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

We air this show in memory of Dr. Mitchell Gaynor, who died last month. He was a frequent guest on The People’s Pharmacy and we are sorry to learn of his unexpected death.

Genetic Destiny:

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 study of how gene activity can be modified is called epigenetics.

Epigenetics

The field of epigenetics has been developing rapidly over the past few decades, and we now have a 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 would be familiar to our grandmothers and great-grandmothers: 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, was the founder and president of Gaynor Wellness. Dr. Gaynor was clinical assistant professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. His book is The Gene Therapy Plan: Taking Control of Your Genetic Destiny with Diet and Lifestyle. His websites are GaynorWellness.com and GeneChanger.com

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