It's My Grandmomma's Fault!!

This past Thursday I attended a seminar I was drawn to called "Cancer Myths and Fallacies". Being the obsessive, compulsive, bi-polar, ADD, woman I am, after seeing my best friend successfully fight Hodgkin's disease, my aunt successfully fight breast cancer, my mom die from lung cancer, my father in law die from lung cancer and my mother in-law currently fight for her life with breast cancer (all within 6 years) I have been trying to read up all I can on how to live a healthy life.



And let me tell you, IT'S NOT EASY! Our society is inundated with anything and everything that will cause you to get sick and die before your time. When thinking about doing the right thing health wise, I am at a fork in the road. The one road looks like a highway where everyone seems to be going 85 mph but it seems to be easy to get to. The other road is a back road with lots of hills and curves.

Matthew 7:13 (New International Version)

  

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.

With the way we live our lives, my generation will be lucky to see 70 years of age. I'm one of those people who have the greatest of intentions but once I start feeling better, stop doing THE THING that caused me to feel better only to start feeling bad again...and the cycle continues.


Here are a few things I learned at the seminar that I found interesting:

• Your DNA (genes) will only increase your potential of getting cancer by 5%  ( I was always told it had a LOT more to do with it. I mean if not, why do the doctors always ask me who in my family had it?)
• Type C Personality has a higher chance of getting and passing away from Cancer.
• Epigenetics have more of a say in what ailments or dis-eases you have. (Based on previous generations you can inherit benefits or disadvantage from as far back as 7 generations)
• The gut is considered "The Second Brain" and has more neural tissues than the spinal cord. 70% of the immune system is located in the gut.
• In the 1950s a scientist determined that if our culture would stay on it's current diet (at the time) that in 50 years we would see an epidemic in infertility in women.. (sound familiar???)
• Our diet should be more in line with the diet of our ancestors, a "non civilized" diet...

Below are some quotes I found from some websites that have a more in depth explanation of the above bullet points:

Personality type C. and cancer:


Cancer is the leading cause of death in the more developed countries after heart disease. Does your personality type affect your chance of getting cancer? There is some research to suggest that it might although the cause and effect relationship between cancer and personality type is not as strong as it is between personality type and heart disease. Psychologists have now identified a "type C." (cancer-prone) personality which may be characterized as someone who responds to stress with depression and a sense of hopelessness. Type C personalities have a tendency to be introverted, respectful, eager to please, conforming and compliant. However, these same studies have not identified how personality may affect lifestyle choices such as are these same individuals more likely to smoke?


There has been some evidence to suggest that your personality type may have some relationship to your chance of surviving cancer. Those who respond with a "fighting spirit" or sense of denial seem to do better than the type C personalities who seem to accept their fate passively. A Stanford University (in the USA) professor named David Spiegel discovered that cancer patients who joined a support group which fostered a "fighting spirit" had a tendency to live on average, 18 months longer than those who were not in such a group.


http://www.psychtreatment.com/personality_type_and_disease.htm


Epigenetic


The term epigenetic is showing up in cancer literature that describes chemical modifications to how genes function. These modifications aren't changes in the gene itself but are ‘on top of the gene' literally what the term epigenetic means.


Where it gets interesting:


Epigenetic modifications can be passed on to offspring, that is, they can be inherited. The gene stays the same but whether it is expressed can be changed in future generations. Randy Jirtle at Duke University has done some interesting things with Agouti mice. The agouti gene gives mice yellow fur, and a strong predisposition to obesity, cancer and diabetes.


The truth is that there are acquired traits that may be passed down to offspring in a manner independent of genes. This information and the understanding of epigenetics may play an important role in preventing and treating cancer in future years. The current state of the science strongly suggests that diet and nutrition can have a lasting effect on genetic expression stretching into future generations.


http://www.denvernaturopathic.com/news/epigenetics.html


The Gut


A deeper understanding of this mass of neural tissue, filled with important neurotransmitters, is revealing that it does much more than merely handle digestion or inflict the occasional nervous pang. The little brain in our innards, in connection with the big one in our skulls, partly determines our mental state and plays key roles in certain diseases throughout the body.


The second brain contains some 100 million neurons, more than in either the spinal cord or the peripheral nervous system, Gershon says.


The second brain informs our state of mind in other more obscure ways, as well. "A big part of our emotions are probably influenced by the nerves in our gut," Mayer says. Butterflies in the stomach—signaling in the gut as part of our physiological stress response, Gershon says—is but one example.


"It was totally unexpected that the gut would regulate bone mass to the extent that one could use this regulation to cure—at least in rodents—osteoporosis," says Gerard Karsenty, lead author of the study and chair of the Department of Genetics and Development at Columbia University Medical Center.


Serotonin seeping from the second brain might even play some part in autism, the developmental disorder often first noticed in early childhood. Gershon has discovered that the same genes involved in synapse formation between neurons in the brain are involved in the alimentary synapse formation. "If these genes are affected in autism," he says, "it could explain why so many kids with autism have GI motor abnormalities" in addition to elevated levels of gut-produced serotonin in their blood.




http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=gut-second-brain

Paleolithic Diet

There are races of people who are all slim, who are stronger and faster than us. They all have straight teeth and perfect eyesight. Arthritis, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, stroke, depression, schizophrenia and cancer are absolute rarities for them. These people are the last 84 tribes of hunter-gatherers in the world. They share a secret that is over 2 million years old. Their secret is their diet- a diet that has changed little from that of the first humans 2 million years ago, and their predecessors up to 7 million years ago. Theirs is the diet that man evolved on, the diet that is coded for in our genes. It has some major differences to the diet of "civilization".


http://www.earth360.com/diet_paleodiet_balzer.html

So the question becomes... Am I going overboard? Is there anyone out there who is as interested in their health and doing a lot of research, doing a 180 degree turn on their diet? Anyone else finding it completely difficult and impossible (especially with a limited income) to purchase all organic and to cut out beautiful things like BBQ, gluten, Soy and SUGAR!! Your comments and suggestions on how I can make the 180 degree turn and not turn back would be GREATLY Appreciated :)