Joslyn's Blog Spot - Would you do it for your kids?
Happy February everyone! I trust you all got the year off to a good start and for those of you that train with us to lose weight, I hope you are riding on the coat tails of losing a pound or two in January!
I came across an interesting article in a January issue of Time magazine about how human evolutionary changes can can be passed from one generation to the next and not over many generations, taking millions of years. This means that we need to be a lot more conscientious about how we treat our own bodies as it may be passed directly onto our children.
So how come all of a sudden we can appear to be able to change genes overnight? Well the genes themselves don't change, however genomes can. A genome is all the genetic material contained in an organism, including its chromosomes, genes and DNA. Are you still with me? Just a bit more science. Attached on top of genomes are epigenomes, and these have the ability to tell your genes to switch on or off. It is through these epigenomes that environmental factors such as stress and poor diet can be passed from one generation to the next.
Let's have a look at what can happen. A paper publised in 2006 in the European Journal of Human Genetics noted that of 14,024 fathers in a longitudinal study tracking parents and their children, 166 of them started smoking before the age of 11. In turn, their sons had higher body mass indexes than other boys by the age of 9. In the Dutch journal Acta Biothoretica Dr. Lars Olov Bygren writes of the Swedish town of Overkalix during the 19th and 20th century. Boys who enjoyed the fruits of overabundant winters, going from near starvation to gluttony, produced grandsons who died on average 6 years before those that endured poor harvests. When socioeconomic variations were taken into account, the difference in lifespan jumped a whopping 32 years!
Both of these epigenetic changes resulted from extreme environmental stressors: boys smoking before the age of 11; and excessive food supply in the case of Overkalix. Once again, it's important to note that these changes don't change genes, but merely send a message that switches them off. If the environmental stressor is removed, the DNA will revert back to its original code. Lasting change, it is believed for now, takes place slowly over many, many generations via natural selection. And so the epigenetic change is a temporary one, albeit long enough to affect the life of your child and your grandchildren.
For us, this means that our current health isn't just about us risking our own lives. Our poor health habits can be passed directly onto our children, and their children. I can't think if a better excuse to ensure that you keep yourself in good health, as we have more than just ourselves to answer to.
I came across an interesting article in a January issue of Time magazine about how human evolutionary changes can can be passed from one generation to the next and not over many generations, taking millions of years. This means that we need to be a lot more conscientious about how we treat our own bodies as it may be passed directly onto our children.
So how come all of a sudden we can appear to be able to change genes overnight? Well the genes themselves don't change, however genomes can. A genome is all the genetic material contained in an organism, including its chromosomes, genes and DNA. Are you still with me? Just a bit more science. Attached on top of genomes are epigenomes, and these have the ability to tell your genes to switch on or off. It is through these epigenomes that environmental factors such as stress and poor diet can be passed from one generation to the next.
Let's have a look at what can happen. A paper publised in 2006 in the European Journal of Human Genetics noted that of 14,024 fathers in a longitudinal study tracking parents and their children, 166 of them started smoking before the age of 11. In turn, their sons had higher body mass indexes than other boys by the age of 9. In the Dutch journal Acta Biothoretica Dr. Lars Olov Bygren writes of the Swedish town of Overkalix during the 19th and 20th century. Boys who enjoyed the fruits of overabundant winters, going from near starvation to gluttony, produced grandsons who died on average 6 years before those that endured poor harvests. When socioeconomic variations were taken into account, the difference in lifespan jumped a whopping 32 years!
Both of these epigenetic changes resulted from extreme environmental stressors: boys smoking before the age of 11; and excessive food supply in the case of Overkalix. Once again, it's important to note that these changes don't change genes, but merely send a message that switches them off. If the environmental stressor is removed, the DNA will revert back to its original code. Lasting change, it is believed for now, takes place slowly over many, many generations via natural selection. And so the epigenetic change is a temporary one, albeit long enough to affect the life of your child and your grandchildren.
For us, this means that our current health isn't just about us risking our own lives. Our poor health habits can be passed directly onto our children, and their children. I can't think if a better excuse to ensure that you keep yourself in good health, as we have more than just ourselves to answer to.
posted by ONE at
20:42
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