Where do you get your Protein?

As vegetarians, we are this question all the time. We are also asked “what do you eat?” The answer to the first question is everything! Anything from plant or animal kingdoms are made of cells which are constructed from protein.

I saw the following picture snd it just said it so well.

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So What is Epigenetics Anyway – Part 4?

OK we have this DNA which is used to build different protein structures. These are used to build cells, mechanisms inside each cell and to communicate between cells. Epigenetics tells the cell when and which DNA to use or to stop using. This is a very complex programming structure. Proteins can affect other cells and the methyl groups can turn one set of DNA ON while turning OFF another. This is why drug interactions is so complex. A drug can help in one area while creating serious problems in another. Somethings the resulting problems are worse than the original problem. Drug companies are fast at work researching how to change our epigenetics in  new drugs. I believe this is very dangerous. I don’t believe anyone today understands the extent of this programming. Playing with one small area can affect others unrelated areas.

Plants are the basis of modern medicine. Scientists know that plants have incredible healing powers. Drug companies find which substance in the plant affects a symptom, then they synthesize it into a drug. The problem is our bodies are more complex than this. Different substances play a role TOGETHER to help our cells. Playing with one at a time is very dangerous. Why are fruits (which contain sugar) good for us but sweets are so bad? It is because in a fruit the sugar is wrapped in fiber. The fiber acts like a time capsule, releasing a little sugar at a time over a long period of time. Sweets dump sugar on our system all at once.

Nature is a symbiotic relationship between animals and plants. We can not survive without plants. The missing amino acids that our DNA uses to build need proteins only come from plants! Yes they are in meat but because that animal ate plants. So they are there indirectly. If you or your family are eating a diet of little of no plants, you are running a huge risk of chronic illness. Change your diet today.

 

So What is Epigenetics anyway – Part 1?

This is a summary from my book, “Food for Thought, An Epigenetic Guide to Wellness”. Epigenetics is a real programming system in our bodies! In fact it is in each cell as part of its machinery. We used to think that DNA was everything. It would explain life. But it is just the raw codes in the machinery. It is like the Intel instruction set in a PC or the hard-wired keys of a piano. They can be changed but usually are not. Epigenetics is the same as software on a computer or the pianist playing the piano. Scientist first thought about a puzzle, Why were chimps 98% the same DNA as us but so different. It turns out that although the DNA is very similar, the epigenetics is different. A chimps epigenetics plays the DNA to make a chimp and ours plays our DNA to make a human. This is similar to a pianist can play Jazz, Rock or Classical on the same the piano. The programming of the piano creates vastly different outcomes.

Tomorrow we will do Part 2 of this series and look at what epigenetics does in our bodies and what changes it.

 

Who are we Humans?

This is a bit philosophical but bear with me. What makes us human? Are we really smarter than other animals? What is our purpose in life? These may seem like religious questions but the great Greek Philosophers ponder these often. If we look at our DNA and compare it to other mammals we see that it is very similar. Not enough difference to account for what we have become. It is like a piano with an extra key. What then caused our brains to differ, for us to stand upright, for us to build things and for us to invent technology? I believe it is our epigenetics!

Epigenetics compared to DNA is like music compared to a piano. The piano has limited keys and DNA has limited codes. Music plays these keys in an infinite set of different ways creating all the music we have today. Epigenetics “plays” our DNA in an infinite set of ways that controls our body functions, brain development and personalities. It makes us who we are as a species and an individual.

Where are we going? We have invented marvelous technology that lets us leave the Earth. We still can’t go far but in time we will. Will we meet other intelligent creatures? Will they have similar DNA but different epigenetics? How did epigenetics (programming) come about? Many would say from a very intelligent creature (call it God, nature or an alien race). I don’t believe epigenetics just randomly came about any more than a computer game (which is technically a bunch of ones and zeros) just came about. It was programmed by an intelligent human.

Are we still evolving? What will we look like and be able to do in a thousand years? …a million years? Will we even be around? Something worth pondering….

 

Dr Bruce Lipton – What Controls our Biology!

Belief actually switches on genes in our body that makes life changes! Dr. Lipton says knowledge is power. Lack of knowledge results in lack of power. Our genes do NOT control our lives. They don’t cause cancer or disease in our bodies. We cause disease in what we eat and what we believe! Dr. Lipton shows that the nucleus of our cells (which contain the genes) are not the command center of the cell as previously thought. He has removed the nucleus from cells and they continue to function normally. If you remove the brain from any living thing it dies! So the nucleus can not be in control of the cell.

We are a machine built of proteins. The proteins change shape (move) based on signals in our bodies. Movement is a basis of life! Our behavior is movement of a protein by a signal. The brain of the cell is the collection of signals acting on the cell. These signals cause changes or work within the cell. The nucleus is simply the repository of blue prints to build new cell parts. The environment (sound, sunshine, heat, food, thought, hormones, etc) cause the cells to do different things. If we cut off the environment the cell will have nothing to do. This is known as perception.

Genes associated with cancer need to be activated by the environment! The environment caused the cancer NOT THE GENE! Genes do not gives us cancer or disease. Perception (the environment does! Change your perception and you can change your cancer or disease. You are in control!What signal in your life activated a gene that was inactive for 35 years and gave you cancer?

Conventional biology textbooks have said that DNA goes to RNA which builds proteins that do things. In this view DNA is in control! But it is wrong! The Environment sends a protein signal to DNA that allows it to be read into RNA which builds the proteins that do things in our cells. So the environment controls our cells! This is known as epigenetics!

