Update: You are what your grandparents ate!

This is the video I couldn't import the other day. Now it should work!

Enjoy!

Lunasin - "The Epigenetic Super Food"

I found this commercial for Lunasin, a soy peptide that has positive effects on the epigenome. At the beginning of the video I thought it was an explanation for epigenetics in general, because the introduction is really good, but it is also a commercial.

“Changes in the epigenome can cause serious diseases. Lunasin attaches to the histones and helps the epigenome function properly, so that these changes do not occur in the cells,” explained Galvez, professor at UC Berkeley.

How Lunasin Works
1. Lunasin nourishes - provides the nutritional fuel to promote optimal expression of genes required for normal cell function.
2. Lunasin protects - reduces inflammation and cell damage caused by free radicals and other environmental hazards. Provides protection in two ways:
3. Prevention. Activates the expression of genes that help reduce cell damage and prevents the expression of genes that can cause cell damage.
4. Maintenance. Helps remove damaged cells from the body that may cause chronic health problems.

First I wasn't sure what to think of this, because the commercial is a little ridiculous, it tries to make you think that you turn into a superhero, when you buy this product. After some research I found out that it is actually supposed to work. Of course you will not turn into Superman, but it is good for your cells.
Since 1996 more than 40 peer-reviewed and published studies have documented lunasin's health benefits. Bodies of research include: cancer prevention, cardiovascular, inflammation, skin health and anti-aging

CAJ - Talk

When I talked to my friends about epigenetics, I had to start from the beginning, because they didn’t have a clue what it was about. I tried to explain that epigenes are little tags on genes, that you can turn on and off. They didn’t really get that, so I drew it for them. I learned that it is easier to understand when you have a picture. They were really interested and told me to find out more about cancer and epigenetics. At the end we had a great discussion on the ethnological question of my topic. Should the government prohibit smoking, drinking, bad eating habits…? Two of my friends immediately said: yes. Their argument was that if you affect other (unborn) people, it should be prohibited. The other on said that it is your body, so your decision. I thought it is hard to prohibit things like that, because where do you start? Who says what’s good and what’s not? When it comes to smoking, we agreed that there are no good aspects. But eating habits? Would you be allowed to have fast food once a month? Or not at all? We talked about it for almost an hour. And I realized that the answer to this question is probably not black or white.

The "Dutch Hunger Winter"

In the winter of 1944, around 30,000 people died in the Netherlands due to a famine. At that time the weather was unusually severe, agricultural land had been ruined by the war, and the people were already short of food. It was found out that women who were pregnant during that time had smaller/underweight babies. This was no surprise, the surprise was that when those babies grew up, even though the war was over, they had been well fed and no genes had been tinkered with, they went on to have underweight babies themselves. Detailed birth records collected during the "Dutch Hunger Winter" allowed scientists to analyze the long-term health effects of prenatal exposure to famine. This finding is remarkable because it suggests that a pregnant mother's diet can affect her health in such a way that, not only her children but her grandchildren and possibly generations even further down the line could also inherit the same health problems.

Överkalix - Sweden

The first proof regarding epigenetics was found in Överkalix, Sweden. During the mid 1880’s some incredible data was collected. The small village in Northern Sweden had either feast or famine. 303 people participated in the study, 164 men and 139 women, born in 1890, 1905, or 1920, and their 1,818 parents and grandparents. It was found out that the child or grandchild of someone, who lived during the famine, actually lived longer, because their genes turned into survival mode, but unfortunately those children had to deal with other issues like depression.

You are what your grandparents ate!

In this video Dr. Pamela Peeke talks about Epigentic transformation. She also released a book called The Hunger Fix, it is the first consumer book describing the newly emerging science of food, addiction and epigenetics. Dr. Peeke is founder of the Peeke Performance Center for Healthy Living, guiding people through the mental and physical transformations of their life journeys.

She was the first senior research fellow at the National Institutes of Health Office of Alternative Medicine, studying the effects of chronic stress on the human body. She is WebMD's lifestyle expert, co-host of RadioMD's HER radio show, and a popular in-studio medical commentator for the national networks and media. 

I can not import the video, so here is the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udlz7CMLuLQ

The ghost in your genes - BBC Documentary

Expository text - How instant photographs work

It may seem magic, but it really is a simple process. What is happening inside an instant camera while you are waiting for your image to appear?

In order to understand how instant cameras work, it has to be explained how a traditional film works. Photographic film is a sheet of clear plastic coated with a series of light sensitive chemical compounds. Color photographic films are coated with three chemical compounds, each of them reacting to the three basic wavelengths of the visible spectrum, blue, green and red. When you expose the film, the sensitive grains at each layer react to light of that color, creating a chemical record of the light and color pattern. To get a picture out of that, you have to develop the film using more chemicals.

Instant photographs work almost the same way, although the basic processes take place all at once inside the plastic sheet of the film. The major difference between a common photographic film and an instant film is that the instant film includes the chemicals needed.

The instant photograph consists of several layers of chemical, stacked on top of each other. A clear plastic layer followed by an acid layer, a timing layer and an image layer. The dye developers are placed on top of a base layer colored in black. In order to initiate the developing process, a reagent layer is placed between the dye developers and the image layer. When a picture is taken, the reagent material is pushed to the side of the picture, away from the light sensitive material. A pair of rollers circulates the picture to distribute the reagent chemical evenly, to develop the picture. The light sensitive layer is then reacted to form an image, which is already fully developed underneath, but the chemical agents’ clearing up creates the illusion that it is created right in front of your eyes.