Tag Archives: epigenetics

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

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 SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 13 Issue 3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

This week we do a literature review looking at epigenetics, exercise, time restricted feeding and the microbiome. We also look at Iron as a mineral of necessity. We finish with a recipe for Polish Beet Soup.

 

Enjoy,

Dr. M

 

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 12 Issues 10 and 12

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

SPA Audiocast Newsletter Volume 12 Letters 10 and 12

In issue 10, we look at effort and resilience. We take a look at non nutritive sweeteners and the microbiome. And finally, sugar and the risk of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.

In issue 12, we discuss trauma and the epigenetic realities that follow these events. We look at some new research related to type 1 Diabetes following Covid infection as well as the effects that Maternal Gestational Diabetes on newborn offspring.

Enjoy,

Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 11 Issues 40 and 42

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

Audiocast #40 – Epigenetics

Humans, like most organisms on earth, grow and maintain their biological systems through a complex interplay between the environment and their genes. Epigenetics is the study of the ability of environmental signals to silence or activate these genes, thus effecting cellular function and species survival. I was once given an analogy, by Dr. Randy Jirtle, that your genes are like a computer hard drive. They do nothing until the software inputs change activity. The environmental signals like food, chemicals, stress and much more are the putative software inputs for us. Good lifestyle inputs have been epidemiologically proven to reduce disease risk.

Audiocast #42 – Stress, Psychiatry and the Intestinal Microbiome

Humans develop disease from many different routes including toxic exposures, genetics, poor nutrition, injury, microbial exposures and much more. One of the biggest risk factors for the development of disease is mental stress. Specifically, chronic stress of the psyche is traumatic to the cellular machinery of the body like the protective telomere tails of DNA strands or the functioning intestinal microbiome.
Enjoy,
Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast – Putting It All Together #1

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

This week on the show, I sit down to put the first three maternal/child health podcasts into perspective. We take a more nuanced view of how these three experts are tied together. We examine the basic underpinnings of maternal health risks through the eyes of these thought leaders in preparation for the next three experts who will take us on a tour of human health from a microbiome and environmental perspective. This show is also a way for the folks that are on the go to get a summary of the podcasts for their benefit.

 

Be well,

Dr. M

1 2