In this episode of the Smarter Not Harder Podcast, our guest Dr. Lucia Aronica joins our host Dr. Scott Sherr to give one-cent solutions to life's $64,000 questions that include:

• What is the definition of epigenetics, and what are common epigenetic modifications?
• What were the results from the DIETFITS study?
• What are the various types of epigenetic clocks, and what are the best ways to use them?

Dr. Lucia Aronica is a lecturer at Stanford University and instructor of the Stanford Genomics Certificate. Her research and teaching focused on nutrigenomics: the science of how nutrition, genetics and epigenetics interact with each other to impact our health and longevity. She has 20 years of research experience from Stanford University, the University of Oxford, the University of Vienna, the University of Naples Federico II, and the University of Southern California. She's published research papers in top ranked, peer reviewed journals such as JAMA, Cell, and Genes & Development.

What we discuss:

[00:00] Health optimization medicine focuses on optimizing health through epigenetic biomarkers and metabolomics.

[05:36] Epigenetic modifications involve DNA methylation and histone modifications that regulate gene expression.

[14:30] Epigenetics affects our health through lifestyle choices and can be viewed as a secret agent of optimization medicine.

[21:13] Lifestyle can override the effect of common genetic variants.

[27:39] The DIETFITS study analyzed biomarkers to determine which categories of people would benefit from low-carb or low-fat diets

[41:40] Reduce carb intake and increase whole food intake for better metabolic and brain health.

[48:19] Omega-3s are conditionally essential nutrients which are difficult to synthesize from plant-based sources, making it better to get them from animal-based sources.

[54:29] Epigenetic clocks can estimate biological age and capture functional changes in the body but there's a catch

[1:00:57] Be cautious about using epigenetic clocks for clinical utility

[1:07:26] Sign up for Dr. Lucia Aronica's webinar on epigenetics and longevity

Find more from Smarter Not Harder:

Website: https://troscriptions.com/blogs/podcast | https://homehope.org

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Find out more from Dr. Lucia Aronica:

https://draronica.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luciaaronica/

Instagram: @drluciaaronica

Dr. Aronica's free webinars and new certificate course in epigenetics: https://draronica.podia.com

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