In our last post we introduced an important new field of science: epigenetics.
Today I’m going to continue to describe epigenetics and explain why it’s so important in understanding disease processes.
I found another great video for you to watch: the Epigenetics of Twins. Twins are really important in genetics because they help us to answer whether our makeup is determined by our genetics (“nature”) or our environment (“nurture”). In classical genetics it’s always one or the other. However in epigenetics the 2 influences become 1, because our environment changes our epigenome, so the things that we do (environment) can be passed on to our children (genetic).
Enjoy this short (5 min) documentary, the Epigenetics of Twins:
So how does epigenetics explain disease?
Let me use a real example which I discovered this week regarding diabetes. This is science in the making!
Evette and I are now living on a small island in the mid Pacific. We are here to help educate the locals, as well as to learn their amazing customs and knowledge.
One recent problem here is diabetes. There’s no money for insulin and so it’s a death sentence. When I first arrived I assumed that the diabetes was the product of natives adopting a Western diet – too much sugar, fried food etc. However it turns out that diet is not a major factor. In fact the diabetes is apparently more common in the more remote districts with a traditional diet, and less common right here near the capital. This surprised me for a few minutes until I remembered what I’ve learned: diabetes is an epigenetic disease.
I know a little bit of South Pacific history. One of the saddest parts is the history of “blackbirding” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbirding), which was basically the Australian black slave trade until 1901, well after the USA abolished slavery. Indigenous people were kidnapped from around the Pacific and made to work on sugar plantations in Australia.
Armed with this knowledge I asked the locals: “is diabetes a problem in the areas where blackbirding was highest or lowest?” The answer of course was the expected one: the remote islands with problems with diabetes are those same (unprotected) islands that experienced blackbirding 100 years ago. The local villages near the capital were safe, and they have almost no diabetes, despite adopting a more Western diet.
If this doesn’t surprise and amaze you, then you must be ahead of the curve. Even a decade ago this association would be unthinkable to any respectable genetic scientist. Diabetes was DNA and diet, nothing to do with trauma. The scientific community is only very slowly opening up to this new awareness.
What does this prove?
To me it proves something I already knew, that most dieseases, like diabetes, are epigenetic.
We used to think that diabetes (/ cancer / depression / etc) were largely genetic, meaning that it was a faulty gene that caused them. This was assumed to be the case because they often run in the family. Now we know that the cause is not a gene, but the expression of a gene. This is the result of the epigenome. And it’s our family story, such as trauma, that determines our epigenome.
A good friend of mine has often wondered about her diabetes – why is she the only person in her family to have Type I (“genetic”) diabetes? Armed with the knowledge of epigenetics I can now ask her about what trauma in her family could be related to the diabetes. The healing becomes much simpler – our intention is to clear the trauma (environemtnal factor) which switched the diabetic epigenome.
Our theory (which is still 10 years away from being accepted science) is that that the epigenetic switch is easily reversed. Just as trauma flicks the switch on, clearing the trauma flicks the switch back off. Healing the family trauma that causes diabetes should switch the diabeteic gene back off.
Will this cure the diabetes? It’s hard to say because diabetes is the end result of an auto-immune process. The symptoms don’t appear until the immune system has wreaked significant damage to the pancreas. I believe this damage can be healed in time.
What I am much more sure about is that clearing the family trauma will stop the diabetes being inherited by the next generation. In other words – it’s never too late to protect your children. If your children are already born, we make sure they are included in the healing process.
I’ve chosen diabetes as a topical example because I hope to make a very real difference to the people in these islands through working with the locals to clear “blackbirding trauma.” If we succeed, the next generation wont need to worry about diabetes.
The principles described here apply to most disease processes. I will, in future blogs, be writing about cancer, depression and other epigenetic diseases.
The next article will address one of the most important questions: how do you find and clear the epigenetic trauma?
Did you like this research? Leave your comments and questions here.
[To continue to Part 3 after leaving your comments, click here.]
Peter 
Monica Wafer 
Purdita Webster 
Jørgen Mæhre 
feels like RPT is in a good flow nowadays 
Tom Jones 
Renee Hawkins 
carolyn 
Very interesting and THANKS for such huge insights!
[Reply]