The Predicted Impact of Epigenetic on Public Health Practice by 2040

As the narrator from Ghost in Your Genes said, we are truly on the verge of uncovering a

hidden world that serves as a bridge between the past and future generations (1). Findings from

the Human Genome project, paired with an epigenetic approach, can be the key to uncovering

this world. For many years it was widely believed that our life experiences and choices would be

wiped clean for our offspring, but epigenetics says otherwise. Not only will our experiences and

choices affect us in our lifetime, but they can also affect our children, grandchildren, great

grandchildren, and even great-great grandchildren. With that said, the field of epigenetics is

slowly becoming all encompassing in the field of public health. Epigenetic factors can be used as

risk assessors, biomarkers, and environmental targets for modification, among other things.

Risk assessment is a vital component of public health, which places a large emphasis on the

prevention of public outbreaks (2). The prevention of diseases, such as cardiovascular disease,

would be possibly by pinpointing epigenetic factors that lead to complex genotypes and

phenotypes. An example of this would be the case of Stephanie and Amon Mullins who opted

for in vitro fertilization, unaware of the risk they faced from the procedure. Their child, Ciaran

was diagnosed with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome. Scientists speculate that his genes were

switched around when manually extracted and cultured in a dish, triggering some genes to switch

on/off (1). The risk of this very rare disease increases up to 4 times with IVF, and with risk

assessment we can prevent syndrome by developing novel ways to prevent this epigenetic flip.

Epigenetic mechanisms can also serve as biomarkers of exposure and disease. Environmental

exposures in early life have the ability to alter genomes, in turn influencing disease/susceptibility

to health exposures later in life (3). It has been found that stress exposures in mothers can affect

their yet unborn children. This has been seen from studies in pregnant rats who were injected
with stress hormones as well as pregnant women who underwent major stressful events such as

the Holocaust and 9/11. Jonathan Seckl’s rat experiment saw that the first generational offspring,

who had never been exposed to stress, displayed anxious behavior. Similar altered stress

responses were also seen in the second and third generations of offspring leading to the

conclusion that the altered gene from the stress injected rat had been generationally inherited (1).

These mechanisms can also serve as targets for modification in the form of preventative and

therapeutic interventions. Though some interventions may seem simple and easily overlooked, it

is important to keep in mind the long reaching consequences of disregard. Epigenetic changes

extend over lifetimes and can vary by age as well. An example of a simple intervention is

limiting phone usage at night and getting a restful sleep. It can be tempting to disregard this and

easy to continue the pattern. However, research studies have concluded that “acute sleep loss

alters the epigenetic and transcriptional profile of core circadian clock genes in key metabolic

tissues” (4). Furthermore, they’ve found that regular restful sleep durations could counteract

“genetic predisposition to obesity” with a proper diet (4).

The world of science is a paradox in that it’s constantly changing, as we are. About 50 years

ago, the concept of epigenetics would have been labelled preposterous and now we are realizing

that it may be the key to unlocking another dimension of the world around us. In many ways, we

are now burdened with the responsibility of not just ourselves, but also of those who have not yet

come to be.
 Works Cited

1. "Ghost in Your Genes." BBC. BBC, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2018.

2. Rozek, L. S., D. C. Dolinoy, M. A. Sartor, and G. S. Omenn. "Epigenetics: Relevance

and Implications for Public Health." Annual Review of Public Health. U.S. National

Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2018.

3. Skinner, Michael K. "Environmental Epigenomics and Disease Susceptibility." EMBO

Reports 12.7 (2011): 620-22. Web. 28 Jan. 2018.

4. Skuladottir, Gudrun Valgerdur et al. “One-Night Sleep Deprivation Induces Changes in

the DNA Methylation and Serum Activity Indices of Stearoyl-CoA Desaturase in Young

Healthy Men.” Lipids in Health and Disease 15.1 (2016): 137. PMC. Web. 29 Jan. 2018.