National DNA Day is a unique day when students, teachers, and the public can learn more about genetics and genomics. The day commemorates the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 and the discovery of DNA’s double helix in 1953.

Your DNA is not your destiny; your lifestyle is – The vast majority of diseases, including many cancers, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease, have a genetic contribution of 5 to 10 percent at best.  it is becoming increasingly clear that the risks for getting most diseases arise from your metabolism, your environment, your lifestyle, or your exposure to various kinds of nutrients, chemicals, bacteria, or viruses.

An active and healthy lifestyle can create one type of gene expression, while a sedentary and unhealthy lifestyle can create a different gene expression. Take, for example, diabetes. If someone is not controlling his or her diabetes well, if blood sugar levels are high, he or she can develop glycation-end products, where sugars attach to protein. As a result, those sugars render the proteins dysfunctional, which is why diabetics are prone to chronic problems. The DNA recognizes the problem and understands that it has to change, but it gets overwhelmed. If not managed, diabetes can outpace the DNA’s ability to keep up; the disease will win. Other elements, like oxidative stress and free radicals, can also damage your DNA. These are the toxins that we’re exposed to every day: in our food, the water we drink and even our exposure to the sun. 

Normally DNA has repair mechanisms that can fix these problems, but eventually if the toxins build up too high, the DNA can’t keep up or it becomes overwhelmed, which leads to permanent DNA damage, that leads to things like skin cancer or other types of chronic problems.

Incorporating antioxidants into your diet and maintaining a high-protein diet in order to support your body’s DNA and maintain a state of health. As your DNA reacts to your environment, you need to make healthy lifestyle choices to help support it.

Be nice to your DNA and it’ll be nice to you. Your DNA is not your destiny; your lifestyle is!

Reference:

1. Lund University. “How lifestyle affects our genes.” ScienceDaily, 23 April 2019.
2. Is DNA your Destiny? – Dr. David Karli January 11, 2019