Was Charles Darwin Wrong?

A fairly contentious statement I’m sure you will agree.

And was French evolutionist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's theory of evolution with the inheritance of acquired characters and physical changes to an organism during its lifetime closer to the mark.

As much as Lamarck’s theory was initially laughed at, some areas now seem to resonate slightly more and can be explained with the emergence of the new exciting area of science called Epigenetics.

In 2003, scientists after 13 years finally finished sequencing the human genome, which they initially believed would show that our “Genes controlled our destiny” with a Darwinian belief that they fundamentally controlled all of our biology.?

Initially this was a compelling argument leading many to believe that their genes will be in complete control of their life no matter what, and its simply back luck, never mind and move on, as “It’s in my genes you know”.?

The science community largely thought that each of us would have around 100,000 + plus genes with each controlling the 1000’s of proteins, which are fundamentally important to our bodies and health.

This then allowed for a great excuse to blame your parents and consider yourself a victim of heredity. Yes, we all come with a set of unique genetic predispositions, such as how we process our food, respond to exercise, stress or sleep. But our lifestyle and environments will affect those same genetic traits and either diluted or accentuated them.

Thankfully now the world of genomics has delved further still with the emergence of a new and exciting area of science called epigenetics.

The Greek prefix “epi” in epigenetics meaning “on top of” or “in addition to” controls how your genes behave and function, and is the intersection’ between genetics, nutrition, environment and how diet, micronutrients, exercise, stress and sleep can all change the methylation and expression of our genes.

DNA methylation (DNAm) is a process where tiny chemical markers called methyl groups will attach to your DNA and largely control the way that they function.

As we naturally age these methyl groups will either hypo (low) or hyper (high) methylate regions across your genome, which will then affect how specific genes and biological processes function, such as your eye sight, hearing and memory.

While external characteristics can sometimes give us an insight into our internal health, in many instances we can simply misinterpret external factors such as bigger muscles, faster running times or eating a certain type of diet as they do not actually actuate to being healthier.

A fantastic illustration of the “Epigenetic landscape” by Conrad Waddington in 1957 helps to simplify how during pregnancy your embryonic stem cells (the marble) goes through a process of cellular differentiation and development. Highlighting a variety of pathways that each cell/ marble can take down the hill, and as to whether that cell then goes onto become an eye, cheek, bone or muscle cell etc.

Once we are born and the cell /marble has reached the bottom of the biological hill with regards to development, the function of that cell will be (Hypermethylated) and locked.

This information will then be passed on when the cell divides and each time it then replicates, allowing each cell to then stay on its chosen path i.e. an eye cell will always then create more eye cells, and not develop into a nose cell etc.

Simply having “Good genes” will offer no guarantees to our health and wellbeing, nor does it on living to 100. Epigenetic methylation and modifications after birth now do not change what a gene originally codes for, but how they express themselves or if they are expressed at all.

How you live your day to day life both in terms of your lifestyle and environment will then go on to affect those modification markers sitting above your genes, which will then cause a multitude of outcomes with regards to your health and wellbeing.?

And it doesn’t stop there, as the latest research has also shown that your lifestyle and environment will not only affect your health but may then go on to affect your children and grandchildren in a process called “Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance”.

This is where your lifestyle experiences such as your diet, exercise, sleep, stress and the pollution you have been exposed to and subsequent epigenetic information that it creates can then be passed on down to future generations, which will then either have a positive or negative effect on your child’s genetic traits.????

U.K based company Muhdo is pioneering the science of genetics and epigenetics. Allowing each of our customers the ability to understand their genetic blueprint, and then also be able to see how their day to day lives such as their diet, exercise, sleep and environment are affecting them at an epigenetic and cellular level.

The $64,000 question and the key to epigenetics is that if we only look at one of these areas, we miss the influence and power of the other.