epigenetics

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 14 Issue 31

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Epigenetics and Pregnancy
Epigenetics is the study of environmental signals and their effects on our genes. Our genes are not altered so much as they are read and used differently based on the environmental inputs. Epigenetic effects are critical during the pregnancy period as the environmental signals can alter an offspring’s outcome both in good and bad ways. Making sure that we control for better environmental signal exposure while pregnant can go a long way to protecting our children’s DNA from dysfunction and thus their outcome with health. It is well known that chemicals are generally negative insults to our epigenome while anti-inflammatory whole foods are positive. These epigenetic marks can be conserved over multiple generations making them extraordinarily beneficial or dangerous. Here we will discuss the lifestyle mitigating factors for a positive pregnancy and newborn outcome….plus an ode to Brenda Wassum.
Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #76 – Ken Pelletier, MD, PhD – Choice and Love

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Kenneth R. Pelletier, MD, PhD is a Clinical Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine; Department of Family and Community Medicine, and Department of Psychiatry at the University of California School of Medicine (UCSF) in San Francisco. He is Director of the Corporate Health Improvement Program (CHIP) which is a collaborative research program between CHIP and 15 of the Fortune 500 corporations including Ford, Oracle, Prudential, Apple, Dow, Lockheed Martin, Pepsico, IBM, American Airlines and NASA.

Dr. Pelletier served as Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona School of Medicine and Stanford University School of Medicine. He was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, studied at the CG Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland and has published over 300 professional journal articles in behavioral medicine, disease management, worksite interventions, alternative/integrative medicine, and epigenetics.

At the present time, Dr. Pelletier is a medical and business consultant to the US Department of Health and Human Services, the World Health Organization (WHO), the National Business Group on Health, the Federation of State Medical Boards, and major corporations including Cisco, IBM, American Airlines, Prudential, Dow, Disney, Ford, Mercer, Merck, Pepsico, Ford, Pfizer, Walgreens, NASA, Microsoft ENCARTA, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, United Healthcare, Health Net, the Pasteur Institute of Lille, the Alpha Group of Mexico, and the Singapore Ministry of Health.

Dr. Pelletier is the author of fifteen (15) major books, including the international bestseller Mind as Healer, Mind as Slayer and Change Your Genes – Change Your Life: Creating Optimal Health with the New Science of Epigenetics.

Today we enjoy the amazing viewpoint that Dr. Pelletier has for humanity. We have control over our destinies individually and collectively. This conversation is the culmination of years of incredible study.

Enjoy,

Dr. M

 

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 14 Issue 2

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Christmas, Tradition and Holidays in General.
When I think about the holidays, I think about large family gatherings, fake birds chirping in the Christmas tree, my Babcia cooking pierogis in butter, bacon and onions and serving me a huge plate, my cousin tripping and falling into the tree trying to turn off the chirping bird. I think of Christmas eve singing Polish and English carols. I remember the long table with 30 people sitting around the room celebrating togetherness. Life was pure as a child. Being the youngest of the generation, I seemed to see everything from the lowest viewpoint. I heard everything that was said that may or may not have been appropriate…………………..plus a piece on genes and mental health. Recipe of the week is here as well.
Enjoy,
Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #61 – Bridget Briggs, M.D. – Hope and Epigenetics Part 3

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This is the third story of hope for us as a species. We have a level of control over our outcome that is baked into our DNA.
Bridget R. Briggs, M.D. and I sit down today to discuss the clinical approach to epigenetics in patients especially women. She is a physician who specializes in Women’s Health. Dr. Briggs received her undergraduate degree from the University of California Los Angeles in Psychobiology. She then completed her medical degree from University of California San Diego School of Medicine before completing her residency in family medicine as well as internship in Obstetrics and gynecology. She has been in practice for 25 years in Southern California. She is the owner of two family medicine practices in California where she specializes in functional medicine and womens health. She is a well known speaker and educator on the topics of epigenetics and methylation in humans.
Her story is personal regarding her deep dive into epigenetics and health based on her family’s history and experiences to date. We take a winding road looking at the clinical applications of epigenetic understandings as laid out by the experts and trailblazers of DNA methylation and phenotypic change in animals and humans. We get into some controversial topics including vaccination, preparation for, avoidance of and much more. The conversation is open, honest and thoughtful. We finish with a hard look at the pregnancy state and how to achieve optimal outcomes for our offspring. It is another story of hope for humanity.
Please enjoy my conversation with Dr. Bridget Briggs,
Dr. M

