Nutritional genomics or nutrigenomics is the connection between diet, nutrition, and gene expression. This field was jump-started in the 1990s by the Human Genome Project and the ensuing charting of human DNA sequences. Although it’s still regarded as a developing science, nutrigenomics will transform the way we eat and how nutritionists, dietitians, and doctors recommend diets.

What Is Nutrigenomics?

Nutrigenomics is a branch of genetics. It studies how the foods we eat can influence our genes and how genetic variations shape the way we respond to nutrients.

Let’s briefly examine our DNA to better understand this topic. Do you remember learning about the human genome in your biology class? Human beings have approximately three billion DNA pairings within 23 chromosomal pairs. A vast majority of our genes, 98% to be precise are similar to one another. It is the remaining 2% of the protein-coding genes that will determine your ‘uniqueness’. Also called...

What is NRF-1?

NRF-1 is the acronym for nuclear respiratory factor 1. It is responsible for producing a protein that is seen to homodimerize and act as a major transcription factor, activating the prominence of some metabolic genes. These genes are responsible for regulating nuclear genes and cellular growth that is essential for heme biosynthesis, respiration, and replication and transcription of mitochondrial DNA.

The encoded protein created by NFR-1 is linked with the controlling act for neurite outgrowth. NRF-1 along with NRF-2 relates the biogenomic coordination between mitochondrial and nuclear genomes by regulating the prominence of many ETC proteins (nuclear-encoded) directly, and also regulating the 3 COX subunit genes (mitochondrial-regulated) by triggering off mtTFA, mtTFB1, and mtTFB2.

Alternative transcriptional intertwine variants, which produce the same protein, have also been specified. Additional variants that encode different protein isoforms have been identified...

When Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey posted a Tweet about his 22 hour fast, it started a lot of buzz on cleansing and intermittent fasting. However Dorsey’s eating routine goes beyond fasting; it kicks off a process called autophagy. This sounds like the latest version of fasting but as the hype around it grows, so has others’ interest in cell cleaning.

Shortly after Dorsey’s post, a popular paleo lifestyle site called Mark’s Daily Apple circulated the “Definitive Guide to Autophagy”. He dubbed it as cellular pruning but it’s more appropriate to call it self eating. Not surprisingly, autophagy became the hot button topic in many blogs and articles thereafter.

In intermittent fasting, people fast for long periods of time to trigger autophagy. This programmed cleansing is aimed at disease protection. It is assumed that when external sources of food are absent, the human body engages is self eating (auto meaning self and phage is...

Aging is a natural process that is unavoidable despite all our best and desperate efforts. There are many perks to aging like wisdom, crystallized knowledge and moreover, the earned respect that can only be unlocked with age. However, there are also some very noticeable traits that become more evident as one ages, like fine lines, wrinkles and acne scars. While we may hate these traits, they happen as a natural course of life. As Benjamin Franklin so eloquently put, “we get old too soon and wise too late.”

Getting older doesn’t mean you have to stop enjoying life. Mental and physical health has a lot to do with how we manifest signs of age. By finding the right balance, you can even slow the course of aging. There are many things you could do to stay sharp and active. Physical exercise, a balanced diet, and taking good care of your mental health, all play a major role in slowing down the aging process. Aging is natural. The sooner we accept that, the more graceful...