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.

Sometimes the hardest part about making changes is simply getting started.

But affecting great change can be accomplished by little adjustments.

Overhauling your lifestyle to improve your health can seem daunting and, quite simply, impossible so most of us won’t even consider the challenge.

However, starting with two simple aspects of your routine can snowball into real results that have substantial impact.

Eating more fruits and vegetables and cutting back on television viewing are two lifestyle changes that can effect dramatic changes in the ability to continue on a path to healthy living.

To determine which changes were most effective, the researchers recruited 204 adults aged 21 to 60, who engaged in all four unhealthy diet- and activity-related behaviors. The participants were divided into four treatment groups, each of which was assigned two lifestyle changes: increasing fruit and vegetable intake and increasing physical activity; decreasing fat consumption and reducing leisure time spent sedentary; decreasing fat intake and increasing physical activity; or increasing fruit and vegetable intake and decreasing sedentary leisure.

The participants engaged in their treatment regimens for three weeks and self-reported their progress by logging their data into a personal digital assistant every day and sending it to a coach who communicated with the participants as needed by telephone or email.

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.

New therapies for victims for early onset Parkinson’s show promise for managing symptoms.

People like Michael J Fox are able to live productive lives with this debilitating disease by utilizing new coping techniques.

Dancing seems to improve overall wellness for many illnesses.

So “cut a rug”!

Water is necessary to regulate body temperature and to provide the means for nutrients to travel to all your organs.

Water also transports oxygen to your cells, removes waste, and protects your joints and organs.

A good estimate is to take your body weight in pounds and divide that number in half.

That gives you the number of ounces of water per day that you need to drink.

For example, if you weigh 160 pounds, you should drink at least 80 ounces of water per day.

If you exercise, you should drink another eight ounce glass of water for every 20 minutes you are active. I

f you drink alcohol, you should drink at least an equal amount of water.

“Drinking water cooled to 37.4 degrees may lead to a slight increase in calorie expenditure for an hour after you quaff it, a study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism finds. (The cool liquid forces your body to work to maintain its internal temperature.) And a glass before a meal—chilled or not—may curb your appetite slightly, helping cut calories.

And maybe protect your heart. When a National Institutes of Health–funded study tracked 34,000 people for 14 years, it found that men who downed five to six glasses of water a day were nearly 70 percent less likely to die of a heart attack. The correlation wasn’t as strong in women, but “it’s a very intriguing finding.

We are now following 96,000 men and women in another study and will see if the preliminary results hold.”

The alarm was sounded on Wednesday, when federal officials announced that tests had detected a trace amount of iodine 131 in milk.

Although we may never know the extent of radiation exposure to the food supply; the alarm hasn’t gone off.

Be reasonably cautious about food purchases.

“I’ve had members call to ask whether we’ve seen the media, and media calling to ask how this is impacting our members,” said Michael Marsh, the chief executive of Western United Dairymen, the milk industry’s West Coast trade association. Mr. Marsh said he had repeated the assurances given by officials, but he also understood the fears in the supermarket’s refrigerated aisle.