Remember high school anatomy class, where you learned that DNA and cells make up our bodies? You may not have learned about the epigenome back then, but scientists have been studying it for decades.
The genome is your body’s complete set of DNA and genes. The epigenome is made up of the DNA packaging material called histones and chemicals that tell the genome what to do. These chemicals can turn different genes on or off to create different types of cells. For example, the epigenome tells your skin cells to behave like skin cells, liver cells like liver cells, and so on.
Epigenome and Disease
The chemical compounds that comprise and affect the epigenome come from natural sources such as food, or man-made sources such as medicines.
Research shows that changes in the epigenome can trigger diseases such as heart disease, autoimmune diseases and diabetes.
Nutrition’s Effect on DNA
The effect of nutrition on cellular health is nothing new. For years, scientists have studied the way certain nutrients can affect DNA.
Our food provides nutrients necessary for methylation of DNA, an essential biochemical process that affects the expression of genes. DNA methylation can be improved or inhibited by our nutritional intake. For example, choline — a micronutrient found in cauliflower — can improve fetal brain development by improving DNA methylation.
The release of genes that cause inflammation can also be affected by nutrition. For example, resveratrol — a micronutrient found in grapes — can reduce symptoms of colitis by reducing the effect of inflammatory genes.
Lunasin: The Future of Nutritional Genomics
One of the most exciting discoveries in nutritional genomics is a soy peptide called lunasin. Changes in the epigenome can cause serious diseases. Lunasin attaches to the histones and helps the epigenome function properly, so that these changes do not occur in the cells.
Lunasin nourishes – provides the nutritional fuel to promote optimal expression of genes required for normal cell function.
Lunasin protects – reduces inflammation and cell damage caused by free radicals and other environmental hazards. Provides protection in two ways:
- 1. Prevention. Activates the expression of genes that help reduce cell damage and prevents the expression of genes that can cause cell damage.
- 2. Maintenance. Helps remove damaged cells from the body that may cause chronic health problems.
A Note From Dr. Carl Hastings
Are you ready to take advantage of the next big nutrition innovation?
In more than 40 years as a nutrition scientist, I’ve studied hundreds of micronutrients with incredible effects on human health. But lunasin is the most exciting nutritional discovery of them all.
Dozens of clinical studies have already documented lunasin’s positive effects on the epigenome. And many more clinical studies are in the works.
Lunasin is truly on the cutting edge of nutritional science — and Reliv is leading the way.
Reliv has harnessed the power of lunasin in LunaRich™ soy powder. LunaRich contains five to ten times more lunasin than ordinary soy powder, and it’s available only from Reliv.
To your health,
Vice Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Carl Hastings
Sources:
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21266093
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22656386
- http://www.uncnri.org/pdf/2011_Nutrition%20Epigenetics%20Longevity%20_Curr%20Opin%20Clin%20Nutr%20Metab%20Care.pdf
- http://advances.nutrition.org/content/1/1/8.full
- http://epigenome.eu/en/2,48,872
- http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/54/7/1899.full
- http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/54/7/1899.full
- http://people.umass.edu/~braunlab/Gluckman%20Nature%20Endo%202009.pdf
- http://nutrigenomics.ucdavis.edu/?page=information
- http://nutrigenomics.ucdavis.edu/?page=Research/Research_Cores/Micronutrients_and_Genomics
- http://www.genome.gov/27532724
- http://www.lunasin.com