The Perfect Storm

When does a hurricane happen? When the conditions are just right.

When does a tornado happen? When the conditions are just right.

When does disease happen? When the conditions are just right.

When does cancer happen? When the conditions are just right.

My instructor from my nutrition program used to say this all the time. How we treat our bodies through what we ingest, what we expose our bodies to, and what we do to our bodies is either setting our body up for a sunny beach day or a hurricane.

VS.

"It's easier to STAY out of trouble then GET out of trouble." -Rakowski

The fact is we all have cancer cells in our bodies. However, this doesn't mean we are all going to get cancer. Through our lifestyle choices we can create an environment in our bodies which will allow those cancer cells to thrive or we can create an environment that will shut them down.

I had a women ask me today about genetics. Her idea was that we are given a set of genes at birth and we have to live with it. We have no control. Thankfully, this is not the case. Just because you have a family history of cancer, alzheimer's, etc. doesn't mean that has to be your future. Let's talk about epigenetics for a minute. Epigenetics is the study of gene expression and how our environment has the ability to actually change our genetic expression! Now that is something to get excited about. Dan Buettner, the auther of the book Blue Zone, finds that 90% of our genetic express comes from our lifestyle and only 10% comes from our parents. Also, the English Journal of Medicine published in 2008 with the findings only 10% of breast cancers are due to hereditary mutations (or what we inherit from our family history).

Hopefully, my point is made clear. We have the power to choose how our genes are going to express themselves. We doesn't have to live in fear of getting cancer, disease, and sickness because we have a family history of it. Every time you decide to eat a side of vegetables rather than deep fried french fries, you are working toward that "sunny beach day" in your body, decreasing inflammation, not allowing those cancer cells to grow, and giving your body the ability to thrive and beat the odds of your family history.

I hope you find this as interesting as I do! Let's either start or keep making healthy choices BECAUSE we have control of our destiny. (Yes, I know that sounded super cheesy.)

Until Next Time,

Hope

xoxo