Epigenetics - A Public Health Perspective

Public Health has an overarching scope in the promotion of health and the prevention of disease in communities and society. Individual and environmental factors that may interact in the promotion of health or disease and the mechanisms by which they act are of primary interest in Public Health research and practice. Epigenetics is a fairly young discipline that is beginning to provide some clues on how gene expression can interact and be modulated by intrinsic and environmental factors that have a direct impact on health and wellbeing. New questions are being raised that need to be addressed in a public health context. Are there time or age frames in which environmental factors have a greater impact than at other times or periods? Are epigenetic changes reversible? Are epigenetic alterations and their effects trans generational or can they be halted at the individual level? Are some population groups at greater risk than others? How can the interaction of a multitude of environmental factors and epigenetic responses that may result in different health outcomes on an individual level be differentiated? The study of these questions and others that are of equal or greater importance are at the heart of Public Health. This introductory presentation will give a brief overview of the topic and show the emerging importance of epigenetics for Public Health.