Epigenetic Markers And The Science Behind Epigenetics
As a highly active, health-oriented person, your introduction to epigenetics may have been through one of many researchers in this cutting-edge bioscience, or one of a few dozen other leaders in the field who are helping to shift our understanding of health and aging. You can’t change how your genes code, but you can change how your genes express themselves. This is the secret to epigenetics.
What Is Epigenetics?
In the most basic terms, epigenetics is the study of how well your genes are doing their jobs.
Our DNA is coded to perform specific functions; the DNA sequences that make up our skin are not the same sequences that make up our heart. While these DNA sequences cannot be changed, how they perform and the proteins they create can be changed. Epigenetics tries to discover and analyze the factors that prompt these “genetic expressions”.
How Epigenetics Works
Your genes aren’t set in stone. Their expression is mutable. Through a DNA methylation process, one group or set of chemicals attaches to a DNA molecule, causing your genes to turn “off” or “on” for a certain set of cellular instructions.
One example of this is apparent in histone modification. Histones control gene signaling and cellular phenotypes. There are many more examples of epigenetic alteration of your genes, however.
For example:
- Telomere length can be altered by epigenetic influences. Telomeres are the “caps” on the end of your DNA that signify life duration. The length of your telomeres also has a direct influence on your immunity. The longer your telomeres, the more robust your immune system and the longer you tend to live.
- There are epigenetic markers that can indicate your health and longevity. Once you know how your genes have been programmed, you can take steps to alter their expression.
- Epigenetic influences such as better DNA nutrition or positive emotional experiences can alter gene expression in a developing child. Studies prove that epigenetic influences change how your children grow and develop, with long-term ramifications. Simply altering their diet or providing positive emotional reinforcement when they complete their homework can signal DNA methylation.
- Epigenetic influences can be transferred up to 12 generations. You have the opportunity to not only alter your gene expression, but that of your offspring and their offspring. DNA methylation has even been observed in a mother’s womb and is passed through birth to her offspring. Your chromosomes replicate via a chromatid, one of two identical halves. During that division process, the chromosomes replicate daughter cell activity, including epigenetic signaling.
What If You Could Take Control of Genetic Expression?
There is now a simple, non-invasive test to find your biological age, the age that your genes express their health and vitality, or lack thereof, so that you can begin to choose a lifestyle and actions to alter your epigenetic expression. You can turn back the epigenetic clock. You can discover how your epigenetics are currently expressing, so that you can take steps to alter your health in a positive and profound way.
This testing kit is one of few non-invasive epigenetic studies that you can currently conduct on yourself and your family.
Ready to take your DNA expression into your hands? Feeling empowered to direct your health and longevity? Click here now to order your non-invasive DNA testing kit to get started.