Nutrigenomics

++ Genomics is currently a hot area of research. Some people are excited about it. Many look at the word and say, "Huh?" Here is a simplified overview.

Epidemiological studies look at large groups of people and try to see connections between life-style and health. They cannot determine cause and effect, but they can suggest where research on cause and effect would be most useful. Often, they pose more questions than they answer. For example, why are people living in a certain area more likely to get a certain disease than people living in an area hundreds of miles away? Why can some people do everything right and never get heart disease, while other people do the same things and get fatal heart attacks in their 40's?

There were high hopes that the human genome project would answer these questions; but, instead, more questions came up. Looking closer, researchers noticed that some genes can be turned on and off. Susceptibility to some diseases depends not only on what version of specific genes a person has, but also on how/when they go to work. Broadly speaking, genomics tries to determine what the switches are. Specifically, nutrigenomics examines the effects that nutrients have on gene expression. This area of study is in its infancy; but, one day, we hope, we can look at a person's genome and recommend diet guidelines that will prolong life and health. This includes not only your own health, but also that of your unborn children (and possibly your not-yet-conceived children and grandchildren).

Here is an analogy that helps many people understand the implications of this: baking a cake. A person's genes are set at conception and are the instructions for how to build the person. A cake recipe is also instructions. Some are better than others (and some people have genetic diseases). Some are designed to give you chocolate cake, white cake, or angel food (and each person is an individual).

The recipe isn't the only thing that controls how the cake turns out. Other things make a difference: recipe substitutions; mixing method; size and shape of the baking pan and what it is made of; how hot the oven is; how long the cake is baked; etc. Recipes and cake pans can be passed down from mother to daughter (or son) to grandchild. Likewise, genes aren't the only things that control how a person's body turns out. Scientists are discovering things that would correspond to the other factors in cake quality: absence or excess of certain nutrients, esp. at critical points in development; pollutants/contaminants; etc. And, if a gene's expression is sub-standard in a parent, that can also negatively affect its expression in offspring.

There is still a lot to learn about genomics. In the mean time, what do we do? The bottom line is to practice good health habits as we know of them now. The well-balanced diet that you follow today will help your children tomorrow!