Epigenetics made up the word epi and genetics. Epi means above, so it’s like a sleeve or a cover over those genes that can hide the G or express it. If the cover is open, that particular trade or that particular information will be expressed. And if it is covered, then your genes will not read it or the new cell will not read it. Now, discover whether it’ll be off or on will depend on your environment, the signals that your environment will give to the cell, which is taken in, say, as the food you’re eating.
Is it healthy? Is it toxic? Does it contain substances that are good for you? Not good for you. The air, your breathing, your emotional state, the stress in your life. All of them will translate to some kind of signal to yourself. And that will tell it whether now it wants to cover that particular element of your gene or not.
Think of it as if everything is on paper and you have, another punch card with some holes on it. And as you move the punch card over the paper, you might see some of the words and not see some of them. And what you see tells you a story and what is hidden is repressed. When your environment gives you a signal, which says we need to make a change because this isn’t working, that signal changes the holes on that punch card.
And when the next cell is made or created, a new story is read and that’s how epigenetics works. And it happens in your lifetime, on your genes. It is collected to what you pass on as DNA. In fact, we can collect epigenetic changes from generations. So we are hearing the stories in our genes from our ancestors.