Molecular Freedom

I have been struck lately with how deeply pervasive the idea of "molecular control" is within the biomedical research community. Go to any seminar given by a biomedical researcher, and you will hear about genetic control, transcriptional control, translational control, hormonal control, etc. You get the point. This is deeply troubling to me. Ever since the discovery of the structure of DNA and how it can encode for the proteins a given cell will make and use, the idea that DNA and other biological molecules "control" life has grown to a near certainty in the mind of most biologists. This is so absurd. As Bruce Lipton so clearly describes in his excellent book "The Biology of Belief", DNA simply codes for proteins. It is a blueprint, not a brain. A cell can actually live and function for quite some time without DNA. Furthermore, proteins are modified and manipulated completely independently of the nucleus (where the DNA is housed).  So, not only does the decision about which segments of DNA to express (i.e. turn into protein via processes called transcription and translation) lie outside the nucleus, but so also does the manipulation and modification of those proteins. As Bruce points out, the freedom to decide, i.e. cellular consciousness, can best be described as occuring at the level of the cell membrane. However, I would argue that decisions, or cellular consciousness, actually reside at every level of information transfer - i.e. that everything is alive and sharing information - from subatomic particles to the universe. If quantum entanglement is correct, and everything is connected, and life exists, then what part of this web is not alive?

But the main point I wish to make is that there is great freedom, not control, in how cell's make use of DNA and the protein's manufactured based on the DNA sequence. Furthermore, modifications of both DNA and proteins occur that are based on environmental information, not genetic information. These changes can even be inherited, and the general term epigenetics is applied to heritable changes that don't have anything to do with the DNA nucleotide sequence. Why is this important? Because the current thinking makes us all out to be victims or victors based on our DNA. As if our health, our physiological fate, is based primarily (if not solely in some people's minds) on our genetic inheritance. It ignores the fact that molecules, cells, tissues, ....organisms have great freedom of choice regarding what forms and functions they wish to take. Many proteins are extensively modified after being made from the DNA blueprint. Living systems are not controlled, they are free. It all depends on one's perspective.

Why is this important for us to understand on a personal level?  Simply put, nutrition and exercise have vastly greater impact on our health than our genes. And I believe it is much more empowering to know you have freedom to choose, rather than believe everything else in life controls you.