Genes provide the blueprint for health, but how we live can alter how our genes are expressed.

Welcome to the beginning of our Healing from the Ground Up series. This series will take you on a journey demonstrating how to use natural health to unlock your full health potential. We will dissect the various building blocks of health, starting with the fundamental determinants of health like genetics, environment, and diet. You can read more about why we’ve put this series together in our introductory article. Today, we start our journey with a discussion of genetics and epigenetics, the study of how genes are turned on and off.

Researchers are learning more and more about the connection between human health and genetics. This has led to an explosion in the genetic testing market, which is expected to double by 2030.

Our genetics form the basis for our health. 99.9 percent of our genomes are identical; the last 0.1 percent is where variations occur between humans and defines why and how we differ from each other.