Health Disparities Forum

Thanks for these thoughts Nancy.  When thinking of GxE, do you conceptualize epigenetic changes as "G" or as "E"?  A few people's comments seem to frame epigenetics as an indicator of genetics, but I consider epigenetics as a manifestation of environmental factors -although granted there are some genetic predictors of epigenetic patterns-- I think of epigenetic differences are largely reflecting environmental conditions, maternal behavior as in the Weaver example but also dietary conditions (much more documentation on this), toxic exposures, etc.  

This is a key point for debate because the tension in the G vs E debate in disparities research is that genetic code is much harder to change and health differences due to genetic code differences may not even count as "disparities" in the sense that they are not necessarily unjust or avoidable given current knowledge.  So when someone finds an epigenetic mechanism for a health inequality, I usually think "that's probably preventable, if we just knew the environmental factor shaping the epigenetic marks".