Epigenetics & Lifestyle Research

The Foundational Facts

In the lesson on DNA, Genes & Epigenetics, we learned that throughout the latter half of the 20th century, mainstream science and medicine were alarmingly wrong about the functioning of genes, believing they were a “blueprint” for a person’s biology. This was proven incorrect by the Human Genome Project completed in 2003. Genes are better understood as potentialities. They express differently based on their environment.

We learned that diseases may run in the family, but not because of genes. And we learned that epigenetics is the science of how environment impacts genes.

Heaps of research has proven that lifestyle choices directly affect health and wellness. And in the past decade, it’s become utterly clear what is happening at the deepest physical levels to explain the excellent results of lifestyle on people’s health.

Researchers have confirmed that lifestyle has a fundamental and powerful impact on our physical wellness because it impacts us at a cellular level.

These factors include diet, intermittent fasting and nutrition; movement and sleep; how we manage stress and emotions; the toxins we’re exposed to and the time we spend in nature; what we think, the words we speak, and the sound frequencies we hear.

These things alter how our cells behave, including cellular regeneration, programming particular genes to express and others to suppress, and activation of the “other 98%” of our DNA. That all feels to us like wellness or illness.

This knowledge comes to us from the type of study called epigenetics, a term that literally means “above” or “beyond the control” of the gene.  Epigenetics is the science of how environment (especially nutrition, exercise, stress relief and so on) impacts genes.

Additionally, more research is now available on the “other 98%” of our DNA (beyond the genes that have been such a focus for western sicence) — what those same scientists have called “junk DNA,” “biology’s dark matter” or “non-coding DNA.”

These research findings provide the materialist mind an explanation for the heaps of research which has already confirmed that these practices directly affect health and wellness.

Very Important

The following comments by Harvard Medical School editors are referring to research conducted by the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2013.

Eliciting the Relaxation Response Caused Genes to Turn On & Off That Have Extensive Positive Impacts on Health & Well-Being

Skeptics have long believed that meditation and other stress reduction techniques are nice but ineffectual practices that do little for you. Nothing could be further from the truth — and now we have the science to prove it… Exciting new research… suggests that the simple act of eliciting the relaxation response… temporarily changes the activity of certain genes… it switches off genes associated with chronic inflammatory responses. Many experts believe these inflammatory responses stress the body, possibly contributing to a host of chronic ailments, such as heart disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and diabetes. At the same time, it switches on genes linked with a variety of functions: the use of energy in the body, the release of insulin (which helps regulate blood sugar), the maintenance of telomeres (protective end-caps on our chromosomes that erode with age until a cell dies), and the functions of tiny cellular powerhouses called mitochondria… This information was prepared by the editors of the Harvard Health Publications division of Harvard Medical School. It is excerpted from our Special Health Report: Stress Management. – Harvard Medical School link

Some of the powerful findings and implications include:

1. Chronic stress is known to both cause and exacerbate disease, and can lead to other problems such as anxiety or depression. A balanced nervous system is key to positively managing stress.
2. Eliciting the relaxation response balances the nervous system and brings a cascade of positive health effects.
3. The Benson-Henry research shows that the relaxation response is also impacting the body at an even deeper, cellular level, determining which genes are turned on and off, and thereby setting off a series of powerfully positive bodily activity. The cellular activity includes they key cellular activities that researchers have become aware of that relate to health: the maintenance of telomeres and healthy functioning mitochondria.
4. Chronic inflammation overwhelms the immune system and causes additional symptoms. Chronic inflammation is on a short list of underlying causes of imbalance and disease. The Benson-Henry research shows that the relaxation response switches off genes associated with chronic inflammatory responses.

Research: Epigenetics in Action

For terminology, please see the previous two lessons:

• Cells & Cellular Biology
• DNA, Genes & Epigenetics