Epigenetics (D)

Your genes play an important role in your health , but so do your behaviours and ____________________ , such as what you eat and how physically active you are . Epigenetics is the study of how your behaviours and environment can cause changes that ____________________ the way your genes work . Unlike genetic changes , epigenetic changes are ____________________ and do not change your DNA ____________________ , but they can change how your body ____________________ a DNA sequence .

Gene ____________________ refers to how often or when proteins are created from the ____________________ within your genes . While genetic changes can ____________________ which protein is made , epigenetic changes affect gene expression to ____________________ genes ? on ? and ? off . ? Since your environment and behaviours , such as diet and exercise , can ____________________ in epigenetic changes , it is easy to see the ____________________ between your genes and your behaviours and environment .

Your epigenetics change as you ____________________ , both as part of normal development and aging and in ____________________ to your behaviours and environment .

Epigenetic changes begin before you are born . All your cells have the same genes but look and act differently . As you grow and develop , epigenetics helps ____________________ which function a cell will have , for example , whether it will become a heart cell , nerve cell , or skin cell .
For example , your muscle cells and nerve cells have the same DNA but work differently . A nerve cell transports ____________________ to other cells in your body . A muscle cell has a structure that ____________________ in your body ? s ability to move . Epigenetics allows the muscle cell to turn ? on ? genes to make ____________________ important for its job and turn ? off ? genes important for a nerve cell ? s job .

Current work ____________________ that so - called epigenetic mechanisms of gene ____________________ could explain how early life experiences can leave ____________________ chemical marks on the brain and influence both physical and mental health later in life .
Around 60 years after the Dutch Hunger Winter Famine ( 1944 - 1945 ) , researchers looked at people whose mothers were pregnant with them during that time . It ____________________ out that they were more ____________________ to develop certain diseases such as heart disease , schizophrenia , and type 2 diabetes .

Epigenetic changes can affect your health in different other ways . For example , germs can change your epigenetics to ____________________ your immune system . This helps the germ ____________________ .
Certain mutations make you more likely to ____________________ cancer . ____________________ , some epigenetic changes increase your cancer ____________________ . Epigenetics can be used to help determine which type of cancer a person has or can help to find hard to ____________________ cancers earlier .

Not all epigenetic changes seem permanent . Most changes to DNA ____________________ after five years if people quit smoking , for example , but some changes last decades . Some genes had not been ____________________ as being affected before . Smoking ____________________ DNA in clear patterns . Most of the ____________________ fades over time , but not all of it .