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Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul Part 4 of 9: Turning on Genes

December 29, 2009 by  

changing behaviorWe have always been taught that our genes are fixed.  We have blue eyes and brown hair.  That’s all she wrote. However, think of two identical twins, one of whom plies his hands as a bricklayer and another who determines to become a concert pianist.  Each one has manipulated his DNA in profound but subtle ways:  their neural pathways, hand shapes, and movements differ from each other despite being identical twins.

Blind individuals are known to have a much greater sense of touch than sighted people.  A study in which electrical impulses were sent to the tongues of blind people to recreate a visual image showed up on an imaging scan in the visual cortex of these individuals.  These neural pathways for sight were being rerouted in these blind people.

A new field of study today focuses on so-called epigenes, the complex proteins that circumscribe our DNA.  This protein cloud is our trigger to turn a gene on or off.  How do you explain cancers that without any treatment just disappear?  Yes, miracles happen.  However, also our mind to body connection is very powerful.  We can influence our genes by our thoughts and emotions.  We can continue to mature our neural networks differently depending on how we think and behave.

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Filed under: Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul
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Comments

7 Responses to “Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul Part 4 of 9: Turning on Genes”

  1. Nord on December 29th, 2009 6:33 pm

    That photo is too good, love it!

    Hoping our indefatigable blog-buddy Heather returns very soon.

    Excellent blog.

    Thanks!

  2. dr. lam on December 29th, 2009 6:44 pm

    yes, thanks for holding down the fort during her “absence”. lol.

  3. dr. lam on December 30th, 2009 12:33 am

    oh, i just noticed on my forum that it is your birthday today i believe. Happy Birthday NORD!!!!

  4. Nord on December 30th, 2009 8:36 am

    Well, you must be mistaken! haha MM clearly doesn’t know how to check (or not) the appropriate box. I, OTOH, do. No more b-days for me, I’ve had plenty!

    ;)

    Thanks though!

  5. dr. lam on December 30th, 2009 9:04 pm

    ok, lol.

  6. Heather on December 31st, 2009 4:10 am

    Thanks Nord! :) I was hiding. ;) Just kidding!
    LOL, Nord!!! You crack me up!!! Hey, Nord, with Dr. Lam Facial Plastics, you can have as many birthdays as you like and you’ll still never see the effects of them. ;)
    I like your example of twins, Dr. Lam. I’ve seen some “identical” twins that were very different from each other. Great message!!

  7. dr. lam on December 31st, 2009 4:25 am

    yes, nord is a youngster.

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