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Originally Posted by senior citizen
My dad was born in 1899 to Italian immigrant parents.
I assure you his mom did not do drugs and neither did she smoke.
Wine, I would say yes to....as that was part of their culture.
Home made red wine. None of her other living children had heart defects. Just my dad and his twin brother who died at birth.
Actually, she had 16 pregnancies with several sets of twins.
Only seven of those pregnancies resulted in viable births.
They all lived to a ripe old age, including her, to age 95.
Her huband succumbed to influenza in 1915....leaving her a widow to raise the seven children plus three of her little brothers..........(after her own mom died in Italy).
I would say that although she ate a healthful peasant diet which today would be called the Meditteranean Diet (I remember eating at her home), her body was no doubt depleted from all those pregnancies.........
He outlived his "twin" by many years. Funny, but they named both boys the same name...........
The only ones who smoked cigars were the "uncles"..........they all lived to a ripe old age as well as their big sister.
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I didn't mean to imply that your grandmother did drugs, smoked or any of that. I was just trying to point out that there are a lot of unknown things that can contribute to health issues other than genes.
My grandparents were Italian immigrants too. So I know a little about some of the things that went on there. If I remember correctly, I believe my father told me that his father used to throw handfulls of DDT around the perimiter of their home to kill fleas and other bugs. They had no idea there could be potential harm to humans. Perhaps, given enough exposure to DDT, a woman could have problems, assuming that this may have been a common practice. I'm just saying it doesn't hurt to stop and consider that we don't know everything that went on back then.
I did a more careful reading of parts of Dr. Bruce Lipton's book today and this is what I came up with (in my own words). When you think your genes control you and you had no input in which genes you inherited, it's likely you will think of yourself as a victim. You will think that aging and disease is beyond your control.
But the truth is that genes can't do anything by themselves. Correlation is not causation. Certain genes may be associated with certain diseases but it's rare that a gene alone can cause disease. Only about 2% of people get disorders based on a single faulty gene. This would be for diseases like cystic fibrosis, beta thalassemia, and Huntington's. Otherwise, genes only become active when triggered by lifestyle or environment. Dr. Bruce Lipton, professor of biology, wants us to know that genes do not control our destiny.
I reread some portions of another book that is all about genes. It's "The Dependent Gene" by David S. Moore, Ph.D. The title itself tells the whole story. Like Dr. Lipton, he also believes that genes alone can't do anything. Even eye and hair color are determined by interactions with the environment.
He uses flower seeds as an example of genes not being able to do anything by themselves: Buy a package of flower seeds. They contain the genes to make flowers. If you leave them in the package, what happens? Nothing happens. They need to be planted in the proper environment. That calls for good soil, the right amount of water and plenty of sun (usually full sun). Try planting them in full shade, poor soil with insuffcient water and see if the genes give you any flowers. Most likely you'll get a stunted plant with little or no flowers at all.