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.

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

Article on Epigenetics

I found this interesting article online. It is called "Epigenetics 101: a beginners guide to explaining everything". The article notes that epigenetics is one of the "hottest" fields in sciene. But because it is that new, there are a lot of questions not answered yet.

 http://www.theguardian.com/science/occams-corner/2014/apr/25/epigenetics-beginners-guide-to-everything

Introduction to Epigenetics

To introduce you to epigenetics, I’ll start off with an example:

If you have the same sentence, but you change the punctuation, the meaning is changing.

·         My favorite flavor of Hot Pockets by far is ham and cheese. I am not sure what to make of this “Limited Edition” Spicy Hawaiian Style Pizza. But I’ll try almost anything once. 

·         My favorite flavor of Hot Pockets by far is ham. And cheese I am not sure what to make of. This “Limited Edition” Spicy Hawaiian Style Pizza? But I’ll try, almost. Anything! Once! 

The study of this “genetic punctuation” is called epigenetics. The prefix epi means over or above. So epigenetics means above genetics. An epigenom does not change DNA but it decides how much or whether some certain genes are expressed.  Simplified, a genome is like the hardware of your computer but the epigenome is like the software that tells the hardware what to do. The genom does the work, but the epigenom says how to do the work. Tiny chemical tags, called methyl groups are attached to the DNA. In essence, the tags can shut down or turn on genes. Not only that, but the tags are inherited by the next generation as well.

Most epigenetic information of a parent is copied to his or her children’s genom, but also fresh ones are created for this new embryo. Some get stuck on the DNA and are passed from generation to generation. Epigenomes change throughout our entire life. A genetic trait is not only a product of genes but also of environment. They are influenced by what we do, what we eat, how stressed out we are and other factors.  A bad diet, for example, can lead methyl groups binding to the wrong place. Because of these bad “instructions”, cells become abnormal and become a disease.

Epigenetics is an exciting area of genetic research that will give answers to how the genetic code on your DNA is affected by aging, your environment, and other circumstances.