Simple Ways To Deactivate Your Bad Genes

Like most sapiens, I do have my quota of bad genes. Since Max was a puppy, I have been working to "mute" them as humanely as possible - one day at a time (thanks to Epigenetics - whatever that means at this point and time). The good news is the compound effect has played its part and helped me tremendously. 

Epigenetics, the study of the code that controls our DNA, tells us that our lifestyle choices can have a significant impact on our gene expression and our lives - BBC Video. The three pillars are: 

• Mind (Meditation, sadly I have skipped this since Max was ill)
• Mouth (Healthy food)
• Muscle (Work out and Walk an hour a day)

The important message - it is never, never too late. So start today. 

Diet was one of the critical culprits in Max's illness. The crazy thing was I was so "convinced", he was eating healthy (using the logic of bullshit relativism of how other sapiens feed their dogs). There are so many mistakes I made because of a lack of knowledge. He did eat fruits and vegetables but the base diet was mass-produced with once a week home-cooked meal. Whatever little knowledge I gained on this front was from seeing Max suffer for almost 2 years. 

Now, Neo, Fluffy, and Graph are entirely opposite; no mass-produced/outsourced food,  all their meals are fresh food, Neo's treats are mostly fruits/veggies, many supplements (turmeric, milk thistle, etc.), and mushrooms extracts. 

The important question which the BBC video doesn't cover is the "why" question. Why is that a "bad" gene is malleable? The short answer is there is nothing called bad genes. 

In a nutshell, a simple hierarchy of actions:

1. Take care of oneself using age-old wisdom of mind, diet, and activity. Knowledge of evolutionary biology is crucial here. Grandma's wisdom is important but not everything grandma said was correct.

2. Follow insights from science and do a constant Bayesian update. The hardest task is to get an intuitive understanding of what research and who to trust. There is no magic bullet here but healthy skepticism with help of evolutionary biology will do the trick over the years.  Ignore everything from the popular news and beware of confirmation bias. 

3. Sponsoring/supporting scientific research. Support comes from donating microbiome, gene, blood, and other data. The rest is left to hope, love, and god or whatever abstractions you believe.  This is what stoics called not under our control while we are at the mercy of randomness. 

Annaliese Griffin in this thoughtful post asks people to drop the insane metrics of weight and calories and proposes five simple checklist questions to answer  every day: 

1. How much green stuff are you eating?
2. What did your body do for you today?
3. How stoked are you to move your body?
4. Are you sleeping enough?
5. How are you checking in on your mental health?

Taking care of one's body and mind is not only for prevention but most importantly to live and feel life differently. One cannot feel how feeling different feels like unless one experiences that feeling. So try.