26. Epigenetics - How to Control Your Genetic Destiny with Dr. Steven Cole

01:04 Breaking the Myth: Genetics are not like rocks and the DNA laid down at birth does not necessarily affect you every single day of your life. Whatever genes you got when you were born are neither necessarily what you're keeping until the day you die nor are the genes that determine the day you'll die.

02:03 We change a lot more than we're aware of. Every day, billions of our cells die and are reproduced. We are constantly rebuilt leaving us vulnerable to the influences of the environment around us.

02:46 Epigenetics is all about activating and deactivating genes that we already have encoded in our DNA in the process of constant self-regeneration. The world we live in and the life we live play roles in that process.

04:31 Diseases don't lie by and large in the DNA that we inherited but mostly on which of those genes are turned on and off in a person's life.

05:21 Our food, exercise, degree of stress, chemicals in our environment - everything - influences which genes are turned on or off.

11:30 An immune system in a pretty clean world tends to be over exuberant over the slightest provocations. This translates to the immune system being programmed to make more inflammation - which is great at protecting us from wound injuries but also a lot of other side effects which lead to today's diseases.

13:09 Every piece of permeability and plasticity that we have can also be turned for good. We're not cursed by the DNA that our parents gave us. That stuff is there as a menu of options, but which recipe we order out of that menu is up to us. That's something we can actually control.

15:47 Our DNAs are not strictly 100% identical to your DNA. But genetics is not a blackbox. Who you are right is a byproduct of your DNA, to some extent, but even moreso, your DNA working through your life experiences.

17:51 Vertical Transmission: Who you are today are also influenced to some extent by the life circumstances inhabited by your parents.

19:46 Methylation: Rendering a DNA deaf from incoming information to "turn off" a gene.

24:57 The life we live and circumstances we inhabit shape the way molecular biology of our bodies work and translates into a difference in the likelihood or speed of a disease.

28:04 Eudaimonic Happiness: Helps people stay healthy even though they're confronting adverse life circumstances. The kind of happiness that comes from doing something good or important. People with a higher sense of purpose and engagement have shown good gene profiles.