Epigenetics - Going Beyond Genetics with Dr. Jennifer Stagg

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Sweet Ray Ban Meta glasses available at Ray Ban stores and other authorized retailers. Hey, it's JJ Virgin. And welcome to the JJ Virgin Lifestyle show where I give you the latest cutting edge intel to help you look, feel and think better. And boy, there's nothing more cutting edge than talking about genetics and epigenetics, which sounds like it's super complicated. But we're going to break it down today with Dr. Jennifer Stagg, who is a naturopathic physician and owner of Whole Health Wellness center in Connecticut. Now, here's what's super cool and who knew? As we were talking offline, we discovered that we are both huge fans of a specific genetic test that you're going to hear about today that tells you the type of diet you should be eating, what type of exercise works best for you. And then we'll dive into beyond genetics, epigenetics and things that you can do that will make the difference between like flipping the bad switches in your genes that can create problems to flipping the good switches and then also how past traumas, yours, your mother's can impact you today. So, I mean, just like so much cool stuff, I am so excited to share Dr. Jen Stagg with you. So let me tell you a little bit about her. She's the author of Unzip youp Jeans. You want to grab this book over at Amazon. She's a practicing naturopathic physician and the founder and medical director of Whole Health Wellness center in Connecticut. She's a speaker and a medical contributor on NBC, ABC and CBS. So again, today's guest is Dr. Jenn Stagg. All right, let's do it. Dr. Jen Stagg, welcome to the show. I'm so glad you're here with me today.

Oh, thanks for having me.

Oh, well, it's such a cool topic. And to find someone who's been actively using a test I'm in love with and really looking at the genetics behind weight loss. I know you do so much more than that. But, you know, I'm kind of obsessed with weight loss and all of those things that can get in the way of you losing weight or cause you to gain weight. And so few people are talking about that. Your Genes could be making you fat.

Yes, so true. And you know, I've always been fascinated in this area and then a couple of years ago I got wind of these new genomic wellness based testing and so I started incorporating in my practice and saw such fantastic results that I really use it a lot with my patients now. And you know, patients who come in and they're following various different diets and they've been working for them and then they kind of plateau. Genetic testing can really open up a whole realm of reasons why what their dietary plan is currently might not be working for them. And it just may be some simple little tweaking to get them back on the road to seeing better results.

You know, it also just kind of calms you down. When I first found this and we were talking offline and I just, it's so exciting that this test that I, I met the founder CEO of Pathway years ago and actually took that test. I was the first person took it out and started lecturing on it out there. And I was like, oh my gosh, this changes everything, is the game changer. And, and just in the way that once you know these things, it almost makes you go. At first I thought someone's going to see that they have a genetic predisposition to obesity and they'll just give up. And actually it was just the opposite. They went, oh my gosh, like that. This explains so many things. And you know, for some people it's like you just don't have the margin for error that other people do. So let's dive in first and talk about, you know, how genetic testing works.

Sure. So genetic testing is really simple. First of all, it's just a simple saliva test. So people are just basically spitting in a tube, sending their results, sending their sample in, and then we get a huge report that details everything from eating behaviors to how they may be utilizing or possibly deficient in nutrients to things like obesity genes. But most importantly, it gives us genetic matching diet. So basically a DNA appropriate diet that dictates the macros that you should be consuming on a daily basis and also even tells you what types of fats you should really be eating, what your super fats are. And it gives this actionable data which is what's critical about it.

Yeah, I was so excited when I first saw it to see things like your best type of exercise. And again, we tend to be, okay, now we're on the zone, now we're keto. I'm like going, wait a minute, wow. You know, to really get clear on where should I fall in that macronutrient scale and what works best for me? And I remember I had one guy who, just like you said, it was client. He'd hit a plateau, and we found out that he really actually needed to be eating more carbohydrates than he was eating. And that little shift changed everything for him. Yeah.

So it's free. I mean, I find it to be really an exciting tool as a practitioner, because it gets us where we need to be quickly instead of trial and error. And then the other thing I would say about it is, especially when we look at some of the eating behaviors for especially women who have been struggling all their lives and blaming themselves, that it gives them some relief that I've even had women crying in my office of feeling like, finally, oh, my God, I don't need to carry around this guilt and shame about the way I wire towards food.

