if a relative developed a disease after I was born, would I be at higher risk to get it? why so?

Question

I always wondered this, but I never knew what the answer to this was. for example if my relative developed diabetes after I was born, would I be still be at higher risk at getting it. something like that. if that is true, then how does it work? sorry if I sound stupid

In: 1

Answer 1

Think of it like this. If you and all your relatives have pale skin your are all more likely to get sunburned.

The pale skin is something you have in common because you are related.

If your uncle gets a bad sunburn after you are born, this sunburn doesn’t get magically transmitted to you in some way. You were born with a higher likelihood of getting sunburns.

Similarly many diseases and illnesses have a genetic factor. You are born being more or less likely to get that diseases than other people.

This is why doctors often ask about family history of certain diseases, because if people you are related to are more likely to get them, than so might you.

If many members of your family died of a certain kind of disease or cancer or get a certain mental condition, that might be down to environmental factors or it might be something in your genes that makes you more susceptible to them, which might be a reason for you to look out for that problem.