Day 8 - What is epigenetics and why should you care

Think about epigenetics as the instructions that you and your environment are sending to your body 24×7, 365 days a year.

Meet Otto and Ewald.

They’re identical twins. That means that their genes are identical. They sure don’t look very identical.

This is a great example of epigenetics.

Otto and Ewald have identical DNA, but Otto was a distance runner and Ewald specialized in field events like discus, shot put, hammer throw, etc. so their training was completely different and the instructions that they sent to their DNA were completely different.

It’s a pretty graphic illustration that your environment and your lifestyle can have a significant impact on outcome.

You’re constantly sending messages to your body to upregulate some genes and downregulate others.

Exercise, sleep, meditation, nutrition can all upregulate helpful genes and downregulate some of the nasty ones.

But lack of exercise, sleep deprivation, stress, and a lousy diet can have the opposite effect.

Today’s assignment is real food, enjoy your walk, get your sleep and find time for a 7 minute workout.  If it was too easy last time you can do two of them back to back.  Option 1 & Option 2 or get the iPhone version 7MWC