Your Epigenome

TIME magazine's cover story last week introduced the epigenome to the general public.  Biology's mantra has long been that your genes don't change.  Progressive doctors have been saying for years that while your genes don't change, the way your genes are expressed can be influenced.  This influence may even pass from parents to children. Your diet influences your genes!

Studies of altered epigenetic marking will be of profound importance for mechanistic understanding of the role of nutrition in health but especially for studies of the developmental origins of health.  Adv Exp Med Biol 2009;646:119-23. 

Another group of researchers goes on to write,

In the future, a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the influence of nutrition on the epigenome,and subsequently on the expression of the genome, may help to influence dietary habits and behaviors.

But this work is even more thrilling that just that.  What if eating well could actually prevent cancer? What if it wasn't just a hunch and we had solid scientific evidence that vegetables and fruits prevent cancer?  Would you change the way you eat?  The researchers continue,

A key aspect of this work, which raises much excitement, is the potential reversibility of aberrant epigenetic modifications in cancer cells. We are only beginning to understand how epigenetic manipulations by dietary compounds can help us to live a healthier and longer life. Annu Rev Nutr 2008;28:347-66.

Don't wait for the all the research to come in. We have enough information to act.  Eat well now.