Epigenetics

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SCITABLE by Nature Education says the first disease to be linked to epigenetics was cancer. It was found that loss of DNA methylation (Switches genes ON) allowed cancer genes to activate and do their thing. Adding methylation was not the answer because it did stop the cancer genes from running but also turned OFF the Tumor Suppressor Genes. We must look at epigenetics as a programming language. The answers are easy. No simple generic solution will work. We must understand which epigenetic triggers turn ON or OFF which genes and in combination with what other genes. The language will be a lot more complex than the genome project was! Just as software programming is much more complex than the simple instructions in a computer’s hardware. These instructions can be viewed as human genes and the software can be viewed as the epigenetic programming. We are a creature made up of trillions of cells that are alive and communicate with each other to form a network that makes us human. We live in an environment that influences this society of cells. The resulting changes from these influences can end up being good or bad to the human entity. My new book, Food for Thought – An Epigenetic Guide to Wellness discusses this in more depth.

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