A patient may say that she has a disease such as hypertension, asthma, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, or obesity, and that it’s genetic. There is a feeling of destiny and resignation. Many diseases run in the family over generations. With some, genetic abnormalities have been identified. Does this mean that a patient is condemned to live out this disease and pass it on to her offsprings. Is destiny written in our DNA, or can it be changed? According to Charles Darwin, evolution through natural selection occurs over vast expanses of time: numerous generations and millions of years. Quick changes are not possible. However, in recent decades scientists have found that there are chemicals that sit over the genes, hence called ‘epigenetic marks’, that give instructions to them, telling them to switch on or off. Furthermore, environmental conditions can alter epigenetic functioning, causing changes to DNA strands, and the results may affect what is passed down to offsprings. In short, epigenetics may effect changes even within a lifetime. In the 1980’s, Dr. Lars Olov Bygren (now a preventive-health specialist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm) conducted a study of the children growing up in the 19th century in Norrbotten, the northernmost county in the kingdom of Sweden. In those times Norrbotten was an isolated place and everything depended on the harvest. It was either feast, or famine. When the harvest was bad, people starved. When the harvest was good, people gorged themselves for months. Bygren found that kids who grew up in the fat years produced offsprings who lived far shorter lives than those whose grandparents grew up in the lean years. The conclusion was that even short term environmental factors may cause changes in genetic traits that may be passed down to future generations. Our own experience confirms this. We have seen the aftermaths of two generations of feasting on packaged foods, junk foods, cigarettes, and drugs. We are also seeing their offsprings who suffer from a host of immune and autoimmune diseases. Even so, the message of epigenetics is optimistic. There may be a way to switch on genes that promote health and switch off genes that lead to diseases. By creating environmental. diet and lifestyle changes, we can overcome our DNA to achieve health, not only for ourselves but also for our children. We can write our destiny. Read more about epigenetics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics Also: Why Genes Aren't Destiny, Jan. 18. 2010 issue of Time Magazine