Genetics – Beginnings

If you are ill and searching for the "missing piece" of your healthcare issue, it may be easy to understand the benefits of looking at your genetics. However, you will soon see that a sneak peek at one's DNA can suggest lifestyle changes that could potentially save someone's life before noticeable disease occurs.

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Basics

Each person has a set of genes - about 20,000 in all. The differences between people come from slight variations in these genes. For example, a person with red hair doesn't have the "red hair gene" while a person with brown hair has the "brown hair gene." Instead, all people have genes for hair color, and different versions of these genes dictate whether someone will be a redhead or a brunette.

Your body contains 50 trillion cells, and almost every one of them contains the complete set of instructions for making you. These instructions are encoded in your DNA.

To make new cells, an existing cell divides in two. But first it copies its DNA so the new cells will each have a complete set of genetic instructions. For a multitude of reasons, cells sometimes make mistakes during the copying process - kind of like typos. These typos lead to variations in the DNA sequence at particular locations, called single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs (pronounced "snips").

SNPs can generate biological variation between people by causing differences in the recipes for proteins that are written in genes. Those differences can in turn influence a variety of traits such as appearance, disease susceptibility, response to drugs, ability to detoxify quickly or slowly, ability to heal, kill pathogens, and even increase your risk of cancer.