Okay, so the point of all of this is that we have all of this genetic information. It's stored in all of ourselves almost like a book with letters in it but it just sits there until we actually want to make something with it, and the thing we want to make is proteins. In order for proteins to be made, we have to have transcription factors, and regulatory proteins that are going to indicate which part of the book or which chapter, which page we want to be reading, and what we want to make, and how much. So we think of DNA as words or letters on a page, and proteins actually being the activity of doing what that said. The interesting thing of course that I've mentioned before is that we have the same genetic material regardless of the cell, and so now we have to pay attention to what cells need what genes. So in order to actually start this mechanism, we imagined as you see in the picture, that there's this huge long amount of genetic information in the form of bases all strung together, and to make a protein we just want a small amount. So it's a highly selective process. So we have enzymes like RNA polymerase that are actually going to help synthesize a piece of RNA from this long big chromosome. Once we have that piece of RNA, it's going to go through post-transcriptional processes, and it's going to leave the nucleus as mRNA, and this mRNA is going to land on a ribosome, and the ribosome is going to help synthesized the actual sequence of amino acids for that particular protein. So DNA damage is something that we have to pay very careful attention to, and it's one of the things that we keep talking about, which is that the environment can have a negative impact on ourselves, and in this case DNA because DNA is stored in cells, it's replicated, it's made into new cells, any damage that occurs or any mutations that occur can have a pretty wide or systemic effect if you think about how quickly these cells are turning over. In addition, any DNA damage because it's being transcribed, and translated into proteins can also have a big lasting impact because it might translate into abnormalities of protein or enzymatic behavior. Things that damage DNA, you probably already familiar, UV light, air and water toxins from the environment, stress unfortunately, alcohol and drugs, cigarettes, exhaustion actually which is another form of stress, pesticides and then poor nutrition, lack of exercise. So one thing we really want to keep in mind is that we have accumulation or a tendency to accumulate free radicals when we get stressed on a molecular level. So cell stress which can be from exhaustion, from infection, from poor diet or sleep patterns can actually lead to a huge negative reaction that will include things like cell membrane damage, DNA mutations, cell death because free radicals which can be things like reactive oxygen species are very sticky, and what happens is that these sticky electrons can actually bang into each other, bang into the cell or actually cross through all the way into the nuclear membrane, and bombard the chromosomes with abnormal activity. So we are constantly working to keep our free radicals decreased as much as we can. Diet plays a big role in that so antioxidants actually help by neutralizing free radicals or reactive oxygen species but we also have this ability to have an impact on our stress level which we will continue to talk about through this module, and see that the yoga and mindfulness can actually help reduce that as well. At the end of all of our chromosomes, we have what are called telomeres, and telomeres are a region of the chromosome or on our genetic material that don't really code directly for proteins, and the reason is because they tend to shorten in the course of our lifespan. So it's a protective measure where our telomeres are made up of extra genetic material that doesn't directly code for anything. They have specific proteins that are wrapped around almost like shoelace endings that help keep it from being freed but in the course of our life they do actually shorten, and at some point this shortening can have a systemic effect because it will start to interfere with genes that we need to make proteins. In addition, the shortening will continue over rounds of replication and time and this can eventually lead to cell death. So some studies have recently shown, and we have links to the paper, that moderate exercise, decreasing stress, mindfulness and meditation can actually help keep our telomeres long, and this is something that we're constantly working at, and as you've guessed the course stress also can start to decreed the telomeres soo we really want to keep that at bay. Telomeres as we age, and there's new companies of course that have telometric age where they actually look at your telomeres, and estimate how old you are based on stress, and other environmental factors, and so we're preventing them from shortening. So we have an enzyme called telomerase which actually helps to length them or keep them long through all of our replication process, and there's a dark side to that too. So a lot of cancer is associated with telomeres that are very very long, and it helps to promote cells lasting, and so what we're really trying to do is keep this balance between the amount of free radicals, the shortening of telomeres, and promoting health and wellness overall through decreasing stress.
