Episode 5: How Genetics Play a Part in Alopecia  

Today’s episode of the podcast is about how genetics play a part in Alopecia

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• The active side of genetics belongs to the field of Optogenetics.

• You can turn off Diabetes, Alopecia, Autoimmune disease by changing your daily lifestyle.

• Diet and lifestyle essentially have to be on point.

• Know that genetics plays a very small portion of your life quality.

• Put aside genetics, take control of your health, and move forward.

HIGHLIGHTS YOU CAN'T SIMPLY MISS

• Decisions that we make on a daily basis 05:25

• Changing your daily lifestyle 05:57

• How do you define health? 06:30

• Understanding the foundation and framework 07:45

• Breakthrough is possible 08:05

• You can take more control of your health 09:37

• You can't just target one aspect of hair growth 10:45

• Diet and lifestyle essentially has to be on point 11:03

• Be extremely self-aware and uncover your blindspots 13:10

• Evaluation is a huge part of the process 13:50

• Genetics play a very small portion of your overall life 14:17

• Your health is just like your retirement fund 14:38

• The study of the twins with Dr. Nancy L. Segal 17:13

More episodes: https://www.alopeciaangel.com/podcast-all-episodes 

Transcription

Awaken to hair growth. Awaken to hair growth because there is, possibility to get your hair back. Awaken to hair growth because we're not told that we're able to conquer and overcome alopecia. Awaken to hair growth because I want to be a positive light and beacon for you because I've healed my alopecia and now I help others do the same with different types of alopecia, men, women, children, of all ages of all races and ethnicities.

Hi and welcome back to the alopecia angel podcast, awaken to hair growth. Today we're going to talk about genetics and alopecia, and many times I see out there in forums, I see out there in comments about people who mistakenly think that their genes, that their genetics are the only thing to blame, that their genetics have doomed them into this way of life and that their destiny and their current situation is because of their genes.

And this is untrue. It's not a hundred percent untrue, but for the most part, it is untrue and why do I say this? It's because research has shown that we can determine the quality of our life by our decisions, by our habits, by what we eat, by our environment and so much more.

There's research that has been done, it's called epigenetics and they studied twins. And as you know, twin children or twin adults or any twin is the identical DNA, right? They have identical DNA and so they followed these twins, it was over 70 pairs of twins. They followed them from age seven to over 70 and saw that by the time that they were at a certain age, let's say sixties or seventies or 50, that these genes had nothing in common.

For example, one was healthier than the other, one was more prone to disease, and the other one was more this than that. One had alopecia and the other one didn't, one had cancer, the other one didn't. And why is this? If we have sets of twins who are identical in DNA, and yet they're very different by the time they've reached adulthood and it's because genes and the way they are expressed is really only and if up until 10 to 15% of the overall quality of life that you will have, the other 80, 90, 90 5% is diet and lifestyle.

And diet and lifestyle are two big buckets of categories and umbrellas that have many and multiple subcategories. Diet is not one size fits all as I mentioned back in episode two, but at the same time, lifestyle is also a big umbrella with many, many, many sub categories underneath. And so this is also very, very important to consider because every child, even within your own household is very different. Not just personality wise, but then also how they're raised.

My grandma always says the way one her first child was raised is a different situation, time in life opportunity than let's say the last child. And it's a different generation potentially by that time, different technologies were available. And by the last child versus the first child, maybe there's more money. Maybe there was a recession, everyone has these different imprints, so to speak, and this all comes apart and comes together in terms of your diet and lifestyle. 

And so it's very, very important to really identify this because to say and blame our genes, our genetics, our parents, our family tree is incorrect. It really is because we also need to take responsibility for our own path, just because let's say something happened to us, then we need to also take responsibility for that and do better. Once we know better, we do better just like Maya Angelo says, I love that quote by her.

