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www.celtic-connection.com
NOVEMBER 2012
Could Jim Corr
be the next Michael Collins?
Exorcising the Great Famine from your genetic history
E have all heard the old maxim that you are what you eat.
Last month Sldinte explained how you are what your ancestors didn't eat.
This is the very new science of epigenetics which explains how the genes in cells and tissues are turned on and off.
We talked about how a stress like the Irish famine can cause changes to your genetic structure by adding tags to your genes that regulate when they are allowed to be copied ("turned on") and how these changes can be passed down to future generations.
This is called epigenetic inheritance and it could explain why the Irish in the U. S. are at greater risk for developing heart disease.
In addition to cardiovascular disease, obesity is another disorder associated with epigenetic changes. Yes, there is evidence you can inherit fatness from your parents.
Cognitive dysfunction, respiratory issues, and reproductive, autoimmune, and neurobehavioral disorders as well as almost all types of cancer can have epigenetic origins too.
We have already talked about how famine and a lack of nutrients can cause epigenetic changes.
So can certain hormones, viruses and bacteria. Environmental toxins such as cigarette smoke, diesel exhaust, jet fuel, dioxin, heavy metals, pesticides (DEET and permethrin), plastics, and radioactivity are suspected of being able to change the epigenome too.
Some recent research suggests that toxins your great-grandmother was exposed to may promote ovarian cancer in you and you will pass it on to your granddaughters too.
But just as your ancestors inherited epigenetic tags that affect you today, you can also make positive changes to potentially offset what you have inherited. In other words, there may be a way to exorcise the ghost of famine past.
Epigenetic tags are single carbon molecules called methyl groups.
Nutrients like zinc, the B vitamins folate and B12, and the amino acid methionine are able to affect the supply of methyl group tags.
As a result, differing levels of these nutrients can influence the rate at which a disease occurs.
For example, reduced folate levels in the mother are connected to neural tube defects in her child.
Methyl-deficiency in the diet has also been shown to cause liver cancer.
Since the research in this area is so new, it makes sense not to over compensate by supplementing with very high doses of nutrients from supplements.
A recent study found that very low levels of folate can cause unwanted epigenetic changes but so did very high levels that exceed the Tolerable Upper Limit (UL) for folate.
This is one reason Sldinte has always
SLAINTE - TO YOUR GOOD HEALTH!
^ | By
" MAUREEN
KEANE
recommended that her readers avoid any vitamin supplement that contains a Percent Daily Value of a specific nutrient that is in the thousands.
Pick up your average bottle of vitamins and see how many vitamins are listed as a thousand percent of the D V
Just because a nutrient has no immediate toxic effect on the body does not mean it is not toxic to your epigenome.
Sldinte takes a balanced food supplement that contains no more than a 100 percent DV for any nutrient.
You can find a list of manufactures who make this kind of supplement on her blog.
Other nutrients suspected of having a positive effect on your epigenome include epigallocatechin gallate (a cat-echin found in green tea), curcumin (from the Indian spice turmeric), lycopene (a red pigment found in tomatoes, watermelon and other red colored fruits and vegetables), quercetin (a fla-vonoid found in plant foods especially tea, red onions, capers, apples, red
grapes, citrus fruits, tomatoes, broccoli and some leafy greens and berries), pomegranate extracts, selenium, vitamin D and alpha and gamma-tocopherols (forms of vitamin E).
Most of these nutrients also have some antioxidant activity so they also protect body cells and genetic material from free radical damage.
If you are young, whatyou do now with your body will affect the health of your future children, grandchildren and beyond.
This holds true for both men and women. The tissue that make sperm is just as vulnerable to epigenetic changes as the ovarian tissue in females. Boys around the age of 11 appear to be particularly vulnerable.
Since half of all pregnancies are not planned, this holds true even if you don't plan on having children.
If you won't take care of yourself for yourself, picture a future daughter holding her newborn in her arms and do it for them.
Eat a whole foods diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables. Avoid fad dieting and very high levels of nutrients from supplements.
What if you have already had your children? Eat dinner together and avoid fast foods. Take cooking lessons and learn how to make vegetables attractive. Keep a variety of fresh fruits on hand for snacking and don't expose them to environmental toxins.
If you are older, concentrate on eating a very healthy diet yourself. As we age those epigenetic changes build up increasing the risk of disease.
Last but not least, be mindful that you are at greater risk for heart disease and followyour doctor's guidelines for blood work and other heart tests appropriate for your age. Know your blood pressure too and get help if you believe you might be having a heart attack.
