ON EPIGENETICS AND NEUROTOXIC PSYCHIATRIC MEDICATIONS

                                                                             

               

I  am concerned that neurotoxic psychiatric medications may cause changes in gene expression which manifest themselves in all of the well-versed damaging physical side effects. I am not myself by any means an expert in genetics. So please read on, and decide for yourselves!


                                                                  EPIGENETICS (FUNDAMENTALS)


  QUOTE: Epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene expression (active versus inactive genes) that do not involve changes to the underlying DNA sequence — a change in phenotype without a change in genotype — which in turn affects how cells read the genes. Epigenetic change is a regular and natural occurrence but can also be influenced by several factors including age, the environment/lifestyle, and disease state. Epigenetic modifications can manifest as commonly as the manner in which cells terminally differentiate to end up as skin cells, liver cells, brain cells, etc. Or, epigenetic change can have more damaging effects that can result in diseases like cancer.


                                                                 DNA IS NOT DESTINY

EXTRACT:

FROM THE NOVEMBER 2006 ISSUE

DNA Is Not Destiny: The New Science of Epigenetics

Discoveries in epigenetics are rewriting the rules of disease, heredity, and identity.

By Ethan Watters|Wednesday, November 22, 2006

RELATED TAGS: GENETICS, EPIGENETICS

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With no more than a change in diet, laboratory agouti mice (left) were prompted to give birth to young (right) that differed markedly in appearance and disease susceptibility.

Back in 2000, Randy Jirtle, a professor of radiation oncology at Duke University, and his postdoctoral student Robert Waterland designed a groundbreaking genetic experiment that was simplicity itself. They started with pairs of fat yellow mice known to scientists as agouti mice, so called because they carry a particular gene—the agouti gene—that in addition to making the rodents ravenous and yellow renders them prone to cancer and diabetes. Jirtle and Waterland set about to see if they could change the unfortunate genetic legacy of these little creatures.

          PLEASE DRAW YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS ABOUT THE POSSIBLE EFFECTS OF NEUROTOXINS ON GENE EXPRESSION!