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Often, when a person is confronted with a certain medical condition—heart disease, cancer or diabetes, for example—he or she will blame family history. There’s an interesting study, the Archimedes Study, conducted by Dr. David Eddy, that helps us put “family history” into its proper perspective.
Dr. Eddy is a physician and well-known researcher who also has a Ph.D. in mathematics. He selected 10,000 individuals from National Institutes of Health studies and put them into a computerized aging simulation, starting at age 20 and ending the study at age 80. The study controlled for various risk factors, but then “fixed” these risk factors one at a time in order to identify those factors that had the greatest impact on the health of the individuals being studied.
Do you know what this study found to be the least important of all those risk factors in terms of actually affecting the health outcome? Family history. When properly controlled for in this virtual simulated study, family history accounted for only 4 percent of the total risk.
Now that doesn’t mean family history isn’t important. Family history can help you focus on the right strategies for reaching your full genetic potential. Knowledge is power, and awareness of your personal risk for particular medical problems can motivate you to initiate transformational changes in your lifestyle. But family history isn’t the most important genetic factor in determining your level of health.
Recent findings in genetic research are indicating that you can master your genetic risk with lifestyle and nutritional strategies. That’s important. Why? Because there is a lot of hopelessness in the world we live in today. “Why should I try to improve my health if it’s all predetermined genetically at conception?” So we give up emotionally.
But the good news is that your genes have not set your health and wellness levels in stone. The good news is that change is possible! One of the most important things that I want you to take from my free “12 Weeks to Optimal Health” series, is a sense of hope, a sense that transformational change is possible.
And the second important concept I want to get across is that you can do it! You can reach your full genetic potential if you’re willing to do what it takes and put some effort into the process. High blood pressure, diabetes, depression, chronic fatigue, joint pain—whatever ails you, whatever challenges you have, whatever your family history has placed in your lap, there is hope for you!
It’s Never Too Late
I see many middle-aged persons or elderly persons who finally realize that they need to do something about their health. But what really concerns me is that I’m seeing more and more patients in their late twenties and thirties. They have young children, and they are already suffering the consequences of chronic disease. They’re already struggling with a high risk of liver failure, of kidney failure, heart disease, or diabetes.
What about them? Is there any hope for them? Yes. Absolutely. Even those who are dealing with these kinds of issues at a young age can benefit from stepping back to look at the bigger perspective of health and lifestyle—and begin making those transformational changes.
One thing I recommend to everyone, no matter their age, is that you sit down with your personal health provider and plan a broader approach to managing your health than the traditional yearly physical. The typical physical includes some good tests, such as the lipid profile. I hope you’re having that done. The lipid profile looks at your total cholesterol, the HDL (“good”) cholesterol and the LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, the triglycerides, the blood fats, and other factors.
But did you know that 60 percent of people who have heart attacks also had a perfectly normal lipid profile? Their cholesterol was fine; their triglycerides were fine; their HDL was good; their LDL was good. So they walked away from that annual physical, saying, “I’m good. I don’t need to worry; my cholesterol is great. The doctor just gave me a thumbs up! I don’t need to make all those lifestyle changes.”
And, of course, in today’s mindset, the risk for heart disease is almost totally about cholesterol, right? Actually, as we will see, that’s not true. There are many factors far more important for our heart health than cholesterol. I would rather have high cholesterol my whole life and be on a good diet and exercise program, than to have low cholesterol and eat poorly and not exercise. I guarantee you that those who follow good health practices will be healthier than those who don’t—even if they struggle with some of the traditional risk factors.
Too many people resign themselves to health problems by saying, “That’s just the way it is. My family history, my genetic makeup, has predetermined me to have this or that problem.” But that is simply not true. Medical research today in the area of genetics and epigenetics is telling us that we all have hope. We all have the potential to actually conquer the challenge of our genes.
To learn more about optimizing your health, take advantage of my 12-week series. It was designed for people who are ready to start taking charge of their own health and outlines practical strategies that bring physical, emotional and spiritual healing.
Wes Youngberg, DrPH, MPH, CNS, FACLM is a fellow and one of the founding directors of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, he is Assistant Clinical Professor for the Schools of Medicine and Public Health at Loma Linda University. The Youngberg Clinic is in Temecula, CA. Check out his new book “Goodbye Diabetes”.
The information in this video has been called the missing link in mental health and personal development. In a world full of shallow, quick-fix techniques, second rate psychology and pharmaceutical takeovers, real solutions have become nearly impossible to find. This presentation will turn your world upside down.
Mike Bundrant is co-founder of the iNLP Center and host of Mental Health Exposed, a Natural News Radio program.
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