Is your lifestyle making you sick?

'We have the power to influence our health by the lifestyle we lead.'

Did you know that most chronic conditions are linked to our lifestyle? Have you ever considered how your lifestyle choices influence your health? Did you know genetics plays a small role in the onset of disease, while lifestyle factors have the greatest influence on health?

The world of genetics and how our lifestyle impacts on health is a complex science. 'Keeping it simple', lifestyle factors play a critical role in switching on & off genes that can manifest into disease. Healthy lifestyles support disease causing genes to remain 'switched off' and unhealthy lifestyles can 'switch on' genes that can lead to disease.

You may have heard this being referred to as epigenetics and nutrigenetics (the switching on or off of genes due to environmental factors and nutrition).

Our body systems are intricate and amazing. In gaining an understanding of the interconnected nature of how our body works we can then appreciate how adopting healthy lifestyle choices is beneficial to preventing, treating, managing and even reversing many chronic health conditions.

'Our body has a great capacity to health itself, if we provide it with the right environment.'

There are 12 internal body systems that have specific roles, working hard to support us to live our busy lives. These systems are interdependent, relying on each other to keep an internal stable environment, known as homeostasis within the body. When one system is down, the other systems are affected.  There is now an imbalance in the body and we begin to experience symptoms that if left unaddressed can lead to disease.

If you've ever 'felt off', 'not right' or even used the expression 'out of whack or balance' this is what I am talking about. Let's explain this with an example.

Our digestive system relies on a healthy diet to support its internal environment be able to digest & absorb nutrients from our food that our body will use for energy, repair, growth and different cellular processes.  When we eat a diet of highly processed foods and sugar our intestinal structure, environment & function is negatively affected. The gut microbiome is altered in a way that can result in inflammation. The gut now finds it difficult to digest and absorb any nutrients, we begin to experience symptoms of bloat, fatigue, malabsorption of nutrients, abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhoea, nausea, weight gain/loss. The build up effect of long term exposure to a poor diet can also change a gene & its function. These changes can then lead to onset of diseases such as gout, Crohn's, irritable bowel, gastritis, and inflammatory bowel disease. 

Perhaps its time to stop and think about what is driving your lifestyle choices and if these choices are supporting your health. Considering things like, your daily habits, your behavioural & emotional responses, your connection to food, alcohol & smoking, relationships, social connection, exercise and environment, all the factors that contribute to how you live. When you know why? then you can work towards the how you can fix things. Putting into place small sustainable changes to your lifestyle that will promote your health.

If you need support to make changes to your lifestyle reach out. As an Integrative Nutritionist & Health coach, my role is to help you gain clarity & understanding about how your lifestyle choices are affecting your health and support you to make changes you need to live a long healthy and happy life.

Reach out

Note: Health coaches take on an interdisciplinary approach working as a part of your overall health team, with GPs, specialist and allied health professionals to help you achieve optimal health and wellness.

REFERENCES

• Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2012, Risk factors contributing to chronic disease, AIHW, Canberra.

• Genes and Genetics, Better Health Channel https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/genes-and-genetics

• Franzago M, Santurbano D, Vitacolonna E, Stuppia L. Genes and Diet in the Prevention of Chronic Diseases in Future Generations. Int J Mol Sci. 2020 Apr 10;21(7):2633.

• Martínez Leo EE, Segura Campos MR. Effect of ultra-processed diet on gut microbiota and thus its role in neurodegenerative diseases. Nutrition. 2020 Mar;71:110609.

• Sadiq IZ. Lifestyle medicine as a modality for prevention and management of chronic diseases. J Taibah Univ Med Sci. 2023 Apr 15;18(5):1115-1117.

• University of Alberta. (2019, December 19). Your DNA is not your destiny -- or a good predictor of your health. ScienceDaily.