For example, during pregnancy African Americans are said to have a higher chance of getting preeclampsia or gestational diabetes. Genetically, what’s happening here?
In: 72
[removed]
[removed]
[removed]
The way you’ve asked your question is setting you up for a lot of half-correct (or totally wrong) answers.
There are many reasons people are more or less likely to get certain diseases. The big factors include genetics, environment, and social factors.
Since you asked Genetics: some genes are helpful in one way while having drawbacks or bad effects in other ways. Someone already commented the classic example of malaria – several genes provide protection from malaria (thus allowing people with those genes to make more babies, because they didn’t die of malaria) while unfortunately also causing disease (classic example is sickle cell anemia – painful and sucky disease, but less likely to stop you from making babies than dying of malaria). These genes the. get passed to those babies and become more common in populations where malaria is a big problem.
Other genes become common by historical happen stance – a small group of people moves to an island. One dude in the group happened to have some bad genes, but because there aren’t many other dudes on the island (and lots of women, maybe) he happens to make a lot of babies, who all inherit his sucky genes. These genes will be more common among the descendants of people on the island than in other places. (This is a “founder effect”)
There’s also epigenetics – our life experiences change our dna. Stress and other factors can make genes express differently. Different groups are exposed to different amounts and sources of stress.
But genes are not often the biggest factor for many diseases. There are many environmental and social factors – how were you raised? What foods do you eat? What discrimination have you faced? Can you afford to see a doctor? These all have HUGE impacts on health, and the answers to these questions will be very different among different groups of people. For example, the history of slavery in the US dramatically impacted the health of Black Americans today genetically (who were enslaved, what genes did they bring with them?), epigenetically (the stress of lasting effects of racism), and socially (racist policies and attitudes in the US affect access to healthcare, jobs, etc)
[removed]
[removed]
The way you’ve asked your question is setting you up for a lot of half-correct (or totally wrong) answers.
There are many reasons people are more or less likely to get certain diseases. The big factors include genetics, environment, and social factors.
Since you asked Genetics: some genes are helpful in one way while having drawbacks or bad effects in other ways. Someone already commented the classic example of malaria – several genes provide protection from malaria (thus allowing people with those genes to make more babies, because they didn’t die of malaria) while unfortunately also causing disease (classic example is sickle cell anemia – painful and sucky disease, but less likely to stop you from making babies than dying of malaria). These genes the. get passed to those babies and become more common in populations where malaria is a big problem.
Other genes become common by historical happen stance – a small group of people moves to an island. One dude in the group happened to have some bad genes, but because there aren’t many other dudes on the island (and lots of women, maybe) he happens to make a lot of babies, who all inherit his sucky genes. These genes will be more common among the descendants of people on the island than in other places. (This is a “founder effect”)
There’s also epigenetics – our life experiences change our dna. Stress and other factors can make genes express differently. Different groups are exposed to different amounts and sources of stress.
But genes are not often the biggest factor for many diseases. There are many environmental and social factors – how were you raised? What foods do you eat? What discrimination have you faced? Can you afford to see a doctor? These all have HUGE impacts on health, and the answers to these questions will be very different among different groups of people. For example, the history of slavery in the US dramatically impacted the health of Black Americans today genetically (who were enslaved, what genes did they bring with them?), epigenetically (the stress of lasting effects of racism), and socially (racist policies and attitudes in the US affect access to healthcare, jobs, etc)
The way you’ve asked your question is setting you up for a lot of half-correct (or totally wrong) answers.
There are many reasons people are more or less likely to get certain diseases. The big factors include genetics, environment, and social factors.
Since you asked Genetics: some genes are helpful in one way while having drawbacks or bad effects in other ways. Someone already commented the classic example of malaria – several genes provide protection from malaria (thus allowing people with those genes to make more babies, because they didn’t die of malaria) while unfortunately also causing disease (classic example is sickle cell anemia – painful and sucky disease, but less likely to stop you from making babies than dying of malaria). These genes the. get passed to those babies and become more common in populations where malaria is a big problem.
Other genes become common by historical happen stance – a small group of people moves to an island. One dude in the group happened to have some bad genes, but because there aren’t many other dudes on the island (and lots of women, maybe) he happens to make a lot of babies, who all inherit his sucky genes. These genes will be more common among the descendants of people on the island than in other places. (This is a “founder effect”)
There’s also epigenetics – our life experiences change our dna. Stress and other factors can make genes express differently. Different groups are exposed to different amounts and sources of stress.
But genes are not often the biggest factor for many diseases. There are many environmental and social factors – how were you raised? What foods do you eat? What discrimination have you faced? Can you afford to see a doctor? These all have HUGE impacts on health, and the answers to these questions will be very different among different groups of people. For example, the history of slavery in the US dramatically impacted the health of Black Americans today genetically (who were enslaved, what genes did they bring with them?), epigenetically (the stress of lasting effects of racism), and socially (racist policies and attitudes in the US affect access to healthcare, jobs, etc)
[removed]
[removed]
Latest Answers