#207 Epigenetics of Longevity and Aging - Dr Melissa Petersen

Siim Land (0:24)

Welcome to the Siim Land Podcast. My name is Siim Land, and our guest today is Dr. Melissa Petersen. Dr. Melissa is an epigenetic success coach. She is a licensed chiropractic with a board certification in holistic health.

I was also speaking at Dr. Melissa's free online event, the Longevity Summit, with other experts like Dr. Daniel Stickler, Dr. Aubrey DeGrey, Dr. Sandra Kaufman, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, and many others. It's a great event about how to improve your healthspan and wellness. Check out the free Longevity Summit in the show notes of this episode at www.seamland.com forward slash 207, that's www.seamland.com forward slash 207

Melissa Petersen (1:01)

It's great to be here. Thanks for having me, Siim.

Siim Land (1:05)

Yeah, I'm glad to talk with you.

Maybe let's start with talking about your profession or what you do. What is an epigenetic coach?

Melissa Petersen (1:17)

Yes. I'm one of those everything women that I have many different titles and backgrounds and degrees, but I'm so grateful for the field of epigenetics because it gives me one place to truly bring it all together, which I almost love to really coin it the science of lifestyle.

My doctorate is in chiropractic medicine and natural holistic health with various different certifications and degrees along the way and over the years. Over 20 years ago, when I got out, when I was young, I was already in nutrition and dance and fitness and very lifestyle driven. When I got out in clinical practice, I realized that there were pieces that were missing, that just people were coming in and their same patterns kept showing up and showing up. So I just went on my own personal dive of, this was before biohacking was a thing, before we had some of these firms that we do today. It went from functional medicine to integrative medicine, and then really finding my way into more of a optimization lane with genetics and epigenetics.

I'm excited to talk all about that today.

Siim Land (2:28)

Yeah, definitely. The field of epigenetics is very interesting and it's very innovative as well. So new discoveries are being made all the time, and it does show a lot of potential for just improving people's quality of life and longevity especially.

But maybe for those who haven't heard about epigenetics, how does it differ from regular genetics?

Melissa Petersen (2:52)

Yeah, this is such a great question. So we were classically brought up in the mindset and the understanding that our genes are our destiny. Here's your blueprint and what's there is what it is, kind of written in stone.

And that's not what it is at all, right? So it is our blueprint.

It is our blueprint of potential encoded within. Yet the science of epigenetics, which really, you know, only became it's such a new science in kind of the timeline because it really became more popular in the 70s. The discoveries in the labs were happening more, you know, in the 50s and a little earlier, but really becoming prevalent in the literature, more pronounced in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and then very mainstream in the early 90s with Dr. Bruce Lipton, really brought it to the forefront. One of the big people that kind of made it more common knowledge or talked about in the literature. Yet here's what it is.

It truly is the understanding that we thought it was the genes, but it's not the gene that determines what's going to be created. Your genetic code is simply, right, this letter of potential that will determine if a heart cell or a liver cell or, you know, muscle tissue, what is going to be made, what is going to be produced, what are the strands of amino acids and proteins that are going to be created in the body. So what was found is in the Petri dish, you know, just the genetic code itself didn't elicit the response. What is it that creates the code, puts it into action is the signal from above the gene, which is called epigenome. Above the gene is epigenetics. And so when we look in the literature, we start to say, well, what is it that affects the signaling to the gene? What is informing the gene to turn on or off or up or down is an easy way to think about it.

And so that is where all of a sudden we realize, well, it's what's the signal from above the gene? Well, what's informing the signal from above the gene? Oh, well, the environment, like there's different signals based on different inputs happening in this internal environment. Okay, now we go a little bit more meta. Well, what's informing that internal environment around that cell? Now we look to the external environment. And that's where I'd like to call it the science of lifestyle, because now all of a sudden we're thinking, the thoughts we're thinking, the foods we're eating, the air we're breathing, the light we're exposed to.