Brain Growth
Something strange happened to our ancestors. Between about 100,000 to 35,000 years ago, their brains began to grow enormously.
There have been many theories as to why this happened, from climatic change to a change in diet. Some foods contain chemicals that can stimulate the growth of neurons. And yes, there are also those who claim that some external agency caused the sudden growth of the brain, a la Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
But what is exciting is that the growth in the brain may still be going on today.
It is clear that the brain is constantly changing. This growth, change, development and regression does not only occur during development, learning or aging, but also over generations. It is often said that the modern human brain is identical to that of Stone Age man, but that is almost certainly not true. If you were to meet a person from 5,000 years ago, they would probably seem quite unintelligent, because all the things that you have learned have stimulated your cognitive abilities. This stimulation also stimulates the formation of the brain. Recent studies of the genetics underlying brain development have shown that the human brain has changed significantly over the last few thousand years.
A study in the journal Science has taught us something new. The investigators studied the gene Microencephalin (MCPH). When the gene is active it causes a severe reduction in brain size coupled with mental retardation. Remarkably, despite this abnormality, there is an overall retention of normal brain structure and a lack of overt abnormalities outside of nervous system. The function of MCPH in healthy humans is less well known.
What makes this study interesting is the finding that the MCPH has changed during the past ~37.000 years, and that the spread has been fast: there has been a strong positive selection for this gene, indicating that the brain has continued to evolve even in more recent times. This is exceedingly important. I have many times emphasized that human beings are changing extremely rapidly.
There is no reason to assume that the evolution of the brain has stopped, and there is every reason for thinking that this gene is one of the mechanisms of change in response to the environment. It is now key to understand all the modulators of MCPH activity. Is it food, stress or environmental stimuli?
Another recent study in the journal Nature analyzed human chromosome 8, and looked specifically at two regions called the major defensin (DEF) gene cluster and MCPH1. The authors also speculated that these regions have played a significant role in the expanded brain size that can be observed through hominid evolution.
At the end of the article, the authors say something very interesting:
“The majority of the genes in the region of high divergence in distal 8p play important roles in development or signaling in the nervous system. Notably, the extremely large CSMD1 gene, which lies at the peak of divergence and diversity, is widely expressed in brain tissues. High regional mutation rates and positive selection are generally assumed to be distinct, but it is possible that the former may facilitate the latter by increasing the rate of appearance of potentially advantageous single, or interacting, alleles. It is intriguing to speculate whether the accelerated divergence rate of this region has contributed to the rapid expansion and evolution of the primate brain.”
For people who are less familiar with this kind of science-speak, let me translate. The study of chromosome 8 should open a whole new field of enquiry about what makes the human brain special. Comparing this region with DNA from other species and from early humans, we will be able to study the relative contribution of these genes to brain size.
Though size isn’t everything (!). The key is to understand the impact of changes in brain size and brain complexity on cognitive processes. In general, there’s a good correlation between intelligence and the volume and complexity of specific regions of the brain.
These new genes and their rapid – and continuing – spread is fascinating. But there are some other things that also differentiate the “naked ape” from other primates. One of the most striking is the large amount of fat that we have in out subcutaneous tissues and in our brains. We also have more of the excitatory amino acid glutamate in our cerebral cortices than chimpanzees or gorillas.
There is much more to be learned, but the consequences for understanding our origins and potential treatments for neurological illnesses are just stunning.
The Evolution of Handedness and Laterality
The evolution of bilaterality marked a great change in the organization of animals and to this day some illnesses are associated with disturbances of the normal balance between the two sides of the human body, most especially of the hemispheres of the brain. Presumably they would not occur if we were still arranged like jellyfish or sponges. But then we would probably not have become the species that we are without that great evolutionary leap forward.
A new report has shown that at the molecular level, the first signs of genes that are expressed asymmetrically are in the lowly sea anemone. What is even more extraordinary is that the same asymmetric genes found n the sea anemone can induce lateralization in the embryo of a frog.
This is of more than just academic interest: it tells us that the move toward lateralization was already present hundreds of millions of years ago, and primitive versions of some of the same genes in your body are also present in the simplest of organisms. This is incredible evidence for the oneness of life. There is also something else. Nature is economical: genes that are not needed are discarded. The fact that these lateralization genes have been around for such a long time indicates that they were critically important in our development. And disturbances of them may be important to this day.
