Rick Raw: Talk To Your Genes–Dr. Deepak Chopra Says

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net

In a CNN article, Dr. Deepak Chopra says you should talk to your genes (not "jeans" silly) to switch them on to benefit every cell in your body. Right! Chopra is, like Dr. Phil, a media commentator and health preacher to the stars.

The diet-lifestyle guru says that research by Dr. Dean Omish and his colleagues has shown that adopting positive measures, including exercise, meditation, and diet creates beneficial changes in five hundred genes. Yeah, a shot of Jack Daniels wakes up my genes.

Dr. Chopra believes that the best thing we can do for our own health care is to eat and live a healthy lifestyle. Okay, fair enough. But this gene thing is in the realm of medical tomfoolery. We’re supposed to sit in meditation talking to our genes? Hello, genes, are you there? If so, wake up and smell the coffee and make me as rich and cool as Dr. Chopra.

"This single finding could revolutionize our health, because what it means is that every bite of food you eat, every step on the treadmill, every moment of deep relaxation is talking to your genes," he says.

In other words, by this mind meld of abstract conversation with our genes, we can awaken a higher energy within our consciousness. Basically, Dr. Chopra believes in one’s spiritual well being is connected to one’s physical well being.

Indeed, the good doctor has touched on a medication technique similar to Zen Buddhism. But Dr. Chopra frames his message in a more pragmatic way of reaching altered states of consciousness, without psychedelic drugs or attending the Burning Man Festival. .

By talking to one’s genes, Dr. Chopra is saying, in effect, that one is balancing one’s "chi," a term used by acupuncturists referring to the body’s energy field. He speaks of genes like they are nano-engines inside our bodies that are "alert, and when you change anything in your life, they respond."

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Have you ever noticed that these media gurus like Dr. Phil and Dr. Chopra are not necessarily the picture of health. In contrast, CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta is a fine physical specimen and a brilliant doctor. He seems to be omnipresent on television while he’s writing books, traveling the globe making documentaries, and practicing as a neurosurgeon. Does this guy ever sleep? But he looks so healthy.

All these media mavens and talking heads giving us advice on our health get tedious and annoying. Yet, everyone is trying to find the right way to live a long productive life. I say enjoy life and its vices in moderation.

John Lennon said "whatever gets you through the day is okay." I subscribe to that advice. Lennon may have lived long and prospered but some psychotic jerk, Mark David Chapman took him out at the prime fo his life. So whatever he didn’t do to take care of himself didn’t matter. He died when Chapman fired four hollow-point .38 caliber bullets ripping into his body.

Thus, one may live like a Tibetan monk avoiding the pitfalls of life, but my philosophy is to plunge into the deep end, using one’s talents and abilities. There is no evidence that living according to Dr. Chopra’s advice will extend one’s life. George Burns lived to a hundred smoking 15 cigars a day and drinking whiskey. I think it’s more important to feel joy in giving and receiving love and gaining satisfaction from one’s chosen profession than worrying about talking to one’s genes.