Let's talk about some of the things that you can find out when you kind of peek into this. Pull back the kimono. What can you find. Find out, and what's actionable in this?

Yep. So with the exercise piece, there are a number of key markers in there that tells us how important it will be for that patient in terms of an exercise program. So obviously, everyone will get results with cardio. Some people, though, cardio is really highly dependent for fat loss, and so we can find that. And so we really need to push those patients to up their cardio program. There are. There's a very small proportion of the population that actually can have a gene that can impact their results if they overdo it on strength training, on weights. It's quite uncommon. But I have found it in a number of female patients that have noticed they really, like, don't get defined muscle, and they're really hitting it hard at the gym, and we need to scale them back and put them on a more balanced program. So that exercise piece is fascinating piece of the puzzle.

Yeah. That was interesting for me as an exercise physiologist, because I'd gone through all the exercise fads in college and grad school and kind of found the one that worked for me and then did the genetics went, oh, well. That could have saved a lot of, you know, a lot of hours. And I think that's so. But, you know, the bigger part of this that seems super exciting is the field of epigenetics.

Yes.

So let's talk. Let's define that, because whenever we use big words, I'm like, you know, people usually don't want to say what the heck is that? What the heck is that, Jen?

Yeah, so that's kind of like the second phase of it. So first the genetics is learning what your DNA can tell us about what you should be doing. The epigenetics is how we are interacting with our environment. Everything from food to stress to exercise. And so we can impact some genes that basically can get turned on even after a single workout or for some people, like consuming green tea and the effects of stress and sleep. And of course, you know all about this mindset, how that impacts your DNA. Even if it looks like, you know, you have good genes, things could be really falling apart for you because of how you're living.

Yeah. And what's great there is it really helps you realize that your genes don't have to be your destiny. That while they're there you're gonna, you know, they load the gun. I always love Jeff Bland saying, you know, your genes, you know, your genes don't have to be your destiny, they load the gun. But your lifestyle, your environment is what fires it. And I know you talk about this in Unzip youp Genes, right? The book.

Yeah, yeah. I spend a lot of like the first section is all about genetics. The second is about epigenetics and the impact your body is having by, you know, daily, your daily living. Like how your day looks from day to day, how you're dealing with stress, what foods you choose to fuel your body with. When you look at food as medicine, it gives you a totally different perspective.

So I know you have a program in your book, the Precision Health Program in Unzip your Genes. What are some of the key things that you found that you know, you can just say, hey, these things will make a difference no matter what. These are just key health behaviors that we might not have thought of before.

Yeah. So I definitely spend a good amount of time talking about superfoods. And these don't necessarily have to be foods from, you know, the Amazon. These are often foods that you are exposed to, you know, every day. That making choices in terms of choosing green tea instead of obviously soda, like that's a no brainer. But incorporating these different types of superfoods, garlic, onions, herbs and spices, those are all going to have an impact on your DNA. The other big component I see with especially my population base is stress. So it's such a key piece of the equation. You really have to, I see women that are doing everything right, their diet is immaculate, they're exercising, but stress is really what's getting them. And if you don't have all three of those pieces put together. You're just not going to see the results that you need. So you need to be. You know, we do a lot of counseling around mindset and sleep hygiene. You know, we're chronically sleep deprived and those are probably the number one reasons that I see people presenting in my office.

Yeah, it is interesting. I just literally got off of Facebook Live on this where I was saying, you know, you can be doing everything else right, you can be eating correctly, you can be exercising, but if you've got stress going on and you are not handling it because it's really about learning the strategy. We're going to all have stress and it's really the perception of it and what we do to handle it. And there's so many things that we can do out there. What are some of your favorite ways that you use to handle stress?

