Understanding Our Genes with Dr. Sharad P. Paul

[Tweet theme="tweet-box-shadow"]“Genes are our blueprint, but they are not our destiny.” -Dr. Sharad P. Paul[/Tweet]

Today’s Episode:

Today’s guest is Dr. Sharad P. Paul. Dr. Paul is an expert in many areas, but today we talk about understanding our genes and using genetics to approach our health. Dr. Paul is a world renowned geneticist who has discovered how to tap into gene therapy to understand who we are, what makes us tick, and how to hack our genetics to become the best person possible.

Dr. Paul is also a skin cancer surgeon, a family physician, an academic skin care expert, an evolutionary biologist, and a storyteller who has not only written his new book The Genetics of Health, but he has written fiction too. Dr. Paul is a social entrepreneur and an adjunct professor at Auckland University of Technology. His accomplishments are so impressive, and he is such a passionate person that this is a great show.

You can find Dr. Paul here:

The Genetics of Health Dr. Sharad Paul @DrSharadPaul Twitter Dr. Sharad Paul facebook GT21 Gene Test

[Tweet theme="tweet-box-shadow"]“It’s difficult for natural unprocessed things we put in our bodies to cause damage to our genes.” -Dr. Sharad P Paul[/Tweet]

Show Notes

[05:10] The age old question of nature versus nurture. How genes affect everything about us. [06:08] How the Genetics of Health is about applying our genetics for health and wellness instead of just the treatment of disease. [07:18] Song lines in aboriginal culture. All European cultures can be broken down to seven lines. How the number seven is popular in folklore of many cultures and science too. [09:23] How there is a oneness to humanity, and how our health issues can be broken down into genetics. [10:28] How there is high UV in the Southern Hemisphere and people of Celtic descent weren't designed to live in these sunny areas. [11:08] Lactose intolerance in different cultures and the trends of what people should be eating according to their DNA. [12:46] Genome sequencing tests for diseases that there aren't treatments for. The stress could affect health. [13:13] Microbiol test to see what you should be eating. [13:22] Dr. Paul's test is saliva based and it focuses on diet and exercise and vitamins not disease. It's all about prevention and wellness. [14:50] How everyone is born with a certain genetic profile. [15:19] In the past science thought some DNA was junk DNA, but now they know that is not true. [15:42] Genes get transmitted down generations. The job of a gene is to make proteins. They make beneficial and harmful proteins. [16:34] We have control over the concentration of the enzymes is what makes the difference between a gene creating good or bad proteins. [17:15] Chemicals in the womb, can affect our genes. Once we are born we are exposed to an external and internal environment. [18:17] Understanding what environmental factors have affected your genes give you an opportunity to work on that. [18:54] Relationships can have a bearing on our genetic environment. [19:30] People always want to look younger. The same genes implicated in aging are the same ones in disease and stress. So things shouldn't be looked at in isolation. [20:23] Today our climate and environment and food are the biggest factors on our genes. [21:27] How junk food makes people and mice angry, fat, and stressed. We need to put a good environment in our body. The less processed stuff the better. [22:46] How most vitamin C capsules get excreted. The natural form makes more of a difference. Eating more fruit is better than taking more supplements. [25:37] Everything in moderation. Avoid processed foods and products. Eat food in the most natural form. [26:44] How we started eating processed foods in the last 100 years. The world is increasingly processed. We need to take charge of our own lives and be authentic in our environments. [28:13] All we can control is our internal environment and avoid being in polluted places. [30:47] Environmental change can be a massive part of health implications down the road. In destroying your environment, you are destroying yourself. [33:44] The lazy gene or sluggish gene in mice was corrected when they started running and doing mice endurance training. In the beginning things can be hard, but once you do it, it is not that bad. [35:24] Procrastination is a finely tuned evolutionary thing. People who were the most stressed and scared survived. [36:17] Fitness in biology means ability to propagate a gene. [37:19] How it is detrimental to our health to get stressed. There are no more saber toothed tigers. [38:01] The myth of race and what it means. How apes have pink skin and polar bears have black skin. Evolution is about the fitness of the population. We need folic acid to reproduce. Skin darkens to protect folic acid in our systems. [40:13] There is a battle between vitamin D and Folic Acid going on in our bodies. All of us are the same, changes happened according to where we are from and what we ate. [43:50] Dr. Paul is a creator because it creates curiosity and makes people better in math and science. Being creative you set the context, develop the characters, and there will always be conflict. Being creative can be a problem solving approach. [47:49] How we all need to take a step back and think about what unites us and not divides us. This is our only chance on life as what we are. If we follow our passion, we can automatically create good stuff.