I had heard about epigenetics many times before but THIS time it made sense. I guess all it takes to force “young people these days” to learn anything is to put it on YouTube and keep it short!

So if you have 9 minutes, it’s easy to understand and funny to boot. Here’s what I learned from the video:

• Epigenetics refers to how your DNA is read by your body. DNA (your genes) say “here’s what the human species can do” and epigenetic markers stick to your DNA and say “these are the genes you should read and ignore these ones over here”. That’s how an eyeball can have the same DNA as a foot. They are reading different parts of the same DNA.
• Epigentic markers can be passed from generation to generation. It may explain why it took your grandpa 80 years to get diabetes, your mother 45 years, you only took 20 years and your child may get type 2 diabetes when she’s just 8 years old. Each generation is modified based on what their ancestors did and what they do themselves.
• Even if you start off with crappy epigenetics, they are changeable. Hurray! So while you may be at a disadvantage compared to others more fortunate, positive lifestyle changes will be reflected in your own DNA and improve both your quality of life and of your children.