Alvin H. Danenberg, DDS February 25, 2016 [printfriendly]
You are!
I’m stepping outside of the box. Rather than posting about gum disease, its obvious & not-so-obvious causes, and its effective treatment, I’m going to write about who and what are influencing everything that goes on in your body.
Your body was built from a genetic blueprint. It is the written code that tells your body how to do its job. All the essentials that make up your blueprint are collectively contained in your personal and unique pool of about 20,000 genes. Amazingly, all these genes are contained in your DNA, which is located in the nucleus of every cell in your body. (There is one exception; mature red blood cells do not have a nucleus and therefore do not include your DNA within them.) Practically every cell in your body has the blueprint to make another YOU!
Can these genes be changed?
Science has experimented with cutting and correcting segments of genes. Who knows what the future will hold. However, for the most part, your genes cannot be altered today. But, these genes can be significantly influenced.
Although these genes make up the blueprint, a conductor actually directs them to do this or not to do that. The conductor is your environment, and this is where you pull the strings.
You see, if you manipulate your environment correctly, you could tell some good genes to flourish, and you could tell some not-so-good genes to cool it. When you tell genes to flourish, you actually are up regulating them, and when you tell some bad genes to stand down, you actually are down regulating them.
Research has shown that about 90% of how we function is directly related to our environment, and only 10% is directly related to our genetic code. So, with the proper knowledge and tools, we can up regulate the good genes 90% of the time, and we can down regulate the harmful genes 90% of the time.
So, how do we manipulate the environment?
Think about it. This is awesome power at your control. If you were able to control the four pillars of health, which I write about frequently, you would be manipulating your immediate environment and pulling all the strings. If you were manipulating your environment fittingly, you would enjoy a significantly healthier and fuller life.