How Lifestyle Influences Gene Expression with Dr. Lubov Nathanson
In today's episode, Haylie Pomroy sits down with Dr. Lubov Nathanson, Director of the Genomics Group at the Institute for Neuro Immune Medicine, to break down one of the most misunderstood and misused words in health right now: epigenetics.
Dr. Nathanson explains the difference between genetics, the fixed sequence of nucleotides in our DNA, and epigenetics, the vast set of factors that regulate which genes are expressed without changing the sequence itself. She walks through why the overwhelming majority of chronic diseases are not single-gene disorders but polygenic conditions.
Her core message is as clear as it is empowering: genetics loads the gun, epigenetics pulls the trigger.
If you have ever said "it runs in my family" and believed that settled it, this episode is for you. Tune in to Fast Metabolism Matters.
If your body feels like it's running on empty, overburdened, or just not responding the way it used to, Haylie's latest book, Toxic Overload, tells you exactly what to do. Download your free digital copy today and start understanding what your body is trying to tell you.
Free Download: Get Your Copy of Toxic Overload 👉 https://hayliepomroy.com/pages/toxic-overload
You don't have to figure this out alone. Inside Haylie's private membership community, you get personalized guidance and support, member discounts on supplements and shakes, and the ability to ask questions directly to podcast guests like Dr. Systrom. Join free for 30 days and take the next step on your health journey.
Join the Fast Metabolism Membership — First 30 Days Free 👉 https://hayliepomroy.com/pages/fast-metabolism-membership
Dr. Lubov Nathanson is an Associate Professor at Nova Southeastern University specializing in translational genomics and complex disease research. Her expertise spans bioinformatics, molecular biology, biochemistry, and systems biology, with current research focused on identifying biomarkers and underlying mechanisms of conditions such as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Gulf War Illness (GWI). Dr. Nathanson earned her Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute of Science and completed postdoctoral work at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, where she further developed expertise in genomics, gene expression analysis, and systems biology.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lubov-nathanson-6041158/
Haylie Pomroy, Founder and CEO of The Haylie Pomroy Group, is a leading health strategist specializing in metabolism, weight loss, and integrative wellness. With over 25 years of experience, she has worked with top medical institutions and high-profile clients, developing targeted programs and supplements rooted in the "Food is Medicine" philosophy. Inspired by her own autoimmune journey, she combines expertise in nutrition, biochemistry, and patient advocacy to help others reclaim their health. She is a New York Times bestselling author of The Fast Metabolism Diet.
Learn more about Haylie Pomroy's approach to wellness through her website: https://hayliepomroy.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hayliepomroy
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hayliepomroy
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@hayliepomroy/videos
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayliepomroy/
EDITED TRANSCRIPT
Haylie Pomroy: I'm your host, Haylie Pomroy. I'm a number one New York Times bestselling author of The Fast Metabolism Diet and many other books. I'm back in school, you guys, finishing my PhD in neuroimmunology right now and always a fierce advocate for those of you that need some help and a lot of hope. Today, we're gonna tackle the subject of epigenetics and I would not do this without Dr. Nathanson. Dr. Nathanson is an associate professor at the Institute of Neuroimmune Medicine. She's also the director of our genomics group. Dr. Nathanson, thank you so much for coming back after your last episode. People had so many questions about what is the heck is epigenetics that everybody's talking about? And what does it mean? What can we do? How can we influence it? And so thank you for being here.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Thank you for having me.
Haylie Pomroy: It's always a great conversation. And I think distilling down, what is the difference between genetics and epigenetic? I know they both have the word genetics in it, but they seem to be very different. Can you help me and all of us out here understand what is the difference?
