For reasons that elude me but probably
because it’s far easier always to blame problems that beset us on everything
but ourselves, most people seem to choose to believe that whether or not they come
down with a chronic disease – heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, some type of
cancer – is as much a matter of their genes (“My great-aunt had high something
so that means I’m “prone to” high something, too”) or the environment (“it’s
those dreaded plastic cups I drink out of that must be at least partly
responsible for me getting this.”)
Common sense (and a quick glance at the people seated next
to you, or a quick honest self-appraisal) tells you, however, that (aside from
some obviously less frequent genetically-controlled conditions such as muscular
dystrophy, for example) most of what happens to us is a factor of how we live,
so that even if our genes raise our risk of getting something like Type 2
diabetes, for nearly all of us, how we eat, how much weight we gain, how much
alcohol we drink, and how much exercise we get are way more important in
determining if that condition does effect us.
In other words, don’t gain much weight, eat
well, do exercise, and all those other things we know are necessary components
of a healthy lifestyle, and even if you are “prone to” Type 2 diabetes, you
very likely won’t get it.
So it should be no surprise that a terrific
study that followed over 53,000 identical twins (who, if genes were kings,
would all pretty much develop the same illnesses) came to exactly that
conclusion: for the 24 chronic conditions looked at in this study including
some cancers, how you live trumps (and very forcefully) your genetic makeup.
So if you’ve been tempted to have your DNA
analyzed to tell you what your health risks are, either save your money, or
better yet, send it to me with a snapshot and a brief note on how you live, and
I promise you, I’m much more likely to be right about your future than that
DNA test.
Money back if I’m wrong, of course, but
most of you’ll have to get it from my estate, I think.