 

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #60 – Moshe Szyf, Ph.D. – Hope and Epigenetics Part 2

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This week’s guest is Professor Moshe Szyf.
This is the second story of hope for us as a species. We have a level of control over our outcome that is baked into our DNA.
Dr. Moshe Szyf joins the show today to discuss the social programming of the epigenome. Dr. Szyf and his colleague Dr. Meaney proposed over two decades ago the first set of evidence that the “social environment” early in life can alter DNA methylation launching the emerging field of “social epigenetics”. He also has illustrated that DNA methylation is a prime therapeutic target in cancer and other diseases to be explored and potentially manipulated for health.
“Together, they discovered that our genetic code, the actual sequential structure of our DNA, can pretty much shrug off the influence of any external environmental factors, short of massive radiation. However, the expression of individual genes within that sequence can be permanently altered by such seemingly innocuous influences as diet or how others treat us. Once triggered, a group of molecules called a methyl group attaches itself to the control centre of a gene, permanently switching on or off the manufacture of proteins that are essential to the workings of every cell in our body. In most tumours, this DNA methylation pattern has been knocked awry, leading to a gene being completely deactivated or triggered to abnormally high activity.” (McGill Reporter)
Dr. Szyf received his Ph. D from the Hebrew University and did his postdoctoral fellowship in Genetics at Harvard Medical School before he joined the department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He currently holds the James McGill Professorship in Pharmacology. He is the founding co-director of the Sackler Institute for Epigenetics and Psychobiology at McGill and is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Experience-based Brain and Biological Development program. Szyf has been the founder of the first “Pharma” to develop epigenetic pharmacology “Methylgene Inc.” and the first journal in epigenetics “Epigenetics”.
Please enjoy my conversation with Dr. Moshe Szyf,
Enjoy,
Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #59 – Randy Jirtle, Ph. D. – The Imprintome and Hope

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Randy Jirtle, Ph.D.
This week’s guest is Professor Randy Jirtle.
Dr. Randy Jirtle joins the show for the second time today to discuss his new research on the imprintome, the regulatory regions that at the earliest stages of fetal development control our epigentic and thus our genetic outcome. This is the Hope locus.
Time Magazine nominated him for person of the year in 2007 and had this to say about him: “Dr. Jirtle’s pioneering work in epigenetics and genomic imprinting has uncovered a vast territory in which a gene represents less of an inexorable sentence and more of an access point for the environment to modify the genome. His trailblazing discoveries have produced a far more complete and useful understanding of human development and diseases” — Time Magazine. This interview is ground zero for the Women and Children First Podcast as we discuss the underpinnings or mechanisms of disease risk for all humans as it relates to the environmental inputs of our lives that are driving health or disease at both the pregnancy and post natal periods. We look specifically at how maternal nutrition and later chemical exposure directly affected the health of the agouti mouse offspring. This experiment was the first of its kind and paved the way for a complete shift in human disease understanding. For parents, this podcast is really the beginning of everything that I am trying to convey regarding a healthy pregnancy and childhood. Without this interview, the following interviews will be more difficult to understand. The picture becomes very clear once his research is cemented in our minds.
His biography is as follows: Professor of Epigenetics at the Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, and a Senior Scientist at McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI. He was previously professor of radiation oncology and associate professor of pathology at Duke University, Durham, NC, where he had been a faculty member since 1977. He graduated with a B.S. degree in nuclear engineering in 1970 and a Ph.D. degree in radiation biology in 1976, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His awards list is long but the key to Dr. Jirtle is that he is a curious thinker and we are grateful for this.
Please enjoy my conversation with Dr. Randy Jirtle,
Enjoy,
Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast – The Growing Brain and Autism

The Growing Brain and the Upstream Etiologies of Neurodevelopmental disorders – AUTISM
This weeks guest is me! I re-recorded a lecture that I gave in Florida this month at the Annual International Conference for the Institute for Functional Medicine. My goal in this lecture is to look at the upstream reasons that we are seeing more Autism and neurological diversity in children year upon year. It is a wide ranging look at the current state of the science and my thoughts on a unifying theory. As with Dr. Stone’s interview last week with Grow Baby, this is a follow up discussion that is a critical primer for “mother’s to be” regarding disease avoidance measures that can be taken for the best health of the maternal child dyad.
Enjoy,
Dr. M

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