Are our health issues due to heredity? Do we even have a choice whether we live or die? Who is in control anyway? Can we actually guide our future health toward wellness?
These are questions many are asking.
There is a trend in the health care industry suggesting that many of our health issues and the resultant diseases are simply a genetic predisposition. Because someone in your family had the condition, you will have the condition as well.
I hear these statements way too often, "My mom has degenerative arthritis and her mom had degenerative arthritis, so that is why I have degenerative arthritis," or "My dad has lower back pain and his dad had lower back pain, so it just makes sense that I would have lower back pain too." These are a few examples I hear weekly. Place whatever condition or symptom in the above sentences that fits whether it be headaches/ migraines, sinus/allergies, degenerative disc disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, heart disease, etc.
Here is the message I would like to communicate.
If a trait, disease, symptom or condition is due to heredity it generally shows up at birth or soon after. There would be an obvious manifestation early in life. Very few conditions wait till we are an adult and then all of a sudden show up.
This next statement is mind opening.
One of the main reasons we manifest the same health issues as our parents when we get older is because we tend to take on the same habits as our parents. We grew up in a certain area, did similar things, ate the same foods, developed the same beliefs and basically followed in our parents’ footsteps more than we choose to believe.
Another reason we manifest similar problems as our parents is because we did the same things that damage a body as they did.
For example:
They ate bad foods their entire life
We eat bad foods our entire lifeThey never exercised
We never exercise
They never went for regular checkups
We never go for regular checkups
They did not take the appropriate vitamins
We do not take the appropriate vitamins
They did not educate themselves
We did not educate ourselves
Here is a perfect example:
your parent spent a life eating too much sugar and sweets.
Later in life they develop type 2 diabetes.
You grow up eating too much sugar and sweets.
Later in life you develop type 2 diabetes.
Is this hereditary? Or is this simply a consequence of putting too much sugar and sweets in the body. In fact, many of us will get type 2 diabetes if we continue to eat too much sugar and sweets.
I do believe that we can have a propensity to certain health issues because of what our parents passed down to us genetically, but that propensity is not a certainty. We have a choice as to how we treat our bodies and our lives.
If we sow the same thing as everyone else, we will probably reap the same thing as everyone else.
My experience is that most of us do want to take responsibility for our health. It is easier to blame someone or something else. We have more control of our health than we realize, but to be in control we must increase our knowledge and responsibility.
Start today by understanding how the body works and how to reverse the debilitating spiral of poor health.