Is Alcohol linked to genes ?

    This article defines alcoholism as well as describes the reasoning behind it and ways to prevent it. Although alcoholism isn't directly linked to one specific gene. Many genes have been proven to have an impact on a person’s alcohol consumption. This article also mentions that genes are not the only reasons behind alcoholism, environment can also have a large impact. Some of the ways that can be used to prevent alcoholism, include delaying consumption, limiting consumption, seeking help, and abstaining. 

    I found this article very interesting because I have never thought about my genes affecting alcohol consumption. This article also included a person’s first-hand experience with alcoholism. In this article, the person was fortunate enough to educate himself and prevent it from having a large impact on his life. The addition of statistics also helped me better understand the effects that alcohol can have on people's lives. It was very informative and led to deeper thoughts.  

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Genetic effects of Chernobyl radiation

 

This article explains the work of researchers who used genomic tools to test the health effects possible from a carcinogen from 1986 in Chernobyl. There were two studies done with two different observations. The one study concluded that there was no evidence of radiation exposure to parents. This resulted in a number of genetic changes passed from parent to offspring. As for the second study, the researchers concluded genetic changes in tumors of those who had developed thyroid cancer. These people were diagnosed with this cancer after having been exposed as a child or a fetus to the radiation that had been emitted by said Chernobyl accident.

This study had been conducted 35 years after the devastating Chernobyl accident. The researchers were excited to have worked on something that happened so long ago and is continuing to happen to date. It was a sad and crazy accident where many people were affected mentally, physically and emotionally. It was neat reading about current studies on something that was taught to me as a kid.

To learn more about the Chernobyl accident come here.