Many people assume the diseases that kill us are pre-programmed into our genes. High blood pressure by 55, heart attacks at 60, maybe cancer at 70, and so on... But for most of the leading causes of death, our genes usually account for only 10-20 per cent of risk.
Interpretation
Genetics play a smaller role in our health outcomes than many believe.
Michael Greger emphasizes that while genetic predispositions are often thought to determine our health and longevity, they only account for a small percentage of the risks associated with major diseases. Environment and lifestyle choices significantly impact our health, suggesting that we have more control over our well-being than we might assume.
In practice
In a health seminar discussing the impact of lifestyle on well-being.
Anyone who's promoting the exact diet that they were in previous years probably isn't keeping up with the latest science, though in general, the balance of evidence has remained remarkably consistent - centering one's diet around whole plant foods.
While consumers may be more shocked by pink slime or the feeding of Prozac to poultry, the routine feeding of millions of pounds of human antibiotics to chickens presents a much graver threat.
Walking is man's best medicine.
What we have in the United States is not so much a health-care system as a disease-care system.
Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it thousands of times.
I take drugs just because in the 20th century in a technological age living in the city there are certain drugs you have to take just to keep yourself normal like a caveman. Just to bring yourself up or down, but to attain equilibrium you need to take certain drugs. They don't getcha high even, they just getcha normal.
It's not that diabetes, heart disease, and obesity runs in your family...It's that no one runs in you family!
I use music in the operating room to help create a healing environment for patients and staff. There is a reason that certain heart rates are healthy and certain beats of music heal and relax us.
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