Page 3 - How Do People Develop Autoimmune Diseases

position to clean up your swimming pool, clean up your genetics, and really turn around the
autoimmune problem to ultimately rein in autoimmune system imbalance. What we call
immunomodulation, which is far superior to immunosuppression.”

How small lifestyle changes can have a bigger than expected impact
Two smaller studies came out that suggested that meditation (changing the terrain) can help to
clean up genes. When professors at Harvard University heard about these studies, they felt that
meditation improving gene expression was extremely interesting, and they wanted to conduct a
flawless study with as close to 100 percent accurate and useable data as possible.

They tasked one of their best researchers to head up this study, who brought together a large
group of people that had regularly been doing relaxation exercises between three and 29 years.
The forms of relaxation were defined as:

• Deep breathing
• Meditation
• Repetitive prayer
• Tai chi
• Visual imagery
• Yoga

The researcher then found another group of people who had never done any of those forms of
relaxation.

Before the study started, they tested the genes of everyone in both groups. What they found was
that 2,209 genes were expressed differently in the population that had been regularly doing
relaxation exercises compared to the group that had never been doing any form of relaxation.

Next, they taught the group that had never been using any form of relaxation, how to relax. This
group was asked to use the newly learned relaxation exercises 30 minutes a day, five times a
week, for eight weeks.

After the eight-week trial period, the genes from the group that had been taught how to use
relaxation exercises were retested. They discovered that of the 2,209 genes that were different
between the two groups before the study, 443 of the genes had switched to be the same between
the two groups.

The researchers discovered that the chemicals released by these 500 genes are the ones that keep
away inflammation, which is what drives all chronic diseases. It just depends where the
inflammation is.

If the inflammation is in the joints, someone will get painful joints. If it’s in the muscles, painful
muscles. If it’s in the brain, thinking will not be clear. If it’s in the blood vessels or the heart,
heart attacks can occur, or a stroke can occur. Wherever that inflammation is, that’s where a
chronic disease can exist.