For many years, scientists have studied the role a person’s genes play in different types of diseases, which are very commonly found among people. Health problems and serious conditions like Cancer, heart diseases, mental health problems and even diabetes, the researchers have made consistent efforts over the years in working upon and examining how these little differences in a person’s genes can shape such kind of hazardous health conditions that last for a lifetime.
Understanding small variants
A new study conducted at Harvard University gave surprising results to the researchers. It is suggested that apart from a person’s genes, the environment in which a person lives makes a strong and significant impact on health and well-being. During the time of this research, the scientists studied and focused on data from 20 years. The researchers were involved in testing over 115,000 different associations between 619 environmental exposures. That provided them with 305 health outcomes. During this whole research, the scientists were very clear and sure about one thing: genetics tells only a single part of a long story.
Read More: The Role of Genetics in Mental Health
Research details
A team of researchers and scientists at Harvard Medical School have conducted a new study. This study conducted its research on 100,000 associations. The researchers examined a huge amount of data, which came from the U.S population, and this data was already existing before the start of this research, making their work a little easier. Health risks in humans develop with various factors. But the motive behind the conduct of this research was to identify some very specific exposures which impact hihly on a person’s health. This research held the vision of improving health conditions at the individual level.
The scientists with their team tested 115,000 associations, which were between a total of 619 environmental exposures. These revealed 305 different health outcomes clinically. In exposures, the major focus was on factors like pollutants and nutrients. However, on the other hand, when the scientists started focusing on the outcomes that were related to the health of people, a major focus was observed on BMI, blood sugar levels, and the functioning of the lungs.
Major Findings
After the completion of this research, the scientists came upon the findings that people had a low chance of getting affected by ill health by only a single factor like DNA. Rather, the chances of getting health risks increased significantly when they encountered multiple exposures at the same time. The research findings were also published in a journal (Nature Medicine).
The researchers found a few highly significant associations that were formed between exposures and outcomes. For example, a different number of diseases, which could include problems that are related to trans-fats, or various other issues related to health and common pollutants, formed a total of 20 diseases, proving to have 43% of variations in people’s triglyceride levels, health disclosures. Researchers explained that most of the different combinations of exposures explained only a modest amount of differences between people.
Read More: Genes and Human Behaviour: How DNA Shapes Emotions, Intelligence, and Resilience
Author’s Perspective
Chirag Patel, who is working as an associate professor of biomedical informatics in the Blavatnik Institute at Medical School of Harvard, stated that while one single exposure does not make a massive difference inside the human body and its health, when many different exposures are combined, they are tend to make a powerful impact upon the person’s health and DNA in determining risk of certain disease.
A senior author of the study, Arjun (Raj) Manrai, & also an associate professor at HMS, said, “Till this date, this field has been imbalanced. More efforts have been made on the side of genetics to individualise treatment. And not much effort has been given to environmental exposures.
Conclusion
This research examined the factors which effect human health. It states that genes play an important role in human health and the development of a disease inside a person’s body. I is not the sole determinant. Various environmental issues also play a significant role in the development of severe diseases in the human body.
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