Acupuncture’s Effect on Gene Expression
By Dr. Renae Haldeman · New to some of these words? See the glossary.
The winter of 1944 in the Netherlands was a very hard time for the Dutch people. The Nazis cut off food supplies and caused a famine across the land. A British doctor, David J. Barker, studied what happened to the children born after this terrible time. He came to believe that a baby in the womb is not safe from stress. The stress that does the most harm may be emotional, physical, or even money-related. The same can be said for the survivors of the Holocaust, Chernobyl, the thalidomide tragedy, fetal alcohol syndrome, and more. Science teaches us that people who are hurt by war, food shortages, chemicals, and the like have a greater risk of poor health in later generations. With all of the crazy weather, school trauma and shootings, political and money troubles, not to mention our own troubles in our relationships, it is no wonder so many people are sick. Many are sick in their emotions, their minds, and their bodies.
How can we change this? What can we do to start a positive trend for our own health and our relationships?
Part of healing is to remove these stress markers. We cannot change our DNA, but we can change how our DNA expresses itself, or “turns on” and “turns off.” This can be seen in DNA methylation, histone changes, and noncoding RNA (three ways the body switches genes on and off). When we place an acupuncture point, we are sending a signal to the body to redirect how cells express themselves. Acupuncture is a way of healing at the epigenetic level (the level that controls how genes are used). Illness, injury, abuse, neglect: acupuncture is the art of healing the root of disease, NOT putting a bandage on the symptom. It heals the markers that can be changed, so these stresses do not pass on to our loved ones.
Imagine our DNA is a living Christmas tree, and the ornaments are our gene expression. There are good ornaments and bad ornaments, in good or bad places. Acupuncture helps remove the bad ornaments from the DNA Christmas tree. It is like the difference between putting globs of poison on the tree and feeding and caring for the tree. Taking away those poisonous ornaments lets the good ornaments help the tree be healthy.
Let’s give ourselves and our loved ones a gift this time of year. Let’s get to the root cause of disease, so we can grow and thrive in every part of our lives.
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This article is educational and is not medical advice. Individual results vary. Please talk with a licensed healthcare provider about your own health.