I have just finished enjoying Thomas Goetz’s recent post about predictive medicine, along with the corresponding Wired articles about the topic. He raises significant topics that merit discussion and consideration, one of which I’d like to address here.

On the last page of the Wired piece (in what seems like a separate sidebar article), he mentions many of the factors that, in addition to genes, could impact the likelihood of susceptibility to a particular illness. Smoking, diet, exercise, pathogens, viruses, the microbiome, and, finally, epigenetics, ‘changes to the ways genes function without changes in the actual gene sequence.’

I’ve talked about epigenetics before, remember? This area of genetic study includes the way that beliefs can contribute to gene activation.

Here’s a thought experiment: Your genes say that you’ve got a 30% chance of getting a heart attack. Finding out that you’ve got a 30% chance might provoke you into changing your behavior towards diet, exercise and smoking (although it may well not, as you indicate in the article). At the same time, epigenetics says that your belief that you’re susceptible to heart attacks can in fact create a greater likelihood of suffering one.

Is it worth learning about the 30% chance to begin with?

23andMe’s service isn’t diagnostic, but imagine the average consumer: the one who doesn’t question her doctor and opens emails from deposed Nigerian dictators. A 30% risk to that person is definitive and deterministic. This isn’t a joke, either; people have committed suicide over the possibility of as-yet-unmanifested diseases.

At VortexDNA, our work is focused on the way that the human experience is governed by human intention, which is in turn governed by the mathematics of complex systems. The ability to represent a person’s purpose, values and life focus algorithmically has predictive characteristics.

This science has profound implications for the offerings of 23andMe and similar companies, and it takes the question of human empowerment and freedom to another level altogether. The people doing gene-sequencing say that you are empowered to run around trying to prevent diseases you may never have gotten. VortexDNA and epigenetics say you are empowered to live exactly the life you want, with no limitations.

Which one do you prefer?

Summary: In this post, I look at the distinction between genetics and epigenetics. Genetics says it’s your genes that determine who you are, and that there isn’t much you can do about it. The more current epigenetics says that environmental factors determine whether or not genes get switched on. These environmental factors include psycho-social attributes like stress level and belief system. This understanding provides the scientific framework for what many have known for generations: people to have total freedom to choose the lives they want.

The other day, I wrote a piece in response to the numerous mentions of DNA in varying contexts (Social DNA, 23andme, etc.) in recent media stories. Today, I’d like to focus on the science side of it, specifically how current science paints a more complete picture of how your genes affect who you are.

When the Human Genome Project first started, they figured they’d find somewhere between 80,000 and 140,000 genes: the amount it would take to account for human uniqueness in all its glory.

Instead, they found a measly 30,000 genes, roughly the same number a rat has.

What, then, could account for the obviously greater complexity evidenced by humans? I’ll give you a hint: the genes don’t tell the whole story.

Epigenetics—literally, the study of factors in addition to or on top of genes—has been around for over sixty years, but it is increasingly filling the void of understanding the root causes of who we are. This field of science has demonstrated that a mother’s diet and lifestyle can affect not only her children but also her grandchildren. As reported by the BBC:

The conventional view is that DNA carries all our heritable information and that nothing an individual does in their lifetime will be biologically passed to their children. To many scientists, epigenetics amounts to a heresy, calling into question the accepted view of the DNA sequence – a cornerstone on which modern biology sits.

Epigenetics adds a whole new layer to genes beyond the DNA. It proposes a control system of ’switches’ that turn genes on or off – and suggests that things people experience, like nutrition and stress, can control these switches and cause heritable effects in humans.

The things people experience can control their genetic switches.

So who you are can be affected by your genes as well as whether your grandma was stressed out. It may seem like a there are a lot of factors beyond your control in play here. But in reality, the opposite is the case.

Traditional genetics is deterministic. It says that your genes determine what’s going to happen to you, and you don’t have much of a say in the matter. Epigenetics, on the other hand, says that it’s your environment, the one you experience in addition to the one your grandmother experienced, that has the final say in determining who you are as a human being.

This environment has physical attributes, like what you eat and the amount of pollution in the air; it also includes psycho-social attributes, like how stressed you are and what your belief system is.

The physical factors, of course, are also driven by your belief system, which results in a bit of a loop. If I believe that McDonald’s is no good for me, I’m not going to eat it. If I feel strongly that I need to avoid air pollution, I’m going to move house, as well as rally the troops and fight for clean-air protection.

Here’s the thing, though: your belief system can change. Your core beliefs, values and purpose can change and adapt over time. And this evolution has a profound effect on who you are and the direction of your life.

If you can change your thinking, and your thinking can change your life, the implication is clear: you are totally free to be whomever you choose.

You are not determined by or limited to your genes.

You may decide what you want your life to be.

This is why studying purpose and values isn’t just some airy-fairy touchy-feely huggy-wuggy concept. It is what defines the shape of our society. It is the most current science and the most up-to-date evolutionary theory.

The other day, I asked whether finding out that you had a tone-deaf gene would stop you from aiming for Carnegie Hall. Today I’ll ask the bigger question: do you believe that you have this power? Do you feel that your life is pre-determined, or do you think your core beliefs can actually change the physical world? I’d love to hear from you on this one.