And in terms of genetics, the whole thing, what makes it different is known as gene expression. DNA is an inactive molecule, but its expression into active molecules or proteins is influenced by all the factors that determine the difference between aging well or badly. And you can see this, and between sisters and brothers or between friends, some are going to age wonderfully, others, not so wonderful and it's all because of how we live day to day.

The active side of genetics belongs to the field of epigenetics, which controls whether a gene is turned on or turned off. So we can, in turn express, with our habits, with our diet and our lifestyle, which genes turn on and turn off. You carry around at the epigenetic level, all the major experiences of your lifetime as these accumulate, they automatically divide into experiences that promote a long healthspan and those that do the opposite, right? 

Our decision, whether that's with our fork or whether our other decisions that we make on a daily basis, all promote health or take it away. That's really at the heart of it. For example, I know someone whose whole family is obese and yet he isn't. He chose diet and lifestyle and chose a better way of life and obesity, in the medical arena, is seen as a medical condition but at the same time, you can turn that off.

You can turn off diabetes, you can turn off alopecia, you can turn off auto immune diseases. You can turn off all these gene expressions by changing your daily habits, by changing your diet and your lifestyle, by changing what you think is healthy to learning something that truly is healthy. And I was actually with a friend yesterday and we were talking about health and he was telling me how he had lost over 20 friends and family over the past two years from COVID.

And he was telling me, oh, I think they're healthy. And I was like, so how do you define health? Because the way you define health, I think is, you know, as the first aha moment that I had. For example, when I was diagnosed with alopecia, I thought I was healthy. I thought I was the poster child for health in essence. I had a personal trainer, I was working out, I was super fit and down the line, I had a bunch of other wonderful boxes marked off.

But I wasn't healthy because obviously I got alopecia and I didn't blame it on my genes. I didn't blame it on anyone, really. What I really did was to investigate why this was happening and the conclusion was that I was unhealthy and other areas that I did not consider part of health. Health is also a big umbrella, just like diet and lifestyle.

And to really go deep into it, you need to really investigate and understand what that really looks like and what that framework really is so that you can apply it to your life. And this is what I've done in my program. And this was probably the biggest learning lesson of my life. One of them, at least, because without understanding the foundations, without understanding that framework, then you're not able to promote health.

You're not able to get hair growth. You're not able to move past these obstacles So you can change the trajectory of your life and the quality of your life. So here's where a breakthrough is possible, that you could make an enormous difference. We know that you cannot change the genes you were born with.

However, even though you cannot change the genes you were born with, you can change the expression, which is what matters. At the end of the day you can suppress the gene for alopecia, you can suppress many of these diagnoses and diseases just by the way you live, just by the way you eat, just by the way diet and lifestyle come together and in this perfect balanced marriage.

Also 90% of your genes are not in yourselves, but they're in your gut and trillions of bacteria in your digestive tract do more than just digest food. They constitute an immense chemical factory, sending messages to every part of the body.

Humans have evolved in cooperation with these bacteria. They are not alien or separate from us. They are a part of your evolution affecting you at every moment. Chemical messages can be harmful such as those that create inflammation or promote stress, or they can also be beneficial. This is all very unique to each and one of us.

It's constantly shifting because we're constantly being exposed to things in our environment, to our foods, it changes every day. And so this is where a lot of our decision-making comes in. The genes you were born with, they only amount to 10%, 15% max of your total genome. The good news is that you can change the expression, that you can take more control of your health. The health span, hair growth and health overall depends on living in such a way that diet and lifestyle are in harmony, in sync. And thus, not allow for you to overcome alopecia, but all the other health symptoms or conditions you are also facing. 

With modifications and change, you can be the healthiest you, ever, and that's truly what I strive for, not just in myself, but also with my clients and it's radical, what you're able to do. It's absolutely a huge shift and change on your living and your mindsets. And it's a mind, body, spirit, holistic view of health because you can't ignore one area and only focus on the another area. So for example, when it comes to hair growth, a lot of people like to focus on topical solutions. For example, like shampoos and serums and oils and this type of thing, but that's not really targeting everything.

