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Epigenetics: Poverty can lead to later obesity?

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That might help people understand, why – in developed countries where food supply is a solvable problem – poor people tend to be fat. ( CBC News, Oct 28, 2011):

Adults who grew up in poverty show changes in the “programming” of their DNA that may be linked to health problems such as obesity and autoimmune diseases, Canadian and British researchers have found.

Researchers had previously known that DNA is “programmed” in the womb to turn certain genes up or down, and more recently have shown that some programming can continue into childhood and adulthood.

But the study published online this week in the International Journal of Epidemiology is the first to show an actual link between a person’s early economic circumstances and the biochemistry of that person’s DNA, said Moshe Szyf, a professor of pharmacology at McGill University, who co-authored the study with colleagues at the University of British Columbia and the UCL Institute of Child Health in London.

Remember genes r’ us? Yeah.

Comments
Robert Byers: "Human nature and will is not controlled by genetics. Thats the nerve point here." ==== That's not what I said. It's the other way around. The imperfect nature of human beings making lousy lifestyle choices and decision making by the misuse of freewill however has been shown to change genetics and most often for the worse(Just as your holy book states plainly). Did you watch the 46 minute video ??? It all started back in Eden where the choice of self-determination turned off those mechanical genetic switches for continued cell renewal.(Again, just as the God of the Bible told them it would) Scientists have been wondering ever since just what turns them off and if they can possibly be switched back on. ---- Robert Byers: "No reason to think ones parents affected ones genes for everything." ==== Once again, that is NOT what the Bible has shown and what scietists have discovered. Remember, it doesn't get any plainer than this: Romans 5:12 Amplified Bible (AMP) (12) "Therefore, as sin came into the world through one man[Adam], and death as the result of sin, so death spread to all men, [[a]no one being able to stop it or to escape its power] because all men sinned." ---- Robert Byers: "However obesity, just a thing of free will, is not inherited." ==== This is again something that science has proven to be true. It can indeed be inherited. Though as always people can independently make stupid idiot lifestyle choices to their own detriment.Eocene
October 31, 2011
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I don't agree. The bible says we are given 70 years period. This being long enough to get saved for the afterlife. with health 80. No reason to think ones parents affected ones genes for everything. Now if a kid is born with a thing from its relatives thats fine. However obesity, just a thing of free will, is not inherited. Its not a disease. They are just perplexed why fat people exist or live like their parents. These things are about things that touch a deeper satisfaction. Grow up with the greater need for satisfaction , not average, and the kid will be like the parent or like that because of their own hopelessness and then a habity kicks in hard. The lower classes always have over indulgence in things that satisfy in a instant. They keep the instants coming. A creationist must always make evolutionists prove this CONTROLLED by genetics thing prove itself . Human nature and will is not controlled by genetics. Thats the nerve point here.Robert Byers
October 31, 2011
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Robert Byers: "People who gre up in poverty, whatever that means in North America, were from less successful (less able eh) parents. Later in life they get richer then poverty but still are below average." ==== I don't believe that was the point. Anybody of any background can obtain wealth if that is their personal obsession. However, physical health and quality of life itself as a living organism can be effected by what ancestors went through or experienced as a result of environment or bad choices made by those same ancestors. Take a look if you have time at the 'Horizon' documentary "The Ghost In Your Genes" where geneticists Marcus Pembrey and Swedish Researcher Lars Olov Bygren discover just how environmental effects like say famine can cause diabetes or shorter lifespan in descendants of those ancestors who actually lived over 100 years previous, yet modern day descendants live in times of plenty. Even bad lifestyle choices made by ancestors to smoke like a train or drink like a fish have genomic imprinting effects on the genes of descendants for a predispostion for such vices. This actually agrees with a certain theme which runs throughout the bible on such inheritances for which the Mosaic Law constantly reminded the Israelites of the consequences of sin and death. Jeremiah 31:29 - Lamentations 5:7 -etc In almost all studies of epigenetics I've seen, the underlying view is of the negative effects and consequences of bad environmental experiences or bad decision making on lifestyle choices. This is in agreement with the biblical view which warns against pursuing bad choices in life. While the Bible views it as negatives towards a happy life, it is noteworthy to hear Evolutionists extoll the virtues of epigenetic bad consequences as something to be celebrated in view of their copying error mutational theology. Clearly it must be admitted that bad choices add bad results on down the line. But could it also be said that right choices also have possitive effects on health and hereditory results in the opposite direction ???Eocene
October 30, 2011
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i don't think so. People who gre up in poverty, whatever that means in North America, were from less successful (less able eh) parents. Later in life they get richer then poverty but still are below average. i find these classes to have less hope for future happiness and present happiness. Food is a delight to a sad soul like other things. your upper middle class with great food before it are always thin. they have hope for a good present and future and don't need extra stimulate. Practical motivations are after all the root behind over weight people who are simply eating more as it makes them feel good .Robert Byers
October 30, 2011
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