The scientists doing the study have speculated that creatures with radial symmetry, like starfish, might have evolved from asymmetrical animals. I couldn’t help but remember the apparently strange speculations of Rudolf Steiner, who said that the essential form of humans was present hundreds of millions of years ago, and that other animals devolved from them. The idea was that sentience and spirituality did not just crop up with homo sapiens. but have been present since the beginning of time. Be that as it may, understanding more about the fundamental processes of lateralization will likely have important implications for understanding human evolution and disease.
“The wise man remembers that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future.”
–Herbert Spencer (English Evolutionary Philosopher, 1820-1903)
“We are descended not only from monkeys, but also from monks.”
–Elbert Hubbard (American Editor, Publisher and Author, 1856-1915)
“As Aurobindo and Teilhard de Chardin knew, the future of humankind is God-consciousness…”
–Ken Wilber (American Philosopher, 1949-)
DNA Databases
Regular readers will have noticed that I’ve written a lot less over the last couple of weeks, as I’ve had to scuttle to and from the UK.
England has really changed in the last few years. I probably noticed more than most, because although being born and bred in England, with the exception of changing planes at Heathrow, I’ve been away for a few years.
It is just stunning how many closed circuit TV cameras there are now. I hear that the average Londoner now expects to be photographed around 20 times a day.
The cameras are said to have helped solve a lot of crimes. Apart from hordes of hapless drivers caught by the traffic cameras.
Something even more interesting to an American Citizen, is the rapid growth of the massive British DNA database, that now has samples running into the millions, and has lead to the apprehension of a number of villains and ne’re-do-wells. Though I am a huge proponent of individual liberties, I thought that this was a good use of technology that would probably never fly in the USA. I remember all the furor over those two youngsters who denial in the driving deaths of two innocent people was nailed by a sensor in their car. Many people cried “Foul,” but I rather thought that the idea of criminal penalties was to catch and re-educate people who broke the social contract. Instead some have suggested that the citizen should seek to outwit the law. A slippery slope, IMHO.
So though I knew that the FBI has established a DNA database in the USA, I wondered whether data from it will be admissible in court, and how circumscribed would be the use of the information in criminology. I had imagined that its use would be severely limited by the courts but now I’m learning otherwise.
USA Today reports that the national database of criminals’ DNA, originally designed by the FBI to help solve rapes and murders, is now increasingly being used to identify suspects in unsolved burglaries and other property crimes.
I learned that in 10 states — Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Virginia and Wisconsin — the total number of DNA matches in property-crime cases has exceeded the number of matches in violent crimes.
In my home state of Georgia, of the first 171 matches, only 13 involved DNA from the scenes of unsolved burglaries. Of the 300 matches that followed, 79 were in burglary cases.
Civil libertarians have worried for years abut mass fingerprinting, and collecting DNA seems yet more intrusive. It is important that we have a good discussion about the ways that DNA is collected, stored and the data used.
Many of us are already worried about the ways in which some medical insurance companies may want DNA analyses to determine whether you are a good risk to insure. If you have, say, a gene for breast cancer, then they may decide not to give you medical insurance. This is one of the many reasons for our intense focus on the “New Genetics,” that are teaching us that biology is not destiny. In most cases, just because someone has a high-risk gene does not mean that they will inevitably develop an illness.
Because of the kind of work that I have done, my fingerprints are on file, and my DNA is preserved in a number of freezers around the world. Personally I have no problem with that.
With all that DNA sloshing around, perhaps I should scan the news more often. To see if someone’s announced that they’ve cloned me. If they did Dolly the sheep, maybe Petty the Doc will be next??
😉
A Valuable History Lesson
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
–George Santayana (Spanish-born American Philosopher, Humanist and Poet, 1863-1952
I’m a bit of a history buff, and like most armchair historians who know something about medicine, it’s always interesting to try and work out why some civilizations underwent rapid collapse. Was the decline of Rome really due to malaria, lead pipes or societal malaise? Why did the huge Khmer Empire in Southeast Asia vanish in just a few years? Was it ecological failure, disease or pollution? The list goes on.
The map shows some of the major empires in Eurasia around A.D.1200. See how few still exist.
One of these historical puzzles seems to be close to solution, and provides important lessons for us today. In the second year of the Peloponnesian war, the city state of Athens was devastated by an epidemic known as the Plague of Athens. Historians and scientists have been debating the cause of the Plague for years. When I was a young schoolboy, the debate was already a century old.
