Environment and diet can leave "marks" on your heart for life

In a recent article, scientists have discovered that your environment and diet can affect your heart in more ways than one. The study started as an investigation to understand the DNA methylation of the heart and what the researchers found was remarkable.  The head scientists of this research was Roger Foo from  University of Cambridge, who discovered that scanning the whole genome in detail provided a better understanding of how genetics related to heart failure.  The study started as comparing people with end-stage cardiomyopathy, so bad that they had to have a heart transplant, with the healthy hearts that they were receiving. The scientists noticed that there was a difference in the "marks" that the genome presents on the diseased heart and the healthy heart. These "marks" were due to the difference in DNA methylation which is strongly influenced by external factors, which are factors that are not within the body, like your environment and diet.  Since, DNA methylation does not stop and continues throughout our lives in response to environmental changes and changes in diet and this could now be a link to heart disease. This study also revealed that there could be up to 8 other nucleotides in the DNA because of methylation. This was an important study and opens a new idea for science and new studies.