Decipher YOUR Genetic Code For Optimal Wellbeing

Hello Health and Wellness Seeker,

Do you know that the DNA is the key to unlocking our risk of chronic disease and other issues that affect sleep, nutrition and immunity?

Kashif Khan, my podcast guest of the Self-Care Goddess Podcast episode #36 goes beyond focusing on genetic tendencies to explain what we can actually do about our genetic profile. The answer lies in the science of genetics which is focused on understanding genes and what the genes are doing. Kashif dives into the various areas of our life that are impacted by genetics. Our genes influence whether we can handle a vegan diet, whether we can sleep through the night, whether we have a hormonal tendency to gain weight easily, whether we have autism, and so much more. Once we uncover our genetic makeup, we are equipped to take relevant action to improve our overall health. I hope my podcast inspires you to develop simple habits to decipher your genetic code and transform your life.

Here are some highlights from the amazing conversation that I had with Kashif.

Time Out in Nature, Physical Activity, Brain Fitness, Optimizing Sleep, Managing Stress, and Living with Purpose & Gratitude are just a few of the common denominators that help you live a long, healthy life according to the hotspots of longevity around the world. Watch my YouTube video.

What are genes? How do they affect our sleep?

A gene is an instruction manual in our body that tells all our cells what to do. In some of us these instructions they have spelling mistakes. Some of us may have paragraphs or even pages that are missing. Nobody has a perfect instruction manual. We need to figure out where the spelling mistakes are to understand what the problems are. When we have a mistake in a gene, it doesn’t function properly. For example, Serotonin is a brain chemical that could have a huge impact on our sleep. However, nobody talks about its impact on sleep because it’s a brain gene not a sleep gene. Today most people that have bad sleep, wake up within three to four hours and then they’re struggling for the rest of the night. Melatonin is the chemical that puts us to sleep so people take melatonin supplements and it helps them fall asleep. Serotonin makes us more sensitive to stimuli and is a chemical that wakes you up. So, if we don’t have a good relationship with serotonin our body wakes up after three hours if there are is stimulus whatsoever, light, sound or temperatures begins to drive serotonin production because our body thinks it’s time to wake up.

Tips for Sound Sleep:

One of the major reasons why people wake up is because the temperature is too hot. Kashif recommends using a mattress cooler, which is a lining we can put on our mattress which cools us down as we sleep. This mattress cooler maintains the optimal temperature.
Another thing we can do is a complete blackout or zero light leakage whatsoever. Even if we’re not awake, we’re not getting the same quality of sleep with light exposure. Light is meant to trigger serotonin production and wake us up. So, there should be zero light. We can wear an eye mask or Viva Rays night glasses. For more information listen to the Self-Care Goddess Podcast episode #33 “Open Your Eyes to Light Nutrition”.
There are also supplements that we can get to help us with serotonin. The supplements contain the 5-HTTLPR gene and are easily available everywhere.
Sleep can also be disturbed by smell and environmental response. It’s advised to scan your home for any chemicals or gasses, and eliminate them and avoid them to mitigate their harmful effects.
We must check our pillow and mattress. If we are using a memory foam mattress, every little bubble is full of toxic gas. As we roll around, we keep popping them and breathing them in. That irritability can disrupt our sleep because the body is triggered into dealing with that as opposed to resting. Consider anything that can cause stimulus and get rid of it for optimal sleep.

I’m on a mission to educate people to this new way of toxic free living. More and more people are realizing this but connecting it to our genetic predisposition is just a match made in heaven for optimal health and well-being.

For some amazing tips and hacks on How to Start Your Toxin FREE Living Journey listen to the Self-Care Goddess Podcast, episode #23.

Why Does Dis-Ease Happen?

Breast Cancer Study

Kashif Khan spent three years researching 7000 people which is the largest study of its kind in the world. As opposed to taking genetic data and saying, here’s how we deal with breast cancer he met breast cancer patients and then met women with the same genetic profile that didn’t get breast cancer to learn what were they doing differently.

BRCA is a tumor suppressor gene, meaning that if we get a tumor, it’s supposed to work on repairing and getting rid of it. It also repairs DNA and cells. If we have the bad version of this gene, we don’t fix things. Why do women get breast cancer mostly around the menopause age?

