epigenetics Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Epigenetics and Obesity

The AHA! Team — Tue, 03 Dec 2024 06:06:42 +0000

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM via Nutrition Facts – Identical twins don’t just share DNA; they also share a uterus. Identical twins don’t just share DNA; they also share a uterus. Might that help account for some of their metabolic similarities? “Fetal overnutrition, evidenced by large infant birth weight for gestational age, is a strong predictor of obesity in childhood and later life.” Could it be that you are what your mom ate? A dramatic illustration from the animal world is the crossbreeding of Shetland ponies with massive draft horses. Either way, the offspring are half pony/half horse, but when carried in the pony uterus, they come out much smaller, as you can see below and at 0:47 in my video The Role of Epigenetics in the Obesity Epidemic. (Thank heavens for the pony mother!) This is presumably the same reason why the mule (horse mom and donkey dad) is larger than the hinny (donkey mom and horse dad). The way you test this in people is to study the size of babies from surrogates after in vitro fertilization. Who do you think most determines the birth weight of a test-tube baby? Is it the donor mom who provided all the DNA or the surrogate who provided the intrauterine environment? When it was put to the test, the womb won. Incredibly, a baby who had a thin biological mother but was born to a surrogate with obesity may harbor a greater risk of becoming obese than a baby with a heavier biological mother but born to a slim surrogate. The researchers “concluded that the environment provided by the human mother is more important than her genetic contribution to birth weight.” The most compelling data come from comparing obesity rates in siblings born to the same mother, before and after her bariatric surgery. Compared to their brothers and sisters born before the surgery, those born when mom weighed about 100 pounds less had lower rates of inflammation, metabolic derangements, and, most critically, three times less risk of developing severe obesity—35 percent of those born before the weight loss were affected, compared to 11 percent born after. The researchers concluded that “these data emphasize how critical it is to prevent obesity and treat it effectively to prevent further transmission to future generations.” Hold on. Mom had the same DNA before and after surgery. She passed down the same genes. How could her weight during pregnancy affect the weight destiny of her children any differently? Darwin himself admitted, “In my opinion, the greatest error which I have committed, has been not allowing sufﬁcient weight to the direct action of the environment, i.e. food…independently of natural selection.” We finally figured out the mechanism by which this can happen—epigenetics. Epigenetics, which means “above genetics,” layers an extra level of information on top of the DNA sequence that can be affected by our surroundings, as well as potentially passed on to our children. This is thought to explain the “developmental programming” that can occur in the womb, depending on the weight of the mother—or even the grandmother. Since all the eggs in your infant daughter’s ovaries are already preformed before birth, a mother’s weight status during pregnancy could potentially affect the obesity risk of her grandchildren, too. Either way, you can imagine how this could result in an intergenerational vicious cycle where obesity begets obesity. Is there anything we can do about it? Well, breastfed infants may be at lower risk for later obesity, though the benefits may be confined to those who are exclusively breastfed, as the effect may be due to growth factors triggered by exposure to the excess protein in baby formula, as you can see below and at 3:51 in my video. The breastfeeding data are controversial, though, with charges leveled of a “white hat bias.” That’s the concern that public health researchers might disproportionally shelve research results that don’t fit some goal for the greater good. (In this case, preferably publishing breastfeeding studies showing more positive results.) But, of course, that criticism came from someone who works for an infant formula company. Breast is best, regardless. However, its role in the childhood obesity epidemic remains arguably uncertain. Prevention may be the key. Given the epigenetic influence of maternal weight during pregnancy, a symposium of experts on pediatric nutrition concluded that “planning of pregnancy, including prior optimization of maternal weight and metabolic condition, offers a safe means to initiate the prevention rather than treatment of pediatric obesity.” Easier said than done, but overweight moms-to-be may take comfort in the fact that after the weight loss in the surgery study, even the moms who gave birth to kids with three times lower risk were still, on average, obese themselves, suggesting weight loss before pregnancy is not an all-or-nothing proposition. What triggered the whole obesity epidemic to begin with? There are a multitude of factors, and I covered many of them in my 11-video series on the epidemic in the related posts below. We are what our moms ate in other ways, too. Check out: Heart Disease May Start in the Womb Maternal Diet May Affect Stress Responses in Children Flashback Friday: The Effect of Animal Protein on Stress Hormones, Testosterone, and Pregnancy Key Takeaways Babies who are born larger are at higher risk of obesity later in life, suggesting early metabolic programming by maternal diet. The intrauterine environment significantly influences birth weight and later obesity risk, potentially outweighing genetic contributions from the biological mother. A baby with a thin biological mother but born to a surrogate with obesity may harbor a greater risk of future obesity than a baby with a heavier biological mother but born to a slim surrogate. Siblings born to the same mother before and after her bariatric surgery show reduced obesity risk in later-born children, highlighting the critical role of maternal weight during pregnancy. Epigenetics explain how environmental factors, like maternal weight, can influence gene expression and obesity risk across generations. Breastfeeding, especially exclusive breastfeeding, may lower obesity risk in children, contrasting with potential risks associated with formula feeding and excess protein exposure. To read the original article click here.

