Most people hear the word ‘genetics’ and their eyes
immediately glaze over. There’s a faint memory from school of DNA, Punnett
squares and Pedigree charts. Anyone?
We know that certain traits are genetic, which we just
assume means they are inevitable. Whether that ranges from hair colour (natural
hair colour of course), to hereditary diseases or even personality traits,
people blame it on the genes.
However, it’s been recently investigated that, when it comes
down to it, genes don’t make you who you are. Gene expression does. And gene
expression varies depending on the life you live.
Within reason, the genes that you were born with are the
genes you are stuck with. However, that doesn’t mean that all the cards are
dealt. The effect that your environment has, influences gene expression.
That meant that about one percent of the genome—a considerable
portion—was responding differently depending on whether a person felt alone or
connected.
We usually think of stress as being a risk factor for
disease, and it is. If you actually measure stress however, it is not even
comparable to social isolation. Social isolation is the best-established, most
robust risk factor for disease there is.
This partially explains why people who work in high-stress but
rewarding jobs, tend not to suffer ill effects, while others living in
isolation and poverty end up accumulating stress-related diseases
(hypertension, heart failure, obesity, diabetes).
“We sometimes conceive “social support” as a sort of add-on,
something extra that might somehow fortify us. Yet this view assumes that
humanity’s default state is solitude. It’s not. Our default state is
connection. We are social creatures, and have been for eons”
So surround yourself with people in your life who support
you and who provide a social network. Because according to the studies, it’s
not genes or stress that will predict the future, it’s the relationships you
foster!
References
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