Lazygirl's blog

Believe it or not, I had my very first taste of figs today. All my life, I’ve never really been very adventurous about trying new food. It was only last year when the message of “you are what you eat” really sunk in to me and I started to change how I thought about food. Hence, the figs.

It may sound strange,  but I now see my health problems as a blessing, because it’s forced me to learn so much. It’s also made me keep an open mind to things.

Probably the most useful thing I’ve learned is that my DNA does not determine my destiny.

My mother passed away when I was five – she had ovarian cancer (among other health issues). Ever since I hit puberty and started having painful periods, I’ve always thought it was inevitable that I would one day end up like my mother – everything I read about ovarian cancer told me it was hereditary.

While that may be partly true, no one told me how much control I actually had over it. So I went through most of my life thinking this would always be a part of who I am. And for 15 years, I’ve depended on strong painkillers to control my pain, thinking there was no other way. My pain was so severe that I would stock up on my precious painkillers, fearful that I would one day run out. Without them, I would be bedridden, curled up in pain (and sometimes in tears) and praying for sleep just so I can escape the exhausting pain for a few hours.

Then last year, I started to make a conscious effort to eat healthily. I learned about the importance of body pH and alkaline-forming foods vs acid-forming foods. I read up on everything I could. And since I made those changes, every month (every single month!), I would notice how the pain had lessened from the month before.

It’s been more than six months now, and I haven’t taken a single painkiller since. They’ve been gathering dust in my medicine drawer, and as I’m writing this, I can’t tell you how amazing that is to me.

If you’re interested and want to know more, the science behind my gradual healing has to do with our epigenomes, which is a part of every DNA strand. I can’t explain this very well, so here’s an extract from a 2006 article in Discover Magazine.

We commonly accept the notion that through our DNA we are destined to have particular body shapes, personalities, and diseases. Some scholars even contend that the genetic code predetermines intelligence and is the root cause of many social ills, including poverty, crime, and violence. “Gene as fate” has become conventional wisdom.

Through the study of epigenetics, that notion at last may be proved outdated. Suddenly, for better or worse, we appear to have a measure of control over our genetic legacy.

You can read the original article here.

p.s: The figs were awesome.