Beyond the blueprint

bshubbard — Tue, 05 May 2009 09:47:00 GMT

More than 50 years before Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species, French zoologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck wrote Les Recherches sur L’Organisation des Corps Vivants, the first book to set out a coherent and well-developed theory of evolution.

Where Lamarck differed from Darwin was in his belief that the environment, rather than genetic coding, was responsible for changes in animals, and that these changes could be inherited.

Lamarck—who has been ridiculed for generations—has now been vindicated by recent studies showing that environmental influences cause changes in organisms that may even persist through generations. Scientists are only now beginning to understand that it is outside influences filtering through the cellular membrane that control the expression of most genes and, in turn, affects the chemical coating (methylation) of the DNA double helix, which is exquisitely sensitive to the environment, particularly during the early stages of life. In our cover story this month (May 2009), WDDTY Deputy Editor Joanna Evans has uncovered a wealth of evidence showing that environmental exposure to pollutants—pesticides, plastics, even tobacco smoke—may be responsible for widespread obesity. The most extraordinary revelation is that the damage mostly occurs through prenatal exposure.

This is especially worrying as many ‘epigenetic’ changes persist through many generations. In times of famine, for example, populations exposed to famine prenatally have lower birth weights and higher-than-normal rates of degenerative diseases such as diabetes, coronary heart disease and cancer. Yet, even when they received adequate nutrition, those whose mothers had been starved produced smaller-than-normal children and grandchildren.

The environmental conditions affected at least two generations down the line (Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol, 1992; 6: 240–5 3). This suggests that those who are overweight due to chemical overload as babies will produce several generations of fat offspring.

The only note of optimism is the evidence that a good environment can also correct illness.
A mouse study by La r ry Feig and his colleagues at Tufts University looked at whether or not a stimulating environment could override knocked-out genes (Ras-GRF), without which the animals can neither learn nor remember. Put these mice in an unpleasant situation they’ve already experienced, provide the stimulus that should trigger the unhappy memory— and they won’t have the foggiest recollection of it.

But, when the researchers exposed such 15-day-old mice to the equivalent of a indoor theme park—a large cage with play tubes, cardboard boxes, a running wheel, and toys and nesting material—that was changed or rearranged every other day. After two weeks, the mice developed a compensatory new protein pathway that helped their long-term memory and learning. Even though they were still missing the gene, a stimulating environment, in effect, turned it back on. The mice showed normal memory and fear conditioning.

Feig then took this one stage further and examined what happened to their offspring, which were given the usual environment rather than the theme park. Astonishingly, these offspring showed every evidence of normal memory and learning ability even though they had inherited the knocked-out gene and had experienced no additional stimulation.

In fact, the environmental effect of their ancestors again overrode their genetic destiny—this time to positive effect.

This means that perhaps it’s not too late for us to begin cleaning up our environment.
Certainly, we owe it to our great-grandchildren.

Lynne McTaggart

This latest blog introduces the main story in the May 2009 issue of 'What Doctors Don't Tell You'. It is available only to subscribers. To subscribe, please follow this link:

http://www.wddtyhealthshop.com/products.asp?recnumber=246

The poisoned brain

bshubbard — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:46:00 GMT

Are we poisoning our children to the extent that they can't function in the classroom?

A new study into the abilities of children in the UK who are failing basic exams known as SATS has discovered that 55 per cent have an undetected learning problem such as dyslexia.

If this were extrapolated across the nation, the numbers of British children with learning difficulties would be around 2 million, 20 times the 76,000 who are currently officially recognised as having dyslexia and the like.

Whenever studies like this are published - and always they seem to suggest a problem that's more more prevalent than government figures ever admit - experts explain that dyslexia is related to genetic factors. If this were always the case, we shouldn't be seeing an explosion in the numbers of children who are struggling at school.

A more interesting possibility comes from developmental psychologist Maryanne Wolf who, in her excellent book 'Proust and the Squid', explains that reading is a facility we learn and, as we do, so we 'educate' our neural networks that create new pathways that enable us to read and write. In a fascinating aside, she says the Chinese have completely different neural pathways in their brain that have been created by their own language and character set.

If this is so, something other than genetics may also be playing a part in slowing - or stopping - the creation of the neural pathways required for reading.

In a separate study published this week, researchers have discovered that diesel fumes affect the way our brain functions, although they don't yet know if our abilities are also impaired by these pollutants (see our News section). This suggests that our brains may be affected by a range of environmental and chemical assaults - not just diesel fumes, but also pesticides, electro-pollution, and pharmaceuticals - and the affect may be far worse in young and developing brains.

Over the past 50 years or so, we've been cavalier in our use of petro-chemicals and electro-magnetic technology. We've sprayed our crops with pesticides, we've given our children mobile phones, and we've vaccinated them with more than 20 different chemicals - all in the name of progress, and a safer and healthier world.

The legacy may be a generation that has more children with cognitive difficulties than ever before. Perhaps it's time to reconsider the level of poisons to which we expose our children. The alternative would be catastrophic.

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Beyond the blueprint

The poisoned brain