Epigenetics - The Death of the Genetic Theory of Disease Transmission

About the Authors

Joel Wallach, BS, DVM, ND

Dr. Wallach has been involved with biomedical research for more than fifty years. He received his bachelor of science degree in agriculture in 1962 from the University of Missouri with a major in animal husbandry (nutrition) and a minor in field crops and soil physiology. In 1964 Dr. Wallach received a DVM, a doctorate in veterinary medicine, from the University of Missouri. He was a pathologist and instructor for the Iowa State Diagnostic Laboratory and Instructor (Pathology) for the Department of Pathology, Iowa State University (Department of Veterinary Pathology) in 1964/65, and then received a post-doctoral fellowship from the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems (comparative pathology and comparative medicine) at Washington University, St. Louis Zoological Garden and Shaws Botanical Gardens in St. Louis, in 1967. He continued his veterinary and research work at the Yerkes Primate Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, from 1977–1978.

He then studied naturopathic medicine, receiving an ND (a doctorate to practice medicine as a naturopathic physician) from the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon, in 1982, and attained the rank of Lt. Colonel in the US Air Force/Air National Guard and Air Force Reserves (MOS: nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare; NBC: veterinary and human medicine).

Dr. Wallach’s research has resulted in the publication of more than 75 peer-reviewed and refereed articles in veterinary journals, human medical and biochemistry journals, and pathology journals. He has contributed chapters to eight multi-author textbooks and his signature primary authorship of a 1,200 page text/reference (NIH sponsored research) on the subject of comparative medicine and pathology (The Diseases of Exotic Animals: W. B. Saunders Publishing Co., 1983.) This text is featured by the Smithsonian Institute as a “National Treasure.”

Dr. Wallach has held teaching, pathology service, and research appointments at the graduate level in human and animal anatomy, nutrition, and pathology at the University of Missouri, Iowa State University, Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center (Emory University, Atlanta, GA), the University of Tennessee, the National College of Naturopathic Medicine, Portland, Oregon and Harbin Medical University (Peoples Republic of China).

Dr. Wallach was Project Veterinarian and Capture Officer for the Natal Parks and Game Service (Umfolozi and Hluhlue Game Parks) for Operation Rhino (Rescue/Conservation project for the white rhino), Republic of South Africa and Operation Elephant (conservation project for the African elephant) for Wankie Game Reserve, Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).

Dr. Wallach’s research in comparative medicine and pathology is based on more than 17,500 autopsy cases on 454 species of animals from zoos and African Game Parks (Natal Fish & Game Department, Natal, Republic of South Africa) and more than 4,700 humans (including 1,700 children under ten years old) through the University of Missouri, Iowa State University, the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems, Washington University (St. Louis), the St. Louis Zoological Gardens; the Chicago Zoological Gardens (Brookfield, IL), the Lincoln Park Zoo (Chicago, IL), the Shedd Aquarium (Chicago, IL), Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center, Emory University, (Atlanta, GA), the University of Tennessee (Memphis, TN), The Memphis Zoo (Memphis, TN), the Jacksonville, Zoo (Jacksonville, FL), the Detroit Zoo (Detroit, MI), the National Zoo (Washington, D.C.), The New York Zoological Gardens (Bronx, NY), the Denver Zoo (Denver, CO), the National College of Naturopathic Medicine (Portland, OR) and the Harbin Medical University (Harbin, Hei Long Jiang, People’s Republic of China).

Dr. Wallach was a member of NIH site visit teams for four years and was a member of the 1968 NSF ad hoc committee that authored the 1968 Animal Welfare Act (for the humane housing and care of laboratory and captive exotic species), Consulting Professor of Medicine (Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Hei Long Jiang, People’s Republic of China). Dr. Wallach was the founder and editor of the Journal of Zoo Animal Medicine and an associate editor of Quantum Medicine, the Journal of the Association of Eclectic Physicians, and the editor of the national alternative-health magazine, Health Consciousness.

Dr. Wallach, along with Clinton Miller (lobbyist for the National Health Federation and deceased July 2013 at age 92), was one of the coauthors and engineers of the twenty-five year battle to create and secure passage through the U.S. Congress of the Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act (DSHEA1995) to ensure that nutritional supplements were legally categorized as food rather than pharmaceuticals. Day and night, Wallach and Miller would hand out petitions to the audiences where they attended thousands of health lectures throughout America, and they then gathered up the signed petitions and sent them to Congressional Committee members and their personal U.S. Representatives and Senators.

