The Failure of Decoding the Human Genome and the Future of Medicine

THE DECODING OF THE HUMAN GENOME at the dawn of the millennium carried the hope and promise of the beginning of the end of human suffering. However, after more than a decade of intense exploration of the human genome the burden of human disease and suffering has only increased across the globe. stress, social connections, what we eat, our level of physical and mental activity, and our exposure to microbes and environmental toxins. These factors are switches that turn genes on and off and determine which proteins are expressed. The expressed proteins, in turn, trigger signals of disease or health.

What’s even more striking is that if your DNA is tagged by an environmental factor, such as a pesticide, the impact this environmental factor has on your genes can be passed down through generations. The “epigenome” become inheritable. That means if your grandmother ate too much sugar, or smoked, or was exposed to inflammation, iii) offers a powerful way for you to control your destiny.

Researchers have found, for example, that depending on your genes, you may respond better to different diets—some do better with more fat and protein and less carbs, others may not. One of the most important discoveries of the decade is how food—whether it is plant-based, nutrient-rich, phytonutrients-rich food, or processed, high sugar, nutrient-depleted food—changes your gene expression in real time over the course of weeks to months. Dr. Dean Ornish showed how this works in his seminal prostate cancer research.(iv) He was able to beneficially affect over 500 cancer-controlling genes simply by having his patients eat a plant-based, whole foods diet.

Microbiome: The Most Important DNA in Your Body is Not Your Own

The human body hosts 100 trillion microorganisms. The DNA of the bugs living in and on you, outnumber your own DNA by 100 times. This is called the microbiome.(v) Our bodies are simply a host environment for bacteria. They use us for their own purposes. The molecules produced by the DNA of these bacteria have significant impact on our health. This is called “metaproteomics”.

This microbiome, particularly the ecosystem of nearly 500 bugs that live in your gut, have been linked to everything from obesity, to cancer, to autoimmune and allergic disorders and even heart disease and diabetes. Our modern lifestyle and diet and the overuse of antibiotics has changed the population of bacteria living in our guts and it has made us sick.(vi)