January in Ottawa. Skating to work. Anti-Aging. Genetics
Posted on February 4, 2018 by Dr. G
This past January 2018, I had the honor of being the keynote speaker at the 12 annual health and wellness expo in Ottawa Ontario, the beautiful capital of our neighbors to the north. Ottawa is an impressive city where the inhabitants bubble over with pride when they point out all of the great amenities they have to offer both residents and guests like myself.
Ottawa is a typical cold Canadian city where ice and snow are everywhere at this time of year. The cold temperatures however does not seem to keep the residents from being active. Driving in from the airport to my downtown hotel, the main road runs parallel to the main canal. The canal, of course was frozen over as I am sure it is during the entirety of the winter months. There I saw what appeared to be business people or downtown employees dressed for the office, skating their way to work on the frozen canal in the same manner you would see New Yorkers hurriedly exiting the subway to make their way to their office.
Once I arrived at the downtown Westin Hotel, I was given a room on the 18th floor overlooking Parliament Hill, a series of copper roofed 150 year old, gothic style buildings where the seat of the Canadian government resides as well as a view of the very same canal I saw people skating to work earlier. There were people skating in the canal all day, tourists, families, residents, and people out exercising for the day.
This was very heartening to me because I was asked to be the keynote speaker as the 12 annual Ottawa Health and Wellness Expo, where I was going to be discussing ‘The Brain” and all that makes the brain healthy.
One of my topics of discussion during my presentation is the idea that exposure to what I call ‘extreme environments’ like cold and hot temperatures, fasting and feeding cycles as well as different forms of exercise, will activate the expression of genes and the formation of proteins that would otherwise not be expressed. Recent research shows that the expression of these proteins and genes are protective in many ways against inflammation, cancer and Alzheimer’s and many other diseases.
Perhaps when we limit ourselves to the 72 degree comfort of the heated, air conditioned, well lit, calorically abundant homes, transportation vehicles and work spaces, we may be missing out on the expression of the wonderful genes passed onto to us by 1000’s of generations that came before us, that have protective effects on our body.
Our scientists focus too much on looking for genes that are in some way defective instead of looking for genes that can be incredibly helpful that are not being ‘switched on’ by the environment we live in physically and nutritionally. Yes the environments we are in are the triggers for the expression of genes that we need to avoid illness. This switching on mechanism belongs to the field of epigenetics, the most exciting field in healthcare. Epigenetics is synonymous with hope because our destiny is not predetermined as the field of genetics once taught us just a few years ago. There are many in the healthcare industry who still practice as if your destiny is pre-written.
2 examples of life saving bodily processes that require an environmental trigger for their genetic expression are called ‘autophagy’ and ‘apoptosis’, both are processes by which we dispose of cellular debris and old cells (senescent cells) that need to be replaced by newer younger healthy cells and cell parts. Yes younger, isn’t that exciting; could there be a fountain of youth after all?
Stay tuned for more on Anti-Aging.
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