Attracting Abundance

- 120 -

The Law

Belief - XXXII

Identical twins have the same genes. Yet as individuals, they can be quite different and that difference becomes wider as they grow older. The scientists think it is the effect of nurture on nature - epigenetics. In simple terms, epigenetic mechanisms are molecular events that govern the way the environment regulates the genomes. Thus is a very young area of research and is being pursued with vigor. It is opening up a blind side of science - explaining how life experiences affect biology and behavior.

One stream of these investigations is called behavioral epigenetics which focuses on how the signals from environment, which includes experiences, nutrition, hormones, toxicological exposures etc., trigger biological changes that modify what goes on in brain cells. Though the research in this line has been started recently, a voluminous amount of work has been done.

Some conclusions have been reached but much more is required to be researched and established. Conclusive evidence has been found that the brain cells translates the mind's perceptions or beliefs in to complementary chemical signals, that when ingested in to the blood, influences all cells in the human body. "So the blood's neurochemeical composition changes when with our beliefs which then initiates a complementary change in the body's cells. Thus a coherence is created between our beliefs and the reality we experience" explains Bruce Lipton.

Some of the scientific conclusions on the relationship between epigenetic tags and behavior are shortlisted below:

1. In people who commit suicide, methyl levels are higher on ribosomal RNA (rRNA) in a part of the brain called hippocampus, which is responsible for memory and learning. More methyl means less rRNA production, which means fewer ribisomes, which means less protein production.
2. Child abuse leaves an epigenetic mark on the brain. ONly the abused victims had an epigenetic tag on the GR gene.
3. CBP is a protein that plays an important role in activating genes involved in learning and memory. Having one faulty copy of CBP gene causes Rubistein - Taybi syndrome, a condition which may cause mental distability.
4. In schizophrenic brains, the gene for REELIN protein has less methyl making the gene more active. REELIN is an important for shaping the brain early in development and later on for learning. 
5. One scan of epigenetic markers in the brain identified about 60 genes that are different between psychiatric patients and healthy people. Most of these code for proteins that are important for signalling between brain cells.
6. Some drugs that are used to treat mental illness work by changing gene expression. These changes in gene expression are stabilized through epigenetic mechanisms like DNA methylation and histone modification, reversing the effects of the disease.       (Note: DNA methylation is a process by which methyl groups are added to the DNA by which it modifies the function of the DNA. Remember on of the four nucleotides is cytosine. When a methyl group is added to the cytosine base, that particular gene gets silenced. The methylated genes are not transcribed. DNA methylation typically correspond to long-term epigenetic memory: once methylated, genome DNA remains methylated through generations. Histone modification also plays an important role in gene modification. Histones are proteins which work as spools around which DNA winds in chromatin. This compacting allows the DNA to get accommodated in a much smaller space than it would otherwise. Although Histones do not interact with polymerase enzymes directly, their modification can affect the way DNA wraps around them and thereby influence which genes are expressed. Histone modification provides for short term epigenetic memory and can ber reversed after a cell division cycle.)
7. Drugs of abuse such  as cocaine trigger epigenetic changes in certain brain regions affecting hundreds of genes at a time. Some of these changes remain long after the drug has been cleared from the system. Research in this area suggests that some of the long-term effects of drug abuse and addiction (including high rates of relapse) may be written in epigenetic code.
8. The basis o all behavior is learning and memory. Epigentic modifications to a large number of genes have now been shown to figure in learning and remembering. Several studies have established that both DNA methylation and histone modifications are essential for learning and remembering. Some examples are based on fear conditioning, in which mice learn to show fear of a particular location where they have been subjected to electrical shocks.

The epigenetics of parental care got its start two decades ago when researches (Michael Meaney et al) showed that rats' mothering styles influenced their pups' response to stress as adults as a result of effects on the glucocorticoid receptor in the hippocampus. Offsprings of nurturing mothers tended to be less anxious than those of indifferent mothers. The Canadian researchers showed how early experience could shape an adult animal's behavior and susceptibility, and they attributed these findings to changes by epigenetic events.

In one set of experiments the male lab rats were subjected to toxins and that produced behavioral changes in their offspring, even when the exposure takes place well before their mating. When male mice and rats are exposed to alcohol before mating, their offspring do less well at discrimination on spatial tasks, and they are more aggressive, take more risks, and display more anxiety-like behavior than offspring of unexposed animals. Males exposed to cocaine have offspring with smaller brains and deficits in attention and working memory. Even males exposed to toxins during their own embryonic development transmit detrimental effects to their offspring.In all of the examples mentioned above epigenetic changes, especially those in DNA methylation, have been observed.

In one of the few human studies that have been done, carefully kept records of ninetheenth and early twentieth century parish records from northern Sweden have revealed that men (not women) who had plenty to eat before their puberty suffered from diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and early death.

Human studies are limited, because access to brain tissue is limited. Getting brain tissue from living human beings is not an option, and it is not clear that blood will ever be an acceptable surrogate tissue, specially for behavioral epigenetics.

It is clear that understanding the role of epigentic mechanism in regulating fundamental cell biology will be transformative. It draws parallel to the advent of cellular biology in the '70s. The epigenetic mechanisms are going to permeate all aspects of functional cell biology by the time it is understood fully.

In conclusion, I quote an extract from Bruce Lipton's book "The Biology of Belief":

"The evidence that belief exerts a powerful influence over physiology, gene expression and behavior has led epigeneticist Cole to conclude "To an extent that immunologists and psychologists rarely appreciate, we are architects of our own experience. Your subjective experience carries more power than your objective situation"(Dobbs, 2013, Pacific Standard magazine). In Cole's quote the term "subjective experience" represents perception or belief, while objective situation can be interpreted as reality. Replacing Cole's words with these synonyms, his quote now reads: Your belief carries more power than your reality."



Namaste


See you again


Prabir

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