That's not helping because it's not going to work. You can't just target one aspect of hair growth with just a topical or with just a lotion or a potion or a cream, it won't work. You have to really embody your whole being for you to be your healthiest, for you to be healthy mind, body, spirit. And that's what that takes, it really what it takes.

Diet and lifestyle essentially has to be on point and not just for a day or two, but on a consistent basis because your health is made up of the days and months and years of your life. So let's say for example, if you're diagnosed with something in this case, alopecia, let's say like, for me, it was in my thirties and you're like surprise and you're dismayed and you're crying and you're just frustrated, well, looking back hindsight shows me that I shouldn't have been surprised.

I shouldn't have been just so shocked. I shouldn't have been shocked because now knowing what I do know now I can see that there’s a lot of things that needed tweaking. There’s a lot of things that weren't optimal, that weren't healthy for me. And with those changes, things got better, but it's relearning and unlearning, right? because no one's teaching us this. 

There's no teacher, parents don't teach us health, government, schools, they don't teach us health. And so it's really unlearning to relearn what true health looks like and what that really is, because it's a lot more in depth than what you would think that really is. But at the end of the day, the choice is yours and this is a beautiful thing because you ultimately have the full 100% responsibility on what your genes look like, how they're expressed and at the same time, it's your own responsibility. 

There's no one to blame and at the same time you have full control, which is a beautiful thing because you want control over your health.You want control over your hair. And so again, genes are not the end all be all, we can overcome that and diet and lifestyle does take work. Uncovering those blind spots, like I mentioned in episode three or four also takes a little bit of work. You need to be extremely self-aware or you need to have a consultation with me so I can help you uncover those blind spots because that's key.

You see, if you don't uncover those blind spots, you can be making the same mistakes over and over again without realizing it or you could also be hindering your progress. It took me over three years and I know I could have done this a lot sooner and I could've healed a lot sooner had I had seen those blind spots earlier, but you know, it's part of the journey.

So now I know, and at the same time, what with my clients, they get that aha moment once we do a consultation, once we go through the evaluation and that's a huge part of it because you don't know what you're looking for and you just see hair loss, but there could be so many different root causes and this is important to really identify.

But without diet and lifestyle, without any of this, it won't work because it's foundational to your success, it really is. So where to go next? So first off know that genetics play a very small portion of your overall life, quality of life, of your overall health, of your overall everything. And yes, we can be predisposed to everything, but at the same time, if we're very mindful, if we understand what health looks like, if we take the steps in the action, moving towards this, if we invest in our health, because health is just like your retirement fund. It really needs to be something in the forefront. I know so many people who, they're always focused on their investments, they're always focused on stocks, they're always focused on putting into their piggy bank and saving money because this is what will help them for their future.

And this is very important as well, but what's the point of investing for your future? Let's say retirement or your end of days will and scenarios if you don't have your health. And I think COVID has really brought that to the forefront. I think this has really brought that to light that we're probably not as healthy as we think we are as a society, as a population.

And we really need to do more for ourselves. We really need to get out of our comfort zones, not be so lazy and really take our health into consideration because without health, then you really don't have anything and learning this the hard way I can say this. And it was very difficult because you think you know, and you have a good grasp on your health. And then yet you have blind spots and it was very frustrating to go from doctor to doctor, without any clue, without any help, without any forward motion and only being served, prescriptions and creams and potions that wouldn't work or injections.

And so I invite you to learn more. I invite you to continue to follow me on this podcast and then also to learn more with our hair and heal program. I have a free training going on, coming up soon. I invite you to register for that so you can learn more. It's a free training called the four steps to healing alopecia and reversing it and this will be a huge eye opener for you because it's not so obvious if it was so obvious and we could just Google our results, then we would have, and you would have hair.

