Genetic profiling is coming. There is talk of making it available on the NHS for some and the rest of us can pay for it. If the results help people take care of themselves properly, then this can only be a good thing.
The problem is that genes do not act alone. Earlier on in my studies, this was summarised by, ‘Genetics loads the gun, environment pulls the trigger.’ I want to unpack that simple statement a little.
We think of genes as long strips of DNA. In truth, DNA is 95% non-gene. 95%! The bits between each gene is where RNA is made. RNA is the gene’s messenger and exact copy or transcription; it gets sent off to do the gene’s job.
Just before each gene is a strip of DNA which contains the ‘on’ switch for the gene to make RNA. To turn itself on (or off, as the case may be) the gene needs Transcription Factor, which binds to the ‘on’ switch.
And what produces this transcription factor? The environment.
No environment, no action from the genes. Genes don’t make sense outside of the environment.
How genes interact with each other and respond to outside influences is mind bogglingly complicated. To understand more, a good starting place is the chapter, ‘Back to when you were just a fertilized egg’ from Robert Sapolsky’s book, Behave. The chapter concludes:
..genes aren’t about inevitability. Instead they’re about context-dependent tendencies, propensities, potentials, and vulnerabilities. All embedded in the fabric of the other factors, biological and otherwise…
Which means that whilst we can carry a gene or genes for breast cancer, this does not mean that we will inevitably go on to develop the cancer; and equally we can have no genes at all for breast cancer, but still go on to suffer the disease.
Whilst a genetic profile will give us pointers, if we are profiling for developing cancer, for example, we would be wise to also find out what our liver struggles to detoxify. We live in a toxic world and some livers cope just fine with heavy metals, whilst others have poor detoxification pathways, meaning the metals build up in the body causing many different diseases. Ditto with alcohol, plastics, exhaust particulates, tyre particulates, smoking – the list is depressingly long.
As usual, the government goes for simplistic solutions; have your genetic profile done and the NHS will supply you with the necessary drugs to keep you healthy. For me, I would rather know what are the triggers that fire my genetic gun and do all possible to avoid firing that gun.
