Epigenetics: The Root of Personal Growth?

Could the root of your personal growth — the key to identifying the daily habits that sabotage your personal growth — be an understanding of epigenetics?

You may be thinking, “How the heck do I know? I don’t even know what epigenetics is.” That’s okay; I didn’t either until a couple of weeks ago.

In a nutshell, epigenetics is the study of how our genes express themselves and how these expressions change the way our cells function.

Gene expression is significant because every cell in your body contains the exact same DNA. The cell only knows what kind of cell it is — nerve cell, blood cell, brain cell, etc. — because of the messages it receives from tags that attach to it, called epigenomes.

Your daily habits change the messages, or “tags”, your genes receive and the way your genes express themselves. Your habits can even determine whether a gene is turned off or on.

If your good genes aren’t turned on and receiving the right messages, your body isn’t going to function properly. And I contend that a healthy body is the root of personal growth. Meaning, understanding epigenetics could be the root of your personal growth.

Not sure you agree with me? Then let me offer 3 crazy facts about our “tags”, or epigenomes, to pique your interest to learn more.

1. Environmental factors — diet, exercise, and stress — determine the types of tags you produce, which cells they attach to, and whether that tag is going to tell the DNA to express itself or not.
2. Some of our tags are passed onto our children through our DNA, but environmental factors can change these tags.

Keep scrolling for crazy fact #3.