Hey, everyone, welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays, and today we are looking at the third installment about the major hallmarks of aging and what we can actually do about it.

Hey, everyone, welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays, and today we are looking at the third installment about the major hallmarks of aging and what we can actually do about it.

So this week we're going to talk about epigenetic alterations, which takes us into the fascinating world of gene expression, how your genes are turned on or off like light switches. And so in week one, you remember we talked about genomic instability, which is damage to our DNA and we know that whilst your DNA sequence is fixed, the way that your body uses that DNA can be shaped by your lifestyle.

So this week we're going to talk about epigenetic alterations, which takes us into the fascinating world of gene expression, how your genes are turned on or off like light switches. And so in week one, you remember we talked about genomic instability, which is damage to our DNA and we know that whilst your DNA sequence is fixed, the way that your body uses that DNA can be shaped by your lifestyle.

So think of epigenics.

So think of epigenics.

There's a number of different analogies you could use, but one that I quite like is that your DNA has basically a massive instruction manual for your body to tell the cells what to do, how to behave, what sales to.

There's a number of different analogies you could use, but one that I quite like is that your DNA has basically a massive instruction manual for your body to tell the cells what to do, how to behave, what sales to.

Turn into, and all those sorts of things.

Turn into, and all those sorts of things.

Epigenetics is like a series of bookmarks and highlights in that manual, determining which instructions get red and which stay hidden. And that's really really important because it can tell genes what to do, when to switch on, when to switch off, and as we age, these markers actually change, and scientists can actually measure these changes to determine your biological age, which might be different from your chronological age. And you might have seen a number of these epigenetic clocks that are out there, such as the hove Art clock and the dun Eden clock. And we've actually myself and Denise who's been on the podcast several times, we actually did a study on biological aging, which I'm going to talk about in a few weeks with Denise. But anyway back to this weeks, so, just to recap, epigenetics refers to changes in gene expression that can occur without altering the underlying DNA sequence, and these changes are controlled by mechanisms, several mechanisms such as DNA methylation. Think of these as chemical tags called methyl groups, which attached to the DNA and silence certain genes when they need to be silenced. Then we have his stone modification. This is the DNA is wrapped around these proteins called his stones, and modifications to histones can actually tighten or loosen this wrap, affecting access to the genes. And then the third one is what's called non coding RNA, and these small RNA molecules help to regulate which genes are expressed, so it's a pretty complicated process. But anyway, as I said earlier, as we use these epigenetic patterns become disrupted and genes that should remain silent may be turned on, and important protective genes may also be turned off just from little errors. And these disruptions can lead to inflammation, impert cellular function, and age related diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and neurodegenerative diseases. So let's talk about what we can actually do, and that you won't have to be a rocket scientist to think that. The first thing is exercise, Yes, spokes, surprise, surprise. The exciting use is that regular physical activity can positively influence epigenetic processes by a few different mechanisms. First is reprogramming DNA methylation, So exercise has been shown to reverse harmful DNA methylation patterns. For example, it can silence inflammatory genes and activate genes involved in antioxidant defense. When we talked about the impact of that last week on your televisions, and I think you'll see as we go through the twelve major hallmarks of aging that quite a lot of them are interrelated with each other, hence why the solutions are often repeated weekend, week out. The second one is improving histone modification. This is the second mechanism, so physical activity helps to modify histones in ways that keep the DNA accessible for the expression of protective genes.

