Can you change your genetics/ genes?

purecontrol · Jul 5, 2011

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/ornish0 ... index.html

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m ... n25474208/

For all current practical purposes, no you can't. There has been much discussion of future treatments regarding eliminating or altering balding genes.

However, I want to again express the fact that you can in fact change the expression of you genetics that you have inherited.

As a result life style changes ie diet, sleep habits, etc can change the expression of your genes to a much more favorable outcome. Such as with balding, no matter the form of hair loss.

Innermind · Jul 5, 2011

True, Genes are expressed in certain environments versus other environments. Take a high calories diet vs low calories diet... low calorie diet people livelonger because certain proteins and pathways are expressed less or more depending, these pathways and proteins being a result of genes and extend the life of the organism.

the gene that codes for male pattern baldness is a DHT initiated mechanism of possibly dozens of different pathways (i.e inflamation, WNT downregulation, etc). You really can't change your lifestyle to prevent this gene from being expressed with diet and lifestyle becuase DHT is going to run through you viens regardless. Unless your environement envolves ingesting large amounts of anti androgens and castration, there isn't a natural (disregard herbal treatments) way to do it.

However, you could argue that our current environment contains large amounts of artifical compounds, like those mimicing hormones such as those estrogen like compounds in our plastics and perservatives. This can stimulate different pathways, or upregulate/downregulate pathways envolved in stimulating and altering hormones to fit our environment, so avoiding these by good diet and lifestlye might benifit some.

But to be honest, a person with severe male pattern baldness (like myself) will not benifit eitherway becuase my hair cells are so sensitive to DHT, that even one molecule of DHT in my scalp will cause my head to go bald. Those are my genes, and sadly, the genes of many others.

purecontrol · Jul 9, 2011

DHT is not what is causing the balding, if you look at the studies the majority don't have high DHT. Rather they have higher than normal AR sensitivity. With that said, yes in fact you can change your hormonal levels as is fact.

Everything you do effects the expression of your genes, just because you have
"bad" genetics does not mean that you have to express them. You have make life style changes that will cause them to be expressed far less or not at all.

smitysmity · Jul 9, 2011

purecontrol said:
DHT is not what is causing the balding, if you look at the studies the majority don't have high DHT. Rather they have higher than normal AR sensitivity. With that said, yes in fact you can change your hormonal levels as is fact.

Everything you do effects the expression of your genes, just because you have
"bad" genetics does not mean that you have to express them. You have make life style changes that will cause them to be expressed far less or not at all.

Actually we don't know 100% what causes baldness. We know though that the workhorse cells that were once generated from stem cells are no longer being produced. Why this is happening is speculation. However, because they aren't being produced, the androgens are now breaking down our hair follicles slowly and we need a defense for that.

Whenever they do have a complete treatment for hair loss, my best guess is it's going to be some form of a stem cell injection. The problem is, that maybe more expensive then just hair cloning which is expected to come out within the next 5 to 10 years and be a much easier replacement for us as we suffer no hair loss in the back to replace our hair we lost. I know that is the route I will go so I am just trying to maintain it until hair cloning ultimately puts an end to hair loss.