Posts Tagged ‘gene experssion’

Epigenetic expression is up to you means how your genes express themselves depend on your lifestyle.

Epigenetics Good News

The relatively new field of “epigenetics” is revealing how people, plants and animals do start with a certain genetic code at conception. The choice of which genes are “expressed” or activated is strongly affected by environmental influences. The expression of genes can change quite rapidly over time, they can be influenced by external factors, those changes can be passed along to offspring and they can literally hold the key to their future health.

This kind of information is a reminder of the power we have over our health. It is bigger than the healthcare system debate. It points to the fact that the most influential decisions about our health come from us. This discovery should be met with enthusiasm by the public. There is comfort, convenience and protection if we have ownership of our health.

The question is will we be learning and cultivating our natural ability to build a gateway to health. Epigentics studies are bringing us good news, a reminder that everything that can help us is already in place.

Epigenetic Scientific Validation

According to Ron Dashwood, a professor of environmental and molecular toxicology at the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon state University, epigenetics is a unifying theory in which many health problems, ranging from cancer to cardiovascular disease and neurological disorders, can be caused at least in part by altered “histone modifications,” and their effects on the reading of DNA in cells.

Histone proteins are essential for the packaging of the DNA into chromosomes within the nucleus of a cell. Histone proteins play an important role in DNA packaging, chromosome stabilization and gene expression.

“We already know some of the things people can do to help prevent cancer with certain dietary of lifestyle approaches,” Dashwood said “Now we’re hoping to more fully understand the molecular processes going on, including at the epigenetic level. This should open the door for new approaches to disease prevention or treatment through diet, as well as in complementing conventional drug therapies.”        

The OSU  scientist recently received an $8.5 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to explore diet, epigenetics, and cancer prevention. The positive findings of the laboratory research are already being converted to placebo-controlled human intervention trials on such health concerns as colon and prostate cancer.

Learning From This

Learning from this means revisiting what we already know. It has been shown over and over that good health is a decision. The transition to a man made diet from a whole food one has been at the heart of the healthcare crisis we are facing. This deviation from nature has taken us to the brink of self destruction.

Cultivating good eating habits means transitioning back to natural whole food diet. All the scientific terms come down to the basic fact, we are what we eat, from a health standpoint.