Healthcare 2015, 3(2), 194-204; doi:10.3390/healthcare3020194
Epigenetics: Its Understanding Is Crucial to a Sustainable Healthcare System
College of Health, Massey University, Wellington 6140, New Zealand
Academic Editor: Richard H. Beinecke
Received: 11 February 2015 / Revised: 16 March 2015 / Accepted: 27 March 2015 / Published: 1 April 2015
Abstract
Understanding the molecular impact of lifestyle factors has never been so important; a period in time where there are so many adults above retirement age has been previously unknown. As a species, our life expectancy is increasing yet the period of our lives where we enjoy good health is not expanding proportionately. Over the next 50 years we will need to almost double the percentage of GDP spent on health care, largely due to the increasing incidence of obesity related chronic diseases. A greater understanding and implementation of an integrated approach to health is required. Research exploring the impact of nutritional and exercise intervention on the epigenetically flexible genome is up front in terms of addressing healthy aging. Alongside this, we need a greater understanding of the interaction with our immune and nervous systems in preserving and maintaining health and cognition. View Full-TextKeywords:
epigenetics; health; disease
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).
Scifeed alert for new publications
Never miss any articles matching your research from any publisher- Get alerts for new papers matching your research
- Find out the new papers from selected authors
- Updated daily for 49'000+ journals and 6000+ publishers
- Define your Scifeed now
Share & Cite This Article
MDPI and ACS Style
Thunders, M. Epigenetics: Its Understanding Is Crucial to a Sustainable Healthcare System. Healthcare 2015, 3, 194-204.
Related Articles
Article Metrics
Comments
[Return to top]
Healthcare
EISSN 2227-9032
Published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland
RSS
E-Mail Table of Contents Alert