Control your Jeans Genes
Gene Control
We know that genes control a lot of who we are. Genes determine our height and, to some extent, our weight, our personality, and many of the things that make us who we are.
DNA Miracle Molecule
Our genes are stored in a molecule called DNA. Every cell in our body has a copy of our entire DNA code. Our DNA code contains about 3 billion instructions — that’s what it takes to build a human. A single DNA molecule is 5 feet long! DNA is also incredibly thin. Over 1 million strands of DNA bundled together would be thinner than a human hair. Yes, every cell in your body contains a least one copy of this superlong, super thin string.
Gene Processes
Genes control your hormones and a lot of the chemical reactions in your cells, as well as food digestion. DNA is critical to renewing cells and repairing damage to parts of the body. These processes are all heavily controlled by our genetic blueprint.
Selective Following
With those 3 billion instructions in each cell, how does each cell not turn out the same? The remarkable thing is that each cell uses only a small part of the instructions. Liver cells know to use only the part of the DNA that they need to make more liver cells. The selecting of parts of DNA code to use is called ‘gene expression.‘
Switching DNA on
Genes express themselves in different ways. Not only does each cell select the part of the DNA to use, but our bodies also skip or use certain parts of our DNA, depending on our behaviour. As remarkable as it seems, we can control which parts of our DNA are used, and different parts can be switched on or off.
Genetic Switches
Our environment and behaviours influence which genes are switched on or off. Diet, exercise, heat, pollution, and other factors can change the genes used to create new cells.
Genetic Disease
Gene switching may be a factor in diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and especially cancer. The switching on and off of certain genes may tell us why diseases are partially genetic, but not entirely. Our social setting also influences our genes. A high-conflict, high-stress environment changes which genes are used and which are turned off.
Stressing Your Genes
Stress affects how our DNA is expressed. Long exposure to stress can make your hair turn grey before it normally would, but this is only the most visible change based on our mental state. If we have unmanaged stress, it changes the DNA instructions that are used in our immune systems. That is one reason why stress makes us sick. When we are well-rested and at peace, our DNA builds a stronger immune system. This is one reason why vacations lengthen your life. It gives your body a chance to rebuild in an optimal way.
Mind Influences Matter
Your mental, emotional, and spiritual states influence how your genes are used. What you think, feel, and believe changes who you are at the physical level. We all know that our emotional state can change what and how much we eat. For good physical health, you have to maintain your mental, emotional, and spiritual health. If you wonder why you can’t fit into your blue jeans, maybe your genes are blue from stress or lack of activity.
Exercise Your Genes
Exercise is another way we can change which genes are used. When we exercise, we change the way genes are used in our muscles. If we use our muscles, our body shifts the instructions to make each muscle stronger and more responsive. Endurance exercise, exercise that keeps your heart rate up for a long time, shifts how up to 1,000 genes are used.
Change Your Genes with Exercise
Changing which genes are used by exercising can improve your body’s response to disorders such as diabetes. Nine months of regular endurance exercise can change the blueprint your cells are using to rebuild. It takes a while to see this improvement because it takes a generation of new cells made with the modified instructions. Endurance exercise seems to turn on your best DNA and turn off the worst. Your regular exercise might be doing more than you think.
Take Control of Our Genes
We can’t control a lot of what happens in our life. But we can make time for exercise. Let’s take control of our jeans genes with regular endurance exercise.
