Epigenetics, the Methylation Cycle
and Gene Switching

Throughout your life, different genes will activate or silence (switch on or off) depending on what your body needs to best adapt to your environment. This process of activating and silencing is referred to as epigenetics and is a natural process that does not involve actually changing the underlying DNA sequence in the gene.

Epigenetic change is influenced by age, environment, lifestyle, nutrition as well as disease states. Epigenetics explains why you may have a gene(s) which increases your probability of developing a disease, but you may never actually develop that disease: the gene remains silent. The opposite is also true.

This breakthrough in scientific understanding, which began in mid-20th century with the work of Conrad Waddington and Ernst Hadorn, has exploded in the past decade. Scientific researchers are only just beginning to understand the potential of influencing epigenetics to create health and cure disease.

One of the currently known ways that your body initiates and sustains epigenetic change is through the Methylation Cycle. The Methylation Cycle is the chemical process involved in determining whether or not the instructions in various genes are carried out efficiently or not.

Most of these genetic instructions have to do with turning on or off the production of various enzymes that convert chemical substances in the body based on the body's needs at any given time. However, if you have a "glitch" or mutation in any of the genes that make up the Methylation Cycle, you will not be able to benefit from activating or silencing genes when it is appropriate and beneficial.

This puts your health in jeopardy and is an important component of many Complex & Chronic Diseases.

The good news is that if you are interested in knowing whether or not your Methylation Cycle is working efficiently, Dr. Gay will direct you to easily obtain your genetic information using a saliva sample and submitting it to one of the genetic profiling services such as 23 and Me. Once your genetic profile is sorted, Dr. Gay is trained to interpret this information and identify genes in the Methylation Cycle that are not optimally functioning. She will then prescribe a personalized nutritional supplement program for you that will help to bypass or compensate for these problem genes.

The benefit to you is a well-functioning Methylation Cycle and the ability of your system to respond appropriately to your circumstances of life by activating or silencing genes as needed. Creating a personal nutritional supplement program for the Methylation Cycle can be part of an overall Nutrigenomic Coaching™ program or provided separately.

Please schedule a consultation for more information.