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What you eat now can affect the DNA of future generations.

Avoiding toxins and eating the most healthy diet possible can help fuel the future for success.

Epigenetics refers to changes in gene expression from outside forces. Different from a mutation, epigenetic changes lie not in the DNA itself but rather in its surroundings — the enzymes and other chemicals that orchestrate how a DNA molecule unwinds its various sections to make proteins or even new cells.

Recent studies have shown how nutrition dramatically alters the health and appearance of otherwise identical mice. A group led by Randy Jirtle of Duke University demonstrated how mouse clones implanted as embryos in separate mothers will have radical differences in fur color, weight, and risk for chronic diseases depending on what that mother was fed during pregnancy.

Baldness, Color Blindness, Lactose Intolerance, Acne and Heart Disease are traits which are genetic.

In an age when we do everything possible to be our best there are some things we just can’t change.
Colorblindness affects about 10 percent of men but less than 1 percent of women. It is directly inherited, and here’s why it’s more common in men: Genes for the eye’s red and green receptors sit near each other on the X-chromosome. Men have one X-chromosome, which they inherit from their mother; women have two, and a good gene will often balance out a defective one. Ninety-nine percent of cases involve the challenge of distinguishing between reds and greens. Complete colorblindness, or achromatopsia, is rare, affecting about one in 30,000 people worldwide. Interestingly, colorblind people dream in whatever colors they normally distinguish when awake.

Left handedness has been a fascination of scientists for centuries.

Curiosity ranged from fear to questions about how the brain works and what is different about left handed brains.

New research explores what might cause left handedness and what, if any health risks may accompany this trait and whether or not the cause is in the genes or in the environment.

Handedness, as the dominance of one hand over the other is called, provides a window into the way our brains are wired, experts say. And it may help shed light on disorders related to brain development, like dyslexia, schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, which are more common in left-handed people.

Other recent research suggests that mixed-handedness—using different hands for daily tasks and not having a dominant one—may be even more strongly linked than left-handedness to ADHD and possibly other conditions.

About 10% of people are left-handed, according to expert estimates. Another 1% of the population is mixed-handed. What causes people not to favor their right hand is only partly due to genetics—even identical twins, who have 100% of the same genes, don’t always share handedness.

Those at risk for heart attack might surprise you.

For people with genetic risk factors and a family history of heart disease, a “healthy” lifestyle may not be enough.

Aggressive dietary and exercise changes and early screening for signs of illness are a must.

Dr. Dean Ornish, who has researched the relationship between lifestyle and health, says even the most malignant family history can be overcome.
“I don’t think anyone is doomed to have heart disease,” said Ornish, founder and president of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute.
“You know, even if your mother and your father and your sister and your brother all die from heart disease it doesn’t mean you need ever to die from it,” he added. “It just means you need to make bigger changes in your life than someone else who doesn’t have those kinds of genes.”

Why would economists focus on this age old debate of genetisists and social engineers?

Could it be that perhaps they are starting to see the ubiquitous connection between the wellness of a society and wealth of it’s economy?

The question of parenting has become of increasing interest to economists. At the American Economic Association’s annual meeting in Denver this year, for example, there was a panel on the effect of mothers’ employment on their children, as well as household choices and child development.