Aging and disease—lifestyle choices drive changes in your genes

This paper published in the journal Allergy & Immunology discusses the molecular basis of a factor that is crucial for the decisions we make in daily life. This is because our choices and environment change our gene expression as we age, which plays a key role in how we become more prone to autoimmune, inflammatory and malignant disorders as the years go by. In the background there develops a persistent chronic low-grade inflammation. The authors state, "The decline in immunocompetence with age is accompanied by the increase in the incidence of autoimmune diseases. Aging of the immune system... is characterized by...the presence of low-grade chronic inflammation. There is growing evidence that epigenetics, the study of inherited changes in gene expression that are not encoded by the DNA sequence itself, changes with aging. Interestingly, emerging evidence suggests a key role for epigenetics in human pathologies, including inflammatory and neoplastic disorders." [neoplastic = abnormal growths] They continue to describe the role of key molecular processes such as DNA methylation that we evaluate and treat in our functional medicine approach to chronic disease and aging.