The environment can also change your genes called adaptive mutation. If you enter a stressful environment and don’t have the genes to deal with it, we modify our genes! If you place yourself in stressful environments all the time, your genes are re-written to adapt to stress. This can cause negative things to happen in your body. Move yourself out of the stress and you return to normal genes.

Cells are either in growth (positive) or in protection (negative). They can not be in both at the same time. If you are always in protection mode you are not growing and diseases will occur. Stress cuts off our immune system (it’s not needed if we are being chased by a lion). The strongest growth influence is not nutrients but LOVE!

WHAT IS YOUR PERCEPTION? More on this and Dr. Lipton can be found in my book!

Please watch this important video. It is one hour and nine minutes but will change what you believe about your health!

About Me

I write this BLOG on health and how the science of epigenetics affects all of us. I have written a book on epigenetics and how everyday items like diet, positive/negative thinking, beliefs, environment and attitude can affect our health and well-being. It is called Food for Thought – An Epigenetic Guide to Wellness. It appears that we are NOT hard-wired by our DNA but have a “software” like system above the hardware called epigenetics. Epigenetics “expresses” or turns ON our genes. It can also block or turn OFF certain genes. The effect of these changes can be health or sickness.

My background is Physics and Math in college. I then spent most of my career in the computer business. I have a strong scientific and computer background. I was a public speaker for Microsoft as a Regional Director in charge of New York City. This allowed me to speak to as many as 2,000 participants at a conference on the latest and greatest in computing. I see epigenetics more from a computer point of view than do most scientists. This is an advantage given the current understanding of this subject.

I have always had a healthy interest in why things happen and what influences them. Biology of the body and DNA always was an interest to me. I became fascinated by the fact that this DNA somehow made each of us and created our intelligent brains. Scientists began to determine that there just wasn’t enough DNA to do the job. I began to see it like a computer. Computers have a relatively few  simple instructions that when arranged in different orders produce all the programs in the world. They range from Windows to word processors to spreadsheets to digital programs to corporate programs and on and on.

What in our bodies was like software sitting on top of the hardware instructions? This fascinated me for years. Then I read an article about epigenetics and it became clear that epigenetics sits on top of DNA like software sits on top of hardware. It was the missing link that allows simple instructions to be arranged in infinite ways to creat complex outcomes. I began to read everything I could on epigenetics and a hundred plus books later and some online doctorial courses later, I have some knowledge of this subject.

We are about to enter a new age of better understanding how our bodies work. We will also gain knowledge on what affects our bodies both in good and bad ways. The field of epigenetics coupled with nutrigenomics has promising potential to link diet to illnesses. It will be a long hard up hill road but the results will be well worth the wait.

I would love your comments, ideas and thoughts on this subject. Biologists and epigenetists please comment on the technology and science of epigenetics. Thanks for reading my BLOG!

George J. Febish

Epigenetics – What is it?

EPIGENETICS

1) Belief and Epigenetics

2) Diet and Epigenetics

3) Thinking and Epigenetics

Two great examples of DNA vs. epigenetics are:

1. Our DNA is like a computer’s hardware and epigenetics like its software. The environment (food, thinking and physical environment) is like data to the software. In a computer system the software uses the hardware instructions to accomplish its goals. It reads data and acts upon it to complete the original programmer’s ideas. In our bodies epigenetics uses the DNA instructions (genes) to accomplish its goals. The environmental conditions are data that causes the epigenetics to meet nature’s goals.
2. Our DNA is like a musical instrument and epigenetics is like the musician. The sheet music is like our environment. A musician reads the music and uses his or her skills to play the instrument (hardware). In our bodies epigenetics uses environmental conditions to play our DNA. Just like some musicians may play well and others may play badly; our environment causes our epigenetics to either play well or poorly.

How can we tell what changes are good or bad for us?

Nutrigenomics

Nutrigenomics and How to use Food, and relaxation to become healthy is the topic of the video below (with Dr Mark Hyman). Nutrigenomics is relatively new science but has a lot of promise. It is the study of which foods have what epigenetic effects on our DNA. It could be a bible of what to eat to avoid diseases or what to eat to cure a disease. If used wrong it can be input to drug companies on new drugs to make.

The Epigenetic Song

This video is a favorite of mine. A scientist (Dr. Mathew Barnett)studying epigenetics having some fun in a song …

What we believe is manufactured!

We live in a society where we watch TV and commercials and begin to believe what we hear. It becomes a fact in our minds. Other people talk about it and it supports our beliefs. So much of what we believe is based on marketing not facts. Here are some:

1. Protein equates to meat! Meat does have protein in it but so does every living organism including all fruits & vegetables. Everything living is made of cells. The cell walls and machinery is made of proteins.
2. We need to eat a lot of protein to be healthy. This is false. We definitely need protein but a relatively small amount. Extra protein is toxic to our bodies and must be handled by kidneys and liver. This is why excess meat-eating causes cancers to these organs.
3. Old age equates to illness. This is so false. Some countries (that eat much healthier than we do) live longer and healthier their whole lives. Illness is a failure of our basic systems nothing to do with age. We do slow down as we age and eventually will die but we can live health to the end.
4. We are living longer these days. This we hear on TV all the time. Drug companies say it is because of modern medicine (drugs). It is not true. Statistics show the top age we obtain has not changed in thousands of years. The average age has gone up. This is because accidents, attacks by predators, etc has significantly decreased. Drugs may keep us alive a little longer but the quality of live is poor.
5. The medical community and drug companies will help keep me alive longer. FALSE! if this were true why is 45% of Americans dying of disease? If you are concerned about your health … Change your diet, lower your stress, think positive and believe in yourself.

Live long and prosper …