Total Health Breakthroughs: Free Natural Health Newsletter and Alternative Health Articles

You may remember my article from back in December discussing the good and bad effects of alcohol. In it I warned women to stick to the one-glass-a-day rule to reduce risks from alcohol. However, a recent study called the Million Women Study found that even one glass a day increased the risk of cancers in women. The study, which came out of the United Kingdom, found that in middle-aged women who drank anywhere from one to three drinks per day — the risk of breast, liver, rectum, and in smokers, mouth and throat cancers, increased for each drink consumed.¹

One drink increased cancer rate by 15 cancers per 1000 women and this risk continued to double for each daily drink. This study was significant because it involved a very big study population, most of whom drank wine, a form of alcohol that other studies have found has certain health benefits.

I know many women will look at that study and say, “Well, I am going to take my chances. I am not giving up my one glass of wine!” And that decision is probably OK because there may be a way to protect yourself.

You see the idea that even moderate alcohol consumption may increase cancer risks is not a new one. Studies clear back into the early 1990s found the same thing. However, other studies from back in the 1990s found that the increased cancer risk from alcohol may be largely because alcohol depletes folate.

Is obesity genetic, or is lifestyle is a bigger factor? Over thousands of years, human genetics haven’t changed much; yet over the past couple of decades there’s been an exponential increase in obesity and its related problems like metabolic syndrome, a group of risk factors that leads to heart disease and diabetes.¹ So, even though it may seem that some people are hard wired to be overweight, the sudden increase in obesity indicates that something more than genetics is playing out.

As it turns out, our genetics can be steered toward obesity, but it is guided by something called our epigenetics, certain behavioral or environmental influences that tell our genes what to do. And guess what? Our epigenetics are heavily influenced by our nutritional intake, including what we eat too much of and what we don’t get enough of.

Let me explain. Everybody is born with a unique set of genes, your hardwired DNA. (That’s called our genome.) Your genes lie there and wait to see if they will be turned on or not as directed by tagging systems that sit on top of genes, called the epigenome. Our genes and epigenetics have been compared to a computer and its software.² Our genes are the hard drive; the epigenetics are the software telling the hard drive what to do.

In a word, the answer to that question is yes. For example, as Jim’s article pointed out, foods which contain nutrients with methyl groups heavily influence your genetic expression and are known to reduce the risk of several cancers, including prostate, breast, and colon cancers.