Repairing and Regenerating

The human body is an amazing thing.

I saved this four years ago and tonight, I have messaged the researcher who originally shared it to find out if she has any further information. If I hear back, I’ll put the info here.

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Upward of 90% of our genes may be influenced by the foods we eat.

Holy cow.

The existence of epigenetics has been known for some time - the fact that environmental factors such as diet, stress, activity, sleep, and even our microbiome can influence which genes are turned on or turned off. But, new science published a couple of days ago shows just how profound the effect is. 

I'm seriously more excited about this than I am about the measurement of gravitational waves (not that Einstein being correct in his predictions isn't crazy awesome).

The research was performed in yeast, a very common model for measurement of genetic research because its entire genome has been mapped for quite some time, measurement and manipulation is quite straightforward, and many of yeast's important genes and fundamental cellular mechanisms are the same as or very similar to those in animals and humans.

The researchers manipulated the levels of important metabolites in the yeast cells, mimicking the products of metabolic reactions produced when we feed our bodies different foods.

Then, the researchers examined how this affected the behavior of the genes and the molecules they produced. Almost 90% of the genes and their products were affected by changes in cellular metabolism.

We're used to thinking about how our genetics influence how our bodies use nutrients, but this research shows the relationship goes both ways: what nutrients we feed our bodies determines our genetics.
This is just the beginning of what will likely be a whole new field of research and the applications, from development of individualized therapeutic diets for everything from cancer to obesity, to understanding the best medication choices for an individual when warranted.

Maybe even more importantly, this research may help explain contradictory results from different laboratories investigating similar questions related to diet and nutrition. If we can understand the genetic effects on metabolism, we can control for these factors, and design experiments to conclusively answer so many questions that remain controversial within nutritional sciences and complementary medicine.

I also find a lot of optimism in this research. Yes, there's still a ton to learn, but it tells us that our genetics are far more pliable that previously thought, which means there's a lot more power in our hands to take control of our health.

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Original article:

Alam MT, et al “The metabolic background is a global player in Saccharomyces gene expression epistasis”. Nature Microbiology, 2016; 15030 DOI: 10.1038/nmicrobiol.2015.30

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As far as I can tell, this means that your diet, designed specifically for you and your genetic composition, could potentially repair any damage caused by medical conditions and diseases that you’ve had in the past or are currently enduring.

That will be a game changer.

In the meantime, doing simple things like removing damaging refined sugar from your diet and drinking lots of filtered water to keep your body and organs hydrated and help your body clear toxins is an excellent way to start because those things have already proven to work.

What have you got to lose?

Had a quiet day at the shop.

Created a story for the newsletter about last weeks art class. Paid another bill that arrived today. The day passed surprisingly fast because I was shocked when Adoring Husband arrived to pick me up.

Im pretty sure some of you can relate to this ...

Nite all.