Genetic Disorders:

A New Perspective

We have been conditioned for many years to think of genetic disorders as incurable health problems caused solely by inheriting a "bad gene" from one or both parents. However, blaming any disorder solely on the presence of a bad gene may by oversimplifying what in reality is a complex, multifactoral health problem.

A few years back I was diagnosed with an "incurable" genetic disorder called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. While I did certainly have all of the symptoms of EDS, I was always a bit suspicious of it being only caused by genes. I knew my by the time that I received the diagnosis that I could control many of my symptoms by modifying my diet. Many of my symptoms were identical to symptoms of common nutritional deficiencies, yet few of the conventional medical doctors I had been to were aware of the possible nutritional causes of my symptoms.

Over the years since I received that diagnosis, I've spent a lot of time researching EDS and genetic disorders in general, and I've really learned to question the "bad gene" view of EDS and perhaps many other genetic disorders. Clearly in my case, and perhaps others, genes were not the only cause of my health problems. If they were, then changing my diet would not have had an effect on my symptoms. Yet it did. I may have had a genetic predisposition to have certain health problems, but how severe my health problems are depends a lot on my diet.

The role of proper nutrition in birth defects and seemingly inherited disorders is an emerging concept in conventional medical research. However, as I've been reading nutrition books written over the past century, I've come across the writings of quite a few nutrition authors who were way ahead of their times in their understanding of the role nutrition plays in birth defects and inherited disorders.

Here are some of my favorite quotes on the subject of nutrition and incurable genetic disorders from some nutrition authors who were (or are) way ahead of their time:

Adelle Davis, writing in Let's Have Healthy Children - "I have received dozens of letters from desperate parents telling me that a child has some little-known disease which I have failed to mention. Almost invariably no research has been done concerning the effect of nutrition on that particular illness...To say that a disease is incurable does not mean that it cannot be cured but only that at present a cure is unknown."

Dr. Roger J. Williams, writing in Nutrition Against Disease - "It is entirely reasonable to suppose that although individual human beings may have very high inherited requirements for specific nutrients, when these needs are met, the individuals can prosper just as though the inherited weaknesses did not exist."

Jeffrey Bland, writing in Genetic Nutritioneering - "...our genes do not in and of themselves give rise to disease. Rather, in most cases, disease results when the individual elects a lifestyle or diet that alters the expression of the genes in such a way that the weakness or uniqueness of inheritance factors result in a phenotype we call disease."

For further reading:

- Explores role of diet and nutrition in birth defects and genetic disorders.

The Genetic Connection - Discusses how genes and environment are important factors in many common hereditary conditions including osteoporosis and asthma, common connective tissue disorders features. Uses the term "nurture on top of nature" to describe many hereditary disorders.