Epigenetics is like a series of bookmarks and highlights in that manual, determining which instructions get red and which stay hidden. And that's really really important because it can tell genes what to do, when to switch on, when to switch off, and as we age, these markers actually change, and scientists can actually measure these changes to determine your biological age, which might be different from your chronological age. And you might have seen a number of these epigenetic clocks that are out there, such as the hove Art clock and the dun Eden clock. And we've actually myself and Denise who's been on the podcast several times, we actually did a study on biological aging, which I'm going to talk about in a few weeks with Denise. But anyway back to this weeks, so, just to recap, epigenetics refers to changes in gene expression that can occur without altering the underlying DNA sequence, and these changes are controlled by mechanisms, several mechanisms such as DNA methylation. Think of these as chemical tags called methyl groups, which attached to the DNA and silence certain genes when they need to be silenced. Then we have his stone modification. This is the DNA is wrapped around these proteins called his stones, and modifications to histones can actually tighten or loosen this wrap, affecting access to the genes. And then the third one is what's called non coding RNA, and these small RNA molecules help to regulate which genes are expressed, so it's a pretty complicated process. But anyway, as I said earlier, as we use these epigenetic patterns become disrupted and genes that should remain silent may be turned on, and important protective genes may also be turned off just from little errors. And these disruptions can lead to inflammation, impert cellular function, and age related diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and neurodegenerative diseases. So let's talk about what we can actually do, and that you won't have to be a rocket scientist to think that. The first thing is exercise, Yes, spokes, surprise, surprise. The exciting use is that regular physical activity can positively influence epigenetic processes by a few different mechanisms. First is reprogramming DNA methylation, So exercise has been shown to reverse harmful DNA methylation patterns. For example, it can silence inflammatory genes and activate genes involved in antioxidant defense. When we talked about the impact of that last week on your televisions, and I think you'll see as we go through the twelve major hallmarks of aging that quite a lot of them are interrelated with each other, hence why the solutions are often repeated weekend, week out. The second one is improving histone modification. This is the second mechanism, so physical activity helps to modify histones in ways that keep the DNA accessible for the expression of protective genes.

And then the third one.

And then the third one.

Is regulating that non coding RNA that I talked about earlier on. Exercise influences the production of non coding RNAs, some of which help to reduce inflammation and improve mitochondrial function. And there's a growing evidence that exercise impacts epigenetics in powerful ways. A twenty twelve study in the journal's Sale Metabolism, which is a real quality journal, so that after just one session of cycling, participants had changes in DNA methylation in genes related to energy, metabolism and inflam positive changes. That was Another study found that a six months cardiovascar exercise program and older adults significantly altered DNA methylation patterns associated with aging, promoting healthier gene expression. And in research on resistance training, individuals who participated in strength training workouts showed favorable changes in histone modifications, enhancing cellular resilience. So we see again that cardiovascular and strength training kind of independent and synergistic benefits, and that's why it's important to do both things. Then let's talk about diets. So there's a number of things in our diet that can really help because they support these epigenetic patterns.

Is regulating that non coding RNA that I talked about earlier on. Exercise influences the production of non coding RNAs, some of which help to reduce inflammation and improve mitochondrial function. And there's a growing evidence that exercise impacts epigenetics in powerful ways. A twenty twelve study in the journal's Sale Metabolism, which is a real quality journal, so that after just one session of cycling, participants had changes in DNA methylation in genes related to energy, metabolism and inflam positive changes. That was Another study found that a six months cardiovascar exercise program and older adults significantly altered DNA methylation patterns associated with aging, promoting healthier gene expression. And in research on resistance training, individuals who participated in strength training workouts showed favorable changes in histone modifications, enhancing cellular resilience. So we see again that cardiovascular and strength training kind of independent and synergistic benefits, and that's why it's important to do both things. Then let's talk about diets. So there's a number of things in our diet that can really help because they support these epigenetic patterns.

We know polyphenols.

We know polyphenols.

These are compounds found in foods like berries, green tea, dark chocolate, and lots of other things. They have been shown to influence DNA methylation patterns. A study into twenty twenty two twenty twenty three in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry found that regular consumption of polyphenols was associated with slower epigenetic aging. And the Mediterranean diet again, there's our special mention here because it's rich in olive oil, fish, vegetables and has been linked to more favorable epigenetic patterns. It also has heaps of polyphenols in it as well, and the amiga three fatty acids in fatty fish are particularly interesting as they not only influence our epigenetic markers, but they also help with telemere. So here we get this crossover effect again. And we also know really important in epigenetics is certain nutrients like foliate and B vitamins.

These are compounds found in foods like berries, green tea, dark chocolate, and lots of other things. They have been shown to influence DNA methylation patterns. A study into twenty twenty two twenty twenty three in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry found that regular consumption of polyphenols was associated with slower epigenetic aging. And the Mediterranean diet again, there's our special mention here because it's rich in olive oil, fish, vegetables and has been linked to more favorable epigenetic patterns. It also has heaps of polyphenols in it as well, and the amiga three fatty acids in fatty fish are particularly interesting as they not only influence our epigenetic markers, but they also help with telemere. So here we get this crossover effect again. And we also know really important in epigenetics is certain nutrients like foliate and B vitamins.