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: It is very easy. When we are talking about the sequence of nucleotides in our DNA, it is genetics. So genetics, it is what we have in our cells, sequence of nuclear tides in our DNA. Before I say what is epigenetics, let me do 101 in genetic information flow. All information is coded in our DNA. Then in our cells, DNA is transcribed into RNA, and these RNA transcripts are templates for protein synthesis. Proteins are workhorses in our cell. All information about these proteins, about these workhorses is coded in our DNA. Every cell of our body has a full genome. Every single cell, maybe except for erythrocytes, has full genomes. But brain cells synthesize proteins that are specific for the brain, but not for the liver, not for the kidney. Skin cells synthesize proteins that are specific for skin, but not for the brain. So how is it done? It is done with the help of epigenetic regulation. When we say that proteins are coded by genes. If protein that is coded by genes is synthesized. So we say that this gene is expressed. If protein or RNA is coded by some gene, these molecules are not synthesized. We say the gene is silent. Gene is silenced. So what is epigenetic? Epigenetic, expression of our genes, meaning synthesis of proteins, synthesis of RNA. Definitely is regulated by our genetics.If there is some bad mutation, it may be protein or RNA may be not synthesized. Genetics definitely regulates gene expression. We remember the genetics. It is a sequence of nucleotides in our DNA. But there are also other epigenetic factors. Epigenetic factors that regulate gene expression. These epigenetic factors are factors that are not dependent on the sequence of nucleotides in our DNA. Many different factors that are not connected to the sequence of nucleotides in our DNA, and they regulate gene expressions, they are called epigenetics. It can be molecular modification of our DNA. The same sequence of nucleotides, but some cytosines are methylated or hydroxymethylated. The same sequence of nucleotides, the same genetics, but some nuclear proteins, they are methylated or acetylated. Again, the same sequence of nucleotides in our DNA has no change to genetics. Actually, we cannot change our genetics. But some non-coding RNAs, some regulatory RNAs are synthesized, and they govern expression of other genes. So what proteins and what RNAs are synthesized in our cells? It depends not only on genetics, but also on a lot of epigenetic factors like weather, financial situation, psychology, definitely diet, microbiome in our gut, which depends on diet. A lot of different epigenetic factors. So all these factors that do regulate our metabolism, but they're not connected to the sequence of nucleotides in our DNA.
Haylie Pomroy: So no matter what, the sequence is gonna stay the same.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Yes. We cannot change our genetics, but we can change our epigenetics. As it is said, genetics is a gun, epigenetic is a trigger.
Haylie Pomroy: Yes. I like that analogy and what we put in decides whether something is triggered, correct?
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Yes. We have to take a step back. There are some single gene diseases like sickle cell anemia or cystic fibrosis. When there is a gene mutated, both alleles, both variations of these genes are mutated.
Haylie Pomroy: And is that in the DNA?
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Yeah, this is genetics and yes disease is there no matter epigenetics with use of epigenetic factors we can maybe make these diseases easier. There are some diseases that we cannot do anything about them.
Haylie Pomroy: And that's a genetic disease. It's in the coding. It's not gonna be changed from an epigenetic perspective. Is epigenetic triggered by environmental influence or is the environmental influence epigenetic? Do you know what I'm saying? Like when you say weather, we would say that weather turns something on or off in the body.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Yeah, it can happen, yes.
Haylie Pomroy: Can you give me an example of a disease that would manifest as an epigenetic response.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Actually, almost every disease. Well, not almost. Why I'm saying almost except for these genetic single gene diseases. One more step back. These diseases that I mentioned, like cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, Huntington, those are known one-gene diseases. Offset of these diseases usually is very early in age, well, except for Huntington and some others. They are very severe and they're very rare. A vast majority of diseases are polygenic disorders. It means there are mutations in many genes, and these diseases are more frequent, they are much less severe, and they can be controlled and prevented by epigenetic factors.
Haylie Pomroy: Wow, okay. What you just described is huge in the body. Because we don't have to be, everybody, or we hear so many people say, “Well, I have high cholesterol because it's familial or I have obesity because it is familial.” They feel like it's their genetic destiny.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: It may be genetic, but it's not destiny.
Haylie Pomroy: Thank you. Yes. Something has to turn it on or trigger it. We're seeing this a lot in autoimmune disorders.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Yes
Haylie Pomroy: We're seeing especially in women having a lot of the pro-inflammatory disorders. And is that because a lot of the inflammatory, I don't know the right term you got to help me with this one, can get turned on because of the second X chromosome. A lot of inflammatory responses are there. Everybody is talking about it's because we have two X chromosomes and women.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Yeah, yes, we do have two X chromosomes, but it has nothing to do with diseases.
Haylie Pomroy: Okay. I love this.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Yeah, it has nothing to do with diseases. Lifestyle does have to do a lot with diseases. Diet has to do a lot of diseases. And those are epigenetic factors.
Haylie Pomroy: And so I love that you brought that up because I think so many times people think if I have maybe a predisposition in my family. We can't out medicate.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: No, predisposition can be there. We all are predisposed to something, but it does not mean that we have to have it.
Haylie Pomroy:Yes, I love that.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Change diet, take out carbohydrates, start exercising, walking, magically, many, many of these.
Haylie Pomroy: Diabetes gone. I have a client that went down 50 points in her blood sugar. Consistently, she's on daily monitoring. In a week and a half by rotating her food using whole foods, getting out the packaged foods. And I mean it was week three that she finally had enough energy and had her food organized enough that she could incorporate exercise.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: It is an epigenetic factor. I also know some examples when a person was taking eight pills a day and then after changing diet and lifestyle within two months got rid of all these pills. Yes, it is all AP genetic factors.
Haylie Pomroy: Okay, I want to say I thought so. I believe that I see that clinically, but it's really important to understand. For all of us in our community to start learning more about our bodies. I think knowledge is power. And one of the reasons why I love to bring you into our community is because you come from such a highly skilled aspect of science. Not a lot of us understand that we want to have the brain capacity to really embrace genetics.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Okay. I have to tell you, I also don't understand a lot of things, and in general, we don't understand a lot of things. We know very little about genetics and about epigenetics. But there are some life laws that we observed and we kind of know that it works.
Haylie Pomroy: One of those life laws is nutrition and movement. I had a client the other day that was talking to me about how they love their dog and they want their dog to live. They were asking me, we're just having this conversation, “What is the longest that I could have my dog alive? I love my dog so much.” And I said, “Well, let me ask you this. What would be the two most powerful things that you would do to keep your dog healthy and alive?” She goes, “Well I do whole organic foods for my dog. And we walk every day. So I'm thinking if I keep all the chemicals out of the environment, I don't use the flea stuff and I don't use the toxins and I do whole foods and this and that, my dog's gonna live forever and feel good.” I said, “Well, could you apply that to yourself too? Could you treat yourself at least as good as you do your beloved pet?” I wanna take it back when you talk about monogenetic and polygenetic disorders. Is that when you're talking about diseases like sickle cell anemia, is that mono?
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Yes. It is a mutation in the hemoglobin gene and it is a recessive disorder. If we don't go into details. We have usually two copies of each gene and our cells. If both copies are mutated, there is this disease, nothing can we do.
Haylie Pomroy: Okay. Polygenetic disorders usually have an epigenetic trigger.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Yes. Polygenetic disorders, when we're talking about Alzheimer, Parkinson's. They are considered as polygenetic disorders. There have to be multiple mutations and multiple genes. Those diseases are regulated by many epigenetic factors. We don't know about all of them yet.
Haylie Pomroy: We're hypothesizing but we do know that you can add out medicaid a bad diet for sure. Otherwise we would because it'd be a lot easier. We've tried for decades. What do you think about that individuals are starting to get a lot of direct to consumer or their own genetic testing done
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: It is interesting. Out of curiosity, why not? If it is available.
Haylie Pomroy: What do you think about individuals that they're showing that they have that predisposition to cardiovascular disease or predispositions to heart disease? Do you think it helps them make earlier interventions in their lifestyle or be more dedicated to lifestyle interventions?
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Maybe we're very different with different psychologists.
Haylie Pomroy: That's true.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Maybe if for someone it makes a difference in, and it will help to make a difference in their lifestyle and diet, why not? Sure.
Haylie Pomroy: Just to help.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: But to make changes in lifestyle and that, you don't need to do all these testing. But out of curiosity, why not.
Haylie Pomroy: I love that there's more and more conversation about the impact of stress reduction, about the impact of mindset, about diet, about lifestyle. We had an autoimmune specialist that said, “Best intervention on a scale from one to five, five being the best.” We're talking pharmacological, and he said, “The top one is diet.” So much conversation right now is talking about methylation. Everybody's talking online about MTHFR and if you have this snippet you don't detoxify efficiently. Is that stuff that's a good thing to know that maybe you have a deficiency in something or a reduction in capacity for something.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Every time I would start with changing of diet and some more physical activity. And then maybe to think, these green leaf veggies, they have so many elements that would serve as perfect medication.
Haylie Pomroy: Yes, isn't that true? I just think someone that understands our very fabric of what makes us human. I love that you study and do research in the science that makes us a human being. It was our genetics. We're not another species because of our.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Let me give you one example. Several years ago, I was at one seminar and this group presented a mouse model of Rett syndrome. Rett Syndrome, it is a physical mutation on the X chromosome. Boys don't survive at all. They're not even born. Girls survive until 10 years, it's a very severe disease. So the mouse model. Mice with this mutation in the X chromosome. In this group, they had three cages with mice. One cage healthy mice. One cage sick mice with these mutations. In one cage, they caged together friendly healthy mice and sick mice. Healthy mice play with their mouse toys, running in this wheel and playing with all these toys. Sick mice, you could see they're sitting and shivering. Now, in the cage where both healthy and sick were caged together, sick mice, they tried to mimic their healthy brothers and sisters. You could say that they're sick. This mouse would come into two wheels. Maybe make two, three steps and see it, make two three steps, and try it. Some could even come to will from the wrong side, but they tried. Then these scientists looked at DNA methylation in the brains of these mice. They found that the pattern of DNA methylation in sick mice that were caged together with healthy mice was much closer to the pattern of DNA methylation of healthy mice. They had six mice that were caged separately. They had absolutely different patterns of gene methylation. These physical activities mimicking of healthy mice, they changed the modification of DNA in their brain. Epigenetic, it did not change the sequence of nucleotides, mutation still was there.
Haylie Pomroy: Yes. But it made their overall health improve. It gave me two things to think about that. One, it's so important who you surround yourself with.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Oh yes. It is very important.
Haylie Pomroy: What you eat, what you hear, what you speak into truth, what people tell you about yourself. People have a lot of opinions about me. Only the good ones are my business. The rest is none of my business.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Right? Good for you.
Haylie Pomroy: But the other thing is activity. If an individual feels like they have a genetic destiny, I love what you're telling us, which is it doesn't have to be our genetic destiny.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: In polygenetic disorders, the majority of our disorders, except of very rare genetic diseases. Maybe there is a pretty strong genetic component, but it is on destiny. It was shown also in studies of monozygotic twins that have identical genotypes. If they were in different environments, it could have an effect on their health. And that's epigenetics?
Haylie Pomroy: This is exactly epigenetic. So is it nature versus nurture? Okay. That's cool.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Nurture versus nature.
Haylie Pomroy: I just wanted to clear this up because there's so much going on about genetics. There's a lot of fitness people out there. There's a lot of people in the nutrition space that are trying to teach our community about genetics and I said, “No, no, no, no.” About genetics and epigenetics.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: I would love to listen to some of this.
Haylie Pomroy: You should. But that's why I wanted to pull you in here to help me wrap my head around it and clear it up. Because again, knowledge is so much power and when individuals are struggling in their health and wellness. I think sometimes they feel like their disease or chronic disease is their current destiny. And I think understanding that we have control and the power of lifestyle modifications. And I love the study that you shared about who you're with, who you are exposed to. I always talk about this with the kids. I would say, “When we're together as a family, we've got to hype each other up.” Our home needs to be a home that really intentionally tries to build you up. Because there's so much that we're exposed to, maybe on the psychological aspect of it, but just environmental pollutants and micro toxins and stuff on our waters, you name it. We could go through the whole cycle. Anything to boost yourself as best as possible. If a person wanted to really improve their epigenetics, is it something that they do?
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: We don't say improve. Change epigenetics. In science, there is no good or bad change.
Haylie Pomroy: Change. It's a variable. You know what, I'm going to adopt that though, because I don't want people to just improve their diet. I want them to change their diet, I don't want it to be to lose weight, but to change their lifestyle. I love this. We always think of our genetics as who we are. But I'm looking at our genetics as who we are. Because it's a full expression of ourselves.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: It's not just genetics and epigenetic.
Haylie Pomroy: Yeah. Epigenetics lets us be a full expression of ourselves. That's why it's not a dietary change to change the scale or reduce your cholesterol. It's a lifestyle change so that you can live your life to its fullest capacity. I like that. Dr. Nathanson, I always bring you in and complex issues when we seem to be struggling in our community. We need really solid sound science to help us ground ourselves in the decisions that we're making for our lives being based on reality. There's so much going on out there right now and I love that there's so much discussion about lifestyle, about chemicals in our foods, what we should do. But for me, if we can ground it in solid science, like these conversations, we can go forward knowing that we're making the best decisions for ourselves and for our family. It's really good. So thank you for being here. Promise to come back.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Thank you.
Haylie Pomroy: Good. Because we need clarity from time to time. And I call you and I say, “Please come in and talk to us.” All right, you guys, you heard it here. Make sure that you are working on turning on the positive things in your life and turning off the negative disease causing things in your life. And that will make what we're made up of, have the best expression and the best life possible.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Thank you.
Haylie Pomroy: Thank you.Yay. So it's a tough one for us. You don't go out there on TikTok or on social media because you would be horrified. And I'm like, “No, no, no. I need Dr. Nathanson to come tell us what it is because everybody's going.
In today's episode, Haylie Pomroy sits down with Dr. Lubov Nathanson, Director of the Genomics Group at the Institute for Neuro Immune Medicine, to break down one of the most misunderstood and misused words in health right now: epigenetics.
Dr. Nathanson explains the difference between genetics, the fixed sequence of nucleotides in our DNA, and epigenetics, the vast set of factors that regulate which genes are expressed without changing the sequence itself. She walks through why the overwhelming majority of chronic diseases are not single-gene disorders but polygenic conditions.
Her core message is as clear as it is empowering: genetics loads the gun, epigenetics pulls the trigger.
If you have ever said "it runs in my family" and believed that settled it, this episode is for you. Tune in to Fast Metabolism Matters.
If your body feels like it's running on empty, overburdened, or just not responding the way it used to, Haylie's latest book, Toxic Overload, tells you exactly what to do. Download your free digital copy today and start understanding what your body is trying to tell you.
Free Download: Get Your Copy of Toxic Overload 👉 https://hayliepomroy.com/pages/toxic-overload
You don't have to figure this out alone. Inside Haylie's private membership community, you get personalized guidance and support, member discounts on supplements and shakes, and the ability to ask questions directly to podcast guests like Dr. Systrom. Join free for 30 days and take the next step on your health journey.
Join the Fast Metabolism Membership — First 30 Days Free 👉 https://hayliepomroy.com/pages/fast-metabolism-membership
Dr. Lubov Nathanson is an Associate Professor at Nova Southeastern University specializing in translational genomics and complex disease research. Her expertise spans bioinformatics, molecular biology, biochemistry, and systems biology, with current research focused on identifying biomarkers and underlying mechanisms of conditions such as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Gulf War Illness (GWI). Dr. Nathanson earned her Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute of Science and completed postdoctoral work at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, where she further developed expertise in genomics, gene expression analysis, and systems biology.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lubov-nathanson-6041158/
Haylie Pomroy, Founder and CEO of The Haylie Pomroy Group, is a leading health strategist specializing in metabolism, weight loss, and integrative wellness. With over 25 years of experience, she has worked with top medical institutions and high-profile clients, developing targeted programs and supplements rooted in the "Food is Medicine" philosophy. Inspired by her own autoimmune journey, she combines expertise in nutrition, biochemistry, and patient advocacy to help others reclaim their health. She is a New York Times bestselling author of The Fast Metabolism Diet.
Learn more about Haylie Pomroy's approach to wellness through her website: https://hayliepomroy.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hayliepomroy
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hayliepomroy
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@hayliepomroy/videos
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayliepomroy/
EDITED TRANSCRIPT
Haylie Pomroy: I'm your host, Haylie Pomroy. I'm a number one New York Times bestselling author of The Fast Metabolism Diet and many other books. I'm back in school, you guys, finishing my PhD in neuroimmunology right now and always a fierce advocate for those of you that need some help and a lot of hope. Today, we're gonna tackle the subject of epigenetics and I would not do this without Dr. Nathanson. Dr. Nathanson is an associate professor at the Institute of Neuroimmune Medicine. She's also the director of our genomics group. Dr. Nathanson, thank you so much for coming back after your last episode. People had so many questions about what is the heck is epigenetics that everybody's talking about? And what does it mean? What can we do? How can we influence it? And so thank you for being here.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Thank you for having me.
Haylie Pomroy: It's always a great conversation. And I think distilling down, what is the difference between genetics and epigenetic? I know they both have the word genetics in it, but they seem to be very different. Can you help me and all of us out here understand what is the difference?
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: It is very easy. When we are talking about the sequence of nucleotides in our DNA, it is genetics. So genetics, it is what we have in our cells, sequence of nuclear tides in our DNA. Before I say what is epigenetics, let me do 101 in genetic information flow. All information is coded in our DNA. Then in our cells, DNA is transcribed into RNA, and these RNA transcripts are templates for protein synthesis. Proteins are workhorses in our cell. All information about these proteins, about these workhorses is coded in our DNA. Every cell of our body has a full genome. Every single cell, maybe except for erythrocytes, has full genomes. But brain cells synthesize proteins that are specific for the brain, but not for the liver, not for the kidney. Skin cells synthesize proteins that are specific for skin, but not for the brain. So how is it done? It is done with the help of epigenetic regulation. When we say that proteins are coded by genes. If protein that is coded by genes is synthesized. So we say that this gene is expressed. If protein or RNA is coded by some gene, these molecules are not synthesized. We say the gene is silent. Gene is silenced. So what is epigenetic? Epigenetic, expression of our genes, meaning synthesis of proteins, synthesis of RNA. Definitely is regulated by our genetics.If there is some bad mutation, it may be protein or RNA may be not synthesized. Genetics definitely regulates gene expression. We remember the genetics. It is a sequence of nucleotides in our DNA. But there are also other epigenetic factors. Epigenetic factors that regulate gene expression. These epigenetic factors are factors that are not dependent on the sequence of nucleotides in our DNA. Many different factors that are not connected to the sequence of nucleotides in our DNA, and they regulate gene expressions, they are called epigenetics. It can be molecular modification of our DNA. The same sequence of nucleotides, but some cytosines are methylated or hydroxymethylated. The same sequence of nucleotides, the same genetics, but some nuclear proteins, they are methylated or acetylated. Again, the same sequence of nucleotides in our DNA has no change to genetics. Actually, we cannot change our genetics. But some non-coding RNAs, some regulatory RNAs are synthesized, and they govern expression of other genes. So what proteins and what RNAs are synthesized in our cells? It depends not only on genetics, but also on a lot of epigenetic factors like weather, financial situation, psychology, definitely diet, microbiome in our gut, which depends on diet. A lot of different epigenetic factors. So all these factors that do regulate our metabolism, but they're not connected to the sequence of nucleotides in our DNA.
Haylie Pomroy: So no matter what, the sequence is gonna stay the same.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Yes. We cannot change our genetics, but we can change our epigenetics. As it is said, genetics is a gun, epigenetic is a trigger.
Haylie Pomroy: Yes. I like that analogy and what we put in decides whether something is triggered, correct?
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Yes. We have to take a step back. There are some single gene diseases like sickle cell anemia or cystic fibrosis. When there is a gene mutated, both alleles, both variations of these genes are mutated.
Haylie Pomroy: And is that in the DNA?
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Yeah, this is genetics and yes disease is there no matter epigenetics with use of epigenetic factors we can maybe make these diseases easier. There are some diseases that we cannot do anything about them.
Haylie Pomroy: And that's a genetic disease. It's in the coding. It's not gonna be changed from an epigenetic perspective. Is epigenetic triggered by environmental influence or is the environmental influence epigenetic? Do you know what I'm saying? Like when you say weather, we would say that weather turns something on or off in the body.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Yeah, it can happen, yes.
Haylie Pomroy: Can you give me an example of a disease that would manifest as an epigenetic response.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Actually, almost every disease. Well, not almost. Why I'm saying almost except for these genetic single gene diseases. One more step back. These diseases that I mentioned, like cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, Huntington, those are known one-gene diseases. Offset of these diseases usually is very early in age, well, except for Huntington and some others. They are very severe and they're very rare. A vast majority of diseases are polygenic disorders. It means there are mutations in many genes, and these diseases are more frequent, they are much less severe, and they can be controlled and prevented by epigenetic factors.
Haylie Pomroy: Wow, okay. What you just described is huge in the body. Because we don't have to be, everybody, or we hear so many people say, “Well, I have high cholesterol because it's familial or I have obesity because it is familial.” They feel like it's their genetic destiny.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: It may be genetic, but it's not destiny.
Haylie Pomroy: Thank you. Yes. Something has to turn it on or trigger it. We're seeing this a lot in autoimmune disorders.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Yes
Haylie Pomroy: We're seeing especially in women having a lot of the pro-inflammatory disorders. And is that because a lot of the inflammatory, I don't know the right term you got to help me with this one, can get turned on because of the second X chromosome. A lot of inflammatory responses are there. Everybody is talking about it's because we have two X chromosomes and women.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Yeah, yes, we do have two X chromosomes, but it has nothing to do with diseases.
Haylie Pomroy: Okay. I love this.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Yeah, it has nothing to do with diseases. Lifestyle does have to do a lot with diseases. Diet has to do a lot of diseases. And those are epigenetic factors.
Haylie Pomroy: And so I love that you brought that up because I think so many times people think if I have maybe a predisposition in my family. We can't out medicate.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: No, predisposition can be there. We all are predisposed to something, but it does not mean that we have to have it.
Haylie Pomroy:Yes, I love that.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Change diet, take out carbohydrates, start exercising, walking, magically, many, many of these.
Haylie Pomroy: Diabetes gone. I have a client that went down 50 points in her blood sugar. Consistently, she's on daily monitoring. In a week and a half by rotating her food using whole foods, getting out the packaged foods. And I mean it was week three that she finally had enough energy and had her food organized enough that she could incorporate exercise.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: It is an epigenetic factor. I also know some examples when a person was taking eight pills a day and then after changing diet and lifestyle within two months got rid of all these pills. Yes, it is all AP genetic factors.
Haylie Pomroy: Okay, I want to say I thought so. I believe that I see that clinically, but it's really important to understand. For all of us in our community to start learning more about our bodies. I think knowledge is power. And one of the reasons why I love to bring you into our community is because you come from such a highly skilled aspect of science. Not a lot of us understand that we want to have the brain capacity to really embrace genetics.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Okay. I have to tell you, I also don't understand a lot of things, and in general, we don't understand a lot of things. We know very little about genetics and about epigenetics. But there are some life laws that we observed and we kind of know that it works.
Haylie Pomroy: One of those life laws is nutrition and movement. I had a client the other day that was talking to me about how they love their dog and they want their dog to live. They were asking me, we're just having this conversation, “What is the longest that I could have my dog alive? I love my dog so much.” And I said, “Well, let me ask you this. What would be the two most powerful things that you would do to keep your dog healthy and alive?” She goes, “Well I do whole organic foods for my dog. And we walk every day. So I'm thinking if I keep all the chemicals out of the environment, I don't use the flea stuff and I don't use the toxins and I do whole foods and this and that, my dog's gonna live forever and feel good.” I said, “Well, could you apply that to yourself too? Could you treat yourself at least as good as you do your beloved pet?” I wanna take it back when you talk about monogenetic and polygenetic disorders. Is that when you're talking about diseases like sickle cell anemia, is that mono?
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Yes. It is a mutation in the hemoglobin gene and it is a recessive disorder. If we don't go into details. We have usually two copies of each gene and our cells. If both copies are mutated, there is this disease, nothing can we do.
Haylie Pomroy: Okay. Polygenetic disorders usually have an epigenetic trigger.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Yes. Polygenetic disorders, when we're talking about Alzheimer, Parkinson's. They are considered as polygenetic disorders. There have to be multiple mutations and multiple genes. Those diseases are regulated by many epigenetic factors. We don't know about all of them yet.
Haylie Pomroy: We're hypothesizing but we do know that you can add out medicaid a bad diet for sure. Otherwise we would because it'd be a lot easier. We've tried for decades. What do you think about that individuals are starting to get a lot of direct to consumer or their own genetic testing done
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: It is interesting. Out of curiosity, why not? If it is available.
Haylie Pomroy: What do you think about individuals that they're showing that they have that predisposition to cardiovascular disease or predispositions to heart disease? Do you think it helps them make earlier interventions in their lifestyle or be more dedicated to lifestyle interventions?
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Maybe we're very different with different psychologists.
Haylie Pomroy: That's true.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Maybe if for someone it makes a difference in, and it will help to make a difference in their lifestyle and diet, why not? Sure.
Haylie Pomroy: Just to help.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: But to make changes in lifestyle and that, you don't need to do all these testing. But out of curiosity, why not.
Haylie Pomroy: I love that there's more and more conversation about the impact of stress reduction, about the impact of mindset, about diet, about lifestyle. We had an autoimmune specialist that said, “Best intervention on a scale from one to five, five being the best.” We're talking pharmacological, and he said, “The top one is diet.” So much conversation right now is talking about methylation. Everybody's talking online about MTHFR and if you have this snippet you don't detoxify efficiently. Is that stuff that's a good thing to know that maybe you have a deficiency in something or a reduction in capacity for something.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Every time I would start with changing of diet and some more physical activity. And then maybe to think, these green leaf veggies, they have so many elements that would serve as perfect medication.
Haylie Pomroy: Yes, isn't that true? I just think someone that understands our very fabric of what makes us human. I love that you study and do research in the science that makes us a human being. It was our genetics. We're not another species because of our.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Let me give you one example. Several years ago, I was at one seminar and this group presented a mouse model of Rett syndrome. Rett Syndrome, it is a physical mutation on the X chromosome. Boys don't survive at all. They're not even born. Girls survive until 10 years, it's a very severe disease. So the mouse model. Mice with this mutation in the X chromosome. In this group, they had three cages with mice. One cage healthy mice. One cage sick mice with these mutations. In one cage, they caged together friendly healthy mice and sick mice. Healthy mice play with their mouse toys, running in this wheel and playing with all these toys. Sick mice, you could see they're sitting and shivering. Now, in the cage where both healthy and sick were caged together, sick mice, they tried to mimic their healthy brothers and sisters. You could say that they're sick. This mouse would come into two wheels. Maybe make two, three steps and see it, make two three steps, and try it. Some could even come to will from the wrong side, but they tried. Then these scientists looked at DNA methylation in the brains of these mice. They found that the pattern of DNA methylation in sick mice that were caged together with healthy mice was much closer to the pattern of DNA methylation of healthy mice. They had six mice that were caged separately. They had absolutely different patterns of gene methylation. These physical activities mimicking of healthy mice, they changed the modification of DNA in their brain. Epigenetic, it did not change the sequence of nucleotides, mutation still was there.
Haylie Pomroy: Yes. But it made their overall health improve. It gave me two things to think about that. One, it's so important who you surround yourself with.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Oh yes. It is very important.
Haylie Pomroy: What you eat, what you hear, what you speak into truth, what people tell you about yourself. People have a lot of opinions about me. Only the good ones are my business. The rest is none of my business.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Right? Good for you.
Haylie Pomroy: But the other thing is activity. If an individual feels like they have a genetic destiny, I love what you're telling us, which is it doesn't have to be our genetic destiny.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: In polygenetic disorders, the majority of our disorders, except of very rare genetic diseases. Maybe there is a pretty strong genetic component, but it is on destiny. It was shown also in studies of monozygotic twins that have identical genotypes. If they were in different environments, it could have an effect on their health. And that's epigenetics?
Haylie Pomroy: This is exactly epigenetic. So is it nature versus nurture? Okay. That's cool.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Nurture versus nature.
Haylie Pomroy: I just wanted to clear this up because there's so much going on about genetics. There's a lot of fitness people out there. There's a lot of people in the nutrition space that are trying to teach our community about genetics and I said, “No, no, no, no.” About genetics and epigenetics.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: I would love to listen to some of this.
Haylie Pomroy: You should. But that's why I wanted to pull you in here to help me wrap my head around it and clear it up. Because again, knowledge is so much power and when individuals are struggling in their health and wellness. I think sometimes they feel like their disease or chronic disease is their current destiny. And I think understanding that we have control and the power of lifestyle modifications. And I love the study that you shared about who you're with, who you are exposed to. I always talk about this with the kids. I would say, “When we're together as a family, we've got to hype each other up.” Our home needs to be a home that really intentionally tries to build you up. Because there's so much that we're exposed to, maybe on the psychological aspect of it, but just environmental pollutants and micro toxins and stuff on our waters, you name it. We could go through the whole cycle. Anything to boost yourself as best as possible. If a person wanted to really improve their epigenetics, is it something that they do?
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: We don't say improve. Change epigenetics. In science, there is no good or bad change.
Haylie Pomroy: Change. It's a variable. You know what, I'm going to adopt that though, because I don't want people to just improve their diet. I want them to change their diet, I don't want it to be to lose weight, but to change their lifestyle. I love this. We always think of our genetics as who we are. But I'm looking at our genetics as who we are. Because it's a full expression of ourselves.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: It's not just genetics and epigenetic.
Haylie Pomroy: Yeah. Epigenetics lets us be a full expression of ourselves. That's why it's not a dietary change to change the scale or reduce your cholesterol. It's a lifestyle change so that you can live your life to its fullest capacity. I like that. Dr. Nathanson, I always bring you in and complex issues when we seem to be struggling in our community. We need really solid sound science to help us ground ourselves in the decisions that we're making for our lives being based on reality. There's so much going on out there right now and I love that there's so much discussion about lifestyle, about chemicals in our foods, what we should do. But for me, if we can ground it in solid science, like these conversations, we can go forward knowing that we're making the best decisions for ourselves and for our family. It's really good. So thank you for being here. Promise to come back.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Thank you.
Haylie Pomroy: Good. Because we need clarity from time to time. And I call you and I say, “Please come in and talk to us.” All right, you guys, you heard it here. Make sure that you are working on turning on the positive things in your life and turning off the negative disease causing things in your life. And that will make what we're made up of, have the best expression and the best life possible.
Dr. Lubov Nathanson: Thank you.
Haylie Pomroy: Thank you.Yay. So it's a tough one for us. You don't go out there on TikTok or on social media because you would be horrified. And I'm like, “No, no, no. I need Dr. Nathanson to come tell us what it is because everybody's going.