According to historical records, the plague began in Ethiopia and passed through Egypt and Libya to Greece in 430-426 B.C.E. It forever changed the balance of power between Athens and Sparta, effectively ending the Golden Age of Athenian dominance in the ancient world. It is thought that up to one third of the Athenians, including their leader, Pericles, dies in the epidemic. Most of our knowledge about the Plague came from the fifth century B.C.E. Greek historian Thucydides, who himself was taken ill with the plague but recovered. Though Thucydides gave a detailed description, researchers have not managed to agree on the identity of the plague. Several diseases have been suggested, including bubonic plague, smallpox, anthrax and measles.
Now a study in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases helps answer this question that has puzzled historians for decades: What destroyed ancient Athens, the cradle of democracy? Analysis carried out by Manolis Papagrigorakis and colleagues from the University of Athens, using DNA collected from teeth obtained from an ancient Greek burial pit points to typhoid fever as the disease responsible for this devastating epidemic. Typhoid fever (or enteric fever) is an illness caused by the bacterium Salmonella Typhi. It is common throughout the world, more so in tropical and semitropical climates. It is transmitted by ingestion of food or water contaminated with feces from an infected person.
There are some classic physical symptoms of typhoid: In the first phase there is coughing, a fever, sweating and a rash of “rose spots,” particularly on the abdomen. Typhoid has a unique feature: normally when you get a fever your pulse rate increases. In typhoid the pulse slows. In the second phase of the illness people get severe headaches muscle pain and diarrhea. And it is the diarrhea that usually dehydrates and kills people. You may have heard about typhoid in the last few days after publication that a well-known terrorist was supposed to have died from it.
It is humbling to realize that entire civilizations have been put to the sword, not by force of arms, but by microbes. Climate change or a breakdown in sanitation of food inspection can all lead to a reappearance of typhoid: within the last hundred year there have been outbreaks all over the Western world, and it is endemic in many less developed countries.
I mention in Healing, Meaning and Purpose that one of the reasons for the persistence of the gene for cystic fibrosis is thought to be that carriers of the gene are resistant to typhoid.
We must never forget the power of micro-organisms and how rapidly they can re-appear if we let down our guard or if we neglect the impact of climate change on their growth and viability.
It is no coincidence that H.G. Wells vanquished the Martians not with guns, but with microbes.
Aging, Skin and Cancer
There’s a very interesting paper in this month’s issue of the journal Developmental Cell, based on research conducted at the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and Leiden in the Netherlands.
The investigators have found a pathway through which a gene’s over-expression causes stem cells in the skin to switch from creating hair follicles to creating sebaceous glands. This discovery may not only provide us with new ways of treating hair loss and oily skin, but it may help us to prevent and treat some cancers.
Skin cells turn over very quickly: just think how fast a graze gets covered over. Epidermal stem cells give rise to the outer layer of the skin that serves as a barrier for the body, as well as generating the follicles that produce hairs and sebaceous glands. These glands produce oils to lubricate the skin. In aged skin, a protein called Smad7 is overproduced, which triggers hair loss and sebaceous gland growth.
This is the first study definitively to link Smad7 over-expression and the pathological changes that occur in aged skin.
Here’s the twist: Smad7 shuts down signaling of another group of genes called Wnt. It binds to a Wnt signaling protein known as Beta-catenin and degrades it with an enzyme called Smurf2. (I don’t known why they decided to call it’s call it Smurf: it looks like ponderous chemical humor to me!) Wnt signaling is critical for organ development, but if Wnt signaling is too active, it also causes cancer.
Enhanced Beta-catenin signaling contributes to many types of cancer, including colon, lung and brain. Perhaps inducing over-expression of Smad7 or delivery of Smad7 directly to tumor cells would provide a therapeutic approach because of the boost in Beta-catenin degradation.
And finally, impaired Beta-catenin signaling contributes to neurodegeneration, such as that found in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, retinal degeneration, some bone density defects and aging. For these diseases, blocking Smad7-mediated Beta-catenin degradation may offer a therapeutic approach.
Our Unique Brains
One of the fundamental tenets of the old self-help movement is that we all have the same brains and so we all have the potential to become a Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein or Michelangelo.
But is this really true?
I’ve talked a lot about the way in which genes in the brain do not so much determine your behavior, but instead predispose you to respond to the environment in certain ways. If asked the question, “Why has she got depression? Was it because of the abuse as a child, or because her grandmother had depression?” The answer is “Yes.” All of the above.
