SUMMARY of this Article.
- The earth is 4.6billion years old
- The oldest human civilisation is ~40,000 years old
- We are 98.9% genetically similar to our monkey friends,
- 0.1% genetically different to each other, as humans.
- For each human, on average only 20% of who we are is determined by our genetic blueprint and the other 80% is determined by environmental and external factors that happen after birth.
- Dis-ease and accelerated ageing seems to be due to adverse environmental factors and “endocrine disrupting chemical toxins”
- Prevention and anti-ageing might be related with helping our cells remain healthy and adapt to environmental factors. Telomerase, nutrition and managing lifestyle factors seems to be the best research we have.
1) DEBATE – Is it NATURE or NURTURE that determines who we are?
2) What Percentage (%) of who we are is out of our control?
3) Where do we spend our money on health and wellness?
4) How old is the Earth that we live on?
5) Ok, then how old is the longest surviving human civilisation?
-
Humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and their extinct ancestors form a family of organisms known as the Hominidae. Researchers generally agree that among the living animals in this group, humans are most closely related to chimpanzees, judging from comparisons of anatomy and genetics.
-
A comparison of Clint’s genetic blueprints with that of the human genome shows that our closest living relatives share 96 percent of our DNA. The number of genetic differences between humans and chimps is ten times smaller than that between mice and rats.
-
Bonobos, primates similar to chimpanzees, which live only in the rainforests of central Democratic Republic of Congo, share 98.9% of their DNA with humans. This species, often called the ‘pygmychimpanzee‘, numbers no more than a few tens of thousands of individuals.
FUN FACT 4: So how genetically different are we to other people we see?
- The genetic difference between individual humans today is minuscule – about 0.1%.
Ok, so if 20% of who we are is pre-determined.
6) Then what is DNA?
7) After birth, can these genes change, can mistakes happen?
8) Is anything we are doing to our body or environment affecting these replication processes?
look into what the laymen calls “toxins” and the scientists call endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), which are substances in our environment, food, and consumer products that interfere with hormone biosynthesis, metabolism, or action resulting in a deviation from normal homeostatic control or reproduction. In simple terms, stops our body from functioning normally. So our environment and what we allow into our body can potentially affect us down to our DNA.
Ok, so let us look at two ends of the spectrum
Disease and preventative anti-ageing.
What do we know?
9) Dis-Ease – So what is cancer and is it related to our genetics?
10) Prevention – Can we look at this same process to promote anti-ageing?
It is believed that the science of telomeres offers the most exciting and viable possibility for extreme life extension—the kind of anti-aging strategy that can actually allow you to regenerate and in effect “grow younger.” Naturally, researchers are hard at work devising pharmaceutical strategies to accomplish this, but there’s solid evidence that simple lifestyle strategies and nutritional intervention can do this too. This is great news, as short telomeres are a risk factor not just for death itself, but for many diseases as well.
Nature vs Nurture (further reading)
Evidence Based
Answers to Questions
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-genetically-similar-animal-to-humans/
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0831_050831_chimp_genes.html
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-closely-related-are-h/
http://www.space.com/24854-how-old-is-earth.html
Epigenetics
http://www.whatisepigenetics.com/fundamentals/
GMO food resource
http://www.who.int/topics/food_genetically_modified/en/
Human Genome Project
http://www.genome.gov/10000202
Gene duplication:
http://www.umich.edu/~zhanglab/publications/2014/Zhang_Oxford_review.pdf
http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/dna-replication-and-causes-of-mutation-409
Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals
http://www.who.int/ceh/risks/cehemerging2/en/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19502515
Telomeres & Anti-ageing
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/09/the-nutrients-most-likely-to-let-you-live-to-be-much-older-than-100.aspx
Outcome Focused – Tool
http://www.ph360.me/