Epigenetics: The Driver of Our Genes’ Behavior

What Do You Mean, Our DNA Is Not Our Destiny?

There was a time when medical scientists and doctors believed that our DNA was an inescapable blueprint for life. Our genes were thought to be set in stone and determine our destiny. In the early years of the human genome project, it was commonly believed that all the secrets to human health would be found within our DNA, too. We now know that even though our genes remain the same throughout life, their behavior can change when they are exposed to different environmental factors. Our genes can change expression.

A British embryologist coined the term epigenetics in the 1940s to describe the interactions of genes with their environment. Every person has a unique genome – a vast array of protein sequences (called “snips” or Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) that endow us with certain strengths and vulnerabilities. However, these characteristics can diminish or be enhanced via epigenetic influences, such as diet and lifestyle changes that do or don’t favor our health. Epigenetics teaches us that, while our genes set the stage for our life, our exposome – what our bodies are exposed to throughout life – writes the story.

Different variants or “mutations” in our SNPs correspond to different tendencies. Some genetic variants when upregulated will make people more vulnerable to diabetes, or certain cancers, or cause hormonal imbalances, or inflammation, or lead to challenges with drug metabolism and detoxification. In modern times, adverse genetic expression is often influenced by synthetic chemicals, poor nutrition, high stress, lack of time in nature, and other harmful factors. When it comes to human health, it’s not just about our DNA!

How Does Our Environment Impact Our Genes?

The epigenome – a living layer of chemical receptors on DNA – signals our genes to act in a certain way (or even mutate in subsequent generations) based on our diets, stress, toxic exposures, maternal nutrition, and even our parent’s microbiomes. Here are a few examples of genes and their expression being changed because of environmental exposures (or different exposomes):

• Exposure to BPA, a pervasive type of plastic in our environment, can lead to neurologic complications.
• Recent research from UT Health San Antonio and the work of researcher Claudia Miller illustrates how a mother’s sensitization to harsh chemicals can increase the likelihood that her child will suffer from symptoms of autism. Her studies show that parents with high chemical intolerance are 5.7 times more likely to have a child with autism.
• Epidemiologic and medical records suggest that changes in our gene expression can show up in subsequent generations, long after a significant stress event (such as violence against women or the holocaust).
• Some exposures cause abnormal gene expression and result in a widespread increase in genetic variants. One well-known example is called the MTHFR mutation. This SNP variant impacts a key metabolic process called methylation which influences our access to key vitamins, the antioxidant glutathione, and plays a vital role in neurodevelopment.
• According to a study on the association of MTHFR gene variants with autism, 98% of children with autism carry at least one copy of the MTHFR genetic variation (more than twice as many as the general population). This methylation variant sets the stage for potential complications in children, when we are not mindful of their nutritional and other needs (including access to the appropriate B vitamins).

Genomes together with our modern lifestyle affect a child’s ability to grow, develop, repair and detoxify. Environmental factors change our children’s genes and gene expression, impacting their resiliency, healing capacity, and mental health. Harmful exposures can impair development in speech, language, auditory processing, the ability to focus and concentrate, and may limit a child’s access to social engagement and/or reading comprehension.

Can Our Environment Impact Genes Positively?

A famous study on mice illustrates the epigenetic possibility for improvement. Certain lab mice that are known to be poor methylators have been used to study modern chronic illnesses. The female mice will consistently birth white pups with a strong tendency to overeat, become obese and acquire diabetes. This will happen generation after generation without any special intervention.

However, when researchers give one of the pregnant mothers a healthy dose of several vitamins that enhance her methylation, she gives birth to pups that come in a variety of shades and colors of fur. They don’t overeat, or become obese, or get diabetes. Quite a contrast from their older siblings that were born without support. When one of these pups becomes pregnant, without receiving more methylation support, she gives birth to pups who retain the benefits of their grandma being treated during pregnancy. The new grandpups are slender and non-diabetic. Wow, talk about generational impact!

Root-cause and whole-child-oriented health care providers are beginning to really understand the interplay between our genes and the environment and finding ways to better optimize a child’s health, often even before testing.

So, Adverse Epigenetic Changes Don’t Have to Be Permanent?

No, they don’t have to be. If we address environmental factors by improving our personal lifestyle and reducing stressors (before, during and beyond pregnancy), we can change our gene expression in favor of optimal health outcomes for ourselves, our children and theirs (and potentially pass on healthier SNPs). Here are some changes to better our genetic impact:

• Reducing stress factors in our lives (even during mealtime and throughout pregnancy).
• Addressing environmental pressures (even “invisible” stressors like strained or toxic relationships, or generational traumas).
• Eliminating or minimizing toxic exposures (dyes, artificial flavorings, pesticides, plastics, forever chemicals, heavy metals and artificial light).
• Supporting our bodies’ detoxification and making sure detox pathways are open and “flowing” efficiently (such as the kidneys, liver, lymphatics, gastrointestinal tract, the skin, and lungs, and our emotional outlets).
• Supporting the immune system, growth and repair, or the energy production of our mitochondria, for example, with nutritional supplements if recommended by a well-informed health care provider.
• Maintaining a good, healthy, nutritious diet to diversify the body’s inner ecosystem/microbiome and its genome (which is 100-150 times the size of our human genome). The environment of our microbiome shapes our health from the inside, influencing digestion, immunity, mood and more.

By making these types of lifestyle changes, and working to improve access to healthy food, clean air, and water, by lowering our exposome, many scientists believe that over time the epigenetic marks will eventually fade and the DNA will begin to revert to its original, optimal programming. Healing can be a very empowering experience indeed. Our daily choices not only influence our own genetic expression but will inform genetic expression of generations to come.

About Heather Tallman Ruhm MD

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