They along with.

They along with.

Polyphenols, they act as methyl donors and they influence that d methylation. So having lots of foods like broccoli in the entire broccoli family, keel, Brussels sprouts, all of those things, cabbage as well as excuse me, berries tumoric, it's really really useful for DNA methylation and green tea, they're all particularly beneficial. And now if we move outside of nutrition, oh actually, but before I move out of that, when we eat matters as well. So research recent research are intermittent fasting and time restricted feeding has actually shown promising results. And these eating patterns appear to activate cellular rappair processes and influence epigenetic regulators called sirtuins. So when we're just constantly firing up our metabolic processes and particularly our nutritional processes, the body doesn't actually get time to do the repair work. It does the rappair work when that stuff is switched off. So making sure that you're going at least ten hours overnight without eating, I think is really really important. There and a few other things that play into as well. And again you will see this stuff coming up again and again. Managing stress because stress drives inflammation, and inflammation does all sorts of horrible shit in our body, including negatively affecting epigenetic markers, particularly change related to metabolism and inflammation. And then and toxins, just your overall toxin exposure from smoking, pollution, excessive alcohol consumption, putting lots of shit on your skin, being exposed to lots of microplastics. All of these things induce harmful epigenetic changing changes. And once you can't avoid all toxins, we can certainly reduce our exposure to these sorts of things. And the old goldilocks and three burrs comes into play as well. And when it comes to sunlight, because we know we need a further of sunlight to manufacture vitamin D, and if you've got low vitamin D, you're in trouble. But excessive exposure to sunlight can actually damage our methylation processes. So not too much, not too little, it's got to be just right. And then one last thing that's actually come out recently that has been really useful in terms of epigenetics is social connections. Studies have shown that strong social relationships are associated with more favorable epigenetic patterns. Loneliness and social isolation, on the other hand, can accelerate biological aging. So before we wrap up, just a quick summary and making sure you're exercising regularly, focusing on that nutrient rich diet, high and polyphenols and amiga three fatty acids, maybe considering some form of time restricted feeding as well, then trying to minimize.

Polyphenols, they act as methyl donors and they influence that d methylation. So having lots of foods like broccoli in the entire broccoli family, keel, Brussels sprouts, all of those things, cabbage as well as excuse me, berries tumoric, it's really really useful for DNA methylation and green tea, they're all particularly beneficial. And now if we move outside of nutrition, oh actually, but before I move out of that, when we eat matters as well. So research recent research are intermittent fasting and time restricted feeding has actually shown promising results. And these eating patterns appear to activate cellular rappair processes and influence epigenetic regulators called sirtuins. So when we're just constantly firing up our metabolic processes and particularly our nutritional processes, the body doesn't actually get time to do the repair work. It does the rappair work when that stuff is switched off. So making sure that you're going at least ten hours overnight without eating, I think is really really important. There and a few other things that play into as well. And again you will see this stuff coming up again and again. Managing stress because stress drives inflammation, and inflammation does all sorts of horrible shit in our body, including negatively affecting epigenetic markers, particularly change related to metabolism and inflammation. And then and toxins, just your overall toxin exposure from smoking, pollution, excessive alcohol consumption, putting lots of shit on your skin, being exposed to lots of microplastics. All of these things induce harmful epigenetic changing changes. And once you can't avoid all toxins, we can certainly reduce our exposure to these sorts of things. And the old goldilocks and three burrs comes into play as well. And when it comes to sunlight, because we know we need a further of sunlight to manufacture vitamin D, and if you've got low vitamin D, you're in trouble. But excessive exposure to sunlight can actually damage our methylation processes. So not too much, not too little, it's got to be just right. And then one last thing that's actually come out recently that has been really useful in terms of epigenetics is social connections. Studies have shown that strong social relationships are associated with more favorable epigenetic patterns. Loneliness and social isolation, on the other hand, can accelerate biological aging. So before we wrap up, just a quick summary and making sure you're exercising regularly, focusing on that nutrient rich diet, high and polyphenols and amiga three fatty acids, maybe considering some form of time restricted feeding as well, then trying to minimize.

Your overall toxic load.

Your overall toxic load.

And lastly is making sure you have really good social connections. That's it for this week, folks, catch you next time.

And lastly is making sure you have really good social connections. That's it for this week, folks, catch you next time.