There is great wisdom to be found from the generations before us. And as years have gone by, it’s become apparent that we have slowly disconnected from that of which our bloodlines have always shown us. The 1 thing your mother forgot to tell you probably wasn’t her fault. In fact, she too may have turned her back on family clues and traits, beyond that of eye and hair colour or the dreaded family trait of a flat head or being horizontally challenged.
Over time, as illnesses or health problems arise, you may have gone in search for the ‘why.’ That said, not everybody even get’s this far. Many accept their diagnosis as an end point and merely go about treating the symptoms in the quest for a better quality of life since this is the reality of our current medical model.
But treating symptoms, is only ever a short term solution. True recovery from illness starts with the why, not the how. Insert integrative health care and maybe you might start to get a little further.
You may like to start asking the right questions.
Why is my body behaving like this?
What have I done (or not done) to push my cellular behaviour to present with these symptoms?
When did things change?
All these questions are so important as you begin to peel back the layers of your health (or lack of).
But the biggest clue you can start with, on your own quest to understand the why of your body’s behaviour is not as far out of reach as you may think. Our genetics are our most insular dictator. They determine what we are predisposed too. Whether that presents for you or not, well… that’s all about what you expose your genes to.
The 1 thing your mother forgot to tell you is that her issues (or common family illnesses) may become your issues IF you don’t do something about it.
Whilst hearing this may make perfect sense now, there are two points I desperately want to make.
- If you are reading this and have no known issues, don’t just assume you’ll be forever in great health IF you don’t look after yourself. Your genetics provide you clues into the illnesses you ‘may’ develop. With this in mind you can begin to scaffold your life right now to give your body the best chance to never develop symptoms that your mother or associated family members already have. This is absolutely possible. If this is the only thing you hear today – if your mother has say, a history of Endometriosis, PCOS, Hashimotos (or other autoimmune challenges, arthritis etc), heck even eczema… even if you haven’t began to present with symptoms, in the right environment, you too may begin to express symptoms.
- If you have symptoms that point to a diagnosis, again, look to your family line for clues first. It may save you years of searching, testing and wondering and point you in the exact direction you can start today.
Now there may be those of you saying “I’ve got Endometriosis and my mother never presented with symptoms.” That doesn’t mean genetically she isn’t predisposed. She most likely, and most simply didn’t pull the right tiggers (more on that shortly).
For those who like a little more – I thought these papers and articles were worth mentioning.
This interesting paper suggests that up to 67% of circulating thyroid hormone and TSH concentrations are genetically determined. Aka – your genes dictate what you are dealt.
This interesting article talks about the 50% link between genetics and 50% link with environmental factors with regards to endometriosis. It went on to sing from my hymn book, “We know that there are both genetic and environmental influences that drive endometriosis, with 50% genetically related (DNA and genes) and 50% environmental factors, including lifestyle, what we eat, exposure to chemicals and the atmosphere,” Dr Holdsworth-Carson said.
This article talks about the link between genetics and PCOS.
Fascinating… there is so much evidence to suggest that your genes dictate your predisposition. And you definitely can’t change your genes (trust me, I’m a red head)… but…
Don’t let this freak you out.
Starting with your genetic line may be your best clue when symptoms begin to show up. Asking the right questions to find the ‘why, how and what next’ is paramount into you taking your one precious life and making sure your body works in the best way it can.
You can’t change your genes but you can manipulate how they behave.
Your genes may be your blue print and provide the basis of your health however, what matters as much, if not more is the environment you put your genes into, which dictates just how they behave.
Remember in high school you did a science experiment. You had two Petri dishes and smothered the same bacteria over the agar across the two dishes. You put one into the incubator and one on the window sill. And what grew… to you amazement, two (or more) completely different landscapes.
This is the notion of epigenetics. What you may not have yet connect are the dots between family traits and epigenetcis.
Your environment matters. Your environment isn’t just your the air that we take in or the chemicals that may come through the air vents in your workplace. Your environment, is the space that your body exists in. This extends to;
+ your internal environment – including organs, body systems (like your endocrine or reproductive system, respiratory, nervous system etc.) and hormones.
+ your external environment – includes the state and health of your home, your office or work space, toxin exposure, chemicals in your body products, detergents, sprays and EMF’s (electro magnetic fields) etc.
+ your mental environment – the state of your emotional health and wellbeing, including past traumas, self belief and conditions like anxiety and depression.
All of these factors are variable and the trick lies in working out what’s actually what.
I like to say that each of these factors flick ‘switches’ in your body. When enough of these switches are turned on, we begin to see symptoms. If we can work out which switches we can begin to influence (by these factors mentioned above), we start to steer our body in a state towards more optimal body function.
This is exactly where I start when treating patients in my clinic.
With this in mind, we can never really ‘heal’ from our predisposed health issues (because it’s ultimately genetic), what we can do however, is begin to understand that the right environment will in fact lead our body towards optimal function and with that comes healthier cells, systems, hormones and so on; our symptoms should begin to lessen, for many they may disappear all together.
This is how we can begin to manage and overcome our health challenges.
You body this always listening.
I share a great detail about this in my book Beautiful You – if this is tugging at your heart strings, you can learn more right here. If you want to learn more about which ‘switches’ you might need to start with and just how to do that, Beautiful You is here to help.
Giving you the clues to understand how to best take your own body wisdom and use it to your advantage I believe is how you change the trajectory of your health. This all lies in your hands.
I’d love to learn about your genetic history and if you can see the link between your blood lines. We’re always learning – I hope this also helps open up something new in your quest towards better health.
Cited by Dr Shawn Tassone.
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