Dr. Wallach has received numerous awards for his contributions in advancing our knowledge in the areas of animal and human health, including the 1988 Wooster Beach Gold Medal Award for a significant breakthrough in the basic understanding of the cause and pathophysiology of cystic fibrosis (from Association of Eclectic Physicians). He was nominated for the 1991 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work with the trace mineral selenium and its relationship (deficiency) to the congenital and neonatal genesis of cystic fibrosis (Association of Eclectic Physicians). Dr. Wallach received the 2011 Klaus Schwarz Commemorative Medal (Biological Trace Element Research Institute) for his 1977 discovery of the animal model for cystic fibrosis in primates and elucidating the etiology and pathogenesis of CF in humans; the awards committee also noted that, “From a Historical perspective, Wallach is to be regarded as one of the first practitioners, if not founders, of epigenetics, the new research discipline that investigates heritable alterations in gene expression caused by mechanisms other than changes in DNA sequence. With the award of the Klaus Schwarz Medal, Wallach is belatedly honored for a serendipitous discovery that will be of benefit to many.”

Dr. Wallach has been the plaintiff and/or co-plaintiff in eight lawsuits and claims requests lodged against the FDA in federal courts (Federal District Courts, Federal Appellate Courts, and up to the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court) to ensure that proper information regarding supplementation with selenium, omega-3 essential fatty acids, folic acid, and antioxidants that could prevent and reverse human diseases was available to all Americans.

Since 1989 Dr. Wallach has given 300 free health lectures each year throughout the world and has been the host of two live interactive and syndicated AM talk radio shows (Dead Doctors Don’t Lie and Let’s Play Doctor) two hours per day, five days each week, for eighteen years, and as of 2011 is listened to on as many as 1,342 Genesis Communication Network (GCN) hardwire and Internet stations.

Dr. Wallach, along with coauthor Dr. Ma Lan, has written twelve popular books designed to educate the general public on how to prevent and reverse disabling and deadly diseases, generally thought to be genetically transmitted by medical science, with simple dietary changes and evidence-based nutritional supplement programs.

Ma Lan, MD, MS, TCM

Dr. Ma Lan was educated in the Peoples Republic of China. Dr. Ma Lan received her MD degree from Beijing Medical University, took her residency in the People’s Hospital, Beijing, and was a staff surgeon at the Canton Air Force Hospital with the rank of Lieutenant in the Chinese Air Force; she received her MS degree (master of science) in transplant immunology from Zhong-Shan Medical University, Canton, Peoples Republic of China. As with all Chinese doctors, Dr. Ma Lan was educated in Traditional Chinese Medicine (i.e., acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, physical manipulation, massage, and hydrotherapy).

Dr. Ma Lan’s research credits include being an exchange scholar at the Harvard School of Medicine, Boston (microsurgery: 1983/84); a research fellow in laser microsurgery at the St. Joseph’s Hospital, Houston (1985); the Department of Orthopedic Microsurgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (1986); the Department of Pharmacology, the University of California, San Diego (1987–94).

Dr. Ma Lan has authored and coauthored numerous peer-reviewed scientific articles on microsurgery and human pathology and eleven best-selling books as a coauthor with Dr. Wallach.

Gerhard N. Schrauzer, PhD, MS, FACN, CNS

Dr. Schrauzer began his chemistry studies at the University of Munich, where he received his PhD in chemistry and graduated summa cum laude in 1956. He had a postdoctoral appointment with the Monsanto Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, for three years and then returned to the University of Munich in 1959 as a member of its Science Faculty.

In 1964 Dr. Schrauzer immigrated to the United States to join the Shell Development Company at Emeryville, California, and then took an appointment with the University of California, San Diego, in 1966, where he remained until his retirement in 1994. For the last twenty-five years at the University of California, he has held the post as the chairman of the Department of Chemistry.

Dr. Schrauzer holds visiting professorships at the University of Nanjing, Peoples Republic of China, the University of Osaka,...