Epigenetics, Allergies, and....The Shack.

Peaked your interest with that title? Good!

First of all, I'm going to touch a bit on Dr. Stephen Genuis, as I promised in Sunday's blog. I cannot say enough about this man. I have known about him for years as being a leader in the pro-life circles but I am now seeing him in a whole different light. He is a professor at the University of Alberta and has his own practice here in the city. His latest pursuits have been in the field of epigenetics. Yeah, I didn't know what it was either. I could give you the Wikipedia definition but it's brutal - basically, it's the study of factors that cause cells to produce diseases. His special interest is the effect that our environment is having on our bodies. Ouch. I'll give you a quick synopsis, by points, of what he was talking about on Saturday (I have the CD if anyone's interested):

- medical response to research usually takes 20-50 years. This is the time frame between the research that proves something and the time that we're told about it - either by our doctors or the media. Examples of this are Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Thalidomide, etc. He cited example after example of researchers who discovered something vital to our health, were ridiculed by the public and fellow doctors, and went on to being honored after their deaths.
- our current upswing of cancers and debilitating diseases must be more than genetic in nature because we are getting diseases that no one in our family had.
- there are three main causes or triggers that cause a healthy cell to "turn bad": genetics (in the DNA), deficiencies (where the cell is lacking something it needs), and toxicities (something is poisoning the cell).
- apart from the genetic makeup (which we have no control over), we have to look at why your cells can't work properly: either (a) there is something toxic in them, or (b) they are deficient in some way.
(a) toxicants: many are in our environment and in the air we breathe. This includes lotions we put on our skin and chemicals in the foods we eat or work around. An example cited was the fact that women who are raised on a farm are three times more likely to get breast cancer, due to all the chemicals and pesticides used on the farms.
(b) cell deficiencies: there are vitamins, etc., that our cells need to be healthy - many that we may not even realize we are deficient in. Examples of ones that have only just come to light are the need of folic acid early in pregnancy and that excess zinc causes cancer.
- what can we do? He gave us some vital ideas:
1) Make sure you have enough of the essential fats - Omega 3 and Omega 6 (including DHA and EPA). Now I thought I had this covered as I take Omega 3 every day until he talked about the source - wild fish oils, right? He said that right now there is a major concern because the fish in our oceans are full of mercury, lead, and other poisons - causing them to be dying and/or not producing at an alarming rate. So, guess what your fish oil capsules may have in them? Yup. So he said you should always make sure it's distilled fish oil (I found one brand out of about 50 at Superstore that has it). Makes sense.
2) Vitamin D - make sure you and your kids are getting enough. It's vital in the absorption of calcium to make our bones strong. The main and obvious source is sunlight but Canadian winters often leave us without much (kids are inside all the time) and in the summers, when we do go out, we slather ourselves in sunscreen. He cited case after case of people who have had chronic back pain relieved when given vitamin D.
3) Avoid toxins - we are the first generation to be exposed to wide-spread chemicals everywhere. Many are completely untested for safety and not marked at all as ingredients in products. Tens of thousands of synthetic agents have been introduced in the last fifty years and most are still untested. In a recent study on toxicity in pregnant women, there were 287 chemicals found in the umbilical cords in newborn babies. 287, people! Where are these coming from??

I hope you are still with me. I spoke to Dr. Genuis afterwards, very briefly, about my angioedema and he told me, "I do not believe that God made your cells to just do that - something is triggering the response. You need to find out what it is and start by ridding your body of toxins." I agreed wholeheartedly that something is causing it but said that the doctors that I've talked to have given me no help nor hope. He said, "I wouldn't take it from them - it's up to you." He says this research he's doing right now is cutting-edge and not even talked about in medical circles in Canada. There are no doctors that you can go to to have your toxicity checked, none that will test you for environmental chemicals, so it is up to us...

I'll finish with a couple of links for you, if you want to pursue this. Firstly, a website that has some of Dr. Genuis' writings and, secondly, the website to the American Academy of Environmental Medicine. They are the main group that is researching this topic. I don't know about you but I'm going to look into this more...

Allergies...for what it's worth department, for the past three months I have been taking, at my doctor's recommendation, Glucosamine - it's for arthritis and is supposed to be very helpful. Today I was buying more and happened to look at the ingredients (after Dr. Genuis' talk) - guess what the main ingredient is? In every bottle I looked at: shellfish, shrimp, and crab. Oh, and I'm allergic to shellfish. No wonder I've been having so many reactions lately...not to mention that there is concern about the high toxins in shellfish! Sigh. I gotta start reading labels more...

And...The Shack. That the name of a book that I just picked up this morning from our bookstore. My friend, Judy, read it and claims it is a definite must-read! It is written by Canadian author William P. Young and Eugene Peterson (of The Message) says, "This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress did for his. It's that good!" Apparently once you start you can't put it down, so I'll let you know what I think....