This third example is one that demonstrates the emerging interest in epigenetics (or epigenomics). Epigenetics is both highly complicated and very exciting because of its relevance to real-world health and well-being. We know from advances in this field that certain environmental conditions can alter our genes without changing their underlying sequence. Epi means ‘above’ and these changes are ‘above’ the basic genome. They involve chemical changes to the DNA that alter transcription processes. In other words, environments can change the chemical composition of DNA which, in turn, changes the way the DNA gets expressed. Interestingly, These changes are heritable and can be passed down when the cell divides or even to the next generation.

Epigenetics tells the story of how environmental experience gets translated into biochemical signals that turn genes off and on to varying degrees. It explains how early adversity ‘gets under the skin’ to produce an embodied response. The best understood mechanism for these processes is called methylation, or the addition of a certain chemical molecule to certain genes, which silences or, in some cases, turns on that gene.
In a real way, this is biochemical reprogramming by way of what we experience.

We know that adversity ‘marks’ the DNA through methylation of stress-and immune-related genes. But if experience can reprogram genes, can we deprogram them? This is what this study investigated. Experienced meditators who participated in a day of meditation were compared to non-meditators who experienced a day of leisure. Blood samples were drawn before and after the day’s activities and epigenetic markers were assessed and compared in genes related to immunity. Meditators showed epigenetic changes related to improved immunity, lower inflammation and DNA repair compared to those who engaged in a day of relaxation.