Gene Expression and Its Discontents : The Social Production of Chronic Disease

This book describes how epigenetic context, in a large sense, affects gene expression and the development of an organism, using the asymptotic limit theorems of information theory to construct statistical models useful in data analysis. The approach allows deep understanding of how embedding context affects development. We find that epigenetic information sources act as tunable catalysts, directing ontogeny into characteristic pathways, a perspective having important implications for epigenetic epidemiology. In sum, environmental stressors can induce a broad spectrum of developmental dysfunctions, and the book explores a number of pandemic chronic diseases, using U.S. data at different scales and levels of organization. In particular, we find the legacy of slavery has been grossly compounded by accelerating industrial decline and urban decay. Individual chapters are dedicated to obesity and its sequelae, coronary heart disease, cancer, mental disorders, autoimmune dysfunction, Alzheimer’s disease, and other conditions. Developmental disorders are driven by environmental factors channeled by historical trajectory and are unlikely to respond to medical interventions at the population level in the face of persistent individual and community stress. Drugs powerful enough to affect deleterious epigenetic programming will likely have side effects leading to shortened lifespan. Addressing chronic conditions and developmental disorders requires significant large-scale changes in public policy and resource allocation. Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Introduction....Pages 1-25 Models of Development....Pages 27-34 Groupoid Symmetries....Pages 35-41 Epigenetic Catalysis....Pages 43-54 Developmental Disorders....Pages 55-62 An Interim Perspective....Pages 63-65 The Obesity Pandemic in the USA....Pages 67-86 Heart Disease....Pages 87-105 Cancer....Pages 107-120 Autoimmune Disorders....Pages 121-139 Demoralization and Obesity in Upper Manhattan....Pages 141-159 Death at an Early Age: AIDS and Related Mortality in New York City....Pages 161-179 Western Atomism and Its Culture-Bound Syndromes....Pages 181-193 Environmental Induction of Neurodevelopmental Disorders....Pages 195-206 Mass De-Housing and Low-Weight Births....Pages 207-222 Alzheimer’s Disease and “Right-to-Work” Laws....Pages 223-235 Diabetes and Thyroid Cancer in Chinatown: Diversity and Acculturation....Pages 237-249 Violence and Obesity....Pages 251-268 Psychopathology, Sleep, and Culture....Pages 269-284 Final Thoughts....Pages 285-293 Mathematical Appendix....Pages 295-314 Back Matter....Pages 315-344 Gene Expression and its Discontents examines a class of probability models describing how epigenetic context affects gene expression and organismal development, using the asymptotic limit theorems of information theory in a highly formal manner. Taking classic results on spontaneous symmetry breaking abducted from statistical physics in groupoid, rather than group, circumstances, the work suggests that epigenetic information sources act as analogs to a tunable catalyst, directing development into different characteristic pathways according to the structure of external signals. The results have significant implications for epigenetic epidemiology, in particular for understanding how environmental stressors, in a large sense, can induce a broad spectrum of developmental disorders in humans. The authors then apply the perspective to a number of chronic diseases broadly associated with obesity, using data at different scales of observation. This volume examines a class of probability models describing how epigenetic context affects gene expression and organismal development, using the asymptotic limit theorems of information theory in a highly formal manner