Feed Your Genes Right : Eat To Turn Off Disease-Causing Genes And Slow Down Aging 

\"If you?re like me, you want to maintain and perhaps improve your 
health, reduce your chances of developing disease, stay mentally sharp, 
stay at a normal weight, and remain physically active as you get older. 
But as I?m sure you?ve already discovered, there is no shortage of howto 
health books or programs, frequently offering odd, counterintuitive, 
or contradictory advice. 
How do you make sense of everything you hear? 
Today, in the early years of the twenty-first century, medical 
research is dramatically shifting its focus. Instead of looking only at 
the physical or biochemical factors that lead to health problems, 
researchers are gaining a better understanding of the far-reaching roles 
genes play in determining the risk of disease. Now and in the years 
to come, the role of genes in health will strongly influence, and perhaps 
even dominate, recommendations for maintaining health and avoiding 
disease. 
The truth is that your genes do play a fundamental role in health 
and disease.These tiny molecules, found in each one of your body?s 70 
trillion cells, contain biological instructions that orchestrate the functions 
of those cells and of your body as a whole.Your genes govern the 
activities of your heart, lungs, brain, and every other organ.The collective 
efforts of your genes determine how well your body functions?or 
malfunctions, as the case may be. Quite simply, when your genes do 
their job properly, you?re in good health.When they don?t, or can?t, you 
are more likely to develop heart disease, cancer, and other diseases. 
You have probably heard people say that ?you?ve got the genes you 
were born with,? suggesting that your health and risk of disease were 
sealed at birth. But contrary to popular opinion, genes are not rigid and 
inflexible determinants of your health, and your life is not merely an 
execution of some biological program beyond your control. 
Instead, your genes possess extraordinary flexibility, which you can 
use to live a longer and healthier life. How is this possible? The reason 
is that genes do not function by themselves. Rather, gene activity 
depends on a variety of nutrients as cofactors. Nutrients provide the 
building blocks of genes, and they turn many genes on and off. Because 
you control what you put into your mouth, you can literally feed your 
genes right and gain tremendous health benefits. Or you can feed your 
genes all the wrong foods and suffer the unfortunate consequences.Vitamins 
and minerals (and many other nutrients as well) have always 
been essential cofactors for the normal functioning of your genes. 
If these ideas seem strange or unfamiliar, rest assured. Research on 
the interactions between nutrition and genes is in step with many of the 
public-health recommendations you have heard over the years. For 
example, doctors have long urged the adoption of various dietary and 
lifestyle habits to reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer, such as 
eating more vegetables and fruit and exercising regularly. Nutrients 
work on multiple levels in the body, and ultimately they enable genes to 
function more efficiently, the way nature intended them to. 
I first became interested in the health benefits of nutrition in 1969, 
when DeWitt Garrett, a college biology professor, made an intriguing 
off-the-cuff comment about vitamin supplements. The timing was 
serendipitous. I had recently been diagnosed with a cyst that my physician 
said would bother me for the rest of my life. About a week after I?d 
started to take vitamin supplements, my cyst drained and disappeared. 
I was impressed by the immediate and dramatic effect of the vitamins, 
and I have been taking them ever since. Looking back, I now realize 
that nutrient deficiencies likely interfered with the genes involved in 
healing the cyst, a situation that the vitamin supplements corrected. 
It was not until the mid-1990s, however, that I started to see a clear 
connection between nutrition and genes. Bernard Rimland, an autism 
researcher, happened to tell me about a physician who had used 
large dosages of vitamins and other supplements to treat children with 
Down syndrome, a disorder caused by an irreversible genetic defect 
that leads to physical abnormalities and mental retardation. Rimland 
told me that the earlier children began taking the supplements, the 
more likely they would grow up with near-normal intelligence and 
appearance. Somehow, massive amounts of vitamins and other supplements 
managed to offset much of the genetic chaos of Down syndrome. 
Hearing about the nutritional treatment of Down syndrome, I 
began to mull over whether we are ?what we inherit.? I had reason to 
be curious. My older brother had died from cancer at a relatively young 
age, and my parents had died after many years of failing health. I did 
not want to follow in their footsteps, at least if I didn?t have to. 
I mulled over a simple question: if vitamin supplements could undo 
a significant amount of the genetic damage done by Down syndrome, 
why couldn?t vitamins and dietary changes improve other types of 
genetic defects or damage? It turned out that other people were thinking 
along the same lines. Researchers around the world were discovering 
that vitamins, such as vitamin E and the B vitamin folic acid, could 
reduce much of the cumulative genetic damage that occurs during the 
aging process and in many diseases. 
Shortly afterward, I had an opportunity to experiment on myself. In 
1997, at age forty-seven, I grappled with the fact that I was twenty 
pounds overweight and my blood sugar was creeping up toward prediabetic 
levels. I was slowly but steadily heading toward type 2 diabetes. 
For a health writer, this situation was, at the very least, embarrassing. 
But I was at a loss as to how to change it. 
The solution came with advice from people who were more savvy 
than I was when it came to nutritional supplements and diet. A nutritionally 
oriented physician conducted a battery of blood tests and 
found that I was low in key minerals involved in managing blood sugar 
and insulin. So I started taking supplements of these minerals, including 
chromium, magnesium, and zinc. I also increased my intake of alphalipoic 
acid, a vitamin-like nutrient involved in regulating blood sugar 
and insulin levels. But supplements were not the entire solution. Two 
years later a nutritionist coached me on eating more wholesome foods 
as a way to lose weight and control my blood sugar. 
By eating more nutritious foods, cutting out the all-too-convenient 
junk foods, and continuing to take certain nutritional supplements? 
what I now call feeding my genes right?I effortlessly lost twenty 
pounds and four inches from my waist in three months. I also found, a 
little later, that my blood sugar and insulin levels fell to well within 
normal ranges. Knowing what I do now, I understand that these 
changes helped turn off genes involved in overweight, inflammation, 
and diabetes. 
All of these events were stepping-stones to a more serious examination 
of how nutrition influences the activity of genes and, in turn, 
overall health.With all the news reports about gene research and (so 
far exaggerated) promises of future gene therapies, most physicians 
and researchers have ignored a simple yet profound fact: our genes 
require many nutrients to do their jobs correctly, just as you and I need 
a good meal to feel up to doing our jobs. 
Feed Your Genes Right is the result of both a personal and a professional 
quest, one that I am pleased to share with you. This book 
explains, in simple and nontechnical terms, how nutrition affects your 
genes and your risk of disease, regardless of whether you have inherited 
?good? or ?bad? genes. 
In Part I, I provide an overview of nutrition-gene interactions, 
explaining how genes become damaged and how they are capable of 
repairing themselves, so long as they receive proper nutrition. In Part 
II, I provide the Feed Your Genes Right Supplement Plan, which 
describes specific vitamins and vitamin-like nutrients needed for 
healthy genes. Part III covers dietary recommendations for maintaining 
healthy genes, explaining what you should and should not eat. Finally, 
Part IV describes how stress affects genes, suggests antistress nutrients 
you can take, and makes specific recommendations for reducing 
genetic damage that occurs in aging, heart disease, cancer, some inherited 
diseases, and many other conditions. 
The bottom line of Feed Your Genes Right is that you do not have 
to wait years to apply the new and exciting discoveries of nutrigenomics, 
the science of nutrition and genetics.You can utilize existing 
knowledge to improve your health today and to set the stage for an 
active, healthy, and long life. I have incorporated these concepts in my 
own life, and you can, too. 
Be healthy, and enjoy life!\"