I don’t know what it is, do you know what it is?
Don’t worry, you are not alone in not knowing what it is…most people are not aware epigenetics even exists. It’s not a common household term like genetics or DNA. Let’s keep it simple and leave out the scientific jargon. Epigenetics is what happens at the cellular level that tells your genes what to do. Genes can “express” or not “express” and this is basically another way of saying it is on or off. I like to picture the classic toy, Lite-Brite (if you don’t know it, google it). The picture you create on the Lite-Brite with tiny bulbs is the DNA code. The lights that are on are “expressing.” When a light bulb goes out it is off, like a gene is “off” and not expressing. You can’t see that part of the Lite-Brite image, but it is still there. It is still part of the genetic code. Epigenetics is what tells the genes to be on or off, (or the bulbs to be on or off), expressed or unexpressed. When the gene is on, it is dong whatever that gene was coded to do (be a part of the picture). When it is off, it is not doing what it was coded to do (it is not lit and not being a part of the light picture). Genes can be turned up or down too just like a light dimmer. Pretty simple, right?
What triggers the genes to be on or off?
The environment. The environment is in constant communication with the cells of our bodies. Our cells, with innate intelligence, act upon those signals and turn the genes on or off. When I say environment I am talking about the environment both in and out of our body. Within the body we have things like hormones, bacteria and viruses, structure, biological processes, chemicals, etc. interacting. For example, when you drink alcohol often there are cells in your body that process alcohol that have been turned on expecting alcohol. Your body processes that alcohol efficiently and it takes more alcohol to get drunk. When you drink sporadically and less often, those alcohol processing genes are off and you get drunk with less alcohol.
So many signals are being sent to our cells on a daily basis. Our bodies are amazing!! Everything from our thoughts to sleep, to food, to exercise, pollution, stress, etc. affect how our genes are being expressed. Talk about a lot of communication. Our cells even communicate with each other for this information. The body has its own innate wisdom. We only know what we know based off science. Science is based off measurements, and so the things we cannot see or measure also have an impact, but we cannot be sure of how or why because we are limited by science. So although I cannot give you concrete information on something we cannot study, I want you to keep in mind that things like energy exist and influence our genes as well. Just because we don’t understand something doesn’t mean it doesn’t have an effect on us. For example, scientists used to think that part of our genes that were not used for coding were “junk DNA.” They now know junk DNA serves a purpose, but until we know, we don’t know. So always be aware and open to this idea.
Do you believe in a million dollars?
It is December right now as I write this and we just recently watched The Santa Clause with Tim Allen. In the movie, Tim doesn’t believe in Santa as most adults do not. The boy says “do you believe in a million dollars?” To which Tim says, “yes.” Well, the boy states “you have never seen Santa and you have never seen a million dollars, but you know it exists.” Now, I’m not saying Santa is real, but the lesson in that statement is so profound. In science, seeing (or measuring) is believing, but the reality is things exist whether we believe they do or not. Epigenetics is happening all the time even if we are not aware it exists. Be aware we do not know all there is to know about everything and science doesn’t know either, although mankind attempts to believe we do, at least in the scientific arena. We can take what we know and utilize it to make better health decisions.
You do you, boo
So there you have it! Epigenetics is our environment acting upon our genetic expression. Our lifestyle DOES matter. Our choices DO matter. What we put in and on our bodies DOES matter. Our life is what we make it, including our health. We do have a choice in the matter. Things we don’t understand still play a role, but we can take steps to alter our gene expression by utilizing what we do know and measuring the outcomes.
We know that information alone doesn’t help anyone make better lifestyle choices….that’s where coaching comes into play. We need coaches to help us utilize the information and get to where we want to be. Check out the coaching tab for more information.