‘it’s in my genes, it’s who I am’
it’s all too easy to blame our genes for the way that we are
after all, for centuries we were told that we are the product of our genes, and our genes couldn’t change
but in recent years we have come to understand that we can influence our genes by our behaviour
epigenetics is an emerging field of science that studies how our behaviour and environment can cause changes that affect the way our genes work
we are now beginning to understand the relationship between nature (what we are born with) and nurture (how we care for and protect ourselves)
our genes are a two way switch
turn them on and they become active
turn them off and they become dormant
scientists call this the characterisation and expression of our genes
our lifestyle is our switch
how we lead our daily lives, how we breathe, our demeanour, our posture, how we move, what we eat and drink, our openness to new ideas, our ability to focus, our ability to relax and how we sleep
all of these choices and more can eventually cause modifications to our genes
our lifestyle choices are like a bank of switches that we can turn on or off