In order to understand the impact of health on our DNA, lets take a further look at the science of epigentics.
When genetic expression is changed, through diet, toxins, environment etc, your cells are also changed - your blood cells, kidney cells, skin cells and brain cells ! identical twins have been studied to understand the impact of their epigenome on their DNA. Identical twins develop from the same egg and therefore the same DNA. From birth they are identical, but as they grow and change their environment - back to diet, exercise, toxins etc - they look different, but also the state of their health is different.
We can therefore determine that signals from the outside world can work via the epigenome to change a cells gene expression. As an example your nutritional environment and diet can change the expression of your cells. Epigenetic tags change the shape of the gene and when you manipulate these tags on the gene, the protein production changes too (search YouTube for some excellent genetic expression visuals).
Epigenetics consist of molecular switches such as DNA methylation, in which methyl tags attach to the DNA and turn genes off, while acetyl tags attach to the DNA and switch genes on.
In other words, DNA methylation silences genes, Histone acetylation activates genes. Cancer develops when a cell becomes abnormal and starts to grow out of control - mutation changes a cell's DNA sequence. Cancer cells also appear to have abnormal epigenomes. In many cancers, genes are turned up and other genes are turned down. Out of control cancer cells proliferate by both turning off suppressor genes that slow cell growth and turning on genes that speed up cell growth. Therefore, cancer cells have a lower level of methylation that normal cells.
Here at TAWC, we alter the epigenome in a positive manner through a holistic, primal approach - one in which your DNA is allowed to thrive, not just with diet but combined with such things as stress reduction and blue light blocking.
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