Nutrition and Epigenetics

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), diabetes, obesity and cancer are polygenic in nature and their prevalences and mortality vary depending upon genetic susceptibility and the presence of phenotype risk factors. The heritability of variant phenotypes may depend on the intake of proinflammatory or anti-inflammatory nutrients, for their expression as phenotypes or their suppression. Genes are important for the determination of enzymes, receptors, cofactors, structural components involved in the regulation of blood pressure, the metabolism of lipids, lipoproteins and inflammatory and coagulation factors that help discover individual risks for CVDs. An interaction of specific nutrients with the genetic code possessed by all nucleated cells can be recognized. Further studies indicate that methylation of the chromatins appears to be most important in epigenetics leading to an increased risk of obesity and metabolic syndrome. The new field of epigenetics has emerged with more impact on cellular transgeneration profiles primarily dealing with health perspectives. It is not a change in the sequence of the DNA itself, but in how genes are expressed because some of them may get ‘shut off' as a result of environmental trauma and others are expressed due to a favorable environment.