Can You Change Your Dna?

If you have ever wondered whether you can change your DNA

, the basic answer is no. However, it's more complicated than that. DNA can be changed and it does change all the time, but we cannot currently change our own, or have any procedures carried out to have it changed by scientists for us.

A Complicated Issue

There are lots of companies out there that are taking advantage of the notion that we can change our DNA. The truth of the matter is, however, complex. Human DNA does change. Our bodies adjust the nucleotide sequence of DNA naturally, in order for the human species, or indeed any species to evolve.

When cells in our bodies divide, the DNA is copied across but polymerase doesn't always copy it exactly. Sometimes polymerase copies the sequence of nucleotide bases and gets it wrong, for example taking ATCATAGC and creating ATGATAGC. These subtle changes are usually harmless.

Most of the time, these mutations don't have any noticeable effect on our bodies and they occur outside of a coding region, or are similar enough changes to the original DNA to not affect the amino acid sequence. The changes that matter, however, stop the gene from actually doing anything or change its function and those changes are dangerous.

There are techniques in existence which deliberately use DNA polymerase to introduce changes to DNA, in the hope of provoking mutagenesis, however these are all tests conducted in labs. To date, there is little to no research into changing DNA within or for a living person. There are several reasons why altering a living person's DNA is not presently something we can do or would be willing to do. Some of these reasons are ethical, while others are scientific.

Ethical Considerations

Scientifically any potentially dangerous testing on human beings is unethical which makes gene therapy and other DNA related tests and procedures impractical. They are largely considered unthinkable at present and DNA related experiments such as cloning have been tested on animals (famously Dolly the sheep) but are not conducted on human beings.

Scientific Limitations

All of the work on human DNA has been carried out on cells in laboratories, not inside living people and it is entirely infeasible to change the DNA of a live human being using the techniques we've described. Therefore, science has not progressed sufficiently to alter the DNA of living people.

Quack Science

A number of companies claim that it's possible to change your DNA with emotional therapies, mind training and other courses of behaviour but this is false. There is nothing you can do with positive thinking or mental exercises to change your DNA. At best all you can achieve through such pursuits is a happier attitude or a healthier brain because that is the organ you use for meditation or mind training.

Therefore, if a company claims that they can change the DNA within your body to solve your problems, sadly they are deceptive, dangerous, deluded or all three of these.

by: Marcus T

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