Super Genes Book Report

[James Paine]

Hello, All book 8 of the year! Well on my way to book 52 for the year.

Super Genes: Unlock the Astonishing Power of Your DNA for Optimum Health and Well-Being by Deepak Chopra MD and Rudolph Tanzi PhD

Good book. Not great, but it really did make me think a lot about how I can better myself. Super Genes dives into new research on how people can alter their genome (DNA/RNA). The book reviews diet, physical, spiritual, and other changes we humans can make to literally change the mutation of our genes and thrive as individuals and pass along better genes to our children.

This is one of the harder book reports I have had to write so I will keep it short because there is just so much and so much science behind all of it.

The book was broken into 3 sections.

1) All the science behind the genome and genetics. I am going to leave you to read that if interested.

2) Advice for living a life that will help ensure you change your genes for the better and live a better life as a whole.

3) Reviews the fact that you as a conscious being can use your mind to change and adapt your genetic path.

- One thing I liked was how he split up lifestyle changes. Easy, Difficult, and Experimental.

- He recommends making only 1 change a week in your life but making it a permanent change.

- One change I made is around drinking orange juice which can negate the inflammation effects of eating say a McDonalds breakfast.

- Inflammation leads to a cluster of dysfunctions that tends to precede full-blown diabetes and that also increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, certain cancers, and even dementia—the top killers of the developed world.

- Another change I made is around prebiotics and probiotics. Probiotics are living microorganisms that are sometimes called “good bacteria”. Prebiotics are carbohydrates that are used as nourishment for good bacteria to thrive in your gut.

- Humans need 8 hours of sleep, so make sure you get it. Also, the book mentions evidence that discredits prior thoughts. You actually can catch up on sleep so make the weekends 10 hours!

- They discredit quite a bit of the work from Darwin which was really interesting. One point they made was that evolution was part of Mindful Design not random mutation. Darwin basically says that 1 giraffe was born with a longer neck so he got better leaves and because he was able to eat more his mutated random gene was passed along over and over and over until only long necked giraffes were around. They believe that adaption based on epigenetic markets resulted in more useful DNA that allowed our offspring to adapt and evolve faster than would ever be possible using Darwins theories.

- One thing that tripped me out was that cows who have never seen a grate (used to keep them from crossing a road) will not cross them even if they are fake or painted grates. Normally a cattle grate a cow will try to cross once or twice in their life and realize they hate it and will never try again. The crazy thing is that now many generations of cows have realized they hate grates calfs that have never tried to cross a real great will even avoid painted grates completely. So the theory is that survival mechanism was passed down genetically very rapidly.

- “Gene activity responds to your lifestyle — your thoughts, your feelings, your actions, your stress levels, your diet,” Tanzi, a neuroscientist at Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital Nope, you can’t modify the DNA sequence that’s passed on from your family. But Tanzi notes that “most of what you inherit is written in clay rather than in stone. That means you have a chance to be the sculptor.”

- “Human beings could be the first creatures in the history of life on Earth to self-direct where their evolution is going.”

- Finally google FMT (Fecal Microbiota Transplant) putting the people of someone with a cleaner, less modified (by antibiotics) poop in your butt can cure Crohn’s disease and something else. Crazy ****!

Sorry I feel like this is my worst report on a book but this one was really difficult for me.

My next book “Pitch Anything” is going to crush!