However, in some situations, for instance starvation, the body sends chemical messages to the genes that have been turned off, telling them to turn back on. Hey, we normally don’t need you, but since we are starving, we have to use sugar and fats more efficiently, so we’re turning you on to do that work. These are called epigenetic changes—“epi” meaning “above” in Greek, because the actual genes are not changing, but cellular mechanisms “above” the gene can turn key genes on and turn others off. These gene regulatory processes are continually at work in our body, trying to keep us “in
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