Yeah, so I like same thing. People cannot necessarily get rid of the stressors, but they can change how their body is responding to stress. So one thing I often tell patients is to go obviously go to bed at a good time, typically between 10 and 11pm but before you fall asleep, run through your day. This is what I call a subconscious greeting. So, so you run through your day and pick out three times in the day where you felt the best. So you know, really target that emotional response. Three times you felt the best during the day. Instead of running through your day thinking about what went wrong, so now you're thinking what went right on a heart emotional level. And that will get your mind set in a place where your sleep quality is going to be vastly improved.

Now this is super fascinating and by the way, I love hearing that because I have a little, I have a little challenge I teach people to do. It's called my, I call it my jam but it's for G A M and it's gratitude in the morning. Send some appreciation to someone during the day and figure out your little wins, your little miracles at night, what went well today. So it sounds like we are so, you know, so in sync with. So now this is really, really interesting. And I think about this. When I was pregnant, so when I was pregnant with my son Grant, who was the one who was hit in the, by the car and was the victim of a hit and run and he'd had a very, you know, just was one of those kids who, who was tough to settle as a baby. Early diagnosis bipolar disorder. And I, when I was pregnant with him and I've beaten myself up enough about this so I'm like, done beat myself up. I've already forgiven. But I was so stressed. And you talk about how memories may be passed along through generations. I don't know if the cortisol response during my pregnancy was. Is really what you're talking about there. But how can, like, you know, some of these traumas, do they affect future generations? What's the story there?

Yeah, so it is. That is true. That core, a lot of it does relate to cortisol. So even during a pregnancy, cortisol levels can impact DNA expression in offspring. That was first observed in animal models and then it has been, you know, replicated in human studies. So we do know that. Even more profound, I would say, is the understanding now that this trauma in terms of emotional and even physical stressors. So we can look at people generations back who have went through famine, so the Dutch famine, even Holocaust survivors. We can see generations two and three generations later, basically kind of what we call an epigenetic fingerprint of the impact that trauma has had on their DNA. So again, we're not necessarily talking about the DNA code itself. We're talking about little chemical messages that get added onto the DNA which will affect your health later in life. Things, everything from cardiovascular disease to mood disorders.

So super key to go through, heal from past traumas because you can, in your own life, deal with your stress. You know, I remember, gosh, years ago I was asked to create this. It was a, you know, pregnancy preparedness. And as I started that, I went, oh, it really needs to be preconception preparedness. Oh, it really. And I started going down this rabbit hole of, oh, my gosh, there's so many things you need to really work through with this being another big one that we can do. But, Phil, at any point that you do these things, otherwise your body's a history book. You carry it with you. And now the curveball question, Jen.

So.

For you, what's the one thing you do every day that makes the biggest difference in your life?

I think, no doubt, like, I always, you know, I was always a passionate learner about science and nutrition and exercise. But as I've aged, having children, no doubt the most critical piece of health has to do with mindset and having a guiding principle of appreciation for what's going right in your life and not looking back, not always looking forward, being present. Know that that's the most important thing that makes a difference for how you are living, how you feel. Absolutely. It's just the way that you think about your day. That whole mindset is Definitely. What. What guides me every day.

I love that. And I swear, I promise everybody I did not. I was like, when you're saying all of all of the things that are so most important to me and I just met you, how perfect is this? It's like we're soul sisters over here. You have a website? It is. Let's see what. What is your Drstag.com. all right, let me spell that for everybody because it's got two GS. So it's-R S-T-A G G.com and a great book out. You definitely want to get Unzip youp Jeans. And I would imagine it's available everywhere and especially easy to grab on Amazon. So unzip your jeans. Because just like you were talking, there are amazing things that start to happen when you start to both pay attention to your jeans and then also pay attention to how your lifestyle is impacting your genes. And I know that people can grab that test we were talking about. That's the coolest test ever. The Pathway Fit through you. So they can find out about that at your website, Drstag.com.

Yep. So you can get it through my practice at a reduced rate. And then we do offer telehealth consulting. So even not necessarily being a patient here at our office in Connecticut, we can do health coaching for people out of state.

