The wonder of epigenetics
This week, my wife (a non-identical twin) and I watched two fascinating programmes on BBC1 television called “The Secret Life Of Twins”. The programmes looked at identical twins, including some who grew up apart, to assess to what extent their personality, behaviour and health were similar.
The main conclusion was that identical twins have an amazing amount in common and therefore genes must be determining personality, behaviour and health. On the other hand, lifestyle – such as incidents in childhood plus exercise and diet – do have an effect.
The way this nature/nurture debate was resolved was the proposal that genes powerfully predispose us to particular characteristics and illnesses but that the likelihood of this predisposition to become actuality is affected by the environment in which we live.
The interaction between nature and nurture or between genes and the environment is a very important new area of medical research that might enable doctors to identify and address potential illnesses or ill-health in advance of the problems developing. This branch of medicine is called epigenetics.
The Wikipedia essay on epigenetics states:
“In 2008, the [US] National Institutes of Health announced that $190 million had been earmarked for epigenetics research over the next five years. In announcing the funding, government officials noted that epigenetics has the potential to explain mechanisms of aging, human development, and the origins of cancer, heart disease, mental illness, as well as several other conditions. Some investigators, like Randy Jirtle, PhD, of Duke University Medical Center, think epigenetics may ultimately turn out to have a greater role in disease than genetics.”