Talk about health

I suppose I've always believed in fate. You know the kind of thing your parents said to you - "If it's got your name on it ..." or "What's for you won't go past you" and so on. So, when you come to make a decision about which job offer you will accept, something inside you gives the answer after a subconscious toss of the coin.

And it's true with health as well. Theer is an element of fate in what life throws at you by way of health. You are sort of stuck with the genes you inherited from your parents. These genes might make you tall and slim with blue eyes and blonde hair, or vertically challenges with little hair but a genius. I've always thought that you have little choice but to go with your genes.

However, the news today is full of scientists discovering the gene for type-2 diabetes. In just a few short years doctors will be able to repair, renew, fix, change the faulty gene for a brand new, shiny, perfect gene that will sort everything out. Or will it?

The reporting is slanted towards the impression that this repaired or replaced gene will mean that the patient will no longer be a patient. He will ride off into the sunset having been cured and will henceforth be able to eat as much and as often as he likes. His vastly overweight body will cope with the excesses of his lifestyle and diabetes will not enter his horizon ever again. Hooorray!

It seems to me that science is falling into yet another phase of the universal cause of illness. In the 1950s and 60s it was the nasty bacteria that caused all ills. Antibiotics would sort all that out and we would live happily ever after once those bacteria were all dead. The result - the rise of superbugs and resistance and even more infections that can't be treated.

Then, the nasty viruses were the cause of all diseases. Antibiotics don't touch them and there are very few anti-virals that are really effective. Oh dear!

Now we think that if only we could find the gene involved in each disease and we work out how to sort it, all will once again be well. I wonder.

The truth is that there is no universal cause of illness. It is a complex process involving all sorts of factors including bacteria, viruses and genes. As part of the understanding process it is good that scientists are searching for the gene involved and the possibility of affecting it in some way. But I think we are at the start of a process that may take a great many years. In the meantime, the simplest way of working to avoid or treat many illnesses is to look at your lifestyle.

What you eat and drink, the exercise you take, the sleep you get, the stress you suffer, the risks you take and so on contribute more to your health than the genes you have. All of these can be altered by a little thought and worked on with some strength of purpose. And the changes you make will have an effect much more quickly that hoping for a cure in an indeterminate number of years in the future. We could all be dead and gone by then.

I read recently that about one third of people choose not to do anything about their health because it is all down to fate. I have to disagree. If you choose to smoke, drink a lot, eat processed foods, take no exercise and suffer from stress all the time you are loading the dice against you and giving fate a helping hand to make you ill and perhaps even end your time on earth sooner that you would otherwise wish.

It's time to wake up to the things you can do right now to help your heath. Not wait for a new gene. It might be too late.

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Wishing you the best of health.