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["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT gmail.com>]

On Sat, Nov 29, 2008 at 8:33 AM,  <Clansgian AT wmconnect.com> wrote:
>
> What is already beyond speculation and mysticism is that when people acts a
> certain way, adopts certain habits, their genetic makeup does indeed 
> changes.
> It is  only by taking a strict and uncalled for mechanisitic view of the 
> human
> that we exclude attitude and mental state from that list.
>
Well, no. From the NYT article what I gathered is that genes change as
time passes. Unless the study itself correlated mental state and
attitude with the changes (and the changes did harm or good, depending
on the person's mental state), then I don't see that at all.

Even the wide belief that cancer survivors with a positive mental
outlook recover better than those not so positive haven't held up when
examined closely -- but I'm sure the ones with the PMO are more
cheerful and get more out of their remaining time on earth.

Marie