Summary of How a lifetime of exposures impacts health – exposome explained | Tomorrow's Cure Episode 2
The exposome is the study of the cumulative effect of all exposures on the body, including both positive and negative factors.
The exposome includes physical, biological, chemical, and psychosocial influences on health.
exposomics involves measuring thousands of molecules in blood to understand exposures and their impact on health.
epigenetics plays a key role in how past exposures can affect gene expression and health outcomes.
The exposome aims to identify exposures that affect biology, such as iron and copper in liver disease.
Researchers are working on integrating genetic and exposome data to personalize medicine and improve drug responses.
exposomics can help identify environmental factors contributing to disease disparities in different populations.
Climate change can exacerbate the impact of exposures on health due to increased chemical interactions.
exposomics can lead to changes in clinical practice by providing insights into individualized preventive care based on genetic and exposure data.
Lifestyle changes, such as consuming organic foods, avoiding plastic exposure, and using HEPA filters, can reduce harmful exposures.
The exposome can inform public policy changes by highlighting the need for broader regulatory approaches to address thousands of chemicals in the environment.
The general public should consider their surroundings holistically, focusing on reducing processed food consumption and protecting themselves from harmful exposures.
exposomics aims to put environmental factors on equal footing with genetics in understanding and optimizing health outcomes.
Researchers/sources:
- Dr. Gary Miller, international leader on the exposome
- Dr. Constantinos Lazaritas, gastroenterologist and executive director for Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine
Notable Quotes
— 01:22 — « You might have air pollution or allergens in the air that youre breathing and so what were looking at is all the things that people get exposed to. »
— 02:12 — « We know that our genes and environment determine our health and weve done a great job of studying the genes and we have to do a better job of studying the environment. »
— 03:04 — « There are some exposures that are useful that are helping us by preventing disease and we like to discover those too. »
— 03:09 — « The idea with exposomics is we want to look at those things, so for example if you think about people that live in a poor community why is it that their health outcomes arent as good? »
— 11:09 — « Its the connection of the exposure to the biology; there are millions of exposures but probably the most important ones are those that are connecting to the biology. »
Category
Science and Nature