1. Some women have estrogen dominance where they produce a lot more estrogen.

2. Some women have that heavy pool of estrogen are also estrogen toxic. During menopause because women no longer have a menstrual cycle so they are not getting rid of the toxic stuff and shedding it. 85{1e16acf445973e61fdbd53de1c132af7e84fd195cf15d57956db2b0426c8fa60} of North American women go on a birth control pill for elongated period and a growing number of women take a hormone replacement therapy as they age. Many women are exposed to chemicals in their frying pans and oils and personal care products that they don’t even know. All this adds more estrogen to the fire. These are the women whom Kashif has identified in the profile. When you have estrogen toxicity and menopausal the body wants to keep its organs and tissues safe so it stores the toxicity in fat. Women have fat in the hips and in the breasts. The breast is not designed to this level of toxic storage as its glands were designed to produce milk and not to manage the inflammation by toxicity. This is when the BRCA gene should get to work to repair and suppress the tumor. But another question to be asking is why did they even get to tumor in the first place? And that is holistic health, root cause approach and analysis.

Learn about the amazing Savoia Self-Care method of holistic healing and the 6 pillars of Self-Care on my blog post here.

The symptom or the problem of a disease is the last stage of something that took 7-10 years to form because of choices that were mismatched to our capacity. We must learn to move from reaction to figuring out the true root cause. If we have an 80{1e16acf445973e61fdbd53de1c132af7e84fd195cf15d57956db2b0426c8fa60} chance of breast cancer, we also have a 20{1e16acf445973e61fdbd53de1c132af7e84fd195cf15d57956db2b0426c8fa60} chance of not getting breast cancer. The healthcare industry studies the 80{1e16acf445973e61fdbd53de1c132af7e84fd195cf15d57956db2b0426c8fa60} to figure out how to treat the disease. The real question is “What did the 20{1e16acf445973e61fdbd53de1c132af7e84fd195cf15d57956db2b0426c8fa60} do that they didn’t get sick?”.

We should study the 20{1e16acf445973e61fdbd53de1c132af7e84fd195cf15d57956db2b0426c8fa60} (their environment, nutrition lifestyle & genetic code) to find out why they didn’t get the disease. We are not born sick, we get these diseases around the age of 50 or later, because we are making the wrong choices to trigger that level of inflammatory load to make us sick.

Listen to my podcast episode #22 “Toxins 101: Top 10 Toxins Compromising Your Health & Wellbeing”.

In case of cardiovascular disease, if we have bad quality, endothelial which is the inner lining of the artery we have to be more careful and spend a lot more time focusing on prevention. Kashif says we can extend our life by 10-15 years by making the right choices! It takes15 years to cause ourself the disease and we can completely reverse and unravel it. Regular cardio, weight training and yoga is also amazing because we are getting the benefits without the high intensity that may cause further oxidation and increase the burden when it comes to the detoxing process.

What is Gene Optimization?

Genetic profiles are the combinations of genes and enzymes involved in the body’s functioning. Technology has made it possible for us to prevent diseases even before they have a chance to wreak havoc on our bodies. By understanding and analyzing our DNA, we can now develop better habits towards lowering our risk for chronic diseases and other issues, and that’s exactly what the DNA Company’s test kit and reports do. The process is easy and simple, we provide a saliva sample in the kit, which is then sequenced and scanned to about 80 genes that actually matter and are actionable. There is an artificial intelligence platform that populates reports to allow people to get all the insights by just reading documents, as opposed to sitting with some scientists and analyzing data, which is more expensive. We can log into our personalized dashboard and get all these reports on sleep, cardiovascular, personalized diet, nutrition, personalized fitness, hormones, cellular health, immunity, detox and mood and behavior of the brain, which is the biggest report. It is one thing to be told what’s going on and a whole other thing to do something about it. As humans, we’re not likely to comply, and make changes to behavior because it is not easy. Habit reversal takes about nine weeks so it’s important to keep in mind that thing take time and require self-discipline and consistency.

Are your habits serving you or working against you? Watch my wellness tip on my YouTube channel here.

Are you ready to decipher your DNA and make some behavior changes that optimize your life and health? Find out more here.

For more details on this amazing information shared listen to the full episode #36 on Self-Care Goddess Podcast.