Many people are convinced that genes control destiny when it comes to their family’s health. Although there are certain illnesses and diseases that have a strong genetic component, there is new hope for parents and children suffering from lifestyle diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and obesity.

You may have heard these sentiments before: “My father and mother were both obese, so naturally my kids and I will be too. It’s genetic,” or “Heart disease and diabetes run in the family.” While some people still hold fast to these beliefs, an entirely new filed of study called Epigenetics says you and your family can actually reprogram those bad genes for better health.

Researchers and healthcare professionals alike are scrambling to find ways to turn genes on and off. While drug manufactures have had minimal success creating a product that consistently does just that, some in healthcare are now looking at lifestyle changes as a better way to reprogram these bad genes.

Consider the example of the fat mouse. There is a certain type of lab mouse bred for its genetic predisposition to obesity and diabetes. It has the gene for both diseases. However, when scientists fed these same pregnant mice a diet rich in B vitamins (folic acid and vitamin B12) they produced healthy pups with normal weight and no diabetes. They were able to change the baby mices’ genes before they were born!

While genes for heart disease, diabetes and obesity may run in the family, so do eating habits, attitudes towards exercise and lifestyles. Often, shared family habits can be far greater predictors of future disease and illness.

It’s clear that simple lifestyle changes can reduce your risk from some of the most common illness. While exercising 30 min a day and eating a diet of healthy meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar, may be a good start, one study also showed regular, long-term chiropractic care can actually repair DNA and reduce the effects of oxidative stress caused by poor lifestyle.

While it may be popular to blame genetics for poor health, Epigenetics suggests you have way more control over your destiny than you might think. Simply making the right decisions for your family’s health today, can have lasting effects tomorrow.

References:

1. http://www.newsweek.com/id/238162?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+headlines%2Fhealth+%28Updated+-+Headline+Feed+-+Health%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
2. http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1951968,00.html
3. https://www.jvsr.com/abstracts/index.asp?id=243

A new patient asked me this week what makes chiropractic so special? After all, she had been to every medical specialist in town, had all the latest treatments and procedures, and was still suffering. What could chiropractic possibly do for her that hadn’t been tried already?

I felt bad for her. She had been put through the wringer, spent thousands of dollars on medical treatments and was clearly skeptical. Like many of the patients that visit us, chiropractic was a last resort for her.

I started to explain how chiropractic helps the body heal itself, how we use cutting edge adjustments and lifestyle management to address the cause of the problem, not simply mask symptoms.

I began to cite the research that showed chiropractic care helps boost immune function, improves balance, blood pressure and digestive function. Her eyes began to glaze over as I tried to explain the finer details of neuroanatomy and how structure and function need to work together etc.

Finally, I just stopped, put my hand on her shoulder and said: “The difference is we get results. Period.”

The greatest proof that chiropractic works, over and above all the research, are the testimonials from people just like you. Here are some links:

Chiropractic Life Centre Testimonials
Maximized Living Testimonials

From www.mercola.com:

Give your child a head start in life. Supplement with Krill oil before and during pregnancy, and while breast-feeding. The DHA and choline are critical to your child’s brain development and IQ. Your child is wholly dependent upon you to provide those nutrients through at least the first three months of life. Incidentally, this also supports your overall health and positive mental outlook both during and just after pregnancy.

Breast-feed your child if at all possible, for as long as possible. Infants receive vital DHA through your breast milk. Longer is better, in this case. If you can continue breast-feeding through the first year, you will give your child an even greater head start for success in life.

Provide structure for your child’s life. Children like a dependable schedule — regular times for meals, bedtimes, getting up times, and more. It helps them understand time, routines, and gives them a sense of security.

Be sure your child eats a diet strong with high-quality (organic if possible) meats and veggies. Early influence in training your child’s taste buds to like veggies will make it easier for them to resist the peer pressure of junk food throughout childhood. Avoid sweets, and every food with artificial colorings, preservatives, and high fructose corn syrup, at all cost.

Encourage your child from a young age to get daily exercise. Make it a part of your special time with them. Go for walks and bike rides, play badminton, take your dog for a run, jump rope, shoot baskets… and make it fun!

Provide clean inside air by not smoking, and by limiting toxins from cleaning products. If your home was built before 1978, test for lead paint hazards.

Strengthen your child’s immune system by giving them a probiotic daily. When everyone else’s kid is struggling with the latest bug to hit their school, you’ll be glad yours has a strong immune system.

Replace detergents, soaps, and shampoos containing risky ingredients, like parabens, mineral oil, paraffin, petrolatum, Sodium laurel or lauryl sulfate (SLS), sodium laureth sulfate (SLES), Acrylamide, Propylene glycol. The potential problems may not be worth the risk.

Just say “no” to immunizations vaccinations. They provide more health risks than benefits. You can read more about this elsewhere on this website (www.nvic.org), and an entire chapter is devoted to it in Take Control of Your Health.

Get your child outside in the sunshine for at least 15 minutes per day, preferably in mid-day, to optimize his or her vitamin D levels and thereby his/her immune and overall health.

- I would add one more: Get your kids checked for spinal subluxation!

Dr. CHRIS

One of the most disheartening conditions I encounter in clinical practice is migraines.

If you have ever known a child who suffers from migraines you will see someone with intense pain who spends hours in a dark room crying out, completely debilitated and unable to function.

These kids are often forced to miss school, they can’t participate in sports or even go outside to play. Meanwhile, parents do the best they can to make their child more comfortable in between episodes.

Migraines are vascular headaches that stem from the large blood vessels around the brain. They are throbbing headaches usually accompanied by nausea, vomiting, light and sound sensitivity. Unfortunately, this is an all too common problem with 10% of migraine sufferers under the age of 15.

A recent study found that there was good news for child migraine sufferers — symptoms for half of all sufferers generally disappear after 10 years.

Unfortunately, these children had to suffer for more than 10 years with one of the worst pains imaginable, heavily medicated, often fighting side effects of those medications and these so-called experts said: “Don’t worry, half of you will feel better in 10 years.”

In my opinion, that is not good enough, especially when you consider chiropractors have been successfully treating migraines for more than a hundred years. I have had countless cases where children and adults alike have suffered for years with migraines, seen every specialist in town, taken all the drugs and have had zero results until chiropractic.

The reason for this is simple: I have observed that the vast majority of these children have had some type of head or neck trauma early on, which misaligns the upper part of the spine. The resulting pressure on the delicate nerves in the upper neck cause blood vessels around the brain to spasm. In these cases, other treatments did not work because the underlying cause, the misalignment, was corrected.

Chiropractors use gentle adjustments to provide relief to migraine sufferers. If you haven’t already, you need to try chiropractic. The results speak for themselves.