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This column is about the fifth of Dr. William Li\u2019s five body defense mechanisms, from his book \u201cEat to Beat Disease, The New Science of How Your Body Can Heal Itself.\u201d The human body contains some 37 trillion cells. Each cell contains 46 chromosomes, made up of two strands of bunched-up DNA, in the form of a double helix. Three percent of DNA makes up our genes, and the other 97 percent serves as a template to make the 10,000 proteins that are necessary for life.<\/p>\n
Your DNA gets more than 10,000 DNA-damaging hits every day, some of which are spontaneous due to chance \u201cwhen trillions of cells are working and replicating nonstop\u2026\u201d Others are caused by factors noted in the paragraph below. If these genetic hits occur to a man\u2019s sperm or a woman\u2019s ovum (\u201cegg\u201d), abnormalities in progeny can occur. DNA damage to non-reproductive cells is linked to several diseases, including Alzheimer\u2019s, atherosclerosis, autism, all types of cancer, depression, diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, Parkinson\u2019s, PTSD, rheumatoid arthritis, schizophrenia and lupus.<\/p>\n
The following are some of the factors that can damage DNA: age, inflammation, free radicals (oxidation), infection (e.g. liver and cervical cancer result from viral infections), ultraviolet radiation from the sun, radiation from medical imaging, radon from the ground, tobacco smoke, air pollution, toxic chemicals in our environment, and emotional stress. Dr. Li notes that \u201cour cells have evolved with powerful repair processes. \u2026 This prevents the vast majority of abnormalities that might develop in our DNA from being passed on when DNA replicates itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anti-oxidants in food (but not in supplement form) destroy free radicals, which helps prevent DNA damage, but doesn\u2019t repair it once it occurs. One way damaged DNA gets repaired is through enzymes that recognize abnormalities and replaces them with normal parts. Due to DNA repair enzymes, \u201cfewer than one of every one thousand errors introduced to our DNA are estimated to become permanent mutations\u2026\u201d If there is too much damage to fix, cell self-destruction occurs, called apoptosis.<\/p>\n
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