I’ve examined many hundreds of brain scans, and one of the most striking features of them is their variability. It’s a strange paradox: when we look at the nerves running to your fingers or your toes, they are pretty much in the same place in everyone. The veins and arteries are often in different places, but those peripheral nerves tend to stay put.
Yet when we get to the brain, things are very different. I’ve never seen two brain that look the same. This has been a big problem in research: how do you compare the brain of someone with depression with a healthy volunteer? We usually end up doing all sorts of sophisticated computer modeling to be able to compare two very different brains. This is also why we are a bit skeptical about people who claim to be able to diagnose illnesses based on brain scans. There is just so much variability.
This came up last week, when Grigory Perelman turned down a prestigious honor for his extraordinary work in mathematics. Here we have someone who’s brain works quite differently from other people. He has a very remarkable gift, but I doubt that anyone else could simulate what he has achieved.
I knew a woman who was employed as an air traffic controller by the Royal Air Force. Like all air traffic controllers, she had to have an amazing ability: to be able to tell – without instruments – where every plane was in the sky. With planes flying in different directions at 300-500 knots, the variables are staggering. Yet Veronica and her co-controllers could do it easily.
One of the reasons that I landed in the United States was that I was given a problem to solve. It had to do with measuring an inaccessible region of the brain that is mind-bogglingly important. World class investigators had been trying to solve the problem for four years. After years of playing chess, I have a reasonable ability to visualize things in three dimensions. That was all that it took to solve the problem. Within three weeks we started cranking out data that changed the way in which we think about major mental illness.
Could anyone model Grigory Perelman, or Veronica the air traffic controller or my modest efforts in brain imaging? Is that something that everyone can do?
The answer is almost certainly not.
Although we are forever being told that we can each be whatever we want to, that is not what the evidence says.
I am in no doubt that most people have the potential to perform far above their accustomed level.
But I’m just as sure that not everyone can do everything.
There is often a subtle subtext here: if you have not achieved everything that you want, it is because you have failed. And that’s wrong. Human potential is magnificent, but there are almost certainly some neurological constraints on what each of us can achieve. The key to much of our work is to see how we can expand beyond those neurological limitations.
There’s a terrific discussion of some of these issues by Steven Pinker from Harvard.
The Epigenetic Code
In Healing, Meaning and Purpose I reveal some of the extraordinary changes that are occurring in our understanding of genetics and inheritance. Even if you are currently learning genetics in college, it is quite likely that some of what your professors are teaching may already be out of date. I say that with the greatest possible respect: I find that in some of my fields of expertise, I am often having to update my teaching materials every week.
One of the remarkable discoveries that is generating huge amounts of new information is what we call epigenetics. This is the study of a form of inheritance that can occur without fundamental changes in gene sequences. This has to do with the idea that there is a second layer of programming on top of our DNA. A code that can change over our lifetimes in response to environmental change. Diet, hormones, chemicals in the environment, stress and even thought, emotion and behavior, can all change the ways in which our genes are expressed. Some of these epigenetic changes can be passed on to other generations. In other words, there can be an inheritance of acquired characteristics. Something that has been denied for over a century.
Let me give you a simple example. Studies of a particular species of mouse have shown that maternal diet has an effect on the coat color of the offspring. This was the result of what is known as methylation that altered gene expression. These changes in coat color were carried on to the next generation: the grandchildren of the mouse given the special diet. This created quite a stir, because it had been thought that epigenetic changes in cells are erased each time that a cell divides. Obviously that was not happening. We now have many examples of epigenetic changes being passed on to the next generation and the next. There are literally hundreds of scientific papers on the subject.
As I have written before in my last book and CDs, in articles and in reviews at Amazon and elsewhere, the traditional view of genetics has been one of genetic determinism. That we are all little robots whose entire lives are dedicated to nothing more than passing our DNA from one generation to the next. And the genes even dictated how we did that. I still know many gene jockeys who are convinced that the whole of human behavior will ultimately be explained by our genes, and that free will is therefore a myth.
I’m just as sure that they are wrong.
Let me give you an example. Identical twins have identical DNA, yet we have known for fifty years that one twin may get a genetic illness that the other does not. And the brains of identical twins, though they start out identical, quickly become quite different from each other because of the impact of the environment. Twin studies of mental illness have been going on at the Institute of Psychiatry in London since 1960. Every patient coming to the hospital is asked by the clerical staff if he or she is a twin. And there has been groundbreaking research on mentally ill twins at the National Institute of Mental Health for decades. And what have we learned? Though there may be a genetic component in schizophrenia, when we look at people with schizophrenia who have identical twins, only half of the twins have the illness, despite having the same DNA. The key difference is at the epigenetic level.
