It took a second for her to sort things out.
As PJ's elevator opened, the elevator directly across the way also opened. The other one was empty.
Its back wall was a mirror.
I can laugh with her at this story not only because she told it on herself but also since I easily could have been in her shoes. Or elevator.
Now, there's nothing wrong with looking like our mother. In fact, I feel rather comforted by it. Up to a point.
Contrary to what many people believe, however, we're not necessarily destined to look like our parents.
Some months ago, in paraphrasing a personal trainer offering advice to a woman with some stubborn pounds to lose, I wrote, "There's no escaping genetics." Upon reading this, medical geneticist Dr. Gail Jarvik called and left me a phone message: "That's not true!"
That misperception is widespread, said Jarvik, when we connected several voice mails later. Genetic testing and family history may help predict our risk of disease, but they don't ensure it. "We are not necessarily going to look like our parents," she says. "It's a shuffle of our genes."
With ongoing advances in genetics — or genomics, as it's increasingly called — helping identify which genes are associated with specific diseases, many people also believe not only that we will soon be able to know our medical destiny, but that we can't do anything about it.
"That really aggravates some medical geneticists," says Jarvik, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington's Division of Medical Genetics.
Such misperception of genetics sounds — strange as this might seem at first — like the common use of the Sanskrit term "karma," often defined as "the law of cause and effect." Both karma and genetics are frequently used to refer to fate, something predestined. But "karma provides the situation, not the response to the situation," according my "Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen." Further, under "karma" in another book by the same publisher: " . . . future conditions depend on what we do in the present."
Substitute "genetics" for "karma" and we're back to Jarvik's point: The great potential in genomics lies not in the results of detailed genetic testing, but in what we do with that information.
"You need to work to escape your genetics," she says.
Jarvik counsels people who have had genetic testing, trying to tailor messages to the individual. Often, however, people who expect to hear about their cancer risk learn they're more likely to die from heart disease. Jarvik says most patients already know they could lower that risk by losing some weight.
"There's no escaping the 'Eat less and exercise' part," Jarvik says.
But each person has to find her or his own motivation.
Smokers are notorious for saying they can't quit, Jarvik says, yet many people do give it up after they get lung cancer. "It turns out they could quit."
Obesity "clearly has a strong genetic component, " she says, but that tendency can be challenged. So can body shape.
"There's no question that the weight distribution people have is inherent to them," she adds. But whether I'm more pear-shaped or apple-shaped, if I lose weight, I'll lose some of that distinctive form.
Jarvik knows such changes often aren't easy. "It's like anything in life. If you're not a good reader, you don't stop reading, you work harder at it. We do that with medicines: If we tried this one and it didn't work, we don't say, 'Medicines don't work for you' — we try something else.
"Just because your best friend runs three miles a day doesn't mean jogging is right for you. If I tried jogging and fail, I don't think, 'I wasn't meant for exercise.' I say, 'Now I'm going to try tae kwon do.' "
As for me, if I can't blame genetics (not to mention karma), I guess I'm left with that "eat less and exercise" part. And at least one way to check how I'm doing.
When the elevator doors open, what do I see?
More vigorous is better
Moderate exercise helps lower the risk of deaths from cancer, but vigorous exercise lowers it even more, according to a study in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. Researchers in Dallas followed more than 25,000 men for an average of 10 years, and found those most fit (equated with folks who were recreationally competitive) had a 55 percent lower risk of death from all cancers than did low-fit men. The moderately fit, equated with those who ran 20 to 40 minutes, three to five times a week, had a 38 percent lower risk.
Fuel up
Functional Fuel is a new casual restaurant that looks over Harbor Steps in downtown Seattle and offers dishes designed for different diet and activities: work (action or thought), sport (stamina or strength) and play (leisure or growth). Good Fortune Greens and Beans, for stamina, features 50 percent of calories from carbohydrates; The Garbanzo Challenge, for thought, has more than 15 percent protein. All menu items have less than 35 percent of calories from fat. Open daily, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. (1303 First Ave.; 206-322-2111; www.functionalfuel.com).
Skating to the top
TrailSkate, the new inline skates made by Richland, Wash., company GateSkate, was named 2002 Sports Edge Product of the Year by the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association and The Super Show sports trade show. Featuring hand-operated hydraulic brakes, 8-inch pneumatic tires and an adjustable binding system that fits over regular shoes, TrailSkate has been called the mountain bike of inline skating. For more information: www.gateskate.com
Molly Martin is assistant editor of Pacific Northwest magazine. She can be reached at 206-464-8243, mmartin@seattletimes.com or P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111.
