Why we have Genomic Variations

 

These changes occurred thousands of generations ago in response to an unfavorable environment and allowed a group to survive.  i.e. moving out of Africa into northern Europe was a change in climate and food. Genetic changes were necessary, or these ancient tribes would not have survived.

 

Each of us carries hundreds of these small genetic variations and they have not caused much of a concern until recently.  For example, some genetic variations affect our detoxification pathways by slowing down enzymes. Enzymes that work slow in our detox pathways were not much of a concern when there were very few environmental toxins. Today having these genetic variations creates a risk for almost all chronic complex diseases including cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

 

Now more than ever to age healthy, you need to know your genetics. With the human genome project in 2003, scientists discovered that we may have millions of genetic variations but only about 20,000 have been identified. But we still only have good research on 600.