CHARLES C. MUSCOPLAT*^,1, SHIRA GRAYSON²
*Corresponding author
1. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA
2. University of Washington, School of Public Health, Institute for Public Health Genetics, Seattle, USA

ABSTRACT

A large share of the world’s population lives with one or more chronic diseases; and seventy-five percent of the total US health care budget in recent years (about $1.5 trillion dollars/year) is spent on chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity, osteoporosis, and asthma. Globally, chronic diseases are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality and are extremely burdensome for many countries. Yet, many, if not most, of these chronic diseases are preventable through modifications in lifestyle, diet, exercise, and controlling certain dietary and environmental exposures.

INTRODUCTION

Epigenetics, a moderately new scientific field, seeks to understand how particular dietary, chemical and environmental factors can alter gene expression. Epigenetics can determine (or alter) the time of onset, development and severity of many diseases, regulate the expression of certain genes or even prevent some chronic diseases or alter the severity. The chemical molecules involved in epigenetic DNA modification, which alter gene expression independent from changes in the D ...