« The gene therapy plan : taking control of your genetic destiny with diet and lifestyle. »

2015-04-21

Mitchell L. Gaynor, M.D.

 Penguin Publishing Group, Foreword by Mehmet C. Oz, M.D.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

ISBN 978-1-101-61848-6

Excerpts:

 I went to medical school, then took specialized training in hematology, the study of blood, and in oncology, the study of cancer, which included doing research at Rockefeller University to study molecular biology. This is a relatively new field that explores the fundamental building blocks of life at the physical and chemical level, especially the processes of genetic control. What I learned from Rockefeller’s cutting-edge researchers gave me an entirely new perspective on the role of genes in determining health outcomes across the life span. And this new view of how genes function showed me that my mother’s emphasis on the role of nutrition in health was absolutely on target.

The primary influence on gene expression is the environment in which we live, which is where our opportunity to exert a positive influence through nutrition enters in. In the twenty-first century, our environment bombards us every day with an onslaught of pesticide residues, carcinogenic chemicals, large quantities of foodlike substances, which include refined sugar and dangerous fats. These substances in our food, in our air, and in our water interact with the genes in our cells, turning some on and some off.The worst of these chemicals can transform healthy cells into tumors, which is in large part why one in three Americans will develop cancer. In fact, 90 to 95 percent of cancers are linked to environmental toxicants.

Today we have an epidemic of thyroid disease, especially among middle-aged women, which almost always originates as an autoimmune condition triggered by environmental toxins. Nearly 20 percent of our children have a learning, emotional, or developmental disability, and the incidences of diabetes and asthma are skyrocketing.

but each of us can exercise enormous control over what we introduce into our internal environment— which is to say, what we eat.

(My) both practices incorporate meditation, music therapy, guided imagery, and cognitive behavioral therapy in concert with activities such as restorative physical therapy, yoga, aerobic exercise, and qigong as well as nutritional counseling based on the same principles presented here in the Gene Therapy Plan. My aim is always to treat the entire person in a way that acknowledges the complex nature of chronic illness, and to work at every level of the body’s healing processes— physiological, genetic, psychosocial, and spiritual— to create an optimal state of well-being. The recommendations in this book, with their powerful and targeted ability to influence genetic expression, actually lead us to a new definition of what we mean by health. In this new view, we should see ourselves not as being merely “healthy” or “ill,” but as being ecogenetically “well managed” or “poorly managed” across the life span.

we all have the seeds of illness within us. The question is whether that potential for disease will become active or will remain dormant.

It is now plausibly estimated, for instance, that almost 100 percent of people, if they had their thyroids dissected for examination by the newest methods, would show signs of cancer or precancerous mutation. And no matter how finely you slice the tissue, there may always be smaller tumors that fit into the spaces between the slices. The same is true for prostate cancer. Almost 50 percent of men between sixty and seventy would show signs of the disease if examined in this way. Almost 40 percent of women between forty and fifty would show signs of breast cancer under the new microscopes.

Trans fats, formed by the hydrogenation of vegetable oil and used to make processed foods harder so as to extend their shelf life, are among the worst things you can put in your body. They raise bad (LDL) and suppress good (HDL) cholesterol levels, make the bad cholesterol even worse by miniaturizing its particles (meaning it can sneak into smaller spaces and do more damage), and promote inflammation (and therefore diabetes and a host of related ailments).

Most prepackaged synthetic foods are the result of exactly those dubious chemical processes that, for the sake of your genome, you want to avoid.

There is so much junk out there— and not only the fast food you buy on the run, but all the cheaply made, conveniently packaged, heavily sweetened and texturized products that are the staple of American eating. If it comes in a box or a wrapper or a bottle, feels unnaturally smooth and tastes too pleasantly sweet, and has a long list of unpronounceable ingredients, it’s probably a processed carb that can do you almost nothing but harm. Even most bread and pasta, plain as it seems, has had most of the cancer-preventing, insulin-normalizing fiber stripped out of it. There’s almost nothing left but the soft, sweet interior of the grain, which we were never intended to eat without all the other healthy stuff too.

For example, over 80 percent of vitamin E and magnesium are lost from wheat when it’s processed. These nutrients are vital to insulin regulation, which is why it’s not surprising that people diagnosed with diabetes are often vitamin E andmagnesium deficient. Chromium and zinc are also important minerals lost when sugar is highly refined, yet these minerals are necessary for digesting and metabolizing carbohydrates.

For generations, convenience, packaging, and profits were the dominant considerations rather than health and nutrition.

So knowing what’s actually good for us— as opposed to what’s good for the industry— becomes increasingly difficult.

The sad truth is that we are not living on the same planet that our grandparents lived on, where you could eat a reasonable diet, including a few servings of fruits and vegetables every day, and expect to be in good health. We’re living in a heavily polluted world in which we’re exposed to toxic chemicals— from BPA to dioxin to pesticides and herbicides to heavy metals— beginning while we are still in our mothers’ wombs.

When you cook food, go “low and slow”— there’s no need to blast every meal under a broiler or in a sauté pan. Treat your food gently, and it will treat you the same way.

Eating processed foods is inherently aging.

Gene Therapy Fact: Go Organic

Researchers compiled data from fifty studies to compare conventionally produced versus organically grown fruits and vegetables. The results showed that organic foods have a higher nutritional value 40 percent of the time whereas standard food production has a higher nutritional value only 15 percent of the time. The bottom line is that organic produce contains fewer carcinogens, has a better protein quality, and has 20 percent more vitamin C than conventionally grown produce that has been sprayed with fungicides, herbicides, pesticides, and chemical-based fertilizers. The twelve fruits and vegetables most likely to have pesticide residues are apples, bell peppers, celery, cherries, imported grapes, pears, potatoes, strawberries, nectarines, peaches, red raspberries, and spinach.

I recommend that my patients buy organic for these whenever possible.