Hereditary Disease: Inherited or learned?

I am fortunate (or unfortunate depending on your view) to be able to reason and theorize on many subjects.  While running down the nutritional tree of though, something occurred to me.  What if things we view as genetic are really not genetic at all?  I know this flies into the face of conventional thought, but to me I see this in a different perspective.

Diabetes, breast cancer etc. are considered to be hereditary.  Chances are greater that you will develop the disease if your ancestors had it.  But at some point, no one in your family tree had it, and they developed the disease.  So one has to conclude that it is in fact not hereditary at all.  More importantly, I think modern medicine has accepted this as fact due to no competing hypothesis.  Until now.

What if hereditary disease is nothing more than hereditary life style?  Maybe a diabetic becomes a diabetic through learning the eating habits of their parents rather than some fixed DNA structure.  Maybe these people are not as doomed to a disease as previously thought.  If you were to take a person whose entire family tree is riddled with diabetes, and taught them to eat a diet that was not conducive to promoting the disease, would they in fact never get diabetes?  I would wager that this, more than anything is what dictates a predisposition to disease.

As us WF people have/are learning, there is a host of diseases that are caused by the consumption of wheat and/or grains.  I think our medical system needs to change and quit working to find drugs to mask an ailment, and focus more on what is it we are consuming that is causing the disease.  Thomas Edison once wrote that the future of medicine did not involve prescribing medicine, but rather treating ailments through nutrition.  I believe he may have been dead on in his belief, but underestimated the power of money and influence.  If it could be proven that diet can cure any ailment, would we need Pfizer or Bayer or any of the other pharma companies?

Take control of your health and write your own story of personal health.  Change your habits and change your life.

A Cold?

On Christmas day I started feeling a sore throat coming on.  I started the regimen of taking zinc, vitamin C and echinacea.  After nearly two weeks, all I have managed to do is to get rid of the sore throat.  After reading about some other WF people, I am beginning to wonder if this is wheat withdrawal I am going through.  I have a foggy brain most days, my sinuses are whacked and just an overall icky feeling.  Nothing I take seems to make a difference.  Nyquil, Sudafed, nothing.  No relief just the same symptoms day after day.

I have read that wheat withdrawal can have similar symptoms as cold/flu.  I can only conclude that this is what is happening to me.  I think it is improving as I have slept through the night the last two nights.  If this is indeed the case, it is a strong argument for not eating wheat.  If it can make you feel this bad removing it from your diet, imagine what it is doing to your system while consuming it!

I am hoping that over the next couple of days my symptoms improve and I get back to a normal state of being.  I do not want to go through this again, that is for sure!  I have read about different levels of severity for wheat withdrawal.  I don't want mine to be the gauge others use as it may not be typical withdrawal.  The level of withdrawal a person experiences may be related to the amount of wheat being consumed.  Mine was a high level, your mileage may vary.

Welcome New Year!

Well, I managed to make it through the holidays.  Cookies, cakes, pies, rolls, oh the wheat products that flourished!  Then add a small trip to the mix and you begin to wonder if you can truly be wheat free.  While I did not do as well as I had hoped, I did manage to keep my weight under control, and even lost a pound.  The last time I was down this much weight I was feeling hungry all the time.  Not now.  I feel satiated most of the time, and not as tired.

One thing that did surprise me though was the number of people who were actually paying attention to what I was doing and posting.  I got a wheat free cookbook from friends, and found that she had actually bought the book and read it.  Another friend borrowed her book as she wanted to know about wheat as well.  It was refreshing to have serious conversation about our health and how to address it.  It was also nice to be able to share ideas about how to accomplish going wheat free with others.  I can't wait to see the results from them.  It should be an exciting time!

As I move forward into the new year, I am encouraged by not only the acceptance by others for this change in diet, but also at finally having my wife getting on board with it.  We haven't gotten into the recipes yet, and there are still meal plannings we have to conquer, but at least we are moving in the right direction.