Receiving a gene-positive Huntington's disease diagnosis evokes a sense of inevitable neurological decline and prompts planning for future deterioration. Many individuals balance acceptance with active efforts to delay onset and lessen severity. Epigenetics governs changes in gene expression without altering the DNA sequence, allowing genes to be switched on or off. Lifestyle choices and practices such as meditation can influence epigenetic states and internal biochemistry. These influences have potential to postpone motor symptom onset and reduce disease severity. A cure remains the ultimate goal, but epigenetic and behavioral approaches offer actionable routes to influence disease trajectory.
Finding out you are gene-positive for Huntington's disease (HD) is like being handed a death sentence. At least, that's what it feels like. You are told that your genes have betrayed you and will lead to total neurological debilitation and an early death. Though there is variation in how and when it might happen, it will happen: it is only a matter of time.
Part of me understands it's probably wise to accept this, and to start planning for my future decline. After all, there is no cure. Another part of me hurls expletives at that route and wants to fight with everything I have against it. It's not denial, exactly, but rather an intense desire to do anything I possibly can to delay the onset and decrease the severity of the illness.
Epigenetics has to do with how the expression of our genetic material can change without any alterations to the DNA sequence itself. While our DNA lays the blueprint for our genetic code, our cells still need to read and interpret that code. A number of factors affect those processes, and genetic researchers have found that the coding contained in DNA can be turned "on" or "off" during different stages of gene expression.
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