Be proactive and exorcise the ghost of famine past with good food before it has a chance to scare you to death.
Maureen Keane MS CN is the author of 14 books on health and diet and a member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. You can read her blog at keane nutrition.com.
Ireland's Great Famine
In Ireland, the Great Famine was a period of mass starvation, disease and emigration between 1845 and 1852.
It is also known, mostly outside Ireland, as the Irish Potato Famine. In the Irish language it is called an Gorta M6r, meaning "the Great Hunger."
During the famine approximately one million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland, causing the island's population to fall by between 20-25 percent.
The proximate cause of famine was a potato disease commonly known as potato blight.
Although blight ravaged potato crops throughout Europe during the 1840s, the impact and human cost in Ireland - where one-third of the population was entirely dependent on the potato for food - was exacerbated by a host of political, social and economic factors which remain the subject of historical debate.
The famine was a watershed in the history of Ireland.Its effects permanently changed the island's demographic, political and cultural landscape.
By WILD OSCAR
Jim Corr was the guitarist with Irish group The Corrs and has made a very good living selling millions of albums all around the world.
But what you may not know is that these days he is becoming even more popular for his articles on The New World Order and believes that 9/11 was not all it seemed.
Osama Bin Laden had actually died many years before reported, the forced YES Lisbon Treaty vote in Ireland, global warming and basically how we are all been fooled by shadow governments and are drugged up on chlorine laced drinking water so as to make it far easier for them to control the human race.
Now we should be well aware that when delving into the corruption of government dealings in any country, nothing uncovered should ever seem too far fetched but at the same time one must draw the line at certain points.
If our water is being dosed so as to control us we might as well throw in the towel right now. But as they say, look at black long enough and it can turn snow white, so maybe Jim delved into that one a little too late at night.
Amongst many other topics Jim writes about, how Ireland has been bullied into a corner and forced to give up her sovereignty along with natural resources which if utilized properly could in effect pull the country out of recession and put her back on the road to recovery, and uses Iceland as a good example.
This, whatever you may think about Jim Corr, may not be that far off the mark at all.
A few years ago I watched him on The Late Late Show with Ryan Turbity and, to be fair, he was being laughed at partly because Turbity was trying to make a donkey out of him.
Turbity was trying to act the part of his predecessors who could actually interview guests without the false laughs and uncomfortable questions while demanding rushed answers, and Corr was taking the heat for being one of the first out front talking about these matters.
Usually the ones taking the stand and marching to the front are the first to get the stones. However, I felt Jim handled himself well and came across as an intelligent, articulate and informed (well or not) guest.
In a nutshell, Jimmy wants us Irish to give the two finger salute to the EU and tell Angela Merkel to take a jump with a ball of lead.
He also wants us to get back to being self sufficient, get back to farming, refine our own oil and reclaim our fishing territories.
These have been decimated leaving us with lesser percentages of the catch quota than other countries like France and Spain, and that's in our own waters.
He also says, bring back the punt and,
oh ya, not be fooled by thinking there is a difference between Fine Gale and Fianna Fail, and indeed without the fada on that word (Fail), vote for the independent runners Jim says.
I was one of those people who thought Jim Corr was as mad as a bicycle but after listening and reading a little, I can now say that regardless whether he is wrong or right, I have found myself becoming a fan.
Here you have a man who is not afraid to share his view on how he sees it, in spite of little or no support from his own family, and being laughed at by those who of course know more, especially those in his own country.
But there are also a loyal and ever-growing following, patting old Jim boy on the back and probably wishing they had the courage to call it as they also see it.
Here is a man who cares what's been taken from his country, who is willing to put his neck on the line, and simply educate or inform us of what we might not know.
A patriotic Irishman I would say, fighting for Ireland's rights, standing up for his fellow countrymen.
Is Jim Corr the next Michael Collins? I wouldn't go that far, but he has made some very interesting points and called out some very so-called important people who needed calling out.
People who were put up on pedestals and left to rip off the hard working class back home. Mark Twain once said "give a man a reputation as an early riser and that man can sleep in 'til noon."
Was Ireland always destined for the debt it's in just so we would be forced to give up our resources to help pay it off? Who would ever do such a thing? Well maybe the man who sleeps til noon, who knows?
We were happy to leave it in the hands of all the so-called early risers who are now trying to tackle a serious problem with the same fools who got us into trouble in the first place.
This cat has a lot of interesting stuff to say, and at worst it's good bar banter. See www.jimcorr.com and have a look for yourself.