Can Couples Fight Their Genetic Inheritance?

We spoke about individuals fighting their genetic destiny with serious lifestyle alterations recently. Childhood obesity, diabetes, rate of cancer is on the rise. Without taking care of diabetes, billions and dollars goes into it, and without fixing our diet and lifestyle, behavioral changes, nothing will improve. But now a new approach to fighting the genes we inherit from our parents that can lead to disease —where couples coming together work to fight their destiny together. Newer methods are helping couples help fight passing on these genes to their children, who will inevitably make up the next generation. 

A new field called epigenetics — the study of gene expression and how the epigenome influences DNA — actually takes a deep look at this health approach, often touted by holistic and naturopathic doctors. We all know half of our genes came from our father and other half from our mother, but many people don't understand their family history. The expression of genes regulating inflammation and immune function are under your control depending on the toxins or  nutrients you're putting in your body.

 By looking at inflammatory markers. Inflammation gets to the heart of what we're all destined to develop, when it comes chronic diseases. In cancer alone, it has increased from 1 in 3 to 1 in 2 people who will develop cancer worldwide.

Inflammation is often due to consuming processed foods, fast foods, white sugar, white flour and head damaged oils. They are turning on numerous genes that promote inflammation causing cancer, heart disease. Inflammation often begins in the gut, destroying gut bacteria that releases inflammatory chemicals that produce inflammation promoting cancer throughout the body. 

Simple diet lifestyle changes can fight this. 

When a male and female partner both carry a mutation for a common disorder, any biological children they have together is at risk of being born with the disorder. Many genetic disorders — such as cystic fibrosis, perhaps the most common of such conditions — can significantly alter a person’s quality of life. 

Some couples choose to conceive via in vitro fertilization (IVF) with pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and pre-implantation genetic screening, which is a process that lets the embryos be created and screened for both specific mutations from the father and mother. This procedure also This approach also screens for chromosomal abnormalities before they're transferred to the uterus. 

In actuality, only 2% of couples will end up carrying the same gene for the same genetic disease and actually be at risk. Most of the time, couples will walk away from genetic counseling and screening will not have children at risk for these various diseases.