Epigenetics
Epigenetics
Is our health destiny a manifestation of nature or nurture?
Are we a product of our genetic inheritance or our lifestyle decisions?
What is interesting is that our genes haven’t evolved very much at all over the past few centuries and certainly not enough to keep up with our new western lifestyles. Before scientists sequenced the entire human genome in 2003 we believed that our DNA was the blueprint for all disease. During this huge international scientific project researchers discovered quite the contrary – that disease is not hardwired into your DNA but is much more malleable and a result of complex interactions that also involve your environment and your lifestyle. Essentially, the power is in your hands as to how you configure the ways your genes are expressed and that you can influence the ones that effect weight, aging, appearance, stress resilience, mental acuity and, healthspan.
The human genome is about 99.5 percent the same from one individual to the next, it is the 0.5 percent difference that accounts for the minor characteristics that distinguish us and make us unique, that determine for example, our eye colour and body shape. These variants are due to the small differences in the way that the DNA code is expressed that influences a change in a gene in a positive or a negative way. Variations result from evolution, or mutations or occur randomly and are considered to be an abnormal change but, and this is the exciting bit – what you eat and drink, how much you sleep or how you cope with stress can turn these genetic variations on or off, you may be familiar with the expression – ‘genetics load the gun, but the environment pulls the trigger’.
Most of your habits and choices represent an incredible opportunity for you to prevent and reverse disease. For example, you may have a family history of breast cancer but this may only be expressed it you have an imbalance of bad or good bacteria in your gut which are making more of the dangerous or provocative oestrogens that are thereby elevating your risk and if you are making fewer of the protective oestrogens that lower it. As a result, you keep recycling oestrogens potentially increasing your chances of developing breast cancer. Keep in mind that 85 percent of breast cancer occurs in women with no family history, so don’t falsely reassure yourself that you will be disease free of this when you test your genes – your gut bacteria may be working against you and you aren’t even aware of it. By analysing your digestive function (through testing if required) and by making lifestyle changes you can potentially reprogram a gene to tell your body to make more of the good oestrogens - overall there is no change in your DNA but non-genetic triggers can also cause your genes to behave differently.
I have been fascinated to discover through my own genetic testing finding traits (some of which were unbelievably obvious, negative or positive) and discovering ways in which I can optimise them for the better. Genetic testing is becoming increasingly affordable, although there are ways that you can improve your current and future environmental inputs of course without it. You can build more muscle now, cope with stress better and retrain your mind, and your fork, so that your more negative genes stay switched off and your longevity genes stay in the on position.
If you want however, to delve deeper into your genetic likelihoods and propensities towards certain conditions or disease then epigenetics may be the key to extending your healthspan. This can be initiated by personalised-lifestyle medicine that is unique to you which could have a beneficial effect on your future. Decline is inevitable for us all, but slowing it down and expanding your healthspan well, that’s up to you!