Genes are responsible for the expression of our health conditions. Health conscious people, like ourselves are so interested to know the diseases that they may have inherited from their ancestors. Certainly, forewarned is being forearmed. But, be obsessed and anxious, to think that once they have the gene for a certain disease, they are destined to suffer and die as their relatives did. Maybe by inaction! But when I reviewed recent studies, this shouldn’t really be your scenario. I really think that if you have a gene for a certain chronic illness you can prevent its full blown expression.
Inflammation view by gene
It is known that inflammation is an essential process that initiates atherosclerosis resulting to heart attacks or strokes. It had also been strongly implicated in the beginning phases of most cancers, specifically colon and prostate cancer. Inflammation transforms prostate cells allowing mutation and replication, which clearly is the road-map to cancer.
How does inflammation work? And what does it do? A complicated process, inflammation can be both beneficial such as in response to acute injury for the healing process to take place or harmful if the inflammation is low grade and chronic.
How food work on our gene
Trans-fat and saturated fat from animal sources are the perpetrators of low grade and chronic inflammation. If your everyday diet is fatty and greasy, foods rich in trans-fat and saturated fats, the process becomes one chronic condition where inflammation occurs destroying blood vessels and initiating prostate cancer. Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medical Institution proved that this process begins the initial stages of colon and prostate cancer.
Knowing this revelation, what can one do to avoid the bad gene that seems to bestow a life sentence of cancer? Lot! Change your diet into a healthy one, enough to influence those fatal genes into expressing what they have to. This means that you can actually prevent cancer from occurring. Modify your diet to include whole grains, lots of fruits, vegetables and olive oil, the so called Mediterranean diet. Research show that olive oil is an anti-inflammatory as well as an antioxidant.
The tools to use
The anti-inflammatory chemicals in olive oil are phytochemicals particularly squalene, beta-sitosterol and tyrosol and most strongly oleocanthal. Oleocanthal is the magic compound more concentrated in extra virgin olive oil responsible for the anti-inflammatory action. Researchers compare this compound to Non-steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAID) in its capacity to fight inflammation.
Inflammation can be suppressed by NSAIDs, but long term use are still in a gray area if you gulp down a tablet of ibuprofen a day everyday, unless your doctor prescribe them for preexisting conditions. As I have always consistently advocated and promoted, diet is still the key to prevention of cancer. I believe that a healthy diet is the most essential modifier of gene expression. If you have a family history of cancer it is not hopeless to hope to live a longer life free of the expressions of those nasty genes. So, if you’d like to override your prostate cancer genes start incorporating this special oil in your diet. Substitute extra virgin olive oil in cooking where you use oils in sauté, in salad dressings, in grilling, flavoring and others or download easy recipes from the web. Continuous use of olive oil decreases inflammation in your body and consequently prevent occurrence of chronic illnesses.
Be Hopeful
Isn’t this is a relief to know? You’d not need to act as if you are destined to die and suffer like dad, mom or your other ancestors. Start looking forward to more happy years of your life.
Be wise, modify your diet now!