Why we should consider Epigenetics

In the 1980s, scientists believed that 95% of our genes were inherited from our parents. If our parents had a genetic predisposition to conditions like cancer, heart disease, obesity, stress, anxiety, or depression, we felt helpless, thinking it was a lottery. However, after years of research and the Human Genome Project, we now understand that only about 5% of our outcomes are actually determined by our parents’ genes.

This revelation posed a significant challenge because it meant we could no longer simply blame heredity for our circumstances. While certain conditions still seemed to run in families, the findings revealed that it was not just genetics at play, but rather the behaviours that families exhibit.

The behaviours of anxious parents, for example, can lead to anxious children. In the same way, angry or sad parents often raise children who mirror those same feelings.

Over time, these behaviours—such as worrying, stressing, and unhealthy eating—can signal genes to either express or not express themselves. Consequently, similar behaviours across generations may lead to similar diseases or mental states.

This has been further illustrated by studies involving adopted children who, despite having different genetic backgrounds, developed conditions prevalent in their adoptive families. What this indicates is that the environment in which our cells exist—let’s call it our bloodstream or “chemical soup”—is pivotal in determining gene expression.

Our “chemical soup” is influenced by our external life circumstances: what we eat, our stress levels, our jobs, environmental toxins, smoking, and medications. Among these contributors, it turns out that our thoughts have the most significant impact on the chemicals released into our bloodstream, which ultimately guide gene expression.

This means that our mindset can often be more influential than our diet or external situations. For example, a happy person in a bad job may have a healthier chemical balance than a stressed individual in a good job. Similarly, a person with a poor diet but a positive outlook may have better health than a well-nourished vegetarian who is stressed about animal welfare. A calm person in a chaotic environment can be healthier than an anxious person in a tranquil setting.

I encourage you to verify this information by reading relevant books and research.

Understanding this knowledge is crucial in controlling your feelings and influencing your internal biology. Your cells’ fate is determined more by your chemical soup—controlled largely by your thoughts and reactions to life—rather than your inherited genes. This insight highlights how negative thinking, such as anxiety or obsessive-compulsive tendencies, can adversely affect your biology and contribute to depression.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t eat healthily, exercise, or avoid toxins—those are important, too! However, it’s vital to recognise that much of this process is governed by our unconscious thoughts. Here lies a key opportunity for personal change to reduce anxiety and, by extension, depression.

In my earlier videos, I discussed how the conscious and unconscious mind operates in different ways. It’s important to emphasise that over 90% of the decisions and strategies that your brain employs in response to the world come from your unconscious mind, with many of these strategies programmed before the age of 7 and refined until around age 15.

These conditioned responses embody the “family behaviours” I mentioned. Often, we believe we are consciously choosing how to respond when, in fact, we are not. About 10% of our brain is conscious, which tends to get bored with the present moment and focus on the past or future, yet we spend about 90% of our day operating within that conscious space.

The other 90% of your brain that is unconscious is just responding, in the way you were programmed to respond, in that current moment – your unconscious mind totally lives in the now, can only live in the now, there is only the now and responds to what is happening in the now – in the ways you were conditioned to respond!!

This is continued in video 7 from my course…