The Mind Over Body

Upon my travel through the world wide web today, I happened across an article that I felt was of great interest and does a much better job of conveying our own mind over body experience during my husband's health than I could possibly put into words...

Mind Over Genes: The New Biology

Earlier in my career as a research scientist and medical school professor, I actively supported the perspective that the human body was a "biochemical machine ‘programmed’ by its genes. We scientists believed that our strengths, such as artistic or intellectual abilities, and our weaknesses, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer or depression, represented traits that were preprogrammed into our genes. Hence I perceived life’s attributes and deficits, as well as our health and our frailties as merely a reflection of our heredity expression.

Until recently, it was thought that genes were self-actualizing…that genes could ‘turn themselves on and off.’ Such behavior is required in order for genes to control biology. Though the power of genes is still emphasized in current biology courses and textbooks, a radically new understanding has emerged at the leading edge of cell science. It is now recognized that the environment, and more specifically, our perception (interpretation)of the environment, directly controls the activity of our genes. Environment controls gene activity through a process known as epigenetic control.

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Please feel free to follow the link if it pulls you like it did me. I would love to hear some feedback on what you felt about the article so please feel free to leave a comment once you have completed your reading.