Epigenetics

Thanks to Erling, I'd like to launch a new discussion on Epigenetics. This may be difficult to wrap your mind around this cutting edge science. Please try.

Frequently, it's been stated that AF happens as a result of a genetic defect or flaw. It’s really much more than that because it involves the expression of that gene (or genes) as a result of environmental influences which can be your own body as well as the environment outside of the body. Your blood is the environment of your body.

Erling posted on the BB in the Age of Aquarius post……"Ten years ago, researchers stumbled onto a striking finding: Women who believed that they were prone to heart disease were nearly four times as likely to die as women with similar risk factors who didn't hold such fatalistic views"
[Source] The Nocebo Effect: Placebo's Evil Twin
By Brian Reid
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, April 30, 2002; Page HE01

To elaborate, I can’t do better than to offer more quotes from the brilliant works of Bruce Lipton…who says in his many lectures and presentations that “A negative thought can actually switch on a gene to promote..... cancer for instance.”

Dr. Lipton says, “This is debunked by pharmaceuticals who control the media and they certainly don’t want this empowering awareness from science to come to the public because people wouldn’t get sick… or might cure themselves without drugs. This amounts to an intentional dumbing down of people.”

He says, "Genes control nothing. It is the mind. Adjust your mindset and control your biology."

From Lipton’s book, “Spontaneous Evolution – Our Positive Future and a Way to Get There from Here
and in the segment, The World According to New Edge Science”

“ So, if genes do not control life . . . (pause to formulate a mind-blowing question) . . . what does?

The answer is: we do!

Evolving new-edge science reveals that our power to control our lives originates from our minds and is not preprogrammed in our genes. This is great news. The power for change is within us! However, to activate the amazing power of mind over genes we must reconsider our fundamental beliefs-our perceptions and misperceptions-of life.

Our first serious misperception occurs when we gaze into the mirror and see ourselves as singular, individual entities. In reality, each of us is a community of 50 trillion cells. While this number is easy to say, it is almost unfathomable. The total number of cells in a human body is greater than the total number of humans on 7,000 Earths!

Nearly every cell in your body has all of the functions present in the entire human body, which means that every cell has its own nervous, digestive, respiratory, musculoskeletal, reproductive, and even immune systems. Because these cells represent the equivalent of a miniature human being, conversely, every human is the equivalent of a colossal cell!

As we will come to see, our mind represents a government that coordinates and integrates the functions of the body’s massive cellular civilization. In the same manner that decisions by a human government regulate its citizens, our mind shapes the character of our cellular community.

Insights into the nature of the mind, how it influences us, and where it lives, offer an opportunity for us to fully realize our true powers. An awareness of this knowledge allows us to actively participate in the unfolding of our individual lives as well as contribute to the evolution of our collective world. "

Source: [www.brucelipton.com]

(Recall that Wayne Dyer has reminded us for years that “You are what you think about, all day long.”)

Epigenetics.... "Where it's at!"

Jackie

"To believe is to be strong, doubt cramps energy, belief is power" FDR quoting his teacher Dr. Peabody

Jackie:

This theory has been around for a long time, I read Carolyn Myes (not sure how to spell her last name) book "why some people get well and others don't".

The power of the mind is great, but ones DNA, genes, determine what we look like, what we may be pre-disposed to (doesn't mean that you will get that malady). Tell kids with MD that they can stop that disease with their minds, my father had Graves disease, so did I, my mother had afib, so do I.

Yes, there are things one can do to help their afib (as per this B, if I had know more about Graves disease, I might never had my thyroid ablated (that was a long time ago before my computer), but I got the diseases.

Many diseases are inherited, sickle cell anemia, many others. How would a baby in the womb pre-program not getting MD.

"In the same manner that the decisions by the human government regulates its citizens, our mind shapes the character of our cellular community", Said decisions can only be regulated by the governments ability to carry them out---in what way does our mind have the ability to carry out the shaping of our cells?

FDR had polio, in his last years FDR was a very sick man--he had a lot of catchy phrases, still couldn't help himself.

Well, thats my 2 cents worth.

Liz

Many thanks, Jackie!

This topic is the most profoundly important of all, as consciousness is "all". It's very late in the game for our civilization to be considering the significance of such ancient truths in our daily lives, but it is happening. Here we can benefit from this dawning consideration as it has everything to do with health. We touched on it earlier under the title 'Introduction to epigenetics and methylation' -- there's good background information, links, important PBS videos - and comments - at <[www.afibbers.org];.

In his book The Biology of Belief' Bruce Lipton writes "It's been a long time coming, but the quantum biological revolution is nigh". YES!!

