Show 990: Diet and Lifestyle as Gene Therapy (Archive)

We are all born with certain genes that help determine our height and the color of our eyes as well as our likelihood of developing certain diseases. The genes don’t change, but their activity can change significantly in response to living conditions.

The field of epigenetics has been developing rapidly over the past few decades, and we now have much better understanding of how exercise, diet and other lifestyle factors influence gene expression. And our genes are not the only ones that matter: billions of bacteria that live in and on us have genes, the microbiome, that are profoundly affected by what we eat and what we do.

While this research is new and very specific, the guidelines for nutritional epigenetics are not surprising: nourish our gut bacteria with vegetables and fruit, avoid sugar and artificial sweeteners, practice meditation and get plenty of exercise. How do these actions affect our risk of cancer?

This Week’s Guest:

Mitchell L. Gaynor, MD, is the founder and president of Gaynor Wellness (www.gaynorwellness.com) Dr. Gaynor is also clinical assistant professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. His new book is The Gene Therapy Plan: Taking Control of Your Genetic Destiny with Diet and Lifestyle.