Awesome. That's fantastic. So Drstag.com you can jump in and grab that test. It is honestly one of the coolest tests. It tells you, you know, what your diet should really look at, what's your macronutrient ratios, what's best for you, what's going on with your vitamin D? What's going on with your exercise? Are you. We actually used it, Jen, on. When I was on TLC's Freaky Eater show, I ran everyone through the pathway fit test because we had these people who were super tasters or had, you know, a sweet tooth or a sweet taster, and we found out all this crazy stuff just about our tastes that we were then able to work with.

Oh, that's so cool.

Yeah, it is super cool. So, you know, who knew we had all these things in common? It's so awesome. All right, thank you so much for joining me. Now, after the break, I'm going to be answering a listener's questions, so stay with me.

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Welcome back. This is the time where I answer a listener's question. And today's question showed up on my Facebook Live. And again, what I love to do is I quite often record my face, my podcast. And what I've been doing is a podcast with a guest once a week in a podcast with me as the guest interviewing me once a week. And so what I do when I'm doing mine is I jump on Facebook Live and get a load of questions. And actually, one of the questions that came up was so appropriate for this one that I'm using it here. And it's from, it is from, oh, gosh, now I lost it. It's from Jeanette. And Jeanette asked, she says, my health is so overwhelming. Can you tell me where to start?

Now.

In the absence of being able to do a genetic test and you know, I look forward to the day when we are born and we just have all the, all of our genetic profile run and then we know all these things about ourselves, so we're not playing the guessing game all the way along, but the fastest way really to change your health. And I've built mindset in, we talked a lot about mindset on this podcast today. I built mindset into every single one of my programs, course in my miracle Mindset Academy, but also in the Virgin Diet book, in the Sugar Impact diet and the miracle mindset. And because you've got to have your big purpose, your big why. First, to push you through when the lifestyle changes that we're going to have you do, which are simple but not easy, might get a little struggling. So first step, of course, is going, all right, I'm here now. Where do I want to be and why? What are those changes going to do for me? How's that going to impact my life? Then get started and I'm going to advise you, just get started with either the Sugar Impact diet or the virgin diet. The most important thing is to start now. If you've got autoimmune disease, if you've got gut problems, if you've got joint pain, grab the virgin diet as your starting point. If you've got sugar cravings, chronic yeast diabetes, insulin resistance, heart issues, heart disease issues, start with the Sugar Impact Diet. In reality, you could go start with either one because I'm going to want you to do both. But just get started because the fastest way that you can start to change things is to change what's at the end of your fork. So I'm going to have you start with one of those diets. And of course, in all of them, I talk about mindset, finding your purpose, being grateful, all of those things. Because as you heard today, those make a big shift your genetics and you could be doing everything right. But if you don't have the mindset dialed, you'll get, you'll be a challenge. Now, you can have your mindset dialed, but if you're drinking a bunch of soda and living on fast food, you're not going to be healthy. So these, it's. It's mindset, exercise, diet, they've all got to come together here. So let's start that shift in the diet. Now, we've mentioned mindset. Mindset, mindset and appreciation and gratitude. And so you know how important these things are to me. And so one of the things that I do every week on the show is I read one of the reviews that we get on our itunes page. And I got to tell you, we love these so much. So big thanks. The things that give us so much, you know, they basically feed us the whole team is when is the comments we see on our Facebook official page and then the reviews that we see left on Amazon for the books and the products and the reviews that we see that we get on itunes. So I super duper, duper appreciate it. We are always, always reading these. All of us, the whole team. It's how we get our grades. So we super appreciate you. All right, this one is from. Oh, from Lisa Shank. Thank you, Lisa Shank. Super appreciate you. And Lisa says five stars, by the way. One can always count on JJ to provide great consumable information. Powered by comp, by passion, commitment, and efficacy. Thanks for all that and thank you, Lisa. I super appreciate that. Now, thank you all for joining me today and just want to remind you to take courageous, inspired action, you know, because each time you do, you build resilience. You tell your body, I can do this. And that allows you to show up bigger in your life. And when you really think about it, it's really about how you show up that makes a difference in life. So I'm just going to leave you with this one question. How do you want to show up in your life? All right, until next time, this is JJ Virgin signing off. Have a awesome week. Bye Bye.

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