The English comedian Les Dawson once reflected that \u2018Families are like fudge, mostly sweet, with a few nuts.\u2019<\/p>\n
Families are important in Ireland. Although now less common, most of us would have grown up with a wide extended family as part of our day-to-day life.<\/p>\n
I often hear from people that cancer is \u2018everywhere\u2019 in their families.<\/p>\n
In Ireland, we generally have quite a number of first- and second-degree relatives; that is, parents, siblings, children, grandparents, aunts, uncles, so the family tree fills out quickly.<\/p>\n
When you consider that one in every two of us will develop cancer, it\u2019s not uncommon to find cancer in your family.<\/p>\n
But seeing it doesn\u2019t always mean it\u2019s inherited. Sometimes it just reflects how common cancer is overall.<\/p>\n
Although we may feel very close to our cousins, we actually only share about 12.5% of our DNA with them, which are the specific bits passed down from shared grandparents.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean the genes we do share aren\u2019t doing anything.<\/p>\n
There has been an explosion of interest in genes lately. Some companies now offer online genetic tests as a way of finding lost relatives.<\/p>\n
In 1987, two Canadian teenagers were murdered in Washington State. For 30 years, no one was found responsible.<\/p>\n
Then in 2018, investigators uploaded DNA from the crime scene to a public genealogy website.<\/p>\n
By matching it to people who had submitted their own, they identified distant relatives and eventually arrested a 55-year-old man.<\/p>\n
This sparked a huge debate about privacy and genetic data. Criminal genetic genealogy was born, and with it came heated debates about privacy, ethics, and legality.<\/p>\n
Gene tests can reveal more than just medical risk, as they can uncover unexpected truths about family relationships.<\/p>\n
When some of the original genetic studies set out to answer their research questions, they occasionally uncovered sensitive information, including cases where the presumed father wasn\u2019t the biological one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On average, this occurred in about 4% of cases, with some more recent studies reporting slightly lower rates.<\/p>\n
These findings raised difficult ethical questions for researchers and serve as a reminder that DNA tests, while powerful, can reveal truths that may not have been sought; perhaps something to consider before giving one as a Christmas present.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From a medical perspective, genes in our families do influence our health.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s far more than just genes.<\/p>\n
Most traits, like height, skin colour, and cancer risk, are influenced by combinations of genes.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, genes themselves can switch on or off depending on the environment. The health of parents at the time of conception can also influence how genes behave.<\/p>\n
During World War II, when the Nazis blocked food supplies to parts of the Netherlands, pregnant women survived on as little as 400\u2013800 calories a day.<\/p>\n
The children born during the famine were more likely to develop obesity, diabetes, and heart disease later in life.<\/p>\n
Remarkably, their grandchildren also showed changes in health risks, suggesting that genes, in a way, have memories.<\/p>\n
Genes can be confusing for doctors as well. I remember once having a trainee doctor in clinic.<\/p>\n
One day, when they came to discuss a patient with me, I noticed they were wearing jeans.<\/p>\n
Now, I\u2019m a little old-fashioned, so I pointed out that the jeans were a problem.<\/p>\n
They confidently replied that the jeans were fine.<\/p>\n
I said no, I didn\u2019t think they were fine. Looking puzzled, the trainee said, \u2018But Dublin says the jeans are fine!\u2019<\/p>\n
Mildly irritated, I told them I really didn\u2019t care, and that this wasn\u2019t Dublin.<\/p>\n
Flustered, the poor trainee pulled out the chart and showed me a letter from the Dublin hospital which said that the patient\u2019s\u00a0genes were fine.<\/p>\n
I apologised, and asked them to consider trousers in future.<\/p>\n
Know the facts, own your risk, and decide for yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The English comedian Les Dawson once reflected that \u2018Families are like fudge, mostly sweet, with a few nuts.\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":128736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[815,159,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-128735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-genetics","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114992523962015015","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}