We now know that our genes do not determine our health.  At most, our genes account for 10% of our health outcome.  The rest has to do with how we eat, sleep, think, move, drink, and breathe.

This means there is hope and that we are not shackled to our ancestry of heart disease, depression, or dementia!

Instead, our genes are more like the keys of a piano that our environment and lifestyle skillfully compose into either the music of vitality or the din of disease.

Once thought to be “junk” and insignificant material compared to our DNA, the epigenome is the interface between our genes and our surroundings.  It is comprised of millions of switches that surround our genes in order to turn them on or off, depending on the signals they receive from how we live our lives.

Though new to modern medicine, this concept, known as the homeopathic principle of miasms, has been around for over two hundred years.  Long before the knowledge of genetically linked diseases, Samuel Hahnemann observed that certain illnesses tended to run in certain families.  Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, discovered that our ancestor’s afflictions can predispose us to chronic illness.

These afflictions do not change our genes, but they do influence changes in our epigenome.  From there, changes trickle down, turning genes on or off.  The resulting genetic expression determines how well our immune system responds, how well we detoxify, or how well we produce the energy needed to run our cellular processes. 

Without a good epigenetic-genetic relationship, the most targeted natural remedies and pharmaceuticals will never address the entire condition.  Therefore, if not addressed, miasms can cause the recurrence of certain illnesses or diseases.

Miasms are created as a result of these shifts in our epigenetic function in response to positive or negative stimuli in our environment.

The cleaner our drinking water, the more rich and loving our relationships. The more intentional we are about our rest, the better the relationship can be expressed for health and healing. 

While cleaning up your diet, or getting enough sleep, certainly provide for better epigenetic-genetic expression, you may find that it is not enough.  You may have already tried everything, and taken everything, but are still struggling. 

That is because epigenetic miasms are stumbling blocks that improvements to our lifestyle cannot avoid.  They can set up our susceptibility to illness and hold us back from healing. 

Our epigenome functions are a bit like software that runs our DNA “hardware” helping us to maintain agility in the expression of our genes so that health can be expressed. 

When we experience illness, disease, stress, and trauma, the epigenome is the pen that helps to write either good or bad stories in the book of life that is our DNA.

The epigenetic software can become corrupted by our lifestyle.  When we eat less than nutritious foods, are a workaholic and burn the candle at both ends with a blowtorch, or live in an area rife with environmental pollutants, it diminishes our epigenetic resiliency. 

This loss of resiliency creates a strain on our genetic expression and leaves our genetic fibers frayed, or torn, as they are woven into the next generation.  Now our children have a little more to deal with than we did in our lifetime.

Miasms are not the actual disease process being passed down.  They are either the lessons learned from an encounter with an illness, or the trauma and damage done by an illness.

For instance, say my grandfather had a disease affecting his lungs (i.e. tuberculosis).  Through a combination of his poor lifestyle choices and circumstances, along with the negative shifts to his epigenome, I could inherit a tendency toward allergies, sinus issues, or the tendency for colds and viruses to “go straight to my lungs.”

Miasms are the convergence of our inherited vital force and our physical condition.  By addressing miasms, it allows your body to renew itself according to the way it was designed.  It creates an environment where the body can work, heal, and thrive. 

When looking at miasms through the BioRestorative Matrix, epigenetic nutrition is your first step to reclaiming your health from the illnesses of your ancestry.

Making the most of each meal helps to optimize the interaction between epigenome and genome.  This gives traction to our healing because our food has a direct connection with our genes. 

Good, healing foods whisper in the ear, caress, massage, encourage and bring the best out of our genes.  It is important to work with functional-minded practitioners, like those at Institute for Restorative Health, to determine which foods to focus on and which to avoid.

The right patient/doctor partnership is a foundational path for finding the best combination of genetically supportive nutrition and cellular health restoration.   Specific supplementation offers the leverage necessary to not only heal and recover from chronic illness, but the much-needed ability to maintain progress.

To balance miasms and your body, you must go beyond nutrition and diet.  The doctors at the Institute for Restorative Health use principles of both biological and energy medicine to find homeopathic and frequency-based corrections to the epigenetic “software.”  This brings balance to the epigenetic/genetic relationship and distances you from the susceptibility to illness passed down from your family.

In a problem-focused culture, we must remember that there is another side to this coin.  There are strengths being passed down through our family, too.  These are the shifts in the epigenetic system that increase our adaptability to stressors from our environment.

It is these strengths that could make a significant difference when it comes to breaking the chains of chronic illness in our lives or preventing us from having to deal with them at all.

So how do we get the most from these strengths?

• Discuss homeopathic options with your doctor.  Balancing miasms can take some detective work by going through your health history. A skilled hand at determining the appropriate remedies is imperative.

• Make your meals more than food.  Our social life has the biggest impact on our epigenetics.  In terms of meals, food is to be prepared with love not processed for convenience.  It is shared in fellowship, not swallowed in silence.  Harness the power of community and connection through your meals to boost your healing process.

• Take the right combination of nutrients.  Properly supporting your genetic pathways enhances their interaction with your epigenome.  This may also positively affect the influence of miasms on your health.  This can be overwhelming as recommendations based on genetic testing can be confusing.  I like how this is described in Ben Lynch’s book, Dirty Genes:  “…take large quantities of vitamin X to support gene A, avoid vitamin X completely to support gene B, and consume moderate quantities of vitamin X to support gene C.”

• Find rest beyond sleep.  Restoring your body requires a solid 7-9 hours of sleep each night, but it also needs intentional rest during the waking hours as well.  We especially need downtime from the daily labor-intensive and resource-draining activities.  This can be anything from no electronics two hours before bedtime, no work-related projects on the weekends, or engaging in more hobbies and fun.

Find hope in knowing that we can be set free from the rip currents of our genetic oceans and find safe harbor in more gently lapping pools.  Freedom from chronic illness can be found when we understand this reality: Our genes do not determine our life, we do.

If you’d like to incorporate epigenetic support as part of reclaiming your health, click here to learn more about how we can help.

References:
1.  Alejandro, et al.  Epigenomics. 2011 Jun;3(3):267-77
2.  Wagner AE, Terschluesen AM, Rimbach G. Oxid Med Cell Longev. 2013;2013:964539.
3.  Pan MH, Lai CS, Wu JC, Ho CT. Curr Pharm Des. 2013;19(34):6156-85.