There’s no such thing as bad weather… only the wrong clothes

March 28, 2021March 29, 2021Leave a comment

Yes to Life Interview – Spring Congress 2021 – Dawn Waldron and Robin Daly

Talk Description

Based on Billy Connolly’s insightful observation, Dawn and Robin will explore the idea that poor diet and lifestyle choices are the most important factor in fending off carcinogens. Referencing Michael Fenech’s work on the ’nutriome’ which shows that micronutrient deficiencies and macronutrient imbalances are major causes of genomic instability – one of the recognised hallmarks of cancer, rivalling the impact of X-rays. The discussion will look at how we can better protect ourselves against our toxic inner and outer world.

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How can we stress less about cancer?

November 24, 2020February 8, 2021Leave a comment

Stress plays a significant role in cancer, impacting key cancer pathways, inhibiting important health processes and promoting invasion and metastasis. We know that stress and cancer feed off each other in a most unhealthy way, but the experience of cancer is so inherently stressful it’s difficult to see how to separate the two.

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Using genes to prevent disease

October 11, 2020October 6, 2020Leave a comment

When the Human Genome Project was launched it was hoped that we would identify signature genes for each of the many types of cancer that would in turn lead to targeted treatments. By the time the project was wound up those hopes were dashed. Cancer mutations are diverse and confusing and have not led to the solutions we were hoping for. Cancer, it turns out, is a multifactorial disease that cannot be explained by a single gene.

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How does food affect your genes?

October 10, 2020October 6, 2020Leave a comment

In the previous post we looked at the way epigenetics influences the way your genes work and introduced the idea of ‘single nucleotide polymorphisms’ or SNPs which may help to explain how even people with a healthy diet and lifestyle can become ill. In this post we’ll take a closer look at how food can make a difference.

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Your genes are not your destiny

October 9, 2020October 6, 2020Leave a comment

It’s hard to convey just how much my heart was in my mouth when I first looked at my own genetic results in 2015. With my horrible health history I was worried that I would have a long list of genetic mutations that could lead to my early demise. So imagine how I felt when I clicked on the results and found…

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Changing the way your genes work

October 8, 2020February 8, 2021Leave a comment

Until fairly recently it was thought and taught that genetic outputs were irrevocably fixed. Which has led to a common perception that having unfavourable genes will lead to an unfavourable future. Luckily for us, that rather clunky early understanding has given way to a much more fluid and intelligent understanding of genetics and resulted in a new field of study called epigenetics.

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What do genes do?

October 7, 2020February 8, 2021Leave a comment

When we talk about genes we are normally referring to the protein coding genes (rather than the somewhat more mysterious non-coding genes). In the simplest terms, these genes contain the instructions for building a protein that controls the way your body works, using a two stage process called transcription and translation.

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Your genes = my genes

October 6, 2020October 6, 2020Leave a comment

In the second post in our mini-series leading up to my talk with Emma Beswick for Your Life and Cancer 2020 we look at how our genes differ from each other.

In fact they don’t! We all have the same gene set containing around 20000 genes and we all have the same genes in the same place (locus) on the same chromosomes, though boys have a bit missing.

Differences between people occur when they have another variant of the same gene.

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Getting into your Genes

October 5, 2020February 8, 2021Leave a comment

I’m thrilled to be part of the YOUR LIFE AND CANCER 2020 conference that has already provided so much hope and information to cancer patients all over the world. I was delighted to be invited to talk on one of my favourite topics, Nutrigenetics, along with one of my favourite colleagues, Emma Beswick, founder of Lifecode Gx.

When preparing for my talk the question that was going around in my head was: ‘What is the most important message that people need to understand about their genes?”

Easy…

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Nutritional therapy: protecting the parts Tamoxifen cannot reach

July 24, 2020July 25, 2020Leave a comment

If you are diagnosed with hormone receptor positive breast cancer before menopause you will most likely be prescribed Tamoxifen, a selective oestrogen receptor modulator (SERM) that has been shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence. The key benefit of this drug is that it protects hormone sensitive breast tissue and tumour cells from the effects of growth-promoting oestrogen – without completely suppressing oestrogen in the rest of the body. It’s a win-win!

There’s no doubt that Tamoxifen saves lives, but leaving oestrogen in circulation has been shown to increase the risk of other hormone-mediated cancers, and a proportion of women find that Tamoxifen adversely impacts their quality of life with increased pain, depression, headaches and mood changes – which can be severe. In my experience most women show tremendous courage in dealing with the balance of risks and benefits of breast cancer treatment and accept the downs with the ups. But in this case you don’t need to settle for the downside: nutritional therapy can help you mitigate the extra risk that Tamoxifen poses and minimise the mood and menopause effect that some women experience, without diminishing the benefits of the drug: a win-win-win!

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How to have a Happy New Year

January 1, 2017August 29, 2019Leave a comment

As I fell into bed after a very enjoyable celebration of New Year 2017 with some of my nearest and dearest, I read with despair that there had been another mass shooting with many lives lost. So the worries of 2016 have already infected 2017 and it’s not always easy to look on the bright side of life.

With that in mind, I ditched plans to write about how to make resolutions that stick, deciding it might be more helpful to share some nutrition and coaching ideas around how to stay upbeat when the world seems determined to drag you down.

Here are my suggestions: Continue reading →

Help when it gets complicated

October 26, 2016February 8, 2021Leave a comment

Honestly, I know a lot of people think I make my living by telling people to eat more broccoli and oily fish – and they know that already so they think they don’t need any help.

Well, to quote the wonderful Ben Goldacre, “I think you’ll find it’s a bit more complicated than that”.

I’ve spent the last couple of months with my head in the Cloud in an attempt to pin down some of the many, specific ways that diet and genes interact to change our risk for breast cancer and other diseases. I’ve learned a lot.

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Cancer and genes – have we got it wrong?

January 22, 2015February 8, 20211 Comment

This is such a great explanation of such an exciting understanding of the way cancer works, and the potential for containing it by paying attention to our health, that I’m simply going to repost the link so you can read it in situ.

http://healthinsightuk.org/2015/01/21/cancer-and-genes-have-we-got-it-badly-wrong/