Marcus Pembrey from the Clinical and Molecular Genetics Unit at the Institute of Child Health, part of University College, London, has been at the forefront of the work on epigenetics. Marcus has had the opportunity to study the unusually detailed historical medical records of the isolated northern Swedish city of Overkalix. He and his colleagues found something astonishing. The grandsons of men who experienced famine during mid-childhood went through puberty earlier and had longer life spans, while the grandsons of men who were well fed in early childhood had an increased likelihood of diabetes. For females, the effect was similar but it was tied to the grandmother, rather than the grandfather. Presumably these responses are designed to adjust our early growth and reproduction to be ready for unpredictable changes adverse events in the environment. I would call this epigenetic resilience.
In a separate study done in Bristol in England, Marcus studied two generations of families, and found that fathers who had started smoking before age 11 had sons who were significantly heavier than average. There was no similar effect on daughters.
There is already some evidence that epigenetic factors may play a role in the development of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Many of us are becoming excited about the potential benefit that may flow from a better understanding of genetic and epigenetic mechanisms in major psychiatric disorders.
There is a new journal called, appropriately, Epigenetics that contains a treasure trove of important information. The editor is Moshe Szyf, form McGill University in Canada, and he recently pointed out that one single gene could have as many as 700 epigenetic programs associated with it.
His own research has linked epigenetic change to social interactions: the way in which we behave toward one another can lead to a change in how our genes operate.
Rats whose mothers groom and lick them when they are young grow up to be much calmer than rats whose mothers neglected them. There is, of course, nothing surprising about that. We all understand the importance of good child rearing. But what was surprising was the finding that epigenetic changes are the cause. By nurturing their young, the rat mothers activated a gene that suppressed the creation of cortisol, one of the stress hormones.
Pups who were neglected did not have that gene activated, so they produced more cortisol and were therefore more stressed out.
Knowing this, the researchers were able to increase the well-nurtured rats’ stress by injecting them with methionine, an amino acid commonly found in food supplements.
Here we have proof that the link between food and mood is not just due to transient chemical changes in the neurotransmitters of the brain, but that a chemical in our diet could cause fundamental changes in the way in which our genes work. In this case a rat’s emotions and state of mind. The implications for all of us are extraordinary.
Since 2003, a consortium of public and private firms in Europe has been working on the first Human Epigenome Project (HEP), and it hopes to have completed 10% of the map by the end of this year. As you can see, it is a lot more complicated than mapping the human genome, and epigenetic codes are constantly moving targets. The first reports from HEP have indicated that at least 20% of the genes studied so far can have their behavior modified by the environment. The food that we eat, the chemicals that we ingest and the attitude of our parents and peers can all change the way in which our genes function.
As Marcus Pembrey has said, “Child care has a whole new meaning.”
This is all crucially important, because one of our most important discoveries has been that human beings have been undergoing extremely rapid physical as well as psychological and social change, and that is one of the reasons why the Laws of Healing have been changing over the last century.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Mood Disorders, the Serotonin Transporter and Integrated Medicine
Whenever we run into two common conditions, it’s easy to imagine links where none really exists. Three years ago some colleagues from Oxford reported on a person with bipolar disorder and irritable bowel syndrome, and commented that the association was uncommon.
However there may after all be a genuine link between mood disorders and irritable bowel syndrome, that is a disturbance in the “third arm” of the autonomic nervous system. The first arm is the sympathetic nervous system, the second the parasympathetic and the third is the enteric or gut nervous system that is closely linked with key regions of the brain.
Not long ago there was an interesting report of a woman who had multiple problems including environmental allergies, atypical bipolar disorder, irritable bowel syndrome and Raynaud’s phenomenon. Such odd constellations of problems are quite familiar to anyone working in the major referral centers around the world, and some can be exceedingly hard to treat. Tough cases like this often stimulate further research. I once tried and failed to treat a woman with a chronic illness. When she came back a year later to see if I had any new ideas, I told her that I now had a shelf of books and over a thousand reprint of papers about her condition: I don’t like failing someone. And I’m not unique in that.
A new study from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, has found that chronic widespread pain, which, as I explained recently, is the cardinal symptom of fibromyalgia, is prevalent and co-occurs with other symptom-based conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome, joint pain, headache, irritable bowel syndrome, and psychiatric disorders.
