Gene Expression & Ageing: How Your Daily Choices Shape Long-Term Health
Change How You Age: Rewriting Your Wellness Through Genes and Daily Choices
How Your Genes Influence Ageing — And What You Can Do About It
GENE EXPRESSIONS
We used to think of our genetic code as fixed a script we inherited and couldn’t change. But we now know that our lifestyle choices can influence how our genes behave. What we eat, how we move, even where we live all of these factors can shape our biological outcomes.
In The Aging Myth, we link these shift to metabolism, the microbiome and mental health. Disciplines like molecular biology and biochemistry serve as our “ Rossetta Stone” for decoding gene expression.
This is the field of nutrigenomics, where biology meets behaviour. It helps us understand how our food, environment and habits can switch genes on or off guiding everything from metabolism and immune health to mood, skin and energy. It’s a powerful reminder that we are not simply the product of our genes, but active participants in how they’re expressed.
“ We are entering an era where technology aligns with biology. Tools like light therapy, microcurrents and cellular nutrition allow us to influence gene expression from the outside in. We are no longer just maintaining health we’re optimising it.” - Dr. Joseph Chang
It’s also a reminder that ageing isn’t something we must simply surrender to many people unknowingly give up too soon, believing that decline is inevitable. But what if your future health could be shaped more by your actions than your age? You might be surprised what small, consistent changes can unlock.
One of the most important milestones in this field came in 2006, when Dr. Shinya Yamanaka from Japan pioneered a method to reprogram old cells to a youthful state work that earned him a Nobel Prize.
His research showed that you can take any old cell even one from an 85-year-old patient with Parkinson’s disease and reprogram it into an embryonic stem cell. This is done by introducing four specific proteins, known as transcription factors. These are “master switches” that control how genes are turned on or off. By adding them to an old cell, you can reset it to an embryonic state, meaning it can develop into any type of cell heart, liver, brain, skin and more.
This process is called induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology. It works partly by wiping away epigenetic marks (chemical tags that sit on DNA and influence gene expression), effectively resetting the cell’s biological clock.
However, scientists have found that in some cases it’s better not to completely erase a cell’s identity. Instead, you can use partial reprogramming “pulsing” the cell with transcription factors just long enough to rejuvenate it, but not so long that it becomes a full embryonic stem cell. For example, you can take an 85-year-old skin cell and make it function like the skin cell of a 1-year-old, without losing its identity as a skin cell. This concept could in theory, rejuvenate different organs and tissues in the body.
Ageing, inactivity and physical health
Ageing is now being explored as a disease process and one major risk factor for accelerated ageing is physical inactivity. Being sedentary can increase the risk of early death more than many recognised diseases.
One landmark study, the Dallas Bed Rest Study (1960s), showed the profound impact inactivity has on the body. Exercise, especially high-intensity training is one of the most effective ways to clear excess glucose from the body.