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Class OverviewHave you considered food and exercise to be the main sources of wellness? Sara Gottfried, MD will explain the role inflammation, high BP, hormones, temperature, and epiginetics play in your health! (Check out the Top 10 Big Ideas from the class below!) Your ProfessorDr. Sara Gottfried teaches women and men how to balance their hormones so they can rock their mission. She is the author of The Hormone Cure, a Harvard-trained M.D. and a yoga teacher.How to Turn On Your Skinny Genes (and Fit In Your Skinny Jeans) There’s a stunning scientific discovery that few people know about called epigenetics, defined as the powerful way that food and lifestyle impact the expression of our genes. Experts estimate that 50 to 70 percent of how your DNA is expressed is influenced by the way you eat, move, feel, and supplement. How’s that? Your lifestyle choices and environmental influences flip the chemical switches within your cells that are known as the epigenome. It’s a way to redirect your genes toward a goal, such as fat loss. This discovery brings a whole new meaning to nature vs. nurture, and also provides a sacred opportunity. Once we thought genetics determined your fate, including risk of problems such as weight gain or developing diabesity (the condition that affects 1 in 2 people in the US and ranges from a small muffin top to full blown insulin resistance and diabetes) — now we know better and can flip the switch on your skinny genes – so you can fit into your skinny jeans. In fact, Dean Ornish showed that targeted lifestyle changes can turn “ON” 48 disease-fighting genes, and turn “OFF” 453 disease-promoting genes (1). How cool is that? The goal of our upcoming class is to set the record straight on what we know and what we don’t regarding the most important changes   The Top 10 Big Ideas1Eat Nutrient Dense Green Food: Chard, Kale, Spinach, Lentils. Dark leafy greens are the rock stars of the vegetable world because of their high concentrations of antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer nutrients. They’re also great plant sources of omega-3s. Lentils are high in soluble fiber, which helps lower cholesterol, reducing your risk of heart disease and stroke by keeping your arteries clean. 2Target the Blood Sugar Research has tied unhealthy blood sugar levels to negative changes in epigenetic patterns (2). You can test your own blood sugar levels with a glucometer. The ideal range for fasting blood sugar is between 70-86 mg/dL, and two hours after eating it should be less than 120 mg/dL. If your blood sugar is too high, work to lower it by increasing the whole foods in your diet (especially vegetables), cutting out simple processed carbohydrates and sugars, and getting regular exercise. 3Cool the Fire (Inflammation) Reducing chronic inflammation in your body is one of the most important things you can do for your health, because nearly every modern disease is caused or affected by inflammation. Some proven strategies for reducing inflammation include: eating a whole foods, plant-based diet and kicking dairy and gluten to the curb; getting regular exercise; and stress-reducing practices such as yoga or meditation, deep breathing, or even taking a relaxing warm bath. 4Bring the Oxygen Hypoxia—when your organs and tissues don’t get enough oxygen—turns ON fat genes, which none of us want! Limit hypoxia, and boost oxygen in your blood stream, through regular exercise, drinking plenty of water (to help your blood and oxygen flow smoothly) and boosting the alkalinity of your body through your whole food, plant-based diet – full of leafy greens and legumes. 5Mind the Mitochondria Mitochondria are like little energy factories in our body, turning food and oxygen into energy. When we don’t supply our bodies with healthy food and plenty of oxygen, we experience oxidative stress, which has been linked with the development of diseases from cancer to Parkinson’s to Alzheimers and Multiple Sclerosis. By boosting the amount of colorful fruits and vegetables in your diet and lowering stress levels, you can reduce oxidative stress. 6Get your Panacea On Exercise is the closest thing we have to a panacea in medicine – beyond lowering blood sugar, exercise directly changes the epigenome of fat cells (3). In fact, over a six-month study, boosting regular exercise positively altered the gene expressions for obesity and type 2 diabetes in study participants. So grab hold of that natural medicinal panacea and get moving! 7Methylate More Recently, PBS ran a show about epigenetics where they had 2 groups of mice that were genetically identical. One group was skinny, and the other was fat. The difference was “a tiny chemical tag of carbon and hydrogen, called a methyl group” that was affixed to a fat gene (called agouti) and shut it down. You have a bazillion tags like this, and they are one way that the epigenome controls gene expression. You may object that you are a not a mouse, but similar results have been found in humans (4). I’m going to sound like a broken record, but you can boost your body’s methylation process by, yes, improving your diet. Kick those processed foods, gluten and sugar to the curb and replace them with loads of leafy greens, fresh fruit and high quality protein sources such as grass fed beef and free-range chicken and eggs. 8Baby your Baby Research has found convincing evidence that shows mothers who weigh more, and gain more weight while pregnant, give birth to heavier babies. Furthermore, those same babies have a higher risk of being overweight or obese later in life. Thus, it’s important to stay healthy during your pregnancy – not only for the health of your baby, but also for the lifelong health of your child. Getting regular exercise and eating a healthy, whole foods-based diet is essential to maintaining a healthy pregnancy weight, and pre-programming your baby’s DNA for some skinny genes of her own. 9Take a Cold Shower It seems that temperature can play a major factor in rewiring our genes. Cold thermogenesis helps to keep your fat genes “OFF” and your skinny genes “ON.” As we talked about in #5, mitochondria produce energy, and when your body has more energy than it needs, that energy turns to fat. However, when we cool our bodies down, the body works to bring our temperature back to normal, So, when you reduce your body temperature, instead of producing energy, your mitochondria produce heat to raise your body temperature – which in turn increases your metabolism. You don’t have to immerse yourself in ice water or roll around naked in the snow, although that might do the trick. Instead, try starting your day with a cold shower—it will be uncomfortable at first, but over time your body will adapt to the routine and welcome it. If you live where it gets cold, go outside to exercise, but be sure to protect your face, hands and feet. And last, but not least, include swimming or pool walking into your exercise routine. 10Direct Your Stress Nothing wrecks your hormones faster than unmanaged stress. Stress in managed doses—such as the kind that causes an increase in energy and focus, and gets you moving—is not a bad thing. However, when stress gets out of control, so do cortisol levels. Cortisol is the hormone that governs hunger cravings, sleeping patterns, blood pressure, and even our capacity to handle stress. When it’s out of control, it also switches on your fat genes. Not good! One of the best things you can do for your health and happiness is to get cortisol to the “Goldilocks” level – not too high and not too low – and keep it there as much as possible. But how do you do that when life is so full of stress these days? Try two simple steps for now. Wean yourself off the caffeine. Caffeine is a high interest loan against your body that you will eventually have to pay back, so the sooner you can remove your dependence on it, the better. Second, incorporate some stress-relieving yoga, or just deep breathing, into your every day routine; even 5 minutes a day will make a huge difference in your stress management.