Friday, January 8, 2016

Your Grandparents' Lifestyles, and your DNA


     Researchers, intrigued with advances in DNA analysis, have discovered more and more evidence that what your progenitors did, how they exercised, how they ate, and what their addictions were, affect your health today. Doctor Claudia Aguirre of the Huffington Post, see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-claudia-aguirre/how-diet-changes-your-dna_b_7129758.html, has determined that the lack of certain essential foods in your parents' diet can increase the probably that you will get diabetes, be obese, and contract cardiovascular disease. She was also able to discover that there are dietary changes that will increase the number of neurons a child's body will make, thus making children smarter.
     Christopher Wanjek, of Lifescience.com, see http://www.livescience.com/21902-diet-epigenetics-grandchildren.html, seconds what Claudia stated, only he published his findings three years ago. Deficient parental diets cause health problems for their children, including obesity and diabetes. It's quite interesting that two of the largest health epidemics today are diabetes and obesity. And diabetes is the seventh largest cause of death.
     Scientists, of course, don't always agree. The scientists in charge of study about how diet affects human DNA in the U.K., see http://metro.co.uk/2012/09/21/feeding-your-dna-does-your-diet-affect-your-genes-581760/ never came to a conclusion which foods would help parents gift their children healthy bodies, but they did gain an understanding that what the parents consumed changed what physical traits their children inherited.
Dr. Aguirre also has show how parental exercise can affect the brain health of the children of those who exercise. See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-claudia-aguirre/your-brain-on-exercise_b_7066856.html .
     Other epigeneticists have discovered how better nutrition can affect the DNA you pass down, most importantly the mother, but also, the father of any and every child. See http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/epigenetics/nutrition/. So your children will get to deal with how well you live, eat, and exercise, and what you hand down to them will very likely largely determine the quality of their lives.

Other Sources:

Sources: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm