Your Thoughts Alter Your Genes
Genes are Apps that can be clicked on or off.
The mind drives the body, and the body’s response to your thoughts switches genes on or off.
Examples
When you are exposed to something in your environment that poses some threat to your well-being, the autonomic nervous system sends out a “time to worry” distress call throughout the body, to get it prepared for fight or flight.
When the external threat subsides, the autonomic system calms down, worry ends and your body returns to a state of homeostasis, or its normal state.
But what happens if the external threat continues?
That is called chronic stress.
When you are under the influence of chronic stress a gene called CYP17 is turned on.
This gene converts cholesterol to cortisol.
One of cortisol’s side effects is the weakening of the immune system, which can lead to various chronic diseases.
A 2015 Study by Becca Levy, Associate Professor of Epidemiology & Psychology at Yale University School of Public Health, found that chronic worry turns on genes that reduce the production of the enzyme Telomerase, which damages the Telomeres that keep our chromosomes from unravelling.
When a chromosome unravels, cells begin to die, decreasing longevity.
Dr Elizabeth Blackburn, a Biologist at the University of California, San Francisco Laboratory of Molecular Biology, won a Nobel Prize in 2009 for her study which found that a positive mental outlook turned on certain genes that increased the production of the enzyme Telomerase, resulting in longer Telomers and longer cell life, increasing longevity.
That’s just a few of the many examples I’ve uncovered in my Rich Habits research related to how your thinking activates genes.
This gene activation mechanism can be good or bad, depending on your thinking.
When you make negative thinking a habit, you are turning on destructive genes.
Conversely, when you make positive thinking a habit, you are turning on constructive genes.
So, stay positive.
It will keep the bad genes off and the good genes on, helping you to live a longer, healthier life.
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