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Mike
Carruthers:
Our
genes play an important role in determining diseases we'll likely
get, but also what diseases we likely won't get.
Philip Reilly:
After all, we know that heavy smoking causes lung cancer,
but only 10% of heavy smokers get lung cancer. Why is that?
Genetic expert
Dr. Philip Reilly, author of the book Is
It In Your Genes?...
It may be that
some people, many people have genes that protect somewhat against
that.
You've probably
heard it said that diseases run in families, but sometimes skip
a generation.
There is a concept
in genetics called penetrance, by that term is meant the likelihood
that if you have a gene that predisposes to something, that
you will actually develop the disease. Most diseases, like heart
disease or colon cancer have genes, if you will, gene products,
interacting with the environment. So even if you were born with
an increased risk because of the gene variant - if you don't
get the environmental trigger, or exposures, you may not ever
have colon cancer, but your child could get the same gene from
you, grow up, be exposed to the environmental triggers and he
could get cancer. So in fact, diseases can skip generations;
genes don't, but diseases can.
And although
it's impossible to know how long you'll live...
Although it's
not a great predictor, the best predictor of how long you'll
live is how long your parents lived.
At somethingyoushouldknow.net
I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.
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