Family history of a disease may be as much the consequence of individuals sharing a similar diet and lifestyle as compared to the effect of their common inherited genes, according to new research published in the journal Nature Genetics.
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute and MRC Human Genetics Unit studied the medical histories of more than 500,000 people and their families. Their data revealed that a number of non genetic factors that are common to the family environment – the shared living space and similar eating habits — make a major contribution to a person’s risk of disease.
Previous studies have identified genes that are linked to numerous medical conditions, but by not accounting for shared environmental factors, these studies may overestimate the importance of inherited genes by nearly 50 per cent, they found.
They looked at incidents of 12 common diseases including high blood pressure, heart disease, and several cancers and neurological diseases.
They hope that their findings will help to provide realistic expectations of the value of genetic testing for identifying people at risk for a variety of diseases.
This research also brings to light the need to identify environmental factors that contribute to diseases so that we can study how to modify these factors to reduce the risk.
Professor Chris Haley, of the University’s MRC Human Genetics Unit, said, “The huge UK Biobank study allowed us to obtain very precise estimates of the role of genetics in these important diseases. It also identified those diseases where the shared family environment is important, such as heart disease, hypertension and depression, and also equally interestingly those where family environment is of limited or no apparent importance, such as … Parkinson’s disease.”
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