Gene Links Alcoholism, Tobacco Addiction, Stress
A team of Quebec researchers has uncovered a series of genes linking the response to stress and high blood pressure with alcoholism and tobacco dependence.
If a person has that series of genes, he or she will be more prone to drink or smoke in order to cope with stress and high blood pressure, according to researchers.
“What that tells us is that it’s not only bad education or family behaviour that matters,” explained Dr. Pavel Hamet, who is leading the study of 120 families in the Saguenay Lac-St.-Jean region.
“The fight against alcohol and tobacco should not only be moralistic, but also give people ways to manage stress,” he said, adding that one in five persons has the predisposition.
He gave his findings at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress in Quebec City yesterday.
Hamet believes this discovery could explain why men are more prone to alcohol abuse than women.
His team found that the genes that govern alcohol intake appear on chromosome X. Men only have one chromosome X, while women have two.
“A man can only get his chromosome X from his mother, so he is more at risk than the woman who gets one from her mother and one from her father,” said Hamet, director of research at the University of Montreal Hospital Centre.
Hamet believes this study could be helpful to help high-risk people reduce stress and blood pressure, often leading to heart diseases and higher risks of getting a stroke.
Source: The Vancouver Province
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Interesting article. Conventional beliefs say that genes cause behavior. For a more updated viewpoint, consider reading Dr. Bruce Lipton’s “The Biology of Belief.”
Excerpted from the Amazon.com Editorial Reviews Book Description: “The Biology of Belief is a groundbreaking work in the field of New Biology. Author Dr. Bruce Lipton is a former medical school professor and research scientist. His experiments, and those of other leading-edge scientists, have examined in great detail the processes by which cells receive information. The implications of this research radically change our understanding of life. It shows that genes and DNA do not control our biology; that instead DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including the energetic messages emanating from our positive and negative thoughts. Dr. Lipton’s profoundly hopeful synthesis of the latest and best research in cell biology and quantum physics is being hailed as a major breakthrough showing that our bodies can be changed as we retrain our thinking.”
Well worth reading, in my view.
Nice to see you again Kirk. I’ll check out that book as soon as time permits. I missed you around here!
Hugs,
robbster