But that's not it. Google's not necessarily your friend. There's a lot of misinformation there and with alopecia, there's a lot of controversy and a lot of misinformation as well. And this is probably why it takes everyone forever and a day to heal and this is probably why it took me also very long to heal, but you can heal. And so put aside the genetics, take control of your health and move forward.

The Study of the TWINS with Dr. Nancy L. Segal:

Dr. Nancy: My name is Dr. Nancy Segal, I'm a psychology professor at California State University, Fullerton. What got me into twin research initially is that I am a fraternal twin and always fascinated with the similarities and differences. Mostly differences that my sister and I have and I used to wonder as a child, how this could be if we had the same parents and same environments.

And when I began to study psychology at the high school and graduate school level, I learned about genetics and how we all come into the world with predispositions of our own, and that explained why my sister and I were so very, very different. Well, I spent many years at the Minnesota study with twins raised apart, looking at identical and fraternal twins who've been separated at birth.

It's very important to include the fraternals because they're the natural control group and let's think about the differences between those twins before looking at the insights. Identical twins share all their genes, having split from the single fertilized egg within the first two weeks after conception.

Fraternal twins share half the genes on average, they result when a woman releases two eggs at the same time and they're fertilized by two separate sperm. So they have 50% of their genes in common on average, like ordinary siblings. Comparing resemblance in identical twins to fraternal twins, it doesn't a handle on whether or not genetics has an effect.

It would, if identical twins are more alike than fraternals and they are. Studying twins gives us enormous insights into how we come to be the way that we are. Twin studies are a natural model looking at genetic and environmental influence on behavior and what we are finding is that many more behaviors than we ever would have thought, do you have a genetic component to them?

Genetics is not everything, but it does explain a great deal of why we defer one person to another. Well, let's start with looking at genetic influences on physical traits. We find that height and weight have substantial genetic components. We find that general intelligence has a substantial genetic component, a little bit less than some of the physical traits like height and weight and brainwaves, but nevertheless, it's substantial genetic component as does special mental abilities.

And then we dropped down a bit when we get to job satisfaction. Probably the most surprising findings and the last 20 years or so have been the things like religiosity, how much you invest in religious activities and interests and political attitudes and social attitudes have a genetic component to them.

It's very important to appreciate that genes do not work in deterministic ways. They work in probabilistic ways, they’re predisposed, but they do not provide the final word. Gene's changing expression just because you would have the gene doesn't mean it will always be expressed. It takes a certain environment to bring that out.

We all have genes that will be expressed, given a particular environment. Now with identical twins, they have the same DNA, but sometimes gene expression can occur in one twin and not the other and this can create differences between them. These environmental differences that trigger different gene expression might even start in the womb.

The beauty of identical twins raised apart is that they share only their genes and not their environments. So any resembles between them is tied to their common genes. We find some amazing similarities and identical twins raised apart many more than we ever would have anticipated. Not just in the more traditional areas like intelligence, personality, physical features like height and weight, but in some more unusual habits, such as a pair of twins who both used to scatter love letters around the house to their wives and both bit their nails down to the nub and both explain their same mixed headache syndrome in exactly the same way as if someone is beating on their head with a hammer.

These are very challenging and you can ask yourself, are they due to just random chance? My answer to that is no they're not. And the rarer they are, the more, I believe it's somehow tied to their genes and the way that genes interact with their environments to produce these kinds of unusual similarities. I think that the people who find it challenging or even disturbing, or those who don't fully understand the process, they think the genes work in deterministic ways when in fact they work in probabilistic ways.

And so it doesn't mean that we're set in stone that we can't change. It means that we can change. We can alter environments to make behavioral expressions different. We can work to prevent disease or to mitigate it, but we can't all be the same.

Join me on the free training. I look forward to speaking to you next time on our next episode. Take care. Thank you for listening to the alopecia angel podcast, a positive light and healing alopecia. You can do this and we can help spread the word that reversing alopecia is possible by telling your friends and family.