Erling

PS - Jerry Tennant, MD: "It takes over 120,000 different proteins for the human body to work. It is still being taught that there is a specific gene present to make each protein. However, when the genes were all mapped*, it was found that the human only has about 25,000 genes! Oops!" (from Healing is Voltage)

*Human Genome Project.

Also see:

Healing is something far more profound than curing disease
<[www.afibbers.org];

Larry Dossey, MD: The future of medicine
<[www.afibbers.org];

Yes, FDR had polio, so did my husband, Mike. He is one of the most positive people I have ever known (sometimes annoyingly so ;-). He re-learned how to walk. He went on to become a Marine, ran two marathons with 35 lbs. of pack (Bataan Death March in White Sands, NM), made over 600 skydives, and bicycled from Seattle to San Diego, among a myriad of other things.

I am only saying this to point out that the state of one's mind is crucial, and it seems that we set ourselves' up for a better or worse outcome than the "average", whether consciously or not.

lisa

Lisa:

You have quite a husband---FDR's polio was quite severe, he had the best doctors and care that money could buy but he wasn't able to walk. If all it takes is mind over matter, then no one would be sick or have health problems, we all know it isn't that simplistic.

Liz

Liz,

I never said all it takes is mind over matter. Just said that an optimistic outlook can overcome what many said never could be.

lisa

Lisa:

Whats the difference?

Liz

Liz,

All I know, is that, I would prefer to live my life with the slant that much is possible with a little, rather than very little is possible with a lot.

Just think how much is not accomplished when it is assumed it is impossible.

lisa

Lisa:

Thats fine, I am a realist, there are things that happen to us that we have no control over, one can have an optimistic outlook but facts are facts.

When we get an episode of afib, can our brains tell our cells to terminate the episode, or train our cells not to get an episode, if anyone can do that, I would like to see that post. If our outlook when we get afib is good, that we do all that we can and that this too will pass then the episode is more tolerable, but to say that our brains can train our cells to not get any afib is a stretch.

I am not saying not to live your life with a great outlook and that we do everything to the utmost, but I realize there are some things that cannot be changed and one does the best that can be done with whatever it is that has been dealt.

Liz

MAGNESIUM STUDIED IN METABOLIC AND INFLAMMATORY PATHWAYS

This is an interesting finding, especially for this topic of gene expression and Epigenetics¡­and is a classic example of how changing one¡¯s internal environment changes gene expression.

Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Feb;93(2):463-73. Epub 2010 Dec 15.
Magnesium supplementation, metabolic and inflammatory markers, and global genomic and proteomic profiling: a randomized, double-blind, controlled, crossover trial in overweight individuals.
Chacko SA, Sul J, Song Y, Li X, LeBlanc J, You Y, Butch A, Liu S.
Source
Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.

Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Dietary magnesium intake has been favorably associated with reduced risk of metabolic outcomes in observational studies; however, few randomized trials have introduced a systems-biology approach to explore molecular mechanisms of pleiotropic metabolic actions of magnesium supplementation.

OBJECTIVE:
We examined the effects of oral magnesium supplementation on metabolic biomarkers and global genomic and proteomic profiling in overweight individuals.

DESIGN:
We undertook this randomized, crossover, pilot trial in 14 healthy, overweight volunteers [body mass index (in kg/m(2)) ¡Ý25] who were randomly assigned to receive magnesium citrate (500 mg elemental Mg/d) or a placebo for 4 wk with a 1-mo washout period. Fasting blood and urine specimens were collected according to standardized protocols. Biochemical assays were conducted on blood specimens. RNA was extracted and subsequently hybridized with the Human Gene ST 1.0 array (Affymetrix, Santa Clara, CA). Urine proteomic profiling was analyzed with the CM10 ProteinChip array (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Hercules, CA).

RESULTS:
We observed that magnesium treatment significantly decreased fasting C-peptide concentrations (change: -0.4 ng/mL after magnesium treatment compared with +0.05 ng/mL after placebo treatment; P = 0.004) and appeared to decrease fasting insulin concentrations (change: -2.2 ¦ÌU/mL after magnesium treatment compared with 0.0 ¦ÌU/mL after placebo treatment; P = 0.25). No consistent patterns were observed across inflammatory biomarkers.

Gene expression profiling revealed up-regulation of 24 genes and down-regulation of 36 genes including genes related to metabolic and inflammatory pathways such as C1q and tumor necrosis factor-related protein 9 (C1QTNF9) and pro-platelet basic protein (PPBP). Urine proteomic profiling showed significant differences in the expression amounts of several peptides and proteins after treatment.

CONCLUSION:
Magnesium supplementation for 4 wk in overweight individuals led to distinct changes in gene expression and proteomic profiling consistent with favorable effects on several metabolic pathways.

This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00737815.
PMID: 21159786