Environment impacting our genes

So, what is environment? According to the experts it's anything that impacts our health. This includes your living situation, what's going on around you, and also involves your memories, including traumatic ones.

Environment is not separate from our brains. Environment, in fact, plays a major role in creating our brains. For instance, women growing up in stressful homes may lay down more neural connections than usual between the amygdala and other parts of the brain. This would cause them to view the world as more threatening, which would make their lives a lot more stressful.

As you can see, it starts to get complicated. But allow me to add something I just learned from a conference I attended in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. We heard about how our genes affect how we react to our environment. But we can also change our environment to affect our genes.

For instance, many of our genes only come into play in certain circumstances. Research into alcoholism is shedding quite a bit of light on this. In the right surroundings, away from negative influences, certain vulnerability genes may never be switched on. The environment, in effect, neutralizes the genes.

At the same conference, Dean Ornish MD of UCSF described a 2008 study published in PLoS that found that the relaxation response in trained meditators switched off cancer-promoting genes.

What this means

We are not helpless bystanders. Neither our genes nor our upbringing nor our present circumstances automatically doom us to lives of misery and despair. Yes, we may have been dealt bad cards, but that does not mean we have to fold our hand.

In San Francisco, I heard Robert Cloninger MD of Washington University (St Louis) talk about self-awareness, our unique ability to respond intelligently to our environment rather than blindly reacting. Yes, we may have our work cut out for us, but change can happen fast, he told his audience.

Be hopeful. YOU are in charge ...