MBR_ISSUE 47_JAN_LR

Malta Business Review
DEBATE
You Are Not a Robotic Machine, and Here’s Why
By Deepak Chopra, MD, Rudolph E. Tanzi, PhD, and P. Murali Doraiswamy, MBBS
Deepak Chopra MD (official) Influencer
There's a disturbing trend in science to try
and prove that human beings are machines,
and where this was once a metaphor, it is
being taken more and more literally. We are
told that a brain hormone is responsible
for falling in love or a mother's affection for
her newborn baby. Brain areas that light up
on an fMRI scan supposedly indicate that
a person is depressed or prone to criminal
behavior and much else. Besides being brain
puppets, we are supposed to believe that
our genes program us in powerful ways, to
the point that "bad" genes doom a person
to a host of problems from schizophrenia to
Alzheimer's.
There needs to be a clear rebuff of this
notion that human beings are mechanisms,
and the fact that science has a wealth of
findings about both genes and the brain
doesn't make the notion any more valid. The
general public isn't aware, for example, that
only 5% of disease-related genetic mutations
are fully penetrant, which means that having
the mutation will definitely cause a given
problem. The other 95% of genes raise risk
factors and in complex ways interact with
other genes.
The public is still stuck on a misconception
that a single gene like "the gay gene" or
"the selfishness gene" exists and creates an
irresistible tendency. This misconception
was obliterated in genetics when the human
genome was mapped. The current picture
of DNA is almost the opposite of the public's
wrong image. DNA isn't fixed; it is fluid and
dynamic, interacting with the outside world,
a person's thoughts, and behavior, and
various mechanisms in the cell that regulate
how much activity a gene will express.
The notion that your genes run your life is
ingrained even among educated people,
so it is eye-opening to review a recent
experiment just published in the Dec. 10
issue of Nature: Human Behavior (the
abstract can be read here ). Experimenters at
the psychology department of Stanford took
two groups of subjects and tested them for
two genes, one associated with higher risk of
becoming obese, the other with higher risk
of performing badly in physical exercise.
To keep the story brief, I'll focus on the
obesity gene. The subjects ate a meal and
afterwards were asked how full they felt; in
addition, their blood was tested for levels
of leptin, the hormone associated with
feeling full after a meal. The results were
about the same for people genetically prone
to obesity as those who weren't. The next
week the same group returned and ate
the same meal, but with a difference. Half
the group was told that they had the gene
that protects someone from risk for obesity
while the other group was told they had the
higher risk version of the gene.
To the surprise of researchers there was an
immediate and dramatic effect. Simply by
being told that they had the protective gene,
subjects showed a blood level of leptin two
and a half times higher than before. The
group that was told they didn't have the
protective gene didn't change from their
earlier results. What this result indicated
is that simply being told of a genetic risk
causes people to exhibit the physiology
associated with the risk. What they believed
to be true overrode their actual genetic
predisposition, because in some cases the
people who thought they were genetically
protected, or vice versa, actually weren't.
The same dramatic results occurred in the
exercise experiment. People who were
told that they had a gene that produced
poor results from exercise displayed the
cardiovascular and respiratory signs that
such a gene is supposed to produce, even
though they didn't have the gene.
If your physiology produces genetic effects
simply by hearing that you have a certain
gene, the myth of genes controlling our lives
is seriously challenged. It’s not that genetic
programming is irrelevant (for the full
picture, refer to the book Super Genes that
Deepak co-wrote with Harvard geneticist
Rudy Tanzi), the reality is as complex as
human life itself. Genes belong to the host
of causes and influences that affect us. How
strongly they affect any given person is
impossible to predict (leaving aside the small
percentage of fully penetrant genes), and in
every area of behavior and health there is
wwide latitude for personal choice.
Given a simple either/or choice, see yourself
as a free agent capable of conscious change
rather than a robot machine run by genes
and brain cells. Life is rarely as simple as
either/or, which is true here as well. But
despite the public image fostered by popular
science articles, it's not true that a human
being is a machine run by fixed mechanical
processes beyond our control. Far closer to
the truth is the view that we are conscious
agents whose potential for creativity and
change is unlimited.
Editor’s Notes
Deepak Chopra MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra
Foundation and co-founder of The Chopra Center
for Wellbeing, is a world-renowned pioneer in
integrative medicine and personal transformation,
and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine,
Endocrinology and Metabolism. He is a Fellow
of the American College of Physicians and a
member of the American Association of Clinical
Endocrinologists. Chopra is the author of more
than 85 books translated into over 43 languages,
including numerous New York Times bestsellers.
His latest books are The Healing Self co-authored
with Rudy Tanzi, Ph.D. and Quantum Healing
(Revised and Updated): Exploring the Frontiers of
Mind/Body Medicine. www.deepakchopra.com
Rudolph E. Tanzi, Ph.D. is the Joseph P. and Rose
F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology at Harvard
University and Vice Chair of Neurology at Mass.
General Hospital. Dr. Tanzi is the co-author with
Deepak Chopra of the New York Times bestseller,
Super Brain, and an internationally acclaimed
expert on Alzheimer disease. He was included
in TIME Magazine's "TIME 100 Most Influential
People in the World"
P. Murali Doraiswamy MBBS, FRCP is a leading
physician and brain scientist at Duke University
Health System where he is a Professor of
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, as well as a
member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences.
Murali is also a member of the Duke Center for
the Study of Aging and Human Development
and an affiliate of the Duke Center for Applied
Genomics and Precision Medicine. He is an
advisor to leading businesses, advocacy groups
and government agencies, and serves as the
Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global
Future Council on Neurotechnology. MBR
Credit: LinkedIn
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