Dr. Nicole LePera

This is how we are as leperas.

We're always like this.

And so my hope is to counter, not only with the possibility of change in any moment, to maybe even wonder if maybe we've just become who we needed to be, maybe to question that running narrative that it might not just be because genetically we're all just like this.

It might be because we've shared the same environment or we've came from the same ancestors whose stress systems had to adapt in the same way, becoming so hypervigilant because they were under overwhelming stress or trauma.

And now we all share the same coping mechanism.

Is that right?

Epigenetics, kind of shifting science into that awareness that we are beyond just the DNA that doesn't control us.

The entirety of our experience, but it's again how those genes are expressed or not.

And so through different mechanisms like methylation, certain genes, particularly around our stress response system, can again really simply turn on or off and impact us.

So I'll use an example that I actually used in the book to maybe visualize this.

There was a very fascinating study.

It happened in the Netherlands some years ago when a community of people were experiencing such a severe famine that they at times were relying on literally sawdust to make bread.

They had no nutrients, no calories.

And they studied women who were pregnant at this time and realized

What they found was that even once, so this person's body, to understand the science behind it, when food was unpredictable or scarce, they were in a famine, so they didn't know when they were going to get the next dose of food or if there was going to be any nutrients in it.

The beautiful thing that a body does is it will change certain systems.

Again, I'm going to simplify it.

It will hold on to fat, right?

It'll use energy in a different way.

Because it will be preparing for the expectation of continued food insecurity, uncertainty or scarcity.