Wow! Yes, something new is beginning to happen! [Celeste now extends her fingers up into the air}.... |
Dan Buettner
See book keywords and concepts |
 A defect on the gene is connected to favism, a disease triggered by consuming fava beans. We know the G6PD gene also protects some Sardinians from malaria, said geneticist Dr. Antonio Cao, who was himself a poster boy of healthy aging at 78. Diet probably plays an important role, he added. "Bar-bagia is not like the rest of the Mediterranean. They don't eat a Mediterranean diet."
Dr. Gianni Pes, the scientist who first delivered the Blue Zone data to demographers, also told us that environment and lifestyle might be more important factors than genetics to explain the longevity of Sardinians. |
| Luca
Deiana, a local politician who headed the Akea study, one of the first investigations of Sardinian centenarians {akea is a Sardinian greeting that means roughly "may you live to be 100") pointed us in the direction of the G6PD gene. A defect on the gene is connected to favism, a disease triggered by consuming fava beans. We know the G6PD gene also protects some Sardinians from malaria, said geneticist Dr. Antonio Cao, who was himself a poster boy of healthy aging at 78. Diet probably plays an important role, he added. "Bar-bagia is not like the rest of the Mediterranean. |
Dawson Church
See book keywords and concepts |
| Steps in laenetic expression
The process by which a gene produces a result in the body is well mapped. Signals pass through the membrane of each cell and travel to the cell's nucleus. There, they enter the chromosome and activate a particular strand of DNA.
Around each strand of DNA is a protein "sleeve." This sleeve serves as a barrier between the information contained in the DNA strand and the rest of the intracellular environment. In order for the blueprint in the DNA to be "read," the sleeve must be unwrapped. |
| Love, Medicine and Miracles
One of the most fascinating avenues of Third Stage enquiry is the link between gene expression and belief. Bruce Lipton, Ph.D., is a former professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and an expert on DNA. His best-selling book The Biology of Belief has been hailed by Joseph Chilton Pearce as "the definitive summary of the New Biology and all it implies. It synthesizes an encyclopedia of new information into a brilliant yet simple package. |
Dan Buettner
See book keywords and concepts |
| We know the G6PD gene also protects some Sardinians from malaria, said geneticist Dr. Antonio Cao, who was himself a poster boy of healthy aging at 78. Diet probably plays an important role, he added. "Bar-bagia is not like the rest of the Mediterranean. They don't eat a Mediterranean diet."
Dr. Gianni Pes, the scientist who first delivered the Blue Zone data to demographers, also told us that environment and lifestyle might be more important factors than genetics to explain the longevity of Sardinians. "Consider, for instance, the genes of inflammation. |
Dawson Church
See book keywords and concepts |
| Mapping the protein pathways by which behaviors such as nurturing facilitate or suppress gene expression helps us understand the implications of our behavior and beliefs, and their role in our health and longevity The poet William Butler Yeats said, "We taste and feel and see the truth. We do not reason ourselves into it." But the huge extent to which childhood nurturing affects adult health might come as a shocking surprise to you.
Experiments have shown a striking link between childhood stress and later disease. |
Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels
See book keywords and concepts |
 And with the advent of gene technology, and the possibility of screening newborns for all their future diseases, a whole new world of testing awaits us all.41
The UK health advocacy group GeneWatch has already raised concern that the biotech and pharmaceutical industry may be gearing up to promote widespread genetic testing for common diseases "because it allows them to expand the market for both genetic tests and preventive medication." This group's worry is that mass gene screening may spark a new level of inappropriate medicalization, as we have already seen with osteoporosis. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
See article keywords and concepts |
| So if you want to end war and create peace in the world, you have to engineer the propensity for war out of the gene pool, and you do that by altering the genetics and altering the way males operate.
I can just hear all the men out there screaming something like, "Oh, you want to turn us all into women." Well, not exactly, but let's face it: The idea of protecting your acre of savannah, scaring off rival tribes and fighting over reproductive access to women doesn't exactly translate well into modern times. |
| So, even as gene therapy technologies are made available, and even as they sound like miracle cures for disease, the ultimate expression of health can only come from within each patient. This is where, long term, the true revolution in medicine may take place, because, whether we're talking about chemical medicine, or moving through gene therapy or vibrational medicine, or even natural healing therapies, it's still all about healing the patient with an external therapy. That, in my view, is an improper view of health and medical intervention. True healing only happens from within. |
Dawson Church
See book keywords and concepts |
| Ninety to 120 minutes is also the average time between gene expression, and the synthesis of the proteins required by the body to convey information between cells, provide energy, create the scaffolding of cells, and many of the body's other functions.
Rossi notes that they correspond with a need for relaxation after periods of intense creative work,19 and recommends an ultradian rest period in the afternoon, if that is when behavioral problems recur. |
Dr. Steven R. Gundry
See book keywords and concepts |
 All mammals are designed to develop intolerance to milk after infancy, thanks to a gene that switches off and stops manufacturing lactase, an enzyme that digests lactose, the sugar that makes milk appealingly sweet to babies. Without lactase, milk remains undigested, causing cramps and diar-rhea-the classic signals of lactose intolerance. An adolescent mammal that suddenly gets cramps when dining at Mom's milk bar stops drinking very quickly. |
| In fact, the clock gene (yes, that's its real name) has been found in all animals, including humans. In summer, when animals are exposed to more sunlight, they sleep less; the reverse happens in winter. All animals follow this pattern, including you and me. Before our ancestors mastered the skill of starting a fire, the setting of the sun meant it was time for bed. Even after acquiring this ability, with fuel in short supply, they didn't light up the night (perhaps we'll relearn that wisdom, one of these days). |
| For example, the trace mineral selenium, of which most Americans have dangerously low levels, is intimately involved with controlling a particular gene in your liver, an organ that not only helps detoxify poisons but also regulates the growth or inhibition of cancer cells. Vitamin C, also found in green leaves, is essential to rebuild collagen breaks in your blood vessels and skin. The sun's rays cause wrinkles, which are one kind of collagen break. (Add vitamin C to your face cream and those wrinkles vanish, or at least diminish. |
Email this page to a friend
