Epigenetics and Homeopathy
What is Epigenetics, you ask?
Epigenetics is the study of how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work. Unlike genetic changes, epigenetic changes are reversible and do not change your DNA sequence, but they can change how your body reads a DNA sequence.
The term "epigenetics" was introduced in 1942 by embryologist Conrad Waddington, who, relating it to the 17th century concept of "epigenesis", defined it as the complex of developmental processes between the genotype and phenotype.
A person's genotype is their unique sequence of DNA. More specifically, this term is used to refer to the two forms a person has inherited from their mother and father, for a particular gene. Defective genes acting alone only account for about 2% of our total disease load (Strohman 2003).
Phenotype, on the other hand, is the observable expression of this genotype – a person's presentation.
In his book, The Biology of Belief, Dr. Bruce Lipton describes his journey into the world of Epigenetics in the 1970’s. This book is a must-read! More information from Dr. Bruce Lipton can be found here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6438088/
In a 1990 paper entitled Metaphors and the Role of Genes and Development by H.F. Nijhout he summarizes “When a gene product is needed, a signal from its environment, not an emergent property of the gene itself, activates expression of that gene.”
In other words, your environment is the most important factor in determining your health. This includes everything mental, emotional and physical.
And how does this relate to Homeopathy…?
Studies have been done that demonstrate the effects of homeopathic remedies on cells and gene regulation. Here are a few:
Evidence in support of gene regulatory hypothesis: Gene expression profiling manifests homeopathy effect as more than placebo https://highdilution.org/index.php/ijhdr/article/view/635
Evidence of an Epigenetic Modification in Cell-cycle Arrest Caused by the Use of Ultra-highly-diluted Gonolobus Condurango Extract https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331975/
What this means is that homeopathic remedies work directly at the cellular level to effect changes in your health by acting on gene expression. How amazing is that?