The post Epigenetics and Obesity appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

How Sorrow & Longing Can Make Us Whole

The AHA! Team — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 08:37:15 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – In this podcast (episode #475) and blog, I talk to bestselling author and speaker Susan Cain about sorrow and mental health, embracing bittersweet moments and feelings, how longing makes us whole, her amazing new book Bittersweet, and so much more! As Susan notes in her book, bittersweetness is a tendency toward states of longing, poignancy, and sorrow, an acute awareness of passing time, and a curiously piercing joy at the beauty of the world. It recognizes that light and dark, birth and death—bitter and sweet—are forever paired. In Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole, Susan uses research, storytelling, and memoir to explore why we experience sorrow and longing and how embracing the bittersweetness at the heart of life is the true path to creativity, connection, and transcendence. She describes how a bittersweet state of mind is the quiet force that helps us transcend our personal and collective pain, whether from a death, breakup, addiction, or illness. She also explains how we can end up inflicting our own heartache on others via abuse, domination, or neglect if we don’t acknowledge it. But if we realize that all humans know—or will know—loss and suffering, we can turn toward one another. Susan calls this a “bittersweet state of mind”: the power we find in longing and sorrow and how it can shape our mental health and lives. This sense of bittersweetness, whether we are watching a sad movie, listening to a sad song, or thinking of something that has happened in the past, allows us connect on a deeper level with both ourselves and others, shaping our lives in ways that enhance the beauty of being alive—of being human. This sense of sorrow and longing also includes inherited grief. All of us carry around our own losses and sorrow, as well as grief inherited from our parents and ancestors which affects us as well. Indeed, emerging evidence shows how inherited grief even impacts our biology through epigenetics. Biological responses to environmental signals can be inherited through the generations via epigenetic markers in our genetic makeup. However, epigenetics does not mean that we are trapped by our past. Our brains are neuroplastic, which means they can change. If we remove the signal, the epigenetic mark can fade. If we choose to add a signal, on the other hand, the epigenetic mark can be activated. We are not merely our genes or biology. Our past doesn’t have to be our destiny. How we think and choose to live our lives impacts a big part of the picture, including how we let our inherited grief shape and impact us as individuals and our relationships with our parents and ancestors. Unfortunately, in our society today, there is often no room to allow for grief and sorrow. We tend to overemphasize positive thinking and overlook the power that human feelings like sadness and longing have to shape and heal us and help us grow. As we see in different religions and wisdom traditions, sadness and grief are powerful aspects of the human condition and can help us connect with some of the most fundamental parts of who we are. It is okay to experience emotions like sadness, longing and grief. It is through embracing these emotions and understanding what they are telling us about ourselves that we come to understand who we are on a deeper level. We should not just try to replace these feelings with something “positive”. It is only by going through what we experience that we can heal and grow. Especially when it comes to grief, there is a difference between moving on and moving forward. Moving on implies the need to march on—to move past something or bury what happened. Moving forward, on the other hand, acknowledges the pain and sorrow of what happened while understanding that life continues. It helps us acknowledge that who we are today has been forever changed by what happened to us, but that loss is not something that stays in the past—who we are today moves forward with the love and impact that what was lost had on our life. For more on sorrow, longing and mental health, listen to my podcast with Susan (episode #475) Podcast Highlights 1:55 Susan’s journey 5:45 What a bittersweet state of mind is & why it’s important 9:31 Epigenetics & inherited grief 17:45 The downsides of positive thinking 28:30 Mental health & sorrow 31:30 Why everyone should watch the movie Inside Out 35:30, 40:10 The difference between moving on & moving forward 45:00 How sorrow & grief can create meaningful connections 48:50 The deep joy & deep sorrow of being human This podcast and blog are for educational purposes only and are not intended as medical advice. We always encourage each person to make the decision that seems best for their situation with the guidance of a medical professional. To read the original article click here.

The post How Sorrow & Longing Can Make Us Whole appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.