There is more and more evidence of a link between fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome and depression. It is not just that people are sick and get depressed: as we shall see in a moment, the link is more subtle than that. Another illness seemingly linked to these three is interstitial cystitis.
Now some colleagues at the National Institutes of Health have been looking at a serotonin transporter (SERT) that regulates the entire serotoninergic system and its receptors. This transporter is found throughout the animal kingdom, telling us that it must be important.
In humans the gene is located on chromosome 17, and disturbances in it have been found in people with autism, ADHD, Tourette’s syndrome and bipolar disorder. Experiments using genetic engineering suggest that SERT may be a candidate gene for several human disorders, from obesity to irritable bowel syndrome. People who have disturbances in SERT tend not to respond so well to the serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI’s) antidepressant medicines.
SERT is not the whole story. Some geneticists from Los Angeles have found evidence linking irritable bowel syndrome, depression, migraine and inheritance of mitochondrial DNA.
Many approaches have been tried to help people with these groups of problems. I always find it remarkable that psychological treatments can be so effective in conditions with a genetic component, for this once again proves that biology is not destiny.
The best approaches to conditions like irritable bowel syndrome and coexisting mood disorders is to use medications and psychological approaches. Many of us have also found that the addition of nutritional, environmental and subtle energetic approaches have been of great help, together with some work to uncover the meaning and transpersonal value of a chronic illness. That last piece is not the first priority, which is to help the person gain control of his or her life. But if we don’t do something to work with the meaning and purpose of an illness, it will usually come back in some form or other. This comprehensive approach differentiates Integrated Medicine from many other types of therapy.
Psychological Reslience and Adult Support
Most of us would agree that it is very difficult to try to reduce human behavior to genes alone: one of the most important breakthroughs in our understanding of many genes is the way in which they interact constantly with the environment. This has been known for years with the genes involved in metabolism, but we now also know that the main function of genes in the brain is not to determine behavior, but to predispose us to the way in which we handle the environment.
There is a good discussion of this distinction in a paper posted by someone whom I am sorry to say that I do not know, called R.J. O’Hara, that endorses our point: even if you have genes that could predispose you to a bad long-term outcome, if you had strong, positive support from an adult, it could significantly reduce the impact of "bad" genes.
It leaves us with an important question: how late in life can strong social supports and a positive mental attitude cancel out some of our genetic predispositions?
My answer? "Biology is not destiny, and we can help people make a new start at any age or at any time in life."
Technorati tags: Psychological resilience Genetic predisposition Biology is not destiny
Stress, Depression and Resilience
“Patience in calamity, mercy in greatness, fortitude in adversity; these are the self-attained perfections of great saints.”
–The Hitopodesa (Sanskrit fable from the Panchatantra, the “Five Chapters,” Translated as the “Good Advice” c.1100 A.D.)
We are all different in the way that we respond to emotional and physical stress. It is not enough to focus on one single reason why one person handles it and another does not. I have often made the point that we need to consider the physical, psychological, social, subtle and spiritual contributions to any illness or challenge.
New research is shedding light on the interaction between two of these: genes and environment. A multinational research effort assessed the impact of stressor on mood in 275 pairs of female twins. 170 sets of twins were identical: they have exactly the same genetic makeup.
The research indicates that only 12% of individual differences in reactions to stress can be attributed to genetic influences. This is stunning, and should have been reported far more widely: 88% of the differences in the way a person reacts to stress are not genetic, but personal and environmental. This is of great importance in problems such as depression. If genetic factors play such a small role, then paying attention to the development of personal resilience – as well as dealing with social factors – is more likely to be effective than anything else. And, as has been discussed elsewhere one of the ways in which some medicines help people with depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia is probably by increasing their resilience.
I have already started showing you some of the techniques for improving psychological resilience and in a future publication we are also going to start work on physical, subtle and spiritual resilience and how to develop more resilient and dynamic relationships.
“Never allow anyone to rain on your parade and thus cast a pall of gloom and defeat on the entire day. Remember that no talent, no self-denial, no brains, no character, are required to set up in the faultfinding business. Nothing external can have any power over you unless you permit it. Your time is too precious to be sacrificed in wasted days combating the menial forces of hate, jealously, and envy. Guard your fragile life carefully. Only God can shape a flower, but any foolish child can pull it to pieces.”
–Og Mandino (American Motivational Speaker and Author, 1923-1996)
Technorati tags: Resilience Depression Stress Environment Genetics
