The Genetics of Health with Dr. Sharad Paul Part 2

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

What are the food genes and what are the effects of lifestyle on longevity? In Part 2 of my interview with skin cancer surgeon Dr. Sharad Paul, we talk more about his ideas in his book The Genetics of Health and how we can use our understanding of our genetic makeup to personalise our health care.

Visit https://www.bodyshotperformance.com/podcasts-blog for the complete show notes of every podcast episode.

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

The anxiety gene and the impact of emotional stress on our genes and our risk for diseases
How dancing can positively affect our health
The umami taste and what it means to our system
The fat gene and what it means for the people who have it
Why personalising your health care is so important

Key Takeaways:

Chronic stress is something which suppresses the immune system, and when it does that, the end result is you respond poorly to tumors and infections.
Stress is not what causes a disease but it makes a disease worse.
Dance, especially tango, shows the most evidence for improving cognitive function, reducing the risk of dementia and improving Parkinson’s disease.
What we taste has an effect on our anxiety levels. People who like sour foods are more adventurous and more of a risk-taker.
It is, unfortunately, true that the bigger your gut is, the skinnier your brain becomes. So if you’re putting on 2 inches of gut every year, your brain is losing a little bit of cognitive function every year.

Action Steps:

Use positivity and mindfulness as a tool to handle stress. In this way, you will be able to fight off diseases much more easily.
Manage your stress by changing the things that you can control and not dwelling on the things that you can’t.
Do exercises like dancing, which involves the three forms of movement — locomotion, orienting or balancing, and grasping. These types of exercises are very good for brain function.
Personalise your health care by testing and tailoring your diet and your lifestyle according to your needs.

Dr. Sharad Paul said:

“What’s necessarily a mood elevator is not necessarily the same for anxiety as it is for depression. They are two separate things… Certain things are making you anxious because you’re just a scaredy cat. And depression [means] you’re a sad cat.”

“We know that the brain is a fraction of our body weight but it consumes over 25% of our power. But if your gut is so big and you put all these stuff inside it, which needs to be digested… you start feeding [it] at the expense of your brain.”

Thanks for listening!

If you’re interested in finding out what your health IQ is, take the Health IQ test to find out, and get a free 39-page report built around our six signals, which are sleep, mental health, energy, body composition, digestion, and fitness.

If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve heard on this episode and it’s added value to you, share the episode with someone you think could benefit from it. And don’t forget to leave a rating or a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts.

Links to things we discuss in the show:

The Genetics of Health by Sharad P. Paul – Get the chance to win a copy of this book by leaving a review of this episode in iTunes! Don’t forget to mention the title of the book in your review.

Past episode mentioned that you shouldn’t miss: