Can One Modify One's Genetics through Diet or Exercise?

Or are medications or technology required? Is partial modification possible? I will patiently wait for the brilliant minds of ATS and medical science for an answer.

Eh, well, the technical answer is yes and no.

First, the no part: technically, if you are referring to altering the actual sequence of your genetic code, no, exericse and diet will not change this. Every cell in your body contains a copy of your genome, except for erythrocytes. So, if you were to alter your genome, it would have to be change in all of these cells. Things like cancer are local changes, and often aren't changes in the sequence at all, just irregular activation of dormant genes.

Second, the yes part: if you are asking if the number/type of activated genes can be changed by diet and exercise, absolutely yes. While this in no way indicates and actual change in your genomic sequence, it DOES reflect a change in repression/activation of certain genes with respect to your environmental stimuli, such as food types, vitamin/nutrient intake, etc.

Hope this helps =).

bsl4doc, excellent reply!!! Thanks for the help.

God Bless!!!

It true that by exercice and diet you can turn on some genes that were not used before, but they were allready part of you. To affect, or modified your genes, you need oncogenic products.

Originally posted by eliconia7
It true that by exercice and diet you can turn on some genes that were not used before, but they were allready part of you. To affect, or modified your genes, you need oncogenic products.

Again, yes and no. A great deal of oncogenic or mutagenic chemicals/substances don't effect or modify genes, rather, they cause irregular methylation of the CpG islands, an important part of the mammalian repression system.