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Summary
On episode 344 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan sits down with Dr. Kenneth Pelletier, a clinical professor of medicine and psychiatry at the University of California School of Medicine in San Francisco and a medical consultant to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the World Health Organization. He is the best selling author of Mind as Healer, Mind as Slayer, and joins the show to discuss his book Change Your Genes, Change Your Life.
Kenneth argues that only about 5 percent of our genes are fixed and fully penetrant. The rest are shaped by epigenetics, the interaction between our genes and everything we do, eat, and are exposed to after the first six months of life. Genes work more like a dimmer switch than an on off toggle, and diet and stress are the two biggest levers we have to turn that dial.
The conversation covers the seven biological pathways that govern our health, why identical twins so often end up with different diseases, why the Mediterranean diet has the strongest evidence behind it, and the difference between short term stress that protects us and chronic stress that wears our genes down.
Links
- https://drpelletier.com
Key Takeaways
- Genes are a dimmer switch, not a light switch. Epigenetics regulates gene expression up or down through molecular markers called SNPs that sit around the gene, rather than simply switching it on or off.
- Only about 5 percent of genes are fully penetrant. Conditions caused directly by a single gene usually show up in the first six months of life. Nearly all late life chronic disease comes from the interaction between genes and environment, which is the basis of epigenesis.
- Diet is the single most potent influence on gene expression we know of. There is no one diet that fits everyone. Kenneth argues that general guidelines like keto, paleo, or low fat are a suit off the rack, and real results come from tailoring diet to your own biochemistry.
- Seven biological pathways determine your state of health. They are methylation, inflammation, oxidative stress, detoxification, immunity, lipid metabolism, and mineral metabolism, each governed by clusters of genes and detectable through blood biomarkers.
- Identical twin studies show genes are a push, not a destiny. Twins with the same genetic code frequently do not share the same major disease, which means lifestyle differences, not genetic code, are the deciding factor most of the time.
- There are two very different kinds of stress. Type 1 stress is short term and resolvable, like jumping back from a car, and is not harmful. Type 2 stress is long term, unresolvable, and drives chronic inflammation that damages the body over time.
- Most popular diets work the same in the short run and fail the same way long term. A JAMA study following seven or eight popular diets found improvements at three to six months that mostly disappeared by one year, except for Weight Watchers, which held its results because of built in social support and accountability, not superior nutrition.
- Genetic testing works best as a health model, not a disease model. Reports that just hand you a disease risk percentage are far less useful than reading your own biomarkers and pathways to see what you can actually change.
“Diet is the single most potent influence on gene expression that we know of.”
Dr. Kenneth Pelletier