Genetics Versus Lifestyle

Health is not fair. There are people who make terrible lifestyle choices and go through life in (at least what appears to be) relatively good health – at least for a good part of their lives. On the other hand, there are those who “do everything right” and still deal with significant health challenges, often repeatedly, throughout their lives.

Some people have such good genetic tendencies that they can mostly withstand all sorts of unhealthy behaviors – terrible diet, inactivity, smoking, etc.. Others have been cursed with predispositions to one or more serious health problems that occur despite them taking really good care of themselves.

Those are the statistical outliers though. Most of us fall somewhere in the middle between those two extremes. But there’s sometimes a tendency to point to one and/or the other extreme as a justification for neglecting one’s health. People say things like, “the men in my family all live well into their 80’s or older, so I’m not worried,” or “My mother ate right and exercised, never smoked and still got cancer, so what’s the point?”

Again, most of us fall somewhere in between the extremes of genetic fortune, and what was true for other family members may not be true for us.

There’s also a difference between living a long life and living a good life. How many people with “good genes” suffer for years in their long lives with chronic illness and disability?

Some people can definitely get away with more in terms of poor lifestyle choices in both duration and quality of life, but even for them they probably could have even better lives – have more energy, look better, have better moods and mental clarity – if they adopted some basic healthy lifestyles.

And on the other end of the spectrum, people who are genetically predisposed to health challenges can often reduce those problems and live more pleasant lives by choosing to do things like eating healthy food and exercising. There’s no guarantee that healthy choices will make a difference, particularly if we’re looking at a specific genetic predisposition like cancer, but overall health and well-being are almost always enhanced by eating a good diet, exercising, avoiding smoking, etc..

As an analogy, someone might be born into a financially wealthy family – they’re set up for success from birth. But they can squander that wealth by making bad financial decisions and eventually wind up broke. Someone else might be born into poverty, but through hard work and careful financial planning, might wind up wealthy.

As with losing one’s financial wealth, losing one’s health through neglect is often an insidious process. Small losses over time add up.

In the case of health, chronic, gradual declines may be relatively asymptomatic and undetectable until they become serious problems. And once that occurs, it’s much more difficult to start living a healthier lifestyle – old habits die hard, and getting yourself to do things like exercise are hard when you’re overweight, in pain, and/or low on energy.

My advice to someone who does want to make healthy changes is to take it slowly – making drastic changes all at once tends not to last, plus it can trigger some major symptoms, such as post-exercise soreness or even injury from trying to do too much too soon at the gym, or detox symptoms from radical dietary changes.

Make simple changes you feel confident you can stick with at first. If you’ve been extremely inactive, maybe start with going for short, easy walks every day. If your diet is terrible, start with changing one thing – maybe cut out, or reduce portion sizes of, desserts. Maybe switch from drinking sodas to water at least a few times a day. Keep it simple and easy at first and build from there.

Even going slowly and keeping it easy could trigger unpleasant symptoms. Many people take this as a sign that what they’re doing isn’t working or isn’t appropriate for them (and may use it as an excuse to quit). That is possible if you’re in really poor health (in which case, you should check with your doctor(s) before making significant lifestyle changes). But most of the time, symptoms are simply a sign that you’re making changes and your body is adapting. This is why I recommend taking things slowly in the beginning.

What seems like a really easy workout can leave you so sore you can barely move for a few days!

What seems like a minor change in diet can result in needing to spend a considerable amount of time in the bathroom until the body adapts!

Such reactions suck, but they’re entirely normal.

You may need to experiment with different exercise regimens, different nutrition approaches, etc. to see what makes you feel the best, as well as what realistically fits into your schedule and other aspects of your life. But the bottom line is, whether you won the genetic lottery or not, a healthy lifestyle helps you to live the best life possible!

Until next time…

George F. Best, D.C.